Chapter 61 12. The Battle on the Bank of Heilongjiang

On the surface, there is nothing unusual about the picture on the right, but if you translate the text below the picture, you will find its connection with the Anti-Japanese Federation.The translation of this description is—"On February 4th, Showa thirteenth year, near Shangjieji, Luobei County, Captain Bansaka of No. 7 Squadron (department) fought with Zhao Shangzhi bandit (riding bandit). 18 people under the captain Died in a heroic battle." There is also a handwritten mark of "dead" on the picture. There is more than one picture in this batch. The first piece of history that we can trace back from this photo is the Japanese Kwantung Army Infantry 37th Regiment Seventh Squadron Captain Bansaka and other officers and soldiers died in battle against Zhao Shangzhi's Anti-Japanese Army on this day.

Zhao Shangzhi, one of the best anti-Japanese generals on the black earth, just the appearance of his name in the enemy's documents is enough to show the value of these photos (however, if you look at the puppet Manchukuo police files kept by the Japanese side, you will find that Zhao Hisashi's name appears too often there). However, if you analyze this battle, you will get more than that.Comparing with Chinese historical materials, we will find that this battle was not actually done by Zhao Shangzhi. On January 4, 1938, Chen Shaobin, the commander of a division of the Sixth Army of the Anti-Japanese War, brought a message from the Soviet general that Zhao Shangzhi crossed the river and entered the Soviet Union, but was inexplicably detained for a year and a half. Mysterious case, so far not conclusive.This battle took place one month after Zhao Shangzhi left the country.Therefore, it is impossible for Zhao Shangzhi, who is already in the Soviet Union, to command the troops to destroy Captain Bansaka's troops.

However, according to the time and place, we soon had a second discovery—the anti-union armed forces that wiped out Bansaka's troops were indeed Zhao Shangzhi's troops.Moreover, this battle had a very close relationship with Zhao Shangzhi - in fact, it was Zhao Shangzhi who approved their plan to attack Luobei. How could Zhao Shangzhi in the Soviet Union approve the subsequent attack on Luobei by the Anti-Japanese Alliance? This is because, according to the historical records of the Anti-Union Alliance, on January 4, 1938, before Zhao Shangzhi went to the Soviet Union, he had agreed with Feng Zhongyun and others that the Anti-Union Forces would attack Luobei County one month later and welcome the army commander back to China (Zhao Shangzhi once Served as the commander of the Third Army of the Anti-Union Army for a long time, and the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Armies active in the Sanjiang area are all closely related to the Third Army).There are also multiple tasks in this battle to open the channel to facilitate the smooth passage of the Soviet aid supplies Zhao Shangzhi won, and to demonstrate the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Red Army to the Soviet Red Army.

On February 4th, the Anti-Union Army and the Sixth Army jointly operated. The Anti-Union Forces raided Luobei under the command of Dai Hongbin, Commander of the Sixth Army, Cai Jinkui, Commander of the First Division of the Three Armies, and Li Zhendong, Commander of the Ninth Division.However, the enemy's situation has changed at this time, and the Japanese army is heavily fortified—in order to cut off the connection between the Anti-Japanese Alliance and the Soviet Union, the 37th Regiment of the Japanese Army deployed heavy troops to station in Luobei.Moreover, the main force of the Anti-Union Army is cavalry, which is not suitable for attacking fortifications, so the troops once invaded Luobei County, but eventually withdrew.

According to the historical records of the Anti-Japanese War, the battle at Shangjieji was an episode in the retreat after the attack on Luobei.Comparing the respective records of China and Japan, it may be possible to reproduce the course of this battle. You can see the steel helmet dented by the Anti-Union bullets.Note that this Japanese army carries an 11-year machine gun (commonly known as the crooked handle).In the battle with the cavalry, the machine gun is a weapon with strong lethality, but in the memories of both sides after the war, the role of the Japanese machine gun is not described. What is the reason?

Presumably, this photo can illustrate the problem. The snipers of the Anti-Japanese Army specialized in Japanese machine gunners in battle.And what about the anti-union machine gunners?A friend of the old Huang He who has been doing research on the Anti-Union Alliance has a description of what it takes to be a machine gunner in the poorly equipped Anti-Union Army. "Qi Zhizhong has a team leader (team of hundreds of people) Sui Desheng, who can sweep the horse dung on the wall with a machine gun, and sweep down a row of horse dung." Encountering such an opponent, the fate of the Japanese machine gunners can be imagined in this fight.

In fact, a careful comparison of the records of the two sides shows that the fighting style of the Japanese army in this battle can be studied.According to the article, Bansaka and other Japanese troops who were annihilated were in a car chasing the Anti-Japanese War, and there were 19 people except the driver.Bansaka's position was the squadron leader of the Seventh Squadron, and the Japanese army established a squadron headquarters with exactly 19 people (one escaped).Therefore, what Dai Hongbin and others wiped out in Shangjieji may happen to be the squadron headquarters of the Japanese Seventh Squadron!

According to records, there were three vehicles in the troops dispatched by the Japanese army from Fujin. The first one was Bansaka's car, which went straight to Shangjieji, and the other two drove to Luobei County (Zhaoxing Town) first, and then pressed upward street base.According to the combat habits of the Japanese army, the second and third vehicles may be a squadron (54 officers and soldiers) who came to reinforce with the squadron headquarters.However, the Japanese troops in these two cars only engaged in a long-distance confrontation with the Anti-Japanese Army, and then left the commander and "retired".

This habit is a bit different from the Bushido spirit. Looking carefully, the 37th Japanese Infantry Regiment happens to belong to the well-known Osaka Fourth Division in the Japanese army, which is intriguing. The Fourth Division, known as the "First Abandoned Division", has the famous three no-fight principles-"don't pay unnecessary sacrifices", "don't participate in unreasonable battles" and "don't pursue desperate enemy troops". I don't know which category the Anti-Japanese League belongs to when fighting on the streets? The third category must be the third category-I guess the Japanese soldiers who ran back must think so.

Relying on its large number of people, the Osaka Corps withstood the Anti-Japanese War in Luobei County. When it came to field battles, it still reflected its unique military culture. This may be another layer of historical discovery derived from this photo. However... there is another level of discovery that is quite embarrassing. That is, in this battle, Dai Hongbin and others failed to receive Zhao Shangzhi.After an emergency meeting, after the battle, Dai and others led their troops into the territory of the Soviet Union, intending to find Zhao Shangzhi and take a rest, but they were all disarmed by the Soviet army.It wasn't until Dai was locked up with Zhao Shangzhi that he realized that Zhao Shangzhi was actually detained by the Soviet Union.

The dignified commander-in-chief of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces was detained for a year and a half. So far, the truth behind this incident is still unknown. A year and a half later, Zhao Shangzhi returned to the Northeast and finally died in Wutong River. Facing the situation that has completely deteriorated, he once said: "I will die in the Northeast." A Zhang Zizhong, a Zhao Shangzhi, both went to the battlefield for the sake of death. Such tragedies are too numerous to list.What is also embarrassing is the anti-union troops who accompanied Dai Hongbin into the Soviet Union. This elite cavalry of more than 500 people was brutally disarmed by the Soviet Union and then sent to Xinjiang. Most of them never had the chance to return to the Northeast battlefield.The loss of this group of fighting backbones had an extremely adverse impact on the war situation of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces in the Sanjiang area. The 500 elite cavalry are the backbone of the battle. Neither Zhao Shangzhi nor Yang Jingyu have ever lost so many troops at one time in the hands of the Kwantung Army.And the Soviets easily disarmed this unit that also believed in the Bolsheviks. It suddenly occurred to me that Lao Sa once interviewed Mr. Dong Rentang, who was from the Second Mudanjiang Regiment. Mr. Dong recalled that after the Anti-Japanese War, they went to the northeast by boat and encountered Soviet gunboats at sea. In the final analysis, even if the doctrines are the same, looking down on them means looking down on them.Therefore, no matter how enthusiastic you are, you will not be taken seriously. It was easy to inflict heavy damage on the Anti-Union Alliance that could not be recovered. If there was a powerful country behind Zhao Shangzhi at that time, would the Soviets have done this? Perhaps, this has nothing to do with the photo itself.