One day in 1932, a man who called himself "Zhao San" came to the sun chaoyang unit of the anti-Japanese volunteer army in Bin County and offered to join the army.
The people in the army asked him what he would do, and Zhao San said, "As long as you resist Japan, you can do anything." Since there was exactly one groom missing in the army at that time, Zhao San was sent to take care of the horses.
Although Zhao San, who had entered the army, was busy feeding the horses every day, his heart did not seem to be on it. When the people in the army discussed the war, he would also listen. Once, Sun Chaoyang's troops were besieged on three sides by the Japanese army, and the situation was critical. At the critical moment, Zhao San walked over to Sun Chaoyang and told him that he had a plan, or he could solve the current dilemma. Sun Chaoyang was worried about the war, and as soon as he heard that he had an idea, he asked Zhao San to hurry up and listen.
Zhao San first analyzed the current situation, and then suggested that Sun Chaoyang lead his troops out of the siege and turn from defense to attack. Sun Chaoyang had already led the troops to hold on for many days, and it seemed that they would not be able to hold on, so instead of waiting for the Japanese army to "wipe them out", it was better to kill them according to Zhao San's words!
Therefore, Sun Chaoyang adopted Zhao San's suggestion and led his troops to take the initiative to attack Bin County, which caught the Japanese army by surprise and won the battle.
After this incident, Sun Chaoyang felt that this "groom" was a strategic and useful talent, so he appointed him as chief of staff.
Zhao San, who had become chief of staff, was able to contact the central figures in the army. He also met Comrade Li Qidong, who had been sent by the CPC Zhuhe Central County to send troops. Comrades Zhao San and Li Qidong saw each other as they always were, and their relationship became better and better. In order to help Li Qidong complete the task of forming a backbone contingent within the army as assigned by the party organization, Zhao San and Li Qidong worked together to rectify this unit. He also came up with many ideas for Sun Chaoyang to fight against the enemy army, thus fighting many victorious battles and becoming a "thorn in the eye" of the Japanese army. The Japanese army once wrote in his arrest warrant:
"A dollar of bones and a dollar of gold, one or two pieces of meat get one or two pieces of silver."
At this time, Zhao San's true identity also gradually surfaced.
Zhao San's original name was Zhao Shangzhi,
He was born in October 1908 to a peasant family in Chaoyang, Liaoning Province. Zhao Shangzhi's childhood was spent in the revolutionary struggle of our people against imperialism and feudalism. The wave of this revolution also affected Zhao Shangzhi's hometown of Chaoyang.
After the Xinhai Revolution, Zhao Shangzhi's father saw the officers and soldiers bullying the people, and with justice in his heart, he killed several officers and soldiers who committed evil deeds with the masses, and was wanted for this. In order to escape, his father took Zhao Shangzhi away from his hometown and went to Harbin.
In 1925, Zhao Shangzhi of 17 was admitted to the local Xugong Middle School after only half a year of study. Zhao Shangzhi, who loves poetry and books, held the scriptures and read them all day after entering school, and also practiced the skills of never forgetting. During this period, Zhao Shangzhi also read a lot of books to promote progressive thought, and he and a group of students secretly formed a book club, often discussing the matter of saving the country and the people and the way out for the youth.
In the same year, after the May Thirtieth Massacre, patriotic young people in the northeast expressed their solidarity with the anti-imperialist struggle of the Shanghai people, and Zhao Shangzhi also actively participated in the movement. Zhao Shangzhi, who has strong organizational skills, also gathered a group of students to collect donations for the Shanghai workers and students who suffered this time.
This summer, the outstanding Zhao Shangzhi was honorably admitted to the party with the approval of the party organization.
But because Zhao Shangzhi organized the student movement, he was expelled from the school. Zhao Shangzhi simply "abandoned his pen and went to the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou to study military essentials.
The hard-working Zhao Shangzhi soon became a top student in the school, and in his spare time he joined the Young Soldiers' Federation led by the party organization to fight against the "Sun Wen Doctrine Society" supported by Chiang Kai-shek.
Beginning in 1926, Chiang Kai-shek initiated the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" and the "Case of Sorting Out Party Affairs" so that Zhao Shangzhi could see clearly the corruption of the Kuomintang government controlled by Chiang Kai-shek and others. He resolutely dropped out of the Whampoa Military Academy and returned to Harbin, where his family lived.
Back in Harbin, Zhao Shangzhi continued to fight against imperialism and feudalism with local CCP members, and he was arrested and imprisoned twice. Shortly after his first arrest, he was released along with the youth who had participated in the movement at the time; after the second arrest, the Party Central Committee and the Manchurian Provincial Party Committee rescued the arrested comrades, including Zhao Shangzhi.
After Zhao Shangzhi was released from prison, he was appointed secretary of the Military Commission by Luo Dengxian, secretary of the Manchurian Provincial Party Committee.
In the spring of 1932, Zhang Jiazhou, Zhang Wenzao and others formed an anti-Japanese guerrilla group in Bayan, Northeast China, and named it the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army. However, the backbone members of this unit did not understand the military and repeatedly lost battles with the enemy. The Manchurian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Zhao Shangzhi to serve as chief of staff. Zhao Shangzhi, alias Li Yucai, entered the unit.
Due to the lax discipline of the unit, Zhang Jiazhou, who was the leader of the unit, established the unit for impure purposes, and he wanted to establish his personal prestige in the name of anti-Japanese resistance. As a result, the entire team revealed a "bandit atmosphere", and the neighboring masses were also very dissatisfied with the team's behavior of infringing on the people's property. Zhao Shangzhi not only persuaded Zhang Jiazhou to rectify the unhealthy atmosphere in the troops with affection and reason, but also set up a teaching team of about 200 people in the troops. For a time, discipline was strict in the army, and there were no more incidents of soldiers harassing the people.
In November of the same year, Zhao Shangzhi led a team to fight local tycoons and divide the fields, so that the local people could be self-sufficient. This unit was also organized into the Jiangbei Independent Division of the 36th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, with Zhao Shangzhi as the director of the Political Department. But in one of the battles, one of the thieves in the army was not dead and snatched the herders' shotguns, which made the local Orunchun herders angry, and they besieged the troops.
In a hurry, Zhao Shangzhi could only take the warriors to withdraw first. During the evacuation, they were attacked several more times by the Japanese, and the unit was scattered after successive heavy losses.
At that time, the Manchurian Provincial Party Committee thought that Zhao Shangzhi had made a mistake that led to the disintegration of the troops, so he was also expelled from the party.
But even after being expelled from the party, Zhao Shangzhi was still looking for an opportunity to join the revolutionary ranks of the country to save the country.
In the same year, Zhao Shangzhi went to Sun Chaoyang's troops under the pseudonym Zhao San to become a groom. Because when the troops were besieged by the Japanese army, he gave a plan to Sun Chaoyang and successfully helped the troops escape from danger, so Zhao Shangzhi was appointed chief of staff. After Zhao Shangzhi met Comrade Li Qidong sent by the party organization in the army, the two of them talked very happily because of the same revolutionary ideals, and they also began to rectify Sun Chaoyang's unit.
But the good times did not last long, and Sun Chaoyang was arrested by the Japanese army. After his arrest, Sun Chaoyang softened his bones, and he not only surrendered to the Japanese army, but also in turn wanted to help the Japanese army kill Zhao Shangzhi.
The outnumbered Zhao Shangzhi quickly fled Sun Chaoyang's troops with a machine gun and 11 rifles and went to find the Zhuhe County Party Committee.
In October 1933, the Pearl River Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Group was established, and Zhao Shangzhi was elected as the leader. Subsequently, Zhao Shangzhi led this team of only 13 soldiers and 13 rifles to fight against the Japanese army and the Japanese puppet army throughout Zhuhe County, and under the command of Zhao Shangzhi, they fought more than ten victorious battles in a row.
Later, as long as the enemy heard that Zhao Shangzhi's team was stationed somewhere, he did not dare to invade this place. The local people called the place where Zhao Shangzhi's troops were located "Red Territory".
In 1934, in order to strengthen the anti-Japanese contingent and unite other troops in Zhuhe County, Zhao Shangzhi also called a meeting of the leaders of various guerrilla groups and called on everyone to unite and jointly resist Japan. Finally, on the same day, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Joint Army Headquarters was established, and everyone elected Zhao Shangzhi as the commander-in-chief.
Zhao Shangzhi lived up to the expectations of the people, and he led his troops to conquer the strongholds of the Japanese puppet army such as Houlin Township and the Black Dragon Palace, and captured a large number of weapons and ammunition.
In June of the same year, Zhao Shangzhi was besieged by Japanese troops in Bin County. Since Zhao Shangzhi had fought in Bin County before, he relied on his familiarity with the local terrain to command the warriors to repel the attacks of the Japanese puppet army again and again. After two days of fighting, the arrogance of the enemy was extinguished, and they fled in a hurry. The Japanese army heard about this, and after learning that the Japanese puppet army had failed to besiege Bin County because of Zhao Shangzhi 2 years ago, it was even more hateful to grit its teeth and fantasize about capturing him. The Japanese army and the Japanese puppet army could not catch Zhao Shangzhi, so they wanted to use money to tempt the people to arrest him. The Japanese army wrote on the wanted list:
But even so, the local people did not fall for the Japanese army.
On June 29, the anti-Japanese guerrilla group northeast of the Pearl River was expanded into the Hadong detachment of the northeast anti-Japanese guerrilla group, with Zhao Shangzhi as its commander.
After that, Zhao Shangzhi led the detachment to attack the enemy many times, causing huge losses to the enemy's army. During this period, the team led by Zhao Shangzhi also expanded to more than 10,000 people, and the guerrilla area of the detachment spread throughout many counties.
Zhao Shangzhi also set up arsenals, clothing factories, hospitals, etc. at the headquarters of the detachment, and used these factories and living facilities to let many poor people have jobs, so that this poor ravine became a new look. Zhao Shangzhi's station also presented a scene of unity between the military and the people.
On January 12, 1935, the new Manchurian Provincial Party Committee considered the fact that Zhao Shangzhi was expelled from the Party as an unjust case.
The Manchurian province sent people to Zhao Shangzhi's unit to understand the situation and restored his party membership.
On January 18, Zhao Shangzhi was ordered by the Manchurian Provincial Party Committee to merge the Hadong detachment with the volunteer armies in various base areas to form the Third Army of the Northeast People's Revolutionary Army, with Zhao Shangzhi as its commander and three regiments under it.
In the course of fighting the Japanese puppet army, Zhao Shangzhi encountered a guerrilla group with 3 regiments of troops. Because they had long heard that Zhao Shangzhi had extremely strong command and combat ability, the leaders of this guerrilla group, Xie Wendong and Li Huatang, took the initiative to ask Zhao Shangzhi to reorganize their troops. Zhao Shangzhi then incorporated them and established the General Headquarters of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army with a total of 6 regiments. He was chosen as the commander-in-chief.
In just 3 years, Zhao Shangzhi grew from the former "groom" to the commander-in-chief of the troops who managed 6 regiments.
All this is due to his extremely strong command ability and confidence in the revolution.
The young Zhao Shangzhi repeatedly dealt heavy blows to the Japanese army and the Japanese puppet army, and the enemy even sent out
"Little Manchukuo, big Zhao Shangzhi" lamented.
Among the more than a hundred battles he commanded, the Battle of Ice Runner was the most famous.
Because the Japanese army was successively attacked by the anti-coalition forces led by Zhao Shangzhi, they became ashamed and angry, so the Japanese Kwantung Army formulated a "crusade" plan against the coalition forces, and the Battle of Bingduzi took place within 3 years of the Japanese army's "crusade" against our army.
In order to break the enemy's "crusade" plan, in the second half of 1936, Zhao Shangzhi asked the soldiers to divide into teams from the base area and march to the northwest of Heilongjiang Province. In early March 1937, Zhao Shangzhi led a troop to the west of Helen, and when he reached the junction of Helen and Tongbei, there was information coming: there were 800 Japanese troops in the rear who were trying to enter the mountains to "crusade" the anti-coalition troops, and they had already moved at this moment.
However, at that time, Zhao Shangzhi's troops were far less than the 800 japanese troops, and Zhao Shangzhi immediately made a decision and moved with his troops to the depths of the mountains in the eastern part of the north.
Zhao Shangzhi was ready to take advantage of the terrain in the mountains to set up an ambush in advance and fight with the enemy who came from behind.
After the troops entered the mountain, Zhao Shangzhi found a place with a narrow mountain road with slopes and woods on both sides, and asked more than 20 fighters to ambush in front of the road to lure the enemy deeper. At the same time, he led the main force to ambush halfway up the mountain on both sides. In the dark and cold winter night, Zhao Shangzhi and the warriors quietly ambushed in the dense forest.
Not long after, a long line of horses climbed the plough, and there were more than 100 Japanese soldiers sitting on it. After the Japanese army appeared, the soldiers who were ambushed in front of the mountain road took the lead in shooting, shooting down many Japanese troops on the plough.
Seeing that we were small in number, these Japanese troops concentrated their firepower on the soldiers who were ambushing in the front. These warriors had already received Zhao Shangzhi's orders,
They fought and retreated, thus drawing the Japanese army into the ambush circle of the main force.
After the Japanese army fully entered the encirclement, Zhao Shangzhi shouted "Fight! The soldiers listened to the order and aimed their machine guns, which had been set up long ago, at the Japanese and began to strafe. For a time, the Japanese army was caught off guard, they did not know how many people on our side, and they retreated after more than 30 dead and wounded. And the soldiers of our army also pretended that the enemy had torn open a hole in the encirclement and let them go.
After the enemy fled the battlefield, Zhao Shangzhi and his soldiers quickly loaded the captured blankets, weapons and ammunition. Zhao Shangzhi analyzed that after the enemy is defeated, they will never stop here, and they may find reinforcements to retaliate. So Zhao Shangzhi ordered his troops to move forward quickly.
When Zhao Shangzhi and his party came to a place called Ice Bucket, Zhao Shangzhi carefully observed the terrain of the place, and then asked the warriors to stop.
Subsequently, Zhao Shangzhi asked the soldiers to rest in four large wooden camps on the hillside, and he gathered several cadres in a wooden camp to hold a meeting.
Zhao Shangzhi said:
"These four large wooden battalions are strong enough to be held; the ditch is flanked by mountains and forests, and ambushes can be set; the mouth of the ditch is very narrow, which can intercept the enemy's retreat and can fight the enemy's reinforcements. In short, this is a good battlefield that can be attacked and retreated. ”
Zhao Shangzhi was right in his analysis, the ice waders were the only places to enter the ravines behind them from west to east, and a large wooden camp could accommodate up to two hundred people, and the warriors could all stay inside, which was a good place to fight ambush battles.
After the meeting, the soldiers began to build fortifications according to Zhao Shangzhi's arrangement.
The soldiers dug holes in the walls of the wooden camps, built communication trenches out of ice and snow, and set up ambush positions in the woods on the side of the mountain road.
On March 7, more than 800 Japanese and Japanese puppet troops rushed to the ice field, and they did not expect zhao Shangzhi to ambush here. When the Japanese puppet army walking to the front was about to reach the wooden camp, Zhao Shangzhi gave an order, and the soldiers fired at the Japanese army at the same time, and in a short while, the Japanese puppet army was repelled, and the squadron leader of the puppet army and several people walking in front were killed on the spot.
Subsequently, about 200 Japanese troops advanced to the location of the 4 wooden battalions under the cover of fire, and Zhao Shangzhi commanded the machine gunners to open fire on the enemy. The enemy's feet stepped on the slippery ice, and he could not stand steadily, let alone shoot at our fighters. In this way, the enemy staged a tragic fall on the hillside.
The Japanese commander in the back was so angry that he raised his bayonet to prevent the enemies from retreating, forcing them to fight on the ice.
At the same time, Zhao Shangzhi sent several small detachments to quietly touch the enemy's flank through the forest and attack the enemy at the waist.
The enemy army was heavily armed, concentrating its fire on a wooden camp on the front of our side, and more than 20 Japanese troops were about to occupy a wooden camp on the left. Zhao Shangzhi ordered a small group of soldiers to come forward and retake this position.
The battle was fought from noon to night, and the enemies lying on the ground were so frozen that they could not even pull the trigger of the machine gun. Many people were also frostbitten, and the sound of enemy gunfire gradually changed from dense to sparse.
Zhao Shangzhi had long expected that the night temperature would be lower, and he asked the soldiers to prepare the wood in the house early, so that in the cold night, the warriors could take turns to go to the stove in the wooden camp to warm up, and then re-enter the battle.
After the enemy's gunfire became less and less, Zhao Shangzhi estimated that they were going to run, so he asked the soldiers to go to the ditch to prepare to intercept the enemy.
Sure enough, the enemy was frozen by the cold weather, and they wanted to evacuate. Zhao Shangzhi then commanded his soldiers to fight the enemy at the mouth of the ditch.
A large number of Japanese and Japanese puppet armies were killed. A small number of enemies fled in a hurry outside the ditch.
In this battle, our army only lost 7 people, the enemy was killed more than 200 people, more than 100 frostbitten wounds, 5 Japanese generals were also killed, and several pieces of materials such as horses, meat, rice, and military blankets were also captured.
This battle of winning more with less also made the arrogant Japanese aggressors see the ability and determination of our soldiers to persist in the War of Resistance.
After that, Zhao Shangzhi continued to lead the soldiers to fight in the northeast, and the Japanese army saw that zhao Shangzhi, who could not defeat the resourceful Zhao Shangzhi, tried to frame him by means of rumors and provoking dissension.
At the end of 1937, Zhao Shangzhi and his soldiers were in a difficult situation due to lack of clothing and food. At this time, Chen Shaobin, the acting division commander of the Sixth Army, brought news from the Soviet Union that the Northern Manchuria Provincial Party Committee would send him to the Soviet Union to discuss the issue of joint resistance against Japan. Zhao Shangzhi originally thought that he would get some assistance from going to the Soviet Union this time, so he went without hesitation.
In January 1938, Zhao Shangzhi rushed to the Soviet Union with a squad of guards. However, as soon as he crossed the border between the two countries, he was forcibly taken away by Soviet troops, and said that the Soviet General Heilo did not invite Chinese representatives to the meeting. Subsequently, Zhao Shangzhi and the guards were locked up in the basement.
It wasn't until May 1939 that the Soviet military released Zhao Shangzhi and explained to him that it was a misunderstanding.
They also told Zhao Shangzhi about his appointment by the Comintern as commander-in-chief of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army.
In June of the same year, Zhao Shangzhi organized more than 100 personnel of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition in the Soviet Union, established a team, and returned to the northeast with July, and threw himself into the battle against the Japanese army and the Japanese puppet army. However, due to the discord caused by the Japanese puppet army and the rumors of traitors, Zhao Shangzhi wanted to "assassinate the provincial party committee", which led to his expulsion from the Party by the North Manchuria Provincial Party Committee and his military power was also stripped.
Zhao Shangzhi wrote several letters to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to complain, and in the autumn of 1941, Zhao Shangzhi was allowed to carry out anti-Japanese activities.
In January 1942, when the Japanese puppet army heard that Zhao Shangzhi had returned to the anti-Japanese battlefield in the northeast, they were very nervous, and they immediately sent troops to search around for Zhao Shangzhi's whereabouts, but they did not find any trace of him.
The Japanese police chief, Hisajiro Tai, was also very afraid of Zhao Shangzhi, and he and his men came up with an assassination plan, that is, to send the traitor Liu Deshan disguised as a leather merchant to approach Zhao Shangzhi and then take the opportunity to kill him.
Liu Deshan was acquainted with one of Zhao Shangzhi's subordinates, and this person did not know that Liu Deshan had become a traitor. Liu Deshan used this relationship to find Zhao Shangzhi and his party, and mixed into Zhao Shangzhi's team.
After some time, Liu Deshan lured Zhao Shangzhi to attack the Wutong pseudo-police station, and Zhao Shangzhi, who was bent on resisting Japan, agreed.
On the evening of February 11, Zhao Shangzhi and his party went to the Wutong pseudo-police station, and when they walked to the vicinity of the Lu family vegetable garden, Liu Deshan behind them suddenly shot Zhao Shangzhi, who was shot in the back of his waist, and he immediately fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. The fallen Zhao Shangzhi did not give up, he took up the pistol and shot back at Liu Deshan, after two shots, Liu Deshan was shot, and Zhao Shangzhi fell into a coma.
The Japanese puppet army arrested zhao Shangzhi, who was seriously injured, to the puppet police station, and interrogated him while rescuing him. Zhao Shangzhi, who woke up, questioned the people in front of him:
"Aren't you Chinese?" How to be a traitor, should be killed! ”
After being interrogated for 8 hours, the Japanese puppet army still did not ask for information about the party organization from his mouth. And the dying Zhao Shangzhi also closed his eyes forever, only 34 years old.
On a cold winter night, the Japanese puppet army brutally cut off Zhao Shangzhi's head and toured all over puppet Manchukuo to show off his achievements.
The abbot of changchun Huguo Banruo Temple, Master Qi Xuan, who had greatly admired Zhao Shangzhi, who had sacrificed his life for the country, risked his life to negotiate with the Japanese puppet army, and finally allowed Zhao Shangzhi's skull to be buried in the Huguo Temple.
On October 25, 2008, Zhao Shangzhi's skull was taken back to his hometown of Chaoyang for burial in the martyrs' cemetery.
This anti-Japanese general, who had been fighting for half his life, was finally able to rest in peace in his homeland.