At 9 o'clock in the morning on October 30, 1940, the siege of Guanjiayuan had been fought for five hours, and the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division, which had always been known for fighting tough battles, also encountered difficult bones this time.
In the direction of the main attack in the southwest, there is a 20-meter-high steep cliff, and when it reaches the top of the cliff, there is a slightly protruding trench, and there is a slope more than 30 meters long on it, leading to the forward position of the Japanese army on the top of Guanjiayuan Mountain. The terrain is steep, and the only way to reach the trench is with the help of climbing tools and wild vines on the cliffs. However, under the blockade of the Japanese army's powerful firepower, the 386 Brigade commando was unable to launch a charge, nor was able to defeat the Japanese firepower, but was suppressed at the trench and could not move. At this time, several Japanese planes flew over Guanjiayuan again to cover the offensive route of the Eighth Route Army with dense firepower. There was a cliff in front of him, there were enemy planes, and in the face of the enemy's airtight defense, Chen Geng, the commander of the 386 Brigade who had the "most flexible brain", had a rare lack of ideas. In this battle, the Eighth Route Army had already invested a total of 8 regiments, and if it could not quickly take Guanjiayuan, as soon as the Japanese reinforcements arrived, it would be an unfavorable situation for the enemy to suffer from the enemy. 
The situation was extremely urgent, and the commander of the 129th Division, after receiving the death order that he must take Guanjiayuan at all costs, went straight to the command post of the 769th Regiment on the front line and took out a telescope to observe the enemy situation. Soon, a detail caught the attention of ***. He directly called Chen Geng, pointed to the trench in front of the Japanese position, and said:
"The weakness of the Japanese army is in their ass. ”The battle of Guanjiayuan has been controversial since the moment it started. If we divide this campaign into several stages, it is not difficult to find the problem: First of all, the cause: In late October 1940, more than 500 people of the Okazaki Brigade of the 36th Division of the Japanese Army, which was carrying out a sweeping mission, mistakenly broke into the base area of the Eighth Route Army and destroyed the Huangyadong Arsenal without conducting pre-war reconnaissance, and the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army immediately launched a counterattack. The second is the process: Okazaki's brigade retreated from Huangyadong to the front line of Guanjiayuan, and immediately ordered the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, which was resting nearby, to encircle it, and ordered it to be wiped out. After the attack, the Japanese army turned to the mountains and used the terrain to carry out defense, and the 129th Division besieged with superior forces, but failed to achieve the expected results.
Another major background of the Battle of Guanjiayuan was that the Eighth Route Army was carrying out an unprecedented scale of sabotage warfare in North China, that is, the famous Battle of the Hundred Regiments. **When summarizing the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, I emphasized one point:
"The Eighth Route Army should give full play to its own advantages, extensively annihilate the enemy through guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, and try to avoid mobile warfare with the Japanese army, especially positional warfare. ”But back at Guanjiayuan, the tactical execution of the Eighth Route Army was very different from what *** said. After repelling the Japanese army at Huangyadong, the 129th Division still chose to take the initiative to intercept the retreating Okazaki Brigade, dragging the campaign mode into the offensive and positional warfare that the Eighth Route Army was not good at at at that time. So why does this battle have to be fought knowing that it is necessary to pay a certain amount of ** and it is difficult to fully achieve the strategic goal? In fact, in the process of the beginning and progress of the campaign, the opinions of the three-tier command organs of the Eighth Route Army were not unified. The most front-line troops are represented by the 129th Brigade of the 386th Division, and the brigade commander Chen Geng has asked *** for instructions more than once
"Change the time, change the place, just put the enemy down the mountain, and I promise to destroy them all. ”The 386 Brigade is one of the most capable units in the entire Eighth Route Army, and its predecessor was the 31st Army, the main force of the Red Fourth Front Army, and most of the troops are veterans of the Red Army. But in this battle, the 396th Brigade, which has always had a brilliant record, rarely hit a hard nail. Chen Geng has an easy-going personality and is humorous, but he is a completely different face on the battlefield, the commander is bold and brave, and he fights the most hard battles. Even when Guan Jiayuan fought the hardest, his idea was only to shift the battlefield, not to give up on eliminating the Okazaki brigade. This also represents the most widespread sentiment of the front-line commanders and fighters at that time, that is, the battle must be fought and the life must be fought, but it is completely possible to take a step back first, and then find another opportunity to destroy the enemy. As the commander of the 129th Division and the commander-in-chief of the front line, **'s attitude is the same as Chen Geng's. He did not approve of a strong attack in the form of positional warfare, this style of play would cause too much loss to the troops, and even if it was won, it would be a disastrous victory, and the 129th Division and even the entire Eighth Route Army could not withstand several such losses.
So since time and place are not the best choice, and Chen Geng, who was on the front line, repeatedly advised, why did ***, who was the deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army at the time, still insist on fighting this battle? In terms of conducting art, ** and *** Chen Geng belong to two styles. **Graduated from Frunze Military Academy, Chen Geng is one of the best students in the first phase of Whampoa, both of whom are military academy students with bright resumes. During the Long March, one served as the chief of the general staff in charge of the advance detachment, and the other served as the head of the cadre regiment, and he was responsible for protecting the headquarters organs. Therefore, whether it is *** or Chen Geng, the use of soldiers pays attention to the word "strange", and is good at capturing the enemy's weaknesses in a flexible and mobile way, and then kills with one blow, breaks through the Wujiang River, surprises the Kyaukpingdu, and skillfully crosses the Jinsha River is the most typical example. If experience affects a general's troop habits, then *** is a completely different example. From the Pingjiang Uprising to raise a unit alone, to the Jinggangshan Division, the Long March to lead the Red Third Army to take charge of the army, and then to the Eighth Route Army to reorganize and rush to the anti-Japanese battlefield, every stage is a process from scratch and from difficult to more difficult. The chance of survival depends on fighting out, the road that others dare not take must be taken, and the battle that others dare not fight must be fought. ** Better than ordinary people, lies in the word "determination". "The mountains are high and the roads are far away and the pits are deep, the army is galloping vertically and horizontally, who dares to cross the sword immediately, only I am General Peng. "It's the highest praise for him. 
Therefore, when *** and Chen Geng were on the front line, thinking that the battle was progressing difficult, and asked to take a step back and find another opportunity, the test they faced was actually far more than a Guan Jiayuan in front of them. For the 129th Division, it doesn't matter if you let go of a Okazaki brigade of more than 500 people, and you can also eliminate him if you have the opportunity in the future, but for the entire Eighth Route Army, this battle must be fought. There are three main reasons: first: the impact level of the Huangyadong Arsenal is the largest arsenal built by the Eighth Route Army behind enemy lines in North China, in a difficult and difficult environment, it has provided a large number of leaders for the War of Resistance against Japan, tempered a large number of industrial construction talents, and is known as the "pearl in the palm of the hand" of the Eighth Route Army, and its influence is self-evident. Now that the Okazaki Brigade has accidentally broken into and destroyed the Huangyadong Arsenal, if this invading enemy is not eliminated and they are allowed to evacuate, then the Japanese army will definitely take advantage of this incident to make a big fuss in the future, boasting about their achievements in attacking the base area of the Eighth Route Army and destroying the arsenal, which is a big blow to the morale and popular sentiment of the entire anti-Japanese battlefield. Second: At the strategic level, in addition to counterattacking the sweep of the Japanese army, another important purpose of the Hundred Regiment War was to prove that the Eighth Route Army could not only conduct guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, but also organize large-scale campaigns. Now that the enemy has broken into the base area, if the Eighth Route Army does not dare to respond to the battle, then the prestige accumulated in the Battle of the Hundred Regiments will be greatly reduced, and it will be impossible to stop the so-called rumors of "guerrilla but not attacking." 
On the other hand, in the long-term counter-sweep, ** discovered a pattern of the enemy, that is, the Japanese army that carried out the sweep was usually composed of a brigade of about 500 people. If the Eighth Route Army can destroy the Okazaki Brigade in a timely manner, even under unfavorable conditions, it will be able to thwart the Japanese army's spirit, so that it will no longer dare to attack alone, and the number of sweeps will be reduced. Third: During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression at the troop level, the Eighth Route Army carried out a large-scale expansion and recruited a large number of new soldiers. Because they have persisted in guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines for a long time, many of the newly formed units have not accumulated experience in regular warfare, and it is more than enough to fight skillful and small battles, but the problems are exposed as soon as they reach large-scale mobile warfare. It is not uncommon for inexperience to lead to a weakness that becomes apparent to the fore and affects the whole picture. Ou Zhifu, head of the special mission regiment of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters who participated in the Battle of Guanjiayuan, once recalled:
"Mr. Peng insisted on fighting the battle of Guanjiayuan, with one intention: the Eighth Route Army was the main force and regular army that insisted on fighting behind enemy lines, and it should not only be able to fight guerrillas; When necessary, you have to attack and defend fiercely, fight tenaciously, and dare to gnaw hard bones. ”As the commander, it is not only the sudden incident of the Okazaki Brigade breaking in, but also the fighting attitude and hard-fighting ability that the Eighth Route Army needs to show in the entire War of Resistance against Japan, including the wars that may occur in the future. As soon as it encounters a strong enemy, it retreats when it encounters a setback, and this style of play is suitable for the Jinggangshan Red Army, which seeks to advance while maintaining stability, but it is not suitable for the Eighth Route Army, which needs to accumulate prestige through the War of Resistance against Japan. The battle of Guanjiayuan is a battle that must be fought. The only surprise is that most people don't think about why the 8 regiments of the Eighth Route Army did not take the Okazaki brigade of only 500 people in 2 days. The most intuitive point of the battle of Guanjiayuan is the terrain factor and the equipment gap between the two sides participating in the battle. Guanjiayuan is located in the hinterland of Taihang Mountain, this area of mountains and valleys, ravines and ravines, the terrain is very dangerous. And the topography of Guanjiayuan itself is also very peculiar, its top is flat land, which can be defended by garrisons. The north side is a deep cliff ravine, and the slopes on the east and west sides are extremely steep, and only the south side is gentle and can be used as an offensive route. However, on the opposite side of the southern slope, there is another hill called Liushuyuan, which is higher and is at the corner of Guanjiayuan, so that it can provide fire support to each other and block the road to attack the mountain.
The besieged Japanese army independently mixed the 4th Brigade Regiment Okazaki Detachment of about 510 people:
2 squadrons of infantry, 1 squad of engineers, 1 squad of baggage, 1 detachment of radio, 1 combat ambulance squad and 1 detachment of mountain artillery (3 guns).The Eighth Route Army participated in the battle of 8 regiments:
The 772nd, 16th, and 18th regiments of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division, the 769th Regiment of the 385th Brigade (another 13 regiments were blocked), the 28th Regiment of the New 10th Brigade (another 29 regiments were blocked), the 25th and 38th regiments of the First Column were killed, as well as the Special Service Regiment of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, and the Mountain Artillery Company of the Artillery Regiment.Before the Okazaki Brigade was surrounded, it decisively chose Guanjiayuan as a defensive position, which is enough to witness its tactical level. A small hill, deep ravines, cliffs, steep slopes of all kinds of dangerous terrain are all included, the only slightly flat terrain in the south, and completely covered by willow fire. Although the Okazaki Brigade was small in number, it had a complete range of troops, as well as heavy firepower machine guns and mountain artillery. You must know that the 386th Regiment of the 772nd Brigade encountered only one about 0 in the narrowest place in the process of attacking the mountainThe 3-meter-wide trail was barely enough to pass through one person, and the Japanese position was located nearby, and with the help of machine guns, it was difficult for the infantry to move an inch. On the other side, the mountain artillery company of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, which was personally commanded by **, also encountered problems. Although the Eighth Route Army had as many as 8 regiments, the only effective combat effectiveness in the battle was only this mountain artillery company, but in the first battle of Guanjiayuan, the mountain artillery company was "dumb fire" and almost did not cause any effective damage to the defending Japanese army.
It wasn't until after the war that *** and others inspected the battlefield that they discovered the problem. On the position of Guanjiayuan, the Japanese army not only built complete fortifications, but also dug a large number of "cat's ear holes". Cat's ear holes are easy to make, you only need to dig a hole in the side wall of the ditch and dirt slope where you can live, and a few pieces of wood can be dug up. But this kind of hole is not only secretive, but also able to hide from artillery fire, and it is not a problem to hide soldiers and materials. On the southern slope of Guanjiayuan, there were originally more families surnamed Guan, and a hole and a hole were built along the mountain wall, and after the Japanese army seized Guanjiayuan, this row of caves was completely opened, and each cave was built with a machine gun position, which could not only independently constitute a firepower point, but also cover and support each other with other caves, forming a cross-fire network. Fortifications were also dug outside the caves, forming a circular combat fortification that was connected inside and outside and the kilns were connected. Before the battle began, Zuo Quan, deputy chief of general staff of the Eighth Route Army, realized that the terrain was complex and the attack was difficult, so he decided to send a special task force of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters to carry out a night attack in advance, and strive to take Guanjiayuan at the lowest cost when the enemy was most exhausted after the completion of the repair. As a result, during the attack, the special task force was caught off guard by the machine guns in the Japanese caves and had to be forced to retreat. A night attack will not work, nor will a strong attack. In the end, it was *** who found the weakness of the Japanese army. At the command post of the 769th Regiment, he saw that the slope in front of the Japanese position was loose loess, so he ordered Chen Geng to immediately organize a feint attack by firepower, and at the same time sent people to carry out earthwork and dig a dark passage to the top of the mountain from under the slope. **This move touched the fate of the Japanese army. The terrain in the southwest was complicated, and the Japanese army resisted danger and did not deploy heavy troops, and regarded this side as a solid rear. **Looking at the Japanese army's ass direction to dig and attack, from the bottom up, the Okazaki brigade had no way to find out, let alone a way to deal with it. 
Soon, the 769th Regiment again organized fire to storm the Japanese army, and at the same time sent assault troops to climb the steep cliffs, some of which climbed from the dark passage to the top of Guanjiayuan Mountain, and some of them hid under the trench. The Japanese troops on the top of Guanjiayuan Mountain thought that the Eighth Route Army was going to attack up from the slope again, and they were staring at the slope in front of them with all their attention, but they didn't expect the Eighth Route Army to suddenly appear from behind their buttocks. In close combat, the 759th Regiment opened the gap, and the follow-up 772nd Regiment and the 25th Regiment and the 36th Regiment of the 1st Column also attacked Guanjiayuan successively, most of the Japanese army was annihilated, and the remnants retreated to the cave in the village halfway up the mountain, and resisted stubbornly. But it was also at this time that the reinforcements of the Japanese army of more than 1,500 people approached Guanjiayuan under the cover of more than 10 aircraft. In view of the fact that the Okazaki brigade had been basically annihilated, ** ordered the troops to stop the attack and withdraw from the battle. The remnants of the enemy and the rest fled in a hurry when they were receiving reinforcements from the enemy. Although the battle of Guan Jiayuan was fought hard, the impact was undoubted. The Okazaki Brigade had no one in sight, and broke into the base of the Eighth Route Army alone, and in the end, more than 400 people, including the captain Okazaki, were killed, and the Japanese army was greatly shocked. After this vicious battle, the participating troops of the Eighth Route Army have fully sharpened their willpower and combat effectiveness, and they can not only flexibly and maneuver to defeat the enemy with one blow, but also learn to rush and gnaw hard bones. In the long run, the battle will be worth it.