On December 5, 1948, a frightening situation appeared on the battlefield of Huaihai: Nakano surrounded 120,000 horses of Huang Wei's army in Shuangduiji, and Huaye surrounded hundreds of thousands of Du Yuming's group at Chen Guanzhuang. Judging from the strategic situation, our army has taken the initiative; however, judging from the comparison of local troop strength, the PLA, which encircles and attempts to completely annihilate the opponent, does not have an advantage, and there is also a considerable gap between the strength of weapons and equipment and firepower with the opponent. Surrounded by fait accomplis, it is worrying whether it can be eaten.
What was even more disturbing was that the encircled Huang Wei Corps and Du Yuming's group were very close to each other, and they could break through the encirclement at any time to form a force. At the edge of these two encirclements, Liu Ruming's corps and Li Yannian's corps were ready to rush in at any time. Once these three enemy forces merge, they will become a huge military bloc, and even if this group does not launch a planned decisive battle, it will be difficult to divide and block it when it rolls together in a circle. In the face of this astonishing situation, the best way is to eat one enemy in the encirclement and then concentrate on destroying another.
In the end, after weighing it up, Nakano decided to take the lead in attacking the Huang Wei Corps. But Huang Wei was a hard bone to gnaw, and the corps had the Tenth, Fourteenth, Eighteenth, and Eighty-fifth Armies, as well as the Fourth Rapid Column. Among them, the 18th Army was the original reorganized 11th Division, which was one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army; while the Tenth and 14th Armies also belonged to Chen Cheng's civil engineering department, and the grass-roots officers were from the reorganized 11th Division, so their combat effectiveness was also very strong. Although the 85th Army belongs to the He Yingqin faction, it is also a national weaponry, and its combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.
Nakano had just turned out of the Dabie Mountains, the heavy weapons were almost exhausted, and the troops were not superior, and it was a great achievement to be able to surround the Huang Wei Corps. Now it is too difficult to eliminate the enemy by one's own strength. For this reason, Nakano deliberately held a mobilization meeting before the war, and Political Commissar Deng said with a loud voice: "This is a decisive battle, we must break the backbone of the enemy, even in this decisive battle, the Central Plains Field Army has all been wiped out, and other large armies can cross the Yangtze River and liberate all of China!" ”
At 4:30 p.m. on December 6, Nakano launched a general offensive against Huang Wei's corps, with Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi commanding the East Group to attack the area east of shuangduiji; Chen Xilian commanding the western group to attack west of shuangduiji; and Wang Jinshan and Du Yide commanding the southern group to attack south of shuangduiji. At that time, the deployment of the Huang Wei Corps was: the Eighteenth Army defended the double pile and served as a defense in depth; the Eighty-fifth Army defended to the southwest; the Fourteenth Army defended to the east and northeast; and the Tenth Army defended south and southeast. At the same time, Huang Wei also ordered that all the cars be filled with dirt and lined up with the tanks in a long line to form a city-like fortification.
Among nakano's three major attack groups, the East Group of Chen Xie's corps was the strongest, but the heavy firearms were only six howitzers, four field guns, thirteen mountain guns, and fifteen "flying thunder" launchers. Due to the shortage of artillery shells, Chen Geng requested a salvo of fire when the fire was ready to cause a deterrent effect on the instantaneous firepower. At the same time, he told the impact troops that the howitzers could only fire a few rounds, and when the shells were fired, the forward fire would be fired together, so that the enemy did not know that we were short of shells.
The strongest Chen Xie Corps was still like this, not to mention the artillery fire of the other two attack groups. Due to insufficient firepower and the stubborn resistance of the enemy, Nakano's offensive did not go well. By the early morning of the 10th, our attacking troops had paid the price of more than 20,000 casualties, but they had not yet been able to approach the enemy's core position. On the same day, Chen Xilian reported: The column has suffered nearly 4,000 casualties, some companies have only a few people left, and all the personnel of the brigades, regiments, organs, and direct subordinate units have been incorporated into combat units.
Facing Huang Wei's hard bone, Nakano could no longer gnaw. Liu Bocheng called Su Yu: If you don't support anymore, Nakano will fight out! Despite his own difficulties, Su Yu drew the 3rd Column, the 13th Column, and the Special Forces Column from the troops surrounding Du Yuming, and handed them over to the chief of staff, Chen Shiyu, to lead them south to support Nakano. The addition of this fresh force soon changed the original glue situation on the battlefield. Three days later, Huang Wei's corps was completely destroyed. Although Nakano paid the price of more than 30,000 casualties, he was captured a lot and his firepower was greatly enhanced, laying a solid foundation for the future sweep of the enemy in the southwest.