After the "77 Incident", Japanese land minister Sugiyama Mototo assured Hirohito that as long as a full-scale war started, China would be destroyed within three months. However, Xie Jinyuan, deputy commander of the 524th Regiment, led a battalion of soldiers to fight fiercely with the Japanese for four days and four nights, keeping them out of the warehouse. They taught the arrogant little devils a vivid lesson with their lives and blood: the Chinese will never give in and will never perish!
On August 13, 1937, the Battle of Songhu broke out. By the end of October of the same year, in just a few months, the Chinese side had mobilized as many as 78 divisions to rush to the Shanghai battlefield to fight to the death against the Japanese army. In this fierce confrontation, the Japanese casualties in the direction of Shanghai were as high as 40,000, and the casualties of the Chinese army were even more staggering, reaching 200,000.
Due to the loss of large areas of positions one after another, in order to avoid the tragic fate of being surrounded and annihilated by the enemy and annihilating the whole army, the Chinese army had to adopt the strategy of "changing places" for a decisive battle in order to seek new fighters.
At this time, the meeting of the Nine-Power Pact is about to be held, which is an opportunity for China. In order to win the support and assistance of the Western allies at this critical juncture, Chiang Kai-shek knew that holding the Shanghai position was of paramount importance. Therefore, before the meeting began, he had to make sure that Shanghai did not fall into the hands of the enemy, as a way to demonstrate China's firm position and determination to resist stubbornly.
After Chiang Kai-shek issued a strict order to hold Shanghai, Xie Jinyuan, deputy commander of the 524th Regiment, and Yang Ruifu, battalion commander, were ordered by General Sun Yuanliang to quickly rush to the command center of the 88th Division, the Sixing Warehouse. Here, they took over the arduous task of guarding the last line of defense in Shanghai, and were entrusted with the important task of "defending Shanghai to the death".
In order to confuse and deter the Japanese army, and at the same time ensure the high morale of our army, this battalion, which actually only had 423 people, under the leadership of battalion commander Yang Ruifu, resolutely declared that it had "800 strong men".
"The rise and fall of the country is the responsibility of the husband, we are Chinese, and we must have the ambition of the Chinese." Now that we are surrounded by Japanese troops on all sides, this warehouse is our base and possibly our grave, and as long as we have one man, we will fight the enemy to the end. ”
Under the firm leadership of the deputy commander Xie Jinyuan, the defenders of the Sixing Warehouse showed amazing resilience and determination, and successively succeeded in repelling wave after wave of fierce enemy attacks. Despite the numerical inferiority of the garrison, these heroic defenders showed extraordinary courage and sacrifice in the face of the Japanese tank charge. Without hesitation, they strapped grenades to their waists and jumped from the windows of tall buildings, choosing to die with the enemy tanks. Every loud explosion means the loss of a brave life, and this fearless sacrifice deeply shocks and moves the people on the other side. Everyone in the country is like this, how dare the Japanese do it.
After four days and nights of fierce fighting, a lone battalion held out to the end in the defense of the Sixing warehouse, they fought hard to repel six sieges by the Japanese army, killed more than 200 Japanese soldiers, wounded countless people, and successfully destroyed two Japanese combat vehicles. In this arduous battle, the lone battalion suffered only 37 casualties, and the battalion commander, Major Yang Ruifu, was unfortunately shot through the left chest and was seriously wounded.
The Battle of Sixing Warehouse not only objectively temporarily blocked the pace of the Japanese army's full occupation of Shanghai, but also further expanded the impact of this battle because of the existence of the Shanghai Concession. It demonstrated to the world the unswerving determination of the Chinese army to resist the war, and won wide sympathy and recognition from the international community.
Here, we would like to extend our highest respect to those heroes who were brave and fearless, and who shed blood and sacrificed! Their heroic deeds will forever be remembered in the annals of history and inspire future generations to move forward.
Resources:
Follow the footsteps of the "Eight Hundred Heroes" and trace the enthusiasm of the year (2)
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