After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the anti-Japanese armed forces under the command of our party were reorganized into the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army. Perhaps in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the scale of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army was not very large. However, with the development of time, both the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army have been expanded, like a snowball, and the number of soldiers has increased several times compared with before.
The people's army was able to develop very well during the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and as the base areas behind the eight anti-Japanese lines founded by our party comrades, it played a key role in this process.
After the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Taiyuan, the great Chairman Mao formulated the armed forces of our party according to the current situation. During the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the development policy proposed to go deep behind enemy lines, create base areas, and focus on guerrilla warfare to consume the enemy and strengthen itself.
The first Jin-Cha-Ji anti-Japanese base area
After the end of the Battle of Pingxingguan, Nie Rongzhen, deputy commander of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, led a part of the team to advance into Wutai Mountain to carry out guerrilla warfare, and created a base area behind enemy lines with Wutai Mountain as the center. Under the leadership of Nie Shuai, the Wutai Mountain base area grew stronger and stronger, and three guerrilla areas were established in the northeast of Shanxi, in the south of Chanan, and in the west of Hebei.
In its heyday, the Jin-Cha-Ji base area, with 300,000 regular troops and 900,000 militiamen, was the largest and most influential base area behind enemy lines on the battlefield of resistance against Japan.
Militarily, the Jin-Cha-Ji anti-Japanese base area successively smashed the Japanese invaders three times against encirclement and suppression, especially in the third battle, the Eighth Route Army in the Jin-Cha-Ji base area, under the command of Nie Shuai, killed Lieutenant General Abe Norihide, the flower of the famous Japanese general.
The second Jinsui anti-Japanese base area
After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Red Second Front Army led by Mr. He was reorganized into the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army. Under the leadership of Mr. He, this unit advanced into the northwest of Shanxi Province, cooperated with the national army in frontal combat, carried out guerrilla warfare, and created a base area behind enemy lines.
The 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army had only more than 13,000 people at the beginning of its establishment. However, under the leadership of Mr. He, this unit went deep behind enemy lines, created base areas, and finally developed into more than 100,000, and if you add the armed forces of the base areas, the total strength is about 300,000.
The third Jin, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan anti-Japanese base areas
Under the leadership of Comrade Bo Cheng, the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army advanced to Taihang Mountain, and so far, this anti-Japanese armed force has taken Taihang Mountain as the center to create the most influential Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan anti-Japanese base areas.
It was under his leadership that the 129th Division smashed the anti-encirclement and suppression of the Japanese invaders many times, and at the same time, the Taihang Mountain base area also continued to expand, and finally developed into four base areas behind enemy lines in Taihang, Taiyue, southern Hebei and Hebei, Shandong, and Henan.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the area of the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan anti-Japanese base areas reached more than 180,000 square kilometers, with 300,000 regular troops and nearly 400,000 militiamen.
The fourth Shandong anti-Japanese base area
After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, our party comrade Li Yu launched guerrilla warfare in Shandong to establish a base area. Under his leadership, the Eighth Route Army in Shandong successively opened up base areas behind enemy lines such as Luzhong, Luxi, Lunan, Jiaodong, and Qinghe.
In 1939, Luo Ronghuan and Chen Guang led the 115th Division to advance into Shandong, merging with the local Eighth Route Army to jointly consolidate and develop the anti-Japanese base area in Shandong. Soon after, the two armed forces were unified and reorganized into the Shandong Military Region, with Comrade Rong Huan as commander and political commissar. Under his leadership, the Eighth Route Army in Shandong grew to 270,000 troops and 500,000 militiamen. It has become the second largest base area behind enemy lines after the Jin-Cha-Ji base area.
The fifth anti-Japanese base area in Central China
In 1938, General Su Yu led the advance detachment of the New Fourth Army to carry out guerrilla warfare deep behind enemy lines in central China. At this point, the advance detachment of the New Fourth Army took root in East China. Under the joint management of General Su Yu, President Chen, Zhang Dingcheng and others, the Central China Base Area gradually formed eight strategic areas: northern Jiangsu, central Jiangsu, southern Jiangsu, Huaibei, Huainan, Wanjiang, eastern Zhejiang, Hubei, Henan, and Anhui, with a total of 300,000 armed forces in each region, and 600,000 if the militia is added.
The sixth anti-Japanese base area in Northeast China
After the outbreak of the 918 Incident and the fall of the three eastern provinces, a part of the Northeast Army did not follow Zhang Xueliang to retreat to Guannai, but stayed in the Northeast and joined the anti-Japanese guerrillas led by our party. In the 14-year War of Resistance Against Japan, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Federation wiped out 170,000 Japanese puppet troops, and heroes such as Yang Jingyu, Zhao Shangzhi, and Li Xuezhong emerged successively.
The seventh Hunan and Hubei anti-Japanese base areas
In October 1944, more than 4,000 people of the southward detachment of the Eighth Route Army, under the leadership of General Wang Zhen, went south to open up a base area. In the following time, this armed force moved to Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan, traveling nearly 8,000 kilometers, which was hailed as the second Long March. Under the leadership of Wang Zhen, Wang Shoudao and others, the southbound detachment successfully took root in the Hunan and Hubei regions and established a base area.
The eighth Dongjiang anti-Japanese base area
Friends who know history must know that during the Eight-Year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the anti-Japanese armed forces under the command of our party were basically active in the areas north of the Yangtze River, and the Dongjiang anti-Japanese base area was an important base area opened up by our party comrades Zeng Sheng and Wang Zuoyao in South China. At its peak, the area of the Dongjiang anti-Japanese base area grew to 60,000 square kilometers, with a population of 4.5 million.