At the northern end of the Taiyue Mountains, at the junction of Wuxiang and Qi County, due to the extrusion of the two major mountain ranges of Taihang Mountain and Taiyue Mountain, a Grand Canyon with a length of nearly 100 miles has been formed that starts from Quandian Village in Wuxiang County in the southeast and ends at Zihongkou in Qi County in the northwest, connecting the Jinzhong Plain and the Shangdang Basin. The widest part of this Grand Canyon is only 100 steps, the narrowest place is only three zhang, the valley is overgrown with trees, the road is rugged, the pass is wonderful, easy to defend and difficult to attack, it has been a military fortress since ancient times, the place of locking the key.

More than 800 years ago, Marshal Mu Han of the Jin State led his army through this canyon, and saw that there was no soldier to guard such a dangerous pass, and he had the idea that there was no one in the Central Plains and could destroy the Song Dynasty.

After many years, in the echo of drums and horns contending and fighting each other, the Jin merchants who drove camels turned this place into an important hole in the Wanli Tea Road. In that year, Jin merchants purchased tea from Wuyi Mountain, Fujian, transported it to Xiangfan, Hubei, changed to camel transportation, entered Jincheng in Shanxi Province from Sheqi County, Henan, and changed to car transportation or pack transportation after resting in Qi County through Changzhi, and then went north to Datong or through Youyu to kill the tiger's mouth to naturalization, and then changed to use camel teams to cross more than 1,000 kilometers of desert, arrived in Kyakhta, and handed over to Russian merchants to be trafficked to Irkutsk, Urals and even distant Petersburg and other places. This Qi County is the transit station of the Wanli Tea Road, some of the Jin merchants directly transported tea to the north, and some went out of Zihongkou to wholesale to other caravans.

Baili Canyon accommodates the dreams of many Jin merchants.

Just when Liu Yimin waved the main force of the instructor to sweep through the counties of central Hebei, the five elite divisions of the army rushed towards Jinzhong, of which the sixth division, the 109th division and the 20th division made a detour from both flanks, and the first division and the eighth division rolled on the front, and there was a posture of annihilating the main force of our army in Jinzhong.

The Reading Division of the Eighth Route Army, which adhered to Jinzhong, was adapted from the Red Third Army. Although the Red Third Army suffered heavy losses in the Xiangjiang Campaign, after several years of rest, its combat effectiveness has improved a lot compared with the original. Since entering the Shanxi battlefield, although the Reading Division has fought several battles, in the opinion of the division commander Xu Xiangqian, the scale and results of these battles are negligible compared with the 115th Division and the instructor. This time the strong enemy pressed the border, Xu Xiangqian was not afraid of rejoicing, thinking that this was sent to the door by the devil, and he had to fight a few battles, so that the fathers and villagers in Shanxi could see the achievements of the Eighth Route Army.

Xu Xiangqian is usually silent, but when he fights, he is definitely like a virgin, like a rabbit, and he can always find a solution to complex situations, which can be called a generation of masters in the art of war.

Although he was determined to teach Yue Kou a lesson, Xu Xiangqian knew that if he fought hard, he would definitely not be the opponent of the strong enemy in front of him. Therefore, while commanding the troops to resist one after another, Xu Xiangqian withdrew the main force to the front line of Zihongkou in Qi County, planning to take advantage of the dangerous terrain of Zihongkou to deal a heavy blow to the Yue army while covering the transfer of military and civilians in Jinzhong.

Historically, the 169th Division of the 17th Route Army, under the leadership of General Wu Shimin, was stationed at Zihongkou in December 1937 to guard the southeast gate of Jin. In April 1937, the Yue army launched a nine-way siege on the southeast base area of Jin, and General Wu Shimin led the 169th Division to defeat the Yue army at Zihongkou, the starting point of Baijin Road, and wiped out more than 1,000 Yue Kou, which became famous all over the world.

Due to the arrival of Liu Yimin, Taiyuan was recovered, and the Jinzhong Plain became the base of the Eighth Route Army, and the 17th Route Army only reinforced Zhongtiao Mountain later, and this Hongkou is now defended by the Eighth Route Army's Reading Division.

Luzhuang is the first Pingchuan village to the Jinzhong Plain after leaving the Hongkou, and it is the hub of the Jin merchants' camel transportation and vehicle transportation. The roads in the village are all bluestone pavement, and when the children play, they can occasionally pick out horseshoes and copper coins from the cracks in the stone slabs and take them home to show off to their friends.

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Gao Erhua, an instructor of the sixth detachment of the Jinzhong guerrilla detachment of the Reading Division, led the soldiers to cover more than 2,000 villagers, and after a night of marching, withdrew all the way from the county seat of Qixian to Luzhuang.

According to the plan, Gao Erhua is going to take a little rest in Luzhuang, let the villagers rest and then enter the mountain, seeing that they are about to arrive in Luzhuang, and they can enter the mountain with more effort, at this time, the cavalry of the army caught up.

Gao Erhua was very anxious, and while ordering the soldiers to run into Luzhuang to set up defenses and cover the transfer of the villagers, he kept shouting to the villagers to run quickly, and it would be safe to run into the mountains.

When he ran into Luzhuang, Gao Erhua's heart fluttered and he let go. Because she saw that behind the bluestone walls in Luzhuang Village, the soldiers of the main force were there without saying a word, and the muzzles of the guns in the black hole were pointed at the official road outside the village, which was the direction that the cavalry was chasing.

In Luzhuang, preparing to block the devils was a battalion led by Zeng Chunjian, deputy commander of the Second Brigade of the Reading Division.

This Zeng Chunjian was originally the commander of the Red Eighteenth Regiment, and after being wounded in the Battle of Xiangjiang, he handed over the troops to Liu Yimin. After returning from injury, the Red Eighteenth Regiment was rebuilt on the basis of Liu Yimin's prisoners and weapons to support the Red Third Army. When the Red Army was reorganized, he was transferred to the deputy brigade commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Reading Division.

Yesterday evening, the Yue army captured Qi County, and the Reading Division issued an operational order to cover the movement of the masses to the Taiyue Mountains and the Taihang Mountains and strive to annihilate the enemy on the front line of Zihongkou.

At five o'clock in the morning, the 2nd Independent Brigade, which was marching rapidly, received another order to send a strong force to hold Luzhuang, block the enemy, respond to the transfer of the masses, and buy time for the deployment of the main force on the front line of Zihongkou. After discussing with brigade commander Li Tianyou, Zeng Chunjian personally rushed to Luzhuang with a battalion, opened up the yard, built a position, and determined to block the devils here, attract the devils to help, and lead the devils to Zihongkou, Li Tianyou led the main force of the brigade to the front line of Zihongkou to deploy an ambush position.

Seeing that the villagers had already run into Luzhuang, Zeng Chunjian waved and shouted Gao Erhua, who was about to lead the soldiers to stop the devil in Luzhuang, and ordered in a low voice: "You hurry up and take the villagers away, don't come back for reinforcements, it's enough for us here." Let's go! ”

Gao Erhua glanced at the official road and said in a low voice: "Chief, my name is Gao Erhua, and I am the instructor of the sixth detachment of the Jinzhong guerrillas. We can stay and fight with you, there is strength in numbers. ”

Zeng Chunjian said a little impatiently: "I know that you are Gao Erhua, and the people of Jinzhong know that what they sing is 'Gao Erhua, Gao Erhua, in order to resist the end of the world, riding a big horse with a pistol, and the heroines of the female middle school count her', it is you." Hurry up and take the villagers away, it's too late to be late. ”

Gao Erhua saluted Zeng Chunjian and took his team to cover the transfer of the villagers.

The Spring Festival of 1938 was strange, the weather was sunny and cold, and the soldiers were crawling behind the stone walls, freezing their noses. Zeng Chunjian asked the battalion commander who led the team to give an order: "The devil is a cavalryman, and no one is allowed to go out of the position and use bullets to kill his dog." If I don't shoot, no one can shoot! ”

As soon as the order was delivered, the devil cavalry arrived at the head of the village. It seems to be a squad, fifty or sixty people. Zeng Chunjian knew that although there was only one squad, the large army of devils was searching for the main force of the Eighth Route Army everywhere, and as long as the gun sounded, the devils would definitely come up from all directions.

Seeing that the devil cavalry squad had completely entered his own circle of fire, Zeng Chunjian's eyes lit up suddenly, and he shouted to fight, and the shell gun in his hand fired.

The quiet Lu Zhuang suddenly burst into gunfire, machine guns, rifles, and bullets fired at the devil cavalry, and the enemy suddenly turned on his back. A few particularly cunning devils rolled off their saddles when the guns rang out and began to shoot on their horses. It's a pity that they encountered the old Red Army troops who had been tested by the Long March, and a small group of devil cavalry entered the fire circle of a battalion, and the outcome can be imagined, only a few devils behind the palace slipped away, and the rest were killed with all the men and horses.

Zeng Chunjian ordered the soldiers to clean up the battlefield quickly, bring the devil's guns and ammunition, and ambush them again, waiting for the devil's reinforcements.

It didn't take long for the devil's reinforcements to arrive, and it seemed to be a brigade. This time, the devils raised their vigilance, first set up artillery and heavy machine gun positions, and began to shell Luzhuang with four infantry guns and grenadiers.

This time, Zeng Chunjian didn't shout what the soldiers should do, these are all old soldiers, they know how to protect themselves, and they hide in the position one by one without showing their heads, just waiting for the devils to stop shelling and then hit his infantry.

The devils are on the attack.

At this time, the devils were all old devils, with extremely high tactical literacy, and their attack was not like that filmed in later movies, charging in groups and intensively, but under the cover of artillery fire and heavy machine guns, several people dragged a light machine gun, sometimes lying down, sometimes running, and set up machine guns to strafe when they found a suitable position. Once the LMG position is secured, the grenadiers will follow, attacking with the grenadiers, blowing the defenders out and destroying the machine guns.

Zeng Chunjian saw that the devil behaved like this, and knew that this must be the elite army of the devil, so he ordered the soldiers to pay attention to saving ammunition, put the devil into the fight, and strive to eliminate a devil with one bullet.

This Luzhuang is in the root of the mountain, the villagers' houses, courtyard walls and the walls at the edge of the village are all made of big bluestone in the mountain, extremely strong, the devil is a cannon, and a light and heavy machine gun grenadier, busy for a long time, did not cause much casualties to the Eighth Route Army. Seeing that the devil infantry moved to the root of the village wall, Zeng Chunjian gave another order, and the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army immediately stood up, climbed on the low bluestone wall and began to shoot, and the bombardier also began to drop bombs, and the head of Luzhuang Village was immediately filled with gunsmoke.

In the fierce battle, a team of devils quietly detoured back to the back of Luzhuang, cutting off the retreat of the Eighth Route Army in the direction of Zihongkou. Attempted to attack the village from behind and flank the Eighth Route Army.

Zeng Chunjian This is the first time to fight hard with the devil, seeing that the devils are fighting to the death and not retreating, and they are also outflanking themselves, he knows that he will not be able to go for a while and a half, and he is determined to defend Luzhuang and find an opportunity to break through.

The devil couldn't attack it, knowing that he had encountered a hard stubble, while concentrating on artillery bombardment, he called for reinforcements, saying that he had encountered the main force of the Eighth Route Army in Jinzhong, and he urgently needed firepower and tactical guidance, intending to besiege Luzhuang and rely on ferocious firepower to annihilate the defenders.

At noon, the devil's reinforcements came up in a steady stream, and through the binoculars, you can clearly see that the devil's mountain artillery and field artillery have been erected, Zeng Chunjian felt a trace of regret in his heart, and felt that he should have broken through when the devil was outflanked just now, it was too late to say anything at this time, he was an old Red Army, and he had so much combat experience that he knew that the devil must be put into the village to fight at this time, otherwise, the devil's artillery fire alone could engulf his own battalion alive. As long as you hold out until dark, there is a way to break through.

The concentrated shelling of the devils began, shells exploded everywhere in the village, and the troops suffered casualties, and the number of casualties rose rapidly. Zeng Chun saw that this was not the solution, and immediately ordered the troops to abandon the position at the head of the village, put the devils into the village to fight, and get involved with the devils, so that the enemy could not use artillery fire.

After the large-scale shelling stopped, seeing that the Eighth Route Army in the village did not react, the devil infantry launched a new attack. This time it was good, it went well, the Eighth Route Army didn't even shoot, and the devil soldiers entered the village smoothly.

The neat bluestone road, the neat bluestone courtyard wall, and the neat bluestone houses make the devils who enter the village dizzy. However, these devil soldiers are the elite of the army after all, and they are more of a vigilant search for suspicious places, for fear that if they are not careful, they will be summoned to Amaterasu by the bullets and grenades of the Eighth Route Army.

It was really the same as the devil soldiers thought, and the Eighth Route Army, which retreated to the courtyard, listened carefully to the devil's movements through the courtyard wall. When the devil entered the village, the grenade was thrown out through the courtyard wall, and the small hole in the courtyard wall also became a gun hole.

The devil soldiers who were hit immediately adjusted their tactics and began to fight with the Eighth Route Army from house to court, opening up close combat. The two sides fought to the death in this small Luzhuang.

After Gao Erhua led the sixth guerrilla detachment to cover the villagers' retreat to Zihongkou, he took the villagers along the official road in the canyon and moved all the way to Wuxiang County. When I arrived in Pantuo, I met the cadres of the Qi County Party Committee and the county government axe who had been transferred here in advance, and Cai knew that there was also an enemy situation in the east, so he asked the villagers to go up the mountain. At this point, the task of covering the transfer of the masses by the Sixth Guerrilla Detachment was completed, and the Qixian County Brigade and the militia continued to cover the transfer of the villagers.

After completing the task, the 6th guerrilla detachment rested a little in Pantuo, ate some dry food, and the fighters also took a nap. Gao Erhua was relieved to stick to the Eighth Route Army in Luzhuang, and regardless of fatigue, he returned with the team the same way, wanting to go to Luzhuang to support the Eighth Route Army in the battle.

Gao Erhua didn't know that the main force of the Eighth Route Army's Reading Division had arrived at the Zihongkou Grand Canyon one after another at this time, and the main force of Li Tianyou's Duer Brigade was hidden on the mountains on both sides of Zihongkou. She didn't even know that the Eighth Route Army that held Luzhuang not only had the task of blocking the enemy and covering the transfer of the masses, but also had the task of luring the enemy eastward. She just relied on a soldier's sense of responsibility and concern for her comrades-in-arms, and rushed to Luzhuang without hesitation to reinforce her comrades-in-arms who were fighting fiercely with the army.

(To be continued)