Chapter 111 4. There is no news about Nie Rongzhen

At the end of August 1941, Mao Zedong was paying close attention to the unprecedented "mopping up" operation of the Japanese army, and Li Tao of the War Department kept sending telegrams from the front. "Since the spring of this year, 18 of the 34 and a half divisions of the Japanese invasion army have been deployed to North China. Calculated in this way, the Japanese army's strength in North China has reached about 52% of its total invasion force." Mao Zedong With his hands behind his back, he paced slowly. Zhou Enlai on the side looked at Mao Zedong with concern, and then said: "Yes, the current North China can be said to be the center of gravity of our Chinese nation's war of resistance."

Mao Zedong nodded: "It is indeed the center of gravity. Judging from the intelligence ahead, the Japanese army dispatched a total of 80 brigades in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region this time. Their total strength in North China is only about 170 brigades. 80 brigades , It is much greater than the strength of the previous regular battles against the Kuomintang army." "It's much bigger!" Zhou Enlai said, "Up to now, the Japanese army has fought six major battles against the Kuomintang army. In the Nanchang Battle in March 1939, the Japanese army dispatched 33 brigades; In the Battle of Changsha in September of the same year, 30 brigades were dispatched; in the Battle of Nanning from the end of 1939 to the beginning of 1940, the Japanese army dispatched 36 brigades at most; in the Battle of Yichang from May to June 1940, A maximum of 45 brigades were dispatched; in the Zhongtiaoshan Battle that was just carried out from May to June this year, 45 brigades were also dispatched."

Mao Zedong still paced slowly: "That is to say, Japan only dispatched 45 brigades at most in these several large-scale battles against the Kuomintang army. But this time the big 'mopping up' against the Eighth Route Army was pulled out all at once. 80 brigades were recruited. Those who came were not kind.” As he spoke, Mao Zedong handed a telegram to Zhou Enlai: "This is what Li Tao just brought. According to news in Japan, Nie Rongzhen's headquarters has been wiped out." Zhou Enlai hastily picked it up, lowered his head to look carefully, and saw that the telegram read:

"The communication between Yan'an and Jinchaji has been interrupted for three days." Mao Zedong frowned and said, "The headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the 120th Division have also been unable to contact Nie Rongzhen. Enlai, what do you think of this telegram?" "The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region has been established for more than four years, and has experienced countless ups and downs. Nie Rongzhen is not so easy to be wiped out." Zhou Enlai pondered for a while, "This news is very empty, without specific content, let alone specific achievements. , must have been forged by the enemy."

Mao Zedong nodded in agreement: "I think so too. However, there has been no news of Nie Rongzhen these days, which means that he must be in trouble and must find a way to get in touch with him." After that, he murmured for a moment, " How about this, I immediately sent reports to Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, and He Long respectively, asking them to contact Nie Rongzhen with all their strength, and call back Yan'an as soon as they have news." "Okay." Zhou Enlai replied. The telegram was sent. For a while, the room fell into silence, Mao Zedong was still pacing, and Zhou Enlai was thoughtful.They were all anxiously waiting for news about Nie Rongzhen.

At this time, Yang Chengwu's headquarters of the 1st Army Division also lost contact with the Jinchaji Military Region. What's going on, the heads of the Eighth Route Army headquarters were very worried, thinking that there was something wrong with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, and sent special personnel to find and contact it.