In order to open up the situation of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Jiangnan, Comrade Chen Yi attached great importance to the construction of base areas. He repeatedly educated the cadres: "Many peasant uprisings in history, because there were no base areas, wandered everywhere, and were finally destroyed by the enemy. If our Red Army of the Long March had not settled in that base area in northern Shaanxi, we would not have known where it would have gone. Today, we are circling with the enemy and will not be able to do so without building a good base area. ”
Before the arrival of the New Fourth Army, in the vast rural areas of southern Jiangsu where the Japanese army had not been able to reach, there were armed forces organized by wandering soldiers, hooligans, and secret agents, as well as armed groups organized by patriots. However, only the armed forces led by the Communist Party, mixed with the local masses, were the only reliable anti-Japanese armed forces. After the arrival of the New Fourth Army, along with the development of the struggle, these anti-Japanese armed forces scattered in various places gradually built the entire area into an entire anti-Japanese base area.
At the same time, after the New Fourth Army entered Jiangnan, all kinds of non-Party armed forces behind enemy lines successively appeared: the armed rogue bandits who colluded with the Japanese army openly became puppet troops; the armed forces of the Kuomintang secret service organization, under the banner of the Kuomintang, secretly opposed communism (some bad elements disguised themselves as progressive elements and penetrated into our troops to sabotage), the armed forces of the landlord capitalist organizations held a wait-and-see attitude, because they were bent on protecting their own property, so they were in an intermediate state; and the armed forces organized by the progressive elements stood with the New Fourth Army. Comrade Chen Yi dealt with these armed contingents in accordance with the party's policies and specific conditions: They resolutely suppressed those rogue bandit armed forces that hung up anti-Japanese signs and practiced anti-communism and anti-people, such as Zhu Yongxiang's troops in Liyang and Dangtu, and carried out the work of winning, uniting, and transforming the patriotic armed forces against Japan, establishing the party's leadership, and rapidly strengthening the strength of the New Fourth Army.
After reunification, the base area was centered on Maoshan Mountain, including parts of Zhenjiang, Jurong, Jintan, Liyang, Yixing, Gaochun, and Lishui south of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway. There, Comrades Chen Yi and Su Yu trained many outstanding local anti-Japanese leaders, thus greatly strengthening the anti-Japanese struggle behind enemy lines; the other was based on the Visiting Xianqiao Bridge north of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, including Danyang Beixiang, Zhenjiangdong Township, Wujin Beixiang, Yangzhong Quanquan County, and Jiangbei Yangtai Area, which were connected with the Maoshan area; the other was the area south of Jiangyin, north of Wuxi, west of Changshu, north of Suzhou, east of Changshu, and west of Taicang of Kunshan, that is, the areas commonly referred to as Cheng, Xi, and Yu, and the Su, Chang, and Tai regions. The above two areas were even separated by several blockade lines, and the Kuomintang Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army occupied many places, and our base areas were not very consolidated, but after all, there were two larger guerrillas, and they were also connected with the Maoshan base area.
Comrades Ye Fei and Tan Zhenlin have successively done a lot of arduous work there, trained a number of local anti-Japanese leaders, and established quite a few local armed forces, posing a great threat to the enemy forces in Suzhou, Wuxi, and Shanghai. In addition, there were some sporadic guerrilla areas in the Qingpu, Jiaxing, Songjiang, and Taihuan areas, but unfortunately, Xiang Ying and other comrades never made up their minds to send more troops to Comrade Chen Yi to support the guerrillas there, and thus failed to form a large and consolidated anti-Japanese base area. If Xiang Ying and other comrades had not transferred a regiment back to the military headquarters, the situation there would have been very different.
In order to do a good job in uniting the people of all strata in the base areas, Comrade Chen Yi personally did a great deal of work. "In order to isolate the enemy, we must unite all kinds of anti-Japanese forces around our Party. Unite everyone like one person and we are invincible. In the past, during the period of rule of the left-leaning line in the Jiangxi Soviet Region, special attention was paid to this major issue, and as a result, even small traders and peddlers left us, leaving us in a very isolated situation and suffering heavy losses. Now that we have united all those who can be united, and completely isolated the enemy, victory is assured. In the work of uniting and educating some middle- and upper-class elements, Comrade Chen Yi has spent a lot of painstaking efforts and has also achieved great results.
For example, Ji Zhengang, a leading bourgeois figure in the Maoshan area and the manager of the Jintan Maolu Company, has dozens of people and guns, and has always remained neutral. As soon as Comrade Chen Yi arrived at Maoshan, he invited Ji Zhengang to the detachment headquarters to discuss with him the great anti-Japanese plan in Jiangnan and persuade him to come out and join our army in the War of Resistance. Later, Comrade Chen Yi educated him many times, so that he gradually moved closer to the New Fourth Army and gave him certain support in terms of manpower and material resources. When the situation was particularly tense, he refused the threat and inducement of the Japanese army and left the company to take refuge in Shanghai.
For another example, Fan Yulin and Zhu Chunyuan in Jintan and Danyang areas, and Wu Hengtong in Jurong areas, Chen Yi and Su Yu all won them over and made contributions to the cause of resistance against Japan. In particular, Wu Hengtong was an upper-class intellectual, who had once been the county education bureau chief of the Kuomintang and had a great influence in Jurong. He also had a hundred or so men and guns in his hands. After Chen Yi and Su Yu arrived in Jiangnan, Wu Hengtong found Comrade Chen Yi and was invited to attend a forum for people from all walks of life held in Baoxi. Comrade Chen Yi encouraged him: "The War of Resistance Against Japan is long-term, but it will certainly be victorious. Since ancient times, our Chinese nation has stressed integrity and will never bend the knees to surrender in the face of foreign invasions; in particular, progressive intellectuals advocate integrity and pay attention to safeguarding the dignity of our great nation. In Wu's letter, he expressed his admiration for Comrade Chen Yi, and it can be seen that Comrade Chen Yi's united front work has had a greater impact on him.
Later, Wu Hengtong went to see Comrade Chen Yi again, was warmly treated, and ate together. Comrade Chen Yi repeatedly told him about the deeds of national heroes in Chinese history, such as Su Wu, Yue Fei, Wen Tianban, Shi Kefa, and so on, as well as the ugly history of shameless people such as Li Ling, Qin Jun, Hong Chengzuo, Yuan Shikai, and others, which had a very profound impact on him.
Since Wu Hengtong received education and leadership from our party, his guerrilla group has developed rapidly, from more than a hundred people and guns to hundreds of people and guns, and he himself has also been absorbed into the party. At about the end of 1941, during an anti-"sweep", Wu Hengtong was unfortunately betrayed for internal traitors and was arrested by the Japanese army. The Japanese army asked him to surrender, allowing him to do it, but he sternly refused: "Chinese will never be an official of foreigners" He was trapped in the slaughter circle, went on hunger strike three times, and finally generously and righteously, maintaining the lofty integrity of the Chinese people.
Wu Hengtong's indomitable sacrifice had a great shock to the enemy. After his death, it is said that the enemy troops stationed in Zhenjiang found thirty-six monks and Taoists to set up altars and chant the sutra for three days for Wu Chaodu. The Japanese chief gathered hundreds of soldiers, and also called the big and small traitors to gather together, including the traitors who secretly reported Wu Hengtong. The Japanese captain pointed to Wu's spirit card and said, "Wu is a great loyalist, and it is only because he rebelled against the imperial army that we had to kill him." We admire his loyalty to the country. You must learn the loyalty of the witch, be loyal to the emperor, and fight hard. Those who help the imperial army to do things Chinese must also be loyal to the emperor and have a great reward for meritorious service. When the Japanese chief spoke, the big and small traitors bowed their heads and remained silent. The Japanese attempted to take advantage of Wu Hengtong's sacrifice to instill the fascist spirit of Bushido in his subordinates and their lackeys. Use ceremonies to commemorate the leaders of the enemy or political enemies who have been killed to achieve the purpose of buying people's hearts and minds and consolidating their own troops. After a few days, we heard that some of the traitors, who still knew a little shame, had fled.
In order to commemorate the martyr Wu Hengtong, the guerrillas of our army who remained in the southern Jiangsu town and sentence area also gathered some comrades to hold a memorial service to mourn his sacrifice. Through mourning, he exposed the enemy's intrigue and trickery, deepened his hatred for the enemy, and further inspired the fighting spirit of his troops.
An ordinary enlightened gentry like Wu Hengtong was able to unite around our party, resist Japan with one heart and one mind, and finally become a martyred Communist Party member. Thanks to the efforts of Comrade Chen Yi, after the New Fourth Army advanced into southern Jiangsu, it extensively united various social forces and rapidly expanded the anti-Japanese national united front behind enemy lines.
In the struggle against the enemy in the base areas, in addition to doing a good job in the work of the united front, we must also maintain a high degree of vigilance, otherwise there is a danger of being wiped out at any time. Soon after the battle at Xinfeng Station, the enemy secretly organized a surprise force to carry out a surprise attack as soon as it found out where there were New Fourth Army troops. In my hometown of Nishan in the Danbei region alone, it has been attacked three times in two months. Elsewhere, there have also been constant incidents of enemy attacks that have cost our troops.
Once, the Second Regimental Headquarters of the New Fourth Army led a battalion stationed in Shanghui Village and Xiahui Village in the southeast township of Zhenjiang to help the local party open up work there. The enemy immediately launched a rush and surrounded the village of Shangxiahui. Because I did not get any intelligence from the military first, I had to break through in a hurry. After several hours of fierce fighting, although the regimental headquarters and some comrades broke out, the casualties were very large. Comrade Xiao Guosheng, political director of the regiment, led some commanders and fighters to cover the retreat of the regimental headquarters and troops, and attracted the enemy's fire to his side. After the gunfire fell silent, the troops immediately sent people to the fiery Village of Xiahui to look for Comrade Xiao Guosheng, and found him sacrificed next to a broken corner and stabbed by the enemy in many places on his body. From this scene, we can imagine how heroic and heroic Comrade Xiao Guosheng fought with the enemy before his death.
After the breakthrough troops returned to the headquarters, there were still more than a hundred people in the checkpoint. Comrade Chen Yi understood what had happened, and his heart was extremely painful, but he was still very calm. He walked quickly to the troops returning from the breakthrough, comforted everyone in an indignant tone, and said: "Comrades, you have worked hard! Don't be sad, revolution always has gains and losses, and it will be bloody and sacrificed. But we are for our great motherland, and it is honorable to have sacrificed. We must repay this vendetta, and we must tell the enemy to repay this blood debt tenfold and a hundredfold! He instructed the commander of the troops to let the soldiers wash their clothes, get some good food, and rest well. At that time, he did not criticize anyone, and later at the cadre meeting, he taught the comrades present a very serious lesson about the loss of vigilance this time, and everyone listened to it and was convinced, determined to firmly remember the lesson of this blood.