Wang Mingzhang (1893-1938), whose courtesy name was Zhizhong, was born in 1893 in a small businessman family in Taixingchang, Xindu County, Sichuan Province. His parents died early, and relying on the support of his uncle, he went to Xindu County Higher Primary School. In 1909, he was admitted to the fifth phase of Sichuan Army Primary School. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he led his troops out of Sichuan to fight against the Japanese, and was the acting commander of the 41st Army of the Sichuan Army and the commander of the 122nd Division. On March 17, 1938, he defended Teng County and resisted the Japanese army with inferior forces and weapons. He laid the foundation for the Taierzhuang victory, and finally died for his country and died at the age of 45.

1. Out of Sichuan to fight against war

On September 5, 1937, Wang Mingzhang led the 41st and 45th Army where he was located, and formed the 22nd Army. Under the command of General Deng Xihou, he walked out of Sichuan on foot and rushed north to the anti-Japanese battlefield to join the battle sequence of Yan Xishan, the commander of the Second War Zone. After the troops arrived in Shanxi, the Japanese army attacked Niangzi Pass on a large scale. Wang Mingzhang was ordered to lead his 122nd Division to quickly reinforce Niangzi Pass. On October 24, 1937, Wang Mingzhang led his troops to fight against the 14th Division of the Japanese army that was invaded by the west.

The Sichuan Army led by Wang Mingzhang was very backward, with only the 79 rifles and a few light and heavy machine guns produced by themselves. Many troops also used big knives and grenades as their main weapons, and lacked field medical treatment, rescue, transportation and other logistics organizations. Faced with the Japanese army armed to the teeth, Wang Mingzhang led all the officers and soldiers of the division to carry forward the patriotism of not fearing death with the enemy with backward weapons and equipment. Wang Mingzhang personally visited the front line to supervise the battle, and the battle situation was unprecedentedly cruel. After seven days of hard fighting, both sides suffered heavy losses, but our army's position remained unmoved, ensuring the mobilization and transfer of the large army.

In November 1937, the 22nd Army was ordered to be transferred to Xuzhou and Dangshan to block the enemy south along the Jinpu Line. In January 1938, Chiang Kai-shek held a military meeting in Kaifeng and executed Han Fuju, a Shandong warlord who retreated without fighting. After the meeting, he decided to use Wang Mingzhang as the commander-in-chief of the Forty-first Army and command the entire army on behalf of the current commander. Wang Mingzhang was ordered to lead his troops to defend Teng County, the northern section of the Jinpu Line.

Although it was spring in March 1938, the cold was still pressing. At this time, Wang Mingzhang, who led the 122nd Division of the 41st Army to station on the land of southern Shandong, could not feel the spring. Because the enemy was about to invade, he used to strictly deploy defenses to welcome the invading enemy.

It has been half a year since he went north to fight against Japan. The strings in Wang Mingzhang's mind are always tense. He always remembered last year, on September 12, 1937, in Deyang, he and his soldiers voluntarily vowed to resist the Japanese invaders with their actions and blood to serve the country. He went to Shanxi first, and now he was transferred to Shandong. As long as it was fighting against Japan, he didn't care wherever he went. He even had no time to think about his wife, children, and his elders. Anyway, before going north, he had returned to his hometown Xindu, made a will, and he had already explained what he should have to confess...

The place where Wang Mingzhang's troops were stationed was Teng County, a pass of the Jinpu Railway. Since early March, the Japanese army began to gather heavy troops in Yanzhou north of Teng County. Zou County gathered heavy troops. On the 12th, it drove the elite 10th Division of the Jigu Division to Zou County, with the purpose of advancing south and seizing Xuzhou, a transportation hub that runs through the north and south, east and west. To seize Xuzhou, Teng County is the first to bear the brunt of it.

The task of defending Teng County was arranged by the Fifth War Zone, and was issued by Sun Zhen, the commander-in-chief of the 22nd Army. Sun Zhen knew that this was a tough battle. Wang Mingzhang was known for his bravery and good fighting in the Sichuan army. This important task was Wang Mingzhang. Therefore, Sun Zhen appointed Wang Mingzhang as the acting commander of the 41st Army and unified the command of the 122nd and 124th Divisions. What kind of team is this? Although there are two divisions and each division has two brigades, each brigade actually has only one regiment of troops, and the number is far from comparable to that of the enemy. Moreover, the troops used 79th rifles, big knives, grenades, and light and heavy machine guns and pursuit cannons made in Sichuan. However, the number is too small and the quality is too low. It is common for the shells to be loaded and cannot be fired. As for the heavy weapons owned by the enemy, such as mountains, wild, heavy artillery, and special weapons such as anti-aircraft machines. Wang Mingzhang's army had no traffic, communication tools, sanitation equipment, such as stretchers, etc., and there were too few necessary transportation, communication tools, sanitation equipment, such as stretchers. We had to use inferior troops and weapons to compete with the enemy, and the strength was very different. However, the soldiers didn't care, and everyone was ready to prepare carefully. Looking at the soldiers who had been through life and death with them, Wang Mingzhang said passionately: "With the weak military strength and poor weapons of the Sichuan Army, it is self-evident that the power was not enough. As soldiers, we sacrificed ourselves as a natural mission, but now we can only sacrifice everything to complete the task. Although there is no left of a soldier, there is no resentment. If this is not the case, we cannot deal with the country, and it is not enough to redeem the crimes of the Sichuan Army's 20 years of civil war!'

The battle outside Teng County started in the early morning of March 14. On the ground, the enemy attacked our positions with more than 10,000 troops, more than 20 cannons, and more than 20 tanks. In the sky, more than 20 enemy planes assisted in the battle. For a moment, guns and cannons were heard, and only fire and smoke were seen between the sky and the earth, and the air was filled with a strong smell of fire.

All day on the 14th, the enemy's artillery fire continued. Wang Mingzhang commanded the soldiers of the frontal positions outside Teng County to fight hard. The enemy wanted to advance and could not taste the hard bone of Wang Mingzhang. Wang Mingzhang thought to himself: the enemy could not achieve his goal only by attacking the frontal positions, and would definitely change the attack method. Sure enough, early in the morning on the 15th, while the enemy attacked the frontal positions, they began to detour from the side, trying to encircle Teng County. Although Wang Mingzhang wanted to stop the enemy's detour, he was unable to do so, because the team was stuck in the frontal positions and fought with the enemy in a difficult way, and he really had no strength to withdraw.

In the afternoon, the frontier sent back news that more than 10,000 troops of the enemy's vanguard had arrived ten miles northeast of the county town and approached Teng County step by step. At this time, there were only one, two, one, two, one, two, two, one, two, seven, and three * brigade departments in Teng County; each division and brigade department had only one spy company, one communication company and one health team, and there was also a police and security team led by county magistrate Zhou Tong. How could such a thin force resist the enemy? He was telegraphing the orders that were a hundred miles away, The 366th Brigade, which had not yet fought with the enemy, quickly returned to Teng County to help. At the same time, it called the General Command of the Group Army and requested reinforcements. The anxious Commander-in-Chief Sun Zhen sent three infantry companies from the Special Service Battalion directly under the 41st Army, the only combat force around him, to Teng County. The troops guarding the city were still too weak. Wang Mingzhang picked up the phone and ordered Zhang Xuanwu, the commander of the 727th Regiment who was fighting against the enemy on the Beishahe front line, to immediately take the first battalion's troops back to the city to arrange city defense.

In the early morning of the 16th, the sound of gunfire and bombing awakened Wang Mingzhang. He immediately realized that the enemy had begun to attack the city. From 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 for two hours, the shells flying from the ground and the shells falling from the sky were as dense as raindrops; the sound of ammunition explosions and the sound of motors of the planes made people dizzy and tinnitus. In particular, Dongguan and the railway station became the enemy's key targets and were bombarded indiscriminately.

In order to defend against the enemy, Wang Mingzhang summoned the commander of Chen Li, the 127th Division, the Qingde Division of the 124th Division, the 3rd Brigade Commander Wang Zhiyuan, and the commander of the city defense, Zhang Xuanwu, to discuss countermeasures. Everyone talked and expressed their opinions. Finally, seeing that everyone's opinions were basically the same, Wang Mingzhang picked up the telegram and wanted to communicate with the commander-in-chief Sun Zhen, who was stationed in Lincheng. After reporting on the battle situation in Teng County, he proposed: "With the current strength in the city, it is probably difficult to defend Teng County. Can we go out of the city to fight?" Sun

After hearing this, Zhen replied in an uncontroversial tone: "The Chairman called us to defend Teng County to the death and wait for Tang Enbo Group to come to rescue the siege. The vanguard of Tang's army had arrived in Lincheng yesterday, and its follow-up troops were also rushing to the north. I should urge Wang Lianzhong's army to go north quickly. You should ensure that Teng County is waiting for reinforcements. Your command center should be moved to the city immediately so that you can personally command the defense of the city. If the troops are not strong enough, all the forty-one army troops outside the city can be transferred into the city and stand in the waiting for reinforcements!'

The soldiers took obeying orders as their duty. "Persist in waiting for help, stay in waiting for help!" Put down the phone, Wang Mingzhang announced to everyone with a resolute heroic spirit: "Immediately send an edict to all the officers and soldiers in the city: We decided to defend Tengcheng to the death. Let us work with everyone, the city will survive and the city will die and the city will die! Immediately block the south and north gates, and the east and west gates will temporarily leave the passage, and are ready to be closed at any time. Without the commander's order, no one is allowed to leave the city, and violators will rectify the Dharma on the spot!'

Soon, Wang Mingzhang's instructions reached every soldier. The soldiers were very encouraged to learn that Commander Wang was determined to be with everyone, and they all decided to fight to the death to serve the country. Morale was an invisible force, and high morale was the guarantee of the combat effectiveness of the troops. This was how Wang Mingzhang's army was. They made it difficult for the enemy to advance with their flesh and blood. On the 16th alone, more than 10,000 shells fell in Teng County, and a telephone line less than 500 meters from Dongchengmen to Dongguan was blown up.

It was broken 27 times; ten of the enemy's planes kept hovering at the low altitude of Chengguan. The enemy launched continuous attacks from morning to night. They first used artillery fire to attack the city wall, opened the gap, and then covered the infantry's attack and advance, trying to enter the city through the gap. Wang Mingzhang personally ran to Dongguan to supervise the battle. When the enemy's infantry entered the gap, the warriors guarding the city immediately threw down a group of grenades and blew the enemy's corpses flying. On this day, the enemy launched three major offensives, each attacking

Infantry attacks were organized continuously, but they were all repelled by our defenders. In the last offensive, the enemy even captured the Dongguan, but Wang Mingzhang's soldiers fought fiercely with the enemy at a heavy price to regain Dongguan. On this day, Teng County was still in the hands of the defenders, but the enemy surrounded Teng County from east, south and north. The enemy was not used to night battles, and when it was dark, the battle naturally stopped. In this way, from night to dawn, it became the most treasure for the defending troops to re-arrange their defenses.

During the precious time, Wang Mingzhang first withdrew more than 2,000 officers and soldiers from the 41st Army outside the city back to the city, so that the strength to defend the city became much stronger. Then he ordered the soldiers to replenish ammunition, renovate fortifications, dig air-raid shelters, tie up ladders, and make the most full preparations. The enemy was also dispatching troops at this time. They took advantage of the night to concentrate nearly 40,000 troops, as well as more than 70 heavy artillery units, and forty or fifty tanks to prepare to break through the city defense of Teng County the next day.

Sure enough, just as dawn on the 17th, dozens of enemy cannons and 27 planes began to bombard. Suddenly, the whole city was filled with smoke, fires soaring into the sky, the sound of shells explosions, and the sound of houses collapsed. Two hours later, the streets and alleys of Teng County became scorched earth, and only the American churches in Beiguan were still vaguely distinguishable. The enemy's fierce artillery fire caused more than half of the soldiers guarding the city to be killed and injured by enemy shells, and the 124th Division, 37th Division

The commander of the O Brigade, Lv Kang and Deputy Brigade Commander Wang Chaolian, came to the base of the city wall to command and supervise the battle, and were both seriously injured. The fortifications in the East Gate were destroyed by the enemy. The defenders stubbornly resisted the enemy's tanks and fierce artillery fire with their flesh and blood. At noon, Wang Lin, the commander of the 740th Regiment of the 124th Division, was seriously injured, and the political trainer Hu Qingxi was also shot and died. The defenders suffered heavy casualties. Wang Mingzhang was extremely anxious. While commanding the soldiers to resist, he sent a telegram to the military headquarters: "The enemy will use artillery at dawn.

The city attacked fiercely, and the city wall in the southeast corner was broken several places. Commander Wang Lin was injured. Now the commander of the commander was blocking his life. However, the situation continued to deteriorate. Commander Wang Lin was finally killed due to his serious injuries. Wang Mingzhang called Sun Zhen again: "The enemy used artillery to bombard our city and the southeast wall, and several sections near the east gate were destroyed. The enemy infantry climbed the city. After my counterattack, countless enemies were killed and they had been repelled. If there was no news from friendly forces late at night, the lonely city would be in danger." By 2 pm

, Nanguan and Dongguan were successively lost, and the soldiers guarding the city were killed and injured. Wang Mingzhang understood that it was now the last moment of his life, and he sent Sun Zhen a third telegram: "The friendly troops still had no gunshots, and they wanted to be blocked by the enemy. At present, the enemy used heavy artillery, and the planes continued to bombard the city from morning to noon. There were many gaps in the city walls, and the enemy infantry climbed the city many times and were repeatedly repelled. I remember the instructions of the commissioner Chengren and the words of Kaifeng's words to commend the country and repay the opportunity to know the situation."

After sending the telegram, the enemy had climbed up to the city wall and swarmed into the city. Wang Mingzhang had made the worst plan. He went straight to the intersection of the city center and personally led his subordinates to fight with the enemy. He wanted to use his own example to inspire the soldiers, kill the enemy and avenge the country.

As dusk approached, the enemy attacked the Ximen and occupied the Ximen wall. Wang Mingzhang led the staff around him to immediately climb the northwest wall and command the battle. The Ximen was the only channel for the soldiers guarding the city to contact the rear. Wang Mingzhang knew very well what it meant to lose this channel. He ordered a platoon from the only divisional secret service company around him to regain the Ximen tower. The warriors rushed forward, but all died heroically. Seeing the brothers who shared the joys and sorrows with him, Wang Mingzhang could not contain his excitement and immediately ordered his followers to go to Xiguan with him to command the 372nd Brigade that was fighting fiercely with the enemy. He wanted to continue fighting with the enemy until the end.

At this time, the enemy on the city wall was condescending, and they could see Wang Mingzhang's actions clearly. When Wang Mingzhang led everyone to the vicinity of Xiguan Electric Light Factory, the enemy's machine guns were shot at them. Wang Mingzhang was shot. He knew that he was not good at it. "You fight with the enemy, kill the enemy! Kill the enemy! Don't worry about me, I'll die here..." He struggled to his subordinates in a hurry and fell down.

After Wang Mingzhang died, the battle continued. Although the enemy troops had rushed into the city, the soldiers continued to fight. The defenders at the East Gate persisted until dusk, the two corners of the northeast and northwest and the north wall were still in the hands of the defenders after it was dark. The defenders at the North City Wall broke through the city in the night and retreated to the rear. The three or four hundred people who could not withdraw from the city continued to fight with the hostile force, fighting from street to street, alley to house, and seriously injured people blew each other with grenades to death than to fall into the enemy. The battle lasted until noon on the 18th. During the battle of Teng County, Wang Mingzhang's troops fought tens of thousands of elite Japanese troops for three and a half days at the cost of four or five thousand casualties.

Over time, it won time for the subsequent troops and failed to defeat the enemy's plan to capture Xuzhou. As Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth War Zone, said: "If there was no Teng County's hard defense, how could there be a great victory in Taierzhuang? It was the result of Taierzhuang and was caused by the martyrs of Teng County." Even the reporters in the Japanese army said: "In early March 1938, after our army captured Jinan, we organized the Segu Mixed Detachment, and used the two infantry regiments to cooperate with a considerable number of artillery, tanks, and aircraft to continue to advance south. We did not encounter resistance in Tai'an, Yanzhou and other places. However, after arriving in Teng County, we encountered the 122nd Division of the 41st Army's tenacious resistance for three days, and our army suffered great damage."

Wang Mingzhang demonstrated the noble integrity of our nation with his life, and aroused more people's determination to fight against Japan. On May 9, 1938, when General Wang Mingzhang's coffin arrived in Wuhan, there were thousands of people everywhere. He welcomed the spirit at the station. On the way back to his hometown of Xindu, Sichuan, the crowd's road sacrifices were endless. Even British and French ships on the Yangtze River fired cannons and lowered the flag to mourn. Guo Moruo praised in a radio eulogy published on May 9, 1938: "Second Commander Wang is an outstanding descendant of our Yanhuang, a heroic warrior who defends the country and the people, and a model soldier of China. His death is for the country, for the nation, and for the whole Chinese people. His great generals will be passed down from history, and his spirit will never die!'*Writes a couplet with other leaders of the CPC Central Committee Chen Shaoyu, Qin Bangxian, Wu Yuzhang and Dong Biwu jointly wrote an elegiac couplet:

To strive to protect the lonely city and to treat death as if it were home, is the true nature of a revolutionary soldier;

Determined to annihilate the powerful enemy, sacrifice one's life to the country, and bring glory to the Chinese nation.

On March 30 after the battle, Chiang Kai-shek replied to Li Zongren, the commander-in-chief of the Fifth War Zone: "Wang's former division commander Mingzhang fought hard and died in his country, accomplished his mission, commemorated the heroic spirit, and mourned him very deeply. He was allowed to give special tribute to the government and requested special praise to the general of the army. The Military Commission will follow the general's orders and give his life to the History Museum to express his achievements to the loyalty and courageous! "Former Chairman of the National Government Lin Sen wrote the four big words "Cherishing and Good Honors" to the gate of Wang Mingzhang's cemetery!
Chapter completed!