Chapter 5 4. Comparison of forces between the two sides before the war

The war is about to start, who are the main enemy troops occupying the Shangdang area?What about its military strength?What kind of troop deployment will the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region make to compete with the enemy? At that time, Yan Xishan's army and the puppet army mainly occupied the Shangdang area, and the distribution of their forces was as follows: With Changzhi City as the center, use 3 infantry divisions (temporary 37th, 68th and 69th divisions) plus 1 artillery battalion and some puppet troops, with a total of about 11,000 people guarding Changzhi; use the second column to advance and add some puppet troops , a total of about 2,000 people guarded the eldest son; with the main force advancing into the 6th column plus some puppet troops, a total of more than 1,000 people were stationed in the garrison. Both are around 1,000 people.

The enemies of the above-mentioned cities all occupy Chengguan and nearby important villages and towns. The characteristics of Yan Xishan's army are: good equipment, strong firepower, good at fortification, accustomed to defending the city, and good at defense.Cities such as Changzhi have old city walls, backed by forts built by the Japanese army for many years. Yan Xishan's army will not easily leave the fortified areas. The march of Yan Xishan's army adopted the method of marching in multiple columns side by side. The purpose was to deal with the ambush of the Eighth Route Army. To win, wait for the enemy to win." That is to say, "defend first and then attack".

The basic weaknesses of Yan Xishan's army are: long-term collusion with the Japanese army and the puppet army, cruelty to the people, extreme political isolation, low morale; fear of hand-to-hand combat, fear of night battles, not good at field battles, especially fear of being ambushed, fear of the Eighth Route Army attacking the city At that time, two-thirds of the troops were used to fight for aid.This time Yan Xishan's army entered and occupied the Shangdang area, with a single army going deep and scattered defenses, which is conducive to the army and civilians in the liberated areas to attack them one by one.

At that time, the basic situation of the troops of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region was as follows: Most of the main forces of the Taihang, Taiyue, and Southern Hebei military regions that were concentrated in preparation for the Shangdang Campaign were old troops. They were used scattered during the Anti-Japanese War as the backbone forces in various regions. When the Japanese army launched a major counterattack, Only then did they gradually concentrate on fighting. As the battle of Shangdang approached, the establishment of these troops was still insufficient, and most regiments had less than 1,000 soldiers; the troops in the entire military region had only 6 mountain artillery pieces, and half of the regiments had only 2 to 4 mortars and 3 to 4 heavy machine guns; Soldiers who join the army often use knives and spears, ammunition is scarce, and many rifles have only a few rounds of bullets.

The upcoming Shangdang Campaign will be the first confrontation with the Kuomintang army after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, and it will also be the first battle that will change from scattered guerrilla warfare to concentrated mobile warfare.Therefore, it is necessary not only to win the first battle, but also to build troops in the course of fighting to adapt to the development of future war forms and the needs of combat tasks.In other words, it is necessary to solve the problem of how to defeat the enemy with superior equipment and guarding the castle with troops with inferior equipment and lack of regular combat experience in large corps, and must also accelerate the transition from guerrilla troops to regular corps and from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare in the course of actual combat. Transformation (here includes enrichment of establishment, improvement of equipment, centralized and unified command, improvement of combat effectiveness, development of regular combat style, etc.).