In February 1943, General Luo Binghui was appointed commander of the Second Division of the New Fourth Army and commander of the Huainan Military Region.
Six
On January 6, 1941, the Anhui Incident broke out. On the 17th, Chiang Kai-shek brazenly announced the cancellation of the new Fourth Army. On the same day, the generals of the New Fourth Army sent a telegram to the whole country, angrily denouncing the crimes of the pro-Japanese faction in creating the Anhui Incident. On the 20th, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ordered the reconstruction of the New Fourth Army Headquarters. On the 25th, a new military headquarters of the New Fourth Army was established in Yancheng, with a total of more than 90,000 people in the whole army. The Fourth and Fifth Detachments, the Jiangbei Guerrilla Column and local armed forces formed the Second Division, with a total of 18,000 men, consisting of Zhang Yunyi, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, as division commander, Zheng Wei as political commissar, and Luo Binghui as deputy division commander. The 2nd Division has jurisdiction over the 4th Brigade, the 5th Brigade, the 6th Brigade, the Independent Brigade and the Jinpu Road East Joint Defense Command, and the Jinpu Road West Joint Defense Command. The division headquarters is stationed in Huanghuatang, Xuyi County.
From March 18 to 25, the 2nd Division passed through the battles of Fengyang Mountain, Zhujiawan and Wawuliu, and smashed the "sweeping" of more than 3,000 Japanese puppet troops on the west of Jinpu Road. Various units of Ludong have carried out vigorous and large-scale training in the Liantang area, which has greatly improved the quality, tactical level, and combat ability of the troops.
Luo Binghui and Zhang Yunyi were together
At this time, the Japanese invading army actively advanced southward, transferred several divisions and regiments from central China, lost the ability to hold large-scale "sweeps," and instead adopted the strategic measure of taking each stronghold as the "point" and gradually connecting the highways into "lines" in an attempt to achieve the goal of expanding the pseudo-areas and encroaching on the base areas. In order to smash the Japanese conspiracy, Luo Binghui commanded the anti-"point" and "line" battles in the Tian (Chang) Yi (Zheng) Yang (Zhou) area in April, attacking at the same time in a vast area, and all of them won a complete victory. Especially in the Battle of Jinniu Mountain, Luo Binghui first tried the "plum blossom pile point entanglement tactic" he created, and the Japanese puppet army could not take care of each other, losing more than 500 people. The victory in the anti-"point" and "line" operations greatly shocked and stimulated the Japanese invading army. In late May, more than 5,000 Japanese puppet troops "swept" the east of Jinpu Road in retaliation. On May 28, the 11th Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Puppet Army of the Japanese Eleventh Division, with 2,000 men, attacked the 11th Regiment of the Fourth Brigade stationed in Lai'an in four ways, and after two days of fierce fighting, repelled the enemy's attack and killed and wounded more than 300 Japanese puppet troops. On 3 June, the 10th Regiment of the 4th Brigade fought against the enemy in the carport, killing and wounding more than 50 of its men. After being injured, the Japanese army retreated to the strongholds and never dared to "sweep" the east of the road again. The Ludong base area has become the most stable base area in central China. On May 6, Liu Shaoqi enthusiastically said in his report "On the Local Party Question" delivered at the meeting of the Central China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee: "The work in the base areas of eastern Anhui, especially in the east of Ludong, is the best and most regular compared with the work of other base areas in central China!" In 1941, the Second Division was rated as the "Model of All-Army Army Building" of the New Fourth Army. Since then, Luo Binghui's prestige has spread far and wide, and he has become a well-known anti-Japanese general in the central China base area, which has made the Japanese hypocrisy fearful.
Because the Huainan base area was the most stable in central China, in early 1943, the New Fourth Army Headquarters and the central China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee moved from northern Jiangsu to Huanghuatang, where the Second Division headquarters was located, until the victory of the War of Resistance. After the arrival of the army headquarters, the headquarters of the Second Division moved to Daliu Yin, Lai'an County.
In February 1943, the Huainan base area streamlined its organization and implemented the unified leadership of the party, government and army, and was led by the Second Division and the Huainan Military Region. Luo Binghui served as commander of the Second Division and commander of the Huainan Military Region.
Luo Binghui (second from right) with his comrades-in-arms
Since the second anti-communist upsurge was repelled, the CCP has made many efforts to improve the relations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and strengthen unity. In December 1942, the Japanese army attacked the Li Pinxian Department and the Tang Enbo Department in Southern Henan, and the New Fourth Army took the initiative to support it. In February 1943, the Japanese army besieged Han Deloitte's department, the New Fourth Army put the national righteousness as the most important, did not remember the old evil, took the initiative to attack the enemy to help, Luo Binghui's troops attacked Huaiyin City with a surprise attack, which shocked the entire Japanese army. But in March, Chiang Kai-shek set off a third anti-communist upsurge. In May, the Yellow River Defense Army attempted to blitz the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and the anti-communist upsurge reached its peak. In Huainan, Li Pinxian "cleared" the Shouxian area with two regiments of the 172nd Division; the main force of the Gui clan invaded the Jinpu Luxi base area in August, and on September 17, he seized the Boundary Plate of the Luxi Gateway.
In order to crush the military offensive of the Kuomintang diehards in the Huainan area, Luo Binghui personally led the field command to Luxi to command self-defense. Before the war, Luo Binghui spent a month guiding military training, focusing on tactical education in village attacks and field attacks, supplemented by technical education, and strengthening the study and research of the whole army, so as to grasp the operational characteristics of Gui Stubborn. On October 27, Luo Binghui, with two battalions of the 14th Regiment, uprooted the Chen Weizi stronghold on the outskirts of Dingyuan in one fell swoop, and completely annihilated more than 200 people from the recalcitrant puppet army Xu Yutang's troops, reversing the situation in Luxi. On October 30, the 171st Division, the main force of Gui, stormed the Position of Wujianshan of the 15th Regiment of the 5th Brigade of the 2nd Division. Luo Binghui personally commanded the line of fire, ordered the enemy to defend and weaken, and educated the commanders and fighters to "be as quiet as a virgin, moving like a rabbit" to attract the recalcitrant army. In the Kuomintang army, Gui Wasleng was known for being able to fight good battles, and was especially good at mountainous areas. Seeing that the gunfire of the Five-Pointed Mountain Position was sparse, the recalcitrant army became more and more rampant, and took turns to launch a fierce charge. Luo Binghui ordered not to be in a hurry, to hold the position as much as possible, and to shoot as many stubborn troops as possible. In the command post, Luo Binghui held up a telescope in his hand and stood at the observation port, not moving for more than an hour. He was keenly aware that the recalcitrant army had been sharply reduced in one strong attack after another. When he saw that someone in the rear of the recalcitrant army had begun to transport the wounded, he shouted like a thunderbolt: "The enemy wants to run!" So he ordered a counter-offensive. Gui Xuan could not have dreamed that the New Fourth Army would have such a large number of troops and such a fierce firearms configuration. As a result, Gui was killed and injured a lot. In addition to crushing Gui, Luo Binghui ordered his troops to severely damage The Taozhuang Wang Huajin's department on November 3, and in late November severely damaged the Xie JiaxuZi Niu Dengfeng Department, dealing a heavy blow to the Kuomintang diehards. After this battle, Gui stubbornly did not dare to attack for more than a year. In the Gui army, it was said that the area around Wujian Mountain was an impenetrable "Luo Binghui Defense Line".