The peasant woman cooked porridge for the Eighth Route Army, and the soldier suddenly put down the bowl halfway through eating: Auntie, this is not right!
In 1940, the Yimeng Mountains were desolate. In the poor mountains and bad waters, bandits and Japanese invaders are rampant, and the people are hungry. At this difficult moment, a peasant woman named Fang Lanting cooked a pot of porridge for the anti-Japanese Eighth Route Army. However, the warriors stopped their spoons halfway through eating. Why? What is the story behind this? Auntie, is this right?
In the winter of 1940, in the cold wind in the Yimeng Mountains, a squad of the Eighth Route Army, Luo Ronghuan's 115th Division, came to Fei County to seek supplies. They were placed in the home of a widowed woman, Fang Lanting, and in the kitchen of Fang Lanting's house, the few grass roots and a bag of millet that remained became life-saving food for this group of soldiers.
Fang Lanting, a model of anti-Japanese support, her husband was killed in the brutal massacre of the Japanese army, leaving her and her five-year-old daughter Xiaolan to rely on each other. In the face of these hungry soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, Fang Lanting could not turn a blind eye. She first cooked a pot of grassroots porridge, which, despite its rudiment, the warriors ate with relish. However, Fang Lanting's heart was already turbulent.
One cold night, Ran tells her mother that she is hungry too. Fang Lanting made up his mind and left home with his daughter in exchange for a bag of millet. After returning, she prepared a hearty meal of millet porridge for the Eighth Route Army. The fighters looked at the steaming porridge and were ecstatic. But at this moment, a soldier noticed the strange silence of Fang Lanting's house, and Xiaolan was gone.
Faced with the soldier's inquiry, Fang Lanting was hesitant, not knowing what to do. It turned out that in exchange for the twenty catties of millet, Fang Lanting sold his daughter Xiaolan to a large local family. This news shocked the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army. They immediately packed up the dishes and chopsticks, collected all the money on their bodies, and ransomed Xiaolan back.
Fang Lanting's sacrifice and dedication deeply moved the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army. They knelt in front of Fang Lanting and called her "mother". In that difficult era, Fang Lanting's behavior not only reflected the support of the struggle against Japan, but also demonstrated a great maternal love.
This period of history in the Yimeng Mountains has witnessed the heroic deeds of many ordinary people. They used their meager strength to support the progress of the War of Resistance Against Japan. In that most difficult period, the people of the Yimeng Mountains and the Eighth Route Army endured the hardships together, and also jointly forged the cornerstone of victory.
The story of Fang Lanting is a microcosm of the countless heroic stories in the Yimeng Mountains. In that arduous era, Fang Lanting showed the greatness of a mother and an anti-Japanese hero. Her sacrifice and dedication reflected the unswerving determination of the Chinese people to resist Japan and the great national spirit at that time.
This pot of millet porridge is not just food, it carries the support of the Yimeng people for the War of Resistance against Japan and their desire for peace. Fang Lanting and countless ordinary people like her proved one point with their own actions - in those dark years, it was these seemingly insignificant forces that converged into a torrent of resistance to the invaders and became a solid cornerstone of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Just as Fang Lanting did, every sacrifice and every choice was for greater justice and peace. This is the story of the Anti-Japanese War of the people in the Yimeng Mountains, and it is also a portrayal of the indomitable spirit of the Chinese nation.
