In 1904, the Qing government, fed up with the oppression of the great powers, decided to gradually expand the scale of international students and send a large number of outstanding talents to Japan to study military affairs. These people who can be selected to study abroad at public expense are naturally not ordinary people, and the Japanese who have long harbored the purpose of invading China have arranged for instructors to try their best to win them over and cultivate personal relations so that they can be useful in the future. International students are naturally touched by the preferential treatment they receive in foreign countries. At that time, most of China's military talents had studied in Japan, and a few years later, most of these students dominated one side, but the instructors became the vanguard of the invasion of China.
There are private emotions mixed with national interests, which is the complicated relationship between China and Japan in the early days of the War of Resistance.
Yan Xishan
At that time, there were 20 places to study abroad in Shanxi, of which 3 were supported by the government at public expense, and Yan Xishan, who had excellent character and learning, became one of them. He arrived in Japan in 1904, and after 2 years of preparatory studies and 1 year of internship, he officially entered the 6th phase of the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School in 1907, and his instructor was itagaki Seishiro, a famous Japanese officer who invaded China, and an equally famous classmate named Kenji Doihara. These people take good care of Yan Xishan, and Yan also has no intention of learning, and spends most of his time participating in social activities.
According to his own recollection: "The actual time spent on homework is not more than half, so whenever there is an exam, it is meant to be done." ”
But during this time he became acquainted with many people at the top of the Japanese military.
In March 1909, Yan Xishan returned to China after completing his studies. After a series of arduous struggles, he gradually became a great warlord in charge of Shanxi. After the "9/18" incident, Japan also stepped up its aggression against China. In 1935, Japan launched the "North China Incident" to promote the "North China Autonomy Movement" to support agents. At the beginning, they set their sights on Yan Xishan, and successively sent Takahashi Tan, military attaché of the Japanese Embassy in North China, and Kenji Toihara, chief of the secret service in Fengtian, to Shanxi to woo him. But Yan Xishan neither nodded nor refused, and tried his best to be perfunctory. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek also exerted a lot of pressure on him, and he also faced the pressure of the Red Army to demand resistance against Japan.
Seishiro Itagaki
He once vividly described the situation as "dancing on three eggs, and none of them can touch them."
So he sought survival in the cracks,
The slogan of "defending the territory and resisting the war" was put forward, that is, you came to Shanxi to beat me, and I resisted.
Therefore, in 1937, when the Japanese army launched the Nankou Campaign, Chiang Kai-shek asked for reinforcements, and he vigorously pushed back. Most of North China is plain, and Shanxi in the west is a rolling mountainous area.
From a military point of view, if Japan wanted to gain a foothold in North China, it must capture Shanxi
。 After realizing this, he sent 3 divisions to reinforce. Unfortunately, Liu Ruming's troops in Chahar retreated without a fight, and the Jin army's Li Fuyi troops counterattacked unfavorably, the Japanese army occupied Nankou, and the next target was naturally Shanxi, and Yan Xishan began to tense up at this time.
Chiang Kai-shek called again, saying that he wanted to transfer 300,000 central troops into Jin to assist in the War of Resistance, and Yan Xishan thought that your 300,000 troops would not even flatten Shanxi, and even if there was anything to do with me, he refused.
He also vowed to mobilize 300,000 Jin Sui troops in Datong to fight a decisive battle against the Japanese army
- He carefully planned a plan for the Battle of Datong in an attempt to eat the Japanese army in Datong: that is, to defend the Datong Fortress Tianzhen and Yanggao with the retired Li Fuyi, cover the rear army assembly, and lure the Japanese army to the front of the Jule Fort Defense Fort in the east of Datong. Wang Jingguo's 19th Army occupied the main position of Jule Fort and blocked the Japanese army. Yang Chengyuan's 34th Army and Liu Maoen's 15th Army were assembled at Hunyuan and Dongjingji on the southern flank, while Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army and Suiyuan Cavalry Brigade were assembled in the area of Fengzhen and Xinghe to the north. Once the Japanese army entered the pocket, it surrounded and annihilated it in the north of Jin with a north-south attack.
Yan Xishan's Plan for the Battle of Datong and the Route of Japanese Advance
I have to say that this strategic concept, which assumes that the main direction of the Japanese army's offensive is Datong, is very imaginative and bold, and once the history of the War of Resistance is realized, it may be rewritten. However, people were not as good as heavenly calculations, and The Chahar regiment led by Hideki Tojo sent a corps to attack Tianzhen and Yanggao with superior troops, Yan Xishan did not send reinforcements, Li Fuyi's troops were quickly defeated, at this time the large army had not yet been assembled, and Wang Jingguo in front of Jule Fort could not support it, and asked for help everywhere, and the foundation of the "Battle of Datong" had been shaken.
What made Yan Xishan even more cold sweat was that another Japanese army attacked Guangling in Shanxi from Wei County in Cha Nan, and then directly pounded Lingqiu, and the commander of the Japanese army on this road was Itagaki Seishiro.
Yan Xishan immediately understood that the main direction of the Japanese army's attack was not datong, but an attempt to forcibly break through the Pingxing Pass and then go south to Yanmen Pass to encircle the back road of Datong. This area is a lofty mountain range that spans the Taihang Mountains, the terrain is very complex, and it has been forbidden since ancient times, known as the "static battle corridor". It also happened to be in the combined part of the first and second theaters, and both theaters were neglected to guard against them. The Itagaki Division just took advantage of this gap to drill in.
Why were the Japanese so familiar with the terrain of Shanxi?
This has to start with Itagaki Seishiro, an instructor during Yan Xishan's study abroad, and the two have a great relationship. In 1936, Itagaki asked to enter Shanxi under the pretext of visiting students and traveling to Wutai Mountain. However, he did not take a plane or a car on this trip, but rode along the road from Wei County to Dai County, passing through Guangling and Lingqiu and visiting Pingxing Pass all the way before turning to Mount Wutai. The terrain of Shanxi had long been clearly understood, and Yan Xishan, a student, also took him to visit the military factory that he was proud of.
Later, the marching route of the Itagaki Division followed the route that had entered Shanxi in that year.
Jin Sui Army
At this time, Yan Xishan woke up like a dream, and hurriedly transferred the troops to be used for the Battle of Datong to the Yanmenguan area, leaving only a small part of the troops on the outskirts of Datong, which was equivalent to abandoning Datong, and the plan for the Battle of Datong was also in vain.
This plan not only did not encircle the Japanese army, but also almost surrounded by the Japanese army.
This Japanese teacher, Itagaki Seishiro, had taught Yan Xishan a lot of military knowledge, but after all, he still had a hand.
After 28 years after Yan Xishan graduated and returned to China, he was given a vivid military lesson of "sounding east and attacking the west." He also taught him the international relations class that he had been hiding for nearly 30 years.
That is, there are only interests between countries, not private feelings. Yan Xishan paid a considerable price for learning this lesson, but in general it was not too late, and it was worth it. Since then, he has clearly seen the true face of the Japanese, and the efforts he tried to win over at that time were only to use himself as a pawn. After a period of time, he strengthened his anti-Japanese stance, and also executed Li Fuyi, a general who had weak resistance under his command, and gave an explanation to public opinion.
Resources:
1. "Memoirs of Yan Xishan's Early Years" Yan Xishan;
2. "The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Northern Jin", edited by China Literature and History Publishing House;
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