In early August 1942, the 8th Regiment of the 3rd Brigade of the Jiluyu Military Region received orders from their superiors to remove the Xulou stronghold that had been wedged into the Kunzhang base area. Xulou was a large stronghold, with more than 400 puppet troops stationed, well-equipped, and not far from Yanggu County, so it was easy to get reinforcements from the devils. At that time, the 8th Regiment had only 5 companies, basically light weapons, and if it attacked strongly, it was bound to pay a large price. After conducting on-the-spot investigations, Wu Zhong, who was then the regiment's operational staff officer, proposed to the regimental commander Xia Desheng the idea of encircling the points for assistance.
If the Japanese troops in Yanggu County wanted to reinforce the Xulou stronghold, Jingyang Gang was a must-pass place, and the post was full of pines and cypresses, and under the post was a dense millet field. At that time, Wu Song once killed a tiger with a hanging eye here, which was a harm to the local people, and today Wu Zhong is ready to take advantage of the favorable terrain here to teach the little devils a lesson. His battle plan was for the regimental commander Xia Desheng to lead the 1st, 2nd, and 4th companies to surround Xulou and besiege but not attack; he himself led 3 companies and 5 companies to set up an ambush at JingyangGang to eliminate the Japanese troops that Yanggu had come to the aid.
On August 5, the Battle of Xulou officially began. Xia Desheng led the attacking troops, with the cooperation of local armed forces, to surround Xu Lou's defensive regiment. The puppet army in the stronghold saw the situation and hurriedly asked for help from the Japanese troops in Yanggu County, and the ghost commander immediately led a small group of Japanese troops and two companies of puppet troops to Xu Lou with great momentum. After learning the news of the Japanese army's dispatch, Wu Zhong ordered the 5th Company to block the reinforcements of the puppet army at Guo Wei Chen Zhuang in front of Jingyang Gang, the 2nd platoon and the 3rd platoon of the 3rd Company ambushed in the millet field at the bottom of the Gangdi, and he led the 1st Platoon to block the Japanese army at the top of the post.
The Japanese army found the figure of the Eighth Route Army at the top of the gang, and the grenadiers and mortars were fired in unison, howling and pressing against the top of the hill. Wu Zhong resisted with his warriors for a while, and then "rushed" to the millet field under the gang. The Japanese chased after it and rushed into the valley. Suddenly, several Japanese soldiers running in front fell to the ground one after another. It turned out that they were wearing "cow hoof foot" leather shoes, the middle opening, the open was larger, after the millet was stepped on by the Japanese army, the grain spike was stuck in the open of the leather shoe, and the barn was tightly wrapped around the shoe. The faster you run, the tighter the entanglement. Therefore, the Japanese troops who entered the valley land were soon entangled in the millet and fell down a large piece.
Some of the fallen Japanese soldiers sat on the ground and cut the barn with bayonets, and some looked around for tangled leather shoes and made a mess. The 3 companies, 2 platoons and 3 platoons that had long been ambushed in the valley suddenly came out from behind the Japanese army, and Wu Zhong also turned his head with 1 platoon to approach the Japanese army, and after throwing out a row of grenades, the soldiers rushed into the enemy group with bayonets, and it took less than 20 minutes to completely annihilate a Japanese 38-man squad. This scene was clearly seen by the puppet army in Xu Lou's stronghold, and Dengshi frightened them into scattering, hurriedly discarding the stronghold and breaking through in a hurry, Xia Desheng and Wu Zhong attacked on both sides, and quickly eliminated this enemy. After the Battle of Jingyanggang, the local people gave Wu Zhong a affectionate nickname "Huowu Song". In 1955, at the age of 33, Wu Zhong was awarded the rank of major general, becoming the youngest founding general.