On October 29, 1937, the third day of the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the citizens went out in the morning and saw the Chinese flag flying on the roof of the Sihang Warehouse! Since the withdrawal of Chinese troops, in the smoke-filled sky of Shanghai, only the British rice flag, the American Star-Spangled Banner, the White Russian Tricolor Flag and the "Plaster Flag" of the Japanese occupation zone can only be seen.
In 1932, Xie Jinyuan, who participated in the "1.28" Shanghai Defense War, five years later, his troops once again fired the first shot of the "August 13" Songhu Battle. In the fall of Shanghai, in the siege of tens of thousands of Japanese land, navy and air force, Xie Jinyuan and the "eight hundred heroes" led by him raised the only national flag of Shanghai.
When these roofs hung "plaster flags" and Chinese with the word "Japan" on their thighs, and saw the flag of the motherland again, the hope in their hearts was lit up!
Throughout the Songhu War of Resistance, xie Jinyuan's Zhabei area was always the axis of the front, and the 88th Division led by him was therefore called "the hateful enemy of Zhabei" by the Japanese army. Xie Jimin said that in fact, as early as October 25, when the Dachang position was broken through by the Japanese army and our army retreated to western Huxi on all fronts, many people suggested considering a long-term war of resistance and orderly retreating to the defensive position that had been operating for 3 years. However, Chiang Kai-shek, believing that the League of Nations was about to meet, was able to maintain its presence in Shanghai and "strengthen the international public opinion", and demanded that the retreating troops hastily open the battlefield in western Shanghai without any ideological and military preparations. The 88th Division was ordered to remain in Zhabei and remain in Shanghai.
At this time, the 88th Division had been replenished 5 times, with an average of less than 2 veterans per squad, most of the company commanders were killed, "a regiment went up neatly, and when it came down, only a few pairs of food burdens remained." The troops are no longer effective. In order to implement the instructions of his superiors, Sun Yuanliang, the commander of the 88th Division, decided to leave only one regiment to defend Zhabei.
The order to "hold the last position in Shanghai" was handed over to Xie Jinyuan, then lieutenant colonel of the 524th Regiment of the 262nd Brigade of the 88th Division. Sun Yuanliang asked them to set up the command post at the "Sihang Warehouse" of the former headquarters of the 88th Division. In fact, only one battalion of troops held the Sihang warehouse. In order to confuse the enemy, in an interview with reporters, Xie Jinyuan falsely told 800 people. This is why there is the saying of "eight hundred brave men". When Xie Jinyuan led his troops to hold the last position, he and the "Eight Hundred Heroes" had already made a will: "Yu Yi shot and bullet vowed to fight the enemy to the end, shedding the last drop of blood, and will definitely pay a considerable price to The Wokou!"
For the fierce battle at the Sihang Warehouse, the battalion commander Yang Ruifu once recorded in the "Four Diaries of the Lone Army Struggle": "The Japanese army illuminated the Tibet Road with searchlights and blocked the intersection with fierce machine guns. At about 10 o'clock, the enemy's fire became even stronger, and with flat-firing cannons and heavy mortars, they slammed into the Sihang warehouse..."
The officers and men either fought or repaired fortifications, and did not close their eyes for 4 days and 4 nights. The "Eight Hundred Heroes" each held the conviction that they would die and rushed to kill the enemy first. On October 28, the Japanese army, seeing that it could not be attacked repeatedly, organized a surprise attack by a small detachment of more than a dozen people, in an attempt to blow up the wall of the Sihang warehouse with explosive packs and create a breakthrough. In order to prevent being shot, they moved under the wall with a thick steel plate. In a hurry, the daredevil Chen Shusheng did not say a word, tied grenades all over his body, jumped from the 6th floor, and died with more than 10 enemies. Xie Jinyuan looked at the thick fireworks downstairs and burst into tears, he declared: "All the heroes have already made a will, vowing to coexist and die with the last position of the four elements, but it is meaningful to seek death, but it is meaningful to seek death, but to die as it is!" In just 4 days, they repelled dozens of enemy attacks at the Sihang Warehouse, killing more than 200 enemy people, killing only 9 people and wounding more than 20 people. However, at 9 p.m. on October 30, Xie Jinyuan received orders to retreat.
Xie Jinyuan led his troops to withdraw into the British Concession according to the orders of his superiors, but as soon as he entered the concession, he was disarmed, and the troops were detained in the "lone army camp" on Jiaozhou Road in Shanghai, and from then on they were isolated from the outside world and became an isolated island surrounded by the Japanese army.
The lonely camp is on an isolated island, and the situation is even more sinister. But Xie Jinyuan's strong heart is still there, and he once wrote a poem to encourage himself: "Bravely kill eight hundred soldiers of the enemy, and rely on poetry for hundreds of boredom." Who pities the patriotic thousand lines of tears, speaking of the undead are uneven. ”
Xie Jimin collected a diary of nearly 500,000 words written by his father at that time, "The lone camp is almost the same as the 'captive camp' in the concession, the freedom is restricted, and life is very hard." However, it can be seen from the diary that my father is still positive and optimistic, strictly governing the army, and insisting on the flag-raising ceremony before every morning exercise. The lone army camp stayed for 4 years, which is called 4 days of fighting and 4 years of lone army. ”
With the continuous deterioration of the situation on the isolated island, the threat and inducement of the enemy and the hypocrites to Xie Jinyuan also became more and more serious. The Japanese army had threatened to kidnap him at all costs, and Wang Fu also used the high-ranking official Houlu as bait in a vain attempt to make him obey. In the early morning of April 24, 1941, Xie Jinyuan led the soldiers to morning exercises as usual. At this time, the 4 soldiers who were bribed by Wang Fei waited for the opportunity to suddenly pull out the murder weapon and assassinate Xie Jinyuan. Xie Jinyuan was only 37 years old when he was killed.
"After her father was martyred, the National Government paid a special pension of 50,000 yuan, and her mother (Ling Weicheng) and Grandfather each received 25,000 yuan, and she used this money to buy 3 acres of land, cultivate her own land, and maintain the livelihood of a family of 8." After surviving until the victory of the War of Resistance, she took her 4 children to Shanghai, and due to insufficient money, she walked for two months on the road. "My mother waited in Shantou for a full month to catch a boat, but as long as I heard that it was The orphan of Commander Xie along the way, the people were eager to help, which touched us." Later, the news reached Shanghai, and three or four people from the 'Eight Hundred Heroes' came to pick us up in Shanghai. After that, Ling Weicheng ran around for the study of his four children and the living and working problems of himself and the survivors of the "Eight Hundred Heroes", but all departments blamed each other and achieved no results.
After the founding of New China, Ling Weicheng wrote a letter to Chen Yi, the mayor of Shanghai, describing the plight of the sixty or seventy people who still existed with the officers and men of the lone army. Chen Yi attached great importance to it, and in 1949, the Shanghai Municipal Government issued Instruction No. 589 of the Secret Four Characters, which pointed out: "Xie Jinyuan participated in the war against Japan and sacrificed his life for the country, and his bereaved family members should be taken care of.
Xie Jimin said that the war made him not enjoy normal fatherly love, but he hoped that his experience could arouse the sympathy of readers and experience the hard-won fruits of the victory of the War of Resistance, so as to cherish today's beautiful life even more.
In March 1940, the traitor Wang Jingwei established a puppet national government in Nanjing, sent people to lure him to a high-ranking officer of the commander-in-chief of the army, and Xie Jinyuan sternly rebuked: "Er and other acts, conscience is lost, confess thieves as fathers, willing to be Zhang Bangchang, willing to be slaves to the country." I was born as a Chinese, died as a Chinese ghost, to protect the country and defend the people as a vocation, Yu Zhi has decided, by no means any willing words and inducements can move, Hugh with the words of the dog is not as good as the word to defile me, you go quickly, Hugh nonsense. ”
The Wang puppet government repeatedly sent people to lure Xie xie to defect with the high-ranking official Houlu, but he strictly refused. Xie Jinyuan's awe-inspiring righteousness in the lone army camp won the admiration of the people of the whole country, and the enemy naturally hated it to the bone.
Seeing that all kinds of treacherous schemes were not successful, the Japanese falsely planned a despicable conspiracy. At 5:00 a.m. on April 24, 1941, Xie Jinyuan led the officers and men to morning exercises as usual, and at that time, there were four senior soldiers, including Hao Dingcheng, Long Yaoliang, Zhang Wenqing, and Zhang Guoshun, who were late, and Xie Jinyuan asked why. Who knew that they had already been bribed by Wang Fei to become traitors, and suddenly took out the dagger and iron pickaxe and other murder weapons that had been brought into the camp in advance, and rushed up, stabbing Xie xie in the chest and left temple. Xie was seriously injured in many places, bleeding non-stop, and died tragically at 6 o'clock, at the age of 37. The officers and men of the whole battalion wept bitterly. When the deputy officer of the regiment, Zhi Biao, saw the situation and went forward to arrest the murderer, he was also stabbed and seriously injured. Four ethnic scum were captured on the spot and handed over to the concession authorities for detention. People from all walks of life in Shanghai heard the news and were deeply shocked, and 300,000 people went to mourn. On May 8, the Chinese government ordered Xie Jinyuan to be posthumously awarded the rank of major general of infantry.