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Behind the Back of Su Yu, God of War (63)
In the previous section, we talked about the sino-Japanese armies fighting in Shanghai, and Chiang Kai-shek was so busy dealing with Japanese aggression that he suspended the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army, which is the reason why the third anti-encirclement and suppression and the fourth anti-encirclement and suppression were separated for a long time.
As we said earlier, because Chiang Kai-shek practiced the principle of "foreign countries must first be at home," he adopted an attitude of forbearance and compromise toward Japan, which also laid hidden dangers for Japan's all-out invasion of China a few years later, and this policy decision also changed the trend of the Chinese revolution. Therefore, in this section, we will talk about the Songhu War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 128, from which we can see the international background at that time and the internal contradictions of the Kuomintang.
The fundamental purpose of the Japanese army's attack on Shanghai was to strategize the independence of Manchuria in the north, which determined that the direction of Shanghai was not the main direction of the Japanese army. However, Shanghai was of great economic, political and military importance to the Kuomintang, and it was reasonable to say that Chiang Kai-shek had to wage resolute resistance in Shanghai.
Economically, Shanghai was a gathering place of wealth and the main source of Chiang Kai-shek's economy. Before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1931, Shanghai's population was more than 3 million, and Shanghai's industrial strength was pivotal, and it had developed into the country's largest city and comprehensive economic center. An important indicator representing the level of economic development is the land price, let's take a look at the land price in Shanghai at that time.
In the early 1930s, the average price of land per mu in Shanghai was 22,062 yuan, while the closest Xiamen plummeted to 12,000 yuan per mu, when the land price in Beiping, the largest city in the north, was only a pitiful 790 yuan, and the land price in the capital Nanjing was only 3,600 yuan. At present, the land price in Beijing and Shanghai are still the same and sometimes slightly higher, who would have thought that the land price in Shanghai at that time was more than 30 times that of Beiping (Beijing), when Shanghai also left other cities far behind, a monopoly, unlike the current "north, Guangzhou, Shenzhen" pattern.
At that time, Shanghai was China's foreign trade center, and half of China's tariff revenue came from Shanghai, which supported half of China's economy, so from an economic point of view, Shanghai could not be lost.
Politically, after the Nationalist government established the capital in 1927, Nanjing became the political center of the country, and Shanghai was very close to Nanjing, and more importantly, Shanghai was a gathering place for foreign capital, at that time, 80% of British investment in China, 90% of French investment in China, and 60% of American investment in China were in Shanghai.
Related to these interests are the great powers that have set up concessions, embassies, chambers of commerce and other institutions in Shanghai. This is also why the reaction of the great powers to the Japanese invasion of Shanghai was much greater than the reaction of the Japanese occupation of northeast China, and the League of Nations controlled by these powers issued an appeal on February 26, 1932, condemning Japan's aggressive acts, which made Japan feel unprecedented pressure, which showed Shanghai's political influence.
From a military point of view, as the mouth of the Yangtze River, Shanghai is the key gateway for the Yangtze River to enter China, if Shanghai is lost, then the Yangtze River area will be wide open, and the capital of the Kuomintang, Nanjing, will not be guaranteed.
It is precisely for the above reasons that the Kuomintang is divided into two factions, one headed by Chiang Kai-shek, which vigorously advocates compromise and concessions, on the grounds that confrontation with Japan is bound to be defeated, and Wang Jingwei, He Yingqin, and others who hold this view.
The other faction was the main battle faction, which was dominated by the generals of the 19th Route Army of the Kuomintang Shanghai Garrison, mainly Jiang Guangnai, Cai Tingkai, Chen Mingshu and others.
The predecessors of the 19th Route Army were the 10th Division and the 11th Army of the 4th Army of the Kuomintang Army, of which the 10th Division participated in the Nanchang Uprising and later broke away from the Nanchang Uprising. In November 1931, the 19th Route Army was transferred to the Beijing-Shanghai area, with more than 33,000 officers and men. The battle between the Chinese and Japanese armies was carried out precisely under the showdown between the main war faction and the main peace faction within the Kuomintang. At that time, although the Kuomintang had completed nominal reunification, Chiang Kai-shek's ability to restrain the local powerful factions was not strong, which was the precondition for the local powerful factions to be able to take the lead in the battle and take action.
On January 28, 1932, the Japanese issued an ultimatum, restricting the 19th Route Army to withdraw from Shanghai Zhabei from now on, and the defensive area was stationed by the Japanese army, which was resolutely rejected by the 19th Route Army, and war broke out immediately. On the one hand, the 19th Route Army was not Chiang Kai-shek's concubine unit, and on the other hand, the 19th Route did not listen to Chiang Kai-shek's words and demanded resolute resistance, which made the supply of the 19th Route Army far from sufficient.
Although the 19th Route Army was not a concubine of Chiang Kai-shek, its anti-Japanese bloodiness was very strong, and at the emergency meeting held, the commander-in-chief Jiang Guangnai, the military commander Cai Tingkai, and the songhu garrison commander Dai Ji respectively delivered speeches, the core of which was: "dead resistance" and "a decisive battle to the death."
Before the battle began, the central government owed more than 6 million yuan in salaries to the 19th Route Army for 8 months. At the end of January in Shanghai, heavy snow fell, the 19th Route Army had almost no cotton clothes, and the soldiers wore single clothes and shorts on their knees, fighting in the ice and snow. Not only were they unclothed, but they also lacked weapons and equipment, especially after the battle began, it was obvious that the supply of grenades was not available, and the central government never responded, so they had to mobilize the Shanghai people to rush to make homemade grenades. At the same time, the artillery strength of the 19th Route Army was also several notches lower than that of the Japanese army, resulting in the japanese bombing unscrupulously.
When the 19th Route Army and the Japanese army fought bloodily, Chiang Kai-shek mainly did three things:
First, after the war began, the central government in Nanjing repeatedly sent power generations, demanding that the 19th Route Army not resist and withdraw to the second-line positions. Although the 19th Route Army did not retreat at first and achieved certain battle results, under the telegram after telegram, Jiang Guangnai and Cai Tingkai had to issue orders to stop the attack.
Second, the Nationalist government announced that it would move the capital to Luoyang in the Central Plains. For a country, relocation is an extraordinary thing, and if there is no catastrophe, unless you are prepared for a long-term war, it is difficult to explain why the capital is moved.
The third was to order the Army's 87th Division (division commander Zhang Zhizhong), the 88th Division (division commander Yu Jishi), and the Central Army Officer School Teaching Corps (commander Tang Guangji) to form the 5th Army, so that Zhang Zhizhong was made the commander of the army and urgently reinforced Shanghai.
Chiang Kai-shek's strategy was to fight and talk at the same time, so his measures seem contradictory. Of course, fighting is forced, and talking is Chiang Kai-shek's fundamental purpose.
When the Songhu War of Resistance broke out, Japan succeeded in attracting the world's attention. On March 1, 1932, the puppet state of Manchukuo was established, Japan's purpose was achieved, and Chiang Kai-shek was unwilling to fight, and it was under these circumstances that the two sides officially began talks on March 24, 1932, and on May 5, China and Japan signed the Shanghai Armistice Agreement. The Songhu War of Resistance lasted only more than 1 month, but from this battle we can see many problems:
First, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army at that time was far less powerful than Chiang Kai-shek thought. At that time, the Japanese army had about 100,000 troops, the Chinese 19th Route Army and the 5th Route Army, a total of less than 60,000 troops, while the total strength of the Kuomintang army was more than 2 million. The number of Casualties on the Chinese side is 15,173, the number of casualties on the Japanese side is 3,091, and some statistics are 3,184. The number of casualties of the Chinese army is about 5 times that of the Japanese army, but this is a record in the case of insufficient Chinese troops, discord between generals and commanders, and insufficient supplies. If the Chinese side is resolute in its will and properly commanded, it will be very difficult for the Japanese army to succeed, as can be seen from the comparison of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Second, the discord between the generals of the Kuomintang army greatly weakened the combat effectiveness of the Kuomintang army. If the 19th Route Army is like Yue Fei's Yue Family Army, Chiang Kai-shek is like Emperor Gaozong of Song, constantly ordering it to withdraw its troops. "Sun Tzu's Conspiracy" says:
Know that those who can fight and those who cannot fight win;
The one who knows the few wins;
The one who desires the same thing up and down wins;
He who treats the one who is not afraid wins;
He who can and the king will prevail.
These five are also the ways to know victory.
The Kuomintang army, on the other hand, has different desires from top to bottom, and will be able to rule over the emperor, which is a taboo for soldiers.
Third, the "Shanghai Armistice Agreement" signed by China and Japan left huge hidden dangers and became an important reason for the defeat of the Chinese army at the Battle of Songhu in 1937. The agreement seriously undermines China's sovereignty. According to the agreement, the Japanese army could remain in Shanghai, so the Japanese army was able to build a large number of military facilities in the Shanghai area, and the dense military fortifications caused great losses to the Chinese army in the subsequent "August 13" Battle of Songhu.
Moreover, the Japanese army openly established an intelligence network in Shanghai, which was like a pair of Eyes of Japan on the land of China, always peeping, which was an important reason for the Chinese army to fall away during the later all-out War of Resistance. This is also the tragic story of the 800 soldiers' bloody battle in the four-line warehouse.
Therefore, experts say: An important decision of Chiang Kai-shek in 1932 became the root of the tragedy of the eight hundred warriors in the Sihang Warehouse. This conclusion simplifies the complex issue, but it also shows that the Shanghai Armistice Agreement is too hidden.
Later, the 19th Route Army of the heroic War of Resistance was transferred out of Shanghai and successively stationed in nanjing, Zhenjiang, and Changzhou, and was later transferred to Fujian to be encircled and suppressed. On May 21, 1932, the ink of the Shanghai Armistice Agreement was not dried, and Chiang Kai-shek personally served as the commander-in-chief of the "suppression of bandits" in the three provinces of Henan, Hubei and Anhui, and prepared to launch the fourth encirclement and suppression of the Red Army's base areas, which was the background of the fourth anti-encirclement and suppression of the Central Red Army.
(Heavenly Selection Miscellaneous Original: This article uses some literary techniques on the basis of historical facts, to be continued)
References: "Su Yu's Life Deeds", "Su Yu's Biography", "God of War Su Yu", "Famous General Su Yu ZhenWen" and so on.
Tianxuan is the author's pen name, who has engaged in teaching and research at the National Defense University, and has studied history and philosophy