In October 1943, the Japanese invading army crossed the Yangtze River and the Xiang River from Shashi and Yueyang respectively, and launched a large-scale attack on the important town of Changde in western Hunan Province.
At that time, the garrison stationed in Changde was the 57th Division of the 74th Army of the Kuomintang Army, code-named "Tiger Ben". During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang had five ace divisions, the most famous of which was the Seventy-fourth Army (reorganized into the Seventy-fourth Division, that is, the Kuomintang army in the Battle of Menglianggu), and the heroic and good battle in the War of Resistance was called the "Anti-Japanese Iron Army", and the most famous division in the "Anti-Japanese Iron Army" was the "Tiger Ben" Division (Fifty-seventh Division).
Yu Chengwan, commander of the 57th Division of the 74th Army, a native of Guangdong, a student of the first phase of Huangpu, graduated from the first phase of the Huangpu Military Academy and the Department of Political Science of National Sun Yat-sen University, and in 1932 he studied at the Research Institute of the Army University.
At the age of 25, Yu Chengwan hung up the rank of major general. In the 74th Army, his seniority was older than that of the two commanders, Yu Jishi and Wang Yaowu.
a little more than a million
On the eve of the Battle of Changde, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth Theater, and Wang Yaowu, commander of the 74th Army: "We must defend Changde, and the garrison must coexist and die with the city." Subsequently, Chiang Kai-shek issued the order that "if it is unsuccessful, then it will become a ren", and once again ordered the 57th Division of the 74th Army to stick to Changde in an attempt to attract the Japanese to Changde and pose a strategic threat to the Japanese, so that the Chinese Expeditionary Force could open up a battlefield in Burma.
Under the circumstance that it was easy to attack and difficult to defend, and there was no danger to rely on, the 57th Division of the 74th Army, which was responsible for defending Changde City, under the leadership of division commander Yu Chengwan, surrounded by more than 60,000 Japanese troops on all sides, fought a battle against the water, "with one enemy and eight enemies", held out for more than ten days, fought with the enemy in bloody alleys, bought time, and was able to make the reinforcements encircle, and the Japanese had to sneak back to the north bank of the Yangtze River.
Only 83 of the 8,000 men of the 57th Division of the 74th Army survived, and although Changde was lost, it also caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army.
The day after Changde was lost, Yu Chengwan led the 32nd Regiment of reinforcements to counterattack Changde and retake it on the same day.
However, Chiang Kai-shek did not forgive Changde's once failure to defend, and he ordered Yu Chengwan to be sent to the Military Justice Department for trial on the charge of disobeying military orders. Sun Lianzhong and Wang Yaowu came forward to intercede. Yu Chengwan was sentenced to two years in prison. Before the sentence was completed, Wang Yaowu interceded with the Military Justice Department again and bailed out Yu Chengwan.
In order to commemorate the soldiers who died in this battle, Yu Chengwan sent two subordinates to the simple apartment of Zhang Hexhui, the "first writer of the Republic of China", in Chongqing's Nanwenquan, hoping that he could write a touching story of the bloody battle of the "Tiger Ben" army in Changde.
Zhang Hexhui had great respect for the two anti-Japanese soldiers who came to visit, according to Zhang Hexhui's fourth son Zhang Wu recalled: "Father suddenly saw two soldiers coming uninvited, naturally he was shocked, in those years and months people naturally had to respect and stay away when they saw the soldiers, not to mention that there was never such a guest in our family." After announcing the names, knowing that they were the brave men who had died in Changde, my father was in awe and sent me to the town to buy a better pack of cigarettes. While "taking orders" and hurrying away, I felt strange at the same time, because my family's three broken grass houses were also visited from time to time by celebrities and dignitaries, but my father always took out the "bullshit" brand cigarettes very calmly to smoke and entertain guests, and rarely let my brother and I go to the town to buy cigarettes. How these two guests could make their father so respectful was a rare and new thing. ”
Zhang Hexhui officially began writing "Long Live the Tiger" in the spring of 1945. In the novel, from the division commander to the brother-in-law, it is all real names, and the time and place are also completely consistent with the history of the war.
When the novel was about to be completed, Yu Chengwan was very happy and specially sent someone to send a fairly generous amount of Xie Jin, but Zhang Hexhui insisted on not accepting it. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Yu Chengwan was stationed in Nanjing, and he wanted to invite Zhang Hexhui to dinner, but he also refused, but accepted a gift from him: a combat knife captured from the Japanese prisoners.
In 1946, "Long Live the Tiger" was published as Zhang Hexhui's only documentary novel.
After the publication of "Long Live the Tiger", the 57th Division became famous in China, which also greatly increased the popularity of Yu Chengwan. After reading the book, a very beautiful Suzhou lady is determined to commit herself to Zhang Hexhui's "Tiger Ben Hero" at all costs. At this time, the War of Resistance had been victorious, and Yu Chengwan's army was stationed in Nanjing. Once he went to Shanghai to visit and met this Miss Suzhou. Soon, this Miss Suzhou named Wu Bing became Yu Chengwan's second wife.
After the Defeat of the Kuomintang soldiers fled to Taiwan, Yu Chengwan did not go to the isolated island of Taiwan with the defeated Chiang Family Dynasty, but settled his family in Hong Kong and settled in Hong Kong. He started a rice shop and grocery store business, and also co-founded a pawnshop. His wife, Kwong Qiong-wah, lives in downtown Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The second wife, Wu Bing, set up a farm in the countryside of Ping Shan, New Territories, Hong Kong, to grow vegetables and raise chickens.
During his time in the mainland, Yu Chengwan accumulated a lot of wealth, and after arriving in Hong Kong, coupled with his good management, the business was very prosperous, and his wealth attracted the covetousness of bandits. At about 12:00 p.m. on August 27, 1955, Yu Chengwan's Ping Shan apartment was robbed by bandits, and the second wife Wu Bing and the maid were all tied up.
A while later, Yu Chengwan, who was returning home from downtown Kowloon, was also captured by the bandits. The movement in the house was too great, causing the neighbors to be alerted and quietly call the police. When the police arrived, they engaged in a shootout with the bandits. In the darkness, Yu Chengwan was shot and died. The police announced that one of the three robbers was killed, two escaped, and Yu Chengwan was killed by the robbers.
However, according to his aide-de-camp, Yu Chengwan was used as a shield by the robbers at that time, and afterwards, he saw the body of the old officer, and there was a row of bullets in the chest and abdomen, which was believed to be caused by submachine guns or light machine guns, and the robbers did not have such equipment. Whether Yu Chengwan was killed by the bandits or killed by the police, no one dared to investigate. There are also different versions of the identity of the robbers: some people think that they are Taiwanese agents, because in Hong Kong, Yu Chengwan is often angry when he chats with old friends in Huangpu about old Chiang Kai-shek; others think that they are the leaders of the underworld and have taken a fancy to the beauty of the second wife.
The police spent HK$20,000 to arrest the murderer, but finally failed. A generation of famous anti-Japanese generals Yu Chengwan actually ended up with such an ending!
Yu Chengwan, the daughter of the second wife Wu Bing, Yu Huafang, is a famous Hong Kong star in the 1970s, whose stage name is Yu Shali, who has made many films directed by Li Hanxiang. In 1976, Yu Sally married the character actor Jensen and divorced soon after. Later, Yu Sally became a small vendor in Hong Kong who made a living by selling fake jewelry, which was emotional. (Liu Jixing)