After the full-scale outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the main force of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, of which the main force of the Second Red Front Army was reorganized into the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, with He Long, the former commander-in-chief of the Front, as the division commander, and Xiao Ke, the former deputy commander-in-chief of the Front, as the deputy division commander. As early as the Red 26th Army period, Xiao Ke and He Long worked together, and He Long also introduced his wife and sister to Xiao Ke, and the two became brothers-in-law.
However, due to various reasons, the cooperation between the two in the 120th Division was not pleasant. More than a year later, Xiao Ke left the 120th Division and went to Pingxi as the commander of the Jireca Advance Army, commanding the anti-Japanese armed struggle in Pingxi, Pingbei, and eastern Hebei. This opportunity to stand alone made Xiao Ke happy, and he was determined to build the Jirecha advance into a large unit parallel to the Jin-Cha-Ji army. On February 7, 1939, the Jirecha Advance Army was formally established, with the Jidong Anti-Resistance Detachment, Deng Hua Detachment and Song Shilun Detachment under its jurisdiction, with a total strength of more than 8,000 troops and more than 7,000 guns.
It must be known that when Nie Rongzhen opened the Jin-Cha-Ji Anti-Japanese Base Area, except for an independent regiment of Yang Chengwu, the rest were local armed forces, and the total strength of the troops was only more than 3,000, which was less than half of the advance of Jirecha. And more importantly, Xiao Ke also had fierce generals such as Deng Hua, Song Shilun and Cheng Shicai in his hands, and at this time, Ji Recha's advance army could be called strong, so Xiao Kecai was full of confidence and determined to show his strength and create a new situation in Pingxi.
However, soon after the establishment of the advancing army, Gao Zhiyuan, commander of the Jidong Anti-Resistance Detachment, made a request to Xiao Ke, asking for permission for him to lead his troops back to Jidong. Gao Zhiyuan was the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Hebei Resistance Alliance during the Great Hebei Rebellion, and later, under the heavy siege of the Japanese puppet army, the Eastern Hebei Anti-Resistance Alliance was forced to retreat to Pingxi, suffering heavy losses on the way, and only more than 3,000 of tens of thousands of troops withdrew to Pingxi. Later, these people were incorporated into the Jirecha Advance Army and renamed the Jidong Anti-Resistance Detachment.
Among the more than 3,000 people in the Jidong Anti-Japanese Detachment, most of them are native Jidong children, who have a strong local complex and are eager to return to their hometown to resist the Japanese, so Gao Zhiyuan found Xiao Ke and put forward a request to lead his troops back to Jidong. According to common sense, this is not a particularly serious matter, because the jurisdiction of Jirecha's advance includes eastern Ji, and even if Gao Zhiyuan returns to eastern Jidong, he will still be Xiao Ke's subordinate.
But Xiao Ke thought that Gao Zhiyuan had just taken office and would pull the team to go it alone, which was a bit of a dismantling meaning, so he rejected Gao Zhiyuan. Soon after, someone "reported" Gao Zhiyuan colluding with Wu Peifu to prepare to join the Japanese invaders as a puppet army, which was a very serious crime at that time, and Xiao Ke was ready to severely punish Gao Zhiyuan. Song Shilun and Deng Hua strongly disagreed with this, the two had fought side by side in Jidong and Gao Zhiyuan, and knew him well, so they advised Xiao Ke not to jump to conclusions.
However, Xiao Ke did not adopt the opinions of Deng Hua and Song Shilun, and still decided to severely punish Gao Zhiyuan. The hot-tempered Song Shilun was very dissatisfied with this, ran to Xiao Ke's headquarters, and made a big fuss. In the face of Song Shilun's questioning, Xiao Ke did not give in the slightest, and also wanted to hold him responsible for retreating from Jidong without authorization, and the two had a stalemate. Soon after, Gao Zhiyuan was executed, Song Shilun was also removed, and he left Pingxi to return to Yan'an to study at the Marxist-Leninist Academy, where he did not go to war for the next five years.
Soon after Song Shilun left Pingxi, Deng Hua also got a way back to Yan'an, and when he came to the Jin-Cha-Ji base area, he was retained by his old superior Nie Rongzhen, and soon after sent to serve in Yanbei. After some tossing, the advancing army of Jirecha changed from three detachments to four regiments, and only the chief of staff Cheng Shicai was left with Xiao Ke's helpers, and the strength of the advancing army was seriously weakened. After that, Shook struggled for two years in Pingxi, not only failed to open the situation, but finally even survived a problem. In February 1942, the number of the Jirecha march was revoked, and Xiao Ke came to Jin-Cha-Ji to serve Nie Rongzhen as a deputy, and in 1955 he was awarded the rank of general.