During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese army rose up to resist the Japanese invasion of China, and fought three large-scale offensive and defensive battles with the Japanese army in Changsha, Hunan Province, and achieved very considerable results, known in history as the "Battle of Changsha".
In September 1941, the Chinese army fought the Second Battle of Changsha, during which a very strange thing happened.
At that time, the Japanese army attacked heavily, dispatched a total of five divisions, and deployed heavy artillery companies, tank companies and other units, with a total strength of 120,000 people.
The commander of the Japanese Eleventh Army, Ah Wei Nanji, led this heavily armored force to the south with great momentum, and in only 2 days broke through the nationalist defense line of the New Wall River in Yueyang.
Subsequently, the Japanese army crossed the Miluo River and approached Changsha, the most important city in Hunan.
It can be said that at that time, the Japanese army's offensive was in full swing, and the arrogance was in full swing. However, just as the Japanese army was about to enter the territory of Changsha, an unexpected thing happened, which made their army confused.
It was on September 21st, when the sky, which had been sunny and crisp in autumn, suddenly appeared near noon—only to see the sun gradually engulfed by a huge shadow, and the golden glowing part became darker and darker until it completely turned black, leaving only a halo around it. As the sunlight receded, the whole earth became dim.
Although this phenomenon is relatively rare, many people now know that this is just a total solar eclipse, and there is nothing strange about it.
However, this had a great psychological impact on the Originally High-Toed Japanese Army.
This is because a considerable part of Japanese culture originated from China, and many of them were like the ancient Chinese, corresponding to the theory of heavenly induction, and even had the saying that "tengu eats the moon".
Total solar eclipses themselves are very rare, and once they appear, they are treated as ominous signs and cause people to panic.
Not only did many Japanese soldiers see it this way, but even some officers were shocked by the phenomenon of a total solar eclipse.
What's more, Japan uses the sun as a totem, and this element is fully displayed in the name of the country and the national flag, and even the military flag of the Japanese army is a flag with a red sun and a rising sun light pattern.
Therefore, when the Japanese officers and men looked up and saw that the sun in the sky was engulfed by dark shadows, they all began to panic.
When a corporal saw this, he was so frightened that he screamed, "The sun, the sun... Eaten! Eaten by tengu! ”
Among them, many officers and men of the Japanese army already had resistance and war-weariness toward invading China and maiming the Chinese people, and when they saw the vision of the heavenly fall, they further aggravated this idea.
The Fourth Division, which was the vanguard of the Japanese army, initially resisted acting as "cannon fodder" for the fight against Changsha, and this idea was even stronger after seeing the total solar eclipse. They talked about this matter one after another, and they all thought that this was a warning from heaven not to fight Changsha, otherwise there would be a bad result.
In short, the sudden appearance of a total solar eclipse caused panic to spread among this Japanese army. Although some Japanese generals tried their best to stop this momentum and use intimidation and deterrence to boost the morale of the army, it did not have much effect.
Of course, Anan, who was a member of the army, also noticed this "undesirable tendency", repeatedly declared to his followers that this was a normal natural phenomenon, and strictly prohibited anyone from spreading any more statements that shook the hearts of the army.
However, no matter how much he deterred, the morale of the troops was still difficult to recover. The military was confused, and what followed was inevitably a decline in combat effectiveness, which soon made the Japanese army suffer.
Especially when the news of the defeat of the Japanese army on the battlefield of Yichang reached this unit led by Anan Wei himself, it made his men according to the total solar eclipse as a "punishment from heaven".
Just two days after the total solar eclipse, chinese troops launched an offensive against the Japanese army that invaded Yichang, Hubei Province, in response to the Battle of Changsha.
What greatly excited the Chinese military and people was that the Japanese army first suffered a crushing defeat in Yichang, and then failed to stop the decline, and was blocked by the Chinese army layer by layer.
The commander of the Japanese 13th Division, Hidetaro Uchiyama, was completely demoralized during the most difficult times, and was once ready to commit suicide, and once sent a farewell telegram to Anan, which shocked the latter.
Although Anan initially tried to hide the news of Yichang's defeat, the news spread quickly among the Japanese army he led.
These Japanese officers and soldiers naturally associated the news of the defeat with the vision of witnessing the "tengu eating the sun" on September 21, which made people even more panicked.
By mid-October, the Japanese army had annihilated more than 7,000 people, and the Chinese army was mighty and regained many lost land, ending the Second Battle of Changsha.
Interestingly, when summarizing this campaign, Anan only attributed the occurrence of the total solar eclipse to the military chaos as an important reason for the defeat of the war, so as to exonerate himself.