During the southward assault of the southward detachment of the Eighth Route Army, the main force of the 1st Division of the New Fourth Army was also ready to go in the Soviet Union.
In the winter of 1944, the Yangtze River Delta was particularly cold, and it snowed heavily on the day of the river crossing, which added to the cold. After nightfall, the wind is bitter and the weather is freezing.
On the evening of December 27, Su Yu wore a short black leather jacket and a cotton military cap, and did not put down his ears, standing by the river and watching the vast Yangtze River, taking out his pocket watch from his pocket from time to time to check the time. Through the clear light of the cold moon, it can be seen that Su Yu's expression is so calm and calm. He had just turned 37 years old.
This is the third time that Su Yu has taken on the advance mission. At this time, Su Yu looked calm on the outside, but he was actually very uncalm in his heart.
The troops moved south from the Soviet Union and Central China to pass through several enemy blockade lines. The first hurdle faced, and the most risky hurdle, was the natural danger of a large army smuggling across the Yangtze River, which was tightly sealed by the enemy. This area has two major cities, Nanjing and Shanghai, and many small and medium-sized cities, with a large population, developed economy and culture, and convenient transportation. The enemy blockaded the Yangtze River very strictly, and ships patrolled the river day and night, and there were many strongholds along the river, and the vigilance was tight. In winter, the water level of the Yangtze River is low, forming a wide mudflat, except for the wharf, cars and boats can neither dock, but it is difficult for people and horses to wade in vain.
"I wonder what happened to these puppet soldiers?" Su Yu thought to himself.
In some areas where the troops crossed the river, the underground party had already done work for a few puppet army leaders, asking them to "invite" the Japanese invaders to their strongholds to eat, drink, and have fun, and to pull out most of the puppet troops to "fight the wilderness," leaving only a few puppet troops at sentry posts, which was actually to serve as a warning for the passage of large units of the New Fourth Army.
"The Yangtze River is ours -- we can come and go freely a thousand times!" This was a song that was very popular among the masses in the New Fourth Army and in the base areas of Central China. However, it was by no means an easy task for a large force of nearly 10,000 New Fourth Army troops to smuggle across the Yangtze River defense line, which was extremely tightly blockaded by the Japanese puppeteers.
However, under Su Yu's foolproof deployment and command, and with the joint efforts of party and government departments at all levels, the New Fourth Army was indeed able to "come and go freely" across the river this time, and even two Japanese merchant ships were skillfully mobilized by the New Fourth Army to participate in the transportation.
On January 4, 1945, the southbound troops finally arrived in the Changxing area of Zhejiang Province and joined up with the 16th Brigade that had persisted in the war of resistance there. Su Yu also met his favorite general, Wang Bicheng, the commander of the 16th Brigade, who had been absent for nearly two years.
In that year, in order to support the 16th Brigade of the 6th Division, which had lost its brigade commander and political commissar, Wang Bicheng was ordered to lead the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division to cross the river and merge with it, and served as the commander of the 16th Brigade, and Jiang Weiqing partnered with him as the political commissar.
In 1943, the Japanese army attacked Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the Kuomintang troops fled. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China instructed the New Fourth Army to "advance the enemy and we will advance" and sent the 16th Brigade to the south to advance into the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui border areas. In more than a year, the 16th Brigade fought more than 1,000 battles, killed and captured nearly 10,000 Japanese puppet troops, and the main force grew to 7,750 people.
After the two armies met, according to the instructions of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region was established, with Su Yu as the commander and Tan Zhenlin as the political commissar.
In order to paralyze the enemy's troops, the New Fourth Army unified and reorganized the southbound troops of the Soviet Union and Central China and the 16th Brigade Zhedong Guerrilla Column into three columns, but the number of troops reached 20,000.
Ever since Su Yu crossed the river, he has been constantly analyzing the terrain, the enemy's situation, and the direction of the development of the New Fourth Army.
The Tianmu Mountain Range in the northwest of Hangzhou is the backbone of western Zhejiang, stretching for more than 50 kilometers, with peaks and peaks stacked on top of each other, and the mountain is steep; Xiaofeng City at the northern foot is one of the junction points between the mountainous area and the plain in western Zhejiang, which is not only the northern gateway of Tianmu Mountain, but also the key point of western Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui, and the position is extremely important. At that time, the recalcitrant army did not dare to engage the Japanese army, and they all retreated to Tianmu Mountain. Su Yu believed that if the New Fourth Army wanted to enter behind enemy lines, it would inevitably be stopped by recalcitrant troops, and it would inevitably have to engage in a vicious battle with it. This happened to be the core territory of the 3rd Theater of the Kuomintang Army, the culprit of the Southern Anhui Incident, who had been actively anti-communist for a long time and would not repent of their death. At that time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China considered that in order to cooperate with the landing of the US troops and prepare to seize Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and other big cities, except for Su Yu, who had already led his troops to the south, decided to send the second echelon south, and the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army also moved south to southern Anhui. The second echelon was divided into two routes: one route was for Tan Zhenlin to lead the 5th Brigade of the 2nd Division south to southern Anhui and develop towards the old Soviet area of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and the other route for Ye Fei to lead the 1st Division and 1 main brigade south to Tianmu Mountain, cross the Fuchun River, join the guerrilla column in eastern Zhejiang, and enter the old Soviet area of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi. Later, however, the Japanese army shrank its forces, not only stopped attacking the frontal battlefield, but also withdrew from Nanning, Liuzhou, Fuzhou, Xinchang, Lanxi and other places. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to suspend the implementation of the above plan, and Tan Zhenlin and Ye Fei both postponed leading their troops south.
Su Yu took into account all aspects of the situation and decided to first enter the Moganshan area, a branch of Tianmu Mountain, and then go deep into the Hangjiahu area, open up the connection with Pudong and Haibei, and then develop to eastern Zhejiang.
When the Japanese army attacked the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway and occupied the coastal areas of Zhejiang, all the main forces of the Kuomintang Army's 3rd Theater fled to northern Fujian and Jiangxi; when the Japanese army stopped attacking, the recalcitrant army immediately turned back and launched an attack on the New Fourth Army.
On the same day that Su Yu crossed the Yangtze River in the south, Gu Zhutong, commander of the 3rd Theater of Operations, sent a letter to Chiang Kai-shek:
Since the outbreak of the Guiliu War, the Southeast Theater has become more and more important. In order to adapt to the evolution of the war situation in the future, and to cooperate with the Allied landing operations, it is necessary to make adequate preparations in the military, political, party affairs, and economic aspects, and in particular, the prevention of treachery and hypocrisy should not be neglected for a moment. Since the New Fourth Army rebelled in southern Anhui, its remnants took advantage of the cover of the enemy and hypocrisy in the occupied area to control the Yangtze River crossing, flowing back and forth, growing longer and stronger. Recently, it has been transferred from northern Jiangsu and Anhui to the south, to the northeast of Jiangxi, along the river in southern Anhui, along the Beijing-Shanghai Road in southern Jiangsu, and along the coastal areas of Zhejiang and Fujian. That is, in the areas under our control, such as southern Zhejiang, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi, there are also secret organizations from time to time that they are secretly engaged in hidden activities, and openly advertise that they will welcome the landing of the Allied forces. If this is not strictly guarded in advance, once the Allied forces land, under the cover of approaching the Allied forces, it will become more difficult to become trapped, hinder the counteroffensive, and obstruct the victory, and the harm will not be under the enemy's control. In light of the current situation in the southeast and in view of the conspiracy of treachery and treachery, we would like to draw up measures for the prevention and control of treachery and treachery activities in this theater in coordination with the allied forces before and after the landing. A copy of the measures is hereby submitted, and whether it is appropriate?
I have the honour to submit it to Chairman Jiang
Job-care wishes
December 26, 33rd year of the Republic of China
Before setting out on the expedition, Su Yu once said vividly: "When we go to recover the lost territory from the Japanese invaders, the recalcitrant Kuomintang army will 'recover the lost territory' from us, and this has always been the case." This time, we will not be an exception to open up the anti-Japanese base area in western Zhejiang. Therefore, we have to deal with both the Japanese and the recalcitrant army. It is necessary to make this point clear to the troops and make full ideological preparations. The first opponents we will encounter will be mainly the regular Kuomintang army. "
In order to further ascertain the situation, and at the same time to avoid the political disadvantage of the New Fourth Army taking the initiative to attack the recalcitrant area, and to reap the effect of attacking the east and the west, Su Yu decided to first control the areas behind the enemy lines in Moganshan, Hangzhou (Prefecture), Jiaxing (Xing) Lake (Prefecture), and if the recalcitrant army attacked the rear and command center of the New Fourth Army from Xiaofeng, Anji, and other places, the New Fourth Army would take advantage of the situation to counterattack in the Xiaofeng area, and then control Tianmu Mountain. In mid-February 1945, when the New Fourth Army was advancing behind enemy lines in Hangjiahu and attacking the Japanese puppet army, Gu Zhutong, commander of the 3rd Theater of the Kuomintang Army, took the opportunity to order his headquarters from Xiaofeng to attack the rear of the Zhejiang troops of the New Fourth Army in an attempt to eliminate the New Fourth Army. The New Fourth Army was forced to defend itself, and the anti-stubborn campaign in the Tianmu Mountain area began.
But the recalcitrant army is indeed too poor in combat effectiveness, and it will collapse at the first touch!
On the night of 16 February, the 6th Company of the 3rd Detachment of the 1st Column of the New Fourth Army was on its way to the battlefield when it noticed a team running in the opposite direction, and asked which part it was. The other party replied: "It's 6 companies." When the commander of the 6th company heard this, he was furious: "Before the war, the company has become like this!" He shouted: "I am the commander of the 6th company, and the 6th company is going this way, one by one, and you are not allowed to fall behind!" The soldiers who ran around came into the team one by one. After walking for a short time, someone in the team began to complain and scold his mother. The commander of the 6th company was even more suspicious, and after careful identification, although he couldn't see his face clearly, he saw that there was no cold protection on the military caps of those soldiers, and he understood in his heart. He quietly made arrangements, and then fired his gun while shouting, "Shoot or kill!" so frightened that some of the soldiers surrendered their guns on the spot, and some ran into the roadside woods to hide. After dawn, the 3rd detachment organized a search of the troops in pieces, and found more than 300 people one after another, as well as a stubborn commander.
Su Yu commanded the troops of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Region to fight fiercely for five days, defeated the attacking recalcitrant army, annihilated more than 1,700 recalcitrant troops, conquered Xiaofeng County, controlled the northern area of Tianmu Mountain, and won the first victory in the anti-recalcitrant operation.
After the war, Su Yu sent a handwritten letter to Gu Zhutong: Humble and led his division south to resist the Japanese, and he was short of weapons and ammunition, thanks to your generosity, he selflessly sent 1,700 prisoners, 3 mortars, 12 heavy machine guns, 30 light machine guns, 14 Tom machine guns and 700 rifles. The more weapons the merrier, if you wish to send them again, I will not refuse to come. Thank you!
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China once instructed: "After the Su Department occupies the rear of Mogan Mountain, it is not appropriate to advance in depth for the time being, so as to consolidate the current area and lure the stubborn to attack." Su Yu's trick was called "luring the snake out of the hole", and the attempt put the recalcitrant army at a political and military disadvantage.
The Kuomintang army did not suffer major losses in the first battle of Tianmu Mountain. Ten days later, Gu Zhutong secretly ordered Tao Guang, deputy commander-in-chief of the 23rd Group Army and commander-in-chief of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Anhui Border Advance Army, to mobilize the 192nd and 52nd Divisions and a total of 12 regiments of the "Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army", with Tao Liu, commander of the 28th Army, as the commander-in-chief, to attack Xiaofeng in four ways, in a vain attempt to take advantage of the unstable foothold of the troops of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region to quietly annihilate the troops of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region in a corner of Xiaofeng. Gu Zhutong issued a secret order: "Don't let the allies find out, so as to pay attention to international hearing."
Su Yu once again commanded the troops of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region to counterattack, and after more than 10 consecutive days of fighting, he annihilated more than 1,700 enemies, and took advantage of the victory to occupy the eastern and western Tianmu Mountains, and took the county seat of Lin'an, thus winning the second victory in the anti-stubborn operation. In most areas of western Zhejiang, including Changxing, Xiaofeng, Anji, Wukang, Deqing, Wuxing, Yuhang, Lin'an, Yuqian, Fuyang, and Guang (De) in southern Anhui, about 10,000 square kilometers of land and more than 1 million people have been liberated.
However, Su Yu was very unhappy in his heart.
He already clearly felt that the New Fourth Army could completely change from fighting guerrilla warfare to fighting mobile warfare and from conducting coordinated operations with large corps. At that time, there were only two columns leaning together, and during the battle, one flat shoulder was carried at both ends, and he had no reserves in his hands, and he felt that his troops were even more insufficient in the face of the new situation of victorious development. If there are three columns, one column can be used to intercept and two columns can be assaulted, and the battle will be easy to fight, and the enemy can be annihilated in a systematic manner. On February 28, 1945, Su Yu sent a telegram to the Central China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Military Department of the New Fourth Army, asking him to accept his request quickly and send Ye Fei to lead the troops south.
On March 11, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved Ye Fei to lead his troops south. Ye Fei and other leaders of the party, government, and army of the Soviet Union and China, in line with the principle of being conducive to upholding the Soviet-Chinese struggle and being able to do their best to support the development of the southeast, decided to send more than 6,000 people from the teaching brigade and more than 250 local cadres such as Jin Ming and Zhang Yun who had been transferred from northern and central Jiangsu to the south.
Subsequently, Ye Fei and Zhong Qiguang led their troops to cross the river in batches from Jiangdu Bridge, Xima and Jingjiang areas to the Changxing area of Zhejiang, and then incorporated into the sequence of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Regions. Ye Fei served as deputy commander of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Region, and Zhong Qiguang served as deputy director of the Political Department of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Region. The teaching brigade was organized as the 4th column of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region, with Liao Zhengguo as commander, Wei Yiping, political commissar, Xia Guang, chief of staff, and Zeng Jiaqing, director of the Political Department. The 1st Regiment, the 2nd Special Service Regiment, and the Jianggao Independent Regiment under its jurisdiction were successively changed to the 10th, 11th, and 12th detachments.
After the second anti-recalcitrant battle, the Tianmu Mountain area was temporarily calm for a while.
At this time, the international situation is changing dramatically. On April 30, Berlin was liberated, on May 8, representatives of the German High Command signed the unconditional surrender, on March 16, the U.S. forces captured Iwo Jima, and on June 22, the U.S. forces captured Okinawa. German fascism collapsed, and Japanese militarism was also collapsing.
And what are the Kuomintang diehards doing?
On April 3, Chiang Kai-shek sent an urgent telegram to Gu Zhutong: "Quickly concentrate forces and turn to the offensive." "
On April 8, Chiang Kai-shek sent a top-secret telegram to the 3rd Theater of Operations on stepping up the "clearance" of the New Fourth Army.
On April 25, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Gu Zhutong: "Before the 3rd war zone, various measures to prevent traitors and bandits were not yet active. It is necessary to re-develop the method of active removal and submit it for verification. "
On 22 May, the 3rd Theater drew up an operational plan for "exterminating" the New Fourth Army in the southeast battlefield and assembled more experienced troops to take up the task of "suppressing the Communists."
From the end of May to the beginning of June, Chiang Kai-shek instructed Gu Zhutong, commander of the 3rd Theater of the Kuomintang Army, and Shangguan Yunxiang, deputy commander, to mobilize more than 75,000 people from 42 regiments, including 10 divisions of elite troops, 2 assault columns, the "Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army," and a security team, to launch a large-scale attack on the troops of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Regions in the Tianmu Mountain area.
The Kuomintang army made a big bet on this offensive. The troops put into operation were the "elite" of the 3rd Theater of Operations, in which the assault column was trained by British instructors and was fully equipped with American weapons. Its establishment is a five-battalion system, each battalion has about 1,000 people, and one team has five battalions, which is equivalent to one division, and the firepower is extremely strong. followed by the 52nd Division and the 79th Division, which were also the main forces, and both of these divisions were executioners in the Southern Anhui Incident, and they both clamored to fight another Southern Anhui Incident.
At this time, Su Yu, Ye Fei and other commanders of the New Fourth Army, who were busy opening up the connection between eastern and western Zhejiang, had not yet realized that the attack of the recalcitrant army would be so fierce.
On June 3, 1945, Wang Bicheng's column, which was on a covering mission, was suddenly attacked by a division of the recalcitrant army in the Xindeng area. At noon, Liu Beisheng, the commander of the main regiment, in order to hold the Hushan position, personally went to the front line to command, led his troops to carry out hand-to-hand combat, repelled the counterattack of the recalcitrant army many times, unfortunately was seriously injured, and died heroically at the foot of Xindenmi Mountain.
It was confirmed from the captured and captured documents that the recalcitrant army did indeed attack the New Fourth Army of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region and came to Xindeng to encircle.
The situation is critical, how should the battle be fought?
Su Yu resolutely drew up three plans: First, to reinforce Xindeng and fight a decisive battle against Xindeng; second, to take a step back and fight a decisive battle against Lin'an; and third, to retreat in great strides to lure the enemy deep and seek an opportunity to annihilate the enemy.
Wang Bicheng just lost his love, and he was extremely emotional, and he advocated a decisive battle on the spot to take revenge on Xindeng.
However, the New Fourth Army simply did not have the ability to fight a decisive battle with the recalcitrant army in Xindeng. In the end, Su Yu discussed with Ye Fei and persuaded Wang Bicheng to decide to temporarily abandon Tianmu Mountain and develop behind enemy lines.
However, the situation was more serious than Su Yu and others had foreseen.
Just when the recalcitrant army was attacking northward, the Japanese invaders, who had reached a tacit understanding with the recalcitrant army, in addition to "sweeping" the Maoshan area, attacked the Kengqiao on the southeast line of Anji on June 2 and 3, completely burned the place, and constantly sent troops to harass the area around Dongting Lake, in an attempt to cut off the connection between the New Fourth Army in southern Jiangsu and the western part of Zhejiang.
If the New Fourth Army resists head-on, it is likely to be broken by the recalcitrant army north of Tianmu Mountain. Originally, the evacuation was to find fighters, but under the circumstances at that time, a large-scale evacuation would probably be under the attack of the Japanese and stubborn forces, and the consequences would be unimaginable. Apart from repelling the attack of the recalcitrant army, the New Fourth Army had no other choice.
Su Yu's mind was tumbling.
This region has had many fierce battles in its history. Huaiyushan, where the Red Army's anti-Japanese advance team went north to resist Japan and Fang Zhimin's martyrdom were all nearby, and Su Yu was the chief of staff of the advance team at that time.
Could it be that this is really the place where Su Yu died?
"Communists never believe in evil!" Su Yu's hand waved to the sky, paused for a moment, and slowly withdrew the fork on his waist, "Now the troops have hastily withdrawn from the battlefield, and the personnel are mixed and chaotic. But that's not confusing enough, and I want you to make it more exaggerated. "
There was a bit of confusion on everyone's faces.
"We must, in the shortest possible time and at the shortest possible distance, convince the enemy that we are really defeated, and let them advance lightly. Then we ......" Su Yu stretched out his hand and slammed it into his arms, "Take Xiaofeng as the burial place of the recalcitrant army!"
The New Fourth Army took the initiative to evacuate Xindeng on June 4, continued to withdraw from Lin'an North on the 8th, and withdrew from Tianmu Mountain on the 15th, leading the enemy to the preset battlefield of the New Fourth Army.
At the beginning, Li Jue, the former commander-in-chief of the recalcitrant army, was still relatively cautious, and repeatedly warned all departments: "Don't be deceived, the jungle is deep and the valley is easy to ambush, and you must closely search for the enemy." Not to mention that since June 13, the rear organs, warehouses, and hospitals of the New Fourth Army in the Tianmu Mountain area have retreated one after another, and in addition, when the 33rd Brigade of the recalcitrant army entered and occupied Lin'an County, which was held by the New Fourth Army, it was not attacked by the New Fourth Army.
On June 18, the 33rd Brigade of the recalcitrant army, in order to take the lead, adopted the usual trick of the old army: lying about the military situation - declaring that it had captured the city of Xiaofeng. Zhang Naixin, commander of the 52nd Division of the Kuomintang Army, hurriedly sent the captain of his spy team to Xiaofeng City to contact, just for the New Fourth Army to be caught, and the company was sent to the former enemy headquarters of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Region with letters.
The recalcitrant army actually drove straight into the port area southeast of Xiaofeng! Between the two corps, the distance from east to west was about twenty kilometers.
It's really enemies who see each other, and they are very red-eyed!
The 52nd Division of the Kuomintang Army, the vanguard of the anti-communist emergency, was the main culprit in the southern Anhui incident, and it was the division that it was bent on recreating the "glory" of the southern Anhui incident in the past, and that it would "fight another dense forest and complete the unfinished work of suppressing the communists in southern Anhui."
On the night of June 19, 1945, the clouds were faint and the stars were sparse, and the wind was calm and the trees were calm, which was a good time to kill the enemy. Su Yu ordered: The whole army attacked!
The 4th column made a detour to the enemy's left flank, and the 1st and 2nd columns attacked the enemy's right flank, and two sharp knives pierced the ribs of the recalcitrant army. The commanders and fighters of the New Fourth Army were high-spirited and loudly proposed: "Annihilate the 52nd Division and avenge the martyrs of the Southern Anhui Incident" and marched forward bravely. After a day and night of fierce fighting, they annihilated the main force of the 52nd Division of the Kuomintang Army in one fell swoop, one day less than originally planned.
Su Yu immediately killed the horse gun again, transferred his troops to the southeast of Xiaofeng, and surrounded and annihilated most of the recalcitrant army's right corps, annihilating a total of more than 6,800 recalcitrant troops.
Together with the achievements of the 2nd Column in the Siming Mountains and the uprising of one column of the recalcitrant army, the New Fourth Army wiped out more than 13,000 recalcitrant troops, expanded the new area behind enemy lines in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, and removed the obstacles to the development of the anti-Japanese struggle in the southeastern coastal areas. The significance of the Battle of Tianmu Mountain also lies in the fact that the New Fourth Army realized the transition from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare ahead of schedule and made important military preparations for the subsequent war of liberation.