After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Kuomintang government organized many defensive battles on the frontal battlefield, such as the Nanjing Defense War, the Wuhan Defense War and the Changde Defense War, but in terms of tragic and tragic degree, none of the defense battles could be compared with Hengyang, and General Fang Xianjue, who commanded this battle, was also famous in the world. However, because he led the troops to surrender to the devils at the last moment (it is also said that he was detained during negotiations with the devils), the personal evaluation of the other party's xianjue has been controversial for many years, so whether Fang Xianjue is an anti-Japanese hero in the end?
The first evaluation of a person's behavior cannot be separated from the specific historical environment at that time. The Battle of Hengyang took place during the Battle of Yuxianggui, in which the 8-month Battle of Yuxianggui collapsed, the Nationalist army collapsed for thousands of miles, with troop losses of more than 500,000 troops and 146 cities falling successively. Among them, the Battle of Yuzhong became a big joke, Tang Enbo held hundreds of thousands of heavy troops but fled without a fight, resulting in the Japanese army occupying 38 cities in 37 days, and the angry people once disarmed Tang Enbo's guards, and Tang Enbo was forced to disguise himself as a gangster to escape.
The rout of the Nationalist army on the battlefield caused the image of Chiang Kai-shek's government in the eyes of the Allies to plummet, and some people in the Us army had doubts about the ability of the Nationalist army to resist the war, and Stilwell even used this as an excuse to ask Roosevelt to replace Chiang Kai-shek as the supreme commander of the Chinese theater. In this context, the results of the Hengyang Defense War are even more valuable, and it has played a crucial role in boosting the morale of the Nationalist army and saving the image of Chiang Kai-shek's government in the world.
Secondly, judging from the results of the defense of Hengyang, Fang Xianjue can also be called an anti-Japanese hero. Although the Chinese xianjue in the defense of Hengyang had four divisions under its jurisdiction, the actual strength was only 7 regiments and more than 17,600 people, while the attacking Japanese army had 100,000 people. Before the war, Chiang Kai-shek gave Fang Xianjue the task of holding hengyang for two weeks, and finally Fang Xianjue held hengyang for 47 days. During this period, the Japanese Kou repelled three general attacks, killing more than 20,000 enemies and wounding more than 40,000 enemies, and the Japanese Kou called the Battle of Hengyang a "battle of suffering", and the Defense of Hengyang was also the only time recorded in Japanese war history that japanese casualties exceeded our army. Hengyang defended the warrior side xianjue had done his best and achieved the ultimate, and it was impossible for any famous general of the national army to do better than him.
Finally, judging from the public opinion evaluation at that time and Chiang Kai-shek's prescient attitude toward the other side, he was an anti-Japanese hero. After the end of the hengyang defense war, the Ta Kung Pao published an article entitled "Cheers to Commander Fang Xianjue", which contained the following passage: "Taking Hengyang as an example, every big city fights for forty-seven days, one by one hard, and fights hard everywhere. Unfortunately, the national army has only one fang xianjue. After Fang Xianjue returned to Hengyang, he was warmly welcomed, and in recognition of his military achievements, Chiang Kai-shek also awarded him a Medal of Blue Sky and White Sun.
Those who believe that Fang Xianjue is not called an anti-Japanese hero have only one reason, that is, Fang Xianjue surrendered to the devil at the last moment and failed to kill Chengren. At that time, Fang Xianjue's troops were killed 7,400 people, more than 7,000 wounded, the loss rate reached 85%, and the remaining less than 3,000 people also lacked ammunition, were exhausted, and basically lost their combat effectiveness, while Chiang Kai-shek's promised reinforcements were delayed. In this case, if you are Fang Xianjue, how will you choose? Sometimes death is actually very easy, as long as a bullet is enough, but life is the most difficult, because it carries infamy. Fang Xianjue finally chose to "live", he left the righteousness to the country, left his life to the wounded soldiers, and left the insult to himself, this choice, in fact, needs more courage than death!