Yanmen Pass
Hao relinquished his command in 1937 after battling communist forces for decades, but returned after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. By the time he got back to the front line from Sichuan, the IJA had already broken through Yanmen Pass and were converging on Xinkou. Under Wei Lihuang's 14th Army Group, Hao led his 9th Army and Shanxi clique's 19th, 35th and 61st Armies in the defense of Xinkou.