Before the Battle of Huaihai broke out, Lao Jiang planned to let Bai Chongxi command this strategic armageddon. However, Bai Chongxi was worried that he would not be able to control the Huangpu generals headed by Qiu Qingquan, and he was not willing to throw the main force of the Gui clan into the Huaihai battlefield, so he refused lao Jiang's appointment on the grounds that Central China was tight.
Bai Chongxi refused to take office, and Old Jiang could not do anything about him. In desperation, he had to push Liu Zhi to the front desk. However, Old Jiang was worried that Liu Zhi was not capable enough, so he hurriedly transferred Du Yuming, who was commanding the retreat of the Jinxi nationalist army at Huludao, to Xuzhou and made Liu Zhi's deputy.
Unexpectedly, before Du Yuming arrived in Xuzhou, more than 100,000 people and horses of Huang Baitao's 7th Corps were surrounded by HuaYe in shuangduiji. The siege of Huang Baitao's corps was entirely due to Liu Zhi's incompetence. Huang Baitao is a miscellaneous brand, he can become the commander of the 7th Corps, relying on real swords and real guns to make battle achievements.
Before the Battle of Huaihai broke out, Huang Baitao keenly felt that his position was too far ahead and was likely to become Huaye's primary target. Therefore, he sent several telegrams to Liu Zhi and requested that his troops be withdrawn to Xuzhou. On the afternoon of November 4, 1948, Liu Zhi finally called back to agree to the retreat of the Yellow Army.
The retreat of more than 100,000 heavy troops involved many aspects and could not be completed in a day or two. Just as Huang Baitao ordered the troops to urgently withdraw to Xuzhou, Liu Zhi sent another telegram, which read: The Seventh Corps was waiting in place for the Forty-fourth Army in the direction of Haizhou, which was assigned to the Seventh Corps and retreated with the Seventh Corps.
For Liu Zhi's order, Huang Baitao was very puzzled. The 44th Army could completely retreat by water, so why did Liu Zhi let the army take the land route? And it takes at least two days to travel from Haizhou to Xin'an Town, which means that he has wasted two days of precious time on the dangerous battlefield. For the sake of an army, let a heavy army group risk being annihilated, isn't Liu Zhi dizzy?
It turned out that Liu Zhi was indeed dizzy. Hua Ye used the precious time of these two days to catch up, and finally surrounded Huang Baitao's army in the area of Nianzhuang. As soon as the Huaihai Campaign began, the Nationalist army was in a very passive situation.
Faced with the dilemma, Du Yuming proposed two plans. The first plan was to order Huang Baitao to hold firm at Mill Zhuang for at least 7 to 10 days. During this period, Li Mi's 13th Corps was defending Xuzhou, and Qiu Qingquan's Second Corps and Sun Yuanliang's 16th Corps joined Huang Wei's 12th Corps, fighting Liu Deng's army to the west first, and then returning to the east to defeat Chen Su's army to relieve the siege of Huang Baitao.
Now it seems that Du Yuming's plan is really fierce. At that time, Nakano had just transferred out of Dabie Mountain, and although he had 7 columns under his command, his total strength was only 120,000 people. Moreover, heavy weapons, especially artillery, are seriously insufficient. At that time, the total number of guns in Nakano was less than 300, of which more than 200 were mortars.
That is to say, Nakano's heavy artillery only had a few dozen, not to mention compared with Qiu Qingquan's 5th Army, even compared with Li Mi's 8th Army. Under these circumstances, if Du Yuming really abandoned Huang Baitao and concentrated the three corps of Qiu Qingquan, Li Mi, and Huang Wei to attack Nakano directly, Nakano's situation would be very difficult, and he would probably be forced to withdraw from the Huaihai battlefield.
If this is the case, Hua Ye will have to fight against the 800,000 national troops with his own strength. How the war situation will develop at that time, I am afraid that no one can say for sure. However, Liu Zhi vetoed Du Yuming's plan, he believed that Huang Baitao could not persist for 7 days at all, and liu Deng was not absolutely sure to fight Liu Deng to the west, and if he did not do well, he would steal chicken and not become a corrosive rice, and then the responsibility would be great.
In the end, Liu Zhi rejected Du Yuming's plan on the grounds that he was too risky. Du Yuming saw that Liu Zhi was so timid, and he wanted to persuade him a few words, but considering that he had served as an instructor in Huangpu and was now his superior, he swallowed the words back to his mouth.
Subsequently, Du Yuming proposed a second plan: Sun Yuanliang's Sixteenth Corps to guard Xuzhou, the Seventy-second Army as the general reserve, Qiu Qingquan's Second Corps and Li Mi's Thirteenth Corps to fully relieve the siege of Huang Baitao, and at the same time order Huang Wei's Twelfth Corps to rush to Xuzhou.
Liu Zhi believes that this plan is feasible, even if he can't save Huang Baitao in the end, he doesn't have to take responsibility. In the end, Huang Baitao held out in Nianzhuang for a full 14 days, but Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi were never able to cross the resistance of the Song Shilun. After Huang Baitao's corps was completely destroyed, Nakano surrounded Huang Wei's corps, and the war situation developed so far that even if Du Yuming could fight again, he would no longer be able to return to heaven.