This is a precious historical photograph taken during the Battle of Shanghai. The PLA soldiers in the picture, sleeping in harmony and sleeping on the street, fully embody the PLA's strict military discipline and the precious quality of "not taking a needle and a thread from the masses."
After the photo was published, it caused a strong shock at home and abroad, some people called it a "meeting gift" from the People's Liberation Army to shanghai citizens, and many foreign media called it the "pioneering work" of the Chinese People's Liberation Army when publishing this photo, and asserted that "the Kuomintang will never come back."
However, when and where exactly was this photo taken during the Battle of Shanghai, and which unit of the People's Liberation Army is in the shot? These questions have remained inconclusive for years, with many different versions circulating.
A few days ago, Wen Wei Po reporters contacted the photographer of that year's photo, the descendant of Lu Rensheng, head of the photography group of the Xinhua News Agency's Frontline Branch of the Central China Field Army and head of the Photography and Fine Arts Section of the Political Department of the East China Military Region, and obtained from them a handwritten letter written by Lu Rensheng shortly before his death that had never been made public before, which detailed the beginning and end of the photo of "the People's Liberation Army sleeping on the streets."
The country photo studio came out of the war correspondent
In October 1939, a new "White Snow Photo Studio" was opened in Changshu City.
This quickly attracted the attention of the local "Jiangnan Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army" organization, and after months of surveillance, it was confirmed that although the photo studio had taken photos of the Japanese, the owner of the photo studio was not a traitor.
One of the partners of Baixue Photo Studio was my father, Lu Rensheng, a native of Bacheng, Kunshan, who was only 20 years old at the time, but was already a "teacher" with seven years of photography experience. In the early summer of the following year, my father joined the Communist Party of China and threw himself into the "Jiangsu Resistance" and participated in the anti-Japanese work.
My father was very low-key during his lifetime, and rarely took the initiative to mention that he later took photos of the battlefield. Until the Cultural Revolution, the family came to investigate his father, and sometimes when he came home, he would say, "Someone has come to me again today", and we surrounded him and asked him to tell this past story, and everyone knew that his father was a big hero.
At that time, just after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, my father was transferred to the front-line reporter of the Political Department of the Central China Military Region. In January 1947, he became the head of the photography team of the Xinhua Front Branch of the Central China Field Army and the chief of the photography and fine arts section of the Political Department of the East China Military Region. Follow Chen Yisuyu to the north and south, and shoot many precious pictures of historical significance. The famous photo of the five members of the General Front Committee of the Huaihai Campaign is a representative work of my father in this period.
In May 1949, after the Shanghai Liberation Campaign began, he followed the troops into Shanghai and photographed all the way.
The triumphant master who sleeps on the streets
When the People's Liberation Army attacked Shanghai, everyone was familiar with the "Rules for Entering the City" formulated by the General Front Committee at the time of the Danyang rectification training; first, they could not use heavy weapons, and second, they absolutely did not enter people's houses. My father was in the propaganda department, and he knew this very well, so he always wanted to find an opportunity to photograph the scenes related to the Shanghai Liberation Campaign.
Coincidentally, Dekelin, the deputy commander of the 59th Division of the 20th Army who participated in the battle, was an old comrade-in-arms of his father during the "Jiang Resistance" period, which was very good. And the 59th Division was the main attack division in the Battle of Menglianggu, and my father also took a lot of photos with the army during the Battle of Menglianggu. On the morning of May 27, when Decklin took to the streets to check on the implementation of the Rules of Entry, his father followed Decklin.
When they walked to the place where the soldiers were resting, they saw that on the side of the road next to the rainy street, the PLA fighters were lying on the cold and damp cement floor with their military hats and clothes untied, their rifles leaning against the wall, and some machine gunners were asleep and holding their weapons tightly in their arms.
The People's Liberation Army also has formations on the streets, not in a chaotic mess, but horizontally lying on its side, so that it extends from the sidewalk next to this side of the road to that side...
Feng Bingxing, who was a cultural instructor of the machine gun company of the 1st Battalion of the 178th Regiment of the 60th Division of the 20th Army, recalled: "At that time, Nanjing Road was very narrow, and more than 2,000 soldiers of one of our regiments were divided into two rows, sleeping from the intersection of Zhejiang Road to the intersection of Tibet Road. ”
Seeing the soldiers lying next to each other in the street, their clothes lying next to each other, my father immediately raised his camera and photographed this unprecedented spectacle in the history of siege.
The next morning, my father handed the photograph to the commander of the former finger, who saw the photograph and immediately handed it to the military and political department.
After strict examination, the photos were published by xinhua news agencies, which immediately caused a strong shock at home and abroad, and were reprinted and published by many media.
Lu Rensheng's handwritten letter was disclosed for the first time
The original photograph of "Sleeping on the Street" is now in the Military Museum. Regarding the story behind this photo, Junbo and the Nanjing Military Region have sent people to visit their father many times.
My father died in the spring of 1980. In 1979, his health deteriorated and his eyes could not see, so he took a pen and fumbled to write down a piece of material, detailing the beginning and end of his photo of "the People's Liberation Army sleeping on the street".
In order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Shanghai, we decided to disclose the materials handwritten by my father through Wenhui Network -
“...... I was sent to a division of the 20th Army, and in the early morning of May 26, I crossed the Huangpu River from Pudong to nancheng (note: present-day Huangpu District), when the soldiers observed the discipline of entering the city very prominently, the order when resting on the sidewalk was very good, the meals and boiling water were sent by the company cooks, and the crowd of onlookers praised them. In the afternoon of the same day, the troops advanced to the area south of the Suzhou Creek on Nanjing East Road, ready to accept operational orders. At dawn on the 27th, I learned that the troops who entered the city had slept on the sidewalk on the first night, so I quickly came to the scene despite the fatigue of not sleeping all night, lest I lose this great opportunity. When they saw the situation at the scene, they were very excited, and in order to liberate Shanghai, the soldiers heroically killed the enemy and even sacrificed their lives. Care for the masses in Shanghai as much as parents and brothers, and do not disturb them. I took this photo in a place where there was a relatively high concentration of fighters in the area west of Xizang Road on Nanjing Road. At that time, the gunfire of the battle north of suzhou creek was clearly audible. It's been 30 years since the liberation of Shanghai, and when I think about this experience, I'm very enlightened..."
Because of this precious handwritten letter, it can be determined that this photo was taken in the early morning of May 27, 1949, and the People's Liberation Army in the photo is a soldier of the 59th Division of the 20th Army. However, not taking a needle from the masses is a fine tradition shared by all the Plasters, so this is also the collective honor of our army. (Dictation: Lu Xiaoge, son of Lu Rensheng, finished: Zhou Chen)