Author: Unsentimental
Soldiers are impermanent, water is impermanent, and those who can overcome due to the changes of the enemy are called gods. This famous sentence from the ancient Chinese art of war is also familiar to the Japanese army invading China, but it is one thing to be able to recite it, and it is another thing to be able to do it.
In 1941, when the War of Resistance behind enemy lines in North China was at its most difficult, the Japanese army built a fortified and unusually strong stronghold on the Dui'er Liangshan Gang north of Mafang Town, Heshun County, Shanxi, which was stuck in the transportation points connecting the surrounding counties of Shouyang, Yushe, Xiyang, Taigu, and Yuci. The trees within miles of the stronghold were cut down by the Japanese army, and the surrounding fields were all destroyed, and standing on the top of the guard tower of the stronghold could see the surrounding area for miles. Not to mention people, even cats and dogs did not want to approach the stronghold without being discovered by the Japanese guards.
A Japanese reinforcement squad stationed here, equipped with light and heavy machine guns and grenadiers, often took advantage of the opportunity to "sweep" around and bring misfortune to the surrounding Chinese people. The anti-Japanese armed forces behind the enemy's back dreamed of pulling out this "nail" that had been wedged into the base area, but the stronghold was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the defending enemy's firepower was strong, and our side was seriously insufficient in both ammunition and offensive technology, so we could only endure for the time being.
Fast forward to the beginning of 1945, the Eighth Route Army began to launch a local counter-offensive on the battlefield behind enemy lines in North China. Li Desheng, then commander of the 30th Regiment of the 2nd Military Subdistrict of Taihang, believed that only by resolutely removing the Mafang stronghold could I be connected according to the locality. However, at that time, the 30th Regiment was still a small regiment of 5 companies, the weapons and equipment were still very poor, especially the ammunition was seriously insufficient, and the strong attack on such a strong stronghold was bound to cause heavy casualties, so he submitted an application to his superiors, and wanted to personally disguise himself into the stronghold to reconnoiter and look for the weaknesses of the Japanese garrison.
At first, the head of the division was worried about Li Desheng's safety, and refused to let go, but he could not stand Li Desheng's soft and hard bubbles, and finally had to agree. Li Desheng was overjoyed, and quickly changed into a worn-out civilian clothes, tied a dirty towel on his head, smeared some pot ash on his face, and carried a basket full of large cakes, turning himself into a "good citizen" given to the Japanese army in the Mafang stronghold.
In order to let the backbone of the battle also familiarize themselves with the battlefield environment in advance, he specially brought 1 company commander, 2 platoon leaders, 2 squad leaders and 1 scout who were also dressed as "good people" who were also dressed as "good people" who delivered food. According to the requirements of the Japanese army, they came to the west gate of the stronghold as soon as the sky was dark, and took over with Zhai Fucai, a member of the underground organization who had broken into the stronghold's gang room to do the internal response. Under the leadership of Zhai Fucai, Li Desheng and his party of 7 people successfully passed the inspection of the guard post and entered the interior of the enemy stronghold. The Japanese sentry could not have dreamed that the few dirty, honest-looking people in front of him, a good citizen who nodded at him and nodded his waist, were actually the gods who came to ask for their lives.
Taking advantage of the unloading of goods in the gang room, Li Desheng and others carefully observed the situation inside the stronghold. This stronghold covers an area of about 4 acres and is oval in shape. The surrounding wall is about 8 meters high and 1 meter thick, all made of strip stone. The wall is covered with upper, middle and lower gun holes, and there is a bunker at each of the four corners of the wall. A ring of reinforced concrete bungalows built along the wall roots is a soldier's dormitory, and each house has a door connection. There is also a ladder leading to the roof. In the middle of the courtyard is the Japanese squad leader's bedroom and radio room. Next to the hut are stables, carrier pigeon sheds and kennels.
Li Desheng noticed that after the breakfast whistle was blown, except for the soldiers on duty on the top of the four pillboxes in the stronghold, the other Japanese officers and men all changed into Japanese wooden sandals, walked unhurriedly with duck steps, and went to the dining room for breakfast with a series of "rattling, rattling" sounds. This interesting detail impressed Li Desheng very much. When leaving the stronghold, Li Desheng did not go out from the west gate of the place, but took the south gate of the stronghold instead, and by the way, he looked at the Japanese playground outside the south gate and the caves where the puppet army lived on both sides of the playground.
On the way back, Li Desheng did not say a word, full of thoughts about countermeasures. When we arrived at the regimental headquarters, a fairly complete surprise attack plan was basically formed. He gave two orders in a row: select elite generals to form a commando team, and raise dirt cloth dyed yellow as a cloak.
On the afternoon of March 4, 1945, heavy snow began to fall straight in Heshun County. Li Desheng personally led a commando team of dozens of people to put on yellow cloth cloaks and walk through the snow, and rushed forward. At about 22:00 that night, with the help of members of my underground organization, they secretly entered 3 abandoned caves under the southeast slope of the Mafang stronghold and hid. Earlier, due to the tight strength of the Japanese army, the puppet army living in these caves had been transferred elsewhere. According to this, Li Desheng gave the Japanese army a "black under the lights."
At about 4:00 a.m., Li Desheng led the commando team out of the cave quietly, and little by little touched the base of the stronghold wall, not far from the gate, and lay motionless in the snow. By this time the snow was getting heavier, and the flakes were quickly disappearing from the commandos. The snow that falls on the cloak blends in with the surrounding landscape. The commanders and fighters of our army lying on the ground soon became inconspicuous snow piles. Because these "snowdrifts" were close to the roots of the wall and in the observation dead end of the four-corner bunker of the stronghold, the Japanese sentries did not find them.
At about 6:30 a.m. on March 5, the Japanese troops, who knew nothing of the imminent bad luck, blew the breakfast whistle with the courtyard wall gate as usual. Paralyzed, they changed into clogs as usual and leisurely went to the dining room for breakfast. At this moment, my 30th Regiment Commando jumped up from the snow and rushed into the gate with lightning speed. Luo Xiwen, the sharp knife squad leader who rushed to the front, wielded a large knife with a ghost head, and in the blink of an eye, he chopped two Japanese guards with guns to the ground. The Japanese soldiers in the courtyard panicked in the face of the sudden change and rushed to the dormitory, planning to use their guns to resist. However, the clogs had no shoelaces, and they all walked by their toes, saying that they could not run fast. So in just a few minutes, more than half of the Japanese army was defeated and cut down, and only a few Japanese troops were able to escape into the bunkers and resist.
However, don't look at the Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop to abolish the enemy's geographical advantages, but also let the two sides of the balance of troops have a change in favor of our side, but in the capture of 4 bunkers really took a lot of effort, until noon finally won. However, the Japanese squad leader Suzuki resisted with his knife after running out of ammunition. He probably saw that Li Desheng was a not small "official", and he also deliberately pointed a combat knife at Li Desheng and challenged him in a half-unfamiliar Chinese dialect.
Li Desheng wanted not to talk nonsense with him, but found that his gun was empty, so he raised his large knife and went forward to fight. The Japanese squad leader was very confident in his sword skills, but what he didn't know was that Li Desheng not only had much longer military experience than him, but also repeatedly participated in the Red Fourth Front Commando team as early as the Red Army period. As a result, after several battles, the remaining confidence of The Suzuki Squad Leader turned into utter despair. Mentally broken, he saw that he was invincible, and he could not care about the so-called "dignity of the samurai", and hurriedly abandoned his sword and fled, only to be captured by the warriors who watched the duel in one fell swoop.
In this battle, Li Desheng led the commando team of the 30 regiments to pull out the Mafang stronghold, which was boasted by the Japanese army as the "star of Taihang that will never fall", at the cost of 10 casualties, completely annihilated 1 reinforced squad of the Japanese army, captured 8 Japanese officers and men below the suzuki squad, and captured 1 grenadier, 1 light and heavy machine gun, and dozens of rifles.
Just three days after the end of the war, Yan'an's Liberation Daily reported on the battle prominently on the front page and highly praised it as a typical small annihilation war behind enemy lines with both wisdom and courage.
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