In March 1940, after defecting to the enemy and treason, the Wang Jingwei clique announced the "return of the capital" to Nanjing, and then Wang Pseudo appeared as the largest traitorous traitorous group in Chinese history. And just this month, the troops of our New Fourth Army created the Ludong base area, which seriously threatened the security of Nanjing, the capital of Wang puppetry. Wang Jingwei was like a fish in his throat, and he quickly cobbled together the Appeasement Army as his "Imperial Forest Army" with the support of the Japanese, intending to wipe out our base area in one fell swoop.
▲The Japanese army attacked our base area
The Japanese and puppet sides are pulling out the base area east of our road, lifting the threat of Nanjing, and at the same time ensuring the safety of the Jinpu Railway. After meticulous planning and long-term preparations, in early September 1940, after consultations between the Japanese and the Puppets, the Japanese army decided to transfer from the southern Jiangsu region the first regiment of the 15th Division in Kumagaya, the first regiment of the 17th Division of Iwamatsu, and the Suzuki unit stationed in Jiangdu, totaling more than 7,000 Japanese troops, in coordination with more than 10,000 of the pseudo-Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Anhui Appeasement Army, to launch the so-called "Three Rivers Operation" and attack Xuyi in seven ways in an attempt to eliminate the Jiangbei troops of our New Fourth Army and destroy the base area in one month.
▲ The 2nd Division of our New Fourth Army fought against the Japanese puppet army in Xuyi
On September 1, the main forces of the Japanese puppet army were dispatched from Nanjing, Yangzhou, Bengbu and other places and various strongholds along the Jinpu Railway, first capturing Tianchang, Liuhe, Lai'an and other places, and then using these places as starting places to increase their troops several times. On September 5, with the cooperation of more than 20 aircraft and more than 20 gunboats, more than 20,000 puppet troops launched a large-scale campaign from 7 strongholds, including Lai'an, Liuhe, Tianchang, and Gaoyou, and carried out a major sweep of our road east in 7 routes. The enemy army adopted the tactic of dividing and attacking in combination, with the 7 enemy advancing in parallel, and the land, sea and air covered each other. The distance between the various enemy forces is less than 10 kilometers to prevent being broken by our respective forces. Once the main force of our New Fourth Army is encountered, all enemy forces can quickly reinforce and respond to each other.
▲ Our army engaged the Japanese puppet army
On September 5, the Japanese puppet army began to carry out a centripetal attack centered on Xuyi, and the sweep officially began. Many japanese aircraft circled at low altitudes to reconnoiter our army's movements, and dozens of motorboats shuttled back and forth on the surface of the Huai River in the Xuyi section in an attempt to cut off our army's water passage. The Japanese army also dispatched a cavalry squadron, together with a brigade of about 1,000 people in its infantry, to attack Xuyi from the west, in an attempt to control the crossing on the Huai River and prevent our army from crossing the Huai River in the north, with the intention of annihilating all of our army in the ludong area. The enemy's large encirclement circle stretched from Liuhe to the north and Tianchang to the west, forming a situation of encircling Xuyi on three sides.
▲The Japanese launched a charge during the sweep
In the face of the fierce Japanese puppet army, our army sent troops to stubbornly block the attack by taking advantage of the water network area that ran through the harbor, while on the other hand, the main force was hidden and waiting for the opportunity to seek opportunities to annihilate the enemy army. Relying on its superior strength and advanced weapons, the Japanese puppet army ran through wolves and pigs, constantly penetrated deep into our base areas, and successively occupied many villages and towns in our base areas, but its troops gradually dispersed in the process of advancing, and our army's fighters appeared. On October 7, more than 60 personnel of the pseudo-"Yulin Army" headquarters departing from Liuhe, believing that our army had been compressed by the main force of the Japanese puppet army to a small area centered on Xuyi, so they confidently and boldly went south to Zhuzhen via Panshan, only to be ambushed by the 3rd Battalion of our 14th Regiment on the way, our army surrounded the enemy headquarters, the two sides fought fiercely for about 5 hours, the pseudo-"Yulin Army" with sophisticated equipment desperately resisted, and the attack of the 3rd Battalion was urgently unsuccessful. Subsequently, the enemy army used the radio call carried by the army to come to the rescue of the Japanese aviation troops in Nanjing and Yangzhou, and the Japanese army successively dispatched 24 aircraft to bomb and strafe the troops of our 3 battalions and rescue the personnel of the puppet army headquarters.
▲ The Type 99 light bomber often used by the Japanese Army Air Force in the battlefield behind enemy lines
Since then, the attacks of the Japanese puppet army have been hit hard by our army, and although the enemy army has continued to advance despite the losses, the casualties have become more and more serious. On October 9, more than 400 people of Gaoyou's puppet army took more than 30 motorboats and occupied Guanyin Temple, Yongfeng, Jiangba and other places, and the Japanese air force also dispatched 11 aircraft to cooperate in the battle, and Japanese aircraft bombed Renheji, Xinji and other places to cover the puppet army's attack on us. But what disappointed the devils was that after the puppet army occupied Xinji, once it lost the cover of the Japanese aviation, it was immediately defeated by the troops of our 8th Regiment, and on the 13th, the puppet army returned to Gaoyou.
▲ Dragon King Mountain Battle Our Army's Forward Machine Gun Position
On September 10, 1940, the Japanese army captured Xuyi, which was already an empty city, but the rest of the enemy troops failed to arrive on time, and the main force of our army did not know where to go, so the Japanese army had to build fortifications around Xuyi, build pillboxes, and set up strongholds along the Huai River in an attempt to control the Huai River.
On September 17, the Various Japanese puppet troops who swept through our base areas retreated to the original defense area empty-handed. At this point, the Ludong anti-sweeping battle ended. Our army suffered more than 200 casualties, and the Japanese puppet army suffered more than 600 casualties, which is twice as many as our army. The Japanese army found nothing but an empty Xuyi, and most importantly, the battle dealt a heavy blow to Wang Jingwei's "Yulin Army", making his hopes of the "Yulin Army" to ensure the safety of Nanjing completely evaporated.