How should we define a hero? Is it to donate his life to go to the country, and to see death as if he were going home? Or is the Jin Ge Iron Horse going, and the horse leather shroud is still there? In China, there is such a group of people, they are fearless to join the army, go to other places, for the country they trek through mountains and rivers, into the deep mountains and old forests, in the face of fierce beasts, cruel natural environment, but also fearless, they sing songs to go and sing back, the song of victory Gao Xuan in the sky above the motherland, they are the heroes of the country, they are the heroes of the people, they are the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
The Chinese Expeditionary Force rushed to Burma to fight can be described as "an inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood", but their experience of returning to China is "nine deaths and one life" Today we enter the life of Liu Guiying, a veteran of the Anti-Japanese War, to take a look at this battle to defend mountains and rivers from her perspective, and also to take a look at the return process of this time with life as a bet. Surviving and finding the right path in a place called Savage Mountain was not only luck but a gamble for the expeditionary force at the time, with some winning and others losing on the way. In an interview that year, Liu Guiying recalled:
"Even if you die, you must climb to the land of the motherland and die."What kind of expedition was it? What happened to Liu Guiying, who said this? Let's start with the story of Liu Guiying to understand the Chinese expeditionary force to Burma at that time.
In 1920, Liu Guiying was born in a poor family in Changsha, Hunan. In 1937, Liu Guiying entered the ** class of Hunan Xiangya Hospital, thinking that even if the life after that would not be too good, at least it would be safe and stable, but this was not the case.
In 1939, the Battle of Changsha began, for a time the city of Changsha was full of gunsmoke, gunfire, shouting constantly, everywhere filled with the smell of war and blood, and the people in the city also fled to the city gate wharf and other places, Liu Guiying also fled with the people, on the way to escape, Liu Guiying saw one by one was robbed, blown up by shells, and even because the fleeing people flocked to a place in groups after groups, many people were not injured by guns but were trampled and trampled to death.
Seeing this scene, Liu Guiying seemed to feel that if she just fled to all parts of the country like the crowd, maybe death would come faster, so at this time, Liu Guiying understood that it was not okay to be a refugee, but if she didn't be a refugee, what should she do? Being a soldier, becoming a female soldier, maybe she can change her life. So after fleeing to Hengyang, Hunan with the crowd, Liu Guiying joined the National Revolutionary Army, because of her previous nursing experience, Liu Guiying was assigned to the field hospital of the New 22nd Division of the Fifth Army of the National Revolutionary Army and became a female soldier.
Two years before the Battle of Changsha, that is, in 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident occurred, the Japanese army began a full-scale invasion of China, and the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was launched throughout the country, in order to better get in touch with other countries in the world, and in order for our country to be able to avoid being isolated in the process of the War of Resistance against Japan, in August 1938, a highway built by Chinese migrant workers in the border between Yunnan and Burma began to be used, and this highway also became the main road for China to connect with international countries. It is also the main road for international support materials to reach China, and this highway is the Yunnan-Burma Highway.
At that time, the Yunnan-Burma Highway was the main transportation route for international supplies to enter China, and several roads in China that were in line with international standards were cut off under the aggression of the Japanese army, so the Yunnan-Burma Highway became the lifeblood of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In 1941, with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor as the fuse, the Pacific War broke out. The Japanese army soon expanded into Southeast Asia, and then the Japanese began to target Burma.
In 1942, more than 60,000 Japanese troops began to attack Burma after occupying Malaysia, when the Burmese army belonging to the British colony was insufficient, in early March, the Japanese army occupied Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, in the following month, the Japanese army continued to launch an offensive against Burma, in just one month the important strategic cities in the north and south of Myanmar were occupied, in April, the Burmese town of Mandalay was occupied, the Japanese army tried to cut off the transportation of the Yunnan-Burma highway by occupying Mandalay, In this way, the anti-fascist alliance will further cut off its aid to China.
If China wants to win the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it must ensure the normal operation of the Yunnan-Burma Highway, and only when international supplies for China enter China through the Yunnan-Burma Highway can China contain the strength of the Japanese army in the Asian theater and buy time for the countries of the International Anti-Fascist Alliance to resist the war in other theaters.
In 1942, China and Britain signed the Agreement on the Mutual Defense of the Yunnan-Burma Road, and it was decided that China would organize an expeditionary force to go to Burma to assist the British ** team in fighting against the Japanese army. Subsequently, nine divisions composed of the Fifth Army, the Sixth Army and the 66th Army of the Kuomintang, with a total of more than 100,000 men, entered Burma to fight against Japan.
In March of the same year, the expeditionary force launched a war against Japan, but the war effect was not significant and then retreated to Yunnan, and in 1943, the expeditionary force was reorganized and divided into the Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force and the Chinese Army in India.
In 1943, the Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force and the Chinese Army in India began to launch a joint operation against Japan in northern Burma and western Yunnan, successfully recovering dozens of cities and towns in Burma, recovering more than 80,000 kilometers of lost land in western Yunnan, and successfully opening up the transportation route connecting western Yunnan and northern Myanmar with the Yunnan-Burma Highway.
After several wars, the Chinese Expeditionary Force also began to prepare to retreat back to China, but just like the situation when the Chinese Expeditionary Force wanted to launch an operation on the Yunnan-Burma Highway, the poor cooperation of the friendly allies led to the untimely receipt of orders by some troops of the Expeditionary Force, and tens of thousands of people in the New 22nd Division of the 96th Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the Fifth Army did not receive orders from their superiors.
Liu Guiying is the first female soldier of the field hospital of the new 22nd Division, Liu Guiying said after coming out of the savage mountain, "The mountains are more terrifying than devils".
Savage Mountain, which means "the place where the devil lives" in Burmese, is located in the north of Myanmar is an undeveloped primeval forest, belonging to the tropical rainforest climate zone, the perennial high temperature and rain and the dense jungle also caused the complex regional environment of the Savage Mountain, most of the people living in this area are primitive tribes of savage humans, animals and beasts prevail in the jungle, miasma, unknown viruses are raging.
After the defeat of the battle, the expeditionary force was forced to enter the Savage Mountain, Liu Guiying and her four ** who were also field hospitals entered the Savage Mountain together, at first when Liu Guiying was pinched, it was good to enter the mountain, enter the mountain, the environment is complicated and camouflaged, but things are far from being as simple as she imagined.
When you enter the mountain, look up, the dense branches and leaves cover the sky overhead, the mottled shadows in the forest are the sunlight through the dense leaves, all around are a hundred years or even a thousand years of towering trees, the forest during the day is hot and dull, and the night of the savage mountain is even more frightening, the forest at night does not have a trace of light, the dense trees will be the only light source also blocked the dead place.
In addition, the howls of the animals in the night came and went, and the warriors built one shed after another through the large leaves and branches of the forest for temporary residence, borrowing dry branches to resist some mosquito bites, and the warriors spent the night in the shed.
And for Liu Guiying, entering the Savage Mountain seems to be the beginning of a nightmare, when entering the mountain pass, Liu Guiying saw a cloud of black things not far from the mountain pass, she took a closer look and found that these are all corpses, and they are the corpses of comrades-in-arms, these burned soldiers are soldiers who have been injured in the war. Because these soldiers were seriously injured and had difficulty moving, it must have been a drag for them to follow the large army into the Savage Mountain, and they were unwilling to surrender to the enemy and become prisoners, so they set fire when the large army entered the mountain, in order to show their determination and integrity as a Chinese son.
Liu Guiying and **Chang He Shan, **Xiaochun, Sun Yuexia, Wang Ping, after entering and getting to know each other, they agreed to come in and go out together, and they must return to the motherland. In the process of marching in the forest, the dry food was gradually exhausted, and they did not dare to eat the wild fruits and vegetables in the forest, this forest was full of poisonous gas and miasma, and the female soldiers soon lost their physical strength, and their feet were ground out of blisters one after another, which were good and long.
Although they all said that they wanted to return to the embrace of the motherland together, but the sinister surrounding environment still took the lives of a comrade-in-arms, the first is the cheerful Xiaochun, in the process of trekking, Xiaochun who walked behind suddenly screamed, and then sat down on the ground, everyone hurried over to help her only to find that Xiaochun was bitten by a snake, it was a poisonous snake, Liu Guiying treated Xiaochun's wounds, but the poisonous snakes in the savage mountains seemed to be more poisonous than the poisonous snakes anywhere, Xiaochun's wounds soon swollen, As a result, the speed of several people moving forward is even slower.
Everyone's feet were broken, Xiaochun's wounds were constantly oozing blood, and the heavy smell of blood also led the beast to them, and when Xiaochun went to the toilet, the wolf bit Xiaochun with a bite, and everyone found that Xiaochun had been bitten by the wolf and sacrificed in the Savage Mountain.
After Xiaochun's sacrifice, several people became more cautious and cautious, and their sleep began to become unsteady, and they couldn't sleep almost all night, but it was precisely because of this that they didn't rest well, Sun Yuexia also contracted miasma, and after a few days of high fever, Sun Yuexia began to be confused, didn't know people, crazy, Sun Yuexia told her comrades when she was awake that she must get out alive, leave her alone, and get out alive.
A few days later, Sun Yuexia jumped off the cliff with the only remaining shred of reason in order not to drag her comrades-in-arms, and the comrades-in-arms saw Sun Yuexia's behavior and lay on the edge of the cliff crying her name.
Fate doesn't seem to let go of anyone around Liu Guiying, Wang Ping also died on the road, the five of them set off together and now there are only two people left, He Shan and Liu Guiying, He Shan is the first captain of the field hospital, and has participated in many wars with the army, she has been encouraging Liu Guiying on the road, "Don't be afraid, don't give up, we can go out, and we will definitely be able to get out." ”
Two months later, they also walked in the savage mountain for two months, ** Chang He Shan also suffered from diarrhea because of eating poisonous fruits by mistake, and then got malaria because of miasma and other factors, He Shan was still telling Liu Guiying to persevere when he knew that his life was short.
He Shan told Liu Guiying, "We must get out alive and return to our hometown to tell everyone that we are sacrificing our lives for the country and let them remember us." ”
Maybe it's because Liu Guiying's body, with the expectations and yearning of four people, a few months later, Liu Guiying dragged her tired body, and after seeing the corpses, Liu Guiying understood that the biggest enemy to face in this jungle to survive is the beasts in this jungle, malaria, miasma and even wild fruits that you accidentally ate one day.
Finally, after Liu Guiying climbed over a hillside, she saw that the tent she lived in saw people, at first she thought it was her own hallucination, because after all, walking in the jungle for so long and eating food may also cause her to hallucinate, until the person in the distance waved her hand, she believed that this was a real person, she walked out of the savage mountain, she really survived.
Liu Guiying, who walked out of the Savage Mountain, was placed in the camp of the expeditionary force in Rumga, India, and in an interview a few years ago, Liu Guiying said, "The rice I ate on this day is the best rice I have ever eaten in my life." Everyone was very curious when they saw a female soldier walking out of the savage mountain that could eat people, and for a while, Liu Guiying's deeds spread throughout the camp, and the soldiers came to see this female warrior who walked through the savage mountain.
Liu Guiying has a painting that has always been treasured, that is after she walked out of the Savage Mountain, the painter Mr. Ye Qianyu painted for her, at that time Liu Guiying was her happiest time, in the rum she found her husband and gave birth to a lovely child.
In 1945, the expeditionary force won the war against Japan, Liu Guiying returned to the motherland with her children, and she finally returned to the motherland that she and her comrades-in-arms wanted to return to.
After returning to China, Liu Guiying's life was not as good as she imagined, her husband fell in love with other women, she was alone with the child, she was desperate and wanted to understand herself, but when he saw the child and remembered the comrades who supported her out of the Savage Mountain, she felt that she should continue to live, the child still needed her, and her comrades-in-arms may be watching her.
Later, Liu Guiying became a teacher, taught for ten years, and was sent to be sent for thirty years during the special period, but all this seemed not very friendly to Liu Guiying, but Liu Guiying said, "Although I am not very rich and a little hard, but fortunately I lived a long time, and she gave me a long life." ”
Yes, looking back on the experience of the soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the experience of Liu Guiying, we may not be able to experience their hardships and their greatness in person, but every time we see the remains of the martyrs being escorted back to China, we will be more or less moved, and it is precisely because of them that we can live so comfortably now.
The fluttering five-star red flag, today's beautiful life, is also the countless heroes and martyrs with their lives in exchange, they are the most lovely people, the most respectable people, the most worthy of our admiration.