During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, such a peculiar battle was staged: When the Japanese puppet army launched a large-scale sweep of the base area of the New Fourth Army, a unit of the New Fourth Army (the actual strength of only two battalions) took advantage of the emptiness in the enemy's rear, rushed forward lightly, directly attacked the base camp of the Japanese puppet army in northern Jiangsu, seized a number of warhorses without any casualties, and fought a beautiful rushing battle. Its significance lies in the fact that the New Fourth Army dispatched only two battalions and defeated the great sweep carried out by more than 30,000 Japanese puppet troops.
In the autumn of 1942, the Japanese puppet army gathered more than 30,000 people and swept away the Huaihai region and Siyang and Huaiyin in the Huaibei and Surabaya regions. The units of the Second, Third, and Fourth Divisions of the New Fourth Army fought against the Japanese puppet army, respectively.
On the evening of October 18, Zhu Ping'an, commander of the second battalion of the 14th Regiment of the 5th Brigade of the Second Division of the New Fourth Army, and Zhang Wanhe, instructor, received instructions from their superiors: immediately gather and assemble the troops and go to the regimental headquarters to receive the task.
When Zhu and Zhang arrived at the regimental headquarters, the regimental commander was studying the situation facing the map. Regiment commander Song Wen and political commissar Hu Wei inquired about the combat operations of the second battalion in the past two days and instructed: The enemy's "sweeping" is still very crazy; in addition to actively attacking the enemy in the base area, our army has decided that the second battalion will leave one company to accompany the regimental headquarters (it is immediately determined that four companies will be left behind), and the other two battalions and battalion headquarters will be led by Deputy Regiment Commander Li Shi'an, taking advantage of the emptiness in the enemy's rear to attack Huaiyin City, the base camp of the Japanese army in northern Jiangsu.
When Zhu Ping'an asked which point to fight specifically, Song and Hu said: It will be determined by the second battalion after reconnaissance. The troops should act secretly and quickly, create some momentum, and beat him to jump the wall to shock the enemy and force the enemy of "sweeping" to retreat.
After the task was determined, Li Shi'an rushed back to the battalion headquarters at 2 o'clock on the 19th, along with Zhu Ping'an and Zhang Wanhe. Zhu Ping'an sent Jiang Zongsheng, the leader of the reconnaissance squad, to immediately set off to Xiaozhangzhuang, three or four miles south of Huaiyin Chengguan, to contact Zhang Bingyu, an underground intelligence officer, and do everything possible to find out the enemy's situation, terrain, and roads.
Subsequently, a meeting of the cadres of each company was held, the instructions of the head of the regiment were transmitted, and the preparations for combat operations were studied and deployed. The crowd was in a very excited mood and mood, and Zhang Xi, commander of the Sixth Company, said excitedly: "The enemy has swept through the base areas, and we will raid their old nests..."
At dusk on the 19th, the troops set off lightly and rushed towards Huaiyin Chengguan at a speed of more than ten miles per hour. Arriving at Xiaozhangzhuang at 11:00 p.m., scouts and intelligence officers were waiting for the troops on the side of the road at the head of the village. It turned out that our biggest worry was that we were afraid that we would not be able to find the intelligence officer and would not be able to understand the situation, and now a stone in our hearts had fallen to the ground.
At this time, the scouts and intelligence officers had ascertained that most of the enemy in Huaiyin City had set out, and that a cavalry squadron of the Japanese puppet army had just withdrawn from the field today and was stationed in the stronghold of Chengguan Ten Mile Long Street. The enemy's strongholds were polder trenches, barbed wire and bunkers, with a large artillery tower in the middle. The enemy stables were on the outside of the trenches, with seventy or eighty military horses and a barbed wire fence outside the stables.
After listening to the situation report and the opinions of everyone, Deputy Regiment Commander Li Shi'an immediately decided to attack the enemy's stronghold and concentrate his forces on seizing the enemy's warhorses. It is necessary for six companies to concentrate their firepower on blocking the enemy's shortcut gate and front to prevent the enemy from attacking, and the main force of the company to break into the stables and seize the horse, and the fifth company to use a platoon to carry out a feint attack on the enemy's stronghold from the flank and rear to attract and contain the enemy, and the main force of the company is ready to block the enemy's possible reinforcements. After the six companies started, the five companies fought again, and it was necessary to make a quick decision. After the task was clear, the troops were briefly mobilized and explained, and immediately advanced to the enemy's stronghold.
Led by intelligence officers and scouts, the troops marched silently along trails and alleys. At about 1 o'clock on the 20th, before touching the enemy's stronghold uniform, the six companies rushed to the enemy stables with rapid movements. Before the several puppet soldiers guarding the stables could figure out what was going on, they captured one alive and stabbed one to death, and two of them dropped their guns and fled desperately to the stronghold.
The sentries of the stronghold noticed that there was a situation and immediately opened fire on the New Fourth Army, and the enemy who lived in the turret and the room woke up from his sleep and hurriedly concentrated a multi-platoon of troops and rushed in the direction of the stables. After heavy fire from the New Fourth Army, the enemy was killed and wounded, and the rest quickly retracted into the turret.
At the same time, the troops of the Fifth Company also shot and dropped bombs at the enemy from behind the flanks, attracting and containing the enemy. The enemy did not dare to go out of the artillery tower again, but only blindly shot at the New Fourth Army.
After liulian rushed into the stables, under the illumination of flashlights, two rows of ocean horses were displayed in front of them. The warriors were so excited that some said, "Alas, I have never seen so many ocean horses since I was born." Dozens of warriors rushed into the stables at once.
Stimulated by the bright light of the flashlight, the Yanmar looked panicked, roaring and hoofing. The warriors began to untie the reins, untie one horse and pull out one horse. Some of them were unraveled, and because there were horses blocked on the left and right, they couldn't pull out. The sixth company shouted, "Hurry up and cut off the horse rope!" ”
After the rope was cut in several places, the front led the horse out, and the horse in the back also rushed out in panic, and all the horses quickly rushed out of the stable.
Due to the fierce gunfire outside, a group of horses huddled together, crowding, jumping, kicking, and the horses that had lost their reins ran everywhere along the ten mile long street. Some of the warriors had little strength, and the horses in their hands were also broken away and fled. Suddenly, the sound of gunshots, cannons, grenades, the roar of horses, and the sound of running horses' hooves played a beautiful and chaotic symphony.
Most of the enemy in Huaiyin City went out, but there were not many enemies left in the city, and they could not understand the situation, so they never dared to come out to reinforce, but only blindly fired guns and artillery to strengthen their own courage.
The New Fourth Army successfully completed the task of raiding the enemy and seizing warhorses, and successfully withdrew from Huaiyin Chengguan at 3 o'clock on the 20th. In the battle, except for the wounded intelligence officer Zhang Bingyu, the troops did not suffer any casualties.
After the New Fourth Army withdrew from Chengguan, the enemy was still shooting blindly, and the soldiers said humorously: "The enemy is still sending us farewell!" ”
With the joy of victory, the troops rode the captured 36 high-headed horses, marched more than 40 miles, and returned to the Huaisi base area at 7 o'clock on the 20th. The people in the settlement were elated and warmly welcomed the troops, and the people surrounded the dayang horse and said, "Our troops are really gods, and they can go to Huaiyin City to lead the devil's horse!" "The little devil just knew to come out and 'sweep up', he didn't know that our troops would raid his home!"
The news of the victory in the night attack on Huaiyin spread rapidly, inspiring the vast number of soldiers and civilians in the Huaisi area and shocking the enemy. The enemy who "swept" the base area of the New Fourth Army was forced to withdraw to Huaiyin and Siyang on October 22. The great sweep carried out by more than 30,000 Japanese puppet troops was thus destroyed by the ice of the two battalions of the New Fourth Army.