Zhang Xuanwu
The Battle of Taierzhuang from March 16 to April 15, 1938 (also known as the Battle of Xuzhou, the Battle of Lunan, and the Great Victory of Taierzhuang) was one of the most tragic battles in the history of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The Battle of Tengxian was the prelude to the Battle of Taierzhuang and played a key role in the victory of the Battle of Taierzhuang. On April 21, 1938, Li Zongren, the commander-in-chief of the Battle of Taierzhuang, said in a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek: "If there is no firm defense of Teng County, there will be a great victory in Taierzhuang!" The results of the Battle of Taierzhuang were created by the martyrs of Shiteng County! To this end, the Nationalist government posthumously awarded Wang Mingzhang, commander of the 122nd Division of the Kuomintang Army, who died heroically in the Battle of Taierzhuang, as a general of the army, and Chiang Kai-shek personally planned to mourn him: "Carry out the work of defending the state family, the strong soldiers will not return, and they will be loyal to the universe; they will think of the general when they hear the drums, the country will cry together, and the relics of the standard will be purged." At that time, Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of China, also sent a letter of redemption: "Fighting to defend the isolated city and treating death as a homecoming is the true color of a revolutionary soldier; he is determined to annihilate the enemy and martyr the country with his body, so as to add glory to the Chinese nation."
Wang Mingzhang was the commander of the Tengxian Defense War, died in the Tengxian Defense War, and was a national hero in the annals of history, while General Zhang Xuanwu, who was the commander of the Tengxian Defense at that time, was also a great anti-Japanese hero. In fact, the role played by Zhang Xuanwu in the defense of Tengxian County was very crucial and very important in achieving the strategic objectives.
Zhang Xuanwu was appointed commander of the tengxian city defense before the battle
The defense of Tengxian county was divided into two stages; the first stage was the defense of the outer periphery of Tengxian County, and the second stage was to defend the inner city of Tengxian County. The second stage was the stage when Zhang Xuanwu served as the commander of the city defense.
In December 1937, the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack on the south, and Han Fuyu, commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang 3rd Army stationed in jinan and Tai'an, retreated without a fight, and withdrew his troops to the area of Luxi Jining and Cao County, exposing the strategic Xuzhou to the enemy. Han Fuyu's escape, which led to the execution of the shot, was also deserved. Chiang Kai-shek urgently ordered the 22nd Group Army to be transferred from Shanxi to Xuzhou and transferred to the command of Li Zongren, commander of the 5th Theater.
After the Japanese occupied Jinan, they sent troops south to occupy Yanzhou, Qufu, and Zou counties in mid-January 1938. In order to strengthen the frontal defense of the northern section of the Jinpu Line, the 5th Theater ordered the 22nd Group Army to move north from Xuzhou. The 22nd Group Army occupied the position with the 45th Army at the line of Xiangcheng and Jiehe, built a fortification, confronted the enemy in the area of Yishan and Liangxiadian, and stationed the 41st Army near Tengxian as the second line.
On March 14, the commander of the 10th Division of the Japanese Kou Division, Ryosuke Isoya, and a brigade of the 106th Division, totaling about 40,000 people, accompanied by aircraft, artillery, and tanks, began to storm the positions of the 45th Army on our first line. And the fierce battle was fierce, and my frontal position remained untouched.
On 15 March, in view of the failure of the enemy to attack the frontal position, in addition to the main force continuing the onslaught, with about 3,000 troops, detoured to longshan and Puyang mountains in the right rear of our first line. However, Longshan and Puyang Mountain were fortified and defended by the powerful troops of our 45th Army, and the enemy attacked for days and days, but they were not captured.
On the same day, another force of more than 3,000 enemy troops detoured towards the stone wall and the area around the dock in the left rear of our first line, but was blocked by the defensive troops of the 124th Division of our 41st Army, but it was also unsuccessful. At 5:00 p.m. on the 15th, the enemy on the Longshan and Puyang mountains increased to more than 10,000 people, passing through the positions of Longshan and Puyangshan in an attempt to directly attack the county seat of Tengxian, forcing our frontal positions on the front line to abandon themselves without a fight, and their vanguard troops had already entered the area of Fenghe and Longyangdian, more than 10 miles northeast of Tengxian City.
At this time, there were three divisions of the 122nd and 124th Divisions of the 41st Army and the 127th Division of the 47th Army (division commander Chen Li, who was wounded in the outer battle of the Tengxian Defense Battle) and a brigade headquarters of the 364th Brigade, each division and brigade headquarters had only one guard company, one communication company (platoon), and one health brigade, and there were no combat units. The county seat of Tengxian was in a very critical state, while the combat troops of the 41st and 45th armies were at the front line with the enemy.
Wang Mingzhang
Wang Mingzhang, commander of the 122nd Division at Xiguan in Tengxian County, was so anxious that he immediately called Zhang Xuanwu, commander of the 727th Regiment of the 122nd Division, who was defending the second line position on the Beishahe River, 15 miles north of Tengcheng, and Wang Mingzhang ordered Zhang Xuanwu to leave two battalions under the command of the 127th Division and continue to defend the Beishahe, and he himself immediately took a battalion and a mortar company directly under the regiment and ran back to the city of Teng county. Wang Mingzhang appointed Zhang Xuanwu as the commander of the defense of Teng county.
Why Zhang Xuanwu?
Why did Wang Mingzhang appoint Zhang Xuanwu as commander of the city defense? Because he deserves a great responsibility.
Zhang Xuanwu was born in 1907 and was only 31 years old in 1938, but he was already an excellent commander who had experienced hundreds of battles and had been tested for a long time. And the Tengxian garrison was nominally the Sichuan Army, but in fact Zhang Xuanwu was from the Northwest Army.
In 1922, at the age of 15, Zhang Xuanwu was admitted to the Department of Foreign Languages of Zhongzhou University. At that time, Feng Yuxiang and his generals gave patriotic speeches at Zhongzhou University, and everyone spoke with tears and extremely infectious. Their speeches inspired Zhang Xuanwu's patriotic passion, and he decided to join Feng Yuxiang's army. Zhang Xuanwu was not only deeply influenced by Feng Yuxiang's thoughts, but also received very strict military training, and after experiencing the test of life and death in dozens of battles, he was promoted to regimental commander step by step. From soldier to regimental commander, Zhang Xuanwu fought many battles on the battlefield and dared to fight and was wounded many times.
After the Battle of the Central Plains, for various reasons, Wang Zhiyuan's brigade, which originally belonged to the Northwest Army, joined the 29th Army of the Sichuan Army, where Tian Songyao was the commander of the army, in 1933. According to Zhang Xuanwu's recollection, Wang Zhiyuan's brigade, whether it was discipline, training, or combat effectiveness, was above the general Sichuan army, so after being reviewed by Sun Zhen, deputy commander of the 29th Army, it was determined that this brigade could become a model for the 29th Army, and it was organized into a teaching brigade, and Zhang Xuanwu served as the commander of the 1st Regiment of the three regiments of the brigade. Later, due to the failure to participate in the encirclement and blockade of the Red Army, Tian Songyao was dismissed and Sun Zhen took over as the commander of the 29th Army. Before the anti-Japanese resistance in Sichuan, Zhang Xuanwu served as the commander of the 727th Regiment of the 122nd Division. From Sichuan to Shanxi via Shaanxi to participate in the War of Resistance, Zhang Xuanwu has been performing well along the way. At the beginning of the Sichuan army's arrival in Shanxi, it was under the command of Huang Shaohu, deputy commander of the 2nd Theater, because of improper command, poor equipment, insufficient supplies, and other reasons, the Sichuan army encountered japanese troops with aircraft, artillery, tanks, and chemical weapons that could only be slaughtered by others, and the losses were very heavy, and only when there was a hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army, because the original soldiers of the Northwest Army each had a large knife, they could take advantage of a little, and it can also be seen that the former soldiers of the Northwest Army dared to fight very bravely. At the critical moment of stubbornly defending Teng County, Wang Mingzhang naturally asked Zhang Xuanwu to take on the responsibility.
Zhang Xuanwu was heavily armed
At dusk on March 15, Zhang Xuanwu and his troops arrived outside the north gate of Tengxian County, where Wang Mingzhang had been waiting for a long time. Wang Mingzhang ordered the 1st Battalion (Battalion Commander Yan Yi) of the 731st Regiment of the 366th Brigade of the 124th Division, which was far away in the town of Xianqian of Pingyi County, 90 miles away, to march to Tengxian County under the command of Zhang Xuanwu, but only three infantry companies came, and the machine gun company of the battalion was in the hands of its regimental commander and remained in Pingyi. Wang Mingzhang also asked Sun Zhen, commander-in-chief of the group army at Lincheng (present-day Xuecheng) (formerly Deng Xihou, Liu Xiang died of illness as the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, and Deng Xihou returned to Sichuan to take up the post of director of Chuankang Appeasement, which was succeeded by Sun Zhen) and the commander-in-chief of the 41st Army, and transferred the three infantry companies of Sun Zhen's guard battalion to Teng county under the command of Zhang Xuanwu. As of the early morning of March 16, the troops defending Tengcheng under the command of Zhang Xuanwu were 10 infantry companies and 1 mortar company. Wang Mingzhang handed over to Zhang Xuanwu all nearly 2,500 of the more than 3,000 defenders in Tengxian County, reflecting Wang Mingzhang's high trust in Zhang Xuanwu.
Deng Xihou
Zhang Xuanwu immediately began to arrange the defense of the city. Tengcheng Dongguan has a road tuzhai quite strong, he arranged 1 battalion (battalion commander Yan Yi), 3 infantry companies in Dongguan; 1 battalion (4 infantry companies) as the defense around the city wall; another battalion (3 infantry companies) and mortar companies as the regiment's reserve. On the night of the 15th, the troops guarding the city built fortifications all night, while the regimental reserve carried grain and ammunition.
When Wang Mingzhang asked Sun Zhen for reinforcements, he also asked for more grain ammunition, and on the night of the 15th, a train of grain ammunition was transported from Lincheng to Tengxian County, ensuring that each defender of the city had a box (50) grenades under his butt, which played a key role in achieving partial victory in the battle, especially playing an important role in defending Tengcheng on March 16.
March 16: Although the enemy fire was fierce, it did not attack the city and suffered a lot of losses
At dawn on March 16, the enemies on the Fenghe and Longyangdian sides began to attack the vigilance forces at Dongguan. At about 8:00 a.m., about 1 battalion (12 guns) of enemy artillery was discharged at the Dongsha River, 12 miles east of Tengcheng, and after the test firing, it bombarded Dongguan, the city, and the railway station with the dense fire of the platoon guns for about two hours, dropping more than 3,000 rounds. At the same time, 12 enemy planes flew overhead, frantically bombing and strafing. At about 10:00 a.m., the enemy artillery suddenly stopped firing, the enemy planes fled at the same time, and the air was unusually silent for a while. However, half an hour later, the enemy's artillery suddenly concentrated a little and violently bombarded the protruding part of the tuzhai in the southern half of the eastern Guanguan of Tengcheng, and the section of the wall was blasted open a gap about 20 meters wide, and then the enemy fired dozens of machine guns at the opening to cover the advance of its infantry attack. When the enemy artillery bombarded the wall of the village, the defenders on our village suffered slight casualties, and then avoided the target of the shelling, ambushed on both sides of the opening, and waited in a strict position. When the enemy stopped firing, the defenders on both sides of the opening quickly blocked the opening, and when a platoon of about 60 people of the enemy was gradually jumping into the outer trench and about to climb the opening, our defenders threw hundreds of grenades at the enemy group, causing more than 40 enemy corpses at once, and only 10 people were returned.
The enemy found that the attack had not worked, and immediately bombarded and strafed the opening with more intense firepower, and carried out the second attack as the last time, the defenders fought back as the last time, and the enemy once again left dozens of corpses and retreated. The enemy thus carried out a third attack, but failed. So the attack stopped, and except for the enemy planes, which were still circling overhead, all firepower was temporarily silenced.
At 2 p.m., the enemy launched another offensive and blasted a gap in the northeast corner of the Dongguan Wall. The enemy's play was exactly the same as the last few times, and he made three more attacks, each time leaving behind thirty or fifty corpses. After the enemy again aborted the attack, at about 5 p.m., the enemy launched a third offensive. The number of enemy artillery has increased to more than 30, the fire of machine guns has been fiercer than before, and the enemy planes have more than 10 aircraft per batch, bombing and strafing in turn. This time, the enemy's goal was to start from the East Gate, and the attack method was also changed, and the artillery fire not only concentrated on the East Gate, but also shot at the city and the railway station in an attempt to prevent the defenders from moving and reinforcing. The enemy's infantry was also changed to 3 platoons at a time, each row was about 100 meters apart, overlapping front and back to form a wave-like advance. When the first platoon of its first was destroyed by our defenders, the enemy followed by a fierce burst of gunfire, covering its second platoon and charging up. The second row had just been wiped out, and the third row had followed suit. Due to the casualties of the Yan battalion defending Dongguan, and the reserves added to Dongguan were few left, the enemy broke into Dongguan with more than 40 people. At this time, it was already twilight, the enemy was not accustomed to night fighting, and did not dispatch follow-up troops to expand the results of the battle, so the two sides were tens of meters apart to temporarily form a confrontation situation.
At this time, Zhang Xuanwu decided to take this opportunity to eliminate these dozens of ghosts. Because if you wait until dawn for the enemy's follow-up troops to come up, Dongguan will not be safe. However, Zhang Xuanwu's reserve team had already reinforced Dongguan, and he had no choice but to transfer the 11th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 727th Regiment (Company Commander Zhang Jinru) to garrison the city wall. Zhang Xuanwu personally led the chi to Dongguan to make a final blow. When the officers and men saw Zhang Xuanwu charging forward, their morale was extremely strong and sharp, and they pounced on it, and in one fell swoop, they succeeded in one fell swoop, wiping out more than 40 Kou soldiers who had burst into the Dongguan Gate, and the Dongguan Gate was lost and recovered. Zhang Xuanwu seized the fighter plane and personally counterattacked the enemy who entered the city and won the victory, which not only highlighted his personal heroism and heroism of being good at fighting and not being afraid of sacrifice, but also greatly encouraged the fighting spirit of officers and men.
After 8 p.m. on the 16th, the sound of gunfire stopped, and the two sides were in a state of rest, but the enemy's flares cut through the sky from time to time, illuminating the inside and outside of the city as if it were daylight. On the 16th, chengguan and railway stations landed about 10,000 shells. Enemy planes hovered uninterruptedly over the air from morning to night, not only causing many casualties in bombing and strafing, but also inflicting great mental torture on the defenders, and the deafening "buzzing" sound was maddening. On the morning of the 16th, while the enemy attacked Tengcheng, he launched a large-scale attack on the frontal front of the 45th Army. The 45th Army has been fighting bloodily for three days, with more than half of the casualties, so on the afternoon of the 16th, its frontal positions and Longshan and Puyang Mountains were gradually broken through by the enemy.
At 9:00 p.m. on March 16, Wang Mingzhang, commander of division Zhang Xuanwu, went to his command post on North Street in the city to inquire in detail about the situation of the battle in Dongguan one day, and he said: "I didn't expect that we could hold out all day with only these 10 companies of troops. You are in good command, Commander Yan is brave and good at fighting, and tomorrow I will call Chairman Jiang directly to ask for awards for the two of you. ”
March 16 was the highlight of Zhang Xuanwu's life. This day was a day of victory, the Japanese army was powerful, numerous, and fierce, but Tengcheng was still in my hands. Zhang Xuanwu, as the chief official of the Shoucheng City, had an extremely strong will to fight and had no fear. This is the embodiment of the great dignity of the Chinese nation that is inviolable and inviolable, and it is also a great blow to the enemy's will to fight, and it is of great significance to the victory of the entire Taierzhuang Campaign in the next step and even the victory of the entire War of Resistance Against Japan. At the same time, Zhang Xuanwu's good command, command, bravery and good fighting, and charge ahead of the front line reflect the extremely high command ability and tactical qualities of the front-line commanders, including arranging troops, building fortifications overnight, and arranging the use of guns and ammunition, all of which made the enemy, no matter how powerful and fierce, have no chance to take advantage of it and have no choice. Moreover, Zhang Xuanwu made full use of the advantages of the strong and strong walls of Tengcheng's old city wall, and was protected by the ancestral strategic defense thinking and the unique achievements of city defense construction; the ancient national spirit and national wisdom helped Zhang Xuanwu to defend Tengcheng, making the lonely and helpless Tengxian defense war unique and brilliant, winning time for the comprehensive deployment of the Taierzhuang Campaign, and setting an example for the commanders and fighters in the follow-up War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression who dared to fight and dare to win.
That night, Wang Mingzhang transferred all four combat regiments of the two divisions of the 41st Army to the city, Siguan, and the railway station, and readjusted the deployment. The enemy chieftain Kansuke Isotani also mobilized a brigade of about 30,000 troops from the 10th Division and the 106th Division that night, and surrounded the east, south, and north sides of the city of Tengxian.
March 17: Wang Mingzhang was martyred
At dawn on the 17th, the enemy began to attack with the dense fire of about 60 mountain and field artillery, and at the same time, more than 20 enemy planes dropped bombs and strafed, and the entire Tengxian Pass was filled with smoke and dust, and the sound of explosions shook the earth. When the enemy artillery began to shoot, Zhang Xuanwushang studied the deployment of the defensive city at the brigade headquarters of the 364th Brigade in Ximennei, and two hours later, when he returned to the command post of the Regiment in the East Gate by taking advantage of the gap in artillery fire, he could no longer find the streets of The East and West Avenues, because the streets were piled up by collapsed buildings into small hills, the stone road was blown into deep pits, and the whole city was in a sea of fire and scorched earth.
After two hours of firing by the enemy artillery, the infantry began to attack Dongguan, covering the infantry charge with tanks, while the enemy aircraft flew like crows in the sky, carrying out low-altitude strafing and bombing. In the fierce battle until noon, the position of the 740th Regiment of our 124th Division defending Dongguan was still unharmed. At the same time as the enemy attacked Dongguan, its other forces attacked directly to the southeast corner of the city. After the enemy bombarded the city wall with heavy artillery fire and tore a gap, more than 10 tanks covered more than 100 infantry to charge into the city, defending the 2nd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 727th Regiment at this location, blowing up the two tanks in the vanguard with grenades, and killing more than 50 enemy infantrymen. This company pounced on the enemy, and after a burst of grenades, it picked up a large knife and slashed, a white-knife battle, and the enemy who broke into the corner of the city was completely annihilated. The company originally had 150 people, most of whom were killed from company commander Zhang Quanxin and deputy company commander He Jicang, leaving only 14 soldiers.
After noon on the 17th, the enemy suspended the attack and rectified the situation. At 2:00 p.m., the enemy suddenly bombarded the front of the southern city wall of Tengcheng with 15 grenades and 12 heavy artillery pieces, and at the same time more than 20 enemy planes concentrated on bombing Nanguan, and the city wall was destroyed, almost flattened, and could be climbed everywhere, while the two companies of the 124th Division guarding Nanguan could not survive and were transferred to the railway station outside Xiguan. The Cai Pu battalion of the 740th Regiment of the 124th Division, which was defending the southern city wall, was suddenly bombarded by heavy artillery, and the flesh and blood of the defenders of the city flew into the sky with bricks and stones. More than 600 enemy infantrymen pounced on the southern city under the cover of more than 10 tanks, and the Cai camp was killed and wounded, and the enemy occupied the southern city wall. Lü Kang, commander of the 124th Division, and Wang Zhaolian, deputy brigade commander, who were supervising the battle in Nancheng, were both seriously wounded. At the same time that the enemy army captured the southern city wall, the enemy in the east once again attacked Dongguan, the wall was blown up by enemy artillery, the fortifications were all destroyed, the defenders had no excuse, and the casualties were increasing; at the same time, the ammunition was also exhausted, and the Dongguan was lost. Wang Lin, commander of the 740th Regiment of the 124th Division defending Dongguan, and Hu Qingxi, a regimental political trainer, were simultaneously shot and killed in the battle.
After the enemy occupied the southern city wall and broke through the Dongguan, Wang Mingzhang personally went to the cross street entrance in the center of the city to direct the battle. The enemy on the southern city wall pressed the defenders on the western city wall, and at the same time the enemy artillery slammed into the west city gate tower, and the defenders in the southern half of the western city wall were too dead or wounded, so that the west gate and the city wall south of the west gate fell into enemy hands at 5 p.m. The enemy on both sides of the southern and western city walls concentrated their fire on the intersection of the city center, and Wang Mingzhang and his staff and entourage could not survive in the street market, but climbed the city wall from the northwest corner to negotiate with the enemy. Wang Mingzhang ordered one of the only guard companies around him to counterattack the West City Gate, intending to retake the Only Rear Traffic Artery, but this platoon had not yet approached the West Gate Tower, that is, it was completely knocked down by the enemy's machine guns. Wang Mingzhang was forced to prepare to go down the city wall to the railway station to meet Zeng Suyuan, commander of the 370th Brigade of the 124th Division, but unexpectedly, he and his subordinates had just crossed the city trench, that is, they were discovered by the enemy on the west gate tower, and a burst of intensive machine gun fire killed Wang Mingzhang and his chief of staff Zhao Weibin, deputy officer Luo Jiaxin, major staff officer Xie Dayuan, 124 division chief of staff Zou Shaomeng, deputy commander Fu Zemin, and major staff officer Zhang Zhong died at the same time.
The enemy who broke into Dongguan immediately attacked the East City Gate; at the same time, the enemy who occupied the southern city wall took the southeast corner of the city with a fierce charge, and continued to press north. Most of the defenders of the southern half of our eastern city wall suffered casualties, and one retreated to the east gate tower. Zhang Xuanwu deployed a whole battalion of the 2nd Battalion of the 727th Regiment at and near the East Gate, and when the enemy attacked the southeast city wall and the East Gate, Zhang Xuanwu and the brigade commander Wang Zhiyuan both supervised and commanded the battle near the East Gate. The enemy bombarded the East Gate Tower with artillery, and attacked the East Gate Cave with flat-firing cannons, the city tower caught fire, the guards above could not survive, the City Gate Hole was open, about 1 platoon of enemy infantry broke into the East Gate, and we destroyed the invading enemy with the concentrated fire of four heavy machine guns, and the enemy continuously burst in with a wave-like impact. The enemy's troops came from all directions, and our side ran out of ammunition, and at dusk the East Gate fell into the hands of the enemy. At this moment, Zhang Xuanwu's legs and feet were injured by enemy shells, and the brigade commander Wang Zhiyuan was also shot in the left arm. Since then, there has been no command in the city and it has fallen into a state of chaos.
The Japanese army did not dare to fight at night, so zhang Xuanwu's remnants were evacuated smoothly
Before nightfall on the 17th, the enemy occupied three walls, southeast, and west, while the northeast and northwest corners and the northern wall were still in the hands of the defenders, facing the enemy.
After nightfall, the enemy did not dare to fight at night, and the enemy in the city did not press the defenders again, nor did he dare to go down the city and enter the city. The defenders on the northern city wall, more than 200 remnants of the 3rd Battalion of the 727th Regiment, and more than 300 sporadic troops of other units in the city, under the command of deputy battalion commander Hou Ziping, opened the closed northern city gate in the middle of the night of the 17th, and broke out of the city in an organized manner, and the enemy did not dare to pursue. On March 18, the entire city of Tengcheng was occupied by the enemy.
In the two days of 16 and 17, more than 30,000 shells and aircraft bombs fell at Tengxian Chengguan, and more than 5,000 officers and men of the 41st Army defending the city were killed or wounded. The casualties of the officers and men of the 45th Army fighting on the periphery were also comparable to those of the 41st Army. The battle lasted 4 and a half days and 108 hours from the morning of March 14 to the afternoon of March 18.
After the defense of Tengxian County, Sun Zhen sent Wang Wenzhen, brigade commander of the 366th Brigade of the 122nd Division and Wang Mingzhang's uncle, to sneak back to Tengcheng, occupied by the Japanese Kou, in disguise to look for Wang Mingzhang's body, and happened to meet an old woman who was a neighbor of Wang Mingzhang when he was stationed in Tengcheng to inquire about the whereabouts of Wang Mingzhang's body, and it was this kind old woman who personally buried Wang Mingzhang. Wang Wenzhen and his men dug up Wang Mingzhang's body beyond recognition, but Wang Wenzhen saw the metal buttons on his shirt and confirmed that it was his nephew Wang Mingzhang. When the body was transported to Xuzhou, he found a coffin shop and saw that there was a best coffin, which read "King of the Coffin", but Wang Wenzhen could not help but be shocked when he saw it, because reading it backwards was "The Coffin in the King", and Wang Mingzhang's nickname "King's Bell" was written as "King's Bell" at that time! So there was a legend that this coffin was destined for Wang Mingzhang. The body was transported to Wuhan, where the official ceremony was solemnly held to prepare for the mourning, and then Wang Wenzhen escorted the coffin all the way back to the hometown of the new capital of Sichuan. According to Zhang Xuanwu, there was another strange event at that time. Lu Fuqing, a major aide-de-camp of the 364th Brigade, was stabbed in the back of the heart by the Japanese soldiers with a bayonet, and fell to the ground and died, and the Japanese devils kicked two feet with their feet wearing large leather shoes, and the knife edge spurted blood wildly. Unexpectedly, this kick saved his life, because the bruised blood was blocked on the tracheal passage, and as soon as the kick spurted out of the bruise, he was angry again. Later, when the local church sent someone to collect the body, he found that he was still breathing and sent him to the hospital for rescue, and returned to Wuhan after two months of recovery.
Later, the commander of the 364th Brigade, Wang Zhiyuan, was promoted to the commander of the 122nd Division, and Zhang Xuanwu was promoted to the commander of the 364th Brigade. In September 1940, Zhang Xuanwu was promoted to commander of the 122nd Division. In December 1948, Zhang Xuanwu was promoted to deputy commander of the 41st Army, and his old subordinate Xiong Shunyi was appointed commander of the last 122nd Division of the Kuomintang Army. In May 1938, Zeng Suyuan was promoted to commander of the 124th Division.
Chen Li
Later, in the War of Liberation, Zhang Xuanwu, who had already served as the commander of the Lieutenant General, and Zeng Suyuan, deputy commander of the Kuomintang 16th Corps, launched an uprising in Shifang, Sichuan, and Chen Li, Wang Zhiyuan, and Xiong Shunyi also participated in the uprising and surrendered. After that, they all participated in the Kuomintang Revolutionary Organization, Zhang Xuanwu served as the chairman of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, Chen left the chairman of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee (he also served as a member of the National Defense Commission of the People's Republic of China, vice governor of Hubei Province, and vice minister of the State Forestry Department), Zeng Suyuan was a member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee (he also served as deputy chief of staff of the 9th Corps of the People's Liberation Army, deputy chief of staff of the 9th Corps of the Chinese Volunteer Army, and after returning to China, he became the director of the Forestry Department of Jiangsu Province), Xiong Shunyi was the vice chairman of the Jinan Municipal Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee. Wang Zhiyuan participated in the work of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee in Kaifeng, Henan (information unknown). The Sichuan generals Deng Xihou and Tian Songyao also joined the Kuomintang Revolutionary Organization after participating in the uprising, and Huang Shaohu, who was the deputy commander of the Second Theater in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, were also members of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Party, and they all participated in the united front and multi-party cooperation led by the Communist Party of China.
(This article is mainly based on Zhang Xuanwu's article "The Road I Have Walked", and the references are: Wang Zhenqin: "The Defense War of Tengxian County: The Prologue battle of the Battle of Taierzhuang", "Wenshi Chunqiu", No. 11, 2014; Zheng Xuefu (Vice President of the Taierzhuang Campaign Research Association): "The Aftermath of the Famous Anti-Japanese General Wang Mingzhang", "The People's Political Consultative Conference Daily" September 24, 2020, 10th Edition, etc.)