Huaihai campaign
화이하이 전역
The largest campaign of the civil war, fought between Xuzhou and the Huai River from 6 November 1948 to 10 January 1949, in which the East China and Central Plains Field Armies destroyed 555,000 Nationalist troops; in Taiwan it is called the Battle of Xubeng. After this, the Nationalists’ heaviest defeat, the Communists held the land north of the Yangtze and directly threatened Nanjing, Shanghai and Wuhan.
In depth
After the fall of Jinan Su Yu proposed a southward thrust by the East China Field Army, and Mao enlarged it into a plan to isolate Xuzhou with Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping’s Central Plains Field Army as well. Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, Deng Xiaoping, Su Yu and Tan Zhenlin formed a General Front Committee with Deng as secretary. The East China army destroyed Huang Baitao’s 7th Army at Nianzhuang, the Central Plains army surrounded and broke Huang Wei’s 12th Army at Shuangduiji, and finally the Xuzhou group under Du Yuming was annihilated at Chenguanzhuang. Guo Rugui, head of operations in the Nationalist Ministry of Defence, was passing the plans to the Communists.
By the Communists’ count 555,000 Nationalist troops in 22 armies and 56 divisions were destroyed (over 320,000 captured). Some 5.43 million peasants from Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu carried over 434 million jin of grain with 880,000 carts and more than 200,000 stretchers, and Chen Yi said the victory was “pushed out by the folks back home with their wheelbarrows”. The destruction of Chiang’s own Whampoa-trained units broke his position, and on 21 January 1949 he stepped down as president.