Chapter 14 013. Take the lead and fight like a tiger general——Record of Ye Chenghuan, head of the heroic regiment of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army

On April 18, 1938, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De made a special trip from the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army to Haobei Village, Yushe County, Shanxi Province to bid farewell to the body of a martyr.On this day, the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army held a grand burial ceremony for the martyr.After the martyr's coffin was slowly put into the grave, Liu Bocheng, the commander of the 129th Division, held a shovel in his hand, shoveled up the first shovel of loess, and covered the coffin.Then, deputy commander Xu Xiangqian, political commissar Deng Xiaoping, brigade commander Chen Geng, and representatives of cadres and soldiers shoveled the soil one by one and built a new grave.

This martyr is Ye Chenghuan. Ye Chenghuan is a native of Wuhe Village, Guojiahe Township, Xin County, Henan Province. He was born on October 19, 1914. He participated in the revolution at the age of 15 in 1929 and joined the Communist Party of China that year. In the Red Army, he successively served as an instructor, battalion political commissar, regiment political commissar, and division political commissar. He led the troops to fight hard and bitter battles many times and made military exploits. After the "July 7" Incident in 1937, the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang reached an agreement to reorganize the main force of the Red Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region as the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army (later renamed the Eighteenth Army, still using the designation of the Eighth Route Army).The 93rd Division of the 31st Army of the Fourth Front Army was ordered to be reorganized into the 772nd Regiment of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army. At that time, 23-year-old Ye Chenghuan was changed from the political commissar of the division to the head of the regiment.

Changing from the Red Army to the Kuomintang army, Ye Chenghuan always felt awkward emotionally.He couldn't help but often took out the worn-out octagonal hat from his bosom, and fondled it affectionately... Ye Chenghuan is a person with a strong sense of party spirit. He quickly understood the great significance of the KMT-CPC cooperation in resisting Japan. On September 20 of the same year, he led the Seven Seventh Two The regiment accompanied the brigade to advance to the Taihang Mountain area. On October 19, Ye Chenghuan led the 772nd Regiment to Shimenkou, east of Pingding County.At that time, the 20th Division and the 109th Division of the Japanese invaders were attacking Niangziguan, a famous pass in eastern Shanxi, and had occupied important positions such as the old pass in the southeast of Niangziguan; Go west to the mountains on the south side of Zhengtai Road.The KMT Zeng Wanzhong's 1st Division and the 169th Division of Samurai Min have been besieged by the Japanese army in the mountains south of Jiuguan.Brigadier Chen Geng of the 386th Brigade ordered Ye Chenghuan to lead the 772nd Regiment to covertly gather in Yujiagou, 15 miles south of Jingxing, and wait for the opportunity.

On the night of the 21st, it was as dark as ink.Ye Chenghuan, who often used night battles in the Red Army, considered the first battle with the enemy and decided to seize this good opportunity to catch the enemy by surprise.He sent Wang Jinshan, the deputy head of the regiment, to lead the third battalion and set up an ambush into the complex terrain of Changshengkou.About a squadron of Japanese troops who committed crimes from Jingxingxi was blown up by violent hand grenades as soon as they entered Changshengkou, and lost the power to fight back.In this battle, after more than an hour of fierce fighting, forty or fifty enemies were killed, and they won the first battle to the anti-Japanese front line.

After several confrontations, Ye Chenghuan gained an understanding of the characteristics of the activities of the Japanese devils. Taking advantage of his arrogance and paralysis, he led his troops to lead the army to Pingding in Caiyu Town, Jingxing County, Hebei Province within three days from October 26th to 28th. The Qigen Village in Qigeng set up an ambush twice in a row, winning by surprise, and achieved a record of annihilating more than 250 enemies at a small cost. On November 2, the 135th Regiment of the 12th Division of the enemy attacked Xiyang via Huangyandi.According to the order of Brigadier Chen Geng, Ye Chenghuan led the 772nd Regiment to occupy the high ground east of Gongjiazhuang, preparing to ambush the enemy.In the afternoon of the same day, the enemy was frustrated in front of the Fengju position guarded by the 771st Regiment of the 386th Brigade, and fled towards the Huangyandi River Beach.

Ye Chenghuan, who was on the high ground on the enemy's flank, observed that the enemy's formation was disordered, densely populated, and retreated in a panic, so he decisively abandoned the original ambush plan, ordered the troops to concentrate their firepower, and carried out a surprise fire attack on the retreating enemy.All of a sudden, gunfire erupted, beating the enemy to hide in Tibet.The devil officers drove the soldiers to attack, but the Bushido spirit of the Japanese soldiers could not resist the bullets after all. After a while, about 300 Japanese soldiers fell to the ground and died.

The 772nd Regiment first went to the Taihang Mountains. Under the command of Ye Chenghuan, they fought several beautiful battles in Changshengkou, Qigen Village, and Huangyandi one after another, fighting the prestige of the "old second regiment". Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping arranged a bigger plan to attack the enemy in March 1938 after the Changsheng mouth lure ambush: using the tactics of "attacking what they must save and wiping out those who save them", the 385th Brigade The 769th Regiment, as the left wing team, attacked Licheng and lured the enemies of Lucheng to come to aid; with the 386th Brigade as the right wing, they set up an ambush in the Shentouling area between Lucheng and Luhe Village, annihilating the enemy from Lucheng to Licheng. Reinforce the enemy.

According to the survey, Brigadier Chen Geng arranged a "pocket" for the Japanese army in the Shentouling area: the 772nd Regiment ambushed in the north of the Han (Dan) Chang (Zhi) Highway, the highlands east of Shentou and the northwest highlands of Annanling. The main assault was carried out; a supplementary regiment composed of guerrillas and militias from Liao County, Licheng, and She County was set up in an ambush in the opposite shoe sole village. On March 15th, the sky was bright.Ye Chenghuan saw through the telescope that the dust was flying on the road, and the enemy was about to approach the ambush area.He immediately issued an order to the ambush troops: "Pay attention to concealment and prepare to fight!"

The soldiers set up an ambush in the fortifications only 20 meters away from the main road. At about 9 o'clock, the 16th Division of the Japanese Army and a supply team from the tail of the 108th Division came to rescue Licheng.The enemy's leading troops entered Shentou Village to gather and rest, and sent a cavalry search team to search for the ambush site of the 1st Battalion of the 772nd Regiment.Seeing that the enemy cavalry is about to step on the warrior's head... The troops were well camouflaged, and the enemy did not notice the fortifications not far in front of them at all.

After a while, the enemy's brigade finally swaggered into the pockets made by the Eighth Route Army. At this time, Ye Chenghuan shouted: "Start the attack!" In an instant, the soldiers jumped out from the fortifications and the grass, and threw rows of grenades at the devils on the road.With the earth-shattering explosion, gunpowder smoke rose into the sky around the Shentouling area, and shrapnel wrapped in loess flew in all directions.The formation of the Japanese army suddenly turned into a dancing dragon. "Come on!" "Kill!" The soldiers raised their bayonets and rushed towards the devils all over the mountains and plains.

Just when the enemy and us were fighting inextricably, a burst of shouts of killing fell from the sky, and the 2nd Battalion of the 772nd Regiment ambushed in Shenjiashan rushed over and cut the enemy into several sections.The devils who lost their command fled around and were surrounded and wiped out one by one by soldiers of the Eighth Route Army.At this time, a group of remnant enemies, about 300 people, rushed into Shentou Village. Seeing this, Ye Chenghuan immediately sent a platoon to attack the enemy according to the brigade commander's order, and then he personally led a company to rush to Shentou Village.As a result, Ye Chenghuan commanded the eighth company and about 300 devils to launch an unprecedented fierce tug-of-war. In Shentou Village, the remnants of the enemy could not withstand the onslaught of the Eighth Route Army soldiers and were all wiped out. In the Shentouling ambush, the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army wiped out more than 1,500 Japanese troops.Regarding this battle, a corporal commander of the 108th Division of the Japanese Army described the tragic defeat of the Japanese Army in his "Diary in the Battle": "...the damage of the 108th Division has never been seen before. . . . On the road of the city, blood is flowing here and there, and our troops pass through it, feeling sad." On the evening of April 15, 1938, Brigadier Chen Geng ordered the 772nd Regiment to attack Wuxiang City with a force. The more than 3,000 Japanese devils who occupied Wuxiang were disturbed by the guerrilla warfare of the Eighth Route Army in the city.Before the attack of the Eighth Route Army, they abandoned the city in a hurry and fled to Changle Village along Wu (township) Xiang (yuan) Avenue. Brigadier Chen Geng divided the troops into left and right groups: the 772nd Regiment and the 689th Regiment were on the left, and the 769th Regiment and the reserve team followed the left side and pursued the Japanese troops along the mountains on the north and south banks of the Zhuozhang River.According to the order of Brigadier Chen Geng, Ye Chenghuan commanded the 772nd Regiment to go ahead. On the way, scouts came to report that the enemy's vanguard troops had passed Changle Village, their luggage was still near Baicaoyan, and there were only a few rear guard troops in Mazhuang.At this time, the Seventh Seventh Regiment had reached Zhengyu Village on the opposite bank of Baicaoyan and the highlands north of Zhangzhuang, parallel to the two sides of the Seventh Seventh Regiment.Ye Chenghuan thought to himself: This is a favorable opportunity to attack the enemy suddenly. It will be too late if the enemy passes Changle Village before attacking.Ye Chenghuan and Brigadier Chen Geng, who was operating with the regiment, decided after research: without waiting for the follow-up troops to arrive, the two regiments will attack each other and cut off the enemy. At dawn on the 16th, fighting began around Changle Village.The Japanese army's baggage and horses were suppressed on the narrow river beach path along the Xingcun, Lizhuang, Baicaoyan, and Mazhuang lines west of Changle Village, unable to deploy.In order to get rid of the passive situation, the enemy launched a series of attacks on the 772nd Regiment in an attempt to occupy key points and threaten the rear of the Eighth Route Army troops.Ye Chenghuan ordered the spy company to occupy the key points first, concentrated firepower to sweep the devils who had climbed up the mountainside, and defeated the devils' charge. At noon of the battle, more than 3,000 people from the enemy's 105th regiment came from Liao County via Panlong for reinforcements, and launched a counterattack against our main position.The artillery fire was very fierce, and the position was shrouded in thick smoke and dust.At this time, Ye Chenghuan came to the forefront to command the soldiers to destroy the enemy. After two hours of fierce fighting, the enemy in Liao County sent more than a thousand people to reinforce. The head of the 129th Division felt that there was not much confidence in completely eliminating this group of enemies at the moment. In order to consolidate the obtained victory, he decided to deploy a guerrilla network on the front line with the 769th Regiment and the 689th Regiment to block and confuse the enemy. , to cover the withdrawal of the main force from the battle. According to the orders of the division and brigade leaders, Ye Chenghuan organized the troops to withdraw from the battle in time, but he himself withdrew in the last platoon.As he retreated, he used binoculars to observe the enemy's situation. The enemy's reinforcements rushed down the ditch, and the messenger reminded him: "Regimental Commander, you are in danger standing on a high slope, hurry up and leave!" "Wait a while before leaving, I can see clearly from here." Ye Chenghuan didn't move. An enemy bullet "whoosh" passed through his sleeve, he didn't pay attention, and cursed.A second bullet came screaming and hit him in the head, and he fell... When the teacher Liu Bocheng learned that Ye Chenghuan was injured, he came to the stretcher, leaned over and held Ye Chenghuan's head, and kept shouting: "Chenghuan, Chenghuan..." But Ye Chenghuan could no longer answer the call of his beloved teacher.Liu Bocheng's tears of grief fell on Ye Chenghuan's pale face... At 1:30 am on April 18, Ye Chenghuan's heart stopped beating. He was only 24 years old. The battle in Changle Village wiped out more than 2,200 Japanese troops. It was a decisive battle in the 129th Division's smashing of the "Nine-Route Siege of the Japanese Army".This battle dealt a heavy blow to the 108th Division of the Japanese Army. In less than half a month, the enemy troops from all walks of life retreated one after another. After the liberation of the whole country, the remains of the martyr Ye Chenghuan were moved to the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Martyrs Cemetery in Handan City, Hebei Province for burial.