Zhang Wentong (second from right) with his comrades-in-arms.
On April 6, 1938, most of the seven and eight detachments crossed the Weihe River in the east and marched to Jiaodong. Lu Shengsan, who remained in Wacheng, was assassinated and killed on the spot. When the troops entered Xinhe Town, Pingdu County, to rest and train, they performed literary and artistic programs for the villagers and led doctors to deliver medicines to patients, which was supported by the common people. When stationed in Huangxian County, the problems of "three armies" and "three branches" were solved.
Dongdu Weihe marched into Sanwa City, Jiaodong Lu Province, and was assassinated
On April 5, 1938, a meeting was held in Longchi, and Lu Shengsan presided over the meeting, first stating the importance and necessity of issues such as going east to Jiaodong: helping to open up anti-Japanese base areas and taking the opportunity to expand equipment and troops. At the meeting, the Ludong Guerrilla Command of the Eighth Route Army was set up, with Ma Bao as the third commander, Han Mingzhu as the deputy commander, Lu Shengsan as the political commissar, and Zhang Wentong as the deputy political commissar. At the same time, two detachments were still retained, and Zhang Hongli and Wang Yunsheng served as the leaders of the seventh and eighth detachments respectively. In addition, a special task force and a cavalry brigade directly under the command headquarters were established, with Lu Shengxun as the leader of the special service brigade and Chen Jiezhang as the leader of the cavalry team. Second, all troops immediately marched eastward towards the Pingdu, Yexian, and Huangxian areas. It was also decided to establish the CPC Changwei County CPC Committee and the Rear Working Committee of the Seventh and Eighth Detachments to persist in the local struggle. These decisions were endorsed by most of the cadres attending the meeting, but Zhang Hongli resolutely opposed them and proposed that the troops of each county return to the counties. Zhang Hongli also brought Jin Yan, a member of unknown origin from the political department of the seven detachments, into the meeting place and made unreasonable trouble.
On April 6, most of the troops crossed the Weihe River in the east and marched to Jiaodong. Lu Shengsan stayed in Wacheng and presided over the establishment of the CPC Changwei County Cpc Committee (Zhang Zhizhong was the secretary) and the Rear Work Committee of the Seventh and Eighth Detachments (also known as the Left-behind Office, with Sun Han as the third director). The next day, Lu Shengsan and local comrades studied and handled the matter of staying behind in Wacheng. Jin Yan suddenly rode in and fired several shots at lu shengsan in the back, and lu shengsan was killed on the spot. The personnel of the rear guard office immediately captured Jin Yan.
The headquarters consisted of Zhang Wentong, Wang Yunsheng, and Wang Yizhi, who formed a temporary military tribunal. In the provisional military court, 3 people interrogated Jin Yan for what happened, and launched a tit-for-tat argument with Jin Yan with strong facts. After interrogation, Jin Yan confessed that he had been instructed by Zhang Hongli to return to Wacheng on horseback by Liu Jiaquan, where the seven detachments were stationed, to assassinate Lu Shengsan.
The headquarters immediately arrested Zhang Hongli. After interrogation, Zhang Hongli confessed that he had given Jin Yan the gun and instigated him to assassinate Lu Shengsan. After all the interrogations were completed and the evidence was conclusive, Jin Yan and Zhang Hongli were executed on the spot.
After the death of Lu Shengsan, the Ludong guerrilla command held a meeting in the lower camp of Changbei and decided that Zhang Wentong would succeed him as the political commissar of the headquarters and Liu Guanghan would take over as the leader of the seven detachments.
After a short rest in Ye County, the troops continued to march east in three ways
The headquarters led seven or eight detachments from the bank of the Weihe River, and after more than 4 hours of arduous trekking, they finally walked out of the beach. The troops rested for a moment on the alkali beach and continued on their way.
On April 10, the troops entered xinhe town in Pingdu County and decided to conduct short-term rest training. In accordance with the orders issued by the command headquarters, Zhang Wentong led the squadrons to camp in the streets, and were not allowed to enter people's houses privately, and did not move the masses to every grass and tree. The troops gathered in the streets and courtyards to sing anti-war songs such as "March of the Volunteer Army," and the propaganda team performed literary and artistic programs at the intersection, beating gongs, drums, and playing the piano and flute, which was very lively. Some of the masses opened their doors to watch, the officers and men of the unit talked with them enthusiastically, and the logistics department also led doctors to the homes of villagers with diseases to see a doctor and deliver medicine. The masses put aside their worries, passed ten, ten passed a hundred, opened the door one after another, asked long questions and short questions, and watched the performance. I heard that there were good doctors in the team, and those with diseases came to seek medical treatment, and the troops were warmly welcoming. When the common people saw the troops eating, they did not ask the masses for this and that, but only went to the wild to dig up wild vegetables to eat, and they were very touched, and they all gathered grain and rice to cook for the troops, and also laid grass for the soldiers to stay. At night, the soldiers were brought into the house, and the laughter party was very lively. The next day, when the troops left the village, the villagers clinging to each other and were sent out of the village.
After the combined seven and eight detachments entered Ye county for a short rest, the headquarters Ma Baosan, Han Mingzhu, Zhang Wentong, and others analyzed the situation and decided to let Liu Guanghan and Zhao Xiude lead the main force of the seven detachments straight to Huang County to assist the two detachments to get rid of Wang Jingsong's shackles and take the opportunity to solve Wang Jingsong's armed forces. Han Mingzhu led his men to Zhaoyuan City and waited for an opportunity to solve the armed forces in the city. The troops then marched eastward in three ways: one was Liu Guanghan and two brigades of seven detachments were marching into Longkou Town, Huangxian County; the other was Han Mingzhu who led eight detachments and two brigades to march into Zhaoyuan; and the other was Ma Baosan and Zhang Wentong, leading the command organs and special service brigades to enter Huangshanguan in Huangxian County, waiting for an opportunity to capture the county seat.
Han Mingzhu led his troops to Zhaoyuan City, but before he could arrive, he was recalled by the command and concentrated his forces to solve the HuangXian armed forces.
When Chao Mingzhu rushed to Huang County, seven detachments were besieging Wang Jingsong in the compound of the county government, and the two sides were at a standstill. In order to reduce casualties and strive for a unified anti-Japanese resistance, Han Mingzhu adopted the method of forced surrender. He personally selected several sharpshooters from the eight detachments, occupied the commanding heights in the four corners of the Huangxian County Government, closely observed the movements in the compound, and immediately counterattacked as soon as he saw where the courtyard was shooting at us. When the soldiers of Wang Jingsong's army first opened fire on our army, the sharpshooters immediately knocked it down, and the gun hit. Wang Jingsong knew that he could not escape, so he had no choice but to shout peace and obediently lead the team out to disarm. The battle was fought very skillfully, collecting more than 300 long and short guns, a large number of ammunition, as well as cars, uniforms and military supplies. Ma Baosan called this "a soldier who yields without a fight, and a good man who is good."
Rectifying the reorganization of the troops and stubbornly resolving the problems of the "three services" and "three branches."
In May 1938, the headquarters was stationed in Huangxian County, and after making rough arrangements, it began to solve the problems of "three armies" and "three branches". At that time, the factions of the Kuomintang's recalcitrant kuomintang troops in Jiaodong saw the rapid development of the anti-Japanese armed forces led by the Communist Party, and they colluded with each other, some of them broke into our department to seize the leadership, and some of them jointly attacked us by dispersing their troops in an attempt to eat them separately. The "three armies" in Jiaodong were developed by local armed forces scattered under the leadership of the Communist Party of Wenden, Rongcheng, Penglai, Huangxian, Rushan, and Mouping counties, and each of them was scattered in various places. On the one hand, such an armed force is easy to be eaten, and on the other hand, it is difficult to command and dispatch. In view of these situations, the command sent people to contact various places, sent troops to provide cover, and let the scattered local armed forces assemble in Huang County. In mid-May, the armed forces of various departments arrived one after another, and Lin Yishan, deputy secretary of the Jiaodong Special Committee of the CPC and chairman of the Third Army of the Shandong People's Anti-Japanese Salvation Army, also led the directly subordinate units of the three armies from Wenden, Rongcheng, and Muping to Huang County to join the seventh and eighth detachments. The "three services" units have been reorganized and combined, so that the leading organs are sound, the organization is unified, and the pace is consistent, so that it is convenient for command and dispatch, so that the problems in the "three services" can be basically solved.
There were great problems in the third detachment of the Jiaodong Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Detachment in Yexian County: First, the leadership was not in the hands of the Communists, and at any time some people were pulled to the Tu stubborn troops; second, zhao Sentang, the chief of staff of the three detachments, was under the threat of Pingdu Tu Stubbornness externally, and zhao Sentang, the chief of staff of the three detachments, was ambitious and tried to collude with the external Tu Stubborn Zhang Jinming to eat the three detachments. The three detachments could not solve these two problems on their own, so they asked the command headquarters for help. The command headquarters then dispatched two brigades to Ye County, and with lightning speed, they arrested Zhao Sentang, Wang Wenfeng, director of the secretariat of the main backbone of another reactionary clique, the three brigade leaders, and the Kuomintang township chief, and shot them on the spot, eliminating the internal troubles. At the same time, troops were deployed in ye county to prevent external stubborn Zhang Jinming from invading.
After the Seventh and Eighth Detachments entered Jiaodong, they outwitted Huang County and attacked the pro-Japanese faction, assisting in the consolidation and development of the "three armies" and "three" brother units. The longkou garrison was reorganized to liberate Longkou, and the bloody battle of Xia Qiu Fort defeated the Pingdu Kuomintang stubbornness and eliminated the hidden dangers of the three branches. The young people of Jiaodong and Changwei joined the army one after another to participate in the war, and the seven and eight detachments soon grew to more than 6,000 people and more than 5,000 steel guns.
According to the suggestion of Deputy Commander Han Mingzhu, a reorganization of the troops was carried out in Huang County. The reorganized troops were still commanded by the command headquarters, with Ma Bao under the command of the third, Han Mingzhu as the deputy commander, and Zhang Wentong as the political commissar. The headquarters consists of the headquarters, the political department, the supply department and the special service brigade directly under it, the machine gun brigade (reorganized from the police force on the dragon's mouth), and the cavalry brigade. At the same time, a series of rules and regulations have been established and perfected, party members have been registered, and ideological and political work in the armed forces has been improved. The Logistics Department opened a quilt factory and an arsenal, and the troops soon all changed into yellow uniforms. The arsenal also built grenades and mortars. These achievements set a precedent in the history of the Shandong People's War of Resistance.