Author: Unsentimental
In February 1939, the Japanese puppet army stationed in Hebei and Shandong gathered about 10,000 troops and launched a "joint sweep" of the anti-Japanese base areas in southern Hebei and northwestern Lu. Among them, the focus of the "sweeping" of the Japanese puppet army in southern Hebei was directed at the headquarters of our military organs in Nangong County.
The southern Hebei and northwestern parts of Shandong belonged to different anti-Japanese base areas, but in order to smash the cross-regional "joint sweep" of the Japanese puppet army, the units in southern Hebei and northwestern Lu were also temporarily under the command of Liu Deng, chief of the 129th Division, and coordinated the anti-"sweeping" operations in various places under the unified deployment. Among them, the 688th Regiment of the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army was temporarily under the command of Brigadier Chen Geng of the 386th Brigade.
Originally, Chen Geng planned to let the 688 regiment, a powerful brigade with strong combat effectiveness, ambush the enemy in motion, so on February 8, the regiment was transferred to the line of the road from Feixiang to Weixian, so that it could strike at the enemy from Handan. Wei Jie, then commander of the 688 regiment, led his troops to obey the order. However, the terrain was flat and open, and the Japanese army learned the lessons of the previous ambush by the Eighth Route Army, and the distance between the troops from the same direction was greatly reduced, making it more difficult for the 688th Regiment to fight the ambush.
Insisting on "seeking truth from facts" and only being reasonable and not superior, Wei Jie reported the actual situation to Chen Geng and requested to withdraw from the ambush area to find another fighter, which was agreed by Chen Geng.
However, the commanders and fighters of the troops held their breath and prepared to fight a beautiful ambush battle for the brother troops to see, but the result was fruitless, which made many people wonder. Wei Jie, who was well aware of the principle that the morale of the troops "can be drummed but not leaked", while explaining the reasoning to the troops, also sent scouts to look around for fighters.
Soon, news came that Weixian County, an important supply stronghold of the enemy puppet army, had only more than 300 Japanese puppet troops left in the city because of the dispatch of troops to "sweep up," and they belonged to different structures. Wei Jie pondered that at present, in the early stage of the large-scale "sweeping" of the Japanese puppet army, the enemy who remained in WeiXian county probably did not expect that the Eighth Route Army would actually come to "shake the whiskers of the tiger", and his thinking should be relatively paralyzed. Although with the equipment of the 688th Regiment, it may be difficult to conquer WeiXian before the enemy arrives to help, it is still possible to beat the enemy coldly, attract the enemy who went out to "sweep" back to help, and strive to find a suitable fighter fighter for the Japanese puppet army to move back and forth.
Therefore, Wei Jie ordered the 11th Company of the 3rd Battalion to strengthen 1 heavy machine gun platoon and 1 mortar platoon, and launched a surprise attack on the east gate of Wei County at about 23:00 on February 9. The 10th Company of the 3rd Battalion harassed and harassed the southern gate of the county seat of WeiXian County in order to increase its prestige and make the enemy make a wrong judgment that our army was bound to win the city. The main forces of the 9th Company, the 12th Company and the Machine Gun Company of the 3rd Battalion acted as mobile forces, ready to deal with the enemy who returned to reinforcements.
The surprise attack that night caught the defenders of Wei County off guard, but after all, the other side had walls, moats and bunkers to rely on, so as Wei Jie estimated in advance, the raid was good at the beginning, killing and wounding a large number of enemy troops, but after the enemy reacted, the city immediately became a difficult "bone".
In view of this, after the purpose of the raid was achieved, Wei Jie led the 688 regiment to withdraw from the battle and moved to Xiangchenggu. After dawn on February 10, Yasuda Squadron, which was ordered to return to Wei County, was ordered to return to The Yasuda Squadron, carrying four artillery pieces reinforced by superiors, and rushed toward Xiangchenggu in a car.
Xiangchenggu is a town that has been garrisoned before, so there are fortifications left inside and outside the town that can be used by the 688 regiment, and there is a sand jujube forest in the west of the town, surrounded by large and small villages, and the overall terrain is quite favorable to the defensive side. When Wei Jie learned that a Japanese reinforcement squadron had come to retaliate, he immediately sent a cavalry company to lure the enemy, and the other troops entered the ambush position.
At noon on the 10th, the Japanese Yasuda Squadron was lured by the cavalry company of the 688th Regiment from the Dishi Battalion and nancaoChang step by step to the ambush circle of the regiment north of Xiangchenggu. At Wei Jie's order, the battalions opened fire in full swing, and the fierce and short fire instantly knocked the Japanese army to a dizzy end.
However, the Japanese army in 1939 was still well trained. After the enemy retreated and stabilized his position, he used 1 squad to tie down the 3rd Battalion of the 688th Regiment, attacked with the main force in the northeast direction of Xiangchenggu, and soon captured the positions held by 2nd Battalion and 1 platoon of the 688th Regiment. Wei Jie immediately ordered the 3rd Battalion Reserve to counterattack, retake the position and consolidate the commanding heights of the ancient temple. After that, under the cover of artillery fire, the Japanese army launched several rounds of attacks on the positions of the 3rd Battalion of the 688th Regiment, but except for increasing their own casualties, they found nothing in front of our positions.
The news that the 688th Regiment had reached a stalemate with the invading Japanese army at Xiangchenggu reached the brigade headquarters of the 386th Brigade, and the brigade commander Chen Geng immediately ordered the deputy brigade commander Xu Shiyou to lead the newly formed 1st Regiment and the Supplementary Regiment to help. The Japanese Squadron yasuda, after attacking the position of the 688th Regiment for a long time, turned the focus of the attack to the village of Zhuangtou, located southeast of Xiangchenggu, intending to detour the 688th Regiment from the flank.
However, the 386th Brigade Supplementary Regiment, which was the first to rush to the battlefield, crushed the Japanese attempt to make a detour. After the attacking enemy retreated, the reinforcement regiment took advantage of the situation to launch an attack and pressed the Japanese army in the direction of the depression to the west. Soon, Xu Shiyou rushed to the battlefield with the newly formed 1st Regiment, and after quickly judging the situation on the battlefield, he decisively led the newly formed 1st Regiment to attack from the left wing position held by the 3rd Battalion of the 688th Regiment and directly into the rear of Yasuda Squadron.
Under the combined attack of the three regiments of the Eighth Route Army, Yasuda Squadron was gradually pressed into the river beach depression, making it difficult for cars to drive and artillery to be discharged. Knowing this, the Japanese simply abandoned their cars and artillery and concentrated their infantry, intending to tear open a gap and escape.
When the battles were fought to this extent, how could the commanders and fighters of the Eighth Route Army allow the invaders to "do what they wanted"?
The Japanese army broke through again and again, but was unceremoniously beaten back by the commanders and fighters of the Eighth Route Army. At about 18:00, the 688th Regiment, the newly formed 1st Regiment and the Supplementary Regiment, under the unified command of Xu Shiyou, launched a final general offensive against the besieged enemy. The enemy is still fighting, but in the end, the enemy cannot resist the white-knife assault of our loyal soldiers.
After about half an hour of touching, the Japanese Yasuda Reinforcement Squadron was destroyed. Our army killed more than 200 people below The enemy Lieutenant Yasuda, also captured 17 Japanese prisoners, captured 2 92 infantry guns, 1 Type 90 mortar and 1 Type 41 mountain gun, 6 light and heavy machine guns and more than 100 rifles, with a total of more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition. As for the several cars carrying Yasuda's squadron, they were all destroyed by the commanders and fighters of the Eighth Route Army.
This battle created a model example of the Eighth Route Army's anti-"sweeping" in the plains, greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the anti-Japanese base areas, and at the same time discouraged the enemy and the hypocrites.
[Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, soldiers say that all parties are welcome to submit articles, private messages will be restored]