During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, almost half of China's territory fell, and from the three northeastern provinces to North China, Central China, East China, and South China, the Japanese invaders fought all the way from north to south to Guangxi. After the fall of most of Shanxi in northern China, Shaanxi, one of the origins of Chinese civilization, stubbornly blocked the Japanese Kou, and why the Japanese army could not enter Shaanxi during the War of Resistance Against Japan is indeed a topic worth discussing.
(918 Incident, the fall of the northeast, the Japanese army south)
On the night of September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed in the northeast suddenly attacked the Shenyang Beidaying of the Northeast Army, shocking the Outbreak of the September 18 Incident at home and abroad, due to Zhang Xueliang's policy of "non-resistance", more than 100,000 Northeast Troops retreated to Guannei, and in a short period of time, the Northeast fell, which was the beginning of the war of aggression against China. With the fall of the northeast to the establishment of the "puppet state of Manchukuo", the Japanese army quickly drew troops from the country and Korea to wait for the opportunity to go south.
On July 7, 1937, Japan provoked the Lugou Bridge Incident, and the all-out war of aggression against China began. After that, japan, relying on its superior troops and sophisticated equipment, drove all the way south, And the important cities of Beiping, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou all fell, and half of China's rivers and mountains, from the northeast all the way to Guangxi, were almost all caught in the flames of war.
(The Fierce Battle of Taiyuan)
After the fall of northeast China, north China became the focus of the Japanese invasion of China, and with the successive fall of Beiping and Tianjin, the situation in north China was critical. At the same time that Hebei, Henan, and Shandong were successively attacked by the Japanese, Shanxi, which was next to Henan, became the main target of the Japanese Kou, and the main purpose of the Japanese Kou attaching so much importance to Shanxi was that the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Great Northwest behind Shanxi was to use Shaanxi as a springboard to attack Gansu and retreat to the south to covet Sichuan and Chongqing. In fact, after the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance, the initial strategic policy of the Japanese Kou was to take the northeast as the base camp, divide the troops from the east and west, and seize Shanxi, Shaanxi was not a problem.
In mid-September 1937, the Japanese army gathered superior forces to attack Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi, the Taiyuan War broke out, under the leadership of Yan Xishan, commander of the Second Theater, the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army (division commander Lin Biao, deputy division commander Nie Rongzhen) won the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Battle of Xinkou, the Battle of Niangziguan and other battles, breaking the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army. However, the ambition of the Japanese army to seize Shanxi remained unchanged, and the situation in Shaanxi, as the hinterland of Shanxi, was also very critical, and if Shanxi was not protected, the next target of the Japanese Kou must be Shaanxi, the core area of the Great Northwest.
Unfortunately, under the fierce attack of the Japanese Kou, although Yan Xishan, who was in charge of Shanxi, turned the tide, he was still unable to stop the crazy attack of the Japanese Kou, and on November 8, 1937, the capital of Shanxi, Taiyuan, was lost, and in February of the following year, Yan Xishan crossed the Yellow River and was forced to retreat to Yichuan County, Shaanxi, at this time, the territory controlled by Yan Xishan had rapidly shrunk to more than twenty counties in southwestern Jin.
Shanxi is in a precarious situation, and the situation in Shaanxi, which is close to Shanxi, is naturally not good, but the Japanese Kou have not been able to step into Shaanxi from beginning to end, which is indeed a topic worth discussing, and the Japanese Kou are not without ideas about Shaanxi, but why they stopped in Shanxi and were never able to enter Shaanxi, there are still many reasons for this.
1: Yellow River natural danger
(As the gateway to the Great Northwest, Shaanxi must not lose)
Shaanxi and Shanxi are the birthplace of Chinese civilization, the two provinces are mainly bounded by the Yellow River, and the famous Hukou Waterfall is shared by the two provinces. As a natural barrier between Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, the Yellow River is turbulent, seemingly wide and flat, but in fact, it flows undercurrents. As early as when the Japanese invaded Shanxi, the military and political leaders on the Shaanxi side, led by Wei Lihuang, had already realized that the next target of the Japanese Kou was likely to be Shaanxi, so they concentrated important forces and heavily guarded all the crossings that the Japanese Kou might forcibly cross. Unlike the flat land of the North China Plain, Shaanxi and Shanxi were already mountainous, which was obviously not conducive to the mechanized forces of the Japanese and Kosovo. In fact, from 1938 to the end of 1939, the Japanese army launched more than 20 large and small river crossing battles from Fugu Ferry to Tongguan Ferry, but there was no progress.
2: Heavily armed and waiting
The Japanese attack on Shanxi posed a great threat to Shaanxi, and the government was well aware of this. On December 12, 1936, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched the Xi'an Incident, imprisoning Chiang Kai-shek and forcing him to join forces to resist Japan. Although the Xi'an Incident was resolved peacefully, Chiang Kai-shek was obviously obsessed with Shaanxi. After the state capital moved to Chongqing, Shaanxi became an important gateway to the north of Chongqing, the safety of Shaanxi is related to Chongqing, naturally Chiang Kai-shek did not dare to relax at all for the defense of Shaanxi, in November 1938, the state government set up the tenth theater in Xi'an, with Jiang Dingwen as the commander of the theater, ordered him to die in Shaanxi and strictly guard against the Japanese Kou. In addition, Shaanxi is also the seat of our Party Central Committee, and the Jin-Cha-Ji base area set up by our Party has continuously attacked and harassed the Japanese and kosovo, which has also caused great pressure on the Japanese invasion of Shaanxi. Shanxi, as the old lair of Yan Xishan, naturally could not sit idly by and watch the fall of Shanxi Province, so after Yan Xishan retreated to Shaanxi, the Jin army still dealt a great blow to the Japanese Kou, and under the attack of the Eighth Route Army and the Jin Army, the Japanese Kou could not completely occupy Shanxi. What's more, at this time, Shaanxi was already heavily defended and waited in a strict position, and it would not be easy for the Japanese to invade Shaanxi.
3: The battle line is too long, and the whip is too long
(Japan's war of aggression against China, nearly half of China's territory fell)
Before 1940, Japan had invested less than 1 million troops in China, and being able to fight all the way from North China to Wuhan and Guangzhou in a short period of time was already the strategic limit of the Japanese Kou. The front was too long, the troops were insufficient, or one of the main reasons why Japan stopped in Hubei at that time and did not attempt to sichuan and Chongqing. Similarly, when the Japanese Kou attacked Shanxi but never completely occupied the whole province of Shanxi, they always had to face the attacks on the rear of the Eighth Route Army and the Jin Army, which naturally made the Japanese Kou feel very difficult, and the lack of troops caused by the excessively long front was obviously a huge pressure on the Japanese Kou attacking Shanxi. Without the replenishment of troops, the Japanese who penetrated deep into Shanxi were bound to be beaten everywhere, and Shanxi, as the front line barrier of Shaanxi, if the Japanese could not seize it, they would certainly not be able to try shaanxi.
4: A shift in the strategic approach
This reason is also the focus, when the Japanese attack on Shanxi was also eyeing the coal mine resources here, and Shaanxi is also rich in coal resources. A few years after the all-out war of aggression against China, Japan formulated a strategy of going south, indicating that Japan at that time had changed its strategic policy. As for China, due to its limited military strength and the fact that China is rich in land, It is impossible for Japan to rely on its limited troops to attack everywhere like a pie. Because Japan was deeply trapped in the Chinese battlefield, the Tokyo base camp urgently needed to find a breakthrough, and the southward policy became the consensus of the Japanese side at that time, opening up the communication line between the north and south of China, and making sufficient preparations for the smooth invasion of Southeast Asia by the Japanese Kou and launching the Pacific War, which became the mainstream idea of the Japanese military and political circles at that time. Therefore, we can see that since 1939, Japan has insisted on focusing on central China and eastern And southern China, occupying the rich land of China and preparing for the southward advance, so that Shaanxi, located in the great northwest, will no longer become the main target of the Japanese Kou.
Shaanxi is one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization, the importance of Shaanxi, not only about Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, but the entire great northwest, the reason why the Japanese Kou failed to break through the Shaanxi defense line after attacking Shanxi, there are many reasons, the above points are the key points, Shaanxi's geographical location is special and important, and there are Yangtze River natural dangers and Tongguan heavy land, the Japanese Kou want to easily break into the real is not easy. In addition, shaanxi's strategic position in China and in the great northwest is really too important, the defense of Shaanxi by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party is almost airtight, the Japanese and Kou are trapped in Shanxi, and after several tentative attacks on Shaanxi have failed, they have turned around and gone south in an all-round way, and the arduous and all-round anti-Japanese resistance has begun.