On the border of Yunnan, there is a village called Ebony Village. The village is surrounded by deep mountains all year round, with beautiful mountains and rivers and beautiful scenery. The beautiful nature here nurtures a group of simple villagers who live and work in peace and contentment throughout the year.
But no one expected that an incident suddenly broke the long-lost tranquility of the village.
One day five years ago, a villager went up the mountain to collect medicine as usual. With a wealth of experience in collecting medicine, he came to a hillside that he had never been to before to see if he could get anything else.
Sure enough, he saw a lot of fresh herbs here, which had not yet been picked. This made him happy, and he immediately picked up his hoe and prepared to pick some fresh herbs. But when he raised his hoe and prepared to cut the tendons of the herbs, there was a noise.
The sound made him wonder, was there something buried in the ground? Thinking of this, he gently dug the weeds on the ground with his hands, and then dug down with a hoe. Digging, digging, one after another badly corroded oil drums appeared in front of the eyes.
This scene stunned him. How can there be a badly corroded oil barrel in this deep mountain and old forest? He immediately summoned the other villagers to dig up the mountain to see if anything else could be dug up.
After a while, everyone dug out dozens of oil drums one after another. The villagers looked at these dozens of oil barrels and wondered. At this time, a bold villager curiously opened the lid of one of the oil drums, only to see that it contained the remains of a corpse, which frightened him and threw him to the ground.
When the villagers who were watching saw this scene, they were also frightened enough. At the same time, I wondered: Who are they? Why is it packed in an oil drum? Who the hell put them in oil drums?
History
In the film and television dramas of Myanmar, most of them belong to the chaotic dark realm, where anything can happen. We also know that Myanmar's terrain is high and densely forested, multi-ethnic chaos, and outsiders often get no bargain when they go in. Few people know that in 1942, the Japanese army invaded Burma and confronted the Allies.
Obviously, it is a thankless thing, why should the Japanese army go? In fact, their main purpose was not to capture Burma, but to cut off the Burma Road, thereby cutting off the supply of The Chinese anti-Japanese troops and capturing China. Because at that time, the Allies had to transport a large amount of materials to Yunnan, and then spread to the whole country, to help the Chinese government's army to carry out the War of Resistance Against Japan.
When the Japanese army learned of this news, it originally wanted to invade Yunnan and destroy China's supply. However, according to the situation at that time, in a short period of time, they could not attack Yunnan at all. Since they could not attack Yunnan, they set their sights on the Burma Road, an important route for transporting supplies.
This road is the only way for transport troops to enter Yunnan, and once the Burma Road is cut off, it can cut off the supply of Chinese anti-Japanese troops and reduce the pressure on the anti-Japanese battlefield. Therefore, the Japanese sent a large number of troops to attack Burma, intending to cut off the Burma Road.
In the face of japanese fascist aggression, the Allies wanted to rely on their own strength to resist the japanese invasion. But they were too light on the enemy, and they were defeated in the first confrontation. After their defeat, they asked the Chinese government for support. The Chinese government was well aware of the importance of the Burma Highway and immediately sent elite troops to Burma to fight.
Soon, however, the Allies made another decision to abandon Burma and retreat to India. In the face of the changes in the Allied forces, Chiang Kai-shek was indignant and personally ordered the Chinese Expeditionary Force to be sent to counter the Japanese army, and asked the Allies to cooperate with the Chinese army to jointly block the Japanese army.
Unfortunately, the Allies had already harbored selfish intentions, and when the battle began, the Allies blindly retreated, leaving the Chinese army alone to resist the Japanese army. More seriously, as a result of the Allied retreat, Chinese troops entered Savage Mountain. Savage Mountain is densely forested and the climate is humid and hot, which is a big challenge for Chinese warriors.
And the warriors who were in Savage Mountain at that time could not get any supplies at all, and once fell into a desperate situation. In desperation, they can only fight against the dilemma of survival while insisting on fighting. The hardships and hardships are unpredictable.
But even so, the Chinese military still exerts extraordinary perseverance, tenacity, and makes admirable achievements to achieve certain strategic goals. In the past six months, the Chinese army has fought more than 1,500 kilometers, fought to the death against the Japanese army, and won many victories in many battles, causing serious setbacks to the Japanese army.
Unfortunately, due to the selfishness of the Allies, the first battle was ultimately lost. The defeat of the battle caused Burma to fall and China to lose control of the Burma Road. At the same time, given Burma's importance, the Chinese government and allies had to start brewing a second battle to counter-attack Burma.
In order to win the second battle, Stilwell actively integrated and trained the troops of various countries and replenished supplies. The Chinese government also reorganized its army again and rushed to Burma, ready to cooperate with the Allied forces in launching an attack on the Japanese army at any time.
And in order to ensure the transport route, the Chinese and allied forces formulated a plan. It is planned to start from the India-Myanmar border, cross the India-Myanmar border, occupy the area east of the Tanay River, climb over the Mountain of People, seize the northern region of Myanmar, and finally connect with the Yunnan Burma Highway and open up a new road.
In 1944, the battle began again. The troops stationed in India were fully prepared this time, and as soon as the battle began, the troops won the battle of Mengguan, eliminated the main force of the Japanese 18th Division, and captured a large number of weapons and materials. Then the army continued its efforts, took advantage of the victory to pursue, and captured the northern region of Burma in one fell swoop, and won another victory. At the same time, the Chinese army divided into two roads and launched an attack on the Japanese army, successively conquering the Bamo and Nankan areas and successfully opening the road.
The Japanese army could not have imagined that in a short period of time, the Chinese army would erupt in such tenacious combat effectiveness. How did the army that was once defeated under its own hands become an invincible army? According to a sentence in the Japanese military document, "the Chinese army is eager to return to China, and it is impossible to be decisive."
On March 8, 1945, the victory of the First Battle of Lashio allowed the two armies to successfully meet and officially end the Burmese battlefield. The victory of this battle successfully opened up important transportation routes, so that the continuous flow of materials into China and the japanese army drove out of the southwest gate of China.
Heartbroken, the victory of the battle was bought with their lives by the soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, who wrote an extremely tragic history with their own blood and sweat. According to statistics, since the Chinese army entered Burma to fight, a total of 400,000 troops have been invested, and the casualties have reached 200,000.
In the face of such a huge casualty, a sad question lies ahead: What should be done with the remains of the sacrificial warriors?
Following the normal steps, the soldiers will bury the remains of their comrades. However, at that time, the war was urgent, the materials were extremely scarce, and the local terrain was unfamiliar, and the soldiers could not even protect themselves, how could they take care of the bodies of countless comrades-in-arms? Under such circumstances, those sacrificed warriors could only be forced to stay in the mountains and forests.
In a better situation, the comrades-in-arms will bury the body of the comrade-in-arms in the ground, or converge into a coffin and bury it well. In the event of a war emergency, the soldiers could not free their hands at all, and could only bury the bodies of their comrades in the ground hastily, or even converge into oil barrels to be placed.
In this way, they were buried in a foreign land, sleeping in a corner of the world, one with the land. Some are in China, some are in the deep mountains and dense forests, no one disturbs, no one knows, quietly lying in a corner of history.
The remains inside the oil drum were exposed
It wasn't until the villagers' accidental discovery that this heart-wrenching history was reopened. The discovery of this history is closely related to the village of Ebony.
Located on the border of Yunnan, Ebony Village has been rooted here for generations, making a living by farming and going up the mountain to pick herbs. They live a peaceful and comfortable life every day, working at sunrise, breathing in and out of the day, and living a quiet life. Although the village is not large, people live in poverty, but leisurely, the villagers are very satisfied.
With the passage of time, the villagers here have long forgotten the war, and only in their leisure time, several elderly people in the village will occasionally talk about the outbreak of war. However, when the old man talked about that period of history, he only took it in a hurry. After all, that history is too tragic, sad, and can't bear to remember.
The long river of time also seems to smooth out that sad memory, so that the world has forgotten that tragic history. Today, the faces of the villagers are full of peace and happiness, enjoying the stability brought by the peaceful era.
Until one day, a villager went up the mountain to collect medicine. This time he came to a place he had never been to before, to see if he could get something new and supplement his home. Sure enough, he saw some herbs that had not yet been picked. And because very few people set foot here, the herbs grow very well.
This made him very happy and ready to pick up a hoe to cut the tendons of the herbs. Unexpectedly, this hoe went down and heard the sound of gold and iron colliding. This sound indicates that there must be something buried in the ground. Thinking of this, he hurried back to the village and called a few villagers to continue digging down to see if he could dig anything.
Digging, digging, they actually dug up dozens of oil drums. This scene made the villagers wonder, what is going on? At this time, a bold villager curiously stepped forward to pry open the oil drum. They fixed their eyes on it, only to see a few remains.
The sudden sight of the remains startled the villagers. Waiting for the mood to calm down, they began to take a closer look at the situation around them. According to their observation, these dozens of oil barrels should be a cemetery.
They then found two cemeteries nearby, and took a closer look at the cemeteries, which were apparently not built by the residents themselves. Because the cemetery was built very haphazardly, the location was crooked. If it had been built by villagers, it would certainly not have been so arbitrary.
Even stranger, the two cemeteries, one under a pine tree and one under a garbage dump, look like a hasty affair. When the villagers saw this scene, they were very curious: Why are there two cemeteries here that are so casual? Who built these two cemeteries?
Even more surprising was the fact that a villager found the same cemetery not far away. However, out of reverence for the cemetery and respect for the deceased, the villagers did not advocate the opening of the tomb without authorization to find out. Instead, he chose to go back to the village and consult with everyone, what the hell is going on?
When the villagers heard about the sudden appearance of the cemetery, they all felt very strange. They were sure that the two cemeteries were certainly not built by the villagers, so who was it? One can't help but think of something bad, as if it were a prelude to a storm coming. In an instant, the village broke the tranquility of the past, and the villagers were panicked and jealous.
At this moment, an experienced old man stepped forward to find out the truth. The old man had a wealth of life experience, and although he was old, he had extraordinary wisdom. When he heard about this, he hurried to the tomb and took a closer look.
After some observation, he analyzed that the two cemeteries should be cemeteries of the war years. According to his analysis, first, the cemetery looks random, but it is relatively old, and it can be judged that the history is long. Second, Yunnan has been at the junction since ancient times, has been invaded by outsiders, and often wars have broken out.
Based on these two points, the old man concluded that it was a cemetery left over from the war. For this conclusion, the villagers did not think much about it, after all, since ancient times, Yunnan has indeed had frequent wars, and the remaining cemeteries are also excusable, so they all agree with the judgment of the old people. But which war and which army these remains belonged to, for a time no one could know.
For these remains, the villagers did not dare to act rashly. After all, these remains are so old that it is impossible to know whether there is any danger or harm to the remains. Once you do it yourself, unforeseen results will occur.
After much consideration, the villagers decided to hand them over to the government and report them to the relevant government departments for disposal of the oil drums and remains. When the government received the news, it immediately sent staff and experts to check the specific situation.
First of all, the staff, using a variety of ways, to eliminate the possibility of bacteriological weapons, bomb remnants, etc., and then carefully open all the oil drums, carefully remove the remains.
Immediately afterward, experts conducted a professional analysis of the remains, tested them, and determined that the age of these remains was very small, and the average age should be around 20 years old. Hearing this, everyone around them fell silent. 20 years old is still the best years of a young man, he has not yet had time to experience the beauty of the world, but he has already sacrificed.
Seeing these young remains, many villagers could not bear to look at them again, and they left one after another, and some of the remaining villagers endured grief and continued to cooperate with the investigation of experts and record the work.
This is followed by the identification of these remains. The age of the warriors alone makes it clear that they belong to an army. In order to find out the identity of the remains, experts consulted a large number of materials, compared a large number of historical materials of the war, and after repeated comparisons, finally determined that these remains were Chinese expeditionary forces.
When it comes to the Chinese Expeditionary Force, we are no strangers. The Chinese Expeditionary Force was a Chinese army during World War II, and they were ordered by the Chinese government to rush to the vicinity of Burma, responsible for cooperating with the Allies to resist the Japanese army and guard the Burma Road, which is the historical origin we mentioned above.
The remains of the oil barrel mentioned above, after examination, confirmed that it was the first combat unit of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. After the defeat of the first battle, they were ordered to retreat temporarily, encountering enemy encirclement on the way. They were unfortunately killed in the process of covering the breakthrough of the large army. At that time, the war was urgent, and the soldiers did not have time to bury the remains of their comrades-in-arms, so they could only place the bodies of their comrades in iron barrels and bury them on the spot.
Unfortunately, due to the long time, it is impossible to know their specific names. After several days of exploration and collation, the government reburied all the remains in the local martyrs' cemetery. Although their names are no longer known, they have an eternal name: the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
With the exposure of this matter, the history of the Chinese Expeditionary Force has also returned to people's vision, and people have gone to understand the tragic history.
According to the data, during the entire battle, the Chinese Expeditionary Force recovered more than 80,000 square kilometers of land and more than 50 large and small towns, playing the prestige of the Chinese army. There are countless stories about the soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. We can no longer know the specific situation, but can only rely on the oral accounts of the survivors to understand the specific situation at that time.
According to Li Chengji, a veteran of the survivors of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, they came to Burma by plane, and on the way they encountered an attack by Japanese fighters, and once lacked oxygen, fortunately, the pilot opened the high-altitude oxygen tank, so that the soldiers survived.
Pictured| Lee Seung-ki
After coming to Burma, he quickly threw himself into battle and almost lost his life, but fortunately he reacted quickly and escaped the disaster. In this battle, he saw the cruelty of war for the first time, and the comrades who had just jumped around in front of his eyes had died in the blink of an eye. The pain of war is deeply imprinted in the hearts of soldiers.
In addition to the brutal war, the harsh natural environment is even more daunting. Take Savage Ridge, for example, Savage Ridge is a strip of more than 200 kilometers deep and more than 2600 meters above sea level. Inside the canyon is dense, the mountains are densely forested, and the mosquitoes and snakes in the valley are all available, and the miasma is full of miasma. In the event of high precipitation, there will also be violent flash floods.
Such a place sounds intimidating, and no one dares to set foot on it. But it was such a place that the soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force still had to set foot on this dangerous land in order to complete their combat tasks. The dangers they face can be imagined.
Shockingly, the appearance of the man-eating python made the warriors even more frightened. It was the troops on the way when they suddenly encountered an unknown obstacle. When the head of the unit learned of this, he immediately sent scouts to check it out.
The scout looked over and saw only a huge python, stopped in front of him. The python was so thick in buckets, and its eyes glowed with bloodthirsty light, frightening people's legs. When the chief heard this, he was calm and ordered the python to be shot. After some shooting, the body of the python was broken, and the helmets, clothes and other items of the US military actually flowed out, which made people want to vomit.
There is also liu Guiying, a surviving female soldier nurse, who recalls the story of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. According to her recollection, on the day of departure, she sang the military song of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and set out for victory, but she did not know that this would be the most painful memory of her life.
As soon as she arrived in Burma, after several days of fighting, she followed her troops into Savage Mountain. At that time, as a logistician of the troops, she walked behind the troops. When she reached the entrance of Savage Mountain, she saw more than fifteen hundred corpses burning. Judging by the remnants of the fabric, those were her comrades-in-arms.
As far as she knew, the more than 1,500 soldiers, because they were wounded or sick, could not follow the troops for a long journey and had to stay here. To stay here is nothing more than two destinies. One was shot or captured by the enemy, and the other was starved to death and died of illness in the same place.
Pictured| Liu Guiying
That being the case, in the spirit of preferring to die as a martyr rather than a prisoner, they set themselves on fire and ended up with hatred. They had no other wish, but only that their comrades-in-arms would return to China and their hometown with their skulls. This tragic scene made Liu Guiying burst into tears.
In fact, the female nurse who entered the Savage Mountain with Liu Guiying at the beginning was four others. As female soldiers, their physical strength cannot catch up with that of male soldiers, and the key is that they are also responsible for taking care of the wounded and bearing a greater test of life and death.
Within a few days of the troops, they encountered a river. The river is not difficult for male soldiers, just walk directly, but it is very difficult for female soldiers. Because the two female soldiers just happened to encounter the menstrual period, they were unwell, how could they soak in the cold river water. But there was no way, they could only walk directly like male soldiers, leaving a red river behind them.
The warriors walked for two days before they crossed the river and reached the opposite bank, and the female soldiers' bodies were also bloated. In the next few days, the female soldiers overcame all kinds of difficulties and insisted on marching with the troops.
Until one day, a female soldier was suddenly bitten by a poisonous snake. When the other female soldiers found out, they rushed forward to take emergency measures to suck out the toxin to save their lives. A few days later, she suddenly encountered a wild wolf, who was directly bitten off the neck and killed on the spot. It was also the death of the first female soldier.
The death of the second female soldier stemmed from the plague. At that time, the weather in Savage Mountain was humid and hot, and the plague began to run rampant, and many warriors were infected, and the second female soldier was also unfortunately infected. After she fell ill, the other female soldiers did not abandon her, but took good care of her body. But in the next few days, her condition became more and more serious, and in order not to drag everyone down, she chose to jump off the cliff alone.
The death of the third female soldier also stemmed from the plague. The plague was a contagious disease, and the third female soldier was unfortunately infected. In order not to let the disease continue to spread, her boyfriend stayed where she was, and the two died hugging each other.
The fourth female soldier did not hold up either. Her body was not very strong, and after a long trek and a difficult environment, her body was already overwhelmed. After developing a high fever, diarrhea, he died in the early hours of the next morning, closing his eyes forever. There were five sisters, and only Liu Guiying survived.
These soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force have endured all kinds of hardships, some of them have sacrificed, and some have survived. What everyone can never forget is that they are beyond the perseverance of ordinary people.
And for these warriors who were placed in oil barrels, if the villagers had not inadvertently discovered them, they may never have seen the light of day, and they would have disappeared into the long river of history forever, fortunately people have discovered them. To this day, local villagers have invariably protected the land.
Every Qingming Festival, many villagers spontaneously came to the Martyrs' Cemetery to sweep the graves of the soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
Although the martyrs are gone, their stories live on forever.