A few days ago, the Nanjing Anti-Japanese Aviation Martyrs Memorial Hall announced the relevant information of 1,468 Chinese anti-Japanese aviation martyrs, including 82 Jiangmen martyrs with names and surnames. Behind the simple name, place of origin, date of birth and death and other information, there is a legendary story of Wuyi's children devoting themselves to China's aviation industry.
In the history of Chinese aviation, the children of Jiangmen Wuyi have a pivotal position. Feng Ru opened a chapter in the history of modern Chinese aviation; the children of Wuyi at home and abroad braved the blue sky of the motherland and used their bodies to build the Great Wall of the Air to resist the Japanese invaders; after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wuyi scientists contributed their wisdom to China's aviation. Lingyun's ambition has not faded, and the aviation dream that took root a hundred years ago is still thriving in the land of Jiangmen today.
Flying ambition "as an advocacy"
Among the Jiangmen heroes announced this time, 4 are from Jiangmen Enping. It is also the hometown of Feng Ru, the "father of Chinese aviation".
According to public information, Feng Ru was born in 1884 in Xingpu Village, Niujiang Town, Enping. Seventy-five years before his birth, the first aircraft in the true sense of the word appeared in human history. In the remote village of Xingpu Village, the villagers did not know about it at that time, but only described the plot of Lei Zhenzi in the classical novel "Romance of the Gods", and fantasized about the "flying sky" scene. This story also deeply affected Feng Ru in childhood: "Can people build a pair of wings to fly to the sky?"
At the age of 12, Feng Ru followed her uncle to the United States. There, he saw the power of the machine industry, and his heart was greatly touched. Through 10 years of part-time work, he has mastered professional knowledge in machinery and motors, and has strong design and manufacturing capabilities. This laid a solid foundation for his future career in aviation.
On December 17, 1903, the first airplane made by the Wright brothers in the United States was successfully tested. Feng Ru, who heard about this, sprouted a seed of "flying sky" in his heart. In the following two years, the two great powers of Japan and Russia fought in northeast China, the people were devastated, and the Chinese territory was privately confiscated by bandits. This not only aroused Feng Ru's patriotism, but also made Feng Ru realize the importance of aviation in the military: "The war between Japan and Russia is not conducive to the motherland, and in this era of competition, aircraft are indispensable in the military. If 1,000 planes are stationed in Chinese ports, the mainland will be safe. Since then, he has set up the ideal of aviation to save the country: "I have heard of military weapons, if you don't have an airplane, I vow to advocate it, and become a unique art to return to the motherland, and I would rather die!"
Subsequently, with the support of Wuyi overseas Chinese Huang Qi, Zhang Nan and Tan Yaoneng, Feng Ru established the Guangdong Manufacturing Machinery Factory (later renamed Guangdong Aircraft Company) in the United States, which was the first aircraft manufacturing enterprise established by the Chinese. After several failures and attempts, in September 1909, Feng Ru built the first aircraft designed by the Chinese, "Feng Ru No. 1", and successfully flew it. Two years later, Feng Ru developed and produced the "Feng Ru No. 2", whose maximum speed and flight altitude reached the world's advanced level at that time.
In February 1911, Feng Ru led the company's technical backbone, machinery and equipment to return to China, and set up a factory in Yantang, Guangzhou to manufacture machines and aircraft. When the Xinhai Revolution broke out in October of that year, Feng Ru organized a reconnaissance team of aircraft for the Northern Expedition and stepped up the manufacture of aircraft. It took him 3 months to assemble an airplane. It was the first aircraft produced domestically in China.
It's a pity that God is jealous of talents. One year later, during an air show, the plane piloted by Feng Ru lost control and fell to the ground, and Feng Ru eventually died of his injuries. In his short 29 years of life, he devoted himself to the cause of "flying to the sky" of the Chinese nation. In the following hundred years, many Wuyi children inherited Feng Ru's unfinished ambition and soared into the blue sky.
"Yiqiao" set up an aviation skyline
When the reporter combed through the background of the Jiangmen martyrs, he found that their learning experience was roughly divided into two categories, one was to receive pilot training abroad, and the other was to receive education at the Guangdong Aviation School in the early years of the Republic of China. And these two experiences are inseparable from the overseas Chinese in Wuyi.
Since Feng Ru developed the aircraft, overseas Chinese in Wuyi have given great support to the development of the motherland's aviation industry. According to the article "Overseas Chinese Aviation School in the Republic of China", in 1915, entrusted by Sun Yat-sen, Huang Boyao, an overseas Chinese in Taishan, Jiangmen, founded the American Flying School. This opened the prelude to the establishment of an aviation school run by overseas Chinese in Wuyi. In the same year, Wu Pingyi, an overseas Chinese from Taishan, founded an aviation school in the Philippines; in 1924, Huang Yupei, an overseas Chinese from Taishan, founded the Sanmin Flying School in Chicago; and in October 1931, Mei Zhixin, an overseas Chinese from Taishan, founded the Portland American Aviation School in Portland, Oregon...... These schools have trained a large number of overseas Chinese pilots. Most of these pilots then returned to China and became the backbone of the Chinese Air Force during the Anti-Japanese War, including Su Yingxiang, Lei Guolai, Lin Juetian, Huang Xinrui, Huang Yuanbo, Chen Xiting and other Jiangmen heroes.
In 1924, in order to cultivate the backbone of the Chinese Revolutionary Air Force, Sun Yat-sen founded the "Guangdong Military Aircraft School" (known as the "Guangdong Aviation School" in the historical circles) in Guangzhou. According to the article "Overseas Chinese Aviation School in the Republic of China", Guangdong Aviation School has received support from overseas Chinese groups, including overseas Chinese in Wuyi, both in the initial stage and after it is on the right track. Among the eight principals who have served for the longest time, there are Huang Guangrui, Zhou Baoheng, Hu Hanxian and other returned overseas Chinese from Wuyi. In addition, there are many overseas Chinese in Wuyi who hold various teaching and management positions in Guangdong Aviation School. Zhu Junqiu, Huang Chengzhang, Huang Ruiwen, Wu Bojun and other Jiangmen heroes were trained in this aviation school.
The reporter also found that in addition to the establishment of aviation schools, overseas Chinese in Wuyi are also deeply involved in the start-up China's aviation industry from the aspects of management structure and industrial base. According to historical records, at the beginning of 1918, Sun Yat-sen set up an aviation department under the Generalissimo's Office, and the first director was Li Yige, a returned overseas Chinese from Heshan, Jiangmen. In June 1919, the aviation team was established, the captain was Chen Yingquan, an overseas Chinese from Taishan, and the team members were Cai Sidu and Li Shaoyi, overseas Chinese from Taishan. The late Mei Weiqiang, a professor at Wuyi University, once introduced that Mei Longan, an overseas Chinese from Taishan, and Zhou Baoheng and Lin Furu, overseas Chinese from Kaiping, set up an aircraft factory in Shaoguan. The factory became one of the few large-scale aircraft factories in China at that time, and its production of Hawker III aircraft played an important role in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.
During the Anti-Japanese War, overseas Chinese in Wuyi also generously donated money to the country to purchase fighter planes. According to statistics, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, overseas Chinese in the United States donated $2 million to purchase airplanes alone, and more than 60 planes were purchased, more than half of which were donated by overseas Chinese from Wuyi.
Flesh and blood forge the Great Wall of Aviation
Since August 14, 1937, when the Chinese Air Force bombed the Japanese armory in Shanghai and the Japanese ships on the Huangpu River, dozens of pilots from Wuyi in Jiangmen fought bloody battles against the Japanese invaders in the blue sky of the motherland. According to the research of many military history researchers, the figures of the children of Wuyi flashed in the battles against ace wings such as the Kisarazu Air Force, the Kaya Air Force, and the Kato Wing, as well as the ace pilots such as Kato Takeo and Miwa Hiroshi; in addition, the children of Wuyi also participated in the legendary "paper bombing" operation against Japan in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.
The eagle strikes the sky and has a brilliant record. Mei Weiqiang, a late professor at Wuyi University, once said that some materials said that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, 34 pilots of the Chinese Air Force shot down a total of 63 Japanese planes, of which only nine pilots from Taishan, including Huang Xinrui, Chen Ruitian, Huang Panyang, Ma Tinghuai, Su Yingxiang, Zhu Junqiu, Ma Guolian, Wu Guopei, and Yu Pingxiang, shot down 22 Japanese planes, and cooperated with wingmen to shoot down 8 planes, creating brilliant achievements, and Chen Ruitian, Huang Xinrui, Ma Jianjin, and other "air generals" and "tiger generals" emerged.
However, due to the disparity in the number of fighters and the backward performance of fighters, many Wuyi children spilled blood. Huang Yuquan became the first person of the Chinese Air Force to sacrifice his life to resist foreign aggression; Huang Xinrui used his old fighter to meet the Japanese army's cutting-edge "Zero" fighter, and finally suffered serious head wounds and died......
The heroic sacrifice of the martyrs is the same sorrow of the people. At that time, an overseas Chinese-language newspaper reported the heroic deeds of Zhang Yimin and other Wuyi Airlines overseas: "Zhang Yiminjun, a native of Kaiping, is a graduate of American Airlines at his own expense. In 1934, he returned to China with Huang Zizhan, Zhang Xiting, Tan Guocai, Lin Lianqing, etc., who graduated from this school...... Later, he was ordered to move to another line, and on the way, he encountered three of our planes and was pursued by dozens of enemy planes. The enemy was angry, and gave up chasing my three planes, surrounded Zhang Jun's machine, and died because of the disparity in numbers, and was martyred at that time. ”
Just when the combat strength of the Chinese Air Force was exhausted, a group of Wuyi youths who were overseas inherited the legacy of their "fellow villagers" and returned to China to build the Great Wall in the air. In 1941, General Chennault formed the Chinese Air Force American Volunteer Air Force (later renamed the 14th Air Force, also known as the Flying Tigers). Overseas Chinese in the United States enthusiastically joined the army. According to the data of the Taishan Museum, the Flying Tigers ground service team and the 987 communication company, which were established in 1943, have more than 1,600 people, of which 95% are of Chinese descent, most of whom are young people from Wuyi, Jiangmen, especially overseas Chinese whose ancestral home is Taishan. In the most difficult stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Flying Tigers retained air supremacy in Chongqing, Chengdu, Kunming and other places, and maintained the "Hump Route", the lifeline of air transport with the most difficult conditions in the history of human warfare, laying a solid foundation for the final victory of the War of Resistance against Japan. Among them, the overseas Chinese in Wuyi have made great contributions.
Aviation heroes emerge in endlessly
The reporter also found that among these Jiangmen heroes, many of them have wonderful origins with other Wuyi celebrities.
In 1938, Liang Sicheng, the son of Liang Qichao, a celebrity in Xinhui, and his wife Lin Huiyin met eight students from the Hangzhou Jianqiao Central Aviation School who were retreating to Kunming on their way to Kunming, including Huang Dongquan, whose ancestral home was Xinhui, and Lin Yao, whose ancestral home was Heshan. They provided a lot of help to Lin Huiyin who was sick, and thus formed a deep friendship with Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin.
In Kunming in 1940, these students unanimously asked Liang Sicheng's family to come to the graduation ceremony. Because the students could not get in touch with their parents in the occupied area, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin became their "honorary parents". Sadly, eight cadets, including Huang Dongquan and Lin Yao, were martyred in the air battles that followed. Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, as "honorary parents", received their bad news and relics again and again. Among the eight people, the last one to die was Lin Yao. When Lin Huiyin received Lin Yao's nightmare, it was the 3rd anniversary of the martyrdom of Lin Heng, the third brother who was also a pilot.
When Huang Dongquan and Lin Yao were in the bloody blue sky, in 1941, Feng Ru's little "fellow countryman" Feng Peide was born. Later, he grew up to become a well-known aircraft navigation and control expert in mainland China.
Five years after Lin Yao's death, in October 1949, Liang Sicheng's younger brother Liang Sili returned to China after completing his studies. Later, he became an expert in missile control, rocket system control, and one of the founders of China's missile control system development.
In 1980, Li Chunxuan, an aerodynamics expert from Xinhui, returned to China to engage in the research of aircraft aerodynamics. It is worth mentioning that his father is one of the Jiangmen martyrs Liang Kangrong announced this time.
Wuyi people, aviation dreams, sprinkled with a hundred years of history. Today, the aviation power has been embedded in the spiritual world of Wuyi people. Jiangmen's solid manufacturing foundation has contributed to the mainland's UAV manufacturing industry, and also provided a strong impetus for the development of Jiangmen's "low-altitude economy". From Feng Rufei a hundred years ago, the martyrdom of heroes during the Anti-Japanese War, to the current Jiangmen people "building airplanes", "flying airplanes" and "designing airplanes", the journey of aviation power, Wuyi people have never been absent.
List of 82 Jiangmen martyrs
Xinhui 18 people: Chen Qingbai, Chen Zhi, Huang Dongquan, Huang Jizhi, Li Hongling, Liang Kangrong, Liang Dingmao, Liu Rubai, Nie Shengyou, Ouyang Fu, Tan Zhuoli, Wu Ruliu, Xiao Guoying, Yu Zigang, Ye Yinru, Jiang Guangting, Lin Guoqiang, Li Zhongquan;
Taishan 36 people: Cen Keng, Chen Xiting, Huang Yuquan, Huang Yangxiang, Huang Bo, Huang Ruiwen, Huang Chengzhang, Huang Xinrui, Huang Rongfa, Huang Pulun, Kwong Zhengshi, Kwong Rongchang, Lei Guolai, Li Zhenqi, Li Binghui, Liao Zhaoqiong, Lin Lianqing, Lin Juetian, Liu Fuqing, Ma Guolian, Mak Zhenxiong, Pan Yipu, Rong Guangcheng, Su Yingxiang, Tan Shou, Wu Guopei, Yu Xipan, Yu Bafeng, Yu Bingwei, Zhu Junqiu, Zhen Tianrang, Feng Xinghang, Ma Yaoting, Chen Guangde, Qiu Hexuan, Zhu Shiru;
Kaiping 19 people: Guan Mengzhu, Guan Junjie, Guan Wansong, Guan Bingquan, Huang Guangli, Huang Yuanbo, Situ Jian, Tan Xiaoyan, Tan Zhaoming, Wu Bojun, Zhang Yimin, Zhang Sen, Zhang Zebo, Zhang Guoqing, Zhou Lisong, Zhou Shiyong, Zhou Jingru, Zhou Zhujun, Liang Ren;
5 people from Heshan: Li Qijia, Liang Songning, Lin Yao, Feng Yongqin, Lv Shuxun;
恩平4人：岑泽鎏、陈世雄、吴凯、冯积良。
Text | Reporter Chen Zhuodong