In May 1940, in order to control the traffic on the Yangtze River and cut off the transportation line to Chongqing, the Japanese army gathered 300,000 troops to launch the Battle of Zaoyi. On the 1st, Zhang Zizhong personally announced to all troops and generals to go to war. At dawn on the 7th, Zhang Zizhong crossed the Xiang River and led his troops north. On the 14th, there was an encounter between the two sides. On the 15th, more than 1,500 people led by Zhang Zizhong were surrounded by nearly 6,000 Japanese Kou in the village of Gouyanli north of pumpkin shops.
On the 16th, the Japanese army rushed into Zhang Zizhong's headquarters, Zhang was wounded, and retreated to the hill behind Pumpkin Mountain under the cover of dozens of guards. The encirclement circle shrank smaller and smaller, and General Zhang asked the guards to break through and rush out, preferring to die. The Japanese besieged them, they tried to capture Zhang Zizhong alive, at one o'clock in the afternoon, Zhang Zizhong, under the cover of the guards, climbed the mountainside, when the Japanese bullets came, and the general was hit and fell!
Most of the guards died with Zhang Zizhong, and only one lieutenant was wounded and was not discovered by the enemy, and was later escorted to the rear by the common people. The Japanese army found the body of General Zhang Zizhong when cleaning the battlefield, and because of respect, they found a coffin to collect the body, and after burial, they planted a wooden plaque with Zhang Zizhong's name written on it.
On the day of Zhang Zizhong's martyrdom (May 16, 1940), the death squad led by Huang Weigang, commander of the 38th Division, raided the pumpkin shop on the night of the 16th with light machine guns, and bravely recovered Zhang Zizhong's remains. The Japanese ordered the aircraft bombing to stop so as not to injure Zhang Zizhong's body.
After Zhang Zizhong's bones were transported back to the rear, upon examination, Zhang Zizhong had eight wounds, including two shell wounds, one bayonet wound, and five gunshot wounds. Subsequently, the general's body was transported to Chongqing, the wartime capital at that time, for burial, and when passing through Yichang, 100,000 soldiers and civilians sent coffins to the riverbank, during which The Japanese plane flew over Yichang three times, but none of the people who paid tribute evaded and none of them fled.
On the morning of May 28, 1940, Zhang Zizhong transported the coffin to the Chaotianmen Wharf in Chongqing, where Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang and other government military and political dignitaries wore black veils on their arms, solemnly erected the wharf to greet the spirits, and boarded a ship around the coffin to mourn. Chiang Kai-shek personally supported the coffin, and then picked up the steps and escorted the coffin through the whole city of Chongqing. The National Government issued a state funeral order and issued a "Rong zi No. 1" honor and mourning certificate. Zhang Zizhong's tablet was placed in the Ancestral Hall of the Martyrs, tied for the first place. On the afternoon of 28 July, Chiang Kai-shek, together with military and political dignitaries and the masses from all walks of life, held a grand and grand memorial ceremony for Zhang Zizhong at Chuqimen.
When Zhang Zizhong was martyred, he was only 49 years old, and his wife, Ms. Li Minhui, died of a seven-day hunger strike, and the couple was buried together in the foothills of Meihua Mountain in Chongqing. On March 13, 1947, the Beiping Municipal Government issued an order to change the Iron Lion Hutong to ZhangZizhong Road. Later, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Wuhan all set up Zhangzizhong Road.
After the founding of New China, the Chinese government posthumously recognized General Zhang Zizhong as a revolutionary martyr, and in 2009 was named "100 Heroic And Exemplary Figures who made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China".
On September 3, 2005, Hu Jintao praised General Zhang as an "outstanding representative of the Chinese people who bravely resisted violence and fought heroically at the "Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the Victory of the World Anti-Fascist War."