Chapter 31 10. Sun Mingjin's last call

The reinforcements are rushing on the road; the reinforcements are attacking in the direction of Changde; the reinforcements are fighting fiercely with the Japanese blocking forces; After the Japanese army's intention to capture Changde became clear, the Military Commission successively mobilized 8 main forces of the 10th, 44th, 58th, 73rd, 74th, 79th, 99th, and 100th armies to counter-encircle the Japanese army that surrounded Changde from different directions, trying to be like the third. In the second Changsha battle, he "seeked an attack" and wiped out the enemy under the city.But Changde is no longer Changsha.

The 44th, 73rd and 74th armies were hit hard by the enemy in the early stage of the battle. The 79th and 99th armies were surrounded and chased by the Japanese army in the west of Changde, and they were overwhelmed.Lu Daoyuan's 58th Army was imposing, but the distance was too far, and they couldn't reach the battlefield immediately without stopping.Wang Yaowu got Chiang Kai-shek's will and did not dare to pull up the 100th Army to fight recklessly, so the 8 armies on the map of the Military Commission were implemented on the battlefield, and only one 10th Army was marked on the battle map of Japanese Commander Yokoyama Isamu.

Fang Xianjue, the commander of the 10th Army, under the command of Zhou Qingxiang's 3rd Division, Zhu Yue's 190th Division, and Sun Mingjin's 10th Division, Yokoyama knew in his heart that the 10th Army was one of Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army's direct descendants, with excellent weapons and outstanding combat exploits. In 1993, exactly 50 years after the Battle of Changde, the author received a letter from the remote Hainan Island. The sender specially communicated with the author because he saw another book of the author that reflected the War of Resistance Against Japan.He hoped that I could continue to write books reflecting the great war of resistance against Japan, "let young people know the hardships of the eight-year war of resistance".

The letter said: His name is Fu Neng. During the Anti-Japanese War, he participated in the Battle of Changde and the Battle of Hengyang as the Second Lieutenant and Platoon Leader of the Heavy Machine Gun Company of the 2nd Battalion, 570th Regiment, 190th Division, 10th Army. When I was writing this book about the Hunan Anti-Japanese War, old man Fu Neng naturally became the subject of my interview. Since he lived in Hainan, we mostly communicated through letters. The real authors of that period of history are Fu Neng and his comrades in arms.They wrote every chapter, every verse, every word with blood and life.

Regarding the reinforcement of Changde by the 10th Army, the old man wrote in the recollection materials sent to me: "Before the war, our military headquarters was stationed in Changsha, and our divisions were along the Xiangtan-Hengyang railway. General Fang Xianjue ordered my 190th division to go to Changde within three days. "In three days, we rushed day and night, passed through Xiangtan, Ningxiang, Yiyang, and passed through the Taohua River to 8 kilometers away from Changde. It was dusk. We rested and had dinner, and there were sporadic 38-style rifles not far away. The enemy They found us soon. Master Zhu Yue stood on a small high ground and gave the order verbally:

"The 570th Regiment occupied Mount Luohan, the 569th Regiment occupied the Left 80 Heights, and the 568th Regiment served as a reserve team near the division headquarters. Chief of Staff Shi Tang instructed Lieutenant Colonel Wang Shen, the combat staff officer, to write the battle orders. group. "That area is densely wooded and hilly, and the enemy's activities cannot be seen. When it got dark, the head of our regiment Xiao took the 3rd Battalion and 9th Company as the vanguard company. The whole regiment launched a battle formation and ran towards the top of Luohan Mountain.

"On the top of the mountain, there was only a small group of enemy security troops, unable to stop our offensive, and fled in embarrassment. After we rushed to the top of the mountain, Commander Xiao began to allocate positions. Our heavy machine gun company was assigned to each company's position at the foot of the mountain. The battalion headquarters on the top of the mountain is directly commanded by the battalion commander. "At this time, I heard the sound of guns and guns in Changde City throughout the night, and there were flashes of explosions and burning flames from time to time.

"The enemy in front of us fired at us with light machine guns, and we also responded with machine guns. The light and heavy machine guns of our division were all supported by the Soviet Union in the war of resistance against my country (should be purchased by the Soviet Union in our country - the author's note), and the Soviet-made light machine guns we used The machine gun has a disc that can hold 50 rounds of ammunition, and the barrel is 10 cm longer than other light machine guns. The effective range is 2,500 meters. We fired a plate of bullets at the enemy, and the sound of the gun was very loud in the silent night, overwhelming the enemy The gunshots sounded, and the soldiers were very happy.

"The battalion commander Yang Shaochen was born in the army. He has fought many major battles. He was promoted from a soldier to a colonel commander. He has rich experience. He heard that the enemy was fighting for courage and had no intention of attacking immediately. He asked the messenger to tell the 4th company Company Commander Chen, don't shoot indiscriminately without orders. Sure enough, the guns didn't go off again. We stuck to Luohan Mountain until dawn. "We finished breakfast in the morning light, and Commander Xiao held a meeting of officers on the top of the mountain. The commander said: Today we are ordered to attack and advance to rescue the 57th Division of the friendly army guarding Changde. We must obey the command, not be afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice, and persist until victory.

"After Commander Xiao finished speaking, he was instructed by Deputy Commander Feng Zhengzhi to deploy. Feng was a young student and joined the 4th Army during the Northern Expedition. He usually gave us lectures in a gentle manner, like a literati, but he was very capable of commanding on the battlefield. He Said that we must complete the task in the attack and battle, otherwise we will beheaded. Now time is tight, we can't talk too much, please pay attention to the combat order... "From the combat order, I learned that the left side of our division is the Pre-10th Division (Division Commander Sun Mingjin - author's note), and Yiyang behind us is the military headquarters.

"After the officers' meeting was over, we returned to the position. Battalion Commander Yang verbally issued orders to the companies, which were recorded by the clerk, copied and stamped, and distributed to the companies. "We saw with our own eyes that the enemy was building fortifications in the opposite mountain forest. We waited for orders in the position and did not open fire. After a while, Commander Zhu Yue led a dozen people including Chief of Staff Tang, Operations and Intelligence Staff to the regiment command post. Commander Xiao ordered the attack after learning about the preparations. "In an instant, 10 82 mortars, 9 heavy machine guns and dozens of light machine guns in the whole regiment fired at the same time. The 1st and 2nd battalions of our regiment and a reinforced company of the 3rd battalion pounced on the enemy's position like a tiger. The top of the mountain used binoculars to inspect the battle situation, and he said to Commander Xiao: "The 570th regiment is capable of fighting." "Master Zhu Yue personally commanded the battle on the front line in all previous battles. He often went to the front line to command in critical times to boost the morale of officers and soldiers. In the second battle of Changsha, he raised his right hand and shouted to charge. The enemy's bullet hit his right thumb, Blood flowed profusely, and the pistol fell to the ground, but he still shouted to charge. Usually, the division commander often went down to the company to talk with the company platoon leader, which solved many life problems and was loved by the lower-level officers and soldiers. "Our division's offensive continued to progress. The enemy was under attack from outside and inside the city. They panicked and mobilized their siege forces to attack our 10th Army. "The 1st Battalion of our regiment captured a high ground guarded by the enemy in front of us. The 2nd Battalion covered the 3rd Battalion with fierce firepower and crawled forward through a long and narrow dry field. The 9th Company walking in front of the 3rd Battalion was blocked by enemy fire. Company Commander Zhu was seriously injured and soldiers were killed. More than 20 people. "When Company Commander Zhu was carried to the command post of the regiment, he could no longer speak and was hit in the face by a bullet. Commander Xiao ordered that Company Commander Zhu be carried down immediately for treatment. The attack of the 3rd Battalion was frustrated, and Deputy Commander Feng suggested to Commander Xiao that the 3rd Battalion be strengthened The 4th company and the 3rd battalion attacked at the same time. "The 4th company is the company with the strongest combat effectiveness in the whole regiment. After receiving the order, Battalion Commander Yang immediately ordered the 4th company to start from a ditch without water and attack the dry land. "The platoon leader Chen of the 4th company is my Huangpu classmate. He led the whole platoon to the front. The enemy fired fiercely, and the bullets knocked down the platoon leader Chen in the middle of the dry field. "The 4th company and the 3rd battalion attacked the enemy at the same time, and the enemy desperately resisted. Our advancing company suffered casualties, but the fighting did not stop. "Because platoon leader Chen rushed forward, the soldiers behind him did not dare to step forward to lift him down for a long time after he was injured. At dusk, Battalion Commander Yang ordered platoon leader Chen to be carried back quickly, otherwise the 4th company would be cut down. Deputy Battalion Commander Liu ordered machine guns and mortars to hit the enemy fiercely. When the enemy's firepower was suppressed, several soldiers carried Chen Platoon Leader out of the dry field and to the battalion headquarters. "I went to see the platoon leader Chen immediately. The bullet hit his abdomen, the buttons of his clothes were broken, and his small intestines flowed out. "I asked him: 'Is it painful?' He said in a very soft voice: 'Student Fu, I can't do it anymore. Please send my Whampoa Military Academy graduation certificate and military formalities back to my home as a souvenir.' "Tears welled up in my eyes, and I comforted him and said: 'You go to the Yiyang Military Hospital for treatment, and you will be fine.' "The soldier shed blood but not tears, the sound of guns and guns kept ringing in my ears, he took his graduation certificate to the hospital, and I raised my hand to say goodbye to him. "After dark, the kitchen delivered food, and everyone grabbed a rice ball to eat. There was no food. At dawn, the regiment commander ordered an attack. The 569th regiment had already surrounded the enemy on the right side. The 2nd and 3rd battalions of our regiment attacked the dry fields and approached the enemy At the foot of the guarded mountain. Deputy Battalion Commander Liu, who led our battalion to attack, shouted to charge. When he was about to rush to the enemy's position, forty or fifty enemies rushed through the trenches and counterattacked us. Our grenade exploded in the enemy group, and the enemy dropped two More than a dozen corpses retreated up the mountain. "At this time, I was at the side of Battalion Commander Yang of the Battalion Headquarters on the top of the mountain. When I was charging the enemy violently, the messenger ran up the mountain to report to the battalion commander. Deputy Battalion Commander Liu was killed. "The heavy machine gun position on the top of the mountain I led was discovered by the enemy. The enemy fired dozens of shells with flat-fired guns, and three of them landed on my position. I yelled 'lie down' in advance, but the sergeant squad leader Wang Yong and the shooter were killed. . "The heavy machine gun was not blown up. I asked the sergeant squad leader Fu Kui to quickly move the position. The squad leader Fu fought bravely and did not avoid danger. He pulled the tripod of the heavy machine gun by himself and left the original position (our heavy machine gun has two irons. round). We only had this heavy machine gun in our platoon. Everyone quickly dug new positions and trenches and brought 10 boxes of ammunition. I went to report to Battalion Commander Yang. When the battalion commander came to see, he said: Quickly fold some branches to camouflage the position it is good. "At noon, the sun was shining brightly, and the weather was much warmer. The enemy had nothing to do with us at Luohan Mountain. "In the afternoon, there was a sudden burst of gunfire on the left side of our regiment. The Japanese army attacked the friendly 10th Division's position with fierce firepower and a large number of troops. An enemy attacking the 10th Division passed through a field at the foot of Luohan Mountain, only 1,200 meters away from me. "I reported to Battalion Commander Yang: 'This group of enemies has obvious targets. We can concentrate our firepower to eliminate them.' "The battalion commander looked at it with binoculars for a while, and scolded me, saying: 'Idiot! You just left school and have no experience in combat! You go and fight them, and they will turn around and besiege us at Luohan Mountain. Who will rescue us then?'" Battalion Commander Yang finished Then I went to the regiment command post. "Just for my own safety, regardless of the overall situation, is this Battalion Commander Yang's 'combat experience'? I can't figure it out. "The enemy mobilized many troops to concentrate on attacking the 10th Division. Our division commander Zhu Yue came to our regiment again at night. He took a comprehensive view of the overall situation and deployed the three regiments to attack the enemy at the same time at 2 o'clock in the morning. Zhu said: 'This time It's time to win a battle.' "We waited in the icy trenches until 2 a.m., the morale of the officers and soldiers of the whole division was high, and they shouted 'charge' and 'kill' to attack the enemy's position. The enemy was suddenly attacked, and the situation was unknown in the dark, and they all moved towards the right side of our division. Run in the direction of the pre-10th division position. "When the battle lasted until dawn, our division captured some enemy positions and advanced a certain distance in the direction of Changde. At this time, the gunshots from the 10th Division's direction became sparse, as if the fighting had stopped. "Later we heard that the Pre-10th Division fought fiercely with the enemy and suffered heavy casualties. The division commander, General Sun Mingjin, was killed in battle." Isamu Yokoyama, the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, gave this battle of besieging the city and fighting for aid a name called "Operation Desolate".To him it was a game of cats playing tricks on a caught mouse.It is impossible for the Chinese army not to come to rescue the siege. Given the important geographical location of Changde and the position of the 57th Division of the 74th Army in the central army, this is "the attack must be rescued"; and it is impossible to rescue the siege at the same time, because the Japanese army has been there from the beginning. Hold the initiative on the battlefield, and have superior forces in every part.The Chinese army made the mistake of sending troops up separately to deal with opponents that were twice as large as itself, so the only thing left for the Japanese army was how to put the opponents to death one by one. In the ancient Japanese kabuki art, there is a genre that specializes in the expression of tragedy, called "Desolation", and the theme is the miserable and extremely tragic fate of the protagonist.Yokoyama arranged for the Chinese army to play a tragic role. While stepping up its offensive against Changde City, it opened its mouth to devour the three main divisions of the 10th Army that came to rescue first. According to Xue Yue, chief of the Ninth War Zone, Zhou Qingxiang's 3rd Division, Zhu Yue's 190th Division, and Sun Mingjin's 10th Division lined up from right to left and pushed forward from Yiyang to Changde, launching attacks on both sides of Deshan south of Changde to break the siege of Changde. On November 30th, Lieutenant General Zhou Qingxiang led the 7th and 9th regiments into the enemy-occupied Xuejiapu and Wujiapu lines in a sudden move, and hit the enemy's 68th Division headquarters and the nearby rear. Hospital.Xue's shop immediately became a mess. Lieutenant General Sakuma of the 68th Division and Chief of Staff Sadazaburo Harada fled with a few entourages. Groups of naked wounded Japanese soldiers ran and crawled all over the streets, and hundreds of them were killed.Zhou Qingxiang ordered the troops not to entangle with the enemy, and took advantage of the momentum to occupy Deshan. The 3rd Division conquered Deshan on the evening of the 30th, and then repelled the enemy for several counterattacks. On the morning of December 1, Zhou Qingxiang ordered the 9th regiment to guard Deshan, and the 7th regiment went straight to Changde. As soon as the 7th regiment set off from Deshan, it encountered thousands of Japanese troops who were besieged.The officers and soldiers of the whole regiment fought out layer by layer, and walked 9 Huali Road for a whole day.Arriving at the bank of the Yuanjiang River in the evening, the surface of the rolling river was empty, and there were only a few wrecks of burnt wooden boats floating in the south bank.Without a ferry, it was impossible to cross the river to join the 57th Division. The officers and soldiers of the 7th Regiment looked at the river and sighed, helpless, but the Japanese army surrounded them. A bloody battle lasted all night.At dawn, the bodies of Chinese and Japanese soldiers were piled up on the riverside.Out of a force of more than 2,000 people, only 70 or so people were left to break through and return to the shelter in Yiyang. On December 2, the day when the 190th Division where Fu Neng was located fought fiercely with the Japanese army, the Japanese troops separated the 3rd Division from the other two divisions and blocked reinforcements to Tokuyama.The 9th Regiment fought hard all day and night, and its leader, Colonel Zhang Huimin, and most of the whole regiment were killed.Zhou Qingxiang, the division commander who was commanding in the formation, saw that the combat effectiveness of the 9th regiment had been completely exhausted, and led the remaining 300 people to break through from Deshan. As Fu Neng recalled, the Japanese army chose between the 190th Division and the Pre-10th Division, and the Pre-10th Division was eaten first. On December 1, the Japanese army attacked the Pre-10th Division at the same time on the Jinlin Bridge on the front and the Zhaojia Bridge on the side.The 10th Division under the jurisdiction of the 28th, 29th, and 30th infantry regiments, there were not many left in the day and night, and more than a hundred wounded soldiers were captured.The Japanese army also regretted gnawing on what they thought was a "thorny fish bone", and suffered heavy casualties. On December 4, the 234th Regiment temporarily assigned to the 68th Division cleaned up the battlefield in the Zhaojiaqiao area.Captain Toda Yoshinao received a report: one of the corpses of Chinese soldiers was wearing a senior military uniform. Toda Yoshihiro rode his horse and rushed there, and saw that the hillside was covered with corpses and it was a mess.This is the aftermath of a fierce hand-to-hand battle.Although the corpses of the Japanese army had been removed first, judging from the posture of the dead, the fighting was fierce and the casualties on both sides were equally heavy. The corpse had been shot several times, and the blood had coagulated.The woolen uniforms were as bloodstained and muddy as the soldiers. Toda Yoshinao knelt down and observed carefully, and saw that the deceased had been shot in the chest. After wiping off the mud on the collar badge of the military uniform, a general star shone brightly. Several Chinese wounded soldiers were brought here, and the interpreter asked them to identify them.After seeing the corpse, several wounded soldiers looked at each other and wept silently.When asked, they all said they didn't know each other.The translator pressed him repeatedly, and an older soldier among the wounded knelt down next to the corpse, crying loudly, and the rest also knelt down and wept. The veteran said: "This is our teacher Sun Mingjin!" When Toda Yoshinao ordered the prisoners to be taken away, the veteran actually knelt down and begged Toda repeatedly, and several other prisoners also knelt down when they saw this.It was the first time in Toda's life that he saw a Chinese soldier kneel down to him, so he asked the interpreter to ask why. After a conversation between the captives and the translator, Toda and the Japanese soldiers at the scene knew that Sun Mingjin loved soldiers very much. Before and after battles and festivals, he would go to the company and the hospital to visit and condolences. He was very kind and generous to the soldiers, and cared about their sufferings.The captives begged the Japanese officer to bury their division commander. Toda Yoshinao's regiment belonged to the 40th Division, Yokoyama Isamu transferred them precisely because of Toda's ruthless personality, courageous combat and strong combat effectiveness. At this time, Toda burst into tears. He ordered his subordinates to bury Sun Mingjin in a coffin according to Chinese customs, and erect a stone tablet in front of the tomb. On December 19, 1956, the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China ratified General Sun Mingjin as a revolutionary martyr in a document, and issued the "Certificate of Glory to the Families of Revolutionary Sacrificial Soldiers" to the martyr's father, Mr. Sun Kuige, in the name of Mao Zedong. Sun Mingjin, named Yuxuan, was born in Suqian, Jiangsu in 1905.When he was studying, he had a preference for literature and foreign languages. In 1926, he joined the army and participated in the Northern Expedition.In the second year, he was admitted to Whampoa Phase 6. After graduation, he successively served as platoon leader, company commander, battalion commander, deputy head of regiment, section chief, senior staff officer, chief of staff, and deputy division commander. He participated in several important anti-Japanese battles and won the third Changsha battle. Later, he succeeded Fang Xianjue as the commander of the Pre-10th Division. Later generations recalled that Sun Mingjin refused the request of his subordinates to cover her breakthrough that day, and devoted herself to the fierce battle. After shooting out a shuttle of machine gun bullets, they fought with the enemy with pistols, rifles, and bayonets.The bayonet broke, and the Japanese army shot at him with a machine gun at a distance of 3 meters, with 4 bullets in his chest.The guard killed the Japanese soldier with a machine gun and carried him to break through. He stared at the guard and said: "Follow the order and complete the task!" At the end of the sentence, he died. In that battle, the deputy division commander, chief of staff, and chief of staff were all seriously injured, and died of serious injuries a few days after breaking through. The regiments of the 10th Division only accommodated more than 300 people after the war. Ge Xiancai, the commander of the 28th regiment, was seriously injured, and Li Changhe, the commander of the 30th regiment, fled the battle. The last telegram signed by Sun Mingjin that can be found in historical materials was sent to Xue Yue, Chief of the Ninth War Zone on November 28: Our division was determined not to succeed, so we made up our minds to attack every single soldier, and then rushed towards Deshan. The task was to clear the siege, but knowing that the Japanese army was sending reinforcements, they insisted on jumping into the fire pit one by one. According to statistics, the casualties of the reinforcement troops were twice that of the defending troops. What did "one soldier and one soldier" do when they went to Deshan?The battle is fought like this, and as a soldier, I don't understand why. On the south wall of Changde City, there is a building named "Mercury Tower", which is the highest point in the city.The Japanese army once broke into the city and occupied this commanding height, and Yu Chengwan ordered Du Ding, the head of the 171st regiment, to lead his people to fight to the death and take it back. After recapturing the Mercury Building, Yu Chengwan set up an observation post on the top floor of the building to monitor the Japanese army and watch out for reinforcements. The 3rd Division of the 10th Army and the 10th Pre-10th Division were defeated separately, and the gunshots in the south of Changde gradually faded. The hearts of the officers and soldiers of the 57th Division slowly became heavy.From November 28th, the battle of defending the city entered the stage of street warfare. The Japanese army broke into the urban area from the north gate, west gate and east of the city successively, approaching the city center step by step. On November 30, according to the combat strength statistics reported to Yu Chengwan, there were less than 600 people left in the whole division. From division commanders to soldiers, everyone knows that the Battle of Changde has entered the final stage.