Just when the Battle of Songhu was in full swing on August 31, 1937, the Japanese army base camp revoked the number of the Chinese garrison army, organized the North China Front, and appointed General Terauchi Shouichi as the commander of the front army, with jurisdiction over the 1st Army and the 2nd Army, directly under the jurisdiction of the 5th Division, the 109th Division, the 11th Brigade of the Chinese Garrison Tun, and the Temporary Aviation Corps. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

As the name suggests, the North China Front's main combat area is in North China, including Hebei Province, Jin Province, Qilu Province, Henan Province, and part of Suiyuan, Chahar, Su Province, Anhui Province, and Hubei Province, and its base camp is stationed in Beiping City.

Shouichi Terauchi, General and Earl of the Imperial Japanese Army. The eldest son of former Prime Minister Terauchi Masatsuki, after the 226 incident, because Terauchi Shouichi was born in a famous family, he was detached from the factional struggle, had a complete service resume, and had a cheerful and open-minded personality, and had the courage to take responsibility for his subordinates.

He was quite popular not only in military circles, but also in political and financial circles, and became the best candidate for the Minister of War who was tasked with the heavy task of "suppressing the army." Therefore, a meeting of the three chiefs, jointly convened by the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Director of Education, and the Minister of the Army, decided that Toshiichi Terauchi would be the new Minister of Land. After Terauchi Shouichi became the land minister, he immediately purged the army with his "iron fist" operation.

On March 23, 1936, in order to smash the camp of the "Imperial Road Faction", Terauchi Shouichi removed a large number of key elements of the "226" Incident and formed a new personnel arrangement for the Ministry of War and the General Staff Headquarters.

After that, Terauchi Shouichi was in charge of the army personnel alone, and after cleaning up the Imperial Road faction, he transferred the backbone of the control faction, Sugiyama Moto, Nishio Toshizo, and Umezu Mijiro, to control the army center, and from then on, the control faction completely controlled the army, which meant that Japan was completely on the road of expansion to China.

At this time, the Japanese army was unprecedentedly arrogant, completely ignoring the fragmented China, and the army red deer led by Terauchi Shouichi and Sugiyama Motomo shouted the slogan of destroying China within three months.

In Terauchi's heart, China was the fertile soil that nourished the Japanese Empire, so he advocated a quick solution to China, and after serving as the commander of the North China Front, he launched a rampant attack on the entire North China region.

In August 1937, after the Japanese army fully occupied Beiping and Tianjin, it immediately launched a large-scale attack on North China along the Pingsui, Pinghan, and Jinpu railways. The troops of the Nankou front resisted the onslaught of the Japanese Itagaki Division.

At the same time, the Japanese Tojo Column also stormed Zhangjiakou at the same time. The defending 29th Army Liu Ruming retreated without a fight, Yan Laoxi's 61st Army counterattacked ineffectively, Zhangjiakou was lost, and Nankou was in danger.

There is no doubt that the next spearhead of the Japanese army is Jin Province, which Yan Laoxi painstakingly runs in the Second War Zone. Jin Province, surrounded by mountains, the terrain is dangerous, known as the "roof of North China", in the military by the soldiers called "the key to North China". Therefore, if the Japanese army wants to rule North China, it must first try to Jinsui; If you want to Jinsui, you must first fight for Taiyuan; If you want to fight for Taiyuan, you must first win Datong or Pingxingguan.

In late August, the enemy advancing west along the Pingsui Road broke through the south pass and continued to attack westward. After entering Zhangjiakou, the troops were divided into two roads: all the way to Tianzhen, pointing to Datong; One route was the first division of the Japanese army to go south to Weixian and Laiyuan, pass through Guangling and Lingqiu, and rush to Pingxingguan.

In the face of the increasingly critical situation in northern Shanxi, the headquarters of the commander of China's Second Theater decided to organize a defense on the Great Wall line in Pingxingguan-Yanmen Pass-Shenchi, and prevent the Japanese army from entering the hinterland of Shanxi with the help of the Great Wall. Therefore, on the one hand, the Kuomintang army concentrated its forces to annihilate the enemy at Pingxingguan.

On the other hand, seeing that the Japanese army was about to enter his lair, Yan Laoxi could no longer care about the personal enmity with the Workers' and Peasants' Party, and urgently sent a telegram to Mr. Zhu, deputy commander of the Second Theater and commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army: "I will definitely annihilate the enemy at Pingxingguan, and the strength of the additional eight regiments will be available at dawn. ”

On 23 September, after receiving an order from the Second Theater Command, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army issued an order to the 115th Division to flank Pingxingguan in order to cooperate with the Kuomintang Army's operations: "According to Yan Dian, the enemy has suddenly attacked our Pingxingguan position since last night, and now it is in fierce fighting. The 115th Division immediately dispatched to the area between Pingxingguan and Lingqiu, and maneuvered to flank the enemy attacking Pingxingguan, but it had to control one part south of Lingqiu to protect its left side. ”

After the 115th Division received the order to ambush the Japanese army at Pingxingguan, division commander Lin Shuai and deputy division commander Nie Shuai quickly held a mobilization meeting for cadres at and above the battalion level.

The meeting was presided over by Luo Shuai, director of the Political Training Department, and Lin Shuai first delivered a speech and said: "Comrades, since the reorganization of the 115th Division of our Eighth Route Army, we have crossed the Yellow River and come here. This is the northeast of Jin Province, the northwest is the Pingxingguan on the Great Wall line, and the north is Lingqiu City.

At present, the enemy has occupied Datong on the Pingsui Railway, and the forward troops of the Japanese invaders have occupied Guangling, Lingqiu, Laiyuan and other places in the north.

Now, the enemy is attacking friendly positions on the inner Great Wall, and we can already hear the sound of artillery here, which is the enemy's attack on Pingxingguan. ”

Immediately afterwards, Lin Shuai analyzed the battle situation, introduced the enemy situation, and excitedly and forcefully appealed: "The Chinese nation is going through a huge test!" We, the Workers and Peasants, should and will be able to shoulder the heavy task of saving the country and the people! ”

In the end, he said categorically: "When the Japanese invaders attack Pingxingguan, we will take advantage of the favorable terrain in this area and punch hard from the flank and back to win a big victory." Give the enemy a blow! Give your allies a match! Give the people a boost! ”

After the meeting, the headquarters of the 115th Division immediately issued an order to march to the battlefield: The 343rd Brigade set off from the current station in Shangzhai, Daxingzhuang and other places this afternoon, and arrived at Ranzhuang before 12 o'clock in the evening along Duyu, Zhanshang, Changgou and Wangjupu;

The 687th Regiment of the 344th Brigade set off from the Xiaguan garrison in the afternoon of this day, passed through the river to the station, followed up after the 343 Brigade and the team directly under the division passed, and arrived at Doufangshi in the south of Ranzhuang before 12 o'clock in the evening to standby;

The 688th Regiment of the 344th Brigade departed from the underground pass in the afternoon of this day and went to Duyu before 12 o'clock in the evening to standby, and the independent regiment and cavalry battalion of the division set off from the Xiazhai garrison in the afternoon of this day and entered the Guangling and Laiyuan areas along Shangbeiquan, Xujiatai, Baiyangpu, and Duotouling; The divisional team followed after the 343rd Brigade; The time of the main attack force of the division from Ranzhuang to the ambush area will be notified separately.

Pingxingguan, located on the Guanling at the junction of Lingqiu County and Fanzhi County in Jin Province, is an important pass between the three passes and the outer three passes of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, it was called the bottle-shaped stopper, and it was called the Pingxingling in the Ming Dynasty, and it was called the Pingxingguan in the Qing Dynasty.

Pingxingguan is surrounded by mountains on all sides, peaks and peaks are stacked, and the terrain is extremely dangerous. An ancient canyon road passes through the pass, reaches Yanmen in the west, leads to the Jingji in the east, and is a military pass and a place where soldiers must fight for since the Qin and Han dynasties. There have been many wars here in history.

Pingxingguan is a throat road in the northeast of Shanxi, the peaks and peaks on both sides are stacked, steep and precipitous, there are commanding heights such as Dongpao Pond and Lao Ye Temple on the left side, and the mountains such as Baiyatai are on the right side.

Pingxingguan Pass to Donghenan Town, Lingqiu County, is a narrow ditch that stretches from northeast to southwest, the most dangerous terrain is the middle section of the ditch, about more than 10 kilometers long, the depth of the ditch varies from tens of zhang, the channel at the bottom of the ditch can only pass a car, there are very few places that can make the wrong car, and the north and south ditch banks are relatively flat mountains, and it is the ideal place to ambush and annihilate the enemy.

After carefully surveying the terrain, Lin Shuai finally issued the operational deployment after several studies and discussions: the 685th Regiment and the 686th Regiment entered the front line of Baiyatai on the evening of the 24th to ambush the enemy in the area from Laoye Temple to Guangou;

The 687th Regiment was ambushed in the mountains east of Xiaozhai Village, specializing in attacking the enemy's follow-up troops; The independent regiment penetrated deep behind the enemy and inserted itself into the area of the waist station, cutting off the enemy's road transportation line from Laiyuan to Lingqiu, blocking the Japanese reinforcements in the two directions of Laiyuan and Guangling, and ensuring that the main attacking force annihilated the enemy in front of Pingxingguan.

The 345th Brigade (which did not exist in the original time and space) acted as the general reserve, but after the ambush and defeated the main force of the Japanese army, the 345th Brigade was responsible for the finish, and the Japanese army must be completely annihilated.

At 5 o'clock in the morning of the 25th, except for the 687th Regiment, which was still advancing towards the ambush area, the rest of the troops had already entered the ambush area, and lurked in their respective positions according to their assigned tasks, quietly waiting for the arrival of the Japanese army.