Tianxue Miscellaneous Talk was founded by the former university faculty member Tianxuan, welcome to pay attention.
In early October 1937, the autumn in Taiyuan, Shanxi, was high and crisp, but at night, the temperature dropped a lot.
At about 11:00 p.m. on October 2, the lobby of the Taiyuan Appeasement Office was lined with guards inside and outside, full of killing chances. Inside the gloomy lobby, with dim lights flashing, a unique trial is underway.
The former site of the Taiyuan Appeasement Office
Yan Xishan sat in the middle of the lobby and personally served as the presiding judge. On both sides of Yan, there were judges, including Xie Qian, commander of the security forces, Zhang Jian, commander of the gendarmerie, Li Demao, former deputy commander of the Sui Bureau, and dozens of others, including Zhao Daiwen and Fu Zuoyi, chairman of the provincial government. The official on duty was Chen Changjie.
According to Chen Changjie's recollection, after the gendarmes brought Li Fuyi, the commander of the 61st Army, in a car, Yan Xishan said to Li Fuyi:
"From the time you were a platoon leader, all the way up to a company commander, a battalion commander, a division commander, a military commander, I have no place to be sorry for you, but you are sorry for me." First, the national defense fortifications you did were not good; second, you were told to stick to the town of Heaven and Yanggao, but you retreated. ”
When Yan Xishan said this, Li Fuyi interjected and said, "I have a telegram." ”
The telegram that Li Fuyi spoke of was, of course, a telegram sent by Yan Xishan about the retreat.
Yan Xishan immediately said angrily, "You nonsense! ”
Of course, Yan Xishan did not allow Li Fuyi to continue to talk about it, this trial was just a show, Yan Xishan only used the trial procedure to realize his personal will, not only the people present here are clear, But Li Fuyi is also very clear.
Li Fuxian no longer hesitated, and Yan Xishan said: "Your family, your children, with my help, you don't have to worry!" ”
Li Fuyi shed tears at this time and did not say anything more, because he knew that saying anything more would not help, and saying anything more would not change Yan Xishan's decision, and his family was still in Yan Xishan's hands.
Yan Xishan nodded to the surroundings and left, as soon as Yan Xishan left, it was equivalent to the end of the trial, and the whole trial process was about a few minutes, and these few minutes determined the fate of Li Fuyi.
At this time, the guard battalion took the rope to tie Li. Xie Lian said to the soldiers of the guard battalion, "That's just what it looks like!" ”
When the soldiers saw xie Lian, the commander of the security guards, speak, they did not tie Li Fuyi with a rope, but only put the rope around Li Fubin's neck.
Li Demao, the former deputy commander of the Sui Bureau, had a better relationship with Li Fuyi, and he asked, "Did you say anything to your family?" ”
Li Fuxian shook his head and did not speak.
Li Fuyi was then escorted into the car, and when he arrived at the Xiaodongmen Grand Campus, looking at the pre-laid red felt in front of him and still two or three feet away, Li Fuyi suddenly shouted: "Long live the unreasonable Yan Xishan!" ”
Li Fuyi had just finished shouting, the gun sounded, the gun was fired by the commander of Kang Company who was on the task of shooting, Li Fuyi was knocked down by a shot, and the commander of Kang Company later said:
"I used a big-eyed box made in Shanxi and took him with one shot."
Commander Kang stepped forward to see that Li Fuyi had been killed, so he did not replenish his gun and carried out the task of guarding the corpse.
Because when Cai Rongshou, the commander of the Tenth Brigade, was shot down and carried home a few years ago, he was still alive for more than half a day, so this time Yan Xishan specially instructed that after being killed on the spot, the executor must guard the corpse for an hour before allowing the family to collect the body.
Before the execution of Li Fuyi, commander of the 61st Army of the Nationalist Army, why did he shout "Long live the unreasonable Yan Xishan!" This reflects Li's contradictory mood, on the one hand, gratitude, on the other hand, resentment.
Li Fuyi's gratitude, of course, was gratitude to Yan Xishan's cultivation.
Born in 1890 in Chengxian County, Shanxi Province, 7 years younger than Yan Xishan, Li Fuxian graduated from the Shanxi Army Primary School, and was later admitted to the fifth infantry section of the Baoding Military Academy and graduated. Together with Fu Zuoyi, Wang Jingguo and others, they are very good classmates and friends.
After Li Fuyi graduated, just in time for Yan Xishan to expand his strength and put forward the slogan of "recruiting talents and building Shanxi", so Li Fuyi, who was a disciple of Shanxi, was greatly encouraged and defected to Yan Xishan with Fu Zuoyi and other classmates.
There were thirteen of them, Yijie Jinlan, who was known as the "Thirteen Taibao" of Yan Xishan, of which Li Fuyi was the oldest and most prestigious, so he was called "Great Taibao"
Li Fuyi was more capable of fighting, and he was also brave in battle, and he was very much valued by Yan Xishan, and under the promotion of Yan Xishan, he began to rise from platoon commander to commander of the 5th Army of the Jin Sui Army in 1930.
After Yan Xishan's defeat of Chiang Kai-shek, he recognized Chiang Kai-shek's leadership position, and the Jin Sui Army was also reorganized, and Li Fuyi became the commander of the 68th Division of the National Revolutionary Army in 1931, and later the 68th Division was reorganized into the 61st Army, and he served as the commander of the army.
Li Obey this person has three very significant characteristics, that is, he is very realistic, righteous, and knowledgeable, so he is loyal to Yan Xishan.
However, in the Kuomintang's deceitful environment, these three points are both advantages and disadvantages, and are often exploited.
For example, Chiang Kai-shek calls himself a brother everywhere, and he seems to be very moralistic, but once it comes to interests, he will not hesitate to abandon it, or even give a fierce hand, Yan Xishan is also such a person.
It was for this reason that Li Fuyi shouted long live Yan Xishan.
So why did Li Fuyi resent Yan Xishan? The root cause was that he had died a little unjustly.
Yan Xishan gave Li two charges: one was not completing the construction of national defense fortifications, and the other was to retreat without permission without following orders.
Let's first look at the first crime, why Li Fuyi did not complete the construction of national defense fortifications.
In April 1936, Yan Xishan applied for a huge sum of money from Nanjing on the pretext that the Japanese army was likely to attack Shanxi, under the pretext of building national defense fortifications.
Yan Xishan
According to the principle of earmarking funds, this money should be used to build national defense fortifications, but Yan Xishan had his own calculations, thinking that negotiating with the Japanese and using the strategy of "betraying the country and protecting the province" would keep Shanxi from being invaded.
Yan Xishan's "traitor to the state and security province" is actually: you don't have to attack Shanxi, you can do whatever you want, and I have no opinion on attacking other places.
Yan Xishan thought that he could dance on three eggs, so he took this huge amount of money to the major commercial ports in the country to do business. Less than one-tenth of the cost of building national defense fortifications is spent.
Coupled with the embezzlement deduction of the main official department, the proportion of expenses actually spent on the construction of national defense fortifications is even lower, and when Li Fuyi built fortifications in Tianzhen, the materials he could receive were very limited, the reinforced cement was seriously insufficient, and the wages of migrant workers and soldiers' allowances were also deducted in every way.
The defense fortifications could not be constructed normally until the Japanese attacked. The completed fortifications were quickly destroyed under heavy Japanese artillery fire, which was one of the important reasons for the defeat of Li Fuyi's troops.
Let's look at the second crime: retreating without orders. We can start with the Battle of Nankou.
On August 8, 1937, the Japanese army launched the Battle of Nankou in order to eliminate the last threat of the Chinese army in the Pingjin area. The south mouth is the barrier of Beiping, and if the south mouth is not guaranteed, Beiping will be lost, and if Beiping is lost, Shanxi will not be protected.
To this end, the Kuomintang concentrated heavy troops to block the Japanese army at the south entrance, and the 61st Army of the Jin Army led by Li Fuyi was ordered to reinforce, and the 61st Army was nominally an army, and the actual strength was only about one division.
The 61st Army, which had 4 regiments of the 101st Division and 3 regiments of the Independent 200th Brigade, encountered the Japanese when it reached Wanquan County, south of Chahar, of which the 414th and 401st Regiments suffered heavier losses.
On August 26, 1937, after the Japanese army captured Zhangjiakou, the Chinese army retreated from Nankou. Yan Xishan ordered Li Fu's troops to retreat to the area around Tianzhen and Yanggao, hold out for more than 3 days, prevent the Japanese army from advancing westward, and cover the jin army to assemble in Datong.
After the fall of Nankou and Zhangjiakou on pingsui Road, itagaki Seishiro's Fifth Division was assembled in Huailai, and Hideki Tojo's Chahar Corps of the Kwantung Army was assembled at Xuanhua, and the attempt to continue to attack Shanxi to the south was obvious.
In order to defend Shanxi, Chiang Kai-shek decided to let the Central Army of his concubines enter Shanxi, but this decision was resolutely opposed by Yan Xishan, who knew that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to use this opportunity to control Shanxi, and once the Central Army entered Shanxi, it would be easy for God to send God to it.
How to prevent the Central Army from entering Shanxi? Yan Xishan put forward a grand plan for the "Battle of Datong", concentrating more than 100,000 Jin Sui troops in Datong to fight a decisive battle against the Japanese army.
Tianzhen was the barrier of Datong, and Yan Xishan's plan was to send a unit to block the Japanese army at Tianzhen, and at the same time send other troops to encircle and annihilate the Japanese army from the two breads.
Yan Xishan handed over the heavy responsibility of defending Tianzhen to Li Fuyi's 61st Army, which numbered less than 10,000 people, had poor weapons and equipment, and was insufficient in logistical support and military training.
On September 3, 1937, the Chahar Corps of the Japanese Kwantung Army was independently mixed into the 15th Brigade Regiment, under the command of brigade commander Seiichiro Shinohara, from the direction of Xuanhua south of Zhangjiakou, and launched a fierce attack on the Chinese defenders of the 61st Army stationed in Tianzhen.
The 61st Army under the command of Commander Li Fuyi had just withdrawn south from the direction of Chaigou Fort to Tianzhen, and the troops were hastily deployed, which was also a front-line defensive formation:
The 400 regiment of the 200 brigade held the commanding heights of Panshan near the town of Shoutian; the 101st Division occupied Luojiashan and Lijiashan north of Panshan, as well as positions along the sides of Pingsui Road all the way to the first line of Wayaokou of Beishan; the 399th Regiment of the 2000 Brigade was stationed at the defense of Tianzhen; the headquarters of the 61st Army and the 414th Regiment were stationed in Yanggao County, southwest of Shoutian Town.
The Japanese focused their attack on Panshan, the only commanding height on the outskirts of Tianzhen.
The Chinese defenders, who were poorly armed, had little strength to fight back in the face of the fierce attack of the Chahar Corps. Heavy Japanese artillery bombardment and aircraft bombardment continued, the simple field fortifications of the Sixty-first Army were repeatedly destroyed, the bunkers of the Gao Baoyong Battalion of the 400 Regiment were collapsed, and all the officers and men of one battalion were crushed to death in the stone caves.
The Japanese infantry took turns charging, swooping day and night, and the Chinese defenders could only rely on the craters to cover themselves, resisting with grenades and bayonets. The rear supply and liaison lines were cut off, the ammunition could not come up, the wounded could not go down, and after three days of support, Yan Xishan ordered another three days.
Li Shengrun, the commander of the 400 regiment, requested reinforcements, but Li Fuyi had no reserves in his hands, and the 400 regiment suffered more than 500 casualties, and other regiments also suffered more than 1,000 casualties. At the last moment, Commander Li Shengrun was unable to control the troops, and the soldiers who were still alive retreated one after another. The mountains are lost.
On the day of the fall of Panshan, the Japanese Fifth Division began its breakthrough in the direction of Wei County, south of Tianzhen, with its Ninth Brigade attacking Guangling and the Twenty-first Brigade detouring west of Guangling.
Defending in this direction was Liu Ruming's Sixty-eighth Army, which even retreated without even seeing the shadow of the Japanese army, making the defensive line feel like no man's land.
Tang Enbo hurriedly ordered Gao Guizi's Seventeenth Army to fill it. A regiment sent by Gao Guizi rushed to Wei County at the speed of a rapid march, and when it was five miles away from Wei County, it received news that Wei County had been occupied by the Japanese army.
After the loss of Panshan, the commanding heights on the outskirts of Tianzhen, the Japanese army rushed straight down. Except for the 399th Regiment in Tianzhen City, the troops of the Sixty-first Army outside the city were all overwhelmed.
Then, the Japanese soldiers divided into two ways and directly inserted themselves into Jule Fort. In order to increase the intensity of the pursuit, the Japanese even used reserves. Tianzhen was still surrounded, and yanggao city behind him was actually captured by the Japanese army, and Commander Li Had to retreat south with his headquarters.
The 414th Regiment of the Sixty-first Army defending Yanggaocheng suffered heavy casualties in the battle to defend the city, and the regimental commander Bai Ruyong believed that if the street battle continued, even if the whole regiment fought until the city was exhausted, it would still be impossible to defend, so he gathered the remnants to break out of the city, and the regiment of more than a thousand people, followed by only more than three hundred people, followed by the leader of the White Regiment.
Jin Suijun in film and television dramas
Yang Qi fell, and Tianzhen became an isolated city surrounded on all sides, and the lone army in the isolated city was the 399th Regiment.
The regimental commander of the 399th Regiment was named Zhang Jingjun, and the twelve infantry companies of the regiment, plus machine gun companies and mortar companies, totaled more than 1,400 people, and most of the officers and soldiers were from Hebei, Shandong and Henan.
Northern Chinese people have a desperate brute force. The Japanese who attacked Tianzhen believed that the Chinese defenders in this isolated city would not hold on any longer, and that no one would look for death without any hope.
Therefore, the Japanese army held high the Japanese flag and marched toward the east gate of Tianzhen City, as if it were not attacking but preparing to take over. As soon as the Japanese army reached the city gate, it was suddenly hit by fierce fire from above the city wall, and the team was instantly confused.
Soon, the heavy artillery of the Japanese army began to bombard the city defenses, the tanks also approached and fired, the walls of Tianzhen were destroyed, and the Japanese aircraft blew the town into a sea of fire, followed by the infantry's repeated charge. The defenders of the 399th Regiment were particularly tenacious, and they did not retreat as if they were looking for death.
The fighting lasted three days, and the 399th Regiment suffered heavy casualties. The county magistrate of Tianzhen County advised Zhang Jingjun not to defend any longer, because if he fought to the death, he would not be able to win the battle in the end, and the people in the small city would suffer too much in the war.
Zhang Jingjun, who was in great pain, asked the deputy regimental commander to take the remaining troops away, and he wanted to stay alone to perform the duties of the soldiers. The officers and men were unwilling, saying that they wanted to walk together and die together.
Therefore, "on the night of September 11, the 399th Regiment withdrew from Tianzhen City in an orderly manner."
Tianzhen fell, and the "Battle of Datong" designed by Yan Xishan instantly became a bubble. So Yan Xishan ordered his troops to move south of Datong and south of the Sangan River to the mountains on the south bank of the Sanggan River.
On September 13, the 1st Independent Mixed Brigade of the Chahar Corps of the Kwantung Army entered the important town of Datong in northern Jin without fighting.
Datong is the junction of the two railways of Pingsui and Tongpu, "for the traffic of Jin, Cha and Sui". Embarrassed and enraged, Yan Xishan detained Li Fuyi, commander of the Sixty-first Army.
Because the Battle of Datong was broken, Yan Xishan was under both military and political pressure, and he was not easy to explain to Chiang Kai-shek and the people of the whole country, so he decided to kill Li Fuyi.
Judging from the entire course of the campaign, although Li Fuyi retreated, and he made mistakes in military command, it was not the most important, and his retreat was forced.
First, because with the strength of the Chinese army at that time, especially the military strength of the 61st Army, in the face of the well-armed And equipped Japanese army, there was no way to stop it, and the combat strength of the Jin Sui Army was worse than that of the Central Army, and the Central Army could not stop the Japanese army, not to mention the Jin Sui Army, which was poorly armed and equipped.
As for the retreat, Li Fuyi had a telegram order for Yan Xishan's "camera retreat", and his troops held tianzhen until September 11, which also exceeded Yan Xishan's limited time to defend the city.
Therefore, Yan Xishan's "Datong Battle Plan" is simply a fool's dream and cannot be realized at all. How could Yan Xishan's strategic command mistakes be undone by a military commander?
The Jin Sui Army did not allow the Central Army to enter, nor could it prevent the Japanese army from attacking Shanxi, and the whole country blamed Yan Xishan, who had to respond to public opinion and consolidate his prestige, and Li Fuyi happened to bump into the muzzle of the gun.
After Li Fuyi was arrested, his brother Fu Zuoyi interceded for him several times, saying to Yan Xishan: "The main responsibility for the loss of Panshan lies with the regimental commander Li Shengrun. In order to strictly enforce military discipline and stimulate military morale and domestic public opinion, the regimental commander can be killed. ”
This Li Shengrun was much more cunning than Li Fuyi, and when Li Shengrun's troops went down to arrest Li Shengrun, he heard the wind and fled long ago.
On the other hand, the official position of the regimental commander was too small after all, so Yan Xishan made Li obey the pot.
Therefore, it is understandable that Yan Xishan wanted to cure Li Fuyi's crimes, but Li Fuyi fought bravely and blocked the elite Kwantung Army for more than three days, although there were also mistakes in command, but the crime did not lead to death. The root cause of this situation is actually in Yan Xishan, but Li Fuyi has become a person who carries the pot.
Therefore, Fu Zuoyi later said: Yan Xishan's incompetence always requires someone to carry the pot. Fu Zuoyi's sentence explains the root cause.
Yan Xishan just wanted to use the execution of Li Fuyi to block the mouths of the Yoyo people. Li's distress telegram made Yan Xishan worry that his secret would be leaked, but instead strengthened his determination to execute Li.
Kokumbo Uchito Manga
As a result, Li Became the first commander to be executed for losing his defensive zone after the all-out war between China and Japan began.
Finally, what I would like to say is that the execution of Li Fuyi is only a microcosm of the factional struggle within the Kuomintang army, and the factions within the Kuomintang army are numerous and deceitful, which greatly weakens the entire joint force of the Kuomintang army, and this is the fundamental reason why the Kuomintang army collapsed for thousands of miles during the War of Resistance.
A unit can be repelled, but it cannot be dispersed, and such a unit is invincible, and the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army are such units, so they can become the backbone of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Tianxuan is the author's pen name, who has studied history and philosophy and is welcome to pay attention to it.