Chapter 5 The Eighth Route Army issued a pre-war preparation order

In December 1939, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Wangjiayu, Wuxiang County, Shanxi Province. One day, Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief, received a top-secret telegram from Lu Zhengcao, commander of the Jizhong Military Region, and others.Telegram says: The purpose of the enemy's recent road construction is different from the past... One is to connect blockhouses with deep ditches and high forts.The road from Renqiu to Dacheng and Hejian was built 5 feet higher than the ground, the ditch on both sides was 8 feet to 1 foot deep, the bottom of the ditch was 6 feet wide, and the surface of the ditch was 1 foot 6. The base area was divided into isolated small areas that could not be connected and supported. It is not easy to transfer troops, which is convenient for the enemy to search and suppress in different areas one by one.The second method of repair is to build the connection of automobile roads outwards. Anguo County has completed 3 floors. The enemy's automobiles are constantly moving on the road, preventing our troops from entering and leaving their circle.

The telegram suggested: Our Eighth Route Army "must not allow the enemy to build it up", otherwise "it will create an extremely difficult situation of persisting in guerrilla warfare". This vicious conspiracy personally planned by the commander of the Japanese North China Front Army Tada Hayao naturally aroused the vigilance of Zhu De and Peng Dehuai, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.In order to smash the "cage policy" of the Japanese aggressors, strive for a more favorable development of the war situation in North China, influence the situation of the war of resistance throughout the country, and overcome the danger of the Kuomintang's compromise and surrender, the Eighth Route Army headquarters is determined to launch a large-scale attack on the lines of communication and strongholds occupied by the Japanese army in North China. Offensive campaign.

After careful research and careful planning by many parties, a surprisingly successful battle plan came into being. In the early morning of July 22, 1940, a top-secret telegram marked "100,000 urgent" was sent from the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army to the leaders of divisions and military regions behind the enemy lines: Nie Rongzhen, He Long, Guan Xiangying, Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping; at the same time, Sent to the Central Military Commission in Yan'an, and to Mao Zedong.The full text of the preparatory order for the attack on Zhengtai Road, signed by Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and Zuo Quan, is as follows:

In order to strive for a more favorable development of the war in North China, it was decided to take advantage of the current Qingsha (gauze) tent and the rainy season, when the hostile raids in the northwestern and southeastern Shanxi, Chahar, Hebei, and Shanxi were relatively moderate, and the Zhengtai line was relatively empty. Arranged by myself. The order exhaustively planned various preparations before the launch of the campaign.Although its text is not long, it embodies the painstaking efforts of Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Zuo Quan and other leaders of the Eighth Route Army headquarters and Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Nie Rongzhen, He Long, Guan Xiangying and other army leaders in the past four months.

When the telegram was sent to Yan'an, it was immediately copied to Mao Zedong, Wang Jiaxiang, Zhu De, Luo Fu, Wang Ming, Kang Sheng, Chen Yun, Deng Zihui, Ren Bishi, Tan Qilong and the War Bureau of the Military Commission. Knowing the enemy and knowing yourself and winning a hundred battles is a prerequisite for defeating the enemy and winning victory, and pre-war investigation work is an important means to create this condition.In order to strike the enemy by surprise, Peng Dehuai repeatedly emphasized that each unit should do five things well: one is to conduct investigations; The fifth is to educate military and political commanders at all levels, strictly enforce discipline on the battlefield, and resolutely execute orders.On July 23, the day after the Eighth Route Army Headquarters issued the "Battle Preparation Order", it issued the instruction "Investigation Focus and Precautions Before Conducting the Zhengtai Campaign", requiring the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, the 120th Division, and the 1st and 20th Divisions to The 129th Division, "The focus of the investigation should be along the Zhengtai line, especially the Jingxing and Shouyang sections. The Pinghan line north and south of Shijiazhuang, the Tongpu line between the north and south of Yangqu, the North Jin line, Pingxi and Liaoxian should also be Simultaneous investigation".The focus of the investigation is: the distribution of enemy and puppet forces; the distribution of enemy and puppet strongholds and their construction methods and firmness; stations, water towers, tunnels, bridges, special investigations should be carried out for those who are preparing to sabotage; the situation and concealment inside the railway; the situation of residents , the situation of the traitors and puppet organizations; the food situation; the number and time of daily train travel;

Regarding the matters needing attention in the investigation, the order emphasizes as follows: keep extreme secrecy; dispatch most plainclothes teams, accompanied by technicians, to do damage to water towers, tunnels, and bridges, which should be able to calculate the amount of medicine required; generally, cadres should be sent to carry out; Pay attention to look for sympathizers among the residents along the line, and conduct detailed investigations. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the campaign, Luo Ruiqing, director of the Field Political Department of the Eighth Route Army, and Lu Dingyi, deputy director, jointly issued the "Instructions on Political Work in the Zhengtai Line Campaign" to all participating troops on August 5, discussing the significance of the campaign, battlefield discipline, policy regulations and Precautions, etc. are explained.

Since then, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, the 120th Division, and the 129th Division have seized the time to fully prepare for the battle, and have successively issued combat orders and campaign deployment orders, stipulating the combat formation of troops, and clearly distinguishing combat tasks. , requiring "reconnaissance and food preparation"; organizing the militia well; rushing to produce a large number of propaganda materials; "strengthening local martial law and sending people to check"; "explosives began to be transported"; ; "seek considerable enrichment" for the soldiers; give full play to the role of military depots, arrange the transportation methods for the sick and wounded and material materials; allocate blasting equipment and technical personnel; stipulate communication standards and detection codes.

At the same time, various ministries also held combat meetings, conveyed orders from the Eighth Route Army headquarters, analyzed the current enemy situation, and established forward command posts and forward liaison posts.The 129th Division also put forward the program of the campaign, Liu Bocheng pointed out: First, it was mainly to completely destroy the railway and buildings on the Yangquan-Yuci section of Zhengtai Road for several days, especially the technical artifacts on the two sections of the Sangzhang-Xiaozhuang and Mashou-Lujiazhuang railways.Second, in order to ensure that the railways are truly attacked, each crackdown team should also use special plainclothes teams or powerful troops to sneak into necessary strongholds on the railway line, destroy their vital points, and burn down their buildings.For the strongholds extending far along the roadside, only a small number of troops should be used to monitor them, and neither should they attack them by force nor be restrained by them.Third, when the Pianshan troops detour from Yangquan and Pingliao highways to our right side, they will be wiped out one by one to ensure the smooth progress of our road breaking and create the basic conditions for the recovery of Liaoxian and Yushe.The enemy from Yuci will be restrained.

The various preparatory work carried out by the units of the Eighth Route Army before the battle created conditions for the smooth progress and success of the battle.A large-scale North China transportation raid with Zhengtai Railway as the focus is about to start.