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Text: Tian Ka
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introduction
"Just like fighting wild boars in peacetime, as soon as the Japanese army approached the 'choking mouth', we immediately opened fire. ”
In May 1945, on Xuefeng Mountain, more than a dozen middle-aged men lurked in the thatching on both sides of the road, two to three people in a team, each with a long bird gun hanging on their arms, their eyes unblinking through the thatched gaps, looking at the direction of the Japanese army not far away, holding their breath.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
(Young man with a bird's gun)
As soon as the Japanese troops approached within 100 meters, the sound of bird guns sounded from all directions.
The "bullets" of the bird gun are made of iron strips or iron sand, which is particularly painful to hit the body.
When the Japanese army was suddenly hit on the road, many people thought that they had been attacked by the "new weapons" of the national army. Turning around, he immediately pulled out his weapon and prepared to counterattack, but when he looked around, it was all thatch, and he couldn't find where the enemy was.
After all the Japanese soldiers fell to the ground, one after another men in the thatch jumped out, quickly took the weapons on the Japanese soldiers, and went to the next place to continue the ambush.
(Japanese Army)
These men in their prime were not soldiers, but their neat skills were not to be underestimated, and they also had a name that made these Japanese soldiers fearful: the Gun Sniffing Team.
1. Civil anti-Japanese squads
In 1945, Japan sent Jungangcun Ningci to launch an attack in the direction of Zhijiang, attempting to destroy the Sino-US joint air force airfield in Zhijiang, and then marched from the Hunan-Guizhou Highway to take Guiyang and then attack Chongqing.
This route seems to be fine, but it does not stand up to scrutiny at all. On the one hand, at that time, the anti-fascist countries among the countries had already gained the upper hand, and even if the Japanese army really arrived in Chongqing, it would not play a big role; on the other hand, if you want to think of the Zhijiang River, you must first pass through the Xuefeng Mountain.
(Hinterland of Snow Peak Mountain)
Xuefeng Mountain is notoriously easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the terrain is particularly complex, and it is not easy for the Japanese army to get through. At the same time, in Xuefeng Mountain, there are a large number of American mechanics arranged in advance by the Kuomintang army, as well as more than 500 combat planes stationed at the airport not far away. With such sufficient combat equipment, in fact, there is no suspense about the result.
In fact, this battle was also the last battle of the Anti-Japanese War. In the end, although the Chinese army won the battle, the Japanese army carried out an inhumane "massacre" when passing through the village.
(Airport)
According to the records in "Operation at the Cave Entrance", a total of 5,279 people were brutally killed during the massacre of the village by the Japanese army. Some young and middle-aged men were directly arrested by the Japanese army to help them with coolies, and when they left, they directly locked 43 men in the barn gate and burned them alive.
The actions of the Japanese army were heinous, and when the news of these things reached the nearby villages, the villagers were all saddened and indignant. In order to prevent such a thing from happening again, the border guard team composed of hunters resolutely decided to launch an operation to fight the devils, defend their homeland, and avenge the dead people.
The boundary guarding team was established in 1936, and the captain was called Lan Chunda. On weekdays, in addition to daily hunting, the border guard team is also responsible for protecting the personal and property safety of the villagers and preventing bandits from invading the village.
(Portrait of Lan Chunda)
There are not many people in the boundary guarding team, only 12 people, but many young and middle-aged villagers spontaneously joined this anti-Japanese squad after hearing that the boundary guarding team was going to fight devils. The number of people slowly increased from a dozen to more than 30 in an instant, and later to more than 80.
Lan Chunda divided the more than 80 people into many teams, some of them were inquiring about the news, some were shooting hidden guns, some were sentry, and some were evacuating the masses, and each of them performed their own duties.
The weapons of the anti-Japanese squad were bird guns and rifles issued by the township office. There are only 21 bird guns, the barrel is longer than that of a rifle, and the "bullets" in it are generally iron strips and iron sand, which are particularly painful to hit people. At the same time, because the range of the bird gun is relatively short, only 100 meters, it is generally used by people with accurate marksmanship and fast speed.
In addition to the bird guns and rifles, some bamboo whistles were also prepared, which were mainly used to convey messages.
=2. The "gun-sniffing team" walks the "front line"
When the weapons and bamboo whistles were ready, the anti-Japanese squad began to work.
First, escort the elderly, weak, women and children to a safe place on the mountain for temporary shelter.
Second, go to find out the news of the Japanese army. This is easy to say, but it is dangerous to execute. A teenager named Liu Dongsheng was arrested in the process of inquiring about the news.
At first, everyone thought that Liu Dongsheng was young and short, so it should not be easy to be found. However, after all, they had not undergone training, but were "temporarily on duty", so as soon as Liu Dongsheng approached, they were discovered by Japanese soldiers with rich combat experience.
I don't know if it's because the Japanese devils want to use Liu Dongsheng to explore the way, after all, the terrain of Xuefeng Mountain is not easy for strangers. In the end, Liu Dongsheng escaped that night, and instead of being killed, he was locked up in a small room.
(Network diagram)
Fortunately, this is a farmhouse, and Liu Dongsheng is still relatively clear about the structure of the house. So, that night, while the Japanese soldiers were asleep, he escaped from the territory surrounded by the Japanese soldiers, and rushed all the way to bring back the news he had found and told Lan Chunda.
After getting the news, Lan Chunda began to arrange each squad in groups of two or three people to ambush the enemy's range of activities.
Because the barrel of the bird gun is very long, they often use some thatch, thorn canopy, etc. to cover, and then take advantage of the Japanese army's inattention, to make a surprise attack.
Just like hunting wild boars on a daily basis, it is up to the hunters who are accurate and fast in their marksmanship to take on this important task.
At the beginning, the Japanese army was often caught off guard, and they could not even find where their enemy was, and the special "bullet" of the bird gun hit the body with special pain, often making them think that this was not a new type of weapon developed by the Chinese.
(Network diagram)
In this process, every time the Japanese army fell, the hunters of the anti-Japanese squad quickly stepped forward to take down the weapons of the Japanese soldiers. Machine guns, rifles, short guns, grenades and other supplies. When the time comes to sneak attack the little Japanese devils again, these supplies will come in handy.
It wasn't until Lan Chunda led the anti-Japanese team to fight with the Orions more times that the Japanese soldiers discovered what the new weapon of the anti-Japanese team was.
They only saw that every time they shot, Orion always had to sniff it with his nose (Orion was closer to the gun holder in order to aim at the target), and after a "bang" shot, there would be a puff of smoke coming out of the top of the gun, which was obviously not seen by the Japanese army before, so they called it the "gun sniffing team".
(Data map - the action when hitting the bird)
When the "gun-sniffing team" fought against the Japanese soldiers, they almost always started from a place with few people, and left immediately after the battle, and did not love war. In addition, they still have people on the side, so if a large number of Japanese troops come or there are still hidden Japanese troops, they will blow bamboo whistles to inform the hunters whether to continue the attack or retreat immediately.
They performed their own duties and cooperated with each other to defeat the Japanese soldiers. Even later, in the battle of horse neck bone annihilation in the Battle of Xiangxi, they also cooperated with the Chinese army and attacked the Japanese soldiers head-on, making contributions to the resistance against Japan.
According to records, in the process of attacking the Japanese army, the "gun-sniffing team" eliminated dozens of Japanese soldiers with no more than three casualties, and at the same time, when cooperating with the Chinese army in frontal combat, all of them directly annihilated more than 1,300 Japanese soldiers.
(Dongkou County Statue)
epilogue
On August 15, 2023, in order to commemorate the "Gun Sniffing Team" of this civilian anti-Japanese team, the statue of the "Gun Sniffing Team" was officially completed in Dongkou County, Shaoyang, Hunan. The appearance of them standing tall and holding bird guns in their hands makes people admire.
Resources:
The Legend of the "Gun Sniffing Team" in Xuefeng Mountain: Dozens of Orions Resisted Japan with Bird Guns and Ambushed the Japanese Army Like Wild Boars.The Paper,2023-08-17
"Jiangkou Yijie, no more Japanese invaders" - Battle of Xuefeng Mountain, Reader's Daily, 2020-07-27