The "Factory Cellar Massacre" in Nan County, Hunan Province, was the second massacre of the Japanese army invading China after the Nanjing Massacre.
From May 9 to May 11, 1943, more than 3,000 Japanese troops mutilated more than 30,000 Chinese compatriots in three days, which was the bloody massacre of the japanese army during World War II.
Located in the northwest of Hunan Province, the factory cellar embankment is composed of 28 small embankments, covering an area of more than 50 square kilometers, and is a embankment close to the water.
Originally under the jurisdiction of Hanshou County and Weixin Township in Hunan Province, until it was assigned to the jurisdiction of Nan County in 1955, it was the main water transportation route between South Dongting Lake and West Dongting Lake, which has important strategic value.
Since the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese army has been short of ships, and the Japanese army launched the Western Hubei Operation in early May 1943 in order to open up the Yangtze River channel.
The Japanese army adopted a plan of encroachment, and carried out operations in three areas, including Nanxian County, in the "Factory Cellar Massacre", the Focus of the Japanese Army was to attack the 73rd Army of the Kuomintang army in Nanxian, Anxiang, Huarong and other places.
However, because the Japanese army was well armed, the Nationalist 73rd Army could not resist the Japanese attack at all, so they all fled west.
On 7 May, the Nationalist 73rd Army concentrated on the area of Changde, preparing to retreat in the direction of Changde, along with refugees from Shishou, Huarong, Nanxian, Anxiang and other places.
On May 7 and 8, the Japanese army dispatched more than 3,800 troops, launched more than 60 motorboats, dozens of aircraft, and surrounded the factory cellar.
At that time, there were still more than 10,000 Kuomintang officers and soldiers, more than 30,000 refugees, and more than 10,000 local residents stranded in the embankment.
These more than 50,000 people were trapped in an area centered on the factory cellar embankment, with a radius of more than 20 kilometers, unable to escape at all, and fell into a desperate situation.
At that time, more than 5,000 Kuomintang troops and more than 1,000 people fled to the east bank of the Dian'an River, but the Japanese army blocked the waterway for the masses to leave by airboats.
In the end, most of the defeated soldiers and refugees were surrounded by the Japanese army on the Dian'an River.
On the morning of May 9, under the cover of aircraft, these Japanese troops attacked the Dian'an River.
In order to survive, thousands of Kuomintang soldiers threw their guns into the river, then changed into civilian clothes and mixed into the crowd, some of whom hid in rape fields.
The Japanese further narrowed the encirclement, then dispatched cavalry to slash at the people, and then sent infantry to assassinate and capture the people, and then killed all the captured people in the field.
In the end, more than 4,000 victims were abandoned on the embankment and in the river, staining the river red and turning the Dian'an River into a river of blood.
After a torrential rain, the river was almost full of floating victims. After that, people also called the Dian'an River the Blood River.
Even at that time, there was such a folk song: Dian'an River, Dian'an River, Rikou came and suffered a disaster. Thousands of compatriots were killed, and floating corpses were crowded one by one. The Five Mile Dumb River becomes a river of blood, and the wild dogs have no bridge to pass through...
In addition to the Dian'an River, Yonggu Embankment, located in the northeast of the factory cellar, has also become a thousand people's pit. The size of Yonggu Embankment did not exceed 1,000 acres, and it is now also called Xinchun Village.
On the night of May 8, thousands of refugees and a company of Nationalist troops gathered here.
In the early morning of May 9, hundreds of Japanese troops surrounded Yonggu Embankment, and then both men, women and children were captured by the Japanese army.
The captured people were tied up by the Japanese army and eventually killed en masse in the grass field, and yonggu embankment became a slaughterhouse for the Japanese army.
After the disaster, the local survivors dug a number of large earth pits and buried the victims, and at that time, there were sixty or seventy victims in one pit.
In the end, more than 1,500 compatriots were killed in Yonggu Embankment, and this place is also known as the "Pit of a Thousand People".
The Valian, located in the middle of the factory cellar embankment, was not spared, and eventually it was also known as the Jedi. The embankment runs through the east and west ends and is about 3.5 km long.
Hundreds of families of farmers and thousands of refugees have fled here.
When they heard the news that the Japanese army had surrounded Yonggu Embankment, they all went along the lake embankment to find lakes, ponds, trees and other places to hide.
However, in the end, more than 3,000 compatriots were buried under the butcher knives of the Japanese army in Valente.
The Japanese army spent 3 days slaughtering more than 30,000 of our innocent compatriots, but the people of the factory cellar were not overwhelmed by the fierce flames of the enemy.
In the course of the "Factory Cellar Massacre," our people's heroes still found the right moment to wage a heroic struggle against the Japanese army, and heroes such as Tang Zaifu, who sacrificed his life for righteousness, duan Naiwen, who heroically sacrificed his life, and other heroes emerged, among which the story of Yi Qihua, a young fisherman who killed the enemy and saved people, has been sung to this day.
There is now a Japanese saber in Nan County, and this knife was captured by Yi Qihua against a Japanese officer with his bare hands, and then Yi Qihua used this knife to kill the Japanese officer.
On the morning of May 9, 1943, a group of Japanese troops attacked all the way from Anxiang to Wushenggong in Nan County.
In some places such as the Gonghe Bureau and Million Lake in WushengGong, the Provisional Fifth Division of the 73rd Army of the Kuomintang Army here fought fiercely with this group of Japanese troops.
The provisional Fifth Division of the 73rd Army of the Nationalist Army was a joint division and lacked combat experience, but most of these officers and men were Hunan nationals, so they were still tough enough.
On the first day of the battle, at the Gonghe Bureau and Million Lake, a regimental officer of the Provisional Fifth Division of the 73rd Army was inferior to the sophisticated weapons of the Japanese army, and most of them were eventually killed, while the remaining soldiers retreated in the direction of the factory cellar.
At dusk on this day, the Japanese army saw that the officers and men of the provisional Fifth Division of the Nationalist 73rd Army had retreated in defeat and retreated, and began to break into the homes of residents to grab grain and then rob women.
At that time, a fisherman named Yi Qihua was hiding in a grass by the million lakes, when suddenly Yi Qihua heard the scream of a woman nearby.
So he leaned out of the grass and looked into the distance, and saw that not far away there was a Japanese officer with a saber, and he was dragging a young girl to the side of the lake.
Yi Qihua saw this situation and immediately climbed to a nearby fishing boat, and he rowed the fishing boat very calmly, slowly moving closer to the lake near the Japanese officer.
Then Yi Qihua had a plan and showed a look of being ready to help him cross the river.
Yi Qihua's plan was indeed effective, and the Japanese officer with the saber was not suspicious, so he escorted the woman to Yi Qihua's boat, and Yi Qihua slowly rowed the boat to the center of the lake.
At this time, the Japanese soldier felt thirsty, so he picked up the kettle and began to drink water.
Yi Qihua took advantage of this time gap to throw a glance at the woman, and the woman also seemed to know Yi Qihua's intentions, so she quickly nodded.
Yi Qihua's experience in driving a boat is also very rich, he uses his feet to step on the board one after another, and make his body lean up and down, at this time the fishing boat begins to jolt madly.
At that time, when it was winding and raining, the Japanese soldier was afraid that the ship would overturn, so he squatted in the cabin position and firmly grasped the side of the ship with his hands.
When Yi Qihua rowed the boat into the lake, it was already clouded with smoke and rain, and it was hazy, and Yi Qihua felt that it was time to act.
So he immediately took a paddle from the stern of the ship and shot directly at the Japanese soldier, and the woman cleverly ran to the stern.
Yi Qihua violently hit the shoulder blade of this Japanese army with the oar, and because of the excessive strength and the elasticity of the oar, the oar fell off Yi Qihua's hand.
The beaten Japanese soldier was also ready to take out his gun and shoot at Yi Qihua, at this time, Yi Qihua, who was quick-eyed and fast-handed, quickly stepped forward and pulled out the saber on the Japanese army.
Then Yi Qihua slashed twice at the head of the Japanese soldier and stabbed the Japanese soldier in the chest. In the end, the Japanese soldier was killed directly on the spot.
Subsequently, Yi Qihua quickly pushed the body of the Japanese army into the Million Lake, leaving behind the saber that killed the Japanese army. Finally, Yi Qihua escorted the woman to hide in the artemisia grass by the lake.
After more than 70 years, this Japanese saber survived the fierce war.
More than half a month after the "factory cellar massacre", the Kuomintang 73rd Army sent people to the factory cellar to collect weapons, and Yi Qihua buried the Japanese saber in the vegetable field at that time, so it was not confiscated.
Shortly after the Kuomintang officers and soldiers left, the local armed forces sent people to Yi Qihua's house with the intention of getting the Japanese saber. However, it was rejected by Yi Qihua.
However, this man refused to give up, and took out 20 pieces of ocean, once guiding the Yi family to sell him the saber. Of course, the people who wanted the knife also had several groups of bandits.
In the face of these people, Yi Qihua told them: "The saber has been taken away. "It made them stop thinking about it.
After the founding of New China, this Japanese saber has also been kept in Yi Qihua's house.
In the 1970s, Yi Qihua's descendants gave their sabers to a friend who worked as a security guard for self-defense.
By the end of the 1990s, the owner of the Japanese saber had lost his job and his life had become embarrassing, so he sold the saber to a collector. Finally, in 2015, the saber was donated to the Memorial Hall of the Compatriots Killed in the "Factory Cellar Massacre".
Today, this Japanese saber, which killed Japanese officers, has become an important cultural relic that witnesses the Chinese people bravely resist the enemy and bravely resist Japan.