There are thousands of streets and alleys in the ancient city of Beijing, among which there are many names named after ancient celebrities or their official positions before their deaths, but there are only three places named after the names of famous modern figures, namely Tong Linge Road, Zhao Dengyu Road, and Zhang Zizhong Road.
Among these three celebrities, Zhao Dengyu, a tiger hero from Xi Wu, once broke the neck of a bandit with his bare hands, killed 5,000 Japanese Kou in the Great Wall, and made great achievements for the country and the people in the early anti-Japanese struggle. His life of fighting is legendary.
Born in Heze, Shandong, Zhao Dengyu is a standard Shandong Han, a tall man of one meter and nine meters.
After only two years of private schooling, at the age of thirteen, he studied under the local boxing master Zhu Fengjun, learned a good martial art, sword, gun and sword, and was best at grabbing guns with bare hands and white blades with empty hands.
At the age of sixteen, together with his brother Zhao Dengyao and others, he walked more than 900 kilometers to Tongguan, Shaanxi Province, and enlisted as a soldier in the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 16th Brigade led by Feng Yuxiang at that time.
Figure | Zhao Dengyu
Because he was born in a practicing family and was strong in martial arts, his name finally spread to Feng Yuxiang's ears.
Feng Yuxiang, who had a very high self-esteem, once asked Zhao Dengyu to try wrestling with him in public, and the final result was that general Feng was defeated in three consecutive falls.
The generous Feng Yuxiang was not angry, and finally directly arranged for Zhao Dengyu to be his personal guard.
Because of the appreciation and cultivation of his superiors, as well as the outstanding military merits made by his personal later stages, Zhao Dengyu later soared in the army, from squad leader, platoon commander, company commander, battalion commander, regiment commander, and brigade commander all the way to the age of thirty, when he was promoted to division commander.
At the turn of the spring and summer of 1919, Feng Yuxiang's troops conducted field training in the Changde area of Hunan Province, because the mountains were high and densely forested, and in the deshan area north of the city, there were often fierce tigers, and incidents of injuring people and animals occurred from time to time.
Once, when Zhao Dengyu and his comrades-in-arms were conducting routine training in the field, they suddenly found a fierce tiger that was about to go down the mountain to be a demon.
The battle was crowded, and the warriors shouted loudly to chase.
At this time, Zhao Dengyu calmly and unhurriedly raised his gun in the chaotic crowd, firing several shots in a row, all of which hit the key parts of the tiger.
The tiger, who endured severe pain, finally jumped into the mountain stream and the river, and cried out for his life.
Since then, Zhao Dengyu's reputation as a tiger hero has not gone away.
In 1921, Feng Yuxiang, who was suppressing bandits in Shaanxi, set up a banquet at the Hongmen Gate and invited the local bandit leader Guo Jian to the banquet.
Figure | Warlord Feng Yuxiang
This Guo Jian, who said that he was the leader of the bandits, actually wronged him.
He is a native of Guojia Village, Pucheng, Shaanxi, and was a representative of pucheng's local heroism and righteousness when he was a teenager. During the Xinhai Revolution, he participated in the local Xi'an Uprising.
In 1915, Yuan Shikai became emperor. The following year, he, Gao Jun, Geng Zhi, and other Shaanxi revolutionaries, set up the banner of the Northwest Protectorate Army in Baishui, served as deputy commander-in-chief, telegraphed Yuan, and later connected more than ten county towns, with a strength of more than 4,000 troops.
In 1917, Guo Jian organized and established the Shaanxi Jingguo Army, made himself commander-in-chief, and telegraphed the whole country to support Sun Yat-sen.
At that time, Feng Yuxiang came to Shaanxi, in fact, he planned to get rid of Guo Jian in the name of bandit leader, and then absorb his Jingguo army.
Guo Jian's Jingguo Army was mainly composed of the Shaanxi Garrison Army, because he was famous and arrogant and righteous, so many local armed forces, just like the good men of Liangshan, joined his ranks.
The original Yasukuni Army had strict discipline and strong combat effectiveness, but since the successive addition of various armed forces in these places, the members of the team were mixed. Some officers and soldiers, who were originally born as bandits, began to wantonly harass and bully the villagers.
Over time, Guo Jian's great name, who had originally protected the country and the people, and acted heroically and righteously, gradually became contaminated with banditry.
This Feng Yuxiang had long intended to get rid of Guo Jian and take over the Jingguo army, so in the name of a bandit, he took the opportunity of the banquet to booby-trap his party leader in one fell swoop.
On August 13 of that year, Guo Jian went from the then Fengxiang garrison to the Xi'an Military Officers' Lecture Hall to accept a banquet from Feng Yuxiang.
Early this morning, Feng Yuxiang arranged for a battalion of troops to ambush around the council chamber in advance and ambush Guo Jian with the name of throwing a cup.
As a result, on the wine table, everyone shouted five or six, fisted and drank wine, and called brothers and brothers and brothers, all drank too much, forgot to drop the cup, and then hid behind the nearest screen ambush, and because they were fighting to watch them fight wine, they actually squeezed the screen down.
The plan was then exposed on the spot, and the crowd was caught off guard and looked at each other.
Guo Jian, who reacted at the first time, quickly pulled out his pistol and was about to shoot at Feng Yuxiang, just at the moment of this thousand gunshot, he saw Zhao Dengyu jump up from his seat, like a fierce tiger falcon, pounced on Guo Jian, one hand strangled Guo Jian's wrist, and the other hand violently strangled Guo Jian's neck, due to excessive force, Guo Jian's neck was actually broken on the spot, and then he was shot dead.
Guo Jian, a poor hero of the First Dynasty, died so tragically at the hands of Zhao Dengyu, who was his master.
Figure | Guo Jian
This time, Zhao Dengyu's thunderous move to defeat the enemy once again deeply shocked his boss Feng Yuxiang.
In 1922, in the First Zhifeng War, Zhao Dengyu, who was then a platoon commander, was ordered to attack the artillery position of the Fengjun Army, and returned victoriously, successfully promoted to company commander.
In 1931, the September 18 Incident broke out. In 1933, the flames of war burned to the area of the Great Wall Rehe, and Zhao Dengyu was ordered to lead the 109th Brigade to guard the Xifengkou position.
This Xifengkou, known as Lulongsai in ancient times, is located at the junction of Qianxi County and Kuancheng County in Hebei Province. Facing the mountain on three sides and the river on the other, this place is in the shape of a "concave" shape, which is an important pass of the Great Wall, and naturally it is also a place where soldiers and families must fight in the past.
On March 9 of that year, the Japanese army captured Xifengkou, and our garrison, under the leadership of Wang Changhai, commander of the 217th Regiment of the 109th Brigade of the 37th Division of the 29th Army, launched a counterattack, killing and wounding more than 100 Japanese troops and successfully recapturing Xifengkou.
Unwilling to be defeated, the Japanese army tried to counterattack from March 10 to 11, using the cover of fierce fire attack. Finally, the 217th Regiment's large knife team engaged the Japanese army in a fierce white-knife battle at Xifeng Pass.
In this battle, the corpses of the Japanese army were all over the field, and the casualties of our garrison were also very large, and finally the Xifeng Pass was occupied by the Japanese army again.
Zhao Dengyu, then the commander of the 109th Brigade, after carefully analyzing the situation between the enemy and us, faced with the unfavorable situation in which the enemy was strong and we were weak, decided to attack the Japanese army at night.
That night, he quickly selected a 500-strong general and divided his troops into two wings to raid the Japanese army.
The left wing knife team attacked the Japanese infantry and cavalry camp north of the Cane and Xifeng Pass; the right wing knife team attacked the Japanese artillery positions.
In the dark of the moon and high in the night, the five hundred warriors of the 29th Army, each carrying a large knife, crossed the mountains and mountains, climbed over the walls, took advantage of the cover of the night, quietly went into the enemy camps of various villages, picked up large knives, and carried a lot of hatred from the country and the family.
At that time, there was a 19-year-old young warrior named Chen Yong, and this night, he single-handedly hacked 13 devils to death, and the brigade commander Zhao Dengyu was even more than 60 people with blades.
Zhao Dengyu launched such a night attack twice, killing the Japanese soldiers and later when they slept at night, everyone wore a homemade iron ring guard around their necks and tightly protected their necks to prevent their heads from moving in their sleep.
In the Battle of Xifengkou, more than 5,000 Japanese troops were eventually killed, 18 cannons were blown up, and the first major victory since the "918" incident was achieved.
After this battle, Zhao Dengyu was promoted to the commander of the 132nd Division and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in the army for his outstanding military achievements.
At that time, the Shanghai composer Mai Xin, hearing the victory report of the battlefield ahead, could not suppress his excitement, and composed a high-pitched and exciting "Big Knife March" overnight, which was sung for a while.
Even japan's Asahi Shimbun at the time had to admit:
Since the Meiji Emperor created the army, the honor of the imperial army has been lost outside the Mouth of Xifeng, and it has suffered an insult that has not been seen in sixty years.
In 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident, which shocked China and foreign countries, broke out, which shook the hearts of every Chinese who swore to die as a slave to the country.
Lugou Xiaoyue, which once represented a beautiful scene of peace and tranquility, was completely broken by rumbling artillery fire and fierce gunfire on the night of July 7.
Under the pretext of the disappearance of the so-called soldiers who had actually returned to the army, at about 5 a.m. on July 8, the Japanese army suddenly launched shelling on lugou bridge and Wanping city.
Located in the west of Wanping City, the Lugou Bridge is the only passage from Beijing to the Central Plains. Once the invading Japanese army occupied this bridge, the city of Beijing was in the bag, and north China was even more at hand. The wolf ambitions of the Japanese are clear.
At that time, it was the 29th Army that guarded Wanping City. Braving the torrential rain in the early morning of the 8th, Shen Zhongming, a platoon commander of the 10th Company of the 3rd Battalion Reserve of the 219th Regiment of the 37th Division guarding the bridgehead, was the first to jump out of the trench to stop the Japanese army from forcibly breaking into our cordon and was shot and killed on the spot.
On the 8th, the Japanese army launched three attacks on Wanping City, and the 29th Army Headquarters issued a death order to the officers and men on the front line:
The Lugou Bridge, the tomb of Er and others, should coexist and die with the bridge, and must not retreat.
He Jifeng, commander of the 110th Brigade of the Chinese defenders, even issued a vow of "living and dying with the bridge" and personally went to the front line to direct the battle.
In the end, more than 80 Chinese defenders stationed in the two platoons at the head of the bridge were all killed.
Seeing that the strong attack on the Lugou Bridge was met with the stubborn and fierce resistance of the Chinese army, the Japanese army began to play with the conspiracy of "on-the-spot negotiations" and secretly dispatched troops in the name of negotiations.
On July 9, 11, and 19, the Japanese army secretly gathered forces under the guise of three negotiations. By July 25, 60,000 troops had been massed.
On July 25 and 26, the fearless Japanese army deliberately created the Langfang Incident and the Guang'anmen Incident, demanding that the Chinese defenders withdraw from the Pingjin area by the 28th, otherwise they would take armed action.
The public clamor of the Japanese army was rejected by Song Zheyuan, then commander of the 29th Army.
Figure | Commander Song Zheyuan
On July 26, with the Great War imminent, Zhao Dengyu was ordered by Song Zheyuan to rush to Nanyuan and take charge of the defense of Beiping with his deputy commander Tong Linge.
In the early morning of July 28, the Japanese army concentrated three companies of infantry, a company of artillery, a total of more than 3,000 people, dispatched more than 40 aircraft, land and air attack, full fire, and fiercely attacked Nanyuan.
In the Battle of Nanyuan, Tong Linge, deputy commander of the 29th Army, was swept in the thigh by Japanese machine guns, and despite the blood flow, he still led the troops to fight fiercely until noon.
Later, his head was severely damaged by enemy bullets, and he was eventually martyred at the age of 45 due to excessive blood loss.
Under the heavy bombardment and strafing of the Japanese aircraft artillery, Zhao Dengyu led his troops to fight with the Japanese army for six hours, and also suffered heavy casualties.
At noon, Song Zheyuan ordered Zhao Dengyu to lead his troops to assemble at the Dahong Gate.
When the team retreated to the Dahongmen Yuhe Bridge, they were suddenly strafed by machine guns in ambush by the Japanese army. Zhao Dengyu was shot several times on the spot, full of blood, and martyred heroically, at the age of 39.
After Zhao Dengyu was martyred, the "National Salvation Times" at that time commented on him like this:
Fighting until the last drop of blood, he gloriously fulfilled the duty of defending the country and defending the people, which is enough to be a model for the soldiers of the whole country.
Later, Chairman Mao also spoke highly of Zhao Dengyu: he gave the whole Chinese a lofty and great model.
Even the "History of Continental Warfare" released in Japan in 1939 commented on Zhao Dengyu, saying that he was: a nightmare under the sun.
Yes, he once slashed more than 60 Japanese Kou people, killed more than 5,000 enemies in a battle, and his large knife team made Ri Kou feel frightened and uneasy at night.
However, in the old China, which was poor and weak, in the face of the fierce and powerful Japanese Kou, who were several times larger than himself, he returned to heaven and lacked skill, and finally died before he could succeed, even if he was a hero, he also wept.
After Zhao Dengyu's death, on the night of the 28th, Song Zheyuan withdrew from Beiping. On the 29th, the Japanese army occupied Peiping. On the 30th, Tianjin fell.
The 29th Army, which held the city of Wanping for 23 days and nights, was finally forced to withdraw from the Pingjin area as the Japanese army wished.
At this point, the gates of North China were completely open to the Japanese army, and the flame of the Chinese people's war of resistance was also ignited.
This war lasted for eight years.
Tens of millions of Chinese sons and daughters have rushed to the battlefield to defend their families and defend the country, and their blood has stained the battlefield.
In 1946, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, He Siyuan, the mayor of Beiping, issued the "Instruction No. 729 of the Government Secretarial Character", naming the three roads in Beiping City as Zhao Dengyu Road, Tong Linge Road and Zhang Zizhong Road to commemorate the heroic anti-Japanese martyrs.
After the founding of New China, these three place names were retained and are still in use today.
In September 2009, Zhao Dengyu was selected as one of the "100 Heroic And Exemplary Figures Who Made Outstanding Contributions to the Founding of New China" by 11 departments, including the Central Propaganda Department and the Organization Department of the Central Committee.
This is an era when the prosperity has been peaceful for a long time, and too many heroes have been forgotten and forgotten, and I hope that they can be mentioned and remembered again and again.
Looking back at the centuries-old vicissitudes and thick and painful history of modern China, it is a heavy gift from countless martyrs with their flesh and blood to give us a peaceful and prosperous life, and every Chinese cannot forget!
Text | Lord of the Afternoon Dream Hall