Guangyang Dajie: The Eighth Route Army fought mysterious thousand-year tactics to annihilate thousands of enemy troops
Author: Wu Sheng Dongxu
On November 6, 1937, Yan'an received a telegram from Lin Biao from Guangyang, which mentioned: "The enemies fought by our division are mainly northeasterners and Koreans, and their combat effectiveness cannot be compared with that of Benheng's division. Lin Biao also requested reinforcements from the 129th Division to replicate the Pingxingguan Dajie in Guangyang. This aroused Yan'an's expectations, and everyone hoped to achieve another major victory in a short period of time.
Guangyang is a small town located between the towns of Zinshang and Songta, with difficult terrain and complex terrain. This made Lin Biao fancy it as a good place to ambush the Japanese army. Before the battle, Lin Biao carefully arranged his troops, the main force was on both sides of the road, Li Tianyou's 686th Regiment two battalions occupied the high ground north of the village, Yang Dezhi's 685th Regiment 3rd Battalion attacked from the Wolfwogou North Mountain, and together with the 686th Regiment, it killed and ambushed the Japanese heavy troops.
Lin Biao's deployment is not based on numbers, he is good at using clever tactics to win battles. After the battle began, he allowed the enemy's main forces to pass through the ambush zone "safely", and then concentrated his fire on the heavy troops behind. This tactic allowed Lin Biao to annihilate the enemy army and avoid a head-on confrontation with the enemy's main force.
In the battle of Guangyang, the Eighth Route Army gave full play to its combat effectiveness and defeated the troubled Japanese army. However, when Lin Biao learned that the incoming Japanese army was a motley army, he decided to retreat. Although it did not receive the expected success, the battle of Guangyang still boosted the morale of the Eighth Route Army.
However, Liu Bocheng was not willing to accept such a result, believing that the Japanese army had deceived people too much. As a result, he commanded the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division to set up another ambush, defeated the Japanese pursuing force, and eliminated hundreds of enemy troops. In the two Guangyang ambushes, the Eighth Route Army annihilated more than 1,000 Japanese troops.
It is worth noting that the Eighth Route Army did not conduct large-scale battles under the conditions of war at that time. Lin Biao adopted clever tactics to engage the enemy instead of blindly rushing forward. Such a strategy allowed the Eighth Route Army to effectively defeat the enemy and maintain its own strength.
Although the results of the Guangyang Great Victory were not as expected, it demonstrated the combat effectiveness and combat tactics of the Eighth Route Army. The command talent of generals such as Lin Biao and Liu Bocheng was demonstrated in the battle. The victory of Guangyang Dajie also added impetus and confidence to the Eighth Route Army's continuous fighting in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
In any case, the great victory of Guangyang is still a milestone in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the spirit and wisdom displayed by the Eighth Route Army in the war are worthy of our eternal memory. The efforts of the Eighth Route Army have made great contributions to the defense of the country, and their spirit will inspire us to continue our efforts to pursue a better future.
Guangyang Dajie and Yan'an look forward to it
Author: Wu Sheng Dongxu
On November 6, 1937, Yan'an was full of expectations for the front line, and they had just received a telegram from Lin Biao from Guangyang. The telegram said: "The enemies fought by our unit are mainly northeasterners and Koreans, and their combat effectiveness cannot be compared with that of the Benheng Division. Lin Biao also requested reinforcements from the 129th Division to replicate a Pingxingguan victory in Guangyang. The great victory of Pingxingguan occurred in September of the same year, which shook the whole country, greatly boosted the morale of the military and people throughout the country, and made Chiang impressed the Eighth Route Army. If another big victory can be achieved in a short period of time, the impact is not difficult to predict. Therefore, Yan'an is also full of expectations for this.
However, a day passed, and instead of coming, he got the news that Lin Biao withdrew his troops. It started with a Japanese prisoner. Just before Lin Biao generated electricity, the 115th Division had just fought an ambush battle in Guangyang. Lin Biao likes to fight clever battles, does not like to fight vicious battles, and if there is no such opportunity, he would rather not fight.
On November 6, 1937, Lin Biao encountered such an opportunity. On November 2, the 79th Wing, the vanguard of the 40th Brigade of the Japanese Army, and the 686th Regiment of the 343rd Brigade of the Eighth Route Army encountered each other at Ximadaoling in Xiyang City, and chased them step by step. Lin Biao was overjoyed when he learned the news and decided to send Chen Guang's 343rd Brigade to occupy favorable terrain around Guangyang to ambush the Japanese army.
Guangyang, a town of less than 200 households, is located between the towns of Zhanshang and Songta, and there is a road on the edge of the village, which has fallen into disrepair and is exhausted by flooding. The village is surrounded by ravines, mountains, and extremely dangerous terrain, which is a good place to fight ambushes, so Lin Biao chose to fight the Japanese army here.
The specific deployment was that the main force of the 343rd Brigade was on both sides of the road, two battalions of Li Tianyou's 686th Regiment occupied the high ground north of the village, and Yang Dezhi's 3rd Battalion of the 685th Regiment attacked from the north mountain of Wolf Wogou and cooperated with the 686th Regiment to enter the ambush area to annihilate the Japanese.
After the deployment, Lin Biao felt that such a force was obviously still a little small, so he ordered the chief of staff Zhou Kun to move troops with Zhu and Peng. The two commanders of Zhu Peng immediately sent the 129th Division to reinforce.
In the early morning of December 4, Lin Biao's telescope appeared the figure of the Japanese army, and the yellow pressure was suppressed. Yang Dezhi rubbed his fists and asked for instructions to open fire. Lin Biao said calmly: "Put the main force of the enemy over, focus on hitting the weight behind, and don't shoot without my order!" ”
At about 13 o'clock, more than 4,000 men of the first two wings of the Japanese army "safely" entered Songta through the ambush area. Yang Dezhi's pre-ambush troops followed the order, adopted the method of avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, and all let go of its vanguard main force, when the Japanese heavy troops entered Guangyang, Lin Biao put down his binoculars and said to Zhou Kun: "Order, fight!" ”
"Snap", a red signal flare rose into the air, and all kinds of ambush soldiers came out from the mountains and mountains and forests condescendingly, like divine soldiers descending from the sky. For a time, the shouts of soldiers, the bullets of rifles and machine guns, the explosion of grenades, and the roar of mortar shells were deafening. The battle was fought until dusk, when the gunfire thinned down and the battle was over.
Chen Shiyu, chief of staff of the 343rd Brigade, reported the results of the battle to Lin Biao on the phone: "Division commander, the battle is over, and the 686th Regiment has annihilated more than 500 enemies according to preliminary statistics. Lin Biao said with a smile on his face: "The 685th Regiment also annihilated more than 400 enemies, and the results were brilliant, you immediately notified the transfer of the wounded and trophies, and cleaned up the battlefield." ”
In fact, strictly speaking, the battle was not completely over, although most of the enemy was annihilated, several houses in the street were occupied by several Japanese troops, and gunfire still sounded from time to time.
Chen Shiyu rode to a house, and the soldiers reported to him that there was only one enemy left in the corner, and they planned to use grenades to destroy the Japanese army. Chen Shiyu immediately gestured to stop it, demanding, "You can't blow it up, you have to catch it alive!" So far, we have not taken a single prisoner."
Chen Shiyu walked towards the house with several soldiers and Su Jing, the head of the division's reconnaissance section. At this time, it was late, and Chen Shiyu took advantage of the cover of night to quietly come to the window and shout in the newly learned Japanese: "Lay down your weapons and give preferential treatment to prisoners!" But there was no movement inside, and after a pause a bullet came out of it.
Chen Shiyu did not lose patience and shouted a few words again. This seems to have worked, and the Japanese inside stopped shooting. After a long while, a few blunt Chinese words came out of it: "Understand, understand." Chen Shiyu was very excited to hear this, and prepared for the Japanese soldiers to come out and surrender.
However, after a long while, no Japanese soldiers came out. Chen Shiyu gradually lost patience, and with a wave of his hand, several warriors rushed in. After the soldiers went in, they turned on the flashlights and took a photo, and they were amused by the scene in front of them, it turned out that the Japanese soldiers just fell in the basket where the villagers put grain, and they were stuck in half of their bodies, no matter how much they struggled, it was useless.
Seeing that the Eighth Route Army had entered, the Japanese soldiers were so frightened that they were sifted all over and fought with their legs. Seeing this, Chen Shiyu wanted to explain to him, but he didn't know much Japanese. At this time, he suddenly remembered that many Chinese characters and Japanese had the same meaning, and he took out a diary from his pocket and asked the soldier to write a few lines on it with a flashlight: "Don't be afraid, our Chinese army does not kill prisoners" and "If you stop resisting, we will guarantee your safety."
After reading it, the Japanese soldier understood the general meaning, and he picked up a pen and wrote two words "understood" on it. Chen Shiyu was very happy when he saw it, and wrote in the notebook: "What is your name and what part is it?" The Japanese soldier took a pen and wrote on it: "The 79th Wing is a heavy unit, my name is Yukio Kato." Through repeated communication, Chen Shiyu obtained the following information: Most of the soldiers in this unit are Koreans, and some are Northeasterners, and the proportion of Japanese is only 30%. Knowing this, Chen Shiyu was overjoyed and brought the prisoners back to the brigade headquarters.
Seeing that Chen Shiyu brought back a Japanese prisoner, Deputy Brigade Commander Zhou Jianping said happily: "You really brought a prisoner. After you left, the division commander called you and asked you, and I said that you had taken prisoners, and they also said that you were a 'daredevil'. ”
Chen Shiyu said: "As the saying goes, if you don't go into the tiger's den, can you get the tiger and capture prisoners without taking risks?" He won't wait for you to catch it. Everyone laughed when he said this, and Brigadier Chen Guang also laughed.
When the division leader learned the news, he also praised Chen Shiyu, because before that, the Eighth Route Army had not captured Japanese prisoners. After Lin Biao listened to Chen Shiyu's report, his brows frowned and he calculated his heart.
Famous generals can always keenly catch fighters, and Lin Biao is like that. When he learned that the 37th Wing of the 20th Division and another Japanese army he was facing were a motley army, he had the idea of fighting another ambush battle.
Lin Biao's idea was to still let Chen Guang Brigade be the main force to beat the Japanese army, let the 129th Division send several regiments to block the Japanese army from Xiyang, and send a few more regiments to assist Chen Guang Brigade to join forces to eat this motley Japanese army. Therefore, Lin Biao sent a telegram to Yan'an and Zhu Peng on November 5, as well as Liu Deng of the 129th Division, to talk about his idea, which was approved by his superiors.
Then again, in the Battle of Guangyang on the 4th, the rear troops of the enemy's 20th Division were surrounded and annihilated by the 115th Division, and the division commander Fumizaburo Kawagishi was extremely angry. However, because the main force was far away from the defender, when he learned that it was late, he had to give up ruthlessly and did not go to the rescue. However, what he did not expect was that the Eighth Route Army had too much appetite, and the next day his direct subordinate team was attacked by the Eighth Route Army, and he became angry and hurriedly transferred the 40th Brigade back to help. Near noon, the commander of the 40th Brigade, Yamashita Fengwen, led his troops to arrive.
Yamashita Bongfumi is a veteran general, the same age as Seishiro Saka, one year younger than Okamura Ninji, graduated from the Japanese Lushi and Lu University, once served as military attaché in Austria, chief of the military section and director of the military investigation department of the military affairs bureau of the army province, and commander of the 40th infantry brigade stationed in Korea. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, Yamashita Bongfumi invaded Southeast Asia, and some people in Japan called him the "Malay Tiger". His brigade was a strong force in the Japanese invading army.
However, as soon as the connoisseur makes a move, he knows whether there is any. On the evening of the 5th, as soon as the Eighth Route Army fought with the 40th Brigade, it felt that the other party was not a fuel-saving lamp, and it was very difficult to fight with the other side. Lin Biao is so keen, just like he said at the beginning, he only fights skillful battles, never fights meat grinder-style vicious battles, feels that the other party is difficult, and immediately orders to withdraw from the battle.
Therefore, the good news expected by Yan'an did not come. The Japanese army saw the retreat of the Eighth Route Army and immediately followed the retaliation. As a result, Liu Bocheng did not follow, isn't this too much deception?
Under the command of Liu Bocheng, Chen Geng, commander of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division, led his troops, with the cooperation of the 385th Brigade and the 343rd Brigade, to set up another ambush in Hufeng Village, east of Guangyang, on November 7, catching the Japanese by surprise and eliminating hundreds of Japanese troops. According to military history, the two Guangyang ambushes wiped out more than 1,000 Japanese troops.
Some people think, why did the Eighth Route Army only fight ambush battles, and not fight dignified battles with the Japanese army? This is mainly due to insufficient understanding of the situation at that time.
At that time, the Eighth Route Army had three divisions with a total strength of less than 50,000 people, and it wanted to put up a posture and fight a decisive battle with the Japanese army. Therefore, at that time, the Eighth Route Army accumulated small victories into big victories, fought if it could, withdrew if it could not, and then looked for an opportunity to fight again.
Shortly after the Battle of Guangyang, in March 1938, Lin Biao was mistakenly wounded by the Jin and Sui troops in the Lüliang area and withdrew from the anti-Japanese battlefield. If Lin had not come to the Soviet Union to recuperate, according to his style, how would he have fought the Japanese army? According to the comparison of forces between the enemy and ourselves at that time, Lin Biao could not have fought a large-scale battle with the Japanese army in the War of Resistance Against Japan. Moreover, let Lin Zong leave the Jinzhong Mountain Range, put it in the Hebei Central Plain, and put it on the Shandong battlefield, and it is difficult to replicate the great victory like Pingxingguan.
At that time, the Eighth Route Army could only adopt small-scale guerrilla tactics because it was inferior in equipment and manpower. However, despite its small size, the heroic fighting spirit and exquisite tactics displayed by the Eighth Route Army in the Guangyang ambush still aroused Yan'an's expectations.
The success of the Guangyang ambush boosted the morale of the Eighth Route Army and the entire Nationalist Army and laid the foundation for the subsequent anti-Japanese struggle. Although there was no news of another great victory, the bravery and wisdom of soldiers such as Lin Biao and Chen Shiyu won people's admiration. It was precisely because of the efforts of these heroic soldiers that the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan was achieved.
We should remember history and pay tribute to these fighters who fought heroically for national independence and resistance. Let us carry forward positive energy together, inherit their spirit, and work hard together to achieve national rejuvenation!
[Deep cultivation of war history, promotion of positive energy, welcome to submit, private messages will be replied]
