Chapter 100 8. Destroying the Japanese steel blockade

When the left and right assault teams launched an attack on the Zhengtai Railway, the general reserve team entered the Tianhuachi and Weichi village areas west of Pingding.In order to prevent the Japanese invaders from attacking the right side of the assault team, according to the instructions of the division chief, the 14th Regiment of the General Reserve occupied Shinao Mountain, the throat of the Zhengtai Railway in the southwest of Yangquan. As expected, the Japanese army immediately organized a counterattack after being hit hard.Katayama Shotaro, head of the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army stationed in Yangquan, gathered all the forces he could mobilize and armed the Japanese in Yangquan. Starting from August 21, he launched a violent attack on the Shinao Mountain position defended by the 14th Regiment. attack.With the support of a large number of planes bombing and strafing in turn, the Japanese army continued to attack Shinao Mountain, and continued to increase its troop strength, from hundreds of people at the beginning to more than 1,500.

All the commanders and fighters of our 14th regiment guarding Shinao Mountain carried forward the style of brave fighting, and repelled the crazy attacks of the Japanese invaders time and time again, causing heavy damage to the enemy. Only on the 21st, more than a hundred people were killed . The next day, hundreds of Japanese troops stormed the northeast highlands of Mount Shinao again, fighting fiercely all day long, but still no progress was made.Seeing that the casualties continued to increase, but the Shinaoshan position could not be attacked for a long time, the head of the Katayama brigade became furious, so he bombarded the position with superior air and ground artillery fire, and released a large amount of poison. However, the Shinaoshan position still stood firm. move.

In this way, the battle for Shinao Mountain lasted for 6 days and nights. The Japanese army used all their means to attack rampantly. Not only did they fail to make any progress, but more than 400 people were killed or injured, which wiped out the prestige of the "Hehe Imperial Army". Under the cover of the 14th regiment, after several days of continuous fighting, various attacking troops successively conquered many Japanese strongholds and stations such as Shanghu, Yanzigou, Potou, Langyu, Zhangjing; There are several peripheral strongholds such as West and Luomo Temple.On the 26th, the Japanese invaders gathered hundreds of people to launch a fierce attack on Shinao Mountain. My 14th regiment, which was holding on to the Shinao Mountain position, voluntarily withdrew from the Shinao Mountain position after holding on for 7 hours to avoid a decisive battle with the enemy.

On August 31st and September 1st, the left-wing assault team successively attacked the Japanese troops from Yuci and Shouyang in Gaoping, Daoping, Hongao, Juanyugou and other areas, especially Juanyu The 15-hour blockade in the ditch repelled more than ten Japanese attacks, killed and wounded more than 3,000 Japanese soldiers, shattered the Japanese attempt to jointly attack Anfeng and Mafang, won the initiative, and covered the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the 129th Division. The safe transfer of the direct team and the right-wing assault team. On September 6, our 386th Brigade and the 1st Desperate Column surrounded the Nagano Battalion of the 36th Division of the Japanese Army, which was invaded by Taigu, in the Shuangfeng area in the northwest of Yushe. After a day and night of fierce fighting, more than 400 of them were wiped out. Life returns to Huangquan.

The troops of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region and the 129th Division, which were tasked with destroying the Zhengtai Railway, removed the strongholds and stations of the Japanese army along the Zhengtai Railway one by one after days of fierce fighting, and basically controlled the Zhengtai Railway.Afterwards, under the battle slogan of "Leave no railroad tracks, no sleepers, and no bridges", the troops participating in the war, guerrillas, militiamen, and the masses braved the low-altitude strafing of enemy planes to attack railways, highways, and everything else. A large-scale attack was carried out on the outbuildings.Stations, water towers, bridges, roadbeds were demolished or blown up.The dismantled rails were transported to the rear arsenal as raw materials in time, or carried dozens of miles away to be buried, and the rails were burned on sleepers before it was too late.In this way, in just ten days, more than 2/3 of the so-called "steel blockade" of the Japanese army, which meandered more than 200 kilometers, was destroyed by our Eighth Route Army, guerrillas, militias, and the masses.