What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
In the early winter of 1938, the 358th Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army destroyed the siege of the Jin-Cha-Ji Beiyue District by more than 50,000 Japanese troops, destroyed traffic along the Tongpu Railway, and sought opportunities to annihilate the enemy.
On November 2, Liu Zhong, chief of staff of the 716th Regiment, personally led people to brave the wind and snow to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, and the next day they found an intelligence: the 135th Wing (蚋) Wild Brigade of the Japanese 109th Division regiment stationed in Wutai County, a total of about 700 people, went to Gaohongkou in the early morning of the 3rd to carry out the raid and harassment mission.
When the commander of the 716th regiment, Huang Xinting (1955 lieutenant general), and the political commissar Liao Hansheng (1955 lieutenant general) learned of this incident, they immediately reported to Zhang Zongxun (general in 1955) of the 358th Brigade and Zhang Pinghua (director of the Central Propaganda Department in 1977).
All four of them felt that this was a very important piece of information, and after studying it, they came to a conclusion: this enemy force had broken into the Gaohongkou area alone, and it did not carry sufficient supplies, and it must not stay long. Combined with the severe cold weather at that time, they were likely to return to Wutai County that night or the early morning of the next day.
Under such circumstances, the four commanders immediately decided to fight an ambush battle in the area of talc, which was the only place for the Japanese Tsukuno Brigade to return to Wutai, to annihilate this enemy force.
The reason why the ambush was chosen on the talc piece was because although it was a wild mountain, the mountain was high and deep, and it was the most ideal ambush location along the way from the topographic point of view, which was conducive to forming a surprise attack on the Japanese army.
Huang Xinting said excitedly: "Brigade commander and political commissar, since this information was obtained by our regiment, this ambush mission cannot be given to other regiments!" ”
"That is, this battle must be fought by our 716 regiment!" Liao Hansheng also said.
"The Japanese army is well-equipped and has strong firepower, and your regiment is not only at an absolute disadvantage compared with the Japanese army in this regard, but also almost interesting compared with the other two regiments of our brigade." If your regiment snatches this ambush, is it safe to fight this battle? ”
Zhang Zongxun knew that with Huang Xinting's temper, this battle could not be given to other regiments, but he still deliberately used the "Radical General Method" to stimulate his fighting spirit.
"Brigade commander and political commissar, I Huang Xinting will make a remark here, this battle will not be fought well, and my old Huang will come to see you!"
"My old Liao should never be a turtle with a shrunken head!" Liao Hansheng couldn't help but interject as well.
"It's good to have determination, but we can't ignore a very real problem," Zhang Zongxun said solemnly, "the Japanese army is only more than 20 miles from Gaohongkou to talc, and your regiment is going to rush to talc and there are still more than 50 miles, and if you want to set up an ambush, you must rush there in front of the enemy, so as to seize the favorable terrain and let this Japanese army become a turtle in an urn!" ”
"Understood!" Huang Xinting and Liao Hansheng nodded vigorously in unison.
"All in all, my combat requirements for you are one word..." Zhang Zongxun paused for a moment, then said, "That is------------------------------------------------------ You must act as soon as possible, grab time with the enemy, and attack bravely with extremely sudden movements to catch the enemy off guard! ”
"Yes! Let's go right away! Huang and Liao led the order out.
Subsequently, after Huang Xinting and Liao Hansheng made an emergency mobilization of the whole regiment, they did not even take a bite of the dinner they had just cooked and set off.
More than 50 miles of snow and ice, rugged and difficult mountain paths, the whole regiment of soldiers only took more than 4 hours to reach the talc.
Coincidentally, not long after they had set up their ambush positions, they suddenly heard the sound of leather shoes, horseshoes and noisy human voices not far away - the enemy had indeed come!
Huang Xinting, Liao Hansheng and the generals all whispered in their hearts: "It's dangerous! Fortunately, the troops moved fast enough! ”
Since the 716th Regiment arrived at the ambush battlefield one step ahead of the enemy, the initiative in the battle was firmly in the hands of the 716th Regiment led by Huang Xinting and Liao Hansheng.
In order to facilitate command, the regimental command post was moved forward to the 3rd Battalion, which served as a head-stopper to block the enemy. When the companies of the 3rd Battalion descended to the blocking area, they found that the enemy's sharp troop detachment had passed more than 10 people at the bottom of the ditch, and it could not be too late.
Huang Xinting resolutely issued an order to attack, and the soldiers immediately fired fiercely at the enemy with various firearms in their hands!
The Japanese army originally thought that their attack on Gaohongkou against the wind and snow was a successful and covert operation, but they never expected that in this desolate mountain range, an Eighth Route Army unit suddenly appeared to ambush them.
Hit by this sudden onslaught, the Japanese army immediately panicked and was beaten everywhere.
The enemy commander (蚋) Ye Brigade Commander gasped and immediately assembled his troops, letting the cavalry frantically counterattack under the cover of heavy weapons, in a vain attempt to seize the road and escape from the siege.
Wang Xiangfa, commander of the 3rd Battalion, led the entire battalion to charge and fight hard, suppressing the enemy's fire and leaving them to retreat.
At the same time, the 1st and 2nd Battalions also launched an onslaught against the Japanese from different directions, forming a four-sided attack.
The Japanese army is like a strange snake that has been cut into several pieces, although the arrogance is still very arrogant, but it is impossible to reverse the situation of passive beating, and can only struggle and roll at the bottom of the ditch in pain.
After four hours of fierce fighting, the ambush ended with the complete victory of the 716th Regiment.
Under the command of Huang Xinting and Liao Hansheng, two later founding lieutenant generals, this battle killed and wounded more than 500 Japanese troops, captured 21 people alive, and only a few enemies were lucky enough to slip through the net. At the same time, 2 mountain guns, 4 small guns, more than 340 rifles, more than 30 machine guns, more than 100 war horses and a batch of military supplies were captured.
The casualties of the 716th Regiment were: 21 casualties and 77 wounded.
It is worth mentioning that this was the first time that the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army achieved an impressive victory of annihilating more than 500 enemies behind enemy lines in northwestern Jin, and it was a great victory in the history of the army.
After the war, the liaison officer of Chiang Kai-shek's 120th Division did not believe that the weapons were very rudimentary, and that the Eighth Route Army, which could even be described as "shabby", could annihilate the well-equipped and almost equal Japanese troops.
It was not until Commander He (Long) and Brigadier Zhang Zongxun sent someone to send a command knife and two Japanese coats that the other party silently accepted this fact.