In December 1945, the Ninth Brigade of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army decided to remove Xiaoyao, an important stronghold in the middle section of the Linzao Railway Line in Shandong.
This place is called "Xiao Kiln", which is actually a coal mining area, which is held by more than 400 people of the enemy's 36th Division, 100 mining police, and 190 people of a Japanese squadron, a total of about 700 people.
The stronghold has two polders, the large polder has a polder, and the outside of the trench has a roof ridge and several columns of pile-type barbed wire. At night, looking out into the open space outside the barbed wire, there was a red bonfire, which was a burning pile of coal, which could be used as both an obstacle and a light, which was a battlefield wonder.
This polder also has a polder wall made of stone, which is 5 meters high and 1 meter thick. There is a brick and wood bunker in each of the four corners of the wall, and there are tunnels leading into the wall. Each bunker was also guarded by trenches and barbed wire.
Obviously, XiaoYao is a small fortress that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Cadres of the New Fourth Army, who had surveyed the terrain, said: "Every inch of soil is armed. ”
How to attack this small fortress? The opinions of Teng Haiqing, commander of the Ninth Brigade, Kang Zhiqiang, political commissar kang Zhiqiang, and others were completely unanimous: The battle of Phoenix Mountain and the battle of Xinglongzhuang were equivalent to giving the answer, and the policy was to fight steadily and steadily in a limited time, and the steps were to complete the trench operation on the first night, dig tunnels on the second night, blast the peripheral obstacles, and launch a general offensive on the third night.
This time, the 27th Regiment was appointed as the main attack regiment. Under the leadership of Regiment Commander Zhao Haifeng and Political Commissar Wang Jingmin, all preparations before the war were relatively solid.
On the evening of December 11, the enemy movement began, reaching the designated location to carry out tasks such as soil work.
On the afternoon of the 13th, the Japanese squadron came to reinforce the enemy, and they bombarded the positions of the New Fourth Army with Japanese mortars, causing more than a dozen cadre casualties.
Teng Haiqing immediately decided: it was no longer possible to wait until the tunnel was fully dug before launching a general attack, and the time of the total attack on the small kiln was changed to 10 p.m. that day.
The battle began, under the cover of artillery fire, the demolitionists took the lead in opening the charging passage, and the troops then broke into the big polder and divided and surrounded the enemy... The attack of the first and third battalions of the main attack battalion was carried out quickly and fiercely, and the puppet army of Daxu was completely annihilated that night.
The Japanese squadron was stationed in Xiaoxuzi, and after repeated shouts from the personnel of the three battalions, after the Japanese army launched a charge against the New Fourth Army, it did not fire a single shot, and then sent representatives to negotiate with the New Fourth Army about surrendering its weapons.
After dawn on the 14th, the Twenty-seventh Regiment held a surrender ceremony on the spot, and the presiding officer of the surrender ceremony was Wang Jingmin, the political commissar of the regiment.
The Japanese squadron leader walked out of the small polder, saluted Wang Jingmin, put down the command knife, handed over the list of Japanese personnel and weapons and ammunition, and then stood quietly, listening to the interpreter relaying the Chinese host's righteous and stern surrender speech, nodding or "hey" from time to time, indicating acceptance and confession.
After the brigade commander Teng Haiqing heard the surrender ceremony of the Twenty-seventh Regiment, he suddenly sighed and said to Wang Jingmin, "There is something I really envy you!" “
"What do you envy me for?" As a subordinate, Wang Jingmin felt a little puzzled by the brigade commander's words.
Teng Haiqing smiled and said, "I hate the Japanese army to the bone, and the thing I look forward to most is to defeat them with my own hands." This time you have won the battle, and I really envy you to stand in front of the devils and personally accept their surrender and confess their sins! But I can imagine how majestic and exasperated you were in front of the devils at that time! ”
"Hahaha, it seems that we have all won a few more big battles, let the brigade commander you also experience the feeling of raising your eyebrows!" Wang Jingmin said with a big laugh.
In this battle of Xiaoyao, the 27th Regiment captured more than 600 recalcitrant soldiers and 191 Japanese troops. The Twenty-seventh Regiment sacrificed 7 cadres and soldiers, and the price paid was relatively small.