In January 1939, thick snowflakes fell in the sky in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan border area, and the earth was covered with white and flawless water. Xiao Hua led the advancing column to the area around Wuqiao.
In order to prevent the Japanese from pursuing, the troops increased the pace of the march. At this time, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had entered a phase of stalemate. Japan readjusted its policy of aggression against China, implementing a policy of giving priority to political inducement and supplementing military strikes against Chiang Kai-shek's troops, and at the same time intensified its attacks on our troops, focusing on attacking the base areas behind enemy lines in North China.
Beginning in January, the Japanese army mobilized more than 20,000 troops to rush to the anti-Japanese base areas in Yanshan, Qingyun, Leling, and other places in the Jilu border region, and the situation in the border area was extremely grim. Xiao Hua convened a meeting, adjusted the battle plan against the enemy according to the actual situation, and decided to conduct an ambush war.
Xiao Hua led his troops to successfully ambush the Japanese army in the areas of Hanjiaji, Kongjiafang, and Miaojiaji, and caught the enemy by surprise.
The Japanese army did not give up and decided to track down Xiao Hua's troops, and Xiao Hua skillfully guided the troops to play hide and seek with the enemy. At this moment, the snow was falling, and the troops were struggling to move forward, when suddenly a fast horse galloped, and the cavalry on the horse, the messenger of the canal detachment, brought a letter.
The letter said that Captain Fujii led more than 100 Japanese puppet troops and more than a dozen trucks loaded with **, ammunition and construction equipment to Dengmei Temple to establish a stronghold. After Fujii learned that Zhang Guoji's Hebei Second Route Army was stationed in Zaowangzhuang, Wuqiao County, 18 miles away from Dengming Temple, Fujii left a part of the soldiers to establish a stronghold, and he led two squadrons to surround Zaowangzhuang.
Zhang Guoji was caught off guard and asked for support from the Canal Detachment while resisting.
The Xiaohua Canal Detachment was scattered for rural activities, and the size of the team was only 100 people at this time. Li Wencheng, the leader of the detachment, wrote to Xiao Hua for advice. After thinking for a moment, Xiao Hua asked the correspondent: "How far is Zaowangzhuang from here?" ”
The correspondent replied: "40 miles." Xiao Hua then asked, "How far is Dengming Temple from here?" The correspondent replied: "20 miles." After thinking about it for a while, Xiao Hua decided to help Zhang Guoji and make him firm in his determination to resist Japan, considering that many of the Kuomintang troops had surrendered under the Japanese army's policy of inducement to surrender.
Xiao Hua suggested to political commissar Deng Keming that they should help Zhang Guoji and adopt the strategy of encircling Wei to save Zhao and attack Dengming Temple. Deng Keming agreed, urging them to act quickly.
Subsequently, Xiao Hua and others began to study the operational deployment, and the troops turned around and marched to Dengming Temple, and met the canal detachment led by Li Wencheng on the road.
Dengming Temple is an ancient village in the territory of Dongguang, its geographical scope is broad, the east-west direction is long and the north-south direction is short, and it is mainly divided into two areas: Dongdeng and Xideng. According to historical records, during the Dading period of the Jin Dynasty, a temple was built here, called Dengming Temple.
It is said that the appearance of this temple gradually increased the number of people in the surrounding area, and gradually formed a village, so people habitually called this village Dengmyeongji.
Dengming Temple is about 30 miles away from Dongguang County, with superior geographical location and convenient transportation, and is an important passage connecting the eastern part of Dongguang City and Jinpu Railway. Here, the Japanese army built a stronghold to control the eastern area of Dongguang Castle and to echo its strongholds in the city to ensure the safety of the Jinpu Railway.
The troops had reached the vicinity of the Dengming Temple, and Commander Xiao Hua urgently convened a meeting to assign tasks. He ordered the two companies of the 5th Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade to attack the Dongdeng Temple and lure the Japanese army back for reinforcements; The rest of the troops had to set up ambushes on both sides of the South Village Avenue and wait for the arrival of the Japanese army.
After repeated weighing, Xiao Hua emphasized: "We must act quickly and retreat immediately after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. "After receiving the order, the company commanders began to move separately.
At one o'clock in the evening, the village fell silent, and two companies entered the village silently. The Japanese sentry noticed the enemy's movement and tried to open his mouth to warn, but was killed by our soldiers.
The troops quickly rushed into the village, surrounded several large compounds, and began a fierce attack. The sound woke up the sleeping Japanese army, and before they could react, they were bombed badly.
Our troops occupied the enemy's ammunition depot, removed all the ammunition, and burned all the wood, ropes and other materials and equipment used by the enemy to repair the stronghold. Upon hearing the news of our army's surprise attack on Dengmei Temple, Fujii received an order at Zaowangzhuang to immediately retreat and lead his troops back to Dengming Temple.
However, this happened to be an ambush set by Xiao Hua. When the convoy was about to arrive at Dengming Temple, the company commander ordered to attack the first truck, the first truck was blown up by our army, the bullets kept shooting at the devil, the devil shouted and fired back, there were gunshots and ** everywhere, and no one could be seen in the night.
As soon as it was dawn, the Japanese found that the Eighth Route Army had already withdrawn, and their gunfire was just a waste of bullets. After Fujii entered the village, the remaining Japanese squadron ** more than 60 people, plus ** on the road, there were about 100 people.
Seeing that the equipment used to build the stronghold was burned, Fujii had no choice but to flee back to Dongguang County with the remnants of his soldiers. Zhang Guoji immediately came to Xiao Hua to express his gratitude to the Eighth Route Army for its support and promised to fight against Japan together with the Eighth Route Army in the future.
Xiao Hua replied that he did not accept thanks, because it was the responsibility of every Chinese to resist Japan and save the country. After Fujii fled back to Toko, he was scolded by his superiors and ordered to build a stronghold at Tonmeiji Temple.
A few days later, Fujii came to Dengmei Temple again with more than 300 devils and more than 200 puppet soldiers. This time, they were stationed in Xideng, and as soon as they entered the village, they began to cut down trees and build fortifications, and Fujii sent people to reconnoiter the movements of the Eighth Route Army.
After Xiao Hua learned the news, he summoned Deng Keming, Fu Jize, chief of staff of the canal detachment, and others to study countermeasures. Fu Jize said that the devils repeatedly built strongholds in Dengming Temple because they took a fancy to the geographical location here.
They want to fix it, but we don't let them fix it. Deng Keming proposed that they could play tricks with the devils, they would repair the fortifications during the day, and we would remove them at night, so that they would fall short.
Everyone has their own suggestions. Xiao Hua summed up everyone's speeches and said that they could first paralyze the enemy, want to capture the enemy, and then disturb the enemy, let them have all the soldiers, and finally attack them when they are not paying attention.
Everyone agrees with this plan. Then, Xiao Hua studied and deployed a specific combat plan.
When Fujii first arrived in Xideng, he was always vigilant about the movements of the Eighth Route Army, and ordered his troops to hold back and immediately enter the battle at the slightest movement. The detectives came back to report that the soldiers and horses of the Eighth Route Army were marching northward, and the villagers also said that their horse teams and convoys stretched for several kilometers.
This made Fujii's heart settle down a little, so he ordered the construction of a stronghold, and threw in the migrant workers to carry stones and the puppet army to carry trees. In order to speed up the progress of the works, he even ordered the Japanese army to participate in it.
After learning of the movements of the Japanese army, Xiao Hua decided to send militia to harass him. At night, as soon as the Japanese puppet army fell asleep, the sound of military trumpets sounded at the head of the village, and they urgently gathered and opened fire in all directions.
However, after a while, there was no one again. Seeing this, the Japanese puppet army began to rest, and it didn't take long for the commotion outside to start again. This repeated harassment made the Japanese puppet army exhausted and unable to sleep.
Fujii blames the detective for not doing his job and sends scouts again. However, the scouts' reports stated that the militia was active at night. As a result, Fujii thought that the Eighth Route Army was not in this area, and he could build a stronghold with peace of mind.
However, on the third night, the troops of the Eighth Route Army suddenly surrounded Xideng. The Japanese puppet army had been sleepless for several nights, exhausted, and even the sentries were napping. The troops of the Eighth Route Army attacked the Japanese army and the puppet army separately, and a team surrounded the puppet army in several courtyards, carrying out a military attack on the one hand, and shouting and persuading them to surrender on the other.
In a short period of time, the puppet army suffered many casualties, and the rest surrendered.
During the attack on the Japanese troops, the enemy put up stubborn resistance with the help of courtyards, roofs and walls, blocked the streets with machine guns and small artillery, and threw flares. Our company encountered difficulties during the offensive, and we were unable to enter the alley due to the blockage of the courtyard.
The company commander said to the soldiers: "Put the machine gun down, prepare the grenades, come with me." "The fighters followed the guidance of the company commander and rushed along the alley. The enemy opened fire from the holes in the wall, and the fighters climbed the courtyard wall and threw grenades downward, blowing up the wings.
Then the fighters jumped off the wall and engaged in hand-to-hand combat and bayonet battles with the enemy. After several hours of fierce fighting, we eliminated more than 100 enemies, but there were also quite a few **.
The day is getting brighter, and the remaining enemies are still stubbornly resisting in several compounds, fiercely**. Xiao Hua saw that our goal had been achieved and the turret had been destroyed, but considering that if we continued to attack, the cost would be too great.
So, he decided to withdraw from the battle. Sun Keming agreed to this decision and suggested that when the enemy returned, it would be easier for us to destroy them in the open area outside.
The Eighth Route Army immediately took action and moved to the southeast of Dengming Temple. Soon after they walked out of the village, some soldiers reported that the Dengming Temple was **. Xiao Hua immediately thought that this must be a conspiracy of the Japanese army, who tried to lure us into the bait, and then launched a surprise attack while we were fighting the fire.
He decided to plan and lead a part of his troops back to the village to put out the fire, while Deng Keming led another team to ambush in the village, preparing to flank the Japanese on both sides.
According to the plan, the team led by Xiao Hua rushed into the village. When they saw many of the Eighth Route Army returning to the village, Fujii was secretly proud, thinking that he had succeeded in luring the Eighth Route Army into taking the bait.
He led the Japanese army to attack the firefighting Eighth Route Army from the east and west. At this time, the ambush troops led by Deng Keming were fierce behind the Japanese army, forming a flank attack on Jingteng's troops.
After an hour of fierce fighting, the Japanese puppet army was wiped out more than 300 people, and Fujii saw that the situation was not good, and fled back to Dongguang County with the remaining dozen people. The Eighth Route Army immediately extinguished the fire in the village.
Sanda Dengming Temple, the Eighth Route Army eliminated more than 400 Japanese puppet troops and seized a large number of ** and materials. Xiao Hua led his army to win three victories at Dengming Temple, and the news quickly spread throughout the Jilu border area, and the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians rejoiced.
When the Japanese invaders talked about the temple, they said, "I can't go to the temple, and the temple will die as soon as the temple is bright." After that, the Japanese army did not build a stronghold in Dengming Temple. This battle demonstrated the resourcefulness and courage of the Eighth Route Army, and also carried forward positive energy.