Author: Forget about Jianghu
1940, with the victory of Huangqiao's decisive battle against , Caodian Battle was put on the agenda.
At this time, Secretary Liu, who was in charge of in central China, intends to expel all Han Deqin's forces in northern Jiangsu; and Chen Yi , the commander-in-chief of the New Fourth Army's Northern Jiangsu Command, also had the idea of taking advantage of the victory to chase and beat Han Deqin, the "falling dog". The two hit it off and immediately convened the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army generals from central China to study the feasibility of launching the Caodian Battle.
However, at this meeting, the commander of the 5th Column of the Eighth Route Army, Huang Kecheng, , raised objections.
Why are Secretary Liu and Chen Yi so determined to win Cao Dian?
Why did Huang Kecheng object to this battle?
Caodian Battle, why did Su Yu not serve as the commander-in-chief of the battle?
Secretary Liu and Chen Yi were confident that they would launch the Caodian Battle, mainly because they won the battle in Guocun and Huangqiao decisive battles before this. The battle in Guocun and the decisive battle in Huangqiao were both base areas defending battles carried out by the New Fourth Army during the development of northern Jiangsu.
The battle in Guocun took place at the end of June and early July 1940. A year before this, the New Fourth Army implemented Yan'an's "East Advance" instructions, with Chen Yi and Su Yu as the commanders and deputy commanders, and led the troops under the Jiangbei Command to enter the northern Jiangsu region with Jiangdu as the "bridgehead".
On June 28, 1940, under the instruction of Han Dequan, the two Lis in northern Jiangsu ( Li Mingyang , Li Changjiang) gathered the forces of 13 regiments (detachments) to launch an attack on the New Fourth Army Advance Column Guan Wenmo and Ye Fei stationed in Guocun and Yang Jiaqiao. Guan Wenmo and Ye Fei fought back, and Tao Yong and Lu Sheng led the Su-An Detachment to travel more than 200 miles a night to rescue and repel the attack of the "Two Lis". From July 2, the New Fourth Army annihilated three enemy regiments and captured more than 700 people, including two enemy regiment commanders.
However, Chen Yi, commander-in-chief of the Jiangbei Command of the New Fourth Army, believes that the battle in Guocun, which was forced to initiate, is not worthy of victory.
During the reorganization of
, Chen Yi and Guan Wenmo talked about the fact that the battle between Guocun should not be fought, because one and two Li would be together with Han Deqin. Only by avoiding the conflict with two Li can we fight to the decisive battle with our main opponent Han Deqin. At the same time, under the conditions at that time, the eastward advance was more targeted than the northward advance, and the first goal of the eastward advance was the Huangqiao area where the Red 14th Army originated and had a better mass base.
Chen Yi, Su Yu, Fu Qiutao, Zhou Gong, Zhu Kejing, Ye Ting
In late July 1940, the New Fourth Army Northern Su Command was established.
Commander is Chen Yi, deputy commander is Su Yu, director of the political department Liu Yan , and deputy director Zhong Qiguang. The Subei Command has three columns under its jurisdiction, namely the later famous "Ye Wang Tao" Ye Fei, the Wang Bicheng and Tao Yong Columns, and there is also an independent detachment, the captain of the detachment Chen Yusheng.
After the establishment of the New Fourth Army’s northern Jiangsu Command, Wujiaqiao was handed over to the second Li, and more than 8,000 New Fourth Army members entered Huangqiao eastward.
Before moving eastward, Chen Yi made a combat mobilization. To move eastward, he had to burn his boats and take root and survive. To take root in Jiangbei, he had to take Huangqiao and drive away the stubborn army He Keqian's troops. In the battle to liberate Huangqiao, the "Three Musketeers" under Su Yu worked together to annihilate more than 2,000 enemies.
New Fourth Army occupied central counties and districts such as Taixing , Rugao , and Han Deqin naturally would not be willing to do so.
In early October 1940, Han Deqin gathered more than 30,000 people from the main force of the 89th Army and the Security Brigade, a total of more than 30,000 people, of which 15,000 troops were invested on the front line, and the troops were divided into three groups to invade the New Fourth Army in Huangqiao. Chen Yi and Su Yu had only more than 7,000 people, including more than 5,000 combat troops. However, under Su Yu's continuous attacks on the enemy, the fierce battles killed more than 11,000 enemies in 4 days.
With the support of the people of Huangqiao, the Jiangsu Command of the New Fourth Army basically eliminated Han Deloitte's main force, and Han Deloitte led more than 1,000 people in the remnants of Han Deloitte to flee to Xinghua . The New Fourth Army seized the victory and occupied Hai'an and Dongtai , further consolidating the Taixing central base and having a solid foothold.
Huang Kecheng and his daughter
Precisely because the three battles in northern Jiangsu have won, Secretary Liu and Chen Yi are confident in the battle against Caodian.
However, as the commander of , the 5th Column of the Eighth Route Army, Huang Kecheng, the focus of the problem is different from that of the two immediate superiors. Each of the reasons he proposed to oppose the launch of the Caodian Battle was very realistic and seemed to be tenable:
First, whether it was the Battle of Guocun or the Battle of Huangqiao, the New Fourth Army fought from a self-defense standpoint. The former was Li Changjiang's invasion, and the latter was the attack of Li Mingyang and Li Changjiang. However, this Caodian Battle was the "legal" Han Deqin, which was not reasonable.
Second, from Huangqiao Battle to more than a month before the Caodian Battle, the climate has changed a lot. On November 19, Chongqing's He Yingqin , Bai Chongxi just issued a " Haodian " to Zhu Peng, New Fourth Army, and others with a deadline of one month to withdraw to north of the Yellow River .
Third, although Huangqiao is located in Huaihai , Yancheng and other areas, it has a good mass base, but it has not yet gained a foothold, and the pseudo-stubborn, enemy spies, and landlord armed forces have not been cleaned up. Compared with launching the Caodian Battle, the work of mobilizing the masses and consolidating the base areas seems to be more important.
Fourth, different from Huangqiao area. Caodian is the old nest that Han Deqin has worked hard for many years, and our army does not have much mass base. The waterways in this area are as dense as spider webs, which is very unfavorable to the attacking side. Judging from the heavy firepower, the New Fourth Army has a serious lack of cannons to attack and pull out the villages.
However, whether Secretary Liu, Chen Yi or Yan'an, the response to Chongqing after the crackdown on Han Dequan is insufficient.
The Caodian Battle started as scheduled, and Huang Kecheng's Fifth Column of the Eighth Route Army and the Ye Fei and Wang Bicheng Columns of the New Fourth Army participated in the battle.
Han Deloitte
Caodian Battle began to clarify the periphery from November 29th, and it was progressing smoothly at first.
However, after arriving in Caodian on December 13, the progress slowed down a lot. The fierce battle lasted for 2 days, and the progress was slow.
It was not until the 15th that the participating troops broke through the frontier positions of Han Deloitte's troops, and even once attacked Caodian Town . However, as Huang Kecheng expected, the Caodian defenders, which were deep ditches and high bases, easy to defend and difficult to attack, were very stubborn. Our army suffered heavy casualties in the offensive, but they returned in vain many times.
On December 16, Secretary Liu and Chen Yi, who were unwilling to accept it, finally made up their minds to order the troops to withdraw from the battle.
The Caodian Battle lasted 18 days, including 3 days of battle in the core area. In this battle, more than 8,000 enemies were killed or killed or injured.
Our army won a great victory in this battle, but Han Dequan's troops still defended Caodian, Cheqiao, Jingkou , and Anfeng areas, and the battlefield in northern Su was in a deadlock for a while.
During the Battle of Caodian, two major events that were enough to affect the New Fourth Army occurred:
1: On December 8, Jiang and He and Bai again sent a telegram to the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army to Yangtze River and north of the Yellow River, while secretly ordered their troops to implement the "Plan for the Suppression of Bandit Army South of the Yellow River" and the "Plan for the Solution to the New Fourth Army". Gu Zhutong began to brew the Southern Anhui Incident;
2: On December 12, Peng Xuefeng, the Fourth Column of the Eighth Route Army, and the rebellion of Geng, Liu and Wu occurred in the Henan-Anhui-Suzhou Border Region, and once lost the Luxi area.
General Su Yu
From a local or global perspective, there are gains and losses in the battle of Caodian.
Huang Kecheng, who raised questions and objections, was criticized after the war for being "conservative" and "not brave enough to attack", and was removed from the position of commander of the Fifth Column, and only retained the political commissar.
A year later, Huang Kecheng once again objected to "Defending Yancheng", which was proven afterwards to be correct.
At this time, the acting commander of the New Fourth Army, Chen Yi and Political Commissar Liu, realized some problems. Later, both of them affirmed Huang Kecheng's correct suggestions on different occasions and during the Yan'an Rectification Movement.
Some people believe that if the Caodian Battle is won, the enemy may not dare to launch the "Southern Anhui Incident".
If Caodian wins a complete victory like the Huangqiao decisive battle, would it be another result?
[Deeply cultivate the history of war, promote positive energy, welcome to submit articles, private messages will be replied]
