In mid-November 1944, Cao Maochun, commander of the 171st Division of the Kuomintang Warlord Of Guizhou, mobilized heavy troops and decided to launch a large-scale attack on the New Fourth Army in the Huainan region, in a vain attempt to "suppress" this anti-Japanese force in one fell swoop.
At that time, the commander of the May 12nd Regiment under Cao Maochun, named Meng Peiqiong, had just returned from the advanced training class of the Central Army School and was entrusted with the heavy responsibility of "commander-in-chief of the front line" and commanded the four main battalions in a unified manner.
This Meng Peiqiong, who was known as the "star in the army," was proud of his career and full of ambition, and immediately led his troops to the town of Zhanjigang, where the headquarters of the Fifth Brigade of the New Fourth Army was located, and arrogantly boasted: "Within a day, we can conquer the communist positions and wait for the division to descend."
In the face of the enemy's large-scale pressure, Cheng Jun, commander of the Fifth Brigade of the Second Division of the New Fourth Army, not only did not panic in his heart, but had a bold idea: Since the enemy gave up their superiority in position warfare and went into the wild, our army just took the opportunity to annihilate them.
However, at that time, Cheng Jun only had one weak combat effective eighteenth regiment stationed at Zhanjigang, and the other three main regiments were scattered outside, and it took a day to complete the assembly.
However, Cheng Jun's attitude was extremely resolute: "No matter how much there are, only one regiment must also fight, and it is necessary to win the war!" ”
He immediately ordered the Eighteenth Regiment to hold the position of Zhanji for at least one day, and the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Regiments should come closer as soon as possible, complete their assembly on the evening of the 18th, and engage in a decisive battle with the enemy.
At dawn on the 18th, the enemy's four main battalions, under the command of Meng Peiqiong, launched an attack on the positions of the Eighteenth Regiment of the New Fourth Army.
To the great puzzlement of the commanders and fighters of the New Fourth Army, this time the enemy's attack was far less ferocious than imagined, they only symbolically bombarded rifles, machine guns, and mortars, but did not send infantry to charge as before.
Although the entire position of the Eighteenth Regiment was filled with smoke and dust from the enemy's artillery, the shadow of the enemy was slowly missing, and the entire battlefield gradually became quieter and strangely.
Too weird? What tricks are the enemies playing?
Cheng Jun raised his telescope to observe carefully, only to see a group of figures appear on the mountain beams on the enemy's side, but he was not in a hurry to rush forward, but stopped and walked, grinding and rubbing, and finally all disappeared into the smoke and disappeared.
This mystery was not solved until after the war, and it turned out that Meng Peiqiong had ingeniously planned a trick of "concealing the sky and crossing the sea", and the large troops only made a feint attack, covering several secret agents to infiltrate the new Fourth Army defense area, planning to find out the falsehood of our army and then formally attack the next day.
Meng Peiqiongwan did not expect that his clever and clever move had just done our army a great favor -- let the three main regiments of the Fifth Brigade calmly arrive near Zhanjigang on the same day and enter the designated positions respectively.
On the morning of the 19th, The so-called official attack of Montecheon began. This time, in addition to sending three battalions to carry out a frontal attack, he cleverly sent a battalion to seize Huang Daxu, which occupied the east side of Jigang, and thus implemented his strategy of "pinching back and forth".
Although the eighteenth regiment that was facing the enemy was nominally a regiment, its organization was far inferior to that of the three main attack battalions under Monte-Château. In the case of inferior troops and weapons, the commanders and fighters of the Eighteenth Regiment fought extremely bravely and tenaciously, making the enemy pay a great price in casualties.
Under such circumstances, Cheng Jun made another ingenious arrangement -- let the Eighteenth Regiment take the initiative to withdraw from the front-line position, lure the enemy into favorable terrain and then surround and annihilate it!
At this time, Meng Peiqiong was ecstatic about the victory in the initial battle, and while rushing to report to Cao Maoqiong, he commanded the troops to "advance with victory".
He never imagined that the Fifth Brigade of the New Fourth Army would not only assemble all of them in one day, lay down an invisible net of heaven and earth, but also repair the core fortifications that had previously been destroyed by the Japanese puppet army overnight, and all the soldiers and men would wait in a strict line.
When Meng Peiqiong's troops entered the line from Zhanjigang block to Dong Daxu, they encountered a strong counterattack from the Eighteenth Regiment of the New Fourth Army, like encountering an insurmountable copper wall!
The more Meng Peiqiong fought, the more panicked he became, and he could not have imagined that this "ace unit" that had scored brilliant achievements in the Battle of Taierzhuang could not deal with the tired division with inferior weapons and equipment and repeatedly "swept up" by the Japanese puppet army.
After repeatedly launching group-style charges without success, Meng Peiqiong ordered a number of commandos to form in an attempt to break through the defensive line of the Eighteenth Regiment of the New Fourth Army in separate routes and then develop in depth.
However, as soon as his commando team entered, it was cleanly taken away by the soldiers of the New Fourth Army with bayonets and large knives in the white-knife battle, and the split-way assault tactic was declared a failure.
It was getting darker and darker, and Meng Peiqiong, seeing that he could not attack for a long time, decided to withdraw his troops from the battlefield and wait for the division commander Cao Maoqiong to come with reinforcements to make plans.
However, just after Montpejoin gave this order, his troops were confused as they retreated.
Cheng Jun keenly caught this fleeting fighter and decisively issued the order to counterattack on all fronts!
With his order, the three main forces that had been hidden on the outskirts of the battlefield suddenly swept in from all directions like a fierce wind and waves, rushing towards the enemy who had no intention of fighting!
At this moment, Meng Peiqiong and his men and horses completely collapsed, desperately trying to find a way to escape. However, at this time, there was nowhere to escape, most of them were annihilated on the spot, and a small number of them fled into the surrounding villages, and they were also surrounded by the Fifth Brigade and eliminated one by one.
The battle was fought extremely cleanly and neatly, with more than 1,900 people of the enemy's 512nd Regiment being annihilated, the regimental commander Meng Peiqiong and the three battalion commanders all taking prisoners, and a large number of weapons, ammunition, and supplies were also captured.
Interestingly, shortly after the end of this battle, the New Fourth Army captured from another battlefield the briefcase of a battalion commander of the enemy's 511th Regiment, which contained a poem written on a piece of paper, which truly reflected the mentality of the Kuomintang officers and soldiers after the Battle of Battle Gang:
The chicken gang was really sad, and the war horses galloped and flew bloody. Ask Jun if you can remember, go north to suppress a few bandits back!
When Chen Yi, acting commander of the New Fourth Army, read this oil poem, the famous military poet laughed and gave this evaluation: "It is not well written, but it is expensive in the truth, which is a bit interesting!" You may wish to keep it and send it to the Military History Museum in the future for posterity to read. ”