Visiting The Lower Village of Yuen Long, Hong Kong: "Patriotic Village" continues the feelings of home and country for a hundred years

Source: China News Service

China News Service, Hong Kong, June 21 Title: Visiting The Village of Mount Lower Yuen Long, Hong Kong: "Patriotic Village" continues the feelings of home and country for a hundred years

China News Service reporter Suo Youwei

"The Chinese people are patriotic, and the knighthood is zhenjiasheng." At the entrance of the Cheung Clan Ancestral Hall in Yuen Long Hill, Hong Kong, a woodcut couplet stands out under two large red lanterns.

A few days ago, a reporter from The China News Agency accompanied Shen Haojie, a member of the Yuen Long District Council, to visit the historical sites of the Communist Party of China in Yuen Long and walked into this small village. Zhang Guangxiang, the 98-year-old patriarch of Yamashita Village, is one of the veterans of the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Brigade of the Dongjiang Column.

"Our village is a village with a highly patriotic tradition." Zhang Mulin, village chief of Shanxia Village, proudly told reporters: "During the fall of Hong Kong, the anti-Japanese guerrillas (the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Brigade of the Dongjiang Column) planted the seeds of patriotism in the hearts of the villagers. ”

Built during the Qing Dynasty, the Zhang Clan Ancestral Hall is also known as "Huafeng Hall". According to Zhang Mulin, the couplet of "Chinese Patriotic Body, Knighthood ZhenjiaSheng" was repeatedly posted every Spring Festival after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and was replaced by woodcuts in 1999.

On the day of the visit, the reporter failed to meet Zhang Guangxiang, who was hospitalized due to physical illness, and his son Zhang Yongchang accepted an interview in place of his father. "My father joined the Hong Kong Ninth Brigade when he was about a teenager, and he followed the guerrillas as a 'little ghost', responsible for spying on intelligence and ventilating information."

"Listening to the patriarch (Zhang Guangxiang), the guerrillas often use the Zhang Ancestral Hall for meetings and activities, and they do not stay in the village for the night after each meeting, only because japanese people often come to surround and search the village, so as not to affect the villagers." Zhang Mulin added.

Professor Liu Shuyong, a well-known expert in Hong Kong history and a senior researcher at the Hong Kong and South China Historical Research Department of Lingnan University, told reporters that Yamashita Village is one of the strongholds of the Yuen Long Squadron of the Hong Kong Ninth Brigade in its struggle against Japan.

In the autumn of 1943, partisan Huang Siming lived in the home of Zhang Song'an in Shanxia Village. One day, Huang Siming was preparing to enter the Yuen Long Market to join the underground party members, while the Japanese army was coming to yamashita Village. Zhang Song'an's mother, who was working in the field, felt that the situation was critical after discovering it, and immediately ran home to inform Huang Siming of the situation, hid him in the back of the room, locked the door and went out to work again, so That Huang Siming escaped a difficult situation.

In January 1945, Yuen Long Squadron and militia worked together to eliminate the secret agents in Yamashita Village, but accidentally gave the secret agents an escape during the battle. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers immediately went to Yamashita Village to sweep, the two sides launched a fierce gun battle, Yuen Long Squadron Women's Movement District Committee Chen Rui was unfortunately shot and injured by the enemy in the leg, fortunately the villagers Zhang Zhaosheng and his wife rescued and hidden in the field, and the villagers assisted in escorting them out of danger overnight.

After the Japanese army found nothing, they arrested 7 villagers, including Zhang Jinfu, and took them to the gendarmerie department for severe torture. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Jinfu joined the village's underground guerrilla group to assist the guerrillas in transmitting letters and intelligence. He was tortured in the gendarmerie for many days, still unyielding and tight-lipped, and was eventually tortured to death at the age of 20. In 1998, Zhang Jinfu was included in the "List of Fallen Soldiers of the Hong Kong 9 Independence Brigade of the Dongjiang Column Who Died to Defend Hong Kong" published by the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Zhang Yaoming, a villager in Shanxia Village, told the China News Service that Chen Rui made a special trip to meet with Zhang Zhaosheng's wife in 1997 to thank him for saving his life. Today, the group photos they left behind are treasured by Zhang Yaoming.

The patriotic seeds sown by the Hong Kong Ninth Brigade in those years were endlessly grown in the village of Yamashita. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the whole family of Liang Chao (Liang Hua), secretary of the YUEN Long District CPC Committee, lived in Shanxia Village, where Liang Chao organized a teachers' association, opened a cultural bookstore, and held an overnight school in Yamashita Village.

"Since the founding of New China, every october 1st, the village has held a potted vegetable feast to celebrate the National Day." Zhang Mulin said: "This year marks the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and on July 1, our village will hold a grand flag-raising ceremony!" ”