The loss of Guangling and Lingqiu highlights the importance of Pingshiguan. The Chinese army retreated to the front line of Pingxingguan, holding the only way for the Japanese army to attack the flank of Yanmen Pass from Lingqiu. On September 22, the vanguard of the Itagaki Division reached Pingxingguan and engaged in a fierce battle with the Chinese army. The next day, itagaki's main force arrived and attacked the high ground on both sides of the road. The Chinese defenders on the heights had only two companies, and after a night of bitter fighting, all were killed. On the 24th, Fu Zuoyi led two brigades to Pingxingguan and fought fiercely with the Japanese army for a whole day, suffering heavy casualties and losing several highlands. At dawn the next day, Fu Zuoyi organized a counterattack, which coincided with the Japanese attack, the counterattack troops could not advance, but were repelled by the Japanese army, and the dangerous positions such as Tuanchengkou and Harrier Creek were occupied by the Japanese army. At noon, Chen Changjie's division arrived, and the Chinese army took advantage of the situation to counterattack again and retake the high ground such as Harrier Creek.
Video link: In the 1937 Battle of Pingxingguan, Yang Yong insisted on fighting with one arm, and Chairman Mao called him "Tiger General"
During this time, Lin Biao led the 343rd Brigade of the vanguard of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army into the town of Daying and quickly dispatched a reconnaissance detachment to find out the situation in the Pingxingguan area. Pingshiguan is the gateway formed at the junction of Hengshan And Taihang Mountains. The valley between the two mountains runs through a passageway, which is the road from Wei County to Dai County. It protrudes from Lingqiu City, travels west along the Tang River Valley for twenty kilometers, passes through Donghenan Town, breaks off the river valley at Caijiayu Village, and turns to the southwest Pingxingguan MountainOus District; and then two kilometers ahead, from Xiaozhai Village into the narrow ditch, to the exit of Laoye Temple, with a total length of four kilometers, the ditch is ten to thirty meters deep and ten to twenty meters wide.
"Tiger General" Yang Yong
The thirty-kilometer section from Lingqiu to Pingjiaguan is divided into three types of terrain: the twenty-kilometer section from Lingqiu City to Caijiayu Village is the River Valley River Road; starting from Caijiayu Village, the terrain of the two-kilometer section has become complicated, especially the four-kilometer section from Xiaozhai to Laoye Temple is very dangerous; the four-kilometer section from Laoye Temple to Pingjiaguan has become open again. Obviously, the four kilometers from the small village to the Laoye Temple are very suitable for ambushes. The terrain in this area is narrow and long, and the incoming troops and firearms cannot be deployed, and the dilemma of attack and defense is like a rat in a bellows.
Lin Biao took a fancy to this place at a glance. Subsequently, he also brought people to inspect this section of terrain, and found that the thirteen-kilometer section from Guangou to Donghenan Town was deep and narrow, the terrain was very dangerous, and the highlands on both sides were convenient for concealing troops, developing firepower, and launching surprise attacks. He ordered Chen Guang's 343rd Brigade to advance from Daying Town to the Shangzhai area southeast of Pingxingguan to assemble covertly for pre-war preparations; at the same time, he ordered the 344th Brigade, which was moving north along the Tongpu Road, to quickly move closer to the Pingxingguan area.
The commander of the Eighth Route Army surveyed the terrain
Make a battle plan
On the 22nd, a division of the 21st Infantry Brigade of the Itagaki Division, Toshiki Miura, attacked from Lingqiu to Hirashi-kan and occupied the Higashi-Paochi area. The next day, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army ordered the 115th Division to maneuver between Pingxingguan and Lingqiu to flank the Japanese forces. On the same day, Nie Rongzhen led Xu Haidong's 344th Brigade to Shangzhai. He told Lin Biao that the troops had all come up and asked Lin Biao to talk about the enemy's situation and preparations for war. Lin Biao told him that the Japanese army's large group of men and horses was moving in the direction of Pingxingguan, and the terrain here was good, and they could fight a battle. Subsequently, Lin Biao spread out the map and, together with several staff officers, introduced the terrain around Pingxingguan and the preliminary battle ideas, and consulted Nie Rongzhen's views. Nie Rongzhen agreed to fight a battle here. He said: "It is easy to be condescending here and ambush the enemy. The people of the whole country are looking at us, and this time we must fight well, play the prestige of the Eighth Route Army, and give the people of the whole country an invigorated anti-Japanese sentiment."
In this way, the preliminary plan for the Pingxingguan operation was roughly determined. However, the 115th Division was too late to report to its superiors, and could only be decided by the commanders at the front. The battle plan of the 115th Division was not necessary to inform Yan Xishan. At that time, the Eighth Route Army was assigned to the Second Theater of Operations of Yan Xishan, but the Ccp said first, the actions of the Eighth Route Army were "independent and autonomous", and after the Eighth Route Army entered Shanxi, there was no need to greet Yan Xishan, and yan Xishan had any ideas, which could be directly contacted by the Eighth Route Army office in Taiyuan or conveyed by the eighth route army headquarters. However, this was the first time that the Nationalist and Communist armies jointly resisted Japan, and out of courtesy, Lin Biao still sent someone to inform Sun Chu, the commander of the Thirty-third Army under Yan Xishan.
Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen held a meeting of cadres at and above the divisional company level in Shangzhai on the 23rd to mobilize for battle. Lin Biao explained the determination of the division headquarters, ordered the independent regiment and cavalry battalion to move in the direction of Lingqiu and Laiyuan, disrupted the rear of the Japanese army, and contained and attacked the Japanese reinforcements; ordered two regiments of Chen Guang's brigade to serve as the main attack, one regiment of Xu Haidong's brigade to the north of Pingxingguan to cut off the enemy's retreat, and one regiment as the reserve of the division. The attacking forces all set up ambushes in the mountains on the east side of the flat-shaped Kanto, ready to give the Japanese a fierce blow. After the meeting, the division led the main force into the area of Ranzhuang and Dongchangcheng Village, east of Pingshiguan, that night.
Deliver supplies
On the 24th, Yang Aiyuan's Sixth Army of the Second Theater of Operations sent Lin Biao the "Pingxingguan Attack Plan", which was planned to use the Seventy-first Division plus the newly formed Second Division and the Independent Eighth Brigade to cooperate with the 115th Division to attack the Japanese troops east of Pingxingguan. On the same day, the main commanders of the 115th Division, under the leadership of Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen, once again surveyed the Pingxingguan area and determined that on the high ground on both sides of the road from The Northeast Guangou to the South Town of Donghenan in Pingxingguan, taking advantage of the condescending terrain that was convenient for concealment and surprise attack, adopted the tactic of one-wing ambush to annihilate the Japanese troops advancing from Lingqiu to Pingxingguan. During the survey, the deployment of troops was planned in more detail and the specific tasks of each unit were clarified.
They decided that the 686th Regiment of Chen Guang's Brigade would occupy the highlands east of Xiaozhai Village to Laoyemiao Temple, carry out a mid-range assault, divide and annihilate the Japanese troops advancing along the road, and then develop an attack in the direction of Dongpaochi; the 685th Regiment would occupy the area south of Laoyemiao temple to Guangou to block the return of japanese troops from Dongpaochi, and then cooperate with the Kuomintang troops defending Pingxingguan to attack the Japanese troops in Dongpaochi; the 687th Regiment of Xu Haidong's Brigade occupied Xicun, Caijiayu, and the highlands south of Donghenan Town, cut off the enemy's retreat, and block the Japanese reinforcements from the direction of Lingqiu and Hunyuan The 688th Regiment was the division reserve.
Ambush in the rain at night
Fighting ambushes is Lin Biao's best trick. He organized ambush battles many times during the Long March of the Red Army, when the Kuomintang army did not suffer less from the Red First Army. One of Nie Rongzhen's evaluations of Lin Biao in his memoirs was that he was "good at organizing large troops to ambush", and now Lin Biao wanted to ambush an elite unit of the Japanese army here.
The purpose of Lin Biao's deployment of troops was to intercept the Japanese army's vanguard, cut off the Japanese army's retreat, carry out an intermediate assault, and divide and annihilate the enemy. He ensured superiority in strength when ambushing the Japanese, and deployed enough troops to block the Japanese reinforcements. In order to hide the intention of the battle and evade the reconnaissance of the enemy, the 115th Division decided that the troops would take advantage of the dim sight of the moon and the enemy's difficulty to detect, and immediately entered the ambush position that night. Chen Guang's brigade was ordered to leave at 0 o'clock and enter the baiyatai line to ambush, and Xu Haidong's brigade followed. It also asked the troops to complete their operational preparations by dawn the next day. On the night of the 24th, the troops began to move towards the combat area. For cover, most of the troops chose the most difficult path to walk. That night, the clouds in the sky were thicker and thicker, and the sky was getting darker and darker, as if it were a pot in the mouth. After a while, a heavy rain began to fall. The Eighth Route Army was poorly equipped, there was no rain gear at all, and the thin uniforms on each soldier were drenched by the heavy rain. The most terrible thing is that after the heavy rain, it is very likely to cause flash floods and landslides and other disasters, and some troops have to pass through the river valley.
Usually there is no water in the river valley, and once it rains heavily, the waves will soon rush. It rained heavily that night, and the river soon became deeper. The warriors scrambled and jumped into the river, and the flood was so rapid that it swept some of the warriors away. Some of them were veteran soldiers who had come to northern Shaanxi after a 25,000-mile long march, and fighting against the Japanese army was their long wish for many years, but they were about to fight the Japanese face to face, but they were killed by the flood. No army can avoid non-combat attrition. It is a pity that these fighters died a few hours before the battle. Of course, the Eighth Route Army could choose to let the engineer battalion build the bridge first, but it took too long to dispel this idea. The warriors had to hang guns and bullets around their necks, hold hands in a human chain, and forcibly cross the river. If the flood is not large, this approach will work. However, some troops of Xu Haidong's brigade, which finally set out, were stopped by the flood. In order to reduce unnecessary casualties, Lin Nie and the two ordered that those who did not come over would no longer be forced to cross and reduce sacrifices.
Before dawn, the 685th Regiment led by Yang Dezhi and Chen Zhengxiang and the 686th Regiment led by Li Tianyou and Yang Yong occupied the predetermined ambush positions as planned and quickly completed the preparations for the ambush. The Independent Regiment and the Cavalry Battalion had marched on the 23rd to the northeast and east of the Pingshi Pass, respectively. On the 24th, the Independent Regiment encountered the Japanese at the waist station between Lingqiu and Laiyuan, killing more than 300 Japanese troops and making a good start to the Battle of Pingxingguan. On the 25th, just as the sky was dark, the rear guard troops of the Miura Brigade of the Itagaki Division took more than 100 cars and carried the weight of more than 200 large vehicles, totaling about 2,000 people, along the road from Lingqiu to Pingxingguan.
Japanese tank units
The soldiers of the 115th Division watched the road warily from the ambush positions. After a night of marching in the rain, they were very tired, but none of them were sleepy. The tension and excitement that preceded the great war pervaded the positions. They first heard the sound of motors in the distance, and then faintly saw the shadow of japanese cars. The car got closer and closer, only to find that there was a big carriage behind it. The first car had a sun flag on it, and dozens of Japanese soldiers sat in their arms, wearing shining steel helmets, yellow tweed coats, and bayonet-based rifles in their arms. These soldiers were well-equipped, and they had rarely encountered strong resistance since the invasion of China, and on Chinese soil, they could not live without anyone around them. This was Itagaki Seishiro's troops. Itagaki is a representative of Bushido and is very famous in the Japanese army. He chose Pingxingguan as a roundabout route because he knew that this was the junction of Shanxi and Hebei, and it was a weak link for the Chinese defenders. As a result, Itagaki's troops were unprepared here.
Detective the trajectory of Japanese troop movements
The soldiers' eyes widened as they watched the Japanese troops entering the ambush area going north to resist Japan was something that the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army dreamed of, but this was the first time they had seen the Japanese with their own eyes, and almost everyone had wide-eyed, trying to see clearly the opponents of the Orient. I used to think, "What do Japanese people really look like?" "Now they saw clearly, the little devil and we looked similar, yellow skin and black hair, two arms and legs, no downwind ears, no clairvoyance, not three heads and six arms." In the presence of the enemy, the warriors were well-armed with bayonets and filled with bullets in the chambers, and the machine gun shooters had already aimed at the target, just waiting for the commander to give an order.
Formal engagement
At about 7 o'clock, all the Japanese troops entered the ambush area. Due to the narrow roads and muddy roads after the rain, the Japanese vehicles were overcrowded and moved very slowly. The 115th Division seized the favorable fighter plane and suddenly opened fire on the entire line, inflicting a large number of casualties on the Japanese army and taking advantage of the Japanese confusion to launch an attack. The cars in front of the Japanese army had been broken and could not catch fire, and the cars, carts and mules and horses behind them were crowded together and could not move. The Japanese were stunned by the sudden ambush and jumped out of the car and scattered. They probably never dreamed that they would encounter such a fierce blow during the day. The panic of the elite Miura Brigade of the Japanese Army soon passed. These Japanese officers and men, who had undergone long-term training, were originally a very strong fighting force. They woke up from their initial ignorance, like a wolf resting on the ground hungry, and when they saw the appearance of their prey, they immediately burst out of their bones and rushed frantically towards the place where the command knife pointed.
Rush to the front line to command
Carrying out the task of head-stopping and flanking was Yang Dezhi's 685th Regiment. This regiment was originally the main force of the Red Army, and the three battalions under its command had a glorious history of battle. The first battalion was brought out by Zhu De from the Nanchang Uprising; the second battalion was brought out of Jinggangshan with Mao Zedong to participate in the Autumn Harvest Uprising; and the third battalion was the foundation of the Red Third Army led by Huang Gongliu. Many of the warriors are veterans of the Long March. Liu Zheng, commander of the first battalion, Zeng Guohua, commander of the second battalion, and Liang Xingchu, commander of the third battalion, were all cadres of the Red Army and had served as leaders at the regimental level. When the Japanese army entered the ambush area, Yang Dezhi's regiment intercepted head-on, first disrupting the Japanese army.
The war is on
The Japanese reacted immediately, and everyone frantically killed themselves towards the high ground. Yang Dezhi immediately issued a military order to "snipe the devils at all costs, and be sure not to let them occupy the commanding heights." After receiving the order, the two companies of Liu Zhengying's battalion slammed into the Japanese army that was rushing upwards in the ravine, destroying most of the Japanese army. The fourth company moved a little slower, and was preemptively occupied by the Japanese army. The company commander was wounded when he rushed to the top of the hill, and the platoon leader took the initiative to stand up and command the troops to attack the Japanese army on both sides, and soon completely annihilated this part of the Japanese army and once again controlled the commanding heights.
Just as Yang Dezhi's regiment and the Japanese army repeatedly competed for high ground, two Japanese planes circled back and forth along the road. However, the troops of the two sides were staggered, and the Japanese aircraft could not strafe and drop bombs, so they had to fly away. The fiercest white-knife battle was fought on the positions of The Zeng Guohua Battalion and the Liang Xingchu Battalion of Yang Dezhi's regiment. Zeng Xiansheng, commander of the Fifth Company of Zeng Guohua's battalion, was nicknamed "Mengzi". Before the battle began, he encouraged his troops to say, "Rely on our glorious tradition of close combat at night, with grenades, bayonets, and devils, so that they can't die." After launching a charge, he led by example and rushed to the front of the troops, and when he saw the Japanese cars, he ordered all the grenades of the whole company to throw at the Japanese troops, and in a short while he blew up more than 20 Japanese cars.
When approaching the Japanese army, he bravely fought with the Japanese army with bayonets, and he stabbed more than a dozen Japanese soldiers to death. He was covered in wounds and blood, and when a group of Japanese troops approached him, he pulled the last grenade, and with the Japanese army, even the instructor was seriously wounded and still commanding the troops. The platoon leader was sacrificed, and the squad leader took over; the squad leader was sacrificed, and the old soldier took over the command. In this way, they went forward and fought to the end, and only more than thirty people were left in the whole company, or stubbornly attacked the Japanese army.
The Ninth and Tenth Companies of Liang Xingchu's battalion, after rushing onto the road, suffered heavy casualties, but they still bravely marched forward at all costs, shooting with guns, fighting with bayonets, smashing with wooden sticks and stones, and using all available weapons, vowing to kill a few more little devils. Li Tianyou's regiment was the main force of the flank attack. According to Li Tianyou's post-war recollections, their regiment attacked almost at the same time as Yang Dezhi's regiment, beating the Japanese troops caught on the road to the point of overturning. At the height of the battle, a staff officer greeted Li Tianyou loudly: "Commander! Head! The division command post informed me that I wanted you to go on a trip" "The commander of the division wants me to go?" Good. ”
"Tiger General" Yang Yong fought with one arm
At that time, the 115th Division had two command posts, and Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen were each responsible for one. Li Tianyou went to Lin Biao's command post, which was on the hillside on the right rear side of Li Tianyou's regiment, about five hundred meters away. Li Tianyou ran all the way over, and when he went to the division command post, Lin Biao and the others were all there, and the atmosphere was not very tense, so Li Tianyou was relieved. Lin Biao said to him, "Be calm. There are more enemies and stronger enemies, and the battle will not end immediately. Then, pointing to the smoke-filled battlefield, he said, "See? The enemy is tenacious. Looking in the direction of Lin Biao's finger, the Japanese troops on the road were stubbornly resisting with the car barrier and organizing troops to seize the favorable terrain. Subsequently, Lin Biao said: "You must rush down the road, separate the Japanese army section by section, drag the Japanese army to death, and don't let them gather together and rush to the Laoye Temple." Another battalion must be sent to seize the commanding heights of the Old Master Temple, and then it can be condescending. Wipe out the Japanese army at the foot of the mountain! ”
Lord Temple Address
Li Tianyou returned to the regiment, and the battle became more intense. He conveyed the instructions of the division commander. Subsequently, except for Li Tianyou, several regiment leaders went down to the camp. Li Tianyou ordered the third battalion on the hill on the right to storm the Laoye Temple. In the valley, the sound of killing was overwhelming. The Eighth Route Army bravely charged the highway. Li Tianyou saw in the telescope that the fire of the Eighth Route Army could not suppress the fire of the Japanese army, and the soldiers who rushed up fell down one by one. The officers and men still charged forward and backward. The Japanese army did not show weakness, and some Japanese troops soon occupied the Laoye Temple, and the situation was very unfavorable to Li Tianyou's regiment.
The attack continued, and the Eighth Route Army suffered heavy casualties. Li Tianyou gritted his teeth and ordered again: "Commander of the Third Battalion, don't be afraid of casualties!" Rush, be sure to take down the old temple" "Yes! Guaranteed to complete the task," Zhou Replied firmly. "Old Li, the command post is handed over to you, and I will go up with the three battalions." Yang Yong, who had just returned to the regimental headquarters, said to Li Tianyou, and then rushed towards the Laoye Temple with Zhou Qibinying. Li Tianyou organized flanking companies to intensify their attacks, attracting Japanese fire and supporting the charge of the third battalion.
The ravine was filled with smoke and a deafening sound. The officers and men of the Zhou Skeleton Bin Battalion dug into the smoke, ran forward, climbed forward, rolled forward, and finally rushed onto the road and fought with the white blade of the Japanese army. The butt of the gun flew up and down, and the big knife flashed coldly. The warriors were not afraid to face strong enemies and fought bravely to kill. At the same time that the Zhou Skeleton Bin Battalion launched an attack on the Japanese troops at the Laoye Temple, it also let a platoon occupy the small land temple on the eastern road, and according to the favorable terrain, intercepted the Japanese army and made it impossible to attack the top of the mountain. Although the Japanese army is full of combat effectiveness, it is obvious that it will not fight in the mountains, and it does not know the importance of the commanding heights of mountain combat, which is not to blame them, after all, Japan is only an island country, with low altitude and single terrain, and has never seen our kind of high mountains, let alone how to fight mountain warfare.
Part of Li Tianyou's regiment rushed across the road and headed straight for the Laoye Temple on the west side. In this way, with the active support of the second battalion, the Zhou Skeleton Bin Battalion finally occupied the commanding heights of the Laoye Temple. At this moment, Yang Yong suddenly felt a huge force coming at him, washing him to the ground. He wanted to get up, but his left arm didn't listen to the call. The correspondent behind him exclaimed: "Political commissar, you hung up the flowers" "Don't shout, what is this little injury," Yang Yong said to the correspondent. The hygienist came over and gave Yang Yong a simple bandage, and he stood in the command position again. It was his third injury since joining the revolution.
Li Tianyou's regiment occupied the Laoye Temple, commanding from both sides of the road, and the position of the Japanese army was completely exposed to the guns of the Eighth Route Army, and dozens of Japanese troops rushing upwards were shot at the snap of a finger. The Japanese commander looked at the Pieces of Japanese soldiers who had fallen to the ground and suddenly woke up, and only then did he know that the key to the battle situation was the Old Master Temple, the commanding heights. So he wielded his command knife vigorously, issued a loud order, and commanded the troops to rob the Old Master Temple. However, because the front-line troops were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with our army, it was impossible to mobilize artillery. The superiority of firepower could not be exerted, and only infantry wearing leather shoes climbed up in groups, suffering heavy casualties under the fire of the Eighth Route Army. The Japanese army attacked again and again, and fell again and again. At this time, Japanese aircraft flew in, hovering at low altitude, looking for opportunities. However, the two warring sides were too close, and the Japanese aircraft did not dare to easily drop bombs.
The battle progressed until 12:00 noon, Zhang Tianyun's 687th Regiment attacked from behind the Japanese army, and the rear of the Japanese army was suddenly in chaos. It turned out that Zhang Yuntian had arranged a force at the beginning to encircle the tail of the Japanese army in Xigou Village, seize the high ground and cut off the Japanese retreat. The encircled Japanese army panicked and prepared to flee north, but was completely annihilated by the Eighth Route Army, which had been ambushed by Cai Jiayu. Subsequently, he went south to cooperate with Chen Guang's brigade in battle. Lin Biao saw that the time had come for an all-out attack and issued a general attack order. The forces occupying both sides of the road quickly launched an assault.
The Japanese army that occupied Dongpaochi in the early stage and returned to the Laoye Temple and Xiaozhai Village was intercepted by Yang Dezhi's regiment. Itagaki urgently ordered the Japanese troops in Wei County and Laiyuan to reinforce Pingxingguan, but was blocked by Yang Chengwu's independent regiment and cavalry battalion to the north and east of Lingqiu, and killed and wounded more than 300 people at the waist station east of Lingqiu. Li Tianyou's regiment concentrated all its strength and, coordinated by the two wings of troops, annihilated the encircled Japanese army. At 1 o'clock, the battle ended with the victory of the Eighth Route Army.
At dusk, the division headquarters ordered Chen Guang's brigade to attack the Japanese troops in Dongpaochi. There were about 2,000 Japanese troops in Dongpaochi, controlling the highlands here. This Japanese army was originally the target of the Kuomintang Jin Sui Army, but the Jin Sui Army did not cooperate with the Eighth Route Army as planned, so the Japanese army dared to concentrate on attacking the flank of the Eighth Route Army in an attempt to break the siege for the Japanese troops in Laoye Temple and Xiaozhai Village. When the Eighth Route Army began to attack Dongpaochi, the Jin Sui Army abandoned the Tuanchengkou position, which allowed the Japanese army to find a gap and retreat in time, otherwise it would annihilate more Japanese troops.
Flat type Guan Dajie
The Battle of Pingshiguan was fruitful. The Eighth Route Army annihilated more than a thousand Japanese troops in the Miura Brigade, destroyed more than one hundred cars and more than two hundred large vehicles, and captured one cannon, more than twenty light and heavy machine guns, and more than a thousand rifles, as well as 300,000 Yen and a large amount of military supplies. This was the first major victory won by China since the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, breaking the arguments of the traitors and pro-Japanese factions that "the War of Resistance against Japan will perish" and "the War of Resistance will be defeated."
Victory in the war