In the south of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, there is a famous Taoist mountain Maoshan, which is the birthplace of the Shangqing sect of Taoism and is called the "Shangqing Sect Altar" by Taoists. It has the reputation of "the first blessed land, the eighth cave heaven". It is also one of the six major anti-Japanese base areas in China's mountains.
In October 1938, when Maoshan was in high autumn, Chen Yi was holding a meeting at a Zhuangzi near the town of Baotuo at the foot of Maoshan Mountain, which was the headquarters of the 1st Detachment of the New Fourth Army, and Chen Yi was the commander of the 1st Detachment.
Suddenly, the communication staff officer of the New Fourth Army's advancing column came on horseback to report to Chen Yi:
The Advancing Column of the New Fourth Army landed in Yangzhong in two ways, quickly liberated Laolang Street, Baziqiao and other places, and finally took sanmao Town, the seat of the Yangzhong County Government. Now, Commander Guan Wenwei has gone to Lao Lang Street to hold a celebration meeting and a mass meeting.
Because the New Fourth Army's radio stations are few, they often can only rely on manual transmission, and because of this, the subordinate units of each detachment are fighting for themselves, often launching battles on their own, and then reporting to their superiors.
The New Fourth Army's Advancing Column was an anti-Japanese detachment incorporated by Chen Yi, whose predecessor was the Nishan Self-Defense Regiment organized by Guan Wenwei in his hometown of Danyang County in October 1937, with a total of more than 3,000 people.
In July 1938, Chen Yi, commander of the 1st Detachment of the New Fourth Army, met with Guan Wenwei, and then sent Liu Yan, director of the Political Department of the 1st Detachment, to inspect it, and awarded the Danyang guerrilla column the title of Commander, with Guan Wenwei as commander and Wei Yongyi as director of the Political Department.
In September, the Danyang guerrilla column was renamed the New Fourth Army Advancing Column, and was called the Jiangnan Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army Advancing Column, with the commander still Guan Wenwei and the deputy commander Ye Fei.
At that time, the Party Central Committee demanded that the New Fourth Army develop north as soon as possible, but the Yangtze River was full of Japanese gunboats, the defense was very tight, and it was very difficult for the New Fourth Army to cross the river and go north. After careful analysis, Chen Yi held that Yangzhong is a relatively ideal place to cross the river.
Yangzhong is the second largest alluvial sandbar in the Yangtze River, where the land is fertile and rich in products, and Yangzhong County was established as early as the Qing Dynasty.
North of Yangzhong, there is a small sandbar as a "bridge pier", which is closer to the north of the river and not too far to the south of the river, and it is a good ferry port to and from the north and south of the river under the condition that the Japanese Kou control the Yangtze River.
However, the Japanese army was insufficient and did not set up a stronghold in Yangzhong. At that time, a group of bandit troops were entrenched in Yangzhong. Its leader is named Jia Changfu, a gang gangster. This unit specializes in collecting scoundrels, making harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes on the masses, kidnapping and extorting tickets, committing adultery and looting, and committing all kinds of evil deeds.
This Jia Changfu was also a typical political bandit and a speculative bandit, he stepped on two boats, and he threw himself into the subordinates of Zhang Shaohua of the Ninth Security Brigade of Jiangsu Province under han Deloitte's jurisdiction, and was given the nickname of a regiment.
On the other hand, Jia Changfu secretly colluded with the Japanese army, and he guarded the Yangtze River communication line for the Japanese Kou, and the Japanese Kou allowed him to dominate in Yangzhong. He also ordered Zhang Shaohua to continuously send armed agents across the river to assassinate cadres and local progressives who advanced into the column.
At that time, the New Fourth Army was undermanned and had not taken action against Jia Changfu. As the strength of the New Fourth Army's advancing column grew, Guan Wenwei attacked Yangzhong and reported the news of the victory to Chen Yi, commander of the 1st Detachment.
When Chen Yi heard this, he couldn't help but smile and smile, and he said while listening: "You are very active!" ”
The staff officer's eyebrows fluttered as he spoke, but Chen Yi frowned as he listened, and he suddenly interrupted the staff officer and asked, "How many prisoners have you captured?" How many guns were seized? ”
The communications staff officer replied truthfully: "More than two dozen prisoners were taken, and more than a dozen guns were surrendered." ”
As soon as Chen Yi heard this, he became alert and asked in detail about the whole operation. The communications staff officer said that the advancing column attacked Yangzhong smoothly and encountered no resistance. Listening to the detailed narration of the staff officer, Chen Yi smoked a cigarette one by one. He asked, "So what are you going to do?" “
The staff officer replied: "Commander Guan said that we are ready to establish our own county government at once, and then we will organize various anti-enemy associations and self-defense regiments." ”
"You are so ready to live in Yangzhong!" Chen Yi asked sternly.
Chen Yi's stern tone surprised the staff officer, but he didn't know what was going on, and he replied, "Yes! ”
Chen Yi suddenly stood up, threw the cigarette butt in his hand and said, "This is bad, you hurry back on horseback, let the advancing column immediately withdraw to Jiangnan, otherwise the whole army will be destroyed, you tell Guan Wenwei, this is my order, it must be carried out unconditionally." ”
"What! Fall back? The staff officer asked instinctively.
"Why don't you understand, you think with your head, you took Yangzhong so smoothly and so quickly, but only captured that little prisoner, so where did Jia Changfu's regiment of people go?" Is it heaven? ”
When Chen Yi asked this question, the staff officer woke up in shock and was speechless.
Chen Yi then said, "I can say with certainty that they must have received the information that you were going to attack in advance, evaded, and hidden." You are busy holding celebration meetings, mass meetings, and hanging up signs; they have three regiments of the Ninth Brigade, as well as the bandit armed forces of He Keqian of the nearby Bao fourth brigade, but they are afraid that they are already marching toward Yangzhong and will immediately surround and fight you. With so many people and horses surrounding you, you will certainly not be able to resist, and if you do not solve Jia Changfu's troops, you will not want to gain a foothold in Yangzhong. ”
The staff officer was in a cold sweat, and he hurried away on horseback.
Chen Yi has been working in the army since the Nanchang Uprising, especially after the Long March of the main Red Army, he led the guerrillas to persist in guerrilla warfare for three years, and the dangerous fighting environment made him develop a keen sense of smell.
After the communications staff officer left, Chen Yi was still not at ease, and he was afraid that the staff officer had missed the overall situation by passing through the blockade line. To be on the safe side, he personally wrote a letter and sent an aide-de-camp and guards to send it to Guan Wenwei again.
In this letter, Chen Yi warned Guan Wenwei that he must not be confused by the cheapness in front of him, must calmly analyze and think, and must not hesitate to withdraw his troops from Yangzhong and immediately report the withdrawal.
On the basis of his experience in dealing with the Kuomintang troops, Chen Yi repeatedly calculated the time for the Kuomintang troops to assemble and march according to the norm, and deeply felt that as long as they delayed for another day and did not withdraw, the advancing column would be in danger of fighting on the back of the river and the whole army would be destroyed, and even if the whole army would not be destroyed, it would inevitably suffer great losses.
Although two groups of men and horses were dispatched, Chen Yi still felt uneasy and ordered other troops to raise their vigilance so that they could support the advancing column at any time.
Facts have proved that Chen Yi's judgment was correct; although the advancing column was reorganized by the New Fourth Army, the internal composition was very complicated, and because Guan Wenwei's secrecy work was not done well, the bad elements hidden in the advancing column secretly reported the incident of the advance column to Jia Changfu.
After Jia Changfu received the information, he knew that he was not the opponent of the advancing column, so he scattered his troops and hid in the countryside near Sanmao Town, and tightly sealed the news, and at the same time asked Han Deqin and Zhang Shaohua for help.
Han Deloitte was a die-hard anti-communist, and while the communications staff was reporting to Chen Yi, Han Deloitte had already ordered the other two regiments of the Baojiu Brigade and one regiment of the Baosi Brigade to rush forward and cross the river in batches. Han Deqin was ready to encircle the Yangzhong regiment with four regiments of the recalcitrant army in one fell swoop, so as to eliminate the advancing column in one fell swoop.
However, Han Deloitte and Jia Changfu did not expect that Chen Yi had already figured out their plan.
The communications staff officer rode back to Yangzhong to find Guan Wenwei and verbally conveyed Chen Yi's orders, Guan Wenwei was also taken aback after listening to it, he immediately gathered his troops and quickly withdrew from Yangzhong, and when the last batch of troops of the advancing column boarded the fleet, the shells of the recalcitrant army had already hit the river beach, and the outlaws under Jia Changfu had also chased after them.
Listening to the rumbling cannon, Guan Wenwei couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
Subsequently, Chen Yi asked Guan Wenwei to understand the whole situation and asked him to sum up the lessons learned, especially to purify the contingent, strengthen the work of secrecy, and emphasize that commanders must have rich military knowledge and be familiar with various combat examples in ancient and modern China and abroad, so that they can not be fooled by the enemy. Chen Yi asked Guan Wenwei to read more books, he said:
"Without knowledge, nothing can be done well. We often say that we are from 'Green Forest University', but we can defeat those from the Whampoa Military Academy and the Army University. The most crucial point in this is that the commanders of our army are good at learning. Our military leaders are the most knowledgeable. No matter how rich the chairman's knowledge is, he is not only proficient in Marxist military theory, mastering dialectics, and studying ancient Chinese military theory and battle examples in depth, which is also beyond the reach of the Kuomintang generals. ”
Chen Yi demanded that Guan Wenwei immediately reorganize his troops, study the enemy's situation, and capture Yangzhong as soon as possible.
After studying the advance column, it was found that Jia Changfu's band of bandits had a "professional characteristic," and they had to disperse to the various towns and ports in Yangzhong in companies and platoons in order to be able to carry out extortion on a large scale and achieve "prosperous financial resources."
Although Jia Changfu is a political bandit, in essence, he still has to make money, if he does not make money, he cannot control this team, and for the centralized garrison or going to the countryside to hide, it is miserable for the bandits.
For important festivals, it is a good time for the bandits to implement the "rich source of wealth", and if our army can take advantage of these characteristics, it will certainly be able to deal a fatal blow to the bandits of Jia Changfu.
Seeing that the Spring Festival of 1939 was approaching, Chen Yi asked Guan Wenwei to use this opportunity to eliminate Jia Changfu and seize Yangzhong.
Guan Wenwei immediately let out the wind and said that the advancing column would not attack Jia Changfu's troops for a while, but in fact Guan Wenwei ordered the troops to be ready for battle at any time.
After Jia Changfu got the news that the advancing column would not do anything to him, he dispersed his troops to various ports and terminals in Yangzhong, targeting merchants and civilians, and because the Spring Festival was approaching, their business was very prosperous. The advancing column sent reconnaissance personnel to get a clear picture of the distribution of Jia Changfu's bandits.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, under the command of Guan Wenwei, the advancing column suddenly moved, and overnight most of Jia Changfu's bandits were solved, and Jia Changfu led the remnants to flee to the countryside and was also captured by our army shortly after.
With regard to the heads of the Kuomintang county chiefs and county party departments, Chen Yi specially told Guan Wenwei not to arrest them and let them escape at will, because it was still a period of kuomintang-communist cooperation, and it would be difficult to deal with if these people were caught, and letting them escape would avoid the political passivity of our army.
At the same time, the other part crossed the Yangtze River and took control of the areas of Hissing Horse and Daqiao, which originally belonged to Han Deloitte's sphere of influence, in the north of the river. In this way, from Danbei to Yangzhong, from Yangzhong to the bridge, a wide springboard was erected on the mighty Yangtze River.
Chen Yi was very satisfied with this combat operation, and half a month later, he personally came to the Tingzhong Headquarters in Laolang Street in Yangzhong, and Guan Wenwei reported the entire operation in detail.
"Dude, you guys are playing well!" With Yangzhong, it is easy for us to cross the river. This springboard, you must keep, can not lose. ”
The occupation of Yangzhong and parts north of Yangzhong by the New Fourth Army is equivalent to opening up the passage for large troops to go north and providing strong support for the central government's strategy of "developing northward."
Guan Wenwei later became the commander of the 11th Column of the East China Field Army, and in 1952, Guan Wenwei retired from the military and was appointed deputy secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and vice chairman of the Provincial People's Government, becoming one of the top administrators of Jiangsu Province. So he didn't give him a rank in 1955.
Guan Wenwei often told people later that the people he admired most in his life were Chen Yi, Liu Bocheng, Su Yu, and Huang Kecheng. He ranked Chen Yi in the first place, especially showing Chen Yi's position in his mind.