Encheng was originally EnXian County, known in history as "Gubei Prefecture" and "Woniu City", which is an ancient cultural city with a history of more than 500 years. There was originally a temple of confucius in the city, there was a Jade Emperor Pavilion in the north and south passes, a Niangniang Temple in the east, a Balang Temple in the west, and a city god temple outside the north pass city, so Encheng once had the saying of "well to well, temple to temple, waterless to catch the three bridges", also known as "Bian Dan Street, Lying Cow City, Waterless Three Bridges". The North-South Daguan Road (Tongjiu Province) passes through it, and its geographical location is more important. Yuan'en County administers 882 villages in the area where Pingyuan, Wucheng and Xiajin meet. For a long time, the city was lined with shops and prosperous business, and it was a relatively prosperous commercial center at that time.
During the period of enemy and puppet rule, the people of Enxian were deeply oppressed and exploited by the three mountains, and lived in the depths of the water. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the masses of the people eagerly hoped for the early liberation of Enxian County. On the evening of September 9, 1945 (the fourth day of the eighth lunar month), more than 1,000 troops, led by Li Huazhen and political commissar Hu Yongchang, the Xiajin Independent Regiment (known as the Yunxi Brigade) led by Ma Shen (Ma Lichao), and other troops, with the cooperation of the surrounding militia, unknowingly surrounded the Enxian City Regiment, thus opening the prelude to the liberation of Enxian County.
At that time, there were more than 10 Japanese invading troops stationed in the city of Enxian, four detachments of the puppet army, twelve squadrons, about a thousand people, and more than a hundred puppet policemen. The city is surrounded by a wall made of triad soil (i.e., lime, glue, white clay) mixed and beaten, the city wall is more than 10 meters high, and there is a battlement platform every 1 meter on the city wall to cover the external shooting. Beneath the city walls is a power grid more than 2 meters high, which is electrified day and night, often electrocuting cats, foxes and other animals. Outside the grid is a moat 15 metres wide and 3 metres deep. There are 5 gates in the city, each of which has a gate tower, guarded by a squadron of puppet troops. The whole city can be said to be easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not easy to break through it.
After our army surrounded the county town of En, due to the backward weapons and equipment, the key was that there was no artillery support, and the city wall was very strong, and there was a power grid outside the city, and the personnel could not directly approach it. Therefore, several sieges were organized, but they did not work, so they had to besiege but not fight, waiting for support. After 20 days, part of our army left for a new mission.
According to the people in the city at that time, in the 45 days before the siege of Enxian County until liberation, the food supply was very difficult, and in the later period, it was impossible to eat green vegetables, not even a single green onion could be seen, and there was no salt, so the puppet army had to kill the cattle and pigs of the common people to fill their hunger. Even so, the enemy still seized a large number of young and middle-aged laborers to repair and strengthen the walls. At this time, the underground party organizations in the city led by Zhu Honglie (who later retired from the navy) and Liu Ziwei (who later left the party committee in Hebei) actively carried out mass ideological work in the city and used political offensives to disintegrate the puppet army. It is said that most of the puppet army of a squadron at the South Gate was disintegrated, and when our army attacked the city, it surrendered without any resistance. With the active cooperation of the underground party organizations in the city, the militia outside the city also organized special personnel to use microphones to launch a political offensive against the puppet army defending the city, and continuously fired cold guns into the city to distract the puppet army, reduce the morale of the puppet army, and wait for the mature opportunity to attack the city.
At about 10:00 a.m. on October 25 (the twentieth day of the ninth lunar month), an artillery battalion of the Bohai Naval Region with 2 mortars was ordered to come to support, stationed in the current en town of Dabeiguan, immediately sent people to the east, west, south and north gates to survey the terrain, and analyze the enemy situation of the four city gates, decided to take the Great North Gate as a breakthrough, first destroy the enemy's power plant on the east side of the Great North Gate, so that the power grid outside the city wall was ineffective, and then use mortars to open a gap in the city wall and attack the city. All the preparations for the battle were ready, and all the officers and men participating in the battle were gearing up one after another, determined to completely destroy the enemy and liberate the county seat of En.
The soldiers of the artillery battalion of the Bohai Naval Region first conducted several experiments with small explosive packs to determine the best position to set up a mortar position, and after the experiment, 2 mortar positions were set up 120 meters from the Great North City Gate. In the afternoon, 2 mortars began to test fire, the first shell hit the tower of the Great North Gate, knocking out a corner of the city gate tower, and the second shell accurately hit the power generation hub of the power plant on the east side of the Great North Gate, causing the power plant to be paralyzed.
That night, the city was pitch black, and the house was closed and very silent. At about 8 o'clock, the siege battle began in full swing. Suddenly, the gunfire was loud, and two mortars took turns to bombard the gate of the Great Northern Gate. Half an hour later, a gap was blown open in the east wall of the city gate tower, and the puppet army on the city gate tower was also beaten to death and wounded, and the rest of the enemy troops saw the situation and also abandoned the city gate, and the emperor retreated in the direction of the puppet county government in the city. The vanguard of our army saw that the enemy at the city gate was no longer able to resist, and took the opportunity to approach the city wall and enter the city. At that time, the city gate was blocked by the enemy's inside and outside with soil, so the vanguard troops who attacked the city continued to pursue the enemy to the south, and some people, with the cooperation of the militia, quickly dug up the soil that filled the city gate, opened the city gate, and the follow-up troops immediately entered the city.
After entering the city, the vanguard troops encountered a squad of enemies at the Large Cross Street 700 meters south of the city gate, relying on fortifications such as traffic ditches around them, firing on all sides with a heavy machine gun, stubborn resistance, and making a dying struggle. Our army was blocked here, and there were more than 10 casualties. The battle lasted for more than half an hour, until the follow-up troops followed, and after fierce fighting, the enemy was completely eliminated.
Our army and the militia pursued with victory, and as the enemy all retreated to Little Cross Street (now the Post and Telecommunications Office) and prepared to continue to resist, our army immediately formed a siege. At this time, the enemy army saw that the general trend had gone, and the stubborn resistance could only be killed in vain, so they surrendered their weapons one after another, except for a small number of enemies who took advantage of the chaos to escape in disguise, and all the rest were captured. At this point, the county seat of Enxian was completely liberated. Soon, the People's Government of Enxian County moved from the old city to the city of Enxian County, and Liu Ziwei, deputy commissioner, concurrently served as the county magistrate of Enxian County. According to the instructions of the superiors, in June 1956, Enxian County was abolished and the former Enxian station was changed to Encheng Town.