Chapter 80 3. Zhu Huaibing "seizes" territory

Zhu Huaibing's 97th Army was transferred to Hebei by Chiang Kai-shek when he borrowed Lu Zhonglin to gather the troops of the former Northwest Army.Zhu Huaibing believed that he was from the same Baoding clan as Chiang Kai-shek, and he also had a well-equipped army, trying to expand his territory through friction and create a situation of his own.After becoming the director of the Civil Affairs Department of Hebei Province, with the legal name of seizing the territory of Hebei Province, Zhu Huaibing was even more forgetful. There was no regular KMT army in the west of Hebei and the north of the Taihang Mountains. This was a great opportunity for him to expand.

In late November, Zhu Huaibing readily accepted the request of Lu Zhonglin, who was hiding in western Hebei, and led his troops northward. At the beginning of December, the Zhu Huaibing Department of the 97th Army of the Kuomintang entered Western Hebei, seized key points, surrounded and oppressed the Youth Column of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, the Western Hebei Guerrillas and other departments, and destroyed the anti-Japanese democratic regime. The reactionary arrogance was very arrogant. One day, Zhu Huaibing came to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and aggressively asked Zhu De to withdraw his troops to the east of Baijin Road and north of Hanchang Road, and to give him the area of ​​Taiyue and Tai (Xingshan) South, and said: "This is Chiang Kai-shek's orders, military orders, and government orders must be unified, and the Eighth Route Army should implement this order."

Zhu De said with a smile: "You are resisting Japan, and we are resisting Japan. Why should we give up the base area we established to you? The order of the chairman will not work." "If you don't carry out this order, don't blame us for using force!" Zhu Huaibing seemed to have forgotten who he was talking to. "General Zhu, during the Great Revolution, we didn't insist on independence, we just backed down, but now I want to tell you two things: first, our leader is now Mao Zedong, not Chen Duxiu; second, we now have the Eighth Route Army. You said you were going to fight, wouldn't we fight back?"

After Zhu Huaibing left in disgrace, Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and Liu Bocheng, commander of the 129th Division, went to western Hebei to persuade Lu Zhonglin and Zhu Huaibing, commanders-in-chief of the Hebei-Chahar War Zone, in order to unite in the anti-Japanese war.Liu Bocheng said: "We have retreated far away. There is really no place to retreat. You have to let us have a place to fight against the Japanese! One division of the Eighth Route Army resisted 100,000 Japanese troops and 100,000 puppet troops. It is not because we are afraid of you, but for the sake of unity, we cannot bear to kill each other. If you force people Too much, we have the backing of the people."

The geographical location of western Hebei is very important. It is the middle zone connecting the Taihang Mountains, the Southern Hebei Plain and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region. If this area is occupied by Zhu Huaibing, the east and west sides of the base will be isolated. In order to force Zhu Huaibing to withdraw from western Hebei and prevent the Kuomintang Central Army from launching a massive attack on the Communist Party and the anti-Japanese forces led by it in Taibei and South Hebei, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping decided to annihilate the two stubborn troops of Qiao Mingli and Hou Ruyong first.At the end of December, the troops were deployed as follows: Wang Jinshan's 769 regiment moved northward to join the independent first regiment to form a pincer force; the independent second regiment moved northward to take over the defense of the first regiment; and called the 18th Army headquarters to inform Lu Zhengcao and Cheng Zihua to lead the Jizhong The troops intercepted the enemy in the east of the railway.

On January 12, 1940, the battle broke out between the two sides. Fan Zixia led his troops to stand firm, and Chen Xilian commanded the troops to attack. After a day of fierce fighting, more than 8,000 people from the Qiao and Hou armies were basically defeated and more than 1,500 people were captured.Qiao Mingli led more than 300 remnants to flee south, and Hou Ruyong fled into Zanhuang County under the support of the Japanese army and became a traitor. So far, the so-called Hebei People's Army has been reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, except for the troops controlled by progressive elements Wang Changjiang, Zhang Zhonghan, and Zhu Cheng, and those who insisted on a stubborn stand were basically eliminated by the Eighth Route Army.

Finally, Liu Bocheng also personally met with Zhu Huaibing.Under Liu Bocheng's strict warning, Zhu Huaibing did not dare to act rashly, and retreated to the area south of the Wushe Highway and north of the Zhanghe River in early February 1940.