938, Huaibei Middle School , 13-year-old Ou Xingtian hid in a corner with his eight friends in the same class, staring at a distance. The nine children's eyes were red, full of anger and tears, but no one dared to make a sound.
In front, a team of Japanese troops rushed into the village and drove out all 17 families, both men, women, young and old. Ou Xingtian and the others couldn't understand what the Japanese army was saying, but soon they saw the Japanese army massacre the villagers.
stabbed with a bayonet and fired with a gun. The old man who often greeted him warmly and the cute little sister in the village fell under the Japanese butcher's knife one by one. When Ou Xingtian and the others saw this scene, they wanted to rush up to fight with the Japanese army immediately, destroy them all, and take revenge for their fellow villagers.
But reason tells them that they can’t go out, and going out will be useless. The huge difference in number and strength between the two sides will only make them waste their lives in vain.
9 children watched the Japanese army unscrupulously harm their compatriots, full of tears, but they could do nothing. After the Japanese army left, the children could not resist the grief in their hearts and rushed back to the school classroom.
There were no teachers and classmates in the classroom. The 9 children bit their fingers and wrote petitions on their bodies. Although we are young, we also have to go to the battlefield to fight, protect our relatives and friends, defend our motherland, and prevent our compatriots from suffering such humiliation.
Children all know that once they go to the battlefield, they will die for a lifetime, and they will also make a lifelong vow: On the battlefield, they must help each other. Whoever lives will collect the bodies and guard the tomb for their sacrificed comrades, and at the same time take good care of each other's family.
If you sacrifice yourself, in order to facilitate others to find each other's bodies on the battlefield, the 9 children wrote their names on their little arms with a brush, and stabbed them with needles one by one, piercing the ink into the flesh and blood to ensure that the name will not disappear for the rest of their lives.
Because there was no paper in the school at this time, Ou Xingtian used a brush for cooking pots to dip them in pot ash and wrote a few big words "Down with Japanese imperialism!" on the wall to express his determination to drive away the Japanese devils.
Under such a vow, in 1939, nine children joined the anti-Japanese team, established a sharp knife squad, and walked towards the bloody battlefield, just to protect the country and drive away the invaders.
Just after he went to the battlefield, one day, the enemy's bullets swept over and hit Ou Xingtian's leg. His leg broke and fell into the Japanese blockade circle.
htmlThe elder brother Pan Zhibang, among the 19 children, saw this scene, and without saying a word, he turned around and crawled back into the blockade circle in the rain of bullets, carried Ou Xingtian slowly, and moved back carefully.
He said to Ou Xingtian: "We agreed that if someone is injured, you must help each other. We will not leave you behind. I will take you out!"
Fortunately, Pan Zhibang successfully rescued Ou Xingtian in the end. However, the battlefield conditions were harsh at that time, and there were not enough doctors and drugs to treat Ou Xingtian's gunshot wounds in a timely manner.
In order to prevent wound infection and ignition, I could only take a handful of salt and sprinkle it directly on the wound. I used this simplest and most primitive method to disinfect it, and then wait for the wound to heal itself.
The wound touched salt, which immediately made Ou Xingtian sweat in pain. He gritted his teeth and endured it desperately. Afterwards, because he could not walk, several other classmates took turns to carry him to various battlefields, and this time he carried him for 7 months.
7 months later, Ou Xingtian was barely able to walk down the ground and returned to the battlefield. Unexpectedly, what was waiting for him was a bad news coming.
940, Pan Zhibang was besieged by the Japanese army in a battle and failed to break through. When Ou Xingtian and the others finally found this big brother, they found that Pan Zhibang's body and legs were all punched through bullets. The big brother who risked his life to save Ou Xingtian left them forever.
941, in the Caogou Battle, Ou Xingtian had only 60 troops, while the Japanese army was fighting had 600, and one person had to fight 10 Japanese. The number of people and military equipment strength was asymmetry, and soon our army's ammunition was exhausted. Ding Zaisen, the deputy company commander in charge of this battle, is also one of the nine children and is a good brother who grew up with Ou Xingtian. After seeing this situation, he immediately issued an order to let all comrades retreat, and he and the company commander cut off the back and covered everyone to retreat.
In the retreating team, Ou Xingtian was the last river that marked the safety line, and he looked back, and that glance made him unforgettable for his whole life.
At that moment, he saw the Japanese army rushing up and grabbed Ding Zaisen. In order to vent his anger, the Japanese army who caught Ding Zaisen specially picked a heavy machine gun , fired at Ding Zaisen, and shot hundreds of bullet holes on him. In this way, among the 9 children, the second good friend left Ou Xingtian. In the battle after
, Xu Mingjie was besieged by the Japanese army, resolutely refused to surrender, rather than surrender, starved to death; Zhang Dianjia was hit by a fire bomb, burned to death; Qiao Jingkun was betrayed by a traitor and died heroically...
It was also under the protection of these heroes that Ou Xingtian's hometown, Qingliang Village, Renqiao Town, Guzhen County, Anhui Province, became the only place in the Jiangsu-Anhui border area at that time without the pseudo-government .
Just like that, after War of Resistance Against Japan , War of Liberation, Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea , and finally, only Ou Xingtian, the 9 children who made the oath, saw the founding of New China.
From then on, life has improved day by day, and the motherland is getting stronger and stronger, and it is no longer a weak country that was bullied by others. Ou Xingtian witnessed the happy life that his friends exchanged for with their lives.
But Ou Xingtian kept in mind the oath he made in the classroom.
So with his nostalgia for his comrades, he embarked on the way to find the bodies of his comrades who died and took them home.
After experiencing the baptism of war, Ou Xingtian was injured in many places on the battlefield, leaving behind hidden injuries. As he grew older, his body gradually became weak. But in order to fulfill his original vow, he dragged his weak and sick body and walked on the land of China, crossing mountains and ridges just to find his former good friends.
You should know that it was in the 1980s. Without the Internet, without the mobile phone, it is not that easy to find someone, let alone finding the body of a comrade who died on the battlefield many years ago, which is even more difficult.
But Ou Xingtian still insisted on doing it, riding his bike and walking around in all places where there is news and hope of finding the remains of his comrades. God pays off. Two years later, Ou Xingtian found the body of his first comrade. With the beginning, Ou Xingtian's confidence in continuing to search, and the last body was found 23 years later, but unfortunately, the body of Martyr Ding Zaisen who covered his comrades' retreat and was shot hundreds of bullets was not found in the end.
Where will the body be placed after the comrades found it?
945 After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Ou Xingtian's troops built a Huaibei West Gate Anti-Japanese Martyrs Cemetery in Qingliang Village, which was placed in the bodies of soldiers who died on the battlefield. However, with the outbreak of the Liberation War, this cemetery was destroyed by war, and there was no more martyrs' cemetery to save the sacrifice.
So Ou Xingtian searched for the remains of his comrades and began to rebuild the martyrs' cemetery.
In order to raise funds for reconstruction, he took out all his savings and all his pension to build the cemetery. However, the funds were still far apart, so Ou Xingtian finally reluctantly took out the six military medals he had collected and sold them to collect the cost of reconstruction, so that his comrades would no longer be left out.
During the reconstruction process, Ou Xingtian also encountered some people who took advantage of the construction of the park and made benefits, spread rumors and slandered him. Some local gangsters even came to threaten the elderly, hoping to take the opportunity to get some benefits.
Fortunately, after learning the news, many old comrades, villagers, and some veteran generals gave him great support and extended a helping hand to support the reconstruction of the Martyrs Cemetery.
With the continuous efforts of Ou Xingtian, the Martyrs Cemetery was rebuilt. It is precisely because of this cemetery that Ou Xingtian took his comrades home one by one. After he built the cemetery, he moved out of his house and lived in the cemetery. He wanted to fulfill his original vow and accompany these comrades to guard their tombs.
You should know that this cemetery covers an area of 20 acres and lives with more than 1,400 heroic souls of the Anti-Japanese War has been built, but it is located in a remote location. No one can find the phone number of this cemetery at 114 units. Even the postman has never been to. Old man Ou Xingtian has been guarding for 30 years.
Every day, the elderly Ou Xingtian would clean the cemetery and wipe the tombstones for their comrades.
Someone asked him if he would feel lonely when he lives here? He replied no, because his classmates and comrades live here, and he is not alone.
Every day, the old man would walk in front of the mausoleum, clean the mausoleum, and look at the familiar names on the tombstone, the old man seemed to see his former comrade-in-arms standing in front of him.
He said to Pan Zhibang's tombstone: "We have been in decades, and your family's population has developed very vigorously. You have five generations now, so let's rest in peace."
These simple words embody the longing for the elder Ou Xingtian for his brothers and comrades.
In 2008, after his wife passed away, his family also tried to take Ou Xingtian back to the city from the cemetery, hoping that he would enjoy his old age at home. But unexpectedly, the old man returned to the cemetery that day. He said he would not leave even if he died and would keep guarding.
Until 2016, the elderly Ou Xingtian was unwell and was admitted to the hospital. This time he was hospitalized, which was the first time he had left the cemetery for so long.
After being admitted to the hospital, the old man Ou Xingtian did not forget to remind his family to pay attention to cleaning the cemetery and to keep it clean and tidy.
Little did you know that the old man was already in advanced esophageal cancer at this time.
At 10:01 pm on March 6, 2016, the old man Ou Xingtian passed away at the age of 91.
The old man specifically told the children during his lifetime that he would not hold a memorial service after his death, would not erect monuments, or accept gifts. His ashes were buried in the cemetery and guarding the tomb for his comrades during his lifetime. After his death, he would sleep with his comrades.
Old man Ou Xingtian could not let go of the cemetery before his death, for fear that no one would take care of him after he left, so he entrusted the matter to his grandson. The grandson promised his grandfather that he would follow his grandfather’s arrangements and do his best to take care of the cemetery. In addition, he will also work hard to establish an anti-Japanese memorial hall in the cemetery to display hundreds of anti-Japanese relics and anti-Japanese calligraphy works collected by his grandfather, and fulfill his grandfather’s wishes during his lifetime.
Old man Ou Xingtian once said during his lifetime: "Hate can be temporarily released, but for a country and a nation, dignity must be maintained. My classmates and I, and some millions of passionate young people, paid the price of our lives. To defend them is to protect this period of history, and to defend them is to protect the dignity of our country and nation."
A veteran of the Anti-Japanese War held on for 30 years for a vow of childhood, because this incident was not just the affection of comrades to him, but to protect a kind of dignity belonging to the Chinese nation.
such persistence represents the national integrity of the Chinese people. It is the older generation of heroes who built the backbone of the Chinese nation with their flesh and blood.
allows Chinese people to stand tall in the east of the world and have the confidence to raise their heads and smile!
