"This is the battlefield of the Nanlonggang counterattack back then. ”
The former yellow earth, which witnessed the heroic sacrifice of the soldiers, is now covered with greenery, and the children of the past have entered old age, but the heroic deeds of the soldiers will never be forgotten.
Wang Xiangxiang said that although many years have passed since those battle scenes, they are as clear in her heart as yesterday. The Xuancun ambush took place at the end of 1940, in order to cooperate with the anti-sweeping operations in the northwest of Shanxi, the 17th Regiment stationed near Dingxian in the Jizhong Plain decided to take the initiative to attack the Japanese.
After on-the-spot investigations, Min Hongyou, commander of the 17th Regiment, found that on the entire Pinghan railway line, the Japanese defense between Dingxian and Xinle section was the weakest, and the trains transporting army equipment came and went frequently, making it an ideal location to organize an ambush.
After a fierce battle meeting, Min Hongyou decided to set up an ambush position near Xuancun, an area with many deep ditches and mounds. In the early morning of December 26, the 17th Regiment managed to reach the preset position, and they quickly laid a large number of mines on the way where the train passed.
At the same time, Min Hongyou divided his troops into several groups, each of which had a clear division of labor, including the task of blocking the front and rushing to transport materials around the rear.
In this way, when the Japanese military trains arrived, they could quickly go into action. That night, a Japanese military train loaded with munitions was heading in the direction of Xuancun, and as soon as it entered the ambush site, a mine blew up the entire car, and the train derailed directly.
Before the Japanese army could react, Min Hongyou had already given the order, and the soldiers who had been prepared for a long time immediately rushed to the train. Due to the full preparation and heroic fighting of our army, it took less than half an hour to successfully annihilate all the Japanese troops.
In this battle, our side paid the price of only one wounded, successfully annihilated all the Japanese troops, and captured a large number of equipment in the transport vehicles. After the battle, Min Hongyou quickly led the soldiers to clean up the battlefield, and took away all the materials that could be taken away, and burned those that could not be taken away on the spot so as not to fall into the hands of the Japanese army.
Subsequently, the 17th Regiment evacuated Xuancun. An hour later, Japanese reinforcements arrived on the scene, but by that time the fighters of the 17th regiment had already left. This Xuancun ambush suspended the Japanese army's transportation on this section of the railway for three days and destroyed the supply materials of an entire division, which had a great impact on the Japanese army's later combat plans and caused quite a stir in the Japanese army's top brass.
The angry Japanese army immediately sent troops in an attempt to seize the 17th Regiment to take revenge. However, under the leadership of Min Hongyou, the 17th Regiment successfully avoided the repeated encirclement and suppression of the Japanese army through continuous transfers, and successfully retreated to the Nanlonggang area.
On New Year's Eve, in Nanlonggang Village in Xingtang County, Shijiazhuang, as usual, adults were busy with their work and children were playing games on the street.
While everyone was enjoying a quiet afternoon, the shouting of an oil seller broke the silence. This oil seller is different from the previous oil seller, he does not go door-to-door to sell his oil as usual, but watches the children play with a smile on his face.
Soon the children noticed him and began to talk to him curiously. After telling the children a few interesting stories about the town, the oil seller pretended to accidentally mention that he had seen the Eighth Route Army, and proudly said that the children had never seen such a wonderful thing.
A child was a little unconvinced when he heard this, and retorted: "What's so strange about this, I have also seen the Eighth Route Army, and we have it in our village." The oil seller hurriedly asked, "How many Eighth Route Army have you seen in your village?" ”
The child thought for a moment and said, "About seven or eight." Hearing this, the oil seller smiled and perfunctory a few words to the children, and turned to leave. The children who stayed there were curious as to why the oil seller had stopped selling oil.
Who is he? Why do you only ask children about the Eighth Route Army?
In fact, this person is not an oil seller, but an intelligence agent sent by the Japanese army, and their goal is to find out the plan of action of the Eighth Route Army. After the spies reported the information, the Japanese army immediately moved and prepared to carry out a sneak attack on Nanlonggang Village.
However, they did not know that the information was wrong, and in fact the 17th Regiment was stationed in Nanlonggang, which had just won a great victory. After the arduous march, the fighters rested in Nanlonggang, but the fighters of the 17th Regiment did not let up because of this, they always remained vigilant and ready to respond to the counterattack of the Japanese army at any time.
After investigation, Min Hongyou found that although there were many Japanese strongholds around Nanlonggang, they were far away and the troops were insufficient. In his opinion, even if the 17 regiment could not destroy the enemy completely, it would be possible to prevent the enemy from inflicting damage on us.
In a protracted war, the enemy needs to mobilize forces from multiple garrisons, and we will have the advantage. As long as the Japanese army sends about 200 troops to test it, we can surround and annihilate it.
Therefore, based on the distance and geographical location of the stronghold, he developed a detailed plan for counter-attacks. He demarcated the combat area for each company and led the soldiers in the construction of fortifications.
At the same time, he sent reconnaissance units to monitor the movements of the Japanese troops, and as soon as the enemy movement was detected, the 17 regiment was able to take immediate action.
After preparing for the battle, Min Hongyou realized the nervousness of the troops, so he organized a New Year's party to allow the soldiers to relax. Not only can the fighters perform at the party, but the villagers of Nanlonggang are also invited to participate in the party, and everyone comes to the station to play games with the fighters.
On this joyous evening, some of the soldiers also give their rations to the poor children. However, such happy times are always short-lived, and a new round of fighting begins soon after.
On January 3, 1941, a nearby reconnaissance unit reported that more than 200 Japanese troops and more than 100 puppet troops had arrived from the southwest, with complete equipment and even infantry guns and heavy machine guns, intending to launch a sneak attack on our troops in the pre-dawn darkness.
In order to ensure the secrecy of the operation, the Japanese army also divided the entire large force into three routes, and quietly went to Nanlonggang from the west, center and east, hoping to form an encirclement before we found them.
The 3rd Battalion and 9th Company, which were stationed on the front line to carry out reconnaissance missions, first engaged in a head-to-head confrontation with the Japanese army. Min Hongyou immediately made a decision and ordered the third battalion to resist the Japanese army here and stop it in front of our army's position.
After receiving the order from the regiment commander, Yang Dejing, the commander of the third battalion, and An Youlong, the instructor, did not dare to delay for a moment, and after a short exchange, they decided to immediately send the 10th Company to the battle site to help the 9th Company, which was engaged in the operation, to block the Japanese offensive.
At the same time, the 11th and 12th companies were ordered to make a detour to the enemy's right flank and form a flanking attack with their teammates fighting head-on. Due to the small number of enemy troops coming, Min Hongyou decided to annihilate all the Japanese troops who came this time according to the previous plan, and not let go of any of them.
After learning about the situation on the front line, Min Hongyou ordered the 3rd Battalion to hold the front line, and at the same time asked the company commander of the 2nd Battalion to personally lead his 5th and 6th companies to the enemy's left flank to make a detour.
Once the units were in place, the Japanese army would inevitably not last long in the face of a multi-faceted attack, and it was only a matter of time before the enemy was completely destroyed. Although the tactics were very well prepared, because the Japanese army's equipment was far superior to ours, under the heavy artillery fire of the Japanese army, the three battalions that were engaged in the blocking battle were still broken through, and they had to be forced to withdraw from the front line positions and lose part of the fortifications.
After taking these fortifications, the Japanese army immediately set up heavy machine guns in them, and dense tongues of fire erupted from the muzzles, causing serious damage to the frontal troops of our army.
However, the soldiers of our army were not discouraged, and the commander of the 3rd Battalion, Yang Dejing, and the instructor An Youlong personally led the soldiers of the 9th and 10th Companies to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese army, determined to recapture the front-line positions that had been forced to be abandoned.
The houses in the village were close to each other, the lanes were narrow, the march and the battle were extremely difficult, our troops suffered considerable losses in a short time, and the commander of the 10th company even died heroically in battle.
The two sides were in a stalemate in the village, and although our troops could not completely drive the Japanese out of the village, the Japanese could not advance any further. In the exchange of fire between the two armies, the fighters fell one by one under the enemy's machine-gun fire, but no one flinched, but the fighting spirit was high.
In the battle, Li Junqing, a soldier of the 10th Company, ran out of bullets, but he did not flinch, but shouted revenge for the company commander, rushed directly into the enemy formation, and engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
Zhang Fuhai, a soldier of the Ninth Company, was hit four times by enemy bullets during the battle, and despite repeated dissuasion from his comrades and medical soldiers, he insisted on holding his position. The villagers of Nanlonggang saw that the Eighth Route Army had suffered a huge **, and they were in pain.
The village chief organized the masses to remove the wooden beds and door panels at home and make them into stretchers to help the Eighth Route Army transport the wounded. Every household spared firewood, boiling hot water and boiling cloth to make bandages for the soldiers.
The women even took out eggs and noodles that they were usually reluctant to eat to supplement the nutrition of the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army who were fighting on the front line. The military and civilians of Nanlonggang were united and worked together to persevere, and although the frontal battlefield was difficult, no one flinched.
The 12th Company arrived on the enemy's right flank on time at 7:30 a.m. and relieved the pressure on the frontal position. The 3rd Battalion seized the opportunity to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese troops, successfully recapturing the frontline positions and destroying the enemy.
Subsequently, the 3rd Battalion joined up with the friendly forces that were fighting on the East Road, forming a front and rear flank attack, led by Yang Dejing, to charge the enemy three times in a row. The enemy forces on the eastern road were quickly wiped out under the courageous offensive of our troops.
After the enemy army on the east road was eliminated, Yang Dejing led the soldiers to march westward, bypassed the rear of the enemy army in the center, and successfully cut off the enemy's rear road. Although they found that there was nowhere to retreat, the Japanese still put up stubborn resistance, but under the command of Yang Dejing, the soldiers who had just eliminated the enemy along the way had high morale, and it took less than 30 minutes to wipe out all the Japanese troops in the middle.
The arrival of the 3rd Battalion boosted the morale of the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, who immediately launched a final general attack on the enemy forces on the western route, and successfully routed the enemy army with their superiority in strength and firepower.
The Nanlonggang counterattack ended perfectly, and the 17th Regiment won a complete victory in this battle, successfully defeating more than 200 Japanese troops, more than 70 puppet troops, and capturing more than 20 enemy troops.
In addition, the 17 regiment captured all the enemy's infantry guns and heavy machine guns in this battle, as well as countless other ** ammunition. In this battle, the 17th Regiment made careful preparations in the early stage, the on-the-spot command was excellent, and the soldiers fought bravely, resolutely did not retreat, and fought a very beautiful victory.
However, the battle also took a heavy toll on the 17 regiment. In order to commemorate the warriors who died in the battle, the villagers of Nanlonggang held a funeral for them, and also asked someone to erect a stone tablet and carve an inscription for them.
Even if the stele will be weathered one day, the blood and sacrifice of these heroic soldiers will forever be recorded in history. It was not until the battle was completely over that the soldiers of the 17th Regiment learned that the Japanese army that had fought against them in Nanlonggang was the Shengang Squadron, known as the Victorious Army.
The Shengang Squadron of the Japanese Army, which had never been defeated on the Chinese battlefield and was arrogant, did not expect to encounter a heavy attack by our army in Nanlonggang this time, and almost all the troops were annihilated. Since then, the 17th Regiment of our army has become famous, and as long as they appear, the Japanese troops in the vicinity will be terrified.
The Nanlonggang counterattack was one of the few major victories in which our army changed from passive defense to active counterattack, and it demonstrated our army's ability to fully prepare and accurately judge the enemy's situation. This battle has become a classic case of counterattacking the enemy when encountering an enemy attack, and it has extremely high learning value.
After the liberation, the Nanlonggang counterattack was compiled into our army's study material "Selected Combat Examples of the Infantry Regiment of the Chinese People's Liberation Army" for later officers and soldiers to study. And Min Hongyou, who served as the commander in this battle, made many military exploits in the following War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, and was awarded the rank of major general at the award ceremony after the founding of the People's Republic of China.