In May 1936, Ma Zhanshan sent his former subordinate Yuan Xiaoxuan to Suijian Li Shanglin, and Yuan saw Li Shanglin, indicating that he had come on behalf of Ma Zhanshan, the main purpose of which was to contact the anti-Japanese forces and prepare to respond to Ma's call when the Sino-Japanese War broke out, and to be under his leadership. After Yuan left, Li Shanglin thought, why did Ma send him to Suiyuan him?
Probably because he had been running military education in Fu Zuoyi's department for many years, and at the same time he also had a wide range of contacts with military instructors in rural training centers, security force cadre training centers, police training centers, and various middle schools. In September of the same year, Ma sent Zou Dapeng to Suiyuan Li Shanglin, who at that time was already the deputy commander of the national militia in Suiyuan Province and was actually responsible.
On September 17, 1937, Li Shanglin arrived in Baotou. Organize all national militias into three brigades. The day after Li arrived in Baotou, Ma Zhanshan led the 6th Cavalry Division, an infantry regiment, and the rear of the special agent battalion to Baotou. At that time, Ma was the commander of the Northeast Advance Army and the northeast recruit. On the morning of the 20th, according to the Baotou railway personnel, Zhao Chengshou (commander of the Shanxi Cavalry, Fu Zuoyi was transferred back to Shanxi and replaced Fu Zaiyuan in commanding the battle) and Yuan Qingzeng had already left, and Guisui had become an empty city, while the enemy had not yet advanced west in Fengzhen and Jining.
Li and Ma Zhanshan heard that Yuan and Zhao had left and that Guisui had no one to preside, so they ordered the commander of Baotou Station to mobilize vehicles to transport troops to Sui, and all the cavalry began to march east along the Baosui Highway (in fact, Yuan and Zhao left Guisui on the 21st to take a boat to Taiyuan). On the 22nd, Li and Ma Zhanshan arrived at Guisui by train, and began to arrange the battle.
After Yuan and Zhao left, Li reported everything to Fu Zuoyi, who immediately called back and asked Li to succeed him as commander of the national militia and lead all the officers and men to continue the war of resistance in Suiyuan. According to the spy report, after the Japanese captured Fengzhen and Jining, they did not immediately attack Guisui because the situation of Guisui was not very clear, and the terrain had not been reconnoitred, so they were temporarily in Fengzhen and Jining to stand by.
On the 27th, the Japanese army began to attack Guisui from Fengzhen and Jining in three ways. A brigade and regiment of the Japanese army on the eastern road with a cavalry division and an artillery brigade of the Mongolian puppet army attacked their battalion along the Pingsui Road, and a brigade and two artillery brigades of the Japanese army on the southern road were commanded by the division commander Harem, and they took a car from Fengzhen through the mountain pass of Liangcheng County to attack the Dahei River in the south of Guisui (the Dahei River was near the tomb of Zhaojun, 20 huali south of Guisuicheng); The enemy along the north of Daqing Mountain through Wuchuan to Guisui's Bakou attacked Guisui (Ba Kouzi was 20 huali north of Guisui, and Wuchuan County was 140 huali north of Guisui), and the troops were led by the commander of the 9th Division of the Mongolian Puppet Army.
Wuchuan County and Guisui were separated by Daqing Mountain, which was fifty or sixty miles deep, and Li and Ma Zhanshan studied it, carried out a centrifugal retreat, and waited for the enemy to directly attack Guisuicheng, and then attacked inside and outside. Ma had dismissed the plan because his troops, with all but one infantry regiment, were cavalry and moved in ravines , hiding and solving problems such as forage.
Li and Ma discussed and decided to block the 6th Cavalry Division and an infantry regiment in the east to block the station of their battalion Shankouzi, under the command of Liu Gui's 5th Division; The southern road defended the East Dahei River, which was in charge of the Mabe Lü Cunyi Brigade; The Western Dahei River was defended by the Third Brigade of the National Militia plus a regiment, under the responsibility of brigade commander Meng Wenzhong; In addition to planning the overall situation with Ma Zhanshan, Li was also responsible for the command of the South Road.
As for the North Road, because the puppet army Jing Dequan had already contacted Ma Zhanshan in advance and was ready to advance west along the north of Daqing Mountain to the dam mouth to implement the rection, we did not have troops at the dam entrance. The defense force guarding Suishan City consists of two regiments of the national militia, and the general reserve is one regiment and two special battalions of the national militia.
On the 28th, the enemy attacked his battalion along the Pingsui Road, but because of the pass, the front was only three or four huali, and it was difficult to progress the attack. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, all our defenders launched a sortie and drove the enemy back five or six huali. On this day, the enemy forces on the eastern route made basically no progress (the Japanese troops were not fully engaged in the battle).
At about 9 o'clock in the morning of the 28th, the advance troops of the enemy army on the southern road arrived at Shankou Yu in Liangcheng County by steel-armored vehicles. Brigade commander Meng Wenzhong was leading his troops to lay mines at the Liangcheng Pass, strengthen fortifications, and make arrangements to block the road, when the enemy first encountered a sudden arrival of about 5600 troops in more than 20 steel-armored vehicles. Meng led only a battalion of men and immediately fought the enemy near the mountain pass.
By noon, the Japanese army had never broken into the pass, but the enemy's follow-up troops arrived one after another, and detoured back to the rear of our defenders from the Yangcheng Trail northeast of the Liangcheng Pass. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Meng saw that the situation was unfavorable, so he led his troops to retreat to Baimiaozi Village (Baimiaozi is about 2,000 meters away from the mountain pass, can control the entry and exit of the mountain pass, and has prepared defensive fortifications in advance). After Meng withdrew to defend the White Temple, the enemy concentrated artillery fire on the White Temple, destroying most of the fortifications. At about 6 p.m., the enemy stopped shelling and the battle came to a standstill. In the battle of the day, we suffered more than 40 casualties, and Li immediately ordered Mengbu to withdraw to the Western Daheihe after dusk to prepare for tomorrow's battle.
At about 8 o'clock in the morning of the 29th, the Japanese troops on the southern road had advanced to the south bank of the Dahei River in the east and west, confronted our troops across the river, and carried out shelling. I only had six mountain guns on the Dahei River side, and initially I could still shoot, but as soon as we fired them, the enemy artillery concentrated their fire from all sides to suppress our artillery. As a result, two of our guns were destroyed, and we suffered twenty or thirty casualties. In the future, our artillerymen quickly changed positions after firing a few shots, so as not to be damaged by enemy artillery.
At about 9 o'clock in the morning of the 29th, Li saw that the shelling by both sides was very fierce, and immediately led the chief of staff Fan Zhengtong and four guards, and two battalions of reserves, to the front line of Daheihe. Placing the reserve in a trunk canal about 2,000 meters behind the Dahei River (in order to avoid enemy artillery bombardment, take the evacuation formation), Li immediately went to the trenches of the first-line defenders to observe the dynamics of the enemy on the other bank. Enemies and friends are only separated by water, and the distance between them is only seven or eight hundred meters. Apart from shelling, the infantry machine guns did not fire on either side.
The Dahei River is only fifty or sixty meters wide and two meters deep, and although there are no boats along the river, it can be crossed in ordinary places. At this time enemy artillery was firing at the reserve of the second line in our rear. Li estimated that after the enemy artillery had destroyed the second line, he began to suppress our first-line defenders to cover their infantry crossing the river. Li ordered the front-line defenders not to shoot unless the enemy was crossing the river. Around 10 o'clock, the battle at Dongdaheihe was extremely fierce, but there was no report from Brigade Commander Lu Cunyi.
At about 11 o'clock, the gunfire gradually fell silent, and Director Li and Fan led four guards out of the trench to the Dongdahei River, and as soon as they walked 1200 meters, the enemy's artillery changed direction and began to attack our first-line defenders to cover the infantry crossing the river. At this time, we accelerated our advance towards the eastern Daheihe River, and walked more than 100 meters, when suddenly there was a sound of gunfire shooting at us in front, and the six of us immediately evacuated and lay down, and heard the phrase "catch alive", and at this time we were about 200 meters away from the enemy. The terrain was undulating, making it easy to hide, and we ran and lay down five or six times before finally reaching a dry drain to get out of danger.
When Lee returned to the rear reserve, although the enemy artillery concentrated on fire, I suffered only a few casualties. At this time, Ma Zhanshan also came to the front, supervising the battle near the bridge about 2,000 meters from the Dahei River. It turned out that at about 11 a.m., the enemy first suppressed our front-line defenders with artillery fire and heavy machine guns at the Eastern Daheihe River so that they did not dare to raise their heads, so they immediately carried out a forced crossing. Shima Zhanshan came to the front to supervise the battle, and seeing that Brigadier Lu had retreated near the bridge, he said, Commander Li has not come down in front, you can't retreat, hurry up and carry out a counterattack.
Under the stern supervision of Ma Zhanshan, Brigadier Lu confronted the enemy for another two or three hours. In the confrontation between the national militia in the Western Daheihe River, several river crossings were repulsed by our defenders, and no less than 200 people drowned due to wounds. Finally, the enemy crossed the Dahei River in the east and surrounded the rear of Mengwenzhong Brigade in the Dahei River in the west. At this time, Lü Cunyi's troops in the Eastern Daheihe River had all collapsed, and the Meng brigade guarding the Western Daheihe was attacked by the enemy in front and behind, and suffered great losses. A battalion east of the far left flank had lost two-thirds of the casualties to three or four hundred.
Seeing that the situation was extremely serious, Li urgently ordered a retreat to the defense of Guisuicheng. During the retreat, it was also blocked by enemy artillery fire and suffered considerable losses. The enemy forces attacking their battalions along the Pingsui Road began a fierce attack on the morning of the 29th. Liu Gui's five forces resisted vigorously, and the enemy made no progress until noon. At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the enemy's left flank climbed the mountain and detoured, pinning down the entire position, seriously threatening our rear communication and command. At the same time, the enemy in the front carried out a fierce attack, and part of the left flank of the position was broken through by the enemy. Support until dusk, Liu Gui's five departments also began to retreat towards Guisui.
At about 1 o'clock in the afternoon of the 29th, Ma Zhanshan estimated that the Jingde Spring Department would arrive at the mouth of the dam, so he took the special agent battalion to the mouth of the dam to meet the well regiment. Before Ma left, he discussed with Li Ji, intending to lead the Jing Regiment and the special agent battalion to suddenly attack the flank and rear of the enemy who directly attacked Guisui. The horse arrived at the mouth of the dam at about 3 p.m., just as the vanguard of the Mongolian puppet army also entered the mouth of the dam. Ma immediately sent Zhang Rongxin, the commander of the special agent battalion, to the joint, and learned that the other party was not Jingde Quanbu but the 9th Division of the Mongolian Puppet Army. Zhang saw that the situation was not right, and immediately ran back to report.
At this time, about one regiment of the enemy's vanguard force had entered the village of Bakouzi, and the special agent battalion of the horse was almost mixed, and the two sides immediately opened fire. The horse only took a few guards, and was besieged in the small courtyard by sixty or seventy enemy people, and the fierce battle lasted for one hour. At the critical moment, the platoon commander of the special service battalion brought more than 30 people to the rescue. After another two hours of melee, the horse sent people to shout that the 6th Cavalry Division came to reinforce, and the enemy was temporarily bluffed, stopped firing, and the horse immediately took the opportunity to take the special agent battalion back to Sui. In this battle, we suffered sixty or seventy casualties.
On the morning of the 30th, the enemy's eastern, southern, and northern routes began to press towards Guisui, and by noon they were in full swing. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the battle was very fierce, and many of the fortifications of the city were damaged. Our artillery is inferior. Our defenders had only concealed standby before the enemy assaulted. Although the defense of Guisui City had been built, it was not completed, and the fortifications between the old and new cities were very weak (there were 2 huali between the two cities).
At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese army on the south road broke into the racecourse belt from the middle of the old and new cities, separating the old and new cities. Li and Ma Zhanshan believed that the enemy army would not have any development that night, because the Japanese army was superior in equipment and strong in combat, and would not fight with us at night; In addition, he is not familiar with geography, and he does not dare to act easily. On this basis we decided to send four companies, divided into two parts, starting at 11 p.m., the first of which would be one company to the east and one to the south to harass the enemy, and return at two o'clock in the morning; The two companies of the second part were dispatched at 3 a.m.
They still attack the enemy's artillery positions from the east and south, and attack the enemy's artillery positions with a detour from the west, so that the enemy cannot rest all night, break their plan for tomorrow's attack, and at least delay their attack tomorrow. So we decided to send two companies from the First and Fifth Regiments to attack. As a result of the sorties, the enemy rushed into battle and restless all night, and I occupied the enemy's artillery positions, but because the guns were pulled by cars, they could not be pushed, and there were no tools of destruction, and finally only a few dozen shells were thrown into the ditch.
On October 1, until noon, the enemy forces from the east, south and north began to attack again. At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the area around Nanchafang was broken into by Japanese troops, almost forming street fighting. However, the Japanese army avoided fighting with us in the streets, and after breaking into the South Tea House, they immediately confronted our defenders and did not advance. At this time, Li, Ma Zhanshan, Liu Guiwu and others studied and believed that the situation was extremely serious now, and if we did not try to retreat tonight, tomorrow the enemy would be surrounded on all sides, and we would only be disarmed or annihilated. While the west is not yet besieged.
Our train stopped again at Taige Mu Station, and we sent some troops to carry out night attacks on the enemy after dusk tonight, so as to cover the retreat of the large army, get on the train at Taige Mu Station, and reach Baotou tomorrow morning. At about 6 p.m., the enemy stopped attacking, presumably in order to prevent our night attack, and made preparations early. At about 9 p.m., we began to retreat while attacking at night. Around 4 a.m. on the 2nd, all troops arrived at Taigemu Station and headed west by train. Around 7 o'clock, all arrive at Baotou.