Chapter 109 2. The "Million War" of the Japanese invaders

After arriving at the North China Front Army Headquarters at Cuimingzhuang, Beiping, Neiji Okamura did not rush to start a new offensive, but concentrated his time on analyzing the reasons for his predecessor's mistakes.He ordered officers above the head of the brigade to go to Beiping to report to him on the establishment and operational characteristics of the Eighth Route Army. It took a full 20 days for Neiji Okamura to analyze and study the reasons why the Communist Party’s Eighth Route Army grew stronger behind enemy lines as 11 topics.These 11 topics are: the organization of the Communist Party, the political work of the Eighth Route Army, the construction of base areas, the expansion of the Communist Party organization, military work and strategy and tactics, the development of the military system and local armed forces, the economic work of the Communist Party, anti-rape work, military production and logistics Support, the intelligence work and methods of the Eighth Route Army, the cause of the Hundred Regiments War and the gains and losses of both sides.

Later, Neiji Okamura talked about his analysis and research conclusions in the investigation report of "The Bases of the Communist Party of China": "The crux of the imperial army's inability to open up the situation in North China is not the Kuomintang government, but the CCP. The CCP relies on the base areas as a rock." , to attack the imperial army. The base area is an organization composed of the party, the government, and the army. The three are very closely related. The party is the core, and the army and the government are the arms of the party. The party waved its arms to promote the popular revolution. The army is the party An organization that uses force to promote revolution, Zheng is an organization that the party controls the political power to promote mass revolution. If the imperial army wants to destroy the Eighth Route Army, it must first start with solving the base areas. The Eighth Route Army establishes a trinity of party, government, and military base areas, and the imperial army must fight tit for tat. In every county and every township, carry out a four-in-one law and order strengthening movement involving the military, government, council, and people." Therefore, the goal of the Japanese army's policy should be to take active offensive and planned measures, divide regions, limit time, and consolidate law and order. Conceal the troops in quasi-law and order areas, enter the law and order areas in a planned way, and use the remaining troops to advance to non-law and order areas, so that they can develop into quasi-law and order areas.The ultimate goal is to bring 100 million people in North China to Japan.Following such steps, it is neither advisable to rush for success, nor to let the opportunity pass by, but must have targeted tactics.

After careful research and careful planning, on August 14, 1941, Okamura Ningji ordered the start of his first "Supremise Operation in the Jinchaji Border Region" since he took office, with the intention of "destroying the Communist Army in the Jinchaji Border Region and While destroying the base area, combine it with a blockade to destroy its self-sufficiency, and then consume and trap the communist forces in the area.” (Japanese Defense Agency War History Room: "North China Security War" (Part 1)) At the order press conference, Okamura Ningji’s head of operations, Inamura, introduced the combat plan in detail:

"For this operation, we must change the previous practice of 'mopping up' with large targets and not concentrating troops. Concentrate 100,000 troops and first 'sweep' the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei base areas in the northeastern part of Hebei and Shanxi. This base area was established the earliest, and it is located in Beiping. , Tianjin, Baoding, and Zhangyuan were extremely harmful to the imperial army, and this time they will deal a devastating blow. The specific tactics are: the first step is to capture the main force of the communist army with an army of 100,000 "encirclement with an iron wall"; The next step is to use the comb-style 'cleaning and suppression'. 2 divisions and 3 brigades search south from the Great Wall, 2 divisions and 3 brigades search north from Shijiazhuang, Jingxing, and Yangquan, and the north and south are opposite. We will adopt a fish-scale encirclement formation, building blockhouses while advancing. We must use all available equipment and equipment, including aircraft, tanks, cars, gas bombs, gas cylinders, etc., to ensure victory in this battle.”

"Yes." Ningji Okamura said, "This combat mission will be carried out in two phases from August 14 to October 15. The first period will be from August 14 to September 3. In the first phase, the main task is to annihilate the main force of the Jinchaji Military Region; from September 4th to October 15th is the second phase, the main task is to carry out economic, political, and cultural construction in the occupied area. During the battle, strive to capture the enemy's party The leader Nie Rongzhen and others destroyed the center of the enemy's party organization and plunged its organizational strength into chaos." (Japanese Defense Agency War History Room: "North China Public Security War" (Part 1))

As the so-called "three fires for new officials", Okamura Ningji wanted to make a brilliant record in the first fire.He used the whole of the 27th, 35th, and 110th divisions directly under the North China Front Army, and one part each of the 26th, 36th, 37th, and 41st divisions, as well as some independent mixed brigades, plus the puppet army and Deployment of troops, a total of about 100,000 people.Neiji Okamura arrogantly called this raid the "Millions of Wars." In order to further boost morale, he also "pained hard" to visit the front line to condolences to the combat troops. On August 18, 1941, he flew to Shijiazhuang to inspect the 110th Division; on the 19th, he took an armored vehicle to Jin County to inspect the 35th Division; on the 20th, he inspected the 27th Division in Baoding Patrol.

Under his personal deployment, the largest "big mopping up" in the history of the Japanese army, like a boundless dark cloud, pressed heavily towards the Jinchaji border area, pointing directly at the Eighth Route Army Nie Rongzhen's department, and the focus of its attack was the center of the border area—— Beiyue District attempted to gather and annihilate the main force of the Eighth Route Army in Beiyue District and the military and political leaders of the border area on both sides of the inner and outer Great Wall.