The Tai'an City Archives treasures the old newspapers from the Anti-Japanese War - a copy of the newspaper "Taishan Times" in 1940. The Taishan Times was the official newspaper of the Taishan Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China at that time, and it was also the predecessor of the current " Taian Daily ". In this issue of the newspaper, there is an important news report: "Tai'an carries forward the light of democracy and the county senate is grandly established". This report was written and created by a reporter named Yan Yiming of the newspaper.
1940 copy of the newspaper "Tarzan Times" in the first issue of the first issue of "Tarzan Times". Photo by Jiang Liangliang
In the special collection room of Tai'an Archives, the reporter saw a copy of the newspaper and found the news report in the copy. Although the page is incomplete, the following text in the report is still clearly visible: "In order to fully realize democratic politics, the Tai'an County Government specially gathered mass groups, anti-Japanese parties, and national rescue groups to select representatives to hold a meeting on June 8 to discuss and jointly organize the Tai'an County Senate." In the report, the reporter did not find the signature of the author of the manuscript.
"In that war-torn era, in order to protect party journalists, various articles in party newspapers and magazines were not recommended to sign." Gao Song, deputy director of the Business Guidance Section of Tai'an Archives, introduced to reporters. He said that the archivist also made it clear that the author of this report was Yan Yiming based on the later recollections of staff at the Taishan Times at that time.
Yiming's portrait photo copper negative. Photo by Jiang Liangliang
In 1913, Yan Yiming was born in an ordinary farmer in Xiyan Zhang Village, Qiujiadian Town, Taishan District. At that time, his parents named him "Yan Hongzhi". After becoming an adult, he took the beautiful meaning of "becoming brighter" and changed his name to "Yan Yiming". Yan Yiming was diligent and studious since childhood. In 1931, he was admitted to Shandong Provincial No. 3 Middle School located on the east side of Daimiao . In 1934, he entered Jinan Normal School for further studies. When he was a student, he not only had excellent grades, but also had a wide range of interests and versatile talents.
"I heard from my mother that my young father was not only good at painting, sculpture, radio, foreign languages, but also knew embroidery. He was particularly proficient in music, and he played erhu very well. I heard that he could play erhu with his feet." Yan Jianhua, the son of 78-year-old Yan Yiming, recalled.
While studying, under the guidance of the party organization, Yan Yiming agreed with progressive ideas very early. In 1937, the July 7 Incident broke out. After graduation and returning home, Yan Yiming resolutely participated in the revolution and devoted himself to the Anti-Japanese and National Rescue Movement. In early 1938, he honorably joined the Communist Party of China, and later served as secretary of the Yan Zhangcun Party Branch and head of the Art Troupe of the Shandong Central Military Region.
According to Yan Jianhua, during his tenure as the Party Branch Secretary of Yan Zhang Village, Yan Yiming often went to Shanyang Village, Maoci Village, Xujiazhuang and other places near 号海江海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海海
In the special room of the Laiwu office area of Jinan Archives, there is a special stone slab hidden. The stone slab is made of two pieces of residual parts, about 0.6 meters long and 0.4 meters wide. It is engraved with two newspaper pages. The page numbers are second and third pages. The engraved characters are both reverse characters. The four words "Taishan Times" are engraved at the head of the page. The publication date is November 29, 1941. Among them, the content of the third page is international news, and the headline is a report on the Soviet-German War.
staff showed reporters the printing stone slab of the Taishan Times. Photo by Jiang Liangliang
According to Lu Shouhe, a staff member of the Laiwu Office District of Jinan Archives, the stone slab was discovered by the people of Fanggan Village, Laiwu in the early 1980s while arable land. It was the printed stone slab of the Taishan Times, the official newspaper of the Taishan Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China during the War of Resistance Against Japan.
The Taishan Times was founded in 1939 and is the only newspaper founded by the prefectural committee in the Shandong base area during the War of Resistance Against Japan. When the Japanese invaders implemented the "iron wall encirclement" and the provincial party committee's official newspaper could not be delivered, the "Taishan Times" was regarded as a treasure by cadres and masses in the base area of Taishan District, which greatly encouraged the morale of the War of Resistance.
According to reports, the Taishan Times was issued every three days, with each issue opening and 4 editions, and each edition could accommodate about 3,000 words.Among them, the first edition publishes important news and editorials, the second edition publishes news in this district, the third edition publishes international news, and the fourth edition includes columns, literature and art, etc. About 1,000 newspapers are printed and distributed to various troops, agencies, counties, districts and villages through the wartime post office one by one. Lu Shouhe believes that because the economic conditions of the editorial department of the Taishan Times were limited at that time, it was unlikely that the new stone carving would be used to make the layout every time. They are likely to smooth out the stone slabs after printing an issue of the newspaper, and then re-engrave them and use them repeatedly.
Taishan Times former site. Photo by Jiang Liangliang
Woyunpu Village, Chayekou Town, Laiwu District, Jinan City has beautiful mountains and rivers, and the scenery is comparable to that of the Jiangnan water town. Under the guidance of cultural and historical workers in Chayekou Town, the reporter visited several ancient stone houses with mottled walls in the village, which are the former site of the Taishan Times. The printed stone slabs and the former site of the stone house jointly witnessed Yan Yiming's red life with a pen as a sword.
In early July 2022, in a community of Ma'anshan Road, Shizhong District, Jinan City, the reporter was fortunate to interview Mr. Fang Zheng, the only living journalist at the Taishan Times. Founder was born in 1923 and his ancestral home is Yanzhou, Shandong. When he was interviewed, he was 99 years old and was still in good spirits. In 1942, Fang Zheng, who was 19 years old at the time and was smart and witty, was selected by the party organization to serve as a reporter and became Yan Yiming's colleague. "The first meeting of the Tai'an County Senate was reported by Yan Yiming." Recalling that back then, Fang Zheng couldn't help crying many times and kept saying that Yan Yiming was a "good colleague." According to Founder's recollection, Yan Yiming first worked as a literary reporter, and later was responsible for the newspaper's logistics and procurement, and did a great job in all aspects.
In mid-October 1942, the Taishan Prefectural Committee, the Special Administration Commission and the Military Sub-district were stationed in the mountainous area in northern Laiwu. After the enemy obtained the information, they gathered more than 6,000 Japanese and puppet troops from Tai'an, Laiwu, Zhangqiu and other places, and attacked in various directions. The party, government and military organs stationed in the area of Chayekou were unfortunately surrounded. The personnel of various agencies rose up to break through and fought fiercely with the enemy near Dongjiayu, Jishan.
"At that time, we, the officers, ran to Jishan, the center of the enemy's siege, but could not escape. Later, statistics showed that a total of 262 comrades were sacrificed. Almost all of our colleagues in the newspaper were killed, and many of them were burned to death by the Japanese invaders. The Japanese invaders stacked up the injured comrades, poured oil, and lit..." Recalling the cruel massacres of the Japanese invaders on the revolutionary military and civilians in the Jishan breakout war, Fang Zheng choked up several times.
In the breakout, Yan Yiming was pierced by a bullet and he used a willow stump to hold the wound down and barely stopped the bleeding. Because he did not want to leave any items or equipment to the Japanese invaders, he dug holes on the ground with his bare hands and buried his pistols, pocket watches, pens and other personal belongings into the soil one by one. Afterwards, he endured the pain and lay in the grass all night, but fortunately he was not found by the Japanese army. The next day, Yan Yiming was discovered by his brothers and survived.
Since October 1945, Shandong has successively dispatched troops and cadres to the Northeast region. Yan Yiming was ordered to go to the Liaoyang Regional Office of Liaoning Province and worked in the Trade Bureau. In June 1946, the Kuomintang army invaded the Northeast Liberated Area on a large scale. In October, the troops advanced to , Liaoning . Because of the large number of enemies and we were few, Yan Yiming and his comrades all died heroically when they broke through. At that time, he was only 33 years old.
Yiming's work photos and works photos during his lifetime. Photo by Jiang Liangliang
On June 15, 2022, Yan Yiming's son Yan Jianhua donated a total of 16 archives of Yan Yiming's martyrs, including old photos, photo negatives, family letters, and memoirs to the Tai'an Archives for free. "At that time, there were always people who were wondering: Can intellectuals resist Japan and fight? My father fully responded to this question by using his life of bravery with his pen as a sword, ink as a tip, and words as a blade, and his spirit of loyalty to serve the country and ready to die will be immortal." Looking back on his father's short and glorious revolutionary life, Yan Jianhua felt very proud.
War of Resistance Against Japan , on the land of Taiwen, the party journalists braved the rain of bullets to promote the just war of the Chinese people and expose the crimes of Japanese militarism. In the process, they made great sacrifices. Mount Tai The revolutionary spirit of people sacrificing their lives and dying will surely inspire every later generation to strive for the new era and practice hard and never slouch towards the future! [Tai'an Daily·The Most Taitai Security Media Reporter Liu Chang Li Guiluan Jiang Liangliang Yu Yijie Correspondent Pang Daimin]
