Chongqing originally did not have Meihua Mountain, only one Yutai Mountain.
83 years ago, the coffins of the martyrs arrived at Yutai Mountain for burial, and 100,000 soldiers and civilians wore black yarn on their arms and sent each other with tears. Feng Yuxiang borrowed the allusion that after the martyrdom of Shi Kefa, a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, he was buried in Meihualing, renamed Yutai Mountain as Meihua Mountain, and planted plum blossoms all over the mountain to symbolize the pride of the general's life.
83 years later,Ma Ying-jeou paid tribute to Zhang Zizhong again, mourned in front of the tomb, and bowed three times, and after going around the tomb for a week, he bowed three more times.
Before saying goodbye, Ma Ying-jeou's voice was already choked:
"He has suffered too many grievances, and he is very moved to die. ”This is the fourth time that Ma Ying-jeou has shed tears on this trip to the mainland, the first two times were in Nanjing, paying homage to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, paying homage to the memorial hall of the compatriots killed in Nanjing by the Japanese invasion of China, the third time was in Xiangtan to worship his ancestors, and the fourth time was in front of Zhang Zizhong's tomb on April 4.
Why Zhang Zizhong?
Because he happened to be buried in Chongqing?Because he was the highest-losing general in World War IIOr is it because he was the only general officer who sacrificed his life for the country during the War of Resistance Against Japan?
These are the reasons, but they are not the main causes. What really touched the people on both sides of the strait to respect Zhang ZizhongIt's that he would rather die than bear the infamy of a traitor;I would rather die on the battlefield with all my ammunition and food, than give up half an inch of land in the motherland.
Ma Ying-jeou bowed to the hero six times, how many ** people were slapped in the face?I hope that Zhang Zizhong's mental journey and his experience can give Mr. Ma and tens of millions of compatriots on the other side of the strait some enlightenment.
On March 4, 1933, Rehe fell, and the Japanese army moved south to face the Great Wall. For more than 2,000 years, the Great Wall has been the bottom line for the Chinese nation to resist foreign humiliation. One step back, the mountains and rivers have fallen.
At this critical moment, the first to stand up was the "notorious" 29th Army.
The 29th Army was originally subordinate to the Northwest Army, but the troops were defeated and scattered during the Central Plains War, and the remnants were absorbed by Zhang Xueliang. Because of the change of courts, and because of the unbearable record, there were few people and guns, and this miscellaneous team under the fence was not treated by anyone at all.
At first, the Japanese also believed that the 29th Army was vulnerable. But after the Great Wall War of Resistance began, they were completely broken by a bright sword.
Yes, the equipment of the 29th Army was extremely poor, and the army generally held the old Hanyang-made and 38-style, and the rest were self-made earthen guns. But almost everyone in this group of Northwest men has a big knife behind them.
Gubeikou, Nantianmen, Xifengkou, and Luowenyu were bombed by planes, and tons of shells fell on the city, causing the city to collapse and crack, the trees and stones to fly, and the position was full of fire and smoke. However, even if the hill of the position was flattened, the defenders of the Great Wall would not retreat, and even engaged in a close-range white-knuckle battle with the Japanese army, and the fall of each small position meant the full sacrifice of the defenders.
But once it was night, the night attack team of the 29th Army would launch a counterattack, rush into the Japanese camp, raise and drop with swords, and behead all the thieves.
It was after this battle that a hot-blooded patriotic young man composed the "March of the Broadsword", and the most well-known line of the lyrics is the most widely known"Our 29th Army is not alone, see that enemy and destroy him!Wipe him out!Rush!The big knife slashed at the heads of the devils!”
It was also after this battle that the Japanese firmly remembered the name of Zhang Zizhong, commander of the 29th Division of the 38th Army.
Zhang Zizhong was born in a family of eunuchs, and his father was the former Qingzhi County, so he also received a traditional feudal private school education since he was a child, abiding by loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness, and admiring Guan Yu and Yue Fei's patriotic feelings. After the Xinhai Revolution, under the infection of new ideas, Zhang Zizhong joined the Northwest Army, because he was tall and heroic, and he was quite "resolute", and was regarded as a favorite general by Feng Yuxiang.
During the Central Plains War, Zhang Zizhong led his troops to attack Xuchang and won Gao Xianji, showing the style of famous generals. In the case that the defeat of the entire Northwest Army was decided, only Zhang Zizhong's 6th Division was the most intact and preserved. It was not until the later Anti-Japanese War on the Great Wall that Zhang Zizhong became a typical representative of the first generation of "anti-Japanese heroes".
The 29th Army was able to make the Japanese army fearful, in addition to a big sword, but also because the soldiers had strong individual combat ability and firm will to resist Japan, and these all benefited from Zhang Zizhong's special training methods.
Because he was stationed outside the Saiwai all the year round, the heat was unbearable in summer, and the dripping water turned into ice in winter, Zhang Zizhong ordered the troops to practice barefoot in the frozen soil to dig foxholes in the winter and walk barefoot on the hot desert in the summer. High-intensity training, it is no wonder that soldiers call Zhang Zizhong in private"Zhang Peeling"., but every time I saw Zhang Zizhong always walking in front with a whip in my hand, everyone was sincerely convinced.
In Zhang Zizhong's own words:
"The purpose of the soldier is to be able to serve the battlefield as the attribution, so the first thing to do is to practice hard work and endure hardship. ”is such a famous general on the battlefield, an anti-Japanese hero, but after 4 years of the Great Wall Anti-Japanese War, he became a "big traitor" condemned by thousands of people. And the root of all this lies in what Zhang Zizhong did after the "77 Incident".
On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army fully invaded China, and Song Zheyuan, the commander of the 29th Army, rushed to Baoding to "command the overall situation", while Zhang Zizhong was ordered to defend Beiping.
As the Japanese army approached the city, Zhang Zizhong did not resist, but chose to coordinate through negotiation, but the consequence of this was that the Japanese soldiers occupied Beiping City without blood, and Zhang Zizhong himself hid in the German hospital in Dongjiaomin Lane, and escaped from Beiping after 2 months in makeup.
Zhang Zizhong lost Beiping without firing a shot. ”As soon as the news came out, the whole country boiled. The infamy that Zhang Xueliang once carried was transferred to Zhang Zizhong.
Immediately afterwards, the Japanese army also began to add fuel to the fire, trying their best to create an imagination of Zhang Zizhong's "friendship" with Japan. The purpose is to force Zhang Zizhong to have no way out, so he can only choose to take refuge, and this is also a means of revenge against the Great Wall.
Since then, various unfavorable rumors about Zhang Zizhong have been rampant. Such as:"Signed the ** Treaty", "Had close contacts with the Japanese", "Participated in the Emperor's military parade during his visit to Japan", "Many traitors were brought out by the generals under his command", and so on
Once these labels hit Zhang Zizhong, it is impossible to tear them off easily.
In fact, Zhang Zizhong also has his own helplessness. The loss of Beiping was because there was only one lone army in the entire North China at that time, and the task it received was"Endure humiliation, do not take the initiative to fight, do not give up North China, and deal with the Japanese army for a long time. ”
It was under such supreme instructions that Zhang Zizhong could only try to resolve disputes peacefully and become a buffer between the two countries. At this time, he didn't care about his personal honor and disgrace, and he also took on a lot of infamy that shouldn't have belonged to him.
For Zhang Zizhong, his old friend Xiong Bin's evaluation is very accurate, saying that Zhang Zizhong is not a traitor, but he must have made two mistakes:
First, they are misguided by the old warlords' separatist mentality, are keen on power, and hope to preserve their own strength through so-called peace, and have no sense of the overall situation.
Second, they did not judge the ambitions of the Japanese army enough, and mistakenly believed that the Japanese army's entry into Beiping and the forced withdrawal of the 29th Army from North China were only to leave room for maneuver between the two sides, and not a full-scale invasion of China.
In the general environment at that time, was the responsibility for the loss of Peking only on Zhang Zizhong?Of course not, from the three eastern provinces to the North China Plain, which time is not a step by step retreat, which time is not a local incident as the end. How much of a role can a Zhang Zizhong and a 29th Army play?The Great Wall War of Resistance was exciting, but the end result was not a humiliating treaty.
The pain and pressure in Zhang Zizhong's heart are unimaginable to ordinary people. When he returned to Nanjing, he was surrounded by students as soon as he got off the station, and tens of millions of people surrounded the train and scolded the traitors. Fortunately, his colleagues in Nanjing still understood Zhang Zizhong's grievances, and interceded for him one after another, which calmed down the incident.
Later, the 38th Division was reorganized and expanded into the 59th Army, and Zhang Zizhong, who took over as the commander, said this in front of the officers and men of the whole army:
"No matter who can defeat the battle, only I, Zhang Zizhong, can't!My wrongs, only by fighting to the death, can I wash away the real results!I will lead everyone to fight to protect the country."Perhaps from this time on, Zhang Zizhong has already had the determination to die.
In 1938, the Japanese army continued to invade south along Jinpu Road and Jiaoji Road, and the troops entered Xuzhou in two ways, and the battle first started in Linyi, an important town in Shandong.
The victory or defeat of Linyi is related to whether the Battle of Taierzhuang can be carried out smoothly in the future. But as the commander-in-chief, one of Li Zongren's biggest headaches is the two generals on the front line: Zhang Zizhong and Pang Bingxun.
Who is Pang Bingxun?
This person was originally the commander of the 14th Division of the Northwest Army, and followed Feng Yuxiang to participate in the Central Plains War, but he deliberately avoided the important and preserved his strength.
Now Pang Bingxun led his troops to stick to Linyi, facing the siege of the Japanese Sakagaki Division several times his own, and he was already desperate in his heart.
However, it was the most difficult time when Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army suddenly entered the battlefield, first jointly with Pang Bingxun's troops to launch a counterattack against the Japanese army for 5 days and 5 nights, and then desperately relieved Pang Bingxun when he was besieged in the suburbs of Linyi.
Linyi annihilated more than 6,000 enemies in the first battle, which was a great victory, but the 59th Army that came to support also suffered heavy losses, and its main force 38th Division was more than half. After the war, Pang Bingxun wept bitterly and thanked Zhang Zizhong for risking his life to rescue him regardless of his previous suspicions. Li Zongren also praised Zhang Zizhong, saying that he personally commanded on the front line and could be called a model general.
Zhang Zizhong used such a tough battle to take off half of the "traitor" hat on his head. In Beiping, he did not start the war in order to preserve his strength, and when he arrived in Linyi, he fought until he ran out of ammunition for his former opponent, this is the change, this is the proof.
Zhang Zizhong and his 59th Army were a dark horse fought on the battlefield of resistance against Japan, fighting bravely and resolutely. In the autumn of 1938, in order to commend this heroic unit, the 59th Army was expanded into the 33rd Group Army, and Zhang Zizhong was promoted to commander.
Zhang Zizhong is usually silent, but on the battlefield of resistance against Japan, his words began to increase, but these words are inseparable from the word "death".
In a letter to his brother, he wrote:
"If I do not die for a day, I will do my duty to kill the enemy for a day;If the enemy is gone, I will be loyal unto death. ”And when he was giving a lecture to his subordinates, he said:
"We soldiers must do our best to die before we can complete our responsibilities as soldiers. If I have the chance, I will take you to find a dead end. ”It is under the domination of this concept of life and death that Zhang Zizhong must leave a will every time he fights, and he is determined to die. His artillery advisers persuaded him, and Li Zongren also persuaded him, but Zhang Zizhong's answer was only one sentence:
"I want to inspire the people to defeat the Japanese army with my actions, even my head and my life. ”In May 1940, the Battle of Zaoyi began, Zhang Zizhong once again went to the Hedong front, where the war was most tense, to command, and although he was in the right wing corps had 5 divisions, the strength was only 20,000, less than half of the attacking Japanese army, and the equipment was far inferior.
Yushan, Huanglongdang, Jujiawan, Caojia Dawan, and Meijiagaomiao fought fiercely everywhere, because Zhang Zizhong personally commanded, and the Japanese army was beaten without respite. However, with the decipherment of the radio code, the leakage of the deployment of troops, and the arrival of enemy reinforcements, Zhang Zizhong's situation became more and more dangerous.
There was no grain and grass inside, and there were no reinforcements outside, so Zhang Zizhong could only transfer to the pumpkin shop to rest, and when he saw that the people here were poor, he asked the adjutant to give 10 silver dollars to each household in the village.
The next day, the unforgettable May 16th, a day of blood and fire!
With the loss of the southern position, Zhang Zizhong personally rushed to supervise the battle with a few guards, and just happened to run into the withdrawn pistol battalion. This pistol battalion is Zhang Zizhong's most trusted trump card unit, and now it has experienced bloody battles, the establishment has long been incomplete, the battalion commander was seriously injured, and only one of the four company commanders remained.
The situation on the front line was irretrievable, and the soldiers advised Zhang Zizhong to evacuate quickly, but the answer he received was:
"I have been ordered to pursue the enemy, how can I retreat on my own!Is it reasonable that a soldier cannot retreat from the battle, and that the commander-in-chief can flee when he encounters danger?Could it be that our lives are our lives, and the soldiers in front of us are all dirty?Today there is no enemy and no enemy, and we must fight to the end!”At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Zhang Zizhong personally led the soldiers of the pistol battalion to retreat to the foot of Almond Mountain to hold on. The battle was extremely fierce, the soldiers around him fell one by one, Zhang Zizhong couldn't hold back any longer, seeing that the Japanese army was about to rush to the position, he stood up and picked up the submachine gun and swept forward. At this moment, several bullets were fired, and Zhang Zizhong was shot in several places all over his body, piercing his right chest, and blood gushing like a spring.
At the last moment, Zhang Zizhong wanted to pull out the short sword at his waist to cut himself, but was held by the guards. He lay on the ground, his face pale, and said calmly:
"I died a good and glorious death like this, and I have a very peaceful conscience for the country, the nation, and the governor. You guys go!”From the materials of the war history of the Japanese army, the final plot of this battle can be found:
Private Fujioka Motoichi rushed towards the large officer who looked like the enemy's supreme commander with a bayonet, and this man suddenly stood up from a pool of blood, his eyes fixed on Fujioka. Fujioka felt an indescribable majesty from his gaze, and he couldn't help but freeze in place. At this moment, a gunshot rang out from behind, and the third squadron leader, Dono-kun, fired a bullet that hit the officer in the head. There was a slight uncomfortable expression on his face. At the same time, Fujioka seemed to be awakened by the sound of gunshots, and he also relentlessly, and with all his strength, he raised his bayonet and pierced himself deeply into his tall body. Under this thorn, the tall body could no longer support it, and it fell to the ground like a mountain collapsing. ”Zhang Zizhong fought until the last moment, and more than 500 officers and soldiers were martyred at the same time. Such a tragic and magnificent Japanese army made the Japanese army respect the opponent in front of them, and in the battle reports and propaganda afterwards, the Japanese army mentioned one word: "heroic"!
By the time the 38th Division, which had been ordered to support, arrived on the battlefield, the battle was over. Division Commander Huang Weigang was heartbroken when he learned the bad news, and immediately led a plainclothes team of several hundred people to attack the Japanese army position at night and retrieve Zhang Zizhong's body.
Zhang Zizhong's wife, Li Minhui, heard that her husband was martyred, died of grief and hunger strike for seven days, and the husband and wife were buried together at the foot of Meihua Mountain in Chongqing, and the whole country mourned.
Zhang Zizhong's life has changed many times, from joining the Northwest Army, to following Zhang Xueliang, and then to the army from Nanjing. But no matter when, where, and what kind of position he is, Zhang Zizhong's determination is the same, that is, he insists on resisting Japan and would rather die than betray the infamy of a traitor.
To this day, we remember Zhang Zizhong, and Ma Ying-jeou still remembers Zhang Zizhong.
Every inch of the land of this country flows with the blood of our ancestors. We have experienced suffering, so we cherish peace. But precisely because they have the same roots and the same history, no one can take the old road and take a detour.
One day, the plum blossoms of Plum Blossom Mountain will open through the long strait.