In the summer and autumn of 1949, the 480th Regiment of the People's Liberation Army was ordered to start a long-distance march to Shimen, Hunan, and was responsible for suppressing the bandit armed forces in Shimen and Cili counties. At that time, although the Kuomintang reactionaries as a whole had collapsed, there were still some diehard forces that were willing to take chances and wait for an opportunity to counterattack, including Zhu Jikai, who was known as "the most cunning bandit leader in western Hunan Province."
Zhu Jikai, nicknamed "Zhu Scar", was born in 1904 in Jiangkou Village, Tieluoping Township, Hefeng County, Hubei Province. He came from a poor background, was talented, and had the courage to be a man. When he was fourteen or fifteen years old, he saw that his cousin, who was the township chief, had a foreign gun "Hanyang Stick", and he moved his mind. One day, Zhu Jikai carried the reams he used to drive the mountains, asked his cousin to go up the mountain to hunt wild game, and took the opportunity to learn from his cousin to make a foreign gun. The cousin knew his plan, and when he went up the mountain, he saw Zhu Jikai's eyes gluttonous with his own "Hanyang stick", and he didn't care, and handed it over to him to fiddle with. Who knew that after the "Hanyang Stick" arrived, Zhu Jikai turned his face and falsely claimed that there was "rotten grass yellow" behind his cousin, and when his cousin turned around, he sent his cousin to the Yin Cao Mansion with a shot of "Oh". When the hunters in the mountains heard the gunshots and thought that someone had played wild game, they gathered around with the guys and wanted him to honor the mountain rule that "there is meat in the mountain, and those who see it are all.". Zhu Jikai was a thief with a weak heart, and shouted with a hammer: "Put the guy down, or Lao Tzu will open fire!" He only listened to the muffled sound of "boo", but he himself fell to the ground in response. It turned out that he had grabbed the gun with a black heart, charged too much medicine, and wanted to murder his cousin, but the barrel burst, and he actually blew himself up, leaving a face of scars and a disability of breaking two fingers, and since then he has gained the nickname of "Zhu Scar".
Later, he practiced his marksmanship hard, and with the remaining thumb and index finger, he actually practiced the magic skill of "opening the bow left and right, and wearing Yang in a hundred steps". At this point, he began to stand on his own mountain, and gradually became a local magnate, and in the early years, he often fought and killed with the "green forests" in various parts of the Lishui River Basin, and his reputation became more and more famous. Some people had guns, and "Zhu Scarzi" was no longer satisfied with falling into the grass, but became the deputy head of the Cili County Security Regiment, and then in 1932 he was incorporated into the colonel regiment of the 3rd Regiment of the newly organized 34th Division of the Kuomintang, and was also assigned to the special training class of the Kuomintang Officer Training Corps in Lushan, Jiangxi. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, "Zhu Scarzi" served as the deputy brigade commander of the 574th Brigade of the 87th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and was ordered to go to the anti-Japanese front, where he made great contributions to the "Changde Defense War" and became famous. At this time, the "Zhu Scar" should be said to reflect his own responsibility.
In addition, there are several stories about him circulating in the local area: First, in order to visit his mother and relatives, he built a stone road along the stone wall on the right bank of the water in Cili territory, which went straight to the mouth of the Iron Furnace Ping River in Hefeng County, which lasted for more than forty miles, which greatly facilitated the local people. Second, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he had the son of a direct family member, whom everyone called second young master, and when he ran amok in the township, he actually raped a bride who was about to enter the cave house, and the bride was so angry that she risked her life to cry for help from the "Zhu Scarzi" who was stationed in Cili County at that time. "Zhu Scar" squinted his eyes and only asked one sentence after listening: "Is this true?" The bride said, "Face to face!" "Zhu Scar" immediately clapped his hands and said, "I will definitely pay you back a fair deal." As soon as the bride turned and left, "Zhu Scarzi" immediately sent someone to summon the Second Young Master and interrogate him with a tiger's face. Intimidated by its majesty, the Second Young Master confessed to the facts of the crime, and "Zhu Scarzi" was furious, pulled out a short gun from his waist, and shot this evil young man down in front of the gate with his bare hands.
As the pace of national liberation was getting closer and closer, "Zhu Scarzi" also knew that the old Kuomintang regime was getting weaker and weaker, but the temptation of power in the past made it difficult for him to give up, and after several struggles, he still chose the path of confrontation and pulled up the team to the mountain as a bandit.
After the 480th Regiment moved to guard the stone gate, it was found that Zhu Scarzi was not in the county seat, but was hiding in the mountains in the northwest of the county. So the regimental headquarters sent 3 battalions to track and pursue to the mountainous area of Moshi.
Local people reported that Zhu Scarzi did indeed wander here, and there were more than 800 bandits gathered around him, so as to deceive the people's hearts, known as 3 regiments. So many people eating, drinking and supplying is not a trivial matter, "Zhu Scar" can only go around robbing homes, plus many bandits take advantage of the fire to rob, becoming a local harm.
On the afternoon of September 9, a gentleman dressed as a gentleman came to the camp to report that Zhu Scar was preparing to surrender the day after tomorrow. The person who came was called Xiang Zelun, who was Zhu Scarzi's brother-in-law and served as the chief of staff in Zhu Bu. But after waiting for two days, there was no one there. According to his own account later, it turned out that his so-called surrender was actually a deception set up by him to test the falsehood of the PLA army.
After Zhu Scarzi surrendered to the city of Mill and lost faith, the People's Liberation Army continued to garrison and wait for him in the city of Mill, and waited for nearly a month without seeing any movement. On October 8, Xiang Zelun came again to report that his wife and brother did not come to the people's liberation army last time, and were ready to surrender in the city. So our battalion rushed to the city according to the situation described to the minister.
This time, Zhu only sent his secret service regiment leader Liu Yunyou to bring a guard to surrender, and Zhu Scarzi did not show his face. After patient education, Liu Yunyou followed the People's Liberation Army out every day to find Zhu Scar. Although he was not found, he accidentally heard the news of Chen Yaoyu, the leader of the Shimen bandit brigade, and Chen Jinci, the local bandit commander. These two bandits had a very close relationship with Zhu Scar in the past, and after analysis, it is likely that Zhu Scar was also there. So the battalion commander Yu Jianglong immediately sent a company to attack separately, and the two bandits were eliminated before long, and Chen Yaoyu and Chen Jinci were also captured alive.
After several attempts to learn that the PLA was only a battalion, Zhu Tried to eat them. On the 26th, six days after Chen Jinci was captured, Zhu Scarzi was still playing tricks, lying to the People's Liberation Army that he was ready to surrender in Sioux City.
At that time, the People's Liberation Army, in line with the principle of preferring to believe in what it had, sent a reinforced company to the city of Sioux to be surrendered. However, Zhu gathered 12 bandit detachments, about 2,000 bandits, and surrounded them. Thanks to the help of the masses, the troops withdrew from the siege, but suffered heavy casualties.
After receiving the urgent report, the commander of the 480th Regiment quickly concentrated the strength of 7 companies and marched all the way to Sioux City at dawn, inflicting heavy blows on the enemy. The battle killed and wounded 30 bandits, took more than 50 prisoners, and scattered the rest of the bandits.
Zhu Scarzi saw that the situation was not good, and quickly fled with the remnants into the large mountainous area around the Brown Ridge in Nishi City. Here he gathered more than 600 bandits and continued to hide and seek with our People's Liberation Army.
The bandit troops followed and surrounded Brown Ridge. It was sunny after the rain that day, the fog was particularly sunny, and the visibility was very poor. The guide led the warriors to climb the steep wall and climbed to the edge of the Brown Ridge, and the main attack team was facing the enemy. The battle killed more than 20 bandits and scattered more than 30. When Zhu Scar escaped, only 7 bodyguards and his little wife were left. Zhu's little wife was out of breath in the back, and gradually fell behind, he felt that it was a burden to take her, and he suddenly wanted to kill his wife, took out a gun and killed her, and then fled into the dense forest.
At the end of December, just as the 3rd Battalion of the 480th Regiment learned that Zhu Scarzi had an important nest in the area of Shimenya, it arrived at dawn on the 2nd of January. Despite fatigue, the troops learned about the enemy situation from the masses and found out that Zhu Scarzi did indeed have a nest on the cliff cliff 10 miles away, called The River Eagle Cave. The battalion commander ordered the troops to cover the hole.
At dusk that day, the troops swerved back to the dense forest on the opposite side of the river eagle cave, and three platoons seized a bandit company commander and a bandit soldier who had descended the mountain to get wine nearby. After interrogation, they confessed that nearly a hundred bandits lived in the middle of the mountainside of River Eagle Cave.
Later, the 3rd Battalion left a squad to guard the bandit company commander, and Xu Hongshan led the troops to force the bandit sentry to lead the way, and in the middle of the night he approached the bandit's nest on the mountainside. By this time the bandits were already asleep, and in their sleep they had all become prisoners of the People's Liberation Army, with a total of 98 people.
The next day, the 3rd Battalion marched to the area around The River Eagle Cave to keep a close eye on the enemy inside the cave, and at the same time built fortifications a few hundred meters from the mouth of the cave to prepare for the attack on the cave.
Just as the assault platoon was preparing to attack, the battalion reconnaissance detachment brought with it an old hunter surnamed Xiang. Tell Lao Bo that this cave is not a road, and there is another hole behind the mountain that communicates with the River Eagle Cave.
Under the persuasion of the battalion commander, Xiang Laobo decided to take the People's Liberation Army into the cave. The battalion commander selected 8 party members from the seventh company to form a cave attack death squad, all carrying submachine guns, each carrying two torches, and entering the cave through the back door.
After walking for more than 6 hours and drilling more than 20 "copper money eyes", I saw a little bright light in front of me. The warriors stopped to look closely and saw that there were lights not far from them, and there were people talking in the cave, and everyone knew that they were approaching the bandits.
The 8 PLA fighters were divided into 4 groups to meet the enemy. When entering the last "copper coin eye", the soldier in front of him found a machine gun placed there and immediately stopped advancing. After a pause, there was no movement, and probably the enemy was defenseless against the PLA entering the cave through the back door, and concentrated in the front cave fortifications to deal with the PLA attacking the hole.
According to this situation, the death squad left 2 members of the team to point machine guns at the enemy in the front hole, and the 6 team members in the back quickly passed the "copper money eye" and suddenly attacked the bandits in the front hole, hitting him by surprise.
Unfortunately, due to the darkness in the cave during the march, 1 member of the team kicked down the kerosene barrel placed on the ground by the bandits, exposing the target. The warriors decisively threw a row of grenades, killing several bandits and advancing as they fired.
Most of the bandits in the cave were killed, and the 9 bandits and 13 family members who were alive were frightened and captured alive by the warriors who entered the cave.
The lair that Zhu Scar had painstakingly managed for many years was finally breached. The amount of materials captured by the Plasters of Zhu bandits is really staggering, with a total of more than 80 beds of quilts, more than 1,000 kilograms of bacon, 3 water tanks of oil, a few thousand kilograms of yin rice (glutinous rice steamed and then dried), several thousand kilograms of salt, nearly 100,000 kilograms of rice, 500 kilograms of opium, more than 400 guns of various kinds, more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition, 2 radios, 7 telephones, and various kinds of cloth for thousands of meters, but unfortunately Zhu Scarzi is not in the hole, but after this battle, his old books were basically lost.
In the middle of January 1950, Zhu Scarzi finally released the news and offered to negotiate near the Xiangjia Ancestral Hall, on the condition that the PLA negotiators could only go to two people.
The 3rd Battalion of the 480th Regiment sent reconnaissance platoons to lurk in the archway of the Ancestral Hall and set up a formation in the grass on the hills around the ancestral hall. After dawn the next day, more than 40 soldiers dressed in plain clothes and short guns were sent to chop firewood and work in the fields on the mountains around the ancestral hall, making preparations for the capture of Zhu in advance.
In the early morning of January 10, Zhu Scarzi also sent several bandits with machine guns to the ancestral hall to set up an ambush. The bandit machine gunners set up machine guns at the window of the ancestral hall archway to control the passage intersection on the front of the archway, and the rest of the bandits were hidden in the pavilion. These actions of the bandits have long been mastered by the PLA scouts. While sending an ambush to the archway, Zhu Scarzi also sent a company of troops to hide in the oil press hole opposite the ancestral hall as a response.
Shortly after dawn, more than 30 ordinary people came to the entrance of the ancestral hall, and they picked up the grass and laid it on the ground, and used cattle to pull stones to grind the grass, but they all had short guns in their waists. These people were actually bandits sent by Zhu Scarzi, and their signal of action was to use the machine guns on the archway as a signal, and then these people would start to arrest the NEGOTIATORS of the People's Liberation Army.
At noon, Yu Jianglong, a negotiator of the People's Liberation Army, appeared with a correspondent at the intersection in front of the Xiangjia Ancestral Hall. At this time, I saw that Zhu Scar also came cautiously with her own personal bodyguard. The enemy machine gun shooters who were ambushed at the window of the archway saw the representative of the People's Liberation Army appear and were subdued by the scouts when they were preparing to attack, and the bandits on the grass field saw that the machine guns on the archway did not sound, thinking that they were waiting for the opportunity to continue to fight grass.
Zhu Scarzi had no choice but to patiently walk into the ancestral hall with the representatives of the People's Liberation Army. After Zhu entered, he had no sincerity in negotiations, and he also wanted to threaten the REPRESENTATIVES with ambush troops, and waved his head to suggest that the bodyguards would go to the gate of the archway to inform the bandits who were beating the grass to come and kidnap the negotiators. Seeing the hint, the grass bandits drew their guns and rushed to the gate of the archway, where they were killed by the PLA ambushers. All the soldiers in the reconnaissance platoon subdued the bandits separately, and Zhu Scar was also captured on the spot. The rest of the bandits at the mouth of the oil-pressed cave saw that the general trend had gone, and all surrendered their weapons.
In the Battle of Xiangjia Ancestral Hall, the People's Liberation Army captured 106 bandits, including Zhu Scarzi, captured 140 guns of various kinds, more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition, and killed more than 30 bandits.
After being arrested, the "Zhu Scar" was tried publicly and finally executed.