At the end of February 1945, the Second Sub-district of the Taihang Military Region of the Eighth Route Army decided to remove the Japanese stronghold of Mafang at the junction of Shouyang, Heshun and Xiyang counties in Shanxi.
Because Mafang connects three counties and radiates six counties, its geographical location is very important, so the Japanese army used it as a central stronghold against the Eighth Route Army, built castle-like fortifications, and posed a serious threat to the Japanese military and civilians.
Li Desheng, commander of the 30th Regiment of the Second Division (awarded the rank of major general in 1955 and general in 1988), took the initiative to ask his superiors for help and decided to lead the troops to eradicate this tumor.
Prior to this, our army had launched two attacks on the Mafang stronghold, but unfortunately they had not been effective.
Li Desheng analyzed the fundamental reason for the defeat in the first two battles, which was that our army lacked heavy weapons to attack the strongholds. But this third operation still can't solve the problem of heavy weapons, so what to do?
He summed up a basic idea: to make full use of the strong points and avoid the weaknesses, to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, to abandon the strong attack, and to change to outsmarting.
In order to formulate a practical battle plan, Li Desheng made a very bold decision: he personally went to the Mafang stronghold to conduct on-the-spot reconnaissance.
As the regimental commander, Li Desheng actually took up the job of scouting, which is undoubtedly very admirable. What's more, at that time, there were young puppet soldiers and traitors who knew Li Desheng, and once they were discovered by the enemy in the tiger's den, the consequences were unimaginable.
Although almost all of his subordinates were dissuaded, Li Desheng still insisted on the idea of "not entering the tiger's den, but getting the tiger", and decided that no matter how much risk he took, he should go to it himself, otherwise he would not be able to obtain detailed and reliable first-hand information.
Coincidentally, just when Li Desheng was struggling to get into the "heart" of the enemy's stronghold, the underground party members sent an important piece of information: Recently, the Japanese army in Mafang has repeatedly urged the maintenance of various places to deliver food.
Li Desheng was overjoyed, and immediately decided to disguise himself as a farmer delivering vegetables and go deep into the stronghold to spy on the enemy.
Fortunately, Li Desheng often worked in the field after fighting, his hands were full of calluses, as long as he changed into a set of local villagers' heads, he looked like an authentic farmer.
After some meticulous preparations, Li Desheng and two cadres, both dressed as peasants, each carrying a basket of green vegetables, easily blended into the Mafang stronghold, and clearly understood the terrain in the stronghold and the enemy's strength and firepower configuration.
After returning to the garrison of the troops, Li Desheng and the cadres discussed repeatedly and determined the battle plan for attacking the Mafang stronghold.
The specific deployment was: a commando team was dispatched to sneak into a cave under the playground outside the East Gate one night in advance; the next morning, our personnel installed in the maintenance (meeting) quietly opened the east gate of the stronghold, received the troops in, first captured the east gate, and then annihilated the enemy in the stronghold.
In order to fight this battle well, Li Desheng repeatedly considered every detail and tried to put all the preparations in place.
For example, commandos are required to wear soft-soled shoes and cotton-soled cloth socks to avoid making noises when they act; they are required to fight with only cold weapons when they seize the East Gate, so as not to startle the grass and snakes; seize the time to let the fighters practice climbing over the wall, and if they can't sneak attack, they will quickly change to a strong attack.
However, there was a very difficult problem in this operation, that is, before the commandos could enter the cave to lurk, they had to cross an open road more than ten meters long, and they would be completely exposed to the sight of the enemy sentries. Even if you pass through at night, you are most likely to be discovered by the enemy.
Just as the so-called "careless, full of losses", if this problem is not solved, the entire battle plan may be torn down and restarted. Li Desheng and the cadres pondered for a long time and could not find a solution, and they all frowned and locked their brows.
Li Desheng saw that the atmosphere at the scene was somewhat dull, so he announced that the meeting would be suspended for ten minutes, so that everyone could rest and breathe.
When he saw that the crowd was still sitting still, he was the first to come out of the house and thought of blowing the wind in the courtyard.
At this time, the night was late, the moonlight was shining, and suddenly there was a loud "chirping" sound under the courtyard wall. Li Desheng grew up in the countryside, and as soon as he heard it, he knew that it was the cry of a moth.
He looked down and saw a dead yellow leaf under the base of the wall, and the cry came from under the leaves, and it seemed that the clams were hidden under the leaves.
On a whim, Li Desheng gently walked over to pick up the leaves, and sure enough, he saw a shiny black cockroach jump up from under the leaves and disappear into the darkness.
Li Desheng couldn't help but feel a little lost, but when he saw the palm-sized leaf in his hand, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he realized from a detail that the enemy's plan was broken: "The moth is hidden under the leaf, so it only hears its sound and does not see its shape, before the commando team enters the cave to lurk, can it learn from the method of the moth to pass through that open road?" ”
Thinking of this, he immediately returned to the venue and shared with everyone the inspiration he had received from his encounter with the moth.
After some heated discussion, the cadres quickly determined a specific plan: make a curtain of more than ten meters long with white soil cloth, dye the curtain into an earthy yellow close to the color of the ground with the sap of locust leaves, and the commandos quietly passed under the curtain when crossing the road. Even if the moon was bright that night, it was difficult for the enemy sentries to find.
Li Desheng was overjoyed: "Great! That's it! ”
On March 4, Li Desheng led his troops to officially launch an attack on the Mafang stronghold.
At about 10 o'clock that night, the commando team used the cover of the curtain to cross the open road more than ten meters long from under the eyes of the enemy sentry, and unknowingly entered the cave under the playground and lurked, playing a key role in the victory of the whole battle.
At dawn the next day, the commando team and the main force outside the East Gate joined forces, and after 8 hours of fierce fighting, they conquered the Mafang stronghold in one fell swoop, in addition to annihilating many puppet troops, they also killed more than 30 Japanese troops, captured 8 Japanese troops, and captured a large number of weapons and ammunition and rice, white noodles, cans, clothing and other trophies.
Although the scale of this battle was not large, it created the first example of the Taihang Eighth Route Army pulling out the Castle-like stronghold of the Japanese Army, and destroyed Mafang, a nest that the enemy had painstakingly operated for many years, which was of great significance.
Li Desheng later became a general in the history of our army who has made many military achievements.
Reference historical materials: "Memoirs of Li Desheng", "History of the Taihang Military Region", "Biography of the General of the People's Liberation Army"