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Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Zhang Rong Record Xia Shanrong Cartography
On September 2, the remains of the eighth batch of volunteers in the Korean Chinese were transported from South Korea to Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and the remains of 109 martyrs of the Chinese Volunteer Army in Korea and 1226 related relics were returned to the motherland.
At the end of June this year, 22-year-old South Korean Lee Shuai (pseudonym) voluntarily signed up for the eighth batch of excavation operations of the remains of the martyrs of the Korean Chinese Volunteer Army, and together with 11 comrades-in-arms excavated a complete body of the martyrs of the Chinese Volunteer Army in South Korea.
Mr. Li, who originally studied at Peking University's School of Economics, took a temporary break from school last July, when his junior year ended, and returned to South Korea to fulfill his military service obligations.
The Qianjiang Evening News hourly news reporter connected with Li Shuai, who was very fluent in Chinese in South Korea, and he told in Mandarin about his experience and feelings of participating in helping the remains of the martyrs of the Korean Chinese Volunteer Army fall back to their roots.
The following is Li Shuai's narration -
Readers of the Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News, hello, I am 22 years old and a Korean military officer.
I studied at Peking University, and last July, I took a break from school to return to South Korea for military service and participated in a very meaningful operation. Together with my comrades-in-arms, I dug up the remains of a complete Chinese volunteer martyr.
On September 2, he was transported back to China from South Korea along with the remaining 108 heroic souls of volunteer martyrs. This is the eighth batch. I was deeply touched to be able to participate in this operation.
It was the afternoon of July 6 this year, and my comrades dug up a hard stone, about 50 centimeters, long, uneven, and the color of earth. My friend thought it was a huge bone.
At first, I didn't quite believe it. At that time, we were in Linhou County, Gangwon Province, near the "38th Line", and 12 people had been digging on a barren mountain for 9 days, and never found such a large bone.
For the first 8 days, we only dug up some fragmentary bones, shell casings, and some strange parts. We felt frustrated, and even suspected, that there might not be any remains of martyrs on the mountain.
Unexpectedly, unbelievable things happened. My comrades-in-arms used various archaeological tools to peel off the soil around the hard stones little by little, and the rest of the part became more and more like a human calf bone.
It's so exhilarating! Later, all 12 of us gathered in the area and dug for another two or three hours, more and more bones appeared, looking like the outline of a warrior below the chest.
"Salute!" When the Shangguan issued this password, all of us gathered around the remains and solemnly saluted. I will remember this scene for the rest of my life.
Every year, thousands of South Korean soldiers throw themselves into the operation, but few actually exhum the remains intact. And my comrades and I are fortunate to be able to help these warriors who fought in bloody battles to see the light of day and return to their roots. It was the most meaningful and fulfilling thing I had done during my time in the military.
This mountain has fought wars and buried many soldiers of the country, and it is difficult to distinguish their identities. Sometimes, we'll find identification plates with names and troop numbers engraved on them. Before dying, some soldiers will put their identity badges in their mouths, so that no matter where they are buried later, they can let others know their identity.
When the id badge is not found, the identification group is also distinguished according to the insole. Like some Chinese soldiers behind the insoles, they will draw a hill.
Later, we confirmed that the exhumed body was a Chinese soldier.
In South Korea, a two-month exhumation of the remains begins on June 25 every year, starting in 2013. It's a huge undertaking. In order to dig up the entire mountain, thousands of people participated in each operation. The participants were divided into excavation groups, recovery groups, and identification groups, including experts and volunteer soldiers.
On June 28 this year, 11 comrades and I officially joined, mainly responsible for the excavation of the remains. The process was tiring and boring, and in just two weeks, I lost 10 pounds.
Experts would demarcate an area for us every day, but after all, there had been a war here, and maybe there were explosives that had not been detonated, so we worked with bulletproof helmets and gloves.
June was the hottest month in South Korea, the temperature was more than 30 degrees, and in less than an hour, our clothes were all soaked.
We will first dig more than 1 meter deep with a hoe and a shovel, and once we find similar bones in the soil, we will use our hands to shovel, knife, and brush to cut the soil down. The next day, my hands were out of the cocoon.
Many times, we are busy for half a day, and what we end up with may only be a stone, which is difficult to identify.
Every morning at 8 a.m., we walked thirty or forty minutes to climb to the excavation point. Usually, it works for 8 hours a day until the sun is about to set, and the excavation range is only 70 to 80 square meters. When I went down the mountain, everyone was sweating profusely and had back pain.
On the evening of September 2, we watched the handover ceremony of the remains of the eighth batch of martyrs of the Korean Chinese Volunteer Army. I was thrilled and especially fulfilled to see the coffin covered with the Chinese flag and escorted to China.
When I took a break from school last year to join the army, I heard from my seniors about their experiences in the exhumation of the remains, and I wanted to sign up.
Although I was born in South Korea, I also have special feelings for China. In 2004, when I was 5 years old, because my father went to China to do business, I came to live in China with my mother, lived for 16 years, followed my father to run around, Guangzhou for 9 years, Xi'an for 2 years, Beijing for 5 years, until last year I returned to South Korea to serve.
In the past 16 years, with the rapid development of China, the life of our family has become better and better. Most of my friends are Chinese, the school I went to was a Chinese school, and the food I ate was also Chinese. These 16 years of life have made me feel that China is more like my hometown, but every time I go back to South Korea for vacation or visit relatives, I feel like I am traveling.
I am now serving in the military in South Korea, and I also feel that I have left my hometown. I miss my friends in China, my college life, and my favorite egg sausage powder and oil noodles. It was Chinese culture that deeply changed me and created me. China is my second home. I was eager to do something for these two families.
In March this year, due to the epidemic, I volunteered at Incheon Airport in South Korea. I worked as a translator for about a month, and every day, there were three or four flights from China to South Korea, and I was responsible for explaining the quarantine precautions to the Chinese and helping them.
Now, through my own actions, I would like to tell the Chinese volunteers who sacrificed their lives: My predecessors are working hard, we are working hard, and my descendants will not give up until they send every martyr back to their hometown where you are eagerly awaiting.
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Source: Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News