Since I was a child, I have followed the older generation to the mountains and mountains in the northwest of Hebei Province to find the traces of their battles and lives back then, and the most I have listened to is the stories they told when they chatted with the local villagers.

Influenced by these stories, many of the scenes, characters, battle stories, and anecdotes in this novel have evolved from these folk tales and legends.

For example, the big cave in Guojiabaozi that is full of gold, silver, treasures, weapons and ammunition is actually the cave where Meng Gechen hides things. Another example is the ancient tomb where Yang Bangzi and they hid when there was a big flood, and it is still in the east of Niangzi God Village, and it is said that there were indeed big snakes in those days.

There is also the story of this devil playing mahjong and disguising the military engineering team as a military police stronghold, which is also a story that the people talk about, of course, the protagonist of the story has also appeared in multiple versions with the change of region, some say it is Li Xiangyang's, and some say that it is the Yanling team.

In the collection of historical materials of the Anti-Japanese War, there are some specious folklore, which makes it difficult to distinguish the authenticity for a while, and it is quite interesting to read.

But here are some stories passed down by the common people, not to look down on the villagers, on the contrary, I am more pleased that in the past so many years, those villagers in the old area who are still not so rich, as long as they talk about the old Eight Roads to fight devils, it is all a finger can tell you for half a day!

This is what the people want! When not a few people in the city have forgotten or are indifferent to the history of national struggle, blood and tears, there are still so many lovely villagers who have passed on the story of the Eight Roads from generation to generation in their own unique way. That's what makes it so valuable!

There is a fellow who is Shangzhuang in Yi County (there are many "Shangzhuang" in Yi County, Laiyuan County, and Fuping County. This is the "Shangzhuang") person on the Loess Ridge battlefield. Talking to me about the folk version of the Loess Ridge Battle, that is, the battle passed down orally by the common people in the area of the Loess Ridge Battlefield in Yi County and Laiyuan County, there is a big difference in the "Battle Details" personally drawn up by Yang Chengwu of the same sub-district.

The fellow said: The gunner of Yang Chengwu's troops who bombarded Abe Guixiu was Japanese, and his own people showed mercy to their own people and his subordinates, so the first and second guns did not hit in order to ventilate the news.

But in the real history, the "Eighth Road" of Jinchaji used Japanese gunners. Or in the war of liberation. In 1945, the Eighth Route Army captured a large number of Japanese technicians for use in its own troops, mainly medical personnel, mechanics and artillerymen. As for the Japanese gunners who fired their first shot during the shelling and gave the signal to shell, it was from Sasu's book. At that time, although it was still called the "Eighth Road", the nature of the war had changed, and it became mainly Chinese fighting Chinese, so Japanese gunners were used. During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, the Eighth Route Army never used Japanese gunners.

The villagers also said that the old people there once said: "The first telephone squad of the Eighth Route Army was surrounded by devils in the Black Eagle Nest of Nanshan in Shangzhuangzi. All nine warriors died! ”

At that time, my friend repeatedly said to this fellow: "This matter you said is very important, I have heard of it for the first time. I didn't know about it before. There is no record of any historical record. ”

Because first: Yang Chengwu's "Detailed Report on the Battle of Loess Ridge" does not mention anything about this matter, if there is indeed such a thing, Yang Chengwu cannot but mention it; Second, as far as I know, in the two battles of Yansu Cliff and Loess Ridge, the telephone information station of the first division (not the telephone class) was set up on the platform north of Shangxiazhuang on the road leading to Yansu Cliff and Loess Ridge. Stationmaster Tian Qingxiang, two staff members Chen Guozhen and Li Jiasheng. Chen Guozhen was a native of Shangxiatai, and Li Jiasheng was a native of Shanxi (Guangling or Lingqiu), who was captured by the Japanese army in the early forties and died in the stronghold of Jianling.

So, folk tales are not necessarily accurate. But the people in the mountains are willing to tell you the story of the Eighth Route Army, just to look up to you. It's too late to encourage this kind of enthusiasm from the people, so why question it and hit the enthusiasm of oral transmission. If you have time, go to the Loess Ridge battlefield in Laiyuan County (not far west from Shangzhuangzi in Yi County), a local villager who runs the Loess Ridge Battle Exhibition Hall (ticket 10 yuan) will point to a small temple and tell you: When the Loess Ridge was fighting, Yang Chengwu commanded the battle there. Are you embarrassed to discourage him?

Sa Su, who has published many books on China's War of Resistance, will also tell you in detail how Yang Chengwu ordered his troops to attack or retreat on the battlefield when he wrote about the battle at Loess Ridge.

For example: "The commander of the two battles of Yansu Cliff and Loess Ridge is Yang Chengwu, the commander of the first division", which is true, because the location of the commander Yang Chengwu is not clearly stated. The following sentence is a bit problematic: the battle of Yansu Cliff, "Yang Chengwu's command is very good, he used the Japanese army to ...... early in the morning"

Also, in the battle of Loess Ridge, "finding that the Japanese army was about to run, Yang Chengwu decisively ordered all troops to launch a general attack." ”

Lao Sa, like the local villagers of Loess Ridge in Laiyuan County, really didn't know that Yang Chengwu never appeared at the battle scene in the battles of Yansu Cliff and Loess Ridge in Ludao. However, this does not contradict Yang Chengwu's identity as the commander of the two battles of Yansu Cliff and Loess Ridge. If you are not at the scene of the battle, why can't you be a commander?

In Sasu's article: "Information about the battle of Yansu Cliff can also be found on the Internet, but I think it is not comprehensive enough. One of my old superiors when I was working at the airport, who was originally the commander of the Eighth Route Army, personally participated in this battle, and said that one of my regiments was only enough to form a battalion after this battle, and he said that the Japanese army was crazy in resistance, and the Eighth Route Army was determined to resolutely annihilate the besieged Japanese army. ”

I don't know which regiment this old superior was in at that time? Lao Sa said: "My old superior's regiment was a local regiment, and it was also 'learning to fight' with a sub-division at that time. "Is it the second regiment of the three-division district? But this memory should be wrong with the facts. In the battle of Yansu Cliff, a total of three regiments participated in the battle, the main force of the first division, the first regiment, and the third regiment; The 2nd Regiment of the Main Force of the 3rd Division.

In the battle of Yansu Cliff, the 3rd Regiment assigned one of its battalions to the command of the 2nd Regiment, which had weak combat effectiveness. In the "Battle Details" reported by Yang Chengwu to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region after the war: "Our army's casualties and attrition: 372 wounded. Among them, there are 2 at the battalion level, 21 at the company level, 31 at the platoon level, 52 at the squad level, 1 enemy engineering cadre, and 265 soldiers. 136 killed. Among them, there are 1 company, 12 platoon, 16 squads, and 98 soldiers. Contact: 37. ”

This is still the total number of casualties in the three battles (the battle of Yansu Cliff, the battle of Loess Ridge, and the retreating anti-retaliation battle). Lao Sa's old superior did not take into account: if the losses of the Eighth Route Army in the first battle of Yansu Cliff were too great, there would be no later battle of Loess Ridge. Because in 1939, Jinchaji was organized into several main regiments. The main force was crippled in the previous battle, and you have no more main forces to fight. It was precisely because the losses of the Eighth Route Army in the battle of Yansu Cliff were not large that the enthusiasm for fighting was stimulated by the later battle of Loess Ridge.

Therefore, in oral history, the account of the person concerned is more accurate, and if it is an outsider, the accuracy is much worse. The oral accounts of the local villagers are just folk tales. And if there is no in-depth investigation and evidence collection, it will not be able to withstand scrutiny if it is directly used as evidence.

Once, when I saw a reminiscence article published in an authoritative journal that was sorted out after a symposium of old comrades, at first glance it was still a living old Eighth Road, and the story told should be conclusive, but in fact, it is not!

It was described in the article that at the end of October 1937, the independent regiment that had just finished the waist station blocking battle and the Fengjiagou ambush battle pursued more than 50 miles of victory, and the first battalion (battalion commander Zeng Baotang, instructor Zhang Wensong, and deputy battalion commander Yuan Shengping. Zhang Deren, the commander of the first company, Yang Shangkun, the commander of the second company, and Song Yulin, the commander of the third company, pursued and killed until the city of Laiyuan. Yang Shangkun was the first to rush into Laiyuan County. The enemy retreated from Laiyuan to the east, and the 1st Battalion immediately recovered Laiyuan, and the 2nd Battalion continued to pursue eastward.

Mind you, the problem starts here. Combining the military history and the memoirs of several leaders of the first division, it's not right!

At that time, the independent regiment that laid down Laiyuan County did not go all out, continued to the east, and marched into Yi County, Hebei Province, which is known as "Beiyueshou County", but divided the troops into two routes, Yang Chengwu personally led the first and third battalions of the independent regiment (battalion commander Huang Shoufa, instructor Li Shuiqing, and deputy battalion commander Qiu Wei), and went north to the relatively barren Wei County of Hebei Province (which was subordinate to Chahar Province at that time), and left the second battalion (battalion commander Ji Guangshun, instructor Zhang Xiangguo, and deputy battalion commander Xiao Siming) with more old Shaanxi, and marched to Yi County alone.

In the process of the second battalion marching into Yi County, it occupied the Bauhinia Pass in Yi County, and at this time, Deng Hua, Chen Zhengxiang, Luo Wenfang and other cadres sent from the 115th Division to the independent regiment came to the second battalion. This battle was successful, and the independent regiment was famous in Yi County.

In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the population of each county at the junction of Hebei, Chahar and Shanxi, known as the "Beiyue region", was no more than 100,000 people. For example, Laiyuan, Weixian, Guangling, Lingqiu, Wanping (today's Mentougou), Laishui, and Mancheng, which were successively controlled by the independent regiment, each county had a population of only 1230,000, but Yi County, with a population of more than 300,000, was a large county and a rich county (of course, it cannot be compared with the rich Jizhong, a county in Jizhong has a population of 450,000 at every turn).

Here's the question: Since Yi County is so important, and Yang Chengwu himself has already arrived at Bauhinia Pass, why didn't Yang Chengwu take Yi County in his hands at the beginning? Didn't it take it until the beginning of 1939, more than a year later, after the indigenous military strength of Yi County was strengthened, Meng Gechen and Zhao Yukun became bigger?

This shows that even the memoirs of the old people, because of the difference in age, there will be problems in memory, I personally studied the materials over the years, and I feel that it was still when the People's Republic of China was just founded, and the Central Military Commission ordered that the memoirs written by cadres above the division level of various units be more accurate, the reason is very simple, the war years are not long, and the memory is more accurate! (To be continued......)