Chapter 36 6. The cruel youth behind

During the Battle of Songhu, the main force of the Northwest Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, or the Eighth Route Army for short. Of course, it was changed to the Eighteenth Group Army a month later, but it has always been called the Eighth Route Army.The guerrillas in the eight southern provinces, those who did not go to cover the main force during the Long March, were reorganized into the New Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, or the New Fourth Army for short.After a year of expansion, the Eighth Route Army has grown to more than 40,000 people at this time. It has three divisions under its jurisdiction, the 115th, 120th, and 129th divisions, which are the first, second, and fourth front armies of the original Red Army. , There are only about a dozen mountain cannons in the entire army, and most of them are still unable to fire, because parts were lost during the Long March.Little Japan has a division of more than 20,000 people, which is larger than our division and smaller than our army. It has 108 artillery pieces and 24 tanks. We can't find many tanks in China.Not to mention the New Fourth Army, which has 10,500 members, which is equivalent to a regular division of the Kuomintang, and 6,200 guns. Quite a few of these 6,200 guns are the kind of guns made in the village, rather than produced by the arsenal.To what extent is that soil gun soiled? The soldiers "kindly" call it a pedal rifle. What does it mean?After it fires a shot, the bolt can’t be pulled out, and you have to put your foot on the ground. The hand is weak. When you step on the ground, the shell will go out, and the second bullet will go into the chamber. It’s very inferior. You said you want to use it like this To fight against Japan with the most advanced weapons, if you lay down and shoot a shot, then stand up and step on it, then you will be sacrificed and honored.So we used such inferior weapons to fight against the Japanese army armed to the teeth with poisonous gas from planes, cannons and tanks.How great!Once the reorganization of the Red Army was completed, it marked the formal formation of China's anti-Japanese national united front.

In addition to the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, there are two other types of armed forces in the CCP's base areas: the local army and the militia.Most local armies also had full-time military responsibilities, but unlike the Eighth Route and New Fourth armies, they remained within their jurisdiction for long periods of time.The militia theoretically consisted of all able-bodied persons between the ages of 16 and 45, but unlike field armies or local armies, they were not "out of production" but performed sporadically as needed.In the meantime they continue to carry on with their normal business.Of course, when one speaks of such a military organization, one feels the growing inadequacy of training and equipment.Most of the militiamen were armed with broadswords and agricultural implements, and their old-fashioned birds and earthen guns had been requisitioned by field or local armies. [Note 5-76]

At that time, China's land was divided into stable areas, guerrilla areas, and Japanese-controlled areas.The stable zone is an area where the CCP has established a fairly stable administrative organization, which can openly exercise its powers and implement reforms; the guerrilla zone, where there may be various forces: Communists, Kuomintang troops, local militias, bandits, and puppet troops.In these guerrilla zones, the CCP seeks allies based on immediate common interests.They did only rudimentary organizational work and attempted only modest reforms.Japanese-controlled areas are areas controlled by Japan to varying degrees.Corresponding to the core area of ​​the CCP are the cities, large market towns and major lines of communication occupied by the Japanese, and there are some see-sawing fringe areas on the side, where the Japanese army and the puppet army have the upper hand. [Note 5-77]

The CCP’s army mostly cooperates with the Kuomintang’s frontal battlefield to fight some wars behind enemy lines.At the same time as the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese Army in North China occupied Pingjin and attacked Shanxi. The Nationalist Government organized the Battle of Taiyuan on the frontal battlefield.There is a valley between two mountains in Pingxingguan, the Eighth Route Army occupied the hills on both sides, and the Japanese army was at the bottom of the valley, which happened to be a desperate situation for using troops.The Eighth Route Army condescended and ambushed the most elite troops of the Japanese invaders, the 21st Brigade of the Fifth Division known as the Steel Army.The brigade was one of the 17 standing divisions of the Japanese army before the outbreak of World War II, and it was the most elite mechanized unit of the Japanese army.In the battle of Pingxingguan, the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army wiped out more than a thousand officers and soldiers of the brigade's supply team at the cost of 600 casualties.

Before and after the great victory at Pingxingguan, the Chinese Communist Party held the Luochuan Conference, affirming that the War of Resistance Against Japan was a war of resistance for the whole nation. We must persist in guerrilla warfare and establish anti-Japanese bases behind enemy lines. After the Japanese army occupied a large number of cities and most of the territory in northern China, different views of the domestic war against the Japanese emerged.There are roughly two types of these arguments: one is the "theory of national subjugation," which holds that Chinese weapons are inferior to human beings, and that if they fight against the Japanese, they will inevitably fail.Another category is the "quick victory theory". Those who hold this kind of theory imagine that they can defeat Japan by relying on international aid.They believed that the international situation would definitely change, foreign countries would assist China, and China could defeat the Japanese within three months.There are also people in the Communist Party who believe that the Japanese are not worth fighting and that we will soon defeat the Japanese.The above two arguments are widely circulated in China, affecting the overall situation of the Anti-Japanese War and people's emotions.In order to refute the theory of national subjugation and quick victory, Mao Zedong published "On Protracted War".To point out the correct direction of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, we can neither subjugate the country nor win a quick victory, but consume it and kill it!

China is a big and weak country, and Japan is a small and powerful country. When a big and weak country deals with a small and powerful country, it has to procrastinate, trading space for time.Japan, which wanted to destroy China in three months, was very depressed. From the beginning of the war to October 1938, 16 months passed, and China did not perish. The Japanese casualties exceeded 400,000. After traveling so far, why is this place still called China?Putting their own country back and forth three or four times, Japan was forced to change its policy of aggression against China. The Japanese army stopped its large-scale offensive on the frontal battlefield and turned to attack the Communist Party's battlefield behind enemy lines.The Kuomintang was mainly politically induced to surrender, supplemented by military offensives.The change in Japan's policy caused waves within the Kuomintang.The pro-Japanese faction Wang Jingwei clique defected to the enemy.Wang Jingwei, who has always appeared as a revolutionary and statesman, lost his life at the end of a single thought, betrayed the country and surrendered to the enemy, and will always be nailed to the pillar of shame in history.The traitorous Wang Jingwei Group established the Puppet National Government in Nanjing in 1940. The national flag is still blue, white and red, and a yellow cloth is added to the top of the flagpole, with the words "peaceful anti-communism and national construction" written to distinguish it from the Chongqing National Government. .When foreigners look at the Chinese, they think they are very clever. They created two governments, one in Chongqing and one in Nanjing. The Chongqing government joined the Allies, and the Nanjing government joined the Axis. Whoever wins China will be the victor. [Note 5-78]

Japan's oppression and enslavement of the occupied areas is appalling.The purpose of Japan's invasion of China was to plunder, to support war with war, and to turn China into the rear of the Pacific War.North China lost 6 million able-bodied laborers, of whom more than 200,000 were sent to Japan to work as coolies.Japan's right-wing forces are so powerful now, and they have big financial groups behind them to back them up.Big conglomerates benefited from the Japanese war of aggression against China, and Chinese laborers were tortured and humiliated in Japanese companies. In the end, thousands of people may survive.If Japan admits to war crimes, the big conglomerates will have to lose money. The former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s family business used prisoners of war. Right-wing forces denying the war of aggression is evading responsibility.In addition, Japan carried out enslavement education in the occupied areas, obliterating your national consciousness.

While Japan changed its policy of aggression against China, the war on the frontal battlefield continued. General Zhang Zizhong, commander-in-chief of the 33rd Army of the Chinese Revolutionary Army, was martyred in the Zaoyi Battle.General Zhang Zizhong was born in the 29th Army. During the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident", he was the mayor of Tianjin and the commander of the 38th Division.During the defense of Pingjin, Lieutenant General Tong Linge, the deputy commander of the 29th Army, and Lieutenant General Zhao Dengyu, the commander of the 132nd Division, died. At this time, General Zhang Zizhong, the former commander of the 38th Division who was born in the 29th Army, died again.So both Beijing and Tianjin have roads named after these three generals, and Beijing also has Zhang Zizhong Primary School.

When something takes a long time, you will get tired. In 1939, Chiang Kai-shek's anti-Japanese attitude turned negative. The Anti-Japanese War lasted for a year, and the national army lost more than 2 million yuan. From 42,000 to 156,000.Chiang Kai-shek began to feel unhappy, his family was almost lost, and to preserve his strength, he confronted the Japanese army from the frontal battlefield. If you don't hit me, I won't hit you.And "the Communist Party of China and its main forces—the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army—both expanded enormously during the Sino-Japanese War. In the first three years of the war, before 1940, the development was very rapid. The army expanded fivefold , the number of party members has increased by 20 times.” [Note 5-79]

1940 was the time when Nazi Germany was at its most rampant in Europe. Britain was dying, the Soviet Union watched from the other side, and almost all other European countries fell, and the swastika flag was flying all over Europe.Japan couldn't afford it, and was eager to withdraw from the Chinese battlefield and plunged into the Pacific War. It made a stance to fight the Kuomintang to the death and attacked Chongqing along the Yangtze River. The Japanese army in North China wanted to cross the Yellow River to attack Shaanxi. The route of fiercely destroying the Southern Song Dynasty, two flanking attacks, one from east to west, one from north to south, occupied Sichuan, and completed a fatal blow to the Nationalist government.

The national government was really poor at the time.The main income of the Chinese government depends on customs revenue. All the coasts of China have been occupied by the Japanese army. China has lost 90% of its finances, and its expenditure has increased several times. negotiation. [Note 5-80] Foreign forces are in China, and the changes in China's three departments are very obvious, customs, postal services and salt affairs.Formally subordinate to the Chinese authorities, most of them are controlled by foreigners and exercise their actual autonomy.In order to reverse the decadent situation in the anti-Japanese battlefield, the Eighth Route Army came to an exciting mission.More than 100 regiments and 400,000 people of the Eighth Route Army launched the "Hundred Regiment War" in North China, attacking everywhere.At that time, Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshio, the commander of the Japanese First Army stationed in Taiyuan, and his superior Lieutenant General Tada Jun, commander of the North China Front Army, both fell ill due to this kind of tactics and returned home.The Hundred Regiments Battle brought down two Japanese lieutenant generals at once, which was comparable to Zhuge Liang scolding Wang Lang.In this campaign, more than 1,800 battles were fought, more than 2,900 strongholds were conquered, and more than 45,000 Japanese and puppet troops were annihilated, which dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese and puppet troops, inspired the fighting spirit of the Chinese army and people, and enhanced their confidence in victory. [Note 5-81] Japan plundered wantonly in the occupied areas, and the distribution of materials in the Northeast completely served Japan's expansion of its war of aggression against China.Japan worked hard to turn the Northeast into a heavy industrial base for war services.The coal, coking, electric power and other industrial enterprises in the enemy-occupied areas of Guannei are completely controlled, and a large number of counterfeit banknotes without reserve funds are issued to search the people in the enemy-occupied areas by means of inflation.At the same time, enslavement education was carried out in an attempt to annihilate the national consciousness of the Chinese people and train them to become obedient citizens. The people in the occupied areas were in agony. In 1941, the Japanese army raided the base areas behind the enemy and implemented the "Three Alls Policy" to burn, kill and rob all the enemy's rear.In order to engage in Sanguang, the Japanese even changed the composition of their troops accordingly.A squadron in Japan has three teams under its jurisdiction, namely the arson team, the poisoning team, and the robbery team, and then went to sweep up. [Note 5-82] In the Jizhong Plain, "there is no village without filial piety, and there are cries everywhere", and the death toll of Chinese soldiers and civilians exceeds 800,000.At this time, the Kuomintang launched the Southern Anhui Incident, ambushing the headquarters of the New Fourth Army and three regiments directly under it, and the New Fourth Army suffered great sacrifices.It was very difficult for the Communist Party to deal with the raids of the Japanese while solving the troubles caused by the "Southern Anhui Incident". Chinese war-themed movies rarely reveal the cruelty of war.When I was a child, I watched the movies "Tunnel Warfare", "Landmine Warfare", and "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", which made people think that fighting is very fun.The Japanese devils are very stupid. If they plant a bomb at will, the little Japanese will explode into the sky as soon as they step on it. The Japanese are very easy to deal with.In fact, Japanese historical materials say that Chinese landmines can’t kill Japanese people. The explosives must be produced by the arsenal, and the militiamen make gunpowder inside. When Japan steps on a landmine, the typical reaction is that it must be startled at first, and then become a big black Face, not many people were actually killed by the explosion. The anti-mopping up struggle in this situation is the most difficult. The wounded in the enemy's rear did not have anesthesia or even a surgical saw.There is no paper in government offices, and the conditions are extremely difficult. In order to overcome the difficulties of the anti-Japanese base areas, in 1942, a series of constructions were carried out in the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines. First of all, the principle of the three-three system was implemented. In the regime in the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy, the Communist Party members, the bourgeoisie, and the enlightened gentry each accounted for 1/3.Unite all social strata to form a united front regime.At that time, many people defected to the democratic Yan'an. Second, landlords reduced rent and interest, and farmers paid rent and interest.During this period, it is necessary to unite all forces that can be united to carry out the war of resistance.From this, it was proposed that "landlords reduce rent and interest, and farmers pay rent and interest".Although the income of landlords decreased, the nature of land ownership remained unchanged, which helped to stabilize the landlord class and make them support the War of Resistance.Farmers pay rent and interest, although it can't ensure that the tiller can get the land, but it has reduced the burden on farmers and can effectively develop production. Again, a large-scale production campaign was launched in the rear.The rear where the Eighth Route Army was located was blocked by the enemy across the board.Mao Zedong called on the revolutionary fighters to hold a hoe in one hand and a gun in the other, and do it themselves, to have enough food and clothing, to develop the economy, and to ensure supply.In this way, the troops left behind will open up wasteland and cultivate land.Zhou Enlai, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Vice Chairman of the Central Army, Acting Chief of Staff of the Eighth Route Army, practiced Mao Zedong's call in an exemplary manner. He set up a spinning wheel in his office, and worked hard every day after work.The mass production movement laid the material foundation for the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. [Note 5-83] Finally, the rectification movement.Educate the whole party with Marxist ideology, oppose subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped party writing.The key to the Anti-Japanese War being able to persevere in such a difficult environment is to have a firm belief. This road works, and this line, through the rectification, the whole party has achieved a high degree of unity and unity, unified under the banner of Mao Zedong . Back then, Wang Ming returned from the Soviet Union.Back in Yan'an, there was a big difference with Mao Zedong.The famous Anti-Japanese Military and Political University in Yan'an attracted passionate youths from Peiping, Shanghai, Tianjin and other places who yearned for revolution.Level up a flat ground, everyone take out a bench, put a blackboard is the classroom.The teachers are actually the leaders of the Communist Party, and they take turns to give lectures there.Wang Ming's class was very popular. Everyone forgot his gender and called him "Mother Wang Ming".Wang Ming told everyone that the most important thing is to study theory. Only by studying theory well can we master the essence of Marxism-Leninism and contribute to the revolution. We want to study in the Soviet Union and study theory. The students are fascinated by it.In the next class, Mao Zedong came, and the first thing he said was that we would go to the countryside to join forces with the peasants to open up base areas behind the enemy lines.The students were very surprised. The two leaders of the party made two different voices. One asked us to go to the Soviet Union, and the other asked us to go to the countryside. Who should we listen to? [Note 5-84] The Yan'an rectification movement educated the whole party with Marxist ideology and opposed subjectivism and sectarianism. The whole party was highly united and established Mao Zedong's leading position.When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Mao Zedong's position in the Chinese communist movement was the first among his peers.But at least two opponents challenged him directly, they were Zhang Guotao and Wang Ming.The CCP was purged of ideology, and Mao Zedong had absolute leadership over the party and the army. This was achieved only after going through arduous struggles. [Note 5-85]