In the spring of 1940, the situation of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression took place throughout the country. At this time, the Japanese army was caught in the quagmire of the Chinese battlefield and could not do much, so it stopped attacking the Kuomintang army and adopted a policy of enticing the enemy. The Japanese also supported Wang Jingwei in Nanjing to establish a puppet regime and made overtures to Chiang Kai-shek, who freed up his hands to deal with the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army led by the Communist Party of China.
The Kuomintang diehards put the center of friction in central China, and Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered the troops of the Third Theater, the Fifth Theater, and the Lusu Theater to launch a large-scale attack on the New Fourth Army in Central China. In June 1940, in order to oppose the attack of the Kuomintang diehards and develop the anti-Japanese forces, Chen Yi and Su Yu led three columns and nine regiments with a total strength of more than 7,000 troops into northern Jiangsu, and established the New Fourth Army's Northern Jiangsu Headquarters.
At that time, the situation in northern Jiangsu was very complicated, all towns and important places were controlled by the Japanese army, and Han Deqin, deputy commander of the Kuomintang Sulu Theater and chairman of Jiangsu Province, had more than 100,000 troops and controlled the vast rural areas and some towns. Han Deloitte graduated from the Baoding Military Academy and was a confidant of Gu Zhutong, commander of the Third Theater of operations of the Kuomintang Army, who commanded 160,000 troops, of whom 80,000 were of the concubine lineage, and the rest were li Mingyang, Li Changjiang, and Chen Taiyun of the Taxation Police Corps.
Han Deqin not only did not resist Japan behind enemy lines, but also suppressed the patriotic movement and destroyed the anti-Japanese forces. In the spring of 1939, Han Deqin commanded troops to suddenly besiege the Independent Third Regiment of the Eighth Route Army in Donghai County, killing and wounding hundreds of people below the regimental commander, and also attacking the Eighth Route Army and the Anti-Japanese guerrillas behind enemy lines of the New Fourth Army with the coordination of the Japanese.
After the New Fourth Army reached the Yellow Bridge, it advanced towards the Yellow Bridge area. Huangqiao is located in the center of Taixing, Taixian, Rugao and other counties, with Huangqiao as the center to establish a base area, the east can pass nantong, Haimen, and the north can be connected with the Eighth Route Army. Moreover, several counties near Huangqiao are rich in products and densely populated, which is very favorable to the development of the Anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines of the New Fourth Army.
Han Deloitte did not welcome the arrival of the New Fourth Army, and before the New Fourth Army had reached northern Jiangsu, Han Deloitte dispatched troops and sent troops to kill them with great momentum. In order to cooperate with Chen Yi and Su Yu to open up the situation in the anti-Japanese base areas in northern Jiangsu, the Central Military Commission ordered the Fifth Column of the Eighth Route Army to march east into the Huaihai area and jointly resist Han Deloitte's troops with the new Fourth Army troops led by Chen Yi and Su Yu.
The Fifth Column of the Eighth Route Army had jurisdiction over 20,000 people, and Huang Kecheng was also the commander and political commissar, which was much stronger than the Northern Jiangsu Headquarters of the New Fourth Army led by Chen Yi and Su Yu at that time, both in terms of strength and strength. Without the support of the Fifth Column of the Eighth Route Army, the Jiangbei Headquarters of the New Fourth Army would have a hard time winning the battle against Han Deloitte's army of more than 100,000 troops, but Su Yu did not intend to arrive reinforcements, but was ready to preemptively launch an attack on Han Deloitte's department.
Chen Yi and Su Yu analyzed Han Deloitte's troops and found that although their troops were many, claiming to be 160,000 people, there were many factions, and the contradictions between the various units were very deep, and it was difficult to form a joint force. The army of Han Deloitte's department consisted of three important parts, one part was Han Deloitte's concubines, namely the 89th Army, the Independent 6th Brigade, and the Jiangsu Provincial Standing 1st to 10th Security Brigade; the second part was the Sulu-Anhui Border Guerrilla Army, which had the first eleventh column under its jurisdiction, totaling 30,000 people, with Li Mingyang as the commander of the guerrilla army and Li Changjiang as the deputy commander-in-chief, and they belonged to the local power faction; and the third part was the guerrilla Eighth Army reorganized from the Taxation Police Corps of the Kuomintang Ministry of Finance, commanded by Chen Taiyun, and this unit was nominally under the command of Li Mingyang and Li Changjiang But it was the power of the Ministry of Finance Song Ziwen, Li Mingyang, and Li Changjiang who could not command this force at all.
The relationship between Li Mingyang, Li Changjiang, Chen Taiyun and Han Deloitte was not very good, and Han Deloitte often used his special relationship with Gu Zhutong to exclude Li Mingyang, Li Changjiang, Chen Taiyun and others, and also tried to annex their troops. After the New Fourth Army advanced into northern Jiangsu, Chen Yi and Su Yu first made contact with Li Mingyang, Li Changjiang, Chen Taiyun and others, and under the combination of soft and hard, the second Li yichen chose neutrality and said that they would not help Han Deloitte to attack the New Fourth Army.
Despite this, Han Deloitte still had a crowd of 100,000 people, strong and strong, far more than the New Fourth Army in northern Jiangsu, Chairman Mao and Liu Shaoqi were very anxious and worried, planning to let Huang Kecheng's 20,000 Eighth Route Army go south to reinforce, and together with Chen Yi and Su Yu, they worked together to solve Han Deloitte's stubborn army, and Chairman Mao also issued a telegram warning Han Deloitte: "Han (Han Deqin) will not attack Chen (Chen Yi), Huang (Huang Kecheng) will not attack Korea; if Han attacks Chen, Huang will attack Han." ”
However, Su Yu was bold and unwilling to rely too much on the Eighth Route Army, which came from afar, and decided to fight alone, independently of Han Deloitte, who had a large number of generals and several times his own. On August 21, 1940, Han Deloitte secretly issued a combat order to attack Huangqiao on the left and right flanks, and he also appointed Li Mingyang as the commander-in-chief of the Advancing Suppression Army, and Li Changjiang as the deputy commander-in-chief and commander of the Right Wing Advancing Suppression Army. Su Yu carefully analyzed the enemy's two lines of men and horses, and found that the right flank was Li Changjiang, Li Mingyang's troops, the left wing was Han Deloitte's main force of seven regiments, and Li Mingyang and Li Changjiang also abided by the previous agreement, moved slowly, and did not really come to attack the New Fourth Army.
Chen Yi and Su Yu, considering the impact on the overall situation of the national War of Resistance, decided not to fire the first shot, shrink the strength and retreat, Han Deloitte's left wing troops thought that the New Fourth Army was afraid of the battle, and began to drive straight in, and the 1st Security Brigade, the 117th Division and other units made rapid progress. Su Yu immediately ordered his troops to counterattack, ordering Ye Fei to lead the first column to crush two regiments of the First Security Brigade, capturing hundreds of people alive, and the 117th Division saw that the situation was not good and hurriedly retreated.
Su Yu also ordered the release of hundreds of Kuomintang officers and men of the First Security Brigade, and the commander of the 1st Security Brigade was very grateful and remained neutral in the decisive battle that followed. Han Deqin saw that the New Fourth Army was strong in combat, so he ordered his main force to withdraw and forced Li Mingyang, Li Changjiang, and Chen Taiyun's troops to go. Han Deloitte also sent six regiments to occupy Jiangyan, which was the grain distribution center of the New Fourth Army, in a vain attempt to cut off the logistics supply of the New Fourth Army.
Su Yu took the method of attacking the west from the east, sending a column east into the coast, Suchao and other places, forcing Han Deloitte to draw reinforcements from Jiangyan, Han Deloitte was really deceived, and drew four regiments to reinforce, Su Yu immediately ordered Wang Bicheng and Tao Yong to lead two columns to attack Rugao, Ye Fei's column was responsible for reinforcements, and it took only one day and night to take Rugao and annihilate thousands of enemy two regiments.
Han Deloitte, who had been defeated repeatedly, not only did not learn a lesson, but also mobilized more than 30,000 troops from 26 regiments and killed them in three ways, in an attempt to win or lose a battle with absolute superiority in manpower. Among Han Deloitte's three roads, the middle road is the main force, the right road is the two Li Yichen's troops, and the left road is the first security brigade and five other security brigades.
Chen Yi, Su Yu commanded the entire force of only 7,000 people, can carry out combat tasks of only 5,000 soldiers, and Han Deloitte's road is not dominant, at that time the central government still asked the New Fourth Army Northern Jiangsu Command to avoid a decisive battle with Han Deloitte and wait for Huang Kecheng reinforcements, but Chen Yi, Su Yu decided to fight a battle against the water and completely crush Han Deloitte.
After analyzing several of Han Deloitte's main forces, Su Yu decided to attack Onda's independent Sixth Brigade first, and Onda's independent Sixth Brigade was the main force of Han Deloitte's concubines, with more than 3,000 officers in the brigade, all of whom were military academy graduates, soldiers equipped with the same official 79 rifles, and each infantry company was equipped with nine Czech-style light machine guns, known as "Mei Lanfang's troops." Brigade Commander Weng Da graduated from the Huangpu Ivy, and was a classmate of Zhang Lingfu, Hu Lian and others, and had certain military talents.
On October 3, 1940, after several consecutive days of heavy rain, Han Deloitte's general offensive began. Su Yu ordered Ye Fei's first column, Wang Bicheng's second column to take the main offensive task of this operation, and Tao Yong's third column to take charge of the operation's blockade and enticing of the enemy. Both Han Deqin and Onda thought that Su Yu's troops were insufficient and should be pinched with a soft persimmon, but neither of them thought that Su Yu had set his sights on Onda's troops at the beginning.
Onda was very confident in his own strength, and put the entire independent Sixth Brigade in a long snake formation, the distance between soldiers and soldiers averaged one and a half meters, and the whole brigade of more than 3,000 people lined up for four or five kilometers. Su Yu was very happy after seeing it, and after all of Onda's troops entered the ambush area of a column, Su Yu immediately ordered his troops to attack. Ye Fei, who had been waiting for a long time, led an arson to attack quickly, divided into four ways into Onda's marching column, divided it into several sections, first destroyed the brigade headquarters and the rear guard regiment, forced his vanguard regiment to return to reinforcements, the battle was clean and clean, only three hours, Onda's independent sixth brigade was completely destroyed, and Lieutenant General Onda was ashamed and shot himself.
After Onda's independent Sixth Brigade was completely annihilated, Su Yu ordered the first column and the second column to encircle the 33rd Division of the 89th Army that was attacking Huangqiao, and after Ye Fei's first column and Wang Bicheng's second column arrived, Tao Yong's third column, which was responsible for blocking the attack at Huangqiao, also began to launch a counterattack, and in just one day, the headquarters of the 89th Army and the two divisions under it were surrounded and annihilated, and Lieutenant General Li Shouwei, commander of the 89th Army, was killed when he crossed the river to escape.
At this time, Su Yu had not slept well for a week, but he still did not relax, commanding the troops to capture Hai'an in one fell swoop, and Han Deqin fled back to Xinghua with more than a thousand people. In this battle, the New Fourth Army annihilated 11,000 enemy and captured 3,800 people, the number of enemies annihilated exceeded the total number of troops participating in the battle of the New Fourth Army, and the number of captured enemies accounted for more than half of the new Fourth Army's combat troops. Wang Bicheng, who later became a founding lieutenant general, said admirably: "Commander Su was so handy in organizing and directing operations. ”