Double-Cut During the War of Resistance: My Wife Came from 1937

Republic of China era.

Taihang Mountain Base Area.

129th Division Headquarters.

Inside a heavily guarded room, personnel from the 129th Division's Confidential Section and Communications Section were using computers.

Commander Liu entered the room and asked, "How's it going today? Have you cracked any new ciphers?"

"Reporting to the commander!"

The head of the confidential section replied, "From yesterday to today, the Japanese army's radio communications have suddenly disappeared, and we have not obtained any useful intelligence."

"Oh?"

Commander Liu narrowed his eyes slightly, pondered for a moment, and suddenly said, "I know, this must be the Japanese army implementing radio control!"

"Since they have already started to control the situation, it means that the war will start in the next day or two, and the information we received earlier was not wrong."

At this point, Commander Liu looked at Section Chief Yang of the Confidential Section and said, "Notify the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, the 120th and 115th Divisions of the Eighth Route Army, and the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, and tell them to begin preparing for battle according to the original plan."

"yes!"

Section Chief Yang responded and immediately left the room.

"Looks like I should head to the front lines and join Lao Xu soon!"

With that thought in mind, Commander Liu also left.

He found Chief of Staff Ni.

"Old Ni!"

Division Commander Liu said, "We are about to go to war with the Japanese army. The division headquarters is of utmost importance and will be entrusted to you for guarding, especially the computers here and the personnel who have used them. They are of paramount importance."

"Don't worry, Lao Liu!"

Chief of Staff Ni nodded and said, "I will take good care of this place."

That day, Commander Liu rode away from the headquarters on horseback, accompanied by a group of guards.

……

Early June, 1937.

Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese North China Area Army, Hisaichi Terauchi, officially issued the order.

More than 20,000 Japanese and puppet troops split into eight routes and headed towards the Jin-Cha-Ji base area.

"Waaah~"

A train full of Japanese soldiers departed from Jingxing County and headed towards Meng County, intending to encircle Wutai County from that direction.

Meanwhile, cars and motorcycles drove out from Shijiazhuang, intending to attack Wutai County and Fuping County from the direction of Pingshan County.

The Japanese troops that departed from these two locations were the 21st Brigade of the Sakatsugu Division, the Japanese army's top elite mechanized division in North China.

The two armies consisted of a total of 3600 real Japanese soldiers, plus more than 1000 puppet troops.

After the Japanese soldiers left by train, a group of people dressed in winter clothes began to appear in the suburbs.

They consisted of only a small number of Eighth Route Army soldiers with guns; the majority were anti-Japanese guerrillas armed with broadswords and spears, while others carried various tools.

Guerrilla forces originated from guerrilla armed forces in Northeast China. After the Japanese army occupied Northeast China, China successively established armed forces such as the Panshi Workers' and Peasants' Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army and the Bayan Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force in Manchuria.

After the Eighth Route Army arrived in North and Central China, it also supported many guerrilla groups in the area.

The guerrilla captain waved his hand and shouted, "Brothers, follow me and tear down this railway!"

At his command, the guerrillas began sabotaging the railway.

They first dismantled the rails section by section, collected the sleepers underneath, and laid a layer on top.

Then, place all the remaining sleepers against the piled-up rails.

"Firewood! Straw!"

The guerrilla captain gave another order, and they piled up the firewood and straw that they had prepared beforehand on top.

The guerrilla's political instructor ordered, "Pour some alcohol on it!"

One team member said with great reluctance, "Instructor, that alcohol is so precious, are we just going to waste it like this?"

"Comrades, this is our mission!"

The instructor glanced at the crowd and explained, "This time, the Japanese army dispatched 20,000 troops to attack our Eighth Route Army's Jin-Cha-Ji base area."

"We guerrillas lacked guns and ammunition, so our mission was to sabotage the railway, cut off the Japanese army's retreat route, and also block their reinforcements."

"Once the railway is destroyed, whether they escape or provide support, they will have to rely on foot, which will create opportunities for the Eighth Route Army soldiers to eliminate more enemies."

"Take off!"

When alcohol was sprinkled on them, the straw and firewood ignited instantly, also setting many of the alcohol-soaked railway sleepers ablaze.

The flames burned brighter and brighter, turning into a raging inferno in the blink of an eye, with billowing smoke rising into the sky.

The piled-up rails began to glow red and warp as the fire raged.

With just this firewood and sleepers, it's impossible to melt the rails into molten iron, but it's enough to deform them and make them stick together.

Once these rails are deformed and stuck together, they become unusable and new rails must be brought in.

The reason for using this method instead of directly using explosives was that the Eighth Route Army lacked a large amount of high explosives.

The black powder made using traditional folk methods is only moderately powerful and not as effective as the method used.

"Walk!"

The guerrilla captain waved and said, "Let's go to the next place!"

Their mission is not just to destroy this section, but also to destroy several other places, which will make it more difficult for the Japanese to repair.

In North China, it was not just their guerrilla group that was operating.

There were hundreds of guerrilla groups sabotaging the railway tracks.

……

When the Japanese train approached Meng County, it could no longer proceed.

Because the tracks ahead had also been damaged, the train had to slow down and stop.

Before the train had come to a complete stop, doors opened one by one, and Japanese soldiers jumped off the train with guns in hand, looking extremely vigilant.

At this moment, the middle section of the train is located directly below a slope.

"Fire! Give them a good beating! I'm allowing them to use machine guns and mortars freely!"

At this time, the commanders of the 770th Regiment and the New 1st Regiment also issued orders to attack.

The plan was for their two regiments, totaling 4500 men, to encircle and annihilate a branch of the Japanese 21st Brigade.

There were more than 2000 Japanese soldiers and puppet troops on this route.

"Da da da! Da da da!"

As soon as the order was given, a series of sounds like tearing cloth rang out—the sound of heavy machine guns starting up.

As bullets rained down, the Japanese soldiers who had left the train carriages fell like wheat being harvested.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

At the same time, 82mm and 60mm mortars were all roaring.

The mortar shell landed on the top of the carriage and exploded instantly, blasting the thin steel roof apart.

Numerous shrapnel fragments flew in all directions, with many even heading towards the Japanese soldiers inside the train carriages.

"Aaaaaah!"

One after another, piercing screams echoed through the air. In every carriage hit by the shells, at least a dozen Japanese and puppet troops would be killed or wounded.

If shells were to fall into the carriages through the breach created by the explosion, dozens more people would be killed or injured.