1938年徐州会战结束后,日军沿陇海路西进追击中国军队。为阻止日军追击,蒋介石竟不顾广大人民群众生命财产安全,命豫东守军于6月9日炸开郑县(今郑州)以北花园口之黄河大堤。河水淹没豫、皖、苏三省44个县,形成5.4万平方公里的黄泛区,夺去89万人的生命,使1200多万人流离失所。但是,蒋介石看到花园口决堤后沿陇海路西进之日军被迫退至黄泛区以东,绕道大别山北麓西 After the battle of Xuzhou in 1938, the Japanese army pursued the Chinese army westward along the Longhai Road. To stop the Japanese pursuit, Chiang Kai-shek actually ignored the lives and property of the broad masses of people and ordered the defenders of eastern Henan to blast off the Yellow River embankment at Huayuankou, north of Zheng County (now Zhengzhou) on June 9. The river flooded Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces in 44 counties, forming a 54,000-square-kilometer floodplain area that claimed the lives of 890,000 people and displaced more than 12 million people. However, after Chiang Kai-shek saw the breakwater at Huayuankou, the Japanese army traveling westward along the Longhai Road was forced to retreat to the east of the Huang-Pan River and detour to the north of the Dabie Mountains