The gunfire of the Lugou Bridge Incident shocked the whole of China.

On 8 July, the Central News Agency of the Kuomintang issued a press release to report on the Lugou Bridge Incident to the whole country. At the same time, the vast majority of newspapers and periodicals in large and medium-sized cities across the country were out of the picture, and the news of the Lugou Bridge incident quickly spread throughout the country.

At the same time, [***] worked hard to write a book and drafted the "[***] Central Committee's Telegram for the Attack on Lugou Bridge by the Yue Army" and shouted: "Pingjin is in danger! North China is in danger! The Chinese nation is in danger! Only by carrying out the all-nation war of resistance is our way out. "Call on the armed defense of Pingjin, the armed defense of North China, the whole Chinese compatriots, political axes and the army, unite, build a strong Great Wall of the national united front, and resist the invasion of the Kou!

At the same time, Zhu De, Liu Bocheng, Peng Dehuai, [***], Liu Yimin, Xu Xiangqian, He Long, Dong Zhentang, Luo Binghui, and other Red Army generals sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of the Military Committee of the Nationalist Axe, and to the 29th Army, and sent a telegram to the whole country, demanding the implementation of "the general mobilization of the whole [***] people, and encouraging the 29th Army to fight for the defense of Pingjin." "And please resist.

In the following days, waves of resistance across the country came one after another. Liu Xiang and other local military leaders also successively asked Ying to resist the war.

On July 11, the Cabinet decided to increase troops in North China and appointed Lieutenant General Kiyoshi Kazuki as commander of the Chinese garrison to replace the seriously ill Tashiro Wanichiro.

This Kazuki Kiyoshi was a native of Saga Prefecture, graduated from the 24th Army University, and served as the commander of the 12th Division of the Army in 1935 and the commander of the Guards Division in 1936. Before taking office, he told reporters that he would not expand the conflict, but after he flew to Korea on 11 July, he conspired with Koiso Kunichi, commander of the Korean garrison and a veteran aggressor, and his brain was hot and his ambition swelled.

On July 13, the central government held a mass meeting from all walks of life in Xi'an to mobilize the protests. After the meeting, the [***] Central Committee issued an order requiring all units of the Red Army to take the initiative to reorganize according to the [***] establishment with the corps as a unit.

On July 16, the [***] side also drew up a battle plan for Pingjin, appointed Feng Zhi'an as the commander-in-chief of the front, and organized troops to begin a counterattack against the offensive of the Yue army.

On 7 July, Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of the Military Committee of the Nationalist Political Axe, delivered a speech at Lushan, pointing out: "If the war begins, it will be that there is no distinction between the north and the south, and there is no distinction between the old and the young. ”

Chiang Kai-shek's speech should be said to be the best speech in his life, which not only contained the grief and indignation of the aggressors for bullying others and his determination to fight to the death, but also his own advice. It's a pity that the aggressors at this time are full of flowers, where can they listen to the bloody advice of the leader of a weak country?

Later, after the end of the war, not only the scholars, but also the war criminals who let countless Chinese die under the bayonets while talking and laughing, also regretted that they did not listen to the advice of the national political axe during the Lugou Bridge incident and did not stop the pace of aggression in time. But how can there be any regret medicine sold in the world!

At this time, Song Zheyuan, the commander of the 29th Army, still had illusions about the Yue Army and hoped to resolve the conflict on the spot. On July 18, Song Zheyuan met with Xiangyue Qingsi and negotiated the conflict between the two sides. Song Zheyuan didn't know that at this time, the 20th Division of the Chinese Army stationed in Korea was coming by boat in the starry night, and it would arrive in Tianjin in two days. Kazuki Qingsi looked at him like a fox saw a rooster.

Liu Yimin, who is familiar with history, knows that at this time, on the Pingjin front, the brothers of the 29th Army are fighting bloodily, and there are Chinese sons and daughters bleeding all the time. But, there is no way to do it in a hurry. At this time, the negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had not ended, and the Red Army was still the Red Army, whether it was Yan Xishan in Shanxi or the Suiyuan garrison, no one would let the Red Army pass through them to fight themselves.

It seems that, as in history, if Chiang Kai-shek had not been beaten, he would not have made a final decision on the issue of the reorganization of the Red Army. Only when he said that Chiang Kai-shek could not withstand the fight and urgently needed the Red Army to go to the front line, would he quickly give the number and urge the Red Army to go to the front.

During this time, Liu Yimin seemed very calm, firstly, he let all the second batch of students of the Red Army University graduate and return to the army. Second, it is necessary to urge the logistics headquarters to get a good grasp of stockpiling materials, especially penicillin produced by pharmaceutical factories, as much as they want, and to have sufficient medicines in the hospitals of all divisions and regiments.

On 13 July, after the central authorities ordered all units to change their own organization according to [***], Liu Yimin immediately issued an order to reorganize each division into brigades, each brigade has three combat regiments and one supplementary regiment, and the brigade is directly under the artillery battalion, heavy machine gun battalion, cavalry battalion, engineer battalion, baggage battalion, guard battalion, reconnaissance company, communications platoon, and field hospital. Each regiment has three infantry battalions, one fire support battalion, and a sapper company, a baggage company, a guard company, a reconnaissance platoon, and a communications platoon directly under the regiment. There are three companies in each battalion, a fire support company, a reconnaissance squad and a communications squad directly under the battalion. Each company has a fire platoon, armed with heavy machine guns and mortars. The regiment is organized into seven infantry brigades, one cavalry brigade, and one artillery brigade, and the regiment is directly under the jurisdiction of the engineer regiment, heavy machine gun regiment, baggage regiment, guard regiment, recruit regiment, special service battalion, reconnaissance battalion, communications battalion, and field hospital.

As for the number, since the negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek had not ended, the Red Army could not really be reorganized, and it was impossible to have the number [***]. For this problem, Liu Yimin, who traveled through the later generations, didn't care at all, he knew that Chiang Kai-shek could not give enough numbers, that is, to give a few numbers, according to the current strength of the Red Army, those old Red Army units could not stop. Therefore, Liu Yimin directly organized his seven infantry brigades into the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh brigades. Among them, the 11th Division was renamed the 1st Brigade, the 12th Division was renamed the 2nd Brigade, the 13th Division was renamed the 3rd Brigade, the 1st Division was renamed the 4th Brigade, the 2nd Division was renamed the 5th Brigade, the 3rd Division was renamed the 6th Brigade, and the 4th Division was renamed the 7th Brigade. The regiments are also uniformly numbered, from the first regiment to the twenty-first regiment, and the supplementary regiments are still called the brigade supplementary regiments.

The troops of the Xi'an Garrison District were reorganized into the Xi'an Garrison Brigade, the Red 25th Army was reorganized into the Shangluo Garrison Brigade, and the Red 27th Army was reorganized into the Yan'an Garrison Brigade.

The Red Army University was also renamed Chinese Military and Political University.

The 11th, 12th, and 13th divisions all reached more than 12,000 people, and the four reading divisions were also unambiguous, all of which reached about 9,500 people, and even the artillery division and cavalry division also reached more than 6,000 people. With the addition of the directly subordinate troops, the entire corps reached 93,600 people. This does not include the newly reorganized Xi'an Garrison Brigade, Yan'an Garrison Brigade, Shangluo Garrison Brigade, and the county garrison units that have been pulled up by various units. If you add it up, I'm afraid there will be 11 or 20,000 people.

After a little thought, we know that it is normal for the troops to develop so quickly; after the occupation of Shaanxi, land reform and cantonment reclamation were carried out, and the food problem was solved, and the people of Shaanxi were very active in joining the army; in addition, there were many refugees who flowed in last year, and they did not limit the number of troops, and their weapons were sufficient. Besides, the whole of Shaanxi is basically garrisoned by its own Seventh Army Corps, and the troops have won successive battles, so it would be strange if they couldn't recruit soldiers!

Historically, when the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, there were only more than 40,000 people, which was only half of the Red Seventh Army. Now that there are so many people in his own legion, Lao Jiang doesn't know how to give the Red Army a number?

Originally, I still wanted to leave the 3rd and 4th Divisions to defend Shaanxi, but now I see that it is a waste to leave such a powerful force in the rear. If the whole army pulls up, plus he is familiar with history, he knows the offensive line, baggage, airfield, headquarters, and artillery position of the army well, and he has the first-class special tactics and first-class firepower of the squadron [***] team for this era, not to mention the second-rate garrison of the army, it is his permanent division, as long as he plans well, concentrates the strength of the whole army, and kills him with a wing in one battle. If you're lucky, it shouldn't be much of a problem to take out a brigade of him. However, the devils at this time are all old devils, and their individual combat ability is extremely strong, basically one shot is a life, and the casualties of their own troops are afraid that they will be very large. However, in order to fight devils, the high point of casualties is normal. Where is there victory without sacrifice? Not to mention anything else, if you can solve one wing of devils at a time, and it will add up to a lot, it won't be long before the situation of the Anti-Japanese War will be greatly improved.

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became, Liu Yimin went directly to the headquarters to find the chairman and them.

When I went to the headquarters of the Red Army, I saw that the chairman was drafting a telegram to Vice Chairman Zhou, the content of which was on the issue of the reorganization of the Red Army in the KMT-CPC negotiations. [***] instructed in the telegram that it does not matter if the number is less, the key is to make a decision as soon as possible, and we must not miss the opportunity to go to the front line of resistance against Japan.

After writing the telegram, he asked Liu Yimin for his views on the war in North China. Liu Yimin replied: "The chairman has already made up his mind, so why bother asking me? ”

[***] took out a cigarette, threw one to Liu Yimin, lit one himself, took a puff, and sighed: "It seems that Beiping and Tianjin can't hold it." If this Wanping City is lost, it will only be a matter of time before Beiping falls. 500 years old! ”

Liu Yimin was also panicked in his heart, but he didn't come to sigh, he hurriedly changed the topic, reported to the chairman on the reorganization of the troops, and asked the central authorities to approve that the Seventh Army Corps would no longer serve as the defense of Shaanxi, and as the first echelon of our army, they would go to the front line of resistance and open up a base behind enemy lines.

Knowing that Liu Yimin has been preparing for the War of Resistance, since the occupation of Chengdu, he has never forgotten to go north to resist. But he was worried that he was young and vigorous, and he was hard to shake the army and fight the troops out. I asked him how he was going to fight when he got to the front.

Liu Yimin knew what the chairman was worried about as soon as he heard this, because after the battle of Pingxingguan in history, the chairman was heartbroken and suffered too great losses, and he repeatedly demanded to carry out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, and no longer advocated fighting his forte sports warfare and annihilation war. Of course, at that time, it was because the Eighth Route Army was too weak to afford to lose, and if the losses were really big, not to mention himself, it would be Chiang Kai-shek's [***]** that would be able to beat our army back to the old society.

After sorting out his thoughts, Liu Yimin said: "The actual gap between China and China determines that this war is bound to be a protracted war. The army pursues quick victory and quick victory, and we want to exchange space for time. As long as we survive the previous few years, the devil will definitely be defeated. Therefore, I consider that the devils are now in full swing, and the big side must persist in guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, supplemented by annihilation warfare based on ambushes and attacks, accumulate small victories into big victories, and consume the army. In addition, we will establish a consolidated base area, mobilize the masses, and fight a people's war. The most pressing task at the moment is to deal a head-on blow to the arrogant army at the right place and to boost the determination of the people of the whole country to resist the war. Otherwise, under the strong attack of the Yue army, [***] will be defeated, and soon there will be a situation where the Han annihilates the puppet army, and there will even be a situation where the generals are like Mao and the troops are like a tide, then our war of resistance will be even more difficult. ”

[***] was very satisfied after hearing this, and asked him to mobilize as soon as he returned and prepare for the attack. As for the defense of Hanzhong, Weinan, Tongchuan, Yulin, and other places, there is no need to worry, now the Kuomintang will not fight us again for the time being. The main forces of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Army Corps and the 4th Front Army were too far from the front line, and the central government was considering allowing them to concentrate on Xi'an. Liu Zhidan's 27th Army was temporarily transferred to the Yulin direction, the Red Second and Sixth Army Corps could come over in the direction of Weinan, the First, Third, and Fifth Army Corps would gather in Xi'an and its surroundings, the Gansu side would be handed over to the Red Ninth Army Corps, and the northern and eastern Sichuan Army would be handed over to the Fourth Front Army, and the Seventh Army Corps could take the first step, and the main force would be concentrated near Hancheng.

Liu Yimin also proposed to the chairman to resign from his posts as commander of the Shaanxi Provincial Military Region and president of the Red Army University.

After thinking about it for a while, he said, "It's inevitable for the time being, and I'll talk about it when a new base is established in the future." ”

After the matter was finished, Liu Yimin saluted and left.

Returning to the corps headquarters, Liu Yimin immediately issued an order, first, to order the 1st Brigade of the Plateau and the 5th Brigade of Hong Chaoyuan to temporarily hand over the Tongguan defense line to the Shangluo Garrison Brigade formed by the Red 25th Army, and assemble in Hancheng to stand by. The second was to order the troops directly under the corps, Liu Jianjian's Second Brigade stationed in Xianyang, and Zhang Hongtao's Sixth Brigade stationed in Tongguan to assemble in Hancheng. The third is to order Liu Zhidan's Yan'an Garrison Brigade to go to Yulin to take over the defense of the cavalry brigade, and the cavalry brigade will assemble in Hancheng. Fourth, he ordered Zeng Zhao to transfer a group of technicians and workers from the arsenal to accompany the Leiming Fourth Brigade to cooperate with the regimental baggage map and escort the ammunition from the military factory to Hancheng to assemble. The Hanzhong defense of the 4th Brigade was transferred to the county garrison regiments. Fifth, Li Qing's 3rd Brigade and Chen Dayong's 4th Brigade were ordered to do a good job in the logistical response work of various units.

Because Chiang Kai-shek was slow to agree to the reorganization plan of the Red Army, and the situation was becoming more and more critical, and the Red Army had to stand at the forefront of the whole nation's war of resistance against Japanese aggression, and the reorganization was imperative.

On July 29, the 29th Army withdrew from Beiping and Pingjin fell. Although Song Zheyuan had agreed with the army that no troops should be garrisoned in the city when he evacuated Beiping, and the army also verbally agreed, on August 10, the army still entered Beiping and began a bloody rule.

After the army occupied Pingjin, the troops were divided into three routes, and continued to attack along the Pingsui Railway, Pinghan Railway, and Jinpu Railway.

On August 9, in view of the increasingly serious situation, the Nationalist Political Axe decided to convene a national defense conference and invited [***] to send people to attend. The Central Committee sent Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Ye Jianying to Nanjing to attend the meeting and continue negotiations with the Kuomintang.

The development of the situation could no longer tolerate Chiang Kai-shek's nonsense. On August 13, the army created the "August 13 Incident" and launched a large-scale attack on Shanghai, and the extremely tragic "August 13 Shanghai War of Resistance" began. In order to cope with the crisis, the Nationalist Political Axe issued a "Declaration of Self-Defense and War of Resistance" on August 15, issued a general mobilization order, and mobilized elite troops to fight in the direction of Shanghai. Chiang Kai-shek also demanded [***] to agree that the main force of Xue Yue's army, which was in Qinghai, pass through Xi'an and return to the vicinity of Kaifeng by train to stand by.

The deterioration of the situation finally led to an agreement between the two parties, not to mention other terms such as obedience to the leadership of Chairman Chiang, [***] On the one hand, the Red Army withdrew from the front line in eastern Sichuan and Mianyang, and with Guangyuan, Gannan, and Shaanxi as its bases, the main force quickly marched to the front line of resistance in North China. On the part of the national government, the Shaanxi Anti-Ming Cooking Political Axe was renamed the Shaanxi Anti-Ming Special Zone Political Axe of the Republic of China, and the Red Army was renamed the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, with a general headquarters under its jurisdiction, with three divisions of 115, 129, and 120 divisions, each with three brigades and nine regiments, and military salaries and ammunition were allocated by the National People's Political Axe. The Republic of China's Shaanxi Anti-Japanese Special Zone has set up four divisions of local security forces, including garrison divisions, security divisions, reading teachers, and instructors, each of which has three brigades and nine regiments, and Shaanxi has raised its own salaries, weapons and ammunition. The above seven divisions were all included in the Second Theater sequence. The chief and deputy division commanders, chiefs of staff, directors of the Political Department, and commanders of each division shall be determined by [***] and reported to the National People's Political Axe for the record.

On August 21, Chiang Kai-shek signed the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union, and on August 22, the Military Committee of the Nationalist Axe announced that the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, appointing Zhu De as commander-in-chief and Peng Dehuai as deputy commander-in-chief. Zhu De concurrently served as the deputy commander of the Second Theater of Operations.

From August 22nd to 25th, the Central Committee held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in Xi'an, which was attended by Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Luo Fu, Bogu, Chen Yun, Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, Zhang Hao, Nie Rongzhen, He Long, Xiao Ke, Liu Yimin, Luo Ronghuan, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Changhao, Dong Zhentang, Li Zhuoran, Luo Binghui, He Changgong, Zhang Wenbin, Xiao Jinguang, Lin Boqu, Zhou Jianping, and Fu Zhong. There was only one topic on the agenda of the meeting, and that was to study the reorganization of the Red Army.

Liu Yimin sat in a corner of the conference room, listening to everyone's speeches, pondering silently in his heart. Due to his arrival, not only did the strength of the Red Army increase greatly, but there were also so many more numbers when it was reorganized. It turned out that the three divisions were all C divisions, with two brigades and four regiments. At present, although there are still three regular divisions, all of them are the first division of the three brigades and nine regiments. Of course, the original numbers of these divisions were all the Northeast Army, the C Division, it is estimated that now Chiang Kai-shek urgently needs the Red Army to go to the front, and the strength of the Red Army is there, so he has to do this, which should be the result of a compromise between Chiang Kai-shek and Vice Chairman Zhou.

The problem is that these three divisions are not the turn of the Seventh Army Corps, not to mention the First Army, it must still be the 115th Division, although the Second Front Army is much weaker, but with the chairman's good balance method, the 120th Division is estimated to be theirs, and the Fourth Front Army is also strong and strong, and the main force must still be organized into the 129th Division. The remaining four main corps of the Third Army Corps, the Fifth Army Corps, the Seventh Army Corps, and the Ninth Army Corps could only be organized into the Shaanxi Local Garrison Division. Although the Seventh Army Corps is the strongest in the Red Army in terms of strength, and one of them is more than enough for both Corps, this is not entirely a matter of strength, and he can't compete with the First Army, the Second Front Army, and the Fourth Front Army to compete for the establishment, right?

The remaining garrison divisions, reading divisions, security divisions, and instructors all sound angry, but the guards and security divisions are afraid that they will stay in Shaanxi. I want to go to the front line, and I am ready, just waiting to clean up the devils, but going to the front line in the name of a Shaanxi garrison division or Shaanxi security division is really easy to hit the positive surnames of cadres and soldiers.

It's not good to fight for this kind of thing, but it can't be fought for. What to do? It's really not good, Lao Tzu doesn't want a number, so he goes to the front line in the name of the advance column of the Eighth Route Army, and when Shanxi, or Hebei, and Shandong are occupied, Lao Tzu will directly reorganize the troops, and organize several divisions in one go!

On August 25, the reorganization plan was finally introduced, and the Red First Army and the Red 25th Army were reorganized into the 115th Division, with [***] as the division commander, and Nie Rongzhen as the deputy division commander and director of the Political Training Office and chief of staff Zhou Kun; The Red 33rd Army of the Red 2nd and 6th Army Corps, the Red 27th Army, and the 4th Front Army were reorganized into 120 divisions, with He Long as the division commander, Xiao Ke as the deputy division commander, Zhou Shidi, chief of staff, Guan Xiangying, director of the Political Training Office, and Liu Zhidan, deputy director; The 4th Army, the 9th Army, the 30th Army, the 31st Army, and the 32nd Army, the main forces of the Red Fourth Front Army, were reorganized into the 129th Division, with Liu Bocheng as the division commander, Wang Shusheng as the deputy division commander, Ni Zhiliang, chief of staff, and Zhang Hao as the director of the Political Training Office; The Red Third Army Corps was reorganized into a reading division, with Xu Xiang as the division commander, Yang Shangkui as the deputy division commander, Deng Ping as the chief of staff, and Chen Changhao as the director of the Political Training Office; The Red Fifth Army Corps was reorganized into a garrison division, with Dong Zhentang as the division commander and Li Zhuoran as the director of the Political Training Department. The Red Seventh Army was reorganized into a tutor, Liu Yimin was the division commander, Zeng Zhongsheng was the chief of staff, Luo Ronghuan was the director of the Political Training Office, and Cai Zhong was the deputy director; The Red Ninth Army Corps and the Xi'an Garrison District were reorganized into security divisions, with Luo Binghui as the division commander, Guo Tianmin as the chief of staff, He Changgong as the director of the Political Training Department, and Huang Su as the deputy director.

After the reorganization plan was announced, some comrades suggested that the number of instructors was too large and did not conform to the rules of the three brigades and nine regiments, and that they should be broken down into a part and incorporated into other divisions, so that the strength of each division would be relatively balanced. As soon as he said this, it immediately resonated with individual comrades. Some comrades in the conference room began to whisper.

Liu Yimin was already on fire in his heart, the Third Army Corps, the Fifth Army Corps, the Ninth Army Corps, and the Seventh Army Corps had all become local garrisons, and he was scolding Chiang Kai-shek in his heart for being a bastard, the Sichuan Army had several group armies, why couldn't the Red Army be organized into several group armies? Lao Tzu's Seventh Army Corps was stronger than several group armies of the Sichuan Army. Just as he was thinking about it, he heard this, and the nameless fire rushed straight up. He knew that although they were all members of the Red Army, party members, and comrades, the party was not monolithic, and some things could not be done without fighting. He stood up directly and said: "The Red Seventh Army can not do with the establishment of the Kuomintang, and ask the Central Committee to take back the teaching and mentoring establishment of the Red Seventh Army Corps, and give it to the fraternal troops, allowing us to operate in the name of the advance column of the Eighth Route Army, raising our own funds, weapons and ammunition, and not wanting Chiang Kai-shek's things or the Central Committee's things, so it's okay, right?" ”

panicked, Luo Ronghuan hurriedly pulled him to sit down.

[***] spoke: "In this reorganization, the Kuomintang gave us few numbers, and according to our strength, it is not too much to give to the seven armies." But there is no way, Chairman Jiang won't give it! Now that Yue Kou has begun an all-out attack, many of his compatriots have become slaves of Yue himself. What we need now is the opportunity to go to the front line of the War of Resistance and to develop behind enemy lines, and when we go to the front line, the troop establishment will be secondary. As long as you defeat Yu Kou, any problem will be solved! ”

After the meeting ended, Luo Ronghuan said that Liu Yimin should not have said that at the meeting, it seemed that he had a small belly. Liu Yimin said in his heart, there are many troubles in the party, Kang Sheng has not come back yet, you will know when Kang Sheng comes back. Thinking about it, he didn't defend himself, and went back to the army with Luo Ronghuan.

(To be continued)