introduction
*This article is excerpted from the ninth volume of "Selected Literary and Historical Materials of Eastern Arabia" (no publication date specified), written by Tian Weixin, and the original title is "My Combat Life in the Independent Battalion"
body
In the winter of 194O, the Japan invading forces continued to "sweep" the base areas against Japan and implemented the "three lights" policy of exterminating people. In the face of unprecedented difficulties, the military and civilians in the Taihang Mountains are waging an arduous struggle. In light of the needs of the development of the situation, the General Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army decided that the Third Column of Decisive Death would also be in charge of the struggle against the enemy in the Third Army Division. At that time, I was the political director of the guerrilla detachment of the Third Column of Decisive Death. Towards the end of his year, Comrade Fu Yutian, political commissar of the Third Army Division, came to me and said: "According to the comrades, you are doing a good job and are very good. The party committee decided that you should go to the independent battalion of Qi County to be a political commissar, where the situation was very complicated and the struggle was very difficult. What are your comments on the assignment of work? I immediately replied, "I am not afraid of complexity, nor am I afraid of difficulties, and I dare to go forward." But to say that I am very good and dare not be good is an exaggeration. He also said: "Comrade Wang Yilun, secretary of the prefectural party committee, is still ready to talk to you, and your work as political commissar has been decided." "Wang Yilun and Comrade Wen Jianping again talked about the idea of making me secretary of the county party committee, and I considered that I lacked experience in comprehensively grasping the military and local work, and said that I was not competent for the job. Seeing that I insisted again and again, they agreed that I should not be the secretary of the county party committee.
However, I have to take part in the work of the county party committee, be in charge of the armed struggle and construction of Qi County, and make conclusions and write reports on all military issues, and be directly responsible to the prefectural party committee. On January 1, 1941, I took a messenger and arrived at Xiawa Village, where the independent battalion was located.
1. Commanded in times of crisis
Qi County is located more than 70 kilometers west of Taiyuan.
It is high in the southeast and low in the northwest, most of it is Pingchuan, and the Changyuan River runs through the whole county, and then flows into the Fen River. The land here is fertile, and the economy, commerce and transportation have developed well, so it enjoys the title of "Golden Taigu, Yinqi County" in Shanxi. At that time, the three local committees under Qi County were the hinterland of the Taihang Anti-Japanese Base Area, and there were important organs such as the Northern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and the headquarters of the 129th Division. Qi County is not only the northwest gateway of the Taihang Mountains, but also the hub of the Tongpu Baijin Railway, which is located on the "human" interface of the two major traffic arteries. Qi County is also our party's communication line to and from Yan'an, covering the passage of many comrades such as Chen Yi, Xu Xiangqian, Lu Dingyi, and Chen Guang. Because of these characteristics, Qi County has become a strategic point that must be fought for by the enemy and us.
While intensifying their all-out attacks on our base areas, the Japanese invaders, the puppet army, and the Kuomintang reactionaries pursued a policy of "strengthening public order," especially exerting extremely strict control over the communication routes. After the "Battle of the Hundred Regiments," the enemy set up a stronghold a few kilometers along the railways and highways, and formed a criss-crossing network of movement lines, not only scattering "chess pieces" in Pingchuan around the county seat of Qixian County, but also wedged "nails" in the mountainous areas on which the anti-Japanese armed forces were based. The enemy and the whole county have joint defense, each village has a "maintenance committee" and a "village protection team," and the activities of the gendarmes and plainclothes agents are very rampant, and Qi County has become a "model county" for the enemy.
The two companies of the independent battalion were pressed by the enemy on the eastern hill and were constantly threatened by encirclement and flanking attacks, and were militarily in a situation of being passively beaten. It was the middle of winter, and the soldiers had no clothes to keep out the cold, so they had to borrow quilts from the common people, sleep under the cover at night, and drape them on their bodies during the day, tied with ropes, and the masses jokingly called our soldiers "sack Taijun". Food is even more scarce, and there is often a situation of waiting for rice to be put into the pot. The masses of the people, local cadres, and troops are all shrouded in pessimism and disappointment. At the end of the 40th year, Zhang Zixiu, the commissioner of the independent battalion, led a platoon to surrender to the enemy. Not long after I arrived at the independent battalion, battalion commander Wang Guangqian, county magistrate Ren Tingheng, and public security chief Li Youkui also surrendered to the enemy. In the four districts below the county level, apart from Gu Lang, the head of the third district, Li Jie, the head of the fourth district, and other comrades are still persistent, the first and second districts are no longer cadres, and the mass work is basically paralyzed, forming the most serious and difficult situation in Qi County.
2. Rectify the team, consolidate Dongshan, and face Pingchuan
The instructions of the prefectural party committee on the work in Qi County are: Take the armed struggle as the center and Pingchuan as the focus. After I arrived at the Independent Battalion, after repeated investigation and reflection, I decided to proceed from reality, first by reorganizing the ranks, consolidating the independent battalion's base in Dongshan, and then carrying out work facing Pyongcheon, so as to create conditions for shifting the focus of work to Pyongchon in the next step. After the battalion commander of the independent battalion surrendered to the enemy, I immediately announced Comrade Wu Kelu as the deputy battalion commander, and soon the sub-division formally appointed him. At my request, the sub-district sent a number of cadres, including Commissioner Yan Qilin, Company Commander Peng Shouqi, Instructor Wang Longbao, and Administrator Liu Wen. First of all, we carried out political education and discipline rectification, made it clear that the arduous and protracted nature of the anti-Japanese struggle and the armed struggle against the enemy was the only way out of life and death, carried out re-education in the new stage of the War of Resistance against Japan, strengthened our belief in the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, aroused the spirit of defending the base areas to the death, overcame the low morale of the fighting spirit, and preached the three major disciplines and eight points of attention. strengthen the cohesion of the troops, overcome liberalism and hooliganism; We should study the decision of the Central Committee on investigation and study, mobilize the masses to use various means to conduct investigation and study of the enemy, put forward proposals that seek truth from facts, make it clear to everyone the truth that armed struggle cannot be separated from the masses of the people, and focus on the struggle against the enemy, carry forward democracy, mobilize the masses, grasp the building and transformation of the militia, win over the work of the puppet regime, and break the enemy's political "encirclement and suppression." Second, it is necessary to establish and improve the party organization and living system, and require every cadre to go deep among the fighters, talk heart-to-heart, show concern for weal and woe, and build a strong "fighting fortress" from within. At the same time, training and management should be grasped, and Liu Wen, the battalion administrator, was responsible for collecting grain in the three districts, solving supply difficulties, and creating minimum living conditions. As a result of these efforts, the mental outlook and living conditions of the whole battalion have changed, the contingent has gained vitality, and the armed struggle in Qi County has taken a turn for the better.
In order to combat the enemy's arrogance and strengthen the anti-Japanese momentum, we reconnoitred everywhere and looked for fighters. After the situation is clarified, ask the higher authorities to send troops to support the battle. In April 41, Liu Changyi, chief of staff of the division, led the Ninth Regiment to Qi County. According to intelligence, the enemy car convoy from Taiyuan was going to pass through the Zihongkou stronghold and enter the mountainous area. According to our analysis, the closer the enemy got to his stronghold, the more paralyzed he became, so we decided to set up an ambush outside Zihongkou, with the Ninth Regiment taking the lead in attack, and the independent battalion intercepting vehicles to send reinforcements. The battle was fought cleanly, and it took only more than half an hour to destroy four Japanese military vehicles, completely annihilate the enemy who were escorting the vehicles, seize all the firearms and materials, and a number of reinforcements from the Zihongkou stronghold were also killed and wounded. The victory of the ambush battle will increase my ambition and destroy the enemy's majesty.
In order to realize the intention of launching an armed struggle against Pingchuan, it is necessary to remove the obstacles to westward expansion. In the 41st year of the wheat season, we decided to uproot the Lucun stronghold. We have done thorough research in advance and have accurate information. Lu Village is five miles north of Zihongkou, close to the railway, and there is a puppet army platoon. They carried out joint defense with the puppet army in Taigu County and supported each other. This battle must be fought well, and it is advisable to be outwitted and clever, and to rely on a quick battle to achieve a quick victory. To this end, I selected 20 sturdy soldiers from the whole battalion to disguise themselves as the Taigu County garrison and made detailed plans for this operation.
At dawn one day, our "puppet army" riding bicycles and waving the Japanese puppet army flag arrived at Lu Village, and the puppet army sentry standing guard at the gate saw us and nodded to greet us. We went straight into the compound where the puppet army lived, and twenty or thirty puppet soldiers were still in a dream, and the soldiers quietly entered the house, first collected the guns and ammunition, and then shouted: "Get up quickly!" There is a case! "The puppet army blew up the nest at once. When the pseudo platoon commander Xue Cheng was awakened and touched the pistol, he was caught by our soldiers. "Hands up,
We are the Eighth Route Army. "The puppet army has become a prisoner's room. At that time, there was also a sentry on the roof, and when he reported that it was too late, he fired a shot into the sky to report to the enemy in Zihongkou, and was immediately caught. It was this shot that became the subject of a good story among the military and civilians in the base area: a bullet pulled out a stronghold. This Xue Cheng was later put back to Qi County as an "inner line", and when our army attacked the county seat of Qi County in the future, he led his troops to revolt, opened the west gate, and took our army into the city, and was later appointed as the leader of my squadron.
As a result of reorganizing the ranks and cracking down on Japanese puppets, the prestige of the independent battalion among the masses has been increased day by day, and its internal unity has become closer, so that problems can be discovered in a timely manner. A soldier reported that Li Jia, the squad leader of the fifth squad of the Seventh Company, often instigated discontent and had irregular contacts with some people. In connection with the situation that there are many strange words and rumors in Qilian, this incident has aroused my vigilance. To be on the safe side, I asked the scouts sent by my superiors to the security department to be lined up in the fifth squad as civilians joining the army. He did what he liked, and was gradually regarded as a confidant by Li Jia, and "joined" the reactionary organization.
One day three months later, the scout came running and reported: "Li Jia is ready to make a move when the sun is pressing down on the treetops today, and after solving the battalion headquarters, he will pull away the team and surrender to the enemy who is far away." He also said, "This is absolutely true, and I am responsible to the party." "I immediately arranged with Commissioner Yan Qilin, and according to the twenty-three lists I had learned in advance, I confined them one by one and escorted them to the military sub-districts for review. Li Jia confessed that he was a spy sent by Taiyuan to fight for Qi County to enter our army. After the trial of the four main culprits by the Military Justice Department of the 129th Division, we convened an anti-traitor victory meeting convened by the local masses to announce the crimes and suppress them on the spot. The cracking of the Li Pin case had a great impact on the district, and Commissioner Yan Qilin was commended by the district. As a result of further anti-traitor education, the vigilance of cadres, fighters, and the masses has been raised, the ranks have been purified, and the enemy has been isolated.
Since the second half of '41, we have continued to adopt the policy of combining military strikes with political struggles to destroy the puppet regime and establish our anti-Japanese regime. In villages far from enemy-occupied areas, militia units were developed, and organizations such as peasant associations, youth associations, and children's leagues were established; In the villages close to the enemy-occupied areas, we waged an anti-maintenance struggle, struck at the traitors and the evildoers, won over the middlemen, and established a two-faced revolutionary regime that was ostensibly Japanese and hypocritical, but in fact worked for us, and caused the enemy maintenance associations and other organizations to collapse one after another.
[Liu Wen Guerrilla] In 41 years, in order to strengthen the work of the Third District, we sent Liu Wen and other comrades. Liu Wen was politically firm, bold and careful, and brave in battle, and he took two soldiers, Wang Zhengang and Gao Fazeng, who were born as railway workers, and called the "Liu Wen guerrillas," into the third district. Their tasks are, first, to attack and harass the enemy, second, to find out information, third, to engage in food, and fourth, to propagate and organize the masses. They wore civilian clothes, did not use short guns, were agile, and attacked small groups of Japanese puppet troops everywhere to punish traitors and puppet village chiefs. It didn't take long for the enemies in the three districts to retreat into their strongholds, terrified. When the puppet village chief saw Liu Wen's letter, he hurriedly sent food to the guerrillas. With the tightening of the scope of activities of the Japanese puppet army, we took the opportunity to develop militias in some villages, establish a two-faced regime as eyes and ears, and collect military rations. By May '42, half of the villages in the three districts were in our hands, and some villages had become two-faced regimes. After the 3rd Sector succeeded, it became a springboard for the independent battalion to enter the 2nd Sector. At this point, the pattern of consolidating Dongshan and facing Pyeongcheon was formed.
3. Advance to Pingchuan
Strategically speaking, shifting the focus of work to Pingchuan is the phased goal of our independent battalion in Qixian County. How can this transfer be achieved? In what form is the work carried out? To solve this problem, we still use the old method of in-depth investigation and throwing stones to ask for directions. During the wheat harvest season in '42, I, the secretary of the county party committee, the chief of the civil affairs section, and the "Liu Wen guerrillas," and nine other people, formed a temporary reconnaissance team and infiltrated the second district in the Pingchuan area from Lucun to conduct direct reconnaissance.
On the first day we were in a desperate situation. The Japanese puppet army, which was urging the delivery of public rations, found us and chased after us with shouts, and we ran into a village and climbed over the wall into the villager's house. The village was to sustain the enemy, and the villagers were very afraid, and after repeated work, they allowed us to hide and gave us some food. After an hour, we estimated that the enemy was gone, so we took our leave of our fellow countrymen. As soon as they left the village, they encountered the enemy again, and this time they could not enter the village, so they ran forward along the village road, and the gunfire rang out from behind. I saw a rain crack on the side of the road, so I led the way out and slipped down, and there happened to be a hole dug by the common people when they were digging the earth, and it was recessed into the road. We didn't dare to come out of the atmosphere when we were huddled inside, and we only listened to the "whooh, whew, thump" of the enemy overhead. After a while the enemy turned back again, and we drilled forward along the rain fissure, and before we knew it, we came to a graveyard with a cliff in front of us, and there was no road, and we were ready to fight to the death. I lowered my voice and told everyone, "Don't shoot without my orders!" "Perhaps the enemy did not come this way, but faintly heard a few shouts and walked away.
After several days of reconnaissance, we felt that the enemy's strength in the second area was still very strong, and for the time being it did not have the conditions for carrying out its work in an all-round way, so it was better to send a stronger guerrilla force to attack and harass the enemy first, so as to gradually strengthen the anti-Japanese forces. Therefore, I selected 20 people, equipped with better weapons, and formally formed Liu Wen's guerrilla force and entered Pingchuan.
In the winter of 42, the guerrillas reported on the situation of the second squadron of the puppet army stationed in Xiagu County, and the fighters appeared again. There is a Tucheng in Xiagu County, and every day the puppet army comes out of the pillbox in the northeast corner of the city and goes to the wheat field in the northwest corner to do exercises. Except for the platoon leader on duty, who brought a pistol, everyone else ran with their bare hands. I was very happy when I heard this, and immediately made up my mind to attack the ancient town. Because on the one hand, the enemy made the mistake of separating men and guns; On the other hand, the common people hate this state traitors very much, especially the squadron leader surnamed Han is so bad that he has long asked to clean them up.
According to the terrain, I divided the fighters into three groups: the machine gun group was set up on the hill at the corner of the city to carry out the cover mission, and the other two groups dug through the earthen fence and entered the city. The method of digging the wall was provided by a fellow countryman, and he stabbed and swirled with a cattle-killing knife, and soon it was a big hole without a sound. The warriors who got into it were hidden in the hut northwest of the wheat field, and one of them hid behind the gate of the east wall of the wheat field. After a while, the puppet army came in formation, and as soon as they entered the courtyard, there was a "bang" and the door was closed. The soldiers poured out of the hut, and the puppet army was driven into the hut without even changing their formation. One group guarded the prisoners, while the other quickly pounced on the pillbox. Rushing to the forefront was Wang Zhengang, who was unfortunately shot and died. The angry warriors fought hard and quickly ended the battle, killing the recalcitrant puppet army and seizing most of the guns and ammunition. After the two groups converged, under the cover of the machine gun group, the prisoners were escorted out of the city, and the battle ended victoriously.
Not long after the surprise attack on Xiagu County, we fought another skillful battle. After the Lucun stronghold south of Zihongkou was uprooted, the battle between the enemy and us to seize the road continued.
I don't know which one is the problem
The Japanese puppet built a stronghold in the gully rock east of Lu Village, and became a "roadblock" in the mountains and outside the mountains. To the east of Runqiyan, there is a grange, because I often take a few people to do mass work, I am very familiar with the terrain in this area, and I have a good relationship with the villagers. Because my surname is Tian, I also recognized a few "families" in the grange. Through these people, I got a very detailed picture of the enemy. The east side of the hill near our side is garrisoned by Japanese troops, and the west side of the hill near the enemy-occupied area is garrisoned by puppet troops. On weekdays, the puppet army is not allowed to go to the Japanese army's bunker, but the Japanese army can come to check, which is a gap, and because the Japanese army is deployed in the front, the puppet army can sit back and relax and kill them by surprise. After I considered it maturely, I called Peng Shuqi, the commander of the seventh company, and other cadres to arrange the battle plan. Everyone felt that the plan was very thorough, but they were still worried about whether it could be realized. I said just like that, foolproof.
On a dark night with a northwest wind, it was estimated that the enemy sentries would shrink up if they could not withstand the severe cold, so I took the Seventh Company to touch it. Company Commander Peng led some people to block the possible way to reinforce the enemy, and the people I led were divided into two groups, one close to the Japanese pillbox to attract and pin them down, and the other to end the puppet army's nest. The courtyard of the puppet army was built next to the mountain, and we went down the leg of the mountain to the roof. Several soldiers jumped from the roof and quickly opened the courtyard and house doors, and the puppet army was quickly captured. The sentry on the roof shouted and jumped out of the courtyard, and as soon as he landed, he was subdued by the warrior I was hiding at the base of the wall. When the Japanese heard the movement in the bunker, they hurriedly opened fire, and immediately tasted dozens of grenades under their noses in return, and the bombed "嗥 [háo] 嗥" screamed. Ten minutes, the battle was over. Originally, the puppet army only had one squad stationed, but today it happened that there was also a squad from Zihong Town to change guards. At this time, two squads of puppet soldiers and more than 20 guns were captured. Such skillful battles and unexpected gains made the fighters happy. Company Commander Peng jumped around me like a child and said, "Political commissar, this battle is cleverly fought, how can it be calculated so accurately." I said, "If you want to fight a skillful battle, you rely on reconnaissance, and the information provided by the villagers is accurate." ”
[One chicken in exchange for six guns] along the Baijin Road to the north, to the junction with Fenggou, there is a stronghold of the Japanese army.
The Japanese pillbox is set up on the mountainside, the pillbox is surrounded by courtyards, a squad leader named Wang Yongzheng after a detailed investigation, that as long as the courtyard gate is opened, there is a way to attack the enemy, we adopted his opinion, taking advantage of the night, several soldiers disguised as ordinary people knocked on the courtyard door of the stronghold with an old chicken, a puppet soldier opened the crack of the door and asked: "What are you doing?" Wang Yongzheng replied: "Send intelligence." The puppet army said, "Stuff the information in." Wang Yongzheng said, "There are also chickens to comfort the brothers, open the door." As he spoke, he picked up the old chicken and shook it. As soon as the door opened, several warriors rushed in, rushed into the house as planned, forced the enemy to collect their weapons, and after succeeding, the warriors quickly withdrew from the battle. After walking a few tens of meters, the enemy in the pillbox fired a gun to "see him off". When he went, he carried a chicken, and when he returned, he carried six more guns.
In this enterprising winter, the independent battalion also attacked the Nantuanbai stronghold, suppressed the Japanese puppet translator and other traitors, sabotaged the railway from Zihongkou to Pantuo, and destroyed many villages and towns puppet regimes. The continuous military offensive has caused the enemy to have no peace all day long. By the end of the year, most of the villages in Qi County had been liberated, the small Japanese strongholds had been completely lost, and the enemy was forced to huddle in a few larger strongholds to live in fear.
In the fourth and third years, the Qixian Independent Battalion fought 23 times a year, killing and wounding 50 Japanese puppets and capturing 55 people; One light machine gun, 69 rifles and horse guns, and more than 1,400 rounds of ammunition were seized. In the military report of the Third Army Divisional Command, it was written: "The activities of the independent battalion in Qi County are amazing in our third division, and they can be called the model of the independent battalion. The report also summed up the successful experience of the independent battalion as follows: First, the independent battalion developed and grew within the enemy's lattice network, and it was constantly in contact with the enemy and engaged in tireless struggle, otherwise it would not be able to survive; Second, it overcame subjectivism in military activities and education, and brought into play the creativity and flexibility of command; Third, in combination with the interests of the masses, all actions are suitable for the needs of the masses; Fourth, the flexibility of combining military activities with politics.
In the same year, I was transferred to the 385th Brigade as the chief of the enemy engineering section of the political department of the 385th Brigade Taihang 3rd District, and concurrently the head of the enemy engineering station of the division, leaving the comrades-in-arms of the independent battalion who got along day and night. But this period of fighting life is imprinted in my mind, and it will be indelible for the rest of my life.
Sources:
Selected Materials on the History of Eastern Arabic Literature (Volume 9) (no publication date specified)