After the end of the Jinan Campaign, the East China Field Army opened the prelude to the Huaihai Campaign, aiming directly at Huang Baitao's corps. In this battle that shook the world, Ye Fei was left with some irreparable regrets.
Ye Fei stayed in Jinan to recuperate due to black fever, and handed over the military command of the 1st Column to Deputy Commander Zhang Yixiang and others. When Huang Baitao commanded the 7th Corps to retreat in the direction of Xuzhou, they blew up the iron bridge over the canal and abandoned the 63rd Army, which was covering their crossing of the river, east of the canal.
The enemy division commander could only quickly retreat to avoid annihilation. According to the order of Chen Shiyu, chief of staff of Huaye, Deputy Commander Zhang Yixiang needed to annihilate the 63rd Army, and then cooperate with his brother troops to directly attack Huang Baitao's headquarters.
When the 63rd Army was annihilated by Xu Shiyou's 9th Column, the entire army became unstable. But in order to defeat them as soon as possible, the deputy commissar, after only one simple mobilization, began to pursue the enemy closely.
Unafraid of fatigue, they closely pursued the enemy and successfully surrounded the 63rd Army in the Yaowan area. At the same time, Huang Baitao's 4 armies had been surrounded by Huaye's main force in Yaowan and could not retreat.
They decided to take the better step and build fortifications at Kiln Bay and hold on to reinforcements, fearing annihilation in the movement. Because the 63rd Army was a Cantonese army, it was not familiar with the terrain of southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu, and it did not eat or sleep well, and it was not suitable for water and soil, which made their situation even more difficult.
Under these circumstances, Zhang Yixiang, deputy commander of the 1st Column, ordered three divisions to surround the enemy from the east, north, and southeast, and informed Su Yu of the operational deployment. Commander Su Yudai asked Zhang Yixiang: "Are you sure that you will destroy the enemy and an army in one column?" ”
Zhang Yixiang replied without hesitation: "Yes!" ”
Commander Su Yudai said to him, I wish you all the best, each division is responsible for one direction in the battle, quickly cut off the enemy's rear route, and clear the enemy's perimeter. The main forces of the enemy army were concentrated in the town of Yaowan.
How to act, the head of the column drew up a plan, reported it to the field army command for approval, with the 1st Division as the main force, used artillery fire to break through the east gate, and then advanced to the sides and in depth.
And establish contact with the second and third divisions. Several leaders of the column and leaders of divisions and regiments personally went to the front to inspect the terrain.
The 1st Column adopted a strategy of focusing on military affairs and supplemented by politics, and resolutely attacked the enemy's 63rd Army. Although the enemy did not understand the prisoner policy and had a large number of soldiers, they tried in vain to wait for reinforcements and struggled to the death, but Liu Zhi sent planes to drop food and ammunition to the 63rd Army, but they failed to save their fate.
Eventually, the enemy surrendered. The enemy commander Chen Zhang led the guards to flee in the direction of the canal, but was killed on the spot. In this battle, 1 column annihilated two divisions of the enemy's 63rd Army30,000 people, creating a combat example of a column annihilating an army.
As soon as the battle of Yaowan ended, the 1st Column received a new task, fighting side by side with the 11th Column and participating in the blocking of Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi's two corps. Their actions effectively ensured the annihilation of the enemy's Huang Botao and Huang Wei corps by friendly and neighboring troops, and participated in the task of encircling and annihilating Du Yuming's group.