In September 1948, Chiang Kai-shek decided to take the 18th Army, the elite ace of American weapons, as the backbone, concentrate the Central Army troops in Central China, and form the 12th Corps, which was stationed in the area of Queshan in southern Henan, and temporarily placed under the command of Bai Chongxi, commander-in-chief of the "Suppression Chief" in Central China. The 14th Army and the 18th Army were stationed in Queshan together, and they both belonged to the faction of Chief of Staff Chen Cheng, so they were also incorporated into the corps. In early November, the Huaihai Battle broke out, and Huang Wei, commander of the 12th Corps, received an order for reinforcements and immediately led his troops eastward to move closer to Xuzhou.
Huang Wei stills
The 14th Army was encircled on the banks of the Hun River
During his studies at the Whampoa Military Academy, Huang Wei was known for his stubborn personality and consistently carried out Chiang Kai-shek's orders without discount. The eastward advance was also highly motivated, and the troops were immediately divided into two routes, along Fuyang, Shahe, and Mengcheng all the way into the Huaihai battlefield. However, after all, the 12th Corps was a large army of more than 100,000 troops, with many horses and vehicles, and there were no complete roads along the way, so the marching speed was very slow. By the time the main force of the corps reached the line of the Huhe River near Mengcheng, the Central Plains Field Army of the People's Liberation Army had already occupied positions along the Hun River and built strong fortifications.
Huang Wei sent the 18th Army and the 10th Army to attack in two directions, but they were never able to break through, and soon the 85th Army, which served as the rearguard, was also attacked, and the logistics base of the corps, Mengcheng, was lost. Seeing that it was about to be encircled, Huang Wei immediately ordered the 14th Army, which had not yet engaged, to occupy Nanpingji, a key point on the south bank of the Hun River, to cover the 10th Army and other units that were fighting fiercely from the battlefield.
Huang Wei's corps is close to the Huhe River
The chief of staff of the army escaped after being captured
This order made the 14th Army, which had the opportunity to go first, become cannon fodder behind the palace. Since the army had just been rebuilt, it only had the 10th Division and the 85th Division under its jurisdiction, and each left one regiment to stay in Wuhan. In other words, there were actually only 4 regiments under the command of the army. Coupled with the hasty deployment and unstable position, the Central Plains Field Army rushed to cross the south bank of the Hun River and suddenly attacked the right flank of the 14th Army, beating it to pieces.
Fortunately, the 10th Army and the 18th Army took the opportunity to shrink from the front line and finally stabilized the situation, but the front command post of the 14th Army on the south bank of the Hunhe River was attacked, and Liang Dai, the chief of staff of the major general, was also captured. However, fortunately, Liang Dai had just arrived two months ago, and few people in the 14th Army knew him, so he falsely claimed to be the secretary of the military department, but he evaded censorship and was ordered to send a letter of persuasion to surrender for the Central Plains Field Army.
Xiong Shouchun stills
The Corps was destroyed and then destroyed again
When he returned to the 14th Army, he learned that someone had picked up his leather bag on the battlefield, so they all thought he was killed, and the army commander Xiong Shouchun not only gave a bonus to find his body, but also sent a telegram to the rear of Wuhan to send a pension to his family. Although Liang Dai escaped by luck, Huang Wei's corps had been surrounded on all sides, and the Central Plains Field Army adopted the tactics of digging trenches in close proximity operations, attacking day and night, and the encirclement was shrinking day and night.
Commanders of the 12th Corps were huddled in shelters, helpless, and the soldiers lacked food and drink, looting airdrops and slaughtering horses. On December 12, the general attack on the 12th Corps began, shells of different calibers continued to fall on the positions of the 14th Army, as if there was no stop for a moment, and on the 15th, the military headquarters was also broken through, the army commander Xiong Shouchun was killed, and the chief of staff Liang Dai was captured again.
Reports of the elimination of the Huang Wei Corps
Because Liang Dai was captured in the military headquarters, his identity could no longer be hidden, and when he arrived at the prisoner shelter in the rear of our army, the staff still recognized him and said: "It turned out that it was you again, how did you become the chief of staff?"