The Japanese army moved very quickly, and the Eighth Route Army, which was fighting on the front line of Zhengtai Road, was facing the pressure of the enemy's strong counterattack, and some theaters had already launched counterattacks with the enemy.

In the face of the current situation of the Eighth Route Army on Zhengtai Road, the deputy commander-in-chief ordered all units to shift the focus of their tasks to both sides of Zhengtai Road and to extend the enemy's strongholds, and to carefully consider the tasks of the second phase of the Eighth Route Army and form a set of final combat plans.

The second phase of the task was carried out, and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region was ordered to speed up the recovery of the Japanese strongholds north of Shangsha and Xiashe with the strength of four regiments; Ordered the 120th Corps to deploy a force to uproot the Japanese strongholds that had penetrated deep into the hinterland of the base area at the fastest speed, and to drive the Japanese troops stationed in the base area out of the base area; The 129th Corps was ordered to raid the Ping-Liao Highway with no less than four regiments, completely destroying and destroying the highway, paralyzing the highway, and recovering the Liaohe River.

With the implementation plan of the second stage, the deputy commander-in-chief gave clear instructions to the latter part of the first stage: the battle of the 100 regiments has been achieved, and the longer the unit holds on to the Zhengtai line, the more thorough the attack will be, which will force the enemy to draw troops back to the Zhengtai Road, disrupt the deployment of the Japanese army at other points and lines, and create a counterattack for our army in the movement.

In this way, the Japanese army will be forced to invade the newly built stronghold in our base area and send troops back to reinforce Zhengtai Road, which will play a good opportunity to uproot the stronghold of the devils who have penetrated deep into the anti-Japanese base area, and break it with superior forces, and will be more effective in consolidating and building the entire Taihang Mountain base area.

If the Battle of the Hundred Regiments can achieve this goal, then the total sabotage attack launched by the Eighth Route Army will be more fruitful, not only will our army gain the initiative in the battle, but it will also be able to use the Zhengtai Line to manipulate the battle situation in North China, which is the current situation.

Because the Battle of the Hundred Regiments was not a long-term battle, but only a general attack on the enemy's Zhengtai Road in a short period of time, which temporarily paralyzed the enemy's lines of communication, but could not fundamentally change the entire situation of the War of Resistance.

The deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army analyzed very well, at this time, the Japanese troops were frantically gathering reinforcements to Zhengtai Road, and the remaining Japanese strongholds on the Zhengtai Line continued to resist stubbornly, and from time to time they secretly attacked the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians who broke the road, and held the stronghold as a fortress to counter the attack of the Eighth Route Army.

The deputy commander-in-chief ordered all theaters to mobilize the most powerful road-breaking army as quickly as possible, continue to complete the sections of the road that have not yet been attacked, uproot the turrets, demolish the tracks, blow up the bridges, destroy the culverts and stations that still remain, expand the results of the battle, extend the attack, and draw out part of the troops to block the reinforcements of the Japanese troops who rushed up, so as to protect the safety of the soldiers and civilians who broke the road.

The Nie Department of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region was ordered to block and reinforce the Japanese army on the southern line of Zhengtai Road, strive to concentrate superior forces, destroy the Japanese troops below the brigade level, continue to attack the line of Shijiazhuang and Jingcheng, and send troops to continuously attack and harass the county towns outside the Ping, Ling, Qu, Ding, and Tang railways.

The former deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army deployed the tasks for the first and later stages of the Hundred Regiments Battle, as well as the action plan for the second stage, which was forward-looking and actively offensive, fully embodying the anti-Japanese determination and strong will of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters and full of ambition to control the battle situation.

In order to smoothly carry out the tasks in the next stage, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army sent a telegram to all combat corps on 2 September that "the enemy's reinforcement of Zhengtai troops has arrived at our implementation of the second step policy."

The telegram clearly pointed out: In the past few days, the enemy from Jinnan has been coming to the aid of Zhengtai Road, and the strength of about one brigade has reached the western section of Zhengtai Road. The enemy of Yuci, Lujiazhuang, and Shouyang has expanded outward, and has recaptured many strongholds, and the enemy along the Jingcheng and Shijiazhuang lines has gathered five or six thousand, and it may increase in the future, and the enemy of Niangziguan and Yangquan has moved and expanded to the east and west, and it is estimated that the enemy is trying to attack our army in the east and west.

Zhengtai Road has achieved a great victory,......, it is impossible for the Nie Corps to continue to expand its achievements, and it is determined to follow the principle of action of the second part of the No. 3 telegram order, and strive to take advantage of the favorable opportunity when the enemy has transferred its forces after the attack of our army and people on Zhengtai Road, and complete the task of the second step of the plan.

In view of the changes in the situation between the enemy and the enemy in the operational areas of various theaters at the end of the first stage of the Zhengtailu General Raid, the Yan'an General Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army issued the "Military Action Instructions on Attacking the Enemy," requiring all corps to concentrate their forces on striking at the enemy.

He also pointed out that one or more offensive operations against the enemy should be organized in Shandong and Central China in accordance with the precedent of the Battle of the 100 Regiments of the Eighth Route Army in North China, and that the results of the Battle of the 100 Regiments in North China should be expanded to achieve the goal of striking hard at the enemy.

The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region received instructions from the front command of the General Headquarters and the Yan'an General Headquarters to order all units to expand their achievements in the late stage of the first stage, raid enemy strongholds in the outer areas, harass the Japanese army, occupy small and medium-sized county towns, and seize the time for the troops to rest and recuperate.

Commander Nie was afraid that the cadres and soldiers would be arrogant and underestimate the enemy, and he repeatedly exhorted: "We must not be paralyzed by victory, slackened by fatigue, or indulged by casualties among troops, and we must improve the combat effectiveness of our troops and cover the safety of tens of thousands of anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians who have broken through the road. ”

According to the instructions of the former command and the General Headquarters, the task of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region is to break the highways in the two counties of Laiyuan and Lingqiu, seize the two county seats, and clear the nearby enemy strongholds, stations, artillery towers, and bridges.

The Eighth Route Army, which lasted 20 days and lasted from 20 August to 10 September, launched a 100-regiment battle on Zhengtai Road, and achieved great results.

Commander Nie issued operational orders for all units of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region in the second phase of the campaign; The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 24th Regiments, the main force of the cavalry regiment, the only regiment of Lei Jian, the special service battalion of the First Army Division, and the engineer company of the Military Region are the left wing columns, and the commander is Commander Yang of the First Army Division.

The 6th and 26th regiments of the right wing column and the Jinsui guerrilla detachment, commanded by Commander Deng of the Jizhong Military Region, were ordered to block and reinforce the Japanese troops, and when the time was ripe, they would conquer the artillery towers of Lingqiu County and the surrounding strongholds.

After Commander Nie issued the second phase of the combat order, he led the command organs to withdraw from the Zhengtai Road Jingcheng front line and transfer to Hejiazhuang to prepare for the second phase of the Hundred Regiments War.

At this time, the Lei Jian Du Regiment, which had received an order and had arrived near Laiyuan City, was stationed in a village of more than 200 households, which was five kilometers away from Laiyuan, the county seat in the southwest, and four kilometers away from the stronghold of Yuanshan in the west.

Lei Jian walked into a small farm yard that had just been cleaned up, and saw a jujube tree in the yard, the leaves of the tree had been eaten by insects, and the oval jujubes that turned blue hung on the branches of the colorful residual leaves, some of the jujubes grew very well, the skin of the green jujubes was shiny, and some of the jujubes had dried up, the kind of immature bezoars that were forcibly sunburned red by the sun, and it seemed that they would fall off as soon as the wind blew.

Under the jujube tree in the yard, a layer of insects and insect excrement fell, and the insects were covered with hairs and were wriggling on the ground.

The naughty Lei Jian walked to the tree, squatted on the ground and looked at the fluffy insects were very cute, reached out and pinched one and put it in the palm of his hand, before he could react, Wang Xiaoliang rushed over in a few steps and slapped the caterpillar in Lei Jian's hand to the ground.

Wang Xiaoliang pulled the thunder sword up and said, "You, you're not sick in the brain, right?" This is a stinging hair, as long as it touches the skin, it will swell and tickle and call you ....... ”

Without waiting for Wang Xiaoliang to finish speaking, Lei Jian felt that the fingertips of the caterpillar were pinched in the palm of his left hand and his right hand, which was unbearable and painful, this kind of itching pain that he had never experienced before, was the first time he enjoyed it in his life.

This kind of 'enjoyment' made Lei Jian irritable for a while, and he shook his hands and shouted: "Bastard, what kind of damn 'prickly' is this, it will make people so uncomfortable when it hits the skin, I, I ......." ”

At this time, Ma Mingshan came over and asked about the situation, and he said with a smile: "Our Lei Regiment Leader is really a child who hasn't grown up, could it be that you, the farmer's baby, have never been stung by this 'stinging cat'?" You're stupid, you've heard of it, right? ”

"Don't talk about me, my two fingers are numb in front of me, and the red and swollen left palm is unbearable, and it's even more uncomfortable to move." Lei Jian was stung by the 'stinging cat', and his whole body was sweating.

At this moment, the correspondent pony brought in a soldier, and as soon as he walked into the courtyard, he heard Lei Jian shouting, he looked at the soldiers around him, and said smartly: "I'm sorry, our regiment commander is a little injured, you wait here first, and I will report to Lei regiment commander immediately." ”

Xiao Ma walked up to Lei Jian's side and said in a low voice: "Commander Lei, Commander Chen of the right column, send a soldier to inform you to go to Liujiadu in the east of Laiyuan City with Political Commissar Ma now." ”

Lei Jian endured the itching and pain in his hands, his face was full of discomfort, he looked at the correspondent pony and asked, "Where is the soldier who delivered the order?" ”

The soldier who delivered the letter immediately ran to Lei Jian's side and reported: "Report to Regiment Commander Lei, Commander Chen of the left column, order the head and political commissar of your independent regiment to go to Liujiadu immediately for a military meeting, the sooner the better." ”

(End of chapter)