Chapter 36 Fire-roasted bison

As early as May 1938, Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out in his article "On Protracted War": "The deepest root of the great power of war lies in the people. The main reason why Japan dares to bully us is the ruthlessness of the Chinese people." Organizational status. Once this shortcoming is overcome, the Japanese aggressors will be placed in front of tens of millions of our people who have stood up, and they will be like a wild bull rushing into the fire, and we will frighten them when we call out. This bison must be burned to death." ("Selected Works of Mao Zedong", Volume II, p. 478) When I was studying "On Protracted War" at the Anti-Japanese University, because the Anti-Japanese War had just begun, the anti-Japanese base areas were in the initial stage, and the Japanese invaded The army is still quite rampant, and I only place a kind of hope on the spectacular scene of "burning bison in the fire array" as a goal to strive for.

After more than seven years of bloody struggle by the whole party, the army and the people of the whole country, after the spring of 1945, with the development of the situation at home and abroad, the balance of forces between the enemy and ourselves has undergone fundamental changes. Our army has gradually shifted from the stage of strategic stalemate to strategic Counterattack phase.At this time, the battle is not limited to the small ambushes of the enemy and the siege and push back of the enemy's stronghold, but can also surround and attack the enemy's county town and important stronghold. Scenes are unfolding in front of us.

From April 13th to 19th, 1945, the 38th and 42nd District Teams of the Ninth Division, as well as the Renqiu and Wenxin Detachments and other regional troops captured the enemy's Xinzhongyi stronghold and opened the door for our Jizhong The prelude to the military region's spring offensive. Xinzhongyi is a core stronghold between the enemy Hewen and Renqiu. The fortification is particularly strong. The two main towers are more than ten feet high. Lay a large number of mines and cluster grenades.There are more than 160 people from Renqiu County's Second Puppet Police Brigade stationed in the town, equipped with machine guns, small artillery and other weapons.Tian Wenming, head of the puppet team, is a hard-core traitor who has done many evils. The masses hate him deeply.

In order to isolate the enemies of Xinzhongyi, the Ninth Division first dispatched the 38th Division Team and Ren Qiu Detachment to ambush Tian Wenming's backer, the Japanese Yamada Brigade, in Jinqiao.On the afternoon of April 13th, when the Japanese Yamada Battalion and more than 500 puppet troops returned to Ayutthaya from the "clearance campaign" in the Renqiu area and passed the Jinshui Bridge, our ambush troops attacked from all sides and pressed the enemy to the edge of the Guyang River. In the river channel, the fierce battle continued until night, and the enemy was forced to abandon their luggage and flee back to Dacheng in the dark.Our army killed and injured more than 60 enemies, captured part of the puppet army, and seized more than 100 carts and many supplies.Yamada suffered this heavy blow, and sighed to himself that "it was a fluke to survive the tiger's mouth." Therefore, when the Ninth Division took advantage of the victory to attack Xinzhongyi, Yamada who was stationed in Dacheng closed the city gate and did not dare to show his face, regardless of Tian Wenming, a running dog. life and death.

After encircling Xinzhongyi, our army took advantage of the victory to launch a strong attack that night, but due to the fierce crossfire of the enemy's outer trenches, the attack was frustrated. Tian Wenming was now arrogant.He set up a large oil pot on the big bunker, plugged wicks around the pot, and lit it as soon as it got dark, illuminating the surrounding area brightly.Tian Wenming was even shirtless, with a big knife shining on his back, screaming wildly on the top of the bunker, playing prestige, and our soldiers stomped their feet in anger. The first attack failed. The leaders of the Ninth Division summed up their experience in time and decided to dig tunnels under the enemy's main bunker while besieging them and blast them.Militiamen and people from tens of miles around Xinzhongyi came to join the battle after hearing the news. Some helped dig tunnels, and some fought side by side with the soldiers in the trenches, enclosing the enemy bunkers tightly; while women and children stood guard at the crossings. Check the roads with sentries, and don't let a suspicious person go.Looking around, there are people driving cars, carrying supplies and ammunition everywhere, and there are reception stations setting up tents, lighting lamps, boiling water and cooking food everywhere.When our army attacked the enemy, the folks would beat drums to help out and cheer; when our troops took turns to rest, the folks would sing, act, and send red flowers to express their warm condolences.The masses in the propaganda group against the enemy took turns shouting at the enemy day and night, and mobilized many family members of the puppet army to shout to their relatives. In addition, our tunnel was discovered by the enemy when it was dug into the enemy's outer trench, and Tian Wenming ordered the puppet army to dig horizontal trenches and bury cluster grenades to destroy it.In this way, Tian Wenming became even more arrogant. When we shouted, we beheaded a puppet soldier who was going to fight back.This enraged our soldiers even more. The special shooter Li Xiaolu knocked Tian Wenming's hat off with a single shot. He was so frightened that he hurriedly hid in the bunker, not daring to show his face again.

The plan of digging tunnels and blasting was frustrated again. The leaders of the Ninth District decided to attack by force, and carried forward military democracy, mobilized the masses to contribute ideas and discuss the plan of attack.The soldiers pointed out that when we attack, the enemy concentrates their firepower on our main attack direction, and the firepower in the southeast and east is very weak. If we make a few more feints to force the enemy to disperse the firepower, we will secretly move troops from the tunnel to the enemy Outer trenches, concealed contact with the enemy, the attack may work.Sure enough, on the night of the 19th, our sub-division troops took advantage of the moonlight to launch a general offensive. In a short time, gunshots and shouts of killing were everywhere in Xinzhongyi. The sound was so loud that Tian Wenming and the puppet soldiers were so scared that they were at a loss and couldn't tell the direction of my main attack and feint attack.At this time, the warriors of the commando shouted loudly: "Avenge the people of Jizhong, and destroy Tian Wenming!" Braving the rain of bullets, they jumped over the deep ditch, climbed up the ladder, and rushed into the enemy's fort; Drilled into the enemy's outer trench and started hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

After an hour of fierce fighting, all the puppet troops in Xinzhongyi were annihilated by me, and large and small blockhouses were shot up into the sky; the prisoners were escorted to the divisional headquarters one by one. Among the group of more than 120 prisoners, two prisoners The soldiers carried a bloody, dying guy, he was the hardcore traitor Tian Wenming who was full of crimes. After the liberation of Xinzhongyi, the Ninth Division took advantage of the victory and advanced. On April 23, the 42nd Division Team and the Renqiu Detachment surrounded Renqiu City. activities, to contain the enemies in Dacheng; while the Gaoyang detachment blocked the enemies who might send aid in Gaoyang to the east of Gaoyang.At this time, the passionate emotions of the masses are really hard to describe with words.Looking around, within five miles of the besieged city, tens of thousands of people enthusiastically joined the battle, some dug traffic ditches, repaired fortifications, carried stretchers, transported food and ammunition; There are also gong and drum teams and "speaking teams" that take turns beating gongs and drums day and night, waving flags and shouting, making the enemy dizzy. From which direction to attack, I am in constant fear.At the beginning of the siege, our army dug a few tunnels facing the city wall and prepared to blast them;Seeing that it was difficult to hold on, the enemy attempted to break out of the encirclement twice, but were repelled by our army.On the third day of the siege, a Japanese squadron leader committed suicide in despair. Zhu Damin, the false county magistrate, went to the Japanese squadron leader Kato crying every day, begging for help as soon as possible.Squadron leader Kato was also restless, and sent urgent calls to Captain Yamada of the Japanese Army in Ayutthaya several times for help, but most of the replies he received were excuses such as "the eight-way force is inconvenient for reinforcements."Seeing that there was no hope of asking for help, Ren Qiu defended the enemy, so at 3 o'clock in the morning on April 30, he took advantage of our army's adjustment and deployment to break through the gap between the district team and the militia with light clothes.Our army pursued for more than 20 li, killed and captured one, and liberated Renqiu City at 5 o'clock in the morning.

After the Ninth Division liberated Renqiu City, the Eighth Division also besieged Hejian on May 4, and Hejian City was liberated on May 9.So far, the first phase of the spring offensive, the Ren (Qiu) River (inter-) battle, has ended successfully, and the eighth and ninth divisions have been completely connected.Then, the Ninth Division was the main force, and the Tenth Division cooperated in the battle to carry out the Wen (An) Xin (Town) Campaign; the main force of the Seventh Division cooperated with part of the Eighth Division to quickly launch the An (Ping) Rao (Yang) Campaign.In the above three battles, nearly 4,000 Japanese and puppet troops were killed, wounded, and eight counties were recovered, more than 500 villages and towns were liberated, and more than 300 enemy bunkers were pulled out, so that the south of the Daqing River and the north of Cangshi Road, The base areas west of Ziya River and east of Pinghan Road form a single piece.

When the spring offensive was coming to an end, on May 12, Commander Yang Chengwu and Political Commissar Lin Tie convened a meeting with the leading cadres of the military region in Wugong Village, Raoyang County, and briefly summarized the successful experience of the various campaigns and battles of the spring offensive.Soon, another meeting of cadres above the regiment was held in Dongzhanggang.The meeting was held in the warehouse of a winery, and more than 100 cadres attended the meeting.At the meeting, Commander Yang Chengwu summarized the experience of the spring offensive and made deployments for the summer offensive.I made the political mobilization for the summer offensive, explained the domestic and foreign situation at that time and the struggle situation in the central Hebei region, and arranged the political work during the war, with special emphasis on doing a good job in the work of the masses and the enemy army.During the spring offensive, we discovered two prominent problems. One was that there were a small number of soldiers and militiamen. Due to the deep hatred for the enemy, coupled with their low level of education and lack of scientific common sense, when attacking enemy strongholds, all The things used by the enemy were smashed when they saw them, and some materials that we could use, such as radio stations, small generators, documents, maps, counterfeit banknotes, etc., were all destroyed and burned.In addition, some militiamen and the masses went to the city in groups to arrest the traitors out of their strong hatred for the traitors and to avenge their hatred; Shops and houses were smashed and people were killed on the spot.The Party Committee and the Political Department of our military region require leading cadres and political organs at all levels to master the troops well, and publicize the Party's policies to the militia and the masses, and require everyone to implement the Party's policies. Actions, let alone arresting and killing randomly, we must realize that the town has returned to the people, we must not only liberate it, but also build it, not to destroy it and cause chaos.After the meeting, we also publicized the party's policies through the "Front Front", which quickly corrected this chaotic phenomenon.

On June 8, our Jizhong Military Region launched a more powerful summer offensive. The training regiment trained in Luxi was ordered to form four large regiments and rush back to Jizhong to participate in the war.They trained intensively for four months in a relatively stable environment in Luxi, and their military and political qualities have greatly improved. Although they are still wearing plain clothes, they march like a regular army. Move forward at a vigorous pace.The people along the way saw them marching forward in the scorching sun, and they were excited to send water and eggs to express their warm welcome.Some comrades from the political department and I rode bicycles among them, sometimes riding on the road, sometimes getting off the car and talking with the soldiers while walking. I am proud of them, and I thought that with the addition of this main force in Jizhong, the summer offensive will surely win.

On June 10, our army took advantage of the enemy's slack vigilance on a stormy night, sailed through Wen'anwa fifty miles of water, and attacked Ziya Town in one fell swoop. Army thirty-seven strongholds.On July 9, the military region held a combat meeting in Shiwuji, and decided to take advantage of the plan to launch the Great Qing Hebei Campaign.We concentrated the main forces of several divisions to form a "fist" to serve as the main attack. The local armed forces, the militia and the masses cooperated closely. Clamp the enemy and confuse the enemy to ensure the suddenness of the action of the main attacking force.At this time, the spirit of the Seventh National Congress of the Party came from Yan'an. In the political report of the Seventh National Congress, Chairman Mao issued "Under the current conditions, the troops in the Liberated Areas should attack all places that are occupied by the enemy and puppets and may be conquered. The call to launch a wide-ranging offensive to expand the liberated areas and shrink the occupied areas" gave us great encouragement and encouragement.In conveying the spirit of the "Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China", we specially put forward the slogan of "expanding the liberated areas and shrinking the occupied areas", encouraging the commanders and fighters of the whole military region to attack bravely. Several leading comrades of our military region have been active on the front line since the beginning of the spring offensive, commanding from the front as much as possible, arriving in Raoyang and Renqiu, and then sailing down the Zhaowang River and the Daqing River to Xinzhen and Wen'an.After the summer offensive began, we walked along the Ziya River and the Daqing River and watched with our own eyes that the troops were like a huge wave, smashing down the enemy's fortified cities and strongholds in Dacheng County, Xian County and other places. , The thick smoke and fire rising from the enemy bunkers on both sides of the Daqing River reminded me of Chairman Mao's prophecy of "burning the buffalo in the fire".I pondered in my heart: The spring and summer offensives proved once again that to defeat the Japanese fascists who were armed to the teeth with backward weapons, we must not only rely on the extremely strong morale of our army and the guarantee of political work, but also rely on the strength of the whole people, especially The armed militia went to war.During the capture of the enemy's Lidan stronghold, a total of 5,972 militiamen and people participated in digging ditches, tunnels, and ditches for the enemy's wall. strip.In Daguang'an (the south of Dacheng County on the left bank of the Ziya River), Litan, Caozhuang, Xishahe, Liugezhuang Bridge, and Shijiawu (all on the right bank of the Ziya River) participated in the six militias that participated in the war. Seventeen people.They are all organized into companies, platoons, and squads to cooperate with the troops to fight. The number of each company is organized according to the number of weapons. An additional communication squad is added to the fast gun platoon, or an administrative squad is set up in the small artillery platoon for supply work.The militia has company commanders, deputy commanders, instructors, squad leaders, and platoon leaders. It is beyond ordinary people's expectations to listen to commands and talk about tactics in battle.For example, they dug tunnels and planted landmines, which played a considerable role in besieging enemy blockhouses.During the battle at Liugezhuang Bridge, the militia cooperated with the troops to dig five tunnels, 250 meters long, and planted explosives to blow down three enemy gun towers and one bungalow.They forced the 300 people under the evil captain Hong Mazi to surrender.The "Sparrow War" of the militia kept monitoring and harassing the enemy day and night, making the enemy restless all day long, allowing our main force to rest peacefully and wait for the signal of the general attack.In the battles of Litan and Liugezhuang, the small artillery and quick guns of the militia made the enemy dare not look up, and even set fire to the top of the watchtower, disturbing the enemy's peace.In addition, some militiamen are also responsible for vigilance, arresting traitors and spies, cutting off communication between enemy bunkers, rescuing the wounded, carrying out mass work, enemy army work, etc., and truly become the right-hand man of the army. Our army carried out five campaigns in the North of the Great Qing Dynasty, wiped out more than 11,000 Japanese and puppet troops, liberated eleven counties, and expanded the guerrilla zone to Beiping in the north, Cangshi in the south, Bohai Sea in the east, and Pingping in the west. On the Han line, the entire central Hebei region with a population of nearly 9 million people was liberated. The effectiveness of the enemy's work also played a part in the spring and summer offensives.Every time we siege and attack the enemy's bunkers, we are accompanied by a powerful political offensive.During the summer offensive, the 28th Regiment of the Ninth Division, led by regiment leader Zhong Ying and political commissar Yang Dongliang, attacked two enemy strongholds in Xin'an and Tangerli at the same time.These two strongholds are horns of each other, and both are guarded by the 19th Regiment of the Puppet Security Army.At the beginning, the enemy was very stubborn and the fighting was very fierce. Later, our 28th regiment first concentrated its forces to take down the Tangerli stronghold and captured a false battalion commander.While we were making preparations for the final attack, we dug the tunnel under the enemy's gun tower and prepared to blast it, and at the same time we asked the false battalion commander to approach the gun tower and shout to the enemy regiment commander.He cried sadly: "Commander, the Eighth Route Army has surrounded us, and the explosives have been buried under our gun towers. Now that we have come to this field, we must think about our family and our brothers. Hurry up and surrender!" The pseudo-regimental leader was shaken by these words, and soon he sent people out to negotiate, demanding leniency.We guaranteed their safety and they surrendered immediately.When the puppet regiment leader led the puppet troops out to surrender, we organized the soldiers to shout slogans: "Welcome the 19th Regiment of the Security Force to return to the embrace of the motherland!" The puppet regiment leader was deeply moved and said repeatedly: "Thank you for your generosity, thank you for your mercy!" In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese invaders were deeply poisoned by the "Bushido" propaganda. After the defeat of the Japanese army, most of them committed suicide and took few prisoners.With the continuation of the war, the Japanese imperialists' crimes of aggression against China were exposed, and their brutality and brutality gave the Japanese people and soldiers a sense of justice a very realistic education from the negative side. Realizing that Japanese militarism has brought serious disasters to the Chinese and Japanese peoples, so they did not resist when they were defeated, and some even surrendered to our army on the battlefield.For these early awakened Japanese soldiers and Japanese residents (that is, Japanese living in China), we try our best to provide educational assistance. On February 12, 1945, the Japanese anti-war patriots in the central Hebei region held the inaugural meeting of the "Hebei Central Branch of the Japanese People's Liberation League in China". The others are members. At the meeting, Lin Yixiong (Japanese), the representative of the "Japanese Liberation Alliance in China in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Area", gave instructions on the policies and tasks for the future struggle of the Jizhong Branch. , civil agencies, groups of congratulatory letters, and presented gifts.Finally, a solemn oath was held at the meeting: "We must not only overthrow the military that caused this war, but also unite the people and build a democratic, free, and prosperous new Japan." The Japanese friends of the "Jizhong Branch of the Liberation Alliance" did It gave us great help in carrying out the work of the enemy army and the work of Japanese residents.At that time, Nobuo Miyamoto, who was an officer in the enemy engineering department of our military region, was a very good Japanese friend. He was extremely enthusiastic and responsible for his work. He worked day and night to write leaflets and slogans to guide Japanese friends in the "Liberation Alliance" in each division to carry out their work.When the three Japanese friends assigned to work in the eighth division cooperated with the 33rd division team to attack the Shaheqiao stronghold, they took the big horns wrapped in iron sheets to the front line of the artillery fire and shouted at the Japanese army in the bunker. As bullets rained down in front of their bunkers, they were still unafraid and continued shouting, promoting the lenient policy of our Eighth Route Army, warning the Japanese officers and soldiers that the Eighth Route Army had dug tunnels under the bunkers and loaded them with explosives, and they were about to explode. Don't work for the Japanese military anymore.Some Japanese soldiers were moved and prepared to surrender, but the stubborn Japanese leader brutally killed them.In the end, the three Japanese friends had to watch with regret that their compatriots were buried for the Japanese militarists. At the beginning of 1945, in order to accurately grasp the strategic deployment of the Japanese army in North China and its changes, we decided to set up a "North China Traffic Work Corps" under the leadership of the Liaison Department of the Military Region according to the instructions of our superiors. The three columns of Sui and Beining have widely penetrated into large and small stations, warehouses, machine repair shops and other departments of the three major railway lines in North China. Through various channels and methods, they have mastered information on enemy train transportation and train operation.In addition to many railway workers actively participating in the work and providing information in this transportation work corps, some Japanese railway employees also gave us great support.For example, Gao Enbo, the captain of the Pinghan Column, entered the Changxindian Railway as a worker, and he made friends with Yoshimitsu Banguchi, the section communication engineer of the Changxindian Electricity Section.Bankou Yoshimitsu is a native of Kagoshima, Japan. After the July 7th Incident, he went to work in Changxindian. His whole family is in China. He witnessed the atrocities committed by the Japanese army, sympathized with the bullied Chinese people, and actively assisted Gao Enbo in doing things for us. For many jobs, I also took the initiative to send my friends Ito (technician of Changxindian Electrical Repair Factory), Maeda (Foreman of Changxindian Electrical Repair Factory), Wood (Changshidian Sectional Communications Manager), and Masaki Bankou ( Introduced to Gao Enbo by the Japanese, such as the communications director of the electrical work area of ​​the Beiping Railway Bureau.Through these Japanese friends, Gao Enbo got acquainted with Suita Shiro, the communications engineer, and Hase Hiromaeda, the sub-section.By virtue of these relationships, Gao Enbo was free to enter and leave important places such as Japanese locomotive factories, military warehouses, and dog (military dog) units, which provided extremely convenient conditions for work and obtained a lot of important information.