Text| Xu Ludi
Edit| Zhaoming
In 1938, Taierzhuang's victory over the invincible Japanese invading army was inspiring.
As the commander of the Battle of Taierzhuang, Li Zongren later recalled this battle and mentioned a person who made great contributions, that is, He Yizhi.
1. Merit or national scum?
Speaking of He Yizhi, many people may not know who it is. But if you talk about Xia Wenyun, some people may know, after all, he is a "big traitor".
What is the connection between He Yizhi, a national hero, and the traitor Xia Wenyun? In fact, He Yizhi is Xia Wenyun's pseudonym, because "Xia" and "He" have the same Japanese pronunciation, so Xia Wenyun gave himself a new name.
The reason for changing the name is to hide the identity. At that time, Xia Wenyun was a translator for Japanese officers, and in order to convey anti-Japanese information, he changed his name to cover up.
In 1935, Xia Wenyun, who was proficient in Japanese, followed Japanese officers to Guangzhou and other places, mainly to lobby local warlords and induce them to submit to Japan.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek was passive in resisting Japan, and his main focus was on encircling and suppressing the Communist Party, focusing on an "active anti-communist" in order to satisfy his desire to rule.
When a person's personal desires are higher than the interests of the nation, it gives the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of them. Japan dispatched intelligence commissioners to carry out purposeful inducement operations against various warlord forces of the Kuomintang.
Xia Wenyun also got acquainted with Li Zongren in the process, and then provided Li Zongren with some relevant information from time to time according to Japan's requirements, in exchange for the other party's trust.
In the face of interests, spineless people will naturally wag their tails to accept, but how can people with national integrity be willing to give in?
After Li Zongren learned what happened to Xia Wenyun, he immediately persuaded Xia Wenyun that it was righteous to think about the country in troubled times, was he willing to be scolded as a "traitor"?
2. Ambiguous identity
In fact, for Xia Wenyun, there has always been an anxiety about his identity. Because when he was born, his hometown of Dalian unfortunately became a Japanese colony.
In 1904, after Japan helped the Qing government drive out the Russian troops occupying the northeast, they directly stationed their troops in the Dalian area. As a result, Dalian was directly occupied by the Japanese army for 40 years.
In the past 40 years, Japan has regarded Dalian as its own city, whether it is the name of the street or the school education. Xia Wenyun was born and raised in such an environment, so he has had a vague identity with him since he was a child.
It wasn't until he went to university that he went to Kyoto Imperial University in Japan with honors. The real Japan is still different from the colony, and he is not Japanese, but Chinese.
This sense of inconsistency in identity made him uncomfortable, so he fled back to China after graduating. After returning to China, he applied for a job as a professor at a school in Shenyang.
But he didn't work long because of the 918 incident, the school was forced to move to Beijing, and he lost his job. In the course of going around and around, because he was proficient in Japanese, he was arranged by the Japanese to be the secretary of the warlord.
said that he was the secretary, but in fact it was the eyeliner arranged by Japan in front of the warlords, and he specially reported that if any warlord wanted to defect to Japan, Xia Wenyun would immediately notify the Japanese military.
And Xia Wenyun also got the treatment of Zhongzuo because of this job, and compared to the ordinary "traitor", he can be regarded as a Japanese officer, which is one reason why he is called a "traitor".
As a Chinese, he speaks Japanese, eats Japanese military meals, and marries a Japanese wife. Such an act is a "traitor". But how could Xia Wenyun not know about these infamy? But in the troubled times, he felt powerless.
It wasn't until he met Li Zongren that he was moved by the other party's words, and fell into identity anxiety again. However, Xia Wenyun promised to provide reliable information, not information that the Japanese side deliberately asked him to leak.
3. Make a living in troubled times, and end desolately
After Li Zongren heard this, he immediately said that he would provide a certain amount of remuneration for Xia Wenyun's intelligence, but Xia Wenyun refused. In Li Zongren's view, this kind of bearing has a certain national integrity.
Xia Wenyun also lived up to expectations and brought a lot of favorable information to Li Zongren. In 1937, Li Zongren became the commander of the Fifth Theater and was stationed in the Xuzhou area.
Xia Wenyun connected with Li Zongren on a single line, and during this period, he sent a lot of favorable information to Li Zongren's Fifth War Zone, and also allowed Li Zongren to win a battle.
In 1938, Li Zongren faced the Japanese invasion and it was difficult to decide how to arrange the troops, Xia Wenyun immediately sent a telegram: The Japanese army moved in the south but not in the north.
With these eight words alone, coupled with Li Zongren's rich combat experience, he won the Battle of Taierzhuang and won the first victory of the Kuomintang on the frontal battlefield.
Relying on the information provided by Xia Wenyun, Li Zongren annihilated 20,000 Japanese troops in one fell swoop, which can be described as a great joy! The balance of victory will eventually belong to the righteous side, and the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was finally won.
After Japan withdrew its troops, Xia Wenyun also knew that his past was not clean, so he asked a friend to go directly to Japan and died of illness in Japan in 1978.
Xia Wen is a Chinese, but he has always been educated in Japan, and when he grew up, because of this dual identity, he swayed left and right in troubled times. He also knew that his actions were difficult to define, so he chose a relatively peaceful destination, and finally became desolate and lonely.
Resources:
""40,000 People Owe Xia Wenyun a Word of Thanks?" I think Li Zongren owes the author a word of thanks, Observer.com, August 26, 2018;
"Xia Wenyun, a translator under the Japanese army, saved 290,000 Chinese soldiers with one piece of intelligence", Upstream News, October 14, 2018.