"High in the Xing'an Mountains, a big forest, the forest lives in the brave Oroqen, a hunting horse, a gun, roe deer, wild deer all over the mountains and can't fight endlessly......" This widely circulated "Oroqen Song" is a true portrayal of the Oroqen people in the depths of the Great Xing'an Mountains forest.
Recently, after listening to the little tourists singing this song, the little brother of Oroqen gave the roe deer horn hat handed down by his ancestors to the little tourists, and the little tourists donated the hat to the museum in order to let more people see this precious gift. At the same time, the Oroqen people, an ancient and mysterious people, have once again come into people's field of vision.
The mysterious Oroqen tribe
The title Oroqen was formally formed during the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, and its meaning has two interpretations, one is "people who live in the mountains" and the other is "people who use reindeer". As an ancient ethnic group living in the Heilongjiang River Basin, the Oroqen people are mainly distributed in the large and small Xing'an Mountains, with less than 10,000 people, and are one of the six small ethnic groups on the mainland.
In the past, they relied on a horse, a gun, and a hunting dog to chase the camphor roe deer and wild deer all year round, and made of birch bark to make a convenient house "Xirenzhu", and lived a nomadic life in the reckless forest sea, so some people praised the Oroqen people who were good at riding and shooting as "a nation on horseback" and "a living fossil of the fishing and hunting people of the northern hemisphere".
The Oroqen people believe in animism. Li Jingyang, who gave up his annual salary of nearly one million and transformed into an Oroqen culture blogger, once shared the instructions of the old man of Oroqen to himself. The old man said, "Be quiet in the forest at night, because the grass and the trees also have to rest, so don't disturb them." It is reported that in the past, the Oroqen people lived in the mountains, and even in the cold winter, they would not cut down trees for warmth, but would only pick up some tree trunks on the ground or cut down dead trees.
All members participated in the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army
After the "918" incident in 1931, the smoke of anti-Japanese resistance quickly swept through the entire northeast region. When the nation was in danger, the heroic Oroqen people stepped forward and resolutely participated in the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army. In the anti-Japanese struggle, the Oroqen people risked their lives to transport materials, serve as guides, and transmit information for the anti-Japanese coalition forces. The hunters took up their hunting bows and arrows and spears, and fought to the death with the invading army with muskets and cannons, defending the motherland and the survival of their nation with their blood.
In 1936, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army was established, and at that time, the third, fourth, sixth, ninth, and eleventh armies of the Anti-Japanese Alliance all had Oroqen people participating, especially more than 40 Oroqen soldiers in the Sixth Army. The 6th Army belonged to the Third Route Army, and Wang Minggui served as the acting commander of the 3rd Division and the commander of the 3rd Detachment.
After the Long March of the Central Red Army in 1935, the provincial committees of the Communist Party of China in the northeast lost contact with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army was isolated behind the enemy and suffered great setbacks.
The three detachments of the Anti-Japanese Federation are a heroic team that has won many battles. In June 1941, the three detachments of the Anti-Japanese Federation attacked the Handa Automobile Gold Mine in Aihui County, and Tie Jili, a young Oroqen man, served as a guide to help the three detachments of the Anti-Japanese Coalition Army win a complete victory. In the autumn of the same year, when the three detachments of the Anti-Japanese Union attacked the Japanese army in Wudaogou, Tie Jili led the way with another Oroqen youth, Wu Yongfu, and made contributions to the victory of the battle.
In July and August 1941, with the assistance of Oroqen hunters and loggers, they successively attacked the No. 5 and No. 4 and Daxinliqi River Logging Yards in the Dobkul River, and seized a large amount of supplies. During this period, people of all ethnic groups continued to join the Anti-Japanese Federation, and their strength gradually grew. This gave rise to an eternal story of the close unity between the anti-United Nations fighters and the Oroqen people and the joint efforts to fight the Japanese invaders.
The leader of this part of the Oroqen hunters is named Gaishan. During a hunting trip, Gaishan got acquainted with Wang Minggui, the leader of the third detachment of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Federation at the time. The arrival of Wang Minggui and others opened a window for him, and words such as "revolution" and "national equality" attracted this hunter who had never left the forest for half a step.
So, they wrote down the "Jinlan Spectrum" on red paper, in order of age, Gaishan as the boss, Wang Minggui as the seventh, picking artemisia as incense, and tying Jinlan. Around the roaring bonfire, 11 brothers with different surnames from four nationalities swore an oath to fight against the common enemy, the Japanese invaders: "In order to fight against Japanese imperialism, we are willing to share life and death and weal and woe, and not surrender or betray ......"
Since then, the Oroqen people, under the leadership of Zuoling Gaishan, have inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese invaders one after another......
On the west bank of the Gurney River south of the Bila River, there is a Japanese "Yichang Company", which is the stronghold of the Japanese encirclement and suppression of the Anti-Japanese Federation, and stores a large amount of grain and cotton clothing. The three detachments accepted Gaishan's suggestion, used Gaishan and seven other Oroqen hunters as guides, attacked the stronghold of the Gurni River at night, captured all the defenders, liberated more than 200 Chinese laborers, seized more than 10,000 catties of grain, oil, and some weapons and ammunition, and executed the leader of the Japanese invaders, Jin Kiyo Kentaro.
The victory in this battle made the Japanese invaders angry. Japan soon sent a large number of expeditionary teams into the mountains to coerce Gaishan to reveal the secret locations of the three detachments of the Anti-Japanese Union. While quietly maneuvering with the enemy, Gaishan hinted to his 16-year-old daughter, Zhan Zhumei, to "catch the horse". Zhan Zhumei understood this, found the horses and galloped to the anti-union station to report the enemy's situation, so that the three detachments won valuable time to transfer. When she returned to "Wulilen", it was already dawn, and there were many Japanese soldiers standing around the "Xieren Pillar" covering the mountain, Zhan Zhumei was beaten and her face was covered with blood, but she still insisted on looking for hunting horses, and Zhan Zhumei's firm patriotic enthusiasm saved the three detachments.
After that, the three detachments of the Anti-Japanese Federation fought side by side with the Oroqen brothers, and successively attacked Station 26 of the branch line of the Eastern Railway and Station 74 of the Boketu branch line of the Eastern Railway, seized a large number of guns, ammunition, horses and food, annihilated the Japanese defenders, expanded the ranks of the Anti-Japanese Union, and dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese invaders.
In the winter, when the water turned into ice, the Huntersmen saw that the anti-Japanese fighters were short of winter clothing, and the women of the Oroqen tribe made use of the abundant mountain and forest resources to produce roe deer skin daha, "qihami" (roe deer skin boots) and "koulu" (hand stuffiness) to ensure that the anti-Japanese soldiers could maintain their combat effectiveness in the harsh environment; at the same time, the application of the knowledge of herbal medicine passed down from generation to generation to heal the wounded and save lives, so that many wounded soldiers could recover and return to the battlefield.
In August 1945, the Soviet Red Army declared war on Japan, and Wang Minggui led his troops back to China to participate in the last battle against Japan. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wang Minggui served as deputy commander of the Heilongjiang Provincial Military Region and was awarded the rank of major general in 1955.
Wang Minggui did not forget the Oroqen brother Gaishan and his family who worshipped him. In 1965, Wang Minggui specially published a missing person notice in the provincial newspaper, and after many searches, he found Gaishan's daughter Zhanzhumei, the young girl who had given him medicine and food. He invited Zhan Zhumei's family to his home in Harbin and took a group photo.
In October 1981, General Wang Minggui, who was in his late teens, made a special trip to Alihe to participate in the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Oroqen Autonomous Banner. He said, "I can't forget the past, I can't forget now, and I will sing about it in the future."
They are all descendants of heroes
Comrade Zhou Baozhong, the hero of the Bai nationality in the Anti-Japanese Federation, recorded an anti-Japanese ballad of anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians of all ethnic groups in Northeast China:
"The 100,000 troops of the Ten Coalition Forces, with one heart to save the country and resist Japan.
The infantry artillery united to eliminate the Japanese invaders, and the iron cavalry swept away the demon atmosphere.
I hope that the nation will be liberated, and the white mountains and black waters will be peaceful. ”
The Oroqen people are a strong force in defending the frontier. During the arduous years of war, their presence was like a pair of invisible eyes and ears, making all the enemy's movements invisible. Whether in the Qing Dynasty's conquest or in the struggle against Tsarist Russia and Japanese imperialism, they all made outstanding contributions and made great contributions to safeguarding national unity.
The Oroqen people are a people who only have a language but no written language, and their historical records rely on the oral narration of the elders. Nowadays, many years have passed since the story of the Oroqen people and the anti-Japanese fighters who married Jinlan and fought against Japan together, and the protagonists of the story have passed away one after another, and the death of the old man has taken away part of the history, rituals and stories, but their spirit of unity and common hatred at the time of the survival of the country and the nation will always inspire the people of this land. And the only thing we can do about these histories, which disappear from our eyes in days, is to remember.
All members of the Oroqen tribe participated in the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army, and until after the founding of New China, they all resolutely returned to the Great Forest of Xing'anling - 17,000 people left, 1,000 people returned, and only 9,000 people have so far. Please remember that they are all descendants of heroes!
(Poster News Editor Sha Siyuan, Comprehensive People's Daily, Oroqen Release, Jiupai News, "Memory Hulunbuir", etc.)