In September 1945, under the command of Chief Liu Deng, the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region launched the Shangdang Campaign, which was famous for its military history.
Chen Geng, commander of the Taiyue Column of the Eighth Route Army, was ordered by his superiors to lead his troops to attack ChangziCheng on the outskirts of Changzhi.
Changzi City is located in the west of Changzhi, the distance between the two cities is only 50 miles, and there are more than 2,000 enemies, which is an important support point on the outskirts of Changzhi.
The city walls are 3 meters high, and there are brick pillars outside the city gates, and there are low pillars on the side of the brick pillars. Each low pillar is surrounded by three more dark pillars, which form a firepower pair for direct and side fire on different horizontal lines.
A moat was dug outside the city, two inches deep and two inches wide. The main traffic lanes are set up with horse repellent and minefields, and a barbed wire fence more than one meter high.
This was a fortification built for many years to deal with the siege of the Eighth Route Army after the Japanese occupation, and yan Xishan's men forcibly occupied it and then strengthened and transformed it, making it easier for the eldest son to defend and difficult to attack.
Before the war, Chen Geng gathered a crowd of generals to study the siege plan, and many of them were famous generals who had experienced hundreds of battles, such as Liu Zhong, commander of the 386th Brigade, Li Chengfang, commander of the First Brigade of the Death Squad, Liu Youguang, political commissar, and others.
Since the army is approaching the city, it must break through the Great Wall. However, the generals carefully examined the enemy's situation and deeply felt that this battle was not easy to fight, because the enemy's fortifications were too strong.
The great battle was imminent, and the difficult problem of besieging the city suddenly overwhelmed the generals. Just when everyone felt helpless, Li Chengfang said: "It seems that only this person can get out of the horse!" ”
The crowd asked in unison, "Who?" ”
"Nie Peizhang!" Li Chengfang said.
Everyone knew that Nie Peizhang was Li Chengfang's subordinate general, the commander of the company of the engineers of the First Brigade, and they all smiled heartily: "Yes, let Nie Peizhang, a military wizard, perform his lifelong learning, blow up the city gate, and open up a surprise passage for the whole column, this city can be broken in a few days!" ”
Nie Peizhang was indeed a military wizard. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he led engineers and militias to invent and create various mines. During the siege of Qinyuan, Nie Peizhang swung a large mine array, often blowing up the Japanese army on horseback, and repeatedly built a miracle.
Li Chengfang patted Nie Peizhang's shoulder: "Peizhang, this siege depends on you." If you personally take the sappers with you, you must blow up the north gate and open the passage of the 772nd Regiment of the 386th Brigade of the main attack. ”
Nie Peizhang replied emphatically, "No problem! ”
Zhou Xueyi, the commander of the 772nd Regiment, took him to observe the terrain of the North Gate, introduced the battle deployment, and said: "After 4 days of siege, your engineer company will find a way to help us blow up the city gate!" ”
Nie Peizhang pondered: The attack area of the 772nd Regiment is completely controlled by the enemy's fire net, and if the access to the city is blocked, it will have to pay a great sacrifice. How did this fortified gate, the fortification, explode?
He pondered for a moment and offered a plan to Zhou Xueyi: "Commander Zhou! Please send someone to buy five coffins. ”
"What's going on?"
"Fill with explosives!" There are no 2,000 pounds of explosives, and it is difficult to blow up the north gate. ”
"So many coffins, loaded with such heavy explosives, under the enemy's fire, are they not easy to transport?"
"Commander Zhou, I have thought about this, there is a way, we sappers dig tunnels."
"Well, it's up to you!"
After Nie Peizhang returned to the engineer company, he immediately gathered cadres from all squads and platoons to study the action plan. After discussion, the crowd decided to immediately set out to dig a tunnel leading to The FirstBorn City.
At that time, the tunnel operation was still a new topic for the newly established engineer company, and only one long row of Zhong Liben in the whole company had learned a little, and the task of digging a tunnel tens of meters long under the enemy's nose in just 4 days was undoubtedly extremely arduous.
But the crowd made up their minds: no matter how difficult it is, they must complete the task!
The tunnel operation began when the sapper company touched a house more than 30 meters from the city gate.
Under the leadership of Nie Peizhang, the commanders and fighters of the sapper company overcame a series of technical problems such as water leakage from the tunnels, and worked day and night to drain, dig up, and transport soil...
They only have tunnels in their eyes and only one goal in their hearts - to blow up the city gates! Hurry up, hurry up!
The tunnel was finally dug half a day in advance, and the sappers carried the coffins into the tunnel, filling the dark medicine room with five coffins of explosives and laying the fuse.
Nie Peizhang personally inspected the ignition device, felt that it was not safe, and adopted a positive and secondary ignition plan, which put his mind at ease.
There is no doubt that the use of five coffins to fill explosives and a tunnel to be transported to the city gate for an explosion to replace the power of heavy artillery is undoubtedly too backward from today's point of view.
However, at that time, our army was mainly engaged in guerrilla warfare, all kinds of artillery were in short supply, and the shells were pitifully small, and it turned to urban offensive battles, which was still a major innovation of our army.
At 19:00 on the evening of September 18, our army officially launched a general offensive against the enemy defending The City of Changzi.
The explosives that had long been transported from the tunnel to the city gate and the corner of the city began to ignite, and the demolitionists turned the igniter, and the fuse burned up, but they saw a thick black column of smoke whistling and rushing straight up!
Immediately after that, there was a loud sound like muffled thunder and then like the earth breaking apart, and the city gate was blown up, and the wall stones and earth blocks flew into the sky, and then fell one after another, smashing heavily on the city wall.
The defenders on the city walls were like grasshoppers that had blown up their nests, making a mess.
Chen Geng saw that the enemy's position was completely confused, and immediately ordered his troops to launch a battle to the city of Changzicheng, which took less than 10 minutes to attack the city, and then continued to pursue and annihilate the defending enemy.
After 7 hours of fierce fighting, the head of the eldest son city, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, is red on all sides. Except for a security brigade at NangaoMiao in Nanguan who abandoned its guard and fled, all the other defenders were annihilated, killing more than 300 enemy and taking more than 1,500 prisoners.
After the battle, Chen Geng praised Nie Peizhang for blowing up the north gate with five coffins, and made the first contribution to the battle, for which he commended Nie Peizhang in the whole column.