Baiyangdian is located in the east of Baoding, Hebei Province, across the three counties of Xiongxiong County, Anxin and Renqiu. This beautiful freshwater lake covers an area of about 600 square kilometers. It merges the waters of the Tang River and the Lilong River, flows into the Haihe River through the Daqing River, and is the center of inland river shipping between Tianjin and Baoding. It is rich in white jade rice, fat fish and shrimp, tender lotus root and the famous Anzhou reed mat. It is like a dazzling pearl embedded in the vast Jizhong Plain.
In 1938, the claws of the Japanese army reached into Baiyangdian and settled down at Zhao Beikou and Tongkou. Since then, the Japanese motorboats have rampaged and overturned the fishing boats on the lake, crashed and broken the lotus stems in the lake, and even the tamed osprey was tragically killed. The bloody "Three Lights" policy turned forty-six villages in and along the shores of Yodo-ri into ruins; more than two hundred people were shot and killed in Duancun alone. The land of rich fish and rice has become a hell on earth.
However, the heroic people of Baiyangdian can never be conquered. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, they took up the big pole (large earth gun) to fight wild birds, drove the gun platoon (a small boat used to fight waterfowl) and fishing boats, and formed a water guerrilla force, the three squads of the Anxin County Brigade, and took advantage of the favorable terrain of the lake and river port to fight on Baiyangdian. The warriors sang their own songs, expressing their indomitable will:
Baiyangdian is our hometown, and defending our hometown should be,
As long as you are not a slave to the country, it is also comfortable to drink water,
Devils will not be destroyed for a day, and they will never put down their guns.
……
At that time, I was a propaganda committee member of the district committee and had been fighting with the squad. When the squad was first formed, there were only about twenty warriors, a dozen pairs of large poles, and twenty small boats. However, we knew Baiyangdian very well, and we had a wealth of experience in water life and hatred for the Japanese and the Kosovars, so in the first battle, we annihilated more than twenty Japanese ghosts who went from Xin'an to Zhao Beikou and destroyed a steamboat. After the battle, when we returned to Zhainan Village, in the crowd waiting to welcome us, an old man pointed to the fleet and praised loudly: "Look, how mighty, it is like a team of geese!" The people looked at the twenty small boats in the shape of human figures, and they also cheered in unison: "Yanling team! "Wild Goose Plume Team!"" Our Goose Plume Team!" Since then, the people of Baiyangdian have replaced our official name with the name of "Yanling Team". Soon, the superiors also officially named the three squads as the Yanling Team.
The Yanling team gradually developed and grew stronger during the battle. The earth gun was replaced with three or eight large covers, and the machine gun was crooked instead of the large lifting rod. By the end of 1940, the team had grown to more than one hundred and eighty men and had more than fifty ships. The Yanling Team was like a sharp knife, inserted into the throat of the enemy Jin and Bao Shui.
In 1941, the "sweeping" and "encroachment" of our Jin-Cha-Ji base area by the Japanese Kou became more frequent and cruel. The spearhead of "encroachment" first pointed to Jizhong, which is known as the "Cotton Grain Depot of the Eighth Route Army." In March, the enemy chieftain Guiben stationed in Xin'an mobilized more than one hundred and thirty steamboats from Tianjin and Baoding, and together with infantry and cavalry, began a joint water and land "sweep" and "encroachment" on Baiyangdian.
Enemy steamboats patrolled the White Ocean Lake. Japanese invaders, puppet armies, traitors, and spies, like countless locusts, are all over the villages of Baiyangdian. With nowhere to stand on the shore, we broke into pieces, using the cover of the reed pond to maneuver with the enemy on the lake. At this time, the things that can replace grain on Baiyangdian have not yet grown, and we only have fish and shrimp as rice. No oil, no salt, boiled fish and shrimp in clean water, fishy people vomit. For a long time, many people just fell on their stomachs and immediately spit out. But we all know the meaning of persevering, spit it out, gargle with water, and eat again! Without smoking, everyone crushed the dried lotus leaves into cigarettes and gave it a beautiful name, called "Lotus Brand". Although life is so hard, no one is crying bitterness, and we still actively seek opportunities to fight the enemy. The enemy's steamboats could not enter the reed pond, and the shallow water could not sail, so we drove small boats from this reed pond to that reed pond, from this river to that river, and sometimes ambushed at the edge of the reed pond through which the enemy's steamboats had to pass, and caught the enemy off guard; sometimes we used the cover of night to touch the enemy's stronghold, put up slogans and leaflets, and gave the enemy a surprise attack. The warriors made up this life into a song:
The east side "sweeps" the west side turns, and the shore does not squat reed pond.
Driving the boat is as fast as a shuttle, and the devil's steamboat can't catch up.
In a hurry, the devils turned around, and we went back to the old place.
See the opportunity to hit the ambush and beat him up.
In this way, we inhabited a flat leaf boat, spent sixty dewy foggy nights, survived sixty hungry days, and never left Baiyangdian.
Two months had passed, and the green reeds on the White Ocean Lake could not be seen at a glance. By this time, the Japanese soldiers had built thirty-eight artillery towers around Baiyangdian; and all the villages had established puppet regimes. They believed that Baiyangdian had been "secured" and hastily ended the "spring sweep". The enemy's chartered ships between Xin'an and Zhao Beikou also became frequent.
In the early morning of July 1, scouts Zhao Bo and Tian Zhenjiang reported that more than twenty Japanese soldiers and thirty puppet soldiers, two steamboats, went from Xin'an to Zhao Beikou to get in touch, and returned in the afternoon. Comrade Zheng Shaochen, the captain of the team, said to me excitedly: "Old Zhang, make an ambush to commemorate the birthday of the party, and also let the Japanese devils know that we are still in the Yanling team, don't be too arrogant." We decided to ambush the enemy in the reed pond of Dazhangzhuang. In order to fiercely suppress the fierce flames of the Japanese invading army, the large lifting rod that had not been used for a long time was also removed. When the comrades heard that they were going to fight the Japanese devil's steamboat, they were so happy that they could not close their mouths. The warrior trolley stabbed the bullet under the shoe. The captain asked him what he was doing, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Make the devil's head blossom!"
It was the dry season and many of the reed ponds had dried up. We put twenty pairs of large lifting rods filled with stuffy medicine and soybean-sized iron sand, and mounted them on the edge of the reed pond, with rifle and pistol squads on either side. It was stipulated that Captain Zheng would hit the Japanese soldiers at the helm as a signal, and the large poles would open fire at the same time, and the rifle squad and the pistol squad would charge at the enemy's steamboats when the enemy was beaten by the raised rods. The arrangement was ready, and it was almost noon. Everyone took a lotus leaf and put it on their heads to cover the sun, and if they didn't go to it, they wouldn't have noticed that there was an ambush here. It was easy to wait until the sun was to the west, and the sound of motors was faintly heard in the east. Everyone immediately tensed up, some crouched on the bow of the ship and looked out through the gaps in the reeds, while others took incense and crouched down beside the big pole. After a while, Tian Zhenjiang, dressed as a fisherman, rowed a small boat and whizzed in. He said with both excitement and regret: "Captain, here it comes!" Unfortunately, one is far away. "Captain Zheng and I studied it and agreed that as long as we put the airboat in front of us closer, our movements will be faster and braver, and we will catch him off guard, and it is entirely possible to get rid of the steamboat in the back before it arrives." Finally, Captain Zheng said firmly: "Fight! Fight resolutely! Come on him and pull teeth out!"
After a while, the enemy's steamboats broke through the calm water and rumbled in. Gradually, even the Japanese soldiers on the ship could see clearly. Captain Zheng was lying on the bow of the ship, and the barge gun protruded from the reed slit, aiming at the ghost soldiers of the rotary wheel. When the steamboat was only more than a hundred meters away from us, only a "bang" was heard, and the devil's soldiers on the rudder wheel fell down next to the rudder wheel. Immediately after, twenty pairs of large poles roared at the same time. The light of the fire reflected the red water, and the shotgun shells poured down on the enemy ships like a torrential rain. The steamboat that has lost its helmsman is like a spinning top that has been whipped. At this time, the rifle squad and the pistol squad also fired at the enemy ship with a platoon, and the steamboat was immediately beaten like a honeycomb, and the machine did not bark. Several uninjured enemies jumped into the water in an attempt to swim and escape. Captain Zheng shouted, "Punching the ammonia, dozens of small boats rushed out of the reed pond like arrows off the bow and shot straight at the steamboats of the Japanese invading army." As the warriors approached the enemy ship, they threw a row of grenades, and the enemy ship was immediately engulfed in fireworks. Then, everyone drove the boat to chase after the ghost soldiers who tried to escape. A member of the team found a Japanese soldier swimming in the water and shooting at me, he plunged into the water with a fierce son, and after a while, he saw him drill out of the water, and with both hands he strangled the ghost soldier's neck and pressed the ghost soldier into the water at once. In the blink of an eye, the ghost soldier floated out of the water like a piece of decaying wood. Another member of the team also chased a ghost, he raised the pen, the iron fork on the head of the pen aimed at the Head of the Japanese soldier and stabbed it down, until the water was no longer bubbling, he pulled out the penny. At this time, the rumble of the steamboat came from the east. The steamboats from Wangjiazhai were speeding forward while firing at me violently. Captain Zheng saw that the damaged steamboat had begun to tilt and sink, and immediately ordered it to be transferred. We drove the boat into the reed pond, deliberately flipped over, and sank the big lifting rod into the water. Then, each person picked a lotus leaf and put it on his head, carried a gun on his back, and swam towards the depths of the lotus pond. At this time, the lotus flowers on Baiyangdian are in full bloom, and on the endless lotus pond, the lotus leaves are swaying and the lotus flowers are swinging. Under the cover of dense layers of lotus leaves, interspersed with fragrant lotus flowers, we swam safely out of the encirclement.
After hitting the enemy's steamboats, the strongholds were full of rumors that the Yanling team had "broom cannons", and if they were caught with "broom cannons", they would be full of holes. The enemy's single ship no longer dared to travel back and forth on Baiyangdian. So we took advantage of the victory to go ashore and launched an attack on the enemy's stronghold.
At this time, most of the Japanese Kou returned to Xin'an, Zhao Beikou and other old villages, and most of the strongholds on Baiyangdian were guarded by puppet troops. In light of this situation, we first launched a political offensive against the puppet army. As soon as it got dark, we scattered and sneaked into the vicinity of the enemy's watchtower to propagate the principle of resisting Japan and saving the country, and to warn those who did wrongdoing by name. At the same time, it also generally mobilized the families and relatives and friends of the puppet army to write letters to the puppet army, advising them not to fight for the Japanese invading army and to leave a way back for themselves. For those hardcore traitors whom the masses hate to the bone, we have adopted a policy of making a show of one hundred, and have successively eliminated Han Enrong, the commander of the puppet army, Cao Molin, chief of staff, and Feng Dexin, aide-de-camp, who the masses call the "three evils," and announced their crimes. After this series of work, the number of puppet soldiers surrendering and secretly connecting with us is increasing. A series of victories have further encouraged the masses, and the mass struggle against the enemy has also been vigorously launched. The guerrilla group planted mines and shot cold guns everywhere, so that the enemy in the turret did not dare to go out.
Once, the village chief Chen Yunning went to Yodo to take a hook to fish, and when he returned, he met five Japanese soldiers and forced him to row a boat to take them to take a bath. Chen Yunning took the devil's soldiers to the landlord of the cloth fish hook, got into the water with the devil's soldiers, and slipped away in a small boat. As a result, the five ghost soldiers were hooked by the fish hook and the skin was broken and bleeding. Since then, Japanese devils no longer dare to go to Baiyangdian to take a bath.
With the concerted efforts of our military and civilians, more and more puppet troops fled. In order to strengthen the control of the puppet army, the Japanese army removed the strongholds of Dizhuang, Datianzhuang, and Zhainan Village, concentrated more than seventy puppet troops in the large courtyard of Zhu Million, a large landlord in Dayiantou, and added guard towers. The county party committee ordered us to resolutely eliminate this puppet army, and a clever war of annihilation began.
One night in August, dark clouds were thick and thunder rumbled, according to experienced fishermen, that there would be a storm in the middle of the night. Captain Zheng took Zhang Liang and Wang Gui, disguised as food delivery, and infiltrated the Zhu family compound under the help of the internal line relationship. Instructor Huai Zhemin, with the whole team, hid around the Zhu family compound. After midnight, the lights in the Zhu family compound were all turned off. After a while, I saw that the big iron door that usually opened ding ding was opened silently, Zhang Liang reached out and swung his hand, and the team members rushed in. It was here, thunder and lightning, and heavy rain pouring down, just to cover our movements. According to the prior arrangements, Di Zhike led two squads into the East Wing; Comrade Huai Zhemin led two squads to directly attack the second floor of the artillery tower; Zhao Bo, Li Xiangqi, and Zhang Niu dealt with Hu Fengcai, the puppet squadron leader of the West Wing; Captain Zheng, Zhang Liang, and Wang Gui climbed the ladder straight up to the top of the artillery building to collect the enemy sentries. A few minutes later, all the enemy guns in the east and west compartments and the turret were confiscated by us without a sound, while the puppet soldiers were still snoring. At this time, only Captain Zheng was heard shouting on the roof of the turret, "Don't move!" The second floor and the east and west compartments also erupted with the roar of "raise your hand". The puppet soldiers woke up from their dreams, some of them still lying down and raised their hands, and some of them raised their hands and muttered as if dreamingly: "I don't move!" I don't move!" Hu Fengcai, the squadron leader of the puppet army, thought in his sleep that the puppet army was talking in a dream, and got up and scolded: "Breed, you all call the Yanling team scared out of their guts..." But when he saw that it was the members of the Yanling team standing in front of him, he also hurriedly trembled and raised his hand and said, "I don't move, I hand over the gun!"
At the end of the battle, more than 38 guns and 50 guns, 1 pistol and more than 20 boxes of grenades were captured. Finally, we deliberately asked Hu Fengcai to check the number of people. He checked for half a day and said, "Only the brother-in-law Lao Zhu escaped, and there are many other ones." "Where does he know that Lao Zhu has long been our internal relationship, and this one-shot annihilation battle was arranged with his help." Now, he has been ordered to "escape" and "report" to the Japanese devils.
As our Yanling brigade became stronger and stronger, the enemy traveled to and from Tianjin and Baojian in chartered boats, and fearing that we would intercept the attack, we had to form groups and send a river defense brigade to escort them. In order to cut off the enemy's water transport line, the district committee decided to choose a favorable time to eliminate the river defense brigade. To this end, the troops sent Tian Zhenjiang and Zhao Bo with reconnaissance teams to haunt the enemy's strongholds all day long.
The day has finally arrived.
On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhao Bo returned from Zhao Beikou to report that the enemy had chartered 110 ships, laden with reed mats, duck eggs, wheat, and other military supplies, and departed from Zhao Beikou for Baoding in the morning. The river defense brigade in charge of the escort consisted of fifteen Japanese soldiers and one hundred and ten puppet soldiers, carrying one heavy machine gun and two light machine guns. This was really a rare and good opportunity, and we decided to ambush in the reed pond west of Zhao Zhuangzi Village and east of Wangjiazhai Village, annihilate the river defense brigade, and intercept the charter ship.
In the middle of the night, the moon is round and bright, like a silver disk hanging high on the blue sky. At the beginning of the bar, it tore through the brocade-like water surface and rippled like fish scales. The ship flew and entered the position at five o'clock. We hid the ships, wearing lotus leaves on our heads, and waited quietly for the enemy to come.
Before the mist had dissipated, there was a creaking sound in the distance. Looking up, a tall mast was exposed on the reeds. Then, Zhang Liang drove a duck-billed boat and drove the osprey into the reed pond. He went to scout the enemy. The results of the reconnaissance were completely consistent with Zhao Bo's report. As we spoke, the enemy's fleet appeared before us: in front of them were more than a hundred chartered ships, and the Japanese soldiers and puppet troops were sitting on the last three ships. They were more than a hundred meters away from the charter ship, unsuspecting, and were eating breakfast on the ground you snatched me. Only one watchtower sat on the horizontal plate at the tip of the mast, looking ghostly with a telescope. Captain Zheng immediately ordered everyone to hide well, let go of the chartered transport ship, and concentrate firepower on the river defense brigade.
The lake roared, and one charter boat after another sailed past us, and in a few moments more than a hundred of them all turned across the reed pond. The Japanese devils saw the charter ship turn a corner, shouting and hurrying to catch up. The first ship had just approached us, Captain Zheng "snapped" a shot, and the looking ghost soldier immediately fell on all fours to the sky. At the same time, all our firearms were fired at three enemy ships in unison. The enemy who was eating suddenly fell to the east and the west. Captain Zheng shouted, "The assault group will come with me," and dozens of small boats rushed towards the enemy ship at the same time. The warrior Shi Lao had just climbed onto the first ship and saw that the enemy's machine gun shooter was setting up a machine gun, so he threw a shot, killing the Japanese soldiers and grabbing the machine guns. Captain Zheng had just climbed onto the enemy ship when two ghost soldiers pounced on him at the same time. He knocked one down with one shot, and the other actually hugged him from behind, and the two twisted together, turning three times and rolling into the water. Captain Zheng's water nature is famous, he pressed the ghost soldiers into the water, and poured them into a gas clam At this time, Zhao Bo also led the rifle squad to rush onto the enemy ship, and in just a few minutes, the enemy on the first ship was all solved.
Di Zhike commanded the whole class to rush to the second boat. Not far from the charge, the enemy's heavy machine guns shouted, and the dense fire splashed and blocked our way forward. Di Zhike, Zhang Liang and Xiao Che saw that the boat was blocked, and plunged into the water, and a duck chased the fish and swam to the enemy ship. Di Zhike grabbed the boat gang and just climbed up and half-cut, and was shot and killed. When Zhang Liang saw it, he grabbed the boat gang with one hand, drew a grenade, bit open the lid with his teeth, hooked the string with the tip of his tongue, and aimed at the enemy's heavy machine gun and threw it hard. The enemy's machine guns were immediately muted. Zhao Shouted, "Comrades rush! Avenge the squad leader! First, he climbed onto the enemy ship and killed several recalcitrant enemies in a row. When the puppet army saw us board the ship, they were so frightened and frightened that a big man first raised his hand and drilled out of the cabin and said, "We hand over the guns, we hand over the guns!" A large group of puppet soldiers followed him. Only afterwards did I know that the big man who led the handover was Qin Fengxiang, the captain of the river defense brigade.
A light machine gun on the third ship was still barking like a vicious dog, and we rushed several times but failed to rush up. Captain Zheng jumped to the second ship and ordered the assault team to prepare for the attack, while lying on the pile of seats, calmly aiming at the machine gun shooter. All I hear is "Boom! trumpet! Boom!" Three shots in a row, the machine gun and the machine gun shooter rolled over at the same time. The assault group took advantage of the situation to climb on the enemy ship and engaged in a hand-to-hand battle with the Japanese devils. Shi Laogang and a stocky Japanese soldier were wrestling inextricably, and Zhao Bo shouted, "Old Gang, don't move!" When the words fell, the Japanese soldiers stretched out their hands and feet to finish the egg. The four Japanese devils and many puppet soldiers crowded in the cabin also raised their hands and surrendered in front of our shiny bayonets.
The battle ended in victory. Captain Zheng sent a fleet of ships to stop the charter ship, and at the same time checked the results of the battle. One heavy machine gun, two light machine guns, more than one hundred and ten rifles and ten pistols were seized. However, fifteen Japanese soldiers killed ten, captured four alive, and there was still one sorry to count. The warriors searched from this cabin to that cabin, but they were still missing. Finally, Zhang Daqing found a bulging sack next to the stove of the third ship, and he kicked it, and the sack kept screaming. He grabbed the sack and lifted it so hard that a Japanese devil rolled out of the sack, still holding a pistol in his hand. Zhang Daqing reached out and grabbed his gun, and on a closer look, it turned out that he was the murderous executioner born Kasaburo.
The sun is rising. The golden sun shone on the reed pond and shone on the smiling faces of the warriors. We carried more than a hundred chartered ships, lined up in a neat formation, majestic, triumphant.
Comrade Zhang Xiping Profile:
A native of Shenze County, Hebei Province, he was born in 1909 and joined the army in November 1937. In February 1938, he joined the Communist Party of China. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as an officer of the People's Self-Defense Army of Jizhong and the chief of the Propaganda Section of the Political Department of the Second Military Sub-district. During the Liberation War, he served as the director of the Propaganda Department of the Political Department of the First Column of the Central Military Region of Hebei. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the political commissar of the Cavalry Brigade of the Thirty-sixth Army, the director of the Propaganda Department of the Political Department of the Twenty-third Corps, the political commissar of the Russian Language College of the Central Military Commission, and the director of the Direct Engineering Department of the Political Department of the General Logistics Department. In October 1962, he was appointed deputy political commissar (deputy secretary) of the Fourth Military Medical University. From May 1960 to June 1981, he was a regular military adviser. He left his post in 1981 to recuperate. He was awarded the rank of colonel in 1955.