The blockade of Tangshan is a part of Nanjing Defence War, and it is a bloody battle between China soldiers and Japanese invaders near Tangshan. Although the war is short-lived, it is an extremely important page in the history of Tangshan, in which the epic story can not be ignored and irrefutable. I don't have any military experience, and I lack the ability to discard the false and retain the true in history, but I have a special liking for this war history and just want to understand it and clarify it. In a word, it is to carry forward the national justice and inspire fighting spirit. In short, it can also break the haze and gain knowledge. Moreover, after fierce fighting, it will never be blown away without leaving a trace. We can study from that pile of old papers, learn from folk word of mouth, and verify it in person, and more or less we will always gain something. So, I went out for advice again and again and enjoyed it.
Pre-war preparation
Before, the Kuomintang army built a lot of fortifications outside Nanjing, which should be said to be well prepared. Tangshan is the east gate of Nanjing and has always been a military center, and the fortifications in this area are of course the most important. As early as the autumn of 1936, the Kuomintang army held a big exercise with Tang Shengzhi as the referee. "The predetermined goal of the exercise is to assume that when the enemy Japanese army invaded Nanjing, as soon as its main force arrived at the front line of Tangshan, our army would use the complex silhouette to pretend to resist step by step, consume the enemy's troops, and gradually lure the enemy to the south of Zijin Mountain and annihilate it." After the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War in Songhu, Chiang Kai-shek sent Lieutenant Colonel Nevig, a cavalry member of the German advisory group, to Tangshan on June 5438+0937+00 to participate in reconnaissance of defensive positions. 165438+1At the beginning of October, Tang Shengzhi and others went to Tangshan to survey the terrain. After the retreat of the Shanghai battlefield, the base camp ordered an engineering company of the teaching corps to build field fortifications at the front end of Tangshan Town under the guidance of German consultants. Some people boast that this is China's "maginot line". The old people said that the bunkers in Tangshan were dotted with trenches and needed each other. It is true that great efforts have been made, but the Japanese army has already made a clear reconnaissance. Many fortifications did not play a role when they were outflanked from other places during the war.
Now, in the field to the north of the gun field, you can still see several reinforced concrete bunkers built that year, which are still very strong. At the foot of the mountain not far from the gate of 83 Hospital, there is a big round bunker, which basically remains the same. At the southern end of Xigangtou, there is a bunker that is also intact. There are two bunkers on the edge of Tangshan Reservoir near Longzhu Mountain Villa. If other bunkers may be bombed by the construction team in the future, then these two bunkers will sleep underwater and will be fine for a hundred years.
The killing more than 60 years ago is a thing of the past. Only these bunkers are still stubbornly squatting in the fields, telling pedestrians about the humiliation and misery of the year.
Meng's tomb in a bloody battle
There is a book called Nanjing Defence War, which is a memoir written by a Kuomintang general. The book mentions the Tangshan War in many places. Although the language is vague, the outline is clear: at that time, the first-line troops participating in the Tangshan Battle were the Kuomintang 66th Army, 83rd Army (they were Guangdong Army), 74th Army, 78th Army and 2nd Army 4 1 Division. In addition, Du's armored vehicle company. The book wrote: "On February 6, 65438, the enemy of Jurong invaded Tangshui Town in the north and fought fiercely with our 66 th Army." "On February 7, 65438, Tangshui Town was invaded by the Japanese army for the first time. Our army retreated to the second line at dusk and stuck to Tangshan and Tangshui Town. On the 8th, the Japanese army attacked the second line of defense in Tangshan with the main force, artillery and mechanized troops, and scuffled with our army. At about 8 o'clock, Tangshui Town was once attacked by the Japanese army and was recaptured. Tangshui Town and the highlands on both sides of the strait are still in the hands of our army. "
Literally, three or four armies, with 890 thousand troops, gathered in Tangshan to confront the Japanese aggressors. What a nice appearance and scale! That was not the case. Tan Daoping, then head of the First Section of the General Staff of garrison headquarters, wrote in his book: "These three armies (referring to the 74th Army, the 66th Army and the 83rd Army) are all disabled soldiers who have played well and have not finished yet. There are few veterans and most of the recruits are untrained. However, when the war situation has reached the point where there are no soldiers to adjust, we have to accommodate the facts. " He also said: "I am dealing with the work of mobilizing troops to the front line every day. Literally, it is obvious that a division or an army is going up, but in fact, soldiers are just like a battalion. " What the section chief said makes sense.
Some of the stories told by the old people are consistent with the memories of the generals who participated in the war, while others are quite different. Many old people said that the Japanese army marched westward from Jurong, Tuqiao, Suoshu and other places, and there was no major battle in Tangshan Town, and there was no major battle between Xintang and Zuochang. So, where was the battlefield in those days?
Rui Youdao, an old man in Tangze Village, said that at the beginning of the uprising, his father Rui Chaoshun was taken by the Japanese army to carry the wounded soldiers and carried from the ravine southwest of Meng Tomb to the artillery school. He was too tired to run twice a day and was carried to Dingshu. He can't walk any further. After a short rest, the detained Japanese soldier was stabbed to death.
The old man's dictation is credible: the tomb of Meng was once an old battlefield.
At the southwest 1 km of Chenfang Meng Mu Natural Village, an iron tower stands high on the soil slope (see the picture below). This tower has six floors, the second and top floors are welded by thick steel plates, and the other floors are open. It turned out that this was an artillery observation tower built by the Kuomintang before the Anti-Japanese War. There are two slits in the steel plate to observe the explosion point of the shell. Because of the thick steel plate for protection, observers don't have to worry about shrapnel flying.
When the Japanese army captured Tangshan, there was a bloody battle in the area of Meng Tomb, and the child prodigy village. Two companies of Guangdong soldiers stood in the trenches near the iron tower and fought fiercely with the Japanese for two days and two nights. Most officers and men died heroically. The arrogant Japanese army suffered heavy losses here, leaving hundreds of bodies behind. The bloody battle of that year was not recorded in historical materials, but was deeply remembered in the hearts of the old people. 1999, an overseas Chinese newspaper published an article, reporting the whole story of this bloody battle, with the title "Hero Tower".
According to Pang Jiajun, an old man from the natural village of Meng Tomb, 1937 (12.8), in the early morning of the sixth day of the lunar winter month, a Yue army went to Meng Tomb and knocked on doors to ask for shelter from the cold. The villagers opened the door and saw that they were all wearing shorts. Only a few people were wearing cotton vests and stood shivering in the cold wind. They said with a Cantonese accent, "We are Tang Shengzhi's troops. Tang Shengzhi commanded the war in Nanjing, and we came here. "
Soon, the Japanese army arrived at Jurong Tuqiao and advanced westward. The Guangdong army entered the trench on the west side of the tomb of Meng and confronted the Japanese army. A group of soldiers boarded the watchtower with light and heavy machine guns, and then cut off the ladder to prevent people from getting on the tower.
After the Japanese arrived in Chenfang, they attacked Wangjiashan. Guangdong soldiers stationed on the mountain are unambiguous. They took the initiative to attack, went around behind the Japanese army, and shot at the Japanese army at Mopandun, killing several Japanese troops. The Japanese army dragged the dead and wounded soldiers to the prodigy village. Guangdong soldiers on the rostrum saw the Japanese troops assembled in the prodigy village, so they fired fiercely with heavy machine guns and killed hundreds of Japanese troops. The Japanese army found that the fire of the machine gun was on the iron tower, and it was useless to raise a gun to fight back, so it turned to its air force for help. Soon, several Japanese planes flew in and flew at low altitude in turn, shooting at Guangdong soldiers. The solar machine has two wings, and the red sun mark on the fuselage can be seen clearly. Japanese small steel cannons also fired at the tower, and shells landed on the tower from time to time. The observable tower is so strong that even small caliber shells can't cope with it.
On the sixth day, I played all day, and the gunfire never stopped. This Guangdong army is brave and tenacious and plays well. But they are alone, without backup, and the casualties are getting bigger and bigger. On the seventh day, it played for another morning, and the gunfire gradually faded. At night, there will be no more gunshots.
The old man Pang Jiajun said that there were only four Guangdong soldiers left on the rostrum and they left after dark. He saw with his own eyes that after the Japanese army occupied Meng's tomb, he wrote the words "Xiao Ye Army and Sifang Army came here" on the wall with chalk.
In the Battle of Meng Tomb, the Japanese suffered heavy casualties. Their dead soldiers were cremated and buried in the prodigy village with some injured soldiers, and pieces of evocation cards were inserted in the cemetery. The officers and men of the Guangdong army who died in the battle were transported to Huocha Mountain by nearby villagers to dig a hole and bury it, leaving no sign at the burial site.
In the early morning of the first day of August, the Japanese army captured several civilian workers, passed through Changlonggou, Dalian Mountain and Xiaomaoshan, and headed for Cangbomen, but there were still a few troops in Meng Tomb. Pang Jiajun's father Pang Zhenjin (5 1 year-old) and uncle Pang Zhenbing (49) miss their pigs and cows and set off for home from the mountains. Who knows, on the way, they met the Japanese army marching westward, and both of them were shot and killed by the Japanese army. Pang Zhentai, a 60-year-old villager, was shot and killed by a Japanese soldier standing guard at the edge of the village when he returned to Meng's tomb on the evening of the eighth day. Pang Jiajun, the mother of a family uncle, is over 80 years old and has leg and foot diseases. She had to grab a bench and move slowly step by step. When the Japanese soldiers saw it, they kicked her into the pond and drowned her alive. The small bench also fell into the pond and floated around, as if to accompany the old man to the last moment.
Now, the iron tower of Meng Tomb still stands on the high slope. 400 meters north of the iron tower is the office building and workshop of Nanfeng Stone Powder Factory. The factory building is tall and tidy, and the office building is beautiful and spacious. There are dozens of red maple, camphor and palm trees planted on the lawn in front of the building, which is full of rural charm. The Hero Tower, which was baptized by war 67 years ago, seems to be a burly warrior and still faithfully guards this hot land.
Against Tang Meng
Another battlefield is in Tang Meng, north of Tangshan Town.
There are many legends about the battle of Tang Meng, and there are also many references in the materials. "The Battle of Nanking" wrote: "At that time, a Japanese army invaded Tang Meng from the northern foot of Jiuhua Mountain and used the concave land to advance westward. We are going to attack the Japanese army by the 4 1 Division and the 66th Army, and the 7 1 Army and156th Division will attack from the side and back. Later, due to communication difficulties, the 4 1 Division failed to carry out joint operations and struggled in Tang Meng until 65438+February 10. " Sun's History of Defending Nanjing wrote: "Since the Japanese invaded Jurong on December 5, while China and Japan fought fiercely for the Jutang Line, there was also a fierce battle in Huda Mountain, north of Tangshui Town. My 66 th Army, 2 nd Army, 78 th Army, and their chariots and artillery units fought tenaciously there, held their ground and blocked the enemy's attack. " "Famous Town Tangshan" said that the battle of Tang Meng took place on February 6, 65438. A regiment of the Central Army fought fiercely with the enemy in Fangchong, preventing the Japanese army from advancing westward, and almost all the troops were wiped out.
In order to find out the basic situation of Tang Meng campaign, I visited many old people. According to their oral and comprehensive analysis of historical materials, we can outline the outline at that time.
Before the rebellion, several Central Army troops were stationed in the countryside near Tangshan. There is a regiment in Xigangtou and Meijiabian, and a battalion in Liugangtou, all of which are Guangdong troops withdrawn from the front line of Songhu. The Kuomintang troops stationed in Sizhuang and Xujiabian are the 66th Army159th Division. They are dressed very thinly, and they still wear single clothes and shorts in cold weather. Some people ask people for sheets to wrap themselves up.
When the Japanese army advanced from Jurong to Tangshan, there were only sporadic small-scale battles along the Xintang-Zuochang-Tangshan highway, and these Central Army troops quickly retreated after contacting the Japanese army. The regiment originally stationed in Xigangtou retreated to the south foot of Jiuhua Mountain and left without a fight. A large number of weapons and ammunition were abandoned in the mountains.
Before the Japanese army attacked Tangshan, it made a detailed reconnaissance of the established defensive positions on the front line of Tangshan, and a small number of scouts scouted Anji Mountain for two or three days. In order to bypass the preset position of the Central Army, a large number of Japanese troops entered the northern foot of Jiuhua Mountain from the racecourse and entered Tang Meng via Donggejiao and Anji Mountain. On February 6th, 65438, Japanese planes bombed Tang Meng, killing many people who escaped from Dachiyan to Tangmengqiao.
On February 6, 65438, after the Japanese army arrived in Tangmeng, it launched an attack on the Central Army troops stationed in Shewu Mountain, with fierce firepower. The Central Army then retreated westward. In Bangqu Mountain, a unit of the Central Army stopped the Japanese army, was bombed by Japanese planes, and quickly retreated westward.
The basic operational situation in this period was that the Japanese army attacked westward, while the Central Army retreated while fighting, and the main battle near Tang Meng ended in one day.
Fang chong overlooks
The battle of Tang Meng, widely celebrated by the people, actually refers to another battle that happened later. The battlefield was in Fangchong, about one kilometer southwest of Tang Meng Natural Village, and the time was 65438+February 65438+March. For the sake of accuracy, we might as well call this battle the battle of Fang Chong.
In what context was the battle of Fang Chong fought?
According to Sun's History of Defending Nanjing and Wang Fu's History of Japanese Aggression against China (1931-kloc-0/945), at 6: 00 pm on February 6th, 12, the 66th Army and the 83rd Army of Deng Longguang passed the fork in the road from Taiping Gate and Xianhemen to the east,/. At 5: 00 am on June 5438+03, the troops launched a large-scale fierce battle with the enemy in Kongshan and Lion Mountain, with heavy casualties. The commander Ye and the chief of staff Huang Zhinan lost contact with the troops. They put on plain clothes, spent a day lurking in the mountains near Tangshan, and fled with the refugees on the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway.
Some of these two Guangdong armies broke through Tangshan and fought a desperate struggle with the enemy in Tangmeng. The battle of Fang Chong was earth-shattering, and it's a long story.
Although Fang Chong is not mentioned in historical materials such as History of Nanjing Defence War, this tragic battle is deeply engraved in the memory of ordinary people. Six or seven years have passed. Today, as soon as Fang Chong is mentioned, the old people's chatterboxes will immediately open and tell you what they saw, heard and experienced in those years.
Fangchong is surrounded by mountains on three sides, with Langshan in the south, Ganshan in the east and Peishan in the west. The mountain pass in the north is very narrow, like a pocket. Four hundred meters north of "Pocket Mouth" is Chenjiabian, which is connected to Zhangjiagang in the east, Gexiang in the west and Shewu Mountain in the north.
Qin Youcai, an old man in Gexiang, was hiding in a cave in Thorn Mountain at that time, and he was a witness of the battle of Fang Chong. He said there were two battles in Tang Meng. In the first battle, the Central Army withdrew from east to west, and in the second battle, the Central Army came from west to east. He also said: "The Central Army is from Lingshan and Xu Xiang. The person who leads them is surnamed Wu, a native of Xuzhou, who works in Lingshan Coal Mine. The Central Army asked him to lead the way, so he took them to Xuelang Temple. After the war, the man stayed in Gexiang. Later, I visited the grave of a man named Abao in Houshan and returned to Xuzhou after liberation. "
Wang Chen Jiabian has a very good memory, and she blurted out the dates of several important events in the village. He said: "The Chinese army laid an ambush in Fangchong, which was played on the eleventh day of the winter month." When she said "ambush", she meant that the Central Army was ambushed by the Japanese army. The eleventh day of the lunar winter month was 65438+ February 13, which was exactly the same as the date recorded in historical materials.
Zeng Baoyou, an old man in Tanggang Village, recalled: "My uncle Zeng Jinshan hid in Fang Chong's oil rat hole when he ran backwards and saw a central army enter Fang Chong with his own eyes. A teacher got down from the sedan chair and gave a lecture to the soldiers. The people in the cave felt very strange and said,' Look, isn't the Central Army back?' But at this time, Tangshan has been occupied by the Japanese army, and there are Japanese soldiers on the mountain. There were not many Japanese, so they blew up their plane. As a result, the bomb dropped by the plane killed one of our own. The Central Army, desperate to rush in the direction of Dahiyan, was pressed on the mountain by the devils with machine guns. Instead of rushing out, only a small part fled to zhangjiagang. On Fangchong Mountain, from Dachiyan to Chunshan, the bodies of the Central Army are everywhere. Later, I rushed to collect firewood, and the bullet casings were full, which could hold several sacks. I also went to the rat hole and found that the stove in the hole was still there. There are also stone fortifications and grenades on the nearby mountains. "
Although the old man Qi Qingfu of Chen Jiabian is not a witness, he knows a lot. He said: "The Central Army retreated from Shimonoseki to Baohua Mountain, and there was a division. They don't take the road, they take the path. When they arrived at Chenjiabian, they concentrated on that ten-acre area, ready to cross the pockmarked top. There are two officials, one wearing a cloak and the other wearing a civilized stick. There were eight or nine people scouting ahead, but they didn't see the devil at the corner of pockmarked top, so they waved to everyone and the troops rushed in. The queue is very long, the front has reached the top of the horse, and the back is still ten acres. Suddenly a shot was fired at the top of the mountain, and the Japanese army ambushed, and hundreds of people died in the Central Army. Some people ran out of the pass. Some of the people who ran out were killed and some ran away. Many people died in Meihuadun. The Japanese firepower is very fierce, and the bamboo in Fang Chong's bamboo forest is bald. " The "ten acres of land", "pockmarked top" and "plum blossom pier" mentioned by the old man are small place names near Fangchong, which are only known by local people.
Chen Jiabian's old Yang Man Crown is hidden in a hole in Fangchong Mountain Pass. This is the second witness I found. He said: "Before the Japanese attacked Tangshan, the villagers had almost left. We left at the latest, and I occupied Tangshan for several days. Hardly had we reached the west of the village when the Japanese stood on the mountain and shot at us. We were afraid to leave, so we ran back and got into a cave at the foot of the mountain. After hiding in the cave for about three days, the Kuomintang Central Army and the Japanese devils fought in Fangchong. "
"How did the Central Army enter Fang Chong? I didn't see it. I only remember what it looked like at three or four o'clock that afternoon. Intensive gunfire came from Fang Chongshan. It rang for an hour, and the Central Army retreated in the direction of Baohua Mountain, and the devils stopped chasing. When the Central Army retreated, some soldiers passed by our cave and wanted to have a rest. They didn't come in until the officials told them not to come in. In the evening, after the battle, some wounded soldiers of the Central Army hid in the homes of ordinary people at Chenjiabian. The next day, the devil went into the village to burn the house, and some of the wounded soldiers were burned to death and some were killed. "
"Fang Chong killed a lot of people. My family has several acres of land in Fangchong, including paddy fields and dry land. After beginning of spring, my daughter, my uncle Yang Shunbao, and several young people from the village entered Fang Chong. I saw the rotting bodies everywhere, giving off an unpleasant smell, so I buried the bodies on the road and in the ground. There were so many bodies that it took a week to bury the bodies that hindered farming, leaving the farther ones behind. My uncle was poisoned by carrying a corpse, and his whole body was covered with pimples, all the size of broad bean petals. It took several years to heal slowly. "
How many people did Fang Chongzhi die? Some people say there are thousands, others say there are hundreds, all of which are estimates. Some old people also said that there were more than 200 people from the Central Army who rushed out of the party and braved the cold wind to evacuate to Baohua Mountain. When I arrived, a bandit on the mountain killed more than 20 people and all the guns were taken away. They also said that digging herbs in Fangchong can often dig up a lot of bones. Someone went up the mountain to cut wood and found many rusty shell casings there. At 200 1, villagers in Tang Meng dug up a rusty bayonet while building a road on the mountain.
Fangchong is a small place, which is not marked on the military map. The blood of thousands of warriors spilled on this land, their cries resounded through the sky, and their desperate battles were earth-shattering. They failed, and layers of bones were buried in the mountains along with their bullets and souls. For many years, the old people looked at the mountains near Fangchong over and over again, chanting and discussing from time to time, and their eyes revealed painful memories of the past. Young people can't forget Fang Chong when they mention the war of that year. Their expressions are either serious and slightly sad, or angry and tend to be fierce. I think that even after a hundred or two hundred years, generations of Tangshan people will still remember Fang Chong and this sad place.
The smoke cleared and the past was like a cloud. When cold comes and summer goes, the mountains and rivers are silent. It just hurts for a long time, and I hate it for a long time!
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