After the Battle of Xuzhou, the Japanese army opened up the northern and southern battlefields. In order to end the war on the Chinese battlefield as soon as possible, the Japanese army planned to take Wuhan, forcing the Kuomintang to transfer power again and completely destroy the will of the Chinese. Therefore, immediately after the Battle of Xuzhou, a large army was mobilized, and the troops were divided into five roads to kill Wuhan. However, things didn't quite go exactly the way they wanted...
On July 22, 1938, the Botian Detachment of the Japanese Army and the 106th Division, with the cooperation of the Navy and Air Force, landed at Gutang on the shore of Poyang Lake and took the Jiujiang River directly. On July 26, the Jiujiang River and the Xiaochikou in Huangmei County on the other side fell one after another.
On August 2, Susong was captured by the Japanese army, and Huangmei fell three days later. Then, the Japanese army regrouped and deployed troops with Jiujiang as the center, and decided to first occupy the line from Guangji in Hubei to Ruichang, De'an, and Yongxiu in Jiangxi, and then advance to Wuhan.
In late August 1938, the Japanese troops in Jiujiang came out in three directions, aiming directly at Wuhan. The 6th Division attacked Guangji and Tianjiazhen and advanced toward Wuhan along the north bank of the Yangtze River; the 9th Division and the Potian Detachment advanced along the south bank of the Yangtze River to Wuhan; the 101st Division and the 27th Division advanced to De'an and Yongxiu respectively.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > first, Guangji City blocked the enemy, the Japanese army won a tragic victory and injured vitality</h1>
Guangji County is located in the southern foothills of the Dabie Mountains, about 45 kilometers northwest of Huangmei County. 40 kilometers southwest of Guangji County, it is Tianjia Town, an important fortress of the Wuhan Defense Line.
Guangji was an important stronghold for defending the second-line position in Wuhan, and was the backing of the right side of the town of Tianjia. Once the Japanese army occupied the county seat of Guangji, it could not only advance along the Guangji (Guangji - Haoshui) Avenue towards Wuhan, but also threaten the fortress Tianjia Town, and then surround the Chinese troops stationed on the river, posing a serious threat to Wuhan. Responsible for the defense of the Guangji area were Li Pinxian and his 4th Army (including his 11th Army).
On May 14, 1890, Li Pinxian was born in a large family in Pingle Township, Cangwu County, Guangxi Province. Li Pinxian's father, Li Jixing, once served as a taoist in Guilin (also called Daotai, equivalent to the current vice governor). Later, perhaps because he was really unaccustomed to the corruption of the Qing government, Li improvised his resignation and returned to his hometown and went to Cangwu County to teach.
Born in a family of official eunuchs, his father later devoted himself to education, and the reading atmosphere was so superior, Li Pinxian had no reason not to embark on a career path. Since he had heard about it since he was a child, Li Pinxian's knowledge foundation was naturally very solid.
In 1907, Cai Yi founded the Army Primary School in Guilin, and Li Pinxian, who was obsessed with the imperial examination, persuaded his family to take the Renxue examination, and everything went well. Li Pinxian, who had no way to go, began his military career.
After graduating from the Guangxi Army Primary School, Li Pinxian entered the Hubei Army Middle School to continue his studies, the year was 1909. People who understand history should know that an earth-shattering event was about to happen in Hubei at that time. In 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. Li Pinxian, who was educated by revolutionary ideas in school, also participated in the famous uprising.
After the victory of the Xinhai Revolution, Li Pinxian entered the Baoding Army Officer School for further study, and after graduation, he was assigned back to the 1st Division of the Guangxi Army for internship, and it was precisely because he became a soldier.
After Li Pinxian joined the army, he successively participated in the War of Defending the Country, the War of Defending france, and the War of The Northern Expedition with the Gui Army and the Xiang Army, and made many military achievements. By 1927, Li Pinxian, who was less than 37 years old, had been promoted to commander of the 8th Army. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Gui Army was ordered to go to the anti-Japanese front, and Li Pinxian was appointed commander-in-chief of the 11th Group Army, which was under the jurisdiction of the 7th Army, the 31st Army, and the 48th Army.
In November 1937, Li Pinxian led the 11th Army to participate in the Battle of Songhu. During the Battle of Xuzhou, Li Pinxian commanded the 11th Army to block the reinforcements of the Japanese army from the north in the southern section of Jinpu Road, contributing to the great victory of Taierzhuang.
At the Battle of Wuhan, Li Pinxian's order was to deploy defenses in Huangmei and Guangji to delay the Pace of the Japanese army's march to Wuhan. After receiving the order, Li Pinxian personally rushed to the front line to inspect the position, ignoring the Japanese bombers circling overhead. Once, Li Pinxian had just stepped out of the car, and the car behind him was hit by a Japanese bomb, and the guards were frightened, but Li Pinxian did not change his face and continued to command the soldiers to reinforce the fortifications.
In August 1938, after the fall of Susong and Huangmei, Li Pinxian adjusted the strategic deployment in time, arranging for manpower to deploy layer by layer on the outskirts of Huangmei to Guangji, and on the other hand sending troops to counterattack Huangmei.
The officers and men of the 11th Army and the Japanese 6th Division fought repeatedly on the line from Huangmei to Guangji, and although some positions were recovered, they were never able to recover Huangmei.
The Japanese 6th Division, while fighting for positions with the Chinese army, gathered troops from Susong and Huangmei on the other hand, preparing to take Guangji in one fell swoop and open the passage to Wuhan.
On August 26, the 84th Army recaptured the positions of Admiralty Shop and Loess Bao, which were occupied by the Japanese army. However, the good times did not last long, and the Japanese army quickly organized an additional counterattack and again occupied two positions in the early morning of the next day. Subsequently, the Japanese army took advantage of the situation to break through the position of the 150th Division at Kuzhukou, trapping Duoyun Mountain and Poplar Ridge, and then successfully attacked the left wing of the 189th Division, capturing Paizi Mountain, Houshanpu and other positions. The Chinese defenders were forced to retreat to Honghuayan and Xianggangling.
Li Pinxian saw the attempt of the Japanese army and was determined to take advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold to break through from the front, and immediately began to deploy a counterattack strategy. The 84th Army and the 31st Brigade of the 68th Army were ordered to attack Huangmei; the two divisions of the 29th Army were responsible for retaking the positions around Duoyun Mountain and Baiyangling, and then attacking the area around Huangjia'an and Yingzi Mountain, cutting off the Suhuang (Susong-Huangmei) Road; the 6th Artillery Regiment advanced eastward to assist the 84th Army's attack; the 26th Army and the 68th Army built defensive positions on the line from Guishan and Dajinpu to Paizishan; and the 86th Army was the reserve of the corps.
On August 28, Li Pinxian ordered an offensive. The 176th Division successfully entered and occupied the first line of Wangjiawan and Xingjiawan; the 189th Division advanced to Houshanpu; the 150th Division occupied the River Crossing Bridge and surrounded and annihilated hundreds of Japanese troops; and the 161st Division regained the left north pole.
On the same day, the Japanese army of Susong abandoned the city and entered Huangmei to join the main force, and Susong was reoccupied by the Chinese army.
On August 30, the main force of the Japanese 6th Division was assembled in the Huangmei area and began to launch a counterattack, aiming directly at Guangji. The Japanese army gave full play to its superiority in firepower and launched a fierce attack on the Chinese army with the support of strong firepower. The 176th Division, the 189th Division, and the 68th Army's defensive line were successively breached by the Japanese army, and the Chinese army had to shrink the defensive line, resisting mainly and secondarily, fighting and retreating.
On September 2, the Japanese army had advanced to the area of Beacon Mountain, Broken Mountain Pass, and Phoenix Mountain. The 84th Army fought inextricably with the Japanese in the area of Shuangchengyi and Ta'erzhai and annihilated a large number of enemies, but it also suffered heavy losses and ultimately failed to hold its position.
In the early morning of September 4, the Japanese army entered and occupied Shengjin Village, and in the afternoon it captured Houhu Village, and the main force attacked Guangji in a cone along both sides of the Huangguang (Huangmei - Guangji) Highway.
Li Pinxian saw that the Japanese army maintained a cone formation and decided to attack the enemy from both flanks. The 31st Army was ordered to hold its position with the main force and wait for an opportunity to counterattack the Japanese troops in Shengjinzhai; the 26th Army left 1 division to garrison the position, and the rest of the troops attacked the Japanese flank in the area of Tuanshan River, Yizi Mountain, and Broken Mountain Pass.
The 31st and 26th Armies, under orders, launched attacks on the Japanese from the flanks. The Japanese were defenseless and caught off guard. After a brief period of panic, the Japanese gradually took control of the situation with their vitality advantage, leaving some of them to resist the sneak attack, while the human troops continued to advance towards Guangji.
In order to take Guangji as soon as possible, the Japanese army not only sent all the heavy weapons such as aircraft and tanks, but also used a large number of biological and chemical weapons. Although Li Pinxian's 4th Army had several corps, it was relatively poorly equipped and lacked firepower. Coupled with the poisonous gas cast by the devils, Li Pinxian's troops began to gradually become unable to hold on.
By 00:00 on September 6, many positions along the route from Huangmei to Guangji had been occupied by the Japanese army. Li Pinxian had no choice but to order the abandonment of Guangji and the withdrawal of troops to the mountains outside Guangji to preserve his strength.
Although Guangji was lost, the Japanese army also paid a great price. Under the command of Li Pinxian, the distance from Huangmei to Guangji was only 30 kilometers, and the Japanese army walked for more than 10 days, and suffered heavy casualties. After the occupation of Guangji, the Japanese army was unable to continue the attack, and could only build fortifications and wait for reinforcements.
Guangji fell, and the only thing in front of the Japanese army was a fortress in Tianjia Town.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, bloody battle in Tianjia Town, the enemy's living forces are reduced again</h1>
Tianjia Town, located about 60 kilometers upstream of the Jiujiang River and about 40 kilometers southwest of Guangji County, is a narrow river on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and is at the opposite half of the mountain and The Mouth of Fuchi, which is the gateway to Hubei, Anhui and Jiangxi and the throat of the army into Wuhan.
The terrain here is dangerous, connected by mountains and rivers, lakes, huangni lake in the east, Makou Lake in the west, and hills three or four miles wide and six or seven miles long in the middle. To the north of the hill is the Matsuyama Highlands, which are the backbone of the fortress. The gains and losses of Tianjia Town will directly affect the safety of Wuhan.
After resting for a few days in Guangji, the Japanese army rushed to the town of Tianjia. As long as Tianjia Town is taken, Wuhan is at your fingertips. However, they did not expect that a small Tianjia town would block them for so long.
Before the Battle of Wuhan, the Kuomintang Army Headquarters set up the "Tianjia Town Fortress Headquarters" in Tianjia Town, and before the Battle of Wuhan, the Kuomintang Army Headquarters set up the "Tianjia Town Fortress Headquarters" in Tianjia Town, with artillery units and an infantry garrison battalion stationed there.
After the Battle of Wuhan began, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the further strengthening of the defense of the Tianjiazhen fortress and urged the fortress headquarters to build a number of forts and strong fortifications along the banks of the river. Soon, two more divisions of Li Yannian's 2nd Army of the Ninth Theater were sent to defend Tianjia Town, including Zheng Zuomin and his 9th Division.
As the main force of the 2nd Army, Zheng Zuomin and his 9th Division were responsible for guarding the north side of the fortress, where they would fight the Japanese to the death.
Zheng Zuomin, a native of Xintian, Hunan. Since he was a child, he has admired national heroes such as Yue Fei and Wen Tianxiang, and longed for the military career of Jinge Iron Horse. After growing up, Zheng Zuomin entered the Whampoa Military Academy and became the first cadet of the Whampoa Military Academy. After entering the army, he participated in two eastern expeditions, the Northern Expedition and the Central Plains War, and gradually rose from a soldier to a brigade commander with his military achievements. Later, he was demoted because he opposed Chiang Kai-shek's "encirclement and suppression" of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and after studying at the Army University, he was reinstated as a brigade commander. After the July 7 Incident, Zheng Zuomin was appointed commander of the 9th Division of the 2nd Army and participated in the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Xuzhou.
After the Battle of Wuhan began, Li Yannian, commander of the 2nd Army, was ordered to strengthen the defense of Tianjia Town. In view of the importance of the strategic location of Tianjia Town, Li Yannian sent his main force, the 9th Division. At this time, only Zheng Zuomin and his 9th Division could be relied upon.
After Zheng Zuomin arrived at Tianjia Town, he immediately ordered his soldiers to seize the time to build the fortifications. They used cement to build hundreds of fortified strongholds, pulled up several barbed wire fences in the mountainous areas around the highlands near Siwangshan to Tianjia Town, and deployed dozens of field guns and mountain cannons on each high ground.
On September 15, 1938, after resting for seven days in Guangji, the Japanese 6th Division, with the 11th Brigade as the 1st echelon and the 11th Naval Team of the Yangtze River, began to attack Tianjiazhen.
Dozens of planes and more than 20 warships took turns bombarding Tianjia town for a whole day, while the army and marines took advantage of the cover of artillery fire to pounce on the defenders' positions. The soldiers of the 9th Division, who were responsible for guarding the north, braved overhead artillery fire to fight back tenaciously, repelling the Japanese charge again and again, but their own casualties were also very large, and the guard position set on the iron stone pier was finally captured by the 2nd Wing of the Japanese 11th Brigade Regiment.
On September 16, under the cover of aircraft and naval guns, the Japanese Marines tried to land in the area of Panjiawan and Glass Temple, but were resolutely blocked by the units of the 57th Division, and the enemy was repulsed.
The 11th Brigade took turns to storm the frontal positions of the 9th Division. Zheng Zuomin personally came to the line of fire to direct the battle, under his command, the 9th Division did not blindly defend, but combined attack and defense, and constantly sent troops to launch counterattacks against the Japanese army.
Japanese aircraft continued to bombard at low altitudes, and the defenders' positions were constantly shrouded in artillery fire, causing heavy casualties. Zheng Zuomin ordered that the mortar be adjusted to adjust the angle and hit the plane in the sky. The Japanese planes, which had been unscrupulous and had been flying at low altitudes, were stunned by what they saw: a mortar shell soared high above the Chinese position in front of them. After the shells rose to a certain height, they fell one after another, just like a rain of shells, the Japanese pilots hurried to dodge, or one plane was hit by the falling mortar shells, opening a spark in the air.
The officers and men of the 9th Division were so jubilant that they forgot that they were on the battlefield of gunfire and smoke. The Japanese pilots suffered losses and had to raise the flight altitude. As a result, the pressure on the 9th Division plummeted.
On September 17, the Japanese Marines, supported by artillery fire, finally landed successfully at Takeshi. The defenders of the 57th Division broke through a street battle with the Japanese army for a full day, and the Wuxue position fell into enemy hands. On the same day, under the onslaught of the Japanese 11th Brigade, the Li Fu position on the front of the 9th Division was broken, and Zheng Zuomin commanded his troops to occupy the flanks of Lu Snake Mountain, Tujiawan, Panjiawan and other positions to continue to block the Japanese.
On 18 September, the Japanese 11th Brigade attacked the position of the 9th Division at Camel Hill, and the defenders resisted desperately. Shi Kejun, commander of the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 50th Regiment, fought with the Japanese troops who rushed to the position, the gun was shot, and he held the enemy with his bare hands, and his left ear was bitten off, regardless of the pain, and struggled to jam the enemy with both hands. At 10:00 a.m., the Luotuoshan position was lost, and the 9th Division retreated to the first line of Xiangshan, Zhuyingshan, and Panjiashan.
On the afternoon of September 18, the Japanese army continued to attack Xiangshan, and all the defenders died heroically, and Xiangshan fell. During the battle, Yuan Cirong, the commander of the first platoon of heavy machine guns of the 53rd Regiment, collected all the grenades on the position in the case of the casualties of the entire platoon of soldiers, and threw them at the enemy who rushed forward, killing and wounding dozens of enemies. Finally, when the enemy swarmed from all directions, he was colorless and died with the last grenade left.
On September 29, 1938, after more than 10 days of bitter fighting, the main force of the 2nd Army was ordered to withdraw from the area around Tianjia Town, and then ordered to rest on the Shangba River. The Japanese eventually captured the town of Tianjia.
Although it failed to defeat the Japanese army, under the command of Zheng Zuomin, the 9th Division used the terrain and the Japanese army, which was several times stronger than its own, to fight to the death, repeatedly fighting for every position, which greatly killed and injured the Japanese army's living forces, and also delayed their march to Wuhan, which won valuable time for the inward migration of Wuhan industry.
In December 1939, Zheng Zuomin was ordered to lead his troops to the front line of Kunlun Pass and participate in the Battle of Kunlun Pass. Before leaving, Zheng Zuomin made a will, arranged the aftermath, and was determined to fight the Japanese army to the end.
In February 1940, in order to rescue the 36th Army surrounded by the Japanese army, Zheng Zuomin led the 9th Division to support, but was unexpectedly surrounded by the Japanese army. On February 3, Zheng Zuomin once again personally went to the line of fire to command the troops to counterattack, unfortunately hit by Japanese artillery fire, seriously wounded, heroic sacrifice, only 38 years old.
After Zheng Zuomin's death, the Kuomintang posthumously awarded him the rank of deputy commander of the army and added the rank of general. Chiang Kai-shek wrote an inscription for him: "The body of Ma Ge is still in the thousands, and the tiger is heroic and heroic." The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also held a memorial service, and Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and others also wrote elegy.
In 1986, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China posthumously recognized Zheng Zuomin as a revolutionary martyr.