After a pause, Chairman Jiang suddenly raised his tone and said, "When Wuhan retreated, I repeatedly said that I wanted to scorch the earth to fight against the war, burn it, but as a result, so many supplies fell into the hands of the enemy!

I see, you, Chen Cixiu, neither obeyed nor accepted the order!"

Chen Cheng's face suddenly turned red and immediately stood up with fear and fear, "The committee's instructions are extremely good, not only for Changsha to the entire Nine War Zone."

Chairman Jiang ignored Chen Cheng, picked up the cup and took a leisurely sip of boiled water, then waved his hand to let Chen Cheng sit down, and then said:

"When Napoleon led a large army to Moscow, Marshal Kutuzov was able to turn defeat into victory by burning Moscow!

Changsha is located between Wuhan and Guangzhou, and is under the attack of the Japanese army from north to south and south, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack! Therefore, we should not fight hard battles with the Japanese army here, and adopt a scorched earth policy for Changsha matters!"

The military meeting that night became a meeting to discuss arson, while Chairman Jiang became an arson expert, talking endlessly for two hours on how to set fire and how to burn everything.

Everyone finally understood Chairman Jiang’s trump card: he judged that the Japanese army would attack Changsha soon, so he planned to give up Changsha and burn the entire city of Changsha to scorched earth before giving up!

Feng Yuxiang, Bai Chongxi, Tang Shengzhi and Zhang Zhizhong repeatedly expressed their opposition, but they could not shake Chairman Jiang's determination. In the end, he invited everyone to eat and the military meetings were over, and the military meetings were over!

After the night break, Chairman Jiang summoned Dai Li and Changsha police commander Feng Ti, the commander of the Second Security Regiment Xu Kun, the commander of the Changsha police station Wen Chongfu and others to secretly remind them:

"The situation is urgent. What I said at the meeting today. You must remember: If the Japanese army is coming, we will set fire to the fire first, and we will spare no expense!"

When Zhang Zhizhong was a teenager, he wandered around and witnessed the poverty of the Chinese people. He had a lot of ambitions. He was transferred to Hunan to preside over the political situation because of his military achievements in the Battle of Shanghai. It has been a whole year now.

Zhang Zhizhong was also a parent official in the area as a soldier, and he wanted to benefit the common people. However, the army was unable to violate the fate, so he could only bite the bullet and execute Chairman Jiang’s scorched earth war of resistance!

On November 1, 1938, the Changsha government began to mobilize citizens to evacuate and decided to move the provincial government to Yuanling and the municipal government to Shaoyang.

The originally few transportation vehicles were occupied by various agencies, and the stations and docks were in chaos. People fought each other for a seat, which often caused bloodshed.

After the defeat of the Wuhan Battle, a large number of refugees and wounded soldiers continued to pour into Changsha. Coupled with the transfer of Wuhan agencies and factories, Changsha's population has increased from 300,000 to more than 500,000.

Such a large population transfer is a cruel and severe test for all transportation capacity such as Changsha railways, highways, shipping, etc., with roads congested and extremely crowded!

On November 7, Chairman Jiang came to Changsha again to hold a military meeting.

This meeting mainly discussed the gains and losses of Changsha's war and defense. Chairman Jiang once again made clear instructions: Changsha must implement the scorched earth war of resistance. If it is not defended, it must be completely destroyed and cannot be left to the Japanese!

On November 8, the Japanese army invaded northern Hunan, and on the same day, the Japanese army dispatched planes to bomb Changsha and Hengyang!

On November 9, the Japanese army captured Linxiang and occupied Chenglingji on the 10th.

On November 12, Yueyang lost its gateway to northern Hunan, and the Japanese army set foot on the land of Hunan.

At this time, Changsha was no longer as prosperous as before, and the market was shrouded in desolation and solemnity.

People have heard that the Japanese army burned, killed, raped and captured in the occupied areas, and the tragic Nanjing Massacre was even more horrifying.

Women, children, young and old in Changsha, when they talk about the Japanese devils, they are afraid of being afraid, and social life has been completely disrupted by war.

On this day, Zhang Zhizhong received another secret message from Chairman Jiang from Hengshan:

It is limited to one hour. Chairman Zhang of Changsha, secretly. If Changsha falls, please burn the whole city. I hope you can make sure to prepare in advance and do not miss it!

Zhongzheng text attendant

This matter is extraordinary. Zhang Zhizhong did not dare to neglect it. He immediately rushed back to the provincial government, found Chen Cheng, and asked in a low voice: "This time Changsha adopts scorched earth policy, divination, what are your opinions?"

Chen Cheng said affirmatively. "It is difficult to disobey the military's life, of course we have to do it."

Zhang Zhizhong was extremely helpless and had to find Feng Ti, Xu Kun and Wen Chongfu to discuss together, formulated a careful plan, and made a sign of taking action.

Zhang Zhizhong clearly issued instructions from the beginning, and there are four regulations for raising fires as planned: the first is that the provincial government issued an order, the second is that the security command issued an order, the third is that the alarm makes rhythmic long and short calls, and the fourth is that the fire pillar appears on Tianxin Pavilion!

However, on the night of November 12, 1938, it was crazy and out of control.

It was exactly at around 2 a.m. on the 13th that the Tianxin Pavilion Trauma Hospital in the south gate of Changsha City suddenly caught fire!

Seeing that the wounded soldiers suddenly caught fire in the hospital, Ding Sen and other soldiers of the Self-Defense Regiment immediately took the lead in setting their house on fire.

In less than a quarter of an hour, fires were already on the south gate.

Xu Quan quickly received the soldiers' report and immediately called Guan Linzheng General Command to find out that there was no war ahead, so he judged that "one place is inadvertent, three sets of fires"!

However, the trouble is that the police and firefighters have evacuated, and no one has put out the fire, so the fire cannot be controlled at all!

It just so happened that night, Feng Ti, the commander-in-chief of the city, had been busy.

Hundreds of military and police officers who were preparing to perform a fire mission thought it was a fire signal, and they shouted wildly, "setting the fire", raised the torch and carried the oil barrel on their backs, and started setting fires from street to door to house!

Fires ignited one after another at the east gate, west gate and north gate of Changsha. For a moment, the whole city fell into a sea of ​​fire.

Some of the people who stayed in the city were called out by the arson team, and some woke up in their sleep. They all thought that the Japanese army had really entered the city. They were all frightened and rushed to flee.

However, facing the raging fire, there was no way to heaven and no way to enter the ground, and there was a cry of crying and calling for my parents over the city.

The fire spreads, the fire head becomes more and more fierce, and the temperature becomes higher and higher. The historical city of Changsha, on this cold night in early winter, becomes a veritable stove, and the flames devour all life.

The telegram on that day was code-named "Wen". Because the fire occurred at night, it was called "Xi", so the fire was called "Wenxi Fire".

This is the "mistake of the entire group". In fact, as early as November 12, Changsha's fate was doomed by the decision of the "scorched earth war of resistance".

The fire eventually killed more than 30,000 people in Changsha, more than 90% of the city's houses were burned, and economic losses were about 1 billion yuan.

It also made Changsha, Stalingrad, Hiroshima and Nagasaki the most severely damaged cities in World War II. It was one of the three major tragedies in the history of the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japan, which was known as the Huayuankou Burst and Chongqing Air Raid Shelter Tragedy.

After the fire, the Japanese army sent planes to take photos over Changsha, and exaggerated them in radio and newspapers, saying that Changsha was "like licking" after the fire, etc.

Therefore, the truth about Burning the City aroused strong indignation from the people.
Chapter completed!