Chapter 68: Enemy, Us, and Him
The chaos before and after the 35th Army's redeployment could not be concealed from the eyes and ears of the Japanese army. Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka, who felt that he had already dealt a heavy blow to the Shanxi Army and that the Northwestern Army units that had entered northwest Shanxi would need time to familiarize themselves with the area, wanted to take advantage of this time difference to completely capture the Zhongtiao Mountain line and take advantage of the situation to capture the northwest fortress area on the north side of Fenglingdu Bridge.
For this purpose, the First Army Headquarters of the Japanese invading army stationed in Shanxi developed an "Akatsuki" plan based on Lieutenant General Shinozuka's ideas.
However, at this time, the Japanese First Army only had more than 100,000 troops, including the 3rd Regiment Security Division, the 36th, 37th, and 41st, and the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 9th, and 15th Independent Mixed Brigades. They also had to guard most of Shanxi, so their troops were not very abundant.
Even with the support of special forces such as the 2nd Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, the 1st Independent Mountain Artillery Regiment, the 3rd Independent Mountain Artillery Regiment, and the 2nd Tank Battalion, it would still be very difficult to attack the Zhongtiao Mountain line and the Fenglingdu fortress area.
Zhongtiao Mountain is located in the southern part of Shanxi Province and on the north bank of the Yellow River. It runs from northeast to southwest. To the west, it faces Shaanxi from Yongji in southern Shanxi, and to the east, it is connected to Taihang Mountains with Jiyuan and Mengxian in northern Henan. To the north, it is backed by the Yuncheng Basin, which is known as the granary of Shanxi, and to the south, it is bordered by the surging Yellow River. The overall terrain is high in the northeast and low in the southwest.
It is 170 kilometers wide and 50 kilometers deep. The highest peak is Shunwangping, Lishan, Yanqu, with an altitude of 2,321 meters. The average altitude of the mountain range is 1,249 meters.
The territory is full of gullies, undulating mountains, and overlapping passes. It also forms a corner with the Taihang, Luliang and Taiyue mountains, and its strategic position is very important.
For China, if they occupied it, they could use it as a base to control northern Henan and southern Shanxi and shield Luoyang and Tongguan.
Advancing can disrupt the enemy's rear and tie down the Japanese troops; retreating can take advantage of the terrain to hold the position, actively defend, and cooperate with the entire anti-Japanese battlefield.
For the Japanese side, gaining it meant occupying an important "bridgehead" for advancing southward and invading northward. They could cross the river to the south to attack Guanluo, and they could also go north to connect with their main occupied areas in Shanxi, thus eliminating their main concern and completely improving the security situation in the occupied areas in North China.
It was precisely because of the extreme importance of the geographical location of the Zhongtiao Mountains and the long-term impact of success, and considering that the First Army did not have the strength to independently launch such a decisive battle, Lieutenant General Shinozuka had to hand over the conflict.
However, after the First Army's plan was submitted, it caused great controversy within the North China Front Army.
The troops stationed in Mongolia believed that after repeated attacks from the northwest, the only troops they had were enough to defend Fengtong, Zhangyuan and other Daibei and Chadong areas, but if they were to withdraw troops to the south, it would inevitably create loopholes in defense.
The Japanese 15th Army stationed along the Longhai Road and Pinghan Road believed that the terrain along the Zhongtiao Mountains was extremely rugged and was not conducive to the deployment of large forces.
Rather than launching a blind battle in such a dangerous environment, it is better to reinforce the 15th Army with precious manpower.
By then, it seemed easier to achieve results whether launching an attack on the Nanyang area or clearing out Yang Hucheng's troops between Hubei, Henan and Anhui.
Lieutenant General Fujita Susumu's words were recognized by Commander Tada Shun, but Tada Shun believed that there were 17 Chinese divisions in Nanyang and they could also get reinforcements from Hunan, Hubei, Bashu and Sichuan, so the problem was not something that the North China Front Army could solve alone.
As for Yang Hucheng's troops in Hubei, Henan and Anhui, although their strength did not exceed 150,000, the terrain of Hubei, Henan and Anhui was vast and divided by many rivers, making it unsuitable for a large troop to attack.
On the other hand, the Zhongtiao Mountain line is limited in area, and the Chinese military strength is no more than seven divisions, with a maximum of 100,000 troops. Naturally, it is an easier target for the Japanese army, which is stretched to its limits.
Since Tada Shun, the commander-in-chief of the North China Front Army, had made the decision, the Japanese army immediately took action.
However, since it involves cooperation with central China, the decision on whether to choose Zhongtiao Mountain, Nanyang or somewhere else will ultimately have to be resolved within the framework of the China Expeditionary Army.
At this time, it depends on the connections of Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka and Susumu Fujita, or in other words, whose plan can better attract third parties outside the game.
The favor of the 11th Army, the only mobile force of the expeditionary force.
Putting aside the Japanese army's plot, just as the "ordinary" year of 1940 was coming to an end, two events, one in the south and one in the north, detonated the stagnant domestic situation.
The incident in the north was called the "Mu Xinya Rebellion Incident" and the one in the south was called the "Huangqiao Incident". Mu Xinya, whose courtesy name was Jiping, was from Jinzhou, Liaoning Province. He graduated from the tenth class of the Northeast Military Academy in his early years.
After the "August 20" Northeast Incident, Mu spontaneously participated in anti-Japanese activities and organized relatives and friends to eliminate traitors and enemies behind enemy lines in the Northeast. Later, he was absorbed by the Northeast Special Committee of the Liaison Office and became a peripheral staff member of the Liaison Office.
As the armed anti-Japanese cause behind enemy lines in Northeast China fell into a trough, Mu Xinya, whose room for maneuver became increasingly narrow, accepted the assignment of the Liaison Office and joined the puppet Manchukuo army.
He initially served as an instructor at a military academy, and was soon appointed commander of a cavalry regiment because of his outstanding military talents. In 1939, he became the commander of the Fifth Cavalry Brigade of the Puppet Manchukuo Army and was promoted to major general.
Even after becoming a general, Mu Xinya still hoped to turn to the light. However, due to the strict control of the puppet Manchukuo army by Japanese advisers, Mu Xinya, who could only contact the Liaison Office secretly, never found a suitable opportunity to turn back.
In mid-October 1939, the Second Cavalry Army of the Sixth Northwest Army attacked Zhangyuan, scaring Lieutenant General Okabe Naosaburo so much that he almost abandoned the city and fled.
After the battle, the Mongolian troops, knowing that they were short of manpower, could only ask the Kwantung Army for guidance through the North China Front Army.
However, at this time, the Kwantung Army was still in the reorganization period after the Nokan Gate Incident and was unable to provide large-scale support to the troops stationed in Mongolia. Therefore, Mu Xinya's troops were transferred to Chadong Zhengxiangbai Banner and Taibusi Banner, and were under the command of the Japanese spy agency stationed in Duolun.
The Japanese army obviously did not expect that deploying the 5th Cavalry Brigade forward would give Mu Xinya the opportunity to directly contact the Northwest.
After some twists and turns, the Sixth Army stationed in Suiyuan confirmed Mu Xinya's identity, so there was no need to elaborate.
With the help from the Northwest, Mu Xinya brought in new recruits by recruiting new soldiers and recruiting horse bandits, and gradually gained a reliable force in the Fifth Cavalry Brigade.
It was with this power that he killed the Japanese advisers and some die-hard traitors who were accompanying the army, and led most of the officers and soldiers to join the embrace of the Northwest.
Since Mu Xinya was the first puppet army unit to rebel as a whole, it dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army both politically and militarily.
The exasperated Japanese army, despite the freezing weather, forcibly dispatched cavalry units from Zhangyuan and other places to intercept. At the same time, the Japanese air force also frequently attacked and tried to bomb Mu's troops. However, they were unable to stop the actions of Mu Xinya's troops. In the end, Mu's troops safely entered Suiyuan under the cover of the Sixth Army.
Mu Xinya was subsequently appointed as the major general commander of the 3rd Mongolian Cavalry Division of the 2nd Cavalry Army, and Mu's troops were thus reborn.
If Mu Xinya gave the depressed domestic people a surprise and excitement, then the "Huangqiao Incident" made the domestic people once again feel the pain of brothers fighting against each other and killing each other.
Of course, some revisionists pointed out several years later that there were in fact countless more brutal frictions between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, between the Kuomintang and the Northwest Clique, and between the Northwest Clique and the Communist Party than the widely publicized "Huangqiao Incident".
What they said was certainly not wrong, but these people obviously did not take into account the domestic and international environment at that time.
At the end of 1940, when international fascism was at its most rampant, Japanese militarism, encouraged by the rapid victory of German and Italian fascism in Europe, was preparing to make an attack in Southeast Asia. On the Chinese battlefield, the Japanese army also repeatedly defeated various Chinese troops.
Just when the surrender theory led by the Wang Puppet Regime was gaining popularity, the two sides that had just fought each other in the Southern Anhui Incident fought again, which was not a good sign in any way.
One side of the "Huangqiao Incident" was Han Deqin, deputy commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang's 24th Army Group and commander of the 89th Army, and the other side was the New Fourth Army which had just announced its reconstruction.
Speaking of Han Deqin, as a close confidant of Gu Zhutong, Han Deqin took up the post of deputy commander-in-chief and army commander as early as the beginning of 1938, and in May of that year he also served as the acting governor of Jiangsu Province. In other words, he was a direct descendant of Guiyang.
The newly rebuilt New Fourth Army was the predecessor of the New Fourth Army Jiangbei Advance Detachment.
When talking about the Jiangbei Advance Detachment, we have to mention Yang Hucheng.
Yang Hucheng had indeed worked hard during the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army, but the campaign caused him great losses. In order to redeem the captured officers and soldiers, Yang naturally came into contact with the Communist Party.
It was this fateful relationship that made Yang turn a blind eye to the New Fourth Army's recruitment of lost guerrillas in the Dabie Mountains after he became the commander-in-chief of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui War Zone.
If it was just a leniency, it would not be a big deal, but Yang was influenced by the people around him and provided funding to the Communist Party. The Communist Party took advantage of this to establish the Anti-Japanese Base West of the Jinpu Road with Outang in Dingyuan County, Anhui Province as the center, the Anti-Japanese Base East of the Jinpu Road with Banta in Laian County, Anhui Province as the center, and the guerrilla zone in Chao County and Wuhu on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province.
If the anti-Japanese base area east of the Jinpu Road had already invaded the guerrilla area of the deputy headquarters of the Lusu War Zone organized by Han Deqin, then the northbound detachment of the Jiangnan Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army led by Chen Yi had immediately penetrated into the heart of Han's army.
From a certain perspective, Chen Yi was actually a victim of the conflict between the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Xiang Ying. However, as the saying goes, "Misfortune may turn out to be a blessing in disguise." Although Chen Yi was threatened by Han Deqin when he went north, he also escaped the fate of being attacked by the Japanese and puppet troops and Chiang Kai-shek's army in the south of the Yangtze River.
Unfortunately, Chen Yi felt better, but Han Deqin was choked and felt uncomfortable. As he had always been anti-communist, he naturally wanted to eliminate this threat.
To this end, Han Deqin successively instigated two battles, namely the Bantaji and Guocun battles.
The battles of Bantaji and Guocun proved that Han’s troops were no match for the smaller New Fourth Army in the civil war. However, before the joy of victory had passed, the Southern Anhui Incident came like a wake-up call.
Faced with cruel domestic politics, many members of the Communist Party's Central Committee began to reflect on and criticize Wang Ming's attitude of being obedient to Moscow. Under the tough arrangements of these Central Committee members, Chen Yi, who swore to rebuild the New Fourth Army and took over as the commander, commanded his troops to occupy Huangqiao and further seized Jiangyan.
Capturing Jiangyan was an extremely risky move because the Han army still had an absolute advantage in military strength at that time.
Therefore, whether out of consideration of temporarily avoiding the limelight or to prevent a change in the domestic public opinion, Chen Yi later handed over Jiangyan to the troops of Li Mingyang and Li Changjiang, who later became traitors.
The two Lis were naturally delighted to have obtained a piece of land out of thin air, but Han Deqin thought he had seen through the New Fourth Army's weak nature and could not wait to march to Huangqiao.
However, Han Deqin did not expect that the two Li's and other troops who had benefited from it stood idly by during the battle, which eventually allowed the New Fourth Army to concentrate its forces to destroy Han Deqin's main force, the 89th Army.
As a result, the New Fourth Army not only gained a firm foothold in northern Jiangsu, but also successively took control of Huangqiao, Yingxi, Jiangdou, Guxi, Hai'an, Dongtai, Funing, Yilin, and Yancheng, which belonged to the Korean Army.
The weakened Han army could only retreat to Xinghua and Caodian areas, no longer able to contain the Japanese army. The New Fourth Army also seemed to have reached a non-aggression agreement with the Wang Puppet regime, allowing the Japanese army to boldly withdraw troops from northern Jiangsu for use in other areas.
