In the Southern Anhui Incident that broke out in 1941, the New Fourth Army led by Ye Ting and Xiang Ying, with a total of 9,000 troops, was attacked by about 80,000 people in 7 divisions of the Kuomintang army. In the end, only 2,000 escaped, most of the soldiers died heroically, and the New Fourth Army suffered huge losses. However, at that time, in addition to the main forces of Ye and Xiang, the New Fourth Army also had another main force of Chen and Su. But Lao Jiang only attacked Ye and Xiang and let Chen and Su go, what is the truth?
In fact, Lao Jiang didn't want to attack Chen and Su, but not long ago, he suffered a big loss in the Battle of Huangqiao, which made him feel palpitations. In July 1940, the troops of the New Fourth Army led by ** and Su Yu marched to the northern part of Jiangsu, preparing to open up an anti-Japanese revolutionary base here. This situation frightened the Kuomintang, and Han Deqin, who was the chairman of Jiangsu Province at the time, was extremely dissatisfied with the actions of the New Fourth Army.
He knew very well that if Chen and Su gained a firm foothold here, it would be extremely unfavorable to the Kuomintang army. Han Deqin has always been passive in resisting Japan, and also privately signed a secret agreement with the Japanese army, and the two sides will not invade each other. Our party deeply abhorred such behavior, and repeatedly asked the Kuomintang to reconcile but to no avail. Han Deqin not only did not actively resist Japan, but was even full of hostility to the New Fourth Army, and even had friction with the New Fourth Army many times.
Seeing that the New Fourth Army had arrived at his territory, Han Deqin was even more eager to annihilate it. All this was under the command of Chiang Kai-shek, and three troops were secretly dispatched to assemble one after another. As the commander-in-chief of this mission, Han Deqin mobilized more than 15,000 troops to prepare for a fatal blow to the New Fourth Army led by Chen and Su. At this time, the New Fourth Army led by ** and Su Yu, under the instructions of **, arrived in the northern Jiangsu region in early July.
After arriving here, the New Fourth Army Headquarters was established, and ** and Su Yu served as the chief and deputy division commanders of the headquarters respectively, and took more than 7,000 people to the Huangqiao area. Subsequently, the fifth column of the Eighth Route Army also arrived in the Huaihai area, preparing to fight jointly with Chen Su's army. At this time, Han Deqin thought that he had the chance to win, and his heavy troops could easily annihilate the New Fourth Army in the Huangqiao area, and then fight the Eighth Route Army in the north.
However, the battle situation was completely beyond his expectations, and the New Fourth Army led by Chen Su resolutely met the battle while knowing that the enemy was outnumbered, and adopted the strategy of luring the enemy into depth. Divide the enemy's forces first, and then decide to break them individually. So Su Yu first sent a part of his troops to block the enemy, and let the rest of the troops outflank and surround the other party. Not long after the Battle of Huangqiao began. The New Fourth Army successfully annihilated the strength of a brigade of the Kuomintang.
**After the defeat, he quickly launched an escape, and one of the **generals, in a panic while fleeing, actually fell into the water and drowned, which is simply ridiculous. And the remnants of the **, after losing their combat capability, also all disarmed and surrendered. At this time, the other armies of the Kuomintang were still standing still, and there was no sense of unity and cooperation at all. This was also in line with the consistent style of the Kuomintang army, where the warlords were divided into separate camps.
The Kuomintang troops of Li Mingyang and Li Changjiang wanted to reap the benefits of the fishermen, but they did not expect a sudden change in the battle situation, and when they wanted to take the initiative to attack, they had already become turtles in the urn, and there was no hope of victory, so they could only retreat for the sake of preservation.
**, the Battle of Huangqiao commanded by Su Yu is a classic battle of winning more with less. More than 11,000 people were annihilated and more than 3,800 were captured. The Kuomintang suffered such a huge loss, and of course it would not stop there. He already had palpitations about Chen Su, and Lao Jiang couldn't swallow this breath, so he could only wait for an opportunity to retaliate. The target was the main force of the Ye and Xiang New Fourth Armies stationed in southern Anhui, but they did not dare to rush into battle.
In order to have full confidence in annihilating the New Fourth Army led by Ye and Xiang, the Kuomintang suddenly proposed that the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army should march north of the Yellow River within a month, and at the same time wanted to carry out organizational rectification. The Kuomintang's various unscrupulous methods are all in the eyes of the leaders led by ***. Because this is the stage of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, we must not turn our faces. The only way to do this is to urgently formulate relevant policies and secretly guard against the Kuomintang's offensive.
Our party agreed to the Kuomintang's request and agreed to march north of the Yellow River, also in order to be able to better resist Japan. The CCP made a compromise with the Kuomintang, and at the same time, it also wanted to win more anti-Japanese forces and expand the ranks of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army. In December 1940, Kuomintang generals He Yingqin and Bai Chongxi sent a telegram to our army again, asking the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army to rush north of the Yellow River. At the same time, Lao Jiang had secretly mobilized troops and prepared to encircle Ye and Xiang's troops.
In January 1941, the troops of the New Fourth Army led by Ye Ting and Xiang Ying set out from Yunling and advanced towards Maolin, but encountered heavy encirclement by the Kuomintang army on the way. Under the command of Ye Ting, the soldiers of the New Fourth Army fought bravely, and after seven days and seven nights of fierce fighting, except for more than 2,000 people who escaped, most of them died heroically. The Kuomintang's heinous behavior caused a sensation all over the world. The ugly features of the Kuomintang were completely exposed, and ** and *** violently fought back against it politically.
The shameless behavior of the Kuomintang has been criticized by all sectors of society, and at the same time, the Communist Party has also received more support. Internationally, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and other countries expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Kuomintang's behavior. Facts have also proved that Chen Su and his wife's counterattack against the Kuomintang was correct. If the New Fourth Army led by Chen Su also suffers heavy losses, it will deal an unimaginable blow to our party.
The Battle of Huangqiao commanded by Chen Su was a complete victory, although there were some rash advances. It shows that Chen Su's command ability can break through the kettle at a critical moment. This is also why Chiang Kai-shek only attacked Ye Xiang and spared Chen Su, if it was to attack the New Fourth Army led by Chen Su, the Kuomintang would definitely pay a heavy price. Chiang Kai-shek's launching of the Southern Anhui Incident was obviously deliberate.
Chiang Kai-shek once said: Ye and Xiang are like turtles in an urn, which can be caught at hand. And Chen Su is like a fish in the sea, fleeting.
As we all know, after Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched the Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang was forced to unite to resist Japan and stop the civil war. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek had already been pointed out by thousands of people, and if he did not turn his guns on the Japanese army, he would become the object of spurning of the people of the whole country. Chiang Kai-shek's long-standing principle that "if you want to fight outside, you must first settle inside," in fact, he has not wavered in the slightest from beginning to end. According to Chiang Kai-shek's memoirs after his death, the reason why he agreed to cooperate with the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was that he believed that the Communist Party did not have the capital to compete with the Kuomintang.
Chiang Kai-shek was too self-righteous, but this was also the case. The communist army in the early days of the KMT-CCP cooperation was not at the same level as the KMT's army. Most people believed that the Kuomintang had a great advantage, and when it came to cooperation, Chiang Kai-shek also thought that the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army could be annexed entirely. However, after two years of resistance against Japan, the development of the Communist Party far exceeded his imagination, from the initial 450,000 to 500,000, which caused Chiang Kai-shek to panic.
In the process of joint resistance against Japan, the Japanese army was hit hard one after another, which gave both ** and the New Fourth Army a temporary respite. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek once again aimed at the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army that resisted Japan behind enemy lines. Because although the Japanese army has to fight, according to the speed of development of the Communist Party, it will become a big trouble in time. Although the New Fourth Army has expanded, there are still many deficiencies. In particular, there is a shortage of ammunition and logistics.
That's why Chiang Kai-shek targeted the relatively weak New Fourth Army and launched attacks on it back and forth. In the end, Ye Xiang's troops suffered heavy losses, while Chen Su's army survived. After the Southern Anhui Incident, the New Fourth Army was reorganized, with ** as the commander of the army, and Su Yu as the commander of the first division. The New Fourth Army regrouped and expanded to 96,000 men.
This was also something that Chiang Kai-shek did not expect, and after the Southern Anhui Incident, the Communist Party gained international and domestic support, and its entire status rose rapidly. The United States**, which initially supported Chiang Kai-shek, also openly stated that the United States would not be able to provide large-scale support until the dispute between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was completely resolved. Chiang Kai-shek did not expect this method of the United States, and this is: stealing chickens does not make rice.
There was also turmoil within the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, among them, the Kuomintang leftists Soong Ching-ling, He Xiangning and others launched ** activities in Hong Kong. While attacking him, he is persuading him to immediately stop the deployment of suppressing the Communist Party. Many outstanding generals in the Kuomintang also expressed their unwillingness to fight in the civil war, including Wei Lihuang, Zhang Zhizhong, Chen Cheng and others. These ** generals also hope that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party will cooperate to continue to resist Japan, and Feng Yuxiang made it clear that only the 12 articles of the Communist Party can solve state affairs.
Chen Su's army was not only not annihilated, but also proved its strength in the later tough battles. In 1945, the 30,000 people led by Su Yu faced the encirclement of the Kuomintang's 120,000 troops, which once again made the Kuomintang pay a heavy price and won seven victories in seven battles. In the later three main battles, the Huaihai Campaign, Su Yu skillfully defeated the 800,000 Kuomintang army with 600,000 troops, laying the foundation for the final victory of the PLA.
Chiang Kai-shek certainly did not expect that Chen Su and the others who had been let go would make him pay such a heavy price in the later liberation battle. It is precisely because of outstanding generals such as Chen, Su, Ye, and Xiang who have made great contributions to China's revolutionary cause that we have the peaceful and happy life we have now, and we pay tribute to all revolutionary heroes!