As a national hero of the Anti-Japanese War, General Zhang Zizhong was controversial at the time because he had been ordered by the Kuomintang to negotiate peace with the Japanese, but no one questioned his contribution to the War of Resistance Against Japan.
In 1940, General Zhang Zizhong was unfortunately killed in the battle between Xiangyang and the Japanese Kou, when he was not yet 50 years old, which was a major loss to the Chinese nation.
After Zhang Zizhong's death, the Japanese army reported the news of his death layer by layer, at this time the smoke of the battlefield had not yet dissipated, and the Japanese fighter planes flew over Zhang Zizhong's coffin three times, but did not drop a single bullet.
What is the charm of Zhang Zizhong that makes the enemies respect him so much? What contributions did he make to the war in his lifetime?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > new ideas ignited in feudalism</h1>
In 1891, Zhang Zizhong was born in Linqing, Shandong Province, to a family of eunuchs, his father held a considerable position in the Qing government, Zhang Zizhong grew up in a wealthy family, and his father also attached great importance to his education.
Zhang Zizhong entered a private school since childhood, and after a little longer, his father went to Jiangsu to serve as an inspector and took the young Zhang Zizhong with him, and for several years, Zhang Zizhong has been living with his father and has seen many things here.
When Zhang Zizhong was 14 years old, his father was promoted to Zhi County, his father became busy with official business, and Zhang Zizhong entered adolescence, which was difficult to discipline, so his father sent someone to send him back to his hometown in Linqing.
What Zhang Zizhong did not expect was that his father suddenly died of illness due to day and night work, and Zhang Zizhong, who had just returned to his hometown, felt incredulous after hearing the news.
Under his mother's arrangement, Zhang Zizhong was able to continue his studies, and he also married a woman who was right in the middle of the way, Zhang Zizhong received a traditional education in the school, and the concepts of benevolence and patriotism penetrated into his thoughts.
Because family thinking was still in the confines of the old feudal system, Zhang Zizhong was not able to understand Mr. Sun's "Three People's Principles" thought until he was admitted to the Beiyang Law and Politics School when Xinhai broke out, and Zhang Zizhong, who was shocked by the new ideas, was greatly shocked, originally only had the way of Confucius and Mencius in his thoughts, and in the face of this new idea, Zhang Zizhong became intoxicated with it and gradually became affected by it.
In the first year of entering the university, Zhang Zizhong secretly joined the League and threw himself into the revolutionary cause from then on.
After graduating from university, Zhang Zizhong was introduced by a friend to enter Feng Yuxiang's army, where Zhang Zizhong's military talents began to show, he was appreciated by Feng Yuxiang, and his official position in the military was continuously improved.
After the unification of the Nationalist government, Zhang Zizhong was incorporated into the Northeast Border Defense Army and served as the commander of the 38th Division in the army, and Zhang Zizhong's unit was later reorganized, which was the famous 29th Army in the War of Resistance.
At the time of the "918" incident, a number of patriotic generals in the northeast requested to go to war, and Zhang Zizhong was also full of hopes of saving the dead, but Chiang Kai-shek always adhered to the policy of "appeasement" and turned a blind eye to the Japanese invaders in the northeast.
Until 1933, the main force of the 29th Army was ordered to go north to resist the Japanese, Zhang Zizhong's troops as the main force, Zhang Zizhong led the soldiers to heroically resist the Japanese in the Santun camp, and after 7 days of fierce fighting with the Japanese, Zhang Zizhong severely damaged the Japanese army, so that the Japanese could only turn to attack Luo Wenyu.
After learning the news of the transfer of the enemy army, the 29th Army reorganized its soldiers and horses and turned to Luo Wenyu, where it successfully repelled the Japanese attack, this war was one of the few victories of the Chinese army in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and this victory greatly encouraged patriotic soldiers throughout the country, and the anti-Japanese national united front slowly opened up after this.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > ordained as a national sinner in danger</h1>
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek's attention was still on "suppressing the Communists"; he placed a large number of nationalist troops on the border of the Central Soviet Region, so that the Defensive Line of the Great Wall was weak, and the Japanese Kou took the opportunity to break through the defense and invade the Great Wall; the 29th Army was surrounded by the enemy and fell into a dangerous situation, and had to abandon Luo Wenyu and other positions; Chiang Kai-shek's government also signed the humiliating "Tanggu Agreement" in order to negotiate and truce with the Japanese Kou.
What Zhang Zizhong was referring to by falling into the trap of a thousand husbands was that after the "July 7" incident, he was ordered by his superiors to negotiate peace with the Japanese Kou.
That night, on the grounds that a soldier was missing, Rikou wanted to enter Wanping City to search, and it was the 29th Army that was guarding Wanping City.
In the face of the enemy's absurd reason, the soldiers naturally would not agree, so the two sides fought fiercely on the Lugou Bridge, and the "July Seventh" incident that shocked China and foreign countries broke out, and in just one day, Wanping City was attacked by the enemy three times, and the soldiers also stubbornly resisted.
The commander of the 29th Army was Song Zheyuan, at that time he did not know that the Japanese Kou wanted to launch a full-scale invasion of China, at first, Song Zheyuan still had illusions about the outcome of this incident, he felt that there was still room for negotiation between the two sides, this idea was also recognized by Zhang Zizhong and other generals, so Song Zheyuan did not send a large number of troops to garrison Beiping, until the Japanese Kou fully surrounded Beiping City, his illusion was shattered.
In desperation, Song Zheyuan could only send Zhang Zizhong to negotiate with the Japanese Kou, trying to make the Japanese no longer garrison Beiping City and not bomb Beiping, in order to peacefully resolve the incident.
Most of the troops of the 29th Army had withdrawn from Beiping City, leaving only Zhang Zizhong to lead four regiments to garrison the city, and the Japanese army occupied Beiping City without spending a single soldier, and Zhang Zizhong had to negotiate peace with the Japanese Kou, delaying the assembly of a large number of people and horses of the 29th Army.
During the negotiations, the Japanese Kou used the threat of bombardment of the city as a threat, demanding that the Nationalist army should not send troops to garrison the east of the Yongding River, and Zhang Zizhong knew that the 29th Army would not come back to support, so he had to secretly let the people and other innocent people withdraw from the city, so that the losses inside the city were minimized.
Although they promised not to bomb Peiping again, they wanted to blackmail Zhang Zizhong into telegraphing the whole country and declaring Peiping independence, and Zhang Zizhong, who was in a dilemma, had to hide in a German hospital first, and then leave Beiping City in disguise.
At that time, the condemnation of Zhang Zizhong within the Kuomintang was also very strong, and the Nanjing government dismissed Zhang Zizhong from all posts without finding out the truth of the incident.
Many in the party believed that Zhang Zizhong was going to a military court to be punished, but in the end, with the guarantee of Song Zheyuan and others, Zhang Zizhong was able to escape the criticism of the people, and he could only hold an idle position in the Kuomintang.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > wash away grievances with their lives</h1>
Zhang Zizhong did not become passive because of this, and he soon asked Chiang Kai-shek to give him the opportunity to fight on the front line, and wrote a blood letter requesting that he be killed on the battlefield.
In the end, under the active recommendation of Li Zongren, Zhang Zizhong was able to return to the 59th Army as a commander, and the 59th Army was the expansion of the original 38th Division, and Zhang Zizhong returned to the original unit this time.
At this time, Zhang Zizhong was "wearing the body of sin", and he had no thought of surviving in his heart, but only hoped to exchange his victories for the forgiveness of the people of the whole country.
The first battle zhang Zizhong faced after his reinstatement was a vicious battle, the 59th Army met with the Japanese in Linyi, Zhang Zizhong led the 59th Army to fight with the enemy for seven days and seven nights, so that the Japanese army could not send a large number of troops to the front line of Taierzhuang, and this battle laid the foundation for the victory of the Battle of Taierzhuang.
Later, in the Battles of Xuzhou and Wuhan, Zhang Zizhong also fought heroically, smashing the conspiracy of the Japanese to invade the hinterland of China, and his reputation became unprecedentedly huge, and even the Japanese Kou admired Zhang Zizhong's command ability and spirit of not being afraid of death.
In 1940, the Japanese Kou launched a 300,000-strong army to launch the Battle of Zaoyi, if the Japanese Kou succeeded, then the traffic on the Yangtze River would be controlled by the Japanese Kou, and the transportation line to Chongqing would also be cut off, so that the army would be divided back and forth, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
In this dangerous situation, Zhang Zizhong volunteered to participate in the battle, he personally wrote a mobilization letter to inform the troops, and a few days later led his troops to the north.
The 1,500-strong army led by Zhang Zizhong was soon surrounded by more than 6,000 japanese troops, Zhang Zizhong led the army to break through, and fought fiercely with the enemy for a day and a night, the enemy charged heavily under the cover of aircraft and artillery fire, and Zhang Zizhong's troops suffered heavy casualties.
Two days later, Zhang Zizhong had only a few hundred of his men around him, and his left arm had been shot and could only be roughly bandaged, but he still mobilized all his guards to the front to reinforce, leaving only a few officers at his side.
In the end, Zhang Zizhong's troops were completely destroyed under the enemy's dense artillery fire, and he was also martyred, and the Rikou searched Zhang Zizhong's body with a pen engraved with his name on it, and only recognized him, and the news of Zhang Zizhong's death was quickly reported by the Rikou layer by layer.
The Japanese Kou high-level were shocked to learn the news, because in any large and small war, very few senior officers died on the front line, and they were shocked by the spirit of Zhang Zizhong's accompanying troops to fight until the last moment, so the Japanese Kou respectfully put Zhang Zizhong's body into a coffin, buried it in the place where Zhang Zizhong died in battle, and broadcast the news of Zhang Zizhong's death in the local area.
After the Nationalist army learned the news, it took Zhang Zizhong's body back to Chongqing with a heavy heart, and when the convoy passed through Yichang, the Japanese plane hovered on Zhang Zizhong's coffin three times, never dropping a single shell.
After the founding of New China, the people's government posthumously named Zhang Zizhong a national hero and revolutionary martyr of the Anti-Japanese War, and the incident of Zhang Zizhong's peace talks with the Japanese Kou in Beiping was finally carefully studied by the people, and he was finally cleared.