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Time, February 21, 1938, location, in the area of Chuankou Village in southwest Shanxi, the 343rd Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army was all fighting fiercely with the Japanese army, but the world knows that the firepower of the enemy and us is not at the same level at all, and it is only a matter of time before the defeat is met head-on.
Hearing this, the soldiers were all stunned, but they could only do it because of the military order, but who knows, this move is really effective, and it really helped them finally get out of danger!
So what's going on here? Who is this battalion commander, and how did his strange orders help our army turn the tide of the war?
The Japanese army attacked
Let's talk about the answer first, the battalion commander who created a legend by relying on "whimsy" is the famous founding major general Wang Yaonan, as for why he wanted to snatch the body of the Japanese invaders back to the mountain, of course, the inside story of this matter is a long story, if you want to sort it out, then we still need to start from the spring of 1938, the Japanese attack on our army.
In the spring of 1938, just after the New Year, the Japanese army in North China could not wait to launch a full-scale offensive against the armed forces in the southwest of Shanxi Province.
In the face of this situation, in order to frustrate the enemy's spirit and to defend our territory in China, the commander of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army at the time issued an order to block the operation, ordering the 343 Brigade stationed along the Zhengtai Railway to advance at full speed to Lingshi and Xiaoyi.
Upon hearing the news, Chen Guang, commander of the 343rd Brigade, did not dare to delay, and immediately sent an engineer battalion directly under the division to investigate the area, and the commander and fighter of this unit was not on the side, it was Wang Yaonan.
On February 21 of that year, Wang Yaonan fulfilled his mission and had completed the survey of the area around the Purple Mountain in Luliang, and after the end, he was planning to lead the team back to the division headquarters, but he had just arrived at Chuankou Village, and several soldiers of the division reconnaissance company came in front of him, only to see a few people who were very anxious, and when he even put forward the hope that Wang Yaonan could withdraw from other directions, the reason was very easy, because about 1,500 Japanese troops were gathering in the direction of Chuankou Village, and they were about to approach.
Normally speaking, with the duties and combat effectiveness of the engineer battalion, the best way to face an enemy attack is to avoid its edge, but what is surprising is that Wang Yaonan not only did not listen to the kind words and persuasions of the soldiers of the reconnaissance company, but instead stood in place and fell into hesitation.
What was he hesitating about? It turned out that just a few minutes ago, he had just learned the news that the 343 Brigade was moving faster, and it was very likely that it had arrived at Kawaguchi Village, and the route of the 686 Regiment behind was the same, and the destination was also here.
Wang Yaonan was thinking, but before he could make up his mind, a gunshot rang out first behind him, good guy, the 686 regiment had already exchanged fire with the enemy, and he couldn't think about it anymore, so he gave an order in the next second, asking the soldiers of the engineer battalion to dig fortifications on the spot and wait for the front and rear troops to meet to block the Japanese army!
Sure enough, as Wang Yaonan expected, after a while, the 686 regiment withdrew, and the regiment commander Li Tianyou was also startled when he saw the engineer battalion here, and hurriedly asked Wang Yaonan why he didn't withdraw, or it wasn't until he heard about his plan that Li Tianyou suddenly realized, and praised Wang Yaonan again and again for being a "ghost clever".
In this way, Li and Wang instantly thought of a piece, their actions did not drag the mud and water, in just a few minutes to occupy all the nearby commanding heights, plus the fortifications dug in advance, a small hill is already impregnable, just waiting for the enemy to attack!
Not only that, just before the battle officially began, the brigade commander Chen Guang also led his troops to the bottom of the mountain, the hero saw the same thing, heard the report, he also agreed with Wang Yaonan's plan very much, and he also improved it, and sent the special service company, the garrison company and the 685 regiment led by Yang Dezhi to the river beach position at the bottom of the mountain, hoping that the two positions could form a horn and jointly clamp down on the Japanese army!
I have to say that if you follow this plan, it is absolutely not a problem to take the 1500 Japanese troops on the opposite side, but unfortunately, the ideal is plump but the reality is skinny, so that several people never expected that this Japanese army actually carried heavy firepower, and in just half an hour, Yang Dezhi's troops in the river beach position were ** miserable.
Seeing this, Li Tianyou, the commander of the 686 Regiment, was anxious at that time, and he was worried about the safety of his brother, and he immediately rushed forward to support the 685 Regiment, but what was surprising was that at this critical juncture, Wang Yaonan actually grabbed him and stubbornly asked him to continue to expand the fortifications on the top of the mountain!
Anticipate the enemy and snatch the corpse
In the spring of 1938, in order to purge the anti-Japanese forces in the southwest of Shanxi, the Japanese invaders launched a brutal and inhumane sweeping operation against the local area, but fortunately, the soldiers of our Eighth Route Army were not muddy, and they counterattacked it at the first time. So what's going on here?
It turned out that it was not that Wang Yaonan would not save him when he saw death, it was completely because this wise general had already expected the enemy first, and he had already calculated that there would be a big battle on the river beach position, so before the 686 regiment arrived, he ordered his engineers to install a large number of mines under the river beach position, that is, the devil's must pass.
Hearing this, Li Tianyou was immediately stunned, the reason is very easy, you know, from the sound of the gunfire to the meeting of the two, it has only been more than half an hour in between, how is it possible to create a minefield in such a short time?
Fortunately, at this time, the brigade commander Chen Guang on the side explained the inside story, according to him, the mine-laying work has always been Wang Yaonan's unique job, he was born in a firecracker family, he has mastered the gunpowder technology since he was a child, and then in the process of being a miner, he learned the blasting technology, and this is the reason why he became the deputy captain of the demolition team as soon as he joined the army.
Later, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Wang Yaonan's skills became more and more sophisticated, especially in terms of mine-laying, he was even faster and more stable, in view of such a specialty, the organization quickly promoted him to the commander of the engineer battalion, do you say he has this ability?
It is true that a few people on this side are talking and laughing, but the little devils on the other side have suffered, accompanied by a series of **, they were originally full of confidence and were instantly bombed by the people on their backs, due to the unclear number of thunder, the Japanese officers had to give an order to temporarily retreat, and when they sent sappers to clear the obstacles, the 686 regiment's positional defense line had already been consolidated, and the offensive could only be declared a failure.
In this way, with the failure of several surprise attacks, the Japanese army could only transfer the target with hatred, and the target of attack was shifted from the 685th Regiment on the river beach to the 686th Regiment and the engineer battalion on the hillside, as for why the reason is not difficult to understand, after all, from the perspective of the Japanese army, the number of people in the hillside position is not much, at best only two or three hundred, which is not much easier to fight than the river beach?
But in fact, the number of our troops on the hillside position is not only quite large, but more than on the river beach, and it is only because the fortifications of the engineer battalion are too perfect that they help the troops hide their figures, so they are dumbfounded in an instant after the Japanese army launches an attack, good guy, how can this firepower be more fierce than before? Could it be that the Eighth Route Army is equipped with heavy firepower?
The attack from the bottom to the top was not smooth, and there were river beach positions on the way to attack and harass, in just one hour, the Japanese army lost nearly 100 devils, but unfortunately, such a loss not only did not frighten them, but aroused their fighting spirit, in order to be ashamed, more than 1,000 Japanese troops regrouped, and used heavy artillery to charge the mountain again, and this time, with the shortage of ammunition of our army, the enemy army really achieved an advantage, and soon stabilized the troops in the middle of the mountain, and saw that they were about to rush to the top of the mountain.
Seeing this situation, the generals of our army were anxious, especially the Yang Dezhi department under the mountain, and they were all gearing up to go up the mountain to rescue the brigade commander and comrades-in-arms, and Li Tianyou and Chen Guang on the mountain were also very anxious, and in the face of the death situation in front of them, the two also looked at Wang Yaonan together, hoping that this "think tank" could give some suggestions.
But what they never expected was that in this regard, they saw Wang Yaonan smile indifferently, and then issued that strange order, that is, to order the soldiers of the engineer battalion to go halfway up the mountain to snatch the corpses of the Japanese soldiers, and be sure to bring them back to the top of the mountain!
Hearing this, everyone at the scene was stunned, no one knew what Wang Yaonan was going to do, and seeing the state of the big guy, Wang Yaonan was finally anxious, only to see him stretch out his hand and point to the herald, and then yelled:
Don't go yet! ”
As soon as he heard this, the herald hurriedly sent the order to the front line, and a tense and exciting battle for corpses started in an instant, so what was the purpose of Wang Yaonan's move?
Turn the tide of battle with corpses!
In a blocking battle, relying on the enemy first, Wang Yaonan, who was the commander of the engineer battalion at that time, had already exerted his skills to the extreme, disrupted a beach-grabbing offensive of the Japanese army, and defeated the enemy's several attacks on the mountain, but unfortunately, in view of the firepower gap between the two sides, after all, they still hit the halfway up the mountain, and at such a critical juncture, he actually ignored the surprised eyes of his superiors and issued an order to snatch the corpse of the Japanese criminal, so what is the purpose of this move?
No one knew about this at first, but it wasn't until the soldiers rushed down the mountain and risked their lives to move the body of the devil back to the mountain that everyone understood, good guy, Wang Yaonan killed three birds with one stone!
The reason is very easy, first of all, the reason why our army is gradually unable to stop the Japanese offensive is because of the lack of ammunition, and each devil has exactly 120 rounds of ammunition reserves, snatching the corpse is snatching ammunition, with sufficient ammunition, we have the capital to continue fighting!
Secondly, you must know that at this time, it was the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan, most of the Japanese soldiers were veterans, they all had extremely high fighting qualities, and they also had good feelings for their comrades-in-arms, even if the other party had been reduced to a corpse, those who dared to shoot were also a minority, so this move could also effectively slow down the Japanese offensive.
In the end, Wang Yaonan didn't expect this at first, just after the 686 regiment repelled several enemy attacks and captured a large amount of ** ammunition, it didn't take long for the Japanese army to stop the offensive, and it was the same until the evening.
What is this for? After a closer look, Yang Dezhi discovered the clue, it turned out that these Japanese soldiers actually carried a lot of wounded, captured and sacrificed soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, and after the communication of the translator, the purpose of the devils was also obvious, it turned out that they wanted to exchange the wounded soldiers for the corpses of their comrades who were snatched by our army!
To change or not to change? This is a difficult problem, but in the end, from the perspective of human nature, Brigadier Chen Guang still chose to agree, he made a suggestion to the Japanese army, that is, the two sides each sent dozens of people to meet in the position, and then exchanged the remains of their comrades-in-arms in each other's hands, in this regard, the Japanese army naturally had no reason to refuse, and an exchange action that had never been seen before and after the people was also quickly launched and ended quickly, not only that, in this process, Wang Yaonan also came up with a clever plan again, that is, "hiding from the sky and crossing the sea"!
His plan was to take advantage of the fact that the Japanese army attached great importance to the remains of his comrades-in-arms and quietly move the wounded of our troops to safety, so he first ordered the engineer battalion to dismantle all the shovels, then made improvised stretchers out of wooden sticks, and finally draped the wounded with white cloth and sent them out with a swagger.
As Wang Yaonan expected, the enemy was really fooled, they thought that this was the remaining corpse of the Japanese soldiers in the hands of our army, not only did they not shoot, but also carefully moved out of the way, and even more, after seeing the calm expressions on the faces of our soldiers, their hearts were even more upset to retreat, plus considering that they were in the base area of the Eighth Route Army, because they were worried that we would send troops to reinforce, in the end, in the night, this Japanese army could only retreat in disgrace.
At this point, this is not a big scale but the thrilling battle has finally come to an end, according to statistics, the battle losses of the two sides are infinitely close to one to one, and our side has also smashed the strategic attempt of the Japanese army to annihilate our 343 brigade, it is certain that this is a big victory, and this battle, General Wang Yaonan is definitely the first merit!