When Nanjing fell, the government moved to Wuhan. For the whole country, the cost of losing another important city is unbearable. Although the Kuomintang high-level officials invested heavily in eastern Henan, they could not stop the Japanese offensive. So in June of 1938, the Yellow River levee in Huayuankou, Zhengzhou was blasted to prevent the Japanese invaders from invading the west through the flood of the Yellow River. For more than 80 years, there have been different opinions about the merits and demerits of Huayuankou incident. However, we found some rather chilling facts in historical materials. This matter was carried out under the orders of Chiang Kai-shek from beginning to end, but senior Kuomintang officials headed by Chiang Kai-shek have been avoiding the facts and refusing to admit it.
1in may, 938, more than 20,000 people from the 14th division of the Japanese invaders crossed the Yellow River in northeast Henan, entered the front line of Shangqiu civil rights, and blew up the Neihuangji Longhai Railway, thus blocking the connection between Zhengzhou and Xuzhou.
The Kuomintang army assembled 250 thousand troops and launched the battle of Lanfeng. In this battle, the military strength of China and Japan reached 12: 1, and the national army occupied an absolute advantage. Although the Japanese army is few, it has the advantage of high mechanization, excellent equipment and strong firepower. In order to win, Chiang Kai-shek personally flew to Zhengzhou to direct operations, and also dispatched right-hand men Hu Zongnan and Xue Yue to eastern Henan to take part in the battle. When the two armies engaged in war, they each put out their own skills and fought to the death, and both suffered heavy casualties. The national army once captured Lanfeng County, and the situation seemed to change in a favorable direction.
But by the end of the war on May 23, the problem of the national army falling off the chain at a critical moment was committed again. Han, the 88th Division of the National Army stationed in Lanfeng, led his troops to retreat without permission from his superiors, causing Japanese soldiers to re-enter Lanfeng without bloodshed. On May 28th, Huang Jie, commander of the Eighth Army, staged the same drama and led his troops out of Shangqiu. The twin cities fell, Daimon Masaru in eastern Henan opened, and Kaifeng City was presented to the Japanese aggressors without any cover or hindrance.
The Japanese army immediately entered Ningling, attacked Qixian with 16 or 14 divisions, and another division went straight to the north bank of the Yellow River from northern Henan. The war situation in Henan has deteriorated sharply. Previously, the plan of encirclement and suppression of the Japanese army formulated by the national army was shattered, and 250 thousand people were defeated by 20 thousand Japanese troops, which became a great shame in the history of the Anti-Japanese War. Chiang Kai-shek himself: (Battle of Lanfeng) is also a big laughing stock in the history of war.
On June 6, the Japanese invaders captured Kaifeng, and on July 7, they invaded Zhongmu, a stone's throw away from Zhengzhou.
At this point, the national army was no longer able to resist, and opened the Yellow River embankment to stop the Japanese mechanized corps from advancing, which quickly became the unanimous opinion of the Kuomintang high-level.
In fact, long before the outbreak of all-round War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the idea of replacing soldiers with water was constantly put forward.
According to the existing historical data, 1935, German military adviser Falkenhausen suggested to Chiang Kai-shek that the Yellow River was the last barrier in North China, and the Japanese army could open the Yellow River to increase its defense when it went south. As a foreigner, Falkenhausen made this proposal purely militarily, without any political or moral concerns. Although it seemed reasonable, Chiang Kai-shek ignored it.
1in April, 938, Chen, a heavyweight of the Kuomintang, also made an analysis to Chiang Kai-shek, saying that the Qinshui estuary in the northwest of Zhengzhou and Wuzhi County is high in the south and low in the north. If the levee breaks, it will definitely cause floods on the north shore. The Japanese invaders are cruel and inhuman, and it is very likely that they will grab the first river and flood northern Henan. Instead of this, it is better to prepare for the breach of the dam in advance and let the flood stop the Japanese army in the north. Since Chen put forward this idea, according to the constant changes of the war situation, the Kuomintang high-level officials have put forward the idea of crossing the river to stop the enemy. Chiang Kai-shek finally adopted it here.
Before the Japanese army invaded Kaifeng, the river-breaking operation had already begun. On June 1 day, the 20th Army of the National Army stationed in Zhengzhou was ordered to burst its banks, and it made three consecutive attempts, and finally succeeded in Huayuankou, Zhengzhou.
At this time, although Henan has not entered the rainy season, the water volume of the Yellow River is not very large. However, once the dike burst, a steady stream of river water gushed out, which immediately swept through eastern Henan and northern Anhui with overwhelming force, resulting in a large area of Wang Yang Zeguo. The Japanese invaders drowned and trapped a small number of troops, but in the end they could not cross the flooded river and suspended their attack on Zhengzhou.
After the Dinghe River was built, eastern Henan, northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu suffered great disasters one after another, and millions of people in the Yellow River flooded area fled their homes. According to the statistics of government authorities, there are 44 counties and cities affected by floods, including Henan, Anhui and Su Sansheng. There are 844,259 hectares of flooded cultivated land, accounting for 24% of the total cultivated land in the three provinces. More than 890,000 people died and 39 1 1,000 people fled. Fugou County, Henan Province, which suffered the most, lost 95% of its houses and 90% of its livestock, and its population decreased from 310.5 million before the disaster to 67,000.
Such a heavy loss, no matter what kind of military purpose is achieved, no matter how humiliating the authorities and the government, is unforgivable and unacceptable!
The Kuomintang authorities did not dare to disclose the ins and outs of Jiang's decision at all, for fear of attracting national criticism, so they tried their best to cover up the truth and deceive the world.
At the beginning of the breach of the river, Xue Yue ordered the New Eighth Division of the 20th Army at the breach to blow up the Wang Xiaolong Temple, trees and some houses at the breach with explosives, making it look as if it had just been through fierce fighting. According to Xue Yue, Jiang Zaizhen, the commander of the New Eighth Division, sent a telegram saying that the Japanese army had sent a large number of planes to bomb our army, causing damage to the Yellow River levee.
On June 1 1, the government's central news agency issued a communication saying that the Japanese army blatantly bombed the Yellow River levee in Henan Province, ignoring international conventions and plunging the people of China into a flood disaster.
On June 13, Chen Cheng, Minister of the Political Department of the Military Commission of the National Government, personally came forward and held a press conference to reiterate to Chinese and foreign journalists that the Japanese army had bombed the Yellow River in Henan. International and domestic are convinced of this and have denounced Japanese atrocities.
The Kuomintang's first war zone commander also solemnly announced to the outside world that the Japanese aggressors had invaded Kaifeng and Zhengzhou in a bloody battle. Because our army's position was firm, the Japanese invaders could not break through, so they blew up the Yellow River levee in Zhongmu in an attempt to flood and destroy our army's position.
Journalists at home and abroad learned of this human tragedy and asked for a live interview at Huayuankou. This time, the national army panicked, but did not dare to refuse, so it quickly organized the New Eighth Division to practise fraud. What is fake?
First, the detailed written materials before and after the Japanese bombing (for reporters to ask questions), when to bomb, how many planes and what kind of bombs must be accompanied by the press release of the Central News Agency;
The second is to forge the scene of the explosion with written materials.
Third, the tissue blocks the gap. To this end, the new eighth division has transformed from the executor of the dike bombing to the hero of the breach.
The national army couldn't answer these questions at all, either talking about him or pretending not to understand.
Although the Kuomintang authorities cover up the truth in many ways, there are still many loopholes.
1June 8, 938, before the Huayuankou levee was completely breached, a well-informed person in the Hong Kong edition of Shenbao tried his best to get inside information from the top of the Kuomintang. In the second edition of the same day, it was reported that the front report of the China army (referring to the Kuomintang army) had confirmed that the Yellow River had been breached in Kaifeng. Then, on the 9th and 10, more and more detailed information was reported, which reported the news that the Kuomintang troops bombed the levees in Kaifeng and Zhengzhou.
Since then, folk stories, foreign reports, and Japanese public opinion have all pointed to the truth to varying degrees. Although Chiang Kai-shek knew that the truth of the dike breach was an open secret, he strictly prohibited all levels from publicly agreeing with the statements of all parties and still insisted on the statement that the Japanese army bombed the dike.
Because the parties involved in the internal strife of the national army have been tight-lipped, the rumors from outside have not found direct evidence, so they are all vague. Coupled with the height of the anti-Japanese war, international and domestic attention was quickly attracted by the fierce Wuhan battle, and no one argued about it again.
Later, the Chiang Dynasty retreated to Bao Dao, and in its official revision history, it still denied that the Huayuankou incident was committed by the national army.
However, there are still some conscientious people in the national army who risked being beheaded and wrote down the fact that they broke their banks that year. For example, Wei Rulin, Chief of Staff of the 20th Army. This person is the direct planner of Huayuankou levee breach. The following March 1939, probably out of conscience, he recorded the incident in detail in his diary.
After losing to Bao Dao, scholars and experts on the island constantly pointed out the doubts about the dam break that year. Wei Rulin remained silent and dared not say a word. 1972, he suddenly saw a biography of President Jiang written by Dong Xianguang, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party of the Kuomintang, which surprisingly mentioned that the Huayuankou burst its bank and claimed that it was the national army.
This book is approved by the Kuomintang authorities and is based on the official caliber. It is not shy about what happened in those years. Although Chiang Kai-shek was alive, he didn't raise any objections, which was considered acquiescence.
Wei Rulin was relieved, so he published his diary in the third issue of Central Plains Literature, which was to tell the world the real situation of that year.
Although it has been 34 years since the Huayuankou incident, this explosive record of the parties has caused great repercussions. Later, another witness who decided the river, Xiong Xianyu, a staff member of the former New Eighth Division, also published the diary written in that year. These two diaries are still regarded as the most powerful evidence of the breach of Huayuankou levee, which basically reflects a panoramic view. Wei Rulin's original diary is kept in the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing.