In the spring of 11945, in order to occupy and destroy Zhijiang Air Force Base, the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack on Xiangxi . The Chinese army rose up to resist and started the battle of Xiangxi . Today, let’s look at the war in the eyes of the people at that time from the memories of a 13-year-old boy.
Xiangxi battle
1
That year, Huang Zhen, 13 years old, lived at the foot of Furong Mountain 120 miles outside the city of Shaoyang, Hunan. A few months ago, the villagers got news that Shaoyang was occupied by the Japanese army. From then on, everyone was in panic and no one had seen the Japanese, but everyone heard that if the Japanese army came, they would kill people when they saw them and burn the village when they saw them.
Before the Japanese army arrived, the 13-year-old Huang Zhen felt the pain brought by the war. At that time, in order to defend Furong Mountain, the Kuomintang army began to collect grain taxes and to organize civilians to repair fortifications. At this time, Huang Zhen’s home was only his mother who was ill in bed and his 16-year-old brother. Because every household has to work, my brother goes out with the villagers during the day to repair fortifications on Furong Mountain. After getting off work, my brother would rush to the neighboring village to invite the doctor to come over and treat his mother. At this time, Huang Zhen could only stay by his mother's side every day and decoct medicine to serve.
Fortifications not only have to be released, but also donated grain, and later donated wooden boards. In the end, the door panels of every household were removed and sent to them. Later one day, Huangzhen looked down from the hillside and found that the road from Taohuaping to Nanyue Temple was already full of holes, all of which were large deep trenches. The villagers who started working told Huangzhen that the Japanese had tank and cars, and they could not run so fast if they dug the road.
Huang Zhen’s home has two buckwheat fields on the side of the road. The soil from the villagers dug trenches was piled up on the side of the road, burying a large area of Qiao Mai field. Huang Zhen was anxious and hurried over to argue. The adults in the village said, "Little baby, now the national crisis is in the face of the country. We are on orders. How many tangerines are buckwheat ? The Japanese fight, but their lives cannot be saved..."
2
In fact, the Japanese fight, and their lives are almost lost before they fight.
people digging trenches
Huangzhen's brother goes to repair fortifications every day. One day, he carried the loess and passed by the trenches. Maybe he was too tired and stepped on the empty foot. The trench was dug very deeply at that time. After my brother fell in, he could not move immediately, causing , seven orifices, to bleed. Uncle San happened to be right next to him, so he quickly carried Huang Zhen’s brother home and asked a doctor to treat the disease.
Huang Zhen was frightened at the time when he looked at his brother covered in mud and blood, and could not say a word. The mother on the hospital bed fainted when she saw her son being so seriously injured, and her condition became even worse. Fortunately, Brother Huang Zhen was in good health and survived.
My mother's condition is slightly more stable, so Huangzhen has to go out to work. One day, Huangzhen and a few children from the village went to Luojiashan opposite to herd cattle, and picked firewood and bacterial . Luojia Mountain is also very high, with high mountains and dense forests, and there are many wild plants in and . A few children drove the cows into the green grass on the hillside, and quickly went nearby to dig bamboo shoots and collect mushrooms.
In that era, children in mountain villages had to work at a young age and had long been used to such a life. However, these cowherd kids did not expect that their next encounter would never be forgotten for the rest of their lives.
At that time, Huang Zhen was collecting bacteria with his friends, and suddenly he heard a buzzing sound coming from the sky in the northeast direction, getting closer and closer. They saw through the dense woods above their heads that two planes flew from afar, and they couldn't tell whether they were from China or Japan. While everyone was stunned, the plane had already flown over their heads, and after hovering around, it seemed to be back.
Everyone was curious when they suddenly heard huge guns and cannons. Afterwards, the plane began to shoot, and the branches and leaves behind several cowherds were rustling with bullets. At the same time, gunfire was everywhere, as if war was on all sides.
3
Because of the dense forests, Huangzhen and the others didn't know where the plane went, nor where the bullets were fired. Everyone was confused and panicked.Is it a battle against Furong Mountain or Luojia Mountain? Could it be that they are fighting these cowherd kids?
Five or six children could only hide under a big chestnut tree. They were so scared that they cried and called their parents, and they hugged each other and dared not move. Huang Zhen was older and braver than other children. He quickly calmed down and told everyone not to speak out, so as not to attract planes to bomb. When everyone heard this, they covered their mouths and dared not cry out, so they could only sob in a low voice.
What to do next? Everyone dared not move around. Huang Zhen remembered a few words that he had learned from his grandmother when he was a child, and quickly knelt on the ground and chanted: " Nanyue Holy Emperor , Guanyin Bodhisattva , the Kung Fu Lord, Grandpa of the Cuckoo, Namo Amitabha and other gods, show their supernatural powers and show their compassion. Come and save us from the disaster of gunfire and cannon injury..."
Huang Zhen studied with the private school teacher for a year when he was a child. In front of other children, he was also a well-educated person. When everyone heard his muttering, they all calmed down. Next, Huang Zhen asked his deceased grandfather to bless everyone, because his grandfather was once a famous hunter and was called the "mountain god". In short, gods of all sizes were muttering until the sound of gunfire stopped.
Later, several children led the cow home. When they entered the village, they heard that two Japanese planes were coming, maybe they were just here to reconnaissance and fought around Furong Mountain for a while. The Chinese army also began to fight back and quickly drove the two planes away. The Japanese planes were just randomly fired for a while, but unexpectedly, Huang Zhen’s uncle was spinning thread in the house and was killed by a stray bullet.
Huang Zhen recalled that at about the end of March, everyone could feel that the war was about to begin. The village of Huangzhen is southwest of Furong Mountain, and the Kuomintang army patrolls every day. On the other side of the mountain, there are trenches everywhere, and the mountain is full of machine guns and cannons, and the atmosphere is even more tense.
4
One day, two beggars suddenly came to the village. They beg from house to house. When they meet adults, they reach out to ask for some food. When they see children, they chat for a few words. What is the content of
chatting about? They asked, "Little baby, do you live in a lot of grain here?" "Grain" refers to the soldiers. The children were not very cautious and immediately replied, "Live a lot!" The two beggars asked again, "Where do they live?" Huangzhen and the other children said, "There are all on the mountain, in the house, and in the temple."
The two beggars wanted to ask in detail, and happened to be passing by a Kuomintang patrol team. They quickly shut up and knocked on the door to beg again. However, the patrol team had noticed the two beggars, so they ran over and arrested them into a family for strict interrogation. The villagers were curious and wanted to surround me to watch the fun, but they were all driven away by the Kuomintang soldiers.
After only half an hour, the two beggars were tied up and were taken directly to a lawn at the foot of Luojia Mountain and shot. Huang Zhen and a few bold children ran to take a look. There was a wooden sign beside the two beggars, which read: "The traitor XXX does many evil things, and he will rectify the Dharma on the spot!"
It turned out that these two beggars were sent by the Japanese and specialized in inquiring about information. After they were beaten to death, no one took the body. The children in the village were very scared and would never dare to go to that place again in the future.
Since then, more and more bad news has come. It is said that there is a village north of Furong Mountain, where the Japanese army has occupied it. Some people who escaped said how many houses the Japanese burned and raped women. In a village on the east side of Furong Mountain, the Japanese killed 13 people, and a family of 9 were all stabbed to death in the sweet potato cellar by bayonet...
5
One by one, bad news came, and everyone was very scared. So, why don’t the villagers run away?
The landlord and gentry had money at home, so they put the house deeds, land deeds, and oceans into the box and found a safe place to take shelter.However, most poor families have no money and no food at home. If they leave that acre of three-point land, they can only starve to death. Where can they go?
0,000 Japanese troops entering the village? The villagers repaired the sweet potato cellar in their backyards one after another. The elderly, children and women hid in, the chickens and ducks they raised were also put in, and the only grain was also put in. Only the young and middle-aged people at home still live outside, go out to work during the day, and cook some rice when they come back and send it to the sweet potato cellar.
The children in the village are fine in locking in the sweet potato cellar for one or two days, but they can't stand it after a long time and always run out to play. Later, Japanese planes often flew in, and some people were beaten to death, so the children became scared. But the sweet potato cellar is too shallow and cannot escape people at all. Children make trouble, chickens, ducks, pigs and dogs bark, standing in the yard and listening to it sincerely, but not bringing the Japanese here?
Everyone quickly understood that this would not work. Not long after, the whole village mobilized, went to the back mountain to find a place, dug out a large air-raid shelter, which could hide seventy or eighty people in the village. However, this air raid shelter was not used much later. In mid-April, the battle finally started, and Furong Mountain naturally became a battlefield. The northeast of the mountain is the battlefield, and gunfire sounds are endless every day. The village is southwest of the mountain, and everyone realizes that it’s time to hide.
On April 12, Huang Zhen's mother passed away and the war was raging. Everything was simple. With the help of neighbors, Huang Zhen and his brother simply buried their mother. The villagers had decided to go out for refuge. On April 15, Huang Zhen and his brother carried a bed of rotten cotton, took the last bucket of rice, led the big yellow cow at home, and left with the villagers.
Everyone walked the twelve-li mountain road, came to the middle of another mountain, and lived. Although the children were afraid, they quickly adapted to the new environment, grazing cattle, picking firewood, and playing together every day. The adults were sighing all day long. The brave villagers secretly returned to the village every now and then dug some vegetables from the field.
6
One day in early May, a young man came back from the village and told everyone that the war had been finished and the Japanese were beaten away. The whole village cheered, and without saying a word, he carried the pot and bowl and led the scalper back to the village. As soon as we get home, we hurry up and go to the field to work, looking forward to some harvest this year.
During the entire battle of Xiangxi, Huangzhen and most villagers had never seen a Japanese soldier. However, the war still had a huge impact on the villagers. The battle at Furong Mountain was very fierce, and the two sides fought fiercely, with many casualties. After the Kuomintang army withdrew, the front line of Furong Mountain was full of corpses, and the smell of rottenness could be smelled in the village for half a year.
Not only that, the Kuomintang army has planted many mines and has not been removed. Wild beasts in the mountains often step on landmines by mistake, and villagers often hear explosions, which lasted for two or three years.
Some villagers are brave and go to dig landmines and modify them to fry fish in the river. However, landmines are still very dangerous. Some people do not understand technology and do it themselves, causing an explosion. There is an elder in Huangzhen named Zhou Jiyang who dug up a landmine from somewhere and took it home to modify it. As a result, the mine suddenly exploded, blinding one eye and breaking one hand. Fortunately, the rescue was timely and his life was saved.
The war is coming, and the people cannot survive. Some people lost their lives, some fled around, and some were frightened. In short, if a country is destroyed, the family will be destroyed, and if a country is strong and the people will be safe. Our country must become strong so that the people can live a stable life.
