Beginning in 1940, in order to deal with the battlefield behind the enemy line of the Eighth Route Army, the commander of the Japanese North China Front, Tada Jun, adopted a vicious plan, that is, the cage policy, with the railway as the pillar, the highway as the chain, and the pillbox as the lock, the Japanese army's highways were 5 feet higher than the ground, and the ditches on both sides of the highway were 8 feet deep and 6 feet wide to 1 zhang 6, in an attempt to divide the anti-Japanese base areas into small pieces that could not support each other, so as to facilitate the breakdown, which made the North China anti-Japanese base areas seriously threatened. The conspiracy of the Japanese army naturally aroused the high vigilance of the commanders of the Eighth Route Army, believing that each base area must organize a large-scale attack on the Japanese army's communication line to reverse the dangerous situation of the continuous division of the anti-Japanese base area, and finally decided to take the Zhengtai Railway as the focus of the attack, and on July 22, he issued a campaign preparation order to attack Zhengtai Road, and the general attack time was set for August 20.
At the same time, on the frontal battlefield, ** had just lost the Battle of Zaoyi, General Zhang Zizhong died, and the Japanese army directly threatened Chongqing after occupying Yichang. Internationally, the fascist camp is in full swing, Germany's tank blitzkrieg made the French raise their hands high, the British are also trapped on the island, and forced by Japanese pressure to close China's last blood transfusion channel Yunnan-Burma Highway, the Soviet Union also signed a non-aggression pact with Germany and Japan at this time, reducing aid to China, the two are ambiguous, the United States is still affected by isolationism at this time unwilling to intervene in the war, and is constantly sending various strategic materials to Japan. At this time, the anti-Japanese morale of the people had entered a low point, and in order to encourage the Chinese people to continue fighting, it was necessary to launch a battle of 100 regiments.
The original target of the Hundred Regiments War, the Zhengtai Railway, was built in 1903 to connect the Hebei position on the Taiyuan, Shanxi to Pinghan Railway, which was the main communication artery between Shanxi and Hebei, and was also an important communication line of the Japanese army in North China. Niangzi Pass is an important stronghold on the Zhengtai Railway, in the Battle of Taiyuan 3 years ago, it was precisely because the Japanese 20th Division broke through Niangzi Pass, resulting in the squadron fighting in Xinkou was forced to retreat, Taiyuan was lost. By the time of the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, the Japanese army had a squadron of 140 people in the 4th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade at Niangzi Pass, squadron leader Ikeda Kameichi, and there were 4 large pillboxes on the top of the mountain, and 50 puppet soldiers were stationed in the villages of the pass.
The main attack on Niangzi Pass is the main force of the 5th Regiment of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, in the face of the Japanese army's strong bunkers, the soldiers took a way of outwitting, and led this "turtle" out of the "shell", and from May 18th, they deliberately exposed the puppet army with a small force, and led the main force of the Japanese army out of the bunker, but when they arrived, our army was gone. In this way, the Japanese puppet army has been tossed for 3 days, and at 10 o'clock in the evening of the 20th, the Japanese army that once again swooped down returned to Niangziguan Station exhausted, and the Eighth Route Army launched a general attack. At the same time, the machine guns of the Eighth Route Army also strafed the Japanese pillboxes on the top of the mountain, covering the death squad to climb the cliff, and after 3 hours of fierce fighting, the Eighth Route Army captured all the pillboxes, captured Niangzi Pass, and replanted the national flag on the top of Niangzi Pass.
At the same time, the 1st Battalion of the 5th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army also launched a general attack on Mohetan Village near Niangziguan, which is the location of Niangziguan Station, when the fighting was fierce, at about 12 o'clock at night, a train drove into Niangziguan Station, and more than 800 Japanese troops got off the car. This is not the Japanese army to reinforce, but a group of logistics heavy soldiers, health soldiers and wounded soldiers who are ready to retire and return to China. However, the Eighth Route Army was taken aback, after all, with the strength of 1 regiment, it would definitely not be able to resist more than 800 Japanese troops, so it temporarily stopped the attack. And many of the more than 800 people who are ready to go home are not **, and most of them are logistics troops, the military level is not so high, and there are not so many ** for 800 people in this stronghold, which can only temporarily scare the Eighth Route Army. Thinking that the Eighth Route Army had retreated, Ikeda offered his wine to entertain the group, but as they had their heart's content, gunfire began to ring out again.
It turned out that after the Eighth Route Army stopped attacking, it monitored the Japanese army while destroying the railway. By the morning of the 21st, the Eighth Route Army found that if the Japanese army had been reinforced, it would have been launched a long time ago according to their urine nature, but now it is not. At 11 o'clock, the Eighth Route Army continued to launch a fierce attack, fighting fiercely for two hours, defeating all these Japanese troops, destroying more than 700 enemies, and capturing more than 100 rifles and 12 machine guns.
However, the battle at Run-in Beach has been going on, the 1st Battalion and 1st Company of the 5th Regiment are here to block the Japanese army and cover the road-breaking work of the large army, and the 1st Company has 145 people, most of whom are old Red Army soldiers with rich combat experience. Under the command of company commander Deng Shijun, the elite of the Eighth Route Army fought fiercely with the Japanese army for 5 hours, repelled more than 10 Japanese attacks, and annihilated more than 200 enemies, but a large number of Japanese reinforcements also surrounded the 1st Company on three sides, and the 1st Company continued to hold on with its back against the Cotton River. When there is no rain, there is very little water flow in the Cotton River, but recently it happened to be the rainy season, and the river was fast, blocking the retreat of the warriors. Fierce fighting to the night of the 22nd, the Japanese army again mobilized thousands of people to besiege in three ways, the regiment headquarters ordered a company to quickly strengthen the Mianhe breakthrough, in order to support them, the 5th regiment concentrated 6 heavy machine guns, 18 light machine guns and 2 mortars at one time to the Japanese army on the other side of the river to shoot fiercely, the Japanese army cried and shouted mother, and finally the 1st company completed the retreat, but at this time only 17 soldiers remained, after the war the 1st company was highly praised by the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, and was rated as the bloody battle of the Mohetan Iron and Steel Company.
After that, the Eighth Route Army began to destroy the railways, bridges and tunnels along the Niangzi Pass on a large scale, and the people of many nearby villages also took the initiative to join the sabotage operation. This sabotage dealt a great blow to the Japanese lines of communication, making it impossible for the Japanese army to reinforce the various battlefields. The battle of the raid on Niangzi Pass was also rated by the Eighth Route Army as the first important report of the Hundred Regiments Battle.
The raid on Niangzi Pass was only the beginning of the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, and the blows suffered by the Japanese army would follow one after another. Anti-Japanese War