In 1942, in the Savage Mountains at the junction of China, India and Burma, the voice of a woman echoed in the primeval forest.
Liu Guiying, a female national hero of the War of Resistance
"Help! Save, die, ah! Liu Guiying and He Shan followed the prestige, only to see a large jackal running forward with a smile on the spring. It turned out that Xiao Chun had accidentally encountered a wolf when he went to untie his hand just now.
The two of them hurried to chase after them desperately, while shouting, "There are wolves, there are wolves, come and fight the jackals." The battalion commander heard the shouting and immediately pulled out his pistol and fired a shot at the wolf, hitting the wolf in the hind leg. The wolf had to let go of Xiao Chun and fled.
Liu Guiying and the warriors ran to Xiao Chun's side and found that the arteries in her neck had been bitten off by the wolf, and the blood flowed like blood. After only a few minutes, Xiaochun stopped breathing. The sisters' hearts were like knives, and they pounced on Xiao Chun and cried, "Laughing Spring, Laughing Spring!" But Xiao Chun couldn't hear it anymore.
"My female comrade-in-arms is really bitter, she was first bitten by a snake, and then bitten by a jackal..." Although it has been 73 years since the incident, Liu Guiying will not stop the tears whenever she thinks of the tragic death of her female comrades-in-arms.
Female soldiers of the Expeditionary Force
The above is Liu Guiying's tragic recollection of entering Savage Mountain in 2015 when his troops withdrew to Yunnan after they were unfavorable to participating in the battle in Burma that year.
In order to resist the war and save the country, he signed up to join the army.
Liu Guiying was born in 1920 to a poor peasant family on the outskirts of Changsha. When she was three years old, there was a major drought in Changsha, because there was no harvest in the family's farmland, and her family really could not afford to support her, so she had to endure the pain and give her to a family surnamed Liu in Changsha as an adopted daughter.
However, when she was 10 years old, her adoptive father and adoptive mother died of illness one after another, and one of her adoptive father's good friends, Uncle Han, sent her to the Changsha Poor Women's Hospital. In 1937, Liu Guiying, who had studied in a poor women's hospital for seven years, was admitted to the nurse nursing class of Changsha Xiangya Hospital with the first place, specializing in nursing.
After the establishment of the National United Anti-Japanese Front, Liu Guiying and several enthusiastic young people signed up for the new 22nd Division of the Chinese Army. She was assigned to a field hospital and became a nurse female soldier.
Liu Guiying, who had just joined the army
On March 8, 1942, the Japanese invaded Burma, cutting off the Burma Road, the most important supply line for allied supplies to support the Chinese anti-Japanese resistance. In order to defend the Burma Highway, the Chinese government formed an expeditionary force of 100,000 elite soldiers to go to Burma to participate in the war against Japan, and Liu Guiying was in this expeditionary force.
Forced into the terrifying Savage Mountain.
After the Chinese expeditionary force arrived in Burma, it fought a bloody battle, dealing a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Japanese army, but later due to the lack of cooperation of the British army, the expeditionary force was gradually defeated. In May 1942, the Chinese and British troops had to retreat, the Japanese cut off the expeditionary force's return route, except for a small number of troops who followed the American army to India, the remaining more than 30,000 troops under the leadership of General Du Yuming had to choose the Savage Mountain back to Yunnan.
Savage Mountain is located at the junction of China, India and Myanmar, stretching for more than 500 kilometers, more than 200 kilometers wide, the trees on the mountain cover the sky, there is no sun all year round, there are many beasts, locusts everywhere, and even wild man legends, known by the locals as Savage Mountain.
In June 1942, more than 30,000 exhausted expeditionary forces entered the Savage Mountain and embarked on their "death journey" section.
Savage mountains at the junction of China, India and Burma
Liu Guiying recalled: "The primeval forest is as vast as the sea, countless trees that have grown for thousands of years stand majestically, and the layers of leaves cover the sky, and the sun cannot shine in." Occasionally, when we see a little bit of the sky, we suddenly feel refreshed. ”
At night, the jackal beasts all came out to forage for food, and the roar of the beasts echoed in the forest, and the people were creepy to hear. The warriors used banana leaves and branches to form a three- or four-square-meter shed, which could sleep about 10 people, and everyone squeezed through the shed at night.
Liu Guiying, Sun Yuexia, He Shan, Xiao Chun, wang Ping, a total of 5 female soldiers from the nurses' class, followed the troops on foot. After only a few days of walking, blood blisters appeared on the feet of the 5 people. The old blood bubbles are good, and new ones are emerging. Every female soldier's feet were covered with blood bubbles. Sometimes the sand falls into the shoes and into the blood bubbles, and the heart hurts.
Savage Mountain Primeval Forest
One day, they marched to a rushing river, and everyone had to help them cross the river and slowly wade to the other side. Although it was only waist-deep, it was difficult for female soldiers. At that time, Liu Guiying and the head nurse He Shan were in the physiological period, and the body could not be soaked in cold water, but there was no way, but also had to cross the river with a hard scalp. With each step, the river behind them glows bright red.
After the rainy season, it rains heavily every day and the roads are muddy. The warriors were more difficult to walk, and they almost rolled in muddy water as they descended the mountain. Sometimes flash floods rush down and wash away many people at once. Once, Liu Guiying saw a flash flood wash away an entire squad of fighters.
In that primeval forest, the troops' maps didn't work, and the warriors often walked for days before returning to their original places.
After walking for a month, the troops ran out of food, and some soldiers began to starve to death. Du Yuming then had to kill more than 100 war horses and let the soldiers have a full meal. After the horses ran out, the warriors began to cook leather shoes and belts, and even cook pistol holsters. After these things are eaten, they can only rely on eating bark and grass roots to maintain their lives.
One day, a warrior saw wild konjac growing by the river, and hungry, he hurriedly dug up a small piece, washed it and licked it, but his tongue immediately swelled up, and he couldn't even say a word, until 4 days later, the swelling on his tongue disappeared. Some warriors accidentally ate poisonous plants, rolling on the ground in pain, and because there was no medicine, everyone could only watch them poisoned and die.
Due to excessive eating of tree bark and grass fruits, many warriors began to swell their bodies and faltered as they walked. Some warriors walked and suddenly fell to the ground and could no longer get up.
Liu Guiying and the other 4 female soldiers in the nurse's class made up their minds that the five of them would walk together or die together, holding hands and encouraging each other to move forward.
The jungle on a rainy day is a world of ants, and the jungle is full of ants. These vampire demon kings waited for the warriors who came on the leaves with their heads held high, and as soon as the human body touched the leaves, they were unconsciously climbed on them.
And the ants there are particularly large, and the infuriating thing is that when they are full, they suck and drain blood from the other end of it. The little ant will burrow into the person's clothes through the gap in the clothes, and unconsciously suck out the blood of the human body. By the time the warriors found out, the ants were well fed, thick and large.
Liu Guiying can catch a large number of ants from his body every day. She still has many ant scars on her legs.
The expeditionary force crossed the river
As rampant as ants, there are mosquitoes. Mosquitoes there spread their wings and fly as big as dragonflies. The warriors were often bitten all over their bags, red, swollen, and itchy. Female soldiers with fine skin and tender flesh are more likely to be attacked by those mosquitoes.
Sometimes when they walk to low-lying places, thousands of mosquitoes are ambushed there, and the black pressure flies to the warriors, scaring everyone to hold their heads and run. When she woke up one morning, Bai Jing's beautiful He Shan found that her face was full of big red envelopes, and there were more than 20 of them. Because it was too itchy, she went to scratch it, and as a result, her face was covered in blood.
Because it was raining every day, and because of the sweat stains, but they could not take a bath, the female soldiers' hair was full of lice. A gray-black lice is the size of a grain of rice, and the white lice eggs stick to the hair like white sesame seeds. The female soldiers were bitten by lice and scratched as they walked, and they were miserable.
Before the female soldiers naively thought, retreating into the natural barrier of Savage Mountain, the Japanese devils could not do anything with them, but they did not expect that after entering Savage Mountain, it would be even more terrifying.
Expeditionary force
This vast mountain of savages is more dangerous than the road to death, and the god of death is tightly wrapped around the warriors, and there is a possibility of sacrifice at any time. What Liu Guiying did not expect was that among the 5 female soldiers, the first one to sacrifice would be the gentle and gentle Xiao Chun.
On the ninth day of entering the mountain, Xiao Chun was accidentally bitten by a poisonous snake while looking for food, and the sisters used the soil method to detoxify and rescue her in time, and the toxicity did not occur, but she always felt that her heart was swollen and uncomfortable, and she had no strength when walking. The sisters were particularly concerned about her, rushing to help her get the package, and gently comforting and encouraging her, but the Savage Mountain Death God still did not let her go.
On this day, Liu Guiying and He Shan helped Xiao Chun forward together. However, Xiao Chun suddenly said that he was going to untie his hands, so there was a tragedy at the beginning of the article.
After Xiao Chun's death, the remaining four female soldiers were more closely united.
Female expeditionary force soldiers at Savage Mountain
However, when the troops entered the depths of the forest, miasma began to erupt in the troops, and soon thousands of soldiers fell one after another. The grass huts and the side of the road were littered with the corpses of the warriors, and the foul smell emitted was unbearable.
One night, Sun Yuexia had a high fever for three consecutive days due to miasma, and it was not until the 4th day that she got a little better, but a few days later she had a high fever again and began to vomit.
In order to prevent the miasma from spreading to the sisters, Sun Yuexia advised the sisters to leave her and leave. But the sisters resolutely refused, even if it would be contagious, they would accompany her to take care of her, and then leave together when she was well.
So Sun Yuexia said angrily: "You wait for me to go together, that is, wait for death, you hurry up, if you don't leave, I will die in front of you." But no matter what she said, the three sisters still refused to give up on her.
After a few days, Sun Yuexia went crazy due to her persistent high fever, often stripped off her clothes, and cried and made trouble. Eventually, when everyone was not paying attention, she suddenly ran madly, ran to the edge of a cliff, and jumped down. Everyone chased to the edge of the cliff and cried their hearts and lungs.
Then, the lively and cheerful Wang Ping also contracted a miasma two weeks after Sun Yuexia's death, followed by a high fever. Her boyfriend Qian Yiping asked Liu Guiying to leave first, stay and take care of her, and then chase after the troops when she is better.
Chinese Expeditionary Force
But after several days, they still hadn't caught up. Liu Guiying asked them for news, and later heard someone say that they were lying together on the side of the road.
The five female soldiers were left with Liu Guiying and He Shan. Liu Guiying's boyfriend was also in the expeditionary force, but later because he fell behind, he met Liu Guiying and He Shan behind, so the three walked together. As the three of them walked for a while and rested, they were getting farther and farther away from the large troops.
But one day, He Shan suffered from pain in her abdomen because she ate poisonous wild fruits. Later, because of the pain, she covered her lower abdomen and asked Liu Guiying and the two of them to go first, and she wanted to rest for two days and then chase. Liu Guiying said, "No! The five of us female soldiers were left with the two of us, and we were going to walk together, and we were going to die together. ”
After the three of them walked hard for a while, He Shan's stomach was still very sore, and she stumbled when she walked, so Liu Guiying and her boyfriend took turns to help her go. However, after two days of persistence, He Shan couldn't walk at all.
Seeing He Shanjie being tortured like this by illness, Liu Guiying didn't know how uncomfortable it was in her heart. In order to minimize the two of them, when going down the mountain, He Shan simply sat on the leaves on the hillside and slid down, but was scratched by stones and thorns and blurred the flesh and blood on his buttocks, revealing his bones.
After the rain, He Shan had both diarrhea and fever, and all that came out was black water. Finally she lay on the ground, unable to move, and her illness became more and more serious.
The Chinese Expeditionary Force sacrificed at Savage Mountain.
Before dying, He Shan said to Liu Guiying and her boyfriend: "You must return to the motherland alive and tell our countrymen about our experience of fighting in Burma and crossing the Savage Mountain, we are a heroic expeditionary force that sacrificed our lives for the country!" ”
After sacrificing so many comrades-in-arms, Liu Guiying has become insensitive and no longer afraid of death. Whether or not he could get out of the Savage Mountain, whether there was still hope for life, Liu Guiying just walked forward mechanically driven by a life instinct, and didn't think about anything.
Sometimes the shed was full of the bodies of comrades-in-arms, and Liu Guiying and her boyfriend could not find the shed at night, so they moved the body away and slept directly next to the corpse. Many of the corpses were crawling with maggots that were more than inches long. These corpses were sucked by ants and ants, and then washed by heavy rain, and after a few hours, they were left with terrible white bones.
Because the marching road was covered with white bones, which became the guiding direction, Liu Guiying and her boyfriend followed the bones to find the troops.
Summer and autumn came, and it wasn't until mid-September that the skinny Liu Guiying, along with her boyfriend and several other fallen fighters, finally climbed a steep mountain with a large army camp not far in front of the mountain. Liu Guiying and the others walked out of the Savage Mountain and returned to the troops.
Liu Guiying said: "Finally overcame the difficulties, but unfortunately sacrificed too many fighters. ”
It turned out that the troops finally contacted the headquarters at the end of July, and the Allied forces sent planes to drop food, clothing, medicine, batteries and flashlights, transmitters, matches, parachutes and knives. The warriors set up parachutes into tents and set up supply stations inside.
On the day of arriving at the troop supply station, Liu Guiying ate several bowls of rice in a row, which was the most delicious meal in her life.
Expeditionary Force at Ramga base
After a few days of stalling in supply, Liu Guiying and his comrades who finally walked out of Savage Mountain were taken to the Ramga base of the expeditionary force in India. After learning the news that a female soldier successfully walked out of the Savage Mountain, the entire base boiled over, except for Chinese, Americans, Britons and Indians, but everyone who saw Liu Guiying gave her a thumbs up and praised her as a heroine.
Of the more than 100,000 Chinese expeditionary forces, only more than 40,000 people were evacuated from the Burmese battlefield alive, in addition to more than 8,000 people from the three divisions that accompanied the US army to India, more than 30,000 other people crossed the Gaoligong Mountain, and only more than 3,000 people were finally withdrawn to the country.
Among them, Liu Guiying was the only female soldier who walked out of the Savage Mountain alive.
Liu Guiying was the only Chinese female soldier at Ramga Base. Liao Yaoxiang, the commander of the new 22nd Division, and his wife Huang Borong, upon hearing the news, warmly invited Liu Guiying to their homes. The famous painter Mr. Ye Qianyu came from Chongqing to paint a portrait of her.
A few months later, Liu Guiying and her boyfriend had a wedding at the Ramga base. In 1943, the couple gave birth to a lovely daughter there.
In his later years, Liu Guiying
postscript.
In January 1945, China sent General Sun Liren to lead an expeditionary force to Burma to fight and eliminate the Japanese devils there. Liu Guiying and his daughter also returned to the motherland.
However, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, because of her husband's cheating, Liu Guiying had to divorce him and return to her husband's hometown of Huaining, Anhui with two young children. Because her in-laws did not like their mother and daughter, Liu Guiying had to rely on odd jobs and the help of well-meaning people. Later, with the help of a friend, I became a teacher in a local primary school, and my life improved.
In 1962, Liu Guiying was sent to the countryside for 30 years of labor reform.
In 1990, at the age of 70, Liu Guiying was rehabilitated, restored to his teaching status, and retired.
Of course, some people may say that Liu Guiying is so optimistic that it is difficult for her to encounter so many difficulties.
yes! And she helped others, using her pension to help a college student from a poor family until she graduated from college.
Later, when Liu Guiying commemorated the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he donated the blankets and flashlights he used in India to the Chongqing Anti-Japanese History Museum free of charge.
Liu Guiying at the anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 2005, the government of the motherland awarded Liu Guiying and other survivors of the Chinese Expeditionary Force a gold commemorative medal and awarded the title of national hero.
On November 16, 2021, Liu Guiying, the only female soldier of the Chinese Expeditionary Force who came out of the Savage Mountain alive, died in Hefei at the age of 102.
Reference: Headliner Encyclopedia.