More than 80 years have passed since the Nanjing Defense War, but people still can't forget the fierce defense war. In the defense of Nanjing, there was a powerful army that fought in blood and staged the most magnificent scene of killing the enemy, and this army was the Teaching Corps.
So, how fiercely did the Teaching Corps fight in the defense of Nanjing? Why did the powerful Teaching Corps wipe out the entire army? The diary of a brigadier general tells us the truth and explains why.
Commander-in-Chief Tang Shengzhi
After the great retreat at the Battle of Songhu, more than 200,000 Chinese troops withdrew to Nanjing for the second phase of the Nanjing Defense War. Tang Shengzhi was appointed commander-in-chief, responsible for the defense of Nanjing by various units. The original plan for guarding Nanjing was to stick to the outer Tangshan line, but due to insufficient troops, it was changed to defend the Wulongshan Fort, Purple Mountain, and Yuhuatai front.
At that time, the Second Army of Xu Yuanquan was defending the Wulong Mountain Fort, and the 74th Army was guarding Niushou Mountain. Guarding Yuhuatai was Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division, and Guarding Xiaguan was Song Xilian's 36th Division. In addition, the Guangdong army Deng Longguang's troops also gathered in the city of Nanjing. The teaching corps was ordered to guard the fork in the road, the Purple Mountain Xiaoling guard to the front line of the engineer school, and the commander-in-chief of the whole team was Gui Yongqing.
The Japanese 6th Division invaded Nanjing
At that time, the Japanese army's march route was judged to be the Beijing-Hangzhou National Highway to the Nanjing City Wall, and the focus of the attack was on Purple Mountain and Yuhuatai. Therefore, the focus of the deployment of the teaching corps was on the Purple Mountain. The troops of the headquarters are deployed as follows: the first and second regiments of infantry of the 1st Brigade, the non-commissioned battalion, and the 1st Battalion of attached engineers are the right wing team, which serve as the defense of the line from the Purple Mountain Tiger Cave and the West Mountain to the engineering school, under the command of brigade commander Zhou Zhenqiang.
Ma Weilong, commander of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, led the 4th and 5th regiments of the brigade as a left wing, serving as a defense of the line from the left side of the Tiger Cave in Purple Mountain to the fork in the road. The cavalry regiment occupied a guard position between Tangshan and QinglongShan to block the enemy's advance. The artillery regiment took up positions around Fugui Mountain. Hu Qiru, commander of the Second Infantry Brigade, led the 3rd and 6th regiments of the brigade and the engineering corps as the general reserve and gathered near taiping gate and zhongshan gate.
The German Mechanic teaches the General Brigade
On the evening of December 7, Wang Hanqing, the commander of the cavalry regiment, reported that the Japanese plainclothes team, dressed in the clothes of the soldiers of the 87th Division, mixed with the retreating team, attacked the first battalion of the cavalry regiment stationed at Tangshan as a guard, and the first battalion suffered more than half of the casualties and Tangshan was lost. The headquarters immediately ordered the cavalry regiment to block the Japanese army on the front line of Qinglong Mountain, and retreated to the vicinity of Xu Tomb through the Qilin Gate and the fork in the road before dawn on the 9th, to contact the Second Army defending the Wulong Mountain Battery, and immediately forbade the 87th Division from passing through the position to prevent the Japanese from sneaking in.
That night, there were Japanese troops stationed in the nearby villages around the Qilin Gate, and the lights were obvious. Zhou Zhenqiang then joined hands with Ma Weilong, commander of the Third Brigade, and Yang Houcan, commander of the Engineer Corps, to request that the Japanese army be attacked on an unstable footing and inflict great casualties on the Japanese army. However, Tang Shengzhi and Gui Yongqing did not agree, on the grounds that if the attack failed, the strength of the Nanjing guards would be weakened, which actually lost the best time to attack, and if the Japanese army attacked at that time, it would be defeated miserably.
The Japanese army crossed the river to kill the Zhonghua Gate
At dawn on December 8, dozens of Japanese aircraft began to bomb the Purple Mountain position intensively, and then concentrated dozens of various artillery shells to bombard the Qilin Gate position, followed by armored troops bursting into the vicinity of Hongmao Mountain outside the Tongji Gate. Because the friendly 87th Division did not occupy Hongmaoshan as planned, a battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the Teaching Corps stationed at Hongmaoshan suffered more than half of the casualties. Japanese tanks rushed directly through the second battalion's defensive line and shelled GuanghuaMen. On the evening of the 8th, the forward positions around the Qilin Gate were occupied by the Japanese army, and the second battalion of the second regiment of the first brigade all died heroically.
At dawn on December 9, the Japanese army concentrated its forces to attack the Purple Mountain Tiger Cave position, the Tiger Cave position was prominent, and was attacked by heavy Japanese fire, and the officers and men guarding the Tiger Cave fought in blood, killing and repelling several Japanese attacks, with heavy casualties. After a day of fierce fighting, because reinforcements had not been available, the first and second regiments of the first brigade that held tiger caves were forced to retreat and retreat to the main position of the second peak of Purple Mountain.
Hold one's ground
At dawn on December 10, after the Japanese army occupied the Tiger Cave position, it began to attack the second peak of our Purple Mountain and the main position of the West Mountain of XiaolingWei. The teaching corps was stationed in Xiaolingwei for 4 years, the terrain was very familiar, and the officers and men fought bravely. In the most tragic position, the Japanese 6th Division mobilized the 23rd Wing, the 45th Wing, the 13th Wing and the 47th Wing a squadron of more than 4,000 people to besiege, a regiment holding here to kill and repel the Japanese army repeated attacks, killing and wounding more than 1,000 Japanese troops, the Japanese army rushed for many days, sacrificing many small and medium-sized captains could not be captured.
At 10 o'clock in the evening of December 12, Zhou Zhenqiang, who insisted on holding the Purple Mountain, saw that the Zhonghua Gate and the direction of Shimonoseki were on fire on the mountain, and the phone call to the headquarters could not be connected. So they sent people to check it out, and the people who came back said that the commander-in-chief Gui Yongqing had already disappeared in the afternoon, the whereabouts of the chief of staff Qiu Qingquan were also unknown, and there was chaos in the city. The Yuhuatai position of the 88th Division had been captured by the Japanese, the 88th Division had been completely dispersed, and most of Deng Longguang's troops of the Cantonese Army had also left the Taiping Gate. At this time, Zhou Zhenqiang understood that the general headquarters had retreated, and they were still fighting, and the city of Nanjing had been completely routed and chaotic.
The Japanese army captured the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum
The situation was critical, and Zhou Zhenqiang rushed to the headquarters of the Fuguishan Headquarters overnight, summoned officers and men to inform them of the current situation, and immediately made a decision: With Ma Weilong, commander of the Third Brigade, leading the brigade to break through with Deng Guanglong of the Guangdong Army, Yang Houcan, commander of the engineer regiment, led his regiment to prepare river crossing equipment between Xiaguan Coal Port and Yanziji, Wang Hanqing, commander of the cavalry regiment, led his regiment to occupy the line of the coal port as a cover, and Qin Shiquan, commander of the first regiment of the First Brigade, led his regiment as a rearguard and retreated from the position one after another from 12:00 p.m. Leaving one unit to occupy the Tianbao City of Purple Mountain as a cover position, the rest of the troops retreated in the direction between coal harbor and Yanziji, trying to cross the river.
At 12:00 a.m. on the 13th, the wooden platoon was ready, and the various departments began to cross the river, and agreed to assemble in Chu County after the breakthrough. At this time, the Japanese army had reached the north bank opposite Baguazhou, and the Japanese fleet had broken through the blockade line of the Yangtze River in Wulong Mountain. Zhou Zhenqiang saw with his own eyes that the officers and men crowded along the river were bombed and strafed by the Japanese fleet and aircraft, and that three or four thousand people died in the river.
The Japanese searched for and killed the defenders at Purple Mountain
The next day, Zhou Zhenqiang arrived in Chu County and took in more than 4,000 officers and soldiers. However, due to the blockade of the Japanese army, only Ma Weilong, commander of the Third Brigade of the Teaching Corps, and Deng Wenxian, commander of the regiment, broke through the siege. Qiu Qingquan, chief of staff of the general brigade, Sui Youlin, commander of the Fourth Regiment, and Liao Yaoxiang, staff officer of the lieutenant colonel of the Second Brigade Headquarters, were forced to disguise themselves and hide in civilian garbage because they had no time to cross the river. Later, the three mixed with the refugees before escaping from Nanjing.
After the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, it began to search and kill hidden officers and soldiers everywhere in the city, and a large number of officers and men of the teaching corps and friendly troops were searched, and the Japanese army collectively escorted them to Shimonoseki to be killed with machine guns, and threw the bodies into the river, the massacre lasted for many days, and the water on the surface of the Shimonoseki River was stained red.
Soldiers killed by the Shimonoseki River
Sadly, the fully armed Teaching Corps, which was recognized as the most effective and elite teaching corps, inflicted great casualties on the Japanese army in the Battle of Purple Mountain and held out until the end. However, due to the confusion of the command of the Nanjing defense from the beginning, the tactics were dull, the retreat was chaotic, and the support strategy was ineffective, most of this elite force was damaged, and these elite soldiers were not sacrificed in the battle, but sacrificed on the way to retreat and were hunted and slaughtered by the Japanese army, and the whole army was destroyed. Tang Shengzhi, Gui Yongqing, and the entire Nanjing Operational Command all have unshirkable responsibilities.
The former site of the headquarters of the First Brigade Branch of the Purple Mountain Teaching Corps
Brigade Commander Zhou Zhenqiang personally experienced the defense of Nanjing and commanded the teaching corps to break through, and he painfully recorded these words in his diary, revealing the reasons for the collapse of the teaching corps for us. It's really sad to think about it now.