The Battle of Wuhan, also known as the Battle of Wuhan, was a battle fought between the Chinese army and the Japanese invading army in the Wuhan area during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. From June to October of the 27th year of the Republic of China (1938), the troops of the 5th and 9th Theaters of Operations of China deployed along the north and south banks of the Yangtze River on the outskirts of Wuhan, and the battlefield covered a vast area of Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, and Hubei Provinces, which was the largest, longest, and most annihilated campaign in the strategic defense stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
For the results and significance of this Wuhan defense war, today is very clear: in this battle, the Chinese army fought bloodily, fighting hundreds of battles, at the cost of more than 400,000 casualties, killing and wounding more than 257,000 Japanese troops, greatly depleting the japanese army's living strength. After that, China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered a stage of strategic stalemate. However, like many wars, the defense of Wuhan still needs to be recounted, at least to give people such a 3 points of enlightenment.
Revelation one: self-confidence, never say defeat is never defeat
Self-confidence can come from all sides, both tactical and strategic, and in the end, it is a spirit, a kind of courage, and in the end it is victory.
The Battle of Wuhan lasted 4 and a half months and ended with the withdrawal of nationalist troops from Wuhan on their own initiative. Military experts' evaluation of the battle is very good:
As far as the campaign was concerned, the Japanese army occupied the three towns of Wuhan and controlled the heartland of China, achieving victory. But in terms of strategy, Japan has not been able to achieve its strategic ambitions. It can be said that the Battle of Wuhan not only caused the Japanese army to suffer another strategic defeat, but also became a turning point for Japan to move from strategic offensive to strategic conservatism.
At that time, the Japanese base camp believed that "as long as Hankou and Guangzhou were captured, they would be able to dominate China", so the Japanese Imperial Council decided to launch the Battle of Wuhan and quickly capture Wuhan to force the Chinese government to submit. To this end, it is also stipulated that "the state forces will be concentrated to achieve the goals of the war within this year" and "the war against China will be ended."
However, the Chinese Government did not succumb to the loss of Wuhan and Guangzhou, nor did Japan's war of aggression against China end with the Japanese occupation of Wuhan and Guangzhou. After the fall of Wuhan, the Chinese Government stated: "The temporary advance and retreat must not shake our country's determination to resist the war," and "the gains and losses of any city must not affect the overall situation of the War of Resistance."; it said that it would "be more mournful, more stoic, more down-to-earth, more assiduous, more courageous, and more courageous" and work hard to fight in a comprehensive and protracted war of resistance.
The fact is also this: in the rear areas already occupied by the Japanese army, a large number of anti-Japanese people's armed forces have grown up, and large areas of the country have been recovered. In the Japanese army's own words, the "so-called areas of security restoration" occupied by the Japanese army are actually limited to areas of several kilometers on both sides of the main lines of communication." In our own words, the Japanese army was dragged into the vast ocean of people's war, like a piece of dead leaves, which was quickly engulfed by the waves.
Therefore, never say defeat is never defeated, in addition to the support from self-confidence, there is a key word that can not be separated, that is, the people, although the people are people, but there is no army in this world can defeat the people, only the army that has the support of the people is a constant victorious army, an undefeated army, so no matter what you do, you must mobilize the people, the people's strength is everywhere, indestructible.
Revelation two: To command is to be proper is to be enlightened
The aggressor will always have the fate of the aggressor, and turning over the history of mankind, there has never been an aggressor who can win the final victory. Therefore, in war, the righteous side is properly commanded, and the aggressor will suffer the consequences and die a miserable death.
The Great Victory of Wanjialing was the battle that annihilated the most enemies in the main operations on the south bank of the Yangtze River and in the northern Part of Gansu. From September 28 to October 10, 1938, lasting 12 days, the Japanese army suffered a devastating blow, more than 10,000 people were annihilated, more than 100 people were captured, and the mountains were full of enemy corpses and abandoned weapons. This battle was an unprecedented fierce battle on the battlefield of northern Ganbei, and it was also an unprecedented victory, which gave time for the Wuhan War.
A Japanese commander once wrote: "When I spotted an enemy attack, I heard the terrifying sound of mortars blowing above my head and exploding 50 meters ahead. The shells hit the horses, and the horses exploded like nests and rammed through the smoke. There were thousands of horses leaving Jiujiang, and by the time we got to the Thunder valley, not a single horse was gone. From the next day onwards, our squadrons hid around ditches and mounds to confront the enemy. However, due to the enemy in the surrounding mountains, bullets flew from all directions. ”
A survivor of a Japanese transporter named Nasu Ryosuke put it this way: "Most of the comrades were wounded, and some of them fell down because of hunger and exhaustion. The comrades who died in the ditch, their faces turned brown and puffy, and maggots of white flowers fell from their nostrils and mouths. He didn't eat for days, he had to scoop dirty water from the ditch where the bodies of his companions were floating, and the living people were about to turn into ghosts. I also feel like my time to die is up. Facing the moon, I cried loudly. ”
Tang Yongliang (1895-1958) was a native of Daxing, Hebei Province, the second stage of the higher education class of the Central Military Academy, and later served as the commander of the 32nd Division of the National Revolutionary Army. A year after the war, when he passed through the Wanjialing Battlefield, he had this description:
"The land around the Wanjialing Battlefield is about 10 square kilometers of land, full of cemeteries of the Japanese army and our army. The weight of the Japanese army, the bones of horses, steel helmets, saddles, ammunition boxes, gas cylinders, gas masks and other debris, can be found everywhere. Many of the bones wore rubber shoes on the feet of the big toes that were separated from the other four toes, apparently the bones of the Japanese army. After some of the bones were decayed by a large pile of maggots, the maggots became pupae, the pupaes became flies, and the pupa shells piled on the skeletons were as high as a foot..."
He also said: "Surrounding liu village in Leiming Valley (now The village of Liu Jugu in Nantian, Moxi Township) is the grave of the enemy, human bones, horse bones... In addition, along the foothills, along the road, along the stream, there is nowhere without the bones of Japanese soldiers, if you say five steps a province, ten steps and one horse, it is not too much, statistics of the Battlefield around Liu Village, Beejie Street, Wanjialing in the Leiming Valley, the bones of Japanese soldiers are at least more than 6,000, and the bones of horses are at least more than a thousand. ”
Revelation Three: Devotion is discovered only later
On the battlefield, sacrifice is the greatest dedication, but this dedication should be discovered later, it is more valuable than the sacrifice of the devotee, the devotee is still alive, is a living hero, able to personally speak out, inspire and educate future generations.
In 2015, the 70th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, on April 11, the Wuhan Evening News published a report entitled "The Last Defensive Battle of Wuhan 77 Years Ago, 500 Heroes Spilled Blood on the Riverbank Parking Lot", which said that a wuhan citizen named Xu Yibing collected a copy of Japan's Osaka Mainichi Shimbun (October 27, 1938) outside the Showa 13th (October 27, 1938), which mentioned: "Wuhan was occupied one after another, and 500 enemy soldiers in the city street were annihilated." ”
This report overturns many historical records that "the last resistance of the Nationalist army in Wuhan was in Daijiashan", confirming that the resistance of the Nationalist army in the urban area of Wuhan (Hankou) actually lasted until the morning of the 26th. "At that time, two units of the 185 brigade, 500 men, were still stubbornly resisting until all were killed... The last resistance in Wuhan should be frozen in the 'river bank parking lot' on the morning of October 26. ”
Reporters Jin Wenbing and Yao Chuanlong said that the "Jiang'an Parking Lot" is now the Hankou Vehicle Factory, and they went to The Erqi Road to The DanshuiChi and Liujiamiao areas on the same day to search, but no one knows that five hundred Wuhan disciples and soldiers died here, and "their sacrifices have not been recorded in the history of the war."
A few months later, on September 2, the Wuhan Evening News published a report entitled "Final withdrawal of Wuhan veterans: I beat down the Japanese planes with machine guns", which talked about a japanese military plane shot down with an anti-aircraft machine gun during the Wuhan defense war by a veteran named Wang Futang: "One day, I was on duty at the position, I saw 3 Japanese planes attacking, and I did not get the commander's order at that time. The other two planes left in a hurry. The downed enemy plane crashed into Lake Macang, 2 kilometers from the position. Later, two machine guns were seized from the wreckage of the plane..."
After withdrawing from Wuhan, Wang Futang suffered from leg disease due to years of marching and returned to his hometown in Yueyang to become a farmer. In 1941, after arriving in Yueyang, Hunan, Wang Futang came to a hospital for hospitalization, which was 10 days. During this time, the platoon commander came to see him, but by the time he was discharged from the hospital, the troops had left Yueyang. Thus, he ended his short but shining military career. ”
What is touching is that in the dialogue with the Wuhan Evening News reporter, Wang Futang sighed 9 times, I don't know what Wuhan has become, I want to go back to see. His phrase is not "go and see", but "go back and see". Wuhan is the most shining place in his life. But limited to the age of 95, this 250-kilometer distance is too long. The reporter could only take out his mobile phone, open the picture, and show the old man the current situation of Hanyang Arsenal, Jianghan Road and other places. "In the sunset, Wang Futang sat on a chair in the old house, looking at his mobile phone, like a wanderer who has been away from home for many years and finally sees his hometown."
War cannot be separated from heroes, and war is inseparable from the people. Heroes choose obscurity because they finally choose to return to the people. Therefore, there are two sentences that can actually be placed together to express: heroes do not die, long live the people!
References: "History of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression"; "The Battle of Wuhan Shattered Japan's Dream"; "The Battle of Wuhan: The Battle of Wuhan: The Battle of The Greatest Number of Enemies Destroyed During the War of Resistance Against Japan"; "The Battle of Wuhan: The Greatest Turning Point in the War of Resistance Against Japan"; "77 Years Ago, the Blood of Five Hundred Heroes Spilled on Wuhan City"; "Wang Futang, a veteran of the 185th Division who finally withdrew from Wuhan, "I beat down the Japanese plane with a machine gun"" and so on.