On August 2, 1941, Zuo Ye, who had just arrived as deputy chief of staff of the 17th Regiment of the Jizhong Military Region, received a phone call from Liu Mingqin, commander of the Second Battalion, who said: "According to the reconnaissance report, seventy or eighty Japanese troops came out of Anguo County and moved in the direction of Mafucai Village in Ding county (in present-day Dongliuchun Township, Dingzhou City, Hebei Province).
Zuo Ye asked Commander Liu, "What are you going to do?" Liu Mingqin said: "Our battalion is ready to hide in the green yarn tent, beat him in an ambush, and kill these devils." ”
After Zuo Ye listened, he neither asked the regimental commander Min Hongyou (founding major general, former deputy commander of the Shaanxi Provincial Military Region) nor greeted the political commissar Yao Guomin (founding major general, former deputy political commissar of the armored corps), let alone verify the situation, and said, "Good! You fight, I'll come right away. ”
As soon as the battle began, it was discovered that the investigators had misintelligent information. The enemy was not seventy or eighty men, but more than five hundred men of the Japanese Matsuo Brigade. Those dozens of men were nothing more than vanguard troops. This time it was passive, I wanted to ambush the enemy, but I was counter-encircled by the enemy. The situation is critical.
The 17th Regiment is a famous "steel regiment" and "changsheng regiment" of the Jizhong Military Region, and is known for being good at fighting hard battles. The second battalion was also the number one main force of the 17th Regiment, and the battalion commander Liu Mingqin was not afraid of danger, commanding the troops to resist the enemy surrounded on all sides and waiting for reinforcements to arrive. At the end of the battle, even Zuo Ye himself took up the battle with a bayonet.
Thanks to the tenacious style of the second battalion and the courage to confront the tough, finally when the main force of the 17th Regiment arrived, all three battalions participated in the battle, fighting until more than one o'clock in the afternoon, killing and wounding more than 400 devils, while our army also suffered more than 170 casualties, the most fatal thing was that the second battalion commander Liu Mingqin and the two company commanders were killed.
The battle was called a brutal, mainly white fight, and an old man who had fought with the devils with bayonets said: "After putting on the bayonet, many warriors have been trembling, and they have ordered the lower bayonet to rush forward while shouting for death." Shouting to kill is not only to deter the enemy, but also to embolden yourself. Seeing that the devil didn't care about three seven twenty-one, when the chest was pierced, he couldn't care about being afraid at all, because it was useless to be afraid. That's your life and death. A bayonet fight down, no one spoke for a day, his body was still trembling, and his mind was full of the scene of the fight just now. The war is too cruel. ”
After the battle, the troops withdrew to rest. Because deputy chief of staff Zuo Ye decided to fight such a big hard battle when he first arrived, and caused huge losses to more than 170 casualties, including a battalion commander and two company commanders. The regimental commander, Min Hongyou, was so angry that he even lifted the dinner table.
The left leaf is waiting to be criticized. At this point, I don't know how to punish him.
Unexpectedly, things took a big turn, and one day when they were eating, the translator sent four telegrams. At first glance, they were actually commendation orders sent by the Yan'an Central Military Commission to all commanders of the 17th Regiment; commendation orders from the headquarters of the Taihang Eighth Route Army to all commanders and fighters of the 17th Regiment; commendation orders from the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region to all commanders and fighters of the 17th Regiment; and finally, the Commendation Orders sent by the Jizhong Military Region to all the commanders and fighters of the 17th Regiment.
This stunned everyone, and the Battle of Ma Fucai was originally a rather passive encounter. Zuo Caller himself also admitted that there was a certain blindness in this battle. How did he suddenly receive so many praises from his superiors?
Later, some people analyzed the following three reasons: First, this hard battle, which was mainly based on bayonet fighting, the enemy and ourselves suffered nearly four to one casualties, and also captured a lot of booty; second, this battle forced the enemy to withdraw 14 strongholds, and at once consolidated and expanded the base areas in 4 counties; third, there were not many examples of an infantry regiment of the Eighth Route Army at that time basically annihilating a japanese army brigade. Greatly boosted morale and lifted spirits.
Half a year later, Zuo Ye was promoted to the commander of the 22nd Regiment, and only three months after his arrival caught up with the "May Day Sweep", Zuo Ye commanded the 22nd Regiment, fought quite well, fought 82 battles, killed more than a thousand people below the commander of the Japanese Sakamoto Brigade, especially the Battle of Songjiazhuang, making the 22nd Regiment famous in the first battle.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zuo Ye (born in 1910, Han ethnicity, Jiangxi Yongxin. Originally named Zuo Baoyu, he used the names Left Wing, Left First, Zuo Yue, Zuo Zhu, in 1932 changed his name to Zuo Ye) to the northeast, serving as the deputy commander of the Second Military Subdistrict of the Liaoxi Military Region of the Democratic Coalition Army, and in 1948 he was appointed commander of the Independent Second Division and commander of the Yingkou Garrison District. After liberation, he transferred to the Ministry of Communications of Central and South China as vice minister. He led the construction of hainan national defense projects, the construction of Lushan Highway, and promoted the night navigation of the Sichuan River. Later, he served as vice president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and consultant of the Ministry of Agriculture. He died in Beijing in 1992.