After the fall of Nanjing during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wuhan became a new political and military center, in order to prevent the Japanese army from marching back to the west to threaten Wuhan, the Nationalist army laid out three major fortresses on the Yangtze River as a defensive line to block the enemy's westward advance, of which the Madang Fortress located at the junction of the two provinces of Gansu and Anhui was listed as a key defense. In order to prevent the Japanese Navy from going up the river, and ordered the blockade of the Yangtze River in the Madang Fortress, "Stick to Wuhan and consolidate Wuhan!" ”
Madang, The north of the river is Wangjiang County in Anhui, and the south of the river is Pengze in Jiangxi, where the mountains are surrounded, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the small isolated mountains in the river are facing each other, forming a horn. The beach in the middle of the river divides the Yangtze River in two, and the left waterway is narrow and has been silted up. The right waterway flows under the Madang Mountains, which is the main channel, which is the narrowest part of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, less than 500 meters wide, the water flow is turbulent, the situation is dangerous, and it forms a natural barrier pass that cannot be opened, which is a place where soldiers and families of all generations must fight.
Tang's "Luzao Mengma File Mountain Inscription" says: "The danger of the world, in the mountains known as Taixing, in the water known as Lüliang, the two dangerous people into one, I also smell the horse." Legend has it that the Nguyen brothers in "Water Margin" "fished and killed their families" here. During the First Opium War, the Qing government ordered the construction of forts along the river for defense, and the Construction of Madang Fort began in 1840, and in 1912, Dr. Sun Yat-sen personally boarded the Madang Fort to inspect and personally inscribed the four characters of "Mainstay".
After the fall of Shanghai and Nanjing, in order to prevent the enemy from advancing westward and protect the safety of Wuhan, the Yangtze River Blocking Committee was specially established in Winter to be responsible for the design and construction of the blocking project, and a Madang Temporary Engineering Office was set up in Madang, mobilizing migrant workers from 9 counties, serving for nearly a year. In addition, the Fortifications of the Madang River Defense Fortress were built and reinforced, and 3 levels of forts were built, while the dangerous points of the peaks on both sides of the strait were equipped with fortifications, pillboxes, trenches and other fortifications, and 3 mine defense lines were arranged on the water surface, with a total of more than 1500 mines laid before and after. 18 shipwrecks, 24,995 tons.
At the same time, it was heavily defended, and Li Yunheng, commander of the Army's Sixteenth Army, was appointed lieutenant general, and commander of the Jiangfang Madang District, stationed in the first line of Peng, Madang, and Dongliu, commanding three divisions and a brigade, and equipped with marines and artillery regiments. Counting more than 30,000 people, the task was to hold the positions of Xiangshan and Huanglishu, and send a regiment of troops to Huayang and Wangjiang to attack the Japanese landing forces, cover the fortress, and prevent enemy ships from breaking in, and on December 19, 1937, the Madang Fortress was declared a total blockade.
Everything was ready, on June 13, 1938, the important town of Anqing in southwest Anhui was lost, and the Battle of Wuhan began, first sending small motorboats against Jiangxi to commit crimes, harassing and snooping, coveting Madang, and then, 36 Japanese aircraft bombed Madang in 7 batches, and the two units of the Japanese army were dispatched separately, one landed in the area from Hagi Port to Banziji between Tongling and Wuhu in Anhui, and the other landed in the Area of Datong, Jiangkou and Yangshanji between Tongling and Guichi in Anhui. Subsequently, several Japanese warships had approached the Madang Shan Shui Gate, and the Japanese troops landing on both sides of the strait launched an attack on the Chinese troops guarding the fence, and the Chinese and Japanese armies also fought fiercely north of the Madang Mountains.
Subsequently, several warships of the Japanese Hata detachment sailed to Madang and shelled the fortress, at which time the Number of Japanese ships and ships gathered on the river above Odori reached more than 200. The Japanese forces mobilized about 20 divisions from the lower Reaches of the Yangtze River, the Jinpu Line, and within the Japanese Army, with the aim of breaking through Madang and directly attacking Wuhan.
At this time, after the defenders abandoned Niu Xieling and then abandoned Tiger Head and Ma'anshan, the Japanese army took the opportunity of the strong wind, gathered dozens of warships, more than a thousand infantry, sneaked to Huangshan Near Xiangkou to land, and spun to the vicinity of Zhang Gongji, and the defenders rose up to resist and fought fiercely all day. After the Japanese army occupied Xiangshan, they rushed to build fortifications and circled several roads with barbed wire. The mountain is higher than Madang and offers a panoramic view of the whole territory of Madang. Japanese reinforcements followed suit, repeatedly storming the Fort of Madang Fortress from the northwest coast of Lake Taipo. At this time, the Japanese army set up artillery positions at the foot of Huayang and Huangshan Mountains on the one hand, bombarding Madang from a commanding height, and on the other hand, a number of steamboats rushed into the minefield of the Chinese army to clear mines. The artillery of the Chinese army slammed into the enemy ships, sinking 4 and wounding 2 on the spot, and fighting bloody battles for a day and night. The Japanese finally unleashed poisoned gas, the Chinese army suffered seven-tenths of the casualties, Zhang Gongji fell into the hands of the enemy, and the Madang Fortress lost its barrier and fell into the heavy encirclement of the Japanese army.
Subsequently, more than a thousand Japanese troops invaded the east side of Madang, more than 700 Japanese troops landed, and one of the several forts protecting the Madang blockade was occupied by the Japanese. In the afternoon of the same day, a part of the Japanese army detoured by motorboat to land at Qingshan Dam on the west side of Madang. By the evening of the same day, the Japanese had crossed Madang and landed at the Niangniang Temple east of Pengze.
In the early morning, under the cover of aircraft, many motorboats of the enemy army rushed into the minefield on the river surface and detonated mines with firepower, and a large number of ships landed from Zangshiji with landing teams. By noon, the Changshan position had been cut into several sections by the Japanese army, the artillery shells had been exhausted, and the defenders saw that the Changshan position was in danger, and the reinforcements were hopeless, so they had to order a retreat, and the Madang Fortress fell.
After learning the news of the fall of the Madang Fortress, Chiang Kai-shek was furious in Wuhan, and he knew very well that the Madang Fortress was actually the gateway to the Yangtze River, so there was no danger to defend to the west jiujiang and other places, and if Madang did not defend it, it was equivalent to the opening of the Yangtze River gateway and a direct threat to the security of Wuhan. Therefore, he ordered the Chinese defenders to counterattack with all their might and must retake the fortress of Madang. Chen Cheng, commander-in-chief of the Wuhan garrison, issued a death order: "Xiangshan and Madang are the gateways of Anhui and Gansu, and their gains and losses will have a huge impact on the victories and defeats in future battles." ...... It is necessary to quickly restore the positions of the fortresses of Xiangshan and Madang and ensure them. Those who conquered the Xiangshan and Madang fortress areas were rewarded with 50,000 yuan each. If there are those who are ineffective in combat and cower and do not respect the former, they are engaged in military law. However, due to the large number of enemy reinforcements, fierce fighting for several days, and finally failed to retake the fortress of Madang.
In this regard, Chiang Kai-shek was very annoyed, and in a fit of rage, he began to shoot Li Yunheng, commander of the Madang District of Jiangfang and commander of the Sixteenth Army, but he thought about it for a moment, as early as 1934, when the Red Army's Long March, this Li Yunheng was also like the Red Army's Long March, chasing the Red Army for more than 10,000 miles along the way to Jiangxi, especially in April 1935, Chiang Kai-shek sat in Guiyang to "pursue" the Red Army's Long March.
At that time, the Red Army crossed the Chishui River four times, threatened Guiyang, and stationed at the Yanglong Station, 50 kilometers south of the Wujiang Ferry, was in a hurry, and there was no large army near Guiyang to dispatch, and people were panicked for a while. When Chiang Kai-shek learned that Li Yunheng's 16th Army (only the 53rd Division was under the jurisdiction of the 53rd Division) was building a bunker in Zunyi, he immediately sent a telegram to reinforce Guiyang, arrived on schedule and gave a heavy reward, and those who violated it were severely punished.
Li Yunheng designated the 159th Brigade as the leader, the brigade marched lightly, arrived at Yanglong Station on time, and repelled the Red Army's attack in the Battle of the Black Temple, which was considered to "remove the red army's threat to Guiyang". Probably thinking that he had the merit of saving the car, Chiang Kai-shek rewarded 4,000 yuan, and when he was happy, he specially invited the senior generals of the 16th Army to dinner. Liu Jiming, chief of staff of the Guizhou Appeasement Office, was in charge of the reception at the time, and quietly told Li Yunheng before entering the table: "The chairman of the cppcc committee has never prepared wine for guests, but today he made an exception to use wine, and I am probably very satisfied with your hard work and pursuit this time." ”
This time, when Li Yunheng was lost at Madang Fortress, he made a big mistake, and Chiang Kai-shek only gave him a dismissal punishment and only found one of his subordinates to replace the dead ghost, that is, Xue Weiying, commander of the 167th Division, was executed by shooting on the charge of "fearing the enemy like a tiger and mistaking the fighter plane." Poor Xue Weiying, a first-term student of the Whampoa Military Academy, met such a superior, and indeed died unjustly.