In 1962, South Korean President Park Chung-hee, who came to power by a coup d'état, imposed stricter censorship on the domestic film industry, restricted some left-wing sensitive subjects, and at the same time, in order to strengthen the rule, required film companies to make a certain number of reactionary films reflecting the history of the Korean military in a forced manner.
Bloodbath September Mountain poster
The film is directed by South Korean director Choi Pyong-yong, whose actual title should be translated as "Blood-Stained September Mountain", and mainly tells the story of the September Hill guerrillas harassing the KPA behind enemy lines at the end of the Korean War, and then with the signing of the armistice agreement, the guerrillas were forced to retreat after the crusade. Although most of the gunfight stories in the film are fictional, the female leader of the guerrillas, played by Choi Bo-yong's wife and famous South Korean actress Kim Ji-mi, is a true figure, based on Lee Jung-sook , known as the "Female General of September Mountain".
Cui Penglong let his wife play the heroine
Born in 1922 to a landlord family in Hamheung, the capital of South Hamgyong Province, both her parents and husband died during the land reforms that followed the restoration in 1945, and she herself was imprisoned in a labor camp in Hwanghae-do. In October 1950, after the U.S.-Rok coalition army crossed the 38th Line and continued north, the People's Army stationed in Hamheung City hastily withdrew, and Lee Jeong-sook took the opportunity to organize more than 70 refugees in the labor camp to form a guerrilla group to welcome the arrival of the US and ROK troops.
South Korean intelligence services were very interested in these spontaneously organized local armed forces in the north and sent special personnel to sort them out and train them. One of the people sent to liaise with Lee Jung-sook's troops was Captain Kim Jong-byung, who was born in 1914 in Etocho, Hwanghae Province, a former Japanese soldier who fled south to South Korea after recovery, and now it is only fitting that he should be put in command of a group of his fellow villagers.
Dressed as Lee Jeong-sook
On December 7, 1950, the Volunteer Army launched a second large-scale offensive campaign against the United States and South Korea, and Kim Jong-byung, who had been promoted to major, combined several small units, including Lee Jung-sook's troops, into the Yeonpyeong Unit, and Lee Jung-sook became his assistant. The Yanping troops, initially numbering more than 150 troops, were mainly responsible for attacking the rear lines of communication between the Chinese and North Korean coalition forces during the campaign, or mixing with the KPA to engage in sabotage and subversive activities.
By the end of December 1950, due to the unfavorable situation, the US-ROK coalition forces were forced to retreat from the entire northern front, and the local armed forces, including the Yanping troops and the White Horse troops, were cut off from retreating, and they fled to the islands scattered on the west coast of the peninsula. U.S. intelligence took over the jurisdiction of the group, integrated them into Unit 8240, and sent a number of intelligence warfare experts as military advisers to guide the activities of these forces.
Female member of Unit 8240
Unit 8240, run by U.S. advisers and South Korean intelligence, grew to more than 23,000 members at its peak, most notably the White Horse guerrilla unit based on Niuri Island on the west coast of North Pyongan Province. The Yanping troops of the supposedly September Hill guerrillas, who at most had only more than 800 men, claimed to have killed more than 4,000 KPA soldiers in the war, which was obviously bragging, because they had captured only 57 KPA prisoners.
Back to Li Zhenshu, because she is a woman, she generally does not take on combat tasks in the September Mountain guerrillas, but only does some logistics and reconnaissance. One of Li Zhenshu's most famous "feats" was to disguise herself as a peasant woman on January 18, 1951, and walk more than 100 miles of mountain roads to find the Zairong guerrillas surrounded by the People's Army, and take 89 of them out of the encirclement safely.
Kim Jong-byung (second from left), Lee Jung-sook (first from right)
In mid-1951, the White Horse attacked the Monaz Hill Coal Mine on the Iron Mountain Peninsula, successfully rescuing more than 2,800 South Korean prisoners of war who were imprisoned here to dig coal. The large-scale attack was supported by several nearby guerrilla groups, and the September Hill guerrillas commanded by Kim Jong-byung and Lee Jung-sook also undertook reconnaissance and peripheral planning tasks during the operation.
On September 14, 1952, the September Hill guerrillas did a big business, and a small unit under its command, led by its leader Kim Ming-sung, detected the garrison of the KPA Supreme Command in the Ganzhili Mine, and immediately called in US aircraft to carry out indiscriminate bombing, which also made this small unit a thorn in the eyes of the KPA. Under the purge of Li Yixue, the commander of the 3rd Regiment of the 15th Division of the People's Army (who was later awarded the rank of second marshal), 171 of Jin Mingri's 175 brothers were killed.
Lee Jung-sook and his infant son Kim Kwang-jin
As the war entered the negotiation stage, the Sino-DPRK coalition forces increased their efforts to eliminate and suppress the US and ROK secret agents in the rear, and the scope of activity of the September Mountain guerrillas became smaller and smaller, and most of the time they could only be used as "presence troops" to shrink on the islands on the west coast of the peninsula under the cover of the superior naval and air forces of the US military. During these boring days, Lee Jung-sook fell in love with Kim Jong-byung, who spent her days and nights with her, and in 1952 gave birth to a boy to the man who was eight years older than her.
The September Hill guerrillas were withdrawn to South Korea a year after the end of the war, but neither Kim Jong-byung nor Lee Jeong-sook received any war medals because they were not regular armed personnel registered with the South Korean Ministry of Defense, but "special operators" under the jurisdiction of the coalition forces, so even after retirement, they could not enjoy the treatment of formal veterans, and many people had a very difficult life after the war.
After the war, Kim Jong-byung Lee Jung-sook's family of three
Nevertheless, Lee Jeong-sook, because of her special female status, was touted as the "September Hill Female General" for some time after the war, and was personally received by the chief of staff of the South Korean Army. In 1960, her deeds were also written into Korean middle school textbooks, and in 1965 she became one of the heroines of the film "Bloodbath September Mountain". However, due to the influence of the struggle between conservative and progressive parties in South Korea, Kim Jeong-sook's deeds have gradually been diluted and no longer mentioned.
By 2015, there were only 600 members of The 8240th Unit still alive, and at the request of the society, South Korean President Park Geun-hye provided these people with a subsidy of 160,000 won (about 900 yuan) each, saying that "this is a reasonable reward for veterans and survivors by the state." Naturally, this was scolded by their collective, because in contrast, the Rok soldiers killed in the Cheonan incident in 2010 could receive 30 million won of condolence money per household!
In his later years, Kim Jong-byung and his son Kim Kwang-in
Although Kim Jong-byung and Lee Jeong-sook had long since died at this time, his son Kim Kwang-in had been compensating his parents for pursuing national honors. Finally, on February 25, 2012, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of South Korea posthumously awarded Lee The National Hero Medal, which was awarded to 50 people that month. On the anniversary of the 625th War that year, Lee Jung-sook was posthumously awarded the Order of Chungmuro Martial Arts, second only to the Taiji Wugong Medal, by the South Korean Ministry of National Defense.
In 2015, Lee Jung-sook's husband, Major Kim Jong-byung, was also posthumously awarded the Order of The Order of Chungmuro Martial Arts. Both husband and wife were awarded the Chungmuro Martial Arts Medal for the first time in the history of the Korean army, although from a practical point of view, their contribution to the war was probably not qualified for this high-level medal of honor. However, Kim Kwang-jin, who served as chairman of the September Hill Guerrilla Youth Association, was very satisfied with this, and he later deliberately transferred the remains of his parents to the Ota Henzo-in Temple (equivalent to the provincial honorary soldier cemetery).
Tombs of Kim Jong-byung and Lee Jung-sook
In 2020, Kim Jong-byung Lee Jung-sook and his wife received the Monthly Commemorative Figure Award of Daejeon-in Temple in June, and the descendants' families came to the scene to receive the reward
This article was first published by the author on other public accounts, and some of the text has been added or deleted