In January 1947, Chen Yi and Su Yu commanded the Shandong Field Army and the Central China Field Army to fight together, and Hua Ye annihilated the reorganized 26th Division, the reorganized 51st Division headquarters, four brigades and a rapid column in 19 days at the cost of 8,000 casualties, a total of 53,000 people, including 36,000 prisoners. In this campaign, Huaye captured 24 tanks, 217 howitzers, field guns, mountain guns and other artillery, and 474 cars.
After the victory in the Battle of Lunan, the Shandong Field Army and the Central China Field Army were merged into the East China Field Army. Due to the abundant captures in the Battle of Lunan, especially in the heavy weapons, Hua Ye formed the first special forces column, with Chen Ruiting as the commander. After the end of the Lunan Campaign, the generals within the Kuomintang lied about military information in order to cover up their mistakes, saying that the East China Field Army suffered heavy losses and could not continue to fight.
Chiang Kai-shek believed the generals' claims and believed that HuaYe had suffered heavy losses and was no longer able to continue fighting the people. Chiang Kai-shek believed that if the Kuomintang army took advantage of this time to launch an attack, then Huaye would only be able to hold Linyi, and Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang generals believed that Huaye would definitely stick to Linyi, because Linyi was the central organ of the Shandong People's Liberation Army, and it was also the only big city controlled by the Chinese Communists in Shandong at that time, and the city connected the Jiaodong Liberated Area, the Luzhong Liberation Army, and the Lunan Liberated Area, and its geographical location was very important.
Against this background, Chiang Kai-shek concentrated the strength of 30 brigades of 11 integrated divisions and launched a large-scale attack on Linyi and Mengyin in an attempt to fight a decisive battle with Huaye under Linyi City. Chiang Kai-shek divided the troops into two parts; on the southern front, Ou Zhen, commander of the reorganized 19th Army, commanded 8 reorganized divisions and 21 brigades as the main assault groups, taierzhuang, Xin'an town, and other places launched an attack on Linyi; the northern front, with the 46th, 73rd, and 12th armies under the command of Li Xianzhou, deputy commander of the 2nd "Appeasement" district, as auxiliary assault groups, and Zichuan, Boshan, and other places launched an attack on Linyi, and the northern and southern fronts formed a pinch attack on Linyi.
In order to complete this battle plan, Chiang Kai-shek personally deployed to Xuzhou and sent Chen Cheng, the chief of staff, to personally take command. The situation at that time was indeed very unfavorable to Huaye, whether in terms of equipment or the number of soldiers, Huaye did not have an advantage. Under these circumstances, Su Yu took the method of concentrating his forces on annihilating the enemy to deal with the attack of the Kuomintang army, and he targeted Li Xianzhou's corps on the northern front.
Faced with the heavy attack of the Kuomintang army, HuaYe made a defensive posture of defending Linyi City and launching an attack on the enemy forces on the southern front, but in fact the main force was secretly moving north. On February 10, 1947, Huaye 1st Column, 4th Column, 6th Column, 7th Column, and 8th Column secretly went north in three ways, stationed in jiaodong and Bohai sea areas, the 9th and 10th columns stationed in the Boshan and Mingshui areas to participate in the battle, and at the same time ordered local troops to build bridges on the canal, creating the illusion that the main force would march westward and join Nakano.
On February 15, when the Kuomintang forces on the southern front occupied Linyi, Chen Cheng lied to Chiang Kai-shek about his achievements, saying that he had annihilated 16 brigades of the People's Liberation Army. After the Air Force detected the People's Liberation Army building a bridge over the canal, Chiang Kai-shek judged that Huaye had suffered heavy losses and ordered Li Xianzhou's corps to accelerate southward and join the Nationalist forces on the southern front. As for Hua Ye's actions, there was a man in the Kuomintang army who saw very clearly at that time, that is, Wang Yaowu, chairman of Shandong Province and commander of the Second Appeasement District, who repeatedly suggested to Chiang Kai-shek that Li Xianzhou's corps stop advancing south and immediately retreat, but Chiang Kai-shek not only did not listen, but reprimanded him, saying that he was afraid of the enemy, and Chen Cheng and others also attacked him one after another.
On February 20, 1947, through a series of intelligence reconnaissances, Wang Yaowu determined that his guess was correct, that is, HuaYe was preparing to surround and annihilate Li Xianzhou's army, and immediately ordered Li Xianzhou to retreat, and Chen Cheng also told Chiang Kai-shek about Wang Yaowu. But this time was already late, and on the evening of the 20th, huaye's various departments launched an attack. Han Liancheng, commander of the enemy's reorganized 46th Division, was still an underground party member, and he hid after the battle began, resulting in the leaderlessness of the reorganized 46th Division and the chaos of the entire Li Xianzhou Corps.
The Battle of Laiwu lasted only 63 hours, less than three days, and more than 60,000 of Li Xianzhou's corps were completely annihilated, of which 50,000 were captured, while HuaYe only suffered more than 6,000 casualties. After the war, Wang Yaowu broke his mouth and scolded: "More than 50,000 people will be wiped out in three days, that is, 50,000 pigs will be released and the communist army will be arrested, and they will not be able to catch them in three days." ”