Hu Zhaoqi, a famous general during the Anti-Japanese War, was the commander of the Eighth Route Army, although his military rank was only colonel, compared with Yang Chengwu and others, who were also the commanders, the latter became the founding general.
Hu Zhaoqi was born in 1903 in Chengbei Village, Qinyuan County, from a poor family but with a certain education. He studied Xi military academy founded by Yan Xishan, gradually became enlightened, and after coming into contact with the ideas of the Communist Party, he resolutely joined the party organization and began to carry out underground work.
However, during this special period, he repeatedly suffered and endured hardships for organizing underground work. In 1937, under the arrangement of party comrade Wang Ruofei, he served as a military training officer of the Shanxi Military Training Committee and restored the relationship between the party organizations.
With the outbreak of the "77 Incident", he returned to his hometown to form an anti-Japanese team, and was incorporated into the Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Death Squad. Despite the small size of the team of only 500 men, they fought bravely and bravely fought the enemy army to the end.
In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Hu Zhaoqi entered the Taiyue Military Region and began to fight against the Japanese army and Yan Xishan's troops who colluded with the Japanese army. In 1941, the Japanese army launched a large-scale sweep in North China, inflicting brutal blows on the local people and our army.
In September 1940, Okamura Ninji once again led the Japanese army to launch a fierce sweep of our army's base in the Taiyue Military Region. In order to cope with the strong pressure of the Japanese army, our army had to give priority to the protection of the headquarters and organs of the military districts and the preservation of the main forces.
Subsequently, our army and the Japanese army launched a guerrilla war in the dense jungle, waiting for the opportunity to break through. At that time, Hu Zhaoqi was the commander of the 59th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army, and his first task was to guide the soldiers to cover the successful breakthrough of the commander of the military region.
Hu Zhaoqi formulated a breakthrough plan and decided to launch a breakthrough from the place where the Japanese defense was weak, and the place where the enemy's encirclement force was smaller was located in the northwest. When night fell, Hu Zhaoqi led the soldiers to prepare to launch a breakthrough and wait for the next battle.
However, during the breakout operation, our troops unexpectedly found that the enemy's strength had increased sharply, and the artillery fire had become more intense, and the traitors in the original ranks had leaked their plans to the enemy. Many breakouts were suppressed by Japanese artillery fire, and morale was low.
Aware of the danger, Hu Zhaoqi decided to let the soldiers of the guard squad break through from the path and take the lead in covering the evacuation of the commander and organs of the military region, while he continued to lead the troops to attract the enemy's firepower and attention.
A few days later, the commander and organs of the military district managed to break through the encirclement, but the main forces were already ** miserable, caught in the encirclement of the enemy army, ** exhausted, and their morale was still firm. Hu Zhaoqi had run out of ammunition, so he decided to swing his bayonet and engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.
He was the first to charge at the enemy, knocking out three enemy soldiers, but also being wounded in the process. When he woke up from a coma, he found himself a prisoner of the Japanese army, captured along with hundreds of soldiers of the Eighth Route Army.
The Japanese did not know which unit of the Eighth Route Army they had defeated, so they began to inquire one by one.
When they learned that it was the 59th Regiment, they were extremely happy and prepared to report to their superiors, especially since Hu Zhaoqi's name had been recorded on the list of Japanese soldiers, although they did not know what he looked like. So they began to ask one by one: "Are you Hu Zhaoqi?"
However, Hu Zhaoqi replied: "Do you look like me?"The Japanese soldier then asked, "Then do you know Hu Zhaoqi?"Hu Zhaoqi replied: "I'm just a guy, how can I know Hu Zhaoqi?"
The Japanese army was suspicious and began to coerce and lure Hu Zhaoqi and others, promising that if someone identified Hu Zhaoqi, they would give him a life path and preferential treatmentOtherwise, all captives will be shot.
However, everyone was unmoved, and they all chose to die unyieldingly, refusing to betray Hu Zhaoqi. The Japanese realized that our soldiers were not even afraid of death, and no one identified Hu Zhaoqi, so they began to believe in the firmness of our army.
Therefore, instead of executing the captured fighters, they took them to the coal mines to become coolies. In the coal mines, Hu Zhaoqi and other fighters suffered humiliation, but this did not shake their determination to return to the group.
At the same time, after the commander successfully broke through, Hu Zhaoqi's body was not found when he cleaned up the battlefield, so he deduced that Hu Zhaoqi must have been captured by the Japanese army.
In order to confuse the enemy, he held a grand funeral and announced Hu Zhaoqi's sacrifice with great conviction, so as to deceive the Japanese army and think about Hu Zhaoqi's safety.
Because once the Japanese believed that Hu Zhaoqi had died, they would relax their search for him, and the organization would be more convenient to carry out rescue operations. Despite the hardships of life in the coal mines, Hu Zhaoqi was always preparing to flee and return to the anti-Japanese organization.
Initially, the Japanese army supervised him very strictly, making it impossible for him to find an escape opportunity. However, over time, the vigilance of the Japanese army gradually weakened.
During a labor trip, Hu Zhaoqi escaped from the enemy blockade with six captured Chinese soldiers, went through an arduous journey, and finally returned to the anti-Japanese organization.
After reintegrating into the organization, he went through anti-university Xi and worked in military education during the Liberation War. Despite missing opportunities for development during the years of captivity, he was awarded the rank of colonel in 1955.
However, in 1970, he was accused of unjust treatment and was deported to his country of origin as "defection to the enemy".
Regarding these injustices, Hu Zhaoqi said: "Compared with those soldiers who died bravely on the battlefield, I am already lucky. In the end, Hu Zhaoqi died in Qinyuan County Hospital in 1973 at the age of 71.
As a revolutionary warrior, he made great achievements in the War of Resistance Against Japan, but the unfair treatment he received in his later years was deeply sad.