Chapter 38 11. Twin Cities—Who Hit the Japanese and Puppet International Trains?

On the Northeast battlefield, attacking Japanese trains was an important combat method of the anti-Japanese resistance forces. However, not many were able to clearly leave images on the scene—fortunately, the photos provided by Japanese photojournalists to domestic publications have now become Evidence that the Chinese military and civilians fought against the invaders. For the Japanese and puppet troops, the railway line around Harbin was really an unstable place. When the Japanese army attacked Harbin, its army column was attacked in Shuangcheng, and the head of the Hasebe brigade was almost thrown to death.During the battle with the Volunteers from Yimenpo, the troop carrier was overturned in Chenggaozi again, causing heavy casualties. On the night of August 30, 1934, there was a thunder on the ground, and the 11th Japanese and puppet express trains were suddenly attacked on the railway line 42 kilometers south of Harbin.

Probably because this battle did not take place after the all-out War of Resistance, not many people in our country knew about this attack.However, when Sa looked through the Japanese records of the year, he discovered the shock caused by this incident in Japanese public opinion. His report was like a Northeast version of the "Lincheng Train Robbery".Sadly, more than seventy years have passed before we know the significant impact of this battle. Japan's "Asahi Pictorial" magazine used a full page in its October 1934 issue to report on this incident in the form of photo news, with the title ""Bandit" Attacks the Train--Catastrophe on the Southern Line of the North Railway" ".The incident is described as follows:-

At 9:50 p.m. on the night of August 30, the Beitie Southern Line express passenger train departing from Harbin to Xinjing stopped at "Anxidian" between Wujia and Shuangchengbi at about 00:45 p.m. When driving near the emergency stop, the vehicle derailed and overturned due to the "bandit" destroying the track.The train locomotive and four fourth-class passenger cars following it were destroyed.At the same time, the pre-ambushed "bandits" immediately launched a violent attack on the stopped train, and fought fiercely with the Japanese policemen and soldiers escorting the train. The battle between the two sides lasted for an hour... Ten people died and dozens were seriously injured.The commissioner Fujisawa Technician of the Japan Resources Survey Bureau, the affairs officer Uchida, and the (pseudo) Jilin Provincial Office official in Harbin Jotaro Murakami were taken hostage by "bandits".

It is worth noting that after the incident, the Japanese and puppet troops stationed in Harbin rushed out to search for the anti-Japanese resistance troops that attacked the train. They dispatched the flying team stationed in Harbin, and even used the two warships "Guangqing" and "Jiangning". The three armies of the sea, land and air are dispatched together. Such a battle can be described as facing an enemy. Is there any special reason for dispatching such a luxurious lineup to deal with an attack on a train? Attacks on Japanese and puppet trains were quite frequent at that time.The pseudo-"Datong Daily" once reported: "Bandits" were encountered 180 times along the railway line from March to September 1934. In October, the number increased to 534 times, and 61,350 people were affected, including 127 times near Harbin, and 16,900 people were affected. .Even just a month before this incident, there was a volunteer army fighting a train between Harbin and Yimianpo.According to the report of the Puppet Manchukuo "Datong Daily" on July 30, 1934: "At 8:40 a.m. on the 28th, the third passenger train of the Eastern Line of the North Railway departed from Yimianpo to Harbin and traveled to the east of the Wujimi River for about one kilometer. , the line was destroyed by 'bandits', locomotives, luggage carts, mail cars, and third-class passenger cars each ran over one, and the second-class cars were spared..."

If the sea, land and air went into battle together like this every time, the Japanese and puppet troops simply would not have enough troops to deal with the Volunteer Army's attack on the train. It is not easy to see the truth from the report of "Asahi Pictorial", but after consulting Japanese materials such as "A Brief History of the Police in Manchuria" and "Records of Zhongyongyong in the Manchuria Incident", we found that the 11th train that was attacked this time was a bit special. The "Northern Railway Southern Line" in the article actually refers to the Harbin-Changchun section of the former Russian-owned medium-length railway. After the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the Japanese army took control of the railway system south of Changchun, known as the "South Manchurian Railway".But the railway north of Changchun is still controlled by Russia (the Soviet Union after World War I).After the Japanese invaded the Northeast, the Soviet Union agreed to jointly operate this section of railway with the puppet Manchukuo. The Japanese and puppet called it the "North Manchurian Railway". Harbin is the boundary, the east side is called "Northern Railway Eastern Line", the west side is called "Northern Railway Western Line", and the vertical line from Harbin to Changchun is called "North Railway Southern Line".This No. 11 train departs from Harbin, and the carriages after the sixth section are directly transferred from the No. 104 international train that entered Manzhouli. Therefore, there are a large number of foreign passengers on the train. This train is located inside the Puppet Manchuria There were properties of international trains, too.At the same time, there was also a "Northern Manchukuo Study Group from Ehime County" from Japan who got on the bus from Harbin and was preparing to go to Xinjing, that is, Changchun, to meet Puyi, the emperor of Manchukuo.It is precisely because of the security personnel of this investigation group that the strength of the Japanese police escorting the car has greatly increased, and it is possible to fight the resistance forces for an hour.

In the end, they still couldn't stand it. These foreign passengers and members of the inspection team from Japan totaled more than 80 people, all of whom were captured by the Chinese resistance forces. Originally, after entering 1934, at least in the suburbs of big cities such as Harbin, the Japanese army felt that they had gradually controlled the situation.This is because with the fall of Hulunbeier, the last base area, Li Du, Ding Chao and other senior generals either left or surrendered, and the strength of the Volunteer Army in Jihei and Jihei provinces was greatly weakened.On the flat and wide Songnen Plain, the mechanization of the Japanese army and the obvious advantages of heavy weapons made it difficult for the Volunteer Army to fight.Fighting appears to be moving away from the major cities.Harbin is an international city, while Xinjing (Changchun) is the "capital" of Manchukuo.With such a large number of foreigners and members of the Japanese inspection team arrested, the impact of this incident can be imagined.Considering the huge shock that it will inevitably cause at home and abroad, it is no wonder that the military and political officials of the Japanese army in Harbin were terrified and sent out all the troops they could use.

At this time, who is so bold as to dare to take such an action between the two centers of puppet Manchukuo rule that shocked China and the world? In the words of my hometown in Hebei, this is the work of picking dates out of the monkey's mouth. At that time, those who insisted on resisting Japan in this area were all volunteers. However, this "volunteer army" was quite strange when they fought. If we look closely at their actions, we will have a sense of deja vu. Sa once found many photos of anti-Japanese armed forces attacking Japanese trains in Japan, but some of them can be easily identified which army attacked them.

The troops that had won this battle were easily identified. They were the masterpieces of the Gao Zhenpeng Department of the Liaoxi Volunteer Army. Gao Zhenpeng, the "chief scout" of the underworld in eastern Liaodong - this kind of title is usually only seen in martial arts novels - reported the name "Old Ladder". During the "September 18th" incident, he was being treated in Shenyang for treatment of injuries caused by the encirclement and suppression by the government army. He immediately returned to his hometown to pull up an anti-Japanese armed force known as the "Zhenbei Army". At this time, it was only September 27. "Old Ladder" was later appointed as the commander of the 12th Route Cavalry Detachment of the Volunteer Army, and fought fiercely with the Japanese army many times. In February 1932, the big traitor Zhang Haipeng tried to recruit the "Old Ladder". When he got the guns, he started another incident. Then he ambushed the Japanese army's track truck in Liuhegou, killing and wounding more than ten Japanese soldiers. This is the battle.

Regarding the battle between the two cities, the "Datong Daily" of the Puppet Manchukuo reported that "at 11:00 p.m. on August 30, the small-ticket bus from Kazakhstan to Xinjing arrived at Wujiazi South at 11:20 for more than 10 At this point, the train suddenly derailed. At that time, 70 "horse bandits" in the nearby fields swarmed up and fought with the guards on the train. The details were not clear until noon on the 31st because the electric wire was cut.He also called it "planned actions, extremely well-organized attack methods, extremely sophisticated and extremely violent weapons, only the Japanese were attacked, the Manchurians were not harmed, and there was no plundering."

According to Japanese reports, the method used to destroy the railway is to remove the spikes that fix the rails, so that the train will derail and overturn due to the loose rails when it comes. Very deceptive, and due to the small amount of damage, it is more simple and effective than placing explosives under the rails, placing rocks and large trees on the rails. The organization is strict, and they have committed no crimes except for beating the Japanese. Such a "hu bandit" with strict discipline is really rare. It is a bit of an old-fashioned demeanor to cut the telephone line first when ordering a ticket.

Could it be that the railway guerrillas left the customs? This is of course impossible, not to mention the railway guerrillas who were active on the Lunan Railway later, even the Eighth Route Army had not yet been established at this time. But two years ago, another incident of overthrowing a Japanese military column was carried out in almost the same way.This is the attack on Chenggaozi organized by Zhao Shangzhi in April 1932.During that operation, the first attempt to blow up the railway with explosives failed because of a malfunctioning fuse.After Zhao Shangzhi took over, he used the method of destroying the fixed rail spikes on the rails, causing the "Triumph Train" of the Japanese army to conquer the Volunteers to overturn and explode. The Japanese reported that "more than 50 Japanese soldiers died tragically", which was a greater loss than the Harbin attack. The same method, the same choice of railway lines around Harbin to make a fuss about, and the same target is of high importance, but the Chenggaozi attack did not expand the results of the pre-ambush troops.Seeing so many similarities, people who don't know how to fight will ask - could this battle be fought by Zhao Shangzhi again? At this time, Zhao Shangzhi happened to be leading the Hadong Detachment (the predecessor of the Third Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army) in activities east of Harbin, and its combat scope included Shuangcheng.According to the data of Heilongjiang Culture Network, in our war history records (it is said to be from the "Records of the Northeast Anti-Japanese War", but there is no description of this battle in Qiqiwen, it should be other materials), a battle of the Hadong detachment during this period and This attack was very similar. According to the information of Heilongjiang Culture Network, at 0 o'clock in the evening on August 30, 1934, the Hadong detachment of the northeast anti-Japanese guerrillas attacked the Japanese train.Under the leadership of Commander Zhao Shangzhi, the Hadong Detachment destroyed a section of the railway track near Anxi Station between Shuangcheng Station and Wujiazi Station on the Middle East Railway.At that time, the eleventh passenger train from Harbin to Changchun derailed when passing by here, causing the steam locomotive and the four carriages behind to roll over.The guerrillas of the Hadong detachment ambushed in the nearby sorghum field launched an attack on the police car and sleeping auxiliary car on which the Japanese army was on the train.inflict heavy casualties on the enemy.When the 2nd Battalion of the 23rd Regiment of the Shuangcheng Puppet Manchukuo Army and the Wujiazi Garrison Army and other Japanese and puppet troops came for reinforcements, the Hadong detachment had already withdrawn. However, in Mr. Kong Lingbo's "Research on the Combat and Function of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army in 1934", there is also a record that the two volunteer army units cooperated to complete the attack-"At 11 o'clock in the evening on August 30, the 11th train At a distance of 42 kilometers from Harbin, it was suddenly attacked by hundreds of volunteers from five provinces and Changhai, and the train derailed. The Japanese and puppet soldiers killed 10 people and injured 35 people. There were more than 80 people from the North Manchurian delegation from Aiyi County, Japan in the car, and none of them survived. " Was it Zhao Shangzhi's troops or the Volunteers who attacked the Japanese train? There is one detail that can confirm that the attack should be carried out by the Hadong detachment to which Zhao Shangzhi belonged—although "Asahi Pictorial" mentioned that the attack took place in Wujia and Shuangcheng (Shuangchengbi and Shuangcheng were both names for Shuangcheng at that time) ), but the specific location of the battle is not marked in Chinese characters, only the Japanese kana spelling "アンシデン (pronounced 'Anxidian')" and indicating that this is a small stop for emergency situations. It seems that the news reporting this incident The reporter also couldn't figure out the specific location of the battle, so they could only transliterate it based on the interviews.And we have clearly recorded that the location where the track was destroyed was near "Anxi Station" - looking at the map, there is indeed Anxi Town between Shuangcheng and Wujia today, on the east side of the railway.In this way, アンシデン in the Japanese report should actually be "Anxi Town".The place "Anxi" was mentioned invariably in the battles described by China and Japan, and the time and place of this attack coincided.Given the impossibility of both parties referencing each other, this cannot be a coincidence.The Chinese data also contains the sequence of the Japanese and puppet troops dispatching troops, which is not included in the Japanese reports. However, there are also very accurate records of the Volunteer Army’s attack on the train. It mentioned the Japanese inspection team. Although the place name of Ehime County was wrongly written, the number of people mentioned happened to match the number of people arrested by the Japanese army.These are not in the "Records of the Northeast Anti-Japanese War". Perhaps, both records are correct, and the key to unraveling this mystery lies in the commander of the Volunteer Army who attacked the Japanese train in the records-"Five Provinces". Of the two commanders of the Volunteer Army mentioned, "Changhai" is probably Sun Changhai, not a well-known leader, while the "Five Provinces" are more famous. have no idea?The "five provinces" alone are not well-known, but what about the "thirteen provinces"? "Grandfather was not born to believe in evil, and dared to tear the world apart. The Songhua River is a guest of our natal family, and the Xing'an Mountains are our biological father. With the smoke and snow from the Kanto on his head, he roared out the thirteen provinces with one voice, and the other with one voice. Thirteen grandpas." There is a very popular TV series describing the Anti-Japanese War in Northeast China called "Thirteen Provinces". The tension is intense, especially one of the theme songs is indeed a bit soul-stirring. Most of the content of the TV series is fictitious, but on the anti-Japanese battlefield that year, it is said that there really was a group of anti-Japanese armed forces called "Thirteen Provinces", which were quite famous in Heilongjiang.Among them, "Five Provinces" is Geng Dianchen, who ranks fifth among the thirteen people, and their leader is Geng Dianjun, who is reported as "Three Provinces".Both were gold panning workers from Shandong to the Heijinhe Mine in Tangyuan County in the Northeast. In 1932, inspired by patriotism, they joined the Zhaoyuan Anti-Japanese Salvation Congress hosted by the Communist Party member Song Xuewen. Geng Dianjun's last position was the head of the 12th regiment of the Sixth Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army, and Geng Dianchen's position in the "five provinces". It is said that he was the chief of staff of the 12th Detachment of the Third Route Army (no official history records). sacrificed in battle. There are different opinions about the formation of the "Thirteen Provinces". One theory is that they were a group of cadres sent by Li Zhaolin to the Sanzhao area to fight for the Western Expedition when the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces encountered great difficulties in the Xiajiang area. Another theory is that they are all members of the Zhaoyuan Salvation Association. On the day the Zhaoyuan Anti-Japanese Salvation Association was established, they held a kowtow ceremony at the home of Sun Yuting in the "Nine Provinces". It is unclear which of the two statements is true.Hulan scholar Wang Zesheng verified that Mr. Geng Dian had indeed participated in the Western Expedition of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, but Li Zhaolin was in charge of the Western Expedition after 1938. Therefore, if Geng Dian Jun did indeed take part in the Western Expedition, it could not have been earlier than 1938.Shi Yijun, an expert on the history of the Anti-Japanese War, has verified that Geng Dianjun died in Zhangxintun, Keshan County in 1939, and he personally visited the place where he died.From this point of view, if the "Thirteen Provinces" newspaper had appeared in 1938, it would have been active for just over a year, and it seems unlikely that it would have such a huge impact.At the same time, the "Thirteen Provinces" included a number of underground workers, some of whom opened shops, some served as pseudo-police officers, and some worked as Fang Langzhong. They all obviously took root in enemy-occupied areas, and it seemed that this could not be achieved in a hurry.Therefore, it seems more logical that the newspaper number of "Thirteen Provinces" appeared in 1932 when the Zhaoyuan Anti-Japanese Salvation Association was established. The Japanese and puppet archives are also more favorable to this statement.In "A Brief History of the Manchukuo Police", the anti-Japanese armed forces that belonged to the "Thirteen Provinces" series reported that before 1936, the "Three Provinces", "Five Provinces" and "Nine Provinces" were recorded as fighting against the Japanese army. A coincidence is somewhat unbelievable. Sa's speculation on this issue is that "Thirteen Provinces" was a newspaper number that appeared when the Zhaoyuan Anti-Japanese Salvation Association was established in 1932. Since the armed forces led by the Communist Party were still in their infancy at that time, the nature of this anti-Japanese group was still a volunteer army. The 13 members may have taken different paths thereafter. Among them, at least the troops led by Geng Dianjun and Geng Dianchen accepted the leadership of the Communist Party and became part of Zhao Shangzhi's Third Anti-Japanese Army. cadre. In 1936, Zhao Shangzhi led the main force of the Third Army to Tangyuan to join Xia Yunjie's troops and set up a guerrilla base in Xiajiang. It is speculated that members of the "Thirteen Provinces" who participated in the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, such as the Gunn brothers, also went with the army at this time.It is possible and true that Mr. Geng Dian went to the front of the Western Expedition, but he did not take the "Thirteen Provinces" disguised as bandits to the Sanzhao area to carry out work, but led the 12th regiment to go out to Sanzhao. With the support of the "Thirteen Provinces" brothers, the situation was opened. In any case, the "thirteen provinces" were all anti-Japanese armed forces deeply influenced by the Communist Party, and they were steadfast in the war against aggression, and most of them died later in the national liberation war.After 60 years, Geng Dianjun, Geng Dianchen and other ten people who died in the "Thirteen Provinces" were posthumously regarded as revolutionary martyrs. During the Hadong detachment period, Zhao Shangzhi actually had the rudiments of establishing a united front against the erroneous ultra-leftist instructions of his superiors.He adopted a more flexible attitude towards the surrounding volunteer army and mountain forest team. Not only did his team contain a large number of local armed forces, but he often fought with the volunteer army joint organization. When the 11 train overturning attacks in Shuangcheng occurred, Zhao Shangzhi himself did not seem to be at the scene.The Hadong detachment is divided into three corps. Zhao Shangzhi led the first corps, the first part of the second corps, the headquarters, the artillery team, and the cavalry team in Bin County. Ma Hongli, the political commissar of the second corps, led part of the corps to Shuangcheng. Waiting for activities in Taonan area, the third corps will be active in Fangzheng area of ​​Yanshou in Taobei.Judging from the area of ​​activity, this battle looked more like the work of the Second Corps.Since the total strength of the Hadong detachment is only 450 people, and the number of each corps is no more than 100, Ma Hongli is not leading the entire second corps. Only a few dozen officers and soldiers trying to attack an international train seem to be a bit weak.Therefore, in terms of Zhao Shangzhi's consistent combat habits, it is reasonable to unite the "Five Provinces" and the Changhai Volunteer Army to act together-not to mention the "Five Provinces" Geng Dianchen, whose troops are either under the influence of the Communist Party , the half-red and half-white team, or simply led by him as an underground member of the CCP, it is normal to be able to effectively cooperate with the Hardong detachment in battle. It is worth mentioning that the Japanese side reported the outcome of the international train attack—the Japanese army dispatched sea, land and air forces to search in every possible way. It was not until September 2, three days later that all the hostages were rescued in Jin Liangzi (location unknown). It is said that There was also a battle with the anti-Japanese armed forces, but it seemed that neither side was injured... The so-called gongs and drums listen to the sound, in fact, the fact that "all the hostages" have been rescued has already explained the problem-if there is an exchange of fire between the two sides, it is impossible for the hostages to be unscathed, even today's special forces cannot do it. The only explanation is that the anti-Japanese armed forces released these foreign hostages—including Japanese non-combatants.It was a practice of the anti-Japanese armed forces in Northeast China at that time to let foreigners know about the resistance of the Chinese and then release them after they were captured. This kind of international influence was extremely needed by the soldiers and civilians in the Northeast during the War of Resistance.The Japanese army can take back the hostages, but it cannot eliminate such influence.Only in this way can the outside world know that under the heavy blockade, there are still Chinese people fighting unyieldingly on this land. Let’s end this article with the words of an American hostage who was captured and released by the anti-Japanese armed forces—— "According to what you said, if you are really an American, then you are not our enemy." Said a strong Chinese.He was about 30 years old, and he seemed to be the leader of the plainclothes team of about 60 people.He was intercepting a train of the Middle East Railway and took 96 passengers with him. Among these passengers, eleven were Russians and one was an American. "We will never hurt you. You are all our good friends. We will release you in the future. Here is your luggage." The leader said, pointing to our luggage piled up on the corner of the hut. The plundering of the villages along the road was done by real bandits in the Volunteer Army, for whom looting was second nature.It is true that they are not immune to such things, but our bond is short-lived, and we must try hard to tame them.We must know that this is war, and in order to liberate us from the iron heels of the bandits, we feel that everything is right.Basically, war is a tragedy of blood and tears! "You say how long this bitter struggle can last, no one can answer that. I personally think that in northern Manchuria, because of the barriers of mountains and vast forests, this bitter struggle can last at least several years, five years or ten years Above. Our whole country has risen against the Japanese pirates and the traitors behind them. Most of the people here are immigrants from Hebei, Shandong, Henan and other provinces in the Guan. They decided not to make Manchuria the territory of the Japanese pirates. This determination, even We already have children. It is true that our kind of war, galloping through the mountains and forests like this is indeed a difficult and difficult thing!" "When it comes to aid, we have many. Remember Russia, across the border, there are thousands of Chinese and Koreans who are willing to aid us in this legitimate war. They will definitely aid us. Moreover, we know that the sympathy of the world is also there. us." ——Excerpt from "The Bitter Battle in Zhabei" (Shanghai New Life Bookstore) No matter who took the Japanese and puppet international trains, maybe what they want is to make such a sound.