Chapter 45 6. The eastward column deploys a new "eight trigrams array"

After the Japanese army failed to destroy the anti-Japanese base areas in southern Hebei after the first comprehensive "mopping up" in November, its North China Dispatched Army assembled the main force of the 10th Division and the 27th and 27th Divisions, which had newly arrived from the Wuhan battlefield, in January 1939. One division of the 110th division, one division of the 14th division formerly stationed in northern Henan and one division each of the 114th division formerly stationed in the Tai'an and Dezhou sections of Jinpu Road, with a total of more than 30,000 people. "Public security and uprightness" operations.

Beginning on January 7th, the head of the 10th Division of the Japanese Army, Shijiazhuang Yoshio, led his troops to branch out from the strongholds of Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Handan, and Lincheng on the Ping-Han Line, adopting a tactic of steady advancement, and occupied the Fuyang River by the end of the month. The counties on both sides control the main ferry from Xinhe to Fuyang River in Quzhou. On January 16, in the conference room of the Nangong East Column Headquarters, the military and political leaders of the 129th Division in southern Hebei gathered at brigade level and above: Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Geng, Wang Xinting, Chen Zaidao, Song Renqiong, Liu Zhijian, Li Jukui... Li Jingyu and Yang Xiufeng from the Party Committee of the local district and the Office of the Chief Executive of Southern Hebei were also present.

The meeting has been going on for a while, and the room is full of smoke, and everyone is still breathing. "...the Japanese army has a big appetite, and they seem to want to eat us up. Not only do they want to eat up southern Jibei, but also northwestern Shandong! It's a pity that their teeth are not good, and they are beyond their control. Now, We just want to show him some color, set up an 'eight trigram array', and 'fight' with them." Liu Bocheng stood in front of the conference table, waving his right arm from time to time while speaking.On the wall behind him hangs a combat map of the Southern Hebei region, several huge blue arrows, like sharp swords, are thrusting towards Nangong...

"I announce the formation of our 6 mobile groups. The 1st group - the 385th group, directly under the jurisdiction of the Jiyu Detachment, the 2nd Regiment of the Eastward Column, and the Li Lin Detachment, commanded by Xie Fuzhi, fighting in the 1st Army Division; Group 2 - the 386th Group, directly under the new 1st Regiment, the Supplementary Regiment, the 688th Regiment, the 3rd Regiment of the Eastward Column, the 3rd Brigade of the Advance Detachment, the Cheng Qiguang Brigade, and Wu Zuoqi's troops, fighting in the 3rd Army Division area, led by Chen Geng, Commanded by Wang Xinting; the third group - Youth Column Group..."

"This time our general combat principle is to collapse first and then clean up. The so-called collapse first means to give up the main county towns and strongholds first, avoid the real and use the empty, and operate in different regions in a guerrilla posture. On the premise of preserving vitality, we often Maintain contact with the enemy with a small force, but do not give up the favorable opportunity to destroy the enemy. As for the final clean-up, it is to pass a period of time that consumes the enemy, and then turn to the counter-offensive.” After Liu Bocheng finished speaking, he passed the topic to Deng Xiaoping.

Deng Xiaoping took two deep puffs of the cigarette, exhausted the remaining short length, cleared his throat and said: "Mr. Liu has made clear the specific deployment of anti-mopping up, so I won't talk about it. I want to remind everyone of two points: one is to rely on the masses. The mass base in southern Hebei is good. Ren Qiong told me that Catholics arrived When worshiping in the church, they all prayed to 'bless the Anti-Japanese Army, bless the Eighth Route Army, the Anti-Japanese Army will win the battle, and the Eighth Route Army will win the battle'. Some old women also prayed for us to win the battle, and even made small noodles with white flour and boiled them in a pot, saying that they are small If the devil cooks like this, he will die. This is very illustrative. If the religious believers and old women are like this, the consciousness of other masses can be imagined. We must cherish this point, which is the most essential and most important thing for us to win the anti-mopping up victory. The basic thing. Second, we must overcome the tendency of pride and blind optimism. Just now Xinting talked about some phenomena, and I am very worried. It is not a general worry, but a very worrying one! The Japanese army competed..."