Chapter 7 Chapter Six Ningwu City Massacre (1937.9.30-10.13)

After the "July 7th Incident", the Japanese invaders gradually invaded south from northern Shanxi. On September 28, 1937, the Japanese army occupied Shuo County.The 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army led the 358th Brigade into Shenchi, Ningwu, and Shuo County to stop the enemy and deal a heavy blow to the enemy.The Japanese army then took the Ningwu area as one of the key attack targets.Although thousands of my migrant workers were digging trenches and building fortifications on the front line of Yangfangkou, Yan Xishan's independent brigade had no fighting spirit. They didn't even meet the devils, so they gave up the fortifications and fled towards Taiyuan via Ningwu and Jingle. .

On September 30, the Japanese Independent and Mixed First Brigade set off from Shuo County, passed through Dingzhuangwo, Longyuan Village, Majialiang and other villages in Shenchi County, and went upstream along the Hui River until it approached Ningwu County.Since both Yan Jun and the Kuomintang county government had retreated, the Japanese army invaded the county seat at around 20 o'clock that night without any resistance. After the Japanese army entered the city, Shi Shi pretended to be "goodwill" and promoted the establishment of the so-called "Heavenly Land of Kings", and found a traitor named Xing Meisheng to act as the spokesperson of his deceptive propaganda, saying: "It's all right, go back to the city and live a safe life! "Many residents who escaped from the city before the Japanese army entered the city believed it was true and returned home.Then, under the pretext of preventing the Communist Party and the Eighth Route Army from attacking the city, the masses were forced to block the city gates, and the walls were covered with barbed wire, turning the county into a "concentration camp."

At dawn that night, the monks of Yanqing Temple, a famous temple in northern Shanxi at the foot of Huagai Mountain in the north of the city, rang the bell to do their homework as usual.Because the bell weighs more than 10 catties and the sound vibrates for tens of miles, once it hits, it can be heard in counties, towns and villages.When the bell rang, a guerrilla unit from the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army sneaked into the county with wit and flexibility, set fire to the arsenal set up by the Japanese army in the northwest corner of the city after entering the city, and killed the sentries guarding the warehouse.At that time, the flames were soaring into the sky, and the whole city was illuminated red, and the sound of fire and explosion in the Japanese ammunition depot was deafening.The Japanese troops in the city were dispatched hastily and surrounded the northwest corner of the city, but the Eighth Route Army guerrillas had already moved safely.The Japanese suffered heavy losses, but gained nothing.

After the incident, the Japanese army panicked and waited for revenge.Because the timing of the bell striking at Yanqing Temple and the Eighth Route Army's attack on the arsenal coincided, the Japanese army suspected that the temple monks and the Eighth Route Army used the bell as a communication signal to communicate secretly; Beitongpu road construction workers lived together, and the Japanese army suspected that there were Eighth Route Army guerrillas in disguise.Therefore, in the headquarters of the Japanese invaders stationed in Ningwu County, a large-scale bloody massacre plan was frantically planned.

In order to lure the residents who went out to return to the city, a set of tricks was devised to paralyze the masses.The traitors ran around with small white flags, bluffing and deceiving, falsely claiming that "the Japanese have retreated, the city is safe and sound, and they can go home and live in peace." At first, the masses did not believe it, and no one dared to go back to the city.After a day, seeing that the city was peaceful as usual, and the few people who returned were safe and sound. In addition, they fled hastily, and the food and clothing they brought were in short supply, so many people returned to the city one after another.

When the masses first returned to the county seat, the Japanese army did not move. They just erected barbed wire on the city wall and sent migrant workers to block the four city gates with sandbags, threatening to prevent the Eighth Route Army from entering the city.The masses do not know its true intention. On the morning of October 2, the Japanese army, through the traitor Xing Meisheng and others, yelled along the street, calling most of the residents in the city to the playground of Ningwu County Normal School for a "meeting".When two or three thousand people gathered at the meeting place, the Japanese army secretly sealed off the exits on all sides of the playground, only allowed to enter and not to go out.On the one hand, five cigarettes and ten fruit candies were distributed to each person who participated in the "meeting", which was said to be "comfort to the good people".Just when the masses were puzzled by this, the enemies who were in ambush around the playground suddenly opened fire.All of a sudden, light and heavy machine guns fired suddenly, and bullets rained down on the crowd. Thousands of unarmed people were killed on the spot.In an instant, rivers of blood flowed into the teacher's playground, and corpses piled up like mounds. Some of those who were shot died immediately, and some struggled desperately. The survivors screamed and fled in all directions.Some were beaten to death while running around; some jumped to their deaths and injuries from the city wall; some wanted to move away from the sandbags blocking the city gate and escaped, but were crushed to death by the sandbags; Under the circumstances, he committed suicide by throwing himself into a well and toilet.

At the same time, another unit of the Japanese army broke into Yanqing Temple and forced the presiding Master Renzhu to hand over the golden Buddha in the temple.But Venerable Master Renzhu was upright and would rather die than surrender, and never surrendered to the Golden Buddha.The Japanese army then showed its fierceness and killed the presiding officer and 30 to 40 monks in the temple, and none of them survived.There were hundreds of Tongpu Railway migrant workers and refugees who lived in the temple, and they were all killed. In addition, in Dongguan Street, Jiaochang Street, 700, 600, 500, 300, Guanyin Street, Xinjie and other places in the city, the Japanese army searched door by door, raping and looting wantonly.When they saw a man, they pierced their collarbone with iron wire, and dozens of people were killed collectively; when they saw a woman, they robbed or raped them, including old women and young children.In case of valuables, they were all threatened, and the shelves and cash drawers of many businesses were looted.After that, the Japanese army massacred the city for three consecutive days, killing about 4,800 compatriots.

On October 13, the anti-Japanese guerrillas in the Ningwu area, with the cooperation of the main force of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, successively attacked Ningwu County.The enemy in Shuo County dispatched 57 vehicles and armored vehicles for reinforcement, but was ambushed and repelled by our army. The Japanese army guarding Ningwu fled that night, and our army regained Ningwu County. When the Eighth Route Army entered the city, although it was several days after the Japanese army's brutality, the city was still a horrible and desolate scene.According to the memories of comrades from the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army who once went to the city to participate in the aftermath and clean-up work, at that time, there were countless dead bodies lying on both sides of the streets in the city, men, women and children, even children of a few years old and babies of a few months. They all fell in a pool of blood with their parents.There were puddles of blood everywhere on the street. Human blood mixed with the soil and condensed into a black-red blood mud several centimeters thick.Some corpses had half of their faces bitten off by dogs, revealing pale teeth, which made people look sideways.Some dogs ate human flesh until their eyes turned red, and some lost their hair; some dogs could no longer tell the difference between the living and the dead, and had to be shot to death when they saw the living biting.The corpses in Yanqing Temple, the teacher's playground, and some wells have rotted, causing an unpleasant stench to permeate everywhere.

The Eighth Route Army soldiers who entered the city wanted to find a place to camp, but because most of the houses were burned down, they had to sleep in the open air.In the west of the city, because it was the location of the Japanese arsenal that the Eighth Route Army guerrillas had attacked, the looting was even worse.The houses here have collapsed, and the streets are covered with scorched earth and rubble.At the gate of a house, lay the corpses of two middle-aged men whose chests had been shot through by bullets. It seemed that they had been shot dead while escaping.There were two kneeling middle-aged female corpses at the door of the north room, apparently killed while begging for mercy.On the kang, under the corpse of an old man, there were two corpses of three or four-year-old children.In the middle of the edge of the kang, there was a half-eaten cage filled with oatmeal noodles, which clearly belonged to a family that was slaughtered while eating.

On the storefront of Yongshun store, the cupboards have not been burned down, and the furnishings inside are exquisite, with blankets and flowered foreign cloth quilts on the kang. There were 3 naked young female corpses lying on it, one of them had her belly cut open, her intestines spilled out, and blood stained half of her quilt, obviously a group of Japanese bandits killed them after venting their lust for animals. There was a craftsman surnamed Liu who was killed by the Japanese army. His son was captured by the Japanese army and cut off his ears. He was still forced to carry water and was massacred again.His wife and 15-year-old daughter hid in an ancient temple at first. Later, when their son was killed, they were so distressed that they risked leaving their daughter to visit. They were also ravaged by the Japanese army and killed.The little girl was left alone in the ancient temple, unbearably cold and hungry, passed out, and was dying. Fortunately, the Eighth Route Army who later recaptured the county found her and saved her life after rescue.

In the courtyard of the wealthy Zhao family in the city, people found the body of a regiment-level officer of Yan Xishan's army. It turned out to be the head of a regiment of Zhao Chengxu's department, surnamed Zhao, and a native of the county.This person stayed when Yan Jun retreated south because he was reluctant to abandon his family business and did not believe in the brutality of the Japanese army.When the Japanese army entered the city, they not only broke into Commander Zhao's private house, but also molested and insulted his wife and daughter face to face.He couldn't bear it anymore and defended himself with a gun. Using his familiarity with the terrain of the private house, he fought with the enemy and killed several Japanese soldiers before being killed. The people of Ningwu also defended themselves against the brutal crimes committed by the Japanese army.At that time, just as the Japanese army massacred innocent residents in the normal playground, dozens of compatriots who were detained in a nearby courtyard, led by the captured soldier Er Baozi, smashed to death the Japanese sentry with a hand grenade stolen in advance, blowing up the prison. Flee over the city wall.In addition, there are also those who died together with the Japanese army when resisting the atrocities of the Japanese army. The heinous crimes committed by the Japanese invaders in Ningwu City 50 years ago are still remembered by the people of Ningwu.