"There is no doubt that the guerrilla warfare of the New Fourth Army is really well fought, and I admire it."
One day in the early spring of 1940, Chen Yi, then commander of a detachment of the New Fourth Army, sat down in the guest seat with a smile. Opposite him was a medium-sized Kuomintang general with a somewhat pale complexion. The above sentence is what the general said. Obviously, the two had just gone through a battle of the fronts, and the winner was Chen Yi.
This Kuomintang general was Leng Xin, then the commander-in-chief of the Second Guerrilla Zone of the Third Theater. His embarrassment today is actually completely self-inflicted humiliation.
In June 1939, Chen Yi led a detachment of the New Fourth Army into Jiangnan and met with Su Yu's advance team, which was the leader. The two men immediately carried out their work and set up the Jiangnan Headquarters of the New Fourth Army in Liyang Shuixi Village, with Chen Yi as commander and Su Yu as deputy commander.
With the arrival of the New Fourth Army, Leng Xin was welcomed with both hands raised. Because Leng Xin at that time was indeed a patriotic general who was like a fake exchange.
In the Kuomintang, Leng Xin can also be regarded as a tough guy with an iron backbone. He was a first-term student of the Whampoa Military Academy and was a pacesetter in the school to protect the flag. In the next two Northern Expedition Wars, he fought bravely and did not even have time to write a family letter to his family. At one point, his mother even thought he had died, and even the arranged affair had been withdrawn. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Leng Xin led his troops to participate in the Battle of Wuhan and fought very bravely. Therefore, at the beginning of 1939, on the recommendation of Gu Zhutong, Leng Xin began to serve as a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Government and director of the Jiangnan Bureau, as well as the deputy commander of the Second Guerrilla Zone of the Third Theater, focusing on military command.
From the above description, it can be seen that Leng Xin was indeed a patriotic general who was bent on resisting Japan in 1939. What is rare is that at that time, he did not have any portal prejudices, no matter what kind of party, as long as he resisted Japan, he welcomed it. This point is very similar to our party and our army. Therefore, Chen Yi and Su Yu had a very good relationship with Leng Xin during this period, and the two sides often went to each other's stations for meetings, and the atmosphere of exchange was very harmonious. They had military parades together, they had banquets, and they got along like old acquaintances reunited. This harmony also contributed to the combat effectiveness, and the New Fourth Army cooperated with the Kuomintang army led by Leng Xin and fought many beautiful battles.
However, this good day did not last long. Under the influence and persecution of Gu Zhutong and Chiang Kai-shek, Leng Xin slowly changed and became less friendly to the New Fourth Army. At first, Leng Xin only mobilized the army and slowly surrounded the new Fourth Army's garrison; then, the delicious New Fourth Army was captured, food and ammunition; and then, it was to send hooligans and spies to spread rumors and slander the New Fourth Army and create anti-communist friction. Chen Yi and Su Yu proceeded from the overall situation and constantly tolerated it, which can be regarded as temporarily preserving the overall situation of the anti-Japanese resistance in the south. However, in March 1940, Leng Xin, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Second Guerrilla Zone of the Third Theater, issued an order for Chen Yi to lead the first detachment to replace the 108th Division of the Kuomintang 96th Army and go to shuiyang, east of Wuhu, Anhui province, to deploy on the first line from Gaochun, Jiangsu.
After Receiving the order, Chen Yi immediately said that he could not carry out this order himself!
Things are obvious. A detachment of the New Fourth Army, with a strength equivalent to only one regiment of the Kuomintang Army, is not very numerous, so where can it take over the defense line of an entire nationalist army's fully armored division? Moreover, the weapons and ammunition of the New Fourth Army are very scarce, and once the combat effectiveness is dispersed, the enemy will not be able to effectively defend itself when it comes.
Leng Xin's order was obviously to put the New Fourth Army to death, and then borrow the hands of the Japanese puppet army to get rid of them. Leng Xin's transformation from a patriotic general to Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist vanguard is truly regrettable. But after all, he was a chief, and after receiving the news that Chen Yi refused to carry out the order, Leng Xin immediately became angry and slapped the table fiercely.
Chen Yi seemed very personable. As a nominal subordinate, he disobeyed the order and really needed an explanation, so he decided to take the risk alone and go to the other party's base camp to complain in person.
On this day, Chen Yi came to Leng Xin's headquarters. After the two of them exchanged a few awkward greetings, Leng Xin first attacked and said, "Commander Chen came here this time, what problem is he going to talk about?" If it is about the adjustment of defense orders, then don't say it. It's an order, not negotiable. ”
Chen Yi smiled heartily and said, "Commander Leng, coincidentally, I still want to talk about the order to transfer the defense today." In my opinion, this order is very unreasonable. Let a detachment of our New Fourth Army guard the defensive zone of a division of the Nationalist army, and our strength is not enough. If this is done, our new Fourth Army detachment is likely to be in trouble. This is the destruction of the entire anti-Japanese situation! If Commander Leng must do this, then please explain the reason for this, otherwise I can only go directly to Commander Gu to talk. ”
Chen Yi's words are hidden needles in the cotton. If he really went to talk to Gu Zhutong, it would be equivalent to making the contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party public. At that time, the whole country will be known, and Leng Xin will not be able to end it. Moreover, what Chen Yi said was indeed reasonable, and Leng Xin could not answer at all. Everyone knows that it is not reasonable to let a regiment take over a division.
Seeing that the commander could not pick up the stubble, Xu Sheng, the chief of staff who was sitting next to him, immediately helped and said: "Commander Chen's words are unreasonable. It is the duty of a soldier to obey an order, and the superior does not explain to the subordinate the obligation to give the original order. Is it true that your New Fourth Army is accustomed to bargaining in the face of orders? ”
Before Chen Yi could reply, Wang Guodong, the security commander on the side, was eager to ask for credit, and then Xu Sheng's words said: "The chief of staff's words are correct. Your New Fourth Army just doesn't respect the commanders, and you are also expanding your ranks in violation of orders, collecting taxes without authorization, and expanding your territory everywhere. What your four armies shout about is anti-Japanese resistance, but all they do is small actions that are beneficial to themselves. Your tactics say that it is an anti-Japanese guerrilla, but in my opinion, it is a guerrilla attack, and every time you see a devil, you shoot two shots and run. This is deception! You don't carry out orders, in fact, you are trying to preserve your strength! If you do not admit this, you should accept the defensive mission and obey the orders of the theater to the letter!"
Hearing this big set of words, Chen Yi smiled again and said, "Commander Wang is very eloquent. But I would like to ask, where is your security headquarters located? Where are your troops stationed? How many battles have you fought with devils? How many devils have you seen? How many shots have been fired at the devil? Say we swim without hitting, well, I have numbers here. Immediately, Chen Yi listed the specific conditions of more than a hundred battles such as Weigang and Xinfeng that the New Fourth Army had experienced after entering Jiangnan, as well as the numbers of enemy kills, captures, and commendations from Chiang Kai-shek and Gu Zhutong, and said: "It is okay to say that we swim without attacking and preserve our strength." Then you may wish to say that who among you can come up with better results than the New Fourth Army? ”
All the Kuomintang officers were dumbfounded. In terms of achievements, except for a very small number of people, there is really no one who can compare with the New Fourth Army. After grinding for half a day, Leng Xin could only soften and said the sentence at the beginning of this article. He also said that his order to change defenses was to let the New Fourth Army abandon its strengths and use its weaknesses, which was indeed improperly considered. Chen Yi seized the opportunity and demanded that Leng Xin withdraw the order. Leng Xin had no other choice but to agree. The atmosphere of the meeting only then eased up a bit.
Chen Yi continued to make unremitting efforts to inquire about the withholding of his own materials and grain. When Leng Xin saw that the matter had reached this point, he could only shirk that the materials of various combat units had difficulties, and promised to reissue the New Fourth Army after verifying the situation.
A few days later, Chen Yi received a telegram from Leng Xin: the defensive task of the first line from Shuiyang to Gaochun had been handed over to the 52nd Division of the Nationalist Army. Chen Yi was relieved and said to Su Yu, "This Leng Xin is still reasonable. ”
After this incident, Chen Yi took the initiative to show goodwill and invited Leng Xin to the Shuixi Village where his headquarters was located. Leng Xin gladly went, and everyone talked about the wine. A few days later, the New Fourth Army sent a cultural troupe to Leng Xin to perform a program. The relationship between the two sides showed signs of relaxation. However, on June 18 of that year, Leng Xin ordered two regiments of his 40th Division to penetrate the Maoshan area and launch a surprise attack on the New Fourth Army. Su Yu, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, fought back and annihilated the enemy in the Sita Hill area southeast of Jurong.
In January 1941, the Kuomintang soldiers in the Third Theater of Operations, under the orders of Chiang Kai-shek, launched the "Anhui Southern Incident", the New Fourth Army suffered huge losses, the commander Ye Ting was unfortunately arrested, and the relations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party once again fell to a freezing point. Later, after many efforts, the two sides stood on the same front again and jointly resisted the Japanese invaders.
As for Leng Xin, his ending makes people feel a little regretful. After the end of the War of Resistance, he was shelved and appointed as a member of the Constitutional Implementation Promotion Committee. Later, the Kuomintang failed on the mainland, and Leng Xin fled to Taiwan. There, he lived a life of poverty, and it was not until he later became a professor of history at the Chinese Culture University that he was able to improve his economy. Later, he immersed himself in historical research and wrote many works, all of which were very insightful.
In his later years, Leng Xin was homesick and very eager for the reunification of the two sides of the strait. He often reminisced with his friends about the years of the battle, talking about personal names, place names, casualty figures, and still counting the family treasures. He is an avid collector of books, with more than 10,000 rare books and rare books. When his body was gradually weakening, he left a will, except for a part of the books donated to the private Qiangshu Middle School, most of the remaining treasures should be donated to the library of xinghua in his hometown of Jiangsu after the reunification of the motherland. Unfortunately, this wish has not yet been realized, and these books are still in the hands of their descendants, quietly waiting for the day when Leng Xin dreams.