introduction
The Garden Mouth Incident, also known as the Garden Mouth Breach. In 1938, after capturing the strategic xuzhou, the Japanese army prepared to attack Zhengzhou and push straight to Wuhan. The defeat on the Xuzhou battlefield depleted hundreds of thousands of the main forces of the Kuomintang. Seeing that the Japanese army invaded Henan, Chiang Kai-shek could not come up with the main force to confront it, and Chiang Kai-shek fell into a passive state of resistance.
The Henan region has always been China's grain-producing region, and it is directly connected to Wuhan, and if the Japanese army occupies Henan at this time, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Faced with such a situation, Chiang Kai-shek proposed the countermeasure of "replacing the soldiers with water", digging open the garden mouth and flooding the Japanese army.
The water of the Yellow River
Chiang Kai-shek's proposal of such a strategy is not without basis. The flooding of the Yellow River has always been the most troublesome thing for the dynasties of ancient China. There are historical records that "the Yellow River flows into the sea through the Hai River in the far north, and the Huai River in the southernmost part flows into the Yangtze River." Between 602 BC and 1938, there were 1,590 large and small diversions. ”
"The water of the Yellow River is better than 100,000 soldiers." Every time the Yellow River flooded, it was the most nervous time for the feudal rulers. Because the flooding of the Yellow River will lead to a series of chain reactions. Feudal dynasties in their heyday will have a large number of bandits, and dynasties in decline may perish prematurely. During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River suddenly changed course and flowed into the Bohai Sea, resulting in more than 7 million people affected by the disaster and a large-scale population migration event, and it took the Qing government 20 years to build a new river channel in the affected area.
In modern times, due to the development of the industrial revolution and the innovation of science and technology, people can effectively control the Yellow River. Chiang Kai-shek, who had no main force to fight, also thought of the strategy of "replacing the troops with water" and preventing the Japanese army from advancing westward. But to make such a decision, Chiang Kai-shek must have thought of the consequences.
The garden mouth bursts the embankment
In June 1938, the pace of the Japanese army's advance accelerated, and Chiang Kai-shek finally ordered the excavation of the mouth of the Yellow River. On June 4, the troops in charge of breaking the embankment came to the Yellow River embankment near Zhengzhou and began to break the mouth, and it did not take long to dig more than 10 openings, but three days passed, but there was no flooding. It turned out that the water in the open area was small and flowed to the nearby tributaries. According to historical records, "The embankment in Zhongmu County has not seen any signs of flooding for a long time, and it is recommended that the command post re-select the place of the mouth." ”
At this time, the Japanese troops were already close to Zhengzhou, if they took the way of soil work industry to break the mouth, I am afraid it was too late, so the troops responsible for the break were selected at the new location at the garden mouth, and the way of breaking the embankment was also replaced by explosion, just like that, on June 9, the garden mouth broke the embankment, and the day of the break was just in time for the heavy rain in Henan, and the yellow river water rushed to the Henan Plain, and the country in Henan was thousands of miles.
The breach of the Yellow River was something that the Japanese army never expected. Kenji Doihara, commander of the Japanese 14th Division, expressed shock at this. According to historical records, "Before the war, Kenji Toihara decided that Chinese would definitely not release the water from the Yellow River." He calculated from the losses that the Chinese side would suffer, and if the Kuomintang broke the Yellow River, there would be more than ten million victims in China. ”
The waters of the Yellow River temporarily stopped the Advance of the Japanese Army, and the Nationalist defenders in eastern Henan took advantage of the situation to surround the trapped Japanese army, and the Japanese army's plan to capture Zhengzhou and take the dry road to attack Wuhan failed. According to the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, "the 16th Division, the 67th Infantry Brigade, and the 11th Brigade of the Japanese Army were surrounded by floods, with more than 6,000 dead and wounded, and nearly 10,000 people trapped." The commander of the North China region, Okamura Ninji, personally ordered the dispatch of aviation troops to deliver relief supplies to the Japanese troops in the trapped areas.
The Japanese plan to attack Wuhan was postponed for 3 months.
The Pain of the Yellow River
Chiang Kai-shek's strategy of "substituting water for soldiers" has achieved some success, but it has paid an extremely painful price behind it. Due to the flooding of the Yellow River, Henan, Anhui and Suzhou have been affected, more than 12 million people in the Yellow Pan area have been displaced, and 10,000 mu of fertile land have become saline and alkali land after the yellow water has receded. It indirectly led to the occurrence of the Henan famine in 1942.
After the flood in the Huangpan area receded, there was an outbreak of plague, according to historical records, "in the Huanghuai Plain, after the flood, a large number of civilians in more than 30 counties developed symptoms such as high fever and organ failure, suspected of being caused by malaria." "In addition, because the Yellow River flows into the Huai River, a large amount of sediment is deposited on the Huai River bed, and the Huai River channel is forced to be abandoned. This move resulted in heavy losses to commercial cities on the Huai River system.
Compared with the economic losses, what pained Chiang Kai-shek the most was this decision, which led to the defeat of the Huaihai Campaign. When the Battle of Huaihai broke out in 1948, the Huang Wei Corps was ordered to rush to the aid of Xuzhou, and the Huang Wei Corps from Henan just caught up with the Yellow River and flooded, and all the roads for the march became difficult muddy roads. The army was thus trapped, delaying the fighters, and indirectly causing the Kuomintang to flee.
The Garden Mouth Incident has always been a hot topic in historical research, and some people believe that the Garden Mouth Incident has dragged down the Japanese offensive and effectively consumed the main force of the Japanese army. Some people also believe that the Huayuankou incident is the responsibility of Chiang Kai-shek, who should bear historical responsibility for the 10 million compatriots affected by the disaster. Of course, history is a thing of the past after all, and what we can do now is not to forget the national shame, be loyal to our motherland, and let the Huayuankou incident never happen again.