In January 1949, Yongcheng Chen Guanzhuang was crowded
At this time, the Huaihai Campaign had reached the third stage, and the 300,000-strong army of the Kuomintang was surrounded in this small town, and it was only a matter of time before it was destroyed
In the crowd, a defeated general is secretly disguised as a wounded soldier, trying to leave this land of right and wrong before the PLA tightens the encirclement
This person was Li Mi, commander of the 13th Corps, and although his plan to escape from the Huaihai battlefield was successful, no one would have thought of it
For him and his men, a thrilling exile had only just begun
The Huaihai battlefield escaped
When fleeing the Huaihai battlefield, Li Mi's mood was very complicated, thinking that a few years ago, he was also a famous anti-Japanese general who fought bloodily in Kunlun Pass
However, just after the end of the War of Resistance and was promoted to commander of the 13th Corps, he ended up with the result of the total annihilation of the army, he ran all the way from Shangqiu to Qingdao, and then used the sea route all the way south, and finally met Chiang Kai-shek in Zhejiang who was about to defeat Taiwan
On February 7, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek personally received this lone old subordinate, and seeing Li Mi's tragic situation, Chiang Kai-shek encouraged him and said that the army could be reorganized again when it was gone
The Nationalist army in the Battle of Huaihai
He immediately ordered the reorganization of the corps and appointed Li Mi as commander of the Eighth Army to continue to resist the PLA's southward march to Jiangxi
President Jiang's reckless suspicions made Li Mi regain his spirits, and he immediately rushed to Hunan to reorganize the troops, and in August 49, unrest began in Yunnan, and Li Mi was ordered to lead the army into Yunnan, but this time, the end of the total army still awaited him
When Li Mi had just arrived in Yunnan, he heard the news of the establishment of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, and Lu Han, chairman of the Yunnan provincial government at this time, had long had the intention of joining the Communist Party, and Li Mi knew this
Sure enough, on December 9, 1949, Lu Han announced that in response to the central government's call for the peaceful liberation of Yunnan, Li Mi immediately ordered the Eighth Army to besiege the provincial capital of Kunming to prevent Lu Han's "rebellion"
Luhan, who contributed to the peaceful liberation of Yunnan
However, at this time, the liberation of the whole country was already the trend of the times, and when he heard that Li Mi was attacking, Lu Han immediately called the PLA to defend Kunming, and the Central Military Commission, in order to stabilize the southwestern rear, decided to deploy and annihilate the remnants of the Nationalist army while defending Kunming
The Southern Yunnan Campaign, like most battles in the Liberation War, also won a great victory in the total annihilation of the enemy army, and on February 16, 1950, under the precise deployment of the PLA, Li Mi's Eighth Army was almost completely destroyed, and the Southern Yunnan Campaign ended victoriously
However, one Nationalist army unit escaped the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army, that is, the 709th Regiment under the Eighth Army, and after seeing that the Kuomintang army was over, Li Guohui, the commander of the 709th Regiment, decided to cross the Xishuangbanna rainforest and look south to find a way to survive
The remnants of the Kuomintang army threatened Burma
At the end of February 1950, Lee Kwok-fai's regiment arrived in a three-way strip on the Thai-Burmese border, where they decided to stay there temporarily until the state of uncertainty had calmed down before thinking about the way forward
But the side of the couch could not allow others to sleep soundly, and just as Li Guohui's ministry struggled to survive in the rainforests of Southeast Asia, wondering whether to counterattack Yunnan or withdraw to Taiwan, the Burmese government began to sit still
In May 1950, the Burmese government began to try to disperse this lone army by force, and they used the United States to inform the "Taiwan authorities" to bring this force back
On the other hand, the Myanmar Army was assembled to prepare to directly destroy this group of troops that had become "called Hanako"
Li Guohui and others are also deeply afraid of the threat of the Myanmar government, after all, in the process of fighting the PLA, they have repeatedly lost battles, never knowing what victory is, and this time they are afraid that the whole army will be destroyed again
Shan State of Burma during British rule
However, the result of the battle surprised everyone
On June 13, 1950, the Burmese army began an offensive against Lee Kwok-fai's troops
Although the Myanmar army appears to be numerous and has a large number of modern equipment, including aircraft, trucks and tanks, the army has not received a modern military structure at all
Beginning on June 16, 1950, small Burmese troops continued to attack one after another, repeating the cycle of rushing forward, being defeated, and the remnants of the Kuomintang army cleaning up the battlefield and obtaining equipment
By July 3, the remnants of the Nationalist army, which had been rearmed after capturing a large number of Burmese military equipment, were able to organize commandos to directly attack the Burmese army headquarters at night
The Burmese army was physically and mentally exhausted by the unfavorable fighting on the front line, and the Burmese commander Zuo Su was even more frightened by the night attack, announced that he would return to Yangon to rest, and arranged for Colonel Yuchin to take over as the front line command
The day after Colonel Yuchin arrived at the front, the Nationalist army launched another night attack on the Burmese army headquarters, eliminating nearly 400 Burmese troops at a cost of less than 100 casualties
Seeing this tragic situation, the commander-in-chief of the Burmese army, Niwin, had to personally go to command, Li Guohui knew that Myanmar was really moving this time, so he decided to repeat the old trick and launch another night attack, and the Burmese, who had been defeated twice by the same trick, actually lost again and again
And the exchange ratio was surprisingly ugly, the Nationalist army killed nearly 300 Burmese troops at the cost of 24 casualties, and the Burmese side finally began to be unable to stand it
Colonial army during the period of British Burma
On July 20, Nivin, commander-in-chief of the Burmese army, who had always been arrogant and domineering, actually wrote to Li Guohui in person to inform him that all the overseas Chinese arrested before the war had now been released, and hoped that Li Guohui would lead his troops to leave the country at an early date
And the national army seems to have finally reacted, it is not a defeated army, but the opponent happens to be the People's Liberation Army, with its own combat literacy, it is simply no longer a matter of saying that it will level Southeast Asia
So Li Guohui refused Niwin's request for peace and demanded a place to settle in the Tachiri Mountains of eastern Burma
Of course, Nywin could not accept such conditions, so he ordered the Burmese army to regroup and fight again, but where the Burmese army was the opponent of the Kuomintang army, in several battles in August, the Burmese army was repeatedly exchanged by the remnants of the Nationalist army to exchange 1-10
After touching his head and breaking the blood, Niwin finally understood that no matter what, he had to quickly send this group of "plagues" away
On August 21, he wrote another letter to Li Guohui, changing his previous toughness, directly requesting the Nationalist army to enter the "Tachili" and saying that Myanmar would notify the local government and try its best to ensure the supply of food to them, so as to maintain the "friendship" between the two sides forever
At this point, the battle of "Great Strength" ended with the complete victory of the remnants of the Nationalist army over the whole of Burma
Vicenwin, who later established a military junta in Burma
Li Mi led his troops to "counterattack" Yunnan
The battle, which took place in Southeast Asia, shocked everyone except the government of the People's Republic of China
For the first time, the Kuomintang troops realized that they were so strong in combat, and newspapers in Thailand and Singapore carried articles such as "The remnants of the Kuomintang defeated the Burmese National Defense."
Chiang Kai-shek himself had already developed deep doubts about his military talents because of a series of defeats in the Liberation War, but this battle made him understand that "it is not that the national army is too weak, but that the communist army is too strong."
Do you remember Li Mi, who experienced the total annihilation of the army twice? The reason why it was not he but his subordinate Li Guohui who defeated Burma was because he himself had already returned to Taiwan to raise funds in order to support this lone army
In the spring of 1951, Chiang Kai-shek personally issued instructions ordering Li Mi to go to Burma to command the lone army to reorganize the Eighth Army, and promoted Li Guohui, commander of the 709th Regiment, to commander of the 193rd Division
With the dual support of the Taiwan authorities and the United States, Li Mi felt that he could do it again, and after arriving in Burma, he decided to use this as a base to counterattack Yunnan
It took him two months to expand the remnants of the army from two regiments of different divisions to two new divisions, six columns, eight independent detachments, and a special service regiment, totaling 17,600 people
In April 1951, under the command of Li Mi, this motley army invaded Yunnan from the Yunnan-Burma border
Chiang Kai-shek personally received the "hero" Li Guohui in the future
In Li Mi's mind, the mainland had been pinned down by the Korean War at this time, and once he won one or two military victories on the Yunnan border, he would not only have the opportunity to obtain a base to counterattack the hinterland, but also use it to invite credit from the United States and get more assistance
However, facts have proved that the Kuomintang army is like a divine soldier descending from the sky when facing Southeast Asian countries, but once it faces the People's Liberation Army, there is only one outcome
In April and July 1951, Li Mi invaded Yunnan twice, but was repulsed by the PLA without even touching the border of Kunming, and on July 22, 1951, Li Mi, who had repeatedly lost battles, led the remnants of the army back to Burma
This time they decided to establish a de facto "independent kingdom" within Burma to fulfill their long-standing ambition of counterattacking the hinterland
After returning to the remnants of the army base in Myanmar, Li Mi pondered the reasons for the failure of his counterattack on the hinterland, and he summed up two points
The first is that his troops are newly assembled, poorly trained, and the level of officers is also very low; The second is to stay alone in Myanmar, and it is very difficult to supply
In early December 1951, he established the "Yunnan Anti-Communist Defense University" in Burma, which was used to train officers for the remnants of the army
Remnants of the army undergoing training in Myanmar
He personally became the principal and appointed Li Guohui as the commander of the officer brigade. Li Mi had high hopes for this school, calling it the "Whampoa Military Academy of Yunnan", hoping to emulate the Northern Expedition and realize his dream of invading the hinterland
In addition, he ordered his subordinates to build a "Mammoth Airport" near the headquarters to receive military assistance from the Taiwan authorities and the United States
On April 1, 1952, the first batch of supply planes from the Taiwan authorities landed at Mengsa Airport, and Li Mi finally got the supplies he had in mind
For Li Mi's "country within a state", the Burmese government, which could not even defeat the 2,000 remnants of the army, naturally dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, and in Li Mi's eyes, this prosperous scene was to realize his dream of counterattacking the hinterland
Little Myanmar is naturally no longer talking
Can Li Mi's wishful thinking finally come true, and what will be the end of this lone army of the national army? See you in the next issue