As we all know, wars are always full of variables, and in the history of our army, there have been many battles with unfavorable start and very critical situations. Under such circumstances, the psychological quality and adaptability of the commander play a decisive role in the final result.
The "Battle of Hujiatai" during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is a rather typical example of war.
In the harsh winter of 1943, the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army concentrated the strength of several regiments of the 13th Brigade and the 15th Brigade, and swept through the pseudo-"Dingguo Army" Liu Guojun and Wang Buqingbu, who were entrenched in the territory of Qiuyang in Hubei Province, with the momentum of fierce wind and furious waves.
After several consecutive battles in Jurong Mountain and Xiantao Town, the enemy collapsed, and the New Fourth Army captured many prisoners and captured many guns and ammunition.
In order to retaliate against the New Fourth Army, the Japanese army mobilized heavy troops to divide into multiple roads to carry out a crazy counterattack.
After winning a complete victory in the encirclement and annihilation of the "Dingguo Army", the New Fourth Army had cleverly crossed the Xianghe River north and shifted its positions, aiming to find the weakness of the Japanese army and fight again.
On the evening of this day, the troops of the Thirteenth Brigade had just moved to a small town called Hujiatai, and suddenly received information: "The Japanese army has arrived at Hujiatai." ”
Zhou Zhijian, commander of the 13th Brigade, Fang Zhengping, political commissar, and Huang Lin, deputy brigade commander, decided to take advantage of the victory to attack the Japanese army.
After reconnaissance, it was learned that there were two wide sand embankments in the east and west of the town, and there was a river several meters wide in the middle of the sand embankment, and there were children's houses scattered on the east embankment, that is, the Hu family platform, and the two embankments were separated by rivers calling each other, and they could still clearly transmit words.
Brigade Commander Zhou Zhijian (Hubei Dawuren, who became a founding lieutenant general in 1955) decided to personally lead the heavy machine gun companies of the 1st Company of the 38th Regiment and the 38th Regiment along the west embankment, and which section of the east embankment had Japanese troops, the machine guns were strafed on the west embankment, and the company went around to the enemy's ass and went to cross the river to encircle.
Deputy Brigade Commander Huang Lin (a native of Liuyang, Hunan, who became the founding major general in 1955) led the 5th Company of the 37th Regiment and the 9th Company of the 38th Regiment to pounce on the Japanese troops from the east embankment, and fought wherever they encountered the Japanese army.
The troops groped forward in the darkness.
If the commanders and fighters of the whole brigade implement the plan formulated before the war in accordance with Zhou Zhijian and Huang Lin and steadily advance it, then there is a great certainty that they will fight this battle well. However, the rash move of a battalion-level cadre disrupted the entire plan and nearly caused the entire unit to suffer heavy losses.
After our army approached the enemy, Li Gang, commander of the Third Battalion of the Thirty-eighth Regiment, who was walking next to Huang Lin, suddenly noticed that there was a fire in front of the East Causeway, and after careful identification, it was seen that it was a large black ancestral hall, and two shining heavy machine guns were set up at the entrance of the ancestral hall.
As soon as Li Gang saw the heavy machine gun, he was so itchy that he immediately jumped up and grabbed the gun with an arrow step. When the Japanese found out, they immediately screamed and kept firing and throwing grenades in an attempt to stop the New Fourth Army from advancing.
That is to say, Li Gang's rash move greatly reduced the suddenness and concealment of this attack, and on the contrary, our army fell into a very passive situation.
Li Gang simply did a lot of work and bravely rushed into the Great Ancestral Hall with nine companies.
A fierce battle began in the ancestral hall, shouting, grenade explosions, bayonet clashes sounded in one piece, pillars, shrines, incense cases were blown up, and both sides paid a considerable price in casualties.
What was even more troublesome was that the surrounding Japanese troops were alarmed and immediately surrounded and launched a crazy counterattack.
The war situation suddenly changed, the situation was extremely critical, and Zhou Zhijian was very sad after he knew the reason: Li Gang, Li Gang, you can't deal with the Japanese army like this!
He gave a categorical order: "The troops temporarily withdraw from the ancestral hall and redeploy the battle!" ”
Fortunately, through this scuffle, our army has found out a basic situation, that is, there is a large brigade headquarters of the Japanese army living in the ancestral hall, there are enough troops to protect it, and there is also a brigade leader inside.
Huang Lin asked Li Gang to lead the troops to find a ladder, and prepared to organize the troops to climb the roof, lift the tiles, open the skylight, and attack with up and down firepower.
But the ladder was never found, but there was a fierce battle with the Nearby Japanese Army.
"If there is no ladder, then tie the single wooden ladder with a long wooden pole!" Zhou Zhijian also ordered a company that had already crossed the river to take on the task of climbing the roof with a single wooden ladder.
Not long after, the Thirty-eighth Regiment and a Company smoothly went up to the top of the ancestral hall along the wooden poles. The warriors picked up their hoes to smash the tiles, smashed the beams under the tiles, pulled out several large skylights, and then swept the machine guns into the ancestral hall, and the grenades were thrown into the ancestral hall one by one.
The enemy army was confused, the captain of the brigade was also killed, one by one barbarically stripped naked, wow wow roar, rushed to the gate of the ancestral hall, but were all shot back by the heavy machine guns commanded by Zhou Zhijian.
Zhou Zhijian thought to himself: Just by fighting like this, we will not be able to finally destroy the enemy army. Well, then attack with fire!
The warriors took several large bundles of straw and lit them on the roof, and a ball of burning torches immediately fell into the hall of the ancestral hall, and in an instant the fire was raging, the smoke was thick, and the dry wood, pillars, shrines, and incense cases burned and crackled, and the fire reflected half the sky.
The enemy army had no way to the heavens and no door to the earth, so it was gradually burned into a pile of ashes in this fire cage, and this dilapidated ancestral hall finally became the grave where the Japanese were buried. According to the post-war inventory, this battle wiped out more than 200 Japanese puppet troops, and was an important victory won by the 13th Brigade of the New Fourth Army in the territory of Qiuyang.
This battle history is called the "Battle of Hujiatai", although the scale of the battle is not large, it has a very unique significance in the history of the New Fourth Army, because this victory greatly encouraged the confidence of the vast number of soldiers and civilians in resisting Japan, and played a powerful deterrent effect on sweeping away the enemy in Qiuyang territory.