Chapter II: The Opening of the Anti-Japanese Base Area in Huaibei
(September 1938-December 1940)
Section 6: Creation of an Anti-Japanese Base Area in Northeast Anhui
Located south of Pi Sui Tong, east of Jinpu Road, north of the Huai River (and Xufengjia County is south of the Huai River), west of the canal including Hongze Lake, and spanning the two provinces of Suzhou and Anhui, the northeast region of Anhui was an important area of contention between the Japanese and Puppet and Kuomintang diehards and the Communists during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
In November 1938, the Kuomintang Anhui Provincial Government sent Sheng Zijin to Si County to serve as the commissioner of the Office of the Administrative Inspector of the Sixth District, and also served as the county magistrate of Si County, and served militarily as the commander of the Sixth District Anti-Enemy Command (referred to as the Sixth Anti-Enemy Force) and the commander of the Fifth Guerrilla Detachment of the Fifth Theater (hereinafter referred to as the Fifth Guerrilla Force). The special office and headquarters were located in the area of present-day Shuanggou and Xuyi County, Xuyi County. Before Sheng Zijin arrived at his post, he made a special trip to the Anhui Provincial Mobilization Committee and asked to send someone to assist him in opening up the situation behind enemy lines.
The Anhui Provincial Working Committee of the CPC then used the name of the Anhui Provincial Mobilization Committee to send Jiang Shangqing, Zhao Min, Zhou Estate, Wu Yun Estate, Liao Liangzhi, and others to accompany Sheng Zijin to northeast Anhui, and secretly established a special branch of the CPC in northeast Anhui, with Jiang Shangqing as secretary, Zhao Min as an organizing member, and Zhou Estate as a member of the propaganda committee. Since then, the Anhui Provincial Mobilization Committee has continued to send cadres to support northeast Anhui. Sheng Zijin entrusted most of the cadres recommended by the Motion Committee to important posts. After these cadres came to northeast Anhui, they did united front work on the one hand for Sheng Zi, and on the other hand, they developed Communist Party members, established local organizations of the CPC, and organized the people's anti-Japanese armed forces. During this period, in addition to the organizational foundation established by the former CPC Special Committee for the Sulu-Yu-Anhui Border Region, there were also the CPC Shandong Branch Bureau from north to south, the CPC Anhui Provincial Working Committee from south to north, the CPC Yuwan Border Provincial Committee from west to east, and the Jiangsu Provincial CPC Committee from east to west.
In February 1939, the Shandong Branch of the Communist Party of China sent Yang Chun as a commissioner to northeast Anhui to receive the party's organizational relations. In April, Yang Chun, Jiang Tong, Jiang Shangqing and others formed the Northeast Anhui Special Committee, with Yang Chun as secretary. After the establishment of the special committee, it brought together all aspects of the party relations system in northeast Anhui, thus strengthening the party's leadership, and the people's anti-Japanese armed forces in northeast Anhui were supplemented in terms of personnel, weapons, and supplies; at the same time, it also controlled the political power of the three districts, established the Women's Anti-Japanese Salvation Congress, the Youth Anti-Japanese Salvation Congress, and carried out mass work.
On April 27, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China agreed that the Shandong Branch Bureau would send troops and cadres south to develop around Hongze Lake in northern Jiangsu, carry out guerrilla warfare, establish anti-Japanese base areas, and decide to expand the Shandong Branch to the Sulu Yuwan Branch Bureau (in June, it was still changed to Shandong Branch), with Guo Hongtao as secretary. The sub-bureau decided to establish a party committee of the Suwan Border Region with Hongze Lake as the center, and transferred Jin Ming, secretary of the Zibo Special Committee, as secretary. On May 11, Jin Ming, Zhang Yan, Shao Youhe, and others set off from the sub-bureau, crossed the Longhai Road, entered the Suitong area, and on June 15, arrived at the seat of the Suwan Special Committee, and the Party Committee of the Suwan Border Region was formally established.
In May, Liu Shaoqi proposed that the guerrilla detachment of the New Fourth Army send troops and cadres east to Work in Si County, Wuhe, and Lingbi areas. In early July, the Party, Government, and Military Committee of the guerrilla detachment, based on Liu Shaoqi's opinion, sent Zhang Aiping and Liu Yuzhu, secretaries of the Cpc Yuwan Border Provincial Cpc Committee, to the northeastern Anhui region. They listened to yang chun and Jiang Shangqing's reports on the situation in northeast Anhui, and got in touch with the Suluyu detachment, the Longhainanjin guerrilla detachment, and the local anti-Japanese armed forces to carry out anti-Japanese national united front work against Sheng Zijin. Sheng Zi respectfully welcomed the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army into the northeast of Anhui province, joined forces with them to resist the war, and promised to supply grain and grass. After Zhang Aiping arrived in northeastern Anhui, he established the CPC Northeast Anhui Working Committee, which was composed of Zhang Aiping, Yang Chun, Wu Faxian, Liu Yuzhu, Zhao Huichuan, and others, with Zhang Aiping as secretary. Then, Zhang Aiping and Liu Yuzhu met with Sheng Zijin in Luogang.
Sheng Zijin, under the pressure of the Kuomintang Gui clan and local feudal forces, wanted to use and rely on the help of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army to develop his own strength, and agreed to set up an office of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in Zhangtang, northeast Anhui Province, with Zhang Aiping as the director and Liu Yuzhu as the deputy director, and the special office allocated funds. The establishment of the office strengthened cooperation with Sheng Zijin and did a great deal of united front work for anti-Japanese progressives and enlightened gentry in northeast Anhui, thus promoting the situation in which various forces in northeast Anhui united to resist Japan.
Sheng Zijin cooperated with the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army to resist the war, which aroused the opposition of the stubborn forces in northeast Anhui. On August 29, Sheng Zijin led Jiang Shangqing and others to Zhangda Road to negotiate with Xu Zhiyuan, the kuomintang county magistrate of Lingbi County, in order to improve relations. On the way back, when passing through Xiaowan Village, under the behind-the-scenes planning of Xu Zhiyuan, the large landlords in northeast Anhui Province, Bai Yisun and Wang Zhongtao, sent armed forces to attack Sheng Zijin and his party, and Jiang Shangqing and Zhu Boyong, secret members of the CPC, were unfortunately shot and killed. Liu Yuzhu and Shi Qing went to properly handle the incident and stopped the rebellion of the landlords' armed forces.
At the beginning of September, according to the instructions of the Shandong Branch of the CPC, Jin Ming led the cadres of the party committee of the Suwan Border Region from Pisui copper south to the northeast Anhui region, using the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army office in northeast Anhui (Zhangtang) as a cover. At this time, the district party committee was composed of Jin Ming, Li Haoran, Zhang Yan, Yang Chun, Shao Youhe and others. At the end of October, Zhang Kexin went from Huaihai District to northeast Anhui to join the district party committee and serve as the director of the Armed Mobilization Department. The party committee of the Suwan Border Region unified the work of the party in the northeastern Anhui, Pisui copper, Huaihai, and Yanfu areas. The Suwan Special Committee, the Northeast Anhui Special Committee, and the Northeast Anhui Working Committee were immediately abolished.
After the party committee of the Suwan Border Region entered the northeastern Anhui region, it held a meeting at Zhang Dalu, and Zhang Aiping, Jin Ming, Liu Yuzhu, Wu Faxian, and others attended the meeting. The meeting further decided on the principles and tasks of the struggle in northeast Anhui: On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the work of the CPC in the Sixth Special Office of the Kuomintang in Anhui Province, promote it to continue to resist Japan, practice democracy, and gradually transform its troops; on the other hand, it is absolutely not limited by the Kuomintang, and it is necessary to mobilize the masses independently and autonomously and openly develop the anti-Japanese armed forces under the leadership of the Communist Party.
On September 10, the Shandong Branch of the Communist Party of China, in accordance with the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, assigned the northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu regions south of Longhai Road to the leadership of the Central Plains Bureau. On December 20, in accordance with Liu Shaoqi's instructions on developing eastward and creating a base area in northern Jiangsu, and in light of the struggle in northeast Anhui, the guerrilla detachment of the New Fourth Army sent Zhang Taisheng to lead the main first regiment of the detachment and 120 party and government cadres to accompany Zhang Aiping to the east of Jinpu Road to strengthen the work in northeast Anhui. The Longhai Nanjin Detachment also entered the central area of Sixian County. Because of the development of the anti-Japanese national united front work and the strengthening of the anti-Japanese armed forces, the Kuomintang Gui clan was even more suspicious of Sheng Zijin, so Li Pinxian, chairman of the Kuomintang Anhui Provincial Government, sent Ma Xinting to lead a reinforcement battalion to forcibly enter the Sibei region through Lingbei in an attempt to replace Sheng Zijin, sabotage the anti-Japanese national united front, expand the anti-communist position, and open up ties with Deloitte in Northern Jiangsu and Korea. In order to smash this conspiracy, the guerrilla detachment of the New Fourth Army adopted the policy of aiding Shengsheng and beating horses, and warned and blocked it. However, Ma Xinting, believing that he had no fear, actually passed through the Japanese and pseudo strongholds and entered the nest of the big landlord in northeast Sichuan, Dabai Weizi, and stubbornly resisted.
On February 4, 1940, under the unified command of Zhang Aiping, the Hu Bingyun Brigade of the Suluyu Detachment of the Eighth Route Army and two regiments of the Northeast Anhui Army of the New Fourth Army, attacked Dabaiwei, and Ma Xinting led the remnants of the Starry Night to flee to the west of Luxi, so that Li Pinxian's attempt failed. The victory in the Battle of Dabaiwei led Sheng Zijin to further cooperate with the Communist Party and establish the Anhui Sixth District Military and Political Promotion Committee, with Sheng Zijin as the director and Zhang Aiping in charge of the military. After the Battle of Dabaiwei, Ma Xinting filed a complaint with the Kuomintang authorities in Anhui Province. On February 15, the Kuomintang authorities removed Sheng Zijin from his post on charges of "colluding with traitors and resisting the Nationalist army" and "arrested him in order to show law and order."
Fearful of being wanted by the Kuomintang authorities and unwilling to continue the path of unity and resistance with the Communists, Sheng Zijin led more than a thousand people to cross the Huai River from Guanzhen south on February 28, and deceived the Communists Zhao Min, Shi Qing, and Liu Peilin, in an attempt to use Huainan to go to Taizhou and defect to Li Mingyang. When Sheng Zijin led his troops through the Half Pagoda Set, they were intercepted and disarmed by the fifth detachment of the New Fourth Army, and except for one of them, most of them joined the fifth detachment of the New Fourth Army, and Sheng and his family members were sent out of the country by courtesy. After Sheng Zijin left, the Communist Party of China and the army under its leadership independently assumed the responsibility for the War of Resistance in northeast Anhui. Since then, the northeast anhui region has changed from a united front area to an anti-Japanese base area, and the Communist Party of China has also changed from secret activities to open activities, and has begun to establish a people's anti-Japanese democratic regime.
After Sheng Zijin left, the local armed forces in northeast Anhui, led by the Communist Party, were reorganized and expanded into the main force. The former "Six Resistance" Detachment was reorganized into the Eleventh Regiment of the Fourth General Brigade of the Sixth Detachment of the New Fourth Army, with Zhao Huichuan as the regimental commander and Cai Ming as the political commissar; the former "Six Resistance" Special Agent Detachment was reorganized into the Twelfth Regiment of the Fourth General Brigade, with Xu Chongfu as the regimental commander; the former "Five Tours" Peasants' Third Detachment and the local armed Huaihe Detachment were merged into the Independent First Regiment of the Fourth General Brigade, with Zhang Zhenqiu as the regimental commander and Shi Qing as the political commissar.
On March 18, the Central Plains Bureau of the CPC decided to form the Military and Political Committee of the Suwan Border Region with Liu Ruilong, Jin Ming, Zhang Aiping, Jiang Hua, Tian Weiyang, and others as secretary, with Liu Ruilong as secretary and Zhang Aiping and Jiang Hua as deputy secretaries, to unify and coordinate the contacts between the main forces of the Suwan Border Region and between the troops and the local party and government.
On March 24, the Military and Political Promotion Committee of the Sixth District of Anhui province held the first congress of all walks of life in Qingyang Town, and the congress announced the establishment of an anti-Japanese democratic regime in northeast Anhui Province, still in the name of the Office of the Administrative Inspector of the Sixth District of Anhui Province, with Chen Chuwu acting as commissioner and Liu Yuzhu as the secretary of the commissioner's office. At the same time, the Northeast Anhui Security Command was established, with Zhang Aiping as commander and political commissar and Zhao Huichuan as deputy commander. In June, Chen Chuwu resigned as acting commissioner, with Liu Yuzhu as commissioner. The Special Commission promulgated the three major decrees on the protection of human rights, reasonable burdens, and the elimination of bandits, and sorted out the finances, established various government systems, transformed the grass-roots political power, solved the difficulties in providing for the troops, and enhanced the prestige of the democratic regime among the masses.
In September, the fifth column of the Eighth Route Army successively entered the Huaihai area, the organs of the CPC Suwan Border District Committee moved to the Qianjian Tower near Qianji in Muyang County, and the focus of the work of the district party committee fell to Huaihai District. The Northeast Anhui Prefecture Committee was established in The area of Si County, where the former district party committee was located, consisting of Zhang Yan, Wu Zhi rafters, Liu Yuzhu, Chang Yuqing, and others, with Zhang Yan as secretary and still under the leadership of the Party Committee of the Suwan Border Region. At the same time, the Northeast Anhui Army Branch was established, composed of Zhang Yan, Liu Yuzhu, Bao Qixiang, Hu Jicheng and others, with Zhang Yan as the secretary.
At this time, the anti-Japanese democratic regime in northeast Anhui had jurisdiction over five counties (offices), sixteen districts, and 104 township governments in Si County, Xu Fengjia, Si WuLingfeng, Si Su, and Huaisi, and the leaders of the county and district governments were basically Communist Party members. The construction of the base area has begun to take shape.