Strategically, it was the New Fourth Army, which captured Huangqiao after defeating an attack by He Kexian's troops under Han Deqin.
Personally, I think it should be Han Deqin's responsibility. At that time, the New Fourth Army was advancing eastward, and had already discussed with "Er Li", who gave way for the New Fourth Army to pass through. Originally and Han Deqin has nothing to do with. Han Deqin seemed to feel that his authority as the chairman of Jiangsu Province was being challenged, and rebuked Er Li for giving way and ordered his troops to take the initiative to attack the New Fourth Army. As a result, he was instead defeated by the New Fourth Army and lost the strategic Huangqiao Bridge. Han Deqin's attack on the New Fourth Army was a bit of killing with a borrowed knife, because He Kexian was not his beloved, and he wanted to use the New Fourth Army to eliminate He Kexian, but he did not realize that the New Fourth Army took Huangqiao in their stride. Afterwards, Han Deqin arrested He Kexian for "smuggling with the **** party", and his intention was clearly revealed!
After that, Han Deqin ignored the repeated appeals of the New Fourth Army to cooperate with the anti-Japanese forces, and forcefully demanded that the New Fourth Army must unconditionally withdraw from Huangqiao.
If you think about it, suppose you are fighting with a man and he is pointing a gun at you, and you are good enough to take the gun down, and then you say let's talk about it, and then he says to you, "Give me back the gun and I'll talk to you again," then what do you do?
Because the New Fourth Army refused to accept Han Deqin's unreasonable demands, Han Deqin mobilized his most elite troops to attack Huangqiao.