Statue of Samurai Warrior
After the outbreak of the all-out Anti-Japanese War, Wu Shimin, then the commander of the 196th Division of the Kuomintang Shaanxi Army, took the initiative to invite Ying to participate in the Anti-Japanese War. With the determination to resist Japan and save the country, he led his troops to fight in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Henan and other places, and won victories in the battles of Zihongkou and Tianshen Mountain, and was promoted to the commander of the 98th Army because of his repeated military exploits. He enthusiastically supported the CPC's anti-Japanese national united front proposition, worked closely with the Eighth Route Army, fought in concert, smashed the Japanese army's many "sieges", "encirclement and suppression" and "sweeps", opened up the Nanyue anti-Japanese base area, and made great contributions to stabilizing the situation of the anti-Japanese war in the whole country.
Participated in the meeting of the Xiaodongling East Route Army
In February 1938, the 169th Division of the Kuomintang Shaanxi Army led by Wu Shimin was placed under the command of the East Route Army of the 18th Group Army with Zhu De as the commander-in-chief, and was deployed on the front line of Zihongkou, Laiyuan Town, Nanguan Town, and Qinxian County in Shanxi Province to prevent the Japanese army in Jinzhong from invading the southeast of Jinzhong.
On March 24, Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Zuo Quan, and others held a meeting of senior generals of the Eastern Route Army in Xiaodongling, Qin County, Shanxi, and Wu Shimin and others attended the meeting. At the meeting, Zhu De explained to the Kuomintang generals the principles and policies of the CPC's anti-Japanese national united front, encouraged them to put the general interests of the nation first and unite in the War of Resistance against Japan, and pointed out: In order to win the War of Resistance Against Japan, it is necessary to persist in the anti-Japanese guerrilla war behind enemy lines and to rely on the masses of the people to establish a consolidated anti-Japanese democratic base area. After heated discussions, the Xiaodongling Conference adopted Peng Dehuai's report on the operational program, accepted Zuo Quan's tactical viewpoint on persisting in the War of Resistance in North China, and "demarcated the areas where various armies and divisions would operate and establish base areas, and coordinated the opening of the lines of communication with the rear."
During the meeting, Wu Shimin expressed dissatisfaction with the Kuomintang Central Army, and bluntly criticized the Central Army for "putting the miscellaneous army in front to resist Japan, but hiding behind and sitting on the mountain to watch the tiger fight." After listening to the speeches of Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and Zuo Quan, the samurai was so sensitive that he immediately said: "In order to work together and fight together, it is necessary to break the army system, and everything will be assigned to Commander-in-Chief Zhu and Deputy Commander Peng of the Eighth Route Army. Otherwise, they will only lose their vitality, lose their troops, the Japanese army will be reckless, and the people will suffer. ”
Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and Wu Shimin had a long talk and exchanged views on the situation of the Anti-Japanese War. Wu Shimin further strengthened his "firm belief that the control of China's future destiny lies in the Communist Party", and said: "As long as the Nanjing government does not mobilize our troops, we will never give up our positions, and we will definitely work with the Eighth Route Army to persist in the War of Resistance and regain the lost territory." ”
After the meeting, in order to improve the political quality and combat effectiveness of the troops, Wu Shimin submitted a request to the Eighth Route Army to study guerrilla tactics and study the political work of the Eighth Route Army. The Eighth Route Army immediately held guerrilla training classes and political work workshops for friendly forces, and Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and Zuo Quan personally taught courses to the training classes. After the meeting, the Eighth Route Army selected a group of political cadres with work experience to assist in the political and ideological work of the 169th Division, and was warmly welcomed by Wu Shimin and the officers and men of the 169th Division. Wu Shimin also sent a number of military and political cadres to the Eighth Route Army to study wartime political work, democracy movement work, Japanese army work, guerrilla tactics, and so on, and achieved very good results.
Fierce battle Zihongkou
In April 1938, the Japanese army mobilized more than 30,000 troops to besiege the southeast of Shanxi Province in nine ways, in a vain attempt to destroy the anti-Japanese base in Taihang Mountain in one fell swoop. On the 4th, the Japanese army concentrated thousands of troops, adopted the tactics of separate attacks and combined attacks, advanced from Pingyao, Taigu, and Qixian, and launched an attack on the defensive ground of the 169th Division.
At that time, Wu Shimin distributed the entire strength of the 169th Division in Zihongkou, Pantuo Town, East Tuancheng, West Tuancheng, and Laiyuan. After learning of this, the Eighth Route Army suggested that the 169th Division should not stubbornly defend the Zihongkou Fortress, but could open an avenue to lure the enemy into going deeper, take advantage of the favorable terrain in the area of Taihang Mountain, and cooperate with the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army to implement the tactic of "closing the door and fighting dogs." Wu Shimin immediately led the 129th Division to withdraw from Zihongkou and Pantuo Town, and ambushed the main force in Ma'anshan, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Thinking that the Chinese army had "retreated", the Japanese army marched into Zihongkou and Pantuo on the 8th, and continued to attack Ma'anshan.
At about 10 o'clock in the morning of April 10, the Japanese cavalry and chariot units marched to the Ma'anshan ambush circle and were met by the 2nd Regiment of the 169th Division. The enemy knew the plan and organized troops to counterattack. The 169th Division, under the command of Wu Shimin, launched a charge against the enemy, and fought fiercely for a long time, killing the Japanese army with heavy casualties. During the battle, a small Japanese army team approached the stone-built cart shop at the foot of Ma'anshan, in a vain attempt to resist stubbornly with the help of the cart shop. After the Japanese troops entered the cart shop, the soldiers of the 169th Division quietly climbed onto the roof of the house and stuffed cluster grenades into two chimneys, eliminating all the more than 30 enemies in the cart shop. At night, the Japanese army was overwhelmed and fled back to Pantuo Town.
On the 11th, the Japanese army again launched an attack on the position of the 169th Division. Wu Shimin had already intercepted the intelligence of the Japanese army and made a timely replenishment of the battlefield. After the battle began, he commanded the regiments to respond calmly, and personally supervised the battle, comforted the wounded, and the morale of the troops was greatly boosted, and the enemy was quickly repulsed. On April 15, the Japanese army once again pounced on the position of the 169th Division, and the artillery fire was extremely fierce. Wu Shimin led all the officers and men of the 169th Division to hold their positions, blocking the Japanese army in the area north of the East and West Tuancheng, unable to move forward.
On the 16th, the troops of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army rushed to reinforce and attacked the Japanese army's flank in a roundabout way, encircling and annihilating more than 1,500 Japanese troops in Changle Village, Qin County. When the news came, the Japanese troops on the front line retreated in a hurry and did not dare to attack Zihongkou again for a year.
In this battle, Wu Shimin led the 169th Division to bravely resist the enemy for six days and nights, and with the cooperation of the Eighth Route Army, won a great victory in destroying nearly 1,000 enemies.
After the enemy retreated, the 169th Division held a meeting of the military and the people to congratulate the victory in Laiyuan Town, Qi County, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army sent a troupe to give a condolence performance, and the reporter of the "Xinhua Daily" also rushed to cover the situation, and the anti-Japanese army and people shared the joy of victory.
Mt. Tenjin's victory
In June 1939, the 13th Route Army of the Japanese Army adopted the tactics of separate attacks and joint attacks, preparing to "encircle" the 169th Division on three sides. After comprehensively analyzing the situation, Wu Shimin believed that the enemy was divided into multiple units and had different paces, and that it was necessary to adopt the guerrilla tactics of a large detour on the periphery and inflict "heavy blows" on the enemy during the movement, so as to completely break the enemy's attack.
Wu Shimin immediately led his troops to avoid large groups of enemy forces and specifically attacked small groups of enemies. He assembled troops near the Tang River east of Laiyuan Town, and after repeatedly repelling and eliminating small groups of Japanese troops, he led the 169th Division to Tianshen Mountain, Yaozewa, and Baihuyao to the north of Qinyuan in early July. When the 169th Division moved along Qinshui, the follow-up troops found that Japanese troops were following them. Wu Shimin immediately decided to lure the enemy into the Tenjin Mountain Gorge, and then take advantage of the advantageous terrain to concentrate the heavy firepower of the whole division and all the machine-gun units to fight an ambush battle. On the night of the 4th, Wu Shimin led his troops to secretly move to Tianshen Mountain opposite Qinyuan, and ordered his troops to hide in temples and woods, and aim their cannons and machine guns at Majiayugou Bay, the way from which the Japanese army came.
In the early morning of the 5th, a company of the 169th Division, which was tasked with luring the enemy, entered the valley from the valley mouth, and the Japanese troops who followed it immediately swarmed in. After all the Japanese troops entered the ambush circle in the ditch, Wu Shimin gave an order, and the heavy weapons opened fire fiercely at the same time, completely suppressing the Japanese troops at the bottom of the Majiayu Valley. The Japanese army repeatedly charged the hills on both sides in an attempt to seize the commanding heights, but was repulsed by the 169th Division.
The two sides fought fiercely for a day, and most of the Japanese troops at the bottom of the valley were wiped out. At dawn the next day, the remnants of the Japanese army desperately broke through and retreated, and Wu Shimin ordered the 169th Division to clean up the battlefield while ordering to pursue the enemy. In the course of the pursuit, two more groups of enemies came one after another, attempting to flank the 169th Division in front and rear. Wu Shimin commanded the 169th Division to avoid one group of enemies, occupy favorable terrain, and concentrate on fighting another group of enemies. After a day of fierce fighting, the 169th Division inflicted great casualties on the Japanese army, and the remnants of the enemy had to gather in one place and use tear gas to stop the attack of the 169th Division. At dawn the next day, Japanese planes arrived to drop bombs and strafe to cover the retreat. The 169th Division was hidden in the forest in advance and was not damaged.
After that, the troops led by Samurai Min continued to use mobile and flexible tactics to strike at the enemy, and finally succeeded in crushing the Japanese army's 13-way siege. Soon, Wu Shimin was promoted to the commander of the 98th Army with his military merits, and led his troops to fight in the Nakajo Mountains to continue to fight against the Japanese army.
and the Eighth Route Army jointly opened up the Yuenan anti-Japanese base area
In May 1941, the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain broke out, and the 98th Army was responsible for defending the area of Dongfeng Town in the northeast of Zhongtiao Mountain. Under the command of Wu Shimin, the 98th Army held its ground. He fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army for several days, defeated the Japanese attack, killed more than 2,000 Japanese soldiers, and captured a lot of booty. Even the Japanese side had to admit: "In the Battle of Nakajo Mountain, the 98th Army put up stubborn resistance to the Japanese army. "After the defeat of the Kuomintang army in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, Chiang Kai-shek urgently ordered the 98th Army to cover the transfer of the 14th Army. In order to cover the transfer of the headquarters of the 14th Army, Wu Shimin withdrew his troops to the front line of Yokogawa Town and Snow Mountain, attracting more Japanese troops over. After the Kuomintang army retreated, only Wu Shimin led his troops to stay behind the enemy and fight the enemy with the Eighth Route Army.
In order to recover the lost territory and rescue the masses, the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army organized a southward detachment in early June to penetrate deep into the southern part of Taiyue and open up an anti-Japanese base area in southern Yuenan. Soon, Wu Shimin led the 98th Army into the Yuenan area, where he was warmly welcomed by the Communist Party and the Eighth Route Army. The 98th Army and the Eighth Route Army often supplied each other with food, cloth, and cooking oil, informed each other of information, and sent visiting delegations to visit each other, and their friendship grew stronger day by day.
(Author: Wu Pixian The author is a researcher of Beijing literature and history, a descendant of the 98th Army)