Pi Dingjun wrote in his memoir "Zhongyue Crazy Ride": "Most of the villages in western Henan are earthen villages made of loess soil... That night, we arrived in Baisha Town, Yichuan County, where the masses would not let us into the village, so we had to sleep in the woods. ”
Western Henan region
As the name suggests, it is the western part of Henan, which is roughly the area around luoyang and Sanmenxia today.
Western Henan, west of guanzhong plain, east of the North China Plain, south of the Nanyang Basin, north of the Taihang Mountains, strategic location is very important. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it belonged to the first theater delimited by the Nationalist government, and because of its important strategic position, there were heavy troops of the Kuomintang army stationed all year round.
Yuxi was chaotic into a pot of porridge
Launched by the Japanese army in April 1944
Battle of Yuxianggui
, in the Henan region, commander of the Japanese North China Front
Okamura Ninji
launch
Battle of Yuzhong,
Commanded 5 divisions and three brigades with about 150,000 men against the First Theater of Operations
Jiang Dingwen and Tang Enbo
The Ministry launched an offensive.
The First Theater of Operations was home to Nationalist troops
Eight army groups of about 400,000 people
However, in less than a month, Luoyang, the headquarters of the First Theater, fell, the Kuomintang collapsed on all fronts, and western Henan and central Henan became a pot of porridge.
In July 1944, the Central Committee issued an order to the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army to advance to western Henan, and decided to dispatch elite personnel from the Taihang and Taiyue Military Regions to advance into western Henan and establish a new anti-Japanese base area.
At this time, although western Henan was occupied by the Japanese army, the Japanese army's strength was limited after all, and the Japanese puppet army could only control important towns, so there was a power vacuum in the vast countryside of western Henan, which was a good opportunity for the Eighth Route Army to establish a base area.
Moreover, after the establishment of the base area in western Henan, it can pose a great threat to the Pinghan Railway and the Longhai Railway controlled by the Japanese army, and the establishment of the base area in western Henan can communicate the connection between the Jinji-Hebei Luyu base area and the New Fourth Army's Eyu-Anhui base area.
Deng Xiaoping chose Pi Dingjun
After receiving the order to advance into western Henan, he was then the political commissar of the 129th Division
Deng Xiaoping
Thinking about who should be entrusted with this arduous task, he thought about it and finally thought of Xiao Yong who was good at war
Pi Dingjun
homosexuals.
On July 3, Pi Dingjun and Xu Zirong rode a mule to the eighth route army's frontline headquarters, Matian Village, Zuoquan County, and in the conference room of the headquarters, Comrade Teng Daiyuan, chief of the general staff, officially announced the establishment
Anti-Japanese Independent Detachment in Western Henan
Pi Dingjun served as the commander and Xu Zirong served as the political commissar.
The task of the Anti-Japanese Independent Detachment in Western Henan was to insert itself like a steel knife into the heart of the enemy. The headquarters hoped that Pi Dingjun would prepare to cross the Yellow River south as soon as possible, and the sooner the better.
On July 25, the Taiyue Military Region and the Taihang Military Region of the Eighth Route Army transferred a regiment to form the Western Henan Independent Detachment (3rd Regiment and 15th Regiment), with a total number of 1502 people.
Cross the Yellow River
On September 5, the troops were about to pull out, and Pi Dingjun went to the Yellow River several times to survey the terrain, and finally selected the Heqingkou ferry port in Jiyuan.
Location of the river clearing mouth
The river clear mouth ferry flow is gentle, the river channel is not too wide, and the most important thing is that there are no Japanese troops stationed here. This crossing was garrisoned by a company of puppet troops.
Moreover, Pi Dingjun had already sent someone to get in touch with the puppet army, and the company commander of the puppet army agreed
Chinese don't fight Chinese
When the Eighth Route Army crossed the river, they would turn a blind eye and deliberately let the Eighth Route Army pass.
Before leaving, Fang Pusheng, deputy commander of the Yuxi Independent Detachment, specially invited a photographer to take a photo of the cadres at and above the regimental level of the Yuxi Independent Detachment, leaving a precious group photo.
Group photo of cadres of the Independent Detachment in Western Henan
As a result, life and death were uncertain, far away from the large troops, and without hesitation, they plunged into the hinterland of the occupied area controlled by the Japanese army. The situation faced by the Japanese army, which could not even be stopped by 400,000 Kuomintang troops, and more than a thousand people of the Eighth Route Army, could be imagined to be very dangerous.
On September 6, 1944, the Anti-Japanese Independent Detachment of Western Henan set out from Linxian County, along the Taihang Mountains, detoured through Jincheng and Yangcheng, and on the night of September 21, arrived at Heqingkou on the bank of the Yellow River.
But there is a difficult problem in front of everyone, that is, there is no ferry. In order to prevent the Eighth Route Army from going south, the Japanese army had already burned and robbed the boats on the Yellow River, and not a single ferry could be found.
Although pi Dingjun asked the warriors to collect a lot of large gourds on the way, and wanted to rely on the large gourds to cross the river, this was much slower than the efficiency of the ferry.
Just then, nearby villagers heard the news, they dug out four small boats in the sand pile, and voluntarily ferrified the Eighth Route Army, which solved a big problem for the Eighth Route Army.
It began at 10:00 p.m. on the 21st and ended at about 4:00 a.m. the next day, and all the detachments of the Yuxi Advance detachment completed the crossing of the river.
After landing ashore, Pi Dingjun saw the head of the puppet army. Pi Dingjun said to the company commander of the puppet army: After we leave, you will shoot a lot of guns, so that you can also give an account.
In this way, the anti-Japanese independent detachment in western Henan crossed the Yellow River and entered the western Henan region without any danger.
Why don't ordinary people even let the village in
As soon as he entered western Henan, Pi Dingjun led his troops to quickly intersperse westward, reaching the Xin'an area west of Luoyang, then crossing the Longhai Railway and continuing south through Luoshui and Yishui
。
The destination chosen by the Anti-Japanese Independent Detachment in Western Henan was the Songshan area, which was a mountainous area suitable for guerrilla warfare.
After crossing the Yishui River, the troops turned to the east, and when they reached Baisha Town in Yichuan County, it was late, and Pi Dingjun decided to camp in Baisha Town, but when the Eighth Route Army came forward to negotiate, the local people refused to let the Eighth Route Army enter the village.
This is not only the case in Baisha Town, but also in the surrounding villages and towns, each village has built a wall and left a gun hole, and the villagers are very wary of the Eighth Route Army.
Ancient village in western Henan
Pi Dingjun and the soldiers couldn't figure out why the common people came to defend the Eighth Route Army like the Japanese. According to the reason, the ordinary people in the occupied areas should be happy to see that our own Chinese troops have come, why is every village like a thief?
Helplessly, Pi Dingjun could only let the troops camp in the wild woods.
Pi Dingjun ordered that the people should never be disturbed, and slowly, the common people also found that this army was not the same as the army stationed before, and found that the Eighth Route Army neither stole nor robbed, and when it needed grain, it also took the initiative to buy it with silver dollars, and the price given was higher than that on the market.
Pi Dingjun told the people that they were the Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party and our own troops. After understanding the situation, the common people also took the initiative to open the gate of the village to let the Eighth Route Army in, and explained the reasons for not allowing the Eighth Route Army to enter the village.
General Pi Dingjun was in western Henan
It turned out that the military discipline of some units of the Kuomintang army previously stationed in Henan was really too poor, no different from the bandits, and the common people mistakenly thought that the Eighth Route Army was also the same as the Kuomintang army stationed before, so the villages and towns in western Henan could only build walled walls to protect themselves and prevent those who were soldiers from entering the village.
Among them, the worst military discipline was the 13th Army and the 85th Army of Tang Enbo's department, so that in the stage of the rout of the Battle of Yuzhong, the 13th Army did not dare to hang the 13th Army flag when it retreated from Dengfeng, because the people of Henan saw the troops of the 13th Army, just like seeing rats in the street, and everyone shouted and beat. (The 13th Army was also an anti-Japanese strong brigade that participated in the Great Wall War of Resistance, the Nankou Bloody War, and the Taierzhuang Bloody War, and now it has fallen to the point where everyone shouts and fights, sadly)
It can be seen from this that troops who have lost the hearts and minds of the people will not have good results.
Therefore, Pi Dingjun's first step in reaching western Henan was to emphasize the discipline of the troops, and at the first time promulgated the "Eighth Route Army's Announcement of the Anti-Japanese Independent Detachment in Western Henan." ”
After the common people saw the notice, they said one after another: "I have never seen such a good army."
Not long after, the head of Commander Pi became a household name in more than a dozen counties in western Henan, and the common people affectionately called it "Lao Pi", and the anti-Japanese independent detachment in western Henan also developed from more than 1,500 people at the beginning to more than 10,000 people.
Statue of General Pi Dingjun
In 1976, after the death of General Pi Dingjun, the people of western Henan strongly demanded that Pi Dingjun be buried in Dengfeng in the western Henan region, which shows the deep feelings of the people of western Henan for General Pi Dingjun.
In the end, Pi Dingjun's wife, Zhang Feng, agreed to bury some of her ashes in Dengfeng, forever guarding the people of western Henan.