Braving the drizzle, we came to the former residence of General Liu Jiaqi at No. 148 Desheng Bridge in Wuchang.
Liu Jiaqi was born in 1894 in Jiangxia, Hubei Province (now Wuchang District, Wuhan City), lost his father at an early age, raised by his grandfather and uncle, in April 1905, Liu Jiaqi entered Wuchang Tan Hualin Private School, and was later admitted to SpoonTing Middle School (located in present-day Grain Road Street, Wuchang District). After the Outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, Liu Jiaqi ignored the persuasion of his grandfather and uncle and joined the student army. Later, he studied at the Baoding Army Officer School and joined the army after graduation. By 1931, Liu Jiaqi had been promoted to chief of staff of major generals in the 54th Division, and later served as brigade commander of the division's 162nd Brigade. Later, Liu entered the Nanjing Army University for further study.
The 1987 edition of the People's Liberation Army Publishing House's Records of the Fallen Generals of the Kuomintang in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression records that in September 1937, after graduating from the Army University, Liu Jiaqi was assigned to serve as the commander (major general) of the 54th Division, and immediately after he took office, he accompanied Hao Mengling, commander of the Ninth Army, to lead the army north to resist japan.
This is an old house with a typical Jiangxia residential style. Entering through the bluestone gate, passing through a hall and then a granite middle door, several dilapidated old houses, the inside of the house is dark and damp, the wall skin has long been peeled off, and the wall is uneven. The tiles on the roof were pressed like fish scales, covered with cobwebs and dust. Compared with the former residences of many celebrities nowadays, it is difficult to imagine that this is the former residence of famous anti-Japanese generals, and there is some sadness in my heart.
Former residence nameplate
By the 1990s, the old house was well preserved. Its gate is facing the street, the entrance gate is a yongdao, and the second door is a patio, a main hall, a patio, a back hall and a backyard, and there are boxes along both sides of the central axis. In 1999, a fire was accidentally sparked by a household in the old house arranged by the housing management office, and most of the old house was burned down.
The descendant of General Liu Jiaqi now sells vegetables for a living.
Dilapidated courtyard
In the early morning of October 16, 1937, the position of Huaihua in the south on the northwest side of Xinkou. General Liu Jiaqi personally supervised the battle in front of the position, only 200 meters away from the enemy. Nearly 5,000 Japanese troops frantically attacked the front of the position, General Liu Jiaqi's troops have suffered heavy casualties, only a few hundred people remain, but the Chinese officers and soldiers are still fighting to the death, and when the battle between the two sides is going on to be white-hot, General Liu Jiaqi was first injured in the abdomen by the Japanese grenadier, followed by 7 bullets in the whole body, and was martyred on the spot. On 17 November, the Nationalist government posthumously recognized him as a lieutenant general. According to research, he was the highest general of Wuhan who died during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Liu Jiaqi's descendants told this writer that before the Battle of Xinkou, Liu Jiaqi was ordered to go to Shanxi to resist the enemy. On the day of his departure, Liu Jiaqi, dressed in a military uniform, finally hugged his daughter at the door of his home, then turned around and went on the road and never returned. Husband Xu Guo, there is no need to send each other!