Xu Yongchang, born in 1912 in Xinchang County, Zhejiang Province, was also a poor child when he was a child.
Old photo of Zhejiang in the Republic of China
Xu Yongchang's mother died when he was 3 years old, and his father died when he was 14 years old. After losing his parents, his life became more and more difficult, and he could only help people herd cattle and sheep for a living. Among the cattle herders, Xu Yongchang is relatively short, but he is stubborn and likes to fight with people. Everyone thought he was very aggressive, so they called him Little, which became his nickname in the future.
One day, the little rooster went up the mountain to cut firewood and met a bandit leader named Sun Lipeng. Sun Libiao saw that the little rooster was more clever, so he took out a little money and asked him to go down the mountain to buy some wine and meat. The little rooster had already heard of Sun Lipeng's name and went happily. Sun Libiao watched this child do things liso, and often let him go down the mountain to do things in the future.
At the age of 16, the helpless little rooster officially entered the mountains as a bandit. He was bold, flexible, and soon developed a good marksmanship. In 1932, when the little rooster was 20 years old, Sun Lipian was accidentally arrested and died in prison. More than 20 bandits unanimously elected the little rooster as the boss, and led the brothers to continue to rob the house.
The little is bold and has a good brain. He felt that it would be difficult for these small teams of twenty or thirty people to develop, and even the local vigilante groups could not be defeated, and perhaps they would be wiped out one day. Therefore, we must find a way to expand the scale, and we must first find a backer.
Therefore, the little rooster specially went to visit the Fenghua celebrity Chen Chuanqing, and recognized Song Mengguo as a dry father. These two men were well-known local gentry and had great power. The little rooster led the team to save money and pay tribute to the two patrons with the stolen belongings. The two gentry looked at each other, and this young man was very sensible and worth helping.
So, with the help of the two gentry, the little got a lot of weapons and ammunition, developed the team, and befriended more landlord gentry. By 1937, the little rooster had more than 100 people under his command, fully armed and equipped, and very strong in combat effectiveness.
The little rooster has done many evil deeds and harmed the people in the vicinity.
Local gentry
The people of Xinchang, Fenghua, Ninghai and other places have become the targets of robbery by small roosters. Because there are landlords and gentry as patrons, the little rooster has no scruples, killing people and setting fires, robbing and kidnapping tickets, and daring to do anything bad. He snatched three beautiful women one after another, made himself an aunt and wife, and lived a life of spending time and drinking.
In just a few years, the little rooster has become a famous bandit leader in Zhejiang, and the security forces in various counties regard him as the number one enemy. However, several large-scale crackdowns on bandits failed to catch the little. In May 1940, the helpless Zhejiang provincial government could only instruct Yu Jimin, the county magistrate of Yin County, to raise the little rooster.
The Yu family is a large clan in Fenghua City, with great power, Yu Jimin personally went out on horseback, and the little rooster earned enough face and happily accepted Zhao'an. On May 6 of that year, Yu Jimin personally inspected the team of the little rooster, and the little rooster was appointed as the leader of the independent detachment of the Ningbo Self-Defense Corps. In order to further stabilize him, Yu Jimin quickly promoted Xiao Xiongji to the captain of the independent squadron and led their original squad to eat the salary.
In the following years, the little was a smooth sailing, and his team continued to expand. After the Surrender of the Japanese Army, the little rooster led the team to garrison the city of Ningbo, serving as the deputy captain of the major. After turning from bandit to soldier, the little rooster did not become a good man, he felt that the military salary was not squandered enough, or secretly led the team out to rob the kidnapping ticket.
During the period of time when Ninghai was stationed, the little rooster also controlled the bandits nearby, so that they could rob boldly and sit on the ground and share the booty. The people everywhere could not bear it and complained to Yu Jimin many times, but Yu Jimin was very partial to the little rooster, and pieces of paper were thrown into the trash can.
At the end of 1948, Xiao Xiongji personally led the team, tied up a rich merchant in Ningbo City, and took him to Ninghai Zhangshu Village and locked him up. The rich merchant raised a large amount of gold to redeem the man, and the little rooster gave most of the gold to Yu Jimin. After currying favor with his superiors, the little rooster was even more unscrupulous, and the people dared to be angry and dare not speak.
In April 1949, a million male divisions of the People's Liberation Army crossed the river, and the good life of the little rooster came to an end.
Bandits in film and television dramas
In order to make a final resistance, Xiao Xiongji was ordered to recruit a large number of rogue bandits and reorganize them into the second battalion of the Zhejiang Eastern Travel Bureau's special task force, and in May, he led the team to flee to Zhoushan with Yu Jimin.
Three months later, the Second Regiment of the Ningbo Garrison of the People's Liberation Army and other bandit suppression units began to suppress bandits in the Fenghua area. Many bandits entrenched in this area were defeated one after another. The little rooster that followed Yu Jimin to Zhoushan did not know these situations, and was bent on fighting back and making meritorious achievements.
In October, a man named Xu Wenzhong found the little. Xu Wenzhong was the commander of the so-called "Southeast Anti-Communist Salvation Army Advance Detachment", the team had been beaten to pieces, this time it was difficult to escape to Zhoushan, and immediately came to visit the little rooster. Xu Wenzhong said that the teams that remained played very well, the situation was gratifying, and if they took the team back now, they would definitely be able to do a big cause!
When the little rooster heard this, he was very excited and immediately asked Yu Jimin for a battle. Yu Jimin then appointed him as the lieutenant colonel of the "Zhejiang East Branch Assault Independent Brigade" and deputy county magistrate of Fenghua County, and led the team back to the Siming Mountains to gain a firm foothold and cooperate with the counterattack on the mainland. Soon, with 108 of his men, a radio station, and various "bills" for collecting money and grain, he set out from Zhoushan at night and landed in a village in Ninghai in the early morning of the next day.
The village was home to the little rooster's mother-in-law, so he stopped by to visit. As a result, his brother-in-law Lin Guanxing also took the opportunity to join the bandit gang. After that, the little rooster led the team into the deep mountains and began to carry out activities in the mountainous countryside around Ninghai, Fenghua and Xinchang.
The little rooster has been wandering in the mountains for many years, has rich experience, and is good at hiding. While leading people to grab grain and distribute money, he also contacted other bandits who were scattered to expand his power. Soon, the little rooster sent news to the outside world that he was going to attack the county seat of Ninghai.
The bandit troops were worried that they could not find any trace of the little rooster, and this was good, and soon intelligence came. In mid-December, based on information provided by the masses, the bandit troops found the old nest where the little was entrenched. As soon as the battle began, the little rooster led the team to escape deep into the mountains. This time, a bandit was killed and five were captured, although the little suffered little loss, but it fully exposed the weak combat effectiveness of the bandit team, and the little was very angry.
The team was reorganized, and the little was ready to fight guerrilla for a long time.
Bandit troops
This time the battle was lost, and the little rooster analyzed the reasons for the defeat, thinking that some people were too timid and afraid of things. Therefore, he reorganized the team, and those who did not dare to move when they fought, who were timid and fearful and liked to escape, were all driven out of the team. In addition, the little rooster knew that he could not defeat the bandit troops, so he decided to fight a guerrilla war.
Therefore, the bandit team hid in the mountains during the day and came out again at night. For the time being, I did not consider hitting the county seat, but mainly wandered in a few mountain villages, grabbing grain while spreading rumors that the Kuomintang would soon return and that the Third World War was about to break out. The common people did not know whether it was true or not, which made people panic, and when the bandit troops looked at it, this little rooster was now very rampant, and they had to give him some color to see.
Therefore, in January 1950, together with the county brigade and the public security bureau, the anti-bandit unit put forward the slogan of catching the little alive and going home for the New Year and began to go into the mountains to suppress the bandits. As soon as the little rooster heard the news, he quickly led the team into the deep mountains and hid. It was also a coincidence that there was a small leader under him named Wang Jinqi, who sneaked down the mountain and returned home to see his wife. The two of them have not seen each other for a long time, sitting together to discuss, always hiding in the mountains is not a way, surrender.
As a result, Wang Jinqi directly surrendered to the bandit troops. Under his leadership, the People's Liberation Army and the militia went into the mountains together and found the old nest of the little rooster. After a fierce battle, the little rooster suffered heavy losses and ran away with the remnants of his men...
Don't look at the little running around, but his ability is still very strong. In June 1950, he gathered a group of scattered bandits, with more than a hundred under his command. After that, he divided the team into several groups, some disguised as civilians, and went to spy on intelligence near the location of the bandit troops. Some of them contacted the old landlord gentry to win their support. The rest sneak around, killing the masses and grassroots cadres and snatching all kinds of supplies.
For example, on the evening of June 27, the Xiaoxiong Chicken Bandit Gang secretly came to Fenghua Yantou Township, violently strafed the township government with machine guns, and also killed Mao Gongcun, the clerk of the Yantou Village Farmers' Association; two days later, the bandits sneaked into Dakeng Village and killed Mao Laosan, Mao Zhonghuo, and other activists of the Peasants' Association; on June 30, Xiaoxiong chicken gathered a large number of bandits, surrounded Zhangjiache Village, killed the militia captain and many other people, and burned 12 houses; in mid-July, they intercepted trucks and buses on the Fengxin Highway, robbed goods and passengers' money...
In October, the third battalion of the Second Regiment of the Ningbo Garrison was ordered to eliminate the small bandit gang.
The anti-bandit forces propagate the policy
The little cocks are very harmful, but they are also very cunning, and they go around at night and run when they are finished. Cooking with charcoal fire during the day, no smoke is difficult to track. Usually, the small leader personally put up the sentry, found that the abnormal situation immediately shifted, and ran very fast.
The anti-bandit troops carefully analyzed the characteristics of the small gang and decided to mobilize the masses of the people to participate. The first is to visit each village to interview, publicize the policy, and train the militia. Then hold a symposium and a villagers' meeting, so that those who are associated with the little rooster can take the initiative to stand up and admit their mistakes and draw a line with the bandits.
As a result, soon some people voluntarily handed in guns and bullets, admitting that they had helped the bandits. Some of the bandits' relatives began to go up the mountain to find their relatives and persuade them to turn themselves in. The little rooster never expected that in just over a month, many of his subordinates would secretly go down the mountain and surrender.
During the Spring Festival in 1951, heavy snow fell, and the bandit suppression troops, with the cooperation of the militia, repeatedly went into the mountains to search and suppress. Lin Guanxing, the brother-in-law of the little rooster, was also killed... At the side of the little rooster, there were soon only four bandits left, their food had been exhausted, and they did not dare to go down the mountain to rob, so they had to hide everywhere.
One day, the little rooster hid under the rock pit Dragon King Temple to roast the fire, and was found by a rehabilitated bandit, who immediately reported it to the bandit troops. The third company reconnaissance squad leader Ji Tianqing led a squad of fighters to rush over and directly strafe with submachine guns, and the little was injured in the ankle and fled into the mountains.
On February 14, several militiamen entered the mountain to search and suddenly found a series of footprints. So they chased all the way along the footprints, and as they walked, the footprints in the snow suddenly disappeared. Strange, did the little fly? At this moment, the hounds suddenly became excited and barked in the opposite direction, and several militiamen quickly chased after them, and found that there seemed to be someone in the bushes not far away. It turned out that the little rooster deliberately walked backwards for a while, trying to confuse the bandit troops.
Several militiamen knew that the little rooster must be hiding in the bushes, so they raised their guns and shot them. After a burst of gunfire, there was no movement in the bushes, and when the militia looked over, the little and his guards were killed. As for the other two bandits, the little rooster sent them down the mountain to get food, and within a few days they were also found, one was killed and one was arrested.
The little gang was so completely annihilated. In fact, there are indeed many bandits like little roosters who hide in the mountains to fight guerrillas. In order to deal with them, the bandit troops tried their best and sacrificed many soldiers. Therefore, it was not easy to suppress bandits in that era.