August 1941 was an unprecedented disaster for the Eighth Route Army troops stationed in the North China Theater. Because at this time, the Japanese puppet army carried out a terrible "North China Sweep" against North China.
As many as 70,000 Japanese puppet troops launched a "great sweep" against more than 10,000 soldiers of the Eighth Route Army in the anti-Japanese base areas of North China. In the process, the ferocious Japanese puppet army forced the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, who were seriously wounded and ran out of ammunition, onto the Wolf's Tooth Mountain. In line with the principle of "fighting at the last moment", the war ended with the remaining five fighters using up the last grenade and jumping off the cliff in order not to be captured by the Japanese.
This is the story of the famous "Five Heroes of Wolf's Tooth Mountain". In fact, they had the possibility of surviving.
The terrain of Wolf's Tooth Mountain was complex, and the Japanese puppet army, as an alien intruder, was not familiar with the terrain, and the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army could have completely used the terrain advantage to repel this wave of sweeping by the Japanese puppet army. However, all this was broken by a great traitor named Zhao Yukun.
Zhao Yukun, a native of Yi County, Hebei Province, was born in 1900 to parents who were farmers with their backs to the sky facing the loess soil, and since birth, they have not had enough to eat and wear. The children of the poor family have long been in charge, and Zhao Yukun, who has been the governor since childhood, has done many kinds of work. Carrying water, killing pigs, no matter what kind of work, as long as he can earn money and make him full of food, he will do it. He even joined the Northeast Army, and then chose to quit because he did not obey discipline.
When he grew up, Zhao Yukun knew his own nature very well, when he was a child, he was poor and afraid, afraid that he would be hungry, and because he had done all kinds of work and received the blank eyes of various people, he could not be disciplined and reprimanded now, in our current words: strong self-esteem, and arrogant.
Thinking about it, Zhao Yukun decided to go up the mountain and be a bandit! Whether it is robbing the poor and helping the rich, or coveting pleasure, in short, it is better to be a bandit than a butcher!
Not long after, Zhao Yukun was arrested and put on death row for robbing landlords and robbing people of money. Until July 7, 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident occurred, and the Japanese army launched a full-scale war of aggression against China. After one loss after another, the Japanese army drove straight in, and he also took advantage of the chaos to escape from death row with the other people in the prison.
As the saying goes, a chaotic world makes a hero. Seeing the tragic situation in society at that time, Zhao Yukun was angry in his heart, whether it was for self-protection or to fight against the Japanese, he made up his mind to unite his fellow prisoners who escaped together and formed a "North China Anti-Japanese Seventh Route Army" that fought against the Japanese army while robbing the rich and helping the poor.
Zhao Yukun, who had experienced so many things, was no longer the man who only knew that his head was hot and did not care about being a bandit. At this time, he is not only smart and brainy, but also has a very fast reaction. In his opinion, it is not enough to rely on himself, he must find a few powerful helpers and grow his team with him.
After that, Zhao Yukun stole money from the landlord, never squandered it indiscriminately, and specially used it to purchase weapons to enhance the combat effectiveness of the team; at the same time, when he heard that Song Xueyi, who had been a company commander in the Northeast Army, had returned to his hometown, he lowered his posture and asked him over and over again to ask Him Song Xuefei to be his own military division.
It should be known that Song Xuefei was a solid and high-caliber student, and with him, this small contingent organized by Zhao Yukun quickly developed into a large anti-Japanese contingent with more than three thousand people without lack of money and wisdom.
At the same time, a "foreign" team also came to Yi County, that is, the grassy anti-Japanese team led by Meng Gechen. Meng Gechen was a down-to-earth Northeastern master, once a company commander. After the July 7 Lugou Bridge Incident, Meng Gechen, the company commander, only had more than a dozen soldiers left. In desperation, Meng Gechen rose up on the stone slab mountain and led more than a dozen soldiers to make a grassy anti-Japanese team. In just half a year, more than a dozen people have grown into a large team of six or seven thousand people. Soon, Meng Gechen's territory expanded to Yi County, where Zhao Yukun's team was located.
The contradiction between Zhao Yukun and Meng Gechen cannot be said to be bigger and bigger every day, and the hatred is getting deeper and deeper every day. The two teams fought a big fight. Needless to say, Zhao Yukun was defeated miserably, and he himself became a prisoner of Meng Gechen.
Afterwards, in order to rescue his "commander" (Zhao Yukun's self-appointed commander), Song Xuefei had to ask the Hebei guerrillas at that time to mediate the dispute.
The Hebei guerrillas did not disappoint them either, and with their intervention, the dispute between the two sides soon stopped. Zhao Yukun and Song Xuefei were also persuaded by the Hebei guerrillas to formally defect to the Hebei guerrillas and were named the "Tenth Route Army". Meng Gechen was also appointed commander of the "Seventh Route Army".
However, even so, Meng Gechen did not settle down. After this, Meng Gechen took his "Seventh Route Army" to a large area near Yi County, not only could not live the hard life of the Eighth Route Army, but also often robbed his family and houses, oppressed the good people, Meng Gechen himself, and was extremely greedy for pleasure, so the "Seventh Route Army" became a bandit nest.
Halfway through 1938, this "bandit nest" led by Meng Gechen not only received complaints from local residents again and again, but also always grabbed territory with the "Tenth Route Army" led by Zhao Yukun, and because he was dissatisfied with the quality of life, he also secretly "fought and quarreled" with the Japanese army.
In December 1938, Yang Chengwu, commander of the First Jin-Cha-Ji Sub-district, led the 1st Regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment, and the 3rd Regiment, first confusing Meng Gechen's "Seventh Route Army" in the name of "rectification training", and then recruiting nearly 5,000 Meng Gechen with the emotional route of "hometown to hometown". The remaining two thousand or so people also defected to the "Tenth Route Army" led by Zhao Yukun. The "Tenth Route Army" also grew into a huge contingent of more than 5,000 people.
When Zhao Yukun saw this, he was not only happy, but also a little afraid, afraid that he himself would be eliminated one day. After all, he and Meng Gechen had similar encounters, similar experiences, and walked the same path. Now that Meng Gechen has fallen, will he also fall under the hands of the first division one day?
Just three months after the incorporation, that is, in March 1939, the "Tenth Route Army" led by Zhao Yukun was officially reorganized into the fifth detachment of the first division. Zhao Yukun served as commander, Song Xuefei as chief of staff, and the political commissar was Wang Daobang, who was sent by Yang Chengwu. The leaders of the following three regiments were all selected by Zhao Yukun himself, which can be regarded as giving Zhao Yukun great trust.
Unfortunately, even if he officially became the fifth detachment, Zhao Yukun still couldn't stand the days of eating pickles every day. Not only that, but the subordinates from bandits were the same, no matter how Wang Daobang and Song Xuefei did ideological work and how they trained, the bandit qi in their bodies still existed. He often did something that was contrary to the military rules of the Eighth Route Army.
In May 1939, a division plan arranged an ambush. Just as everyone was patiently waiting for the enemy to approach, the two regiments of the five detachments opened fire. This was a terrible situation, and a good ambush battle had to become a confrontation between the two armies. Zhao Yukun knew that he was wrong and accepted the punishment of the first division, but the dissatisfaction in his heart was indeed getting bigger and bigger.
Soon after, there was another ambush at Loess Ridge, this time the five detachments and the second regiment did not shoot in advance, but they withdrew from the battlefield early. There were so fewer people who could have won more victories, and there was really no way to continue fighting.
Twice in a row, it was because of the mistakes made by the five detachments that led to a change in the entire battle situation, and the first division also sacrificed a number of soldiers in vain. Yang Chengwu, commander of the first division, decided to reorganize the fifth detachment into 25 regiments and 26 regiments. At this moment, Zhao Yukun's heart was even more uncomfortable.
The thing that made Zhao Yukun make up his mind to surrender to the enemy was that in January 1940, Zhao Yukun learned of one thing, Zhao Tong was dead, and he died under the ambush of the Eighth Route Army.
Zhao Tong was the commander of the original Fifth Detachment, and Zhao Tong, like Zhao Yukun, was born during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and developed the Anti-Japanese War Team. The difference is that later, after Zhao Tong became the commander of the fifth detachment, he did not quit, and when he finally received his news, he had become a "major general" in Chongqing, and he was completely opposed to the Eighth Route Army. So, at the end of 1939, the Eighth Route Army ambushed Zhao Tong and his subordinates, and Zhao Tong died.
This time, the sadness in Zhao Yukun's heart was infinitely magnified, and after thinking about it, he actually chose to defect to the Japanese puppet army that came to North China to carry out the "great sweep" at that time.
The Japanese puppet army did nothing evil and did nothing wrong, and there was no grass wherever it went. In this way, the daily food and living standards of the Japanese puppet army were not a little better than those of the Eighth Route Army. With the help of Zhao Yukun, a native of the Japanese puppet army and the commander of the five detachments, the Japanese puppet army was naturally very successful.
In August 1941, Zhao Yukun, who had gained a firm foothold in the ranks of the Japanese puppet army, launched another major sweep with the Japanese puppet army, that is, this war, forcing a eighth route army team to go up the Wolf's Tooth Mountain, but because Zhao Yukun was also extremely familiar with the terrain and terrain of the Wolf's Tooth Mountain, the eighth route army soldiers did not please well on the Wolf's Tooth Mountain, on the contrary, the last five fighters, after using all their weapons, could not wait for the support of the troops, did not want to be captured, and did not want to surrender to the enemy, the fighters could only choose to jump off the cliff.
In this process, the traitor Zhao Yukun's "merit" is second to none.
After this battle, although the Eighth Route Army suffered heavy losses, it still reversed the situation on the battlefield as a whole. Later, the Eighth Route Army passed five levels, beheaded six generals, and cut through thorns and thorns. Seeing that the victory of the Eighth Route Army was in front of him, Zhao Yukun knew that he was not good, and actually ran away again!
After escaping, Zhao Yukun knew that no matter whether he was caught by the Japanese or caught by the Eighth Route Army, he would not have a good end.
In the end, he could not survive, and in desperation, he chose to burn his face with soybeans, and he thought that no one could recognize his disfigurement.
It was not until 1950, after the founding of New China, that the Public Security Bureau learned of Zhao Yukun's whereabouts among other criminals, arrested him, and executed him by shooting.
Zhao Yukun, if it were not for his own wild guessing and covetousness, would not have embarked on the road of rebellion, nor would he have become a sinner of history in the end. As Song Xuefei, who once worked with Zhao Yukun, he has always been loyal and brave to kill the enemy, and after the founding of New China, he became a major general. The party and the state affirmed his efforts, and he also enjoyed his old age peacefully under the care of the people.
Sometimes, a small choice can change a person's life. However, for each of us, no matter what we do, we should be loyal to our motherland and safeguard the interests of the motherland, which is our daily action and our bottom line.
Zhao Yukun has no bottom line, and naturally there will be no good end.