"Treaty of Yalta" - the ugly face of the great powers

On September 2, 1944, while the counteroffensive operations in northern Burma and western Yunnan were in progress, the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack in the direction of Guangxi, China, as if entering uninhabited territory. In just over twenty days, the Japanese army advanced more than 700 kilometers into the southwest hinterland of China. The vulnerability of the national army and the rapid loss of the country not only caused an uproar in domestic public opinion, but also shocked the Allied forces.

The Japanese army attacked the defense area of ??China's Fourth Theater, and the commander-in-chief was Zhang Fakui.

The Fourth War Zone has been without war for more than three years.

Guangxi is Bai Chongxi’s territory, and the main force of the defenders is the Guangxi troops. The generals all obey Bai Chongxi’s orders, and Bai Chongxi handles all affairs involving Guangxi, no matter how big or small. Therefore, the Guangdong general Zhang Fakui wisely took The strategy of "forbearance comes first" is entirely up to Bai Chongxi or Chiang Kai-shek to worry about. In addition, after the Japanese troops withdrew from Guangxi in 1940, there was no enemy situation in Guangxi, so Zhang Fakui lived a leisurely life in the Fourth Theater.

However, in the summer of 1944, Changsha and Hengyang fell one after another. Zhang Fakui thought that Xue Yue would transfer the main force of the Ninth Theater to Xiangxi, with Guizhou and Guangxi as the rear area, so that the Fourth Theater would still be in the third place. Under the protection of the Ninth War Zone, the Japanese army will not threaten Guangxi under his jurisdiction. However, Xue Yue retreated to southeastern Hunan instead of western Hunan.

Zhang Fakui suddenly realized that the gates of northern Guangxi and eastern Guangxi were open, and the Japanese army might rush into Guangxi from Hunan or Guangdong at any time, so he urgently mobilized troops to deploy defenses. Because there had been no fighting for a long time, Zhang Fakui discovered just before the war that the fourth theater, which claimed to have nine armies and twenty-one divisions, had actually been reduced to pieces by the Chongqing Military Commission due to the battles in Changsha and Hengyang. The total number of combat troops was less than 100,000. There is no suspense about the outcome of the battle. The 100,000-strong Gui Army with backward equipment is no match for the Japanese Eleventh Army. All units of the national army collapsed instantly when engaging the Japanese army.

But what is incomprehensible is that just after the bloody battle of Hengyang, the main force of the Japanese army, the Eleventh Army, immediately recruited new soldiers to launch an attack on the Fourth Theater of Guangxi. The motivation for its continuous operations and the purpose to be achieved, Even using current military theory, it seems ridiculous.

Japan’s behavior originated in October 1944, when Japan encountered its greatest suffering since the beginning of the war.

In the Battle of Leyte Gulf at the end of October 1944, the Japanese navy was sunk four aircraft carriers, three battleships, six heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, 11 destroyers, and one submarine. , the other participating ships also suffered varying degrees of damage. The Japanese Navy also lost more than 500 fighter aircraft of various types, and more than 10,000 naval officers and carrier-based aircraft pilots died.

This is almost the last possession of the Japanese Navy.

The Japanese base camp finally realized that the war may have reached its final moment, and began to realize the consequences of Japan's defeat: "Unless the Japanese mainland can be preserved, Japan will be in despair."

The Japanese army in desperate situation used a very special attack method: suicide attack.

The Japanese suicide attack teams were called "kamikaze teams."

The "Kamikaze 7279" special attack team was established in October 1944. Its advocate was Lieutenant General Onishi Takijiro, commander of the Japanese Navy's First Fleet. Faced with the critical situation of complete defeat, On October 1, Onishi Takijiro convened a meeting of air force pilots and decided to organize a "fly into a ship" special attack team - to fly an aircraft carrying one thousand kilograms of high explosives to track the target and die with it.

< p> The members of the "Kamikaze" are all young people between the ages of 18 and 25. They can spend three months with their relatives or women before going on a mission. They write a suicide note before going out and are then locked in the cabin; when taking off. Without a parachute, the landing gear used for landing falls off automatically after takeoff - as long as it flies into the sky, there is no other option except diving.

The Japanese army began in the second half of 1944. The suicide attack was of great symbolic significance, because at this time, the Empire of Japan really had no other choice but to "break the jade into pieces".

This can explain why, when the situation was over, no one could tell, even though the Japanese army base camp and the generals of the Chinese occupying forces, how opening up the communication lines in mainland China would benefit the war situation that was about to collapse. , but the Japanese still stubbornly want to continue this large-scale field war.

On the Pacific battlefield, Japan's "absolute defense circle" has been broken through by the US military, both at sea and on land; on the Chinese battlefield, the expeditionary force's counterattack has driven the Japanese army out of western Yunnan,** The anti-Japanese armed forces of the Communist Party of China are launching a counterattack in North China. In order to defend the Japanese mainland, the southwestern islands, Taiwan, and the Philippines, the Japanese base camp decided to "carry out the Hunan-Guangxi operation in China as scheduled, use mainland traffic to make up for unsafe sea traffic, and implement air combat against the United States (mainly air combat) Preparation for war."

The Japanese stubbornly believe that as long as the railway transportation line runs through mainland China, they can establish a defense line with huge swing depth to ensure the security of Japan's mainland, allowing Japan to maintain its freedom in war crises. Passage and space for advance and retreat.

After the Japanese army defeated the Fourth War Zone and invaded Guangxi, thousands of refugees were crowded on the Guizhou-Guangxi Highway.

Due to the rout of the army, the suffering of ordinary people is unimaginable:

The final stage of the southern China campaign turned into a great rout, which was truly a huge disaster in modern times . Almost all of the millions of urban residents in the areas invaded by the Japanese were involved in the retreat. Before the Japanese reached Dushan, more than half a million Chinese struggled to escape on both sides of the steep railways and roads leading to Dushan, while the rest dispersed into the mountains near their hometowns. The death toll was in the thousands, due to hunger, fatigue, disease, and accidents, and it was impossible to count.

Refugees fleeing the war want to catch trains or buses, but they are also exploited by officials and military officers: officials and military officers make everything even more brutal. Priority rights given to national property on the railways were transferred to unofficial individuals. Some trains requisitioned by the army were used to transport refugees who had paid huge fares, but the trains stopped as soon as they drove from the city to the countryside. The refugees were forced to get off the train at gunpoint, and then the train turned back to the city to load another batch of refugees who had paid a high price. Many families fled like this until all their money was spent. In the end, the whole family committed suicide by jumping into a river or lying on a train.

When the Chinese soldiers and civilians who fled to northern Guangxi were suffering, the Japanese 23rd Army turned south from central Guangxi. On November 24, the main force of the 22nd Division was mixed with independent troops. The 23rd Brigade occupied Nanning City. Then, the 22nd Division continued southward along the railway line from Nanning to Vietnam. On December 10, it fought with the Japanese 21st Division, which was advancing north from Lang Son, Vietnam, between Nanning and Zhennanguan. Suilu joined forces.

"The summer uniforms worn by the Japanese army indicate that they have exceeded the scope of their supply lines. No one can determine where the Eleventh Army will attack." For this reason, there is news that due to the threat to Chongqing, the Nationalist Government is preparing to move the capital to Xichang - "Some of the dignitaries in the government have fled to India."

However, the Japanese Eleventh Army pursued them to Dushan Then it stopped.

Dushan, the end point of the Guizhou-Guangxi Railway.

On December 3, Hengshan Yong ordered the 3rd and 13th Divisions to abandon Dushan and Duyun and withdraw to Guangxi.

Why did the Japanese army stop at the border of Hunan and Guizhou? In addition to the fact that the troops advanced too fast and the logistics line was too long, and that Dushan was surrounded by and in front of Dushan, the most steep mountains in southern Guizhou. At that time, the U.S. military's offensive on the Pacific battlefield was approaching the Japanese mainland. The strategic policy of the Japanese base camp was no longer how to reach Chongqing, but to save the imminent domestic crisis. ——This large-scale "Operation No. 1" planned by the Japanese army base camp in an attempt to open up the communication line with mainland China ended successfully.

The "Operation No. 1" launched by the Japanese army invested more than 500,000 troops. The operation lasted for eight months and defeated the troops of China's 1st, 9th and 4th theaters, and occupied Henan and Hunan. and Guangxi, and captured seven Sino-US joint air bases including Hengyang, Lingling, Baoqing, Guilin, Liuzhou, Danzhu, and Nanning, opening up the north-south communication lines in mainland China.

However, facing such a long communication line, the Japanese army was unable to repair or defend it, so it had no way of utilizing it. In China's vast territory, it is an impossible dream for the Japanese army to firmly maintain a smooth line of communication. The Communist Party's anti-Japanese forces behind enemy lines alone are enough to instantly block or even completely paralyze this line of communication. The purpose of the Japanese base camp's attempt to change the traffic obstruction of the Southern Army did not change because of the siege of cities and territories on the Chinese battlefield.

Although the Sino-US joint air force bases in Hunan and Guangxi were destroyed, bases in Sichuan and other places are still in use. The Japanese mainland is still within the flight radius of the B-29 bombers, and the Japanese base camp has no control over the mainland. The fear of being attacked still hasn't gone away. Fundamentally speaking, the large-scale field war launched by the Japanese invaders made the Japanese army, already in the decline of the war, even more embarrassment, resources more depleted, and its strategic posture more passive.

As for why the troops in the Fourth Theater were defeated again and again, it is no longer important. We can get a glimpse of it from a telegram sent by Zhang Fakui, commander of the Fourth Theater, to Chiang Kai-shek. The telegram cited the example of the 26th Army's retreat without authorization, explaining that the Chinese army was "swayed by a decadent wind and had no fighting spirit", while the generals' "borders were too strict and their morale was too bad" and they only listened to Bai Chongxi's orders but did not obey them. The theater commander's order - the latter one is obviously a complaint to the Guangxi clique.

In fact, the real "bad atmosphere" lies in the upper echelons of the military and government.

In the battle against the Japanese army to open up the mainland's communication lines, the speed and scale of the Chinese army's defeat on the frontal battlefield, especially the state of hasty response, conserving strength and waiting and watching in combat guidance and strategic design, made Domestic public opinion and the Allied forces were quite angry. As far as the Guiliu Operation is concerned, it goes without saying that the Fourth Theater is at a disadvantage in both strength and posture, but the phenomenon is still incomprehensible: the Japanese army marched straight in from north to south, the length of the front, the distance to the rear, and the depth The depth of China's southwestern hinterland was beyond the scope of ordinary military operations. As a result, when the Japanese army marched southward, the forces in Henan, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui and other places were extremely weak and scattered.

There is by no means only one war zone on the Chinese battlefield. When Zhang Fakui's fourth war zone was fighting, except for the communist anti-Japanese armed forces who fought desperately behind enemy lines, the other eight war zone troops remained stationary.

As long as the Japanese army is not attacking its own defense area, no matter how critical the war is, it has nothing to do with it, just like the troops in other theaters are not Chinese troops, and the battlefields in other theaters are not Chinese battlefields. Just imagine, if when the Japanese army moved south in an all-round way, if the troops in other theaters could attack in time, how could the Japanese army march in so unscrupulously? Why did China lose such a large area of ??territory again? Why did the Allies lose their most important air base? Why are the people in the southwest displaced and enduring all kinds of war suffering?

In 1944, among the many losses caused by China's continuous battlefield defeats, one of the serious consequences caused by the low combat capabilities of the Chinese army and the decline in the credibility and credibility of the Nationalist government was ignored by the Chinese people. . This consequence will soon be revealed at an international conference related to China's destiny - this is the Yalta Conference that caused great humiliation to the Chinese people and Chinese history.

From February 4th to 11th, 1945, Yalta at the southern end of the Limu Peninsula was beautiful. The heads of state of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill, as well as their senior staff, gathered here secretly to discuss the postwar European pattern and the war against Japan. Although the people in this war-torn world did not realize that the nightmare would finally end in 1945, the politicians leading the war process had already determined that 1945 would be the year when the world political landscape changed due to the end of the war. A historic year of significant change.

The destruction of Germany and Japan is imminent.

When the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom gathered together, they actually made a bargaining agreement in advance for the distribution of post-war benefits. As an important party in the war against Japan, China was not invited to participate in the Yalta Conference. At the time of the Cairo Conference, the reason why China was listed as one of the four major powers in the world was because China's vast territory and many lives were needed to support the war against Japan. Now that the victory of the war is no longer in suspense, when discussing post-war interests China was excluded during the allocation.

In the eyes of the great powers, apart from enduring suffering, bearing losses and making sacrifices, China simply does not qualify as a "big country" that can divide the world's interests.

The meeting first recognized the United States, Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and China as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and established the principle of unanimous consent of the permanent members on substantive issues; the meeting decided that after the war, the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and France would be divided into Occupying Germany, Germany is not allowed to have troops, and Germany must pay war reparations; the conference determined that Poland's eastern border was generally based on the Curzon Line (that is, the Bug River divided the Soviet-Polish border), and agreed that Poland would obtain new territory in the east and north. The US-British Joint Staff also determined the final timetable for the war process: the earliest time to defeat Germany would be July 1, 1945, and the latest time would be December 31, 1945; to defeat Japan The time was eighteen months after the victory over Germany.

On the fourth day of the meeting, the issue of the Pacific Theater began to be discussed.

Since Japan still has a considerable amount of land forces in China and its homeland, and attacking Japan's homeland is the stated goal of the United States, given the low combat capabilities of the Chinese army, the United States no longer expects the Chinese army to cooperate with the US military in attacking Go to mainland Japan. Therefore, when Roosevelt left Washington for Yalta, Marshall made it clear that he wanted to conquer the Japanese army, especially the elite Kwantung Army stationed in Northeast China. Without the Soviet troops, the United States would have to pay the price of hundreds of thousands of casualties. Therefore, the United States must draw the Soviet Union into the camp to fight Japan.

The British believe that no matter how the interests are redistributed, the British Empire cannot lose its colonies around the world. However, on this issue, the British were constrained by the Americans. Americans believe that "exploiting the resources of India, Burma, and Java, taking away the wealth of those countries, but never giving them anything back, such as education, a decent standard of living, minimum health care, etc." is what they do. "denies the value of providing some organizational structure for peace before it begins."

Roosevelt said: "The colonial system means war" and suggested that the colonies be temporarily managed by the United Nations. Churchill was extremely angry and said that Roosevelt was disintegrating the British Empire: "Under no circumstances will I agree to let forty or fifty countries wantonly interfere with the survival of the British Empire! As long as I am still Prime Minister, I will never allow Britain to be destroyed." Hand over hereditary property, not even a cent!" At the same time, the British reminded the Americans to be extremely wary of the Soviet Union's possible excessive interest demands, which would not only involve the ownership of certain islands between the Soviet Union and Japan, but would also be more troublesome. What is more important is that the Soviet Union is likely to reach out to China's territory - Tsarist Russia has been peeping into and grabbing Chinese territory for the most part in modern times - which is known to the world - this will arouse China's dissatisfaction and trigger new international disputes.

The attitude of the Soviets was simple and clear: If the Soviet Union’s special rights and interests over Japan, Outer Mongolia, the Korean Peninsula, and China could not be satisfied, even if the United States shed a river of blood in the final settlement of Japan, it would be difficult for the Soviet Union to make it public. Declared war on Japan. The population of the Soviet Union was not large, and more than 20 million people had been killed or injured in the war with Germany. The Soviet Union and Japan had no disputes in this war. If they went to war with Japan, there must be a reason that was justifiable to the Soviet people.

Roosevelt went around in circles to introduce the topic, saying that Washington's staff believed that if B-29 bombers were used to carry out intensive bombing of the Japanese mainland, the U.S. military would not have to land on the Japanese mainland to make Japan surrender. Stalin immediately interrupted him and asked a question bluntly: If you want the Soviet Union to declare war on Japan, you can just say so, but you must explain the conditions in exchange.

As a result, Roosevelt and Stalin discussed the prerequisites for the Soviet Union’s war against Japan: Outer Mongolia’s independence from China; the Chinese lands that Russia must occupy—Shenye Island, the Kurile Islands, and China’s Lushun and Dalian Hong Kong; the Soviet Union must regain control of the railways in Northeast China and at the same time ensure the Soviet Union's various rights and interests in Northeast China.

Roosevelt said that there would be no problem for the Soviet Union to acquire Shenye Island and the Kurile Islands. As for maintaining a freeze-free port in the Far East, is it possible to lease Dalian Port from the Chinese, or turn China's Dalian Port into an international free port? Stalin was noncommittal about the idea, but reiterated the need to have control of the railways in northeastern China.

Roosevelt believed that this request was not too much, and suggested that China lease the management rights of the Northeast Railway to the Soviet Union, or establish a Sino-Soviet joint committee to jointly operate and manage it.

The above-mentioned deal between Roosevelt and Stalin was negotiated behind Churchill’s back. When the British received the draft agreement, Foreign Secretary Eden immediately said that the behind-the-scenes dealings between Roosevelt and Stalin were "an unseemly by-product of the conference." However, Churchill did not protest. ——Britain does not intend to participate in the final bloody battle against Japan. Besides, Stalin wanted something from the Chinese, not the British.

Roosevelt said that Chiang Kai-shek still needed to be informed about China-related issues, but at the same time hinted that if the Chinese knew about it in advance, trouble would definitely occur. ——"One of the troubles in dealing with the Chinese is that no matter what you say to them, they will broadcast it to the whole world in less than twenty-four hours. Therefore, we should not disclose the part about China for the time being." In this regard, Stalin His attitude was: "There is no need to talk to China yet."

"The Soviets were bribed to do something they really wanted to do. Once Germany was crushed, it would be impossible for the Soviet Union to attack the embattled Japan. There is no need to shed much blood and spend much material at any risk." Stalin finally made a concession: Dalian in China could be turned into a free port under the control of the international community, but Port Arthur must be under the control of the Soviet Union alone, because the Soviet Union wanted to control it. Serves as the Navy's Far East base.

The Yalta Conference is over.

The information from the Yalta Conference quickly reached Tokyo, which was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for the Japanese: they originally expected the Soviet Union to be bound by the "Japan-Soviet Neutrality Treaty" and not declare war on Japan in the Far East. Now Facts have proved that the Russians will not forget the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. They not only want to avenge their humiliation, but also want to regain all their lost rights and interests. So, once the Soviet Union goes to war against Japan, Japan will be under attack from China, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Not to mention the depleted war resources, destroyed weapons and equipment, and the shortage of soldiers that can no longer be replenished, it is also whether the homeland can keep its capital. This is a question I dare not answer.

In view of the imagination of the approaching desperation, the Japanese base camp was extremely at a loss: in 1945, the US military would land on the Japanese mainland without any scruples; the Soviet tank group and cavalry group would rush into the Japanese mainland. into East Asia, including mainland China and the Korean Peninsula; after receiving more and more military assistance from the Allies, China will surely launch a large-scale counterattack against the Japanese army - "Especially Yan'an's activities against the areas we occupy will become increasingly intensified. . "In this way, the Japanese army will lose all areas of China that it has occupied at great cost, including the "Manchukuo" in northeastern China, and all remaining military forces will have to return to the mainland to fight for Japan. Then, the dream of the Japanese Empire in modern times to expand its territory will come to nothing, and Japan will continue to maintain a tense, crowded and barren state of existence on a narrow island as before.

Knowing that the end was imminent, the Japanese base camp re-formulated the war guidance plan, the core of which was the decisive battle on home soil.

The decisive battle slogan is: One hundred million pieces of jade!

After the Yalta secret meeting, Chiang Kai-shek got the news. The worried Chiang Kai-shek said to Song Ziwen: They are not plotting against me, China! Song Ziwen immediately informed China's ambassadors to Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union: Immediately understand whether the Yalta Agreement has a Chinese part, and if there is a Chinese part, what is the content. The day after the cable was sent, the ambassadors to the three countries responded almost simultaneously: The Yalta Agreement contains content about China, but Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union all refused to disclose the specific content about China.

Chiang Kai-shek's worries came true. The Big Three helped him formulate a traitorous treaty without his knowledge. All he had to do was sign.

It took several months for the U.S. government to ask Hurley, the U.S. ambassador to China, to inform the Chinese side of the contents of the Yalta Agreement. He also informed forcefully: "Based on Marshal Stalin's suggestion, President Roosevelt will take action to obtain Chairman Chiang's consent."

An angry Chiang Kai-shek told Hurley: The Treaty of Yalta is a replica of the Treaty of Versailles, and the great powers once again shamelessly carved up China. China's territorial, sovereignty and administrative integrity must be ensured.

Privately, Chiang Kai-shek resented it: China's territory actually required the efforts of "American friends" and "the consent of Britain and Russia", which was a great shame for the country. ——"If the country is not self-reliant and people are not self-reliant, how can there be a place for our nation to survive in such a vast universe!"

A few months later, the Soviet Union sent troops to the Northeast without notifying the government. Destroyed the Japanese Kwantung Army. and refused to withdraw. Then Chen Bingshan Customs put on a posture of completely occupying the Northeast. Its purpose is well known to everyone: to force Chiang Kai-shek to sign a treaty.

In addition to the inherent logic of hegemony and expansion, the reason why the Soviet Union made demands for power was that the United States, which could not independently complete the final blow against Japan, had to draw the Soviet Union into the war against Japan. This was the original reason. On the Chinese anti-Japanese battlefield, China and the United States were allies, but the battlefield performance of the Chinese army made it impossible for the United States to regard the Chinese army as an ally capable of fighting side by side.

At the moment when China has experienced a arduous war of resistance and is about to win, not only is it unable to protect or even obtain the benefits that the victorious country deserves, but it has become the target of having its rights and interests invaded. This is undoubtedly intolerable to the Chinese people. shame.

The new U.S. President Truman sent a message to Chiang Kai-shek: "If the Chinese government still refuses to sign the Yalta Treaty, then you will have no treaty to check and balance the Soviet Union, and the Soviet army will definitely occupy the entire Northeast." - "If the Chinese government continues to insist on its own way. , then the U.S. government will no longer bear any responsibility for the Chinese part of the Yalta Treaty." - "In view of the Chinese government's disobedience to the allies' resolution, the U.S. is considering whether to cut off all aid to China."

Ultimately, the economy It could not stand the military intimidation of the Soviet Union and the diplomatic blackmail of the United Kingdom and the United States. Chairman Chiang secretly signed and recognized the treaty. His self-deprecating statement was: "Don't ask about right or wrong, seek survival first." Chiang Kai-shek's signature turned the Nationalist Government into a completely traitorous regime. This also became a mountain that crushed the Republic of China.