The Huayuankou embankment burst was China's biggest humanitarian disaster in the 20th century.
Although exact statistics are not and cannot be made, according to the most conservative estimates, at least one million people were directly drowned, and more than 10 million people had their homes destroyed and were displaced. Because the floods caused the food harvest to be lost that year, leading to large-scale There was a famine, but even so, the Nationalist Government still set a grain quota for Henan Province that was no less than that of previous years.
Yes, the Nationalist Government not only did not allocate grain for disaster relief, it even set grain quotas for disaster areas!
In some areas, a very few senior generals of the National Army even secretly resold military rations at high prices! Take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune from the country’s difficult situation!
The victims were hungry and disappointed, which eventually turned into escaping anger. In some areas, they even acted irrationally by cooperating with the Japanese army to attack the National Army.
But this is just an isolated phenomenon.
Most hungry people chose to flee.
However, for the people in the Yellow River area, this is just the beginning.
In the next three years, due to the diversion of the Yellow River, the entire Yellow River region suffered from severe droughts, floods and locust plagues. Forced by famine, more people were forced to embark on the road to flee famine. According to the most conservative estimates, the number of Huanghuai people fleeing famine There are more than 30 million people. Director Feng Da's "Review of 1942" truly restores that unforgettable history.
The reason why Chairman Chiang ordered the bombing of Huayuankou was to prevent the Japanese army from attacking Wuhan.
So, what is the effect? It should be said that the bursting of the Yellow River's banks still had a certain impact on the Japanese army. At least the 9th, 13th, 14th, and 16th divisions of the Japanese army that merged from the north to the south were besieged by floods and were forced to suspend their pursuit. This also helped the northern front The Nationalist Army was able to evacuate calmly.
The Kumamoto Division and Kikuchi Brigade, who were trapped near Huainan and Bengbu, were even worse. After the flood came down, the Kumamoto Division and Kikuchi Brigade were quickly divided and surrounded by hundreds of small highlands by the torrential floods, and their food supply was very low. It is almost exhausted, and from now on we can only rely on aviation to drop supplies to barely make ends meet.
However, the Yellow River bursting its banks could only do so much.
To say how much personnel and material losses it caused to the Japanese army, it is really not possible.
It is even more strategically naive to believe that the Yellow River bursting its banks can force the Japanese government to abandon its plan to attack Wuhan.
On the second day after the Yellow River burst its banks, the Japanese base camp was basically determined. The strategic goal of gathering and annihilating the main force of the National Army in the Xuzhou battlefield had failed, and the Wuhan battle was inevitable. After realizing this, the Japanese base camp immediately sent troops to Japan. The government applied for 2 billion yen in funding for war preparations for the Wuhan Battle.
At the same time, the Japanese base camp also reorganized the North China and Central China Front armies.
The Central China Front Army and the Shanghai Condemnation Army were abolished, and a new Central China Condemnation Army was formed. The former Central China Front Army and Shanghai Condemnation Army commander Shunroku Hata was transferred to the commander of the Central China Condemnation Army. The 2nd Army was originally affiliated with the North China Front Army. It was transferred to the Central China Dispatch Army, and at the same time the organization of the 10th Army was canceled and reorganized into the 11th Army.
After the reorganization, the strength of the Central China Dispatch Army reached 14 divisions and another detachment, plus an aviation regiment.
Among them, the Central China Dispatch Army Headquarters has direct jurisdiction over the 3rd, 9th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 22nd, and 116th Divisions plus the Aviation Corps, and the 2nd Army has direct jurisdiction over the 10th, 13th, and 16th Divisions. The commander of the regiment, the 2nd Army, Higashino Miyazakihiko, is also a prince, and he is also the younger brother of Fushimi Miya Toshihiko.
Speaking of this Higashikanomiya Nurihiko, it can be said that he is a famous libertine of the Japanese royal family.
In his early years, after graduating from the University of Mainland China, Higashikanomiya Toshihiko followed his elder brother Fushimi Miya Toshihiko to study abroad at the French Army University. However, unlike the studious and progressive Fushimi Miya Toshihiko, although Higashikanomiya Toshihiko He is talented but has no ambition at all. While studying abroad, he only chased beautiful women all day long.
After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Fushimi Miya Toshihiko returned to his country soon, but Higashikami Miya Nurihiko was addicted to the gentle country of French women and refused to return to his country for life and death! His nephew Hirohito threatened him with the loss of his imperial title, but Dong Jiuregong Nian Nian ignored him because he didn't care about his royal status at all.
However, after receiving the news of the death of his brother, Fushimi Miya Toshihiko, Higashikata Miyazaki finally returned to his country.
Moreover, without the need for the royal family to urge him, Dong Jiu Er Palace Nian Yan took the initiative to ask for a fight and offered to serve as the commander of the Shanghai Condemnation Army. Obviously, Dong Jiu Er Gong Nian Yan held his breath and wanted to find Xu Rui. Unlucky, he wanted to avenge his brother, but his uncle, Army Chief of Staff Hanyuan Gong Zairen, did not agree.
Although the old devil, Kanin Gong Zairen, has mediocre military abilities, he is still familiar with basic human nature. Based on the mentality of Higashikawa Gongzaihiko at that time, if he was really allowed to take over as the commander of the Shanghai Condemnation Army, he would definitely give it to him. Xu Rui's crazy revenge, then the final result is likely to be that he failed to get his revenge and ended up with his own life instead.
Therefore, Kanin Gong Zaijin transferred Higashino Gong Nurihiko to the relatively safe Shandong battlefield and asked him to succeed Xiang Yueqingji as the commander of the 2nd Army. He planned to let him adapt to the battlefield atmosphere in the Shandong battlefield first, and then Entrusted with important tasks, Dong Jiu'er Palace Nianyan did not disappoint Xianyuan Gong Zairen after arriving in Shandong. He occupied Jinan without bloodshed and occupied Qingdao with a surprise force, both of which can be regarded as classics.
After half a year of settling down, Hanyuan Gong Zairen felt that Higashikanomiya Ninuhiko had completely adapted to the atmosphere of the battlefield. At the same time, he also believed that he had come out of the mentality of eager to avenge his brother, and finally decided to send Higashikanomiya Niguhiko to the battlefield. Go to central China and participate in the Battle of Wuhan that determines the fate of the empire.
In addition to the 2nd Army in Dongjiure Palace, the newly formed 11th Army was also included in the Central China Condemnation Army.
The commander of the 11th Army, Okamura Neiji, is a notorious figure. On the road to Japan's militarization, the so-called "Showa Sanyu Karasu" headed by Okamura Neiji can be said to have played a key role.
The so-called Sanyuwu actually means three heroes, such as the three heroes in the early Han Dynasty.
Showa Miwa Karasaka, in addition to Okamura Neiji, Nagata Tetsuzan and Obata Toshishiro, it was these three old devils who created the Baden-Baden Alliance and overturned the old political order that had emerged since the Meiji Restoration. It truly enabled the Japanese Emperor to possess supreme military power, and from then on, Japan truly moved towards militarism.
It should be noted that after the Meiji Restoration, Japan boarded the last train of capitalism and quickly became one of the great powers in just thirty years. However, after the Meiji Restoration, the Emperor of Japan actually had no military power. Military power was controlled by the bureaucratic samurai groups of Satsuma and Choshu, headed by Meiji Sanhakara.
Meiji Miwa Karasaka, Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi were from the Satsuma clan, and Kido Takayoshi was from the Choshu clan. After the Meiji Restoration, the bureaucratic samurai groups of these two clans firmly controlled the military power. If you are not If you were born in the Satsuma Domain, you would never be able to get into the top ranks of the Navy, and if you were not born in the Choshu Domain, it would be impossible to get into the top ranks of the Army.
The solidification of the ruling class will inevitably lead to the emergence of rebellion. By the 1920s, the rebellion in the Japanese navy and army was already very serious. During the 128th Shanghai Anti-Japanese War and the Great Wall Anti-Japanese War, China and the army were extremely weak at that time. Therefore, it was able to withstand the Japanese attack. The internal rebellion of the Japanese army was also an important reason.
The military power has long been controlled by the samurai class of Satsuma and Choshu, which will of course cause dissatisfaction among the royal family.
Hirohito was still a prince at the time, but he was very dissatisfied with the current situation. So during Hirohito's only mission to Europe, he secretly summoned Okamura Neiji after ignoring the eyes of Satsuma and Choshu. When he arrived at the imperial court, he asked Okamura Neiji to recruit wings for him and form a young officer corps with Hirohito as his allegiance!
So Okamura Neji found Nagata Tetsuzan and Obata Toshishiro to form the Baden-Baden Alliance. In fact, Tojo Hideki also participated in this secret gathering. Unfortunately, Tojo Hideki was only in charge at the time. The Baden-Baden League was the predecessor of the Showa warlord group.
After the Baden Conference, Okamura Neiji and three others successively introduced Umezu Yoshijiro, Yamashita Tomofumi, Nakamura Kotaro, Nakajima Imaogo, Shimomura Sad, Matsui Iwane, Isoya Rensuke and others into the Baden League. These eleven people , together formed the core members of the Showa Warlord Group, which was also the cornerstone of the Japanese army's launch of World War II.
Before being transferred to the commander of the 11th Army, Okamura Neiji originally served as the division commander of the 2nd Division stationed in the Northeast.
When he was the division commander of the 2nd Division, Okamura Neiji first tried out his cage fortress policy during the campaign to encircle and suppress the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance, which was to imprison the people of the four northeastern provinces in large villages. In the village, every village was guarded by military police. As a result, the Northeast Anti-Resistance Alliance troops could not get supplies and soon declined due to hunger and cold.
When the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance had its largest strength, it had grown to more than 30,000 people. However, under the cage strangulation of Okamura Neji, they were quickly beaten to less than a thousand people, and they also lost their fixed base. They could only Fighting guerrillas everywhere, in a military sense, the Northeast Anti-Resistance Alliance can no longer pose any threat to the Kwantung Army.
It was precisely because of his outstanding performance in the Second Division that Okamura Neiji was reused and promoted to the commander of the 11th Army. This move caused great dissatisfaction with Shunroku Hata, the commander of the Condemnation Army in Central China, because In Hata Shunroku's view, Okamura Neji was a junior and was not qualified to be the commander of the group army.
This also paved the way for Okamura's bitter battles when he faced Xue Yue again and again, because he could not get the full support of Shunroku Hata, the commander of the Shanghai Condemnation Army, but Neji Okamura, an old devil, is indeed powerful, both With Shunroku Hata's support, even though he suffered a defeat on Nanxun Road, he still broke through from the middle and won the battle of Wuhan.
In this time and space, due to the appearance of Xu Rui, the pre-war situation of the Wuhan Battle has undergone some changes, but basically, it is still not very different from history. Although Xu Rui, the little butterfly that came through time and space, was fluttering desperately , but in the end it still failed to trigger a big storm, and it was still not enough to change the direction of history. (To be continued.)