The Battle of Huaihai entered the second stage, and more than 100,000 people of the 12th Corps of the Kuomintang Army were surrounded by the Zhongye Army in the Shuangduiji area of Su County, Anhui Province. The 12th Corps of the Nationalist Army is the elite group army of the Nationalist Army, and its combat effectiveness is very strong, and among the 12th Corps, there is also a very famous unit, which is the famous 18th Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
The 18th Army of the National Revolutionary Army was one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, and this unit was also the unit of Chen Cheng's civil engineering department, during the Battle of Songhu, the 18th Army and the Japanese army fought very fiercely in Luodian, and the 67th Division of the 18th Army, under the leadership of Huang Wei, later fought less than a regiment of troops. In the 1943 Shipai Defense War, Hu Lian, deputy commander of the 18th Army and 11th Division, led the officers and men of the 11th Division to severely damage the Japanese army and successfully surrounded the safety of Chongqing, the capital of The Company.
During the Liberation War, Huaye and Nakano repeatedly gathered heavy troops to surround and annihilate this unit, but instead of annihilating it completely, they suffered heavy losses. In the Battle of Zhangfengji in 1946, Hua Ye used three columns and took nearly a week to annihilate a regiment of the reorganized 11th Division, and the regimental commander finally broke through with hundreds of men. In the Battle of Nanma in 1947, after commanding Huaye to annihilate the reorganized 74th Division, Su Yu led four columns to surround hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division, but after fighting for six days, he had to retreat because of excessive casualties.
In the Battle of Huaihai in 1948, the 18th Army was again surrounded by Nakano's large army. Huang Wei, commander of the 12th Corps, and Hu Lian, deputy commander, had served as the commander of the 18th Army, so they could be said to have great trust in this unit. During the Battle of Shuangduiji, in the case of the uprising in front of Liao Yunzhou's 110th Division and the defection of a large number of Kuomintang troops, Nakano was still unable to attack for a long time, mainly because this unit caused great trouble.
After Liao Yunzhou led the 110th Division to revolt, Huang Wei, who was not willing to accept defeat, sent the 11th Division of the 18th Army to attack Yang Dazhuang under the cover of more than 20 aircraft, dozens of tanks, and dozens of cannons. At one point, the officers and men of the 11th Division also rushed into the position of the Nakano 3rd Column, and a regiment of the 3rd Column and 8th Brigade guarding the position suffered heavy casualties, and the regimental commanders all took up bayonets and engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat with the 11th Division, and finally with the cooperation of reinforcements, they were completely defeated, and the casualties of both sides on December 3 exceeded two regiments, and the bodies were piled up in the trenches.
Dawangzhuang was located five kilometers south of the headquarters of the 12th Corps, and was the focus of the Nakano and Huaye offensives at that time, and Hu Lian put the 33rd Regiment of the 11th Division of the 18th Army in this place. The 33rd Regiment of the 18th Army is known as the Tiger Regiment, and this unit is composed of veterans, and its combat effectiveness is very strong. At first, the 58th and 60th Regiments of the 20th Division of the Seventh Column launched an attack on Dawangzhuang, but later due to the long-term inability to attack and the casualties were too large, the 59th Regiment and the 46th Regiment of the Nakano 6th Column also joined the battle against Dawangzhuang. The strength of both sides was also used to the limit, the 33rd Regiment of the 18th Army even cooks, grooms were sent up, shonai grenades, explosive packs, mortar shells exploded sound has never been interrupted, blood is soaked in the trenches, the soldiers' pants legs are all blood. In the end, under the powerful blows of the various units, this unit was finally completely annihilated.
After the Battle of Dawangzhuang, Nakano and Huaye approached a high ground near the headquarters of the 12th Corps, the Jiangudui, and the 54th Regiment of the 18th Army stationed in this area, this unit was known as the "Mighty Regiment", and its combat effectiveness was also very strong. In the face of such a tough opponent, Nakano, Huaye also drew out his strongest troops, Wang Jinshan sent his own ace troops, the first battalion of the 49th Regiment of the Sixth Column of Nakano, that is, the Xiangyang Battalion with great military achievements, Sun Jixian sent the first battalion of the 23rd Regiment of the 8th Division of the Third Column, that is, the Luoyang Battalion. In order to cover the attack of this force, a heavy artillery regiment of huaye special column and three columns of artillery units provided fire cover for it. The two sides engaged in a three-hour melee battle on the position, and finally the Weiwu Regiment was mostly annihilated, leaving only a few hundred people to flee back to the headquarters.
In the double-stacked battle, the performance of the 18th Army was indeed worthy of the title of one of the five main forces, and when this unit finally broke through, many artillerymen took up rifles to cover the breakthrough of the headquarters after firing shells, which showed its combat effectiveness.