The history of the Cheng'an Massacre

(1)

In 1937, after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Japanese invaders sent their troops southward. They were extremely arrogant and shouted that they would destroy China in three months. After the enemy chief Dohihara Kenji in the middle route took Baoding lightly, he divided his troops into two groups, one going straight to Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, and Handan; the other coming from Hengshui, Nangong, Yongnian, and Feixiang. In the early morning of September 20th of the lunar calendar in 1937, a brigade of the Shanglin Army of the Eighth Division of the Japanese Army attacked Cheng'an County from Feixiang County. The invaders believed that since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, they had swept across North China and were invincible. There would be no trouble in a small third-class county, and capturing Cheng'an County would be as easy as picking out a bag.

What the Japanese army never expected was that the soldiers and civilians of Cheng'an united as one and put up a heroic resistance in the face of the enemy's attack, wiping out more than 400 enemies. The Japanese army never dreamed that they would suffer such a heavy blow in Cheng'an, a small county in southern Hebei. "Throw away all the armor in the field, throw away all the swords and guns on the ground." It's like a mad dog that was about to bite someone and suddenly received a sap, but it was unwilling to give up. Moreover, most of these Japanese soldiers who invaded China were desperadoes who had been indoctrinated by fascism for many years. Japanese militarism believes that it is natural for the Japanese nation to invade other countries and does not give other nations any room to survive. Treating the lives of the people of the invaded nation as nothing, how could they not take crazy revenge after being severely hit this time? To this end, they mobilized a large number of troops and artillery from Handan, used artillery to blast open the west gate of Cheng'an County, and began a crazy revenge on the people of Cheng'an on Chinese soil.

(2)

In the early morning of September 20th of the lunar calendar in 1937, after the first defense battle of Cheng'an ended and before the large Japanese troops transferred from Handan arrived, Dozens of Japanese soldiers who had slipped through the net were running around like mad dogs, entering villages when they saw them and killing everyone they met. A dozen Japanese soldiers ran to Gaozhuang in the west of the city. Farmer Gao Zhong heard the sound of leather shoes on the street and came out to see what was going on. He was shot to death by Japanese soldiers. The sound of gunfire and barking of dogs alarmed the neighbors. More than a dozen neighbors came to Gao Zhong's house to see what was going on. Unexpectedly, a group of Japanese soldiers had entered Gao Zhong's house. As soon as they entered Gao Zhong's house, the dozen or so people were surrounded by Japanese soldiers. Except for one who ran away, all the others were tied up. Gao Ze looked out from the door of his house and was seen by Japanese soldiers. The Japanese soldiers immediately rushed towards his house with guns in hand. Gao Ze had nowhere to escape and had to hide in the corner of the door. After the Japanese soldiers found him, he stabbed his stomach with a bayonet and died immediately. There were more than ten people hiding in Chang Fangni's house. Several Japanese soldiers raised their guns and shot into the house. Blood immediately flowed all over the house, and no one was spared. The Japanese devils brutally dragged more than a dozen people tied up in Gao Zhong's home to the east of the village, tied them to trees, and stabbed them to death with bayonets. Two brothers, Wang Liansheng and Wang Sansheng, were dragged to the east of the village by Japanese soldiers. The brothers fought with the Japanese soldiers with fists and feet. The Japanese soldiers screamed and stabbed them to death. The soldiers and civilians standing on guard on the city wall saw the tragic killings of the people in Gaozhuang, and they were furious and fired revenge bullets at the Japanese soldiers. The Japanese soldiers did not dare to stop at Gaozhuang and turned around and ran towards Fanerzhuang.

A few Japanese soldiers broke into Fan'erzhuang first. After stabbing old man Wang Dejun to death, they merged with the Japanese soldiers who came from Gaozhuang and searched people door to door. Li Degui did not escape. A dozen kind-hearted people including Zhang Dengke and Liu Fengxiang were tied up in a string with hemp ropes and rushed to the gate of the village east primary school, where they died under the enemy's bayonets. Before they died, they cursed loudly and showed their heroic spirit of not being afraid of the enemy.

The Japanese who were stationed at the command post on Fenghuangtai in Qucun saw the siege troops dispersed and prepared to flee back to Feixiang. However, the dragnet of our soldiers and civilians in the north of the city to hunt down the Japanese forced them to change their escape direction. Together with more than a dozen Japanese soldiers who had escaped from Gaozhuang and Fanerzhuang, they massacred the people of Qucun. More than 30 old, weak, sick and disabled people in the village who did not escape died tragically under the bayonets of the Japanese. The Japanese also set fire to more than 100 houses and killed more than 70 livestock. What's even more hateful is that the Japanese nailed the elderly Zhang Zhong's mother to the wall with wooden stakes and set up firewood below to burn her alive.

This group of extremely vicious Japanese soldiers, after killing many Chinese people, fled towards Fort Dutang in Feixiang.

(3)

At around 9 o'clock on the night of September 20th of the lunar calendar in 1937, a large group of Japanese troops from Handan began to attack Cheng'an County. They first used cannon to blow down the west wall and opened a gap, and the infantry immediately occupied the west gate. Due to the rapid development of the war, our defending troops had not yet withdrawn. The Japanese troops had already climbed onto the west wall, set up machine guns and fired at the chaotic crowd along the East and West Streets. Many innocent people fell in a pool of blood. The panicked crowd ran eastward like a stream, trying to escape through the east gate, but there were earth bags more than 4 feet high piled under the east gate. The two east gates were locked with iron chains, and there was only a stone between the two gates. A gap less than 1 meter wide was left, and two people side by side could not pass through it. Raindrops of bullets fell on the panicked and fleeing crowd, and innocent people fell in a pool of blood row by row. Fortunately, there are seven ancient archways in the east and west streets of the city, which became natural obstacles for the Japanese army to shoot and kill people. They blocked some of the bullets fired by the Japanese army and saved some people's lives.

On the morning of September 21st of the lunar calendar in 1937, as soon as it dawned, the Japanese soldiers on the west wall began to enter the city. They shot as they advanced. When they reached the crossroads, it was already broad daylight. When they saw clearly that there were no troops and they were all fleeing civilians, the Japanese continued to shoot at the chaotic people, causing more people to be shot to death. Some of the shocked people ran home to hide, and some ran to the "Wan Zi Hui" (Note: "Wan Zi Hui" is an international charity organization) to hide. Members of the "Wanzihui" Zhang Shixian, Han Dadu and others walked to the door of the "Wanzihui" under the banner of "Wanzihui" to welcome the Japanese troops. The crazy Japanese invaders didn't care about this, and swarmed into the "Wanzihui" courtyard with bayonets in hand. The courtyard of the "Wanzihui" was crowded with people who had fled. Zhang Shouyi, the head of the "Ten Thousand Characters Club", and others quickly came forward to greet them, shouting: "We are an international charity!" Japanese military officers, whether they were members of the "Ten Thousand Character Club" or refugees, ordered everyone to kneel down, while the Japanese troops surrounded Surrounded by people taking refuge. The Japanese army tied up all the men and then escorted them all to the large pit east of the Confucian Temple like herds of sheep. The Japanese soldiers set up machine guns, and the dull sound of the machine guns rang out, and the water in the pit was stained red with blood. None of the hundreds of people who hid in the "Wanzihui" survived. After dawn on September 21, groups of Japanese soldiers searched people door to door and continued the brutal massacre. The main methods used by the Japanese army to kill people in Cheng'an include: shooting with guns and mass shooting of the masses; tying people to trees or pillars, beating them to death with sticks, or stabbing them to death with bayonets; throwing tied people on the road and letting them die. Run over by a vehicle; set on fire.

More than 100 women and children were crowded into the three large houses of Zhang Cai’s house on the south side of Dongdajie Road. When the Japanese soldiers found out, they locked the door, piled firewood outside, poured gasoline on them, and killed them. All burned alive.

The east room of Li Xiangqin’s house on South Street hid 14 people who had fled. After a group of Japanese soldiers broke into Li's house after chasing two young women, they discovered the people hiding here. The Japanese raped and humiliated the two young women in every possible way. In the evening, several more Japanese soldiers came to Li's house to look for women, but failed to find them. In anger, they shot and killed 13 people who had taken refuge here. Among the 14 people who took refuge, only 9-year-old Song Yuzhen saved his life by hiding in a cupboard.

Two women on North Street were killed on the street. A baby less than two years old was still crawling on the mother's body, crying and sucking milk. A group of Japanese devils first surrounded the child and laughed ferociously, and then two Japanese The Japanese came up and cruelly grabbed one of the children's legs, tore them in half and threw them about ten feet away.

Chi Fenglin's wife saw the tragic scene of the Japanese soldiers killing and stabbing everyone on sight, and she expected that she would not be able to escape the tiger's mouth. With tears in her eyes, she kissed her one-year-old daughter, and threw her daughter into the water tank with her heart. After watching her daughter die with her own eyes, she immediately ran to the Nanda Water Puddle, cried and scolded the Japanese invading troops, and then Diving to death.

The mother of Yin Xiangzhong on Nan Street took her 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son with her, trying to find a safe place to hide. Unexpectedly, she was discovered by the Japanese soldiers coming from behind. She vowed not to let her mother and son 3 He died under the butcher's knife of the Japanese. He picked up the two children and ran to the big puddle in front of the Confucian Temple and jumped into it. The mother and son drowned in the pit with hatred.

A 17-year-old girl had her clothes stripped off by Japanese soldiers, her hands were tied, and she lay naked on the ground in front of the Sansheng Temple. She was wantonly humiliated and gang-raped by a group of Japanese soldiers in broad daylight. Even an old woman in her 50s did not escape the ravages of the Japanese. There were more than 20 women hiding in the noodle mill on South Street. The evil Japanese invaders broke in, selected four young women and took them to the upstairs of Wang's house on South Street, forcing them to wear colorful clothes and skirts. Jumping around, the Japanese devils humiliated and had fun at the same time. They drank and laughed wildly. They insulted and screamed for a while. When these girls came back, they had been treated badly.

Twenty-three elderly couples each took their grandchildren and took refuge in the Tianye Temple on Southwest Street. These kind-hearted old people believed that the Tianye Temple was the residence of gods and beggars. Maybe the Japs won't come here. As everyone knows, a small group of Japanese devils did not even let go of the Tianye Temple. The Japs stood guard in front of the temple and rushed in to arrest people. The old people kept saying: "We are good people!" The Japanese didn't care about this and tied up 23 old men. Children cried, old women knelt down to plead for mercy. 23 old men were pulled outside the temple, while their children and old women were blocked inside the temple. After a burst of gunfire, the bodies of the old men were piled beside the pit in front of the temple. No one survived. The Japanese soldiers left, and in front of the temple there were bursts of heart-rending cries from the old woman and children.

There were more than a dozen young people in the city who saw Japanese soldiers standing guard on the city walls and Japanese soldiers setting fire to every house in the city to search for people. They felt that they had no way to go. In order to avoid the massacre by the Japanese army, they ran away. Go to Tianye Temple to hide. They climbed to the top of the temple and lay down on the slope between the front temple hall and the back hall. They had been hungry for two days and two nights without eating and did not dare to move. The Japanese troops on the ground did not see it, but they were discovered by Japanese aircraft hovering in the sky. The Japs on the plane sent a signal to the ground. In the early morning of September 21, a large number of Japanese soldiers surrounded the Tianye Temple and dragged the dozen young men down one by one from the roof. Although these young people were dizzy and weak from hunger, they still shouted slogans such as "Down with the Japanese devils!" The vicious Japanese soldiers shot them immediately on the field in front of the temple. Outside the city, although our anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians organized many counterattacks, they all failed. The Japanese devils went even more crazy and carried out a second bloody massacre.

The Japanese went door-to-door throughout the city to search for people, and killed all men they found, young and old. Many people fled to the Catholic church for refuge, thinking that since the Catholic church had priests and a slogan "Welcome to Japan" hung at the door of the church, the Japanese might not kill religious believers. But the red-eyed Japanese devils don't care about this! Dozens of Japanese soldiers gathered all the people into the courtyard, picked out seven to eighty men, and tied them up with ropes. The priest made the sign of the cross and begged the Japanese not to kill these kind people, but it was in vain. These innocent people were dragged out by the Japanese and killed in Xida Hang.

After two massacres, the city was full of dead bodies. The dogs became red-eyed and went crazy after eating human flesh. They bit people whenever they saw them. All the dogs lost their hair and were so fat that they were naked. The city has become a hell on earth, and there are dead people in almost all the wells. There is only one well in the west courtyard of the Catholic Church in the whole city, which is the only well that can draw water for food.

The most heinous thing is that the Japanese devils did not spare the dead. They gathered a large number of the corpses of our dead compatriots. They stripped off the upper bodies of men and the lower bodies of women and arranged them into kneeling, They put these dead bodies against the street wall in various positions such as lying up or standing up and used them as targets for them to practice shooting. It is cruel and cruel and heinous.

Nearly every household in the county was killed, and many families were exterminated. In addition to the locals of Cheng'an who were killed, there were also people who were doing business in Cheng'an County from other places. In Nangong County alone, more than 100 businessmen who came to Cheng'an to do business were killed by the Japanese.

(4)

In addition to massacres in the county and nearby Gaozhuang, Fanerzhuang, and Qucun, the Japanese army also caused the Donghe Massacre. Donghe consists of three natural villages: Hedong, Hezhong and Lizhuang. It is located in the northeast corner of Cheng'an County, 35 miles away from the city. It borders Menggu Village in Guangping County to the east and Feixiang County to the north. It is at the junction of three counties. It is a remote place with simple and honest people.

In the early years, the Red Spear Club set up an altar here to practice martial arts, and martial arts practice became popular among the people in the village, especially the young people.

I heard that the Japanese army had occupied Cheng'an County, and the people of Donghe fled one after another. The old and young have all left, but almost every household still has a young man guarding the door. There are about 30 people in the boxing ring of the Red Gun Club in Hedong Village, led by Guo Xinfu. Everyone agreed that if a large enemy force came, we would take shelter; if a small group of enemies came into the village and caused mischief, we would kill them without leaving any trace.

On the sixth day of the tenth lunar month in 1937, a Japanese advance team came to Hedong Village to set up wires and conduct reconnaissance along the way. While setting up electric wires, they went into people's homes to catch chickens and beat dogs, making the streets full of chickens and dogs. When more than 30 young people in the boxing ring saw Japanese Japs entering the village to grab things, they all took off their shirts and rushed towards the Japs with machetes in hand.

At this time, most of the Japanese soldiers were pulling wires, setting up poles, and were busy working with their heads down. They thought that everyone in the village had already escaped, so they relaxed their vigilance. Suddenly I heard a "Come on!" dozens of bald and bare-chested young Chinese people ran out of the courtyard. Some of them had already been stabbed before the Japanese could figure out what was going on. The Japanese were like grasshoppers exploding their nests, running and hiding for a while. But after all, the Japanese were well-trained and quickly stabilized their position and fought with these warriors. Because it was a hand-to-hand battle, the sophisticated weapons of the Japanese devils could not be used. They could only fight with these dozens of young farmers. Several Japanese soldiers fell. The Japanese soldiers retreated eastward while firing, and fired shots at neighboring villages. A large group of Japanese soldiers sent a signal for help.

The young people were fighting around and were divided into groups by the Japanese devils. The fighting lasted for more than an hour, and the battlefield moved from the street to the cotton field in the east of the village. At this time, a large group of Japanese cavalry came from the neighboring village. The tall war horses ran rampant. Some people fell down and died, and some were seriously injured after being kicked by the war horses and then killed by the Japanese with bayonets.

The enemy is strong and we are weak, and the situation is becoming increasingly unfavorable. The casualties among the young people in Hedong were increasing. Seeing that they could no longer hold on, several people took advantage of the chaos of the battle and crawled southward along the cotton ridges. It took them a long time to crawl to a safe area.

In this fierce battle, the youths of Hedong Village killed 14 Japanese Japs and wounded dozens of others. 23 patriotic youths of Hedong Village died for their country. After the ferocious Japanese dropped hundreds of corpses in Cheng'an County half a month ago, they unexpectedly took more than a dozen lives in this village. After they occupied the village, they immediately carried out crazy revenge, setting fires and killing people from house to house. Although most of the people in the village escaped, there were always one or two watchmen in each family. There were some families who did not flee. When they saw the Japanese invaders entering the village, they could no longer escape, so they had to hide in dry wells and stacks of firewood. stand up. Li Sijing's family of six (father, wife, two daughters, and two sons) hid in a large hole in the ground. After being discovered by the Japanese, they were all brutally murdered. Some people who fled to other villages heard a fight between young men in the boxing ring of Hedong Village and the Japs and wanted to find out what was going on in the village. They were shot to death by the Japs before they even entered the village.

In the Donghe Massacre caused by the Japanese, the Japanese killed more than 100 people. In one natural village in Hedong alone, more than 80 people were killed, more than 70 large livestock were robbed, and many houses were burned down. They filled the wells in the village with the corpses of the people, and later they fished out 27 corpses from just one well in the vegetable garden. After the Japanese Japs left, families in Hedong Village came back one after another. Almost every family had a dead person, mourning clothes were all over the streets, and cries were everywhere. The enemy owed another blood debt to the Chinese people.

(5)

The Japanese army carried out two massacres on the people of Cheng'an County in 1937. According to the investigation of the Xuanfu class organized by the Japanese army later, the massacres were carried out in the city and at Sanguan. 3,718 people were killed, and more than 1,600 people were killed in Gaozhuang, Fanerzhuang, Qucun, Hedong and other villages. In this way, the Japanese army owed more than 5,300 lives in Cheng'an, including more than 100 businessmen from Nangong County who came to Cheng'an to do business. More than 1,200 houses were burned down and all their property was looted. This huge blood debt will never be forgotten by the people of Cheng'an.

In order to commemorate the victims of the compatriots, Cheng'an raised funds to build the Anti-Japanese Memorial Hall and designated the 20th day of the ninth lunar month as the Anti-Japanese Memorial Day every year.