The "independent regiment" can be regarded as a feature of the Eighth Route Army. After the Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated for the second time, and the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, also known as the Eighteenth Group Army. However, Chiang Kai-shek only gave the Eighth Route Army three divisions of the formation, and later the troops gradually developed and grew in the anti-Japanese struggle, and the original establishment was far from being satisfied, so there were all kinds of strange formations, such as the garrison regiment, the independent regiment, the left-behind regiment, and so on, most of which were reorganized by local armed forces. Although most of the units such as the Independent Regiment are of local origin, their combat effectiveness is not weak. On this point, just look at Li Yunlong's troops.
Stills from Bright Sword
In April 1945, the former Hongdong Guerrilla Brigade was promoted to the Hongdong Independent Regiment in Hedi Village, Fushan County, Shanxi Province. Duan Longzhang, regimental commander, and Du Wanrong, political commissar, have jurisdiction over the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th companies, special agent companies, and organ companies, with a total of more than 500 people. In January 1946, the regiment was merged with the Linfen Guerrilla Brigade to form the Fourth Guard Regiment of the Taiyue Second Military Sub-district. It was this Hongdong Independent Regiment, which was reorganized by local armed forces, that after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, 3 people annihilated a battalion in Yan Xishan in only 15 minutes.
Duan Longzhang
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yan Xishan ordered his Nineteenth Army and a total of thirteen divisions to invade the Party areas of our anti-Japanese base area. Our army was forced to fight back, and after launching the famous Shangdang Campaign, Yan Xishan's troops were quickly crushed. The remnants of Shi Zebo of yan xishan's nineteenth army, which was besieged in Changzhi, had no hope of waiting for help, and abandoned the city overnight and fled to Linfen. At this time, the Hongdong Independent Regiment was ordered to accompany the Taiyue Regiment to carry out a blockade of the fleeing enemy in Qinshui County, marched to the vicinity of Mabi in Anze County, met the enemy, and began a battle to encircle and annihilate the fleeing enemy.
On the morning of October 8, 1945, the regiment was on standby in Nanshan, Fancun, Qinshui County. Although the troops could not eat and sleep for several consecutive days of fighting, and they were very tired and hungry, the morale of the soldiers was extremely high due to the continuous victory.
Operations staff officer Zhang Guidang took Cao Yong'an and two other scouts up nanshan to see the terrain and inspect the enemy's situation. As soon as I climbed the mountain, I found that on the slope of the hill about 50 meters away, the black pressure suppressed an enemy, about a battalion of troops, was fleeing westward. Zhang Guitang pondered: Go back and call the troops, it is too late; immediately open fire? There were only 3 people. After he whispered to Cao Yong'an, Cao Yong'an slipped down to report to the head of the group. Zhang Guitang was in a hurry and took out a whistle from his pocket, "Toot... Beep..." Blowing rapidly over and over again, he shouted, "Three battalions and eight companies block the retreat!" A battalion was surrounded head-on from the right... Hurry up...... Shoot several shots! The enemy was frightened by this sudden whistle and shout, and one by one he was dumbfounded.
Zhang Guitang and another scout immediately issued an order: "The Eighth Route Army is lenient and prisoner!" Lay down your weapons! If you resist, there is only one way to die! The commander of the enemy battalion was stunned for a moment, and realized that there were only two people, and there was no movement before and after, so he shouted triumphantly: "Rush! Catch alive! He kicked and pushed the soldiers around him forward.
At this moment, the first and second companies of the regiment's special agent companies were ordered to arrive. Although the enemy battalion commanders and others resisted desperately, how could they stop my fierce warriors? It only took 15 minutes to be completely annihilated by me. In this battle, a total of 600 battalion commanders and subordinates of the guard battalion of the enemy's Changzhi Security Command were killed and captured, and more than 20 machine guns and a batch of military materials were captured.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the regiment's predecessor, the Hongdong Guerrilla Brigade, threatened the Japanese. He once participated in the famous "Siyangtan Guerrilla War", and the battle was made up by the local people and composed into a song: "On October 178, the guerrillas went out, and the captain of the brigade gave an order to kill the devils." The 'Four Sheep Beach' fought, destroyed twenty-eight, and the devil swept away again, telling him to return to his hometown. ”
It should be said that whether it is an independent regiment or a regularly formed regiment, the troops of the Eighth Route Army have all experienced the arduous tempering of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the combat effectiveness of the troops has reached a fairly high level at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.