Late one night in October 1942, a puppet soldier hurried to the headquarters of the Sixth Sub-district of the Eighth Route Army's Ji'nan Military Region and was arrested by peripheral vigilant soldiers. He took out a black cotton shoe from his body and said that he had something important to see the chief, and Yi Liangpin, commander of the military sub-district, received him.
Seeing the black cotton shoe, Yi Liangpin was shocked and felt that the situation was not good. Sure enough, the puppet soldier reported that Director Liu had been seriously wounded in the leg and had been captured by the Japanese army, and was now being held in the Japanese camp stronghold, heavily guarded.
Director Liu of the Puppet Army is Liu Zhijian, director of the Political Department of the Ji'nan Military Region of the Eighth Route Army.
Historical records show that he was the highest-ranking cadre captured by the Eighth Route Army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Yi Liangpin believed that the situation was serious, and reported it step by step, from the military region to the division headquarters to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and even alarmed the central authorities.
Liu Bocheng, commander of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and Deng Xiaoping, political commissar, strictly ordered the Ji'nan Military Region to rescue Liu Zhijian at all costs:"
To live is to see people, to die is to see corpses, in short, we must snatch Liu Zhijian back.
”
As a senior cadre of the Eighth Route Army, why was Liu Zhijian captured by the Japanese army? As a puppet army of the enemy, why did they send a message to the Eighth Route Army? How did the head of the military sub-district determine that Liu Zhijian was captured through a cloth shoe? What will be the final outcome of Liu Zhijian?
Liu Zhijian
At the end of 1941, the Pacific War broke out. In order to cope with the new situation, the Japanese army must have a solid rear base and plunder war resources to achieve the purpose of "feeding the war with war". To this end, the Japanese army carried out a more brutal "sweep" of the North China region where the Eighth Route Army was active. In 1942, three large-scale "iron wall encirclements" were carried out against the Ji'nan Military Region, and each time the troops were more than 10,000 troops.
The Ji'nan Military Region has adopted flexible guerrilla tactics and constantly smashed the enemy's "combined attacks" and "encirclement by iron walls." Although some results have been achieved, it is also facing unprecedented difficulties. The Japanese built a large number of bunkers and blockade nets, constantly dividing and encroaching on the base areas of the Eighth Route Army. In addition, the attrition of the main forces of the Ji'nan Military Region is also very serious.
Some fighters and the masses have developed negative emotions, and they doubt whether the guerrilla war in the Southern Hebei Plain can be sustained. This sharp question also lies in front of the military region's political commissar Song Renqian, who is an excellent cadre who has experienced the Long March, and the nine deaths on the Long March road have cultivated his tenacious will.
In early October, Song Renqiang held an enlarged meeting of the regional party committee, which was attended by the main cadres of the Ji'nan Military Region. According to their analysis, although the current living conditions are very difficult, the Japanese army has limited troop strength, and the "sweeping" base areas will inevitably take care of one or the other, and this is a favorable condition for the survival of our army.
The meeting called on leading cadres to take the lead in persisting in the struggle, enhancing confidence, and protecting the strength of the masses.
No matter how difficult and dangerous the conditions are, we must never leave the Southern Hebei Plain and must coexist and die with millions of people in southern Hebei.
After the meeting, the leaders of the military region separately conveyed the spirit of the meeting to the various military sub-districts, of which Liu Zhijian, director of the political department of the military region, was in charge of the sixth sub-district. On the evening of October 15, Liu Zhijian and several leaders of the military region were escorted by a cavalry squad, and after a night of rapid marching, they arrived at Li Yang Village in Encha Town, Zaoqiang County, the garrison of the Sixth Subdistrict.
At the meeting in the afternoon, Yi Pinliang, commander of the Sixth Division, reported: "The 21st Regiment fought an ambush a few days ago, eliminated a platoon of ghosts, and captured a batch of weapons. According to past experience, the devils will definitely retaliate for the loss, so everyone decided to move east that night.
At that time, Liu Zhijian's wife, Liu Laiying, had just given birth to a child in another village not far away, and he wanted to go and have a look, but the task did not allow him to stay longer. At dawn the next day, everyone moved to the village of Master Friend, east of the Daying Highway.
Just as everyone was putting down their luggage on horseback and getting ready to open the bunk to sleep, the village was all around
sound
There was a rush of gunfire.
It turned out that the Japanese puppet army had already figured out the activity law of the Eighth Route Army, judged that they would move to the village of Master Friend, and mobilized more than a thousand people in advance to ambush around the village. Liu Zhijian and others did not receive information on the activities of the Japanese puppet army, and entering the village of Master You undoubtedly jumped into the enemy's encirclement.
Japanese army
Due to the urgency of the situation, the troops had no time to concentrate, liu Zhijian hastily commanded everyone to break through the village, and he rode a war horse and led the soldiers to the west of the village. The Japanese puppet army saw a man on horseback, thought it was a high-ranking officer of the Eighth Route Army, and immediately aimed its fire at him.
Bullets rained down on Liu Zhijian, and a heavy machine gun bullet hit his thigh. Liu Zhijian rolled off his horse and fell heavily in a ditch unable to move, while his guards had been wounded and did not know where to go.
Liu Zhijian understood in his heart that he was seriously injured and surrounded by Japanese puppet troops, and there was only one way to die. For Liu Zhijian, death is not terrible, and the day he embarked on the revolutionary road, he was determined to give everything for the revolution.
Thinking in his heart that he must not expose the secrets of the troops, he immediately sorted out the contents of his body and tore up an important piece of information with his mouth. Another pit was picked up, and a picture of his wife and an old nostalgic watch were buried.
At this time, Liu Zhijian was very calm, thinking that he had experienced a revolutionary career of more than ten years, which was worthy of this life. And there are two more children, and there are also successors. The only sad thing is that the wives and children will not be taken care of in the future, and they will have to suffer a lot...
Just thinking about this, several puppet soldiers came toward him with guns. Liu Zhijian clutched his pistol tightly and thought to himself, "We must not be a prisoner, killing one is enough, killing two is enough to earn one." He raised his gun and pulled the trigger at the puppet, but the gun did not sound. Liu Zhijian buckled twice, but still did not ring. Liu Zhijian secretly scolded himself: "Dog things, count your fate." ”
At that time, he was already determined to die, and since he could not kill the enemy, he would keep the bullets to himself. He raised the gun to his head and pulled the trigger three times in a row, but the gun still did not sound. At this time, Liu Zhijian suddenly remembered that a few days ago, the guards helped themselves wipe their guns, accidentally lost a part, how to find it can not be found, the mud on the ground was packed up and washed with water and did not find it.
It just so happened that the Japanese army was found nearby, the troops wanted to move immediately, and the test gun was afraid of attracting the attention of the enemy, so Liu Zhijian could only take the gun with one less part. He never imagined that without this part the gun would not be able to make a sound.
Liu Zhijian angrily threw the gun into the cotton field behind him and lay helplessly on the ground. When the two puppet soldiers approached, Liu Zhijian was surprised to find that there was a familiar face, which seemed to have been seen somewhere. More than ten seconds later,
He remembered that this person was a guard of Xu Shaoen, the leader of the 20th Regiment, who had taken leave to go home to visit his relatives more than a month ago and had not returned.
A puppet soldier with the Japanese army
It turned out that this guard went home to visit his relatives, and the village was smoking Zhuang Ding, and he was arrested by the puppet army to become a soldier. However, he did not want to act as a pawn of the Japanese army, and soon quietly contacted the Eighth Route Army to express that he wanted to return to the troops, and the organization instructed him to take the opportunity to lurk inside the enemy and obtain intelligence.
The other puppet soldier was the guard's village friend, and after whispering a few times, they walked over to Liu Zhijian and said, "Director Liu, don't be afraid, we will definitely find a way to save you out." As soon as they finished speaking, several Japanese soldiers came up and began to search Liu Zhijian, but they did not find anything from the inside to the outside.
The Japanese army asked the captured civilians to carry Liu Zhijian back to the camp stronghold on an ox cart, and a puppet soldier cleverly took off one of Liu Zhijian's shoes and hid it in his arms. Subsequently, he sent the shoe to the headquarters of the Sixth Division of Ji'nan. Liu Zhijian's pair of black cloth shoes are different from ordinary military shoes, which were made by his wife herself, and some cadres of the military region have also joked with Liu Zhijian, so most of them know the shoes he wears.
In fact, when the Japanese puppet army besieged the village of Master You, there was a main force of the Ji'nan Military Region nearby. At that time, the 20th Regiment was ordered to move from the fifth division in the north to the first division in the south, and the acting regimental commander Chu Daming was leading the vanguard of two companies through Encha. He knew that the headquarters of the Sixth Division was nearby, and after hearing the sound of gunfire, he judged that the Japanese were besieging the Sixth Division, so he immediately asked the scouts to contact the Sixth Division.
Yi Liangpin, commander of the Sixth Division, was very anxious after receiving the news that Liu Zhijian had been captured, but he only had a guard platoon by his side and could only report the situation to his superiors. When Liu Deng heard the news, he was shocked and ordered liu Zhijian to be rescued at all costs, and at the same time ordered the 19th, 20th, and 21st regiments to be temporarily placed under the command of the Sixth Division.
After Yi Liangpin learned that Chu Daming was nearby, he asked him to lead two companies to closely monitor the Japanese camp stronghold, and at the same time ordered the regiments to disperse the guerrilla units to quickly assemble in the camp. Yi Liangpin quickly formulated two sets of plans:
The first is to storm the camp. However, the Japanese army has been operating here for a long time, building strong fortifications, and the strong attack will inevitably produce great sacrifices, and it is not easy to grasp. The second is to rescue in the middle of the escort, so that although casualties can be reduced, it is uncertain whether the Japanese army will escort Liu Zhijian away, when he will leave, and where he will go.
It is said that after Liu Zhijian was captured, the Japanese army locked him up in the homes of ordinary people, neither helping him to heal nor giving him food. The next day a Japanese soldier came to interrogate, "Which unit are you?" Liu Zhijian looked at me angrily and said, "You shoot me, I have nothing to say." ”
Liu Zhijian and Chen Zaidao
The Japanese army saw that he did not cooperate, and took out a volume of archives to compare page by page. Liu Zhijian glanced at it and was shocked to find that the booklet turned out to be a resume sheet of cadres of the Ji'nan Military Region, and there were photos attached to it. Mr. Liu also saw his name, but he didn't post a photo on that page.
As early as the Xi'an incident, the organization explained that it might transfer him to do intelligence work and ask him not to take pictures, so Liu Zhijian had not taken a photo for several years. The Japanese army searched repeatedly and could not find anyone who looked like Liu Zhijian, but still did not die, and called a person from outside the door to identify.
When Liu Zhijian saw that he was an acquaintance,Zhao Dingxin, a cadre of the Anti-Japanese Cultural Salvation Association in southern Hebei, he immediately glanced at him and signaled him not to reveal his identity. It turned out that Zhao Dingxin had been captured for more than ten days, but his identity had not been revealed, and the Japanese army saw that he was honest and honest and asked him to stay and do some work. After Zhao Dingxin reported to the Organization, the Organization instructed him to lurk in the Japanese puppet army.
Zhao Dingxin told the Japanese army that he did not know this person, and the Japanese army asked him to take care of the wounded Liu Zhijian. At that time, Liu Zhijian was still holding the determination to die, and Zhao Dingxin comforted him: "I can contact the organization, and now I have to find a way to delay time, and I believe that the organization will definitely find a way to rescue." ”
Hearing these words, Liu Zhijian felt a little comforted, he thought that the Japanese army was maiming the masses of the people, and it would not be a pity that the Japanese army would die in vain without driving the Japanese army out of the country, and he was determined to fight the Japanese army to the end and wait for the organization to rescue him.
No matter how the Japanese army interrogated him, Liu Zhijian never revealed his identity. As a political work cadre, he often went to the masses of the people to carry out activities, and many ordinary people in the local area knew him, but no one told the Japanese army his identity.
Zhao Dingxin reported Liu Zhijian's situation to the sixth division, and the sixth division learned from other sources that the Japanese army was preparing to send Liu Zhijian to Dezhou on the route: Zaoqiang - Hengshui - Dezhou. Yi Pinliang decided to rescue Liu Zhijian on the way, and he mobilized three regiments to set up 6 blockade lines, and the troops led by Chu Daming ambushed in a village that the Japanese army had to pass.
On the morning of the 20th, the Japanese army carried Liu Zhijian to the ox cart and prepared to escort him to Texas. Without knowing Liu Zhijian's true identity, they were escorted by only a squadron leader with 30 Japanese troops and 30 puppet troops. Not far from the camp, Liu Zhijian saw people on bicycles on the road, and he knew that this was a reconnaissance officer of the Eighth Route Army.
At this time, several puppet soldiers around Liu Zhijian also said to him: "We will try to save you out." Another person gave Liu Zhijian cigarettes and yen, but Liu Zhijian did not pick them up, but said: "If our troops come to the rescue, I hope you will not shoot or shoot in the air." ”
The convoy walked out of the 5-mile road and came to a small village, which was the ambush area of the Eighth Route Army. Suddenly, gunshots rang out on both sides of the road, and the Japanese immediately climbed into the ditch next to the road to return fire. Liu Zhijian saw the situation and asked the people who drove the ox cart to immediately turn around and turn back, and after walking out of the road for more than a mile, the rescue troops caught up.
Eighth Route Army (stills)
The Japanese army was eventually annihilated, and Liu Zhijian was sent to the military station after escaping from danger, where doctors performed surgery to remove the warheads from the leg bones. Because the Japanese army still continued to "sweep" the base area, Liu Zhijian, who was recuperating from his wounds, could only continue to transfer, coupled with the lack of medicine at that time.
In order to make it recover faster, the troops arranged for him to go to the home of Han Yinting, the leader of the puppet army brigade in Yongnian County, to recuperate his wounds.
Han Yinting was also an internal line installed by the Eighth Route Army into the enemy camp, and he took meticulous care of Liu Zhijian. Later, Liu Zhijian was sent to Yan'an for treatment, and after recovering from his injuries, Liu Zhijian continued to be active on the battlefield.
In 1955, when the whole army was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. He has successively served as the first secretary of the party committee of the Kunming Military Region and the director of the Platon Political College of the People's Liberation Army.
Seeing the end, many people may not understand that the puppet army usually plays for the tiger, so why does the puppet army of the Ji'nan Military Region always face the Eighth Route Army? In fact, this is closely related to the political work of the Eighth Route Army.
According to Song Renqian's recollection, at that time, the Political Department of the Ji'nan Military Region set up an enemy engineering department to specialize in puppet army work, and there were more than a thousand full-time enemy personnel in the military region, forming a set of strict systems. In addition to sending people into enemy camps and daily propaganda, the Ji'nan Military Region has many special practices.
For example, the "Remember black and red dots" and the "Conscience Check" campaign. When the Eighth Route Army publicized to the puppet army, it clearly informed them that there were "records of good and evil" and "life and death books" for everyone, and those who did good deeds would draw a red dot, and those who did bad deeds would draw a black dot. A "great examination of conscience" will be carried out within a certain period of time.
Those with more red dots will be treated leniently, and those with more black dots will be dealt with severely.
In his later years, Liu Zhijian was playing tai chi
This trick is very useful for the puppet army, who are either caught as puppet soldiers or eat mixed food and do not want to fight for the Japanese. They were afraid that the Eighth Route Army would find themselves to "settle the general ledger" and wanted to leave a back road for themselves, so more and more people reported to the Eighth Route Army.
According to relevant historical statistics, in the three months of August, September, and October 1942, there were 136 puppet troops in the first sub-district of the Ji'nan Military Region alone, and more than 3,000 puppet troops escaped.
When summing up his escape from danger, Liu Zhijian also believed that in addition to Liu Deng's strict order to rescue him with all his might and the heroic fighting of the soldiers, there was another important reason -- the enemy engineering work of our army was done well, so that many officers and men of the puppet army "had people in the heart of Cao Ying" and tried to help them escape from danger.
Political work has always been a great magic weapon for our army to win victories. As early as 1937, Chairman Mao put forward three major principles for our army's political work: the unity of officers and soldiers, the unity of the army and the people, and the disintegration of the enemy army. These three principles were widely used during the revolutionary period and contributed a powerful impetus to uniting the forces of all strata and ensuring the ultimate victory of the revolution.
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