At the front line of Yuhua's offensive, the troops held a "Zhuge Liang meeting" while resting to study the offensive plan: The Yuhua Japanese bunker adopted a reinforced concrete structure, which could not be destroyed by machine guns, rifles, and a single grenade, and only cluster grenades could work, and how could cluster grenades be thrown into the bunkers?
In response to the question raised, some people said that since the enemy can release tear gas, why can't we also put a "smoke screen bomb" to blindfold them and make the devil's machine gun ineffective? Inspired by this, after much deliberation, the leaders of the troops decided to use fire attacks: burn the barbed wire fence and deer blocks of the enemy's perimeter obstacles and sweep away the obstacles leading to the bunkers; use smoke to cover the enemy's line of sight; wrap cotton wool around bamboo skewers or grenade handles and pour fire oil, so that wherever bamboo sticks and grenades are thrown, the fire can burn wherever they are thrown.
Then there was the proposal to use "earth tanks", that is, to cover the square table with a quilt wet with water to make it difficult for enemy bullets to penetrate, and then put the square table on the wheelbarrow, and the commandos carrying the cluster grenades could push the wheelbarrow and advance with the square table above their heads. The command also absorbed this proposal and arranged for personnel to prepare immediately.
By the time all the preparations were ready, it was late at night. At this time, the attack on the stronghold of Dazhongji was fiercely underway, with the four regiments and one battalion and the special agent company attacking from the north gate and the east gate, and the sixth regiment and one battalion attacking from the south gate, respectively, eliminating the puppet army on the periphery, leaving only the Japanese stronghold that had not yet been captured, but it was enough to ensure that there was no worries in the Yuhua offensive battle.
In the early morning of the 17th, Liu Beisheng, the commander of the Fourth Regiment, issued a general attack order against Yuhua, and the signal bomb took off. Bamboo skewers and grenades with cotton wool and kerosene quickly flew towards the enemy fort, and in an instant, the deer and houses within the base area were on fire, and in the face of the sea of smoke and fire, the Japanese troops in the fort panicked.
In addition to the main bunker, the Japanese army also built a bunker, and xu Desheng, the commander of the three platoons, rushed to the bunker with a "dirt tank", and after approaching the bunker, he resolutely pulled out nine grenades tied to his body and blew up the bunker. At the same time, six warriors rushed to the main fort with three "earth tanks", and during the charge, two "earth tanks" were destroyed, four people after the "earth tank" were killed, and the remaining two people rushed to the front of the main fort with the last "earth tank". One after the other, they all sounded the cluster grenades tied to their bodies like Xu Desheng, the former exploding the gate of the main fort, and the latter taking the opportunity to enter the enemy fort and die with the enemy.
In the loud noise, the Japanese machine guns also became dumb, and the large troops rushed to the enemy fort in the shouts of death, and the Japanese troops who had not been killed in the fort rushed out with a howl and engaged in a white-knife battle with the New Fourth Army, after which they were all stabbed to the ground.
When cleaning up the battlefield, the front of the main fort was already full of Japanese corpses with horizontal and vertical and blurred flesh and blood. Liu Beisheng ordered that the enemy corpses be cleared one by one, and as a result, five Japanese soldiers who were not dead were found, two of whom were seriously injured, two of whom were slightly injured, and one of whom was purely pretending to be dead. After the five people were found, they all died and refused to surrender, kicking and biting while shouting, and in desperation, everyone had to tie them to the door panel and carry them away.
The Battle of Yuhua (including aid and attack on Dazhongji) was the most arduous offensive battle fought by the New Fourth Army since it came to northern Jiangsu from southern Jiangsu, and it was also the largest offensive battle fought by the New Fourth Army in northern Jiangsu this year. In this battle, not counting the puppet army, a total of more than sixty Japanese troops were destroyed, seven were taken prisoner, and three heavy machine guns, eight light machine guns, four grenadiers, more than 400 rifles and short guns, more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition, and one wheel and one tugboat were captured. Regardless of the number of enemy troops annihilated or captured, or the number of weapons captured, as far as the anti-Japanese battlefield in northern Jiangsu was concerned, it was a very remarkable achievement, and Chen Yi was very happy after hearing the report, and specially sent a commendation telegram to the troops.
The removal of the Yuhua enemy stronghold not only reunited the two major base areas in northern Jiangsu and central Jiangsu, but also formed a deterrent to the enemy in Yancheng. Yancheng was the enemy's central occupation area, and Nanpu had to withdraw the troops of the "sweeping" Suzhong to the north to maintain the garrison of Yancheng.
In late August 1941, the Japanese army's summer "sweep" of northern Jiangsu and central Jiangsu came to an end, and the Japanese puppet army gradually withdrew to the original defense, but because the water network area in northern Jiangsu had been controlled by the enemy, the New Fourth Army headquarters was often in a guerrilla state, and there was no stable base area for cover, so the activities of the New Fourth Army in northern Jiangsu were still very difficult, and the environment was getting worse and worse.
The Battle of Yuhua of the New Fourth Army (4) was serialized and ended.