Recently, in the hands of a collector friend, I saw a 1946 issue of "People's **" because it contained the news of "the liberation of Lao County", which was very interesting.
This "People's **" is 365 52 cm rectangular, single sheet with two pages, the upper end of which has the date of publication in a horizontal row from right to left -- "Zhonghua ** 35 July 17", "People**" four masthead characters, in the middle of the top of the newspaper, but from left to right horizontal row. The two sides of the newspaper are notices and notices, one is the "Hengfeng Coal Mine Shares *** Raising Shares Notice", and the other is the "Taihang District Anci Tax Inspection Bureau Notice".
The first page contained more than 10 pieces of news, the headline was "The CPC Delegation Sent a Letter to Chiang Kai-shek, ** Arbitrarily Fixing the Date of the National Congress", the second was "Celebrities from all walks of life in Chongqing issued a statement opposing the United States fueling Chiang Kai-shek's civil war and violating China's independence, democracy and sovereignty", in addition to "Comrade ** Telegram of Condolences to Li Gongpu's Family", "The Soviet Union Rebuilt South Sakhalin Island", "My Classmate Captain Liu Shanben" and so on. The news of the "Liberation of Lao County" was placed in the middle of the first page to the left and lower, and like other news, it was arranged vertically from right to left. It was arranged together with another similar piece of news, with the headline "The Achievements of the Self-Defense War in the North and the South of Tongpu are Reflected." Next, there are two news headlines: "Jinsui Our Army Liberates Lao County" and "Trapping Wenxi Jiang's Army Was Annihilated by Me Two Regiments". Looking carefully, the news about the "liberation of Lao County" is divided into two parts. The first is "Xingxian County, Xinhua News Agency, 14 July": "The puppet army of Duowu Town (suspected to be Yangwu Town), 30 miles south of Xuangang, was disarmed by the Eighth Route Army on 8 July. The second is "Xingxian County, Xinhua News Agency, 14 May": "At 2 o'clock in the morning of the 12th, the Eighth Route Army of Jinsui disarmed the puppet army in Laoxian County. The 2nd Regiment of the 40th Division of the Yan Puppet Army, the Aixiang Brigade, the Special Service Battalion, the 'Soldiers and Peasants in One' Pioneer Regiment and the 1st Japanese Army, totaling more than 2,000 people, were all annihilated except for a few who fled. According to preliminary statistics, more than 800 puppet soldiers and 12 Japanese soldiers were captured, and the most important ones were captured. The Eighth Route Army was invited by the people to begin a crusade against the puppet army on the evening of the 11th. ”
The full text is very short, only more than 200 words, reporting the battle situation of our army to liberate Laoxian County for the first time, and the rest is the news about the annihilation of two enemy regiments in Wenxi County. So, let's restore the battle scene at that time and the situation of the second liberation of Lao County: on the night of July 11, the siege began. When the commandos of our army moved to leave the city.
At 2 or 300 meters, it was discovered by the enemy defending the city, and the mountain artillery, mortars, machine guns and other heavy firepower on the city wall came at the assault team. Our troops concentrated their firepower and fiercely returned fire, and the silent night sky was instantly torn apart by the flames of battle. The battle lasted for four hours, and the county town was successfully liberated by our army. Qin Liangxiang, the commander-in-chief of the enemy and the commander of the Second Regiment of the 19th Army, was wounded, and more than 800 people were captured, including 12 Japanese soldiers. After our army liberated the county seat, the enemy of Yuanping Town fled to Xin County in a hurry, and on July 14, Yuanping Town was liberated, and the whole territory of Lai County was reborn. In October of the same year, the 39th Division of the Jin Sui Army, which was entrenched in Xin County, invaded the territory of Lao County and had a great tendency to make a comeback. In view of the severity of the situation at that time, our party, the ** institutions stationed in Cui, and the defenders temporarily withdrew from Yuanping Town and Lai County on October 19 and 21 respectively. In late October, the 2nd, 8th, and 9th Brigades of our Jinsui Field Brigade were ordered to participate in the Jinzhong Campaign, and went south from Datong, passing through Laoxian County, where the defenders heard the news and abandoned the city and fled south on the night of October 30. On November 2, it was surrounded and annihilated by our army in Yuanping Town, killing and wounding more than 600 people and capturing 819 people, and the entire territory of Lao County was liberated. In less than a month, Lao County carried out two wars of liberation of comparable scale, which were enough to go down in history. Therefore, the chairman of the ** instructions said: "The experience of attacking the mountain is very good, and I hope to inform Zhang Yuan, Taihang and Chen Geng for reference." ”