Under the influence of some anti-Japanese dramas, many people mistakenly believe that it is very simple to fight devils against Japan, but they do not know that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the death ratio of Chinese soldiers and Japanese troops was 5 to 1, that is to say, it was necessary to sacrifice 5 Chinese soldiers to kill a Japanese soldier, which shows the hardship of the battle.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, China's industry was backward, the weapons and equipment of the Chinese army were obviously lagging behind the Japanese army, and being able to kill dozens of Japanese troops on the battlefield was a big victory, and it was even more remarkable to kill a Japanese commander, but at most it was only to kill a small officer such as a young man.
However, the veteran of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression introduced by the author today, he killed a Japanese lieutenant general, which caused a sensation throughout the country at that time, and even the Japanese mainland was shocked by it, which occurred on November 7, 1939, this veteran named Li Erxi, was a gunner of the Eighth Route Army.
Li Erxi is a native of Lingqiu County, Shanxi, born in a poor peasant family, since childhood his parents died, when he was a child he herded cattle for the landlord's family to earn a living, during which he suffered a lot of bullying, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, even such days were gone, so he chose to join the army to resist Japan.
Becoming a soldier of the Eighth Route Army also changed the trajectory of Li Erxi's life, after a period of training, Li Erxi participated in his first anti-Japanese battle, which was the famous Battle of Pingxingguan, and he followed the troops to Stagecoach Ridge to block the Japanese army, and the battle was fought smoothly.
At that time, the troops captured several mortars and mountain guns, so they formed an artillery company, and Li Erxi became a halfway gunner, and later killed the Japanese lieutenant general with the guns captured in the Battle of Pingxingguan, which was a great irony to the Japanese army.
On November 7, 1939, the Japanese army sent more than 500 people to sweep the Yansu Cliff in Hebei Province, the Japanese army never expected to be ambushed by the Eighth Route Army, more than 500 Japanese troops were surrounded and annihilated, only a few people escaped, this battle made the Japanese army realize the strength of the Eighth Route Army base area.
In order to eliminate the strength of the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese lieutenant general Abe Norihide personally led more than 1,500 people into the mountain in an attempt to find the main force of the Eighth Route Army to eliminate, but Abe Norihide led the team around the mountain for several days, but not even the guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army were seen.
Norihide Abe, who could not find the Eighth Route Army, was not satisfied, he stationed the Japanese army in the Loess Ridge area, continued to search for the main force of the Eighth Route Army, Li Erxi's First Regiment of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region was ordered to come to greet this group of Japanese troops, and they quietly approached the Japanese army under the leadership of the regimental commander Chen Zhengxiang.
At a distance of more than 100 meters, with the order of the regimental commander, Li Erxi fired two consecutive shots of artillery shells, hitting the Japanese command post, at that time Li Erxi they did not know that Abe Norihide was hit by a shell, until a few days later the Japanese Asahi News reported.
Only then did everyone know that Li Erxi had killed Lieutenant General Abe Norihide of the Japanese Army, and commander Nie Rongzhen happily rewarded Li Erxi with a pistol, calling him the god of artillery, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li Erxi reverted to work in Shaoguan, and since then he has deliberately hidden his identity and lived an ordinary life.
The mortar that he shelled Japanese Lieutenant General Norihide Abe became a national first-class cultural relic, which is commonly known as a national treasure, until the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the reporter found the gunner Li Erxi, on March 26, 2010, Li Erxi died of illness at the age of 89.