Deng Xihou, courtesy name Jinkang, nicknamed "Crystal Monkey", was born in 1889, a native of Yingshan County, Sichuan, a second-class general of the Nationalist Army, and a famous patriotic anti-Japanese general.
Deng Xihou was a very sleek and sophisticated person, an important figure in the Baoding department, and an important general of the Sichuan army faction.
Deng Xihou was born into poverty, lost his mother at the age of eight, lost his father at the age of ten, and was raised by his aunt Wen Shi.
At that time, in the tide of the great era, many of the people who stood at the forefront were from poor backgrounds, and the children of the so-called poor families had long been in charge.
Deng Xihou attended a private school in the township at an early age, and because of his talent and wisdom, he was deeply appreciated by his teacher Li Qiao.
Since Deng Xihou understood things, he began to understand the major affairs of the country under the guidance of his teacher.
The young Deng Xihou once said that the world rises and falls, and he has the responsibility of the puppet, and his dream is to seek a way out for the country, for his hometown, and for himself.
In 1906, Deng Xihou arrived in Chengdu, unfamiliar with life, just in time for the first phase of the Chengdu Army Primary School to recruit new students, so Deng Xihou decided to abandon Wen Congwu.
In 1909, Deng Xihou was sent to the Nanjing Fourth Army Middle School, which belonged to the Baoding Army Officer Academy.
After graduation, because of his top grades, he was sent to the first phase of the Baoding Army Officer Academy for further study.
On the eve of the beginning of the Xinhai Revolution, Deng Xihou left school without graduating and returned to Sichuan to join the New Army, during which time he met other generals of the Sichuan Army.
After the establishment of the Republic of China, he defected to Liu Cunhou and was assigned to the Fourth Division, successively serving as an adjutant and a company commander.
After the outbreak of the Patriotic War, Liu Cunhou took the lead in responding to the call to "oppose Yuan and protect the country", when Deng Xihou was already a battalion commander, and he followed Liu Cunhou to cooperate with Cai Yi's troops.
Deng Xihou fought bravely and with a flexible mind, defeated the Beiyang Army many times, and made great achievements.
During this period, he became acquainted with Zhu De, a general of the Dian Army, and the two cooperated with each other to repel the attacks of the Beiyang Army reinforcements many times.
Zhu De and Deng Xihou were both similar in age, both young officers from rural Sichuan, and with the experience of fighting together, they formed a deep friendship.
During the agrarian revolution, when Deng Xihou's troops fought against the Red Fourth Front, they hardly got any bargains. When fighting with the Red Army, it can be said that the troops did not contribute, and they fired a few shots at the air and withdrew.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Deng Xihou took the initiative to ask for help and went out of Sichuan to resist Japan.
Under the unified coordination of Liu Xiang, the Sichuan army sent two anti-Japanese troops, one was Yang Sen's department and the other was Deng Xihou's department.
During the period of the agrarian revolutionary war, the war of resistance against Japan, and the war of liberation, the generals of the Nationalist army changed their thinking.
The generals of the Nationalist army in the Baoding department and the wutang department were still quite active during the period of the agrarian revolution and when they were fighting the Red Army.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, many of them were high-ranking officers who served as theater commanders.
At the time of the Liberation War, they were rarely seen, and many were reluctant to participate in the civil war.
Most of the young officers of the Whampoa Department began to emerge during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and made great achievements one after another.
During the Liberation War, the Whampoa clan was basically high-ranking officers, and their ambitions still existed, and when they fought with the generals of the People's Liberation Army, the generals of both sides were superior.
On August 18, 1937, Liu Xiang summoned the generals of the Sichuan Army to go out of Sichuan to resist Japan.
There were six divisions of Liu Xiangbu, two divisions of Yang Senbu, two divisions of Deng Xihou' department, two divisions of Sun Zhenbu, and two divisions of Li Jiayu.
A total of 14 divisions of the Sichuan Army went to the front, and Chiang Kai-shek appointed Liu Xiang as the commander-in-chief of the Second Reserve Army, Deng Xihou as the commander of the First Column, and Tang Shizun as the commander of the Second Column, under the unified command of Liu Xiang.
On September 5, the Sichuan Provincial Anti-Enemy Support Meeting was held in Chengdu Shaocheng Park, and people from all walks of life in Sichuan Province sent farewell to the anti-enemy soldiers in Sichuan.
The meeting was attended by Liu Xiang, Tang Shizun, Deng Xihou, Sun Zhen, Pan Wenhua, Zhang Lan, etc., as well as about 10,000 people's representatives and students.
When Deng Xihou delivered his speech, his tone was resolute and his attitude was clear, saying that the Sichuan people had a patriotic and traditional spirit, the Huanghuagang martyrs had Sichuan people, the Xinhai Revolution had Sichuan people, and there were Sichuan people in the Battle of Defending the Country.
When the country and the nation are facing the critical moment of life and death, we, as soldiers, should desperately strive for the glory of history.
After the Sichuan army left Sichuan, it won a battle, of course, it was a glorious return, the battle was invincible, and it was determined to wrap the body and return it.
When we went out to resist Japan in Sichuan, we must march forward on the blood of the martyrs, and we hope that the people in the rear will bravely step on our blood, so that the former servants will surely be able to defeat the enemy.
All the troops set off from Chengdu and traveled along the Sichuan-Shaanxi Highway to Baoji, walking an average of only about 70 miles a day, arriving in Baoji after 30 days, and then transferring to the train to Xi'an.
On September 12, the Battle of Pingsui was fierce, and the Japanese army was directly approaching the north of Jin.
On September 18, the war in northern Jin was tight, and the Japanese invaded Niangziguan several times, and the northern Jin dynasty fought fiercely for several days, and the war situation deteriorated.
In October 1937, Deng Xihou's vanguard troops arrived in Xi'an, and on the orders of Chiang Kai-shek, they immediately rushed to Shanxi to reinforce Niangziguan.
On October 26, the Nationalist government in Nanjing appointed Liu Xiang as the commander of the Seventh Theater, and Deng Xihou and Sun Zhen were appointed as the chief and deputy commanders-in-chief of the 22nd Group Army.
The climate in the north is cold, and the soldiers of the Sichuan Army are still single-clothed and shorts, barefoot and grassy.
The situation of the war suddenly changed, and there was no time to wait for the distribution of equipment.
The generals were bent on killing the enemy and serving the country, obeying the dispatch, without complaint, and without sufficient logistical supplies, they crossed the Tong Pass, crossed the Yellow River, entered Shanxi, and rushed to the front.
One rifle and two grenades, the types of guns were so complex that the caliber was inconsistent, most of the companies were all rifles and lacked automatic firepower.
Under such equipment, the officers and men of the Sichuan Army fought against the Japanese with their flesh and blood with patriotic enthusiasm.
The Japanese army was fierce, Yan Xishan abandoned Taiyuan, and Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Deng Xihou's troops to Henan and place them under the command of Cheng Qian, commander of the First Theater.
Whether it was Yan Xishan or Cheng Qian, they did not like the Sichuan Army, they felt that the Equipment of the Sichuan Army was backward, and once it was received, it had to be distributed with equipment, which was equivalent to a loss-making business in the era of lack of weapons and ammunition at that time.
The Battle of Xuzhou changed the fate of the Sichuan army and changed the perception of the Chinese people toward them, and was commanded by Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater.
When Li Zongren was deploying the Battle of Xuzhou, Han Fuyu of Shandong fled all the way backwards, and his rout disrupted Li Zongren's campaign deployment and was a fatal blow to the Nationalist forces participating in the Battle of Xuzhou.
Half of the nationalist forces in the Battle of Xuzhou were still on the march, such as Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army, which was on its way.
Sun Lianzhong and Pang Bingxun of the Northwest Army had just arrived, the fortifications had not yet been built, and heavy weapons and ammunition were still on the way to be transported.
Li Zongren asked Chiang Kai-shek for troops, but Chiang Kai-shek had no soldiers in his hands, and when Li Zongren was at a loss, Bai Chongxi called and said that he had a unit in his hands and asked Li Zongren if he wanted it?
Li Zongren immediately said yes, and when Bai Chongxi told him that this unit was the 22nd Group Army of Deng Xihou and Sun Zhen, Li Zongren was silent for a moment.
The main reason for this situation is that the Sichuan army was relatively poorly equipped, and at that time, the reputation was not good, and the Sichuan army rushed to the anti-Japanese front without resting, and the casualties of the troops were relatively large.
Yan Xishan agreed to supply, but Yan Xishan's supplies had to be supplied to the Jin Sui army first, and the Sichuan army was in the back.
The Sichuan army could not get supplies, and when they retreated, they encountered the military warehouses of the Jin Sui Army and directly robbed them.
After Yan Xishan learned of this, he accused the Sichuan Army of extremely weak combat effectiveness, ineffective resistance to Japan, and more than enough disturbances for the people, and that the Second Theater would never leave such a unit as the Sichuan Army.
Chiang Kai-shek transferred Deng Xihou's troops to the first theater of operations, and Cheng Qian did not want it either, believing that the sichuan army's combat effectiveness was poor and not enough to fight against the Japanese army's first division.
In this case, the Sichuan army was sent to Li Zongren's fifth theater of operations.
In the Fifth Theater, Li Zongren allocated 500 brand-new medium-sized rifles to the Sichuan Army, and at the same time ordered a large number of bullets, grenades and mortars to be handed over to the Sichuan Army.
The task of the Sichuan army was to hold tengxian county, and Deng Xihou immediately led his troops to tengxian county.
The 22nd Army is nominally a group army, but in fact it has two divisions of troops, totaling more than 20,000 people.
By the time the Sichuan army arrived at Tengxian County, the Japanese army had already captured the county seats around Tengxian County.
At that time, the military situation was very urgent, and the Japanese Isotani Rinsuke's 10th Division, all heavy weapons had been assembled, and it was possible to attack at any time.
Sun Zhen ordered Wang Mingzhang to take command and defend the tengxian front line with all his might.
The ordinary people of Shandong around Tengxian County were very supportive of the anti-Japanese resistance, and they sent a large number of cabbages, noodles, pork, tofu, firewood, and so on to the officers and men of the Sichuan Army.
During the battle, the common people of Teng County carried a large number of wounded soldiers of the Sichuan Army to the rear and went all out to protect the wounded of the Nationalist Army.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Japanese army's first division was the elite of the elite, and the Japanese army that invaded TengXian was the 33rd Brigade regiment of the 10th Division of Ryosuke Isoya, with two companies.
In the early morning of March 14, 1938, more than 10,000 Japanese troops attacked the outer positions of Tengxian County in all directions, and although the Sichuan army was at an absolute disadvantage, it basically held its position after a bloody battle on the 14th.
On March 15, one Japanese attacked the frontal positions of the Sichuan Army, and the other directly attacked Tengxian in a roundabout way.
Under the strong attack of the Japanese army, the Sichuan army suffered heavy casualties, and there were almost no soldiers on the position.
In the evening, with the cooperation of tanks and aircraft, the Japanese army broke through the frontal positions on the outskirts of the Sichuan Army in one fell swoop and directly approached the second-line positions of the Sichuan Army.
Whether it was artillery, mortars, light and heavy machine guns, the Sichuan army could not compete with the Japanese army, the Sichuan army position was basically flattened, and the perimeter was only defended for two days.
The task of the Japanese army was not to annihilate the Sichuan army, but to occupy TengXian and open up the communication route to Taierzhuang in the south.
With the cooperation of aircraft artillery, the Japanese army drove straight in and directly attacked Teng County.
Wang Mingzhang knew that Teng County would fall, and the only thing he could do was to hold on to it for one day or another, and even if he could hold out for one more second, he could buy time for the deployment of the Battle of Taierzhuang.
On March 16, the Japanese launched a fierce attack on Tengxian County, bombarded by artillery and aircraft, and the entire bombardment lasted for two hours.
More than 3,000 shells and more than 100 aerial bombs fell in the county seat of Tengxian County, most of the buildings were destroyed, and even the city wall of the county seat was blown out of the gap.
The Sichuan Army was the only garrison on the outskirts of Taierzhuang, and once Tengxian was abandoned, Taierzhuang was directly exposed to the Japanese army, and no longer had a unit to stop the Japanese army.
After the end of the shelling, the Japanese army began a full-scale offensive, the main direction of attack was the east gate of Teng County.
The Japanese concentrated dozens of light and heavy machine guns to fiercely strafe near the gap in the city wall and suppress the fire of the Sichuan army.
In one morning, the Japanese attacked five times, all of which were repelled by the Sichuan army with grenades.
In the afternoon, the Japanese attack was more fierce and more targeted, and the Japanese used artillery and aircraft to target the walls of Tengxian County and bombed them wildly.
On 17 March, the Japanese launched another all-out assault, with much more intensity than the day before.
TengXian All the houses in the city except for an American church were flattened.
After heavy shelling, the Japanese army covered the entire line with more than a dozen tanks to attack Tengxian County.
The Sichuan army suffered heavy casualties in the shelling, but still stubbornly defended the city walls of Tengxian County.
As long as the Japanese army approached the city wall, it would be bombarded with grenades, and for a whole morning, the Japanese army could not move forward.
From the 14th onwards, the battle lasted for four consecutive days, and even the TengXian had not yet been occupied, and the Japanese army could not have looked down on the Sichuan army, and Isotani Ryosuke felt that it was a disgrace, and he ordered the seiya Kei brigade headquarters to carry out a large-scale general attack.
Subsequently, thousands of Japanese troops rushed into Teng County and engaged in street battles with the Sichuan army.
The various units of the Sichuan army have gradually fallen into the encirclement, Wang Mingzhang led the troops to the Xiguan, where the Japanese army was the least, to continue to resist, in the process of transfer, Wang Mingzhang encountered the fierce strafing of the Japanese heavy machine gun troops, and Wang Mingzhang was unfortunately shot and killed.
At the same time that General Wang Mingzhang was martyred, the generals of the Sichuan Army did not stop fighting, and the remaining officers and men spontaneously engaged in a street battle with the Japanese army for a day and a night.
They clung to one house after another, often fighting until the last person to lose it, and collectively issued a vow that they would rather die in battle than be slaves.
The Sichuan army held tengxian for more than five days, during which it was shelled by the Japanese army more than 30,000 rounds, basically all of which suffered casualties.
It is said that in the end of the battle, the Sichuan army, which was wounded and unable to walk, did not want to be captured by the Japanese army, and embraced together to detonate grenades and kill themselves, and finally broke out of the city with only more than 200 people.
Li Zongren once commented that if there was no hardship in Teng County, there would be a great victory in Taierzhuang, and the results of the Battle of Taierzhuang would have been caused by the martyrs of Teng county.
After the Battle of Taierzhuang, Deng Xihou led his troops to garrison Lunan, which was the hometown of Confucius, and Deng Xihou deliberately rectified military discipline and strictly forbade his subordinates to disturb the people.
Later, Deng Xihou returned to Sichuan to preside over the military affairs of Chuankang, and he sent soldiers to the front line, provided weapons, grain, etc., and did his best for the War of Resistance Against Japan.
In the Liberation War, Deng Xihou, Liu Wenhui, Pan Wenhua, Chen Lanting and others led an uprising.