After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, tens of thousands of patriots in our country rushed to the front line. Among them, there were more than 3.5 million Sichuan troops, accounting for one-fifth of the country's anti-war army. This huge group has weak combat effectiveness and poor military discipline. Deng Xihou once said that the Sichuan army was a "called Hanako" unit that was not good at weapons and ineffective in combat, and could not fight.
However, such an unpopular unit played a great role in the Battle of Taierzhuang.
On March 14, 1934, the Japanese army concentrated a large number of weapons and equipment and launched a sudden and fierce bombardment of this small county town. Suddenly, Tengxian was in flames of war and devastation. The bombardment lasted for two and a half hours, and the Japanese suddenly stopped moving. TengXian fell into a dead silence, and after waiting for a few moments, the Sichuan army left the cover area one after another to extinguish the flames left by the bombing. However, japanese shells rained down from the sky at this time, and many soldiers failed to return to safety and were buried in the shelling.
There were not many Sichuan troops left in Teng County. However, his superior, Li Zongren, demanded that the Sichuan army hold out in Teng County for another three days. Wang Mingzhang, commander of the Sichuan Army, looked at the fewer and fewer soldiers and asked, "If we continue to defend like this, do you think we can defend for three days?" His subordinate Zhang Xuanwu was silent, and only after a moment did he reply: "I don't think I can keep it for a day." ”
Zhang Xuanwu did not answer carelessly, because at that time they did not know how many Japanese troops were still around Teng County, only that the enemy army had thousands of troops and horses, and was well-equipped, while the Sichuan army only had more than 2,000 people left, and it was difficult to defend for a day.
A few hours later, the Japanese army carried out the third bombing attack on TengXian and received information that there were no more Chinese soldiers in Tengxian County, and the Japanese commander issued an order to take Tengxian County. At this time, there were only two Sichuan army machine gunners in the east of Teng County. But even though there were only two men, they didn't give up fighting. Braving a hail of bullets, they stacked the Japanese corpses into a hill to cover themselves, and then picked up machine guns and strafed the Japanese attacking Teng County.
However, a bomb flew down in the air, and one of the fighters died on the spot, and the other soldier's leg was also severely damaged and he could not stand up at all. He gave up shooting at the Japanese and instead picked up a few grenades around him and held them in his arms. The soldier curled up in a ball, motionless. The Japanese army rushed up, he pulled the fuse, a fire ball exploded in Teng County, the soldier chose to die with the Japanese at the last moment.
It was by relying on such a desperate fight that the Sichuan army defended TengXian county with difficulty for three and a half days and completed this impossible task.
But at this time, the Sichuan army had lost its continuity with the headquarters, and people in contact with the outside world reported to Wang Mingzhang: "Division commander, there is no one left. ”
Wang Mingzhang looked up at the sky and laughed: "Am I not here? Aren't you still here? Without saying a word, he picked up the gun beside him and led the team of only 24 people to the west of Teng County. This is undoubtedly a death, he will not be a prisoner, but also do not have the luxury of surviving, after being shot in the abdomen, Wang Mingzhang shouted at the battlefield full of artillery fire: "Long live China!" Fight to the end. ”
After saying that, he fired the last bullet at himself and buried himself in this already unsightly land.