Among the Kuomintang generals, Du Yuming was a relatively good general in fighting. Compared with Du Yuming, Huang Jie, who was at the same level as him, was far behind.
In 1932, during the Great Wall War of Resistance, Du Yuming took the brigade commander as the acting division commander and Huang Jie as the division commander.
The 17th Army first took Du Yuming's 25th Division to guard the South Heavenly Gate.
The 25th Division fought against the Japanese Kwantung Army, fighting fiercely for half a month, and the whole division lost half of it. The commander Xu Tingyao ordered him to evacuate, with Huang Jie leading the 2nd Division.
In the night, Huang Jie personally led the 2nd Division to take over the defense of the South Heavenly Gate. Before parting, Du Yuming pointed to the eight buildings on the left flank and said: "These eight bunkers are condescending, can overlook the whole front, and are the general hub of all positions." Controlled by our army, it is not harmful to the Japanese army. However, if it is captured by the Japanese army, it can swoop down on our army's position, and we must send an elite battalion to defend day and night, paying special attention. ”
After Du Yuming left, Huang Jie personally inspected the Eight Dao Buildings, and saw that although the blockhouse group was very high, it was surrounded by bald ridges and light mountains, the road was narrow and steep, there was no grass, and it was not easy to ambush troops, saying: "The Kwantung Army wears big leather boots, how can it climb such a steep slope and dangerous road." "Didn't care much. He also saw that the Eight Buildings were towering, there was no water source, and it was not easy to transport food and ammunition, so he only sent a platoon to defend and used the main force in the central position, The 421 Heights.
On the second day, the Japanese general Yoshiichi Nishi commanded the Japanese to launch an attack. Huang Jie led the 2nd Division to meet the battle. On the first day, both sides suffered heavy casualties.
After that, Xi Yi attacked for several days in a row, but still did not break through the Position of South Tianmen.
On another day, Xi Yiyi's leadership launched another attack on the 421 heights. The Japanese first attacked with artillery fire, followed by infantry and cavalry. However, they bluffed outside the circle of fire of the defenders and did not climb the mountain. As soon as the Japanese artillery fired, the officers and men of the 2nd Division hid in the fortifications, and when the Japanese artillery fire extended backwards, they immediately returned to their positions, each taking up a battle position, pushing the ammunition into the breech, fastening the plate machine, and preparing to meet the enemy. Unexpectedly, the Japanese army only waved the flag in front of the position, did not charge, always maintained a certain distance, and did not advance or retreat.
Huang Jie was surprised! What ghost tricks did the Japanese army play? Just when he was puzzled, the eight buildings on the left suddenly burst into gunfire, and immediately the shells flew to the 421 heights.
Huang Jie hurriedly looked, only to see that the top of the eight buildings had been planted with the plaster flag of the Japanese army, and dozens of heavy machine guns were lined up in a line and swept towards the 421 heights.
It turned out that Xi Yiyi was stopped behind the South Heavenly Gate and personally went to the front of the formation to reconnoiter and find a way to break the formation. In the direction of highland 421 and the loess beam to the east, the artillery fire is continuous, but the eight buildings at the west end are very calm. He suddenly found that the eight buildings were the commanding heights nearby, and he could overlook the 421 highlands, so he had a plan to break the array.
That night, Xi Yiyi sent a troop, changed out of his leather shoes, all lightly dressed, and then bribed a few small traders to lead the way, from an unknown secret road, with the help of the cover of the ridge, quietly climbed to the eight buildings under the ambush.
The eight buildings are high and steep, and they can overlook the whole array, but the defenders are defenseless. Although the sentry was vaguely aware of the shadows below, thinking that it was a vendor selling things, he did not care. The next day, when the Japanese army was ready to go up the mountain. Xi Yiyi ordered an attack on the front. When the attention of the defenders of the Eight DaoLouzi was all drawn to the frontal battle, suddenly the Japanese ambushed and killed, and one of the defenders was caught off guard and was all killed by the Japanese army.
In this way, the eight buildings were lost.
Subsequently, the Japanese launched a frontal attack while strafing machine guns at the 421 heights from the eight buildings. The 2nd Division suffered heavy casualties on the day, losing more than a thousand officers and men.
Huang Jie suffered bitterly, and finally regretted that he should not listen to Du Yuming's words.
Subsequently, he organized his troops to seize the Eight Corridors and ordered that they must be retaken regardless of the losses. However, thousands of people were sacrificed and never regained.
The next day, Xi Yi repeatedly attacked up and down. The 2nd Division fought fiercely for one day, although it barely managed to hold the 421 position, but suffered heavy losses, leaving only 30% or 40% of the division, half of which were still wounded. Huang Jie had no choice but to report to the military commander Xu Tingyao.
Xu Tingyao, fearing the fall of the South Tianmen Gate, immediately ordered the remnants of the 2nd Division to retreat to the rear to rest and pull up the reserve army, the 83rd Division.
The 83rd Division, with about 10,000 men, fully equipped, went up to take the defense, attacked several times, but still could not retake the eight buildings, and in two days, it lost more than half. The 25-year-old division commander Liu Jie was bloody and fanggang, seeing that so many people had not been killed or injured, they had not laid down the small eight-way building, and they were in a hurry to pull out their guns and commit suicide. Fortunately, he was stopped by his men.
The 83rd Division had to withdraw to the rear and be picked up by the 26th Army.
In the Battle of the Great Wall, the three main divisions of Xu Tingyao's 17th Army were crippled, and only about 1,000 people were left in the whole army of tens of thousands of people. Except for Master Du Yuming, both divisions suffered heavy losses due to the loss of the Eight Corridors. Huang Jie was negligent, with casualties of at least 10,000 people. After this battle, Du Yuming was valued by Xu Tingyao and became the first general under him.