Chapter 40 Chapter 39: Changyuan Xiaoqu Tragedy (1944.10)

Qian and Hou Xiaoqu Villages are located in the northeast of Changyuan County, Henan Province, on the west side of the Yellow River embankment, more than 60 miles away from the county seat.In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, our party set off an upsurge of anti-Japanese and national salvation masses in this area. In 1943, Binhe County (later changed to Changyuan County) was established, and it became the central village of the Anti-Japanese Democratic Base, belonging to the second district.Higher-level and county party and government leaders often use this place as a basis to guide the masses of the county to carry out struggles against the enemy. In 1944, the struggle for democracy and people's livelihood was carried out with rent and interest reduction as the main content. Qianxiaoqu was the first key village launched by the county.

In 1944, the War of Resistance Against Japan entered the stage of strategic counter-offensive. Our army shifted from inside-line operations to outside-line counter-offensives. Gather troops and brutally sweep the Hebei-Shandong-Henan border area in an attempt to reverse its fate of imminent destruction.The Xiaoqu tragedy happened under such a dangerous situation. In mid-October, the Japanese invaders began to brutally raid the Ninth Division of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region. On the 11th, 400 enemy cavalry arrived at Shangdi, Liangzhuangji, Zhongzhao, and Jingdian to burn and loot. After the blockade, they entered the Bali Battalion in an attempt to open up the connection with the two pseudo strongholds. On the 15th, the enemy cavalry who swept the earth embankment and sandy area entered the two strongholds. Gaoping massacred more than 50 of my compatriots.

At dawn on the 17th, the enemy cavalry increased by more than 500 people, and they began to encircle the second district of Binhe County from Gaoping in two routes.All the way through Lao'an, Xindian, and Dalangkou southward, all the way through Shaoerzhan, Shejia, and Xizhaodi, all the way northward, forming an encirclement circle of dozens of miles, which is gradually compressed inward.Prior to this, the county party committee got the news and informed the party and government cadres, militia and the masses in this area to move immediately before the enemy.The cadres, militiamen and the masses who had not had time to transfer heard that the enemy cavalry had arrived, and they helped the old and the young, led the animals, and fled around with their burdens on their backs.The enemy surrounded the fleeing people with nets, hunted down young and strong men when they saw them, beat them severely if they didn't follow them, and even trampled them to death with horseshoes.The besieged crowd wailed under the hoofs of the devils, calling for their relatives who had been captured by the enemy.The cries of the villagers and the howls of the devils filled the sky above the field, the baggage was thrown everywhere, and the frightened animals ran around.In an instant, an unspeakable tragic scene formed.Some party members, cadres, and militiamen in the encirclement were filled with righteous indignation when they witnessed this situation. They led the masses to resist bravely and broke out desperately. More than 200 cadres and militiamen rushed out of the encirclement of the enemy one after another.

After a while, the enemy drove the captured people to several open spaces in Qian and Hou Xiaoqu villages, guarded them separately, and howled to ask who was the Eighth Route Army and who was from the Peasant Association.No matter how the enemy screamed, people glared at the enemy, but no one said anything, so the enemy selected young people from the crowd to massacre.The enemy at the east end of Houxiaoqu quickly picked dozens of young people out of more than a hundred besieged people, forced them to take off their shirts, put them on haystacks, and set them on fire. Every time one was kidnapped, there was a burst of heart-piercing screams.In the courtyard of Liu Changshan on the south side of Xitou Road in the village, the enemy brutally killed more than 20 of my compatriots.When the enemy threatened Comrade Huang Xinfeng to kill him.He suddenly resisted and broke free, fought desperately with the devil, quickly knocked down the two enemies holding him, and shouted loudly: "Folks, fight against the devil, run!" He quickly rolled over six or seven feet The high courtyard wall led a dozen people to escape.The enemy shot at them and chased them on horseback, killing a militiaman from Lijia Village in the field at the northwest corner of the village.

Qianxiaoqu was besieged by more than 600 people.The enemy was afraid that people would make a fuss and run away, so they tied them up one by one, some in strings, and then locked them in groups in the house, guarded by devils outside. At noon, the enemy carried out a brutal massacre in four places.In the front field of Guan Gong Temple at the east end of Qianjie Street, in the puddle, the enemy slashed and burned more than 200 compatriots with big foreign knives.The enemy pulled out the people who were locked in the house one by one and dragged them to the field to chop and kill. The corpses were quickly piled up into a pile, and then straw was placed on the pile of corpses and burned with beans and straw.For a moment, the flames shot up into the sky, thick smoke billowed, and the screams of the victims could be heard miles away.After killing for a while, the enemy's knives were not so fast. Some people who were not hacked to death ran into the water hole (the water was very shallow, and the people were just buried after lying down), and the enemy shot around the hole and bombed them with grenades.Afterwards, they threw the ignited straw into the pit and burned it on top of the pile of corpses. The laughter of the enemy and the screams of the victims continued.In the woods beside the ditch on the outer road of Dongzhai, the enemy stabbed more than 20 of my compatriots with bayonets.The enemy tied the captured people to a tree, blindfolded them one by one, and shouted passwords to kill them as living targets.After Xiaoqu militiamen Liu Yincheng and Liu Changshan saw this, their chests were ablaze with anger, and they fought fiercely with the enemy. Heap, not killed by the enemy.On the salt mound at the wall of the Beizhai village, the enemy burned more than 100 of my compatriots to death. The charred corpses were curled into a ball with their hands tied behind their hands, and their faces could not be distinguished.In the sweet water well in the back street, more than 100 of my compatriots were drowned.The enemy forced the bound people to jump into the well one by one. The living people filled the well, and then pushed down the earthen wall beside the well and rolled it on top of stones.In Qianxiaoqu, the enemy's massacre lasted for more than two hours, using extremely brutal killing methods.

The sun was in the west, and this group of vicious Japanese Fabes bandits, who were covered in the blood of my compatriots, left the small canal and retreated north along the embankment.The fleeing crowd returned to the scene of the enemy massacre in Xiaoqu Front and Back one after another, crying and scolding, stepping on the bloodstained relatives who were killed by the electronics.I saw the corpses of the murdered compatriots strewn with blood and water.Some were hacked to death, some were strangled to death, some were disemboweled, their viscera were in disarray, some were smoked from the residual fire, and there were piles of burnt corpses. Smell, unrecognizable, the horror is heinous, it is really tragic.The people in the farm were full of grief and indignation, and they were full of unshakable hatred for the Japanese invaders.

That night, Comrade Xu Feng, secretary of the county party committee, led county and district cadres to Xiaoqu to inquire about the situation.Arrange cadres to help the victims to take care of the funeral affairs.According to their incomplete statistics at the time, the Japanese invaders killed about 690 compatriots in this tragedy.In the village of Xindian alone, 104 people were killed, and more than 30 men were killed.Dozens of men from Huanggang, Anxia, ​​Dalangkou, Lijia and other villages were killed.In this area, new graves are everywhere.Mourning clothes are all over the street, paper ashes are floating, and there are endless cries.How many people closed their doors and closed their homes, their families were destroyed, and how many people were lonely and lonely.The village is deserted, the wind is bleak, the sound of chickens and dogs is silent, and the miserable appearance is creepy.

In the tragedy, most of my compatriots who died were young and middle-aged men.The extremely cruel Japanese aggressors tried in vain to conquer our people by massacre and save their doomed fate.However, this is just a flashback, and victory must belong to the heroic Chinese people.After the tragedy, county and district officials sent gifts to the families of the victims, and sent militiamen and vehicles to bury more than 80 unclaimed corpses.In Xiaoqu, a grand memorial meeting was held for the dead compatriots, and a monument to the Xiaoqu tragedy was erected.At the meeting, the crowd was furious, sad accusations, angry denunciations, and shouts of revenge echoed like thunder over the earth stained red by the blood of our compatriots.The broad masses of the people turned their grief into strength, devoted themselves more actively to the struggle against Japan and saved the country, and continued to fight in order to completely defeat the Japanese invaders and welcome the final victory!