1939, after the establishment of the New Fourth Army's independent guerrilla detachment in Henan and Hubei, it went deep into southern Henan and central Hubei, actively fought against the Japanese army, attacked the enemy and puppet troops, and gradually established base areas. 19391June13rd, under the direct command of Li Xiannian and others, the New Fourth Army wiped out more than 100 people in Xinjie, jingshan county, Hubei Province, and won its first great victory after advancing into central Hubei, greatly improving the political influence of our army, which is of great and far-reaching significance.

"Evil enemies, strengthen military strength and awaken the people."

Hubei, Henan, Anhui and other places go deep behind enemy lines and are important revolutionary bases for our party to carry out guerrilla movements. 1938, after the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee made the strategic decision of "consolidating North China and developing Central China", the CPC Central Committee decided to open up a battlefield behind enemy lines in the Central Plains and develop anti-Japanese armed forces. Under the guidance of this policy, Li Xiannian and others went to Henan to form the Party Committee of the Hubei-Henan Border Region, and combined with the situation of the struggle against the enemy in the Hubei-Henan Border Region, formed the Hubei-Henan independent guerrilla detachment of the New Fourth Army, which was quite close to the periphery of Wuhan. 1939 in may, the Japanese army launched the campaign of xiangdong. In order to contain the Japanese army and cooperate with the Kuomintang army in frontal battlefield operations, the Central Plains Bureau decided to send Li Xiannian south to Yingshan, Anlu and even to carry out guerrilla warfare near Yingcheng. At the same time, the Japanese army invaded Tongbai, Tanghe, Xinye and other counties in succession, intending to attack Xi 'an or Luoyang via Nanyang. On this basis, Liu Shaoqi, then secretary of the Central Plains Bureau, instructed the Hubei-Henan Border Region to carry out war mobilization and launch guerrilla warfare with the establishment of armed forces under the leadership of the Party as the center.

Subsequently, Li Xiannian informed yingshan county that the anti-Japanese armed forces came to Zhaojiapeng, the central market town at the junction of An (Lu), Ying (Shan) and Xiao (Gan) counties, and reorganized the troops into an advance group of the New Fourth Army, with three brigades under its jurisdiction. Among them, a squadron went to Zhonghe Township to consolidate and develop the existing anti-Japanese base areas; The Second Brigade and its directly affiliated squadron opened up a base area in Zhaojiapeng; Li Xiannian and others led the rest of the troops to the Jingshan Dashantou area to meet the "Ying Kang" led by the Central Hubei Party Committee. After the meeting, Li Xiannian and others organized an enlarged meeting of the Party Committee in central Hubei to discuss openly playing the banner of the New Fourth Army and unifying the armed forces in central Hubei and southern Henan into an independent guerrilla detachment of the New Fourth Army in Henan and Hubei, with four detachments under its jurisdiction and Li Xiannian as its commander.

At that time, after the fall of Wuhan, the political atmosphere of Kuomintang retrogression became increasingly strong, and the people's mood was extremely low. There is a saying about how powerful the Japanese army is: What Japanese wears a small steel pot (helmet), a monkey face (gas mask), a big gun (March 8th rifle), a pair of barbed shoes (boots), and clairvoyance (binoculars) and ears. Li Xiannian, after learning about these situations, decided to use armed anti-Japanese actions to "hate the enemy, boost the military and awaken the people".

Inverted "needle" protection, resolutely counterattack the attacking Japanese army.

1July, 939, Li Xiannian led a guerrilla unit eastward and came to Xiangyang Garden, west of Xiaogan, Hubei 10 km. Here, the first team set up a "pocket" array to ambush the Japanese transport fleet. Since then, Li Youtang, a stubborn and hypocritical double-faced figure in Yingcheng, has been eliminated, and the surrounding area of Zhaojiapeng has become a relatively stable anti-Japanese base area in central Hubei. The Central Hubei Command and Party Committee are located in Dashantou, Anlu County nearby, and the first team is located in Liujiachong New Street.

Xinjie, full name of Liu Xinjie, is located in the northeast corner of jingshan county, Hubei Province. This is a small market town with 40 to 50 families, surrounded by a circle of earth walls. There are trenches outside the wall, Song He Town in the west, Luodian in the southwest, Caishu Store in the southeast and Leigong Store in the northeast, all of which are Japanese strongholds. For the safety of the detachment and the party committees in various districts, Zhang, the detachment leader of a detachment, and the political commissar decided to station a brigade in Yangjiachong, northwest of Xinjie, to guard against Song He; Fan Chong, the third brigade in the northeast of Xinjie, stood guard in the direction of Leigongdian; The regimental headquarters and the second brigade are stationed in Liujiachong, north of Xinjie. Three battalions are deployed in an inverted "pin" shape in the southeast of Dashantou.

Major General Nara Hiroshi, then the brigade commander of the 26th Japanese Brigade, learned that the New Fourth Army was concentrated near Dashantou, and immediately led more than 200 Japanese troops and more than 400 puppet troops in Song He, Luodian and other strongholds to attack the New Fourth Army in Xinjie overnight.

At dawn on June+10/October 65438+March 3, 65438, when the puppet troops quietly approached Xinjie that day, a patrol post found the enemy's situation and fired an alarm because it was too late to report to the leader. When the Japanese heard the shot, they rushed to the south of Xinjie with bayonets. The officers and men of the New Fourth Army woke up in their sleep, immediately picked up their weapons and ran in the direction of the gunshot. Fighting broke out in an instant, and there was chaos inside and outside the new street. Someone shouted, "Oh, my God, the devil is going to enter the village." Zhang and Zhang, who arrived at the scene, were filled with anger and hatred and wanted to fight to the death with the Japanese army. Zhou Zhijian jumped on the rocks by the roadside and shouted, "Folks, don't run around. We will definitely defeat the Japanese. Don't be afraid. Hide first. " Zhang patted his chest and shouted to the crowd: "Folks, I am the head of the delegation. I assure you that we must defeat the Japanese devils. " Zhang, command the battle, organize the mass transfer, and send signalmen to the Dashantou detachment headquarters.

When Li Xiannian got the news, he immediately said, "Fight resolutely!" Then he led the second team and the second brigade, which had just arrived in central Hubei from southern Henan, for emergency reinforcements. After listening to the brief report of He Zhang, Li Xiannian said firmly: "We must win this battle, and it is not good to lose or draw! The people of the Central Plains are looking forward to the battle report of our new Fourth Army. "

Cured many people's "fear of the sun"

The Japanese army crouched around the new street, but they couldn't get in. After dawn, the Japanese army's charge of concentrating all its firepower was repelled. After commanding the second team to reinforce, Li Xiannian asked "one battalion to attack the enemy's flank and the other battalion to climb the mountain to prevent the enemy from escaping" in an attempt to destroy the enemy. At this time, Zhang commanded the first brigade and the second brigade to attack the Japanese army from west to south and from east to south, basically forming a three-sided attack. When the fighting was fierce, many people were moved by the spirit of the New Fourth Army's death and blood spatter, and risked their lives to come forward to support them. In order to get rid of the encirclement and release poisonous gas on the battlefield, our soldiers continued to fight bravely after simple protection. Under the counterattack of our army, the Japanese army was crushed into the depression next to the Huangancestral hall outside Nanzhai, Xinjie, and the puppet troops on both sides were scattered. By dusk, the besieged Japanese army suffered heavy casualties, feinted and burned the bodies. Several remnants of the enemy escaped from the path, leaving more than 20 bodies on the battlefield.

Although he won the battle, Zhang said to Li Xiannian regretfully, "What a pity! What a pity! The devils are not all gone, and there are still dozens left! " Li Xiannian said humorously, "It doesn't matter, this is the first time we have played the devil here. Just let them go back and do a few funerals, and it is also a propaganda for our new fourth army! "

Before and after the Battle of Xinjie, it lasted more than 10 hours, * * killed and injured more than 80 Japanese puppet troops/kloc-0, and seized a large number of military supplies. The Battle of Xinjie was a blow to the Japanese army behind enemy lines after Li Xiannian led the New Fourth Army into central Hubei, which made the New Fourth Army famous. Shortly after the end of the fighting, the Battlefield Daily in five Kuomintang war zones published the news that "powerful troops fought fiercely in Xinjie, hitting the Japanese aggressors and hundreds of enemy troops" in a prominent position on the front page. The victory of the battle in Xinjie destroyed the prestige of the enemy and puppet troops. More importantly, this victory cured many people's "fear of Japan" and greatly encouraged and inspired the people of Hubei and the whole country to resist Japan.