After experiencing the sacrifices and efforts of countless people, China overthrew the rule of the feudal dynasty and ushered in the period of a free and democratic Republic of China, however, just when the Chinese people were immersed in the beauty of the new era,
A new nightmare is creeping in, pulling the Chinese who have just greeted the dawn back into the abyss of darkness.
In 1931, without any reason, Japan invaded China with troops and occupied a large amount of land, beginning a colonial rule that lasted for more than a decade.
In the face of the Japanese invasion, the top leadership of the Kuomintang at that time adopted a policy of appeasement without resistance, which led to the occupation of China's great rivers and mountains by the Japanese, and the people were also miserable.
But Chinese is bloody, and when faced with foreign invasion, the Chinese nation has never retreated, nor has there ever been a reason to surrender without a fight.
The Chinese people spontaneously organized many anti-Japanese armed forces to save the country, and the Kuomintang also counterattacked under the leadership of the people of the whole country.
Although the Kuomintang army fought bravely against the Japanese army in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there was a big gap in both weapons and equipment and the combat ability of soldiers, and the Japanese army drove straight in, and even the capital Nanjing was not spared.
Some details about the defense of Nanjing are difficult for us to verify, but through the mouth of a surviving veteran who participated in the defense of Nanjing, we also learned about some of the tragic battles of that year.
The military and the people worked together to resist the Japanese invasion
After the Battle of Songhu between the Kuomintang army and the Japanese army, the Kuomintang army was defeated, and the Japanese army also divided into several roads and slowly approached Nanjing, which was in danger at this time
。
At this time, both the defenders of Nanjing City and the ordinary people showed a spirit of seeing death as a homecoming, vowing to coexist and die with Nanjing. Under the influence of this sentiment, the morale of the garrison troops was high and they waited in a strict position, and the people of Nanjing City also spontaneously organized logistics teams to help the garrison troops solve their worries.
The main garrison of Nanjing City is the 83rd Army of the Kuomintang Cantonese Army, which has strong combat effectiveness and is good at fighting hard battles, and the veteran Li Yisan is a soldier of the 83rd Army at this time.
The 83rd Army did not live up to the expectations of the people, and easily eliminated the vanguard of the Japanese army, and the first battle was successful, and the whole army was full of joy.
However, at this time, the situation in Nanjing is far from a small victory can be reversed, the Japanese army divided into five roads, successively arrived near Nanjing, the city of Nanjing was surrounded by a flood, although the city of Nanjing is very strong, but the materials in the city are limited, so the siege of the city, the destruction of the city is only a matter of time.
On December 8, 1937, the Japanese army and the Nationalist army defending the city launched a fierce exchange of fire, both sides had a lot of casualties, the battle was fierce for 2 days, the Japanese army was still unable to advance inches, helplessly, the Japanese army changed its strategy, dispersed the troops, and attacked in separate ways
This made the Kuomintang troops defending the city tired of coping, and the situation was not optimistic.
On December 8, the supreme commander of the Kuomintang garrison ordered the troops to purchase civilian clothes, the city of Nanjing was already in danger, it could be destroyed at any time, And Li Yisan also received an order that if necessary, he could mix in refugees and escape from the city.
This made Li Yisan deeply aware of the current dangerous situation in Nanjing, but he was still guarding the city gate at this time, and suddenly received an order from the division commander to reach the Taiping Gate to assemble.
Because there was no contact with the troops, Li Yisan could only follow the crowd to the Taiping Gate, which gathered most of the defending troops at this time, and the structure was relatively complete, and Li Yisan suddenly understood at this time that this was to prepare for retreat.
Tough breakout battles
On December 13, Li Yisan followed the troops to break through, but after the Japanese occupied the area around Nanjing, they conducted a very detailed survey of the terrain, and placed a large number of ambushes on the main retreat routes everywhere, and even heavy fire positions
The Kuomintang troops who broke through the siege regarded death as if they were homecoming, and even broke through many blockades of the Japanese army in succession and successfully broke out, but before the Kuomintang troops could breathe a moment, the Japanese bombers launched a frenzied bombardment of them
With the cooperation of the aircraft, the Japanese army counterattacked again, causing very heavy casualties to the Kuomintang troops.
Li Yisan, who followed the troops to break through, was scattered from the large troops under the bombardment of the Japanese army, and he advanced cautiously all the way, witnessing the death of several senior officers.
Along the way, Li Yisan found other comrades-in-arms and knew that the large troops had withdrawn.
Commander Ye Zhao, who was gathering scattered troops, decided to continue the breakthrough at night, so,
Li Yisan and his comrades-in-arms had no choice but to go to the meeting point.
At this time
Ye Zhao had already gathered more than 1,300 fighters, but with limited weapons and an extreme shortage of ammunition, Ye Zhao could only lead his troops to hide and wait for the opportunity to break through
On December 30, Ye Zhao led the troops to set off, and after more than ten days of long-distance travel, Li Yisan successfully followed the troops to successfully break through and arrived in Anhui
After the safety of the troops, they were contacted by the superior troops, and the superiors gave them a high evaluation.
According to Li Yisan's recollection, among the troops that broke through, only the Cantonese army maintained a complete structure, and he believed that this was directly related to the strong combat effectiveness of the Cantonese army, but now it seems that
This was because the commander of the Guangdong Army issued the order in time and was able to calmly command the troops to stubbornly resist the enemy in times of danger, and only then did he have the results of the breakthrough.
Don't forget the national shame and forge ahead
After the breakthrough was successful, Li Yisan said that only a small number of troops in Nanjing at that time had successfully broken through, and a large number of defenders in the city were mixed with refugees to avoid pursuit. However, what Li Yisan did not know was that
Because the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties in the attack on Nanjing, and after the city was destroyed, it could not find the defending troops, so it vented the anger of the unarmed people with their hands, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent people
After surviving the Battle of Nanjing, Li Yisan continued to follow the troops in the War of Resistance Against Japan and witnessed the surrender of the Japanese army, which was also dictated by this veteran of the Cantonese Army.
Recalling the difficulties of the defense of Nanjing, after the surrender of the Japanese army, Li Yisan returned to Nanjing to pay respects to the soldiers who had sacrificed themselves in the defensive city, and told them the news of Japan's surrender that their sacrifice was worth it, and they were heroes of the country and the nation.
now
In the face of the ironclad facts of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Japan still refuses to admit the crimes they have committed, and even tries to beautify their acts of aggression; in the face of Japan's shameless behavior, in addition to upholding the truth, we must also strengthen patriotic education at home, and we must strive to make the country stronger, and only when the country is strong can we not let history repeat itself.
Today's peace is not easy to come by, it was bought with the blood of our ancestors, and we must remember these heroes at any time.