On January 1, the 29th year of the Republic of China (1940), Zhou Enlai attended the New Year's party held by the Comintern in Moscow. Despite the painful rehabilitation, Zhou Enlai's right arm could not bend freely.
During his stay in the Soviet Union, Zhou Enlai made a report on the China issue at a secret meeting of the International Executive Committee, met with the leading figures of the Communist Parties of various countries in the Comintern at that time, took part in the work of the Comintern Supervisory Committee in handling the Li De issue, and worked with Ren Bishi to conduct a careful and comprehensive study of the timing of the convening of the "Seventh National Congress" of the Communist Party of China, the selection of candidates for the new Central Committee, and the arrangement and use of some personnel. Zhou Enlai also rescued Chen Yu, one of the leaders of the Guangzhou Uprising, who was branded as a "rightist" by Wang Ming during the purging of the party in the Soviet Union.
In Shanghai. On January 3, under the careful arrangement and strict protection of Du Yuesheng's eldest disciple Wan Molin, Gao Zongwu and Tao Xisheng boarded the steamship "President Coolidge" and escaped from the control of the Japanese puppet.
On January 5, Gao and Tao arrived safely in Hong Kong. Huang Suchu had already sent someone to sneak back to Wenzhou in advance to escort the Gao family to a safe place.
On January 7, Gao Zongwu handed over to Du Yuesheng the original manuscript of the "Outline for the Adjustment of Japan-China New Relations" and its annexes secretly photographed by his wife Shen Weiyu.
Chiang Kai-shek specifically instructed Hsiao Tongzi, director of the Central News Agency, to fly from Chongqing to Hong Kong to personally direct the publication of the original draft of the "Outline for the Adjustment of Japan-China New Relations" and its annexes. The "Letter to Ta Kung Pao" jointly signed by Gao Zongwu and Tao Xisheng was also sent by special personnel to Hong Kong's "Ta Kung Pao" and major domestic newspapers and periodicals.
In Shanghai. After Zheng Pingru was arrested, Ding Mo Estate's wife, Zhao Huimin, hated her rival and ordered him to be whipped to a bloody pulp. After that, Zheng Pingru was secretly transferred to the Fourth Road Headquarters of the "Peace Salvation Army" at No. 37 Yidingpan Road and detained. Later, in retaliation for the assassination of Chongqing agents, Li Shiqun ordered the execution of Zheng Pingru.
On January 16, after writing her last letter to her family, Zheng Pingru was deceived by Wang's puppet agent Lin Zhijiang into being killed at the execution ground in the western suburbs of Shanghai on the pretext of buying clothes.
During Zheng Pingru's arrest, her father, Zheng Yue, refused to take up a false position in order to bail his daughter, and after his daughter was killed, he fell ill and died of resentment early the following year. Zheng Pingru's younger brother Zheng Haicheng joined the Chinese Air Force and died on January 19, 1944 due to a mechanical failure, and Zheng Pingru's fiancé Wang Hanxun, Zheng Haicheng's comrade-in-arms, died on August 7 of that year while performing a military mission in Hengshan, Hunan. It can be described as "a loyal martyr". As for the traitor Ding Mo Estate, he was arrested after the Anti-Japanese War and executed on July 5, 1947, and got his due fate.
After Zheng Pingru's sacrifice, Li Shiqun instructed his cronies to deliberately reveal the assassination of Ding Mocun's greed, which became a big news sensation in Shanghai at that time. The traitor Hu Lancheng later told Zhang Ailing the story of Zheng Pingru's beauty scheme, which Zhang Ailing used as a blueprint for the short story "Lust and Caution" in 1950. In 2007, Taiwanese director Ang Lee made it into a movie and put it on the screen.
It should be pointed out that the truth of history is very cruel, and the truth of history cannot be distorted. Zheng Pingru has never had true feelings for Ding from beginning to end, she is a martyr who is willing to sacrifice for the motherland, born and died, a real hero. In 1983, Zheng Pingru was officially posthumously recognized as a revolutionary martyr by the Chinese government, and her photos and other relics were transferred to the Longhua Revolutionary Cemetery in Shanghai, where they were paid tribute and paid tribute to other martyrs. On June 6, 2009, the statue of the anti-Japanese heroine Zheng Pingru was completed in Fushouyuan, Shanghai.
On January 22, the "Japan-Wang Secret Treaty" was publicly disclosed by major newspapers and periodicals. At the same time, Tao Xisheng and Gao Zongwu jointly sent a letter to Wang Jingwei and others, hoping that they would rein in the precipice and "give up this movement that is not beneficial to themselves and harmful to the country."
The "Japan-Wang Secret Treaty" and the statements of Tao and Gao caused a huge sensation at home and abroad, and while strengthening the determination of the Chinese military and people to resist the war, they also dealt a heavy blow to Wang Jingwei and others who betrayed the country to seek glory, and was known as the "Gao Tao Incident" in history.
After Gao and Tao returned to Chongqing, Tao Xisheng returned to the fifth group of Chiang Kai-shek's chairman's chamber and was promoted and appointed as the leader of the major general's group, but Gao Zongwu did not gain the trust of Chiang Kai-shek, assumed the pseudonym "Gao Qichang", and went to the United States with his wife Shen Weiyu through Europe. Gao Zongwu initially assisted Hu Shih in his work, but then stayed away from politics and started a stock business.
On January 24, under the instigation and manipulation of Kenji Dohihara, Takeo Imai and others, Wang Jingwei, Wang Kemin, and Liang Hongzhi, three traitors, gathered in Qingdao to discuss the establishment of the so-called puppet "central government." In addition, the puppet "Mongolian United Autonomous Government" also sent Li Shouxin, the so-called commander-in-chief of the puppet "Mongolian army," to Qingdao to attend the meeting.
On the same day, due to the anti-communist "December Incident" created by Yan Xishan, according to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, He Long and Guan Xiangying led the main force of the 120th Division to urgently return to the northwest of Shanxi. He Long did not return to the front line this time, which directly affected his later positioning in the Liberation War.
On January 26, the Qingdao Traitors Conference came to an end, and it was finally decided to establish a puppet government of the Republic of China led by Wang Jingwei.
In January, Xu Haidong was making a report to cadres above the battalion level in the Anhui base area when he suddenly vomited blood. Years of war torment and repeated injuries finally made the tiger general's body unable to support it, and Xu Haidong's career as a horse came to an end.
In the same month, Zhao Shangzhi, chairman of the North Manchurian Executive Committee of the Communist Party of China and commander of the Third Army of the Anti-Japanese Allied Army, who was attending a joint meeting of representatives of the Jidong and North Manchurian provincial party committees in Boli, Soviet Union, was mistakenly dismissed from the party because the higher-level party organization mistakenly listened to rumors and believed that Zhao Shangzhi often made anti-party and anti-organization remarks. This is the second time that Zhao Shangzhi has been expelled from the party organization.
in Jilin. On 2 February, Zhang Xiufeng, commander of the special guard platoon of the headquarters of the First Army of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, defected to the enemy with classified documents and guns. Zhang Xiufeng followed Yang Jingyu at the age of fifteen, and Yang regarded him as flesh and blood for five years, and Zhang Xiufeng's defection was a fatal blow to Yang Jingyu and the Anti-Japanese Federation.
The traitor Cheng Bin shamelessly took the initiative to take on the top soldiers, and the Japanese puppet army from all walks of life was led by Zhang Xiufeng, surrounded Yang Jingyu's residence before dawn, and carried out a surprise attack on the confrontation alliance. Yang Jingyu and his troops were caught off guard, rushed to the battle, and suffered heavy losses.
On the morning of February 15, Yang Jingyu and the only six remaining soldiers around him were again discovered by the enemy in a mountain col northwest of Wujindingzi in Mengjiang County (now Jingyu County). Yang Jingyu led the soldiers to retreat to the southwest while fighting.
At about 3 p.m., the distance between us and the enemy was only about 300 meters. The Japanese army sent a police lieutenant named Ito to shout to Yang Jingyu to persuade him to surrender, Yang Jingyu pretended to surrender, and when Ito stood up, Yang Jingyu fired three shots in a row, killing him. Yang Jingyu then broke through and took advantage of the high mountains and dense forest environment to get rid of the Japanese army. This was the last battle that Yang Jingyu commanded before his death.
In order to get rid of the pursuit, Yang Jingyu asked the guard Huang Shengfa, the secretary Liu Futai and other 4 wounded to transfer, and himself, Zhu Wenfan and Nie Donghua, two fighters, broke through in the opposite direction of the transfer of the wounded to attract the enemy.
On February 18, Zhu Wenfan and Nie Donghua were discovered by the enemy while buying food in Dadonggou, Mengjiang County, and after half an hour of fierce fighting with the enemy, they died heroically. The enemy searched for pistols, cash, watches, pens, harmonica and Yang Jingyu's seal from the body of the martyr, and concluded that Yang Jingyu was nearby, so they sent additional troops to round up and send planes to reconnoiter and support from the air. In the following five days and five nights, Yang Jingyu began to deal with hundreds of enemies alone.
On February 22, the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, Yang Jingyu, commander-in-chief of the First Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army, who had not eaten for five days, stepped on knee-deep snow and came alone to the Sandao Weizi Forest in Baoan Village, Mengjiang County.
On February 23, in the mountains west of Baoan Village in Mengjiang County, Yang Jingyu met Zhao Tingxi, the fake card chief, and four firewood collectors, Sun Changchun, Xin Shunli, and Chi Deshun, who were villagers. Yang Jingyu begged them to go back to the village to bring him some food and cotton shoes, and promised to give him more money. Zhao Tingxi persuaded Yang Jingyu, "I think it's better to surrender, Manchukuo doesn't kill those who surrender now." Yang Jingyu calmly replied: "If all our Chinese surrender, is there still China?"
Zhao Tingxi and the others promised to go back to the village to get Yang Jingyu something to eat, but on the way back, they met the hardcore traitor Li Zhengxin. Under the coaxing and intimidation of the traitors, Zhao Tingxi was afraid that the other three would report first, and he would be charged with concealing and not reporting, so he simply confessed everything. After Li Zhengxin reported to the Japanese puppet, Zhao Tingxi, who "made meritorious contributions," led a large number of Japanese puppet military police to surround Yang Jingyu's position.
In the "A Little History of Public Security in Manchukuo" written by the Japanese, the general's last moments are described: After the Japanese commander Nishitani Kiyoto commanded the Japanese puppet military and police to surround Yang Jingyu, he ordered the troops to stop advancing, and then began to shout: "Is Jun Commander Yang?" Yang Jingyu replied awe-inspiringly: "Needless to say, let's shoot." After nearly half an hour of gunfire, Yang Jingyu was shot in the chest by Zhang Xiruo, a machine gunner who defected with Cheng Bin, and fell under a big tree, dying heroically.
Yang Jingyu, formerly known as Ma Shangde, the word Jisheng, a native of Queshan County, Henan Province, went to the Northeast to engage in underground work in 1929 under the instructions of the Communist Party of China, and changed his name to Yang Jingyu. Yang Jingyu, an anti-Japanese national hero, was only 35 years old when he died.
It was only then that the Japanese army expeditionary team gathered around and saw the true face of this hero who once galloped in the white mountains and black waters. According to the Japanese military reporter in the "Diary in the Battle", the Japanese policeman Nishiya did not dare to move forward for a long time, and even couldn't believe that he had killed Yang Jingyu, who was famous in the northeast.
On the day of Yang Jingyu's death, Lin Changgui, a security villager, went to Sandaoweizi to collect firewood, but was detained by the "crusade team" and was not allowed to move at the foot of the mountain. Lin Changgui and the traitors of the "crusade team" went to the same place that day, and Yang Jingyu's body was sent to the county seat with his small crawling plow. Lin Changgui later told everyone about the "suicide" from hearsay as his own experience at the scene: "Yang Jingyu committed suicide when he saw the last bullet left. The "suicide theory" has thus spread in the society, and for many years, in various historical records and memorial halls in China, Yang Jingyu's sacrifice has been expressed with "the last bullet is reserved for himself".
On February 24, the head of the puppet Tonghua Provincial Police Department, Ryuichiro Kishitani, called Cheng Bin to the county seat of Mengjiang and asked him to identify whether it was Yang Jingyu who was killed. After Cheng Bin confirmed, Ryuichiro Kishitani ordered the traitors Bai Wanren, Wang Zuohua, and Zhang Xiruo to carry Yang Jingyu's body to the guillotine, and Bai Wanren took off the hero's head and put it in a wooden box with transparent glass, and transported it by a car to the then provincial capital of Tonghua. The Japanese army also took pictures of the general's head, printed it into pictures, and scattered them to the places where the Anti-Japanese Union had fought and some residential areas to intimidate the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians.
Yang Jingyu's head was sent to the headquarters of the Kwantung Army in Xinjing, the puppet state of Manchukuo, soaked in a bottle with medicinal solution, and secretly hidden, and his body was abandoned by the Japanese army in the wilderness on the outskirts of Mengjiang County. Because of his admiration for the prestige of the hero, Liu Chengxiang, the head of Baoan Village, quietly led people to bury Yang Jingyu's body.
Ryuichiro Kishitani still has one thing to wonder about: How did Yang Jingyu sustain himself for five days and five nights without any food supplies and was constantly being transferred? Ryuichiro Kishitani ordered Yang Jingyu's chest and abdomen to be dissected, and Yang Jingyu's stomach was taken out and handed over to Hong Baoyuan, a doctor at the Mengjiang County People's Hospital at that time, for examination. According to Hong Baoyuan's recollection, the stomach organs he saw had been severely atrophied and deformed due to long-term starvation. After further testing, Hong Baoyuan couldn't help but be moved to tears, there was not a grain in his stomach, only grass roots and cotton wool, and some cotton was obviously just eaten, and it had not changed one by one.
In the USSR. On February 25, Zhou Enlai, Deng Yingchao, Cai Chang, Chen Yu (disguised as an adjutant), Shi Zhe (disguised as a secretary), Ren Bishi and his wife Chen Congying left Moscow and returned to China. They were accompanied by the Japanese Communist Party leader Nosaka Sanzo (i.e., Okano Shin, disguised as a staff officer) under the pseudonym Lin Zhe, and the Indonesian Communist Party leader Ali Ahan (disguised as a guard) under the pseudonym Wang Dacai.
in Jilin. The Japanese army didn't know what to think, but they suddenly retrieved Yang Jingyu's body, not only put it in a high-class coffin, but also attached it with a woodcarved head.
On March 5, Ryuichiro Kishitani held a "consolation memorial" for Yang Jingyu on the hill outside the north gate of Baoan Village. The burial ceremony is performed with a very solemn Japanese custom, and there are Japanese monks who worship and chant sutras.
On the same day, in Hong Kong. Cai Yuanpei, a modern Chinese educator, died of illness at the age of 72.
During this period, Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the Japanese 11th Army in central China, formulated the "Battle Guidance Policy," with the intention of destroying the main force of the Chinese Fifth Theater of Operations north of Xiangyang in Hubei Province and Suixian, and seizing Yichang, a barrier 480 kilometers away from Chongqing, the wartime capital of the Nationalist Government, so as to destroy the will of the Chinese army and people to resist the war and get rid of the quagmire of war as soon as possible. To this end, the Japanese gathered more than 200,000 men to prepare for a fierce attack. China's Fifth Theater of Operations determined the movements of the Japanese army and immediately adjusted the deployment of troops to deal with the Japanese invasion attempt, and the general battle known in history as the "Battle of Zaoyi" was about to be staged.
In the Soviet Union, Boli. On 19 March, Zhou Baozhong, commander-in-chief of the Anti-Japanese Federation, Li Zhaolin, director of the General Political Department of the Anti-Japanese Federation, and Feng Zhongyun, member of the Standing Committee of the Manchuria Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, director of the Propaganda Department, and director of the Political Department of the Sixth Army, briefed Ivanov, secretary of the regional party committee of the Far East Frontier of the Soviet Union and political commissar of the Military District, of the practical difficulties faced by the anti-Japanese coalition forces, and asked the Soviet side to agree to set up a camping camp on the Soviet side for military training and recuperation. The Soviet side agreed in principle to the transfer of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Federation.
At this time, Zhou Enlai and his entourage had arrived in Almaty from Moscow by train. Zhou Enlai arrived in Dihua on a Soviet plane from Almaty and stayed for about a week, and again negotiated with Sheng Shicai. On March 25, Zhou Enlai returned to Yan'an via Lanzhou.
On March 26, Tan Kah Kee, a leader of Nanyang overseas Chinese who returned from Singapore to inspect anti-Japanese matters, and chairman of the "Nanyang Overseas Chinese Association for Relief of Motherland Refugees", arrived in Chongqing.
On March 28, Chiang Kai-shek met with Chen Jiageng and his entourage. On the same day, Zhou Enlai arrived in Yan'an.
in Nanjing. On March 30, after some whitewashing, the city of Nanjing was a "joyful" scene, and the traitors held the so-called "return to the capital" ceremony, and Wang's puppet "national government" officially appeared on the scene.
The organizational structure of the Wang puppet regime still follows the organizational form of the Nationalist Government, with Lin Sen, chairman of the Chongqing State Government, as chairman, and Wang Jingwei as president and acting chairman of the Executive Yuan. Chen Gongbo, president of the Legislative Yuan, Wen Zongyao, president of the Judicial Yuan, Liang Hongzhi, president of the Supervisory Yuan, Wang Yitang, president of the Examination Yuan, Wang Kemin, chairman of the North China Political Affairs Committee, Ren Yuandao, commander-in-chief of the appeasement army of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, Qi Xieyuan, commander-in-chief of the North China Appeasement Army, and Zhou Fohai, minister of finance and secretary general of the Central Political Committee, etc.
At this time, Guan Lu was saddled with the name of "traitor" and was spurned by her former friends and the world, and only the photo given to her by her lover Wang Bingnan could make her feel warm. On the back of that photo, Wang Bingnan wrote: "You care about me for a while, I care about you for a lifetime." ”
In Europe. After Germany's rapid advance in Eastern Europe and the elimination of Poland, Britain and France were depressed and demoralized. Their opponents, Germany, were no better, and Germany's top generals generally did not have confidence in fighting Britain and France, and some even plotted a coup d'état to oust Hitler from power. Hitler was conscious that he could not go on like this, otherwise Germany's resources would be exhausted, and he would quickly defeat France while he was in full strength.
On 9 April, Germany launched a surprise "Lightning" offensive against Denmark and Norway in northern Europe. It took only four hours for Germany to occupy Denmark, and the great power of Norway to resist for only 62 days.
In northern Jiangsu. In late April, in order to unify the leadership of the party, government, military, and civilian work in the north and south of the river, the CPC Central Committee decided to merge the Central Plains Bureau and the Southeast Bureau to establish the Central China Bureau, and Liu Shaoqi was serving as secretary of the Central Plains Bureau.
In northern Shaanxi. During this period, Chiang Kai-shek called Yan'an several times, urging Zhou Enlai to return to Chongqing to reopen the door to the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Republic, and at the same time, many tasks of the Chongqing Southern Bureau were also to be presided over and carried out by Zhou Enlai and Chongqing. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided that Zhou Enlai would return to Chongqing.
At this time, the Japanese army began to sweep the Jiujiang, Poyang and Dongting Lake areas, and bombed some strategic points in Hunan and Jiangxi. China's Fifth Theater was divided into three defenses: the Left Route Army led by Sun Lianzhong, the Middle Route Army led by Huang Qixiang, and the Right Route Army led by Zhang Zizhong, and the Jiang Defense Army led by Guo Chen, Tang Enbo's 31st Group Army, Sun Zhen's 22nd Group Army, and the 21st Group Army led by Li Pinxian of Dabie Mountain.
On May 1, the Battle of Zaoyi broke out. After the Japanese Third Division broke through the defense of the left flank of the national army, it successively captured Miyang and Tongbai, and the situation was very critical.
On the evening of May 6, after leaving a suicide note determined to fight to the death, Zhang Zizhong went to the front line to supervise the battle the next day, despite the repeated dissuasion of his subordinates.
On May 7, the Japanese army occupied the Tang River and completed the siege of Zaoyang.
On May 8, the 13th Division of the Japanese invaders in the north successively captured Fenglehe, Tianjiaji and Zhangjiaji, and joined up with the 3rd Division. On the same day, Zaoyang was captured by the Japanese invaders.
In Europe. On 10 May, Germany launched an attack on the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in Western Europe. On the same day, Winston Churchill was inaugurated as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
in Chongqing. During this period, Tan Kah Kee met with people from all walks of life, including the top echelons of the Kuomintang, and directly saw the corrupt phenomena of the Kuomintang government, which "embezzled from top to bottom, slept with cats and mice, misled the people and malgoverned the government, and had nothing to fear," and was extremely disappointed in his heart.
The Communist Party of China attaches great importance to Chen Kah Kee's return to China. Dong Biwu, Lin Boqu, and Ye Jianying of the Chongqing office not only went to visit Chen Jiageng, but also invited him to attend a welcome tea party at the Chongqing office of the Communist Party of China. Mao Zedong personally sent a telegram from Yan'an, formally inviting Chen Jiageng to visit Yan'an. After thinking about it, Chen Jiageng decided to take advantage of the opportunity of the northwest inspection to go to Yan'an, despite Chiang Kai-shek's opposition.
On the battlefield of Zaoyi. On May 12, the Fifth Theater launched an all-out counterattack. Unfortunately, Japanese spies cracked the secret code of communication between the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government and the Fifth Theater, and the movements of the 33rd Group Army and the location of its headquarters were also learned by the enemy, and the Japanese army quickly encircled the 33rd Group Army led by General Zhang Zizhong.
On May 16, Zhang Zizhong's troops, who had not been supplied with food and ammunition, were forced to retreat to the Pumpkin Shop. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, General Zhang Zizhong was unfortunately martyred in the fierce battle of the Japanese army at the age of 49.
The Japanese army admired the heroic and unyielding Zhang Zizhong very much, took off their hats and saluted, and buried Zhang Zizhong's body with a coffin, and erected the spirit card of "Zhang Zizhong, the great general of China". Upon learning of Zhang Zizhong's death in battle, Chiang Kai-shek ordered his troops to recapture the body at all costs.
That night, Huang Weigang, commander of the 38th Division, led a death squad to raid the pumpkin shop, and after a hard battle, bravely retrieved the general's remains. Upon examination, it was found that the general had eight wounds on his body, including two shell wounds, one bayonet wound and five gunshot wounds. The Nationalist Government ordered Zhang Zizhong's body to be transported to Chongqing.
When Zhang Zizhong's coffin passed through Yichang City, 100,000 soldiers and civilians were sent all the way to the riverbank, and in the face of the dangerous situation when Japanese planes flew over Yichang three times, none of the people who paid tribute to them took refuge or escaped, but fortunately the Japanese army did not carry out large-scale bombing.
On May 21, all the Nationalist troops retreated to the west bank of the Xianghe River, and the fighting in the Zaoyang area ended. The Japanese were also exhausted by the resistance of the Chinese army, and were forced to order to stop the pursuit and recuperate.
On the morning of May 28, Zhang Zizhong's coffin came to Chaotianmen Wharf in Chongqing. Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang and other government and political dignitaries stood solemnly with black veils on their arms to greet them, and boarded the ship around the coffin to mourn. Chiang Kai-shek "mourned the coffin" on the boat, which moved everyone present. Chiang Kai-shek then personally helped the coffin to carry the coffin up the stairs and escort the coffin through the whole city of Chongqing.
The national government issued a state funeral order for Zhang Zizhong, issued the "Rong Zi No. 1" honorary mourning certificate, and Zhang Zizhong's tablet was enshrined in the Martyrs' Shrine, tied for the first place. In the afternoon of the same day, military and political dignitaries and people from all walks of life held a grand and solemn memorial ceremony for Zhang Zizhong at Chuqimen. Leaders of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, important members of all walks of life, and celebrities have praised General Zhang Zizhong as "a loyal and righteous man and a heroic spirit." Zhang Zizhong was honored as a state funeral in Yutai Mountain, Chongqing. After that, Feng Yuxiang planted plum blossoms beside the tomb, following the Ming Dynasty Shi Kefa's burial of Yangzhou Plum Blossom Ridge, so the mountain was renamed Plum Blossom Mountain.
It was during this period that Tan Kah Kee led a consolation group to visit Lanzhou and then arrived in Xi'an. Zhu De, who was returning to Yan'an from the North China front and passing through Xi'an, specially came to visit Chen Jiageng and invited him to the office of the Eighth Route Army for lunch, and said that Zhou Enlai would also delay his return to Chongqing for a day to meet with him, and Chen Jiageng readily agreed. Unexpectedly, due to the obstruction of the Kuomintang side, the meeting was unsuccessful. Chen Kah Kee was very dissatisfied with the difficulties of the Kuomintang, and insisted on delivering a speech without scruples, criticizing the evils of the times.
On May 30, Tan Kah Kee led a delegation to Yan'an as scheduled.
On May 31, Chen Jiageng and his entourage arrived in Yan'an and were greeted by the local military and civilians.
On June 1, Mao Zedong met with Tan Kah Kee in the cave of his office and residence. Seeing that there was only an old wooden desk and more than a dozen wooden chairs of different sizes in the cave, Chen Jiageng admired the simplicity of the CCP leader.
During the conversation, Zhu De, Wang Ming and his wife, and a Nanyang female student also rushed to participate in this less formal discussion. After the conversation, Mao Zedong hosted a banquet for Chen Jiageng. It is said to be a banquet, but it is actually very simple, eating cabbage, salty rice, and a bowl of old chicken soup.
in Shandong. On this day, Xu Xiangqian, Zhu Rui, and Li Yu sent a telegram to the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, suggesting that the 115th Division be incorporated into the first column of the Eighth Route Army, with Xu Xiangqian as the commander of the 115th Division, Chen Guang as the deputy division commander, and Luo Ronghuan as the political commissar.
As the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was preparing for Xu Xiangqian to return to Yan'an to participate in the preparations for the party's "Seventh National Congress", this proposal was shelved. On June 7, Xu Xiangqian returned to Yan'an from Shandong.
In northern Shaanxi. On June 8, Tan Kah Kee left Yan'an. During this trip to Yan'an, Chen Jiageng was deeply impressed by the incorruptibility and revolutionary enthusiasm of the CCP members led by Mao Zedong, and he decided: "China's hope lies in Yan'an." ”
in Hubei. After resting, the Japanese army gathered its forces again at this time and pounced on Yichang. The Japanese offensive was fierce, and the Chinese defenders were weak and were forced to retreat to the nearby mountains.
June 17, 日军攻陷宜昌。
In the Battle of Zaoyi, although the Japanese army played a certain deterrent role in China's southwestern rear, it failed to complete its strategic intention of destroying the main force of the Fifth Theater Army. The Chinese army and the Japanese army formed a confrontation on the outer line of Yichang, Dangyang, Jiangling, Jingmen, Zhongxiang, Suixian, and Xinyang. In this battle, more than 11,000 Japanese soldiers were killed and wounded, and more than 37,000 were killed or wounded by the national army.
In Europe. Germany went on to sweep the Netherlands and Belgium, while England and France were defeated. Japan seized the opportunity to exert pressure on Britain and France, threatening them to blockade the international communication lines between China and Burma and China and Vietnam in southwest China.
On June 20, the collapsing French government agreed to a complete blockade of the Sino-Vietnamese border and allowed Japanese military personnel to enter Vietnam to monitor the embargo against China.
On June 22, France, the old imperialist power, surrendered to Germany, and Britain withdrew from the European continent in disarray.
At this time, Chen Yi, commander of the Jiangnan Command of the New Fourth Army, and Su Yu, deputy commander, led the main force to move north of the Yangtze River in accordance with the instructions of the CPC Central Committee to "advance into northern Jiangsu and develop central China" and joined up with the advancing column and the Suwan detachment that had crossed the river in advance. Soon, the Jiangnan Command was renamed the Northern Jiangsu Command.
in Chongqing. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying as representatives to hold negotiations with Kuomintang representatives He Yingqin and Bai Chongxi. The contents of the talks were: demanding that the Kuomintang further resolve the issue of the legal status of the CPC, the issue of recognizing the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region, the issue of expanding the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, and the issue of dividing the operational area.
On July 2, on behalf of the Kuomintang, He Yingqin submitted a reply to the CCP's June proposal. Since then, the two sides have been back and forth, and negotiations have been difficult.
On July 7, Nosaka Sanzo officially established the Yan'an branch of the Anti-War League in Yan'an. The Anti-War League successively established five branches in the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines in North China and Central China, including Jizhong, Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei, Shandong, Huaibei, and Northern Jiangsu, to lead the activities of Japanese anti-war soldiers in China's anti-Japanese base areas.
On 12 July, Britain gave in to Japan and agreed to close the Burma Highway. On the 16th, the United Kingdom officially announced that it would ban the delivery of ordnance, ammunition, gasoline, trucks and railway materials to China through Myanmar for three months from July 18, and Hong Kong would also embargo the shipment. The appeasement policies of Britain and France reduced China's arms imports by about 51 percent.
On July 17, Tan Kah Kee returned to Chongqing. Chen Jiageng delivered a speech on "The Perception of the Northwest", "reporting the truth" of what he saw and heard in Yan'an.
On July 20, the headquarters of the "Japanese Anti-War League in China" (the Japanese call themselves the "Japanese Peace League") was grandly established in Chongqing, with Lu Di Wataru as its president.
On July 21, Zhou Enlai went to the Jialing Hotel in Chongqing to visit Chen Jiageng, which was the first meeting between the two.
Soon after, Tan Kah Kee returned to Singapore. While passing through Yangon, Myanmar, Tan Kah Kee delivered a three-hour speech at a welcoming party for overseas Chinese, excitedly proclaiming: "China's hope is in Yan'an!"
in North China. In order to cut off the connection between the Taihang anti-Japanese base area where the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the 129th Division were active and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border area, and to build an anti-Japanese base area relying on North China to attack, the Japanese army implemented the "cage policy" of "taking the railway as the pillar, the highway as the chain, and the pillbox as the lock".
The Zhengtai Railway from Zhengding to Taiyuan in Hebei Province was one of the important pillars of the Japanese army's implementation of this policy, which caused serious difficulties to the anti-Japanese base areas. The Eighth Route Army decided to attack the lines of communication behind enemy lines and crush the Japanese attempts.
On 8 August, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army issued the "Operational Order" to attack Zhengtai Road and the Beining, Jinpu, Deshi, Cangshi, and Pinghan railways around the border area.
On August 20, the "Battle of 100 Regiments" officially began. In the three months since then, more than 100 regiments of the Eighth Route Army have participated in more than 1,800 battles, killing and wounding more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers.
On this very day, Leon Trotsky, the "father of the Soviet Red Army", was crushed in the head with an ice axe by Soviet agent Ramon Mercader in Mexico. The next day, Trotsky died of his wounds.
In the USSR. The rapid advance of Nazi Germany in Europe worried Stalin and the Central Committee of the CPSU and began to prepare for a possible war.
One day in September, the Soviet High Command convened a military meeting and invited Lin Biao, who was recuperating from illness, to attend. During the meeting, the marshals and generals of the Soviet Union generally believed that if Germany attacked the Soviet Union, it would first attack rich Ukraine. Seeing that Lin Biao did not speak, Stalin said that he wanted to hear his opinion. Lin Biao, then Chinese New Year's Eve, asserted that if Hitler wanted to fight the Soviet Union, he must attack from the Western Front, occupy Moscow, and destroy the Soviet Union. The Soviets disagreed with Lin Biao's views.
However, the situation after the outbreak of war the following year fully proved the Chinese general's foresight correct. It is said that after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, Lin Biao completed a set of systematic ideas on how to win the Soviet-German war and presented it to Stalin. Stalin admired Lin Biao's talent and took him to a heavily guarded villa outside Moscow. Therefore, it was later rumored in Yan'an and Moscow that Stalin had formally proposed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that he would use three divisions of elite troops to replace Lin Biao with Lin Biao to command the Soviet Red Army to fight against Hitler's army.
In Shanghai. Also in September, the Japanese Navy entered the Iwai Mansion and copied the call sign and wavelength of the radio station controlled by Yuan Shu, and Pan Hannian took into account Liu Ren's safety and instructed him to withdraw from the Iwai Mansion. Liu Shoushou first helped the underground radio station set up on Baylor Road (now Huangpi South Road) to inform Yan'an, and then set up a radio station on Rafeide Road (now Fuxing Middle Road and Xiangyang Road West), which was covered by Mrs. Shipp, an international friend. Shipp was a German progressive journalist who died while covering the front lines of the New Fourth Army.
in Vietnam. On September 22, taking advantage of the French rout in Europe, the Japanese 5th Division occupied the Vietnamese town of Lang Son in three ways.
On September 26, the Japanese Navy captured the port of Haiphong.
Faced with the reality of powerlessness, the Vichy French colonists had no choice but to surrender Vietnam, and thus began the history of nominally Japanese and French co-rule in Vietnam. At this point, Japan has completely cut off the communication between Vietnam and southwest China.
Japan's actions in Indochina exposed its growing ambitions, which not only offended American interests, but also deeply stung the Americans, and the United States immediately announced an embargo on scrap iron against Japan. Since the full-scale war between China and Japan, the United States has been selling scrap iron to Japan for profit, until this moment was trampled on by the Japanese, and did not remember the embargo, but countless Chinese have been killed by ammunition made of American steel.
On September 27, Germany and Italy accepted Japan as an Axis Nation and signed the Triple Alliance Treaty, forming the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis.
In northern Jiangsu. After the arrival of the New Fourth Army led by Chen Yi, Han Deqin, deputy commander-in-chief of the Lusu Theater of the Kuomintang Army and chairman of Jiangsu Province, regarded the Northern Jiangsu troops of the New Fourth Army as a danger to his henchmen and decided to concentrate his forces on attacking Huangqiao and eliminate or expel the New Fourth Army, which had an unstable foothold.
On October 3, the Korean Ministry marched towards Huangqiao. The New Fourth Army defended the Yellow Bridge with one force, and most of the troops launched a surprise attack, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy.
On October 6, the New Fourth Army won the Battle of Huangqiao, annihilating more than 11,000 South Korean troops, and successively descended Hai'an, Dongtai, and approached Xinghua and other places.
On October 10, the fifth column of the Eighth Route Army led by Huang Kecheng moved south to occupy Yancheng.
Chen Yi then led his troops north and joined Huang Kecheng in Baiju Town between Yancheng and Dongtai. As a result, the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines in northern Jiangsu were united, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were united, and the largest anti-Japanese base area in central China was formed.
in Chongqing. The Kuomintang was disturbed by the victory of the Chinese Communists in northern Jiangsu, which was not far from Nanjing, and was not only a strategic place in and out of the Yangtze River, but also rich in natural resources. As a result, the Kuomintang ignored the fact that the New Fourth Army was constantly fighting against the Japanese army, selectively "went blind," and constantly accused the New Fourth Army of not fighting the Japanese and specifically attacking "friendly forces." In fact, during the period from 1938 to 1940, the New Fourth Army had annihilated 38,000 Japanese puppet troops and captured more than 17,000 people, breaking the Japanese army's plan to march into Central and South China.
On October 19, He Yingqin and Bai Chongxi, in the name of the chief and deputy chiefs of staff of the Military Commission of the Kuomintang government, sent a telegram to Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and Ye Ting, ordering the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army south of the Yellow River to go north of the Yellow River within one month. Its intention could not be clearer, that is, to use the Japanese army to consume the CCP's troops.
In the face of Chiang Kai-shek's aggressive order for the Chinese communist army to retreat north of the old Yellow River, Mao Zedong was very vigilant, judging that Chiang Kai-shek might have reached a compromise and surrender agreement with Japan and wanted to conspire to eliminate the Chinese Communist Party. At one point, Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to take a major military step, with 150,000 elite troops to attack the Kuomintang rear in Henan and Gansu first, in order to smash its conspiracy to "suppress the Communists" and blockade plan.
On November 4, Mao Zedong drafted a telegram to Dimitrov and Manuysky, detailing the need for this major action step.
It was at this time that the Soviet military chief adviser Chuikov came to China. Chuikov brought with him Stalin's point of view: not agreeing to take the approach of being an enemy of Chiang Kai-shek. If Chiang Kai-shek was forced to the side of Japan because of this, it would be a serious "danger" to the Chinese revolution and to the security of the Soviet Union. In his telegram exchange with Mao Zedong, Dimitrov also stressed the need to maintain the position of the situation of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
On November 6, Mao Zedong received "important information" from Zhou Enlai from Chongqing, learning that Britain and the United States were trying to control China, and the top leaders of the Kuomintang also emphasized that "Chiang himself was more influenced by Britain and the United States than by Germany and Japan."
On 9 November, the CPC Central Committee replied to He Yingqin and Bai Chongxi in the names of Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Ye Ting, and Xiang Ying, refuting the anti-communist slander and unreasonable demands of the "Haodian" on the basis of facts; at the same time, it said that in order to take into account the overall situation and persist in uniting in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the troops of the New Fourth Army stationed in southern Anhui would go north of the Yangtze River.
On November 17, in order to unify the leadership of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in Central China, in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the General Headquarters of the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army in Central China was established in Hai'an, northern Jiangsu, with Ye Ting as the commander-in-chief, Liu Shaoqi as the political commissar, and Chen Yi as the deputy commander-in-chief (Chen Yi acted as the commander-in-chief before Ye Ting arrived in northern Jiangsu). Just after the formation of the leadership core of the anti-Japanese base area in Central China, the General Headquarters of Central China moved to Yancheng.
in Japan. In November, two American priests, Fathers Walsh and Draut, arrived in Tokyo as "representatives of the people" and met with Tadao Ikawa, a friend of Prime Minister Konoe and a member of the Central Treasury of the Industrial Union, to unveil the prelude to negotiations between the United States and Japan to bridge the rift.
in Xinjiang. On November 26, Sheng Shicai and the representatives of the Soviet government, Bakulin and Karpov, signed the 50-year "New Soviet Concession Treaty," which allowed the Soviet Union to enjoy all kinds of independent privileges in Xinjiang without interference from the local government, and seized all the minerals, transportation, industry, and various resources in Xinjiang. This is a treaty that seriously violates China's sovereignty.
Sheng Shicai later further proposed: establish the Xinjiang Soviet Republic, secede from China, and join the Soviet Union. In view of the Sino-Soviet alliance at that time, Stalin rejected this proposal.
in Nanjing. On November 29, Wang Jingwei officially assumed the post of chairman of the puppet Nationalist Government. On the 30th, Japan and Wang Fu formally signed the "Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and China."
With regard to the treaty between Japan and Wang, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chongqing Nationalist Government declared that the illegal treaty made by Japan and Wang was completely null and void. At the same time, the U.S. government announced that it would provide China with a huge loan of $100 million, the British government later announced that it would provide China with a loan of $50 million, and Stalin announced that it would further support China's war of resistance.
In Yan'an. Based on the fact that Chiang Kai-shek had no possibility of surrendering to Japan, Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China relaxed their tense nerves at this time about the dangerous situation in which the troops in southern Anhui were located.
On December 5, the Battle of the Hundred Regiments ended. The Battle of the Hundred Regiments was the largest and longest campaign launched by the Eighth Route Army in North China during the stalemate stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan, which dealt a heavy blow to the "cage policy" of the enemy's North China Front Army and greatly shocked the Japanese army.
in Chongqing. On December 9, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order: the New Fourth Army south of the Yangtze River should be limited to the area north of the Yangtze River by December 31, and the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army south of the Yellow River should be driven to the area north of the Yellow River by January 30, 1941.
On 10 December, Chiang Kai-shek secretly issued the "Operational Plan for Exterminating the Bandit Army South of the Yellow River" and the "Plan for Resolving the New Fourth Army in the South of the Yangtze River," and secretly ordered Gu Zhutong, commander of the Third Theater, and Shangguan Yunxiang, commander-in-chief of the 32nd Group Army, to transfer troops to encircle and annihilate the troops of the New Fourth Army.
in the Northeast. In late December, the anti-coalition forces broke through the Japanese army's heavy interception and began to cross the Heilongjiang River into the Soviet Union in phases and batches to rest and recuperate. More than 300 commanders and fighters of the 3rd Detachment of the 3rd Route Army, which was directly under the headquarters of the Second Route Army, which crossed the border in advance, were stationed in Fisk on the side of the Heilongjiang River (called the Amur River in the Soviet Union), 75 kilometers away from Khabarovsk (Boli). More than 500 commanders and fighters of the guard battalion of the First Route Army and the Second and Third Front Armies of the Anti-Japanese Union were stationed at the "Toad Pond" near a small railway station between Vladivostok and Vorosnov.
On December 26, Chiang Kai-shek made an appointment to meet Zhou Enlai with a tough attitude. Zhou Enlai believed, "Its purpose is to try to eliminate the first part of our New Fourth Army in order to force me to go north." ”
In view of the very dangerous situation of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui, Mao Zedong sent five telegrams to remind Xiang Ying, asking him to immediately lead the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army to the north. Mao Zedong said in a telegram, "It should be estimated that we may encounter special difficulties, may be attacked, and may suffer losses in the course of moving, and we should take the situation as particularly serious." But Xiang Ying was reluctant to take action in this area of southern Anhui.
Xiang Ying is the political commissar of the New Fourth Army and the secretary of the Southeast Bureau, and although he is nominally the deputy commander, he actually has the "right to make decisions," and his "disagreement" with Ye Ting is an open secret in the New Fourth Army. Of course, Xiang Ying and others were not completely unprepared for the grim situation, so they decided: take advantage of the unpreparedness of the Kuomintang army, go south to Maolin, and make a detour to northern Jiangsu. However, Gu Zhutong of the Kuomintang Third Theater had already made preparations and had already taken the lead in building blockade lines one after another.
in the Northeast. After the efforts of Zhang Ruilin, secretary of the Harbin Underground Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Liu Yuantai, a former soldier of the Third Flying Team of the Puppet Manchurians in Wanggang Town, some officers and men of the flying team with strong patriotic hearts and anti-Japanese sentiments decided to revolt and defect to the Anti-Japanese Federation.
At that time, Xu Zemin, the leader of the 12th detachment of the Anti-Japanese Federation, and Zhang Ruilin, a political instructor, suggested that the time of the uprising should be set in the summer when the green gauze tent was grown, so that the rebel troops could hide in the green gauze tent and evacuate quickly, and it was also conducive to the anti-union forces to receive the rebels. However, while the traffic officers were still on the road, the Wanggang uprising troops lost contact with the 12th detachment of the Anti-Japanese Federation, and Su Guixiang, the squad leader of the second company and the fourth squad of the puppet Manchurian 3rd Flying Brigade, who was responsible for leading the uprising, was worried that the night would be long and dreamy, and the news would leak out, so he decided that the time for the uprising was January 4, 1941.
In Yan'an. On December 30, Xinhua Radio began broadcasting, which is the predecessor of the Central People's Radio.
On January 4, the thirtieth year of the Republic of China (1941), the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui, a teaching regiment, a special service regiment and two regiments of the first, second and third detachments, a total of more than 9,000 people, under the leadership of Ye Ting and Xiang Ying, set off from Yunling in Jing County and advanced towards Maolin.
At the same time, Mao Zedong received a telegram from Dimitrov, in which Dimitrov criticized Mao Zedong for "not taking rupture as a starting point." In hindsight, this telegram really slapped the Comintern in the face, and made Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party see clearly the importance of independence.
in Harbin. At 9 o'clock that night, after Su Guixiang led 84 rebel soldiers to kill two Japanese officers, nine puppet soldiers, wound one, and destroy three Japanese planes parked at the airport, they defected to the Anti-Japanese Federation in the night. When the Japanese Kwantung Army Command learned of the incident, it was furious and immediately sent a large number of Japanese puppet troops to search for the uprising team.
On January 6, the uprising brigade was spotted by a Japanese reconnaissance plane while resting in Guozitoujing Village, near Yushulin in Zhaodong County. A large number of more than 2,000 Japanese puppet soldiers and policemen in 100 cars surrounded the rebel troops from all sides. During the battle, Su Guixiang, who was only 20 years old at the time, was shot in the chest, blood flowed, Su Guixiang shook and ordered the soldier Shi Dengyun to burn the documents and the list of participants in the uprising, rushed out of the encirclement, and defected to the 12th detachment of the Anti-Japanese Federation. In this battle, a total of 32 Japanese puppet soldiers were killed, 30 rebels were killed, and 44 were captured. In the end, only ten rebel soldiers broke out of the siege in the darkness of the night.
The uprising of the Third Flying Squadron of the puppet air force, which occurred among the "best units of the Manchu army" under the strict control of Japan, greatly shook the Japanese puppet authorities.
On the same day, in Anhui. The New Fourth Army fell into the heavy encirclement of about 80,000 Kuomintang troops in seven divisions commanded by Gu Zhutong and Shangguan Yunxiang in the Maolin area.
In the face of the enemy's siege, Commander Ye Ting advocated that he would fight from Piling to Xingtan desperately to realize the plan of the convergence of the three columns, but just when the troops had taken Piling and were preparing to take Xingtan in one go, Xiang Ying asked for a meeting to discuss it on the grounds that the casualties were too large.
The meeting was held from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Ye Ting was anxious: "Time is victory, and you can't hesitate." My attitude is that I will obey the wrong determination, and now I will ask Deputy Commander Xiang to decide, and you can do whatever you decide. Xiang Ying decided that the large army would retreat to the west of Piling to break through.
When the order to retreat reached the front line, Huang Mars, the commander of the 3rd Regiment, said to Lin Zhifu, the enemy's minister of engineering: It's a pity, the four fortifications of the enemy's 79th Division at Pilingkou have already taken two of them for us, and the remaining two machine guns are no longer sounding, and their machine gun bullets have also run out, and if we don't retreat, we will definitely be able to take them all.
After the original plan was disrupted, the troops rushed to the left and right, but they were surrounded by Chiang's army on all sides, and they still circled in the ravine. Liang Pu (Rao Shushi), deputy secretary of the Southeast Bureau, questioned Xiang Ying: Although I don't understand military affairs, how did Xiang Ying command a troop of several thousand troops running around in the mountains, tired and unable to eat, and whether they wanted to fight or not? Xiang Ying was speechless when asked. Soon the troops were scattered.
On 9 January, Liu Shaoqi and Chen Yi, who were separating the river from northern Jiangsu and southern Anhui, received a telegram from Ye Ting and Rao Shushi: "This morning (9th) we are advancing northward, and we are surrounded again. Xiang Ying and Guoping led a small army to leave this morning without telling them, and the direction of the line is unknown. For the sake of the safety of all, I will maintain it to the end."
Liu Shaoqi immediately forwarded the contents of Ye Ting and Rao Shushi's telegram to Yan'an, and at the same time decisively ordered the second detachment of northern Jiangsu to assemble in Jiangnan to respond. Yan'an was also very surprised after receiving the call, Mao Zedong and Zhu De called Liu Shaoqi: "We have not received this news, when they left, where they are now, and what is the situation of Xiyi and Xiaoyao (that is, Rao Shushi), I hope to tell us immediately."
At dawn on January 10, the army command post retreated to Maolin Shijingkeng, and there were only more than 20 people left around Ye Ting. In the next few hours, the scattered troops of the New Fourth Army continued to gather in Shijingkeng, and after the reorganization, there were more than 5,000 people.
Ye Ting and Rao Shushi organized the battle on the one hand, and on the other hand, they called Liu Shaoqi and Chen Yi and forwarded it to Yan'an: "Supporting the self-defense battle for four days and nights is now on the verge of a desperate situation, and all the cadres are ready to sacrifice. Please immediately consider the actual situation, whether the Central Committee or Chongqing can negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek to immediately stop the attack on southern Anhui, and ensure the safe movement of the New Fourth Army to the north of the Yangtze River and the release of all arrested military personnel in accordance with the original proposal. ”
At this moment, Xiang Ying also sent a telegram: "...... The day before yesterday, the breakthrough was blocked, and the troops were surrounded in the Dazhen Mountain, and there was a great possibility of being wiped out, so they were temporarily shaken, trying to lead the team to intersperse and detour the trail...... Today, I heard that the 5th Regiment was nearby, and when the team arrived, it joined the military headquarters. I am determined to live and die with the troops. ”
Liu Shaoqi then received telegrams from Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Wang Jiaxiang, asking them to do their best to support Ye Ting and Rao Shushi's transfer to southern Jiangsu.
On January 11, Zhou Enlai, who was in Chongqing, received the news that the New Fourth Army was being besieged, convened an emergency meeting overnight and wrote a letter to the Kuomintang negotiators, demanding that the siege of the New Fourth Army be stopped immediately.
On January 12, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting of the Political Bureau and adopted the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China drafted by Mao Zedong on the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui under the leadership of Ye Ting and Rao Shushi, and Xiang Ying's march north with the army. At a meeting of party, government, and military leaders of the Central China Command, Liu Shaoqi put forward the idea of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao," that is, to encircle Shen Honglie's troops with Zhu Rui, Chen Guang, and Luo Ronghuan from Shandong, and to surround Han Deqin's troops with northern Jiangsu, in exchange with the Kuomintang.
On January 13, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China replied to agree with Liu Shaoqi's opinion, but it was too late.
On this day, after seven days and nights of bloody fighting, the New Fourth Army finally ran out of ammunition and food due to the disparity in numbers, and most of them died heroically. Ye Ting reluctantly announced a dispersal breakout. Ye Ting and Liang Pu all the way, Xiang Ying, Zhou Zikun, and Yuan Guoping broke through separately for the other way.
Ye Ting encountered the enemy during the breakthrough all the way and was surrounded on the mountain. Rao Shushi asked Ye Ting if he could negotiate, and he circled around. Ye Ting said: What kind of capital negotiations are there now? Rao Shushi said: This is an organizational requirement. Ye Ting said, since it is a requirement of the organization, I will go.
On January 14, Ye Ting went down the mountain to negotiate with the enemy's 108th Division, and was immediately detained. Ye Ting was imprisoned in Shangrao, Jiangxi, Enshi, Hubei, Guilin, Guangxi, and other places, and was finally imprisoned in the concentration camp of the "Sino-US Special Technical Cooperation Institute" in Chongqing.
Rao Shushi was captured during the breakout, but escaped by the guards and was rescued by the missionaries. Since Rao Shushi did not contact any local party organization in the next two months, Chen Yi once expressed doubts about this, and the contradiction between the two men arose. At that time, Ren Bishi, director of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chen Yun, and Kang Sheng, deputy directors of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, also had doubts about this, but Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi both vouched for Rao Shushi, and the matter was abandoned.
In the other breakthrough team, Yuan Guoping, director of the Political Department, was shot in a coma during the breakout and was separated from Xiang Ying and Zhou Zikun, and was later found by the soldiers of the Guard Company who passed by and broke through on his back. Xiang Ying and Zhou Zikun met Liu Houzong, the adjutant of the Military Department's Adjutant Office, and Xiang Ying agreed to take Liu Houzong with them.
On the same day, Liu Shaoqi received a telegram from Mao Zedong to Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying, and to Peng Dehuai, Zuo Quan, Liu Shaoqi, and Chen Yi, "The Central Committee has decided to launch a full-scale political counteroffensive and militarily prepare all necessary forces to crush its offensive ......." Obviously, Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China were already preparing for a comprehensive political and military counteroffensive.
At this critical moment, Liu Shaoqi showed the unusual calmness and maturity of a statesman, believing that an all-out military counteroffensive against the Kuomintang was undesirable under the condition that the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had not yet reached a complete rupture and the national contradiction was still the main contradiction. He advocated that the KMT's conspiracy should be fully exposed politically, and that all-out conflicts should be avoided militarily except in a few areas, so as to win the initiative.
On January 15, Liu Shaoqi sent a telegram to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, explaining his views in detail. Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China accepted Liu Shaoqi's suggestion and soon established the policy of "taking a fierce offensive politically, and only taking a defensive position militarily for the time being."
On this day, Yuan Guoping was taken to Zhangjiadu by the soldiers of the Guard Company. Seeing that there were constantly soldiers dying for their own drag, Yuan Guoping resolutely took out the pistol hidden in his pocket and committed suicide at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve.
Li Fu, deputy company commander, handed over Yuan Guoping's body to Liu Kui, a staff officer of the New Fourth Army Military Headquarters who had proved Chen Yi's identity. After Liu Kui buried Yuan Guoping's body with his own hands, he broke through the siege and came to the Liankeng area to get in touch with the underground organization and the local people.
On January 17, Chiang Kai-shek, in the name of the Kuomintang Military Committee, took a bite back, announced the "mutiny" of the New Fourth Army, cancelled its name, and General Ye Ting was "dismissed" from his post and "handed over to the military court for trial", and ordered the more than 200,000 troops of Tang Enbo and Li Pinxian to attack the New Fourth Army in Jiangbei.
The Kuomintang also seized all the reports of the "Xinhua Daily" on the truth of the incident in southern Anhui, and Zhou Enlai ordered the editor-in-chief of the "Xinhua Daily" to prepare two types of typesetting and submit them for review, so as to hide the eyes of the inspectors.
On January 18, "Xinhua Daily" published Zhou Enlai's inscription "Mourning for the Victims of the Dead in Jiangnan" and the article "Strange Grievances Through the Ages, a Leaf in Jiangnan, Fighting in the Same Room, Why Fry Each Other?".
In northern Jiangsu. Liu Shaoqi suggested to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army be restored. This move can not only counter the conspiracy of the Kuomintang diehards, but also strengthen the unified leadership of the military forces in central China, reorganize the army, and boost morale. It's a win-win-win-win
On January 20, the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued an order announcing the re-establishment of the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army. Chen Yi was appointed acting commander of the New Fourth Army, Liu Shaoqi was appointed political commissar, Zhang Yunyi was appointed deputy commander, Lai Chuanzhu was appointed chief of staff, and Deng Zihui was appointed director of the Political Department.
On the same day, in Guangxi. According to Yan'an's instructions, the Guilin Office of the Eighth Route Army was abolished. Li Kenong and others broke through the obstruction and assassination of the military commanders and arrived in Chongqing. After that, Li Kenong returned to Yan'an and served as deputy minister of the Central Social Department.
On 23 January, Chen Yi, acting commander of the New Fourth Army, Zhang Yunyi, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, Liu Shaoqi, political commissar, Lai Chuanzhu, chief of staff, and Deng Zihui, director of the Political Department, jointly issued an inaugural telegram.
On the same day, in Saltu, Anda County, Heilongjiang Province, the Japanese army arrested Liu Yuantai, who had participated in the planning of the Wanggang Uprising. A few months later, Liu Yuantai, then 20 years old, and nine rebel soldiers, including Shi Dengyun, Gao Zhenshan, Tang Tianci, Xie Junleng, Zhou Xiangchun, Chen Yumin, Jin Zhongzheng, Wang Futing, and Xu Jingtai, were shot dead by the Japanese army at the foot of the Zhongling Pagoda (now the parachute tower of the Heilongjiang Provincial Stadium). The remaining 35 were sentenced to life and fixed-term imprisonment.
in North China. From January 24th to 25th, the Japanese army attacked the Tang Enbo Group Army of the Chinese army in southern Henan by three routes, successively along the Pinghan Railway (present-day Beijing-Hankou) and on both sides, with the intention of opening up the southern section of the Pinghan Railway and removing the threat of the Chinese army to the Japanese army in Xinyang. The Chinese army resisted with a frontal force, and the main force waited on both sides to repel the Japanese attack.
in Jiangsu. On January 28, the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army was re-established in Yancheng. In accordance with the order of the central authorities, the units of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, which were operating south of the Longhai Road, were unified and reorganized into seven divisions and one independent brigade: Su Yu, commander of the First Division, Liu Yan, political commissar, Zhang Yunyi (concurrently), political commissar Zheng Weisan, commander of the Second Division, Huang Kecheng, commander and political commissar of the Third Division, Peng Xuefeng, commander and political commissar of the Fourth Division, Li Xiannian, commander and political commissar of the Fifth Division, Tan Zhenlin, commander and political commissar of the Sixth Division, Zhang Dingcheng, commander of the Seventh Division, and Zeng Xisheng, political commissar of the Seventh Division; and the Fifth Brigade of the Eighth Route Army was reorganized into an independent brigade.
In the process of dealing with the incident in southern Anhui, Liu Shaoqi's reason and wisdom repeatedly displayed at critical moments were recognized by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the political status of the party began to rise rapidly.
At the same time, the perverse actions of the Kuomintang authorities have drawn unanimous criticism from public opinion at home and abroad, including the United States and the Soviet Union, and they have fallen into unprecedented political isolation. Under these circumstances, the Kuomintang had no choice but to rein in its anti-communist activities. Soon after, Chiang Kai-shek openly stated that "there will never be any military suppression of the Communists in the future."
In January, Indian doctor Kotnis officially joined the Eighth Route Army and was appointed as the first director of the Bethune International Peace Hospital in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region. At the same time, Kotnis concurrently served as a teacher at the Bethune Health School, and met and fell in love with Guo Qinglan, a teacher at the Health School, and later tied the knot.
On 10 February, Fu Qiutao, commander of the First Column of the New Fourth Army, who had broken through from southern Anhui, arrived at Luo Zhongyi and Liao Haitao of the 16th Brigade of the New Fourth Army, who were fighting behind enemy lines in southern Jiangsu.
The Southern Anhui Incident was a bloody and tragic page in the military history of the New Fourth Army. In this incident, the leaders of the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army were either killed or captured, and none of them were spared, and more than 3,000 commanders and fighters of the New Fourth Army were killed, more than 4,000 were captured, and only 2,000 broke through. Among those who broke through, Fu Qiutao later served as deputy commander of the Seventh Division of the New Fourth Army, and was awarded the rank of general after the founding of the People's Republic of China; Yang Fan, who later became director of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, wrote "The Breakthrough of Southern Anhui" based on his own personal experience, which was published in the magazine "Jianghuai Culture."
in Washington. On 14 February, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the opportunity of meeting with the new Japanese ambassador to the United States, Kichizaburo Nomura, to formally put forward a proposal for negotiations.
After a series of informal consultations and talks between American priests Walsh and Draut and Japanese diplomats, the two sides drafted an outline for negotiations, the "Japan-US Understanding." According to this outline, Japan partially renounced its alliance obligations to Germany, withdrew its troops from Chinese territory outside the northeast, and pledged not to infringe on American interests in Southeast Asia. The United States, on the other hand, was generous to others, recognized the puppet state of Manchukuo at the expense of the interests of northeast China, promoted peace between China and Japan, continued to provide Japan with oil and other resources, and promised to stay out of the European war.
In mid-February, Liu Kui led a guerrilla force to find more than 50 cadres, including Xiang Ying and Zhou Zikun, in Shiniuwo. Soon, Liu Kui learned from Jiang Yuefan, a member of the local underground organization, that there was a bee cave on Chikeng Mountain, which could hide 4 or 5 people, which was very hidden. So, Xiang Ying, Zhou Zikun and their entourage moved to the bee cave. Because the entrance of the bee cave was very small, Xiang Ying, his adjutant Liu Houzong, Zhou Zikun and the guard Huang Cheng settled down in the cave, and the other guards lived at the bottom of the slope outside the cave.
In Yan'an. Xu Xiangqian, commander of the 1st Column of the Eighth Route Army in Shandong, and Zhang Jingwu, leader of the Shandong Column, rode to Qilipu to see off a group of cadres sent by the central authorities to Shandong and put forward requirements for the work in Shandong. Unexpectedly, on the way, Zhang Jingwu's horse and Xu Xiangqian's horse grabbed the road, and a "quarrel" occurred, which developed into a kick, Xu Xiangqian could not dodge on the horse, and was kicked by the horse, and the tibia of his left leg was fractured. This fracture greatly affected Xu Xiangqian, causing him to fail to appear on the battlefield again, and after recovering from the injury, he became He Long's deputy commander and chief of staff. However, the Kuomintang knew nothing about this, and until the victory of the anti-Japanese resistance, it still referred to the Shandong Eighth Route Army as "Xu Qianqian".
in Chongqing. In March, Zhou Enlai and others proposed to the Kuomintang 20 points to resolve the current situation, but they were rejected, and the CCP refused to attend the second National Political Participation Conference.
On March 19, with the help of the Communist Party of China, the China Democratic Political League was secretly convened in the "Special Garden", the residence of the famous democrat Xianying, and the meeting adopted the "Political Program of the China Democratic Political League", "Greetings to the Government and the People" and "Brief of the Chinese Democratic Political League", and elected 13 members of the Central Executive Committee, Huang Yanpei, Zuo Shunsheng, Zhang Junmao, Liang Shuming, and Zhang Bojun as members of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, and Huang Yanpei as the chairman of the Central Committee (Huang Yanpei resigned from the chairmanship in October of the same year and went abroad and was succeeded by Zhang Lan) , Zuo Shunsheng is the general secretary. This was the predecessor of the "NLD".
In southern Anhui. At 2 a.m. on March 24, Liu Houzong killed Xiang Ying and Zhou Zikun with a pistol, wounded Huang Cheng, and then robbed Xiang and Zhou of the gold, silver dollars, watches, and guns they were carrying, and fled down the mountain to join the enemy. Liu Kui and his comrades-in-arms found Xiang Ying and Zhou Zikun, who had been sacrificed, and Huang Cheng, who was unconscious, in the cave. In order to prevent Liu Hou from leading the Kuomintang troops to identify and steal the corpses, Liu Kui and his comrades-in-arms made marks under the cliff more than 200 meters away from the entrance of the cave, buried the bodies of the two leaders with hatred, and carried the injured Huang Cheng on his back and left. After the breakout, Li Zhigao, secretary of the provisional branch, decided to let Liu Kui, Li Jianchun, Huang Cheng and others stay in southern Anhui and persist in guerrilla warfare. Jing County established the "Jingtai" Central County Party Committee Guerrilla Force (also known as the "Huangshan Guerrilla Force"), with Liu Kui as the captain.
Liu Kui was a legendary hero of the southern Anhui guerrillas, and his deeds were widely spread among the people of Anhui. He has been in a hundred battles, has been wounded in nine places, in the absence of medical treatment, each time with amazing perseverance and tenacious survival, so he won the title of "Liu Kui who can't be killed", and shocked southern Anhui. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Liu Kui was selected to study in the senior class of the Nanjing Military Academy. In 1952, arranged by Dean Liu Bocheng, Liu Kui and Xiang Ying's son Xiang Xuecheng went to Jing County, found the remains of Xiang Ying, Yuan Guoping, and Zhou Zikun, and sent them back to Nanjing for burial. Liu Kui died in Hefei in 1979 at the age of 69.
On April 13 of that year, Japan and the Soviet Union signed the "Japan-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact," in which the Soviet Union declared that it would "guarantee respect for the territorial integrity and inviolability of Manchukuo," and the political reality was cold enough for the Chinese to remember forever.
In order to quickly "resolve the China Incident", the Japanese army at this time was determined to concentrate its forces to carry out a major attack on the Chinese defenders in North China, aiming directly at Zhongtiao Mountain in southern Jinnan. Zhongtiao Mountain is located between Taihang Mountain and Huashan Mountain, and is named because of the narrow and narrow mountain. After the fall of large areas of land north of North China and the Yellow River, Zhongtiao Mountain has become the last barrier to protect the northern land. Chiang Kai-shek, in order to show his determination, ordered that all Chinese troops north of the Yellow River, regardless of the officers and soldiers, must not retreat half a step back across the Yellow River, and those who dared to retreat across the Yellow River should be shot on the spot.
At the same time as the Japanese army was actively deploying in the Zhongtiao Mountain area, the Military Committee of the Chongqing Nationalist Government determined the strategic principle of "strengthening the Zhongtiao Mountain and Tongluo fortifications and actively training" in accordance with the guiding principle of "guarding important areas, striving for longevity, laying peace inside, and striving for foreign aid." For this reason, He Yingqin, chief of staff, came to the First War Zone to inspect the area. Wei Lihuang, who was in charge of the First War Zone, was squeezed out by Hu Zongnan and others because of his resistance to anti-communist friction, and was placed under house arrest in Emei Mountain when he went to Chongqing to report on his work, and did not hurry back until before the war.
On April 16, on the basis of the Japan-US Understanding Plan, U.S. Secretary of State Hull and Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Yoshizaburo Nomura began diplomatic talks between the Japanese and U.S. governments in Washington.
As a result of the signing of the "Japan-Soviet Neutrality Treaty," Japan, which felt that it had no worries about the future, raised its demand to the United States, and Japan not only could not "undermine international trust" and abandon its obligations to the alliance with Germany, but also demanded that the United States not intervene in the war of aggression against China. At the same time, because of the peace between Japan and the Soviet Union, the United States' strategy of trying to bring trouble to the north has basically failed, and the significance of the US compromise with Japan has also been greatly reduced, and besides, Japan's southward advance will inevitably damage US interests even more, so the United States is not to be outdone and has raised its asking price to Japan.
On April 18, the Japanese 48th Division landed at the mouth of the Minjiang River and launched an attack on the city of Fuzhou.
On April 21, Fuzhou fell.
in Shanxi. On May 7, the long-planned 100,000 Japanese troops launched an attack on the Kuomintang Central Army at Zhongtiao Mountain.
Due to insufficient preparation in advance, lack of unified command, and lack of strong support from the Eighth Route Army due to the Southern Anhui Incident, the Kuomintang army was completely defeated in just four days.
On May 27, the Kuomintang army basically withdrew from Zhongtiao Mountain.
In the battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, the national army was captured 35,000 people, 42,000 soldiers were killed, and the Japanese army killed and wounded 9,900 according to the Chinese side, but according to the Japanese figures, only 673 people were killed and 2,292 were wounded, and the battle loss ratio was 20:1, which Chiang Kai-shek called "the greatest shame in the history of the Anti-Japanese War".
That same evening, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation: "There is now an emergency of great gravity for the nation, and a declaration of war is almost imminent. "It is absolutely necessary to supply supplies to the UK. "The United States would not hesitate to use force to repel a German attack." The meaning of the United States entering the war is becoming more and more obvious.
in Chongqing. At around 9 p.m. on June 5, the Japanese army dispatched 24 planes to bomb Chongqing in three batches. In order to escape the air raids, a large number of people flocked to the public air defense tunnel (18-ladder tunnel). In the case of 10 hours of high temperature and severe lack of oxygen, the crowded crowd pushed and trampled, unfortunately causing the tragedy of tens of thousands of deaths, known as the "Great Tunnel Tragedy".
The Great Tunnel Massacre, along with the bursting of the Yellow River Huayuankou on June 9, 1938 and the Changsha Fire on November 13, 1938, are known as the three major tragedies in China during the Anti-Japanese War.
In Europe. Germany was making final preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union at this time, and was actively agitating Japan to attack from the east at the same time. Because Japan was caught in the "quagmire" of the war of aggression against China and could not get out of it, and was crushed by the Soviet army on the battlefield of Nomenhan, it took a wait-and-see attitude towards Germany's proposal.
In early June, in order to win over the Kuomintang government from the influence of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and to enable Japan to "free its hands" from the Chinese battlefield, the Germans explicitly told Gui Yongqing, the military attache of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, that they had decided to attack the Soviet Union.
Gui Yongqing quickly brought the information back to China to report. Yan Baohang, deputy director general of Chiang Kai-shek's camp senator and the Association for the Promotion of the New Life Movement led by Soong Meiling, heard the news from Yu Youren, president of the Supervisory Yuan of the Nationalist Government, at a cocktail party, and asked Sun Ke, president of the Legislative Yuan. Sun Ke said that this was said by the chairman of the NPC National Committee himself, and that the news was brought back from Germany by Gui Yongqing. The "German attack on the Soviet Union" was scheduled for a week around June 20.
Yan Baohang, the word Yuheng, is a native of Haicheng, Liaoning. Yan Baohang was deeply appreciated by Zhang Xueliang, Soong Meiling, and Chiang Kai-shek, and had close contacts with Yu Youren, Sun Ke, Feng Yuxiang, Soong Qingling, He Xiangning, Shao Lizi, and other high-level Kuomintang leaders.
After Yan Baohang obtained this information, he left under the pretext of leaving and passed the information to Luo Shen and Zhou Enlai, military attachés of the Soviet Embassy, who were in Chongqing, through Li Zhengwen, a traffic officer of the intelligence team who lived in his house. Roshin immediately sent back a message to the Soviet Union.
On June 14, the Soviet government authorized its news agency, TASS, to issue a statement to the world: "...... Rumors about Germany's attempt to tear up the treaty and prepare to attack the USSR are pure nonsense".
After analyzing it, Yan Baohang insisted that the news that Yu Youren and Sun Ke said was true. Zhou Enlai agreed with Yan Baohang's judgment and immediately sent an urgent telegram to Yan'an, asking Mao Zedong to directly relay the news of Germany's imminent attack on the Soviet Union to the Soviet leadership.
On June 15, Moscow received a report from intelligence agent Sorge that the Germans would attack the Soviet Union on June 22.
On June 16, Mao Zedong telegraphed to the Comintern to warn Stalin through Dimitrov. It was the highest-level alert Stalin had ever received from the Communist side, six days before the German raid on the Soviet Union. Although I did not believe the authenticity of this information, this was a report from the highest level of the Chinese Communist Party, which still attracted Stalin's attention.
On 17 June, Moscow received another alert from the "Rado" intelligence network in Switzerland.
On June 20, Pan Hannian also learned from Hong Kong that the Soviet-German war was about to break out, and promptly telegraphed to the Central Committee of the CPSU.
At 3:45 a.m. on June 22, Nazi Germany dispatched 190 divisions, 5.5 million men, 4,800 aircraft, 3,800 tanks, and 50,000 artillery pieces to launch a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, codenamed "Project Barbarossa," without declaring war.
On June 30, the CPSU sent a telegram to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, thanking Hitler for the information provided on Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union: "Thanks to the accurate information you provided, we were able to declare a state of emergency for the Soviet army before the German attack. It is a pity that the original report was destroyed in the spring of 1947 on the eve of Hu Zongnan's troops attacking Yan'an.
Japan reacted quickly to the evolution of the war situation in Europe. On July 2, the Imperial Council of Japan established the "Outline of Imperial State Policy to Adapt to the Evolution of the Situation", that is, once the development of the Soviet-German war was favorable to Japan, the use of force to solve the northern problem. For this reason, Japan decided to transfer troops from Central China to Northeast China.
At the same time, the rapid advance of the German army in the Soviet Union gave the Japanese the confidence to argue with the Americans, and began to set their eyes on the whole of French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) and the adjacent Dutch East Indies. The Dutch East Indies had oil that the Japanese coveted, and once it was occupied, Japan would no longer have to worry about the Americans "stuck" on it.
On July 18, Konoe formed a cabinet for the third time.
On 21 July, the new Japanese government held its first joint meeting with the base camp after its establishment, at which it was decided to implement the "Outline of Imperial State Policy to Adapt to the Evolution of the Situation", which specifically mentioned the need to carry out military measures against French Indochina in accordance with the established guidelines. The Japanese army then marched into French Indochina in the south, breaking through the British and American bottom line.
On 26 July, the United States announced that it would freeze all Japanese assets in the United States, placing all finances and imports and exports related to Japanese interests under government control. The United Kingdom, Canada, France, Portugal, the Netherlands have also announced similar measures.
At the same time, the United States announced that it would send a military advisory group to China, establish a Far East Army Command in the Philippines, and recruit the Philippine militia for active duty under MacArthur's command.
On August 1, the U.S. government announced a total oil embargo on Japan. This is a fatal blow to Japan, which is almost entirely dependent on American oil. The United States thought that it could subdue Japan with economic sanctions, but it accelerated the pace of Japan's war against the United States. On the same day, the "Flying Tigers" recruited by the Kuomintang Air Force were established.
in Japan. The U.S. decision to embargo oil provoked a huge response, with the Japanese military reacting particularly violently. On August 9, the Japanese base camp made a decision: to abandon the war against the Soviet Union and not to transfer troops north. It is necessary to draw troops from Wuhan to prepare for the competition with the United States for the Pacific region.
In order to prevent the Chinese army from launching a counteroffensive when the Japanese army was deployed, Japan decided to first remove the increasingly serious threat of the Chinese army to the Wuhan area, "destroy the enemy's (referring to the Nationalist Government's) anti-war intentions, and deal a heavy blow to the enemy forces in the Ninth Theater."
As recently as mid-August, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard the USS Augusta, a heavy cruiser in Newfoundland, in the northern Atlantic. On August 13, on the battleship "Prince of Wales" of the British Navy, the United States and Britain signed the Atlantic Charter, thus achieving a political alliance on the basis of anti-fascism.
On August 26, the Japanese base camp approved the Changsha operation plan with the "Mainland Order" No. 538 order, codenamed "Operation Plus".
in Hebei. The Huimin detachment of the third column of the Eighth Route Army led by Ma Benzhai was active in the Hejian, Qingxian, and Cangxian areas, and its flexible and witty guerrilla warfare caused a great headache for the Japanese invading army.
On August 27, the embarrassed and angry Japanese army captured Ma Benzhai's mother Bai Wenguan and forced Ma Benzhai to write a letter of persuasion to Ma Benzhai. Ma Muyi, who understood the righteousness of the general cause, sternly rebuked the Japanese invaders: "I am Chinese, and I let my son go to the Eighth Route Army." Persuasion? That's delusion!" The old man, who would rather die than give in, immediately went on a hunger strike to protest.
On September 3, after a seven-day hunger strike, Bai Wenguan was martyred at the age of 68. After learning of his mother's sacrifice, Ma Benzhai wrote a vow with great sorrow: "Great mother, although she is still alive, her son inherits his mother's will and continues to fight!"
in Japan. The deterioration of relations between Japan and the United States caused by the United States cutting off oil supplies has reached the point where a decision must be made, and the Japanese military has decided that if negotiations fail, it will not hesitate to go to war with the United States.
On September 6, the Imperial Council of Japan made a secret resolution to set the deadline for the proposed negotiations to late October.
in Hunan. On September 7, 120,000 Japanese troops attacked the guerrilla base areas of Dayun Mountain and Fangshan, and the Second Battle of Changsha began.
On September 10, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in Yan'an, at which a heated discussion was held on the "leftist" mistakes in the later stages of the Agrarian Revolutionary War and the right-leaning mistakes in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
The conference held that from the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee in January 1931 to the Zunyi Conference in January 1935, the mistake of "leftist" opportunism in this historical stage was a mistake of the political line. Mao Zedong was strict about this, and Bogu and Zhang Wentian, who were mainly responsible for this, made sincere and profound self-criticism of the mistakes they had made, but Wang Ming did not agree with this, believing that this was the implementation of the line of the Comintern. His refusal to admit his mistakes drew unanimous criticism from the participants. So far, Mao Zedong has achieved the final victory in the struggle against Wang Ming.
The meeting also made a decision to set up a study group for senior cadres to raise the theoretical and political level of senior cadres within the party. This paved the way for the subsequent launch of the party-wide rectification campaign.
in Hunan. On September 18, Anan led the Japanese army to force the Xinqiang River and the Miluo River to attack Changsha. The Japanese army once captured Changsha and pursued all the way to the Zhuzhou area.
On September 28, the Japanese Hayabuchi detachment entered Changsha and engaged in street fighting with Chinese troops. In order to alleviate the pressure on Xue Yue in the Ninth Theater, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Chen Cheng to lead his troops to launch a counteroffensive against Yichang, where the Japanese army was weakly garrisoned.
On September 30, the Japanese 4th Division also arrived in Changsha, and the 3rd Division broke through to Zhuzhou.
On October 1, due to the long and excessive consumption of the battle front, and the critical situation in Yichang, Anan Weiji had to order the entire army to withdraw from Changsha and send troops to support Yichang. Xue Yue ordered all troops to pursue the retreating 11th Army of the Japanese Army.
On October 4, Sorge sent his last and perhaps most important telegram from Tokyo to Moscow: "The Soviet Far East can be considered safe, and the threat from the Japanese side has been eliminated. It was impossible for Japan to start a war against the Soviet Union. Instead, Japan will go to war with the United States in the next few weeks. ”
in Hunan. On October 9, the Japanese army retreated to the north of the Xinqiang River, and the Chinese and Japanese sides returned to the state in front of the station, and the "Second Battle of Changsha", which lasted more than 20 days, ended.
in Japan. On October 10, the core members of Sorge's spy team, the painter Yotoku Miyagi, were arrested, and Hidemi Ozaki and the telegraph operator Clausen were confessed. Hidemi Ozaki was the "trustee" (advisor) and personal secretary of Fumiro Konoe, which shocked the Japanese counterintelligence agency.
In the late 20s and early 30s, Hidemi Ozaki was the Shanghai correspondent of the Asahi Shimbun, and was "the core figure of the Japanese Communist Party and Japanese progressives in Shanghai." Ozaki had close contacts with many Chinese left-wing cultural figures such as Lu Xun, Xia Yan, Feng Naichao, Wang Xuewen, Zheng Boqi, Tian Han, Cheng Fangwu, and Smedley, an American progressive journalist, and helped the "Left Alliance" in its work. At the beginning of 1930, Ozaki Hidemi crossed paths with Yasusai Kuji, a left-wing student of the Toa Tongbun Academy established by Japan in Shanghai, and under the influence of Ozaki, they began to believe in communism.
When it comes to Shanghai East Asia Tongwen Academy, it is worth mentioning. The East Asia Tongwen Academy was first established in Nanjing in May of the 26th Guangxu Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1900), and was called Nanjing Tongwen Academy at that time, and was renamed Shanghai East Asia Tongwen Academy after moving to Shanghai in August. At that time, this college recruited young people from China and Japan for two years to study in each other's countries, so as to form the Japanese "Zhihua School" and China's "Zhiri School", which was in essence the base for Japan's infiltration into China.
In the 45-year history of the East Asian Academy, Japan has cultivated a large number of talents who "know China" and "invade China", but at the same time, it has also inadvertently produced the "negative effect" of being assimilated by the Chinese. After returning to Shanghai to teach at the East Asia Tongwen Academy in Shanghai, Wang Xuewen, who had studied in Japan and was taught by the famous Marxist economist Hajime Kawagami, actually cultivated a group of progressive young people in Japan, including Nakanishi Gong and Nishiri Ryuo. Together with Ryuo Nishiri, Nakanishi established a secret revolutionary organization, the "Japan-China Struggle League," whose members were: Shigeo Komatsu (an employee of the Manchuria Railway Company), Ryuo Nishiri (a reporter from the Shanghai Daily), Yang Liuqing (a member of the Communist Party of China), Sadayoshi Kawai (a reporter from the Shanghai Daily), Wang Xuewen (a member of the Communist Party of China), and Hou Chaozong (a Taiwanese). The organization, through Wang Xuewen, is directly under the leadership of the CCP's Shanghai intelligence organization.
Hidemi Ozaki returned to Japan in February 1932, and was aboard Hidemi Nakanishi. During his stay in Japan, Nakanishi and Nishiri continued their revolutionary activities, and Nishiri continued to engage in revolutionary activities, and Nishiri joined the "Japanese Communist Youth League". From April 1934, Hidemi Ozaki began intelligence cooperation with Sorge. In the same year, Ryuo Nishiri was introduced by Wang Xuewen in Shanghai and joined the Communist Party of China;
In June 1937, Hidemi Ozaki became the "entrustment" of Fumiko Konoe. Soon, the Sino-Japanese War broke out. In 1938, Japan's "Central China Dispatch Army Command" transferred the "outstanding" performance of Nakanishi Gong to the Shanghai office of the "Manchurian Railway", and Nakanishi Gong contacted Wang Xuewen through Nishiri Ryuo and joined the CCP. Nakanishi Gong arranged Cheng Hesheng, a member of the Shanghai Intelligence Bureau of the Communist Party of China, and others to the investigation room of the Shanghai Office of the "Manchurian Railway," and also sent a large amount of collected intelligence and a lot of information sent by Hidemi Ozaki, including the "Imperial Meeting," to Yan'an. Zhou Enlai attached great importance to the intelligence network against Japan composed of "Japanese comrades" such as Nakanishi Gong, Nishiri Ryuo, Ozaki Shotaro, and Shirai Yukiyuki, and praised them as "national treasures." Of course, strictly speaking, Hidemi Ozaki does not belong to the "Japanese comrades" of the CCP.
Just as the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department began its investigation into Ozaki, the U.S.-Japan negotiations ended in failure again, and the United States formally rejected Japan's proposal to hold a summit meeting. On October 14, Hideki Tojo and Fumima Konoe had a heated argument over whether to go to war with the United States.
On October 16, the Konoe Cabinet, which did not dare to assume responsibility for the war, fell. On the same day, Hidemi Ozaki was arrested in Tokyo by Tegaoko.
On October 18, Hideki Tojo became the 40th Prime Minister of Japan. On the same day, Sorge was arrested.
Just after Hidemi Ozaki was arrested, Nakanishi received a telegram from Tokyo signed "Shirakawa Jiro" (Nakanishi's former pen name) with only three words: "Go West." Nakanishi realized that something was wrong in Tokyo, and this was to ask him to quickly withdraw to the CCP base in the west.
Nakanishi believed that he would not be exposed immediately, that a rash retreat would endanger other comrades around him, and that the Japanese military was about to make a decision to "go north" or "go south", so in order to obtain first-hand accurate information, Nakanishi decided to continue the adventure and return to Japan to find out the news.
In mid-to-late November, Nakanishi returned to Japan via Dalian. In Dalian, he noticed that the Japanese army's "Guan special exercise" was a landing exercise of "retreating south."
In Tokyo, Nakanishi got a crucial clue: Japanese troops stationed in southern China had begun to assemble toward Taiwan. While flipping through the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on October 26, Nakanishi saw the news that "the Prime Minister and the sea visited Ise Jingu". The fact that the Japanese army and navy have always been incompatible with each other shows that the army and navy have overcome their differences. Nakanishi also noticed that as it approached winter, the Japanese garrison was distributing summer clothes and shorts. Combined with the situation he saw in Dalian, Zhongxi Gong made a judgment: the Japanese army was about to "advance south".
At this time, the United States was becoming more and more aware of the risk of war, believing that "the time for a showdown was coming," but judging that war would not break out immediately, it still used negotiations to delay time.
On November 20, Japan threw out its own bottom-line plan: agree to the withdrawal of Japanese troops from the south of French Indochina to the north, but the United States would immediately resume oil exports to Japan, and at the same time not allow the United States to interfere in the China issue. At the same time, a "meeting between the government and important ministers" was held in the Imperial Palace. As a result of Tojo's sincere explanation, all the important ministers finally expressed their understanding and support for the government's determination to go to war with the United States if negotiations failed.
When Nakanishi received this news, he immediately returned to China from Japan. When passing through Dalian, a colleague of the "Manchurian Railway" revealed to Nakanishi that the steamers from Japan were empty, but when they returned to Japan, they were full of soldiers of the Kwantung Army. Nakanishi also saw in the "Manchurian Railway" bulletin that Japan would conclude negotiations with the United States on 30 November, that Japanese naval vessels had already assembled in the Seto Inland Sea, that the southward advance force was compiled, and that the commanders of various sectors were listed.
From this, Nakanishi concluded that the Japanese army's intention to move south had been decided, and calculated that the Japanese army's southward advance could occur as early as December 1, and at the latest on three Sundays of December 15, with December 7 being the most likely. Nakanishi quickly reported to the Shanghai Intelligence Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party.
The United States was tempted by Japan's conditions out of consideration for delaying the outbreak of war, but was fiercely opposed by Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek and gave up.
On November 26, the United States presented Japan with an unprecedentedly tough "Hull Memorandum": Japan must abrogate the Triple Alliance Treaty and withdraw its troops from China and Indochina, while recognizing the Kuomintang as the sole legitimate power of China. Prior to this, the United States had already deciphered the Japanese code, and at the moment it wanted to scare Japan with a warning, one might even say an "ultimatum".
On this day, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November. Thanksgiving commemorates the Native Americans who helped whites when they arrived in the Americas. Ironically, however, it is only after the aborigines are slaughtered and systematically driven to the "reservation" that the white people remember to be "grateful."
in Japan. From November 27th to 29th, Japan held a joint meeting of the base camp for three consecutive days. The meeting finally made a decision that Japan would immediately launch a war against the United States in order to obtain Dutch East India oil. Almost at the same time, the U.S. side also issued a "final alert order" to the front-line commanders, requiring the U.S. military to be fully prepared for a possible attack from Japan.
On December 1, the Imperial Council of Japan formally approved the navy's plan and set the date for the start of war on December 8.
In Shanghai, one day in early December, Guan Lu came to No. 76 as usual. During the meal, Li Shiqun said to Guan Lu: "I am now inseparable from Chongqing, I heard that Zhou Fohai has secretly connected with Chongqing, and is ready to leave a way back..... Guan Lu immediately reported to Pan Hannian, who analyzed and believed that Li Shiqun could be used by the New Fourth Army.
in Chongqing. On 3 December, the Technical Research Office of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government (hereinafter referred to as the Military Technology Office) deciphered a specially classified secret telegram sent by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Nomura Kichizaburo, the ambassador to the United States. Combined with the previously deciphered military intelligence in Honolulu, Chi Buzhou, director of the Kuomintang Military and Political Department's "43rd Military Radio Station," judged that Japan was going to carry out a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday. After receiving the report, Chiang Kai-shek immediately informed the US side, but it did not attract the attention of the United States.
Yan Baohang learned of this information and made a timely report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which immediately telegraphed to the Soviet Union. Afterwards, Yan Baohang was commended by the Comintern Intelligence Bureau.
In the USSR. Having received important information that Japan would not advance northward, the Soviets were able to transfer their forces defending against the Japanese attack on the eastern front to the western front to defend against the German attack. On December 5, the Soviets launched a counterattack on the outskirts of Moscow, and the Germans suffered their first crushing defeat since the start of the war, being pushed back 150-300 kilometers, and their myth of invincibility was shattered.
On 7 December, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, the base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet was almost completely annihilated. The United States immediately declared war on Japan.
At 4 a.m. on 8 December, the Japanese Navy stationed in Shanghai shelled British and US warships anchored on the Huangpu River, sinking the British ship "Peterrell" and surrendering the US ship "Wick" under a white flag. The Japanese army occupies the Shanghai Concession.
On the same day, the Japanese army launched an attack on the American colony of the Philippines and landed on the Kra Isthmus in Thailand, beginning to attack the Malay Peninsula from Thailand.
in Hong Kong. The Japanese Air Force bombed Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport, and the Japanese Army simultaneously advanced from the Castle Peak Highway and Shing Mun Fort in the New Territories to the New Territories and the Kowloon Peninsula.
At that time, Hong Kong brought together a large number of patriotic democrats, including Soong Ching-ling, Liu Yazi, He Xiangning, and cultural elites such as Mao Dun, Xia Yan, Zou Taofen, Liang Shuming, and Hu Feng. After obtaining the approval of the central government, Pan Hannian directly approached the Japanese consul general in Shanghai, Iwai Eiichi, and asked him for help in the name of transferring intelligence cadres.
With the efforts of Liao Chengzhi, Pan Hannian, Liu Shaowen, Lian Lian, Qiao Guanhua and others, and with the participation of the Dongjiang anti-Japanese guerrillas, a total of more than 800 cultural people blurted out their mouths. As a result, a total of 2,000 personnel in Hong Kong were exposed.
On December 9, the government of the Republic of China officially declared war on Japan. Beginning with the September 18 Incident, it was a full decade later that the declaration of war between China and Japan was belated.
On December 11, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States. World War II broke out in full swing.
On December 15, Anan gathered more than 120,000 Japanese troops in Yueyang to prepare for another attack on Changsha.
Different from before, Xue Yue had created a "Heavenly Furnace Tactic" to deal with the Japanese army, that is, each unit relied on the Xinqiang River, Miluo River, Laodao River, and Liuyang River to build layers of defense lines, and retreated to the two wings and the rear while gradually resisting the enemy, and gradually formed an encirclement of the enemy in the retreat, and then gathered and annihilated him.
On December 23, China and Britain signed the "Agreement on the Mutual Defense of the Yunnan-Burma Road", forming a military alliance. According to the agreement, China organized a combat force against Japan in Burma, that is, the Chinese Expeditionary Force. The expeditionary force was under the command of Lieutenant General Stilwell, chief of staff of the Allied China Theater, and Commander Luo Zhuoying, with a total of more than 100,000 men in nine divisions.
On December 24, the Japanese launched an attack on the Xinqiang River position. The Chinese defenders followed the pre-war deployment, depleting the enemy on the one hand and gradually moving on the other.
On 25 December, the 21st British Governor of Hong Kong, Yang Mu-kei, surrendered, and the Japanese occupied Hong Kong.
On December 26, the Chinese Expeditionary Force arrived at the Sino-Burmese border in Yunnan, with Du Yuming's headquarters in Dali and Dai Anlan's 200th Division in Baoshan. At this time, the British, the old colonizers, out of their usual unhealthy mentality, still did not agree to the entry of the Chinese expeditionary force into Burma.
At the end of December, Guan Lu found Li Shiqun and said: "My sister has sent a letter, saying that she has a friend who wants to do business, are you willing to do it?" Li Shiqun understood as soon as he heard it and agreed to meet.
It was also at this time that Lin Biao, who had been in the Soviet Union for three years, flew to Xinjiang on a military plane and returned to China.
![Compared to China, are the Japanese very affectionate? Study abroad netizens: It's too real, like a viviparous robot[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)