Tengchong, a city of heroes

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. On September 18, 1931, Japanese militarists deliberately caused trouble and launched a war of aggression against China. The Chinese people rose up to fight against the Japanese invaders, which opened the prelude to the World Anti-Fascist War. In 1942, the Japanese army invaded eastward from Burma, and Tengchong became the main battlefield of the Western Yunnan Anti-Japanese War, but unfortunately fell. In 1944, after 127 days of bloody fighting, the Chinese Expeditionary Force crossed the Nujiang River and wiped out the Japanese army. Tengchong became the first county in the occupied areas of the country to recover.

Tengchong City West Dian Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall and National Martyrs Cemetery are located at the northern foot of Laifeng Mountain and on the banks of the Dieshui River, with an area of 53,300 square meters. The Western Dian Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall and the National War Cemetery complement each other, comprehensively and truly displaying the historical facts of the Yunnan-Myanmar-India Anti-Japanese War. An integrated Anti-Japanese War special memorial hall. In August 2014, the National Martyrs Cemetery and the West Yunnan Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall were announced by the State Council as the "first batch of national anti-Japanese war facilities and sites"; Awarded the title of "Cross-Strait Exchange Base"; in July 2018, it was awarded the honorary title of "National Advanced Collective of Cultural Relics System" by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Today, let us take a nostalgic feeling, follow the river of history, and walk into the Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall in Western Yunnan, and listen to the heroic soldiers who rose up to fight the war and wrote the heroic song of defending the country.

Preface Hall

There are more than 1,000 steel helmets on the wall of the prologue hall. These steel helmets were used in the China-Myanmar-India War Zone. They are arranged in a matrix, representing thousands of soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and their immortal heroes. Each helmet symbolizes a living life. The sculpture in the preface hall is composed of three figures, the plane of the Flying Tigers of the Allied Forces, the Chinese Expeditionary Force in combat, and the migrant workers building roads. The three figures represent three forces, the middle represents the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the right represents the Allied Forces, and the left represents the people of western Yunnan, marking that the resistance war in western Yunnan was composed of these three forces.

On December 8, 1941, the Pacific War broke out. Japan quickly captured six Southeast Asian countries and entered Burma with 400,000 southern troops in less than three months, which became the main step of the Japanese army's southward plan. In order to defend the only transportation vessel - the Burma Highway, China established the China Theater in January 1942. In March 1942, the Nationalist Government organized 100,000 Chinese Expeditionary Forces to fight in Myanmar. The first expedition into Burma ended in failure due to the unfavorable coordination of the Allied combat command and strategic mistakes. After the defeat, it was divided into two retreats, one followed by Sun Liren, the commander of the 38th Division, to India, and the other retreated to China. In May of the same year, a large area of western Yunnan fell into the hands of the enemy.

Tengchong fell on May 10, 1942. At that time, after one year and four months of training and reorganization of the expeditionary force imported into India, the northern Myanmar counterattack was launched in October 1943. In order to cope with the northern Myanmar counterattack, the western Yunnan expeditionary force also carried out Counterattack, on January 27, 1945, the Chinese troops stationed in India and the Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force joined forces in Mangyou, Burma.

Burma Highway

The starting point of the Yunnan-Burma Highway is Kunming. After passing through Chuxiong, Dali, Baoshan, Longling, Mangshi, and Guomen Wanding, it arrives at Lashio City, Myanmar, with a total length of 1,146 kilometers. Yunnan Province is responsible for building the entire length of the section from Kunming to Wanding 959.2 kilometers. At that time, the construction of the Yunnan-Burma Highway was the effort of the whole Yunnan. 200,000 people in western Yunnan brought their own rations and tools to build the road. Women ranging from 60 years old to children of a few years old participated in the road construction. There were no tools. Mechanization, it can be said that the Burma Road is a "vessel" that the people in western Yunnan forcibly dig out with their fingers. During the road construction period, nearly 3,000 workers died on the road construction field, and nearly 20,000 people were injured. Therefore, it is also called "a blood vessel made of flesh and blood".

Battle with ancient times

The first battle into Burma fought two very beautiful battles. One was the Tonggu Battle commanded by Dai Anlan, commander of the 200th Division, and it was also the first victory of the Chinese Expeditionary Force since it entered Burma. General Dai Anlan, from Wuwei in Anhui Province, was seriously injured during the retreat, and the wound festered and inflamed without medical treatment. He was martyred in northern Myanmar on May 26, 1942, at the age of 38 when he died. After the death of General Dai Anlan, Comrade Mao Zedong wrote a poem for him "Five Laws · General Dai Anlan", "Foreign aggression needs to be guarded by people, and generals are blessed with flowers. The teacher said mechanization, and won the tiger's prestige. The bloody east melon guards, drives away Wo Tang is back. He died on the battlefield, and his aspirations are not violated." In 1985, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China recognized Dai Anlan as a "revolutionary martyr".

Ren'an Qiang Great Victory

While the 200th Division was fighting fiercely with the enemy, Sun Liren, the commander of the 38th Division, sent his subordinate Liu Fangwu to lead less than 1,000 troops to rescue more than 7,000 British troops and more than 500 American missionaries and journalists, and won Ren'an Qiang. Great victory. Sun Liren studied at the Civil Engineering Department of Tsinghua University, and later graduated with honors from the Virginia Military Academy in the United States. He played a very important role in the counteroffensive campaign in northern Myanmar. President Roosevelt awarded him the Medal of Merit of the United States.

The treasure of the town hall - red cane

After the fall of Tengchong, the then county magistrate left, and Long Yun appointed 62-year-old Zhang Wende as the county magistrate. The red rattan stick was given to the county magistrate Zhang Wende by Li Zongren, the commander of the 5th war zone. It is made of Burmese red rattan and is very rare in the world. There are a few lines of small characters engraved on it: "Brother Chongren commemorates, to the end of the war of resistance, Go forward step by step, and the virtues are not bestowed upon you." County Magistrate Zhang climbed Gaoligong Mountain on foot 8 times while leaning on crutches, and cooperated with the expeditionary force and the Japanese army in a guerrilla warfare that lasted for two years. This crutch supported the county magistrate Zhang Wende and propped up the backbone of the nation, and became the treasure of the West Yunnan Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall.

Flying Tigers

In 1941, in order to compete with the Japanese army for air supremacy, the National Government invested in the purchase of 100 P40 fighter jets from the United States and formed the Chinese Air Force headed by Chennault. The U.S. China Aid Air Force went to the country to support the air battle. The planes used shark patterns. People in western Yunnan have never seen sharks. They are most afraid of tigers on the mountains. People think that the shark-headed planes that can fly in the sky are flying tigers, so Flying Tigers That's how the team got its name. The Flying Tigers have three squadrons: Adam and Eve, Pandas, and Hells Angels.

The protective clothing of the Flying Tigers is also called the blood banner. The words "Come to China to help foreigners in the war, military and civilian rescue" are sewn on the back of the flight suit. When the language was not available, the people in western Yunnan would rescue the pilots who died as long as they saw the blood. . William Findlay is one of the rescued Flying Tigers in Tengchong. His daughter William Lisa has been coming to Tengchong every year since 2005 in order to thank the people of Tengchong for their help. This is the 17th time she has come to Tengchong. An American who knows how to be grateful has also witnessed the friendship between China and the United States through the banner of blood.

Battle of Tengchong - Scorched Earth Tengchong

The Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force launched a counter-offensive in May 1944. Wei Lihuang was the commander-in-chief, commanding the 11th Army and the 20th Army, with a total of 160,000 people for the counter-offensive. The 11th Army has 100,000 people and is mainly responsible for counterattacking Songshan and Longling. The 20th Army is mainly responsible for counterattacking Tengchong. The 20th Group Army used 393 rubber boats to successfully cross the Nujiang River. After the successful crossing of the Nujiang River, the Chinese Expeditionary Force divided into four groups to attack Gaoligong Mountain. The altitude of Gaoligong Mountain is more than 3,000 meters. Mount Ligong is known as the battle in the sky.

After the expeditionary force conquered Gaoligong Mountain, they successively recovered the strongholds of Feifeng Mountain, Baofeng Mountain, and Laifeng Mountain on the outskirts of Tengchong, and compressed the Japanese army into the county seat of Tengchong. With the aid of the Allied Forces, after fighting street by street, on September 14, 1944, Tengchong, the first county seat since the Anti-Japanese War, was regained. There are three pictures in the memorial hall, respectively recording Tengchong before the war, Tengchong during the war, and Tengchong city after the war. After the war, Tengchong was in ruins, and there was no house that could shelter from the wind and rain. The shrapnel excavated from the old city of Tengchong can show that most of the Tengchong city is now rebuilt. If the main urban area is rebuilt, such things can still be dug out, which is the scorched earth Tengchong in the true sense.

Battle of Matsuyama - Bloody Matsuyama

Songshan belongs to Longling County, about 80 kilometers away from Tengchong. With the Nu River as a natural barrier, the winding Yunnan-Burma Highway occupies an important point. The 113th Company of the 56th Division of the Japanese Army was stationed in Songshan, with only 1,300 people, but it was difficult to conquer because the Japanese army built a very strong bunker fortification on Songshan. For protection, there are more than 40 mother-in-law forts inside, which are equivalent to a three-story round fortress. Tanks can pass through the second floor, but aircraft and cannons have no effect on it. In order to completely destroy the fortress, the Eighth Army harassed the Japanese army with artillery fire and carried out tunneling operations from Zigao. Two tunnels were dug and three tons of TNT explosives were buried. They detonated on August 20 and finally regained Songshan.

On September 7, 1944, 1,250 Japanese troops were annihilated, and more than 7,600 Chinese expeditionary troops died in battle. The death rate was 1:7, and the price was paid in blood. It is a bloody Songshan in the true sense. The Battle of Longling was the longest battle among the three major battles in western Yunnan, with the largest number of people killed and the most casualties. It was fought for 5 and a half months, and 10,600 Japanese troops were annihilated, with more than 28,000 casualties, a ratio of nearly 1:3. On November 3, 1944, Longling was recovered.

final victory

The "Last Victory" is exhibited in the memorial hall, which is composed of 999 objects piled up. The middle is composed of a rifle and a knife. The steel helmet riddled with holes seems to be telling the past, and the stars of World War II are sprinkled on all sides, accompanied by the national flags of the three countries, spreading the light of this history infinitely to time and space.