Zhou Wu saw that this Director Xia was back, and he didn't see any new news coming from above, thinking that the matter of the fat man and Director Xia was over, so he put his mind at ease and rushed to the company below with Ding Ning to catch the training of the recruits.
Wang Puppet's army suffered a heavy defeat due to the purge of the Jiangbei base area, and in addition the Japanese army launched several campaigns in North and Central China that did not take advantage, there was a shortage of materials in Japan, and the common people rushed to grab food.
The base camp of the Japanese army felt that the war of aggression against China was becoming increasingly unsustainable, and the hardliners in the military returned to power, seized the cabinet, formulated a strategy of advancing south into South China and Southeast Asia, and prepared to completely tear their faces with Britain and the United States in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, and occupy these important Pacific regions rich in rubber and oil resources to support their war of aggression against China.
Although the Wang puppet army suffered a crushing defeat in clearing the Jiangbei base area of the New Fourth Army this time, the Japanese army did not counterattack.
Mainly due to the limited number of troops at hand, the main force was still fighting the Battle of Changsha with the Kuomintang army in Changsha, Hunan.
On the North China side, Okamura Ninji was dealing with the Eighth Route Army, which was active in the vast areas of Shanxi, Chahar, and Hebei, and there was no surplus force to be transferred to the south of the Yangtze River.
Since the last time the Kwantung Army fought with the Soviets, the Kwantung Army in Northeast Manchukuo was almost annihilated by the Soviets and two divisions were almost annihilated by the Soviet Army.
Originally, the New Fourth Army and the anti-Japanese armed forces in Jiangbei and Jiangnan could take advantage of the favorable opportunity when this devil was too busy to take care of himself, and Wang Puppet's army had just been attacked by the New Fourth Army and had not yet recovered, and quickly took the initiative to attack, expand the anti-Japanese base areas, and severely attack the devils and the puppet army.
But at this time, the Kuomintang diehards were ready to move again and began to launch frictional attacks on the New Fourth Army forces in Jiangnan.
For this reason, the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army headed by Commander Ye waged a-for-tat struggle against the diehard Kuomintang troops who had come to engage in friction, and Chairman Chiang secretly ordered Gu Zhutong to mobilize 200,000 troops and surround the headquarters of the New Fourth Army, which had been ordered to retreat to Jiangbei, in southern Anhui.
Although more than 9,000 members of the New Fourth Army fought hard to break through the encirclement, they were eventually outnumbered, and with the exception of a small number of officers and men of the New Fourth Army who broke through the encirclement, most of the comrades were killed at gunpoint by the Kuomintang diehards.
Commander Ye was captured, Political Commissar Xiang was killed by traitors, and more than 2,000 New Fourth Army troops were captured by the Kuomintang diehards, which was the "Southern Anhui Incident" that shocked people at home and abroad at that time After the incident, the New Fourth Army fell into confusion and confusion, and the Kuomintang diehards stepped up their mobilization of troops and squeezed over the New Fourth Army's anti-Japanese base areas from western Anhui and northern Jiangsu.
For a time, war clouds were gathering in the Jiangbei area, and the little devils on the Nanjing side gloated and fanned the flames everywhere in an attempt to provoke a full-scale civil war between the Kuomintang diehards and the New Fourth Army in the south and north of the Yangtze River.
The north and south of the Yangtze River were suddenly shrouded in a gloomy fog of imminent outbreak of a civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and the common people in the occupied areas and anti-Japanese base areas were worried and heartbroken.
Before the Japanese devils are driven out, the Chinese themselves will soon start fighting, and once a large-scale civil war breaks out between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, there is no hope for driving the little devils who invaded China out of China.
On the one hand, the party Central Committee in Yan'an used the "Southern Anhui Incident" as evidence to expose Chairman Chiang's conspiracy in public opinion, won the support and sympathy of the majority of compatriots at home and abroad, and stood on the commanding heights of domestic public opinion.
In addition, he quickly appointed Captain Chen of the First Detachment of the New Fourth Army as the acting commander of the New Fourth Army and Comrade Cheng Qi as the political commissar, reorganized the ranks of the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, and at the same time sent the First Division of the Eighth Route Army in the Henan direction to the south to support the New Fourth Army, and demanded that all officers and men of the New Fourth Army be prepared to fight against the Kuomintang diehards, and be ready to smash all the provocations of the Kuomintang diehards who dared to invade and engage in friction.
As a result, the Jiangbei Column was reorganized into a division under the New Fourth Army, with Commander Li as the division commander, and the following three regiments were all supplemented by the local county brigade and guerrilla forces, and upgraded to a brigade.
Zhou Wu's second regiment was reorganized into the Jiangbei Independent Brigade due to its outstanding achievements, under the dual leadership of the Jiangbei Anti-Japanese Command and Division Commander Li, Zhou Wu went back and forth for two years, and finally became the brigade commander of the Independent Brigade, but now it is an independent brigade of the New Fourth Army, which is different from the previous Independent Brigade of the National Army.
Ding Ning, Fat Man and Ge Sanmin, and Huang Shuisheng under Zhou Wu were all promoted to one level on the spot, Ding Ning served as the deputy brigade commander and chief of staff of the Independent Brigade, and Lao Niu was still the political commissar, but now he has one more position, that is, he also serves as the director of the Political Department of Director Xia.
Director Xia was transferred from the Second Regiment by his superiors because he was not able to do a good job in the unity of the comrades of the Second Regiment and went to the military headquarters as a staff officer, so Zhou Wu and the others were really relieved, and finally sent this Director Xia away, thank you superiors, thank you leaders, this is the greatest support for our independent brigade.
As soon as Director Xia left, the Independent Brigade was much cleaner, Zhou Wu took Ding Ning and them to the following company for training every day, and Commissar Niu launched a mass movement around Matan, and the two brothers cooperated quite tacitly, and the Independent Brigade showed a vigorous and thriving momentum.
Due to the correct struggle of the Party Central Committee and the stern readiness of the New Fourth Army, after the "Southern Anhui Incident," public opinion throughout the country unanimously condemned the Chongqing Nationalist Government under Chairman Chiang, and under the pressure of strong public opinion at home and abroad, the Kuomintang diehards had no choice but to withdraw their troops assembled in Jiangbei.
The armies of the two sides returned to the areas before the incident, and the upsurge of the Kuomintang diehards who had taken the "Southern Anhui Incident" as the fuse came to an end for the time being.
The Japanese devils who occupied the big cities of the communication line in Nanjing, Yangzhou, originally thought that this time the Kuomintang army and the New Fourth Army would definitely have a big fight, but they did not think that the two sides would fight, and their wishful thinking of taking advantage of the fire to loot and reap the profits of the fishermen fell through.
Annoyed and angry, the devil wanted to mobilize troops to carry out another large-scale clean-up of the New Fourth Army base in Jiangbei, but the troops at hand were really limited, and Wang's puppet army couldn't support it, so he had to howl a few words and give up.
At this time, Zhou Wu and his men took the opportunity to vigorously develop local anti-Japanese forces, and many local young and middle-aged people signed up for the New Fourth Army, and in three or four months, the number of men and horses of the independent brigade increased nearly three times from the original 3,000 people at once, and it had three full-fledged regiments, a special service regiment, an artillery battalion, a transport battalion, a communications company directly under the brigade headquarters, and a health company, totaling nearly 10,000 people.
This made Chen Guofu and them greedy, and they ran straight to the independent brigade, wanting to see what good tricks Zhou Wu had, and he was able to expand so many men and horses in such a short period of time, and go back to learn from them, and they also wanted to expand the army and develop.
Of course, Division Commander Li is happy, the bigger the expansion of his subordinates, the better, he, as a division commander, also feels that there is light on his face, Lao Jiang is stingy and does not give the number of the troops, it is not a big deal, let's give the number ourselves, anyway, if you don't rely on your old Jiang's military salary, you will solve it by yourself, so you can't stop our New Fourth Army from developing and growing.
In fact, the common people know best in their hearts who is the real anti-Japanese team, who is the team that resists Japan in the open, does its best to fight relatives and enemies behind their backs, and is not active in fighting devils, but is energetic in dealing with anti-Japanese friendly troops, and they have a scale in their hearts.
In this way, the peaceful and serene days soon passed for more than half a year, and in a blink of an eye it was the end of the fourth year since the Battle of Songhu, the northwest wind blew over, and it snowed heavily in the north of the Yangtze River, shrouding a large plain in silver-white plain clothes, which looked particularly empty and desolate.
On this day, Zhou Wu, Ding Ning, Commissar Niu, Fat Man, and Ge Sanmin sat around the brigade headquarters to discuss the New Year this year.
For most of the past six months, the brothers of the Independent Brigade have hardly fought with the little devils and the Wang puppet army, except for conducting military training every day and helping the villagers to produce and labor, and the little devils in Nanjing and Yangzhou do not seem to care about the New Fourth Army here, and they have not sent a team to sweep the base area for a long time.
According to the information of the comrades of the underground party in Nanjing, a large number of field troops of the little devils rushed to the south by left-hand train, and it is estimated that there may be a big war in the south, otherwise it would be impossible for these devil field divisions guarding the important places in Yangzhou in Nanjing to be mobilized on such a large scale.
"Lao Ding, you estimate that the purpose of this large-scale transfer of the little devil's field division is that Guangzhou was captured by the little devil last year, and Guangxi was also occupied by the devil, what are they going to do this time?"
Ding Ning lowered his head and pondered for a while, and said: "According to the newspapers in Shanghai and Nanjing, this large-scale transfer of the little devils to the south may be to turn against Britain and the United States and other powers, Japan is already a small territory and lacks resources, if they didn't seize the Northeast first, it is estimated that they will not even be able to win the Songhu Campaign, and now the all-out war is four or five years, the little devils' belongings must be unbearable, don't look at them are still showing off their might, in fact, they will not be able to support it, which is the year for most of this year, One of the reasons why we are pure here. ” Zhou Wu listened to Ding Ning's analysis and felt that it was very reasonable, and hurriedly asked him to continue, Ding Ning pushed the pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose and said: "The devils are about to be unable to support themselves on the battlefield in China, but they are unwilling to retreat back to Japan, so they have to use their brains, where to find resources, he dare not touch the Soviet Union in the north, and the last war almost wiped out the two most elite field divisions of the devils, The devil was urgently transferred from China to the only tank division in Outer Mongolia and was completely wiped out, and it has not recovered yet. ” "The devil is also the master of bullying the weak and fearing the hard, if the north is not good, he will go to the south, and the south is Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, which is the territory of Britain and the United States, where there is a lot of rubber and oil, and the devil must want to take advantage of the fact that Britain and the United States are busy in the European battlefield and can't get out, and get a hand." t1706231537: