In the Battle of Huaihai that broke out on November 6, 1948, the Kuomintang Huang Baitao's Seventh Corps was heavily surrounded by the East China Field Army in the nianzhuang area in eastern Xuzhou because of its untimely retreat, and after twelve days of painstaking perseverance, Huang Baitao never waited for the arrival of reinforcements, and finally ended up with a tragic end of total annihilation. Some people say that Huang Baitao's Seventh Corps was completely destroyed in the Nianzhuang area, and Li Mi's Thirteenth Corps, which was originally stationed here, had a great responsibility, and if Li Mi's Corps had been able to meet Huang Baitao's Corps in Nianzhuang and the two corps had retreated together, it might have been able to avoid the fate of Huang Baitao's corps being annihilated.
Li Mi's 13th Corps was formed in August 1948 and was expanded on the basis of the integration of the Eighth Army. Before the Battle of Huaihai, Li Mi's 13th Corps was stationed in the Nianzhuang area and served as a military task to defend eastern Xuzhou. Li Mi's Thirteenth Corps had three corps under the command of the 8th Army, the 9th Army, and the 39th Army, but at that time, the 39th Army was still far away in Huludao, and was later incorporated into The Sixth Corps of Li Yannian in Bengbu, so in the Battle of Huaihai, Li Mi's 13th Corps actually had only two corps. The 8th Army had three divisions, with the commander being Zhou Kaicheng; the 9th Army had three divisions, and the commander was Huang Shu, so the total strength of Li Mi's corps was about 50,000 to 60,000 people.
The day before the Battle of Huaihai broke out, the Kuomintang Xuzhou Commandery issued orders to retreat to Xuzhou for all the corps under its command, including Li Mi's 13th Corps stationed in the Nianzhuang area and Huang Baitao's 7th Corps stationed in the Xin'anZhen area (east of Li Mi's corps). But something strange happened, just as Huang Baitao's corps was preparing to retreat, it suddenly received an order to wait in place, asking it to take over the 44th Army of the Ninth Appeasement Zone further east (around Haizhou and Lianyungang), but Li Mi's corps did not receive the order to wait in place. As a result, Huang Baitao's corps stopped retreating, and Li Mi's corps began to withdraw from the Nianzhuang area one after another.
Huang Baitao, who was waiting in xin'an town, knew that Li Mi's corps was very important to him. If Li Mi's army evacuated Nianzhuang prematurely, it would leave a huge military gap in this area, which was equivalent to leaving a security risk for Huang Baitao's future retreat to Xuzhou. So Huang Baitao hurriedly drove to the Nianzhuang area and asked Li Mi to take it himself and not retreat for the time being. However, Li Mi believed that at the time when the great war was about to break out, his corps only had two armies, and its strength was very weak, and if he continued to stay in Nianzhuang, he would face great risks, so he was unwilling to stay in the Nianzhuang area.
At that time, in order to reject Huang Baitao, Li Mi bluntly said that he was weak in number and weak, and that he was retreating according to the orders of his superiors, not fleeing from the front, and if Huang Baitao had any problems and suggestions, he would go directly to Liu Zhi, the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou. In this way, Huang Baitao left Nianzhuang with mixed feelings, while Li Mi successfully evacuated Nianzhuang and arrived in Xuzhou. A few days later, when Huang Baitao led his troops to retreat to Nianzhuang, they were heavily surrounded by the pursuing East China Field Army. At this time, Li Mi, who had already arrived in Xuzhou, had to rescue Huang Baitao's corps under the leadership of Du Yuming. This shows how chaotic the command system on the Part of the Kuomintang is. Therefore, after the Battle of Huaihai, some people within the Kuomintang said, "It was our own people who killed Huang Baitao." ”