In early March 1943, Han Deqin, chairman of the Kuomintang Jiangsu Province, personally led more than 10,000 people from the Independent Sixth Brigade, the Third Security Column, and the 117th Division under his jurisdiction to sneak into the Shanzitou area of the core area of the Huaibei base area, preparing and preparing with the Kuomintang troops stationed in the west of Jinpu Road to attack the New Fourth Army's Huaibei anti-Japanese base area. The Huaibei Anti-Japanese Base Area was created by the Fourth Division of the New Fourth Army, the commander of the Fourth Division was Peng Xuefeng, and the political commissar was Deng Zihui; both of them were well-known military experts.
On the night of March 17, the Fourteenth Regiment of the Fifth Brigade of the Second Division of the New Fourth Army received orders and was assigned to the command of the Fourth Division of the New Fourth Army, under the leadership of Hu Wei, political commissar of the regiment, and Hu Dingqian, chief of staff (the regimental commander Song Wen had not yet returned from a meeting in Huainan) and after three consecutive days and three nights of rapid marching, rushed to the toeji area at the western boundary of Hongze Lake to assemble and wait for orders. On the morning of the 18th, the order given to them by Peng Xuefeng, commander of the Fourth Division, arrived, ordering them to be placed under the command of the Eleventh Brigade, and on the evening of the 18th, they launched an attack on Han Deloitte's Independent Sixth Brigade stationed at Motangwei. This order is given a bit hastily, why? Because, where is Mo Tangwei? There are no markings on the map, and the 14th Regiment of the 5th Brigade of the 2nd Division of the New Fourth Army who arrived temporarily is even less clear.
However, the military emergency, Hu Wei's political commissar hurriedly ordered to find a local compatriot to be a guide, and under the leadership of the compatriots, the troops set off from Jietouji and braved the rain to advance in the direction of Motangwei. It was raining heavily, and as I walked, at a three-way fork, the guide was actually lost, not knowing which direction to go. The troops immediately stopped, in the heavy rain, Hu Wei political commissar and Hu Dingqian's chief of staff, although their hearts were very anxious, but their expressions were still very calm, after a brief discussion, they called the guide over, spread out the map, and told the guide the names of the nearby villages one by one, and finally, according to the direction pointed by the guide, Hu Wei political commissar judged that Mo Tangwei was on the north bank of Hongze Lake, and ordered the troops to advance rapidly.
In fact, Motangwei was two places, one was Tangxu and the other was Moxu, and the two places were two or three miles apart, and at that time it was not a village-level unit (now called Tangmoxu Village), so the map at that time was not marked at all. After such a delay, the troops were unable to launch an attack according to the attack time requested by Commander Peng Xuefeng, but because the rain was too heavy that day, when the Fourteenth Regiment arrived at Motangwei at 1:00 a.m. on the 19th, the enemy was still asleep, and in the end, the Fourteenth Regiment, with the cooperation of the brother troops, completely annihilated the enemy in the Wei and killed Li Zhonghuan, the commander of Han Deloitte's Independent Sixth Brigade.