In the last issue, we mentioned that under Su Yu's strategic planning and the heroic performance of Hua Ye's first column, our army won two key "red flags", He Jifeng and Zhang Kexia's uprising and the complete annihilation of the 63rd Army, which suddenly broke the balance of the battlefield in the Central Plains.
Now that the entire Huang Baitao Seventh Corps has been exposed to the reach of our army, the highlight of the first phase of the Huaihai Campaign, the Battle of Yuanzhuang, has begun.
Speaking of this protracted war of annihilation, we should also start with an order from Liu Zhi, commander-in-chief of Xuzhou's "suppression of the general block".
01
[A farce triggered by crossing the river]
After the troops of the Third Pacification District successfully revolted, Liu Zhi hurriedly ordered all corps in the Central Plains to withdraw to Xuzhou to return defense. This order seems simple, but for Huang Baitao, it is a heavy order.
At that time, the Seventh Corps was still in the town of Xin'an, Pizhou, and to withdraw to Xuzhou, it needed to cross the wide canal. However, because the order was given in a hurry, the entire Huang Baitao Corps experienced serious disorder during the crossing of the river.
At noon on 7 November, Wang Hongjiu ran back to the headquarters of Huang Baitao in Xin'an and reported to Huang Baitao on the crossing of the river by the five armies. It turned out that the only iron bridge was crowded with people, and Nationalist soldiers on both sides of the river were scrambling for the few boats ready to pass.
During the report, Wang Hongjiu was covered in mud all over his body, and he lost a shoe, which can be described as embarrassing. Huang Baitao was angry and anxious after hearing this, and he hurriedly ordered the pontoon bridge to be set up north of the iron bridge of the sappers, and then he and the headquarters also moved from Xin'an Town.
In the afternoon of the same day, the 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 9th Columns of the main assault corps of Huaye went south and launched an attack on Xin'an Town, Guanhu Town, Canal Station, and other places on the east bank of the canal. By the night of the 7th, our army had taken the town of Xin'an and learned from the prisoners that Huang Baitao had crossed the canal and was approaching Xuzhou.
In the early morning of the 8th, Su Yu, who received the news, immediately issued an order to the fourth column, demanding that at all costs, go all out to capture the iron bridge of the canal. Now the bridge is full of soldiers of the national army, morale is on the verge of collapse, if we can catch up, our army will once again usher in a big victory.
The fourth column, which received the order, immediately set out from Xin'an and began to pursue in the direction of the iron bridge over the canal. In order to reach the vicinity of the iron bridge faster, the soldiers of the fourth column did not hesitate to take off their cotton clothes and pants, and flowed into the cold river alone, just to take the iron bridge of the canal before midnight.
On the afternoon of the 8th, the vanguard troops of the 4th Column encountered the rearguard units of the 100th Army in Bajiayang Village, north of the canal station. The two sides fought fiercely all night, and by dawn on the 9th, the main force of Huaye arrived and was about to reach the iron bridge of the canal.
Throughout the 9th, the nationalist 100th Army made every effort to cover the retreat of the main force of Huang Baitao's corps on the east side of the iron bridge. When the nationalist 25th Army reached the west bank of the canal, Zhou Zhidao, commander of the 100th Army, ordered the 44th Division of the Guards to prepare to retreat across the bridge.
But at this moment, Kuomintang officials, landlords and squire bullies from Haizhou suddenly arrived from the direction of Xin'an Town, and they pushed away the 44th Division and rushed towards the iron bridge. In an instant, the bridge was covered with horse-drawn carts, ox carts, and cars.
Everyone huddled on the bridge and couldn't move. Some soldiers of the Nationalist Army were in a hurry to cross the bridge and fired several shots into the sky. It's good that this doesn't shoot, the livestock on the bridge are disturbed after the shot, and the already crowded bridge becomes even more chaotic.
After a while, more and more people shot on the bridge, looking at the canal iron bridge from afar, it seemed to become a "market" full of people.
The 25th Army, which had just crossed the river, saw this situation on the bridge and thought that the PLA had chased behind its ass, so it hurriedly asked the sappers to quickly blow up the bridge. Seeing the 25th Army sappers laying explosives on the west bank of the bridge, Zhou Zhidao climbed out of the crowd and shouted in the direction of the 25th Army: Laozi has not yet crossed the river with a division! Look who dares to blow up the bridge! When the battle is over, Lao Tzufei will take Huang Baitao to the Ministry of Defense to fight a lawsuit!
At the same time, Liu Shenghe, commander of the 44th Division, also scolded the 25th Army: We fought for a day and a night, just to cover your crossing the river! Now that you're all gone, you're going to blow up the bridge, just care about yourself and ignore others, right?
The division commander took the lead in scolding, and his soldiers also scolded on the east side of the bridge.
Before the PLA arrived, two groups of people, tens of thousands of soldiers, had already begun a war of words on the east and west sides of the canal.
The 25th Army felt at a loss and ordered the explosives to be slowly withdrawn from the bridge. Liu Shenghe saw the friendly troops take back the explosives, and quickly led a regiment to squeeze through the sea of people and began to cross the bridge. But in a panic, a truck carrying ammunition suddenly exploded by the bridge.
This explosion made the 25th Army, which had just stabilized its mood, panic again. This time, the sappers ignored the scolding of the 44th Division and immediately detonated the detonators, blowing the bridge to pieces.
With the sound of the bridge collapsing, a regiment of the 44th Division totaling 3,000 soldiers was isolated on the east bank of the canal. At this time, Liu Shenghe and Zhou Zhidao had crossed the bridge, and they could not care about their own troops, so they ran west.
After a short while, the soldiers of the fourth column arrived at the scene, and they did not care about the regiment that was left behind, and all took off their clothes and forced themselves to cross the canal. By dawn on November 10, Huaye's follow-up troops also rushed to the east bank of the canal and directly captured a regiment.
It can be seen from the above experience that the crossing of the river alone delayed the march of the Seventh Corps for several days. And the execution power and operational efficiency of our army are several orders of magnitude higher than those of the national army.
Su Yu, who received the news, was particularly excited, because he thoroughly figured out the retreat speed of Huang Baitao's corps.
Su Yu ordered the 7th, 10th, and 13th Columns in the Taierzhuang and Jia Wang areas to immediately go south to attack Li Mi's corps at Yuanzhuang, cut off the traffic artery from Yuanzhuang to Xuzhou, and intercept Huang Baitao's corps from advancing westward.
Making dumplings is not too big, and one more is one.
So, can the PLA wrap up Huang Baitao's corps?
02
[Desperate Huang Baitao, alone in the village]
Let's cut the camera to Huang Baitao's headquarters, at this time Huang Baitao was communicating with Li Mi, who hoped that Li Mi's corps could block Huaye's intercepting forces in the north of Yuanzhuang, and his own Seventh Corps would retreat to Xuzhou with all its strength.
But Li Mi is not a vegetarian, you run by yourself, why let me block? Therefore, Li Mi rejected Huang Weitao's proposal on the grounds that Liu Zhi's order was urgent and that the military order was difficult to violate. At the same time, his own corps also began to run from the milling village to Xuzhou.
At this time, Huang Baitao's corps had only crossed the river halfway, and seeing that Li Mi's corps had slipped away like this, he was so angry that he stomped his foot. But he had no choice for a while, he could only wait patiently for everyone to cross the river before running to Xuzhou at full speed.
Friendly troops are in difficulty, regardless of it, it should be regarded as an old tradition of the national army.
Li Mi's regiment also ran fast, and it took only one day to run from the milling village to Xuzhou. Chiang Kai-shek was so angry that his teeth itched, if you had to attack as fast as you fled, how could you lose so many battles?
But no matter what, Li Mi's corps still fled back to Xuzhou, and now only Huang Baitao's seventh corps remained on the entire Xuzhou-Pi County communication line. At this time, the National 44th Division had already run from the end of the team to the front of the team and continued to take on the task of "opening the way".
By the night of November 10, the main force of the Seventh Corps had arrived in the area of Yuanzhuangwei.
However, at this time, Huang Baitao made a fatal mistake - to rest in the milling village for a day.
Although his subordinates suggested that they should run to Xuzhou without stopping, Huang Baitao believed that the entire corps had consumed a lot of vitality because of crossing the river, and if it forcibly marched overnight, I was afraid that he would not be able to command. So, the Seventh Corps stopped at the mill for a day.
As everyone knows, it was this day that cost Huang Baitao's life.
At this time, except for the 3rd Column and the 1st Column encircling and annihilating the 63rd Army in Yaowan Town, all the remaining 11 columns rushed to the mill village and continued to advance from the north and west sides. The day when Huang Baitao's regiment rested further narrowed the encirclement net.
In the face of this encirclement battle, Su Yu took out 12 points of spirit, he repeatedly urged the interceptor troops in the north, regardless of the aircraft on the head, regardless of Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi's corps, at all costs, to occupy Cao Baji!
Also on the night of the 10th, the 13th Column of Huaye ran into the 44th Division of the vanguard at Cao Baji. The 44th Division had lost a regiment in vain during the crossing of the river, and its strength and morale had reached the freezing point.
The 13th Column sent only 2 regiments and interspersed the 44th Division into a sieve. Division commander Liu Shenghe initially planned to organize a defense, but there were Hua Ye's figures everywhere. Liu Shenghe saw that the general trend had passed, and immediately shot himself.
Cao Ba set of battles, so that the battle of Yuanzhuang was victorious. The Thirteenth Column cut off the retreat to Xuzhou, and now the Seventh Corps wanted to escape, but it was not so easy.
The pressure came to Huang Baitao's side, and after learning that the 44th Division had been completely annihilated, the entire command experienced a long dead silence.
There were only two options in front of Huang Baitao, one was to organize a breakthrough with all his strength, kill a bloody road in the direction of Xuzhou, and at the same time round with Qiu and Li Bingtuan, and wait until Xuzhou to discuss it in the long run; The second is to stick to the milling village and wait for the rescue of Qiu and Li Corps.
So, how did Nanjing respond?
03
【Du Yuming's ruthless chess】
Faced with these two options, Huang Baitao was a little undecided, because Li Mi's regiment had just left them and ran back to Xuzhou, and he had lost too much trust in Li Mi. So Huang Baitao decided whether to stay or withdraw, and leave it to Nanjing to decide.
After receiving Huang Baitao's report, Chiang Kai-shek couldn't resist wanting to "micro-exercise" again; he pointed and drew on the map, saying that the Huang Baitao Corps could rely on the equipment advantages of the Corps to hold on here, and at the same time, the two corps of Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi could also take the opportunity to march east, and after the three corps converged at Yuanzhuangwei, another "center bloom" would come.
After Huang Baitao received the instruction, he couldn't find a reason for what he wanted to say, since he had all decided, there was nothing to say, keep it.
At the same time, Du Yuming had just completed the retreat task of the Huludao national army. Before he could rest, he was immediately transferred back to Nanjing by Chiang Kai-shek to attend the military conference. After Du Yuming arrived in Nanjing, he immediately asked Gu Zhutong: Why did he not integrate all the corps to Xuzhou according to his previous plan?
Gu Zhutong was helpless, he said: You have a good arrangement! But Liu Zhi's guy said every day that there were communist troops everywhere, and he didn't dare to give orders if you weren't there. Before Li Yannian could return to Xuzhou, he was intercepted by Liu Bocheng (referring to Zhongye). There's nothing I can do! Moreover, Chen Yi (referring to Huaye) played tightly, and now he can only take one step at a time.
From the 8th to the 11th, the Huaihai Campaign has been fought for 3 days, but the Nanjing top brass still has not figured out who the PLA commanders and fighters are, and they still think that it is Chen Yi who leads Huaye, not Su Yu.
This kind of intelligence oolong also made the Nationalist army make repeated mistakes in subsequent decision-making.
Du Yuming was angry and hateful, he immediately flew back to Xuzhou from Nanjing, and the priority at the moment was to relieve the siege of Huang Baitao. After returning to Xuzhou, he immediately asked Liu Zhi to call a military meeting to discuss the strategy of rescuing Huang Baitao. However, Liu Zhi was "rotten" again at this time, saying that since Chiang Kai-shek had ordered the two corps of Qiu and Li to be rescued, then it would be according to the meaning of old Chiang, what was there to discuss.
Du Yuming did not agree with this, and he proposed a bolder strategy. He wanted to take advantage of Huang Baitao's siege to let Li Mi defend Xuzhou, and Sun Yuanliang, Qiu Qingquan, Li Yannian, and Huang Wei's corps collectively besieged the southern Zhongye.
Once Nakano is annihilated, the PLA's strength will lose nearly half, in order to prevent this phenomenon from happening, Huaye will definitely give up the milling village to go south to rescue Nakano, this big drama of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao" will definitely allow the national army to regain the initiative on the battlefield.
Hearing this plan, Liu Zhi shook his head, he said that Huang Baitao would not last long at all, at most 7 days, when we didn't have time to eliminate Nakano, Huang Baitao would be eaten by Huaye. Therefore, Liu Zhi decisively rejected Du Yuming's proposal.
The official level crushed people to death, and Du Yuming was so angry that he could only listen to Liu Zhi's words and let Qiu and Li Bingtuan go to save Huang Baitao.
Later, in its post-war summary, the PLA found that Du Yuming's move was really a ruthless move. If Liu Zhi really listened to Du Yuming's words and fought with the backward equipment of Nakano first, then it is uncertain what the Huaihai Campaign would have done. In fact, Huang Baitao also lasted 12 days in the village, and the most favorable opportunity for the national army was also lost in an absurd political farce.
Perhaps at this time, some people will ask: Liu Zhiming is not worthy of the position of commander-in-chief of Xuzhou, but why did Chiang Kai-shek not let Du Yuming take on this heavy responsibility?
In fact, this is also related to Chiang Kai-shek's method of rule, of course, he knows that Liu Zhi has no talent. However, Du Yuming's qualifications were too shallow, and Chiang Kai-shek was afraid that after Du Yuming took office, veteran generals such as Qiu Qingquan, Sun Yuanliang, and Huang Baitao would not be willing to obey.
On the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek also wanted to show the following "military talents" on the battlefield of Xuzhou, Liu Zhi was incompetent and incompetent, but at least he was still obedient, and it was more convenient to give his own orders at that time.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek still applied that bit of caution to his own people, and had to sigh, is the Kuomintang invincible?
Well, the preparatory stages of the Battle of Mill Village have all been explained. In the next episode of the program, Huang Baitao's regiment will usher in the end. About how Hua Ye won in difficult conditions? Follow me, we'll see you in the next issue.