In 2010, the hit TV series "Chinese Expeditionary Force" allowed the Chinese people to relive the glory days of the Chinese Expeditionary Force fighting in Burma decades ago, and the scene of the retreat of the Savage Mountain could not help but make people cry.
And at the time of the TV series, a 90-year-old man sat quietly in front of the TV set, watching the retreat scene with his heart, and unlike the general audience, this is her personal experience.
In 1942, the 100,000 soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force who went to Burma for the first time lost the battle due to the lack of command from their superiors and unfamiliar terrain, and suffered as many as 50,000 casualties, and most of the fighters were killed in the process of retreat.
Chinese Expeditionary Force
Among them, more than 30,000 soldiers died in Savage Mountain alone, which became a witness to the tragic history of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and according to the statistics of the relevant Departments of the Kuomintang afterwards, only more than 3,000 fighters came out alive from here.
Among these people, there was only one surviving female soldier, that is, the 90-year-old old man, who could be said to have survived under the conditions of the time.
The season is like a stream, this old man experiences the happy life of the moment, looks at the scene he has personally experienced, can't help but think of the comrades who once fought side by side with him, and remembers the thrilling moments of the scenes...
So who was the only surviving female soldier in the expeditionary force? How did she survive the extremely difficult circumstances? What kind of life did she live after she successfully survived?
Liu Guiying
She is Liu Guiying, an indomitable veteran of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the story of her going to Burma to fight must start from a highway.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > stepped into the Savage Mountain: "It is better to die for martyrs than to be taken prisoners."</h1>
In 1937, after the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese army invading China carried out a strict blockade of the already occupied coastal ports and important communication arteries in order to wear away the will to fight of our army and the determination of the government to resist Japan.
In order to expand international transportation routes and obtain aid to China in a timely manner, at the end of this year, Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered Long Yun, chairman of the Yunnan Provincial Government, to build a road from Kunming to Burma as soon as possible, which was the Yunnan Burma Highway, which played an important role in World War II.
Dragon Cloud
Long Yun immediately made overall planning after receiving the order, and as soon as the local people heard that the road construction was for anti-Japanese use, they enthusiastically participated, and in less than a month, they gathered 200,000 migrant workers and more than 200 engineers.
Construction of the Burma Highway began in December 1937, lasted nine months of emergency construction, and was officially completed and opened to traffic at the end of August of the following year, with a total length of nearly 1,000 kilometers.
In the following years, the strategic materials transported to the anti-Japanese front line through the Burma Road continued to flow, especially after another transportation channel, the China-Vietnam Railway, was cut off by the Japanese army, and its strategic value was even more important, becoming the only land transportation channel connecting the country to foreign countries at that time.
According to post-war statistics, as many as 452,000 tons of aid materials were transported in the first three years after the completion of the Burma Highway alone, while all international aid at that time was more than 500,000 tons, and its important role in supporting the domestic war of resistance can be imagined.
Schematic map of the Burma Road
Of course, the Japanese also noticed this phenomenon, so after its navy attacked Pearl Harbor, the Army launched a direct attack on Burma, and on March 8, 1942, it conquered the Burmese capital Yangon, completely cutting off this important strategic transportation channel.
Not only that, the Japanese army pointed directly at Our Yunnan and British-controlled India, posing a great threat to our rear area and the british rule in India.
In order to open up and defend this lifeline as soon as possible, the Kuomintang authorities immediately sent the Chinese Expeditionary Force to fight in Burma, and the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was Luo Zhuoying, and the troops sent were the 5th Army, 6th Army, and 66th Army of the Kuomintang Army, a total of more than 100,000 soldiers in 9 divisions, and Liu Guiying was one of them.
Luo Zhuoying
Liu Guiying, born in 1920 in a poor peasant family in Changsha, Hunan Province, because the family could not support so many children, her parents tearfully gave her to a well-off family in Changsha when she was three years old.
At first, the family was very fond of Liu Guiying, which made her receive a certain education from a young age, but unfortunately it happened again, when she was ten years old, her adoptive parents died of illness one after another, and Liu Guiying's life was suddenly lost.
Fortunately, soon after, Liu Guiying was taken in by changsha poor women's hospital (charity) with the help of her adoptive father's friend, and here she got the opportunity to learn again, and at the age of 17, she was admitted to the nurse assistant class of Changsha Xiangya Hospital with excellent results to learn nursing knowledge.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, more and more wounded soldiers were transferred here, and Liu Guiying, who was studying in the hospital, admired them very much, so she and several enthusiastic young people went to the New 22nd Division of the Kuomintang Army stationed in Changsha at that time to sign up for the army and became a medical soldier.
March 12, 1942, this day is unforgettable for Liu Guiying, because it was the day she went to Burma with the army, and she still remembers the "Chinese Expeditionary Army Song" sung by the troops at that time: "Guns, on our shoulders." Blood, in our chests. Go to Burma and go to the international battlefield! ”
At first, the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the soldiers was very high, often slightly injured could not get into the line of fire, the troops also won consecutive battles, Liu Guiying was sincerely happy, everyone felt that it would not be long before they could return to China, but the progress after that far exceeded their imagination.
At that time, in addition to the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the armies fighting in Burma also had the allies of Britain and the United States, and the three forces often constrained each other in specific battles because of the different things to consider, not only that, but also the intervention of politicians such as Chiang Kai-shek, Churchill, and Roosevelt in the rear.
Chiang Kai-shek
In addition, as the front line lengthened, our army's supplies were gradually lacking, and the forecast of the Burmese environment was far from in place, so that some soldiers soon after arriving in Burma, they were caused by various diseases.
Therefore, in early May, the situation on the battlefield took a sharp turn for the worse, the main force of the Japanese army conquered Myitkyina, our army was surrounded by enemy troops, fell into passivity, in order to preserve the living force, the troops began to retreat.
At that time, the retreat route of the expeditionary force had been cut off by the Japanese army, so the commander of the US army in the China-Burma-India Theater, Stilwell, suggested that the expeditionary force temporarily retreat to India for recuperation, because india had British troops to meet and was safer.
However, in order to show loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek, Du Yuming, commander of the Fifth Army, decisively rejected Stilwell's proposal, and after obtaining Chiang Kai-shek's consent, directly ordered his troops to disperse to the north and break through and withdraw to The country, and most of the fighters of the other two armies also fled north, only Sun Liren, the commander of the 38th Division, judged the situation and led more than 8,000 expeditionary force soldiers to move to India.
Stilwell
The troops entering Savage Mountain were the Fifth Army Headquarters, the New 22nd Division, and the New 96th Division led by Du Yuming, totaling more than 35,000 people, and in mid-May, the main force entered the Hukang Grand Canyon, which is known as the "Green Devil's Grotto" by the locals.
The himalayan mountains north of the canyon are high, and the east and west are surrounded by the Hengduan Mountains, and the canyon is densely covered with primitive jungle, hundreds of miles uninhabited, which is a veritable no-man's land, and Savage Mountain is one of the most dangerous areas, and it is also a necessary place for troops to retreat north.
Liu Guiying's nurse squad, because it belonged to the logistics staff, had been walking at the end of the troops, and was still on the way to Savage Mountain, until late May, when they arrived at Mo's village, which was the entrance to Savage Mountain.
Savage Mountain
At this time, most of the main force of the Fifth Army had already entered it, and due to the difficulty of the mountain road, the troops blew up tanks, cars and other military machinery before entering the mountain, and they were lightly armed and simple, and the smell of burning was everywhere.
But just as Liu Guiying was preparing to enter the mountain, she was shocked by the scene in front of her, only to see that there were more than a thousand unburned bodies left next to the village, and she clearly knew from the remaining fabric that these were all her wounded comrades-in-arms, and her heart was like dripping blood.
According to the surviving company commander Qiu Zhongyue, "The more than 1,500 Sons and Daughters of China who were originally left in Mo, or who were wounded in battle or unable to follow the troops for a long journey due to serious illness, took life as the Chinese, died as the Zhijie of Chinese ghosts, preferred to die as martyrs, and did not make the determination to surrender prisoners, and suddenly set themselves on fire at one o'clock in the morning of May 21, and ended with hatred!" ”
"The body is dead and the spirit is the spirit, and the soul of the son is the ghost!" Liu Guiying and several sisters in the nurse's class solemnly performed a military salute to the sacrificed comrades-in-arms, and then resolutely stepped into the Savage Mountain...
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="38" > "Leave me alone, get out alive"</h1>
"Darkness, endless darkness", this is the deepest feeling that Savage Mountain brings to Liu Guiying, the dense primeval jungle covers the sky, and she has never felt so suffocated.
In order to speed up the progress of the march, Liu Guiying and several people dragged their already exhausted bodies forward, but within a few days, they lost contact with the main force, because there was no road at Savage Mountain.
Liu Guiying's nurse class counted her a total of five female warriors, the others were the head nurse He Shan, nurse Xiao Chun, Sun Yuexia and Wang Ping, although they were from all over Hunan, but at this time they were completely united.
As they walked, they ran out of food they brought, and they had planned to find something to eat in the mountains, but the Savage Mountains were full of miasma everywhere, and most of the wild fruits contained high poison, not only that, but also often poisonous snakes and beasts appeared, and they were facing danger to their lives at any time.
There is nothing for people to eat, and things that can eat people can be seen everywhere, liu Guiying's five people had to walk in groups for safety, but despite this, the harsh environment still took the lives of comrades-in-arms one after another.
Walking in the mountains for a long time, everyone's feet are ground with blood bubbles, and if they are not careful, they will be scratched by the rubble, and there will be a lot of blood along the way, it was the height of summer, it was the time when wild beasts frequently appeared, and the smell of blood stains often made them track down.
On the way through the day, Xiao Chun, who was at the end of the line, suddenly made an "ah" sound, breaking the surrounding tranquility, and Liu Guiying, who was walking in front of her, turned around to look and found that Xiao Chun's foot had been bitten by a poisonous snake.
Liu Guiying quickly helped her squeeze out the venom and wrapped the wound with gauze, because the rescue was timely and there was no fear of life, but the calf was puffy due to the residual toxin, and the group walked more slowly.
Wild wolves
Just when everyone stopped to rest, there was a scream in the distance, it turned out that Xiao Chun was stared at by a wild wolf when she went to the toilet, and then she was bitten by the wolf's neck, and when Liu Guiying and others found out, the artery in her neck had been bitten off by the wolf, and unfortunately died.
The already bored mood coupled with the sacrifice of their comrades made the remaining four female warriors even more nervous, they did not dare to stay in one place for too long, and even if they rested, they would open their eyes from time to time.
However, just a few days later, Sun Yuexia had a miasma again, the high fever has not receded, the whole person is in a trance, and even coma for several days, but at this time the drug has long been used up, and everyone has no choice.
Sun Yuexia had a premonition that she might not be able to go out this time, and she shouted like Xiao Chun before: "Leave me alone, you must go quickly, you must get out alive!" "But they are all comrades in arms who have suffered together, and no one wants to leave at this time."
Therefore, Liu Guiying and the three of them took turns to help her forward, but the continuous high fever still made Sun Yuexian fall into a state of madness, in order not to affect everyone, she took advantage of the fact that several people did not pay attention, and quickly rushed to the edge of the cliff with the last trace of rationality.
When Liu Guiying and the others arrived, Sun Yuexia had already jumped off the cliff, and the only three people left were lying on the edge of the cliff and crying bitterly.
At this time, the Savage Mountain was still in the rainy season, the heavy rain often fell non-stop, the mountain streams and rivers soared, Liu Guiying and the three of them walked through a pontoon bridge built by the main force in front, witnessed more than a dozen fighters fall from the bridge into the river, and then were instantly swept away by the flood and lost their tracks.
The three of them were even more desperate, but in order to survive, they still had to grit their teeth and continue to move forward, and two weeks later, Wang Ping also suffered from miasma, and the fever did not stop, but this time Liu Guiying avoided her from thinking, so he and the head nurse He Shan took turns to take care of her for twenty-four hours.
The image of a female medic in a film and television drama
Fortunately, a few days later, the three of them met Qian Yiping, a male comrade-in-arms who was also separated from the troops, and this person happened to be Wang Ping's boyfriend, so at Wang Ping's strong request, Liu Guiying and He Shan handed her over to Qian Yiping to take care of, and waited for her to catch up.
But within a few days, Liu Guiying and the two learned from several soldiers who had caught up from behind that Wang Ping and Qian Yiping had died on the road, and only the two of them were left in the nurse's class at this time.
Liu Guiying could not see any hope, ready to sacrifice at any time, He Shan was a fighter with revolutionary experience, she saw Liu Guiying's trance application, and immediately said to her: "Don't be afraid, we will definitely be able to get out alive!" Definitely! ”
With He Shan's encouragement, Liu Guiying rekindled hope, and the two of them continued to move forward, but more than two months had passed, and even they themselves did not know where they had gone now, and the place they had passed was still endless darkness.
At this time, the two met Liu Guiying's boyfriend He Hua, who was a medical officer in the army, and at this time, he was accidentally left alone, so the three of them went together, but at this time, Liu Guiying and He Shan had not eaten for a long time.
One day on the road, He Shan began to have severe diarrhea because he accidentally ate poisonous wild fruits, and the whole person was spitting black water without listening, and He Hua, who had no medicine on the side, was also helpless, and it was not far from escaping from the Savage Mountain.
He Shan knew that she could no longer go, but she really could not rest assured of Liu Guiying, after a long time together, He Shan had already treated her as a sister, so she repeatedly told He Hua to take good care of her, and Liu Guiying on the side cried non-stop.
On his deathbed, He Shan tightly held Liu Guiying's hands, smiled and said: "Guiying, don't cry, you must live well, and when you return to your hometown in the future, you must tell our deeds to the people of our country and tell them that we sacrificed our lives for the country!" Liu Guiying really couldn't control his emotions and nodded with tears.
At this moment, Liu Guiying's desire to survive is stronger than ever, because her body carries the expectations of the entire nurse class, and she and her boyfriend go forward desperately, no longer worried about getting lost, because the tired bones of the soldiers along the way have pointed out the direction for them!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="64" > "I just did my part</h1>."
In August 1942, Liu Guiying and He Hua climbed to a mountain peak, at this time, Liu Guiying suddenly found some tents of different colors on the other side of the mountain, at first she thought that she was hungry, but He Hua also saw this scene.
Just when the two were hesitant, the people next to the tent saw them and shouted to them, "Come here!" Come here! Liu Guiying and the two knew that they had been saved, and immediately helped them to go over.
It turned out that at this time, Du Yuming's military headquarters had made contact with the Allied command, and the Allies began to use planes to airdrop tents, food and medical personnel around Savage Mountain, and set up supply stations around Savage Mountain to ensure that the soldiers who came out alive could get timely help.
Du Yuming
Later, with the help of Allied rescuers, Liu Guiying and the two were sent to the Ramga military base in India, where they were incorporated into the Chinese army in India.
Soon, the news that Liu Guiying walked out of the Savage Mountain alive spread throughout the barracks, because she was the only female soldier who came out of the Savage Mountain alive, and many foreign soldiers came to visit her and praised her as a big hero, but Liu Guiying said plainly every time: "I am not a hero, I am just an ordinary Chinese soldier." ”
Soon after returning to the base, Liu Guiying married He Hua and had a daughter the following year, which she was very pleased with, but the war was not over, and she had been eager to go to the front-line hospital to avenge her comrades.
However, the director considered that Liu Guiying's body was still very weak, so he let her stay in the hospital of the rear base to take care of the seriously injured who had been transferred, and Liu Guiying was also worried that her daughter was not taken care of, so she stayed.
The Chinese military in India is participating in training
In the following less than a year, the Chinese army stationed in India not only received supplements from the source of troops and AMERICAN armaments, but also participated in the strict military training specially formulated to adapt to the Burmese environment, and the combat quality of the soldiers was greatly improved.
From the second half of 1943 to January 1945, the Chinese troops in India launched a strategic counter-offensive against the Japanese army entrenched in Burma with the cooperation of the British and American allies, and finally successfully eliminated the main force of the Japanese army and opened the Burma Road, and Liu Guiying also returned to the motherland with his daughter.
Liu Guiying could not find her relatives in Changsha at that time, so she came to her husband He Hua's hometown of Huaining, Anhui, where she had a son, and she often talked to nearby villagers about the four female nurses who died in Savage Mountain, because she had not forgotten her promise.
After the victory of the War of Resistance, Liu Guiying burst into tears with excitement, and she felt that the long-awaited peace had finally come, but what she did not expect was that it was not long before Chiang Kai-shek launched a civil war.
Liu Guiying was well aware of the pain of the war, so she took the initiative to resign from the army and stayed in Huaining as an ordinary teacher, but just two years later, she and her husband divorced in anger because of emotional disputes.
At that time, she wanted to die, but for the sake of her two children, she still survived strongly, and after the founding of New China, she continued to exert her residual heat in the post of teacher, and never introduced her past to anyone.
In 1990, at the age of 70, Liu Guiyingcai officially retired from his teaching position and settled in Hefei with his children, but even after retirement, she still did not forget to make dedication.
For the rest of her life, when Liu Guiying encountered someone who needed help, she would not hesitate to lend a helping hand, and in the two years from 1992 to 1994, Liu Guiying would send 30 yuan to a poor college student every month to help him get through the difficulties.
Later, when the relevant government departments investigated the deeds of the anti-war veterans, they learned of the experience of the elderly Liu Guiying at the beginning, and they all respected her very much.
In 2005, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the elderly Liu Guiying was awarded the Gold Medal to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression by the Central Military Commission in recognition of her contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
A reporter asked the elderly Liu Guiying during the interview: "Do you regret joining the Chinese Expeditionary Force?" ”
The old man Liu Guiying replied with a calm smile: "When the family is broken and people die, everyone has to do a responsibility, I just do a responsibility." ”
In this article, I would like to pay tribute to the elderly Liu Guiying and the brave and fearless soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force!