Chapter 42 3. The Eighth Route Army recruited the bandits Zayong

On April 21, 1938, Mao Zedong, Luo Fu, and Liu Shaoqi jointly sent a telegram to Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, Xu Xiangqian, and Deng Xiaoping. The masses took to open armed struggle. On April 22, the Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army ordered the main force of the 129th Division and the first part of the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division to quickly deploy from the Taihang Mountains to the southern Hebei, northern Henan Plains and along various railways. After receiving the instructions from the Central Committee and the orders from the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, Liu Bocheng, Xu Xiangqian, and Deng Xiaoping immediately conducted serious research and made a specific division of labor and planning for the development and development of guerrilla warfare in plain areas.It was decided that Xu Xiangqian would lead the 689th and 769th regiments and Zeng Guohua's detachment to southern Hebei, Chen Geng would lead the main force of the 386th brigade to the Hebei area on the west side of Pinghan Road, and Wang Xinting would lead the two battalions of the 771st regiment to Pinghan Road. Yongnian, Feixiang, and Cheng'an areas on the east side.In addition, Chen Xilian and Xie Fuzhi led the main force of the newly established 385th Brigade to continue activities in the area south of Zhengtai Road and west of Pinghan Road, and divided their forces to develop in the area east of Shijiazhuang.A few months later, the armed forces in southern Hebei have grown very large.

The Eighth Route Army successively incorporated and reorganized dozens of groups of bandits, militarists, and security teams of more than 20 counties.The larger ones, such as Duan Haizhou's Youth Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army, have been reorganized into the Eighth Route Army Youth Guerrilla Column; Zhao Huilou's People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Army has been reorganized into the Eighth Route Army Hebei-Henan Guerrilla Detachment.In this way, the number of anti-Japanese armed forces directly under the leadership of the 129th Division in southern Hebei has reached more than 20,000.

Subsequently, under the auspices of Deng Xiaoping and Xu Xiangqian, the transformation and joint organization of the armed forces in the southern Hebei area was also carried out in an intense and orderly manner—the 771st Regiment, the 2nd Regiment of the Eastward Column, and the 2nd Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Division were jointly organized into the 2nd Division. The 129th Division Independent Brigade.Later, the Independent Brigade was merged into the Youth Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Column, with Duan Haizhou as the commander, Li Jukui as the political commissar, and Xu Shenji as the deputy commander.

The 1st and 3rd regiments of the Eastward Column were combined into the new 1st regiment, which was assigned to the 386th brigade. The Wang Naigui Detachment and the People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Forces were jointly organized into the Hebei-Henan Detachment, which was assigned to the 385th Brigade. Zhao Huilou was the detachment leader, Zhao Yuefang was the political commissar, and Wang Naigui was the deputy detachment leader. The Jinpu detachment, the backbone teams of each military division, the county civilian regiments, and the security regiments were jointly organized into the 1st to 8th detachments and independent regiments of the Eastward Column. Chen Zaidao was still the commander, and Song Renqiong was the political commissar.

At the same time, the Southern Hebei Chief Executive's Office, which unified the administrative leadership of the whole southern Hebei region, was also established, with non-partisan democrat Yang Xiufeng as the director and Song Renqiong as the deputy director.