At the foot of Fragrant Mountain, cherry ditch in the botanical garden, dense trees, babbling streams, quiet and quiet. On a large bluestone near the source of the water, there are four very eye-catching words carved into it - "Defend North China"! This was carved by the members of the National Liberation Vanguard who held a military summer camp for anti-Japanese national salvation here in the summer of 1936.
Beijing Botanical Garden Cherry Gully "Defend north China" stone carving. Liu Yue/Photo
After the Lugou Bridge Incident, Peiping fell, and the Chinese national liberation vanguard, under the leadership of the Communist Party and composed of progressive youth, continued its indomitable struggle. They were like the sparks left behind by the 12.9 Movement, igniting the sparks of stars in Beiping and driving away the haze under the Japanese and puppet rule.
(1) Veto the "hearing" to go south to arouse the people
Shortly after the 12.9 Movement, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the principals and student representatives of schools at or above the junior college level to go to Nanjing on January 15, 1936, to "listen to the government's policies, contribute to safeguarding the opinions of the state, and connect the opinions of the government and the youth, so as to achieve the goal of jointly saving the country."
At the same time, the Ministry of Education of the Nanjing government announced that all schools across the country would take an early holiday, and forced all students to leave schools before December 25, 1935, hoping that after the students dispersed and left the school, the movement would be eliminated.
In the face of these circumstances, how to preserve the backbone of the students who emerged from the demonstrations? How to persist in the Anti-Japanese Salvation Movement? The Northern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee issued instructions to the Beiping Party organization to oppose kidnapping-style forced departures and actively expand the Pingjin student mass movement.
The Beiping Municipal CPC Committee decided to use this period to organize a large-scale propaganda group to go south along the Pinghan Railway and expand anti-Japanese propaganda in the countryside.
In late December, the Peking Federation of Students held a meeting at the Yenching University Gymnasium. The meeting was attended by representatives of Tsinghua University, Yenching University, Peking University, Northeastern University and other universities. The meeting launched a fierce debate on whether to go south to publicize or go to Nanjing to "listen to training." As a result, those who favored going to Nanjing to "listen to the training" unexpectedly accounted for the majority.
In view of this situation, Guo Mingqiu, executive chairman of the conference, announced the temporary adjournment of the meeting. During the intersessional period, the backbone of the Federation of Students did a lot of work among the delegates. After the resumption of the meeting, a representative of Peking University made a long speech exposing the fact that the Nanjing government did not resist Japan and fight a civil war, indicating that students should unite with the people and expand the anti-Japanese front. His speech worked well. It was then suggested that the vote should be one school and one vote, and everyone agreed to vote again. In the end, the majority of propagandists who favored expanding the countryside rejected going to Nanjing for "training."
Sketch of the Pingjin students' southward propaganda route
Everyone reached a consensus that the student movement to resist Japan and save the country should be developed into a national movement. The responsibility of patriotic students is no longer limited to school strikes and street demonstrations, but to go deep into the people, publicize the principle of resisting Japan and saving the country, and arouse the people's automatic arming.
(2) The withered countryside stung the hearts of patriotic students
At the end of 1935, the Pingjin Students' Federation jointly organized the Pingjin Students' Southward Expansion Propaganda Corps, with about 500 members, divided into four regiments, and marched to Gu'an from January 2 to 4, 1936.
Braving the bitter cold, the students ran through the ice and snow, eating flatbread pickles, sleeping on the cold earthen kang, and sometimes even snoozing on the ground.
Pingjin students went south to expand the advance team of the propaganda group
Although before leaving, the students decided to follow the customs of the countryside, not to wear leather shoes, and to wear blue cloth coats, their attire still caused surprise to the peasants. The peasants looked at these gentlemen in robes and permed hair who were pedaling rubber shoes, wearing airline hats, and singing all the way, and some people actually said: "On a cold day, those who eat teaching still go to the countryside to preach, and they still sing hymns in their mouths!" The students' speeches, slogans and songs were not well understood by the villagers. Because they could not understand the origin of the students, some of them closed the door when they saw them coming, and quietly looked out through the crack in the door.
The propaganda group then organized its members to first gain a deeper understanding of the peasants' sufferings. Dark, cramped adobe houses, in the winter, children only surround a single piece of cloth, a family only has a bed of broken quilts, and some people can't even eat a very thin bran porridge. The children of these urban intellectuals have never seen such a tragic scene. This scene has stung the heart of every patriotic student.
Soon, the students' propaganda became flesh and blood. From the life of the peasants, from the landlords and gentry to the warlords and imperialism. Gradually, the peasants understood that the students had come not to order them to fight Japan for the officials and masters, but to give them ideas. The students gradually added the colloquial language of the masses to the propaganda, in addition to chatting and lecturing, they also rehearsed plays and taught farmers to sing.
Such propaganda was welcomed, and the peasants' anti-Japanese enthusiasm was stimulated. The performance of the street drama "Fight Back to The Hometown" aroused the national hatred of the masses, and everyone on the stage shouted in unison: "Down with Japanese imperialism!" A peasant woman in her 50s walked up to the stage in anger and shouted: "We can't be slaves to the country, the Japanese will kill one by one, and kill ten with ten!"
In the in-depth contact with the peasants, the members of the regiment also received a profound class education. The party group of the propaganda group (composed mainly of communists) seized the opportunity to tell the party's policy of the anti-Japanese national united front and the heroic deeds of the Red Army in the north to resist Japan. This made the students realize that Japanese imperialism could only be defeated by relying on the anti-Japanese armed forces led by the Communist Party. Despite the persuasion and interference of their families, relatives and friends, and schools, many students embarked on the revolutionary road and gradually grew from a patriot to a communist.
Huang Chaoxian (Huang Qiuyun), a student at Tsinghua University, recalled the history of this period of southward propaganda: "To be honest, my socialist ideas did not originate entirely from reading the works of Marx and Lenin and Chairman Mao, but were born in the nests of hard states and lice at the same time. ...... More than ten days south to expand propaganda... The influence on intellectuals is very profound. ...... After all, real life is the most convincing and the most touching. ”
(3) Sow the seeds of anti-Japanese resistance on foot along the way
On January 7 and 8, 1936, four regiments of the Southward Expansion Propaganda Corps arrived in Gu'an. In accordance with the notice of the Beiping authorities, the county magistrate of Gu'an County ordered the city gate to be closed tightly, and machine guns were set up on the city wall to prevent students from entering the city.
He was locked out of the city for several days, but the enthusiasm of his classmates did not diminish. The propaganda group carried out propaganda in the towns and villages outside the city and also redefined the route of march to Baoding.
However, with the continuous expansion of the influence of propaganda, the Kuomintang authorities became more and more panicked, and sent a large number of military police and secret agents to block the propaganda group. In mid-January, the propaganda group was surrounded one after another, and some students were forcibly escorted back to Beiping. The Beiping Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China decided that the propaganda group would not go south, and the remaining students returned to Pingjin on January 22.
From January 2 to 21, the Pingjin students marched south to expand the propaganda group, walking more than 700 miles, lasting 20 days, sowing the seeds of anti-Japanese resistance along the way.
During the period of siege, the members of the propaganda group decided to set up a new organization after returning to Beiping, so as to further assemble and more effectively carry out the anti-Japanese salvation movement.
On February 1, 1936, at the National Peking Normal University on Shijuma Avenue in Beiping, the National Liberation Vanguard was officially established. The picture shows the library of Beiping Normal University.
On February 1, at the National Peking Normal University on Shizhima Avenue in Beiping, a congress of members of the Southbound Expansion Propaganda Corps was held, and it was decided to formally establish the National Liberation Vanguard (later renamed the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard, referred to as the "People's Pioneers"). The Beiping Municipal Cpc Committee set up a party group in the Min's Vanguard, with Huang Jing as secretary. The Minxians set up 26 detachments according to the school, and the first batch of members totaled more than 300 people.
The People's Pioneers are advanced youth organizations under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which work more extensively among young people in the form of open or semi-open legitimate mass organizations. Its establishment has ensured the organization of the various actions of the Student Federation and pushed the student movement to a new stage.
(4) Cherry Gully military training once again expresses the ambition to save the country
The Democratic Pioneers often organize members to learn military knowledge and hold military training and exercises. They knew that they could not drive out the Japanese invaders with only the barrel of a pen and not a gun. The training of this kind of guerrilla tactics prompted a large number of members of the People's Pioneers to participate in guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines after the outbreak of the National War of Resistance Against Japan.
Representatives of the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard went to the hospital to comfort the wounded anti-Japanese soldiers of the 29th Army.
In the summer of 1936, the Democratic Pioneers, together with the Peking Academy, held three military summer camps. The first summer camp was held in Xishan Cherry Valley for 7 days and was attended by more than 180 people.
Every day, the campers climbed the north hill at the end of Cherry Gully and fought fierce offensive and defensive battles, ambush battles, encounters, and guerrilla warfare. In front of a mountain rock on the water side of the creek, there is an open area, which is the central area of summer camp activities. The mountain stone was the "pulpit" of that year, and the campers sat around the mountain stone, listening to Professors Yang Xiufeng, Huang Songling, and other professors analyze the situation in the War of Resistance Against Japan, listen to Bai Yihua expound military theory, scramble to read the party documents that were difficult to see at that time, and enthusiastically discuss the news that the Red Army went north to resist Japan and the anti-Japanese activities of patriotic volunteers.
One day during his lunch break, Lu Ping, a student at Peking University, saw Zhao Dezun, a student at Tsinghua University, chiseling something on a mountain rock. The hammer rises and falls, the chisel sound is sonorous, and the vigorous word "bao" gradually appears. Lu Ping took the chisel, and the two men took turns chiseling out the four big characters of "defending North China" to express their firm determination to resist Japan and save the country.
In order to avoid the "sweeping" of the Japanese invaders, the local villagers carved this large stone into thick mud and planted it around the mountain climbing tiger. The stone was no different from the surrounding dirt, and gradually no one remembered it. In the summer of 1974, Lu Ping's children went into cherry ditch several times and finally found this anti-Japanese stone carving. They removed the thick moss, brought stream water from the ravine, washed away the sand of history, and "defended north China" 4 vigorous and powerful characters reappeared in front of the eyes of the younger generation.
(5) Take off your robe to fight guerrillas
The People's Pioneers extensively contacted university professors, faculty members, and officers and men of the 29th Army to carry out united front work; organized donations and materials to support soldiers on the anti-Japanese front; and propagated among the workers and peasants to resist Japan and save the country. As the impact expands, the composition of the team is extremely extensive. There were not only young students, teachers, workers, peasants, but even members of the Kuomintang army.
The Chinese National Liberation Vanguard and other groups went to the anti-Japanese front to offer condolences.
Declaration on the Establishment of the Vanguard of National Liberation
By the eve of the July 7 Incident, the Northern Civilian Pioneer Had Nearly 100 Detachments and More Than 3,000 Members.
After the fall of Peiping in July 1937, the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China called for: "Every outstanding Communist Party member should take off his long shirt and go to the guerrillas." The members of the People's Pioneers went south one after another.
Some members of the team took ships from Tianjin to Yantai, Shandong, and then to Yan'an and Taiyuan in the south of the economy, to Yan'an and Taiyuan, and participated in guerrilla warfare with the Eighth Route Army. Some members of the team went south along the railway line or went straight back to their hometowns to participate in anti-Japanese work on the spot. Under the blockade of the enemy, the Northern Civilian Pioneer Still sent more than 50 cadres to the base area, some of whom brought the production method of explosives for the basis, some became field doctors, and some brought important information from Beiping.
Some members of the People's Pioneers stayed in Beiping and persisted in the anti-Japanese resistance in the form of underground struggle. They have done everything in their power to provide material assistance to the base areas. At that time, contraband such as medical supplies were trying to be transported out of the city gates like chestnuts in the fire. Xu Yan, a member of the People's Pioneer Team of Peking University Medical College, faced with the layers of guards at the city gate, was in a hurry, sewed medicine cotton, gauze, etc. into a "big quilt", took advantage of his ability to speak Japanese, disguised himself as a Japanese, and sent the "big quilt" out of the city.
(6) The People's Pioneers of Beiping embarked on the front line of the national anti-Japanese resistance
The People's Pioneers' insistence on struggle has also infected many ordinary people. The patriotic feelings in the hearts of the ordinary people of Peiping were stimulated, and the fire of resisting Japan and saving the country was ignited.
Anjie, a member of the People's Pioneers, recalled: "Some of the people who have never lived in obscurity are secretly protecting us. It was a spring, and Hou Xing took a few copies of propaganda materials (Commander Nie Rongzhen's speech) and rode to Anjie's home, but on the way he accidentally lost his handbag containing materials and his residence permit. This upset her, knowing that if the enemy found her handbag, she would be arrested immediately, and she had made up her mind to die.
Unexpectedly, the next morning, the small handbag was sent home unharmed, and it turned out that a postman who had not left a name picked it up and took the initiative to send the letter back to the Hou family. When Hou Xing's father told him not to talk outside, the postman said, "We are all Chinese, how can we betray our compatriots?" ”
He Wansheng is the cousin of Ye Ning, a member of the People's Pioneers, a clerk who works in the secretariat office of the Beiping Municipal Government. His home, No. 26 Xidan Chayuan Hutong, has also become a hiding place for many underground workers. However, just when the CCP organization wanted to develop him into the party, bad news came that He Wansheng was arrested by the Japanese gendarmes and imprisoned in the "1420 Unit" at Dongzhu City. In prison, he was subjected to all kinds of inhuman torture, but he did not spit out a word, and was persecuted to death by the enemy.
After a large number of Members of the People's Pioneers returned to their hometowns, the Local People's Pioneers organization was also developed. Tianjin, Jinan, Yantai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Kaifeng and many other cities across the country have established civil pioneer organizations. Lyon, Paris, France, and Tokyo, Japan, also established the Civil Pioneer Organization. The People's Pioneers have gone from Beiping to the whole country and to the world.
Although the Democratic Pioneers have only a few short years of history, they are an advanced youth organization founded and led by the Communist Party of China that takes anti-Japanese democracy as the goal of struggle, an assistant to the party in establishing an anti-Japanese national united front and a link in leading the anti-Japanese salvation movement, played a great role in uniting the broad masses of young people and promoting the anti-Japanese salvation movement, and trained and brought up a large number of intellectual cadres for the party and the people's army under the leadership of the party and the anti-Japanese base areas.
On June 12, 2001, Beijing Daily reported on the 7th page that at the exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, the imitation of the stone carving "Defending North China" was moved to the exhibition site.
On July 13, 2011, Beijing Daily reported on the 5th edition that the Municipal Park Management Center announced five summer "red day trip" routes, connecting the 12.9 Memorial Pavilion of Beijing Botanical Garden, the "Defend north China" stone carving, the Shuangqing Villa in Xiangshan Park, Biyun Temple and other scenic spots.
Historical materials: "The Red Culture of Beijing Universities", "The Red Backbone of the Beiping War of Resistance"
"129 Movement Information", "129 Movement", Beijing News Group Graphic Database
Co-produced by: Beijing Daily, Beijing Municipal Party Committee Party History Research Office, Municipal Local History Office