This is the last remaining ship of the China Navy, including the Haiqi, which attended the coronation ceremony of the British king and cruised South America to protect American nationals. It was introduced by 1909. After two generations of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, he finally made a final contribution to China's anti-Japanese war in Jiangyin: firmly blocking the main channel of the Yangtze River, preventing the Japanese Navy's Third Fleet from going up the river and threatening the rear of China.
The ship was gone, but China's navy was not destroyed. After losing the fleet, he was still on the front line of the Anti-Japanese War, and under the command of Chen Shaokuan, commander-in-chief of the navy, he carried out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines.
Chen Shaokuan, born in a naval family in Fuzhou, 1908 graduated from Jiangnan Naval Academy with the highest honors. In World War I, he was ordered to join the British navy submarine force to fight against Germany and won the meritorious military service. He was the first person in China to realize the importance of aircraft carriers. He once said: "In the naval battle, if the modern navy wants to take attack measures, it must rely on the aircraft carried on board."
1928, he proposed to Chiang Kai-shek a plan to spend 20 million yuan to build an aircraft carrier. In June, 1943, 1 1, Chen Shaokuan once again put forward a huge naval construction plan: the national coast needs 20 aircraft carriers, each with a cost of1800 million yuan. The plan shocked everyone, including Chiang Kai-shek. Chen Shaokuan said: "The country can't save this money."
Chen Shaokuan is a passionate navy general and a great dreamer. Unfortunately, China, who was weak in the modern Republic of China, was always at home and abroad, and the country really could not support his great dream. As a result, he became the poorest naval commander in modern China.
After the war in Wuhan, the Japanese army occupied the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and at this time there were only a dozen inland gunboats left in the China Navy. At this time, Chen Shaokuan proposed that in addition to insisting on defensive operations in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the main naval force should also be deployed to conduct mine guerrilla warfare in enemy-occupied areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to disrupt and destroy its water transportation. "This is the top priority of today's work."
Compared with the fixed mines laid in front of the front line, the guerrilla mines laid behind the enemy lines are more offensive and shocking.
1in August, 938, the naval command set up a mine-laying team to sneak into enemy-occupied areas to lay mines. On September 8, the first team of the commando set out from Liyushan and laid 80 mines in the main channel of the Yangtze River. Soon, two Japanese ships were sunk by floating thunder in the river near Wuxue, Hubei Province.
After the success of the first battle, the brave rangers continued down the river, crossed the front Japanese army and reached Datong and Guichi, Anhui Province, which had become the enemy lines. On the evening of September 20th, in the dead of night, they secretly laid 60 floating mines in the river, which successfully delayed the plan of the Japanese navy to return to the river and greatly relieved the pressure of China troops who were fighting fiercely at the front line of Tianjia Town.
Since then, China's navy, which lost its ships, has found its own anti-Japanese battlefield.
1940 1, the navy formally established the Yangtze River Minelaying Guerrilla. Headquartered in Shangrao, the business scope is from Hukou to Wuhu. They attacked on a large scale and laid mines everywhere, which made Japanese ships once afraid to park on the river below the hukou, but only dared to park on the river above Jiujiang. From the "log book" of Japanese ships, it can be seen that ships have been in a state of "moving sentry" with high tension for a long time.
Faced with the threat of guerrilla mines, the Japanese army initially adopted the "escort law", that is, warships were used to guard merchant ships and transport ships. At that time, the Japanese army instructed ships to sail. "All merchant ships sailing above Wuhu must be led by warships." In this regard, Chen Shaokuan proudly commented: "What's the use of escort? Protecting merchant ships with warships is not a gift from warships? "
That's true. Japan's escort did not achieve much, but increased the loss of warships.
By the time the Pacific War broke out, more than 40 Japanese transport ships had been hit by mines, causing great losses to the Japanese army. According to Japanese statistics after the war, 90% of the ships lost in China were damaged by lightning.
However, behind the fruitful results, the work of mine guerrillas is obviously not so easy.
First of all, the floating mine is very heavy, and a floating mine needs at least four people to carry it. In enemy-occupied areas, when the weather is bad or the road is long, it even takes eight people to carry it in two shifts. This transportation process is easily destroyed by the enemy. Therefore, drifting mines often need to be disguised and transported to secret strongholds in occupied areas for storage. Wait until it is time to mine, and then move to the designated place. Every time the guerrillas go to Brethous, they are important information directly mastered by the highest military authorities.
In action, the mine-laying guerrillas, like other guerrillas behind enemy lines, have to walk between the ubiquitous Japanese and puppet strongholds and avoid the Japanese warships that are constantly patrolling. Therefore, before each action, they must accurately survey and demonstrate the route, and also need the cooperation of the Japanese and puppet camps.
Then, they will sneak into the scene dressed as ordinary people. Before the operation, they only carried light weapons and small radios and often lived in ancestral temples or houses abandoned by refugees. Their favorite weather is night, strong wind, heavy rain and snowy days, which is an excellent opportunity for the Thunder team to work.
Their work is in great need of cover cooperation, and poor cooperation will have disastrous consequences. 1941September, in order to cooperate with the second Changsha Battle, Captain Liu sent two Lei brigades to attack. 1 brigade under the command of captain Cheng Fakan, cooperated with the headquarters of the 50 th Army to mine near Qiupu River in Guichi.
However, due to the huge lineup of dispatched troops, it was discovered by the Japanese army, and the two sides launched a fierce battle around the Qiupu River. Just as the army troops were fighting fiercely with the Japanese army, the mine team crossed the Qiupu River and laid mines forcibly. Unexpectedly, the mine was laid successfully, the army troops were repelled by the Japanese army, and the south bank of the Qiupu River was occupied. Prior to this, the ships crossing the river were also detained by the Japanese army, and the officers and men of the naval mine-laying team were trapped in paddy fields.
Some officers and men who ventured across the river were shot and killed by the Japanese army; The remaining officers and men trapped in the paddy fields can only be captured by the Japanese because they have no heavy weapons and carry pistol bullets quickly.
More than 80 naval officers and men of China participated in mine laying, and two companies of 50 armies were responsible for the cover. After completing the task of laying mines, only a dozen people returned to their posts from enemy-occupied areas by September 29. More than 300 other mine-laying players, troops covering the mine-laying team and supporting the masses were captured by the Japanese army.
The Japanese army hated the players who laid mines in China. Once captured, they tortured them in the worst way, and the horror was filmed. Prior to this, a spy named Chen Musheng was ordered to sneak into the enemy-occupied area of Hukou to explore the enemy's situation. Unfortunately, he was captured by the Japanese. The Japanese army sawed off every part of his body alive and threw it into the river.
The Japanese knew that naval minesweepers were mixed in, but they couldn't find anyone wearing naval uniforms. So all the prisoners were tied to barbed wire and tied to the barbed wire of the Japanese stronghold. On the morning of September 29, there were three captured soldiers in army uniforms, and the Japanese army was suspected to be a member of the mine team. At that time, they were taken to barbed wire and shot 100 meters away.
Then, the Japanese army began to interrogate and screen the remaining China prisoners of war. During the trial, several mine-laying players were recognized by the Japanese army. The cruel Japanese navy clamped them with two boards, then sawed them off from the middle with a saw, and didn't survive until they saw people in half.
At this time, Cheng Fakan, the captain of the first demining brigade, took the initiative to stand up and said, "I am the captain of the mine team. I am very happy that my team members are out of danger. " His words made the Japanese stop the cruelty of sawing people.
On the morning of September 30th, Cheng Fakan and other remaining captured officers and men were taken to Wushajia Wharf and sent by steamboat to a big ancestral temple behind Anqing Temple, which was the concentration camp of the Japanese aggressors. Later, Cheng Fakan was escorted to Nanjing for imprisonment. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Cheng Fakan became the captain of the "Civil Rights Ship" and the chief of staff of the training fleet.
According to the data, the combat achievements of the mining corps are concentrated in 1940 and 194 1 year. Among them, 1940 sank 8 1 ship a year, with a total tonnage of about 88,000 tons, killing two or three thousand enemy soldiers. When Chen Shaokuan reported this achievement to Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek could hardly believe it, so he called Gu, commander of the third war zone, for verification. After checking, Gu called back "It's all true".
Lin Zun, the leader of the mine guerrilla group, pointed out that 1940, the navy "recovered almost three times the cost" and "solved the mystery of" where the navy is going "that many people care about.
Until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Yangtze River basin often heard the sound of mine explosions and became the "water cecum" of the Japanese navy. According to statistics, the Japanese and Puppet Navy lost 330 ships during its invasion of China, most of which were sunk and injured by mines.
At that time, there were about ten floating mines on average, which could be exchanged for a Japanese ship. The cost of each mine is only more than 300 yuan, and a large transport ship "is worth 24 million yuan, with a difference of more than 800,000 times, which is the most brilliant achievement achieved at the minimum cost, making Japan" feel the presence of China Navy ".