Although as early as 1938, the Eighth Route Army began to advance into the central Hebei, southern Hebei and Shandong plains, carried out guerrilla warfare on the plains, and established base areas. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 But at that time, the Japanese army was implementing a north-south strategy, and a large number of troops were withdrawn from North China, so that the progress of the Eighth Route Army was relatively smooth.

It is precisely for this reason that the anti-Japanese armed forces underestimate the specific tactics of guerrilla warfare on the plains and the difficulties they will face in the future. Breaking roads, digging ditches, and transforming the plain terrain have indeed been implemented in the plain base areas of North China, but the scope is not very extensive, and no fixed specifications have been formed, and the degree of implementation varies from place to place. Not to mention the large-scale tunnel construction that began after 1942.

Relying on the Mangdang mountain system, the three verticals encroached and expanded to the Shangqiu area, and competed with the enemy for the densely populated and rich grain and cotton plain of eastern Henan, which was a necessary move for development and growth. Yang Tianfeng also compiled the "Guerrilla Raiders on the Plains" for guerrilla warfare on the plains in the future, and distributed it to all troops, especially officers, and conducted rotational training and study.

The great man said: "Under certain conditions, the plains can also develop guerrilla warfare." ”

However, this is only a far-sighted strategic instruction, which involves specific tactics, and still needs to be explored and studied by the actual implementers, or even exchanged for blood.

Yang Tianfeng was the first Chinese general to consider the tactics of guerrilla warfare on the plains, and to take the lead in making breakthroughs based on historical experience.

Breaking roads, digging ditches, and transforming the terrain, there is nothing to say, Yang Tianfeng has mobilized the people to implement them one by one after reaching a reconciliation with Lu Wenping, the county magistrate, according to Yongcheng. In the process of implementation, not only has the defense of the base areas been strengthened, but considerable experience has also been accumulated.

“…… Although there is no advantage of hiding in the mountains in the plains, there are many hidden forests, ditches, streams, villages, and green gauze tents...... With the strength of man, we will dig out the main road into vertical and horizontal ditches, and connect the ditches, streams, and villages to form a whole and connect with each other, so that our army can gallop on the plains......"

He Guishu, secretary general of the Yongcheng County Government, was fascinated by a pile of documents and materials, and most of Xiayi fell into the hands of the Three Verticals, leaving only the lonely county town and the small areas north and west of the county seat, and the political workers had already entered to carry out their work. Yang Tianfeng made a special request to the county government to send officials with organizational skills and experience in breaking roads and digging ditches to take command.

"This is even more thorough than what Yongcheng did." Lu Wenping, the county magistrate, said thoughtfully: "The amount of work is very large, and we must cooperate with the army to meet some of their operational needs. ”

"I'll go!" He Guishu put down the document, patted it lightly, and said: "The difficulty of carrying out guerrilla warfare in the plains can be imagined. Yang Tianfeng was able to come up with so many methods, which shows that he has put his heart into studying it carefully. Whether it is useful or not, and how effective it is, still needs to be tested by practice. If it is really feasible and effective, it can be generalized to the experience of the Anti-Japanese War. ”

"Will the three verticals march westward clash with the local guerrilla forces?" Lu Wenping did not say it explicitly, but He Guishu knew that he was referring to the guerrillas organized by the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army.

"Probably not." He Guishu pondered for a moment and said: "If he had this thought, he would not have provided weapons to the anti-Japanese armed forces, and he also held a special training class. Of course, if there is a conflict, it can be resolved through negotiation, and there will be no swords and soldiers to meet. ”

"Although Yang Tianfeng is helping the anti-Japanese forces, he has always avoided high-level contact with our troops, and his attitude is a little ambiguous!" Lu Wenping tapped lightly on the table, and said uncertainly: "Zhao Yurou was also persuaded by him to leave the mobilization committee and concentrate on coal chemical industry, and there is one less way to explore and grasp its psychological dynamics." ”

"The road is just broken, and you can still connect it!" He Guishu smiled and said, "Moreover, isn't it already fast?" ”

Lu Wenping smiled bitterly, not optimistic about this.

"Hehe, look at this schematic diagram, the village road and the field covered with a moat, the painting is very expressive, but it is quite interesting." He Guishu pulled out a piece of paper and diverted the topic.

…………

Guerrilla warfare on the plains was the hardest form of struggle in the history of the War of Resistance, although no one could have foreseen the extent of its hardship.

The tunnel is not only in the Jizhong Plain, but also in the land of Henan and eastern Henan, and there are also some places suitable for development. For example, the "underground Great Wall" connecting Yulu - the Li Pavilion tunnel, stretches for 25 kilometers. The soil quality is different in various places, the groundwater level is high and low, even in the Jizhong Plain, there are some places that are not suitable for excavating tunnels.

As another variation of the tunnel, Yang Tianfeng proposed such a remedy as covering the top of the trench. A trench more than two meters deep, topped with a tree trunk and covered with two feet of earth, even a more than 100-meter-long covered trench may provide cover and concealment for troops or fleeing civilians at critical times.

It is no wonder that He Guishu took the initiative to ask for help, and was very interested in the tactics of guerrilla warfare on the plains. At that time, I am afraid that no one had yet formulated such a specific and subtle guiding strategy, which is of great significance for reference and learning.

In fact, some of the strategies and tactics that Yang Tianfeng is trying to promote, as well as policy measures, may not be understood by many people now, but they are very targeted and forward-looking.

For example, the steel fist can not only destroy armored targets, but also threaten the devil's turrets and pillboxes, although the range is short, it is much safer than using people to send explosives packs, and the so-called cage policy in history may not cause such serious oppression.

For example, after the arsenal produced 20 120-heavy mortars, it stopped its work, and in addition to continuing to produce ammunition, it vigorously manufactured 60-mm mortars to meet the needs of the three columns and the anti-Japanese armed forces in guerrilla warfare.

If you want to talk about the characteristics of 60-mm mortars, it is light! For more than 30 catties, one person can carry a cannon on his back. There is even a special case of war, in the counterattack against Vietnam, there was a combat hero who carried a mortar on his left shoulder and a box of ammunition (four shells) on his right shoulder, rushed to the top of the hill to suppress the attack of a Vietnamese army.

That's right, the cannon can be operated by just one person like a grenadier when necessary. That is, there is no need to fix the gun body through the ground and the seat plate, and only use the body tube to hold the fire.

Compared with the huge artillery squad of eight to ten people for the 82 mortar, the 60 mortar squad has only five or six people, except for one gunner and one deputy gunner, the rest are ammunition men, carrying about eighteen rounds of ammunition. According to actual combat, the amount of shelling of a 60-mm mortar in a battle is basically less than 18 rounds, and the shells carried by an artillery squad are basically enough.

The maximum firing range is more than 1,400 meters, the minimum firing range is 200 meters, the mortar shell weighs about 1.5 kilograms, the charge is more than 100 grams, the killing radius is 15 meters, and the actual effective killing radius is about 20 meters.

As can be seen from the data, most of the performance of the 60 mortar, was significantly stronger than the Japanese grenadiers. More importantly, at the same level of training, the accuracy of the gun was much higher than that of the grenadier. The grenadier is mainly shelled by the empirical probability of the shooter, which cannot effectively measure the aim, and the requirements for the operator are very high. If you encounter a rookie, I'm afraid it will take one or two hundred rounds to hit the enemy.

Such a mobile and flexible small cannon is certainly inferior to the 82 mortar in regular warfare, but in guerrilla warfare, it is able to exert its characteristics and power.

Moreover, the 60 mortar can also directly follow the front-line infantry company and even follow the front-line infantry charge. Where the infantry charged, 60 mortars could follow. Whenever the infantry needed artillery fire support, 60 mortars could make a difference.

In the final analysis, the Third Column is still a unit between the regular army and the guerrillas, and the tactical style of play is also between the two, or a combination of the two. And equipping weapons according to their own characteristics and playing style is one of Yang Tianfeng's advanced ideas.

For the time being, there are 20 heavy mortars, more than 30 82 mortars, and 56 92 infantry guns, which is basically enough to resist a temporary brigade of 5 or 600 people of the Japanese army, or a standard brigade of about 1,000 people.

What's more, the weapons of the front-line infantry are not inferior because of the steel fists, grenade launchers, shotguns, plus 60 mortars.

When it is necessary to do the most correct thing in front of us and to improve the combat strength of the army as quickly as possible to meet the increasingly severe battlefield behind enemy lines, no one has thought farther and more thoughtful than Yang Tianfeng.

…………

After the Japanese army captured Nanchang, it maintained a confrontation with China's 3rd and 9th Theaters of Operations along the southeast shore of Poyang Lake in the east, Xiangtang in the south, and Gao'an, Fengxin, and Wuning in the west.

The Military Commission of the Nationalist Government decided to take advantage of the fact that the Japanese army had not yet gained a firm foothold in Nanchang and ordered all theaters to launch the "April Offensive" (also known as the "Spring Offensive") to harass and contain the Japanese army and prevent it from continuing to invade Changsha westward.

Although far away from the Nanchang battlefield, Yang Tianfeng's three verticals also received a routine report from Sun Tongxuan. The so-called routine, that is, you can fight, you can't fight, it's okay not to fight, it's best to make some movement.

In response to this circular, Yang Tianfeng adopted an attitude of not fighting for the time being, continuing to carry out guerrilla warfare in accordance with the established arrangements, and seizing vast rural areas.

After the victory of Taipingji, as Yang Tianfeng expected, the Japanese army hurriedly deployed troops to stabilize the defense of Xiayi County, and could not mobilize mobile forces to counterattack for a while. The Chiang detachment left one brigade in Taipingji to stabilize the rural situation east of Xiayi, and the remaining two brigades turned to the south and entered the county border of Haoxian.

After expelling or eliminating the enemy from several strongholds, Chiang's detachment occupied the towns of Lumiao and Yanji, cut off the Shang (Shangqiu) and Hao (Hao County) roads, and formed a shield north of Hao County.

At this point, the Western Movement came to an end for the time being, but a major war was also imminent. Yang Tianfeng personally led the guard regiment directly under him (which had been expanded to more than 2,000 people), two brigades of the Chen detachment, and the artillery battalion to rush to reinforcements, with a total strength of more than 4,000 people.

………… (To be continued.) )