Zhang Yingcai was formerly Chinese deputy commander of the 13th Army of the People's Liberation Army

Zhang Yingcai, male, Han ethnicity, born in December 1924, from Wanquan (now Wanrong), Shanxi, joined the Eighth Route Army in 1939 and joined the Communist Party of China in 1942. He was a soldier of the 772nd Regiment of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division. [2] He served as deputy commander of the 13th Army and deputy commander of the 50th Army of the People's Liberation Army of the Chinese, and was an alternate member of the 9th and 10th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China. At 21:00 on July 13, 2017, the 93-year-old general Zhang Yingcai passed away at the General Hospital of Chengdu Military Region.

Battle of Shangdang (Heroic And Witty True Hero also)

In mid-August 1945, Yan Xishan, commander of the Second Theater of operations of the Kuomintang Army, adhered to Chiang Kai-shek's will and attacked the Liberated Areas of the Shangdang. In order to defend the fruits of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Central Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee ordered the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region to resolutely annihilate the enemy who had entered the Shangdang area and remove the troubles of his henchmen.

Soon after the Shangdang Campaign began, Zhang Yingcai Company joined forces to encircle Changzhi. If you want to attack Changzhi, you must first conquer the important passes around Changzhi. Zhang Yingcai's regiment mainly attacked Beiguan, and the whole regiment attacked Beiguan from the east and west, and Zhang Yingcai's company's task was to cross the Beiguan and reach the city gate, tightly block the enemy's entry and exit, and annihilate the enemy at Beiguan.

That night, heavy rain poured down, and soon after dark, the troops began to move. Zhang Yingcai even waded through the flood outside the pass more than a meter deep, secretly braved the rain to advance, and soon broke through the northwest side of the Beiguan Pass into the Beiguan Gate.

After entering the pass, the deputy company commander led a platoon to search from the right side, and Zhang Yingcai led the second and third rows down the street to the city gate (at this time, the company lacked a company commander).

Zhang Yingcai took two platoons under the enemy's nose, and the enemy did not know it. Zhang Yingcai saw the situation and immediately commanded the troops to occupy the middle of the street, control the commanding heights, block the old streets, and open up new passages.

When the troops occupied the commanding heights, they were not discovered by the enemy, but when they blocked the streets, they were quickly discovered by the enemy. Horse-drawn carriages, wood and bricks were strewn around the streets. Zhang Yingcai hurriedly asked the troops to quickly close these things together and block the streets. But at this moment, an unexpected situation occurred, and when a soldier broke the door panel, he accidentally made a noise and was heard by the enemy on the building outside the city gate.

"Who? What for? password? The enemy asked sharply.

A platoon leader of Zhang Yingcai's company was worried that the brother company of the regiment participating in the encirclement had misunderstood, and quickly blurted out the password. Before the words could be heard, a dense barrage of enemy bullets was fired into the street, and grenades were thrown.

Zhang Yingcai saw the situation and quickly commanded the troops to return fire on the spot. After a fierce counterattack, the enemy quickly became a chaotic mess, some hiding on their own, some escaping in all directions, and in less than 10 minutes, the enemy in this building was completely annihilated.

After destroying the enemy of the building, Zhang Yingcai immediately led his troops to rush down the street, occupied several courtyards, and launched an attack on the enemy of the tall building on the east side of the street.

At this time, if the troops of the whole regiment attacking Beiguan could be in place on time, Zhang Yingcai's company would be in a very favorable position for the battle. However, at this time, the time of each company in place was uneven, the North Star Pavilion Heights behind them were still in the hands of the enemy, and the brother company that attacked The Northern Pass first had not yet fully encircled the enemy army, and Zhang Yingcai was crushed in the courtyard of the enemy on three sides.

Zhang Yingcai saw that his front was the enemy's condescending city head, on the left was the enemy's brick-to-top high-rise building, on the right was a strong independent compound dug by the enemy with an outer trench and a roof-shaped barbed wire fence, and on the right rear there was a watershed controlled by the enemy, and he immediately became alert. He thought that his company was pressed into several small courtyards with civil structures, and if they were not prepared to defend during the attack, once the enemy organized a strong fire recoil, let alone block the enemy, I am afraid that even his own retreat would become a problem, and if he did not get it right, he would most likely be chased out of the city by the enemy, or even eaten by the enemy.

Therefore, Zhang Yingcai immediately ordered the two platoons he led to quickly take advantage of the fact that the enemy did not dare to move in the dark of the night, and quickly dug up and connected several low houses he occupied, in preparation for holding out. After the wall was dug through, a new passage connecting the row brought by the deputy company commander was also opened, and the row immediately approached the second and third rows brought by Zhang Yingcai.

Subsequently, Zhang Yingcai immediately discussed with the deputy company commander to readjust the defensive forces. He first drew one squad from the first and second platoons to form a frontal defense force, and then let one platoon deal with the independent compound of the western enemy, let the second platoon deal with the tall buildings of the eastern enemy, and left the three platoons as reserves to prepare for the enemy's great recoil.

It was just dawn, and the enemy, who did not dare to move at night, did indeed shoot at Zhang Yingcai's bungalow position. As soon as the gunshots rang out from the opposite side, the enemy on three sides immediately strafed the two squads of the second row occupying the roof. The dense barrage of bullets hit the two squads unable to lift their heads and could not remove the room at all. Zhang Yingcai saw the situation and immediately asked the troops to poke the roof out of the room to meet the comrades in the room, and the second platoon leader in the room was in a hurry, and released two smoke screen bombs, and quickly withdrew the two squads from the roof.

After the removal of the two squads in the house, the enemy fire temporarily stopped, and several tall buildings appeared quiet. Some people suggested attacking the enemy's tall buildings, but Zhang Yingcai felt that the situation was abnormal, estimated that the enemy might organize a counterattack, and immediately ordered to quickly dig the enemy's gun holes in the wall, preparing to block the enemy's recoiling streets, and several houses quickly dug out the gun holes in the standing and kneeling positions.

The development of the battle was indeed accurately seen by Zhang Yingcai. As soon as the sun rose, the enemy of a division southwest of the Ninth Company quickly defended the enemy from the watershed in coordination with the Beiguan Security Regiment, and under the cover of dozens of artillery fire, launched a counter-charge against our army. As soon as the battle began, the bungalows occupied by the Ninth Company immediately became the first forward positions to bear the brunt.

When the enemy saw that the position of the Ninth Company was low, he immediately attacked with heavy firepower, and in the blink of an eye, he smashed the several bungalows occupied by the Ninth Company to the ground and collapsed, and the smoke of gunfire filled the air.

Believing that the Ninth Company had been wiped out, the enemy immediately organized troops from the street to storm the remnants of the broken wall of the bungalow occupied by the Ninth Company. Zhang Yingcai led his troops to lurk in the room, motionless, and after the enemy rushed into the effective firing range, he ordered the troops to open fire at the same time, and scattered the enemy at once. The enemy charged several times, but was repelled by the troops commanded by Zhang Yingcai. But the enemy was still unwilling to give up, and soon organized a larger offensive.

In the gap between the enemy's large-scale counter-charge, Zhang Yingcai immediately organized troops to quickly improve the conditions of his own fortifications. The soldiers found that the gun holes in the standing and kneeling positions were easily attacked by the enemy's heavy fire, so they used indoor wooden planks to build bunker fortifications flat, and then quickly dug out the traffic trenches under the fortifications, and then put the excavated bricks and soil on the wooden plank fortifications, and then poked out many dark gun holes on the ground, so that the ability to defend the enemy's guns was greatly enhanced, and even if the shells were blown on the fortifications, the lethality would be greatly reduced. Even if several bungalows were all flattened, the warriors could still hide in the trenches to block the enemy's impact.

After the soldiers of the column captured the Beiguan to defend the enemy's Beixingge Heights, the enemy's breakthrough heart was even more acute, and the enemy troops who attacked the positions of the Ninth Company on a large scale blocked all the standing and kneeling gun holes on the walls of the Ninth Company's position with heavy machine guns, and sent groups of daredevils to throw grenades into the gun holes in an attempt to blow up all the soldiers of the Ninth Company in an attempt to kill them in the broken room. However, they never expected that Zhang Yingcai had already led his troops into the dark trenches, and after the standing and kneeling gun holes on the wall were destroyed, they could still strike the enemy fiercely from the gun holes on the ground.

After failing two consecutive major shocks, the enemy finally found the flat gun hole under the trench of Zhang Yingcai's company. When they saw that the firepower could not block these unexpected firing holes, they immediately sent an explosive team to blow them up, but Zhang Yingcai even closely watched the enemy's actions every hole in the trench, and every time the enemy demolition hand had not yet approached, it had long been knocked to the ground by the battlefield.

In this way, from morning to afternoon, the enemy of the Ninth Company did not break through the position of the Ninth Company.

The enemy who was condescending on the watershed, seeing that the frontal attack could not break through the position of the Ninth Company, immediately pressed forward with a powerful force from the right rear toward the position of the Ninth Company, and although they were fiercely fired by the artillery fire of the rear troops of the column, twenty or thirty enemies still pounced on the roof of the row behind the position of the Ninth Company, and threw grenades at the position of the second platoon, so that the soldiers in the trenches of the second platoon could not lift their heads.

As soon as Zhang Yingcai saw that the situation was critical, he immediately commanded a platoon leader to lead a squad leader around the enemy's back to kill the enemy. A platoon leader and squad leader went around to the tree in the west corner of the room, raised their machine guns and swept away, and twenty or thirty enemies who dropped bombs were rolled out of the room by the dense bullets in the blink of an eye.

The two squads under the room took the opportunity to attack, and in an instant, they killed all the enemy and captured a batch of guns and ammunition.

When the sun was westward, the Northern Pass launched a general counteroffensive against the People's Liberation Army, and Zhang Yingcai's company was attacked on both the front and the east and west sides of the position, but Zhang Yingcai calmly commanded the troops to counterattack, and the enemy was never able to get close. When the enemy's artillery attacks, they hide in the trenches and keep a close eye on the enemy's movements; when the enemy attacks in small groups, they put the enemy into the effective lethality and destroy them with rifles and grenades; when the enemy's large troops attack, they meet the battle with platoon grenades and mixed ammunition.

In this way, Zhang Yingcai's company held out from morning until dark, repelled 22 enemy attacks throughout the day, killed more than 300 enemy troops, and the enemy never broke through the positions of the Ninth Company.

In recognition of the heroic killing of the enemy by the Ninth Company, the column immediately published the news in the Line of Fire War Newspaper that the Ninth Company was awarded the title of "Iron Ninth Company".