100 kilometers northwest from the beijing urban area, on the west bank of the Guanting Reservoir, surrounded by mountains, there is a village called Zhenbiancheng.
83 years ago, in the autumn of 1938, this small village gave birth to the first rural party branch in Huailai County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, and let the anti-Japanese beacon burn in the huailai land. The Changwanhuai United County Government was also stationed here to fully mobilize the masses and enhance the combat effectiveness of the Party organization.
In 2005, the town's border town village was established by the Huailai County Government as a patriotic education base. This year, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the small village rose to fame and welcomed groups of visitors.
In Biancheng Village, Huailai County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, the party flag is hung in front of the memorial hall of the "First Rural Party Branch in Huailai County". Beijing News reporter Wang Wei photographed
From the city of Shubian to the city of anti-Japanese resistance
Zhenbiancheng Village is located in the eastern part of Huailai County, adjacent to Nankou Town in Changping District and Yanyi Town in Mentougou District, Beijing. Hovering over the winding mountain road, a cool breeze poured into the car, and at the far bottom of the mountain was the sparkling Guanting Reservoir. Entering the village, the courtyard walls, houses, and pavements are almost all made of stone, and a long sense of history arises.
According to the billboard at the mouth of the village, this "border city" on the west side of Beijing was built during the Ming Dynasty, and at the beginning of the village, in order to resist the invasion of foreign enemies, fortresses, beacon towers, border walls and other defensive facilities were built on top of this mountain that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. The village of the border town is thus named.
More than three hundred years later, history has once again given this small village the mission of resisting enemies. In the autumn of 1938, only one year after the Lugou Bridge Incident, the first rural party branch in Huailai County was established in the town's border city village. Since then, this branch has led the masses and local armed forces to become an important node connecting the two anti-Japanese base areas in Pingxi and Pingbei, and has burned the anti-Japanese beacon all over the huailai land.
On the southeast side of the village, there is an antique courtyard, and in the north of the courtyard there is a hut made of stone, and the party flag hanging outside the house is slowly displayed under the summer wind, and there is a golden plaque on the lintel of the house, which reads "The first rural party branch in Huailai County", which is the memorial hall of the village branch.
Entering the room, there is a portrait of Chairman Mao on the front wall, and the sun from the window paper shines on the earth kang next to it, and there is a small table on the kang. "This house is the former site of the first rural party branch in that year, and it is also the home of Li Huanjiu, the first secretary of the village party branch, and this small table was used when the branch held a meeting that year." Liu Dongliang, secretary of the village branch of the town border city, said.
The village branch memorial hall displays the horse lantern used by the party branch during the War of Resistance Against Japan to contact and hold meetings. Beijing News reporter Wang Wei photographed
In fact, all the red footprints in the town's border villages begin in this hut of just over 10 square meters, and the three portraits hanging on the side walls are the first three party members here: Li Huanjiu, Li Shaobo, and Zhang Huairen.
In the autumn of 1938, the party branch was officially established
On July 7, 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident, the Japanese invaders launched a large-scale attack on North China. Soon, the flames of war spread throughout China. In August, the Japanese invaded Huailai in three ways. On the night of August 27, the Japanese army invaded huailai county, and soon after, huailai county fell.
When the Japanese army invaded the border town village from Mentougou, it captured Fu Wenhe, Wang Qinglin, Liu Changfu and more than two dozen other people in the village, and brutally killed them all with bayonets. The Japanese army did not even spare the livestock in the village, slaughtered more than 30 cows and more than 80 pigs, and burned down many houses, and the ordinary people who fled back to the village from the mountains cried bitterly when they saw this tragic situation, "We will fight the devils and drive the devils out of their homes", which has become the common wish of the villagers.
At the beginning of 1938, the Deng Hua detachment of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region was ordered to open up the Pingxi Anti-Japanese Base Area, and the team set off from Laiyuan and advanced all the way to the northeast. When passing through the town's border towns and villages, Xiahou Bin, chief of the civil transport section responsible for civil affairs and logistical support work, stayed here to carry out the construction of base areas behind enemy lines, grasping local armed forces while doing a good job in party building.
"At that time, Xiahou Bin was living in Li Huanjiu's house, which is this room." Liu Dongliang introduced in the hut that Li Huanjiujia is located on the south side of the village, on the edge of the village, and the reason why he chose to live here is mainly because of the convenience of access.
Li Huanjiu, one of the earliest party members in Zhenbiancheng Village, and the first party branch secretary of Zhenbiancheng Village. Beijing News Photo/Gao Junfu
"I heard that people from the Zhaitang were living in the huts of Li Huanjiu's family, and I remember that at that time, every day there were people chatting in the house." Chang Lianhai, who is 92 years old this year, is the old eighth road in the village, and he is also the only one who has seen Li Huanjiu in the village, according to his recollection, Li Huanjiu is the "red man" in the village, many villagers like to chat at his home, Xiahou Bin is taking this opportunity to investigate and develop party members.
Xiahou Bin and Li Huanjiu spent their days and nights together and found that this peasant had a great sense of justice and a certain prestige in the village. "Li Huanjiu has culture, has taught before, and has also worked as a township cadre, and Xiahou Bin found that he is a good seedling and intends to focus on cultivation." Kang Dewu, vice president and secretary general of the Huailai County Historical and Cultural Research Association, said.
Li Shaobo, one of the earliest party members in zhenbiancheng village, served as a member of the party branch after the establishment of the party branch of zhenbiancheng village. Beijing News Photo/Gao Junfu
During that time, Xiahou Bin invited Zhang Huairen, Li Shaobo, and others to hold a secret meeting at Li Huanjiu's home, where he explained the anti-Japanese propositions to everyone, publicized the "Ten Guidelines for Resisting Japan and Saving the Country," and called on everyone to unite to resist the Japanese army.
After a period of investigation and training, from May to June 1938, Li Huanjiu, Zhang Huairen and Li Shaobo joined the Communist Party. "At that time, the development of party members was a very secret matter," Kang Dewu said, "There was a rule within the party organization, called 'the upper can not tell the parents, the middle can not tell the family, the lower can not tell the children', whether to join the party or not can only be verbally said, can not leave a certificate." ”
Zhang Huairen, one of the earliest party members in Zhenbiancheng Village, served as a member of the party branch after the establishment of the party branch of Zhenbiancheng Village. Beijing News Photo/Gao Junfu
In order to continue to expand the ranks of party members, in the autumn of 1938, the party branch of the town's border city village was formally established, Li Huan was the ninth secretary, the other two were members, and the first party branch in the rural areas of Huailai County was formally established.
Since then, the spark of the party branch in the town's border city and village has made the anti-Japanese beacon burn in the huailai land.
Incorporation of local armed "dark horse teams"
Kang Dewu, who participated in the compilation of the Local History of Huailai County of the Communist Party of China, has studied the history of that period. According to his account, soon after the establishment of the party branch in the town's border town, village-level political power was established under the leadership of the party, and village chiefs, public security officers, directors of the Armed Forces Committee, directors of the Anti-Japanese Resistance League, and directors of peasant associations were appointed; Li Ziming, Li Ying, Li Maotian, Yue Shizeng, and others continued to be recruited as party members; and mass organizations such as the Youth Rescue Association, the Women's Rescue Association, and the Children's League were also established. Driven by the party branch of the town border city village, from 1938 to 1939, several villages around the town border city village, such as Hengling, Fangkou, Yaojiahe and Daziying, also successively established party organizations.
"After the establishment of the party branch in the border town, it also incorporated the 'dark horse team,' and made a lot of effort." Kang Dewu said.
Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the whole country was in the midst of warlord melee, and there were many troops coming and going in Huailai, and there were also many bandits. Kang Dewu introduced that in this context, many villages have established autonomous organizations called "Lianzhuang". "Those who have money and make strong contributions, 'Lianzhuang' belongs to the armed organization of a self-defense nature, buys their own guns, organizes itself."
In Fangkou Village, next to the town's border village, there is a "Lianzhuang" called the Dark Horse Team, which is responsible for protecting the safety of the village and collecting some protection fees. "The conditions of the dark horse team are relatively good, there are horses and guns, and the team adheres to the principle that 'rabbits do not eat nest grass' and does not sabotage in the local area, so it has a certain prestige." Kang Dewu said.
In the autumn of 1938, Li Ziming, a member of the party branch of the town border town village, and others contacted Sun Yuanhong, commander of the "Dark Horse Brigade," through their relatives at home, and repeatedly publicized our party's united front policy and anti-Japanese ideas to him. After several exchanges, Sun Yuanhong expressed his willingness to support the Communist Party's anti-Japanese ideas, and then the Dark Horse Brigade was officially incorporated into the Eighth Route Army and guerrillas. The members of the Dark Horse Team participated in many battles in Pingxi and Pingbei in the later period.
Warriors jump off cliffs rather than be captured
The border towns and villages with hundreds of years of military history have left many stone walls and low stone barriers, symbolizing the level of combat defense in the era of cold weapons. Walking through the village, you can find that the layout here is extremely regular: three open avenues from east to west, and six streets and alleys that run straight from north to south, like a chessboard, crisscross and crisscross, forming "three streets, six lanes and seventy-two alleys".
Today, this well-organized and tranquil village has been voted "China's Most Beautiful Leisure Village" and visitors from all over the world love to take a leisurely stroll here. However, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there were no eggs under the nest, and the Japanese army smashed and burned here, and there was no evil.
Duan Zhonglian, an 85-year-old villager, lives in a house on the west side of the memorial hall and now works as a caretaker for the village branch memorial. Duan Zhonglian said that in those years, the Japanese occupied the northwest corner of the village, and the traitors occupied the northeast corner of the village, and the villagers could only live in the south. "There is a fence between the north and the south, preventing the villagers from the south from going to the north. But people in the north can climb over the fence at any time and go to the south to grab things. Some naughty boys secretly climbed over the fence to play in the north, and the Japanese army saw that it was a 'bang' shot, and the eldest child could run home, and the younger one could never return home. ”
"Japanese devils are broken." When tourists enter the door, Duan Zhonglian will murmur from the side that decades have passed since the war, but the hatred for the Japanese Kou has not diminished in the slightest. She said that when she was six or seven years old, she personally witnessed the Japanese soldiers breaking into the house, "When a Japanese soldier walked behind my aunt to the back of the room, the whistle on the middle street just happened to ring, and the Japanese soldier quickly put down my aunt and gathered." ”
The evil deeds of the Japanese army left indelible pain and hatred on the local villagers, and many young people felt humiliated and preferred to sacrifice themselves rather than submit to the Japanese.
In the memorial hall of the village branch, there is an exhibition board, and Duan Zhonglian said that although she could not read, she knew that it was written with the story of Song Jukui.
Who is Song Jukui?
Kang Dewu told reporters that the Japanese invading army committed too many crimes after occupying Huailai, which made the young people feel extremely humiliated.
On December 27, 1942, when the Pingxi base area was carrying out anti-"sweeping", the Ninth Company of the Seventh Regiment of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region was tasked with covering the rear organs and the transfer of the whole regiment, and in the face of the increasingly dense japanese firepower network, in order to further cover the retreat of the main force, deputy platoon leader Li Jinshan led a squad to take the initiative to attract the attention of the Japanese army.
After the battle of positions and the battle of the White Blade, li Jinshan's squad was only five people left, including Song Jukui. "The five of them climbed to Pine Ridge and tried to throw the enemy away, but because the traitors revealed the terrain to the Japanese army, the Japanese army wrapped up from behind the mountain, so that the Eighth Route Army could not retreat."
Kang Dewu once went to Songshuling in Laishui County to investigate the battle terrain of that year, and he said that the ridge of Songshuling was a cliff like a knife and axe. Under the ridge is a river, originally the Japanese army to climb the mountain must cross the river first, so that the Eighth Route Army as long as it looks at the mountain pass, it can block the Japanese soldiers, but because the traitors revealed the terrain, the Japanese army did not cross the river, from the back of the mountain to climb up, forcing the Eighth Road can only face the cliff.
"The cliff is more than sixty meters high, and if you jump down, you will die." Kang Dewu said that there was a cave on the cliff, where villagers witnessed the scene of Song Jukui and others jumping off the cliff, and several fighters jumped into the cliff and shouted in their mouths, "Swear to die and not be captured, long live the Communist Party!" ”
On January 5, 1943, Nie Rongzhen, commander and political commissar of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, and Xiao Ke, deputy commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, jointly issued the "General Order of the Headquarters of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region to Commend the Sacrifice of One Squad of the Seven Regiments", which read: "The deputy platoon commander Li Jinshan and the four soldiers would rather die than be captured, and the bravery and tenacity are admirable; the special order rewards are expected to be conveyed in depth." ”
The Battle of Tutangzi was won
"Oops, that battle was beautiful!" During the visit, the reporter learned the story of the "Battle of Tutangzi", which annihilated more than 20 Japanese troops and captured many traitors, and the 92-year-old Old Eighth Road Chang Lianhai could not help but praise it now when he thought about it.
"The base areas around Hengling were built relatively early and developed relatively well." Kang Dewu told reporters that in the winter of 1942, the Japanese squad leader Fumio Komatsu led a unit from Omura Village on the south side of the town border village to sweep around Hengling. Between the town's border town village and Hengling village, there is a place called "Tutangzi", where this thrilling battle is fought.
The old Eighth Route Army in the town's border village, Chang Lianhai, told the history of the village and a thrilling "Tutangzi" battle. Beijing News reporter Wang Wei filmed
Chang Lianhai did not participate in the battle, but had heard oral accounts from witnesses. He told reporters that at that time, many Japanese lived in Dacun Village on the south side of the town's border village, and often went to nearby villages to sweep and rob the livestock of ordinary people. The Eighth Route Army stationed three squadrons in Hengling Village, collectively known as the Hebei Detachment. At that time, the village chief of Omura was openly friendly with the Japanese and secretly often corresponded with the Eighth Route Army. At the end of 1942, the chief of Omura sent a message to the Eighth Route Army, saying that the Japanese were going to sweep up and rob livestock in Hengling Village, north of the town's border town. After receiving the message, Lei Yulong, the leader of the Hebei detachment, and Peng Fusong, the leader of the county guard, led the whole team of more than 200 people to quickly rush to Tutangzi in the north of the town's border village, and ambushed on the hillside, preparing to fight an ambush battle.
"At that time, the Eighth Route Army was ambushed on the hillside, waiting for the Japanese to approach before fighting, for a time long and short guns and grenades greeted, the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine guns did not even take off their 'clothes', they were taken away by us!" In the past, machine guns were wrapped in velvet cloth to prevent the bolt from being opened in the winter, which was called the "clothes" of the gun. "At that time, the Eighth Route Army was relatively close to the Japanese devils, but twenty or thirty meters, they were fifty or sixty people, we were more than two hundred, and after the grenades were called, the big guys rushed straight up and handed over their weapons." Chang Lianhai said.
After the Battle of Tutangzi, Most of the more than 20 Japanese troops, including Fumio Komatsu, were annihilated and 4 were captured; a small number of Han traitors were killed and most of them were captured; the enemy ran away only one interpreter; in this battle, the Hebei detachment won a complete victory, capturing 1 machine gun, more than 50 rifles, and several boxes of ammunition.
After the Battle of Tutangzi, the situation south of Pingsui Road had a new improvement. Chang Lianhai served as a platoon leader of a company of the Fourth Regiment of Motorcycles in North China during the Liberation War. He analyzed that this battle greatly deterred the enemy army and encouraged the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, "In the past, when the Japanese soldiers came to sweep, they all thought that the militia in the village was vulnerable, so he came unscrupulously, so that after beating him all at once, he did not dare to come so frequently." ”
The Changwanhuai United County Government was stationed here
On the west side of the town's border town village, there is an abandoned courtyard, entering the courtyard, the messy artemisia grass has been half a person high, the houses on the east and west sides are vacant, this humble courtyard was once the office of the Changwanhuai United County Government.
"In 1943, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in the Huailai region passed through the most difficult period, and the situation gradually improved." Kang Dewu said: In order to further expand the anti-Japanese base areas, the Pingxi Prefectural Committee of the CPC set up a "Changping) Wanping (Wanping) Huai (Huailai)" joint county in the village of Zhenbiancheng.
Kang Dewu analyzed that the west and north sides of the town border city village are the Great Wall, which is the barrier of Beijing, and is located between the old Huailai County and the south entrance of Changping, which can be attacked and retreated, and the geographical position is superior, and it is convenient to transmit information and transfer.
According to the "Local History of Huailai County of the COMMUNIST Party of China," during the two years that the coalition government was stationed here, it fully mobilized the masses, enhanced the combat effectiveness of the party organizations, supported the Pingxi base area in the county to manufacture more bullets, mines, grenades, and other weapons, and also participated in the eighth route army's activities of transferring a large number of cotton military uniforms to the Pingbei base area.
In 2005, zhenbiancheng village was established as a patriotic education base by the Huailai county government; in 2015, it was awarded the title of "China's Most Beautiful Leisure Village" and "Hebei's Most Beautiful Leisure Village"; in 2016, it was awarded the title of "Beautiful Hebei's Most Beautiful Ancient Village"; in 2019, it was included in the seventh batch of "China's Historical and Cultural Famous Towns and Villages" by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
More than 80 years have passed, from the first secretary of the party branch Li Huanjiu to take office, the town border city has experienced 7 secretaries, in the first half of this year, Liu Dongliang just took over the baton and became the 8th village branch secretary.
On the wall opposite the village committee, the slogan "Inheriting the Red Gene and Helping rural revitalization" is impressively printed. "Now that there are 813 people, 314 households and 80 party members in the village, I plan to further excavate the red culture in the village and form red tourism characteristics." Liu Dongliang said.
Beijing News reporter Yang Yijing Intern Zhao Lixin Photography Wang Wei
Edited by Zhang Shujing Proofreader Wang Xin