Chapter 102 10. The Hundred Regiments War did not end on time

On the day when the first phase of the "Hundred Regiments War" was announced to be victorious and all participating troops were transferred to rest, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Central Instructions on the Trend of the Current Situation" and "The Central Committee's General Guidelines for Military Operations of "Attacking the Enemy and Making Friends" The two important documents of the Instructions require that the Eighth Route Army "should expand the campaign of the Hundred Regiments Campaign", and put forward the direction and task of the expansion as "going to the side of the enemy that has not yet been hit so as to reduce the occupied area, expand the base area, break the blockade, Raise combat effectiveness."Peng Dehuai and Zuo Quan started to formulate the second phase of the attack plan in accordance with the spirit of the central government's instructions.

When the attack on Zhengtai Road was still in full swing, Peng Dehuai, Zuo Quan, etc. followed Mao Zedong's call to "whether such a battle could be organized once or twice", and began to consider "if Zhengtai cannot continue to fight or has completely In the case of completing the mission of the Zhengtai Campaign, our policy of action" was raised: "take advantage of the victory to launch battles on both sides of Zhengtai Road, to regain some of the enemy's strongholds that have penetrated into the respective base areas". After the central government issued new instructions on September 10, Peng Dehuai and Zuo Quan further analyzed the enemy's situation and our situation. After several days of planning and planning, they issued the second phase of the Hundred Regiments Campaign signed by Zhu, Peng and Zuo on September 16. Order.The order pointed out: The basic policy of the second phase of the operation is: continue to destroy the enemy's traffic, and regain certain strongholds that have penetrated into our basic base area. The operation will start on September 20. The specific deployment is:

——The 120th Division, with the purpose of cutting off the traffic in the northern section of Tongpu Road, assembled the main force to destroy Tongpu Road in Ningwu and Xuangang sections and completely destroyed them. ——The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region aims to carry out work in the northwest of the border area. It should gather the main force to destroy the roads of Laiyuan and Lingqiu and seize the city (mainly Laiyuan), and actively cooperate with the 120 troops on the east side of Tongpu Road. The battle of the division. ——The 129th Division started the struggle in the Yuliao area with the purpose of recovering Yushe and Liao County, and continued to attack the northern section of Baijin Road with a part of its troops.

——The troops operating along the Jinchaji and 129th Division's original Liuzhengtai Road remain unchanged, and actively obstruct the enemy's railway restoration. The order also put forward specific requirements for the combat deployment of troops in Central Hebei, Southern Hebei, and Jinjin Army. In the second stage of operations, the various units of the Eighth Route Army mainly carried out the Battle of Lailing, the Battle of Yuliao, the Battle of the North and South Ningwu Section of Tongpu Road, and the Battle of Ren (Qiu) He (Jian) ​​Dacheng) and Su (Ning). Stone Road, Battle of Hanji Road, etc.

At the end of the second phase of the battle, Peng Dehuai, Zuo Quan, Luo Ruiqing, Lu Dingyi and other leaders of the Eighth Route Army headquarters and the field political department had planned to organize another large-scale offensive in order to continue to expand the victory, consolidate the North China Anti-Japanese Base, and further attract the enemy. Strive for an improvement in the national situation.They proposed this task to the corps in their telegram on October 2 and asked the corps to prepare accordingly. However, the specific deployment of the Eighth Route Army headquarters has not yet been made, and the order for a new large-scale offensive has not yet been issued, but the enemy's situation has undergone major changes. On October 6, the Japanese North China Front Army, which suffered a heavy blow, started its "retaliation" ferociously after repairing the railway that was raided by the Eighth Route Army. , Frantically counterattacked to various strategic areas, and implemented the "three alls" policy on the base areas, killing people when they saw them, burning houses when they saw them, and looting food when they saw them.

The cruel revenge of the Japanese army made it impossible for the Eighth Route Army to organize another large-scale offensive after the first and second stages of the "Hundred Regiments War". Peng Dehuai then ordered the troops to stop resting and shift to the third stage of anti-sweeping operations. On October 19, Peng Dehuai and Zuo Quan issued the "Anti-"sweeping" Plan after the Hundred Regiments War", which gave clear instructions on the movement of the Japanese army's "sweeping" after the end of the "Hundred Regiments War" and the combat tasks of each corps against "sweeping up" .

Although the "Hundred Regiments War" ended on October 10 with the end of the second phase, the proclamations, instructions, battle reports, and achievements issued by the Eighth Route Army Headquarters and the Political Department of the Field Army at that time, as well as the propaganda reports of newspapers and broadcasts in Yan'an and various anti-Japanese base areas , did not publicly announce the end of the "Hundred Regiments War", but instead listed the 55-day anti-"mopping up" operation that began on October 11 as the third stage of the "Hundred Regiments War".Why is this?

This is actually a strategic need. During the "Hundred Regiments War", the Ministry of War, the base camp of the Japanese army, suggested that the cabinet formulate a policy program for the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", actively study the southward movement plan, and send troops to occupy the northern part of French Indochina. On September 27, Japan officially formed a fascist military alliance with Germany and Italy.The United Kingdom and the United States attempted to use China's war of resistance to contain Japan's southward advance, so they changed their "Oriental Munich" policy of sacrificing China's interests into actively supporting China's war of resistance. Marching south, he tried his best to persuade Chiang Kai-shek to compromise with Japan and join the German-Italian-Japanese military alliance.Chiang Kai-shek was under the complicated new international situation of Japan's inducement to surrender, Germany's persuasion of surrender, and Britain and the United States actively supporting China's war of resistance. They did not intend to take the coup d'etat line of passive resistance and active anti-communism. They are secretly planning a new anti-communist upsurge, trying to take advantage of the Japanese army's southward advance and mobilize heavy troops to "sweep" the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army to consolidate their occupied areas. The people's anti-Japanese armed forces and anti-Japanese base areas led by him.

In response to the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek clique's conspiracy to compromise with Japan, resist Japan passively, and actively prepare to launch a new anti-Communist upsurge, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward the countermeasures of "steadily dealing with the Kuomintang's offensive, adopting a defensive stance in the military" and "emphasizing unity in the political struggle against Japan". The task of the Party Center is to oppose capitulation and civil war.On the one hand, mobilize all activists inside and outside the party, and use all possible methods to sincerely explain to the government authorities, the Kuomintang, the army, all parties, factions and all walks of life: Suppressing the Communist Party will lead to the collapse of the party and the country, and surrender will surely plunge the people of the whole country into chaos. On the other hand, all the anti-Japanese base areas of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army must persist in a long-term independent and self-reliant anti-Japanese war.At the same time, we must be prepared to deal with any serious anti-communist war, and we must be fully prepared to smash the conspiracy of the joint attack of Japan and the pro-Japanese faction.

It is precisely because of the need for this kind of overall struggle that the "Hundred Regiments War" that has created a huge prestige among the people of the country and made the Kuomintang die-hards and pro-Japanese factions shudder has not been announced to end according to the actual end time.Until December 22 of this year, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Wang Jiaxiang sent such telegrams to Peng Dehuai from Yan'an: "Don't announce the end of the Hundred Regiments War to the outside world. Chiang Kai-shek is launching an anti-communist upsurge. We still have to use the momentum of the Hundred Regiments War to oppose him."

This shows once again that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong and other central leaders affirmed the "Hundred Regiment War" and at the same time answered the reason why the "Hundred Regiment War" did not announce the end according to the actual end time.