During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army, as an important anti-Japanese armed force behind enemy lines, made great contributions to the victory of the War of Resistance. However, in the harsh struggle against the ground, some officers did not endure the test, but chose to defect to the enemy, and Zhang Shaodong, commander of the 687th Regiment of the 115th Division, was one of them.
Zhang Shaodong joined the Red Army in 1930 and served as a company commander, battalion commander, and regimental commander of the Red 25th Army. In the struggle against the enemy in the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region, Zhang Shaodong made many military achievements and was a major general under Xu Haidong, commander of the Red 25th Army. After the Long March of the Red 25th Army, Zhang Shaodong served as the commander of the 75th Division of the Red 15th Army and the commander of the 73rd Division. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Shaodong served as the commander of the 687th Regiment of the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, the brigade commander Xu Haidong, and the deputy brigade commander Huang Kecheng. At that time, there were only two regiments under the command of the 344th Brigade, namely the 687th Regiment and the 688th Regiment, and there were only four regimental-level units in the entire 115th Division.
In the Battle of Pingxingguan launched by the 115th Division in 1937, Zhang Shaodong led the 687th Regiment to inflict heavy damage on the Japanese army and cut off the rear road of the Japanese army. After that, the various units of the 344th Brigade fought several battles in the northeast of Jin, although they caused great casualties to the Japanese army, but their own casualties were also very large, and finally the 687th Regiment of the 344th Brigade went to Pingshan, Hebei to rest.
After making many meritorious contributions, Zhang Shaodong and his chief of staff Lan Guoqing walked very closely, although Zhang Shaodong was a fierce general, fighting a very heroic battle, but the organizational discipline was not strong, and his chief of staff Lan Guoqing was a person who ate, drank, gambled, and did nothing wrong. After the two of them had been together for a long time, coupled with the guerrilla warfare of the Eighth Route Army, which gave the commanders and fighters of each unit a strong sense of autonomy, the two of them began to become lawless. Zhang Shaodong and Lan Guoqing undermined the anti-Japanese national united front policy, and on the pretext of cracking down on local tycoons, robbed local rich merchants everywhere and sought private interests for themselves. In addition, Zhang Shaodong also visited the flower building with Lan Guoqing and hooked up with the daughter of a landlord.
After a long time, Zhang Shaodong became more and more dissatisfied with his current situation, feeling that the Eighth Route Army was too bitter, eating badly and sleeping well, and his life was in danger at any time. Finally, the organization also learned about Zhang Shaodong's situation, and after the brigade headquarters learned of his situation, it decided to rectify the team. However, at this time, the 344th Brigade suddenly received orders and was ordered to enter the southeast of Jin to cooperate with the 129th Division to resist the enemy's 9th Road siege. Xu Haidong and Huang Kecheng led the first echelon of 688 and 689 regiments into the area around Xiyang, and the 687 regiment of the second echelon was stationed behind the two units.
One night, Zhang Shaodong took more than 200 officers and men with guns to survey the terrain, and while surveying the terrain, Zhang Shaodong broke out of his plan and wanted to defect. At that time, except for Zhang Shaodong and his chief of staff Lan Guoqing, no one thought that he would say this. Tian Shouyao, deputy regimental commander, and Wu Xinquan, political commissar of the regiment, stood up on the spot to oppose tian Shouyao, who was only 23 years old at the time, because he had charged forward in many days of repeated battles and had a certain prestige in the regiment, and his statement struck zhang Shaodong and Lan Guoqing's defection on the spot. All the political work cadres present at the time also made it clear that they would not go with Zhang Shaodong.
Zhang Shaodong originally thought that he could pull away a regiment of defections, but in the end he only took with him the chief of staff Lan Guoqing and a battalion commander he had promoted, as well as several company platoon commanders. At that time, Xu Haidong, the commander of the 344th Brigade, heard the news, was so angry that he vomited blood on the spot, almost fainted, and ordered Wu Xinquan, the political commissar of the regiment, to chase these traitors with a battalion of soldiers and horses, but did not catch up. After Zhang Lan and the two defected, Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, ordered the whole regiment of the 687th Regiment to be reorganized, and the deputy regimental commander Tian Shouyao was promoted to regimental commander.