In the fourteen years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, our army sacrificed countless heroic soldiers of the Anti-Japanese War, and in order to annihilate the Japanese and drive them out of our country, all the soldiers united as one. After countless battles of all sizes, many soldiers and generals could not escape the end of sacrificing for the country. Zhang Zizhong, a famous anti-Japanese general in China's history, died in the "Battle of Zaoyi."
The Battle of Zaoyi took place between May 1 and June 18, 1940, and lasted for a month and a half. The war was a battle waged by the Japanese 11th Army in Wuhan against Chinese forces in the Fifth Theater of Operations, and ended with the Japanese occupation of Yichang. At the Battle of Zaoyi, our army lost, but it also annihilated 11,000 enemy troops and severely damaged the Japanese. Although our army was defeated, the Japanese army failed to crush the main force of our army's fifth theater of operations.
After the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army successfully occupied Wuhan. After that, the Japanese decided to continue to advance westward, preparing to eliminate the main force of China's Fifth Theater of Operations, and capturing Yichang to open the gateway to Sichuan. In May 1940, in order to control the traffic on the Yangtze River and cut off the transportation line to Chongqing, the Japanese army divided its troops into three roads and went north along the Xiang River to prepare to annihilate the main force of our army in the Fifth Theater of Operations in Zaoyang. At this point, the Battle of Zaoyi broke out.
Our army has long received the attempt of the Japanese 11th Army to launch a large-scale attack from Xinyang and Wuhan to northwest Hubei. Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater, and pointed out: "Against the enemy's invasion of Sha, it is advisable to make immediate and pre-deployment and prepare to preemptively attack the enemy... The Fifth Theater of Operations should take advantage of the enemy's invasion of the sand and the attempt to preemptively attack the enemy before its attempts become apparent. At the same time, relative strategic deployment was made.
On May 8, 1940, after the Japanese occupation of Zaoyang, the main force of the Fifth Theater of Operations of our army had already moved to the outskirts of Zaoyang, and at the same time, the Japanese Kou had been encircled inside Zaoyang. Two days later, our army began to counterattack the Japanese army, and the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties due to being surrounded by our army, and then the Japanese army began to retreat to the southeast of Zaoyang. Our army took advantage of the victory to pursue and retake Zaoyang.
It was at the time of the Japanese retreat that it met the 33rd Army led by General Zhang Zizhong, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle. Because the Japanese radio detected the specific location of our 33rd Group Army, General Zhang Zizhong and his men were surrounded and had no way to escape. In the end, General Zhang Zizhong was martyred.
On 31 May, the Japanese captured Xiangyang again, and then attacked Yichang again. In the course of the attack on Yichang, our army took advantage of the situation to retake Xiangyang. On June 12, the Japanese attacked yichang, and on the 17th, our army launched a counter-offensive against Yichang and successfully recaptured Yichang. Later, the Japanese army increased its troops, and Yichang was once again lost and occupied by the Japanese army. In a state of confrontation between China and Japan, the Battle of Zaoyi ended with the Japanese occupation of Yichang.