On January 19, 1935, the Red Army set out from Zunyi, Guizhou, preparing to cross the Chishui River through Tongzi, and then cross the Yangtze River from Luzhou and Yibin in Sichuan to join the Red Fourth Front, which was active in northeast Sichuan, and establish a new base area.
Unexpectedly, the vanguard red 2nd Division entered a place two or three miles away from Tongzi, and was blocked by the enemy troops occupying the Tianmen Cave on the main road to Tongzi and could not advance.
The company of engineers is resting and waiting in the old town of Zunyi. One afternoon, Zhang Yunyi, director of the Operations Bureau of the Red Army Headquarters, suddenly summoned company commander Wang Yaonan to the headquarters and said: "On the road to Tongzhu Tongzi County, there is a large stone cave called Tianmen Cave, in which more than a thousand landlords are stationed armed, and with the strong fortifications at the mouth of the cave, they block the road and block our advance. The comrades of the Red 2nd Division fought for two days and did not take it. Your company of engineers tried to blow up the opening of the hole with explosives, and told the enemy to get on a dirt plane and pull out this stronghold. ”
Wang Yaonan replied: "The problem is not big, let's watch and do it." ”
Zhang Yunyi said solemnly, "It is not a 'look and do', but a death order, the Tianmendong stronghold is not removed, the troops cannot pass, and it is difficult to achieve the north." Now, there are Sichuan troops blocking in the front and chasing after the enemy in the rear, letting the enemy drag here, which is very unfavorable to us. This task must be done in a way. ”
Wang Yaonan returned to the engineer company and gathered his troops to set off overnight.
After a day and a night of rapid marching, the next afternoon before the sun set, the company of engineers arrived at its destination.
Wang Yaonan and deputy company commander Feng Zhixiang led three platoon commanders, accompanied by comrades from the Operations Section of the Red 2nd Division, rushed to the front line and conducted reconnaissance of Tianmendong.
Originally, Tianmen Cave was a large natural cave made of limestone, with a total of three openings, and the enemy built a high and thick stone wall at each entrance, guarding the people inside the cave like a city wall. The stone wall opens with many outer wide and inner narrow outer figure eight gun holes, forming a crossed fire net. Below the south cave entrance is a small river, and there is a steep slope of 20 or 30 meters from the water's edge of the river bank to the mouth of the cave. Wang Yaonan said, "Let's start at the mouth of the South Cave, which is relatively easy to approach." "At the site and several platoon commanders studied and determined the blasting program.
The enemy was equipped with three machine guns at the entrance of the cave. In order to both confuse and paralyze the enemy and safely cover the explosives team approaching the enemy's cave entrance to plant explosives, the attacking troops decided to use the method of regularly harassing the enemy to cooperate with the actions of the engineer company. As soon as night fell, the vigilance detachment, which was buried near the entrances of the three caves, fired at the enemy and shouted "rush" and "kill" with vigor.
The enemy was afraid that the Red Army would climb the wall and attack the cave entrance, and as soon as he heard the shouting, he shot indiscriminately. After a while, the Red Army's vigilance detachment pretended to attack again, and the enemy caused another commotion. Taking advantage of the enemy's lack of attention, Wang Yaonan gave an order, and the engineer company began to act according to the proposed blasting plan.
The company of engineers had prepared ignition tools and six boxes of explosives, each weighing 50 pounds. In order to make the blasting hole mouth foolproof, Chen Yimin, the leader of the three platoons, alone touched the stone wall at the mouth of the enemy cave, selected the charging point, and conducted field measurements. The stone wall next to the cave entrance is: a slope of more than 40 degrees, it is not easy to place explosive boxes. Chen Yimin had studied blasting at the Red Army School, and his brain was flexible, so he found two benches, put them on the slope, and flattened the explosive box, so that the explosives were close to the stone wall and increased the explosive power.
The Red Army's vigilance detachment harassed the enemy, stopped fighting, stopped fighting, stopped fighting, and made a fuss until most of the night. The enemy was kept in the dark, groggy, and his mind was gradually paralyzed. At three o'clock in the morning of the next day, the sapper company, in accordance with the law of the enemy's shooting, took advantage of the gap in firing to smoothly place the explosives at the entrance of the enemy's hole. In order to make the explosives explode without error, they drew out six fuses.
The sky was dark, and at wang Yaonan's command, the igniter detonated the explosives.
"Boom—" There was a loud noise, and the ground shook. The earth and stones in the sky first soared into the air, and then fell to the ground, splashing countless splashes on the river. Subsequently, the Red Army's attacking troops went out to sea like dragons, and the fierce tigers descended the mountain and pounced on the openings of the caves.
At this time, almost all the enemies at the mouth of the south cave were killed or shocked to death, and the mouth of the cave was also blocked by flying stones. The enemies at the mouth of the other two caves, under the impact of the powerful explosion wave, some were shocked to the point of bleeding from their ears and noses, and lost their combat effectiveness, and some were frightened like clay sculptures and wood carvings, stunned, and stupidly collapsed on the ground. That's it. More than a thousand enemies in the Tianmen Cave obediently became prisoners.
After the war, Zhang Yunyi said happily: "The engineer company is not ordinary, wang Yaonan fought well!" ”