At the beginning of 1941, the Headquarters of the New Fourth Army and more than 9,000 troops of southern Anhui under it set off from the Yunling garrison to detour northward, and when passing through the Maolin area of Jing County, Anhui Province, they were suddenly surrounded and attacked by more than 80,000 people from seven divisions of the Kuomintang army.
Subsequently, the New Fourth Army Headquarters held an emergency meeting and decided that the leaders of the Military Department and the Southeast Bureau that accompanied the army should break through in two ways, one led by Xiang Ying, secretary of the Southeast Bureau and deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, and Yuan Guoping, director of the Political Department, and Zhou Zikun, deputy chief of staff, and the other led by Ye Ting, commander of the New Army, and Rao Shushi, deputy secretary of the Southeast Bureau.
On the 7th day of the Anhui Incident, Yuan Guoping, director of the Political Department of the New Fourth Army, stepped forward and commanded some of the scattered troops to continue to break through and retreat north. During the fierce battle, he was shot several times and fell into the grass at the bottom of a ditch. At eight or nine o'clock that night, when the deputy company commander of the guard company of the military headquarters broke through and arrived here, he found Yuan Guoping, who was blurred with blood and flesh. Everyone immediately gathered around and shouted, "Director Yuan, Director Yuan!" Yuan Guoping slowly opened his eyes and said weakly, "You go your way, break out quickly, leave me alone." ”
The soldier quickly examined Yuan Guoping's injuries by the light of the searchlight and found that he had been shot all over his body, one of which penetrated his left chest. The deputy company commander immediately organized several strong soldiers to take turns carrying Yuan Guoping on their backs to continue the breakthrough, and in the early morning of this day, everyone rushed to Zhangjiadu. Here the water is chest-deep, the river surface is wide, there is no way to find a boat, several people will carry Yuan Guoping on their shoulders to wade across the river. Unfortunately, the troops were spotted by the enemy while crossing the river, and a dense load of bullets swept over them, and many comrades were killed. Yuan Guoping fell into the water several times, and was again fished out of the water by the warriors, and stood up to continue to advance. After several tosses in this way, the two- or three-hundred-meter-wide Zhang Jiadu took more than 40 minutes to cross. More than 100 warriors crossed the river and only thirty or forty remained. In order not to delay the breakthrough of his comrades-in-arms, Yuan Guoping, who was seriously injured, took advantage of the fact that everyone was not paying attention, took out a pistol from his pocket and pulled the trigger on his head... Heroic sacrifice.
On the 9th day of the Anhui Incident, Commander Ye and Rao Shushi led the breakthrough troops to climb over the tip of the fire cloud through the fog and come to a narrow deep valley - Xikeng. There are mountains on three sides and no one, only one valley mouth is connected to the outside world, and the headquarters of the 108th Division of the Kuomintang Army is stationed in the village outside the valley mouth. When he arrived at Xikeng, Commander Ye had more than a thousand soldiers by his side. Everyone advised Commander Ye to go with the fighting troops first, but he refused.
On the cold days of the ninth month, more than a thousand soldiers were trapped in the west pit, the crowd was disparity, the ammunition was exhausted, and the situation was very critical. When he was worried, a signal soldier of the Kuomintang 108th Division ran from the mountain pass holding a white flag and said: "Commander Ye, your family does not fight your own family, you can send a representative out to discuss the method." Commander Ye stood majestically on the hillside like a steel man, holding a telescope and observing the enemy position. Seeing that the enemy showed no sign of relaxing, Commander Ye Ting decided to go to the negotiations after seeing that the enemy had shown no sign of relaxation, and after a lifetime of fighting horses, he decided to go to the negotiations, and as a result, Commander Ye Ting was trapped and detained by the enemy.
More than a month after the incident in southern Anhui, Xiang Ying, deputy commander of the army, and Zhou Zikun, deputy chief of staff, who were hiding in the Bee Cave of Chikeng Mountain, had already planned a route to break through to the north of the river, and because the cave was too small, only four people could live horizontally at night, in addition to Xiang Ying, there were also Zhou Zikun, Huang Cheng (Zhou Zikun's guards), and Liu Hou (adjutant) living here. However, in the early hours of that day, the shameful traitor Liu Houzong took advantage of the fact that Xiang Ying, Zhou Zikun, and Huang Cheng were asleep, and shot at them, and two senior generals of the New Fourth Army were heroically sacrificed.
At this point, four senior cadres of the New Fourth Army, namely, the commander, deputy commander, director of the Political Department, and deputy chief of staff, were killed or arrested, and Rao Shushi organized personnel to break through separately. In this case, he decided to disperse the breakthrough in small groups, Rao Shushi and 5 comrades buried their weapons, changed their plain clothes, and then went down the mountain, not long after, encountered the Kuomintang troops, a company commander asked: What! Rao Shushi took out all the silver dollars, pocket watches and gold pens into the hands of the company commander, explaining that he was a businessman, and was encountering a war, and he was lost in the mountains, and the company commander looked at Rao Shushi, who was wearing a leather coat, and said; It is safe to go down the mountain and go east.
Rao Shushi waited 20 meters forward, just glad to get out of danger, suddenly, the company commander told them to stand, Rao Shushi thought he was exposed, but unexpectedly, the company commander wrote them a road strip, telling them: Without a road, you still can't go down like this, I can only help here, the road after that, it depends on how you go! Rao Shushi and his party, after going through hardships, finally escaped from danger and became one of the survivors of the breakthrough of senior cadres of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui!
Rao Shushi, who broke through the siege, came to Shanghai through hardships and dangers, and then returned to the New Fourth Army Headquarters in Yancheng, and since then, he has been able to emerge and gain fame, and in the "Anhui Southern Incident", Rao Shushi completed the duties entrusted by his superiors, withstood the test, and was fully affirmed by the central leadership. To this end, it was pointed out in a decision: Under the leadership of commander Ye Ting and Rao Shushi, deputy secretary of the Southeast Bureau, the commanders and fighters of the New Fourth Army fought fiercely with the recalcitrant army for seven days and nights, expressing the heroism of revolutionary fighters. After reorganizing the New Fourth Army, he served as deputy secretary of the Central China Bureau, and later served as director of the political department, political commissar and other positions, becoming one of the senior leaders of the New Fourth Army.
Rao Shushi, formerly known as Liang Pu, a native of Zhongling Township, Linchuan, Fuzhou, Jiangxi, was born in 1903, entered Shanghai University in the autumn of 1922, then joined the party group, engaged in the workers' movement, and later went to the northeast to engage in underground work, successively serving as the secretary of the North Manchurian Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League, the standing committee of the Manchuria Provisional Provincial Party Committee and acting secretary. Later, he was sent to the Soviet Union to study in Moscow, where he received a systematic education and training. After returning to China after completing his studies, he served as the director of the Shanghai Workers' Federation and secretary of the party group, the secretary general of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and the secretary of the party group of the Shanghai Executive Bureau of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Rao Shushi returned to China to participate in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and was sent by his superiors to anhui as deputy secretary of the Southeast Bureau and assisted Xiang Ying, secretary of the Southeast Bureau, in his work.
It can be said that during the Anhui Southern Incident, Rao Shushi underwent a severe test, reflecting his extraordinary courage, and then his position also continued to rise; during the Liberation War, Rao Shushi served as the political commissar of the East China Military Region and then as the political commissar of the Third Field Army, and participated in the command of the Lunan Campaign, the Laiwu Campaign, the Menglianggu Campaign, the Jiaodong Campaign, and the Huaihai Campaign, which can be said to have made meritorious contributions in the war years.
However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Rao Shushi was criticized for making serious mistakes, and was later expelled from his post and party membership, sentenced to 14 years in prison, and died of illness in prison on March 2, 1975, at the age of 72.