In the early morning of October 20, 1942, in the morning fog, several large cars slowly drove on the wide highway, which were full of Japanese puppet soldiers. Also in one of the cars was a tightly tied and bloodied man, Liu Zhijian, who had been arrested a few days ago and was now being taken to Zaoqiang.
At that time, the person in charge of escorting Liu Zhijian was the Japanese squadron leader Nomura Nagachi, who obviously felt that Liu Zhijian was a senior official, but he couldn't figure out the specific identity of the other party. Therefore, this time he personally brought more than 60 Japanese soldiers and Japanese puppet soldiers to escort, but because he was afraid of being robbed of the credit by others, he did not notify the Japanese army to come over to respond.
It's just that Nomura Nagachi didn't expect that because of his decision, he missed a "great opportunity" to "make contributions".
The car drove slowly, looking at the captives in the carriage, Nomura Nagachi began to fantasize that after he sent Liu Zhijian to Zaoqiang, he was appreciated by his superiors and promoted, but as soon as the dream was halfway done, there was a sudden sound of fighting outside the car, and the car also followed and stopped on the side of the road with a sharp turn.
There is an enemy attack! Someone outside suddenly shouted.
Nomura Nagachi subconsciously held down the gun, poked his head out to take a look, and found that more than a dozen firewood farmers came out of nowhere, inserted bundles of firewood on the road, blocked the car, and then knocked their entourage to the ground.
With a few gunshots of "bang", the Japanese soldiers in the probe were killed, and in an instant there were gunfire on the left and right flanks of the road, and some Japanese puppet soldiers ran away long ago when they saw that the comers were not good, leaving only more than 30 Japanese soldiers to resist there.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Nomura Nagachi ran away, he thought of Zaoqiang to move the rescuers, but before he could run far, he was beaten down from behind. In the face of the fierce firepower network attack of the Eighth Route Army, this group of Japanese puppet soldiers hurriedly hid in the earthen ditch next to them, busy with self-protection, and had no time to take care of Liu Zhijian, who was escorted.
Suddenly, a big man "firewood farmer" found Liu Zhijian, who was covered in blood, and the injuries on his body were already very serious, especially the injuries on his legs.
It turned out that a few days ago, Liu Zhijian was caught by the Japanese because he was shot in the leg and fell off his horse. During his detention, in order to extract information related to the Eighth Route Army from his mouth, the Japanese army was tortured every day, coupled with the lack of medicine**, the wound worsened, and white bones were faintly visible in many places, which looked very hideous.
Come and help, get Director Liu on my back! Looking at Liu Zhijian's injuries, the big man "firewood farmer" hurriedly beckoned, carried the person on his back and ran quickly.
Seeing the successful completion of the rescue mission, Chu Daming, the deputy regiment commander who commanded the ambush battle, also had no intention of falling in love with the battle, and ordered the troops to retreat quickly. This battle was fought cleanly, in addition to rescuing Liu Zhijian, more than 10 Japanese soldiers were killed and wounded.
By the time Nomura Nagachi heard that there was no movement on the road and climbed up from the ditch, the Eighth Route Army, which was menacing just now, was long gone. Faced with the mess all over the ground, Nomura Changzhi couldn't help but murmur, this Liu Zhijian is really not simple.
So, what is Liu Zhijian's identity? After being wounded and captured by the Japanese army, why did the Eighth Route Army mobilize troops to storm the enemy's stronghold and "snatch" Liu Zhijian back?
On the left is Liu Zhijian.
This Red Army soldier who was captured by the Japanese army and "robbed" back by the Eighth Route Army was none other than Liu Zhijian, the famous leader of the Eighth Route Army in the Southern Hebei Plain during the Anti-Japanese War.
On January 23, 1912, Liu Zhijian was born in Pingjiang County, Hunan, because his family was poor, he followed adults to the mountains to cut firewood and go to the fields to graze cattle after graduating from primary school.
In March 1928, the enthusiastic Liu Zhijian followed the Pingjiang peasant army to attack the county seat, and in October of the following year, he became the chairman of the Red Labor Committee and a member of the propaganda committee of Changshou Street, and expanded the ranks of the peasant army by virtue of friendly exchanges with the people.
Later, Liu Zhijian joined the Red Army, in the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, he fought fiercely with the enemy, his right leg was unfortunately shot and wounded, in order to ensure the safe evacuation of the large army, until the end of the war, completely got rid of the enemy's attack, he remembered to go**, but at this time the injury on his leg was very serious, ** was not timely enough, his right leg was lame, and he walked a little unbalanced.
But this did not affect Liu Zhijian's participation in the Red Army's Long March in 1934, as well as the Anti-Japanese War to go to the front line and organize people to fight against the Japanese army. Even in 1938, when the Japanese puppet army was at its most active, he was able to mobilize the power of the masses and use the letters of the relatives of the puppet army to turn the original Japanese puppet regime into a secret anti-Japanese regime and disintegrate the enemy from within.
In mid-October 1942, as the Japanese army wantonly invested troops in the southern Hebei region to search the Japanese base, the Eighth Route Army was faced with the two major problems of "holding on" and "evacuating", and finally after discussion, the district party committee decided to hold its position, and sent Liu Zhijian, then director of the political department of the military region, and Zhang Ce, director of the organization department of the district party committee, to the sixth division of the Eighth Route Army south of Zaoqiang to convey orders.
Some leaders of the Party Committee of South Hebei District took a group photo, and the first from the left in the front row was Liu Zhijian.
After coming to the headquarters of the Sixth Division, Yi Liangpin, commander of the Sixth Division, reported on the latest situation, and it was this situation that led to Liu Zhijian's arrest.
In the evening, as soon as Liu Zhijian got off the horse, he hurriedly found Yi Liangpin and conveyed the order of the district party committee to "hold the position".
Yi Liangpin sighed and said, "This is a bit difficult. Two days ago, our 21st Regiment won an ambush, wiped out a platoon of the Japanese army, not to mention, and collected a lot of **, suffered such a big loss, the Japanese devils will definitely not give up, and the next few days I am afraid that the Sixth Division will not be peaceful. ”
Liu Zhijian then asked: "Has the zoning organ been smoothly transferred now?" While the Japanese devils haven't moved, hurry up and move to a safe place. ”
After knowing that the sub-district organs were already evacuating, Liu Zhijian didn't care about resting, and rushed to Zaoqiang Master's Village overnight to prepare for the next tough battle.
I thought that this was a foolproof action, but Liu Zhijian and others never expected that their activities had been predicted by the enemy in advance, and in order to capture these important figures of the Eighth Route Army, the enemy mobilized a large number of troops near the village.
At that time, the incident happened suddenly, and after Liu Zhijian realized that he had accidentally penetrated into the enemy's encirclement, he hurriedly ordered the police detachment to cover the cadres to break through to the outside of the village, while he himself flew on his horse and rushed into the enemy group with a machete, fighting with the enemy and fighting for the troops.
Because of the perennial killing of the enemy outside, Liu Zhijian's horse can be regarded as experienced in a hundred battles, seeing the fierce Japanese puppet army not only not afraid, but very excited, after Liu Zhijian came up, it neighed, and then ran to the outside of the village.
The partner of this horse was very conspicuous in the crowd, and soon the Japanese puppet army noticed Liu Zhijian's side and began to move closer to him, trying to tear him off the horse, but Liu Zhijian was condescending and cut down many people and rushed out of the encirclement.
In order to prevent him from escaping, the two Japanese aimed their heavy machine guns at Liu Zhijian's back and began to shoot wildly.
With the close gunfire and the constantly flying dust, the men and horses were shot at the same time, and Liu Zhijian was broken in his right thigh bone, and the sharp pain made his eyes black and he almost fainted.
But the horse did not have such patience, and when it was attacked, it jerked its upper body up and threw the man to the ground.
After falling off the horse, Liu Zhijian quickly searched his whole body, and most found a draft of the enemy's offensive instructions containing important information, he didn't have time to think about it, he quickly tore the manuscript paper to shreds, stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed it. In order not to leave any identification materials for the enemy, he dug a shallow pit with his bare hands and buried his wife and children** and his pocket watch that he had been carrying with him.
After doing this, Liu Zhijian endured the severe pain and slowly moved, and stopped in a dirt ditch. At this time, the enemy also surrounded him, and he calmly picked up a pistol and pointed it at his temple and prepared to commit suicide, but he ran into a bullet jam and committed suicide unsuccessfully.
Seeing this, the enemy hurriedly pounced, crushed him to death, and then brought him back to the camp stronghold.
As mentioned earlier, Liu Zhijian has a very strong ability to persuade people, not only to make some Chinese people who defected to the Japanese army change their minds, but also to take advantage of the situation to plant eyeliner in the Japanese army camp, so as to obtain an important plan of action for the Japanese army.
When Liu Zhijian was carried away, a Japanese puppet soldier took advantage of people's inattention and secretly hid one of his shoes, and then handed it over to the underground workers in the village to send them to the Sixth Division Office.
Soon, the district commander Yi Liangpin received this black cotton shoe, and after repeatedly confirming that it was Liu Zhijian's shoe, he was very excited and hurriedly reported the news that Liu Zhijian was still alive.
The news quickly spread to Commander-in-Chief Zhu and Deputy Commander, who immediately issued an order to the 129th Division to immediately organize a rescue, and later the division commander and political commissar also gave a death order to the Southern Hebei Military Region, demanding that no matter what method is used, people must be "snatched" back!
In this way, a battle to regain Liu Zhijian was quietly brewing.
During that period in the Japanese stronghold, Liu Zhijian's injuries were often **, and he would have a high fever all the time when he was most serious, and the whole person was delirious.
But every time he was faced with the enemy's words and deeds to extract confessions, Liu Zhijian was always loyal and unyielding, shouting: "I am the Eighth Route Army, and I am specially fighting you Japanese devils!" I'm not going to tell you anything! ”。
Every time I asked him, every time he said that in the end, the enemy couldn't bear it anymore and poured cold water directly on him, but Liu Zhijian did not give in. At this time, the inner line in the enemy camp was also instructed by the Eighth Route Army to find herbs for Liu Zhijian and let him slowly recover his senses.
Seeing that Liu Zhijian couldn't say anything, the Japanese wanted to start with the people and some people who had been in the Eighth Route Army, trying to know Liu Zhijian's true identity.
But what they don't know is that Liu Zhijian's wife is a local, and she has a very good relationship with Shili and Eight Villages, and as soon as they heard that Liu Zhijian was arrested, these ordinary people and the Japanese puppet army not only hid Liu Zhijian's identity to the death, but also fabricated a fake identity for them.
In the plan to rescue Liu Zhijian, in addition to the inner line planted by the Eighth Route Army, some Japanese puppet soldiers and ordinary people also provided a lot of information to understand the activities of the Japanese army clearly, including the exact time and number of escorts for the Japanese army to escort Liu Zhijian to Zaoqiang.
Liu Zhijian and his wife.
After learning the information, Chen Zaidao, commander of the Southern Hebei Military Region, and Song Renqiang, political commissar, immediately began to deploy a rescue plan, and they dispatched three main regiments on the road from Daying to Zaoqiang.
In order to ensure the success of the rescue, the road of more than 30 miles was divided into six blockade lines, among which Chu Daming and Ji Zhiming, the deputy regiment commanders who rescued Liu Zhijian, were from the 20th Regiment of the 7th Brigade of the Sixth Division, and were responsible for the first blockade line.
After receiving the rescue plan, Chu Daming immediately summoned the soldiers of his company, and he said in a loud voice that the rescue plan was not only an order from Commander-in-Chief Zhu and Deputy Commander Peng, but also a task given by Division Commander Liu and Political Commissar Deng, as well as a task assigned by Commander Chen and General Political Commissar of the Southern Hebei Military Region.
It is our honor to complete such an arduous and glorious task, in order to save Director Liu, we can only win this battle, not lose! ”
At that time, Daying and Zaoqiang had already been controlled by the enemy, and although six lines of defense were set up for buffering and rescue, they were after all on the enemy's "territory".
If they were entangled with the Japanese troops escorting Liu Zhijian for too long, and did not snatch them back until the enemy's support arrived, then not only the rescue plan would be in vain, but even the main forces of the three regiments would be in trouble.
Therefore, this battle must not only be fierce and catch the enemy by surprise, but also be fast, not giving the Japanese army a chance to react and support.
So when he was in charge of the first line of defense, Chu Daming made a clear division of labor, the 4th company was responsible for the rescue, and the 6th company was responsible for the attack, attracting Japanese firepower and cutting off the Japanese pseudo-contact to ensure that the 4th company successfully completed the rescue mission. Among them, Ji Zhiming, who carried Liu Zhijian out of the car, was the squad leader of the 4th Company and 4th squad.
After assigning the task, in the early morning of October 20, everyone set up an ambush in a pre-set place, among which more than a dozen soldiers disguised themselves as firewood farmers.
The ambush was a field of sweet potatoes, which grew as tall as 30 centimeters, and was spread on the ground one by one, and the soldiers braided the sweet potato stalks together and wrapped them around their bodies, and as soon as they lay on the ground, they disappeared immediately.
In order to prevent a sneak attack by the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese army did not allow too tall plants near the road, and some crops such as corn and sorghum were directly cut down. They thought it would be safe, but they didn't know that sweet potato fields could be the best place to hide.
When the Japanese army drove to the ambush area, Chu Daming disguised himself as a "firewood farmer" and took the lead in standing up and shouting: "The puppet army surrenders and does not kill, and specializes in fighting Japanese devils!" ”
After speaking, Chu Daming had already rushed to the front, and with a machete, he cut down the Japanese soldiers who wanted to resist to the ground. The troops of the Eighth Route Army, which had been ambushed there in advance, also immediately lashed out at the enemy, and the sound of killing shook the sky. Nomura's war horse was the first to be shot, and a neighing knocked Nomura to the ground, and the Japanese army was immediately disorganized, and was crushed in the ditches on both sides of the road.
At that time, the Japanese soldiers and the Japanese puppet army were dressed differently, so the Eighth Route Army did not take any care and quickly rescued Liu Zhijian. In the whole battle, the Eighth Route Army not only did not have a single person, but also killed and wounded more than ten Japanese soldiers, which led to the scene that appeared at the beginning.
He had been carrying Liu Zhijian for more than 1 mile, and the big platoon leader Ji Zhiming put the person down and put him on the stretcher that he had been waiting for a long time, and then the rescuers carried him all the way until he saw his own people in the safety zone, and then stopped.
When Nomura Nagachi reacted, there was no longer a single figure in sight, and the Japanese army began to search within a radius of several miles, only to find those sweet potato stalks and sweet potato leaves that were used as cover, as for the people, they had already returned to the anti-Japanese base area.
Afterwards, when the Japanese army learned that Liu Zhijian, who was rescued by the Eighth Route Army, was the director of the Political Department of the Southern Hebei Military Region, they exclaimed: "Fooled, fooled, the Eighth Route Army is really out of nowhere." ”
The news of Liu Zhijian's rescue was quickly reported by the military region to the headquarters of the 129th Division, and the division headquarters immediately reported it.
Liu Zhijian, who was rescued, began to heal slowly, but his right leg was slightly unbalanced because of the bullet earlier, and this time he was swept by the enemy's machine gun, and he didn't go through a good ** for a long time, so the situation at the foot of the slope is more serious, although he can save a leg, but he has to be raised slowly.
**。On April 14, 1943, in order to let him get a better rest, the organization specially sent Liu Zhijian to the headquarters of the 129th Division in Taihang Mountain, when he happened to pass by Matian, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, where *** was located.
finally saw Liu Zhijian, ** said that he would not let him go, and insisted that he stay with him for one night,** said: "When you were rescued, I didn't have time to see you, and now that people are finally here, you have to get together with me." ”
Then, ** directly asked people to carry his stretcher to his bedroom, and also took out the potatoes he grew and the kimchi and tofu he made.
While holding the dishes for Liu Zhijian, he said: "I am reluctant to eat these dishes, you are here today, just to taste them, now the war is tense, although there are not many delicious foods, but being able to eat potatoes and kimchi is much better than chewing wild vegetables before." ”
Because he is also a person who came from the Long March, Liu Zhijian has also experienced those hard days, so when he saw these things on the table, he was very moved: "I picked up a life!" When I am healed, I will fight side by side with you, so that the people and soldiers can eat every day as soon as possible. ”
Later, Liu Zhijian also practiced this as he said.
On October 25, 1945, Liu Zhijian was appointed deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department of the Southern Hebei Military Region, and according to the instructions of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, on September 1, 1947, the 10th Column was organized and established in Chenjiazhai, east of Anyang.
The commander of the 10th Column was Wang Hongkun, and the political commissar was Liu Zhijian; in order to prepare for the war in the south, Liu Zhijian organized and carried out an educational campaign to remember the bittersweet memories throughout the column, which not only enabled the soldiers to quickly adapt to the war, but also stimulated their revolutionary enthusiasm.
From class to work, to fighting spirit, the whole army has been transformed, and the soldiers are all very spiritual.
Liu Zhijian's first "bittersweet recollection" and "three investigations" campaign, after the first observation and research, in the August 15, 1948 report to **, he said that the city corps launched the "bittersweet recollection" and "three checks" movement, not only greatly improved its own political and military quality, but also provided the whole army with valuable fresh experience.
Later, Marshal **, one of the ten major marshals of the People's Republic of China, also specially used Liu Zhijian's method to rectify the army, and achieved very good results. For this reason, at a meeting of cadres at and above the company level of the Huaye Army, he also specially asked Liu Zhijian to speak and share this experience with everyone.
In addition to accurately stimulating the fighting spirit of the soldiers, Liu Zhijian's talent in fighting is also very outstanding. At the end of 1947, he led the army to Tongbai County on the border of Hubei and Henan, served as the political commissar of the Tongbai Military Region, opened up the Tongbai Liberated Area with Commander Wang Hongkun, and cooperated with the main force to deal with the enemy.
Liu Zhijian and his team first took Tongbai County as the center, and took back the surrounding county towns occupied by the enemy one by one, starting with Tongbai, they first attacked Zaoyang, and then followed by Xinye, Yingshan, Miyang, and Tanghe, and it took only 8 days to recover all five county seats.
Later, the enemy found that his defeat was decided, and the army was discouraged. Liu Zhijian's troops were only slightly reorganized, and they successively bagged Nanyang, Xiangyang, Laohekou and other cities with important military roles, and launched the Dengxian Campaign.
At that time, Deng County was a military stronghold connecting Nanyang and Xiangyang, not only with a very deep moat, but also with very strong fortifications as a defense.
The troops led by Liu Zhijian approached here on January 9, 1948, and after three days of confrontation with the enemy, they blew up the sluice gate northeast of the moat on the 12th, opened the passage, and launched a fierce offensive on the evening of the 14th and the early morning of the 16th, destroying about 7,000 enemies and finally taking Deng County. So far, it can be regarded as a complete completion of the task of the Tongbai Liberated Area.
At the beginning of 1949, after a long tug-of-war, the forces of the enemy and us began to subvert each other, and as the PLA advanced all the way, the morale of the enemy army became more and more depressed, and slowly shifted to the south.
In order to strengthen the policy and discipline education of the troops in the new area, ** found Liu Zhijian and asked him to serve as the deputy political commissar of the Fourth Corps, and prepare for the next battle of crossing the river with Chen Geng, and Liu Zhijian also lived up to expectations, successfully helped the northern soldiers overcome the "fear of water" mentality, and created a very good preparation for the troops to go all the way south.
Liu Zhijian and his wife.
Just when Liu Zhijian and his soldiers were in full swing to open up the liberated areas, ** transferred him back to Beijing in November.
In Beijing, Liu Zhijian, on the basis of investigation and understanding, decided to launch a campaign of cultural study and education in view of the fact that the cadres in the ranks had a low level of education because of the long period of revolutionary warfare. This idea aroused the support of everyone and the Central Military Commission, and as a result, under the guidance of Liu Zhijian, a number of cultural accelerated middle schools were established, providing opportunities for the vast number of cadres and fighters to study, thus improving the cultural quality of the cadres and fighters of the troops.
Later, in September 1955, at the ceremony of the first award and decoration of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Liu Zhijian was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. At that time, the east hall of Zhongnanhai Huairen Hall will be star-studded. **The chairman walked up to Liu Zhijian, bowed down to hold his hand, patted him on the shoulder, and said kindly and humorously: "You are the lame Liu who robbed the law field and snatched it back, it's really amazing!" ”
Hearing *** say this, Liu Zhijian was a little embarrassed at first, and he saluted a standard military salute under nervousness, and couldn't say a word for a long time, after all, there are not many people who can get *** recognition, and he is very lucky to be one of them.
Liu Jianzhi, second from the right in the second row.
Later, Liu Zhijian served as deputy director of the Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, responsible for military education, propaganda, and youth work. Not only that, but he also went down to the grassroots many times to sort out some advanced models and publicize them. Just like Lei Feng and the hard-headed Sixth Company, individuals and units that are not only advanced but also very typical, are all models that have been investigated and sorted out by him, spread in the army, and then studied throughout the country.
In fact, not only education, Liu Zhijian is also very active in promoting culture, in addition to maintaining the combat effectiveness of the fighters, so that they can stay active at all times, and not forgetting to enrich the amateur hobbies of the soldiers. Under his promotion, China's military literacy and amateur culture have been developed in a relatively comprehensive way, and he is also one of the few generals who has developed this kind of "moisturizing things silently" education to the whole army.
On March 11, 2006, General Liu Zhijian died of illness in Beijing at the age of 95.