In the autumn of 1943, as the situation in the anti-Japanese base areas behind our enemy lines gradually improved and the strength of the Japanese puppet army continued to decline, the Kuomintang diehards who had always adhered to the "anti-communism" began to intensify their attacks and sabotage of the base areas.
In the Pi County and Suining areas of northern Jiangsu, the kuomintang recalcitrant forces continued to encroach, infiltrate, and sabotage the area west of our Longhai line.
In particular, Yang Yaoting, a veteran secret agent and the commander of the 2nd Special Forces Detachment under the jurisdiction of the Third Theater, was the most arrogant.
▲ Our army's anti-stubborn battle
He led 2 squadrons of specially trained armed agents to establish a stronghold on Xiaotashan, north of Daxu Station on the Longhai Line.
They took advantage of the fact that the main forces of our New Fourth Army were engaged in autumn anti-sweeping battles and had no time to launch a counterattack against the recalcitrant troops, making frequent attacks, wantonly sabotaging the intelligence stations and liaison stations in our base areas and guerrilla areas, hunting down and killing anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians, plotting against our personnel, conducting anti-communist and anti-people propaganda, and attempting to prepare for their further large-scale institutional base areas.
In less than 3 months, these Kuomintang agents destroyed about 80 percent of our party organizations in their area, which seriously threatened the connection between Huaibei and the Shandong base areas, and also made the people in the base areas at the junction with the Kuomintang areas panic, thus causing great harm to the consolidation and development of the base areas.
▲ Our army mobilized before the anti-stubborn campaign
In order to eliminate this tumor, the Pi Sui Tongling Security Sub-Office in the Huaibei base area, in accordance with the instructions of the party committee at a higher level, decided to use the method of "capturing the thief before capturing the king" to get rid of Yang Yaoting first, so as to play the role of killing the diehards and cracking down on the arrogance of this armed enemy.
Through internal intelligence and on-the-spot reconnaissance by scouts, Yang Yaoting's residence was in the home of a landlord in Xiaotashan, and in order to ensure his own safety, he arranged the armed agents of the two squadrons he brought with him on the east and west sides of his residence, and to the north were more than 100 armed forces of the Kuomintang diehards, and these three units totaled more than 400 people, only one or two hundred meters away from his residence, and could be reinforced at any time.
To the south was the stronghold of the Japanese puppet army on the Longhai Railway, and Yang Yaoting thought that this deployment was foolproof and that he could sit back and relax.
One night in October 1943, our army selected 2 squads of about 30 able and capable fighters to form a commando team to take advantage of the night to attack Yang Yaoting's residence.
At midnight, our army detachment had reached the outskirts of Little Tower Hill, and by this time most of the enemy was asleep, and only a few of the sentries were listlessly on duty.
Subsequently, according to the plan formulated before the war, our army was divided into three groups, one of which was responsible for the main assault task, and under the leadership of the inner line, bypassed the enemy's guard posts in the village, secretly infiltrated the compound of the landlord's house, and approached Yang Yaoting's residence.
At this time, the squad leader who led the team climbed over the wall and entered the courtyard to reconnoiter, but no one was found!
What's going on?
Our army immediately launched a search, found a man in the grass hut next to it, and after a brief inquiry, he confessed to Yang Yaoting smoking opium in the remote courtyard.
▲ The martial arts team is cooking in the wilderness
Then our army immediately surrounded the courtyard, and then saw from the crack in the door that Yang Yaoting was lying on the kang smoking opium, and our army falsely claimed that it had come to deliver a letter to Yang Yaoting and asked to open the door.
However, Yang Yaoting found that something was wrong, not only did not open the door, but also broke his mouth and scolded, and shot out indiscriminately, trying to attract reinforcements to the nearby enemy.
However, our army rushed into the courtyard first, and continuously threw grenades into the house, forcing Yang Yaoting into a corner of the house, and then holding dry firewood and throwing it into the house and setting it on fire.
When hundreds of enemies around them rushed to reinforcements when they heard the sound of gunshots and explosions, our army had long disappeared into the night, and this battle of only 20 minutes successfully defeated Yang Yaoting, forcing the diehards to stop infiltrating and destroying the Huaibei base area.
Author/Zhou Hongxin