On January 6, 1941, Gu Zhutong, commander of the Kuomintang Third Theater, ordered the 32nd Group Army to surround the New Fourth Army headquarters that was moving in southern Anhui, and the southern Anhui Incident broke out. In order to control the main force of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui, the Kuomintang sent 8 regular divisions, totaling more than 80,000 people, and surrounded the New Fourth Army headquarters of only 9,000 people.
It was also because the enemy was strong and we were weak, and in the face of an enemy ten times that of itself, the New Fourth Army fell into passivity everywhere, the commander Ye Ting was detained, the deputy commander Xiang Ying and the chief of staff Zhou Zikun were killed after being betrayed by traitors, and Yuan Guoping, director of the Political Department, committed suicide with a gun... The entire senior generals of the New Fourth Army were almost completely lost. It is worth mentioning that during the Anhui Incident, there was a regimental commander within the New Fourth Army who refused to carry out the orders of the commander Ye Ting, and this person was Xu Jinshu, the commander of the Fifth Regiment. So, what happened to Xu Jinshu later?
Xu Jinshu was an old Red Army who participated in the Long March, and in 1937, after the establishment of the New Fourth Army, in order to assist the development of the New Fourth Army, Yan'an sent many young cadres to the New Fourth Army, and Xu Jinshu was one of them. In 1938, Xu Jinshu entered the New Fourth Army and served as a battalion commander of the second detachment, and with the progress of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Xu Jinshu also grew, and before the outbreak of the Anhui Incident, he served as the commander of the Fifth Regiment of the Third Column.
In January 1941, after the outbreak of the Anhui Incident in southern Anhui, the senior generals of the New Fourth Army immediately sensed the Kuomintang's attempt to encircle and annihilate the New Fourth Army, and on January 7, senior generals including Ye Ting, Xiang Ying, and Zhou Zikun held an emergency meeting, which lasted most of the day, and at Ye Ting's urging, Xiang Ying finally adopted Zhou Zikun's suggestion: The entire New Fourth Army headquarters retreated from the direction of Gaoling and advanced towards Huangshan.
To retreat from the direction of Gaoling, it is necessary to first occupy Gaoling, which was already occupied by the Kuomintang troops at that time, so the New Fourth Army must arrange the vanguard troops in advance to capture Gaoling, so as to buy time for the transfer of large troops. After the emergency meeting, the commander Ye Ting immediately found Xu Jinshu, the commander of the Fifth Regiment, and ordered Xu Jinshu to lead the Fifth Regiment to rush to the road in the night, capture Gaoling in advance, and hold there for three days and three nights to cover the transfer of large troops.
Objectively speaking, under the circumstances at that time, the Fifth Regiment carried out this task almost with the mentality of death, they acted as death squads, they covered the transfer of large troops... Despite this, Xu Jinshu did not hesitate after receiving the task and immediately led the Fifth Regiment to the Gaoling area.
Coincidentally, when the Fifth Regiment arrived at Gaoling, it was found that the Nationalist troops there had not entered a state of combat, and they also took the initiative to ask the Fifth Regiment what it had come to do. Xu Jinshu made a plan and said that he had brought someone to change shifts. The Nationalist forces believed it, and during the handover between the two sides, the Fifth Regiment successfully controlled this unit and occupied the Gaoling area, and the Fifth Regiment had almost no losses and existed as a structure.
After capturing Gaoling, Xu Jinshu led the Fifth Regiment to complete the task of covering the large troops, and held there for three days and three nights. According to the orders of Commander Ye Ting, he should lead the Fifth Regiment to break through on its own, after all, the Fifth Regiment was formed, and Gaoling was controlled by the Fifth Regiment, and they were likely to succeed in the breakthrough. However, Xu Jinshu made an unexpected choice, refusing to carry out the orders of the commander Ye Ting, leading the Fifth Regiment north to catch up with the large troops, and on January 10, he caught up with the large troops (by that time the large troops had been lost in the jungle and were therefore pursued by the Fifth Regiment).
On January 11, as the Nationalist encirclement tightened, the New Fourth Army had to disperse and break through. During the dispersal breakout phase, Xu Jinshu was captured by the Kuomintang and later imprisoned in the Qifengyan Prison in the Shangrao concentration camp in Jiangxi. In the autumn of 1941, Xu Jinshu died heroically during his escape from prison at the age of 34.
bibliography:
"Anhui Southern Incident"