As we all know, China's modern history is a history of humiliation, especially the War of Resistance Against Japan, and China was even rubbed on the ground by Japan, but fortunately the war was won in the end! The 14-year-long history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression has had many fierce battles, which also confirms the phrase in the national anthem, "Build our flesh and blood into our new Great Wall"! Indeed, the Great Wall of New China was really built by the flesh and blood of these anti-Japanese heroes! The Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Nanjing, the Battle of Changsha, etc., were all proof of China's resistance, but none of these wars caused any substantial harm to the Japanese army!
What really hurt the Japanese army was the Hengyang Defense War with the "Moscow Defense War" in the East! The fierceness of this defensive war was on the same level as the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Nanjing, although it failed in the end, but it hit the confidence of the Japanese army, and even The then Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was forced to resign, which calmed the anger of various forces in the country! So how did this war break the Japanese army' bones? Just look at the casualty figures, the Japanese casualties are 30,000, and the Kuomintang army is 6,000 casualties! The 5:1 casualty ratio between the enemy and us was the only one in the 14-year War of Resistance!
The Battle of Hengyang, which broke out in 1944, was only one of the stages in the Battle of Yuxianggui, and the reason why this battle broke out was mainly because of the problems in the supply of the Japanese army! At that time, the whole world was anti-fascist, Japan realized that its own maritime supply channels would be cut off sooner or later, so that its operations on the East Asian continent would fall into a passive situation, in order to break the deadlock, the Japanese army could only open up a new lifeline, and soon the Japanese army found it, but this inland lifeline had to pass through China's hunan, Henan, and Guangxi provinces, and these three provinces happened to be under the control of the Kuomintang, so that its own back road would not be cut off, Japan could only launch a war, and this war was the Battle of Yuxianggui!
The Defense of Hengyang was the second stage of the Battle of Yuxianggui, when the 10th Army of the Kuomintang general Fang Xianjue was responsible for guarding Hengyang City, when the number of the 10th Army was 17,000 people, and Fang Xianjue's task was to protect Hengyang City from falling in 15 days! This mission is actually very difficult, to know that the Japanese army led by Japanese general Yokoyama Isamu has 90,000 people, according to the ratio of 5:1 of the individual combat strength of The two sides at that time, Fang Xianjue's Tenth Army may not even be able to last for 1 day! But to everyone's surprise, Fang Xianjue held for 47 days, but he did not wait for reinforcements, nor did he wait for the generals who came to change defenses, and finally he could only raise the white flag and surrender!
With the disparity in military strength between the enemy and us, Fang Xianjue resisted two Japanese attacks! After knowing the strength of the nationalist army, the Japanese army was ready to take Hengyang City directly in the first round of attack! In the first round of attack, the Japanese army arranged 2 divisions, the two sides fought fiercely for 5 days and nights, the Japanese army only captured the outer positions of Hengyang City, this time the position was lost not because the Kuomintang Tenth Army surrendered, but because they were all killed in battle, no one retreated or fled, even the cooking guys were not spared! You must know that in this attack, the Japanese army participated in the battle not only two divisions, but also arranged aircraft and heavy artillery to bomb Hengyang City, in addition to releasing a large amount of poisonous gas!
Fortunately, the equipment of the Nationalist army at that time was not too bad, after putting on the gas mask, it continued to fight with the Japanese army, which lasted for 5 days and nights, and then in order to prevent the Japanese army from directly attacking Hengyang City, the Kuomintang Tenth Army directly blew up the two bridges leading to Hengyang City, and after 5 days and nights, the Japanese army also directly abandoned the siege due to heavy casualties, but chose to replenish the strength and cultivate the sound! At this time, Fang Xianjue thought that as long as he insisted on it for 10 days, he could do it! But no one knows if reinforcements will come in 10 days! After a 13-day break, the Japanese launched a second offensive!
According to the original plan, reinforcements should have come, but in fact there was no! This time the Japanese sent out two divisions from the first attack, and two corps that had replenished their strength and ammunition, while the Tenth Army had nothing! In addition to this company of divisions, the Japanese army also sent 4 field artillery brigades and 2 mortar brigades to reinforce these two divisions! After two days and two nights of fighting, the Japanese army still did not take Hengyang City! In this defense of Hengyang, the victory was won by the Tenth Army, and it was a victory without any controversy, because they held hengyang City and annihilated more than 8,000 Japanese troops, in addition, almost all the squadron leaders and company commanders of the Japanese army were killed!
Of course, the Kuomintang suffered many casualties, more than 4,000 people sacrificed their lives for the country! At this time, Fang Xianjue was almost unable to hold on, obviously the Kuomintang headquarters also realized this, so when the Japanese army launched the second round of attack, two legions had already arranged to support, these two troops on the outskirts of Hengyang City, they encountered Japanese snipers, in order to avoid casualties, they did not choose to fight, but chose to retreat! So Fang Xianjue's waiting support stopped in the middle of the road! Soon, more than 10 days later, the Japanese launched a third attack!
Like the previous two times, the battle was even more fierce than the previous two times, because the Japanese army arranged two other divisions to support, that is, when the Japanese attacked for the third time, there were 4 legions! This war was fought for a long time, and the casualties of the Tenth Army also reached 8,000 people, knowing that in the end, as long as there were combat capabilities on the battlefield, whether it was a cook or a groom, they did not give up easily, and when they really could not fight, Fang Xianjue decided to martyr himself and gave himself the end, but when he committed suicide, the gun was directly deflected by the lieutenant! At this time, another staff officer said that he had hung a white flag to surrender, and the Japanese army also accepted it, and Fang Xianjue put forward several conditions, first of all, that is, he could not slaughter the wounded and civilians in the city, and retained the tenth army number!
You don't have to think about it to know that the Japanese side did not agree, and at this time, in order to avoid casualties, Fang Xianjue could only accept unconditional surrender! Soon the Japanese army entered the city, probably because of the admiration of Fang Xianjue's troops, so the Japanese army directly retained their nicknames, but it was not so good for the people in the city, the day after the Japanese army entered the city, the two supporting troops also came to the outside of Hengyang City, at this time Fang Xianjue could only grit his teeth and regret, if he insisted on a day, was it not necessary to surrender! In fact, Fang Xianjue really thought a lot, you know, if the Japanese army does not enter the city, then these two armies will definitely not be close to Hengyang City!
Therefore, Fang Xianjue did not need to blame himself at all! This battle was fought very successfully, and almost all the media at that time reported positively! For example, Chongqing's "Sweeping Newspaper" wrote: "In the past 40 days, the enemy has continuously attacked you with powerful troops; even abused poisonous gas and committed barbaric things that despise human beings." And you are inferior in equipment, undersupplyed, difficult to receive reinforcements, wounded and lacking in medicine, and inferior to the enemy in all conditions. You resisted the enemy's artillery fire with your flesh and blood, defended the famous city of the motherland with your flesh and blood, and spat out a sullen breath for 40 million compatriots! With your battle, I feel that being a Chinese is the most noble. The compatriots in the rear are really grateful and admired to you! ”
On December 20, 1944, the "National Salvation Daily" published an editorial entitled "Fang Xianjue is worthy of Zhang Suiyang": "In the 8 years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, at least 100,000 heroes and martyrs died on the battlefield; and there are not a few defenders of the country who are indomitable to death; but their contribution to the country is great, and those who have a decisive role in the overall victory or defeat should be the defenders of Hengyang." Even Chairman Mao wrote an inscription for the Hengyang Defenders, which read: "The soldiers guarding Hengyang are heroic!" Chiang Kai-shek did not deny their merits, and awarded all 5 people, including Fang Xianjue, with the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun to show their appreciation!
Of course, there are praises and demeaning, at that time there were some people who said that Fang Xianjue was still better to die in battle, because surrender means that the late festival is not guaranteed, and it is true that not long after the fall of Hengyang City, Fang Xianjue was sent to Chongqing by the agents lurking in Hengyang City, and was directly raised by Rong, originally he also planned to continue to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy to wash away his shame, and now his calculations have also failed, although he took the Qingtian White Sun Medal, but he has never been reused, knowing that later with Chiang Kai-shek but Taiwan, He was also poked in the spine for a lifetime, and then died directly in Taiwan, and he never washed away the stains on his body in his lifetime!
The defense of Hengyang brought great encouragement to all sides of China, but the cost to the Japanese army was a bit large! At that time, the Japanese army planned to take Hengyang City in 3 days, but it dragged on for 47 days, the other plans of the Japanese army were forced to be stranded, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo could only step down, and the Japanese army that participated in the defense of Hengyang once described that chinese soldiers used grenades as bayonets, which were extremely lethal and there was no room for retreat! The Chinese soldiers said that the war was very tragic, they had a battalion, half a day changed 5 battalion commanders, and all of them were killed, at that time, they could not think of anything at all, one died, and could only go up!
Such a calm description proves the cruelty of war! Later captured the Tenth Army, except for the wounded, almost all the soldiers fled, none of them became traitors, of course, no one was willing to return to the original troops, because they felt that the Republic of China at that time was not worth their allegiance, according to statistics, only more than 10 people returned to the original troops, the general Fang Xianjue said at the time of surrender, said that it was okay to hold for 15 days, but there was no support for a full month, and the surrender was not to abandon the country, but the country abandoned them! When such news came out, it was indeed difficult to make soldiers loyal to the country again, and because of this, in the later defensive battles, so many generals of the national army would fall without a fight!