In 1946, Chiang Kai-shek reorganized the national troops in order to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops and to strengthen the control of the army. According to the performance of each unit during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Ministry of Military Affairs divided the five most powerful units, namely the reorganized 74th Division (74th Army), the reorganized 11th Division (18th Army), the reorganized Fifth Division (Fifth Army), the New First Army, and the New Sixth Army.
Among these five units, the most well-known is the 74th Army, as well as the New First Army led by Sun Liren. However, during the Liberation War, there was a unit that posed the greatest threat to the PLA, and this unit was the integrated 11th Division, that is, the famous 18th Civil Engineering Army. The 18th Army was the starting unit of Chen Cheng's family and the traditional ace of the Nationalist Army, and after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, this unit was reorganized into the 11th Division, with the division commander Hu Lian, and the 1948th Division resumed the name of the 18th Army.
The reorganized 11th Division, like the reorganized 74th Division, is an all-American ordnance unit, with more than 30,000 people in the division, all of whom are veterans of the battlefield for a long time. Hu Lian, commander of the 11th Reorganized Division, and Zhang Lingfu, commander of the 74th Reorganized Division, also had very good personal relations, both graduated from huangpu ivy, and were both from Xi'an, Shaanxi. However, Hu Lian was more cunning, and the reorganized 11th Division never suffered a devastating blow, and during the Battle of Huaihai, this unit inflicted heavy casualties on Nakano and Huaye.
In the second stage of the Huaihai Campaign, more than 100,000 people from the 12th Corps and 12 divisions of the 12th Corps led by Huang Wei were surrounded by the Central Plains Field Regiment in the Shuangduiji area, including the 18th Army, one of the five main forces. After Nakano surrounded him, not only could not fight it, but risked being broken through by it, even after the 110th Division Commander Liao Yunzhou revolted with a large number of heavy weapons, Nakano still felt pressure to annihilate this force. In an emergency, two columns of Huaye and one of the special forces columns came to reinforcements carrying heavy weapons.
The most tragic battle of the Battle of Shuangduiji took place in Dawangzhuang, a small village with only a few dozen families, only a few miles from the 12th Corps. In order to defend Dawangzhuang, Huang Wei and Hu Lian put the 33rd Regiment of the 18th Army, which was the most capable of fighting, to this place, and the 33rd Regiment was known as the Tiger Regiment, which was the elite unit of the 18th Army, with more than 3,000 people in the regiment, mainly composed of veterans, and had great combat experience.
The first to attack Dawangzhuang were the 58th regiment and the 60th regiment of the 20th Division of the Seventh Column of Huaye, which organized three battalions of troops and drove out the tiger regiment of the 18th Army, which was lightly hostile. Huang Wei and Hu Lian were furious when they learned of the loss of Dawangzhuang, and Yang Botao, commander of the 18th Army, shot several ineffective officers in a row, and the leader of the Tiger Regiment launched a dozen consecutive charges against Dawangzhuang under the cover of artillery fire. Generally speaking, a unit that fights two or three consecutive charges will be physically weak and retreat to rest, but this unit has very good endurance, and finally only the 59th Regiment of the 20th Division is left in Dawangzhuang to guard the southwest corner of Zhuang.
The commander of the Sixth Column of Nakano, Wang Jinshan, saw that The Great King Zhuang had been unable to attack for a long time, so he ordered the 46th Regiment of the Sixth Column Ace Force to come to reinforcements, and the remaining three regiments of the 20th Division of the Seventh Column of Huaye also entered the Great King Zhuang together, and the sound of grenades and explosive packages exploding on both sides did not stop. After a bloody battle, Nakano and Huaye finally joined forces to defeat Dawangzhuang. Guarding Xiaowangzhuang was the 23rd Division of the 85th Army, which was frightened and surrendered immediately after watching the battle.