In 1939, the main force of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, under the leadership of He Long, entered Jizhong. Subsequently, based on some local armed forces in Jizhong, our army was incorporated into the 716th Regiment and formed an independent second brigade. According to statistics, there are no less than 4,000 people in the whole brigade, with Wei Daguang as the brigade commander and Liao Hansheng as the deputy political commissar. Later, Liao Hansheng became a founding lieutenant general. However, Wei Daguang did not receive a military rank! As for this article, I want to highlight the legendary life of this hero!
Wei Daguang
Wei Daguang, a native of Baxian County, Hebei Province, was born in 1911. Because he came from a poor background, he did not read books. In order to support his family, he came to Tianjin very early. In Tianjin, he worked as a porter on the docks and joined the old local army. On the one hand, he has tasted all kinds of sour, sweet, bitter and spicy in the world. On the other hand, he made friends from all walks of life, greatly improved his insight, and initially mastered some skills of leading soldiers to fight.
He was jealous and hateful, especially the Japanese. In 1936, he was involved in the destruction of a power distribution facility at a Japanese factory. Immediately, he went to jail. While in prison, he became acquainted with some underground party members. Under their influence, he improved rapidly and learned many salvation concepts. This experience planted a seed for him to take the initiative to join the Eighth Route Army in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he finally regained his freedom and returned to his hometown.
He Long
By this time, the Japanese had invaded his hometown. In Baxian County, devils do no evil. They not only burned and plundered everywhere, but also repeatedly dispatched planes to bomb the local people and houses. One statistic shows that the Japanese had killed more than a hundred civilians in Baxian County in three hours. In an air raid, Baxian sacrificed nearly 100 anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians. Witnessing this, Wei Daguang was devastated and indignant, and he swore that he would kill all these beasts!
He mobilized several wealthy families in his village, paid for guns, and pulled up a relatively small anti-Japanese contingent. Then, he united with several anti-Japanese armed forces in neighboring counties and jointly raised a banner to resist Japan. In this way, the team quickly grew to more than a thousand people. At the same time, this contingent attracted the attention of our party, and underground party members such as Wang Tong'an and Li Gongxia were ordered to join this unit. With the help of our party, Wei Daguang soon became famous in Jizhong.
Liao Hansheng
After the establishment of the army, this contingent successively won victories in the yongqing Wujiachang counter-encirclement operation, the ambush battle of ZhongtingDi in Wangzhuangzi Village, Baxian County, and the defense of Shengfang. Moreover, Wei Daguang also sent people to infiltrate the downtown area of Tianjin on many occasions, destroying some warehouses and power supply facilities of the Japanese puppet army. Especially in the Battle of Shengfang Ancient Town, he led his troops to unite with another armed force to jointly attack the Japanese army. The fierce battle lasted for a day, and finally the Japanese army was defeated and fled back to Tianjin.
In November 1938, in Renqiu, Hebei Province, this team was officially reorganized by our army into the independent fifth detachment of the third column of the Eighth Route Army. According to statistics, there were no less than 3,000 people in this unit, with Wei Daguang as commander, Wang Tong'an as political commissar, Zhao Zhenguo as chief of staff, and Li Gongxia as director of the political department. Under this explanation, most of the main commanders of this unit came from poor backgrounds, fought bravely, and were resolute in resisting Japan. At the same time, most of them are not highly educated, so there is a lot of room for progress.
Huang Xinting
At the beginning of 1939, in order to consolidate and expand the anti-Japanese base area in Jizhong and strengthen himself at the same time, He Long led part of the main force of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army to Jizhong. According to the proposal of Lü Zhengcao, commander of the Third Column of the Eighth Route Army, the independent fourth detachment represented by Gao Shiyi and the independent fifth detachment represented by Wei Daguang were assigned to the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army. Immediately, He Long drew out two main regiments and merged them with these two detachments into two independent brigades.
According to Liao Hansheng's recollection, the 716th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army and Wei Daguang's independent fifth detachment were merged into the Independent Second Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army. This unit had three regiments under its jurisdiction, with Wei Daguang as brigade commander, Wang Tong'an as political commissar, Liao Hansheng as deputy political commissar, and Dai Wenbin as director of the political department. According to investigation, Li Gongxia also served as the director of the political department of the Independent Second Brigade. In addition, Fan Baoshun, Sun Zhanbiao, and Jin Rubai served as regimental political commissars in this unit.
Dai Wenbin
Liao Hansheng recalled that Wei Daguang was born in a humble background, and his family was poor, but he had a strong sense of justice and national heart. He was young, fleshy, brave, and receptive to new ideas. But he is moralistic, competitive, and prone to emotion. The two were about the same age, very talkative, and soon became good friends. With the help and supervision of Liao Hansheng and others, Wei Daguang made rapid progress, and the combat effectiveness and military discipline of the Independent Second Brigade also improved by leaps and bounds.
As soon as the Second Independent Brigade was established, it was besieged by nearly a thousand Japanese puppet troops. This battle is also the famous Qihui battle in modern history. In this bloody battle, the Japanese Yoshida Brigade first surrounded a battalion of the 2nd Brigade. Then, Huang Xinting led two battalions to carry out a counter-encirclement of this group of devils. The other units of the 2nd Brigade and the 1st Brigade, with Gao Shiyi as the brigade commander, fought jointly and cooperated with the 716th Regiment to encircle and annihilate the Japanese army.
According to statistics, in this battle, our army threw in a total of seven regiments and annihilated more than 700 enemy personnel. This victory shook the whole country and brought out the name of the Eighth Route Army. After the war, the New Zhonghua Bao, the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, published an editorial celebrating the major victory of the Qihui Battle, calling He Long "a national hero on the front line of the anti-Japanese resistance." Chiang Kai-shek also sent a telegram of consolation, saying, "Commander He killed the enemy and caused results, and he braved his life to be commended." In this regard, Wei Daguang also contributed to it.
At the same time, the Second Independent Brigade also paid a considerable price. Moreover, some of Wei Daguang's brothers had taken some of them privately before the Qihui battle broke out. Seeing that his troops were getting smaller and smaller, Wei Daguang, who had always been strong, was anxious. Therefore, he took the initiative to apply to return to his hometown, put those old brothers back together, and returned to the Second Brigade. He was resolute and repeatedly asked. After much deliberation, Commander He Long finally agreed to his request.
However, who could have predicted that he would never come back when he went. Moreover, this distinction, he and Liao Hansheng and other comrades-in-arms have been separated by yin and yang since then. After returning to his hometown, he quickly gathered some old departments in Baxian, Anci, Yongqing and other places. In less than three months, he had re-assembled a team of thousands of men and horses. He was very happy and took these soldiers to prepare to return to the garrison of the Second Independent Brigade. However, heavy rains fell in Jizhong, destroying his plans.
In order to avoid the heavy encirclement and suppression of the Japanese puppet army, Liao Hansheng was forced to lead the Du 2nd Brigade to move everywhere, and then crossed the Pinghan Railway to the west and came to Jixi for recuperation. As for Wei Daguang, he was unable to find the main force and was trapped by torrential rains and floods. One day, he took a boat through the village of Daningkou in Baxian County, and unfortunately encountered a Japanese motorboat. The Japanese motorboats had two light machine guns, but our ships had only a few short guns. Therefore, our army suffered a big loss.
In the fierce gun battle, a bullet suddenly hit Wei Daguang in the head. He was killed on the spot, along with more than a dozen warriors on board. In this way, he left the world he once loved deeply. Hearing this bad news, Liao Hansheng was devastated, and he could not forget this heroic Jizhong man until decades later. This year, Wei Daguang was only 28 years old! In September of the same year, our army held an extremely solemn memorial service for him in Lingshou, Hebei Province.
However, it is said that Wei Daguang's old troops were reorganized into the Fourth Regiment and the Fifth Regiment of the Independent Second Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army. After the Second Independent Brigade came to Jixi, the two regiments were merged into the Fourth Regiment of the Independent Second Brigade. After the battle of Chenzhuang, the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army was reorganized, and the Duer Brigade was incorporated into the 358th Brigade. Later, this unit gradually developed into the Third Regiment of the First Division of the First Army of the First Field Army. In addition, the First and Second Regiments of the First Division also had some remnants of the 2nd Brigade.
According to statistics, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Independent Second Brigade produced many founding heroes. Among them, the more famous ones are: Lieutenant General Liao Hansheng, Lieutenant General Huang Xinting, Major General Jin Rubai, Major General Dai Wenbin, Major General Fan Baoshun, Major General Wang Shaonan, and Li Gongxia, former deputy secretary general of the Beijing Municipal Government. From a personal point of view, if Wei Daguang had not died young and developed smoothly, he would have been able to obtain the rank of colonel or major general. Although he sacrificed, he will always live in the hearts of the people!