The Flames of Resistance Against Japan in Jiangnan

After the meeting, Chief of Staff Hu Jiu was tasked with leading the main force of the 19th Division to attack the local militias and security forces surrounding the Soviet area, and to be ready to counterattack the enemy's encirclement and suppression campaigns at any time. The aim was to contain and draw the enemy away, buying time to change the course of the struggle.

For the key personnel attending the training course, Yao Hutou, the political commissar of the 19th Division, personally gave lectures. He emphasized that Party members and cadres should have a sense of crisis. Mass work should be flexible and adaptable. Party organizations in Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces were to send special personnel to secretly arrange infiltrators, and local Party organizations were to establish both overt and covert teams. More than a dozen armed work teams were formed by drawing elite personnel from the 19th Division and the guerrilla forces. Their main task was not fighting, but leading plainclothes and short-gun teams to persist in basic areas, conduct mass work, and actively build guerrilla base areas.

In order to consolidate the base areas, the Soviet government first implemented a relatively moderate land reform policy in the basic guerrilla areas, distributing land only to the most heinous local tyrants and gentry. Other landlords were required to voluntarily reduce their land rents.

After implementing a series of measures, the movement gained the support and following of the masses. Farmers joined various overt and covert revolutionary mass organizations. When the first snow of winter fell heavily on the hillsides and plains, the prototype of a brand-new form of red guerrilla base gradually took shape in the border area of ​​Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces.

While the main force was launching a massive offensive, the 19th Division of the Red Army moved across the three provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, capturing a large number of cities and towns. The large amount of supplies captured, including the Red Army's repair shops and hospitals, had already been secretly set up in the depths of the mountains under Xu Wenqing's secret orders. A large amount of spare supplies were secretly transported by special personnel to many scouting caves for storage.

According to incomplete statistics, the 19th Red Army Division stored thousands of tons of various supplies in the mountains at the junction of Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces, which effectively supported the arduous and protracted guerrilla war that followed in the Anhui-Zhejiang-Jiangxi region.

After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, when the Southern Red Army was reorganized into the New Fourth Army, more than 5,000 Red Army troops from the Anhui-Zhejiang-Jiangxi region, which the enemy had always regarded as a model pacification zone, accepted the reorganization. This accounted for one-third of the total strength of the New Fourth Army. At the same time, more than 1,000 local troops were reorganized into guard battalions, special service battalions, training battalions, supply battalions, and artillery battalions directly under the army headquarters. This does not include the more than 1,000 guerrillas who continued to fight in the Anhui-Zhejiang-Jiangxi region.

During the transformation of the 19th Red Army Division's fighting style, the surrounding enemies, like flies drawn by the smell of blood, gradually surrounded the division from all directions. At this time, the power of radio monitoring became apparent. The 19th Red Army Division promptly learned of the enemy's mobilization of heavy forces to "pursue and suppress" the Soviet area.

The Zhejiang East Independent Division stationed in Ningbo Prefecture rushed to the aid of Wenzhou Prefecture, and then followed closely, stationing itself in the Dongyang County area of ​​Jinhua Prefecture. The main force of the 19th Red Army Division, the 55th Regiment, entered Yiwu County. They confronted each other, and sporadic skirmishes began, gradually escalating into fierce fighting. The Jiangxi West Garrison Division, which was pursuing the main force of the 10th Red Army Corps, arrived from Nanchang and had reached Quzhou Prefecture. In the north, a garrison division from southern Anhui also rushed over. In order to carry out the order of the White Area Government to defend the Yangtze River and prevent the two Red Army forces from Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi and Hubei, Henan and Anhui from merging, Gu Zhutong transferred the supplementary brigade that was encircling and suppressing the 10th Red Army Corps, and ordered Brigade Commander Huang Yaowu to lead his troops to the Pengze area of ​​Jiujiang Lake to block the Yangtze River crossing.

The situation unfolded unexpectedly. Lu Shuangnan, commander of the heavily damaged Zhejiang East Garrison Division, led less than a regiment of remaining troops, along with approximately 3,000 militia from several surrounding counties, and marched from Hangzhou Prefecture to attack Suian County. The main force of the Red 19th Division, which had been prepared, was concealed in the Fengxian Mountain area. As soon as the enemy entered the Soviet area, their vanguard was ambushed. The local Zhejiang East Independent Regiment swiftly annihilated two battalions of the enemy's 3rd Garrison Regiment, leaving Lu Shuangnan a commander without troops. The 56th and 57th Regiments attacked from both sides, and several security regiments fled in panic back to Hangzhou Prefecture, cowering within the city in constant fear.

While blocking the advance of the Zhejiang East Garrison Division, Xu Wenqing led the 58th and 59th Regiments of the 19th Division of the Red Army to Chaling to confront the Zhejiang East Independent Division of the White Army. Before departing, he ordered his troops to take with them a large quantity of white cloth that could be collected in the next few days. To ensure the flank safety of Xu Wenqing's troops, local forces from Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces left the 59th Regiment to guard the area, while the 58th Regiment moved into the Jiangkou area to deploy defenses, firmly controlling the western gate of the Soviet area.

The headquarters of the 19th Division of the Red Army set off from Nianzhou Prefecture, passing through Hetanghan, and arrived at Meihuashan, five kilometers behind the position of the 55th Regiment. Under the guidance of local cadres, the leaders of the 19th Division of the Red Army, after comparing military maps and conducting on-site surveys of the terrain, immediately decided to make Meihuashan the main battlefield.

The Plum Blossom Mountain area comprises five or six hills of varying sizes and irregular locations, each with several small peaks. Scattered trees of various colors grow on the slopes. A highway, approximately two kilometers long, winds its way from the direction of Dongyang, encircling the foot of the mountain. If the high ground at both ends of the highway is captured, the enemy advancing along it can be cut off into several segments. They can then be defeated piecemeal. Once the battle begins, the enemy below will be forced to attack uphill, while the Red Army, positioned on higher ground, will have a significant advantage.

After surveying the terrain with several commanders, Xu Wenqing and his chief of staff decided to set up an ambush in the Plum Blossom Mountain area.

Ding Fujiang, the commander of the 59th Regiment, was eager to get started and said to Xu Wenqing, "Commander, this is a good place for an ambush. Let our regiment lead the main force. As long as we occupy the hills at both ends, we can trap the enemy and leave them nowhere to run. They'll have no choice but to surrender!"

The commander of the 58th Regiment was also eager to try, and Xu Wenqing said with a smile:

"Neither of you need to rush. You both have missions. The 59th Regiment will ambush on both sides of the road entrance. The 58th Regiment will be responsible for the cleanup. Set up your heavy machine guns on the hilltops along the road. I want the Zhejiang East Independent Division to know that the Red Army's bullets are not to be trifled with."

For several days, snow had been falling intermittently. Even in their cotton-padded coats, the soldiers felt the biting cold. To make matters worse, the freezing weather made constructing fortifications extremely difficult; a single strike of the pickaxe would only create a small hole, and it was impossible to openly thaw the ice. Therefore, headquarters had no choice but to order the troops to find natural hiding places on the spot. The remaining soldiers lay in ambush on the back of the hillside.

Xu Wenqing's target was the enemy's Zhejiang East Independent Division, under the Zhejiang East Provincial Pacification Command, which comprised three infantry regiments. Last October, the division commander was transferred to the Central Military Academy's advanced training program. Huang Wenji, the division's deputy commander, succeeded him. The division participated in the pursuit and interception of the Red Tenth Army Corps, which was on the Long March, and moved from the Anhui-Zhejiang border to Ningbo Prefecture for garrison duty.