Last year, the release of a "Eight Hundred" was tearful. If it were not for this film, few people would have known about the existence of this group of soldiers: they fought to the death with the Japanese army for 4 days and 4 nights in order to protect our homeland, and used their flesh and blood to block the crazy bombardment of the enemy.
Today, the mottled gun holes in shanghai's Sihang warehouse record this tragic history. Time will not dilute their deeds, history should not erase their merits, and every patriotic martyr should be remembered forever by the people of china.
But the movie doesn't tell the whole story, and many people don't know what their real ending is. In fact, this group of small soldiers, including Xie Jinyuan, was not promoted or promoted within the Kuomintang. On the contrary, they ended up in a miserable situation, and not a few were put under house arrest, captured, or even killed. So what's going on here?
The story goes back to the beginning of the Battle of Songhu in 1937.
Fight a battle against the water, and carry it to the end
The Battle of Songhu in October 1937 was nearing its end, and the situation with more than 300,000 casualties was greatly unfavorable to the Chinese troops. In early November, under the deployment of Chiang Kai-shek, the large troops decided to withdraw from Shanghai in two ways, leaving only one regiment of troops to maneuver with the Japanese army, that is, the 524th Regiment of the 88th Division of the Kuomintang Army.
At that time, the number of Japanese troops stationed in Shanghai reached at least tens of thousands, was this kind of behavior of hitting stones with pebbles really feasible?
The fact is that the Kuomintang did not expect this army of less than 500 people to be able to defeat the Japanese troops of tens of thousands of people, on the contrary, they hoped that the 524 regiment would drag the enemy's footsteps to cover the safe withdrawal of the large troops, and second, they wanted the senior officials of various countries in the Shanghai concession area to see the Japanese army killing with the strong and the weak, so that the United Nations could put pressure on Japan.
In other words, the Nationalist government actually abandoned the 524 Regiment, just to win the sympathy and solidarity of the international community with the tragedy of the total annihilation of the army.
Xie Jinyuan was the supreme commander of the imminent order, and the 524 regiment led by him was not very orderly. In the early stage, it had already engaged in a big fight with the Japanese army, and the remaining personnel were almost halved.
After the experience of five additions before and after that, it reached the current 414 people. And many of them are recruited from Hubei 17 and 18-year-old recruits, who were pulled into the anti-Japanese battlefield within 2 months of enlistment and training.
Although this group of young men is young but ambitious, although they do not have rich practical experience, they are all full of enthusiasm. In order to increase their momentum, they declared that their team had more than 800 hundred people, and all of them were brave and good at fighting elite soldiers, in an attempt to deter the enemy and establish prestige. This is the source of the so-called "Eight Hundred Heroes".
However, the current situation is not optimistic, in front of the wolf-like Japanese pursuit of soldiers, followed by large troops gradually drifting away. The 524th Regiment, which remained in Shanghai in vain, became a "lone army", but the regimental commander Xie Jinyuan did not think so, and he wanted to hold shanghai until the last moment, even if there was only one breath left, he would not tolerate the Japanese army to attack again.
The 524th Regiment was ordered to enter the Sihang Warehouse on the banks of the Suzhou River and wait in a strict position. This is the former common vault of the four major banks in Shanghai, so the walls are poured with the strongest materials, and ordinary stray bullets are difficult to penetrate. In addition, the interior area here is very large, and there are plenty of bullets and food.
A vicious battle was unstoppable here, the enemy frantically used bullets and grenades to strafe the western wall of the Sihang warehouse, while the soldiers of the 524 regiment only used the outer wall of the warehouse as a barrier to fight the enemy, and the fierce sweep of the enemy army did not give the 524 regiment a chance to breathe.
Fortunately, the outer wall of the copper wall and the iron wall still stood still even if it was so indiscriminately bombed, and the red-eyed Japanese army could not see through the defense of the nationalist army, and they even pulled heavy weapons to raze the Sihang warehouse to the ground.
On the other side of the Sihang Warehouse is the concession area, and the Japanese army does not dare to easily build a second time but only dares to bully the national army here. So the biggest ironic picture appeared: our soldiers and Japanese were fighting on this bank of the river, while the dignitaries and nobles in the concession on the other side drank coffee and looked out the window to watch the fire on the other side.
The war burned for a total of 4 days and 4 nights, and Xie Jinyuan's 524 regiment swore to die fighting with the enemy. The enemy's artillery was becoming more and more fierce, and the small soldiers of the 524th Regiment were tied with explosives on their bodies, jumping down and holding the Japanese army. This scene is also vividly narrated in the movie.
However, at the end of the film, it is said that such an earth-shattering killing still shocked the magnates of the concession on the other side, and the powers in the public concession were afraid of affecting the safety of the concession to put pressure on the two governments, so on the fifth day the two sides ceased fire and interfered in the extermination of the Japanese army. Eight hundred brave men were able to safely walk out of the Sihang warehouse under the orders of their superiors and move to the Area of the British Concession.
At this moment, it can be regarded as the "eight hundred brave men" who fought a draw with the enemy with one hundred enemies, but it can be said that the "eight hundred brave men" defeated the Japanese army by their own single-handed strength, because their courageous act of killing the enemy touched not only the international community, but also inspired countless Chinese people to rise up against Japan. No matter how many people the Japanese army is, they will never be allowed to make a mistake in our land.
The movie ends here, but the reality is that the "eight hundred heroes" who entered the British Concession can only be described as tragic.
The unknown ending, leading to lamentations
At that time, the British and American powers in the concession area did not criticize the war between China and Japan, in fact, they were also one of the fatty dividers of China.
The intervention of the ceasefire armistice only did not want to threaten their own sphere of influence, so even if the "eight hundred heroes" who entered the British Concession would still not be protected or properly arranged by any institution or organization. Instead, they suffered more harm.
At that time, the 524th Regiment was evacuated to the British Concession and was detained by the British Concession administrators, who asked everyone to disarm and disarm. At that time, the chief of staff of the 88th Division negotiated with him, and later concluded that considering the safety of the concession, it was not a surrender of weapons in consideration of the security of the concession.
Now in the territory of others, with the consent of their superiors, the "eight hundred brave men" of the 524 regiment had to obediently hand over all their weapons. It is reported that among the weapons collected at that time, there were 260 rifles, 2 anti-aircraft machine guns, and 10 pistols, plus various types of grenades and mortar shells, which could reach about 100 pieces. Bullets alone have reached 120,000 rounds.
The equipment of a lone regiment was completely comparable to that of the Nationalist 129th Division. It seems that the 524th Regiment originally planned to fight the Japanese to the end.
But the damn thing is that this time they were deceived, and the British side had no intention of releasing them after collecting these weapons. At that time, the Japanese government also negotiated with the British side to "extradite" these soldiers to the Japanese territory, but the British side refused.
However, under pressure from the Japanese side, the British side did not intend to release these soldiers. They detained him in an old military barracks on Jiaozhou Road and were not allowed to go out at will. It is surrounded by elevated barbed wire fences and guarded by White Russian soldiers, and the brave men are placed under house arrest for 4 years.
Moreover, during this period, the regimental commander Xie Jinyuan was also betrayed and killed by traitors within the Kuomintang. At that time, after the establishment of the Japanese puppet government in Nanjing, Wang Jingwei sent someone to persuade Xie Jinyuan to surrender with the high-ranking official Houlu. However, xie Jinyuan's stern refusal.
Later, the angry Japanese bribed several of his soldiers and assassinated Xie Jinyuan when he was not ready for training. It is a pity that a generation of loyal souls actually died in the hands of their own people.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the British Concession in Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese. The soldiers stranded in the barracks were transferred by Japan to Wusongkou for internment. From house arrest to Japanese captivity, they were transformed from house arrest by the British.
Later, some of them were sent to the Pacific Theater by the Japanese army to fight in Papua New Guinea, and some were pulled by the Japanese army to do hard work to unload coal. So the war deaths of the ones who died in battle were exhausted to death. In the end, there were few people left who escaped or survived to the founding of New China. It is difficult to accept that the famous "Eight Hundred Heroes" should have such a miserable end.
The truth is revealed, and history is recreated
Fortunately, there are always people in the world who remember their existence, and who can live to tell their stories. In 2005, before the release of the movie "Eight Hundred", Yang Yangzheng, 91, who remained in Chongqing, was also a witness to the Battle of Songhu and one of the "Eight Hundred Heroes", and was taken to Shanghai to visit the place where they fought in the past, as well as the tomb of the regimental leader Xie Jinyuan.
The old man, who had changed his name and surname and was silent about his past, couldn't help but cry, and in front of the tomb of Commander Xie, he told everyone about his experience. This battle is so fierce, so heroic and great. And the regimental commander Xie Jinyuan is the most outstanding leader and the most religious patriotic soul.
brief summary:
Perhaps now we can't understand what kind of mentality the "Eight Hundred Heroes", including Yang Yangzheng, are using to fight this battle. Perhaps in the face of a situation in which there are fewer enemies and more enemies, they have only one belief: Chinese will never surrender, and they will never be prisoners.
Therefore, in their view, even if it is the last battle of the Battle of Songhu, they must die to defend the military orders and stubbornly resist. In our view, no matter which party they are, as long as they Chinese and fight for China, they should all be national heroes we respect and indelible heroes in our history.