In 1943, when the eldest lady saw the wounded soldier of the Eighth Route Army, she immediately picked him up and hid him in the cellar.
But no one noticed that there was a pair of eyes in the rear that kept staring at them.
Then this "eyewitness" hurried to the Japanese position.
Who is this soldier of the Eighth Route Army, and will he be able to cope with the impending crisis?
Abandon the pen and join the revolution
The soldier of the Eighth Route Army was named Xu Shangwu, and he was also a deputy commander of the Eighth Route Army.
When he was a child, Xu Shangwu's family was very poor, and it was his father who supported the family step by step. The husband and wife opened a shop to make their lives richer.
When Xu Shangwu reached school age, the couple sent him to school. Xu Shangwu excelled in his studies and was successfully admitted to the Normal School a few years later.
Whenever he came home, his family told him that it would be better to become a teacher after graduation, which would be stable, and Xu Shangwu also had such thoughts at that time.
But in the year when he was about to graduate, the Japanese army came to his hometown and wantonly burned and looted, making the people miserable.
The common people hid at home and did not dare to come out, for fear of being bullied by the Japanese army.
Xu Shangwu had a bad premonition more and more in his heart.
Sure enough, when Xu Shangwu went to school again the next day, he was informed that the school had been disbanded and they could no longer go to school.
Xu Shangwu hurriedly ran home, but saw his mother crying on the bed, and his decadent father.
It turned out that due to the invasion of the Japanese army, their shops were also forced to close, because even if the door was open, the Japanese army would usher in a raid every day.
The life of the Xu family plummeted, and Xu Shangwu hated the Japanese army's aggression very much. Xu Shangwu, who was in his youth, did not want his hometown to be trampled on by the Japanese army, and then he decided to raise the banner of revolution against the Japanese army.
At that time, he was not the only one who had this idea, Xu Shangwu organized all those who had revolutionary ideas, and established the "Salvation Association" and other groups.
They propagated anti-Japanese ideas everywhere, developed anti-Japanese forces, and soon gathered more people.
In 1937, the Eighth Route Army came to Xu Shangwu's hometown. Xu Shangwu led the team to join the Eighth Route Army and became a member of the guerrillas in the Jilu border area.
There are many bullies and hooligans in the local area who rely on the support of the Japanese and bully the common people. Xu Shangwu and the others went to crusade against them, so that they did not dare to do evil, and over time they became famous in the neighborhood.
Of course, some people hated Xu Shangwu very much, and often brought the Japanese army to catch them, such as Hu Zhenguo. After the Japanese army came here, he took refuge in the Japanese army, and led them everywhere to oppress the common people.
After Hu Zhenguo learned of Xu Shangwu's actions, he often brought people to arrest them, which were all avoided by Xu Shangwu.
However, Hu Zhenguo's behavior had seriously hindered their activities, so Xu Shangwu killed Hu Zhenguo at night and got rid of the bad guys who endangered the Quartet. When the common people learned of Hu Zhenguo's death, they all applauded.
How could the Japanese army tolerate these people operating under their noses, so they sent many forces to attack, but they were all repelled by Xu Shangwu and others.
In order to deplete the enemy's forces, Xu Shangwu followed his troops to wage guerrilla warfare with the enemy, destroying many enemies.
Over time, because they could not defeat our army, the Japanese army was so angry that they could only carry out crazy sweeps, which made the lives of the common people even worse.
In order to protect the common people, Xu Shangwu actively developed anti-Japanese forces and told the masses that only by uniting as one could the enemy be defeated.
Many young men volunteered to join the anti-Japanese army and fought fiercely against the enemy. Due to the increase in the strength of our army, the Japanese puppet army did not dare to act rashly in a short period of time, and the two sides fell into a stalemate.
During this period, the local anti-Japanese armed forces continued to expand, and the common people finally saw the hope of victory.
In danger, he was seriously injured
In 1940, Xu Shangwu was already the captain of the county brigade. When he learned that a guerrilla detachment was surrounded by Japanese troops in a certain village, Xu Shangwu immediately led his troops to reinforcements, killing many enemies in ambush along the way.
After arriving at the destination, Xu Shangwu and the trapped team joined forces to form a trap and annihilate more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers. Not only that, Xu Shangwu took advantage of the victory to pursue, reached the Japanese position, and recaptured this entire position.
Due to his outstanding performance, Xu Shangwu was appointed deputy commander of the Second Army Division of the Jilu Border Region, and his superior was Long Shujin.
Long Shujin and Xu Shangwu led the fighters to guerrilla attacks near the border area, wandering in many areas, including Linyi, Jiyang and other areas.
From time to time, they also came across the transport units of the Japanese army. The guerrillas swarmed up and repeatedly routed the Japanese troops, and our troops captured many sophisticated weapons.
Of course, they will also encounter "difficult bones", at this time Xu Shangwu commanded the soldiers to stealthily step forward, blow up the enemy's pillbox, and capture the enemy's position.
During the break, Xu Shangwu would also discuss the battle plan with Long Shujin and improve the implementation of the relevant plan.
However, in 1943, the angry Japanese army carried out a large-scale sweep with a large number of troops, surrounded the guerrillas led by Xu Shangwu, and the situation in the Hebei-Shandong border area was critical.
Xu Shangwu believes that the most urgent task now is to transfer the backbone forces, so that the green mountains are left behind, and there is no fear of running out of firewood.
Everyone unanimously agreed, and hundreds of soldiers were sent to escort these people to transfer, and Xu Shangwu took fire cover in front.
In order for them to successfully divert, Xu Shangwu fired several shots in succession, just to attract the enemy's attention to his side. The troops engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese army, and he deliberately led a team in the other direction, just to divert the enemy and buy time.
Almost to a small village, the Japanese army caught up, and the Eighth Route Army immediately looked for cover and confronted it. But the number of the Eighth Route Army was too small to suppress the enemy's firepower at all.
The shells poured down on the positions of our troops and exploded around Xu Shangwu, who hurriedly dodged, but unfortunately affected. He had no choice but to lead the team back and forth, during which he was shot in multiple places in his body and bled profusely.
In order not to delay the footsteps of the Eighth Route Army, Xu Shangwu asked the soldiers to go first and leave it alone. The warriors couldn't resist Xu Shangwu, so they had to put him in a hidden place, leaving a warrior to take care of him.
Fortunately, the Japanese army failed to notice Xu Shangwu and hurriedly left behind our army's ranks.
The enemy was getting farther and farther away from him, Xu Shangwu finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the pain in his body also exploded at this moment, and he almost fainted from the pain.
Seeing that Xu Shangwu was bleeding nonstop, the warrior had to simply bandage it, trying to find a place for him to rest.
After the baptism of war, the small village where Xu Shangwu arrived gradually calmed down. An old lady went out to check the situation and found a wounded soldier of the Eighth Route Army not far away.
She hurriedly glanced around a few times before coming to the two of them.
"Little soldier, quick, help him to my house, go to my house to heal!"
The warrior immediately thanked the eldest lady, and the two helped Xu Shangwu up and walked towards the eldest lady's house.
No one noticed that there was a pair of eyes staring at them all the time.
The traitor betrayed and died heroically
After the old lady brought them home, she also gave them some simple medicine for the injuries to deal with. To be on the safe side, the old lady let them hide in the cellar, for fear that the Japanese army would return.
Just as the old lady had closed the cellar door and hidden it, she suddenly heard the sound of the door being kicked open. The old lady straightened her face, took a deep breath and walked out.
The old lady saw that it was Liu Jinfa, the chief of the village, who came to her house with a Japanese army.
Before she could ask, Liu Jinfa said, "Where did you hide those two people?" Tell them obediently, I saw them all!"
It turned out that it was Liu Jinfa, who had already taken refuge in the Japanese army, who had just stared at them, and he also specially watched the two enter the old lady's house before going to the Japanese army to report the letter.
The eldest lady hated Liu Jinfa's behavior very much, but she herself was weak and could only watch them search in her own home. She prayed in her heart that they wouldn't find the cellar.
But he didn't expect Liu Jinfa to take them to the cellar, because he knew that the cellar was the best way to hide people. The old lady was so anxious that she didn't have time to stop it.
When the cellar was opened, it was pitch black, and two Japanese soldiers went down to probe the bottom.
When they went down to the cellar, Xu Shangwu found the two and immediately shot them dead.
The people above knew that people were hiding inside, and in order not to lose their troops, they actually came up with a poison plan, preparing to force them out with poison gas bombs.
Xu Shangwu and the others sensed that something was wrong and knew that they were in a catastrophe, so they wanted to climb out immediately and fight to the death, but suddenly a cannonball was thrown into the cellar.
The shell exploded, and with it came a puff of gas. Xu Shangwu hurriedly said: "It's poisonous gas, hurry up and cover your mouth and nose!"
The two of them hurriedly ran towards the mouth of the cellar, and after climbing out of the cellar, they immediately fired several shots at the enemy until they ran out of bullets.
The Japanese soldiers were guarding the entrance of the cellar, and when they saw the two people who had escaped, they hurriedly shot back. In the end, the two were defeated, were shot several times, and died under the guns of the Japanese army.
Liu Jinfa looked at the two who had fallen, and arrogantly left with the Japanese army. They didn't kill the old lady, maybe they didn't bother to kill her.
The old lady buried their bodies next to a hill and erected two wooden monuments for them.
The next day, the county brigade came to find the whereabouts of Xu Shangwu and the others. The old lady hurriedly told what she had experienced before. When they learned that Xu Shangwu had died, the soldiers were saddened.
They arrested Liu Jinfa and, in the presence of the whole village, executed the wicked man.
The wicked will eventually be punished, but Xu Shangwu lost his life forever, and he was only 31 years old that year.
At the age of 31, it was a good time to make a contribution, but he fell on the eve of victory.
There are many revolutionary martyrs like Xu Shangwu, who threw their heads and shed their blood for the anti-Japanese resistance, and their revolutionary spirit of selfless dedication and courageous struggle is worthy of our eternal memory!
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"The Heroes of the Chinese Communist Party's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression: Xu Shangwu", Communist Party of China News Network, March 25, 2014.