Old campaigner recalls battles as a young man

Gaomingzhuang Battle

The New Fourth Army led a series of successful anti-mopping-up fights in central Jiangsu province in 1941. The mopping-up operations, major fighting forms of the Japanese puppet army, were aimed at annihilating forces by repeatedly searching and assaulting the commanders' offices.

In November, the puppet army started a new round of operations as revenge for their failed action in the summer, hoping to wipe out the New Fourth Army's main force in Gaomingzhuang.

Under the guidance of Commander Su Yu, the army made a timely transfer and successfully avoided the enemy's intensive attacks. Following a series of attempted strikes, the puppet army was low in morale and planned to retreat. A team of 100 Japanese and 500 puppet soldiers was spotted by the First Brigade on their way back to their stronghold. Sensing the enemy's fatigue, Ye Fei, the Brigade Commander, decided to attack.

Xu's troop, in charge of the main attack, launched a frontal assault and besieged the enemy, killing more than 300 puppet soldiers. With the participation of other troops, the encirclement kept narrowing. Considering the soldiers had reached their physical limits, they decided to lead a general offensive to wipe out the enemy.

Three hours before the attack, the trapped puppet army burst into sudden noise when fatigue-plagued soldiers fell asleep. The puppets yelled and rushed out under cover of intensive fire. Xu found the enemy had already broken out of the encirclement and run away. More than 200 puppets fled and the general attack plan failed.

Xu still feels ashamed even though 70 years have passed. "Generally speaking, we won the battle and were praised by our superiors. Though nobody blamed us, we were still responsible. We shouldn't have been so careless and fallen asleep in the battlefield. It is necessary for us to find shortcomings from victory, but at that time I was too young to understand. I feel ashamed to purely enjoy the honor brought by victory," Xu said with regret.

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