When it comes to Guilin, people may have such an image in their minds: "The peaks reflect the mountains floating in the water, and the ten-mile gallery plays the mountains", after all, Guilin is known as "the world of mountains and rivers", and the beautiful scenery is known to everyone. But you know what? Such a well-known scenic city at home and abroad has also been ruthlessly trampled by the Japanese invaders. On October 28, 1944, 150,000 Japanese soldiers approached Guilin City, and only 20,000 Guangxi miscellaneous soldiers were abandoned by the main Kuomintang troops. 20,000 straw shoe soldiers against 150,000 elite Japanese troops, no matter how you look at it, this is a doomed battle. However, there is a saying in the Chinese army that "the monkeys in Guangxi are the Gui army, fierce as tigers and as vicious as wolves", in the face of the Japanese invaders who were 7 times as many as their own, the 20,000 Guangxi wolf army not only did not flinch in the slightest, but fought in blood for 14 days, and fought hard for 14 days, and in the end, the water of the Li River, which was five kilometers away from the position, was stained red by the blood of the soldiers, and the fierceness of the battle shocked the world! Why was this battle so fierce? How did the Chinese army hold the city for more than ten days under the condition of absolute inferiority? And what is the final result of this arduous urban counterattack?
Figure | Guangxi Wolf Soldiers, Guilin Defenders
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Guilin defense battle, 20,000 Guangxi wolf soldiers bloody battle 150,000 Japanese troops, tragic and tragic no one surrendered!
There is a very famous scenic spot in Guilin City, Guangxi Province, called Seven Star Rock
It is an underground cave with a history of 1 million years, and the cave contains a variety of natural landscapes such as stone stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars and stone mantles. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, Qixingyan was famous in the Central Plains under the name of the sightseeing holy land "Qixia Cave", attracting many literati and inkers to linger, leaving behind poems of praise. After entering the 21st century, which is more conveniently transported, Qixing rock, as one of the eight ancient scenic spots in Guilin, is more famous at home and abroad for its gorgeous and dreamy color feast.
However, today's tourists should rarely think of it when they enjoy the magnificent scenery of this place, combining movement and static.
In the 1940s, the underground channel of Qixingyan was also splashed with bright red blood, and 20,000 Guangxi wolf soldiers who swore to defend Guilin City fought to the death here against the Japanese invaders
With his tenacious and indomitable heroic integrity, he composed a magnificent poem in the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Picture | Guilin landscape
Campaign background
In 1944, due to the effective counterattack of the International Anti-Fascist Alliance, the battlefield situation of The Second World War was completely reversed, and the Japanese army was defeated by the US army in the Pacific theater, not only the combined fleet was completely destroyed, but also forced to accept the military control of the US army and cut off important sea transportation lines. In order to ensure the logistics and transportation of the army on the battlefield at home and abroad,
The Japanese military formulated the "No. 1 Battle Plan",
It is intended to open up China and Vietnam and establish a "greater East Asian land communication line" running through southeast Asia, so that the Japanese forces invading China and the Japanese troops in Southeast Asia can communicate with each other and continue to promote the pace of their outward expansion of aggression. After that, the Japanese army began to launch a fierce offensive against the Kuomintang troops stationed in southern China, successively occupying Changsha, Hengyang and other places, and then began to go south without stopping.
Launch of the "Battle of Guiliu"
。
In October 1944, the Japanese army, which had become the end of the crossbow, was ready to draw salaries from the bottom of the pot.
In Guangxi, 7 divisions and regiments were mobilized, with a total number of nearly 150,000 people, and these troops were equipped with more than 300 tanks and dozens of aircraft, preparing to take Guilin at the southern end of the Xianggui Corridor in one fell swoop
To further occupy the southwest region of China and open up the land transportation lines they have in mind.
Figure | Images of the Japanese invasion of China
Guilin is the transportation center of Guangxi,
Once lost here, the Japanese invaders could not only attack the Central Plains from the north, but also directly threaten Chongqing, the temporary capital of the Republic of China, and the southwest rear area. In order not to let the Japanese army's plan succeed, the Kuomintang army decided to stick to Guilin and carry out the defense of Guilin.
However, knowing that the Japanese aggressors were fully prepared this time, threatening to come, and afraid that their troops would suffer heavy losses, the Kuomintang army began to blame each other, and no one wanted to take on this "hard work." Originally, the closest to Guilin was the 94th and 95th Divisions of the main kuomintang forces stationed in Guizhou, but the Kuomintang leaders did not want to damage the elite troops they had built, and ordered them to stand by. Seeing the leader's move, other senior Kuomintang generals also transferred their ace troops out of the lineup of the Guilin defense battle in the name of preserving strength. That's it
By The time the Japanese army approached Guilin on October 28, the only defenders in Guilin were the 131st and 170th Divisions from Guangxi.
The 170th Division was not yet fully formed, and there was only one regiment at full strength. The two divisions combined were no more than 12,000 men. Knowing that the number of troops defending the city was insufficient,
Some local armed forces took the initiative to come to support, and the living forces guarding Guilin City were replenished to 20,000 people.
Figure | The city's garrison
In order to counter the upcoming 150,000 elite Japanese troops, the Chinese soldiers who insisted on Guilin began to build fortifications at the commanding heights of Chuanshan, Pingfeng Mountain, and Mao'er Mountain in the west of Guilin City, and at the same time began to evacuate the local people, convert all the houses in Guilin into pillboxes, and set up checkpoints and fire points at all entrance and exit points. Knowing that this time the fierceness is more auspicious,
After leaving some food and drinking water, the Guilin defenders dropped poison in all the wells and prepared to fight the Japanese to the death.
The battle passed
Logically, the Guilin defenders only had 20,000, the best weapons and equipment were 22 artillery, Japan not only had 150,000 troops, but also a large number of aircraft cannons, should occupy an absolute advantage, but what people did not expect was that the battle had just begun, and the arrogant Japanese invaders were confronted by 20,000 Gui soldiers.
Pictured| Japanese troops along the Li River
The Japanese army came from north to south, and if it wanted to reach guilin, it had to cross the Li River.
Worried about the surprise attack of the Guilin defenders, the Japanese army chose to sneak across the river on the night of a month of black wind, and they also maintained a high degree of vigilance throughout the process of crossing the river. However, the process of not crossing the river was very smooth, and the Japanese army soon reached the other side of the Li River. However, just as they were letting down their guard and preparing to find a place to camp and take a short rest, the Gui army, which had long been ambushed in the mountains and forests on the shore, suddenly appeared and began to block the Japanese invaders. The Japanese army that had just landed was caught off guard by the Gui army and retreated one after another, and could only temporarily abandon the original battle plan and leave hundreds of corpses to flee in a hurry.
Why are the 20,000 Guilin defenders fighting alone so powerful and able to fight? What the Japanese don't know is that
Guangxi Guijun has been known as the "wolf soldier" since ancient times.
There is a saying in China called "poor mountains and bad waters out of the people", Guangxi is surrounded by mountains and rivers, traffic is blocked, it is a place where many ethnic groups live in a mixed way, and there are often bandits and bandits. In order not to let their property be robbed by mountain bandits, the local people began to practice martial arts from an early age, and developed a simple, direct, fierce and strong personality, so the soldiers of the Gui Army who were born in Guangxi were also there
Brave and good at war, bold and fearless.
Figure | The people of Guilin built trenches to resist the Japanese invasion
The Japanese attack was unfavorable in the first place, and began to adjust their combat strategy, choosing to use the cover of aircraft artillery fire to forcibly cross the river during the day.
Because the gap in equipment strength was too large, the Guilin defenders failed to block the Japanese invaders this time, allowing them to attack all the way to the outer positions of Guilin City. On November 1, the Japanese army began to launch a fierce attack on the commanding heights and important strongholds of the Guilin defenders. Fearing that the Japanese would take all the outlying positions under the cover of artillery fire, the Guilin defenders resisted and pulled the only 22 artillery pieces of the troops outside the city, intending to consolidate the positions around the city wall through counter-charge. But unfortunately, the Japanese troops on the opposite side were numerous and had an absolute advantage in firepower equipment, not only breaking the counterattack of the Guilin defenders with aircraft and tanks, but also hitting all the way outside Guilin.
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The outer positions were lost, and the Guilin defenders and the local armed forces began to form death squads.
The soldiers all put their lives and deaths on the line, enthusiastically signed up, tied explosive packages to their bodies, secretly lurked in the Camp of the Japanese Army at night, and resolutely used their flesh and blood to blow up the Armored Vehicles and Tanks of the Japanese Army, causing heavy losses to the Japanese army.
Pictured| fighters blow up tanks
The japanese invaders who had returned to their senses again called for fire support and formally attacked the city of Guilin on November 4. The Defenders of Guilin were also ready for battle, using the fortifications that had been built long ago to engage in fierce street battles with the Japanese. Since then, the two sides have been fighting a tug-of-war,
The Japanese army has attacked the county seat of Guilin 27 times, and once again fell behind in the mine warfare, street warfare and white-knife warfare launched by the defenders, and had no choice but to withdraw outside the city.
At that time, Guilin City did not have the appearance of the current tourist town at all, the places where they could stay were all planted with mines by the defenders, and all they could see were broken walls and ruins, the air was filled with war and smoke, and at every intersection you could see the officers and men of the Gui Army who were fighting with the Japanese army to the death. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, a reporter interviewed Wei Chongguang, a Guangxi hero who survived the defense of Guilin, who described this tragic and cruel battle this way: "At that time, I was a company commander of the unit, and I led all my soldiers to fight with the Japanese in guilin. Our company was originally in the inner city, because the inner city had a moat, the river was very deep, and we planned to use this to temporarily block the Japanese attack, but we did not expect that the Japanese tanks would suddenly cross the river and come in, and everyone was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. In the end,
The entire company that followed me out survived less than 10 men.
The Japanese invaders were afraid that a few of us would sneak in, and they also carried searchlights, and they vigorously looked around and shot directly when they saw the shadows, and the soldiers had nowhere to escape. ”
Pictured| a Searchlight of the Japanese Army
The Japanese invaders are not as vulnerable as they are in some film and television drama works now, and in real history, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army with sufficient troops and advanced equipment should not be underestimated, which is why the defense of Guilin is so tragic and tragic. whereas
In the whole course of the battle, the most thrilling thing is the Battle of Seven Star Rock.
Located on the east bank of the Li River, Seven Star Rock is now a tourist attraction that is bustling with tourists, but at that time it was
It was the logistics base of the Guilin garrison, storing grain, fresh water and weapons and ammunition that could be used by the soldiers for half a year.
In order to ensure the absolute safety of these logistics materials, the Guilin defenders carried out a tight defensive deployment here, not only laying mines, excavating anti-tank trench areas, but also erecting dense bamboo sticks wrapped in barbed wire around the perimeter.
Figure | Seven Star Rock
The Japanese invaders also knew that if they wanted to completely eliminate the living forces of the Guilin defenders, they must take the Seven Star Rock, so before the war began, they organized soldiers to study the topography of the Seven Star Rock under the leadership of relevant geological experts, and looked for the weakness of the Guilin defenders' fortifications
It took five days to determine the battle plan and combat time, and to prepare the appropriate explosive weapons.
Before setting out, the Japanese army brought with it advanced military equipment such as rope ladders, explosive canisters, flamethrowers, mine indicators, and a large number of gunpowder bombs, intending to completely destroy the logistics base set up by the Guilin defenders at Qixingyan. Just in case, they also specially selected a group of soldiers with good physical fitness to form a hand-to-hand combat team, which was specially engaged in close combat with the Guilin defenders who were good at close combat.
In the early morning of November 7, the Japanese opened the way with aircraft and tanks, and marched all the way to Mao'er Mountain, Pingfeng Mountain, and Putuo Houshan. Under the fierce artillery fire of the Japanese army, most of the defensive bunkers of Mao'er Mountain were destroyed, and the soldiers engaged in fierce battles with the invaders who came up, and after holding out for a whole day and night, they were exhausted and killed. The cat mountain is full of corpses,
All the defenders of the mountain were heroically sacrificed, and the Mao'er Mountain position fell.
Pictured | charging Japanese troops
After taking Mao'er Mountain, the Japanese army launched an attack on the neighboring Pingfeng Mountain. The Guilin defenders of the Pingfeng Mountain position were besieged by the Japanese army, and their stomachs and backs were attacked, and the combat strength was not invincible and had no choice but to retreat, and the Pingfeng Mountain was also captured by the Japanese army. The Japanese army won successive victories and planned to make a big fuss, so the soldiers divided into two roads, attacking the Xingzi Rock of Putuo Houshan on the one hand, and began to advance towards the Seven Star Rock on the other. Suddenly, the whole land of Guilin was in flames, and everywhere was the deafening sound of gunfire.
In order to achieve better combat results, the Japanese began to throw gas bombs and incendiary bombs at the positions of the Guilin defenders
The Defenders of Guilin suffered heavy casualties, and two senior generals were killed in battle. At that time, it was the 391st Regiment of the Gui Army stationed on the east bank of the Li River, and they were also surrounded by Japanese invaders, surrounded by groups of Japanese invaders, and the situation was critical.
The Japanese troops who arrived around The Seven Star Rock began to concentrate on the fortifications in order to successfully find the logistics base of the Guilin defenders in the hidden terrain, and the positions at the mouth of the two-thirds of the seven star rocks were lost.
The commander of the 303 machine gun company stationed at Seven Star Rock led the remaining soldiers and comrades of the Logistics and Transportation Department to all retreat to the interior of the Seven Star Karst Cave
Prepare to take advantage of the complex and winding internal waterways here to continue the battle against the Japanese army.
Pictured| the Gui army preparing for battle
The interior of the Seven Star Rock is very clean, but the entrance to the cave is extremely narrow, which can be called easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Guilin defenders, who had retreated to the interior of the cave, placed a whole row of machine gun fire points at the entrance of the cave, and once the Japanese launched a charge, they would take turns to shoot at them intensively. Under the stubborn resistance of the defenders, the Japanese invaders suffered heavy casualties, and the leader of the stormtroopers was shot on the spot.
Seeing that the Seven Star Rock could not be attacked for a long time,
The distraught Japanese began to drop bombs and incendiary bombs into the cave
, wanting to wipe out the defenders inside. However, because of the underground channel in the cave, the Japanese plan to blow up or burn the defenders in the cave did not succeed. Because of the favorable terrain, the defenders of Seven Star Rock were safe and sound under the fierce artillery fire of the Japanese army and stubbornly resisted. November 9,
The Japanese army brought several agents to intimidate and induce the soldiers
If they insisted on resisting, they would block all the entrances and exits of the Seven Star Rocks and trap their group inside the cave; but if they laid down their weapons and showed loyalty to the Japanese army, the Japanese army would not treat them badly. But the agents talked for hours on end, and none of the defenders inside the Seven Star Rock chose to surrender.
Pictured| aimed at the Gui soldiers shooting
After a few days of stalemate, I couldn't take a step forward.
The frenzied Japanese invaders began to flagrantly violate the provisions of the international war treaty and threw a large number of gas gas bombs into the interior of the Seven Star Rock.
Most of the defenders in the cave had never seen a poison gas bomb and thought it was an ordinary incendiary bomb, so it was not fortified and was killed.
Commander Qin Zewen
When the shell fell into the cave, he did not think much until he saw smoke spilling out of it, and quickly called on the fighters to evacuate. However, at that time, the gas gas had dispersed, and many defenders in the cave instantly lost consciousness and fell to the ground, and Qin Zewen could only take a few soldiers who were still conscious, and after the Japanese army blocked the front exit with fire, they broke through from the rear cave entrance. whereas
The original eight hundred heroes in the Seven Star Karst Cave, the last survivor was Huang Haichao, a native of Quanzhou County, Guilin, who was the logistics platoon leader at the time.
At that time, the Japanese army had already discovered the rear exit of The Seven Star Rock and was blocking it, and a deputy platoon leader of the unit surnamed Wen pushed the unconscious Yellow Sea Tide out of the cave entrance and died of exhaustion. Huang Haichao retrieved a life with the help of his comrades-in-arms, and became the last Guilin defender to leave the Seven Star Rock alive.
Pictured| 95-year-old Huang Haichao
Later, the old man of Huang Haichao, who was already a hundred years old, recalled the battle of Seven Star Rock again, and without saying a few words, he was already in tears, and sadly said to everyone around him: "
In addition to the hundreds of Guilin defenders, there were nearly 300 wounded, medical personnel and logistics transport personnel in the Qixing Karst Cave
The Japanese invaders have no humanity! ”
After the surrender of the Japanese army in 1945, the city of Guilin returned to the hands of the Chinese, and the local people searched for the remains of the victims and carried out the remains of 823 martyrs in the Seven Star Karst Cave, not only soldiers, but also ordinary people's clothing, and even a few children. These remains were uniformly buried in Bawangping, Putuo Mountain, Guilin, and the local leaders personally erected a tree monument to the cemetery and nominated them
"Tomb of eight hundred heroes"
Pictured| Tomb of eight hundred brave men
Battle results
The Defense of Guilin lasted for 14 days from October 28, 1944 to November 10, and although it ended in the defeat of the Chinese army and the fall of Guilin City, the Guilin defenders, who numbered only 20,000, still bravely and bravely fought bloodily in the face of several times their own Japanese invaders, and finally there was
12,000 soldiers, including several commanders, died on the battlefield and died for the country.
Chen Jihuan, the supreme commander of the Guilin garrison, left a family letter at the moment of the final decisive battle, with only a few numbers on it, but it expressed the integrity and style of this Chinese soldier:
I want to coexist and die with Guilin, and I hope to cherish it.
The commander of the 131st Division, Que Weiyong, was only 44 years old when the Guilin defenders ran out of ammunition and the Japanese army completely took all positions. These predatory soldiers used their rolling blood and young lives to fulfill the Zhengzheng oath of coexistence and death with Guilin City.
Although the Guilin defenders were defeated, 150,000 troops and countless aircraft and tanks were dispatched
Japanese Invaders
Nor did it gain much in this war, not only
More than 13,900 people were killed and more than 19,100 wounded, as well as 9 squadron leaders of the Rank of Daizo, more than 30 mid-level captains, and nearly 100 squad leaders
。 After the end of the defense of Guilin, the water of the Li River within a radius of five kilometers was stained red with blood on the battlefield, and the corpses in Guilin were strewn across the field, including guilin defenders and more Japanese invaders.
In his later years, some Japanese soldiers who participated in the war of aggression against China wrote memoirs, some of whom described the Battle of Guilin as follows: "Although the Chinese soldiers here are poorly equipped, they are extremely fierce and have a very strong will to fight, which is far beyond the ability of our army to match. Although our army won the final victory in the Battle of Guilin, however
This battle is not worth boasting in my eyes, because the chinese army is far more courageous than ours.
”
Pictured| Gui jun
At that time, the Guilin defenders united as one and fought bloodily, not only defending the city for 14 days, but also beating the Japanese invaders with steel teams to lose their armor and armor with flesh and blood, as if they were in hell on earth. but
Unfortunately, this tragic battle that left a deep impression on the Japanese people was not well known to the Chinese people
At that time, the Kuomintang leaders not only did not send troops to support the Guilin garrison, but all the commendations made after the war were only promoted to lieutenant generals for Kan Weiyong, the commander of the 131st Division who was loyal to the country.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Qin Zewen, the commander who had previously escaped from the Seven Star Rock, led dozens of other survivors of the Guilin Defense War to hold a memorial ceremony at the battle site for the eight hundred heroes of the Seven Star Rock and other comrades who had sacrificed heroically. After all, they are comrades who have fought side by side, and only they can truly understand these soldiers
The soaring arrogance and heroic bones that coexist and die with Guilin.
Pictured| Tan Zewen
Today's Guilin mountains and rivers are picturesque, the water of the Li River is also like a blue wave, and the once deafening sound of guns and guns and fighting has long been dissipated in the rolling torrent of history, silent. However, whether it is the fantastic and magnificent Seven Star Karst Cave or the ancient city wall of Guilin that has gone through vicissitudes, it has witnessed the history of that arduous war and recorded the hard, heroic and indomitable national integrity of Chinese soldiers.