History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
After the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression burned all over North China, the Japanese army held a heavy garrison in Lucheng, Shanxi Province, and set Licheng, Shanxi as an important military base on the Handan-Changzhi Highway, with a turbid river flowing between the two cities and facing each other across the river.
In March 1938, the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army received the task of "flanking the 108th Regiment of the Japanese Army attacking from Handan, Hebei Province, to Lucheng and Changzhi through Dongyang Pass".
Immediately, Liu Bocheng, commander of the 129th Division, and Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping immediately discussed countermeasures, decided to adopt the tactic of "sucking in enemy aid," and ordered Brigadier Chen Geng to lead the 386th Brigade to the right wing and set up an ambush between Luhe Village and Weizi Town to annihilate the Japanese troops who had come to Lucheng's aid; and to send the 769th Regiment of the 385th Brigade as the left wing to attack Licheng.
Before the battle began, the division headquarters did not set a detailed ambush battlefield for Chen Geng. To this end, on March 3, after receiving the order, Chen Geng quickly presided over a combat meeting of commanders at and above the 386th Brigade regiment to discuss specifically where to choose the ambush point and how to rationally deploy troops. At the end of the meeting, Chen Geng led more than 10 officers and men of the Eighth Route Army to gallop forward on horseback to inspect the roads and terrain.
Thanks to the inspection of the front, it was found that the difference between the field and the map was still large. The map shows that the road is at the bottom of the ditch, and there are mountain beams on both sides of the road. However, the road was not at the bottom of the ditch but on the mountain beam, which was one or two hundred meters wide, and there was no concealment on either side of the road, only some dilapidated fortifications left by the Kuomintang troops.
Witnessing all this with their own eyes, some comrades were anxious and could not help but whisper out their worries: "Such terrain is not conducive to ambushes." ”
After hearing this, Chen Geng did not rush to express his position, but looked down and thought alone, and paced back and forth around those abandoned fortifications to observe, further carefully examining the terrain and surrounding environment in front of him, and carefully recording it.
After seeing the scene, Chen Geng led his party to return to the camp non-stop on the eve of nightfall, and continued to hold a meeting to further discuss strategic and tactical issues. After everyone expressed their opinions, Chen Geng stood up and said unequivocally, "I see that this battle will still be fought at Shentou Ridge." ”
"Shentou Ridge?!" Everyone didn't believe their ears and shouted out in unison.
"Yes, just fight at Shentou Ridge!" Chen Geng then said, "Generally speaking, Shentou Ridge is indeed not a good place to fight ambushes, and if we think so, the enemy will certainly think so." If the terrain is not dangerous, the enemy will be paralyzed, which is a good place for us to ambush the enemy unexpectedly. Of course, to fight an ambush, it would be best if there were terrain to conceal the enemy, although there were no such things, but there were dilapidated fortifications left for us by the Kuomintang army, tens of meters away from the road, and only 100 meters away, and the devils had long been accustomed to these things, and if we hid the troops in the fortifications in advance, the enemy might not be able to find them. The narrow mountain beams are not conducive to the deployment of our army and the enemy. Let's talk about who is better to fight on the canoe bridge? ”
Chen Geng's words made everyone's hearts suddenly open up a lot, and the venue boiled up. Xu Shenji, the regimental commander of the 771st Regiment, said: "It is also necessary to say that whoever strikes first takes advantage of it." Han Dongshan, the leader of the supplementary regiment, took over the conversation and smiled confidently: "Yes, as long as we kill them violently, we will definitely be able to kill the devils to the point of falling into the water and the urine flowing!" After Chen Geng listened, he turned around and smiled and asked Ye Chenghuan, the commander of the 772nd Regiment: "If you put your second battalion on Shenjia Mountain, after the battle starts, can you rush to the highway within 40 minutes?" Commander Ye slapped his chest and confidently said, "No problem! In less than 40 minutes, half an hour is enough! ”
Hearing this, everyone understood Chen Geng's deployment in their hearts: using dilapidated fortifications to set up an ambush on one side of the highway, and after the battle began, let the second battalion move rapidly, bypass the ditch, attack the enemy from the other side, form a two-sided attack, block the devils on the narrow road, and beat them hard. At this time, the careful Chen Geng thought of another problem, there were more than 3,000 Japanese troops in Lucheng, if we came out of the nest, it would be too difficult for us to "nibble down", and maybe we would make ourselves passive, so we turned to Ye Chenghuan and said: "You immediately send a company around Lucheng to carry out guerrilla attacks to disperse the forces of the devils." ”
In the early morning of March 16, the 769th Regiment, which was on a "fishing" mission, began to attack LiCheng. At the same time, Chen Geng led the main force of the 386th Brigade into Shentouling and ambushed in the fortifications on the side of the road. At 8:00 a.m., more than 1,500 Japanese troops arrived at the town of Weizi, and Chen Geng learned of this news, knowing that the guerrilla was even more powerful, otherwise, the enemy would not have only come so much! At 8:30, the Japanese army reached the front of Shentou Village, suddenly stopped, and sent a cavalry detachment along a sheep herding path to the ambush position of the first battalion of the 772nd Regiment. 20 meters, 15 meters, 8 meters... The situation is very dangerous.
Fortunately, the Japanese horse's hooves stopped when they were about to step on the head of the Eighth Route Army, and the lurking Eighth Route Army held its breath. However, the Eyes of the Japanese Army remained on the Shenjia Mountain in the distance, did not look at their feet, and continued to advance with a big swing.
At 9:30, when the Japanese army all entered the ambush circle of the Eighth Route Army, the three regiments of the 386th Brigade attacked from three sides, and the grenades rained down on the Japanese troops, and the sound of guns and explosions became one; the flying shrapnel, the flashing fire, the smoke of gunfire, and the billowing loess all converged into an angry fire dragon, engulfing the Japanese army and the entire road.
Fighting such an ambush battle, counting the artillerymen is addicted. In the past, combat artillery shot with a slot behind the infantry, and there was no sight of the shells blowing up the enemy. This time, the artillery and the infantry were together, all in the abandoned fortifications, and they could directly see the tragic situation of the enemy being killed, and the gunners were full of energy and high morale, and they were more and more accurate and fierce, and it was simply a cannon.
When the Japanese casualties were more than half, the warriors of the 386th Brigade shouted and rushed up, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army, and most of the Japanese army became ghosts under the knife. After a small group of Japanese troops fled west to The Village of Shentou, they used houses and cave dwellings to resist in a vain attempt to hold on to help. After Chen Geng noticed this, he immediately issued an order to a platoon close to the village: "Take the village back immediately!" ”
This platoon, led by Pu Dayi, has always been known for its bravery and good fighting, and in this battle, they also lived up to Chen Geng's expectations. They used machine gun fire as cover, one squad attacked from the front, two squads attacked from the flank, and one rush took two houses in a row, killing and wounding more than a dozen Japanese troops at the cost of 5 casualties, and drove the Japanese troops out of the village. The Japanese troops scattered in the wilderness were frightened and fled like birds of prey. At 11:30, in addition to more than 100 Japanese troops fleeing back to Lucheng, the Eighth Route Army annihilated more than 1,400 Japanese troops, captured 8 Japanese soldiers, captured more than 550 long and short guns, and the 129th Division suffered more than 240 casualties.
The Shentouling ambush was another relatively large-scale annihilation battle carried out by the Eighth Route Army after the Pingxingguan and Guangyang ambushes. Japanese reporters also had to call the battle a "typical guerrilla tactic" of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army.