In May 1942, the Chinese Expeditionary Force was defeated in Burma and forced to retreat into Yunnan, pursuing the Japanese troops of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, crossing the China-Burma border and pursuing it along the Burma Road to the Huitong Bridge on the Nu River.
After occupying the county seat of Longling, the Japanese army divided its troops and rushed straight to the small border town. Obviously, the Japanese were prepared, because only by occupying Tengchong could they control the Nu River and Gaoligong Mountain.
This was also the first time that Yunnan, as the rear of the Anti-Japanese War, had land occupied by the Japanese army. However, Long Shengwu (the eldest son of Wang Longyun of Yunnan), the administrative superintendent of the Tenglong Border District stationed in Tengchong, heard that Longling County had fallen and had not yet engaged the Japanese army, so he fled at sunset on May 7. Long Rope Wu not only escaped by himself, but also brought with him valuables such as opium and jadeite that he had scavenged in Tengchong, and called more than 70 mules and horses to hump away.
If he had only fled with gold and silver treasures, Long Shengwu's reputation might not have been so bad, and the most excessive thing he had done was to use the power in his hands to recruit the only two companies of troops in the local area to escort him all the way to Kunming. In order to avoid administrative punishment, Long Shengwu sent a telegram to Long Yun for help, and Long Yun had to issue a transfer order to his son, who had already fled to the halfway point in the name of "opening up the Burma Road to prepare for the enemy", and put on a legal cloak for his son's escape.
Dragon Rope
After LongShengwu led his troops to escape, Qiu Tianpei, the governor of Tengchong County, also began to play a retreat drum, especially after the commander of the expeditionary army who prayed for a rout to flee to Tengchong and the scattered soldiers You Yong to defend the county town were rejected, Qiu Tianpei felt that Tengchong could not be saved, and also slipped away with the family. On May 8, Tengchong City was leaderless, panicked, and had no decent resistance.
At noon on May 10, the Japanese army only dispatched 292 people to occupy Tengchong City. After the fierce and vicious Japanese army rushed into the county seat of Tengchong, they burned and plundered without evil, and the county town was full of poor people who were killed, and the houses were in flames.
At the critical juncture when the country was in trouble, the homeland was occupied, and the compatriots were bullied but had no power to fight back, a 62-year-old local celebrity stood up, served as a temporary county magistrate, organized a provisional government in the countryside, and told all the Tengchong people through secretly posting notices and distributing leaflets that the government is still there, the country is still there, and hope is still there.
This person, named Zhang Wende, was a former Qingxiucai who was preparing to raise his family in Tengchong's hometown.
Zhang Qingde
In 1881, Zhang Wente was born in Tengchong under a scholarly mendi. During the Guangxu years, he was diligent and studious since childhood, and he was full of poetry and books, and then due to changes in the general environment, the Qing court abolished the imperial examination, and there was no upward channel for old-fashioned readers like him. In desperation, Zhang Wente became a teacher in his hometown.
After the beginning of the Republic of China, Zhang Wente actively participated in political affairs, successively serving as the chief of the judicial section of Tengchong Province, the president of the Tengchong Senate, and in 1936 he went to Kunming to serve in the Dian Army, and later became Long Yun's private secretary. In 1939, Zhang Wente was appointed as the governor of Changning County, and a year later, he returned to his hometown on the grounds of ill health and returned to Tengchong for his retirement.
In terms of career, Zhang Qingde is actually not very smooth, mainly because of his old-style literati style, just and upright, not for the power, leading by example, looking for things, no one's face is given, Long Yun is often helpless to him because of his "do not know how to be flexible".
Dragon Cloud
I didn't expect to go home for the elderly, and within a few days of my leisure days, the Japanese killed them from Burma. At a time when the whole Tengchong crowd was leaderless, Zhang Wende, a "retired old cadre" who had been a county magistrate, had to stand up, organize a temporary county government, and was elected as a temporary county chief. At that time, the Japanese had limited troops, and after occupying Tengchong County, they did not dare to rush to the countryside to sweep up, and Zhang Wente's side was even more overstretched.
There are no soldiers or weapons in hand, and there are even fewer people who understand government affairs, and he is only elected by the villagers, and there is no appointment from above, nor does he have the seal of the county chief. Therefore, he sent people to Gaoligong Mountain to find Qiu Tianpei, the governor of Tengchong County, who had run away, and retrieved the copper seal. Then, in the form of engraving wax paper printing, the "Tengyue Daily" was resumed, more than 200 copies were printed in each issue, distributed to all townships and villages, and posted to all corners of the county town, stabilizing public order in various places, cracking down on robbery and hooligans, and organizing the rush to transport grain, cloth and necessities of life.
In this way, Zhang Wente told every tengchong people that China will not die, and we will definitely let the mountains and rivers be restored. After Long Shengwu escaped, Long Yun originally had no light on his face, but later heard that the original secretary Zhang Wente was acting as the county magistrate, and he was very happy, because in terms of relations, Zhang Wente was also a person of Long Yun, so he immediately appointed Zhang Wente as the governor of Tengchong County, and encouraged Zhang Wente and the people of Tengchong to negotiate with the enemy and wait for the restoration.
At that time, yunnan was rumored to have a "anti-Japanese county magistrate" in Tengchong who was born of an old talent, especially his colleagues in other counties in western Yunnan, and heard that Zhang Wente, who was more than 60 years old, was still insisting on resisting Japan in the mountains, and was encouraged by this to actively prepare for war.
After the Japanese occupied Tengchong County, they supported a puppet regime in the city. Zhong Jingqiu, who studied in Japan and served as the police chief of Longling County, was supported by the Japanese to become the pseudo-county magistrate of Tengchong County.
Therefore, at that time, in the territory of Tengchong County, there were two county governments and county chiefs, and various government decrees issued by the puppet regime could not go out of the city, and once they left the city, they were a piece of waste paper, and there were often various announcements and notices issued by the anti-Japanese government in the city.
This made the Japanese very angry, entangled the Japanese army and the puppet army, launched several rounds of sweeping to the garrison of Zhang Wende and others, and Zhang Wente's side, as long as the Japanese came, they would retreat to Gaoligong Mountain, which was full of cliffs and cliffs, and Zhang Wente, who was already more than 60 years old, shuttled through the mountains again and again with a cane, vowing to fight with the Japanese to the end.
In order to boost the morale of the team, Zhang Wente carried a national flag with his handwritten oath on it: "I have the ambition to snow shame and kill Gaoligong Mountain." Dying devours the enemy's teeth and bites the barrier, and the soul is like the sun and the moon passing through the sky! ”
Every time they chased gaoligong mountain, the Japanese did not dare to go deeper, and after many unsuccessful sweeps, the influence of the anti-Japanese regime became more and more powerful. This made the Japanese army in Tengchong administrative class Chief Tajima Shouji began to reflect on countermeasures, this self-proclaimed "China Pass" of the Japanese army lieutenant, in the Japanese army can be described as unique, because he is very good at Chinese culture, also familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, has a certain degree of ancient Chinese attainments.
Tajima Shouji
As the actual commander behind the pseudo-county magistrate Zhong Jingqiu, Tajima Believed that in order to conquer the Chinese, it was not enough to rely on killing to deter, but also to buy people's hearts and minds and implement a policy of huaijue. He is more scheming than his colleagues. So during his reign in Tengchong, there was an opportunity to implement his ideas, he wore a Chinese-style robe, forcibly married The Tengchong girl Cai Lanhui, ostensibly creating a picture of "Sino-Japanese goodwill" and confusing some locals.
After four unsuccessful attempts to suppress the anti-Japanese regime, Tajima Shouji, after careful consideration, wrote a letter to The Old Xiucai Zhang Wente on August 31, 1943, wanting to meet Zhang Wente and talk about Tengchong's livelihood problems, of course, the biggest purpose was to persuade Zhang Wente to surrender.
In the letter, Tajima Writes:
The island this time to hold the rise, the functional administration, deeply envious of the people here Yin Wufu, meteorological harmony, although after the incident, and the people follow the good, the virtue of mellow customs is still there, the first paradise in the southwest of the city, dazu has a hometown. But if the military is not quiet, the exile is at the end, the traffic is obstructed, and life is high, if they do not seek progress and methods, if they do not sit idly by, they are afraid of the disadvantages of the future, if they do not see it in your realm as happiness, if they are trapped by the people on both sides, and if they are hungry and cold, they just sit and wait to die? For the sake of their duties, the island is more willing to meet with Taiduan in a place of choice, to have a long-term gathering and talk, and jointly solve the difficult problems of the people's livelihood of both sides.
In the letter, Tajima said unashamedly that after I came here, I found that "the people are yin and the people" here, and the people are kind. But now the war between the two sides has made the masses here hungry and cold, and I really can't watch it anymore, or we will meet and discuss, if we don't care anymore, the people will not be able to live.
In the letter, Tajima also designated a village ancestral hall not far from the county seat, hoping that Zhang Qingde would not bring troops, and he vowed to ensure Zhang's safety, "The island is a man, there is no one long, only do not deceive and do not deceive and accept the eight characters..." And at the end of the signature, he wrote the words "The Minister of the Administrative Class of Tengyue in Japan."
Tajima's letter is more like a "trap", his wishful thinking has long been laid, just waiting for Zhang Wente to step on the pit. If Zhang Wende agreed to meet, then the image of Tengchong's anti-Japanese county magistrate would be gone. If Zhang Wende refused to meet, then the Japanese army could blame the anti-Japanese regime for Tengchong's people's hardships. If Zhang Qingde ignores it, it will be easy to handle, and public opinion can ferment in the direction of "the Japanese officials can't see tengchong people suffering and take the initiative to seek consultation, but Zhang Wente does not care about the people's life and death."
In the eyes of Tajima and the puppet regime, this letter will make it difficult for Zhang Wende to choose. After receiving this letter, the people around Zhang Qingde also felt that Tajima's move was too yin and he definitely could not go to the meeting.
Only Zhang Qingde sneered after reading the letter: "A small country with a projectile, even licking its face and calling it Great Japan." Strange, strange! After saying that, let people prepare their pen and ink, and directly wrote an 870-word reply letter in one go, which was called "a long-lasting text in the history of resisting foreign enemies", because it was a reply to Tajima's letter, known as the "Answer to Tajima Book", Tajima, who should have been lonely and nameless, also because of Zhang Wente's letter, left its name in history.
At the beginning of the reply, Zhang Wente directly and sternly refused to meet, "If China has not been invaded and can maintain normal diplomatic relations with Japan, Yu will definitely consider it sympathetically." However, the evolution of the situation has eliminated the basis on which Yu will be able to consider sympathetically. ”
Then, Zhang Qingde counted the crimes committed by the Japanese army in Tengchong, "More than 2,000 people have exposed their bodies in the wilderness, more than 50,000 houses have been destroyed by soldiers, 5,000 mules and horses have been lost, millions of stones have been lost in grain, and nearly 5 billion people have been robbed of property..." In the letter, Zhang Qingde not only gave data, but also laid out the facts, pointing out that the Japanese army enslaved Chinese and sent them to Myitkyina as cannon fodder, insulting Chinese women.
Regarding Tajima's proposal to relieve the suffering of the people of Tengchong, Zhang Wende replied that the best way was, "The only way to ask your excellency and his colleagues to return to Tokyo is to return to Tokyo." "In this way, there will be no more pain in the lives of our Tengchong people, displaced people can go home, and cities can be rebuilt."
Tajima hoped to meet with Zhang Qingde without weapons and people, and Zhang replied that if china is no longer subjected to aggression and the relations between the two countries are normalized, I can do as you asked, without talking about military issues, nor with weapons and soldiers. The implication is that under the current conditions, we are intolerable to fire and water, there is no room for negotiation, and we can only fight to the end.
Based on Tajima's letter, Zhang Wente refuted the absurdity of the other party and the concept of stealing one by one, and finally expressed his determination to resist Japan Chinese, expressing concern about the foreseeable fate of Tajima and others. ”
At the end of the letter, in response to Tajima's signature of "Minister of Administration of Tengyue in Japan", Zhang Wente wrote "Zhang Wente, Governor of Tengchong County, Yunnan Province, Greater Republic of China".
In the official documents of the Republic of China period, it is rare to be prefixed with the word "big" in front of the Republic of China, and Zhang Wente's move shows that the letter, even the signature is full of combat atmosphere, and the signature is refuting the absurdity of the other side. The comparison of these two signatures seems to say, an invader, your country name and the Tengyue region in Yunnan are put together, don't you think it is very eye-catching and ridiculous?
Tajima's conspiracy and trickery did not succeed, on the contrary, because of his provocation, Zhang Wente had the opportunity to display his literary talents and open a "pen battle".
As soon as the "Book of Answer to Tajima" came out, it was like a thunderclap in Tengchong, allowing everyone to see the true face of the Japanese army, and the locals who had previously been confused by Tajima's Huairou policy also woke up. After Reading this, Long Yun in Kunming was so excited that he burst into tears and ordered all the newspapers in Yunnan to publish this article, so Kunming boiled and Yunnan boiled. After that, the article was reprinted by the "JoongAng Ilbo" and "Ta Kung Pao", and the dissemination power increased greatly, and newspapers across the country basically reprinted the "Answer to Tajima Book", and for a time the whole country was boiling, and everyone was talking about Zhang Wente.
The literati were talking about his integrity as a reader, and the soldiers were talking about his heroic image of him still standing on Mount Gaoligong in his 60s. This article greatly boosted the morale of the Japanese people against the Japanese invaders, and was later collected by the National History Museum.
Chen Cheng praised Zhang Wente as "a model for the people of more than 500 counties and county chiefs in the occupied areas of the country," and Chiang Kai-shek also called Zhang Wente "a person with a lot of righteousness." Zhang Wende, the anti-Japanese county magistrate, became a hero known throughout the country.
In May 1944, the 20th Group Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force intensified the Nu River and began to carry out the counter-offensive in western Yunnan. Zhang Wente led the militia regiment to actively engage with the expeditionary force, and gave feedback to the Chinese army on the deployment and people's conditions of the enemy army, so that the expeditionary force quickly grasped the enemy's troop deployment and transportation.
On September 14, 1944, after 127 days of fierce fighting between the military and the people, the Chinese Expeditionary Force and its tragic price killed more than 6,000 enemy soldiers in western Yunnan, and finally restored Tengchong County. Tengchong was also the first county to be garrisoned by Japanese troops since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
After Tengchong's restoration, In addition to continuing to serve as the governor of Tengchong County, Zhang Wente also served as a major general judge of the 20th Group Army, responsible for the trial and punishment of traitors and bandits. At this time, due to the early recovery of Tengchong, there was still no precedent for the liquidation of traitors in the post-war period in the whole country. Zhang Qingdeli defied the public opinion and decided to execute the traitors led by Zhong Jingqiu, which made him encounter great resistance among the local gentry in Tengchong, and his reputation was seriously damaged.
This matter seems a bit incredible today, but in those days it was a major event that was making a lot of noise in Yunnan and even the whole country. Most of us now believe that traitors deserve to be liquidated, or even sentenced to capital punishment, is an idea formed after many class movements. In the concept of the soldiers at that time, the division of benevolence and righteousness should treat people with leniency, and the victory or defeat on the battlefield should be determined, and there is no need to kill them after defeat. There are countless such examples, do not need to go back to ancient China, in the early warlord melee of the Republic of China, defection and betrayal have always been the main theme of that era, and no one has seen a particularly miserable end.
In our national culture, we are always too tolerant of loyalty and justice, which are major wrongs and wrongs, and too harsh on personal moral issues such as life style.
Moreover, many times the judgment criteria for these "betrayers" are relatively vague, because people are alive, he cannot be bad all the time, and in the later stages of the war, the traitors will contact many parties and leave a way back for themselves, as was Zhong Jingqiu in those years. In the later stages of the war, the pseudo-county magistrate Zhong Jingqiu continued to provide intelligence to the expeditionary force, and later even directly broke away from the Japanese and joined the Chinese army, following Zhang Wende to coordinate military and local affairs at the headquarters of the group army.
At that time, Zhang Qingde ate at the same table with him, worked in a room, and never accused Zhong Jingqiu of his fault, but after Tengchong was restored, Zhang Qingde directly arrested Zhong Jingqiu and prepared to punish him severely.
This has filled the people with all kinds of suspicions, and many people say that Zhang Qingde is small, which is a private vendetta of the communiqué, and this argument even continues to this day. At that time, the trial of Zhong Jingqiu was well known to everyone in western Yunnan, and several township chiefs jointly wrote a letter to protect him, and Huo Yuzhang, commander-in-chief of the 20th Group Army, even openly stated that he would not kill Zhong Jingqiu, because he provided important information for the expeditionary force.
Huo Yuzhang
The people's evaluation of Zhong Jingqiu is also positive, more or less that although Zhong Jingqiu is a pseudo-county magistrate, he has not done anything to harm the people, but on the contrary, he has also mediated with the Japanese army, which is a buffer wall between the common people and the Japanese army, and he has also rescued the soldiers of the Second Reserve Division of the Nationalist Army from the Japanese army.
In fact, Zhong Jingqiu's situation is very common throughout the country. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhou Fohai, Ding Mo Estate and other traitors of the Wang puppet regime also received special attention because of their later cooperation with chongqing, and they changed from traitors to "undercover". Chow Fo Hai directly escaped the death penalty, while Ding Mo Estate was too high-profile, during the period of medical parole, playing around was exposed by reporters, and was shot by Chiang Kai-shek in anger.
Of course, these are all examples after the comprehensive victory of the War of Resistance. In China's first county town to be recovered from the Japanese army, Zhang Wente, who advocated the execution of traitors, can be imagined how much pressure he was under. Neither his superiors, the people, nor his colleagues approved of the killing of Zhong Jingqiu, but as the military judge who presided over Zhong Jingqiu, Zhang Qingde did not give anyone face, nor did he listen to anyone's words, and directly shot Zhong Jingqiu for the crime of "traitorous traitor", and the first to liquidate and execute the traitors after the war.
Zhang Qingde did not directly reply to the controversy over whether Zhong Jingqiu's merits could be offset, whether he should be killed, or sentenced to a fixed-term punishment, but he once had a metaphor that roughly meant that Zhong Jingqiu was the one who participated in sawing down a tree and destroying the bird's nest, but only saved a few homeless birds.
Obviously, in Zhang Wende's view, Zhong's merits and deeds cannot be offset, because the national tree has been felled down, and the foundation has been laid, and if Zhong Jingqiu is not killed, it is a disguised encouragement to encourage the public to stand on the enemy side and shout for personal interests the next time the enemy saws the tree. If this logic holds, then what is the point of persisting in the War of Resistance?
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Wente worked for the CPPCC in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and died of illness in 1957. This old talent, who has lived for 76 years, once turned the tide of the tide in the wind and rain, and has the virtue of rebuilding the border city.
He also once rebuked Fang Shuo, using pen and ink to denounce the hypocrisy of the Japanese army and arouse the fighting spirit of the anti-Japanese resistance throughout the country.
What is even more precious is that after he received countless praises and reached the highlight moment of his life, he dared to block his own reputation and liquidate the precedent of the execution of traitors after the war, leaving it for future generations to reflect on the direction choice in the war.
The first two articles, his choice has the support of public opinion, but this last one, has been somewhat contrary to the will of the people, and this is when his reputation is at its peak, but he maintains a sober mind, not burdened by fame, even if he stands on the opposite side of public opinion, he must be responsible for history, and the merits and demerits will be handed over to posterity for comment. This is not something that the average person can do.
Because of this, Zhang Wende's spiritual legacy is still shining today.
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