In March 1943, the Kuomintang launched its third anti-communist upsurge. Chiang Kai-shek ordered his main force, the 92nd Army, to form the 28th Group Army, with about 20,000 people, with Li Xianzhou as the commander-in-chief, to enter Lunan from northern Anhui in early March, clamoring for "recovering lost ground" from the anti-Japanese army and people, and openly carrying out anti-communism. Is the situation of stubborn struggle getting worse?
Li Xianzhou's entry into Lu led to a drastic change in the situation of struggle between the enemy and the puppets in Shandong, the Kuomintang, and the Communist Party. Under the turbulent situation, how to take advantage of the situation to improve the position of the Communist Party and the Eighth Route Army in Shandong has become an urgent task.
Li Xianzhou, a student of the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy and a native of Changqing County, Shandong, was a famous Shandong general in Chiang Kai-shek's lineage. After the Lugou Bridge Incident, he led the 21st Division to fight against the Japanese in the area of Juyongguan and Badaling, and later participated in the "Battle of Nanhuaihua" in Xinxian County, which annihilated the first part of the Japanese Banyuan Division, and was seriously wounded.
In January 1938, he was appointed commander of the 92nd Army. In the autumn of 1939, Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered him to prepare to enter Shandong to sabotage the Anti-Communist War. He led his troops from Tongcheng, Hubei to the north to the Fuyang line in northern Anhui. After the Anhui Incident, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to engage in friction with the New Fourth Army, ordered Li to suspend his entry into Lu.
When Li Xianzhou's troops entered Lu, shortly after the end of the Battle of Jiazishan, there was still a mustard between the Eighth Route Army and Yu Xuezhong's troops. If Yu and Li merge, the strength of the Kuomintang diehards will be greatly enhanced, and the Eighth Route Army will be in an unfavorable position in the triangular struggle. On the other hand, after Li Bu entered Lulu, the contradictions between the enemy and the Kuomintang, between Yu Xuezhong and Li Xianzhou, and between Li and Yu and the local powerful factions will also develop sharply, and the triangular struggle in Shandong will become increasingly complex and intensify.
In January 1943, Li Xianzhou threw stones to ask for directions, and ordered Lu Kezhen, commander of his provisional 34th Division, to lead a regiment north of Longhai Road and establish a foothold between the north of Zhongshan Mountain and Weishan Lake. Li Xianzhou saw that the road department had stood on its feet, and in March and April, he personally led the main force to cross the Longhai Road and enter Luxi.
At the same time, the enemy was contacted through the local capitulation faction in an attempt to gain the enemy's understanding. But the Japanese army wanted to strengthen its control over Shandong. In particular, in order to calm the uneasiness caused by Li Bu's entry into the puppet army, he did not buy Li Xianzhou's account.
After Li Bu arrived in Shan County, the Japanese army gathered more than 1,000 troops, cooperated with cars and tanks, and attacked Li Bu, fiercely fighting until dusk, Li Bu suffered serious casualties, and moved to the west side of Weishan Lake overnight. The troops of the Eighth Route Army's Jiluyu Military Region attacked and harassed the Japanese army from the flank, cooperated with them in battle, changed the medicine for their wounded officers and men, and sent them back to the original units on stretchers.
The Rusi Daily also published an editorial expressing condolences to the 92nd Army, which fought fiercely with the Japanese army. However, Li Xianzhou believed that this was an attempt to shake his military heart, and his attitude towards the Eighth Route Army was very unfriendly. He also ordered Liu Chunlin, commander of the 142nd Division, and Niu Leting, deputy commander of the division, to lead three regiments of Dongyue Weishan Lake and Jinpu Road to collude with Liu Jiatang's troops to jointly deal with the Eighth Route Army.
Liu Guitang, who had known some bandits since childhood, began to block roads and rob when he was a teenager, and gradually formed a huge gang of bandits. Because he was like the bottom of the pot and ranked seventh among the bandits, he got the nickname of "Liu HeiQi". Before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he looted the village of Lunan Temple, killing more than 700 people at a time.
In Lunan's hometown, if the child cries, as soon as he says that Liu Heiqi has come, the child will not dare to cry. People often swear by saying, "If I talk nonsense, I will run into Liu Heiqi today." "Before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he plagued Shandong and wandered all over North China, and his troops were wiped out many times and pulled up many times. At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he surrendered to the Japanese and followed the Japanese army in attacking the anti-Japanese base area in Jiaodong.
In 1939, it was announced that "anyway", and Chiang Kai-shek gave him the nickname of the 36th Division. When Li Xianzhou entered Lulu, he received direct support from the Kuomintang troops, and he became even more rampant.
Under the orders of Li Xianzhou, after liu chunlin's troops of the 142nd Division entered Lunan, under the banner of "expelling the reverse current and recovering the lost land", they took the local surrender to send Shen Congzhou as the guide. They attacked and forcibly occupied the border areas of Teng (County) And The Centers of the Eighth Route Army's Anti-Japanese Base Areas, such as Shanting, Baiyan, and Dalu, and destroyed the democratic regime, looted materials, burned houses, and buried the staff of the democratic government alive. They threatened to drive the Eighth Route Army north of the old Yellow River.
In the face of Li Xianzhou's invasion, the Eighth Route Army could only rise up and defend itself, and preventing Li Xianzhou's troops from entering Lu and opposing communism had become the focus of military struggle at that time. Luo Ronghuan closely watched the development of the situation day and night, and often consulted with other leaders of the sub-bureau and the military region, and decided to first carry out full ideological mobilization and preparatory work among the masses; the Shandong sub-bureau, the military region, the provincial war trade union, and the provincial senate separately held various meetings on the theme of opposing the civil war attended by workers, peasants, businessmen, and soldiers from all walks of life, calling on all the military and the people to counter Chiang Kai-shek's plot to send the main force into Shandong to provoke an anti-communist civil war.
On March 26, 1943, Luo Ronghuan instructed the Lunan Military Region to adopt the principle of self-defense militarily, stick to its own position, resolutely strike at the attacks of Liu Guitang and Shen Congzhou, who were worried about the tiger, and at the same time insist on libu liaison and dredging politically to promote their resistance to Japan.
While preventing Li Bu from entering Lu from the south, Luo Ronghuan also watched Yu Xuezhong's movements in the north. Unsurprisingly, with Li Xianzhou's entry into Lu, the contradiction between Chiang Kai-shek and Yu Xuezhong was directly manifested as the contradiction between Li Xianzhou and Xuezhong.
When Li had not yet entered Lu, he dug into Xuezhong's corner and sent people to contact various local power factions in Shandong that were under Xuezhong's jurisdiction, and to appoint officials. Yu Xuezhong was originally suspicious of Li Bu's entry into Lu, but when he saw Li move like this, in order to maintain his position in Shandong, that is, in the name of the provincial chairman Mou Zhongheng, he organized all the small local armed forces in Shandong into the security forces of the county and the special office, so that Li had no gap to take advantage of, and at the same time carried out a military crusade against Zhang Buyunbu, the second security division stationed north of the coast, who sent Qiu Bo to Li Pin, in the name of not obeying the command.
Yu Xuezhong's defensive positions were in the Yi, Lushan, and Zhu (Cheng) Ri (Zhao) Ju (County) mountains. Yishan Mountain is located in the north of Yishui County, Lushan Mountain is located in the east of Laiwu County, and the west mountain peaks are continuous, and the mountains are towering, and the situation is dangerous. It is connected to Taishan in the west, Mengshan in the south, Jiaoji Railway in the north, Zhucheng, Juxian and Anqiu in the east, and stretches for hundreds of miles. It constitutes the largest mountainous area in central Shandong and is the roof ridge of Shandong. Zhuriju Mountain Is an important mountainous area in the north of the Coastal District, connected with the Yishan Mountains in the north and the Jiazi Mountains in the south, which is an important basis for communicating the connection between the Coastal Area and the Jiaodong District.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, these mountainous areas were originally opened up by the guerrillas led by the Communist Party. However, since the spring of 1939, it has been occupied by Shen Honglie, Yu Xuezhong and other ministries. The Kuomintang's Shandong Provincial Government and the headquarters of the Sulu Theater were concentrated in these areas.
The Kuomintang diehards turned these areas into important positions for their anti-communism and anti-people, forcing the Eighth Route Army's base areas on their periphery. These mountainous areas in turn seriously threaten the Luzhong and coastal areas, hindering the connection between the two districts and Jiaodong District and Qinghe District. Under the oppression of the Kuomintang's harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the people were not happy, and some places became no man's land.
Over the past few years, under the military attacks and political division of the Japanese army, Yubu suffered heavy losses, the troops were reduced, the area was reduced, morale was low, and the situation was very difficult. Shen Honglie's systematic Wu HuaWen openly defected to the enemy in January 1943 under the Kuomintang reactionary policy of "saving the country by curve", and Wu Huawen became the commander of the Third Front Army of the Pseudo-Peaceful Jianguo Army. The unit was entrenched in the Lushan Mountains and vigorously attacked Yubu with the support of the Japanese army. Zhang Buyun's troops, which had been transferred to Li Xianzhou's establishment, also advanced into the Zhuriju Mountains, making Yubu's situation even more sinister.
Since the entry of the Ministry into Lu in 1939, the Communist Party and the Northeast Army have maintained a united front relationship. When Yu was ostracized by Chiang Kai-shek and Shen Honglie, the Communist Party expressed sympathy for him. And from all sides to support them to resist the pressure of the diehards, cover their communication lines with the rear, and even provide them with supplies, cooperate with their anti-"sweeping" and so on.
After the August 3 Incident and the Battle of Koshiyama, relations between the two sides were strained. In February, when Yubu was "swept up" by the enemy, the Eighth Route Army cooperated and allowed Yubu to retreat into the eighth route army's defense, so Yu Xuezhong's attitude towards the Eighth Route Army changed. Luo Ronghuan was sent in to dredge due to the situation, and in March he was able to contact each other's representatives, and in April it was agreed to resume radio contact.
Late April 1943. Li Xianzhou's division Liu Chunlin continued to attack the Tianbao Mountains from Lunan in a vain attempt to quickly advance eastward, join yu Xuezhong, and seize Mount Yimeng. In June, Li Bu's second column reached Huxi, and Li Bu immediately launched an attack on the Jiluyu Eighth Route Army.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek saw that There were many contradictions between Yu and Li and that it was difficult to cooperate, so in the name of adjusting the situation of the war of resistance throughout the country, he merged the Sulu Theater with the Sulu-Anhui Theater into the Tenth Theater, and transferred Yu Xuezhong out of Lu for rectification training, which was actually an official of his "Commander-in-Chief of the Sulu Theater."
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek asked Li Xianzhou to join Lu to succeed Yu Xuezhong, and also promoted Li to be the commander-in-chief of the 28th Group Army and the commander-in-chief of Su Yuwan's first advance, and also transferred Yu Xuezhong's local armed forces in Shandong to the new 36th Division (Liu Jiatang's department, stationed in Lunan), the provisional 12th Division (Zhao Baoyuan's department, stationed in Jiaodong), and the 2nd Bao'an Division (Zhang Buyun's department, stationed in northern Binhai) to Li Xianzhou's system in order to expand Li's power.
When Luo Ronghuan learned that Yu Xuezhong's department was about to go west, he invited some cadres who had previously worked in the Northeast Army to jointly analyze the situation, analyze the contradictions between Jiang Yu and Yu Li, and study countermeasures. He said: "The Kuomintang does not trust the Northeast Army, so it must change the defense of Yu and Li. According to common sense, Yu should wait for Li to come and then leave, but if Yu Xuezhong makes a little more beautiful, it is best not to wait for Li to pat his ass and leave, which is beneficial to us. ”
Everyone completely agreed with Luo Ronghuan's estimation, believing that if our army could hold Li Xianzhou up and provide Yu Xuezhong with convenient conditions, it would be entirely possible for him to go out of The Lu first. Luo Ronghuan said happily, "Well, if Yu Xuezhong really walks like this, we will send the gift out of the country." As for Li Xianzhou, he resolutely resisted and absolutely could not let him come over. As a result, a countermeasure sent by Li Liyu was quickly formed.
On July 4, Zhu Rui, Luo Ronghuan, Li Yu, and Xiao Hua reported to the CPC Central Committee and suggested that "the ministry should be not restrained and facilitated under certain conditions." To delay Li Bu's advance to the east and his march north as far as possible, and to annihilate a single unit under the principle of self-defense, when he reached into our base area and was unstable... With regard to the local troops near the area of the ministry, to win over those who might be fighters, to annihilate some of the most resolutely anti-communist parts, in order to control the Luzhong Mountains and the Ju-Ri Mountains, and to contact each other in order to continue to develop to the periphery."
On July 15, the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee sent a telegram to the Shandong Branch and told the Northern Bureau, "First, I. Agree with your policy toward Yu Xuezhong and Li Xianzhou. 2. Resolutely unite with the friendly, try to neutralize the stubborn (and) who have not yet attacked us for the time being, and resolutely fight back against the attackers who attack us. This is your principle in dealing with the various factions of the Kuomintang army. However, all frictions require telegraphing the situation of the stubborn side attacking us and suppressing us, so as to inform the Kuomintang Central Committee and cut off its excuses and slander. ”
A few days later, when Li Bu was still wandering in Lunan, Yu Xuezhong began to evacuate without waiting for Li Xianzhou to take over. Prior to this, YuBu and the Eighth Route Army had agreed that when Yubu withdrew from the garrison, the Eighth Route Army would go to take up the defense with fireworks as a sign. Yu Bu could pass through the eighth route army's defensive zone in Tanbu (located on the border between Yishui and Mengyin) and Jiuzhai (west of Tanbu) in the Luzhong base area, and when yubu passed, the Eighth Route Army prepared grain and grass to bid farewell.
But then an undeserved event occurred. When Yubu passed near Tanbu and Jiuzhai, some soldiers were reluctant to go west. A company of the Eighth Route Army saw that they were well equipped, had a lot of ammunition, and were all "Czech-style" rifles of the same color, so they left them behind; when Luo Ronghuan learned of this, he immediately told the Luzhong Military Region that he would severely criticize this company and immediately return all the people and guns.
At the same time, leading cadres at all levels are called upon to enhance their political and disciplinary concepts and not to lose big things because of small things. He also sent a telegram to the military regions, pointing out: "The Northeast Army is an intermediate force, and it has a friendly history with me before and after the Xi'an Incident. I should adopt a united attitude toward the Xuezhongbu, and we must not take the provocation lightly, and even if the diehards provoke from it, we should tolerate it. "As a result of the conscientious implementation of these demands by the various units, there have been no similar incidents since then. Yu Xuezhongbu finally braved the rain in the starry night to go west through Jinpu Road.
The Yiluxin District and the Zhuriju Mountains, which were vacated by the withdrawal of the Ministry, were worth a hundred times more in an instant. The puppet army and diehard factions around these two mountainous areas, including the Wuhua Wenbu, the largest puppet army stationed in Shandong south of Lushan, Zhang Buyunbu, a puppet army that had openly surrendered to the enemy, which had openly surrendered to the enemy, the puppet army Li Wenli in the anqiu area in the northern part of zhuriju mountainous area, and the remnants of Qin Qirong, a friction expert under the wings of Li Zhi's egg, and Zhang Liyuanbu, who was originally stationed in Lunan and later turned north of the Ri (Zhao) Ju (County) Highway, were all three feet away from these two mountainous areas in a vain attempt to get involved.
In order to occupy the position withdrawn by the troops in front of the enemy, on July 4 and 12, the Shandong sub-bureau and the military region ordered the troops of the Luzhong District and the Coastal Area to make a large-scale march to the Yilu MountainOus Area and the Zhuriying MountainOus Area respectively.
Fighting began in early July. The 13th Regiment, the main force of our coastal area, departed on July 5 and by 14 july had completely taken control of the Area of Zhuri abandoned by the 111th Division of Yu Xuezhong's department. On the 16th, the Japanese and the puppets tried to prevent the development of our army and let the puppet army Zhang Buyun invade and occupy the Zhuri region, but we resolutely counterattacked.
On the 18th, I carried out a surprise attack on Zhang Buyun's 5th Brigade, and after an hour of fierce fighting, killed and wounded more than 600 puppet soldiers and repelled the enemy and puppet attacks. On August 2, the 14th Regiment of jiaodong military region opened up the border guerrilla zone of Zhucheng Jiaoxian County, opening up the connection between Jiaodong district and binhai district for the first time. The main force of the Luzhong Military Region set out on July 12, successively seizing large positions abandoned by the Nationalist 113th and 114th Divisions.
On July 28, the puppet army of Li Wenli and Wuhua Tried to attack the troops of our Luzhong Military Region from north to south, and after fierce fighting, I defeated the enemy and annihilated most of Li Wenli's special service regiment, and the anti-communist general Qin Qirong was also killed by me in this battle. In the battle to seize the strategic Yilu Mountains and the Zhurishou Mountains, I won a complete victory.
It basically controlled the former Northeastern Army garrisons in the Zhuriju Mountains north of the Rizhao (Zhao) Ju (County) Highway, the east of the Qingzhou (Prefecture) Zhejiang (Shui) Road, the An (Qiu) Ju (County) Border Area, and the Beiyimeng Area west of the Qingzhe Road.
After this campaign, the newly opened liberated area covered an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers. At this point, there were no main Kuomintang troops in Shandong. The local diehards are leaderless and chaotic. Luo Ronghuan and others seized this favorable historical opportunity and finally greatly improved the position of the Shandong Eighth Route Army in its struggle against the enemy.
After already controlling the Zhuriju Mountains and the Northern Yimeng region, Luo Ronghuan turned his focus to the south.
On July 26, Luo Ronghuan and Li Yu made arrangements to repel or annihilate Li Xianzhou's northern offensive forces in the hinterland of the Tianbao Mountains or mengshan mountains and even the Luzhong District, demanding that the initial battle be cautious and that superior forces be concentrated to seek an opportunity to annihilate Li Bu in the movement.
From August 13 to 18, Zhang Guangzhong, commander of the Lunan Military Region, and Wang Lushui, political commissar, in accordance with Luo Ronghuan's instructions, concentrated the main force of the 3rd Regiment, the 5th Regiment, and the local armed forces to fight back on the flanks of Liu Chunlin's troops in the Tianbaoshan area. Although the recalcitrant army was captured, it still crossed the Zi (Yang) Lin (Yi) Road to the north of Fei (County), and was attacked by the 2nd Regiment of Luzhong, so it had to retreat south of the Zi Lin Road and occupy the area of Liuyu and Changzhuang south of Pingyi.
During this period, the Jiluyu Military Region west of Jinpu Road also began to counterattack the main force of Li Xianzhou's troops. In September, Yu Cao County blocked Li Xianzhou's troops that had invaded the southwestern Lu base area. More than 2,000 recalcitrant soldiers were killed and wounded, and more than 6,000 were taken prisoner.
Li Bu lost his anti-communist campaign and suffered great losses from the enemy's "sweeping gas." There were more than 20,000 people in Libu when he entered Lulu, and by this time there were less than 8,000 left. Li Xianzhou saw that the general trend had gone, and there was no hope of moving north, so he had to retreat to northern Anhui in ashes. Its vanguard, Liu Chunlin, also marched north of Zou County on September 5 to the west of Jinpu Road.
When the good news came, Luo Ronghuan said excitedly: "This is what we have been thinking about for many years." He said: "This is the masterpiece of the military and people of Shandong." In the "Summary of the Work of Our Party in Shandong in the Four Years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and The Tasks Ahead", which was drafted according to Liu Shaoqi's intentions, he said: "It is both a historical opportunity, that is, a rare and uncommon opportunity, and in the face of historical opportunities that have appeared, it may be very short (January or even a week), but what it can give us is often able to enable us to complete the cause that we have not been able to complete for many years." "Blocking the entry into Lu and thus occupying the strategic commanding heights of Shandong is exactly such a cause."