【Studying the History of the Party and Clarifying the Truth】The New Fourth Army's Great Breakthrough of the Japanese Pseudo "Surprise Attack Operation" in Tenant Town

After the Anhui Incident, the CPC Central Committee decided to rebuild the New Fourth Army Headquarters in Yancheng, northern Jiangsu Province, with Chen Yi as acting commander and Liu Shaoqi as political commissar. The Fifth Column of the Eighth Route Army was organized into the Third Division of the New Fourth Army, with Huang Kecheng as the division commander and political commissar, and its main task was to defend and build the anti-Japanese base area in northern Jiangsu.

　　In 1942, in order to cooperate with the Pacific War and plunder the strategic resources of northern Jiangsu, the Japanese army began to carry out a crazy "sweep" of the base area of northern Jiangsu of the New Fourth Army. Under the leadership of the Communist Party and the New Fourth Army, the military and the people in the base areas have repeatedly smashed the "sweeping" and "encroachment" of the Japanese and puppets, and consolidated and developed the anti-Japanese base areas. In October, in order to show its strength, the Third Division of the New Fourth Army held a military parade in Sun Hezhuang, south of Yangzhai, Funing County, which was presided over by Huang Kecheng, division commander and political commissar. After the Japanese army learned of this information, it pieced together more than a thousand troops from various strongholds and "secretly" rushed to Sun Hezhuang in two "secret ways" in an attempt to carry out a "surprise attack operation" against the headquarters of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army.

　　When the Japanese puppet army attacked Sun Hezhuang, it must pass through the town of Tonghu. Located more than 40 kilometers northeast of Lianshui County, east of the Yellow River Old Road, connected with the river embankment, the town is short from east to west, long from north to south, south and north on three sides with a wall of more than two meters high, although it is a small town, its geographical location is quite important, is the edge of the northern Jiangsu base area of the important town.

　　For the enemy's invasion, the commander of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army has already obtained accurate information through underground workers. After study, the commander of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army decided to send the Twenty-second Regiment of the Eighth Brigade and the Liandong County Headquarters to the town of Tonghu to meet the enemy.

　　After accepting the task, the Twenty-second Regiment of the Eighth Brigade and the Liandong County Headquarters quickly rushed to the town of Tonghu, and in 3 days, together with the local people, completed the reinforcement of the fortifications of the wall, and built five strong bunkers on the wall, and there were communication ditches between the bunkers. The warriors also filled the outside of the wall with branches and deer, and dredged the trenches outside the wall, injecting water 3 meters wide and 5 meters deep.

　　After everything was ready, the commander of the Twenty-second Regiment announced the combat deployment: one company of the three battalions was responsible for holding the commanding heights at the turning point on the north bank of the Yellow River Ancient Road southeast of the tenant lake, and one company was mobile to block the enemy; the other company and the Liandong County Headquarters were stationed in the town of Yuhu and held the fortifications of the wall; the regimental headquarters and the first and second battalions were the general reserves, preparing to launch a general attack on the enemy after dark. Subsequently, the units entered the positions according to the deployment, strengthened their vigilance, and patiently waited for the arrival of the enemy.

　　At 8 o'clock on November 9, the enemy finally came to the outside of the town of Tenant Lake, saw that the town was quiet, thought that the "surprise attack" had been successful, and the troops divided into two roads, all the way to the levee, in an attempt to seize the commanding heights, all the way to the town of Tenant Lake. All the units of the Eighth Route Army were already waiting in a tight position, and when the enemy advanced to a distance of 50 meters from the position, all kinds of weapons opened fire at the same time, and a large number of clustered "hemp-tailed bullets" were thrown at the enemy, and the enemy's first attack was quickly retreated. Seeing the situation, the enemy hurriedly adjusted his tactics, suppressed the fire of the New Fourth Army position with machine guns and grenadiers, and then rushed to the Position of the New Fourth Army with several squads of troops. Relying on the existing positions, the various units of the New Fourth Army calmly responded to the battle and repelled one enemy attack after another.

　　During the battle, the commander of the three battalions was unfortunately injured, and the battalion instructor took advantage of the gap between battles to report to the regimental commander by telephone. The head of the regiment immediately sent the head of the organization unit to assist in the command. In the afternoon of the battle, the enemy found that the positions of the Liandong County Headquarters were weak in firepower, so they concentrated their forces on launching a new offensive against the positions of the Liandong County Headquarters. The Liandong County Headquarters held its position and engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy. At the critical moment, a platoon of the Twenty-second Regiment rushed along the communication ditch for reinforcements, and the two sides worked together to repel the enemy's attack.

　　In the evening of the battle, the enemy suffered heavy casualties, so he had to hide in the "safe zone" 300 meters away, relying on the advantage of the long range of his weapons, and continued to strafe and drop bombs at the positions of the New Fourth Army in an attempt to open the gap. The defenders of the New Fourth Army immediately brought in their secretly developed gun grenade launchers to strike at the enemy. The tail of this grenade has an iron handle more than a foot long and can hit 500 meters away. As several gun grenades roared into the enemy group and exploded, the enemy fled in a panic and did not dare to approach the position of the town of Tenant Lake again.

　　After nightfall, the enemy retreated to a nearby village in an attempt to catch his breath for a while. At about 19:00, two battalions of the Twenty-second Regiment, as reserves, and the regiment's direct subordinate units suddenly launched a charge at the enemy from both flanks, and the defenders of the town of Tonghu also rushed out of their positions to cooperate with the counterattack. The already exhausted enemy was caught off guard, and the positions were successively captured by the New Fourth Army. In the panic, the enemy used poisonous gas as cover and broke through and fled.

　　While cleaning up the battlefield, the soldiers found an officer among the corpses of the enemy, with a telescope hanging from his neck and a command knife around his waist, and a pistol falling next to him. After checking, this person is the commander of the enemy's "secret surprise attack", Dazhi WanXianzhi.

　　After a day of fierce fighting, the New Fourth Army killed more than 100 Japanese puppet troops and captured a copy of the Japanese military plan and military map of the "sweeping" of the base area in northern Jiangsu. This map played an important role in the subsequent anti-"mopping-up" battles. In recognition of the merits of the Twenty-second Regiment and the Liandong County Headquarters in this battle, the commander of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army specially proposed a commendation.

Source: People's Political Consultative Conference Daily

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