The background of the battle in Qigen Village

In late October of 1937, after the Japanese invaded Beiping, Tianjin and Baoding successively, their aggression became more arrogant and more confident that they were invincible. Then they marched south and west in an attempt to occupy the whole of North China and the Central Plains. In order to defend Taiyuan, Shanxi, the Military Commission of the Kuomintang government and the Second World War Zone urgently mobilized more than 1, troops to organize defense in the Xinkou area north of Taiyuan. At the same time, a division was mobilized to guard Niangziguan to cooperate with the battle of Xinkou.

in order to effectively control the parallel avenue south of Zhengtai Road, the Japanese army must step up the transportation of troops and grain from Jingxing to Pingding. Liu Bocheng plans to fight a battle in Qigen Village to rein in the Japanese circuitous attack and cover Niangziguan's friendly forces. Qigen Village is an ideal ambush battlefield, and it is the only place where the well (well) is flat (fixed). From Qigen Village to Shimen in the east, it happens to be a 1-mile canyon with a valley depth of tens of meters and a bottom width of less than 3 meters. The terrain is very steep. After on-the-spot investigation, Liu Bocheng selected this ambush position and immediately ordered the 772nd regiment to stand by near Qigen Village.

Qigen Village is located in the middle of Taihang Mountain, where Shanxi and Hebei provinces border, and it is also the border area of Pingding, Xiyang and Jingxing counties. Jingxing, known as one of the Eight Dragons of Taihang Mountain in ancient times, has two gates that can cross Taihang Mountain and enter Pingding County, Shanxi Province. The north gate is Niangziguan, and the south gate is Qigen Village. The village is surrounded by mountains, with mountains and valleys, steep canyons and dangerous roads. It is known as the dragon and tiger, and it is actually a place to station troops. The village is adjacent to Jiananyu and Dongshimen Village in Pingding, Shanxi Province in the east, and directly leads to the fishing town in Jingxing, Hebei Province; It is adjacent to the diversion temple and Yingzhuang in the west and directly to Pingding County. There is a road less than two meters wide by the village, with a ridge about 1 meters high in the south and a ravine dozens of meters deep in the north. Teacher Liu Bocheng believes that Qigen Village is the only way for the 2th Division of the Japanese Army to invade Pingding and Taiyuan, and it is also an ideal place for the Eighth Route Army to ambush the Japanese army.