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In the spring of 1938, most of central China fell into the hands of the Japanese Kou, and the hinterland of southern Jiangsu became the military center of the Japanese Kou. The successive defeats of the old Chiang Kai-shek army, in addition to causing a large amount of land to fall, also caused the masses of all walks of life in the vast Jiangnan region to lose confidence in resisting Japan.
He was not optimistic about the future situation and did not think that he could defeat Japan, and the theory of national subjugation prevailed for a while. In addition to the pessimism of emotions and atmosphere, the main thing is the lack of understanding of the anti-Japanese armed forces of the New Fourth Army. In order to boost people's confidence in resisting Japan and to expand the understanding of the masses in Jiangnan about the New Fourth Army, it was decided to send troops into the Jiangnan region to carry out the anti-Japanese struggle.
On April 23, 1938, Chen Yi, then deputy secretary of the Branch of the New Fourth Army and commander of the first detachment, transferred a total of more than 400 people from the reconnaissance companies of the first, second, and third detachments that were being reorganized at the Yan temple in Anhui to form the advance detachment of the New Fourth Army to carry out the strategic reconnaissance task of going deep behind the enemy in Jiangnan and at the same time building up the local people's anti-Japanese confidence.
The advance detachment, commanded by Su Yu, arrived at Tongshan Town on May 14 from The Dive Pass on April 28, 1938, after more than half a month of daytime and nighttime marches. Su Yu led the detachment headquarters to garrison the local enlightened gentleman Ye Wenming.
Ye Wenming, who had served as vice minister of finance of the Republic of China, quit politics because of his dissatisfaction with the large number of factions and open and secret struggles of the Nationalist government, and lived in seclusion in his hometown mansion. After meeting Su Yu and his advance detachment, Ye Wenming agreed with Su Yu's anti-Japanese theory, but believed that the New Fourth Army was poorly equipped and could not fight the Japanese army.
Ye Wenming said bluntly: "As an anti-Japanese propaganda team, your unit is beyond reproach for publicizing the great principle of anti-Japanese resistance, and I also agree with your reasoning. But if you, with just over 400 people, still want to fight the Japanese army, it will not be simple. The millions of troops of the Nationalist Army, still supported by aircraft, artillery, and tanks, suffered disastrous defeats in Shanghai and Nanjing. Your New Fourth Army is really anti-Japanese, but the team has few weapons and poor weapons, isn't this sent to the tiger's mouth? ”
After listening to Ye Wenming's words, Su Yu didn't say much, he knew very well in his heart that this idea was not just Ye Wenming's alone. At that time, the common people in the vast area of Jiangnan were probably all thinking this way, and even some officers and men within the New Fourth Army had negative thoughts about it.
Su Yu knew that in order to re-establish the anti-Japanese confidence of the masses in the Jiangnan region and to establish a revolutionary base area in Jiangnan, the only way to educate the masses was through practical actions. The New Fourth Army must take the initiative to seek a battle with the Japanese army, and demand that the first battle must be won, which can be small but must be victorious, so as to boost the confidence of the victory of the Jiangnan War of Resistance.
At the time when Su Yu frequently sent scouts out to reconnoiter and search for fighters to fight against Japan. On June 11, Su Yu received an order from the commander of the Third Theater to send troops to Nanjing and Zhenjiang to destroy the railway in order to block the enemy in Beijing and Shanghai, and completed it within three days.
The New Fourth Army immediately ordered Su Yu to take the lead in dispatching a detachment and another detachment, a total of four companies, to Zhenjiang and Longtan to destroy this section of the railway and carry out a sabotage operation.
On June 15, the advance detachment braved the rain and marched to Xiashu at 22:00 that night, and immediately launched a sabotage battle. On the one hand, the railway was cut off, and on the other hand, it launched an attack on the enemy's railway station, carried out raiding and harassment operations, and at the same time distributed anti-Japanese leaflets and posted propaganda slogans.
Before dawn on the 16th, the advance detachment successfully completed the task of breaking the attack and withdrew to dongxie village near Xiashu for a hidden rest. The execution of the sabotage operation went smoothly, and at 8:00 a.m. on the 16th, an enemy train derailed and overturned while it reached this section, which greatly shocked and annoyed the Japanese who were running rampant here.
Although the battle was successfully completed, Su Yu was not satisfied and was always thinking about how to expand the results. After considering the comprehensive elements of intelligence, terrain, troop allocation, supply and retreat routes, Su Yu decided to fight an ambush at Weigang, at the junction of Jurong and Dantu counties.
The ambush site chosen by Su Yu was in a hilly area, with winding roads but also a busy line of communication for the enemy, with fifty or sixty cars passing through every day. Su Yu therefore chose a bend caught between two mountains as the ambush site.
As the first battle of the New Fourth Army into Jiangnan, Su Yu adhered to the original idea, not seeking scale but seeking victory, because he knew that the masses here needed a victory too much, and even a victory in a small battle could sweep away the haze of successive defeats hanging over the masses in Jiangnan.
In the early morning of June 17, Su Yu personally led two platoons of fighters, braved the rain from Xiashu, marched to Weigang, and entered the ambush position at the scheduled time.
Su Yu and the soldiers strictly observed the discipline of ambush, braving heavy rain to hide in the position until about 8 a.m. before waiting for the first Japanese truck. Su Yu did not attack the first truck, but let it go, and commanded the fighters to continue to hide on the side of the road, shortening the attack distance.
Just after the fighters entered the predetermined position, a second truck approached, and Su Yu launched an attack under an order. The Japanese Kou truck was shot and overturned, falling on the side of the road, several Japanese Kou desperately fled, Su Yu did not order a pursuit, but continued to hide.
About ten minutes later, a third car came, a small car. The ambush troops attacked simultaneously with machine guns and grenades, and the cars rushed out of control into the ditches on the side of the road. The fighters rushed forward and killed the recalcitrant pilot and the Japanese shosa.
At about 8:30 a.m., the fourth wave of Japanese cars arrived at the ambush section, this time with three trucks. The ambush troops immediately opened fire, destroying the first Japanese truck in the middle of the road, and the second one attempted to cross the ambush section, but was eventually destroyed at the south entrance of the ambush section.
The third truck saw that the first two vehicles were ambushed and stopped directly at the north entrance of the road section, and the Japanese troops carried it got out of the car to return fire and rescue the wounded soldiers. Because the third truck was far away from our army's ambush unit, our army's guns were insufficient to form an effective attack on the Japanese Kou, and the Japanese Kou escaped by car after the rescue was successful.
Su Yu saw that he immediately ordered a light machine gun to seize the heights on the right side of the north entrance and attack the Japanese trucks from a commanding height. The fleeing Japanese were forced to abandon their cars and eventually flee along the ditches along the road. At this time, the battle had been going on for almost half an hour, and Su Yu knew that the support of the nearest Japanese stronghold was about to arrive, so he ordered a rapid retreat to clean up the battlefield.
While cleaning up the battlefield, a Japanese lieutenant hiding under a capsized truck stabbed a passing warrior, who was immediately killed by the rest of the fighters. After that, the warriors burned the trucks and the supplies that could not be taken away, and quickly retreated to Yuanzhuang with the booty, where they joined the main force of the advance detachment.
Just as Su Yu led his troops to withdraw only two kilometers, the Japanese Kou who had rushed from Zhenjiang to reinforce them arrived at the ambush position just now, with dozens of trucks fully loaded with Japanese Kou and covered by tanks and planes.
However, at this time, the ambush troops had retreated safely, and the enemy, after a heavy bombardment of our ambush positions, found that he had pounced on an empty space, and the angry Japanese troops only left in sorrow after burning the surrounding villages.
In order to expand his influence, Su Yu displayed the Japanese national flag, military flag, Japanese command knife, army coat, steel helmet, gun and other trophies captured in the battle in an ancestral hall, attracting villagers from dozens of miles around to visit.
Although the scale of this battle was small, it greatly boosted the confidence of the local masses, and the news of the victory soon spread throughout the Jiangnan region, and the battle results were also exaggerated and exaggerated in word of mouth, and when the Shanghai Concession reported on this battle, there was already a record of "annihilating more than three hundred enemy troops."
In this ambush, our army actually annihilated 13 enemy personnel, including a young sada and a lieutenant, wounded seven or eight enemy soldiers, captured more than ten rifles, more than 7,000 yuan in Japanese banknotes, and four truckloads of military supplies. Not a single one of us was killed, only a few were slightly injured.
After winning the first victory, Su Yu improvised a poem: "The newly organized Fourth Army, first dispatched out of Jiangnan." Wei Gang chopped the doi, and the debut singer Kai also returned. (Doi, japanese soldier who was killed)"
After chen yi learned that the advance detachment had won the first battle, he hurried to the garrison of the advance detachment, just in time for the masses from all over the country to come to visit the booty, and also happily wrote a poem: "When the flag of the old country went to Jiangnan, it was noisy and frightening all night long. Zhenjiang City was first encountered, and he cut off Xiao Loulan. ”
This is an ambush battle in which the significance of victory is far greater than the number of annihilated enemies; the advance detachment of the New Fourth Army has demonstrated to the broad masses in the Jiangnan region the combat effectiveness of our army by virtue of its victory in the ambush battle, telling the masses that it is not terrible for the Japanese army to gain an advantage for the time being, that the New Fourth Army can completely win the battle behind enemy lines, and that as long as we persist in resisting, we will certainly win the final victory. Since then, the New Fourth Army's anti-japanese war work in the Jiangnan area has been in full swing.
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