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RESISTANCE WARS
1945-1949 Civil War Liao-Shen Campaign Korean War Vietnamese War Continuing from Tragedy of Chinese Revolution, Campaigns & Civil Wars, & White Terror vs Red Terror:
The nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek, having barely united China, would be engaged in numerous rounds of civil wars with the communists as well as KMT opponents & adversaries [termed "neo-warlords" by Chiang Kai-shek]. In early years, however, Chiang Kai-shek had been commented by Li Zongren to have deliberately adopted the approach of "yang [multiplying] fei [communist banditry] zi [for enhancing selfish] zhong [important position of being indispensable]" per LZR. 
In 1929, Chiang Kai-shek launched two wars with Guangxi Province armies [i.e., 4th group army], i.e., War Of Chiang Kai-shek versus Gui-xi.
Senior KMT leader Zhu Peide had commented that Chiang Kai-shek, in early years, had a temper, but by the mid-1930s, Chiang Kai-shek had mastered the political skills in comparison with the rash approach Chiang Kai-shek adopted towards the Guangxi clique and senior KMT leader Hu Hanmin.
Though, the war with Gui-xi had the trace of the instigation from the Chinese Communists, namely, the CPC Southern China (HK) branch's scheme to use Yu Zuoyu/Yu Zuobo brothers and cousin Li Mingrui to instigate a confrontation between the Guangxi Army and the central army so as to take advantage of the conflicts to conduct mutiny among the Guangxi provincial army for sake of launching the Soviet revolution in the Left River and Right River areas.
In 1930, Chiang Kai-shek had to fight War Of The Central Plains, which again had the Chinese Communists scheming behind the scene.
The direct consequence of the civil wars would be: i) Communist disturbances in multiple provinces; ii) the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
(After perusing records, this webmaster had a conviction that Chinese communists, their predecessor international socialist (communist) youth league, and the successor Chinese G.R.U. agents were behind almost every rebellion, mutiny, sabotage and movement from 1919 to 1949, including the 1929 Wars by KMT Reorganizers, the 1930 Wars of the Great Plains, the Fujian Mutiny of 1933, the Xian Coup of 1936, and the 1937 Marco Polo Bridge Incident.)
Zhang Xueliang, who was shooting pictures at the Manchuria sports contest in Oct 1930, would soon see his hometown abandoned to the Japanese. Li Dongfang pointed out that Zhang Xueliang often warded off Japanese by claiming that diplomacy rested with Nanking's Chiang Kai-shek; however, Zhang Xueliang did not bother to report to Nanking his conflicts with the Japanese as to building Chinese-owned railways and harbors. Zhang Xueliang also failed to brief the Nanking government after Japanese consul in Liaoning raised a protest in regards to disappearance of Nakamura Shintaro and some spies -- Zhang Xueliang's soldiers, under 3rd Farming Regiment commander Guan Yueheng of Xing'an Military Farming, on June 26th, 1931, secretly executed 4 Japanese military spies, including Nakamura Shintaro, who intruded into Xing'an Ridge area at the turn of May-June 1930. (Before the conflict with Japanese, Zhang Xueliang had blundered in the War of Chinese-Eastern Railway in May 1929, which incidentally was to do with the Soviet and CPC scheme to instigate anti-Japanese movements to disrupt the Japanese attemps at building additional railways in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia.) Historical riddle still exists as to the Zhang Xueliang's withdrawing his Northeastern Army from Manchuria in 1931. Zhang Xueliang himself denied, on multiple occasions, that it was Chiang Kai-shek who ordered him to evacuate from Manchuria; Li Zongren firmly believed in a "secret agreement" between Chiang Kai-shek & Japan that was struck in 1928, an agreement that Li Zongren mentioned was stolen by Chiang Kai-shek's agents from Japanese agents for destruction by luring them to a secret meeting in Shanghai --which was often inferred to be the cause of the assassination death of Saburi Sadao, Japan's minister to China, at a hotel in Hakone Miyanoshita; and Chinese communists claimed to be ready to "militarily defend the USSR [during the War of Chinese-Eastern Railway in May 1929]" and suspected that it was a Nationalist Government scheme to draw the Japanese fire towards Soviet Union's border. Back in July 1931, Gu Weijun (Wellington Koo), who had been retiring in Tianjin after the overthrow of the Peking government in 1928, had rushed to Zhang Xueliang to advice on taking precautionary measures as to possible Japanese "general attack" at China. Zhang Xueliang, who had later ignored almost 100 pieces of communications from Gu Weijun in the three months ensuing the 9-18-1931 Incident, had refused to put up a fight in Jinzhou, with false expectation that the League of Nations would step in to solve the Manchuria Incident the same way as the 1922-3 Washington Conference did to the Shandong Peninsula. Zhang Xueliang's oral recitals confirmed the suspicion that it was Zhang Xueliang himself, with an understanding that Chiang Kai-shek would not assist him as promised in 1928 at the time of the Manchuria unification with China proper, had decided to preserve his forces rather than fighting the Japanese on his own. Zhang Xueliang's discussion with the Soviet-spy-infiltrated Mukden YMCA gang was that he would be willing to die as a jade, not as a tile, meaning that should the central government not step to the front, the Northeastern Army would not risk being destroyed by the Japanese Army in fighting a resistance war. However, the secret killings of Japanese spies would not be something that Japan would pass easily although the Japanese felt it awkward to use this particular excuse publicly. That's why Japanese blew up the railway tracks, instead, and claimed that the Northeastern Army at the Northern Barracks of Mukden had sabotaged it. Chiang Kai-shek had shown a contrast on the matter of General Song Zheyuan vs General Zhang Xueliang. Song Zheyuan, i.e., a Chinese national hero at the Battles of the Great Wall, would suddenly become a pro-Japan regional leader who had participated in the "autonomous movement" similar to Japan's "puppet Eastern Hebei Province government". After the eruption of the 1937 Resistance War, Chiang Kai-shek explained to the whole nation that Song Zheyuan was under his personal order to "befriend" Japan as a coverup. In contrast, Chiang Kai-shek, who had put Zhang Xueliang into house arrest in late 1936 for the Xi'an Coup d'etat, never acknowledged that he had instructed Zhang on the matter of appeasing Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Do note that Chiang Kai-shek, from 1935 to 1936, had authorized the "Secretive Sino-USSR Contacts and KMT-CCP Contacts In Multiple Channels", a manifestation that Chiang Kai-shek was preparing for an inevitable confrontation with Japan by means of an alliance with Russians & Chinese communists. Zhang Xueliang, in his recollections, had acknowledged his misjudgment by likening Japan's invasion of Manchuria to either Nanking Bloody Incident or Jinan Incident, i.e., two international incidents that had limited damages. Chiang Kai-shek, being always pre-occupied with dealing with internal feuds and enemies, had apparently misjudged Japanese on basis of three diplomatic breakthroughs, namely, i) Japan's backing off from the key demand in "Twenty One Demands" during Yuan Shikai's reign; ii) Japanese withdrawal from Shandong Peninsula under the pressure of Washington Conference and the League of Nations; and iii) Japan's refrain from joining British-American warships' bombardment of Nanking during 1927 Nanking Bloody Incident [which was provoked by communist Li Shizhang the acting politics director of 6th Corps]. Japanese Invasion Of Manchuria, Chahar & Jehol (1931-1934) At http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3123morgan_v_dr_sun.html, Mike Billington wrote for "Executive Intelligence Review" an article entitled "How London, Wall Street Backed Japan's War Against China and Sun Yat Sen", pointing out the behind-the-scene manipulations as to "SYNARCHISM AND WORLD WAR". As stated by Mike Billington, "... British synarchist banking interests, centered around Bank of England head Montagu Norman, Hongkong and Shanghai Bank director Sir Charles Addis, and J.P. Morgan chief executive Thomas Lamont, deployed militarily and politically to destroy Sun Yat Sen and his influence. ... when their subversion and looting failed to crush Sun's republican movement, the British threw their weight behind the synarchist/fascist forces in Japan, financing the Japanese military occupation of the Chinese mainland... By 1931, J.P. Morgan had floated $263 million in loans for Japanese borrowers, including direct loans to the government in 1930", with quite some of the funds going direct to the Southern Manchurian Railway under disguise to avert the world opinions. Note that President Wilson rejected Reinsch's 1917 financing arrangement for building an alternative rail route to the South Manchurian Railroad, "even assured Japan that the United States would honor their special position in Manchuria", and in Oct 1918 agreed to the formation of a new bankers' Consortium which was orchestrated by Anglo-American bankers for sake of depriving China of any chance of obtaining an international loan. It was the century's misfortune for China to have to see that the Anglo-American interest groups and Russian/Comintern agents colluded with each other in subverting Nationalist China. No matter it was the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War, or the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria in 1931, or the 1937-1945 Sino-Japanese War, the aforesaid parties, plus the Chinese communist henchmen, were the ONLY people who wanted Japan to invade China, albeit for different reasons and agenda at different stages and times. A rather simple explanation for the ultimate American intervention in China in March 1940, i.e., Americans hastily giving Chiang Kai-shek a badly-needed loan, would be to prevent Japan and China from reaching a truce since Chiang Kai-shek deliberately spread a rumor that his Chungking government could merge with the puppet Nanking government. In domestic arena, on Feb 28th 1931 [lc ?], Hu Hanmin was put under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek in Nanking. Chiang Kai-shek also ordered the arrest of Deng Yanda who was later executed before Chiang Kai-shek stepdown on Dec 15th 1931. Chiang Kai-shek further hijacked two more senior KMT leaders, i.e., Ju Zheng and Xie Chi. Sun Ke left Nanking for Canton, and Deng Zeru & Lin Sen etc rebuked Chiang Kai-shek on April 30th [lc ?]. On May 28th 1931, Whang Jingwei (aka Whang Zhaoming), Tang Shaoyi, Zou Lu, Chen Youren, Gu Yingfen and Li Zongren [Li Tsung-jen] established a separate National Government in Guangzhou [Canton] and dispatched southern troops against Chiang Kai-shek. Li Zongren received a warm welcome at Tianzi Wharf and signed about the bloody war between Guangxi and Guangdong provinces back in Feb. Chen Jitang & Li Zongren assumed the posts of commander-in-chief for 1st & 4th Group Army against Chiang Kai-shek. Taking advantage of Chinese internal strife, Japanese Kwantung Army blew up railway tracks at Liutiaogou as an excuse for the occupation of Manchuria, officially starting what it called "Fifteen Year War", i.e., a war that would lead to a death toll of 1 million Japanese on mainland China. (In 1956, Japanese "defense department" claimed that about 560000 Japanese died on Chinese battleground. However, in 1946, Nationalist Government Tactician Department estimated that over 1.4 million Japanese had lost their lives inside of China. Liu Feng compromised with the adoption of a number of about 1 million. On basis of the recounts conducted by Taiwan upon the death toll of Taiwanese drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army, there was good evidence that Japan had underreported the total number of their deaths by a wide margin.) Frank E. Smitha, at http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch18.htm, adopted a common excuse in Western history books, i.e., Japanese had invaded China as a result of the worldwide economic depression of 1929-1931. Simtha mentioned that Japanese Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi of the Democratic (Minseito) Party, who was responsible for signing Navy reduction agreement with Great Britain and the United States, was assassinated by 'rightist' back in 1930. Frank E. Smitha also pointed out that "by 1931, however, in Manchuria the Chinese were annoying (?) the Japanese by building rail lines parallel to Japanese rail lines", that "Manchurians and Chinese rioted against the growing Korean presence" invited over by Japanese, and that with "eight hundred Japanese-owned factories" in Manchuria, "Japan's control over Manchuria had to be made secure". (Korean revolts against Chinese was incited into Wanbaoshan Incident by the Japanese in July 1931: Korean immigrants illegally built trenches and dams near Changchun for tilling fields; and the Koreans on Korea Peninsula persecuted overseas Chinese as a concerted action. At the incredible lightening speed [as was the case of the CPC proclamation of a national war of defense against the Japanese on July 8th, 1937, following the overnight incident at Wanping, next to the Marco Polo Bridge] and in a synched-up action, the KCP-dominated CPC Manchuria provincial commissariat on July 7th, 1931, issued a "propaganda guideline in regards to the Wanbaoshan Incident and the Korea [Peninsula] Bloodshed Incident", admonishing the Chinese and the Korean people against falling into the Japanese scheme in sowing discord between the two groups of people [as if the Korean communists-staged uprisings from 1930 onward did not do any harm to the relationship between the Koreans and the Chinese] and claiming that the Japanese criminal objective in the manufacturing of those bloody incidents was to attempt to occupy Manchuria and Mongolia, and attack the Soviet Union. The communist guideline laid out the party’s main tasks, and called on the party and youth league members to utilize the two tragedies to make cases for expanding the masses’ anti-imperialist work, organizing anti-imperialist league organizations and the Sino-Korean Anti-Imperialist League, stepping up the struggles against the Kuomintang warlords, stepping up support for the Soviet Union, the Soviet enclaves and the Red Army. For details, see KOREAN COMMUNISTS & THE JAPANESE INVASION OF MANCHURIA - 1930-1931 [Modified : Saturday, 31-Mar-2012 04:14:16 EDT] ) Mukden Incident - 9/18/1931 Japanese militarists had been fomenting calls for war against China throughout 1931. Liu Feng stated that in May 1931, Itagaki Seishiro, a colonel equivalent of Kwantung Army, was responsible for devising the one-night provocation and occupation of major cities. Ishihara, who transferred to Kwantung Army’s staff headquarters at the recommendation of Komoto Daisaku in late 1928, had played a role in combining two militarist radical organizations of Futaba Kai and Mokuyo Kai into Issekikai (one night society) in May 1929, and further in autumn 1929 expanded on basis of the Japanese-exclusive ronin organization "Manchurian Youth League to form a low-level puppet-inclusive ‘Hornet Society’, with Issekikai officers leading its peripheral organizations. By summer 1931, the hornet society possessed thousands of members, including the Japanese officers, the Japanese militarymen in civilian clothing, the Japanese migrants in Manchuria, and the Chinese puppets. Back in September 1930, Ishihara Kanji designed the scheme for the Kwantung Army to occupy Manchuria and Inner Mongolia in three stages, namely, the occupation of Manchuria and the launch of a pro-Japan puppet regime, the transformation of the puppet regime to an independent country, and the annexation of Manchuria into Japan, which Shigemitsu Mamoru in his recollections termed by "tora no maki", i.e., the wallpaper roll of tiger canvas painting, an ancient military strategic planning terminology that was later used as code for the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. Further, from April to June, Itagaki Seishiro and Isiwara Kanji devised the scheme of one-night provocation and occupation of major Manchuria cities, i.e., what Issekikai meant in essence. In June, Japanese spies, Nakamura Shintaro and et al., were caught, and later shot dead. At Wanbaoshan, near Changchun, Koreans forcefully dug a ditch for irrigating their fields. The Japanese, today, still claimed that the Wanbaoshan Incident was rooted in Zhang Xueliang's "Korean Exclusion Laws", which was a fallacious reading of the new Chinese policies requiring approval at the county and provincial levels for lease of a certain number of acres of land to Koreas in the aftermath of 1930-1931 Korean Communists-instigated Soviet land revolution in Manchuria. One month later, on July 2nd, the Japanese incited massive ethnic cleansing against Chinese on Korean peninsula. Chinese newspaper pointed out that it could very well be the signal portending the start of full Japanese invasion against China. (In the aftermath of the Korea Communists-instigated May 1930 uprising in Jiandao, Zhang Xueliang and the Chinese people in Manchuria deemed the general population of the Koreans as agents of the Japanese imperialists, and passed restriction laws to require county and provincial approval for lease of land to Korean farmers. The Japanese, to excuse themselves from the conspiracy on manchuria, falsely claimed that Zhang Xueliang’s new rules were an enactment of the "Korean expulsion ordinance" of February 1931, and had directly triggered the Wanbaoshan Incident.) More available at ManchuriaIncident.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
The Kwantung Army pulled ahead the provocation to Sept 18th from Sept 28th as a result of the arrival of an investigation emissary from Tokyo. At around 10:20 pm, on Sept 18th 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army blew up railway tracks at Liutiaogou ["Ryujoko", a name devised by Japanese to hint at a ditch or bridge whereas the spot of sabotage was a flat land close to a place named Liutiaohu without the actual 'hu-lake' or 'gou-ditch'] of northern Shenyang City, i.e., the 'Liutiaogou Incident' [i.e., the Mukden Incident], and then accused Chinese troops of sabotage. Liutiaohu Lake was about 800 meters away from Chinese armies of 'Bei-da-ying' [north army camp] in Shenyang city. Japanese Kwantung Army used the blast as the signal for charge. With 24 centimeter cannons, Japanese bombarded and attacked the 7th Brigade of Chinese armies inside of "north army camp" as well as Dongta Airport. While 2nd independent garrison Daitai attacks the barracks, 29th Rentai from 2nd Shidan attacked Shenyang city. At 50 minutes past midnight, on Sept 18th 1931, three Japanese columns attacked Shenyang city. Back on Sept 16th, Japanese had obtained advance information that Chinese armies would not resist in any circumstance. Brigade commander Wang Yizhe at the North Barracks reported the Japanese attack to Rong Zhen, chief of staff for the commander’s headquarters of the Northeastern Defense Army. Rong Zhen subsequently made a long distance call to Zhang Xueliang at about 10:30 pm. In Peking, Zhang Xueliang was inviting Miles Lampson to a Peking Opera show at the Kaiming Theater, which was held for donation funds on behalf of the flood victims in northern Liaoning Province, when he received a long distance call from Mukden. Zhang Xueliang gave Rong Zhen the order of non-resistance in regards to the Japanese provocation, and instructed to relay the order to brigade commander Wang Yizhe et al. Zhang Xueliang additionally instructed Rong Zhen to have Japanese military advisers, Senoo and Shibayama, to contact the high command of the Kwantung Army to stop the war, as well as to contact consul-general Hayashi in regards to the Japanese attack. The Northeastern Army’s airforce commander Chen Haihua, under the order of non-resistance, prohibited pilots from taking off at Dongta Airport. Brigade commander Wang Yizhe and Zhu Guangmu, Zhang Xueliang’s secretary, made separate calls to Zhang Xueliang to confirm non-resistance. The Chinese foreign ministry in Nanjing raised the serious protest with Shigemitsu Mamaoru, Japan’s acting minister to China, in regards to the Kwantung Army’s attacks at Mukden and the cities along the major railway lines. On September 19th, Chiang Kai-shek, upon arrival in Hukou from Nanking via riding on Warship Yongsui overnight, changed ship at PoyanghuLake for Nanchang where he learnt of the Mukden Incident from news reports relayed from Shanghai. The Japanese Army attacked Manchuria while Zhang Xueliang was in Peiping, Chiang Kai-shek was riding on the Yangtze for the Jiangxi front and American ambassador to Japan, W. Cameron Forbes, was en route of vacation. At night, between 10 and 11 pm, Chiang Kai-shek wired to Zhang Xueliang with instructions to pierce the Japanese pretext as to the railway sabotage as well as a request for constant update on events developing in Manchuria. On the 20th, the KMT-controlled Central Daily carried an account of non-resistance on the part of the Northeatern Army. The newly-arising issue in Manchuria caused Chiang Kai-shek to change plan to return to Nanking from Nanchang by plane in lieu of supervising the encirclement campaign. More available at ManchuriaIncident.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
On Sept 24th, the Japanese government issued a statement claiming that China had sabotaged railway and attacked Japanese on the midnight of Sept 18th, emphasizing the contrast of 10,400 Japanese soldiers versus 220,000 Chinese troops. Further, it claimed that the Japanese action was for protecting million Japanese citizens inside of Manchuria; that the occupation of outlaying cities were rumors; that Japanese troops sent to Jilin Province on Sept 21st would return to Changchun once they finished the policing job; that 4000 relief troops from Korea did not exceed the total number allowed to station in Manchuria per treaty; and that Japan had no ambition for Manchuria territory. On Sept 29th, USSR declared neutrality on Mukden Incident. When Japan invaded Manchuria, Zhang Xueliang possessed about 12 brigades and 3 cavalry brigades or 179,505 troops in Manchuria, in addition to 12 infantry brigades, 2 cavalry brigades and 3 cannons brigade that stationed in northern China. Per Li Dongfang, Chiang Kai-shek did send a telegraph to Zhang Xueliang on Sept 12th [should be September 11th], stating that "Now is not a time to wage a war against Japan"; however, the telegraph was sent in response to Wanbaoshan Incident, not 9-18-1931 incident, per LDF. (Zhang Zhenglong cited a similar telegraph from Chiang Kai-shek that was dated Aug 16th, 1931. Communist propaganda made up a sensational account in stating that Chiang Kai-shek met with Zhang Xueliang on a train near Shijiazhuang to personally deliver the non-resistance order.) Further, Li Dongfang claimed that it was Rong Zhen who misread Zhang Xueliang's Sept 6th telegraph as to "10000 degree tolerance [of Japan's provocations]". Regiment Chief Wang Tiehan under 7th brigade did resist Japanese attack at "North Camp" from 1:40 am to 5:0 am on Sept 19th 1931; but, Rong Zhen forcefully issued the withdrawal order. Tang Degang pointed out that Chiang Kai-shek faced the same pressing matter as Yuan Shi-kai at the time when Japan raised "21 Demands" by taking advantage of WWI in early 1915. Chen Bulei drafted "Chiang Kai-shek Open Letter To Chinese Nationals", i.e., stating that "It is government's crime to have lost [the Chinese] statehood when it refuses to fight while still capable of fighting, and it is also government's crime to have lost statehood when it fights while incapable of fighting." Tang Degang's whole class of students were in tears when the teacher read the open letter. Battle Of Jiangqiao On Oct 5th, Doihara Kenji proposed a bombing of Jinzhou City for testing the response of China, the US and the USSR. Three days later, Kwantung Army commander ordered that two Japanese bomber groups attack Jinzhou. Northeastern Army countered the bombing with field-to-air cannon shooting. Even though the USSR had declared neutrality on Mukden Incident, Japanese took care to invade Amur Province with Zhang Haipeng’s puppet troops initially. The puppet force, attacking north on Oct 13th, was routed to the south of Jiangqiao Bridge on 16th. More available at ManchuriaIncident.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army withdrew from the 3rd Siege of communists in Jiangxi Province and rerouted towards Manchuria, while communists mounted counter-attacks against Nationalist Government positions. On September 26th, Chiang Kai-shek, upon the news of the League’s change of attitude, swore in his dairies to plan to concentrate the bulk of troops onto the [[Long-hai]] Railway. On October 3rd, Chiang Kai-shek contemplated on making Luoyang or Xian the interim capital. On the 6th, Chiang Kai-shek drafted the statement for the declaration of war against Japan, with a sentence calling on the world powers to bear responsibility for the covenants. Before the outbreak of the Japanese invasion in September 1931, the Central Army had aborted the Third Siege Campaign that started in July and begun withdrawal from the Third Siege Campaign in Jiangxi Province to counter the Canton rebels, leaving behind limited number of troops to guard certain key points. With the eruption of war in Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek began to reroute troops towards North China. The communist Red Army, other than ambushing Jiang Dingwen and Cai Tingkai’s armies [which was en route to counter Canton rebels] on basis of deciphered telegrams, mounted counter-attacks against positions of government troops in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian. Taking advantage of the Japanese invasion, the Red Army from the Hubei-Henan-Anhui enclave and the western Hunan-Hubei enclave also racked up military actions. On October 4th, Xu Xiangqian’s Hubei-Henan-Anhui Red Army laid siege of Huangchuan and Shangcheng that were guarded by Zeng Wanzhong’s 12th Division and Chen Yaohan’s 58th Division. The siege continued till the 25th when Lou Jingyue’s 2nd Division came to the relief. On October 8th, Duan Dechang’s western Hunan-Hubei Red Army defeated Zhang Zhenhan’s 41st Division at Yuekou of Hubei Province. The KMT party held the Fourth National Congress in November of 1931 for uniting various factions, including the faction of Xi-shan [West Hill] Meeting Participants and the faction of 'KMT Re-organizers'. The Fourth National Congress made a decree to empower Chiang Kai-shek with the task of taking the national army to the north to resist the Japanese. While Chiang Kai-shek expressed wish to take the army to North China to fight the Japanese, Hu Han-min insisted on the stepdown by Chiang Kai-shek before returning to the capital. Ever since the Japanese takeover of Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek, in his diary, wrote every day at the upper right corner the words "avenge the humiliation". More available at ManchuriaIncident.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Campaign Against Jinzhou Smitha stated that "a month into the crisis, the Emperor Hirohito was angry over the commander of the Kwantung army, Honjo Shigeru, Honjo Shigeru, declaring his intention to pacify all of Manchuria and Mongolia". Japan's ambition in 1931 was more than the territory of Manchuria and Mongolia. Doihara Kenji planned the "Tianjin Incident" for fetching last Manchu emperor. By mid-November, Japanese controlled northern Manchuria. On December 13th, Kwantung Army devised the Jinzhou Campaign guidelines with additional troops consisting of 8th Mixed Ryodan, one armored unit, a 15-cm howitzer Daitai, a 10.5-cm cannons Chudai, 20th Shidan headquarters troops, 38th Mixed Ryodan and a heavy bomber squadron. On 18th, Kwantung Army refined the attack plan to make it two-stage campaign. At the turn of November- December, Zhang Xueliang was dissuaded from withdrawing his troops from Jinzhou. On November 30th, Rong Zhen, in a telegram to Zhang Xueliang, which was intercepted by the Japanese, claimed that he had confidence in Zhang Tingshu’s 12th Brigade defending Jinzhou and hoped that the proposal to set up a neutral area in Jinzhou could be rescinded. On December 1st, Zhang Xueliang, in a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, refuted the rumor about the Jinzhou withdrawal. On the 4th, Shi Zhaoji, China’s representative at the League, received instructions as to the Chinese opposition to making Jinzhou a neutral area. The Chinese government claimed that China would defend Jinzhou against the Japanese attack should the League fail to stop the Japanese from moving on Jinzhou. The League’s council abandoned the neutrality plan on December 7th and merely authorized a Lytton delegation to investigate the Manchurian crisis. Later on February 1st, 1932, Henry Stimson, together with the British, called on China and Japan to observe “the Pact of Paris and the Resolution of the League of Nations of December 9 [10]” to cease conflict and fighting in Shanghai. On December 15th, Chiang Kai-shek was pressured into a stepdown. On December 15th, the Japanese Kwantung Army, after routing the resistance force in Heilongjiang, began to move troops southward to attack Jinzhou. On December 17th, the Japanese army ministry in Tokyo ordered to deploy the Japanese domestic 8th Mixed Ryodan to Manchuria as reinforcement, and transferred the 20th Shidan headquarters, the 38th Mixed Ryodan, and the heavy bombing squadron to reinforcing the Kwantung Army from Korea. On the 18th, the Kwantung Army refined the Jinzhou attack plan to make it two-stage and three-prong campaign, with combined troops numbering at 40,000. On December 21st, Zhang Xueliang first gave instructions about making preparations for withdrawal from Jinzhou in an order to his 2nd Army Corps, stating that if the current government’s policy was not clear yet, then the army should not stick to the Jinzhou defense but should withdraw the army to Qian'an, Yongping, Luanhe and Changli at the appropriate time. On the 22nd, Zhang Xuelian wired to Chiang Kai-shek in request for the final pointer on the Japanese pressing against Jinzhou and the complication in Hebei Province. After Chiang Kai-shek stepped down on the 15th, Wu Jingheng, senior KMT leader, wired to Zhang Xueliang on the 24th to encourage a desperate fight-back at Jinzhou. On December 15th, the Japanese Kwantung Army, after routing the resistance force in Heilongjiang, began to move troops southward to attack Jinzhou. On December 17th, the Japanese army ministry in Tokyo ordered to deploy the Japanese domestic 8th Mixed Ryodan to Manchuria as reinforcement, and transferred the 20th Shidan headquarters, the 38th Mixed Ryodan, and the heavy bombing squadron to reinforcing the Kwantung Army from Korea. On the 18th, the Kwantung Army refined the Jinzhou attack plan to make it two-stage and three-prong campaign, with combined troops numbering at 40,000. On December 21st, Zhang Xueliang first gave instructions about making preparations for withdrawal from Jinzhou in an order to his 2nd Army Corps, stating that if the current government’s policy was not clear yet, then the army should not stick to the Jinzhou defense but should withdraw the army to Qian'an, Yongping, Luanhe and Changli at the appropriate time. On the 22nd, Zhang Xuelian wired to Chiang Kai-shek in request for the final pointer on the Japanese pressing against Jinzhou and the complication in Hebei Province. After Chiang Kai-shek stepped down on the 15th, Wu Jingheng, senior KMT leader, wired to Zhang Xueliang on the 24th to encourage a desperate fight-back at Jinzhou. On the 25th, the Canton rebels-controlled government wired to Zhang Xueliang with a request Zhang Xueliang to actively plan by himself so as to build up a solid position of defense. Zhang Xueliang replied with a demand for the central government to supply cash and ammunition. On the 26th, Zhang Xueliang gave instructions on the Jinzhou defense to Rong Zhen at Jinzhou. On December 24, the Japanese, who obtained intelligence on Zhang Xueliang’s psychology, plans and military arrangement, began the operation to solve the problem of Jinzhou city in southern Manchuria. In Tokyo, Inukai, in talks with American ambassador William Cameron Forbes, made an assurance that Japan had no intention to infringe on China’s sovereignty in Manchuria but providing protection for the Japanese nationals residing in Manchuria. On December 28th, the Japanese crossed the Liaohe River to attack Jinzhou. The Japanese 39th Mixed RyoBrig, departing Xinmin and Mukden (Shenyang) on the 30th by train, pushed southwestward along the railway, while the 8th Mixed RyoBrig took control of the railway segment behind. On December 30th, the Japanese 39th Mixed Ryodan attacked Dahushan (hit tiger mountain). On 31st, the Japanese Army reached Goubangzi, and then embarked on the seond-stage push towards Jinzhou. Zhang Xueliang, on Dec 29th, ordered that his army at Jinzhou withdraw into the Shanhaiguan Leaving Jinzhou to the defense by the loyal righteous army. 44 trains were arranged for transporting the bulk of army. On 1 Jan 1932, the Japanese Army, after fighting the Chinese irregulars, reached the outskirts of Jinzhou, and on the afternoon of 3rd, the Japanese took over Jinzhou [Chinchow]. The Japanese Army then moved southward along the coast towards the Shanhaiguan Pass at the Great Wall. More available at ManchuriaIncident.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
On January 4, 1932, Japanese reached Shanhaiguan [Shanhaikwan] Pass. Japanese did not get to take over the Pass till Jan 3rd 1933. A whole battalion, headed by An Deqin, died to the last person at Shanhaiguan Pass. On Jan 24th, League of Nations, in the name of 19 countries, refused to acknowledge Manchukuo. Japan announced its intent to exit the League. Militia Resistance To Japanese Invasion On Sept 26th, 1931, Chinese Youth Party issued a five-point proclamation to the Nation, and called for the military factions to unite under a common cause as well as a total rescission of economic relations with Japan. Within months, youth party members expanded to over 2000 among Northeastern Army military officers. During the initial Japanese attacks, part of stranded Chinese troops, notably under Wang Yizhe’s 7th Independent Brigade, Li Guilin’s 23rd Independent Brigade and Mu Chunchang’s 10th Cannons Regiment, had unorganized resistance and counterattacks against Japanese in Liaoning and Jilin provinces. Chinese guerrillas, entitled "Northeastern Volunteer Righteous & Brave Fighters", had at one time succeeded in attacking major cities including Shenyang [Mukden]. After the loss of Jinzhou, volunteer fighters under Geng Jizhou, Wang Xianting, Jin Ziming, Liu Chunqi, Zhang Haitian and Deng Tiemei repeatedly raided Japanese outposts in western and southern Liaoning Province. On Jan 6th 1932, about 80 Japanese intruded into Jinxi, to be joined by another 50 the next day. On the night of 7th, hundreds of Chinese militia from Xiwuhui area entered Jinxi to attack Japanese for one and half hours. On 9th, when Japanese attempted to sweep the militia, militia encircled the Japanese, killing a captain. On the 9th, Japanese, with 40 soldiers left, appealed for help with Jinzhou. 600 Japanese came to Jinxi. Militia attacked Japanese for another two days and two nights before withdrawing. By the end of 1931, volunteer fighters expanded to 22 routes, and accepted the nominal coordination and supervision under the Northeast Patriotic Society. At one time in 1932, total fighting force swelled to as many as 54 routes and 27 detachments. For the whole year, Japanese had to preoccupy themselves with fighting the Chinese guerrillas in various areas of Manchuria. Unable to quell the volunteer fighters, Japan sent in 4th Cavalry Ryodan and 14th Mixed Ryodan to strengthen the existing troop level of 4 Shidan, 2 Ryodan and puppet troops. On Oct 11th 1932, two Japanese cavalry Ryodans, 1 mixed Ryodan, and 7 Manchukuo puppet brigades attacked Tang Juwu's forces in Tonghuo & Hengren area. After defection of 37th route commander Wang Yongcheng, Tang Juwu broke through Japanese encirclement for a western move. on 16th, Japanese took over Tonghua, and on 17th, Hengren, with a casualty of 500. From Nov 10th onward, Japanese swept through the territory among Shenyang, Changchun and Jilin, and forced Chinese guerrilla forces a retreat towards Huinan & Siping. On Nov 28th 1932, Japanese 14th Shidan attacked Ma Zhanshan & Su Bingwen around Qiqihar. Japanese planes bombed Ma Zhanshan's headquarters in Hailaer. On Dec 3rd, Japanese took over Hailaer's Ma Zhanshan headquarters . On Dec 4th, Ma Zhanshan & Su Bingwen left Hailaer for Soviet border and entered Russian territory on Dec 5th. On Dec 24th 1932, Japanese 10th Shidan attacked guerrilla forces to the north of Mudanjiang River. On Jan 7th 1933, Japanese took over Mishan. On 9th, Li Du's guerrilla forces crossed Ussuri River into USSR. By this time, Kwantung army had reinforcement reaching 100,000. After "Northeastern Volunteer Righteous & Brave Fighters" would be communist-controlled "People's Revolutionary Army Of Northeast China" which consecutively transformed into "Allied Anti-Japan Army" [i.e., Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army] in 1936. "Allied Anti-Japan Army" consisted of Yang Jingyu's 1st Route, Zhou Baozhong's 2nd Route, and Li Zhaolin's 3rd Route. Yang Jingyu later died on Feb 23rd 1940 during a Japanese siege campaign. Remnant resistance fighters, including Kim Il-sung, retreated into USSR. Shanghai Provocation - 1/28/1932 On Jan 6th, Jiang Guangnai's 19th Route Army relocated to Nanking-Shanghai area for countering possible Japanese invasion while Nationalist Government central politics meeting made a decision in inviting Chiang Kai-shek back to the military leadership. Whang Jingwei and Sun Ke etc personally went to Hangzhou for persuading Chiang Kai-shek into a return. Liu Feng pointed out that Japan provoked Shanghai Incident for distracting the attention of the "League of Nations" which planned to dispatch an investigation team to Manchuria. Itagaki Seishiro contacted a military attaché of Japanese consulate in Shanghai with an offer of 20000 yens for sake of provoking an incident. Military attaché Tanaga colluded with Chuandao Fangzi [Kawashima Yoshiko] in hiring rascals for attacks at Japanese citizens. On Jan 18th, Kawashima Yoshiko's rascals attacked five Japanese monks on Mayushan Road in Shanghai, near Sanyou Enterprise Company which was noted for "desisting from Japanese commodities". On 19th, Japanese consulate raised a protest. On early morning of 20th, Tanaga dispatched over thirty Japanese ronin [vagrants] for setting fire on the Sanyou company. Japanese killed a police and injured two. In the afternoon, Japanese societies further rallied 4000 residents in front of Japanese consulate in demand of protection by Japanese military as well as punishing the Chinese ‘culprits’. On 21st, Japanese consul-general Murai delivered a four-demand protest to Shanghai mayor Wu Tiecheng. Subsequently, Japanese First Overseas Fleet commander Shiozawa issued an ultimatum for capturing the culprit(s) on 24th, Japanese claimed that one monk was dead. Frank E. Smitha stated that "a rise in hostility toward the Japanese among the Chinese had resulted in some incidents in Shanghai, including an attack of five Japanese persons, two of them Buddhist priests, one of whom died. The Japanese consul-general in Shanghai demanded reparations, and Japan's navy, encouraged by the success of the army in Manchuria, sent ships and over a thousand marines to Shanghai to backup the consul-general... The army sent reinforcements to Shanghai and started a drive from the city's International Settlement against one of China's armies". On Jan 26th, Prince Kan'in-no-miya Kotohito authorized Shiozawa to exercise self-defense if necessary. On 27th, Japanese consul delivered an ultimatum good till 6 pm of Jan 28th. Japanese attacked Shanghai on the evening of Jan 28th of 1932. After one night and one day’s street battles, 156th Brigade recovered North Train Station at 5 pm on 29th, drove Japanese away from the railway line, and pressed Japanese back to the east of North Sichuan Road. More available at ShanghaiProvocation1932.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
On the afternoon of Feb 13th, Ueda Kenkichi, under the escort of 1st minesweeper unit, arrived with 6th Ryodan of 9th Shidan. To counter Japanese attacks, Chinese armies were arranged into right flank and left flank, with Shenjiahang-Jiangwan-Dachang towns as the division line. Though Japanese were aided with reinforcements from Japan as well as airforce/navy support, they failed to break Chinese defense line while changing commanders several times and incurring heavy casualties. Chinese organized a dare-to-die force, raided the Japanese command center, and broke one leg of Japanese Shidan commander Ueda.
On February 19th, U.S. Reserve 2nd Lieutenant Robert McCawley Short, a salesman for the Boeing contractor L.E. Gale and acting as an advisor to the Chinese airforce, flew an experimental fighter plane, the Boeing XP925A (later modified to P218), to Nanking from the Hongqiao Airport after the plane was quickly set up and armed for delivery to the Chinese government as a test ship. Near the Nanxiangzhen town, Short ran into a flight of three Japanese fighter planes. Taking advantage of the speed of the Boeing plane, Short engaged with and rendered damages to the Japanese planes. Since Short seriously damaged the Japanese commanding plane, also shot the wing place and broke off the Japanese plane formation, he was mistakenly attributed in later posthumous commemoration to shooting down the Japanese commanding flyer, Lt. Kidokoro Mohachiro who was the later Japanese 281st Flight Group commander to die at the 1944 Battle of Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands chain. On February 22nd, 1932, the Chinese airforce made a decision to move the planes to Hangzhou from Nanking. Short, whose Boeing plane, numbered X66W and painted green, was too fast to join the formation, flew alone. While above the sky of Suzhou, Short noticed Japanese planes which were aiming to bomb a refugee train at the Suzhou train station. Short single-handedly attacked the formation of six Japanese naval aircrafts from Kaga, which included Lt. Kotani Susumu’s three Type 13 [Mitsubishi] bomber planes (B1M) and Ikuta Nogiji's three Type 3 [Nakajima] fighter planes (A1N2)). Short, despite having Japanese fighter planes on his tail, pressed on to attack the three-seat bombers via repeating pull-up and dive maneuver, killing bomber flight commander Lt. Kotani Susumu. In the subsequent low altitude combat, Ikuta Nogiji, Japanese fighter plane commander, together with two other assistants Kuroiwa Toshio and Takeo Kazuo, shot down the Boeing plane in flames above the sky to the southeast of Suzhou. Lu Xun, the communist mouthpiece who was hiding in Japan’s concession territory and drinking wine in the company of Japanese sing-song women, later on February 5th, 1933, used alias Heh Jiagan to write for the Shenbao Newspaper a sarcastic article of accusation in blaming the Chinese government for let Robert Short fly stranded, termed "Three Wishes for the National Salvation via Aviation", an article collected under compilation "On the Fake Freedom". Lu Xun claimed that he heard that the Cantonese air force, with traditional family girls embroidering the war oath on their suits, was never heard to have arrived at the battlefield up to then, i.e., one year after the war, and made three sarcastic admonishments, including i) pilots should know their path better (i.e., no following the example of Robert Short to go astray), ii) pilots should fly faster; and iii) pilots should not slaughter the people (i.e, no participation in the civil war against the Red Army). On March 1st, at 6:30 am, the 9th SquDiv and 24th Mixed RyoBrig, after three and half hours ' blanket bombing and shelling, launched multiple-route incursions with tanks and armored vehicles, with main thrusts directed at Zhuyuandun-Guangzhaoshanzhuang-Zhangsanqiao [defended by Huang Gu 's 155th Brigade of the 78th Division], Zhuyuandun-Jinjiamadou-Tangdongzhai, Miaohangzhen-Caijiazhai-Zhougang. The 7th Rentai, as the center attack force of the left prong, launched a general attack behind the cover of armored vehicles at 11 am. Before noon, the Japanese left (western) prong, consisting of troops from the 9th SquDiv, intruded into the line of Guangdingyidi, Maijiazhai and Lujiazhai. At Xiajiatang-Guangzhaoshanzhuang, the 1st Regiment of Huang Gu 's brigade exhausted itself in defense under the attacks by the Japanese cavalry and tanks. Post noon, the remnants of the 1st Regiment retreated towards Tanjiazhai-Mengjiajiao villages. At Zhangsanqiao-Zoumatang line, the 2nd Regiment of Huang Gu 's Brigade defended the positions till noon when the Japanese sent over reinforcement from the 11th Shidan. With one battalion from the 3rd Regiment of the 60th Division coming to the relief, the remnant 2nd Regiment held on to Yangjialou position at 1 pm. At Guangzhaoshanzhuang-Zhuyuandun, the 3rd Regiment of Huang Gu 's Brigade fought till 3 pm when the Zhuyuandun position was breached. The Japanese at 2 pm pushed against the Chinese forces to the east of Tanjiazhai, Lingnanqiao and Yangjialou line. During the battle, Japanese 7th Rentai commander Hayashi Daihachi was killed at Hanjiatang. (Later in 1937, the Japanese, who gave Hayashi a posthumous title of major general, set up a checkpoint at Hayashi 's death place and purportedly named it Daba [Daihachi in Japanese], which later mutated into Daba-shi [the Greater Eight Monastery] without substantiation of a monastery as coded in the name.) At 3 pm, the Japanese breached the positions of the 78th Division, which exposed the right flank of the 5th Corps and led to the Chinese right flank troops ' retreat to the line of Yanghuanqiao, Shuichedou, Tanjiazhai and Mengjiajiao. The Japanese central prong took over the north side of Ershisanyuan (23 gardens). The 24th Mixed RyoBrig in the afternoon took over Daijiazhai and intruded into Zhangjiaqiao and Zhujiaqiao line. The assigned tasks for the 24th Mixed RyoBrig was to attack west against Hujiawan and Lijiaku (Liku) with its main force while exerting a small portion of its force to providing cover to the 9th Shidan attacking northward. The Japanese right (northern) prong was directed against the Chinese defense extending from Zhuyuandun to Miaohang, to Sitang and all the way along the Yunzaobang River. Relying on the Yunzaobang River which ran roughly eastward towards the Whampoo rivermouth and the Wusong Fortress, the 87th Division was able to hold on the line from Hujiazhai to Jijiaqiao to Sitang till 11 pm at night when it pulled out under the retreat order. To the west of Hujiazhai to Jijiaqiao to Sitang and to the south of the Yunzaobang River, Sun Yuanliang 's brigade defended the Miaohang-Zhougang line till 3 pm. At 5 pm, Sun Yuanliang’s brigade pulled out of the Miaohang-Zhougang line for Yanghuanqiao-Hujiazhuang line after the 88th Division lost the Zhuyuandun-Tangdongzhai line The Japanese, at heavy casualties and fighting non-stop battles from dawn to 3 pm, took over Zhuyuandun-Jinjiamadou-Tangdongzhai from the 88th Division. The Japanese breaching of the Zhuyuandong positions of the 78th Division at 3 pm exposed the left flank of the 88th Division of the 5th Corps, triggering the retreat of the 88th Division and 78th Division to the line of Yanghuanqiao, Shuichedou, Tanjiazhai and Mengjiajiao, which in turn affected Sun Yuanliang’s brigade at the Miaohangzhen-Caijiazhai-Zhougang line. After taking over Zhuyuandun and two sides of Guangdongyidi, the Japanese further intruded into the Zhoujiazhai and Shuichedou line. By 5 pm, the Japanese pressed the 88th Division to the Yanzhai, Lijiaku and Yanghuanqiao line. Later in 1936, on the 4th anniversary date, the people of Baoshan donated 30 Chinese acres of land to have a 3,000 martyrs ' monument built to the east of Zhougangcun Village to commemorate the Battle of Miaohang. (For details on the First Battle of Shanghai, check The Air Battle over Shanghai-Suzhou-Hangzhou & Western Power Intervention - 1932 and Battles of Miaohang, Qianjingying & Loutang - 1932) Chiang Kai-shek, to counter Japanese reinforcements, relocated Xu Tingyao’s 4th Division, Zhao Guantao’s 6th Division and Tang Yunshan’s 33rd Independent Brigade away from the siege campaign against the Red Army. To cover the stealthy troop movement, Japan accepted British fleet commander’s mediation again. Nomura and Matsuoka held a talk with 19th Route Army tactician Huang Qiang and Wellington Koo on board a British ship. During the Battle of Shanghai, Chinese communists called on its Shanghai members to stage an uprising; however, Liu Shaoqi, with merely 30-50 members under his helm, failed to strike at the government. More available at ShanghaiProvocation1932.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
On March 14th, Lytton Commission arrived in Shanghai. Western powers brokered an informal peace talk between Chinese and Japanese. On 24th, the two parties started official negotiations. Having reached the objective of detaching Manchuria from China, Japan announced troop withdrawal from Shanghai, withdrawing 11th Shidan and 24th Mixed Ryodan to Japan while forwarding 14th Shidan to Manchuria for the crackdown on Chinese volunteer fighters. Assassination Of Japanese Commander In Shanghai In Shanghai, on April 29th 1932, i.e., Japanese emperor's 31st birthday, Wang Yaqiao's assassination team killed Japanese occupation commander at today's Hongkou Park during a celebration ceremony. Alternatively speaking, a Korean patriot, by the name of Yin Fengji [Yoon Bong-Gil], threw a teapot bomb onto the parade platform, injuring seven prominent Japanese military and commercial leaders as well as special imperial emissary. Japanese commerce leader died the second day, and the occupation commander Shirakawa Yoshinori [Baichuan Yize] died on May 26th. per ZLA, Jin Jiu [Kin Kau] of "interim Korean government", after seeking asylum in Haiyan for half a year, was fetched by Chen Guofu to Nanking's Central Military Academy for a meeting with Chiang Kai-shek in the winter of 1932. Chiang Kai-shek, being appreciative of Korean assassination activity, continued Chen Qimei's line of funding the Korean movement by offering a subsidy of 5000 yuan per month. Jin Jiu, Li Dongning & Min Shilin had taken charge of "interim Korean government" after Syngman Rhee went to US in 1921 and Jin Kuizhi went to USSR. Majority Korean exiles joined the Chinese army. After ROC issued a self-defense proclamation on Aug 14th 1937 in the aftermath of Japan's invasion of Shanghai, the secretive Chinese support for Korean restoration went into public. Also see the three columns of "Korean restoration army" for the cooperation with American Office of Strategic Services. "Quelling Internal Enemies Before Expelling External Invaders" Nationalist Government, after the month long '1-28 Campaign', would officially declare a priority of 'quelling internal enemies before expelling external invaders', namely, quelling CCP before engaging themselves in resistance wars against Japanese invasion. Chiang Kai-shek, per JYJ, had derived this decision after reflecting on the apathy of various regional commander-in-chief, the Japanese navy blockade of lower Yangtze River, and the expansion of the communist bases as a result of CCP taking advantage of Nationalist Government's war in Shanghai region. '1-28 Campaign' [Shanghai-WuSong Campaign] were undertaken by only two corps, 19th Corps and 5th Corps. (CCP propaganda often mentioned that 19th Route, i.e., Fujian Army, had fought the Japanese on their own accord while Chiang Kai-shek ordered that his army should not have confrontation with Japanese army. Nationalist Government records stated that Chiang Kai-shek had secretly provided support to 19th Route. Later in 1937, Chiang Kai-shek decided to commit to the second battlefield in Shanghai for sake of drawing world-wide support and sympathy as well as diversion of Japanese thrusts in northern China.) From 1931 onward, 33 million Manchurian Chinese were to suffer 14 year long cruel colonialist ruling in the hands of Japanese. Manchuria, being forbidden any Chinese immigration by Manchu from 1668 to 1813, had been a safe haven of Chinese refugees as had been the case since the late years of Qin Dynasty 2200 years ago. Japanese colonization, in another sense, had taken in quite some Chinese coolies who sought for job opportunities. The latest influx to Manchuria would be during the famine years of 1959-1962 when Shandong Province disaster-stricken populace were rerouted by the communist government to Manchuria in the name of "lending relief to border construction". (Per ZZR, his class of students were asked to receive those mal-nutrition Shandong people and kids at the train station.) Implanting Emperor K'ang Te of Puppet State Manchukuo Japanese, after smuggling former Manchu Emperor Xuantong (Aixinjueluo Pu-yi or Henry Pu Yi) out of Tianjin, announced the launch of Manchukuo on March 1st. Female spy, Chuandao Fangzi [Kawashima Yoshiko], thereafter transported to Manchuria Pu-yi's concubine who at one time thought that Pu-yi had abandoned her. Japan made Pu-yi into Emperor K'ang Te of puppet state Manchukuo in 1934, and divided Manchuria into nine provinces. In between, Pu-yi's title was Regent [Administrator] of Manchukuo. (Aside from Pu-yi, one Japanese spy adopted an ex-princess of Manchu King Suqin-wang, renamed her Chuandao Fangzi [Kawashima Yoshiko], and dispatched her to numerous sabotage and espionage missions. Among China-borne Japanese, they located a Japanese girl by the name of Shankou Shuzi [YAMAGUCHI Yoshiko], renamed her to Li Xianglan, and trained her to become a Hollywood-type icon to fool the Chinese populace. One year later, Li Xianglan sang the Manchukuo anthem.) In January 1932, the United States told Japan that it would not recognize any territory taken in violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. The United States issued the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine, declaring that the "United States would not recognize the impairment of treaty rights in China resulting from Japan's illegal military actions". However, the Morgan House claimed to the US government that "the Chinese had broken agreements by building competing railroads, in 'deliberate economic wastage in duplicating existing facilities'; and China was 'withholding payment on any Japanese bonds' and using the money for the competing railroad... China has conducted the most lawless and aggravating course possible..." On Jan 8th 1932, Hirohito issued an imperial decree commending the feats of Kwantung Army to the following effect: "You [the Kwantung Army] displayed the awe of imperial army both domestic and overseas. Me [Hirohito] strongly commend and praise your loyalty and staunchness. Hope you generals and soldiers alike will become more persevering and self-possessed for sake of solidifying the basis of peace in East Asia as well as requiting the favor of imperial trust from me." On Jan 27th 1933, Japan, after threatening the League with exit, launched a three-prong attack at Rehe [Jehol] Province, Gubeikou Pass & Xifengkou Pass [and Lengkou Pass]. Invasion Into Jehol Shortly after the Shanghai Ceasefire Agreement, Japan’s militarists staged a coup d’état on May 15th, 1932, and killed their dove-faction prime minister. Declaring the inseparable relationship between Jehol [Rehe] and Manchuria in “Manchukuo independence proclamation” in Feb 1932, Japanese Kwantung Army commander took the coup as a green light for encroaching onto Jehol. Initially, Japanese intended to pacify Jehol by converting the provincial chair Tang Yulin. Having failed to buy over Tang Yulin, Japan resorted to military attacks by moving the bulk of its Kwantung Army towards Jehol border. For distracting Chinese forces, Japan orchestrated two provocations at the Pass of Sea and Mountain in Oct and December of 1932. On the night of Jan 1st, 1933, Japan’s Shanhaiguan garrison commander made up an incident by exploding grenades and firing a few shots, and then demanded with Chinese for pulling out troops. The next day, Japanese 8th Shidan rode over on four armored trains and three armored vehicles. Japanese, with the support of five planes, continued the attacks through 5 pm. From the sea, Japanese Second Overseas Fleet, which had a total of one dozen warships, also blasted at the Shanhaiguan citadel. 626th Regiment commander Shi Shian retreated through Xishuimen Gate with remnants after 1st Battalion commander was killed in battle. More available at Battle_of_the_Great_Wall.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Japanese emperor congratulated Japanese Kwantung army and called Rehe [Jehol] by the term "province". Seeing that Zhang Xueliang was very much addicted to drugs, TV Soong suggested to Zhang Xueliang to step down for a medical treatment as well as for appeasing national resentment. On 12th, Zhang Xueliang resigned the post of chairman for Peiping Branch of the Central Committee to Heh Yingqin. In February, per Frank E. Smitha, "the [Japanese] army's chief of staff requested Emperor Hirohito's sanction for a 'strategic operation' against Chinese forces in Jehol. Hoping that it was the last of the army's operations in the area and that it would bring an end to the Manchurian matter, the Emperor approved, while stating that the army was not go beyond China's Great Wall". In late February 1933, the League of Nations Assembly voted on "no recognition of Manchuokuo". On March 3rd, Japanese attacked Rehe Province, and sacked Chengde & Xifengkou Pass. By mid-March, Jehol fell under Japanese control. Battles of the Great Wall ("Changcheng Zhi Zhan") 
Song Zheyuan’s 29th Corps, beginning from March 2nd, began to converge upon Xifengkou Pass. On March 4th, Zhang Zhengfang’s 107th Division of 67th Corps was dispatched towards Qingshiliang-Huangtuliang area for impeding the advancement of Japanese 8th Shidan; and Shang Zhen’s 32nd Corps, which was digging defense positions on two banks of Luanhe River, was ordered to recover Lengkou Pass from Japanese 14th Mixed Ryodan. To reinforce the defense of the Great Wall, the military committee relocated Guan Linzheng’s 25th Division of 17th Corps to Tongxian on March 5th and subsequently Miyun on 8th. Huang Jie’s 2nd Division of 17th Corps followed through to Tongxian on 7th.  139th Division, after two days of fighting, recovered Lengkou Pass on the early morning of March 7th. Shang Zhen then deployed Gao Hongwen’s 141st Division to the left of the pass, Du Jiwu’s 118th Division under 51st Corps to the right of the pass, and Li Xincun’s 142nd Division as reserves at Jianchangying. At 3 pm, on 10th, Japanese launched a short duration probing attack at Gubeikou Pass. On March 11th, at dawn, Japanese 8th Shidan attacked the pass, and by 10 am, wrestled over the control of the entry area from 112th Division. Japanese then attacked 25th Division and surrounded 145th Regiment of 73rd Brigade. Guan Linzheng personally led 75th Brigade to the relief from eastern gate of Gubeikou Town. In the ensuing short distance battle, Guan Linzheng was seriously wounded, regiment commander Wang Lunbo died, and 73rd Brigade commander Du Yuming took over the job of acting division chief.
 By 5 pm of March 12th, Japanese took over Gubeikou pass and town, and pressed 25th Division to Nantianmen Gate where Huang Jie’s 2nd Division assumed the task of continuous defense. Herald 109th Brigade under 37th Division of 29th Corps, upon arrival at the Xifengkou, immediately took control of Panjiakou Pass sitting above Luanhe River to the left and Tienmenguan-Dongjiakou passes to the right. To route the Japanese attack force, 29th Corps Chief Song Zheyuan ordered Zhao Dengyu’s 109th Brigade and Tong Zeguang’s 113th Brigade to circumvent to the right and left flanks of the Japanese for a raid into Japanese camps on the night of 11th. Past midnight, Zhao Dengyu’s brigade, with blades, swept through Japanese camps at a dozen locations, and by 4 am, destroyed Japanese command center and cannons at Baitaizi. (It was said that General Zhang Zizhong, frontline general director for Xifengkou Campaign, first organized the famous "Broad Sword Contingent" of Northwestern Army.) More available at Battle_of_the_Great_Wall.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Peace talks in Shanghai continued into early May. Whang Jingwei was commented to have stopped advocating for war with Japan after generals at Gubeikou informed him that Japanese cannons and firepower could reach Chinese soldiers while Chinese weapons did not even have the range to hit Japanese positions. On May 3rd, Nobuyoshi Muto adopted the approach of pressing for a peaceful settlement by. 28th Ryodan of Japanese 14th Shidan was rerouted south from Amur (Heilongjiang) Province for a new offensive. On May 7th, reinforced Japanese troops launched attacks across the Great Wall line, from Gubeikou Pass to Shanhaiguan Pass. On May 14th, Japanese took over Luanzhou. Fu Zuoyi’s 59th Corps was sent to Huairou for assisting Xiao Zhichu’s 26th Corps in defending Peiping. Additionally, Chiang Kai-shek shipped Feng Qinzai’s 42nd Division and Central Army’s crack force of 87th Division and 88th Division towards Peiping. On May 23rd, Fu Zuoyi’s 59th Corps engaged with Japanese 8th Shidan at Huairou. On the same day, Japanese offered a ceasefire to Huang Fu. More available at Battle_of_the_Great_Wall.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Sino-Japanese "Tang-Gu Treaty" In late May 1933, Chiang Kai-shek began to negotiate with the Japanese for a ceasefire. Nationalist Government generals, including Song Zheyuan, Wan Fulin and Yu Xuezhong, all publicly objected to the Sino-Japanese "Tang-Gu Treaty". Lu Weicheng claimed that this ceasefire bought two years of time for China to prepare against Japan's invasion. Wu Xiangxiang stated that China began to build railway systems in earnest after the Tang-Gu Treaty. 
Per Li Ao ("Commentary Biography Of Chiang Kai-shek", Shang-Zhou Culture Enterprise Publishing House, Taipei, Taiwan, April 1995 edition), Chiang Kai-shek's sworn brother, i.e., Huang Fu, had rebuked Chiang Kai-shek in a May 27th 1933 telegraph as to Chiang's superficial patriotism while pushing him out as a negotiator for peace with Japanese. Li Ao further stated that Whang Jingwei, head for both Nationalist Government Administrative Council [i.e., Xing Zheng Yuan] and Nationalist Government Foreign Ministry, had to stamp the Tang-Gu Agreement on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek even though Whang Jingwei never participated in the negotiation. Later, in 1936, at Huang Fu's deathbed in a Shanghai hospital, Chiang assuaged his sworn brother that he had "completed half of the necessary preparations for fighting against Japanese, with one or two more years at most to finish the rest" and assured Huang Fu that whatever humiliations he had taken would not be in vain. Hirohito, after signing of the treaty, went to the Yasukuni Shrine to report the victory to the "martyrs". See page 631 of Jin Hui's "Questioning The Heaven's Spirit In Deep Grief: A Memorandum On Japanese Atrocities In China" (Heaven & Earth Book Publishing House, HK, 1995 edition). This same shrine, now being visited by Japanese prime minister regularly, had contained the tombstones and altars of Japanese military dead, together with inscriptions of their army ranks, wars or battles engaged as well as perjured historical accounts. Feng Yuxiang's Anti-Japanese Allied Army  On May 26th 1933, Feng Yuxiang was conferred the post of commander-in-chief of "Anti-Japanese Allied Army",
with Fang Zhenwu acting as omnipotent director and Ji Hongchang as frontline commissar.
Having developed into over 100,000 people, Ji Hongchang's army pushed against Duolun
(i.e., a town in former Cha-ha-er and present Inner Mongolian and directly to the north of Peking city).
By late July, Feng Yuxiang and Ji Hongchang established, at Zhangjiakou, the "committee for recovering the four provinces of the Northeast".
During the Chahar campaign, Hebei Provincial Commissar Committee of Chinese communists dispatched Keh Qingshi to Kalgan for instigating the rebellion of Feng Yuxiang's allied army into the communist Red Army. Senior communist leader Zhang Mutao, who was responsible for instigating 1929-1930 rebellion by Feng Yuxiang, disagreed with the new orientation and was consequently kicked out of the communist party. Chiang Kai-shek, fearing that communists had taken control of "Anti-Japanese Allied Army", would launch a concerted siege of the resistance army. Surrounded by government troops, communist instigators and Japanese army on all sides, Feng Yuxiang resigned his post. More available at Chinese Communists & Feng Yuxiang’s Chahar Allied Army - 1933 [Modified : Tuesday, 23-Oct-2007 01:06:37 EDT]; Chinese Communists & Feng Yuxiang’s Chahar Allied Army - 1933: The Final Demise [Modified : Monday, 10-Oct-2011 14:14:51 EDT]. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Ji Hongchang (undercover communist) and Fang Zhenwu (whose followers mostly joined the hatchet gang) answered the call of Chinese communists for first a relocation towards northern Chahar and then a southern attack against Peiping. The two fought on for a while, surrendered to government troops, escaped half away during the disarmament, and stealthily sought asylum in Tianjin's foreign settlements in Jan 1934.
 On April 1st, Chiang Kai-shek launched "economic construction movement" in Guiyang of Guizhou Province and made Song Ziwen the chief of Bank of China. Ho-Umezu Agreement & Qin- Doihara Agreement More available at Ho-Umezu-Agreement.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Shang Zhen took over the post, but refused to ally with Japanese. In Peking, Shang Zhen, other than his continuous studies of English, would often match his 32nd Corps polo team with foreigner's teams. Chiang Kai-shek then relocated Shang Zhen and his 32nd Corps to Kaifeng of Henan Province.  Song Zheyuan succeeded the post and adopted a "befriending" approach to Japanese. On July 1st, Mt Lushan Training was moved to Sichuan Province. On July 4th, Yangtze River flooding impacted 14 million people, with 100000 people drowned. On Oct 2nd, Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang organized northwestern committee for quelling communist banditry. On Nov 3rd, a new currency system was announced for adopting "legalized currency" beginning on Nov 4th. On Nov 12th, KMT 5th Congress was convened in Nanking. On Nov 25th, Japanese instituted a puppet government, i.e., Eastern Ji [Hebei Province] Anti-Communist Autonomous Government under a Chinese traitor called Yin Rugeng who was Nationalist Government administrative commissar for Luan-Yu region of eastern Hebei Province. (Yin Rugeng, later caught and executed by Nationalist Government after WWII, would claim that he was asked to head the puppet government.) Nationalist Government foreign ministry raised protest against Japan. Eastern Ji [Hebei Province] Anti-Communist Autonomous Government would lead to the students' protest movement in Peking on Dec 9th 1935. Communists stirred up massive protests across the cities of China, with such frontal organizations as "Northern China's Grand People Alliance For Rescuing China" and "Joint Society of Peking-Tianjin Students For Rescuing China" etc. Huang Jing [Yu Qiwei], i.e., Jiang Qing's first husband (?), was among the most active students. China In Crises Of Internal turmoil & Foreign Invasions On June 15th 1931, Chiang Kai-shek personally went to Nanchang of Jiangxi Province to supervise the Third Siege of Communist stronghold. However, this siege was aborted due to the KMT internal strife. Chiang Kai-shek faced both internal and external adversaries, with internal being KMT rightist Hu Hanmin and KMT leftist Whang Jingwei. Early in the year, on Feb 28th 1931, Hu Hanmin was put under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek at Tangshan in Nanking. Hu Hanmin authorized senior KMT leader Gu Yingfen in contacting Guangxi-Guangdong generals for a new government. Li Zongren dispatched Wang Gongdu to Canton for cooperation with Chen Jitang's Guangdong government. Senior KMT leaders, like Ju Zheng, Xie Chi, Sun Ke, Deng Zeru & Lin Sen etc all opposed Chiang Kai-shek. Jiang Yongjing lamented the split relationship among Chiang Kai-shek, Whang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin and attributed it to the weakness of the KMT party. On June 28th, Whang Jingwei (aka Whang Zhaoming), Tang Shaoyi, Zou Lu, Chen Youren, and Li Zongren established a separate National Government in Guangzhou [Canton]. Canton government dispatched armies to Hunan-Jiangxi provinces against Chiang Kai-shek, while Zou Lu was dispatched to the north for inciting Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan against Chiang Kai-shek. Taking advantage of Nanking Government dilemma, on July 20th 1931, Shi Yousan, who rebelled against Chiang Kai-shek and Feng Yuxiang in 1929-1930 consecutively, rebelled against Chiang Kai-shek again in southern Hebei Province and drove off Zhang Xueliang's Manchurian army. Hu Zongnan's 1st Division, in collaboration with Zhang Xueliang, defeated the 20-county rebellion by Shi Yousan on July 31st. Shi Yousan remnants were taken in by Han Fuju on Aug 8th. (Shi Yousan, originally counted as one of the 13 'gestapo' of Feng Yuxiang, on Dec 1st 1940, was ordered to be killed by deputy corps chief Gao Shuxun for implication with Japanese.) In Hebei Province, Hu Zongnan arrested a local godfather figure, and then returned to Kaifeng. Thereafter, Hu Zongnan's 1st Division was rerouted to the south for countering Canton rebellion. Japanese Invasion Of Manchuria/Shanghai & Reconciliation Among KMT Factions Building ROC's Airforce In 1932, Nationalist government decided to establish China's airforce. Central Aviation Academy was set up in Jianqiao Airport of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, with about 20 Americans invited as lecturers. Later war hero, Zhang Guangming, attended the academy with referral of his school master in Northern China. Nationwide, a movement was launched for "donating one airplane in every county". Well over 1 billion worth of money were collected, and a poor county of Sichuan Province donated three plane worth of money. In the winter of 1932, when American lecturers at Central Aviation Academy [in Jianqiao Airport of Hangzhou] refused to bomb the KMT rebels led by Cai Tingkai in Fujian Province, ROC Government immediately accepted Italian offer. About 40 Italian fighter pilots and 100 Italian engineers were dispatched to Nanchang of Jiangxi Province for assembling airplanes. Wu Xiangxiang stated that Italy had offered to pay their advisers with money from overcharged war damages from 1900 boxer incident. China purchased Italian airplanes in the amount of several millions of US dollars. However, Italians gave Chinese pilots "pass" score without filtering out those disqualified and cooked books to make China appear to have 500 planes whereas only 91 planes could actually engage in battles. General Chennault concluded that it was Mussolini's scheme to destroy China's airforce from the beginning by offering proof that Mussolini was the first person who came to offer 'peace deals' on behalf of Japan after the eruption of war on July 7th 1937. Japanese Attempt At New Dominion Province  "People's Government" "Fujian People's Government" Preparations For Resistance War Inside Guangxi-Guangdong Provinces Patriotic Movements In Jan 1934, masses of students, taking advantage of the convention of KMT 4th Plenary of 4th Congress, converged onto KMT party headquarters in Nanking for petitioning a declaration of war on Japan. (Numerous memoirs pointed out that communist insurgents had mixed up with student activists for organizing this student petition movement.) Nationalist dispatched senior scholar Cai Yuanpei to the front gate for dissuading the students, but students refused to leave. On Jan 20th, Chiang Kai-shek personally appeared in front of the students for an explanation of government policies as to Japan, and students dispersed after Chiang Kai-shek promised to adopt a strong stance against Japan. On March 11th, Chiang Kai-shek ordered a four-prong 5th Siege of Jiangxi Soviet.  In the summer of 1934, Chiang Kai-shek and Song Meiling endorsed a so-called "New Life Movement". (Xu Zhen stated that Chiang Kai-shek first started this movement on Feb 19th 1934 in Nanchang of Jiangxi Province.) Chinese women were said to have played active role in public life hence. "New Life Movement", by preaching simplicity of lifestyle and punctuality in action among Chinese citizens, was also devised for reviving the martialness of the nation. In Nanchang of Jiangxi Province, populace manufactured a "sleeping lion", with a call for the "Chinese to wake up immediately". Changing Alliances In International Arena World War II, in both East and West, were the inducements of the British, and Anglo-American syndicates. For what? British wanted Hitler to attack the Soviet Union, and the British wanted Japan to suppress China's nationalist movement and to counter the Soviet Union. In both cases, Stalin out-smarted the British and Anglo-American syndicates. Hitler attacked westward instead, and signed a Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact with Stalin to halve Poland; and Japan attacked Southeast Asia and Pearl Harbor after China, not the Soviet Union. (Half a year before Russo-Japanese Neutrality Treaty of April 1941 and one year ahead of the Pacific War, Japan already reached a secret deal with USSR to halve China, as evidenced by Dec 1940 negotiations between Whang Jingwei and Japan. The same cunning Stalin, who fought Zhang Xueliang over Chinese-Eastern Railway, would quickly divest himself of the railway after Japan invaded Manchuria on Sept 18th 1931.) The Anglo-American support for Japan could be dated to Japan's post-Meiji era. While US had supported Japan from 1894 First Sino-Japanese War to 1904 Russo-Japanese War, Britain tacked on the job of supporting Japan from 1904 onward, for 20 continuous years. To reign in Japan the mad dog from biting themselves, Britain and America somehow pressured Japan into some concessions through several conferences, i.e., Washington Conference on naval disarmament in 1922, and the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928. Nothing had shaken Anglo-American long-term objective of supporting Japan, no matter it was the sinking of Captain T. R. Galsworthy's merchant ship from British-owned Indochina Steam Navigation Company of London in 1894, or the sinking of Panay by Japanese bombers on the afternoon of Dec 12th 1937, or the attacks of two British warships on the Yangtze at the same timeframe.  The Anglo-American & Jewish romance with Japanese, as exhibited in Steven Spielberg’s EMPIRE OF THE SUN [based on the autobiographical novel by J.G. Ballard], had seemed to be corroborated by James Liley's recollections of his family's limited war experiences in China, obscured by the naked truth which the Prisoners of the Japanese : Pows of World War II in the Pacific would rather forget. Anglo-American's foes made their moves. In 1933, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. Soviet Russia launched diplomatic initiatives by establishing diplomatic relations with China in Dec 1932 and with USA in 1933, consecutively, hence dispatching large embassy of agents for espionage and instigation. In September 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations. ("16 out of 17 of the AMERICANS that were involved in creating the U.N. were later identified, in sworn testimony, as secret communist agents. The first Secretary General was the AMERICAN Alger Hiss. Hiss served time in prison pursuant to his involvement in a Communist spy ring." The whole United States government was in fact taken over by the Comintern agents, including: Alger Hiss; Harry Dexter White; Lauchlin Currie; Laurence Duggan; Frank Coe; Solomon Adler; Klaus Fuchs; and Duncan Lee.) In March 1935, Hitler denounced the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and announced Germany's rearmament. Some 20,000 German Jews, with stamped passport by ROC ambassador to Germany, escaped Hitler's Nazis grip to find a haven in Shanghai. Chinese ambassador to Austria, i.e., Heh Fengshan, assisted Jews in granting visa to thousands of Jews from 1938 to 1940. See Shanghai Ghetto. Beginning from 1935, Nationalist government enlisted 2.5 million labor for building four railway lines leading from Sichuan Province to Shenxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan Provinces. This turns out to be a big contribution to the later resistance wars against Japan. On June 18th of 1935, Liao Zhongkai's coffin was relocated to Nanking for a state funeral. One day earlier, in Shanghai, over 300 representatives, together with Mme He Xiangning, received the coffin from a French-registered postal ship. In July & August 1935, the Third Comintern announced an "anti-imperialist front" all over the world. In Moscow, Wang Ming, i.e., head of the Chinese communist delegation, passed on the new directives to CCP at home. When the Communist forces relocated to Yan'an [i.e., Yenan] in late 1935, they renamed themselves to the "Chinese Anti-Japanese Red Army". Chiang Kai-shek, from 1935 to 1936, had authorized the "Secretive Sino-USSR Contacts and KMT-CCP Contacts In Multiple Channels", a manifestation that Chiang Kai-shek was preparing for an inevitable confrontation with Japan by means of an alliance with Russians & Chinese communists. In Dec 1935, Chen Lifu, with Chiang Kai-shek approval, went on a secret mission to USSR with Zhang Chong by disguising themselves among Cheng Tianfang & Feng Ti's embassy to Germany. Stalin declined an invitation over possible Japanese reactions. Meanwhile, Japan's news agency repeatedly claimed that Nationalist top representative Chen Lifu was sent to Moscow. Chiang Kai-shek hence recalled Chen & Zhang, and pierced Japanese "rumor". Chinese government vacillated between an alliance with Soviet Union versus that with Japan.  Meanwhile, Soviet Union made an alliance with Sheng Shicai the warlord governor of Xinjiang [i.e., Sinkiang] in westernmost China. Sheng Shicai invited the Soviet Red Army and Chinese Communist Party into his dominion.
(Wu Xiangxiang stated that Russian Red Army 8th Regiment came to Hami in Jan 1938. However, 2000 Russian Red Army was invited over to Ili by Sheng Shicai on Jan 3rd 1934 for fighting the "naturalized White Russian army" who were subordinate to Zhang Peiyuan the Chinese "garrison & farming commissioner" for Ili. Russian Red Army at one time took over Yining, Suiding & Huiyuan cities. One month later, on Feb 11th 1934, Russian Red Army, again at the request of Sheng Shicai, intruded to Urumqi where they defeated 36th Division Chief Ma Zhongying [i.e., the commander-in-chief of "joint armies of Gansu-Ningxia-Qinghai provinces"]. Later, on Aug 5th and Oct 13th of 1937, twice, Russian Red Army attacked Ma Hushan rivalry in southern Chinese Turkistan on behalf of Sheng Shicai, and on Oct 15th, bombed the city of Yutian where Chinese casualties numbered at 2000. More available at Changing_Alliances-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
1936 In early 1936, Red Army mounted a so-called "Eastern Expedition" by crossing the Yellow River to Shanxi Province. Chen Yongfa pointed out that Mao Tse-tung directed the eastern campaign for solving financial crisis. Before being driven out of Shanxi, Red Army confiscated huge amount of currency and recruited tens of thousands of soldiers. On May 5th 1936, Nationalist Government announced the draft of the ROC Constitution, with eight chapters and 146 clauses. This would be a step towards Sun Yat-sen's "constitutional government" from the stages of "military government" and "KMT-supervised administration". KMT 3rd Plenary of 5th Congress stipulated Nov 12th 1937 as the date for National Congregation. In Nanking, in early 1936, actress Hu Die's films were widely welcome, and people lined up for watching the show. 1936 was the year before the full outbreak of the Japanese invasion war. Nobody expected a massacre of the city numbering 300,000 victims would fall upon them in the following year. People still enjoyed life without worry of a pending crisis. On May 31st of 1936, athletes wore newly made suits to show respect to Sun Yat-sen's monument before departing for the Olympics in Berlin as representatives of the Republic of China. Similarly, the colonialists also enjoyed their last heyday days of luxury and arrogance. On July 14th of 1936, arrogant French soldiers, with possibly Indochinese henchmen included, paraded through the streets of French settlement in Shanghai, marching with askew heads and noses slanted towards the sky. More available at 1936-Eve_of_Japanese_Invasion-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
 On Nov 24th 1936, Fu Zuoyi's Suiyuan Province army sacked Bailingmiao from "Inner Mongolia puppet army".
The arrest of "seven gentlemen" would lead to nationwide protests against Chiang Kai-shek government as well as Zhang Xueliang's release petition which contributed to the Xi'an Incident on Dec 12th 1936.
KMT-CCP contacts remained secretive after Xi'an Incident per ZLA so as not to arouse Japan's suspicion and indignation.
Campaigns Against Communist Strongholds Ningdu Rebellion By Northwestern Army Fourth Encirclement Campaign Relocation Of Hubei-Henan-Anhui Borderline Soviet Ambush Battles At Huangpi Nationalist Government Routing CCP Underground Network In Shanghai Fifth Encirclement Campaign Interruptions By Anti-Japanese Allied Army & Mutiny of 19th Route Army CCP's Political Movement Against Luo Ming Drain Of Resources Inside Of Jiangxi Soviet Red Army's Long March (Oct 1934 - Oct 1936) Three Preliminary Breakouts Xiangjiang River Crossing (Nov 25th to Dec 3rd) 7000 Communist Prisoners of War Wu-jiang River Crossing Zunyi Meeting (Jan 1935) Crossing Chi-shui [Red Water] River Four Times Planned Conversion Of 1st & 4th Front Armies Crossing Jinsha [gold sand] River Luding-qiao Iron Chain Bridge Climbing Great Snow Mountain Lianghekou Meeting Zhang Guotao's Challenging Zunyi Meeting Decisions Luhua Meeting & Maoergai Meeting Shawo Meeting & Grasslands of Qinghai Split of Mao Tse-tung's Red Army From Zhang Guotao's Zhang Guotao's Defeat At Baizhangguan Pass Conversion of Red Army 2nd & 4th Fronts Ningxia-Yinchuan Campaign Official Completion Of The Long March Who Authorized First Western Expedition? Re-organizing Red Army Western Route Xi'An Incident - Turning Point Of Modern History Northeastern Army vs Red Army Communist Infiltrations Into Northwestern Army Zhang Xueliang's Collusion With CCP Secret KMT-CCP Direct Contacts In Multiple Channels On The Eve Of Coup D'etat Tang Junyao Abducting Chiang Kai-shek At Lintong Stalin, Comintern & Xi'an Incident Solution To Coup D'etat Disintegration Of Northeastern Army Dissolution Of Mao Tse-tung's "Marriage" Demise Of Red Army Western Expeditions CCP Central Abandoning Ningxia Campaign First Western Expedition Red Army 9th Corps Being Frustrated At Gulang Flipping By Mao Tse-tung's CCP Central CCP Central Ordering Western Route Army Stay Put Xi'an Coup & CCP Central Order As To Taking Over Ganzhou & Shuzhou Second Western Expedition Dong Zhentang's Death With Red Army 5th Corps At Gaotai 40-Day Defence of Nijiayingzi Final Demise Of Red Army Western Route Purge Of Zhang Guotao Path Japanese Invasion (1937-1945) Li Zongren pointed out that Japan Prime Minister Tanaga Giichi first proposed the invasion of Manchuria-Mongolia on July 25th 1927. Subsequent Sept 18th 1931 invasion would encourage Italian venture in Ethiopia and Hitler's nullifying the Versailles Treaty in 1933. After the success in establishing Eastern Ji [Hebei Province] Anti-Communist Autonomous Government, Japan invaded Chahar & Suiyuan provinces and intended to establish a "Puppet Inner Mongolia Government". Across northern China, Korean and Japanese vagrants engaged in drug trafficking and smuggling. Japan officially launched its invasion war against China after several rounds of internal assassinations between factions of militarists and cabinet ministers, including Feb 26th 1936 coup. On Nov 3rd 1936, Japanese launched a huge scale military exercise in northern China. Around Peking, Japanese, in the name of military exercises, took over Fengtai, Mixian and Tongzhou, leaving Wanping as the only exit for Peking. Nationwide, Chinese launched numerous boycott movements. In 1936, Japanese instigated independence of some Inner Mongolian banners. Japanese dispatched "Inner Mongolia puppet army" against northern Suiyuan Province from Bailingmiao but got repelled by Fu Zuoyi. On Nov 24th, Fu Zuoyi's Suiyuan Province army sacked Bailingmiao from "Inner Mongolia puppet army". On March 12th 1937, Japanese prime minister published a proclamation of three policies in regards to Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and Northern China. Japanese secretly planned for a mobilization of 4.48 million field army for war against China, not to mention their inventory of 2700 airplanes and 1.9 million tons of navy force. On June 5th, new Japanese prime minister rescinded the three policies and advocated war against China by relocating two echelons to Fengtai area. On June 9th, Toyo Hideki proposed that Japan should attack China for stopping the acts of "excluding and insulting Japanese". (Back In 1935, Japanese government protested against "[Chinese] education [ministry] on the matter of 'excluding Japanese'" by demanding that China must "revise school textbooks". Sounds familiar to today's protests by Asian countries against Japanese Education Ministry attempt at revising the textbooks? Just the other way around.) After initially calling on world communists to militarily defend the Soviet Union from 1931 to 1933, Stalin subsequently designed the united front in 1935, and ultimately in the time period of 1936-1937 successfully lit the fuse of the Sino-Japanese War by means of repeated GRU operations in northern China. Marco Polo Bridge Incident On July 7th of 1937, at 10:00 pm, a Japanese column that belonged to the Ryodan stationed at Fengtai city held a military exercise north of Lugouqiao Bridge (i.e., Marco Polo Bridge or Roko Bridge). At around 11 pm, Japanese claimed that one of their soldiers had disappeared and demanded that they enter the city of Wanping for a search. After Regiment Chief Ji Xingwen (219th Regiment, 37th Division, 29th Corps) declined the request, Japanese laid the siege on Wanping city. By 5:00 am, on July 8th, Japanese fired their first shot of siege. More available at Battles-of-Peking-Tientsin.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
At 9:00 am, on July 8th, Japanese Kwantung Army proposed to launch a general attack at Chinese armies in Hebei and Chahar provinces with Umezu Yoshijiro in Tokyo. Koiso Kuniaki, i.e., occupation commander in Korea, advocated a comprehensive war against China for realizing the grand plan of ruling China. – Guo Rugui, p. 1:316 – citing japan defense agency, defense research institute, battle history editorial group, field army’s battles during china incident, Tokyo, [[[CHAOYUN]]] News Press, 1983 1975, 1:153,154 In late afternoon, Kwantung army issued an accusation of Song Zheyuan's 29th Corps. Japanese side continued to mobilize armies for the campaign by calling soldiers stationed at Tianjin and Gubeikou Pass. As far back as 1932, when Japanese attacked Shanghai, CCP had instructions for Liu Shaoqi to stage an uprising in Shanghai by taking advantage of the war. In 1933, Ke Qingshi, the CCP rep in Peking, instructed communist, Ji Hongchang, to convert the Chahar Allied Army into the Red Army. In 1937, days before the July 7th Marco Polo Bridge Incident, shots were fired into Wanping, with bullet holes on the wall. Imai checked bullet holes to have determined that they were not from Japanese guns. On 7-6, Imai, while having a party, was interrupted by Shi Yousan who asked the Japanese to intervene to stop a possible war against China. Heh Jifeng the secret communist , in charge of the 37th Division at the bridge, enrolled in communists before 1933, not in 1938 or later as the CCP records claimed. Heh made arrangement for live ammunition to be distributed in the immediate days ahead of July 7th incident. More, one week ahead of 7-7-1937, Peking police arrested a team of plaincoats who disguised themselves as communists. Japanese spy agency was recorded to have wide collaboration with Chinese communists agents and student activists. One more corroboration is from Owen Lattimore who, a top Russian agent recruited in China by Comintern, claimed that there was a rumor in Peking that on July 7th, 1937, something similar to 9-18-1931 would happen. From 8th to 11th, Japanese army and Song Zheyuan's army had intermittent fighting and truce. On 11th, Japanese cabinet issued a proclamation of troop dispatchment to northern China, and a new commander-in-chief [i.e., Xiang-yue-qing] was named for leading the forces in northern China. On July 10th, Japanese military headquarters proposed the commitment of 15 Shidans and a timeline of half a year for achieving the success of the campaign in China. On 12th, Japanese raised demands as to peacefully resolving the incident. Chiang Kai-shek, convening his generals and various party leaders on Mt Lushan, received a phone call from Peking mayor Qin Dechun in regards to the attack.  Chiang made a determination that Japan intended to launch a full-scale aggression war against China in the attempt of occupying 'Hua Bei' (i.e., Northern China). Chiang Kai-shek issued a wire calling for resistance in an opposite fashion to what he did in 1931. On the three major railway lines of Ping-Han, Long-Hai & Jin-Pu, about 60 passenger trains were allocated for military personnel shipments. Chiang Kai-shek instructed Song Zheyuan as to uncompromising stand on 8th & 13th, respectively. CCP, which issued a "KMT-CCP cooperation proclamation" on Jul 15th, sent a wire to General Song Zheyuan's 29th Corps to show support for Song Zheyuan, Feng Zhian and Zhang Zizhong. Wu Dehou, whose battalion was stationed in Huaiyin of Jiangsu Province, heard of the war outbreak on July 8th via radio, and soldiers were in ecstasy over the prospect of going to the front to fight the Japanese. On 17th, on Mt Lushan, Chiang Kai-shek also talked about "peaceful solution". Chiang Kai-shek called upon Song Zheyuan to deal with Japan on the same standground. Song Zheyuan continued the talks till Japanese relief armies arrived to bombard Wanping and Changxindian cities. On 17th, Tokyo's 5 minister cabinet decided to send 400,000 strong army to the Chinese battlefield. On the same day, on Mt Lushan, Chiang Kai-shek made the famous speech to the nation about 'dying to the last man' and 'sacrificing everything'. From Mt Lushan, Chiang Kai-shek wired to Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi for coming over to the capital. Bai Chongxi flew to Nanking in a French-made 6 seat plane, while Li Zongren activated four sessions of trained soldiers who had previously been released back to countryside for farming. Guangxi Province recruitment office was immediately packed with peasants who staffed 44 regiments [expanding from the original standing provincial army of 14 regiments], to be led by group army commander Li Pingxian, Xia Wei & Liao Lei, respectively. On July 20th, on Mt Lushan, Dr Hu Shi and General Jiang Baili adamantly proposed that ROC government should make ways for both college students and middle school students to continue their studies at times of war. Battle of Tianjin-Peking Japanese attacked Langfang, a city between Peking & Tientsin. On July 25th, Japanese 20th Shidan took over the train station at Langfang, dug positions around the station, and engaged with 226th regiment of Song Zheyuan's 29th Corps. By the evening of 26th, 226th regiment evacuated to Tongxian county. On 27th, Japanese commander-in-chief ordered the Campaign of Tianjin-Peking as well as called over 5th, 6th & 10th Shidans from Japan. On 28th, Japanese commander-in-chief issued "campaigning oath". Japanese, with the support of 200 planes, took over Nanyuan. 38th & 132nd divisions under 29th Corps resisted Japanese. On July 28th, at the Battle of Tianjin-Peking, 132nd Division Chief Zhao Dengyu as well as Deputy Corps Chief Tong Linge sacrificed their lives fighting Japanese.
 On the night of July 28th, 1st column of security forces under Yin Rugeng's puppet 'Eastern Hebei Autonomous Government', which was re-organized on basis of two regiments of Yu Xuezhong's 51st Corps, staged an uprising overnight, arrested Yin Rugeng, and killed about 300 Japanese soldiers and agents. Japanese, to avenge on Chinese killing Japanese militarymen and civilians, subsequently wiped out Tongzhou in a massive massacre. Yin Rugeng escaped after the Chinese security force failed to locate the troops of 29th Corps and came under Japanese attack near Peiping. As part of coordinated action, on July 29th, 38th Division, in collaboration with the police of Tientsin, attacked Japanese headquarters and army camp at Haiguangshi and took over train stations and Japanese Beicang Airfield. Having penetrated deep into Japanese concession territory, 29th Corps failed to take over Haiguangshi as a result of Japanese plane bombings and relief army from the seas, and had to evacuate from Tientsin city on 30th. Residential area of Tientsin incurred heavy Japanese bombing, and Nankai University was bombed to pieces by Japanese planes. Japanese, in Tientsin area, incurred a loss of 2000 deaths and 3800 wounded More available at Battles-of-Peking-Tientsin.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
On July 31st, professors of Peking University held a third assembly for peace even though Peking fell into Japanese hands for three days already. (Principals from three universities of Peking, Qinghua and Nankai would set up interim university in Changsha in Aug 1937; school was relaunched on Sept 28th; and students began to arrive on Oct 18th.) By late July, about 115 passenger trains were allocated for military personnel shipments. (Later, during the turmoil in the aftermath of the Pacific War, the homo erectus pekinensis excavated by Jia Lanpo in 1936 from Zhoukoudian would disappear from American-funded Xiehe Hospital. http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/8/13/70172.html pointed out that Americans had shipped homo erectus pekinensis to Qinhuangdao on Dec 8th 1941 for transfer to President Harrison which, en route from Manila, was sunken at Yangtze River mouth by Japanese.) Early German Efforts At Mediation Li Ao pointed out that Chiang Kai-shek had asked European powers to intervene, met with British ambassador Anthony Eden on July 28th, and asked British ambassador Dodds see Japanese minister in Tokyo. Meantime, Kong Xiangxi requested with Chinese ambassador Wang Zhengting to relay a message to US president for intervention; US ambassador Crew informed Japanese prime minister of its willingness to mediate between China and Japan. German ambassador Oskar Trautmann was most actively involved in mediation on behalf of China as a result of instructions from German foreign minister Ernst von Weizsacker. On Aug 7th, Japanese government approved Kwantung Army's request for attacking Zhangjiakou, Datong, Huhehot [Huhehaote] and Baodou as well as ordered the Japanese "Northern China Army" in campaigning against eastern segment of Ping-Sui Railway. On Aug 14th, Kwantung army organized Chahar expedition force, with Tojo Hideki in charge. From Aug 11th to Aug 22nd, Kwantung army and Northern China Army attacked Ping-Sui Railway from south and north. In August, Chiang Kai-shek devised four war zones for China, with CCP-controlled Eight Route assigned to 2nd war zone. CCP held the so-called Aug 22-25 Luochuan Meeting to discuss the tactics in war participation. During the meeting, Eight Route numbering was approved by Nationalist Government as reported by Ye Jianying from Nanking. In Yangtze Delta area, Japanese planes, which took off from Taiwan, conducted numerous flights. Chinese airforce, which was originally planned for departure to Northern China, had to make preparation for fighting in the south. On Sept 4th 1937, Hirohito, at 72nd session of Japanese parliament, stated that he had asked the interim parliament to increase military budget by 200 million Japanese yen". Li Ao pointed out that Japanese prime minister did send its ambassador for peace talk with Gao Zongwu [East Asia Section chief of Foreign Ministry] in Shanghai on Aug 8th. This peace talk aborted due to the death of a Japanese in Shanghai. Communist veteran general Xu Xiangqian stated that Japanese launched a new battleground in Shanghai on Aug 13th 1937 to echo their campaign in Nankou area. Japanese Provocation In Shanghai  Zhang Zhizhong returned to Shanghai to assume the post of garrison commander on July 13th. One regiment under 61st Division was secretly sent to Hongqiao Airport as "security forces". Ammunition was distributed among the security forces and police forces in Shanghai for countering possible Japanese attacks. On Aug 9th 1937, a Japanese car, with a captain called Oyama Isao [Dashan Yongfu], intruded into Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport. When Japanese car refused to stop, Chinese security forces shot dead the driver. The Japanese captain jumped off the vehicle and was shot dead when fleeing. More available at JapaneseProvocationInShanghai-1937.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
By this time, about 180 passenger trains were allocated for military personnel shipments to both battlefields. Railway ministry had conducted 3050 train shipments to the front in total. Dong Zhujun of Jinjiang [King Kong] Hotel mentioned that innumerable anti-Japanese-invasion magazines sprang up in Shanghai from Aug 13th to Nov 12th 1937. On Aug 13th, US government issued an order that no American should break the neutrality by helping China. Only Chennault, who arrived in Shanghai in June 1937 at the invitation from Mme Chiang Kai-shek, actively helped the Chinese cause. Air Battles  General Chennault, being wary of Italian scheme at destroying China's airforce, had expressed loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek right after the outbreak of war. Chennault personally went to Nanchang's airplane assembly factory to select good Chinese pilots and instructed them in attacking unprotected Japanese bombers via a tactic of three against one. Back in late July, Chennault set up an air warning system in Nanking, Shanghai and Hangzhou. On Aug 13th 1937, Chennault made a decision to bomb Japanese cruisers with US-made dive-bombers.  On Aug 14th, in the morning, Nationalist Airforce shot down 9 Japanese planes above Jianqiao Airport. In the afternoon, Nationalist Airforce 4th Group, which just relocated to Jianqiao Airport, took off without shutting off engine when news came that 14 Japanese bombers from Taiwan were on the way of bombing Jianqiao. Gao Zhihang, the group leader, took over planes (Hawk II) without refueling and destroyed 6 Japanese bombers over the sky of Hangzhou-Shanghai without incurring any loss on the Chinese side. (Whereas, during the Jan 28th 1932 conflict, four Chinese planes were shot down during the first round of engagement.) The next day, on 15th, Nationalist Airforce 6th Group & 7th Group successfully attacked Japanese marine headquarter. On this day, Zhang Guangming's 4th Group shot down 3 Japanese bombers which had just bombed Nanking. (Wu Xiangxiang stated that it was on Aug 15th that Nationalist Airforce shot down 8 Japanese bombers which went for Nanking bombing.) Japanese revenged by dispatching 30 Taiwan-based planes to Jianqiao, while fighter planes took off from aircraft carriers to engage Chinese airforce above the skies of Hangzhou, Changde, Nanchang and Nanking. Nationalist Airforce 5th Group, which landed in Jianqiao after exhausting fuel in bombing Japanese ships the previous day, joined 4th Group in fighting Japanese planes over the sky of Jianqiao Airport. One Japanese pilot was captured alive on this day. Beginning from Aug 15th, Japanese planes kept dropping bombs over Nanking the capital, and they bombed Nanking three times within 5 days. Books from Provincial Library, similar to those in Shanghai's Central Library, were destroyed by Japanese planes. National Central University [NCU] of Nanking was bombed on the same day. (NCU called upon professors and students for relocation to Hankou, and on Oct 10th 1938, began to relocate again to Chungking. School restarted in early Nov of 1937 in Shapingba area of Chungking city. When puppet government was installed in Nanking, former communist party secretary Jiang Zemin attended the puppet National Central University [NCU] of Nanking. Jiang Zemin tricked CCP by claiming to be an adopted son of a communist in lieu of a birth father serving the puppet regime.) From 14th to 16th, Nationalist Airforce shot down 48 Japanese planes and bombers. Wu Xiangxiang stated that Nationalist Airforce, using Chennault tactic, shot down altogether 54 Japanese bombers, with wreckage of 40 such planes falling in the Chinese-controlled domain. Aug 14th became Republic Of China's airforce day. Hence, Japanese dared not send in bombers without cover. Japanese exerted pressure on US. Some American lecturers and staff left China. Being pressured by Japanese, American consulate official tried to have Chennault arrested by settlement police. Chennault sent in a letter to US media stating that he was not 'anonymously' joining the war against Japanese. Chennault instructed Chinese pilots in dive-bombing Japanese warships at nights, with loss of only one plane. Pilot Liu Cuigang, on one night, shot down three Japanese planes. On 17th, Nationalist Airforce bombed Japanese marines again, with pilot Yan Haiwen fighting Japanese to the last bullet after parachuting out. On 19th, Nationalist Airforce, which stationed to the west bank of Taihu Lake, bombed Japanese warship in the Yangtze River mouth, with one plane [pilot Shen Chonghai] hitting Japanese warship in a mutual destruction. Japanese airforce commander in Taiwan reportedly had committed suicide thereafter. During the course of air battles, Mme Chiang Kai-shek, i.e., Nanny of the Airforce, was recorded to have visited pilots at the airport on a daily basis, and her car, at one time during Shanghai defense, was chased into a flipover by Japanese planes. Oskar Trautmann failed to get any response from Japan on mediation after the outbreak of war in Shanghai, and on Aug 29th, China signed non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. China lodged protest with the League of Nations on Sept 9th 1937. Campaign Of Nankou On Aug 7th, Japanese government approved Kwantung Army's request for attacking Zhangjiakou, Datong, Huhehot and Baodou as well as ordered the Japanese "Northern China Army" in campaigning against eastern segment of Ping-Sui Railway. On Aug 14th, Kwantung army organized Chahar expedition force, with Tojo Hideki in charge. From Aug 11th to Aug 22nd, Kwantung army and Japanese "Northern China Army" attacked Ping-Sui Railway from south and north for sake of cutting off China's route towards Outer Mongolia and USSR. Nationalist Government fought the Battle of Baoding and the Battle of Shijiazhuang along Railroad Ping-han, fought the Battle of Nankou, the Battle of Zhangjiakou and the Battle of Pingxingguan along Railroad Ping-sui, and fought the Battle of Ping-jin, the Battle of Yaoguandun and the Battle of Dezhou along Railroad Jin-pu. Within 20 days, four highways leading from Shijiazhuang city were completed. At Dezhou, a whole regiment died to the last person. At Pingxingguan, a Japanese column was destroyed in Sept 1937. In northern China, on August 13th, Wu Dehou's battalion arrived at Xuzhou of Jiangsu Province. Soldiers were ecstatic about news report of Chinese airforce shooting down Japanese planes in Shanghai-Wusong Battle. Wu Dehou's troops arrived in Liulihe Train Station near Peking on Aug 17th and were ordered to defend a height at Yangjiayu to the northeast of Fangshan. From Aug 18th to mid-September 1937, 175th Regiment & 176th Regiment under 88th Brigade of 30th Division, where Wu Dehou served, defeated repeated Japanese bombardment and charges on the daily basis. Communist veteran general Xu Xiangqian stated that Japanese launched a new battleground in Shanghai on Aug 13th 1937 to echo their campaign in Nankou area. After the fall of Peking and Tianjin in late July 1937, fighting moved to Nankou and Juyongguan Pass. On Aug 11th, Japanese 11th mixed Ryodan attacked Nankou & Juyongguan Pass. On 12th, Tang Enbo's army surrounded Japanese and cut off Japanese logistics. On 14th, Itagaki Seishiro's 5th Shidan was sent to the relief at Juyongguan. When Wu Dehou's battalion was ordered to retreat, his 4 companies of 621 soldiers had dwindled to 112 while inflicting a death toll of over 700 Japanese in the battleground. Wu Dehou personally shot at Japanese with heavy machinegun and mounted bayonet for face-to-face fighting with Japanese, and he recalled how a deputy platoon chief, Peng Shaofei, wrestled over a Japanese "skewed butt" heavy machinegun and shot at Japanese till he died of a cannon explosion. On August 16th, Itagaki arrived at Nankou and pushed against Tang Enbo's 13th Corps with five prongs. After 8 days and 8 nights fighting, Itagaki reached the foot of the Great Wall on Aug 24th, and converged with Kwantung army's 2nd mixed Ryodan at Xiahuayuan. During the 18 day Nankou Campaign, Japanese incurred a casualty of 10,000. http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/3/11/18/55343.html carried an eyewitness account of Nationalist army fighting Japanese near Baoding of Hebei Province. It stated that Wan Fulin's 53rd Corps retreated past their village, and a regiment headed by Luu Zhengcao stranded near their village and developed into Nie Rongzhen's communist-controlled Eighth Route Army in Renqiu and An'guo area. The author, Zhang Yueming, stated that the Japanese and puppet army visited their village during the days and the communist forces visited their village during the nights. Zhang Yueming stated that Japanese cavalry frequented their village at an interval of 10-15 days, and often killed peasants in villages where their soldiers died as a revenge. Luu Zhengcao's army absorbed various local gentry-organized resistance forces (i.e., Hebei People's Army) and often massacred Nationalist Government factions or sympathizers by means of live burial. (There was a book written by a Belgian priest [Raymond de Jaegher] about his entanglements with Luu Zhengcao throughout the years of anti-Japanese war. Belgium-born French Priest Vincent Lebbe, a devout priest first sent to China in 1895 and later went back to France to assist with Chinese students, would organize medical relief activities to the Chinese from 1927 to 1940: Father Lebbe died in June 1940 after being released from communist forces led by Liu Bocheng. For details, see THE ENEMY WITHIN: An Eyewitness Account of the Communist Conquest of China) More available at THE ENEMY FROM WITHIN: CHINESE COMMUNIST ATTACKS AT GOVERNMENT TROOPS - 1940 (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Wu Dehou's column, while retreating, encountered daily bombing by Japanese planes, and in Ping-bei of Hebei Province, they fought Japanese for another two days & two nights. Wu Dehou engaged with Japanese again after retreating to Nanyu Train Station, near Niangziguan Pass of Shanxi Province, on which occasion a bullet pierced through his left palm within 10 seconds of mutual spotting by the two parties. (See Xinkou Campaign for further details on wars towards Shanxi Province.) Fighting Along Ping-Sui Railroad, Xuan-Wei Highway & Railroad Ping-Han Li Zongren commented that Japan, which mis-read Mongol-Manchu conquest of China, had committed one more mistake in the direction of attacks: Japan invaded into mountainous Shanxi Province to the west instead of going down south. Japanese launched invasion of Shanxi Province after victory in Hebei Province, in the attempt of securing the northern Chinese territories. Nationalist armies held an oath of war and departed for the front via the railroads, defending cities, one by one, along the railroads of Ping-han, Jin-pu and Ping-sui. Xu Xianqian stated that Japanese attacked northeastern Shanxi via three routes: two Japanese columns, after taking over Zhangjiakou city, marched westward against Datong of Shanxi Province along Ping-Sui Railroad and against Mt Hengshan passes along Xuan-Wei Highway, while the 3rd Japanese column marched southwestward against Baoding & Shijiazhuang along Railroad Ping-Han. On Aug 24th, Kwantung army's 2nd mixed Ryodan took over a height to the southwest of Zhangjiakou and cut off Ping-Sui Railway. Battle of Zhangjiakou went on for four days before Chinese forces pulled out on Aug 27th. On Aug 31st, Japan established "Northern China Front Army" with an addition of 14th, 16th, 108th, and 109th Shidans. On Sept 4th, Terauchi Hisaichi, commander-in-chief of 280,000 men "Northern China Front Army", ordered Japanese First Army on an attack at northern segment of Ping-Han Railway, accompanied by auxiliary attacks on the left and right flank. On the left, Japanese Second Army was to push along Tientsin-Pukou Railway, and on the right, Japanese 5th Shidan was to penetrate into Shanxi Province Around the Peiping-Hankow Railway, on Sept 14th, Japanese First Army mounted a frontal attack at Liulihe while Doihara Kenji’s 14th Shidan crossed Yongdinghe River to Guan and Yongqing area for circumvential westward attack at Zhuoxian county. Japanese 6th and 20th Shidans also went south and took over Fangshan. On 16th, 6th Shidan stranded into a swamp area near Niutuozhen town and encountered attacks from Chinese forces. On 19th, 6th Shidan took over Dingxing, on 20th took over Xushui, and on 21st crossed Caohe to surround Baoding city. On Sept 23rd, Japanese 14th and 20th Shidans also came to Baoding. 6th Shidan incurred heavy loss in attacking the city without heavy artilleries, and had to stop attacks for 140 tanks, 200 cannons and 60 planes to come to its aid. On Sept 24th, Chinese defense troops of 47th Division evacuated from Baoding. Baoding Battle would cause Japanese a casualty of 8000 against Chinese side of 20000. On Sept 28th, Japanese 1st Army ordered that 6th, 14th, 20th & 108th Shidans attack Shijiazhuang from two sides of east and west. Meanwhile, Kwantung army took over Ruyuekou of northern Shanxi Province, while Japanese 2nd Army took over Cangzhou of Hebei Province.  On Oct 6th, Japanese reached Dingxian and Quyang counties. With Japanese Kwantung army breaching Ruyuekou and Yanmenguan Pass of northern Shanxi Province on Oct 2nd, Chiang Kai-shek vacated Ping-Han Railway by rerouting 3rd Corps, 17th Division and Sun Lianzhong’s 1st Corps-group towards Niangziguan Pass of Shanxi Province. Wei Lihuang's 14th Group Army of four divisions also relocated to Xinkou of Shanxi Province. Only 32nd Corps was retained at Peiping-Hankow Railway. On Oct 8th, Japanese took over Zhengding and Lingshou, the doorway to Shijiazhuang. Chinese forces at Zhengding evacuated after incurring a loss of more than half. Japanese then forcefully crossed the Hutuohe River to sack Shijiazhuang on Oct 10th. Chinese 32nd Corps retreated across Zhanghe River. Japanese 6th Shidan was dispatched to Shanghai-Wusong battlefield. On Oct 15th, Japanese 14th Shidan took over Xingtai of Hebei Province, and on 17th took over Handan. On Oct 15th, Japanese 108th Shidan reached Zhaoxian county; meanwhile, Nishio Toshizo's 2nd Army, with 16th & 109th Shidans, reached east of Zhaoxian. On Oct 27th, Japanese14th Shidan reached Anyang, and on Nov 4th, took over Anyang. Japanese completed the campaign of northern segment of Ping-Han Railway at a casualty of 30,000. Shang Zhen, who was promoted to 20th group army commander, had engaged with Japanese in the battles at Zhengding, Yuanshi & Anyang of Hebei-Henan provinces. Battle of Niangziguan Pass, which Wu Dehou participated in, ensued after Japanese took over Baoding & Shijiazhuang on Railroad Ping-Han. PINGXINGGUAN-YANMENGUAN-YANGFANGKOU CAMPAIGN On Sept 4th, Japanese North China Front Army ordered 5th Shidan to Weixian County for preparation of the Campaign of Baoding Plains. On 6th, 5th Shidan, with three prongs, pushed against Weixian from Xuanhua, Xinbaoan and Huailai. On 10th, 68th Corps abandoned Weixian on the pretext of joining First Group Army’s battle of order on Tientsin-Pukow Railway. Tang Enbo immediately sent a regiment from Gao Guizi’s 17th Corps to Weixian. On 11th, Japanese 5th Cavalry Rentai took over Weixian ahead of the Chinese regiment. Meantime, Japanese 41st Rentai pushed to the north of Laiyuan. Xu Yongchang of the First War Zone dispatched one regiment of Zeng Wanzhong’s 3rd Corps to Laiyuan. In the northeastern Shanxi, at the railway line, Yan Xishan deployed Li Fuying's 61st Corps at Tianzhen & Yanggao, just inside of great wall and to the northeast of Datong. Also guarding Datong area would be Zhao Chengshou's cavalry & Wang Jingguo's 19th Corps.  As a synchronized action, Japanese Kwantung Army pushed along the Peiping-Suiyuan Railway. On Sept 3rd, Japanese 15th Mixed Ryodan probed 61st Corps’s positions till dusk. On 4th, Japanese, under the cover of planes and cannons, attacked two mountains to the east of Tianzhen for another whole day. On 6th, Japanese took over Mt Panshan to the southeast of Tianzhen. On 7th, 61st Corps abandoned Tianzhen by leaving 299th Regiment inside of the city. On 8th, Japanese planes bombed Yanggao, and 15th Ryodan, with the addition of backup 11th Rentai, attacked towards Yanggao with two prongs. On 10th, Japanese laid the siege of Yanggao where Chinese 414th Regiment lost the city after incurring heavy loss. On 11th, Tianzhen was lost after Japanese blasted apart northeastern citywall. After losing Datong, Yan Xishan executed Li Fuying for dereliction. Chinese communist party re-organized the Red Army into three divisions (under Nationalist Army's Eight Route numbering) in accordance with bilateral negotiation held from Aug 9th to Sept 22nd in Nanking. CCP initially committed two divisions to participation in the Campaign of Xinkou, and fought in the Pingxingguan Pass Campaign against the Japanese in Sept 1937. Communist leaders, like Xu Xiangqian, Zhu De, Xiao Ke, Peng Dehuai, Nie Rongzhen and Cheng Zihua, boarded train in Xi'an for Tongguan where they crossed the Yellow River for Fenglingdu crossing on the other side. While Nie Rongzhen went to the camp of CCP 115th Division at Houma, Xu Xiangqian etc went on to Taiyuan for discussions with Yan Xishan. On Sept 7th 1937, Xu Xiangqian went to Lingkou, near Yanmenguan Pass, where Yan Xishan was directing the Campaign of Datong. (Yanmenguan Pass, to the northwest of ancient Dai-xian county, was situated in the middle of Datong and Taiyuan.) Xu Xiangqian pointed out that Yan Xishan had basically adopted "trench warfare" by lining up defense along three passes of Niangziguan, Longquan'guan and Pingxingguan in the middle segment of eastern Shanxi Province. In the northeastern Shanxi, Yan Xishan deployed Li Fuying's 61st Corps at Tianzhen & Yanggao, just inside of great wall and to the northeast of Datong. Xu Xiangqian was asked by Yan Xishan to coordinate with Fu Zuoyi's 35th Corps. While Xu Xiangqian was visiting his family at Wutaixian county, after an absence of 12 years, Yan Xishan's forces retreated towards Yanmenguan Pass from Datong area. On Sept 23rd, CCP leader Zhou Enlai authorized 115th & 120th Divisions in assisting Yan Xishan's army. Zhu De, Peng Dehuai & Ren Bishi reported the deployment plan to Mao; however, Mao refrained from approving the plan till after the Battle of Pingxingguan Pass. (Later in July 1938, a military attaché of the US consulate, by the name of Carlson, interviewed Xu Xiangqian in regards to Pingxingguan Pass Battle.) Thereafter, CCP dispatched 115th Division to Mt Wutaishan of northeastern Shanxi, 120th Division to Mt Guancenshan of northwestern Shanxi, 129th Division to two sides of Railroad Zheng-Tai [Mt Taiyueshan], and Bo Yibo's "Shanxi Native Duel Column" to southeastern Shanxi Province. [Aside from Pingxingguan Pass Campaign, Peng Dehuai had orchestrated a so-called "Hundred Regiment Campaign" in Aug 1940. During the eight year long resistance wars, CCP lost two senior military leaders, i.e., Zuo Quan & Yang Jingyu.] More available at PINGXINGGUAN BATTLE & PINGXINGGUAN CAMPAIGN (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Campaign of Xinkou  Nationalist government organized military campaigns centered around Xinkou and Taiyuan, with the Yellow River serving as a natural barrier to the west and south. After Yanmenguan Pass, Japanese sacked Guoxian [Guoyang] & Yuanping and attacked Xinkou. Yan Xishan & Wei Lihuang were put in charge of defending northeastern Shanxi Province against Itagaki Seishiro's 5th Shidan and three Kwantung Army Ryodan. At Xinkou, campaign lasted for over one month long, causing Japanese a casualty of 30,000 to 40,000, but at the price of sacrifice of two Nationalist generals, Hao Menglin and Liu Jiaqi. Hao Menglin of 9th Corps fought against Itagaki Seishiro, with him and division chief Liu Jiaqi sacrificing their lives at the Nanhuaihua battlefield. To thwart Xinkou defense, Japanese mounted attack at Niangziguan Pass In the eastern Shanxi Province. On Oct 6th, Japanese First Army diverted attacks towards Jingxing on Zhengding-Taiyuan Railway, while pincer-attacked Chinese armies in Shijiazhuang area in cooperation with Second Army. On Oct 8th, Japanese took over Zhengding and Lingshou, the doorway to Shijiazhuang city and Jingxing mine area. Shijiazhuang was lost on Oct 10th. After the loss of Zhengding, Cheng Qian rerouted the rest of First War Zone troops to Niangziguan-Jingxing, including 27th Route Army, Zeng Wanzhong’s 3rd Corps, Zhao Shoushan’s 17th Division, 30th Division of Tian Zhennan’s 30th Corps (26th Route Army), and Li Zhenxi’s Teaching Regiment of 38th Corps. On Oct 7th, 20th Shidan of Japanese First Army engaged in fighting with 505th Brigade of 27th Route Army. 77th Rentai of 39th Ryodan from Japanese 20th Shidan traced behind Chinese troops towards Jingxing, and engaged with Chinese 30th Division, 17th Division and 3rd Corps on Oct 11th. On 12th, Japanese, with the assistance of two mountain gun Chutai, breached 17th Division positions and took over Jingxing county capital. 49th Brigade of 17th Division retreated towards Jiuguan Pass. Chinese troops failed to make preparations for defending Jiuguan Pass and Mt Xuehuashan, i.e., two prebuilt National Defense fortifications. In the ensuing days of the Niangziguan Pass Campaign, Chinese troops mounted three offensive operations from Oct 14th to Oct 19th. On Oct 21st, 40th Ryodan of Japanese 20th Shidan, as the southern route, with one field gun Daitai and one mortar Chutai, attacked along the southern circumvential route of Hengkou-Weishuizhen-Ceyuzhen-Shimenkou-Mashancun-Guyipu. Additionally, Japanese North China Front Army assigned 109th Shidan to the First Army which consecutively assigned 31st Ryodan of 109th Shidan to 20th Shidan as Xiyang Shitai [Detachment], with the target set at the southernmost route of Xiyang-Guangyang-Yuci-Taiyuan. To the north, Japanese First Army dispatched 108th Shidan to the reinforcement of 20th Shidan. 104th Ryodan of 108th Shidan penetrated towards Liulingguan Pass from Hongzidian direction as the northernmost route. After Japanese took over Niangziguan Pass [Oct 26th], Yangquan and Pingding consecutively, Nationalist armies withdrew from the defense of Xinkou on Nov 2nd. Taiyuan was taken over by Japanese on Nov 9th 1937, 4 months after the first shot of the war. Prior to the loss, Zhang Shutian ordered the dismantlement of Northwestern Manufacturing Factory, with 1000 tons worthy of equipment, together with two Tong-Pu Railway locomotives, shipped across the Yellow River at Fenglingdu Crossing. Thereafter, Zhang Shutian, with 1000 staff and workers, shouldered the equipment across the Dasanguan Pass and precarious Qin-lin Range [2000 meter elevation] for Sichuan Province. After the fall of Taiyuan, Mao Tse-tung instructed that Lin Biao's 115th Division went to Luuliang Mountain and that each communist division should aim to recruit three additional regiments immediately. 129th Division established four military sub-districts under Jin-Ji-Yu [Shanxi-Hebei-Henan] communist military district.  CCP's 129th Division then released two thirds of its personnel for organizing communist guerrilla forces in each and every county. (Xu Xiangqian stated that he was sent to Tang Enbo's Nationalist Government 31st Army Group in Yushe of Shanxi Province for coordination talks; however, Tang Enbo retreated back to Henan Province shortly afterward, leaving southeastern Shanxi Province to communist forces. Wu Xiangxiang stated that on Dec 1st 1939, Nationalist Government forces launched a winter campaign, with 1st Military District attacking Kaifeng and Boai and 2nd Military District cutting off Zheng-Tai Railroad & Tong-Pu Railroad. Nationalist Government did not abandon southern Shanxi Province till the Battle of Mt Zhongtiaoshan in the spring of 1941.) On Nov 20th, Nanking Government announced a relocation of capital to Chungking, which was reminiscent of the relocation to Luoyang in the aftermath of Japanese invasion of Shanghai on Jan 28th 1932. Railway ministry shipped Jinling Manufacturing Factory to Sichuan via Jin-Pu & Long-Hai railways. Later, railway ministry shipped the weapon manufacturing factory of Bengbu [Anhui Province] as well as equipment of National Aviation Ministry to the hind. Reinforced Battle Engagements in Shanghai The exertion of a whole nation's troops to the Shanghai Campaign, however, was both a Chiang Kai-shek foresight into and a Chiang Kai-shek naivety with geo-politics, which happened to be in the same suits of Manchu court's pitting one foreign power against the other. What Chiang Kai-shek had hoped for by prolonging the war in Shanghai till early November would be a false expectation for an intervention by the Nine Power Treaty countries at the Brussels Conference, in the same fashion as the truce brokered by the powers in 1932.  Jung Chang and Jon Halliday had a Russian conspiracy theory in stating that Chiang Kai-shek's top general Zhang Zhizhong, a Russian mole, had provoked the Sino-Japanese War in Shanghai on Aug 9th 1937. This is Jung Chang's rash conclusion that is similar to the unfounded claim of sabotaged Comintern telegraph set in Shanghai in 1934, or another sense, a commercialization attempt for stirring up interest in her book. Jung Chang mixed up two Russian ambassadors, from 1937 and 1938, respectively, to make up the Zhang Zhizhong conspiracy. The Russian killed in car accident near Moscow was a guy who stationed in Chinese Turkistan before being sent to Wuhan in 1938, not the one in 1937. The Sino-Japanese War officially started on July 11th, 1937. The fallacy of this theory would be to make Japanese cry "foul play" in a revisionist schooltext environment.
Jung Chang called four names, Zhang Zhizhong, Shao Lizi, Hu Zongnan and Wei Lihuang, as communist spies. As numerous people recalled in their memoirs, Zhang Zhizhong appeared to be the only person daring to call Chiang Kai-shek by "Mr. Chiang" in post-1949 Communist China. However, Zhang Zhizhong, taking himself to be an erudite, repeatedly fell short of expectations. At the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, Zhang took a bike to the front to avoid the Japanese plane bombing, and later found an excuse to go to the hind to report to Chiang Kai-shek while people were looking for him at the front, which led to a rebuke from Chiang Kai-shek over the phone. Zhang then further had dereliction of duty while being empowered as chair of Hunan Province, under whose jurisdiction the scorched-earth policy was mal-executed in Changsha. However, we could not blame Zhang Zhizhong 100% for his being blindsided by the communist propaganda. The agriculturalist Liang Su-ming, i.e, China's last Confucian, for another example, was hoodwinked by the communists even though he himself walked across Japan-occupied territories to have witnessed the communist brigands' killing of his student-desciples who were waging guerrilla war against the Japanese behind the enemy's line. (Yang Xiufeng, an Europe/Moscow-returnee who later in 1947/8 ran the communist People's University to vivisect live government army captives [including one young Burma battle veteran who walked to the west from coastal Zhejiang as a teenager during the 1937 China's Dunkirk Retreat and did not return home to see his mother for next 12 years], was one such most notorious dupe who in 1935 returned to China to instigate anti-government activities in Tientsin, took advantage of the Ho-Umezu Agreement to rebuild the communist cells in North China, and from 1937 onward was responsible for the communist administration in Japan-occupied territories of North China. Unfortunately for numerous R.O.C. officials and officers, their cognizance of the monstrous nature of communists came too late, often at the time of massive executions in 1950s.) For further comments on the validity of accusations against "four moles", please see Jung Chang's accusations against Zhang Zhizhong, Shao Lizi, Hu Zongnan and Wei Lihuang.
Japan, on July 11th, made the decision to send 4 homeland shidan to China. Bertram, a leftist-leaning news reporter as well as a friend of Smedley, was in Japan to report the event. On page 23 of UNCONQUERED, Bertram noted Japanese newspaper 'extra', stating "japan sends an army to north china... four divisions to leave at once..." For information on Japan's July 11th, 1937 decision to send in one Shidan from Korea and two Ryodan from Manchuria, in addition to mobilization of three homebase Shidan, refer to MarcoPoloBridgeIncident.pdf, Battles-of-Peking-Tientsin.pdf, & JapaneseProvocationInShanghai-1937.pdf.  The truth of the Sino-Japanese War could be found in Shanghai Mayor Yu Hongjun's account as well as records of the colonial powers with heavy economic and commercial stakes in Shanghai. On Aug 11th, Yu Hongjun received a briefing that thirty Japanese warships and five transporters from 1st & 3rd Fleets were coming towards Shanghai. At the request of Japanese consul, the International Joint Committee For Shanghai Truce Enforcement [1932] convened a meeting at 3:00 pm on Aug 12th. At the meeting, Mayor Yu Hongjun forced the Japanese consul into acknowledging that Japanese warships were on their way to Shanghai. During the uproar, Yu Hongjun declared that Japan had broken the truce agreement and that China was no longer bound by the truce. While newspapers printed about the truce breaching, Sun Yuanliang's 88D of 72C and Wang Jingjiu's 87D of 71C entered Shanghai at dawn of Aug 13th. Fighting broke out about 6:00 pm near Baziqiao and Chizhi University. More about Battle of Shanghai available at BattleOfShanghai-1937-a.pdf; BattleOfShanghai-1937-b.pdf; BattleOfShanghai-1937-c.pdf. On Aug 23rd, after Japanese reinforced with two group armies, Chiang Kai-shek dispatched Chen Cheng's relief army to Shanghai. On Aug 30th, Hu Zongnan's 1st Corps, with 78th Division & 1st Division, departed Xuzhou of Shandong and Guide of Henan Province for Shanghai. 1st Division entered the battlefield nonstop when Yang Bufei's 61st Division failed to hold Baoshan-Wusong positions. On Sept 2nd, 78th Division also entered the battle to beef up Xia Chuzhong's army. For five days and five nights, 78th Division & 1st Division fought Japanese over every inch of land. 2nd and 4th Regiment Chiefs, Yang Jieh and Li Youmei, sacrificed their lives at Gujiazhen during the Battle of Baoshan. On the night of Sept 4th, Hu Zongnan was ordered to relocate to Yanghang-Luodian line which was already taken by Japanese. At the Battle of Yuepu-Luodian, 1st Corps fought Japanese army in an encirclement, a counter-encirclement and an encirclement. Luodian was lost to Japanese three times and recovered three times within three days. Hu Zongnan personally took pistol and blade in his two hands and charged towards Japanese position. Japanese left about 2000 corpses after the defeat. Three months into the war, China had exhausted most of the planes it had purchased from US, Italy, Germany & France. At this time, General P.V. Rychagov [A-sha-ruo-fu] came to China with four Russian fighter squadrons and two bomber squadrons. Stalin, who declined to invite Chen Lifu & Zhang Chong to Moscow in late 1935 and refused to sign an alliance treaty, stamped a non-aggression pact with China. P.V. Rychagov, Chennault & General Zhou Zhirou were responsible for devising tactics during the Defence War at Nanking. Russians directly controlled their own operations as well as trained Chinese pilots. Meanwhile, Mussolini recalled home all his Italian aviation advisers while USA continuously sold to Japan scrap metal & aviation gasoline for war profiteering. (For details on Russian pilots fighting in China, see section below on Russian Volunteer Pilots as well as refer to Soviet Fighters in the Sky of China IV (1937-1940) by Anatolii Demin, Aviatsiia i Kosmonavtika, translated by George M. Mellinger) Before the war outbreak, on Aug 10th, Lin Jiyong, with authorization from ROC Administrative House, organized a factory dismantlement committee in Shanghai. On Aug 27th, first batch of 21 wooden ships sailed out of Suzhou-he River of Shanghai with 4 factories. After arriving in Suzhou, engine-driven tractor ships were used to pull the wooden boats to Zhenjiang where larger ships carried them upstream to Hankou. With Jiangyin segment of Yangtze blocked, Shanghai factory owners hauled their equipment to Suzhou either via Songjiang or Suzhou. (Segment of Suzhou-he River was cut off after the loss of Zhabei on Oct 26th 1937; after Japanese's Jinshanwei landing of Nov 5th, Shanghai factories were shipped via foreign-registered ships to Nantong of Jiangsu Province where a relay was made to Zhenjiang or Yangzhou via the Canal; and, thereafter, factories were shipped first to HK or Ningbo of Zhejiang Province.)  Japanese army had to send reinforcements to Shanghai battlefield, consisting of numerous divisions from Kwantung Army of Manchuria, and Japanese army units in Taiwan and Japan's homebase. On Aug 30th 1937, a general mobilization was ordered. Wu Xiangxiang likened this draft to Tang & Ming Dynasty's draft system. By the end of the year, 700000 fitful men were recruited either for army or for logistics support. From Aug 1937 to May 1940, 6213429 fitful men were called upon for service. Chinese_Tank_Forces_and_Battles_before_1945_ed.htm stated that "The Nationalist Government committed 400,000 troops for the battle. General Chang Fa Kui [Zhang Fakui] commanded 8th and 14th Group Army on the right, General Zhu Shao Liang with 9th and 17th Group army in the center and General Chen Cheng’s 15th and 19th Group army was on the left... On the opposite side, was the IJA [imperial Japanese army] 10th army; 5th and 6th division from Beijing area, 18th division from Manchuria, 114th division, 1st and 2nd infantry reserve regiment, one tank regiment and three independent light tank battalions from Japan. By Nov 7, the IJA North China army was reinforced with an additional nine divisions and the 3rd and 4th naval squadron including their flagship the Izumo. In all, the IJA fielded 300,000 men, 200 tanks, 200 aircraft and large number of warships." In the Yangtze River mouth, after building an airport on Chongming-dao Island, Japanese increased their frequency of bombing campaigns, with 80 planes flying to Nanking on Sept 20th, one day ahead of date set in a public announcement. With a ratio of 300:2700, nationalist air force fought heroically in the air and brought down dozens of Japanese airplanes, with Japanese wreckages found in Jurong, Gaozi, Yizheng and Nanking etc. On Sept 25th, Japanese warplanes flew "five rounds of total 95 sorties" and dropped about 500 bombs onto Nanking the capital. See http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~dyue/wiihist/njmassac/situatio.htm http://museums.cnd.org/njmassacre/njm-tran/.  In early Oct, re-organized Hu Zongnan army took over positions held by Yang Sen's Sichuan army at Dachang, and further defended Yunzaobang for 42 days. After releasing Dachang to Gui-xi's Liao Rui army, Hu Zongnan army relocated to south bank of Suzhou River where they defeated Japanese attempts at river crossing numerous times. After spending the National Day on Oct 10th in Guilin, Li Zongren departed for Nanking, and arrived at the capital on Oct 12th. The next day, Li Zongren, together with Bai Chongxi, went to see Chiang Kai-shek who previously claimed to drive the Japanese into Whampoo [Huangpujiang] River. Days later, Li Zongren suggested that Liao Lei's 21st Group Army could be fetched over for guarding the Suzhou-Jiaxing Concrete Defence Line while the fighting forces in Shanghai could be withdrawn to the hind for a re-organization. Li Zongren even suggested that Nanking the capital could be abandoned for sake of a sustained fight against Japan. Li Zongren likened the narrow battlefield for 50 divisions or 700,000 men as a 'hell of fire' under the bombardment of Japanese firepower, with Chinese soldiers falling at a rate of 1000 per hour. However, Chiang Kai-shek adamantly wanted a duel in Shanghai, and further wanted Li Zongren dispatch Liao Lei's army to Dachang Battlefield immediately. Li Zongren followed Chiang Kai-shek to Shanghai Battlefield and encountered bombing by dozens of Japanese planes at Suzhou. On Oct 21st, Japanese prime minister refused to attend the League of Nations conference, claiming that Japan would be willing to talk to China direct, with possibly German or Italian mediation. Oskar Trautmann went to Chinese Foreign Ministry on Oct 30th with the Japanese message. On Nov 3rd, Japan proposed "seven demands" to China, including: i) Inner Mongolia to be independent; ii) Northern China to be demilitarized; iii) Shanghai to be administered by international police etc. In mid-Oct, the arrival of Liao Lei's group army temporarily maintained the defense at Dachang. One week later, out of 6 brigade chief under Liao Lei, 3 were dead, and 2 were wounded. On Oct 26th, Dachang was lost to Japanese. But, Hu Zongnan army still held the line at Suzhou-he River by daunting Japanese with short-distance grenade and blade counter-attacks.  In early Nov, Bai Chongxi also advised Chiang Kai-shek of the need to evacuate from Shanghai. 2-3 days later, Bai Chongxi again informed Chiang Kai-shek of the difficulty in sustaining the defense line. 1-2 days later, Bai Chongxi told Chiang Kai-shek that the defense was already broken. By early Nov, Japanese took over Zhabei, Jiangwan, Liuhang and Zhenru, i.e., northside of Shanghai, and breached Nationalist Army's defense line north of the Suzhou-he River. Chiang Kai-shek declined the Japanese demands on Nov 5th, hoping for the intervention by Brussels International Conference in which nine countries were participating. Jinshanwei Landing On Oct 20th, Japan, on basis of Oct 9th decision by Japanese General Staff Headquarters, organized 10th Army to be commanded by Yamagawa Heisuke, for the Jinshanwei Landing on Hangzhouwan Bay. Included in the landing force would be Japanese 18th Shidan, 114th Shidan, 6th Shidan, Kunizaki Shitai Detachment, 9th Independent Light Armor Company Chutai, 2nd Independent Mountain Gun Regiment Rentai, and 6th Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade Ryodan. Japanese 18th Shidan was originally destined for Kwantung Army reinforcement. Ferocious Japanese, with Kwantung Army included, undertook the secretive Jinshanwei & Quangongting landing on Nov 5th, slaughtered their way across the countryside of Hangzhou Bay, massacred the cities of Songjiang and Suzhou, and later participated in the Rape of Nanking via the southern route against Guanghua-men City Gate of Nanking. Both the "Jinshanwei Landing" and "Southwest of Taihu Lake Campaign" also exhibited the same predatory strategy as shown in later Pearl Harbor attack. Over 100 Japanese ships, carrying Japanese 10th Army under the escort of Fourth Fleet, sailed toward Jinshanwei on he night of Nov 4th. At dawn, Japanese 18th Shidan landed at Jinshanzui and Caojing, to the east of Jinshanwei, while 6th Shidan and Kunizaki Shitai Detachment landed at Jinsiniangqiao and Quangongting, to the west of Jinshanwei. Defending the Jinshanwei shoreline would be two companies from an infantry battalion of Chen Guangzhong’s 63rd Division, one cannons company and some salt management police who all died to the last person. Salt management police was said to have fired the first shot per county chronicle. (Nationalist army had previously stationed 4 divisions and 1 brigade at Jinshanwei, but those armies were called to Shanghai defense already.) Against Chen Cheng’s advice that Chinese troops immediately withdraw from Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek wanted three more days. Chiang Kai-shek, back in late October, agreed to pulling back troops to Suzhou-Fushan Line and Wuxi-Jiangyin Line; but, on Nov 1st, Chiang Kai-shek, while speaking to division commanders at a school in Nanxiang, reverted back to the defense of Shanghai when news came that Belgium agreed to host the Nine Power Treaty conference in Brussels, and pleaded with his generals to persist for at least ten days to two weeks so as to win “sympathy and support” from international community On Nov 8th, Japanese successfully attacked the flank of Shanghai after landing on the muddy beach of Jinshanwei, causing the collapse of Chinese defense all the way to Nanking. On Nov 9th, Songjiang was lost. A general retreat from Shanghai was ordered on Nov 9th, which was too late. Two retreat routes for Hangzhou and Nanking were ordered. Under the bombing of Japanese planes, 100000 Nationalist soldiers passed the Suzhou-Jiaxing defense line without a stop. Eight Hundred Brave Soldiers At Sihang Cangku Warehouse  On Oct 27th, one battalion of Xie Jinyuan's 524th Regiment of 86th Division, with 400 soldiers, was ordered to provide cover for Nationalist Government forces' evacuation by taking position at concrete-walled Sihang Cangku Warehouse on the bank of Suzhou River, in Zhabei of Shanghai. Xie Jinyuan's 524th Regiment claimed to have 800 soldiers. "Loyal & Righteous Patriotic Army" also participated in providing cover for the main bulk of the Nationalist Army to evacuate from Shanghai. Hu Zongnan's army retreated under the support of Li Yuetang and Yu Jishi's army. After one day stop at Kunshan, Hu Zongnan's 1st Corps (i.e., 17th Corps-group) retreated towards Wuxi. Shanghai was lost to Japanese on Nov 12th. Xu Zhen stated that Nationalist Government forces had a total casualty of 300,000 while Japanese suffered a casualty of 100,000 during Shanghai-WuSong Campaign. The number of 300,000 is enough to prove that Chinese were never afraid of dying for the motherland. Later, historians criticized Shanghai Defence by pointing out that Japan could easily ship over army and supplies via sea while China had to exert great efforts in moving staff and hauling equipment overland. For example, Sichuan Prov's Rao Guohua army walked thousands of kilometers to Taihu Lake from Sichuan Basin. Xie Jinyuan's 524th Regiment fought on in Shanghai. People across the river, inside of the foreign settlement, sent over support to the soldiers. A girl scout, i.e., Yang Huimin, was reported to have swum across the Suzhou River carrying a flag of the Republic of China. (In Taiwan, actress Lin Qingxia had assumed the role of Yang Huimin in a film in memory of the resistance war.) Later, at the intervention of the colonialist authorities, this regiment was allowed to evacuate into the settlement where they were disarmed and imprisoned. Xie Jinyuan's 524th Regiment did not retreat to British settlement till Oct 31st. While in the Shanghai's settlement territory, Regiment chief Xie Jinyuan died in the hands of a traitor purportedly hired by the Japanese. Retreat From Shanghai To Nanking The ancient saying about "soldiers collapsing like a falling mountain" could be used for this retreat from Shanghai. From Shanghai to Nanking, concrete defense infrastructure, which were built up in prior years, was abandoned. Possibly 10 million civilians had joined the exodus leading from coastal China to Nanking and further onward to hinterland, which showed the determination of ordinary Chinese to avoid enslavement. Numerous memoirs had descriptions of arduous trek across China for the Southwest, including people of all ages. On Nov 7th 1927, Japanese command center established "Central China Front Army" which was in charge of "Shanghai Expedition Force" and Japanese 10th Army. By Nov 12th, battles in Shanghai ceased. After Nov 5th Jinshanwei landing, Japan's appetite became insatiable. Taiyuan of Shanxi Province was lost to Japanese on Nov 8th, Songjiang was lost on 9th, Shanghai was lost on 11th, Daming of Hebei Province was lost on 11th, Jiashan was lost on 14th, Kunshan was lost on 16th, Jiaxing was lost on 18th, Chefoo [Yantai] of Shandong Province was lost on 18th, Suzhou was lost on 20th, Wuxing was lost on 21st, Wuxi was lost on 25th, Yixing and Wujing lost on 29th, and Liyang and Guangde lost on 30th. Iris Chang cited a British newspaper reporter who visited Songjiang town nine weeks after Japanese invasion in stating that this Britishman only found five old persons sobbing in a French church in a city which once possessed an original population of 100,000. Iris Chang also reminded us that at Suzhou, a 350,000 people garden watercourse city on the east bank of Taihu Lake, Japanese soldiers intruded into the city gate with masks on their heads and reduced the population to 500 persons. Japanese raped and abducted tens of thousands of women as 'sex slaves' at Suzhou. German foreign minister advised China in accepting Japan's demands on Dec 1st, and Chiang Kai-shek met German ambassador twice on 2nd & 3rd. However, Germany did not relay Chiang Kai-shek's opinions till Dec 7th by which time Japan had overthrown its "seven demands" made in Nov. Japan exerted its full force for sacking Nanking the capital in the hope of pressuring China into a surrender. Two concrete defense line, i.e., Suzhou-Fushan Line and Wuxi-Jiangyin Line, were lost to Japanese consecutively as a result of chaos. Hu Zongnan, seeing the first line gone because most of the facilities were locked, would wire to Dai Li to have the second line be ready for service. Dai Li failed to locate authorities for opening up the locks on citadels and blockhouses on the 2nd line. Though, Chinese forces fought to the last person at different locations on the two lines. On Nov 13th, Chinese forces at Hupuzhen fought Japanese 16th Shidan which sailed to Yangtze from Dalian of coastal Shandong Province. Hu Zongnan's 1st Corps (i.e., 17th Corps-group) arrived in Wuxi on Nov 16th where he received a new regiment of soldiers. Hu Zongnan's troops, which had already lost most of officers above platoon level, fought Japanese tank armies for 3 days and 2 nights between Wuxi and Changzhou, and he wired over to Dai Li about the need to train new Whampoa cadres. At Sanliqiao and Xiejiaqiao, Chinese forces fought Japanese till Nov 19th. 956th Regiment at the second defense line fought Japanese at Zhujiatang on Nov 20th. On Nov 20th, Hu Zongnan's 17th Corps-group crossed the Yangtze River to Yangzhou from Zhenjiang, and received three more regiments of new recruits. Chinese forces fought Japanese at the outskirts of Wuxi on Nov 25th. And, on Nov 26th, with second defense line breached, Chinese forces fought Japanese at Jiangyin on the Yangtze River Bank. Battle Of Jiangyin Earlier in the war, on Aug 12th 1937, seven ships from state-run Commerce Bureau and 16 privately-owned ships were sunken. On Sept 25th, outdated warships were sunken as well. Altogether, 43 warships [dating from Manchu Era] and 185 civil purpose ships had been deliberately sunken for preventing Japanese from sailing upstream. Huge rocks were shipped over from Yangtze provinces. Blockade lasted for two months over Japanese bombing. At Jiangyin, Admiral Chen Jiliang led five warships for countering Japanese attempt at clearing blockade, and by late September, all five ships were sunken by Japanese airplanes. With Tang Shengzhi agreeing to the job for the Nanking defense, Chiang Kai-shek reversed the earlier decision by the Third War Zone as to symbolic defense of both Nanking and Jiangyin, and conferred onto Liu Xing the deputy commander post for Nanking Garrison Command Center. At Jiangyin, Liu Xing, the Yangtze defense commander, was ordered to defend the fortress with Heh Zhizhong’s 103rd Division, Huo Shouyi’s 112th Division, two infantry battalions of the fortress and remnant torpedo boats and warships at the blockade line. 103rd Division was to defend the area to the east of the fortress, while 112th Division was to defend the area to the south and west of the fortress. Across the Yangtze, 111th Division of Miao Chengliu’s 57th Corps was assigned the task of defending Jingjiang as well as Nantong. Augmenting the fortress would be eight 88mm German artilleries and four 150mm German cannons in addition to 49 guns the fortress was originally equipped with After taking over Changzhou and Wuxi on Nov 25th, Japanese launched three prong attacks at Jiangyin. Liu Xing defended Jiangyin till Dec 2nd by citing the spirits of Ming Dynasty's "Yan Yingyuan resisting Manchu invasion at Jiangyin to the last person". Liu Xing's army fought zigzag wars with Japanese armored vehicles from Nov 26th to Dec 2nd 1937, and later obtained the approval for an evacuation towards Zhenjiang and Nanking. Under the cover of heavy cannon blasting, Liu Xing evacuated from Jiangyin and later joined the Nanking Defence Battle. In the subsequent attack on Zhenjiang, Japanese slaughtered civilians in the same way as they did in Songjiang and Suzhou. However, the horrific news brought to Nanking still failed to vindicate the masses of people who had not witnessed the Japanese atrocity yet. On Dec 5th 1937, Japanese slaughtered Chinese villagers around Jiangyin. Jin Hui pointed out that Japanese soldiers, at Lujiacun Village, killed 102 male villagers. Battle Of Si'an & Guangde  On November 23rd, Ushijima’s 18th Shidan, riding on boats, crossed the lake to attack towards Changxing on southern lakeshore. Yanagawa's Tenth Army moved beyond Huzhou and took over Changxing. Suematsu’s 114th Shidan, after Changxing, went north towards Yixing and Liyang, while Kunizaki Shitai and part of Ushijima’s 18th Shidan attacked southwest towards Si’an and Guangde. 21st Corps Chief Tang Shizun dispatched 144th Division of 23rd Corps and 145th Division of 21st Corps to defending Nanshan-Jincun [to the west of Changxing] and Sian [to the southwest of Changxing]. On 26th, Japanese from 114th Shidan and 18th Shidan attacked 144th Division at Nanshan-Jincun. Japanese armored vehicles easily broke through the Chinese defense line on the plains near Taihu Lake. 18th Shidan attacked Rao Guohua's 145th Division of 21st Corps at Si’an and subsequently took over Si’an. Guo Xunqi’s 144th Division retreated towards Ningguo. 145th Division Chief Rao Guohua, other than defending Guangde, sent 437th Brigade towards Si’an. On the night, 438th Brigade of Liu Zhaoli’s 146th Division launched a surprise attack with grenades and blades, killed dozens of Japanese, retook Si'an and captured two field guns. On November 27th, Rao Guohua and his 437th Brigade continued to defend Si’an against Japanese attacks. After numerous seesaw fighting, Japanese took over most of Si'an again. By the dawn of 28th, company commander Hu Rongcheng of 14th brigade, under Rao Guohua’s command, led another surprise attack against Japanese armored vehicles and retook Si'an On early morning of November 29th, Japanese bombers blanket-bombed Si'an, and Japanese field and tank armies launched attack at Si'an. On the morning of 30th, Si’an was lost for the fourth time. Rao Guohua retreated to Shibai [Jiebai], within five kilometers of Guangde. After beating back several rounds of Japanese attacks, Rao Guohua abandoned Guangde when a regimental commander withdrew from the front line on his own accord. Around noon, Ushijima’s 18th Shidan took over Guangde. With about a battalion troops left, Rao Guohua mounted an unsuccessful counterattack against Guangde. Besieged by Japanese at Shizipu, Rao Guohua committed suicide on the night of 30th. The troops, indignant over the death of their division commander, recovered Si’an and Guangde at one time on December 1st. Defence Battle at Nanking Tang Shengzhi, as garrison commander for Nanking, had about 100,000-150,000 soldiers under his command, including Gu Zhenglun/Gui Yongqing's Central Lecturing Echelon (about 5000 men who retreated from Shanghai), Song Xilian's 36th Division of 78th Corps, Wang Jingjiu's 87th Division of 71st Corps, Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division, Ye Zhao's 66th Corps [Yue-jun], Yu Jishi's 74th Corps, Deng Longguang's 83rd Corps [Yue-jun], and one division of Sun Yuanliang's 72nd Corps. Liu Xing's two divisions, 103rd Division & 112th Div, were pulled over from Yangtze Bank defense.  Only Xu Yuanquan's 2nd Corps-group (41st & 48th Divisions), arriving from Wuhan, had no prior engagement with Japanese. Liu Xing and Luo Zhuoying, who both participated in Shanghai defense, were ordered to be deputy commanders assisting Tang Shengzhi. Shi Huaiyu stated that most of the soldiers were new recruits who filled up the ranks lost in Shanghai-WuSong Battle.  Tang Shengzhi devised two-fold defense: outlaying defense and citywall defense. At the outside, Yu Jishi's two divisions of 74th Corps guarded Banqiao-Chunhua, Xu Yuanquan's 2nd Corps-group (41st & 48th Divisions) guarded Mengtang-Longtan, and Ye Zhao's 66th Corps & Deng Longguang's 83rd Corps [Yue-jun] guarded east and west sides of Mt Tangshan. At Nanking, Song Xilian's 36th Division of 78th Corps guarded north gate, Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division of 72nd Corps and Shen Fazao's 87th Division (under Wang Jingjiu's 71st Corps) guarded south gate, and Gu Zhenglun/Gui Yongqing's Central Lecturing Echelon guarded three peaks of Mt Zijinshan. A company of 6 ground-to-air cannons, commanded by regiment chief Miao Fan, were retained with Tang Shengzhi. Hu Zongnan was called over to Nanking on Dec 2nd for assisting Tang Shengzhi. However, Hu Zongnan went back to Pukou on Dec 5th when news came that Japanese moved along the north bank already.  On Dec 1st, Japan’s Central Front Army received the No. 8 Continental Order to attack and occupy Nanking. On Dec 2nd, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka took over Matsui Iwane’s dual commander post for the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, while Matui Iwane, as front army commander, directed both the expeditionary force and the Tenth Army against Nanking from multiple directions. The order to Tenth Army was for 114th Shidan and 6th Shidan to move along Liyang-Lishui Highway and Guangde-Honglanbu Highway on Dec 3rd for the Lishui area, with two additional contingents to penetrate westward to Wuhu and Dangtu for Anhui Province segment of the Yangtze River. The Shanghai Expeditionary Force was ordered to have 16th Shidan and 9th Shidan move along Danyang-Jurong-Tangshan Highway and Jintan-Tianwangshi-Chunhuazhen Highway, with two additional contingents to cross the Yangtze at Jiangyin and Zhenjiang for a circumvential attack at the Canal and Peking-Pukou Railway in the north. From Dec 3rd to 6th, Japanese 16th Shidan and 9th Shidan punched into the cordon lines of 83rd Corps and 66th Corps, took over Jurong on 4th, and pushed to the area of Huangmei, Tuqiao and Hushuzhen. 10th Ryodan of 11th Shidan attacked Zhenjiang, while 13th Shidan crossed Yangtze at Jiangyin to attack Jingjiang. Separately, Japanese 114th Shidan, to be followed by 6th Shidan, burst through the cordon lines of 88th Division and 74th Corps and took over Lishui and Molingguan by Dec 4th, and pushed to the area of Lulangzhen and Jiangningzhen. Kunizaki Shitai and 8th Shidan attacked Dangtu and Xuancheng, respectively. On Dec 7th, Matsui Iwane ordered the siege of Nanking.  On December 7th, Japanese army reached the perimeter of Nanking city from three directions,
and engaged in battles with Tang Shengzhi's forces of over 100,000 men. Nanking city was first breached in the south, i.e., Yuhuatai area, in the afternoon of Dec 12th.
Soldiers who were stranded on Mt Zijinshan's three peaks in the east died to the last person till after Dec 13th. More available at DEFENSE-BATTLE-AT-NANKING-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Mt Xishan - Zhongshan-men City Gate Mt Hongmaoshan - Baigufen Guanghua-men City Gate Zhongshan Lingyuan Mt Zijinshan - Peak II & Peak III Shi Huaiyu's River Crossing Blunders Of Tang Shengzhi On Dec 13th, Japanese captured Nanking. Rape Of Nanking The 'Rape Of Nanking' occurred in Dec 1937 under the authorization of Japanese Prince Yasuhiko Asaka and commander Matsui Iwane (Songjing Shigeng) and lasted for six weeks. 340,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were massacred on basis of statistics from the Red Cross and other organizations which buried the dead bodies, with full set of evidence recorded by foreign journalists as well as Japanese newspapers. Witness accounts in the West include Martha Lund Smalley, ed, "American Missionary Eyewitnesses To The Nanking Massacre, 1937-1938" (New Haven: Yale Divinity School Library Occasional Publication No. 9, 1997), "John Robe's Diaries" of a German in charge of the International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone, and "Bates' Papers" etc. Among 340,000 victims, 190,000 were massacred in batches, and both the number and the cruelty far outweighed the Atomic bomb victims of 210,000. Iris Chang, in "The Rape Of Nanking - The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII", pointed out that International Military Tribunal of the Far East determined that 260,000 Chinese fell victims to Japanese, not counting those whose bodies floated on the Yangtze River. At minimum 80,000 Chinese women were raped or raped and killed. Wang[1] Hao stated that over 320 women from Nanking were sent to Manchuria as 'comfort women'. http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~dyue/wiihist/njmassac/killcomp.htm carried pictures of two war criminals, 2nd Lieutenants Mukai Toshiaki and Noda Takeshi, who killed 105 and 106 Chinese people during a "100 kill contest". The two lieutenants, at the end of WWII, were arrested by the Nationalist Government and executed on Dec 18th 1947 at Caotangxie of Nanking where 50000 Chinese soldiers were killed by machine guns ten years ago. During post-war trials, judges from eleven allied countries sentenced 25 surviving A-class Japanese war criminals to death. However, Japanese have never repented over their war crimes in earnest, and time and again, claimed that their invasion had helped Asian countries in being liberated from colonialist rule by Western powers. Note Japanese denied that massacre ever happened. Professor Hata Ikuhiko, out of his limited conscience, estimated that about 38000 to 42000 Chinese were massacred in Nanking. Wang[1] Hao pointed out that Japanese records stated that when Japanese soldiers first intruded into Zhonghua-men City Gate on Dec 13th, they were surrounded by 'civilian bandits' ... hundreds of thousands of "female bandits" swarmed over, attacking Japanese soldiers with mouths and teeth ... one of the females, for instigating turmoil, took off her clothes on the upper body and shouted... that Japanese had raped her ...female bandits then attacked Japanese together ... Japanese revenged by raping them..." Japanese records further rebutted the reports by "Manchester Tribute" (Temperly, Tian-bo-lie), "New York Times" (John Denver) and Professor Smith at Nanking University. In Nanking, Tani Hisao was fetched over to China for trial in Aug 1946 and executed at Yuhuatai on April 26th 1947. Matsui Iwane, separately, was executed by the tribunal in Tokyo on Dec 23rd 1948. Over 2000 Japanese war criminals caught in China had been spared. Japan occupation commander-in-chief Okamura Yasuji (Gangchun Ningci in Chinese) reached a deal with Nationalist Government in having him spared war crimes in exchange for Japanese cooperation in resisting communist forces. Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government, in its race against the communist for control of China, had mobilized thousands of ships, equiv to 300000 tons, for dispatching well over 2 million Japanese occupation forces and their families to Japan within ten months (Nov 1945-July 1946), while Japanese criminals caught by the Chinese communists were mostly set free in the 1950s after a so-called repentance over the crimes. (In contrast, Stalin had forced Japanese Kwantung army into coolie labor in Siberia as a retaliation for Japanese live dissection of Soviet prisoners of war.) Later, Korean War of June 1950 would lead to US initiation in having multiple countries sign peace treaty with Japan on Sept 8th 1951, a treaty which deliberately excluded Republic of China [Taiwan]. Not to mention US government's harboring Japanese guinea pig experts from Unit 731. In today's China, communists, for sake of attracting Japanese financial aid, had even allowed some criminals to come back to China as 'investor' or so-called 'inverse teaching text'.
Japanese soldiers raped Chinese women of all ages, including pregnant women, and moreover mutilated their bodies after their beastly acts like gang rape, cutting off nipples, peeling off breasts and piercing the vagina or abdomen. Victims numbered no less than 80,000, per Iris Chang. Japanese soldiers took pleasure in bayoneting the fetus even. Japanese soldiers were recorded by foreign diplomats to have broken into neutrality or safety zones (set up by Westerners), hospitals, churches and schools (such as Jingling Women's University) to abduct truck-loads of women for army brothels (i.e., Japanese army "comfort stations" which usually were staffed with Korean and Taiwanese women). Sorted out of the neutrality zones would be hundreds of Chinese policemen in black uniforms who were later all massacred in the outskirts. Yin Jijun (i.e., Jamese Yin), in "The Great Rescue of 1937: Western Friends & International Safety Zone" (New Continent Publishing House, HK, Nov 1997), stated that about 40-50 policemen were taken away and murdered. Picture from "A Journey Through China - A Pictorial Walk, 1927-1997" showed that hundreds of thousands of black-uniformed policemen were escorted out of Nanking for massacre.  Nanking Massacre is not an isolated incident. I already mentioned earlier that Japanese invasion forces, upon landing in Jinshanwei, had massacred all their way through the coastal villages and towns on the Hangzhou Bay, leaving "wan ren keng" [i.e., the pit of ten thousand corpses] along their path. At a village called Yaojiaxiang, Japanese army collected hordes of Chinese peasants, stacked them together, and massacred them by piercing their long blades from top to bottom. Note that Japanese, having encountered only two companies of Chinese soldiers upon landing, had no reason for a bloody revenge. Today's humble Chinese peasants, in recalling the past Japanese atrocity, merely cursed 'dong [east] yang [ocean] ren [people]' whenever they recollected the barbarity of Japanese soldiers as well as Japanese pirates. Iris Chang cited a British newspaper reporter who visited the Songjiang town nine weeks after the Japanese invasion in stating that this Britishman only found five old persons sobbing in a French church in a city which once possessed an original population of 100,000. Separately, Father Jacquinot de Besange, who set up the Nanshi Refugee Center, had trekked to Songjiang in the aftermath of the Japanese occupation, and reported to the U.S. consulate officials that he saw almost no live souls along the 40-50 kilometers road to Songjiang. As noted by Marcia R. Ristaino in "The Jacquinot Safe Zone: wartime refugees in Shanghai", Jacquinot told Nelson T. Johnson, which was relayed to Stanley Hornbeck, that "along the way, he had seen almost no Chinese alive and noted that desperately needed rice crops were untended and rotting in the fields...Japanese troops had entered the [Nanshi] Zone to round up refugees, including women." Iris Chang also reminded us that at Suzhou, a garden watercourse city on the east bank of the Taihu Lake, Japanese soldiers intruded into the city gate with masks and reduced the population to 500 persons from the original number of 350,000. Japanese raped and abducted tens of thousands of women as 'sex slaves' at Suzhou. (Iris Chang, however, listed some irrelevant incident as something that might possibly changed the picture of the Rape Of Nanking: Iris Chang stated that Matsui Iwane [not Tani Hisao], a notorious figure since his assumption of Taiwan garrison commander on Aug 1st 1933, fell sick and stayed behind at Suzhou on Dec 7th, something which propelled Japanese emperor's uncle into the post of commanding three invasion columns against Nanking; that an ultimatum was issued before the siege of Nanking; that Matsui Iwane , for fear of the imperial uncle abusing power, had ordered that Japanese soldiers should regroup outside of Nanking, with only disciplined columns allowed for entry into the capital; that it was the Japanese imperial uncle who, having returned to China from Tokyo on Dec 8th, issued a secret order of "killing all prisoners of war"; and that the idea of "killing all prisoners of war" was derived from the approach adopted by a Japanese Rentai chief in solving the fate of about 300,000[?] Nationalist Army remnants who stranded behind after Japanese landing at Jinshanwei Beach.) The Great Rescue of 1937 In Nanking, quite some foreign teachers at both Nanking University and Nanking Women University changed their summer vacation plans in anticipation of the July 1937 Sino-Japanese War. After Aug 13th outbreak of war in Shanghai, George A. Fitch of YMCA, who was once invited to be an adviser to the "New Life Movement Committee", went to Shanghai to organize "Zhabei Service Team" as a part of his YMCA Youth Society activities. Among youth employed by Magee would be Xu Qingliang who was spotted inside of the refugee center when Japanese drove Shanghai civilians in Yangshupu area across the Huangpu River during Jan 28th 1932 Incident. Xu Qingliang etc retreated to Nanking in Nov after the Zhabei return path from Baoshan to Shanghai was cut off. In Shanghai, Rev John G. Magee of American Church Mission assisted Father Jacquinot de Besange in establishing a refugee center of 110,000 people in Nanshi area. Rev John G. Magee returned to Nanking and took charge of providing service for refugees and wounded soldiers. At the suggestion of Nanking University board of director Hang Liwu, International Safety Zone was proposed for covering an area of about 3.86 square kilometers, with universities, consulates, German club and American Gulou Hospital. International Safety Zone was both agreed upon by Nanking Mayor Ma Chaojun and acknowledged by Japanese commander in Shanghai. George A. Fitch, after instructing Xu Qingliang in using YMCA facilities for receiving refugees and wounded, took a trip to seeing his family members depart via American warship Chautomont in Qingdao but missed one day late when he arrived on Nov 16th by changing trains and buses due to Japanese bombing.
By Dec 10th 1937, majority foreigners had fled Nanking. Remnants would board American Warship Panay on the evening of 11th. (The next day, i.e., the afternoon of Dec 12th, Panay was sunken by Japanese bombers about 50 kilometers upstream of Nanking; however, Americans continued the appeasement policy well into the Pearl Harbor attack four years later. Back on July 26th 1939, US announced the annulment of "commerce act with Japan" in 6 months in protest of Japanese encirclement of Tianjin's settlement and insulting British & American citizens.) Those who remained to be eyewitnesses to the fall of Nanking on Dec 13th would include Archibold [Archibald] T Steele of "Chicago Daily News", L G Smith of "Reuters", C Yates McDaniel of "Associated Press", Tillman Durdin of "New York Times", and Arthur Mencken of "Paramount Pictures". At the demand of Japanese military, reporters left Nanking on 15th. on 17th, Tillman Durdin of "New York Times", on board a ship at the mouth of Wusongkou & Yangtze, announced the "Nanking Atrocity" to the world, with description of about 200 men gun down within 10 minutes near the dock where the reporters boarded the ship on 15th. Three months later, on March 16th, George A. Fitch of YMCA published a report on the atrocities in HK's "South China Morning Post". In July 1938, Harold J. Timberley of "Manchester Guardian Weekly", on basis of MS Bates & George A Fitch accounts, wrote a comprehensive report entitled "What War Means: The Japanese Terror In China: A Documentary Record". TO BE CONTINUED !!!! Eight Year Long Resistance War The 'Rape Of Nanking', from Dec 1937 to Jan 1938, would arouse Chinese people's indignation as well as win over the sympathy of the world communities. For eight years, Chinese fought the resistance war relentlessly. War calamities being unheard of in human history, Chinese forces engaged Japanese in 20-30 campaigns, hundreds of battles, and thousands of fighting. From 1937 to 1945, 21,000,000 Chinese lost their lives, among whom about 3.8 million were soldiers, officers and generals. General consensus of total death toll, including collaborators & Yellow River breach victims etc, could amount to 38 million.  Among victims would be unfortunately Chinese women whom the Japanese monkeys raped, tortured and killed to maintain the psychological imbalance in failing to subdue Chinese nation militarily. (I came up with the monkey term for Japanese climbing the walls of Nanking Women University dormitories during the Rape of Nanking.) Note that mainland Chinese women comprised at least 67.8 of all "comfort women" throughout Japanese occupation zones [see page 61 of Whang Hao4's "Chinese Comfort Women - A Transnational Archive", Cosmos Books Limited, HK, 1998 edition]. Prior to Japanese surrender in southeast Asia, Vietnam, and China, Japanese army murdered all "comfort women" they could laid hands on for sake of burying their beastly acts. Surrender did not mean a stop of barbarity. Yu Dafu, author of "Sinking into Vice" and founder of the Left-Wing Writers Association, was killed by Japanese in Sumatra on August 29, 1945. In Tokyo, after surrender, Japanese government spent weeks burning government documents to cover up their criminal acts. Unfortunately, Japanese crimes were not exposed as a result of cover-up of war time collusion activities by Chinese communist. Every year, when people worldwide remembered the Normandy landing, Chinese communists just hoped that people forgot about resistance war against Japan. Though Chinese communists still refused to deal with Japan on the matter of comfort women today, Tong Zeng, a 23 year old lawyer in international law, first worked on Chinese 'comfort women' issue in 1989. Three years later, eight Chinese 'comfort women' appeared in Tokyo in denunciation of Japanese military crimes. Hauling Nation's Industry To Hinterland & Rebuilding Railways-Airports Talent Retention by Hu Zongnan In Competition With Communist Nationalist Government Recruiting & Training, "Exile University" & "Interim Middle Schools" Communist Activities Involving The Intellectuals Korean Restoration Army In late 1937, Chiang Kai-shek received Jin Jiu for a second time, and offered to establish a "Korean restoration army". A telegraph set and two staff from Nationalist Government "centrally-led" agency were sent to Jin Jiu, and KMT's non-audit party funds were allocated for interim Korean government. At Nationalist Government academies in Nanking, Xi'an & Luoyang, Jin Jiu trained multiple batches of Koreans. Aside from Jin Jiu, another leftist Korean, by the name of Jin Ruoshan, who was a graduate of Whampoa 4th Session, also took charge of training Korean fighters. Koreans had faction infighting, with Jin Jiu injured by a gunshot during a meeting in Changsha. In Sept 1940, Nationalist government established a "Korean Village" in Chungking as well as a Korean language school. After Jan 1941 Wannan Incident, leftist and rightist Koreans split apart, with Jin Ruoshan faction going to communist camp in Yan'an. With the outbreak of Pacific War in Dec 1941, Jin Jiu's interim Korean government officially exhibited its banner on the office building. Three columns of "Korean restoration army" were established, and received American training related to Office of Strategic Services. Nationwide Mobilization On Jan 3rd 1938, Chiang Kai-shek devised 9 provincial military command headquarters. On Jan 13th, Jining of Shandong was lost to Japanese. On Jan 17th 1938, Chiang Kai-shek devised 6 military districts: Ping-Han Railroad (Chen Qian), Shanxi Province (Yan Xishan), Jiangsu-Zhejiang (Gu Zhutong), Guangdong-Guangxi (Heh Yingqin), Jin-Pu (Li Zongren), and Gansu-Ningxia-Qinghai (Zhu Shaoliang) in addition to Wuhan (Chen Cheng), Xi'an (Jiang Dingwen) and Fujian (Chen Yi). Nationalist Government Chair for Shandong as well as commander for 3rd group army, Han Fuju, was executed on Jan 24th for retreating without obeying order to resist. Lin Wei, per ZLA, was responsible for the trick in capturing Han Fuju at a deliberately-scheduled Kaifeng military meeting. (Lin Wei was later responsible for the break of the Yellow River dyke, and the first Burma Expedition.) In March 1938, Nationalist government issued the order for establishing "bao jia" [local administration] system in districts and shires under each and every county, conducted a census check of the nation, and published guidelines for army recruitment. Later on Sept 19th 1938, new county-prefecture system was set up, with new regulations decreeing that each town or shire must establish "central school", each "bao" [about 100 households, i.e., ten times the "jia" unit] must establish "national citizen school" which was to cover adults, women and children. (In March 1940, Education Ministry published guidelines for extending education nationwide.) On May 20th 1938, Mme Chiang Kai-shek assembled a group of women on Mt Lushan of Jiangxi Province for mobilizing "0.2 billion Chinese women" in the resistance war against Japan. On July 1st, "women guidance committee" was set up in Hankou, and women cadre training sessions were held across the nation. Wu Xiangxiang stated that during the eight year long war, women's "new life movement committee" was responsible for mobilizing 70000 families of soldiers and exile women as well as assisting women in production and education. Later in 1944, women answered the calls for enlisting in the army, and 5714 Sichuan women had at one time applied with the army. Battle Of Mingguang-Bengbu In Dec, Japanese attacked Mingguang for sake of taking over Bengbu of Anhui Province. Li Zongren personally trained 31st Corps per his memoirs. Further, Li Zongren stated that a Guangxi native soldier, who had fled from Japanese captivity in Shanghai battle, had told a story that he witnessed a Japanese killing a fat Chinese peasant, cutting off elbow meat, and barbecuing it at the camp. 31st Corps soldiers were indignant about Japanese atrocity. Li Zongren speculated that those Japanese might belong to an ancient Japanese tribe called "Xia [shrimp] Yi [barbarian] Zu [tribe]". On Jan 15th, 26th Ryodan of Japanese 13th Shidan attacked north from Chuxian [Chuzhou]. Japanese had to attack the midway strategic Mingguang for sake of taking over Bengbu of Anhui Province. Chinese troops fought mobile wars and then pulled back to the west of Chihe River. After hitting Mingguang [Jiashan] empty, Japanese Central China Front Army, on Jan 26th, ordered to push on towards Dingyuan, Huaiyuan and Bengbu with three prongs. On 28th, the northern prong crossed Chihe River at Mingguang, took over Linhuaiguan on Feb 1st, and Bengbu on Feb 2nd; the middle prong crossed the river at Chehezhen [? Chihezhen] on 29th, and took over Fengyang on Feb 2nd; and the southern prong crossed river at Daqiaozhen and took over Dingyuan on Feb 2nd. On Jan 18th 1938, Li Zongren ordered that 31st Corps evacuated from Mingguang for a western move, while relocating Yu Xuezhong's 51st Corps to north bank of Huai-shui River from coastal Qingdao. More available at Battle_Of_Mingguang-Bengbu-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Han Fuju Han Fuju tried to keep Shandong Province as his private domain by negotiating with Koiso Kuniaki & Nishio Toshizo for a compromise. Japanese demanded that Han Fuju declare independence. Li Zongren paid a visit to Jinan to strengthen Han Fuju's determination. Li Zongren assured Han Fuju by citing his forecasts about the wars in China and possible outbreak of wars in Europe as a corroboration that China would ultimately prevail over Japan in a world-wide war. After Li Zongren analyzed the conflict between two factions of Japanese militarists [i.e., southern move against Britain-US versus northern move against USSR], Han Fuju repeatedly asked Li Zongren, "Your honor, when do you think the European War might erupt?" Li Zongren claimed that his talk of sustained warfare could have strengthened Han Fuju's confidence but might have led to Han Fuju's narrow-minded belief that he should preserve his troops for a long time period. When Han Fuju refused to cooperate with Japan, Japanese army crossed the Yellow River at Qingcheng & Jiyang on Dec 23rd 1937. Japanese intruded into Jinan on 27th and Tai'an on 31st. Han Fuju, to preserve his troops, continued the retreat without putting up fight and abandoned Dawenkou on Jan 2nd 1938. Japanese intruded into Jining on Jan 5th. Li Zongren immediately ordered that Han Fuju retreat along Jin-Pu Railway and set up defense positions. However, Han Fuju fled towards western Shandong Province without reporting to Li Zongren. Along Jin-Pu Railway, only small amounts of troops resisted Japanese, which somehow delayed the advance. In mid-Jan, Chiang Kai-shek assembled generals of 1st & 5th war zones for a meeting in Guide, arrested Han Fuju, and executed him in Wuchang after a military trial. Han Fuju, as a precaution, had brought a whole regiment to the meeting. At Guide Meeting, Chiang Kai-shek conferred the provincial chair of Henan Province onto Cheng Qian and the provincial chair of Anhui Province onto Li Zongren. Since Anhui Province Chair Jiang Zuobin immediately left his post, Li Zongren had to go to Lu'an [Liu'an] for reporting to the post, which diverted his efforts as commander of 5th war zone. In early June, after one week stay in Lu'an [Liu'an], Li Zongren returned to Xuzhou for directing the fight against Itagaki Seishiro and Isogai Rensuke. Back on Jan 12th, Japanese 5th Shidan under Seishiro landed in Laoshan-wan Bay and Fudao of Qingdao. After the relocation of Yu Xuezhong's army, mayor Shen Honglie had only 500 marines under his command. Itagaki Seishiro then marched southwestward against Linyi via Gaomi, Zhucheng & Juxian. Li Zongren claimed that radical Japanese officers who participated in Feb 26th 1936 coup had mostly served under Itagaki Seishiro and Isogai Rensuke. Battles Of Linyi & Tengxian, Campaign Of Tai-er-zhuang In March 1938, Nationalist government, in defending Xuzhou of Shandong Province, eradicated about 10,000-15,000 troops from two Japanese Shidans at Linyi and Tai'er'zhuang. Wu Xiangxiang pointed out that Chinese forces had been able to defeat Japanese as a result of the great sacrifice by the railway workers in hauling supplies and reinforcements to the front.  Li Zongren first successfully fended off Japanese attacks along Jin-Pu Railway from the south and then set up a bag at Xuzhou for Japanese to invade. On Feb 17th, Japan’s Second Army, from northern China, authorized 8th Ryodan of 10th Shidan to launch a campaign against the Canal area of Shandong Province. From the coast, on Feb 17th, Japanese 5th Shidan was ordered to echo the push by 10th Shidan. On 27th, near Juxian, Japanese attacked Chinese 115th Brigade with newly organized Sakamoto Shitai which, built on basis of 21st Ryodan of 5th Shidan, consisted of 11th Rentai [lacking one Daitai], 21st Rentai, one Daitai from 42nd Rentai, 5th Field Artillery Rentai and one mountain gun Chutai. At dawn of March 14th, Seya Shitai launched a general attack at Chinese positions scattered around the railway line. At Tengxian, Wang Mingzhang, frontline commander for 41st Corps, ordered the railway bridge to be blown up, called over special task battalion of 41st Corps from Lincheng, and withdrew 364th Brigade into the city after leaving one battalion at Beishahe and one battalion at western outskirts. One battalion each from 366th Brigade and 398th Brigade made their way to Tengxian. 727th Regiment Chief Zhang Xuanwu from 364th Brigade was made into garrison commander for Tengxian, in charge of about 30000 troops, including eleven infantry companies, one mortar company, four special task companies from 122nd Division and its two brigade headquarters, and about 500 local militia. Wang Mingzhang died in the lane-to-lane fighting that followed. Remnant Chinese troops evacuated from the northern citywall by noon of March 18th. Fighting continued throughout the first part of the month of March at Linyi. International observers and newspaper reporters, who stationed in Xuzhou's 5th war zone, hailed the perseverance of Chinese soldiers at Linyi. On March 9th, Sakamoto Shitai, after an addition of an armored Chutai, resumed attacks at Pang Bingxun’s 40th Corps. On March 12th, Zhang Zizhong and Xu Zuyi, after one day’s nonstop march, arrived at the western bank of the Yihe River where they devised a plan to have 113th Brigade and 112th Brigade of 38th Division and 26th Brigade of 180th Division cross the Yihe River to intercept Japanese at Shaling and encircle Japanese troops that were attacking Linyi. On the morning of 14th, troops from 59th Corps forcefully crossed the river at multiple locations, while troops from 39th Division [40th Corps] counterattacked Japanese from north and east of Linyi as well, with 117th Brigade of 39th Division pushing to Wangzhuang and Shazhuang villages on the Linyi-Banquanzhen Highway. At dawn of 16th, Japanese counterattacked from Shaling and crossed the Yihe River to attack the backup 111th Brigade of 38th Division at Yadou and Liujiahu. By the morning of 17th, Zhang Zizhong’s 59th Corps incurred a casualty of 6000. After dusk, 59th Corps launched a lane-to-lane general attack, defeated Japanese on the west bank of the river, and learnt from Japanese prisoner that Japanese 5th Shidan had incurred a loss of 3000 at the battles on two banks of the Yihe River, with half of the Japanese on the west bank destroyed, including 11th Rentai commander. Sakamoto Shitai, having retreated to Tangdou on 18th, regrouped for a new offensive against Linyi on 19th. On 29th, 333rd brigade of Wang Zhaozhi's 57th Corps and a cavalry regiment of 20th Corps-group arrived in Linyi. Meanwhile, Itagaki Seishiro, leaving two Daitai at Linyi, rerouted majority of Sakamoto Shitai to the relief of Seya Shitai in Taierzhuang area on the night of 29th.  In accordance with Li Zongren's plan, armored vehicles from Japanese 10th Shidans were let into the trap at Taierzhang. Li Zongren instructed that Sun Lianzhong's 2nd group army fortify positions at Taierzhang for the fame of the Northwestern Army in defense wars. Sun Lianzhong's 2nd group army, though claiming two corps, had only three divisions left after the Niangziguan Battle, i.e., Zhang Jinzhao's 30th Div, Chi Fengcheng's 31st Division & Huang Qiaosong's 27th Div. More available at Taierzhuang-Campaign.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Evacuation From Xuzhou  On April 3rd, having reversed earlier decision as to a limited war under the constraints of second-tier troop buildup, Japanese General Headquarters decided on a Xuzhou Campaign to eliminate the Chinese crack forces as a face-saver for the Imperial Japanese Army. On April 7th, after consultation with chiefs of staff for North China Front Army and Central China Front Army, Japan issued Continental Order 84, accompanied by campaign guidelines from the Chief of General Staff. Japanese planned a seven-prong attack at Xuzhou with five Shidan from the north and two Shidan from the south, totaling 300,000 reinforcements from Peking-Tianjin area, and Shanxi, Anhui & Jiangsu provinces. On May 11th, with 16th Shidan [[Nakashima Kesao]] already on the west bank of the Canal, 28th Ryodan of Japanese 16th Shidan was trucked over to cross the Canal at Jining as well, and then attacked Yuncheng to the west. On 12th, the bulk of Doihara Kenji’s 14th Shidan crossed the Yellow River at Puxian [Puyang and took over Dongkou to the north of Heze. On 13th, Japanese went south to surround Heze. After city defense was breached on 14th, 23rd Division commander Li Bifan committed suicide.
More available at Evacuation_From_Xuzhou-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
With Japanese encirclement tightening, Li Zongren issued redeployment orders and divided his troops into four blocks for breakout. Chinese troops began to break out through the slack areas at nights by taking advantage of Japanese cowardice over night-time fighting as well as ignorance over geography. Li Zongren ordered an evacuation on a southward train at 11:00 pm, on 18th. Close to the midnight, Li Zongren, with 1000 people, including news reporters, departed Xuzhou. 171st Division chief Yang Junchang, under heavy Japanese attacks, evacuated from Suxian without a prior approval. Japanese, after sacking Suxian, pressed northeastward against Xuzhou. 50 kilometers away from Xuzhou, Li Zongren’s train had to stop when engineering soldiers sabotaged railway track upon news of the fall of Suxian County. About 5 kilometers to the north of Suxian, Li Zongren split with Tang Enbo's army and went eastward to circumvent Suxian after Li Zongren dissuaded Tang Enbo from re-taking Suxian and ordered Tang Enbo to move to the west for preserving the strength. Li Zongren's 1000 column had to evade Japanese planes on the road, and at one time, left a village without finishing cooking, only to escape a blanket bombing by twenty planes, after leaving village a distance of 1-1.5 kilometers. To the southeast of Suxian, Li Zongren's column passed a Japanese cavalry in hundreds without any detection. Li Zongren met with one regiment of soldiers from 7th Corps at the bank of Wohe River after one whole day trekking. After burning all trucks, they crossed the river to the south to enter the territory of 21st group army. About 110 reporters, international and domestic, as well as military attaché of consulates, and condolence delegation representatives, finally relaxed in freedom. Among the visitors to Xuzhou would be American Stilwell [and Russian V. I. Chuikov (Cui-ke-fu, i.e., someone under Russian General Zhukov (Zhu-ke-fu) per Li Zongren; however, V. I. Chuikov was not sent to China again till December 1940 after subversive missions of 1920s and 1930s. See “Mission to China: Memoirs of a Military Adviser to Chiang Kaishek”]. Liu Ruming's 68th Corps, part of [[Long-hai]] Railway army group, went for Woyang to the west. After Xuzhou Retreat, Zhang Lanfeng, a graduate from Japanese cadet academy, had requested with Liu Ruming for staying put in eastern Henan Province for guerrilla warfare. Also fighting guerrilla warfare behind the enemy lines in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces would be Shi Yousan’s 69th Corps which consisted of 181st Division and Gao Shuxun’s New 6th Division, as well as Han Deqing’s 24th Group Army. Air Battle Over Wuhan City On March 29th 1938, Chiang Kai-shek assumed the post of KMT Director-general ("zong cai"), while Whang Jingwei the deputy post, with a call for establishment of the "League of Three People's Principles" to replace all other KMT cliques and factions. The March meeting also promulgated the establishment of "Investigation & Statistics Bureau" under the Military Commission of the National Government, i.e., Nationalist Government "jun tong" or Military Stats, on basis of special agent section of Dai Li's Resurrection Society ["fu xing she"]. Li Ao claimed that Chiang Kai-shek had contacted Dr Sun Yat-sen's Japanese friends via unofficial channel for assistance in stopping Japan's aggression. Kong Xiangxi was in charge of establishing the secret contact office in HK, while Mme Chiang Kai-shek personally oversaw the operations. Kong Xiangxi naively requested that Japan's righteous people should uphold justice and Japan's militarymen should wake up at the earliest possible date. Kong Xiangxi's emissary discussed with Japanese from March to June and requested that Japan immediately stop attack at Hankou of Wuhan, while Japanese demanded that Chiang Kai-shek should resign. Stalin, having stamped a non-aggression pact with China, had assured Chinese representative Zhang Chong in a five hour meeting on Dec 12th 1937 that USSR would supply China with necessary equipment and materials for the war against Japan: Stalin, claiming that he was a Bolshevik who meant his words, stated that there was no need to sign any official document as to promised Soviet aid. Zhang Chong, being appointed a liaison between USSR and China, helped to establish Sino-Soviet Cultural Society in Hankou of Wuhan. P.V. Rychagov, who came to China with four Russian-made fighter groups and two bomber groups, would defend the sky of Wuhan. On February 23rd, Russians, with twenty-eight twin-engined Tupolev SB, bombed Japanese plane assembly plant in Taipei, Taiwan, and destroyed about 40 Japanese planes. Three aviation generals, including Chennault and Zhou Zhirou, concluded that Japan would conduct a stealthy attack on April 29th by taking advantage of Japanese Tian-Chang [heaven lengthening] Holiday. On 28th, both Russian and Chinese planes flew to Nanchang at daylight, but secretly returned at night. On April 29th 1938, Japanese came to bomb Wuhan after spies informed them of the vacation of Chinese fleet. Wu Xiangxiang stated that Airforce General Zhou Zhirou first ordered that 20 Chinese pilots fly Russian-made planes to deplete the gasoline tanks of Japanese planes. Then, 40 Russian pilots, who were waiting about 15 kilometers east of Wuhan, engaged 39 Japanese planes and shot down 36 out of 39. Chinese lost 9 planes and 4 pilots, while Russians lost 2 planes. Alternative accounts stated that 70 planes flew up to engage 70+ Japanese planes over the skies of Wuhan and that Nationalist airforce shot down 19 Japanese planes. (Xu Zhen stated that Nationalist airforce shot down 21 Japanese planes over the sky of Wuhan.) There had been some issues as to cooperation between Chennault and Russians. Chennault, who was asked by Mme Chiang Kai-shek to go to Kunming for training Chinese pilots, commented that Russians had rotated pilots every six months to make their pilots experience real war scenario the same way as they did to Madrid War. Zhou Zhirou, having returned to China in 1934 from overseas inspections on foreign airforce, was responsible for establishing Central Airforce Academy as well as "Oct 31st 1936 Airforce Show", a date which was the anniversary of Chiang Kai-shek's birthday. In mid-May, Doihara Kenji's 14th Shidan attacked eastern Henan Province along Long-Hai Railroad. Song Xilian's 71st Corps, Gui Yongqing's 27th Corps and Li Hanhun's 64th Corps resisted Japanese advance. On May 19th, Nationalist forces evacuated from Xuzhou of Shandong Province.  On May 19th (May 20th?) 1938, departing from Nanhu Airport in Wuchang of Hubei Province, two Nationalist bombers and eight pilots, headed by Chen Guangdou, flew to Japan and dropped tons of leaflets onto Nagasaki, with a calling for Japanese to stop its barbarity against China. Pilot Xu Huansheng's picture showing triumphant return was sent across the nation. The leaflet campaign was supposedly authorized by Mme Chiang Kai-shek who always treated herself a nanny of Chinese airforce all through her life. Battle Of Lanfeng After Xuzhou campaign, Japanese General Headquarters, on May 21st, instructed that the invasion army would push to the area no further than Guide-Lanfeng on [[Longhai]] Railway and Yongcheng-Mengcheng in northern Anhui Province while consolidations were to be made along the Tientsin-Pukow Railway and to the south of Xuzhou, with North China Front Army and Central China Front Army in charge of areas divided along the Huai River. Doihara Kenji's 14th Shidan, with 20,000 men and hundreds of tanks, attacked eastern Henan Province along Long-Hai Railroad. First War Zone commander Cheng Qian ordered Li Hanhun and Gui Yongqing to besiege the Japanese protruding force from two ends of the railway: 29th Corps-group commander Li Hanhun led Wang Yaowu’s 74th Corps and 155th Division of 64th Corps westward from Guide, while 27th Corps commander Gui Yongqing led Song Xilian's 71st eastward from Lanfeng.  Additionally, Sun Tongxuan’s 3rd Group Army and Shang Zhen’s 20th Group Army were ordered to cut off Doihara Kenji's retreat path towards the Yellow River in Dongming-Kaocheng and Dingtao-Heze area, while 8th Corps commander Huang Jie, with 8th Corps, 187th Division and 24th Division, was ordered to defend Guide-Dangshan and impede Japanese advance from Xuzhou. On May 24th, Chiang Kai-shek, fury over the loss of Lanfeng city and Yellow River crossings, ordered that 27th Corps recapture the city within 2 days; that the commander of the [[[36th ??]]] division was executed for losing Lanfeng; and that Xue Yue, 19th Group Army commander, was put in charge of Lanfeng recovery. 74th Corps, 64th Corps, 71st Corps and 27th Corps attacked east to west, while 17th Corps-group commander Hu Zongnan attacked west to east. Having surrounded Japanese 14th Shidan at Quxingji, Sayiji, Luowang[zhai] and Lanfeng, Xue Yue launched a general attack at 6:30 pm, on May 25th. At night, 71st Corps recovered Lanfeng train station; on 26th, 74th Corps recovered Luowang train station, while 71st Corps attacked Japanese perimeter positions around Lanfeng; and on 27th, 64th Corps recovered Luowang[ji], and 71st Corps recovered Lanfeng. After three days’ fighting, Lanfeng was retaken by Chinese armies with a casualty of 5000. Remnants of 27th Ryodan under Japanese 14th Shidan fled towards Sanyiji. To give relief to besieged 14th Shidan, Japanese thrusted westward towards Henan Province in lieu of cleaning up pockets of resistance in Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces. From north of the Yellow River, Japanese 4th Mixed Ryodan repeatedly attempted crossings at Fengqiu and Guantai. From the east, Japanese 16th Shidan, assisted by 13th Independent Mixed Ryodan, was ordered to attack Qixian area. Japanese Second Army assigned 13th Independent Mixed Ryodan and Seya Shitai of 10th Shidan to the command of 16th Shidan consecutively. By May 31st, Japanese 10th Shidan took over Woyang and Bozhou, and 16th Shidan reached east of Qixian County. On June 1st, Xue Yue issued the redeployment order, leaving Sun Tongxuan and Shang Zhen as rearguards troops to cover the retreat by the night of June 3rd. Yellow River Breaching On June 9th 1938, to slow down Japanese advance along Long-Hai Railway towards Wuhan, i.e., the heart of China, Chiang Kai-shek authorized 32nd Corps Chief Shang Zhen in breaking the Yellow River dike at Huayuankou [garden mouth], to the north of Zhengzhou city of Henan Province, causing the loss of home to 10 million civilians in three provinces of Henan-Anhui-Jiangsu (i.e., 44 counties) and death of over million people as a result of flooding and starvation. Lin Wei was later responsible for proposing the idea of breaking the Yellow River dyke. New 8th Division under 32nd Corps engineered the breach. Yellow River breach caused lingering death toll till 1943. The flooded area would be termed "huang [yellow river] fan [flooded] qu [area]" where famine and disease would rattle on for years. Chiang Kai-shek ordered a relocation of Nationalist Government forces to the west of Jing-Han Railroad. Li Tiejun was ordered to guard Zhengzhou with three divisions and one cavalry brigade. (Japanese, in a later campaign from Oct 4th 1941 to Oct 31st 1941, had taken over Zhengzhou for a short duration before another attack in the context of "No. 1 Order" in 1944.) The Wuhan Gang Historian Charles Hayford ”Hankow became a world center for the democratic struggle against fascism, and became almost a tourist stop-off for writers and demi-diplomats who swooped through to visit the front”. Durdin: Some of the Wuhan Gang possessed "some experience of the Spanish Civil War and who had been in Moscow”. Utley commented that “the great Japanese earthquake in 1923, a catastrophy of … the American red Cross raised thirty million dollars in four weeks, whereas for China it has failed to raise even a million dollars.” Meanwhile, Chen Hansheng, who tacked on the position as secretary for the international committee, personally handled the inflow of funds which numbered about 20 million US dollars for the the two and half years’ operations up to the eruption of the Pacific War, and funneled most of the funds to Li Fuchun in Yenan through Liao Chengzhi’s transfer through banks in Shanghai.
Japanese Changing Direction To East-to-West Campaign Along Yangtze  Li Zongren pointed out that Japanese, after Yellow River breach, stopped march along Long-Hai Railway, and relocated forces for a march along Yangtze River instead. On May 19th, Japan contemplated upon attacking Wuhan right after taking over Xuzhou. The Yellow River breaching on June 9th and 12th changed Japanese plans of attacking the Yellow River city of Zhengzhou from north and east with Japan’s North China Army and attacking towards Wuhan via routes of Huai River and Yangtze River with Japan’s Central China Army.  On June 15th, Japan’s imperial meeting endorsed the Hankow-Canton plan, which the General Staff Headquarters revised on 18th with cancellation of attack against Zhengzhou from eastern direction and rerouting of the Huai River attack toward the perimeter of Mt Dabieshan. In June of 1938, Chen Cheng, commander of the Ninth Battlefield, was in charge of Wuhan Campaign, with 14 divisions and 1 brigade under his helm. Japanese prepared an army of 300,000 against Wuhan in July of 1938. More available at Japanese-Yangtze-Campaign.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Battle Along Nanchang-Jiujiang Railway Battle Along Xingzi-De'an Highway & Ruichang-Wuning Highway
Matsuura’s 106th Shidan, after being impeded at Shahepu, did not attack south till August 27th when it was ordered to echo the southwestern push from Ruichang by 9th Shidan. Past midnight, Japanese attacked Xuelipo, Changling and Shilishan that were defended by Li Jue’s 70th Corps (19th Division), Li Hanhun’s 64th Corps and Ou Zhen’s 4th Corps. Li Hanhun, from 6th to 17th, organized three detachments for raiding Japanese in Datangjiao-Mahuiling-Xiling area. Owing to heavy casualties, 2700 new Japanese recruits were sent to fill up ranks at 106th Shidan; further, 52nd mountain gun Rentai of newly-organized 22nd Shidan was relocated over from Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province for strengthening the ranks. Matsuura’s 106th Shidan did not move till early October when it was ordered to penetrate between Chinese defense lines along Ruichang-Wuning Highway and Nanchang-Jiujiang Railway to lend support to 27th InfDiv and 102nd Ryodan of 101st Shidan, ending in the destruction debacle at the Battle of Wanjialing.
From July 29th to Aug 11th, Japanese invaded USSR at Zhanggufeng at the Manchurian-Mongolian border, but got repelled. Campaign Against Yangxin-Dayi-Huangshi Battle at Huangmei-Guangji Battle Against Tianjiazhen Li Zongren stated that he had proposed a proactive attack at Japanese by departing southern Henan Province for western Anhui Province because there was no pass or precarious fortification to rely upon on the plains from Lu'an to Xinyang to the west. Alternatively, both Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi had misjudged Japanese move by claiming that Japan's main thrusts were directed against the Yangtze. One group of Japanese departed Zhengyangguan Pass for Gushi, Huangchuan, Luoshan and Xinyang of Henan Province for sake of cutting off Ping-Han Railway and posing threat to Wushengguan & Pingjingguan passes, while the other group went against Shangcheng & Macheng for crossing Mt Dabieshan and encircling Wuhan city from the east. Hu Zongnan commanded three divisions, Dong Zhao's 16th Corps and Zhao Xiguang's 167th Division in stopping Japanese advance, recovering Mt Xiaoluoshan, and pressing them back to Luoshan city on 23rd. Japanese 16th Shidan suffered a casualty of 5000. Hu Zongnan fought Japanese 3rd & 16th Shidans for two days and two nights thereafter, and after the Battle of Xing-Luo, Japanese dared not advance further to the west. Battle of Lu'an-Huoshan Battle Along Lu'an-Yejiaji-Gushi Highway and Shihe River Campaign Against Shangcheng-Huangchuan Attempts at Mt Dabieshan Crossing Campaign Against Luoshan-Xinyang Battle Of Wuhan  Japanese took over Xinyang on Oct 12th. On Oct 16th, the Military Council made the decision to abandon Wuhan, recalled Luo Zhuoying for Wuhan outskirts defense, and sent notifications to both zone commanders, Li Zongren and Chen Cheng. On Oct 17th, Japanese launched a general attack from all directions. On the northern bank of the Yangtze, 6th Shidan of Japanese Eleventh Army, in lieu of waiting for a scheduled replenishment of 3000 new recruits, attacked westward on Oct 17th after detecting the Chinese pullback. Simultaneously, 119th Ryodan of 116th Shidan, from Tianjiazhen, moved westward on 17th. On the southern bank, Hada Shitai, after taking over Dayi on 21st and Echeng (Ezhou) on 22nd, pushed to Gedian on 24th; 9th Shidan fought against Li Yannian and Guan Linzheng’s troops at Mt Huanglongshan, and pushed to east of Heshengqiao by 24th; and 27th Shidan, departing from Xingtanpu area, reached northeast of Xianning by 24th. To the west of Peiping-Hankow Railway, 10th Shidan pushed to Yingshan on 23rd. At Mt Dabieshan, after reconnaissance planes detected Chinese evacuation from Xiaojieling area, 13th Shidan and 16th Shidan began to cross Mt Dabieshan on 23rd. On 23rd, Fifth War Zone command center issued the evacuation order. Before relocating his army to the west of Ping-Han Railway, Li Zongren left Liao Lei as guerrilla commander in Mt Dabieshan where a so-called Shangri-La-like safe haven was maintained throughout the coming years. (Zhang Naiqi, one of the "seven gentlemen" of 1936, continued to work as finance minister under Liao Lei's Anhui Province governor office. Liao Lei, later in Oct 1939, pass away due to illness inside of Mt Dabieshan.) In mid-Oct, Li Zongren relocated his command center to Chenchun village, about 5 kilometers away from the Ping-Han railway from Xiadian. Li lost contact with his troops which were called over to fill up the vacuum left by Hu Zongnan's army. At night, sleepless, he suddenly decided on a move, and it turned out that 1000 Japanese cavalrymen raided this village two hours after the vacation.  On Oct 12th, in the south, Japanese landed at Dayawan Bay and took over Huizhou of Guangdong Province. Guangzhou (Canton) was lost on Oct 21st 1938. Only 3-4 factories managed to be shipped over to HK from Canton. Russian ships at HK, unable to off-load military goods for shipment via Yue-Han Railway, had to sail to Rangoon when Vietnam refused to lend a path. With Canton-Kowloon and Yue-Han [Guangdong-Wuhan] railways bombarded by Japanese, Chinese transported goods via trucks to link up broken railway tracks. With two ends of Yue-Han Railway taken by Japanese, locomotives and trains concentrated in Hengyang of Hunan Province, while crowded Railway Xiang-Gui became the major pipeline. Prior to Japanese landing at Dapengwan Bay in Oct, trucks hastily moved goods from Canton warehouses. After taking over Wuchang and Hankou on Oct 26th and Hanyang on 27th, Japanese thrust was passivated and blunted. Li Zongren claimed that Japanese campaign could last no more than one month from then on. Battle Of Wuhan, lasting 45 days, would cause Japanese 13th & 11th Shidans a casualty of 30,000 men. Re-zoning Of Military Districts After the Battle Of Wuhan After the Battle Of Wuhan, Chiang Kai-shek rezoned his military districts as follow: 1st District Henan-Anhui (Wei Lihuang) 2nd District Shanxi-Shenxi (Yan Xishan) 3rd District Jiangsu-Anhui-Zhejiang-Fujian (Gu Zhutong) 4th District Guangdong-Guangxi (Zhang Fakui) 5th District Anhui-Hubei-Henan (Li Zongren) 8th District Gansu-Ningxia-Qinghai-Suiyuan (Zhu Shaoliang) 9th District Hunan-Jiangxi-Hubei(Chen Cheng/Xue Yue) 10th District Shenxi (Jiang Dingwen) Jiangsu-Shandong District (Yu Xuezhong)  Hebei-Chahar District (Lu Zhonglin).After the Battle of Wuhan, 9th war zone was carved out from Chen Cheng's 6th war zone. Yangtze defense, from Yichang downstream, was carved out of Li Zongren's 5th war zone for Chen Cheng, instead. In Sept, Japanese re-organized their commander-in-chief office by relocating it to Nanking. By autumn of 1938, Japanese took control of major railway lines in eastern and northern China and the perimeter of about 10 kilometers on both sides of railway tracks. Japanese began to adopt a defense stance against China, with major aims of disrupting China's interiors and cutting off supply lines in the south. Both Chiang Kai-shek and Itagaki Seishiro talked about a lengthened warfare on Chinese Battlefield. Some mobile forces were shuffled back to Japan, while some 'national guard' forces were sent to China. By Nov 1939, total Japanese armies in China included 23 Shidans, 20 mixed Ryodans, 2 cavalry divisions, and 1 airforce group army. In the winter, Chiang Kai-shek dispatched two corps to reinforce guerrilla warfare in Shandong & Jiangsu Provinces where Lu-Su [Shandong-Jiangsu] & Ji-Cha [Hebei & Chahar] bases were established. Chiang Kai-shek ordered a three-phase army re-organization at Nanyue Military Meeting. Throughout 8-9 years of resistance war, over 22 more campaigns between Chinese and Japanese armies ensued in the provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangxi etc. In the center of China, in Hunan Province especially, Japanese armies met with stiff resistance from Chinese armies. Changsha, the provincial city of Hunan Province, witnessed four major battles. From 1939 to 1945, Nationalist Government engaged Japanese aggressors in over a dozen campaigns, including: Nanchang Battle, Sui-Zao Battle, First Changsha Battle, Gui-nan Battle, Shanggao Battle, Second Changsha Battle, Yu-nan Battle, Jin-nan Battle, Zaoyi Battle, Burma Battle, Yu-zhong Battle, Third Changsha Battle, Zhe-Gan Battle, Changde Battle, Chang-Heng Battle, Gui-liu Battle, Yu-xi & Er-bei Battle, Tenglong Battle, Dian-xi [Tian-xi?] & North Burma Battle, Xiang-xi Battle, and Second Gui-Liu Battle. In late Oct 1938, Xinyang of Henan Province was lost. Factories of Henan Province, including Guanghua Machinery, Quanxinrong Cotton Factory, Yufeng Packaging Factory and Xuchang's flour factory, were hauled over to Shenxi Province promptly. Shanxi and Shandong provinces followed suit in transferring equipment to Guanzhong area of Shenxi, including Qingdao's Renshengdong Oil Factory and Jinan's Chengtong Iron Factory & Chengtong Textile Factory. Wuhan was lost on Oct 26th 1938. In Nov, Li Zongren's 5th military district relocated to Zaoyang where they converged with 84th Corps of Li Pingxian's 11th group army which broke through Japanese line at Yingcheng earlier. 84th Corps and 68th Corps [Liu Ruming] stationed at Suixian county. Li Zongren then moved his command center to Fancheng for supervising the defense of Shashi-Badong segment of Yangtze River as well as western Henan Province. In Dec, Nationalist Government military commission set up Guilin Generalissimo Headquarters in Guilin of Guangxi Province, with Bai Chongxi in charge as director. On Nov 12th, 1938, the fall of Yueyang and the rumor of coming Japanese attack at Changsha caused panic and confusion among the military officers and administrative officials, headed by Zhang Zhizhong. Changsha authorities, which had previously implanted explosives and powder for implementing the scorched-earth policy, mistakenly issued the order before Japanese started the attack, leading to a casualty toll of 20,000 civilians from arson in the city during Nov 12th-14th. per ZLA, Zhang Zhizhong had implemented the "scorch earth" policy after receiving a call from presidential attaché Lin Wei as well as a telegraph. O 14th, Chiang visited Changsha and claimed that it was a blunder by the whole team. Chiang Kai-shek ordered the execution of Changsha garrison commander Feng Ti, 2nd constabulary regiment chief Xu Kun & police chief Wen Chongfu as a scapegoat. Whang Jingwei's Nanking Puppet Government  On Dec 22nd 1938, Japanese prime minister issued "three principles" as to peace with China. Unable to win militarily, Japanese sought for Chinese puppet and traitors for establishing so-called "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere". In Peking, Japanese failed to get Wu Peifu submit to their demands. (Later, Wu Peifu died in a mysterious circumstance, which some people suspected to be a Japanese assassination.) Japanese already established a so-called Liang Hongzhi 'Reform Government' in Nanking in a similar fashion to the puppet Wang Kemin 'Interim Government' of Peking. After winning over Whang Jingwei, Japanese established a puppet 'National Government' in Nanking in 1940. Gao Zongwu, a graduate of Japan's Kyushu Empire University, used to be Whang Jingwei's interpreter. Prior to and at the time of resistance war, Gao Zongwu organized a so-called "low-tone club" in Nanking, while Hu Shi advocated for another negative slogan by claiming that China could not win a war without American-British intervention.  Before the loss of Nanking in Dec 1937, Gao Zongwu dispatched Dong Daoning to Shanghai for contacts with German & Japanese. Dong Daoning, with funding from Zhou Zuomin of Jincheng Bank in Shanghai, shuttled between Shanghai, Tokyo & HK, while Zhou Zuomin befriended the son of Inukai Tsuyoshi. On the ship to Wuhan, Gao Zongwu encountered Zhou Fohai, i.e., a graduate of Kyoto Empire University, and absorbed Zhou Fohai of Propaganda Ministry into his "low tone club". At the suggestion of Zhou Fohai [Fuhai], Chiang Kai-shek dispatched Gao Zongwu to HK for studying options of making peace with Japan, i.e., an organization that was precursor to later "International Research Institute". More available at Puppet_Nanking_Government-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Japanese Exploitation Of Foreign Exchange System Japanese, together with Zhangjiakou's puppet Mongolian Bank, Peking's Hebei Province puppet government and Shanghai's Huaxing Commercial Bank, tried to assert "Japanese military currency" and Whang Jingwei's "puppet reserve bank currency" over Nationalist Government's "legalized currency". (Prior to puppet reserve bank, Japanese-controlled puppet currency etc totaled no less than 0.666 billion equivalent Chinese currency; Japanese military currency, with no numbering, in 1940 alone, totaled 1 billion printed amount; and total Japanese military currency was equivalent to 3.5 billion equivalent Chinese "legalized currency" by 1940.) Foreign exchange, which was maintained by Nationalist Government in cooperation with Britain and America, had been fluctuating in synchronization with the war developments. China's "legalized currency" was impacted by the 1937 war outbreak in Shanghai when there was a flight of capital to HK and elsewhere. US bought 312,000,000 taels of silver from China in 1937-1938 for lending support to exchange rate with "legalized currency". (China had stored in both US and Europe considerable amount of silver prior to war.) In March 1939, "legalized currency" already devalued 46%. European war outbreak would see some of the 'flight' money back to Shanghai's settlement.  In June 1940, France stopped China from using Vietnamese-Chinese highway and railway; in July, Britain forbade China from using HK and Burma as transport routes. Ma Yinchu attacked Kong Xiangxi for 1) bond market manipulation, 2) foreign exchange manipulation. On April 1st, America agreed to provide a loan of 50 million US dollars for balancing foreign exchange rate with Chinese currency. After the eruption of Pacific War, Japanese intruded into Shanghai's settlement, opened a new reserve bank, printed "puppet money", exchanged into "legalized currency" with "puppet money", and then exchanged into international currency with "legalized currency". Japanese then reversed the prior policy of maintaining "legalized currency" to deliberately devalue "legalized currency" for sake of grabbing more purchasing power of Chinese commodities with Japanese "military currency" [i.e., "jun piao"]. In March 1941, Japanese and Chinese collaborators launched counter-assassinations against Chinese bank employees in French Concession and International Settlement of Shanghai. After one month bloody killings, a truce was brokered by Du Yuesheng, yielding to Japanese puppet money circulation together with Chinese "legalized currency". Today, Japanese government still refused to buy back its notorious "military currency" from senior HK residents. (See the writing on "Japanese Invasion Money" at http://www.perthmoney.com/docs/info.cfm.) More available at Puppet_Nanking_Government-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Battle Of Nanchang On Feb 6th, 1939, Japan’s Central China Expeditionary Army issued an order to the Eleventh Army to take Nanchang for controlling the Nanchang Airfield and cutting off the Zhenjiang-Jiangxi Railway, the vital link between China’s two war zones and the supply route for guerrilla bases in Anhui and Zhejiang provinces. Earlier, in Feb, Japanese concentrated forces in De'an and Hukou area, while Chiang Kai-shek ordered that 9th Military District took initiative in attacking Japanese in northern Jiangxi Province. But, Japanese took action ahead of Nationalist Government forces on March 17th. On March 12th, 1939, Japan’s Central China Expeditionary Army, having organized five Daitai from 119th Ryodan of 116th Shidan into Ishihara Shitai and Murai Shitai, ordered the probing attacks in collaboration with the navy along the eastern Poyang Lake. On March 18th, along the Xiushui River, 101st Shidan and 106th Shidan, augmented by tankette and artillery forces, pushed to the northern bank and began the probing artillery shelling. At 4:30 pm, on 20th, altogether 300 artillery pieces from 6th Field Heavy Artillery Ryodan as well as from other divisional units blasted at the defense positions of Liu Duoquan’s 49th Corps and Xia Chuzhong’s 79th Corps. The last ten minutes of three-hour bombardment were about 3000 poisonous gas shells blanketing about two kilometers in depth. 76th Division Chief Wang Lingyun, as well as his brigade commander Gong Chuanwen and regiment commander Tang Ji’e, all suffered from poisoning. At the western end of the Xiushui River, 11th Ryodan of 6th Shidan, in the siege of Wuning, launched chemical war against Chinese troops, and at one time pierced dead all 500 paralyzed Chinese defenders with bayonets. After crossing Xiushui River, Ishii’s tankette force, i.e., about 135 armored vehicles and tanks from 5th armored Daitai, intruded to Fengxin at 9:30 am, on March 22nd. On 23rd, Japanese took over Fengxin. Ishii Shitai then speedily moved southeastward towards Dacheng-Nanchang direction. 101st Shidan, impeded by 32nd Corps at Tujiabu, organized a Sato Shitai on basis of 101st Ryodan for attacking Lehua and Jiaoqiao along the Nanchang-Jiujiang Railway.  Luo Zhuoying, finding out about Japanese incursions, frantically ordered that 32nd Corps pull back from Tujiapu for defending Nanchang together with 102nd Division. On March 27th 1939, Nanchang was lost to Japanese after three days' resistance. In April, Chinese forces, after completing phase one of re-organization, attacked Japanese on all fronts in a SPRING OFFENSIVE. On April 26th, a portion of Chinese forces under 9th Military District intruded into Nanchang city. On May 5th 1939, Chinese recovered Nanchang Train Station & Nanchang Airport, and fought bayonet wars with Japanese at city walls. 29th Corps Chief Chen Bao’an sacrificed his life during the battle, and division chief Liu Yuqing was injured. Mt Dahongshan & Mt Tongbaishan: First Suixian-Zaoyang Battle After the Battle of Wuhan, 84th Corps and 68th Corps [Liu Ruming] stationed at Suixian county. Li Zongren moved his command center to Fancheng for supervising the defense of Shashi-Badong segment of Yangtze River as well as western Henan Province. Meanwhile, 5th Military District launched attacks at southern Ping-Han Railway from two sides and dispatched 21st Group Army to Henan-Hubei-Anhui provinces for guerrilla warfare.  Liao Lei's group army was still at Mt Dabieshan to the east for echoing support to each other. 31st Group Army relocated southward to Zaoyang of Hubei Province for assisting 5th Military District, while Japanese reinforced defense at Wuhan city. Since Japanese dared not exit Wuhan city, Li Zongren had a quiet New Year Day at Fancheng. In March 1939, Japanese, after the arrival of 33rd Shidan and 34th Shidan, decided to deal a blow to the Chinese troops before 9th Shidan and 16th Shidan rotated troops back to Japan for replenishment. On April 20th, Eleventh Army issued troop disposition orders to 3rd Shidan, 13th Shidan, 16th Shidan, and 4th Cavalry Ryodan, with additional allocation of infantry, cavalry, gun and armored units for the left and right prongs. On 26th, attack order was issued to 3rd Shidan for attacking Zaoyang along two sides of Mt Tongbaishan. Before Japanese launched attack, Li Zongren received telegraphs from his spy, i.e., Heh Yizhi [alias Xia Wenyun], who worked for Li Zongren free of charge. (Heh Yizhi, who had provided accurate information since the Xuzhou Campaign, had placed his telegraph set inside of a Japanese residency and made good friendship with anti-war Japanese generals. Later, Heh stationed in Shanghai's concession territory till evacuation at the time of Pacific War outbreak.) Li Zongren decided on defending Mt Tongbaishan & Mt Dahongshan. Along Highway Xiangyang-Huayuan, Li Zongren placed 84th & 68th corps at the front of Suixian & Zaoyang. Along Highway Jingshan-Zhongxiang, Zhang Zizhong's 33rd group army was in charge of southern ridge of Mt Dahongshan and two sides of Xianghe River. Sun Lianzhong's 2nd group army & Sun Zheng's 22nd group army in charge of north ridge of Mt Tongbaishan. Guo Chan's two corps defended the Yangtze Bank and the west bank of Xianghe River. Li Zongren intended to set up a trap along Highway Xiangyang-Huayuan and hence ordered that Tang Enbo's 5 divisions stealthily buried themselves inside of Mt Tongbaishan for a surprise attack at Japanese mechanized column. On April 30th, 1939, Japanese, equipped with 200 cannons and hundred armored vehicles, attacked Chinese army of 5th war zone. Japanese moved along two highways to the west. Li Zongren pointed out that Chinese soldiers often fought against tanks with grenades along the highway which was all level plains. For over ten days, Chinese engaged Japanese in over 20 battles at Suixian and Mt Dahongshan without letting go the frontal defense.  On May 1st, 3rd Shidan, departing Yingshan (Guangshui municipality), breached Xujiahe cordon lines defended by Zhong Yi’s 173rd Division and Zhang Guangwei’s 174th Division of 84th Corps, and moved northwestward to take over Haojiadian. Japanese then moved west against Gaochengzhen, Taerwan and Suixian. At Gaochengzhen, Zhang Xuezhong’s 89th Division and Wu Shaozhou’s 110th Division under Zhang Zhen’s 13th Corps of 31st Group Army, together with Tan Lianfang’s 84th Corps, repeatedly repelled Japanese attacks, with some hills wrestled back and forth six to seven times. On 6th, Japanese breached Gaochengzhen-Taerwan line under the cover of armored vehicles, artilleries and gas attacks. Japanese then attacked the two flanks, dispatched cavalry against Highway Jingshan-Zhongxiang, and took over Zaoyang to the north. Northern route of Japanese army departed Xinyang, took over Tanghe, Nanyang & Tongbao by May 12th, and planned a conversion with southern route at Zaoyang. Chinese forces retreated northward while leaving 39th Corps in Mt Dahongshan and 13th Corps in Mt Tongbaishan. To prevent Japanese from encircling the troops in the mountains, Li Zongren forcefully ordered that Tang Enbo & Sun Lianzhong immediately come south for a counter-encirclement of Japanese. On May 14th, Chinese army took over Xinye and Tanghe. On 15th, Li Zongren ordered a general attack from inside and outside of the encirclement. After three days and three nights, Japanese began to retreat. Zaoyang was recovered. Japanese defended Suixian, while Chinese lacked heavy weapons against the city. Li Zongren memoirs stated that Japanese had spent three months for war preparation, fought one month, left 5000 corpses, and retreated. Japanese Bombing Of Civilian Targets Beginning from spring of 1939, Japanese planes deliberately bombarded the civil targets in Chinese hinterlands, including Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Gansu Provinces. On May 3rd & May 4th, Japanese plane bombing destroyed 1200 buildings in Chungking and killed about 4400 people. This would be termed 'May 4th Bombing'. Chiang Kai-shek, in his diary, stated that he was moved by the populace's strong will in face of Japanese barbarity and commented that the righteousness of "ignorant, innocent and simple-minded" Chinese people had always exhibit itself during the times of barbarian invasions. 250,000 children, women and elderly people were dispersed to the countryside in the following three days. On May 25th 1939, Japanese planes came to bomb Chungking again. Per WXX's "History of Second Sino-Japanese War", in 1939 alone, Japanese launched 14,138 planes, bombed Chinese cities 2,603 sorties, dropped 60,174 bombs, killed 28,466 Chinese, injured 31,546 people, and destroyed 138,171 buildings. Japanese was recorded to have dropped "germ bombs" and "epidemic bombs" in Zhejiang and Hunan provinces. On May 1st 1939, Chiang Kai-shek convened a 'Citizen Publicly Agreed-Upon Rules" meeting in Chungking for sake of inspiring the spirits of the Chinese people. Wu Xiangxiang termed the historical migration of Chinese people away from Japan-occupied territories as the "No. 4th Migration" in Chinese history. Chinese people went into exile rather than be a slave under Japanese occupation, and "disaster relief committees" had played an important role in re-settling the exiles. From April 1938 to Dec 1939, 4426196 acres of land in Shenxi, Ningxia, Qinghai, Fujian, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Sichuan etc were cultivated by resettled refugees, which allowed 630056 refugees employed. Other than "disaster relief committees", women guidance committee and orphanage protection & nutrition society had been responsible for caring for women and children in exile. Altogether 29849 children had been taken into custody of the orphanages. First Changsha Battle  In July 1939, Prof Fu Sinian pointed out that Chinese army had become stronger and stronger while Japanese army had become weaker and weaker. On Aug 15th, Eleventh Army devised the guidelines to launch a south-of-Yangtze campaign across 250 kilometers, ranging from Xiangjiang River to Ganjiang River Germany’s attack on Poland on Sept 1st exacerbated the Japanese motivation to deal a blow to China’s resisting will so as to pave the way for the establishment of Whang Jingwei’s puppet government in Central China region. Lacking adequate troops, Okamura Yasuji, other than garrison needs, had to arrange to have troops from 6th Shidan, 33rd Shidan, 3rd Shidan and 13th Shidan to launch attacks in Hunan-Hubei area, and troops from 106th Shidan and 101st Shidan attack Gaoan and Xiushui (Tonggu) area as a distraction. On Sept 13th, Okamura Yasuji moved his command center to Xianning. On the night of Sept 14th, Nakai Ryotaro’s 106th Shidan attacked westward against Wan Baobang’s 184th Division of 60th Corps from north of Fengxin. On 15th, [[zuozhi]] Shitai, based on 102nd Ryodan of Saito Masatoshi’s 101st Shidan, from Dacheng, attacked Mt Lianhuashan and Gaoan area which was defended by Kang Yongliang’s 141st Division of 32nd Corps and Liu Zhengfu’s New 10th Division of 58th Corps. After taking over Gaoan, bulk of Japanese forces went northwest to attack Sandu and Xiushui. Wang Yaowu’s 74th Corps (51D, 57D & 58D) and Song Kentang’s 32nd Corps (139D & 141D), after recovering Cunqianjie on 19th, took advantage of Japanese shift to have recovered Gaoan on 22nd. More available at First_Changsha_Battle.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
On Oct 1st, Japanese began to retreat after suffering heavy losses. Herald troops of 6th Shidan, which had intruded into Changsha outskirts, pulled back across Laodaohe River. Acting group army commander Guan Linzheng immediately ordered 52nd Corps and 73rd Corps on a pursuit of Japanese, with initial target set at Miluojiang river bank. On 3rd, General Xue Yue ordered a general counter-attack to catch up with Japanese to the south of Yueyang and Chongyang. Chinese troops chased Japanese to Jinjing and Fulinpu. Chinese planes bombed Wuhan's Japanese airfield on the same day. On 4th, Chinese troops recovered Miluo and Xinshi. On 5th, Chinese forces shot down a Japanese plane and located Okamura Yasuji's retreat order. At the Dongtinghu lakeshore, near Yingtian, Sheng Fengyao’s New 23rd Division of 54th Corps attacked Japanese warships. On 8th, Japanese fell back to the northern bank of Miluojiang River. 195th Division of 52nd Corps chased across Xinqianghe River and recovered former forward positions as well as launched nightly raids into Xitang and Yaolin. By Oct 10th, all lost territories in northern Hunan Province, southern Hubei Province and northern Jiangxi Province were recovered. Campaign Of Gui-nan & Battle Of Kunlunguan Pass In Haifang [Haiphong] of Vietnam, 6000 overseas Chinese organized 'donation' committee for sending money to China. French authorities ordered that only merchandise purchased by China before July 13th 1937 could pass through Haiphong. In Nov 1938, French colonialists prohibited the pass-through of 1000 trucks that China purchased. Vietnamese circumvented to allow 100 trucks drive through every night as an alternative. Elsewhere in Vietnam, young ethnic Chinese launched truck driving schools for service inside of China. About 3033 drivers and technicians returned to China for serving on Sino-Burmese Highway. Japanese, early in the year of 1939, on Feb 10th, had attacked Haikou of Hainan Island and took over Qiongshan, Wenchang and Anding counties. French authorities in Vietnam, fearing Japanese, procrastinated the pavement of the Vietnam portion of Nan-Zhen [Nanning-Zhennanguan Pass] Segment of Xiang-Gui Railway. Japanese further planned to attack Vietnam for cutting off supplies to China. From May 11th to 21st 1939, Japan reorganized 4th fleet for possible war against the Dutch East Indies. On June 11th, Japan devised a campaign against Kunming of Yunnan Province for cutting off Vietnam-Yunnan Highway. On June 29th, HK declared an emergency and evacuated women and children, while a Japanese delegation arrived in Hanoi for talks with French. On July 26th, US announced the annulment of commerce act with Japan in 6 months, which was partly triggered by Japanese encirclement of Tianjin's settlement and insulting British & American citizens. On Aug 18th, Japanese heavy artillery landed in Kowloon area, while Britain promised to secede all transports from HK to China as well as shut down Burma-China Highway for three months. [British closed Burma-China Highway in July 1940 and did not open till Oct.] Burma-China Highway trespassed across Hengduan Mountain Range, three rivers of Nujiang, Lancangjiang & Yangbi-jiang, and three bridges which Japanese planes had been bombing constantly.  On Sept 1st 1939, Hitler launched invasion wars in Europe. Jiang Huiguo, i.e., the adopted son of Chiang Kai-shek, would return to China in 1939 and serve under Hu Zongnan as a captain and a company chief.  American President called over Dr Hu Shi and proposed to intermediate with Japan by making Manchuria a trustee territory. In Chungking, i.e., interim capital, Li Zongren was applauded by Stilwell for the correct prediction of European War. Li Zongren also met with Russian consulate officials who offered a tea meeting. One and half year ago, Li Zongren predicted the European War to Luo-ke-fu the TASS Far East deputy director, and this time, Russian ambassador and Chuikov were horrified at Li Zongren's prediction of Russo-German War on basis of Hitler's "Mein Kampf". After Chungking, Li Zongren flew to Guilin of Guangxi Province for seeing his mother. At Guilin's discussion forum hosted by Ma Junwu the principal of Guangxi University, Li Zongren rebutted the viewpoint that Britain and France could beat back Germany as well as predicted the inevitability of Russo-German War. The next day, Ma Junwu, at Guangxi Univ, mentioned Hu Yuzhi's doubt about Li Zongren prediction: Hu Yuzhi, i.e., China's first class prose writer, had first expressed doubt about Li Zongren's prediction of European War during the battle at Wuhan.  After the eruption of the European War, on Oct 14th, Japanese General Headquarters issued “Continental Order No. 375” to its China Expeditionary Force for completely routing China’s southwestern transportation lines and controlling the area to the south of Nanning-Longzhou Highway. On Nov 15th, at 8:10 am, 9th Ryodan of 5th Shidan landed at Qusha the protruding tip of western Qinzhouwan Bay, which was defended by 56th Regiment under Huang Gu’s New 19th Division of 46th Corps. On 16th, at 6 am, 21st Ryodan of 5th Shidan landed at Huangwutun, next to Qusha. At dusk, Shioda Sadaichi’s Taiwan Ryodan landed at Lidouzhui, further into the bay and to the south of Qinxian county capital. After landing on the coastline, the three Japanese Ryodan pushed north towards Nanning the provincial capital in parallel. On Nov 21st, 21st Ryodan of 5th Shidan pushed against Nanning from Datang, while 9th Ryodan and Taiwan Ryodan penetrated towards the western and eastern sides of Nanning. 16th Group Army commander Xia Wei ordered Su Zuqing’s 135th Division of 31st Corps and Li Xingshu’s 170th Division of 46th Corps to the defense of Nanning city and the northern Yongjiang river bank. At dawn, on 23rd, Japanese forcefully crossed the river after over twenty charges. On the morning of 24th, Japanese took over Nanning. Imamura Hitoshi, to further secure the area, ordered 21st Ryodan and 5th Cavalry Rentai on a pursuit of Chinese to the north and northeast of Nanning for the Gaofengai and Kunlunguan mountain passes. On Dec 1st 1939, Chinese forces launched a WINTER OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN across the nation. After Kunlunguan Pass was lost on Dec 4th, Nationalist Government's Guilin Military Office devised a counter-attack for recovering the pass. On Dec 16th, Guilin headquarters, having moved the frontline command center to Qianjiang, scheduled the general attack to be dawn of 18th. At 8 pm, on Dec 17th, Zheng Dongguo’s Honor 1st Division of 5th Corps, with armored vehicles and artilleries, punched into Japanese forward positions around Kunlunguan Pass. On 20th, at 10 am, 21st Ryodan commander Major Gen. Nakamura Masao personally led two Daitai from 42nd Rentai to the relief of Kunlunguan. By 30th, Chinese troops cleared most of the Japanese positions around the pass. With volunteer airforce support hitting Japanese relief and supply, 5th Corps of the northern route forces took over the pass at 11 am on Dec 31st. The next day, i.e., New Year Day, two other routes pushed on towards Nanning. Kuno Seiichi’s 18th Shidan and Sakurada Takeshi’s Imperial Guard Mixed Ryodan, by Jan 22nd, 1940, arrived at Nanning and Qitang, respectively. Japanese continued north to attack Binyang to the hind of the pass. 18th Shidan further pressed north to Zouxu. With the loss of Binyang, Fourth War Zone ordered 37th Group Army and 38th Group Army abandon Kunlunguan for Shanglin and Dalan. On Feb 3rd, Kunlunguan Pass was lost again for the second time. More available at Campaign_Of_Gui-nan_Kunlunguan-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
 On Feb 1st, Zhang Fakui of 4th Military District was made into commander-in-chief for Gui-nan [southern Guangxi Province] Campaign. Japanese launched offensive on this day, and planes destroyed all phonelines of Chinese forces. On 2nd, Zhang Fakui ordered an attack at Ganchang to the southeast of Kunlunguan Pass; however, Japanese took over Binyang to the hind of the pass. Kunlunguan Pass was lost again for the second time. On 5th, Bai Chongxi and Zhang Fakui personally went to the front and recovered Ganchang as well as cut off the return path of Japanese at Binyang. On 8th, Ando Rikichi made the decision to contract the line back to Nanning. On 9th, Nationalist Government's Guilin Military Office held a meeting in regards to the new supply route from Vietnam in lieu of the lost route via Nanning and decided that there was no need for an offensive to recover Nanning. On same day, Japanese retreated towards the coast and majority Japanese army relocated elsewhere. General Zhang Fakui erected a monument for the martyrs at Kunlunguan Pass. More available at Campaign_Of_Gui-nan_Kunlunguan-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Japanese Killing Civilians In Xinxiang of Henan Prov Wang Hao listed a 4-20-1940 Japanese military report in stating that on April 13th 1940, Japanese 35th Shidan attacked Xinxiang of Henan Province. Japanese killed 521 civilians, arested and tortured to death 213 more, and abducted 92 women. About 9 women committed suicide, and 19 were sexually tortured to death. The rest were shipped to Datong of Shanxi Province as 'comfort women'. Leading the Xinxiang sweep would be a Japanese lieutenant general [Tianzhi ?? ‘field’ ‘govern’]. This lieutenant general, back in 1937, participated in the attack on Xinkou and Taiyuan of Shanxi Province. On April 30th 1940, he died in a fierce fight with Wei Lihuang's Nationalist Government forces in Shanxi Province. Campaign Of Wuyuan [Suiyuan Province] On April 1st 1940, in the north, Chinese forces recovered Wuyuan [on the western point of north bank of North Yellow River Bend] of Suiyuan Province, driving Japanese out of Hetao area (i.e., the area inside the sheath of the Yellow River). Ningxia area was hence secured. The Battle of Wuyuan marked the start of Stage 2 of Phase II of the Resistance War. Whang Hao4's "Chinese Comfort Women - A Transnational Archive" disclosed a battle that involved the defection of puppet Chinese forces termed "huang [Japan imperial army] xie [assistance] jun [army]". Japanese army, under lieutenant general [shuichuan yifu], took over Wuyuan. On Feb 21st 1940, General Fu Zuoyi discussed the lessons from the battles of Baotou [on the middle point of north bank of North Yellow River Bend] and Sui-xi [western Suiyuan Province] and authorized a recovery campaign by taking advantage of the water overflow in March. In March, Fu Zuoyi ordered the breach of river in Wulahao, causing the inundation of two major highways. On early morning of March 21st, Fu Zuoyi selected one hundred brave officers and soldiers for a stealthy entry into Wuyuan as plaincoats. At that time, Japanese army had with them 54 Chinese women looted from Shanxi Province as "comfort women". Wang Fusen, a puppet army solider, encountered eight Japanese soldiers raping a teenager girl who kowtowed to Wang Fusen for saving her life. Japanese, however, continued gang-raping and moreover pierced the girl's belly in front of Wang Fusen. After Wang Fusen informed his team of the atrocity, the puppet army fought with Japanese for taking back the women from the Japanese custody. About 23 puppet army soldiers, including Wang Fusen, died. When Fu Zuoyi's plaincoats reached the citywall of Wuyuan, they encountered puppet army led by Wang Yingbu and managed to persuade them into a defection. With Japanese army's "oral password", plaincoats intruded into the city and destroyed Japanese communication center. Japanese lieutenant general could not discern the situations. Japanese planes dropped bombs over Wuyuan in a chaos. By 11:00 am, Fu Zuoyi's New 32nd Division and 3rd Regiment of Garrison Brigade took over most of the city. To cover up criminal acts, Japanese lieutenant general ordered that all 54 "comfort women" be pushed into a well and then the well was exploded into collapse. Japanese murdered a whole family nearby for witnessing the atrocity. 3000 Japanese were killed at the Battle of Wuyuan. Japanese lieutenant general and his entourage fled to Kangburong, about 25 to 30 kilometers to the east of Wuyuan where company chief Zhang Hansan of garrison brigade encircled the Japanese and destroyed them all after answering the call of guerrillas and civilians. The saber of the Japanese lieutenant general was later transferred to 101st Division Chief Dong Qiwu. Chiang Kai-shek awarded Fu Zuoyi with a bonus of 300000 yuan. Campaign Of Zao-Yi [Zaoyang-Yichang] Li Zongren, before April 1940 Japanese blitz campaign against Zaoyang-Yichang, had already been informed of this scheme which Nishio Toshizo & Itagaki Seishiro first devised in the aftermath of Hitler's Sept 1939 invasion. However, both the Military Council and the Fifth War Zone mistakenly thought it was merely a replay of Japanese East-of-Xianghe-River Campaign (Suixian-Zaoyang Campaign). In mid-April, Japanese began the troop concentration in Zhongxiang, Suixian, Xinyang area by abandoning Macheng in eastern Hubei Province, Fengxin (Fengchuan) and Jing'an in northern Jiangxi Province, and pooling troops from 3rd Shidan, 13th Shidan and 39th Shidan, and units from 6th Shidan, 34th Shidan, 40th Shidan and 101st Temp Mixed Ryodan, as well as detachments loaned from 15th Shidan and 22nd Shidan of Thirteenth Army in lower Yangtze. On May 1st, Zaoyang-Yichang Campaign was launched into full swing. Japanese launched a three-route and five-prong attack at Zaoyang. More available at Campaign_Of_Zaoyang-Yichang-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Li Zongren, on May 6th, ordered that Zhang Zizhong cross Xianghe River [Han-shui River] to cut the waist of the Japanese on east bank of Xianghe River.  On early morning of 7th, Zhang Zizhong, leaving a will to Feng Zhi'an, led his special task battalion and two regiments under 74th Division [? 38th Division of 59th Corps per Wang Jianji & Wang Yuanchao's "100 Years Of China", Red Flag Publishing House, China] for a crossing of the river at Guanzhuang of Yicheng county, and cut the Japanese apart at Nanguadian. On May 10th, Japanese encircled another empty city at Tangbaipan. Chinese forces mounted a counter-encirclement and attacked Japanese positions by pressing them to the center from two wings. Fierce fighting continued till 11th when Japanese began to retreat. 31st Group Army attacked 3rd Shidan from east, south and north. After three days’ fighting, on May 15th, 3rd Shidan broke out of the encirclement at heavy casualties under the support of 100 planes and 200 division-subordinate armored vehicles. Sonobe Waichiro, after deciphering Zhang Zizhong’s telegrams, exerted 13th Shidan and 39th Shidan to attacking south while having 3rd Shidan act as rearguard at Zaoyang. More available at Campaign_Of_Zaoyang-Yichang-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
On May 31st, at 7:30 pm, 39th Shidan, after blasting at the western bank of Hanshui River for one and a half hours, forcefully crossed the river at Wangji. At midnight, 3rd Shidan crossed the river to the southeast of Xiangyang. On the night of June 4th, 13th Shidan, augmented by Ikeda Shitai and Kansui Shitai , crossed the Hanshui River at Jiukou and Shayang, to the south of Zhongxiang, for pincer-attacking Chinese troops at Jingmen and Dangyang. On June 8th, Ikeda Shitai breached the defense line of Xiao Zhichu’s 26th Corps, took over Shashi and Jiangling (Jingzhou), and then attacked Yichang along Shashi-Yichang Highway. On 10th, Japanese attacked towards Yichang which as defended by 199th Division and 18th Division of 18th Corps outside and inside of the city wall. 18th Corps, having arrived two days prior, fought on against three Japanese Shidan and plane bombing till 4 pm of June 12th. With Yichang lost, Li Zongren's 5th war zone had to climb high mountains to reach Badong of Sichuan Province. Military Council re-organized 6th War Zone for defending Chungking by taking advantage of the Three Gorges. Chinese_Tank_Forces_and_Battles_before_1945_ed.htm stated that "Yichang was the most notable city they [Japanese] captured. They attacked from the north eight times between 1938 and 41 and got push[ed] back." During the Changsha Battle in Sept 1940, Chinese forces attacked Japanese at Yichang for distracting its forces. And, in Nov, Japanese, for celebrating Whang Jingwei's puppet government, conducted a sweep campaign against Suixian-Zaoyang. From Nov 24th to 30th, Japanese retreated again after leaving thousands of corpses. Changes in KMT Politics Department, Foreign Ministry & Presidential Attaché Office  Fatigue Bombing of Chungking by Japanese Chungking was bombed 7 times in May 1940. From May in summer to Oct in autumn, Japanese planes bombed Chungking and surrounding areas in Sichuan Province for 6 straight months. Chungking was bombed 10 times in June. On June 13th 1940, Hurley denounced Japan's bombing of Chungking. (On June 17th, France surrendered to Germany.) From June 27th to July 4th 1940, National Central University [NCU] in Shapingba area of Chungking city was continuously targeted by Japanese. On June 30th, Chungking city council issued a denunciation of Japanese militarist barbarity and expressed the determination that 700,000 Chungking citizens were ready to endure the most painful and most solemn sacrifice in the resistance war against Japan. On July 4th, 200 bombs dropped onto Chungking National Central University and Chungking Provincial University. Bombing continued on 5th, 16th, 22nd and 31st. Chungking was bombed 5 times in August. Chiang Kai-shek, in his diary, stated that only Chinese people could sustain this kind of aggression. After graduation from "Central Politics School", Lu Keng & Le Shuren were assigned to the radio station under the Dept of International propaganda. Lu Keng had been admitted to the school after he faked a publication on the newspapers, claiming that he, a 1937 graduate of Chinese University in Peking, had lost the school diploma. Throughout the bombing, the radio station of "Voice of China" continued operations. Among Lu Keng's colleagues at the station would be a Scottish by the name of J.A MacCausland.  Later, on June 5th 1941, Japanese bombing led to death of 9,992 people (including 1,151 children) in a Chungking underground bunker due to suffocation and heat, a horrendous scene of bare bodies of victims who had earlier stripped off their clothes for the overheat and a reminder of the Jewish victims who died in the "shower" gas chambers of the Nazi Germany. per ZLA, the tunnel at Xiaochangkou-Duyoujie commerce center, which was converted from an underwater channel, did not get unlocked even after siren was cleared at 11:29 pm. Chiang Kai-shek visited the horror scene, and censured Chungking mayor Wu Guozhen and garrison commander Liu Zhi. (Heh Yaozu assumed the mayor post from Wu Guozhen in Dec 1942.) On Aug 11th, 37-year-old Zhang Chong, i.e., pro-CCP deputy minister of KMT Central Organization Dept, passed away at the hospital where hospital staff often had to interrupt IV for bunker during Japan's summer bombing campaign. Prior to his 2nd admission to hospital, Zhang Chong had recovered a bit after receiving Russian medicine that was shipped over at V. I. Chuikov request. Before death, Zhang Chong, who was thrown a tea cup by an anti-CCP commissar in a party meeting after Jan 1941 Wannan Incident, had left wish with Zhou Enlai to keep in touch with Zheng Jiemin for sake of maintaining the KMT-CCP Collaboration. On June 28th, Japan declined US's request to maintain the status quo of trustee islands in the Pacific that belonged to warring European nations. On July 2nd, US required permits for oil and scrap metal exports. On Aug 7th, US warned Japan of its ambition against Vietnam. On Sept 6th, National Government declared Chungking the "interim capital". On Sept 13th, the newly organized Chinese airforce, 34 planes, took off to fight 66 Japanese planes, and suffered the most serious loss of 24 planes. Hundred Regiment Campaign On the night of Aug 20th 1940, communist forces launched a "Hundred Regiment Campaign" aimed at disrupting and destroying the whole segment of Railroad Zheng-Tai and partial railway lines of Tong-Pu, Ping-Han, Bei-Ning, and Ping-Sui etc., major highways, train stations, bridges, tunnels, water towers, and military garrison points.  The order was issued to i) Nie Rongzhen's Jinn-Cha-Ji military district, ii) Liu Bocheng & Deng Xiaoping's 129th Div, New Army Of Southeastern Shanxi Province & forces in southern Hebei, and iii) Heh Long & Guan Xiangying's 120th Division & duel army by Zhu De, Zuo Quan & Peng Dehuai. Communist records claimed that total troops exerted would be numbering about "105 regiments or 300000 people" and that Nie Rongzhen sacked Niangziguan Pass and destroyed Jingxing Coal Mine, and Liu Bocheng destroyed three Japanese airplane. Mao Tse-tung was said to have wired to Peng Dehuai as to whether he could organize this kind of massive campaign 1-2 more times. Thereafter, during the political purge movements, Peng Dehuai was blamed for exposing the communist "real force" of 105 regiments or 300000 people. Per Xie Youtian research, the actual communist strike regiments exerted to the campaign would total about 22 regiments. (Note that a communist regiment could be a dozen soldiers. So, any extrapolation by timing the number of regiments with the supposed staff of a said regiment could be fallacious. Vladimirov Diaries pointed out, in two separate places, that communist troops numbered a little above 300,000 at the time of Japan surrender in Aug of 1945. The most primitive records invariably stated that communists had 320,000 troops and 160,000 guns in Aug of 1945, which was subsequently overwhelmed by the propaganda that Chinese communists possessed one million regular and two million guerrillas by the time Japan surrendered. This webmaster had negated the fallacy by discussing, at chinahistoryforum.com, the number of total 2 million guns Chinese communists possessed at the time they took over power in China, i.e., Oct 1st, 1949 as well as less than 1 million gun China had prior to German training and equipment of Chinese armies in mid-1930s. Separately, the exact number of communist troops could be validated by adding all headcounts under each and every communist general. Mao Tse-tung himself had betrayed the actual strength of communist forces in first demanding various units of 8RA divisions and columns as well as detachments to supply 150,000 "refined" troops for attacking wartime interim capital Chungking and subsequently lowered the par to 70,000 troops in late 1940. ) Phase II, from Sept 20th to early Oct, expanded into attacks at enemy positions on the two sides of transportation lines. Communist records claimed the following three major battles: Yu-Liao Battle of Mt Taihangshan, Lai-Ling Battle of Jinn-Cha-Ji, and Ren-Qiu Battle of middle Hebei Province. The 3rd phase, lasting from Oct 6th to Dec 5th, was waged to counter the Japanese retaliatory sweep campaign. The major victory cited would be the Battle of Guanjianao during which majority of 500 Japanese from 36th Shidan were killed. Communists claimed that they had waged 1824 battles, killed or injured 20645 (?) Japanese, killed or injured 5155 (?) puppet forces, captured alive 281(?) Japanese, captured 18400(?) puppet forces, obtained the defection of 46000(?) puppet forces, destroyed 2993 citadels, obtained 5400 guns and 200 heavy machineguns, destroyed 6 planes and 11 tanks, destroyed 470 kilometer long railway lines and 1500 km highway, and sabotaged 260 bridges, tunnels and train stations. Per Xie Youtian research, the damages assessed by Japanese were far below what communist propaganda claimed: 48 bridges blew up on Zheng-tai Railway, 7 train stations, 40 points of sabotage, 2 water towers, 7 tunnels; Ping-han Railway suffered 19 bridges, 67 spots, 12 stations, 38km phone line; and Tong-pu Railway had destruction of 6 bridges, 7 spots, one station, 3 water towers. ( The only reason that communist forces had to fight a railway disruption war was Japanese success in paving railways and highways across North China after communist forces routed all government troops and government guerrillas across Hebei-Shandong-Shanxi provinces. See THE ENEMY FROM WITHIN: CHINESE COMMUNIST ATTACKS AT GOVERNMENT TROOPS - 1940.) Tung Oil - The Sweat & Blood Of The Chinese nation China, for purpose of purchasing Russian planes, exported huge amounts of wool, tea, silk, tung oil, stibium ore [Hunan Province], and tungsten ore [Jiangxi Province] to Russia by citation of 1938 barter-loan agreement. (Being dispatched to Lanzhou of Gansu Province from Shanghai battlefield for receiving Russian pilots in late Sept of 1937, Zhu Shixiong, at secretchina.com/news/articles/5/2/9/84687.html, pointed out that Russian aid was never free. Per Zhu Shixiong, Russian pilots participated in war after the turn of 1937-8.) Prior to the loss of Canton, US finance minister had invited Chen Guangfu to DC for barter talk on tung oil. The loss of Wuhan two days after Canton would make US statesmen uneasy about barter trade with China. On Oct 25th 1938, US approved a barter trade in loaning China 20 million US dollars after dispelling any doubt of a quick fall of Chiang Kai-shek government. US finance minister Morgenthau pressured State Department into accepting this barter by emphasizing the need of becoming China's friend like Russian. US and China established shadow commercial corporations to engage in this barter trade for sake of avoiding the antagonism from Japan. On Dec 15th, US Import & Export Bank officially cut the loan of 25 million to China. Five days later, Britain followed through with an offer of 500,000 pounds credit line to China for purchasing trucks in the transport of tung oil on Sino-Burmese Highway. After the eruption of European War, China obtained second batch of "tung oil" loan on March 7th 1940, with collateral requirement of China's tin ore. After loss of Canton on Oct 21st 1938, tungsten ore mining was transferred to Jiangxi Province from Guangdong Province. In 1940, Southwest China planted 600,000 acres of tung fields. Chen Guangfu, manager for Shanghai Commercial Reserve Bank, stated that "tung oil is the sweat and blood of the Chinese nation". From March 1939 to Aug 1941, China exported tung oil via primitive transport tool to Haikou for selling to US as a means of exchanging 33 million US dollars worth of machinery parts. After loss of Haikou, transport path for stibium ore and tungsten ore went to Zhennanguan Pass of Vietnam or Rangoon of Burma. Later, export was lifted to India. In Feb 1940, US-China signed a second barter agreement for Yunnan-Guangxi Prov's tin ore in exchange for a loan of 20 million US dollars. China also exported Guizhou Prov's mercury to US. In 1939, China's Yumen [Jade Gate] Oilfield began to produce 4000 gallons of gas, which culminated in 4046000 gallons by 1944. From Jan 1939 onward, animals such as buffalo, mule, horse and donkey were heavily exacted as means of transportation. Human labor was exerted to the brink of exhaustion point as well. Japan's Aggression Against Vietnam & Southeast Asia In June 1940, France stopped China from using Vietnamese-Chinese highway and railway; in July, Britain forbade China from using HK and Burma as transport routes. On Sept 23rd 1940, Japan intruded into northern Vietnam for cutting off supply route to China. Chinese transferred gas to two American companies [Texaco & Standard], and the Americans delivered the same goods to Chinese at Rangoon. (Later, Chinese retrieved most of the goods on German ships that stranded in Dutch East Indies after the eruption of European War. ROC also set up offices in Manila and Singapore for transporting military supplies to Rangoon.) US announced that it did not recognize Japan's interest in Vietnam. USA protested against Japan's action, and on 26th, issued a ban of steel and scrap metal to Japan. On Sept 27th 1940, Hirohito announced "joining the gang" of Axis nations with Germany & Italy on top of Nov 1936 Anti-Communism Treaty.  Britain, after French surrender to Germany on June 17th 1940, began to appease Japan. Dr Hu Shi and US officials talked with British ambassador numerous times in regards to the Sino-Burmese Highway. On July 18th, Churchill, in Lower House, stated that Britain, for sake of its own survival, could not pay attention to China or Burma any more. Churchill privately told Chinese ambassador that the highway would be reopened after three month expiration. On Oct 8th, Britain, in light of Japanese aggression in Vietnam, announced a re-opening of Burma-China Highway. On Oct 9th, Japan dispatched minister to Vietnam for talks over supplying rubber, rice and tin, but met with resistance from the De Gaulle faction of French colonialists in Vietnam. Japan's emissary to Dutch East Indies also met frustrations. On June 12th, Thailand agreed to a "friendship treaty" with Japan; however, British exerted influences on Thailand for stopping the advance of Japanese interest. In Nov, there ensued a conflict at the Thai-Vietnamese border. Japan pressured the French into allowing it intervene in the Thai-Vietnamese conflict for sake of gaining a foot in the future war against the Dutch East Indies to the south. Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, like Burma [which boasted of 200-300,000 Chinese], Malaysia, and the Philippines, overseas Chinese donated huge amounts of money to China's war cause as well as purchased ROC government bonds. Back in Oct 1938, Li Qingquan [an overseas Chinese from Philippines] and Chen Jiageng organized a "Chinese refugee relief society" in Singapore, with a set aim of donating 4 million yuan worth of money. Especially noteworthy would Chen Jiageng who inherited Manchu-era patriotism of overseas Chinese whom Dr Sun Yat-sen had praised as the 'mother of revolution'. Communist Eight Route Army Expanding Out Of Shanxi Province CCP New Fourth Army Attacking Nationalist Government (July 1940) - Huangqiao Battle
Wannan [Southern Anhui Province] Incident (Jan 1941)
More available at Wan-nan-Incident.pdf. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
(Chinese communist claim to have expanded the Eight Route Army to 400,000 [?500,000] and New Fourth Army to 100,000 could be mere propaganda. Vladimirov Diaries pointed out, in two separate places, that communist troops numbered a little above 300,000 at the time of Japan surrender in Aug of 1945. Mao Tse-tung himself had betrayed the actual strength of communist forces in demanding various units of 8RA divisions and columns as well as detachments to supply "refined" troops for attacking wartime interim capital Chungking. For New 4th Corps [New 4th Army], Mao Tse-tung was demanding N4C to supply 20,000 "refined" troops. Actual N4C troops numbered probably no more than 30,000 in total - consisting of Chen Yi and Su Yu's 8000 troops [i.e., First Detachment, Second Detachment and Third Detachment] that routed Haan Deqing's Jiangsu troops at the Huangqiao Battle, less than 9,000 combat + 2,000 noncombat at N4C headquarters, and unspecified number under Fourth Detachment and Fifth Detachment as well as under Li Xiannian's guerrillas in Hubei Province. ) More available at THE ENEMY FROM WITHIN: CHINESE COMMUNIST ATTACKS AT GOVERNMENT TROOPS - 1940 (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Wang Zhen's Communist Troops Following Japanese Footsteps In Ichi-go Campaign (1944) Rebuilding Railway System & Paving Sino-Burmese Railway To the north of Yichang and on two banks of Xiang-he River, Chinese forces posed a threat to Yichang. On Nov 25th 1940, Japanese from Shashi and Yichang mounted a campaign against Xiang-he River area. Three days later, Japanese army was beat off. By 30th, Xiang-he River area was restored to its original status. By the year of 1940, major Chinese railways had been isolated. Chinese had basically retreated to the west of Ping-Han & Yue-Han railway lines. Along Railway Long-Hai, only Baoji-Luoyang segment was open; along Railway Zhe-Gan, only Zhuji-Dengjiabu Segment was open; along Railway Yue-Han, only Qujiang-Xiangtan Segment was open; and along Xiang-Gui Railway, only Hengyang-Liuzhou Segment was open. In Feb of 1941, British proposed to fund the Sino-Burmese Railway pavement as to the segment from Lashio to the Chinese border. Chinese transferred Rangoon's rails to the Burmese government. In May, US appropriated loans and funds to China per Chinese Lease Act for building the Sino-Burmese Railway. (Sino-Burmese Railway stopped construction when Japanese took over Rangoon in March 1942. Sino-Burmese Railway was first worked on by Du Chongyuan in the spring of 1939 with funds raised by selling four new ships moored in HK's harbor. ROC's Commerce Invitation Bureau was the owner of the ships.) Yu-nan Campaign [i.e., Yu-nan & E-bei Campaign] On Jan 14th 1941, Japanese launched a campaign in southern Henan Province, with echo from their counterparts in northern Anhui Province and eastern Henan Province. The purpose was to disrupt Chinese government's plan to relocate Chinese communists to the north of the Yellow River. Li Zongren stated that after three abortive campaigns against Suixian-Zaoyang, Japanese combined 7.5 Shidans from Anhui-Hubei-Henan provinces, one cannon echelon, 300 armored vehicles and hundreds of planes for linking up Ping-Han Railway. On Jan 25th, 6 Japanese prongs departed Xinyang, Queshan and Zhumadian for the west. 5th Military District relocated its main army to the two sides of the Japanese thrust path while leaving one band for harassing Japanese near Xiping of Ping-Han Railroad and dispatching another band to the hind of Japanese for cutting off supplies. On 29th, the middle Japanese prong, along Runan, Yancheng and Wuyang, failed to locate Chinese forces, while the two flanks came under heavy attacks by the Chinese. Li Zongren claimed that his 100000 forces played the hide-seek game with 100000 Japanese forces on the flat plains of southern Henan Province. On 31st, the middle Japanese prong split into two parts for attacking Wuyang and Shangcai separately. At Wuyang, Tang Enbo's troops fought a fierce battle against Japanese and then evacuated before being encircled. At Shangcai, Japanese found an empty city as well. Meanwhile, Chinese forces in Anhui and Henan provinces cut off Japanese logistics in the hind. On Feb 2nd 1941 (?), Japanese began to retreat per WXX. Li Zongren stated that Chinese abandoned Nanyang on Feb 4th. However, Japanese dared not defend the city and abandoned it on 6th. Japanese at Qinyang, under attack, evacuated for Xingyang on Feb 10th. Tang Enbo's troops, after defeating Japanese campaign, renewed the push towards Henan-Anhui-Jiangsu border area to counter the communist forces who made the stealthy encroachment in the wake of Japanese campaign. After three major setbacks, Peng Xuefeng evacuated to Anhui-Jiangsu border, and would not return till three years later, only to get killed in civil war under a slogan that it was not too late for a gentleman to take revenge [against government troops] in three years [by taking advantage of Japanese Ichigo Campaign]. In northern Hubei Province, Japanese cavalry at one time rode to within 15 kilometers of the command center of 5th war zone, i.e., Laohekou. On March 6th 1941, Japanese at Yichang tried to expand its territories. Chinese fought off the Japanese after eight days' fierce fighting. In USSR, Mao Anying, i.e., the elder son of Mao Tse-tung, who entered Moscow's International Orphanage in 1936, would join Russian Red Army in 1941. Mao Anying was later conferred captain in Soviet Red Army in 1943, and was offered a pistol by Stalin in 1946 prior to his return to China. Shanggao Campaign On March 15th 1941, Japanese launched a campaign against Shanggao of Jiangxi Province via three prongs, with 33rd Infantry Shidan attacking Fengxin from Anyi and then southwestward against Shanggao, 20th Mixed Ryodan attacking Shanggao along the southern bank of Jinjiang River, and 34th Infantry Shidan along the northern bank.  Chinese army deliberately allowed the middle Japanese prong to advance, and abandoned Gaoan on the night of 17th. To the north, 70th Corps, to divert 33rd Infantry Shidan away from Shanggao, retreated northwestward to Shangfu-Ganfang-Kuzhuao area where they ambushed the Japanese in coordination with Haan Quanpu’s 72nd Corps. On 18th, 34th Infantry Shidan moved beyond Gaoan to take over Longtanxu (Longtan). On 19th, 33rd Infantry Shidan, after two days’ fierce battles, broke out of encirclement to retreat to Fengxin. On 20th, 20th Mixed Ryodan after leaving behind one Daitai at Qujiang-Quangang, took over Huibu on 20th and then crossed Jinjiang River to join forces with 34th Infantry Shidan. Liu Duoquan’s 49th Corps, tracing behind 20th Mixed Ryodan, crossed Ganjiang at Shichajie, destroyed majority of Japanese near Quangang, and continued to attack the Japanese hind. Besieged by Chinese forces for six days, Oga Shigeru, having incurred casualties by over a half, ordered a retreat under the support of planes and requested for assistance with Eleventh Army headquarters. 34th Infantry Shidan, with hundreds of casualties on shoulder-strapped litters extending 7-8 kilometers long, crossed Sixi River on 27th, only to find Zhang Yanchuan’s Preparatory 7th Division of 70th Corps blocking the way at Tudiwangmiao. On 28th, Chinese forces recovered all lost positions around Sixi and Guanqiaojie. 33rd Infantry Shidan also crossed Sixi River under constant attacks and impediments, and on 29th, came under an ambush at Huxingshan hill, about five kilometers to the northwest of Sixi. Having used up all mountain gun ammo, 33rd Infantry Shidan had to rely on airdrop to fight its way back by April 2nd. Chinese army chased them all the way back to their base, with 49th Corps recovering Xishan-Wanshougong and 70th Corps Fengxin. On April 13th, 1941, USSR signed a neutrality pact with Japan by betraying the 1937 non-aggression treaty between China and USSR. Before the neutrality pact with Japan, Soviet adviser to Chungking, Chuikov, had adamantly proposed that Chinese forces mount a counter-attack for recovering Yichang. Chuikov was later recalled to Moscow in August after USSR ascertained that Japan had no intent for invading USSR in the north. Chinese communists, i.e., the most loyal followers of 3rd Comintern in the eyes of Li Zongren, immediately published "April 16th Opinions" on Russian neutrality pact with Japan, stating that "USSR-Japan declaration guaranteed Outer Mongolia from being attacked by Japan ... This is not only good to Outer Mongolia but also to the liberation of the whole China ... Recovery of Manchuria being our own matter, we should not behave like the speculators who looked towards a Russian war with Japan ..." Jin-nan Campaign & Battle Of Mt Zhongtiaoshan In Aug 1939, USSR and Germany signed Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact. USSR withdrew its military personnel from China. On Sept 1st 1939, at the news of Russian invasion of Poland, Mao Tse-tung made an announcement of support, claiming that Russians had the right to liberate minority Ukrainians and White Russians who numbered 11 million in Poland. Shi Zhe translated Mao's article on "New China Newspaper" into Russian, and Comintern had it translated into French and German for the communist members to study. In the winter, USSR invaded Finland. USSR was kicked out of the League of Nations. In April 1941, USSR signed neutrality treaty with Japan. Mao Tse-tung applauded USSR-Japan pact as Russian's best choice in avoiding the implication of an imperialist world-wide war. In the spring of 1941, Japanese amassed armies in the areas of Jincheng, Yangcheng, Qinshui, Wenxi, Xiaxian and Anyi for a Jin-nan Campaign, intending to take over control of southern Shanxi Province, clear the pockets of resistance in Mt Zhongtiaoshan and extend its control to the northern Yellow River bank. In order to sweep the area effectively, Japanese North China Front Army requested reinforcements with its China Expeditionary Army headquarters to beef up existing troop level of four infantry Shidan of 35th, 36th, 37th and 41st. Shortly after dusk, on 7th, 41st Infantry Shidan and 9th Independent Mixed Ryodan attacked the Henglingguan-Xisangchi line at the junction area between Zeng Wanzhong’s 5th Group Army (3C & 17C) and Liu Maoen’s 14th Group Army. Simultaneously, 36th Infantry Shidan, 37th Infantry Shidan and 16th Independent Mixed Ryodan attacked towards the east from Zhangdian, Xiaxian and Wenxi directions. More available at Mt-Zhongtiaoshan.pdf. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
 In July 1941, General Xu Yongchang wrote a four year war review, pointing out that China's sustaining and persevering warfare had proved to be the correct strategy. Xu Yongchang further stated that Japanese generals misjudged Nationalist government as equivalent to warlordship of early Republic years, that Japanese army had lost martial virtues as a result of barbarity and pillaging, and that Japanese soldiers and citizens had lost their morale as a result of prolonged quagmire in China. Citing German strategist Claus Von Clausewitz, Xu Yongchang stated that Japanese, having relied too much upon cannons, were doomed to be defeated by Chinese infantry at the separation of cannons from their field army. Statistically, Xu Yongchang stated that Japanese initialized wars had decreased to 56% in Feb 1940, while Chinese counter-attacks amounted to 46% of all engagements.
Lend-Lease & Start of American Involvement In China You may ask why would USA ever got involved in China over WWII? It would be a Soviet setup, i.e., Operation Snow. Russians, after signing a neutrality pact with Japan on April 13th 1941 [by betraying the 1937 non-aggression treaty between China and USSR], had sealed off China's continental exit to the north and northwest. Russian, being concerned that China could lose the resistance to Japan, secretly ordered their proxies, Launchlin Currie & Harry Dexter White, among others, to recommend to Roosevelt that China be given the Lend-Lease materials. Blindfolding the Chinese communists as well as ultra-left Soviet embassy officials in China, Soviet leadership hinted to Chinese officials that China should contact the USA for assistance. For China to be given Lend-Lease materials, the Comintern agents devised two strangle strategies, i.e., i) Currie's linking the lend-lease to China's political reform [by incorporating the Chinese communists] at the time of war; and ii) Marshall and Stilwell's controlling the flow of lend-lease materials as a bargaining chip over the control of the Chinese military. (Alternatively speaking, Russians, British and American decided to give China limited help over worries about a possible reconciliation between Japan and Chiang Kai-shek's China, i.e., an "international game" played by Chiang Kai-shek on the matter of Japan-proposed combination of Chiang Kai-shek's Chungking Government and Whang Jingwei's Nanking Puppet Government.) "Lend-lease, arrangement for the transfer of war supplies, including food, machinery, and services, to nations whose defense was considered vital to the defense of the United States in World War II. The Lend-Lease Act, passed (1941) by the U.S. Congress, gave the President power to sell, transfer, lend, or lease such war materials. The President was to set the terms for aid; repayment was to be “in kind or property, or any other direct or indirect benefit which the President deems satisfactory.” Harry L. Hopkins was appointed (Mar., 1941) to administer lend-lease. He was replaced (July) by Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., who headed the Office of Lend-Lease Administration, set up in Oct., 1941. In Sept., 1943, lend-lease was incorporated into the Foreign Economic Administration under Leo T. Crowley. In Sept., 1945, it was transferred to the Dept. of State." Currie went to China on an inspection mission in Jan 1941. Earlier, on Oct 25th 1938, US approved a barter trade in loaning China 20 million US dollars after finance minister Morgenthau advised the State Department of becoming China's friend like Russians. (16 out of 17 of the AMERICANS that were involved in creating the U.N. were later identified, in sworn testimony, as secret communist agents. The first Secretary General was the AMERICAN Alger Hiss. Hiss served time in prison pursuant to his involvement in a Communist spy ring. Who were the 16 American citizens who helped create the UN that were identified as communists? Alger Hiss; Harry Dexter White; Virginius Frank Coe; Noel Field; Laurence Duggan; Henry Julian Wadleigh; Nathan Gregory Silvermaster; Harold Glasser; Victor Perlo; Irving Kaplan; Solomon Adler; Abraham George Silverman; John Carter Vincent; David Weintraub; William K. Ullman and William H. Taylor.) Lend-Lease materials destined for China was given to British for defending Burma; was destroyed when Japanese closed in to Rangoon; was used by Stilwell for equipping X-force and Y-force; It was MOSTLY used for paving the Ledo-Burma Highway that did not open till 1945; was for funding the Hump Course airlift that went exclusively to Chennault's airforce but still failed to fuel the planes [- because of Stilwell trickery against Chennault not because the American pilots' laziness]; and was finally used for shipping 1-2 million Japanese home. Freda Utley pointed out: "Almost half the total made available to China consisted of services, such as those involved in air and water transportation of troops. According to the latest figures reported, lend-lease assistance to China up to V-J Day totaled approximately $870,000,000. From V-J Day to the end of February [1946], shortly after General Marshall's arrival, the total was approximately $600,000,000 -- mostly its transportation costs." [Rumors and accusations: However, relations between Stilwell and Chiang soon broke down, due largely to the corruption and inefficiency of the Chinese government. Despite massive amounts of American lend-lease aid (over US$5 billion from 1941 through 1945), the Nationalist Chinese Army frequently avoided major engagements with the Japanese and was seen as preferring to stockpile material for a later struggle with the communists. Stilwell criticized the Chinese government's conduct of the war in the American media, and to President Franklin Roosevelt. The Allies thus lost confidence in the Chinese ability to conduct offensive operations, and instead concentrated their efforts against the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean Areas and South West Pacific Area. See W. F. Kimball, The Most Unsordid Act (1969).] Stilwell himself acknowledged that China did not get the needed aid from Lend-Lease. On pages 180-181 of FF Liu's "A Military History of Modern China", Liu pointed out that "The British influence was strong in the ranks of the combined chiefs of staff, however, and Chinese stockpiles rapidly diminished while material was reallocated to other recipients. When aircraft originally intended for the Chinese theater was reallocated by Washington, Stilwell complained, 'Now what can I say to G-mo [Chiang Kai-shek]? We fail in all commitments and blithely tell him to just carry on, old top'." To build roads and airfields, China issued unbacked bonds. ( In Nov 1944, Kong Xiangxi, at Chiang Kai-shek's order, demanded with Morgenthau that US pay back the 0.6 billion US dollar cost China incurred in building the airfields for American bombers. Morgenthau, knowing black market rate of 120 against 1 US dollar, refused to pay China. Roosevelt agreed to pay 0.1 billion US dollars in cash) The huge loss of Chinese forces in Kumon-Gaoligong Mountains had yielded only one good thing: Sun Liren, against Chiang Kai-shek and Du Yuming, retreated to India where British realized that Chinese could be used for defending India. Stilwell thought about making Sun Liren's 38th Division into his private army. Expedition army was rebuilt into New 1st Corps. Stilwell agreed to equip Chinese armies with American weapons. Chiang Kai-shek's future crack force, as commonly known, were the remnants of Stilwell's X-force from India and Y-force from Yunnan-Guangxi provinces. However, Stilwell had tried to take over the Chinese force by implanting 200 American officers, attempted assassination of Chiang during a planned Ramgarh inspection, wasted Y-force needlessly in attacking Japanese positions on perpendicular hills, refused to reroute the Y-force to China during Japanese Ichigo Campaign, and fought Chiang Kai-shek for control of Chinese army with Marshall acquiesce. If you want to know how much US did for China, I would say that's basically all before Stilwell was recalled in Oct 1944. Stilwell had no interest in giving aid to China other than direct control over Chinese army. When China was attacked by Japan in No. 1 Campaign, Stilwell refused to direct the X-force against Japanese from south or allow the Y-force to back off from Burma border. Wedemeyer continued on with Stilwell training by promising to equip 39 Chinese divisions, with actual numbers trained uncertain. Stilwell controlled the Lend-Lease program, and refused to even replenish Chennault’s Flying Tiger airforce, not to mention Chiang Kai-shek. Wedemeyer continued Stilwell line in controlling the Lend-Lease program direct. On page 193 of FF Liu's book, Liu stated that "The Chinese even agreed to Wedemeyer's insistence that Americans supervise the purchase of food locally when paid for with lend-lease funds.". Wedemeyer wanted to feed Chinese army with better nutrition. This shows that China had no control over the lend-lease materials or funds, with the conclusion that there was not much for Chinese to embezzle during WWII. The China Story by Freda Utley Chapter 2, Too Little, Too Late -- The Facts About "Aid to China" **** Summaries from The China Story by Freda Utley Chapter 2, Too Little, Too Late -- Lend-lease assistance was extended to China to assist her in fighting the Japanese, and later to fulfill our promise to assist in re-occupying the country from the Japanese. Assistance took the form of goods and equipment and of services. Almost half the total made available to China consisted of services, such as those involved in air and water transportation of troops. According to the latest figures reported, lend-lease assistance to China up to V-J Day totaled approximately $870,000,000. From V-J Day to the end of February [1946], shortly after General Marshall's arrival, the total was approximately $600,000,000 -- mostly its transportation costs. Following Japan's surrender, shipments of Lend-Lease supplies to China from India were stopped, and large quantities of munitions and equipment intended for China were destroyed, or thrown into the sea. Smaller caliber ammunition was blown up, and 120,000 tones of larger caliber dumped into the Indian Ocean.2/ This "Operation Destruction" cost the lives of twenty-five Americans and one hundred and twenty-five Indians. Yet, these destroyed munitions are to be found included in the total of "pre-V-J Day Lend-Lease" charged to China's account. Japan's Continuing Conflicts With Britain & America In the southeast Asia, Japanese already took over northern Vietnam, further dealing China a blow in the continental blockade. Worldwide, Axis powers, i.e., Germany & Japan, had contradictory agenda as to their wars against USSR and America. On April 13th 1941, Japan signed a neutrality pact with USSR for sake of concentrating its efforts to the south. While Japan orchestrated military exercises in Manchuria, Comintern agent [Richard Sorge, i.e., Zuo-e-ge] close to Japan's prime minister [Hotsumi Ozaki & Kimkazu Saionji] had already disclosed Japan's true intent to USSR. This Comintern agent was said to have later prewarned Russians of Germany's blitz attack. On April 25th, US and Britain agreed to give China loans. On May 16th, Britain banned export of rubber to Japan from Malaysia. On June 6th, Japanese ambassador to Germany reported home the coming onslaught on USSR. Japan re-examined its policy and decided to concentrate efforts at the south. On June 22nd, Germany attacked USSR. On June 25th, Japan made a final decision to attack south. On July 2nd, Japanese emperor instructed that Japan must control Vietnam for sake of subjugating China even at the price of going to war with Britain and America. On July 5th 1941, departing Sanya Harbor of Hainan Island, Japan organized 25th Corps for Vietnam as well as a southern fleet for controlling Vietnamese coast. On July 21st, French accepted Japan's ultimatum. On July 24th 1941, Roosevelt ordered an economic embargo on Japan. On 26th, US froze Japan’s assets and established a Far East Command Center in Manila. Britain followed suit and moreover rescinded the "navigation treaties with Japan". On 27th, Dutch East Indies froze Japan's assets as well. Japan, in need of 12000 tons of oil daily, had been cornered. By 28th, Japan took control of the whole Vietnam. On Aug 1st, US further ordered an oil embargo on Japan. On Aug 5th 1941, British reinforcements arrived in Manila. On Aug 5th & 7th, Japan tried to negotiate with US, and on Aug 16th, Japan tried to negotiate with Britain. Meanwhile, Japan prepared for military solutions no later than late Oct. On Sept 18th, Japan planned for 20% of its ground forces for actions against US & Britain in Southeast Asia. On Oct 18th 1941, Toyo Hideki took on the new cabinet as a result of previous prime minister's failure in diplomatic breakthrough with USA. On Nov 1st, Japan set Dec 1st as a deadline for diplomacy while secretly preparing attacks against Perl Harbor, Guam, and HK. In the month, Xu Mingcheng of HK's "Da Gong Bao" [grand justice newspaper – later "Wen Hui Bao Newspaper"], per XZC, wired to both Chungking and Yan'an about impending Japanese campaigns which were tips from Korean-ethnic and Taiwan-ethnic comrades. ROC's military attaché to USA, i.e., Guo Dehua, promptly relayed the information to US government, but the US government accused China of sowing dissension between US and Japan. (Comintern agent Richard Sorge, close to Japan's prime minister [Hotsumi Ozaki & Kimkazu Saionji], had made similar discoveries as to Japan's true intent against USA as well as Germany's planned attack against Russia. Also see China's relaying to US information in regards to decoded "Japanese foreign ministry notice to consulate in Honolulu".) Second Changsha Battle On August 26th, General Staff Headquarters issued Continental Order No. 538 against Changsha. Eleventh Army, in late August, began the stealthy troop buildup, with 45 infantry Daitai and 26 gun Daitai allotted. To distract Chinese attention, an amphibious fake attack was launched against Changde on the western bank of Dongtinghu Lake; and similar attacks were launched by troops along Nanchang-Jiujiang Railway. To clear up Mt Dayunshan pocket, Japanese launched a sweep campaign against Dayunshan on the morning of Sept 7th. On Sept 15th, Eleventh Army set up command center at Yueyang, and made the final decision to launch general attacks on 18th. With Japanese crossing Miluojiang, zone commander Xue Yue ordered 72nd Corps to reroute southward towards Pingjiang, Xiao Zhichu’s 26th Corps to move up to Jinjing and subsequently Wengjiang from Liuyang, and Li Yutang’s 10th Corps to come south towards Gaoqiao-Jinjing from Hengshan while having 20th Corps attack Japanese rear north of Miluojiang. On Sept 20th, Military Council, after finding out about Japanese troop transfer from Yichang and elsewhere, issued orders to have Third War Zone, Fifth War Zone and Sixth War Zone attack Japanese across all fronts. On 24th, 3rd Shidan and 4th Shidan breached 37th Corps’ positions after three days’ fighting; 95th Division and 140th Division broke out of encirclement for relocation to Malin. On this day, 40th Shidan, pushing south from east of Wengjiang, joined 6th Shidan in battling against 26th Corps. On the morning of 25th, 3rd Shidan and 6th Shidan launched attacks against Fang Xianjue’s Preparatory 10th Division and Zhu Yue’s 190th Division of 10th Corps. With Japanese closing in towards Laodaohe River, Xue Yue ordered 79th Corps to send its herald 98th Division move up from Yuelushan hill, a brigade from herald Temp 8th Division of Temp 2nd Corps to Langli, and minimum two divisions from 74th Corps to Huanghuashi (Huanghuazhen). Yu Chengwan’s 57th Division of 74th Corps, having found out that Japanese had taken over Chunhuashan Hill, returned to occupy Tianeshan Hill on the southern bank. After beating off Japanese assault, 57th Division crossed the river to take over Chunhuashan on the early morning of 26th. On Sept 26th, Japanese circumvented towards southeast area of Changsha city, while another group of Japanese circumvented to east area. On the morning of 27th, at 5 am, Wang Jiaben’s 98th Division of 79th Corps engaged with Japanese at Sanyaotang and Baimaopu, to the north of Changsha. At 4:00 pm, on the afternoon of Sept 27th, plaincoated Japanese intruded into downtown Changsha. Meanwhile, Japanese rapid-response troops began to attack Zhuzhou city of Hunan Province. Japanese paratroopers landed behind Chinese defense line as well. Reinforced Chinese army crossed Xiangjiang River, retook downtown Changsha from Japanese hands by 4:00 pm on Sept 30th, and chased Japanese out of the city. At one time, Chinese concentrated 180 cannons in blasting Japanese positions. On Oct 1st, Eleventh Army commander Anami Korechika ordered a general retreat by having 40th Shidan move north first, followed by 4th Shidan, 3rd Shidan and 6th Shidan in a parallel way. Xue Yue immediately ordered Temp 2nd Corps and 79th Corps to chase Japanese while having 74th Corps, 27th Group Army and 99th Corps intercept or ambush Japanese. By Oct 8th, Second Changsha Battle was over with no change in territories. Russian Volunteer Pilots & American Volunteer Pilots Japanese planes continued to bombard China with the full control of China's skies after Nationalist Government exhausted the badly-equipped small airforce in early years of the war and especially during the Battle of Wuhan. China only had two small contingents of airforce left in southern Jiangxi Province and eastern Sichuan Province. Back in 1939, China possessed 7 flight groups, one detached subgroup, and four Russian volunteer fighter groups. In early 1940, China had 160 miscellaneous planes, mostly ill-equipped Russian-made planes. By late 1940, China was left with 65 planes, only. The Americans, having adopted an appeasement policy towards the Japanese, had been supplying Japan with both raw materials and monetary assistance. Whereas, the USSR was the only country which had provided the assistance to China's resistance war. During Stalin's 60th anniversary of birth, China deliberately dispatched General Feng Yuxiang to the Russian embassy in Chungking for a celebration. Russian volunteer groups, however, were disbanded in 1940; in early 1941, USSR supplied China with 100 bombers and 148 fighter planes; and in April 1941, USSR signed a neutrality pact with Japan. Wu Xiangxiang stated that Chennault and Kunming academy pilots often ran into accidents when flying planes that were assembled from parts supplied by a US company Curtiss [i.e., Kou-di-si-lai] and that Russian-made planes were in continuous usage for two years, till the spring of 1942 when American-made planes [purchased under the US Lend Lease Program] had finally arrived. (In Kunming, Chen Xiangmei, while being dispatched to interviewing Chennault by Chen Shutong of Nationalist Government Central News Agency, got into acquaintance with the American. Chennault, to win the heart of Chen Xiangmei, organized a jeep lottery at a Christmas party, making Chen Xiangmei into the first female reporter who drove jeep by herself.) Japanese planes bombarded Guilin of Guangxi Province and tried to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek when Chiang Kai-shek was holding Liuzhou Meeting on Feb 22nd 1940. On April 15th 1941, Roosevelt tacitly approved the American volunteer fighters, who were composed of retired or reserved airplane fliers, for service in China. In June, China ordered 100 US-made P-40 planes. In June, July & August 1941, Japanese, replaying their old trick of "summer sleepless night bombing", bombed Chungking frequently. On June 5th, first Japanese sorties were launched with a trick: Japanese, knowing that Chungking citizens vacated the city during the daylight, deliberately bombed the city at night. Over 10,000 civilians swarmed into a public underground bunker, leading to the most serious incident of death of 9,992 people (including 1,151 children) due to suffocation and heat on June 5th 1941. Bare bodies of victims, who had earlier stripped off their clothes for the overheat, were later retrieved out of the shelter, a horrendous scene comparable to the Jewish victims who died in the gas chambers of the Nazi Germany. From Aug 8th to Aug 31st, Japanese bombed Chungking within an interval of 6 hours as well as bombed the other cities. On Aug 30th 1941, Chiang Kai-shek's Huangshan residency was bombed while Chiang Kai-shek was holding a meeting inside the bunker. Two guards were killed. Chungking's city hall auditorium was destroyed on this day. Japanese planes would soon meet their adversaries, namely, the American volunteer fliers organized by Claire L. Chennault at Rangoon in Sept 1941. This would be the American Volunteer Group (A.V.G), known as the "Flying Tigers", consisting of about 100 pilots and 200 ground crew and being equipped with obsolescent P-40B airplanes. Republic of China bought from US over 100 81-A airplanes, too. Chennault was a retired Air Corps major who had served as special advisor to the Chinese Air Force since 1937. On Dec 20, 1941, shortly after Pearl Harbor Attack, the Flying Tigers went into action and shot down Japanese bombers attacking Kunming. Japanese bombers did not return till one year later by taking advantage of the Burma Theater warfare. By the end of 1941, China possessed 364 planes. (In May of 1942, US 23rd Fighter Group began to arrive in China and the A.V.G. was dissolved on July 4 of 1942, to be under the command of US 10th Airforce Group which expanded into 14th group on March 10th 1943. Additionally, US bomber group 20 was deployed in Chengdu area of Sichuan Province.) Pacific Wars In early 1941, China formed a military alliance with Britain. Chiang Kai-shek dispatched "Shang Zhen military inspection delegation" to Rangoon for talks with British commander. Sheng Zhen visited Mandalay, Myitkyina [Mi-zhi-na] & Lashio [La-xu] for two months. On July 24th 1941, Roosevelt ordered an economic embargo on Japan, and on Aug 1st, further ordered an oil embargo on Japan. A few months back, Mao Tse-tung wrote about a possible "Eastern Munich" on the matter of 40-50 rounds of US-Japan negotiations. (Germany raised protest with Japan for the close talks as well.) Encouraged by Hitler's mid-1940 success on European Battlefield, Japanese secretly planned for an attack of British-American interests in the Pacific. On Nov 1st, Japan set Dec 1st as a deadline for diplomacy while secretly preparing attacks against Perl Harbor, Guam, and HK. Japanese war preparations aroused the vigilance of Korean-ethnic and Taiwan-ethnic resistance fighters who passed on the information to Xu Mingcheng of HK's Chinese newspaper agency. After newspaper wired to both Chungking and Yan'an about impending Japanese campaigns, ROC's military attaché to USA, i.e., Guo Dehua, promptly relayed the information to US government, but the US government accused China of sowing dissension between US and Japan. (Comintern agent Richard Sorge, close to Japan's prime minister [Hotsumi Ozaki & Kimkazu Saionji], had made similar discoveries as to Japan's true intent against USA as well as Germany's planned attack against Russia. Also see Zhang Ling'ao writing on Wang Pengsheng's "Council of International Affairs (International Issue Research Institute)" for China's obtaining a copy of Japan's Pacific War plan three weeks ahead of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Further, China's "technical research institute" had decoded Japanese foreign ministry notice as to withdrawing Japanese citizens from US and destroying classified documents.) On Dec 8th 1941 [Dec 7th Hawaii time], Japanese secretly raided Pearl Harbor of Hawaii, and launched simultaneous attacks at Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia as well as foreign settlements like Shanghai Bund and Tientsin. At Honolulu, hundreds of Japanese planes destroyed dozens of American warships, including 'Arizona', and inflicted a casualty of over 4000 onto Americans. In Southeast Asia, Japanese slaughtered ethnic Chinese without distinction, including 12 Chinese consulate officials in Manila [consul Yang and deputy consul Mo]. In Burma, British forces, being surrounded by Japanese, pleaded with China for assistance. Chiang Kai-shek and his attaché Lin Wei made two visits to La-xu of Burma for coordinating with the British via a command center entitled "tactician and inspection team of Burma-Yunnan War Zone". Shang Zhen & Lin Wei stayed on the Burma post till Japanese took control of the whole area. On the early morning of Dec 8th, Xu Zhucheng was awoken by cannons from Kowloon direction and at first mistook it as British military exercises. On 9th, Chiang Kai-shek dispatched a plane for fetching renowned intellectuals and dignitaries; however, criticisms also centered on Mme Kong Xiangxi's taking up space with the cargo of a dozen foreign-bred dogs. Japanese planes dropped bombs over HK, and Japanese artilleries extended their range across the straits. "Da Gong Bao", in combination with the rest of newspapers, continued the publications till Dec 13th on which day Kowloon was lost to Japanese. Hu Zhengzhi, i.e., Xu Zhucheng's colleague, risked his life in sailing across Guangzhou-wan Bay on a small wooden boat and then traveled to Guilin of Guangxi where he already relocated part of newspaper staff and equipment after an inspection tour of Li Zongren's "three autonomous movements" in Guangxi Province one year earlier. On Dec. 18 the Japanese forcefully crossed to the island of Hong Kong. Japanese lieutenant general Tanaga, notorious for his killing of over 100 wounded Chinese soldiers inside Qiongya Public School on Hainan Island in 1940, led an attack at HK with combined forces from 38th, 18th and 104th Shidans, and took over HK within 18 days. HK Governor Mark Aitchison Young (Yang-mu-qi), a British governor for a little over three months, surrendered about 12 days after the Japanese crossed the strait per XZC. In HK, a British contingent, having failed to receive surrender order, fought on against Japanese, and were later massacred by Japanese occupation forces. On Dec 25th 1941, at St. Stephen's College, Japanese pierced dead at least 60 out of over 90 wounded British soldiers, while several dozens of Chinese nurses and female doctors were openly raped on the playground. 34 women were killed by Japanese soldiers for their resistance. Chinese nurses and female doctors initially tried to prevent Japanese from entering the college, and Japanese stopped short of killing all British soldiers when two Japanese echelons fought each other for grabbing the women. Lieutenant general Tanaga personally witnessed the atrocity from a high platform. 51 remnant nurses were later shipped over to Singapore and Southeast Asia as "comfort women". On the ship, Japanese navy intervened in gang-raping the women, inserted bullets into women's vagina, and inserted a hand grenade into a young nurse who managed to explode herself with four Japanese before she was thrown into the sea. (See Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941 and The Velour and the Horror for details. Prior to 1945 Japanese surrender in southeast Asia, Vietnam, and China, Japanese army murdered all "comfort women" they could laid hands on for sake of burying their beastly acts. Note that mainland Chinese women comprised at least 67.8 of all "comfort women" throughout Japanese occupation zones [see page 61 of Whang Hao4's "Chinese Comfort Women - A Transnational Archive", Cosmos Books Limited, HK, 1998 edition]. Remnant of the 51 HK nurses were killed by poisonous gas and buried in Southeast Asia.) After the fall of HK, communist activists, dramatists and actors/actresses, such as Wang Ying, Xia Yan, Jin Shan and Situ Huimin, slipped through Japanese blockade for a return to China. Hu Feng, who was sent to HK by Zhou Enlai after the "Wannan Incident", would flee HK in early Jan 1942 under the help of communist-controlled Dongjiang [East River] Guerrilla Force. Hu Feng arrived in Guilin of Guangxi Province in early March. (In Guilin, Hu Feng and his leftist colleagues, like Mao Dun & Shen Zhiyuan, obtained special permission from Zhou Enlai to accept 500 yuan worth of money that was given by KMT official Liu Baimin as transportation fee to travel back to Chungking the interim capital. Pressured by the Nationalist Government propaganda ministry, Mao Dun left Guilin for Chungking in Dec 1942, and Hu Feng followed in March 1943. Three days after arrival, Hu Feng was notified by Liu Baimin that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to meet "five intellectual people"; however, Chiang Kai-shek never succeeded in winning the hearts of the leftists or undercover communists. See KMT versus Democratic Parties for details.) In HK, some Japanese propaganda director knocked on the dormitory of "Da Gong Bao" agency, threatening Xu Zhucheng on the matter of immediately re-launching the newspaper. Xu Zhucheng and three comrades mixed up with refugees and fled to Canton where he stayed for seven days. (After trekking to Shaoguan Pass of northern Guangdong Province, Xu Zhucheng wrote about his observations of Canton's "co-prosperity" under Japanese ruling, pointing out i) that Japanese still erected checkpoints at almost every cross-street years after sacking the city on Oct 21st 1938; ii) that young men under age 30 were not seen anywhere in the city; iii) that Japanese army, immigrants and vagrants were the actual "board of directors" of all businesses in Canton; and iv) that Chinese who lived away from "Japanese town" still preferred to use "fa [legalized] bi [currency]" against Japanese "jun [military] piao [currency]".) Throughout HK, dead women bodies could be seen everywhere, including inside of elevators. Japanese ransacked wherever they went, and intruded into Paomadi to attack the prostitutes. In HK, Lieutenant general Tanaga also ordered the torture death of an American airforce colonel. Japanese robbed about 30000 ancient Chinese books which were stored in US embassy. Lieutenant general Tanaga, later in Jan 1942, led his 21st Shidan against Huizhou city of Guangdong Province and murdered over 500 civilians via live burial and bayonet thrusting. Lieutenant general Tanaga was promoted to governor of HK on Dec 26th 1944, surrendered to China at Canton in Aug 1945, and was executed in Canton on March 27th 1947. Also executed for HK crimes would be Sakai Takashi in Nanking on Sept 13th 1946. In Shanghai, as disclosed by Chen Jieru's son-in-law, in mid-Dec 1941, Chen Jieru incidentally encountered Chen Bijun [i.e., Whang Jingwei's wife] inside an elevator in Huoluo Shopping Center of Shanghai and was later invited for a lunch or dinner in Huizhong Restaurant. Chen Jieru, being pressured by Chen Bijun for joining the puppet government, stealthily crossed the frontline for Jiangxi Province where Commander Gu Zhutong arranged escort in sending her to Chungking. Chen Jieru was said to have been assigned dwelling inside of Wu Zhongxin's residency, something which would provoke Chiang Kai-shek & Song Meiling disharmony. On Dec 9th 1941, China officially declared war on Japan and demanded that Japan must rescind the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japanese bombing began to wane from then on. In late 1941, Hirohito endorsed the decision of war declaration on allied nations at the imperial meeting. On Dec 22nd, 26 allied countries proclaimed that they would not make peace with Japan unilaterally. US, after zoning China, Burma, India and Vietnam as "CBI Theater", dispatched Stilwell over as tactician-in-general [i.e., Chief of Staff] with George Marshall recommendation. When 59-year-old Stilwell first met Chiang Kai-shek in 1942, he claimed to be a representative of the US Government in lieu of tactician-in-general [Chief of Staff] for "Chinese War Zone", and the ensuing years, exerted pressure on Chiang Kai-shek by means of monopolizing right over US Lease goods and equipment. (Stilwell had served as a lecturer for American garrison troops in Tianjin from 1920 to 1923, and later acted military attaché to US embassy in China from 1935 to 1939. Though a West Point graduate of 1904, Stilwell barely fired a single shot during WWI. Originally, US war department planned to send Hugh Drum to China; however, Drum declined the offer after ascertaining from Marshall that US really did not intend to provide real aid to China [page 409, Zheng Langping; page 177, FF Liu. Stilwell, ridiculing himself as 'small fry colonel', initially felt humiliated by Chiang's other foreign advisers like Galen, Georgy Zhukov (should be V. I. Chuikov), von Seeckt, and von Falkenhausen.) Pacific Wars would further put strains on Japanese resources. Beginning from 1942, students in Manchuria, both Japanese and Chinese, were ordered to work in textile factories to replenish the labor. Rice, a forbidden commodity in Manchuria, was allocated for Japanese only from 1939 onward. Japanese began to eat sorghum due to strain of resources in the aftermath of the Pacific Wars. KMT "Investigation & Statistics Bureau", CC Clique, Intl Institute, Technical Research Institute, & Sino-American Cooperative Organization While Chinese communists, under Moscow auspice, had established "Eastern Munich Training Academy in Yan'an [under NKVD], American Navy, in January 1943, established the Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO) with Dai Li's "jun tong".  Separately, KMT "Central Investigation & Statistics Bureau", i.e., "zhong tong" [centrally-led], was established in Aug 1938. Deputy Chief Xu Enceng, from 1940 to Nov 1942, exerted most of its efforts in fighting communist infiltration. Li Ao stated that "zhong tong", during this two year period, had arrested 8194 communists and successfully caused 11379 communists defect or surrender to KMT. The March 1938 Nationalist Government interim meeting promulgated the establishment of Investigation & Statistics Bureau under the Military Commission of the National Government, i.e., KMT "jun tong" [militarily-led], on basis of special agents section of Dai Li's Resurrection Society. In 1938, via a Nationalist Government representative in US, Dai Li's "militarily-led" agency competed with "telegraph decoding institute" [i.e., Inspection & Decoding Office of Secret Telegrams] by hiring over a retired American expert called Osborn Yardley [Herbert Yardley per YMC]. TO BE CONTINUED !      Third Changsha Battle Wu Xiangxiang pointed out that British newspaper "The Thames" and "Daily Post" praised the "Third Changsha Battle" as the only victory of the Allies after the eruption of the Pacific War. Prior to the Pacific War, Japan planned to launch a wholesale war against China for sake of releasing troops for Southeast Asia. Chiang Kai-shek, after the war declaration, ordered a guerrilla and siege attack at Japanese positions across China. To lend relief to British in HK, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that 4th Military District attack Japanese in Canton area where Japanese 38th Shidan of 23rd army was invading HK. In southwestern China, Chiang Kai-shek dispatched 5th, 6th and 66th corps for entry into Burma. Anami Korechika of Japanese 11th Army, with a Ryodan relief from northern China and a flight regiment, mounted an attack at Changsha. On Dec 13th 1941, Korechika ordered that Japanese 2nd, 6th & 40th Shidans be ready for action while 34th Shidan and 14th detached Ryodan acted as auxiliary along Nan-Xun Railway. On Dec 16th, Japanese concentrated in southern Yueyang city area. On 19th, Japanese blasted Nationalist Government positions in Yaolin & Xitang. On 20th, Japanese 6th Shidan moved through Yaolin and Xitang to arrive at the bank of Xinqianghe River for a crossing.  Beginning from Dec 15th, Xue Yue [Hsueh Yue], i.e., commander of 9th Military District, had detected Japanese movement and coolie allotment. Xue Yue concentrated his army for fighting Japanese between Liuyang-he and Laodao-he river area while making preparation for defense against Japanese along Nan-Xun Railway in the south. Xue Yue planned to induce the Japanese towards the outskirts of Changsha city, fight for three days along 100 kilometer line, to the south of the river banks of Ping-jiang, Liuyang-he and Laodao-he, and then counter-attack Japanese from west to east. On Dec 21st 1941, Li Yutang's 10th Corps was put in charge of Changsha city. On 24th, Japanese crossed Xinqianghe River to the south and pushed forward with three columns. On 25th, Wang Chaoying, a battalion chief under 21st Corps, died with his soldiers at the first defense line in Fujiaqiao. On 26th, Japanese pushed against Guanwangqiao. On 27th & 28th, Japanese crossed Miluo-jiang River. Chinese troops then retreated to southeast and attacked Japanese to the northwest. On 29th, Nationalist Government 73rd, 74th & 4th corps relocated to Hunan Province from Hubei, Guangdong and Hubei provinces. Nationalist Government 1st cannon brigade came over to Mt Yuelushan [to the west of Changsha] with howitzer. On 31st, Japanese, on south bank of Miluojiang River, pushed further to Mt Chunhuashan, and a portion of Japanese crossed Liuyanghe River. Xue Yue issued an order to launch the counter-attack at Japanese beginning from Jan 1st 1942. On 1st, Japanese attacked the city from southeast as Xue Yue had expected on basis of past two Changsha battles. Nationalist Government 10th Corps defended the city with the assistance of howitzer cannons from the west of the city. On 2nd, at noon, Japanese moved northward to occupy high buildings in northern Changsha city where one division of Nationalist Government 73rd Corps was fetched over for defense already. Howitzer cannons blasted the high buildings to prevent Japanese from hiding. Chinese infantry attacked Japanese who deployed poisonous gas against Chinese. Japanese mounted major attacks at the city from three directions of south, east and north. In the east, Chinese fought Japanese, building by building and room by room, along Xinjun-lu Road. By Jan 3rd, Japanese planes dropped supplies to reinforce their armies. Chinese forces already retrieved Japanese documents from dead bodies as to the quota of ammunition and grain that Japanese soldiers carried with them. At dawn, on Jan 4th, Xue Yue ordered that red light signal shots be fired into the skies for an offensive against Japanese. Japanese began to retreat on the 4th. Japanese 3rd Shidan had to reroute to a different river crossing for crossing Liuyang-he River on the night of 5th. Japanese 6th Shidan did not slip away till Japanese 3rd Shidan came to their relief. On 7th, Japanese 40th Shidan began to retreat, and all through to 15th, encountered attacks from the Chinese army. On Jan 8th, Chinese bombers engaged Japanese fighter planes in the air. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and soldiers paraded in Changsha for celebrating the victory. Li Zongren memoirs stated that Xue Yue later disobeyed order in rerouting to Jiangxi Province because he was resentful of Chiang Kai-shek's making direct phonecall to his command center during the Battle of Changsha. Xue Yue claimed that he went to Jiangxi, not western Hunan Province, for avoiding Chiang Kai-shek's direct phonecall. (Li Zongren memoirs stated that he, for his seniority, never had to take phonecall instructions from Chiang Kai-shek throughout the resistance war.) Burma Expedition  In early 1941, China formed a military alliance with Britain. Chiang Kai-shek dispatched "Shang Zhen military inspection delegation" to Rangoon for talks with British commander. Sheng Zhen visited Mao-tan-miao, Mandalay, Myitkyina & Lashio for two months. On July 24th 1941, Roosevelt ordered an economic embargo on Japan, and on Aug 1st, further ordered an oil embargo on Japan. On Nov 1st, Japan set Dec 1st as a deadline for diplomacy while secretly preparing attacks against Perl Harbor, Guam, and HK. On Dec 8th 1941 [Dec 7th Hawaii time], Japanese secretly raided Pearl Harbor of Hawaii, and launched simultaneous attacks at Hong Kong, the Philippines, Burma and Malaysia as well as Shanghai Bund and Tientsin Settlements. China declared war on Japan on Dec 9th 1941. On Jan 4th 1942, Aung Shan's Burmese Independence Army began to harass the Thai-Burmese border under Japanese auspice. Aung Shan, like Nehru and Gandhi of India, deeply resenting British historical conquests of Burma in 1824, 1852 and 1885, had sought for Japanese assistance by going to Hainan Island of China earlier. On Feb 20th, Japan invaded Burma under 15th Group Army commander Shofiro Iida, with 18th, 33rd, 55th, 56th Shidans and special operation units. Japanese obtained the defection of Burmese military against the British. Rangoon was lost on March 6-7th. British retreated to Prome. Prior to the loss of Rangoon, China sold to Britain 70000 tons of merchandise in Rangoon warehouses after successfully shipping out 44000 tons. Americans hastily assembled 820 Ford trucks and 95 armored vehicles for the Chinese.
More available at BurmaExpedition-v0.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Japanese Campaign Against Zhejiang & Fujian Provinces On March 9th 1942, Hirohito was commented to have shown extreme pleasure at war progress at the imperial meeting. In April 1942, Colonel Doolittle [Du-li-de], who had spent some time in Chungking earlier, led a surprise bombing of Tokyo of Japan, an operation that US had deliberately blindfolded China. Over one dozen US bombers crashed inside of China as a result of US blindfolding China, while Chiang Kai-shek was angry with the consequence of US bombing, i.e., Japan's launching the sweep campaign against Chinese holdouts and bases in Zhejiang Province for sake of rooting out airfields that might be used by American pilots and airplanes. Doolittle Tokyo Raid led to Japanese showering Zhejiang Province with biological pathogens per http://www.skycitygallery.com/japan/japan.html#unit731. In Zhejiang Province, Japanese took over Jinhua, Quxian, Linchuan & Nancheng. Chinese railway workers destroyed 400 kilometer long segment of Zhe-Gan Railway, from Jinhua to Dengjiabu. By May of 1942, Japanese military mighty reached its peak in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Two months later, Japanese navy suffered its first setback in the war at Midway Island. After fighting Americans in vain for half a year around Solomon Islands, Japanese navy began to retreat. From May 9th to 11th 1943, 3000 Japanese soldiers massacred 32000 Chinese at Changjiao of Hunan Province, including some soldiers from 73rd Corps. In northern China, 30000 Japanese launched a sweep campaign against communist-controlled Eight Route Army at Mt Taihangshan in May 1942. Coming from railways of Ping-Han, Zheng-Tai & Tong-Pu, Japanese pressed against Matian of southeastern Shanxi Province. Zuo Quan, i.e., deputy tactician-in-general for 8th Route Army and a graduate of Whampoa Academy 1st Session, sacrificed his life. On June 5th, British ambassador made a speech to British citizens in praise of the brave and persevering Chungking citizens who had withstood Japanese "fatigue bombing" for years. Mme Chiang Kai-shek, US War Assistance & China's Resistance War  On July 21st 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt's emissary, Launchlin Currie, arrived in Chungking a second time, for 14 rounds of talks within 17 days in regards to Chiang Kai-shek's policy towards communists and WWII. In this month of Aug, US officially acknowledged the volunteer "flying tiger" flight group as US Airforce 10th Group. On Aug 3rd, at Huangshan Mansion, Chiang Kai-shek rebutted Currie's viewpoint that American thought that it would be a good idea to have Manchuria act as a buffer between Japan and USSR per ZLA, claiming that he Chiang Kai-shek had declined Japanese ceasefire requests simply because he could not agree to treating Manchuria as a territory under the joint administration by Japan and China. In Aug 1942, Chinese expedition forces in Ramgarh [Lan-mu-jia] of India, i.e., Sun Liren's New 38th Division & Liao Yaoxiang's New 22nd Division, were re-organized into New 1st Corps to be under Zheng Dongguo's command. Sun Liren's New 38th Division, back in May 1931, resisted the British demand for a disarmament and won the British respect for its rescue bravery in Burma.  In early Oct, Wendell Willkie arrived in Chungking from Urumqi to receive a warm welcome arranged by Chiang Kai-shek's regime, and praised Mme Chiang Kai-shek as a good friendship ambassador for making a trip to US. Lu Keng mentioned that Willkie had brought his book "One World" to China. As reporter for Voice of China, Lu Keng made a live broadcast of the reception. Two reporters, Gardner Mike Cowles and Joseph Barnes, wrote about their captivation with Mme Chiang Kai-shek, and in 1985 book "Mike Looks Back", Mike Cowles disclosed Wendell Willkie's sudden disappearance with Mme Chiang Kai-shek during a banquet by asking him act as a distraction. Mike Cowles stated that Chiang Kai-shek was furious over the disappearance of the two. When Willkie slipped back, Mike Cowles called Willkie a fool [bastard?] and reminded him of his own wife and family back in US. The next morning, Wendell Willkie asked Mike Cowles to go to the top floor of Chungking Women and Children Hospital for dissuading Mme Chiang Kai-shek from a trip to US together with the team on Oct 8th. Mike Cowles suffered a long finger scratch in the hand of furious Mme Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek was later observed by US consulate officials to have strong abhorrence against Willkie by ordering that windows be opened up to let go the "foul smell of a fox" right after Willkie left his office. --Prof Yang Kuisong had checked the itineraries of the Amercian entourage as well as the records concerning Chiang Kai-shek couple, and concluded that Mike Cowles made up the episode.
(Jonathon Fenby's "Chiang Kai Shek", published in 2003, also contained similar writings.) On Oct 10th, 1942, US and Britain declared the revocation of unequal treaties they had imposed on Manchu China. Historians claimed that US and Britain revoked the privileges they already lost in China as a countering stance against Japan's "signing off" unequal treaties with Nanking puppet government. (Li Ao made a big deal about the sequence of sign-off by Japan and US, incidentally.) On Nov 27th, 1942, Mme Chiang Kai-shek arrived in an US military airport [i.e., Mitchell Field], and spent two months in New York in the name of sickness. Chen Jieru's son-in-law Lu Jiuzhi cited Chen Jieru's arrival as the cause of Chungking rumors about disharmony between Chiang Kai-shek and Song Meiling. (Chinese populace, no matter in Taiwan or on Mainland, praised Mme Chiang Kai-shek's speech at American Congress by claiming that Mme Chiang Kai-shek was invited for a "state visit" in "Feb 1943".) On Jan 11th of 1943, US and Britain, in new treaties with China, rescinded the privileges such as extraterritoriality, military garrison, settlements or concessions, and inland navigation etc. "CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT" was revoked by the American Congress. Chiang Kai-shek ordered that Chen Baichuan be deprived of his director post at Central Daily Newspaper for frustrating Nationalist Government's secret negotiation with Britain on the matter of recovering Kowloon. (Weihaiwei was returned to China in 1930 as a result of Northern Warlord Government's request with Washington Conference in 1922.) On Feb 18th, 1943, Mme Chiang Kai-shek was invited to the American Congress for a speech on China's resistance war against Japan. During the speech, Mme Chiang Kai-shek mentioned US pilots' bombing of Japan in April 1942 (i.e., a US retaliation attack for Pearl Harbor) and their rescue by Chinese. On March 2nd, Mme Chiang Kai-shek, at the accompaniment of Wendel Willkie, spoke to 20,000 audience at Madison Square Garden. Mary E. Dillon pointed out that Mme Chiang Kai-shek captivated Americans. Li Ao claimed that Mme Chiang Kai-shek's seven month visit as well as Chiang Kai-shek's attendance of the Cairo Meeting were all results of Wendell Willkie lobbying. Li Ao also pointed out that Mme Chiang Kai-shek made a gesture of "slicking throat" when President Roosevelt asked her what he should do with US miner strike led by John Lewis. At a news conference at the White House, when asked "an official visit or just a personal visit", Madame answered that "the visit was for her health" per http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_history_1929_1945/98778. Li Ao blasted Mme Chiang Kai-shek for her extravagant living style during her 7 month stay in US. However, Mme Chiang Kai-shek, who claimed that she was all Western except for an Oriental face, did have exerted extraordinary contributions to China's resistance wars in winning the hearts of Americans for a concerted fight against Japan. Even Lord Halifax was worried that President Roosevelt could be persuaded into doing something not beneficial to Britain. Mme Chiang Kai-shek, who often took the title of the "nanny" of China's airforce and Taiwan's baseball team, had been responsible for many philanthropic projects such as orphanages and schools for children of the martyrs. On July 4th, 1943, Mme Chiang Kai-shek returned to China. Mme Chiang Kai-shek was later to have a 14-month absence from July 1944 to Sept 1945 after accompanying her husband to the Cairo Conference in Nov 1943. This absence was in sharp contrast with Mme Chiang Kai-shek's personally going to the frontlines at the Battle of Shanghai and the Battle of Wuhan for caring the wounded soldiers during the early years of the resistance war, i.e., 1937 and 1938. During this timeframe, Huang Zhuoqun, i.e., Wu Guozhen's wife, had acted as a kind of hostess in entertaining foreign visitors. After three-year-long mayor post for Chungking, Wu Guozhen, dismissed by Chiang Kai-shek back in Dec 1942 after Sichuan people raised complaint over the disaster at National politics participation meeting, would be re-assigned to the Foreign Ministry where he exercised the real power since Song Ziwen, who took over foreign minister from Chiang Kai-shek in March 1943 while still in US, spent most of the time overseas. Mme Chiang Kai-shek's 14 month long absence from China, from July 1944 to Sept 1945, could have weakened Chiang Kai-shek's chance of attending the Yalta Conference or Potsdam Conference, two meetings that had doomed China very much so. (Li Ao's date could be wrong since Zhang Lingao, i.e., Chiang Kai-shek's attaché, had described an annual attaché office gathering at Jialing Hotel that was attended by the Chiang couple in early Aug, prior to the Japanese surrender.) Chiang Kai-shek Dealing With Provincial Armies In year 1943, "CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT" was repealed by the American Congress, with China awarded a yearly immigration quota of 102 persons, ironically. In the summer of 1943, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly relocated Sun Lianzhong's 31st Corps to south of Yangtze to be under the 6th war zone. Sun Lianzhong, commander of 2nd group army under 5th war zone, was in charge of 31st & 68th corps. Li Zongren persuaded Sun Lianzhong into obeying the order by citing the prospect of "going back to farm fields" after the war was to end soon. (Later, after Japanese surrendered in Aug 1945, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that Sun Lianzhong be the chair of Hebei Province but prohibited Sun Lianzhong from taking his troops to the north. Sun's 31st Corps was handed over to Hu Zongnan, while Sun Lianzhong brought Gao Shuxun's troops to the north along Ping-Han Railway. When Gao Shuxun defected to the communists, Sun Lianzhong arrived in Peking to be a "bald commander".) Li Zongren, later in autumn of 1943, was called away from 5th war zone by Chiang Kai-shek who offered him a nominal higher post as "director of Hanzhong Military Headquarters". While on the way to Hanzhong, Li Zongren encountered local gentry who surrendered tea and incense burners as if they were receiving imperial commissioners like in ancient imperial times. Successor Liu Zhi, i.e., Chiang Kai-shek crony, was to lose Laohekou as well as Xiangyang & Fancheng to the Japanese within months. Liu Zhi's first act was to move command center across the Xianghe River to the west, while Japanese radio ridiculed Liu Zhi as a "ever-defeated general". Li Zongren mentioned that Liu Zhi, like many Chiang cronies, had indulged in pleasure-seeking at the times of war: Liu Zhi, while acting as garrison commander of Chungking, had taken in a concubine, which made his wife complain direct to Mme Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek, being wary of the intimacy and loyalty of miscellaneous provincial armies to Li Zongren, had concentrated his efforts at weakening his own ranks rather than Japanese or communists. Li's "director of Hanzhong Military Headquarters" was nominally in charge of 1st & 5th war zones. After Chiang Kai-shek separated guerrilla fighting of Mt Dabieshan into 10th war zone, Li Zongren was nominally in charge of 3 zones. However, commanders of war zones directly reported to Nationalist Government Central Military Committee, i.e., Chiang Kai-shek. After settling down in Hanzhong, Li Zongren went to Chungking for a meeting and rebutted Yang Jieshi's claims that Britain and US, unable to land on French shore, might have to lend a path from Soviet Union. While in Chungking, Li Zongren talked twice with British military attaché Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart [i.e., General Wei-a-te, who replaced Grimsdale] and Sir Horace Seymour, the British Ambassador in Chungking, for delaying the launch of Second Battlefield. Li Zongren, being wary of Russian ambition for Manchuria, suggested to the two Britishmen that they had better let Germany and Russia exhaust themselves first. British, however, were worried that Germany might subjugate USSR soon or reach a truce with USSR. Later, in May 1944, Chiang Kai-shek, for commencing the graduation ceremony of 9th Branch of Nationalist Government 9th Corps Academy, had stopped over in Hanzhong for seeing Li Zongren. Li Zongren gave several pertinent opinions as to dealing with USSR and Chinese communists in coming post-war era, including the suggestion of dispatching armies to Japanese-occupied territories via "hind wave pushing against the front wave". However, Chiang Kai-shek, for preventing "miscellaneous provincial armies" from controlling those territories, adopted the approach of relocation of his crony forces from Burma and Southeast China. Europe First & Asia Second In Nov 1943, US President Roosevelt, prior to the trip to Tehran Meeting, claimed that should he give Stalin what he wanted [i.e., Manchuria, Korea & Sakhalin), then USSR would not grab other parts of the world. After the meeting, US told China that Chinese news media should synchronize with US on the matter of "Europe First and Asia Second". When Shao Yulin published an article about completely routing Japanese via a cut-off from Japan base, Wu Guozhen immediately reported to Chiang Kai-shek to have Shao Yulin kicked out of the Foreign ministry at the risk of offending Chen Bulei. Thereafter, in 1944, Shao Yulin was sent to US for the "Pacific Society" meeting in regards to Allied countries' post-war policy over Japan, stayed on in US for the April 1945 United Nations conference in SF, and would not return till Aug 1945, at which time he was fetched to Zhijiang of Hunan Province for handling the Japanese surrender matter. Campaign of E-Xi [Western Hubei Province] After routing the European-American powers in Southeast Asia, Japan concluded on May 19th 1942 that Japanese Southern Army had completed its southern mission. Thereafter, Japan devised a so-called "No. 5 Order", with a plan to mobilize another 230,000 men for invading China's interim capital Chungking from north route and eastern route, respectively. Japanese established the 5th Front Army, consisting of 10 Shidans for attacking Shaanxi Prov; and Japanese 11th Army, in Wuhan, planned to attack Chinese positions along the Yangtze with 5 Shidans. American counter-attacks near the Solomon Islands and the New Guinea would force Japan into relocating partial of the "China Expedition Forces" to the Southeast Asia. By late 1942, "No. 5 Order" was abandoned. However, Japanese 11th Army commander still advocated for a lonely western campaign till his plane was shot down above the sky of Anhui Province. In Jan 1943, Japanese commander Yokoyama Isamu (Hengshan Yong) of 4th Kwantung Army was dispatched to Wuhan to head the 11th Army. Instead of relaunching a war against Changsha, Japanese decided to test the defense of China's 6th Military District by going west. Before that, Japanese spent half a year consolidating the control over south of the Yangtze and north of Dongting-hu Lake. After taking over Shishou, Japanese, in May 1943, attacked Anxiang & Nanxian for collecting grains, while another route crossed the Yangtze at Shashi for attacking Gong'an. Japanese distraction caused Chinese reinforcement towards Changde. On May 23rd, Japanese commander Yokoyama Isamu suddenly changed course to attack the west. Japanese army at Yichang attacked Shipai, while Japanese at Yidu crossed the Yangtze to sack Yuyangguan. Chen Cheng immediately ordered that Sun Lianzhong stop sending away Yangtze defense army to Changde the grains area. Japanese 11th army relocated its command center to Yichang, while Chen Cheng returned to Enshi for directing the defense war. Along the Yangtze river course, on May 27th, Japanese caught 20,000 tonnage ships as well as considerable grain supply. Chen Cheng relocated partial of Burma expedition force to Shipai from Yunnan Province. Chiang Kai-shek called Shipai by so-called China's Stalingrad. Numerous memoirs pointed out that Chinese soldiers shouldered cannons across the precarious Yangtze gorges for blasting Japanese positions. On May 29th, Chinese army recovered Yuyangguan. On May 30th, Japanese, after futile fighting over Shipai for eight days and nights, retreated across the river. At Yidu, Japanese 13th Shidan suffered loss during the retreat. Japanese, to minimize its defeat in the E-xi [Western Hubei Province] Campaign, would deny its attempt to invade Sichuan Province along the Yangtze. Stilwell echoed Japanese radio broadcasts by reporting to Marshall & Roosevelt that China had exaggerated its victory and that Chinese forces moreover dared not counter-attack Japanese. Japanese, having failed three times at Changsha as well as the Yangtze penetration, would next target the city of Changde. Battle Of Changde Changde, a city that Japanese claimed had disappeared from the earth, was defended by Yu Chengwan's 57th Division of 74th Corps. After 15 days of round-the-clock defense, 8,500 Chinese army had dwindled to 321 persons. Yu Chengwan retreated with remnants on Dec 3rd 1943. With Chinese reinforcements from 5th & 9th military districts coming to the aid of Changde, Japanese 11th Army objected to Nanking homebase's demands by ordering a retreat. Chinese recovered Changde on Dec 9th. Japanese retreated back to its former positions on Dec 24th. During the Changde Campaign, China lost 3 division chiefs, while Japanese lost two Rentai commanders at a casualty of one Shidan. 9th military district never recovered from its loss from Changde Campaign, which would be the fundamental cause in the coming debacle during Japanese "No. 1 Order" in 1944. When Stilwell sent a false report to US and accused Chinese of allowing Japanese to enter and exit Changde at will, Chiang Kai-shek made arrangement for foreign reporters to visit Changde to witness the severity of fighting that had occurred. Second Burma Campaign The year 1943 would see Chinese railway system in Hunan-Guangxi-Guizhou provinces linked together. Railway Qian-Gui [Guizhou-Guangxi] reached Dushan of Guizhou Province. Chinese were in control of the Chinese segment of Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. Railway Xu-Kun was hauling the goods airdropped from India. In southeastern coast, Zhe-Gan Railway recovered operations from Jiangshan to Shangrao. In Oct 1943, Zheng Dongguo's New 1st Corps entered Burma again for the Second Burma Battle. From Oct 29th 1943 to August 3rd 1944, Chinese expedition forces, in coordination with Joseph Stilwell, thoroughly defeated Japan's 18th Shidan and destroyed 20,000 Japanese soldiers: During the Second Burma campaign, the newly equipped Chinese troops fought a 17-month long war in Burma, advanced more then 600 miles from north Burma to south Burma, and destroyed over 20,000 Japanese. Under an under-table deal with British, Chinese side stopped marching near Mandalay so that the British force could finish the job of recovering Southern Burma as a face-saver.  On Nov 18th 1943, Chiang Kai-shek left Chungking for Cairo Conference. Soong Mei-ling, per ZLA, had taken off one day earlier together with Wang Chonghui, Shang Zhen, Lin Wei, Zhou Zhirou, Dong Xianguang, Yu Jishi, Huang Renlin, Yu Guohua and Chennault. From Nov 22nd to 26th 1943, Chiang Kai-shek attended the Triumvirate Conference in Cairo of Egypt, and made a declaration with Churchill and Roosevelt that Japan must return Manchuria, Taiwan and Penghu Islands to China and that Korea must be restored independence. However, back at the Quebec Meeting, Britain and US had already decided upon the priority of European Battleground over Asian Battlefield. In northern Burma, General Sun Liren assumed corps chief of New 1st Corps with command of New 38th Division & New 30th Division, while Liao Yaoxiang assumed the post of corps chief of New 6th Corps. (Liao Yaoxiang's New 6th Corps was recalled back to China, while leaving his 50th Division with Sun Liren.) During the Second Burma campaign, the newly-equipped Chinese troops fought a 17-month long war in Burma, advanced more then 600 miles from north Burma to south Burma, and destroyed over 20,000 Japanese. Chinese_Tank_Forces_and_Battles_before_1945_ed.htm stated that "Americans, such as Colonel Rothwell H. Brown, of the new Chinese tank battalion, commanded some of those Chinese units. By December of 1944, all but 800 IJA troops were destroyed in Burma; those survivors left Bhamo to fight their way to the mountains rather then surrender to the Allies." In May 1944, Sino-American forces mounted attacks at Myitkyina [Mi-zi-na]. A Japanese brigadier general was dispatched there with reinforcements. Total Japanese forces numbered around 3600 men. On June 10th, a new wave of attack was launched against Japanese. By mid-June, Japanese lost 1000 soldiers. On July 12th, Sino-American forces mounted attacks at Mi-zi-na again, with 127 planes dropping 754 tons of bombs. Japanese retreated out of Mi-zi-na on Aug 1st. Prior to the retreat, Japanese brigadier general ordered the extermination of 12 female prisoners of war [i.e., comfort women] via kerosene burning. Myitkyina of northern Burma was an important link on the Sino-Burmese Highway. [548 kilometer segment of Sino-Burmese Highway were paved within 7 months by utilizing 150000 Chinese labor after the 1937 eruption of war.] In synchronization with the campaigns of Chinese X-force from India, Chinese Y-force, having taken over Lungling in June, split into two phalanxes, for attacking Japanese 56th division in Tengchong to the northwest and for attacking the Japanese stronghold on top of Mt Songshan [Sungshan] 15 miles to the northwest of Lungling. In Aug, Chinese took over two sides of almost perpendicular Mt Sungshan. By Aug 20th 1944, the last Japanese bunker was blasted off the top of Mt Songshan. Chinese lost 7675 men against the 1500 entrenched defenders per Webster. Combined, Chinese lost 37,133 against 13620 Japanese in the Campaign of Lungling & Songshan. Four days later, Tengchung [Tengchong] fell to the Chinese 56th Division after 51 days of siege, thanks to the 14th Airforce. Webster cited soldier Li Shi Fu in pointing out that i) Japanese comfort women had committed suicides with pistols, and ii) Japanese officers chained their soldiers to the defense positions. Roosevelt, at the urging of Stilwell, chose to use the Lend-Lease coersion to force China into throwing the crack troops (Y-force) at northern Burma just prior to Japanese Ichigo Campaign. Chinese communists, through Pan Hannian's operations with Japanese spy agencies, already shared information about the Chinese military deployment and strategy, and more than a few tmes coordinated with Japanese in attacking the Chinese government troops from 1939 onward, such as the Southern Henan [Yu-nan] Campaign. British and American intelligence services, notably OSS, busily smuggled in lipsticks and cosmetics for and knowingly cohorted with Guilin's dancing girls who were purportedly known as Japanese spies. Seemlessly, all forces joined hands in making sure the cause of the Republic of China be forever damaged. The British intelligence, for example, flew out the notorious Comintern agent Chen Hansheng to India from Guilin prior to an arrest. Though, communist forces, following the footsteps of Japanese Ichigo Campaign, penetrated towards the Hunan-Guangdong borderline as well as Henan-Anhui borderline, only to get hit back in the south by General Xue Yue [who stubbornly withdrew to the east of the railway instead of the west] as well as to lose the most flagrant civil-war general Peng Xuefeng in Anhui-Henan battlefield. "No. 1 Order" [Ichigo] In the spring of 1944, Japanese, from two ends, launched a massive campaign coded "No. 1 Order" [Operation Ichi-go] in the attempt of linking railroad line from Manchuria to Vietnam, i.e., "continental corridor", a plan first sanctioned by Hirohito on Jan 13th 1944. Japanese records claimed a mobilization of additional 510,000 troops for the eight-month campaign that could be subdivided into four regions of Henan Province by Japanese Northern Armies, Changsha-Hengyang of Hunan Province by Japanese 11th Army, Yue-Han [Canton-Wuhan] Railway by Japanese 23rd Army, and Southwestern China by Japanese 11th & 23rd Armies [6th Front Army]. The purposes of the campaign were multifold, i.e., making up for the loss of ships at the sea route due to American bombing, destroying the airfields in Southwestern and Central China, strategically shifting the Final Battlefield to the mainland from Japan, and destroying China's resistance will and armed forces. With the relief from Manchuria and Japan homebase, Japanese army upgraded or filled up their Shidans to A-class from B and C classes, i.e., a total of 32,000 for each Shidan. Zheng Langping, in Ever Lasting Glory, pointed out that Japan's war preparations included half a year aviation petrol, two year worth of ammunition, an armored Shidan, 67000 horses, 13000 trucks, 10000 transportation and logistics ships, and majority of its highway, railway and bridge engineers. (Per Donovan Webster, Japanese amassed 15 full divisions and five brigades since April 1944.) Hu Zongnan's troops, stationed in Tongguan Pass of eastern Shenxi Province, managed to stop Japanese from encroaching throughout eight years of resistance wars. In the Battle of Lingbao, in the spring of 1944, Hu Zongnan's troops defeated Japanese army which had amassed in Henan Province. During Japanese attack at Zhengzhou city of Henan Province, Long-Hai Railway shipped 79 trains of relief army or 200000 soldiers from late April to mid-May of 1944. Trains broke through the Tongguan bombardment of Japanese from across the Yellow River at nights. (Lacking building materials, Tianshui-Baoji Segment of Long-Hai Railway was not completed till the end of 1945.) Japanese, pushed out of Zhengzhou of Henan Province after a short period of occupation from Oct 4th 1941 to Oct 31st 1941, would mount another attack at Zhengzhou by crossing the Yellow River on April 18th 1944. Japanese took over Zhengzhou on April 22nd, utilized its consulate in Zhengzhou as an operation center for recruiting the "comfort women", and then targeted the Luoyang city.  Tang En'bo retreated to Lushan & Songshan mountains from Yuxian. With Jiang Dingwen retreating to Mt Funiushan, Chinese troops were in disarray. Commander Li Jiayu volunteered to provide cover for Liu Kan, Zhang Yipeng, Hu Bohan and Xie Fusan. With 104th Division, Li Jiayu defended Mt Yumengshan for days. After Luoyang was lost to Japanese in May, Li Jiayu retreated to the west on May 11th.  Ten days later, at Qinjiapo, Li Jiayu was ambushed by Japanese troops who was tracing Gao Shuxun's army. After Japanese sacked Henan Province, they pushed against Hubei Province and forced Xue Yue [Hsueh Yueh] into a retreat to western part of the province. Per Webster, Changsha was lost in the absence of General Xue Yue who was famous for defeating Japanese three times. Xue Yue's tactics was to deploy the artillery on the mountain, but the infantry refused to defend the artillery. With artillery taken by Japanese on June 17th after apparently learning from three prior lessons, Chinese inside of Changsha became a target. Changsha was lost at dusk on 18th. Webster cited Stilwell's claim that his shipment of 12000 tons of guns for General Xue Yue, after arriving in Kunming, was never delivered to Hengyang. Per Webster, Theodore White found out that only two regiments of Chinese had been ordered to death for the defense of Hengyang, which was another big American lie. White described the Chinese soldiers as bad-nutritioned and ill-equipped, i.e., lousy guns, two grenades, straw sandals, threadbare uniforms, dry rice kernels as the only ration, and leaves on head as camouflage. Chennault, knowing the defense had only two 75-mm cannons with 200 shells, had transferred 1000 tons of weaponry to Xue Yue privately. After the breach of Qiangzi-he River defense line, Japanese encircled Hengyang where General Fang Xianjue staged a defense. While laying siege of Hengyang, Japanese herald troops pushed to Huangsha-he River bordering Guangxi Province. On July 6th 1944, Xue Yue, without adequate supply, was planning for a counter-attack at Hengyang. Roosevelt then believed that Chiang Kai-shek must have not transported Stilwell's "supplies". Stilwell further mocked Chennault's early claim that airforce alone could defeat Japan. Chennault countered it by contacting US direct. Stilwell failed to get Chennault sacked by the War Department. Roosevelt, having raised Stilwell to 4 star general on Aug 1st, advised Chiang Kai-shek that he should fetch Stilwell over to China for direct control of all Chinese forces. (On Aug 2nd 1944, Stilwell received his 4th star.) Chiang Kai-shek did not yield in face of American ultimatum. TV Soong flatly denied the US request in telegraph to Harry Hopkins. (Zheng Langping suspected that Stilwell, who was a friend of Edgar Snow, could be either pro-communist, communist sympathizer or undercover American communist just as numerous Americans like John Service and Theodore White. True, the infamous Ledo Highway, i.e., Stilwell Highway, could be a trap to exhaust the bulk of US wartime aid to China while giving China much less benefit than what the Hump Course had delivered.) Yue-Han & Xiang-Gui finally ceased operations in late June 1944. Chinese railway workers played their heroic role in sabotaging and/or repairing railways of Yue-Han & Xiang-Gui. [Xiang-Gui Railway, which was finished in Sept 1938, was first paved in 1937 by borrowing rails from Railway Xiang-Qian, while Railway Yue-Han was just completed in 1936. In 1939, a convenience bridge was built on Xiang-jiang River to link up Railway Yue-Han & Xiang-Gui at Hengyang. In Jan 1944, a solid bridge was built but had to be dismantled in June in face of Japanese advance.] Defense Battle At Hengyang At Hengyang, Fang Xianjue ordered his troops to peel off half of two hills overlooking the southern side of the city. For 42 days, Chinese troops, totalling about 15-18000, inflicted a casualties of three to four times onto Japanese, with one Japanese Rentai reduced to less than 100 from the original size of 1000 to 2000. On Aug 8th, Fang's remnants reached a "war termination" agreement with Japanese who failed to sack the city even with an extra Kwantung 20th Army from Manchuria; and Fang Xianjue, taking advantage of Japanese "courteous" treatment, slipped out of the cordon thereafter.  79th Corps Chief Wang Jiaben, who had thrusted to the proximity of northwestern Hengyang in July 1944, then rerouted to southern Hunan Province after Hengyang was lost on August 8th. On Sept 1st, Japanese began to attack 79th Corps at Lengshuitan of Dong'an. At dawn of Sept 7th, Japanese plaincoats attacked the village where Wang Jiaben's command center was situated. Wang Jiaben and his pistol platoon soldiers died in the wrestling fights. Japanese took over Changsha and Hengyang of Hunan Province and threatened Guilin [Kweilin] and Liuzhou [Liuchow] of Guangxi Province. To the south, 6000 Japanese moved out of Burma for attacking Chinese Y-force in Lungling on Aug 26th 1944. Chiang Kai-shek requested with Stilwell for an attack at the Japanese rear from Myitkyina, which Stilwell declined. In a rage, Chiang Kai-shek threatened to pull the Chinese Y-force out of Burma Road for the other side of Salween River. On Sept 8th, Stilwell wrote the word 'showdown' in his diary. Stilwell personally went over to deliver the ultimatum to Chiang Kai-shek on Sept 19th 1944. Youth Army Chiang Kai-shek launched a "Youth Corps Movement" called "100000 [educated] youths, 100000 soldiers". Jiang Huiguo, i.e., the adopted son of Chiang Kai-shek, joined the 'youth army' as a battalion chief. Wang[1] Shichun's "Jiang Huiguo's Life Long Journey" stated that altogether 5 'youth army' divisions were organized. Before this, beginning from 1939, already 3000 medical college students had participated in the war as military doctors; and in 1941, lots of engineering students had worked on highway pavement and weapon & ammunition manufacturing. (Foreign language school students would later be called as interpreters when American pilots came to China.)  Men and women, including college students from Politics University etc, enrolled in the youth army, with each "youth corps" division comprising of 10,000 people. Sun Guodong had detailed descriptions of his enrolment in "youth corps" and subsequent fighting in Burma under General Sun Liren. Mme Chiang Kai-shek's Absence From China In June 1944, allied nations successfully landed in Normandy. In the Pacific, the debacle of Japanese navy led to the collapse of Toyo cabinet in July.  On June 21st 1944, US Vice President Wallace came to see Chiang Kai-shek and emphasized the need of cooperation with CCP in three rounds of talks. Wallace visits would make it possible for US "Military Observer's Mission", aka Dixie Mission, to visit Mao Tse-tung in Yan'an. On July 5th 1944, Mme Chiang Kai-shek flew to US again and then rerouted with her sister to Brazil in the same month. Two months later, Mme Chiang Kai-shek flew back to US again, possibly to see Wendell Willkie die away on Oct 8th, and did not return to China till Sept 1945. (Li Ao cited Lattimore's words, "This looked like an attempt to get away".) Battles Of Guilin & Liuzhou [Guangxi Province] At Guilin, Li Jishen & Li Renren called upon people for a "donation under national flag", and in entertainment arena, Tian Han and Hong Shen organized numerous shows. Xu Zhucheng stated that he was invited over as "military analyst" as a member of "Da Gong Bao" newspaper; however, Chiang Kai-shek's agents soon intervened to disband Tian Han and Hong Shen groups for fear of communist infiltration. Tang Enbo's Nationalist Government Central Army was sent to Guilin for defense. Shi Jue's 13th Corps under Tang Enbo's 31st Group Army, which was the only army which had won battles against Japanese in Dengfeng of Henan Province during the 'Central Plains' phase of Japanese Ichigo Campaign in April of 1944, had trekked to Guizhou Province of southern China. Back in Henan Province, communists spread the rumor of Tang Enbo army pillaging the people and listing the soundex of 'tang' [i.e., hot soup] as one of the three disasters together with locust disaster and flood related to the Yellow River flooding. Communists, similar to a slogan against New 1st Corps in civil wars, made up a sinister idiom stating that " [Henan People] would rather be killed by Japanese than to see 13th Corps come". Nationalist Central Government dismissed the accusation after finding out that complaint letters had come across the whole province of Henan, with most areas never inhabited or touched by the 13th Corps. Leftists and under-cover communists accused Tang Enbo of adopting the "anti-people" approaches in dismissing gentry-organized and spontaneous patriotic organizations, burning down buildings and structures for clearance of war scenes, and forcing Guilin people into asylum in the countryside. "Da Gong Bao" newspaper announced cessation on Oct 13th, and staff began to leave Qixingyan [seven star cliff], a site that was selected by Hu Zhengzhi back in 1940. Overnight, army came over to take over the husbandry holdings of "Da Gong Bao" and slaughtered all pigs for food. Xu Zhucheng did not specify which army took action in slaughtering their pigs. Chiang Kai-shek, per Donovan Webster, promised to Wedemeyer that Chinese would defend Guilin & Liuzhou for two months. Americans claimed that "Guilin fell to Japanese on Nov 10th after one day's fighting". Per citation of reporter Theodore White, the Chinese army had two thousand usable guns for a unit of 14,000 soldiers and no ammunition; the rest of relief armies were in disarray as they spread across 500 miles in defense positions; however, soldiers in Guilin did not lack food as five such soldiers were observed to have been finishing up 15 bottles of wine in cheers at the northern gate, numbly waiting for the arrival of Japanese. At Guilin, local and provincial Guangxi Army had engaged Japanese in a ferocious battle that lasted days. The city fell after majority of defenders sacrificed their lives. Days later, Liuzhou, 100 miles to the south, was taken by Japanese 11th Army. With coal supply cut off, locomotives on Railway Qian-Gui had to use substitute like tung oil. Locomotives often had difficulty climbing the steep segments of Jinchengjiang-Dushan Railway. Wu Xiangxiang stated that lots of supplies were unable to be shipped to the west when Japanese advanced from the east. Claiming that Frank Gleason of OSS had been blowing up bridges and everything to the west of Liuzhou, Donovan Webster stated that it was due to Frank Gleason of OSS blowing up 50,000 tons of ammunition in Dushan [i.e., Tushan, about 150 miles to the west of Liuzhou] that Japanese herald troops called off a continuous campaign towards the west. From Guilin to Dushan of Guizhou Province, Xu Zhucheng and his "Da Gong Bao" staff first trekked to Liuzhou. At Liuzhou, Xu Zhucheng boarded a train that would have to pay "checkpoint fee" at each stop for supplies like water. At a train station close to Nandan, locomotive itself reverted to Liuzhou for coal replenishment. People then trekked to Nandan on foot and then continued on to Dushan and Guiyang. Xu Zhucheng claimed that he had heard from people who last fled Guilin that soldiers had pillaged the city without putting up any significant fight against the Japanese. Other than the military debacle, Xu Zhucheng listed three more disasters on the road of retreat: i) train collision at Liuzhou where editor-in-chief Zhong Qisen of "Sweeping Campaign Newspaper" died with his whole family; ii) a fire disaster at Jinchengjiang dock of Nandan about two days after Xu Zhucheng's pass-through; and iii) American planes' mis-dropping bombs on Liuzhai of Dushan. (Xu Zhucheng cited ancient saying: "You would rather be a dog at peace time than be a man at war time", something that would for sure apply to war-tormented Iraqi people.) Stilwell Incident, Rifts Between US & China On July 6th [July 7th per ZLA] 1944, Franklin Roosevelt wired to Chiang Kai-shek with a suggestion that Joe Stilwell, now promoted to four star general, be empowered as the commander-in-chief of the War in China Theater.  Back on July 21st 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt's emissary, Launchlin Currie, arrived in Chungking a second time. Launchlin Currie had been authorized to investigate into the historical disputes between Chiang & Stilwell, with a decision that Stilwell concentrate on training the Chinese soldiers in India and report to Chiang Kai-shek in the name of "tactician-in-general" [Chief of Staff Strategists] for Chinese war theater. Stilwell, with tips from Marshal, managed to bribe Mme Chiang Kai-shek and Mme Kong Xiangxi to ward off the dismissal by Chiang Kai-shek; however, Song Ziwen went into a quarrel with Chiang Kai-shek over Stilwell by claiming that he would lose his credibility with those American friends who helped to oust Stilwell. John Service of US State Department at one time claimed to Roosevelt that Mao Tse-tung would be likely leader of China after the war, which led to Wallace delegation to China on June 21st 1944 as well as a mission to the communist base of Yan'an. Henry Wallace later expressed concern that Chiang Kai-shek could become China's Kerensky after the war. Thinking that Stilwell was inclined for arming the communist forces and hijacking the Nationalist government, Chiang Kai-shek had been resisting Roosevelt suggestion for months, even though US Vice President Henry Wallace came in late June and Patrick Hurley came on Sept 6th with the president's message. Chiang asked Kong Xiangxi mediate over the matter by contacting Hopkins, ending in the mission of special envoy Hurley. Patrick Jay Hurley, promoted (1944) to major general, was sent to China as envoy and proxy ambassador in Aug 1944. American ambassador Gauss [Gao-si] returned to US in Sept. After receiving American president-stamped Sept 18th order after the facilitation of a friend [Marshall] in US military back in DC, Stilwell rushed to Chiang Kai-shek's office the following afternoon with an ultimatum without regard for persuasion from Hurley. Stilwell arrogantly told Hurley that he had no right to delay US President's order. (Stilwell, surrounded by Comintern agents from Pacific Research Institute, had constantly complained that Chiang Kai-shek refused to relocate Hu Zongnan's forces away from Shenxi Province where a blockade of communist Yan'an was in effect for years. In deed, during the Ichigo Campaign in the spring of 1944, communist forces penetrated into the mountains where the Nationalist Army had withdrawn and attacked the compatriots instead of the Japanese. Li Ao gloated that Chiang Kai-shek's efforts at recalling partial of Chinese Expedition Forces from Burma antagonized Roosevelt so much that Roosevelt threatened Chiang with suspension of all US military supplies in a letter that Stilwell passed on to Chiang Kai-shek on Sept 19th 1944 against the objection of Hurley. With Nationalist Army weakened by Ichigo Campaign, communists dispatched Wang Zhen and two brigades to Hunan-Guangdong provincial border for launching an enclave.) Videos about China's Resistance War: China's Dunkirk Retreat (in English); 42 Video Series (in Chinese)
A meeting was held by Chiang Kai-shek on Sept 28th to break away from cooperation with US since Stilwell had threatened to withdraw all US personnel from Chinese battlefield previously. Chiang Kai-shek, however, countered the insult with a demand on Sept 25th that Stilwell must be replaced. From Sept 25th to Oct 19th, Chiang Kai-shek was in agony per ZLA: Japan, after routing Chinese forces in Hunan-Guangxi Campaign, were threatening Guilin & Liuzhou as well as Kunming, whereas Stilwell refused to dispatch Wei Lihuang's Chinese forces to Kunming or attack Bhamo of Burma from Myitkyina as a distraction. Stilwell countered Chiang Kai-shek by claiming that Chiang Kai-shek should relocate Hu Zongnan's troops away from encirclement of communist forces since communists had promised to attack Japanese in Hankou of Hubei Province from Shanxi-Henan provinces should they receive the US equipment. On the night of Oct 10th, Hurley reported to Roosevelt the bad blood between Chiang and Stilwell through a special Navy channel that circumvented around George Marshall's War Department, with an admonition to the effect of either losing Chiang Kai-shek & China or losing Stilwell. On Oct 19th, Roosevelt replied to Hurley to have Stilwell recalled. Stilwell returned to US on Oct 25th via New Delhi after inspecting on his Chinese expedition forces in Myitkyina on Oct 20th. Service, B. Atkinson & Theodore White ["Bai Xiude" in Chinese], who accompanied Stilwell home, then blasted Chiang Kai-shek as 'peanut' in US media. Roosevelt dispatched Albert Wedemeyer as a replacement. Chiang Kai-shek, deeply resentful over Stillwell over the monopolizing right over US Lease goods and equipment, had wrongly treated Stilwell without knowing the crony relationship between Stilwell and Marshall.  Meanwhile, Chennault, with an ambition for taking over the control of Chinese war theater in place of Stilwell, had proposed to defeat Japan with merely 500 fighter planes, i.e., a request with Roosevelt that Stilwell had deliberately short-circuited by acting in the role of commander-in-chief of Sino-Burmese Battlefield and American military representative to China. Throughout the war, Stilwell had only equipped the Chinese expeditionary forces in India [i.e., X Force] and partially equipped Stilwell's Chinese Y Force that was supposedly to come out of Yunnan-Burmese border; however, the US offer to equip 60 divisions of Chinese army never materialized. With Stilwell's success in Myitkyina Campaign against Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek, privately thinking that it was built on top of tens of thousands of Chinese deaths, would blame the debacle of Xiang-Gui [Hunan-Guangxi] Campaign on Stilwell's relocating the crack forces towards Burma. Chennault, after wrestling over control over US 14th Flight Group, also believed that China would not suffer the Xiang-Gui debacle should Stilwell have steered enough of the US Lease Act goods to his airforce in China. Per Donovan Webster, at one time during the Xiang-Gui [Hunan-Guangxi] Campaign, Stilwell was called over to Chiang Kai-shek's mansion where Chennault complained that his pilots had to moor the planes on the airfield for lack of petrol gas, but Stilwell did not even wink about it. (Both Stilwell and McArthur had suffered from a revenge mentality over their humiliations in the loss of the Philippines and Burma, respectively. To fulfill the ego, e.g., "I shall return [to Manila]", McArthur had overturned Admiral Nimitz's plan to attack Taiwan & Mainland China by orchestrating the campaign against the Philippines [see Gerhard L. Weinberg's "A World At Arms"].) The Stilwell Incident, per ZLA, would lead to Roosevelt's dark-box operation, i.e., betraying China's interests to the USSR. Zhang Lingao stated that US privately believed that should Japan surrender, puppet forces might throw themselves into the communist camp, hence strengthening the communist forces; that Marshall intended to incorporate the communist forces under omnipotent US helm for fight against Japan; that US contacted Joseph Stalin in request of an airport inside Russian territory for attacking Japanese; and that US believed that they had better give Manchuria to USSR rather than seeing the penetration of Russian Red Army into northern China via the routes of Outer Mongolia & Inner Mongolia. In Chungking, Li Zongren refuted Hurley's claim that Stalin had personally told him that CCP was no true communist but "land reformers". Li Zongren said that it was Stalin's diplomatically protocol wording and assured Hurley that CCP was 100% Third Comintern communist members and believers of Marxism-Leninism. Hurley replied that he trusted in Stalin because Stalin was a "political leader". Meanwhile, Japanese launched Phase II of its campaign by dispatching forces to Nujiang River area.
Battle of Dushan & Chiang Kai-shek's Hardship In Domestic & International Arenas In Chungking the interim capital, numerous leftist or undercover communists printed their magazines, including "Central Plains" [Guo Moruo] and "Masses" [Qiao Guanhua, aka Qiao Mu]. Xu Zhucheng pointed out that Guo Moruo published the article "Three Hundred Year Anniversary Of The Fall Of Ming Dynasty [in 1644]" in 1944, and likened Chiang Kai-shek's government to the rebel Li Zicheng who exited Peking after losing the fight to Wu Sangui and Manchu on April 22nd of 1644. In mid-Nov 1944, Japanese linked up with invasion forces from Indochina. In the winter of 1944, Japanese army launched an attack at Dushan of Guizhou Province as a last ditch effort of its war on mainland China. After sacking Dushan, Japanese went on to threaten Dujun [Duyun]. People in Chungking the interim capital as well as in Guiyang the provincial capital of Guizhou were shaken. Chungking government hinted that they would fight on by moving onto Mt E'meishan. Japanese, however, then rerouted southward for launching the continental corridor to Southeast Asia. Per Donovan Webster, Japanese might have attacked Dushan for the weapon depot that was blown up by agents of American OSS. In Shi Jue's opinions, Japanese had retreated from the Dushan area after its cavalry Rentai was completely destroyed by P-51 planes of the Allied Air Force in a valley to the southwest of Dushan. General Sun Yuanliang claimed that his contingent was responsible for hitting Japanese back single-handedly after marching hundreds of miles to the Dushan front. Elsewhere, in Burma, joint armies of the Northern Burma Campaign began to coordinate with William Slim's 14th British Army from India in attacking Burma's central plains. Per Donovan Webster, first of all, Stilwell's Chinese X-force would chase the Japanese into Sino-Burmese border for a union with the Y-force. Chinese communist party and "Chinese Democratic League" called upon Chiang Kai-shek in forming so-called "joint government" [i.e., coalition government]. Back on March 19th 1941, with clandestine support from communists, so-called "Chinese Democratic League of Political Organizations" [i.e., Min-Ge] was established in Chungking the interim capital. Among the activists would be Deng Chumin, Huang Songling, Ma Zhemin, Zhang Nanxian, Li Shucheng & Xie Hegeng. See KMT, CCP versus Democratic Parties for details. The debacle of Xiang-Gui-Qian [Hunan-Guangxi-Guizhou] Campaign would cause a loss of airports built for the American Airforce. United States hence sped up its attempts to strike secret deals with USSR instead of relying upon China for the war efforts. US Bombing Of Japanese [Including Collateral Damages To Chinese] In Manchuria, Japanese-controlled newspaper reported Italy's surrender in the summer of 1943. By 1944, Japanese citizens began to enroll in the army in Manchuria. On July 29th 1944, American B-29 bombers flew over Jinzhou. Japanese were busy digging bunkers. Daily exercises were held at schools. One friend of Jung Chang's mother was executed in the snowy field next to Xiaolinghe River Bay by Japanese military police in front of school for accidentally triggering the siren inside of a military arsenal bunker. A female Japanese teacher was kicked and hit by Japanese principal for crying about the execution death of the innocent Chinese girl. At about the same time, Manchurian police ordered an extermination movement against rats and flies. Jung Chang cited one police's comment to her mother in pointing out that Japanese loved to fry flies for food as a result of food shortage. On Sept 14th 1944, 31 American B-29 bombers, taking off from Chengdu, went to bomb a iron factory in Anshan of Manchuria, but dropped bombs on residential area, killing thousands of Chinese. On Oct 14th, American bombers, blindfolded by Japanese smoke, turned to Shenyang city where thousands of Chinese were killed. On Dec 18th, 98 American B-29 bombers dropped incendiary bombs on Hankou of Hubei Province, with fire raging on two banks of the Yangtze River by a distance of 5 kilometers. At China's Expense China had been excluded from the club of super powers throughout the war, other than the Cairo Conference, as a result of British and Russian exerting influence over USA. British and Russian, for maintaining their colonial and imperialist interests in and around China, did not want to see China victorious. After raising protests, China was allowed to station one official at the "joint chiefs of staff meeting between USA and Britain". In March 1944, Shang Zhen was dispatched to US for replacing Xiong Shihui as the head of Chinese military delegation to US. Shang Zhen, with Marshall approval, got to attend the conference. Shang Zhen visited Truman in White House. Later, in Aug, Shang Zhen participated in UN preparatory conference with two Chinese ambassadors Gu Weijun & Wei Daoming. In Oct 1944, United Nations was established. Gu Weijun, i.e., China's ambassador to Britain, sent over a telegraph to Chiang Kai-shek from Washington DC, stating that an American Navy general, William H. Leahy [Li-hai], had disclosed that USSR would for sure desire for a non-frozen port like Port Arthur [Luushun] which Britain would not object while America might concur. Chiang Kai-shek instructed that Gu Weijun found out about the deal between superpowers. Later, after the 'Crimea Declaration' ensuing from Feb 1945 Yalta Meeting, Chiang Kai-shek had instructed that Wei Daoming [ambassador to US] and Fu Bingchang [ambassador to USSR] find out about the secret agreement. Also in Oct 1944, British Prime Minister Churchill visited USSR, and on Oct 16th, mentioned that they expected that the war against Japan might end by the end of 1947. The second day, Stalin promised to declare war on Japan within 3 months of Germany's defeat. Stalin proposed to US a list of supplies for 60 divisions of Russian Red Army, i.e., an extra 1 million tons of supplies in addition to the items covered under Lease Act, including 120,000 tons of plane fuel, 70,000 tons of truck fuel, 30,000 trucks, 1500 jeeps, 500 C47 & C54 transporters, 30 cruisers, 50 submarines, 500 locomotives, 5-6000 carriages, and 800 kilometer long railway tracks.  Since British did not finalize the issue of Russian spheres of influence in the Far East, Stalin, on Dec 15th 1944, called over the American ambassador, and demanded that US concur with Russian recovery of interests prior to the 1904-5 Russian-Japanese War. Stalin told the American ambassador [Ha-li-man] that Roosevelt had agreed that USSR could have a non-frozen port in the Far East at the Tehran Meeting. Stalin had requested that the discussions at both Tehran Meeting and Dec 1944 meeting be kept confidential on the pretext that i) Chinese could not keep secrets, and ii) Japanese might take initiative against USSR should they find out about Russian attempts. US concurred with Britain as to Russian interests. Roosevelt dispatched Hopkins to seeing Russian foreign minister Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko [Ge-luo-mi-ko], with a suggestion of convening the later Yalta Conference to finalize the Far East issues. Stalin requested that meeting be held in Yalta within USSR. On Feb 4th-11th 1945, at Yalta Conference, the 'USSR-USA-UK Agreement In Regards To Japan' was secretly signed at the expense of China. In addition to two ports in Manchuria, Chinese-Eastern Railway, and Southern Manchurian Railway, Stalin obtained American acquiesce on the matter of making Outer Mongolia independent. Roosevelt thereafter locked up the secret agreement in his safe till his death. China did not know the betrayal till June 1945. World War II, in both the East and the West, were the inducements of the British, American[, and French] interest groups and syndicates. First the Locarno Treaty in 1920s. Then in 1931, President Herbet Hoover gave Japan a free hand in the invasion of Manchuria on the pretext that Japan could not tolerate a half-Bolshevik China. Therafter the Munich Agreement. For what? Britain and America wanted Hitler to attack the Soviet Union, and wanted Japan to suppress China's nationalist movement and counter the Soviet Union. In both cases, Stalin out-smarted the Anglo-American. Hitler attacked westward instead, and signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin to halve Poland; and Japan attacked Southeast Asia and Pearl Harbor after China, not the Soviet Union. Stalin was the evil genius of 20th century. Stalin, after the 1929 war against Zhang Xueliang over Chinese-Eastern Railway [which erupted over Russian and Chinese communist agitations in sabotaging Japan's attempt at building five additional railways in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia], quickly divested himself of the railway after Japan invaded Manchuria on Sept 18th, 1931. After initially calling on world communists to militarily defend the Soviet Union from 1931 to 1933, Stalin subsequently designed the united front in 1935, and ultimately in the time period of 1936-1937 successfully lit the fuse of the Sino-Japanese War by means of repeated GRU operations in northern China. Zheng Langping, in "An Everlasting Glory", blamed Chinese casualties during First Burma Campaign on Stilwell's multiple blunders. In Zheng Langping's opinion, the "Burma Counter-attack" would become an Anglo-American scheme to bog down China & Japan in a balanced way so that China would not emerge a victor to pose a threat to the Anglo-American interests in the Far East. The infamous Ledo Highway, i.e., Stilwell Highway, could be a trap to exhaust the bulk of US wartime aid to China while giving China much less benefit than what the Hump Course had delivered. Anglo-American hostility towards and subversion against China continued well into the 1940s, at which time General Wedemeyer, right after succession of Stilwell's post in 1944, reported to Washington DC in a cable, stating that "...British Ambassador personally suggested to me that a strong unified China would be dangerous to the world and certainly would jeopardize the white man's position immediately in Far East and ultimately throughout the world". Other than the notorious Yalta Betrayal, another equally dirty deal that deeply hurt China would be the Betrayal during the "San Francisco Peace Treaty". United States government, while still maintaining diplomatic relations with the Nationalist government in Taiwan, had no reason to ward off Chinese from the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" other than the ulterior motive in hurting the cause of the Chinese and China in the same cloak of pre-war colonialists. (More available at Century-long American hypocrisy towards China, Anglo-American & Jewish romance with Japanese and What Foreign Powers Did To The Flowery Republic Prior To, During And After The 1911 Revolution. Certainly, we did not have to remind the world that Russians, after signing a neutrality pact with Japan on April 13th 1941 [by betraying the 1937 non-aggression treaty between China and USSR], had sealed off China's continental exit to the north and northwest. Russian, who had dispatched "volunteer fighters" to China in late 1937, could have possibly eaten their words as to an agreed-upon declaration of war against Japan within half a year of the outbreak of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. Rather, Russians rounded up ethnic Chinese in the Far East in a cleansing via an exile to the Siberia gulags around the turn of 1940. In contrast, Russians deported Koreans to Kazakhstan.) Anglo-American supremacists, today, should have no worry about China anymore since the so-called "elites" of China, relatives and families of Chinese government officials, and the "street and market people of the cities", men and women included, had already capitulated to the West. What remained "unconquered" would be the humblest people of this earth, i.e., peasant Chinese, whom the communist government had enslaved and bondaged on behalf of the West; though, a word of caution for any daring invaders of China: poverty-stricken peasant Chinese could turn into even more deadlier fighters than Iraqi suicide bombers. Chinese communist rulers, who were pre-occupied with "pleasure-seeking and literature-decoration" like Manchu rulers, would most likely lose badly during the next confrontation which could be very well against the old feud [i.e., Japan, now a lethal force under American umbrella, but having no memory of either the pardon from the Republic of China or the humiliation of being declined a decent surrender by Russians]. Second Burma Campaign - Phase II Elsewhere, in southwestern Burma, William Slim's 14th British Army from Imphal of India, having defeated Japanese 15th Army, would cause a change of command in Japanese in Sept 1944. Slim, having taken Shwebo Plains in Central Burma, paused on the bank of Irrawaddy River instead of attacking Mandalay on the other shore. At Myitkyina, 754 tons of bombs dropped on Japanese per Webster. Joint armies of the Northern Burma Campaign began to coordinate with William Slim's 14th British Army from India in attacking Burma's central plains. British army, other than Slim's thrust in central Burma, mounted a coastal offence along the Bay of Bengal, with target set at Rangoon on the other side of peninsula. Under Dan Sultan, the combined X-force and Mars Task Force linked up the Ledo Road and Burma Road by crossing the Irrawaddy to the south of Myitkyina. To the south of Myitkyina would be Bhamo which then turned westward to link up with Mongyou. Ledo Road, going northwest to south after Myitkyina, was parallel to the ridges of Japanese defense positions at Tengchong [Tengchung], Mangyou [Mongyu] & Lungling. Per Donovan Webster, first of all, Stilwell's Chinese X-force would chase the Japanese up the Burma Road into Sino-Burmese border for a union with the Y-force. In Oct 1944, Phase II of Second Burma Battle began with Sun Liren's New 1st Corps attacking southern Burma from the eastern route. Sun Liren's Chinese forces, under US support, were re-organized into cannons regiment, engineering regiment, chemical regiment, logistics regiment, armored battalion, and field-to-air cannon regiment etc. Chinese fought the bloody war as herald column while British assumed the responsibility of administering the cities sacked by Chinese and Americans assumed the responsibility of providing logistical supplies. In Nov 1944, Chiang Kai-shek adopted the American advice in reforming the "jun [military] ling [order] bu [department" of the military commission by replacing Heh Yingqin with Chen Cheng, which led to the transformation of the military commission to the Defense Department after Japanese surrender. On Nov 7th 1944, Hurley flew to Yan'an for establishing a joint KMT-CCP government that would be based on communist relinquishing administrative and military control in exchange for assumption of cabinet posts. Mao Tse-tung countered him by stating that he would consider such a joint government on the precondition that US military aids be shared by communists first. In Yan'an, Mao Tse-tung resented US support for Chiang Kai-shek by claiming to David Barnett that "there would be one day when you Americans could not prop up [Nationalist regime] any more". Separately Mao Tse-tung claimed to John Service that each and every American soldier should be a live advertisement of democracy in China. Earlier, on June 13th 1944, Communist "Liberation Daily" newspaper in Yan'an published Mao Tse-tung's article entitled "Foretold Voice of History" which was a call for democracy. In the winter of 1944, Japanese army launched an attack at Dushan of Guizhou Province as a last ditch effort of its war on mainland China. Hu Zongnan's Liu Anqi division was airlifted to Guiyang of Guizhou Province for joining the campaign. After sacking Dushan, Japanese went on to threaten Dujun. Claiming that Nationalist might surrender should Japanese invade, Zhou Enlai made arrangement for some leftists or undercover communists to prepare for entry into the mountains while having some leave for Yan'an. Japanese, however, then rerouted southward for launching the continental corridor to Southeast Asia. Per Donovan Webster, Japanese might have attacked Dushan for the weapon depot that was blown up by agents of American OSS. Wedemeyer, as a precaution, flew two divisions of X-force to Kunming of Yunnan Province. On Jan 27th 1945, Sun Liren's New 1st Corps, together with China's Expedition Forces in Western Yunnan Province, took over Mangyou of Yunnan Province and re-linked the Burma-Yunnan Highway. In Jan 1945, after the Battle of Dian-xi [Western Yunnan Province], Sino-Burmese Highway [aka Stilwell Highway], from Kunming of Yunnan Province to Ledo [Lei-duo] of India, was under full control. American 10th Air Force began a campaign to bomb Japanese targets in Burma and India for months, leading to the final destruction of the infamous River Kwae Bridges, both steel and wooden bridges, on April 2nd & 3rd 1945, respectively. CCP Relationship With US
On Nov 7th 1944, TV Soong suggested that Hurley go to Yenan after Russian consulate official hinted to Jiang Jingguo that Stalin might hold a meeting with Chiang Kai-shek in regards to Russian acknowledgment of Chiang Kai-shek's regime in preference over communists. Hurley flew to Yenan for establishing a joint KMT-CCP government that would be based on communist relinquishing administrative and military control in exchange for assumption of cabinet posts. Zhou Enlai, seeing Hurley's arrival, immediately went back to fetch Mao Te-tung for a reception at the airport. On Oct 8th, Hurley stated that Chiang Kai-shek was willing to acknowledge the communists and admit the communists to the high command military committee. Mao Tse-tung first rebutted Chiang Kai-shek's qualification for leading communist troops, and then proposed to establish a joint military committee for equal-footing consultation. Zhou Enlai softened the situation by claiming that 100 million people in “liberated area” would not agree with Chiang Kai-shek. Hurley produced a stack of documents, with five points as to CCP-KMT collaboration. Mao Tse-tung countered Hurley by having Zhu De & Zhou Enlai draft with five modified points, stating that communists were willing to have unification of military and politics on the precondition that Chiang Kai-shek's National Government be converted to a “coalition government”. On Nov 10h, Hurley brought the signed stipulations back to Chungking. Zhou Enlai advised Hurley of bypassing TV Song in sending the document to Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek then countered with three points draft, which was to emphasize the unification of command under the military commission of the National Government in exchange for communist participation in such committee. On Nov 22nd, the new draft was presented to Zhou Enlai who hastily declined it by demanding the precondition of forming a coalition government. Zhou Enlai, Dong Biwu and David Barnett flew to Yenan on Dec 7th. Mao and communists had contrived the idea of a joint government as a precondition with more than likely inputs from “leftist” US State Department personnel. In addition to an expectation for a coalition government, the communist side had all along received private assurance from Stilwell and State Department personnel that US military aids could be shared between the Nationalist Army and the communist army. Mao Tse-tung certainly resented US support for Chiang Kai-shek by claiming to David Barnett that "there would be one day when you Americans could not prop up [Nationalist regime] any more". Separately, Mao Tse-tung claimed to John Service that each and every American soldier should be a live advertisement of democracy in China. Barnett, two days later, brought back a communist threat of taking initiative for establishing a different Chinese regime should 'coalition government' fail to take place. In a rage, Hurley kicked Davies out of China for producing the 'coalition government' idea. On Dec 15th 1944, Hurley took over the ambassador job from Gauss. On Jan 9th 1945, Chinese communists, having determined that Hurley was not on their side, contacted the Dixie Mission for relaying a letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt direct, with a suggestion that Mao Tse-tung or Zhou Enlai could personally make a trip to USA for such an in-person meeting with Roosevelt. Wedemeyer revoked Barrett's chief post for Dixie delegation in mid-Jan. The fallout was due to Barrett and Bird's secret mission to Yenan on Dec 14th 1944, during which time Donovan's Office of Strategic Services promised to equip 25,000 communist guerrilla fighters. In Yenan [Yan'an], Mao Tse-tung and communists, with full knowledge that OSS had unlimited unvouched money, had thought that they might really obtain a big sum loan from the US government for purchasing weapons and ammunition from puppet troops. On Jan 23rd, Zhu De requested for a loan of 20 million US dollars. Hurley consequently cautioned the embassy officials and officers that nobody should ever discuss the matter of military aid or financial aid for any Chinese party or military faction. Other than Wedemeyer's sending away Barrett, Hurley kicked out Jack Service and Ray Ludden from US embassy in Chungking. The fallout was related to Service's instigating the embassy staff into a direct report to the Washington DC in the absence of Hurley who returned to Washington DC on Feb 19th 1945 for Yalta Agreement briefings. Service mentioned in the report that Chinese communist had undertaken actions in accordance with last summer's threat, i.e., expanding their domain southward by encroaching on Nationalist territories, including South China, with eruption of skirmishes against Central Government troops. After receiving Service-drafted letter, State Department attached it to a report for Secretary of State to pass on to the US President, basically stating that it was no longer a matter of choice between Chiang Kai-shek and Chinese communists but to force Chiang Kai-shek into allowing the US to arm whoever was willing to fight Japanese. Other than US State Department officials, some emissary under finance minister Morgenthau repeatedly attacked Hurley as someone who caused the Chinese communists distant from US. Inside of State Department, China section chief, while emphasizing the American elasticity policy to Chiang Kai-shek regime, had suggested that i) militarily equipping the Chinese army for fighting Japanese being the American short-term goal, any measures that would make China into a post-war strong power in Asia is unrealistic; ii) that United States should also make it a short-term agenda to army any Chinese fighting force whenever American military landed on the Chinese coasts; iii) that American long-term objective would be to help China to become a united, democratic and cooperating country, but not necessarily under Chiang Kai-shek; and iv) that elastic relationship with Chiang Kai-shek is essential to future US cooperation with other Chinese political forces. Hurley, having seen Service report on March 4th, cursed Service as a s.o.b. and promised to get rid of Service even though it meant his last action on job. Hurley obtained support from Wedemeyer and Dulles. Franklin Roosevelt, after Yalta, badly needed Hurley for fending off accusations that he had signed 'conspiracy' agreements with Stalin. On April 2nd, Hurley hosted a news conference and defended the US's China policy. Hurley, under Roosevelt's authorizations, flew to Moscow and London consecutively for lobbying for China's interests as a makeup for the secret betrayal at Yalta. On April 3rd, Hurley went to London. Churchill flatly declined Hurley's request to yield HK back to China as an international open port. On April 15th, en route to Moscow, Hurley heard about Roosevelt's death. Unlike bad experiences in London, Stalin assured Hurley that he would do everything possible to help China unite under the National Government. AMERASIA - Comintern/Russian Agents Hijacking US Government Inside of US, on June 6th, FBI arrested six people over leakage of information by Amerasia magazine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerasia The Legend of Mark Gayn The Reality of Red Subversion: The Recent Confirmation of Soviet Espionage in America
Congressional interest in the case continued however. In 1946, a House Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Rep. Samuel F. Hobbs and, in 1950, the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees, or "Tydings Committee", investigated the Amerasia case. In 1955, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee asked the Justice Department to deliver the Amerasia materials to them. The records were declassified and in 1956 and 1957, the Justice Department delivered 1,260 documents to the subcommittee. The committee published The Amerasia Papers: A Clue to the Catastrophe of China (2 vols., 1970), summarizes the case. Amerasia's chief financial benefactor was Frederick V. Field. Jaffe, a friend of CPUSA general secretary Earl Browder. Its staffers and writers included many Communists. Joseph Bernstein, a GRU contact between Soviet agents operating in the Office of Strategic Services and the Board of Economic Warfare, was one of its ex-employees. The highest level government employee arrested in the Amerasia case was State Department official John Service, one of John Carter Vincent's "China Hands", shared living quarters with Solomon Adler of the Treasury Department when they both served in China. Service and Alder sent steady streams of dispatches from China attacking Chiang Kai-shek and urging that the U.S. government cease aid. Upon Services return to the United States, Service spent much time in the company of Jaffe, whom he attested he had just met, delivering copies of his reports, and commenting to Jaffe while under audio surveillance by FBI that, "What I said about the military plans is, of course, very secret". Andrew Roth, also arrested in the case, was the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) liaison officer with the Department of State. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin years later said that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover believed he had an "airtight case," and Justice Department officials were ready to prosecute. The case displayed every type of security breach imaginable, and federal crime: theft of documents, policy subversion, cover-up, perjury, and obstruction of justice. Then, for some mysterious reason, the Justice Department swept the matter under the rug. Service was restored to State Department duties. Jaffe and Larsen received fines, and all others were not prosecuted. McCarthy maintained it was a security breach and cover-up of immense proportions. Yalta Betrayal, Potsdam Declaration, & Japanese Surrender In Feb 1945, at Yalta Meeting, Roosevelt, still resentful of Chiang Kai-shek's antagonisms on the matter of Stilwell & Chinese Expedition Forces, reached a secret deal with Churchill in rewarding Stalin with the former ownership in Chinese Eastern Railroad and the territories of Sakhalin Island. Stalin, back in Dec 1944, requested with Hopkins that meeting be held in Yalta within USSR. On Feb 4th-11th 1945, at Yalta Conference, the 'USSR-USA-UK Agreement In Regards To Japan' was secretly signed at the expense of China. In addition to two ports in Manchuria, Chinese-Eastern Railway, and Southern Manchurian Railway, Stalin obtained American acquiesce on the matter of making Outer Mongolia independent. After Stalin pressured Roosevelt into the agreement on 10th, Stalin sent the document to Churchill the second day for endorsement. Wei Daoming [ambassador to US] and Fu Bingchang [ambassador to USSR] failed to find out about the secret agreement. The secret document was not fully known to Chiang Kai-shek till after the so-called Sino-Russian friendship treaty, i.e., Feb 11th 1946. (See Felix Wittmer's THE YALTA BETRAYAL.) Li Ao commented, via citation of ancient saying that "a person is insulted by others only when that person insulted himself, that should China have waged a few victorious campaigns against Japan, then China would not see its interests hurt by big powers like US, Britain and USSR. However, this was incorrect. From the start of war, Britain had time and again instructed American counterparts that should China gain an upper hand over Japan, Britain might not recover its colonial interests inside of China. In 1944, Britain told Wedemeyer that "a strong unified China would be dangerous to the world and certainly would jeopardize the white man's position immediately in Far East and ultimately throughout the world". Per ZLA, Britain wanted to see Chinese troops defeated during the First Burma Campaign, not to mention its earlier decision to shut down the Burma Highway for three months. By March 27th, Sun Liren's New 1st Corps completed the Second Burma Campaign by taking over more than 50 Burmese cities. In the spring of 1945, Japanese army attacked Xixiakou in western Henan Province, and Hu Zongnan's 31st Corps-group fought against Japanese for months without letting go an inch of land. In April 1945, Hurley, as a champion of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Chinese government, blamed CCP for refusing to form a joint government and charged that officials in the US Department of State had subverted the U.S. policy of support to Chiang’s government. On April 12th, Roosevelt passed away. The next day, Chiang Kai-shek received another telegraph from Gu Weijun who stated that American Navy General Li-hai [William Leahy] had tested his response in regards to China's possible reaction to Russian grabbing Dalian and Luushun [Port Arthur] ports. Gu Weijun's response was that i) China would seek a peaceful solution in dealing with possible Russian takeover of two ports and ii) Russians could have better find a non-frozen port inside of Korea. Chiang Kai-shek promptly dispatched Song Ziwen to US on the pretext of condoling on Roosevelt's death. President Truman avoided in-depth discussion with Song, while Hopkins claimed that he knew nothing about the details of Yalta Agreement to which he was a party. In San Francisco, on April 27th, Song Ziwen encountered Molotov at the ceremony of the founding of United Nations. Song was surprised that Molotov enthusiastically greeted him with words like "I was expecting to see you [Song] in Moscow ... but very happy to see you [Song] in San Francisco instead..." Song Ziwen promptly notified Chiang Kai-shek of unusual Russian attitude. Western Hunan Campaign & Battle of Mt Xuefengshan Japanese Attacking Liu Ruming's Troops At Nanyang Hu Zongnan Recovering Chunhua-xian Area From Yenan's Communist Encroachment Hu Zongnan's Xixiakou Campaign Against Japanese Japan's Surrender On May 9th, Germany surrendered. Though Jinzhou was spared bombing by American B-29, numerous other Manchurian cities were bombed. People were holding out hope that Japan would surrender soon. On his way home, Hurley stopped over in Moscow and misunderstood Stalin's comment as to Soviet support for CCP. On May 22nd, in Chungking, Hurley privately disclosed the main items of Yalta Agreement to Chiang Kai-shek and requested that Chiang Kai-shek refrain from raising the issues to both USA and USSR. Chiang Kai-shek instructed that Song Ziwen contact Truman immediately. Song and Truman had three meetings in regards to Port Arthur and Outer Mongolia. On June 9th 1945, Truman officially told Song Ziwen that he was to honor the late President's signature on the Yalta Agreement and requested that China dispatch a delegation to Moscow for stamping a Sino-Russian friendship agreement no later than July 1st. Truman rudely declined Song Ziwen's further protest, and claimed that Hurley would officially pass on the Yalta Agreement to Chiang Kai-shek which Hurley did on June 15th. Separately, Chiang Kai-shek attempted to repair damages by calling over Russian ambassador for a meeting on June 26th. On June 27th, Song Ziwen's delegation left Baisiyi Airport of Chungking [Chungking] for Moscow. Cunning Stalin deliberately wanted Song Ziwen to go to Moscow by declining Gu Weijun whom Song Ziwen had recommended for sake of avoiding an inevitable humiliation. On June 11th, Mao Tse-tung made a speech in regards to "Silly Old Man Bent On Moving A Mountain" and expressed opposition to US policy of support for Chiang Kai-shek. In July, CCP refused to attend the 3rd meeting of "participation in administration" held by Nationalist in Chungking. On July 21st, Hu Zongnan's troops moved against Chunhuaxian county. Li Ao claimed that Albert Wedemeyer deliberately sent US servicemen to the region to segregate Nationalist Government troops from CCP. Later, on Sept 5th 1944, "participation in administration" dispatched Fu Sinian and Hu Lin to Yan'an for inspecting on communists. As reporter for Voice of China, Lu Keng was sent to the European Battlefield. On July 1st 1945, "War Correspondents Accredited by Supreme Headquarters of Allied Expeditionary Force" marched towards Berlin from France via planes and jeeps. Along the road, reporters only encountered handicapped German men in addition to children and women. On July 2nd, reporters first met Russian soldiers who had the notoriety of occupying residential houses and monopolizing the German women. Russian army had another policy in having Germans supply food to the Red Army rather than transporting it from USSR. Russians put up a sign, stating that Germans would reconstruct under the leadership of Stalin. By the afternoon of July 3rd, reporters arrived in Berlin. A German woman begged for food with Chinese reporters by claiming that her late husband, Meng-sha, had served as adviser to Chiang Kai-shek in China. Chinese embassy still retained 4 storeys out of the 6-storey building; however, Wang Deyin, i.e. son of traitor Wang Jitang, had already deserted the building on April 7th for his brother's embassy in Madrid. (Puppet Nanking Government re-opened the embassy after ROC recalled Chen Jie from Germany in July 1941.) On July 4th, Lu Keng collected cans and food for the German woman. Hordes of German women went to the outskirts for collecting wild plants for food. At the German government building, American GIs prankishly shouted "Hi Hitler!" Inside of the building, Lu Keng located some iron crosses that Russians failed to notice. Lu Keng went on to Vienna, and noticed that "war correspondents", who lived in top hotel and enjoyed rationed food, often traded sex with local women. In France, on Aug 25th 1945, Chinese reporters, having requested Chinese ambassador protest against France, would see China's national flag flying among "five powers". Incidentally, overseas Chinese complained to reporters that Chinese ambassador to Holland, Dong Lin, had "embezzled" their money which the Chinese had requested for transfer to China: Later, it was determined that those Chinese had enjoyed the protection of German General von Alexander Falkenhausen in smuggling goods and commodities during wartime.  Japanese continued their futile struggles in Luzon and Okinawa. Negotiation between China and USSR started on July 1st, but was adjourned due to Stalin's participation in Potsdam Meeting inside Germany on July 14th-Aug 9th. On July 17th, Song Ziwen returned to China and insisted on resigning his post, and later on Aug 5th, Wang Shijie was sent to Moscow as a scapegoat. US, USSR and Britain issued the Potsdam Declaration, calling for Japan to surrender, on July 17th 1945. In July, Sun Liren's New 1st Corps returned to Nanning, the provincial capital of Guangxi Province. Sun Liren was invited to Europe by Eisenhower. On Aug 6th, US Plane Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb [i.e., Little Boy] on Hiroshima, and three days later, US dropped a second atomic bomb [i.e., Fat Man] on Nagasaki. In between, on the night of Aug 8th, Molotov suddenly invited Wang Shijie & Fu Bingchang to Russian foreign ministry, opened champagne, and read aloud Russian declaration of war on Japan. At about the same time, in Manchuria, on Aug 8th, Jung Chang's mother and her whole school were ordered to go to a shrine to pray for "Japanese victory". On Aug 9th, Russian and Mongolian troops entered Manchuria. People in Manchuria talked about the atomic bombs. Schools were closed. Presidential attaché office, on Aug 10th, found out from the US government about Japan's surrender requests with USSR and Sweden, respectively. On Aug 12th, in Moscow, Wang Shijie & Fu Bingchang reported to Chiang Kai-shek that Russians did not want to yield anything stipulated in Yalta Agreement. On the same day, Americans accepted Japan's request through the Swedish intermediary. By Aug 13th, people in Manchuria were talking about Japan's peace offer. Thinking that 1.5 million Russians were already inside of Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek authorized Wang Shijie & Fu Bingchang in signing the friendship agreement, with a minor modification as to a public referendum for Outer Mongolia [that was held later on Oct 20th]. Japanese emperor officially stamped the surrender letter on 14th. Across China, back on the afternoon of Aug 10th 1945, newspapers printed extra edition with the news. Celebrations and fireworks filled the air. Japan, in addition to the humiliation of two Atomic bomb attacks by the US, would be declined 'decent surrender' by the Russians: Since Russians were eager to invade Manchuria & Korea, Japan had to turn around to request with Sweden for relaying a message of surrender. On Aug 15th 1945, around noon, hours after Chiang Kai-shek made a 15 minute radio speech about "pardoning the enemies" in Chungking of China at 9:00 am, Japanese emperor decreed an end of war via radio, agreeing to unconditional surrender, but with a rebellious tone, asking Japanese to "tolerate what other peoples could not tolerate and do what other peoples could not do". Earlier in the day, people in Manchuria were already circulating the news that Japanese emperor would make an important radio address. After the announcement, puppet emperor Pu-yi abdicated. Japanese staff were seen crying together at school by Jung Chang's mother. The next morning, dead Japanese bodies appeared on the streets. Some Japanese officers committed suicide and killed own family members. Male students sorted out Japanese teachers and hit them as retaliation. Japanese women often left their babies in front of Chinese households in the hope that their kids would survive, and Japanese women cut off their hair and disguised as men. Looting, pillaging and raping went on for 8 days till Russian arrival. As to the ultimate defeat of Japanese, Li Zongren ascribed to the island country's narrow-mindedness, short sight, and mis-reading of historical conquests of China. Li Zongren pierced Japan's two-faced and hypocritical national character, i.e., Japan could only conduct "silkworm-kind eating away" against China rather than "whale-like swallowing" of China as Mongols did. Li Zongren, having ridiculed Japan's gradual committing 60-70 Shidans to China as dripping soy-sauce oil, commented that Japan could have won the war should it apply its 20 standing Shidans to northern/northwestern China as well as southern/southwestern Chinese coasts at the same time, and that with China conquered, Japan could very well mobilize China's manpower and resources for further conquest of the World as Genghis Khan had done. Li Zongren further commented that Japan, with fabricated theme of "Mukden Incident" or "Marco Polo Bridge Incident" directing their logic and mindset, dared not even acknowledge the invasion nature of their acts. The Japanese are still in this limbo today !!! Note that Americans, other than the notorious Yalta Betrayal, had another equally dirty deal that deeply hurt China and benefited Japan, i.e., the Betrayal during the "San Francisco Peace Treaty". Legally speaking, the hostility between China and Japan did not end with the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" since neither the Nationalist Government nor the CCP was invited to the conference by the allied powers. Though, Americans, who had authorized John Leighton Stuart in staying put during the communist takeover of Nanking the capital and further holding two talks with communist diplomat Huang Hua, suddenly decided to postpone the recognition of the emerging communist regime. Back in Aug 1949, 1000 page US White paper was published by D.G. Acheson, which was widely construed as the first step of US justification for recognizing the CCP. Hence, the United States government, while still maintaining diplomatic relations with the Nationalist government in Taiwan, had no reason to ward off Chinese from the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" other than the ulterior motive in hurting the cause of the Chinese and China in the same cloak of pre-war colonialists. 1945-1949 Civil War Korean War: 6/25/1950 - 7/27/1953 Vietnamese War
1945-1949 Civil War Liao-Shen Campaign Korean War Vietnamese War Written by Ah Xiang |
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Copyright 1998-2011:
This website expresses the personal opinions of the webmaster. In addition to the webmaster's comments, extensive citations and quotes of ancient Chinese classics (available at http://www.sinica.edu.tw/ftms-bin/ftmsw3) were presented via transcribing and paraphrasing the Classical Chinese language into the English language. Whenever possible, links and URLs are provided to give credit and reference to ideas borrowed elsewhere. This website may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, with or without prior the written permission, on the pre-condition that an acknowledgement or a reciprocal link is expressively provided. All rights reserved. WARNING: Some of the pictures, charts and graphs posted on this website came from copyrighted materials. Citation or usage in the print format or for the financial gain could be subject to fine, penalties or sanctions without the original owner's consent.
ECON 101:  US Interest Rate Down =  China Exchange Rate Up !
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Huanghuagang Magazine 
Republican China in Blog Format
![At the time [when China fell under the alien rule],](http://imperialchina.org/0442201b51e71777df540167-resized.jpg)
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![Though, Anna Wang [Anneliese Martens], in her memoirs, expressed jealousy over Gong Peng by stating that the Anglo-American reporters had flattered the Chinese communists and the communist movement as a result of being entranced with the goldfish-eye'ed personal assistant of Zhou Enlai](GongPeng.jpg)
At least 5000 government troops lost their lives during the Huangqiao-Xinghua Battle.
Though, Comintern and I.P.R agents, embedded with communist N4C since 1938, continued to broadcast the fake news of N4C fighting against Japanese through the relay of news agencies in Shanghai's international settlement.
