"If the war starts, then there is no distinction between north and south, young and old, no matter who they are, they all have the responsibility to defend the land and resist the war, and they should all have the determination to sacrifice everything!" - Jiang Zhongzheng
1. Japan deliberately provoked the Qiqi Lugou Bridge Incident
In April 1936, the number of Japanese troops stationed in North China increased from 1,771 to 5,774, stationed in Beiping, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Shanhaiguan and other important places; The Kwantung Army stationed more than 5,000 troops to Chahar Duolun (now part of Inner Mongolia) and Rehe Enclosure, and reorganized the puppet Mongolian army to more than 40,000 people, stationed in the area north of Zhangjiakou; The expansion of the puppet security force entrenched in eastern Hebei is about 17,000 people, and has formed a threat to Beiping from the east, west, and north. From May 1937 onwards, the Japanese army frequently conducted provocative military exercises near the Lugou Bridge in Wanping City.
◆ In order to cut off the contacts between Beiping and various parts of the south, and then control the Jicha authorities, so that North China can completely separate itself from the Chinese central government, the Japanese army has continued to carry out provocative military exercises near the Lugou Bridge, and a storm is coming.
Song Zheyuan, commander of the 29th Army of the Chinese Garrison and chairman of the Political Affairs Committee of the Jicha, Qin Dechun, deputy commander of the army, and Tong Linge have 4 infantry divisions under their jurisdiction (4 brigades in each division, Liu Ruming's division of the 143rd Division is stationed in Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua area, the 37th Division Feng Zhi'an Department is stationed in the Xiyuan area of Beiping, Zheng Dazhang of the 9th Cavalry Division is stationed in Nanyuan, Beiyuan and Huangsi, Zhang Zizhong's division of the 38th Division is stationed in Tianjin and along the Tianjin line of the Beining Line, and Zhao Dengyu's division of the 132nd Division is stationed in Renqiu and Hejian areas of Hebei Province as a second-line army), 1 special service brigade, 2 security brigades, etc. The total strength is about 100,000 people, defending the Jicha and Pingjin areas.
In the face of the provocation of the Japanese army, the Chinese 29th Army strengthened preparations for the War of Resistance: the 110th Brigade of the 37th Division (Brigade Commander He Jifeng) and the 219th Regiment (Regiment Commander Ji Xingwen) were transferred to the Wanping and Changxindian areas. The regiment was immediately deployed in the vicinity of Wanping City and Lugou Bridge with the reinforced 3rd Battalion (4 infantry companies, 1 light mortar company, 1 heavy mortar company, 1 heavy machine gun company, a total of more than 1,400 people, and the battalion commander Jin Zhenzhong); The 1st and 2nd battalions and regimental headquarters were assembled in the Changxindian area. At the same time, the underground party organizations and progressives of the Communist Party of China in Beiping went to the 29th Army to propagate anti-Japanese propaganda in order to arouse the patriotic enthusiasm of the vast number of officers and soldiers. ”
At about 19:30 on July 7, 1937, the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Japanese Army stationed in Fengtai went to the area of Huilongmiao and Dawayao, where the Chinese defenders were stationed close to the Lugou Bridge, and held a provocative exercise, falsely claiming that the Japanese army was "missing" a soldier during the Lugou Bridge exercise, and asked to enter Wanping City to search, and after being sternly rejected by Jin Zhenzhong, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 219th Regiment of the Chinese Defenders, the Japanese army immediately shelled Wanping City and launched an attack on the Lugou Bridge. Ji Xingwen, the commander of the 219th Regiment of the defending army, led his troops to fight back, and by the morning of the next day, Longwangmiao, Wulidian, and Lugouqiao Railway Station were occupied by the Japanese army. On the evening of the 8th, He Jifeng, commander of the 110th Brigade, led his troops to counterattack, and attacked the Japanese troops outside Wanping from Xiwan and Changxindian, recapturing the lost positions in one fell swoop, and completely annihilating the Japanese troops occupying the Lugouqiao Railway Station.
The Japanese army created the Qiqi Lugou Bridge Incident, and then launched a full-scale war of aggression against China. The Chinese army rose up to resist, and the nationwide War of Resistance broke out! At the same time, it was also the flashpoint of the anti-fascist Second World War in the East.
2. Song Zheyuan urged the authorities to "resolve local incidents and avoid the expansion of the situation"
The principal leaders of the 29th Army, such as Qin Dechun, deputy commander and mayor of Beiping, Feng Zhi'an, commander of the 37th Division and chairman of the Hebei Provincial Government, and Liu Ruming, commander of the 143rd Division and chairman of Chahar, all belonged to the "main battle faction" with a hard-line attitude and never made concessions to Japan. At about 2 o'clock in the morning on the night of the Lugou Bridge Incident, Qin Dechun immediately telegraphed Feng Zhi'an and Ji Xingwen, the commander of the 219th Regiment: "It is the duty of a soldier to defend the territory, and foreign wars are the honor of our army. When the Japanese army demanded that the Chinese garrison withdraw from Wanping City, Qin, Feng and others resolutely stated that Lugou Bridge and Wanping City must not be withdrawn.
However, Song Zheyuan, who was the commander of the 29th Army, had illusions about the July 7 Incident. At the time of the Lugou Bridge Incident, Song Zheyuan was still in his hometown of Leling, Shandong. Although he was unwilling to accept Japanese pressure, he planned to "resolve the Lugou Bridge Incident as a local incident and avoid the situation from escalating." Although he advocated resistance to Japan, he still "hoped that he would fight again after he was prepared." ”
Although Song Zheyuan ostensibly carried out Chiang Kai-shek's will of "not losing power and not losing land", he had contradictions with Chiang Kai-shek, and tried to preserve his strength in the course of maneuvering with Japan, keep the territory of the 29th Army in Jicha, and maintain the status quo in North China. On July 9, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Song Zheyuan to "return to Baoding as soon as possible". Song Zheyuan was keen on political negotiations and did not return to Baoding for a long time to take command.
It was not until 2 o'clock on 9 July that China and Japan reached three preliminary verbal agreements after negotiations: (1) The two sides stopped shooting. (2) The Japanese army withdrew to the left bank of the Yongding River, and the Chinese troops withdrew to the right bank of the Yongding River. (3) The garrison of Lugou Bridge in Wanping City was taken over by the Northern Hebei Security Team.
However, Japan's negotiations were really a delaying tactic and did not intend to actually implement the ceasefire and withdrawal agreement, and it wanted to use the so-called "no escalation" negotiations to delay time, so that it could increase its troops in North China and launch a larger-scale military offensive to eliminate the 29th Army after the reinforcements arrived.
Sure enough, on July 9 and 10, the Japanese army reneged on the letter and attacked Wanping City four times, and occupied the railway bridge and Huilong Temple. On the night of the 10th, the 29th Army launched an all-out counterattack, and after more than ten battles, it finally recaptured the lost territory. The Japanese army retreated to Dazao Mountain and the area east of it, waiting for domestic reinforcements to arrive.
Song Zheyuan was influenced by the so-called "specialization of North China" ideology of Qi Xieyuan, Zhang Yunrong, and others who were pro-Japanese factions within the Political Affairs Committee of the Jicha Procuratorate, causing him to "fall into the trap of political negotiations and frequently relax military preparations" and harbor illusions about the Japanese side. In order to achieve the conspiracy of separating North China from the Kuomintang central government, Japan took advantage of the contradictions between Soong Zheyuan and the Kuomintang central government to repeatedly cast a smokescreen of "not expanding."
Due to historical reasons such as the influence of the warlord separatist ideology, Song Zheyuan also had a certain degree of wariness against Chiang Kai-shek. "Fearing that the central army would go north and gradually seize its territory," they were keen on détente and lacked real military preparations, so they also wanted to temporarily seek a compromise with the Japanese side and try to delay time in order to concentrate their forces and strengthen military deployment to resist the Japanese invasion.
Song Zheyuan returned to Tianjin from Leling, Shandong Province on July 11, and immediately issued a written statement expressing his sincerity for peace. On the evening of the same day, the Jicha authorities signed the "Agreement on the Spot of the Lugou Bridge Incident" with the Japanese side, hoping to exchange it for the cessation of Japan's military offensive.
On the 15th, Song Zheyuan sent Zhang Zizhong, commander of the 38th Division and mayor of Tianjin, to formally negotiate with Major General Hashimoto Qun, chief of staff of the Japanese garrison. On 18 July, Song Zheyuan also met with Kiyoshi Kazuki, Japan's new commander of the Chinese garrison, in Tianjin to "apologize" in order to curry favor with the Japanese side. On the 19th, Song left Tianjin and returned to Beiping, and immediately ordered the removal of the defensive facilities in Beiping City, banned anti-Japanese books and newspapers, and demanded that Sun Lianzhong's Department of the Central Army of the Nationalist Government stop going north, and transfer Feng Zhi'an's 37th Division out of Beiping and replace it with Zhao Dengyu's 132nd Division. On the 21st, Zhang Zizhong and others also signed specific provisions for the realization of the "Agreement on the Spot of the Lugou Bridge Incident" on the 11th.
However, the Japanese army's military campaign to expand the scale of aggression did not stop because of Song Zheyuan's compromise with Japan, but continued to launch military attacks on the Chinese garrisons in the area of Wanping City and Lugou Bridge. It was not until July 21 that the continuous attacks of the Japanese army made Song Zheyuan soberly realize: "War may not be inevitable in the future."
On the Japanese side, on the 11th, the Japanese Cabinet passed a resolution on sending troops, issued a "Statement on Sending Troops to North China," and called the Lugou Bridge Incident the "North China Incident," framed the Chinese 29th Army for provoking the Lugou Bridge Incident, and appointed Lieutenant General Kiyoji Kazuki as the commander of the Chinese garrison army.
From 15 to 17 July, the Japanese General Staff Headquarters successively formulated the "Essentials of Operations against China" and the "Guidelines for Guiding the War against China when Employing Troops in North China," preparing to "crusade" against China's 29th Army within two months and to eliminate China's central power within three or four months, thus demonstrating the Japanese Government's determination to continuously expand the scale of the war of aggression against China and launch an all-out war of aggression against China.
By July 25, the military deployment of the Japanese army to increase troops in North China was generally ready, and the 1st Independent Brigade of the Kwantung Army had been transferred to the Huairou area, and the main force of the 11th Independent Brigade had arrived at the Goryeo Battalion; The 20th Division of the Japanese Army stationed in Korea was deployed on the front line of Tianjin, Tangshan, and Shanhaiguan. On July 26, the 77th Wing of the 20th Division of the Japanese Army and the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Chinese Garrison Army invaded Langfang and arrived at Guang'anmen that night.
On 27 July, the Japanese General Staff Headquarters ordered an attack on the 29th Chinese Army and ordered a second war mobilization in the country, dispatching more than 200,000 troops from the 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 11th Divisions to North China.
On July 28, when Pingjin was in danger, Song Zheyuan refused all unreasonable demands of the Japanese side and sent a telegram to the whole country on the same day to defend himself and defend the territory. In order not to damage the ancient capital of Beiping, Song Zheyuan, Qin Dechun, Zhang Zizhong and others agreed and decided to abandon Beiping and retreat to Baoding.
On the same day, the Japanese army launched a general attack on the Chinese army in Nanwan, and the main forces of the Japanese 20th Division and the Infantry Brigade of the Garrison Army, with the support of aircraft and artillery fire, launched an attack on Nanwan from the east, south, and north. Due to Song Zheyuan's compromise with Japan, the Chinese defenders were forced to fight, and in more than 5 hours of fierce fighting, more than 2,000 people were killed and wounded, and the deputy commander of the 29th Army, Tong Linge, and division commander Zhao Dengyu died bravely. Nanwan then fell into the hands of the enemy, and Tianjin fell the next day.
The above-mentioned facts show that Song Zheyuan's policy of "settling local incidents and avoiding the escalation of the situation" in the Lugou Bridge Incident and his repeated compromises and concessions to Japan and his lack of war preparations have backfired, and not only did he not avoid the expansion of the situation, but he also suffered a catastrophe of total annihilation, and in particular, he changed the guard of the 37th Division, which was originally stationed in Beiping City.
As early as 10 July, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed him to build national defense fortifications as soon as possible and to "return to Baoding as soon as possible to command," but he delayed returning to Baoding for a long time and it was difficult for him to get in touch with the Central Army. In desperation, Chiang Kai-shek sent Xiong Bin, deputy chief of the General Staff Headquarters, north to Baoding on July 12 to get in touch with Song Zheyuan, convey to Song Zheyuan the Kuomintang central government's anti-Japanese war strategy, and asked the Jicha side to "step up combat preparations as soon as possible and do not be deceived." ”
Under the serious situation of Japan continuing to increase its troops in North China and expanding the situation, Chiang Kai-shek sent another telegram to Song Zheyuan on July 13: "The Lu (Gouqiao) matter must not be resolved peacefully, and we are determined to use all our strength to resist the war." At the same time, the Kuomintang government was also preparing to declare war on Japan. This shows that Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government made a more comprehensive and accurate judgment on the development of the situation in the Lugou Bridge Incident, and its determination to resist the war was earlier than that of Song Zheyuan.
After the Japanese army provoked the July 7 Incident, it caused strong repercussions throughout the country.
Chiang Kai-shek put forward the principles of "not yielding, not expanding" and "not seeking war, but fighting the war". Chiang Kai-shek once sent a telegram to Song Zheyuan, Qin Dechun (deputy commander of the 29th Army and mayor of Beiping City) and others, "Wanping City should be held and not retreated", and "Lugou Bridge and Changxindian must not be lost".
On July 17, 1937, Chiang Kai-shek made a speech in Lushan, pointing out that "the 'Lugou Bridge Incident' has reached the last moment of retreat", and "there is no chance of compromise, and if you give up the size of land and sovereignty, you will be the sinner of the Chinese nation through the ages." ”
For the 29th Army, which bravely resisted the enemy in the battle of Lugou Bridge, all walks of life throughout the country expressed warm support. People from all over the country have organized groups to send letters of condolence and condolences to them; Pingjin students organized field service regiments to the front line to rescue the wounded and transport ammunition; Residents in the Lugouqiao area delivered water and food to the troops, and carried military supplies; The railway workers of Changxindian quickly made air-raid shelters and dug gun holes on the city wall to assist the army in holding Wanping City; The Federation of Overseas Chinese also sent a telegram to encourage the 29th Army to make persistent efforts.
After the outbreak of the 77 Incident, the Japanese attack was met with stubborn resistance from the Chinese army. Seeing that the attempt to occupy the Lugou Bridge could not be realized, the Japanese army played up a conspiracy of "on-the-spot negotiations"; on the one hand, they wanted to use the negotiations to pressure the Chinese side to comply, and on the other hand, they used the name of negotiations to gain time to deploy troops.
On 9, 11, and 19 July, the agreements reached three times between the Japanese garrison in North China and the Jicha authorities were proved to be dead letter by the intermittent artillery fire at the Lugou Bridge. The "on-the-spot negotiations" enabled the Japanese army to gain time to increase its troops in North China, but it blinded the eyes of the Jicha authorities, delayed the preparations of the 29th Army to respond to the battle, and brought great harm to the Pingjin War of Resistance.
By July 25, 1937, more than 60,000 Japanese troops had been massing in Pingjin. After the operational arrangements of the Japanese garrison in North China were basically completed, they deliberately created the Langfang Incident and the Guanganmen Incident on 25 and 26 July in order to find a new pretext for further launching a war of aggression against China.
On the afternoon of the 26th, the North China garrison issued an ultimatum to the 29th Army, demanding that the Chinese defenders withdraw from the Pingjin area by the 28th, otherwise they would take action. Song Zheyuan sternly refused, and on the 27th, he issued a telegram to the whole country to defend himself and defend the territory, resolutely defending the land and resisting the war.
On the same day, with the approval of the emperor, the Japanese General Staff ordered the Japanese North China Garrison Army to launch an attack on the 29th Army, transfer about 200,000 people from five domestic divisions to China, and issued an official combat mission to the commander of the North China Garrison Army, Kazuki Kiyoji: "Responsible for the crusade against the Chinese army in the Pingjin area." "A bloody war is no longer inevitable.
On the morning of July 28, 1937, the Japanese army launched a general attack on Beiping as planned. At that time, the 20th Division of the Korean Army, which had been gathered around Beiping, the 1st and 11th Brigades of the Kwantung Army, and the infantry brigade of the Chinese Garrison Army, about 10,000 people, launched an all-out attack on the 132nd, 37th, and 38th Divisions of the Chinese 29th Army stationed in the suburbs of Beiping, with the cooperation of more than 100 artillery pieces and armored vehicles, and the cover of dozens of aircraft. The officers and men of the 29th Army rose up to resist in their respective stations.
Nanyuan was the focus of the Japanese attack. More than 8,000 troops of the 29th Army stationed in Nanyuan (including more than 1,500 students of the Military Training Corps trained in Nanyuan) resisted bloodily, Tong Linge, deputy commander of the 29th Army, and Zhao Dengyu, commander of the 132nd Division, were martyred, and many students of the Military Training Corps also sacrificed their young lives in the battle.
On the night of the 28th, Song Zheyuan evacuated Beiping, and on the 29th, Beiping fell. In the early morning of the 29th, Zhang Qingyu, captain of the 1st Corps of the Jidong Security Corps, and Zhang Yantian, captain of the 2nd Corps, launched an uprising in Tong County, resisting the Japanese anyway, killing hundreds of people including the head of the Tong County secret service, Hosogi Shigeru Nakasa, and capturing the traitor Yin Rugeng alive (who later fled).
On July 29, 1937, the 38th Division of the 29th Army, under the leadership of Deputy Division Commander Li Wentian, launched the Battle of Tianjin. The 38th Division attacked the Japanese troops at Tianjin Railway Station, Haiguang Temple and other places, and won a large number of troops, but was heavily bombed by Japanese planes and suffered heavy casualties, so it was ordered to retreat. On the 30th, Tianjin was lost.
The impact of the "Lugou Bridge Incident".
An inch of rivers and mountains, an inch of blood. The gunfire of July 7 heralded the beginning of the national war of resistance.
On July 28, 1937, the situation in Pingjin and Tianjin changed abruptly, and the Chinese defenders were forced to retreat. On July 29, the Japanese army occupied Beiping. On July 30, the Japanese army occupied Tianjin. The Sino-Japanese war situation further intensified tensions. On 29 July, Chiang Kai-shek made a speech to reporters in both Chinese and English in Nanjing, explaining the Chinese Government's future policy toward Japan: It will never "regard the peace and Tianjin affairs as local problems, allow the Japanese army to slaughter them, or even create puppet organizations...... The only way to do this is to launch the whole plan, to lead the whole country to work in unison, to defend the country to the end, and there will be no possibility of a partial solution thereafter...... There is no reason to compromise or give in." On August 1, Chiang Kai-shek met with a reporter from the Central Daily in Nanjing, and said: "I declare once again that China will never seek war. But since peace is hopeless, the only way to fight is to fight to the end. There is a limit to our patience."
In order to study and establish the policy toward Japan and the supreme national policy, the Nationalist Government summoned party, government, and military dignitaries from all over the country and military and political leaders from all over the country, including leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, to come to Nanjing for a meeting to attend the national crisis.
On 2 August, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, the leaders of the Guangxi Gui faction who had fallen out of harmony, to come to Nanjing to discuss state affairs, and sent their amphibious landlines, driven by German drivers, to pick them up in Wuhan. This was the third time that Chiang Kai-shek invited them to Nanjing after the "77" incident. At 10:30 a.m. on August 4, Bai Chongxi led Pan Yizhi, Huang Jilu, Liu Fei and others to fly out of Guilin, the capital of Guangxi Province, and Li Zongren personally led more than 30,000 people to the airport to see them off. On the same day, Bai Chongxi and his entourage flew to Wuhan in the wind and rain, and then transferred to an amphibious landline sent by the Nanjing Government and arrived in Nanjing at 4:30 p.m. He Yingqin and Chen Cheng led a large number of military and political officials to Xiaguan to greet them. On the evening of the same day, Chiang Kai-shek immediately met with Bai Chongxi, had a secret conversation with him, and had dinner with him. Chiang Kai-shek wrote in his diary that day: "Bai Jiansheng arrived in Beijing, and the unity is gratifying." The next day, August 5, a well-informed Japanese newspaper reported with a headline: "The God of War (referring to Bai Chongxi) has arrived in Nanjing!" The Sino-Japanese war was inevitable! ”
Around this time, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Yu Hanmou, He Jian, He Chengjun, Liu Xiang and others also arrived in Nanjing. For a while, Nanjing dignitaries gathered. On the morning of 7 August, the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government held a national defense meeting in advance in the auditorium of the national government, at which Chiang Kai-shek presided over and delivered an opening speech, and Cheng Qian (chief of staff), He Yingqin (minister of military affairs), Bai Chongxi, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Yu Hanmou, He Chengjun, Gu Zhutong, He Jian, Liu Xiang, Zhang Zhizhong, and Huang Shaohong attended the meeting to discuss the military of the War of Resistance.
At 8 o'clock that night, the Nationalist Government held a more top-secret joint meeting on national defense in the auditorium of the Inspirational Society on Zhongshan East Road, which was attended by 41 people, including Chiang Kai-shek, Lin Sen, Wang Jingwei, Zhang Ji, Ju Zheng, Yu Youren, Dai Jitao, Sun Ke, Chen Lifu, Cheng Qian, He Yingqin, Bai Chongxi, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Tang Shengzhi, Chen Tiaoyuan, Zhu Shaoliang, Yu Hanmou, He Jian, He Chengjun, Liu Xiang, Jiang Zuobin, Wang Shijie, Wu Dingchang, Zhang Jiajiao, and Yu Feipeng.
After discussion, the meeting formally established the national policy of "determination to resist the war". The national policy of "resisting the war to the end and all-out resistance" and the "strategy of lasting attrition" formally established at this meeting had an important impact on China's war of resistance. On August 8, Chiang Kai-shek issued the "Letter to All the Soldiers of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression", announcing the spirit of the previous night's National Defense Joint Conference to China and foreign countries.
At 4 p.m. on August 11, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Ye Jianying, together with Kuomintang representatives He Yingqin, Tang Shengzhi, Bai Chongxi, Huang Shaohong, and Wei Lihuang, held a meeting at He Yingqin's official residence to exchange and discuss strategic and tactical issues of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
On 16 August, the "Supreme Council of National Defense" resolved that the Nationalist Government would authorize Chiang Kai-shek to be the Generalissimo of the Army, Navy and Air Force (also known as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force) to command the entire army against Japan. On the same day, Chiang Kai-shek, in the name of commander-in-chief of the army, navy, and air force, issued a general mobilization order, declaring: "For the sake of the permanent survival of the Chinese nation and the integrity of the country's territorial sovereignty, we will resolutely settle the problem by force against the enemy countries that infringe on our sovereign territory and attempt to destroy the existence of our nation."
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