Reading 丨 Lei Gang: Let the hero Sichuan "return" from history

2022-01-14 12:02:13

"Sichuan in the Rear area of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression", by Chen Tingxiang and Xu Xuechu, price: 198.00 yuan

Let the hero Sichuan "return" from history

Lei Gang

"Sichuan in the Rear Area of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" is one of the "Series of Studies on the Provinces of China's Great Rear Area of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression," which conducts in-depth and systematic research on major issues in the political, economic, cultural, social, educational, and other fields of Sichuan in the great rear area during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, shows the contributions made by the military and the people of Sichuan in the War of Resistance, and is a masterpiece of history that studies the history of the Great Rear Area of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

The book provides us with a series of shocking figures: during the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the total number of soldiers provided and replenished by Sichuan to the state reached more than 2.578 million; the officers and men of the Anti-Japanese War in Sichuan were killed 263991, wounded 356267, and 26,025 people were missing, a total of 646283 people, accounting for about 20% of the total casualties of the army; Sichuan Province spent 440 billion yuan in Legal tender, accounting for more than 30% of the country; between 1941 and 1945 alone, Sichuan collected grain 84430748 city stones. It accounts for 38.75% of the total amount of rice collected in the country.

The above figures are only the visible and statistical sacrifices and costs of the people of Sichuan. As for the psychological trauma of the military and civilians caused by the shattering of city walls, the blowing up of houses, the displacement of the people, and the incomparable hardship of livelihood, it is difficult to estimate. The description of the air raid and the anti-air raid struggle, refugees and refugee relief in the book, the words reflect the deep national difficulties, the words can touch the hearts of the Chinese people: "On May 4, 37 Japanese planes in 3 batches attacked Chongqing again, concentrated on bombing the lower half of the city in the shizhong district with no military targets, near the Jialing River, dropping a total of 126 bombs, injuring 1973 people, killing 3318 people, and destroying 3803 houses. "At its worst, each bombing lasted 1.5 hours to 5 hours, and each bombing interval was less than 6 hours, because the Japanese bombing caused the suffocation of the Chongqing Bichangkou Prevention and Control Tunnel that shocked China and foreign countries..." The uneasiness and fear brought about by this surprise attack from the sky are still haunted by the air defense sirens that sound once a year to commemorate the "Chongqing Bombing".

The true face of the national disaster is reflected in the desperate shouts of crying fathers and mothers after the air raids, in the exhaustion and displacement of colleges and universities and enterprises moving westward, in the bitterness of "professors going in and out of old book stalls, auction houses, or waiting all day in front of rice shops and public salt shops", in the list of 116 people of Lu Zuofu Minsheng Company who sacrificed to ensure the completion of the "Yichang Great Retreat"...

The book points out: "From September 1937, when the division was sworn out of Sichuan to August 1945, when the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was victorious, for eight years, the Sichuan Army troops participated in the anti-Japanese operations on the south and north frontal battlefields in Shanghai, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, and north of the Yangtze River (the 23rd Group Army, the 27th Group Army, the 30th Group Army, the 88th Army, the 26th Division, and the Independent 35th Brigade). Hubei and other provinces and cities. In addition to the Battle of Pingjin, the Sichuan army participated in all major battles, such as the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Shanxi, the Battle of Nanjing (Battle of Guangde si'an), the Battle of Xuzhou, the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Nanchang, the Battle of Suizao, the Battle of Changsha, the Battle of Zhejiang, the Battle of Western Hubei, the Battle of Changde, the Battle of Yuzhong, the Battle of Changheng, the Battle of Guiliu, the Battle of Guangdong,Xiangzhou, guibian, and the Battle of Northwest Henan. The number of troops participating in the battle accounted for about 10% of the total number of troops on the frontal battlefield, and 'the front line was served, accounting for about two-tenths of the country'. "The officers and men of the Sichuan Army went forward and followed, raised great righteousness on the forehead, and put death outside the degree. They insisted on the defensive line in the case of "wearing single clothes, wearing straw shoes on their feet, and outdated and rudimentary weapons and equipment", fiercely fighting the Battle of Songhu and Jiangong; rushing to the aid of Niangziguan and fighting In Shanxi... General Wang Mingzhang died in Teng County; General Li Jiayu died honorably in Xin'an, Henan; General Xu Guozhang was martyred in Changde...

In the rear, all kinds of war mobilization, weapons industry, epidemic prevention and sanitation, industrial and agricultural production, and donation of gold and silver, the Sichuan military and people all understand the great righteousness and are generous. Sichuan, as an important province in the strategic rear area, used its products, used its blood, used the bodies of her husbands and children, and used faith to destroy the family to alleviate difficulties, so as to meet the dawn of victory in the War of Resistance. In "Sichuan in the Rear area of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression", such blood and loyalty pervade the words and lines, and every inch of mountains and rivers is an inch of blood.

In that era, due to the backwardness of the military industry, our soldiers lacked heavy equipment, weak air defense, and there was a generation gap in weapons; in that era, due to the lack of national security awareness, a large number of Japanese people were able to spy around for intelligence and map maps; in that era, due to the backwardness of industry and uneven development, we did not have sufficient national defense resources, and we did not even have an airfield that could take off and land bombers! Today, the pace of our country's rise and rejuvenation is unstoppable, to borrow the author's words in the preface: "The backward China that was poor, weak and backward, bullied by the great powers, and endured humiliation and dirt is gone forever."

What worries the authors Chen Tingxiang and Xu Xuechu is that "after more than 70 years of wind and rain wear and tear and erosion over the years, countless historical evidences of China's War of Resistance have suffered or are suffering painful and irreversible serious damage ..." The "Series of Studies on the Provinces of China's Great Rear Area of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" and others can be regarded as part of the effort to "rescue the historical truth" in a certain sense. In this book, there is the magnificence of the iron-blooded horse, and there is also the figure of the city well LiMin, reading such historical works, often can see the clouds, let us be more sober, but also more stable.

Southwest University Press

(Former Southwest Normal University Press)

Reading 丨 Lei Gang: Let the hero Sichuan "return" from history

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