Wang Bicheng, commander of the Second Brigade of the First Division, and others decided to surround and annihilate the enemy of Yuhua after study. Yuhua is a small town with less than 1,000 people, but because it is located in the north-south traffic line along the coast, the geographical location is very important, after the enemy occupied Yuhua, through this place cut off the traffic of the two major base areas of northern Jiangsu and central Jiangsu in the coast, Yuhua Town also became a nail for the enemy to penetrate deep into the anti-Japanese base area.
Around the Yuhua stronghold, except for dazhongji and Xinfeng town, which are fifteen miles to the west, which have Japanese and pseudo-strongholds, the rest are anti-Japanese base areas, which is convenient for the New Fourth Army to concentrate its forces. In order to be able to completely annihilate Yuhua and defend the enemy, the "Wang Tiger" also gave everything he had this time, and threw all the men and horses of the Second Brigade into it. On August 15, 1941, the participating units set out from dozens of miles away, entered the position at a rapid marching speed, and completed the encirclement of the enemy stronghold of Yuhua at midnight.
The main body of the Yuhua enemy stronghold was the Japanese bunker, which had a deep-water pond to the south, open land to the east and north that were not conducive to attack, the northwest side to the puppet army stronghold, and the meridian river to the west. The four regiments responsible for attacking the enemy stronghold of Yuhua were the core main force of the Second Brigade, also known as the "Old Second Regiment", which chose to cross the Meridian River from the west to encircle the puppet army, and then conquered the puppet army stronghold in less than an hour. The puppet army stronghold was only a few tens of meters away from the Japanese bunker, and after being controlled by the New Fourth Army, it became the forward position for the Japanese bunker.
Although Wang Bicheng was wounded in the leg and it was not very convenient to walk, he personally went to the front of the position to observe the terrain before the war in accordance with the habit of many years. When the Japanese army built the bunker, the villages near the bunker were all burned, and in addition to the ditches and ponds around the bunker, it was open land, and it was not easy to approach the bunker, and if the New Fourth Army charged at a long distance, it was bound to cause great casualties. In response to this problem, the former enemy headquarters headed by Wang Bicheng decided to excavate a snake-shaped passage and approach the bunker through the snake-shaped passage.
When the serpentine passage was dug, it was dawn the next day, and the command ordered all the fire to be concentrated to suppress the enemy. Under the cover of fire, the commandos jumped out of the trenches in the southwest dam mouth and the northeast at the same time, launched an attack on the enemy through the serpentine passage, and soon broke through the enemy's first line of defense and rushed to the periphery of the barbed wire. When the enemy saw that the situation was not good, he immediately threw tear gas, because he did not know in advance that the enemy was poisonous, the four regiments were not prepared for it, many people were poisoned, and the attack was also frustrated.
Even if the enemy does not have poisonous gas and has a snake-shaped passage to use, the casualties of the attack during the day will not be small. At the same time, according to reports from reconnaissance and intelligence personnel, the enemies in Dongtai and Yancheng were abnormally active, and if the enemies of Yuhua were not quickly resolved, the troops participating in the battle might be besieged by Japanese puppet troops from several directions. After study, the command made a readjustment of the offensive plan and decided to launch a general offensive on the same day, that is, on the evening of the 16th.
The Battle of Yuhua of the New Fourth Army (2) is serialized, to be continued.......