Chapter 14 9. The Burning River Bridge

If it is said that during the fall of the Northeast, the most known resistance battle was probably the Jiangqiao Resistance War.Today, at the Jiangqiao Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall in Qiqihar, the length of a wall is written: "The Jiangqiao Anti-Japanese War fired the first shot of China's armed resistance against Japan." The Jiangqiao Anti-Japanese War does have the significance of the first shot of the Anti-Japanese War. For this battle, our records are as follows—— After the "September 18th" Incident in 1931, the Japanese invading army quickly occupied Liaoning and Jilin, and continued to invade Heilongjiang Province.At that time, the capital of Heilongjiang Province was Qiqihar, and the Japanese army had to pass the Nenjiang Bridge on the Tao (Taonan) Ang (Ang Ang River) Railway to occupy Qiqihar.

Ma Zhanshan, the acting chairman and military commander of Heilongjiang Province who had just been appointed, commanded the Heilongjiang Provincial Defense Force to decisively cut off the bridge and disregarded the order of non-resistance from the upper echelon. About three brigades were deployed on the north bank of the Nen River to guard the Nen River Bridge. On November 4, the Japanese army attacked with the Manchurian garrison and was repelled. On the 6th, the second division of the Kwantung Army went into battle with its main force. Ma Zhanshan personally went to the front to command and fought fiercely with the enemy. The Japanese army used superior artillery fire, aircraft, and tanks to cover them, and took turns to attack fiercely. On the 12th, the Japanese army dispatched reinforcements from North Korea to strengthen the offensive.Ma ZhanShan fought alone and retreated due to heavy casualties and lack of support.

On the 19th, the Japanese army occupied Qiqihar, and Ma Zhanshan moved the provincial capital to Helen.The Jiangqiao Anti-Japanese War lasted for half a month, and it was the first strong resistance of the Chinese army to the Japanese army after the "September 18th" Incident. Although Ma Zhanshan was defeated, he was honored and praised by the people of the country. In fact, there was a prelude to Jiangqiao's war of resistance - as early as October 16, Jiangqiao had already started fighting.However, at this time the Japanese participated in the war with the puppet army’s former Taoliao garrison Zhang Haipeng’s department. Zhang Haipeng, who had been appointed as the governor of Heilongjiang Province by the Kwantung Army, intended to force the Heilongjiang defenders to give up the river bridge pass by force, and then seize the provincial capital Qiqihar.

As a result, the Heilongjiang defenders resolutely fought back and defeated Zhang Haipeng.However, this battle was not fought by Ma Zhanshan, who became famous later, but was commanded by Xie Ke, the chief of staff of the Heilongjiang Provincial Military Administration and the first graduate of the Baoding Army Military Academy.When the incident broke out, Wan Fulin, the chairman of the Black Province, was far away in Beiping. When Ma Zhanshan, the acting chairman of the province, had not yet taken office and the enemy soldiers were pressing the border, General Xie Ke personally led the troops to meet him at Jiangqiao. He was killed by a mine, and the whole army was forced to retreat.Seeing this situation, the Japanese army took part in the battle directly under the pretext of repairing the bridge, and only then did the subsequent battles take place.

However, what is the evaluation of Jiangqiao's war of resistance in the Japanese materials? Among the Japanese materials preserved today, there are a large number of photos taken during the Battle of Jiangqiao, and a considerable part of them shows the losses of the Japanese army in the battle. The Japanese records also admit that in the first battle of the Nenjiang Bridge, the biggest achievement of the Japanese army was to successfully escape from the interception of Ma Zhanshan's army and return to the starting position. It caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army, withstood the Japanese attack and forced it to retreat. This seems to be the first time on the battlefield in the three eastern provinces.Therefore, it is not surprising that the Jiangqiao War of Resistance received such high praise.

It can also be seen from the photos taken by the Japanese army that the troops and firepower of the two sides are not equal.The photos of the bombing of the auxiliary bridge of the Nenjiang Bridge were taken by the Japanese army's aircraft, which shows that it used relatively advanced air power at that time.Ma Zhanshan's army had no planes. We recorded that the Jiangqiao position had been bombed wildly by the Japanese army. Anxiously, Ma Zhanshan ordered the soldiers to lie down and shoot into the air. As a result, a Japanese plane was shot down.Although Ma Zhanshan has never been to a military academy, this kind of action happens to be a posture for anti-aircraft shooting.The Japanese side also admitted that a pilot named Dazhen was injured, but did not mention whether the plane was shot down.

In the face of such an offensive by the enemy, the Ma Zhanshan Army's combat method still followed the standard mode of World War I-trench warfare.This is obviously a bit behind the times, and can only be made up by the courage of the soldiers. Moreover, a cavalryman of the Ma Zhanshan Army who died in battle also appeared in the photos of the Japanese army. According to Japanese records, this person is different from ordinary resistance fighters, and has a typical ethnic minority style-the Japanese side called him a Russian, and suspected that the Soviet Union had sent troops. People go to war.

In fact, the Soviets had expressed a strict neutral attitude at this time, which was undoubtedly a cold water for Ma Zhanshan and other political figures who expected the support of the Soviet Union. Perhaps, this Russian soldier was just interpreting a concept - the War of Resistance Against Japan is our national war.The ethnic minority fighters in Ma Zhanshan's army represent a phrase that was expressed only a few years later - "there is no distinction between land, east, west, north, south, and people, men, women, old and young." As Heilongjiang was isolated behind the enemy, it was difficult for our side to grasp the real situation of the Jiangqiao Anti-Japanese War, and first-hand historical materials were scarce.However, before I went on a field trip, I found a copy of the "Manchurian Incident Picture Scroll" painted by the Japanese army painter Yasune Todo in 1936 in Japan. Many of the works in it showed the scenes of the Battle of Jiangqiao.

Works in the era of Japanese militarism should naturally reflect the illustrious martial arts of the Japanese invaders.However, the Japanese painter couldn't help but recorded a large number of images of Chinese soldiers fighting bravely in his paintings.From these scrolls, we can feel how shocked the Japanese army was by the fearless Chinese soldiers on the real Jiangqiao battlefield.Let us review this period of history with the description of Tono Yafune at the bottom of his picture scroll "Battle of the Hamamoto Detachment One"—— In the early morning of November 5th, the detachment (Nenjiang led by Osamu Hamamoto) began to attack and advance.However, the enemy's artillery fire was all over the battlefield, and our side had no artillery to cooperate with, so casualties continued.In addition, the enemy's superior cavalry regiments approached from our sides, and the detachment was completely surrounded by the enemy, and the battle situation was not optimistic.The teams advance and stop suddenly. Although they try their best to fight, the battle situation is not progressing as expected.Soon the surrounding battlefield was darkened.Ammunition is short, and fatigue is forgotten in the extreme cold and hunger.Only under the military flag, the officers and soldiers are united in order to completely destroy them.Stick to the position, only waiting for the reinforcements to arrive.

Perhaps, they were able to understand from now on that not every part of this land is full of Beidaying. This should be the best commemoration of the Jiangqiao battle.