What Did the Hundred Regiments Offensive Commanded by Peng Dehuai Really Accomplish

The Hundred Regiments Campaign: How Peng Dehuai Shook the Enemy with a Single Thunder

At exactly 8 PM on the evening of August 20, 1940, the night sky over the North China Plain was suddenly torn asunder. From a thousand-li front line stretching from Shanxi and Hebei to Chahar and Jehol, soldiers from 105 regiments of the Eighth Route Army launched simultaneous attacks. Explosives detonated on Japanese military railways, gunfire echoed through mountain passes, and signal flares illuminated the night sky. This massive sabotage campaign, lasting exactly three and a half months and involving 220,000 Eighth Route Army soldiers, would become the Hundred Regiments Campaign, which shocked both China and the world. The supreme commander of this battle was Peng Dehuai—tall in stature, hot-tempered, and nicknamed "General Peng the Fierce"—the deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army and the soul figure of the forward command headquarters. What exactly did the Hundred Regiments Campaign accomplish? Why did it become the largest-scale campaign ever conducted by the Eighth Route Army during the War of Resistance Against Japan? And how did this "fiery furnace" emerging from Hunan command such an epic battle?

Why Launch the Hundred Regiments Campaign?

The situation of China's resistance war in 1940 had reached a dangerous crossroads.

Internationally: France was defeated by Germany in June, with nearly all of Europe falling under Nazi occupation. The Japanese military seized this opportunity to intensify aggression in Asia, preparing to move southward into Southeast Asia to seize British and French colonies.

The Nationalist front: After the Zaoyi Campaign in May 1940, the elite forces of the Nationalists suffered devastating losses, and General Zhang Zizhong died in battle. Nationalist forces throughout central China entered a defensive posture, with signs of "passive resistance" beginning to emerge.

The North China theater: Japanese commander Tada Shun of the North China Front Army implemented a "cage policy," using railways as pillars, roads as chains, and pillboxes as locks, dividing all of North China into thousands of tiny squares and gradually encircling and eliminating the Eighth Route Army's anti-Japanese base areas. By the summer of 1940, the anti-Japanese base areas in North China had shrunk by nearly half, and the Eighth Route Army's operational space was severely compressed.

The most dire signal came from international opinion: Some Chinese newspapers and foreign correspondents began questioning whether the Eighth Route Army was truly fighting the Japanese. Why were Eighth Route Army military achievements almost invisible? Some Nationalist figures even spread rumors that "the CCP in the enemy's rear is conserving strength and hiding its true capabilities," implying they were not genuinely committed to anti-Japanese resistance.

Facing this situation, Eighth Route Army Deputy Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai, Chief of Staff Zuo Quan, and Political Director Luo Ruiqing held an all-night discussion at Yangjiayu in the Taihang Mountains and made a decision that would shock Yan'an: to launch a massive sabotage campaign, to break through the Japanese "cage policy" in one blow, and to prove to the entire nation and world the Eighth Route Army's determination to resist Japan.

A Shocking Decision: 220,000 Troops Attack Simultaneously

On July 22, Peng Dehuai issued the "Battle Preparation Order." The scale of the order astonished the staff officers. The Eighth Route Army's 105 regiments and 220,000 troops, distributed across the North China Plain stretching across five provinces and spanning 2,500 kilometers in depth, would attack simultaneously.

This was not merely a single campaign but a strategic-level large-scale sabotage operation. According to Peng Dehuai's conception, this operation would unfold in three stages:

First Stage (August 20 – September 10): Total transportation sabotage. Concentrated destruction of four critical Japanese supply lines: the Zhengtai Railway (Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan), the Tongpu Railway, the Pinghan Railway, and the Jinjie Railway. Cut off the Japanese army's "lifeline."

Second Stage (September 10 – October 5): Positional assault operations. Capture Japanese military strongpoints and pillboxes constructed in the depths of base areas and eliminate Japanese garrisons along railway and road lines.

Third Stage (October 6 – December 5): Counter-sweeping operations. The Japanese would inevitably launch large-scale punitive sweeping campaigns; the Eighth Route Army must prepare for counter-sweeping warfare.

After issuing this battle order, Peng Dehuai did not fully inform Mao Zedong in Yan'an, because from the perspective of military scale, political impact, and risk consequences, this decision was one for which Peng Dehuai himself bore primary responsibility. Mao Zedong only received the complete battle report on the first day of the campaign's launch (August 20), by which time the Hundred Regiments Campaign was already fully underway across the thousand-li front line.

The First Night: Flames Spread Across North China

At 8 PM on the evening of August 20, the scheduled time arrived. At the Eighth Route Army's forward command headquarters in Yangjiayu in the Taihang Mountains, Peng Dehuai stood before the war map, lit a cigarette, and waited for the first battle report.

Jizhaji Military District: Under the command of Nie Rongzhen, troops launched fierce attacks on the Jingxing Coal Mine and娘子 Pass on the eastern section of the Zhengtai Railway. The Jingxing Coal Mine was completely destroyed, mine shafts were blown up, and coke stockpiles were incinerated.

129th Division: Under the command of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, troops attacked the western section of the Zhengtai Railway and the northern section of the Tongpu Railway, destroying dozens of kilometers of track and capturing over 100 Japanese strongpoints.

120th Division: Under the command of He Long and Guan Xiangying, troops in northwestern Shanxi attacked Japanese strongpoints, severing the railway line from Datong to Taiyuan.

The Shandong Column and other Eighth Route Army units launched responsive attacks on various sections of the Jinjie, Deshi, and Jiaonan railways.

In a single night, all of North China became a battlefield. The greatest shock to the Japanese was that they had never imagined the Eighth Route Army capable of organizing such a large-scale coordinated operation. Commander Tada Shun at North China Front Army headquarters received initial reports: "The Zhengta Railway is paralyzed, large quantities of track, bridges, and tunnels have been destroyed, communication lines cut, and numerous strongpoints lost." He immediately issued orders: "Urgently mobilize all available forces and immediately launch a counterattack."

The Bloody Battle of 娘子关: The Decisive Engagement on the Zhengta Road

The most savage and strategically significant battle of the Hundred Regiments Campaign was the Battle of 娘子关.

Located east of Yangquan in Shanxi, 娘子关 was the critical bottleneck on the western section of the Zhengta Railway. The Japanese garrison there consisted of elite troops, and they had constructed a formidable network of pillboxes. On August 21, Nie Rongzhen's Jizhaji Military District troops began their assault on 娘子关.

On the first day, the Eighth Route Army captured several outer positions of 娘子关, but the Japanese defenders on the main position, relying on fortified works, launched frenzied counterattacks. The Eighth Route Army organized multiple charges, suffering heavy casualties. When Peng Dehuai received the battle reports at the forward command headquarters, he personally came to the front lines to oversee operations. He told the company commanders: "The Zhengta Road is the Japanese backbone; 娘子关 is the joint on that backbone. We must break it!"

In the early hours of August 22, the Eighth Route Army launched its final general offensive. Soldiers charged forward despite enemy machine gun fire, using their flesh and blood to storm the main position, using hand grenades and bayonets to eliminate Japanese strongpoints one by one. After six hours of intense fighting, 娘子关 finally fell.

In the 娘子关 campaign, the Eighth Route Army suffered nearly a thousand casualties, but they completely paralyzed the most critical section of the Zhengta Railway. From that point on, Japanese military transportation between Shanxi and Hebei was completely severed, leaving the Japanese garrison in Taiyuan facing severe supply difficulties.

Guanjiahuang: Peng Dehuai's Most Heartbreaking Battle

From October 29 to 31, 1940, on the Guanjiahuang hilltop in Wuxiang County, Shanxi, the most brutal battle of the third stage of the Hundred Regiments Campaign took place.

A Japanese Okazaki detachment of over 500 men found themselves besieged on top of Guanjiahuang Hill. Peng Dehuai issued the order: "We must completely annihilate this Japanese force to avenge our fallen comrades!" He mobilized over 10,000 elite troops from the 129th Division's 386th Brigade, the New 1st Brigade, the Decisive 1st Column, and other units to encircle and attack these 500 Japanese soldiers.

But the Japanese combat capability far exceeded expectations. Entrenched on the hilltop, they established fortifications and set up a crossfire network with machine guns and mortars. The Eighth Route Army's charge after charge was repelled. After three days and two nights of fierce fighting, Eighth Route Army casualties were severe—over 2,000 killed and wounded—while enemy casualties numbered over 400. Detachment Commander Okazaki was killed, but the remaining Japanese soldiers were rescued by surrounding Japanese forces and broke through the encirclement.

The Battle of Guanjiahuang was, by Peng Dehuai's own admission, a tactical defeat. He later wrote in his memoirs: "Guanjiahuang was one of the greatest military mistakes of my life. I underestimated Japanese combat capability and allowed soldiers to pay too high a price with their lives." After the battle, both Chen Geng and Liu Bocheng directly expressed their disagreement with Peng Dehuai.

Yet from another perspective, the Battle of Guanjiahuang demonstrated to the Japanese that even an elite 500-man detachment could only barely escape when surrounded by the Eighth Route Army. This realization forced the Japanese to subsequently avoid deploying small forces on deep sweeping operations into base area heartlands.

The Final Results of the Hundred Regiments Campaign

The Hundred Regiments Campaign lasted from August 20 to December 5, 1940, spanning exactly three and a half months. The final battle results sent shock waves throughout the nation:

• Conducted 1,824 major and minor battles
• Annihilated 20,645 Japanese soldiers and 5,155 puppet troops
• Captured 281 Japanese soldiers and 18,407 puppet troops
• Destroyed 474 kilometers of railway and 1,502 kilometers of highway
• Demolished 213 bridges, 11 tunnels, and 37 railway stations
• Captured 2,993 Japanese and puppet strongpoints
• Seized 5,437 firearms of various types and 53 artillery pieces

Of course, the Eighth Route Army itself paid an enormous price, with over 17,000 casualties, including Vice Chief of Staff Zuo Quan, who died heroically during subsequent anti-sweeping operations.

Why the Hundred Regiments Campaign Was So Significant

The significance of the Hundred Regiments Campaign far exceeded the numerical results of the battle itself.

First, it completely shattered the "cage policy." The railway network and strongpoint system that the Japanese had painstakingly constructed over two years was destroyed in a single night, and the anti-Japanese base areas throughout North China were reconnected into a unified whole. By spring 1941, the Eighth Route Army's operational space had expanded by nearly double.

Second, it reinvigorated national resistance confidence. Battle reports from the Hundred Regiments Campaign spread throughout the nation through three channels: Chongqing, Yan'an, and the occupied areas. Chiang Kai-shek himself sent a personal telegram on August 26 commending Peng Dehuai: "Your forces launched the Hundred Regiments campaign, sabotaged the Zhengta line, severed enemy communications, and annihilated incalculable numbers. Your troops' bravery and decisiveness are truly praiseworthy." Major newspapers across the nation featured the Eighth Route Army's military achievements on their front pages, and national resistance confidence surged.

Third, it enhanced the international reputation of the CCP and the Eighth Route Army. International media coverage of the Hundred Regiments Campaign revised previous biases against the CCP. The British Times commented: "This victory proves through stubborn resistance that China's anti-war capabilities far exceed what the outside world previously estimated."

Fourth, it exposed Japanese weakness. The Hundred Regiments Campaign made the Japanese realize that their control over North China had developed serious cracks. Subsequently, the Japanese were forced to redeploy troops from the main front to strengthen North China defenses, which objectively reduced pressure on the Nationalist front.

The True Character of General Peng

Why did Peng Dehuai dare to launch this unprecedented campaign? Beyond strategic considerations, it also reflected his personal character.

Peng Dehuai came from a poor peasant family in Xiangtan, Hunan, where he learned to work hard from childhood. He enlisted at age fourteen and experienced multiple identities as a soldier in the Hunan Army, the National Revolutionary Army, and the Red Army. His character was widely recognized as "fiery, straightforward, and uncompromising." During the Red Army period, he was renowned for daring to fight difficult battles and engage in brutal combat. When crossing the Chishui four times, he personally led the vanguard company breaking through enemy siege lines; in the bloody battle at the Xiangjiang River, he commanded troops to cross under artillery fire; when attacking Zunyi, he led the charge through the city gates.

Peng Dehuai's most outstanding characteristic was his willingness to assume responsibility. He was not afraid of subordinates contradicting him, nor was he afraid to speak frankly to superiors. When deciding to launch the Hundred Regiments Campaign in 1940, he did not fully consult with Yan'an, because he knew that whether the leadership approved such a massive operation was not the most important consideration. What mattered was that North China desperately needed such a major action to prove that the Eighth Route Army existed and was fighting. This sense of responsibility was the unique quality that defined Peng Dehuai as a military commander.

The Echo of History

Today, when visitors enter the Hundred Regiments Campaign Memorial Museum in Wuxiang County, Shanxi, they can see an enormous relief sculpture of Peng Dehuai standing before the war map at the forward command headquarters, with thick smoke billowing from railway lines behind him. Beside the relief is the original order Peng Dehuai signed at that time: "...All army corps must simultaneously launch attacks at 8 PM on August 20..."

More than eighty years have passed, and the Hundred Regiments Campaign has become a symbolic emblem in the history of Chinese resistance. It tells posterity that in a nation's darkest hour, a group of soldiers—dedicated in conviction, steely in will, and decisive in command—can use their blood and wisdom to ignite the flames of hope for an entire nation.

Peng Dehuai was the commander of that moment. His fiery nature, his forthrightness, his willingness to assume responsibility—all transformed into a thunderclap across the Taihang Mountains night sky, allowing all of China to hear the echo of inevitable victory in resistance war. This was the Hundred Regiments Campaign. This was the military legacy General Peng left to China.