In the autumn of 1940, Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai commanded the Eighth Route Army to launch the "Hundred Regiments War" in North China, entering the second stage. In order to deal a fatal blow to the Japanese, the troops of our Taihang and Taiyue districts launched a fierce attack on the Japanese in Yushe and Liaoxian in Shanxi Province at that time, and the fighting was extremely fierce, and it lasted for several days and nights. The cunning Japanese army, in order to meet the enemy defending Yushe and Liaoxian counties, immediately mobilized some of the Japanese troops and supplies from Yangquan and Xiyang, and took more than twenty cars to the south along the highway through Heshun County.
At about 8:00 a.m. on August 21, twenty-four Japanese transport vehicles slowly approached our regiment's ambush circle on a winding and rugged mountain road. The Japanese army never dreamed that in the waist-high cornfield on both sides of the road, hundreds of officers and men of our regiment were already ambushed. 300 meters, 200 meters, 100 meters... "Fight!" Hu Zhen, the regimental commander, shouted loudly, and the officers and men of all battalions and companies opened fire with light and heavy firearms at the same time, and the sound of gunshots, killings, and grenade explosions suddenly resounded throughout the valley. The third Japanese transport vehicle was hit by a grenade and exploded, paralyzed in the middle of the road, and the car behind it was blocked and could not move. In half an hour, more than a hundred Japanese squadrons were eliminated, and two grenadiers, two light machine guns, and dozens of rifles were captured, with brilliant results.
But just as the troops were cleaning up the booty, they suddenly found two Japanese women in kimonos cowering in a tarpaulin carriage, about 20 years old, with a sallow face and sluggish eyes, and it seemed that both of them were injured. The two men clutched canvas bags with zippers in their hands, trembling uncontrollably. The two Japanese women turned out to be logistics support personnel in charge of finances in the Japanese army. In less than 5 minutes, the regimental commander sent an order to quickly clear the battlefield, burn the car, and shift the position! At this critical moment, a company leader with a submachine gun ordered two Japanese women to get out of the car quickly. But instead of getting down, they hugged each other tighter. A squad leader ordered two soldiers to drag them out of the car. Only to see them struggling desperately, refusing to come down. "Shoot again without coming down!" A squad of long fires, raised their submachine guns and roared. The two Japanese women seemed to understand the words of the squad leader and cried out in despair. At this moment, two bullets of "da, da" passed over their heads, and everyone was stunned.
"Squad leader, how do you shoot at the captives?" The company commander shouted at that time.
"Who told them not to get out of the car?" A squad leader pleaded.
"You can't get out of the car and shoot, this is the policy of our Eighth Route Army." The battalion commissioner saw this and quickly walked over to stop it.
"If only they are allowed to kill our people, we are not allowed to kill them?" I'm going to shoot today. An angry squad leader raised his gun again. It was too late, but it was fast, and the battalion commissioner rushed forward with an arrow, grabbed the gun in the hands of a squad leader, unloaded the magazine, threw it out vigorously, and threw the empty gun to the squad leader.
At this time, several fighters jumped on the car and tried to carry the two soulless Japanese women down and bandage the wounds, but they tightly dragged the car guardrail with their hands and refused to get out of the car. The soldiers all knew that due to the language barrier, these two Japanese women misunderstood our army. In order to overcome the language barrier, he walked forward, constantly making friendly gestures to the two Japanese women, exchanging body language, and finally the two finally understood and let the stretcher team carry them away.
At that time, because the Eighth Route Army had captured two Japanese female prisoners for the first time, considering that China and Japan were in a stage of hostility and stalemate, on the issue of how to deal with these two Japanese women, many people suggested that if they think about the Japanese army's animal behavior in dealing with the female soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, Chinese they should be shot immediately. So, during the rescue treatment, both Japanese women received the best treatment and the best care. Later, the two Japanese women received preferential treatment from our army in the base area and received the best treatment in the rear hospital. When they were sent back to China, they were both in tears, unable to cry, and bowed to the Eighth Route Army one after another. The squad leader who fired the trigger made a profound review at the regimental meeting for violating battlefield discipline. This incident had a great impact on the troops, and the soldiers understood the word "leniency" more deeply. It is precisely because of our Party's policy of leniency toward prisoners that tens of thousands of enemies have become friends and even revolutionary volunteers, and favorable conditions have been created for our army to win one great victory after another.