China's modern history is very humiliating, from 1840 to 1945, because it was more than a hundred years behind the times, the Opium War, the Eight-Power Alliance, the Japanese invasion of China and so on.
Among them, the most tragic is Japan's invasion of China, and most of the others just want to grab a hand, but Japan wants us to destroy the country. So countless Huaxia Erlang stood up and resisted, even if it was not as good as in many places, they dared to use their flesh and blood to go up!
The highest-ranking general killed was Zhang Zizhong, who was then the commander-in-chief of the Thirty-third Army in the Fifth Theater of Operations with the rank of Lieutenant General. Zhang Zizhong's death was very heroic, but his wife's temperament was not inferior to her husband's, and after learning the news of her husband's martyrdom, she went on a hunger strike for seven days and died!
Zhang Zizhong was not born into a family of generals, but his father was a civil official in the late Qing Dynasty, who served as an inspector and a county official.
Growing up in this kind of family, Zhang Zizhong learned the way of Confucius and Mencius since childhood, loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness. However, when he grew up a little, he was more interested in novels, and he liked the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Speaking of Tang and Saying Yue Jingzhong, and the great righteousness of Yue Fei, Guan Yu, and Qin Qiong had a deep influence on him.
When he was 14 years old, his father died, and the family was run by his mother, and when he was 16 years old, his mother took the initiative to marry his one-year-old wife, Li Minhui, although he had not read, but it matched the name - astute and intelligent, and the family was well-run.
If it is an ordinary person, then such a life is also quite stable, but Zhang Zizhong is not a person who is willing to be mediocre.
When the Xinhai Revolution broke out in 1911, Zhang Zizhong was admitted to the Tianjin Beiyang Law and Politics School, where he was exposed to many new ideas, which also made him decide to devote himself to the pen.
Many people think that Zhang Zizhong was under Feng Yuxiang's command at the beginning, in fact, he had been a soldier for several years before this, and in 1914 Zhang Zizhong took five classmates to join the army in the 87th biao (regiment) of the 39th regiment (brigade) of the 20th town (division) of the army, because the 87th biao (regimental commander) Che Zhen (he was called this name) was a good friend of Zhang Zizhong's third brother.
Under Che Zhen, Zhang Zizhong served as a soldier for nearly two years, and then lost the battle and scattered his own forces.
However, Zhang Zizhong still wanted to join the army, so in September 1916, Che Zhen introduced Zhang Zizhong to Feng Yuxiang, thus starting the career of the Northwest Army, and was promoted step by step because of his outstanding performance.
Although Zhang Zizhong is dedicated to patriotism, he has also suffered injustice.
In 1933, Zhang Zizhong led his troops to engage the Japanese Kou for the first time, although the numbers and weapons were backward, but still achieved impressive results, in the Great Wall line to repel the Japanese dozens of attacks, causing nearly 6,000 casualties to the Japanese army, making the Japanese government and opposition shocked.
Japan's Asahi Shimbun commented: "Since Emperor Meiji created the army, the imperial army's reputation has been lost outside the Mouth of The Peak, and it has suffered an insult that has not been seen in sixty years. This battle made the Japanese deeply jealous of Zhang Zizhong.
In 1937, after Japan occupied the three eastern provinces, it launched the Pingjin doctrine and invited Song Zheyuan, who was stationed in Beiping, to investigate, first, hoping that Song would surrender, and second, if Song was unwilling, then it could use public opinion to shape Song's pro-Japanese image and disintegrate the resistance forces in Pingjin.
Song Zheyuan of course understood the intentions of the Japanese, so he did not go, and let Zhang Zizhong go. Zhang Zizhong did not do anything when he went to Japan, that is, he visited the school and the military factory, and paid no attention to the intentions of the Japanese.
However, the Japanese side made a big fuss about it, and the pot that originally belonged to Song Zheyuan was attached to Zhang Zizhong's body, which made the Chinese people misunderstand for a while.
If it was only like this, it would not have provoked the scorn of the people, but later the opening of the city gate in Peiping was also ordered by Zhang Zizhong.
After the Lugou Bridge Incident, Song Zheyuan's 29th Army could not resist the Japanese, so it had to order a retreat to the south, but the remaining things in Beiping still needed to be done, and this person unfortunately was Zhang Zizhong again.
There is also an episode in which the Japanese played the slogan of "only fighting Feng Zhi'an, not Zhang Zizhong" when attacking, which caused a lot of misunderstanding among the masses.
Zhang Zizhong cried bitterly when he separated from Qin Dechun, deputy commander of the 29th Army: "You and Mr. Song have become national heroes, and I am afraid that I am going to become traitors." ”
Because he had no qualifications to negotiate, Zhang Zizhong, after consulting with the Japanese, in order not to cause unnecessary casualties, had no choice but to order the city gate to open the city gate to let the Japanese troops in, and repeatedly told the people not to go out at home.
Many things, everyone sees only the results, will not understand the inside story, so Zhang Zizhong's reputation as a traitor spread, and many newspapers sharply reported: "Zhang is loyal to himself against himself, and thinks he is loyal."
These grievances, Zhang Zizhong did not defend, he chose to use actions to prove.
After Zhang Zizhong returned to Nanjing, he has been actively resisting Japan, abandoning old grievances and cooperating with friendly forces during the Battle of Linyi, the Battle of Xuzhou, and the Battle of Wuhan, causing great trouble to the Japanese.
In particular, during the Battle of Wuhan, huangchuan was stubbornly defended, and finally killed and wounded more than 3,000 Japanese at the cost of sacrificing 4,000 people, so that the Japanese admitted that "the imperial army had encountered extremely strong resistance from the Chinese army on the Huangchuan side, resulting in huge losses." ”
These actions also washed away his pro-Japanese bluffs, and in October 1938 Zhang Zizhong was promoted to commander-in-chief of the 33rd Group Army, and until the time of his death, the 33rd Group Army inflicted more than 10,000 casualties on the Japanese.
In fact, his death was completely avoidable, and it can also be said that General Zhang Zizhong died completely generously.
In May 1940, the Battle of Zaoyi began, and Zhang Zizhong's friendly forces around him at that time were in a bad situation: Tang Enbo slipped away before he met the enemy, Huang Weigang, commander of the 38th Division, was also bitten by the Japanese, and Huang Qixiang, commander of the 11th Army, was also beaten and retreated.
Under such circumstances, Zhang Zizhong still led two regiments or so of troops to cross the river to meet the enemy, he could completely run, and his subordinates also advised him in this way, and his answer was loud and clear:
I was ordered to intercept the enemy, how could I retreat on my own!" Is it reasonable for the soldiers to retreat and kill their heads, and the commander-in-chief can escape when he encounters danger? Is our life our destiny, and the warriors ahead are all dirt and dust? The bad thing about our Chinese army is that the officials are too afraid to die! What is encircled is not encircled, it is necessary or unnecessary, today there is no invincible, there is no enemy without me, we must fight to the end!
Under the absolute superiority of manpower, the Japanese army tore open the defensive line arranged by Zhang Zizhong, and Zhang Zizhong's men were killed and wounded, and they were also shot in the head in the chaos, and later in the white-knife battle, they were stabbed by the Japanese and unfortunately died.
General Zhang's personality won the admiration of both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and the old Chiang Kai-shek wrote an inscription for him "Xun Lie Chang Zhao", and Chairman Mao also wrote an elegy "Serve the country with all loyalty.".
What is even more heart-wrenching is his widow Li Minhui, who was two months after learning of Zhang Zizhong's death, and she did not show any sadness at that time, but said: "Zhang Zizhong died for the country, I am not sad, although I am a woman, I should also have a share." ”
Then after handling the affairs in the family, everything that could be confessed was given to Zhang Zizhong's brother Zhang Ziming, and then he was locked in his home and died after seven days of hunger strike!
Such a loyal house is truly admirable.