Transmigrating into the flames of the War of Resistance, Chen Feng had received training at both the fourth class of Huangpu Military Academy and the Frunze Military Academy. He was appointed commander of the Eighth Route Army's 389th Brigade at a moment of crisis. Faced with the challenge of consolidating the New First Regiment, the Independent Regiment, the New Second Regiment, and the newly formed New Ninth Regiment, he overruled all objections and brought the insubordinate firebrand Li Yunlong back from the clothing factory. He used ironclad military discipline to rein in the unruly officers and rebuilt the troops' combat strength with System tactics.
He opened a battlefield classroom, applying modern military theory to combat in northwestern Shanxi; introduced coordinated tactics, combining Ding Wei's skill at blocking, Kong Jie's steady approach, and Li Yunlong's fearlessness; and forged an elite new force, turning the ill-equipped New Ninth Regiment into a razor-sharp assault unit. From their first show of strength in the defensive counterattack at Wolf Valley to their thousand-mile dash to reinforce Pingxingguan, Chen Feng led the 389th Brigade through one crisis after another amid the Japanese invaders' relentless sweeps. With the spirit of “When two foes meet on a narrow road, the braver one wins,” they composed a stirring anthem of resistance on the loess plateau, celebrating an iron-willed brigade commander and his elite troops.
