In the second stage of the Huaihai Campaign, in order to annihilate the Huang Wei 12th Corps, the Central Plains Field Army all the troops spent their capital. However, due to the weak strength of the central field troops, they surrounded the Huang Wei Corps, but made little progress. After several days of fierce fighting, Nakano believed: "In these two days of fighting, the enemy's confusion was overestimated, the enemy's defensive capabilities were not underestimated, and the fighting was too fierce, resulting in maximum casualties and little effect." In the end, the Central Plains Field Army was defeated in East China. With the support of several columns of the field army and most of the special forces columns, Chen Cheng was able to eat up the capital that Chen Cheng had relied on to start his business.
How difficult this battle is can be seen from the annihilation of Huang Wei's "Hero Group".
On November 25, 1948, seven columns from the center and field went into battle and surrounded Huang Wei's 12th Corps in a double mass in the southwest of Suxian County. After being surrounded, Huang Wei's regiment attempted to break through many times, but they were all crushed by Zhongye. Despite this, the center and field, which had not yet recovered its strength and was seriously short of heavy weapons and ammunition, still had great difficulties in defeating the elite Kuomintang regiments whose strength was almost the same as its own.
On December 3, Huaye 7th Column, under the order of the General Front Committee, moved to the area south of Shuangduiji, taking over the attack positions of one section each of Zhongye 2nd Column and 6th Column, and accepted the command of Wang Jinshan, commander of Zhongye 6th Column, and political commissar Du Yide. Among them, Huaye 7th Column 20th Division, led by division commander Zhang Huaizhong and political commissar Deng Shaodong, occupied Xiaomazhuang and Zhouyinzhuang attack positions south of Dawangzhuang, preparing to attack Dawangzhuang and defend the enemy.
Dawangzhuang is more than 500 meters away from the command center of Huangwei Corps in the north and about 150 meters away from Jiangudui in the northeast. It is defended by the enemy's 33rd Regiment of the 118th Division of the 18th Army, known as the "Hero Regiment". Jiangudui is a small highland about 30 meters high and is a commanding height in the Shuangduiji area. It is 500 meters away from Shuangduiji in the northwest and is defended by the enemy's 54th Regiment of the 114th Division of the 18th Army, known as the "Mighty Regiment".
Enemy artillery and air force observation posts are also located here. Dawangzhuang and Jiangudui are the barriers to the south of the core position of the Huangwei Corps. Once captured by our army, the passage to the enemy's core position will be opened. Huang Wei placed all the elite backbone groups of fine art equipment here, and his intention was extremely obvious.
When the 33rd Regiment, known as the "best at defense", occupied Dawangzhuang, they began to build fortifications day and night. The enemy's 33rd Regiment is located within an area of 50 meters from the village to the outside of the village, with plum blossom-shaped or triangular mother forts as the backbone, supplemented by foxholes, communication trenches, shelters, deer villages, etc., forming a multi-layered, complete and not easy to split ring that is interconnected Defense in depth. All the houses, doors and windows in the village were demolished, all the trees were cut down, and all the wood was used to build fortifications. The houses in the entire village were turned into bunkers of various sizes.
According to the enemy's situation, Huaye 7th Column 20th Division decided to attack with the 58th Regiment from the west and the 60th Regiment from the south, split Dawangzhuang in half and then defeat each one. The 59th Regiment served as the division's reserve team. After the order was conveyed, the commanders and soldiers of each participating unit vowed: "Secure Dawangzhuang, eliminate the 'Hero Regiment', and capture Huang Wei alive!"
On the evening of December 3, the 58th Regiment and the 60th Regiment entered the attack position. Commanders at all levels went to the enemy's frontier in the dark to reconnoiter the terrain and enemy situation, study tactics, and deploy close-in operations tasks. Based on the experience of the Huang Botao Corps, both divisions and regiments emphasized the need to dig communication ditches close to the enemy's forward positions, shorten the attack distance, follow trenches to trenches, seize trenches according to trenches, advance according to trenches, and develop attacks along the communication trenches. The artillery was ordered to organize firepower and cover the infantry to carry out serial blasting to destroy enemy deer villages, barbed wire fences and bunkers.
Implementing close-in operations under intensive enemy firepower is not only very physically demanding, but also inevitably results in casualties. However, the officers and soldiers know very well the principle of "sweat more, bleed less. If the fortifications are well done, the enemy will be annihilated with fewer casualties" and "digging fortifications is like digging out the enemy's lifeblood. The faster they dig, the faster the enemy will collapse." Each battalion, Each company launched a close-in operation competition and advanced the attack position to 200 meters in front of Dawangzhuang.
These 200 meters were an open space, so everyone quickly moved forward at night with a distance of 5 steps between each person, lying down in front of the enemy's position and quickly digging fortifications. Dig a horizontal bunker first, then dig downward into a kneeling bunker, and finally dig into a chest-high vertical bunker. The various construction projects were connected to each other and a "spider web" was dug out in the open space in front of Dawangzhuang.
After daybreak, everyone lay down in the ditch and continued to widen and deepen it. After several days of intense and arduous close-in operations, each battalion dug two trenches. The trench is as deep as the neck and wide enough to pass a stretcher, and the trenches are connected vertically and horizontally. There are attack openings, command posts, hiding places, and dressing posts in the trenches. The trench extends from the horizon to 30 meters in front of Dawangzhuang.
The Kuomintang army discovered that our army was conducting close operations and carried out sabotage crazily. During the day, aircraft and artillery were used to carry out fire strikes on our army's positions, and small units were used to attack the front line of our army under the cover of artillery fire and tanks . At night, the Kuomintang troops frantically set off flares and burned firewood for lighting, and used firepower or sent troops to attack our army's operating areas in an attempt to sabotage our army's preparations for attack.
From the morning to 9 a.m. on December 6, the enemy's 33rd Regiment, consisting of 2 battalions, attacked the 58th Regiment's operating area under the cover of 6 tanks. This group of enemy troops wore cotton-padded clothes and used the white base inside, which was similar in color to the snow, as cover. They occupied a small high ground on the east side of Zhouyin Village and destroyed our army's completed attack position. The main force of the 58th Regiment and the first section of the 59th Regiment immediately launched a counterattack. After an hour of fierce fighting, one enemy company was wiped out and more than 80 enemy people below the company commander were captured. The remaining enemies retreated to Dawangzhuang. The 58th Regiment continued to dig trenches and repair fortifications damaged by the enemy.
On December 9, all preparations for the attack were ready. It was raining and snowing non-stop that day, and the cold wind was howling. The commanders and soldiers of the 58th and 60th Regiments braved the wind and snow to enter the designated position. At 17:00, our army's artillery fire was ready to begin. The cannons roared like an overwhelming mountain, a roaring tsunami, and the earth trembled non-stop. Groups of artillery shells smashed into Dawangzhuang, lifting the Kuomintang army's bunkers and fortifications into the sky. Fires broke out in the village, and then everything was swallowed up by thick smoke.
At 17:15, our army’s artillery fire penetrated deep into the enemy at its own expense. The 4th Company of the 58th Regiment, led by company commander Zhang Zhifa, took the lead in attacking Dawangzhuang like a tiger descending a mountain. Lu Baohe, who rushed to the front, was a liberation fighter who joined our army during the Xudong Blockade Battle. During the battle, he searched along the enemy's traffic ditch, touched the enemy's nose and flicked the grenade , which made the enemy dizzy. After the war, he was awarded special merit.
With lightning speed, the warriors captured the first bunker group on the west side of Dawangzhuang. The 6th Company immediately followed up, quickly broke through the main positions on both sides of the enemy village, and wedged in depth. The 3rd Battalion, with the cooperation of one squadron of the 4th Company that circled to the left, quickly captured the second bunker group on the west side of Dawangzhuang, then broke through the main position along the northwest corner of the enemy's village, and advanced alongside the 2nd Battalion to attack the enemy in depth.
At the same time, the 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion and the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 60th Regiment successively captured two bunker groups in the southwest and south of Dawangzhuang. The 7th Company directly broke through the enemy's main position along the village from between these two bunker groups. Then, the 3rd Battalion of the 60th Regiment developed to the north and the 2nd Battalion to the east.
There are only a few hundred households in Dawangzhuang. After the Huang Wei Corps occupied this place, they drove away the people and turned every house into a fortress. Our 58th and 60th regiments fought with the enemy house to house. The enemy position was so destroyed by our artillery fire and explosive charges that its original appearance was unrecognizable. The ground was filled with dense craters, the frozen soil was burning, and the air was filled with a strong smell of burning. Only half of the stone foundations of the houses were blown away, and the village was littered with bloody and mutilated corpses.
After completing the current mission, the 4th Company of the 58th Regiment launched an attack on Jiangudui. However, the defending enemy's firepower was fierce and there were many bunkers, which hindered the attack. Cheng Jun, commander of Huaye 7th Column, immediately decided that the 58th and 60th regiments would gather in the northeast corner of Dawangzhuang to prepare for the attack on Jiangudui, and the 59th regiment would serve as the garrison of Dawangzhuang.
Huang Wei was shocked when Dawangzhuang was lost. At 22:00 on the evening of December 9, more than two hours after the Huaye 7th Column 59th Regiment took over the defense of Dawangzhuang, Huang Wei mobilized the reserve team of the Corps to strengthen the remnants of the 33rd Regiment and launched a crazy counterattack against Dawangzhuang. Trying to regain this vital support point. Within 40 minutes, the reserve artillery of the Huangwei Corps fired thousands of artillery shells at Dawangzhuang, turning the village that had just extinguished the war into a sea of flames.
Due to the lack of fortifications and concealment, the 59th Regiment suffered a lot of casualties in this round of shelling. However, after the Kuomintang army's artillery fire was transferred, when the remnants of the enemy's 33rd Regiment broke into the northwest corner of Dawangzhuang, they were beaten out by the 1st Battalion of the 59th Regiment that was stationed here, and more than 250 prisoners were captured.
At 2:00 on December 10, Zhang Huaizhong, commander of the 20th Division of Huaye 7th Column, decided to suspend the attack on Jiangudui, and all the 58th and 60th regiments were transferred to Wenzhuang and Wangweizi for rest and recuperation. The first part of the 58th Regiment occupied a position on the west side of Zhouyinzhuang, monitored the enemies in Zhaozhuang, and supported the 59th Regiment to defend Dawangzhuang. Before dawn on the 10th, the 46th Regiment of the 16th Brigade and the 46th Regiment of the 6th Column and 16th Brigade of Zhongye moved to the communication trench on the east side of Zhouyinzhuang to assemble in preparation for reinforcement of Dawangzhuang.
At 7:30 on December 10, under the cover of aircraft, tanks in front and artillery support in the rear, the Kuomintang troops of the two regiments divided into three groups and launched a large-scale attack on Dawangzhuang. It protrudes into the village from the east and north directions. The warriors of the 59th Regiment fought bloody battles with the enemy in the trenches, without fear of being crushed and killed by enemy tanks. After running out of bullets and grenades, the commanders and soldiers used bayonets and shovels to fight the enemy hand-to-hand. The fierce battle lasted for 2 hours. The dead bodies of the Kuomintang troops were piled up layer after layer, but they were still beaten out by the 59th Regiment.
html At 09:40, that is, 10 minutes after being beaten out by the 59th regiment, Huang Weiling's two regiments launched a counterattack against Dawangzhuang again. At this time, our army's reinforcements had not yet arrived due to traffic trench obstruction. The 1st Battalion of the 59th Regiment, which had more than 400 people before the war, only had more than 30 people left at this time. Among them, Kong Jinsheng, the platoon commander of the 2nd company of the battalion, led the entire platoon, which had only a few people, and held on to the position tenaciously. Even though he was seriously injured, he continued to fight and started hand-to-hand combat with the intruding enemy until everyone died heroically. As a result, the Dawangzhuang position was temporarily lost.
At the critical moment, Huaye 7th Column 58th Regiment, 60th Regiment, and Zhongye 6th Column 46th Regiment braved the enemy's dense artillery fire to launch a counterattack against Dawangzhuang. After two hours of repeated fighting, our army recaptured the southwest position of Dawangzhuang and formed a confrontation with the enemy in the village. At around 15:00, Huang Wei invested another regiment of troops, leading with tanks and flamethrowers , and pounced on the People's Liberation Army. At this time, our troops inside the village were running out of ammunition and had to retreat to the outer edge of the village to hold on.
At dusk, the 20th Division of the 7th Column tried every means to send some ammunition forward, reorganized the main force of the 60th Regiment to counterattack the enemy, and finally recaptured the Dawangzhuang position. The remnants of the three regiments of Huang Wei's regiment fled to Shuangduiji in embarrassment. On this day of bloody fighting, the four regiments of our army killed, wounded, and captured more than 2,200 enemy soldiers. The "hero group" organization that Huang Wei valued no longer exists. The key point of Dawangzhuang is finally firmly in the hands of our army, which indicates that the end of Huang Wei Corps is coming!
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