Everyone is naturally familiar with the term "people's children and soldiers", but how did the word come about? Why did it become synonymous with the People's Liberation Army?
In fact, when this word is mentioned, it is necessary to mention the 718th Regiment of the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, that is, Luo Zhang, the first political commissar of the famous "Pingshan Regiment" and the founding major general.
Among the many generals of our army, Luo Zhang is the best at directly penetrating the enemy's headquarters and implementing beheading tactics, so he can often win more with less. During the Long March, he commanded 1 battalion as the sharp knife of the Red 6Th Army, repeatedly breaking through the encirclement and interception of the superior enemy army, and fighting many victorious battles. In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in the battle against the elite Japanese army on the frontal battlefield, he pioneered the exemplary example of forcing the enemy's front line back to the position where the attack was launched; in the battle of thousands of miles south of the jiangnan, he once destroyed 4 Japanese tanks and armored vehicles, creating an example of our army's victory over the enemy's armored units with infantry firearms in the War of Resistance. For this reason, his veteran leader, Wang Zhen, who was then the commander of the 359th Brigade, once praised him as a tough man who did not want to die; Nie Rongzhen, commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, also praised the troops he commanded as "the sons and daughters of the Taihang Mountain Iron". He was not only a good hand at fighting wars, but also a master at farming; in the large-scale production movement in Yan'an, chairman Mao Zedong gladly inscribed an award for him to "lead by example."
Founding Major General Luo Zhang
Luo Zhang was born in 1905 to a poor peasant family in Wanzai County, Jiangxi Province, and suffered all kinds of hardships from an early age.
In 1925, the Communist Party of China began to mobilize the workers and peasants in Jiangxi to carry out various forms of struggle to win the rights and interests of the workers and peasants. Luo Zhang, who was only 20 years old, also joined the Red Union that year, because of his outstanding performance and very bravery, he was quickly elected as the captain of the Red Guard.
After the defeat of the Great Revolution, the reactionary warlords colluded with the landlords and armed forces to carry out crazy revenge on the workers and peasants in Jiangxi. Undaunted by the White Terror, Luo Zhang organized a guerrilla group in February 1928, with himself as its leader, to fight back against the enemy's counter-revolutionary massacre with armed struggle.
The Red Army came to prominence after the Long March
In April 1929, his guerrillas were incorporated into the Fifth Red Army, and in November of the same year he honorably joined the Communist Party of China.
Luo Zhang then successively served as a company party representative in the independent 1st Division of the Xianggan Military Region, a company instructor and battalion commander of the Red 6th Army, and participated in the anti-encirclement and suppression struggle in the Xiang'egan, Xianggan, and Xiang'echuan Qiansu districts.
In August 1934, due to the influence of the erroneous line of the left, the Central Soviet Region fell into an extremely passive situation in the battle against the Fifth Encirclement and Suppression, and as the enemy's encirclement was shrinking day by day, the main force of the Red Army was already in a very difficult situation.
In order to get rid of the passive situation, the Central Military Commission ordered the Red 6th Army in the Xianggan Soviet Region to withdraw from the base area and carry out a western expedition to explore the way for the upcoming strategic shift of the Central Red Army.
Nearly 10,000 Red Army soldiers of the Red 6th Army, under the command of the central representative Ren Bishi, the regimental commander Xiao Ke, and the political commissar Wang Zhen, left the Soviet area and set out from Xinjiangkou and other places in Suichuan, Jiangxi province on August 7, kicking off the prelude to the Red Army's Long March.
Under the pressure of the superior enemy's step by step, our army quickly broke through the enemy blockade line on the suichuan and Wudoujiang lines with a forced army, and finally threw off the enemy's pursuit, and on October 24, reached Muhuang in Yinjiang County, Qiandong Province, and met the Red 3rd Army (later reorganized into the Red 2nd Army) led by Comrade He Long.
The commanders of the Red 6 Corps took a group photo, and the fourth person from right was political commissar Wang Zhen
After the Central Red Army began the Long March, the Red 2nd and 6th Armies, which were isolated in the Qiansu District of the Xiang'eChuan River, launched a fierce offensive against the enemy in order to contain the Xiang Army and prevent it from participating in the interception of the Central Red Army.
From the end of 1934 to the beginning of 1935, the Red Army successively captured the three county towns of Yongshun, Dayong and Sangzhi, forcing the Hunan warlord He Jian to frequently appeal to Chiang Kai-shek.
Chiang Kai-shek quickly mobilized 200,000 troops, and first surrounded the Qiansu district of Xiang'echuan with bunker tactics, and then took it step by step in an attempt to repeat the scene of the five encirclements and suppressions of the Central Soviet Region.
Faced with the siege of the enemy's superior forces, Comrade Mao Zedong, who had re-established his leading position in the whole party and the whole army at the Zunyi Conference, telegraphed the leaders of the Red 2 and 6 Armies in February 1935, asking them to concentrate their forces, select the enemy's weak points, and carry out various blows against the enemy's living forces in the movement.
If the situation is really unfavorable, the troops can break through the enemy's blockade line and move to the vast area of Chuanqian. He Long, Ren Bishi, Wang Zhen and other comrades followed the spirit of the central authorities, concentrated the main forces of the 2 legions, launched a powerful counterattack against the besieging enemy, and frequently won victories, and Luo Zhang also ushered in the first peak of his military career!
An oil painting that reflects the Zunyi Conference, which saved the Chinese revolution
The hero of the first victory of the anti-encirclement and suppression campaign
On March 20, 1935, the enemy Minister Li Jue drove straight in and approached Yongshun in the center of the base area. In order to defeat the enemy's main force, the main force of the Red Army set up an ambush on both sides of the Yongshun Houping Pass.
However, the enemy did not enter the ambush circle as expected by the Red Army, and the ambush unit was too cold in the early spring and it was raining, and the troops were very tired and withdrew from the ambush position to rest.
As a result, the enemy preemptively occupied the commanding heights the next day and constructed fortifications. In order to retake the position, the Red Army concentrated its forces to repeatedly carry out onslaughts on the enemy, but because the enemy's firepower was too strong and the terrain of our army was unfavorable, the attack was not successful.
The troops on both flanks also attacked when the enemy entered the ambush circle, and after fierce fighting, at one point crushed the enemy into the river, almost causing the enemy to collapse, but in the end it failed.
The two sides fought fiercely for several days, with heavy casualties, and finally the enemy forced the Red Army to retreat by virtue of its superiority in strength and firepower.
Due to the defeat in the initial battle, the enemy's encirclement circle was smaller, and the arrogance of the enemy on several roads was even more arrogant, in a vain attempt to wipe out the Red 2nd and 6th Armies in a short period of time, and then turned to other troops and concentrated on besieging the Central Red Army and the Red Fourth Front.
Under such unfavorable circumstances, the Red Army adjusted its strategy and tactics in a timely manner, and incorporated local armed forces into the main Red Army, replenished its personnel, and was also ready to move north.
He Long, commander-in-chief of the Second Red Front
On April 9, the enemy 16th Division occupied the county seat of Yongshun. The leading organs of our party, government, and army have moved north to avoid their sharp edge. The enemy advanced step by step in order to complete his work in one battle.
At that time, the enemy troops who were encircled and suppressed on several roads were two columns from the southeast direction, Tao Guang and Li Jue, who were the main force of this encirclement and suppression, and the terrain in the southeast was relatively flat, and it was close to the cities of Changde and Taoyuan, which were close to the enemy's tight control and heavily garrisoned cities, which were not conducive to our army's movement warfare.
Advancing from the northwest towards the Soviet zone were Two columns, Zhang Zhenhan and Chen Yaohan, who had been transferred from Hubei and were not familiar with the situation in the Soviet zone and the Red Army, and were not good at mountain warfare.
He Long finally decided to command his troops to break through to the northwest of Sangzhi, and asked to find fighters to destroy the enemy during the movement.
Just at this time, the enemy Chen Yaohan's troops stationed in Sangzhi sent the 172nd Brigade to preemptively occupy the Chenjia river in an attempt to block the passage of our army to the north. The Red Army immediately decided to destroy this brigade of Chen Jiahe first, tearing a hole in the enemy's defense line.
He Long first concentrated 2 legions and surrounded Chen Jiahe. After a day and night of fighting, the enemy's outlying positions were all captured.
The next morning, Wang Zhen also commanded the 17th and 18th Divisions of the 6th Army to come to the aid of the battle. The 172nd Brigade, feeling bad foreboding, concentrated its forces and firepower to launch a desperate attack on the north hill in an attempt to break through to Sang Zhi's main force.
When the dense enemy army approached our position, Luo Zhang led the 3rd Battalion of the 51st Regiment of the 17th Division to take the lead in attacking, rushing into the enemy position and disrupting the enemy's attack formation.
Subsequently, other fraternal troops also launched a full-scale attack, and the enemy was in chaos under the onslaught of our army. Luo Zhang was in no hurry to command his troops to capture prisoners and capture weapons. He kept a close eye on the enemy's brigade headquarters, commanding the 3rd Battalion to insert the enemy headquarters like a steel knife in the middle of the enemy like a flock of sheep.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the enemy major general Li Yanling ordered the guards of the brigade headquarters to resist desperately, and at the same time, the emperor fled to the Chen family river in an attempt to throw off the pursuing troops.
Luo Zhang commanded the troops to bite Li Yanling and a few others, and finally annihilated all the enemies, Li Yanling was also killed by the river, and one of his 2 regimental commanders was killed, and the other became a prisoner of the Red Army.
The 172nd Brigade, which had lost its command, was quickly destroyed under siege by two regiments of the Red Army. Our army won the first major victory against encirclement and suppression!
Group photo of red army commanders and fighters
The captured mountain cannons are still on display at the military museum
After annihilating the 172nd Brigade, He Long ordered his troops to rest for a day and clean up the battlefield to check the results. At the same time, our army sent scouts to reconnoiter the movements of the enemy Chen Yaohan's 58th Division in Sangzhi City.
Combined with the intelligence gathered by the scouts and the interception of enemy communications, He Long judged that the enemy was very likely to abandon the city and flee. This provides an excellent fighter for our army's mobile warfare!
Sure enough, Chen Yaohan, commander of the enemy's North Road Column, was so frightened by the defeat and death of Li Yanling's soldiers that he had no intention of defending Sangzhi, and on April 12, he hurriedly led the rest of the 58th Division from Li Jue and Tao Guang to move closer.
However, under the attack of the local units of the Red Army, its movement was unusually slow, while its troops were camped at Peach Creek. He Long immediately made a decision, determined to command his troops to launch a night attack on the enemy.
The Red 17th Division attacked again, directly attacking the superior enemy with more than 4,000 troops! Luo Zhang's 3rd Battalion once again acted as a vanguard force and directly penetrated the enemy camp under the cover of nightfall.
After the night attack began, the sharp knife battalion of the Red 50 Regiment braved heavy rain to attack the enemy's artillery positions, and the enemy troops who rushed to fight opened fire indiscriminately in the night, but none of them hit.
The sharp knife battalion of the Red 50th Regiment soon occupied the enemy artillery position and captured 2 mountain cannons (1 of which is still on display at the Beijing Military Museum). Luo Zhang's 3rd Battalion, on the other hand, was still staring at the enemy's headquarters.
He commanded the troops to directly attack the headquarters of the 58th Division, but due to the heavy rain and the night attack of our army, the enemy fell into chaos, and the officers could not find the soldiers, and the soldiers could not find the officers, and each fled for their lives, and the army collapsed.
This mountain cannon was captured by the Red Army of the enemy's 58th Division
In the confusion, the enemy division commander Chen Yaohan and the chief of staff, Zhou Zhixian, as well as the divisional guard company, were trapped on a hill by the 3rd Battalion commanded by Luo Zhang. Neither the enemy's stubborn resistance nor the heavy rain could stop the Red Army from attacking.
The Red Army soon rushed up the hill and engaged the 58th Division's guard company in close combat. Chen Yaohan saw that the situation was gone and was ready to raise his gun to commit suicide, but in the confusion, his aide-de-camp Chen Zhong grabbed his pistol and pushed him down the mountain. Chen Zhong, along with several personal guards, took advantage of the chaos and rolled down the hillside.
In this way, Chen Yaohan escaped by chance. However, the enemy's chief of staff, Zhou Zhixian, and 2,000 other officers and men were captured by the Red Army.
In this battle, our army annihilated the headquarters of the 58th Division and the 174th Brigade, and captured 2 mountain guns, more than 2,000 long and short guns, and 1 radio station. These two battles greatly shocked the enemy who surrounded and suppressed the Soviet zone, forcing 200,000 enemies to retreat in all directions. Our army took advantage of the situation to restore the Xiang'echuanqian base area and turned to a strategic counter-offensive!
In November 1935, after the Arrival of the Central Red Army in northern Shaanxi, the Red 2nd and 6th Armies also decided to go north to join the Central Committee.
On November 19, the main force of the Red Army left the Xiang'echuanqian base area and began the Long March. The Red Army first crossed the river on November 20 and broke through the enemy's first blockade line.
On November 22, the Red Army advanced into the Yuanjiang River. In order to tear a hole in the enemy's defense line, Wang Zhen gave Luo Zhang a task and ordered him to lead his 3 battalions to a mountain pass in front of the Dayan Creek ferry on the Yuan River at night, eliminate the defenders there, and ensure that the main force of the legion crossed the river smoothly.
The Red Army rushed to cross the river in front of the enemy
There the enemy deployed 1 reinforcement battalion and built strong fortifications on the commanding heights on both sides of the pass, tightly blocking the road of the pass with crossfire of machine guns.
If a frontal attack is launched, there is nowhere to hide under the enemy's dense firepower, and the casualties will be very large, but if you want to take a detour, you will have to walk for at least two or three more days, and the Red Army will not have so much time to waste under the encirclement and interception of the enemy's superior forces.
After carefully inspecting the terrain, Luo Zhang secretly sent a few warriors to a small hill a kilometer away from the enemy's garrison, hung lanterns and flashlights on the trees on the top of the mountain, and then suddenly lit them all.
The warriors also pushed the stones down the hill down the hill, making a loud noise, as if a large army was descending the hill and directly attacking the mountain pass.
The enemy immediately concentrated its fire on the lanterns and flashlights on the hill, and also sent troops to pounce on the hill. Luo Zhang also ordered the troops to bundle the prepared straw, light it, and roll down the hillside.
The fire lit the weeds all over the hillside. The fire grew louder and louder, and the enemy panicked, abandoning his position and retreating. Luo Zhang ordered that the enemy be encircled from the left and right flanks in two ways, and that almost all of the enemy's entire battalion be captured.
Afterwards, Wang Zhen specially introduced Luo Zhang to He Long and said, "He is a hero who crossed the Yuanjiang River and should make a great contribution!" ”
On the 23rd, after three days, the main forces of the Red Second and Sixth Armies crossed the Yuan River from Dongting Creek and Dayan Creek respectively, successfully broke through the enemy's second blockade line, and successfully advanced into Xiangzhong. Later, Luo Zhang arrived in northern Shaanxi with his troops and completed the three-service conference division in Huining, Gansu.
Red Army soldiers pose with the famous American writer Edgar Snow
He participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and served as the first political commissar of the Chengpingshan Regiment
Soon after the main force of the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Japanese imperialism provoked the Lugou Bridge Incident in North China and launched an all-out war of aggression against China. At the juncture of national life and death, the Communist Party of China called for "stopping the civil war and uniting with the outside world" and forming the broadest national united front to counter the Japanese aggressors.
Due to the establishment of the united front, the main force of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army. The Red 2nd Front was reorganized into the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, Wang Zhen's Red 6th Army was reorganized into the 359th Brigade, Luo Zhang was also appointed as the political commissar of the 718th Regiment, and the regimental commander was Chen Zongyao, an old comrade-in-arms of the Red Army.
In November 1937, the Eighth Route Army marched to the anti-Japanese front in North China, and with the strong assistance of the Cpc Jixi Special Committee, the 359th Brigade was supplemented by a large number of new recruits in the local area.
Luo Zhang's 718th Regiment was supplemented by more than 1,500 recruits from Pingshan County, Hebei Province. Thanks to the efforts of local comrades, more than 200 of the more than 700 party members in Pingshan County at that time took the lead in joining the army, especially the young people among the party members.
Led by them, many young people in the local area actively enlisted in the army. Since then, the people of North China have affectionately called the 718 Regiment the "Pingshan Regiment" and regarded this unit as their own disciples.
In January 1938, the 718th Regiment completed a two-month pre-war reorganization in Shanxi, and then went to the battlefield to participate in the Battle of Northwest Jinxi with the main force of the 120th Division in response to the ongoing Battle of Xinkou in the 2nd Theater of the Nationalist Army.
At this time, 1 squadron of the Japanese army drove from Yuanping to Chengxian County, and the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 718th Regiment set up an ambush at Tianjiazhuang under the command of Chen Zongyao and Luo Zhang.
When the Japanese convoy drove into the ambush circle of our army, our army immediately launched a fierce attack with the tactic of intercepting the head and tail and attacking from both wings. After more than half a day of fierce fighting, most of the Japanese squadron was annihilated, and 4 heavy machine guns, 3 light machine guns, more than 130 long and short guns, and a large number of military supplies were captured.
The "Pingshan Regiment" won the first battle! It embodied the heroic and tenacious fighting style of this unit and laid a good foundation for the protracted war of resistance against Japan.
Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army display captured Japanese weapons and flags
On February 22, 1938, the main force of the Japanese 26th Division, under the command of Lieutenant General Jun Miya, the commander of the division, attacked the Yellow River defense line in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. Among them, about 8,000 people of the enemy's 26 brigades entered Ganlan on the bank of the Yellow River in three ways, and began to make preparations for crossing the river to attack Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia.
The Kuomintang Central Army and the Jin Sui Army deployed in Biaoguan, Xingxian, Linxian, Jingle, and Ningwu, the units of about 4 armies collapsed under the Japanese army and abandoned their positions and fled west. The Japanese successively occupied seven county towns, including Biaoguan, Hequ, and Baode, and one of them crossed the Yellow River and prepared to attack Fugu County in Shaanxi Province.
The Central Military Commission and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army immediately ordered the 120th Division to destroy the Japanese army with a resolute offensive and recover the lost territory.
On March 7, the main force of the 359th Brigade forcibly marched from Kunxian to the vicinity of Ganlan, encircling more than 1,000 people of the 11th Regiment of the 26th Brigade regiment in the city of Ganlan. The 718th Regiment also took part in the fighting.
Because our army cut off the water source of the county seat, the Japanese troops trapped in the city were hungry and thirsty, so they had to abandon the city and flee. The 359th Brigade then followed in pursuit, biting the fleeing Japanese army to the death, and eventually annihilating most of the Japanese army at the town of Mitsui.
Our machine gunners are shooting at the enemy
Subsequently, the 718th Regiment, together with its brother troops, launched successive attacks on the Japanese army, recovered the seven counties abandoned by the Kuomintang army, and forced the Japanese 26th Division from the east bank of the Yellow River to the east, all of which returned to the Lüliang Mountain area where its attack was launched.
In this battle, the Eighth Route Army killed and wounded more than 1,500 Japanese brigade leaders or less, captured 1 mountain artillery, more than 200 long and short guns, more than 100 military horses, and destroyed 12 cars.
This was the only exemplary example of the Chinese army pushing the Japanese front back on the frontal battlefield in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and it was also a major victory achieved by the Eighth Route Army in participating in frontal battlefield operations, thus effectively countering the rumors concocted by the Kuomintang diehards that the Communist Party and the Eighth Route Army "preserved their strength and did not attack."
After entering 1939, as the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression turned into a stalemate, the Japanese invaders began to lure the Kuomintang with greater force, while concentrating their forces on attacking the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines led by the Communist Party.
On May 9 of that year, the North China Dispatch Army of the Japanese Army attempted to carry out a large-scale sweep of the area of Taihuai Town in the northeast of Wutai, where the leading organs of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region were located, with a force of more than 5,000 troops each from the independent 3rd and 9th Brigades and Regiments, in order to destroy our leading organs in one fell swoop.
The 717th regiment and the 718th regiment of the 359th Brigade, with 3,000 troops, maneuvered with the superior Japanese army at Mount Wutai in Shanxi, leading the enemy's nose in a circle in the mountains.
On 12 May, the Japanese encircled the air and had to order the troops to retreat in full. When the exhausted independent mixed 3rd Brigade Regiment withdrew more than 800 people to Nankouquan and Changping in the west of Shentang Fort, the 717th Regiment concentrated its forces to besiege it.
The Japanese army was overwhelmed by our army in unfavorable terrain and could not move, and had to take advantage of the night to break through, but on the morning of the 14th, it was attacked by the north and south of the 717th and 718th Regiments in the thick and thin waist stream.
The two sides fought fiercely until the 15th, our army killed and wounded more than 500 Japanese troops, and the rest of the Japanese army had to abandon their heavy weapons and heavy weights, and fled back to the stronghold under the cover of aircraft.
Our army captured a total of 2 infantry guns, 3 mortars, 6 light and heavy machine guns, 451 rifles and more than 100 mules and horses.
The Eighth Route Army attacked the enemy near the Great Wall
This war of annihilation was the most glorious battle of the 359th Brigade since the War of Resistance.
"Soldiers of the People" and "Leading by Example"
On May 20, 1939, the fifth day after the end of the battle, Nie Rongzhen, commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, issued a special order to commend the "Pingshan Regiment" of the 718th Regiment commanded by Luo Zhang and Chen Zongyao.
The commendation order said: "The Pingshan Regiment has always fought bravely and is well-known... It is an excellent armed force of the people of Pingshan, an excellent armed force of the people of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region, and a disciple soldier of the Taihang Mountains. This is the first time the term "disciple soldier" has been used to refer to the people's army led by the Communist Party of China.
Since then, "people's children's soldiers" have become synonymous with the people's army.
In 1942, the most arduous year of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese and the Puppets stubbornly colluded and intensified their attacks and blockades on the base areas behind the enemy's lines, and in order to smash the enemy's conspiracy, Chairman Mao Zedong called on the whole Party and the whole army to carry out a "large-scale production campaign" and do their own work to provide enough food and clothing.
Luo Zhang, then political commissar of the Supply (Logistics) Department of the 359th Brigade, was responsible for organizing production. He always carried a hoe with him and went down to the grassroots to personally inspect the production situation.
He traveled all over the 100,000 acres of land reclaimed by the whole brigade in Nanniwan. Because of overwork, once he accidentally fell off his horse when he was at the bottom of the grass, fell into a deep ditch, and he could not move after a serious fall.
Fortunately, his mount was good at human nature, ran back to the army alone, shouted non-stop, attracted the attention of other comrades, and then followed the horse to find the injured Luo Zhang, and carried him back to the hospital for treatment.
Officers and men of the 359th Brigade are reclaiming wasteland in Nanniwan
Luo Zhang's deeds soon spread throughout the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia border region. In December 1942, Chairman Mao Zedong personally inscribed an award for him entitled "Leading by Example."
Chairman Mao also demanded that Luo Zhang's deeds and awards be published in the Yan'an Daily on December 12. Later, "leading by example" became the party's requirement for leading cadres. Wang Zhen praised Luo Zhang, "Really a tough guy who can't die in any matter of war, production, or anything." ”
Chairman Mao Zedong's personally inscribed certificate of "leading by example" for Comrade Luo Zhang
After surviving the most difficult years, the battlefield behind the enemy gradually reversed the passive situation, and the Eighth Route Army began to launch a local counter-offensive in 1944.
At this time, the dying Japanese army launched "Operation No. 1" in order to open up the mainland communication line. In less than half a year, the Japanese army fought all the way from Henan to Guangxi, the Kuomintang army lost more than 400,000 people, and more than 100 cities in Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, and Guangxi and 60 million compatriots fell into the hands of the enemy.
In order to recover the lost land and rescue the compatriots in the occupied areas, the central authorities proposed to send a detachment from the south to the south to open up base areas. On September 1, 1944, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to send Comrades Wang Zhen, Wang Shoudao, and other comrades to lead a detachment to the south to advance into Southern China. The 718th Regiment was also named by the central government as a southbound force.
On November 9, 1944, the southbound detachment embarked on a journey.
Chairman Mao Zedong and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De inspected the commanders and fighters of the Southbound Detachment
On the night of January 6, 1945, the main force of the southbound detachment encountered local Japanese resistance while passing through the roads around Lushan and Yexian in Henan.
These arrogant enemies, who had just faced the great victory of the Kuomintang regular army on the frontal battlefield, did not pay any attention to the Eighth Route Army at all. In particular, the enemy's armored units, without waiting for the infantry to arrive, unfolded their battle formations and pounced on our army with their headlights on. In vain, it is a vain attempt to crush our marching brigade, and then carry out various breakthroughs.
Luo Zhang commanded the troops of the 718th Regiment to take advantage of the poor visibility of the night combat and the poor vision of the occupants of the enemy's tank armored vehicles, first using a salvo of machine guns and rifles to force the enemy's occupants into the car and did not dare to open the hatch to observe the situation, and then hit the enemy's headlights and searchlights, and finally approached the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles, using cluster grenades and explosives to pack the explosion.
After a night of fierce fighting, 4 enemy tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed, creating the highest record of our army's anti-tank equipped with light weapons.
The Japanese tanks that flaunted their might in China were difficult to deal with due to the lack of anti-tank weapons in our army
Our southward detachment has fought more than 130 large and small battles with the Japanese puppet army, killed and wounded more than 3,000 enemy prisoners, and recovered 278 towns and villages, achieving brilliant results. During the Liberation War, Luo Zhang successively served as deputy political commissar of the Northern Hubei Military Subdistrict, director of the Left Guard Office of the 2nd Column of the Northwest Field Army and political commissar of the Teaching Regiment, and director of the Left Guard Office of the First Corps of the First Field Army.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Luo Zhang served as director and political commissar of the Lanzhou Office of the Xinjiang Military Region and president of the Military Court of the Xinjiang Military Region. In 1955, Luo Zhang was awarded the rank of major general.
Resources
Chronicles of the Chinese Red Army, Guangdong People's Publishing House
The Red Army Long March Documentary Series: Volumes of the Red Second Front, CPC Party History Publishing House
History of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression of the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, Xinjiang People's Publishing House