Chapter 21 The spectacle of guerrilla warfare

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Mao Zedong and others on the Loess Plateau overlooked the land of China, and quickly found a place to use their skills from thousands of miles of wolf smoke. Its traditional tactical advantages, roundabout interspersed, outflanked, wiped out the enemy in guerrilla mobile warfare, forcing "the enemy cannot stop the war in the entire occupied area." In the plains, although the natural conditions for the widespread development of anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare were not as good as those in the mountains, the Eighth Route Army dealt with the enemy in the plains and continued to wipe out the enemy successfully.

In accordance with the strategic guidelines of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission on consolidating North China and developing Central China, He Long and Guan Xiangying led the main force of the 120th Division. Since entering Jizhong in January 1939, they have adopted flexible guerrilla tactics and fought in circles. Ways to avoid the enemy's edge, attack the enemy's weakness, and actively annihilate the enemy.Successively in the battles of Caojiazhuang, Dacao Village, Black Horse Zhangzhuang, etc., they fought several consecutive victories, annihilated part of the enemy's active forces, won the third, fourth, and fifth anti-siege victories, and shattered the enemy's vain attempts to destroy the enemy before the green gauze tent was erected. The premeditated plan of our army in central Hebei.

The Japanese army panicked and exclaimed: "General He has come here, and the threat to Northern China is even more serious than before, especially the direct threat to Pingjin. You cannot sit idly by and must immediately destroy his power..." From April 23 to 26, 1939, seven regiments of the 120th Division and a brigade of the third division of Jizhong, under the command of He Long, fought fiercely for three days and nights in the Qihui area of ​​Hejian County, Hebei Province, annihilating the He conquered the Yoshida Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the 27th Division of the elite Japanese army in North China, and created a glorious example of mass annihilation of the enemy in the plains.

Because of its meritorious service in the Nanjing Massacre, the flamboyant and invincible Yoshida brigade was wiped out, which hit the ferocious flames of the Japanese army. Mountain guerrilla warfare is frequently successful. On November 3, 1939, the 115th Division annihilated a Japanese army from Zhangjiakou at Yansu Cliff in Laiyuan. On the second day, the head of the second brigade of the Japanese army was independently mixed, and was praised in the Japanese military circle as the "Flower of the Famous General" Norihide Abe who was proficient in "mountain warfare". .Nie Rongzhen instructed Yang Chengwu to set up suspicious troops, lure the enemy to advance eastward, and use the favorable terrain to complete the encirclement of the enemy in the Huangtuling area, deal a devastating blow to the enemy, wipe out more than 900 Japanese troops, and kill Kihide Abe.When the enemies from all sides rushed to break the siege and formed a large encirclement circle against the Eighth Route Army, the participating troops no longer loved to fight, and quickly jumped to the outside line again.

The Japanese Army Ministry was shocked and published a "detailed report" on Abe's death in battle.It is recorded as follows to understand the situation of the battle: "This terrain is a rare mountainous area in North China. There are almost no roads. The soldiers below the lieutenant general are all walking and trekking hard... When advancing towards Shangzhuangzi, Yixian County on the 7th, the enemy continued to resist tenaciously by taking advantage of the superior terrain. , the lieutenant general boldly went to the front line to observe the terrain and the enemy's situation. The enemy mortar shells flew in and exploded a few steps away from the lieutenant general. So he passed away forever."

It was the first time in the North China battlefield that a lieutenant-level senior commander of the Japanese army was killed, and it was also the first time in the history of China's Anti-Japanese War.Hayao Tada, commander of the enemy North China Front, lamented: "Flowers of famous generals wither on the Taihang Mountains." Chiang Kai-shek, who was hiding in the rear, heard about it, and also sent a commendation telegram, saying that the Eighth Route Army had won the victory in killing the enemy Chieftain Abu, which "shows that our officers and soldiers killed the enemy bravely, and it is a great reward."

Of course, the most exciting battle in the Anti-Japanese War was the Hundred Regiments Campaign led by Peng Dehuai. Since the autumn of 1939, when the Kuomintang army attacked the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese army built roads and built forts to block and split the anti-Japanese base areas. Liu Bocheng, who is well versed in the art of war, called it the "cage" policy.The enemy is trying to "use the railway as a pillar, the road as a network, and the stronghold as a lock" to "imprison" the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians in North China.The Zhengtai, Tongpu, Pinghan, Jinpu, Pingsui, Beining, and Jiaoji railway lines are the vertical and horizontal supports for the enemy to build a "cage" against the base area. Zhengtai Road is located in the center, known as the "steel artery".Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, decided to start from Zhengtai Road to carry out a general traffic attack, turning the "steel artery" into a blazing fire dragon, and turning the "cage" that the enemy painstakingly managed into ashes.

At 8:00 pm on August 20, 1940, the 105 regiments of the Eighth Route Army, which had already bowed their bows and were ready to go, attacked the designated areas of the Zhengtai, Tongpu, Pinghan and other transportation lines almost simultaneously, and rushed towards the enemy's strongholds, stations, bridges, and bunkers.Immediately, earth-shattering gunshots, explosions, and shouts of killing resounded throughout North China... Soon, mines were blown up one by one, bunkers were razed to the ground, and a complete railway was turned into a dilapidated wasteland , The devil was beaten until he cried and howled.

The surprise attack launched by the Eighth Route Army made the Japanese garrison in North China panic and paralyzed for a while. The news of the victory in this battle reached Yan'an, and Mao Zedong called Peng Dehuai and said: "The Hundred Regiments Battle is really exciting. Can such a battle be organized once or twice?" On September 20, the Eighth Route Army headquarters launched a second campaign.This time it was an extensive raid on the enemy's strongholds, as many as more than one stronghold were pulled out, and the 129th Division captured Yushe County.The people in the base areas actively assisted the Eighth Route Army in fighting, and the enemy bandits fell into flames like bison, and they were frightened by the news.

At this time, the headquarters of the Japanese Army's China Expeditionary Force is implementing a plan to induce the Nationalist government to surrender, accompanying the proposal of moving the capital to Chongqing, and the proposal of a compromise, such as the foggy weather in Chongqing.The news of the 500,000 Eighth Route Army's heroic attack on the front line in North China immediately brightened the sky in the rear and cheered up the atmosphere.Chongqing's "Ta Kung Pao", "Xin Shu News", "Xin Min Bao", "National Gazette" etc. competed to publish the record of the Hundred Regiments War and published editorials praising the victory behind the enemy's rear in North China supported by the Eighth Route Army.Chiang Kai-shek was busy sending out telegrams, and He Yingqin agreed to send bullets.

After the Hundred Regiments War entered the third stage, it was mainly to counter "mopping up". On November 30, Peng Dehuai commanded the Eighth Route Army to carry out fortified battles and positional battles against the enemy in Guanjiaao. After two days and nights of fierce fighting, more than half of the well-equipped, arrogant and brutal Gangzaki Brigade was wiped out.Although our army also suffered casualties, in order to upgrade guerrilla warfare to fortified warfare and regular warfare, we conducted an on-the-spot training. The Hundred Regiments Campaign lasted for three and a half months and ended on December 5.A total of 1,824 large and small battles were carried out; 20,645 Japanese soldiers and 5,155 puppet troops were killed and wounded; 280 Japanese soldiers and more than 18,400 puppet troops were captured; 2,993 Japanese and puppet strongholds were removed, and more than 5,400 rifles and 200 light and heavy machine guns were seized. A large number of weapons and ammunition; 948 miles of railways, 3,000 miles of roads, 260 bridges, stations, tunnels, etc. were destroyed; 5 coal mines were destroyed.The record is brilliant, playing the prestige of the Eighth Route Army. The Eighth Route Army also paid a huge sacrifice, with more than 22,000 casualties. In April 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held, which determined the general policy of "mobilize the masses freely, strengthen the people's power, and under the leadership of our party, defeat the Japanese invaders, liberate the whole of China, and establish a new democratic China."Beginning in May, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army launched a large-scale summer offensive against the Japanese army under the guidance of the seven major policies, stepped up their encirclement of the enemy, and at the same time began to realize the transformation from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare. The guerrilla warfare strategic decision made by the CCP leaders in Yan'an had miraculous effects in the war of resistance.During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and guerrillas led by the Communist Party accomplished their missions in all stages of strategic defense, stalemate, and counter-offensive with minimal losses. The Japanese and puppet troops totaled more than 1.71 million people and won the victory of the War of Resistance. While annihilating the enemy, its own strength has also grown from small to large, from weak to strong, and has continued to grow. By the end of the war, the army had grown from 450,000 before the war to more than 1.2 million; The area of ​​liberated areas has grown from 130,000 square kilometers to more than 1 million square kilometers, with a population of 1.2 billion. The Communists headed by Mao Zedong used the magic weapon of guerrilla warfare to achieve their own strategic goals in the Great War of Resistance Against Japan - to destroy the enemy and strengthen themselves. More importantly, by establishing anti-Japanese bases behind enemy lines, it has greatly approached the cities it wants to encircle.During the Agrarian Revolution, Mao Zedong put forward the revolutionary road of encircling the cities from the countryside. Due to the situation, the base areas were far away from large and medium-sized cities; the anti-Japanese base areas came to the surroundings of many large and medium-sized cities in North China, East China, Central China, and South China.When Chiang Kai-shek led the troops to avoid the enemy's spirit in the southwest, Mao Zedong and others arranged the troops to the front line of the subsequent liberation war, taking advantage of the geographical advantages.This prepared important conditions for the final victory of the Chinese people's revolutionary war throughout the country. Later, the Chinese Communist Party's guerrilla warfare ideology became famous all over the world.In the 1950s and 1960s, people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America all regarded China as an example in their anti-aggression struggles. Many countries sent people to China to "learn lessons" to learn from guerrilla warfare experience and use it as a guide for practice.Some Western countries also believe that their failures in India, Vietnam, in the East, and even in Asia and Latin America were due to their ignorance of Mao Zedong's thinking on guerrilla warfare.They believe that the victories of Vietnam and Cuba are "Mao Zedong-style" victories.For this reason, they actively studied Mao Zedong's military thought.An assistant secretary of defense of the United States put it very vividly. He said: "The bookshelves in the library are all bent by books praising Mao Zedong as an outstanding authority on guerrilla warfare." Suffering Japan, Mao Zedong's military thought course was opened in the military academy after the war. These are the aftermath of China's famous guerrilla warfare.