September 7, 1940, Li County, Shanxi Province
Wang Yue is fighting fiercely there in 2023, and the sword-fighting time and space in 1940 has not stopped. The little devils who have been suppressed by the Eighth Route Army in many provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan finally took action. The Japanese North China Expeditionary Army dispatched two divisions. , combined with armored troops, aviation troops and water supply troops, broke into Li County, the core hinterland of the Taiyue Military Region.
At this time, the 129th Division and the main force of the Taiyue Military Region were still besieging Datong City. The two sides invested nearly 200,000 troops and fought fiercely for several days. They were about to capture this strong city in northern Shanxi. It is said that the World War II zone was already in Let’s study the matter of appointing officials.
Regarding the large-scale concentration of Japanese troops, the headquarters and the 129th Division also had predictions. The Eighth Route Army was about to capture Datong. The Japanese would only come out if they did not gather. But this time, Neji Okamura deceived everyone. , in addition to the core team, even the commander of the First Army, Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshio, believed that General Okamura was going to fight the Eighth Route Army to the death under Datong City.
But just when everyone was looking forward to the decisive battle in Datong, the Japanese army's heavy military group actually attacked the Taiyue base area, catching everyone off guard and giving them no time to make arrangements.
The Taiyue Military Region has many troops left behind in the base area, including the 129th Division. The regular army of the Taiyue Military Region has four regiments, and the tank troops, artillery, and aviation troops are fully equipped, well-trained, well-equipped, and have sufficient material reserves, plus militia and guerrilla troops. The team has no less than 50,000 troops, and ordinary Japanese raids cannot shake it.
But there were too many Japanese troops. The strength of both sides was not proportional at all. Moreover, it was a sudden attack with fierce force and full strength. It had no intention of holding back. The Eighth Route Army was forced to move after losing more than 5,000 troops. This Only then did the Japanese army enter the hinterland of the base area.
Different from the previous raids, this time the Japanese army broke into the base area and immediately launched a large-scale massacre of civilians. In order to better carry out the massacre and shock the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese army did not even bring the Imperial Association Army with them this time. He brought tens of thousands of volunteers composed of expatriates and ronin to supplement the troops.
Although the Japanese army has implemented the "Three Guangs Policy" in North China since 1939, it was only aimed at some areas with resistance, base areas, and guerrilla areas, mostly rural areas where the Eighth Route Army had been active. It targeted those areas and counties controlled by tame traitors. The Japanese sweeper troops generally will not move.
After all, after the incident in Jinling, there were a lot of troubles within the Japs. Matsui Iwane, Furu Hisao and other thief chiefs had all been punished, and no one wanted this to happen to them.
But this time, the Japanese troops sealed off the county seat and city gates of Li County as soon as they arrived, and then sent troops under the cover of armored vehicles to carry out a systematic and planned massacre of residential areas. The old, weak, women, children, young men and women were all spared. It was a purely mechanical massacre, with no arrests or interrogations. No matter what your identity was, even if you held the Japanese flag, it would not work. The soldiers had one task, which was to kill all Chinese people.
The Japanese troops were killing people in the front, and the expatriate volunteers were following behind to collect the corpses. They gathered the corpses outside the city, threw them into large pits dug in advance, and burned them. During the burning process, they did not forget to throw in some messy rifles and rifles. Lunch boxes, belts, cap badges, etc. are put in, the purpose is self-evident.
After destroying the corpses and eliminating traces, the Japanese Volunteer Team looted the city again. Anything of value that might be helpful to the Eighth Route Army was their target. Anything that could be taken away would be packed and taken away, and anything that could not be taken away would be destroyed. Even the millstones and stone rollers in the city were not left by the Eighth Route Army. They were all smashed.
After the robbery was over, it was to set fire. The Japanese engineers personally took action, not only burning the city to the ground, but also using explosives to completely destroy the city wall. In this way, even if the Eighth Route Army later recaptured the city, the city that the Eighth Route Army had built for several years would still be destroyed. will be discarded.
After killing them in the city, the Japanese targeted the traitors in Li County who had moved towards them. What can I say about these traitors? When the Eighth Route Army came, they were enlightened gentry. When the Japanese came, they actively joined the Maintenance Committee. To put it bluntly, They are just a bunch of outsiders. As long as they can save their wealth and life, they don't care who rules them.
In the eyes of the Japanese, these so-called good people are unstable factors, and they have accumulated a large number of personnel and property in their hands. If they continue to stay in the local area, these personnel and property must belong to the Eighth Route Army. Potential resources will always threaten oneself. How many of these people's families do not have one or two Eighth Route Army soldiers?
kill! Continue to kill. How many people can be killed by arresting people all over the mountains and plains? Killing people with hard work is wasteful and has no benefits. Why not attack traitors and landlords? Even small traitors and landlords have dozens of people in their families. It was much more convenient to kill together, so with Li County as the center, the indiscriminate massacre by the Japanese expanded again. Every village was ignited with flames. The smell of blood and barbecue mixed with each other, filling the air and making people feel... Gagging.
In the past, the Japanese were scratching their heads at the common people and guerrillas who were hiding in the mountains. Entering the mountains to encircle and suppress them would require a large amount of troops and resources, and you might suffer considerable losses. But if you don’t encircle and suppress them, the Eighth Route Army guerrillas will definitely They will appear at the right time, and then they will attack you all at once. They will use black guns, lay mines, throw grenades, prevent fires, and engage in sabotage. All kinds of methods are endless, making the Japanese army exhausted.
But this time the Japanese army was different from before. They actually customized a one-pound incendiary bomb, and then sent planes from Pingjin and Taiyuan to drop it liberally on the mountains and forests around Li County, causing wildfires without hesitation, and There are many wildfires and there is no way to extinguish them. We can only wait for rain.
But in September 1940, it had not rained for half a month, the plants were all dry, and even some rivers were dry. And at this moment, even a light rain will not have any effect, because the fire is so big that it cannot be extinguished by ordinary rainfall.
Not to mention, after a series of actions, the Japanese water supply troops also dropped biological and chemical weapons liberally within the base area. Every river, every pond, and every well was injected with cholera by the Japanese. Japanese planes even dropped thousands of Tons of plague-contaminated rags and cotton wool covered an area of nearly a thousand square kilometers. It can be said that not only the entire northwestern Shanxi base area, but also the two four-year Japanese-occupied areas became epidemic areas.
In just a few days, more than 50,000 people were directly massacred in the Eighth Route Army base area, and hundreds of thousands more were infected. Under such circumstances, the entire Taiyue base area has been treated like a ghost.
Some people died, but not completely...
