Chapter 105 13. Peng Dehuai made a review

As soon as the Hundred Regiments War ended, controversy arose: Should this war be fought?Some people also accused that it was because of the Hundred Regiments War that the enemy would redouble his brutal attacks on North China two years later.By 1945 during the Yan'an Rectification Movement, the North China Symposium, and the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, people's criticism of Peng Dehuai reached a small climax. In the face of these accusations, Peng Dehuai repeatedly made multiple self-criticisms.In the review, Peng Dehuai not only fully affirmed the positive significance of the Hundred Regiments Campaign, but also bravely checked its shortcomings from a personal perspective.Peng Dehuai said: This raid has seriously damaged the enemy's transportation, wiped out a lot of puppet troops and puppet organizations, destroyed a lot of fortresses of the enemy and puppet troops in our base area, and recovered many counties and towns. A large amount of materials were seized, which was the most seized in the War of Resistance Against Japan.

This battle greatly improved the confidence of the people in North China in the anti-Japanese war in the enemy's rear. It dealt a big blow to the Japanese invaders' policy of inducing surrender and the Eastern Munich conspiracy, and greatly excited the people in Jiang's administrative area.This campaign also dealt another blow to the capitulators, raised the prestige of the anti-Japanese army led by the Communist Party, and cracked down on the KMT's rumors that the Eighth Route Army "swimmed without fighting."Jiang's army had support from the rear and international assistance, while the Eighth Route Army was deep behind enemy lines and had no assistance. In order to take care of the overall situation, it was still able to carry out a hundred-regiment campaign, taking the sacred cause of resisting Japan and saving the nation as its own responsibility.Let the people of the whole country judge and educate themselves.In the large-scale sabotage campaign against Japan, our army also gained some experience in attacking key points, which will be more conducive to our future activities of armed forces behind enemy lines.The work of disintegrating the puppet army and puppet organizations in North China was also carried out rapidly.The restoration of large areas of liberated areas has changed the situation of double burdens and alleviated the suffering of the people.

The news of the victory in this battle reached Yan'an, and Chairman Mao immediately called me and said, "The Hundred Regiments War is really exciting. Can we organize another battle like this?" So this battle has won many victories. . However, I was wrong on this question.This mistake is mainly manifested in my incorrect estimation of the direction in which the Japanese army is attacking me.Originally, the enemy was planning to attack the Central Plains and open up the Yuehan Road and Xianggui Road, but I thought (according to the report of our intelligence workers) that they were going to attack Xi'an, fearing that after the enemy occupied Xi'an, they would cut off the connection between the Central Committee (Yan'an) and the Southwest (actually Such concerns are unnecessary); and it was not estimated that the Japanese fascists opened up the Guangdong-Han Road to facilitate the Pacific War.If we had seen through the enemy's strategic attempt at that time, then we would have to wait for another half year, or when the enemy's forces are more dispersed after the enemy attacks Changsha, Hengyang, and Guilin, our army will hold this large-scale sabotage campaign again. Much bigger and much more meaningful.However, that campaign was fought prematurely.Although the battle was won, it delayed the time for the Japanese army to open up the Yuehan Road and Xianggui Road (about one month), thus reducing the pressure on Chiang Kai-shek from the Japanese army at that time.Objectively, it played a role in assisting Chiang Kai-shek.As a result of this raid, the Japanese army was forced to withdraw a division of troops from East China and Central China, and strengthened the attack on our North China base.Especially in the Taihang Mountains, under the enemy's "three alls" policy (this policy of killing, burning, and looting was put forward in the summer of 1939), the people suffered some avoidable losses.Furthermore, in the late stage of the raid campaign, I also commanded a bit recklessly.This campaign took too long to attack in the Taihang Mountains. It lasted for a month without buying time to rest, and the enemy and puppet troops immediately mopped up.When the enemy was mopping up, a reinforced battalion of the Japanese army was usually attached to the puppet army.I always want to find an opportunity to wipe out the enemy's road, so that the enemy will not dare to use the battalion as a road in the next raid, so that the time interval between the raids will be expanded, which is conducive to the mobility of our army and civilians.My idea was not in line with the actual situation at the time.Because the troops were too tired, the combat effectiveness was weakened, and the 129th Division suffered more casualties.

The responsibility for the above consequences should be borne by me.But I think that the evaluation of this campaign cannot be separated from the environment we were in and the tasks we were undertaking at that time.If we put these aside and focus on the other side, "it is to maintain Chiang Kai-shek's rule" and "it is the strategic policy of bourgeois thought", I think it is a bit too much to analyze and deduce a campaign in this way, because at that time the campaign The victory is actually much greater than the loss... I think the Hundred Regiments War was well fought militarily, especially after fighting the anti-friction campaign, we must fight the Hundred Regiments War against Japan, which means that we are anti-friction for the sake of resisting Japan.Only in this way can we win over the vast middle forces.At that time, only by grasping the emptiness in the enemy's rear and launching a sudden and violent attack, could the enemy be effectively mobilized, attacked, and large areas of anti-Japanese base areas restored.It is not easy to organize such a unified and planned attack when the enemy's rear is densely populated with bunkers.The victory in the Hundred Regiments War is beneficial and powerful for exposing Japan and Chiang Kai-shek's deceptive propaganda, and it is very necessary for accumulating strength.If the necessary and possible blows had not been dealt to the enemy and the puppets at that time, the base areas would have been turned into guerrilla areas; we would not have nearly one million regular troops, two million core militias, and vast liberated areas as battlefields for the war of liberation, where the invading Jiang Jun attacked with a well-timed attack.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the People's War developed and went a step further than the period of the Red Army.Various tactics such as large-scale tunnel warfare, mine warfare, and sparrow warfare were used, and various weapons were used.Armed formations are also diverse.Such as ordinary militia, basic militia; villages and villages have small groups, districts have district cadres, and counties have independent regiments, battalions or detachments.After the Hundred Regiments War, an armed task force (martial arts team) was developed. It is a unified organizational form of the party, the government, the army, and the people. Their general policy level is relatively high, and they are good at analyzing specific situations; He is flexible, considers the interests of the people at all times, and combines legal and illegal struggles particularly skillfully.These are all gradually grown up under the guidance of Mao Zedong's people's war thought, but it is a pity that they have not been systematically sorted out.