Huayuankou () is a town in Huiji District, used to be a ferry of the Yellow River in

Zhengzhou Zhengzhou (; ), also spelt Zheng Zhou and alternatively romanized as Chengchow, is the capital and largest city of Henan Province in the central part of the People's Republic of China. Located in north-central Henan, it is one of the National ...

, Henan,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It has an area of 39 square kilometers and a population of 15,000. Its name means "Flower garden mouth". , it has 8 villages under its administration.

1938 Yellow River flood

In June 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Nationalist troops under

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

intentionally broke the levees of the Yellow River near HuayuankouMark Selden, "War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century (War and Peace Library)", Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (November 22, 2003)
/ref> to slow the advance of the Japanese army. Although several thousand Japanese troops were drowned, 12 million Chinese were affected, nearly 900,000 of them dying.

Reason for breaching the dike

As the Japanese had been reported to have taken the city of Kaifeng, many of the dikes near

were along the path the Japanese would take if they wanted to capture the city of Wuhan. This was the triggering idea for the Nationalist troops as they pictured the Yellow River being a military tool to stop the advancement of the Japanese. The plan of attack by Chiang and his subordinates was to breach the dikes that withheld the mass amount of water from pouring into the 500-square mile area of central China. However while this long-term idea was in full swing, Chiang's dilemma stood behind the thought of the many lives that stood past the dikes. This dilemma was thought of in two ways, the first being if he were to breach the dikes then he would be spreading death, wiping hundreds of thousands of people. The other thought was if he didn't break the dikes then Wuhan would collapse within days. In all a decision was needed quickly and eventually was made as Chiang gave the orders to General Wei Rulin to blow up a dike holding the Yellow River near Henan. As this order was put in place the first few attempts stood no match for the army between June 4 and 6 1938 as the structure was too durable. While the attempts failed left and right, “hour by hour, the Japanese were moving closer.” Rana Mitter,Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,2013), 160

References

Zhengzhou Township-level divisions of Henan {{Henan-geo-stub