Chapter 12 The Nineteenth Route Army and the "January 28th" Songhu Anti-Japanese War

Shanghai is the most international metropolis in the Far East. It is the center of China's industrial, commercial and financial industries. It is also a place where foreign interests in China are highly concentrated. center of movement. In order to divert international attention from the Northeast issue, the Japanese military conspired to stir up trouble in Shanghai. In November 1931, Seishiro Sakagaki, the senior staff officer of the Kwantung Army, and Takashi Tanaka, the Japanese assistant military officer stationed in Shanghai, secretly planned to make something happen in Shanghai so that "Manchuria independence" could be realized smoothly.For this reason, Sakagaki paid Tanaka 20,000 yuan as an activity fund.

In January 1932, the "Republic of China Daily" in Shanghai published an incident in which the Korean Lee Tae-chang sniped the emperor. The Shanghai Consul protested to Shanghai Mayor Wu Tiecheng.Wu Tiecheng compromised, agreed to cancel the report, apologize, and punish the relevant personnel before barely calming down the situation. On January 18, five monks from the Nichiren sect of Japan beat drums and recited Buddhist scriptures while walking on Mayushan Road. They were attacked by Chinese hooligans near Shanghai Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd. As a result, one monk was killed on the spot and two were seriously injured. .The Chinese hooligans who beat the Japanese monks were hired by the Japanese female spy Yoshiko Kawashima.Kawashima Yoshiko was originally named Jin Bihui, and her father was a prince of the former Qing Dynasty.She likes to disguise herself as a man and haunt mainland China.Her actions in Shanghai were based on instructions from Takashi Tanaka.After Takashi Tanaka's conspiracy succeeded, he claimed that the person who attacked the Japanese monk was hiding in Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd.Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd. is a factory that produces towels. It is known for its active participation in the anti-Japanese movement. Tanaka ordered his subordinates to attack Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd. in the rain, and set fire to the warehouse of Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd.

As the situation in Shanghai became increasingly tense, the Japanese fleet and marines sailed to Shanghai. The gathering of Japanese ships on the Huangpu River fueled the militant zeal of the Japanese expatriates. They paraded in the streets and destroyed Chinese shops.The Japanese Marine Corps demonstrated armedly on the streets of the city, openly provoking China. At that time, the 19th Route Army stationed in Shanghai was an army full of anti-Japanese sentiments. The commander-in-chief was Jiang Guangnai, and the commander was Cai Tingkai.The officers and soldiers are mainly from Guangdong. There are about 30,000 people in three divisions. They have repeatedly made military exploits in the Northern Expedition. After the "September 18th" Incident, officers and soldiers have been asking to go to the northeast to fight against the enemy.

On January 23, officers above the battalion commander of the 19th Route Army held an emergency meeting at the Longhua Garrison Headquarters. All those present at the meeting were determined to defend Shanghai and made emergency deployments. wipe out. On the 27th, Murai Kuramatsu, the Japanese consul in Shanghai, submitted an ultimatum to Shanghai Mayor Wu Tiecheng regarding the incident involving the monks of the Nichiren sect. groups, withdrawal of Chinese troops, etc.At 3:00 p.m. the next day, Wu Tiecheng humiliatedly agreed to all the demands of the Japanese side.Wu Tiecheng's compromise did not stop the war.The Japanese navy was jealous of the Japanese army's record in Northeast China, and attempted to succeed in one fell swoop in Shanghai.A Japanese naval general declared: "The army has shown its skills in Manchuria. This time it is the turn of the navy in the south. The marines in Shanghai are no longer the marines of the past. There are 2,000 people, equipped with field artillery and armored vehicles. Lu Jun is fine."

In the middle of the night on January 28, the Japanese Marine Corps divided into five groups and suddenly launched an attack on the position of the Nineteenth Route Army.Before the departure of the Japanese army, Rear Admiral Koichi Shiozawa, the commander of the Japanese Navy Fleet, arrogantly announced that the Japanese army would occupy Shanghai within 4 hours.The Japanese army first attacked Tiantong'an Road on Sichuan North Road, and the brigade commander Weng Zhaoyuan of the 19th Route Army stationed here ordered an immediate counterattack.The battle first started on the west side of Sichuan North Road and quickly expanded to the Zhabei area. In the early morning of the 29th, Japanese planes flying from the Japanese aircraft carrier bombed the urban area of ​​Shanghai. The North Railway Station and the Commercial Press were blown into ruins.

The fighting was concentrated in the Zhabei area in the first week. Until February 4, the Japanese army launched its first general offensive, and the war spread to Jiangwan and Wusong. wipe out.The defeated Shiozawa was dismissed and transferred back to China, replaced by Lieutenant General Yoshisaburo Nomura, commander of the Japanese Navy's Third Fleet.Nomura claimed that when the Japanese army crossed Yunzaobang, it was the end of the Japanese army's operation, and he was very confident in his words.The reinforcements of the Japanese army launched an attack in Yunzaobang and Caojiaqiao on February 11. The citizens of Shanghai warmly supported the 19th Route Army’s operations and organized uprising troops, intelligence teams, transportation teams, etc. There are more than 50 teams and more than 20,000 people.Shanghai citizens actively raised donations for the army. On January 30, they raised 100,000 yuan in one day, and received a total of 7 million yuan during the war.Chinese working in Japanese factories, shops, and residences in Shanghai went on strike and resigned to express their support for the soldiers who fought bloody battles on the front line.

After the war broke out, Soong Ching Ling, He Xiangning and others went to the front line to condolences to the anti-Japanese officers and soldiers, and set up more than 10 hospitals for wounded soldiers in one day.When He Xiangning saw officers and soldiers wearing only singles and jackets in the heavy snow on the front line, she immediately launched a campaign to donate cotton clothes. Within 5 days, more than 30,000 sets were produced and delivered to all officers and soldiers.The Japanese army seized the driver of the car, Hu Amao, and forced him to help the Japanese army transport ammunition. When the car drove to the Huangpu River, Hu Amao resolutely drove the car into the Huangpu River. The Japanese soldiers and ammunition in the car sank in the river, and Hu Amao Mao's spirit of dedicating himself to saving the country inspired the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians in the battle.Due to the Japanese attack, the social order in Shanghai fell into chaos. In order to avoid the Japanese attack, many citizens fled to the concession or other places in the chaos.The National Government in Nanjing announced on January 30 that the capital would be moved to Luoyang.When the general of the Nineteenth Route Army asked the Minister of Military and Political Affairs for help, He Yingqin refused to send more troops to Shanghai, citing the dilemma of suppressing the Communist Party and resisting Japan.Song Xilian, commander of the 261st Brigade of the 87th Division, on behalf of the officers and soldiers of the whole brigade, visited Minister He Yingqin at the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs on January 30 and asked the whole brigade to join the war in Shanghai.However, He Yingqin said unhappily: "The Nineteenth Route Army did not obey the order and told them to withdraw from Shanghai. They did not withdraw, but fought with the Japanese army, undermining the entire policy of the central government, making it very difficult to deal with." Song Xilian's request was rejected.

That night, He Yingqin heard the noise outside in his house. It turned out that Song Xilian led more than 30 officers from the headquarters to petition for war. After the September 18th Incident, everyone scolded our soldiers for being shameless, but now that the Japanese are coming to the gate, we still don’t stand up and resist, does the commander want us to be willing to be subjugated slaves?!” The 19th Route Army fought alone on the front line , repeatedly asked the central government for help.People from all walks of life were very dissatisfied with the central government's inaction and severely criticized it.Chiang Kai-shek, who had just been reinstated, saw that he could not explain to the Chinese people whether he would send troops or not, so he decided to send the eighty-eighth and eighty-seventh divisions of his cronies to form the fifth army.

After the "September 18th" Incident, Liao Zhongkai's wife He Xiangning gave Zhang Zhizhong, who was then the dean of the Central Army Military Academy, a women's dress, and asked him to pass it on to the Whampoa students.Sending mountains and rivers away without a fight will be ashamed forever.My fellow women, I would like to die on the battlefield, and exchange my scarves for your clothes.This time, Zhang Zhizhong had the opportunity to lead his troops to wash away their humiliation in the Anti-Japanese War. Nomura and other Japanese navy generals did not expect that the 19th Route Army had a strong fighting spirit and strong combat effectiveness. After repeated failures, they had to ask the Japanese Army to send reinforcements. After February 7, the Ninth Division of the Japanese Army landed in Shanghai and Wusongkou, and the commander of the division, Ueda Kenkichi, replaced Nomura to command the battle in Shanghai.Immediately after arriving in Shanghai, he sent Cai Tingkai an ultimatum, demanding that the Nineteenth Route Army withdraw from the front line automatically.The headquarters of the Nineteenth Route Army ignored it.The command post of Kenkichi Ueda, head of the Ninth Division, focused on Jiangwan and Miao.The Japanese army first bombarded the entire Chinese position with planes, then bombarded Miaohang and Jiangwan with heavy artillery, and then used tanks to cover infantry to attack Zhangjiabang and Yangshupu.

At this time, Zhang Zhizhong's Fifth Army had arrived on the battlefield. Zhang Zhizhong was the commander-in-chief of the left-wing army, Cai Tingkai was the commander-in-chief of the right-wing army, and Jiang Guangnai was the supreme commander of the battlefield.The Fifth Army took over the defense lines of the Nineteenth Route Army from Jiangwan, Miaoxing, Yunzaobang to Wusong.The Fifth Army and the Nineteenth Route Army cooperated closely and relied on the established positions to resist tenaciously, causing heavy casualties and slow progress to the Japanese army. With little progress in Tokyo, on February 23, the 11th and 14th divisions were sent to establish the headquarters of the "Shanghai Expeditionary Army". Qiyakou landed behind the army. On the 29th, Shirakawa came to the mouth of the Yangtze River by cruiser. At this time, the Japanese army had nearly 100,000 people, with more than 100 aircraft, 3 aircraft carriers and a large number of warships. On March 1, the Japanese army launched a general offensive across the board, landed at Liuhe, and detoured to the rear of the Chinese army. The Chinese army was forced to abandon the positions of Miaohang, Zhabei, and Jiangwan.When the Japanese army occupied the urban area and suburbs of Shanghai, they burned, killed, looted, destroyed factories, public buildings and residential buildings, arrested and killed civilians and anti-Japanese fighters everywhere.The Shanghai garrison is not only far inferior to the Japanese army in equipment, but also in numbers.The front-line generals once again asked the Nanjing government for support, but Chiang Kai-shek had no intention of expanding the war and was unwilling to transfer a large number of troops to suppress the Communists to the front.The Nineteenth Route Army, which fought hard for a month, suffered more than 8,000 casualties, and the Fifth Army also suffered more than 5,000 casualties.

After the "January 28th" Incident, the tenacious resistance of the Chinese army was praised by the world's public opinion, and major Chinese and foreign newspapers rushed to report the battle situation of the Songhu War of Resistance.The great powers were worried about the war in Shanghai and their own rights in China.Britain, the United States, France and other countries all sent additional warships and marines to Shanghai to warn against Japanese aggression in Shanghai.Fearing international isolation and the stubborn resistance of the Chinese army, Japan did not want to expand the situation in Shanghai, so it accepted the mediation of British Minister Lampson, and representatives of China and Japan held armistice negotiations in Shanghai on the British flagship. On March 3, China and Japan announced an armistice. On the 6th, Jiang Guangnai announced his acceptance of the truce. If the Japanese army did not attack our army, our army would not attack the Japanese army either.The war in Shanghai is over. On May 5, China and Japan signed the "Songhu Armistice Agreement". According to the provisions of the treaty, the Chinese army has no right to garrison in the areas from Shanghai to Suzhou and Kunshan, and at the same time recognizes Shanghai as a demilitarized zone. The "January 28th" Songhu Anti-Japanese War ended here. On May 7, the National Government ordered the 88th Division to be stationed in Wuhan, the 87th Division to be stationed in Changshu, and later transferred to Nanjing.