"Weak countries have no diplomacy, and weak countries have no sports!"
Background of the times
On September 18, 1931, the Japanese army invaded China, and China began a 14-year War of Resistance Against Japan. At that time, China, full of gun smoke, had reached the brink of subjugation and extinction, and countless Sons and Daughters of China resisted the torrent of steel of Japan's industrialized army with their flesh and blood. The National Government is worried about internal and external troubles, is overwhelmed, and is tired of coping, and the motherland's sports undertakings are of course not taken seriously.
As early as the 1920s, foreigners introduced boxing to major cities such as Tianjin and Shanghai, and there were many people who loved boxing, and the practice of boxing became popular. However, hobbies are hobbies, and once you meet a professional boxer, it is "Liu Grandma entered the Grand View Garden", which makes people laugh out of their teeth.
Chinese have a tenacity since ancient times, although they can not accept professional training, but there is a chance that they will still fight with boxers in Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy and other countries, and the result is naturally defeat after defeat. In the autumn of 1933, when Ma Yuesheng, the main player of an amateur boxing team in Shanghai, was competing with Billy, a boxer from the British Kingsley Club, Billy, with his excellent professional skills, wantonly punched Ma Yuesheng and seriously injured him, causing an uproar in domestic public opinion.
However, the National Government can only condemn it, and in the end, the big thing becomes small. After experiencing this incident, foreigners did not pay attention to the Chinese boxers at all, and went around ridiculing and sarcastically Chinese vulnerable. This caused great indignation among many Chinese, who continued to work hard and gritted their teeth to fight for Chinese. By 1935, China had produced a number of outstanding boxers who could compete with boxing powers such as Europe and the United States, and achieved results in some international competitions.
Chinese boxing can achieve remarkable results, there are two key figures, one is the Australian boxing king Chen Hanqiang (overseas Chinese), and the other is the second-class general Shang Zhen of the Nationalist Army.
Key people
Chen Hanqiang
Born in 1891 in Meixian County, Guangdong Province, Chen Hanqiang, who traveled with his father across the sea to Australia to earn a living as a casual worker, became a lumberjack at the age of 17 in order to make more money. Long-term logging work has made Chen Han strong and strong, and his physical strength is outstanding. In a fortuitous bar "fight" incident, Chen Hanqiang was photographed by the coach of the Sydney Sports Club Boxing Training Center and started his professional boxing career.
At that time, Chinese warlords were fighting, their international status was low, and overseas Chinese were also discriminated against. After Chen Hanqiang embarked on the road of professional boxing, he vowed to ascend to the throne of the champion of boxing and fight for the Chinese nation. In order to realize his dream, Chen Hanqiang constantly challenges the boxers on the boxing rankings and wins many battles. In order not to let the title of boxing champion fall on Chinese, the organizers of the competition constantly artificially set up obstacles, making it difficult for Chen Hanqiang to enter the top ten of the boxing rankings.
If you can't get into the top ten, you are not qualified to challenge the king of boxing. Chen Hanqiang boldly proposed to openly challenge all the top ten boxers and unexpectedly defeated them all. Chen Hanqiang was finally able to challenge the boxer after suffering and humiliation, but the organizers changed the rules of the game to greatly increase the difficulty of winning the game.
The host authorities have specifically revised a new rule: "The game is not limited to rounds, until the opponent cannot stand up or cannot continue the game to win". That is to say, Chen Hanqiang's Boxing Championship Has No Round Limit and Time Limit.
Chen Hanqiang and boxing king K· B. Jack's game reached more than 20 rounds, the two sides were exhausted, and the final battle was willpower. Chen Hanqiang with amazing perseverance and strength, a straight punch to knock Jack down to win, this news shocked the world's professional boxing world, 28-year-old Chen Hanqiang finally realized his dream of becoming a boxing king. However, this sensational news has no waves in the country and no one cares.
In 1928, Chen Hanqiang, who had already achieved fame, was invited back to China by the Chinese martial arts master Mr. Huo Yuanjia to work as a boxing coach at the Shanghai Jingwu Sports Association, and successively trained the "Far East Viper" Zheng Jichang (this nickname is because his left straight fist is too powerful, like a poisonous snake spitting letter), "Southern Boxing King" Zhou Shibin ("Northern Boxing King" is Zhang Lide), Guo Zhenying and other older Chinese boxers.
How to say that Chen Hanqiang trained seed boxers for poor China, and let China's powerful boxers take to the international stage to show their skills, it is Shang Zhen, a second-class general of the Nationalist Army, who has attracted the attention of the world.
Shang Zhen (21 September 1888 – 15 May 1978) was a second-class general in the Republic of China Army and an early general in the Jin Sui Army. He has successively served as the chairman of Hebei Province, the chairman of Shanxi Province, and the chairman of Henan Province. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he was the commander-in-chief of the Twentieth Army Group, commander-in-chief of the Sixth Theater, director of the General Office of the Military Commission, head of the post-war Chinese military delegation to the United States, chief of staff of the National Government, and head of the Chinese delegation to Japan. He is one of the few figures who have outstanding performances in military, political and diplomatic fields.
Shang Zhen
Shang Zhen joined the National Revolutionary Army in 1927 and served as the commander-in-chief of the Right Road of the Third Army, the commander of the Thirty-second Army of the Kuomintang Army, and the commander of the Second Army. In 1933, the Thirty-second Army was stationed in the central and northern part of Henan Province, Shang Zhen was also the chairman of the Henan Provincial Government, he paid more attention to the physical training of officers and soldiers, and opened professional teams such as martial arts teams, wrestling teams, football, basketball, athletics, polo, boxing teams, etc., and hired professional coaches for training. In addition to daily military training, the whole army must also play sports, of which the boxing team is the most prominent.
In order to train them into professional boxers, Shang Zhen hired German boxer Dingle as a coach. Under dingle's strict training, the European-style boxing level of Jin Guidi and others improved rapidly, repeatedly defeating amateur boxers from European and American countries in China, making a name for themselves and fighting for Chinese.
In 1936, when China registered for the 11th Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, the sports delegation conducted a boxing selection tournament at the Shanghai Shenyuan Gym in order to select a boxing team to attend the 11th Olympic Games. The boxing team of the 32nd Army participated in the whole competition, and Jin Guidi, Wang Runlan, Jin Gui and Li Menghua won the olympic games on behalf of Chinese boxing.
In order to let them participate in the Olympic Games smoothly, Shang Zhen funded the boxing team 2,000 oceans, gave coach Yu Hengzhi 500 silver dollars, and also specially approved them to go to Shanghai for a month-long training, and asked Dingle and Chen Hanqiang, coach of the Shanghai Jingwu Sports Association, to give them careful guidance.
On June 26, 1936, Jin Guidi and others took a cruise ship to Berlin to compete, and during the voyage, they did not forget to train so that they could play their best on the sports field. When they arrived in Berlin, they immediately attracted the attention of the world's major media, and no one thought that China, which was constantly in turmoil, would send a "grand" delegation to participate in the Olympic Games, let alone that there would be "boxers" participating in boxing sports competitions.
Olympic events
When Jin Guidi and others participated in the selection competition in Shanghai, The famous British boxing coach Fedinson, who watched the Chinese boxers' competition in Shanghai, said of Yu Hengzhi, the head coach of the Chinese boxing team:
"I never expected that these young boxers with flat heads and medium weight in China were so skilled in boxing. He had the highest evaluation of Jin Guidi, believing that the Chinese soldier was agile, extremely fast, full of courage, and was likely to enter the top 10 at the Berlin Olympics. ”
Yu Hengzhi and others are also full of confidence, there is an old Chinese saying that "kung fu pays off", what is the result of the game? On August 10, the boxing tournament of the 11th Berlin Olympic Games officially began, and the most notable among the Chinese athletes was Wang Runlan, known as the "Little Boxer", who participated in the heavyweight boxing match, and his preliminary opponent was Fokker of the Netherlands. Falk is a dutch player with great strength. Wang Runlan was obviously overwhelmed, and in the third round, Wang Runlan's upper lip was cracked, blood flowing all over his face, standing unsteadily, and finally eliminated due to insufficient points, the media summed up his performance on the field: Although he lost Yu Rong!
Wang Runlan was born in 1913 in a wealthy squire family in Liuchu Town, Raoyang County, Hebei Province, and has loved martial arts since childhood, and is known as the "Little Boxer King". In 1934, the 21-year-old Wang Runlan gave up the opportunity to go to college and was admitted to the second phase of the Hebei Military and Political School held by Shang Zhen, the commander of the 32nd Army, in Beiping (Beijing), determined to serve the country. Soon after entering school, he relied on his martial arts background and was selected to learn Western boxing from the boxing team founded by Shang Zhen. Later, he participated in boxing competitions organized by Ping (Beijing), Shanghai (Shanghai), Wuhan and other cities for many times, repeatedly winning the championship and accumulating rich experience in competitions.
In the arena shined is the middleweight boxer Jin Guidi, he defeated the Canadian player Cook, egypt's AliYusuf by virtue of his strength, successfully passed the qualifiers, Jin Guidi's wonderful performance in the qualifiers, won the Warm applause of the German audience again and again, the German overseas Chinese representative Han Zhihua was even more excited to tears, ran to the competition platform, presented flowers to Jin Guidi, overseas Chinese have not seen the moment that can make Chinese raise their eyebrows for a long time.
Jin Guidi passed the qualifiers and entered the official competition, and the opponent he faced was the British middleweight boxing champion Hillimdon. Regarding the match, the media reports at the time left valuable historical materials (excerpts from the report published in the "Declaration"):
In the matchup, Jin Guidi was extremely brave and skilled in boxing, jumping and attacking, and one punch hit Hilimdun's jaw, and he fell to the ground. But he took a few breaths and then recovered and jumped up. Jin Guidi did not allow him to return the punch, and with the brave momentum of a leopard, he struck several punches in a row like lightning, hitting the proud and light enemy of Hirim Dun frequently retreating, fighting left and right, and was obviously at a disadvantage. Jin Guidi saw that victory was in sight, and still did not relax his attack. The Chinese athletes and coaches in the boxing ring were very excited and applauded Jin Guidi one after another, and many European and American audiences, especially Overseas Chinese, also applauded. The first game Jin Guidi won. The next two rounds were tied, and in the next few rounds, the two sides won and lost each other, and from the point of view, Jin Guidi still had the upper hand slightly...
However, Europeans and Americans, who were unwilling to Chinese win the championship, began to "riot operations". Swedish referee Kautsev wantonly favored Hirimdun, before the whistle started, Hirimdun preemptively punched jin Guidi in the jaw, the patrol referee German Mendyer proposed to Kautev that "the hit was ineffective", Kautev ignored it, announced that "the hit was effective, the game continued", the audience booed, Hilimdun repeatedly fouled, Kautev closed one eye and ignored it.
In the eighth round of the battle, Hirimdun violated the law and wantonly used heavy punches to hit Jin Guidi, obviously suspected of venting anger, first slammed Jin Guidi to the ground with his left elbow, Jin Guidi endured pain and wanted to stand up, Hillimdun did not wait for Jin Guidi to stand, went forward and punched hard, Jin Guidi fell to the ground, bleeding from his mouth and nose, and seriously injured his waist.
The on-site referee Rollin (Frenchman) ruled that Xirimton was seriously fouled and Jin Guidi won, the referee made a final decision, and judged Hirimdon to win, and the Irish supervisor also gave perjury, finding that Hilimdon did not violate the rules, and Jin Guidi lost the game. On the competition field, the audience stood up collectively, unwilling to leave for a long time, in protest, China protested angrily against the coach, however, everything did not help, Jin Guidi regrettably stopped in the semi-finals, becoming the only Asian boxer to enter the sixteenth of the official competition, is a veritable Asian first boxer.
Jin Guidi was born in 1916 in Lingshou County, Hebei Province, from a poor family, learned martial arts from an early age, learned Shaolin School Hong Fist from Zhang Sitong, a famous martial artist in his hometown, insisted on practicing stone locks, lifting stone burdens, and had a solid foundation in martial arts, 1 person could deal with the siege of 3 strong boys at the same time. At the age of 17, Jin Guidi joined the army and became an ordinary soldier in shangzhen's 32nd army, and because he loved boxing, he joined the boxing team in the army.
The outstanding performance of Jin Guidi and others in the Olympic arena has attracted the attention of many countries, and they have extended an olive branch, inviting them to their own countries as boxing coaches, or hiring them to join their own country's boxing teams with high salaries. If you were born in the Taiping Dynasty, the fate of Jin Guidi and others would be rewritten, and life would be bright, achieving a counterattack and gaining fame and fortune.
In a chaotic world, everyone is involuntary, and Jin Guidi and others are even more so as soldiers!
Grief-stricken resistance
On July 7, 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out, the Japanese army took a step of all-out invasion of China, gathered 370,000 elites to form the North China Front, and the arrogant Japanese army of 160,000 people invaded the south along the Pinghan Railway, in a vain attempt to destroy China in three months. The Chinese nation has reached a critical juncture of life and death, and the people of the whole country have thrown themselves into the historical torrent of the War of Resistance. After Wang Runlan, Jin Guidi and other 4 boxers returned to China, they resolutely went to the front line of the anti-Japanese war and went to battle to kill the enemy, as for professional choices such as boxing coaches, all of them were not considered.
In early October 1937, the 32nd and 53rd armies of General Shang Zhen, commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang 20th Army and commander of the 32nd Army, were transferred from the Zhengding front to Anyang, and they had to resist the attack of the 14th Division of the First Army of the Enemy North China Front (Division Commander Lieutenant General Kenji Doihara), the 28th Brigade, and the 6 infantry brigades commanded by Major General Takashi Sakai, with a total strength of about 60,000 people.
On October 18 and October 18, after the Japanese invading forces occupied Ci County, they attacked the north bank of the Zhanghe River in three ways, and the fierce defense of Anyang began. The main force of the nationalist army defending Anyang was all Shang Zhen's 32nd Army, who fought with about 60,000 Japanese troops in Anyang for half a month, Anyang City fell on November 5, the Japanese army died more than 200 people, the Nationalist army was even more deadly and wounded, known as the "first boxing king of Asia", Jin Guidi also died in a tragic way in the defense of Anyang, and his performance was also the epitome of the battle of thousands of anti-Japanese soldiers.
After the troops received the order to rush to the anti-Japanese front, Jin Guidi made a final farewell to his family, and shortly after the anyang defense war began, Jin Guidi accompanied the army to fight with the Japanese army, and the Tanks of the Japanese Army inflicted huge casualties on the Nationalist army. Jin Guidi resolutely signed up for the death squad, strapped with cluster grenades, and rushed to the Japanese tanks with more than a dozen grenades. Under the cover of other people's fire, Jin Guidi drilled under the devil's tank, detonated the grenade, and died with the Japanese army.
After the war, the Japanese army learned that Jin Guidi had died in this way, and sighed one after another: "Pity, pity! "At that time in the Berlin Universal Boxing Ring, players from all asian countries, including Japan, were generally frustrated, and were defeated by boxers from Europe and the United States, only Jin Guidi won consecutive battles and shined, and his fame was well-known overseas, and the Japanese had heard about it for a long time.
It is worth mentioning that after returning to China, Wang Runlan served as a platoon commander of the 32nd Army, and on October 18, Wang Runlan participated in the Battle of Yuanshi in Hebei with the army and blocked the enemy on the north bank of the Zhanghe River. On October 21, Wang Runlan's troops were killed and wounded, and he chose the same tragic way as Jin Guidi, and died with the Japanese tanks, only 24 years old, until after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, his family learned that he had died.
Jin Gui was killed in the Battle of Taierzhuang in 1938, And Li Menghua's whereabouts are unknown, and it is likely that he died on the front line of the anti-Japanese war. At this moment, I am reminded of the famous sentence in Cao Zhi's famous poem "White Horse Chapter" in the Three Kingdoms period: "Famous people are compiled in the book of heroes, and they must not take care of their own interests." It is difficult to sacrifice one's body to go to the country, and it is difficult to see death as a sudden return! ”
epilogue
Finally, I will end with a comment on the 1938 Shanghai "Lonely Island Weekly" article "The Four Fists of China - The Martyrdom of Jin Guidi"!
"The Chinese boxing players Jin Guidi, Jin Gui, and Wang Yonglan (i.e., Wang Runlan), who participated in the 1936 World Sports Congress (Olympic Games) in Berlin, were unfortunately martyred. There is also a Li Menghua who is still fighting on the front line, not only (is) the glory of the entire boxing world, but also the glory of forty million people! ”
Sacrifice your body to go to the country, see death as a sudden return, and always pay tribute to these heroes and martyrs!
(Editor's note: This article is 4873 words, the 35th original article in 2022)