Former Residence of Martyr Li JiaYu

Former Residence of Martyr Li JiaYu

The Former Residence of Martyr Li JiaYu is a cultural relics protection unit of Sichuan Province.

Former Residence of Martyr Li JiaYu

Li JiaYu (1892–1944) was an outstanding representative of Sichuan troops during the War of Resistance against Japan and one of the two group army commanders who died in battle. The residence is located at No. 92 Wenmiaoqian Street and was built in the early 1930s. The Former Residence of Martyr Li JiaYu is currently the only surviving residence building of a Sichuan military anti-Japanese general within Chengdu's urban area.

Li JiaYu, courtesy name Qixiang, was born in 1892 during the 18th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty in Chuangziba, Daxingchang, Pujiang County, Sichuan Province. His father, Li Rusong, owned 32 mu of paddy fields and also ran an oil mill. In his youth, Li JiaYu had lofty aspirations and enjoyed reading classical texts such as Zuo Zhuan and Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Upon reading the biography of Yue Fei, he once sighed: “Yue Wumu, the loyal King of Yue, served the nation with unswerving devotion and is a role model for all.” When the Railway Protection Movement in Sichuan arose during the Xinhai Revolution, he resolved to serve the country, laid down his pen to take up arms, and was admitted to the Sichuan Military Officers Academy. Later, when Yuan Shikai attempted to restore the monarchy, Li JiaYu went to Nanjing and actively joined the campaign against Yuan. He distinguished himself in the battle to attack the Arsenal. In 1915, after graduating from the third class of the military academy, he served successively in the Sichuan Army as a platoon leader, company commander, battalion commander, regimental commander, division commander, Commander-in-Chief of the Sichuan Border Defense Army, and Lieutenant General and Commander of the 47th Reorganized Army.

On July 7, 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out. Filled with righteous indignation for the nation, Li JiaYu sent a nationwide telegram on August 3 volunteering for the anti-Japanese resistance. In early September, he was ordered to lead 18,000 officers and soldiers of the 104th and 178th Divisions of the 47th Army from their garrison in Xichang northward to fight the Japanese. The troops, clad in thin clothing and straw shoes, with poor-quality weapons, crossed the Min River and the Qinling Mountains on foot, trekking thousands of miles, and finally arrived in December to be stationed and defend the frontline anti-Japanese areas of Licheng, Pucheng, and Changzhi in southeastern Shanxi. In January 1938, Liu Bocheng, commander of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, passed through Changzhi. Li JiaYu specially invited him to stay for a week and lectured officers of the rank of battalion and above of the 47th Army on anti-Japanese guerrilla tactics, which greatly boosted the division’s confidence in fighting the Japanese and strengthened various aspects of combat preparedness.

On February 14, 1938, Li JiaYu led his troops in their first battle against the invading Japanese army at Dongyang Pass, east of Changzhi. After three days and nights of fierce fighting, they blocked the enemy’s advance and inflicted heavy losses. The battalion commander Zhou Cexun of his unit was shot and killed in close combat with the enemy, and many officers and soldiers were casualties. On February 20, the 104th Brigade of the enemy, under the command of Ushimoto Kumaya, attacked the important city of Changzhi in southeastern Shanxi. Li personally directed the sealing of all four city gates with bricks and stones and organized a tight defense. That morning, the enemy first bombarded the city with aircraft and artillery, then infantry broke through a gap in the north gate. Li’s forces fought tenaciously, engaging in brutal street fighting. Battalion commanders Yang Yuemeng and company commanders Yang Xianmo, Xia Futao, Huang Gaoyi, and Chen ShaoYu died in battle against the enemy. Wounded officers and soldiers either committed suicide or jumped from the walls, choosing death over surrender. After two days and nights of fierce combat, Li’s forces completed the mission of defending Changzhi and annihilating the enemy, with casualties exceeding a thousand on both sides.

In April 1938, Li led his troops to break through the Japanese blockade line of the Southern Tongpu Railway and carried out anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare, depleting the enemy’s vital forces. In May, seizing the opportunity, he ordered the 178th Division to launch an offensive against the Fujita Unit of the enemy, recapturing the Shanxi city of Pinglu occupied by the Japanese and subsequently reclaiming cities such as Ruicheng and Anyi. In July of the same year, over two thousand enemy troops from Xia County and Yuncheng attacked Li’s positions. His troops built defenses using the mountainous terrain and repelled the enemy multiple times. Company commander Li Guoliang of the 104th Division died in battle while leading a counterattack. In June 1939, the Japanese Nishimura Division, with over 3,000 troops and multiple aircraft, launched a large-scale attack on Li’s positions at Maojin Ferry. Li commanded his troops to adopt flanking harassment tactics, launching a successful pincer attack on the enemy and achieving a major victory that shattered the Japanese “mopping-up” plan. By October 1939, Li had led his troops in 583 battles of varying sizes in the Central Shanxi Mountain offensive and defensive campaigns, killing, wounding, or capturing 2,560 Japanese and puppet troops, destroying 32 sections of railway, 36 vehicles, and over 300 barrels of gasoline occupied by the enemy, and seizing countless weapons and military supplies. Due to his outstanding anti-Japanese achievements, Li was promoted in the winter of 1939 to Commander of the 36th Group Army while still serving as Commander of the 47th Army.

In March 1940, while stationed in Baiyangquanhe Village, Jincheng, Li learned that Zhu De, Commander-in-Chief of the Eighth Route Army, would pass through his defense zone on his way to a meeting in Luoyang. He immediately dispatched a company to welcome him and hosted him warmly for the night. That evening, the two discussed cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in resisting Japan until late at night. The next morning, Li further assigned troops to escort Commander Zhu safely through the Japanese blockade. Later, during Chiang Kai-shek’s launching of the Third Anti-Communist Campaign, Li JiaYu kept his promise to Commander Zhu: if conflict occurred between the two armies, Li’s forces would proactively “yield three encampments.”

From 1940 to the spring of 1944, Li’s forces were responsible for the defense of the Yellow River in areas including Shanzhou, Shenchi, and Lingbao. During this time, in addition to supervising the reinforcement of national defense fortifications, Li continuously dispatched elite troops across the river to harass and inflict casualties on small groups of Japanese and puppet troops, destroy occupied bunkers, railways, and bridges, gather intelligence on the enemy, and consolidate the river defenses. In February 1941, a delegation from all walks of life in Sichuan came to Wuyuan Village, Shanzhou, where Li’s troops were stationed, to offer comfort and supplies. Deeply moved, Li wrote the solemn vow: “If a man wishes to repay the nation’s grace, dying on the battlefield is the noblest end.”

In the spring of 1944, the global anti-fascist war situation took a significant turn. In an attempt to reverse their declining fortunes, the invading Japanese forces in China sought to open the “Continental Transport Line” to support their operations in Southeast Asia. They assembled 148,000 troops, along with aircraft and tanks, and brazenly launched the “Central Plains Campaign.” Jiang Dingwen, Commander-in-Chief of the First War Zone and the supreme commander on the front lines, however, feared the enemy and, in order to preserve his strength, was the first to abandon and surrender Luoyang. The 400,000-strong forces of the group armies, including Li JiaYu’s, which had already been assembled and were awaiting orders to join the battle, had no choice but to retreat toward western Henan.

At a meeting of the commanders of the retreating forces, Li JiaYu voluntarily took on the task of covering the retreat for the other units. Leading his troops to Yunmeng Mountain, he launched a counterattack against the pursuing Japanese army, killing hundreds of enemies, while his own forces suffered over 900 casualties. This bought precious extra time for the retreating units.

On May 21, 1944, after several consecutive days of forced marches through rain and slippery roads, Li’s forces were exhausted. As the group army headquarters entered Qinjiapo, Shanzhou, Henan, they mistakenly walked into an ambush set by the Japanese. Calmly commanding his troops in battle, Li was unfortunately shot in the head and left rib, and ultimately died of excessive blood loss at the age of 52.

After Li JiaYu’s martyrdom in the anti-Japanese battle, the entire nation mourned. The New China Daily, led by the Chinese Communist Party in Chongqing, published a special memorial article for him; the famous patriotic poet Liu Yazi composed the poem “Elegy for General Qixiang”; the Nationalist Government posthumously awarded him the rank of General of the Army and issued a citation in his honor. A grand funeral was held for Li JiaYu in Chengdu, and he was buried at Hongpailou outside the southern gate. In May 1984, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China posthumously recognized Li JiaYu as a “revolutionary martyr who died a heroic death in the War of Resistance against Japan.”