"Dancing on Three Eggs".
In February 1936 (**25), the Red Army crossed east to resist the Japanese. Yan Xishanren organized all seven divisions of the Jin Sui Army into four columns and fortified along the Yellow River. In the first phase of the battle, the first battle of Guanshang Village was fought, and the Jin army Zhou Yuan was annihilated. Yan Xishan was taken aback, and deeply felt that the strength of the Red Army was by no means resistible to the strength of Shanxi Province, so he hurriedly telegraphed Chiang Kai-shek to send reinforcements.
Chiang Kai-shek had long wanted to extend his power to Shanxi, so he immediately agreed to Yan's request, and quickly sent the 13th Army of his descendant army to transport it to western Henan through the Longhai Road, and crossed the Yellow River through the ferries of Tongjin to enter Jin, and went north along the Tongpu Road for reinforcements. In addition, the 32nd Army was sent to drive from Zhengtai Road to Jinzhong to strengthen the force to defend Taiyuan. In order to avoid the expansion of the civil war, the Communist Party of China returned to northern Shaanxi, and on May 5, it issued a telegram entitled "Armistice and Peace, Unanimously Resist Japan", calling for the cessation of the civil war and unanimity to the outside world. However, Chiang Kai-shek's army remained in Shanxi, trying to take advantage of the opportunity to weaken Yan Xishan's power, and then take the opportunity to squeeze Yan out of Shanxi.
In Yan Xishan's own words, he was "dancing on three eggs, and none of them could be broken", which means that he couldn't afford to provoke either side, and either side had to oppose it, but he had to deal with either side. Yan believed that as long as he could play the sign of "uniting with the Communist Party to resist Japan" and win the support of the Communist Party for him, he would be able to use the strength and prestige of the Communist Party to mobilize the masses to fight against Japan and temporarily protect all his property, and at the same time he could force Chiang Kai-shek not to dare to interfere in his "internal affairs." Its essence is: not only to unite with the Communist Party, but also to prevent the Communist Party in secret, to resist Japan, but also to make peace with Japan and pro-Japan in secret; Not only was he afraid of Jiang and rejected Jiang, but he also had to rely on Jiang.
On July 7, 1937 (**26 years), Japanese imperialism launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, and the Chinese nation was facing a serious juncture of life and death. The next day, the Communist Party of China issued a telegram, calling on "Chinese compatriots, ** and the army to unite to build a strong Great Wall of the national united front and resist the aggression of the Japanese invaders!" "At the appeal of the Chinese Communist Party, on July 17, Chiang Kai-shek delivered his famous speech in Lushan, announcing the war of resistance against Japan and recognizing the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border region. In this way, the anti-Japanese national united front was established, and the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was formally formed.
In order to unite Yan Xishan to jointly resist Japan, the CCP successively sent *** and others to Shanxi to discuss cooperation with Yan Xishan to resist Japan. ** In Taiyuan, he first made contact with Zhao Daiwen and Liang Huazhi, and then went to the Taiheling camp to negotiate directly with Yan Xishan, and put forward the proposal of establishing a general mobilization committee for the united front led by representatives of the Communist Party's Eighth Route Army within the scope of the Second War Zone. The two sides reached an agreement on the establishment of the General Association of War Movements. On September 20, the Second War Zone War General Association was established in Taiyuan.
At half past eight o'clock in the morning on September 18 (the 14th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar), after the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army held an anti-Japanese mobilization meeting in Houma, led by ** and others, they went north by train. After passing through Taiyuan, Xinzhou and Dingxiang, we arrived at Hebian Village at 4:30 p.m. After the Eighth Route Army got off the train at the Hebian Village Railway Station, it was warmly welcomed by the people of the riverside. At that time, Yan Xishan was staying in the village, so he went to the "East Garden" to meet Yan Xishan. Yan Xishan received the guests, and the two sides discussed anti-Japanese matters.
The front line of the Anti-Japanese War in northern Shanxi
After * and *** to Wutai, Datong has fallen, and the main force of the Japanese army is rushing from Tianzhen and Guangling on the border of Hebei and Jin to Pingxingguan. In order to study the new strategic plan and better unite against the enemy, on 21 September, Zhou and Zhu went to Taihe Lingkou to meet Yan Xishan again. After negotiations, the two sides agreed that the Jin Sui Army was responsible for holding the front of Pingxingguan, and the Eighth Route Army was concealedly assembled on both sides, and when the enemy attacked Pingxingguan, it would attack from the front and back. On September 22, ** returned to Wutai City and held a meeting of cadres above the company level of the 115th Division to make arrangements for the battle of Pingxingguan.
According to the deployment, the headquarters of the 115th Division and the 344th Brigade (brigade commander Xu Haidong), under the leadership of the deputy division commander, set out from Jiangfang Village, Wutai County, day and night, through Longquan Pass to Fuping, and then detoured behind enemy lines, and went to Shangzhai Village near Pingxingguan on the night of the 23rd to stand by. 2On the 5th, the Eighth Route Army and the Jin Sui Army annihilated more than 1,000 members of the Japanese Army's Itagaki Division at Pingxingguan, dealing a heavy blow to the Japanese army, shocking China and the rest of the world, effectively shattering the Japanese army's dream of annihilating China in three months, and inspiring the confidence of the people of the whole country in the War of Resistance.
After the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Japanese army did not dare to attack Pingxingguan head-on, so it was forced to change its strategy, and the Japanese Kwantung Army, which had invaded Datong, went south to Hunyuan, and detoured to Ruyuekou between Yanmen Pass and Pingxingguan, and launched a fierce attack to deal with the Fifth Division in an embarrassment. Then, the Japanese army occupied Tiejialing, and on the night of the 29th, occupied Fanzhi City.
At this critical moment, Yan Xishan made a pessimistic assessment of the situation, and held a military meeting in a village south of the Shahe River late on the night of the 30th, and Yan Xishan ordered all the armies on the front line to move to Wutai Mountain, Yunzhong Mountain, and Luya Mountain, and concentrate the main force between Xinxian and Xinkou to defend Taiyuan. On the Yanmen Pass, Zhu Shouguang, chief of staff of the camp, ordered the retreat on behalf of Yan.
The beginning and end of the Battle of Xinkou
On October 1, in order to "give an account" to the people of Shanxi, Yan Xishan personally interrogated Li Fuying, the commander of the 11th Army of the Jin Sui Army, who was ineffective in fighting in Tianzhen, and then sentenced him to death, so that the Jin Sui Army did not dare to continue to retreat. In addition, the ** army marched into Shanxi, and the Eighth Route Army detoured to the enemy's flank and fought together, so he strengthened his courage and held a military meeting with Fu Zuoyi and **, and decided to conduct a large-scale battle in Xinkou.
The Battle of Xinkou was fierce from the beginning. Under the cover of aircraft dives and strafing and heavy artillery fire, machine guns, and tanks, the Japanese army repeatedly swooped down on the forward positions of our army as a whole battalion and company during the battle for Nanhuaihua on the west side of Xinkou. When the enemy advanced to a few tens of meters, grenades from our positions were fired, and the soldiers rushed out of the trenches to pursue the retreating enemy, and the enemy suffered many casualties. The enemy's numerous attacks were defeated by our army. In Dabaishui Village on the left flank, half of the enemy and half of us, continuous hand-to-hand combat began, although the Japanese army repeatedly reinforced and counterattacked, they were all severely attacked by our army, and finally did not capture the whole village.
In the Battle of Xinkou, the defenders fought for every inch of land. The army commander Hao Mengling commanded in the line of fire, was hit by an enemy shell and died honorably. More than 10,000 officers and men were killed, and more than 20,000 were wounded. At the height of the battle, on a front two miles wide, from dawn to dusk, 10 regiments were lost in one day. But our army became more and more courageous, putting life and death out of the way, or holding their positions, or supporting friendly forces, fighting for the survival of the nation, and fighting to kill the enemy. After 23 days of heroic fighting, the Japanese army suffered a serious blow, with about 10,000 dead and wounded. The famous Itagaki Division of the Japanese army was at a loss and was blocked in front of the Xinkou position, unable to move forward. The Japanese were unable to win and were forced to prepare for a retreat to the north.
The Eighth Route Army cooperated with the frontal battle, and the 716th Regiment of the 120th Division ambushed the Japanese army at Yanmen Pass on October 18 and annihilated the enemy. On 19 October, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army commanded the 769th Regiment of the 129th Division to attack the enemy airfield at Yangmingbao south of Dai County, burning 24 enemy planes.
In order to respond to the Battle of Xinkou, the Japanese army sent troops from Shijiazhuang to attack Niangzi Pass. Our defenders held out for more than half a month, and the enemy made a detour to the rear, and the defenders were forced to retreat on October 26. Seeing this, Yan Xishan hurriedly transferred Fu Zuoyi to lead the 35th Army to defend Taiyuan, and then sent a telegram to Wei Lihuang to lead the army guarding Xinkou to retreat in the direction of Taiyuan. Wei Lihuang had no choice but to order the entire line of Xinkou to take the initiative to retreat, and the Battle of Xinkou ended. The Battle of Xinkou began on October 11 and ended on November 2, a total of 23 days, becoming the most fierce battle in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War in North China, and also the longest and largest battle.
After the Battle of Xinkou, Yan Xishan once wrote a poem saying:
Xinkou set up the formation calmly, thanks to Yuan Ping's resistance to the enemy
If Niangguan does not fail, how can Twenty-three allow the enemy to attack?