In the Ma Benzhai Memorial Hall in Xianxian County, Cangzhou, Hebei Province, a small cart full of historical vicissitudes is quietly parked. Nowadays, people can no longer see this kind of common wooden cart, but it is this ordinary cart that has witnessed a moving history, and the heroic epic of a pair of heroes and mothers and sons has been recorded in the form of physical objects.
The mother and son of the heroes are the national hero Ma Benzhai and his mother Bai Wenguan. In July 1941, Ma Benzhai led the Jizhong Huimin detachment back to the banks of the Ziya River, insisted on the brilliant results of guerrilla warfare on the plains, and fought the Japanese Yamamoto Wing stationed in Hejian City to be discouraged, so that a small group of troops of less than 100 people did not dare to go out of the city alone.
A cart in the Ma Benzhai Memorial
In order to reassure his son to resist Japan, he went on a hunger strike for seven days and died
Ma Benzhai was a native of Dongxinzhuang, Xianxian County (present-day Benzhai Hui Township, Xianxian County, Hebei Province), commander of the Third Military Subdistrict of the Jiluyu Military Region and commander of the Huimin detachment. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Huimin detachment led by Ma Benzhai, with the Hui Han youth as the main force, turned to fight in the Jizhong Plain and the shores of the Bohai Sea, galloped behind the enemy lines in Hebei, Lu, and Henan, fought more than 870 large and small battles, annihilated more than 36,000 Japanese puppet troops, made the enemy feel frightened, and was praised by Mao Zedong as "the Huimin detachment that won every battle and victory."
In July and August 1941, Ma Benzai led a Huimin detachment to fight in the Hejian area, and fought fiercely against Yamamoto, the commander of the Japanese wing in Hejian . From July 1 to August 27, in less than two months, Ma Benzhai led the Huimin detachment to take the initiative to attack 27 times, eliminating more than 500 Japanese puppet troops. The Japanese army could not conquer Ma Benzhai by force, so they resorted to despicable tricks, they heard that Ma Benzai was a big filial piety, the 68-year-old mother was now living in her hometown, so in the early morning of August 27, 1941, she besieged Ma Benzhai's hometown of Dongxinzhuang Village, in order not to affect the villagers, Ma Mother Bai Wenguan generously went to the disaster.
Ma Benzhai
Because Bai Wenguan was old and walked not far from the dirt road, the Japanese puppet army found a small cart and pushed Bai Wenguan to the county seat of Hejian and escorted him to the gendarmerie. Bai Wenguan knew the great righteousness and knew that this was a conspiracy of the enemy, and after being caught, she entrusted someone to carry a message to Ma Benzai: "Don't save me!" This is the enemy's intrigue. If you come to my rescue, the enemy will surround the Muslim detachment, and the Huimin detachment will fall into a desperate situation! ”
In fact, after Bai Wenguan was captured by the Japanese army, Ma Benzhai's men exploded the pot and demanded to save the old lady. But for the sake of the overall situation, Ma Benzhai advised everyone: "What son in the world does not hurt his mother?" However, at the juncture of the life and death of the Chinese nation, what is more important than the great cause of resisting Japan? It is not my family that has suffered misfortune, but millions of families. I am a member of the Party, and from the day I joined the Party, I have handed everything over to the Party. Be filial to your mother and loyal to your country. In the face of the overall situation, Ma Benzhai first thought of being loyal to the country, followed by filial piety. Therefore, he led his troops to fight in qingxian and Ayutthaya, which were far away from the river, and gave up the opportunity to save his mother.
Ma Benzhai's mother, Bai Wenguan
At the same time, in order to let his son completely cut off the idea of saving himself, Bai Wenguan began to fight a hunger strike with the Japanese puppet army from the third day of entering the river. On September 7, 1941, Bai Wenguan, who had been on hunger strike for seven days and seven nights, was martyred at the age of 68.
After Bai Wenguan's death, Ma Benzhai and the Huimin detachment all wore filial piety. With tears in his eyes, Ma Benzhai stood in front of his mother's portrait for a long time, and then wrote a book: "Great mother, although she is still alive after death; ”
The party, government, and military groups in Hebei held a solemn memorial meeting for Bai Wenguan, and all walks of life in Yan'an also organized mourning activities. Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief, sent a telegram to the Jizhong Military Region and praised: "The fact that the Chinese people have such a mother is not only the glory of the Chinese people and the glory of the Chinese women, but also a concrete example of the Chinese nation's invincibility. ”
In February 1944, due to overwork, Ma Benzhai died of illness in the rear hospital of the Jiluyu Military Region at the age of 42. At the memorial service held by various circles in Yan'an, Mao Zedong personally wrote the "Comrade Ma Benzhai is not dead."
On September 1, 2014, with the approval of the Cpc Central Committee and the State Council, Ma Benzhai and his mother Bai Wenguan were jointly selected into the "First List of 300 Famous Anti-Japanese Heroes and Heroes" published by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. [Source: People's Network, Hebei Communist Party Member Network, Hebei News Network, Yanzhao Metropolis Daily]
Editor: Zhou Xiaoyu