How legendary is the experience of Yang Chengwu, the founding general of the People's Republic of China? He was once the pioneer of the Luding Bridge and fought for the Red Army in a desperate situation. In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he killed the famous Japanese army general on Taihang Mountain with an exquisite layout, and even Chairman Mao praised him: I think Yang Chengwu is a "white-robed young general"!
Yang Chengwu's experience
Yang Chengwu started with the peasant uprising in the ancient city of western Fujian and entered the revolutionary ranks, when he was only 15 years old, but he was already the captain of the Young Pioneers, and when he became an adult, he joined the ranks of the Red Army as he wished. After a number of arduous battles, Yang Chengwu grew rapidly in actual combat.
In 1930, he was appointed political commissar of the 32nd Regiment of the 11th Red Division, and later transferred to the political commissar of the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Red Division in the first five anti-encirclement campaigns, when the Red 2nd Division was one of the main forces of the Red Army. However, with the failure of the Fifth Anti-Encirclement and Suppression Campaign, the Red Army was forced to embark on the road of a long march of 10,000 miles.
On the long march of the Long March, the Red Army was always in a desperate situation of being blocked in front and pursuing soldiers behind, and the thrill of the battle was unimaginable, but Yang Chengwu was always able to find a glimmer of life for the Red Army with his flexible mind and tenacious revolutionary will.
Fly to capture the Luding Bridge
In 1935, the Red Army walked to the Dadu River, where Shi Dakai's 100,000 troops had been trapped, and Chiang Kai-shek strictly ordered Liu Wenhui to defend the opposite bank, while Xue Yue led 100,000 troops to pursue the Red Army. At this critical juncture, Yang Chengwu stood up directly, he led the Red 4th Regiment to overcome fatigue, hunger and pain, marched 240 miles in one night, and arrived at the Luding Bridge, the only bridge to be erected.
In the face of the frantic firepower of the enemy on the other side of the bridge, Yang Chengwu directly formed a death squad and rushed away from the Luding Bridge, and he personally picked up a pistol and charged at the opposite bank. Eventually, the enemy forces on the opposite bank collapsed under the fearless offensive of the Red Army, and the follow-up forces were able to cross the river from Luding Bridge.
After the Red Army's Long March arrived in northern Shaanxi, Yang Chengwu studied cultural knowledge at the Red Army University, and then responded to the call of the anti-Japanese united front and set foot on the battlefield of resistance against Japan. He was appointed as the commander of the Independent Regiment of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and was the first to enter the battle as the first batch of cadres of the Eighth Route Army to leave northern Shaanxi.
When Yang Chengwu arrived in Shanxi, he adapted measures to local conditions, relying on the dangerous Taihang Mountain, and established the Jin-Cha-Ji base area, which later became the most headache for the Japanese army in North China.
In 1939, the Japanese army was ruthless to the growing Jin-Cha-Ji base, and directly transferred Lieutenant General Abe Guixiu, who had the reputation of "the flower of famous generals", from Zhangjiakou, who led the independent mixed second brigade to encircle and suppress the Jin-Cha-Ji base area. After Yang Chengwu received the information, he immediately reacted. He personally went to Yansu Cliff, Baishikou, Loess Ridge and other areas to observe the terrain, and made a defensive plan in advance against the Japanese army's large-scale attack. In Yang Chengwu's view, it was unrealistic for the Eighth Route Army to stop the Japanese Second Independent Brigade with strong firepower in the front, so it must give full play to the advantage of being familiar with the terrain as much as possible. Yang Chengwu noticed that the Loess Ridge is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and it is the best terrain for arranging the "pocket array". So he planned to take advantage of the pride and complacency of the Japanese army and let the Eighth Route Army adopt the strategy of luring the enemy into depth. In November, two regiments of the Jin-Cha-Ji No. 1 Division and one regiment of the No. 3 Sub-district attacked together and laid a net in the Loess Ridge.
Kill the "Flower of Famous Generals"
Japanese Lieutenant General Abe Norihide was extremely confident in his own troops, and the firepower ratio between the Japanese army and the Eighth Route Army was 3 to 1, so when he led more than 1,000 elite Japanese troops to set foot on the Taihang Mountain, he did not carefully investigate the situation, but directly and boldly assaulted, intending to use the firepower advantage to give the Eighth Route Army a dismount.
When the Japanese army encountered Yang Chengwu's decoy troops, they could not help laughing out loud when they saw that the guns of the Eighth Route Army were extremely sparse: The Eighth Route Army did not even have enough bullets, and it still wanted to fight! In this way, Abe Norihide continued to pursue the Eighth Route Army in a proud and arrogant mentality, until he got into the "pocket array" laid by Yang Chengwu.
Seeing that the Japanese army had penetrated into the encirclement, Yang Chengwu ordered the soldiers of the three regiments to attack together to encircle and annihilate this pretentious Japanese army. However, the arrogance of the Japanese army was not without support, under the command of Abe Norihide, the Japanese army shrank the heavy equipment together, forming a ring defense line that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the Eighth Route Army, which had the advantage of troops, charged several times, but failed to break through the Japanese defense line, and the gap in firepower between the two sides was indeed very large.
However, Yang Chengwu came up with a surprisingly winning idea: Capture the thief and capture the king first! He personally took a telescope and went to the front line to observe the enemy's situation, and thus discovered the Japanese command post cowering in a small courtyard.
Yang Chengwu called the commander of the only artillery company in the team and asked him to concentrate the artillery shells of the whole regiment and destroy the small courtyard.
The commander of the artillery company lived up to expectations and hit the small courtyard one after another with accurate artillery techniques. At that time, Abe Norihide was holding an emergency meeting in the small courtyard, but he didn't expect Yang Chengwu's cannonball to fall from the sky and explode directly beside him. Although Abe Norihide was not killed on the spot, the commander of the Japanese brigade, who was seriously injured in many places, finally died at the Loess Ridge of Taihang Mountain because he could not administer first aid.
After killing Abe Norihide, the remaining Japanese troops were left without a master, and more than 600 people were annihilated by the Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop, and the rest of the remnants escaped with reinforcements. After Yang Chengwu saw the follow-up support of the Japanese army, he decisively accepted it and ordered the evacuation of Loess Ridge. In this way, Yang Chengwu won the victory in the Battle of Loess Ridge, and let the "flower of famous generals" of the Japanese army wither on Taihang Mountain.