Author: Achilles
In the battle to conquer Ping'an County in "Bright Sword", after the Li Yunlong regiment headquarters had broken into pieces, the reunion of the independent regiment had 7,000 combat soldiers. In addition, the county brigade and district squads and other guerrilla armed forces also joined the battle to surround and attack the aid, and the number of people participating in the attack reached tens of thousands.
In addition to the independent regiment that mainly attacked the county town, the New First Regiment, the New Second Regiment and Chu Yunfei's 358th Regiment of the Jinsui Army also blocked several corpses that rushed to the county town. In order to attack a county town, both sides dispatched at least tens of thousands of troops. Of course, "Bright Sword" is a TV series adapted from the novel, and the attack on Ping'an County also concentrated on many war history and artistic processing.
So in real history, how did the Eighth Route Army attack a county town?
According to historical records, the Eighth Route Army did not actively attack the county towns many times. Unlike villages, county towns are often important transportation hubs and nodes for the Japanese army, so county towns will have dense fortifications and troops stationed. Judging from the strength of the Eighth Route Army, it was not a wise decision to attack the county town.
If you want to choose a typical battle example, during the Hundred Regiments War in 1940, the 386th Brigade attacked Yushe county town and successfully annihilated the Japanese squadron to take down the county town, it is a good battle example.
Yushe County is a Japanese material transfer station and is also one of the important hubs for the Japanese army to transport ammunition through Pingliao Highway and Liaoyu Avenue. Therefore, the fortification was very strong, and the elite Japanese Fujimoto squadron was responsible for the garrison. After the Japanese army entered the county town, they used the solid buildings of Yushe Middle School and the Confucian Temple as the core to build eight large and small bunkers, equipped with two mountain cannons and four grenade launchers, as well as six light heavy machine guns and . At the same time, there are ammunition for one year in the underground ammunition depot.
From this perspective, the Japanese army has strong fortifications and enough ammunition available. How should the Eighth Route Army, which lacks heavy weapon , chew this hard bone? After research, the
386 Brigade decided to attack the Japanese army on September 23, 1940. 386 Brigade Commander Chen Geng and Chief of Staff Zhou Xihan used two main battalions of the two main regiments to attack the western pass of Yushe City, tearing a hole to break into the city first. The specific implementation plan is to equip a battalion of the 772nd Regiment with a mountain cannon to attack the southwest corner of Xiguan. A battalion of the 16th Regiment was equipped with machine guns to attack the northwest corner of Xiguan.
At the same time, in order to ensure the completion of the main attack mission, it is necessary to distract the enemy's attention as much as possible, so the 772nd Regiment attacked the enemy's outpost in the south of the city with two companies. One battalion of the 16th Regiment carried out a feint attack in the north of the city, and another company used firepower to block the enemy bunker outside the east gate. Strictly restrain the Japanese army in the east and north of the city as much as possible to ensure a smooth breakthrough in the west of the city.
On the night of September 23, a moonlight shone on the gate of Yushe County city, with a perfect view and the general attack officially began. The troops began to advance secretly towards Yushe County, but due to the smooth initial battle, the troops underestimated the enemy. When entering the village along the way, there was too much noise and dogs barking in the village. Before the 16th Regiment was fully launched, the Japanese army was barked by dogs and started shooting. The surprise attack eventually turned into a strong attack.
Although our army has the advantage of the number of people, it lacks the weapons of attack. After three hours of fighting. As the enemy used machine guns to block the main roads, our army only occupied a few houses near the west of the city, and the progress was slow. After dawn, the 386th Brigade Commander Chen Geng
After dawn, the 386th Brigade held a meeting to discuss the next action. Everyone believed that the main reason was that the firepower gap between the enemy and us was too large and that our army's firepower was too scattered. So the brigade commander Chen Geng decided to concentrate his firepower, deploy mountain cannons to suppress the Japanese firepower points, and number the enemy bunker shooting holes. Let light and heavy machine guns have shooting targets, while snipers aim at shooting holes to suppress them.
At 16:30 pm, the second strong attack began. The continuous precise firepower quickly suppressed the Japanese army. The northwest corner of the enemy's core position and the bunkers to the west were conquered by our commando. In panic, the Japanese army moved to Yushe Middle School in the east of the city and began to release poison gas. They also called 4 aircraft for low-altitude strafing bombing. The poison gas quickly spread throughout the city, and our army did not have gas masks. Hundreds of commanders and soldiers and soldiers were poisoned, and the attack stopped for a while.After the third meeting and discussion, our army found that the Japanese army used the terrain to build the surrounding channels of Yushe Middle School into cliffs, and there were several layers of barbed wire on each cliff, which was very solid. The attack was not announced, so our army used ladder that climbed the cliff and knives that destroyed the barbed wire to prepare for a raid at night.
That night, the third strong attack began. With the sound of the charge, mountain cannons and light and heavy machine guns unified the firepower of the past Japanese bunkers. The Eighth Route Army soldiers held a big knife and climbed the cloud ladder to break five wire mesh in a row, opening up a road for the charge troops. The subsequent assault troops quickly broke through the Japanese position and captured the Confucian Temple.
The Japanese army had no choice but to return to Yushe Middle School. Relying on the tall bunkers and walls, the Japanese army used poison gas again in the early morning that night. Our army did not have gas masks, and many soldiers were poisoned, and the offensive stopped for a while.
The 4th meeting was held again under the auspices of Zhou Xihan. The regiment battalion cadres unanimously agreed that the enemy's firepower was concentrated and the fortifications were strong. If they attacked from the ground, there would be great casualties. At that time, Wang Yaonan, who was the director of the engineer, suggested that he wanted a coffin, and everyone was puzzled. I thought he wanted to sacrifice himself. Wang Yaonan said: Where do you want to go? I want the coffin to be used for explosives, and transport the coffin to the bottom of the city wall and explode the city wall.
OK! Just let the enemy take a terrestrial plane, Brigade Commander Chen Geng, Chief of Staff Zhou Xihan and everyone agreed with Wang Yaonan's decision. In order to dig a tunnel, the Eighth Route Army spent a day digging from the cliffs in the northwest corner of the middle school to the bottom of the middle school bunker. But the coffin containing the explosives was not found, but a large wooden cabinet was found. After the explosives were loaded, it was transported into the tunnel. After the cabinet was placed, a dirt wall was built outside.
At 16:00 p.m. on the 25th, the Eighth Route Army began its fourth strong attack. With a loud bang, it was like a burst of thunder hitting the sky. The Japanese bunker was blown up by explosives, and the bloody limbs and stones scattered on all sides were mixed together and scattered everywhere. With the conquered bunkers, the Eighth Route Army Commando successfully attacked the middle school and wiped out the Japanese army. When the Eighth Route Army opened the principal's office, it was found that the captain of the Japanese Fujimoto Squadron had committed suicide by committing suicide by cesarean section.
After three days of fierce fighting, Yushe County was completely liberated. Our army seized three mountain cannons, four flat-fired cannons, five mortars, ten light and heavy machine guns, and countless ammunition. However, in this battle, our army suffered more than 200 casualties and more than 250 injured in poisoning. Most of the losses were experienced cadres and veterans. Afterwards, Chen Geng and Zhou Xihan thought this was extremely unprofitable.
This successful battle shows that to conquer a county, it is necessary to have enough troops and heavy weapons, as well as careful plans. When encountering difficulties in combat, an experienced commander needs to make a decision to make a breakthrough before it can succeed. Even so, it still paid a great price. Therefore, except for the strategic counterattack that began in 1944, the Eighth Route Army did not concentrate a large number of troops to actively attack the county town.
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