After the Battle of Guiliu, the Japanese army pointed straight to the southwest in an attempt to invade Chongqing and force China to surrender. Due to operational errors, a large number of refugees and routs retreated from Guangxi to Guizhou, and history calls Guiqian a major rout. How bad was the great rout 70 years ago? How tragic? Flipping through Huang's file archives, we found a record of a chief of staff, Cao Fuqian, which read painfully and tearfully.
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Zhang Fakui
In August 1944, after the fall of Hengyang, the Japanese army marched westward in an attempt to take The passing point of Guangxi to capture Chongqing and force China to surrender. In September, the main Force of the Japanese army attacked Guangxi from Hengyang, with Jeonju County in Guilin bearing the brunt of the attack, and defending this important town was the 93rd Army of the National Revolutionary Army. Long before the Japanese captured Hengyang, the 93rd Army set out from the Qijiang River in Sichuan to deploy to Jeonju to prevent the Japanese army from sneaking south.
The 93rd Army held jeonju because its commander, Chen Munong, received verbal orders from Zhang Fakui, the commander-in-chief at Liuzhou. Because Zhang Fakui issued verbal orders without formal documents, there was no specific plan for the strategy of sticking to the whole state. At that time, Chen Munong listened to the opinions of the two division commanders, Ma Shuming and Wang Shengyi, and misunderstood that holding jeonju was not just guarding jeonju's city, but also holding the entire jeonju county. Therefore, after the Japanese army sneaked into jeonju county, Chen Munongbu did not stick to jeonju's city, but only made symbolic resistance, and then withdrew his troops more than thirty miles away from the outskirts of the city. The retreat was preceded by a fire that burned the state for 13 days and nights.
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The Japanese invaded Jeonju
After Chen Munong's 93rd Army withdrew from Jeonju, the Japanese army effortlessly captured jeonju, an important town in northern Guizhou. As a result, the gate of Hunan to Guangxi was easily opened by the Japanese army, and the cities in Guangxi Province were shaken. The strategic position of jeonju is quite important, for the southwest supply base of the Nationalist Army, a large number of warehouses such as guns, ammunition, cannons, machine guns, and clothes are piled up, as well as gasoline and materials for US aircraft, as well as supplies and machine parts for Du Yuming's 5th Army tank unit. Chen Munong's withdrawal and burning destroyed these materials cleanly, and many of them fell into the hands of the Japanese army.
Chen Munong lost his important town, and he lost it too quickly, so that the ordinary people who fled from Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Hunan did not have the slightest chance to rest and breathe, and they had to drag men and women, help the old and the young to continue to run west. Chen Mu's ministry easily lost Jeonju and disrupted the defense plan of Guilin City, causing Guilin to be too late to respond. Zhang Fakui then arrested Chen Munong and handed him over to Wei Yunsong, commander of the Guilin City Defense, to leave his post without authorization, and was shot on the spot for the crime of escaping from the battle.
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The Japanese army occupies the city walls
The shooting of one Chen Munong (who said that Chen Munong was wrongfully killed and was killed by Zhang Fakui) could not solve the problem, and the disrupted deployment and plan fell apart under the onslaught of the Japanese army. The Japanese army pursued all the way south, the garrison retreated all the way, and many ordinary people who fled from other provinces could not move and fell behind, and were shot and killed by the Japanese army in groups.
The Japanese army marched south from Jeonju, and along the way, there were slain refugees who fell on the side of the road and under the ditches, and as far as the eye could see, it was unbearable to see. The fleeing crowd gathered into a "crowd", squeezed side by side, squirming forward day and night, like a huge reptile. Everyone squirmed forward with their necks straight, and no one knew where they went, just moving forward.
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The Japanese captured Binyang
Because there were too many people fleeing, some people who could not walk were lying in the middle of the road, and the people behind them stepped on the fallen people, and many people were trampled to death.
Sometimes some fallen person tripping over a person will fall behind a large piece. Due to the long journey, lack of food and drink, some refugees have swollen feet, can only be wrapped in broken cotton, swaying from side to side, staggering forward. On the way, the bodies of adults and children who had been starved to death were piled up on the side of the road, their stomachs swollen like a drum, and the fallen father could not take care of his son, and the husband could not take care of his wife. The person walking in front of him died and fell, and the person who came behind still stepped on the dead man and continued to walk, and no one sighed or asked "how did he die?"
Guilin Station during the Great Retreat
As the defenders retreated in a hurry, the cars were burned along the way, and the destroyed cars were like dead turtles, one after another lying there unable to move, for tens of miles. On the highway and on both sides of the highway piled up a lot of public and private property, antique jade, literary and creative paintings, Ming and Qing Dynasty Nan wood furniture and clocks and watches silver bowls, etc. are too much, as long as you have the strength to try to take, no one will care about you, because these things are too many to take. Even on the road, as long as you have the strength to take a few seventeen or eighteen-year-old girls as wives. But on the way that everyone is only concerned about fleeing for their lives, these gold, silver and jade objects and beautiful women have become a drag, and many people do not know where they will die in the next second.
The resistance was unplanned, the retreat was not orderly, and the Japanese blocked the road before they arrived, resulting in a large number of refugees killed and wounded. Such a retreat can no longer be called a retreat, it is called a rout. Therefore, history calls it the "Great Rout of Guiqian", and the fleeing crowds and retreating troops have run to Guizhou.
Rout of the army
After the defeat of Guiqian, the 97th Army was ordered to be transferred from Chongqing to Guangxi for reinforcements, and Cao Fuqian, as the chief of staff of the 166th Division, fought with the troops all the way south. However, the Central Military Commission only gave orders not to transport troops by car, and even heavy supplies and supplies had to rely on the soldiers themselves to carry the march.
At that time, the soldiers of the 97th Army did not even have a pair of straw shoes, and most of the soldiers walked barefoot, how could such a unit rush to the 100,000 urgent Guangxi reinforcements? Halfway through the march, Cao Fuqian saw a soldier of the 166th Division's special service company sleeping on the highway and not leaving, and Cao Fuqian drank and ordered the soldiers to quickly get up and walk. But the soldier cried and told Cao Fuqian
"Chief of Staff, I really can't walk, my feet are bloody, give me a pair of straw shoes, I can keep up with the troops!" ”
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A family fleeing from Liuzhou
Cao Fuqian saw that this soldier's feet were indeed swollen very large, and the blood had turned black through the dirt, Cao Fuqian felt inexplicable grief in his heart, what kind of country is this? What kind of battle is this fighting? Cao Fuqian took off his shoes and put them on the soldier, allowing him to rest and continue to catch up with the troops. That night, Cao Fuqian told the division commander Wang Zhiyu about this situation, and Master Wang had no choice but to shake his head and sigh.
The 97th Army traveled for 20 days from Chongqing to Guiyang, and then was ordered to rush to Duyun, and then to Dushan, and then to Dushan and to Jincheng River. Fortunately, the troops in Zunyi, Guiyang, Duyun, Dushan areas have received strong support from the local people, although the people in these places are very poor, but they all take out what they eat and wear at home to comfort the 97th Army, the officers and men of the whole army are deeply moved, and many soldiers eat the corn cakes sent with tears.
Fleeing residents
Soon after, the commander Chen Sunong ordered Cao Fuqian to lead the 166th Division into Guangxi as the vanguard, and Cao Fuqian had a 13-year military career, with high prestige in the army and great combat experience. Cao Fuqian, as the vanguard, quickly moved south and arrived at Jincheng River on October 25. At Jinchengjiang, Cao Fuqian saw that the main highway connecting Qiangui was crowded with creeping crowds, the defeated soldiers were mixed with the common people, the various armies, divisions, regiments, and battalions could not be contacted, and Zhang Fakui's commander's headquarters also retreated in a chaotic and chaotic manner. Cao Fuqian soon met with Zhang Fakui, who asked Cao Fuqian to deploy at Dashantang, a mountain pass between the Jincheng River and south of Nandan, so Cao Fuqian led the 166th Division to Dashantang.
On November 24, the retreating defenders and refugees continued to rush to the mountain road day and night, fleeing to the border of Guizhou. Among the soldiers and civilians who fled, traitors and spies were mixed in, making it impossible to investigate and distinguish. Cao Fuqian commanded the whole division to quickly build fortifications to block the incoming enemy. After only half a day of repairing the fortifications, the 46th Army on the left side of the position withdrew in a disorderly manner. Zhang Fakui ordered Cao Fuqian to surrender the guns of the 46th Army, but Cao Fuqian did not do so. Because the 46th Army was a friendly army after all, once it launched infighting, it could only cheapen the Japanese. Moreover, Zhang Fakui always played this set, always gave orders verbally, and turned his face and did not admit it afterwards, chen Mu Nong's death was such an example.
As the vanguard of the Japanese army (the 3rd and 13th divisions) mixed among the fleeing civilians, more and more ghosts were mixed in. A company commander of the 166th Division guarding the first line was about to rush over when he saw the Japanese army, so he painfully ordered to shoot at the fleeing crowd, and the Japanese plainclothes team was killed a lot, and the remaining ghosts had to leave the fleeing crowd, but this burst of machine gun fire also killed many innocent people. At that time, the situation forced it, and it was really helpless.
There is a bridge on the road under Dashantang Mountain, on which is a reinforced timber building, and the piers are made of cement, and the length is about 250 meters. In order to prevent the Japanese from crossing the bridge, the bridge had to be blown up. When the bridge was blown up on November 23, soldiers shouted to the fleeing crowd "Don't cross the bridge!" It's time to blow up the bridge! The shout was repeated dozens of times, but the fleeing crowd still came unhurriedly after listening to it, they were hungry and tired, like the walking dead, and could not stop at all. Zhang Fakui was impatient when he saw this, and said to Cao Fuqian: "Lose the fuck! Whatever! You've blown up! "Because the main force of the Japanese army is approaching, the consequences of not blowing up the bridge will be unpredictable, so we have to order the blowing up of the bridge." After a loud noise, the bridge was blown over with five or six hundred ordinary people and rolled down the valley, which was terrible.
Guiqian Railway Opening Commemorative Medal
After the bridge was blown up, the vanguard of the Japanese army began to attack, and Cao Fuqian and the division commander Wang Zhiyu commanded 3 regiments to engage in fierce battles with the Japanese army. The fierce battle lasted for 4 days and 4 nights, and finally a japanese brigade crossed the mountain and went around to the rear of the position of the 498th Regiment and attacked the command post of Nandan. The commander ordered the organization of various units to shrink the front, block the Japanese army step by step, and retreat.
Cao Fuqian led the 166th Division until the evening of the 4th, when he was ordered to retreat north from Nandan. At the Nandan railway station, Cao Fuqian met with the commander Chen Sunong, who said that he would withdraw from Nandan the next day, but forgot to say where the troops would go after the withdrawal of Nandan. After the commander left, Cao Fuqian had to lead the 166th Division to retreat while fighting, covering the retreat of some ordinary people into Guizhou. It took 500 miles to find the military headquarters when we arrived in Guiyang. Cao Fuqian did not find the commander in Guiyang because he was already under house arrest by Tang Enbo.
The Japanese army pursued all the way, and Tang Enbo organized troops in Guiyang to prepare for a decisive battle with the Japanese army in Qiannan, but because the Japanese army broke into Guizhou with only one brigade, and the battle line was too long and the guizhou mountain was steep, the Japanese army burned in the Dushan area and then returned to Guangxi along the road, and did not continue to pursue. As a result, the great rout of Guiqian ended here. 40 years later, Cao Fuqian wrote about this experience in his memoirs, recording this tragic history.
Guilin Defense Battle Monument
Now more than 70 years later, but Cao Fuqian's record is still shocking to read, the chaos and disorder of the great rout, the gradual defeat of the army, the displacement of the people, and the brutality of the Japanese army, this scene is really tearful and heart-wrenching to read.
[This article is collected by Barnyard Shi Hou to collect anti-war materials, memoirs to sort out and write, errors and omissions, Jingxi readers correct]