In August 1942, the Eighth Route Army's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in North China was extremely fierce, and the base area of the Ji'nan Military Region was compressed by the "encroachment" attack of the Japanese army in the Yuancheng area and south of Wei County, and the passage to the Jiluyu base area was also cut off, and the situation was very difficult. In order to counter the "encroachment" of the Japanese army, the cavalry regiment of the Ji'nan Military Region (belonging to the 129th Division), with the cooperation of the brother troops of the Jiluyu Military Region, attacked at all costs to the blockade line south of Yuancheng.
The cavalry regiment was the most effective main force in the Southern Hebei base area, and since the beginning of summer, there had been continuous fighting, at this time the four companies had a total of more than 300 people left, but they had to fight a tough battle to take Nanlizhuang, which had the largest number of Japanese puppet troops and the strongest fortifications. Even the cooking squad in the regiment went up with guns.
The troops cooperating in the battle blocked the enemy's reinforcements from two directions, and the cavalry regiment attacked the enemy stronghold alone, and the battle lasted from midnight to the afternoon of the next day, only to take more than 700 enemy troops defending Nanlizhuang.
In this battle, the Ji'nan Military Region fought with the old roots, and the backbone of the Red Army was almost completely killed or injured, and in the words of Liu Banchang, the commander of the 2nd Company of the Cavalry Regiment, "After a battle, when serving the warhorses, I can no longer hear anyone roaring Qin." The post-war wrap-up meeting could not be held at all, and the soldiers were so sad that they hit their heads against the wall. When the camp was transferred, a man had to lead several horses, and the people who helped to watch over the war horses were also crying.
The laying of Nanlizhuang also contributed to the masses, and some of the masses volunteered to rescue the wounded and transport grenades for the Eighth Route Army. According to Liu Banchang's recollection, during the battle, the four brothers of the local Wang family, the youngest being 51 years old and the oldest 62 years old, had to join the stretcher team. Others are 6 people or 8 people, they have to be in groups of 4 people.
The four old men were no less advanced than the young adults, and they rushed upwards without waiting for the battle to subside. When the 4th Company of the Cavalry Regiment and a group of "two devils" were fighting for bayonets, the wang family's second son, Wang Courtier, ran into the battlefield without waiting for a shift, shouting "Don't cut me" while carrying the wounded outside. Running back and forth for more than an hour, 13 wounded were carried out, and 3 baskets of grenades were sent to the Eighth Route Army. As a result, wang courtiers were overworked and died the next day.
The elder Wang Chaozhong and the fourth Wang Chaofu encountered the fleeing puppet army on the way to carry the wounded, and the two desperately protected the wounded Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, resulting in Wang Chaozhong being injured and Wang Chaofu stabbed to death with a bayonet. After the war, the cavalry regiment of the Eighth Route Army sent people to carry coffins for the Wang brothers to be buried, and their families were also evaluated as martyrs.
After the Eighth Route Army captured Nanlizhuang, it took a short rest, and then took the Strongholds of the Dragon King Temple and Liu Mazhai without stopping, fought hard for more than a month, and recovered the entire Yuancheng area.
In the entire Battle of Yuancheng, the last battle was to fight Liu Mazhai, and Chen Zaidao, commander of the Ji'nan Military Region, found all the men and horses he could find, and as a result, the troops participating in the battle had 23 regiments (in fact, there were not many people). There were guerrillas and militias, and when a fight broke out, from rifles, machine guns, and mortars to bird hammers, earthen cannons, and firecracker barrels, there was a loud noise, but it frightened the devils not lightly.
Captain Liu said that he had never seen such a lively battle, nor had he ever seen a medium-sized village, and he could meet so many commanders and regiment commanders. The platoon commanders of the cavalry regiment were busy saluting along the way, and they could not put their hands down, and the soldiers looked at it and laughed. A few mischievous warriors rode in front of them and suddenly shouted "chief", and the cadres behind them were busy saluting and finally confused.
After the battle of Liu Mazhai, the cavalry regiment went to Zhang Luji in the Luxi area to rest. Zhang Luji was a Huimin district, and the Huimin detachment of the Jizhong Military Region led by Ma Benzhai also rested there and held a party with the cavalry regiment, and as a result, they were very impressed with the equipment captured by the cavalry regiment.
Due to the severe attrition of the cavalry regiment and the large number of captured items, each squad was equipped with crooked machine guns, and there were war horses carrying ammunition behind the machine gunners. A squad leader also pinned a 20-ring box gun (barge gun), as well as three or eight large covers and a large saber, and was draped all over his body, which could make the poor Ma Ben Saibu envious.
After consultation, the commander of the Ji'nan Military Region decided to take care of the Huimin detachment, and the cavalry regiment, except for the cadres, handed over all short guns, and then allocated 5 machine guns and 30 war horses to the Huimin detachment. As a result, the Huimin detachment was overjoyed, but the officers and men of the cavalry regiment were very frustrated. Wang Yongyuan, chief of staff, and Director Lai of the Political Department were not satisfied, and together they went to find Ma Benzhai Theory, did not speculate, and slapped the table, and as a result, the two were immediately removed from their posts.
Gui Gansheng, commander of the Ji'nan Military Sub-district, felt that the punishment was too heavy, so he found an opportunity to transfer Director Lai to the New 9th Brigade and became the political commissar of the newly formed 26 regiment, while Wang Yongyuan was sent to the Kang Da to study.
The problem of the cavalry regiment replenishing the number of soldiers worried the head of the military region. Because of the long cavalry training cycle, too few young adults in the Jiluyu area will ride horses and have no time to train new recruits from scratch. Therefore, the commander decided to merge the cavalry of the New 7th Brigade into the cavalry regiment of the 129th Division, and then the cavalry of the fourth sub-district of Southern Hebei was also incorporated into the cavalry regiment.
The cavalry of the New 7th Brigade is in the process of literary and artistic work, can twist the song, can dance the national dance, and organizes the song team, and the cavalry regiment is lively again.
Reference: Chinese Cavalry