In February 1940, in The Maojiang River, Jilin Province, a group of Japanese troops brought the body of a Chinese soldier back to the headquarters for an autopsy by military doctors. A large group of Japanese soldiers waited downstairs in the hospital for the results, wondering what "panacea" the soldier had taken to be so brave. Before long, the results came out, and the soldier's stomach contained only bark and grass roots, and a large lump of cotton. Hearing this, many Japanese troops fell into a long silence, and one general called him a "great hero". Who is this Chinese soldier, and why can the enemy really admire him?
This man's name is Yang Jingyu, and he is the only senior general of our army who has enjoyed the honor of "people's hero" with Zhu De's inscription since the founding of New China, and he is also the only revolutionary martyr who has been honored by Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou, and Zhu De. Although his life was short, it erected an immortal monument in the hearts of hundreds of millions of people.
In 1905, Yang Jingyu was born in a peasant family in Zhumadian, Henan Province, his original name was Ma Shangde, because he lost his father at an early age, his family was very poor, and he relied on his mother to support the family with hard work. At the age of 18, Yang Jingyu entered the Kaifeng Textile and Dye Industrial School to study. During his time at the school, he came into contact with advanced ideas such as Marxism, began to actively participate in various student movements, and thus became in contact with our Party.
Our Party welcomed such students who actively participated in the revolution, and later sent Yang Jingyu back to his hometown of Qishan to carry out the peasant movement. Although Yang Jingyu is not very old, he is very capable and has excellent working ability, and under his efforts, by the beginning of 1927, the membership of the Farmers' Association of Qishan County had grown to more than 10,000 people, and Yang Jingyu was also elected as the chairman of the Farmers' Association of Qishan County. Yang Jingyu sowed the seeds of revolution in Queshan. It was also in this year that he officially joined our Party.
After 1928, Yang Jingyu successively engaged in secret revolutionary activities in Henan and Northeast China, during which time he was arrested five times, but he was unyielding, even in the face of the enemy's severe torture, he never revealed the secrets of the organization, and escaped death several times.
After the "918" incident, Yang Jingyu was sent to the organization to serve as the leader of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Federation. In 1932, Yang Jingyu was sent to Southern Manchuria as a representative of the provincial party committee to rectify the party organizations, anti-Japanese guerrillas and volunteer brigades in various counties, and create guerrilla base areas. In the following years, Yang Jingyu has been active in the northeast, and he has successfully launched several battles with his excellent guerrilla skills, and has fought with the Japanese puppet army many times, so he is regarded as a thorn in the eye by the Japanese army, and he is eager to get rid of it quickly.
In August 1935, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army was established, and Yang Jingyu was the commander and political commissar of the First Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance. After the anti-Japanese coalition team grew, many small anti-Japanese troops in the vicinity came to join in, and this team gave the Japanese army a strong blow. Yang Jingyu was gradually known by the Japanese army for his flexible tactics and fearless courage, which called him "the cancer of social security in the Eastern Frontier Province".
The Japanese army for Yang Jingyu can be said to hate the teeth itchy, head-on fight can not be beaten, the Japanese army also want to use a high bounty to reward Yang Jingyu's head, but he himself does not care about this, he continues to insist on fighting with the lofty dignity of "the head is thrown away, the blood can be sprayed, and the loyal will will will not waver".
Yang Jingyu and the Japanese army have been circling each other for seven or eight years, and the Japanese army can neither completely defeat our army nor capture Yang Jingyu himself, but they realize the importance of Yang Jingyu to the entire northeast region, so they are determined to get rid of him.
In fact, from 1932 onwards, Yang Jingyu's situation in the northeast was very difficult. In 1932, due to Wang Ming's misjudgment, four instructions were given to the northeast region, resulting in the rapid reversal of the situation in which the northeast originally had the advantage. Wang Ming's order can be summed up simply as purging the ranks of former Kuomintang cadres, rich peasants, and former bandits. This directly pushed a large number of people to the opposite side of the Northeast Anti-Japanese League. And Yang Jingyu took over the northeast in such a dead-end situation.
In addition to internal worries, there are also external troubles. Before 1941, arguably the most powerful period of the Japanese army invading China, they installed puppet government leaders in various places and fully controlled the northeast. In order to eliminate the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance and Yang Jingyu, the Japanese first started with grain.
The Japanese army implemented the policy of returning to the villages and hoarding the grain in various localities and the grain military management system, which simply means that after the peasants have finished harvesting the grain, they must hand over the prescribed amount of grain, and this figure has been carefully calculated by the Japanese army. At this time, the Japanese again made purchases, so that the peasants had no surplus grain to support the Anti-League, which cut off the Anti-League's rations to the greatest extent, and many times the soldiers could not eat at all, and could only fight hungry.
The northeast is too far away from the Party Central Committee in Yan'an, and sometimes even the news is not well informed, and it is impossible to get strong support. What's more, at this time, there was also Wang Ming's wrong command, which made the situation of the Anti-League even worse. And Yang Jingyu was in such a difficult condition, and the Japanese army in its peak state was circling for more than eight years.
At the most difficult time, the Northeast Anti-Japanese League almost passively cut off contact with the people, and could not get the support of the people, nor could the organizational support be out of reach. And due to the lack of popular support, it is difficult for the Anti-Allied Forces to get new strength to replenish, almost one less than one dead. Usually, the soldiers were wounded and could not go to their hometown to recuperate, because at any time there would be Japanese troops to check, and the wounded soldiers could only forcibly follow the troops. The low temperature of minus tens of degrees in the northeast can not even carry healthy people, let alone wounded soldiers? Even if you are lucky not to be injured, surviving in this icy and snowy land is not an easy task. In order to avoid the pursuit and encirclement and suppression of the Japanese puppet army, the soldiers did not dare to make a fire to cook, for fear that cooking smoke would attract pursuing soldiers, and could only eat cold dry food that was frozen hard. Even sleeping does not dare to sleep to death, because it may be transferred at any time.
All kinds of difficulties, Yang Jingyu and most of his comrades-in-arms have carried over, they are not afraid of death or sacrifice, afraid that the northeast will always be shrouded in shadow, as long as they can drive away the invaders, they are willing to pay any price. However, not everyone can be like Yang Jingyu, and many people can't stand the harsh conditions at that time and choose to betray.
As mentioned earlier, in order to get rid of Yang Jingyu, the Japanese army offered a huge bounty, and under the heavy reward, some people could not resist the temptation. The first to defect was Cheng Bin, the commander of the First Division under Yang Jingyu. Cheng Bin had a high status, knew more secrets, and he was very familiar with Yang Jingyu's tactics. In order to show his sincerity, Cheng Bin led the Japanese army to destroy several granaries and secret bases of the Anti-Japanese League, causing heavy losses to our army and making the situation of the Anti-Allied Forces even more difficult.
In early 1940, Ding Shoulong, a staff officer of the former Anti-Japanese Guard Brigade, defected, and Yang Jingyu's whereabouts were exposed. In order to completely eliminate this opponent, the Japanese army dispatched more than 40,000 people and more than one fighter plane to blockade the mountains and forests and search for Yang Jingyu day and night.
Yang Jingyu knew that he was the biggest target of the Japanese army, so he divided the team into pieces and scattered them into small groups. However, betrayals followed. Zhang Xiufeng, the platoon leader of Yang Jingyu's bodyguards, also defected. Not only that, he also carried nearly 10,000 yuan of activity funds and important documents. What was even worse was that Zhang Xiufeng was clear about the breakthrough route planned by Yang Jingyu. With this information, the encirclement of the Japanese army was further narrowed, and Yang Jingyu had to break through the 60 soldiers who followed him again, and the troops broke through, at this time Yang Jingyu only had 6 people left.
A few days later, because 4 soldiers were wounded, Yang Jingyu ordered the rest to take the wounded away first, and Yang Jingyu was really fighting alone.
In the dense forest of the northeast at a few tens of degrees below zero, it can be said that it is a sigh of ice, and Yang Jingyu can't wait for any foreign aid now, he knows very well that his chances of surviving are not high, but Yang Jingyu is not afraid, and all he thinks about is how to destroy some more enemies.
The enemy discovered Yang Jingyu's whereabouts, and this was exactly what Yang Jingyu intended, he used his familiar terrain to drag the enemy through the forest for several days, dragging 600 Japanese troops to only 60 people. However, the price Yang Jingyu paid was that the enemy's encirclement circle shrank even smaller.
On the 22nd, Yang Jingyu had not eaten any grain of rice for many days, and he could only fill his hunger with bark, grass roots, cotton wool, etc. The fighting for several days made him tired, just when he was about to be unable to hold on, several farmers cutting firewood passed by, Yang Jingyu thought that this was his hope for survival, and took out the only remaining money to ask the peasants to help buy some food.
Betrayed again, Yang Jingyu had no way to retreat, but he preferred to die, and after burning the confidential documents on his body, Yang Jingyu continued to fight with the enemy, and finally was shot several times and died heroically, at the age of 35.
After Yang Jingyu's sacrifice, the Japanese army pulled his body back for dissection, wanting to see what he had eaten, and how he could persist in such a harsh environment for so many days. However, when the military doctor completed the dissection, what was taken out of Yang Jingyu's stomach was grass roots, bark and other things, which greatly shocked the Japanese troops present, even if they had regarded Yang Jingyu as a fierce enemy for so many years, they had to sincerely admire him at this time. Takaichiro Kishitani, director of the Pseudo-Tonghua Provincial Police Department, also couldn't help but wet his eyes and sighed: "Although it is an enemy, I also sighed when I saw its magnificence: Great hero!" ”
The deeds of Yang Jingyu greatly touched Kishitani Ryuichiro, after which he began to study the psychology of China's anti-Japanese fighters, and as his understanding deepened, his soul became more and more tormented. On the eve of Japan's surrender in 1945, Kishitani Ryuichiro committed suicide by caesarean section after poisoning his wife and children, writing in his suicide note: "It may not be appropriate for His Majesty the Emperor to launch this war of aggression against China, and China will certainly not perish with iron-blooded soldiers like Yang Jingyu." ”