There is a careerist in Pingdu County, named Zhang Jinming, a native of Dingtao County, Shandong, who was the principal of Pingdu County High School before the "77" incident. In the winter of 1937, he went to Xuzhou to use the relationship of "Xuexing Society" to obtain the appointment of the commander of the 16th detachment directly under the Fifth War Zone, and used the relationship of fellow villagers He Siyuan and Liu Daoguang to obtain the title of Pingdu County Magistrate, and in January 1938, he returned to Pingdu and raised more than 1,700 people in the Zhugou area, claiming to be the commander of the lieutenant general. He tried to claim hegemony in Jiaodong, and in order to expand his sphere of influence, he appointed 11 commanders in Pingdu, Jimo, Laiyang, Zhaoyuan, Qixia and other counties.
After the three detachments captured Yecheng, Zhang Jinming immediately sent his staff officer Wang Donglang to Yexian County to appoint Zheng Yaonan as the leader of the major general's detachment, but was immediately rejected by Zhengyan. Wang Donglang did not give up, and went to the seventh brigade of the three detachments stationed in Xiaqiubao and the fourth brigade stationed in the Eastern Song Dynasty to win over, but was sternly rejected by Xu Chengxun and Wang Zhaolin, and he was driven away.
Wang Donglang touched a nose of ash in Ye County, and returned to Pingdu to report to Zhang Jinming. Zhang Jinming was annoyed and ashamed, and he shamelessly fabricated ten major charges against the three detachments, saying nonsense that the three detachments had detained the arms they had transported from Tianjin, robbed them of their property and food, attacked their troops, and so on, and instigated and co-opted the various departments of Laiyang, Zhaoyuan, and Qixia to engage in anti-communist friction on trumped-up charges. On 6 May, the recalcitrant invaded the county border in four directions at the same time, in a vain attempt to swallow up our three detachments in one bite.
Zhang Jinming concentrated five or six hundred people, with Li Deyuan as the vanguard, to attack the seventh brigade of Xiaqiu Fort. Captain Xu Chengxun commanded the troops to fight fiercely with the recalcitrant army for a day, and the quartermaster department of the three detachments sent Su Mingsan, the head of the ordnance unit, to escort ammunition to Xiaqiu Fort to assist them in counterattacking. When retreating, Su Ming Sanyi knocked down three or four enemies, and the enemy concentrated his fire on him, and Su was seriously wounded and carried to Yecheng Meitie Hospital, where he died after rescue failed.
The Laiyang Kuomintang diehards sent Liu Dongyang's 3 to 400 men to attack a squadron of our 1st Brigade stationed in Guojiadian. Because our squadron was unprepared and outnumbered, 2 people were killed, more than 30 people were captured, and more than 20 large guns were taken. The recalcitrant army looted in Guojiadian, and more than 40 shops in the town were robbed, and more than 40 bicycles were stolen, resulting in heavy losses. In addition, Qin Yutang of Qixia attacked our Ninth Brigade stationed in Yidao, and Jiao Shengqing of Zhaoyuan attacked my Fifth Brigade of Zhuqiao with more than 500 people.
The Kuomintang Fourth Route Recalcitrant Army gathered more than 2,000 people to attack the three detachments together, creating the first major friction in Jiaodong. For a while, the border of Ye County was full of smoke, the bandits were menacing, the people were panicked, and there was a tendency of dark clouds to overwhelm the city.
At this critical juncture, our three detachments set up a front-line command to resist the joint attack of the recalcitrant bandits. However, because our army had no combat experience, it adopted the method of blocking the enemy with troops and covering up with soldiers from the water, and as a result, troops were dispatched from all sides, dispersing the troops, and for a time it was in a passive predicament. Zhang Jinming's second attack in the direction of Xiaqiubao, due to the single strength of our troops, once attacked Baisha and approached Phoenix Mountain; The Guojiadian battlefield was commanded by Wang Dongjiao, the captain of the special service brigade, because he did not understand tactics and had a rough temperament, he forced the soldiers to rush forward vigorously, causing the troops to suffer certain losses and low morale; On the battlefield of Zhuqiao, Jiao Yan attacked us from the east and north, and the captain of our fifth brigade, Sun Xiangjiu, led a squadron in the east, and the political commissar Jiang Jingyi led a squadron in the west, resisting until dusk.
Under this critical situation, the detachment ordered the dismissal of Wang Dongjiao and Sun Xiangjiu from their command posts, and transferred the 2nd Brigade to reinforce the Guojiadian Battlefield, the 4th Brigade to reinforce the Xiaqiubao Battlefield, the 6th Brigade to reinforce the Yidao Battlefield, and the 3rd Brigade and the 5th Brigade to reinforce the Zhuqiao Battlefield with the squadrons stationed in Shihuzui. On the night of the third day, a full-scale counterattack was launched and the town of Zhuqiao was recaptured. At this time, the command of the front line in the south of the city was changed to Zhang Guanwu. Zhang was a scholar with no combat experience, and he mechanically used the tactics of the Three Kingdoms, and lost the battle, leaving the battlefield in a state of seesaw.
In order to expose Zhang Jinming's conspiracy and defend the anti-Japanese base area in Ye County, the Political Department drafted a "Letter to the Armed Comrades of the Three Detachments" to expose his heinous crimes of sabotaging the unity of the War of Resistance and to warn the commanders and fighters of the whole army to strengthen their morale and resolutely resist.
In order to completely smash the offensive launched by Zhang Jinming, Comrade Zhang Jialuo braved hardships and dangers on 10 May to pass through the stubborn defense line and get rid of the interception of the Huangxian Beima Red Gun Society. On the morning of the 12th, the responsible comrades of the three armies arrived in Huangxian City, and in the afternoon held a joint meeting of the heads of the Jiaodong Special Committee, the three armies, the eight detachments, and the three detachments at the headquarters of the Eighth Detachment.
The meeting was presided over by Comrade Ma Baosan, and Comrade Lin Yishan reported on the situation in Jiaodong, explained the purpose of the three armies moving westward, and analyzed the reasons for the friction created by the diehards; Comrade Zhang Wentong reported on the reorganization of the 7th and 8th detachments in the east; Comrade Zhang Jialuo reported on the situation of Zhang Jinming and other local recalcitrants attacking Ye County on four fronts. After discussions, it was decided that the three fraternal units, the three armies, the eighth detachment, and the three detachments, would form the anti-eye coalition army, with Ma Bao as the commander of the coalition forces, Lin Yishan as the political commissar, Song Cheng as the director of the political department, and Zhao Xiude as the chief of staff. The former enemy command was also established, with Han Mingzhu as the command, Zhang Jialuo as the political commissar, and Zheng Yaonan as the deputy commander.
After the meeting, the coalition forces immediately sent Liu Guanghan, chief of staff of the Eighth Detachment, and Zhao Xiude, vice chairman of the Military and Political Committee, to lead three brigades and Wang Benxian to lead two squadrons of the three armies to reinforce Yexian. In accordance with Comrade Han Mingzhu's suggestion, the command of the former enemy adopted the principle of concentrating superior forces to defeat the first enemy, and pressed all the five brigades of the three detachments and the three brigades of the eight detachments, totaling more than 1,000 people, to the battlefield of Xiaqiubao, and the two squadrons of the three armies remained in the city and stood by. Zheng Yaonan, Zhang Jialuo, Zhao Sentang, Liu Guanghan, Zhao Xiude, and others all went to Baisha, held a meeting of cadres above the captain level in the temple in the east of the village, made battle arrangements, and decided to attack with eight brigades on the front, two brigades to attack from both sides, and leave one brigade as a reserve.
Before dawn the next day, the brigades marched to their positions, and the battle began at dawn. Our army launched an attack on the recalcitrant garrisons of Huaishuzhuang, Ligezhuang, Yujia, and Weijia villages, recaptured four or five villages, and forced the enemy to withdraw all to Xiaqiu Fort. In the afternoon, our army besieged Xiaqiu Fort, the soldiers climbed the earthen weizi and clashed with the recalcitrant army, under the pressure of our army step by step, the recalcitrant army was unable to counterattack, and fled to the south of Gaowang Mountain, eliminating more than 100 Zhang Shuo. After the battle, eight brigades of the eight detachments withdrew to the southeastern mountains to rest and wait, and the three detachments left five brigades to garrison Xiaqiu Fort.
On the afternoon of the third day, our army was holding a battle summary meeting at the Xiaqiubao Primary School, when we heard the sound of gunfire all around, and the 16th detachment came to attack again. Comrades Zheng Yaonan and Zhang Jialuo immediately ordered all the brigades to go into battle, and Zheng and Zhang personally went to the front of the position to command, and while carrying out a military counterattack, they organized shouts to disintegrate the enemy. Zhang Jinming saw that the morale of the recalcitrant army was suppressed under the powerful offensive of our army and the government, and he organized a team of superintendents and a death squad to force the soldiers to climb up the fence, and groups of recalcitrant troops were repelled by our fierce artillery fire, and the battle continued until two o'clock in the second half of the night, when the change suddenly retreated on all fronts.
Later, he learned from the captives that Zhang Jinming felt that his troops had suffered too heavy casualties in climbing the fence, so he forced Li Deyuan's troops to attack. Zhang Jinming saw that he had lost more than 200 people, so he had no choice but to retreat.
After Zhang Yan's defeat, the other three stubborn bandits retreated without a fight. In this way, the nearly month-long campaign of self-defense and anti-stubbornness ended victoriously in early June.
In this anti-stubborn self-defense war, more than 300 enemies were annihilated, the anti-Japanese base area in Yexian County was defended, the military prestige was greatly boosted, the morale of the stubborn bandits was greatly boosted, and the mood of the broad masses of the people was inspired. In mid-June, Zhang Jinming, fearing that he would retaliate against him because he was afraid of the might of our anti-Japanese coalition army, took the initiative to send Guo Wulin to the headquarters of the Jiaodong anti-Japanese coalition army in Huangxian County to negotiate. Gao Gaosan, a representative of the three armed forces, and Comrade Zhang Jialuo, a representative of the three detachments, participated in the talks. Under our stern accusations, he had no choice but to admit that he took the initiative to attack Ye County and was responsible for causing the incident, and expressed his willingness to join forces with our army in the future to resist the war and fight the enemy together. This was the first major victory won by our party and our army in the anti-friction campaign in Jiaodong, which dealt a great blow to the diehards and created a favorable situation for the greater development of the anti-Japanese forces.
Excerpt from the historical record of the revolutionary struggle in Laizhou