Zhang Zizhong (August 11, 1891 – May 16, 1940), born in 1891 in Tangyuan Village, Linqing, Shandong, studied at the Tianjin Law and Politics School in 1911 and transferred to the Jinan Law and Politics College the following year. In his youth, Zhang Zizhong witnessed the bullying of China by the great powers, the warlords fighting, the misfortune of the country and the difficulties of the nation, and was determined to serve the country, so he abandoned his studies and followed the military.
In 1938, the fierce Taierzhuang War broke out. In March of the same year, the Banyuan Division, known as the "Iron Army" of the Japanese Kou, suddenly advanced, and the troops approached the military stronghold of Lunan under Linyi City, and besieged the 5 regiments of the defender Pang Bingxun's 40th Army with superior strength. Zhang Zizhong personally led his troops on a campaign and forcibly marched 180 kilometers day and night to relieve the siege of Linyi.
In the early morning of March 14, Zhang Zizhong commanded the entire army to secretly cross the Yishui River and launch an attack on the right side of the elite Fifth Division of the Japanese Kou. He held the determination to fight to the death and called Lu Zhonglin: "If you die in battle, you will still live when you die; you will live without fighting, and you will die even if you are born." ”
Faced with the sudden arrival of the Fifty-ninth Army, the Japanese Fifth Division was forced to abandon the frontal siege and switch to Fighting against Zhang Zizhong's troops. The two sides engaged in a melee, and the Fifty-ninth Army and the Japanese army engaged each other for several rounds, forming a white-knife battle several times.
The operation lasted from March 14 to 19, and the Fifty-ninth Army suffered 4,482 casualties, including 199 officers and only 13,000 combatants.
On the afternoon of March 21, Zhang Zizhong led the remaining troops of the Fifty-ninth Army to gather in Fei County in the rain to attack the left rear of the Japanese Tenth Division. On the morning of March 22, the Fifty-ninth Army reached the county seat of Fei County. Unexpectedly, Sakagaki Seishiro, who was beaten by Zhang Zizhong, suddenly heard that Zhang Zizhong's troops were transferred, and he was busy gathering remnants and dispatching reinforcements to launch a rampant counterattack against Linyi. Pang Bingxun fought alone with a tired division, and with only the merit of fighting, he was forced to retreat to the east of Linyi, and frequently sent out urgent telegrams for help.
On March 23, Zhang Zizhong was ordered to lead the 59th Army back to Linyi. The officers and men of the whole army fought in bloody battles and swore to hold their positions to the death, which greatly killed and injured the "iron army" of the Japanese Kou. On March 29, the Cavalry Regiment of the 20th Army of the Chinese Reinforcements army and the 333rd Brigade of the 57th Army arrived in Linyi. On March 30, Zhang Zizhong ordered a counter-offensive. The Japanese army could not resist, and the division commander Sakagaki Seishiro threw away his coat and cane and fled for his life. The Second Battle of Linyi ended in victory.
After the Battle of Taierzhuang, Zhang Zizhong was promoted to commander of the Twenty-seventh Army and commander of the Fifty-ninth Army because of his victory in the Battle of Linyi. In October 1938, Zhang Zizhong was promoted to commander-in-chief of the 33rd Army, and later commander-in-chief of the Right Wing Corps of the Fifth Theater.
On May 1, 1940, 150,000 Japanese troops launched a large-scale attack on the chinese Fifth Theater troops on the east bank of the Xiang River, and the Battle of Zaoyi began. Zhang Zizhong, while ordering the troops on the east bank of the Xiang River to face the enemy separately, instructed the troops on the west bank to prepare for the attack. Zhang Zizhong personally wrote a letter to inform the commanders of the divisions and regiments of the Fifty-ninth Army:
As long as the enemy comes to attack, the brother will go to Hedong to sacrifice with the brother and others. The country has reached such a point that there is no other way but for me to die for it. I believe even more that as long as I can make this determination, our country and the nation of our five-thousand-year-old history will never perish at the hands of the three islands of slavery. The determination to die for the country and the nation, the sea is not clear, the stone is not rotten, and it will never change in the slightest! May it be encouraged with all the brothers.
On the night of May 15, Zhang Zizhong led 2 regiments of the 74th Division and a special service battalion to break through the siege and march in the direction of Zhongxiang to prevent the Japanese army from crossing the river and advancing westward. At dawn on May 16, the 18th Brigade of the Japanese Army independently mixed into the 18th Brigade captured the highlands on both sides of the can's mouth with superior troops, and concentrated artillery fire on Zhang Zizhong's troops.
At 8 o'clock, more than 5,000 Japanese troops on Zhongxiang's side arrived and launched a fierce attack. By noon, Zhang Zizhong had less than a thousand people left around him. However, the morale of the officers and men was high, and they regarded death as a homecoming, and launched a white-knife battle with the Japanese army, and the nearby hills were lost 4 times. In the end, due to the huge disparity between the enemy and our troops, Zhang Zizhong was forced to retreat into the ten miles long mountain of pumpkin shops.
At this time, the Japanese aircraft and artillery had blasted the pumpkin shop into a sea of fire. If Zhang Zizhong decides to cross the Han River in the west or withdraw from the Dahong Mountains in the east, he can get out of danger. In order to protect the safety of the commander-in-chief, his subordinates repeatedly advised him to retreat. Zhang Zizhong snapped and refused, saying, "I was ordered to intercept the attack, so why should I retreat on my own?" ”
In this way, Zhang Zizhong led the army to supervise the battle from morning to noon, and even if his left arm was unfortunately shot, he still insisted on commanding the battle. At 2 p.m., Zhang Zizhong had only a few hundred officers and men left. The soldiers of the pistol battalion who followed Zhang Zizhong rushed up to resist the Japanese army while shouting: "Commander-in-chief go quickly!" Commander-in-Chief go! Unexpectedly, the shouts attracted the attention of the Japanese army, and the Japanese army stepped up the siege.
By 4 p.m., the troops had suffered casualties, and Zhang Zizhong was left with only senior staff officer Zhang Jing and adjutant Ma Xiaotang and a few others. Zhang Zizhong said: "I fought hard and died, and I asked myself whether I would be ashamed of the country, the nation, and the chief, and my conscience would be safe!" Later, Zhang Zizhong was hit by a machine gun bullet in the waist again, and he fell to the ground and fought in blood. The Japanese infantry had rushed to the front, and Zhang Jingju, who was wounded in many places, shot and killed several Japanese soldiers before being stabbed to death with bayonets by the swarming Japanese troops. Zhang Zizhong was also seriously injured in several places and died heroically.
On the morning of May 28, 1940, when Zhang Zizhong's coffin was transported to the Chaotianmen Wharf in Chongqing, the military and political leaders of the Nationalist Government wore black veils on their arms, solemnly stood at the wharf to greet the spirits, and boarded the wheel around the coffin to mourn. On the afternoon of May 28, Kuomintang military and political leaders and people from all walks of life held a grand and solemn memorial ceremony for Zhang Zizhong at Chuqimen, and issued a state funeral order, issued a "Rongzi No. 1" honor and mourning certificate, and enshrined Zhang Zizhong's plaque in the Martyrs' Shrine, ranking first.
At the same time, a solemn memorial service was held in Yan'an, and Mao Zedong inscribed an elegy of "loyalty to the country". In honor of General Zhang Zizhong, Yicheng County in Hubei Province was once renamed "Zizhong County".
In May 1941, a monument to the martyrdom of Zhang Zizhong was built at the top of the hill where Zhang Zizhong was martyred, and a cemetery of 2,000 Chinese officers and soldiers who died in battle was built at the foot of the mountain.
In 1943, on the occasion of the 3rd anniversary of Zhang Zizhong's martyrdom, Zhou Enlai wrote an article praising him: "His loyalty and righteousness, his heroic spirit, can be the soul of China's anti-war soldiers." ”
[This article is from the People's Publishing House published "National Backbone - 100 Heroes and Model Figures Who Made Outstanding Contributions to the Founding of New China"]