In June 1938, in order to delay the pace of the Japanese attack, Chiang Kai-shek exploded the garden mouth embankment on the south bank of the Yellow River in Zhengzhou, Henan, and the raging Yellow River instantly flooded more than 300,000 square kilometers of land, causing more than 4 million people to be displaced, which is a human tragedy!
Although this incident was nominally for the purpose of the War of Resistance, no one can deny that the National Government is militarily incompetent, politically short-sighted, and even more ruthless in the hearts and minds of the people, and such a National Government is doomed to be eliminated!
Moreover, what makes people even more speechless is that in addition to this incident of creating the Yellow River embankment, Chiang Kai-shek also set his sights on the Yangtze River and ordered that the Yangtze River levee be blown up and the tragedy be created again.
After the fall of Nanjing at the end of 1937, although the new capital of the Republic of China was nominally set in Chongqing, in fact, the most important political and economic center at that time was the three towns of Wuhan, thinking that the Xinhai Revolution was launched in Wuchang, and the three towns of Wuhan had always played an important position as a "quasi-capital" during the Republic of China period, so after the fall of Nanjing, Wuhan was actually the real "escort capital".
Therefore, in order to end the war as soon as possible, Japan launched the "Battle of Wuhan" in June 1938, which was also the largest, longest-lasting, and fiercest general battle in which Both China and Japan invested troops in the early stage of the War of Resistance.
Since most of the battlefields were concentrated in the provinces of the Yangtze River Basin, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to blow up the Yangtze River levee at several critical times, in a vain attempt to replace the troops with water again and block the pace of the Japanese army's attack.
On June 17, 1938, the Japanese army captured Qianshan in Anhui, and the next day, the Japanese army had to cross the tributary of the Yangtze River to dive, encountering resistance from the Chinese army. It was the rainy season, and the continuous rains caused the diving water level to soar, and the river surface was greatly widened, which brought great disadvantages to the Japanese forced crossing, but the Japanese army still occupied the west bank.
In the face of the rapid advance of the Japanese army, Chiang Kai-shek was very panicked, and when he was helpless, he thought of the bad idea of blowing up the Yellow River during the Battle of Xuzhou not long ago, and wanted to create another incident of breaking the embankment.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek ordered all the troops along the Yangtze River to prepare to dig up the embankment of the Yangtze River, and in his telegram to the defenders of the Yangtze River embankment, he nakedly revealed his disregard for the safety of the people's lives and homelands: "In the period when the rivers and lakes are rising, all the things that are beneficial to our army's combat will constitute a flood, and we hope to report it first." ”
Notice the word "first and then report", which means that whenever the time comes, the defenders can blow up the levee immediately without reporting first, and do not pay attention to the lives of the local people at all!
You know, the Yangtze River is greater than the Yellow River, the water potential is more urgent, if the levee is blown up, the loss will definitely be greater than the Garden Mouth embankment incident, and it will definitely become a hell on earth!
However, fortunately, the Yangtze River embankment was built very strongly, and the troops did not succeed in destroying it, avoiding a greater disaster than the Yellow River Garden Mouth breach. Of course, it is also possible that the defenders of the Yangtze River levee still have some conscience and deliberately did not explode.
However, although a large-scale breach did not occur, the local breach still caused floods in 6 counties of Guangji, Huangmei, Susong, Taihu, Qianshan and Huaining in Anhui, affecting an area of more than 3,000 square kilometers and endangering the lives of hundreds of people.
Judging from these two incidents, chiang kai-shek was certainly motivated by the consideration of the War of Resistance, but his incompetence and cold-bloodedness were also outrageous, and his later expulsion from the mainland was also the people's desire!
History Inn Author: Lancers