Guide:
In October 1938, just one year after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese army marched west along the Yangtze River from Shanghai, occupying nanjing, Anqing and other important towns, and advancing into The important town of Wuhan in Hubei. In the face of the menacing Japanese army, the Chinese army on the frontal battlefield, although desperately resisting, still repeatedly defeated, and finally the Japanese army invaded Hankou on October 25, and then occupied Wuchang and Hanyang in the next two days, so that all three towns in Wuhan fell into the hands of the Japanese army.
After the fall of Wuhan, some of the refugees and soldiers who escaped retreated west to Chongqing, and some of them went south into Hunan, taking Changsha as an example alone, when the number of refugees and soldiers poured in was as high as more than 200,000. A large number of refugees overwhelmed changsha city, and the security conditions were extremely poor. What was worse was that after the Japanese army occupied Wuhan, it followed the footsteps of the refugees and attacked all the way south, successively occupying Yueyang, Yiyang and other places in northern Hunan, and at this point, Changsha City was completely exposed to Japanese artillery fire.
In order to avoid Changsha repeating the mistakes of Wuhan, the Chongqing Provisional Government sent a telegram to Zhang Zhizhong, chairman of Hunan Province, that if Changsha could not hold out, then before retreating, it was necessary to burn down all the cities and leave no material supplies for the Japanese army.
In fact, this is not the first time That Jiang has done this, as early as the Japanese army attacked Henan, he ordered the army to blow up the Yellow River Garden Mouth levee, in order to slow down the Japanese attack. Contrary to wishes, the Yellow River that broke the embankment did not stop the Japanese army, but brought disaster to the local people, according to post-war statistics, the flood caused a total of 12 million people to be affected, 890,000 people died, after the flood retreated, leaving a large area of yellow pan area, indirectly led to the great disaster in Henan in 1942.
However, Zhang Zhizhong did not know this at that time, and after receiving the order, he immediately called the commander of the Changsha garrison and the chief of the security department to discuss the plan to set fire to the city before the Japanese attacked Changsha. After discussion, they decided to conduct an arson drill on November 13 and arrange more than a hundred arson squads throughout the city to be on standby.
In the early morning of the 13th, more than a hundred squads led gasoline, torches and other items to the designated mission site, but because some people were too nervous, they actually poured gasoline on some houses, but fortunately these people were organized in time, so that the exercise did not become a real battle. After everything was ready, the arson squad waited in a tense atmosphere for Zhang Zhizhong's examination.
But while waiting, an accident occurred that disrupted all the arrangements for deployment. At that time, the front-line reconnaissance team sent a telegram, the content of which was that the Japanese army had arrived at the Xinqiang River, which was still more than 100 kilometers away from Changsha, but the telegraphers in Changsha City were careless when translating, and even missed a word, translating "Xinqianghe" into "Xinhe", although only one word was missing, the meaning was more than 100 kilometers, because "Xinhe" was on the outskirts of Changsha, only a few kilometers away from the city.
As soon as the news came out, it immediately caused panic in the city, and the Japanese troops had reached the New River on the outskirts of the city, where it was possible to attack the city at any time. When the arson team that was waiting for the order in the city learned the news, it panicked, and some of the squads actually set fire to it privately, and when they saw a fire in the city, other squads also responded one after another, and for a time the city of Changsha was full of fire.
Upon hearing the news, Zhang Zhizhong immediately ordered a moratorium on fires everywhere, but the wind helped the fire, and everything was irreparable, and the raging fire burned in Changsha City at once. Originally, the "scorched earth plan" was absolutely confidential, and according to Zhang Zhizhong's plan, the fire should not be set until the Japanese army attacked the Miluo area, and before setting the fire, it should be broadcast throughout the city to let the people escape and evacuate in time.
But now the fire suddenly burned, sleeping Changsha citizens did not know what happened, woke up can only scatter to escape, in the crowd and chaos many people were trampled to death, in order to escape everyone ran to the edge of the Xiang River, but the ferry is limited, hundreds of people were squeezed into the river and drowned, according to the lucky survivors of the memory, that night's Changsha is a purgatory on earth.
From the 13th to the 17th, the fire in Changsha burned for a total of five days, known in history as the "Wenxi Fire", when 90% of the city's buildings were burned down, and the number of deaths was as high as 30,000 afterwards, and the direct economic loss was as high as 1 billion yuan.
Ironically, the Japanese army did not attack Changsha afterwards, and the Japanese army, which was too long at that time, was temporarily unable to start a major war after occupying Wuhan. After the news came out, there was an uproar in the country, and the people condemned Jiang Ren in Chongqing, saying that he was so frightened by the Japanese army that he set fire to Changsha City. In order to calm the public's anger, the three people involved, Changsha Garrison Commander Zhen Ti, Police Chief Wen Chongfu, and Xu Kun, commander of the Second Garrison Regiment, could only be shot to death, and Zhang Zhizhong was dismissed from his post, and a fire case that shocked the world was hastily closed.
Reference: "Changsha Wenxi Fire"