<h1>First, gambling is claimed to be undefeated</h1>
Wang Hongkun, the "god of gambling", was unfavorable for the first time - not how strong the opponent was, but to attract a fat beating from his father.
It was the New Year's Day, a clan uncle's family did a happy event, the Wang family in Macheng, Hubei Province, was a big family, and relatives gathered together. Wang Hongkun recalled: "My fifth uncle and my two brothers-in-law came to be interested in playing cards, they lacked one of the three, forced me, I began to live and die, and then I couldn't stand their drag, touched it." His father looked for Wang Hongkun and turned around to see him playing cards, "Lose your temper, get me home, and beat me up." "How badly was the fight? Wang Hongkun said: "Use Nan bamboo sticks, iron fire tongs, and even whipping with flat shoulders." Wang Hongkun has a very strong personality, and when he was a teenager, he was equally stubborn: "I also crossed my heart, not only did not cry, but also did not say a word." Seeing that my father had not stopped for a long time, I said, you beat me to death, my father was even more angry, and the more he hit, the more severe he became. ”
The consequences of the beating, "three days and three nights can not get out of bed, the father is also angry and half dead." Of course, the fight was so serious, there may be Wang Hongkun's anger and anger, although he was only 16 years old that year, he was already the top pillar of the family. Because the family has always been poor, renting a few acres of land, there is not enough food left, and my father has to work around to make a living. Later, he started a noodle business and asked his friend to teach. My father's talent was limited, and the quality of the noodles was always unstable and difficult to maintain. However, Wang Hongkun, who laid the groundwork, listened and watched while doing, and became the technical backbone of making noodles, and had a small reputation in the neighboring eight townships!
The father beat him like this, but also for the sake of his son's instrument, and did not want him to fall into the quagmire of gambling. The first battle of the "God of Gamblers" ended with being beaten by his father, which is also a good thing, otherwise, there will be more of a bad gambling prodigal son in the countryside, and the army will lack a brave general!
Wang Hongkun has not been to school, cannot read, but is a smart child, and the "gambling luck" is particularly good. The second time he entered the game, or the first time he entered the casino, he won a big victory. It was after participating in the jute uprising in 1927, the reactionaries fought back and engaged in white terror, and Wang Hongkun hid in Tibet and was separated from his comrades-in-arms. How do you find comrades- He thought that during the middle of the year, people always had to have fun, and the probability of occasionally going to the casino was relatively large. So he found the casino and sure enough, he contacted twenty or thirty partners. Everyone discussed that it was very dangerous in their hometown, so it was better to go to other places to avoid the wind. But everyone was not entangled, and they could not go out.
One night, Wang Hongkun went to the casino to contact his comrades-in-arms again, thinking that the old man only wandered around and did not bet, which was easy to arouse the suspicion of others, so he took out 500 money and divided it into 5 bets. "I thought, even if I lose, it's only 500 dollars." Unexpectedly, the god of luck especially cared for this poor boy, "It's really strange, I won one bet next time, the next time I won once, and I won several pieces in a row." "A few silver dollars!" At that time, there were already many coins. Wang Hongkun himself recorded that his father went to work to build a wall, and he only got a dozen pieces in one winter. The clever Wang Hongkun, knowing that there would be problems in winning money like this, immediately "transferred". The god of luck did not abandon him, "changed more than a dozen places in a row, and won dozens of consecutive hangings." ”
The father, who was also a guerrilla, lost his voice at this time, and Wang Hongkun left a few yuan for his brother, called his mother to meet him, and he gave his mother 50 hanging money, "My mother was very surprised, and asked where these came from, and I explained it for half a day." If it was a father, I don't know if I would beat him up again.
With the coiled entanglement and about a partner, Wang Hongkun left his hometown and went to Hankou to avoid the wind. When I went to Hankou to see, the soldiers were in chaos and unfamiliar with life, and everyone had no idea. There was a sign on the side of the road, and it was the Gui Army recruiting soldiers, so they temporarily became in the Gui Army. This experience laid the foundation for his military career.
During the Red Army era, he even said that his cousin Wang Shusheng, a 55-year general, "was politically successful, but how to train was not well understood at the beginning, but it was slowly learned later." "General Wang knows if he will beat up his cousin...
Wang Hongkun, who has a heart for revolution, always thinks about returning to the revolutionary ranks. When they heard that there was a revolution in the jute area again, they secretly discussed fleeing back. At this time, the troops were stationed in Qiuyang, the local area was relatively wealthy, and gambling was the norm among the warlords. Wang Hongkun just took 8 months of military salary and 8 yuan, "I also took out five dimes to gamble, thinking that gambling can be used as a winding of desertion, and losing is only this five-dime, which is not a pity." ”
This time, in addition to luck, Wang Hongkun also had a little more skill. As soon as he came up, Wang Hongkun was not in a hurry to shoot, but took the five cents and bet on both sides to see the situation. Listening carefully, the sound of the dice was not right, and guessed that the dice were magnetic, and it turned out that several officers and soldiers had done tricks and feet to slaughter the "fat sheep" of several landlords. This time I had the bottom in my heart and won again and again. "I won more than 100 yuan this night, along with our platoon leader, who made fake guys and lost two landlords who were ready to buy weapons."
"Ten gambles and nine deceptions", and big gambles are "ten gambles and ten deceptions", and the clever Wang Hongkun's heart is clear. After winning the money, he invited the squad leaders and platoon leaders to eat and drink, while quietly making preparations for going home to do the revolution, "I went to the street and secretly bought cloth and made plain clothes to wear inside, and when I had the opportunity, I took off my hat, took off my coat, untied my leash, and left." The road to "God of Gamblers" is not over. Before anyone had run, the troops moved to Hanchuan, and near the end of the year, the gambling became even more intense, "I won more than a hundred oceans, which made the 3 platoon leaders and several squad leaders in our company owe me money." ”
The company commander knew that Wang Hongkun had won a lot of money, called him away, and asked Wang Hongkun to "deposit" the money with him. In the face of clear blackmail, Wang Hongkun had no choice but to admit it, untied and brought it to the company commander for fifty or sixty yuan. Through these "borrowing money", "saving money", eating and drinking, Wang Hongkun was ready to flee, no one stopped him when he left, and gave him cover, the squad leader and the brothers said politely: I'm really sorry, we don't have money, we have nothing to send you.
Wang Hongkun was not blinded by the huge amount of money he had won, and although he had been poor since childhood, he still had a bold wind. Many years later, he was already the brigade commander of the 385 brigade of the Eighth Route Army, with a monthly allowance of 5 yuan, life in Yan'an was difficult, Wang Shusheng, Li Xiannian, etc. "They had to be a little more difficult at that time, there was no smoke, I gave money to buy, everyone is a comrade-in-arms of life and death, and you are not polite." ”
<h1>Second, the marksmanship is 100 shots</h1>
Wang Hongkun joined the Red Army as he wished, and soon grew into a company commander. On this day, he was ordered to lead a company and lead a military pistol team to attack the county town of Luoshan, and they were responsible for the breakthrough of the south and west. Relying on the city wall, the enemy blocked the large stone bridge at the south gate with firepower, and there was a regiment of troops, as well as militia armed groups, and drove the common people to defend the city wall. Wang Hongkun showed his military talent at this time: he saw that a hard attack on the south gate would cause a lot of casualties, and he could not fight it, so he called a squad to pretend to attack at the Dashi Bridge, and he himself took his warriors around to the west of the city. "We came to the west side of the city, and the big pistol captain threw out the only ponytail grenade, the grenade did not explode, but the people were scared away."
There was a row of oil lamps on the western wall, one every two stacks, and the lamp was filled with foreign oil (that is, kerosene, which china could not produce at that time, all rely on imports, so it was called foreign oil), and cotton was used as a wick. Oil lamps illuminate the walls of the city, so that they will be found and easily targeted by the enemy. Wang Hongkun then ordered the warriors to turn out the lights, and then climbed the city wall by ladder in the night. Unexpectedly, many of the soldiers were peasants who had just joined the army, and usually there was not much live ammunition for training, and the general marksmanship was not good, and the "ping-pong ping-pong" shot a lot of shots, and a lamp was not extinguished.
Wang Hongkun told everyone to get out of the way and said to the pistol captain: You go and prepare the ladder, I will turn out the lights. Only to see Wang Hongkun pull out the box gun, aim at the neck of the wine pot, from left to right, nine bullets in a row, and all nine lights were extinguished. The troops took advantage of the situation to attack the city and win in one fell swoop.
Once it was accidental, and it was a "dead target", and then look at the "Gun God" to hit the live target. It was the base area of the Red Fourth Front in northern Sichuan, and Wang Hongkun was already the commander of the main red fourth army. In the stalemate stage of the "anti-six-way siege," Wang Hongkun ordered that the first line defend the position and the second line train the troops in a rotational manner, and set up two teaching teams. At the beginning, everyone's understanding of hard-working shooting techniques was insufficient, and the hit rate of live targets was only 2%. Wang Hongkun was very anxious and personally went to the teaching team, "I went, gave them a demonstration, took up a rifle, and hit the crow flying on the roof of the temple, three shots and three shots." Then patiently explain to everyone the essentials of shooting, gun holding, aiming, hooking machine, etc. Presumably, the commander's sharp gun has convinced everyone, and since then, a boom in gun training has been set off, and the live target hit rate has increased to 80%.
If your eyesight is not good, you can also play. When Wang Hongkun was the commander of the division, the instructor of a company was highly myopic and did not have the conditions to wear glasses at that time. Once on the front line, Wang Hongkun jokingly asked the instructor: Did you fight? The instructor said: I fired three bullets. Wang Hongkun asked again: Do you see the enemy? The instructor answered: In which direction others are fighting, I will also shoot in which direction. Wang Hongkun smiled: "Your enemy didn't see it, what is the use of fighting?" The instructor also laughed: I hit the enemy wow wow. This highly myopic instructor, named Wang Xinting, later served as the commander of the 8th Column and the commander of the 60th Army of the Eighteenth Corps, all the way to Chengdu, and was awarded the rank of general in 1955!
<h1>Third, use the soldiers' hearts as careful as their hair</h1>
As a commander, it is not enough to shoot accurately, the key is to have a good vision in combat. During the "anti-six-way siege" of Wanyuan in northern Sichuan, Wang Hongkun, commander of the Red Fourth Army, and Zhang Guangcai, political commissar, led troops to guard the main points. Wang Hongkun was not at ease with the Eagle Back Tsui position that Zhang Guangcai was responsible for defending, and he couldn't take care of eating food, so he went to check it out. At this look, the problem was indeed seen: Zhang Guangcai used the main force on the side of the relatively gentle slope, the eagle's back was a cliff, and only Wang Jinshan's twenty-eight regiments had a wide defensive surface and no reserves. Commander Wang said no, if the enemy broke through the eagle's back, the defense line would collapse; Zhang Guangcai said that it was a cliff, and the enemy would certainly not attack here. But Wang Hongkun said: "The cliff is sometimes the most difficult to defend, it can become a target for enemy artillery, and the enemy will use artillery to knock out my defensive fighters and climb up." Wang Hongkun finally said: At least strengthen a battalion as a reserve for the cliff defense line.
At the beginning of the battle, the Sichuan army attacked the gentle slope, and Zhang Guangcai believed that his judgment was correct, so he did not mobilize this battalion to serve as a reserve of the Twenty-eighth Regiment. But unexpectedly, this was the enemy's method of attacking the east and the west, and the subsequent process was exactly as Wang Hongkun expected. In the biography "The Hundred Battles will star king near the mountain", it is described: "The artillery fire frantically strafed the eagle's back mountain. 'Captain, the enemy is chopping down a big tree and building a ladder to climb up! Under the cover of artillery fire, the Sichuan army, which was ten times larger than the Red Army, climbed up the cliff like ants on the tree, and frantically attacked the position of the Twenty-eighth Regiment. Wang Jinshan led the twenty-eighth regiment to fight to the death and suffered heavy losses. Wang Hongkun quickly took the guard company up to help the battle, but the position was still lost. After the battle, Zhang Guangcai was transferred away. In 1955, Zhang Guangcai was awarded the rank of major general. In fact, Zhang Guangcai only commanded according to normal thinking, and can only say that Wang Hongkun's vision is more poisonous and more accurate!
Let's talk about a thrilling encounter during Wang Hongkun's War of Resistance. The most difficult battlefield behind enemy lines in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was the southern base area of Hebei (Hebei), where Wang Hongkun had been fighting and holding firm. After the Japanese army strengthened the "North China Security War", the enemy's strongholds formed a network in the North China Plain, specializing in raiding the main forces and cadres of the eighth route army guerrillas.
It was April 1942, and Wang Hongkun and six or seven cadres set out from the sixth sub-district of Zaoqiang County to the fifth sub-district. The political commissar of the nineteenth regimental commander saw that Wang Hongkun was wearing a military uniform, and said that plainclothes were safer, so he changed into a newly captured silver-gray silk jacket and sent a platoon escort. Passing near Longhua Town, where there was a company of the Nineteenth Regiment, Wang Hongkun heard that the anti-Japanese military and civilian conference had only been held the day before yesterday, and he had a keen premonition that he was in the center of the enemy's encirclement!
As soon as they joined this company, the enemy came, and Wang Hongkun commanded everyone to quickly retreat south. "There were four or five hundred enemies, nearly half of whom were devils, and we ran for seven or eight miles in a row." In front of it was a blockade ditch, and the excavated soil layer was piled on both sides of the ditch, and the people stepped on it very softly, "the foot inserted into the loose soil to cover the instep of the foot, running very hard, we were breathing heavily." The enemy was getting closer and closer, less than 200 meters apart, constantly firing at us. We also fought back as we ran. "At this time, the leaders of the Nineteenth Regiment were kind enough to change Wang Hongkun's civilian clothes two days ago, and because the silk surface was reflective, the enemy guessed that this was a cadre, so the fire was aimed at Wang Hongkun." I had a feeling, bullets flying by, scorching hot. One in front, one in the back, one on the left, one on the right. ”
Wang Hongkun recalled: "(At that time) I was very calm and took an irregular snake-like route to run, and Li Erzhong (the district chief who went to the fifth division with me) was beside me and asked me how I was? I said it was okay. When they reached the vicinity of the blockade ditch, everyone lay down to fight back, and only then did Wang Hongkun see clearly that the troops around him were neither the company nor the escort platoon, but the local county brigade, because all of them were plainclothes, they had not been separated. The situation was urgent, a correspondent was injured, and Wang Hongkun dragged him along. The correspondent said, Chief, you go fast, leave me alone. Wang Hongkun insisted on helping him run, and when he reached the blockade ditch, "I told the troops not to go, set up machine guns, rifle bullets loaded, prepare grenades, and wait for the enemy to approach." ”
Suddenly, gunshots rang out from the north. It turned out that the company retreated to the east, found that the enemy did not follow, and quickly killed a horse gun to come south to rescue, just met the Japanese command post, there were no troops around, they all pursued Wang Hongkun to the south. The company annihilated the command post, and the enemy in front of them saw that the situation was not good and quickly retreated. Wang Hongkun breathed a sigh of relief, "Only then did I find that I had six or seven holes in my clothes all over my body, but except for a little skin abrasion on my elbow, even the fur was not hurt elsewhere." Comrades also said that today is really a great fate. ”
One might argue that neither of these battles was a victory. In fact, when strength is superior, it is normal to win battles, and it is more difficult to save yourself in adversity. Wang Hongkun, as the founding general, of course fought countless victories, such as the xiangfan battle, one of the classic ones of the "five road victories", and the next article will be talked about again.
The author of this article: Ma Yi, "This is the war" to join the author, without the author himself and "this is the war" permission, any media, self-media shall not be reproduced, violators will be investigated for legal responsibility, readers welcome to forward.
Editor's Profile: Wang Zhengxing, former officer of a field unit of the People's Liberation Army, has served in infantry detachments, headquarters, logistics departments and other units, is committed to the study of war history and tactics, and has a unique understanding of military tactics and non-war operations. His book "This is War" was recommended in two issues in May and June 2014 by Phoenix TV's "Eight Minutes of Open Volume" column. His public account name is also "This is war", welcome to pay attention