At the beginning of 1945, the world anti-fascist battlefield was frequently reported, germany was at a disadvantage in the European battlefield, and the defeat was decided. Under the continuous blows of the United States and Britain, Japan was gradually defeated and retreated in the Pacific Theater and fell into difficulties. The army and people of the anti-Japanese base areas under the leadership of the Communist Party of China began an all-out counteroffensive and won a series of victories.
At the beginning of this year, Chairman Mao gave Su Yu a new heavy task, that is, to let him lead his troops across the Yangtze River south and sail to the enemy rear areas along the southeast coast, striving to control Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi and other provinces. In January of that year, Chairman Mao sent a telegram to the New Fourth Army: "Establish the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region, with Su Yu as commander and Tan Zhenglin as the political commissar, to unify the command of the New Fourth Army troops in southern Jiangsu and the whole of Zhejiang." Later, two generals, Ye Fei and Zhong Qiguang, went south in April and became deputy commanders and directors of the political department of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region.
In January 1945, Su Yu led three regiments of the First Division of the New Fourth Army across the Yangtze River into southern Jiangsu, and the 16th Brigade Division of Wang Bicheng, who had arrived earlier, met in the Changxing area of Zhejiang. After Su Yu led his troops to advance smoothly into Jiangnan, he reorganized the troops in Jiangnan into four columns, and the reason why he chose the number of the column was so that his opponents could not understand the reality and did not know how much the strength of the New Fourth Army was.
In fact, at that time, each column of the New Fourth Army's Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region was equivalent to a brigade, while the detachment was equivalent to the size of a regiment. The 16th Brigade of the First Division of the New Fourth Army was reorganized into the First Column, with three detachments under its command, with Wang Bicheng as commander and Jiang Weiqing as political commissar; the eastern Zhejiang guerrilla column as the second column, He Kexi as the commander, and Tan Qilong as the political commissar; the first batch of troops going south in central Jiangsu as the third column, commander Tao Yong and political commissar Ruan Yingping; and the second batch of troops going south in central Jiangsu as the fourth column, commander Liao Zhengguo, and political commissar Wei Yiping.
The scope of activities of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region includes southern Jiangsu, western Zhejiang, eastern Zhejiang and other regions. The situation of the Soviet-Zhejiang Military Region was very complicated, the Japanese puppet army controlled Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhu and other major cities, and the Kuomintang Third Theater occupied the Tianmu Mountain area northwest of Hangzhou, not attacking the Japanese puppet army, but frequently launching attacks on the New Fourth Army troops who had just arrived in southern Jiangsu.
The scope of activity of the Kuomintang Third Theater was southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces, but in the autumn of 1944, in order to ensure the safety of Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other major cities, preventing US troops from landing from Zhejiang and Fujian, the Japanese army occupied Fuzhou, Wenzhou and other places, and controlled Zhejiang, Fujian and other coastal areas. In the face of the Japanese attack, the Third Theater of the Kuomintang Army retreated without a fight and gave up a large area of territory.
The Kuomintang Third Theater of Operations has jurisdiction over four group armies, 22 infantry divisions, 2 infantry brigades, guerrilla columns, and security brigades, with a total strength of no less than 300,000 troops. According to the organization of the National Revolutionary Army at that time, the New Fourth Army also belonged to the jurisdiction of the Third Theater, but the Third Theater always wanted to eliminate the New Fourth Army, and also created the "Anhui South Incident" in early 1941, resulting in the arrest of Ye Ting, the commander of the New Fourth Army, and the death of the deputy commander.
After Su Yu led the troops to Jiangnan, Gu Zhutong, commander of the Third Theater, regarded this unit as a fish that slipped through the net of the "Anhui Southern Incident" and wanted to get rid of it quickly. Gu Zhutong ordered Tao Guang, deputy commander-in-chief of the Advancing Army in the Zhejiang-Suzhou-Anhui Border Region, to be the commander-in-chief of the front line and prepare to launch an attack on the New Fourth Army. Tao Guang graduated from the Jiangnan Lecture Hall in Nanjing in his early years, and after graduation, he served as a staff officer under Cai Yi, and was already a regimental commander during the Northern Expedition, and he had certain military talents. Unfortunately, the opponent he faced this time was Su Yu!
As soon as Su Yu entered the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, he had already found out the situation and learned about the movements of the Kuomintang army from secret channels, so he ordered the commander of the first column, Wang Bicheng, to divide into three routes and enter the Moganshan area on February 10, 1945, with the seventh detachment of Tao Yong's third column responsible for cover, at this time Su Yu only had two columns (brigades) under him.
On 12 February, Tao Guang assembled five regiments at once and launched an attack on the seventh detachment of the Third Column of the New Fourth Army at Xiaofeng. The Nationalist army had an absolute superiority in strength, believing that the battle could be resolved in two days. However, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang army took the initiative to take the initiative and lost politically, and the seventh detachment of the New Fourth Army, which encountered the attack, justifiably launched a counter-offensive against the Kuomintang army and blocked Tao Guang's troops.
Su Yu then transferred Wang Bicheng's main column, the other two detachments of Tao Yong's third column, to encircle the enemy, and Tao Guang's 62nd Division was quickly defeated, and a regimental commander was captured. In less than a week, the New Fourth Army annihilated more than 17,000 Kuomintang troops and captured a large number of Thomson submachine guns, carbines and other American weapons, which made the officers and men of the New Fourth Army very happy.
In fact, the achievements of the New Fourth Army could be further expanded, but Su Yu considered that after all, it was during the War of Resistance Against Japan and should be unanimously external, so he did not pursue the Kuomintang army in a fierce pursuit. After the war, Su Yu left behind the captured weapons, but released the prisoners, and also wrote a letter in his own handwriting for the prisoners to bring back, saying:
"The lowly post led the division to the south to resist the Japanese, and there is a shortage of weapons and ammunition, so thank you for the generosity of the commander." If you wish to send it again, I will not refuse to come!
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Su Yu's letter blew Gu Zhu up, and immediately asked Tao Guang to mobilize 12 regiments, divide the troops into four roads, and besiege Su Yu, who had only six regiments. At this time, the main force of the Kuomintang army was the 52nd Division, which was a member of the Central Army, semi-American armament, and was also the "vanguard" in the anhui incident. Su Yu's tactics were "it is better to break one finger than to injure his ten fingers", and decided to use a small number of troops to contain other units, only hitting one regiment of the 52nd Division and the 192nd Division on the left side.
On March 3, Tao Guang commanded the Kuomintang army to continue to kill Xiaofeng City, which was held by the New Fourth Army, and although the number of troops of the New Fourth Army garrisoned head-on was small, they fought bravely and firmly attracted the main force of the Kuomintang army under the city.
On March 7, the main forces of the first column and the third column arrived, su Yu immediately ordered an attack on the frontal Kuomintang army, and the kuomintang "Loyal National Salvation Army" on the left road saw that the situation was not right, and immediately abandoned the friendly and neighboring troops and withdrew. The 156th Division of the Nationalist 52nd Division was immediately surrounded by the New Fourth Army, and Su Yu took only a few hours to knock out the regiment, and the regimental commander was killed.
The other three roads were afraid of being ambushed by the New Fourth Army, and retreated one after another, Su Yu ordered the troops to pursue, occupying Tianmu Mountain in one fell swoop, annihilating more than 1,700 people and capturing a large number of American weapons. What made Gu Zhutong even more uncomfortable was that at that time, several officers of the US advisory group were in Tianmu Mountain, and when they learned that the Kuomintang army was holding weapons aided by the United States, and that they were not going to fight the Japanese, or to fight the New Fourth Army, they immediately reported to their superiors, which made the Kuomintang side very passive. Gu Zhu was in the same breath and removed Tao Guang from his post to investigate.