Preamble:
He once personally led the Guangxi wolf soldiers to fight the Japanese army in a bloody battle, and also commanded the anti-aircraft artillery unit to kill the commander of the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army, General Tsukada Tsukasaki.
However, he was such a famous anti-Japanese general, but in his later years, he died of illness in prison.
Who is this man, and why did he end up like this?
Bloody battle in Taierzhuang
This man's name is Mo Dehong, and he was born in Cangwu, Guangxi Province in 1893.
When the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, he had already reached the rank of major general and deputy commander of the 174th Division.
When the Japanese army was pressing, he was ordered to lead his troops to the Quanjiao area of Chaoxian County to block the Japanese invaders going north, and defeated the enemy's vanguard.
But what really made him famous was the famous Battle of Taierzhuang.
In 1938, the Japanese Sakagaki Division and the Isoya Division were heavily assembled, and the troops were directed towards Taierzhuang.
In order to combat the arrogance of the Japanese invaders, Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater, was determined to stop the Japanese army in the area of Taierzhuang.
And Mo Dehong's department was also transferred to the battlefield and was assigned to Tang Enbo's command to prepare for the defense of Taierzhuang.
In the peripheral battles, Mo Dehong's battlefield command ability was brought into full play by him.
After the Japanese army launched an attack, Mo Dehong took the lead and led his troops to resist stubbornly.
The fierce artillery fire of the hard anti-Japanese army repelled several large-scale charges of the Japanese army, which greatly boosted the morale of the army.
But after several battles, Mo Dehong also discovered a serious problem, that is, the excessive casualties of the troops.
In order to change the situation, Mordhorn came up with an extremely risky tactic.
That is to replace defense with offense, as Chairman Mao said: the best defense is offense.
In order to achieve this tactical vision, Mo Dehong divided his troops into three parts: defense, offense, and reserve.
When the Japanese attacked, Mo Dehong commanded the defensive troops to resist stubbornly and successfully repelled the enemy's attack.
When the Japanese retreated, Mo Dehong ordered the attacking troops to attack.
This caught the Japanese army, which had already suffered a setback in the offensive and had not yet gained a firm foothold, and suffered a major blow for a while.
However, Mo Dehong, who had achieved brilliant results, did not rush to pursue, because he was planning a risky move.
Having previously gained the upper hand, Mordhorn ordered the attacking forces to retreat and chose favorable terrain for ambush.
He expected that the Japanese army would become angry after suffering heavy losses, and launch an even more lethal attack.
At this time, if you take the initiative to retreat, it will also have a light impact on the Japanese army.
However, as Mo Dehong expected, the angry Japanese army soon organized a new round of attack, and only defeat awaited them.
In the face of the menacing Japanese offensive, Mo Dehong responded calmly, and he ordered the forward defense troops to make tentative contact with the enemy.
Then feigned defeat and retreated, and the Japanese army, which saw the rout of the national army, was really fooled, and pursued the defense troops under Mo Dehong like crazy.
As everyone knows, they are walking into the trap set by Mo Dehong step by step.
After the Japanese army completely entered the ambush circle, Mo Dehong gave an order, and the attacking troops lying in ambush on both sides opened fire at the same time as the defending troops feigning defeat, annihilating hundreds of Japanese troops in one fell swoop.
The remnants of the enemy could only flee in a hurry, and after this battle, Mo Dehong was rewarded by the theater command for his good command.
However, due to the disparity in strength between the enemy and us, the national army eventually had to choose to retreat.
It was also at this time that a bad news reached Mo Dehong's ears.
Loyalty and filial piety are difficult to achieve both
After Mo Dehong's unit withdrew from its original position, it was assigned to the command of Liao Lei of the Seventh Army of the 31st Group Army.
Then Liao Lei received the task of defending the front line of Bengbu and Changshu, so the enemy and us also launched a fierce battle in this area.
During this period, Mo Dehong personally led the Guangxi wolf soldiers to fight the Japanese invaders day and night, but never let the Japanese army move forward.
However, just as Mo Dehong was in the midst of a fierce battle with the enemy, he was suddenly told that his mother had unfortunately died.
This made Mo Dehong's heart very sad, and at the same time, the news also reached the headquarters of the commander of the fifth theater.
At that time, Li Zongren and others were worried that Mo Dehong would lose his ability to command on the battlefield because of the death of his mother, but they were also worried that the morale of the troops would be hit by the change of generals.
So for a while, for whether Mo Dehong should go or stay, everyone fell into a difficult choice.
However, Mo Dehong, who was on the battlefield, used practical actions to tell the Commander's Department of the War Zone what his decision was.
Although due to the impact of the war, Mo Dehong was unable to see his mother for the last time, but Mo Dehong also knew that loyalty and filial piety could not be achieved since ancient times.
So after experiencing a short period of heartache, he turned into grief and strength, and became more and more courageous on the battlefield.
As a result, the wolf soldiers of the Gui army under his command became more heroic, and for a time they were inseparable from the Japanese army.
In the end, after reinforcements arrived, the Nationalist army entered a counterattack, and the Japanese army could only usher in a crushing defeat.
Although the Battle of Taierzhuang ended in a great victory for our army, the legend of Mo Dehong continues to be written.
Defeat the strong with the weak
After the Battle of Taierzhuang, Mo Dehong was awarded the Order of Yunlu and the Order of Baoding for his tactical flexibility.
However, due to problems in the cooperation between the national army's wars, the national army had to abandon the important town of Xuzhou, and then Mo Dehong followed Liao Lei to Anhui.
And it was in Anhui that Mo Dehong once again created a classic example.
One day, Mo Dehong's unit was ambushed by the Japanese army and besieged in Beishuzhuang, and what was even more serious was that the soldiers had less than three catties of dry food left each.
If you can't break through in time, the consequences are unimaginable, in the face of such a dangerous situation, Mo Dehong did not panic, but used the sound of the thirty-six strategies to attack the west.
Mo Dehong first ordered a force to break through from the side with heavy weapons, after attracting the enemy's fire and strength.
He led the main force to find the weak point of the Japanese encirclement and easily break through, and after the breakthrough, carried out a counter-encirclement of the Japanese army.
Then the Japanese army in the center was caught off guard, but just as the enemy and us were fighting, an accident happened.
Just when Mo Dehong was directing the battle on the front line, two shells flew from nowhere and exploded not far from Mo Dehong.
A huge wave of air blew Mo Dehong away, and the dirt raised by the explosion directly buried Mo Dehong.
It took the guards to dig Mo Dehong out of the soil, which did not kill Mo Dehong, but it deafened his ears.
Even so, Mo Dehong did not leave the battlefield, but commanded the troops to achieve the final victory before going to the hospital for treatment.
Killed the Japanese general
After several years of war, Mo Dehong's troops were seriously attrition due to successive battles, so his superiors ordered Mo Dehong to return to Guangxi to recruit troops.
In 1942, Mo Dehong was ordered to lead more than 1,000 recruits to Huoshan, Anhui.
However, there were frequent battles at that time, so Mo Dehong could only lead his troops to fight continuously.
By the end of the year, Mo Dehong had already led his troops to the Taihu Lake area, and it was here that Mo Dehong created an unprecedented event.
On December 18, Mo Dehong was resting at Mida Temple near Taihu Lake.
Suddenly, there was a sudden sound of fighter planes circling in the sky, and the anti-aircraft artillery unit under the command of Mo Dehong quickly locked onto a Japanese fighter.
Mo Dehong also rushed to hear the sound at this time, and after seeing the Japanese fighters in the sky, Mo Dehong immediately ordered to open fire.
In the end, a shell successfully hit the Japanese fighter, and the pilot of the fighter plane and several high-ranking Japanese officers were killed on the spot, including the commander of the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army, General Tsukada Tsukada.
And Tsukada also became the top general of the Japanese army who was killed by our army on the Chinese battlefield.
After that, Mo Dehong was also credited with a big credit for this.
Seeing this, our impression of Mo Dehong should be a patriotic anti-Japanese general with outstanding achievements.
However, what is embarrassing is that in his later years, he died alone in prison, why is this?
毁honor参半
If we only look at Mo Dehong's outstanding performance during the War of Resistance Against Japan, then he is undoubtedly an excellent anti-Japanese general and national hero.
But what he did before the Anti-Japanese War, as well as in the later stages of the Anti-Japanese War and during the Liberation War, laid the groundwork for his lonely death in prison in his later years.
Before the Anti-Japanese War, Mo Dehong was the regiment commander under Huang Zanbin, the commander of the Gui Army.
In 1932, Mo Dehong rushed to Jiangxi with his superiors to participate in the battle against the Red Army, causing serious damage to the revolutionary base areas of the Red Army.
But what is even more distressing is an incident that happened in the late stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
In January 1941, Lao Chiang suddenly declared the New Fourth Army led by our party to be a rebel army, and also sent troops to encircle and suppress the New Fourth Army. That is, the "Southern Anhui Incident" that shocked the whole country.
And Mo Dehong is also one of them, invisibly, this former famous anti-Japanese general, has gradually embarked on a road of no return.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Mo Dehong's approach also verified this point even more.
After the Japanese army announced its surrender in 1945, Mo Dehong had already asked the Nationalist Government to resign, disarm and return to the field.
However, due to the outbreak of the Liberation War and the successive defeats of the Kuomintang army on the battlefield, Lao Chiang had to reactivate some generals during the War of Resistance against Japan.
And Mo Dehong was also used by Lao Jiang because of his outstanding military exploits. and was appointed as the commander of the Hunan Guizhou Road Guard.
Even so, it could not withstand the powerful offensive of our army, and Mo Dehong's military career also came to an end.
In April 1949, after the battle of crossing the river, our army liberated most of the provinces on the mainland.
And Mo Dehong, who was ordered in danger, could not stop the powerful offensive of our army, and was finally captured by our army in Guangxi.
He was then sent to the Fushun War Criminals Management Center, where he died of a lonely illness in 1973.
Epilogue:
Mo Dehong's outstanding performance during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is indeed worthy of the title of national hero, and he can definitely be called a famous anti-Japanese general, worthy of the respect of all of us.
The most important of them is that he couldn't recognize the situation in time, and finally ended up with an embarrassing end, which is really regrettable, but it can't bury General Mo Dehong's achievements in the anti-Japanese period. He is still the anti-Japanese hero in our hearts.
Resources:
The command has the skill to annihilate the Japanese - the anti-Japanese experience of Lieutenant General Mo Dehong