In October 1940, Han Deqin, chairman of the Kuomintang Jiangsu Province, led his troops to launch the largest attack on the New Fourth Army, of which the 89th Army and the Independent 6th Brigade were the central column, under the unified command of Li Shouwei, commander of the 89th Army, and attacked the east and north of Huangqiao in three ways; 10 security brigades were left-wing columns, attacking Huangqiao East; Li Changjiang, Li Mingyang's department, and the Tax police corps were the right wing, attacking the west of Huangqiao, with a total strength of more than 100,000 troops. South of the Yellow Bridge is the Yangtze River, and Han Deloitte's slogan is:
"Drive the New Fourth Army of Northern Jiangsu to the Yangtze River to drink water!"
The New Fourth Army in northern Jiangsu had only 7,000 men.
Li Mingyang, Chen Taiyun, and Han Deqin had conflicts of interest, and due to the struggle of Chen Yi, commander of the New Fourth Army, the two expressed that they would not participate in the anti-communist civil war, relieving the left wing of the New Fourth Army.
The security brigades on the Eastern Front, nominally belonged to Han Deloitte, but in fact were on their own, and they were keen on setting up cards to collect taxes and extortion, and it was not active to really fight and fight hard. Therefore, the Headquarters of the New Fourth Army in Northern Jiangsu decided: Tao Yong's third column would defend the town of Huangqiao, wait for the Han recalcitrant army to advance to Huangqiao, the first and second columns would be responsible for attacking, detour from the north of Huangqiao town back to the flank of the Han recalcitrant army, first annihilate the enemy's independent sixth brigade at Yingxi, and then turn to the demarcation to encircle and annihilate the 89th Army, and designate the first column to first send two battalions to tangle with the recalcitrant army, find out the situation, and buy time.
On October 5, Li Shouwei's 89th Army forwards approached Huangqiao. The first column of the New Fourth Army immediately sent the first two battalions to the east. After making contact with the recalcitrant army, it was found that the 33rd Division of the 89th Army was on the first line from Hai'an to the demarcation line; its left was the Independent Sixth Brigade, which ran the Xizhi Huangqiao from Hujiaji, and the 117th Division was its second echelon.
The recalcitrant army was huge, chaotic like an ant colony, crowding roads, robbing a village from village to village, doing no evil, and arousing the anger of the soldiers.
As soon as the battle began, the 4th Regiment of the First Column occupied the small Zhuangzi in front of the Noya Foundation, and suddenly, the soldiers found that the mulberry forest was full of people and horses, immediately rushed into the mulberry forest, and captured more than a dozen prisoners inside, one of whom was an aide-de-camp of the 89th Army. ”
He asked, "Is Li Shouwei here?"
He nodded and said, "Yes." ”
The commander of the 4th Regiment reported to the column headquarters. The commander of the first column, Ye Fei, immediately launched a sudden and fierce attack on Noyaji with two regiments of the 1st and 4th regiments.
It's a battle!
The enemy's 89th arms were much stronger than those of the New Fourth Army, and the 1st Regiment of the New Fourth Army had a little more light machine guns and very few of the 4th Regiment; while the heavy machine guns, the 1st Regiment, had only one crooked handle captured in Jiangnan, and the 4th Regiment did not. The enemy's regiments and battalions all had heavy machine guns, the regiment had mortar companies, and the divisions and corps had mountain artillery and field artillery, and several layers of firepower were deployed. After the first column launched the attack, the enemy immediately opened fire, and the sound of the artillery was earth-shaking and endless all night, making it very difficult for the New Fourth Army to make progress. However, in order to capture the enemy commander Li Shouwei and strive to become the main force regiment, the 4th Regiment continued to attack the enemy troops at Noyaji. Soon, the tide of battle began to shift. The two columns attacked one victory after another. The three columns defending the Yellow Bridge also turned to attack north of the Yellow Bridge and launched a fierce attack on the Stubborn 33rd Division.
After the New Fourth Army launched a comprehensive counterattack, gunshots and shouts of killing were on all sides. After dark, the sound of gunfire still vibrated in the long sky, and the flames of war were red for more than a dozen miles. The columns marched forward courageously. In the second half of the night, the enemy finally could not support it, the main force collapsed one by one, and all the officers and men fled backwards like an avalanche. The New Fourth Army looked everywhere for Li Shouwei.
In a great scuffle of tens of thousands of people, the chief of staff of the first column, Zhang Fan, moved the headquarters from the field grave to a room at the head of the village, and then ordered the radio to be set up, lit a candle himself, opened the map, and prepared to check the enemy situation. Unexpectedly, before he could look at the map, he could hear a rumbling footstep outside the house. When he went out to take a look, a black pressed figure shouted for the regimental commander and company commander. Zhang Fan was also very bold, walked over to take a closer look, recognized that it was an enemy army, and hurried back to the house to blow out the candle.
Then he walked out of the house, and by the darkness, mingled with the enemy, and ran in the direction of the regimental battalion troops of the first column.
However, when he came to a bridge, the enemy was chaotic, like a group of headless flies, unable to see his head, not knowing where to go, so he ordered the commander who followed him: "You want to bring the enemy across the river." ”
So, the chief of the division shouted:
"Brethren, don't run around, come with me!"
The rabble-rousers followed him across the bridge.
On the other side of the river, the commander of the division suddenly ordered the enemy army: "We are the New Fourth Army, giving preferential treatment to prisoners, and now you lay down your weapons and turn backwards!" ”
When these enemy troops heard this, they were almost stunned and obediently put down their weapons.
In this way, Zhang Fan and the commander did not fire a single shot, capturing more than 500 enemy people.
At this time, there were shouts of "surrender your guns and don't kill" and "lay down your weapons and follow me" everywhere. These enemy soldiers did not move, but honestly sat on the ground and waited for the New Fourth Army to come to take shelter.
The army was full of fields and fields, and the New Fourth Army searched and chased after them. The local people also came, some with nail rakes, some with hoes, some with flat burdens, and in groups of three or five intercepted at the intersection and Zhuangtou to help the New Fourth Army capture prisoners. Zhang Fan saw this and said to the commander, "Leave the prisoners to the warriors to guard, and we will go back to the headquarters." ”
The commander stopped a squad, handed over the captives to them, and followed Zhang Fan to the headquarters of the first column.
After the war, the New Fourth Army captured thousands of prisoners, but Li Shouwei was not found. Chen Yijun was puzzled: "Where did this guy go, could he have inserted his wings and flew away?" ”
A few days later, Chen Yi and others found the answer.
At the bazhigou river in Huangqiao Town, a large group of stubborn troops fled and were blocked by the billowing river. The banks of the river are steep on either side, with only a plank bridge in the middle. As a result, the stubborn officers and men who had no way to escape rushed to the small bridge, you pushed me, trampled on each other, some were trampled to death, and some were squeezed down the river. After the war, the river was filled with dead bodies. The common people had no choice but to use the net to pull up, a net, that is, five or six, fishing, they suddenly found a corpse very fat, blistered bulging, wearing a general's collar badge on the clothes. I searched my pocket again and found a private seal of crystal stone, which was engraved with clear seal characters:
"Li Shouwei".
It turned out that when crossing the bridge, Li Shouwei was also squeezed down the river by his men and drowned. After Zhang Fan knew, he laughed:
"This anti-communist hero who wanted to drive us to the Yangtze River to drink water ended up drinking enough water when he went down the river himself!"