On June morning, 1943, Tang Guohua, who lives in Tangchi Town, Lujiang County, Anhui Province, was detained as a "strong man".
1
Some people think that the strong men go to the front line to fight wars and defend their country. Why do they complain? Why complain and run away? It's very simple. A strong man is tortured and can go to the battlefield with a gun alive. There may not be even half of them. If you look at Tang Guohua’s real experience, you will understand.
The security chief sent someone to capture Tang Guohua from his home and took him to the township office for several days. After gathering up enough people, the security chief sent the person to the Tangchi District Office and then transferred to the division-management district supplementary group in the county town of Lujiang .
Like Tang Guohua, strong men are farmers, young people in their teens and older people in their forties. In fact, at that time, the Kuomintang troops were exhausted and they were crazy about recruiting men. There was almost no age limit. People who could hold guns might be arrested.
The food of the strong men is very bad. The rice is porridge every day, so thin that there are not a few grains of rice, which can be seen. Even if there is such porridge, there is only one bucket in the room. Everyone was so hungry that their chests were pressed against their backs. The soldiers brought the porridge bucket in, and a group of people surrounded them and rushed to eat.
If you want to have a full meal, you should not be afraid of being hot. People with slightly stronger bodies squeeze in front and rush to drink, and they should drink an extra bowl even if they scream. Poor those weak men can't squeeze up at all. Thank you for being able to grab half a bowl of thin soup. Everyone snatched too fiercely, and overthrew the porridge bucket to the ground, burning many people. The chief
could not bear it anymore, so he came over to register a few people, and some people who snatched the meal and those who didn't snatched the meal were all taken away. Later, after Tang Guohua, these people were "sold" - in some places, the officials spent money to buy some.
2
Soon, Tang Guohua and the others are going to go on the road again.
The night before departure, a group of soldiers carried several loads of hemp ropes, and a lot of alum, cloth, cigarettes, candy and other goods, all piled in the yard. Afterwards, everyone was pulled out to queue up, and everyone was assigned tasks. One person carried the load, two people carried the goods, and some people had to carry the goods...
Early the next morning, the strong men lined up and realized the role of the hemp ropes: the soldiers put the hemp rope around the neck of the strong men, tied six or seven people to a rope, and no one could run away. After that, everyone carried, carried and carried the goods as arranged last night. Some people also carried stretchers - prepared for the horse-riding commanders and their families. If they were tired of riding, they would lie on the stretcher and rest for a while.
team set off, and the strong men walked in the middle of the road, with soldiers holding guns on both sides, each of whom was fierce and beaten and scolded. There are almost no pedestrians on the road. The people are most afraid of this kind of strong men team, because they may be caught and taken away if they are accidentally taken.
walks all the way to Sujiabu in Lu'an . The team temporarily stopped. It is said that they are going to wait for the strong men from other regions to come before leaving together. Just like that, Tang Guohua and other strong men took a few days off.
said it was a rest, but it was not that easy. One day at noon, the commander suddenly issued an order to take off his shoes and go barefoot to listen to a commander's speech. Why take off your shoes? It is obvious that I am afraid that the strong men will escape on the road. The commander talked for several hours that day, and everyone was so hungry that they finally ended.
On the way back, Tang Guohua was walking in front when he suddenly heard two gunshots from behind. Everyone didn't know what was going on, and they didn't dare to look back at that time, let alone inquire about it. When I returned to the station, I realized that a strong man accidentally stepped on the thorns of oak trees on the road. Because he was not wearing shoes, he bent down to see if his foot was injured.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he bent down, the people behind him didn't pay attention and squeezed up, and the strong man was immediately squeezed out of the team. A chief happened to see this scene, and without saying a word, he took out his pistol and fired twice. The man was injured in the chest and blood flowed, and was dragged back to the station.
3
Maybe it didn't hit the key point, but the strong man was not dead.The next day, all the strong men gathered, and he was taken to everyone again, spanked with a shoulder pole, until he was dying. At this time, the superior asked everyone: "Who is sick and can't leave. Everyone said that it's easy to register and can be put back."
Hearing the superior say this, many people were moved. Of course, Tang Guohua wanted to go back, but he knew in his heart how could he let the person go so easily? Some strong men hurried over and registered their names, but Tang Guohua didn't move at all. Sure enough, the superior quickly followed the registered list and pulled out one by one to spank with a shoulder pole, making the person so angry that he screamed.
was beaten and continued to carry the goods on the road the next day. No one will treat these injured men, and they will not receive any special care. Tang Guohua recalled: "Most of the (injured) strong men died on the road one after another, and no one was concerned about it. Not to mention clothes, quilts, coffins, no one could bury them even if they were buried."
In fact, there are even more exaggerated situations. In "I'm the Minister of Military Services of the Kuomintang", Lu Zhonglin wrote: "There were passing troops in Jiangjin County, Sichuan Province, burying seven sick soldiers alive under the city wall. After the bodies were taken out of the soil by the masses, it aroused public outrage among the people..." The "sick soldiers" mentioned here are the captured strong men.
Jiang Menglin Mr. Jiang also wrote that he was chatting with several young men from Guangzhou in a shelter in Guiyang. These strong men said: "When we left Qujiang, there were 700 people, but now there are only 17 people left." There are only 27 people left in Guiyang for Shaoguan . There are only 1,800 strong men from Jiangxi, and there are only 150 left in Guiyang...
If you look through the historical materials, you will definitely be dumbfounded and suspected that you have made the wrong numbers. But that's the truth, conservatively, at least half of the strong men died on the road.
4
Although everyone was tied together by ropes and were escorted by officers and soldiers with guns, some people still took the risk to escape.
Tang Guohua recalled that when the team marched to a mountain nest in Huoqiu County , a strong man somehow untied the rope and flew away like a fly. When the escorted officers and soldiers saw this, they immediately shot at him. The bullets flew around the man. He did not stop at all, and ran into the pine forest, disappearing.
In front of everyone, a strong man ran away. The commander in charge of escort was so angry that he immediately pulled out another strong man and shot him - because the escaped strong man was tied to him. The commander told everyone: If you know the information, you will be shot!
Most people dare not escape and can only leave it to fate. In order to prevent the tyrants from escaping, every night during the march, the tyrants were arranged to sleep in a small dark room without windows. The room was very small and crowded, so everyone could only sit together, and it was impossible to stretch their legs. It was still summer at that time, the room was not ventilated and everyone was sweating profusely.
The house is like a kang, and it is unbearable to have all kinds of odors. Over time, someone fainted. Tang Guohua fainted once, and the soldiers guarding the gate were kind-hearted and carried him to the door to ease, so he saved his life.
No matter day or night, strong men cannot go to the toilet at will. Whether it is defecation or urine, several people must go together at the prescribed time, and there are also soldiers guards. So, some strong men couldn't hold it in, so they pulled their pants and shit and pee. The strong man did not change his clothes, nor had the chance to take a shower at all. He had to wear it like this if his pants were dirty.
5
Just like that, this army of strong men left for more than a month and many people died. All the people who are still alive were taken over by the 59th Army of the Kuomintang.
Tang Guohua joined the 8th Company of the 1st Regiment of the 53rd Division and became an ordinary soldier. It was a coincidence that half a month later, the company's clerk returned home due to illness, and the company commander looked for someone among the recruits to see if anyone knew the words. Tang Guohua used to go to a private school and knew his name, so he was transferred to work in the company department.
To be honest, Tang Guohua was so lucky to be able to be in charge of paperwork in the company department.Unexpectedly, in October of that year, the entire group was transferred to the Dangyang area of Jingmen , and only a few people stayed behind, including Tang Guohua. This means that Tang Guohua not only has no worries about food and drink, but also has nothing to do in daily life and is very leisurely.
In theory, Tang Guohua can stay here with peace of mind. However, more than ten days later, he suddenly discovered that there were more and more new graves on the hill near his base. He inquired and found out that these were all new recruits who had just died in the nearby garrison, that is, the strong men who had just arrived.
You can see the new tomb of the shanghai boy when you go out, and Tang Guohua feels very desolate. Maybe it was because he was not adapted to the local environment, or maybe he was emotionally depressed, and he became very ill soon. Fortunately, he could still go to the field hospital to find a doctor to prescribe medicine. If it were those recruits, he would have to wait to die.
6
Tang Guohua's condition was slightly better. One day he went to a field hospital to find a doctor and met a relative from a fellow villager. This person was also pulled out of a strong man and was beaten a lot along the way, covered in scars. After arriving at the garrison, the soldiers threw him into the field hospital and no one cared about it.
Doctors will not treat these recruits, they can only lie on the ground and wait for death. When Tang Guohua came, the man said breathlessly, "I'm going to die. You'd better take advantage of the slightest illness and run away from home. Send a message to my house..." He died before he could even say the message he wanted to send home.
Tang Guohua decided that no matter what, he would run away from home and die in his hometown. However, there are thousands of mountains and rivers, and there are wars everywhere to catch strong men, and I don’t know the way, how should I go home? Tang Guohua thought about it for several days, and suddenly thought that the company had a map of China's sub-province, so he stole it.
After stealing the map, Tang Guohua escaped from the station at night and climbed several mountains in one breath. Afterwards, he leaned on this map and moved towards the general direction of his hometown. After a few days of leaving, Tang Guohua was already in rags and skinny. He simply became a beggar and beg for food all the way. I don’t know how many days he left before he finally returned to his hometown...
Tang Guohua’s experience is a microcosm of countless strong men. However, Tang Guohua was lucky because he did not starve to death on the road, nor was he beaten to death by his superiors, nor died of illness in the field hospital.
The miserable tyrant is really unimaginable.
