The diagram comes from the network
Since the invasion of Taiwan by troops, Japan has launched a series of wars of aggression against China, and the vain attempt to conquer China and destroy China has always been the established goal of Japanese imperialist expansion. In 1927, Japan threw out the infamous "Tanaka Sonata", saying that "if you want to conquer China, you must first conquer Manchuria; if you want to conquer the world, you must first conquer China." Since then, Japan's ambition to destroy China is no longer hidden, but blatantly made clear to the world.
In the middle of 1936, Japan suddenly increased its troops to North China on a large scale, and constantly created incidents and frequently conducted military exercises, which obviously accelerated the pace of conquering China and destroying China. On the night of July 7, 1937, the Japanese army launched an attack on the Chinese garrison at lugou bridge, and the Chinese army rose up to fight back, which was the "Seven-Seven Lugou Bridge Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries, and the Sino-Japanese war broke out in an all-round way.
So, why did the "July 7 Incident" occur at Lugou Bridge and not in other places?
We know that Japan's strategy to conquer China was to use northeast and north China as bases to annex all of China. In the situation at that time, if Japan wanted to completely occupy North China, it must first control The Big Cities such as Beiping and Tianjin, and the Lugou Bridge was an important gateway from Beiping to Central China; if Japan wanted to blockade Beiping and then occupy Beiping, it must first occupy the Lugou Bridge; and China naturally realized the important strategic position of the Lugou Bridge and would certainly not give up easily. In this way, the Lugou Bridge became the most important place of contention between China and Japan at that time, and the outbreak of all-out war here became inevitable.
General Song Zheyuan (picture from the internet)
Let's take a look at the specific situation at that time and the important strategic position of the Lugou Bridge:
First of all, Fengtai had been lost before the Lugou Bridge incident. After the North China Incident, Beiping mainly had two important gateways for foreign relations, one was Fengtai and the other was the Lugou Bridge. Fengtai is the intersection of the three railways of Pinghan, Pingsui and Beining, and the throat of Beiping's external traffic is no less important than the Lugou Bridge, and the Japanese army has long been spying on Fengtai. In September 1936, the Japanese surrounded the Chinese barracks in Fengtai and forced the Chinese army to withdraw from Fengtai. After the Japanese army occupied Fengtai, it could cut off the connection between the Pinghan, Pingsui and Beining railways at any time, and Peiping lost an important gateway, and the Lugou Bridge became the only passage from Beiping to central China.
General Zhang Zizhong (picture from the internet)
Secondly, after the loss of Fengtai, the strategic position of the Lugou Bridge became more prominent. Lugou Bridge is located in the southwest of Beiping, located on the Pinghan Line, across the Yongding River, the terrain is dangerous, is an important gateway from Beiping to Central China, and its geographical location is very important. The situation before the outbreak of the incident was that the Japanese army had completed the three-sided encirclement of Peiping. Along the Beining Road from Fengtai to Shanhaiguan, there were Japanese garrisons; in the east, there was the Control of the Japanese puppet regime "Jidong Defense Communist Autonomous Government"; in the north it was controlled by the puppet Mongolian Autonomous Government; and in the northwest was the sphere of influence of the bandit puppet army. At this time, only the Lugou Bridge, located in the southwest, was the only way in and out of Beiping. If the Japanese army occupied the Lugou Bridge, it could cut off the Pinghan Road and finally complete the encirclement of Beiping, making Peiping an isolated and helpless dead city. In this way, the Lugou Bridge has become a strategic point that China and Japan must contend for.
General Zhao Dengyu (picture from the network)
Third, the Lugou Bridge Incident was a long-planned military operation by the Japanese army. Because of the special strategic position of the Lugou Bridge, it is bound to be the main target of the War launched by the Japanese invading army. In fact, the Lugou Bridge Incident was a long-planned and carefully planned military operation by the Japanese army, and before the incident, the Japanese army repeatedly conducted live-fire exercises near the Lugou Bridge, and the scale and number of times continued to expand. The exercises were changed from one to two times a month to three or five days, and from occasional daytime exercises to frequent night exercises. Moreover, the Japanese wing commanders, brigade commanders, and even the commanders of the garrison troops all directed these exercises. Obviously, the Japanese army chose to conduct military exercises near the Lugou Bridge, which is aimed at the Lugou Bridge, and the Chinese government is also very clear about this, and the outbreak of the July 7 Incident was not accidental.
Sure enough, soon the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out, and the great and arduous War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression of the Chinese nation began.
Portrait of General Tong Linge (picture from the Internet)
However, what surprised the Japanese robbers was that China's will to resist would be so strong and firm that Japan's arrogant plan to destroy China in three months was declared completely bankrupt with the emergence of the sino-Japanese war stalemate; after the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japan's attempt to destroy China had been completely shattered, and at this time the Japanese aggressors finally understood that the gunshots of the Lugou Bridge Incident were actually the sound of death that led to its shameful defeat.