In 2020, the movie "Eight Hundred" directed by Guan Hu was screened nationwide and eventually became the global box office champion of the year.
The fire of this movie also made the last battle of the Battle of Songhu, that is, the battle of the "Eight Hundred Heroes" who insisted on holding the Shanghai Sihang Warehouse, famous in the world, and the commander of Xie Jinyuan, played by Du Chun, was the most eye-catching.
Poster of the movie "Eight Hundred"
After watching the film, the audience naturally turned their attention to the fierce battle more than eighty years ago, and also developed a strong interest in the real General Xie Jinyuan in history.
In fact, Xie Jinyuan was able to make heroic and fearless sacrifices in the face of the Japanese Kou, and his wife Ling Weicheng was not simple, her experience was legendary. So, why is this woman so great?
To answer this question, we must first start with the bloody battle in the Sihang Warehouse.
【Text】
After the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, Japanese imperialism began to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China, and on August 13, the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack on Shanghai. In the face of the fierce offensive of the enemy, the Chinese army launched a courageous counterattack, which is the famous Songhu War of Resistance in history.
However, the gap in strength between the two sides was too large, and although the Kuomintang army desperately resisted, it was gradually defeated. Finally, on 26 October, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the main force of the Nationalist army to withdraw from Shanghai, leaving only a small number of officers and men of the 88th Division behind the Zhabei Temple, in order to contain the Japanese army and allow the main force of the Kuomintang deployed in Shanghai to withdraw westward.
In the end, Sun Yuanliang, the commander of the 88th Division, decided to send Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan, deputy commander of the 524th Regiment, to lead the troops to guard the Sihang warehouse.
Xie Jinyuan
Although it was a life of nine deaths to carry out this task, and Xie Jinyuan was well aware that Chiang Kai-shek had planned to sacrifice this small force to gain the sympathy and support of the international community, he still accepted this task for the sake of the country without hesitation.
The reason why he dared to put life and death aside in this way was because Xie Jinyuan deliberately let his wife Ling Weicheng return to his hometown in Jialing, Guangdong province, to avoid the war before participating in the Battle of Songhu, and he was already unconcerned at the moment.
In fact, since Xie and Dai got married in 1929, the couple has always been together for many years, and this time they have become eternal tips.
However, even though he knew that he would be sacrificed, Xie Jinyuan still fought to the death in the Sihang warehouse and insisted on resisting. However, a few days later, seeing that the large troops had been safely withdrawn from Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that the troops behind the palace should also withdraw.
Although at this time Xie Jinyuan knew that once the troops were withdrawn, it would mean ceding Shanghai to the Japanese army. But he understood even more that he could not compete with the Japanese Kou on his own strength alone.
Finally, unable to bear to watch his warriors die again, he gritted his teeth and obeyed the order and withdrew to the British Concession.
Ruins of the Sihang Warehouse in Shanghai
However, after entering the British Concession, the cunning British did not let them leave as agreed, but detained this unit, disarmed and placed them all in the shelter, that is to say, Xie Jinyuan and his soldiers became prisoners.
In the face of this situation, although Xie Jinyuan was unusually resentful, he had no choice. But in order to one day be able to return to the battlefield and kill the enemy. Although the soldiers were in prison, Xie Jinyuan still insisted on leading the training. At the same time, he always righteously rejected and strongly condemned the persuasion of the Japanese and Wang puppet governments.
And after many unsuccessful attempts to persuade him, the angry enemy decided to "make a desperate bet." They paid a high price to buy off xie Jinyuan's four subordinates and let them assassinate Xie Jinyuan.
And Xie Jinyuan, without defense, finally died under the traitor's knife. And this year is 1941, Xie Jinyuan is 37 years old.
Anti-Japanese forces
In the year xie jinyuan died, his wife Ling Weicheng had been living in the countryside of Jiaoling for 5 years. You know, Ling Weicheng was also a well-off lady at that time, not only well-educated and proficient in singing and dancing, but in the end she married Xie Jinyuan in order to pursue love.
Without the help of her husband, several years of hard life also changed Ling Weicheng. She had to raise a few young children while working, which made Miss Qianjin now no different from a peasant woman.
When Ling Weicheng received the news that Xie Jinyuan had been killed in Shanghai, she couldn't believe that the news was true, and after finally confirming that Xie Jinyuan had really died, her inner sadness could no longer be suppressed.
Ling Weicheng and his children
She also remembered that when Xie Jinyuan left, he had said that he would come back, but he did not expect that after five years of separation, he was waiting for the news of her husband's death. During that time, Ling Weicheng was in pain and thought of going to Shanghai to collect her husband's body.
But after calming down a little, she finally dispelled this impulsive idea. Ling Weicheng saw several unsuspecting children, and she knew in her heart that she was shouldering the important responsibility of raising her children, and this should also be Xie Jinyuan's last wish.
Moreover, at this time, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was in a white-hot stage, the situation in Shanghai was turbulent, and the Japanese and puppet armies were very rampant. If you go to Shanghai desperately, then once something happens, your children will be completely helpless, so how can you be worthy of your dead husband? She can't be so selfish!
Thinking of this, Ling Weicheng made up his mind completely. She must turn grief into strength, focus on the future, and insist on raising her children to adulthood even if it is difficult.
If you want your children to become talented, you must send them to school, because there is no future and hope for cutting food from the yellow soil when farming at home. However, at this time, Ling Weicheng was just a peasant woman, and there was no stable source of income at all, so it was too difficult to provide for her children to study in this way.
Xie Jinyuan was also honest and honest in the army, which was very different from the corrupt officers of the Kuomintang, who never withheld military salaries and embezzled bribes. On the contrary, from time to time, he would use his salary to support the more difficult subordinates in the family, so Xie Jinyuan had no savings at all, and his death pension was also a drop in the bucket.
In the end, Ling Weicheng, who really had no way, decided to ask the Kuomintang authorities for help. In her opinion, her husband was also a hero of the anti-Japanese war after all, and in the end he died for the country. Then the country should not sit idly by and ignore the difficulties in the lives of martyrs and orphans.
As soon as the idea was decided, Ling Weicheng said to do it. Because of her family's poverty, she and her children set out from Guangdong and traveled thousands of miles on foot to Chongqing, the capital of the Kuomintang government.
This road is full of wars and difficulties. But Ling Weicheng eventually persevered, and her feats also made her famous in Chongqing, which helped her finally meet Chiang Kai-shek smoothly.
In the face of Chiang Kai-shek, Ling Weicheng explained the difficulties his family is facing now, hoping to get help from the state. I thought that as the leader of a country, Chiang Kai-shek would happily agree to his request for help. Unexpectedly, Chiang Kai-shek's reply gave her a blow to the head.
Looking at Ling Weicheng's expectant and eager gaze, Chiang Kai-shek, although smiling, said in an authentic official tone: "Now the country is in a difficult stage, and when the War of Resistance is victorious, the state will definitely take care of you." ”
As soon as these words came out, Ling Weicheng, who was full of hope, was directly stunned on the spot. After all, most of the rich areas of the country have fallen under the iron heel of the Japanese Kou, and the National Government can only rely on all kinds of assistance from the international community if it wants to maintain normal operations, but Chiang Kai-shek and the top level of the Kuomintang are not difficult at all.
You know, even during the period of national disaster, Chiang Kai-shek and His wife still often held various cocktail parties during their stay in Chongqing, spending countless amounts of money and living in luxury.
Chiang Kai-shek
However, because of Chiang Kai-shek's own arrogance and extravagance, the senior officials of the Kuomintang government also competed for corruption and bribery, and even more wanton expropriation and tyranny against the poor people. As a result, although the country is becoming more and more difficult, their pockets are getting bigger and bigger.
Therefore, in the face of Ling Weicheng's request for help, chiang kai-shek at that time could have a little compassion and let their orphans and widows out of the predicament was simply a show of hands, but he was unwilling to do so. Why? The root cause is that they have lost their usefulness.
You must know that after the National Government let Xie Jinyuan lead the ministry, it actually took him as a victim. And when Xie Jinyuan and others were trapped in the British Concession, in fact, they had already lost their value.
Therefore, although her husband sacrificed for the country, the orphans of the martyrs could not be well cared for, which was the national government at that time. However, it was really pitiful to look at Ling Weicheng and a few children, plus there was already public opinion paying attention to this matter at that time, in order not to cause trouble
Annoyed, in the end, Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly agreed to give Ling Weicheng very little money.
In desperation, Ling Weicheng had to return to the countryside of Guangdong with this money. However, the money given by Chiang Kai-shek was really pitiful, but Ling Weicheng could only be more diligent and thrifty. In this case, Xie Jinyuan's children are also very sensible, they understand the difficulties of their mothers, so they have also cultivated the habit of hardship and simplicity.
But although life is poor, Ling Weicheng has not relaxed the education of children in the slightest, even if he does not eat or drink, he must insist on sending his children to school. To this end, she often encouraged the children to say: "You must study well, if you can't become a talent in the future, how can I have the face to see your father?" ”
In this difficult life, Ling Weicheng's children slowly grew up, and Ling Weicheng himself slowly grew old, and they finally waited for the victory of the War of Resistance.
Because of his dead husband in his heart, Ling Weicheng did not go to Chongqing at the first time to find Chiang Kai-shek to fulfill his original promise, but hoped to go to Shanghai immediately to worship his husband. Because it is not only the place where her husband died, but also her hometown. From the beginning to the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Ling Weicheng had not returned to Shanghai for nearly a decade.
After arriving in Shanghai, because Xie Jinyuan became a household name in Shanghai, Ling Weicheng quickly found her husband's grave. Before coming to the tombstone, thinking of Ling Weicheng, who was already separated from her husband by yin and yang, I couldn't help but recall the scene of love when the two were together. Suddenly, I was so sad that I couldn't help myself and I couldn't cry.
Xie Jinyuan's tombstone
But after the grief eased, Ling Weicheng finally had time to take a closer look at her husband's grave. But when I saw the pines and greenery standing around me, I was not only confused in my heart.
It turned out that Xie Jinyuan's grave had been cleaned and repaired over the years, and in addition to some Shanghai citizens who spontaneously came to worship, the main people who undertook these tasks were several veterans under Xie Jinyuan's command, who insisted on guarding Xie Jinyuan's soul for four years.
After learning that Ling Weicheng had come to worship, these veterans also came to meet with her, but when they learned that the widow of the old regiment leader was now so difficult, they were also remorseful and in tears.
In fact, the veterans who guarded the Sihang warehouse were not in a very good situation, and after becoming prisoners of the British, they were not only not regarded as anti-Japanese heroes, but were completely abandoned by the Kuomintang government. After the assassination of their regimental commander Xie Jinyuan, their situation was even more difficult.
Tribute to Xie Jinyuan
Some of them were injured but could not be healed, some of them fell ill and fell ill, and even half of the troops who had been more than 300 people have survived.
Although they were heroes of the Anti-Japanese Resistance, after they were abandoned, the Kuomintang government gave them neither any pension nor honor, and they did not have any stable source of livelihood.
After learning what happened to them, Ling Weicheng temporarily put aside his family and instead decided to help her husband's old subordinates.
Because Ling Weicheng was born from a rich family no matter what, he still had some insight. So she took out her small savings and came to the newspaper, hoping to use public opinion to add strength to herself. As a result, the next day, the Shanghai newspaper published the news that "the widow of the anti-Japanese hero Xie Jinyuan came to Shanghai."
It was also the emergence of this news that brought together the veterans under Xie Jinyuan and also attracted widespread attention from the society.
Feeling that the time was ripe, Ling Weicheng decided to take advantage of the hot iron to ask to see Chiang Kai-shek again, presumably he should not be so stingy this time. So she took her children to see Chiang Kai-shek again and asked him to fulfill his promise.
Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling
Unexpectedly, although Chiang Kai-shek was in Shanghai at the time, he did not want to see Ling Weicheng at all, but only asked a subordinate to send her to the Shanghai local government for help.
Although Ling Weicheng, who knew that this was a perfunctory matter, although she had great contempt for Chiang Kai-shek in her heart, she decided to go to the Shanghai Municipal Government for help for the sake of her family and the veterans under her husband.
However, when the Shanghai Municipal Government saw that Chiang Kai-shek did not speak, it naturally pushed it all away. In the end, Ling Weicheng went to great lengths to get a clear answer. This made Ling Weicheng deeply disappointed in the Kuomintang.
But seeing that these veterans can only work as coolies in Shanghai in order to make a living, Ling Weicheng decided to take them to make a career.
To this end, she went out to appeal to all walks of life, hoping that the society would not abandon the anti-Japanese heroes of that year, and then went to Ask Song Meiling for some support.
After everything was ready, Ling Weicheng opened the "Lone Army Industrial Service Society" after Shanghai, using Xie Jinyuan's Lone Army Camp as a signboard to produce daily necessities such as towels, socks and soap.
Because Xie Jinyuan's lone army camp is very famous in Shanghai, these goods are not worried about sales, and the veterans who have difficulties in life can finally settle down.
Although the service agency was repeatedly harassed by some local hooligans during this period, under the leadership of Ling Weicheng, the veterans united as one, and they finally persevered.
In fact, the reason why these hooligans and scoundrels came to make trouble was most likely that the Kuomintang authorities were behind the scenes. Because Ling Weicheng's persistence not only made Chiang Kai-shek lose face, but also the establishment of the Lone Army Industrial Service Society, so that these veterans had a belonging, and they were no longer willing to join the Kuomintang army to fight a civil war, which made Chiang Kai-shek very angry.
Sure enough, such a decadent and dark government was doomed to be difficult to last, and within a few years, Chiang Kai-shek and his reactionary government were completely overthrown, and Shanghai was successfully liberated, and the people at the bottom finally ushered in the dawn of hope.
At that time, Ling Weicheng found the new mayor of Shanghai, Chen Yi, and explained the situation to Chen Yi. Chen Yi attached great importance to her after learning her identity, saying that Xie Jinyuan was an anti-Japanese hero and that his family deserved to be well taken care of. So he immediately issued instructions to help Ling Weicheng's family, and those veterans were also well taken care of by the people's government.
Later, Ling Weicheng's children thrived in the healthy environment of New China, and they did not live up to their mother's expectations, and made certain achievements in various fields.
Ling Weicheng in his later years
Seeing her children become talented, Ling Weicheng was also very pleased, she knew that after so many years of hard work, she could finally have an account for her dead husband.
On January 16, 1991, 84-year-old Ling Weicheng died of illness in Shanghai, and before she died, she had only one wish, that is, to be buried with her husband Xie Jinyuan.
【Conclusion】
Xie Jinyuan and Ling Weicheng are both outstanding sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, and their deeds are worth learning from everyone. Whether it is Xie Jinyuan's fearless spirit of resisting foreign enemies or Ling Weicheng's dedication to unremitting efforts to raise his children, they are the most precious qualities of the Chinese nation. Ling Weicheng, in particular, although she is not famous under the glory of Xie Jinyuan's anti-Japanese heroes, she is still a great woman.