On this day, the New Eighth Division of the National Revolutionary Army was ordered to implement the Yellow River breach plan at Huayuankou.
This incident completely changed the course of the war, and at the same time made China pay a heavy price. The damage caused by the breach and diversion of the Yellow River spread all over 3 provinces and 44 counties, and the death toll was as high as 890,000.
Xiong Xianyu, then the staff officer of the New Eighth Division, directed and implemented the whole process of dike breaking.
Xiong Xianyu of the Second Historical Archives of China recorded this incident in detail in the Diary of the Anti-Japanese War.
He wrote in an oral article:
On the river bank, there is an abandoned Guandi Temple. There was no one in the temple, and the door was wide open.
We all went in, kowtowed three times to Guan Yunchang with a red face and beard, and lit incense.
At that moment, we all showed great piety and solemnity.
I knelt on the ground and prayed silently: "Master Guan, the Chinese nation is in great trouble at the moment and has been bullied badly by the Japanese devils.
We couldn't beat them, so we had to yellow the river and drown people. You must forgive us. "
About an hour later, I decided to break the bank about 300 meters west of Guandi Temple.
I like this place because it is the bend of the Yellow River. The river is fierce and suddenly blocked at the foot. The pressure is greater than the straight line and it is easy to burst.
And from the map, the river gushed from Huayuankou area, overflowed Kaifeng, Zhongmou, Weishi, Tongxu, Fugou and Xihua, which had been occupied by the Japanese invaders, and then flowed into Jia Luhe, flowing to the Huaihe River in the southeast.
Jia Luhe can be a natural barrier to prevent the endless flooding of the river and reduce the losses suffered by the people.
....
There is no doubt that this is an extremely heavy sacrifice of the Chinese nation.
It is precisely because of this heavy sacrifice that the war situation that was seriously unfavorable to me was changed, and the arrogant Japanese aggressors' attempt to quickly go south to take Wuhan and attack Tongguan in the west after seizing Zhengzhou (when the high command decided to give up Zhengzhou) was shattered.
If there is no Yellow River barrier, after the fall of Zhengzhou, the enemy will inevitably push Wuhan; From Henan to Hubei, there is not only railway transportation, but also flat terrain, which is very beneficial to the enemy's mechanized troops.
There is only one victory that our army can intercept according to the dangerous situation. Once it breaks through, the war situation is unimaginable.
From a purely military point of view, Huayuankou burst its banks, which is a "survival with broken arms" that China has to take in the face of a strong enemy when its economy, military, science and technology are completely backward. It is related to the national peril and Huaying's survival.
Future generations should understand that they made great sacrifices in the local area before they won the tragic victory of the nation.
General Jiang Baili wrote on the title page of "On National Defense" published by 1937: "There are thousands of words, just to tell everyone that China has a way!"
Comment: The last sentence is well said. China has an idea. Hope * * * to play the fine tradition of China army. In the Taiwan Province Strait, I think we have a way.
* * * The army, as the front-line force against the Japanese aggressors in the anti-Japanese battlefield, has a life-and-death battle with the Japanese aggressors, and there are countless stories.
Because of the ideological struggle 50 years ago, the performance of the * * * army as the main force of the Chinese nation's eight-year anti-Japanese war was diluted, covered up and even discredited. I think the cultural and historical circles should launch an activity to restore the true colors of history, so that the anti-Japanese deeds of the officers and men who are also sons and daughters of China can be rediscovered and encouraged by future generations.