Liu Qingtang, a native of Tianjiazhuang, Ninth District, Zichuan County, Shandong Province (now part of Zhangdian District, Zibo City), was born in 1911. In early 1938, he joined the Eighth Route Army and served as the leader of the special task force in the 23rd Squadron of the Fifth Army of the Shandong People's Anti-Japanese Salvation Army. During this period, Liu Qingtang and Squadron Leader Wang Jian organized an ambush at Toad Mountain, subverting a Japanese train and eliminating more than 20 Japanese troops. After the establishment of the Zichuan Independent Battalion, Liu Qingtang was transferred to the reconnaissance team leader.
Liu Qingtang
Once, more than 500 Japanese puppet troops "swept up" Tianjiazhuang. In the southeast of the village, Liu Qingtang used the green yarn tent as a cover and single-handedly circled the enemy. The enemy surrounded for more than 3 hours, not only did not find out the reality of the other side, but suffered many casualties, and did not dare to enter the village and fled into the wilderness. After that, Liu Qingtang's prestige was greatly enhanced, and the common people called Liu Qingtang a lonely hero, but the enemy was afraid to death, calling him "Grandpa Liu Tian".
In early 1941, his superiors sent Liu Qingtang to the Luocun stronghold to spy on the enemy. Disguised as a broad man, he went to Dongguanzhuang to find Yuan Ziming, the pseudo-village chief of the "white skin and red heart", and asked Yuan Ziming to use his identity to lead him into the Luocun stronghold.
This day coincided with the Luo Village Gathering. Liu Qingtang, wearing a top hat, a long shirt, sunglasses under his eyes, and a civilized stick (cane), accompanied by Yuan Ziming, went to the north gate of Luo Village. The puppet army standing guard knew Yuan Ziming and did not interrogate him.
After entering the village, Liu Qingtang talked and laughed with Yuan Ziming casually, while vigilantly observing everything around him, and memorized the enemy's troop deployment and fortification settings. In the end, Liu Qingtang decided to meet the pseudo-captain, so he rushed to the pseudo team headquarters alone. The door guard blocked and did not allow him to enter, and Liu Qingtang was soft and hard, saying that he was a friend of the captain. The gatekeeper had to let it go.
Liu Qingtang saw the pseudo-captain introduce himself and said, "I am what you often call Grandpa Liu Tian!" The pseudo-captain was stunned and hurriedly gave up his seat. Liu Qingtang sat down with a big grin and instructed the pseudo-captain not to follow the Japanese with a dead heart, to leave a way back, not to harass the people in the countryside, not to kill the people and anti-Japanese soldiers, and to contribute to the anti-Japanese government and army.
The pseudo-captain did not dare to be sloppy, nodded his head and said "yes" repeatedly, and promised to do what he commanded. Liu Qingtang then said that he wanted to see their tunnels and other fortifications. The pseudo-captain obediently complied, and finally respectfully sent Liu Qingtang out of the stronghold. Soon, the Eighth Route Army successfully captured Luo Village and pulled out the nail.
In the summer of 1941, Zou Minshan, the governor of the fourth district of Yidu County, defected to the enemy. In exchange for the trust of the Japanese army, Zou Minshan spared no effort to offer merit to the Japanese army to ask for rewards, and repeatedly led the puppet army to try to capture Liu Qingtang, who had been with him day and night, but did not succeed. Zou Minshan, enraged, arrested Liu Qingtang's mother, brother, sister, wife, and children, and detained them in the Zhangdian Japanese Gendarmerie, threatening to let them go only if Liu Qingtang surrendered.
Liu Qingtang wrote a letter to Zou Minshan on the one hand, expressing his strong will not to surrender, and on the other hand, he shouted at the enemy stronghold in Changcheng, warning Zou Minshan and Zou Wenshan that if they abused their relatives, there would be retribution! At the same time, he also listed a list of traitors, and said whose door is headed, I know, I don't believe you see! Zou Minshan, unable to do anything, was imprisoned for three years and finally released them all.
In July 1942, the superiors decided to let Liu Qingtang and his reconnaissance team, together with the Lunan Railway Guerrillas, take on the task of escorting the chief across the border. Due to the brutal "sweeping" and "encroachment" of the Japanese puppet army, the communication line was cut off by the Japanese and puppets, and the escort task was extremely arduous. Later, with the cooperation of the fraternal troops, relying on the local masses, they traveled day and night, eliminated all kinds of difficulties, escorted Liu Shaoqi and his party across the Jinpu Railway, crossed Huxi and Southwest Lu, and arrived safely in the central area of Jiluyu in mid-August. For this reason, Liu Qingtang and others were praised by the head of the 115th Division and praised by the division.
Liu Qingtang hated the traitors and bandits to the bone. The traitor Han Qixiao, the bandit Zou Sixan, and the dog-legged Son Liu Moumou were all Tianjiazhuang people, and eventually died at the muzzle of Liu Qingtang's gun. Every time the traitors Zou Minshan, Wang Kuanshu, Wang Yishu, and others came to Tianjiazhuang to loot and harass, they must first inquire whether Liu Qingtang was at home. As long as the enemy saw someone walking around on the wall at the edge of the village, he suspected that Liu Qingtang was patrolling and inspecting the sentry, and quickly slipped away.
In the Battle of Laiwu in February 1947, the Kuomintang troops held on to the city wall, and the People's Liberation Army suffered heavy casualties. At the critical moment, Acting Battalion Commander Liu Qingtang carried an 80-kilogram explosive package on his back under the cover of fire, crossed the trench at an alarming speed, rushed to the city wall and exploded the city wall, making a battle achievement for the liberation of Laiwu.