<h3>My father, Liu Siyuan, once killed a ghost on the Lugou Bridge</h3>
Text/Liu Jihong
Photo of Liu Siyuan enlisting in the army
Liu Siyuan's comrade-in-arms
It has been seven years since my father, Liu Siyuan, left us, but his voice and smile and the heroic image of the ghost who killed the devils on the Lugou Bridge often appear in my mind, so that I can never forget it.
His father was a native of Heze, Shandong Province, born in July 1919 in the lunar calendar of the former Heze County, to a poor peasant family in The Tenant Tun, 18 miles southeast of the former Heze County. When my father lost my father at an early age, it was my grandmother who painstakingly pulled their brothers and sisters to grow up. Due to his family's poverty and the compulsion of life, in February 1936, his father was brought to the Beiping TouJun by his cousin Guo Xiangmin, who had returned from the army to visit his relatives, at the age of 16, and joined the 29th Army (commander Song Zheyuan) of the National Revolutionary Army that was stationed in the Pingjin area at that time, and became an ordinary soldier in the 2nd Platoon of the 320th Battalion, 320th Regiment, 110th Brigade, 37th Division.
At that time, China was on the eve of the Japanese army's attempt to launch a large-scale war of aggression against China. In 1936, the Japanese army had already taken control of Fengtai and targeted the Lugou Bridge, the southwest gateway of Beiping, and the situation in north China was extremely tense. As soon as my father arrived in the army, he threw himself into intense military training.
The 220th Regiment of the 110th Brigade of the 37th Division of the 29th Army, to which my father belonged, was stationed with the brigade headquarters at Xiyuan (near present-day Summer Palace in Haidian District), Beiping, about 50 to 60 miles from Lugou Bridge and Wanping City. Faced with the grim situation in which the Japanese North China Garrison had formed a three-sided encirclement of Peiping, the officers and men of the 29th Army stationed at the forefront of the anti-Japanese resistance in the Pingjin area were well aware of the heavy responsibility shouldered by this unit. In order to cope with the military conflicts that may break out at any time, the 29th Army has strengthened the military training of its subordinate units, and the training is extremely strict on weekdays. New recruits undergo rigorous martial arts, shooting, and tactical training. After half a year, each person was distributed with guns, ammunition and large knives, with a monthly salary of 4.5 yuan, turned into a first-class soldier, and began to carry out defense tasks.
Before the Outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, once his father and comrade-in-arms Wang Zaizhu disguised themselves as ordinary people to carry out reconnaissance missions near the Japanese military camp stationed in Fengtai, but unfortunately they were caught by the devils, and together with more than a dozen of the captured compatriots, they were tied up and locked in the courtyard of a landlord's house. In the middle of the night, when the ghost sentry was sleepy and dozing, the father and his comrades quietly broke the bound ropes with each other back to back, sneaked up on the wall, helped each other jump over the courtyard wall and jumped into the sorghum field outside and escaped. Back in the army, the company commander rewarded each of them with three oceans as a reward.
With the continuous deployment of troops by the Japanese army to North China, the situation in North China has become increasingly tense, and a major war is imminent. At that time, the Japanese troops stationed in Fengtai often organized troops to hold military exercises with Wanping City and Lugou Bridge as imaginary enemies a few hundred meters away from the Lugou Bridge, practiced siege of the city day and night under the eyes of our defenders, and even fired live ammunition in the direction of the Lugou Bridge, showing off force to our garrison, deliberately looking for stubble to provoke, looking for opportunities to provoke incidents, and launching war against our side. Looking at the arrogance of the Japanese army, the officers and men of the 29th Army were all enraged, rubbing their fists and gritting their teeth in hatred.
On the afternoon of July 7, 1937, the Japanese troops stationed in Fengtai organized a live-fire exercise just a few hundred meters away from the Lugou Bridge to practice siege of the city. Unlike usual, the Japanese carried enough ammunition during the exercise and were equipped with weapons and supplies such as heavy artillery, food and water. It was close to dusk after the sun had set, and the Japanese troops in the exercise had not yet returned to the camp. Immediately after our army received information, the Japanese army had already lurked its troops around Wanping City, surrounded Wanping City, and put up a siege posture. Upon learning of this information, the regimental headquarters immediately issued instructions: be prepared for battle, just in case.
In the middle of the night, from the direction of Lugou Bridge, there was a sudden and dense sound of gunfire, and the Japanese army, under the pretext that a soldier was missing during the exercise, suspected of being detained by our garrison, was going to forcibly enter Wanping City to search. After being refused by our defenders, the Japanese opened fire and shelled Lugou Bridge and Wanping City, attacking the 3 battalions of defenders in the city. The regimental headquarters immediately contacted the 3rd Battalion of the 219th Regiment stationed in Wanping City by telephone, but the communication was interrupted and the telephone could no longer be reached. The troops sent men to inquire about the situation, and the inquirers returned to report that the telephone lines had been cut, that the various intersections leading to Wanping had been blocked by the Japanese army, and that all the roads around Wanping City were surrounded by power grids. After learning of this situation, Brigadier He Jifeng immediately reported to The Commander of the Feng Zhi'an Division, and Feng Zhi'an immediately decided to immediately organize a brave death squad to rush to the Lugou Bridge to rescue the 3rd Battalion of the 219th Regiment besieged by the Japanese army.
That night, the 37th Division immediately selected more than 200 elite soldiers from the troops stationed in Xiyuan and formed a brave death squad to rush to Lugou Bridge for reinforcements. His father, Liu Siyuan, who was a quick wit and martial artist, was also selected to join the brave death squad and participated in the battle to protect the Lugou Bridge. The daredevils wore vests, shorts, a white towel on their left arm as a mark, each wearing a large knife, four grenades, and some of the team members also carried tools such as rubber pliers, scissors and axes, preparing to destroy the power grid set up by the Japanese army and prepare for a hand-to-hand battle. The rest of the 220 regiment then followed suit, running from the Xiyuan garrison and rushing to the Lugou Bridge for reinforcements.
After being ordered as a sharp soldier, the brave team gathered urgently, rushed to the outskirts of the Lugou Bridge, took advantage of the enemy's lack of preparation, cut off the barbed wire fence deployed by the Japanese army, suddenly rushed in, and unexpectedly threw grenades at the Japanese army. Frightened, the devils swooped out of the nest and pounced on them like crazy, engaging in a fierce white-knife battle with the brave team. The well-trained and highly skilled members of the brave team were all energetic, wielding large knives in their hands and bravely rushing into the enemy position, fighting with the ghost soldiers with bayonets and guns. The large knives of the generals of the 29th Army have long been famous, and the best thing the generals are good at is to fight melee night battles, this time mixed with the Japanese soldiers to carry out hand-to-hand combat, and the large blades play the greatest advantage. Immediately after that, the follow-up troops of the 220 regiment also caught up, and Commander Xie Shiquan took the lead as a soldier and led the soldiers to rush down the mountain like a fierce tiger. The sound of electric bells, assassinations, and grenade explosions on the positions was a resounding sound, shaking the earth and causing chaos between the enemy and us. The red-eyed Commander Xie Shiquan took off his shirt and slashed and slashed in the enemy group with a knife in one hand and a gun in the bare arm, unstoppable, and slashed the large knife and rolled the blade. A company commander surnamed Sun hacked 6 devils to death with a large knife, and he himself was stabbed 7 times by the Japanese bayonet, covered in blood, and was carried down by the soldiers. The knife light on the position flashed, the killing sound was tremendous, and the bridgehead of the Lugou Bridge turned into a river of blood. The fighters fought more and more fiercely, and in less than an hour, the Japanese army could not hold back, blew the retreat trumpet, and left dozens of corpses to retreat. The positions occupied by the Japanese army were retaken by our army.
In this fierce hand-to-hand combat, my father struggled to hack the devil who stabbed himself in the abdomen, and his thigh was also stabbed by the bayonet of the Japanese soldier, and the blood flowed continuously, fortunately, he was young and strong at that time, and did not hurt the key. There were also dozens of casualties on our side, and the fighting was very fierce. After retaking the position, reinforcements from the 220th Regiment rendezvoused with the 219th Regiment defending the city at Wanping City. The division headquarters decided to leave the 3rd Battalion of the 219th Regiment led by Jin Zhenzhong to continue the defense at Wanping City, and the rest of the troops returned to the Xiyuan garrison to stand by.
After the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident", General Feng Zhi'an, who was already the acting commander of the 29th Army at the time, immediately called the 3rd Battalion of the 219th Regiment stationed in Wanping City and issued an order: "The Lugou Bridge is the grave of Er and others, and it should coexist and die with the bridge, and it must not retreat." "And braving the rain of bullets and bullets to personally rush to the Lugou Bridge to supervise the battle."
The next day, Chiang Kai-shek, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, immediately sent a telegram to the people of the whole country appealing: "There is no distinction between the east, the west, the south, and the north, and no one, men, women, or children, everyone has the responsibility to defend the territory and resist the war, and everyone should have the determination to sacrifice everything!" And immediately issued an order to the 29th Army: "Hold on to Wanping and resist on the spot!"
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also immediately sent a telegram to the whole country: "Pingjin is in danger!" North China is in danger! The Chinese nation is in danger! Only when the whole nation carries out the War of Resistance is our way out!'' Call on the whole nation to resist the war.
The all-out War of Resistance of the Chinese nation thus began.
After the 29th Army and the Japanese army exchanged fire on the Lugou Bridge, the Japanese Army stationed in North China, on the one hand, pretended to delay the peace talks with local military and political officials in North China and waited for reinforcements, while on the other hand mobilizing heavy troops from the northeast to enter the customs and quickly assembling in the Pingjin area to prepare for launching a large-scale all-round war of aggression against China. During this period, the Japanese army continued to provoke and attack our defenders at the Lugou Bridge, and the forward positions of the Lugou Bridge and the Railway Bridge were lost several times, and they were retaken by our army desperately several times, and the 37th Division of the 29th Army, where my father belonged, fought to the death with the Japanese army and suffered heavy casualties.
Although the officers and men of the 29th Army were highly patriotic and enthusiastic, bravely killed the enemy in spite of their lives, and were not afraid and sacrificial in the face of the ferocious Japanese army invading China, they still could not reverse the situation of the disparity in military strength and equipment between the enemy and us by relying only on the large knives, rifles, and machine guns in their hands. After more than 20 days of fierce fighting, the 29th Army officers suffered heavy casualties, and many soldiers were blown to pieces by Japanese shells. After the artillery fire, the soldiers' severed limbs and arms were scattered all over the ground. The 219th Regiment 3 Battalion 11 Company guarding the railway bridge had two platoons, and more than 60 fighters were almost all killed.... Many years later, when the elderly father mentioned the many comrades who died on the battlefield, he could not help but cry, often choking and saying: "There are too many dead people, too many!"
On the morning of July 28, the japanese army that had been planning for a long time suddenly concentrated a large number of troops, under the cover of dozens of aircraft and more than 100 cannons and armored vehicles, launched a general attack on the Nanyuan, Xiyuan and Beiyuan barracks of the 29th Army. On July 28, Peiping fell and the 29th Army was forced to withdraw from Pingjin. His father retreated south with his troops and moved to Baoding, Cangzhou, Damingfu and other places, continuing to fight against the invading Japanese army in the south.
In February 1938, the father's old unit of the 77th Army, which had been reorganized into the First Army, met with the Japanese army in Qinghua County, Henan Province, and fought fiercely with the well-equipped Japanese ace army Toihara Division, because the Japanese army had artillery armored vehicles and other heavy weapons, the disparity between the enemy and us, the battle was extremely tragic, our army suffered heavy casualties, at that time, my father only withdrew more than 300 people in a regiment of more than 1,700 people, and all the other soldiers were sacrificed. In this fierce battle, my father was hit by the machine guns of the Japanese army's crazy strafing, and the right half of his body was wounded five times in a row, bleeding too much, and passed out. Fellow comrade-in-arms Wang Zhaizhu found that his father, who had been shot on the ground covered in blood, still had breath, so he braved the rain of bullets to rescue his father from the pile of dead people, carried it out, and ran for about half a mile. After the death of his comrades- and comrades, his father struggled to move forward alone, but fortunately encountered the field ambulance team, and was carried by the ambulance team to the regimental headquarters for rescue and treatment. As the Japanese army approached, at dawn the next day, my father was carried by the ambulance team across the Yellow River on a stretcher to the 12th Shelter of the National Army in Gong County to heal his wounds, and then transferred to the Second Rear Hospital of the Army in Huayin County, Shaanxi Province. As the war approached, my father and more than 200 wounded soldiers were arranged to take a train along the Longhai Railway to the west to Baoji Town, and then transferred through Fengxiang County to the 106 Rear Hospital of the Military and Political Department of Qianyang County, a remote mountain city in the northwest at that time, to be treated. Since then, his father Liu Siyuan, who has left more than ten knife and gun wounds all over his body, has worked as a hired worker, pushed and sharpened, and done small business in this remote and closed mountain town, and has become a family with his mother who has fled the wilderness, and it is difficult to make a living. Later, he partnered with others to open a small photo studio, and spent the second half of his life silently in Qianyang, a foreign country thousands of miles away.
On January 8, 2010, on that unusually cold winter of heavy snowfall, the old father, who had suffered and humiliated all his life, completed his extraordinary life and died of illness in a rented dilapidated farmhouse in the countryside of Qianyang County, Shaanxi Province.
Because of his former status as a national army, his father rarely mentioned his military experience for decades, only in the hot summer season, when his father was working in the farmland to take off his clothes and bare shoulders to cool off, when he saw his father's scarred villagers asked about the past...
In the winter of 2008, through the help of the media and enthusiastic people in many places, I found myself in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, where I personally experienced the "Seven" with my father. In the July 100 Incident, the family of Mr. Sun Wentao, a comrade-in-arms of the veteran unit who participated in the defense of the Lugou Bridge, and newspapers and radio stations such as Hecheng Evening News, Sina Net, Northeast Net, and Huashang Bao published reports one after another, which attracted interviews and reports from Chinese the Memorial Hall of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Mr. Fang Jun, a famous writer of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the heroic deeds of my father who killed devils on the Lugou Bridge were made public.
Eighty years have passed since the "July 7" incident that shocked China and foreign countries, and the old father who left scars on the fierce anti-Japanese battlefield has also passed away for seven years; whenever I see film and television dramas showing the theme of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and media reports on the War of Resistance Against Japan, I can't help but think of my father's personal experience in fighting against the Japanese army invading China on the anti-Japanese battlefield that my father once told us before he died, of the old father who killed devils on the Lugou Bridge, who shed blood and was injured to defend the Chinese nation, and of the many comrades-in-arms of my father who were forever buried on the land of the motherland ......
History cannot be forgotten! The national shame cannot be forgotten! We must not forget the heroes who fought bloody battles to defend the Chinese nation and the aggressors!
The fierce defense of lugou bridge has gradually faded out of the world's vision with the smoke and clouds of history, and I hope that people who are enjoying the happy life of countless martyrs with their lives and blood today must not forget the history of blood and fire eighty years ago, and do not forget the heroes who sacrificed their lives and blood to defend our land of China!
Cherish peace and do not forget the national shame. Draught does not forget the well digger.
Dear Father and the heroes of the 29th Army, rest in peace!
The article was written in July 2017
Photo of Liu Siyuan before his death
Editor: Ma Xuemin
One point number Qingwei Heze creative base
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