At this military conference, the North China Front of the Japanese Army regarded the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines of the Eighth Route Army as the 'great enemy of the Imperial Army' and that 'if we do not exterminate the Eighth Route Army, North China will be bright and hopeless', and sent heavy troops to carry out a large-scale sweep of the Eighth Route Army, implementing the 'three-light policy', and attaching great importance to transportation in order to divide and shrink the base areas of the Eighth Route Army, and proposing that 'it is necessary to strengthen transportation to establish a new order in East Asia'.

Senior General Okamura Ninji finally said: "We will order all units to tightly control the existing railway and highway communication lines, and we will also build additional railways and roads in key theaters to extend the strength of the Imperial Japanese Army to the depth of the Tu Eighth Road." ”

Lieutenant General Tanabe Moritake, Chief of Staff, added: "Ladies and gentlemen, along the railways and highways controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army, deep communication ditches were dug and pillboxes and strongholds were built to prevent a sneak attack on the Eighth Route of the Tsuchihachi Road from damaging the railways and highways, affecting the smooth flow of the transportation lines of the Imperial Japanese Army. ”

The main purpose of the Japanese army's efforts to strengthen the construction and fortification of railways and highways was to implement the 'cage policy' of using railways as pillars, highways as chains, and pillboxes as locks in the base areas of the Eighth Route Army, in an attempt to put the base areas of the Eighth Route Army into this insidious and vicious 'cage.'

As soon as it discovered that troops of the Eighth Route Army appeared to fight the enemy, they would take advantage of the convenient conditions of railways and highways to respond quickly and arrive in time, forcing the troops of the Eighth Route Army to abandon the battle, withdraw from the battlefield, and move quickly.

When Wang Xiaoliang heard this, he frowned and asked, "Commander Lei, this little devil's move is so vicious, didn't our Eighth Route Army really fall into the cage set up by the enemy?" Hmph, wouldn't it be enough to blow up the devil's railways and highways? ”

Lei Jian ignored Wang Xiaoliang's question, and then continued;

The head of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region of the Eighth Route Army has continuously received urgent reports on the battle situation of various military regions in North China, and the headquarters has convened an emergency military meeting in response to the Japanese army's 'cage policy', at which Commander Nie decisively said: "The little devil is trying to extend the base area of our Eighth Route Army through railways and highways, and divide our base area into small pieces, and then carry out encirclement and suppression with heavy troops to achieve the goal of exterminating our Eighth Route Army. for the main task at hand.

I ordered all military regions and units in Jin-Cha-Ji and North China to concentrate their forces and mobilize forces from all quarters to carry out a sabotage campaign with railways and highways as the main line. ”

The commanders of the military districts received the order to attack the Japanese army's lines of communication, ordered the troops to rely on the masses, launched a strategy of attacking the devil's railways and highways at night, and withdrawing at dawn, and engaged in an extremely arduous battle with the enemy in North China.

The little devil was overwhelmed by the sneak attack of the Eighth Route Army, and found that the railway and highway were attacked by the Eighth Route Army and civilians, and immediately concentrated his forces to speed up the repair, so at night the Eighth Route Army dismantled the railroad tracks and burned sleepers, and the little devils stepped up repairs during the day, and the tug-of-war along the railways and highways in the whole of North China did not stop for a while.

In view of this tug-of-war, Political Commissar Cheng of the Jizhong Military Region sent an urgent telegram to the front-line headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, putting forward his own views on the enemy's 'cage policy' in the base areas of the Eighth Route Army. This telegram was placed on the desk of the front-line headquarters of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters in a small mountain village at this time.

In December 1939, Shanxi was cold and cold, with scattered snowflakes floating in the sky, and the whole earth was covered with a thin layer of snow.

Pedestrians walk in the countryside or on the road, wearing all kinds of clothes on their bodies, wrapping everything that can keep warm at home, and under the strong blowing of the northwest wind, they shrink their necks, cover their collars, put their sleeves into their sleeves, and trot in the direction they identify.

In the office of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Wangjiayu, located in Wuxiang County, the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief, as well as the deputy chief of staff, were carefully studying the urgent top-secret telegram from the political commissar Cheng of the Jizhong Military Region.

The telegram sharply mentioned: "The purpose of the Japanese army's recent road construction is very different from the previous one, first, the deep ditch and high fortress around the pillbox are connected to each other, and the road from Renqiu to the river is five feet higher than the ground, and the deep ditch on both sides of the road is seven or eight feet, and the width of the ditch bottom is unequal, about five or six feet, and the ditch is one zhang above it, dividing our base into several small pieces."

Second, the construction of automobile roads has been extended outward, directly touching the depth of our base areas, and the enemy's cars are constantly moving on the highways, and motorcycle patrols are going back and forth, blocking the troops of our Eighth Route Army from entering and exiting the encirclement formed by the Japanese highways. ”

Political Commissar Cheng also emphatically proposed that 'we must not allow the enemy to cultivate, and even if it has already taken shape, we must attack it.' ’

The two supreme leaders of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters knew very well that the situation mentioned in this telegram had appeared in the base areas of the Eighth Route Army behind enemy lines, and this was closely related to the situation of the War of Resistance at that time. ’

In order to quickly end the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Government mobilized its main forces to launch the Pacific War, adopted the tactics of threatening, intimidating, and inducing the Chinese military and political departments responsible for resisting Japan on the frontal battlefield, and concentrated heavy troops to launch the Zaoyi Campaign, wantonly bombing Chongqing indiscriminately, and exerting military and political pressure to force the Chongqing Government to surrender.

The diehards of the Chongqing government not only did not take countermeasures, but instead carried out troop infiltration and provocation against the Eighth Route Army, creating the 'December Incident'.

The Japanese North China Front, taking advantage of the friction in China, dispatched troops to carry out a frenzied sweep of the base areas of the Eighth Route Army, vigorously promoted the construction of railways and highways in North China, dug ditches and built artillery towers, and forcibly expanded its occupied areas and squeezed out and reduced the base areas of the Eighth Route Army.

In this frantic action of the enemy, with the highway as the main line, strongholds and bunkers were built along the line, the enemy and puppet troops were sent to garrison them, and with automobiles, armored vehicles, and motorcycles, patrolling back and forth on the highway, and when they found anything suspicious, they immediately shot and killed, and once they encountered the firepower counterattack of the Eighth Route Army and the guerrillas, the surrounding enemy and puppet army strongholds and pillboxes would send reinforcements to arrive quickly and the reinforcements would be in place.

The commander of the main division of the Eighth Route Army (129) saw that the Japanese army was taking ruthless measures and frantically attacking and squeezing the anti-Japanese base areas, and said angrily: "This is to put us to death." ”

The Japanese army's almost frenzied road construction, the cage policy of building strongholds and pillboxes along the line, and the grim situation at home and abroad forced the three leaders of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters to urgently find a plan of action for a breakthrough.

From time to time, the three of them walked to the topographic map of North China that hung on the wall and occupied a whole wall, and looked at the map that crisscrossed the old and new railways and highways intertwined into a network, like a large net cast by the Japanese army, in which the Eighth Route Army's base areas in North China were networked.

The deputy commander-in-chief looked at the map on the wall, angrily slammed his fist on the map, and shouted loudly: "We must organize a big battle to deal a heavy blow to the Japanese North China Front, reverse the unprecedented difficult situation of the Eighth Route Army, and not tear up this big net laid by the devils, what kind of people's anti-Japanese armed forces." ”

In the face of the increasingly grim situation in North China, the former deputy commander-in-chief said: "In the face of the intricate strategic situation of the Japanese army's sweep and counter-sweep, encirclement and counter-encirclement in North China, the Eighth Route Army must launch a military offensive, smash the enemy's crusade, adopt a policy of self-reliance in the economic struggle, and sabotage the Japanese army's 'war to feed the war with war'. ”

He continued: "The situation in North China as a whole, depending on the terrain and geographical location, the mountainous area will become an important area for the enemy to fight, and the plain may become the center of the Japanese army's first liquidation of the base area of the Eighth Route Army. Communications warfare will become an important part of the strategic contention between the enemy and us in the war situation in North China. ”

In February 1940, the chief and deputy chief of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, on the basis of their analysis of the current battle situation, ordered all units to conduct close reconnaissance of the starting points of the new and old railways and highways of the Japanese army, the allocation of troops, and the construction of strongholds and artillery towers along the line, so as to make a summary, summarization, and report, so as to make full preparations for the upcoming campaign.

In view of the enemy's strict blockade and division of railways and highways, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army decided to launch a large-scale transportation raid to break the sinister purpose of the Japanese army in cutting and dividing the Japanese army.

According to the instructions of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, Commander Jinchaji Nie walked into the office, and with Staff Officer Tang and others, he studied and deployed how to strike at the enemy's communication line on the Pinghan Road, explored his experience, and then ordered all units to launch a large-scale sneak attack on the enemy's communication line.

After close reconnaissance and repeated deliberations, the sub-divisions were finally ordered to launch an attack on the enemy's communication line on the front line of the Pinghan Road.

The headquarters of the Eighth Route Army commended Yu and ordered all units to quickly assemble along the Pinghan Road, Zhengtai Road, and Tongpu Road to strike at and contain the enemy.

General Okamura Ninji of the Japanese Army in North China received a report from the Japanese troops along the Pinghan Road, reporting that the railway line had been attacked by the Eighth Route Army, the railway had been damaged, and the stronghold pillbox had been stormed, and asked for reinforcements.