In May 1945, more than 500 japanese puppet troops raided the garrison area of our New Fourth Army's advancing column (the former Danyang guerrilla column, which had jurisdiction over more than 80 townships in Danyang, Zhenjiang, Wujin, and Yangzhong counties, a total of more than 3,000 people), and our army attacked it head-on at Wujiaqiao in Yangzhou, using counter-raids to defeat the Japanese puppet army. In this battle, our army killed more than 100 enemy Japanese puppet troops, captured hundreds of weapons of various kinds, nearly 10,000 rounds of bullets, and more than 60 trucks of military materials.
After repelling the attack of the Japanese puppet army, in order to prevent the Japanese army from attacking again, our army moved to a place near Yiling overnight for a short rest. During the rest, the leaders of the advancing column studied the situation at this time and held that although the Japanese army was severely damaged by our army, it did not hurt its bones, that there was a Japanese brigade and regimental headquarters in Yangzhou, and that the Japanese army could gather heavy troops again at any time to carry out a retaliatory "sweep" against our army, while the Wujiaqiao area was small and had no room for maneuver, which was not conducive to our army's next counter-sweeping operation. Therefore, the leaders of the advancing column decided to transfer the troops to the Guocun area north of the Tongyang River and northeast of Yiling through the relationship between Yan Xiuwu and the friendly forces of Yiling to rest and wait.
Why choose to rest in Guo Village? First of all, Guocun is located on the edge of the Li Mingyang and Li Changjiang defense areas of the guerrilla general headquarters of the Lusu-Anhui Border Region, which is exactly in the combination of the Japanese and puppets, Han Deqin, chairman of Jiangsu Province, and the two Li forces. Secondly, in October 1939, our party established a party branch in Guocun, led the youth anti-Japanese national salvation league, engaged in the struggle for grain distribution in the spring famine, and mastered the armed forces of the Self-Defense Forces, and the mass base was relatively good.
Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, Ye Fei, Zhang Daoyong and other column leaders chose Guo Cun as a resting place for the advancing column.
However, just as our army was going to Guo Village to recuperate, a conspiracy about the survival of the advancing column was slowly hitting it.
At that time, Han Deqin, chairman of the Kuomintang Jiangsu Province, saw that our New Fourth Army was gradually growing in the northern Jiangsu region and was deeply threatened, so he thought of the strategy of killing two birds with one stone and took advantage of the guerrilla general headquarters of the Lusu-Anhui Border Region, which was not his concubine and was also a threat to it (in the summer of 1939, it was established by order of Gu Zhutong, commander of the Third Theater, with Li Mingyang as the commander-in-chief and Li Changjiang and Zhang Yi as deputy commanders. There are eleven columns under its jurisdiction, which are based on the whole territory of Taizhou and the surrounding areas, which are the most powerful local powerful factions in northern Jiangsu, except for Han Deloitte, the New Fourth Army, and the Japanese puppet army) to deal with the advancing column of our New Fourth Army, wanting to kill people with knives, so that our army and Li Mingyang's troops are in a fierce fight, and when they are both defeated and injured, he himself will reap the benefits of the fisherman.
Han Deqin first used a trick to deceive Li Mingyang into going to Xinghua, the capital of Jiangsu Province, and when Li Mingyang came, he secretly sent people to Taizhou to seduce Li Changjiang, deputy commander-in-chief of the kuomintang's Lusu-Anhui Border Region, to attack guocun's New Fourth Army when the general guerrilla headquarters of the Lusu-Anhui Border Region was leaderless.
Li Changjiang was originally a brave and unscrupulous man, and under the seduction of Han Deloitte's men, he fell into the trap set by Han Deloitte.
On June 28, 1940, 13 detachments under Li Changjiang suddenly surrounded GuoCun from all sides, intending to launch an all-out attack on our advancing column.
At that time, the only people stationed in Guocun of the New Fourth Army's Advancing Column were the advancing column organs and teaching teams, and one battalion each of the 1st Regiment and the 4th Regiment, with about 2,000 people, while Li Changjiang's troops had more than 20,000 troops, and the difference in strength was extremely large.
For Ye Fei, Guan Wenwei, Zhang Daoyong and other column leaders, there were only two paths in front of them: fight or withdraw. Fight or withdraw? The leader of the advancing column was really difficult. In addition to the huge disparity in strength between our army and Li Changjiang's troops, the more important reason for this is that before Li Changjiang launched an attack on our advancing column, they received different voices from three superiors, some telling them to withdraw from northern Jiangsu or some telling them to defend northern Jiangsu, and they did not know who to listen to.
The first voice came from Xiang Ying, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui.
Xiang Ying was the deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, and according to normal circumstances, he was the second in command of the New Fourth Army, but because Xiang Ying was also the secretary of the Southeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the secretary of the New Fourth Army Branch of the Central Military Commission, under the premise of insisting that the party has absolute leadership over the army, Xiang Ying was actually the number one of the New Fourth Army. Xiang Ying was an old revolutionary who added the Communist Party of China in 1922, and he made outstanding contributions to leading the workers' movement, leading a three-year guerrilla war, or creating a new Fourth Army. However, after serving as the secretary of the Southeast Bureau, under the influence of Wang Ming, the secretary of the Yangtze River Bureau, he went to a right-leaning road. He believed that all the work of the New Fourth Army must be carried out in legal formalities, that is, all work must be approved by the superiors, and can only be carried out with the consent of the superiors, and if they do not agree, they cannot be carried out. Therefore, this led to the fact that "on April 10, 14, 16, 20, and 22, 1940, Xiang Ying made consecutive telephone calls to the Party Central Committee to relay the demands of the Third Theater on the transfer of leaves and Zhang's departure from Jiangbei to the south of Anhui, urging Ye Fei and Zhang Daoyong to abandon their development in Jiangbei and transfer to southern Anhui in the south."
Why did Xiang Ying have to urge Ye and Zhang to transfer south to Anhui so urgently? Because this was the order of the Kuomintang Third Theater. In Xiang Ying's view, the New Fourth Army belongs to the Third Theater, so it should obey the orders of the Three Theaters, and since the Three Theaters will not allow Ye Fei, Zhang Daoyong, and others to develop in northern Jiangsu and let them adjust to the defense of southern Anhui, they should obey their orders and take the initiative to withdraw from northern Jiangsu and transfer south to southern Anhui. In the final analysis, the essence of right-leaning ideology is to demand that our Party obey the command of the decadent Kuomintang government, obey their orders, and cede our Party's command over the army to the Kuomintang.
In response to this dangerous idea within the Party, Chairman Mao drafted on behalf of the Party Central Committee on May 4, 1940, a directive against right-leaning ideology, known in history as the Second May Fourth Directive. The directive clearly states: The so-called development means not to be restricted by the Kuomintang, to go beyond what the Kuomintang can allow, not to be appointed by others, not to rely on the salaries of superiors, to expand the army independently and autonomously, to resolutely establish base areas, to mobilize the masses independently and autonomously on such base areas, to establish the political power of the anti-Japanese united front under the leadership of the Communist Party, and to develop into all areas occupied by the enemy.
After the second May Fourth Directive was issued, the Central Committee of our Party explicitly demanded that Xiang Ying convey this instruction to the New Fourth Army, but Xiang Ying always refused to convey it, still adhered to the right-leaning line of "obeying everything to the united front," and resolutely demanded that Ye Fei, Zhang Daoyong, and other units not allow the establishment of base areas in northern Jiangbei, and that they should obey the orders of the Third Theater, withdraw from northern Jiangsu, and transfer back to southern Anhui.
The second voice came from Liu Shaoqi, secretary of the Central Plains Bureau.
Liu Shaoqi's attitude is diametrically opposed to Xiang Ying's; he resolutely supports Chairman Mao's Second May Fourth Directive, holding that under the present circumstances, northern Jiangsu is the direction of our strategic assault, and we should concentrate our forces on developing in this regard, and we should call on the troops in northern Jiangsu to resolutely break through the restrictions of the diehards and actively develop eastward, until it reaches the seashore, without stopping for a minute. To this end, Liu Shaoqi also asked Ye Fei, the leader of the advancing column, to come to see him personally, and said to him: "Boldly work in northern Jiangsu, do not be afraid of Han Deloitte and Li Mingyang's opposition, and must independently expand the armed forces, establish base areas, and control all areas that can be controlled in northern Jiangsu." At the same time, Liu Shaoqi also asked Ye Fei not to take the initiative to clash with Han Deqin and Li Mingyang, but as long as they take the initiative to attack our army, then do not have any scruples, fight with them to the end, and take advantage of the situation to occupy their territory.
After that, when the battle of Guocun occurred, Liu Shaoqi also urgently telegraphed Ye Fei, telling him that he must resolutely resist and let go of the courage to fight. As long as they can hold out for a week or two, Xu Haidong, Luo Binghui, Huang Kecheng and other troops will come to reinforcements, and then they can counterattack to crush them and then occupy their territory.
The third voice came from Chen Yi of the Jiangnan Command.
Chen Yi also resolutely supported Chairman Mao's Second May Fourth Directive, and like Liu Shaoqi, he also advocated staying in northern Jiangsu and developing the revolutionary base areas in northern Jiangsu. However, unlike Liu Shaoqi, his idea of advocating the development of base areas in northern Jiangsu was not to clash with the Han and Erli sides at the same time, but to "attack the enemy, unite Li, and isolate Han", that is, to attack the Japanese army, unite with Erli, and isolate Han Deloitte.
Therefore, for the battle of Guo Cun, Chen Yi did not recommend fighting.
Why? Because if you fight, you will clash with the strategy of the two Li of the United. Chen Yi believes that Guo Cun's first battle, whether it wins or loses, is extremely unfavorable to our army. Once our army is defeated, the advancing column may be completely destroyed, which will be extremely unfavorable to the development of our army in northern Jiangsu. If li Yangtze River is defeated, it will inevitably hurt his bones, and once his forces are damaged, in order to survive, Erjiang is bound to make a move to surrender to Korea or surrender to Japan, which will also have a great impact on our army's eastward advance. At the same time, without the restraint of Erli, Han Deloitte is bound to go all out to deal with our army.
Therefore, on the eve of the first battle in Guocun, Chen Yi called To instruct Ye Fei and said in a rather resolute tone: "We must not be alone in Guocun to resist the enemy and retreat to Wujiaqiao, if Wujiaqiao is not easy to defend, we can temporarily return to Jiangnan when we have no choice but to meet the Jiangnan troops and wait for the opportunity to make a comeback."
Faced with the different opinions of his three superiors, Ye Fei made a mistake. Ye Fei, who didn't know what to do in the end, gathered the cadres at or above the regimental level of the advancing team to discuss how to deal with it!
At the meeting, most of the cadres said that they should defend Guo Village and refused to retreat. For example, Zhang Fan said: "At this time, our army has set up a position away from Guocun, and hastily transferred, which is not a good strategy; there is the Yangtze River and the Liangli position in the south, the canal and Shaobo Lake in the west, and then the blockade of the Japanese Kou, our army will move to the riverside, and there will be pursuing troops in the back, and our army will be very passive." He believes that we should stick to Guocun and should not be transferred, and once we move hastily, we are bound to fall into a situation where there is a blockade in the front and a pursuit of troops in the back.
After discussions in the middle of the night, most of the cadres agreed to defend Guo village. Seeing that his comrades-in-arms were so resolute, Ye Fei pondered for a long time, and then he also made up his mind: Since everyone thinks that it is safe to fight here, it is good to make up his mind to fight here. For Commander Chen, I am in charge. Commander Chen said: 'The king will be outside, and the king's fate will not be affected.' Now he is not here, and he has only been to Wujiaqiao, not to Guo Village, and he does not understand the terrain, the conditions of the masses, and the enemy situation here. Our frontline commanders understand the situation, dare to seek truth from facts, and be independently responsible; this is the real responsibility to Commander Chen! Responsible to the party!
At this time, Chen Yi, who was far away in Jiangnan, heard that Ye Fei insisted on fighting, and he was so angry that he jumped on his feet and scolded his mother. However, although Mr. Chen was angry, he was also worried about the safety of the advancing team, first urgently ordering Zhang Daoyong to reinforce, and then he quickly set off across the river.
Just when Ye Fei and others were determined to defend Guo Village, Li Changjiang made a move.
At dawn on June 28, 13 detachments of Li Yangtze River attacked our position in a dense formation, but they were quickly repelled by our special service battalion and more than 200 people were taken prisoner. After the fierce battle until dusk, Li Bu did not advance at all, and two brigades were eliminated by our army. In the early morning of the 29th and 30th, our army repelled the attack of Li Bu again and again, and Li Bu suffered heavy casualties. During the day on the 30th, the whole battlefield suddenly fell silent, and Li Bu suddenly stopped attacking our army's positions. At this time, Ye Fei did not slacken off, and he concluded that it was not that Li Bu had given up the attack, but that they wanted to take advantage of the slack of our army at night and suddenly attack our army. To this end, Ye Fei deliberately sent Liao Zhengguo to take a battalion to strengthen the defense in the east, and also added a night patrol post to prevent Li Bu from suddenly attacking at night.
Sure enough, Li Yangtze did attack at night, but because Ye Fei coped properly, he strengthened the defense at night. This night attack did not allow Li Bu to succeed, and Li Bu left a hundred corpses and withdrew from the battlefield in a hurry.
However, although our army has won successive battles, because the number of troops is too small, the soldiers have been very tired after several days of fighting, and the ammunition has gradually been exhausted, and at most they will persist for two days, and if they do not withdraw after two days, I am afraid that they will be completely annihilated.
At this critical juncture, one good news after another came one after another, first the Suwan detachment, under the leadership of Zhang Daoyong and Lu Sheng, traveled more than 200 miles day and night, and arrived at Guo Village on the second day after the start of the war. On the third day after that, Chen Yusheng's detachment successfully revolted, and after meeting with the advancing team that was going to meet them, they drove to the Wujiaqiao area and controlled the communication channels between Jiangnan and Jiangbei. On the fourth day after that, the Second Li Wang Cheng Brigade, controlled by our Party, successfully revolted and approached Guo Village under the support of a battalion of the Suwan detachment.
Since then, our army's strength in the Area around Guocun has become more and more abundant, and it is no longer inferior to li Yangtze.com.
At dawn on July 2, our army concentrated all its forces and launched a comprehensive counterattack against Li Changjiang, annihilating three enemy detachments, crushing ten detachments, and finally crushing Li Changjiang's encirclement of Guocun.
On July 3, Mr. Chen rushed to Guo Village and said to Ye Fei, who had come to greet him, "Originally I came to scold you, so many people dare to fight hard with Li Yangtze!" But you have won the battle, what else do I have to say! Of course, Mr. Chen also said to Ye Fei very seriously: "Comrade Ye Fei! Do you know that although you have won this battle, it is too risky, and if you can't win the battle, you may be completely annihilated, and you will not be able to take such a risk in the future. Only this time, the next is not an example", Ye Fei listened, is a series of calls are.
After that, in view of the established facts, Mr. Chen did not blame or complain, but decided to simply do nothing and agree with Ye Fei and others to continue the counter-offensive and attack Tangtou on the 4th. Later, after giving Li Changjiang a lesson, in order to avoid Li Bu's dog jumping the wall, when Li Changjiang took the initiative to ask for peace, he shook hands with him and made peace, and did not fight anymore.
The defense battle of Guocun lasted 8 days, annihilating 3 entire detachments of li Yangtze River, capturing more than 700 people, 2 regimental commanders, and capturing more than 600 rifles and more than 10 light and heavy machine guns. After the war, in order to win over Li Mingyang and Li Changjiang to unite against Japan, our army generously released all 700 people and returned some of their firearms.
Taking advantage of the victory to capture Tangtou is a lesson for Li Changjiang, who dared to go to war with our New Fourth Army, to let him know that the New Fourth Army is invincible and will not dare to do anything to our army in the future; to collect troops under the city of Taizhou is to threaten to defeat Yu Wei and prepare sufficient chips for future negotiations, so that Er Li will know the leniency of our army; returning the prisoners of war and captured guns is to give some sugar to eat, and take advantage of this to win er Li's favor with our army, thus exchanging the passage of the eastward anti-Japanese resistance and the neutrality between Er Li's army and Han, further isolating Han Deloitte.
Such a series of operations by General Manager Chen turned the situation that might have led to Erli surrendering to Han or surrendering to Japan and being greatly unfavorable to our army in an instant, and Erjiang not only did not hate our army, but also thanked our army for Daide, thus laying a solid foundation for Erjiang to secretly support our army in the Future Battle of Huangqiao, thus helping our army to win.
I have to say that Mr. Chen is worthy of being a famous general of our army," and these chess pieces are extremely beautiful!
After liberation, this classic defense war of fighting back with less victory and more Jedi counterattack - the Defense Battle of Guocun - was made into a movie by our party, and the title of the film was "Overture to the East". After the screening of "Overture to the Eastward Advance," Liu Shaoqi also specially invited visiting foreign friends to watch the film and told them: "This is a good example of the correct use of the struggle strategy of our Communist Party."