Commander-in-Chief Zhu De's great victory in the Battle of the Hundred Regiments

Zhu De, September 26, 1940: The Battle of the Hundred Regiments was a large-scale campaign offensive carried out by our army behind the enemy's rear, and a great transportation war and economic warfare jointly launched by our army, government, and people. This one-campaign offensive had a great impact on the war situation in North China. It will shrink the enemy-occupied areas and expand the areas occupied by us. Breaking the serious difficulties of the War of Resistance Behind Enemy Lines has created a new situation in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in North China. At present, the great war is still continuing, but the initial results of the war have shown unprecedented great gains, and they have been celebrated with one heart by the compatriots of the whole country. All the officers and men of the Eighth Route Army, many guerrillas in North China, and the broad masses of the people are making unremitting efforts. Fight bloodily, expand this great victory, comfort the compatriots of the whole country and continue the struggle.

Under the present situation, although the Hundred Regiments War is a campaign offensive of a victorious guerrilla war, it has great strategic significance of a national dimension. First of all, it contained the enemy's attempts to attack our rear rear of the Great Northwest and to attack the southwest. Recently, the enemy plotted to attack Kunming by Vietnam in the south, Chongqing by Yichang in the middle, and Xi'an by Luoyang in the north to force our whole country to submit, and the great victory of our Hundred Regiments War partially confused the enemy's deployment, at least to delay the enemy's attack. At the same time, it has strengthened the confidence of the compatriots in victory throughout the country, promoted the unity of the whole country, and made it difficult for the enemy to realize his conspiracy of coercion and inducement. Secondly, this victorious campaign offensive broke the enemy's "cage policy" of dealing with our anti-Japanese base areas. The enemy tried to use its railways, roads, strongholds and bunkers to blockade our anti-Japanese base areas and put us in a desperate situation. And we must cut off the enemy's lifeline of communication in order to control the enemy's death. Therefore, the main form of struggle for war behind enemy lines is transportation warfare. This huge general traffic offensive has dealt a serious blow to the enemy's military blockade of us and trapped the enemy's military operations in a very difficult situation; we have overcome many bunkers and strongholds, shrunk the enemy-occupied areas, expanded our occupied areas, and re-raised the red flag in many places that have been occupied for a long time. This has further encouraged the courage of the compatriots in the occupied areas to struggle, deepened the enemy's difficulties, and promoted the contradictions of the enemy countries. This has further increased the factors of the mainland's victory in the War of Resistance. Finally, this victorious campaign offensive dealt a serious blow to the enemy's conspiracy to "feed the war with war," and we not only broke the enemy's economic blockade of the anti-Japanese base areas, but also cut off the enemy's economic transportation, undermined the enemy's economic development, and especially destroyed the Jingxing coal mine, so that the enemy could not take advantage of the largest coal mine in northern China.

The Eighth Route Army was able to achieve such a great victory on its historical basis. First of all, after the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when the enemy was taking advantage of its superior weapons and troops and driving straight into our interior, the Eighth Route Army, on the orders of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek, first took a heroic posture and the enemy in the opposite direction, advanced deep behind the enemy's lines, cooperated with the broad masses of the people in north China, created a vast anti-Japanese base area in north China, and strengthened the people's armed forces against Japan. Without the heroic and arduous struggle of the Eighth Route Army during this period, it would not have been possible to achieve the great victory in today's Hundred Regiments War. Second, after the fall of Wuhan, the enemy once dispatched an elite unit to carry out a "sweep" of the anti-Japanese base areas in North China in turn, stepping up a brutal attack on us from the military, political, economic and cultural aspects in an attempt to destroy our anti-Japanese base areas. The vast number of soldiers and people in northern China, on the other hand, waged the most enthusiastic and tense and victorious anti-"mopping-up" war against the enemy, consolidated the anti-Japanese base areas in north China, and tempered and strengthened the anti-Japanese armed forces. Without the heroic and arduous struggle of the Eighth Route Army during this period, it would not have been possible to achieve today's great victory in the Hundred Regiments War.

It is precisely because the Eighth Route Army has such a historical basis that it can create the conditions for our victory over the enemy today. What is this condition? This condition is that we can rely on the people as the basis and rely on mobilizing the human and material resources of the tens of millions of people in North China, uniting as one, and relying on ourselves to deal with the enemy. The victory in the Hundred Regiments War has repeatedly proved that only by adhering to the principle of unity and progress and resolutely implementing the Three People's Principles can we mobilize the masses and win victory. If we want to win victory in the War of Resistance, we must dare to mobilize the masses and rely on them. Otherwise, there is only failure. Although great victories have been achieved in the initial unfolding of the Hundred Regiments War, we still deeply feel that the achievements have not been enough after reviewing the course of this campaign. Although we have completely destroyed Zhengtai Road, cut off the northern section of Tongpu Road and Pinghan Road, and destroyed the traffic of many other railways and roads, we have not been able to carry out the most effective and large-scale destruction of the southern section of Jinpu and Pinghan Road, for Jiaoji Road, and for the enemy's traffic network on both sides of the Yangtze River. Why? Because in these places, we have not yet been able to actively mobilize the people and rely on the people. Therefore, we urgently hope that many of the above-mentioned places will be able to boldly and quickly mobilize the masses, and only in this way can the great victory of the Hundred Regiments War be extended to the various fronts of land and water communication in the rear of the enemy, and can we cooperate with the frontal war of resistance, strike and consume the enemy more effectively, and strive for the rapid arrival of the counter-offensive stage.

At the same time, although the Hundred Regiments War has won a great victory, we must not be complacent because of this. We must estimate that there are still serious difficulties in persevering behind enemy lines, the main ones being the difficulties of ammunition and supplies. Therefore, we warmly hope that our highest military and political authorities, all compatriots in the country who are fighting the War of Resistance and overseas Chinese compatriots will give us a steady stream of financial support. All commanders and fighters and political workers of our army must further carry forward our exemplary spirit of arduous struggle. At the same time, strive for self-reliance to achieve the solution of the feeding part. Only in this way can the anti-Japanese armed forces behind the enemy lines continue to persist and expand the victories that have been won. In the twenty days since the beginning of the Hundred Regiments War, which is unprecedented in the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression behind enemy lines, our regimental commander Comrade Li Hehui, our regimental commander Comrade Wu Longzhuo, the battalion commander Comrade Li Guangsheng, as well as Comrade Dong Tianzhi, political commissar of the column, and more than a thousand other commanders and fighters and political workers have gloriously shed their last drop of blood for the sacred cause of the liberation of the Chinese nation. Our brigade commander Comrade Chen Xilian, Comrade Fan Zixia, Deputy Brigade Commander Comrade Wang Naigui, Brigade Political Commissar Comrade Xie Fuzhi, Brigade Political Department Director Comrade Lu Rencan, Brigade Chief of Staff Comrade Zeng Shaoshan, as well as other regimental and battalion-level cadres, commanders and fighters, and political workers of more than 4,000 people have all been gloriously injured or poisoned in this war. I hope that all the commanders and fighters and political workers of our Eighth Route Army will carry forward the heroic and resolute spirit of the victims, redouble their efforts, fight harder and harder, win more and more proudly, and continue to expand the great victory in the Hundred Regiments War. Moreover, in coordination with friendly armies throughout the country, under the leadership of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek, they bravely marched forward to the final victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression by stepping on the glorious blood of the dead.

Commander-in-Chief Zhu De was one of the earliest initiators and organizers of the Hundred Regiments War (it was not known at the time that there were more than a hundred regiments that would subsequently participate in the war). Jude only decided to carry out a large-scale campaign offensive behind the enemy. Zhu De believes that this can achieve three goals: First, to contain the enemy's attempt to attack the rear; second, to break the enemy's "cage policy" toward our anti-Japanese base areas; and third, to deal a heavy blow to the enemy's conspiracy to "feed the war with war." After Zhu De did the early work of the Hundred Regiments War, he returned to Yan'an and handed over military command to Peng Dehuai. Although Zhu De was not on the front line, he always paid close attention to the progress of the Hundred Regiments War. Always in touch with the front line, boost morale and give advice to the front line. For example, in his telegram to He Long, he said: (1) Fully agree with your plan to break the Xinning section of the Xinning section and pulu (1) on the fifteenth.

(2) The enemy who had been reinforcing Zhengtai Road (2) for several days was fighting against the Liu and Deng cliques (3) south of the road, and the Nie clique (4) north of the road had been retaking huili village, shangxia village, Xingdao and other strongholds for several days, and was besieging Lu county. You take this opportunity to break through very well (if you can have been a few days earlier), it is too late to reinforce the enemy.

(3) On the basis of the experience of breaking the Zhengtai Road, we would like to pay attention to the following points: 1. Preparations should be adequate, especially for the destruction of technicians and explosives, as well as reconnaissance work and food. 2. Strict secrecy should be kept before the battle is put into battle, and the more sudden the battle is launched, the more effective the battle will be. 3. In the case of being able to maintain a sudden engagement in battle and no major assistance to the enemy nearby, the reserve at the time of the battle should strive to reduce and strengthen the assault force of the sequential battle, and the greater the results of the sequential battle, the more the results of the entire campaign, otherwise, it would be difficult to carry out the results. 4. In the deployment of troops, there should be a focus and a wide frontal dispersion and long-distance obstruction of enemy reinforcements, the so-called pointing to the key points, that is, bridges, tunnels are difficult to repair areas. 5, should adhere to the long-term breaking, not a swoop to run, the longer the break time the greater the results. In order to prolong the time for breaking, it is necessary to resolutely eliminate a number of strongholds and persist in cracking down on enemies who may come to the rescue. Due to the enemy's insufficient strength and scattered reinforcements, it is generally slow (reinforcements to the enemy in the western section of the Zhengtai Road can only arrive in about ten days) and gradually, and I can break the enemy reinforcements individually. 6, the destruction should be complete and broad, the difficult to repair should be destroyed first and completely destroyed, the rails that cannot be removed should be piled up with many sleepers and burned. 7. Eliminate treachery and hypocrisy along the line and carry out the work of the people along the line, which should be carried out in parallel with the battle. Preparations should also be made to continue to carry out all the work after the end of the campaign, such as to prepare to assign a number of troops to continue the struggle.

.................. At that time, the Japanese army recorded in the "Combat Records of the North China Front": "The so-called Hundred Regiments Battle deployed by Commander-in-Chief Zhu De carried out a surprise attack on our communication lines and production bases. At the same time as attacking the garrisons on the Zhengtai Line and the North Tongpu Line, it also damaged and blasted railways, bridges and communications facilities. The surprise attack was completely unexpected by our army, the losses were very large, and it took considerable time and a lot of money to recover. ”