History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
Zhang Zizhong was a famous anti-Japanese general in China, and in May 1940, the Japanese army invading China launched the "Yichang Campaign", and the general, in order to defend Yichang, a major town in the throat of the Three Gorges, lived on the front line, resisted the strong with weakness, and was martyred on May 16 at the Ten Mile Changshan Mountain in Yicheng. He was the highest general who sacrificed his life for the country in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
On May 15, 1940, more than 10,000 Japanese troops attacked the troops led by Zhang Zizhong in two directions, north and south. After fierce fighting until the dawn of the Buddha on the 16th, Zhang Zizhong's troops were forced to retreat into the Pumpkin Shop Ten Mile Long Mountain. The Japanese, under the cover of aircraft artillery, launched an onslaught on the positions of the Chinese army. Nine charge attempts were launched in one day and night. The casualties of Zhang Zizhong's troops rose sharply, and the battle was unprecedentedly fierce.
For a day on May 16, Zhang Zizhong had been calling for battle from morning to noon, and at noon he was shot in the left arm and still insisted on commanding the battle. By two o'clock in the afternoon, Zhang Zizhong only had hundreds of officers and men left, and he transferred all his guards to the front for reinforcements, leaving only eight senior staff officers Zhang Jing and aide-de-camp Ma Xiaotang. He took out his pen and wrote the last report of nearly a hundred words to the theater headquarters, and when he handed it to Ma Xiaotang, he said: "I fought and died, and I asked myself whether I was worthy of the country and the nation, and you should work hard to kill the enemy and not live up to my ambitions." Later, Zhang Zizhong was hit by a machine gun bullet in the waist, and he lay on the ground and fought bloodily and finally died heroically.
After Zhang Zizhongzhan's death, the Japanese found the body of General Zhang, examined it, worshipped it together, buried it with good wood, and erected wooden plaques. And the whole army saluted him, and even when his body was transported back to the rear, the Japanese army received the news and ordered the air raid of the air force to stop for one day to avoid injuring Zhang Zizhong's loyal skeleton. It can be seen that General Zhang Zizhong's military virtue in the War of Resistance Against Japan was moved even by the Japanese army, which advocated militarism at that time.
At the sacrifice of General Zhang, Chiang Kai-shek wept. General Zhang Zizhong was loyal and courageous all his life, and his sacrifice shocked everyone. On the Japanese side, after the discovery of the body of General Zhang, the general's body was carried out of the battlefield, cleaned and buried in a coffin, and the Japanese army lined up to pay tribute during the burial. Okamura also expressed great admiration for General Zhang after the war. On the nationalist side, after hearing the bad news of General Zhang's martyrdom on the Japanese radio, Jiang Rushed to the front to find out the truth quickly, and if General Zhang was killed, he must recover the body. After the general's death, the whole country mourned. After the war, Beijing, Tianjin, and Wuhan all had Zhang ZizhongLu, named after General Zhang. Even in terms of Chinese supply, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De all wrote inscriptions for General Zhang's sacrifice. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, General Zhang was also posthumously recognized as a revolutionary martyr. His family members enjoyed the treatment of martyrs' dependents.
In order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, a movie "The Battle of the Hundred Regiments" was filmed, in which Deng Chao played Zhang Zizhong. But Zhang Zizhong's daughter objected to Deng Chao playing her father.
Zhang Lianyun said that the reason was only 7 words: "Deng Chao is not from Shandong. Zhang Lianyun's 7 words, everyone present felt a little confused. It turned out that Zhang Lianyun hated Lady Deng Chao and was not powerful enough. She said that Deng Chao was not from Shandong, just a euphemism.