Although the 1st Division of the Devils is an elite permanent division, it is the first time that it has fought the enemy in such cold weather, not only more than 20% of the officers and men have lost their combat effectiveness due to severe frostbite, but also a considerable number of machine guns and artillery are unusable because of the extreme cold, these factors have undoubtedly greatly reduced their combat effectiveness, and because of the sudden cold wave, they have no time to retreat to a certain town for temporary shelter, and they were trapped in the middle of the road by the wind and snow. The artillery, which was supposed to be towed by cars and did not affect the marching speed of the troops, has now become a big headache and a burden, and in addition, the anti-United Nations guerrillas, who are not afraid of the bitter cold, are constantly harassing them with more than 10 people or even smaller scales, and they can only travel more than 10 kilometers a day, and they are in a dilemma for a while

In comparison, less than 5% of the people who have lost their staff due to the severe cold (although if you add the number of people who have chilblains, the proportion is close to 20%). ), and the disadvantage of its relatively poor equipment turned out to be an advantage at this time. In addition, the surprise attack of the stealth troops was completely unexpected by the Japanese 1st Division, and after a fierce battle, more than 20,000 Japanese troops were almost all wiped out, while the Anti-United Nations only sacrificed more than 8,000 people (more than 30,000 casualties), which was much less than Xu Xiangqian's expectations, and the morale and confidence of the officers and soldiers of the Anti-United Nations were getting higher and higher. And this battle was also the fifth major victory after the main force of the Anti-Japanese Federation crossed the Songhua River in the south

The anti-Japanese guerrillas in the Japanese-occupied areas of South Manchuria ushered in an unprecedented development like cooking oil, and the anti-Japanese anti-Japanese armed forces that had basically disappeared also emerged in the northeast again, and their activity dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese Kwantung Army, especially the railway traffic on which the Japanese army in South Manchuria depended heavily was cut off for a period of time. In addition, some of the puppet troops also regained the courage to resist because of these victories, and in just one month, thousands of puppet troops rebelled one after another, and for a time the Japanese army had to do almost everything by itself, which further restrained the already increasingly tight strength of the Kwantung Army.

It is precisely this favorable situation that is seen. Xu Xiangqian not only did not accept it when he saw it, but boldly continued to march into the army, and boldly used a wide range of interspersed roundabout tactics in extremely bad weather. At the heavy cost of sacrificing more than 20,000 people, the two additional divisions of the Japanese army near Linkou were divided and encircled and annihilated one after another, and the number of Japanese soldiers killed was roughly the same as the number of casualties of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, but considering the gap between the training level, actual combat experience and weapons and equipment of the two sides, this battle was still recognized by later historians as the sixth great victory after the anti-Japanese alliance crossed the Songhua River in the south.

Subsequently, the main force of the Anti-Japanese Federation approached the city of Mudanjiang. The 104th Division of the Japanese Army, which was mainly composed of reservists of the 4th Division, believed that the city defense of Mudanjiang was not solid and its strength was insufficient, so it withdrew to Harbin without authorization to join the 4th Division (at this time, the headquarters of the 4th Army of the Kwantung Army had been withdrawn to Harbin, and the headquarters of the 5th Army had retreated to Changchun, the "new capital". ）。 However, the Japanese garrison that insisted on holding the Mudanjiang River was only 8,000 or 9,000 men (Note 1), and the 104th Division's words were not made up nonsense, so the city defense of Mudanjiang was indeed weak. As a result, after holding out for three days, Mudanjiang was finally successfully recovered by the Anti-Japanese Federation, and almost all of the more than 10,000 Japanese troops in the city (including Japanese police and armed "civilians") were killed, while the number of permanent attrition of the Anti-Japanese Federation exceeded 15,000. This battle fully reflected Xu Xiangqian's characteristics of not being afraid of sacrifice and going all out once he launched an attack, but it also exposed the weakness of the ability to resist the alliance's offensive attack was still insufficient. However, because of the recovery of Mudanjiang and its surrounding large lands, this battle was still praised by the central government, and was also called the seventh victory of the Anti-Japanese Federation from the end of 1938 to the beginning of 1938.

In less than two months, Xu Xiangqian, under the unfavorable situation of uneven and inferior troops, inflicted heavy blows on the Japanese army in seven major battles with his brilliant and talented command. A total of more than 100,000 devils were eliminated, which greatly strengthened the confidence of the people in Northeast China and even the whole country in the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, and he himself became famous at home and abroad in one fell swoop, and was recognized as China's top famous general and military strategist.

However, this miracle, which was collectively called "Seven Battles and Seven Victories" by later generations, was not only created by Xu Xiangqian alone, but also contributed a lot to the outstanding organizational work of the plateau, and even the weapons and ammunition sold by the Soviets could not be ignored, and there were many accidental factors that were difficult to replicate (such as the influence of the commander of the devil division who suddenly fell ill) to finally contribute to such a miracle, but no matter what, what is more important is the bloody struggle of the soldiers of the Anti-Japanese Federation and the support of the people in the northeast, otherwise all this is impossible to talk about.

Among them, it is particularly worth mentioning that during the "Seven Wars and Seven Victories" alone, the number of casualties of the Anti-United Nations exceeded 200,000 (the number of injured was double-counted), plus the number of patients (including frostbite) exceeded 250,000, but Xu Xiangqian relied on his expertise in quickly combining troops and "training with war" to quickly recruit recruits, coupled with the excellent organization and logistics of the plateau, as well as local conscription (the more lost territory recovered by the Anti-United Nations, the more powerful this move became. The convenience of going directly to the frozen river with the demobilized and returning wounded soldiers made it possible for the main force of the Anti-Japanese Federation to remain at around 300,000, which even Hu Weidong, who had raised an army of 100,000 from scratch in less than a year, admired very much.

Even if it was estimated that the Kwantung Army might receive reinforcements, they still planned to continue to attack the enemy's depth, but considering the risk of being cut off by the enemy, Xu Xiangqian still chose Harbin as the next target of the main force of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, rather than Yanji, which was easily attacked by the main force of the Japanese Kwantung Army and the Korean Japanese army.

Although Harbin is located south of the Songhua River, it is also the largest city in North Manchuria, and five railways meet here and a large river flows through it, making it one of the most important transportation hubs in the three eastern provinces, and its strategic value can be imagined. Although the Japanese army's fortifications focused on the border between the puppet Manchurians and the Soviet Union and Outer Mongolia, they would never neglect the defense of a strategic location like Harbin

Note 1: Because of the emergence of China's integrated divisions, the Japanese army also increased the number of troops as much as possible, but in order to avoid confusion in command, the devils only increased their troops under the original framework, for example, the garrison is still 6 brigades, but the strength of each brigade has increased from about 800 to 1200-1500 people. (To be continued.) )