After the Xi'an Incident, Yang Hucheng, who served as the commander-in-chief of the 17th Route Army, a third-class general of the army, and the chairman of Shaanxi Province, went abroad to investigate; his 17th Route Army of the Northwest Army was reorganized into the 38th Army; the guard battalion and the teaching battalion were combined into a teaching regiment; and Li Zhenxi, the former commander of the guard battalion, was promoted to regimental commander. The regiment has 3 battalions and 12 infantry companies, as well as the regiment's mortar company, heavy machine gun company, communication company, heavy company and armored automobile team, with a total of more than 3,000 people in the regiment, many of whom are underground party members.
Li Zhenxi, formerly known as Li Kuishan, a native of Lijiabao Village, Lijiapu Township, Dingxi County, Gansu Province, was born as a poor student in Gansu province when he was a child, with excellent academic performance and high talent, he was escorted out of the province for further study, and then recommended by Deng Baoshan to join rong and was admitted to the fourth phase of the Huangpu Military Academy in Guangzhou.
Later, the Xi'an Appeasement Office was established, Yang Hucheng was promoted to director and commander-in-chief of the 17th Route Army, and Li Zhenxi served as the operational staff officer of the Sui Prefecture, because of his resourcefulness and bravery in combat, he was soon promoted to chief of the operations section, chief of staff, senior staff officer and commander of the guard battalion, commander of the teaching battalion, and head of the guard regiment. At the time of the Xi'an Incident, Li Zhenxi was responsible for guarding the Xi'an New City Headquarters and directly participated in the Xi'an Incident.
After Li Zhenxi's reorganization, the War of Resistance broke out in an all-round way, the teaching regiment received orders from its superiors, the regiment immediately went to Shijiazhuang to block the Japanese army's southward movement, at that time, due to the loss of Snowflake Mountain, a division of the Japanese army approached Niangziguan from Jingxing, and the first hundreds of cavalry had already left the pass of the pass and cut off the railway at Niangziguan, the situation was critical, and the teaching regiment was ordered to rush to Niangziguan to rescue.
Li Zhenxi immediately commanded the whole regiment to set off overnight and went straight to the Niangziguan position from the cold pond and the upper and lower rocks. Attacking Niangziguan was the Japanese Kawagishi Division (20th Division), and the division commander Fumisaburo Kawagishi personally commanded more than 15,000 Japanese troops to attack Niangziguan.
The Japanese vanguard cavalry brigade began to invade Guangou in an attempt to cut off communications at Niangziguan, encircling Sun Lianzhong, commander-in-chief of the First Army, and Feng Qinya, commander-in-chief of the Twenty-seventh Route Army, inside niangziguan station. The next day, the 77th and 78th Regiments of the Japanese Kawagishi Division passed through The Old Pass along the road and entered the Guangou. The Japanese 78th Regiment had just entered the Pass of Guangou, the 38th Army Teaching Regiment launched a surprise attack on the devils, the first charge of the Japanese cavalry brigade was repulsed, killing and wounding more than 100 people, and the Teaching Regiment finally rescued Sun Lianzhong and Feng Qinya.
Sun Lianzhong, who had escaped from danger, told Li Zhenxi that the situation at Niangziguan was now very critical, that the Chifeng City Department of the 30th Division, which was holding reinforcements, had arrived in Xiyang territory, that Niangziguan had no troops to defend, and that Taiyuan could not draw troops. Once Niangziguan was lost, Taiyuan was soon threatened, and the large army in northern Jin may not be able to retreat, and the large amount of military materials piled up in Niangziguan, Taiyuan and other places is too late to rush to transport. Now to hold the position of Niangziguan, it is all up to the teaching regiment, although you are a regiment, there are more than a brigade, and your weapons are excellent. It is best if you can beat the Japanese army out of the old pass, and if you can't retreat, you will hold out for three days, and the reinforcements from Chifeng City will arrive.
After the teaching regiment received the order, Li Zhenxi immediately organized troops to storm the mouth of the ditch and launched a fierce attack on the ghosts who were driven into the ditch, the ditch was twenty miles long, and there were cliffs on both sides, and thousands of Japanese soldiers crowded in the ditch, cavalry, artillery, and chariots blocked the road. Although the sun was crowding backwards, due to the terrain limitations, the teaching group that rushed into the ditch could not attack. Li Zhenxi asked a few fellow villagers, only to learn that the wrong tactics were used in this terrain, so he immediately changed his tactics and continued the fierce battle of the first battalion, and the rest of the people suspended the attack.
Li Zhenxi ordered the whole regiment to take the battalion as the combat unit and concentrate the 48 light machine guns and 8 heavy machine guns of the whole battalion into 4 fire assault groups, each group of about 40 people, equipped with 12 light machine guns, two heavy machine guns, and submachine guns. The machine gunners carry enough bullets, and the pistolmen try to carry as many hand-to-hand bullets as possible for each group into a wave. Light and heavy machine guns were swinging one after the other. Causing a sea of fire in the ditch, the riflemen followed behind the assault group, and the former assault group suffered heavy casualties, so it stopped to replenish, and the latter assault group picked up again, and attacked wave after wave with firepower.
At dusk, the 78th Regiment, the cavalry brigade, the artillery brigade, and the chariot brigade that had penetrated the ditch were annihilated by the first and second pipes of the teaching regiment, and dozens of gun cars and heavy wagons blown up by the Japanese army themselves were lying in a mess in the ditch, and there were hundreds of machine guns and rifles, and the corpses of the Japanese army were still burning, and the teaching regiment suffered five or six hundred casualties. After dusk, the teaching group took full control of the old pass, and the remnants of the enemy retreated to the hills outside the pass.
After occupying this important position, regimental commander Li Zhenxi climbed up to the old pass to see that in front of the pass was a large mountain with undulating peaks, and in the hazy moonlight, countless bonfires flashed on the opposite mountain, high or low, far or near. In the flickering light of the fire, you can see the squirming Japanese soldiers. It turned out that they were cooking there, it seemed that they would not leave tonight, after dawn it must be a fierce battle, and then look back at the position they occupied, it was a gap of more than ten meters wide, not only did there not have strong fortifications, not even a traffic trench, only a few scattered soldier pits. Li Zhenxi realized that the terrain of the old pass was unfavorable for defense, and it was better to take advantage of the night to attack the Japanese army and fight with the devils to make it, and if it failed, it could also make the Japanese army pay a great price.
Therefore, it was decided to carry out a night attack on the Japanese army that night, and at midnight that night, Li Zhenxi ordered it to be divided into three attacks, one battalion on the front, three battalions on the right wing, and the left wing of the second battalion, and the attack troops secretly assembled outside the pass, which was limited to about one hour, to complete the preparation for the attack, first with a company of plainclothes troops to attack the main hill facing Guanqian, and to use firepower to deal with all aspects of the battle, and after the second battalion captured the right wing hill, it would focus on both sides of the road to prevent the enemy from reinforcing troops along the road.
At this time, a battalion of front-line lurking scouts came to report, there were only a few chariots patrolling the road, the rest of the silence, as if they were all sleeping, Li Zhenxi immediately made a decision, ordered the whole regiment to launch an attack, the Japanese sentries took the lead in being solved by the plainclothes team of the teaching regiment, the ghosts who woke up in their sleep were too late to resist, the big knife of the teaching regiment had been cut on their heads, the assault battalion immediately rushed over, the charge sound was corresponding everywhere, suddenly a killing sound, the shock sounded like a mountain, and the Japanese army woke up from the dream before it had time to resist. Large knives have been slashed at their heads. Immediately after that, the assault battalion rushed up and quickly took two important hills facing the old pass. The attacking forces on both flanks also successively took all the important hills of the old barrier pass. Killed three or four hundred enemies, blew up four tanks, captured two guns, and more than two hundred Type 38 machine gun rifles.
After the success of this night attack, the teaching regiment from the regimental commander to the soldiers were all carried away by the victory in front of them, and the enemy's thinking was serious, thinking that the two companies of the Japanese army had been crippled, and there was no considerable time, and they would certainly not make a comeback, not only did they not quickly build fortifications, but also allowed the cooking soldiers of each company to carry the marching pot to the positions of the platoons to burn food, and the rising smoke of the cooking smoke just pointed out the position of the defender's position, because the officers and men on the position had been in a state of tension for many days since the rush to aid Niangziguan, and the officers and men on the position began to eat. Big sleep special sleep up.
What the teaching regiment did not expect was that the sun was just one foot high, and suddenly there was a loud noise, and the landslide cracked, waking Li Zhenxi up from his dream, only to see 12 enemy planes in the air, the formation taking turns bombing and strafing, and all the artillery of a Japanese company were released and fired continuously. The bare hill was unobstructed, and every shell of the Japanese army inflicted heavy casualties on the teaching regiment. Immediately afterward, the Seventy-sixth Regiment of the Chuan'an Division, under the cover of aircraft artillery, drove forward with chariots, starting with a charge, rushing wave after wave toward the position, at this time, as soon as it came into contact with the enemy, it was hand-to-hand combat, and many companies were left with one person, not even one, and all of them died heroically.
At this time, the regimental commander organized the regimental headquarters communications troops, the health troops, the messengers, the company secretaries, the secretaries, the military doctors, and the adjutants together, took over the position, and increased the first battalion. After two hours of fierce fighting, it repelled the enemy's crazy attack, recovered all positions, and stabilized the war situation. Since then, although the enemy has continued to bombard with artillery, the infantry has never come up again. The position is still in our hands though.
In the evening, although the enemy's five charge was repelled, the position was still in the hands of the defenders, but when counting the number of people, more than a hundred company platoon commanders and more than a thousand soldiers were killed or wounded, and only eight or nine hundred officers and men were left in the regiment. Until the sun was about to set, Sun Lianzhong called: "Brother! Chi Feng City has arrived! We breathed a sigh of relief, and the defense of Niangziguan was successfully completed.
Before dawn on the third day, the 31st Division of Chifengcheng took over the position of the teaching regiment, and Sun Lianzhong ordered the teaching regiment to open Yangquan and put it under the direct command of the deputy commander's department. At this time, the sky was still dark, and when the teaching regiment withdrew, only 200 people were left, but unexpectedly, just out of the pass ditch, the officers and men were resting on the tracks when they passed the railway, and suddenly the mother closed a locomotive, with 4 carriages, flying by, and more than 80 officers and men who had no time to dodge were crushed and injured. It is really heart-wrenching to pity these officers and men who struggled on the battlefield and did not die, but they were actually killed by a train, and at this point, there were only about 100 people left in the entire teaching regiment of more than 3,000 officers and men.
Subsequently, Sun Lianzhong sent a battalion to gather the more than 2,000 officers and men who had died in battle, and buried several large graves at the mouth of the old Pass Pass. The battle of the Teaching Regiment at Old Pass ended.
References for this article: "Teaching Regiment of the Thirty-eighth Army of the National Revolutionary Army Guarding the Old Pass"