In the Battle of Xuzhou, Han Fuyu, commander-in-chief of the 3rd Army defending Shandong, abandoned the defense without authorization, and the gateway to the northern section of Jinpu was suddenly empty, and the Japanese army ran all the way to the strategic xuzhou. Li Zongren, commander-in-chief of the Fifth Theater of Operations in Xuzhou, scolded Han Fuyu for being greedy and afraid of death, and only cared about preserving his strength and ignoring the overall situation. However, scolding, the battlefield was not delayed by half a point, and Li Zongren quickly ordered the 51st Army to withdraw from Qingdao to reinforce the southern section of Jinpu.
In mid-to-late January 1938, the Japanese launched an offensive and the 51st Army deployed to intercept the north bank of the Huai River. Yu Xuezhong and the 51st Army originally belonged to the old headquarters of the Northeast Army, with a strong sense of nationality and a very high anti-Japanese sentiment. The officers and men of the Northeast Army wanted to avenge the country's destruction of their families, and although there were only two divisions, they were all highly motivated.
Yu Xuezhong ordered all his troops to withdraw to the north bank of the Huai River and blew up the iron bridge over the river to prevent the enemy from transporting troops. The Japanese army soon arrived at the south bank of the Huai River, saw that there was no bridge to cross, and organized more than 2,000 Japanese troops to cross the Huai River in civilian boats. The 342nd Brigade of the 51st Army attacked with all its might, and the Japanese army suffered three or four hundred casualties, and crossed the river and retreated.
After a few days of rest, the Japanese army once again forcibly crossed the Huai River, this time the Japanese army strengthened the artillery offensive, and then attracted the air force to bomb, the Huai River defenders suffered more than half of the casualties, the combat effectiveness was greatly reduced, a small number of Japanese troops have successfully crossed, is building a beachhead position, trying to cover more Japanese troops ashore.
At the critical juncture, Yu Xuezhong, who was in the rear of the town, led reinforcements to arrive in time. He personally came to the front line to supervise the battle. Dou Guangdian, the commander of the 339th Brigade of the reinforcements, was even a pioneer and killed the Japanese army with a gun. Seeing the reinforcements coming, it was the brigade commander who took the lead in counterattacking, and the defenders on the riverbank who were more than half wounded were full of energy.
In order to regain the position, the regimental commander who was ordered to hold the river bank specially organized a death squad. The regimental commander stared at the red eyes and ordered the mobilization order: "I usually treat you not thinly, now when the country is destroyed and the family is destroyed, the enemy little Japan is in front of you, whether it is for the country, for the sake of the family, we must fight for our lives, and eliminate these little devils."
He led the death squad and took the lead in rushing into the enemy position, and twice engaged in white-knife battles with the Japanese army. In the melee, the Japanese artillery and aircraft did not dare to bomb, the Chinese defenders fought more and more courageously, from 8 o'clock in the morning to 2 o'clock in the afternoon, after 6 hours of fighting, finally wiped out all the Japanese troops crossing the river in the position. The 51st Army successfully blocked the Japanese on the north bank of the Huai River.