The 265th Regiment of the Red Fourth Front, a regiment specially trained in night combat, is known for being good at night combat, known as the "Night Tiger Regiment", which can be said to be a special force during the revolutionary war. The regiment belonged to the 88th Division of the Red 30th Army (political commissar Zheng Weishan and division commander Xiong Houfa) led by Li Xiannian and Cheng Shicai, and the regimental commander was Zou Fengming. Next, let's talk about the story of the "Night Tiger Regiment".
1. Division commander Wang Lieshan was killed, and Cheng Shicai decided to train the night combat troops
On December 15, 1933, the fog in Daxian County, Sichuan Province, the visibility was very low, and suddenly, the Red 88th Division's Lei Yinpu position was full of gunfire, and the division commander Wang Lieshan immediately organized troops to counterattack. It turned out that Liu Xiang's Fifth Army had forced the crossing of the Zhou River under the cover of thick fog and launched a surprise attack on our Red 88th Division. The battle continued until the evening, because the enemy attack was too fierce, the Red 88th Division was forced to retreat to Shigu Village, and the division commander Wang Lieshan was killed on the spot by a bullet while patrolling the front line.
The division commander was sacrificed, the Red 88th Division fell into great sorrow, and the successor division commander, Cheng Shicai, deeply absorbed the lessons of this surprise attack by the enemy and decided to take the 265th Regiment as the main body to train the troops who had been specially carrying out raid operations at night. Cheng Shicai ordered Zou Fengming, commander of the 265th Regiment, to immediately organize troops and carry out targeted night combat training.
Cheng Shicai
In order to march at night without making a sound, the soldiers of the 265th Regiment changed into soft-soled cloth shoes, and passing through the village at night could make people not know that dogs did not bark. The warriors made bamboo whistles that could make a shrill sound that could be heard even in the dark of the night when the guns were firing in unison. In order to facilitate night contact, the warriors invented the "bamboo tube signal", which cut a section of bamboo tubes one end at a time, inserted a coarse incense stick in the middle, lit the incense head, and made contact. The fighters also conducted night shooting training, and lighted torches could be extinguished within 100 meters. In order to adapt to the terrain of northern Sichuan, the warriors learned to climb the cliffs with human ladders and ropes.
After a period of reorganization, the 265th Regiment's ability to carry out night raids was significantly enhanced, and it repeatedly made military achievements in the "Six-Way Siege" against Liu Xiang. At the post-war commendation meeting, the 265th Regiment of the Red 88th Division was awarded the honorary title of "Night Tiger". Since then, the 265th Regiment has had a resounding name "Night Tiger Regiment".
2. "Night Tiger" eats "King Tiger"
In February 1935, the Red Fourth Front launched the Southern Shaanxi Campaign. The 49th Brigade Headquarters of the 17th Division of the Kuomintang Army in Weinan was a strong brigade, and the brigade commander Wang Yiwu fought bravely and fiercely, often holding a large knife and going into battle shirtless, and was nicknamed "Wang Tiger", and the 49th Brigade was called "Tiger Brigade".
Wang Yiwu had long wanted to compete with the Red Army, and once uttered a wild remark: "If I meet the Red Army, I will eat one by one." "It just so happens that the Red 88th Division has a "night tiger" regiment, "tiger" versus "tiger", to see who is more powerful.
After the enemy Liu Wenbo's brigade was defeated by the Red Army, Wang Yiwu and his "Tiger Brigade" preemptively occupied Xinpu Bay and Erlang Mountain in front of the Red Army.
Erlang Mountain is a natural barrier to the western hanzhong plain. Wang Yiwu was indeed not an idle man, and he took advantage of the steep and favorable terrain of the Erlang Mountains to set up ambushes in the mountains and forests on both sides, preparing to wait for the Red Army to enter the ambush circle.
Zheng Weishan, political commissar of the Red 88th Division, ordered the Red 265th Regiment to occupy Erlang Mountain in the form of a night raid and eliminate Wang Yiwu's 49th Brigade. During the period of caution, Zheng Weishan personally led the 265th Regiment as a surprise force, and the main force of the Red Army followed.
It was late at night, and the "Night Tiger" began to move. Regiment commander Zou Fengming and political commissar Huang Yingxiang each took a battalion, quietly touched the main peak from the ridges on both sides of Erlang Mountain, and suddenly launched an attack on the defending enemy.
After all, Wang Yiwu had been in the battlefield for a long time, and he was not in danger, so he immediately organized troops to counterattack.
At this time, Zheng Weishan led his troops to advance from the front facing the main peak of Erlang Mountain, and just touched the mountainside, and was suddenly attacked by the enemy. Here were the two battalions arranged by Wang Yiwu.
At this time, the 265th Regiment fought down from the mountain, the 263rd Regiment blossomed from the mountainside, and the rest of the troops surrounded from the flanks, forming a taishan crushing force against the enemy's 49th Brigade. The night was dark and dreary, the enemy could not distinguish the direction, only felt that there were Red Army everywhere, and could only scatter and flee for their lives. Wang Yiwu personally led the supervision team to supervise the battle, but to no avail.
The sky was slightly bright, the main force of the Red 30 Army attacked in full swing, and Wang Yiwu saw that the general trend had gone, and fled by the chaos. The Night Tiger ate the King Tiger.
3. The "Night Tiger" attacked the Water Mill Pass at night, and the blood was on the mountain
In October 1936, the Western Route Army began to conquer the Hexi Corridor, and the 265th Regiment accompanied the Red 30th Army.
Shuimoguan is a village located in the west of Yongchang County, because of its important geographical location, so it is called "Guan". Here was a cavalry regiment of the "Majia Army" stationed. The 265th Regiment received orders to attack Shuimo Pass at night.
At 2:00 a.m. on December 4, the soldiers of the 265th Regiment set out, and in the darkness of the night, they could not see their fingers, and in order to avoid accidental injury, the soldiers had a white cloth strip on their arm. At night march, the "bamboo tube signal" invented by the soldiers came in handy, after lighting the incense head, the mouth of the bamboo tube was pointed at the back, and the soldiers behind could see the highlights, and they would not be left behind if they followed the highlights.
The soldiers of the 265th Regiment quietly came to Shuimo Pass, and the enemy slept soundly, using the roar of the warhorse as a cover to quickly infiltrate the village. At this time, the 263rd Regiment of the Red 88th Division also followed. The two regiments discussed, one firing a gun at the east end of the village and the other at the west end of the village.
The enemy was flustered, did not understand what was going on, could not distinguish between the enemy and us, and fought to the east from the west and to the west, and for a time the sound of the cannon rumbled. After fighting for more than half an hour, the enemy could clearly see that he was hitting his own people. At this time, the Red Army was in the shadows, and immediately attacked back and forth, and a fierce blow rushed, and all the cavalry regiments of more than 600 people of the "Majia Army" were annihilated. The Night Tigers were a great victory.
The battle became more and more unfavorable to the Western Route Army, and after moving to the Ni family camp, materials were extremely scarce, and food and ammunition became a major problem. After reconnaissance, the "Ma Jiajun" stored a large amount of arms in Leijiatun. Taking advantage of the night, the 265th Regiment sent a small detachment of more than twenty people to climb over the wall and successfully blew up the enemy's military treasury.
The Western Route Army fought a bloody battle all the way, and the troops suffered heavy losses and were forced to move to the Qilian Mountains. Liyuankou is a mountain pass leading to the inland of Qilian Mountain, and has always been a place where soldiers and families must fight. In order to cover the troops to go up the mountain, Chen Haisong, the political commissar of the Red Ninth Army, died heroically, and several regiments of the Red 30th Army were also greatly reduced, and the generals of the 265th Regiment were responsible for covering the headquarters and the female Red Army fighters withdrew first.
At this time, there were only more than 200 people left in the 265 regiment, and everyone used the stones on the mountain as a cover to block the enemy on the spot, and during the battle, the regimental commander Zou Fengming was sacrificed, and the political commissar Huang Yingxiang and the successor regimental commander Zhou Hongkun led the soldiers to resolutely block the enemy. The soldiers fought and retreated, the 263rd Regiment and the 264th Regiment were exhausted one after another, the troops were still three or four miles away from the Kanglong Temple, and the enemy caught up with them again. Cheng Shicai and Zheng Weishan ordered the 265th Regiment to block the pursuing enemy.
Saying that it is a blockade is actually a bayonet fight, because there are few bullets left, and more than 200 people fight with the "MaJia Army" that is swarming, and everyone knows what this means. However, none of the soldiers of the 265th Regiment retreated, and they struggled until dusk, and most of the more than two hundred people were killed. Zheng Weishan looked at several soldiers around him, all of whom were wounded, and could only retreat into a mess of rocks nearby. At this point, the hero's "Night Tiger Regiment" will also be iced.
In 1982, Zheng Weishan, who was already the commander of the Lanzhou Military Region, recalled this history and always said sadly that only about two dozen people broke out at that time, most of them died on the Qilian Mountain, poor they were very young at that time, many of them were teenage dolls!