"Brigadier Jiang, how many people are in our unit?" "5,000 people."
"How many people are in the Japanese Itagaki Company?" "70,000 people."
"What are the operational orders issued by Commander Yan?" "Hold the original flat for at least seven days!"
"Brigadier Jiang, do you know what this means?" "You know, death can't make the Japanese pass the plains!"
Defense of Yuanping
This was a dialogue between Jiang Yuzhen, who was stationed in Yuanping, and the soldiers of the army before the yuanping blockade war officially began in September 1937.
After the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, the ambitious Japanese army launched an all-out war of aggression against China, relying on advanced weapons and equipment and a modern army that had undergone professional military training, and was bound to conquer many important towns and important places on the mainland. The flames of war burned from the three eastern provinces, Beiping, and Tianjin all the way to Shanxi, which is located in the Central Plains. Once Shanxi is lost, the entire north China region will completely fall into the hands of the enemy, so defending Shanxi has become the most urgent combat task of the Chinese army at present.
In order to prevent the Japanese from taking the last barrier Xinkou in Taiyuan, Shanxi,
5,000 Chinese soldiers blocked 70,000 invading Japanese invaders in Yuanping, fighting a bloody battle for ten days and nights, and finally the whole army had less than 500 people left
Brigadier Jiang, as the supreme commander, was even beheaded by the frenzied Japanese army and martyred! But surprisingly, after the battle, the Japanese army, as the invaders, actually erected a monument called "China's Unknown Soldier Consolation Pagoda" in The town of Yuanping. During the period when the two armies were at war, would the Japanese army really be so kind enough to erect a monument to the Chinese soldiers who sacrificed their own hands? How did this arduous, tragic and tragic battle of Yuanping come about?
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The original ping bloody battle for ten days and nights, 5,000 Jin Sui army bloody battle 70,000 Japanese troops, tragic and tragic shocked the world!
Campaign background
Friends who have learned about the history of modern warfare know that in the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Chinese army was defeated and retreated by the Japanese army in the frontal battlefield because of various factors such as backward weapons and equipment and the low military quality of the soldiers of the troops. In the Battle of Songhu, which broke out in August 1937, the Kuomintang leaders sent a total of 800,000 joint troops, including the Central Army with a full set of Ashkenazi equipment, but finally failed to win the battle, not only shanghai fell, but also suffered heavy losses. After July 7, 1937, because the Kuomintang leadership issued a strategic order of "no resistance", the Kuomintang troops stationed in the northeast withdrew to Guannei, and the Japanese invaders completely occupied the northeast region of the mainland, established a large number of occupied areas, and wantonly bullied and plundered the local people. Not satisfied with the immediate gains, the Japanese leaders quickly formulated a new round of battle plans.
The arrogant speech could occupy China within three months and begin to advance deep into China's hinterland along the railway lines in the northeast.
After successive occupations of Beiping and Tianjin, the appetite of the Japanese army gradually grew, and the soldiers continued to fight in three ways, trying to turn the entire north China region into their own occupation zone. After resting, the Japanese troops occupying Tianjin began to move in the direction of Baoding, Hebei, while another Japanese army attacked Shanxi along the Tongpu Railway.
In September 1937, the Japanese army officially set foot on the territory of the Three Jins, and in a very short period of time, it took Datong, Wei County and Guangling in Shanxi.
The Eighth Route Army, which had just left the division, also joined the battle, launching a surprise attack on the Japanese army in the area of Pingxingguan, although it successfully attacked the heavy troops of the Japanese army and broke the myth that the Japanese army was invincible, but it still failed to stop the Japanese army from continuing to advance. After the fall of Datong, the Eighth Route Army, which deeply felt that the enemy was outnumbered and the situation was unfavorable, was forced to withdraw, and the Japanese army also made a comeback, breaking through the Great Wall defense line deployed by Yan Xishan, the "king of Shanxi", successively conquering Ningwu Pass and Yanmen Pass, and gradually approaching Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi.
Flat type Guan Dajie
The leaders of the Chinese army knew that once Shanxi fell, this northern part of China would be in danger, so they hurriedly issued orders to the Yan Xishan troops stationed in Shanxi to prepare for battle as quickly as possible and to do their best to defend Shanxi. The most important thing in defending Shanxi is to hold Taiyuan, and if you want to defend Taiyuan, you must firmly grasp the Xinkou area located in the north of Taiyuan. Xinkou is the last line of defense to guard Taiyuan, and it is also a necessary place to enter and exit Shanxi, and the strategic location is very important. It is no exaggeration to say that the safety of Xinkou is related to the trend of the entire Shanxi war situation. In order to give the Chinese army more time to make strategic preparations at Xinkou and Taiyuan and win more precious time for subsequent battles, Yan Xishan, who was stationed in Shanxi, ordered Wang Jingguo, commander of the 19th Army of the Jin Sui Army, to formulate relevant battle plans and dispatch troops to block the Japanese army at Yuanping.
Yuanping is located in the north and central part of Shanxi Province, east of Taihang, west of Lüliang, south of Xinkou, north of Yanmen, since ancient times has been a place of contention between soldiers and families, but also the gateway to guard the Xinkou area.
Both China and Japan know very well that whoever holds Yuan Ping will be able to grasp the initiative in the follow-up campaign.
Wang Jingguo, commander of the 19th Army, entrusted the arduous task of holding out yuanping and blocking the Japanese invaders
The 196th Brigade, that is, the unit under the command of Jiang Yuzhen
Explain to them that even if there is only one soldier left in the army, they must be
Hold the original flat position for seven days
After seven days, other receiving troops will be sent to provide support. However, Jiang Yuzhen only had a mere 5,000 men under his command, and there were at least tens of thousands of Japanese troops on the opposite side, and the gap between the strength of the enemy and us was so huge that Jiang Yuzhen, who had been in the battlefield for a long time, naturally knew that this was destined to be a very difficult battle to win, and the officers and men of the troops were afraid that they would have to pay for blood and lives before it was possible to complete the operational instructions issued by the leaders of their superiors and win a glimmer of vitality for the country and the nation.
Soldiers of the National Army preparing for battle
One husband and one wife are inseparable
September 30, 1937
In the late autumn of Yuanping, the fields around the county seat were full of golden and heavy corn, but the faces of the people in the city could not see a little joy that rose because the grain was ripe, and everyone was immersed in the grief and fear of the coming war. It was on this day that
Jiang Yuzhen, who had been marching for several days, officially led his troops into Yuanping and built the fortifications as quickly as possible
。 With the arrival of the army, the atmosphere in Yuanping City became more and more tense, and the faces of Jiang Yuzhen and others were also solemn. The soldiers of the 196th Brigade and Regiment all understood that this task was very arduous, but since they chose to join the army and defend their families and defend the country, they had long been prepared to throw their heads and spill their blood on the battlefield, and they only hoped to use their tenacious perseverance to win more combat time for the troops.
In order to block the Japanese army to the greatest extent, Jiang Yuzhen
Carefully study the terrain of the original flat and make a series of strategic deployments.
He asked the soldiers of the 391st Regiment to stick to the Yuanping Railway Station, let the 392nd Regiment lurk on both sides of the road to monitor the japanese movements, let the 413th Regiment serve as the reserve force of the second echelon to cooperate with other units, and finally let the most powerful artillery regiment in the team hold the position inside the county town. In addition to these, the officers and men of the army have also been digging trenches outside the city and building bunkers, trying to create a tight defensive front before the Japanese army presses the border.
Soldiers prepare for battle
On October 1, the Japanese leadership officially issued an operational order to attack Yuanping.
A large number of men and horses were dispatched to the positions where the Chinese army was stationed, and the total strength of the assembled troops was as high as 70,000, and they were also equipped with weapons of mass destruction such as aircraft and artillery. This batch
The japanese front-line commander was named Itagaki Seishiro
This person graduated from the Japanese Army School and secretly lurked in the mainland to carry out espionage work before the official outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and probed the preparation of the Chinese army for the Japanese military. In 1931, the Japanese army launched the 918 Incident in the northeast, and Itagaki Seishiro was also involved in it, engaged in intelligence work, and contributed to the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Because Itagaki Seishiro had been in China for a long time, he was familiar with the military culture of the mainland, and he also had a certain understanding of the geography of the provinces, and was praised by other Japanese officers and soldiers as "China Tong" and was often entrusted with heavy responsibilities by superior leaders, such as letting him direct this military operation to conquer Yuanping.
Itagaki Seishiro had been active in the tohoku region before, because the Nationalist troops in the three eastern provinces did not resist the aggressive behavior of the Japanese army, and also let it
Itagaki Seishiro firmly believed that the soldiers of the Chinese army were greedy, fearful of death, weak and incompetent, so he did not pay attention to the 196 brigade stationed in Yuanping before the official opening of the Yuanping Blockade Station
On the contrary, he believes that his own troops are strong and strong, and they will certainly be able to win this battle effortlessly. But what Itagaki Seishiro did not expect was that the Chinese soldiers he had to face this time were completely different from his impressions, and although the weapons and equipment of the 196 Brigade led by Jiang Yuzhen were backward, the soldiers' combat ability was not bad, and they were very brave in fighting, which made him fiercely plant a big heel.
Seishiro Itagaki
Seeing that the Japanese army was gradually approaching, Jiang Yuzhen called a meeting of the officers and men of the unit, and after explaining all the operational arrangements, Jiang Yuzhen said to all the soldiers in a serious tone: "I know that this battle is not easy to fight, but the situation in Shanxi is critical, and the military orders of the superiors are like mountains.
We must hold out the original peace for seven days, block the Japanese outside the city, and if anyone dares to be a deserter, all will be dealt with by military law!
”
By this time, Itagaki Seishiro's 70,000 Japanese troops had arrived at the designated combat site, but instead of immediately attacking, they sent several aircraft to circle over Harahei Castle, whose task was not to drop bombs for bombing, but to reconnoiter the topography and number of troops in Harahei Castle. Although this move of the Japanese army can also be called a certain military quality, after all, knowing oneself and knowing the other can win a hundred battles, it is a pity that Jiang Yuzhen has long anticipated their combat strategy, and has long let the soldiers of the troops hide in the built fortifications or abandoned homestays, so
The Japanese reconnaissance planes hovered in the sky for a long time, and they did not know the exact number of the original defenders
。 However, Itagaki Seishiro felt that this situation was very normal, believing that the Chinese army here was the same as the one he had encountered in the northeast and Nanjing, and was scared away when he heard the news that their soldiers were approaching the city.
Chinese soldiers fighting in film and television dramas
With this in mind, Itagaki Seishiro, who was careless with the enemy, directly sent a squadron of troops to the city. The Japanese army went deep alone, and the original defenders stationed on the position were overjoyed, and as soon as the enemy entered the city, they quickly launched a surprise attack. The Japanese army was caught off guard, and dozens of casualties were killed in an instant, and they immediately turned around and fled in a hurry. Jiang Yuzhen knew that these fleeing Japanese soldiers would definitely go back to ventilate the news, and would also bring a large number of rescue troops, so he immediately passed on the news to the soldiers under his command, so that they could raise their spirits and prepare for battle, and the Japanese army would immediately launch a formal charge. The development of the war did not go as Jiang Yuzhen expected, and soon a large number of Japanese soldiers rushed to the county seat of Yuanping County, and the enemy's planes also rushed in and dropped countless bombs on our army's positions.
The soldiers of the 196th Brigade resisted, but suffered heavy losses due to the enemy's onslaught.
During the fierce battle, many soldiers of the 193rd Brigade were injured or even killed by Japanese bombers, and most of the fortifications such as bunkers and trenches on the position were also damaged. Before some of the fighters could run into the bunkers, they were wounded by scattered shrapnel, bleeding profusely. The Japanese outside the city saw that the fire was quite effective, and also took the opportunity to climb the city wall, set up machine guns and shoot wildly at the defenders inside the city, while throwing in a large number of grenades and explosive packages. All kinds of bombs fell like dense raindrops in the county seat of Yuanping County, and the deafening sound of artillery shelling lasted for a long time.
The periphery of the original flat position
Jiang Yuzhen saw that the Japanese army had intensified its attack, and immediately led the soldiers of the troops to hide in the trench passage dug in advance, avoiding the fierce artillery bombardment of the enemy.
The sound of gunfire finally subsided, and Jiang Yuzhen and the soldiers of the troops just breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the Japanese army break through the city gate and charge towards the inner city with their teeth and claws. The soldiers rushed out of the trenches to block the attack, and Jiang Yuzhen also shouted loudly, so that all the soldiers would gather and completely eliminate the Japanese troops who rushed into the city in this squad, so that the Japanese army would be honest because of fear.
In order to boost the morale of the soldiers in the army, Jiang Yuzhen also assured the soldiers that all those who killed Japanese officers would be rewarded, and that the day would be the same as the promotion and election. When the soldiers heard the superior leaders say this, they were immediately invigorated and expressed their desire to fight with the Japanese invaders to the death.
Seeing that the vanguard commandos sent by Itagaki Seishiro had no return, he directly dispatched armored convoys to support and let the tanks crush the Chinese defenders on our positions. Jiang Yuzhen saw that the enemy tanks were coming, and immediately selected several responsive soldiers from the troops and let them run to the side of the tanks as fast as possible.
Tie explosive packs and grenades to tank tracks
, then quickly leave. Armored vehicles are heavy weapons, fierce but slow to move, and once the tracks are blown up, they will completely lose the ability to fight. The battle lasted for a day and a night, and the Japanese army saw that the troops not only did not achieve any substantial results, but also lost a large number of personnel and vehicles, and could only temporarily announce the cessation of the attack and retreat back to the camp outside the city.
Chinese soldiers who blow up tanks
But
This exchange of fire not only caused heavy losses to the Japanese army, but also caused the 196th Brigade to lose a lot of living forces to the position
。 After counting the casualties of the troops, Jiang Yuzhen, who had a heavy heart, buried the fallen comrades with the soldiers of the troops. Jiang Yuzhen deeply understood that this hard battle had just begun, and that this situation would continue for many days, and that the Japanese army would send more infantry and fighters tomorrow to launch a new round of attack on Yuanping, and no matter how many casualties the troops suffered, they would have to survive for seven days.
The next day, just after dawn, a group of Japanese troops gathered outside the gate of Yuanping County, hunched over, and cautiously approached the Position of the Chinese Army. The scouts of the 196th Brigade and Regiment on the position had just changed their defenses, and found that the Japanese army was about to march in front of them, and hurriedly warned the rest of the troops, and the two sides once again began a fierce battle. The Japanese army knew that the original defenders were short of weapons and ammunition, so they always adopted the method of artillery suppression, first hitting the front with heavy artillery, and then deploying air force units to cooperate in combat, and launching fierce artillery bombardment against the former defenders who only had rifles and grenades. The number of soldiers sent by the Japanese army is increasing, and the firepower is getting stronger and fiercer day by day, and the corpses on our position are all over the field, and many living soldiers can only hide behind the corpses of their sacrificed comrades to continue fighting. More and more wounded in the troops,
Jiang Yuzhen sent a small team to escort the wounded soldiers and logistics medical personnel to evacuate first, but they did not expect that these wounded troops were surrounded and intercepted by the Japanese army on the way, and all of them were killed
。 Jiang Yuzhen, who heard the news, understood that the outside of the city had been completely controlled by the Japanese invaders, and decided not to consider the idea of letting the wounded and logistics troops retreat, so that everyone could gather together and live and die together.
The Japanese invasion of China
On the fifth day, the Japanese broke through the defensive line set up by the 196th Brigade on the outskirts of the Yuanping City Wall, and prepared to attack the city with tanks. At the moment of the first attack, the battalion commander of the brigade quickly led the inner city soldiers to support, attracted the enemy's fire focus, and sent personnel to find an opportunity to blow up the enemy tanks, and finally successfully repelled this group of Japanese troops.
Under the bloody struggle of the soldiers of the 196th Brigade,
The Japanese invaders, who had spoken wildly, fought for six full days and did not take Hara Ping, and the troops suffered heavy losses.
The angry And demoralized Japanese army adjusted its operational policy, first attacking the positions of the Chinese army with artillery, and then forming a death squad, sneaking into the city while the attention of the defenders of the city wall was attracted to the frontal battlefield. However, it just so happened that Jiang Yuzhen also formed a death squad of more than eighty people on the same day, preparing to secretly go out of the city to find reinforcements, and the two sides collided with each other, and immediately began to exchange fire. The soldiers of our death squad thought of the various crimes committed by the invaders on the land of China, and thought of the comrades who died and the medical personnel who were tragically killed. The Japanese army did not want to show weakness to counterattack, the two sides fought for a long time, and finally the Japanese army was inferior to the rear and retreated, but the death squad of our army also sacrificed nearly half of the soldiers.
The warriors' resolute eyes
Say seven days and three days
In fact, this life-and-death contest that took place between the Chinese and Japanese death squads ended.
The 196th Brigade's seven-day combat mission to hold out Yuanping has been completed.
The generals withdrew to the camp and waited for the order to retreat from their superiors. But what the whole army did not expect was that the telegram sent by the superiors this time only conveyed one meaning, that is, to let them
Stick to the original flat for another three days.
For the 196th Brigade, which had already suffered more than half of the casualties at that time, it was as difficult as ascending to the sky to complete such a combat mission. However, the soldiers took obedience to orders as their duty, and the soldiers also knew that whether they could hold Yuanping was a crucial part of the entire shanxi war situation, so after a long silence, Jiang Yuzhen replied to the superior leader with such a telegram: "
It has been known that if the resistance is not effective, it is willing to coexist and die with the original peace.
A new round of fighting soon began, and the Japanese invaders, who had completely lost patience, directly sent dozens of bombers to bomb the county seat of Yuanping County indiscriminately, and the county town instantly turned into a sea of fire. At this time, only 2,000 soldiers of the 196th Brigade and Regiment were left, and they all climbed the city tower under the command of Jiang Yuzhen to strafe the charging Japanese troops. However, the Japanese army was too many troops, and the next batch would soon be replenished by a new batch, and the weapons and ammunition of the original Ping defenders were already exhausted. Soon, the remaining soldiers of the 196th Brigade were forced to retreat to the East City Gate by the Japanese army, and Jiang Yuzhen at this time had also been commanding at the front line, leading the soldiers to persist in the battle. Seeing that the Japanese army could not be attacked for a long time, they frantically threw poison gas bombs into the battlefield. The officers and men of our army were powerless to fight back in the face of the poison gas bombs, and fell one after another on the positions.
The Japanese army invaded the county seat
By the tenth day of the bitter battle, the soldiers of the 196th Brigade were exhausted, and jiang Yuzhen only had the last 500 soldiers left.
The Japanese army learned that there were few remaining defenders of Yuanping, and carried out wheel warfare to deplete the combat effectiveness of our soldiers. Jiang Yuzhen and the others finally survived the tenth day, completed the combat instructions issued by the superior leaders, and prepared to evacuate Yuanping after digging the city wall, but unfortunately they were discovered by the Japanese army during the retreat process. Jiang Yuzhen and the soldiers struggled to break through, or were surrounded by Japanese regiments, and when they were alive and dead, Jiang Yuzhen and several other soldiers tied bombs on their bodies and rushed to the Japanese army, winning the hope of life for the remaining soldiers, and sacrificed themselves heroically. The Japanese army learned that Jiang Yuzhen was the commander of the troops, and also cut off his head and took him back to ask for merit and reward.
The bravery and tenacity of the 196th Brigade left a deep impression on the Japanese invaders, and two years later the Japanese army again passed through Harahei and built a monument to the unsung heroes for more than 4,300 Chinese soldiers who died here. Of course, the purpose of the invaders is not pure, and this monument is engraved on one side"
China's Unknown Soldier Consolation Pagoda
The 9 big characters express their deep admiration for these Chinese heroes, but on the other side, they write the "outstanding battle achievements" of the Japanese army, which is another manifestation of these careerists boasting about their own achievements.