After the founding of New China, the PLA still had another important task in all parts of the country, especially in the southwest region, that is, to eliminate and suppress bandits. In the Dayao Mountain area of Guangxi, there was a notorious bandit leader named Gan Jingsheng, who was highly valued by the head of the People's Liberation Army and gave instructions to the relevant troops to "quickly take dayao mountain."
Why did Gan Jingsheng get such "treatment"? The reason is simple, this person is not an ordinary bandit, but a big deal.
This man was a native of Cangwu, Guangxi, who graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, was a general of the concubine line of xue Yue, a famous Kuomintang general, and served as the commander of the Provisional Eighth Division. In the War of Liberation, as the Kuomintang troops were gradually defeated and retreated, Gan Jingsheng, in order to protect himself, took his men and horses and ran back to his hometown in Guangxi. Under the banner of the "Guangxi Anti-Communist National Salvation Army," he wantonly expanded his ranks through channels such as the remnants of the Kuomintang who had retreated to the south and the rogue bandits in various parts of Guangxi, and still tried in vain to stubbornly resist.
In December 1950, the 520th Regiment of the 174th Division of the 58th Army of the People's Liberation Army was instructed by its superiors to go to Guangxi to suppress bandits, and the primary goal was to eliminate the bandit army of the GanjingshengBu. After Gan Jingsheng received the news that the People's Liberation Army was advancing into Guangxi, he was frightened and took some of his cronies and quickly fled to the Dayao Mountains in central Guangxi to hide. His wishful thinking was: Take advantage of the complex terrain of the Yao Mountains, temporarily recuperate, and when the time comes, he will flee to Taiwan to join Chiang Kai-shek.
As a result, the hundreds of thousands of people under Gan Jingsheng were leaderless, some surrendered to the People's Liberation Army, some surrendered to the local government, and some also went into the mountains as bandits like Gan Jingsheng... In short, this originally huge bandit army showed a state of tree fall and scattering.
However, due to the steep mountainous terrain, steep valley slopes and dense jungles of dayao mountain, it was very inconvenient for the large troops of the People's Liberation Army to enter, so it brought great difficulties to the task of capturing Gan Jingsheng. After studying the situation, the head of the unit decided to dispatch twenty-four elite fighters to form a "flying group" for suppressing bandits, with the combat hero Wang Yande as the leader.
When ready, the "Flying Group" sets off immediately. Because the terrain was unfamiliar, they suffered a lot. The clothes were hung up, and there were bloody slits on the body; the dry food was eaten, so they had to gnaw on the bark and grass roots; when they were extremely sleepy, they casually found a mess of grass, and a few people leaned together to take a nap.
What worried everyone the most was that Gan Jingsheng was very cunning and had no place to live, and everyone racked their brains and could not find his traces. The deadline of one week was approaching soon, and still no shadow of Gan Jingsheng had been seen, everyone was extremely anxious in their hearts, and the leader of the group, Wang Yande, was even more worried.
On the seventh day of the first lunar month, the last day of the arrest deadline, Wang Yande received an important clue from the masses - Gan Jingsheng appeared nearby two days ago! This good news made the members of the group excited and quickly made preparations.
At about 9 p.m. that night, the "flying team" led by an old Yao ethnic group set off in the drizzle. Because it was too dark, the old man who led the way was also lost, and had been tossing and turning for more than three hours without finding any movement of the bandit army, so the crowd had to stop and observe the terrain.
At this time, there was a very dramatic scene - the warrior Zhang Wenchuan usually loved to smoke dry cigarettes, always carried an old-fashioned cigarette bag pot made of brass, and often lit a cigarette and smoked a few sips when he was idle. Busy tracking the bandits for more than three hours, Zhang Wenchuan's addiction to smoking had long been committed, and while everyone was observing the terrain, he took out a cigarette bag pot from his waist and was addicted.
After a bag of cigarettes was smoked, Zhang Wenchuan habitually slammed the cigarette bag pot under the soles of his shoes twice. Who knew that this action led to a very strange thing - at this time, I overheard two claps coming from not far in front of me, and then the warrior slammed twice, and then there were two more "clanging" sounds, and every time the other party clapped his hands, he moved two steps towards here.
Everyone held their breath, and everyone was happy, and they concluded: This must be the bandit's contact signal!
Sure enough, someone actually showed up. Only two figures sneaked out their heads, and after peeking at the PLA side for a long time, they slowly moved toward this side.
However, when the other side moved only four or five steps away from our army, Li Zhengqing, a soldier of the People's Liberation Army, accidentally touched the hand lamp switch he was carrying, the light flashed, the target was exposed, and the bandit army felt that something was wrong and hurriedly shot at this side.
At this moment, Wang Yande rushed up with an arrow and pressed down the big bandit leader who was walking in front. Through the light of the battle between the two sides, Wang Yande glanced at the long-bearded, uniformed, older Man who was painted on the wanted list and hid by a stone. He handed the big bandit captain to Zhang Wenchuan, who followed closely behind, and jumped out again, pounced on Gan Jingsheng, and forced his head with a gun.
This big bandit leader, who made the PLA "flying group" chase after him for many days, was actually led out by a habitual action after Zhang Wenchuan smoked, which may be unexpected by anyone.
After a fierce battle, more than 20 bandits led by Gan Jingsheng all surrendered. According to Gan Jingsheng's account, more than 40 of his men originally went into the Dayao Mountains with him, but because life in the mountains was too difficult, more than 20 people secretly left him and fled without knowing where they were.
After the battle, the Central and Southern Military Region held a grand celebration meeting in Nanning City, and Tan Zheng, the third political commissar of the Central and Southern Military Region and the 4th Field Army, personally put on a big red flower for the heroes of the bandits, Wang Yande, Zhang Wenchuan, and others.
References: Guangxi Party History, Guangxi Party History, Chinese Militia, No. 5, 1999