In the 14-year-long and arduous War of Resistance Against Japan, the number of deaths in Our country was innumerable, including the appalling Nanjing Massacre, but there was also a case of the Yellow River Yuankou that everyone was not familiar with. This is also a famous tragedy in 1938, in which the number of deaths was three times that of the Nanjing Massacre, but not all the people who died this time were Chinese, and many Japanese people died here. And the person behind this incident was actually the Leader of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek, so let's see what this is all about!
In 1937, after the Lugou Bridge Incident, Japan launched a large-scale war of aggression against China, the Japanese were menacing, China could not cope with it, and soon most of China's territory was occupied by the Japanese. The Japanese soon came to the central region of China, which was also a strategic place - Henan.
At that time, Henan could be said to have been eaten by one chicken and two chickens, and while serving as the front line, it was also necessary to sit firmly in this big rear. Henan is a province with a large grain population, not only is it rich in grain production and material reserves, but its huge population is also a reserve resource for the anti-war forces. Moreover, the Henan region has developed transportation and has been a place where soldiers and families must fight since ancient times. Henan Province endured too much in this 14-year-long War of Resistance, with Chiang Kai-shek's breaking of the Yellow River in the past and drought and locust plagues in the later, but even though the conditions were so difficult, the people of Henan were still humble and unassuming, and made tremendous contributions to the cause of the War of Resistance that cannot be ignored.
At that time, Xuzhou had fallen, the next target of the Japanese army was Lanfeng, and lanfeng was followed by Kaifeng, followed by Zhengzhou and Wuhan, if Lanfeng was lost, then the entire rear of the War of Resistance would be in jeopardy. No one could bear this consequence, so the Kuomintang racked its brains to hold Lanzhou.
The Kuomintang specially sent an army of 250,000 people to garrison, and even Chiang Kai-shek personally went to Zhengzhou to command the battle, which showed the importance of this campaign. At that time, there were only more than 60,000 Japanese troops on the battlefield, and in terms of numbers, we absolutely had the upper hand.
But there is a saying that is not so, not afraid of god-like opponents are afraid of pig-like teammates, seeing that we are about to defend successfully, but there is a pig teammate within the Kuomintang army - Gui Yongqing. He openly disobeyed the order to withdraw the army from Lanfeng without authorization, and the Japanese army took Lanfeng without any effort, and then the Japanese army took Kaifeng in one fell swoop. The situation in the Central Plains took a 180-degree turn, and the Kuomintang gradually fell behind and gradually retreated.
Mentioning this Gui Yongqing is really infuriating, because he openly defied Chiang Kai-shek's admonition when he was at the Whampoa Military Academy. As a soldier, not only did not protect the people, but privately confiscated the people's property for their own use. Although the Kuomintang is not as disciplined as our army and does not allow the people to take a needle and a thread, the people's property cannot be coveted. Later, after Gui Yongqing was exposed, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to shoot him to make an example, but he Yingqin, the chief instructor at the time, interceded for him, which allowed him to leave a life.
Gui Yongqing was incompetent, and the main reason why he survived in the Kuomintang ranks was because he had made two good friends. He Yingqin protected Gui Yongqing for the first time, how could he expect that Gui Yongqing would not change his teachings repeatedly, and Chiang Kai-shek arranged for him to be the deputy brigade commander, but he was not satisfied and directly refused. This made Chiang Kai-shek angry and determined to remove Gui Yongqing from his post and investigate, but in the end He Yingqin came forward and came up with a plan to slow down the army. It was proposed that Gui Yongqing go to Germany to study, and after returning to China, Gui Yongqing directly became the "commander-in-chief of the navy" like a hanging.
However, Gui Yongqing was still unable to support the wall in the mud after all, and in the Battle of Xuzhou in the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek had the opportunity to introduce the Japanese into Xuzhou and annihilate them in one fell swoop. It is a pity that the person who carried out this plan was Gui Yongqing, and the Kuomintang had excellent military equipment and a seamless plan, but Gui Yongqing still messed it up. Not only was he unable to annihilate Kenji Tufei Yuan, but he was also frightened by Kenji Tufei Yuan, and his demeanor was completely empty. The war that was supposed to be won was thus defeated, and Gui Yongqing, as the biggest responsible person, could not escape his death, but because of He Yingqin's relationship, Chiang Kai-shek only punished Gui Yongqing in a big way. Looking back at Gui Yongqing's military career in this life, he has never won any victories at all, but he likes to brag and talk big. In front of the soldiers, in front of Chiang Kai-shek, he always talked about his ideas for governing the army and enjoyed a better future, and he did not know where his courage came from.
In his later years, Chiang Kai-shek felt ashamed whenever he thought of this battle, when the Japanese army was already approaching Zhengzhou, the Kuomintang was so anxious that it was already burning its eyebrows, and everyone offered ideas and suggestions to block the pace of the Japanese army's advance. Finally, I came up with a way to wound the enemy by injuring a thousand and eight hundred to blow up the yellow river embankment. The Yellow River is our mother river, the birthplace of Chinese civilization, where the climate is mild and the seasons are distinct, which is very suitable for crop growth, and ancestors settled here. The Yellow River has not only bred Chinese civilization but also nurtured countless Chinese sons and daughters, and is the cradle of the Chinese nation, so the Yellow River is of great significance to us.
Although it was helpless to blow up the Yellow River levee, there was no other way to drag the Japanese army. Moreover, according to the Japanese army's unscrupulous style of not reaching the goal, even if we do not bomb, they are likely to preemptively destroy the Yellow River levequet and flood North China. At first, Chiang Kai-shek also disagreed with this approach, but in the face of the Japanese pressing step by step, Chiang Kai-shek finally agreed to this plan for the sake of the overall situation.
With Chiang Kai-shek's order, the Yellow River levee cracked in the sound of explosions. The Yellow River swept up with a large amount of mud and sand gushing out, and the momentum seemed to be unstoppable. Countless houses were built under the billowing river, arable land was submerged, and countless people died and disappeared in the flood. According to historical records, more than 40 cities were submerged and destroyed, more than 20 million mu of arable land was destroyed, and nearly 900,000 people were killed.
Chiang Kai-shek's move to lead the troops with water was originally intended to not only drag the Japanese army but also cause some damage to the Japanese army, but who knows how many casualties the Japanese army did not suffer in the end, but caused immeasurable huge losses to its own people. The reason for the death of the Japanese army was because there were traitors within the Kuomintang, and the Japanese army had long known that the Kuomintang's plan was prepared, and only a few Japanese troops who did not have time to withdraw were unfortunately killed. Although the yellow river breached the embankment of the Japanese army and disrupted the Japanese army's plan, it still did not fundamentally inflict heavy damage on the Japanese army, and Xuzhou eventually fell in 1944, and Wuhan also fell in 1938.
It is said that one thousand wounds to the enemy and eight hundred self-inflicted losses are utterly reversed, and it is simply eight hundred wounds to the enemy and one thousand self-inflicted losses, which is not worth the loss. In fact, Chiang Kai-shek is not a stupid person, he has considered the consequences of blowing up the Yellow River embankment, and he has long let the local residents evacuate in time and issued a settlement fee. Although the person who gave the order was Chiang Kai-shek, the executor, not him, only a small number of people received compensation in the end.
In any case, Chiang Kai-shek's practice was unpopular, and the people were forced to leave the land where they had lived for generations, running around wandering, starving to death on the road, and dying of exhaustion. The Yellow River has always been the main grain producing area, and the flooding caused a large reduction in grain production, which indirectly led to the great famine in Henan in 1942. The most important thing is that the Yellow River has been very fragile since it was bombed, as long as the amount of water is slightly larger, it will break through the embankment, and the river floods almost every year, and the life of the people in this area is miserable. He was also extremely disappointed in the Kuomintang, after all, the Kuomintang did not do much to resist Japan and save the country, but did a lot of things to pit its own people. Even the Kuomintang was reluctant to cooperate with the Kuomintang and the Communists in resisting Japan, which was a great thing that benefited the country and the people.
The Kuomintang and the Communist Party have cooperated sincerely twice, and both have achieved very dazzling results, but the process of cooperation is very difficult. In 1924, at the time of the survival of the Chinese nation, the two parties carried out the first cooperation, but the good times did not last long, and only lasted until 1927, because of the victory of the Northern Expedition, the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party finally broke down.
The second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists was during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and in the face of common foreign enemies, the Kuomintang and the Communists could only choose to temporarily abandon their prejudices against each other. But the process of the second cooperation can be described as ups and downs compared to the first, in 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident, Japan wantonly attacked our country, burning and looting, not evil and not doing. The Chinese Communist Party, knowing that its strength was weak, wanted to join forces with the Kuomintang to expel the Japanese from their homes. However, Chiang Kai-shek was stubborn and stubborn, and he always pursued the policy of taking care of the outside world before settling down inside, not only not attacking the Japanese, but encircling and suppressing the Communist Party everywhere. Finally, it was the patriotic generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng who launched the "Xi'an Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries to coerce Chiang Kai-shek to force him to resist Japan, and chiang kai-shek reluctantly agreed to resist the Japanese under the pressure of public opinion. The two parties jointly signed a declaration of cooperation, and after communication and coordination among many parties, the anti-Japanese national united front was finally formed.
But the fate of these two famous patriotic generals who promoted cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists was lamentable, and Zhang Xueliang was placed under house arrest after escorting Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing. And Yang Hucheng was first sent out of the country, so that such a patriot could not go to the battlefield to kill the enemy and serve the country at the time of national crisis was simply the most cruel punishment for him. Yang Hucheng, who secretly ran back to China, was imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek, and this prison was 12 years. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the international community demanded that Chiang Kai-shek release Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, but Chiang Kai-shek still remembered the fierce force that Yang Hucheng wanted to kill him in the first place, so naturally he would not let him go so easily, so he found someone to assassinate Yang Hucheng secretly, including the two children who were imprisoned with him.
As for Zhang Xueliang, Chiang Kai-shek actually did not want to let him go, but Chiang Kai-shek's wife Song Meiling and Zhang Xueliang had a very good personal relationship and were close friends, and they could not move Zhang Xueliang because of his wife's face. Coupled with the fact that Zhang Xueliang's wife Yu Fengzhi had evidence that Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zhang Xueliang not to resist, and that he and Zhang Xueliang had a brotherly friendship, Chiang Kai-shek weighed up and let Zhang Xueliang go, Zhang Xueliang was only restricted from his freedom in life, compared with Yang Hucheng, who died early, Zhang Xueliang finally lived to the age of 101.
In 1946, Chiang Kai-shek tore up the agreement, and the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was officially broken. Although both Kuomintang-Communist cooperation eventually broke down, the results we achieved in the process of cooperation cannot be ignored.
The Battle of Tingsiqiao, which the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated in the First Northern Expedition Against the Warlord Wu Peifu, took three days of fierce fighting to achieve a perfect victory, and China's internal and external troubles were resolved, which was the greatest victory. In fact, in the course of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many large main battlefields were attended by the Kuomintang, because the Kuomintang was well-equipped and well-trained, while the Communists were mainly responsible for the work of the rear areas and disrupting the work of the enemy. The first time the Chinese Eighth Route Army officially participated in the War of Resistance Against Japan was at the Time of the Battle of Pingxingguan, and this time, with the joint cooperation of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Pingxingguan won a great victory. This battle greatly encouraged the determination of the Chinese people to resist the war, and also dealt a blow to the prestige of the Japanese army.
In fact, it is not difficult to see from the victories in these wars that the Japanese are far less powerful than we think, and only if we unite as one and unite with the outside world, there is no battle that cannot be won.
We return to the incident of the breaking of the Yellow River, when the Kuomintang fell in the rear area, and the whole of China faced a dilemma between the fall of the Yellow River embankment and the bombing of the Yellow River levee to protect the Central Plains. Chiang Kai-shek thought that he had chosen to blow up the Yellow River levee in the name of "the lesser of two evils," but he was wrong; this accident had basically no impact on the Japanese army; on the contrary, it was the people of our country, with countless deaths and injuries, more than three times that of the Nanjing Massacre, and this incident was also hailed as a man-made disaster in China's history.
The Nanjing Massacre was a heinous crime committed by the Japanese army, and we can blame them without restriction, insult them, and condemn them from the moral high ground. But who should we blame for the Yellow River breach? The planners and executors are all our own Chinese people, and the starting point is still for the good of our entire country, but the final result is not satisfactory. Many of the people who survived this disaster expressed their inability to approve of Chiang Kai-shek's approach, and that no matter how critical the situation was, they should not sacrifice the people. Moreover, this unsatisfactory result is not a mandate of heaven but a man-made one, but a problem of internal governance of the Kuomintang, and there have been traitors and generals who are difficult to climb the elegant hall. Therefore, the consequences of this disaster should be borne entirely by Chiang Kai-shek alone, whether it is because of the huge casualties caused by disregarding the safety of the people or because of the ineffective management of the army and the failure to employ people, resulting in the defeat of the war situation.