January 1942 was the most arduous period for the New Fourth Army to persist in the War of Resistance behind enemy lines in Central China.
On the afternoon of January 5, Zhang Yunyi, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army (who became the founding general in 1955), was gathering cadres and soldiers at the garrison of the guard company and decided to start a strange battle.
It turned out that not long ago, the Japanese puppet army frantically launched a "clearing of the countryside" and "sweeping up" and snatched away more than a dozen cultivated cattle from the homes of the common people in the Tangjiawa area.
According to reconnaissance, these Japanese troops took the cattle in preparation for slaughtering them, and then made beef into canned food for the Japanese army.
Seeing that spring production is about to begin, what about the few cattle in the field of live farming? For a while, the villagers were worried and went to the New Fourth Army one after another to demand that they defeat the enemy for them.
Zhang Yunyi was indignant when he learned of this incident, and he said to all the commanders and fighters: "We are the people's army, not only for the sake of the long-term interests of the people, but also for the sake of the immediate interests of the people, and to share their worries and difficulties in a timely manner." The enemy has taken away all the cattle of the common people, and tonight we will take all the cattle back! ”
He continued: "This is a strange battle that we have never fought before, the goal of the battle is not to kill the enemy, but to retake the cattle of the people, but we must not take it lightly, we must make careful arrangements!" ”
The team was about to leave, and Chen Yuan, director of the township peasant association, came, and when he saw that Zhang Yunyi was also preparing to participate in the operation, he couldn't help but be surprised: "Deputy Commander Zhang, this is not an important battle, it is just a small battle to retake the cultivated cattle, why do you still risk personally fighting?" ”
Zhang Yunyi said: "To resist the Japanese Kou, no matter what big battles and small battles, the deputy commander must also lead the way!" ”
Zhang Yunyi led the troops to set off immediately. There was no moon in the sky, it was pitch black all around, and the troops marched silently under the cover of night, gradually approaching the target.
The team first touched the grass beach next to the customs town and hid it. Zhang Yunyi personally led several warriors all the way forward, touching the enemy's soil under the polder.
"Who?" The enemy sentry shouted loudly, and at the same time there was the sound of pulling the bolt of the gun, and two black shadows came out.
"Send money to ransom the cattle, find Prince Pan!" Chen Yuan replied calmly and calmly.
"Why didn't you come during the day, but only came in such a dark sky?" An enemy soldier questioned loudly.
"Oh, it's not very convenient during the day!" Look at this – it's not a pass, take a good look! ”
Just as Chen Yuan was answering with the enemy, Zhang Yunyi and the others took a few arrows and suddenly appeared in front of the enemy like lightning. One pistol after another had already resisted the waist and chest of the two sentries.
The enemy obediently laid down his weapons, was tied up by the warriors, and threw aside.
As soon as the secret signal for the success of the raid was issued, the soldiers who were ambushed in the grass beach rushed in, and the soldiers were divided into two ways: Chen Yuan led one way straight to the bullpen in front, and the other road was responsible for cover.
Unexpectedly, an unexpected situation occurred - an enemy mobile sentry walked in the direction of the bullpen, holding a flashlight in his hand, and swinging up and down, left and right.
In this extremely urgent situation, Zhang Yunyi flew forward, quickly flicked, and a hemp rope was put on the neck of the enemy sentry.
Zhang Yunyi turned his back again, and the enemy soldier suddenly left the ground with both feet, and the gun also fell to the ground. One of the warriors who followed had sharp eyes and quick hands, stuffed his mouth, and tied it up strongly.
Solving this mobile sentry alarmed the enemy watchdogs, who screamed wildly.
At the same time, only two gunshots of "snap, pop" were heard, and two flares were fired from the inner polder bunker, illuminating the entire customs town clearly.
Dozens of warriors who seized the cattle saw that it was inconvenient to move at this time, so they had to hide and ambush in the shadows.
At this moment, the southeast direction of the enemy fort suddenly burst into gunfire and explosions, and when the Japanese puppet army heard it, they thought that the main force of the New Fourth Army had come, and immediately concentrated their forces and firearms and went straight to the southeast.
In fact, this was Zhang Yunyi's advance arrangement of "transferring the tiger away from the mountain" strategy, so that the special agent company of the military department launched a feint attack in the southeast direction to plan for the cattle grab operation on this side.
After the attention of the Japanese puppet army turned to the southeast, Zhang Yunyi and Chen Yuan immediately led the soldiers to rush into the bullpen.
They quickly cut the cattle rope, drove the cattle out of the cattle pen, crossed the polder river, entered the grass beach, and walked quickly.
A red flare flew into the night sky, the signal to complete the task of capturing cattle was issued, and the special agent company that pretended to attack in the southeast direction of customs town quickly withdrew.
This peculiar bull-grabbing battle was over, but the enemy was still dizzy at this time, still aimlessly fighting.
Chen Yuan, director of the township peasant association who walked behind, laughed and said, "Listen to the devils, we have brought all the cattle back, and there is no need to make a collection note!" ”
The villagers of Tang Jiawa rushed to meet the commanders and fighters of the New Fourth Army who had returned from the victory of the enemy fort and captured cattle.
When the fathers and fellow villagers learned of this battle, they were moved to tears one by one: "The deputy commander personally went into battle and risked his life to help the common people regain the cultivated cattle. ”