During the Anti-Japanese War, soldiers from China and Japan continued to attack each other in order to survive. This fierce battle was fought to the death. Although the two sides had different positions, after witnessing the collective death of Chinese soldiers, the Japanese sold

In the Anti-Japanese War , soldiers from China and Japan continued to attack each other in order to survive. This fierce battle was fought to the death.

Although the two sides had different positions, after witnessing the collective death of Chinese soldiers, the Japanese soldiers who survived were shocked by the spirit of the Chinese soldiers.

Baoshan next to the Flesh Mill occupies an important position and must be defended

During the Anti-Japanese War, in order to defend the country, many aspiring young people gave up their homes for everyone, left their hometowns, and went to the national disaster together. The first large-scale battle between China and Japan Songhu The battle against is an extremely brutal battle.

The Battle of Songhu took place in 1937. In the August after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, China and Japan invested heavily in a protracted war that lasted for three months. At that time, the Kuomintang army sent its long-trained German weapons troops entered the battlefield, hoping that this force could crush the Japanese army's delusion of "annihilating China in three months."

At that time, the Kuomintang army took the initiative to launch an offensive war against the Japanese invading forces in Shanghai. However, due to the fierce firepower of the Japanese army's air artillery, they failed to successfully counterattack.

Before the war started, the Japanese army had already issued an army mobilization order to provide reinforcements for the Japanese army in Shanghai. The leading troops of the 11th Division of the Japanese Army landed in Chuansha Town , followed by other troops. The Chinese and Japanese sides repeatedly fought fiercely, and both There were heavy casualties.

The 18th Army of the Kuomintang counterattacked the Japanese troops who landed from Shizilin and Chuansha. The Japanese troops had an advantage in the number of participants and weapons. The Chinese soldiers caused a lot of casualties to the Japanese troops through tenacious resistance, but they still failed to stop the Japanese troops' "Shanghai" The dispatched troops successfully landed.

On August 23, the Chinese and Japanese armies centered on "Luodian" in northern Shanghai. Both sides invested hundreds of thousands of soldiers and launched an unprecedentedly brutal offensive and defensive battle.

"The Battle for Luodian" is also known as "The Flesh Mill."

Luodian's position changed hands several times, and neither China nor Japan could fully control it. However, overall, the Japanese troops who landed had an advantage.

At this time, the Japanese command found a small county town on the map. The east and north of this county town were close to the Yangtze River. Ten miles to the south was the Wusong Fort, and ten miles to the west was the Lion Forest Fortress. It was located in a dangerous location, and they had to capture it. The place below, this county town, is Baoshan, known as the "waterway gateway" to the north of Shanghai.

After learning that the Japanese army had captured Baoshan City, the 294th Brigade launched an attack to the east of Yuepu with the 588th Regiment. With the cooperation of the security regiment troops, Baoshan City was recovered. After that, the division served as the 583rd Division Reserve Team. The 3rd Battalion of the regiment defended Baoshan City, while the main force of the division attacked in the direction of Shizilin Fort.

In September of the same year, the Japanese 12th, 18th, 21st, 22nd, 36th and other brigades arrived in Shanghai, and the Japanese army launched an attack on Baoshan again.

Japanese warships outside Wusongkou continued to bombard Baoshan City in the faint morning light. The sky that once belonged to the freedom of birds was occupied by Japanese planes. Bomb after bomb was dropped from low altitude, and the houses in the city were instantly destroyed. Burnt by fire.

After the Japanese army captured Wusong Town , they attacked Baoshan City. According to records, this wave of attacks was conducted by the Japanese 68th Regiment commanded by Takamori Takamori, with about 2,500 people, powerful sea and air firepower and more than 20 vehicles. Tank support.

The Kuomintang troops guarding Baoshan Town in Shanghai have suffered all their casualties due to continuous hard fighting. The remaining troops, led by company commander Li Dacheng, are still stubbornly resisting the Japanese attack. Seeing that the Japanese troops are about to break into the city, the 18th Army of the National Revolutionary Army Yao Ziqing, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 583rd Regiment of the 292nd Brigade of the 98th Division, arrived with his troops, and everyone worked together to drive the Japanese invaders out of Baoshan County.

The young officer led his troops to take the initiative to fight back and struggled to survive in the war.

Yao Ziqing was born in Pingyuan County, Guangdong Province. Hakka . Although his family was poor, his father worked hard to provide for him to study, and he rewarded his father with excellent results, 1926 In October 2008, he was admitted to the sixth batch of Huangpu Military Academy, and after graduation, he served as a trainee officer in the 11th Division of the National Revolutionary Army.

During the Central Plains War, , Yao Ziqing was shot in the leg but still did not make any military exploits. He was promoted to company commander. Since then, he has repeatedly made military exploits. At the age of only 28, he became the major commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 583rd Regiment.

The 98th Division where Yao Ziqing’s camp is located is a direct descendant of the 18th Army of the Kuomintang. The 18th Army was the first of the five main forces of the Kuomintang Army at that time, and the most elite unit known as the "King of Kings".

However, the 3rd Battalion of the 583rd Regiment led by Yao Ziqing was only a strategic reserve at the time. Most of the soldiers had never been on the battlefield. The whole battalion had only more than 600 people and only had 4 mortars and 200 rounds of artillery shells. , 16 heavy machine guns .

In front of the Japanese regiment equipped with 12 75mm infantry guns and 4 75mm field guns, their firepower seemed vulnerable. At that time, in addition to aircraft and tanks to cooperate with the attack, the Japanese army also parked on the river. The Japanese destroyers and the cruisers were suppressed by the naval guns .

In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the superiors of the Kuomintang hoped to wear down the Japanese army through a protracted war. The war against Japan was mainly defensive, so they paid a staggering price in casualties.

Faced with the Japanese army, which had huge sea and air superiority and was three times more powerful than its own, Yao Ziqing did not adopt the traditional plan of relying on the Baoshan City Wall for defense. Instead, he pushed the main position forward to the favorable terrain outside the city, using a combination of frontal resistance and resistance. The tactics of flank counterattack repelled the first Japanese attack, killing more than 200 enemies, and won the first battle.

During the defense process of Baoshan Battle, Yao Ziqing repeatedly used small teams to carry out counterattacks, which was indeed a great progress in the military.

When the enemy was preparing for artillery fire, Yao Ziqing ordered the soldiers to hide in bunkers to reduce non-combat casualties. As soon as the artillery fire stopped, they immediately entered the position to attack the charging enemies. Yao Ziqing also sent another force to Jinjiazhai to attack the direction of Lion Forest. The invading enemy forces prevented the Japanese army from succeeding in their plan to attack Baoshan for a while.

On the first day of guarding Baoshan, the Chinese defenders withstood the enemy's fierce attack with their flesh and blood, without aircraft support or powerful artillery cover.

After several days of stalemate, the Japanese warships parked outside Wusongkou began to attack and fired shells one after another into Baoshan City. Just after the bombardment, several more planes appeared in the sky of Baoshan. Bombs were dropped one after another, and the planes pulled up. It took off, turned around, returned to dive, and fired fiercely at the Chinese defenders' positions. Baoshan turned into a city of fire amidst the multi-faceted attacks from land, sea and air.

As soon as the Japanese sea and air fire bombardment stopped, the enemy troops rushed to Baoshan. Yao Ziqing stared closely at the attacking Japanese troops. When the enemy entered the weapon range, he gave the order to open fire and counterattack. The Japanese assault formation was suddenly in chaos. Got a set.

On the second day of guarding Baoshan, the Japanese army, with the reinforcements of aircraft and the roar of naval guns, failed to break into the 3rd Battalion's position.

However, the situation was still not optimistic. The 98th Division fought fierce battles with the Japanese army for several days and suffered heavy casualties. It had no choice but to retreat to the east side of Yuepu. The Japanese army continued to increase reinforcements and advanced step by step. The situation gradually favored the Japanese army.

In the early morning of September 4th, the Japanese army's artillery sound continued for more than two hours, and most of the positions of the 98th Division were destroyed. Immediately afterwards, the Japanese army assembled more than 30 tanks and launched a fierce attack on the south of Baoshan City. The sound of killing was loud and clear. Heaven, flesh and blood flying everywhere.

Japanese troops continued to come for support, but the Chinese defenders still stubbornly resisted the invaders. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, but the Chinese defenders stood firm and vowed to shed the last drop of blood.

With the deployment of a regiment of elite troops and the support of absolutely superior firepower, the Japanese army was blocked outside Baoshan City for four consecutive days. Colonel Takamori Takashi, the commander of the regiment, was so angry that he launched another ferocious attack at 4 a.m. on the 5th.

The hero of Gucheng died, and the enemy fired a salute.

Yao Ziqing sent two reports to the division commander Xia Chuzhong, both expressing his determination to fight to the end with all the officers and soldiers. At that time, the 1st Army was rushing towards Baoshan with the intention of supporting, but unexpectedly encountered The Japanese army made a sneak attack and the road from Baoshan to Yanghang was cut off. Baoshan was isolated by heavy Japanese troops and became an isolated city.

In this isolated city that has been torn by war, the hospital has been bombed by Japanese aircraft. Field service member Xu Eryue and the head nurse were killed. Only the female field service member Cao Sujun was left. Not long ago, Cao Sujun's father was leading people He died in the Japanese bombing while supporting the defenders against the Japanese army.

html At dawn on the 6th, the Japanese army launched a strong attack on the east, south and north sides of Baoshan City. The soldiers of the 3rd Battalion fought bloody battles while filling the gaps in the city wall. They defended Baoshan despite the unfavorable battle situation.

The Kuomintang army at that time rarely fought with troops whose equipment and technology were superior to its own, so it did not pay attention to building strong defenses during the Shanghai-Song Battle. This undoubtedly increased casualties, and once one point was breached, the entire line would collapse. , in this case, the city wall of Baoshan County must not be broken.

The Japanese army, unable to conquer for a long time, fired a large number of sulfur bombs and incendiary bombs and carried out retaliatory shelling at the Baoshan position. The defenders fought back bravely in the flames, determined to live and die with Baoshan. Field service member Cao Sujun was shot and died.

At night, the positions outside Baoshan City had been completely destroyed by artillery fire. There was scorched earth and broken limbs everywhere. The Japanese reinforcements continued to flow, but the Chinese defenders could only consume one flesh and blood body after another. To a desperate situation.

html On September 7, the Japanese siege troops reinforced another brigade. Battleships, planes, and tanks continued to launch a powerful offensive against Baoshan, as if the artillery fire vowed to raze the place to the ground.

A large gap was blown out of the city wall in the southeast corner, and Japanese troops poured out. Our soldiers fought desperately, but to no avail.

The Japanese troops followed the tanks and poured into the county like locusts . Yao Ziqing led more than 70 surviving officers and soldiers who would rather die than surrender and started fierce street battles with the enemy. Under heavy fire and strafing, the two armies were unable to respond.

Yao Ziqing asked the soldier Wei Jianju to try to get out of the city to inform the city of the civil war, and then he and his surviving compatriots fixed their bayonets and prepared to die generously. After the east gate of

city was blown open by the Japanese army, enemy troops poured in like passing locusts. His superiors ordered Yao Ziqing to lead his troops to break out, but Yao Ziqing was determined to defend Baoshan to the death. He ordered Second Lieutenant Ma Xiaoyang to lead the remaining 20 soldiers to break out. He is prepared to stay and coexist with Baoshan.

Ma Xiaoyang and the others could not bear the battalion commander to stay alone, and were determined to live and die with Baoshan. Yao Ziqing had to order the youngest soldier Wei Mingyang to break out of the encirclement with the ten-year-old Chen Jiguang.

Yao Ziqing led the last 20 or so soldiers and threw themselves at the enemy as if they were dead. There is no exact record of how Yao Ziqing died. There are rumors that he was hit by a cannonball, and some said he was hit by a bullet, but what is certain is that , Yao Ziqing died for his country around 10 a.m. on September 6 at the age of 29.

Except for Wei Jianju who was sent out of the city and a few survivors who left the city early due to injuries, Yao Ziqing and his men all fought to the end. The 3rd Battalion of the 583rd Regiment of the 98th Division all died heroically at 5 p.m.

When the gunpowder smoke cleared, only Jiang Feng was whimpering. The Japanese commander Takamori Takashi who captured Baoshan was shocked. Although they belonged to different camps, the Chinese soldiers fought to the death to protect the country and deserved his respect. These soldiers were real soldiers, Takamori Takamori. He ordered the corpses of Chinese soldiers on the battlefield to be gathered together, lined up for them, and fired three shots in the air in mourning.

This group of invaders who set foot on Chinese soil in early August has always accepted the concept that the Chinese army is vulnerable and will retreat once it opens fire.

But the Chinese army in front of them fought to the last drop of blood and sacrificed all their lives without retreating. This kind of conceptual impact would accompany them until their defeat and surrender in 1945.

In the Baoshan defense battle, Chinese soldiers used a battalion to withstand dozens of violent attacks by enemy tanks and infantry. They held their position for seven days and killed more than 900 Japanese soldiers.

Chinese soldiers used their lives and blood to prove their patriotism and patriotism to the world. Mao Zedong praised Yao Ziqing as a "noble and great model" for the people of the country. In 1983, Yao Ziqing was posthumously recognized by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China Revolutionary martyr.

In addition to Yao Ziqing, there are too many regiment commanders, battalion commanders, company commanders, platoon commanders and squad leaders, thousands of ordinary soldiers, who have not left their names in history, have never been recognized as martyrs, or even had their heads removed. Different place.

But they advanced the process of history. Their enemies remember their bravery, their comrades miss the years they walked hand in hand, the younger generations are grateful for their efforts, and Qingshan is fortunate to bury their loyal bones.

References:

1. "Baoshan Defense War: Remembering the Martyrs who Died for the Country"; Advancing Together. 2021, (05) Baoshan Defense War: Remembering the Martyrs who Died for the Country - China National Knowledge Infrastructure (cnki.net)

2. " Iron-Blooded Defender of Baoshan: An Analysis of the Domestic Film "The Defender" Light Weapons. 2019, (01) Iron-Blooded Defender of Baoshan: An Analysis of the Domestic Film "The Defender" - China National Knowledge Infrastructure (cnki.net)

3. "Anti-Japanese Hero: Yao Ziqing" Wencun Reading Journal . 2018, (18) Anti-Japanese Hero: Yao Ziqing - China National Knowledge Infrastructure (cnki.net)

4. " The isolated city of Baoshan, the two armies fought fiercely" ; Duxiu.com; from Chang Qi. Panoramic picture of the battlefield of the Chinese Anti-Japanese War Song. Complete video record of the August 13 Songhu Battle[M]. 2015