Chapter 45 Fortress-like Shanxi

In the northern country where snowflakes are falling, cave dwellings that are warm in winter and cool in summer have become good shelters from the cold.In a cave dwelling in Yangjialing, Yan'an, dim kerosene lamps were flickering.The center of the vortex is often extremely quiet, and Yan'an is such a city.Mao Zedong could read, think and write calmly under a kerosene lamp.In Yan'an, he read "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and finished reading the German Clausewitz's military book "On War". He also enthusiastically organized a research group for "On War".The method adopted is to discuss once a week, starting at seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and discussing until eleven or twelve o'clock in the evening.Mao Zedong appreciated Clausewitz's method of concentrating troops, which was also the secret of the great French commander Napoleon.Mao Zedong's deep gaze seemed to penetrate the chaotic and dim battle situation.He found that any unjust war had to be guarded by dividing troops.He had foreseen that the well-armed and well-trained Japanese army was bound to repeat the same mistakes.

At the beginning of 1938, after Taiyuan fell, Mao Zedong proposed a complete plan for the national strategic deployment to the national government. He reminded Chiang Kai-shek, "If nearly one million troops retreat to the inner line south of the Yellow River and west of Ping-Han, and Longhai, Ping-Han If the enemy occupies everything, it will create great difficulties. Therefore, the general policy is that under the condition of the enemy's deep attack, we must deploy sufficient forces on the outer lines so that we can cooperate with the main force on the inner lines to fight, increase the enemy's difficulties, reduce our own difficulties, and create favorable conditions. The Military-Political Situation of Protracted War".

Both Mao Zedong and the generals of the Eighth Route Army particularly hoped that other armies in Shanxi should be as determined to stay behind as the Eighth Route Army, rather than retreat across the Yellow River.Mao Zedong instructed the Eighth Route Army to go deep into the enemy's rear, establish multiple bases capable of independent operations to persist in the long-term war of resistance, cooperate with friendly forces in operations, and restrain the Japanese army from attacking Tongguan, Xi'an, and northern Shaanxi.Fight to defend the northwest and defend Wuhan.At that time, Chiang Kai-shek also realized the importance of Shanxi, and ordered that the army in Shanxi not be allowed to retreat across the Yellow River.

January 31, 1938, is the Lunar New Year.Wei Lihuang, deputy commander of the Second Theater and commander of the Fourteenth Group Army, took his two army commanders from Linfen to Mamu Village in Hongdong County to pay New Year greetings to Zhu De.Wei Lihuang was the commander of the Xinkou Battle, and Zhu De was the commander of the Eighth Route Army who won the victory at Pingxingguan.This meeting enabled the two famous anti-Japanese generals to develop a deep personal friendship.Kang Keqing, Zhu De's wife, recalled: "Boss Zhu said that Wei Lihuang is reliable. Wei gave him a pen and a watch. Boss Zhu cherished these two gifts until they couldn't use them later, and specifically confessed to them. Keep it and keep it.” Wei Lihuang and Zhu De led the two most powerful armies on the Shanxi battlefield.The friendship and cooperation between the two are crucial to the rapid stabilization of the Shanxi battlefield.

In February, Zhu De served as the commander of the East Route Army in the second theater. In addition to the three divisions of the Eighth Route Army, he also commanded seven and a half divisions assigned by Yan Xishan and Wei Lihuang. On the 20th, Zhu De and Zuo Quan led the headquarters to leave Ma Mu Village with two radio stations, preparing to go to the front line of Taihang.In addition to more than 10 people from the headquarters, they were accompanied by two companies responsible for security communications.During the march, the situation changed suddenly, and the Japanese soldiers were divided into two groups to capture Linfen.After Linfen fell in Taiyuan, it became the military and political center of Shanxi.In particular, the actions of the Japanese army on the East Road were very secretive, and the soldiers and civilians in Linfen were completely unprepared.Zhu De did not move into the mountains due to lack of troops. Instead, he drove his troops to Guxian Town to stop them.When the Japanese found out that the commander of the Eighth Route Army, Zhu De, was blocking their way, they dispatched more than a dozen bombers. Fortunately, the Japanese pilots mistakenly targeted the target. Although General Zhu De escaped the bombing, the outside world did not know about it for a few days. his news. At 7:00 p.m. on the 25th, the Japanese army occupied Guxian Town. Zhu De and his headquarters moved to Liuyuan Village, south of the Lintun Highway, and ordered a battalion of reinforcements to attack the follow-up Japanese army.It was only a hundred miles from Fucheng along the Lintun Highway to Linfen, and Zhu De led hundreds of people to interfere with a brigade of the Japanese army for three days. Although Linfen fell on the 28th, it has won time for the hundreds of thousands of local soldiers and civilians to transfer safely.Zhu De later recalled this unforgettable experience: The Japanese army "thought they could use great force to press us down to the corner where the Yellow River turned, into that small corner. Where are you going? Why not go down the river to drink water? This method It's smart, but we are also smart. At that time, our Eighth Route Army was not only commanding our own troops, but also commanding a part of the national army. We all fought to the northeast, and let you fight to the edge of the Yellow River. In the end, he fought to the edge of the Yellow River He went up, looked around, and saw no one. At this time, he knew that he had failed."

On March 8, the Japanese army in Shanxi bombarded Tongguan, Shaanxi, and the two sides fought with each other.A part of the Japanese army once crossed the Yellow River and invaded Fugu in northern Shaanxi, but was repelled by the Chinese army. The Japanese offensive in the northwest was contained and the front stabilized first. The Yellow River at the junction of Shanxi and Shaanxi became the dividing line of confrontation until the victory of the War of Resistance The Japanese army could not go one step further.The Japanese army invested 6 divisions in Shanxi and occupied all important railway and roadside cities, but the Chinese army still refused to withdraw from this vital province and fought on the spot. The Shanxi battlefield became the most troublesome place for the Japanese army.

In late October 1938, after Guangzhou and Wuhan were successively occupied by the Japanese army, Chiang Kai-shek convened a military meeting in Mount Heng, Nanyue, on November 25, inviting Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying to attend.Chiang Kai-shek finally realized the mistakes in the use of troops since the War of Resistance, and wanted to learn from the guerrilla warfare of the Eighth Route Army. In the highest strategic guiding principles of the War of Resistance passed at that meeting, the words "politics is more important than military" and "guerrilla warfare is more important than regular warfare" have appeared.Chiang Kai-shek decided to open a training class for guerrilla cadres in Nanyue, and asked the CCP to send people to participate.Many Eighth Route Army instructors including Ye Jianying participated in the teaching work. The officers of the friendly army listened to the Eighth Route Army instructors to teach them the concept and skills of guerrilla warfare.A total of 3 training sessions were held, and thousands of trainees were trained.

Before the fall of Wuhan, the conventional warfare model had always played the leading role. After that, the guerrilla warfare that the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were good at began to make its debut and rose to a major role.