Author: Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters Liu Wei, Xiang Zhiqiang, Chen Yifan, Lei Jiaxing
"We are the Guangxi Youth Student Army, we are a group of ironclads, and we have undertaken a great mission in the great era..."
This impassioned song was born in 1937, when a group of spirited young people bid farewell to their relatives and sang this song and rushed to the anti-Japanese battlefield without hesitation.
More than 80 years later, there are not many soldiers in the Guangxi Student Army who are still alive today. Gan Likun, who is more than 90 years old, suffers from a serious disease of old age, and even her relatives do not remember much, but as long as she sings this military song, she is emotional and emotional, and she can accurately hum the melody of the song.
Members of the Guangxi Student Army Comic Group with their propaganda posters (file photo). The images are provided by the interviewees
They have a common name
In the 1930s, the anti-Japanese salvation movement flourished throughout the country, and a large number of soldiers and civilians threw themselves into the anti-Japanese battlefield.
Among the anti-Japanese contingents in Guangxi, there is a contingent that is quite special -- some of them are college and middle school students, some are unemployed and out-of-school social youth, some are teachers and government employees who have quit their jobs, and some are overseas Chinese who have traveled thousands of miles back to China. Although their backgrounds are different, they are all thrown into the torrent of anti-Japanese salvation, and they have a common name - Guangxi Student Army.
Between 1936 and 1941, Guangxi organized student armies three times. In June 1936, Guangxi established the first student army to engage in anti-Japanese propaganda and national salvation.
In October 1937, the situation of the national War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression had already taken shape, and Guangxi sent troops to the anti-Japanese front, organized a student army for the second time, and accompanied the army to do propaganda and mobilization of the masses. This year's student army moved to the hubei, henan, and anhui fronts, and later many people joined the communist organization and the New Fourth Army.
Guangxi student army says goodbye to relatives and friends on the streets of Guilin (file photo).
In October 1938, Guangzhou and Wuhan were lost one after another, and the war approached Guangxi. Guangxi set up the third student army, numbering more than 4,000 people, and went to southeast Guizhou and guinan counties to publicize and organize the masses and cooperate with the troops in combat. This is the largest number of students, the longest time, the widest range of activities, and the greatest influence.
Gan Zongrong, 97 years old, participated in the third Guangxi Student Army that year. His handsome face had a shy smile and a pair of large eyes that were very bright—Gan Zongrong still treasured the photos of when he joined the student army. At that time, she was only 13 years old, and "Big Eyes" was a nickname for her brothers, sisters and instructors in the student army.
In the autumn of 1938, Japanese invaders bombed Gan Zongrong's hometown of Longzhou County, Guangxi, and a bomb destroyed her home. "My widowed mother, with my pregnant sister and me, was facing the ruins of the wall and had nowhere to live." Gan Zongrong recalled that he hid from japanese planes every day and could not read at all.
Soon, newspapers published a circular on recruiting soldiers for the Guangxi Student Army, and their tasks included singing, acting, mobilizing the masses, and propagating anti-Japanese propaganda. Gan Zongrong's Longzhou Middle School encouraged students to join the army, and more than 80 students enthusiastically signed up at that time.
The Guangxi Student Army recruited intellectuals between the ages of 16 and 24, and Gan Zongrong could not reach her age, but a little girl like her who could sing and dance was a good seedling doing propaganda work, so she was admitted out of the box and became one of the youngest soldiers in the student army at that time.
The country is in trouble, and there are not a few people like Gan Zongrong who enthusiastically sign up. Among the Guangxi student army, there are all the brothers and sisters who signed up together, there are newlyweds who both applied for the examination, and there are also those who secretly joined the army without their parents, and Pan Gu is one of them.
Pangu, born in 1925, died in 2012. He wrote in a handwritten note: "When I boarded a wooden boat full of student troops and left the dock of my hometown, I suddenly heard the voice of me shouting on the dock, and I looked back and saw that it was my father, and I had signed up without my family. He came from a border mountain village nearly a hundred miles away, holding a bag in his hand, raising his hand and shouting my nickname..."
Pangu has an older sister and an older brother, and when he arrives at the student army, he "has 4,000 sisters and brothers, no loneliness, no insurmountable difficulties." He wrote affectionately: "It is the love of the motherland that embraces us together, it is the fate of the country and the nation that binds us together, and loving our families and hometowns has developed into loving the collective and loving comrades-in-arms." ”
The Guangxi Student Army is doing propaganda work for the masses (file photo).
A group of ironclads, a group that has endured the baptism of war
The tasks undertaken by the Guangxi Student Army are mainly summarized in three words: "calling" (propaganda), "wrapping" (organization), and "fighting" (combat). The Archives of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region holds a unique student army badge with a pen and a gun in its large and clenched fist, which reflects the special nature of the Guangxi student army with both political and military dual tasks.
Textual propaganda, speeches, plays, singing, art... In every region, the Guangxi Student Army spread the anti-Japanese stand in various forms to the fields, streets, and alleys, expose and accuse the masses of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Kou, expose the disasters and sufferings suffered by the people in the occupied areas and theaters, and publicize the heroic deeds of the military and the people of the whole country in resisting japan and defending the country, so as to arouse the enthusiasm of the masses of the people for resisting Japan and saving the country and defending their families and defending the country.
"Compatriots listen carefully to me, our eastern neighbor has a small oriental ocean, and we have been busy training troops for decades, and we want to kill China!" Every time the song is publicized, Gan Zongrong always sings these few sentences first to attract people's attention, and then sings the familiar "Songhua River".
"Every time we sing 'Daddy, Daddy, when can we all get together,' the streets and offstages will be crying, and the refugees and young students from exile from other places will not be able to cry." Gan Zongrong recalled that at this time, the crowd would be indignant and shouted "Down with Japanese imperialism."
On the basis of the masses receiving anti-war education and being willing to approach the Guangxi student army, they organized the masses to set up singing teams, taught and sang anti-war songs, opened mass clubs, rescue rooms, and held literacy classes and reading clubs to publicize the principle of resisting Japan and saving lives in the course of study.
The Guangxi Student Army posts slogans on the streets (file photo).
Liu Jiaxing, former deputy director of the Party History Research Office of the Nanning Municipal CPC Committee, said: The Guangxi student army has also organized anti-Japanese guerrilla units and hoeing and rape brigades in various localities to train the masses in military skills, as well as to teach the knowledge of clearing the wilderness, reconnaissance of enemy situations, and sabotage of traffic.
In Pangu's handwriting, he wrote: "Bitterness and tiredness are commonplace, sleeping while walking is a special enjoyment, the stars are our guides, the moon is a natural stage light, the door panel straw is a high-grade bedding, and the creek pond is a bathhouse to wash away fatigue... This is the optimism of patriotic fighters. ”
In the winter of 1939, the Japanese invading army launched an attack on Guinan, and the Battle of Guinan broke out. The work tasks of the Guangxi Student Army have changed from propaganda and mobilization of the masses to supporting the front, participating in the war, and carrying out work behind enemy lines. They rushed day and night between the front line and the countryside, helping to evacuate the old, the sick and the disabled, mobilizing the masses to bury food and transport the wounded. At night, we must be on duty to set up a sentry, and when we find out about the situation, we will wake everyone up immediately and be ready to fight at any time.
Gan Zongrong clearly remembers that on December 30, 1939, she received the task of learning to sing Japanese songs and persuade Japanese soldiers to surrender. When they were about to go to the front, the captain took two grenades and hung them on Gan Zongrong's waist, and repeatedly told her: "Be careful on the road, in case you encounter Japanese devils, the first grenade you throw to them, if the devils want to catch you, the second grenade you give yourself." ”
Opposite the position was a dark and heavy mountain peak, and the Japanese artillery fire was constantly coming. In the face of the rain of bullets and bullets, Gan Zongrong surprisingly calmed down, and she and her comrades sang anti-war songs to the horn. Suddenly, the sound of Japanese guns and artillery went from dense to thin, and then stopped shooting for a while, and Gan Zongrong and his comrades were very excited.
The army and the people fought against the enemy and eliminated all the remnants of the Kunlun Pass in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, 12 Guangxi student army soldiers died on the anti-Japanese front.
"People say that the student army is literate and versatile. We call ourselves the iron-clad bunch, the ones who have been baptized by war. Pangu summed it up in his notes.
Guangxi student army propaganda on the street (file photo).
They have never been forgotten
On May 14, 1940, the Ta Kung Pao published an article entitled "Student Army at the Battle of Guinan", in which it was written: "The Guangxi Student Army is the most important member of the Guangxi battlefield, whether on the front line, whether in the rear, on both sides of the enemy-occupied area, and on all sides of the guerrilla zone. They were called "soldier kings" and "used their wisdom to instill in soldiers the idea of loving the country and the nation."
Liu Jiaxing said: Although the Guangxi Student Army did not exist for a long time, it played a positive role in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, exerted a far-reaching impact on the revolutionary cause in Guangxi, and occupied an important position in the history of the youth movement in Guangxi. Many communists and progressive young people in the Guangxi student army later became political and military talents during the Liberation War and after the founding of New China, including Zhuang Yanlin, former chairman of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, and Wei Chunshu, former chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
According to experts such as Long Runzhong, former vice president of the Guangxi League School of the Chinese Communist Youth League, there were more than 100 Communist Party members in the third Guangxi Student Army, many of whom served as grass-roots commanders and fighters, and played an important role in publicizing anti-Japanese ideas, mobilizing and organizing the masses, and strengthening the party's strength.
The history of the Guangxi Student Army has never been forgotten. Long Runzhong introduced that in the 1980s, the Guangxi Youth League School set up a research office for the history of youth movements, and the study of the history of the Guangxi student army was one of the topics. "I and the relevant staff collected photographs, memoirs, badges, collar badges and other materials through interviews with Guangxi student army soldiers and their descendants, and published a series of publications to let more people know the story of the Guangxi student army in the anti-Japanese war and let their patriotic spirit be carried forward."
Xiao Yanxia, former director of the Youth Movement History Research Office of the Guangxi League School, has been studying the history of the Guangxi Student Army for 13 years. In her step-by-step understanding of the history of the Guangxi Student Army, the soldiers of the Student Army and their descendants are not only interviewees for her, but also family and friends.
"Almost every Guangxi student army soldier interviewed has told me that the years of joining the Guangxi student army were the best time in their lives." Xiao Yanxia said that every time she gathers with them, she will take pictures to commemorate, "Over the years, watching the number of people getting together slowly decrease, I feel very sad." ”
But at the same time, it also inspired Xiao Yanxia to continue to tell the story of the Guangxi student army. "Through the results of our research, let future generations remember the years of fighting that were full of gunfire and bloody storms, and remember those heroic martyrs who bravely killed the enemy and sacrificed their lives for the cause of national liberation.
The Guangxi Student Army conducts military training (file photo).
On the north bank of the Yongjiang River, at the southern foot of Qingxiu Mountain, in the middle of green pine and cypress, on top of hundreds of steps, the Monument to the Anti-Japanese Martyrs of the Guangxi Student Army stands majestically. In 1986, in order to commemorate the martyrs of the Guangxi Student Army who died in the War of Resistance Against Japan, Nanning City rebuilt the Guangxi Student Army Anti-Japanese Martyrs Monument in Qingxiu Mountain.
In the Fenghua Pavilion not far from the monument, the names of 12 martyrs are engraved on a stone stele, and 12 evergreen trees symbolize their green and upright trees. In the "Guangxi Student Army Anti-Japanese Historical Materials Exhibition Room" next to it, a large number of pictures and texts and physical objects record this history. At present, it has become an important base for young people to carry out patriotic education.
When Pan Gu was alive, her daughter Pan Xiaochun would follow her father to Qingxiu Mountain every year to worship, and now that her father is gone, she still maintains this habit. "My father rarely mentioned his participation in the Guangxi Student Army before. It was only after his death that I began to contact and understand this history, and only then did I understand what the most valuable asset of the student army was. Pan Xiaochun said that it is a kind of family and country feelings. When the country is in difficulty, no matter how old you are, as long as you have a little strength, you must serve the motherland.
Pan Xiaochun has always remembered his father's teaching: no matter what position he takes, only by linking the fate of the individual with the fate of the country can he truly make a difference. "This is also the inspiration that the Guangxi Student Army has given to our generation." Pan Xiaochun said.
Guangxi Student Army in Guilin (file photo).
In recent years, after his retirement, Pan Xiaochun has traveled around to contact the surviving soldiers of the Guangxi Student Army and their descendants, bring them together, and organize the establishment of the "Iron Group" Art Troupe for the descendants of the Guangxi Student Army, to publicize the patriotic deeds of the Guangxi Student Army in the form of literary and artistic performances. Every time he stood on the stage dressed in the costume of the student army, interpreting the story of his father's experience and singing the songs and ballads that his father had sung, Pan Xiaochun was always excited.
To Pan Xiaochun's delight, the descendants of the Guangxi Student Army have gradually grown, and even the third and fourth generations have joined in, "I think they will be very happy and proud." ”
At the Guangxi League School, Jiang Xiaohui, a "post-90s" teacher, also joined the study of the history of the Guangxi student army, "Each generation has the long march of each generation, we must remember history, do not forget the original heart, inherit and carry forward the patriotic spirit of the Guangxi student army, and undertake the mission of our young people in the new era." ”