The Battle of Songhu, also known as the Battle of August 13, was the first large-scale battle between China and Japan in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and was also the largest and most tragic battle in the entire Sino-Japanese War. The battle began on August 13, 1937, with about 1 million troops from both China and Japan engaged in combat, the Chinese army with 800,000 troops, and the Japanese army with 200,000 troops.
The Battle of Songhu marked the real beginning of a sino-Japanese all-out war, and the Chinese army heroically and completely crushed Japan's plan to "destroy China in three months". The battle lasted for three months, and the Chinese army suffered 300,000 casualties, including 14 generals who sacrificed their lives for the country, 13 major generals, and 1 lieutenant general. 300,000 Chinese soldiers in 3 months and 100,000 Chinese soldiers in 1 month means that more than 3,000 Chinese soldiers die on the battlefield every day.
Decades later, Zhang Zhiwen recalled the sacrifices made in the Battle of Songhu: "At that time, we had no planes, we did not have cannons, we did not even have bunkers, we only had rifles. We want to hold our ground and take what we can to resist the Japanese attack... If the equipment can't win them, we will fight with our lives and block with our lives! Seeing that the devil's tank was coming, the brothers picked up the explosives and drilled under the devil's tank. So many good brothers, just like that died! After the Battle of Songhu, Zhang Zhiwen participated in the Battle of Huainan, the Battle of Anqing, the Battle of Wuhan, and the Battle of Wuxiu in Jiangxi. But in all the battles, he always considered the Battle of Songhu to be "the proudest battle." An inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood, defending the motherland, countless iron-blooded men have built dreams and glory with their flesh and blood, which are still unforgettable and infinitely admired.
Today, let's tell the story of the hero Deguji.
Nearly 5,000 people were beaten to the point where only more than 700 were left
Xie Guji (1898-1937), a native of Zhuwapu, Chongning County (now Xinsheng Town, Pi County, Sichuan), was the commander of the 152nd Regiment of the 26th Division of the 43rd Army during the Battle of Songhu. In August 1937, after the Japanese army launched an attack on Shanghai, the army was ordered to go out of Sichuan to participate in the Songhu War of Resistance, and marched along the Yangtze River to Shanghai by boat, into the Liuhe River, Yunzaobang to The Great Field to deploy.
The Twenty-sixth Division of the Forty-third Army was a Sichuan Army unit with poor equipment. The division consisted of less than 5,000 men, four regiments and a communications company, an engineer company, three infantry battalions and one mortar company (with four mortars) each, three infantry companies and one heavy machine gun company (with four heavy machine guns) per battalion, three infantry platoons and one light machine gun in each platoon. The whole division did not have a single cannon, no logistics, no field hospitals. Not only are the soldiers short of clothes and clothes, guns are more like burning sticks, some rifles are missing parts, and some bolts are tied with hemp rope, otherwise they will fall. However, it is such a unit with a gun that is not hard, but the people are very hard.
After receiving the order to go to the front, Xie Guji wrote to his mother: Xie Guji, commander of the 152nd Regiment of the 26th Division of the 43rd Army, left a desperate letter to his mother: "The son has gone to the front line to resist Japan, and the ancients have yun: 'If you can be loyal, you can't fulfill filial piety.'" 'Sons and daughters are willing to be loyal to the country and the nation, please do not think of me.' And wrote a couplet: "After death, I wish to be a ghost in the battlefield, and I will not be a hometown person before I die." On the way to the march, he also instructed his subordinates: "The national war has begun, the relationship is alive and dead, and my generation will repay the country until the end." If soldiers are not willing to die, why should the nation be revived? If one of our troops has the heart to survive, it will not only be despised by people, but also especially intolerable by military law..."
In October, this poorly equipped and ragged unit arrived at the Songhu front, and on the 17th, it was ordered to take over the defense position of Dachang. Dachang is an open field with flat terrain and no danger to defend. The warriors dug trenches in the cotton fields and built small fortifications as cover. The division's command post was also set up in the cotton field, and a pit was dug down the flat ground to connect the trenches, and some wooden beams were put on it, and then covered with dirt, which was even the best military facility.
In such a battlefield environment, all the officers and men of the Twenty-sixth Division fought bloody battles in a sea of fire for seven days and nights under the repeated bombardment of Japanese aircraft and artillery. After the war, only more than 600 people survived the whole division, and they were transferred to the Hukou and Pengze areas of Jiangxi for recuperation.
The arm was blown off in half and still shouted: Brothers, rush with me!
Before the Twenty-sixth Division was thrown into the Battle of Songhu, many officers and men had not experienced such a battlefield position. As soon as they entered the battlefield, more than 200 enemy large-caliber howitzers of "unknown things" were instantly killed by the muffled thunder. But it is such a unit that becomes more and more courageous when it is "calmed down". After the shelling, the enemy infantry began to charge, and there were many hand-to-hand combat between the enemy and us, and the position was lost and regained. Some soldiers even used the bodies of their comrades as fortifications, and some soldiers were piled up from the dead
Li climbed out and continued to fight. Whenever the enemy tanks rushed over, some soldiers invariably bundled seven or eight grenades on their bodies, climbed on the enemy tanks and pulled the grenades and died with the enemy. After the enemy's attack was repulsed, he began shelling our army's positions again, and so repeatedly, that our army's corpses were scattered all over the field and blood flowed like a river.
On the 23rd, the officers and men of our army held their positions until the 7th day, and the war entered a white-hot stage. At dawn that day, Xie Guji stood on the position to direct the battle, and the commander of the 4th Company rushed to report on the battle: "Commander, the brothers are dying, and they can't resist." At this time, the 4 companies that were attacked by the Japanese army retreated. Immediately, another regimental commander shouted from the position: "Commander Xie, your 4th company has retreated!" ”
Enraged, Xie Guji drew his gun and fired a shot at the 4th Company Commander, hitting him in the right rib. The commander of the 4th Company still raised his hand to salute a military salute, turned around and walked a few steps, and fell to the ground. Then, Xie Guji raised his pistol and shouted, "1 Company come with me!" "Led the team straight to the position of the 4th Company."
The Japanese artillery fire came like raindrops, and with the sound of "bang", the soldiers saw that only half of Xie Guji's left arm was shaking. Blood was pouring, but Xie Guji still shouted, "Brothers, rush with me!" "Rush forward. The soldiers roared up, but another bomb exploded next to the destruct base. The dust dispersed, and the crying soldiers never found Thyokki's body again, only a bloody coat with his badge on it among the pieces of clothes scattered on the battlefield.
The father was killed, and the first to get the news was her daughter, who was only 7 years old
After Xie Guji's death, the first person to get the news was his daughter, who was only 7 years old. That day, the daughter saw two "military uncles" talking about the front line together, and because her father was also a soldier, the daughter stopped to listen. The two uncles said that the nationalist generals fought bravely on the front line, especially when a regimental commander was cut off by the arm and still charged, and finally died.
After returning home, the daughter told her mother the news, but her mother did not believe it, on the grounds that there were more regimental leaders on the front line, how could it be her father? Soon, however, the family received a notification that Guji had sacrificed. Xie Guji's mother looked at the letter her son had written for herself at that time and washed her face with tears all day, while his 7-year-old daughter had realized that she would never see her father again.
In 1938, the public sacrifice ceremony of Xie Guji was held in the Wanshou Palace on Chengnan Street in Chongning County (now Pi County) in Chengdu, and the remains of Xie Guji hung high in the middle of the su curtain, flanked by Deng Xihou's "Pillow Ge Waiting, Breaking the Kettle, Holding Half of the Walls of the River and Mountain, Huangpu Beachhead Urging War Drums; Wrapped in Leather Without Corpses, Sunken Sand with Iron, Leaving a Pure Land, Buried Clothes and Crowns under the Qingfeng Forest", and tens of thousands of local people sent off xie Guji.
Xie Guji, an anti-Japanese hero who was 39 years old when he died, left his life forever in the land of Songhu. Qingshan buried loyal bones everywhere, why should Ma Ge wrap the body back. After that, the people of Chongning County built a crown tomb for him to pay tribute to.
"My father named me Jili, which means to relieve the people of dawn from water and fire. For many years, our family has been working hard under my father's will to help the people and help others. Xie Guji's daughter Xie Jili told reporters in 2015 when her father received the 70th anniversary medal of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, "Now, I can still vaguely remember my father wearing a military uniform, when I was 5 years old, he took a photo with my mother and me, which was the only photo left by our family together, but it could not be preserved..." (Text/Lu Sheng)