Devil's Army

Leng Feng also sent a congratulatory message, congratulating the two troops on their successful reunion.

General Peng, who was at the command of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army at the time, together with Division Commander Liu and Deputy Division Commander Xu, also sent a congratulatory message to the First Anti-Japanese Army.

From this time on, the First Anti-Japanese Army began to have contacts with the Eighth Route Army Headquarters.

The Eighth Route Army in Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei continued to attack the Japanese army, and the two bases of the First Anti-Japanese Army were connected. The anti-Japanese situation in North China gradually developed in a positive direction.

As the Nanjing government suffered repeated defeats and lost cities and territories, many discordant voices emerged within the party, and calls for peace talks with the Japanese army grew louder.

They believed that since the July 7 Incident, the Nationalist Army and the Japanese Army had fought countless battles, large and small, and no city could be defended. If the war continued, the country would be completely lost. Peace talks might be able to preserve the existing territory.

In fact, the Nanjing government and Japan began to have secret contacts and negotiations in Hong Kong in the second half of 1938.

1938年7月下旬或8月初，代表日本军部的和知鹰二到达香港，提出与中国谈判总原则6条。南京政府派雷嗣尚去香港增加谈判可行性。后因日军在广东大亚湾登陆等原因，南京政府于10月30日命何应钦电令萧振瀛停止和谈。

In 1938, after Japan's Kazunari Ugaki became foreign minister, he was unable to resolve the war in China quickly, so he again extended a hand to induce China to surrender.

Kong Xiangxi, the president of the Executive Yuan of the Nanjing government, sent his secretary Qiao Fusan to start preliminary negotiations with Ugaki's representative, Nakamura Toyoichi, the Japanese Consul General in Hong Kong, in Hong Kong, but the negotiations ultimately failed due to a stalemate over the resignation of the leaders of the Nanjing government.

However, Japan never gave up on peace talks with the Nanjing government, and planned to make the Nanjing government the second Wang Puppet Government.

The Nanjing government did not completely give up the idea of ​​peace talks with the Japanese. However, the mainstream public opinion at that time was to resist Japan, and the leaders of the Nanjing government could not completely ignore public opinion.

The Japanese invaders were determined to give the Nanjing government troops a big warning and force them to sit down at the negotiation table again and make concessions to them.

The Nanjing government forces also urgently needed a major victory to win public support and increase their bargaining chips.

So both sides were preparing for a new major battle.

In the northeast, as the Soviet-Mongolian-Japanese Nomonhan battle intensified, the Japanese army sent its only tank division in the country to Nomonhan.

The Japanese aircraft launched a surprise attack on the Soviet and Mongolian troops over the Khalkha River and won a great victory. Their confidence was boosted and they continued to send troops to Nomonhan.

As the Kwantung Army in Northeast China was gradually transferred to Nomonhan, the pressure on the First Anti-Japanese Army was gradually reduced.

At this time, the Soviet Union sent General Zhukov, known as the "God of War", to organize a counterattack.

He asked Stalin to dispatch 500 tanks, 500 artillery pieces and 500 aircraft to fight against the Japanese Tank Division and the Second Air Division.

When Japanese tanks engaged the newly developed Soviet tanks at Nomonhan, a strange scene occurred: the Japanese tanks' cannons could not penetrate the Soviet tanks, while the Soviet tanks could easily destroy the Japanese tanks.

The war tilted to one side without any suspense, and the Japanese tank division suffered a devastating blow.

The Japanese Second Air Division fought in the air with the Soviet Union's new fighter planes for three days.

The Soviets used the most advanced four-plane two-group combat mode at the time, and their fighter planes were more advanced than the Japanese planes. The Japanese Second Air Division suffered a devastating blow, with 180 of its 166 planes shot down in three days, and lost air superiority.

The Japanese Kwantung Army was unwilling to accept defeat and continued to send a large number of artillery and more than 30,000 Japanese troops into Nomonhan, preparing to avenge the previous humiliation.

At this time, the Japanese Kwantung Army in the Northeast was already stretched to its limits and could not spare a large number of troops to encircle and suppress the First Anti-Japanese Army.

Leng Feng seized the time to expand his territory and launched the Tangshan Campaign and the Qinhuangdao Campaign.

In order to facilitate command, Leng Feng divided the First Anti-Japanese Army into two fronts.

Leng Feng served as the commander of the First Anti-Japanese Army and the First Front Army, and Hu Lang served as the deputy commander of the First Front Army.

The First Front Army consisted of the Army Special Service Regiment, the First Brigade, the Fourth Brigade, the Seventh Brigade, the Eighth Brigade, the Ninth Brigade, the Tenth Brigade, the Thirteenth Brigade, the Fourteenth Brigade, the Fifteenth Brigade, the First Army Independent Brigade, and the Sixteenth Brigade, the Seventeenth Brigade, and the Eighteenth Brigade, with a total force of more than 140,000.

There is also the First Anti-Japanese Army Naval Regiment, with more than 4,000 troops.

The First Anti-Japanese Army Aviation Squadron No. 1 has five Huaxia II fighters, five H-1 bombers, eight Voltaire bombers, and eight Type 98 heavy bombers. It has more than 100 soldiers and more than 200 reserve pilots.

The North China Front Army in the Tangshan base was reorganized into the Second Front Army, with Huilang as commander and Wulang as deputy commander.

The Second Front Army consisted of the Special Service Regiment, the Second Brigade, the Third Brigade, the Fifth Brigade, the Sixth Brigade, the 11th Brigade, the 12th Brigade and the 364th Brigade of the Sichuan Army, with a total force of more than .

Xiaoguanzhuang Airport has eight Huaxia II fighters and ten H-1 bombers, divided into Aviation Squadron 2 and Aviation Squadron 3. There are more than 100 soldiers.