In Dayun Mountain, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, there is a cliff stele engraved with "Three Wars and Three Victories", which witnesses the history of the soldiers of the Ninth War Zone who fought bloodily to defend Changsha more than 80 years ago.
From September 1939 to January 1942, the Japanese invading army launched three attacks on Changsha, trying to occupy this important town in the rear of the southwest, but they were all stubbornly repelled by the squadron, resulting in more than 110,000 Japanese troops.
How did these three battles for the defense of Changsha proceed? How did our ** team defeat the menacing Japanese army?
1. Take the river as the defense and the city as the furnace to fight to the death with the enemy In 1939, the Japanese army captured Guangzhou and Wuhan successively, and then pointed the spearhead at Changsha. In mid-September, the Japanese army Okamura Ninji led an army of 100,000 troops down the Xiang River and advanced towards Changsha.
Changsha is a strategic place in the central part of our country and a barrier to the rear of the southwest, which is of great significance to both our country and the Japanese army.
In order to defend Changsha, the Nationalists appointed Xue Yue as the commander of the Ninth Theater of Operations, responsible for directing the operation against the Japanese army.
The plan of the Japanese army was to raid the north bank of the Xinqiang River, destroy the main forces of the Ninth Theater, and then quickly occupy Changsha.
On the offensive route of the Japanese army, our army had four rivers as fortifications, including the Xinqiang River and the Liuyang River, and if these rivers could be effectively used to cut off the transportation and supplies of the Japanese army, it would be possible to turn the tide of the war.
At that time, Hunan was in the middle of a scorching summer, but what was hotter than the weather was the "Wenxi Fire" that occurred not long ago.
The fire, which destroyed most of the buildings in Changsha, caused huge damage and also hit people's morale. Chiang Kai-shek wanted to retreat to southern Hunan, but Xue Yue was resolutely opposed, and he decided to use the river as a defense and the city as a furnace to fight to the death with the Japanese army.
Under Xue Yue's call, the soldiers of the Ninth War Zone ushered in the first battle to defend Changsha.
At the beginning of the battle, the two sides launched a fierce confrontation near the Xinqiang River, our army took advantage of the familiar terrain to resist the enemy, and the Japanese army saw that it could not be attacked, so it sent planes to bomb our army's position, causing a major ** of our army.
In the face of the onslaught of the Japanese army, Xue Yue had to choose to retreat, the Japanese army took advantage of the victory to pursue, the two sides fought from northern Hunan to the north of Jiangxi, fought for more than 20 days, and finally the Japanese army was defeated, lost more than 20,000 people, and was forced to withdraw to Tongcheng.
In this battle, although our army also paid a heavy price, it also dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army, which made the situation in the War of Resistance against Japan improve to a certain extent.
However, the Japanese did not give up their attempt at Changsha, and they were always planning their next attack.
In 1941, in order to capture Changsha in one fell swoop, the Japanese army summed up the experience of the first defeat and formulated a strategic policy of eliminating the main force of the Ninth Theater and quickly capturing northern Hunan.
The Japanese army Anan Weiji led a 120,000-strong army and quickly occupied Dayun Mountain and Yueyang, while our army used the river network to block the advance of the Japanese army, and the second battle of Changsha began.
After the battle began, our army was defeated and retreated under the powerful offensive of the Japanese army, and was also attacked by the enemy's flank, and almost collapsed until September 8, when the commanding heights of Dayun Mountain were captured by the Japanese army.
Seeing that the situation was not good, our army retreated in time, readjusted its strategy, and two days later, our army recaptured Dayun Mountain. Ten days later, a bloody battle began between our army and the Japanese army at the Xinqiang River.
At that time, the people in the area of the new wall in Yueyang saw with their own eyes the smoke and dust billowing around the new wall river, and the sound of gunfire and cannons was endless, and some people could only hide in the cave and did not dare to come out.
On the 20th, under the suppression of Japanese artillery fire, our army lost many positions, but the Japanese army did not achieve much advantage, and when they attacked Changsha City, they encountered the siege of reinforcements from Wang Yaowu and other departments, which put the Japanese army in a difficult situation.
As a result, the Japanese army abandoned the attack on Changsha, lost more than 40,000 people, retreated in a hurry, and the two sides returned to their pre-war state.
Although our army held Changsha, it was also thrilling.
In the winter of the same year, as the United States cut off Japan's energy in Southeast Asia, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in an attempt to control the Pacific Ocean, and also launched an attack on Hong Kong.
In order to prevent the interference of **, the Japanese army launched the third Battle of Changsha, due to the urgency of the situation, the Japanese high-level ordered Anan Weiji, even if they could not drag the squadron, they should be dealt a heavy blow.
3. Luring the Enemy Deep, Joining Forces with the Outside, and Completely Annihilating the Enemy Under these circumstances, the pressure on Xue Yue and others stationed in Changsha was very great, and on the day they received the news, they convened all the senior generals and held an emergency meeting.
At the meeting, they summed up the lessons of the previous two times and adopted the strategy of "empty city strategy and heavenly furnace battle method" proposed by Xue Yue.
The idea of this strategy is to carry out empty room clearing on the offensive line of the Japanese army, set up multi-layer ambush positions, use flanking attacks, ambushes and other methods to consume the enemy army, wait until the enemy army penetrates deep into Changsha City, and then join forces with the defenders in the city to flank and annihilate the enemy army.
After the outbreak of the war, the Japanese army broke through the defense line of the Xinqiang River and successfully crossed the river, and then, our army and the Japanese army launched a fierce battle on the Miluo River, and the two sides fought fiercely for more than three days, and our army suddenly retreated.
The Japanese army mistakenly thought that our army had broken and fled, so they pursued and killed them, but they did not know that they had fallen into the trap of our army.
On December 31, the Japanese army reached outside Changsha, and Xue Yue reorganized the army and issued a general attack order. The next day, the two sides began a final decisive battle.
After a day of fierce fighting, the Japanese did not make any progress, but found themselves in a difficult situation, their supply lines were cut off, and they were ambushed by our troops, becoming turtles in an urn.
After several days of hard fighting, our army finally defeated the Japanese army, causing the other side to lose more than 50,000 people, and the third battle of Changsha finally won the victory.
These three battles of Changsha lasted for three years, and they won many battles, which shattered the Japanese army's ambitions for Changsha, leaving nearly 110,000 corpses.
Epilogue The Japanese army fought three battles in Changsha, all of which were rejuvenated, but they were all defeated and returned, with more than 110,000 casualties, which relied on the heroic resistance of the soldiers of the Ninth War Zone, who defended thousands of households in Changsha at the cost of their lives, and defended the dignity and honor of the Chinese people.