Chapter 93 Chapter 11 Hundred Regiments War: A Large-Scale Battle That Shocked China and Foreign Countries

In the winter of 1939, the Japanese army stepped up their control over the communication line, established strongholds on the communication line and the areas on both sides, and relied on these strongholds to divide and blockade the anti-Japanese base areas, so as to realize the expansion of its occupation from "points and lines" to "points and lines". Plans for the occupation of the "face". In the Shanxi-Chahar-Henan border area, the enemy mainly stepped up their control over the Ping-Han Railway, the Hand (Dan) Chang (Government) Highway, the Bai (Gui) Jin (City) Railway, and the Wu (An) Sha (He) Highway.In order to break the enemy's attempt, the head of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army called on the soldiers and civilians in the area to face the traffic line, combine the main force, the local army and the broad masses of the militia, and carry out extensive traffic breaking warfare to break the division and blockade of the enemy's anti-Japanese base areas. "cage" policy.

Under the unified command of the 129th Division, from the winter of 1939 to June 1940, the soldiers and civilians of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region successively carried out four assault battles on the Hanchang Highway, Pinghan Railway, Baijin Railway, and Wusha Highway. After 1940, the Japanese army relied on railways and highways to gradually encroach on the anti-Japanese base areas, and the struggle on the transportation line became increasingly fierce and complicated. For a period of time in early 1940, the most striking thing on the maps hung in the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and in the war rooms of various divisions were black thick and thin lines.Thick lines represent railways and thin lines represent roads.Thick lines and thin lines are densely packed, connected by latitude and longitude, like a huge net covering the map.On military maps, the transportation network occupies a very important position and is often marked with striking black.Now the huge net woven by these eye-catching black threads seems to be waiting for prey, giving people a very depressing feeling.

Since the Eighth Route Army was at a disadvantage in terms of military strength, the tactics of avoiding the real and attacking the weak, and attacking the soft belly of the Japanese army came into being.The softest of the Japanese army is the line of communication.The reason why the Japanese invaders dared to occupy a vast area with a small number of troops and deal with the inexhaustible armed forces behind the enemy with insufficient troops was because there were roads and railways, and the communication line was the lifeblood of the Japanese army.The struggle around the lines of communication behind enemy lines in North China constituted the main theme of the War of Resistance in North China.

After the Eighth Route Army completed the frontal battle with the Kuomintang army and moved to the enemy's rear, it began to attack the Japanese army's communication lines. In February, April, and July 1938, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region launched three consecutive raids on important lines of communication such as the Ping-Han Line; in December 1939, the 129th Division launched a raid on Hanchang Road.The actions of the Eighth Route Army posed a great threat to the communication line that the Japanese army regarded as the lifeline. Under the continuous attack of the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese army came up with new tactics.

The Japanese army is still building roads, but they are no longer ordinary roads. They are "steel blockades".This kind of road "is 5 feet higher than the ground, the ditch on both sides is 8 feet to 1 zhang deep, and the bottom of the ditch is 6 feet wide."The Japanese army built a blockhouse not far away on this road.Throughout North China, the Japanese army built more than 5,000 kilometers of railways, more than 30,000 kilometers of roads, and more than 3,000 strongholds. This is the Japanese army "weaving the net", and North China will soon be covered by the "giant net".

If this net is not shredded, the Eighth Route Army will be unable to move, and will eventually become a fish caught in the net. In order to tear the huge net, one day in late March 1940, the Eighth Route Army headquarters hurriedly called a meeting to discuss countermeasures. Liu Bocheng said: "This is the enemy's attempt to use the 'railway as a pillar, road as a network, and stronghold as a lock' to implement a 'cage' policy against our military and civilians behind the enemy in North China. This phenomenon not only exists in Hebei, but also in North China. The enemy It’s not just targeting a certain base area, but building their transportation network with a strategic vision.”

Peng Dehuai said: "Since the enemy returned to North China, the general trend has become more and more unfavorable to us. There were hundreds of counties in our hands last year, but there are not many this year. We used to say that the enemy only controls points and lines. , that is, the big cities and the main lines of communication, now it seems that they have developed to the "face", if this continues, we will only have a few hills surrounded by the enemy." "The problem is very serious, and the enemy must not be allowed to complete it, otherwise it will cause an extremely difficult situation, and it will not even be possible to persist."

"The enemy's blockade is very strict and the mobility is very strong. If you hit him here, the enemies in all directions will rush like locusts." "Then let's do a general attack and fight together from all directions!" "That's right! Always break the attack, let Guizi care about one thing and lose another, and get beaten everywhere!" Therefore, after the victory of the anti-communist friction campaign completely shattered the Kuomintang's first anti-communist upsurge, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai of the Eighth Route Army headquarters issued an order on April 1: all ministries were required to cooperate closely and start operations on April 10. , launched a general attack on the Japanese army's communication lines.Specific deployment:

——Nie Rongzhen's Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region attacked Jinpu, Pinghan and Zhengtai Roads north of Cangshi Road; ——The 129th Division led by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping attacked the south of Cangshi Road, the Zhishi (Jiazhuang) Ci (county) section of Pinghan Road, and the northern section of Beining Road; ——The 120th Division led by He Long and Guan Xiangying attacked the northern section of Tongpu; ——The Shandong Military Region led by Xu Xiangqian and Zhu Rui dealt with Jiaoji Road and the southern section of Jinpu. Zhu De and Peng Dehuai reported to the Central Committee and Mao Zedong.

Since then, a topographic map of the Zhengtai Railway has been added to the war room of the Eighth Route Army headquarters.