In a bloody breakthrough, Ye Ting vowed: "My determination is to live and die with the comrades of the whole army, live and die together, and shoot to the last person." ”

Since four o'clock in the morning of January 7, 1941, the third battalion of the old third regiment of the avant-garde old third regiment of the second column of the new fourth army in southern Anhui fired the first shot at the anticipation of the Kuomintang 40th Division in Piling Zhipeng Village on the way to Jiangbei, and a desperate struggle to break through and counter-break was launched in tens of thousands of New Fourth Army and several times the Kuomintang troops of the New Fourth Army. The bones burned in the fire, and the world was filled with a suffocating smell of burning.

At this moment, on the narrow mountain road leading from Zhuangyuanling to Shijingkeng, several whistling and piercing shells swept by, and in the sound of "boom" and "boom" explosions, the stretcher team of the New Fourth Army, which was rapidly retreating, was blown up and rolled on both sides of the mountain road, and the limbs of several wounded and sick were thrown into the air, and then crackled and fell to the ground, covering the road surface more than half a meter wide, and blood flowed to the low-lying places on both sides of the road, which was really miserable.

At this moment, Ye Ting arrived on horseback. With a blue face and angry eyes, he turned over and dismounted, and shouted to the stretcher team: "Don't stop, buy time, retreat quickly!" ”

Not far from Ye Ting, a wounded man on a stretcher recognized the caller as Ye Ting, and suddenly got up from the stretcher as if he had lost his mind, and tore the bandage on his chest with a "squeak". Revealing the wound that continued to bleed, he pointed at Ye Ting with a broken finger, and roared hoarsely: "Commander Ye, the Party Central Committee has long asked us to move to Jiangbei, but you have all delayed carrying out the orders of the Central Committee, and now you are not going north but going south, what is this not against the Central Committee?" Whose decision is this, you say? You are taking us as soldiers......" He didn't finish a word, and suddenly fell to the ground, exhausted.

Ye Ting heard the wounded's stern reprimand, and felt that a bayonet was suddenly hit in his chest, and blood gushed out like a fountain of blood, the pain made him clench his teeth, his cheeks bulged out with a stony shore of flesh, and cold sweat broke out on his head. The tragic sacrifice of this wounded man struck his heart like a merciless whip, and he felt an unspeakable pain gnawing at his self-esteem and honor, and he felt that he had lost control for a while, and his body shook involuntarily in a trance, and there was a tragedy in front of him.

At the same time, a faint voice vaguely hit Ye Ting's ear drum: "Army commander, army commander——! ”

Ye Ting followed the prestige and saw a patient lying on a stretcher not far in front of him with a sallow complexion and so thin that his cheeks could fit into a pair of fists.

"Commander, don't you recognize me? I'm Li Zifang! After the patient on the stretcher finished speaking, he coughed violently, his chest was like a bellows, and he gasped for breath with "grunt" and "crunt", and it seemed that he was quite sick.

"Zifang, it's you!" As soon as Ye Ting heard that the patient on the stretcher was Li Zifang, the head of the organization of the New Fourth Army, he hurriedly stepped forward, squatted down, and asked with concern, "Why are you so sick and still transferred with the combat troops?" Why don't you follow the non-combat troops and their families first?! ”

Usually, Ye Ting respects Li Zifang, a returned overseas Chinese from the Philippines. Li Yufang joined the Communist Party in his early years and was an outstanding cadre of the party. Although he suffered from stage 3 tuberculosis, he always insisted on working despite his illness and never cared about personal gains and losses. On the eve of the New Fourth Army's northward movement, he underwent surgery for appendicitis, but he did not move to Jiangbei with the non-combat team, but had to act with the combat troops. He said, "If it is a horse, it will gallop in the smoke of gunpowder; If you are a soldier, you have to charge in the rain of bullets. "In this big breakout, he fought with the troops and charged together, until he vomited blood several times in a row, fainted and became unconscious, and was carried to a stretcher.

"Commander, the soldier is not afraid of death, just like the wounded man who was grieving and indignant just now, but the mistake caused by the commander's hesitation will make thousands of revolutionary fires ......" Li Zifang tried her best to vomit the block in her chest, but lost the strength to speak because of another violent cough.

"Zifang, I understand what you mean, let's evacuate this dangerous area with the stretcher team immediately." Ye Ting tightly shook Li Zifang's dry hand, and tucked the military blanket hanging on the ground for him, "Zifang, how precious, how precious!" ……”

Ye Ting looked at Li Zifang, who was far away, and when his gaze slowly retracted, he suddenly stopped moving, and his eyes were propped up, and his eyeballs were getting bigger and bigger. It turned out that he was shocked to find that on the mountain road through which the stretcher team passed, it was like a layer of fiery red morning glow, which was the blood flowing down from the wounded! This bloody road leads all the way to the distance, to that extremely sad and painful moment that makes people resentful and helpless.

"The Party Central Committee has long told us to move to Jiangbei, but you have not carried out the orders of the Central Committee for a long time, and now you are not going north but going south. Whose decision is this, you say? Ye Ting questioned at the meeting. This was an unconventional meeting of the New Fourth Army branch that Ye Ting attended.

The meeting was held only two days after Chiang Kai-shek's deadline for the transfer of troops from southern Anhui to Jiangbei.

The conference room of the military branch was arranged in a small staff office. The people who attended the meeting crowded together like canned sardines, in addition to the topic of the meeting itself tugging at everyone's heart, in terms of the space of the venue, it made people feel suffocated.

Xiang Ying used to sit at the top of the conference table facing the door, so that everyone who entered the conference room saw him first, and he could also see everyone who participated in the meeting first. "Because Chiang Kai-shek has ordered that we should not be allowed to take this route again. If we force ourselves to go, aren't we just giving people a handle? Chiang Kai-shek could have beaten us for disobeying orders. ”

"However, I thought," Ye Ting ignored Xiang Ying's hard interference and insisted on saying it according to his own train of thought, "Now that we are in a short battle, there is little room for maneuver, and there is a difference between success and defeat." Therefore, danger and surprise in war are linked, and we should win by surprise, and turn danger into relief with one target......"

"Commander Ye, be specific!" Xiang Ying kept shaking his body from side to side when Ye Ting spoke, as if there was a tribulus sitting under his buttocks, obviously he was impatient with the "big truth" that Ye Ting said, so he interrupted Ye Ting's words for the second time.

"Specifically," Ye Ting frowned slightly, took out a cigarette and lit it, and took a deep breath to calm his constantly irritated mood, "We take this route, and the main threat comes from the 52nd Division of the Kuomintang. A few days ago, when I went to Zhouwang Village to meet with Shangguan Yunxiang, I was accompanied by Liu Bingzhe, commander of the 52nd Division. When I stayed in the 52nd Division, Liu treated me with great respect, and I deliberately observed the situation of this division. I think that I will first lead a team of capable men and horses to the 52nd Division to meet Liu Bingzhe, and he will definitely give him warm hospitality. At that time, we will immediately take him hostage, ask him to order our brigade to be released, and then release him, and we will succeed in one fell swoop! When Ye Ting said this, the expression on his face was very excited, and he looked like he was in his chest.

"No, no!" Xiang Ying tried his best to listen to it this time, and immediately shook his head and waved his hand, "In this way, it will completely anger Chiang Kai-shek, and he will have a non-toxic husband, and he would rather ignore Liu Bingzhe's life and death, and put me all to death!" Xiang Ying said this, afraid that he would not be able to completely conquer Ye Ting, so he hurriedly pointed to the people who participated in the military branch, "You say, is this the case?" You say, isn't it, huh?! ”

Seeing that Xiang Ying's "paternalistic" style had also come up, the other participants looked at each other one by one, and had to give a little beard, and said, "Shaking your head doesn't count as nodding." ”

In this way, the first northward route advocated by Ye Ting was completely overturned by Xiang Ying.

At this time, there was a buzz in the venue. The participants seemed to have lost their opinions for a while, and they didn't know what to do.

"Everyone be quiet and continue to listen to Commander Ye's opinions." Xiang Ying unhappily drew an arc in the conference room with her gaze to stop everyone's private discussion.

Ye Ting took another puff of cigarette and vigorously extinguished the cigarette butt: "The second northward route I want to talk about, this is the route assigned to us by Chiang Kai-shek, directly to the north, from Tongling and Fanchang through the Japanese puppet army blockade line ferry, to the northern area of Wuwei in Jiangbei......"

"No, no!" Xiang Ying interrupted Ye Ting's speech again, "The route designated by Chiang Kai-shek for us was blocked by Kuomintang troops on the way, and there were Japanese ships patrolling the Yangtze River. ”

"But, Deputy Commander Xiang," Ye Ting felt that Xiang Ying had interrupted his speech again and again, wasn't this contempt for him as a military commander? He slammed to the side, and two sharp eyes stabbed Xiang Ying's face like knives, "Please remember that war is a field full of uncertainty. The truth is the void, the void is the reality, and the reality is the mystery of dialectics. Chiang Kai-shek assigned us this line and wanted to borrow a knife to kill people, which is true. However, the advantage of taking this route is that the distance is short, the soldiers are noble and fast, as long as we are determined to be big, highlight the surprise soldiers, we can go directly to the Tongling area in one day, and we can cross the river overnight, who dares to say that this is not a surprise, an unprepared attack? ”

The participants immediately became nervous, and through the anger in Ye Ting's eyes, they felt a kind of dry and scorching heat rising in the entire conference room.

Silent.

An explosive, cramping silence.

It seemed that Xiang Ying felt that he was rude, coughed dryly twice, and immediately salvaged the tense situation and said: "The second northward route advocated by Commander Ye is also an opinion. However, let's brainstorm and think about whether there is a better route to choose from. Didn't the General Staff Office prepare several proposals? You talk. ”

In this way, Xiang Ying not only appeased Ye Ting, but also skillfully denied the second northward route advocated by Ye Ting.

After listening to Xiang Ying's words, Ye Ting felt an explosion in his heart, the flames were burning his self-esteem, and the lives of the soldiers of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui were also burning!

When the staff office reported that there was a third route to move north, that is, from Yunling to the south to detour Maolin, through Sanxi Town and Qiaotoubu, along the foot of Tianmu Mountain to Ningguo, Langxi to Liyang, and then wait to cross north...... This northward route, out of southern Anhui, through eastern Anhui, southern Jiangsu, a full southeast direction around a semicircular arc.

This third northward route coincided with Xiang Ying's reluctance to go to Jiangbei. Not to mention that Xiang Ying was in love with sticking to southern Anhui and expeditioning to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian from the bottom of his bones to fight guerrillas, that is, from November 1940, the Central Committee announced the establishment of the Central China Command, Ye Ting served as the commander-in-chief, Chen Yi served as the former commander-in-chief, and Liu Shaoqi served as the political commissar, and decided to merge the Central Plains Bureau and the Southeast Bureau to form the Central China Bureau, with Liu Shaoqi as the secretary of the newly established Central China Bureau, and Xiang Ying, the former secretary of the Southeast Bureau, returned to Yan'an to listen to the dispatch, and Xiang Ying would also be like a stalk. Xiang Ying led the guerrilla war in Jiangnan for three years and made outstanding achievements, and in these three years, he reorganized the Red Army guerrillas in eight southern provinces in southern Anhui and created the New Fourth Army. If the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army arrives in northern Jiangsu in one step, it will be Ye Ting who will go to Jiangbei to take over power, but Xiang Ying will go to Jiangbei to hand over power, can his mentality be balanced?

Therefore, although this third northward route was very rusty, and it was a lone army that ventured deep into the defense area of the Kuomintang troops, and also violated Chiang Kai-shek's order that "no southward movement", coupled with the dense hills in the dense forest area, the steep roads and deep forests, and the recalcitrant army being deployed layer by layer, Xiang Ying still decided to choose this northward route.

"Commander Ye, the comrades who participated in the military branch have no opinion, I think it's decided!" Xiang Ying nominally meant to ask Ye Ting's opinion, but in fact, he announced the decision of the military branch to Ye Ting.

With a "Gaba" sound, a pen in Ye Ting's hand broke.

Ye Ting felt that his heart was broken. He sat upright, his face gloomy and uncontrasted. He didn't say a word.

None of the participants looked at Ye Ting's face, and everyone was afraid to look at his face, as if his face was a heavy **, and in an instant, gunsmoke filled the air, and shrapnel flew sideways. They knew that if Ye Ting started a fire, it would be like a thunderbolt!

However, Ye Ting neither became angry nor walked away, but did not leave for a long time.

What restraint it takes!

What they see today is no longer Ye Ting, who left the New Fourth Army angrily in the past, what they see today is Ye Ting, who combines righteousness, perseverance, and magnificence.

Now that the route of the northward movement had been decided, Ye Ting actively participated in the work of organizing the more than 9,000 people of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui into three columns.

The first column was the left column, with the old regiment and the new regiment, about 3,000 people. Under the command of Commander and Political Commissar Fu Qiutao, Yunling passed through Qiuling and advanced towards the Langqiao area.

The second column is the central column, which has jurisdiction over the old third regiment and the new third regiment. There are more than 2,000 people in total. It was commanded by Commander Zhou Guisheng and Political Commissar Huang Mars. From Yunling into the north of Maolin, through Gaotan, Piling to Xingtan. The corps and the teaching corps set off with the second column.

The third column is the right column, with a total of more than 2,000 people in the five regiments and the army's special service regiment, commanded by the commander Zhang Zhengkun and the political commissar Hu Rong.

Ye Ting originally held a different opinion on this method of dividing into three routes, believing that this kind of force was too scattered, and it was not conducive to concentrating the main combat forces to form sharp knives, break through one point, and penetrate directly into southern Jiangsu. However, he also felt that since Xiang Ying had already resolutely decided on the route of moving northward, this line would have embodied Xiang Ying's idea of sticking to the south of the Yangtze River and then fighting guerrillas, and the division of troops into three routes was completely a derivative and concrete embodiment of Xiang Ying's guerrilla warfare, and no matter how much he opposed Xiang Ying, he would not change his "established policy."

The current Ye Tingzhi is Xiang Ying, and he really has the feeling of "showing talent and meeting soldiers", what if he doesn't "compromise and seek perfection"? If the two commanders split at such a moment, when the lives and safety of nearly 10,000 officers and men of the New Fourth Army were at stake, it could only be that "the relatives are painful, and the enemies are happy", and the revolutionary interests will be damaged. It can be said that "Sima Zhao's heart is known to passers-by".

Ye Ting and Xiang Ying led their troops to set out from Yunling on the evening of January 4, 1941, which was already four days beyond Chiang Kai-shek's date before the end of December 1940. Due to the rainfall for several days, the roads were muddy, flash floods broke out, and the water of the Qingyi River swelled sharply, and the ferocious flood peaks broke the pontoon bridge erected by the engineer company on several occasions, forcing many officers and men to wade across the river in the chest-deep, icy rapids. From Yunling Jingzhangdu to Maolin, in just forty miles, I trekked hard all night in the bitter wind and rain, and as a result, many soldiers were left behind.

The troops were so tired that they had to stop and rest for the day. As a result, on the evening of the 7th, the whole military continued to move. By the time the second column entered Piling, which was more than 800 meters above sea level, from Maolin, the whole army was already surrounded by the 52nd and 40th divisions of the Kuomintang.

At 4 o'clock in the morning of the 7th, the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Column, which was tasked with the avant-garde, had just approached the paper shed village in Piling when a fierce battle broke out with the outpost of the 40th Division of the Kuomintang that was intercepting head-on, thus opening the prelude to the incident in southern Anhui.

Next, it was the various columns that began a bloody breakthrough. The old 3rd Regiment and the new 3rd Regiment of the second column to which Ye Ting and Xiang Ying belonged fought very bravely, but because the enemy's 40th Division was exceptionally well-equipped and took advantage of the condescending terrain to weave an impermeable fire net with machine guns and artillery, our army suffered heavy losses.

When Xiang Ying heard the report from the General Staff Office, she was dumbfounded, her thick purple lips didn't know whether they were frozen or frightened, she trembled again and again, and she couldn't speak for a long time.

Seeing this, Ye Ting glanced at Xiang Ying with disdain, rode forward, and braved artillery fire to come to the forward position of our army. He used a high-powered telescope to observe the enemy's position, and saw that the enemy's 40th Division was worthy of being Chiang Kai-shek's descendant troops, and that all companies, platoons, and battalions were all modernized equipment, and he couldn't help but angrily reprimand at the enemy: "You, Chiang Kai-shek, clearly promised to give 'protection along the way' for our army's northward movement, and you, Gu Zhutong, guaranteed the safety of our army's northward movement with 'personality', why did you go back on your word? You keep saying that you will stop the civil war and jointly resist Japan, but you will not use such well-equipped troops to fight the Japanese invaders, but to fight the New Fourth Army, and you will become sinners and national scum through the ages by doing so! ”

Ye Ting roared angrily and in pain. He also knew that shouting at the enemy's positions and the mountains and forests was worthless, but he still had to shout, as if he had lost his mind, unable to control himself, like a raging lion.

Zhou Zikun, deputy chief of staff of the New Fourth Army, who followed Ye Ting to the forward position of our army, wanted to cry when he saw Ye Ting's state. Because he knew too well the pain that Ye Ting had deeply suppressed in his heart. Not only does he have no authority, but he is, as he himself said, "a grain of sand sandwiched between two wheels." In the "wheel" of Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang, he was reprimanded and discriminated against; In the "wheel" of the Communist Party and Mao**, because Xiang Ying has repeatedly worked against the Central Committee, it has become a big mistake today, and he Ye Ting still has to bear the responsibility as a military commander that is difficult to clarify and difficult to wash. No wonder he is "a three-year army commander and four resignations" heh! Who can stand the taste of this "rat in the bellows"?! However, Ye Ting endured it, and he endured it for more than a thousand days and nights! How much self-control and will does this require? Except for Ye Ting, I'm afraid it will be difficult to find a second person. Therefore, Zhou Zikun felt that Ye Ting, the former famous general of the Northern Expedition, was both admirable and pitiful, and the more pitiful he was, the more admirable he was! It's time for him to pour out the blocks that have been accumulated in his chest for a long time, or his nerves will suddenly burst. Zhou Zikun's eyes were filled with tears, and he was saying in his heart: "Commander, you shout, you shout, you curse, you call!" ”

It was at this moment that several shells landed on the hillside not far from Ye Ting, and the screaming shrapnel whizzed over his head.

"Commander!" The guard shouted and hurriedly protected Ye Ting with his body.

"Commander! Now is the time to decide, what next? Zhou Zikun saw that the enemy army was frequently reinforcing and asked Ye Ting eagerly.

Ye Ting heard this, the gums rattled, the temples were full of green tendons raised like whips, and he suddenly grabbed his shining steel cane, and slashed down like Mount Tai pressing down, and a small tree as thick as a finger around him was broken with a "click", and the trunk hissed in pain, and fell down tragically, and the crystal liquid gushing out of the fracture was like a big drop of tears, fluttering and rolling down the dust, without complaint or regret.

"Set up the headquarters in this forward position, gather all the old third regiment and the new third regiment, and capture Xingtan in one fell swoop!"

"Good!" Zhou Zikun was overjoyed when he heard it. This kind of "commander's position is on the front line" is Ye Ting's consistent fighting style, and by concentrating superior forces and going all out to capture Xingtan, he can break through the enemy's encirclement and advance eastward. It's a brilliant move!

However, Zhou Zikun had just turned around and didn't take a few steps, and his legs were immediately filled with lead and he couldn't move. He remembered that the real commander who broke through now was not Ye Ting, who was the commander, but Xiang Ying, who was the deputy commander. The current command post is not in the forward position on the slope of Piling Mountain, where Ye Ting is located, but in the Chinese military tent where Xiang Ying is at the foot of Piling Mountain. Whether you can fight Xingtan, whether you want to go east from Xingtan, you have to get Xiang Ying's approval before it counts.

"Commander, do you want to give this decision to Deputy Commander Xiang ......" Zhou Zikun said to Ye Ting in a snort, with a helpless reminder in his eyes.

"Got it, just do as you say!" Ye Ting immediately understood Zhou Zikun's state of mind. After he finished speaking, he felt that he was like the little tree just now, and he fell to the ground with a bang, and tears of sorrow poured straight into his heart.

As a result, the issue of whether or not to capture Xingtan is simple and should be decided immediately, but the "seven-hour emergency meeting" has become a magnificent anecdote written in the blood of the officers and soldiers of the New Fourth Army in the Southern Anhui Incident, and its absurdity is unique in Chinese and foreign military history, and it should be included in the Guinness Book of Books, and the copyright owner is Xiang Ying.

"What is your Xiang Ying's opinion? If we continue to make decisions and delay the fighters, we will be punished by revolutionary history! Ye Ting poked the ground with a steel cane, and the roar was like a drum, shocking.

At this moment, although Xiang Ying has no master, the posture of the "leader" of the New Fourth Army is not down. He once again stubbornly raised the wand of power, denied Ye Ting's idea of attacking Xingtan, stubbornly held his magic weapon for fighting guerrillas, and decided to retreat his troops, turning to the west of Piling and then to the southwest, thus pushing the 9,000-strong New Fourth Army soldiers into the abyss of destruction.

Retreat.

Retreat of shame.

Absurd retreat.

Such a large army, the mountain roads are rugged. The rain is heavy and the slope is steep, and the tail is difficult to fall!

Such a large army, advancing and retreating, going back and forth in vain, tossing back and forth among the enemy's cloth bags, is simply child's play!

Soldiers are flesh and blood. Needless physical exertion, casualties without cost, commanders' lack of strategy and indecision, bleak prospects, and a bruised spirit?!

Ye Ting stood in the torrential rain with indignation, witnessing groups of unwilling to retreat soldiers pouring on the narrow mountain road between the cliffs and walls, and the sad and indignant appearance of the soldiers who were injured by the pursuit of the enemy because of the sudden retreat due to the charge, he couldn't help but be angry, he really wanted to wield his war knife, lead these lovely soldiers to kill back, and give the enemy a "blood for blood, tooth for tooth", so that they could taste the ruthless iron fist of the New Fourth Army commanded by Ye Ting, but he thought about it and ran counter to the "overall situation", so he had to grit his steel teeth "rattle" Mountain sounds.

Just when Xiang Ying and his troops rushed left and right like blind horses in a deep pond for a day and night to the area of Gaotan Village, which was more than 10 miles away from Litancang, he was again fiercely stopped by the vanguard of the 144th Division of the Kuomintang.

"Shameful!" After listening to the report at the Xu Clan Ancestral Hall, which is about 100 meters away from Gaotan Village, Ye Ting stood up and immediately ordered Rao Shushi, a member of the general's branch, Zhou Guisheng, commander of the second column, Huang Mars, political commissar, and Yu Lijin, director of the political department of the teaching corps, to gather together and loudly announce: "Immediately send a telegram to the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, and report that Xiang Ying and others have left the team." From now on, the troops are under my full command. Tonight, we will make every effort to break through and advance northward. He looked around at the nervous and serious faces with a majestic gaze, "Now is the critical moment when we are dedicated to the revolution, and everyone must be ready to shed the last drop of blood." I am determined to live and die with the comrades of the whole army, live and die together, and shoot to the last man. Even if we die here today, we will leave a glorious page in the history of the Chinese revolution. If Ye Ting escapes from the battle, the gun is in your hands, you should shoot me! ”

Ye Ting stood majestically on the steps of the Xu Family Ancestral Hall, leaping on the horse with a horizontal sword, pulling out the mountains, the steel-like oath, shocking the world, crying ghosts and gods, once again showing the heroic spirit of the famous generals of the Northern Expedition!