Chapter 42 Shanxi: the quagmire of the Japanese army

Beginning on August 25, 1937, a 30,000-strong army set off from the barren and sandy northern Shaanxi, crossed the roaring Yellow River, and entered Shanxi eastward, embarking on the most amazing journey in modern military history. When General Zhu De and his officers and soldiers crossed the rushing Yellow River in simple wooden boats and entered the steep mountains of Shanxi, the scattered blockhouses on the mountains will definitely evoke not-so-distant memories.In 1936, these bunkers were the barriers for the Shanxi army to resist the Red Army's eastern expedition. Now, they have become stand-by spectators, watching this team of once-fighting opponents go to resist the foreign invaders who invaded the Yellow Land.Shanxi's "tumbler" Yan Xishan served as the commander-in-chief of the second war zone.Zhu De, the commander-in-chief of the Red Army, soon became the deputy commander-in-chief of the theater.His officers and soldiers bid farewell to the Red Five Stars. Their unit designation was first the Eighth Route Army, and soon it was renamed the Eighteenth Army.But they have always preferred to use the designation of the Eighth Route Army.

The Eighth Route Army fought fierce battles at Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass, and assembled a large force of thousands of people. However, since then, the Eighth Route Army has been broken up into pieces and dispersed into small units for activities.The leaders of the Eighth Route Army knew their own weaknesses. If they were to conduct positional warfare in the wilderness or conduct offensive and defensive warfare in urban strongholds, they would not be opponents of the Japanese army due to lack of heavy weapons and small numbers of soldiers.The Eighth Route Army had to preserve itself before it could develop its specialties—guerrilla warfare and the skills of being good at surviving in the countryside.

Shanxi is the commanding height of the North China battlefield.This mountainous plateau overlooks the Great Plains of Hebei. This is where the Japanese army was determined to win. They could not control the Shanxi Plateau. Even if the Japanese army occupied the entire North China Plain, they would not be able to sleep peacefully. The Anti-Japanese War in Shanxi is a page worth writing in the history of war.The wars in Shanxi are very creative. Almost all types of wars in the country can be found here. The Eighth Route Army’s beautiful ambush at Pingxingguan, Xinkou’s tenacious positional warfare, and guerrilla warfare throughout the province. The people have been organized to participate in the war.All forms of warfare first appeared here, and Shanxi's war of resistance was the most durable and resilient.It can be said that if one does not understand the war of resistance in Shanxi, it is not worthy of saying that one understands the war of resistance.

On the traffic arteries in Shanxi, you can see colorful military uniforms and military caps of different shapes.The Central Army wore bulky German steel helmets emblazoned with the blue sky and white sun emblem.Some are British-style tin hats, some are leather hats, and there are teams from Sichuan wearing straw hats and straw sandals. From August 1937 to the end of October 1938, the clues of the war were clear. The Japanese army attacked and the Chinese army defended. In terms of strategic division of labor, the armies of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party are naturally complementary, although they overly demean each other due to their political prejudices.

The government army took on the heavy responsibility of field battles and city defense. This is a task that has suffered heavy casualties but must be done. As the central government, Chiang Kai-shek knew that he would not be able to explain to the people of the country and face international public opinion if he did not make the necessary resistance. .Chiang Kai-shek always instructed his generals to stick to every city, position and fortress. In Shanxi, his order was equally severe. He forbade the Central Army to cross the Yellow River and retreat to Henan.This was one of the most important orders he issued. If he retreated, Shanxi would be controlled by Japan, Shaanxi and Henan would be threatened, and it would be difficult for the Eighth Route Army to infiltrate North China through Shanxi.

Under the conditions of insufficient weapons and difficult supplies, the Communist Party's army relied on the support of the people and the courageous and fearless confidence in victory, launched guerrilla warfare wherever possible, contained and wiped out a large number of Japanese invaders. In a county, it is often divided into three parts: those of the Kuomintang, those of the Communist Party, and those of the Japanese, and the borders between them are blurred.The Central Army, the Eighth Route Army, and Yan Xishan's troops cooperated with each other and also competed with each other. This competition developed from verbal criticism to fighting with each other.As long as the government is established in the people, and the people accept it gratefully, it must protect the people from violence to kill and hurt.From this perspective, Chiang Kai-shek's government is no longer a real government, it has been separated from its people.The Red Army and the Japanese seem to have a kind of "symbiotic" phenomenon, and the Japanese seem to develop wherever they invade.The brutality of the Japanese helped the Communists compete with the central government.This brilliant success disturbed the Japanese, as well as Chiang Kai-shek's army.The complex phenomena that occur in wars are unimaginable to people in peaceful times.The Communist Party is anti-Japanese, but it uses a brand-new idea and method-to carry out guerrilla warfare, and try to get rid of the control of the Chongqing government as much as possible.The central government used disobedience to the military orders as an excuse to stop paying the Communist Party’s troops and refuse logistical support, while the Communist Party simply established its own government system to provide logistical assistance to its own troops. This was unacceptable to the Chongqing government.The friction between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, including the Southern Anhui Incident, occurred under such circumstances and intensified.

The Japanese army stagnated in Shanxi. It was only in 1941 that they defeated the Central Army that had persisted in Zhongtiao Mountain for many years. The army in Shanxi Province was weakened, but Yan Xishan has been surviving at the borders of Shanxi and Shaanxi. Although the warlord almost surrendered to Japan at one point.But with the Communist army, the Japanese had nothing to do except prevent them from developing too quickly.They watched the Eighth Route Army penetrate into the entire North China Plain and mountains like a trickle, and they were disturbed.Guerrilla warfare is a new form of warfare that Chiang Kai-shek learned painfully during the Civil War, and now it is the turn of the Japanese to enjoy it.How to deal with such a scale and form of guerrilla warfare is not taught in the curriculum of the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer Academy.The Japanese army used the barbaric "Three Alls" policy, but it only stimulated the fire of anger to burn even more intensely.