"I heard that you are fighting very well in the four fields, is that true?"
"This can still be fake, our 367 regiment is called the Tashan Hero Regiment, and the real achievements are placed there.
"Then have you ever fought the Heavenly Soldier Heavenly General?"
"Nonsense, the heavenly soldiers will be a trick made up by feudal superstitions to deceive people."
"Believe it or not. Anyway, we fought with the Heavenly Soldier Heavenly General, and as a result, we suffered a big loss."
On January 20, 1950, Zheng Geling, political commissar of the 367th Regiment of the 123rd Division of the Fourth Field Army of the People's Liberation Army (Tashan Hero Regiment), asked a cadre of the county brigade who had recently participated in the battle against bandits in Tiegang Township (now merged with Zuotan Town to form Longtan Town) in Longmen County, and learned about the bandits. The cadres of the county brigade said with great concern that they had encountered the Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals when they were suppressing the bandits, and in the end they had suffered defeat.
Although the cadre of the county brigade spoke vividly, Zheng Geling made the political commissar think that this was complete nonsense, and finally hastily ended the conversation.
60 miles northwest of Longmen County, Guangdong Province, there is a mountain basin surrounded by mountains and very closed traffic, the south is the towering Wulao Mountain Hat Peak, from west to north is the steep Ji Pillow Mountain, and the north is the Xinfeng Mountain, which is covered with dense primary forests.
A canyon between the two mountains in the southeast direction is the only way into the basin. This small basin is eight miles long from east to west and four miles wide from north to south, resembling a peach leaf basin. There are several small villages scattered in the middle of the basin, and because the township office is in a small market called "Tiegang Market", this basin is collectively known as Tiegang Township.
The special geographical environment of Tiegang Township makes it almost isolated from the world, and many people call Tiegang Township "the kingdom of the mountains".
In order to survive, almost all the adult men in Tiegang Township have joined a gang called the "Big Knife Society".
At that time, the total population of Tiegang Township was more than 4,000, and more than 1,000 people joined the Great Knife Society.
In September 1949, the three detachments of the People's Liberation Army's Guangdong-Gansu-Xiangbian Column, Dongjiang, were stationed in Tiegang Township. Xu Yueli and Dai Li, two great "masters" of the Great Knife Society, held a meeting to take the oath of the alliance, and the people present at the meeting beheaded chickens, cut off their fingers, and made an alliance of blood, openly clamoring to be enemies of the People's Liberation Army.
The heads of the three Dongjiang detachments of the People's Liberation Army did not realize the seriousness of the problem and sent representatives to negotiate with Xu Yueli and Dai Li, warning them not to stir up trouble and act arbitrarily.
The big knife will be intimidated by the combat effectiveness of the main force of the People's Liberation Army, and its behavior will be slightly restrained. The three detachments of Dongjiang immediately established the Tiegang Township Office. The township mayor Yang Qixiang and the deputy township chief Yu Bingnan.
A few days later, the three detachments of the Dongjiang River were ordered to enter the Pearl River Delta, and the entire Longmen County was left with only one county brigade that had just been formed.
Hiding in the Chicken Pillow Mountain, Zhong Shaowen, the former township chief of the Kuomintang Tiegang Township, sneaked back to Tiegang with dozens of retinues.
Zhong Shaowen found Xu Yueli and Dai Li, the grand masters of the Great Dao Society, and spread rumors that "the township office has prepared 500 hemp ropes, and 500 zhuangding will be tied to tie up from Tiegang Township to the front line."
The two great mages did not know what to do next, and asked Zhong Shaowen what to do next. Zhong Shaowen said, "Anyway, there are very few people in the township office, so if you kill them all, everything will be fine."
The two great mages found someone to calculate a gua, and the fortune teller had been bribed by Zhong Shaowen in advance, and now he was desperately advocating to the two great mages that he would attack the Tiegang Township Office with a large knife.
On November 1, 1949, Xu Yueli and Dai Li, together with Zhong Shaowen, organized a congregation of more than 1,000 people in the Great Knife Society, dug out dozens of guns that had been buried before, and began to besiege the Tiegang Township Office.
At this time, there were 13 staff members in the township office, and there were three other family members, with a total of 13 long and short guns. Relying on the courtyard of the township office and two masonry artillery towers, they put up stubborn resistance.
The news that the Tiegang Township Office was besieged by the Great Knife Society soon reached Longmen County, and Li Shaozong, the county magistrate of Longmen County, asked for support from the main force while personally leading the newly established county brigade to Tiegang to break the siege.
The behavior of Li Shaozong County Governor was also very reckless, the county brigade had only more than 60 soldiers in total, except for the main and vice captains, the rest were all recruits, and the weapons were not combined, and there were less than 40 long and short guns.
As a result, as soon as the county brigade entered the Old Crow Pass on the east side of Tiegang Township, it was surrounded by the Great Knife Society. The big knife will be crowded, and each face will be painted with green face and fangs, which is vicious and terrible.
The recruits of the county brigade panicked and pulled their legs to escape. Li Shaozong saw that the scene was out of control, and he had to take a step first.
More than 20 fighters could not run, and as a result, they were all hacked to death with random knives, their heads cut off, and they were picked up with bamboo poles for the besieged township office personnel to see.
The 13 staff members who insisted on sticking to the township office have been holding their positions with dedication to their duties. They insisted on raising the red flag in the courtyard of the township office every day, never bowing to the rebellious bandits.
On November 4, the governor of Li Shaozong once again organized troops to rescue, and the big knife would continue to pretend to be a ghost, and the rescue operation once again ended in failure.
At this time, the Tiegang Township Office had been besieged for three full days and had run out of food. The 13 staff members, seeing that there was no hope of a breakthrough, blew the charge trumpet, opened the gate of the township office, and shouted into the enemy group. In the end, all of them were heroically sacrificed.
After Zhong Shaowen attacked the township gong, he appointed himself as the "township chief" of Tiegang Township, and in order to show his power, he ordered the execution of three arrested family members in the township office.
The wife and young son of the martyr Yu Bingnan were shot and killed in the street by the Big Knife Club.
The newlywed wife of another staff member, because she did not want to be humiliated, was forced to hang herself by the bandits in full view of everyone.
Shortly thereafter, a battalion of the 131st Division of the 44th Army of the People's Liberation Army, passing through Longmen County, carried out an attack on the Tiegang Daohui and achieved certain results, but in the end, due to the urgency of other combat tasks, the encirclement and suppression of the Tiegang Township Dadaohui failed.
Although the bandits suffered some losses in this operation, the Tiegang Ruins were still in their hands after all, and after the bandit troops withdrew, the saying that the big knife would congregation could not enter the knife and gun did not go away. The power of the Great Knife Society was able to expand rapidly in a very short period of time.
A few days later, a battalion of the 8th Regiment of the Dongjiang Military Sub-district of the People's Liberation Army came to suppress the bandits. In order to expose the lie that the big knife can't be used, the battalion commander Wang Jing took a prisoner of the big knife club and shot him in public.
Wang Jing's behavior seriously violated the PLA's policy of preferential treatment of prisoners. As a result, Wang Jing was punished with removal. In the end, the bandit troops could only withdraw from the iron gang with hatred.
Zhong Shaowen escaped the slaughter three times in a row, and the more arrogant and invincible, the bandits under his command also expanded sharply to more than 4,000 people.
Now the small Tiegang Township could no longer satisfy Zhong Shaowen's ambitions, and he aimed his greedy eyes at Longmen County.
In the following month or so, the big knife will gather under the Longmen County several times in succession, which seriously affects the normal life of the people in the county.
In January 1950, the 41st Army of the Fourth Field Army entered Guangdong from Guangxi and was tasked with guarding coastal defense and calming the bandit plague in Guangdong.
As soon as the 41st Army headquarters settled down in Huiyang, Li Shaozong, the county magistrate of Longmen County, came to the door and pleaded with the commander Wu Kehua and the political commissar Ouyang Wen to send troops to suppress the bandits.
A few hours later, Li Fuze, chief of staff of the 41st Army, formally informed Li Shaozong that, after studying and deciding, the 367th Regiment of the 123rd Division of the 123rd Division in Pingshan, Huiyang, was immediately dispatched to Tiegang to carry out the task of suppressing bandits.
After receiving the order, Zheng Geling, the political commissar of the 367th Regiment, immediately led his troops straight to Longmen County.
After Zheng Geling arrived in Longmen County, he did not rush to launch an attack, and after many years of war career, Zheng Geling's political commissar Shen Yun four fast and one slow tactic (preparation should be fast, advance fast, expansion results should be fast, pursuit should be fast, and launching a general offensive should be slow) The essence, in other words, is not to fight a battle that is uncertain.
In order to ensure the successful completion of the task of suppressing bandits, Zheng Geling held a small military conference in Longmen County.
Present at the meeting were Huang Bai, deputy commander of the Dongjiang Military Subdistrict of the People's Liberation Army; Li Shaozong, governor of Longmen County; Yu Changyou, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 367th Regiment; Fan Pizhong, instructor; and Wang Jijin, commander of the reconnaissance unit of the 367th Regiment. There was also the commander of the artillery battalion of the 131st Division of the 44th Army of the 4th Field Army. As well as a cadre of the county brigade, he had twice participated in the operation of the Great Knife Society.
At the meeting, Zheng Geling, the political commissar, first suggested adjusting the offensive line, and the first few times he entered Tiegang Township to suppress bandits, he entered Tiegang Township from Longmen County all the way to the west and through Zuotan Market, Yifang, Xinwei, and Lao yakou. The bandits had already figured out the number of routes of the bandit troops, and they had already been on guard along the way. This time, it was necessary to take it by surprise and change to a joint attack between the east and the west, so that the bandits could not take care of each other.
There was no objection to Zheng Geling's political commissar's battle plan.
However, Huang Bai, deputy commander of the Dongjiang Military Sub-district, pointed out that in the Longmen County Brigade, which served as an assist in this battle, many soldiers were full of fear for the Big Knife Society, and the legend that the Big Knife Society would not be able to enter the knife and gun was also noisy in the local area. Whether it is a lie or a true thing needs to be seriously investigated and dealt with.
The cadre of the Longmen County Brigade, who had participated in the two bandit suppression operations, heard this and showed a look of fear on his face. Not only did he swear that the Congregation of the Great Knife Society did indeed have the divine ability of the sword and gun, but he also questioned the combat effectiveness of the 367th Regiment.
When Zhong Shaowen began the rebellion, the Great Dao Society only had more than 1,000 bandits, and now the Great Dao Society already has more than 4,000 congregations, and the main force of this bandit battle, the 367 regiment, is not superior in terms of troop strength, plus the big knife will have a divine protective body, and the victory or defeat of the bandit battle has long been determined.
Zheng Ge ordered the political commissar to dismiss the fallacious heresies such as what knives and guns could not enter, the divine protection of the body, and so on, and gave a fierce rebuttal to the cadre of the county brigade, and finally Zheng Ge proposed that the county brigade be handed over to Wang Jing, the battalion commander who was dismissed from his post for shooting and killing prisoners in the first few days.
Wang Jing's shooting of captives was a violation of discipline, but extraordinary means must be used in extraordinary times, and only in this way could the warriors' fear of the Great Knife Society be eliminated.
The meeting was not over, and the bandit leader Zhong Shaowen sent a letter expressing his willingness to surrender conditionally.
In the face of Zhong Shaowen's surrender letter, several chiefs attending the meeting deliberated and finally unified their views that Zhong Shaowen's surrender was false in order to delay time.
Zheng Geling's metaphor for the image of political commissar: This is a delaying tactic used by the big knife, and we must not be deceived.
In the end, everyone studied and decided to refuse Zhong Shaowen's surrender. Military action was still carried out as planned to completely solve the bandit plague in Tiegang Township.
On the afternoon of January 21, 1950, the bandit forces officially moved. Assisted by the Longmen County Brigade and a battalion of the Dongjiang Military Sub-district, they entered the Tiegang Township Basin from Laoyakou in the southeast direction according to the route of advancing and suppressing. Attract the attention of the Big Knife Society.
The main force of the bandit force, the 367th Regiment, ran half the way more than the assisting force, crossed the steep Wulao Peak from the northwest direction, and suddenly appeared behind the enemy, forming a pinch attack with the assisting force.
After a whole night of arduous trekking, at dawn, the main force of the bandit army successfully crossed the steep Wulao Peak and entered the Tiegang Township Basin, and immediately searched and suppressed two villages at the foot of the mountain.
But not a single bandit was found. At this time, several surrounding villages sounded the sound of gongs and drums at the same time, and the dense gunfire was mixed with the howls of the bandits.
It turned out that the county brigade had Zhong Shaowen's eyeliner, and Zhong Shaowen knew all about the plan made by the bandit suppression troops. He only arranged a few scattered bandits, and formed a confrontation with the county brigade carrying out the task of suppressing the bandits at the Old Crow's Mouth.
And Zhong Shaowen used the main force of the Most Powerful Dao Society to deal with the 367 Regiment that came from afar.
As Zhong Shaowen expected, several bandits fired a few shots in the direction of Lao Yakou, and the troops who served as assistants stopped advancing and refused to take any more steps forward.
The 367th Regiment faced bandits several times larger than itself, and the pressure suddenly increased.
Zheng Ge ordered the political commissar to be in danger, and he first ordered the 4th Company of the Second Battalion, the Machine Gun Company, and the artillery company of the 131st Division, which had come to assist in the battle, to control the two commanding heights of the north and south beams of Pujitang.
Then he ordered the 5th Company of the Second Battalion to seize the 144th height south of Pujitang, from which the three heights could be condescending and overlooking the entire battlefield.
The bandits of the Great Knife Society gathered more and more, their faces painted in colorful colors, dressed in various colored robes, and each of them hung a red pocket around their waist, which was the talisman that the mages had opened to them. The bandits wrapped in red, yellow, and black turbans on their heads, holding weapons in one hand, and holding so-called magic tools in the other, such as banana fans, treasure gourds, clay sculptures of bodhisattvas, and so on.
Some of the bandits still have long red, black, white or blue beards on their mouths, and at first glance they know that this is a prop on the stage. And these bearded guys are all mages of the Great Knife Society.
The bandits staggered as they walked, twisting from side to side, brandishing large knives and magic weapons, and chanting words in their mouths, what knives and guns could not enter, bodhisattvas blessed, guns could not be hit, and so on.
The bandits' posture made the PLA soldiers who were ambushed at the commanding heights unbearable.
The bandits gathered more and more, and later it may be the person in charge, and the bandits stopped advancing, and then unified the mantra: all became "Bodhisattva bless, the bullet can't hit."
Among these divine warriors and divine generals, there were also some bandits wearing plain clothes and holding guns, all of whom were Zhong Shaowen's cronies. These people are not here to fight, but to supervise the battle, their guns will not be aimed at the bandit troops, and for those who are greedy for life and afraid of death, the people who are stagnant will not hesitate to raise their guns and shoot.
The congregation of the Great Knife Society lined up in this loose formation and staggered to the position of the bandit troops. The mantra "Bodhisattva bless, bullets can't hit" came and went.
Zheng Ge ordered the political commissar to be angry and funny, he really couldn't see that there was anything mysterious about the bandits' deployment, as long as he gave an order, the heavy machine guns on the highlands on both sides of the crossbow were enough to send these bandits to the western sky.
The commander of the Wang Jing battalion, who had made meritorious contributions, said softly from the side: "Most of these bandits are local people who have been seduced by Zhong Shaowen, and they have swallowed cinnabar in xionghuang wine beforehand, and they are all in a state of unconscious delirium, and the blood will stimulate them to make them even more crazy."
Zheng Ge ordered the political commissar not to kill innocents indiscriminately, and could only order the position to be shrunk, and all troops were transferred to the highlands on both sides.
Zheng Ge ordered the political commissar's decision to misjudge Zhong Shaowen, who believed that this was the retreat of the bandit troops, so he ordered the supervision team to speed up the pace of the attack.
The fighters of the bandit force moved safely to the high ground on both sides, but without orders, they could not shoot, but could only watch as the vicious-looking bandits got closer and closer.
When the two sides were less than 50 meters apart, Zheng Ge ordered the political commissar to finally give the order to prepare for shooting. However, there is a premise that only the soldiers involved in the battle are allowed to draw good marksmanship to shoot, and only the bearded mages and the bandits who supervise the battle can be beaten, and try to avoid hurting the innocent.
Ma Ming, the leader of the 4th Company, was so quick-eyed that he had just received the order to fire, he pulled the trigger, and the bullet accurately hit a mage with a red beard, breaking one of his arms. This guy was very brave, the wound was bleeding, and he screamed and continued to climb the position.
The machine gunner Zhang Ting fired another point shot, and two machine gun bullets hit the red-bearded mage's chest, and this self-proclaimed knife and gun inaccessible guy finally died.
Gunfire broke out, and the sharpshooters of the bandit troops, specifically picking out those overseers and bearded mages, knocked down thirty or forty in a matter of moments.
But the bandits, who had fallen into a state of fanaticism, still mechanically climbed up the positions of the bandit troops, and did not seem to be afraid of the oncoming bullets.
At the critical moment, Wang Jing reminded that now the bandits will become more manic when they see blood, but they have a disadvantage, they are afraid of cannons, as long as they hear the sound of cannon shells exploding, the bold bandits turn around and run away, and the timid ones are like a pool of mud and paralyzed in place.
The artillery company of the 131st Division, which had come to assist in the battle, finally had a place to play, and more than a dozen mortar shells screamed over the bandits' heads and landed in a clearing outside the village of Shanchen. Dozens of bandits who were watching the battle there were suddenly blown up on their backs.
The sound of the explosion of the shell reverberated for a long time in the Tiegang Township Basin. Those walking dead-like "divine soldiers", as if awakened by the sound of explosions, stopped, looked around like a big dream, and then turned around and fled down the mountain.
The bandit troops wasted no time in sounding the charge trumpet, and the soldiers rushed out of their positions, holding bayonets, and chased after them.
More than 2,000 bandits were chased by more than 100 PLA fighters, desperate, and jumped into the valley of the cold water pit.
There were several mages of the Great Knife Society, and seeing that the situation was not good, they rushed towards the People's Liberation Army with large knives in their hands and words in their mouths.
Before they could get close, the mages were shot to the ground.
A battalion commander of the bandit unit surnamed Yu very humorously asked a big knife club: "Can the bullet hit the "divine soldier".
The bandit looked at one, several bullets in his body, and the mage who was struggling on the ground said, "The mages have all been knocked down, and the divine soldiers will be even more unable to withstand the bullets of the People's Liberation Army."
Commander Yu said, "Since you know that the defeat is decided, why don't you obediently lay down your weapons?"
So the bandits rushed over, and in short time, they seized more than 500 large knives by the side of the battalion commander.
This battle basically wiped out the big knife.
However, the bandit leaders Zhong Shaowen, Xu Yueli, Dai Li, and others, seeing that the general situation had gone, gathered their personal followers and stormed the Laoyakou position guarded by the Longmen County County Brigade.
The position was lost, and several bandits broke through from the lao crow's mouth and escaped to the forest-covered Hat Peak of Wulao Mountain.
Afterwards, although Zheng Geling organized troops, he conducted a large-scale search of the mountains around Tiegang Township, but finally found nothing.
In late March 1950, the 367th Regiment was ordered to garrison the Beijiang area to suppress bandits and evacuate Tiegang Township.
As soon as the bandit suppression troops left, Zhong Shaowen, Xu Yueli, and other bandit leaders made a comeback and continued to use their set of feudal and superstitious practices to enslave and seduce the local people.
However, only a dozen days later, the 388th Regiment of the 130th Division of the 44th Army of the 44th Field Army was ordered to suppress bandits in conghua and Huaxian counties, passing through Liangkou in Longmen County.
A few ordinary people found Jia Qingjiang, the leader of the 388 regiment, and told him about the heinous crimes of Zhong Shaowen and Xu Yueli's gang.
Commander Jia Qingjiang sent a reconnaissance detachment to understand the facts, and the results were basically consistent with the problems reported by the masses.
So Commander Jia decided to attack Tiegang overnight.
Liangkou is more than eighty miles away from Tiegang, and the 388th Regiment of the Bandit Force, guided by a guide, traveled overnight to Tiegang at dawn. He quickly surrounded the township office and several compounds where the bandits lived.
Because this combat operation was relatively secretive, the bandits were unaware of it in advance, and when the bandit troops blew the charge horn and rushed into the compound, many of the bandits were still asleep.
Some bandits entered bunkers and tried to hold on to them. The artillery of the bandit troops accurately hit the bunker, and in the soaring fire, more than 70 bandits were crushed to pieces.
The bandits were cornered and could only obediently raise their hands and surrender their guns.
In addition to the bandit leader Zhong Shaowen, who absconded to Hong Kong under the protection of three personal guards, dozens of other bandit leaders, including Xu Yueli and Dai Li, who were stubborn and stubborn, were captured alive.