In our impression, war has always been a matter for young people, as for the elderly, it is enough to do propaganda and logistics, and we can't let the old arms and legs go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, right?
However, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there really appeared an army composed entirely of elderly people, who had to be at least 60 years old to enlist in the army, known as the "Lao Tzu Army".
There are two founders of the "Lao Tzu Army", one is named Li Gen (pictured below), a native of Tengchong, Yunnan, and the other is Zhang Yilu (pronounced "Lin"), a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Being able to create the "Lao Tzu Army", naturally it was not an ordinary person, and these two were the big celebrities at that time. Everyone in the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall must know that Mr. Zhu, Ye Shuai, Zhu Peide, Long Yun, Lu Han, and so on are all alumni of this school, and Li Gengen is one of the founders of the Yunnan Lecture Hall.
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning, the Yunnan Daowutang only recruited local students from Yunnan, and Zhu Lao was always a Sichuanese, in order to study the military, he traveled thousands of miles from Sichuan to Yunnan, but was told that he could not register. Just when President Zhu was extremely disappointed, just when Li Gen came, asked about the situation, and said: "He rushed to take the examination, indicating that he is a young man with revolutionary ambitions, even if he is a Sichuanese, he should also be admitted, so as to fulfill his wishes and strengthen his will." Until his later years, Mr. Zhu also mentioned Li Gen's kindness to people.
During the Xinhai Revolution, Li Gen led the student army into the revolutionary cause, and became the acting prime minister of the Beiyang government. However, the current situation of warlord scuffle made Li Gen feel disappointed, and within a few years he quit politics and went to Suzhou to live in seclusion. However, because he was famous in the world, even if he lived in seclusion in the mountains, there were often Kuomintang officials who came to him for advice, so he was known as the "Prime Minister of the Mountains".
As for the other Zhang Yilu (pictured below), who was also a revolutionary elder, he had become the chief of education in the early days of the Republic of China, but because he was not accustomed to Yuan Shikai's style, he resigned in anger and returned to Suzhou to live in seclusion. The two elders came together in this way.
However, the outbreak of the War of Resistance brought two "hermits" back out.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Gen and Zhang Yilu resolutely launched an initiative to call for the organization of the "Lao Tzu Army", declaring:
"Young people have a great future, they are the long of Japan, and if they sacrifice too much, it is a pity." It is the duty of the elderly to be old, to be worth less and to see death as a homecoming. ”
The main tasks of the "Lao Tzu Army" include: firing the engine of the detonator and fighting with the enemy and not surviving; those who destroy the enemy's heavy industry and ordnance, and must be killed without surviving; all those who do not have to be bold enough to kill the dead; sanction those who are traitors to the country and harm the people by local tycoons and inferior gentry and traitors, and so on.
Moreover, the criteria for selection are based on age: those over 60 years of age are regular soldiers, those between 55 and 59 years of age may first join the reserve army, and those between the ages of 50 and 54 are continuing.
As soon as the slogan of "Lao Tzu Jun" came out, it immediately caused a great sensation, and even Ma Xiangbo (pictured below), the founder of Fudan University who was 98 years old at the time, also enthusiastically recommended himself and was elected as the military commander (commander) of the "Lao Tzu Army". At the same time, Zhang Yilu served as deputy commander of the army, and Li Gen served as chief of staff.
In a letter to Chiang Kai-shek, Zhang Yilu wrote:
"My science is inferior to that of man, but it is only to fight with flesh and bullets, like a wall, and the heavens will not perish in China."
However, Chiang Kai-shek is a man who is still very benevolent and righteous, believing that war is a matter for the army, the so-called "raising soldiers for a thousand days and using troops for a while", "the state should not blame the elderly for dying on the front line even if they are extremely difficult and dangerous", and the role of the elderly is to "supervise and advance backwards, prudently defend the imperial court, and raise the people", so they did not agree to the proposal of the "Lao Tzu Army".
Yes, if it is the turn of these old people to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, then China really has no hope.
Although the "Lao Tzu Army" never really went to the battlefield, its great inspiration effect still affected the determination of countless Chinese to resist the war. Moreover, Li Gen and Zhang Yilu, two great celebrities and great righteous soldiers, still ran to the front line to provide necessary services for the soldiers on the front line.
In the Battle of Songhu, the two elderly people organized several ambulance teams to transport the wounded soldiers on the front line back to the rear for treatment, and more than 50,000 people were treated before and after. Moreover, Li Gen also donated his own cemetery to bury the soldiers who died in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and personally inscribed the name "Hero Tomb".
In May 1942, after the martyrdom of Dai Anlan, a famous general of the expeditionary army, the coffin was transported back to China, and in Yunnan, 100,000 people paid homage to the streets, which has long been known. However, what is less known is that the Yunnan supervisory envoy at that time, that is, Li Gengen, dai anlan's public sacrifice meeting, which he presided over, and also called on the county magistrates through which Dai Anlan's coffin passed, must go out of the city to greet him.
When the Japanese army approached Suzhou, Guo Moruo visited Zhang Yilu and advised him to leave Suzhou early, but Zhang Yilu said: "Some people who are greedy and afraid of death, their hometowns have been occupied, they all want to flee, and I am most opposed to fleeing!" If Suzhou is occupied by the enemy in the future, I will definitely coexist and die with Suzhou! ”
After the fall of Suzhou, Zhang Yilu stayed in Suzhou and organized guerrillas to continue to oppose the Japanese army. Later, seeing that the trend had gone, Zhang Yilu shaved his hair as a monk in order not to cooperate with the Japanese, and fled into the empty door.