In the late autumn of October, the leaves of the trees are yellow, the wind and rain are shaking, and the day is as cool as a day.
Seishiro Sakagaki, the commander of the Japanese army, was a little unhappy.
These days, he commanded the 5th Division and the Chahar Corps, totaling more than 50,000 troops, and launched a fierce attack on the more than 100,000 Central Army and Jin Sui Army in the Xinkou defensive position with superior firepower of aircraft, artillery, and tanks. But he felt a little struggling. The Chinese defenders resisted very stubbornly, especially the main force of Wei Lihuang, the "Tiger General of China", was also transferred to Xinkou, and Sakagaki seemed to have bitten a difficult bone. In addition, the two rear lines of communication from Datong to Xinkou and from Zhangjiakou to Daixian were often harassed and destroyed, resulting in a serious shortage of troops and supplies for the Japanese army, which made him very troubled, like a tiger about to pounce on its prey, dragged by its tail from behind.
Sakagaki may not know very well that the one who frequently caused him "trouble" on the highway from Zhangjiakou to Daixian was precisely Lin Biao's department, which caused him to be severely injured in Pingxingguan a few days ago.
At the beginning of the Xinkou Campaign, Mao Zedong made the strategic decision of "the main forces of the Lin and He divisions to serve as the eastern and western sides to destroy the deep areas behind the enemy's flanks", and at the same time gave clear instructions on the specific problems of the 115th Division's operations on the eastern front.
On October 5, Mao Zedong sent a telegram to Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Peng Dehuai, pointing out: "Except for one part of our 115th Division as a local worker, we should quickly concentrate on the mountainous areas north of Taihuai Town, Daying Town, and Shahe Town. "
On October 6, Mao Zedong sent another telegram to Zhou, Zhu, and Peng, and told Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen that in order to concentrate their forces on destroying the enemy's rear, "the main force of our 115th Division should not only not leave Hebei, nor should it be located at Longquan Pass (should be Jiulong Pass), and it seems that the first step should be moved to the line of Doucun and Taihuai (Town) in order to attack the Daying, Shahe, and Fanzhi lines in a timely manner, and prepare to go out of the Great Wall of North Vietnam to Hunyuan and Yingxian if possible and necessary. The railway from Datong to Zhangjiakou attacked the automobile road from Zhangjiakou to Guangling and Guangling to Daixian. The action of the 115th Division (it would be better if two more divisions were added to Nanjing) and the actions of the main forces of the He Division in Zuoyun, Youyu, Pinglu, and Shuoxian would cause a halt in the frontal attack of the enemy forces in Shanxi, and even a temporary partial retreat, and would cause the enemy troops on the Pinghan Line to stop penetrating deep into the south of Shijiazhuang, and to take one part to garrison the Beiping and Shijiazhuang lines, and the other to turn to the Ling (Qiu), Lai (Yuan), Guang (Ling), and Wei (County) areas to deal with our army. In the 115th Division itself, due to the frequent transfers and battles, it had to be prepared to pay a considerable price, that is, it should be prepared to reduce its strength by 2,000 to 2,500, and because of the attrition, it had to hand over a small part of its guns to the local population to arm them. However, it is of great significance in supporting the Shanxi operation, that is, in supporting the long-term strategic purpose of the North China operation. "
In accordance with the orders of Mao Zedong and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, the 115th Brigade, the Independent Regiment, and the 344th Cavalry Battalion of the 115th Division, under the leadership of Xu Haidong, Yang Chengwu, and Luo Ronghuan, galloped through the vast areas of northeastern Shanxi, southern Chanan, and western Hebei, causing great chaos and unrest in the rear of the Japanese army.
Xu Haidong, formerly known as Xu Yuanqing, once studied in a private school and worked as a potter for 11 years; in the Northern Expedition, he led the whole platoon to crush the enemy's four artillery companies in the Battle of Tingsi Bridge; after joining the Red Army, he served as a battalion commander, regiment commander, division commander, deputy army commander, army commander, and corps commander. After the battle of Pingxingguan, Lin Biao led the 343rd Brigade to move south. Xu Haidong led the 344th Brigade to stay in the northeast of Jin, and dealt continuous blows to the enemy on the front line of Pingxingguan and Fanzhi. More than half a year later, on May 17, 1938, he published an article in the Xinhua Daily in which he described the course of the fighting during this period:
After the battle of Pingxingguan, he was ordered to destroy the communication line from Lingqiu to Tuanchengkou and Daying. The car road from Xiaozhai to Lao Ye Temple was all destroyed. The enemy concentrated more than 500 infantry and 6 artillery pieces at the entrance of the regimental city and the battalion to attack our troops, trying to restore communications, and after making contact with the 687th regiment, they were all routed. In this battle, more than 100 enemies were killed, and 24 rifles and 2 single-barrel guns were captured. In order to completely disrupt the enemy's communication routes, we attacked the entrance of the regiment and the Dongpaochi at night, and the enemy retreated to the camp in a hurry, and we captured 12 rifles and 4 light machine guns. We then attacked Lingqiu with one section, and the enemy was forced to withdraw from the county town and retreat to Guangling. We surrounded the camp again and occupied Fanzhi. After the enemy received the letter, he immediately sent 56 trucks from Dai County, loaded with infantry, to reinforce him. Between Fanzhi and the big camp, we had already sent troops to ambush at the Shahe, and when the enemy passed by, they suddenly attacked fiercely, killing more than 200 enemies. The enemy of the large battalion joined up with the reinforcements of Xincheng and retreated to Daixian. In this battle, 20 enemy trucks were destroyed and 11 rifles were captured. In addition, hundreds of boxes of canned food from the enemy, each containing 100 cans, were grabbed. For several days in a row, the fighters did not want to eat, and only ate canned beef.
After recovering Lingqiu and Daying, he was ordered to destroy the traffic from Zhangjiakou to Dai County. One took advantage of the enemy's weakness and cooperated with the independent regiment to attack and occupy Guangling, while the other occupied Hunyuan and obtained a lot of gas masks and some other military supplies in Hunyuan. The Hunyuan enemy retreated to Datong. The enemy of Datong once tried to restore Hunyuan, concentrated 400 infantry, several cannons, and 200 cavalry counterattack, met our army, fought fiercely for 4 hours, the enemy was defeated, and then retreated to Datong. After the Battle of Hunyuan, a certain regiment was ordered to move south, fought fiercely with the enemy in Shangzhuang, Laoxian County, and killed more than 170 enemies, and killed more than 200 enemies at the mouth of Hedong Zhongjie in Dai County, and captured 20 or 30 rifles. When the main force of our (friendly) army was fighting the enemy in the vicinity of Xinkou and Yuanping, the road from Lingqiu to Daying was completely destroyed by us.
During the battle, we witnessed the brutality and barbarism of the Japanese bandits against the population, which is simply unimaginable. After we recovered the situation, we went to the former hospital for wounded soldiers to check the remaining medicines. When I walked outside the hospital, it stinked. When I went in, I saw that more than 400 wounded soldiers of our army had been completely slaughtered by the Japanese enemy, and they were lying everywhere. In the river bend outside the east gate, two or three hundred people and wounded soldiers were also slaughtered by the Japanese enemy. In the camp, the common people were beaten to death, stabbed to death, and burned to death, a total of more than 1,000 people. As we entered the city, we saw a dead body hanging from a tree in the east, and a dead body hanging from the eaves of the west, and the stench of blood wafting everywhere. Eight-tenths of the houses in the camp were burned down, and many large and small corpses were found in the embers. In Lingqiu, the burning and killing along both sides of the automobile road was even worse than that of the big camp. The enemy attacked Hongzidian, and after the failure of our ambush near Wentang, he still recklessly and slaughtered on a large scale. There were a total of 154 people in Xinzhuang, and 118 were killed, and only a few people who were fast slipped away early and escaped. Dozens of people were killed, most of the house was burned, and the next day the enemy retreated from Pingshan to Donghuishe, where the women were raped from the age of 10 to 70. Some of the young ones committed suicide by throwing themselves into wells, some even died of rape, and some lay down for several days and could not get up.
Xu Haidong not only described the course of the battle, but also summed up the advantages and disadvantages of the Japanese army based on his own combat experience of more than half a year:
I think the Japanese soldiers have the following weaknesses:
(1) The army's offensive spirit is not strong, and it relies exclusively on the cooperation of artillery and aircraft, and without such coordination, its attack power will be very poor.
(2) The tactics are different from those of China, after being attacked, they often retreat to the cave and do not occupy high ground, so they are often hit by our grenades.
(3) Accustomed to mechanized combat, they lose confidence in combat after leaving artillery, tanks, and airplanes.
(4) It can only fight wars on the plains, and it is dull in the mountains.
But the Japanese also had their strengths:
(1) The squad and below are very mobile, and when attacking, small scattered groups are used, or groups of 3 or 5 people, and it is rare for more than one squad to concentrate on the attack.
(2) After the defeat, they were able to fight on their own, and even if there were only a few people left, it was not easy to surrender their guns, because of the arbitrary propaganda of the Japanese imperialist nation and the fact that our army did not have enough work for the Japanese soldiers in the past, and they thought that the Chinese army had caught a certain cruel execution, and the common people would take revenge. Recently, this phenomenon has been improving through our propaganda and Japanese shouts during battles.
(3) Concealment of targets. The Japanese army is good at using the terrain, and because the color of the uniform is yellow, it is very similar to the color of the earth in the north, and it is not easy to be found.
(4) The communication equipment is sound and the communication is flexible. This is the greatest specialty of the Japanese side. The commander of the brigade used signals for command, and even threw smoke bombs in flags. Flexible, coherent, and fast.
Finally, Xu Haidong wrote:
"No matter what special merits the enemy has, we are sure of the victory of the War of Resistance in North China. Under the unprecedented great unity of the whole Chinese nation, taking advantage of the special terrain of North China, giving full play to our strengths in all guerrilla warfare and movement warfare, cooperating with friendly forces that resolutely resist the war, and winning the active and enthusiastic support of the broad masses, we will certainly be able to overcome all difficulties, persist in the war of resistance in the whole of North China, and cooperate with the forces of the whole country in the war of resistance against the Japanese invaders. Finally, we believe that the Chinese nation will unleash its incomparable potential and create one of the most glorious deeds in China's history -- the expulsion of Japanese bandits and the attainment of national independence, freedom and liberation. "
On October 16, 1937, the Xinkou Front Command of the Chinese Defenders.
Wei Lihuang, deputy commander-in-chief of the Second Theater of Operations, was distraught by the earth-shattering sound of artillery, and he tried to rush out of the command post several times to supervise the battle on the line of fire, but was stopped by his staff. In the past few days, the Japanese army has been bombarding the Xinkou position without interruption since dawn, and the central corps has been holding on to the danger and its morale is strong. The Xinkouling was fiercely fought for several days, and the Nanhuaihua position lost several losses, and the battle situation was tragic. Today, the Central Corps decided to carry out a counterattack and fight for the South Huaihua Heights.
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Fu Zuoyi, commander-in-chief of the 6th Group Army, hurried to his army in the face of battle, and his military uniform and hat were burned to several holes. Wei Lihuang asked in surprise:
"Yisheng, what's the situation over there? Just call! What are you doing here? You're not hurt, are you?"
Fu Zuoyi patted the dust on his body and smiled: "The blessing of the boss of Tuowei is not damaged." The situation on my side was similar to yesterday, the Japanese did not attack, and the brothers were all shelled. "
"It's the same with me here. Wei Lihuang suddenly thought of the 9th Army, "Hao Mengling in the Honggou position has not been in contact for a long time, and the Japanese army must be concentrating their forces to attack him in that direction!"
Fu Zuoyi said: I took the risk to come here to worry about this, and I want to remind you!"
Wei Lihuang looked at a large row of telephones and asked urgently: "Which one is the one that leads to Honggou?"
The adjutant hurriedly picked up a phone and held it up in front of Wei Lihuang, who held down the phone and turned the handle vigorously......
Shanxi Wutai. Headquarters of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army.
Nie Rongzhen heard the phone ringing, grabbed it and listened, there was a thick voice roaring on the phone, which made the earphones resonate:
"Hao Mengling, I'm Wei Lihuang!"
When Nie Rongzhen heard this, he knew that the call was wrong, so he hurriedly said: "It's wrong, it's wrong! I'm Nie Rongzhen of the 115th Division." "
"Where are you? Aren't you five? How did Xinkou's phone go to Wu?
Nie Rongzhen put down the phone and smiled at Chief of Staff Zhou Kun: "Wei Lihuang made the wrong call." "
The phone rang again, Nie Rongzhen grabbed it and listened to it, it was still Wei Lihuang's voice, and just as he was about to speak, he heard Hao Mengling's hoarse voice:
"Mr. Wei, no, the casualties are very heavy, there is almost no one, and the guns and ammunition are not in supply......"
"Hao Mengling!" Wei Lihuang roared, "Don't you have a gun on you? not enough guns, I still have one on me!" Wei Lihuang snorted.
Nie Rongzhen sighed, turned around and said softly to Zhou Kun: "Wei Lihuang's War of Resistance is still quite resolute, but it's a pity that ......."
"Hao Mengling, you act quickly, put the phone down!" Wei Lihuang's voice appeared again, "I'm looking for Nie Rongzhen of the Eighth Route Army!"
"General Wei, I'm Nie Rongzhen, what's the matter?"
"How's you doing?"
"Our 343rd Brigade is making a sortie on the Weidai Highway. At midnight the day before yesterday, Pingxingguan was recaptured, and now the enemy strongholds of Shahe and Daying have been cleared. At dawn today, the regimental city was taken again, and the main force was led by Xu Haidong to attack Fanzhi, and one was ready to attack Lingqiu. The Japanese transportation line in the Fanzhi-Pingxingguan-Donghe Henan section was completely cut off. "
"Great! The Japanese army only had the communication line from Taiheling to Datong. I hope that after you take Fanzhi, you will attack Daixian and cut off the transportation line from Taiheling to Xinkou. Wei Lihuang said happily.
"This is exactly our battle plan, General Wei and Chief Zhu and Peng thought together. "
Wei Lihuang continued: "The enemy of Xinkou is as fierce as a tiger, and it is all up to you to drag its tail from behind. I heard that you recovered Laiyuan and Yixian, and also ambushed a large convoy, which part of the men and horses did it?"
Nie Rongzhen replied: "It was our 115th Division Independent Regiment that did it, and the regiment commander is called Yang Chengwu!"
On this day, Hao Mengling, commander of the 9th Army of the Chinese defenders, Liu Jiaqi, commander of the 54th Division, and Zheng Tingzhen, commander of the 5th Independent Brigade, bravely supervised the battle and died in their lives.
In early October, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army ordered Yang Chengwu's independent regiment to advance behind enemy lines, with the task of cooperating with the Kuomintang friendly forces near Xinkou and Xinzhou, destroying the enemy's rear communications, cutting off the enemy's communications, and using guerrilla tactics to maneuver with the enemy in the Guangling, Lingqiu, Laiyuan, and Weixian areas.
At this time, the enemy had dozens and hundreds of cars and horse-drawn carriages running around the roads in this area every day. The enemy of Laiyuan, because he went deep into the mountains, was afraid of being beaten, and did not dare to go out of the city. On the night of the 10th, the 1st Battalion of the Independent Regiment and the plainclothes team attacked Laiyuan, and more than 100 Japanese soldiers fled when they heard the news, and the Independent Regiment successfully regained Laiyuan City.
A few days later, Yang Chengwu received a telegram from the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army from the 115th Division: Advance to Chanan, behind enemy lines, take the Hengshan area in Beiyue as the center, and let go to mobilize the masses to create a base area. Yang Chengwu decided: The 1st Battalion and the 3rd Battalion immediately set out from Laiyuan City and Shangzhai and inserted themselves into the Fengjiagou area between Lingqiu and Guangling Highway to ambush the Japanese convoy; the 2nd Battalion took Laiyuan City as its base, and Xiao Siming led a group to follow and pursue the retreating enemy at Zijing Pass and Yixian to recover Yixian County, mobilize the masses along the way, attack the Japanese troops defending the city, and boldly open up an anti-Japanese base area.
At dawn the next day, after the troops preparing to ambush the enemy's convoy had a full meal of millet porridge and pancakes, Zeng Baotang, commander of the 1st Battalion, and Yuan Shengping, deputy commander of the 1st Battalion, took the troops to a drying field. Yang Chengwu gave the task and briefly mobilized a few words. Everyone was happy to hear that the convoy that had gone to ambush the enemy. The Japanese transport team is a "big fat meat", pulling a full load of grain and ammunition, and the independent regiment has been out of the division for more than two months, and it is time to replenish it.
It is nearly a hundred kilometers away from Fengjiagou, and almost all of it is deep mountains and valleys, but the troops must arrive tomorrow morning, and if it is too late, the enemy's convoy will slip over. Not long ago, the 1st Battalion had an ambush, but the enemy did not appear, and the soldiers ran in vain, and then ambushed on the hill all night, and their bodies were almost frozen, and finally returned in defeat. Strike again today, will it ?......
It didn't go far before it rained, and the mountain road, which had been blurry before, was now even darker and more difficult to distinguish. The lot with slates, slippery step by step, the lot without slates, muddy and shuffling. As soon as you hear the sound of a gun hitting a rock, it's eighty percent that someone has fallen. However, heavy rain, strong winds, stumbling and fatigue were not the same thing at all for the battle-hardened soldiers of the Eighth Route Army. What everyone was most worried about was that it was raining, and the Japanese convoy refused to dispatch.
In the middle of the night, Yang Chengwu led the regiment headquarters to a small mountain village. Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked to the head of the village, a sentry suddenly asked, "Stop, who are you?"
"115th Division Independent Regiment. What part of you are from?"
"We are the 1 battalion. "
Yang Chengwu felt strange. According to the plan, the 1st Battalion should have advanced rapidly in front, how could it be set up here?
"Where is the battalion?" the sentry recognized Yang Chengwu and replied, "In the village." "
"Why don't you move forward?"
"I don't know, the battalion commander told him to stop advancing. "
Yang Chengwu hurriedly entered the village, and sure enough, he saw the troops scattered and resting in the village. Finding the battalion headquarters, Yang Chengwu split his head and asked the commander of the 1st battalion: "Who notified you to rest?"
The commander of the 1st battalion was uncomfortably silent for a while, saying: "The fighters are too tired,...... It's raining again, and the enemy won't be able to move. "
He said the truth, the fighters of the 1st battalion were too tired. Several of them fell into the ravine during the march and fell unconscious. Yang Chengwu understands that there can be no luck or vacillation at this time. Even if you run in vain, you must go all out to catch up! Because whether you can fight the enemy's convoy or not will not be known until you reach the ambush area. If we take a comfortable rest here for a while, we are likely to lose our fighters and our actions will become meaningless. Thinking of this, Yang Chengwu said solemnly: "How do you know that the enemy will not move? The speed of marching in the rain is slow, and it is even more necessary to rush for time. If you can't rest, gather your troops and move forward at once!"
The commander of the 1st battalion agreed, went out to blow the whistle, gathered the troops and continued to advance. Yang Chengwu looked at his watch, this stop and left, delayed a lot of time, and he was secretly anxious, so he sent someone to urge the troops in front to speed up. The commander of the 1st Battalion was a cadre of the Red Army who had made many military exploits. At this moment, he was refreshed and desperately rushed forward with a wave of energy. The troops actually ran forward in the heavy rain and dark night. He shouted loudly: "The Long March of 10,000 miles has come, what is the remaining dozens of miles?
Party members echoed: "Rush to the position and rest", "Win the battle and then rest".
At dawn on October 15, 1937, the 1st Battalion finally arrived at Nangeya Village, which was only three or four miles away from Fengjiagou. The soldiers went into the woods to hide and quickly wiped the muddy water from the guns, while the military cadres reconnoitred the terrain in the direction of Fengjiagou and chose an ambush position.
Fengjiagou is a small village, close to the Ling (Qiu) Guang (Ling) Highway, both sides of the road are all endless mountains, in the middle of the use of the dry sand river beach to pave a thin car road, the road width is about ten meters, there is a small hill bag in the south, forming a pass. This terrain is naturally very favorable for ambushes. Therefore, Yang Chengwu instructed the 1st Battalion to set up a pocket formation on this pass south of Fengjiagou, preparing to ambush the Japanese troops from the north to Guangling south. Subsequently, Yang Chengwu sent Huang Shoufa, commander of the 3rd Battalion, and Zhang Xiangjiuguo, instructor, to lead the troops directly into the Yiquanling area south of the 1st Battalion, preparing to focus on ambushing the Japanese convoy that might come from Lingqiu in the south.
"On the same highway we set up ambushes in two directions, the former being the main ambush and the latter in order to cooperate, but whichever direction of the enemy appears first becomes the actual main direction of sortie, and the other direction is coordination. This allows for both mutual support and surprise strikes against the enemy. "
When the 1st Battalion was arranging the position, Song Yulin, the commander of the 3rd Company, was always angry, because their company was arranged to go to the back mountain to be a reserve. He argued: "Why don't you let us go up? We can fight!" In the battle of the waist station, the 3rd Company lost more than half, the guns and ammunition were consumed even more, and only a few intact bayonets remained in the whole company. After that battle, Song Yulin was so sad that she refused to speak for several days. Today is going to be an ambush, on the one hand, he wants to take revenge, on the other hand, he wants to take this opportunity to capture more weapons and equipment, but there is no position of the 3rd company on the ambush line, can he not be annoyed?
The battalion commander disagreed, and Song Yulin walked away with a stiff face. He wandered around the hill alone, pondering to find a position for the 3rd Company. Sure enough, he wandered around for a while, strode back, and raised objections to the operational deployment of the battalion: the enemy's convoy might enter the ambush circle from north to south, and as soon as the gun sounded, there were two possibilities, one was to resist and retreat, and the other was to rush south regardless of life or death, in a vain attempt to break through the ambush circle. However, the depth of the ambush we have now set up is limited, and if the enemy rushes in one breath, it is very likely that he will escape through the bottom of the "pocket". He suggested that the 3rd Company go to the bottom of the "pocket" in order to block the enemy if necessary and annihilate it completely.
Yang Chengwu discussed with the battalion commander and felt that Song Yulin's opinion was reasonable, so he adopted it.
Song Yulin happily led the 3rd Company to the east of the village. When he passed a small hillside, he saw a lot of cut grass, tied into bundles and erected into stacks of grass, and his heart moved: If the enemy was ambushed from here, he would definitely be taken by surprise! Therefore, he immediately decided to lead a platoon and three machine guns to lie in ambush on the hillside only 20 meters away from the road. He ordered the soldiers to hide behind the haystacks, and the machine guns were aimed at the road through the haystacks, and said: "I don't shoot, no one is allowed to shoot, I will fight every time! After defeating the enemy, rush! I must catch a few alive!"
When the military cadres chose their positions, the instructors of each company also seized the time to mobilize the soldiers before the battle. Their slogan is: Resolutely and courageously rush forward and seize the enemy's big car!
After entering the position, everyone lowered their voices when they spoke. Someone also softly hummed the song "Fighting Cavalry":
Don't be afraid when the cavalry comes, let's raise our guns to fight it.
Aim accurately, put fast,
Defeat the enemy.
We defeat it, we destroy it!
The sun was rising higher and higher, the fog in the mountains had long since dissipated, and the soldiers were getting more and more uneasy as they waited, when they suddenly received a signal from the observation post: the enemy has been found!
Yang Chengwu felt a burst of joy in his heart, the soldiers also laughed, and some even beat their thighs excitedly. Immediately, everyone tiptoed into the firing position, not even daring to come out of the atmosphere, as if a fox had come, for fear of scaring it away.
The Japanese are still so arrogant. When they approached the ambush area, they suddenly stopped, and the Japanese soldier sitting in the car body picked up the crooked machine gun on the top of the car, and then turned the front of the car to the right, pulled up a trail of smoke and dust, and broke into the village of Fengjiagou under the highway. Subsequently, two plainclothes bicycles followed the motorcycles into the village.
After a while, a group of cavalry, about 20 people, appeared on the road, led by a Japanese flag on the spear. As soon as they reached the pass, they stopped, looked for a moment, then turned their horses' heads and retreated. Only one enemy cavalryman was left standing on his pedals, using his binoculars to continue to observe the slopes on either side of the road, and from time to time to look back, as if waiting for something.
A trace of uneasiness flashed in Yang Chengwu's heart, because the minutes before the battle were more difficult than the actual battle, and the enemy had already come to the edge of the trap, and at this time, as long as any soldier accidentally raised his chest or rolled a stone from his side, the enemy would immediately be alert or retreat, and the suddenness of the battle and the certainty of victory would be greatly reduced. What is needed at this time is a high degree of self-control, calmness, firmness, and silence like those rocks!
After a while, more than twenty enemy cavalry who had opened the way reappeared. Immediately behind was the Second Transport Brigade of the Japanese Sakagaki Division, with more than 120 rubber-tyred carts, each of which was pulled by three or four mules, and the war materials on the carts were piled up like a hill, slowly climbing up the slope along the road. Behind the convoy, more than thirty cavalrymen followed.
Most of the cars slid over the top of the slope and entered the ambush area of the Eighth Route Army. At this moment, the enemy cavalry, who was watching from the top of the slope, suddenly signaled the convoy to stop, and he must have discovered something. But the convoy was going downhill and couldn't stop at all. The cars in front stopped, and the cars behind them still slid one after the other, huddled together at the bottom of the slope. It's a great fighter.
Song Yulin, the commander of the third company who was ambushed at the bottom of the "pocket", saw that the enemy's cart was about to collide, but he still waited patiently. It was only when the enemy's carts collided front and rear and were in chaos that he gave the order to open fire. Three machine guns spewed out angry tongues of fire and swept straight towards the convoy, and the enemy fell one after another, and some of them fell down before they could even draw their hands in their sleeves to keep warm. The undead enemy hurriedly got behind the car and resisted. The hill of supplies on the cart overturned, burying many dead and undead Japanese soldiers underneath.
At this time, the 1st and 2nd companies opened fire at the same time, striking the enemy cavalry behind the convoy and blocking the enemy's retreat with fire. One grenade after another flew over and exploded in the enemy convoy.
Song Yulin shouted, "Get on, catch it alive!" He took the lead and led the soldiers to rush onto the road. The remnants of the enemy crawled out from under the car and stabbed them with their guns. Although the 3rd Company had only a few intact bayonets, they did not hesitate, and as soon as they swarmed up, the fighters without bayonets used the handles of their guns and grenades to fight the enemy. They really wanted to capture a few Japanese soldiers alive, but the enemy struggled desperately, and Song Yulin was wounded in two places on his head and shoulder, covered in blood. Seeing that it was difficult to capture the enemy alive, he became angry and shouted, "Shoot!" and the enemy was killed at once.
In a short time, the 1st and 2nd companies also rushed down the road and engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, and the shouts of killing in different languages and the sound of various guns would be fired. The canyon was littered with overturned vehicles, large and small wooden crates rolling to the ground, and frightened mules and horses scurrying around on enemy corpses. They hadn't yet unleashed, dragging the cart crookedly. The enemy could not withstand the blows of the Eighth Route Army, and the Japanese soldiers were killed one after another.
Following the annihilation of the Sakagaki Division's automobile team and baggage brigade at Pingxingguan, its second transport brigade was also destroyed here, and only a few cavalry escaped the net. In this battle, more than 100 Japanese soldiers were killed and wounded, and 3 motorcycles, more than 120 carts, more than 800 mules and horses, more than 70 rifles and rifles, more than 10 short guns of various kinds, more than 20 boxes of shells, more than 40 boxes of bullets, more than 2,200 boxes of canned food, biscuits, sodas, and other food, as well as a large number of tweed coats and military blankets.
On the same day, the 3rd Battalion, under the leadership of battalion commander Huang Shoufa, instructor Zhang Xiangguo, and deputy battalion commander Qiu Wei, fought a beautiful ambush in the Yiquanling area, the southern section of the same highway. At this time, the Japanese army galloping north from Lingqiu did not know that Fengjiagou had been controlled by the Eighth Route Army, let alone that the Second Transport Brigade had been completely annihilated. They broke into the ambush zone of the 3rd Battalion in 5 vehicles. The 3 battalion was hit hard, and 3 cars became trophies.
At this point, the important communication line from Guangling to Lingqiu was completely controlled by the independent regiment.
In the battle of Fengjiagou, the Eighth Route Army also captured a few Chinese prisoners, and when asked, it turned out that most of them were locals, and they had to come to work under the pressure of the Japanese army's bayonets. Yang Chengwu asked about the situation in several surrounding counties. They said nonsense: There are only a few dozen Japanese troops in Guangling City, and there are not many Japanese troops in Lingqiu City, and the Japanese are busy with the "Taiyuan Raid Battle", and only a few troops occupy the county seat in the rear to protect their communication lines.
Therefore, Yang Chengwu immediately ordered the 3rd Battalion to attack and take Guangling City in the north. The soldiers grabbed the guns and ammunition they had just captured, carried a few packets of biscuits, and ran towards Guangling City while eating. A few Japanese soldiers who escaped from Fengjiagou had already fled into Guangling City first. Because they brought the news of the destruction of the convoy, the Japanese troops defending the city panicked all of a sudden: go out of the city to attack, the troops are too small, abandon the city and retreat, and they can't keep the line of communication. At this moment, there was a sudden chaos inside and outside the city, and birds, gongs and drums, firecrackers, and bursts of shouts were heard from all directions, and the Japanese troops were even more panicked and shrank to the city tower. It turned out that the news of the victory of the Eighth Route Army in the battle of Fengjiagou also spread among the local people. They rejoiced and deliberately made all kinds of noises, as if the Eighth Route Army was about to attack the city, making it difficult to distinguish the true and false Japanese troops defending the city.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the 3rd battalion of soldiers came to the city, and the local people were even more happy, and they ran out of their homes with birds, spears, and axes to assist their troops in attacking the city. The walls of Guangling are about one foot and two feet high, and they are not very strong, and some sections have long been dilapidated. As soon as the 3rd battalion attacked, it broke through the city and entered. The Japanese troops defending the city fled one after another, and dozens of more people were annihilated.
After Guangling City was recovered, the Japanese army in Lingqiu City in the south was lonely, so they had to abandon the city and flee westward, and the independent regiment recovered Lingqiu City. Subsequently, they divided their forces and advanced to the east, west, and north. In this way, in less than 20 days, the independent regiment successively recovered seven county seats, including Laiyuan, Guangling, Lingqiu, Yixian, Weixian, Yangyuan, and Hunyuan.
It was the day of the great development of the Independent Regiment, and almost every day there was news of the victory of the reconquest. Later, a young poet and reporter of the Northwest Service Corps of the Eighth Route Army wrote a song in the field, composed by Luo Lang, and widely sung in the Independent Regiment:
Independent Regiment,
Corps of the 115th Division,
Independent Regiment,
Corps of the old Red Army.
After crossing the Yellow River, they fought at the waist station
This is the first battle,
It was a victorious battle.
For the people of North China,
For the sake of the Chinese nation,
Heroes charge bravely,
Seven county towns were collected together one after another.
Vast expanses of land can be cultivated,
Millions of people were freed.