As everyone knows, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there was a huge gap in the level of weapons between the enemy and us. Although the Kuomintang army was also in the backward industrial conditions of China at that time, it lacked the ability to manufacture heavy weapons, but as a government army at that time, it was able to directly receive financial support from the United States and other aspects, coupled with its strong financial resources, and also had the ability to purchase heavy weapons.
On the other hand, our army, starting from the Red Army, although it can get the international support of the Soviet Union and has a certain production capacity of weapons, most of them are limited to grenades, bullets, rifles and other small weapons.
In addition, the Kuomintang authorities deliberately squeezed out our army and openly cooperated between the two parties, but many materials were not allocated at all. Therefore, for a long time, our army's artillery, machine guns and other heavy weapons were captured.
It is under such conditions that our army still has achieved very proud results, and it has even stepped out of a "gun god."
Looking through the military history of our army, we can find that in the training of our army, there is a special skill that cannot be done by those who are bold and careful, that is, the single-soldier shooting of mortars, which is commonly known as "one-handed firing of cannons."
In the seatless sheet, without a gun mount, aim independently, hold the gun body with the left hand, put the shell in the right hand, and raise the hand
In the case of artillery firing, to achieve precision and no mistakes, it is a great test of the soldier's will, military technology and combat literacy.
In the history of our army, the person who was able to apply this stunt to the level of divine immersion was the famous "gun god" Zhao Zhangcheng. He created and perfected the whole set of techniques for single-person mortar firing, and even used twenty "pepper-faced shells" on the anti-Japanese battlefield to beat the Japanese to the point of urine.
He joined the Red Army and won the prestige of "Gun God"
Zhao Zhangcheng was born in 1905 in Luoyang, Henan. He first participated in Feng Yuxiang's Second Army, and later when he participated in the battle to encircle and suppress the Jiangxi Soviet Region, he followed the troops to revolt, joined the Red Army, and became an excellent proletarian fighter.
In the first two anti-"encirclement and suppression" battles, the Red Army successfully captured a large number of enemy supplies, including three or seven flat-firing guns in addition to mortars. In order to make rational use of these materials, the Red Army deliberately set up an artillery battalion, and Zhao Zhangcheng was personally appointed as the battalion commander by Lin Zong.
Since then, he has relied on his talent for artillery to lead the artillery battalion to build many miracles. During the Long March of the Red Army, in the crucial battle of forcibly crossing the Dadu River and determining the future of our army, Zhao Zhangcheng played an extremely crucial role in using mortars, and even more so, he accurately hit the enemy's core position with only three shells, which was indispensable.
After this battle, Chairman Mao personally issued an order to award him the glorious title of "Sharpshooter." Since then, the title of "Gun God" has spread among the Red Army troops.
20 "pepper face shells" to scare the Japanese army
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhao Zhangcheng successively served as the battalion commander of the Artillery Regiment of the Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, the director of the artillery of the 129th Division, and the director of the joint defense artillery of The Ningjinsui in Shaanxi.
In September 1940, the Hundred Regiments War commanded by Peng Lao had entered the second operational stage, and Zhao Zhangcheng, who was then the mortar director of the artillery regiment of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, participated in the Battle of Yuliao. His troops were ordered to uproot the Japanese strongholds along the road from Yushe to Liaoxian County, and the Guantou stronghold became the most difficult "hard bone" on its front.
In the face of the Japanese army's "turtle shell" like a bunker, our army has never been able to conquer it, and the Japanese army even released poison gas when counterattacking. Fortunately, the timely withdrawal of troops did not cause major casualties.
On September 29, the main force of our army quietly withdrew from the front line of the Guantou stronghold and took the stone box stronghold in the other direction. At the same time, Zhao Zhangcheng came to the aid of the army with artillery.
The Japanese bunkers were deep underground, and if they attacked with artillery shells, although they could cause certain effects, they still could not cause a substantial blow to them. Just when everyone was at a loss, Zhao Zhangcheng's aura suddenly appeared.
He came to the artillery position, and while ordering people to pour out half of the ammunition in the shells, he ordered people to go to the cooking class to bring pepper noodles. He then filled the chili noodles into the shells and made a full 20 "chili noodle shells". At the same time, in order to enhance the effect, Zhao Zhangcheng also deliberately moved the launch position to 150 meters away from the enemy bunker.
Subsequently, 20 special mortar shells poured down on the Japanese positions. Suddenly, a strong pungent smell penetrated into the Japanese bunkers, and the Japanese troops were smoked to the point of snot and tears. When the Japanese leader in the bunker smelled this pungent and pungent smell, he thought that our army had also released "biological and chemical weapons" and shouted in horror:
Evacuate the bunker!
”
Just as the Japanese had just withdrawn from the bunkers on the front line, our army attacked. The Japanese Kou had no bunkers, and they were defeated by our army, and their urine flowed. After the Guantou stronghold was captured, the Japanese strongholds on the Yuliao Highway had been completely uprooted by our army.
Growing old and strong, one-handed firing of cannons is not a legend
After the founding of new China, Zhao Zhangcheng was appointed deputy commander of artillery and was awarded the rank of major general in 1955. Once, a certain artillery unit held a contest exercise, and Zhao Zhangcheng went to the scene to observe. At that time, the field was muddy, and the 82 mortar always had an unstable chassis when shooting. As a result, the warriors tried several times, but failed to hit the target.
The more Zhao Zhangcheng looked, the more anxious he became, so he simply took off his coat and personally ran to the launch site. He didn't care if he looked good or not, he took off his liberation insoles in the mud as a chassis, supported the tail of the gun on it, stabilized the gun body with one hand, fired the bullet with the other hand, and hit it, and the whole audience suddenly applauded.
Not only that, in the 1964 all-army contest, the Bayi Film Studio made Zhao Zhangcheng's demonstration of firing cannons with one hand into a military teaching film and screened it in the whole army. At that time, Zhao Zhangcheng, who was already 60 years old, was still calm and composed, with his left hand bracket, his right hand taking the cannon to launch, and the operation of the clouds and flowing water, so that people had to sigh that the old and strong, "one-handed release of the cannon" is not a legend!
It is worth mentioning that after China entered a period of ten years of turmoil in 1966, although Zhao Zhangcheng, like other comrades-in-arms, became a general who "stood on the sidelines", no one dared to frame and persecute him. The reason for this is simple,
First, Zhao Zhangcheng has never been a "faction in power"; second, no one knows the story of Zhao Zhangcheng's "three cannons becoming a god" when the Red Army forcibly crossed the Dadu River.
In his later years, Zhao Zhangcheng was low-key and easy-going, and had no quarrel with the world. In November 1969, General Zhao Zhangcheng died of a sudden heart attack in Beijing. His old mansion in Luoyang is still well preserved.