Original: Yin Yuankun, Source: Zhonghong Network. Reprint is only for communication, without contact, such as infringement of private messages will be deleted.
The story of Ma Benzhai and the Muslim detachment turning to jiluyu
One morning in the spring of 1943, some soldiers disguised themselves as peasants, came to a village to set up some fires, disguised as cooking, cooking, due to the impact of the previous spring drought, the common people and the puppet army lacked food, at this moment the puppet army in the surrounding strongholds saw the cooking smoke rising in the village, the hungry enemy frantically moved out, and rushed to the village with murderous spirits, but what the enemy did not expect was that the officers and men of the Muslim detachment, under the command of Ma Benzhai, were ambushing on the enemy's inevitable road...
After the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident" in 1937, in 1938 Ma Benzhai organized anti-Japanese armed forces in his hometown, began to be called "Huimin Teaching Team", later called "Huimin Teaching Corps", and a year later officially changed its name to "Huimin Detachment of Jizhong Military Region", with Ma Benzhai as commander. Ma Benzhai led the Huimin detachment to fight many hard and vicious battles in the Jizhong area, and also fought many skilful and famous battles, which shocked the enemy's courage and became famous in all directions.
In 1942, the Japanese army launched the "May Day" "sweep" in Jizhong, Ma Benzhai led the Huimin detachment to break through the siege, and in September, it was transferred to the Jiluyu Border Region, and Ma Benzhai was appointed as the commander of the Third (Northwest Lu) Military Subdistrict of the Jiluyu Military Region and the commander of the Huimin Detachment, and the troops were stationed in the Zhangluji area.
In September 1943, northwestern Lu was transferred to Ji'nan District, and Ma Benzhai led the Huimin detachment to form a new three sub-districts in the area of Kunwu and Shanghe. Ma Benzhai led the Huimin detachment to gallop on the battlefield of Hebei and Luyu, killed the national prestige and military might, greatly increased the ambition of the Chinese nation, greatly destroyed the prestige of the Japanese aggressors, and caused the enemy-occupied areas to continue to shrink, and the anti-Japanese base areas to be continuously consolidated and expanded.
"Luring the snake out of the hole" cleverly set up a serial meter
There is a horse factory stronghold on the side of the Tujiao River, only eight miles away from the county seat of Xinxian county in the northeast direction, and there is a puppet army squadron stationed here, and there are artillery towers built inside the stronghold, and there are barbed wire fences and blockade ditches outside, and they constantly harass and sabotage on the edge of the base area. After finding out the deployment and activities of the enemy's troops, Ma Benzhai decided to make full use of the favorable conditions here and fight an ambush battle.
One night in the winter of 1942, soldiers from the third squadron of the Muslim detachment quietly touched the vicinity of the Horse Factory stronghold and cut the telephone line. That night, the puppet army in the stronghold found that the telephone was not connected with the county seat, thinking that the guerrillas and ordinary people had done it, and the next morning, two squads of puppet troops were dispatched to check the line. When they walked to the head of Jiaohuayuan Village in the north, the machine gun squad of the Muslim detachment suddenly appeared behind them, and they just wanted to resist, and the Muslim detachment fighters who were ambushed in the village pushed down the courtyard wall and rushed to the front with a shout. When these puppet troops saw that they were caught between the front and the back, they had no choice but to obediently surrender their guns and surrender. Muslim detachment fighters quickly moved their captives.
After hearing the news, the puppet army in the Machang stronghold hurriedly sent troops to chase after it, and the puppet army in Xinxian County also went out of the city to reinforce, and they wanted to snatch the prisoners back. When they reached the west of Machang Village, they were suddenly confronted by the Huimin detachment. It turned out that Ma Benzai had long expected that the enemy would have such a hand, and ambushed two squadrons here in advance, waiting for the enemy to take the bait. After fierce fighting, more than 30 puppet armies were eliminated.
Ma Benzai estimated that the enemy would not give up and would certainly come out to seek revenge. In order to lure the enemy deeper, Ma Benzhai ordered the third squadron of the Huimin detachment to escort the prisoners to the Area of Zhangluji, and then personally led the other squadrons of the Huimin Detachment to ambush at Dasongzhuang, five miles west of Jiao garden.
The puppet army, which had suffered a loss, decided to retaliate against the Japanese base area. On the third day, more than 200 Japanese troops were dispatched from Liaocheng, and with the cooperation of a squadron of puppet troops in Xinxian County, they rushed west along the Tujiao River with great momentum. The scouts sent by the Huimin detachment deliberately provoked the enemy in the front, and the enemy did not know what to do, the puppet army was in front, and the Japanese army was in the rear, and chased all the way west. When the enemy chased to the east of the Great Song Dynasty, suddenly a string of heavy machine gun bullets flew over the heads of the puppet army, and the soldiers of the Muslim detachment shouted: "Chinese don't fight Chinese, listen to the machine guns!" As soon as the puppet army heard the heavy machine gun shouting, it knew that it had encountered the main force of the Eighth Route Army, and it was frightened and immediately fled in all directions. In this way, the Japanese army was completely exposed to the fire of the Muslim detachment, and the heavy machine guns of the Muslim detachment fired fiercely at the Japanese army head-on. The Japanese commander organized forces to counterattack the Huimin detachment, and a grenadier loaded the shell upside down into the chamber in a panic, and "boomed" and blew up the chamber, causing the Japanese army to fly with blood and flesh. The charge horn sounded, the Muslim detachment launched a charge at the enemy, and the Japanese army left dozens of corpses to flee.
Statue of Ma Benzhai in Liaocheng
"Fire and Smoke to Annihilate the Enemy"
From 1941 onwards, there was a severe drought in North China and a severe drought in Northwest Lu, and the lives of the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians encountered great difficulties. However, the life of the Japanese puppet army was not good, and they could not eat enough to eat, so they came out to grab grain and livestock. The puppet army stood on the turret, looked around with binoculars, saw where the smoke was coming, knew where there was a fire to cook, and immediately sent people to grab it, frightening the people not to dare to cook at home during the day. After learning of these circumstances, Ma Benzai said: "This is a good opportunity to annihilate the enemy." "And formulated a battle plan to lure the enemy to the bait."
One night in the spring of 1943, the Muslim detachment sent a detachment of elite people disguised as ordinary people to infiltrate a village in the area of Sang'a Town in the southeast of Guan County, surrounded by three strongholds where the puppet army Qi Zixiu troops were stationed, and the Huimin detachment was ambushed in a triangular shape outside the village. In the early morning, the soldiers of the Muslim detachment set up a fire in the village, disguised as cooking, and wisps of "cooking smoke" rose over the village. At this time, the puppet army of the three strongholds who had been hungry for one night found the "cooking smoke" in the village from the telescope at the same time, thinking that the common people were cooking on the fire, so the puppet army of the three strongholds went out together and rushed towards the village. When these puppet troops all entered the ambush circle of the Muslim detachment, the Huimin detachment attacked on three sides, the gunfire was loud, and grenades exploded in the enemy group. These puppet troops knew that they had been ambushed by the Eighth Route Army, and quickly surrendered their guns, because they knew that the Eighth Route Army gave preferential treatment to prisoners and could drink a bowl of porridge.
In this battle, more than 600 puppet troops were captured, more than 500 rifles and 3 machine guns were captured, and none of the Huimin detachment suffered casualties. The fighters jokingly referred to this method of annihilating the enemy as the "campaign to annihilate the enemy through fire and smoke."
Qiaobu "Pocket Array"
In the spring of 1943, in order to confuse the enemy, the Muslim detachment pretended to move to the northern front to fight. The puppet army of Chaocheng learned that the Huimin detachment had shifted, so they began to go to Xiaoliujia Village north of Chaocheng to grab things with confidence and boldness. The Huimin detachment reconnaissance learned that the puppet army went out of the city to grab things in Xiaoliujia Village, and Dazhangjia Village was the only way to go. So the Muslim detachment decided to fight an ambush here. Ma Benzai led the third squadron from the northern front to the southern front to meet the fifth squadron and personally commanded the battle. The battle deployment was: the third squadron was ambushed in Xiaoliujia Village in the north, and the fifth squadron was ambushed in Dazhangjia Village in the south, which was like a large pocket open to the south, just to fit the enemy in.
One dark night, squadrons of the Muslim detachment crept into the ambush site. The fifth squadron entered the village of Dazhangjia, which was long from east to west and short to north to north. A row was buried in a courtyard at the west end of the village, the courtyard gate opened to the south, on the east side was a north-south oxcart avenue, and in the west there was a north-south path, and in front of the door was the east-west street leading to the village. Before dawn, the deputy platoon leader stood behind the wall where sorghum straw was erected in the southeast corner of the yard, observing the movement outside.
Shortly after the sun came out, a teenage boy came out of the village, carrying a basket in his hand, to a row of hidden yard doors, and climbed a large elm tree to pick elm money. When he climbed the tree, the deputy platoon leader and the sentry behind the door saw it, and everyone did not dare to alarm him and continued to hide in place. After the boy climbed the tree, the basket was full of elm money, and when he was ready to go down the tree, he looked down and saw so many soldiers in the courtyard, and he was dumbfounded, and he did not dare to come down. At this point, the deputy platoon commander was anxious: If the enemy came at this time, in case the boy spoke, wouldn't the enemy scare away? He hurriedly crossed the word "eight" with his finger, meaning that we were the Eighth Route Army, and the boy slowly climbed down from the tree.
At this moment, the enemy situation appeared: a dozen puppet soldiers came from the south along the oxcart avenue, stopped two or three meters away from the village to look at the village, walked to the west street entrance and checked everywhere, thinking that the village was all right before they went north with confidence. On the western path, dozens of puppet troops came from south to north, and the officers walking in front of them were still carrying civilized sticks and leading wolf dogs. On the south avenue of the village, nearly a hundred puppet soldiers entered the village through the south street entrance.
Suddenly, gunfire was loud and explosions were loud, and the fifth squadron of the Muslim detachment attacked the enemy from various ambush points. A puppet army officer shouted, "Run north, there are our men there!" "They wanted to join forces with the puppet army in the north and break through together, who knew that one of them would enter the ambush circle of the third squadron of the Muslim detachment." The Fifth Squadron quickly encircled from the south, and dozens of puppet troops burrowed into a compound on the edge of the village. The Muslim detachment immediately organized its forces and launched an attack on the enemy who was guarding the courtyard, with the third squadron attacking in the north and the fifth squadron assisting in the south. Under the cover of machine guns, grenadiers, and grenades, the soldiers rushed into the courtyard with bayonet-mounted rifles and shouted "surrender their guns and do not kill", and these puppet soldiers obediently became prisoners.
After cleaning up the battlefield, Ma Benzhai spoke to everyone: "The two squadrons cooperated very well, fiercely fighting, charging, and chasing fiercely, and at a small cost, they achieved a great victory. Attacking strongholds and ambushes will strike the enemy the hardest, and in the future, we must adopt these two tactics more! ”
Fierce battle breaks the building
One day in April 1943, the fifth squadron of the Muslim detachment, led by squadron leader Liu Qingrui, went to the village of Broken House to carry out rent and interest reduction work. The northeast of Broken House Village is only ten miles away from the county seat of Xinxian County. The Japanese army in Xinxian County quickly received intelligence that the Huimin detachment dared to run under its own nose to operate, which was a good opportunity to annihilate the Huimin detachment, so it sent sixty or seventy Japanese troops and hundreds of puppet troops to attack loucun.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese puppet army came to the village of Broken House. At this time, the Muslim detachment was still in the village. Squadron Leader Liu Qingrui analyzed the situation, believing that the village was surrounded by open land and that it was dangerous to move now, and decided to persist until after dusk before withdrawing from the battle, and immediately made combat arrangements. Broken House Village is not large, there is only an east-west street, there is a south street entrance, there is no north street mouth, in the shape of a "D". The Japanese first launched several attacks from the north, but were repelled by the Muslim detachment.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the weather turned dark and the wind was fierce. The Japanese took advantage of the darkness to move to the west and attacked the village from the west. The machine gun squad of the Huimin detachment quickly rushed to the west street entrance and occupied the firing position; several large vehicles were overturned and blocked at the west street entrance to prevent the enemy from breaking in. The Japanese rushed to the obstacle several times, but they were all beaten back.
After dusk, the Japanese attacked the village from the south. Due to the weak defense of the militia, the Japanese army invaded the village from the South Street Pass, and the situation was extremely critical. The Huimin detachment immediately adjusted its troop deployment and quickly occupied the roof of North Street, and a fierce street battle began. Under the cover of grenadiers and mortars, the Japanese army launched a charge again and again on North Street, and the Muslim detachment heroically returned fire on the roof with machine guns, rifles, and grenades, knocking the enemy back to South Street. The battle was fierce, with Li Ping, the political commissar of the squadron, the deputy platoon commander of the second platoon, and the commanders and others seriously wounded, and the soldiers Li Jinpu and the cookers were killed by shells. The japanese army and puppet army launched many attacks in the east and north of the village were also repelled.
The Japanese army could not attack the broken building for a long time, and was not good at night fighting, and was worried that the reinforcements of the Huimin detachment would arrive, so they hastily collected their troops and fled back to the county seat in a hurry. Summing up the lessons of this battle, Ma Benzhai said: "As an excellent unit, we must not only be good at fighting evil battles, but also be able to fight skillful battles. As an excellent commander, we must calmly analyze and judge the enemy's situation, and we must not fight a battle without preparation or certainty. ”
Muslim detachment warriors
Outsmart the bunker group
Wen Da, commander of the pseudo-provisional Thirty-first Division, occupied Chaocheng, set up bunkers and strongholds around Chaocheng, and constantly "encroached" on the central area of Pufanguan to the south. In order to combat the arrogance of the enemy, the Jiluyu Military Region decided to launch a campaign facing south. The operational arrangements were: the main forces of the Second Division and the local armed forces were the right wing corps, the main forces of the Third Division, and the parts of the Fourth Division were armed as the left wing corps, which carried out bold interspersing, and the Huimin detachments carried out mobile operations, and advanced from the north to the south of the Nanle Highway in Chengcheng.
On July 5, 1943, the battle officially began. One night, the Fifth Squadron of the Muslim Detachment, led by Squadron Leader Liu Zirong, quickly surrounded three puppet army pillboxes around Zhangzhuang north of Chaocheng. At this time, Ma Benzai was accompanied by the chief of the operations section and the chief of the enemy engineering section and came to the fifth squadron. Squadron Commander Liu Zirong reported the enemy situation to Ma Benzhai: Pillbox No. 1 is located in the northwest of the village and is guarded by the commander of the puppet army; the Second pillbox is located in the southwest of the village and is guarded by the troops led by the puppet deputy company commander; and the No. 3 pillbox is located in the northeast of the village and is guarded by the puppet platoon commander. After study, it was determined that the second and third pillboxes would continue to be besieged and not attacked for the time being; and the forces should be concentrated to deal with the First pillbox, which was guarded by the pseudo-company commander.
After dark, Ma Benzhai and two section chiefs came to the front of Bunker No. 1, and the chief of the enemy engineering section shouted to the commander of the puppet army company in the bunker: "Commander Ma of our military sub-district is talking to you!" Ma Benzhai nodded at the name of the company commander of the puppet army and said, "We know that you are a last resort to follow Wen Dake as a traitor, and you can not blame the past for your past." Now give you a chance to abandon the dark and cast light, that is, to lay down your weapons and get out of the bunker. Those who are willing to resist Japan are welcome; those who are willing to go home are issued with passes and travel expenses. Give you half an hour and hope you think about it. ”
The commander of the puppet company was very cunning and wanted to take the opportunity to break through, and as soon as they rushed to the gate of the village, they were shot back by a platoon of guns from the Fifth Squadron. The chief of the enemy engineering section shouted to Bunker One again: "Give you one last ten minutes!" The commander of the puppet army company also wanted to play a slippery head: "Our family members are in the city, if we don't put a few shots, we will abandon the turret, for fear of affecting our families." Please retreat a little, and your guns will hit a few times. The chief of the operations section saw through the enemy's plot: "They want to see if we have guns or not, and take the opportunity of our retreat to break through." Ma Benzhai said: "We can't delay any longer, adjust the strength and weapons." Squadron Leader Liu Zirong adjusted his deployment according to Ma Benzhai's instructions and immediately launched an attack on Bunker No. 1. At the same time as the machine guns fired fiercely, three grenades were dropped on the high slopes east of the village, like three cannons, followed by three explosions on the side of the deer. The company commander of the puppet army thought that the Huimin detachment had fired artillery at the bunker, and quickly shouted: "We stop fighting, we truce!" ”
The commander of the puppet army who had laid down his weapons walked out of the stronghold, and Ma Benzai said to him: "Give you another chance to make meritorious deeds, you go to bunkers no. 2 and no. 3 and persuade them to lay down their weapons." Under the strong military pressure of the Fifth Squadron and the persuasion of the company commander of the puppet army, the puppet troops of bunkers No. 2 and No. 3 laid down their weapons and walked out of the bunkers before dawn.
After the battle began, the left and right wing corps were divided and encircled from the combined headquarters of the 61st brigade and the 62nd brigade of the pseudo-Wen Dake, and the main force attacked the two brigade headquarters, and the other troops besieged the outlying strongholds. Overnight, the Huimin detachment pulled out more than 20 bunkers and strongholds of the puppet army in Chaocheng. The battle ended on July 11, capturing more than 70 bunkers and strongholds and annihilating more than 700 Japanese puppet troops. After that, the puppet army of Chaocheng shrank into several strongholds near the county seat and no longer dared to come out, and the anti-Japanese base area was restored and expanded.
Muslim detachment warriors
Hachiko Bridge "Ox knife drill heart"
In late September 1943, after the Japanese army launched a major autumn "sweep" of the anti-Japanese base area in Jiluyu, Sun Liangcheng, commander-in-chief of the pseudo-Second Front, ordered the provisional Fifth Army to occupy the area around Puxian County, and the provisional Fourth Army to occupy the area from Puyang to Dongming, and Sun Liangcheng led two regiments of the Thirty-eighth Division and a special task force regiment to garrison Bagongqiao. This is like a nail wedged into the base area, threatening the consolidation and development of the base area.
The Jiluyu Military Region decided to destroy the Bagong Bridge, Sun Liangcheng's command organ. However, the Bagong Bridge is located deep in the enemy's depths, with bunkers and tight security, and it will not be easy to destroy it. At a meeting held by the military region to discuss the Battle of Bagongqiao, Ma Benzhai put forward the tactic of "drilling the heart with a cattle knife" and explained: "The tactic of 'drilling the heart with a cattle knife' is to first concentrate superior forces, dig up the enemy's headquarters, the Bagong Bridge, and then turn around and clear the peripheral strongholds. The enemy naturally thinks that we will not attack here, and the enemy is 'eating' at me step by step, and is getting carried away. From our point of view, our main force is two or three hundred miles away from the Bagong Bridge and has not yet attracted the attention of the enemy. Taking advantage of these possible paralysis of the enemy, we rushed into their hearts and caught him off guard, and it was safe to capture the Bagong Bridge. ”
To this end, the military region instructed the Huimin detachment to find out the military deployment of the puppet army at Bagongqiao, and the Huimin detachment sent Li Guodong, chief of the sub-district operations section and staff officer of the detachment, and Wang Jizhong, a surveyor, to infiltrate the Bagongqiao bridge for reconnaissance. Disguised as merchants, they wandered around the town at the aid of the inner line. In the warehouse, the scout deliberately paraphrased the boss's words: "I know five of the chiefs of the eight divisions of the headquarters, and last night the deputy director invited me to his house for a drink." The boss said politely: "Director Wang of the General Staff Office of the Headquarters forced me to get 30% of the shares of this small shop, and his family lives in the Liu Family Compound on North Street, and there are bunkers on all four walls." In the Halal Hotel, the scout overheard the puppet army talking: "Our commander-in-chief Sun, go to Kaifeng again!" After reconnaissance everywhere, the scouts clarified the intelligence on the deployment of the puppet army at Bagongqiao, fortifications, communications, road traffic, and so on, and then recorded them in the ledger with marks.
After the scouts returned, they drew a map of the configuration of the puppet army at Bagong Bridge. Based on this information, the military region decided to launch the Battle of Bagong bridge. Before the war, the illusion of attacking eastwards was made, deliberately confusing the enemy, and the enemy really relaxed his vigilance. The deployment of this campaign was as follows: The main force of the Second Sub-district was mainly attacking Bagongqiao; the Fourth and Fifth Sub-districts were placed in the direction of Puyang, Xinxiang, and Dongming to block and aid the enemy; the county brigades of several counties hooped the outer strongholds of Bagongqiao; the Third Sub-district and the Huimin detachments, and the second and fourth sub-districts were partially armed to hold the enemy in Puxian County.
On November 16, 1943, the battle began, and at dusk, Zeng Siyu led the main attacking force from the west of the Yellow River Old Road and the northeast of Bagong Bridge to Bagong Bridge. That night, the wind was fierce, the yellow sand was all over the sky, and the enemy never expected that the Eighth Route Army would sneak into the headquarters of Bagongqiao at this time. The troops first broke into the town from the northeast corner and approached the eight major points of the headquarters of the pseudo-Second Front. Other troops entered the town from the southeast and southwest corners. On the morning of the 17th, only the core bunker at the crossroads was still stubbornly resisting, and the soldiers wrapped up cotton, peppers, and hair and lit them and stuffed them into the bunkers, choking the puppet army breathlessly, so that they had to surrender their guns and surrender. The Huimin detachment and other units effectively restrained the enemy and ensured the smooth progress of the Battle of Bagong bridge. Li Guodong, chief of the operations section of the Third Division and staff officer of the detachment, was shot and killed while observing the enemy's situation on the wall.
In this campaign, the pseudo-chief of staff Zhen Jiyin was captured, but unfortunately Sun Liangcheng went to Kaifeng on the evening of the 15th and missed a big fish. After the battle, the pseudo-Fifth Army was like a bird of fright, and hurriedly withdrew from Puyang from the area around Pu County. Ma Benzhai's military command ability left a deep impression on the cadres and fighters of the Jiluyu Military Region, and Huang Jing, secretary of the district party committee, called him a "rising genius military expert."
(About the author: Yin Yuankun, a native of Liaocheng, Shandong, a retired cadre of a municipal unit directly under the municipal government, bachelor's degree, deputy editor title, author of "Ma Benzhai and the Huimin Detachment in Jiluyu", editor-in-chief of "Liaocheng Area Intellectual Youth Going to the Mountains and Going to the Countryside", published many articles in Shandong "Dazhong Daily", "Qilu Wenshi", "Shandong Party History", Shanghai "Talent Development" and so on)