Chapter 18 Battle of the Great Wall

After the Japanese army occupied Rehe, Hebei and Pingjin were exposed to the attacking edge of the Japanese army.After Zhang Xueliang left the field, Chiang Kai-shek ordered He Yingqin, Minister of Military Affairs and the Chairman of the Beiping Branch of the Acting Military Commission, to control the military and political power in North China and be in charge of the northern military.He Yingqin has 14 armies with about 350,000 troops, including the Huang Jie Division of the Second Division, the Guan Linzheng Division of the 25th Division, the Liu Kan Division of the 83rd Division, the Song Zheyuan Division of the 29th Army, and the 59th Army The combat effectiveness of Fu Zuoyi's Department and Yu Xuezhong's Department of the 67th Army is relatively strong.They were deployed on the line from the Great Wall to the Luanhe River, and divided their forces to defend each pass. From Bohai Sea to Chahar, the front line was three to five hundred kilometers long.At that time, the Chinese army relied on the Great Wall as the only fortification, and the most intense battle was the defense of each mouth of the Great Wall.Along the Great Wall became the place where the Chinese and Japanese armies fought fiercely.From the fall of the Northeast to before the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Great Wall War of Resistance in 1933 was the largest war between China and Japan.The Central Army, Northeast Army, Northwest Army, and Jinsui Army participated in the battle together.

In early March 1933, more than 40,000 people from the sixth and eighth divisions of the Japanese army launched an attack on the front line of the Great Wall from three directions: Lengkou, Xifengkou and Gubeikou with the cooperation of aircraft, tanks and artillery.The commander of the Kwantung Army, Nobuyoshi Muto, arrived in Jinzhou from Changchun and directly commanded the attack on the Great Wall. The Battle of Lengkou was the first battle of the Great Wall Campaign. At the beginning of March, the Japanese army took advantage of the momentum to occupy Lengkou Pass when chasing Wan Fulin's troops who retreated from the Rehe front line.The 139th Division of the Shang Zhen Department of the 32nd Army, which was ordered to reinforce, took advantage of the Japanese army's unstable foothold on March 7, and decisively launched a counterattack in the evening to regain Lengkou.The Japanese army counterattacked Lengkou at the end of March, but under the tenacious defense of the Shang Zhen Department, the attack failed.

Xifengkou is the communication throat between Beiping and Rehe. On March 5, after the advance troops of the 8th Division of the Japanese Army succeeded in attacking Lengkou, the main force of the division stopped advancing towards Lengkou and rushed towards Xifengkou instead. On the 9th, the Japanese army began to attack Xifengkou, and took advantage of Wan Fulin's unstable foothold to occupy the outpost Menziling about 20 kilometers away from Xifengkou. The Song Zheyuan Department of the 29th Army originally went to Lengkou for reinforcements, but after Xifengkou was in crisis, they rushed to help Xifengkou.The Wang Changhai regiment of the 37th Division of the 29th Army marched more than 100 miles in half a day, rushed from Zunhua to Xifengkou, took advantage of the dark sky, sneaked to the top of the mountain, and recaptured the commanding heights occupied by the Japanese army in one fell swoop.

That night, Zhao Dengyu, commander of the 109th Brigade, sent two battalions across the Great Wall to attack the Japanese army at night. They entered the enemy line at 3 a.m., burned more than 10 Japanese luggage carts, and wiped out more than 500 enemies. At dawn, after the Japanese army launched a counterattack, Zhao The troops fought and retreated back to the Great Wall.The Japanese army attacked the Xifengkou position with powerful artillery fire for two consecutive days. Although the defenders suffered considerable casualties, the Japanese army also paid a heavy price for casualties, and they were still unable to break through the position of the 29th Army. The two sides saw each other repeatedly.

Generals Qin Dechun, Zhang Zizhong, Feng Zhian, and He Jifeng of the 29th Army decided to take the initiative to attack with the strength of the officers and soldiers of the 29th Army in night combat and melee combat after discussion. To the back of the Japanese army, a large-scale night attack was carried out on the night of March 11. That night, the Zhao and Tong brigades marched in two directions.When Brigade Zhao entered the Japanese artillery position, the exhausted Japanese soldiers had already fallen into a deep sleep. They never thought that the Chinese army, which had been beaten during the day, would dare to launch a night attack.The officers and soldiers of the 29th Army destroyed all the armored vehicles and artillery on the Japanese position, and then returned to the original position.This large-scale night battle wiped out more than 1,000 enemies, which was an unexpected blow to the Japanese army and became the biggest victory in the Great Wall War of Resistance. The reputation of the Broadsword Team immediately spread throughout China.It has been 70 years since this war.Speaking of this battle, the one that remains most clearly in people's memory is the Broadsword Squadron of the 29th Army.From the exciting news reports at the time, to the later song of "cutting the devils' heads with a big knife", to the detailed records in history textbooks, it has become one of the most fascinating stories in the history of the Anti-Japanese War.The broadsword has become a symbol, a resolute spirit, a passionate impulse to take a guy and run to the front line, a tribute to resistance for survival.

After 7 days and 7 nights of fierce competition, the Japanese army failed to take advantage of the 29th Army at the Xifengkou position, so they turned to attack Luowenyu, intending to attack the 29th Army's back.Most of the battalion at the forefront of the Luowenyu garrison was killed when they blocked the Japanese army, but the 29th Army was ready, and in the afternoon they increased their troops to counterattack and repelled the Japanese army. On March 18, the Japanese army attacked Luowenyu again. Liu Ruming and Zhang Zizhong fought against the enemy with all their might. Li Zengzhi, the head of the regiment, was injured in his leg and was still commanding at the front line. Still sticking to the position, shattered the Japanese army's plan.After many days of war, Xifengkou was riddled with bullet holes on the city wall, but it was still firmly in the hands of soldiers of the 29th Army, making the Japanese army daunting.Japanese newspapers admitted that the battle at Xifengkou lost the honor of the Japanese "imperial army" and suffered an insult unprecedented in more than 60 years.

Gubeikou on the Great Wall is located about 200 kilometers northeast of Beiping, and it is also an important channel from Chengde to Beiping. It is surrounded by mountains on the east and west sides, and the situation is very dangerous.Going down from Rehehe, the Japanese army took this place as a main target.Chiang Kai-shek was busy mobilizing the army to engage in the civil war in Jiangxi. After the Great Wall was in an emergency, he sent the 25th Division of Zhuyuan to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army in the southeast of Jiangxi to the north. The third division was transferred to the north.The three divisions that went north were combined into the Seventeenth Army, led by the army commander Xu Tingyao.When Guan Linzheng of the 25th Division arrived in Beijing, the north was already covered with ice and snow, while the officers and soldiers from the south were still wearing straw sandals.At that time, the Anti-Japanese Support Association organized by Zhu Qinglan donated fur coats and excavation tools in time, which solved their urgent needs.

In the early morning of March 10, the 25th Division rushed to Gubeikou.Wang Yizhe, the Sixty-seventh Army of the Northeast Army that was originally defending at Gubeikou, fought hard against the Japanese for four days and nights on the Qingshiliang position outside Gubeikou, and retreated to the south of Gubeikou to occupy the position on the afternoon of March 9. .Nishi Yoshiichi, head of the Eighth Division of the Japanese Army, rushed to Gubeikou to supervise the battle when the Japanese army encountered resistance in Qingshiliang. On the 11th, the Japanese army finally occupied Gubeikou Pass.The Japanese army began to attack the Guan Linzheng Department, which was the second line of defense in Guannan, and surrounded the right wing of the position.Upon seeing this, division commander Guan Linzheng led the division's special agent company to reinforce the right-wing position, preparing to command a counterattack.On the way, he was wounded by a Japanese sniper with a grenade. Du Yuming, the deputy division commander, took over his command and kept his position.

On the morning of the 12th, the Japanese army attacked more violently. The communication line of the 25th Division was blown up, and the position was cut into two sections by the Japanese army.The Battle of Gubeikou was so fierce that even the Japanese army admitted that it was a "fierce battle within a fierce battle".The 25th Division wiped out more than 2,000 Japanese soldiers, and after 3 days and nights of fierce fighting, there were more than 4,000 casualties, including 3/4 of the company platoon leader and 3/5 of the soldiers. Du Yuming decided to give up the fight for Gubeikou and retreat to the new Position Nantianmen.Xu Tingyao ordered Huang Jie's Second Division to replace the 25th Division to guard the Nantianmen, 5 kilometers away from Gubeikou, and to block Beiping.

On the 18th, Seishiro Sakagaki, the head of the Kwantung Army’s secret service in Tianjin, who presided over counterinsurgency activities, notified the Kwantung Army Command that Zhang Jingyao, a remnant of the Beiyang warlord, was scheduled to launch a rebellion in Beiping on the 20th, and asked the Japanese army to strengthen their offensive along the Great Wall for cooperation. On the night of the 20th, the Eighth Division began to attack Nantianmen.The 2nd Division fought fiercely with the Japanese army for 5 days and nights in the Badaolouzi, 421 and other positions. The casualties were too heavy. Liu Kan's 83rd Division went up to defend the Nantianmen. The bloody battle lasted for 3 days and nights, and the fortifications of the positions were completely destroyed. 26 Retreat to occupy positions 600 meters south of Nantianmen.Later, the Chinese army retreated from Nantianmen to Shixia Town, and then retreated from Shixia Town to Miyun. They resisted and retreated successively for two months.In this fierce battle, both sides suffered heavy casualties. The Japanese army suffered 5,000 casualties, and the Chinese side suffered even more casualties.

In response to the battles at Gubeikou and Nantianmen, in late April, more than 3,000 people from the 31st Regiment of the Eighth Division of the Japanese Army occupied Xinglong Town in an attempt to attack the back of Xu Tingyao's army.Xu Tingyao transferred Xiao Zhichu of the 26th Army to recover Fulong.The 26th Army invaded Xinglong Town on the morning of the 27th and besieged the remnants of the enemy in the county office and Xinglong Mountain. Xiao Jun gradually approached the house occupied by the Japanese army and forced the Japanese army to surrender.But at this time, Chen Yi, Deputy Minister of the Military and Political Department of the Nanjing Government, and Nemoto Hiroshi, the Japanese naval attaché in Shanghai, had already started negotiating the issue of the armistice in North China. On May 1, He Yingqin ordered Xiao Jun to lift the siege, which saved the prosperous Japanese army from being wiped out. The Kwantung Army easily won the battle in Rehe, just like marching.However, it suffered heavy casualties in battles along the Great Wall, and by late March, the two sides were in a confrontational situation.In desperation, the Japanese army shifted their combat focus to East Jidong, northeast of Beiping.He Yingqin saw that the He Zhu State Department of the 57th Army in front of Jidong was in danger, and ordered He Jun to withdraw to the Luan River line.At that time, public opinion was in an uproar, ignorant of the inside story, and accused He Yingqin of not abandoning the land lightly.The battle in eastern Jidong began with the Japanese army attacking and occupying Shahezhai and Shimenzhai. The 57th Army fought repeatedly with more than 2,000 Japanese troops in Haiyang Town. On the 7th, the He Zhuguo command post concentrated its forces on the front line of Tanghe to counterattack across the board. The troops recovered Haiyang Town under the cover of artillery fire, and then continued to advance. The Japanese army retreated without support.After the battle, the Japanese army knew that Jidong was not easy to take lightly, so they marched from Lengkou and other places, threatening He Zhu's army.When He Jun's counterattack had just made progress, the Japanese army occupied Lengkou, and the Shang Zhen Department retreated to both sides of the Luan River, and the entire front of the Eastern Hebei front was shaken.At this time, the Japanese military department did not approve of the Kwantung Army's fighting in eastern Jidong beyond the Great Wall line, so the Japanese army in eastern Jidong began to retreat, and most of them retreated to the vicinity of the entrances of the Great Wall. The Japanese military headquarters and the Kwantung Army have already considered how to seize a favorable situation to cease the war. Kwantung Army Chief of Staff Koiso Kuniaki suggested in Tokyo that the Kwantung Army cross the Great Wall to fight on the front line, which was approved by the Emperor of Japan.The Japanese army launched an all-out attack from all aspects of the Great Wall and eastern Hebei, posing as if they were determined to win Pingjin, in order to induce the Chinese side to sign an alliance under the city. After a long period of fighting, the Chinese army has been consumed a lot, and it has become exhausted under the strong attack of the Japanese army. On May 21, the Beiping Army Branch held a meeting of the generals of the various armies. There was no result. It was only decided that Xu Tingyao would be the commander of the Beiping City Defense, and the military and political authorities were ready to withdraw from Peiping.After the Japanese army occupied Miyun, Tongxian and other places, Beiping was besieged on three sides.He Yingqin urgently transferred the 59th Army of Fu Zuoyi's Department from Changping to Huairou to block the Japanese troops going south and defend the northern gate of Peiping.During the Northern Expedition in 1927, Fu Zuoyi was famous throughout the country for his solitary defense of Zhuozhou for 88 days.He ran the army very strictly. After receiving the order, he led his troops to Changping at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour, and built fortifications on the road west of Huairou from Gubeikou to Beiping. From May 21st, the vanguard of the Japanese army attacked Fu's position and was repelled.Two days later, the main force of the Eighth Division of the Japanese Army arrived. While attacking from the front, they also circled around Fu Jun's position. Fu Jun used close combat to reduce the power of the Japanese heavy weapons.The two sides started a fierce battle at the foot of Niulan Mountain, and the killing sound shook the sky for a while, and blood and flesh flew everywhere.Some of the entire companies in the Fu army’s positions were killed by Japanese aircraft and artillery fire, and some companies had only dozens of people left guarding them. Some of these surviving soldiers jumped out of the trenches with bare arms to fight the enemy, and some carried more than 10 grenades outside. In the trench, one person alone killed dozens of Japanese soldiers.Fu Zuoyi urgently dispatched brigade commander Sun Lanfeng to lead the general reserve team for reinforcements. By the end of the battle, Fu Jun had fought the Japanese army continuously for 15 hours.The battle was in full swing, and Fu Zuoyi received He Yingqin's three consecutive phone calls to notify him of the truce, and sent someone to send him his warrant. Fu Zuoyi then ordered the entire army to retreat to the Koryo camp.The next day, after observing the positions of the Fu army, Japanese military reporters reported to the country: "The Russian-style positions built by the enemy are indeed of considerable value. And the trenches dug in the hard rock are amazing. Some of the corpses in the trenches were only sixteen or seventeen years old, and some looked like students. You can imagine the fighting zeal of young people." In the battle of Huairou, the Japanese army killed and injured more than 700 people, and Fu Jun also killed 367 people and injured more than 500 People, this battle became the last fierce battle in the Battle of the Great Wall.In order to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the army, Fu Zuoyi later built a monument to the fallen soldiers in Daqingshan near Guisui. He asked Hu Shi, a professor of Peking University, to write the inscription, which was written by Qian Xuantong.The inscription reads: "Three hundred and sixty-seven good Chinese men are buried here! They dedicated their lives to their motherland! We and our children and grandchildren came here to pay homage. We should think about what we should use. Repay their blood!" As early as March 22, when the battle on the Great Wall was in full swing, Chiang Kai-shek had secretly come to Beiping and held a military meeting in Ju Ren Tang. He told the generals present at the meeting that they should resist with the existing forces and could not hope for more assistance. In late April, the Chinese army had suffered heavy losses and had no follow-up troops. The Japanese army was already preparing to retreat, so they forced a war to make peace. The Chinese side did not know the Japanese intentions and was worried that Pingjin would lose. Sheng came forward to arrange mid-day and day-time armistice negotiations.Chiang Kai-shek asked his righteous brother Huang Yu to contact the Japanese side. On April 24, Chiang Kai-shek met with Huang Yu in Nanchang. Huang Yu was designated as the chairman of the Executive Yuan's Political Affairs Reorganization Committee in Ping'an, responsible for presiding over the tasks of negotiating with Japan and armistice negotiations. On May 21, Wang Jingwei, the Premier of the Executive Committee, learned that Pingjin was in an emergency and had nothing to do, so he told He Yingqin and others of the Beiping Army Branch that they could deal with it according to the situation.Later, he also told Huang Yu that when negotiating the peace, except that he could not sign the treaty recognizing the puppet Manchukuo and ceding the four provinces, all other conditions could be agreed. The Japanese army had no plan to occupy Pingjin, and its plan to instigate a North China rebellion also went bankrupt. Zhang Jingyao, the former Beiyang lord who was bought by Seishiro Sakagaki, was stabbed to death by Chinese agents in the Liuguo Hotel. Great shock.Seishiro Sakagaki also admitted that he had failed to instigate rebellion, and was eager to oppress China to cease the war after accepting Japan's harsh conditions. On May 24, the Japanese army approached Shunyi, Tongzhou, and Xianghe. Beiping was besieged on three sides, and Japanese aircraft circled over Beiping.China's front-line troops are already in retreat, and there are no reinforcements in the rear.Huang Yu, Huang Shao, He Yingqin and others urgently discussed countermeasures, and finally decided that Xu Zuyi, director of the Operations Department of the Military Branch, would serve as the military envoy to seek peace from the Japanese army.Xu Zuyi arrived at the headquarters of the Eighth Division of the Kwantung Army in Shunyi on the 25th. The head of the First Division of Xiyi received the Chinese military envoy. After taking the opportunity to propose harsh conditions and forcing Xu Zuyi to accept them, he agreed to a temporary truce. On the 25th, China and Japan ceased fighting across the board. On May 30, 1933, representatives of Japan and China held talks in Tanggu and signed an armistice agreement.The Chinese plenipotentiary was Xiong Bin, Chief of Staff, and the Japanese plenipotentiary was Neiji Okamura, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army.After the first day of the meeting, Xiong Bin stated that the armistice conference was entirely within the scope of the military and did not involve political matters.The next morning, the representative of the Japanese army, Neiji Okamura, took out the pre-printed draft of the armistice agreement, claiming that this was the final draft, and the Chinese representative must give a yes or no answer within one and a half hours. In less than 10 minutes, the Chinese representatives were forced to sign the agreement verbatim.This is the humiliating "Tanggu Agreement". The "Tanggu Agreement" stipulates that the Chinese army must retreat to the areas south and west of the line connecting Changping, Yanqing, Xianghe, and Lutai. The Japanese army has the right to inspect the implementation of the Chinese army by air or other methods; Retreat to the line north of the Great Wall Line; in the south of the Great Wall Line and the area north and east of the retreat area of ​​the Chinese army as a buffer zone, the police will maintain law and order. The "Tanggu Agreement" is a military agreement, and it is also an alliance under the city signed by the Chinese side in desperation.The conclusion of this agreement put an end to the hesitant situation in which the Nanjing government neither did its best to fight against Japan nor succumbed to peace talks since the September 18th Incident.Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei had already decided to avoid fighting on two fronts between Japan and the Red Army, and instead thoroughly implemented the policy of "to fight against the outside world, we must first secure the inside" and turned their energies to besieging the Red Army.For Chiang's government, the pact won it a few years of respite.However, the "Tanggu Agreement" made China's sovereignty over the 22 counties in eastern Hebei exist in name only. Not only did it fail to defend Pingjin and North China as the compromisers imagined, but it became a sharp weapon used by Japan to encroach on North China and separate North China.