In early 2015, a reporter traveled to a foreign country in Myanmar to interview an elderly man. In front of the camera, the old man said in a sonorous and powerful voice: "I am a Chinese, I am a dignified Chinese, I don't want my grandchildren to become foreigners." My wish is to let my grandchildren return to their homeland and settle down, which is my greatest wish" And then the old man was silent...
Who is this old man? What are some of his untold experiences? And finally exiled to a foreign country? Has the old man's greatest wish in life finally come true?
The old man's name was Li Guangdian, born on December 24, 1922 in Xuanwei County, Yunnan Province, to a peasant family surnamed Jia, and his parents named him Jia Chongkang.
At that time, the warlords in Yunnan were in a scuffle, natural disasters were constant, people were displaced, and parents could not support their five children. Therefore, he was fostered in a family surnamed Li in a neighboring village and renamed li guangdian.
His adoptive parents loved Lee Kwang-tin and regarded him as his own. Although he lived in poverty, his adoptive parents still gave Lee Kwang-tung the greatest love.
At the age of study, although the adoptive parents' family was poor, they still saved money and sent Lee Kwang-tin to school. Lee Kwang-tin cherishes the hard-won reading rally, studies very hard, and has free time to help his adoptive parents do some housework within their ability.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, although Yunnan was the rear area, the enthusiasm for resisting the war and saving the country did not diminish because it was far away from the front line.
In August 1937, when Attending the Nanjing Military Conference in Yunnan Province, Long Yun said:
When all the manpower and financial resources of the local government are used to contribute to the country, sacrifice everything, fight to the end, and save the danger in time, the army of Yunnan Province has been sorted out and ready, and it can serve the country at any time.
After returning to Yunnan, Long Yun began to reorganize the Yunnan army. In 28 days, the most elite troops in the province were integrated into one army, which was the 60th Army.
The total strength of the 60th Army was more than 40,000 people, which was a very rich strength in the Chinese army at that time, and the quality of soldiers was relatively high and the training was substantial.
Since Yunnan borders French Vietnam, the 60th Army's weapons and equipment are mainly French weapons and Belgian weapons. In addition, each soldier also had a French steel helmet, which was very rare among the local warlords of the Republic of China.
Each infantry company of the 60th Army had 148 soldiers, equipped with 63 rifles, 20 pistols, 6 light machine guns, 3 grenadiers, 3 heavy machine guns, and 3 mortars.
After the 60th Army was formed, it quickly left for the front line. Li Guangdian and his classmates, who were studying, were very excited when they saw the Dian army rushing to the front line to resist Japan, and they also wanted to join the army to resist Japan, but they could not do so because they were studying and their young age.
Although the Dian army was well armed, it lacked means of transport and could only march on foot... After the Battle of Songhu, due to the rapid fall of Nanjing, the 60th Army went to Wuhan to stand by.
After arriving in Wuhan, Chiang Kai-shek was very excited to see this sophisticated unit, and specially ordered the 60th Army to detour along the bustling downtown area of Hankou for a week to show the local people and foreign envoys that there was still such an elite force in China that had not yet been put into the front line, so as to boost the morale of the people.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the 60th Army to be transformed into a special army, equipped with more than 20 cars. In addition, 500 German-made barge guns, 300 revolvers and more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition were allocated to the 60th Army.
After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered a stalemate stage, Japan changed its strategic focus, hoping to occupy Burma, French Indochina, and other places to obtain strategic materials, and at the same time cut off the international channels of the United States, Britain, and other countries to aid China.
Once the Japanese army occupied Burma and controlled the Burma Road, it would be difficult to transport aid materials to China, and it would be difficult for China to maintain the War of Resistance.
Faced with this situation, China decided to form an expeditionary force to burma to support the British army in its war against Japan. When the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Yunnan, Li Guangdian, who could no longer resist his heart, joined the expeditionary force and was incorporated into the 83rd Regiment of the 28th Division of the 71st Army of the Expeditionary Force.
After a short period of training, Lee went to the front. On the battlefield, Li Guangdian only had anger in his heart, and watching his comrades around him sacrifice one by one, Li Guangdian did not have the slightest fear. In his heroic performance on the battlefield, Lee Kwang-tin made many meritorious contributions.
On June 4, 1944, the Battle of Matsuyama began. In the battle, the 83rd Regiment and the 82nd Regiment were the main attacking forces, and on June 5, the 82nd Regiment of the Expeditionary Force took the lead in entering the Yin Mountaineering position, and after the battle began, it was extremely fierce, and after fierce fighting, only one platoon of the 3rd Battalion of the 82nd Regiment that attacked the summit survived.
The Japanese army was still stubbornly resisting, and then, Li Guangdian's 83rd Regiment received orders to attack the main peak of Yin Mountain. Lee Kwang-tung and his comrades-in-arms braved the Japanese artillery fire to charge the top of the hill, and the comrades-in-arms around them fell one by one, and Lee Kwang-tung did not have any fear in his heart. Rushing to the top of the mountain and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese Kou, the comrades were covered in blood, the battle was extremely fierce, and dozens of Japanese Kou fell under the bayonets of Li Guangdian and his comrades...
Li Guangdian recalled: "The Battle of Songshan was quite bad, and in the battle to retake Yindeng Mountain, we had a company of one hundred and forty or fifty people, and by the end of the battle, there were only seven or eight people left..."
In this battle, Li Guangdian was heavily entrusted with treatment at the Huangcaoba Military Field Hospital in Longling. After being discharged from the hospital, Li Guangdian found an opportunity to break away from the army and do odd jobs for people in Tengchong, Yunnan.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, it was thought that peace was coming, and when the civil war broke out, Lee Kwang-tin left a foreign land and settled in Burma.
In 1949, the news of the founding of New China made Li Guangdian extremely excited, but just when he was full of joy and wanted to return to China, a thunderbolt fell from the sky: because he had no Chinese nationality, he could not return to China.
Moreover, in those days, "expeditionary force" has always been a sensitive word in the eyes of burmese, because in the eyes of Burmese, "expeditionary force" is also an aggressive team, so Lee Kwang-tung had to hide his identity as a soldier.
Too much time has passed, and no one can prove his identity as a soldier, so his identity as an "expeditionary force" has become an eternal secret.
In a foreign country, Li Guangdian met Yang Zengfen, a Yunnan woman who fled to the local area due to war, and the common experience made the two feel sorry for each other, and after a period of getting along, the two married in Myanmar, with a son and three daughters.
Because he did not understand Burmese and was still a foreigner, Li Guangdian had no skills except to shoot cannons on the battlefield. Pulling a scooter and working hard to build a road, with the diligence and patience of Chinese, Lee Kwang-tin found a way to live in Myitkyina.
Although he was in Burma, But Li Guangdian's heart always belonged to the motherland, although he was very poor, he sent all the first and third daughters to a Chinese school, said Chinese, wrote Chinese characters, and taught them "benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and faith, heaven and earth."
Mr. Lee has been a Burmese citizen for decades, even as it has caused their family countless troubles — high residence taxes, neighborhood exclusion, discrimination from the local government. But he insisted that he was just a "guest" in Myanmar and wanted to "go home" after all.
When the Burmese authorities often asked Lee Kwang Tin how to define his identity, Lee Kwang Tin waved his hand and told them: "We are guests in Myanmar, sooner or later we will return to our motherland, if I die in Burma, I will let my descendants bury my ashes in China." In the face of such an answer from the elderly, the authorities harassed the elderly family with high residence taxes and constant trouble.
According to Lee Kwang-tung's son Lee Yu-ming, he recalled:
The 1990s were myanmar's most difficult period. The family could only move on the north bank of the Enochady River. However, the political situation on the north shore is turbulent, armed separatism in ethnic minority areas, and the family's hiding in Tibet is in jeopardy.
In 1990, with the help of a Chinese, Lee Kwang-tung secretly returned to his motherland, tearing profusely in front of his mother's grave, but had to return to Myanmar 3 days later due to the death of his wife suffering from acute gastric perforation.
This short return to China made Lee Kwang-tin full of hope for returning to the motherland, and when he talked with his children for a long time, he would often say: I want to take you home with you, return to the motherland together, you are all Chinese, and you have Chinese blood on your bodies. ”
In 1997, due to the relaxation of some policies in Myanmar, Lee Kwang-tung returned to his hometown with the help of caring people in China, and to his disappointment, he was told: "Because his four children were born in Myanmar, there is no way to be naturalized." Lee Kwang-tung did not want to live alone, so he had to live for a while and then had no choice but to return to Burma.
Although he was disappointed by this return to China, he did not waver in his determination to return to his homeland. With the heavy responsibility and care for the government's anti-Japanese veterans, in 2005, with the intervention of the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar, Lee Guangdian finally no longer had to pay "residence fees". Life has also improved.
In 2009, the government launched the "Campaign to Recover Anti-Japanese War Veterans". Li Guangdian's deeds were learned by the relevant government departments, and with the help of the Yunnan Provincial Government, the Yunnan Charity Federation and the Yunnan Provincial Cppcc Daily, Li Guangdian returned to the motherland again.
On April 30, accompanied by his son, the wanderer who had fought against the Japanese army and was exiled to a foreign country returned to his hometown in Luoshui Town, Xuanwei City.
This time back to China, the elderly Li Guangdian also deeply felt that his time was short, and strongly demanded that he settle in his hometown and have the true nationality of the People's Republic of China.
The old man's wish has been highly important by the Xuanwei Municipal Government, and after careful verification, the public security department has adopted a special office to handle the settlement procedures for the old man during his return to his hometown.
The story of this old hero who returned to his hometown after more than 60 years of exile in Burma, who was in a foreign land and had a heart for his homeland, touched many people he never knew. The public security department of Xuanwei City adopted a special office and handled the settlement procedures for the elderly.
On May 7, the household registration police of the Liushui police station handed over the new household registration book to the hands of the elderly Li Guangdian, and also applied for a people's republic of China resident identity card for him, and the old man's weathered face opened with a smile.
This return to China made the old man feel the care of the people of his hometown and the motherland for him, and also achieved the old man's lifelong wish.
The old man did not think of the lifelong wish of returning to China, and in addition to the happiness of his hometown, he wanted to return to Myanmar and tell his family.
Returning to Burma this time, the elderly Li Guangdian specially went to the cemetery of the 30th Division of the Myitkyina Expeditionary Force in Myanmar to pay homage. The old man gave a deep military salute with trembling hands and said excitedly:
Dear old comrades, dear old heroes, although we have contributed a little bit to the country. But the people of the country have not forgotten us...
On March 28, 2015, accompanied by his daughter-in-law and grandson, the elderly Li Guangdian entered from Myitkyina and arrived in Kunming by car.
Back in his hometown, the anti-japanese war veteran was warmly welcomed by the residents of the city, and the old man smiled and thanked the people with a genuine Xuanwei accent. With the support of his grandson, Li Guangdian knelt in front of his mother's grave and kept prostrating his head, saying in his mouth: "I am back, I am back..." For the elderly Li Guangdian, he was both unfortunate and lucky, and the people of the old country did not forget him after all.
After returning to his hometown this time, Li Guangdian carefully looked at the familiar and unfamiliar hometown, the hometown did not change much in the eyes of the old man, or was once familiar with the house, he told his son Li Yuming, remembering most clearly:
When I was a child, there was a fish pond behind the school, and there was a cave on Xuanwei Mountain. He often played there with his friends.
There was a group of veterans who had the same life trajectory as Lee Kwang-tung. But time turned back, the years rushed, and the once huge expeditionary force team passed away one after another, and Lee Kwang-tung became the "last one."
Today, the last veteran of the Expeditionary Force in Burma, is gone... At 3:00 a.m. on August 15, 2020, Lee Kwang-tung, the last veteran of the Burmese Expeditionary Force, Xuanwei, passed away at the age of 100. But the old man was lucky, and he fulfilled the greatest wish of his life - to return to his homeland.
On August 17, a memorial service for the elderly Lee Kwang-tung will be held in Myitkyina, Myanmar, where his grandson, Li Falin, now lives in Kunming. For other reasons, it is impossible to go to Myanmar to participate in the memorial activities, and can only silently express condolences in Kunming.
How many years can we have in our short life? The elderly Li Guangdian spent 65 years just to complete a wish - to return to the motherland and return to his hometown!
As the old man said, "I am Chinese, I am an upright Chinese, and my greatest wish is to lead my children back to the motherland." ”
Falling leaves are the feelings of every Chinese, and the old man Lee Kwang-tung has passed away, but he has fulfilled his last wish. Those anti-Japanese veterans who have been buried in foreign countries, you will always be upright Chinese, and the Chinese people will never forget you!
Paying tribute to all the martyrs of the expeditionary forces who have been buried in foreign countries...
Friends who think the article is good, may wish to click a free follow, your support is my greatest motivation!