In the 1930s and 1940s, the Japanese invaders committed profound sins on the vast land of China.
Beginning in 1937, the Japanese deliberately launched the Lugou Bridge Incident and began to attack the whole of China, and the two parties realized that it was now the time for the survival of the nation and that they must work together to resist Japan.
After the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, it basically declined in terms of rank, so there will be some mutual discussion in the leadership of the campaign.
This incident also happened to He Long (He Laozong) and Zhao Chengshou.
At that time, Mr. He said that I was the commander of the division, you were the commander of the army, you came to command, the commander pushed back, and the result was commanded by the brigade commander.
Shanxi was in a hurry, and He Long hoped to join forces to resist the enemy
Japan provoked a dispute from the northeast and then pushed all the way down the west and south, and after Zhang Zuolin's death, the northeast was quickly lost, and the Japanese naturally fixed their eyes on Shanxi.
Shanxi has a very important role in north China, the geographical conditions are very superior, and there are very rich natural resources, so Shanxi has always been the primary target of the Japanese invaders.
The Japanese's operational thinking is also very clear, that is, to occupy the provincial capital city first, then occupy the railway line, and then slowly "encircle and suppress" the resistance forces.
Taiyuan became their first stop in invading Shanxi.
Yan Xishan and Wei Lihuang commanded the anti-war troops to put up deadly resistance, and after many battles, they still could not resist the Japanese guns.
Wei Lihuang
Because most of the Japanese army used strong mechanized troops, as long as the Japanese army opened a gap, they could always find opportunities to attack, and in this way, the Kuomintang lost a full 7 counties.
If the Japanese army is allowed to drive straight in like this, then Shanxi will certainly not be able to hold on, and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia base area will also be exposed to the map, and the Party Central Committee and the rear area will be directly threatened.
Therefore, no matter from what angle, Shanxi must not be easily lost.
At that time, The division headquarters of Mr. He was active in Shanxi, and he also hoped to drive the Japanese army out as soon as possible, but the strength of his own troops was really limited, and the strength of a division directly pulled out to confront the Japanese army was tantamount to sending it to the tiger's mouth, and a person came to his mind, that person was Zhao Chengshou.
Zhao Chengshou
Zhao Chengshou was a well-known presence in Shanxi, when in the Second Northern Expedition, Zhao captured Pingshan and then Shijiazhuang, the Feng army was eventually expelled from The Pass, and the main force of the Jin army was reduced to 12 divisions, and later served as the commander of the Army's Thirty-ninth Division.
From 1928 onwards, he served as a cavalry commander at Yan Xishan's side and was Yan Xishan's right and left arm.
In 1936, the Japanese puppet army attacked Honggeltu, when zhao chengshou was stationed here was the cavalry unit to which Zhao Chengshou belonged, in the face of such an attack from the enemy, the Zhao army naturally resisted desperately, the battle lasted for two full days, and the Japanese puppet army did not expand the results.
Zhao Chengshou's strength was not only this, but later, he also assisted Fu Zuoyi in planning the Battle of the Bailing Temple and let them win a great victory, and Fu Zuoyi's reputation was also greatly shocked, behind which Zhao Chengshou's credit was also great.
The fundamental reason why He Long was able to think of Zhao Chengshou was that Zhao Chengshou actively resisted the war and had a way.
Therefore, Mr. He was also very sincere when facing Zhao Chengshou, and stated the pros and cons in detail, Zhao Chengshou had been fighting for many years, of course, he knew the meaning of Mr. He.
During the conversation, Mr. He said: "You are the commander of the army, I am the commander of the division, you are in command!" ”
Zhao Chengshou didn't expect He Long to talk like this, and he was scared enough at once, and he said to He Long: "My old bottom, don't you know yet?" Or you can command it! ”
In fact, this is not exactly Zhao Chengshou's prevarication, when in 1927, He Long had been promoted to the commander of the Twentieth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and in the course of the Northern Expedition, he was also constantly pursuing the truth and changing his faith from the Three People's Principles to communism.
Therefore, Zhao Chengshou and He Long also parted ways after 1927, until the War of Resistance Against Japan, the two stood together again, and when He Long was a military commander, Zhao Chengshou was only a battalion commander.
However, this meeting with He Long also brought about a great change in Zhao Chengshou's thinking; he was impressed by the Eighth Route Army's belief in persisting in the War of Resistance; at present, the Kuomintang, which is known as an elite unit, has been defeated and retreated, but the Eighth Route Army is still willing to stand up and never give up, and this spirit is absolutely worth learning.
The two men admired each other, and in the end, it was not the commander of the army nor the division commander who came to command, but the brigade commander.
This brigade commander is also quite proficient in kung fu, and he is the famous General Wang Zhen.
Wang Zhen drummed his breath and connected seven cities
It is naturally reasonable to let Wang Zhen play, General Wang Zhen has always been able to fight hard battles and fierce battles, this point He Long knows very well, zhao Chengshou on the side of course has no opinion on this arrangement.
In late February 1938, the land of Shanxi was very unstable, and more than 8,000 Japanese troops from the direction of Datong and more than 3,000 puppet troops jointly launched a siege to the northwestern Jin region.
On March 6, Wang Zhen, commander of the 359th Brigade, led the 71st Regiment and the 718th Regiment from Xinxian to The City of Ganlan.
The 358th Brigade of the brotherly force also came to the area of Xinjiawan, more than thirty miles away from The City of Gonglan, and if the enemy retreated from the city of Ganlan, then it could intercept the enemy, and if the siege of the 359th Brigade encountered difficulties, then it could also immediately go forward to support.
At that time, occupying the city of Ganlan was a brigade of the Chida Regiment, which numbered more than a thousand people, but the platoon within the team did not seem to pay so much attention, and the squadron leader threatened: "If the Eighth Route Army does not have heavy weapons, it is almost unrealistic to want to capture The city of Ganlan. ”
However, the more this kind of battle that others dare not imagine, the more Wang Zhen's goal.
In order to be able to successfully capture the city, Wang Zhen even personally led his regimental commanders and political commissars to survey the terrain and formulate a detailed plan for besieging The city from three directions, leaving a city gate for the enemy to escape, and then being able to give full play to the advantages of mobile warfare and completely annihilate the enemy.
On March 7, Wang Zhen decided to act.
He first sent a force to pretend to attack the county town from the south gate, diverting the enemy's attention to the south of the city, and then another force quickly jumped into the canal in the southeast, blocking the only water source into the city, so that the water supply problem of the Japanese army could not be guaranteed.
When the enemy discovered the problem, he immediately panicked and immediately sent a force to fight for the water source, all of which was within the expectations of General Wang Zhen, and the bombing group he had prepared in advance immediately took place and began to violently drop bombs at the Japanese army, and the Japanese army had no choice but to retreat back to the city in the face of such a situation.
The Japanese wing without water became very uncomfortable, so that the Japanese army could raise the white flag without even consuming a single soldier.
In just three days, they began slaughtering the horses, quenching their thirst with the blood in them.
On the side of the Eighth Route Army, Wang Zhen and several commanders used telescopes to see the situation in front of them clearly, and they knew that as long as this continued, even if the Japanese army killed all the horses, it would not be enough to quench their thirst, and they would inevitably escape from the gate where they stayed, and then they would be able to fight ambush warfare and movement warfare.
All the development was the same as expected, the Japanese army could not hold out for a few more days, because it was really thirsty, it simply ignored it, and all fled from the north gate, and the 359th Brigade easily broke through the city under such circumstances and entered the city of Ganlan.
He Long received the news reported by Wang Zhen in time, immediately sent troops to track down, and personally went to the front line to mobilize troops.
The soldiers of the whole army, under the personal inspiration of He Long, immediately pursued the remnants of the enemy, at this time, the enemy pursued by the 359th Brigade had fled to Wuzhai City, and they began to hold the isolated city again.
Wang Zhen once again used his previous experience in retaking Ganlan City, and sent a small force of combat forces to attack and harass, putting the main force in a position that could be mobilized, and if there were reinforcements that would come, it would be wiped out.
Sure enough, the enemy came out from other cities to reinforce Wuzhai, and after six hours of fierce fighting, Wang Zhen's troops annihilated more than 400 Japanese troops, and the Japanese army already felt that things were not good, and simply abandoned the city and fled, which again involved the whole body, and then all four counties were retaken by Wang Zhen.
At this juncture, it is a moment when the enemy's will is very weak.
On the other hand, Wang Zhen's brigade was now full of morale, and everyone immediately began to charge forward, wanting to continue to expand the results of the battle, chasing the enemy all the way, and the enemy desperately fled.
The next battle was relatively smooth, as long as the enemy stayed in one place, our army would immediately destroy one place, and then they simply did not even enter the county seat, and ran when they saw the road.
In the end, the remnants of the Japanese army only occupied the county seat of Ningwu County, Wang Zhen used the strength of the guerrillas to firmly control the traffic arteries of the city, as long as there were troops to meet the opponent, then immediately launched the main force to intercept people, the enemy troops trapped in Ningwu City watched the reinforcements could not get close, simply abandoned the city and fled north.
At this point, the 359th Brigade also successfully took over the county seat of Ningwu County, and all seven county towns in the northwestern Region of Jin were taken back by Wang Zhen's troops, which was also a combination of the idea of creating a base area behind enemy lines and guerrilla warfare.
Facts have proved that neither Marshal He Long nor Zhao Chengshou looked at the wrong person, Wang Zhen fought these battles, the troops did not lose much, but the task was completed beautifully.
It was this battle that made Zhao Chengshou realize that the Eighth Route Army was so good, compared with them, the Kuomintang troops were still too far behind, and he also understood why He Long would finally choose the Red Army.
The following year, Zhao Chengshou was promoted to commander-in-chief of the Seventh Army, and once returned from Yichuan County, Shaanxi Province, to the northwest of Jin, through northern Shaanxi, and lived in a mountain village east of Yan'an.
Although many people at that time did not understand why the Yan'an side had to take such care of the senior Kuomintang generals, when they first "encircled and suppressed", they did not leave any light hands.
Later, Zhao Chengshou quickly gave a "return".
At the beginning of the Liberation War, Zhao Chengshou was appointed by Yan Xishan as the commander-in-chief of the Field Army of the Appeasement Office, and in May 1948, the First Corps of the North China Field Army sent troops to the Jinzhong region, Zhao Chengshou quickly surrendered to the People's Liberation Army, and also mobilized the Seventy-first Division and the Eighth General Brigade in Yan Xishan's army to revolt, which made great contributions to the liberation of Shanxi.
Therefore, after the founding of New China, Zhao Chengshou also served as a member of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for a period of time.
And his vision of people is also very accurate, He Long's position during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was lower than his, after the founding of the country, people were marshals, and Wang Zhen was the founding general.