Chapter 37 This year's general trend

At the turn of spring and summer, the ancient city of Beiping was graceful and peaceful. In fact, it was already a besieged city. The Japanese invaders had already put a noose on it, but it was not known when its criminal hand would be tightened. Around Beiping, there were as many as 10,000 Japanese troops stationed along the railway lines between Beiping, Tianjin, Tanggu, Luanzhou, Qinhuangdao and Shanhaiguan.In the east, there are more than 10,000 puppet troops of the puppet traitor regime of Jidong Anti-Communist Autonomous Government, in the north of Rehe, there is the Japanese Kwantung Army, and in the northwest of Chahar, there are about 40,000 puppet Mongolian troops.

An American scholar, Lattimore, who was traveling in China, felt the crisis approaching and later became Chiang Kai-shek's adviser.In the spring of that year, China and Japan, which had always been arguing constantly, seemed to suddenly lose interest in arguing, and everything fell silent.Lattimore said worriedly to his friend: "This is too much like 1931, too peaceful, too peaceful, so peaceful that we cannot rest assured. We are afraid that we will see another 'September 18'." Takeo Imai, the Japanese military attache to China, also admitted in his post-war memoirs that Japanese political sources were all talking about a mysterious rumor: "On the night of Chinese Valentine's Day, the incident like Liutiaogou will happen again in North China." The political circles all sent people to Beijing and Tianjin to make unannounced visits.

On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army created the Marco Polo Bridge Incident that shocked China and the world under the pretext of a missing soldier.For journalists, shortly after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the valuable news came from Beiping, Tianjin and Baoding, while the most valuable news came from Lushan, Nanjing and Tokyo, not from the front line of Marco Polo Bridge in Wanping. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the city gates of Beiping were closed and the Ping-Han Railway was interrupted.The Communist Party of China reacted quickly to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. On July 8, it issued a telegram, calling for the armed defense of Pingjin and North China, and the implementation of the whole nation's war of resistance.

In Nanjing, Foreign Minister Wang Chonghui lodged a written protest to the Japanese ambassador to China Shigeru Kawatake, demanding that the Japanese troops withdraw to the original defense.The Japanese government slandered China for "illegally shelling and insulting Japan." Instead, it demanded an apology from the Chinese government. It also arbitrarily said that the Marco Polo Bridge incident was a "local incident" and that the Japanese side could directly negotiate with the local authorities in Hebei and Chahar, and the Chinese government did not need to intervene.The Chinese Foreign Ministry solemnly pointed out that any agreement must be approved by the central government.

Faced with a tough China, Japan needs to make an immediate decision, whether to make concessions to this new opponent, or to completely destroy its strength and will; if it makes concessions, how far will Japan make concessions, and what is the exchange demanded from China? ?The situation in Pingjin has long been beyond the control of the local conflicting parties, and it is Nanjing and Tokyo that determine the outcome of the incident. China is faced with a choice, whether to bow its head again and treat the Marco Polo Bridge incident as a local incident, or stick to principles, even if it uses war to deal with war.

On the 8th, after Chiang Kai-shek learned of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in Lushan, he asked the Propaganda Minister Shao Lizi to report the incident truthfully without any restrictions.Sensitive people around realized that Chiang Kai-shek was determined to resist Japan. On the 9th, he ordered Sun Lianzhong and other troops to go north to Shijiazhuang and Baoding.Sun Lianzhong's entry into Hebei means that the Chinese government is no longer prepared to abide by the humiliating "Hemei Agreement". At 7:00 p.m. on the 12th, the Chinese troops in Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu received mobilization orders to gather for the Longhai Railway and the Pinghan Railway line centered on Zhengzhou; the troops in Shandong were responsible for the defense of the northern section of the Jinpu Railway. ; 30 military aircraft in Nanchang immediately flew north in formation.

The arrogant and warlike Japanese aggressors underestimated the determination and strength of the Chinese people to resist, thinking that they could make China submit by threatening with their swords.Lu Prime Minister Sugiyama boasted that he would solve the "China Incident" within a month when he played the role of Emperor Hirohito of Japan.The Konoe Cabinet hastily announced on the 11th that it would send three additional divisions to North China and mobilize them in Japan.The Japanese government saw this event as an appropriate opportunity to resolve the North China issue.This decision went further than the Japanese military, and it was a key step in turning the Marco Polo Bridge Incident into a full-scale war of aggression against China.

It was midsummer, and most of the important officials of the Nationalist Government spent their summer vacation in Mount Lushan, Jiangxi.The national government also invited celebrities from all walks of life to hold talks on the mountain. On Lushan Mountain, the most noticed ones are the representatives of the talks with the Wulaofeng badge.Because of this, domestic and foreign attention is focused on Lushan Mountain. On July 17, Chiang Kai-shek delivered the Lushan Statement on behalf of the Chinese government, solemnly stating: "If today's Beiping becomes Shenyang in the past, today's Jicha will also become the four eastern provinces in the past, if Beiping can become Shenyang, Why can’t Nanjing become Beiping? So the deduction of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident is an issue that concerns the entire country of China. Whether this matter can be ended is now the last moment.” At the same time, he made it clear that as long as there is a glimmer of hope to still strive for peace, only To fight, not to fight.Chiang Kai-shek declared China's four-point position on resolving the Marco Polo Bridge incident: any settlement must not infringe upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity; the Hebei-Chahar administrative organization cannot be changed illegally; the local officials sent by the central government cannot be replaced at will; The area of ​​residence cannot be subject to any restrictions.At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was expressing the will of a nation. The Chinese were no longer prepared to succumb to any pressure from Japan, including the threat of war. There is no reason for this. If a war breaks out, there will be no distinction between north and south, young or old, and everyone has the responsibility to defend the land and resist the war, and everyone should be determined to sacrifice everything.” From this day on, the central government finally He resolutely assumed the responsibility of defending North China.

In early August, the Supreme National Defense Joint Conference was held in Nanjing.Generals from various important provinces, such as Liu Xiang, Chairman of Sichuan Province, Bai Chongxi, Chairman of Guangxi Province, and Long Yun, Chairman of Yunnan Province, all rushed to Nanjing to attend the meeting.They temporarily let go of their past grievances and resentments with Chiang Kai-shek, and discussed the plan of the war of resistance. At the National Defense Joint Conference, Chiang Kai-shek stated that if the Japanese had their word and could use the Great Wall as a boundary and not commit crimes in the south, he would personally be responsible for negotiating peace with Japan.But Japan's actions prove that it will not stop until the whole of China is destroyed, so China has to rise up to fight.Liu Xiang, chairman of Sichuan Province, impassionedly announced at the meeting that Sichuan, as the rear of the War of Resistance, would send millions of troops to serve the country.His statement is not trivial, because if the coastal areas fall, Sichuan will become the most important rear base of China's war of resistance.

At the end of the meeting, whether to stand up or not was voted on whether to resist the war, and all the participants stood up unanimously, determined to resist the war.When the national disaster was imminent, the military leaders of the whole country finally let go of their previous suspicions and went to the national disaster together.Later, the Chinese Communist Red Army generals Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying and others flew from Xi'an to Nanjing to participate in the National Defense Joint Conference and contributed their special experience in strategy and tactics. On August 13, after the Japanese army created troubles and caused war in Shanghai, the Chinese government immediately reacted strongly. On the 14th, it issued the "Statement of Self-Defense and Anti-Japanese War", announcing: "China will never give up any part of its territory. The only way to respond is to implement the natural right of self-defense.” It was decided that the Military Commission should be the supreme command of the War of Resistance, Chiang Kai-shek would be the Grand Marshal of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and Cheng Qian (later He Yingqin) and Bai Chongxi would be the Chief and Deputy Chiefs of Staff respectively.

After the war in Shanghai broke out, Chiang Kai-shek urgently needed the Red Army to send reinforcements to North China, and negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party made a breakthrough soon. On August 22, Chiang Kai-shek formally agreed to reorganize the main force of the Red Army into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and appointed Zhu De and Peng Dehuai as the chief and deputy commanders.The Eighth Route Army has three divisions under its jurisdiction, the 115th Division (Division Commander Lin Biao), the 120th Division (Division Commander He Long), and the 129th Division (Division Commander Liu Bocheng). Each division governs two brigades, and each brigade governs two regiments. A total of 46,000 people.The Kuomintang and the Communist Party later negotiated on the reorganization of the Southern Red Army guerrillas. In October, the guerrillas of the Red Army in the south were reorganized into the new Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army. Faced with the new situation of the full-scale outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, in August 1937, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting in Luochuan, northern Shaanxi. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, etc. attended the meeting to discuss the strategy and course of action of the Red Army, its relationship with the Kuomintang, and mobilize the people to rise up. Important issues such as the war of resistance.At the meeting, Mao Zedong put forward the Eight Programs of the Comprehensive Anti-Japanese War, and determined that the Communist Party should make itself the core of leading the national anti-Japanese war, develop anti-Japanese mass movements, organize and arm the people, focus work on the theater and behind enemy lines, establish anti-Japanese base areas, and insist on independent guerrilla warfare war, the implementation of a protracted war of resistance. On the 15th, the national general mobilization began.The local dignitaries attending the meeting in Nanjing hurried back to the provinces to organize and mobilize troops to go to the front lines in North and East China.The frontline area is divided into 5 theaters.Hebei and Henan are the first theaters, Shanxi, Chahar, and Suiyuan are the second theaters, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang are the third theaters, Fujian and Guangdong are the fourth theaters, and southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu are the fifth theaters. The Japanese Konoe cabinet also publicly abandoned the policy of "no expansion" and established the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, with General Matsui Iwane as the commander, leading the 3rd and 11th divisions to Shanghai to expand the war zone to the whole of China. Since the "September 18th" incident, China and Japan have been engaged in an undeclared war intermittently, and even after the start of the all-out war, the two sides have not severed diplomatic relations.China called this war the War of Resistance, and the War of Resistance developed from a partial war of resistance to a full-scale war of resistance. Japan called this war "incidents", which developed from the "Manchuria Incident", "Northern Branch Incident" to the "China Incident". After the outbreak of the National Anti-Japanese War, armies from various provinces in China marched to the front lines in North China and East China.Even patriots from Yunnan far in the southwestern border were not left behind. In Kunming, the provincial capital, people warmly sent off soldiers from the 60th Army, 58th Army and others to the front line of the Anti-Japanese War. The officers and soldiers of the Yunnan 60th Army, led by Commander Lu Han, sang the military song composed for them by the composer Xian Xinghai and rushed to the anti-Japanese battlefield across thousands of rivers and mountains: "We came from the place where the Yunnan Uprising was great. The anti-Japanese battlefield. Brothers fight for national liberation with flesh and blood, and carry forward the glory of our country and Yasukuni. We must not let the enemy run rampant in our land, and we must not allow enemy planes to fly in our airspace. Yunnan is the hometown of the 60th Army, and the 60th Army It is an armed force to defend China." The military song sang the glory of the Yunnan soldiers, and it was they who took the lead in raising their arms to wipe out Yuan Shikai's imperial government 20 years ago.These officers and soldiers like to sing a few lines of Yunnan opera in their spare time, or take out a two-foot-long round chimney to smoke.This chimney, also known as the tuberculosis tube, is purple-red and gleaming, so it may not be obvious that it is made of bamboo.When they first arrived in a different place, ordinary people always thought it was some kind of weapon, or regarded it as a grenadier, or a water machine gun, or even regarded it as a flagon or a urinal.In fact, this is the hookah that people in Yunnan love to smoke.It is these ordinary officers and soldiers who want to continue their glorious tradition on the anti-Japanese battlefield. Guangxi Province, which is adjacent to Yunnan, had a relatively complete militia organization and an effective conscription system before the war. Therefore, at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, Guangxi Province quickly mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops from two group armies to the front line of the Anti-Japanese War.Their military pay, clothing, etc. are mainly provided by the province. In the absence of a truly unified national defense force, China's anti-Japanese camp still behaved like a whole at the beginning.The Chinese army during the Anti-Japanese War was collectively called the National Revolutionary Army, which was mobilized by the Nanjing High Command.Rather than saying that it is a modernized national army, it is better to say that it is an allied army composed of many different types of troops.The Red Army was officially incorporated into the National Revolutionary Army after the outbreak of the war. It was called the Eighth Route Army (later called the Eighteenth Army). It swore to obey the Three People's Principles, but all officers and soldiers never gave up their belief in Marxism.Six months ago, the Northeast Army and the Northwest Army were separated from the Central Army because of the detention of Chiang Kai-shek.A year ago, the Guangxi army was still reeling, preparing to fight the Nanjing army.Under the name of the National Revolutionary Army, there are also many local and even private armies, such as the Sichuan Army and the Jin Army.Most of them fought each other before the Anti-Japanese War.But when the national calamity came, various types of Chinese troops shook hands and made peace, and marched from different regions to the Jinpu-Pinghan line on the North China Plain, the Shanxi highlands, and the Songhu low-lying water network. The commanders on the front line saw the various armies in different uniforms, and also saw the various weapons and equipment they brought. Putting their weapons together is like holding a large world exposition of obsolete weapons .On the Songhu battlefield, the most elite troops gathered. The 88th Division, 87th Division, and 36th Division under General Zhang Zhizhong were equipped with German weapons, and he could also command his tankers to attack Japanese troops that have been driven to the sea.In Shanxi, however, soldiers under Commander Wang Mingzhang from Sichuan wore straw sandals, and they had never even seen what a tank looked like. The military salaries, training, recruits, and even the establishment of troops in various places are not uniform. It is unrealistic for such an army to cooperate closely in a modern war and use it freely. Despite these adverse factors, China's leaders decided to resist.The Chinese nation loves peace and opposes war, but in the face of Japan's protracted aggression, humiliation and oppression, the Chinese people finally decided to fight Japan with iron and blood.The setbacks on the battlefield have been expected, the occupation of large areas of rich land is also expected, and the death of a large number of lives is inevitable, but China still has to fight, as the saying goes, the underdog will win!The greatest capital held by the Chinese army is the strong national spirit of the soldiers.A photo of a young soldier with a determined face was published in a foreign magazine. His eyes were full of desire for revenge. This is a symbol and a spiritual symbol of Chinese soldiers who are ready to risk all difficulties to fight the bloody Japanese army to the end. In the hot summer of 1937, the war against Japan began, and in a blink of an eye, it was late autumn when the leaves were falling.The battle situation also became bleak and bleak like the autumn scenery. After the defeat in the Battle of Xinkou, the situation in Shanxi became severe. On November 8, Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, fell.The military and political center of Shanxi was transferred to Linfen in the south of Shanxi. The day before Taiyuan fell, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De led the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army to move to Shiguai Town in Heshun County in southeastern Shanxi.This is a small town located in the south of the Zhengtai Railway.At that time, the residents of the town, like many areas near the battle line, were panicked and desolate. The arrival of General Zhu De made the local people calm down.Writer Ding Ling led the field service team to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.Two Northeast students came to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. They were found on foot from Taiyuan.They searched all over eastern Shanxi in order to join the Eighth Route Army and fight against the Japanese invaders. On the evening of the 9th, the Field Service Corps performed on the streets, and the gate of the city was turned into a theater. The streets and roofs were crowded with soldiers and residents. An actor played a bamboo board and rapped about the ten programs for resisting Japan and saving the nation put forward by the Chinese Communist Party. . At that time, American reporter Smedley accompanied the Eighth Route Army headquarters to cover the interview, and in the following days moved with the army to Hongdong and Linfen in the south of Shanxi.She witnessed the warm welcome of General Zhu De in many places. On the evening of the 13th, a mass meeting was held in the spacious Confucian Temple in the county seat of Yushe County. "When Zhu De walked forward at the place where the crowd moved away, all the people in the audience stood up and sang Chinese songs. The local and The guerrillas in neighboring towns, the police in the county seat, a company of the Shanxi Army, the local Salvation Association, and the entire population welcomed him." In late November, the Japanese army first dispatched 20,000 troops to cooperate with cavalry, artillery, tanks, and aircraft to launch a large-scale siege on the newly established Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei base in 8 routes.This is the first contest whether the Eighth Route Army can stand firm behind enemy lines. The situation in the East China battlefield is sad. On November 9th, after three months of bloody resistance, the main force in Shanghai was finally unable to sustain itself, and Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to issue an order to retreat.The army was already exhausted, the retreat turned into a terrible rout, and Chiang Kai-shek's elite troops were hit hard.The most pitiful thing when retreating is the heavy artillery unit. The bulky big guys like artillery vehicles and heavy artillery become a burden when escaping.In the haste and chaos, the several defensive lines and fortifications known as the Eastern Maginot built between Shanghai and Nanjing did not work.In just one month, the Japanese army had besieged more than 100,000 Chinese troops in Nanjing.The ancient city has no air protection, because the young Chinese Air Force has lost almost all of its fighters.As for the already weak navy, it has no relationship with the sea and has become a river defense force. The winter of 1937 was brutally cold. On December 13, the capital Nanjing fell.Except for a few troops who managed to break out of the siege, the rest became prisoners of war.The capital of China was turned into a hell on earth in a brutal massacre by the Japanese army.Captured soldiers and civilians in the city were killed up to 300,000 people.Rape of women, looting of property and arson were everywhere, and the Japanese invaders acted like lawless beasts.But in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, citizens flooded the streets, immersed in the carnival atmosphere. In North China, on the Jinpu line, the Japanese army reached the Yellow River and approached Jinan.The Japanese army on the Ping-Han line also advanced rapidly to the south. At that time, China was already in a state of collapse.