Wan Junsheng was a CPC member engaged in underground anti-Japanese activities in Mayang Town, Tianmen County, Hubei Province, and the liaison of a troop unit of the New Fourth Army. At noon on April 16, 1938, Wan came to the Japanese Mitsubishi Firm located at the middle section of the Dijie Street in Mayang Town, composed and calm. A young shop assistant received him. Wan said: "Could you give me two boxes of match?" The shop assistant handed two boxes of match to him adroitly, and blinked his big eyes at Wan and said: "The matches might be dampened, and you'd better check them carefully." Wan Junsheng nodded excitedly, and left quietly…

　　At about four in the wee hours on 18th, Mayang Town was still enveloped in darkness. All of a sudden, two clear gunshots gave off from the checkpoint in the upper Dijie Street. In no time, gunshots could be heard from all directions of the town. It was the soldiers of a company of the New Fourth Army that stationed almost fifty kilometers away and the local Anti-Japanese guerrilla who made a long distance raid during the night upon Mayang Town, and they were going to destyroy the stronghold of the Japanese and the puppet troops stationed in Mayang Town. Wan Junsheng acted as a guide for the New Fourth Army troops and the guerrilla, who started off in the early evening of the 17th , and marched a whole night towards Mayang Town. At a place two kilometers away from the town they rested for a while and then outflanked the upper Dijie Street, down Dijie Street and the Back Street in three prongs. At the checkpoint at the upper Dijie Street, two puppet soldiers asked them for the passwords, and Wan Junsheng answered fluently. The two puppet soldiers were shot dead as soon as they opened the fence. The gunshots were the message of launching the general attack. More than 80 guerrillamen hiding on both sides of the levee jumped out and pressed on directly to the enemy nest.

　　At the down Dijie Street, the Japanese troops and the puppet soldiers set up two machine guns in the blockhouse and sprayed crazily at the guerrillamen. The attack of the guerrillamen was stopped by the violent machine gunfire. Tian Kun, political commissar of the guerrilla men and a well-known sharp shooter, calmly aimed at the embrasures that were spraying fire tongues, and shot consecutively at them. The machine guns in the enemy blockhouse were silenced. A few New Fourth Army soldiers quickly planted dynamite at the foot of the blockhouse, and lighted up the fuse. Bang! The blockhouse fell apart. The three groups of guerrillamen occupied the whole Mayang Town in a short time, and joined forces with each other at the enemy battalion headquarters taken by the guerrillamen.

　　When the Chinese troops came to the Mitsubishi Firm, the gate of the firm was tightly closed. A soldier borrowed a hammer from a blacksmith shop nearby and knocked at the gate with full energy. The iron gate was knocked down at last. The Japanese manager of the firm was captured in bed. When the manager saw that little Wei, the shop assistant, who lived in the firm, stood at the side of the New Fourth Army soldiers, he was very surprised. Political Commissar Tian told the Japanese manager with pride that they owed the successful capture of Mayang Town to the information in the matchbox that little Wei sent out. The Japanese manager who used to be arrogant before the Chinese people collapsed onto the ground at once.

　　By Deng Wencai and Song Guizhang

　　(Aug. 31, PLA Daily)