At 5:00 p.m. on April 19, 1941, Liu Ruifang, instructor of the Guard Battalion of the Eleventh Brigade of the Fourth Division of the New Fourth Army, led a platoon of soldiers to return from a mission in the southwest of Suxian County, Anhui Province, and marched toward the battalion headquarters.
Just as they were marching, they suddenly found a cavalry marching from south to north more than 300 meters to the east, about 150 people.
Liu Ruifang immediately realized that the situation was not good, and this must be the enemy (it was later confirmed that it was Ma Bufang's cavalry), because he knew very well that our cavalry was resting and had no task to perform.
Because Liu Ruifang and the others were in a wilderness at the time, they could not hide in time, and the enemy had already discovered them and immediately split into two ways to pounce.
The enemy is outnumbered, and the terrain is very favorable for the enemy's cavalry to fight, they wield sabers, scream and rush over, the situation is extremely critical!
Liu Ruifang was not alarmed, not in danger, he calmly inspected the surrounding terrain, and could not help but be overjoyed - just near them, there are several natural blind ditches that are five or six meters wide and tens of meters long, which is really an invincible road!
Liu Ruifang immediately commanded the troops to occupy the blind ditch and organize firepower to meet the enemy.
The enemy cavalry did not dare to rush straight to the blind ditch, but only dismounted and fought on foot at a distance of seventy or eighty meters from the blind ditch.
Although Liu Ruifang and others were attacked by the enemy from the southeast and southwest directions, because of the favorable terrain of the blind ditch, it was easy to conceal themselves and carry out their own firepower, and after the battle began, they suppressed the enemy's firepower, so that they did not dare to rush forward.
When the enemy saw that the surprise attack was not successful, he took turns to attack from two directions.
Platoon commander Li Zhuoming was an old machine gun shooter, and he calmly fought with a light machine gun. When the enemy in the southeast attacks, he fights in the southeast direction; when the enemy in the southwest attacks, he shoots at the enemy in the southwest direction.
The soldiers of the two squads were also under the command of Liu Ruifang, firing platoon guns at the enemy respectively.
Fortunately, the Ma Bufang cavalry had poor combat ability on foot, and under the suppression of the firepower of the New Fourth Army, they did not attack quickly.
Liu Ruifang felt that there was a way to persist until dark, but there was still more than an hour to go, and he should pay attention to saving ammunition.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, Li Zhuoming was unfortunately shot and heroically sacrificed. The light machine gun he had left behind was only a shuttle, and each soldier had only three or four rounds of ammunition.
By this time five soldiers had been sacrificed in the blind ditch, and several wounded, and none of them shouted.
At this critical moment, Liu Ruifang shouted: "Comrades, the time has come to really test us!" Fight the enemy to the end, be prepared to fight grenades, prepare to fight bayonets, and those who do not have bayonets must also fight with the enemy with the barrel of a gun! ”
The crowd was greatly encouraged and said that they would fight the enemy to the death.
The enemy continued to press towards the blind ditch, and Liu Ruifang commanded his troops to quickly occupy Xiaowangzhuang, which was less than 100 meters to the north.
As soon as the troops jumped out of the ditch, the group in charge of cover behind them fought with the pursuing enemy with bayonets, killing several enemies, and all the group died heroically.
Commissioner Gao Feng asked Liu Ruifang, "Instructor, what should I do with the secret documents in my wallet?" ”
Liu Ruifang said: "Destroy it, and it must not fall into the hands of the enemy!" ”
"Yes! Just do it..." Before Gao Feng could finish speaking, he was knocked to the ground by the enemy's bullets.
At this time, the enemy rushed up, and a white-knife battle began. The soldiers of the New Fourth Army bravely fought against the enemy.
A group of enemies crowded together, only 20 meters away from Liu Ruifang, and he knocked down three or four enemies with a box gun.
The correspondent who was closely following Liu Ruifang also shot at the enemy with a rifle, but he did not expect to rush up an enemy from behind the side and cut the correspondent down with a knife.
At this time, only Liu Ruifang was left.
A thin short enemy rushed over with a saber, Liu Ruifang was ready to pull the trigger, but there was no bullet in the gun, he flashed to the side with agility, and the enemy's sabre was actually stuck in the ground.
Liu Ruifang pounced on him, grabbed his head with his left arm, and shot him in the face and head with an empty barge shell with his right hand, causing him to bleed profusely.
The enemy soldiers picked up Liu Ruifang's left leg and tried to knock him down, but they did not succeed several times.
Just as the two were fighting to the death, another enemy cavalry rushed up, raised his saber and slashed at Liu Ruifang's head!
Liu Ruifang could only subconsciously use the shell gun in his right hand to protect his head, but to no avail.
The enemy's knife was slashing at Liu Ruifang's head, not only cutting off two fingers, but also cutting off the skull, and he immediately fainted and fell to the ground.
Fortunately, the two enemy cavalry saw that Liu Ruifang had been cut off a large hole in his head, and the blood was direct, and they left without further harm.
After a while, the enemy's assembly trumpet sounded, and they left the place triumphantly.
Liu Ruifang was also awakened by the assembly number, and it was almost dark at this time.
Knowing that he had been seriously injured in the head, he found a cloth to wrap around the wound and stop the bleeding.
After resting for a while, he felt that he still had strength in his body, and after trying to get no injury on his leg, he struggled to get up and searched the battlefield for any surviving comrades, but unfortunately they had all died.
In desperation, Liu Ruifang had no choice but to go to the division headquarters station alone.
Incredibly, Liu Ruifang, with his serious wounds, actually touched back the battalion headquarters step by step, asked the sentries to quickly report to the battalion commander, and sent people to search for casualties in the blind ditch.
When the bloody Liu Ruifang appeared in front of him, the battalion commander Yang Delong and the soldiers were shocked and hurriedly sent him to the bandage.
After examination, the doctor said to the crowd: "Although there are as many as 15 wounds on the instructor's body, fortunately, there are no internal wounds, and it is not difficult to heal." ”
After the doctor's treatment, Liu Ruifang was finally cured.
After the division commander Peng Xuefeng learned of Liu Ruifang's bloody battle against the enemy and the great difficulty of not dying, he personally visited him and comforted him: "In the case of an unexpected encounter with the group of enemies, you fought bloody battles to the last person. You were seriously injured, but you returned to the camp with amazing perseverance, and this spirit of never giving up is worthy of praise! ”
In 1955, Liu Ruifang was awarded the rank of colonel and promoted to major general in 1964.