In November 1942, Xu Shiyou, commander of the Jiaodong Military Region, received an important enemy situation: Okamura Ningji, commander of the Japanese army in North China, came to Yantai from Beiping by special plane to prepare for a large-scale "mopping-up" operation in the Jiaodong area.
The reason why we want to "sweep" the Jiaodong Peninsula is because this place is surrounded by the sea on three sides and connects the Jilu Plain on the other, and the water and land transportation is convenient. In the Japanese army's battle plan, the Jiaodong Peninsula was an important area between the enemy's sea and North China, and it was also one of the supply bases.
Xu Shiyou was 37 years old. As early as the red army period, he was a military commander, and he liked to fight evil battles and hard battles. This time, his superiors transferred him to the Jiaodong Peninsula, apparently asking him to frustrate the japanese army's vigor and show his "anti-Japanese might."
(Founding General Xu Shiyou)
In the early morning of November 21, the Japanese puppet troops stationed in Muping, Haiyang, Laiyang, and other strongholds went out one after another to encircle the anti-Japanese base areas around Mashishan and Asan in a "dragnet" style. In this "sweep" alone, the Japanese puppet army sent more than 20,000 troops, and the navy and air force cooperated, and the momentum was very arrogant.
Looking at the "net" he had laid, Okamura Ningji did not forget to boast: "As long as you enter the encirclement, the birds in the sky will be shot three times, the rabbits on the ground will be stabbed three times, and the Eighth Route Army will be even more difficult to fly!" ”
(Ninji Okamura)
In the face of the enemy's large-scale "sweeping," Xu Shiyou led the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians to generally adopt measures to clear the field, leaving no grain of rice for the enemy, and hiding in the tunnels dug in advance. But the cunning Japanese often took wolfhounds to sniff around, looking for hidden holes.
However, the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians came up with a powerful countermeasure: On the eve of the "sweeping" of the Japanese army, every household would prepare pepper noodles, mix them with cigarette butts and sprinkle them on the ground, and as soon as the wolf dogs smelled these pungent smells, they would only turn their heads and run; in the process of "sweeping", the Japanese army would always specifically arrest and kill women. Many female comrades and cadres cut off their long hair and made them the same "inch" as male soldiers, making it difficult for the enemy to distinguish between male and female for a while.
(Plundering Japanese troops in China)
On November 24, the Japanese puppet army stepped up its efforts to carry out a "net collection" operation against Mashishan. During this period, more than 1500 people successfully jumped out of the encirclement and returned to the army. The remaining 500 women and children were captured by the Japanese and executed, and no one was spared. This is the tragic "Mashishan Massacre".
Xu Shiyou, who heard the news, was so angry that he slammed the table with his fist, but he did not take the initiative to send troops to fight hard with the Japanese army. Because he knows that at present, the enemy is strong and we are weak, and if the military and people of Jiaodong want to win, they can only "win by chance" and must not fight wildly.
(Xu Shiyou at the inaugural meeting of jiaodong military region)
In this winter "sweep," the most serious encroachment on the enemy was in the West Sea Area. In order to seek a turnaround, the local anti-Japanese forces took the initiative to attack the strongholds such as Dianzi and Paper House, and then besieged Gu Da Nang and marched towards Pingdu.
During this period, the soldiers of the West Naval Division also achieved brilliant results: there was a puppet army stronghold behind The Village of Gushan, with more than 100 enemy troops stationed in peacetime, and seven or eight bunkers. A battalion of the military sub-district took advantage of the night to sneak into the village, stayed under the eyes of the enemy for a day and a night, and finally launched an attack while the puppet army was eating, broke through the wall in just five minutes, and took the stronghold that night, completely annihilating the puppet army.
(The Eighth Route Army successfully uprooted the enemy's puppet strongholds and celebrated victory)
In early December, Xu Shiyou saw that the Japanese puppet army's offensive had weakened, and took the initiative to lead 16 regiments to attack Wangyuan.
Wangyuan is located in the south of Yantai, more than 10 kilometers away from the county seat, and there is a company of puppet troops stationed. There is a large four-storey bunker in the area, which threatens the supply line of the Jiaodong Military Region at all times. In this regard, Xu Shiyou led his troops to attack long distances and launched an attack on Wangyuan overnight.
Before the war, Xu Shiyou asked the operations staff officer to borrow a copy of "Three Kingdoms" from a local primary school teacher. No sooner had he turned to the page of "Guan Yunchang Beheading Huaxiong" that the main attacking force declared victory. They sent 25 kilograms of explosives into the enemy bunkers, and the defenders in the big bunkers took "earth planes".
In addition to pulling up strongholds, Xu Shiyou also attached great importance to breaking the railway. In five months, he mobilized 150,000 Jiaodong soldiers and civilians to systematically fill in 450 kilometers of blockade ditches, which made the Japanese and pseudo-blockade plan ruined.
In the Jiaodong Military Region, the militiamen gave full play to their talents and used all kinds of mines to make it difficult for the Japanese puppet army to move forward. Sometimes, a Japanese army can mine more than 30 times in less than a square kilometer, making the enemy terrified, and finally can only return to the stronghold in a sad way.
(Mine-laying militia)
In the end, under the leadership of Xu Shiyou, the military and civilians of Jiaodong smashed the "sweep" of the Japanese and the puppets and won the final victory.