This person bought a map for 500 yuan and defended 20,000 square kilometers of land for our country
In the late Qing Dynasty, China was in a state of flux and turmoil, and the heavy powers tried to invade and occupy China's territory, and the Qing government always had a very negative attitude when facing territorial issues.
The man I want to talk about today, he spent 500 yuan to buy a map, and as a result, he actually defended 20,000 square kilometers of territory.
This person's name was Bai Wenwei, a native of Shou County, Anhui Province, who pursued the way of democratic governance in his early years, and successively organized the establishment of the Strong Power Association and the Yue Wang Association, and later joined the Alliance Association, and was Dr. Sun Yat-sen's right-hand man and an important military general. He scoffed at the traitorous practices of the Qing Dynasty and was more concerned about matters concerning the territory of the motherland.
In 1908, the situation on the Korean Peninsula changed, and the pro-Japanese faction in the ruling Korean Empire seized power, and with the support of Japan, the Korean Empire clamored to seize the "Island of Ma".
The so-called "island" is the four counties and municipalities of Hunchun, Helong, Wangqing and Yanji in Jilin Province, with a total area of 20,000 square kilometers. In the 1860s and 1870s, some Korean farmers crossed the Tumen River to reclaim the land, creating a territorial dispute over jurisdiction. After the Sino-Japanese War, in order to please the Koreans, Japan created a lot of public opinion, insisting that "Majima" was "a territory of Korea," and even sent police to the area to administer the reclamation people, with the aim of using "Majima" as a springboard to take advantage of the opportunity to invade the northeast.
In 1908, Bai Wenwei volunteered to come to the Korean Peninsula, and through his connections, he met the son of the Korean Empire's Park surname Shangshu, who was a typical clumsy disciple who ate, drank and had fun all day, and Bai Wenwei learned through various ways that this person had a worn-out "Map of Dadongyu" in his hand.
Painted in 1861, the Daedongyu Map is a longitude and latitude measurement result brought by the Korean Kim Jong-ho who absorbed the Qing people, with Seoul as the coordinate origin, and the effect is very close to the standard of contemporary maps, which can be called a peak in the geography of Korea. More importantly, the map clearly indicates that the so-called "Mashima area" belongs to China.
However, this stupid boy obviously did not know the value of this map, and in his eyes it seemed to be less than a piece of waste paper, and when Bai Wenwei proposed to buy this broken map for 500 yuan, he smiled and accepted it gladly. "Purchased a map of Dongyu from the son of Shu Park of Theokobu of The Korean Household" (Bai Wenwei's own account)
It was not until later that the young man learned that he had run into trouble, and the Japanese also learned of the incident, so they ordered the Japanese gendarmes to strictly investigate Bai Wenwei's whereabouts, but Bai Wenwei took the lead, returned to Fengtian, and handed this "waste paper" to the Northeast Supervision Office. Because of this map and physical evidence, the Qing court made solemn representations with the Japanese minister, and in the face of such ironclad evidence, Japan was poor in words and had to admit that The Island was an inseparable part of China's territory.
Bai Wenwei, who completed the task, hid his merits and names so deeply that few people knew his name, but the deeds of this hero were destined to write a heavy stroke on the picture of history.