Espionage: I became sworn brothers with Zheng Yaoxian at the beginning, and became the Seventh Broth

Chapter 1061 Heroic Souls

Ye Shaohong did not learn about General Zhang's deeds from books.

It's on a streaming platform.

That was one night several years ago.

With nothing to do, Ye Shaohong couldn't fall asleep late at night, so he casually opened a short video app.

Whether by accident or coincidence, he came across information about General Zhang's deeds.

A truly admirable and admirable man.

General Zhang was born in Linqing, Shandong Province, into a wealthy family. His father had served as a county magistrate during the Qing Dynasty, governing a region.

In 1911, the year before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, General Zhang, then 20 years old, secretly joined the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) at the Tianjin School of Political Science and Law.

In 1914, he abandoned his studies to join the army and went to Northeast China, where he joined General Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army.

He started as a platoon leader and rose through the ranks to become a company commander, battalion commander, and regimental commander.

Then he became the principal of the Northwest Military Academy.

By the time the Central Plains War broke out in 1930, General Zhang had become the commander of the Sixth Division of the Northwest Army.

At that time, he was not yet forty years old.

In 1930, the Young Marshal, who had been observing the conflict from the Northeast, abandoned his neutral stance, led his troops into the pass, and incorporated the Northwest Army into his forces.

It was redesignated as the 29th Army.

General Zhang's troops were reorganized by the Young Marshal into the 38th Division, and General Zhang also served as the commander of the 38th Division.

After the reorganization, the 29th Army was ordered to garrison Chahar, Rehe and other places. General Zhang took the opportunity to begin intensive training to strengthen the army.

He was nicknamed "Zhang the Skinflint".

Don't misunderstand.

The "skinning" mentioned here does not refer to plundering the land or extorting money.

General Zhang earned this nickname because he was extremely strict in training his soldiers.

In his troops, you simply couldn't survive the training without being skinned alive.

This rigorous method of training soldiers was extremely rare during the Republic of China era.

In 1933, General Zhang's troops faced a fierce battle.

At that time, the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed in Manchuria attempted to move south to occupy Chahar and Beiping, and then advance towards the Yangtze River.

General Zhang, as the frontline commander, engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese invaders at Xifeng Mountain, a crucial pass along the Great Wall.

At that time, there was a huge disparity in weaponry and combat readiness between the two sides.

The enemy had modern weapons such as airplanes and tanks, while our side only had rifles and broadswords.

In order to defend the rear and thwart the enemy's plot, General Zhang launched a surprise attack on the Japanese troops under the cover of darkness, employing a tactic of surprise.

They fought fiercely against the Japanese invaders for more than forty days at the foot of Xifengkou Mountain, relying only on rudimentary weapons such as rifles, broadswords, and hand grenades.

They successfully annihilated several thousand elite Japanese Kwantung Army troops.

This was also the first major victory achieved by the Chinese army and the Japanese army on the main battlefield since the September 18 Incident.

The famous anti-Japanese war song "The Big Sword" tells the story of General Zhang and the soldiers of the 29th Army.

However, what happened next was very frustrating.

In July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out. In a short period of time, the Japanese army increased its troops in North China to more than 200,000 and began a full-scale invasion of China.

The 29th Army, which was stationed in Beiping and Tianjin at the time, fought bravely and put up a great fight, but faced with the Japanese reinforcements and the huge disparity in weaponry, it was forced to withdraw.

In order to buy more time for his troops to withdraw, General Zhang was appointed mayor of Beiping City in a time of crisis.

He received two tasks.

First, with only four regiments of troops, facing more than 200,000 invading Japanese soldiers, we had to find ways to hold them off for eight days.

They were tasked with assisting the main force in its evacuation and ensuring that the force would not be subjected to heavy artillery fire or relentless pursuit by the Japanese during the evacuation.

Secondly, it was crucial to protect the innocent civilians of Beijing and Tianjin to the greatest extent possible, preventing these two ancient cities from being burned down by the enemy, and also to prevent the Japanese from carrying out a bloody massacre of the people of Beijing and Tianjin. The disparity in numbers could not be eliminated.

Unable to fight, yet also unable to surrender and betray the country, General Zhang could only endure humiliation, grit his teeth, and pretend to be on friendly terms with the Japanese.

This was intended to temporarily halt the Japanese advance southward.

Simultaneously.

He also ordered the opening of granaries in Beijing and Tianjin to provide relief to ordinary people who were struggling to survive after being besieged by the Japanese.

Eight days later, after the 29th Army had safely withdrawn from the Japanese blockade and pursuit, General Zhang disguised himself, wore mourning clothes, and after several transfers, left North China.

Returning to Nanjing.

However, because of this incident, the people of the Republic of China who were unaware of the details misunderstood General Zhang, and the newspapers, both big and small, were instigated by some people with ulterior motives.

He claimed to be the number one traitor in North China.

For a time, he was criticized by the public and the literary world, both within the Nationalist government and among the general public.

He cursed them to the extreme.

General Zhang, however, never once offered a defense.

It wasn't until the end of 1937, when Shanghai and Nanjing fell one after another, that General Zhang was reinstated as the commander of the 59th Army.

Heading to Xuzhou, the front line of the main battlefield.

Before leaving, General Zhang made a special trip back to Shandong Province to say goodbye to his elderly mother.

He said to his mother, "Mom, no soldier doesn't hope to return alive to take care of his parents, but your son is different. I can only prove that I am not a traitor by dying for my country. If I don't come back, today will be our farewell. Please forgive my filial impiety, Mother."

After saying this, he knelt down, kowtowed, and resolutely turned and left.

Shortly afterward, the Battle of Xuzhou broke out. General Zhang led his 59th Army to rush to the front line and severely damaged the Japanese Itagaki Division in Lincheng, Shandong Province.

This laid a solid foundation for the later victory at Taierzhuang.

Subsequently, General Zhang, with the belief that he "only seeks death to clear his name," moved his forces to Suizao and then to Zaoyi.

By 1940, when the Nationalist government launched the Hundred Divisions Offensive and the Winter Offensive against the Japanese, General Zhang had already been promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Right Wing Corps of the Fifth War Zone and Commander-in-Chief of the 33rd Army Group.

In May 1940, he personally led more than 2,000 men across the Xiang River (Han River) to the east, successfully cutting off the Japanese 13th Division, which was preparing to blockade the Yangtze River region.

Help the Fifth War Zone secure a decisive victory.

General Zhang, however, also found himself surrounded by the Japanese in this battle. Facing a Japanese force several times larger than his own, he led his troops in more than ten charges, but still could not break through the encirclement.

After more than ten days of fierce fighting, General Zhang, unable to obtain supplies of food, weapons, and ammunition, had no choice but to lead his remaining troops to Pumpkin Mountain. This was around the time Ye Shaohong received the telegram.

Ye Shaohong was actually aware of what happened next.

After being surrounded, General Zhang's remaining troops numbered only a few hundred.

All of these people were seriously injured.

In his final moments, General Zhang led his remaining troops in a desperate charge against the Japanese soldiers surrounding him, ultimately dying on the way.

When he died, his eyes were still open, his gaze sharp and fierce as he stared ahead.

The Japanese soldiers were so frightened that they dared not advance.

His bravery and patriotism inspired even those Japanese devils to admire him, and they collectively removed their hats and saluted him in his presence.

The Japanese officer in charge even knelt down on the ground.

General Zhang was also the highest-ranking military officer in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres who died during World War II in the anti-fascist alliance.

They are the heroic souls of our Chinese nation!