Chapter 42 8. Lost: The gray period of the glorious battle

In the memory of Jiang Yaxun, the retired vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, every day of Hengyang's defense of the city is very clear.As the Chief of Staff of the 3rd Division at the time, I still remember the scene at the end of that battle.In this history of a city and an army, there is also the most memorable stroke in his personal history: "During the battle of defending the city, the headquarters of our division lived in Honglian Society near Tielumen. No matter how many battles the 3rd Division has fought, this time it suffered the most casualties. Two staff officers in my division went down to become battalion commanders. One died and the other was injured. The commander The Ministry arranged for Su Zhu, the deputy of the 9th regiment, to be the battalion commander below, and he died that day. A division of four or five thousand people had only a thousand people left before the city was broken, most of them were wounded.

"On the night of August 6th, Pan Zhi, the deputy commander of the 190th Division, called me and said that Qingshan Street and Yilai Street were basically empty, but the enemy didn't know it, and the enemy could come in by road at any time. I said, this is the time, Have you not considered breaking out yet? Pan said: "It takes 10 kilometers to break through. How is it possible with so many wounded?" "On the morning of the 7th, Zhou Qingxiang asked me to go to the command post. He pointed to more than a dozen phones and said to me: 'You have guarded these phones, and if you have something to call the military headquarters, you can't leave without my order.' said After finishing, he left with Chief of Staff Zhang Dingguo.

"In the morning, the intelligence personnel reported that there was no one in Huangtuling, and it was all lit up. I called the military headquarters to report to the division commander, and the chief of staff Zhang Dingguo's answer was only one sentence: 'I understand.' "At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the intelligence personnel reported that a white flag had been planted in the Tianma Mountain position. I was taken aback. It was the position of the 9th Regiment of our division. The regiment leader Xiao Guitian, from Hengshan, turned out to be the division's deputy chief of staff. White flag? I don't understand.

"I called and reported the situation to the division commander in the military headquarters. It was Zhang Dingguo who answered the phone, and said: 'I understand.' I wanted to say a few more words to Zhang Dingguo, but before I opened my mouth, Zhang said: 'Don't be casual. Speak.' I don't know what he meant by that now. "In the evening, I learned that Fang Xianjue sent Zhang Guangkuan, the deputy chief of the army who could speak Japanese, to get in touch with the enemy. It was agreed that Fang Xianjue and the commander of the Japanese army's division would negotiate a 'conditional' surrender in Zhongshan Hall after dinner, but Fang Xianjue I felt that I waited there until 12 o'clock in the evening, but no one from the Japanese side came.

"At dawn the next day, I was still at the headquarters of the division. The battalion commander Mu Hongcai, who used to be a staff officer at the headquarters, came to see me. When we met, he said, "Why don't you leave quickly?" The commander ordered to stay here. "Mu Hongcai walked up to the table in two steps, smashed the phone and yelled at me: "Shou! Shou! Do you know that the Japanese have entered the city? You want someone to hack you to death!" "Speaking, he dragged me and walked out. I still had a fast and slow machine pistol on me. When he saw it, he grabbed it and threw it aside.

"On the road, there were piles of guns. Japanese soldiers stood in line at each intersection with guns, and Chinese soldiers came out from various positions. The Japanese soldiers drew a road and all gathered in the temple called Xichan Temple on the mountain. "It became a concentration camp there. "Xichan Temple is a commanding height, and the battle to defend the city is very fierce here. We stepped on and stepped on the corpses on the ground-these were all our own soldiers. If the system is in chaos, no one can find it." There is no one else, not like an army, but like a herd of sheep being herded away, walking in disorder.

"At the intersection near Xichan Temple, I saw division commander Zhou Qingxiang, who was standing with Sun Mingyu, chief of staff of the army. The director of division staff had a lot of dealings with the chief of staff of the army, and Sun and I were very familiar with each other. "When I came to them, I looked up at the two officers, relatively silent. "At this time, American planes flew over and dropped bombs everywhere in Hengyang City. Whether it was the Japanese or the Chinese, they all bombed. I was very sad: surrendered, not the Allies. "I was locked in the Xichan Temple, surrounded by Japanese machine guns. I still ate the meal the morning before. I was so hungry that I pulled weeds to fill my stomach. When I was hungry, I would sweat profusely. My whole body was weak. When I was extremely thirsty, we also drank dirty water, excrement water, and water for soaking corpses. There were flies, mosquitoes, and mice everywhere.

"I was locked up in Xichan Temple for two full days. After the Japanese searched the city, they drove us back to the Tielumen area of ​​the city. On the way, I couldn't be hungry. I will remember it for the rest of my life. I ran to a common people's house on the side of the road ( The common people had already run away), found a piece of taro, and was about to eat it. When a Japanese saw that he was catching up, he slapped me and knocked me to the ground. "In the Tielumen detention center, the Japanese didn't give me a grain of food, and the American planes flew in to bomb them, which made the two groups of foreigners miserable. Once the planes came to bomb, I just threw myself into an air-raid shelter, and a bomb exploded. exploded.

"Two days later, the Japanese gave each person two taels of brown rice a day. How could it be enough to eat? We searched everywhere for the food hidden by the common people within the scope of permitted activities. If someone found a little, they cooked some porridge for everyone to drink. Later , dead horse meat was also eaten, belts, suitcases, and edible things were eaten up. Those wounded in the war, sick and hungry, died one by one..." The extremely tragic and tragic Hengyang Defense War, which shocked the whole country and spread overseas, lasted 47 days from June 23 to August 8, and became a dazzling stroke in the history of the Anti-Japanese War.If the end of this battle was drawn when Fang Xianjue led the generals to send the "last telegram" to Chiang Kai-shek, then history would become an epic and an ode in the eyes of some people.But the sad thing is that history is history, and it does not undertake the obligation to develop in accordance with the simple aesthetic nature of human beings. Shortly after the "last telegram" was sent out, when the Battle of Hengyang changed from a conceptual end to a real end, Fang Xianjue decided to conduct "armistice negotiations" with the Japanese army.

For such a sudden turning point, the Chinese officers and soldiers whose corpses had already rotted did not know. The thinking of the people looking at this battle was also thrown out of the track unexpectedly. But perhaps this is the embodiment of the real historical law.Perhaps through it we can realize: History is a wider and heavier thing than we imagine. When the author visited Jiang Yaxun, he talked with the old man about many memoir articles and war history materials about that battle, and some of them had different and contradictory issues.The old man said very seriously: People stand in different positions and angles, and have different experiences on the battlefield. If you see some parts, or hear some misinformation at the time, you can take it as your own experience and have been talking about it for many years. This is also possible. I understand, but there should be no major discrepancies on major issues.

Regarding the important issue of why and how Fang Xianjue decided to surrender, based on his personal experience on the battlefield and comprehensive consideration of the personal situation of the generals and the battlefield situation at that time, he believes that the reminiscence article written by Rao Shaowei, the commander of the temporary 54th Division, is more authentic and credible . Rao Shaowei was one of the "Five Tiger Generals" in the defense of Hengyang. After liberation, he stayed in the mainland. He wrote several articles and made talks recalling that unforgettable battle.In his memory, the situation is like this: "On the evening of August 7th, Fang Xianjue called to inform him to come to the military headquarters for a meeting immediately. At this time, the "last call" had been sent, and the division chief of staff Lai Dianzhi and others speculated that Fang Xianjue might commit mass suicide and advised him do not go. "Rao Shaowei said: 'The battle has reached this point, if you die, you should die, let's go to the military headquarters and see what they do.' "When he walked to the military headquarters in the central bank on Zhongshan South Road, Sun Mingyu, chief of staff of the army, officers above the division chief, and two division commanders, Zhou Qingxiang and Ge Xiancai, were already waiting there. Rao Shaowei saw Fang Xianjue was at a loss and burst into tears. , was flipping through a few drawers, and asked the guards and adjutants, "Where is the pistol hidden? Give me the gun quickly! It looks like he is going to commit suicide. Sun Mingyu, Ge Xiancai and others mournfully persuaded the commander not to throw it away." The brethren went on their own. At this scene, many in the room also wept. "Only Zhou Qingxiang showed no signs of sadness. He asked Rao Shaowei: 'The situation is so serious, what do you think we should do?' "Rao Shaowei said: 'I think at present we can only abandon the north of the city and stick to the south of the city. According to intelligence, the reinforcements coming from the Xianggui Road are only 20 miles away from the city, and the long-range artillery can reach the edge of the city. As long as we stick to it overnight, tomorrow morning Reinforcements may come in, so it cannot be said that it is hopeless to hold on to reinforcements.' "Zhou Qingxiang interrupted him and said: 'Now the position is like a piece of thin paper, the enemy can rush in from anywhere, not to mention the heavy casualties, and the morale of the army is also weakened.' "Rao Shaowei said: 'If you can't stick to it, then you have to consider breaking out and splitting in the direction of the reinforcements to break through.' "Zhou Qingxiang cut off his words in a hurry and said: 'Breakout, breakout, which one will go ahead? Besides, with so many wounded officers and soldiers, should we just leave them alone? If this is the case, who will be willing to share with us in the future? trouble!' "The two were talking, and the commander of the 190th Division, Rong Youlue, came. The enemy first broke into the city from the position of the 190th Division. Rong Youlue's division suffered the most casualties, and the situation was the most dangerous at this time. He just cried when he entered the house. Don't speak. Seeing him like this, no one asks for his opinion. "It was really the last moment, and there was a lot of crying in the room. "Fang Xianjue suddenly slapped the table and said loudly: 'Okay, let's do it like this!' "Rao Shaowei was surprised, and Fang Xianjue continued: 'It's not that we are sorry for the country, but the country is sorry for us; it's not that we don't want the country, but the country doesn't want us!' "He pointed to Sun Mingyu and said, 'Hurry up and make the terms, the sooner the better, if you can't catch up before dawn, the enemy will massacre when they enter the city!' "Rao Shaowei was startled: 'Isn't this going to surrender to the enemy?!' He heard afterwards that a regiment of Zhou Qingxiang's 3rd Division had planted a white flag on the Tianma Mountain position that afternoon. "Sun Mingyu, Zhou Qingxiang, Ge Xiancai and others put forward seven truce conditions one by one. The general idea is: ask the Japanese army to cease fire immediately; ask the Japanese army not to kill prisoners after entering the city; treat wounded officers and soldiers humanely; allow burial according to traditional Chinese etiquette Chinese officers and soldiers were killed in battle; the 10th Army’s organizational system was retained, and Fang Xianjue was sent to Nanjing to meet Wang Jingwei by plane. The last point is that the 10th Army’s move means joining the Wang government in Nanjing, and it cannot be advertised as a surrender. "When the draft was finished and handed over to Fang Xianjue for reading, Zhou Qingxiang said: 'We have so many conditions, we don't know whether the enemy agrees or not.' "Ge Xiancai clapped the case and said: 'If you don't agree, you will fight him to death. Is there anyone who is afraid of death?!' "Around 10 o'clock in the evening, Fang Xianjue signed and stamped the terms of the armistice negotiation. He dispatched Zhou Qingxiang, Zhang Guangkuan, the deputy director of the military department, and Liang, the Japanese translator, to the frontier of Wuguiling with the negotiation documents, and shouted at the same time. Liaison with the Japanese command post. "One hour later, several people hurried back to the military headquarters and reported that they hadn't been contacted. Fang Xianjue became anxious. The Japanese army usually launches an attack in the early morning, and intelligence personnel have detected that the Japanese army is ready to launch a powerful offensive against the defenders in the city. At this time, the Hengyang defenders were no longer able to withstand this blow. "Fang Xianjue asked these people to go to the 190th Division's position that was closer to the Japanese army to contact. Because he was afraid that the officers and soldiers of the 190th Division would 'misunderstand', Fang asked the commander of the 190th Division, Rong Youlue, to go too. After a while, the call came Said that he had contacted the front-line command post of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army. After a while, the phone rang again. This time the news was that the Japanese commander welcomed the surrender of the remnants of the 10th Army and expressed his gratitude to the request. Accepted, and the frontline troops have been notified of the ceasefire. At the same time, the time and place for negotiations have been agreed. "After Fang Xianjue received this call, his nervous mood calmed down a little. He ordered the staff in the headquarters to go back to arrange the aftermath. Rao Shaowei also went back to his division headquarters, but was stopped by Fang, and waited with him for further news. "Rao Shaowei witnessed the scene in front of him, like a thousand arrows piercing his heart. The 47-day Hengyang defense battle, the blood of so many officers and soldiers has been shed, and now it has ended in such an inexplicable, or extremely shameful way, how can it not be shocking? Heartache! "Rao Shaowei was even more disturbed when he thought about his future. He was unwilling to betray the country and surrender to the enemy, and he lacked the courage to die for the country. After careful consideration, he decided to try to escape. "In the dead of night, Rao Shaowei asked Fang Xianjue to go back to the division headquarters to make arrangements. After talking several times, he finally agreed, and repeatedly told him to go back quickly. "Back to the division headquarters, I saw the chief of staff and others anxiously waiting for him in an air-raid shelter. After Rao Shaowei told the general headquarters what happened, he proposed to cross the Xiangjiang River to break out. He asked these officers which ones could swim. "The officers all bowed their heads in silence. It seems that there are not many people who can swim or dare to break through the Japanese blockade along the river. Seeing this, Rao Buwei was also discouraged. Under the urging of Fang Xianjue's phone call, he went back to the Arriving at the military headquarters. At this time, the people who were in charge of negotiating with the Japanese army also came back. Everyone was sad, thinking about their own thoughts, and sat until dawn. "At dawn on August 8, Fang Xianjue led Zhou Qingxiang, Ge Xiancai, Rong Youlue, Rao Shaowei, Sun Mingyu and more than 20 senior staff members to walk along Zhongshan South Road to Wuguiling. People walked in silence. This is What a journey! "In the appointed Zhongshan Hall, the Japanese army had already been waiting, leading a group of people to the headquarters of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army in the Catholic Church in Oujia Township on the outskirts of the city. In an air-raid shelter, the commanders of the two armies who fought bloody battles for 47 days clearly Saw each other's faces. "The two sides sat down relatively, and the negotiation began at 10:00 am. Mikio Tsutsumi, head of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, spoke first and said: 'As the supreme commander of the Japanese Army, I request your army to surrender unconditionally.' "None of the seven conditions were denied because of the defeat of the Tenth Army. Perhaps the defeated had no right to propose an armistice—unless it was an unconditional surrender. "Among the heavy guards, the Chinese generals lost their former prestige and were speechless. Fang Xianjue's face trembled when the Japanese military translator finished speaking. After a long time, he whispered: 'Obey this request.' "After the negotiation (if this can also be called 'negotiation'), Fang Xianjue and his party were locked in a room in the courtyard of the Catholic Church. At 12:00 noon, a large number of Chinese and American air force planes bombed the city of Hengyang in turn. In the first wave, several bombs fell into the ambulance station of the Daximen Bank Association in the city, and more than a thousand wounded were all killed. The Japanese army concentrated more than a thousand captured officers and soldiers at the West Bus Station in a very dense crowd Two bombs fell and more than 200 people died instantly." Rao Shaowei said: "When deciding to 'truce', that is, to surrender, the only thing that supports people's psychology and enables them to make such a choice against their will is to let the remaining officers and soldiers, especially the wounded who have already suffered from injuries, survive. But less than two hours after the surrender, a large number of officers and soldiers who did not die on the battlefield died in their own bombing. And since that day, batches of officers and soldiers have successively died of hunger, disease, wound deterioration, and the Japanese army’s treatment of prisoners of war. Insane abuse." The 2nd Battalion, 4th Company, 1st Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Division, 8th Regiment of the 10th Army of the National Revolutionary Army was the only corporal of the 3rd squadron who did not die on the battlefield, Wu Jiuhuang, who was sent to fetch water on the third day after being captured.Under the custody of the Japanese army, he tied a parachute rope to a bucket and carried the bucket to a well near the farmland on the outskirts of the city.The Japanese army did not want to drink lake and river water with floating corpses, and even thought the well water in the city smelled bloody. This reason gave him the opportunity to step out of the defensive circle that he and his comrades had defended with blood for the first time after more than 40 days. He remembered that the day when the battle to defend the city started for the first time was the Dragon Boat Festival in the fifth month of the lunar calendar.In his hometown, it was a lively day.That day, the company commander asked their squad to go to the outskirts of the city to pick up the two squads that had withdrawn from the company's forward positions.He remembered very clearly that there were green seedlings in the fields on the outskirts of the city at that time.But in the bloody storm, after a short but long month and a half, the tender green in the field has turned golden. Wu Jiuhuang has been farming for generations. He left his hoe and joined the army when he was 26 years old.As a farmer, he was delighted to see that the rice this season had grown extremely well. Wu Jiuhuang grabbed a few ears of rice, smelled and watched obsessively, and the inexplicable emotion in his heart finally broke through the dam. He sat down by the well, facing the field, and burst into tears.