Chapter 23 Chapter 22 Yanwo Tragedy (1938.5.20)

At the foot of Yanshan Mountain, 40 miles away in the eastern suburbs of Xuzhou, there is a beautiful and rich mountain village. This is Yanwo Village, which had a glorious revolutionary tradition during the war years.Beside the Baima Spring in the northwest of the village, there is a secluded class education exhibition hall.Seeing the "Human Head Grave" in front of the museum, the courtyard in the west of the museum, and the bloody and tear-stained photos displayed in the museum, people's thoughts can't help but be brought back fifty years ago, in such a quiet place. In the mountain village of Yanwo, the people of Yanwo once suffered a tragic disaster.

It was the early summer of 1938. After the Japanese invaders occupied the important military city of Xuzhou, in order to achieve their goal of occupying Xuzhou for a long time, on the one hand, they quickly dispatched troops to occupy the main traffic arteries around Xuzhou, and on the other hand, they sent troops to rush into urban and rural areas. Massacred and plundered the people of Tongshan.Because the Japanese army crazily implemented the "Three Alls Policy" of burning, killing, and robbing all, some people in the city and the eastern suburbs were forced to take refuge in Yanwo Village with their old and young.At that time, some of the fleeing masses slept on the hillside, and some hid in the reeds. They were weather-beaten, hungry and cold.

In the early morning of May 20, the mountain village at the foot of Yanshan was completely silent.Under the cover of planes, more than a thousand soldiers from the 21st Division of the Japanese Invading Army (the commander of the division, Lieutenant General Jiujin Kehei, was under the command of Shouichi Terauchi) broke into Yanwo Village from Xuzhou, Taihu Lake and other places like wolves. .In an instant, the bloody wind enveloped the entire mountain village.Hundreds of unarmed men and women were besieged in and around mountain villages. Devil soldiers hunted and killed innocent residents everywhere in the village. Jiang Laohan, in his 30s, was deaf and lame, and couldn't understand Japanese words, so he stood on the field dumbfounded.Several Japanese soldiers surrounded him, muttered a few words, kicked Lao Han to the ground, pierced his chest with a bayonet, opened his stomach, and his intestines spilled all over the floor.Little Shitou, who had just turned 10 years old, was captured by the Japanese army. They found a toy knife from him, stripped him of his clothes, and used the knife to stab the child's belly.With a knife pierced, the child screamed.The screams tore the hearts and lungs of the villagers, while the robber standing aside laughed out loud.

Zhao Xueyi from Xuzhou City had come here to take refuge the night before.Seeing that he was wearing a long robe and a top hat, the Japanese devils said that he was "broken and broken!" They forced him to boil him alive in a boiling water pot on the sidelines.Two Japanese soldiers caught a woman like hungry wolves, teased and laughed, and the woman struggled desperately while holding the nursing baby.However, how can this pair of kind mother and daughter escape the clutches of the invaders.The child under the age of one was first torn off by a Japanese soldier and thrown into the ditch.The child's mother rushed to save her own flesh and blood, but was stabbed to death by the Japanese army. An old lady nearby was very sad and angry when she saw this scene. She was about to go forward to save the woman, but she died innocently under the Japanese army's butcher knife .

In less than an hour, more than 200 people were brutally murdered in Yanwo, a peaceful mountain village. The brutal Japanese army did not satisfy their animal desire to massacre peaceful Chinese residents.They forced the fleeing people out from the hillside and the reeds, gathered in an open space at the mouth of Bazikou, pulled out the young and middle-aged people one by one from the crowd, and then forced more than 670 young and middle-aged people into the area with bayonets and gun butts. A courtyard house named Teng.This courtyard house is full of thatched houses, with three main rooms, two east rooms, and a small gate building, surrounded by stone walls that are as high as a person.The Japanese army forced young and middle-aged men into the main room and the east room.People in the room are crowded and crowded, and they can't even turn around.Xu Dianjie, who is in his 20s in Yanwo Village, saw the situation and knew that the Japanese army was going to carry out a massacre. His chest was full of anger, his eyes were wide open, and he waited for an opportunity to fight.When he saw a Japanese soldier coming to close the door, he immediately stretched out his arms and pulled the Japanese soldier into the house. Then, his big hands like iron clamps grabbed the Japanese soldier's neck.I only heard an "oh", and I couldn't make a sound anymore.Xu Dianjie pressed the Japanese soldier to the ground again, and stepped on one foot. In an instant, you kicked, I kicked, and the executioner was trampled into flesh.

The Japanese army began a massacre. The robbers first set up machine guns in front of the door, erected reeds around the yard, and then brought more than a dozen barrels of gasoline and poured them on the roof and the reeds.Several Japanese soldiers lit the fire, and in an instant, flames were everywhere and thick smoke filled the air.Thick smoke and fire quickly engulfed the entire yard.The people in the house couldn't open their eyes, couldn't breathe, their clothes were burned, and their skin was scorched.Everyone rushed out desperately.The three machine guns in front of the door howled crazily, and the bullets passed through the dense crowd, and people fell down one by one.In a blink of an eye, the corpses in the doorway were half a person high.The small window opening was also blocked by the Japanese army with machine guns.None of the people who escaped from the door openings and window openings survived.The compatriots in the house shouted, struggled, and supported each other. Some stepped on their shoulders, climbed up the beams, lifted the roof, and jumped down.But one by one was shot by Japanese machine guns and died under enemy bullets. Liu Zhide, in his 20s, jumped from the roof. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he was shot in the right rib, and he ran into the reeds at a gallop.Liu Zhide's fourth brother crawled out of the roof with his burnt legs. Before he could jump down, a bullet pierced his chest and died.Only Ma Mengtai, Ren Tingsheng, Wu Shili, Ling Zhixing and others escaped from death by rushing out from the roof, jumping off and running into the reed.However, these people have left gunshot wounds of hatred.In this small courtyard alone, more than 670 innocent people were burned or shot to death.

The Japanese army looted and massacred all day and night in the Yanwo area, burning down dozens of houses and massacring nearly a thousand of my compatriots. In Yanwo Village alone, 18 households were exterminated.The old lady Shi Guangrong, who begs for a living, has no tiles on the top and no place to stand on the bottom.Her only son, who was born in the snow, took a mouthful of chaff, a mouthful of vegetables, a mouthful of begging, and a mouthful of feeding. After exhausting himself, he finally dragged the child until he was 19 years old, and was burned alive in the courtyard. At the same time, the villages of Xingpo, Wangshan, and Mazhuang near Yanwo were also killed and looted by the Japanese army.All the places that have been looted, those who failed to escape were slaughtered, and all the houses were burned to the ground. It is really scorched and ruins.On the hillside, in the reeds, in and outside the village, there are piles of corpses and rivers of blood.It was not until November of that year that the villagers collected more than 200 heads and piles of bones at the scene of the burning and killing, and buried them by the Baima Spring at the foot of Yanshan Mountain. They built a "head grave" to mourn these innocent compatriots forever .This "human head grave" records the numerous crimes committed by the Japanese army and the hatred of the Chinese people.

After liberation, in order to mourn the dead compatriots, the Tongshan County People's Government built a "class education exhibition hall" at the scene of the "Yanwo tragedy", educating the descendants of Yan and Huang to remember this history of blood and tears forever.Today, Yanwo, a mountain village that has been baptized by the flames of war, has changed its appearance everywhere under the sun and rain of the party, and the wounds of the war can no longer be seen. However, this "class education exhibition hall", this white horse The "Human Head Grave" by the spring and the "siheyuan" preserved at that time will always be the iron evidence of the massacre of the Chinese people by the Japanese imperialists.

In 1971, Liu Zhide, Ma Mengtai and others who witnessed the Yanwo tragedy held a symposium. The summary of the symposium at that time is hereby excerpted as follows: On the morning of May 20, 1938 (April 21 in the lunar calendar), more than a thousand members of the 21st Division of the Japanese Army, led by Itai, burst into Yanwo Village with guns and courage like hungry wolves.A small group of traitors and lackeys carried plaster flags, moved tables, boiled water, bowed their heads and came out to meet the devils. After the robbers entered the village, they searched door to door, looted inside and out, smashed pots and pans, and slaughtered all cattle, pigs, chickens, ducks and sheep.There were slamming doors and gunshots everywhere, and there was a white terror.

There were three devils chasing a young woman. The woman would rather die than surrender, and she fell headlong into a well beside the road. The Japanese army still did not let her go, and they fished the woman out, put her head down, put her feet on her feet, and emptied her stomach of water in an attempt to destroy her. The Japanese army wanted to humiliate a 70-year-old blind old lady. The old man was furious and unyielding. Zhao Xueyi, who came here to seek refuge from Xuzhou, was caught by the Japanese army, tied up, dragged to the sidelines and put into a cauldron.In this way, in less than an hour, more than 100 compatriots were killed.

The Japanese army started a large-scale search in Yanwo, Xingpo, Wangshan, Lindong and other villages, in ravines and reeds. Chen Guangqing's brother and others in Xingpo Village were found and tied up.Some women holding children jumped into the deep ditch when they were overtaken by devils. The children drowned in the water, the mothers were stabbed to death, and the ditch was stained red with blood. From 8 o'clock in the morning to 12 o'clock in the noon, groups of innocent compatriots were forced into an open space beside Baima Spring by gleaming bayonets.A devil muttered for a while, but seeing no one was paying attention, dozens of robbers pulled the young and middle-aged people aside one by one from the crowd, and asked the translator to talk nonsense about "China-Japan amity" and "coexistence and common prosperity". According to the master's will, the court deceived the masses and said: "The imperial army is here to calm the people. Don't be afraid, the elderly are here to rest, and I will let you go back later. The young people set out with the imperial army!" By the side of the reeds, devils were standing around the courtyard of Teng's family. From Baimaquan to the courtyard, the devils in the front led, and the devils in the back forced them, stabbed with bayonets, smashed with gun butts, and forced the masses into the courtyard. More than 600 people were forced into three main rooms and two east rooms.When the compatriots realized that the enemy was going to kill them, people were furious. The young farmer Wu Shili said angrily: "We can't wait to die in the hall, and rush out to fight them?" We have to drag him to the bottom." At this moment, a devil came to close the door in a panic with a gun in his hand. Xu Dianjie stretched out his big hands like iron pincers, grabbed the devil's collar, and dragged the guy in with all his strength. .The angry people rained down their fists, and their heads exploded after a while.Seeing that the situation was not good, the devils ordered to shoot. While shooting, the Japanese ordered to ignite the reeds doused with gasoline. In an instant, thick smoke was everywhere, the flames shot into the sky, and the beasts began a massacre.Later, Ma Mengtai, Ren Tingsheng, Wu Shili, Tong Zhinin, Liu Zhide and others rushed out from the house amidst the bullets and flames, but they were all injured, and the other 670 people were all burned to death.Kamura Zhu Tingyi testified: "In this tragedy, nearly a thousand of our compatriots were killed, hundreds of sisters were trampled, and dozens of babies were mutilated."