There is a small road in the north of Hankou in Wuhan, named Hao Mengling Road. It was renamed in honor of the heroes of the War of Resistance.
Hao Mengling was the first military commander in the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to die a martyrdom. After his death, the soldier found in his pocket an unsent letter to a friend that read:
"Yu was ordered to go north to resist the enemy, and the country paid a heavy responsibility and regarded me as not thin, so Yu also decided not to hesitate to die to martyr the country in order to survive the nation." In this War of Resistance, we vowed to take the battlefield as our destination. ”
In fact, he wrote more than one letter similar to this, and just after receiving the order to go north to resist Japan, he sat in his home in Wuhan for a night without sleeping, writing and tearing, tearing and writing.
The next day, his 15-year-old daughter took a look at it. The letter was written in 1937, but on the outside of the envelope it was written that it was opened in 1938.
The child was very curious, and could not help but open it and look at it, and the contents of the letter were what the military commander said to the children before going to the front:
I love you guys, but I love our country even more. Now that the enemy is slaughtering our compatriots every day, everyone should kill the enemy. If the country dies, you will not have a good life. This time, he went north to resist japan and made sacrifices. In case of death, you must listen to your mother's instructions and be filial to your grandmother's elders. As for you waiting for school, I personally don't have any money. In the future, when the country is victorious, you can wait to enter the school of the remnants. He was left in Huiying, Huilan, Yinhuai, Qiannan and Yinsen, and his father stayed on September 15, 1937.
Hao Mengling went with the determination to die, and the task of going north to resist the war was also approved by the National Government after he tried his best to ask for help. Before that, he was already ready to disarm and return to the field.
In those years, the Kuomintang government constantly launched a "encirclement and suppression" civil war, and Hao Mengling was originally reluctant to do it, because he felt that the people suffered from successive years of civil war, and the blood flowed for thousands of miles was still the life of his compatriots. He was tired and sad, so he asked for demobilization and return to the field several times in a row.
The Nationalist government did not approve it, but it was also seen that he had no intention of fighting, and in 1935, he was sent to build the Chuanqian and Chuandian Highways. Until May 1937, Hao Mengling asked his superiors to disarm him and return to the field.
And just two months later, the Luqiaogou Incident broke out, he immediately changed his original plans, and wrote in the request report, I am a soldier, half a life to fight a civil war, no interest in the country, the Japanese invaded the northeast, the people are full of righteous indignation, now the Japanese Kou is going to destroy China, our country has reached the last moment of life and death, we should go to the War of Resistance! You should go fight with the enemy.
The front line of the Battle of Xinkou
At that time, this request was not approved until the war in North China was tight, and Hao Mengling was allowed to lead his troops north to resist the war.
It was on the way north to pass through Wuhan that he stopped at home and wrote down the will left for the children. Early the next morning, Hao Mengling bid farewell to his family and led his troops on a northbound train. His wife and children did not expect that this parting would become a farewell.
Hao Mengling's first stop in the War of Resistance was Shijiazhuang, when Yanmen Pass in Shanxi had been lost, and the focus of the entire North China Front was mainly in the Xinkou area. Hao Mengling's Ninth Army also shouldered the task of deploying defenses here, and also served as the commander-in-chief of the Xinkou line.
On October 10, 1937, the day before the Battle of Xinkou, Hao Mengling wrote a will again in a letter to his wife;
When Yu set out from Wuhan, he left a will and children. This war of resistance was the last moment in the survival of the nation-state. In order to win the final victory and make the Chinese nation exist forever in the world, success does not have to be in me, I will sacrifice first. After my sacrifice, as long as the state exists, the education of the children will certainly not be a problem. Don't think of anything else. If I sacrifice myself, I hope that Ru will be filial to my old mother and educate my children, and I will also take care of my brothers and sisters. Therefore, there is also honor in the sacrifice of the rest, and those who are soldiers die for the country, and death can be described as deserved! Book and Sewing QiuXian Inner Help, Humble Fu LingZi. Double Ten Festivals in Xinkou.
Site of the Battle of Xinkou hao Mengling command post
It is also on this day that there is such an exclamation in Hao Mengling's diary, today is the anniversary of the 'National Day', recalling the difficulties of the martyrs in creating the country, and now North China will fall into the hands of the sunset people.
When war broke out the next day, Hao Mengling suffered heavy casualties, a regiment of several thousand men, and more than a hundred people were left, even if the situation was better, at best, there was only one battalion of men and horses left.
Hao Mengling told all the officers and men on the position that there was only one person left, and we must also defend this position. As long as we do not die one day, the responsibility of resisting Japan will not be completed in one day. Before I set out, I had already written a will at home that I would never survive the defeat of the Japanese army. Now I stand with you in this position and will never retreat first. If I retreat first, you can shoot me no matter who you are!" Whoever you are, just take a step back and I'll shoot him immediately.
On October 11 and 12, the Japanese gathered heavy troops, used tanks and aircraft as cover, bombarded the positions of Xinkou, and launched several onslaughts, and the casualties of the Ninth Army reached thousands of people every day.
Hao Mengling looked in his eyes, the pain in his heart, and expressed his feelings in the diary of the day, seeing the wounded soldiers in the past and cherishing them, this time sacrificing for the country was the right thing. This war is a war of national survival, and there are only sacrifices. If we retreat again and go to the Yellow River, there will be no soldiers, and where will there be a commander? This means that I live and die. ”
The Curtain of Hao Mengling
This battle was a typical example of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists, and although it ended in defeat, it dealt a heavy blow to Japan's arrogance. The Battle of Xinkou lasted 23 days, and during the entire campaign, the Japanese could not change their commanders three times for a long time, investing more than 50,000 troops and more than 20,000 casualties. In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, this was the fiercest battle in North China.
Hao Mengling, the commander of the army, was killed in this battle, and on October 16, the general in the area was fierce and shot ten times.
Just before being shot, he also told his officers and soldiers that the crock pot would not leave the wellhead to break, the general would inevitably die before the battle, the Han general Ma Yuanma Ge would wrap the body and return, and the Wei general Pound would carry the coffin and fight. That year, Hao Mengling was 39 years old, the first fallen military commander in the history of the War of Resistance.
On October 24, Hao Mengling's coffin arrived in Wuhan, and more than 4,000 people waited at the railway station to greet the spirit and bury it with a national funeral ceremony, and the whole country mourned, and the flag of Wuhan was lowered at half-mast to mourn.
On December 6, the Kuomintang posthumously awarded Hao Mengling the title of general.
The people of Wuhan greeted the spirit
In 1938, Mao Zedong gave Hao Mengling and other soldiers a lofty appraisal at the memorial meeting for the fallen soldiers of the Anti-Enemy Resistance, saying that they were models of loftiness and greatness" and that they proved with their own sacrifices that "the Chinese nation is by no means a flock of sheep, but a great nation rich in national self-esteem and human justice."
However, his wife and girls were scattered on the streets of Chongqing because of the soldiers and horses, and the family was surrounded by disciples and had nothing, and his two sons had to sell tea eggs on the street to subsidize the family.
Until one day, Feng Yuxiang, then vice chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government, was walking and was attracted by the sound of tea eggs being sold. After inquiring clearly, I found that this was actually the children of the national heroes, and seeing their poor and destitute appearance, Feng Yuxiang asked the secretary to write a report. Later, Chiang Kai-shek gave him twenty thousand yuan. After that, they were able to reimburse the tuition fees.