Chapter 9 The Anti-Japanese War in Yunnan and Burma

Yan Tingchun - a soldier of the 66th Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force Li Zhenchun - a soldier of the Fifth Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Army Yang Hongen——At that time, he was the major director of the first branch of the logistics directorate of the 20th Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Army This is the first episode I started after I took over the "Burma Series". Just like its name, this is also the beginning of another "expedition" after the "Anti-Japanese War".Without much thought, I determined its content—in 1942, the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma for the first time.

There is often a difference between ideals and reality, and I have never doubted this.But when I really started to approach the foreign war that took place 69 years ago, the difficulties and embarrassments I encountered were still beyond my imagination. Over the past 69 years, too many materials and stories have been erased, leaving only a few blurred photos and the incomplete and almost chaotic memories of the veterans. Yan Tingchun's story began with an inexplicable explosion.Although he can't remember the number of his company, the old man still can't forget that piece of golden "gold".After consulting military experts, the story about that "gold" eventually became the prologue of this episode.

In the memory of the old man, the expedition 69 years ago started with a series of accidents: the "gold" that exploded, the child who died in a car accident...everything seemed to indicate something.But the soldiers went anyway, singing and walking vigorously.Even if the battlefield ahead is so strange, even if most of them will die in a foreign land. When it comes to the expeditionary force, Dai Anlan is undoubtedly a figure that must be mentioned.I don't know when, this 38-year-old young division commander seems to have become one of the most eye-catching generals in the history of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.Dai Anlan in the photo is always smiling, her delicate face exudes a trace of Confucian style.There is no doubt about Mr. Dai's military exploits, and the 12 days and nights in the same ancient city are enough to prove everything.In the memories of the family, the day before the expedition, the general left home was so ordinary: going out, getting in the car, waving, and leaving.The only unusual thing was the general's affectionate and silent glance at the children after the car started-it was the last time he parted from his cherished family.Today, the once young child is in his twilight years, and the ashes of the general lie silently under the green tomb.The statue of Dai Anlan in front of the tomb is still smiling, as if he has just returned triumphantly from afar, singing songs and taking strong steps.

In March 1942, vehicles of the Chinese Expeditionary Force lined up on the Wanding Bridge section of the Yunnan-Burma Highway.Yan Tingchun, a soldier of the 66th Army, and his comrades found a strange thing on the side of the road. It was heavy and shiny.Everyone discussed it, and some people said it might be gold.Yan Tingchun, who had never seen gold before, was a little excited. He brought this thing over and wanted to study it carefully.He put the thing on the stone steps and hit it with the butt of his rifle to see if it had the hardness of gold. Yan Tingchun is a native of Guiding, Guizhou. He was enlisted in the army in 1936 and joined the Chinese Expeditionary Force with the 66th Army in March 1942.This year, he was 23 years old, full of vitality, as innocent as a child.

"Gold" suddenly made a loud noise under Yan Tingchun's gun butt, and exploded, knocking off many roof tiles.It turned out that it was a mine.Fortunately it didn't hurt anyone. "After the accident, the company commander was very angry. He wanted to transfer me to the regiment headquarters as an orderly." Yan Tingchun recalled.He didn't want to go to regimental headquarters.In his opinion, serving the chief at the regiment headquarters is far less interesting than going to the front line.He expressed his determination to the company commander: "I want to fight." The company commander also obeyed him.

In this advancing team, there are still many soldiers like Yan Tingchun who are eager to fight.In the distance, a strange battlefield is waiting for them.Little did they imagine that this would be the expedition of a lifetime. On December 8, 1941, the Pacific War broke out.Within a few months, the Japanese army swept across Southeast Asian countries. In mid-January 1942, during the third Changsha battle, the 1st Brigade of Artillery of the Ninth Theater occupied the Yuelu Mountain position. When the battle was most intense, the shells ran out.The Chief of the Ninth War Zone sent a telegram to Chongqing, and the Military and Political Department replied: "The artillery shells are still waiting to be shipped in Yangon (the capital and seaport of Myanmar)."

Song Ziwen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government, exclaimed: "If the Japanese invaded Burma and cut off the Burma Road that we rely on for survival, the soldiers and civilians behind us would be trapped in an isolated city, waiting to die." At this time in China, the Anti-Japanese War has entered the most difficult period: most of the country has been occupied, all the outlets to the sea are occupied by Japan, and the Burma Road has become the only channel for transporting foreign materials.Myanmar, historically a vassal state of China and a colony of Britain, has now become a strategically important location in the overall situation of the Anti-Japanese War.

In January 1942, the Japanese army that swept across the Indochina Peninsula pointed at Burma and dispatched 4 divisions in an attempt to completely cut off China's blood vessels. At the same time, they used Burma as a springboard to march into India and realize their plan to join forces with Nazi Germany in the Middle East.Britain did not want to lose India, its largest colony, and China wanted to do its best to protect the last international transportation line. The two sides finally reached a consensus that China would send troops to Burma. In fact, as early as 1940, because the Japanese army invaded Vietnam and stepped up the pace of aggression against Southeast Asia, China and Britain began to contemplate an alliance, but experienced many twists and turns.

According to the records of "China's Anti-Japanese War Frontal Battlefield" edited by Guo Rugui and Huang Yuzhang: On December 10, 1941, Dennis, the British military attache in China, requested the Chinese Expeditionary Force to enter Burma for defense.On the 11th, the Military Commission first issued a mobilization order to the Fifth Army and the Sixth Army. On the 16th, the Fifth Army handed over its defense to the Seventy-first Army and then marched to Xiangyun, Dali, and Baoshan to assemble; the Sixth Army assembled in Baoshan and Mangshi (Luxi), forming the "First Route Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Army" , Wei Lihuang served as the commander-in-chief, and Du Yuming served as the deputy commander (since Wei Lihuang did not arrive, he was represented by Du Yuming), preparing to enter Burma to aid Britain.

On December 23, China, the United States, and Britain held a joint military meeting in Chongqing.On the Chinese side, Chiang Kai-shek presided over the meeting, and Wavell, commander-in-chief of the British Indian Burma Army, Magruder, head of the US military delegation, and Brandt, captain of the Army Air Corps, attended.China told Wavell: "China and Britain must not fail, so if your country needs it, our country can send 80,000 people to fight in Burma." But Wavell refused on the pretext of inconvenient transportation.The Chinese Military Commission issued an order not to enter Burma temporarily, and the expeditionary force, which was about to enter the Burma border, stayed near the Burma Road.

On January 31, 1942, the Japanese army repelled the 16th Infantry Brigade of the British and Indian Army and occupied Mawlamyine.The British side asked China for help on February 3, requesting that Chinese troops enter Myanmar. On February 16, 1942, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order: "Priority is given to transporting the Fifth Army into Burma, and all field artillery and anti-aircraft artillery should be accompanied by departure." The British sent a car to pick up and transport them into Myanmar. This is destined to be an expedition with a bumpy road ahead.In Yan Tingchun's memory, since the landmine that almost killed him, the shadow of death seems to have always followed him like a shadow. Yan Tingchun remembered that the troops rested overnight in Baoshan, drove from Baoshan to Longling, and from Longling to Mangshi.On the way, the Fifth Army pulled the cart of the wounded soldier and ran over a child to death.It was already night when we arrived in Wanding the next day, and a military vehicle crashed into a mound, injuring one person and killing a horse. On March 8, 1942, the Japanese army captured Rangoon, and hundreds of thousands of tons of aid supplies to China from the United States fell into the hands of the enemy.On the same day, the 200th Division, the vanguard of the Fifth Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, arrived in Tonggu, 260 kilometers north of Yangon, and officially kicked off the first battle into Myanmar. In the military headquarters of the Fifth Army, a young translator named Mu Dan wrote a poem entitled "Departure".After setting off, he, who threw his pen into the army, also smelled the breath of death in the gunpowder smoke from afar: On the morning of March 18, 1942, Tonggu.In the dim front command post, Dai Anlan, the commander of the 200th Division, carefully checked the documents of the Japanese army that had just been seized.Just a few hours ago, the outpost troops in charge of security ambushed a Japanese reconnaissance team and killed more than 30 Japanese soldiers.Dai Anlan analyzed from the Japanese military documents that the main force of the 55th Division of the Japanese Army is marching towards Tonggu. Tonggu is the hub of roads, railways and waterways in central Myanmar, and its strategic location is very important.After Yangon fell, Tonggu became the main target of the Japanese army.Originally stationed here was the First Division of the British Burmese Army. The important task of covering their retreat and defending Tonggu was undertaken by the 200th Division that had just arrived in Tonggu. The 2nd Zero Division was the first mechanized unit in China at that time. It had two tank regiments and two motorized infantry regiments, equipped with tanks, armored vehicles, motorcycles and large-caliber artillery. The infantry ratio was 3:1. In November 1939, the 200th Division fought fiercely with the Fifth Division of the Japanese elite troops at Kunlun Pass in Guangxi for a month. They repeatedly competed for positions and killed the Japanese commander Masao Nakamura, achieving a great victory at Kunlun Pass.This battle fully demonstrated the combat effectiveness and equipment advantages of the 200th Division, and the whole division received a collective award from the Nationalist Government once.Dai Anlan was awarded a fourth-class Blue Sky and White Sun Baoding Medal because of his commanding skills and his ability to survive serious injuries. At that time, he was hailed as "a contemporary standard young general". Veteran Yang Hongen's impression of Dai Anlan was short and stocky, wearing ordinary cotton clothes, a pair of rubber shoes, belts and leggings. In the mind of Dai Anlan's son, Dai Chengdong, his father loves soldiers like a son, works hard, and he can call every platoon leader in the division by name. "The combat effectiveness of this unit is relatively strong." On March 1, 1942, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Lashio, Myanmar, to arrange the deployment and combat guidance of the Fifth Army after entering Myanmar.He attached great importance to Dai Anlan. On March 3, he summoned Dai Anlan three times in one day, and gave him an opportunity: the 200th Division must preserve its strength and stick to Tonggu instead of taking the initiative to attack——Chiang Kai-shek is unwilling to let his ace troops As cannon fodder for the British. At this time in the Burmese battlefield, there was an extra special character—American Stilwell, chief of staff of the Allied China Theater Command. On March 3, in Lashio, Chiang Kai-shek met with Stilwell. The next day, Chiang Kai-shek told Du Yuming: "You are under the command of General Stilwell." He also urged Du Yuming to obey Stilwell absolutely.Du Yuming asked back: "What should you do if Stilwell's order does not conform to your decision?" Chiang Kai-shek replied: "You send a telegram to me for instructions." On March 19, the 55th Division of the Japanese Army, which was twice as strong as the 200th Division, began to storm Tonggu.Veteran Li Zhenchun recalled that the enemy not only has more troops, but also has superior weapons and equipment, "but the division commander Dai Anlan, he sticks to the same ancients." Dai Anlan took the lead in making a suicide note of "swearing to live and die with the same ancient times": "This expedition is a grand event that has spread abroad since the Tang and Ming dynasties. If the deputy division commander dies in battle, he will be replaced by the chief of staff; if the chief of staff dies in battle, he will be replaced by the infantry commander. Relying on crude fortifications, Chinese officers and soldiers resisted the continuous influx of Japanese troops.There are hand-to-hand combats every day, and every day, officers and soldiers slam grenades and die with the enemy. The battle is tragic. On March 22, Du Yuming sent a secret message to Chiang Kai-shek: there are more than a thousand ancient enemies, and there are six or seven mountain artillery.In the past few days, the number has increased to more than 2,000, with several field and mortar guns and several aircraft assisting, and continued to attack the east-west line of OKTSIN, the advancing position of our 200th Division.From dawn to noon, the artillery fire was unprecedented in several days.The enemy and the enemy charged and fought hand-to-hand several times, with heavy casualties on both sides. On March 24th, Du Yuming sent a secret telegram to Chiang Kai-shek: The enemy in front of the ancients will start a big battle this morning, and attack our position with a combination of artillery and air. At that time, from the west of the railway to the north of Tonggu, we planned to surround our Dai division and try to fight at the airport.As of 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the front is still on the red line from east to west in Okchun, and fierce fighting is still going on near the airport on the side and rear. On March 28, Du Yuming sent a secret telegram to Chiang Kai-shek: The siege of the enemies of Tonggu has increased dramatically since this morning. After 10 o'clock, several enemy planes bombed again, covering the tanks, entering and exiting vertically and horizontally, while the artillery used poison gas bombs to continuously forcibly attack the front and left flank of the Dai division's position with its blazing firepower.The battle was fierce and unprecedented.All my soldiers, respecting Junzuo's will, regard death as home, although the casualties are heavy, they still stick to it, and are still fighting fiercely with the enemy in the original position. In the middle of the night on March 28, the Japanese army sent a small group of troops to raid the headquarters of the 200th Division.Dai Anlan held a light machine gun and led his troops to fight the Japanese army all night.All the staff of the headquarters went into battle regardless of their ranks. They ran out of bullets and bent their bayonets. At the critical moment, a battalion of reinforcements arrived, and the division headquarter was saved from danger. This battle was written by Dai Anlan in his diary: "The battle on the 28th was the most intense, hardest, and most dangerous battle I have ever experienced. I still use 100-meter duels and bayonet grenades to solve the problem." In this way, the enemy's aircraft, artillery and tanks will be useless." On March 29, the British army retreated hastily without informing the Chinese friendly forces, exposing Tonggu's flank to the enemy.The 56th Division of the Japanese Army took the opportunity to quickly cross the Xidang River and began to outflank the rear of the 200th Division. The arrival of the enemy's reinforcements made the 200th Division suffer from the enemy, and the situation became more serious. Dai Anlan wrote a suicide note to his wife Wang Hexin in Kunming: "Dear Hexin: I was ordered to stick to Tonggu here. Because the big plan of the above is not yet determined, the contact with the rear is too far away, and the enemy moves fast. Now I am fighting alone, and I am determined to fight alone. Sacrifice in return for the country's upbringing. It is an honor to die for the country..." In the middle of the night on March 23, 1942, in Lashio, Myanmar, Yan Tingchun and his comrades groped forward in the dark during the march of the 66th Army.It has been several days since I came to Myanmar. Although I have not met the enemy yet, everyone is tense. According to Yan Tingchun's recollection: the night was dark, and the soldiers made noises by knocking on their belongings as they marched, as a communication signal. An unknown river lies in front of everyone.The outline of the river beach on the opposite bank is blurred, and it is hard to figure out the reality. The team stopped by the bridge.A squad leader used a charcoal stick to wear a hat as a disguise to cross the bridge first, then knocked on his belongings, seeing that there was no movement around him, and then ordered the team to move forward. The soldiers stepped onto the bridge without hesitation and ran to the opposite bank.Yan Tingchun and several soldiers from the cooking class ran behind the team, and heard gunshots as soon as they got on the bridge. "He (the squad leader) told everyone not to smoke, not to light the fire, not to make any noise, and to put the bowls for eating in the backpack. But the hunchback in the cooking class is too big to be put in the backpack, and it hits the road. The nearby branches made a sound, and the enemy noticed it and shot at us. We quickly lay down and saw the bullets hit the ground with plum blossoms." The gunfire continued. Yan Tingchun said that after reconnaissance, it was found that there was a temporary stronghold of the Japanese army not far from the opposite bank, and the cold gun was fired from there.The superior decided to immediately launch a night attack on the Japanese stronghold. Yan Tingchun became a member of the night raid team.Several British soldiers who retreated from the front became the guides of this operation. These British soldiers have been stationed here for a long time, and they are familiar with the surrounding terrain.Led by them, the night raid team arrived near a big tree where the sentinel of the Japanese army stronghold was located, and heard two snoring sounds one after another. "We decided to use the firelight as the name. The translator lit a match, and when the fire came on, we started from both sides, held them down so that they couldn't move, then pulled out the knife and pulled them on their necks. When it’s over, they have no voice.” Yan Tingchun described the process of killing the enemy for the first time in Myanmar. After wiping the blood from the incision, Yan Tingchun suddenly saw something standing in front of him, which looked like a human being but didn't move.He was a little scared and didn't dare to go forward. Yan Tingchun recalled that the translator told everyone to back off, and went up to reconnaissance alone, and found that the thing was a gasoline barrel, filled with gasoline. "The chief of staff threw the burning match into the gasoline barrel, and the flames quickly rose to the height of two or three floors, and then there were crackling gunshots all around." Soldiers, began to fire at the unprepared enemy, and all the Japanese soldiers in the stronghold were killed. The bloodiness of the battle has not dissipated, Yan Tingchun and his comrades continued to advance at dawn.The excitement of winning the first battle gradually faded in Yan Tingchun's heart—on this unfamiliar battlefield, he was facing death threats at any time. "We don't know where we went, we just walked day and night." Yan Tingchun recalled, and later came to a village, "the Fifth Army failed in this place."They saw many graves of comrades-in-arms of the Fifth Army. Some of the corpses of some comrades-in-arms were half exposed, and they were already stinking, and no one was going to bury them. Yan Tingchun believed that the Fifth Army suffered because many Burmese were spies. Chen Qiluan, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 288th Regiment of the 96th Division of the Fifth Army, once mentioned in his memoirs that after the Japanese invaded Burma, under the banner of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", they used the anti-British sentiment of the Burmese people to help Under the pretense of overthrowing the British emperor, Myanmar carried out deceptive propaganda to win people's hearts.The Burmese were deceived and regarded the Chinese Expeditionary Force as an accomplice of colonialism, and were hostile. "But we didn't do any publicity work, and we didn't try to win their understanding and help, so we had to encounter great difficulties and cause a lot of undue losses." Before the Chinese army entered Burma, the Japanese had been operating there for many years and cultivated a "fifth column" composed of Burmese spies. They set fire, poisoned, dug railway tracks, attacked military vehicles, and used various methods to hinder the expedition Action, assassinate expeditionary army officers and soldiers.Many Chinese soldiers died at the hands of Burmese traitors. Wherever the Chinese Expeditionary Force went, except for the overseas Chinese, most of the locals fled. The expeditionary force fought under the harsh conditions of language barrier, unfamiliar terrain, unsuitable climate, and poor intelligence.At this time, the officers and soldiers felt strongly that in this foreign land, as a foreign army, the way home is so far away. Mu Dan later wrote about this special feeling in his poem "The Blocked Road": On March 29, 1942, the Tonggu Defense War entered its 11th day.The Japanese army dispatched more than a hundred planes from Yangon Airport to bombard the ancient city of Tonggu. The poisonous gas released by the enemy was scattered with the wind, but the defense line of Donggu was still not broken, and the defenders in the city showed no signs of wavering or retreating.The surviving officers and soldiers of the 200th Division can no longer remember how many times they repelled the Japanese attack. On this day, amidst the earth-shattering artillery fire, Dai Anlan sent a telegram to Du Yuming: "The contact between the enemy and us started from the 19th to the 28th, and it took more than ten days. I am almost out of ammunition and food." In a desperate situation, the officers and soldiers have no food for two days, and they are still sticking to the position east of the Tonggu Railway... Since the beginning of the battle, the enemy has been fiercer than ever. , and the artillery used a large number of poisonous gas bombs to attack my position day and night... No reinforcements came, although I wanted to live and die with the same ancient city, but it was difficult to stop the fierce flames of the Japanese pirates... What is the benefit?" According to Yang Hongen's recollection, at this time, the 200th Division suffered heavy losses, and some companies had only five or six people left, and it was really difficult to sustain it. Du Yuming ordered the 200th Division to break through on the night of the 29th, but his idea was firmly opposed by Stilwell, who still insisted on launching an offensive war against the enemy, and the two had a heated argument on the phone.Stilwell asked Du Yuming to obey the order.Du Yuming directly contacted Chiang Kai-shek who was far away in Chongqing.Chiang Kai-shek weighed it again and again, and finally agreed to let the 200th Division withdraw from Tonggu.Regardless of Stilwell's strong opposition, Du Yuming resolutely issued an order to retreat. After a night of hard work, at dawn on the 30th, the officers and soldiers of the 200th Division finally succeeded in breaking through.Dai Anlan was the last to leave.Under his careful deployment, the whole division did not lose a single wounded soldier during the operation. So far, the 12-day Tonggu Defense War ended with the active retreat of the Chinese army.The Japanese occupied an empty city, while the Chinese retreated to Binwena, 100 miles away. In 12 days, more than 9,000 officers and soldiers of the 200th Division fought bloody battles with 20,000 Japanese troops. According to Taiwan's official war history "History of the Anti-Japanese War", the 2000th Division suffered a total of about 2,500 casualties and wiped out more than 5,000 Japanese troops. The Battle of Tonggu was the battle with the largest scale of operations, the longest defense time, and the most annihilated enemies during the Burma Defense War. The Battle of Tonggu made the Allies and even the enemy have a new understanding of Chinese soldiers. The 55th Division of the Japanese Army said in its records: "The enemy in front of us is the 200th Division of the Chongqing Army, and its will to fight has always been strong. Especially the troops that served as the cover for the retreat until the end still stood firm and resisted desperately. Although he is an enemy, he is indeed very brave, and the commander of the army, Lieutenant General Iida, and his subordinates all praised his bravery." "Biography of Dai Anlan": "...The enemy chief Tojo Hideki admitted in the Japanese parliament that the battle of Tonggu was a bitter battle that had never been seen since the siege of Lushun." "Indian Express": "Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell said: 'I thought the Chinese couldn't do something... Now it seems that they can do something.'" Stilwell: "General Dai Anlan is the first person who has done meritorious deeds in foreign lands in modern times and promoted the prestige of the great man." After the first World War with ancient times, the Japanese army marched straight in and continued to advance northward.They described it this way: "During the expedition to Burma, we always saw the hands of the Indians, the buttocks of the British, and the corpses of the Chinese." Zhang Zhen, the commander of the 66th Army, mentioned in his memoirs the reason for the heavy losses of the expeditionary force: "The friendly army never gave me a report, and the superior never gave me a formal order. Even if there were orders, they were passed down by word of mouth. A certain place of the Sixth Army fell, and a certain place of the Fifth Army fell today, or the enemy entered a certain place, and still did not know the name of the enemy. He participated in the war against Japan in Burma in a daze. With the newly established 66th Army The army joined the expeditionary force to deal with the United Kingdom and the United States, and in fact they treated us as victims." The last victory of the Chinese Expeditionary Force's first entry into Burma was the famous Great Victory in Ren'an and Qiang: On April 19, Sun Liren, commander of the new 38th Division of the Sixty-sixth Army, led only one regiment in Ren'an. Qiang fought against Japanese troops several times larger than himself, annihilating an elite Japanese brigade, and rescued more than 7,000 people from the First Division of the British and Burmese Army who had been besieged for many days and were on the verge of extinction, as well as about 500 missionaries and journalists. Partial victories can hardly turn back the overall situation.After the Japanese army made a breakthrough on the Eastern Front, they adopted long-distance raids and occupied Lashio, the starting point of the Myanmar side of the Yunnan-Burma Highway on April 29, cutting off the important line of communication between Myanmar and Yunnan. Attack Mandalay from the rear. On May 1, Mandalay fell. After the strategic centers of Lashio and Mandalay fell to the enemy one after another, the supply line of the expeditionary force was cut off, and the way back home was also cut off.The tragic fate of the 100,000 young people who, with a passion for serving the country and looking forward to a foreign country, began. On April 30, Luo Zhuoying, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, issued an order to retreat across the board, and the various departments of the Chinese Expeditionary Force fell into chaos.In Yan Tingchun's impression, the last escape came so suddenly. "At night, we saw the Japanese there, and fought with the Japanese for two or three hours. Later, we turned back to find the division headquarters, but the division headquarters had withdrawn and could not be found. The battalion commander said that he would take charge of the command (return back) ) Hit, brothers tidy up their backpacks, keep a change of clothes, and throw away the extra things.” On May 18, the 200th Division, which had gone deep behind enemy lines and moved northward, was blocked by the 56th Division of the Japanese Army. During the scuffle, Dai Anlan was shot and injured. Dai Anlan's eldest son, Dai Fudong, talked about the situation at that time: "My father was shot in the abdomen and couldn't move. Run forward. There was no first aid kit, clean cotton, salt water, even a small bottle of wine..." After breaking out of the encirclement of the Japanese army, the remnants of the 200th Division, with less than 3,000 people, carried the injured division commander into the mountains of northern Myanmar in the twilight and walked towards the motherland. In order not to affect the march, Dai Anlan has been wounded on a stretcher to command, and repeatedly asked about the distance to Yunnan during the march.His subordinates asked him, "Where are we going next?" Dai Anlan asked his followers to take out a map, pointed to Ruili, Yunnan, and signaled the troops to return home from this route. Many years later, many veterans of the expedition told Dai Chengdong: "At that time, your father showed us a way to survive." Perhaps because he had a premonition that his days were numbered, Dai Anlan called Zheng Tingji, the infantry commander of the 200th Division and head of the 598th Regiment, and left intermittently his final instructions: "If I die for the country, you must send the troops Take it back to the motherland..." On May 26, Dai Anlan's 38-year-old life came to an end in Fangbang Village, northern Myanmar, only 100 kilometers away from Yunnan. When he was dying, Dai Anlan asked his attendants to tidy up his appearance for him, and helped him sit up, facing the north, that is, the direction of the motherland, and he took a last look. One last look, one deep look. The news of Dai Anlan's sacrifice was sent back to China, and Chiang Kai-shek sent an order: Master Dai's body must be carried back to the motherland.According to Zheng Tingji’s memoirs: “On May 29, due to the hot weather, Mr. Dai’s body was stinking with pus and water. He could no longer walk and could not stay in Myanmar, so we decided to cremate him. We cremated Mr. Dai’s coffin on a log. Finally, pick out the remains, wrap them with silk cloth according to their parts, put them in wooden boxes, and march with the regiment headquarters of the 598th regiment." Dai Anlan's remains returned to the motherland with the army. The national hero, the soul is back. The retreat route of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which entered Burma for the first time, was very complex and confusing.Ge Shuya, an expert on the history of the Anti-Japanese War, sorted out five main retreat routes based on the materials of China, the United States, and Japan after the war, as well as the memories of veterans and old Burmese: Savage Mountain Route——The Fifth Army Headquarters and the Remnant Headquarters of the New Twenty-Second Division The Imphal Route—British Forces, Stilwell's Headquarters, and the New 38th Division Putao (Savage Mountain) - Fugong route - the remnant of the new 96th Division Along the Yunnan-Burma Highway—Part of the Military Headquarters of the Fifth Army, the 200th Division and the newly organized 28th Division and the remnants of the 29th Division of the 66th Army Jingdong Route——The 93rd Division of the Sixth Army, the Remnants of the Provisional 55th Division and the Temporary 49th Division On May 8, 1942, on the road leading to the north of Kasa, Myanmar, the vehicles of the retreating expeditionary force clogged the road.Different from the congestion that occurred on the Burma Highway more than two months ago, at this moment, the air is filled with chaos and panic. Yang Hongen's Fifth Army is a mechanized unit, and the higher-ups ordered it to withdraw overnight in order to preserve its strength.Yang Hongen remembered that during the retreat, some cars stopped driving along the road, poured some gasoline on them and burned them, not leaving them for the enemy. On this day, Yan Tingchun, who lost contact with the 66th Army, was struggling with his comrades in the jungles of northern Myanmar. "We entered Myanmar from the east and came out from the west. Everyone said that we were going back to China. We kept walking like this for 5 days. We never took a car on the main road, and we always walked to the back of the main road." On this day, Du Yuming received a call from Luo Zhuoying, "ordering all to retreat to Wenzao, 150 kilometers east of Imphal (Imphal)"; and the day before, Du Yuming received an order from Chiang Kai-shek: "To Myitkyina, the The horse turns in, don't hesitate to stop." Whether to continue to follow Chiang Kai-shek's order to return to China, or to follow Luo Zhuoying's order to withdraw to India, Du Yuming hesitated.He later revealed in his memoirs that at that time, "After I convened the commanders of the various troops and the chiefs of staff to discuss, I was determined to retreat to the border according to Chiang Kai-shek's order. At that time, all the generals had no objection." On May 9, Du Yuming, in the name of the deputy commander-in-chief of the First Route of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, convened a meeting to study the deployment of the breakout.Du Yuming was determined to give up the frontal breakthrough from Myitkyina, which had been captured by the Japanese army, and chose to enter the border from the west and north of Menggong.Immediately after the meeting, the troops divided into four groups and retreated from different directions. The only one who did not follow Du Yuming's plan was Sun Liren.Seeing that the rainy season was approaching and the journey back to the north was far away, he led the new 38th division to retreat to Imphal, India on June 8.Among the various units of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the New 38th Division is the only division that maintains a complete organizational system and retreats. Stilwell rejected the proposal to send him to India or Kunming by plane, and led 114 people of different nationalities and genders from China, the United States, Britain, Burma and India to Imphal, India, on May 22, only 14 days away , took the least amount of time to retreat of all Allied forces without a single fatality. On May 24, Stilwell said at a press conference held in New Delhi, the capital of India: "We were kicked out of Burma. This is a great shame! We must find the reason for the failure and regain Burma!" In mid-May, nearly 30,000 officers and soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force arrived in the mountains of northern Myanmar one after another, planning to return to China through the Hukang River Valley.Mu Dan, an army translator who wrote poems, was also among them.He heard that in the legend of the local people, this primeval forest stretching for hundreds of miles has a terrible name-Savage Mountain. Mu Dan, who survived the retreat at the Savage Mountain, wrote a poem three years later: "The Charm of the Forest-Sacrifice to the Bones on the Hukang River", in which there are lines like this: In the same year (1942), Chiang Kai-shek took Luo Zhuoying to Lashio on April 5, and went to Mei Miao on the 6th to personally command and deploy. He decided to fight in Pingmanna, sent the 66th Army to Burma, and summoned the 200 soldiers who had broken through with the ancient army. Dai Anlan, the commander of the division, stayed with him for one night to give him comfort. On the 8th, Jiang invited me and Dai to inspect Mandalay with him.Chiang Kai-shek saw that the Tangpeng Mountains from Meimiao to Mandalay overlapped and was very dangerous. He said to me: "The Battle of Pinmanna is very important. We must encourage the soldiers to defeat the Japanese invaders in one fell swoop, and then recover Yangon. In case the Japanese invaders The follow-up troops will increase, and our army should not force a decisive battle, take a step back and prepare for the battle of Mandalay, or hold this mountain pass (between Mei Miao and Mandalay) to fight the enemy for a long time." I agreed with Chiang Kai-shek's instruction at that time.After returning to Mei Miao, he told me to obey the orders of Stilwell and Luo Zhuoying. I had quarreled with Stilwell because of the battle with Gu, and I was full of resentment. I said to Jiang: "As Stilwell ordered, the 200th Division It has already been ruined, he neither understands the situation of the Chinese army, nor can he say that he does not understand tactics." Jiang stopped me and said, "I know. With Chief Luo around in the future, he will understand." Chiang Kai-shek returned to China on the 9th, and Stilwell and Luo Zhuoying will be fully responsible for the command of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in the future. In 1951, Yang Guanghan, an overseas Chinese from Tonggu, Myanmar, and others raised funds to build a monument to the Chinese Expeditionary Army in the local area.Yang Bofang, a veteran of the Expeditionary Army who had guarded the monument for many years (died in Tonggu on January 2, 2009, at the age of 89), wrote a tribute: When people award medals to victors, they must not forget the fallen brothers who sacrificed for today's peace and stability. They must remember that in the vast jungle, beside the long road, along the rolling river, on the high mountain, in the In the canyon, there are still the remains of hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force... Loyal bones are buried everywhere in the mountains! It is impossible to have no regrets in war, even a victorious one.When that battle was advancing like fire and lightning, whether they were struggling in defeat or cheering in victory, the generals of the expeditionary force never forgot that after each battle, they ordered the officers and soldiers killed in battle His remains were carefully collected, and a dry place was carefully selected for burial, and after each burial, wounded soldiers were left to guard the tomb.The war continues, the flames of war are spreading, and such tombs are increasing in the flames of war, increasing... ... Those homeless, undead who have nowhere to go are still wandering around in the dark, damp and inaccessible jungle. The wind is their sighing! Rain and electricity are their roar! We are going home! We are going home!

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