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Yang Wenkai, a soldier of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, recounts his experience in the War of Resistance
Sun Xiancheng
Not long ago, Xie Meifang, director of the office of the Guangyuan Municipal CPC Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, Sun Xiancheng, honorary chairman of the second branch directly under the Guangyuan Municipal Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, and Yang Bangyi, a veteran party member of the Guangyuan Municipal Committee of the Kuomintang, visited Yang Wenkai, a retired cadre of the former Guangyuan Film Company and a soldier of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, at the housing building of the new shopping mall in the old city of Guangyuan, and listened to him tell the story of "carrying a gun for the War of Resistance."
When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was in 1941, the country was in danger, the people were panicked, and "life and death had reached the final juncture," the Nationalist Government called on the intellectual youth to go to the front to participate in the anti-Japanese war, recruited knowledgeable young people in Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, and Hanzhong (at that time Xi'an had fallen and Guiyang was in danger) to learn military skills, master relatively advanced military machinery, counterattack from abroad to the interior, and there were a large number of military materials gathered in India, which needed personnel to master transportation.
Under the mobilization of the National Government's "one inch of mountains and rivers and one drop of blood, 100,000 young people and 100,000 troops," the vast number of intellectual youth (school students and knowledgeable youth in society) have thrown themselves into the pen. Among these intellectual youth expeditions, 5% have a university education, 50% of high school students and 45% of social youth. "Let's go to the army!" This was the loudest slogan of the intellectual youth during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it was also the concrete action of the vast number of intellectual youth in practicing "the rise and fall of the world and the responsibility of the husband" and defending the family and the country.
During the most difficult years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Guangyuan's knowledgeable youth studying in Chengdu, like young people throughout the country, "put down their books, put on their guns, abandon their occupations, and step into military camps," actively became "new youths," became "new soldiers," served the "new country," signed up to join the expeditionary force, and went abroad to resist the war. So in 1942 and 1943, five groups of young intellectuals were recruited to Go to India. At this time, the wars in northern Burma and western Yunnan were very fierce, and victory was in hand, and after the China-India Highway (also known as the Burma Highway, the earliest Stilwell Highway) was opened, it was urgent to wait for the transportation of material vehicles.
The Chinese Expeditionary Force marches on the battlefields of Burma
At that time, I was studying at the Mingxian Middle School in Shanxi, when I was 17 years old, the first year of high school, the school teachers were mostly exiled young people in the interior, their anti-Japanese sentiment and enthusiasm were very high, and the heart of serving the country was very urgent. After applying for the application and undergoing physical examination, there were more than 80 people in the five batches of Zhongmingxian Middle School. I was the fourth batch, left school in September 1943, concentrated in Chengdu, took an American military plane through the hump without training, crossed the Himalayas for 3 hours to India, after bathing, vaccination, changing British military uniforms, got on the car to the Savage Mountains in northern India, the camp was in the forest area, there were assigned to heavy schools, tanks, artillery and mechanical repairs. Some of us were assigned to study infantry.
Near our camp was a field hospital, and the patients were from several countries, most of whom were wounded on the front line, including many Chinese soldiers, who were indispensable in the Battle of Northern Yunnan and Western Yunnan. At this time, the Sino-Indian highway has been opened, every day is a steady stream of vehicles and materials transported to the Chinese mainland, the cruel and fierce war is basically over, we in addition to receiving supplies every day, three or five two two to cook, to the hospital to listen to the veterans swing the combat experience. Living in the mountains, the surrounding area is uninhabited for dozens of miles, wolves and wild boars are often seen, and they have been attacked and harassed by monkeys.
After New Year's Day, we were suddenly transported back to China, and when we arrived at Kunming Airport in the evening, we realized that the war here was over and the Sino-Indian highway was unimpeded.
Soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force aboard a U.S. MILITARY DC-3 transport aircraft
What do you do when you come back? At this time, we were officially incorporated into the New Sixth Army (Liao Yaoxiang was the commander), the Fourteenth Division's instruction battalion was all issued with guns, my treatment was a corporal, and I began infantry training in Zhanyi County (now Zhanyi District) in Yunnan, and life was very boring. In June 1945, he flew to Zhijiang, Hunan Province, where he was still practicing infantry every day. By this time, the war had turned defensive into offensive, and good news came from Southeast Asia, the Pacific and the country at any time. It is irresistible to think that the war against Japan will end sooner or later, and the Kuomintang wants us to fight a civil war, when the cannon fodder is too worthless, and it will be lucky to look for an opportunity to leave early. At that time, there were some fluctuations in thought and emotions, and once the war stopped, what did we do, the training was not tense, and we could go to the street at any time to play. Because I am a student soldier, life is still inseparable from the looseness, and homesickness arises spontaneously. The opportunity finally came, one day on the street I met the same school classmates who joined the army earlier, they were studying tanks, and now they were driving a car to transport supplies from India, and when asked if they would like to return to Chongqing, I took this opportunity to break away from the army and return to Chengdu. At night, firecrackers and gunfire sounded in unison in the streets, and the crowd boiled and cheered for The surrender of Japan. In August 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, and the ceremony was held in Zhijiang. When I got home, I contacted the school and studied in the second grade of Chengdu West China Association Middle School until graduation.
This history is always engraved in memory. The merits of the Chinese Expeditionary Force cannot be ignored in the War of Resistance Against Japan, its spirit deserves admiration, and its deeds deserve praise.
Source: Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office
Author: Sun Xiancheng (Honorary Chairman of the Second Branch directly under guangyuan of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association, member of the Sichuan Film Artists Association, member of the Guangyuan Writers Association)
Contributed by: Local History Compilation Center of Lizhou District, Guangyuan City
Some of Fangzhi Sichuan's pictures, audio and video come from the Internet, only to disseminate more information. The copyright of the pictures, audio and video contained in the article belongs to the original author or media.