After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Red Army accepted the reorganization of the National Government, established the Eighth Route Army, and rushed to the anti-Japanese battlefield, although the Eighth Route Army only had 3 divisions and 12 regiments, but these units were all elite, all of them were veterans of the land war, they had experienced hundreds of battles, and they were very brave in fighting. One of these 12 regiments is very powerful, and his regiment alone produced two generals in 1955, and the next two battalion commanders were also lieutenant generals.
The most powerful regiment we mentioned was the 685th Regiment of the 343rd Brigade of the 115th Division, which was reorganized from the 2nd Division of the First Red Army, and at that time, due to the limitations of the Kuomintang, the number of our army was very small, because Chiang Kai-shek did not really want to fight with our army, but was forced to resist Japan.
Why is the 685th Regiment so powerful? The first regimental commander of the 685 Regiment was named Huang Yongsheng, and everyone would certainly not be unfamiliar with him, because Huang Yongsheng was famous for fighting in the People's Liberation Army, and he was a fierce general like Xu Shiyou, of course, he was also deeply loved by Lin Biao.
At the end of August 1937, Huang Yongsheng served as the deputy commander of the 685 regiment, with Yang Dezhi as the regimental commander, and later Huang Yongsheng was transferred away, with Chen Zhengxiang as the deputy regimental commander. Yang Dezhi was also an outstanding commander, having served as commander of the Second Column and corps commander during the Liberation War, so he was awarded the rank of general in 1955.
There was also a general in the 685 Regiment, his name was Deng Hua, who was the director of the Political Training Office. There is no doubt that Deng Hua was also a founding general, and compared with Yang Dezhi, Deng Hua was also very good, he not only served as the political commissar of the Fourth Column of the Eighth Route Army, but also served as the commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Subdistrict, and during the Liberation War, he also served as the commander of the Liaoji Military Region and the commander of the Siye Corps.
Zeng Guohua was the commander of the second battalion of the 685th Regiment, also served as the commander of the detachment, and later served as the division commander of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army during the Liberation War, as well as the chief of staff of the corps, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955. Another lieutenant general battalion commander is called Liang Xingchu, everyone is certainly not unfamiliar with this battalion commander, he served as the brigade commander of the 115th Division's Teaching Brigade, the brigade commander of the Independent Brigade of the New Fourth Army, etc. On the Korean battlefield, Liang Xingchu led the 38th Army to defeat the American army and won the title of "Long Live the Army".
The 685th Regiment participated in the Battle of Pingxingguan during the War of Resistance, during which it completed the ambush of the Japanese army in Puxian County, annihilating more than 200 enemy troops, and creating favorable conditions for the victory of Pingxingguan. Soon after, the regiment attacked a Japanese transport convoy, annihilating more than a hundred enemy troops and capturing a large amount of transport materials.
The 115th Division is a unit full of talents and very strong combat effectiveness, and as the most powerful regiment in the whole army, the 685th Regiment is undoubtedly the tip of the 115th Division, the sharpest part, and the 685th Regiment later accepted the order of the headquarters to advance into Shandong, open up anti-Japanese base areas and directly accept the dispatch of the headquarters.