Battle of Pingxingguan

• 1. Introduction

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  The Battle of Pingxingguan turned on one road through a narrow defile worn into the loess, with no exit for several kilometres. Chinese and Japanese forces met there in late September, in northwestern Shanxi. It was the first significant confrontation in that region after full-scale war began between the two countries. The fighting lasted almost ten days. Why did a celebrated ambush sit inside a campaign that was ultimately lost? Which commanders made the choices that gave up so much ground? And why do historians still argue over who deserves the credit?

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• 2. Divided Command

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  At the end of July 1937, Japanese forces captured Beiping, the city now called Beijing. From there they pushed along the Beijing-Baotou railway toward Inner Mongolia. Chiang Kai-shek had foreseen the move. He appointed Yan Xishan, the Shanxi warlord, as Pacification Director of Taiyuan. On paper, Yan held authority over every Chinese military force in his theatre. That included Lin Biao's 115th Division of the Communist 8th Route Army, the ex-Kuomintang troops of Liu Ruming, and various Central Army contingents that answered to Chiang. In practice, none of them took orders from Yan the way his own provincial army did. Whether he could turn paper authority into real control would be tested by the Japanese 5th Division, then advancing on Huailai County in Chahar.

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• 3. Road to the Pass

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  A Japanese column raced into Shanxi along a railway that the Chinese made no attempt to destroy. It consisted mainly of the 5th Division and the 11th Independent Mixed Brigade. On the 10th of September the 5th Division captured Yu County, and the 16th Brigade took Yangquan. The Chinese abandoned Datong on the 13th. That same day the 16th Brigade struck the 84th Division at Huoshaoling, while the 5th Division hit the 21st Division, the 73rd Division and the 3rd Independent Brigade. The fighting raged all day. Lü Chaoran, commander of the 423rd Regiment, was killed in action.

  On the 14th of September the 5th Division occupied Guangling County. The next day it attacked the 424th Regiment of the 73rd Division at the Songshushan position and had captured it by morning. Liu Fengbin, a divisional commander, personally led four infantry companies to retake the hill. He was badly wounded, and more than half of his troops were killed or wounded. The Chinese army then fell back to a line running from Yanmen Pass, on the Great Wall, east to the mountain pass of Pingxingguan.

  Yan Xishan, commander of the Second War Zone, moved the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army and Central Army units that had withdrawn along the Beiping-Suiyuan Railway. He placed them along the Inner Great Wall line at Pingxingguan and Yanmen Pass. Meanwhile the 21st Brigade of the Japanese 5th Division defeated the Nationalist 73rd Division at Guangling. It then broke the line held by the Independent 3rd Brigade of the 33rd Army at the Guangling-Lingqiu border, and took Lingqiu County on the 20th of September.

  On the 21st, Lieutenant General Seishirō Itagaki, who commanded the 5th Division, ordered Colonel Toshiwaza Miura's 21st Brigade to lead an assault on Pingxingguan with three battalions. By the 22nd, Japanese forces had reached Pingxingguan, Guangu and Dongpaochi. There they met stubborn resistance from three regiments of the 8th Independent Brigade, part of the Nationalist 33rd Army. Two battalions of the 21st Regiment also marched northwest toward Pingxingguan through Hunyuan, Xiaodaokou and Xihekou. With that movement, the Battle of Pingxingguan officially began.

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• 4. Setting the Trap

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  In late August and early September, the Eighth Route Army's 115th and 120th Divisions crossed the Yellow River under the direction of Mao Zedong and Zhu De. Yan Xishan had also told the Eighth Route Army to advance toward Lingqiu, expecting a pivotal fight in northern Shanxi. On the 17th of September, Mao sent Zhu De, the army's Commander-in-Chief, further instructions. The 120th Division was to head for Yanmen Pass, and the 115th Division for Pingxingguan. On the 23rd of September, Zhu De, Peng Dehuai and Ren Bishi moved army headquarters to Nanru Village in Wutai County so they could oversee operations directly. After talks with the Nationalist 71st Division, the Eighth Route Army decided to launch an extermination campaign near Pingxingguan.

  On the evening of the 22nd of September, the 115th Division, led by Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen, reached Shangzai Town southeast of Pingxingguan. The next day it held a mobilization meeting for every officer at company level and above. The goal was to help the Nationalist 73rd Division withdraw from Lingqiu County. The plan gave the 343rd Brigade's 685th and 686th Regiments the main attack. The 344th Brigade's 687th Regiment would block reinforcements, and the 688th Regiment became the main reserve. The cavalry battalion would work between Lingqiu and Guangling to cut Japanese supply lines. Afterward the main force hurried to Ranzhuang Village, 15 kilometres southeast of Pingxingguan.

  On the 24th of September, the Nationalist garrison at Pingxingguan offered the 115th Division a joint plan. The Eighth Route Army would make the frontal assault, while Nationalist forces handled defense and flanking moves. Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen approved it after careful thought. That night, in torrential rain, the 343rd Brigade moved into the Baiyatai area. The main force stayed hidden on the eastern slopes of the valley between Xiaozhai and Laoyemiao, and the division command post was set up on a hill southeast of Laoyemiao.

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• 5. The Ambush

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  At 7 a.m. on the 25th of September 1937, Japanese military trucks began rolling through the ambush area. Soon afterward the logistical column of the 21st Brigade entered the killing ground. It held around 100 trucks, more than 200 carts and a contingent of cavalry. The 685th and 686th Regiments opened fire together with rifles and machine guns. Then they swept into the valley for hand-to-hand fighting along the roadway. The Japanese tried to seize the commanding height at Laoyemiao, but the 3rd Battalion of the 686th Regiment stopped them at heavy cost. By afternoon the 687th Regiment joined in and tightened the encirclement.

  The haul from that single day was large. Japanese losses topped 1,000, and more than 100 vehicles and 200 carts were destroyed. Chinese forces captured one Type 92 infantry cannon, over 2,000 shells, more than 20 machine guns, over 1,000 rifles and over 50 warhorses. It was the first significant triumph for Chinese forces on the frontal battlefield since full-scale war began. It became known as the Victory at Pingxingguan.

  Farther away, Yang Chengwu's Independent Regiment of the 115th Division had reached Yaozhan Village by noon on the 24th of September. The village sat on the road between Laiyuan and Lingqiu. The regiment's 1st Battalion occupied Yimaling to hold up Japanese advances, and its 2nd Battalion captured Sanshan Town northeast of Lingqiu to cut the route between Guangling and Lingqiu. The 3rd Battalion stayed in reserve. At dawn on the 25th, two Japanese regiments came into Yimaling from Laiyuan. The Eighth Route Army opened fire as they entered range, and the fight quickly turned to close quarters.

  At 3 p.m. word of the victory at Pingxingguan arrived, and the Independent Regiment stepped up its attack. Some units struck the Japanese from behind and forced them back to Laiyuan. The 1st Battalion chased them to the edge of the city before pulling back. Japanese losses there passed 400, and the regiment gained substantial military supplies. The rest of the line was not so fortunate, and at Dongpaochi the Nationalist 71st Division was about to need help of its own.

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• 6. Dongpaochi and Yaozijian

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  Near Dongpaochi, the Nationalist 71st Division attacked almost 2,000 withdrawing Japanese soldiers. The Japanese counterattacked to the northwest, trying to break out. The 17th Army was supposed to flank them from Tuanchengkou, north of Pingxingguan. Instead it left its position, fearing encirclement. That let the Japanese take the ground from Yaozijian to Xipaochi, and they nearly surrounded the 71st Division. At this critical moment the Eighth Route Army's 686th Regiment struck Japanese forces around Dongpaochi. The 685th Regiment retook high ground west of Guangu and Xinzhuang, which blocked Japanese reinforcements.

  General Chen Changjie soon led the 61st Army to Dongpaochi and forced the Japanese back to Tuanchengkou. The breakout attempt was not fully stopped, but the move saved the 71st Division from encirclement. Two battalions of the 434th Regiment, 217th Brigade, of the 61st Army then moved forward and retook Yaozijian.

  After this clash, the Japanese 5th Division stopped pushing against Pingxingguan. Yang Aiyuan and Sun Chu, two subordinates of Yan Xishan, could not mobilize the Central Army forces. As a result, overall command of the operation passed to General Fu Zuoyi.

  Japanese troops at Guangu and Tuanchengkou were by now firmly encircled by Chinese forces. Even so, the Japanese attacked Yaozijian in a pincer from both places. The Chinese 434th Regiment defended fiercely, but the enemy's greater numbers overwhelmed it. Its commander Cheng Jixian and battalion commanders Fu Guanying and Liang Shirong were lost along with the rest of the regiment, which suffered over a thousand casualties. Fewer than 100 soldiers escaped. The 433rd Regiment, sent as reinforcement, did not reach the battlefield in time.

  On the 26th of September, the Japanese stepped up their assault on Dongpaochi with aircraft and artillery. The fighting ran into the 27th. Only 148 men survived from the 500-strong 1st Battalion of the Chinese 623rd Regiment, which had guarded the area. At Guangu, Chinese troops kept resisting but eventually lost a key height. Nearly 300 cadets then arrived to strengthen the garrison and suffered more than 80 casualties. They captured almost 200 Japanese heavy weapons, including heavy machine guns and grenade launchers. Throughout, the Eighth Route Army kept harassing the Japanese rear.

  Fu Zuoyi, with Yan Xishan's consent, decided to shift the 35th Army from Yanmen Pass to the Tuanchengkou area. The aim was to encircle Japanese forces around Caijiayu in Lingqiu County, next to Pingxingguan, and force a decisive battle.

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• 7. Collapse at Ruyuekou

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  Before the 35th Army could reach Tuanchengkou, the Japanese Tojo Detachment changed its plan. It dropped its attack on Yanmen Pass and moved south from Ying County toward Ruyuekou, which lies between Mount Heng and Yanmen Pass. Three regiments of the 203rd Brigade of the 34th Army defended the area.

  On the 27th of September, the Japanese attacked Ruyuekou with planes, tanks, artillery and Mongol auxiliary forces. The defenders took heavy casualties, and the position was quickly overrun. Brigade Commander Liang Jiantang rallied the survivors and pulled back to the heights between Ruyuekou and Songjiayao. There he and Battalion Commander Chu Shouchang were killed, and Songjiayao fell. Fewer than one regiment of Chinese troops got away.

  Soon afterward, the Independent 2nd Brigade of the 19th Army, stationed at Yanmen Pass, tried a flanking move to retake Ruyuekou. Japanese cavalry scattered it, and an entire regiment was lost. On the 29th of September, the county seat of Fanshi fell to the Japanese. That tore a wide gap in the Chinese line and directly threatened the rear of the main battlefield at Pingxingguan.

  Yan Xishan feared the Japanese might cut the route from Ekou to Mount Wutai and trap his retreat. Without finding out how many Japanese were at Fanshi, he ordered a complete withdrawal from the Yanmen Pass-Pingxingguan line. Forces fell back to the area around Xinkou, Xin County and Mount Wutai. He rejected a plan from Fu Zuoyi and Chen Changjie to counterattack Fanshi and close the breach. The Japanese were then ordered to advance on Taiyuan, which began the Battle of Xinkou.

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• 8. Contested Memory

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  The official history of the Anti-Japanese War put the casualty ratio between Japanese and Nationalist armies at 1 to 13.38. Japan occupied Pingxingguan, and both sides prepared for the next stage of the Battle of Taiyuan at Xinkou. The same history recorded the 25th of September ambush differently from the tallies above. It said the 115th Division wiped out a battalion and destroyed 80 trucks at Caijiayu and Xiaozhai Village.

  Communist accounts treat Pingxingguan as a textbook case of Red guerrilla tactics, inspired by Mao Zedong's idea of people's war. The victory lifted Chinese morale and raised the Chinese Communist Party's standing with ordinary people. Party leaders often pointed to the battle as proof of their resolve and effectiveness against the Japanese occupation.

  Professor Jiang Keshi offered a pointed comparison. He believed the Eighth Group Army fought much better, since 6,000 of its soldiers killed or wounded 240 Japanese in a day. By his count, 60,000 soldiers of the Shanxi-Suiyuan army killed or wounded 1,266 Japanese over a week. Yet he also criticized how far the ambush was publicized, to the point of erasing the Shanxi-Suiyuan army. That army had also fought bloody battles for a week at Pingxingguan and Ruyuekou. The Japanese army itself called the fight against the Nationalists at Pingxingguan a hard battle.

  In 1961, the Pingxingguan battlefield, which includes Laoyemiao, was listed among China's first Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level. It became one of the earliest recognized heritage sites of the Anti-Japanese War. Its main scenic area has five zones: Pingxingguan Pass, the Battle Memorial Hall, the Qiaogou major battlefield, Laoyemiao and Dengfengmiao.

  In 2014, the National Cultural Heritage Administration spent 5.98 million yuan to rebuild the Pingxingguan gate city in Ming Dynasty style, drawing on Yanmen Pass and Niangzi Pass. The original fortification had been destroyed in 1939. In 2017, a further 3.5 million yuan went to restoring 11 sites, including the Laoyemiao battlefield and its signal towers. A memorial monument now stands at the Qiaogou battlefield.

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