In July 1939, during the summer harvest and summer planting season, the Japanese puppet army intensified its sweeping and plundering of the grain-producing areas in northern China, trying to achieve its goal of "feeding the war with war". On July 13, the troops of the Canal Detachment of our 115th Division stationed in Caojiabu suddenly received information from the scouts that the Japanese troops in the nearby Hanzhuang would go to the Zhouying area to sweep and grab grain by the way. This was an excellent opportunity for our army to strike at the Japanese army, and the canal detachment gathered its troops while continuing to send people to reconnoiter the movements of the Japanese army.
In the evening of the same day, the troops of the canal detachment completed the assembly, and the leaders discussed the possible route of the Japanese army to sweep up, and finally decided to wait for the Japanese army in Caojiabu Village.
Early the next morning, a small detachment of the Japanese army did indeed set out from the Hanzhuang stronghold and moved in the direction of Caojiabu, and the troops of the canal detachment immediately entered the positions that had been prepared near the village, and formed an ambush circle, patiently waiting for the Japanese to come to the door.
It was not until about noon that 22 Japanese troops approached Caojiabu along the path east of the village. To the east of the village is an open field about 100 meters long and wide, with several graveyards scattered in the middle, and the crops that are being harvested are waist-deep, and next to the east gate of the village is a relatively empty barn. The Japanese cobia with a nod of his head walked to the east gate and slammed the gate hard, fearing that the villagers would not know that the Japanese army was coming, and shouted in stiff Chinese: "The imperial army is coming!" Open the door! ”
The soldiers of the canal detachment who were ambushed around began to fire fiercely at the Japanese army with the command of the commander to shoot, and the cobia who called the door was killed on the spot, and the Japanese army was chaotic after being attacked, looking for shelter, and the Japanese squad leader Shiji Langjun shot while shouting that the rest of the Japanese troops would retreat to the cemetery and the pigsty next to it to resist. After occupying part of the favorable terrain, the Japanese army began to shoot fiercely at our army in the village, and because the enemy fire was very fierce, our army was temporarily at a disadvantage.
At this moment, another unit of our canal detachment arrived behind the Japanese flank, and suddenly the gunshots in the rear of the japanese army were loud, and our army quickly took control of another grave in the small forest on the edge of the village, and set up machine guns to sweep at the Japanese army. The Japanese army was caught between two sides, gradually weakened, the squad leader four branches of Lang Jun and most of the people were killed in the battle, only 3 wounded were surrounded by our army in a field dying and struggling, 2 fighters tried to approach from both sides, but the Japanese army threw grenades one after another, they were wounded one after another. Seeing that the attack was about to be frustrated, a squadron leader quickly rolled along the field and approached the field where the Japanese army was hidden, he took the knife in his hand and slashed one of the Japanese troops, the other 2 Japanese soldiers were red-eyed, stood up and held up their bayonets to stab him left and right, he flexibly avoided the Japanese bayonets, and the other fighters took the opportunity to kill the 2 Japanese soldiers who had been exposed.
After more than an hour of fighting, the Japanese army was basically completely destroyed, but when cleaning the battlefield, it found that there were 4 fewer people, and our army immediately sent troops to pursue them separately, and 2 of them were chased by our army on the way to escape and were killed. But in the pursuit of the other 2 Japanese troops, there was a fierce battle, one of the Japanese soldiers escaped a distance and our army waited on the side of the road to a guard post encountered, because the Japanese did not dare to take the road, took the crop field, the tall green gauze tent obscured the sentry's line of sight, when the sentry found the Japanese army, the Japanese army was aiming at him, the sentry hurriedly fell down, and threw out a grenade, but the grenade was blocked by the sorghum stalks. Before the sentry could pick up his rifle again, the Japanese had already taken a step ahead of him and stabbed him down on the spot.
At this time, the other 3 pursuing fighters immediately covered up when they heard the explosion of the grenade, and the Japanese once again hid in the crop field. Our army searched carefully, and suddenly, a soldier found the enemy lying on a grave and aiming at him, he did not have time to lie down and raised his gun to shoot, the guns of both sides sounded almost at the same time, and both of them hit each other and died together. The other 2 soldiers were so sad that they cut off the heads of the Japanese and hung them on a tree on the side of the nearby road to honor their comrades. They searched repeatedly and found no japanese left. The next day, our army reported on the inside of the Hanzhuang stronghold that the only Japanese soldier who had fled back was frightened when he saw our army's action of cutting off the head of the Japanese army, and although he fled back to the stronghold, he was exhausted because of panic and exhaustion, and after intermittently talking about the experience of being ambushed by our army, although he was rescued, he still died.
In the afternoon of the same day, the Japanese troops in Hanzhuang swept caojiabu. They collected the bodies of the fallen Japanese soldiers, scraped off the bark with bayonets on a large tree near the battlefield, and wrote the Chinese characters "Four Branches Langjun Died Here".
Resources
Chronicles of Xuecheng District pp 277-278
Editor/Zhou Hongxin
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