The Battle of Pingxingguan was an important battle of the Eighth Route Army against the Japanese Kou in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it was also the first major victory won by the Chinese people against the Japanese invading army since the "9.18" incident. It left an indelible and significant impact on the entire history of the War of Resistance. At the same time, it is also a classic battle in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression by the Eighth Route Army and Marshal Lin Biao.
However, in recent years, some people in the historical circles have pointed out that the Pingxingguan War was a wrong battle, a simple war of attrition and a position war, which violated the strategic principles of the anti-Japanese guerrilla war formulated by our Party in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. They believed that under the circumstances at that time, the Eighth Route Army should not concentrate heavy troops on this battle, and the Battle of Pingxingguan was a strategic failure.
What is the truth of the Battle of Pingxingguan? How should we evaluate this campaign? This article makes some superficial observations on this.
First, the Battle of Pingxingguan must be fought
After the "July 7" Lugou Bridge Incident, Japan began an all-out war of aggression against China. Relying on its sophisticated army and equipment, Japan frantically clamored for "the destruction of China within three months." The Japanese army in northern China successively occupied Beiping, Tianjin, Zhangjiakou, Baoding and other places, and then divided its troops into two routes and took Taiyuan, Shanxi. The more than 800,000 Kuomintang troops stationed in northern China were frightened by the Japanese attack and fled in a panic. The Japanese Kou easily took various cities and important strongholds along the way, and large areas of northern China fell one after another. The Japanese and Kosovo, with great momentum, continued to raise troops to march south, and the Chinese nation was in danger.
At this time, the Eighth Route Army, which had just been reorganized from the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army during the civil war, in order to save the nation from peril and promote the common resistance of the people of the whole country, bravely went to the battlefield of North China to meet the Japanese Kou. At the same time that the Eighth Route Army rushed to the anti-Japanese front, the Kuomintang army collapsed and fled. As they fled, they shouted, "Great, the devils are powerful," spread the argument that "it is impossible to fight the country," and even ridiculed the Eighth Route Army, which rushed to the front line to resist Japan, saying: "Are you really going to die with a blow-up torch and a large blade on your back?" It can be seen that "Sunophobia" has spread in the Kuomintang army, and it is absolutely impossible to rely on them to resist Japan. The people of the whole country pinned their hopes on the Eighth Route Army for the war of resistance.
Therefore, whenever the Eighth Route Army went to a place, "those old masters with crutches, old ladies, mothers with babies in their arms, and young men and women with boiling blood, gathered around with sorrow and joy, asking whether we were a team that went to the front line to fight devils." When we replied, "We are the Eighth Route Army, we went to the front line to fight devils," they turned from sorrow to joy, and a smile of hope immediately appeared on their faces." However, under the influence of the "invincible imperial army" argument spread by the Kuomintang, many democrats and some masses also held a skeptical and wait-and-see attitude toward whether the Eighth Route Army, which was small in number and poorly equipped, could defeat the Japanese Kou, and worried that the Eighth Route Army would suffer losses in the face of the devils.
At the same time, the Kuomintang Jin Sui Army, which was defending frontally at Pingxingguan, tricked the Eighth Route Army from frontal cooperation to resist the Japanese army, and wanted the Eighth Route Army to cover their rout, and thus create a situation in which the Human Route Army failed and ruined the reputation of the Eighth Route Army. At this time, if the Eighth Route Army did not fight, the Kuomintang could use the excuse that the Eighth Route Army did not really want to resist Japan. In this way, they can be exonerated for their rout.
In the face of this situation, if the Eighth Route Army does not fight a victorious battle against the Japanese and the Kou and lays the ground for the rampant aggression of the Japanese, it will not be able to expand the anti-Japanese influence of the Eighth Route Army and win the broad support of the masses, it will not be able to eliminate the Japanese-phobia of the Kuomintang army, break the myth that the "imperial army is invincible," smash the Kuomintang's slander against the Eighth Route Army and the ulterior motives of the Yi spread, and it will not be able to better mobilize the masses and establish a broad anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines in North China. Therefore, this battle must be fought.
At that time, the Eighth Route Army, in accordance with the instructions of our Party Central Committee, had a very clear purpose for launching the Pingxingguan Campaign: "We must fight a big battle in this area, give the beast army a blow, give friendly troops a cooperation, and give the troops an excitement!" "We want to let the compatriots of the whole country know that the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao are invincible!"
Therefore, it is very necessary to give the Japanese Kou a heavy blow at the right time and block its aggressive edge. The Battle of Pingxingguan also took place in this situation.
Second, the Pingxingguan Campaign conforms to the strategic principles of anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Eighth Route Army had only three divisions totaling more than 30,000 people, and if we insisted on resisting the Japanese attack by frontal positional warfare, our army would certainly lose. The key to achieving a complete victory in the War of Resistance lies in mobilizing the broad masses of the people to wage a nationwide war of resistance. In view of this situation, on September 31, 1937, Mao Zedong pointed out in his "Instructions on the Principles of Independent Mountain Guerrilla Warfare": Our army should implement the strategic principle of independent mountain guerrilla warfare (not mobile warfare), and the troops arriving in Northern China should disperse their troops and mainly mobilize the masses in the creation of base areas, which is the only unique way to defeat the enemy.
Mao Zedong also pointed out that our form of warfare is basically guerrilla warfare, but it does not relax the movement warfare under favorable conditions. This strategic principle of guerrilla warfare in the mountains formulated by the CPC Central Committee is completely in line with the general situation in the North China Theater in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
However, we cannot understand this strategic principle of the Central Committee in a rigid and mechanical way. In the analysis of each specific campaign, it should be judged according to the situation and specific conditions at that time. Some people believe that the Pingxingguan Campaign was a war of attrition and position warfare in which the enemy fought head-on, and it violated the central authorities' strategic principle of guerrilla warfare in the mountains and the policy of dispersing troops, establishing base areas, and mobilizing the masses.
We believe that this view is incompatible with historical facts. Analyzing the objective situation before and after the Pingxingguan Campaign, we can see that the Pingxingguan Campaign was precisely a "campaign battle under favorable conditions," and this campaign played a tremendous role in mobilizing the masses, opening up the situation in the North China Theater, and establishing the North China Anti-Japanese Base Area.
At that time, the Battle of Pingxingguan was fought by the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and its opponent was the Sakagaki Division, the most elite unit of the Japanese Kou. At that time, the defensive line of Pingxingguan was: the Kuomintang Jin Sui Army was on the left and front of Pingxingguan, the 115th Division was on the right side of Pingxingguan, and the total number of troops on both sides was 60,000 to 70,000.
However, most of the Kuomintang troops had a fear of the sun and ran away when they saw the Japanese army. Therefore, by the time the 115th Division reached its position near Pingxingguan, the Japanese were already approaching Lingqiu. The Kuomintang troops hurriedly demanded that the Eighth Route Army come to Lingqiu's aid from the front. According to the situation of the collapse of the Kuomintang army and the offensive of the Japanese army, if the Eighth Route Army confronted the Japanese army head-on according to the requirements of the Kuomintang army, it would not only fail to achieve the purpose of assistance, but also lead to the collapse of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army.
Therefore, the 115th Division decided to take advantage of the complex terrain of the Pingxingguan Mountains, ambush the troops on both sides of the Pingxingguan Tianjian, avoid the frontal attack of the Japanese army, and launch a sudden and fierce political attack on the enemy from the flank, giving the Japanese a surprise ambush in order to completely annihilate the enemy. From the strategic guidelines formulated by our Party Central Committee for the 115th Division in the Battle of Pingxingguan, we can see that it made full use of the favorable terrain, avoided the enemy's sharp edges, attacked the enemy's weak links, and seized the favorable opportunity to destroy the enemy. All this is a concrete application of the strategic principles of guerrilla warfare.
Therefore, the Pingxingguan Campaign is not only not a simple war of attrition and position warfare, but precisely an excellent guerrilla warfare, a mobile warfare, and an annihilation war. It fully embodies the strategic principles formulated by the central authorities on guerrilla warfare in the mountains.
The Battle of Pingxingguan is a victorious battle
On the morning of September 25, 1937, the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army engaged in a fierce battle with more than 4,000 people of the elite Banyuan Division of the Japanese Kou in the ten-mile long ditch of Pingxingguan. The Eighth Route Army was condescending, unexpectedly and quickly dealt a fierce blow to the enemy, and then attacked in three ways, like three sharp knives, cutting the long snake-shaped enemy into three sections, and interspersing vertically and horizontally, cutting the enemy into dozens of pieces and eating them little by little.
The Eighth Route Army and the Japanese army soon began a hand-to-hand combat, and the enemy and we were mixed together, so that the Japanese planes and artillery could not play a role. After a day of fierce fighting, the Eighth Route Army annihilated more than 1,500 Japanese Kou, destroyed more than 100 enemy cars and more than 200 large vehicles, captured one Type 92 field gun, more than 20 light and heavy machine guns, more than 1,000 rifles, more than 20 grenadiers, 53 warhorses, 300,000 Japanese dollars, and countless other military supplies. This was the most serious defeat suffered by the Japanese Kou since the invasion of China. The elite Japanese Sakagaki Division was defeated in this battle and has been devastated ever since.
In this battle, the Eighth Route Army also suffered nearly a thousand casualties, paying a considerable price. Nevertheless, the Battle of Pingxingguan was a major victory. Judging from the losses of soldiers and weapons on both sides, the losses of the Japanese army undoubtedly greatly exceeded those of the Eighth Route Army. More importantly, the key to judging whether a campaign is a victory or a defeat is to see whether it has achieved its intended purpose and how politically it has. Through the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Eighth Route Army not only struck a blow at the aggressive arrogance of the Japanese army, slowed down its offensive speed, and boosted the morale of the Chinese army, but also strengthened the confidence of the people of the whole country in resisting Japan and made the people of the whole country realize that only under the leadership of the Communist Party of China could the War of Resistance be victorious.
At the same time, the Eighth Route Army took advantage of the large amount of loot it had captured to equip its own anti-Japanese armed contingent, opening up the situation of establishing an anti-Japanese base area in North China and promoting the development of the climax of the nation's War of Resistance.
Fourth, the far-reaching strategic significance of the Pingxingguan Campaign
The great victory in the Battle of Pingxingguan greatly encouraged the anti-Japanese fighting spirit of the people of the whole country. It caused many troops, democrats and some masses, who had originally held doubts and a wait-and-see attitude toward Japan, to quickly throw themselves into the ranks of the anti-Japanese resistance. The people of Xiaozhai Village near the Pingxingguan Battlefield were originally afraid and avoided when they saw the Japanese Kou, but after the Battle of Pingxingguan, they also dared to start a struggle against the Japanese Kou. With the help of the Eighth Route Army, the people of Xiaozhai Village eliminated the Japanese strongholds and completely annihilated the Japanese in the strongholds, and since then, the people of Xiaozhai Village have not stopped the anti-Japanese struggle.
The Victory of Pingshiguan also gave great encouragement to the other units of our army, who saw the victory of the 115th Division and were eager to try to compete with the Japanese. The soldiers of the 1st and 2nd O Divisions of the Eighth Route Army said: "Seeing the atrocities committed by the Japanese Kou, the comrades were very angry, and when they heard that the brother troops had won a great victory at Pingxingguan, their hearts were strange and itchy, and they always looked forward to the opportunity to clean up the devils fiercely." The fraternal troops asked their superiors to fight against the Japanese.
It can be seen that the impact of the Ping-type Guan Dajie on the entire situation of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was extremely far-reaching. The Victory of Pingshiguan broke the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army, strengthened the determination and confidence of the people of the whole country to resist Japan, and eliminated the "Sunophobia" to a certain extent. The Kuomintang army also changed the state in which it had always been in a state of rout and fled, and began to put up some resistance.
The Pingshi Guan Dajie dealt a heavy blow to the aggressive arrogance of the Japanese invading army and disrupted the Japanese army's aggressive deployment to a certain extent. After suffering at Pingxingguan, the Japanese had to change the campaign deployment and instead break through the northern Jin defense line from Ruyuekou and attack Xinkou. In this way, the Japanese army's original plan to successfully capture Taiyuan and its attempt to occupy Shanxi suffered a serious setback, delaying the enemy's plan to extend to Shanxi.
The victory at the Battle of Pingxingguan increased the prestige of the Eighth Route Army and expanded the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. The Eighth Route Army won such a major victory in its first battle against Japan, which was in stark contrast to the situation in which the Kuomintang army fled without any resistance. It shattered the Kuomintang's shameless rumor that the Communist-led Eighth Route Army "wandered without attacking." It has made the people of the whole country realize that only the Communist Party of China is the true leader of the whole nation's War of Resistance.
The Pingxing Guandajie generally raised the people's enthusiasm for resisting Japan and laid a broad mass foundation for the CPC to establish the anti-Japanese base area in North China. The Pingshiguan Victory bought time for the upcoming Battle of Xinkou for the Nationalist forces. The Eighth Route Army dragged the Japanese at Pingxingguan, which relieved the pressure of the Japanese army on the Kuomintang troops, gave the Kuomintang troops sufficient time to prepare for the Battle of Xinkou, and laid the foundation for the victory of the Battle of Xinkou.
The Pingshiguan Victory also provided experience and lessons for the Chinese army in its war against Japan. The Battle of Pingxingguan was the Eighth Route Army's first head-on battle against the Japanese. Prior to this, the Eighth Route Army had insufficient understanding of the equipment, characteristics, and strategic principles of the Japanese army, so in the Battle of Pingxingguan, "our soldiers did not know how to burn the enemy's cars and make them lose their cover, and thought that the Japanese, like the enemy during the civil war, would surrender their guns when they fought hard." They stopped shooting, shouted to the enemy hiding under the car, rushed forward to hand over their guns... but many of the fighters were killed and wounded by the dying enemy because of their lack of experience in fighting against the Japanese. "Caused a lot of unnecessary casualties.
After the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Eighth Route Army mastered the characteristics of the war against Japan. After the war, the 115th Division systematically summarized the lessons learned from the Battle of Pingxingguan and quickly conveyed them to the fraternal units. "On the way north of the 129th Division, Commander Liu Bocheng specially conveyed the summary of the 115th Division on the Battle of Pingxingguan, and according to the experience of 'Japanese devils can fight, but it is not easy to fight' put forward in the summary, Commander Liu repeatedly instructed: After arriving in the north of Jin, every battle should be doubly cautious."
In this way, the Eighth Route Army will be able to fully understand the aggressive nature of the Japanese Kou in future operations against Japan, and will no longer suffer losses and be deceived as before. The victory in the Battle of Pingxingguan not only expanded the international influence of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and won the extensive sympathy and support of the international progressive forces for China's War of Resistance, but more importantly, the Victory of Pingxingguan also had a profound impact on the situation of the War of Resistance in China as a whole, and established indelible merits for promoting the arrival of the climax of the nation's War of Resistance.
"Heroic and good at fighting the Eighth Route Army, flat type closed to the hero." The Sakagaki Division was annihilated, the first achievement in the history of the War of Resistance. This song of the War of Resistance that was circulating at that time was an objective evaluation and true summary of the people's victory over Ping-type Guan.