"Earth plane" refers to our army's method of warfare through tunnel blasting operations, so that the enemy who sticks to the city or fortress is like sitting on a plane in a huge explosion. The first recorded use of "earth planes" in the history of our army was the Xinji battle carried out by the 4th Red Army in Hubei Henan Anhui Soviet Area in February 1931. In mid January 1931, taking advantage of the rest of the Kuomintang army attacking the Hubei Henan Anhui Soviet Area, the red 4th Army decided to siege the Xinji Town (now the county seat of Xinxian county) in the south of Guangshan County, Henan Province. On February 2, Xinji battle began, and the 30th regiment of the 10th division of the Fourth Red Army was responsible for the main attack. Xinji is surrounded by mountains on three sides and water on one side. It is surrounded by tall stone walls, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. The defending enemy fired from a commanding position with earth guns, making the Red Army's "ladder" inaccessible. Several strong attacks failed. The military headquarters decided to use tunnel operations to blast and open up attack roads. After several days of hard geotechnical work, our troops dug a 40-50 meter long tunnel and transported a wooden coffin filled with gunpowder, shells and iron filings along the tunnel to the bottom of the city wall. On the afternoon of the 10th, the blasting was successful, and the wall was instantly blasted to open a gap nearly 4 meters wide. The 30th regiment stormed the city taking advantage of the smoke of the explosion. After three hours of street fighting, the Red Army annihilated more than a thousand armed landlords such as the Kuomintang militia and the red spear Association and the Yellow spear Association, and won the victory. In early October of that year, the headquarters of the first front army of the Red Army pointed out that in view of the problems existing in the battle, "in the past, the infantry charged to fight against the earthen fortress and attack the turret. It was not enough to intimidate him with artillery. There were many deaths and injuries. The earthen fortress and the turret were still not opened. I always didn't know to use the ability of engineers to dig holes in the ground, hit the right trenches, bury mines, explode his fence, rush in again, or completely blow him up with a large amount of gunpowder". To this end, the headquarters of the front army asked all troops to generally promote the methods of tunnel blasting operations, and pay attention to collecting all kinds of blasting data and experience, so as to organize them into engineering teaching materials. Since then, in the face of the enemy's walls and earth fences, red army officers and soldiers often used the method of "Earth plane" tunnel blasting. On October 13, 1931, the third independent division of the red army besieged a "self defense regiment" trapped in Xinpo tuweizi, Yudu County, Jiangxi Province. The earth fence is rammed with lime, glutinous rice and sand. It is quite strong and difficult to overcome without heavy weapons. The third independent division of the Red Army is mostly the children of Southern Jiangxi and Western Fujian. Many people have used earth guns and cannons. Everyone brainstormed and decided to dig a tunnel to the root of the wall of the Tuwei City, and then fill the coffin with gunpowder and bury it under the soil, and install the lead wire for blasting. On the morning of the 17th, the Red Army lit a fuse, and a corner of the Tuwei city wall was blasted open. The red army quickly rushed into the encirclement, completely annihilating hundreds of enemy troops who resisted tenaciously, and the head of the enemy "self defense regiment" was also killed on the spot. It's just a small test to fight against the earth, and the bigger test is to attack the city. In late October 1931, in order to welcome the convening of the first National Congress of the Chinese Soviet Union, in accordance with the instructions of Chairman Mao on the rapid elimination of the White army strongholds in the red area, the Red Army 5 set out from Ruijin City, passing through Huichang Xijiang River, Luokou, Baie, chazi and Gaopai to menling. The red 8th Army set out from Ruijin Xiefang, passed through bankeng and Luotang in Huichang, and joined menling. The two armies then jointly surrounded Huichang City, which was controlled by the reactionary forces. Huichang has a tall and thick city wall, surrounded by Gongjiang River, Xiangjiang River and Mianjiang River on the East and northwest of the county city. Only in the south is an open land, forming a terrain that can be attacked and defended. It has been known as "iron Huichang" since ancient times. When the Red Army studied the siege plan, some advocated a strong attack, but the casualties of the strong attack were large; Some advocate besieging the city, but not for too long. At this time, the Red Army's independent 3rd Division used "earth planes" to capture Xinpo tuweizi, and the Red Army officers and soldiers were inspired and decided to "follow the example". The commander reported to the headquarters that the Red Army headquarters immediately approved this proposal and decided to dig six tunnels at the same time in the south of the city and adopt the method of tunnel blasting to attack the city. To this end, an engineering company was transferred from the first Red Army Corps to undertake the task of digging tunnels. Most of the soldiers in the engineering company used to be miners in Anyuan coal mine. They were very good at digging tunnels and made rapid progress. Although two tunnels were damaged by the enemy and two tunnels were flooded, the soldiers still dug the two tunnels to the root of the wall of the enemy fort Pavilion in the southwest. Subsequently, the Soviet government of Huichang County immediately organized personnel to send home-made explosives to the Red Army station, and the local old watch donated the coffin. On the morning of October 25, the engineering company transported three coffins filled with homemade explosives to the bottom of the city wall through the tunnel and lit the fuse. Only a loud bang was heard. The turret at the southwest corner of Huichang city rose up with the dust and smoke, and the wall was also blasted more than 10 meters wide. At this time, the bugle of charge sounded, and the Red Army officers and soldiers rushed into the city like a tide. The enemy was scared out of his courage, and in the shouting of "surrender your gun or not kill", they raised their hands and surrendered. In this battle, the Red Army captured more than 700 enemies, surrendered more than 1000 guns, and fought a beautiful victory. This war example has accumulated experience for the blasting siege. The tunnel blasting method of "Earth plane" has played an important role in a series of battles, such as the attack on Xunwu and Shaxian County, and its scale is becoming larger and larger. When attacking Sha county, the Red Army spent 10 days digging pits and about 3500 kilograms of black powder to blow up the city wall. In this battle, the red army destroyed more than 700 enemy troops, captured more than 1300 people, and seized a large number of weapons such as machine guns, rifles, flat fire guns, mortars, etc. more than 108000 bullets and more than 20000 shells were seized alone. In addition, it seized a radio station and all equipment of the enemy's arsenal, as well as a large number of salt, grain, cloth, etc., which were rewarded by the second National Congress of the Chinese Soviet Union. From then on, the reputation of "Earth plane" attacking the city became famous all over the world. During the war of resistance against Japan, the tunnel blasting method adopted by our army also played a great role in attacking the city walls and turrets firmly defended by the Japanese and puppet forces, which made the Japanese and puppet forces taste the power of "earth planes". The Linfen campaign during the war of liberation is a classic example of our army's use of tunnel blasting. On May 17, 1948, during the Linfen campaign, the 23rd brigade of the 8th column of the Shanxi Hebei Shandong Henan military region used two broken city tunnels to blast the city wall. The 23rd brigade and the 24th brigade attacked the city by blasting smoke, completely annihilated the enemy forces guarding the city, and liberated Linfen City. (outlook new era)