The Battle of Guangzhou in 1938, although due to the decision-making errors of the Military Committee of the Nationalist Government, ended with the defeat of the Chinese defenders and the loss of Guangzhou, the southern gate. However, in this defeat, a general who has been idle in Hong Kong for many years and has no military position has rarely won the Highest Honor medal of the National Government, the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun. This retired general, who had no military service but had made important contributions to The Cause of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, was Li Fulin.
Li Fulin, a native of Panyu County, Guangdong Province (today's Zhuhai City), was born in 1874 to a poor peasant family. Since he was a child, he did not do his job, entangled with a group of rural idlers to form gangs, and was elected as a "big guy", specializing in robbing his family and robbing houses for a living. Li Fulin's brain was flexible, and he used a lamp tube made of bamboo tubes to pretend to be a gun to rob, tired and successful without harming the victims, and was called "'Li Lamplight'" by the government, and a reward of 3,000 taels of silver was offered.
In 1907, Li Fulin, who had fled to Nanyang for refuge, was introduced by his friends to the revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen and joined the Chinese League. Li Fulin has been in the underworld for many years and knows many good men in the green forest, and it is such talents that the Alliance lacks. Li Fulin successively participated in the Hekou Uprising held by the revolutionaries, the First and Second Guangzhou Uprisings, and made outstanding contributions. After the success of the Xinhai Revolution, a revolutionary military government was established in Guangdong, and Li Fulin served as the commander of the guard battalion of the Guangdong military government.
In 1925, the Guangdong revolutionary government reorganized its subordinate army into six armies, with Chiang Kai-shek's Huangpu Student Army as the First Army, with Chiang Kai-shek as its commander; And Li Fulin's miscellaneous troops into the Fifth Army, which was appointed as its commander. Don't look at Li Fulin and Chiang Kai-shek as both lieutenant generals and sit on an equal footing, but the combat effectiveness of the two armies is 18,000 miles apart. The combat effectiveness of Li Fulin's Fifth Army was not as good as that of a division of the First Army, and the First Army had four divisions and several independent regiments under its jurisdiction, so when the Zhongshan Incident broke out, although Li Fulin supported Wang and opposed Chiang Kai-shek, he did not dare to break his wrist with the First Army.
In 1927, nanchang and Guangzhou gathered together to break out an armed uprising. Zhang Fakui, Huang Qixiang, Li Fulin, and others jointly accused Chiang Kai-shek, commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, of ineffective suppression and demanded that he resign. Less than half a year after Chiang Kai-shek went into the wilderness, he rose up with the support of his wife, soong Mei Ling's family. Chiang Kai-shek settled the account after the autumn, and Li Fulin, who knew the current affairs as Junjie, handed over the military power of the Fifth Army and took refuge in Hong Kong with a large amount of property.
In September 1938, just as the Battle of Wuhan was in full swing, the Japanese army suddenly dispatched men and horses to sneak into Guangdong, the southern gate of China. After hearing the wind, Yu Hanmou, chairman of Guangdong Province, called to ask the Nationalist government to transfer several troops transferred to the Battlefield of Wuhan to defend themselves, but they were scolded by Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek believed that the sneak attack on Guangdong was just a rumor deliberately spread by Japanese intelligence personnel in order to disrupt the strategic deployment of the Chinese army. Not only that, Chiang Kai-shek also ordered Yu Hanmou to dispatch an army to support the Wuhan battlefield. Yu Han was overwhelmed by Chiang Kai-shek's orders, and secretly prayed that the intelligence of the Japanese army sneaking into Guangdong was preferably a rumor.
On October 12, 1938, the Japanese 21st Army, under the cover of an aircraft carrier formation, landed in Daya Bay, Guangdong. At this time, Yu Hanmou only had 80,000 old, weak, sick and disabled men, and they were scattered throughout Guangdong, and they could not organize a decent defense at all. It was difficult for Qiao Women to cook without rice, and Yu Hanmou could only organize a small number of troops to carry out layers of resistance against the Japanese army, delay the attack of the Japanese army, and wait for reinforcements from other places. The Battle of Guangzhou began on October 12, 1938, and ended on October 29 of the same year, the Japanese army captured a large area of Chinese territory including Guangzhou in 18 days, cutting off the sea transportation line between China and Western countries, forcing the Chinese defenders to withdraw from the Wuhan battlefield, and the Battle of Wuhan ended. During the Battle of Guangzhou, Major General Zhong Fangjun, commander of the 459th Brigade of the 153rd Division of the 63rd Army of the National Revolutionary Army, was killed on the battlefield and martyred.
Before the Japanese army landed in Guangdong, the special agents found General Li Fulin, who had been living idly in Hong Kong for many years, and asked him to plot against the old department as a traitor and serve the Japanese army. At this time, Li Fulin had been running a chicken farm in Hong Kong for many years, living a comfortable life, and naturally did not agree to do things for the Japanese. However, the Japanese threatened that if he did not obey the order, he would be unfavorable to his family, so Li Fulin made a plan, conspired with General Chen Ce, the commander of the defense of Humen Fortress, and skillfully performed a thrilling counter-plan against the Japanese army. When the Japanese landing force entered the ambush circle of General Chen Ce, they were violently attacked by the Chinese army, leaving behind hundreds of corpses and retreating. General Chen Ce personally went to the front line to command the ambush of the Japanese army, but unfortunately was hit by Japanese artillery fire, seriously injured, and then cut off a left leg.
After the battle of Guangzhou, in view of General Li Fulin's great contribution to the japanese, the Nationalist government specially awarded him the 84th Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun. This medal is also the only one awarded to meritorious soldiers in the entire Guangzhou Campaign. He was promoted to second-class general in the Army shortly thereafter.
In 1952, General Li Fulin died in Hong Kong at the age of 79.