After the September 18th Incident, Japan occupied a large amount of land in Northeast China and tried to support the former Qing emperor Puyi to establish Manchukuo. However, this action was generally opposed by the international community represented by the League of Nations at the beginning, so Japan decided to create trouble in Shanghai, an international metropolis, to divert international attention from Japan's invasion and control of Northeast China. Action can proceed smoothly.
In addition to Colonel Seishiro Itagaki, a senior staff officer of Japan's Kwantung Army and one of the planners of the September 18th Incident, the "Eleventh Club" of the emperor's civil servants in Tokyo (members include Koichi Kido, Fumimaro Konoe, and Akira Makino) voice, etc.) and also participated in the planning of the "December 28th Incident". The organization advocates that Japan needs a "thinking pause" period to deal with many domestic and foreign problems before completing its conquest of Northeast China. For this reason, Japan needs to launch a "fake war" in Shanghai during this period.
Later, Itagaki participated in formulating the plan to launch a war in Shanghai, and sent the following telegram from Tokyo to Major Tanaka Takayoshi, the Army Auxiliary Attaché of the Japanese Embassy in Shanghai: "The Manchurian Incident is developing as expected... Please make use of the current tense situation between China and Japan to plan The planned incident caused the great powers to turn their attention to Shanghai."
After receiving the call, Tanaka Takayoshi from Shanghai handed over 20,000 yen to the Japanese female spy Yoshiko Kawashima (also known as Jin Bihui) and asked her to plan and implement it.
On the afternoon of January 18, 1932, Kawashima Yoshiko instigated two Japanese Nichiren sect monks and three Japanese believers to cause trouble at the Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd. headquarters on Mayushan Road, Huajie, adjacent to the East District (Yangshupu) of the Shanghai Public Settlement.
Five Japanese people watched the workers' volunteer army drill outside the factory and threw stones to provoke the incident, triggering a conflict. Before that, Yoshiko Kawashima had already hired thugs to dress up as workers and blend into the crowd. During the conflict, five people from the Japanese side were attacked by unknown persons. One person died and another was seriously injured. However, the police did not succeed in arresting any prisoners. Therefore, Japan accused the Chinese factory pickets of committing the attack. This is the so-called "Japanese monk incident".
After the Japanese monk incident broke out, in order to further escalate the incident, Japan's Consul General in Shanghai Murai Kuramatsu made four unreasonable and tough demands to the Chinese side: 1. The mayor of Shanghai publicly apologized for the Japanese monk incident; 2. Arrest and punish the perpetrators. ; 3. Provide financial compensation to the victims; 4. Ban and dissolve all anti-Japanese organizations and groups in Shanghai headed by the Anti-Japanese Salvation Association.
The commander of Japan's 1st Foreign Expedition Fleet in Shanghai, Koichi Shiozawa, issued a threatening statement, claiming that if the mayor of Shanghai did not respond to Murai's request to the satisfaction of Japan, the Japanese Navy would take "appropriate action."
To this end, the Japanese army assembled 24 warships, more than 40 aircraft, more than 1,830 Marines and three to four thousand armed Japanese overseas Chinese in Shanghai, distributed in the Japanese Concession and the Huangpu River.
On January 24, 1932, the Japanese secret service sent people to set fire to the residence of Aoi Shigemitsu, the Japanese Minister to China, in Shanghai, falsely claiming that it was the Chinese.
On January 27, Murai issued an ultimatum to the Shanghai municipal authorities, requiring satisfactory responses to the four demands before 18:00 on the 28th, otherwise necessary actions would be taken.
At the request of the Nanjing National Government and all walks of life in Shanghai, the Mayor of Shanghai responded to Wen Murai at 13:45 on the 28th, accepting all the unreasonable demands made by Japan.
However, the Japanese aimed to launch a local war to divert international attention and achieve the purpose of establishing the puppet Manchukuo in the Northeast. On January 28, they once again dispatched the aircraft carriers "Kaga" and "Hongxiang" and the cruiser " Three ships, "Naka", "Yura" and "Abukuma" and four mine ships departed from the mainland for Shanghai.
The process of waging war by the Japanese has already begun. How could they ignore Nanjing's repeated concessions?
At 11:05 pm on January 28, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau received a reply from Murai from the Japanese side to the Mayor of Shanghai and the Director of Shanghai Public Security, expressing "satisfaction" with Shanghai's acceptance of Japan's four demands, but in the name of protection On the grounds of expatriates, the Chinese army must withdraw from Zhabei. It was already 11:25 when the mayor of Shanghai received the reply.
At 11:30 at night, without waiting for a reply from China, the Japanese army launched an attack on the Chinese garrison in Zhabei. The 156th Brigade of the 78th Division of the 19th Route Army immediately rose up to resist, and the Songhu War broke out.
When the January 28th Incident occurred, the Chinese army stationed in the Beijing-Shanghai area was the 19th Route Army. The entire army has the 60th Division, which is stationed on the front lines of Suzhou and Changzhou.
The 61st Division is stationed in Nanjing and Zhenjiang.
The 78th Division is stationed in Shanghai, Wusong, Kunshan and Jiading.
There are more than 33,000 people in the army.
After the headquarters of the 19th Route Army received a report about the Japanese attack, Commander-in-Chief Jiang Jinran and Army Commander Cai Xianchu rushed to Zhenru Station on foot and set up a temporary headquarters. In accordance with the previously estimated pre-war deployment, they ordered the rear troops to quickly move to Shanghai. Advance.
After dawn on the 29th, the Japanese army launched continuous fierce attacks under the cover of armored vehicles. Japanese aircraft also took off from the aircraft carrier "Notoro" and bombed the Zhabei and Nanshi areas indiscriminately. The war spread rapidly.
The garrison's 156th Brigade fought tenaciously against the Japanese attack, used cluster grenades to deal with Japanese armored vehicles, organized death squads to blow up enemy armored vehicles using hidden means, held on to every position, and launched timely counterattacks against the enemy under the cover of artillery fire. , repelling the continuous attacks of the Japanese army.
The Japanese army's dream that once an attack was launched, the Chinese army would retreat without a fight was shattered. The bravery and tenacity of the soldiers of our 156th Brigade made the Japanese army suffer enough.
The Japanese commander realized that it was impossible to defeat the strong Chinese army on the opposite side with only thousands of troops. The arrogance of his previous threats to "occupy Zhabei in three hours" and "conquer Shanghai in twelve hours" had become a joke, so Please ask for reinforcements from home.
At 17:00 on the 29th, the main force of the 156th Brigade arrived. Taking advantage of the frustration of the Japanese attack on the opposite side and the lack of troops, they immediately joined the battle, launched a counterattack, recaptured the North Station and Tiantong'an Station, and pursued the victory, once capturing the Japanese Shanghai Marine Corps. headquarters, forcing the Japanese troops to retreat to the area east of North Sichuan Road and south of Target Road. The first Japanese attack ended in failure.
After the Japanese attack was thwarted, the British and American consuls came forward to mediate on the afternoon of the 29th, and the Chinese and Japanese armies reached an agreement to stop fighting at 20:00 on the night of the 29th.
The 19th Route Army knew full well that it was a plan to delay the troops and wait for reinforcements, and agreed to a ceasefire just because its own army also needed to adjust its deployment.
However, the Japanese army despicably took advantage of the break in the armistice and began to reinforce the army, with the purpose of continuing to expand the scale of the war.
As early as when the situation in Shanghai was tense, Japan had planned to send the army, but the navy refused. But as the war went unfavorably, the Navy had to ask for help from the Army.
On February 2, the Japanese cabinet decided to officially dispatch the army. Due to the critical situation in Shanghai, it was decided to dispatch the Shanghai dispatched mixed brigade (brigade commander Major General Shimomoto) and the 9th Division (division commander Lieutenant General Ueda), and first transport the Shanghai dispatched mixed brigade and the Second Independent Tank Squadron. Department (hereinafter referred to as the 24th Mixed Brigade).
At the same time, the Japanese Navy also dispatched additional Yokosuka 2nd Special Marines to assist Shanghai. The 24th Huncheng Brigade landed at Wusong in the afternoon of February 7. By this time, Japan's navy, army and air force had increased to more than 10,000 people.
