Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Forcing the Snake out of the Hole, Hurricane Sweeps

Du Yuming was very reluctantly transferred from the deputy commander of the Northeast "Suppression General" to the deputy commander of the Xuzhou "Suppression General". At 4:00 p.m. on November 14, Chiang Kai-shek held a military briefing at his official residence on Huangpu Road.Du Yuming, Guo Rugui, Hou Teng and others attended the meeting successively.Everyone panicked when they heard the news that Huang Baitao's corps was besieged in Nianzhuang and suffered heavy casualties. Just after 4 o'clock, Chiang Kai-shek arrived accompanied by Gu Zhutong, and the report began.First, Hou Teng, director of the Second Department of the Ministry of National Defense, reported the situation of Huang Baitao's corps being besieged, and the actions of Qiu Qingquan's corps, Li Mi's corps, and Sun Yuanliang's corps.Then, Guo Rugui, director of the third department, reported the battle plan: "It was decided to order Huang Baitao's corps to defend Nianzhuang to the death; Li Mi's corps to defend Xuzhou with the 72nd Army; order Qiu and Sun's corps to return to Xuzhou and quickly advance eastward, breaking through Xuzhou and Nianzhuang. The Communist Army, to break the siege of Nianzhuang."

After hearing the report, Jiang said: "We must untie Huang Baitao's siege!" Then he asked: "What's Mo San (Gu Zhutong)'s opinion?" Gu replied: "I agree." Seeing that Jiang did not blame anyone, Du Yuming concluded that Xuzhou So this mess was caused by Chiang Kai-shek's repeated changes of determination and improper command.Du Yuming was afraid that Chiang Kai-shek would impose on him the task of going to Xuzhou to command, and he felt uneasy.Du Yuming really wanted to question Guo Rugui, why didn't the troops withdraw to Bengbu according to the original plan?But seeing that Gu Zhu and the others agreed with Guo's opinion, they felt that it was difficult to fight alone, and it was useless to argue. If they quarreled, they would lose Chiang Kai-shek's favor.

At this time, Chiang Kai-shek turned around and asked Du Yuming, "What else does Guangting have to say?" Du Yuming thought for a while and said, "I don't know the enemy's situation or the actual situation of each corps. The siege of Huang Baitao's corps." Chiang Kai-shek said: "Good! Good! When you arrive in Xuzhou, you must break the siege of Huang Baitao. I have already prepared the plane for you, and you can go tonight." After Chiang Kai-shek left the venue, Gu Zhutong grabbed Du Yuming and said, "You and Liu Jingfu (Liu Zhi) are both conducting in Xuzhou. It's a little inconvenient. Ask Liu Jingfu to conduct in Bengbu, okay?" Du Yuming said: "Commanding a large corps to fight, intelligence supply is extremely complicated. Once the headquarters leaves Xuzhou, my organization is not sound, and it is bound to be paralyzed, which will affect the operation. Please rest assured, the commander-in-chief, there will be no friction between me and Mr. Liu. Please agree to my one request , is to solve the siege of Huang Baitao’s corps, strategy, tactics, and deployment of troops. I don’t necessarily do what I said today.” Gu Zhutong understood what Du Yuming meant, and said repeatedly: “Yes, yes. You can do whatever you want. "

That night, Du Yuming flew to Xuzhou with necessary staff including Comfort Cun, Wen Qiang, Deng Xitao, Feng Shiru, Zhang Qianqiao, etc.Due to the disorientation of the plane, it was delayed until 1 o'clock in the middle of the night.After arriving in Xuzhou, Du Yuming learned that: the People's Liberation Army had occupied positions in Caobaji and Xuejiahu, south of the Bulaohe River; .Du Yuming was unable to mobilize troops to relieve Huang Baitao's siege.Liu Zhi, the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou's "Suppression General", and Li Shuzheng, the chief of staff, were confused by various situations, unable to make a comprehensive and accurate judgment on the PLA's combat attempts, and were at a loss what to do.Although the 2nd Corps was transferred to the east and cooperated with the 13th Corps to break Huang Baitao's siege, after several fights with the People's Liberation Army, they realized that they were no match, and had to watch Huang Baitao's Corps be wiped out at Nianzhuangwei.

After Huang Baitao's corps was wiped out, Liu Zhi had the intention of giving up Xuzhou and fleeing westward.Du Yuming thought that Liu Zhi was too discouraged, and said: "It is not time to consider this plan. If five troops are added to Bengbu, Li Yannian's corps, Huang Wei's corps and Xuzhou's corps will attack from north to south and open Jinpu Road. This is the best strategy. The worst strategy is to withdraw 300,000 soldiers from Xuzhou to both sides of the Huaihe River together with the Huangwei Corps; but now it seems that a safe retreat cannot be guaranteed, and there is a risk of being wiped out in the field. The matter is of great importance and must be decided by the old man." Liu Zhi was quite embarrassed when he heard this.

On November 23, Chiang Kai-shek asked Liu Zhi and Du Yuming to attend a meeting in Nanjing.At the meeting, Guo Rugui reported the battle plan, advocating that Xuzhou's main force should attack a station north of Su County on the Fuliji Railway, Li Yannian's Corps and Huang Wei's Corps would attack Su County, and attack from north to south, so as to open up traffic between Xu and Bang. Du Yuming said at the meeting: The corps in Xuzhou have made little progress in the frontal attack along the railway, and may not be able to achieve the goal of joining forces with Huang Wei.It is best to use the main force to go straight from Shuanggou to Wuhe through Siyang, then join forces with Li Yannian's corps and march northward, and then join forces with Huang Wei's corps.To put it bluntly, it is to move Xuzhou's troops southeast from Jinpu Road, which is called an offensive, but it is actually a retreat. The purpose is to safely withdraw the troops to the Lianghuai.

Chiang Kai-shek understood.Frowning, he still adopted Guo Rugui's plan, and said to Du Yuming: "You go back and deploy immediately." Du Yuming had no choice but to say: "I agree with this decision, but the number of troops is insufficient, and we must increase 5 armies, otherwise in case If we can’t get through, the Huangwei Corps may fall into a tight siege.” Du Yuming suggested that the 4th Army near Qingjiangpu, the 88th Army and 52nd Army near Nanjing should be quickly moved closer to Bengbu to participate in the battle.In addition, two more armies were drawn. Chiang Kai-shek said: "The five armies are in difficulties. I will try to adjust the two or three armies. You go back to Xuzhou to deploy the attack." In fact, Huang Wei was already under siege at this time, but the Kuomintang decision-makers still didn't know it.

On the same day, Liu Zhi and Du Yuming flew back to Xuzhou.The plane flew north along the railway line, and when it passed over Shuangduiji in the south of Suxian County, Du Yuming looked down through the porthole of the plane and saw artillery fire on the east bank of the Hui River, so he picked up the wireless microphone to talk to Huang Wei, intending to find out the situation.After communication, Huang Wei said dejectedly: "The enemy in front of you is very tenacious, so you should find a way." Du Yuming told him: "Today, the old man has made a big plan, and he will issue an order soon. Please follow the order." It was decided to defend Xuzhou with the 13th Corps, and the 2nd and 16th Corps to attack southward. The attack began on the 25th, and fierce battles were fought on the same line at Baihu Mountain, Gushanji, and Shamao Mountain, but little progress was made.As of the 28th, Du Ling continued to attack.On this day, Li Yannian's corps on the southern front failed to attack, and Jiang's did not deploy reinforcements. Huang Wei's corps was surrounded by the People's Liberation Army in Shuangduiji, shrinking even tighter.

On the morning of November 28, Du Yuming went to Nanjing for a meeting with Jiang's telegram.When Du Yuming arrived at the mansion, Gu Zhutong pulled him into a small living room to discuss how to save the current crisis.Du Yuming first asked Gu Zhutong: "Why didn't any of the troops that were originally decided to be reinforced? It turned out to be such a difficult situation." Gu Zhutong said with a bitter face: "You don't understand. Don't move!" Du Yuming said: "Since we know that we can't mobilize troops, we shouldn't let Huang Wei go to Su County and make him fall into a tight siege.

The only way to go forward to save Huang Wei is to concentrate all our forces on a decisive battle with the communist army, otherwise Huang Wei will be finished.If Xuzhou is not guaranteed, Nanjing is also in danger! Gu Zhutong said dejectedly: "The old man is also in trouble. He has tried all kinds of methods, but he can't mobilize a single army."Now I have decided to give up Xuzhou and come out to fight again. Do you think it is possible to withdraw completely? "Du Yuming felt that the Jiang family was playing the same old tricks again, and was determined to change again and again. With this change, Huang Wei was finished, and all the corps in Xuzhou would also be wiped out.

But Du Yuming also thought that if he couldn't increase his troops, not only would it be hopeless to fight, but he would also lose confidence in defending Xuzhou.He pondered for a while, and said to Gu Zhutong: "Since it is so difficult, it is not a big problem to withdraw from Xuzhou. The problem is that you can't love to fight. You can only let Huang Wei defend and contain the enemy. Xuzhou troops quickly withdraw and go straight to Yongcheng. Mengcheng, Guoyang, and Fuyang areas, relying on the Huaihe River and then attack the enemy to break the siege of Huangwei." Gu Zhutong agreed with this plan.Then, He Yingqin also came, and after listening to Du Yuming's opinion, he said: "It has to be like this." Du Yuming asked Gu Zhutong not to discuss this plan at the meeting to keep it confidential.So the two came out to the conference room for a meeting. Chiang Kai-shek came to the meeting room, nodded to everyone and announced the opening of the meeting.During the meeting, Gu Zhutong said to Chiang Kai-shek: "Guang Ting wants to talk to you in the small meeting room." Asked Wang Shuming, deputy commander in chief of the Air Force: "Has the order for Huang Wei to break through the encirclement been air-dropped?" Wang replied: "Not yet." Chiang Kai-shek said: "Don't send it." Chiang Kai-shek asked: "Do you have any comments? Seeing that no one responded, he announced the adjournment of the meeting. On the evening of the 28th, Du Yuming flew back to Xuzhou and reported to Liu Zhi the decision of the Nanjing Military Conference to abandon Xuzhou.The personnel from the headquarters began to be airlifted to Bengbu, and Liu Zhi also flew to Bengbu on the 29th to take command.Du Yuming convened a meeting of Sun Yuanliang, Qiu Qingquan, and Li Mi, conveyed Chiang Kai-shek's decision, and said with confidence that the retreat could be successful.Everyone unanimously agreed on the principle of "If you withdraw, you cannot fight, and if you fight, you cannot withdraw", and decided to launch a full-scale offensive on the 30th to confuse the People's Liberation Army, and all withdraw from Xuzhou on the evening of the 30th. On the morning of November 30th.Xuzhou City, shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere, was full of chaos before retreating.The car horn, the officers' hysterical curses, the moans of the wounded soldiers, the screams of the officers' family members mixed with the neighing of the horses made Du Yuming frowned and closed his eyes in annoyance. Du Yuming walked slowly on the streets of the city in his sleeping car.Looking at the noisy crowd outside the car window, he was extremely disturbed.Suddenly there was an unpleasant burning smell coming out of the car window. He took off his white gloves and fanned it by his nose, as if he wanted to fan Xuzhou, a sad place, together with all the unpleasant memories.He remembered that during the retreat deployment, he asked the ministries to bring 7 days of supplies, 500 kilometers of fuel and ammunition, and no supplies on the way before arriving in Fuyang.All materials that cannot be taken away will be burned. He opened his eyes and saw that piles of munitions were indeed burning outside the car window, emitting an unpleasant stench.He knew it was no one to blame. Violent gunfire came from the south of the city. With the quality of a professional soldier, he knew that it was the sound of gunfire from his troops.This was a feint attack he arranged for a part of the troops to confuse the People's Liberation Army before retreating, covering the main force and about 300,000 personnel of the Kuomintang party and government organs in the Xuzhou area to retreat along the Xuzhou and Xiaoxian highways.However, 300,000 people flocked out. Due to the eagerness to escape, the corps had already lost their positions, so that they did not retreat according to the route specified in the retreat order, and some troops even lost their organizational structure. On November 30, the 9th Column, which was ordered to pursue, had entered the area east of Xiao County.In the middle of the night that day, the already intense artillery fire at the forward blocking positions gradually cooled down. A battalion commander of the 9th Column, wearing a captured American Army overcoat, was washing his feet in the house after inspecting the defenses, when suddenly a soldier came to remove the door panel. The battalion commander asked: "Which company?" "Report sir, I am from the 8th company." The battalion commander didn't like this sentence very much, he looked at him wearing the Kuomintang uniform, thought he was a newly recruited captive soldier, and immediately ordered: "Go and call your company commander, run here!" "yes!" After a while, there was a sound outside the door: "Report!" The battalion commander looked up and saw that it was a KMT officer wearing a big-brimmed hat.In an instant, both of them were stunned.Fortunately, the correspondent was more clever, so he rushed forward and handed over the company commander's gun.It turned out that a battalion of the enemy also sneaked into the village in the dark to prepare to camp, but neither side was aware of it.The battalion commander of our department deployed urgently, and eliminated most of the enemies who turned around with their heads covered.The whole incident ended with a very dramatic ending. Du Yuming was mixed in this strange team, he looked very stern on the surface, but he was very restless in his heart.In Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Liu Zhi to lead Xuzhou's "General Suppression" agency to airlift Bengbu command, and handed over the military command of Xuzhou to Du Yuming.Liu Zhi wanted to flee for his life immediately, while Du Yuming returned to Xuzhou immediately.Originally, military operations should be very confidential, but unexpectedly, when he got off the plane at Xuzhou Airport, he felt that the airport was already overcrowded and panicked.How did he expect that almost as soon as he left Nanjing, someone informed the KMT's political, economic, and party affairs departments in Xuzhou to retreat as soon as possible. What kind of ghost battle is this fighting! Complaints are complaints, but things still have to be done.Du Yuming commanded the three corps of Qiu Qingquan, Li Mi, and Sun Yuanliang, and planned to quickly retreat along the Xuzhou, Xiaoxian, and Yongcheng highways. The first step was to reach the vicinity of Yongcheng, the second step was to Mengcheng and Guoyang, and then to the north Pick up the Huangwei Corps.In his opinion, this not only avoids the strong defense line of our East China Field Army south of Xuzhou, which is unexpected by the PLA, but also is relatively close to Shuangduiji, which can threaten the back of our Central Plains Field Army.Du Yuming is confident that "this retreat can be successful." The procession slowly crawled out of the city like a snail.Once out of the city, all kinds of vehicles refused to give way to each other. Thousands of cars, gun carts, ox carts, horse-drawn carts, and rickshaws scrambled for the road and escaped for their lives. Even their deputy commander-in-chief did not recognize them.Du Yuming's sleeping car was blocked in the road, unable to move forward or backward, stuck between various vehicles.Du Yuming had no choice but to order the staff to direct the convoys to retreat from near the railway. He abandoned the car and walked around with the help of the guards. On December 1, the Air Force reported to Chiang Kai-shek that Xuzhou's troops had safely withdrawn from Xuzhou City. On the 2nd, it was also learned that the vanguards of the various corps in Xuzhou had arrived near Wazikou; and that most of the People's Liberation Army in front of Li Yannian's corps in Feihe had moved northward. Chiang Kai-shek showed a rare smile after hearing this.He immediately ordered the 54th Army to join the 6th Corps, and ordered the 6th Corps to advance in the direction of Luoji to break the siege of the 12th Corps. But when Du Yuming led the team to the Hongmiao, Yuanxu, Mengji, Qinglongji, and Wazikou areas in the southwest of Xiao County, he thought that the team could not move forward in such a mess.Seeing that the troops were in such a state of distress, Du Yuming decided to take a rest overnight on the grounds that the scattered troops were unable to fight, and then continued to advance towards Yongcheng the next day.Du Yuming later reviewed that it was a mistake to stop the advance, because it was equivalent to gaining a precious night for the PLA's pursuit troops.In fact, even if Du Yuming didn't rest, he still couldn't escape the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army's pursuing troops. Before dawn on December 1, when the frontier troops of the East China Field Army and the approaching reconnaissance unit discovered that the enemy in Xuzhou had broken through and fled southwest, they reported the enemy's movements to their superiors and launched a pursuit without waiting for orders. For Chiang Kai-shek to abandon Xuzhou, Mao Zedong and the Huaihai front-line commanders had long expected.However, it is difficult to make an accurate judgment on when to retreat and from which direction to retreat. At 22:00 on November 18, Mao Zedong called Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, Deng Xiaoping, Su Yu, Chen Shiju, and Zhang Zhenshi and pointed out: "After Huang Wei is resolved, it must be estimated that the enemy of Xuzhou may flee to Lianghuai or Wuhan." According to this, The East China Field Army took the southeast of Xuzhou as the main defense direction and deployed 6 columns. Su Yu, acting commander of the East China Field Army, was very nervous in view of the fact that the main force of the East China Field Army was "one day later than the enemy's journey" in the south and southeast of Xu.Because if the Du Yuming Group cannot be surrounded and joined with the Huangwei Corps, then the Battle of Huaihai will be another situation and another way of fighting.On the one hand, he urgently telegraphed the local troops in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu to control the Wohe and Shahe ferries to delay the enemy. On the other hand, he telegraphed the Central Military Commission and the heads of Liu, Chen, and Deng, requesting to support the Central Plains Field Army's 13th Column on the southern front to encircle and wipe out the Huangwei Corps. Go north to intercept.At the same time, various means of communication were used to inform the respective columns to adopt a combination of multi-level and multi-channel tail pursuit, parallel pursuit and roundabout interception to carry out fierce pursuit across the board. The regiment will go one regiment first, and stopping the enemy is victory. The 11 columns of the East China Field Army chasing Du Yuming's group, with hundreds of thousands of troops, swept westward like a gust of wind on the Huaibei Plain with a width of more than 50 kilometers. .After the Bohai Column entered Xuzhou, one division was left to control the urban area, and the main force continued to pursue Xiao County; the 1st, 4th, and 12th Columns turned from the south of Xuzhou to the northwest to pursue; The area goes straight into the Zulaolou; 10 marches west along the Suyong Highway; the Subei Corps 2 advances through Su County to Yongcheng; 11 marches along the Guwo Highway.The large corps fought and pursued on a large scale, and even some troops were disorganized. The countless road signs on both sides of the road have long been unable to identify which column was left by them, but the arrows of all the road signs point to the west.Regardless of the day and night obstruction of the enemy air force, the pursuit troops pursued in the southwest of Xuzhou like the surging tide of the Qiantang River. The troops marched westward at a speed of more than 60 kilometers a day and night. Many soldiers dozed off while walking.During the rapid march of a day and two nights, the vanguard only squeezed out a little time to have a meal and take a nap.In this way, they traveled day and night, racing against time, and captured Du Yuming's group's rearguard troops in the Zhangshoulou and Haohanlou areas west of Xiaoxian County on the evening of the third day. On the evening of December 4, the 2nd Battalion of a certain unit of the 4th Column of the East China Field Army conquered Yange, an important point on the north side of the Xiaoyong Highway occupied by the enemy's rearguard troops, and was frantically counterattacked by a regiment of the enemy's 8th Army with the support of 7 tanks.After the battalion repelled the enemy twice in a row, due to the disparity in the strength of the enemy and ourselves, the position was broken by the enemy, and the whole village was burned into a sea of ​​​​flames by the enemy's incendiary bombs.Political instructor Yang Shishu loudly said: "With the 2nd Battalion, there will be Yan Pavilion!" Each class and each group used the corner of the ridge to fight on their own.The cotton coat caught fire, so I rolled on the spot, got up and fought again.When the bullets run out, put on the bayonet and fight!At the critical juncture of the battle, a reconnaissance unit of the Guangdong-Guangzhou Column, which was performing tasks in the northwest of Yange, took the initiative to launch a surprise attack on the enemy's rear. The 2nd Battalion also took the opportunity to organize a counterattack. The enemy left more than 400 corpses and fled in embarrassment. Under the pursuit of our army's powerful troops, the entire battalion and regiment of the enemy's covering troops were wiped out by our army.The enemy who was left behind by our army's interspersed troops became prisoners in a daze before they understood what was going on.Guo Rongxi, the platoon leader of the 8th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the 1st Column of the East China Field Army, was chasing the enemy and found 12 enemy tanks launching a counterattack against our army to cover the main force fleeing.Platoon leader Guo immediately led a blasting squad to bravely approach the enemy tanks, and with quick and agile movements, 3 tanks were blown up in a row, 2 were captured, and the other 7 tanks turned around and fled in a hurry.After this battle, Guo Rongxi was awarded the title of Battle Hero. The local armed forces did not show any weakness in this pursuit.The Henan, Anhui, and Soviet Military Regions issued a notice calling on the troops, militias, and masses of the entire region to capture the retreating officers and soldiers of the enemy at any time, and set up sentry posts at all major road intersections to ensure that none of the defeated enemies slipped through the net.After receiving the notification from the military region, each division took immediate action, set up guards and set up sentries, patrolled and checked, and removed the nets.The militiamen from Shang, Bo, Lu, and Zhe County Brigades of the three divisions intercepted more than 200 fleeing enemies at Humiaozi, captured more than 20 officers under Li Jiaying, deputy commander of the 41st Army of Sun Yuanliang Corps, and seized hundreds of weapons. Wang Kejin, the militia platoon leader in Zaoji District, saw two suspicious people wearing civilian clothes near Zaoji, so he conducted serious interrogation. It turned out that they were Hu Lincong, commander of the 41st Army of Sun Yuanliang Corps, and a colonel and engineer battalion commander. For this reason, the military sub-district gave Wang Kejin a great service and rewarded him with a farm ox.The remnants of Sun Yuanliang's corps fled to the vicinity of Liuji, Bo County, where they were discovered by the masses and reported to Wu Zhende, secretary of the Guantang District Party Committee. Wu Zhende immediately led the militia to cover the retreat of the masses at the south head of Liuji, while blocking the enemy.The enemy was terrified, and fled to Yinlou, a small village with only dozens of households, and defended it with the courtyard wall.The cavalry team of the third division and a company of the guard battalion arrived in time, and the 1st Battalion of the Cavalry Regiment of the East China Field Army also rushed to surround the enemy and shouted at the enemy.Finally, the enemy obediently raised the white flag. Our army captured more than 1,300 enemies, and seized a radio station, more than 30 mules and horses, 50 boxes of silver dollars, and 4 trucks of guns.One night, Jia Shourang, the deputy head of Huanggang District, Yingfu County, led three militiamen on patrol, and found a team coming from the road. Looking ahead, these people were wearing Kuomintang cap badges. The four immediately dispersed and opened fire on the enemy group. And shouted: "Give up your guns and don't kill!" The enemy put down their weapons and ran away. Four people pursued with firepower, and without much effort, they captured more than 30 enemies.Zhang Xinxue and Zhang Xinxin, Hetou militiamen in Yicun Township, Mengcheng County, captured an enemy tank smartly by the village.A villager in Mengcheng County encountered three enemies passing by while picking up dung on the road. He took advantage of his quick wits, raised his dung hoe and shouted: "Hand up your guns and don't kill me!" The three enemies immediately knelt down and raised their guns as prisoners. But Du Yuming has rich combat experience after all. At about 10:00 am on December 3, a Kuomintang Air Force plane with the blue sky and white sun emblem painted on its wings flew low above Du Yuming's retreating team and dropped a bag of things.When it was opened, it was Chiang Kai-shek's personal letter to Du Yuming: "According to the report of the Air Force, most of the enemies at Suixikou are fleeing towards Yongcheng, and the younger brother is still advancing towards Yongcheng today. If we act like this, we will sit back and watch the Huangwei Corps be wiped out, and we will perish. Exterminate the species; Brother Wang quickly ordered all the corps to stop advancing towards Yongcheng, turn to Suixikou to attack and advance, and cooperate with Li Yannian's corps, which marched northward from Bengbu, to attack from north to south to break Huangwei's siege." Du Yuming groaned secretly in his heart after reading the letter. It should be known that Chiang Kai-shek changed their plan of "withdrawing without fighting" from west to south, which will inevitably lead to the destruction of the entire army!But if Du Yuming dared to disobey the military order and insist on going his own way, everything would be easy to talk about if the combat intention was achieved. If there was a mistake, the result might not be so wonderful.Du Yuming was restless and undecided.If you fight, you will die, if you don't fight, you will die; if you obey the order, you will die, if you don't obey the order, you will die!He finally had no choice but to order the corps to stop advancing and convene a meeting of the commanders of the corps to discuss countermeasures.Sun Yuanliang arrived soon, Li Mi sent deputy commanders Chen Bing and Zhao Jiping, and Qiu Qingquan came slowly at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. After reading Chiang Kai-shek's order, everyone panicked and kept silent.Du Yuming analyzed the situation at that time and believed that the southward withdrawal of the Huaihe River according to the original plan may still achieve the goal; if the fight continues according to Chiang Kai-shek's order, he may not be sure.Seeing Qiu Qingquan's murderous intent and arrogance, Sun Yuanliang did not dare to retreat, but said: "This battle is of great importance, and I will completely obey orders." Seeing Du Yuming's hesitation, Qiu Qingquan said: "Boss, you can fight according to the order. Deploy tonight, starting tomorrow, the 2nd Corps will be in charge of the attack, and the 13th and 16th Corps will cover from the east, west, and north." Du Yu obviously said with some seriousness: "Everyone, look at the order again and think about it more. If we dare to take responsibility, we will leave, and if we don't dare to take responsibility, we will fight. This is the place where the whole army lives and dies, and the way of death, so we must be cautious again and again. Everyone read Chiang Kai-shek's order again, and felt that Chiang Kai-shek's words were very harsh, and it was impossible not to quickly relieve Huang Wei's siege.So it was decided to adopt the tactics of covering on three sides, attacking on one side, and leaping forward one by one, attacking when able to attack, and defending when not attacking, so as not to let the People's Liberation Army overwhelm the troops.Du Yuming completed the deployment that night, and at the same time called Chiang Kai-shek to request an airdrop of food bombs. Fearing that Du Yuming would retreat and not fight, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order in the name of the Ministry of National Defense that night, urging Du Yuming to "never advance to Yongcheng again, and avoid war by detours."After Du Yuming read the telegram, he felt that Jiang's change of determination was influenced by Guo Rugui's opinion.He regretted not explaining to Chiang Kai-shek at the November 28 meeting his suspicion that Guo Rugui was a potential Communist.Up to now, the old man has listened to Guo Rugui's mercy, changed his determination again and again, sent letters and telegrams ordering to attack the PLA, and put himself in a situation where the entire army was wiped out.Du Yuming blamed himself for being too cowardly and indecisive. He shouldn't have ordered the corps to stop halfway, called a meeting with the generals, and delayed the trip for a day.It is too late to escape now, and it is hopeless to fight.After much deliberation, I made up my mind: Anyway, the country belongs to you, Chiang Kai-shek, so I have to leave it to you!Give up your old life, and finally "loyalty" to Chiang Kai-shek. Du Yuming, who was full of contradictions, neither left nor stayed. He stopped for a day inexplicably, but our East China Field Army did not stop.The north wind howled, and the frost condensed the earth.The thinly dressed soldiers wore stars and wore the moon, and traveled day and night. As the enemy's situation changed, they changed their marching routes several times, and started a race with the enemy's car wheels with their legs. On December 4th, the 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 10th, and 11th Columns of the East China Field Army and the 1st and 3rd Brigades of Jidu, a total of 200,000 troops, had reached the Wangyin River line and built defenses on the front 25 kilometers wide from east to west fortifications.The 1st, 4th, 12th and Bohai Columns have reached the north of Hongheji and squeezed southward. Chiang Kai-shek originally agreed with Du Yuming's plan. Since he wanted to retreat and preserve his strength, he could not fight, but now he changed his plan halfway, and fought in the direction of Suixikou, trying to rescue Huang Wei's corps first and then withdraw southward together. This is a serious mistake in Chiang Kai-shek's strategic guidance, which is tantamount to sending the Du Yuming Group into the encirclement of our East China Field Army. Du Yuming, who had nowhere to go, finally did not have the courage to "challenge" Chiang Kai-shek. He just replied to Chiang Kai-shek and argued: "I will leave Xu on the 1st, and I will follow the face-to-face decision-making."However, he had to say that "regardless of the seriousness of the situation, we decided to adopt the tactics of leaping forward step by step, covering three sides and attacking the other side, and making a wedge-shaped assault to the southeast to join forces with Huang Wei", and requested "strengthen Li Yannian's corps to take positive actions to the north, And ordered Huang Wei to continue to take the offensive, and asked the Air Force to actively assist in the battle and airdrop grain bombs."Therefore, he bit the bullet and ordered the 45th and 46th divisions of the 5th Army of Qiu Qingquan Corps to be the forwards, and concentrated more than 5 regiments to roll south; the Li Mi and Sun Yuanliang Corps followed up on the east and west sides one by one.In response to Du Yuming's tactics, our East China Field Army carried out blocking attacks in the south and violent assaults in the east, west, and north.Immediately, on the Huaibei Plain, the sound of gunfire shook the sky, the smoke billowed, and the flames of war spread all over the place. In the battle of tightening the encirclement, the commanders and fighters of the People's Liberation Army fought repeatedly and fiercely with the enemy with strong will, and many heroic figures emerged.When besieging Xiazhai, the enemy's bunker group blocked the way forward for our army.At the critical juncture, Zhuang Dejia, deputy platoon leader of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division, and Zhao Lin, a soldier of the 3rd Company, picked up the explosives and rushed towards the enemy's bunkers.Zhao Lin was shot in the calf, and the blood stained the cotton trousers, but he endured the severe pain and crawled forward step by step with the explosive pack in his arms, and finally blew up the enemy bunker.When Zhuang Dejia was seriously injured, he used explosives and grenades to fight the enemy desperately and died honorably.Inspired by the spirit of the martyrs, PLA commanders and fighters became more and more courageous as they fought, conquering Liuzhuang, Douzhuang, Jiangzhuang, Yanzhuang and other enemies one after another, occupying several villages. On December 6, the 8th vertical on the left wing fought fiercely, but the 2nd vertical on the right wing was relatively calm.It turned out that under the pressure of the People's Liberation Army to gradually compress the encirclement, Du Yuming was unwilling to sit still and decided to escape the three corps of Qiu, Li, and Sun to the southwest, northeast, and northwest respectively, and then changed his mind midway. Qiu Qingquan stopped where he was, and only Sun Yuanliang's corps acted alone , like a blind man riding a blind horse, broke into our 8th column position that night, was bravely intercepted, surrounded and annihilated by the 8th column, and wiped out most of the enemies in the Huangwafang area in the early morning of the 7th. .In this way, after being strangled several times, Du Yuming's troops were finally firmly surrounded by three little-known small villages that have made a big contribution in the history of Chinese wars—the Lishilin, Chenguanzhuang, and Qinglongji areas about 65 kilometers away from Xuzhou. .