Devil's Army

Soldiers from the first battalion completely occupied the bridgehead positions of all the bridges, and a battalion from the second regiment also began to enter the city to completely wipe out the remaining Japanese and puppet troops in the city.

The commander of the first regiment ordered the second and third battalions to leave one company each to defend the Wuzhi Mountain and Jiguana Mountain positions.

At this time, the main force of the Japanese Kwantung Army was still in Leng Feng's old base. The performance of the main division that could be mobilized, the Fourth Division, was not satisfactory, so the status quo could only be maintained temporarily.

The First Anti-Japanese Army successfully penetrated into Rehe Province and also intended to maintain the status quo and consolidate the defenses of Kuancheng County and Xinglong County.

At this time, the Japanese troops in Qinglong County, which was adjacent to Kuancheng County, were seeking death.

As the wheat harvest was in the period of shortage, the people in Qinglong County had problems with food.

At this time, the Japanese army in Qinglong County had to collect the rations of the Fourth Division that came to support them, and also had to ensure their own rations. They could only increase the burden of military rations and distribute them to the people in each village within the jurisdiction.

The common people were miserable about this, but they had no way to refuse.

On this day, the Japanese and puppet troops went to Zhangjiagou Village, Dawulan Township to collect military rations.

An old man named Zhang from the village was stabbed to death by a Japanese soldier because he was unable to hand over military rations due to his poor living conditions.

The Japanese army took this as a warning and asked the villagers to prepare military rations the next morning so that they could collect them.

Old man Zhang's nephew was a guerrilla fighter in the Jidong local basic guerrilla force.

When I heard the news when I returned to the village that night, I was filled with indignation and felt extremely sad about my uncle's death.

So he rushed back to the guerrillas overnight and told the captain about the situation.

Before dawn the next day, the captain led the main force of the Jidong local guerrillas and set up an ambush at the entrance of the village, preparing to destroy the Japanese and puppet troops' grain-collecting team.

At around ten o'clock in the morning, a small Japanese army squad and more than 50 puppet soldiers came over to collect food.

When the puppet army's grain-collecting team arrived at the entrance of Zhangjiagou Village that day, they were attacked by the Jidong local guerrillas who had been lying in ambush there.

As the guerrillas' weapons and equipment were relatively backward, the Japanese army, after a brief period of confusion, launched a counterattack against the guerrillas with their sophisticated weapons.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the guerrillas suffered heavy casualties.

By this time, all the villagers had been evacuated, so the guerrillas withdrew from the battle.

The Japanese and puppet troops then raided Zhangjiagou Village but found nothing.

To the relief of the villagers, the Japanese army did not gain anything from this raid and did not vent their anger on them by burning down their village.

After the Japanese and puppet army's grain-collecting team retreated, the villagers began to return to the village to clean up the doors that had been kicked in.

At lunch time, the Japanese and puppet army's grain-collecting team hidden nearby made a sudden counterattack and surrounded the entrances and exits at the head and end of the village.

After the Japanese puppet army's grain-collecting team robbed all the people's food, they also killed all 108 villagers by stabbing, beheading, and burning them.

Two hungry babies could not escape their clutches.

Afterwards, they set a fire, burning the entire Zhangjiagou village into ruins.

When the Jidong local guerrillas received the news and rushed over, Zhangjiagou Village had already been burned to ruins.

At the entrance of the village, 108 civilians who had been brutally killed by the Japanese army were lying in a mess.

The Jidong local guerrillas decided to retaliate against the inhumane devils. However, they were short of manpower and weapons and equipment, so they reported the matter to their superiors.

At that time, the troops of Commander Li of the Jidong Military Sub-district had just completed the counter-encirclement and suppression and broke through the encirclement of the Japanese army. For a time, there was no way to provide support to the guerrillas.

They knew that the First Anti-Japanese Army had just recaptured Kuancheng County, which was adjacent to Qinglong County, so they contacted Commander Tan of the Second Front Army of the First Anti-Japanese Army through the Eighth Route Army Headquarters to see if the First Army of Kuancheng County could provide assistance to the guerrillas in Qinglong County.

Gray Wolf was very angry when he heard the news.

A village was massacred by the devils. He immediately ordered the commander of the Fifth Brigade to send troops to the outskirts of Qinglong County to prepare to recapture Qinglong County.

The Fifth Brigade Commander was also upset when he heard the news. He immediately ordered the First Battalion of the Second Regiment to enter the outskirts of Qinglong County and contact the local guerrillas in Jidong to discuss joint efforts to suppress the Japanese.

Upon receiving the order, a battalion commander did not stop and immediately rushed to the outskirts of Qinglong County with a Golden Eagle drone.

At about 7:00 p.m. that evening, a liaison officer of the Jidong local guerrillas waited for the battalion commander's troops at the agreed intersection and took them to the guerrillas' secret camp.

In an open space in the canyon, a battalion commander met with Captain Gao of the guerrillas.

Captain Gao gave a detailed introduction to the situation of the Japanese and puppet troops in Qinglong County to the first battalion commander.

At that time, the Japanese troops in Qinglong County had been guarding against the attack of the devil troops in Tangshan, so there were more than 500 Japanese troops and more than 800 puppet troops stationed there.

After Captain Gao's introduction, the commander of the first battalion sensitively felt that the time was ripe to recapture Qinglong County, so he sent a telegram to the commander of the second regiment, explaining his views.