On July 20, 1941, more than 17,000 Japanese troops from Dongtai and Xinghua, Jiangsu, attacked Yancheng, Jiangsu, where the Headquarters of the New Fourth Army was located. Responsible for defending the headquarters of the New Fourth Army was the Seventh Brigade of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army. After the brigade commander General Peng Mingzhi learned of the intelligence, he carefully studied the enemy's situation and found that the enemy was attacking in the three directions of the west, south, and north, and that it was necessary to move immediately, but there were many non-combatants in the organs of the New Fourth Army, and it would take time to transfer.
The situation was critical, and Brigadier Peng immediately ordered the 19th Regiment of the Seventh Brigade to quickly leave the city and head east to clear the obstacles on the transfer route. The 21st Regiment helped the New Fourth Army to sort out items, destroy documents, and the 20th Regiment came out to block the attack, slowing down the Japanese attack. It took two days to completely withdraw from Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, and on the afternoon of the same day, it reached the vicinity of Jianyang Town on the banks of the Sheyang River in Jiangsu Province.
At this time, the danger occurred again, because the 19th Regiment, which was the sharp soldier, collided head-on with the Japanese army, and the battle soon began. However, the number of Japanese troops was small, more than a hundred, but there were more puppet troops. Hu Bingyun, the commander of the 19th Regiment, reported to the brigade commander Peng Mingzhi while leading the troops and hit them head-on. Hu Bingyun was a tiger general, and at such a critical moment, it was definitely not fatal, and soon, most of the Japanese troops were wiped out, and the rest fled.
That night, the troops camped in Jianyang Town, and before they could rest, gunshots rang out from the east end of the town. What's going on? It turned out that two Japanese scouts had quietly entered the town, and just as two female soldiers of the New Fourth Army went to the toilet together, they just walked out of the door and were caught by the Japanese army, and the two female soldiers immediately exclaimed: There are ghosts! Comrade Wang Dongbao, the political commissar of the 19th Regiment who was inspecting the sentry, heard the screams, flew over, and threw two shots at them, resulting in these two devils.
After Brigadier Peng heard the gunshots, he immediately understood the situation and quickly determined that this was a small group of Japanese troops attacking, and he immediately ordered that the 21st Regiment cover the transfer of the New Fourth Army Headquarters, and the 19th and 20th Regiments, from the two wings, encircled and destroyed this Japanese army. The battle was fought until the next morning, and this Japanese army was completely wiped out, with a total of one squadron.