The Jin Sui Army, like the Northwest Army and the Northeast Army, was a warlord force. After the July 7 Incident, in order to save the nation from peril, the Jin Sui Army, together with most of the armed forces of the whole country, stepped onto the front line of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and made immortal contributions to the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Wang Fengshan was the anti-Japanese hero who sacrificed his life for the country in the Jin Sui Army during this period, and he was not only the last general of the National Revolutionary Army who died on the anti-Japanese battlefield in Shanxi, but also the highest-ranking general in the Jin Sui Army who died in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Wang Fengshan
Wang Fengshan, also spelled Mingqi, was born in 1906 in Dongzhai Village, Wutai County, Shanxi. When he was young, his family was poor, and because of his talent, the villagers raised funds to provide him with primary school, and then he was admitted to taiyuan national normal school. He often encouraged himself with the national heroes in Chinese history, Yue Fei and Wen Tianxiang. In his youth, Wang Fengshan witnessed the decline of the country and the invasion of the great powers, and he held the desire to enrich the country and strengthen the army and revitalize the country, and he threw himself into the pen and was admitted to the first phase of the Shanxi Military Academy in 1928. The Shanxi Military Academy was a school specially established by Yan Xishan to cultivate concubines, and after Yan Xishan became the commander-in-chief of the Northern Revolutionary Army, it was changed to the Northern Officers School. After graduating from the military academy, Wang Fengshan was directly retained in the school because of his excellent grades and served as the captain of the 2nd detachment of the engineering section.
In 1927, Wang Fengshan, along with the officer cadet team led by Yu Zhenhe, the head of the Guard Regiment of the Northern National Revolutionary Army, participated in the "Northern Expedition" of the Shanxi Army in YanXishan. In 1930, he participated in many battles jointly opposed to Chiang Kai-shek by Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang, and because of his bravery in battle and the ability to lead the troops, Wang Fengshan was repeatedly commended by his superiors. In the spring of 1931, Wang Fengshan served as a captain and company commander of the 427th Regiment of the 69th Division. In the summer of 1935, he was appointed as the deputy regimental deputy of the major of the 406th regiment. In November, he was appointed battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 427th Regiment.
Yan Xishan (right) with Chiang Kai-shek (center) and Feng Yuxiang
In the summer of 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in full swing. The Jin army also threw itself into the nation's anti-aggression war under the leadership of Yan Xishan. In September, Wang Fengshan, with the determination that it was the duty of a soldier to defend the country, led his troops to participate in the defense of Ruyuekou in the Battle of Pingxingguan. Under the circumstance that the main position and adjacent positions were successively broken by the Japanese army, the brigade commander was killed, and the situation was difficult to recover, Wang Fengshan still refused to withdraw, and took the lead in rushing to the enemy position with the determination to die, and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army. In the end, he was forcibly carried by the guards and jumped off the cliff, because of the acid jujube bush blocking, there was no major obstacle.
In 1936, soldiers of the Jin Sui Army participated in the Suiyuan War of Resistance. Photo by Fang Da zeng
In 1940, Wang Fengshan was transferred to the head of the rectification department and deputy director of the chief's department, engaged in military training. In 1941, he was promoted to brigade commander of the 218th Brigade, and later served as the commander of the 45th Division of the Provisional 34th Army.
In the spring of 1942, Wang Fengshan led an army stationed in the area of Wanquan, Ronghe and Hejin in Fennan. After entering the area, the Japanese army plundered grain on a large scale, built bunkers everywhere, repaired strongholds, dug trenches, and built power grids. Wang Fengshan's troops were engaged in guerrilla warfare in the Fennan area, covering the requisition of grain and cotton by administrative personnel. In order to eliminate the various anti-Japanese base areas of the Chinese army in Shanxi and to search for military grain in order to cut off the grain routes of the Chinese army and force the Chinese army in Fennan to make concessions, the Japanese army concentrated its superior forces and launched a crazy attack on the anti-Japanese base area in southwest Jinxi along the Fenhe River. In early June, the Qingshui Division of the Japanese Army gathered more than 20,000 enemy and puppet troops in various counties and besieged the 34th Army in 7 routes, and the commander Wang Qianyuan was wounded and returned to Fenbei for medical treatment, with Wang Fengshan acting as the commander. In the frenzied attack of the enemy, the 43rd Division of the army was completely destroyed in the battle against the enemy, and the division commander Liu Qian fled back to Fenbei and was dismissed. The 44th Division was defeated by the Japanese, and some officers and men withdrew to the northwest of Jin. Only the 45th Division, under the leadership of Wang Fengshan, moved to the area around Wanquan and Ronghe to fight the enemy.
At dawn on June 27, more than a thousand Japanese troops and six or seven tanks attacked the garrison of the 45th Division, and the division headquarters and the 2nd Regiment were surrounded at the village of Wanquan Xizhang. Wang Fengshan led his army to hold their positions, took the lead as soldiers, and launched a deadly struggle with the enemy. By the afternoon of the 28th, the enemy reinforced more than 2,000 troops. With the enemy outnumbered and the disparity in strength, the 45th Division gradually lost. Wang Fengshan commanded calmly and resolutely, and he personally led the reserve team to rush to the front line and fight with the enemy with flesh and blood. The battle was extremely fierce, and the commander of the special company and the officers and men of the whole company were heroically sacrificed. Wang Fengshan was wounded in the arm, but he could not keep the line of fire, still holding high his pistol, and commanding the soldiers to fight hard. At this time, a shuttle of heavy machine gun bullets strafed over, and Wang Fengshan was hit several times in the abdomen, and the intestines flowed outside the abdomen, and the blood was like a flood. He endured the pain and hugged his stomach, wrapped his wounds and fought again, and finally because of excessive bleeding, he was martyred. He was 36 years old.
After Wang Fengshan was martyred, his body was buried in Beipo Village, Xiangning County. On July 7, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the launch of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yan Xishan held a meeting in Kenanpo to mourn "Fengshan, commander of the Wang Division, a soldier who died in the Great Defense Of the Revolutionary Base Area." On May 29, 1943, the Nationalist government issued an order of praise: "Wang Fengshan, commander of the Provisional Forty-fifth Division, has been practicing for a long time, and has long been known as heroic, and after the rise of the Anti-Japanese War Army, he fought in the Fennan area and repeatedly defeated the enemy' front." Unfortunately, he went to the Battle of Xia Wanquan, supervised the front line, was shot in the abdomen, and sacrificed his life for the country. Resisting the faithfulness of the people, mourning deeply, should be explicitly praised, and the deeds of life should be stored in the history museum, and the heroic soul should be comforted with the festival of heroism. Subsequently, the Nationalist government posthumously recognized Wang Fengshan as a lieutenant general in the army and ordered that the village of Xizhang be renamed "Fengshan Village".
Later, Wang Fengshan's deeds were adapted into a drama "Pan gut hero Wang Fengshan", which was widely staged in the war zone, inspiring the determination of the soldiers and civilians of the War of Resistance and the Japanese army to fight to the end.
In April 1986, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a certificate confirming Wang Fengshan as a revolutionary martyr. In September 2014, the Ministry of Civil Affairs awarded him the honorary title of anti-Japanese hero. On September 3, 2015, at the military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Shuzhi, son of Wang Fengshan, was inspected on behalf of the children of heroic martyrs.
Heroic martyrs have passed away for a long time, the spirit will live on forever, the land of the Three Jins, Taihang Lüliang, will always remember the heroic feats of the anti-Japanese heroes.
This article is a comprehensive editor and collation of the motherland network according to historical data, please indicate the source when reprinting.