Deng Zhengyun: "The Enemy Advances, We Advance": The Eighth Route Army's Way to Victory in North China
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, facing the fierce offensives of the Japanese army’s "Cage Policy" [1] and "Three-Alls" mopping-up campaigns [2], Mao Zedong proposed a revolutionary guerrilla strategy: transforming defensive warfare into offensive warfare, implementing battles of quick decision within a protracted war, and using interior-line operations to pin down exterior-line operations. He particularly emphasized that "the enemy's base areas must be turned into base areas for guerrilla warfare." This thinking gave birth to the tactical marvel of "When the enemy advances, we advance" (díjìn-wǒjìn). When the Japanese and puppet forces attacked the revolutionary base areas, the main forces of the Eighth Route Army [3] instead drove deep into enemy-occupied areas. Integrating with the masses, they launched a strategic counter-attack characterized as "you come to my house, I go to yours," thereby completely bankrupting the Japanese plot for "total war" and miring them in the swamp of a protracted war. Among numerous classic cases, the heroic deeds of the "three-three system" combat teams and Armed Working Committees (AWCs), as well as the "Red and Black Ledger" system, all demonstrate the unique charm and practical efficacy of the "when the enemy advances, we advance" strategy.
The "Three-Three System" Combat Teams: Combat Cells Like Pervasive Quicksilver
Facing the multi-dimensional blockade network constructed by the Japanese army’s "iron-wall encirclement" tactics, the Eighth Route Army deconstructed its main force units into countless tactical neurons. This tactical fission of "transforming the whole into parts" (huàzhěng-wéilíng) was by no means a passive retreat; rather, it transformed elite combat power into "war molecules" capable of infiltrating the enemy's heartland. These formed a minimum operational closed loop through the flexible organization of "three-three system" [4] combat teams: a backbone Party member or veteran served as the tactical core, mature soldiers were responsible for firepower output, and recruits or militiamen undertook auxiliary tasks. This tiered configuration built a unique logic of survival—even if a local unit took damage, survivors could return to the main force carrying combat experience, achieving "controlled losses and sustainable combat power."
These combat teams infiltrated enemy-occupied areas like liquid metal: hiding in caves by day and attacking key thoroughfares by night. They specifically targeted the Japanese army’s soft underbelly—precisely cutting telephone lines to paralyze communications, conducting targeted demolitions of railway bridges to sever transport, launching mobile ambushes on supply columns to disrupt rhythm, and carrying out targeted eliminations of traitors to disintegrate the puppet military network. Their operational principles were a textbook for guerrilla warfare: lightning raids of "strike and leave," the invisibility of "transforming the whole into parts," and precision strikes following the logic that "to cut off one finger is better than to wound ten." This caused the Japanese army to lose its advantage in heavy weaponry, falling into a tactical predicament of "seeing but being unable to strike, and chasing but being unable to surround."
These combat cells were effectively the nerve endings of the Eighth Route Army. They were both intelligence tentacles, transmitting Japanese movements in real-time via coded systems, and tactical fulcrums, lighting continuous strategic beacons in enemy-occupied areas. When the Japanese discovered that every village harbored secret eyes and every path was filled with traps, their "Rural Pacification Movement" [5] degenerated into a complete farce of chasing shadows. This "you are within me, I am within you" infiltration tactic forced the Japanese to commit over 70% of their troops to rear-area security.
Armed Working Committees: Daggers Thrust into the Enemy’s Heart
Faced with the Japanese army’s "progressive encroachment" and "grid blockade" of the North China base areas, the Eighth Route Army pushed the "when the enemy advances, we advance" strategy to new heights. In 1942, Nie Rongzhen proposed the operational concept of "going to the enemy’s own rear," which gave birth to the Armed Working Committees (AWCs) [6]—elite military-political units integrating special operations, political psychological warfare, and mass work. These "strategic shock troops" composed of military and political elites became the key fulcrum for breaking through the Japanese "total war" system.
The AWCs abandoned traditional harassment modes in favor of "strategic counter-infiltration." Using 3–5 person special operations teams as the basic unit, they disguised themselves as merchants or peasants, using the opportunity of Japanese "mopping-up" campaigns to slip into core areas deemed "Model Public Security Zones"—suburbs of county seats, areas along railway lines, and gaps between pillboxes. The "point-line-plane" infiltration network constructed by the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region ensured that intelligence posts were set up around every enemy stronghold and strike groups were hidden along every major transport artery. The "four-step rail removal method" born along the Beijing-Baoding railway—through the precise destruction of screws, plates, and sleepers combined with mining—paralyzed Japanese transport lines by over 40% per month on average. In the suburbs of Shijiazhuang, a classic case of "disguised grain collection" occurred where AWC members posed as puppet troops to outsmart a Japanese intelligence station, seizing codebooks and rosters.
The AWCs transformed enemy-occupied areas into an "invisible battlefield." The Southern Hebei region pioneered the "white skin, red heart" dual-power system, where village heads (baojia [7]) were installed superficially to deal with the Japanese and puppets, while "Anti-Japanese Democratic Associations" were established in secret. Data from Qinghe County in 1943 showed that 76% of villages achieved a smooth transition of power, rendering the Japanese and puppet grassroots rule a mere "megaphone." The tunnel fortifications in Ranzhuang, Central Hebei, constructed a three-dimensional combat space: "decoy stoves" and "fake mines" were set on the surface, while meeting rooms, rest areas, and armories were opened underground, forming subterranean fortresses with complete drainage systems. During the "May 1st Mopping-up Campaign" of 1942, the militia relied on tunnels to kill or wound 267 Japanese and puppet troops at the cost of only one casualty. The "Swan Feather Fleet" (Yanlingdui) of Baiyangdian converted 28 fast boats into floating fortresses; in 1943, they raided the Ping-Han Railway bridge, creating a case study of destroying a Japanese armored train with zero casualties. In Eastern Hebei, a 20-person AWC moved through seven counties in three months, destroying Japanese "Pacification Demonstration Zones."
The upgraded version of tactics created by the AWCs—"when the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy camps, we harass; when the enemy tires, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue"—completely shattered the Japanese army's projected battlefield of "offensive at the front, stability in the rear." This ubiquitous guerrilla warfare in the enemy's heartland left the Japanese unable to attend to both head and tail; their painstakingly managed "occupied areas" eventually became a new, flaming frontline, thereby reversing the situation of strategic passivity.
The "Red and Black Ledger": A Political Blade Putting Psychology First
The deeper dimension of the "when the enemy advances, we advance" strategy was the political and psychological offensive launched by the Eighth Route Army in the behind-the-lines theater. The "Red and Black Ledger" (hónghēizhàng) system, pioneered by the military and civilians of Central Hebei, used precise psychological manipulation as a blade to strike directly at the nerve center of the Japanese "using Chinese to rule Chinese" system. It stands as a masterpiece of the wisdom of people's war.
This system was not an accumulation of simple records of good and evil, but rather a governance system based on quantitative assessment. Archives were established for puppet officials at the village level, forming multi-dimensional evaluation models covering everything from "frequency of oppressing the people" to "frequency of leaking information," and from "attitude toward grain requisition" to "family background." Archives from a county in Central Hebei show that by 1943, hundreds of dynamic files had been established, with 72 individuals marked as "targets to be won over." The accompanying dual-track mechanism of "red point incentives + black point deterrence" transformed political positions into chips for survival: 3 red points could be exchanged for a "protective pass," and 5 red points for a "certificate of merit"; meanwhile, 2 black points triggered a warning, and 5 black points placed one on a "liquidation list." This quantitative management converted moral judgment into a game of survival, creating powerful psychological pressure.
In the Southern Hebei theater, the Eighth Route Army posted notices directly on the iron doors of pillboxes and at the head of puppet soldiers' beds, creating "positioned propaganda." A strange sight appeared in Wei County, Southern Hebei: "Red and Black Ledger" notices were posted alongside Japanese proclamations. A puppet platoon leader received a red point for "assisting transport" but was also marked with a black point for "forcibly conscripting labor"; the exposure of this contradiction catalyzed cognitive dissonance. In Shenze County, the "Black Flag Flying for Three Days" caused such a stir that it forced a puppet captain to plead for a chance to "turn over a new leaf." Accompanying storytelling performances titled The Legend of the Red and Black Ledger were sung at markets, using karmic narratives to reinforce the system's deterrence: those burdened with black ledgers were executed, while those with full red ledgers were appointed to positions, building a clear expectation of survival.
The true power of the "Red and Black Ledger" lay in creating an atmosphere of "all-time, all-space surveillance." Every puppet official became a "transparent person" whose governing behavior was directly linked to his probability of survival. Out of 37 puppet local governments in Shenze County, 29 had fallen into paralysis by 1944. Statistics show that 68% of the intelligence for the "white skin, red heart" regimes in Central Hebei originated from within. The Japanese discovered to their alarm that their rule had fallen into a "quantum superposition"—every puppet soldier was both a tool of suppression and a potential traitor. Data from the North China Front Army in 1943 showed that the desertion rate of puppet troops soared by 400%, and the combat passivity rate reached 72%, completely disintegrating the foundation of the "using Chinese to rule Chinese" strategy.
"When the enemy advances, we advance" was a strategic innovation of Mao Zedong’s military thought. It was by no means passive avoidance of war, but a model of breaking a deadlock through wisdom. In a desperate situation, the Eighth Route Army creatively employed "three-three system" harassment, AWC infiltration, and "Red and Black Ledger" psychological warfare, transforming the Japanese rear into a frontline for counter-attack and miring the enemy in a swamp of dispersed forces and severed supplies. The essence of this tactic lies in transforming passivity into initiative, trading space for time, and accumulating small victories into a great one. It demonstrates that the key to strategic victory lies in breaking through conventional thinking, "hearing thunder in the silence," and opening a path to survival even in the most desperate straits.
(The author is an Associate Professor at the School of Marxism, Nanjing Tech University) Source: Chinese Social Sciences Net – Chinese Social Sciences Today, June 19, 2025