More than 5,000 Japanese troops wanted to destroy the arsenal, but after 11 days of fighting without success, more than 1,000 people were annihilated
At the time of the kuomintang-communist coalition against Japan, the Eighth Route Army held up a piece of heaven in the rear of the war. At that time, although the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated in resisting Japan, the weapons of the Communist Party were still very backward, and a combat squad might only have three or five guns, and many soldiers could only use spears to attack the enemy. This not only does not protect itself, but it is also inefficient to kill the enemy. In order to solve this situation, the arms factory was born.
Mao Zedong once pointed out at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: "Every guerrilla base area must try its best to build small arsenals to the extent of self-made ammunition, rifles, and grenades, so that there is no danger of lack of arms in guerrilla warfare." ”
In May 1939, the Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army established the Military Industry Department. In July of the same year, in accordance with the instructions of Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and Deputy Chief of Staff of Zuo Quan, the construction of the Eighth Route Army's arsenal began in the hidden Huangya Cave. Huangyadong has also become the earliest and largest military base created in the anti-Japanese base area of our army. The base's annual production of weapons and ammunition can be used by 16 regiments.
Huangya Cave is located in the northern part of Licheng County, Shanxi Province, bordering Jinji and Hebei Provinces, with an altitude of more than 1,600 meters. It is both a beautiful natural scenic area and a sacred place for revolutionary war. It is famous for the "Yellow Cliff Cave Defense War".
At the time of the construction of the Huangyadong Arsenal, the Eighth Route Army combined the complex terrain of Huangyadong and designed a set of strict defense systems. In order to prevent the surprise attack of the Japanese army after that. Unexpectedly, this prevention really worked, and the development of the Huangyadong Arsenal caused panic among the Japanese army.
So in November 1941, more than 5,000 japanese main troops began to attack Huangyadong in multiple ways. Their aim was to destroy the arsenal, but despite the numerical and firepower superiority of the Japanese army, they still failed to make a surprise attack in the end, but were severely damaged.
At that time, under the command of Zuo Quan's deputy chief of general staff and the commander of Ou Fufu Regiment, the Eighth Route Army took advantage of the terrain of Huangya Cave and the defense system that had been prepared long ago to fight the enemy to the death.
In the defense of Huangyadong, the Japanese attacked for 4 consecutive days, with hundreds of casualties, but still only advanced a few hundred meters. The Eighth Route Army used tactics to fight mine warfare and hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. It repelled 11 consecutive enemy attacks, and the enemy's corpses were everywhere, but they still could not cross the position. To this end, the Japanese army took out flamethrowers, incendiary bombs and poison gas bombs to spray at the Eighth Route Army. At that time, 12 Eighth Route Army soldiers were still sworn to defend to the death. When they were covered in flames, they rushed into the enemy group, died with the enemy, and died heroically. In the "first line of heaven" of Huangya Cave, the enemy army wanted to make a surprise attack, but it was still repulsed by the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, and there were countless casualties.
The battle for huangyadong was fought for 11 days, and the enemy's advance was very difficult and it was severely damaged. In the end, our army annihilated more than 1,000 enemy troops with less than one regiment, and our army killed and wounded 166 people. The ratio of casualties between the enemy and us is 6:1, which is a very rare record. Our army not only successfully smashed the Japanese army's conspiracy to destroy the Eighth Route Army arsenal, but also boosted the confidence of the soldiers and civilians in the Taihang area and behind enemy lines throughout the country at that time.
The soldiers of the Eighth Route Army who participated in the "Yellow Cliff Cave Defense War" were also known as the "Yellow Cliff Cave Defense Battle Hero Regiment". They later participated in the War of Liberation and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, in which they all won victories.