In December 1947, the Eighth Column of the East China Field Army launched the "Battle of Hekao" (also known as the "Battle of Heze"), and 136 "Unknown Martyrs" fought bravely and died and were buried in Zhanghezhuang Village, Heze, Shandong. They have been buried here for more than seventy years, waiting for distant relatives and looking forward to the return of their souls.
Over the years, letters have been sent from Zhanghezhuang Village, bringing a turning point to the "Unknown Soldier" to find his relatives.
Nandu previously reported that in July 2019, Zhang Shuhua, an enthusiast involved in the search for relatives, sent a letter to "Daxing Village, Nanning District, Yongsheng County, Guangxi Province" to look for the descendants of the "Unknown Soldier Shi Mingshan", which aroused widespread concern about the social relay search for relatives.
Recently, Nandu reporter learned that the letter went to Guangxi, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Hubei and was finally discovered by Shi Yuhong, a villager in Yongshan County, Zhaotong, Yunnan. He and his family almost concluded that "Shi Mingshan" was the closest relative they had been looking for for many years, but due to the scattered information of the age, the kinship could not be proved.
For more than a year, the letter has not been claimed, and it was returned to Zhang Shuhua a few days ago.
In July 2019, Zhang Shuhua sent a letter from Hubei to look for the descendants of the "Unknown Martyr" Shi Mingshan.
Unreachable letters
On March 30, at a corner of the Zhanghezhuang Martyrs' Cemetery, Shi Yuhong, his father and cousin knelt down to worship, and in front of them was a tombstone of the "Unknown Martyr".
The "Unknown Soldier" message on the wall of the Zhanghezhuang Martyrs' Cemetery.
On a whole heroic wall in the martyrs' cemetery, the sacrificial warrior Shi Mingshan ranked 21st. Shi Yuhong carefully examined the date of birth and death and the date of enlistment, and he told the Nandu reporter that he almost concluded that this was the "second grandfather" that the family had been looking for for many years.
"Second Grandfather" is the younger brother of Grandpa Shi Yuhong. He recalled to the Nandu reporter that when his grandfather died, he had instructed his family, "There is also a younger brother who went out to be a soldier, and he has the opportunity to find him as much as possible." Originally, in the winter of 1947, Yongshan County, Yunnan, where the Shi family was located, had not yet been liberated, and in order to recruit soldiers, the second brother of the Shi family's two sons, Shi Fang, was arrested and taken away by Zhuang Ding, and changed his name to "Shi Mingshan" for fear of affecting his family in the future, and has been away from his hometown since then.
"We have also been looking for the second grandfather all these years," Shi Yuhong said, saying that his grandfather's last wish was remembered by the whole family, and in the 1980s he specifically asked for someone to inquire about the whereabouts of his relatives but there was no news. Yongshan County is located in the remote and isolated plateau, the descendants of the Shi family live in a variety of land, and they are busy with agricultural affairs on weekdays and have a poor income, and they are also powerless to go out to find relatives.
Until 2019, a letter destined to be unreachable brought a turnaround to the road of finding relatives.
In July of that year, Zhang Shuhua sent a letter from Huangshi, Hubei Province, and the front of the envelope was written with the recipient "Shi Mingshan", "Soldier of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion, 67th Regiment, 23rd Division, 8th Column of the East China Field Army, enlisted in the army in February 1947, at the age of 36, died in Heze in December 1947", the receiving address was "Daxing Village, Nanning District, Yongsheng County, Guangxi Province", and the back of the envelope was marked "Please ask the green messenger to help the martyrs 'go home'".
In fact, it is an address that does not exist today.
Nandu reporter learned that Zhang Shuhua's father worked in the postal system and was particularly interested in national geographic information. According to the 1976 edition of the Compendium of Administrative Divisions of the People's Republic of China, he found that there was no Yongsheng County in Guangxi, and although there was Yongsheng County in Lijiang, Yunnan, there was no "Daxing Village in Nanning District", and only In Yongshan County, Zhaotong, Yunnan, there was Daxing Village in Daxing Town.
These prompt messages were written by Zhang Shuhua on the front of the envelope. The letter traveled all the way from Guangxi to Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Hubei, but after several turns, it was never claimed. During this period, due to the suspicion that the place name was near and the address was wrong, Yongfu County and Longsheng Autonomous County in Guilin, Guangxi Province, had checked the information of "Shi Mingshan", but no relevant martyr information and addresses were found.
When the letter passed through Yongsheng County, Yunnan Province, the local government also inquired about the list of martyrs and the county history records, but there was no corresponding effective information. At this moment, Li Yong, who works at the Yongshan County Public Security Bureau, happened to pay attention to the letter, remembering that there were no more than 300 households surnamed Shi in Yongshan County, and would his old classmate Shi Yuhong have anything to do with this letter?
The name is exactly the same, the enlistment time is similar, Shi Yuhong and his family got the clue, immediately got in touch with the sender Zhang Shuhua, learned that "Shi Mingshan" was buried in Heze, Shandong, and always wanted to go to the local area to find out.
Shi Yuhong told Nandu reporters that last year, due to the epidemic situation, they could not make the trip, and this year, on the eve of the Qingming Dynasty, they finally went to Qianli to pay homage to their relatives and comfort the heroic souls.
Before leaving, Shi Yuhong dug a piece of soil from the foundation of the old site of the house where the second grandfather lived, wrapped it in red silk and took it all the way to the "Shi Mingshan" warrior monument in the Zhanghezhuang Martyrs Cemetery, "The second grandfather has left us for more than 70 years, and I hope that he will be buried in the ground and rest in peace here." ”
On March 30 this year, Shi Yuhong and his family went to the Zhanghezhuang Martyrs Cemetery.
Shi Yuhong told the Nandu reporter that when the second grandfather was forced to capture Zhuang Ding and take him away, he and his relatives were separated from the battlefield to die, and posterity has only found his relics so far, and in the face of the cold tombstone, he and his family were sad and tearful, excited.
Difficult to identify "relatives"
The Zhanghezhuang Martyrs' Cemetery is located in Tongtun Street, Heze Development Zone, Shandong Province, where before 2007 there were few tombstones, only earthen tombs.
After Zhang Jingxian was elected secretary of the party branch of Zhanghezhuang Community, he and his colleagues worked together to repair and manage the cemetery and improve the information of the martyrs. He introduced to the Nandu reporter that there are 170 martyrs in the Zhanghezhuang community, including the martyr Tian Weidong, the founder of the Lu Southwest Revolution, 33 martyrs of tenants in the development zone, and 136 "unknown martyrs", of which Shi Mingshan is one of them.
In 2014, Zhang Jingxian found precious information in the military history museum of the 26th Group Army of the Weifang Army - in late December 1947, the Eighth Column of the East China Field Army, in order to consolidate the position of southwest Lu and ensure the safety of the north-south communication line, took advantage of the enemy's unprepared attack on the counties of Heze, Dongming, and Kaocheng, and opened the "Hekao Ben Attack", and 136 "unknown martyrs" were officers and men of the 23rd Division of the eighth column of the former East China Field Army, of which 57 had detailed places of origin.
Over the years, Zhang Jingxian, Zhang Shuhua and other enthusiastic people have worked together to find distant relatives for the "Unknown Soldiers" by sending letters to the addresses of the martyrs' places of origin.
Due to the scattered information of the age, the letter sent by Shi Mingshan to find his relatives in that year stated all the information related to him. Shi Yuhong told the Nandu reporter that the information between the sacrificial warrior "Shi Mingshan" and the second grandfather only had a difference in the place of origin, and he said that the second grandfather's place of origin should be Wuji Village, Wuji Township, Yongshan County, rather than the letter address "Daxing Village, Nanning District, Yongsheng County, Guangxi Province", but he and his family speculated that it might be caused by the second grandfather's deliberate change of address or the mistake in the oral record that year.
However, these speculations cannot be proved.
Shi Yuhong introduced to the Nandu reporter that after his grandfather's early death, the Shi family tree was accidentally burned, and only a ninety-year-old man in the village had memories of the past, and once said that the second grandfather was indeed arrested, but his whereabouts were unknown in the future.
On April 12, the staff of the Yongshan County Veterans Affairs Bureau told Nandu reporters that there was no relevant information about "Shi Mingshan" and "Shi Invention" in the local martyrs' list and the roster of previous enlists.
Li Yong, who has worked in the public security system for many years, also told nandu reporters that the sacrificial soldier "Shi Mingshan" is likely to be Shi Yuhong's "second grandfather", but it is not easy to find evidence, "Yongshan County was liberated in 1954, and after liberation, there was the Public Security, Civil Affairs, and Veterans Affairs Bureau, and it was difficult to dig up information before the sacrifice in 1947." ”
Shi Yuhong was not discouraged by this, "Whether it is the second grandfather or not, as long as we have a little clue, we will continue to look for it." ”
When he left the Zhang Hezhuang Martyrs Cemetery, he took a piece of soil back to his hometown in Yongshan County, planning to stay half of it during the Spring Festival to worship his relatives and put it next to his grandfather's tomb to reunite the two brothers; the other half, hoping to confirm "Shi Mingshan", that is, the second grandfather, in the future, and scatter the loess buried in the distant place to the hometown martyrs' cemetery, so that the soul of the second grandfather can return to his hometown.
Written by: Nandu reporter Zhang Linfei Provided by the interviewee