This year marks the 80 th anniversary of the founding of the Dongjiang Column, which has been hailed as "a banner of the liberation of the Guangdong people" and has made indelible contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the cause of national liberation. Let's walk into that period of history according to some historical materials and relive that eventful time.
In October 1938, the Japanese army landed in Daya Bay, kicking off the prelude to the invasion of South China, and the sons and daughters of Dongjiang rose up to resist the war. Later, this team joined hands with the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Zhuangding Team led by Wang Zuoyao in Dongguan to resist Japan, continued to grow and develop, and was officially reorganized into the Dongjiang Column of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force in December 1943.
In the land of southern Guangdong, the fighters of the Dongjiang Column successively established base areas in Daling Mountain in Dongguan, Luofu Mountain in Huizhou, and Tuyang Village on the Dapeng Peninsula in Shenzhen, with a total area of more than 60,000 square miles, and a population of about 4.5 million people liberated in the guerrilla areas. ** It is also called "the mainstay of China's anti-Japanese battlefield" along with the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and the Qiongya Column.
In the Dongjiang Column Memorial Hall in Boluo County, a large number of documents and real historical and revolutionary cultural relics are now displayed, including the national second-class cultural relics: the printing press of the Dongjiang Column's "Advance Daily".
Zeng Qingxiang, member of the Party Committee of Luofu Mountain Scenic Area and director of the Dongjiang Column Memorial Hall: The printing press behind me is the treasure of our museum, and during the years of the Anti-Japanese War, the Dongjiang Column of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force attached great importance to propaganda and education.
The Dongjiang Column not only killed the enemy on the battlefield, but also participated in the rescue operation of Hong Kong cultural celebrities behind enemy lines, which Mao Dun called "the greatest rescue work since the Anti-Japanese War". At the end of 1941, after the fall of Hong Kong, the East Lake Hotel in Huizhou was a transit point for Hong Kong's secret rescue operation, where more than 100 cultural celebrities and their families were rescued and sent to the safety of the rear. Mao Dun, Liao Mosha, Hu Cheng, Hu Feng, Zou Taofen and others have all stayed at the East Lake Hotel.
Xiao Yi, former director of the Party History Research Office of the Huicheng District Committee of the Communist Party of China: Mao Dun said that "this rescue is the greatest rescue movement since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression", and if our party does not rescue them from the tiger's mouth in time, I personally believe that it will be a major loss in the inheritance of the Chinese nation's culture.
According to incomplete statistics, during the Anti-Japanese War, the Dongjiang Column fought more than 1,400 times against the Japanese puppet army, killed more than 6,000 Japanese puppet soldiers, captured more than 3,500 prisoners and surrenderers, and captured more than 6,500 guns and 25 guns. For the life and death of the Chinese nation, more than 2,500 soldiers of the Dongjiang Column sacrificed their lives for the country. Many of them are not even known, and their exploits will always be remembered.
The Dongjiang Column fought bloody battles on the battlefield of resistance against Japan, resisted the Japanese invaders, and cooperated with the allies to make indelible contributions to the international anti-fascist camp.