On August 9, 1937, two Japanese officers were shot dead by Chinese military police at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, China.
Subsequently, the Japanese army asked the squadron to evacuate Shanghai under the pretext of the first squadron. Surprisingly, Chiang Kai-shek changed his attitude of seeking peace and was resolute and uncompromising. You must know that since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he has always lacked the determination to confront, but is keen on internal struggles and **.
Not only that, but he even violated the "armistice agreement" he agreed to five years ago and quietly strengthened the deployment of troops in Shanghai. Therefore, only four days later, the Battle of Songhu broke out.
The campaign lasted three months, and Chiang Kai-shek used 800,000 elite soldiers of the army, navy and air force against 300,000 soldiers of the Japanese army. However, in the face of the disparity in troops, the end of the war still ended with the fall of Shanghai.
This is reminiscent of two key decisions made by Chiang Kai-shek in this campaign.
In the post-war evaluation, even Zhang Aiping, a general of our party, once said: "Relying on the Kuomintang to resist the war, there is no hope." So, is this really true? Today, let's review one of the most representative battles of the entire Sino-Japanese War, one of the largest and most tragic battles.
Forced by Japan's endless aggression, China had no choice but to defend itself against violence. This is a sentence in the "Declaration of the National ** Self-Defense and War of Resistance" issued by the national ** on August 14, 1937.
Since the "77 Incident," the Japanese invaders have been rampant and hegemonic in North China, violating China's territorial sovereignty and brutalizing the Chinese people.
What's more, the Japanese extended their claws to Shanghai, the largest city in China at that time. Faced with this situation, Chiang Kai-shek, who was originally "passive anti-Japanese and active", finally realized the seriousness of the problem.
Chiang Kai-shek was well versed in the following three things: first, Shanghai is China's economic center, which is related to the overall situation and cannot be lost; Second, there are many foreigners in the concession, which represents the attention of the Western powers to China's dynamics, and China must show a tough stance; Third, most of the northern region has been invaded, and Japan will inevitably invade the south next, and it needs to use the war to divert attention, and the battle in Shanghai is inevitable.
However, what is heart-wrenching is that after the "128 Incident", the people of China declared their policy toward Japan while seeking a compromise with Japan. Eventually, on May 5 of the same year, the Songhu Armistice Agreement was signed, which made Shanghai a demilitarized zone where Japanese troops could stay.
This agreement has laid the foundation for today's predicament.
Chairman Chiang was forced to sign the Songhu Armistice Agreement, and despite the apparent declaration of peace, he was still secretly working to strengthen Shanghai's military power. This includes the construction of fortifications on important buildings, streets, and traffic arteries.
But this secret operation was soon discovered by the Japanese army, and the fuse of the war was triggered. At 5 p.m. on August 9, 1937, two small young men in Shanghai, dressed in navy uniforms, drove a military Ford caravan on Hongqiao East Road.
Their target is Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. However, as soon as they reached the airport gate, they were stopped by the Chinese military police. In the face of the blockade, they not only tried to break through, but also got into a fierce confrontation with the Chinese military police, and showed their pistols.
However, the Chinese military police were undaunted and immediately fired warning shots. Hearing the gunshots, they realized that they might have done something wrong and immediately drove away after glancing at each other.
However, the Chinese military police immediately opened fire, killing them.
The car driven by Yuo Oyama and Yozo Saito was confirmed to belong to the Japanese Marine Corps at the Toyota Yarn Factory in Shanghai, with Yuo Oyama as a lieutenant and Saito Kazo as a first-class sailor.
After being shot dead by the Chinese military police, the two men were experimentally confirmed to be members of the main force of the Second Division of the Chinese Nationalist regular army. According to the diary of Yuo Oyama, we can learn that all this was a conspiracy of the Japanese invaders.
He was ready to die before heading to Hongqiao Airport, and he knew full well that this was a provocation and that their purpose was to find a pretext for the Japanese army to attack Shanghai.
Unfortunately, their villain's ploy succeeded. The day after the incident, China and Japan held talks on the matter. At that time, the Japanese consul general in Shanghai, Okamoto Ji, was demanding that the Chinese military police withdraw from Shanghai and remove all fortifications.
However, the Chinese representative, Shanghai Mayor Yu Hongjun, resolutely refused to budge under Chiang Kai-shek's instructions. In the end, although the negotiations between the two sides ended in failure.
Yu Hongjun's worrying incident is like a time bomb, threatening the whole situation at all times. For a time, the ** of the two countries and the ** of the people of Shanghai made the atmosphere in Shanghai extremely tense.
At that time, Shanghai was like the sky before a storm, with dark clouds and black clouds overpowering the city. Until the morning of August 14, 1937, a heavily armed German soldier suddenly appeared on the streets of Shanghai.
Their eyes are firm, their fighting spirits high, and they are well prepared. This army was the division of the Kuomintang army, and it is no exaggeration to say that these two divisions were the most powerful army in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek.
On August 13, 1937, the citizens of Shanghai saw their own army for the first time, and the atmosphere of this war, which was related to the fate of China, was exaggerated to the extreme.
However, just when everything was ready, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly gave the order to stop the offensive, because he was still fantasizing about solving the problem through international mediation.
This move undoubtedly delayed the fighter. The Japanese army took the opportunity to oppose the guest and quickly occupied Yuedong Middle School and the Patriotic Girls' School on the morning of the 13th. Later, in the afternoon of the same day, they attacked the Bazi Bridge.
Fortunately, the Bazi Bridge has long been controlled by the 88th Division of the Kuomintang Army. The two sides exchanged fierce fire, and the "Battle of Songhu" officially kicked off. On August 14, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zhang Zhizhong, commander-in-chief of the Ninth Army, to command divisions and other units to launch an all-out attack on the Japanese army.
At that time, the Kuomintang Air Force, which had just been established for five years, also received an order to rush from North China to Shanghai to cooperate in the operation. It is worth mentioning that they completed the task of bombing the command of the Japanese Marine Corps and the Japanese ** on the same day.
This move caused heavy damage to the Japanese cruiser "Izumo". Upon hearing this news, the angry Japanese army dispatched the Kaya Air Force and the Kisarazu Air Force to bomb the Jianqiao Airport in Hangzhou on the afternoon of the same day.
They tried in vain to destroy the Chinese air force through this raid. It's just that the Chinese Air Force has long been prepared for all this. They carried out the famous "Jianqiao Air Battle" with Japanese military planes over the Jianqiao airfield.
The wheels of history roll forward, and each era has its own unique experiences and stories. The Battle of Songhu was the highlight of the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and its outbreak marked the Chinese nation's tenacity and determination to resist foreign aggression.
Although the Kuomintang Air Force faced various difficulties in air combat, such as bad weather, low visibility, and insufficient aircraft fuel, every pilot responded with an attitude of obedience to orders and stubborn resistance.
In the end, after about 30 minutes of fierce fighting, the Kuomintang Air Force was unscathed, successfully shooting down 3 enemy planes and damaging 1. This victory dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army and shattered the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese Air Force.
Under the cover of the air force, the 87th and 88th Divisions continued to advance towards the Japanese naval headquarters, and successively occupied important strongholds such as Hujiang University, Wuzhou Cemetery, Baoshan Bridge and Bazi Bridge.
However, wars are always brutal, and no one side is the real winner. Due to the lack of heavy **, the offensive of the Kuomintang army was very difficult, and after several rounds of attacks, the army suffered heavy losses.
Unfortunately, Major General Huang Meixing was also martyred in the battle, becoming the first high-ranking general of the Kuomintang to die since the beginning of the war. In addition to the constraints of objective conditions, Chiang Kai-shek's improper command also accounted for a large part of the reason.
Although the Kuomintang was proactive in the early stage of the war, due to his indecision, the coordinated operation of the ground and air did not go smoothly on many occasions, and finally missed a good opportunity. They did not turn the lead into an advantage, giving the Japanese a respite.
However, in any case, this battle aroused the enthusiasm of the people throughout the country for the war of resistance, and also allowed the Japanese invaders to see the blood and strength of the Chinese, and we are no longer "little lambs" to be slaughtered.
On August 15, 1937, in the face of the fierce offensive of the squadron, the commander of the Japanese Navy, Hasegawa Kiyoshi, requested domestic reinforcements from the front. Upon receipt of the request, the Japanese Army General Staff Headquarters immediately responded.
Matsui Ishine, the culprit who planned the Nanjing Great, ordered the 3rd and 11th Divisions to form the Shanghai Dispatch Army, which landed along the line from Zhanghuabang to the mouth of the Liuhe River on August 22, 1937.
The squadron made a strong counterattack on this, and the troops of various factions across the country responded to the call and went to the front line in Songhu to support. According to incomplete statistics, China invested more than 700,000 men in 73 divisions in this campaign to launch an anti-landing operation against the Japanese army.
Luodian was the intersection and hub of several highways leading to Baoshan, downtown Shanghai, Jiading and Songshan, so after receiving the news of the occupation of this place, Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered the 11th and 98th Divisions to concentrate their forces to retake Luodian.
Beginning on the 23rd, China and Japan staged a fierce battle for Luodian in the small town of Luodian, which was only 2 square kilometers, known as the "Verdun of the East" and the "Flesh Mill".
During this period, in addition to the three German armoury divisions that joined the battle at the beginning, Chen Cheng, deputy minister of the Ministry of Military Affairs, also led the 18th Army and the 1st Army to rush to reinforcements.
Chiang Kai-shek did his best in this campaign, sending elite troops, determined to hold this strategic route. However, even with the best equipment and soldiers, the course of the war was extremely difficult.
During the day, the Kuomintang officers and men had to hide in the trenches to avoid the heavy shelling of the Japanese army. At night, they again had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the charging Japanese troops. What's even more distressing is that the Japanese army has the cooperation of bombers and **, which makes the Chinese people can only use their flesh and blood to block the Japanese attack.
On this battlefield, often a battalion or company is wiped out, but the soldiers behind will immediately replenish and continue the battle. At its worst, it can consume the strength of a division in a day.
In this battle, the famous anti-Japanese general, Major General Cai Bingyan, commander of the 201st Brigade, also died heroically. By October 26, the 18th Army withdrew from the battle due to the heavy situation, which also marked the defeat of the Kuomintang army in the battle for Luodian.
However, even after defeat, they still deserve our respect. They effectively slowed down the advance of the Japanese army and bought time for the entire war of resistance. More importantly, this battle played the demeanor of the Chinese people and had a huge deterrent to the Japanese invaders.
Those soldiers who used their bodies to block the enemy's artillery fire will always deserve our memory and respect.
The movie "The Defender" tells a heroic and heroic history: on August 25, 1937, the Battle of Baoshan broke out. In the face of the enemy's fierce artillery fire and attacks, the 98th Division held on to Baoshan, although it was extremely heavy, but they firmly guarded this land.
In the end, the commander made the decision to evacuate, leaving only the 3rd Battalion of the 583rd Regiment alone to hold on, buying time for the large army to retreat. In this battle, the battalion commander Yao Ziqing led more than 500 soldiers in the battalion to desperately resist several attacks by the Japanese army, and held out for 13 days.
With firm belief and heroic actions, they resisted the enemy's fierce attack, and interpreted with their lives the heroic spirit of "wearing gold armor in a hundred battles in the yellow sand, and never returning Loulan if it is not broken".
In the end, the entire battalion resisted to the death, and only one person managed to break through, while the brave warriors remained forever in the land they defended. Their heroic deeds will forever be remembered in our hearts and inspire us to move forward and give everything for the peace and tranquility of the country and the people.
The loss of Baoshan marked the failure of the squadron's anti-landing operation, and the strategic shift from active offensive to passive defense was achieved. With the intensification of the Battle of Songhu, Japan's plan to "destroy China in three months" was completely bankrupt.
This led to a massive build-up of Japanese troops in Shanghai, which at one point reached nearly 300,000 troops. In this situation, the National News Agency issued the "Declaration of the Communist Party of China on the Publication of the Cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party" on August 22, marking the conclusion of the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
Subsequently, our party reorganized the Red Army guerrillas in the south into the "New Fourth Army" and the Red Army in the north into the "Eighth Route Army," thus laying a solid foundation for the long-term War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in the future.
Although this unprecedented disaster was cruel, it also forged a glorious moment for the Chinese nation to unite as one and jointly resist foreign enemies.
Although the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party achieved initial results, on the battlefield, the Kuomintang army failed to give full play to its numerical superiority. They retreated to the area around Umamohama to resist, but the Japanese broke through this line on 15 October due to the lack of strong fortifications.
At this time, the Gui army led by Bai Chongxi came from Guangxi, and because of their spirit of daring to fight, they were praised as the "wolf army" by the Kuomintang army. As soon as they arrived at the Songhu battlefield, this "wolf army" fought a fierce battle with the Japanese army, and their brave attack once caught the Japanese army by surprise.
The Gui army in the Battle of Songhu, because their combat thinking was still stuck in the First World War period, and the Gui army belonged to local warlords, and they fought in the country all the year round, they thought that as long as the opponent's ammunition was exhausted, they could engage in a white-knuckle battle with it.
However, they ignored an important fact that the Japanese army had a large number of heavy **. In just three days, the 60,000 Gui army lost 40,000, and in the end almost all the troops were wiped out.
Even Bai Chongxi, a veteran who has been fighting for many years, couldn't help crying. It was not until October 25 that the defense line of Dachang was broken by the Japanese crossfire network, and the squadron was forced to retreat south of the Suzhou Creek.
However, at this time, the Congress of Nations will be held in Brussels in early November. In order to demonstrate China's attitude of resistance to the death, and thus gain the support of the international community, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that a force remain north of the Suzhou Creek to resist the Japanese army.
And this unit is the famous "Eight Hundred Heroes" in history. However, in reality, this figure was only intended to confuse the Japanese army. At that time, it was more than 400 soldiers of the 88th Battalion of the 524th Regiment of the 1st Division who received this task.
A battle was fiercely staged in the Sixing warehouse in Shanghai. The battle was to defend the Sixing warehouse on the north bank of the Suzhou Creek and was commanded by the regimental commander Xie Jinyuan. It just so happened that this warehouse, which was formerly a joint warehouse of four banks in Shanghai, was built solidly and contained reserves of food, medicine and ammunition.
What's more, this place is just a stone's throw away from the British Concession. The Japanese army did not dare to use heavy **, for fear of injuring innocent people. Thus, the battle began on October 27 and lasted four days and four nights.
During this period, all Shanghai citizens were united, showing the spirit of "the Chinese nation is united from top to bottom". At that time, everyone thought that the army had withdrawn, but the appearance of the "Eight Hundred Heroes" undoubtedly greatly encouraged everyone.
The citizens on the other side of the river spontaneously donated food, fruits, medicines, and ...... to the defenders in the warehouses of the four linesAmong them, the boy scout Yang Huimin even risked his life to cross the river and send the national flag to the Sixing warehouse.
This move caused the Chinese flag to be raised high on the roof of the Sihang warehouse, and the raising of this national flag is precious. This situation brought tears to the eyes of many citizens on the other side of the river.
At that moment, there will never be a thing of "the merchant girl does not know the hatred of the country, and she still sings the flower in the backyard across the river". On October 31, since the set goal had been achieved, Chiang Kai-shek ordered all the soldiers of the Sixing Warehouse to pass through the British concession and withdraw from Shanghai overnight.
Although the site of the Sihang Warehouse has no strategic value, it has become an inspiring spiritual symbol. This battle has shown the world the indomitable spirit and endless courage of the Chinese, and has brought more possibilities for international negotiations.
However, the war was cruel and ruthless, and in the face of the attack of 100,000 Japanese troops, the defenders of Hangzhou Bay had no resistance, and in just four hours, the enemy army easily landed. This situation made the 800,000 squadron face the danger of annihilation in an instant.
Fortunately, front-line generals Gu Zhutong and Chen Cheng discovered this danger in time.
Chiang Kai-shek had heeded the advice and ordered his troops to retreat to the fortifications known as the "Hindenburg of the East", but soon after, he changed his mind and ordered the Third Theater to continue holding its ground.
Despite the strong opposition of the front-line generals, the military order was like a mountain and could not be changed. Gu Zhutong and Chen Cheng also realized that they could not convince Chiang Kai-shek, so they had to order the army commander Wu Keren to lead the 67th Army to take the initiative to engage the Japanese army.
Although they bravely resisted for three days and three nights, they were unable to resist the fierce attack of the Japanese army in the end, and the 67th Army was completely annihilated, and Lieutenant General Wu Keren also died heroically. Under the repeated dissuasion of Chen Cheng and others, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order to retreat to Nanjing and Suzhou on the evening of November 18, but this decision was too late.
During the retreat, the Kuomintang army was obviously ill-prepared and unorganized, and in the face of the indiscriminate bombardment of the Japanese army and the pursuit of the ground troops, the various armies were quickly scattered and fled.
In just a few days, the Kuomintang army reached more than 100,000, which was almost equal to all the troops lost since the start of the war.
On November 11, 1937, the last Chinese troops withdrew south of the Suzhou Creek, marking the end of a three-month, unprecedented battle.
On the same day, the mayor of Shanghai, Yu Hongjun, sadly announced the fall of Shanghai. According to incomplete statistics, during the entire Battle of Songhu, there were more than 300,000 Chinese people, and the air force and navy were almost completely wiped out.
But the significance of this battle is immeasurable. It completely shattered Japan's dream of destroying China in three months, caused Japan's domestic resources to consume a huge amount, and laid the groundwork for its inevitable demise in the future.
More importantly, the Battle of Songhu demonstrated the spirit of unity among all forces across the country. Whether it was the distant Gui Army, the Sichuan Army, or the Guangdong Army, or even the remnants of the Northeast Army, they all rushed to the Shanghai battlefield to resist the invasion together.
In this war, the world has seen the determination and courage of the squadron to resist the invaders from passive defense to active attack. This stimulated the fighting spirit of the people of the whole country, gave people hope, and laid a solid foundation for the protracted war of resistance.
Compared to those days, we are undoubtedly blessed to live today. As the saying goes: "There is no time to be quiet, but someone is carrying the weight for you." ”
And now China, with its modern national defense forces, is no longer an era in which a few ships can be conquered and conquered on the coastline. However, with regard to the war, the prime minister once solemnly declared to the world: "The Chinese people love peace, but in order to defend peace, they have never and will never be afraid to resist a war of aggression." The Chinese people will never tolerate foreign aggression. ”
This is today's squadron: not warlike, but never afraid of war!