Chapter 13 5. 1941: China focuses on Hunan and Hubei

According to the records of our country's astronomical records, at noon on September 21, 1941, a rare partial solar eclipse that could be seen in most parts of our country occurred.From 11:50, the shadow of the moon entered the sun from the lower left, gradually covering the sun as a golden hook.At this time, the battle in northern Hunan was still raging.The history of the war between China and Japan and some reminiscence articles all talked about this solar eclipse. The weather in northern Hunan was fine that day.At noon, the infantry and artillery on the front line of the battle felt that their vision was blurred when they aimed and fired. At first they thought it was something wrong with their eyes, but someone immediately discovered that a solar eclipse had occurred.

The Japanese are superstitious. Some Japanese soldiers on the battlefield knelt down to pray, and some raised their guns to shoot at the shadows covering the sun.Kawa Takahashi, a senior soldier of the Japanese army who participated in the war at that time, mentioned in his memoir article that the soldiers were very frightened when they saw the solar eclipse, thinking it was an ominous omen. But in Chongqing, the capital of China's Anti-Japanese War, there is no mention of this solar eclipse in all the records and memories of that day.The reason is that the weather was overcast with light rain that day.

That day, Chiang Kai-shek spent the whole day in the war room of the Military Commission. Since September 20, when he issued an order to all theaters to support operations in the nine theaters, Chiang Kai-shek has been watching the development of the battle situation non-stop.At this time, what was spinning in his mind was not only the chess game of China's war of resistance, but also a bigger game, that is, the world full of wars and wars. In Europe, the two world powers, the Soviet Union and Germany, have been at war for three months in a deadlock. In the two major battles of Leningrad and Kyiv that began in July, the two sides invested a total of more than 3 million troops, and the larger-scale battle of Moscow will begin again.Stalin's proposal to Churchill to open a second front on the European continent was rejected, and the first enemy of the United States involved in the war was Japan, which was actively advancing southward.

In July, the American Red Cross donated medicines worth millions of dollars to China. In August, more than a hundred American pilots and mechanics who had retired from active service teamed up to aid China in the fight against Japan.Chennault, the initiator and leader of this armed air force named "Flying Tigers" in China, was optimistic and romantic by nature. For the first time, he included the bombing of the Japanese mainland from the Chinese mainland in his combat plan. The world is in turmoil and the world is in chaos. China's war of resistance has gone through four years of hardships, and it has overcome the danger of national subjugation and the plight of isolation and helplessness.If shouting victory in the past was not without cheering for yourself and your subordinates, now you can finally stand up and think that victory is not empty talk.

Full of confidence, Chiang Kai-shek watched his staff and staff busy in the war room all day long.The third, fifth, and sixth theaters related to the ninth theater are carrying out countermeasures according to his orders. Among them, he is more concerned about Chen Cheng's counterattack against Yichang in the sixth theater.He frequently moved to the team in charge of the Sixth War Zone, watched the staff members mark and draw pictures on a huge map of southwestern Hubei, and listened to the report on the battle situation. It took a long time to stop. The battle of Yichang is not only closely related to the battlefield in northern Hunan, but also has its own importance.In Chiang Kai-shek's mind, Hunan and Hubei formed the focus of China's Anti-Japanese War in the autumn of 1941.

Chongqing.Chairman of the Military Commission Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Chief Xue of the Ninth War Zone: 1. The enemy in northern Hunan has been exhausted after being intercepted bravely by various troops, and it is difficult for his troops to advance in line. This is a good opportunity for our army to intercept the enemy's rear and wipe out the enemy bandits.I hope that all our soldiers will be determined to destroy the enemy, even if the enemy advances to the vicinity of Changsha. The glory of Jie. 2. This time the enemy deployed troops from the Fifth and Sixth War Zones to attack northern Hunan face to face. The enemy's rear was extremely empty. The Third, Fifth, and Sixth War Zones launched an offensive on the 23rd.In the Ninth War Zone, the enemy should be resolutely and violently attacked so that the head and tail cannot look at each other, and the enemy's attempt to occupy Changsha should be crushed.

Forced March: A march that speeds up the march and increases the daily schedule.It is usually used when running, chasing, turning around or getting rid of the enemy. (Excerpt from "Military Language of the Chinese People's Liberation Army", page 105) The 98th Division of the 79th Army rushed to Changsha at a forced march. The 74th Army was defeated by the Japanese army, and there was no main force with more than a division in the north of Changsha.After defeating the 95th Division of the 37th Army, the 4th Division of the Japanese Army and the Zaoyuan Detachment advanced towards Changsha. The 79th Army of Xia Chuzhong under the jurisdiction of the Sixth War Zone was ordered to transfer to Changsha, and its vanguard, the 98th Division of Wang Jiaben, came first.

Wang Jiaben, who was originally a general of the Yunnan Army, fought the Japanese army more than 20 times after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. During the first Changsha battle, he led his troops to counterattack on the Tongcheng defense line in southern Hubei, intercepted and killed the fleeing enemies in Longmenchang and Changshou Street, and killed more than a thousand enemies.This time, they came from Changde and occupied a position two kilometers northeast of Changsha at noon on the 26th. At dusk, they met the Japanese Zaoyuan detachment and fought until late at night, regardless of the outcome.

At dawn on the 27th, more than 20 Japanese aircraft bombarded the positions of the 98th Division indiscriminately, turning upside down the fortifications that the officers and soldiers had just built in the middle of the night, followed by an infantry attack.Wang Jiaben and several other division commanders went to each regiment to supervise the battle separately, and the soldiers resisted tenaciously in the ruins of the fortifications. The enemy rushed up and retreated again and again, and the martyrs and wounded on the defenders moved back in a continuous line. It was noon before they knew it.The position was unable to provide water, so the officers and soldiers took out the dry food they carried with them between battles, chewed a little bit of dry food, and swallowed hard.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the first part of the 4th Division of the Japanese Army secretly outflanked the position of the 98th Division. More than a hundred wounded waiting to be transferred unfortunately encountered this enemy.The Japanese army stabbed these unarmed officers and soldiers with bayonets. During the fight, a wounded man rushed forward and rang the grenade on the Japanese army... In order to prevent the entire division from being wiped out, Wang Jiaben gave an order to retreat with hatred, and led the remaining less than half of the troops to withdraw. battlefield. The reinforcements from the Seventh War Zone were the Provisional 2nd Army, and the Temporary 8th Division, led by division commander Zhang Junsong, arrived at Zuojiatang in the eastern suburbs of Changsha in advance at 7:00 pm on the 27th.The responders from the Ninth War Zone waiting there reported that a detachment of the Japanese army entered Changsha in the afternoon, and another detachment was on standby 3 kilometers away.

Zhang Junsong weighed for a long time, but decided to fight the enemies outside the city first.Stretched out in formation and groped in the dark night, rushed tentatively, and found that the opponent was ready and impeccable, so he had to retreat. On the evening of September 28, the 6th Division of the 79th Army occupied Yuelu Mountain from the west of Changsha.The officers and soldiers looked at Changsha City, which was occupied by the Japanese army for the first time in the sunset, across the Xiangjiang River from the mountain, and they didn't know what it was like. In the middle of the night, Zhao Jiping, commander of the 6th Temporary Division, received a telegram from Xue Yue.After reading the telegram, he stood in front of the map for a long time, and the irritability that had plagued his heart for the past few days disappeared. Not only Zhao Jiping, but many generals who participated in the battle felt like they were disrupting the battle.The Japanese army's movements were big and fast, and they couldn't grasp it. The Ninth War Zone blindly blocked many troops, regardless of "trump cards" or "non-identical cards", they collapsed one by one.After 10 days of fighting, the Chinese army had suffered enough, and the Japanese army was also exhausted. The Ninth War Zone finally found the feeling, and organized all the troops in an orderly manner to start a counterattack. In the early morning of the 29th, Zhao Jiping issued a deployment: forcefully cross the Xiangjiang River and attack the enemy in Changsha.After a whole day of preparation, the whole division was divided into 6 groups and sneaked across the river by boat late at night. The troops crossing the river from all walks of life are progressing very smoothly, and it is expected that fierce battles will occur with the enemy all the way ashore at Daximen.After the opening of the Daximen, all the ministries accelerated the speed of crossing the river. After ashore, they attacked fiercely, repelling the enemies by the river, and it was already dawn when they took advantage of the momentum to attack the urban area.The two armies then started street fighting. The ancient city of Changsha finally ended years of fearful waiting and was soaked in the flames of war. Most of the armies under the jurisdiction of the 27th Group Army are Sichuan Army troops.After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, warlords from all walks of life opened their guns to the outside world, and under the unified command of the Nationalist Government, they fought devils.Although there were a few such as Han Fuju who refused to listen to dispatches to preserve their strength and delayed military aircraft, most of the troops, especially the middle and lower ranks, were able to put the interests of the country and the nation first and actively participated in the War of Resistance. Yang Sen, deputy chief of the Ninth War Zone and commander-in-chief of the 27th Army, has been cautious since he was ordered to lead operations in the border areas of Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi.At the beginning of the war in northern Hunan, his troops lost to the powerful Japanese offensive and fled to the deep mountains and old forests in embarrassment.When the Japanese army was far away, he stretched out his head to look around again, spying on the opportunity, and wanted to do something behind the Japanese army. On September 20, the large Japanese troops rushed to the hinterland of northern Hunan. Yang Sen led each of the 4th, 58th, and 20th armies to chase the enemy's buttocks and beat them for a day.The large forces of the 4th Army suffered a disastrous defeat on the front line of the Xinqiang River, and only the 60th Division, which had just rowed over from the 37th Army not long ago, remained intact.The Japanese army was eager to push south, disdain to pay attention to the harassment from behind, and inadvertently let the 60th Division take advantage of it. On the morning of the 21st, the 60th Division, based on clues provided by an old beggar, attacked the transit warehouse of the supply base of the 40th Division of the Japanese Army in Zhangjiayuan.The division commander Dong Yu commanded the troops to cleanly deal with the more than 300 Japanese troops defending the warehouse. When he took a closer look, he was overjoyed.Under the large canvas, there are piles of shell boxes, bullet boxes, food boxes, medicine boxes, gasoline, explosives, anti-virus clothing, telephone lines, body bags, stretchers and so on. "It's just a department store!" Dong Yu said to the deputy teacher. With the word "move", the officers and soldiers of the whole division became hardworking ants.After leaving two regiments, the Japanese army returned.Seeing that he was really angry, more than a dozen planes chased and bombed the box-carrying troops, and more than a thousand infantry came to fight.Dong Yu ordered: "Don't want the rest, blow them up!" Amidst the loud rumbling noise, the 60th Division withdrew from Zhangjiayuan, and the Japanese army chased them fiercely, and drove them back to Dashan. After the 23rd, Yang Sen dispatched his organized divisions to harass the southward enemy from behind, and at the same time sent out countless battalion or company squads to ambush the Japanese army's train and destroy the supply line. On the 25th, the 26th Army and the 37th Army failed in battle, and Yang Sen commanded the troops with attack capabilities to launch an attack on the Japanese army.In this campaign, the 90th Division captured Wukou, the 59th Division reached the north bank of Mishui, the 60th Division entered Donggang, and the 58th Army took control of the Yuanba and Zheyang Bridge roads on the 26th. On the intricate and ever-changing battlefield, Yang Sen led the general headquarters of the group army to circle from the north of Mishui to the Pingjiang area.His subordinate Mao Jiuyin, who was the combat staff officer at the time, recalled many years later: Yang Senping played haha ​​with the people around him every day, and he still talked and laughed when he was fighting.Once, I joked with his guards, put chili oil in the tea.But our staff officer knew that he was often in a very dangerous situation, sometimes only a few kilometers away from the Japanese army.He was 60 years old at the time of the second Changsha battle.He once said that he was 5 years older than Chiang Kai-shek. The troops of the 27th Army followed the Japanese army all the way to the vicinity of Changsha.These troops did not engage in any substantive battles, but the Japanese army had to guard against their sabotage.When he turned around to beat him, he disappeared, and when he ignored him, he came again.Serious written records such as the Japanese military history also comment on their language: "Like a group of annoying gadflies." It seems that the evaluation is not high, but for the Japanese army, if you can't be a tiger, then you will be a bullfly. Holding a telescope in his hand, Chen Cheng watched for a long time at this beautiful small town located on the bank of the vast Yangtze River. On September 20, he received two telegrams from the Military Commission and Chiang Kai-shek. Since then, his mind has been filled with Yichang. More than a year ago, in June 1940, the 3rd, 13th, and 39th divisions of the Japanese army snatched the throat of the Yangtze River from Li Zongren's fifth theater and Chen Cheng's corps. The Chinese and Japanese armies fought fiercely outside the city for 12 days and nights. The first part of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army Tanaka Shizuichi broke into Yichang City from the southeast at 5:00 pm on June 11.Peng Shan, commander of the 18th Army of the garrison, commanded Luo Guangwen's 18th Division to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy all day and night in the city.Parts of the 3rd and 39th Divisions of the Japanese Army entered from the north of the city. At 4:00 pm on June 12, the 18th Division withdrew from the urban area after being cut off from Deng Ping's battalion, and Yichang fell into the enemy's hands. Chen Cheng was deeply concerned about the loss of Yichang by the 20 combat armies of the Chinese army and the loss of Yichang by the Japanese army in 3 divisions.Li Zongren was the commander-in-chief during that battle, but now he has to avenge the shame of a year ago. On September 23, the Military Commission agreed to Chen Cheng's request for instructions in a telegram, and assigned the 33rd Group Army of the Fifth Theater to the command of the Sixth Theater.Chen Cheng has 14 divisions in his hands, while in Yichang there are only 16,000 people from Uchiyama Eitaro's 13th Division and Zaobuchi Detachment. Even if the equipment and quality of soldiers are discounted, the Chinese army still has an absolute advantage. On September 28, when all the troops arrived at the attack position, Chen Cheng began to implement his strategy of "starting the attack from the troops on the right bank in order to attract the main force of the 39th Division of the Japanese Army to move south, and then use the 33rd Army to attack Jingmen and Dangyang to cut off their way back. Then besiege Yichang" campaign concept.Li Jilan's 94th Army, Li Yannian's 2nd Army, and Song Kentang's 32nd Army launched attacks respectively.The Japanese army defended tenaciously with solid fortifications, and the attacking troops made slow progress, but they finally pushed forward step by step in the bloody battle. On October 1, the Japanese army outside the city began to retreat to the city, and Chen Cheng ordered all troops to encircle Yichang City. On October 2, Chen Cheng received a telegram from Chiang Kai-shek from Chongqing.On the same day, Eitaro Uchiyama, head of the 13th Division in Yichang City, received a telegram from the Japanese 11th Army Headquarters in Wuhan.The contents of the two telegrams were quite different, but both commanders were equally troubled. The content of the 11th Army telegram was: The famous Tokyo Asakusa Art Troupe from the local area set off to Yichang to condolences to the officers and soldiers in the field.The headquarters of the China Expeditionary Force in Nanjing instructed that due to political reasons, the condolence group cannot be refused on the grounds of combat. The content of Chiang Kai-shek's telegram reads: The Japanese army in northern Hunan has begun to retreat, so you will spare no effort to conquer Yichang within 3 days. Chen Cheng stayed with the telegram for a long time.The Battle of Yichang has been going on for several days. All the troops attacked tenaciously and paid a certain price of casualties. Everyone knows that if the Japanese army returns to aid, all previous efforts will be wasted. On the night of September 30th, the battle headquarters of the 11th Army of Yueyang was brightly lit.Chief of Staff Isamu Kinoshita plotted the division reports and reconnaissance intelligence collected on the combat map or placed them on the commander's desk in chronological order. Anan only faces a choice. Although we have the communication code of the Chinese army, the combat situation of the two sides is changing rapidly.After the Zaoyuan detachment entered Changsha, it fought fiercely in the urban area with the following 6th Division of the 79th Army.By the evening of the 30th, both armies had suffered casualties, but neither could drive the other out of the city.The 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 40th divisions arrived at the outskirts of Changsha respectively. This re-concentrated force made the main force of the Chinese army hide not far away and dare not approach.Part of the 3rd Division traveled south by car to Zhuzhou, 50 kilometers away from Changsha, and occupied this empty city without troops or ordinary people. There are no opponents around, but the rear is getting tighter.Seeing that the ammunition and food of the divisions are getting more and more scarce, it is no longer possible to provide lasting support. After more than ten days of continuous combat, following the combat attrition, the non-combat attrition was higher than one day. The troops were extremely exhausted. According to reports, every regiment had exhausted soldiers. Many soldiers suddenly passed out during the march, and the number of sick people continued to increase. Even more dangerous are the Chinese troops who have been routed, driven away, and reinforced from other places. They are regrouping and watching these divisions and regiments that are not as powerful as they were a few days ago.Even if the divisions can barely last a few more battles, how will they deal with another serious situation? This is the siege of Yichang. Yichang was an important stronghold for the Japanese army to advance southward from the Yangtze River waterway and threaten Chongqing, the capital of China. Yichang was occupied on June 12, 1940, and the Japanese 11th Army ordered the occupying troops to withdraw to their original station on the 15th to rest. Only one day after the withdrawal, the army headquarters received an urgent call from the base camp requesting to secure Yichang, and the troops on the way to retreat hurriedly turned around and returned.Before retreating, the whole city was burned, utility poles were sawed off, and bridges were blown up, which made it very difficult to occupy Yichang again.Among the opinions that the base camp insisted on occupying Yichang at that time, there was the resolute attitude of Anan Weiji, who served as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Army. Even if the problems of the Chinese army and supply lines can be overcome in person, Yichang cannot sit idly by. This is related to the overall strategy, and most of Uchiyama Eitaro's 13th Division will definitely not be able to stick to the end. Anan looked at Hunan Province from the map, and he was almost in control of this beautiful and fertile land.He gave the order to retreat without regret. The divisions of the Japanese army received the "reversal essentials" at the same time in the early morning of October 1, and embarked on the northward journey at 4 pm that day. Xue Yue finally cheered up from the depressed mood since the start of the war.Although in his heart he was grateful to Chiang Kai-shek for his overall management, thanked Chen Cheng who had fought openly and secretly with him in the officialdom and slandered each other from time to time in recent years, and always regretted the bad moves in the early stages of the battle, but this did not prevent him from being confident in the slightest. Issued a pursuit order. A beautiful combat document was quickly drawn up by Zhao Zili's subordinates.The pursuit order specifies in detail the tasks, routes, start and end times of each unit, as well as combat methods such as "tracking and pursuit", "intercept", "flank attack", "ambush", and "running attack".Two hours after the order was issued, Chongqing called, and Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed: The enemy who invaded north of Hunan retreated to Yueyang on the 1st and night.The Ninth War Zone should take advantage of the exhaustion of the enemy, pursue it resolutely, seize the opportunity to occupy Yueyang, and actively destroy the Wuyue (Note: Refers to Wuhan to Yueyang) railway, and attack, ambush, and violently attack the retreating enemies along the way so that they cannot retreat. The original defense, and to contain and delay its transfer to Wuhan, so as to facilitate the operations in the third, fifth, and sixth theaters. Xue Yue weighed the weight of the telegram. The third and fifth theaters supported the operations of the ninth theater, but only symbolically carried out some small-scale harassment of the enemy in front of them, like scratching the ear.What really worked was the Battle of Yichang in the Sixth Theater.At present, Yichang has not yet been conquered, and the Japanese army quickly returned to aid. The battle situation changed from attacking Yichang to relieve the siege of northern Hunan and turning the enemy into the main area to stop, drag, and entangle the Japanese army in northern Hunan to ensure Yichang's success. According to Chiang Kai-shek's telegram, Xue Yue adjusted the combat deployment against the retreating enemy, and at the same time ordered commanders at all levels to dispatch troops to supervise the battle.He wants to put a brilliant tail on this battered battle, and he wants to chase after the Japanese army to fight another "victory". Autumn rain fell from the sky in northern Hunan, and the mountains and low hills were dyed dark green by the misty rain.On the main and small roads to the north, there were Japanese soldiers holding the sun flag for a while, and Chinese soldiers holding red flags all over the ground with blue sky, white sun and red flag.The eyes of the soldiers of the two countries were almost exhausted and lifeless.The earth under the gray sky was silent, and it was unknown when and where a fierce battle would suddenly break out, and the soldiers poured out their last strength and blood. On October 2, the remnants of the 74th and 26th armies cleaned up the battlefield along the banks of Liuyang River and Laodao River respectively, without encountering Japanese troops. The 74th Army marched to Liling to assemble and make up, and the 26th Army went to Changle Street and stopped to make up on the spot. Yang Sen sent all the troops belonging to the 27th Army to pursue the Japanese army.Ou Zhen's 4th Army intercepted the 40th Division, but the Japanese army cleverly avoided it and did not intercept it.Ou Zhen led his troops to chase north of Mishui for 3 days, and when they reached Changshui, the south bank of Changshui was empty.The Japanese army returned to the position before the battle, and it was no longer interesting to chase, so they stopped. The 20th Army intercepted the 6th Division from Fulinpu. They didn't see the enemy, but they picked up a lot of supplies that the enemy couldn't take away and didn't have time to destroy.Deputy Army Commander Xia Jiong said: The devil's shit is still steaming, and he will definitely catch up.So he ran desperately, chasing after the Mishui River and caught up with a broken team. They ran northward blindly, a bit low-key that "you can't fight back when you hit or scold you".After chasing Takahashi, the Japanese army retreated to the original position. Xia Jiong had no choice but to rein in the horse's head, let the troops rest where they were, and monitor the Japanese army's movements. The 58th Army intercepted more than 2,000 Japanese troops in the area of ​​Guanwang Bridge, and was about to start a fight with courage, but the Japanese soldiers ran away, leaving behind a lot of supplies.The army followed to Taolin, and when they saw that the Japanese army had returned to their lair, they also stopped pursuing, picked up the spoils and headed back. Compared with these troops who had suffered in the previous battle and were only pretending to be chasing, the only ones who really hit the retreating Japanese troops were the 79th Army of Xia Chuzhong from the Sixth Theater and Fu Zhongfang, who did not fight a big battle at the beginning of the battle. 99 Army.Xia Jun ambushed the Zaoyuan detachment, devoured most of the arrogant but now exhausted Japanese army, and killed two of the three captains of the detachment.Fu Jun played left and right with the 3rd and 6th Divisions, Pingye and Araki Detachments one after another.The Japanese army returned home like an arrow, and did not say a word after suffering a loss, but quickly withdrew northward. The spoils of the 99th Army were too large to move. On October 4, a squad leader of the 197th Division of the army swept down an aircraft with a machine gun. On October 9, all the Japanese troops in northern Hunan crossed the Xinqiang River and resumed their pre-war positions. The Chinese army tracked them down. Although there were individual attacks, there were no results.In the minds of the generals and soldiers, the Xinqiang River seemed to be the border between China and Japan. When they saw this river, Chairman Jiang's order to recover Yueyang was considered very far away and out of reach.At this time, the two armies faced each other across the river again, as if it was only natural. The sound of guns and artillery on the Xiangbei battlefield stopped, and people's eyes began to turn to Yichang. The encirclement was finally closed at 12 noon on October 4.Chen Cheng issued an order: Launch a general offensive at 4:00 am on October 6. The 39th Division of the Japanese Army who came from Jingmen for reinforcements was firmly blocked by Li Yannian's 2nd Army. The 14 divisions of the Chinese Army that besieged Yichang, with more than 100,000 officers and soldiers, used just over a day to make various preparations before the siege. A small group of troops went out to clean up the fortifications outside the city, and blasted obstacles such as barriers and barbed wire.Artillery units were correcting firing deviations shot by shot.Soldiers can be seen everywhere carrying ammunition boxes and various equipment running like flying.Telephone troopers running around pulling wires.The troops sat in several rows, and the soldiers leaned their guns on their shoulders, smoking or talking and laughing, waiting for orders to attack.The soldiers who rushed to repair the fortifications were sweating profusely with shovels and picks.The horns of the cars full of supplies were mobilized in the seemingly narrow space.Rows of wooden boats by the river were requisitioned, and among the busy people on and off the boats were men on boats whose complexions were darkened by the river wind.Behind the attacking troops are several wounded rescue sites set up with tents, and the figure of a polite military doctor under the flag of the Red Cross is swaying... All of this, together with the sparse sound of guns and artillery, the sound of noisy people, the sound of cars, and the sound of the river lapping on the shore, interweave into a sound dynamic picture of the imminent war. In Yichang City, the field hospital of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army was established on the campus of Mingde Middle School. Some of the wounded with snow-white bandages on different parts of their bodies were standing, some were sitting on the ground, some were supported by health guards, and some were lying on stretchers.They formed a semicircle on the campus playground, admiring the art from their homeland with great interest amidst the rhythmless sound of guns and guns. Founded in the mid-1920s, the Tokyo Asakusa Art Troupe is well-known in the Japanese performing arts circle. The reason is that the artists not only inherit traditional Japanese art, but also properly integrate and absorb elements of modern art that are acceptable to the Japanese public.The artistic style of this troupe was first welcomed by the common people in Japan, and then was approved by the more conservative bureaucrats and royal aristocrats. When the beautiful emperor and empress were also pulled into their auditorium, the glory reached its peak.After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the government used this art troupe as a tool to advocate war of aggression, singing "Enge" on the theme of militarism It became a must-have show in every show, and traveled across the sea several times to condolences to soldiers who fought in foreign countries.This visit to China is one of a series of countermeasures taken by the government to deal with the growing pessimism in the empire. When the sympathy group of more than 30 people arrived at the headquarters of the 11th Army in Wuhan, the military department sent a military band of more than 20 people from the army to accompany them to Yichang.Reluctantly, the battle had already reached the gate, and he could not go out of the city to tour various positions, so he had to condolences to the wounded soldiers in the city. In the last program, young male and female dancers with heavy make-up performed the most popular folk dance.At the end of the dance, the beautiful actress bowed and invited the wounded soldiers who were able to move, the health soldiers and monks to join in, so the kimono and the military uniform were mixed, the bandages and the smiles were the same, the beautiful music of the island country and the sound of metal broken guns merged into one A discordant symphony. In the darkness before dawn on October 6, the small town of Yichang was densely surrounded by the sound of earth-shattering gunfire, and the sound of shouting and killing was like a river tide breaking a bank.At dusk, the boys and girls of the Asakusa Art Troupe saw teams of stretchers quickly being carried into the field hospital where they had performed. Mei Keiko, one of the 16-year-old twin dancing geisha sisters, asked Qiu He, who was leading the team, in tears: "Madam, can we go back to Tokyo?" Qiu He, a famous dance artist in his 50s, said: "Yes. The heroic General Anan is coming. He will arrive in a few days. Pray for him, son." The fierce battle lasted for two days and nights, and the Japanese army retreated on the outskirts of the city desperately resisted the attack of the Chinese army.The 3rd Flying Regiment of the Japanese Army stationed in Hankou organized all bombers to support the defense of Yichang.According to the war history, the Ministry dispatched planes to bomb the Chinese troops attacking the outskirts of Yichang, with 62 sorties on the 4th, 80 sorties on the 5th, 74 sorties on the 6th, 96 sorties on the 7th, 64 sorties on the 8th, and 125 sorties on the 9th. Some planes fly 4 round trips. In the early morning of October 8, a unit of the 94th Army sailed out from the west bank by boat, bypassed Gezhou Dam from the upper reaches, and landed at the northern end of Huangcao Dam. The banks of the wide Yangtze River watershed.In the morning, this newly established position effectively controlled the Japanese positions on the west side of Yichang City. Mortar shells flew across the river to the Japanese positions on the outskirts of the city.At the same time, the 9th Division of the 32nd Army and the first part of the 99th Army also compressed into the city, and the encirclement gradually narrowed. October 9th was a very serious day for both China and Japan.The Japanese army left the battlefield in northern Hunan. Anan mobilized elite soldiers from various divisions to form a rapid force and rushed to Yichang in the starry night. The troops in the sixth theater were only one step away from conquering Yichang. The Japanese army suffered heavy casualties in the city. The field hospital and even the playground were full of wounded soldiers, and moans kept coming and going.Uchiyama summoned the miscellaneous soldiers, medical soldiers, catering soldiers, ordnance maintenance personnel in the headquarters, and those who could still shoot with guns among the wounded who had been sent to the hospital, and shot each of them.While gathering, a melodious trumpet sounded in Nei Shan's ear.When he was not watching, the military band members who were still practicing played reminded Uchiyama that more than 20 members of the 11th Army military band were also incorporated into this special force with a total of 388 people. This team moved hundreds of bags of rice from the warehouse to the outskirts of the division headquarters to form fortifications.The head of the Uchiyama Division said to Chief of Staff Qiu Yong: "Don't believe that any miracle will happen!" outside the city.Chen Cheng struggled to suppress his inner anxiety, and the time flew by. He had asked Chiang Kai-shek several times to extend the deadline for conquering Yichang.Chiang Kai-shek ordered to capture Yichang within 3 days on October 2, and Chen Cheng sent a telegram on the 4th to extend the recovery date to the 8th.While agreeing, Chiang Kai-shek notified Chen Cheng of the retreat of the Japanese army in northern Hunan, and demanded that it must be conquered no later than the 8th, otherwise all previous efforts would be wasted.Chen Cheng launched a general offensive on the 6th. The troops were blocked by the Japanese air and ground, and were still outside the city on the 8th.Chen Cheng had no choice but to ask for instructions again that Yichang must be conquered on the "Double Ten" day, but Chiang Kai-shek did not call back. Chen Cheng felt that he had no way out. At 2:30 a.m. on October 10, the sixth war zone launched a general offensive again. A total of 140 artillery pieces were put into operation.The artillery shells with 140 as the calculation unit smashed into every corner of the Japanese position from all directions, until the artillery could no longer see the complete target for shooting by the flash of the explosion. The infantry screamed and swept into the urban area like a flood. The Japanese machine guns hiding in the dark blew up batch after batch of soldiers in a gust of wind, and then the same number or even more soldiers rushed up.There are several layers of dead bodies on the edge of the city, and it has long been difficult to tell which country's soldiers died in battle.The sound of guns and guns without a breath was surging, supporting a round of bright red sunrise.The first person to see the rising sun was Eitaro Uchiyama, the supreme commander of the Japanese army in Yichang City.At that time, he stood on the top floor of the only three-story building in this small city that was originally Yichang Bank, praying silently facing the rising sun.When the sun rose, he suddenly felt that the sky and the earth were red, and the Yangtze River beside him was also red. He felt that the Yangtze River was flowing with a river of blood—the blood of Chinese and Japanese.After the war, he once told a reporter about this strange feeling. This reporter wrote a newsletter describing in detail the battle of defending the city of Yichang, which was published in the third issue of 1942 in a Japanese publication called "Sakura".In that early morning, he received a report that the positions on all sides were collapsing, and it was estimated that about 5,000 soldiers were killed and seriously injured. At eight o'clock he went down to the ground floor.In the combat command room, Chief of Staff Qiu Yongli, Chief of Staff Kazuo Hoshino, Major Motoji San, Lieutenant Izumi Shigeru, Lieutenant Shigeki Kikuchi, Chief of Weapons Commander Yamaga Haruhiro, Chief of Supply Ma Toshio, Chief of Military Medical Officer Kanji Matsuki, Veterinarian Minister Kanichi Kato was waiting for him. Qiu Yongli read the farewell telegram he drafted to Anan Weiji, commander of the 11th Army.In the room, a chair was covered with the military flag that the 104th regiment entrusted its staff officer, Captain Quan Mao, to bring back before it was all "broken". Uchiyama solemnly held up and unfolded the flag of the 13th Division, which was touched by the emperor's hand, and lightly draped it on the flag of the 104th Regiment.All the officers and soldiers on the scene exchanged tears, took off their hats and bowed their heads. Uchiyama's hands trembled and he struck the third match before the general flag was lit. Burning the military flag is the strictest battlefield discipline of the Japanese army and a special ceremony for imperial soldiers before they die in collective battle.The military flag of each division is awarded to the division commander by His Majesty the Emperor, who is also the Grand Marshal of the Navy, Army and Air Force, before the division's departure.The military flag must not fall into the enemy's hands in any case, and must be burned at the last moment of the battle.And burning the military flag also means that all the imperial troops under this flag have been loyal to the emperor. A small flame gradually grew into a great fire, and then died out silently.Uchiyama and the officers had already chosen the location for seppuku: the four ministers in their respective offices, the three staff officers in their bedrooms, the adjutant in the file room, the chief of staff in his office, and Uchiyama in this spacious combat command room. Telegram: All the generals and soldiers have made the last struggle for the imperial country; the military flags, the confidential documents of various units, and the imperial edict of the emperor have been burned; the overseas Chinese and condolences in Yichang have suffered misfortune, it is a pity, and I sincerely apologize. When Uchiyama signed the telegram, he added a sentence with a red pencil for drawing a combat map: The generals of the imperial kingdom fulfilled their duties as soldiers, and died in the heroic voice of shouting the marshal's majesty, long live his majesty. At 8:50 a.m. on October 10, Dashi, the translation squad, translated the telegram into a code.Uchiyama said to the officers who set off to "take their positions", "Please wait a little longer." Qiu Yongli called his adjutant Sakata Rushiro and explained as follows: In case of a sudden situation, when the commander of the division and the chief of staff died and the telegram failed to be sent, Sakata formed a death squad to protrude the encirclement by any means and send to the 11th Army The headquarters reported the battle situation of the division. At 10 a.m., the 39th Division, which was reinforced by Jingmen to Yichang, launched another fierce attack on Li Yannian's 2nd Army under Ananwei's strict orders. One of the regiments broke through a section of positions with poison gas bombs, broke through the defense line, and rushed out of the city.Chen Cheng personally commanded the 2nd Army and part of the siege force to defeat the Japanese attack.By 2:00 p.m., only the front line of Dongshan Temple failed to break through in all directions of the Japanese city defense.Chinese soldiers rushed into the city and fought fiercely with the enemy, gradually pressing towards the core position of the division headquarters in the city center. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, more than 2,000 Japanese rapid troops from northern Hunan arrived in the northeast of Yichang and immediately went into battle to break the siege.Chen Cheng transferred the reserve team up to resist, and the two sides stalemate 6 kilometers outside the city.At dusk, the first-line attacking unit suffered heavy casualties. Chen Cheng ordered the troops to adjust and replenish, and launched a final storm after dark. At 7 o'clock in the evening, almost at the same time as Chen Cheng gave the order to attack, there was a sudden strong wind, followed by heavy and urgent rain. The weather in October generally should not have such a heavy rain in the local area, and the officers and soldiers of the two countries felt strange.The Chinese army attacked in the rain, and progress was slow.More than 10,000 Japanese troops from northern Hunan arrived outside the city, fought in the rain for more than two hours, broke into the city and joined the remnants of the 13th Division. Chiang Kai-shek ordered at 11:00 pm on the 10th: stop the attack on Yichang, and all troops return to the original defense area. Huang Jupu, an old man in Yichang, said: The heavy rain started from the 20th day of the eighth lunar month (October 10th in the Gregorian calendar) until the afternoon of the next day.The rain soaked the corpses all over the street, and the running water turned into brown bloody water, which was more than two feet deep in the street, and then fell into the Yangtze River, and the river water also changed color!The next day, both sides held the "ten" (red cross) flag and pushed the carts to collect the corpses on the street.The people who collected the corpses went their separate ways without fighting each other, and sometimes discussed and identified them.There are Chinese and locals in the Japanese corpse collection team.The body collection team turned the dead man over, looked at the clothes, and looked at the gun.Some of them were completely naked for some reason, probably wounded soldiers, so it was difficult to recognize them.The people of the two countries look the same, but no one is wanted, saying that they are afraid that the wrong person will be taken in, and other "heroic souls" will be disturbed after the burial.It was the common people in Yichang who raised money to bury these people in the north of the city.An unnamed stele is erected, offering a bowl of rice and a stick of incense.