Chapter 59 This year's general trend

After the Sino-Japanese War entered into a stalemate, who could persist in the protracted situation until the end became the key.This is not only reflected between China and Japan, but also between the Kuomintang and the Communist army.Unfortunately, when the Anti-Japanese War entered a difficult period, the Kuomintang, which had always been wary and suspicious of the development of the Communist Party's power, did not hesitate to use force to resolve internal disputes. On January 6, 1941, the headquarters of the New Fourth Army and more than 9,000 people under orders to move north were intercepted by the Kuomintang troops in the Maolin area of ​​Jing County in southern Anhui.Chiang Kai-shek issued an order to crusade against the New Fourth Army from Chongqing, and the New Fourth Army was in a desperate situation surrounded by the superior forces of the Kuomintang army.The New Fourth Army fought bloody battles for nearly 9 days and nights, and finally ran out of ammunition and food. Except for more than 1,000 people who broke through, most of them were killed or captured.Xiang Ying, deputy commander of the army, and Yuan Guoping, director of the political department, were killed, and Ye Ting, the commander of the army, was detained when he was going down the mountain to negotiate with the Kuomintang army.This is the Southern Anhui Incident that shocked China and foreign countries.

After the Southern Anhui Incident, Chiang Kai-shek immediately declared the New Fourth Army a "rebel army", ordered the revocation of the New Fourth Army's designation, and General Ye Ting handed over to military court for trial.The occurrence of the Southern Anhui Incident exposed the civil struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to the world, attracting attention and shock at home and abroad. The Southern Anhui Incident aroused strong domestic condemnation.The National Salvation Council put forward an appeal to "rescue Commander Ye and oppose the civil war", and Zou Taofen, a member of the National Salvation Council, resigned angrily.Huang Yanpei, leader of the Vocational Education Association, accused Chiang Kai-shek of absolutely wrong measures.Overseas Chinese leaders Chen Jiageng and Situ Meitang called Chiang Kai-shek, saying that at a time when the enemy was at hand, besieging the New Fourth Army would destroy the Great Wall and promote the subjugation of the country.Even Yan Xishan and Wei Lihuang, who were adjacent to the Eighth Route Army in North China, did not agree with the Southern Anhui Incident.The international reaction to the Southern Anhui Incident was very strong. Not only the Soviet Union raised questions to the Chinese government, but the reactions of Britain, the United States and other countries also exceeded Chiang Kai-shek's expectations.The U.S. government informed Chiang Kai-shek that until the danger of civil war in China was eliminated and domestic unity was restored, the United States would suspend financial assistance to China.

After the Southern Anhui Incident, the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party fell to the bottom. This kind of internal friction caused the weakening of the anti-Japanese camp.This has already been demonstrated in the military. The war in 1941 was still a tug of war, but the war was obviously beneficial to the Japanese army.The anti-Japanese base areas in the enemy's rear entered a period of serious difficulties from 1941. The land and population were severely shrunk, and the finances were very tight. This period lasted for two and a half years.The Chinese army on the Shanxi battlefield suffered heavy losses in Zhongtiao Mountain.

In May and June of 1941, six divisions of the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack on the Zhongtiao Mountain area in Shanxi Province, which the Chinese army had defended for a long time, dividing the defenders into left and right divisions.The defenders failed after the fierce battle and broke through to the south bank of the Yellow River and other places. However, because they lost Yuanqu and other Yellow River ferries first, their retreat was cut off.The Chinese army preparing to cross the Yellow River and withdraw south was intercepted by the Japanese army on the way to break through, and there were not enough ferries in the Yellow River. Liu Maoen's Fourteenth Army Headquarters and the Fifteenth Army Headquarters escaped from danger by relying on only two small boats. of.Each small boat can only seat 7 people, and it takes several hours to go back and forth.After this battle, the first theater lost the cover of Zhongtiao Mountain, and the Japanese army forcibly crossed the Yellow River and occupied the bridgehead of Zhongmu and the Yellow River Iron Bridge.During the battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain suffered heavy losses, and more than 40,000 people died in battle, including army commander Tang Huaiyuan, division commander Shi Zuoheng, Cun Xingqi, Wang Jun and many other senior officers. More than 30,000 officers and soldiers were captured by the Japanese army .The Japanese side claimed that the results of the Battle of Zhongtiaoshan were rare since the war began.In the autumn of this year, around the offensive and defensive of Changsha, the Ninth War Zone and the Japanese Eleventh Army fought again. The second battle of Changsha took place. Both sides said that this battle was a big defeat for their opponents.But judging from the facts, this battle was basically a draw, and the loss of the ninth theater was slightly larger.

In addition to the military setbacks, from this year onwards, inflation has also become a ferocious enemy second only to the Japanese army in the war of resistance, and this invisible enemy is more difficult to deal with than the tangible Japanese army.An ordinary person may not have the opportunity to go to the battlefield to fight the Japanese army, but he must fight against inflation every day in his daily life.Inflation, which showed up after the war began in 1937, was not enough to scare people, but from 1941 onwards, inflation became scary.The living conditions of front-line officers and soldiers were set in 1941. Before that, although the salary of soldiers was far lower than that of officers, it was still better than that of other industries. Soldiers usually had three meals a day. Although there were not many dishes, they still had enough to eat. . After 1941, when inflation became more and more severe, soldiers, civil servants, and teachers were the hardest hit in the rear, and among these three, the living standards of lower-ranking officers and soldiers declined the most.After inflation intensified, soldiers’ food was far less than that of ordinary workers and peasants. The common phenomenon in the army was: three meals were replaced by two meals, three dishes and one soup were combined into a big pot of vegetables, and in the end it was just a bowl of food without oil. Vegetable leaf brine soup.

The military and civilians in the anti-Japanese base areas in the enemy's rear had even greater difficulties. Mao Zedong issued a mass production mobilization order in Yan'an to "do it yourself, have enough food and clothing." In 1941, China lost a supplier of materials and weapons at the beginning of the year-the Soviet Union.On April 13 of this year, the Soviet Union and Japan signed the "Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Treaty".Facing the threat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet government was unwilling to annoy Japan in the Far East, and tried to ease relations with Japan.The two governments immediately declared: the Soviet Union respected Japan's occupation of Northeast China, and Japan respected the Soviet Union's control of Mongolia; the Soviet Union's arms imports to China were suspended.This cast a shadow over China's war of resistance both materially and psychologically. Three months later, the German-Soviet war broke out.Japan shifted its energy to the south, and nine months later, the Japanese-American war broke out.China has also received assistance from the most powerful ally, the United States.