At dusk, a group of soldiers of the Eighth Route Army dressed in military uniforms and holding ** walked to the depths of the mountains with a comrade who was also wearing a military uniform but had been tied up with flowers.
What's going on? All this is related to the battle of Guanjiayuan that took place in early 1939. At that time, the Japanese army mobilized seven divisions and five independent mixed brigades from the frontal battlefields in Central and South China and from within Japan to strengthen the strength of the North China Front.
In order to trap the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese army formulated a "cage policy" and tried to use railways, highways and pillboxes as chains to force the Eighth Route Army to death. The Eighth Route Army will not stop there, and Mr. Peng decided to resolutely fight back and break this cage.
In mid-August 1940, the Eighth Route Army launched a counterattack, which is also known as the "Battle of the Hundred Regiments". Dozens of regiments of the Eighth Route Army, together with tens of thousands of militiamen and hundreds of thousands of civilians, carried out devastating damage to the roads and railways on the enemy's lines of communication, and also uprooted the strongholds of the Japanese army.
This battle dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army, and also greatly boosted the confidence of the army and the people in the war of resistance, and made the commander of the North China Front, Tada Jun, angry. Tada's performance in the war of aggression against China was mediocre, and he wanted to prove his ability before returning to China, so as to leave a mark in history.
Therefore, he mobilized tens of thousands of troops and carried out a frenzied revenge on the base areas in North China. They launched a brutal "sweep" and implemented the "three lights" policy of "killing, burning, and robbing everything."
They killed people when they saw them, burned houses when they saw them, looted livestock and grain when they saw them, and even buried the people's wells or threw poison into them. Even the pots and pans and farm tools used by the common people every day, they did not let go, and they all smashed and smashed.
They do this only to mentally destroy our will to resist. Their actions make hell on earth everywhere they go.
At the moment when the Eighth Route Army decided to launch a counterattack, destroy the invading enemy, and deal a severe blow to its arrogance, the Japanese army committed a new crime. In late October, about 500 men of the Okazaki Brigade of the 36th Division of the Japanese Army in North China, stationed in Yangquan, Shanxi, attacked the Huangyadong Arsenal of the Eighth Route Army in the border area of Liao County, Wuxiang County, and Licheng County.
Founded in 1938 and with dozens of lathes, this arsenal was one of the most important arsenals during the Anti-Japanese War. However, such an important arsenal was attacked by the Japanese army.
In order to ensure safety, Mr. Zhu visited the site selection in person. The location of the arsenal was chosen at Huangya Cave, a natural stone cave located on a cliff halfway up the mountainside. It's dry and cool, and it's good for munitions**.
The most important thing is that it is surrounded by dangerous peaks on all sides, and there is only one exit, that is, a crack in the cliff in the south, commonly known as the "Weng Qi Corridor". The terrain here is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, which can be described as "one man is a pass".
In late October, Okazaki's Okaki Brigade, led by Kennaga Okazaki, was a Japanese unit consisting of infantry, artillery, and baggage troops, and the strength of the Japanese army should not be underestimated.
These included a squadron of the 37th Division, a squadron of the 9th Independent Brigade, a squadron of the 12th Independent Infantry Brigade, a detachment of engineers from the 9th Independent Mixed Brigade, a half mountain artillery squadron, and a detachment of the headquarters of the 4th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, plus a squad of baggage soldiers and a combat medical squad.
This "special forces" was well-armed, with light and heavy machine guns and three mountain guns, and although it was small in number, it was very capable. The Okazaki Brigade relied on its excellent and strong combat effectiveness, and acted recklessly in the base area without any scruples.
They came to the Yellow Cliff Cave area by mistake. There, they found ruts and thought that there must be an arsenal and a workshop of the Eighth Route Army nearby. They quietly passed through the Chiyu ditch along the rut and broke up the guards of the Eighth Route Army.
They carried out frenzied destruction of ammunition warehouses, clothing warehouses, etc., and looted a large amount of supplies. After learning the news, the head of the Eighth Route Army was furious. Gang Qi was not satisfied, and he came to the vicinity of Guanjiayuan in Panlong Town, Wuxiang County.
There, he met the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, which was resting. When Mr. Peng learned about it, he decided not to let Okazaki retreat and wanted to teach him a heavy lesson. He personally commanded the Eighth Route Army, which invested 11 regiments, 110,000 troops.
However, unexpectedly, the Japanese army actually occupied Guanjiayuan. This may be because Gang Qi had expected that the Eighth Route Army would settle accounts with him.
The towering height of the top of Guanjiayuan Mountain makes it a natural place for soldiers to fight. Steep cliffs and deep ravines to the north, and steep slopes to the east and west, made the attack difficult.
However, the gentleness of the southern slope became the only path of attack. Gang Qi observed the terrain in advance, discovered the weak point on the southern slope, and deployed troops and machine guns on the willow wall on the opposite side to control the path leading to Guanjiayuan with firepower.
If the Eighth Route Army launched an attack from the southern slopes, then they would have to pay a huge price. In order to strengthen the defense, Gangqi ordered the Japanese army to build fortifications in the two places overnight, dig tunnels, and tear down the doors and windows of local villagers to build hidden fortifications.
On the flat ground at the top of Guanjiayuan Mountain, the Japanese army set up machine gun positions, and the caves of the villagers were also opened and transformed into pillboxes, forming a dense network of firepower and traps. Zuo Quan had a heavy heart and knew that a hard fight would pay a heavy price, but the troops had already put on a posture and had no choice but to strike.
If they retreat, morale will be undermined and the Japanese may take advantage of it. After weighing it, General Peng decided to insist on fighting and demanded the total annihilation of the Japanese army. At 3 o'clock in the morning, the general offensive began, as Zuo Quan expected, the Japanese army had already prepared, ** excellent and occupied a favorable position, and the battle was extremely fierce.
In the face of a powerful enemy, our army paid great sacrifices in the battle of Guanjiayuan, but failed to completely annihilate the enemy. There were also disagreements within the Eighth Route Army, and some people suggested withdrawing the troops, but Mr. Peng firmly believed that this was a rare opportunity and was unwilling to give up easily.
However, the outcome of war is often unpredictable, and even if we hold on, we will not necessarily achieve victory. Eventually, our troops withdrew from the battle at 1 p.m. on October 31.
In this regard, Mr. Peng blamed himself very much and listed this battle as one of the "four major defeats" in his life. It is worth mentioning that the cause of this battle was the dereliction of duty of the company commander, which led to the arsenal being attacked by the Japanese army.
** Personally command the field artillery positions on the front line at Guanjiayuan, at a distance of up to 500 meters from the enemy. In order to protect the arsenal, the Eighth Route Army deployed a company of troops on the ridges on both sides of Chiyugou on the periphery of the Huangyadong Arsenal on the ridges on both sides of the terrain to implement a 24-hour vigilance.
The company commanders were veterans of the Red Army, who had participated in the Long March, and they were loyal, reliable, and experienced. The fact that the superiors entrusted them with such an important task of defending them fully demonstrated their trust in them.
However, the company commanders had a different view on this, they felt that they had been transferred from the front line of the battle to stand guard in the barren mountains and mountains, and they could not hear the gunfire or see the smoke of gunpowder, which was an underestimation of their ability, so they had some resentment and slackness in the battle.
At the junction of the two platoons of the guard company, no guard posts were set up, and a "vacuum zone" 100 meters wide appeared, giving the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it. If it weren't for this fatal negligence, with the local terrain that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Okazaki brigade would not have been able to easily sneak attack.
As a result, when the Japanese army touched the vicinity of the Huangyadong Arsenal, the alert troops discovered their presence, and the soldiers put up a stubborn resistance, but it was too late. If it weren't for the company commander's mistake, it would have been difficult for the Japanese army to succeed in the sneak attack, the arsenal would not have suffered losses, and the battle of Guanjiayuan might not have happened.
Therefore, after the battle, General Peng decided to engage the company commander in military law. Although the company commander's command mistake was not directly related to the battle of Guanjiayuan, Mr. Peng did not think that this was a big fuss.
In fact, after hearing that the Okazaki Brigade had infiltrated the arsenal and destroyed it, Mr. Peng was furious and immediately ordered: "Leave your post without permission and shoot the company commander to death!" "Any dereliction of duty that causes heavy losses, even if there is no battle for Guanjiayuan, must be duly punished.
Although there were many reasons for the defeat in the battle of Guanjiayuan, including the comparison of equipment and the environmental conditions of the battlefield, the performance of the Japanese army in the battle also left a deep impression on the Eighth Route Army.
The battle of Guanjiayuan, although it did not completely annihilate the Japanese army, did inflict heavy losses on them, revealing the brutal and terrifying nature of the Japanese army. Only by deeply understanding this point can we truly understand the hardships and heavy sacrifices of the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
During the rectification of the work in Yan'an, Chief Liu Deng stressed that the attack on Guanjiayuan was of great political and practical significance, and it put an end to the situation in which the Japanese army was rampage in the base areas.