Majestic into the tiger's den
The story of the way to meet the ** troops.
Wang Yuankai. In August 1940, when I was just 17 years old, I joined the Jingzhong Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Brigade at the home of Wu Zhangxian (who had already participated in anti-Japanese activities) in Bajiachong, first as an orderly in the Second Squadron, and then as a correspondent for Peng Youde. He joined the party in August 1941. In January 1942, I studied with Zhou Hongyuan, Zhou Depu, Xia Dakai and others at the tenth school of Kang University; In late April, he was transferred to the staff training team of the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army to do confidential work, translate wireless telegraphy, and later participate in the confidential training class, graduated in May 1943, and was assigned to the Confidential Section of the Second Division Headquarters as a confidential officer. Soon, the Confidential Section of the Division Division was transferred. In 1944, the Japanese invading army attacked Henan on a large scale, and the Kuomintang army retreated without a fight, and many cities fell into the hands of the enemy. The CCP instructed the Fifth Division to develop towards Henan, recover the lost territory, and complete the strategic task of the Central Plains. The Fifth Division decided to march behind enemy lines in Henan, formed the Southern Henan Guerrilla Corps, and appointed Huang Lin as the commander of the Corps Headquarters. In November 1944, the Henan Corps was changed to the Henan Advance Corps, with Huang Lin as the commander. Advancing behind enemy lines in central Henan and marching into Henan is a very important strategic decision for the Hubei-Henan border region. I had the privilege of participating in the work of the Confidential Section of the Advance Corps Headquarters. The Confidential Section is composed of three people, Xiao He is the section chief, we have worked together in the division headquarters, he is my unit chief; There is also a person named Xu Jinyuan, we are classmates in the machine training class, we are all from Jingshan, we are familiar with each other, and we are very happy. We have all listened to the report of the division commander and know the importance of marching into Henan, and I feel extremely proud and proud to be able to participate in this major strategic operation. In these difficult years, on the battlefield filled with gunpowder, there were too many things about birth and death, and some of them were slowly forgotten with the passage of time, but there is one thing that has not been forgotten to this day, and when I think about it now, it is still thrilling and exciting. One night in the early winter of 1944, the weather in central Henan was already very cold, one night it was snowing heavily, Xu Jinyuan and I covered a quilt, slept on a wooden bed, and covered the cotton jacket, and felt a little warm, but the snowflakes drifted in through the cracks in the tiles, and a thick layer fell on the quilt, burying us all. Before dawn, I suddenly heard someone running in from outside, hurriedly shouting to get up, there are 100,000 urgent things. We knew that the radio had sent the telegram, and immediately arched out of the snow, dressed haphazardly, and immediately translated the telegram. The small oil lamp could not be lit due to the strong wind. In a hurry, he found some firewood and grass in the villager's house and lit a fire, which could not only keep warm, but also use the light of the fire to translate the telegram. It was quickly translated and sent to Commander Comrade Huang Lin. He immediately convened an emergency meeting and conveyed the contents of the telegram to everyone: "Comrade Huang Lin, the ** Military Commission has instructed that the day of complete victory for the whole country is not far off. However, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to go down the mountain to snatch the fruits of victory, in order to expand the anti-Japanese base area and accumulate strength, ** and *** decided to lead the 359 Brigade of about 10,000 people to cross the Yellow River and go to the Central Plains to join the Fifth Division. Now order your department, rain or shine, day and night, go north to Nanzhao, Wuyang area, to meet **, there must be no mistake. **Zheng Weisan". When everyone heard this, they were excited and energetic, and they were eager to take action immediately to meet the brother troops. Commander Huang went on to say: This is a remarkable thing, because our Fifth Division has been fighting alone for a long time and has never made contact with other base areas and cooperated with each other. **Comrade is a tiger general, I have seen him on the Long March, the 359th Brigade is the main force to defend Yan'an, this time to the south to meet with the Fifth Division, has far-reaching significance. Division Commander Li and Political Commissar Zheng ordered us to go north to western Henan to meet Big Brother, and the task was arduous and glorious. First of all, the weather is now bitterly cold, with wind and snow, which seriously threatens us. Western Henan is a new area, the terrain is unfamiliar, the enemy situation is unknown, and the people do not know us well. Cadres at all levels must do a good job in ideological and political work in the troops, be fully ideologically prepared, understand and overcome difficulties, and resolutely accomplish their tasks. He pointed to the map and said that we had to reach the meeting place, which was 500 miles away, and it would take four days to arrive. On that day, the heavy snow did not stop, the wind did not stop, and the troops were like a long dragon, advancing towards western Henan in the vast sea of snow. The soldiers braved the severe cold of nearly 10 degrees below zero, wearing only a thin cotton jacket, a pair of single trousers, a pair of single cloth shoes, and some also wore straw sandals. There was a mule carrying a cannon, the snow was too slippery, suddenly stumbled, fell into a large snow pit, four feet to the sky, desperately struggling, could not get up, a dozen warriors jumped down the snow pit together, together to help it up, it loaded the cannon and continued to move forward. That year, there was a heavy snow in Henan, and the villagers said that it was not encountered in a hundred years, and later I heard that the Yellow River was frozen, and when the 359 brigade crossed the river, they all walked on the ice, and God helped a lot. After three days and three nights of rapid marching in the snow, our troops entered the area of the Shengqi Mountain in Suiping County, which stands on the plain of central Henan, the mountain is majestic and magnificent, and the scenery is very beautiful. After we settled down, we were boiling water to burn our feet, and suddenly Section Chief Xiao ran in and said, Commander Huang had just held an emergency meeting, and Guo Tianmin, chief of the reconnaissance section, reported that there were about 10,000 Kuomintang troops stationed in the north of us for more than 30 miles, which was like a tiger lying on the road we were on, blocking our way, and our task was to pick up the ** troops, and the east was the Pinghan Railway, which could not be taken, and the west was the Shengqi Mountain, which could not be taken. You can't fly in the sky, you can't drill underground, and the only way is to go forward and cross over the "tiger". How to cross it? In one battle, we captured an official defense seal of a Kuomintang army regiment stationed in Xi'an. As soon as he made a fuss about this official defense, he used its number to write an official letter to the Kuomintang troops blocking the road, to the effect that: "Commander, a month ago, on the orders of Commander Hu Zongnan, our regiment sent ammunition and military pay to Dabie Mountain, and has now completed its task. Tomorrow I will return to Xi'an through your defense area, please do not misunderstand. "The official letter was sent by the reconnaissance staff officer. At three or four o'clock in the morning that day, our troops began to march in the snow again, and their feet were on the ice, as if on the tip of a knife, slippery, and painful. Commander Huang walked to the front of the team and asked everyone in a loud voice, "Is it cold?" The echo of the sonic boom in the snowfield: "It's not cold." He went on to say, "It's false to be cold, it's cold under our feet, but our hearts are on fire." This is a special march for us, there is a tiger on our way forward, we are going, we are going into the tiger's den, not into the tiger's den, but not into the tiger's den, but to get the tiger's son. When we pretend to be enemies, we must pretend to be decent, we must not shrink our hands and feet, but we must be majestic. If the enemy doesn't find out, that's good, of course; If we are found out and use force against us, we must have a fearless spirit, not afraid of sacrifice, heroic and tenacious to fight a bloody road, break out of the encirclement, and complete the task. We are a communist army, and we must overwhelm all enemies and never be subjugated by them. We firmly believe that victory is ours. All commanders and fighters are required to observe discipline, obey orders, and obey orders in all actions. Did you hear that? They replied in unison, "I heard!" "The sound shook the earth. "Are you afraid? "Don't be afraid! "The mountains are roaring and the tsunami is blowing. The fourth regiment walked in front of the organs, and the guard battalion was the rearguard. Everyone showed a kind of heroic momentum of swaggering into the enemy camp and entering the tiger's den with a majestic style, sassy and heroic, high-spirited, knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, and preferring to go to the tiger mountain. Commander Huang had already made preparations, and today he wore a yellow tweed coat, a fur hat, and deep leather boots on his feet, and rode on the back of a Sino-Japanese horse, giving him the demeanor of a mighty and majestic general. The guard squad is followed by the guard squad, and our confidential section is behind the guard squad, and then there is the radio station. Two hours after the troops marched, the operational staff officer of the fourth regiment suddenly ran from the front, he went to Commander Huang, and reported that the advance guard troops of their regiment had passed through the enemy's first sentry. Commander Huang said, tell you regiment commanders, be vigilant, and move on. In less than half an hour, we were also near the enemy outpost. The sentry is a simple shack built with sorghum straw, which can only slightly block the wind and snow. We walked through a village and heard a few whistles, it was the enemy soldiers shouting to get up. The villages on the Henan Plain are very large, generally hundreds of households, and the large ones are thousands of households, which is larger than a small market town in the south. When I walked to another village, I saw the enemy training in the big field in full armor, and rifles, machine guns, and cannons were all set up on the field. Our troops passed by this **. We are at ease, and the enemy is as if nothing happened. It seems that the enemy does not have any suspicions about us. We were calm and calm on our faces, but nervous on our insides, ready to fight, loaded with bullets and on the verge of fire. At this time, the snow was clear, the red sun was in the sky, the ice and snow were melting, the road was muddy, and the march slowed down significantly. How long will it take to get out of the enemy's defenses? We were a little anxious. But at this moment, an unexpected episode occurred, which is really a story within a story. Commander Huang was riding on horseback and walking in the middle of the procession, looking at the six roads and listening in all directions, when he suddenly noticed an enemy soldier staggering from the wheat field on the side of our marching road, in the opposite direction from which we were marching. Commander Huang wanted to find out something about the enemy, so he asked him which part he was from? The enemy soldier was only walking, and probably did not hear, so he did not answer. Commander Huang became angry for a while, jumped off his horse, and ordered the guards around him to untie the belt around him, and pull it away according to the enemy's head, smoke, and scold Mom, that other ....... The enemy soldier stood there inexplicably, next to the belt, dizzy, and did not dare to move, nor did he dare to speak. At this time, many enemy soldiers who came also stopped to watch the excitement. Commander Huang's guards took the opportunity to teach him, and when the commander asked you, why didn't you answer, how did your commander educate you? Are you so rude when you see your sir? After Commander Huang beat him, he changed to a gentle tone and asked which part are you? The enemy soldiers replied that it was from the General Headquarters. What do you do? The enemy soldier replied, the platoon deputy of the special service company. Commander Huang pointed at his nose and taught him a lesson, you are still a platoon deputy, how can you educate your subordinates? Where is your headquarters located? The enemy soldier pointed to a large village to the west with his right hand, and said that it was the Zhuangzi. Commander Huang said to a group of enemy soldiers, you go back and tell your commander that there are still our troops behind, so don't misunderstand. The enemy soldier hurriedly replied yes and gave a military salute to Commander Huang. Commander Huang mounted his horse, lifted the reins, and with a roar, galloped forward. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the troops entered the Wuyang and Yexian areas. Passing through the enemy camp, breaking into the tiger's den, marching in the snow for nine hours a day, the spirit is highly concentrated, hungry and thirsty, and it is indeed very tired. It's time to eat a meal and get some sleep. At this time, the sun was setting, and the surrounding villages were smoking, and our troops began to cook. This is a new area, our army has never been here, in order to continue to keep secrets, we are the New Fourth Army for the time being, and we are still called the "** Army". But the crowd was also watching us, and some of them gathered together in twos and threes, bowing their heads and whispering. There was a big bare tree in front of the house where we lived. We were about to burn our feet, Commander Huang smoked a freshly lit cigarette and walked towards us, his face was full of light-heartedness, we stood up politely, and seeing that he was happy, we asked him: "Why did you whip that platoon deputy with a belt?" He said: "If we pretend to be enemies, we must pretend to be like." Within the Kuomintang army is the relationship between class oppression and oppression, the official is the master, and the soldier is the slave, and can be beaten and scolded by the master at will. I did this to paralyze the enemy, and I wanted to learn something from the enemy's soldier. As he was talking, the chief of the intelligence section ran to say that the fellow was suspicious of us, and I heard the old man say: "They are not like the ** army, in the past, the ** army came, and they came at will, and the chickens flew and the dogs jumped." These soldiers are more civilized, a bit like the 'Vermilion' team. I was afraid that it would be exposed, so I asked rhetorically, when have you ever seen the 'Vermilion Hair' team? Several old men were frightened again, and even said that they had never seen the team of 'Vermilion Mao'. I said, if there is a team of 'Vermilion', you should report it quickly. The old men said, yes, yes. Commander Huang smiled and said, if it is exposed, it will be exposed, we have already passed through the enemy area, and we can disclose that we are the team of "Vermilion Mao" tomorrow. After five days and five nights of rapid marching, a journey of 500 miles, arrived at the predetermined place to inquire, the ** troops were also a rapid march, did not wait for us to arrive at the place of greeting, they set off from Yan'an, crossed the Yellow River twice, crossed the Longhai Road in the south, passed through Lushan, Yexian, Fangcheng, Wuyang and other enemy-occupied areas, broke through the Japanese army's layers of blockade and the continuous resistance of the recalcitrant army, and victoriously arrived in central and southern Henan. We telegraphed to the divisional headquarters, and the divisional headquarters ordered us to move south quickly. On January 13, 1945, we arrived in the area of Huaishu Town, southwest of Wugong Town, and made contact with the southbound detachment that had advanced to the line of Xuezhuang in Miyang. Subsequently, the southbound detachment arrived at Gushan Chong in Queshan and joined the headquarters of the Henan Advance Corps. The other unit of the Advance Corps returned to the Suiping and Xiping areas, established anti-Japanese base areas, organized anti-Japanese struggles, and began the work of mobilizing the masses to carry out a vigorous anti-Japanese struggle.