In September 1944, Wu Mingting (1955 Colonel), combat staff officer of the First Regiment of the Luzhong Military Subdistrict of the Shandong Military Region of the Eighth Route Army, suddenly received an order from the regimental commander Li Fuze (major general in 1955): The Japanese Kusano Green Brigade was launching a large-scale "sweep" in the Yimeng Mountains, asking Wu Mingting to hide the only mountain artillery of our army as soon as possible.
This mountain cannon was not easy to come by, it was captured from the Japanese army in a battle not long ago.
At that time, the Japanese army was busy retreating, so they dismantled the mountain artillery and rode several foreign horses separately. Although the Japanese army was defeated and escaped more than ten miles, it was still chased and destroyed by the soldiers of the Luzhong Regiment, and the mountain cannon naturally became a trophy.
As soon as the head of the military region heard that the mountain artillery had been captured, he made up his mind to set up an artillery unit. However, when the Luzhong regiment gathered the captured mountain artillery equipment, it found that some parts were missing, including two wheels, a small shelf, a parts box and a guard plate.
Regiment commander Li Fuze entrusted the task of repairing artillery to Wu Mingting, who had served as the commander of the cannon company and was good at studying weapons.
After receiving the task, Wu Mingting led a group of people to work hard day and night, and exhausted all their strength to finally repair this mountain cannon.
However, before there was time to test fire, the devils launched another "sweep", and Li Fuze had to order Wu Mingting to hide the cannon as soon as possible, so as not to fall into the hands of the devils again.
Wu Mingting thought about it for half a day and decided to bury the cannon in the Yi River, because this was the best way to hide the cannon.
In order not to reveal the burial site, he divided the people of the artillery squad into several groups, one part for every two people, and buried them in the location designated by WuMingting, and was not allowed to tell the third person.
The parts are easy to handle, and the key is the gun barrel. Wu Mingting coated the cannon barrel with oil, wrapped it in oilcloth, and buried it with a few people in the widest part of the Yi River.
In order to facilitate future searching, Wumingting made three marks at the corresponding position on the shore.
After burying the cannon barrels, Wu Mingting asked the soldiers to smooth out all the footprints that everyone had left on the river bank and in the river beach. He also drew pictures of the various locations where the cannon was buried and hid them on himself.
Ten days later, the Japanese army ended this round of "sweeping", and Wu Mingting took the soldiers to the river to get artillery.
Unexpectedly, although the spare parts buried in many places were found, the most important part, the gun barrel originally buried in the river, was missing!
It turned out that the continuous autumn rain for more than ten days caused a flash flood, and the Yi River, which was originally only waist-deep, surged and washed away the cannon barrel.
Wu Mingting was angry and anxious, holding hands with the soldiers, from upstream to downstream over and over again, touching it over and over again, but never finding the barrel.
The emergence of this situation made Wu Mingting unable to accept it no matter what, and he was so angry that he was almost going crazy and going crazy!
You know, this was the only mountain cannon in the entire Luzhong Military Sub-district at that time, pouring a lot of blood and sweat into Wu Mingting and his comrades-in-arms, who had long been looking forward to pulling the mountain cannon onto the battlefield, making it show its might, and beating the devil fiercely. I didn't expect such an important weapon, but I lost it in vain because I didn't think it through!
Wu Mingting was unwilling and was preparing to take the fighters downstream to look for it, but suddenly received an order: The Japanese troops in the nearby stronghold had killed a "hui horse gun" and were rushing towards our army station, and the troops immediately moved towards it!
The situation was particularly urgent, and Wu Mingting led the soldiers to act quickly. Although the barrel of the cannon was not found, Wu Mingting was not willing to let all his previous efforts be wasted, and he ordered that the spare parts of the cannon be loaded on horses together with the shells and transferred with the troops.
However, there was an accident during the transfer, and one of the horses was frightened and delayed for a long time, which made the distance between the Wuming pavilion and the artillery squad and the large troops farther and farther.
In the middle of the night, they came to a small village with mountains on three sides and water on the other, and because they had to cross a big mountain to go forward, the mountain road was rough and difficult, so they had to rest in the village for a while.
After dawn, Wu Mingting and his warriors were preparing to climb the mountain, and just after crossing the bridge at the head of the village, they suddenly saw Li Guangpingfei, a warrior who had been sent to fight the front station, also running.
Li Guangping ran to Wu Mingting and said breathlessly, "It's not good for The staff officer, there are ghosts more than ten miles away, and they will soon go down the mountain!" ”
"How many devils?"
"There are nearly two hundred!"
Wu Mingting thought in his heart: This may be a squadron of the Japanese army, and it is a good thing! What to do? Fight or withdraw?
He thought about it carefully: retreating is absolutely impossible, because there are also devils chasing soldiers behind, so they can only fight. However, at present, the enemy is outnumbered, and we only have one squad of troops, so how can we fight with more than two hundred devils?
This sudden change made Wu Mingting feel extremely anxious in his heart, and a soldier tentatively asked, "Staff Officer Wu, or ... If you don't throw away the gun parts, let's break through! ”
"No way! Absolutely not! Wu Mingting was furious, "Even if we all sacrifice, we must not throw the cannon to the devils!" ”
"Without the cannon barrel, these iron knots can't fight the devils, what is the use of keeping them?" With it is still a burden, there is no way to break through ah! ”
Wu Mingting also knew that the warrior was right, but he still couldn't make up his mind to throw away the parts.
At this moment, he suddenly saw something on the side of the river beach more than ten meters away, and his eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but shout: "Hey, what is that?" ”
When the warriors looked at it, they all looked happy: "It seems to be a cannon barrel!" "Yes! Really, maybe it's the cannon barrel we lost! ”
With a wave of his hand, Wu Mingting rushed to the edge of the river beach with his soldiers, and lifted the cannon barrel up with seven hands and eight feet, only to find that it was indeed the cannon barrel buried in the Yi River ten days ago!
Wu Mingting looked at the terrain, the Japanese army from the front of the mountain beam to the village only one road (one side is a cliff on the other side), immediately decided to put up the cannon and wait for the devils to come down the mountain.
Fortunately, at the critical moment when the Japanese army appeared on the mountain beam, Wu Mingting and others also just set up the mountain cannon, the ruler was also adjusted, and the shells were loaded, and the time was really just right!
Everything was ready, and Wu Mingting decisively issued the order to open fire. In fact, his mood was extremely nervous, because this was the first test firing after the mountain cannon was repaired, and the barrel of the cannon had been soaked in the river water for so long, I don't know if it would affect the launch.
With a loud roar, the shells burst out of their chambers and roared toward the opposite mountain beam, followed by an earth-shaking explosion.
An unbelievable scene appeared, the shell actually exploded in the dense area of the Japanese army, blowing them up to the point of howling, except for a dozen ghosts who were killed and injured on the spot, the rest fled in all directions.
The Japanese army never dreamed that they had just come down from the mountain and were shelled, and they thought that they had encountered the main force of the Eighth Route Army, and immediately fled.
The soldiers clapped their hands and laughed: "The cannon was lost and recovered, and it appeared at the most appropriate time, and it was a magical cannon that repelled the Japanese army with one shot!" ”
Later, Wu Mingting and others figured out why the cannon barrel appeared on the side of the river beach here, there was a naturally formed bend there, and there was a large pit under the water, which just intercepted the cannon barrel. In addition, the water in the first heavenly river just receded, so no one noticed, but it was just glimpsed by Wu Mingting, which was indeed a magical thing.