Chapter 21 15. The Northeast Army has a "Polish Cavalry"

In the album "History of Showa of 100 Million People" published by Japan in the 1980s, the Japanese occupation of Northeast my country was an unavoidable topic.In this picture album, a photo taken by a front-line reporter of the Japanese army at that time is quoted, which shows two captured soldiers of the Northeast Army. Coincidentally, in the "Photo History of the Manchuria Incident" published in 1934, there were also two captured Chinese soldiers. If you look closely, we will find that these two photos are actually taken of the same two Chinese soldiers. After more than half a century, that kind of rebelliousness and unwillingness can still be vaguely seen in the eyes of these two fighters, one year older and one younger.Today, we can no longer know the names of these two soldiers, nor can we know the experience of their capture, but only from the description of the photo, we can see that they were captured after fighting the Japanese army in the Panshan battle.The Japanese army recorded that on December 28, 1931, the Japanese armored forces fought with about 300 Chinese cavalry in Panshan. The Chinese army withdrew after suffering heavy losses. These two soldiers were captured in this battle.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, if Panshan was mentioned, it was more often referred to as Panshan in Jixian County, which was the earliest anti-Japanese base in eastern Hebei. In February 1940, Bao Sen and others led the guerrillas and a group of local cadres to Panshan. In the autumn of 1940, the Eastern Hebei Prefectural Committee and the Eastern Hebei Special Office were also established in Panshan, with Tian Ye as the secretary and Jiao Ruoyu as the commissioner.Since then, the Panshan base has become more and more consolidated in the battle and has become an important stronghold in the Eastern Hebei War of Resistance. Its two founders, Tian Ye and Bao Sen, also died in tragic battles.

People often forget that there is also a Panshan in the northeast.Panshan County, Liaoning Province is located on the Gouying Line, and it is an outpost for the Japanese army to attack Jinzhou from Yingkou. In the autumn and winter of 1931, the Northeast Army set up defenses in Jinzhou and confronted the Japanese army occupying Shenyang. This Panshan was also the front line of the Anti-Japanese War. After Zhang Xueliang's middle school classmate, Li Chunhua, the instructor of the Jiaowutang Lieutenant Colonel, established the Liaonan Volunteer Army in the winter of 1931. Among the three detachments of the Ninth Route Commander, there were three commanders and one detachment (the second commander Xiang Qingshan, the third commander Zhang Haitian, Commander of the Sixth Route Wang Quanyi, and Wang Jinlong of the Second Detachment) are all active in Panshan.Since the Liaonan Volunteer Army is one of the predecessors of the famous Northeast Volunteer Army, it can also be said that the establishment of the Volunteer Army has a deep relationship with Panshan.During the Japanese army's attack on Jinzhou at the end of 1931, the Volunteer Army also fought fierce battles with the Japanese army in Panshan many times.

However, the two captured soldiers did not seem to be part of the Volunteer Army.This is because their uniforms are neat and tidy, which shows that they are regular troops, especially the collar badges indicating their military ranks, indicating that they belong to the regular troops of the Northeast Army (the Liaoxi Volunteer Army also wears uniforms of the Northeast Army, but they do not have military ranks). In Panshan, the regular army of the Northeast Army also resisted? Check the information, it is recorded in the December 1931 article in "Liaoning Historical Events": At 10 a.m. on the 29th, the Japanese army counterattacked and crossed the center of the Liaohe River to occupy Tianzhuangtai. More than 300 Japanese troops, 4 tanks, and 4 planes attacked Dawa and Panshan. Under the command, the Japanese army bravely blocked the Japanese army, and the Japanese army continued to increase its troops. Under the fierce Japanese artillery fire, the Northeast Army's position was blown up. The soldiers resisted tenaciously and did not retreat to death. Panshan County fell.

Li Jimin's department is a cavalry battalion that the Northeast Army is proud of. The 19th Brigade is the Independent 19th Brigade of the Northern Army (Brigade Commander Sun Dequan). It was originally under Wan Fulin, Chairman of Heilongjiang Province. .After the retreat of Jinzhou, the brigade participated in the Rehe Anti-Japanese War, and was later organized into the 119th Division of the 68th Army. It made repeated military exploits in the defense of Jiujiang and the counterattack of Huangmei. Judging from the clothing and time, the two captured soldiers of the Northeast Army may belong to Li Jimin's camp.They have repeatedly appeared in the shots of the Japanese army, which also shows that when the Northeast Army really went into battle in Jinzhou in 1931 with the mood of defending its hometown, it was not easy for the Japanese army to capture prisoners.

However, after reading the Japanese war history carefully, I found that the cavalry of the Northeast Army fought extremely tragically. They were attacked by the Japanese armored forces when they tried to attack the headquarters of the Japanese Kamura Brigade, and the entire army was wiped out. of.According to the Japanese report, this Chinese cavalry almost succeeded, and Major General Kamura, the head of the Japanese brigade, had already personally entered the battle with a gun.However, the addition of Japanese tanks turned the battle into a one-sided battle. The Chinese cavalry may not understand the combat performance of the tanks. They brandished sabers and bravely rushed to the Japanese armored vehicles, and finally fell down in the rain of bullets.

The description in the text is somewhat pale, but the historical pictures left by Japanese photographers at that time truly recorded the battle scene of Chinese cavalry attacking Japanese tanks with flesh and blood near Huangjiatun, Panshan Mountain. In the European battlefield of World War II, it is said that the Polish cavalry used their spears to charge German tanks with a sense of honor of knights and lack of understanding of modern weapons. laughing stock. However, facing this Chinese cavalry bravely rushing towards the Japanese tank, I didn't feel any ridiculousness, all I could feel was respect, because it was the people of a weak country showing the strength of their ancestors deposited in their blood. Yong.

However, the resistance of Li Ji's private camp can only be regarded as the swan song of the Northeast Army's anti-Japanese war in southern Liaoning.Because when they were fighting fiercely with the Japanese army in Panshan, the upper echelon had decided to abandon Jinzhou, and the officers and soldiers of the Northeast Army withdrew to the pass.In order to minimize the stimulus to the Japanese army, Zhang Xueliang also canceled the regular army designations of the various units of the Northeast Army that were still behind the enemy lines.Since then, on the Northeast battlefield, the regular army of the Northeast Army has become difficult to find.

The Battle of Panshan can be regarded as the epitome of the entire Northeast War situation. At the end of 1931, on the Northeast battlefield, the main force of the resistance gradually changed from a regular army to a volunteer army. The Northeast War of Resistance began a new stage.