Japan's invasion of China has brought too much bitterness and blood and tears to the Chinese people, and reading it can't help but make people feel heavy and resentful. We can go through the history books and see some amazing examples of war. For example, in the Battle of Anguo in 1938, when the Japanese army and the Eighth Route Army were fighting, they actually staged a strange "firecracker war". This article combines the historical materials of China and Japan to tell you the story.
(1) Lü Zhengcao occupied the "land of chicken ribs", but the Japanese army had no choice but to sleep and eat
The place where the story takes place- Anguo County, Hebei Province, is located in the hinterland of Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, the "triangle" of the North China Great Plain, about 150 kilometers north of Beijing. It is reasonable to say that such a plain county town with no danger to defend is very difficult to defend as an anti-Japanese base area. Because on the flat ground, it is conducive to the japanese mechanized troops to exert their might, whether it is the Eighth Route Army or the Chiang Kai-shek Army, it is difficult to resist the advance of the Japanese mechanized troops with inferior weapons in their hands. Therefore, shortly after the July 7 Incident, Jiang Jun took the initiative to abandon this place. However, as soon as Jiang Jun left, Lü Zhengcao, commander of the Jizhong Military Region of the Eighth Route Army, led his troops into the garrison, and instead turned this operation into an important anti-Japanese bridgehead in the central Hebei region.
Lü Zhengcao during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
So, why did Lu Zhengcao do the opposite, but instead garrisoned in a place that was not easy to defend? In fact, this is to highlight the general's superb strategic vision. Anguo seemed to be in no danger, but there was no railway passing by, and if the Japanese army wanted to capture this place, it had to take the road. Although there were two major roads here, which passed through Baoding in the north and Ding County in Nantong, in early 1938, when the Eighth Route Army entered Anguo, the Japanese army did not fully gain control of these roads. Therefore, as long as the road is damaged to the point where Japanese vehicles cannot pass, so that the trucks carrying the heavy weapons of the Japanese army cannot go, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army cannot be fully utilized.
The Eighth Route Army, which is mainly light infantry, does not have such a restriction on marching, relying on Anguo County, the Eighth Route Army can continue to attack the enemy on the Pinghan Line, making it difficult for the Japanese army to sleep and eat. Therefore, in the hands of the Eighth Route Army, which is known for its mobility on foot, Anguo County is a good place to attack and retreat.
It was also because the Eighth Route Army was stationed in Anguo that the Japanese troops on the Pinghan Line were repeatedly attacked. Therefore, the Japanese army has repeatedly gathered heavy troops to attack Anguo. However, due to the destruction of the road, the besieging Japanese army could not carry heavy weapons, and who was more capable of light infantry combat, and who was the people's army afraid of? Therefore, many Japanese attacks have been fruitless.
Raids
(2) The Japanese army attacked Anguo with heavy troops, "quietly entering the village, and not shooting guns"
In order to remove the "nail" of Anguo, in June 1938, the Japanese army planned a large-scale offensive and sent the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Wing of the North China Garrison Army, with a heavy machine gun squadron, an infantry artillery squadron, a brigade artillery squadron, plus two brigades (equivalent to battalions) of the puppet army, a total of more than 2,200 people to invade Anguo. What is the concept of the scale of this attack? According to the experience of the Japanese army in the frontal battlefield in 1938, they dared to attack a division of Chiang Kai-shek's army with a single brigade (with a full strength of about 1200 people). The Eighth Route Army in Anguo, on the other hand, had only one regiment, the 4th Regiment, plus a battalion that had temporarily arrived from Fukazawa for rotation training, which was more than 1,000 people. It can be seen that in order to deal with the More than 1,000 Eighth Route Army in The Anguo District, the Japanese army absolutely made a bloody contribution.
However, before the Japanese army could set out, its plan of action was all mastered by the Eighth Route Army--first, thanks to the good mass base of the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese garrison and the marching route were full of eighth route army eyeliners, so the news of the Japanese army was not badly grasped by the Eighth Route Army; second, the intelligence network formed by Japanese anti-war forces such as Nakanishi Gong and Hideshi Ozaki played a role at that time, and they even sent the numbers, weapons configuration, and supplies of the Japanese puppet troops to The North China Dispatch Army Intelligence Division, Nagao Ozaki Shotaro, who was also a progressive person. It is an important source of intelligence for our army. After Ozaki received the news, it was passed on to the Eighth Route Army through a network of connections. The intelligence is so detailed, it is impossible to say that it is impossible to fight an ambush without hitting it! So Lü Zhengcao decided to catch it off guard on the road that the Japanese army had to pass.
The commander of the Japanese offensive operation, The commander of the 2nd Brigade, Katsura Yoshida, was not an ordinary character. As early as his time at the Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, he was called "deceitful" by his classmates. In this operation, in view of the lessons learned from the failure of previous attacks, he ordered all troops to "quietly enter the village, and do not shoot guns", the troops went out day and night, specially selected small roads to march quickly, and actually avoided the ambush circle of the Eighth Route Army and ran directly to the city of Anguo!
At this time, the Eighth Route Army stationed in the county seat had only one battalion that had just arrived from Fukazawa. If the Japanese army launched a surprise attack at this time, it is likely to take the county seat. However, I don't know what the Japanese army thinks, it may be that they are jealous of the combat strength of the Eighth Route Army, they have to arrange the artillery and machine guns, swing the formation, and start to attack the city in a serious manner. In this way, the attack lost its suddenness, and the Eighth Route Army gained time to react.
The former county seat of Anguo
Shen Ze was the hometown of Lü Zhengcao's father-in-law, and the troops there could be described as the guards of the Jizhong Military Region. Although there are few people, these battle-hardened veterans are not ambiguous about fighting. Relying on the city walls and the houses and mounds outside the city, they fought the Japanese army with no difficulty in moving. As mentioned earlier, Anguo is located in the plain, and the Japanese army really did not have any natural obstacles to use when attacking, so they could only use some field graves as cover to avoid bullets fired by the Eighth Route Army. But as long as these guys dare to show their heads, they will be sniped by the Eighth Route Army immediately. The commander of the 2nd Squadron, Lieutenant Inan Jingxiong, wanted to see the fire configuration of the Eighth Route Army opposite, and as soon as he stuck one eye out of the grave, he was accurately hit by this eye and killed on the spot.
(3) The Japanese army invaded the county seat, but was surrounded instead, and "set off firecrackers in gasoline barrels" for the eighth route army to escape from life.
The battle was fought all night, because the Eighth Route Army had few troops, and after dawn the Japanese aircraft came to help, in order to preserve its strength, the Eighth Route Army decided to retreat. When the Japanese army entered the city, it found that the Eighth Route Army not only withdrew to Liso, but also did not leave all the weapons, ammunition, and even the remains of the sacrificed officers and soldiers, and could not help but be secretly surprised. It should be known that taiyuan city, where chiang kai-shek's tens of thousands of troops were stationed, fell after less than three days of defense, while the hundreds of Eighth Route Army troops in Anguo County, armed with heavy artillery and aircraft to help the army, actually fought for a whole night, and you can also imagine the level of consternation of the Japanese army.
At this time, the main force of the Eighth Route Army led by Lü Zhengcao rushed over. Before the Japanese army could catch their breath when they entered the city, they were surrounded by the Eighth Route Army in Anguo City. It is reasonable to say that the Japanese army has superior troops and heavy firearms, and it is not afraid of being besieged by the Eighth Route Army. The problem was that due to the long-distance attack of the Japanese army, it fought a bloody night with the Eighth Route Army, which consumed a lot. In addition, after entering the city, some people mistakenly took tung oil as cooking oil to eat as a dish, and as a result, a bunch of people had diarrhea, which affected the combat effectiveness. Therefore, although the Eighth Route Army could not enter the city because of the lack of heavy weapons, the Japanese army could only barely support it. During the day, because the Japanese army had air support, the Eighth Route Army launched an attack at night. They set off firecrackers in gasoline barrels to simulate the sound of machine gun fire, disturbing the Japanese army throughout the night.
After two days, the Japanese army really could not hold on, so it decided to break through. However, some people's diarrhea has not improved, and they are tossed at night and cannot sleep, breaking through in such a state, and the probability of success is almost zero. To say that the Japanese commander Yoshida Katsu was really "deceitful", he thought about it and decided to follow the method of the Eighth Route Army and set off firecrackers in gasoline barrels.
The Japanese placed a large candle on the south gate of the county town, and every other section was connected to a lead, each of which was connected by a string of firecrackers placed in gasoline barrels. According to the design, this candle will ignite a string of firecrackers every 5 minutes until it burns out. Comparing the literature between the two sides, it can be seen that Yoshida Katsumi was really cunning: the south gate was the main direction of Lü Zhengcao's decision to launch a general offensive, and the Eighth Route Army had already concentrated all 5 mortars and 1 infantry gun here the night before the Japanese retreat.
At 23:00 on June 20, the Japanese army quietly retreated from the west gate, and at this moment, the firecrackers at the south gate began to crackle. The Eighth Route Army did not expect the Japanese army to learn to set off firecrackers so quickly, and for a while it also thought that the Japanese army had strengthened the defensive firepower of the south gate, so it did not rush to attack. However, the Japanese army was the tactics of the "shanzhai" Eighth Route Army in the end, and it was not learned in a hurry: the Eighth Route Army released firecrackers and would make a few holes in the gasoline barrels containing firecrackers, so that the sound of firecrackers was very crisp and loud, and it sounded very similar to the shooting sound of the Japanese Type 96 light machine gun from a distance. However, the Japanese army obviously did not know the "unique secret book" of the Eighth Route Army, and did not make holes in the gasoline barrel, so the sound of firecrackers seemed a little dull.
After a while, a few veterans heard something was wrong: this is not the sound of Japanese machine guns, this is the sound of firecrackers! "The enemy wants to run!" At the behest of Lü Zhengcao, the Eighth Route Army quickly dispatched and successfully recovered the county seat of Anguo, which had been lost for only three days. Only due to the misleading of the Japanese firecrackers, the Eighth Route Army entered the city half an hour late and did not capture the main force of the Japanese army.
Japanese Type 96 light machine gun
After the Japanese army left the city, the soldiers were divided into two routes, one escorting artillery and other heavy weapons to Return to Dingxian County, and the other escorting heavy supplies to Baoding. The reason for this retreat of the north-south division was also arranged by Katsura Yoshida. In this way, once attacked on the road, the two roads of men and horses can at least have a way to withdraw, so that the whole army will not be destroyed. It can be seen that this man was deceitful, because just as the Japanese army was retreating, the people and horses escorting the supplies were ambushed by the Eighth Route Army that had previously retreated from Anguo, and the Japanese army was unable to resist, so it had to flee for its life in a hurry, abandoning weapons, ammunition, and materials along the way, including 74 rifles, 9 light machine guns, 3 heavy machine guns, 5 grenadiers, including weapons, as well as 53 large trucks of various materials, as well as more than 100 mules and horses, all of which were laughed at by the Eighth Route Army.
This rather peculiar "firecracker war" in the War of Resistance ended in this way. I wonder how Yoshida Katsumi would feel when he learned that the weapons and equipment he had painstakingly saved with firecrackers had finally reached the hands of the Eighth Route Army.
【Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, welcome to submit, private messages will be restored】