General Wei Lihuang, in the Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan, which destroyed the Japanese 55th and 56th divisions. By 1945, Li Mi was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and placed in command of the 8th Corps while retaining his command of the First Honor Division. Chinese Civil War Under President Chiang Kai-shek's personal orders, Generals Li Mi, Du Yuming and Qiu Qingquan removed local warlord Long Yun of Yunnan Province from power in June 1945. American troops provided many supplies and provisions to Li's 8th corps, which proved invaluable in the coming struggle against Chinese Communist forces. Until the outbreak of the 1948–1949 Huaihai Campaign, he was able to score a number of important victories against the Communists in Eastern China. In November 1948, Li Mi and Qiu Qingquan were tasked to relieve General Huang Baitao's 7th army, but they were blocked by a superior enemy force. While attempting to assault enemy positions in Henan, he, Du Yuming, and Qiu Qingquan became surrounded by PLA forces. Following this encirclement, Du was captured, Qiu committed suicide, and only Li was able to escape back to Nanjing. President Chiang Kai-shek instructed him to rebuild his former 13th army and defend his home province, Yunnan, from Communist attacks. By the time that Communist forces had taken the mainland in 1949, Li had already withdrawn his armies south and west, into Thailand and the Shan states of Northern Burma. When Burma declared independence in 1948, Li established an independent Shan regime for his "Anti-Communist National Salvation Army". From these bases, Li's units continued to carry out guerrilla attacks against the Communist authorities in Yunnan. Nationalist forces from Yunnan also attempted to move into French Indo-China, but these troops were quickly disarmed and arrested by the French. The troops which moved into Burma initially settled around Tachilek, in the state of Kengtung, near the Thai border. The troops who moved there under Li joined earlier Nationalist troops who had remained in the area after fighting the Japanese in World War II. Following Li's withdrawal to this region, Li reorganized all available Nationalist forces in the region, placing them under his command. Li's forces subsequently became known to foreign observers as the "93rd Division". Post-Civil War Li's Kuomintang militants in Burma were partially supported secretly by weapons and other supplies and by CIA military advisors provided by the United States, but mostly