以水代兵的人类战争史

昨天说到第聂伯河上的水坝被毁，罪魁祸首扑朔迷离的情况。不过现在也有一些证据表明，可能并不是被蓄意破坏的，因为有一段无人机视频展示出，坝体断裂的断面是非常整齐的，这种断面不大像是炮弹或者炸药炸开的样子，而是坝体承受的压力超过了自身的极限，而发生的脆断。如果是大坝自己垮的，而且正好卡在战争的关键时间点，那实在是太巧合了。而且光这一点证据似乎还不够充分，还是不能不排除是人为的。

因为古今中外，把水用于战争的事例实在是太层出不穷了。最著名的战例就是《三国演义》中，著名的关云长水淹七军。不过一般使用这一招的都是实力比较弱的一方，才需要借助自然的力量，比如在隋炀帝，举全国之力征讨高句丽的时候，小国高句丽就曾经用水攻的方法，淹死了大半的隋军。

不过现代战争中利用洪水来打击敌人的事例，最著名的要数二战中的两个战例。一次是英国用轰炸机攻击德国鲁尔工业区的数座水坝。。因为鲁尔区是德国重要的工业基地和煤炭产地，著名的军工企业克虏伯在鲁尔地区有大量的工厂，鲁尔的煤炭供给着德国的主要能源。如果能够用洪水摧毁这一地区，将极大的限制德国的战争潜力。当然德国人也不是傻瓜，他们知道鲁尔工业区上游的水坝群是他们的弱点，因此在水坝周围布置了密集的高射炮保护水坝。一开始英国皇家空军设想的摧毁水坝的办法，是用轰炸机在水库内投放鱼雷，使用鱼雷来攻击水坝。但是德国人预判了他们的预判，在水坝前面设置了防鱼雷网。还好当时英国空军的一位工程师脑洞大开，设想了一个非常奇妙的办法，就是水漂炸弹。这种炸弹呈圆柱状，用于投放它的轰炸机也经过专门的改装，在挂架上安装了电机，在投放前会启动电机，让炸弹达到每分钟数千转的转速，然后再投放到水面上。之后炸弹就会形成打水漂一样的效果，在水面上不停的弹跳，这样就能越过德国人设置的防鱼雷网，而攻击到大坝的坝体了。结果这个脑洞大开的方案，最后取得了巨大的成功，数座德国水坝被摧毁，洪水漫过了整个鲁尔工业区，造成数千人死亡，大量工厂设施被毁。当然参加行动的英国皇家空军轰炸机部队，也遭受了惨重的损失，有将近一半的轰炸机被德国的高射炮击落。可以看出英国在摧毁大坝，将洪水运用于战争方面是非常有经验的老手。在这次俄乌战争中，英国也是除美国外，对乌克兰支援最起劲，合作最深入的国家。所以在摧毁新卡霍夫卡水坝上，英国如果提供了某些技术支持，也不是不可能的事情。

另一个战例就是中国人非常熟悉的，在抗战期间，国民政府在黄河花园口挖开堤坝，造成黄泛区，阻止日军推进的战例。这一战例的前因后果，其实还是饶有趣味的。。在炸开花园口的行动之前不久，中国军队刚刚在徐州附近了台儿庄，打了一个不大不小的胜仗。虽然当时的报纸媒体为了鼓舞全国的抗战士气，将这场战斗宣传为台儿庄大捷，但其实只是挫了日军的锐气，并没有日军阻止南下的攻势。但是这一仗，确确实实是一场胜仗，让蒋介石看到了中国军队是有实力与日军一战的。于是他决定调集军队，以优势兵力围歼日军南下的第十三师团。如果中国的军队都能够发挥出在台儿庄战役中那样的战斗力，再加上数倍于敌人的兵力，逻辑上来说，这场会战是能够达到目的的。这一会战的地点，大致在现今河南省的商丘和兰考一带。结果战役开打之后，虽然中国军队数量庞大，但是派系复杂，完全打成了三个和尚没水吃的局面。虽然挽救民族危亡的口号喊得一个比一个响，但真打起来，大家都希望其他的部队先上，先和日军消耗一段时间之后，自己再上去捡漏。结果就被日军各个击破，很快就都撤退了下来。日军就直逼平汉铁路的重要枢纽——郑州。如果郑州一旦失守，借助平汉铁路，日军可以在很短的时间内，就对当时国民政府的所在地——武汉发起进攻。为了延缓日军进军的步伐，国民政府决定炸开黄河大堤，制造黄泛区，延缓日军南下的速度，为武汉地区的布防争取时间。最开始的爆破地点是在花园口的下游，结果那一地区的黄河水泥沙含量太大，炸开缺口之后，泥沙迅速又淤堵缺口，出水量非常小。最后又临时改在花园口进行，这一次非常成功。因为黄河下游，常年泥沙淤积，已经成为了地上悬河，一旦炸开大堤，如同黄河之水天上来，迅速泛滥大片区域，形成了黄泛区，造成了巨大的人员和财产损失。淮河流域，数百万人无家可归，数十万人直接死亡。其生命财产的损失，可能还要大于南京大屠杀。

但是这一行动也确实延缓了日军从郑州南下速度，为武汉会战和国民政府迁都重庆争取了足够的时间，在经过充分准备的武汉会战之后，侵华日军也基本上耗尽了他们进攻的潜力，抗日战争进入了相持阶段。但其代价就是黄泛区百姓的生命和财产损失。而且和现在的俄乌战争中的情形一样，虽然炸开花园口，是蒋介石亲自下的命令，但是在宣传上，为了维系人心士气，仍然把它归咎于是日军轰炸造成的，但是这也只是对无知的百姓有个交代，毕竟造成了这么多中国人的伤亡。很难承认是中国自己的政府下的命令，但是稍有见识和常识的人都知道，日军是绝对不会这样做的，会在自己的进攻路线上设置这样巨大的障碍。

这件事即使放在现在，也会有些人以其虽然牺牲了黄泛区的百姓为代价，但是却为争取民族独立的抗日战争的胜利创造了条件，认为被牺牲掉的百姓是值得的。个人认为这种民族主义的叙事，其实也是错误的，它其实偷换了一个概念，所谓代表一个民族的实体，其实只是一个政权而已，而一个政权要靠牺牲它子民来保全，这样的政权真的有必要吗？

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The history of human warfare with water as a substitute for soldiers yesterday talked about the destruction of dams on the Dnieper River, and the mysteries of the culprits. However, there is now some evidence that it may not have been deliberately destroyed, because a drone video shows that the section of the dam fracture is very neat, which does not look like a shell or explosive explosion, but the pressure on the dam body exceeds its own limit, and the brittle fracture occurs. If the dam collapsed on its own, and it happened to be stuck at a critical point in the war, it would be a coincidence. Moreover, this alone does not seem to be sufficient evidence, and it cannot be ruled out that it is artificial.

Because in ancient and modern times, there are too many examples of the use of water for war. The most famous example of the battle is the famous Guan Yunchang flooding the Seventh Army in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". However, it is generally the weaker side that uses this trick, and it is necessary to rely on natural forces, such as when the Sui Emperor raised the power of the whole country to conquer Goguryeo, the small country of Goguryeo once drowned most of the Sui army by attacking with water.

However, the most famous examples of modern warfare using floods to attack enemies are two examples of World War II. At one time the British attacked several dams in the Ruhr industrial region of Germany with bombers. Because the Ruhr area is an important industrial base and coal production area in Germany, the famous military enterprise Krupp has a large number of factories in the Ruhr area, and the coal of the Ruhr supplies Germany's main energy. If the area could be destroyed with floods, it would greatly limit Germany's war potential. Of course, the Germans were not fools, they knew that the dam complex upstream of the Ruhr industrial zone was their weak point, so dense anti-aircraft guns were arranged around the dam to protect the dam. The original RAF envisaged the destruction of the dam by using bombers to drop torpedoes in the reservoir and torpedoes to attack the dam. But the Germans prejudged their prejudgment and put anti-torpedo nets in front of the dam. Fortunately, an engineer in the British Air Force at that time had a big brain and came up with a very wonderful method, which was a water bomb. The bomb is cylindrical in shape, and the bomber used to deliver it has also been specially modified, with a motor mounted on the pylon, which is activated before being dropped, allowing the bomb to reach thousands of revolutions per minute before being dropped on the surface. After that, the bomb will have the same effect as hitting the water, bouncing on the surface of the water, so that it can cross the anti-torpedo net set up by the Germans and attack the dam body. As a result, the brainstorming scheme was a huge success, with several German dams destroyed and floodwaters flooded the entire Ruhr industrial region, killing thousands of people and destroying a large number of factory facilities. Of course, the RAF bomber units participating in the operation also suffered heavy losses, with nearly half of the bombers shot down by German anti-aircraft guns. It can be seen that the British were very experienced veterans in destroying dams and using floodwaters in war. In this Russian-Ukrainian war, the United Kingdom is also the country with the most vigorous support and in-depth cooperation with Ukraine in addition to the United States. So in the destruction of the new Kakhovka dam, it is not impossible for Britain to provide some technical support.

Another example of war is Chinese very familiar, during the War of Resistance, the Nationalist government dug a dike at the mouth of the Yellow River Garden, creating a yellow pan area and preventing the Japanese army from advancing. The causes and consequences of this war example are actually quite interesting. Shortly before the operation to blow up the mouth of the garden, the Chinese army had just won a small victory at Taierzhuang near Xuzhou. Although the newspapers and media at that time publicized this battle as Taierzhuang's great victory in order to encourage the anti-fighting spirit of the whole country, in fact, it only dampened the vigor of the Japanese army, and did not stop the Japanese army from attacking south. But this battle was indeed a victory, allowing Chiang Kai-shek to see that the Chinese army had the strength to fight the Japanese army. So he decided to mobilize troops and surround and annihilate the Japanese southbound 13th Division with superior forces. If the Chinese army can exert the same combat power as in the Battle of Taierzhuang, plus several times the strength of the enemy, logically speaking, this battle can achieve its goal. The site of this battle was roughly in the area of Shangqiu and Lankao in present-day Henan Province. As a result, after the battle began, although the Chinese army was large in number, the factions were complex, and it was completely fought into a situation where three monks had no water to eat. Although the slogans of saving the nation from peril were shouted louder and louder, when the fight really started, everyone hoped that the other troops would go up first, and after spending a period of time with the Japanese army, they would go up to pick up the leaks. As a result, they were broken by the Japanese army, and soon they all retreated. The Japanese army approached Zhengzhou, an important hub of the Pinghan Railway. If Zhengzhou was lost, with the help of the Pinghan railway, the Japanese army could launch an attack on Wuhan, the seat of the Nationalist government at that time, in a very short time. In order to delay the pace of the Japanese army's advance, the Nationalist government decided to blow up the Yellow River embankment, create a yellow pan area, delay the speed of the Japanese army to the south, and buy time for the deployment of the Wuhan area. The initial blasting site was downstream of Huayuankou, but the content of cement sand in the Yellow River in that area was too large, and after the gap was blown open, the sediment quickly silted up the gap again, and the water output was very small. Finally, it was temporarily changed to the garden entrance, and this time it was very successful. Because the lower reaches of the Yellow River, perennial siltation, have become a hanging river on the ground, once the levee is blown up, like the water of the Yellow River rising from the sky, it quickly floods a large area, forming a yellow pan area, causing huge losses of people and property. In the Huaihe River Valley, millions of people have been left homeless and hundreds of thousands have died directly. The loss of life and property may be greater than the Nanjing Massacre.

However, this action did slow down the Japanese army's southward movement from Zhengzhou, buying enough time for the Battle of Wuhan and the Nationalist government's move of the capital to Chongqing, and after the well-prepared Battle of Wuhan, the invading Japanese forces basically exhausted their offensive potential, and the War of Resistance Against Japan entered a stalemate phase. But the price is the loss of life and property of ordinary people in the Huangpan area. And as in the current Russian-Ukrainian war, although the explosion of the garden entrance was personally ordered by Chiang Kai-shek, in propaganda, in order to maintain people's morale, it was still blamed on the bombing of the Japanese army, but this is only an explanation for the ignorant people, after all, it caused so many Chinese casualties. It is difficult to admit that it was the order of China's own government, but anyone with a little knowledge and common sense knows that the Japanese army will never do this, and will erect such a huge obstacle in its own offensive line.

Even now, some people will sacrifice the people of the Huangpan area, but they have created conditions for the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression for national independence, believing that the sacrificed people are worth it. Personally, I think that this nationalist narrative is actually wrong, it actually steals a concept, the so-called entity representing a nation, in fact, is just a political power, and a regime has to be preserved by sacrificing its people, is such a regime really necessary?