The leader is indeed a commander who has come all the way from the battlefield. He can always grasp strategic points and consider issues from the overall situation.
The most important thing is the leader's ability to stick to his own point of view despite all opinions... If most people were in this situation, and all the staff around them would say retreat, they would probably back down and choose to retreat.
After all, retreat is an easier option: not to mention that retreat is a long-established guerrilla warfare policy. Once you retreat, you can basically break away from the Japs without any operational risks.
As for whether it will be blocked or divided, that is all for the future, and we will talk about the future later... Most people have this inertia when thinking about problems.
However, the commander-in-chief took a long-term consideration and made a decision that was more risky, difficult, and even wrong for him... The superiors clearly formulated the policy of guerrilla warfare and agreed not to fight for a city or a place, but the commander insisted on it.
Who is responsible for fighting or losing a war?
This is also the reason why when Wang Xuexin talked about tunnel warfare and tunnel warfare with the chief before, the chief always emphasized "initiative"... If any tactic is passive, there will definitely be big problems in battlefield application.
For example, in tunnel warfare, if you only think about hiding and defending without thinking about attacking, you will be blocked by the Japanese and unable to move. The Maginot Line is a typical example of passive defense. The result is that the French treasury is empty but the French government is unable to move.
Basically it didn't work.
If Okamura Neiji could hear the commander's comments, he would probably feel aggrieved for himself... He didn't expect it to be like this. This is not how raids are done in normal times. The tactics of the Eighth Route Army remain unchanged at all times, but they just waited for him to take office.
If you just change, isn’t this bullying?
The chief did not hesitate and issued several orders one after another:
"Order all the brigades, squadrons, and squads in the guerrilla zone to conserve their strength during the day and actively carry out guerrilla warfare against the Japanese supplies at night. Roads, railways, warehouses, cars, etc., anything that can increase the Japanese transportation burden and supply difficulties can be used as offensive targets.
Especially ammo!”
"Order troops stationed in mountainous areas to be prepared to garrison high ground and fight the enemy for a long time, focusing on conserving strength and consuming the enemy's ammunition and manpower."
"Order the troops to withdraw from the plains and reinforce the mountain troops nearby to obey the command of the mountain troops."
Then the leader issued a separate order: "Pull the Hundred Battle Regiment up to reinforce the Independent Regiment, and transport a batch of bullets and artillery shells up with the troops!"
Li Yunlong was happy when he heard this order.
He has seen the fighting power of the Hundred Battle Group before. It is indeed a force that can fight hard battles, and it is the main force of 3,000 people. With it coming for reinforcements, he feels confident.
Coupled with the troops from the front who are constantly breaking out of the encirclement and withdrawing, and replenishing in batches here and there, what can you do even if there is a Japanese regiment in front of you? I will block you one step in front of Zhaojiayu and you will not be able to move.
It took a lot of trouble to get the order to the guerrilla zone.
The main reason is that the guerrilla zone is already heavily surrounded by the Japanese, and it is difficult to pass orders in.
However, because the Eighth Route Army has always had communication problems, its communication equipment and methods are extremely backward.
And often the more backward something is, the harder it is to block it.
For example, if every village has telephone access, all the Japanese have to do is cut the phone lines.
But the guerrillas couldn't afford a telephone at all, so homing pigeons were considered good, most of them relied on two legs. In addition, there were signals such as waving torches, flashlights, and hanging branches.
It is difficult to blockade these methods, such as homing pigeons... No matter how dense the ground encirclement is, it can't stop it from flying in the sky. Using a flashlight or waving a torch is even more difficult to prevent.
Many guerrillas did not know a word of Chinese characters, but they were very familiar with shaking the torch to signal. They could accurately convey the message with just a few shakes. Even the professional decoders in the Eighth Route Army were convinced.
As a result, the Japs in the guerrilla zone that night had a big problem:
It was trivial to have telephone lines cut or stolen, bridges were blown up, roads were dug up, warehouses and cars were burned, food was poisoned, landmines were planted in front of the door, and various other problems emerged one after another, making it difficult for the Japanese to guard against them.
Questions came to Okamura Neji one by one. Okamura Neji frowned and asked Shinozuka Yoshio in confusion: "Why haven't you seen these questions in your combat records?"
Yoshio Shinozuka stood up straight, nodded, and replied: "I'm very sorry! Lieutenant General! In the past, our army rarely encountered these problems during raids. I think this is because the guerrillas and civilians fled to the mountains to hide in the past.
.Because they hide in the mountains, it is very difficult for them to come out to cause trouble. But now..."
Then Okamura Neji understood that this was the real reason.
The guerrillas and the people did not leave their village but hid in the tunnels. At the same time, these people were familiar with the terrain of the village, and the Japanese and puppet troops lived in the village, which gave them many opportunities to take advantage of.
After thinking about it, Okamura Neji ordered: "Burn the whole village and blow up all the tunnel entrances!"
"Yes!" Yoshio Shinozuka responded and gave the order.
Okamura Neiji thought that this would be able to trap the common people and guerrillas hiding in the tunnels, but he didn't know that his idea had been mentioned by the leader a long time ago and was solved by Wang Xuexin... This is when the invisible tunnel entrance came into play.
Lao Hei also made a contribution in this. He and the guerrillas discovered a temporary warehouse of the Japanese... This warehouse was actually a mud house far away from other houses in the village. The Japanese thought it was safer and used it to store ammunition.
.
Lao Hei led the guerrillas to secretly dig tunnels toward the warehouse during the day.
The reason why we had to dig during the day was because at that time the Japanese were out for raids, and there were only a few guards standing guard outside the house.
As a result, without the guards outside the house noticing, Lao Hei dug a tunnel right under the warehouse to create an exit, and emptied hundreds of boxes of ammunition from the house. The sentries outside the house didn't know it yet.
When the Japanese came back and opened the door, they were stunned: the ammunition disappeared out of thin air, leaving only a big hole in the center.
If there was anything left behind, it was that there were several bullet mines buried in the house. The angry Japanese were planning to go into the tunnel to recover the ammunition. After the bullet thunder rang out a few times, the Japanese lost their temper... What if?
If there are bullets and mines buried in the house, how can it be better in the tunnel?
Lao Hei's move sounds simple but is not easy to actually perform.
Because he was digging a tunnel more than 20 meters long, there was a problem in that the newly dug soil could not be transported out.
So Lao Hei used the method of digging coal in the mine. The fellows lined up in the tunnel to transport the soil back one by one, and then spread it evenly in the tunnel and compacted it firmly.
This requires every fellow villager to remain silent and operate in the dark in a dark tunnel. As long as one person has a problem, it will affect the entire process and even put his life in danger.
But young and old, men and women, all completed their tasks very well.