readx; The flood of the Yellow River poured into the breach, just like two yellow dragons leaping and rushing. People www.biquge.info watched as the flood rushed towards the nearby villages

It was at that moment that the more than 2,000 soldiers who had experienced extreme fatigue seemed to feel the heavy mental pressure. Under the cloudy sky, people were silent. I had the same feeling when I blew up the Yellow River Iron Bridge four months ago.

Looking at the thatched huts drifting in the ocean and the livestock fluttering in the ocean, Jiang Zaizhen sighed sadly: "Is it a merit or a demerit, and let future generations comment on it." ”

On the morning of June 10, the clouds rolled and the sky was dim, and at 10 o'clock the rain suddenly poured. The flood eventually washed away the 50-metre-long river between the two breaches. At this point, the Yellow River was diverted, and the river was full of water from this to the thousands of miles of Pingchuan, and everywhere it went, it became a country

After the Yellow River embankment at Huayuankou broke, the river water flows southeast along the Suoxu River and the Jialu River in the south of Jingshui Town, and continues to flow south along the Jialu River at the confluence of Zhongmu and Zhaokou water, when it rains heavily, the water flow is turbulent, it submerges Zhongmu, Weishi, Fugou, Xihua, Shangshui area, flows into the Huaihe River through Huaiyang and Fuyang, enters Hongze Lake in the east, and then passes through the Jieshou and joins the canal, and enters the Yangtze River along the canal to the south, and flows into the East China Sea. The entire Yellow Flood Area is more than 400 kilometers long from northwest to southeast, flowing through 44 counties in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces.

The bursting of the Yellow River was a temporary military success, which made it difficult for the Yue army to advance westward on the Pinghan line, so that the route of the Yue army's attack on Wuhan was changed to a westward attack against the Yangtze River. The official documents of the Chinese army recorded: "On June 10, the Chinese [***] team dug the embankment of the Yellow River in the northeast of Zhengzhou, causing the water of the Yellow River to gush out in the southeast direction, adopted the tactic of flooding, flooded its vast fertile fields, and formed a large barrier connecting the Huai River through Zhongmu, Weishi, Zhoukou, and Fuyang, causing great difficulties to our army's operations." "Floods are everywhere, the army is terrified, rushing in all directions, trampling on people and horses, and drowning countless cars, boats, and people."

The military records describe the situation of the 14th Division at that time: "The Tufeiyuan Corps, which was brave and good at fighting in the North China battlefield, suddenly fell into a vast ocean, and did not care about supplies and horses, and fled to the roadbed on both sides of Longhai Road and Zhongmu County to take refuge in order to take respite. ”

On June 29, the army held a joint memorial meeting in Xuzhou, and the number of people who died in the flood of the Second Army alone reached 7,452.

However, the overflow of the Yellow River also caused a huge disaster. 17 million acres of cultivated land were inundated, more than 1.4 million houses were washed away, 890,000 people died, and more than 6.1 million people struggled in the vast ocean. This is the evil result of the war of aggression against China.

Xiong Xianyu, then the operational staff officer of the New Eighth Division, recorded in his "Chronicles of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, June 10": "The enemy who invaded west along the Longhai Line in Kaifeng has captured Zhongmu County, and because we broke the embankment, they have fled back one after another, and they are in a state of disarray, and there are not a few people who have been submerged." "When we broke the embankment, the enemy's 14th Division sent a detachment of the cavalry regiment with 4 15-caliber howitzers to enter the vicinity of Xinzheng, cutting off the traffic between Zhenghan and Han on the Pinghan Road for a time. After Huang Fan, this detachment was completely wiped out by us because the rear road was cut off, and more than 400 cavalry, 4 15 howitzers, and several infantry and cavalry were captured. ”

However, no less than 5 million victims have suffered trauma and mental trauma during the long journey. There is also a direct consequence of the nine-year yellow flood: the Yellow River has accumulated more than 1 billion tons of sediment in the plains and rivers every year, and the main stream of the Huai River starts from Bengbu, and it has to climb a slope more than two meters high to enter Hongze Lake, which has long been a hanging lake full of dangers.

All these disasters, there is no doubt about it, were caused by the aggression of the aggressors.

However, after the Yellow River burst, the atrocities of the Yue army were not tragic.

And the oral accounts of the survivors also faithfully recorded everything that happened before and after the burst:

"In 1938, I was 12 years old. On the morning of June 6 of that year, I was about to go to work in the fields amid my father's shouting, when a group of Kuomintang soldiers who suddenly broke in blocked our way. They looked agitated, led by a burly company commander with a southern accent who shouted my father's name as he stepped through the threshold. After my father answered, he ordered one of his soldiers to take out a few pieces of ocean and stuff them into my father's arms, urging our family to leave home as soon as possible to escape, saying that the Yellow River would have a big flood this year, and that this devil would also be killed.

My father looked up at the sky, and there was not a trace of clouds in the sky, and my father decided that there would be no flooding, but he knew that the devil had reached the other side of the Yellow River, and he was afraid and did not want to leave this place where his ancestors had lived for generations.

Before leaving, the soldiers searched our house for three large vats. My father still wanted to lead me to work in the fields, and when I went out, I saw the troops of the New Eighth Division of the Kuomintang collecting tanks everywhere in the village, and requisitioning all the tanks from the common people's homes. No one knows what they are doing. At that time, there was chaos everywhere, and no one wanted to leave their homeland. Later, I learned that the embankment could not be opened by hand for several days, and the embankment was blown up by filling the tank with explosives.

At noon on June 9, the sun was in the sky and it was very clear. A family from a neighboring village came to our village to marry a bride, and the sound of the horn was crisp and the sedan chair was dazzling, which attracted me to stand at the head of the village and watch. Suddenly I felt my feet tremble, and then I faintly heard a thunderous humming sound from far and near, which shook my eardrums, and soon the flood came over. At first, the water flow was very rapid, the amount of water was not very large, the turbid yellow water swished forward like a long snake, drowning the knees of the two strong men carrying the sedan chair, and the water rose to waist-deep in a few minutes. I saw the man carrying the sedan chair high above his head and staggering to carry the bride. It didn't take long for the water to roar down, and the waves several meters high jumped up and rolled the sedan chair without a trace.

The people in the village took refuge in all directions like a bombed nest, but the flood came fiercely, and my aunt lived in the village below, and the family of seven was swept away by the Yellow River in the blink of an eye

None of the people in my aunt's village had time to leave, and the flood surrounded their village. I watched as the water kept rising, and the cries of adults and children rang out. Many people in our village hid in the big trees, heard the cries and wanted to go into the water to save people, but the water was too big, and only heard the cries in the water and on the shore became more and more miserable, and the adults climbed up to the roof with their children in their arms, and soon the house collapsed into the water with a loud bang; Many people climbed onto the tree, and the water flooded the tree again, and there were still some Kuomintang soldiers who had not had time to evacuate in the village, and they shot into the sky, but no one came to save them, and hundreds of villagers and soldiers were all washed away by the water.

The sudden flood separated our family, and we ran for our lives, with no one to care for anyone. At that time, I was young and nimble, so I climbed the tree first, then grabbed a few door panels floating in the water, tied my body to them with ropes, and drifted groggily for several days and nights, and narrowly escaped, while all seven members of my family died in the flood, and I didn't even see the corpses.

I survived and have since been displaced and joined the flow of people who have fled. I stayed with my fellow villagers in a small village called Gangli Village on the south bank of the Yellow River, but there was little food and clothing, and people starved to death every day. It is said that the devil was blocked by the floodwaters on the north bank of the Yellow River, and from time to time fired cannonballs at the south bank of the Yellow River, and the shells flew everywhere and fell into the villages. It is said that military planes often circled back and forth over Yanhuang and bombed for several days in a row, bombing Gangli Village into ruins, and the people had no choice but to flee into the wilderness."

"The flooding of the Yellow River has not stopped the beastly acts of the devils who have killed the common people. On August 14, 1940, the army took advantage of the night to smuggle across the Yellow River, landed at Pishantou, and carried out a large-scale sweep along the area from Guangwuling to Huayuankou. At that time, I had no fixed place to live, and I was looking for food everywhere to survive. One day I came to the nearby village of Wangding. Wang Junjie of this village said for his father's life, and his sister went back to her parents' house to celebrate her father's birthday. Before she even walked into the house, she met the devil. When the devil found her, he screamed and swarmed up, tearing her clothes off. The screams alarmed her four brothers, who rushed out with sticks in their hands to fight the devil, and a gunshot rang out, and all five brothers and sisters fell under the devil's gun in the blink of an eye.

During that time, the devils were addicted to killing, killing people when they saw them, burning houses when they saw them, the common people had nowhere to hide, and most of the old people and women were forced to jump into the well. A village in Wangcun was killed by 84 people, and a deep well was filled with corpses. A fellow villager took refuge with me, and his family of 12 escaped from him. He knew that his family had not escaped, and that he was unlucky, so he squatted on the ground and covered his face with his hands, whimpering and crying. I saw that he was heartbroken, so I volunteered to run back to their village to find out the news for him. Before they entered the village, they saw a group of women crying and running to Xigou, dozens of soldiers with guns in pursuit, and soon surrounded them, forced them to take off their clothes with bayonets, and those who did not obey were killed with bayonets, and the rest were destroyed by them in turn.

It is said that no one can calculate how many people this devil has killed in this area. The bones of the victim were thrown in the ditch, and the white bones were stacked one after another, and the white flowers were scattered.

Later, the people who fled along the Huang area returned to the village to see that the village that used to be full of people no longer existed: there was no food, no house, and no people. The common people cried in the village, fled again, and became a no-man's land along the Yellow River.

I remember that at that time, the wheat harvest had not yet been completed, and the commander of the New Eighth Division of the Kuomintang Army, Chiang, sent someone to send ten pieces of ocean to our family of five and drove us to a place ten miles away. I took my wife, eldest son, daughter, and newborn son to a family of five to escape the famine, and this time it took six years.

At that time, the fleeing people were in a panic, there was nothing to eat, and the people were so hungry that they fell into a faint state of hunger, and as they walked, their bodies were crooked, and they fell on the road. My eldest son and daughter died of starvation and illness on the way to escape the famine. I left them on the side of the road and continued to wander with my family in five areas along the Yellow River.

In May of this year's lunar calendar, we met the devil on the way to escape. A few devils rode horses to the field to pull cucumbers to eat, and at that time a cucumber could save the lives of several people. A middle-aged man named Zhai Hailiang shouted at them and didn't let them eat. The devil couldn't help but say, and he raised his gun and killed him. The common people were angry, saying that this day could not be passed, let's fight, so they took forks and sticks and roared out to fight. The common people were outnumbered, and the devil who was busy picking cucumbers saw this and hurriedly shot and injured several people. The horse was frightened and ran back to the pavilion. Seeing that the situation was not good, the devil retreated while shooting, shouting all the way that he wanted to transfer troops from the county seat and wipe out all the people in the east of the county.

Not long after the devil left, the Yellow River flooded down. At first, it flowed slowly along the ditches in the fields, the ruts on the road, and the low-lying ground, and then the water became bigger. The few devils who fled back were gathering men and horses, pulling small steel cannons, and preparing to come and slaughter the people here, but halfway through, the flood poured down, and the horses' hooves and steel cannons fell into the muddy water. Seeing this, the devil didn't dare to move forward, reined in his horse, and returned to the mansion, and the villagers escaped.

On the third day, the water had reached the people's chests, and the villagers discussed, let's run. Everyone gathered together and fled west by boat overnight. Later, the water rose to a depth of more than a kilometer, and those who could not escape drowned or starved to death.

I dragged my family and went around hiding for six years, and I saw and ate all the hardships of my life.

There is a lady Song on the street. Her son and daughter-in-law had taken refuge in the mountains, and only she and her thirteen-year-old daughter were at home to guard the door. She was eating at home with the door closed, only to hear someone knock on the door twice, and when she was about to open the door, the door had been stomped open by the devil's iron hooves, and her little girl quickly took refuge in the house, and was pulled by the devil. Aunt Song saw that he had bad intentions and went to pull her daughter, at this time the devil pulled out his waist knife and cut off two fingers of the eldest mother's hand. The daughter couldn't break free, she cried and screamed, and the eldest mother couldn't save it, but I don't know where the devil pulled her daughter and never came back.

When we fled to eastern Henan, eastern Henan had already fallen. When a fellow villager saw us, he told us to leave here as soon as possible, saying that the devils were doing all kinds of evil here, and that more than 20 young women were sent to each village they occupied for them to be annihilated, and that if one was missing, they were ordered to pay 120 yuan as a fine. The devil also ordered the women of the household not to escape, wear flowers on their heads during the day, work at home [***], and let them flirt with them; The door is not allowed to be closed at night, so that it can vent its animal desires at any time.

We fled as quickly as we could, and along the way we saw the corpses of several women who had hanged themselves in the trees in the countryside. ”

The substitution of water for soldiers is enough to show the severity of the battlefield situation at that time.

Shortly after the Yellow River burst, the French newspaper La Repubblica pointed out: "At this time, China is ready to release two dragons, namely the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, in order to put the lives of the army to death, even if the lives of ten Chinese people are exchanged for the lives of one of them, it is not uncalculated, and this shows the reason for China's determination to resist the war."

The bursting of the embankment at the mouth of the garden is of military significance. Two wings of the 14th Division were drowned. There was also a group of troops blocked by the flood in Zhongmu City, and the [***] team took the opportunity to counterattack Zhongmu, and the army had no way to retreat, and all of them were killed or drowned by jumping into the water. The city of Weishi also drowned 1,500 soldiers. However, the military success was achieved by the people of Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces at a heavy price

Before the Yellow River burst, the Battle of Wuhan was also being intensively deployed. At this time, the Air Force, under the personal interrogation of Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Soong Meiling, was carrying out a bold move.

"Does Madame have any good ideas?" Mao Bangchu, director of the Military Command Department of the National Axe Aviation Committee, asked cautiously.

Song Meiling told them her thoughts like this.

Qian Dajun and Mao Bangchu felt that Mrs. Mada's idea was very good, so they followed Song Meiling's plan. As soon as they gave the troops a task, the plan for this crusade was carried out intensely and secretly. Because of secrecy, the pilots did not know what tasks to perform, only that they had to conduct intense simulation training every day. The targets of their training were Kachishima, Fukuoka, and Nagasaki

They train day and night, rain or shine. At the same time, preparations on the ground are also being carried out in secret. In order to ensure the long-distance flight of the aircraft, the aircraft was equipped with radio direction finders and short-wave transmitters, and a new double set of communication networks was built on the ground, mainly from Hankou to Ningbo via Nanchang and Quzhou, supplemented by Changsha, Wenzhou, and Lishui, and seven air-to-air radio stations were laid. At the same time, local long- and short-wave radio stations are also preset to prepare call signals and contact passwords.

Early in the morning of 19 May, Xu Huansheng, the leader of the expeditionary team, received an order from the Air Force Headquarters to attack. The sacred moment has come! This initiative to attack Yueben was China's first expedition to Yueben since ancient times. Since the "18" incident, China launched its first counterattack on its own territory. Xu Huansheng excitedly summoned the deputy captain Tong Yanbo, team members Su Guanghua, Liu Rongguang, Lei Tianchun, Wu Jichong, and Liu Guangdou, first announced the order of the headquarters, and then solicited everyone's opinions. Everyone said in unison: "We have been looking forward to this day for a long time, and if we have ideas, it is to unite as one and successfully complete the combat mission!" ”

It is a long way to fly from Hankou, and the oil in the fuel tank of the aircraft cannot reach the capital, so it must be refueled in sections. At about 3 p.m., they flew two "Martin" planes to take off from Hankou, refuel via Nanchang and Quzhou, and refuel at Ningbo Airport at 5:55 p.m.

At 11:30 p.m., everything was ready. Before taking off, Xu Huansheng, the leader of the expedition, sent a telegram to the Supreme Commander:

"Chairman Chiang:

He led all the officers to pay the highest salute to the Supreme Leader, Chairman Chiang, and all the senior officers to show the honor of participating in this work; And each vowed to do their best to accomplish this extraordinary mission.

Xu Huansheng Hao. ”

At 11:48, they took off from Ningbo Airport and flew along the southern tip of Zhoushan. Unexpectedly, it was fired upon by anti-aircraft guns of the Japanese army over the Dinghai Sea. However, due to the thick clouds, the enemy could not see the target clearly, so he was spared the beating. At 0:47, they saw lights all over the ground under the wings, and Xu Huansheng thought that the target had arrived and ordered the bomb to be dropped. The pilot was ordered to carry out the order, but at this time he could not hear the roar of the bombs, the flames of the explosions, and the smell of gunsmoke. What I saw was pieces of paper flying in the sky, falling like snowflakes on the land of Yuben.

Before setting out on the expedition, some people advocated hanging anti-personnel bombs, while others advocated hanging time bombs to teach the devils a lesson. However, after many studies, it was believed that the effect of dropping a spiritual bomb was the best, and that this would be the best way to attack the heart and expand its political influence.

Among the leaflets distributed, there was the "Republic of China Air Force Officers and Soldiers Chinese People Goodwill Alliance Tells the Present Nationalist Letter", which said:

Our purpose is not to harm the lives and property of your people. Our mission is to explain to our people what kind of crimes your warlords are doing on Chinese soil

In the "National Letter of the Republic of China", it says:

As early as the 6th year of the Showa era, the Gui [***] valve propagated to the people like this: "Manchuria is the lifeline of the capital, as long as Manchuria is in hand, the country will be rich and the people will be strong." "However, it has been seven years since the occupation of Manchuria, and in the intervening seven years, except for the giants of the military department who have become big officials and have become outbreaks, what have the people gained? There are only heavy taxes, high prices, poverty and hunger, disease and death.

The "Letter to the Workers of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of China" reads:

Ladies and gentlemen, wait and wait, liberation will not come by itself, and now is the time for the people to fight for their freedom. You are the workers who control the production, the hearts of the warlords! Awaken the great power of the kings! The princes are in control of the fate of the East and defeat the warlords! In order to relieve the suffering of the two peoples, fight with an allied strike!

The plane flew over the cities of Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Sasebo, Nagasaki, Saga and Kurume. Flew all over the Kyushu Peninsula, scattered thousands of leaflets, and then aimed at the course, increased the throttle, and flew back to the embrace of the motherland.

This large number of "paper bullets" dealt a heavy spiritual blow to the militarism of the people, and the government and the opposition were shocked one by one with their leaflets, and they received a miraculous effect that was greater than dropping dozens of bombs. When the emperor saw the leaflet, he was furious and ordered the General Staff Headquarters to quickly come up with a plan for retaliation.

The two planes returned to Wuhan, and the people of Wuhan held a grand welcoming ceremony at the airport to welcome the return of the Eastern Crusade warriors. [***] The representative and the representative of the Eighth Route Army Office presented a pennant to the warriors, and the pennant read: "Swallow the three islands and threaten Kyushu." ”

Chen Shaoyu spoke on behalf of the Central Committee, he said: "We have heard the news of this great victory expedition of international and historical significance, and we are extremely pleased that our heroic air force has made many great achievements since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and this is a powerful guarantee for the victory of the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. ”

On the same day, the British "News Chronicle" published a commentary entitled "Victory Bomb," commenting on the Chinese Air Force's air raid on Yueben, saying: "The Chinese planes flew to Yueben to distribute leaflets to wake up the people and overthrow the warlords. ”

The Washington Post and the "News" of the United States carried an illustration comparing the Chinese Air Force's dispatch of leaflets with the bombing of Wuhan and other undefended cities in China. ”

This time, Song Meiling came to the airport to condole, brought rare pastries, tobacco candy, fruits, and gave everyone a leather jacket. She shook hands with the pilots one by one and said, "I hope you will make new contributions to the defense of Wuhan!" ”

(To be continued)