In June 1938, Chiang Kai-shek fell ill, not lightly, and had not improved for several days.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek had just gone to inspect the situation of the bursting embankment at the mouth of the Yellow River, but he suddenly collapsed, and for a time people's hearts fluctuated and rumors spread.
There is a rumor that Chiang Kai-shek saw three dragons and was frightened silly.
This statement spread more and more, and even Song Meiling recorded the relevant content in her diary.
However, today we know that there is no evidence of the existence of this creature.
Is this statement true? Why do people have such rumors? Why did Chiang Kai-shek faint exactly?
Replace the army with water and deal with the Japanese invaders
In mid-May 1938, the defeat of the Kuomintang army on the battlefield of the Battle of Xuzhou was obvious, and the Japanese army had encircled Xuzhou.
In order to preserve his strength, Chiang Kai-shek decided to abandon Xuzhou and let the army retreat in the direction of northern Henan, and the army successfully broke through the siege, breaking the Japanese army's attempt to eliminate the living forces of the Kuomintang army in Xuzhou.
Subsequently, the Japanese 14th Division went deep into the area of Lankao and Kaifeng in Henan, and Chiang Kai-shek thought that this was a great opportunity to launch the Battle of Lanfeng, intending to annihilate the 14th Division here.
However, because of factional fighting, the Kuomintang troops participating in the war did not obey orders, and the Japanese army had reinforcements, and Lankao Kaifeng was lost one after another.
On May 28, Shangqiu was captured by the Japanese army.
Shangqiu is the gateway to eastern Henan, and after the Japanese army controls Shangqiu, they can drive straight in, posing a serious threat to the squadron.
In the face of the well-equipped Japanese army, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the army to retreat in order to preserve his strength.
However, the Japanese army soon sent an army across the Yellow River and marched towards Zhengzhou.
Zhengzhou is located in the Central Plains of the transportation artery, connecting the Longhai and Pinghan railways, if Zhengzhou is lost, directly endangering Chiang Kai-shek's wartime capital Wuhan.
Chiang Kai-shek, of course, did not want to see such a situation.
Seeing that the Japanese army was getting closer and closer to the Yellow River, Chiang Kai-shek was anxious.
At this time, Feng Yuxiang said to Chiang Kai-shek: "The eastern section of the Yellow River is higher than the ground, and you can choose to blow up the embankment at Zhaokou and Huayuankou, which can block the Japanese army from moving south and keep Wuhan." ”
This statement immediately moved Chiang Kai-shek. In the face of increasingly tense fighting, the Japanese army drove straight in, and their own army could not resist, so they had to use the power of the Yellow River to block the Japanese army.
Taking the initiative to dig the embankment of the Yellow River would obviously arouse opposition from many people, so Chiang Kai-shek ordered Shang Zhen to take people to Zhaokou to dig the embankment, and asked for absolute secrecy.
From June 2 to 7, Shang Zhen led people to dig for several days, but did not dig a big gap in the Zhaokou embankment.
He also used explosives and mines to blast the Zhaokou embankment, but because the Zhaokou embankment was strong, the blasting only opened a small gap, and because of the sand and gravel blockage, the water flow was not large.
On the 7th, Kaifeng was lost, and the Japanese artillery was already heard at Zhaokoudi.
After Chiang Kai-shek learned of this situation, he ordered Jiang Zaizhen and others to quickly blow up the Huayuankou embankment.
He immediately reported the situation to Chiang Kai-shek and demanded that more powerful explosives be used to blow up the embankment at the mouth of the garden.
However, the Japanese army is only more than 100 kilometers away from Huayuankou, so how can they have time to wait for the leader's instructions?
Falkenhausen, a German adviser who was present at the scene, suggested that the use of several hundred kilograms of TNT explosives would definitely blow up the embankment at the mouth of the garden.
Chiang ordered people to search along the way, and finally found some TNT explosives, although not much, but also blew up a large gap of 150 meters in the Yellow River.
On the 10th, the Yellow River suddenly rained rain, and the rushing Yellow River water poured down from the Huayuankou embankment, and after breaking away the sediment at the gap in Zhaokou, the two floods converged together, turning eastern Henan into a Ze country.
The Japanese divisions that had already entered eastern Henan were surrounded by the Yellow River, and the county town of Zhongmu, which had just entered by the Tufeiyuan Xian 2 Division, could not be driven by the Yellow River's automobiles, tanks, and other modern machinery and equipment, and the tens of thousands of people drowned by the Yellow River far exceeded the number of deaths in Taierzhuang.
Chiang Kai-shek learned from Guan Yunchang to flood the Seventh Army and divert the water of the Yellow River to pour water into the Japanese army, which achieved the goal, but caused serious consequences.
The truth about the levee burst was covered up
After the Hanazonokou embankment burst, the pace of the Japanese invasion to the south was delayed, and Kenji Tsuchihara was dismissed.
However, due to the rush of time and the need for secrecy, Chiang Kai-shek did not do a good job of channeling the masses in the vicinity, and the flooding of the Yellow River caused a large area of flooding, 290,000 square meters of land were flooded, 890,000 people died, and 44 counties in Henan, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces were affected.
Many people did not expect the Yellow River to come suddenly, and they were quickly killed by the flood without preparation.
Moreover, the river channels in Henan are generally relatively narrow, after the Yellow River water is discharged to the downstream, the water level of the tributaries in Henan is the first, and a large amount of sediment brought by the flood of the Yellow River blocks the tributary rivers, and no one manages and dredges, and the floods of the tributaries irrigate the farmland, and the Yellow River water brings a large amount of salinity, and the grain yield of the irrigated farmland is greatly reduced.
The sudden flood of the Yellow River occurred in June, not far from the grain harvest season, and the sudden flood not only washed away a large number of fast-maturing grain crops, but also caused the arable land in Henan to be barren.
Due to the large area affected by the disaster, many villages in northern Henan have become sparsely populated, cultivated land has become wasteland, overgrown with weeds, and people's livelihood has withered. In some places, only the tombs can be seen, and in others, the sediment can be as high as the houses.
The displaced people in Henan have to scrape tree bark to satisfy their hunger because of the floods, and the local farmers can only dig up the salt and alkali brought by the floods of the Yellow River and sell them for money.
Henan Province is a major grain province in China, and the sown area and output of wheat, corn and soybean rank among the top in the country.
After the flood, a large amount of fertile land has become drought, waterlogged, sandy, and alkaline land, and such land has become "sandy and silt-cold" seeds planted "with beautiful seedlings but not fruitful".
There are more than 300,000 hectares of farmland in eastern and northern Henan that have been turned into saline-alkali land, and the yield of wheat in Shangqiu is only 400-600 catties per hectare, and the yield of corn sorghum is only 1,000 catties, which is only enough for the local people to maintain the minimum food and clothing.
In addition to Henan Province, the Yellow River water has brought great damage to Anhui Province, the flood flows through many counties around the Huai River and the Whirlpool River, and the flood water enters the Yangtze River and flows into Hongze Lake, causing the water level of Hongze Lake to be **, and backing up the surrounding farmland.
In 1938, when the flood struck, the area of fertile land in the Yellow Flood Area of northern Anhui reached more than 10 million mu, and in 1938, the grain output in northern Anhui decreased by 100% in summer and 50% in autumn.
Moreover, the flood of the Yellow River seriously affected the original climate and environment of northern Anhui, and the nine-year-long disaster in northern Anhui cannot be said to be without the impact of this event.
In 1939, floods occurred in 11 counties in northern Anhui, floods and droughts occurred in 17 counties in 1940, floods and droughts occurred in 15 counties in 1943, and from 1944 to 1946, in addition to floods and droughts, there were locust disasters in northern Anhui.
After years of disasters, people in northern Anhui have been displaced, and after the disaster, many people cannot survive and can only flee to other places, of which about 2.53 million people have fled, even more than Henan and Jiangsu.
However, Chiang Kai-shek's telegram to Cheng Qian said: Regarding the flood, we must tell the outside world that it was the Japanese army that blew up the Huayuankou embankment.
So on June 11, 1938, ** News Agency sent a news from Zhengzhou, saying that Chiang Kai-shek's army and the Japanese army had a fierce confrontation in Zhongmu County, and the Japanese army saw that Chiang Kai-shek's army was strong and could not attack for a long time, so it blew up the Yellow River Huayuankou embankment, causing the Yellow River to overflow and causing devastating disasters to the people in the surrounding areas.
As soon as the news came out, a number of news newspapers reported the news of the Huayuankou embankment, and many well-known newspapers such as "Ta Kung Pao" and "Declaration" condemned the actions of the Japanese army.
For a time, ** led to Chiang Kai-shek, and the voices of condemning the Japanese army were higher and higher.
In order to gain further support from the international community, Chen Cheng, under the instruction of Chiang Kai-shek, entertained foreign journalists in Hankow, and condemned the actions of the Japanese army to foreign countries in an official capacity and position.
Chen Cheng refuted the Japanese side's claim that you blew up the Huayuankou embankment, claiming: "This is a deliberate planting by the Japanese invaders!" ”
This incident has been widely reported, and it has spread more and more widely, not only in China but also in the world, forming a strong condemnation and national sentiment against the Japanese invaders for destroying the Huayuankou embankment.
Many people thought that the bursting of the embankment at Huayuankou was done by the Japanese army, and the truth was concealed.
Chiang Kai-shek met Jiaolong
After the Huayuankou embankment burst, the Japanese army's plan to attack Wuhan was changed, and the machinery and equipment were ineffective in the flood, and the flood made them slow down, and the Japanese army fell into the dense lake and swamp area between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, so that their plan to destroy China in a short time was bankrupt, and their morale was greatly affected.
However, after all, the Huayuankou embankment was personally sent by Chiang Kai-shek, although it was for the needs of the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese army could be blamed, but it caused a large area of disasters in the three provinces of Henan, Jiangsu and Anhui, and the villages of Liangtian became Zeguo, and the people were displaced, and Chiang Kai-shek could not escape the blame.
When he learned of the disaster situation in eastern Henan and northern Anhui and the number of people, he personally rushed to the vicinity of the embankment at the mouth of the garden to check, the originally rich area was already full of mourning, and Chiang Kai-shek couldn't bear to look at it directly after seeing it.
Although it was his decision to stop the invaders at the cost of millions of lives, he still felt a little guilty when he saw these tragic things with his own eyes.
In late June, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly fell ill after inspecting the situation of the bursting embankment at the mouth of the Yellow River's garden, and rumors spread for a while.
The supreme commander of the squadron suddenly fell ill, and the outside world speculated about the reason, and there were rumors that when Chiang Kai-shek was inspecting the mouth of the garden, he saw three dragons jumping up from the river and appearing over the mouth of the garden with their tongues out.
Jiaolong is a symbol of the spirit of Chinese culture, small to a family, large to a country, to have the dragon vein, Chiang Kai-shek exploded the garden mouth to meet the dragon soaring, this is the dragon vein he alarmed China, is a bad omen.
Rumors spread more and more, and even legends were that Chiang Kai-shek, who alarmed the dragon vein, would not end well.
Song Meiling heard about this rumor and strictly ordered the people around her not to spread the rumor.
However, she herself seemed to admit it in her diary.
Her diary recorded: "After Chiang Kai-shek blew up the Yellow River, a large amount of white fog soon rose from all sides. For a time, the river bank was shrouded in white fog, the visibility was less than five meters, behind the layers of white fog, only a black figure could be vaguely seen rising into the sky, the figure was huge and abnormal, Chiang Kai-shek was closest at that time, and he could see it most clearly. ”
Although the bombing of the Yellow River was an order issued by Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang was obviously not present at the time of the bombing of the river embankment, and Song Meiling would have recorded this, which was obviously deeply affected by the rumors.
After Chiang Kai-shek recovered from his illness, he hurriedly telegraphed Henan Province to make every effort to do a good job in disaster relief.
He ordered the Relief Committee of the Executive Yuan to allocate 50,000 yuan to Henan Province for disaster relief.
However, at that time, the serious disasters in eastern Henan, northern Henan, northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu were not enough, and Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to give Qu Yingguang another 2 million yuan for relief of the disaster in Henan, Suzhou, and Anhui.
Qu Yingguang arrived in the area of northern and eastern Henan to check, and the actual situation of the disaster was far worse than Chiang Kai-shek imagined.
Many people in northern and eastern Henan were still asleep before the flood came, so that their bodies floated naked on the water, miserable.
Qu Yingguang was so distressed by this tragic situation that he immediately allocated 150,000 yuan to Cheng Qian, the local governor of Henan Province, for relief in Zhongmu County and Zheng County, which were the most severely affected.
Qu Yingguang relocated the victims of the disaster in northern Henan to Deng County, Xinye and Baoji in Shaanxi Province in southwest Henan, and gave each victim a living allowance of 9 yuan.
In view of the place where the embankment burst at Huayuankou, Chiang Kai-shek decided to send people to block the embankment at Huayuankou and build a dam there.
However, due to the internal corruption, the new embankment built by Chiang Kai-shek soon burst, and the people's hearts fluctuated for a while, so Kong Xiangxi came out to say:
Since the collapse of the Huayuankou embankment, the people in the Yellow Flood area have lived very hard, but now the country is in the stage of the Anti-Japanese War, but it has encountered a disaster year, and the country's newly built embankment has been washed away by the flood, and the state is trying to rebuild the embankment in order to block the flood and not delay farming. ”
Kong Xiangxi's words were conclusive, as if the Chiang Kai-shek clique was very concerned about the people in the Yellow Flood Area.
The fact is: Chiang Kai-shek used ** to hype up the tragic situation after the Huayuankou embankment burst, and after blaming Japan, with the slow action of the Japanese army, he moved the capital to Chongqing, and gradually forgot about this matter, and finally the relief and disaster relief were gone.
Chiang Kai-shek blew up the Huayuankou embankment, diverted the water of the Yellow River to block the Japanese army, and sacrificed the lives of millions of people in Henan, Suzhou, and Anhui to resist the Japanese, which was obviously a manifestation of his brutality and inhumanity.
Although people at that time were not sure whether it was Chiang Kai-shek or the Japanese who blew up the dam, no matter who blew it up, it did not prevent people from being dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's rule.
Therefore, after Chiang Kai-shek inspected the Yellow Flood Area and fell ill, the legend that he inspected the Yellow Flood Area and met Jiaolong spread more and more.
This was the people's good wish that Chiang Kai-shek's rule would end soon.
can make Chiang Kai-shek and Song Meiling so scared, it can only be said that they have ghosts in their hearts and can't withstand a little stimulation.