After the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to the request of the Muzzle of Gun to unite with the outside world and jointly resist Japan, and reorganized the Red Army into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and later into the Eighteenth Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army. At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, three divisions of the Eighth Route Army achieved great victories one after another, with the 115th Division annihilating more than 1,000 Japanese troops at Pingxingguan, the 120th Division blowing up more than 300 Japanese cars and capturing a large number of supplies at Yanmen Pass, and the 129th Division achieving a great victory at Yangmingbao.
The victories of these three divisions were all heartened by the people of the whole country, but among the three victories of the Eighth Route Army, the most influential was the Battle of Yangmingbao, which dealt a huge blow to the Japanese army. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, although the Kuomintang Air Force put up fierce resistance, due to the difference in strength from the Japanese army, it could not play much of a role in the later period, and the Japanese aviation corps completely grasped the air supremacy of the Chinese battlefield, and wanted to bomb where to bomb, causing great casualties to the Chinese army.
During the Battle of Xinkou, the Eighth Route Army, the Jin Sui Army, and Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army gathered hundreds of thousands of troops to fight the Japanese army, but due to the disparity in strength, the losses were very heavy. The Japanese warplanes also posed a great threat to the Chinese army, because there was no air defense weapon, when the Kuomintang army engaged in frontal combat with the Japanese army, the Japanese aircraft dared to carry the nationalist position to bomb, which was a great threat. Under these circumstances, the Eighth Route Army was preparing to blow up the rear base of the Japanese army, Yangmingbao Airfield.
The battle was carried out by the 769th Regiment of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and the commander of the 769th Regiment, Chen Xilian, was only 22 years old at the time. On October 16, 1937, Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief, personally issued an order to Chen Xilian, commander of the 769th Regiment, asking the unit to go deep behind the enemy's rear to find fighters and blow up the planes at Yangmingbao Airport.
There were 24 Japanese fighters at Yangmingbao Airport, as well as more than 200 guards and logistics units. In order to win this battle, Chen Xilian found someone in advance to popularize the knowledge of aircraft to the officers and men of the unit, and practiced day and night how to blow up the Japanese fighters. In the end, Chen Xilian decided to attack the airfield at night, and deployed the third battalion to take on the attack mission, the first battalion to block the Japanese army in Chengxian County, and the second battalion as the regimental reserve. On the evening of the 18th, the various units of the 769th Regiment began to enter the predetermined positions, and Chen Xilian and Zhao Chongde, the commander of the third battalion, secretly lurked to the Japanese airfield to ambush.
On the night of the 19th, Zhao Chongde led three battalions of commandos to secretly enter the airport, and when there were still 30 meters away from the plane, the commando team was found by Japanese sentries. Zhao Chongde immediately commanded the commando team to throw grenades at the Japanese army, and the Japanese guards counterattacked wildly, and the two sides also engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat. After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the officers and men of the three battalions annihilated hundreds of Japanese troops and destroyed 24 aircraft at the cost of more than 30 casualties, but Zhao Chongde, commander of the third battalion of the 769 regiment, was unfortunately shot in the battle and died heroically.
After the Battle of Yangmingbao, Chiang Kai-shek personally asked the Nanjing Military Commission to allocate 20,000 oceans to the 769th Regiment as a reward. At that time, after the masses across the country heard about this great victory, they also donated money one after another, and the masses in northern Shaanxi, Taiyuan, Shanghai and other places raised another 27,500 yuan to reward the 769 regiment.