On May 3, 1928, a shocking "Jinan Massacre" occurred, on this day, the Japanese army invaded Jinan, killing and looting, not only hundreds of wounded members of the Northern Expeditionary Army who struggled to resist were killed by the Japanese army, but also the number of Chinese people was persecuted. According to the investigation: In the "Jinan Massacre", China's military and civilian casualties of more than 10,000 people, financial losses of nearly 30 million yuan, this is the most tragic scene in China's modern history before the Nanjing Massacre.
All this has to start in March 1927. Soon after Emperor Showa took the throne at that time, the "Showa financial crisis" occurred, and the frenzy of bank closures and bankruptcies swept through Japan, small and medium-sized enterprises and production factories collapsed one after another, and financial chaos reached the extreme, and the period of stability and prosperity in Japan ended. Japanese imperialism feared that once our country was reunified, the Japanese army would not be able to wantonly invade and seek, and for its own interests, Japanese imperialism did its utmost to prevent the Kuomintang from carrying out the Northern Expedition.
From May 1, 1928, on the pretext of protecting the overseas Chinese, Japan sent troops to garrison the Jinan and Jiaoji railways, ready to use force at any time to prevent the sabotage of the Kuomintang's Northern Expedition plan, when the Japanese army provoked everywhere in Jinan, breeding incidents, and stabbed and burned on the spot six battalion commanders, colonels and company commanders of the National Revolutionary Army who were looking for a house and passing by on the spot, and the officers and men of the Northern Expedition army who were assembling in Jinan at that time were also constantly killed by the Japanese army.
On May 2, the Japanese army in Jinan had reached more than 3,000 people, and the commander of the Japanese Sixth Regiment, Fukuda Yansuke, also rushed to Jinan from Qingdao with a group of his men and horses, first of all, and divided Jinan into areas for garrison, and preemptively arranged defense zones in important places such as residences, embassies and consulates, banks, and hospitals, forbidding our army to enter and strictly forbidding our residents to go out, and also arranged a number of cannons and gun positions at the intersection in a dignified manner, without taking our country into account at all.
Because of Cai Gongshi's excellent diplomatic skills and proficiency in Japanese, the Nationalist government appointed him as a special negotiator in Shandong and rushed to Jinan to negotiate with the Japanese side.
At about eight o'clock in the morning of May 3, Cai Gongshi and his seventeen subordinates finally arrived at the Shandong Negotiation Office day and night, but they saw that there were Japanese troops in front of the door, and the scattered gunshots, cannons, and people's cries in various streets kept coming, and he was anxious to negotiate with the Japanese side when he was too late to rest, but he was returned to the house with guns by the Japanese troops at the door, Cai Gongshi suddenly felt bad, the phone did not work, and the three letters sent out were all stopped, and for a time the people in the house completely cut off contact with the outside world. Like a bird in a cage, struggling to beat the cage but there is nothing they can do. At four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, more than twenty Japanese soldiers, led by an officer, opened the gate of the negotiation office with guns and forcibly broke in, saying that two Japanese corpses had been found in front of its doors, and without saying a word, they surrounded the front and back doors, and the officer ordered the guards in the department to hand over and detain them, and tied up all the staff. Cai Gongshi could only watch as more than twenty Japanese troops rummaged through the boxes and cabinets, took away a few packs of important documents, and flew away, leaving only a mess in the house.
I thought this was the end, but I didn't expect that the atrocities of the Japanese army had just begun, and before Cai Gongshi could breathe a sigh of relief, at nine o'clock that night, more than fifty Japanese troops broke into the negotiation office and cut the wires, and the negotiation office was suddenly shrouded in night, and the atmosphere of anxiety spread throughout the office. In the darkness, Cai Gongshi was held to death, and he had to watch as the Japanese army tore up the portraits and banners he had just hung on the wall with hope in the morning by the light of a few flashlights, and saw that they forcibly plundered documents in the name of searching for guns, and they had no choice, at this time an officer stood in front of him and said: "During the day, our important political personnel were shot and killed, and after our investigation, it must be the work of the people in your office, who are your responsible people, and today we must hand over people and bullets to me." Everyone in the office looked at each other, at this time Cai Gongshi, who was familiar with Japanese, stepped forward and explained: "We are just negotiators who have just arrived, we will not carry guns, the person you are looking for is not in the office, in order to avoid the bad impact of the expansion of the situation, please stop the search, withdraw from the office, and invite the Japanese consul to come to negotiate." Cai Gongshi's explanation and demand that the Japanese army completely disobey, Cai Gongshi solemnly appealed in Japanese: "Your gross violation of China's diplomatic organs and diplomats, shooting innocent people in the street, has seriously undermined international law." The impatient Japanese army did not wait for Cai Gongshi to finish speaking, and then brutally knocked Cai Gongshi to the ground and tied him up with all his subordinates.
Cai Gongshi deeply resented this atrocity, so he continued to rebuke in Japanese: "You barbarians do not understand what diplomatic etiquette is, and you will do whatever it takes to achieve your own ends. This time, you gathered in Jinan and sent people to garrison the city, on the surface to protect the overseas Chinese, but secretly you were secretly Chen Cang, repeatedly provoked, and acted very arrogantly! Doing such a ridiculous thing is really not what a civilized country should have. As for the fact that the death of your important political personnel was really done by our office, it should be your Japanese consul who came to question him, or sent a diplomat to negotiate, and we will naturally have an answer and a solution. ”
The Japanese officer became angry, "Even if you Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek come to negotiate, we have no interest in it, and what kind of high official are you, dare to talk about negotiating with us here without shame!" After saying that, the Japanese officer slammed several vicious punches into Cai Gongshi's face, instantly beating him to the ground and unable to move, and gritted his teeth and scolded: "You dare to insult the imperial army, what are you!" "
At this time, Cai Gongshi could no longer suppress the anger in his heart, and rebuked them, saying, "You brazen bandits! ”
The ferocious Japanese army cut off his nose and dug out his eyes hard, Cai Gongshi convulsed in pain, and the Japanese beasts laughed wildly, waiting for him to whisper and beg for forgiveness, but even if Cai Gongshi curled up on the ground and endured great pain without the slightest fear, he still scolded loudly: "Japanese robbers, we will eventually be ashamed of the snow, and the retribution will one day come to you!" "A Japanese soldier rushed up and directly inserted a short knife into his mouth, twisted it twice, and stripped off his tongue, throwing his bloody tongue on the ground at will, and the other Japanese soldiers rushed up, tore the clothes of him and the rest of the people and tied them to the pillar, or beat him with a whip, or stabbed them in the stomach, heart, and other places with a knife.
Cai Gongshi and his subordinates were tortured for only a dozen hours before and after they went to the Shandong Negotiation Office and were finally shot, and they were martyred heroically, and their bodies could only be hastily buried in the courtyard of the Negotiation Office.
Among so many people, only Zhang Hanru took advantage of the sound of gunfire, immediately fell to the ground and pretended to be shot, and waited until the Japanese army left before he took advantage of the chaos to cut the rope in the dark and escaped, he was the only survivor, and the grief in his heart made him cry blood, exposing the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese Kou, and this tragic accident was made public. According to Zhang Hanru's recollection, although he was also stabbed several times at that time, he could not afford to fall to the ground, but through the faint flashlight light to see that most people were cut off their ears and noses, and the blood and flesh were blurred, which made him feel very sad and indignant, especially when Cai Gongshi was cut off his nose, cut off his ears, cut off his tongue, and gouged out his eyes, the whole person was stained red with blood, which was creepy, almost like a purgatory on earth, and then the Japanese army used extremely cruel means to humiliate them in batches and dragged them to the courtyard of the negotiation office and shot them with guns. Seventeen of his compatriots died tragically in the office.
The occurrence of the "Jinan Massacre" had a major impact on the Kuomintang, and it was not until after the occupation of Beijing that the Japanese army expressed its willingness to negotiate with the Kuomintang authorities on how to deal with the "Jinan Massacre". Negotiations went on and on for more than a month, and on March 28, 1929, China and Japan formally signed in Nanjing to resolve the remaining issues of the Jinan Massacre. After the "Jinan Massacre" negotiations ended, the Japanese army was forced to withdraw its troops. Nominally speaking, the Kuomintang seems to have won victory in this negotiation with Japan, but because Japan only fulfilled part of the withdrawal of troops in the Jinan Agreement and did not compensate for the losses according to the agreement, from the fundamental point of view, Japan's handling of the matter is still inappropriate. The occurrence of the "Jinan Massacre" and the attitude of the Japanese side have made the anti-Japanese sentiment in Our country increasingly high, and it has also shattered the desire of the Kuomintang to cooperate with Japan, and finally abandoned the United Nations diplomacy and instead established relatively close relations with Western countries, especially the United States. Beginning with the "Jinan Massacre," the Chinese people gradually woke up, were not willing to be beaten, and began to rise up one after another to resist, and the era of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression began.
In addition, in order to commemorate the "Jinan Massacre", Jinan City will sound the air defense siren at 10:00 a.m. on May 3 every year, and the citizens of Jinan will not forget the diplomat Cai Gongshi and the other 16 victims who died in the "Jinan Massacre".