The famous anti-war song "The March of the Great Knife" is well known to many people, and there is a classic lyric:
The great knife slashed at the devil's head,
When I sing it today, I can still feel the resolute and heroic spirit of resistance.
This song is widely sung, but few people know that this song is actually a true portrayal of the famous anti-Japanese general Zhao Dengyu. In that era of constant war, Zhao Dengyu, like thousands of Chinese sons and daughters, used his blood and life to compose the most beautiful song of defending his family and defending the country.
In 1898, Zhao Dengyu was born in Heze, Shandong Province. At the age of 7, he began to enter a private school to read and write, and before the age of 9, he dropped out of school because his family could not afford to pay for the tuition. The place where he was born, the people are popular and martial. When he was a child, Zhao Dengyu was full of energy, couldn't stay idle every day, and liked to dance with his companions to get a gun. His parents saw that he liked martial arts and simply sent him to the local martial arts master Zhu Fengjun to learn martial arts. A few years had passed, and under the diligent study and hard training, Zhao Dengyu was proficient in swords, guns, and swords, and really became a martial arts master. At the age of 16, he and several fellow villagers walked thousands of miles to defect to Feng Yuxiang's army.
After two years of training in the army, Zhao Dengyu was already a strong man with a height of 1.9 meters and a large waist. Feng Yuxiang saw his good skills in a military parade. After understanding, knowing that Zhao Dengyu was literate and hyphenated, trained hard, and stayed by his side as a personal guard. At that time, there were tigers in Deshan outside Changde City, which often injured the people. Zhao Dengyu was on a trip out to deliver letters, encountered a fierce tiger blocking the way, and he killed the tiger with his bare hands and good martial arts. Word spread, and everyone praised him as a hero of the tiger fight. Feng Yuxiang also specially asked the photo studio to take a photo of him fighting a tiger as a souvenir.
In 1929, after the Battle of the Central Plains, Feng Yuxiang's troops were reorganized, and Zhao Dengyu was appointed brigade commander of the 109th Brigade of the 29th Army. Zhao Dengyu led the army, has always had strict military discipline, he adhered to Feng Yuxiang's style of loving the people like a son, and did his best to protect the rights and interests of ordinary people. Once, a few unscrupulous Japanese beat up Chinese vendors on the street by getting drunk, and they happened to be bumped by Zhao Dengyu. He sent his soldiers to teach them a harsh lesson, and then ordered the Japanese consulate to apologize, which made Chinese feel relieved, and the local people were grateful for his justice and bravery.
After the September 18 Incident in 1931, due to the passive resistance of the Nanjing government, the three eastern provinces fell in an all-round way, and the situation of the national War of Resistance was tight. Under the call of Song Zheyuan, commander of the 29th Army, to "be a ghost in battle than a slave to the country," Zhao Dengyu vigorously used Japanese devils as hypothetical enemies to urge officers and men to carry out actual combat exercises.
In March 1933, the Great Wall War of Resistance broke out. The Japanese Suzuki Division reached Xifeng Pass, an important pass in Pingjin and North China. Zhao Dengyu, stationed in Chahar, was appointed commander-in-chief of front-line operations, and the 217th Regiment went to Xifengkou as a vanguard to reinforce the defenders. The 217th Regiment fought with the Japanese army for the northeast highlands of Xifengkou, and the officers and men were brave and fearless, and several times on the high ground, they were subject to the powerful ground artillery fire of the Japanese army. After Zhao Dengyu led the main force to arrive, he attacked in a big way until he was injured in the leg, and the high ground still could not be taken down. On the night of March 11, he personally led a large knife hand and carried a grenade to sneak up on the Japanese army. Many enemies did not have time to resist, and they died under the dangling knives. Zhao Dengyu carried a wooden stick and went into battle to kill the enemy, slashing and killing more than 1,000 Japanese devils in one fell swoop. This was the first victory of the Chinese army against Japan after 9/18, known in history as the Xifengkou Victory. "The Great Knife March" was composed by composer Mai Xin based on this period of war, and Zhao Dengyu's big knife team has been famous ever since.
In June 1935, due to the compromise and concession of the Nanjing authorities, Zhao Dengyu's troops moved with the 29th Army to the vicinity of Beiping. On July 25, 1937, the Japanese army began to agitate against the 29th Army stationed in Pingjin, and the commander Song Zheyuan appointed Zhao Dengyu as the commander of the Nanyuan side. On July 28, under the cover of more than 30 military aircraft, the Japanese attacked Nanyuan in two directions, east and west. Although there was a huge disparity in troop strength, Zhao Dengyu had no fear and commanded the guards brigade and the cadets of the military training regiment to fight hand-to-hand with the Japanese army. After receiving the order to transfer from the military department, the car he was riding in was strafed by Japanese machine guns at the Dahong Gate in Nanyuan, and Zhao Dengyu was seriously injured. The guards advised him to retreat to save his life, but he resolutely refused and commanded the soldiers to fight back. The Japanese attacked intensively with heavy artillery, and he was blown off his legs. On his deathbed, he did not forget to explain to his subordinates to take care of his old mother. Zhao Dengyu was only 39 years old when he died for the country.
Zhao Dengyu and Tong Linge, deputy commander of the 29th Army, who were also martyred in Nanyuan, were two senior Chinese generals who were unfortunately killed in the early anti-Japanese war, and their heroic killing of the enemy set a positive example for the national War of Resistance.
— History Control —
Producer: Historical Jun
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