Chapter 9 Chapter Eight: Eight Women Throwing Into the River, The Pride of the Nation

After the outbreak of the National Anti-Japanese War, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces were extremely active.The Japanese army continued to lengthen the front line and was forced to focus on the "encirclement and suppression" of the North Manchuria area under the condition that the troops in the Northeast region continued to decrease, in an attempt to encircle and annihilate the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces on the Sanjiang Plain.In order to smash the enemy's conspiracy, the Second Route Army of the Anti-Japanese Army, which was active in the Songhua River area, decided to march westward as the main force of the Fourth and Fifth Armies to open up the connection with the First Army of the Anti-Japanese Army fighting in the southeast Manchurian area.

On July 2, 1938, the Western Expeditionary Force set off from the coast of Mudanjiang and attacked all the way.During the Western Expedition, this army encountered the enemy one after another, experienced countless battles, large and small, and suffered heavy losses.Especially the comrades of the Women’s League, who fought as tenaciously as the male comrades, only the instructor Leng Yun, monitors Yang Guizhen and Hu Xiuzhi, director of the clothing factory An Shunfu, soldiers Guo Guiqin, Huang Guiqing, Li Fengshan, and 13-year-old Wang Huimin remained. In October of the same year, soldiers from the First Division of the Fifth Army and eight lesbians from the women's regiment went north to the Usihun River.At night, the troops camped at the foot of Zuomugang Mountain.

In October, the autumn wind in the northern country is howling and chilly.Soldiers lit piles of bonfires to keep warm.Under the warmth of the bonfire, the ragged and exhausted anti-union fighters quickly fell asleep back to back... At dawn the next day, the soldiers woke up from their sleep, but unexpectedly, the river surged overnight, and the torrent in the river was rolling, and the ferry was no longer visible.The division leader saw that the river was wide and the water was rushing, and thought that the eight female soldiers were weak and not familiar with water, so in order to prevent accidents, they assigned Jin Shifeng, a staff officer who was familiar with water, to lead them across the river first.Staff Officer Jin led 8 female soldiers to the river, waded into the water first, and swam tentatively to the center of the river.Leng Yun and other eight female soldiers stood by the river, watching Staff Officer Jin overcome the rapids and gradually approach the opposite bank.Suddenly, gunshots rang out all around, and the ambushing enemy launched an attack.The unprepared troops hurriedly gathered their formation, organized firepower, and quickly retreated to Zuomugang Mountain while fighting. The besieging Japanese and puppet troops pressed behind, and 8 female soldiers were separated on the shore.

At the moment when the gunshots broke out, Leng Yun, a 23-year-old but experienced commander, immediately realized that a serious situation had occurred. She quickly led seven female soldiers to hide behind the wicker pass by the river, ready to attack enemy.However, due to the gloomy morning light and the cover of the terrain, the enemy didn't notice, but just turned their backs to them and frantically besieged the main force.Leng Yun was soberly aware that if the main force was surrounded by the enemy, the entire army would be in danger of being annihilated. At this time, she had already put her own life and death aside, and decisively ordered: "Comrades, hurry up! Fire at the enemy and attract the enemy Come here, cover the main force to break through!" 8 long and short guns sprayed flames, and shot at the enemy with bullets full of hatred...

The sudden attack from behind panicked the Japanese and puppet troops who were besieging my main force.They hastily organized a group of people to turn their guns and charge towards Leng Yun and the others.The enemy's firepower dispersed, and the main force took the opportunity to charge and break through the enemy's encirclement.However, the division leader immediately realized that the 8 female soldiers of the women's regiment were still guarding the river. They were alone and lacked ammunition. The army attacked and wanted to rescue Leng Yun and the others through a fierce attack, but the enemy blocked the passage on the shore with fierce firepower, and the troops completely severed contact with the eight female soldiers.

Leng Yun hid behind the wicker pass and calmly directed the soldiers to shoot at the Japanese and puppet troops.Suddenly, she found that the troops who had broken out rushed back again, and immediately realized that this was the comrades who had come to rescue them and the danger of such a fierce battle, so she commanded all the female soldiers desperately to shout: "Comrades! Hurry up and rush out!" Keep your guns in your hands and fight to the end!" Amidst the gunshots, the comrades heard the shouts of eight female soldiers, regardless of the danger of falling into a tight siege again, braving the enemy's intensive firepower, they launched another desperate attack.However, two consecutive charges were unsuccessful, and more and more soldiers were injured.At this moment, the sky is getting brighter, and the Japanese and puppet troops are gradually moving to the two wings.At this time, if the troops are encircled again, there is a danger of the entire army being wiped out.For the great cause of anti-Japanese war, the teacher leader reluctantly ordered that the team withdraw to the dense forest on the west side of Zuoshugang...

Seeing that the main force of the Anti-United Forces had escaped their siege, the Japanese and puppet troops turned their guns and joined the troops attacking the river, and rushed towards Leng Yun and the others.The 8 female warriors ambushing behind the Liutiaotong continued to fight back at the enemy.Howling, wolf-like enemies rushed towards the shore.Leng Yun asked everyone to prepare grenades, and when the enemy was about to approach Liutiaotong, he shouted: "Fight!" They were blown to pieces, and the rest hurriedly turned around and ran back.The enemies who had been hit head-on couldn't figure out the details of the wicker tunnel, and they didn't dare to act rashly, so they scattered into a line, lying on the ground, and fired into it with intensive firepower.The bullets whizzed past the heads of the eight female soldiers with a trembling sound.

"Comrades, save bullets and wait until the enemy approaches!" Leng Yun whispered to her comrades.They stopped shooting, the wicker tunnel fell silent, and the soldiers fell on the ground, watching the enemy's movements.In order to deal with the enemy's attack after dawn, they opened the distance between each other, and at the same time they found that their ammunition was running out. The sun is slowly rising from the horizon, the sky is cloudless in late autumn, and the Usihun River is shining with sparkling waves, only the sky above the two banks is filled with gunpowder smoke.The enemy's artillery fired more intensively towards the shore, exploding repeatedly around the wicker pass, setting off a column of smoke from time to time, the wicker was burned to "peeling" sound, and several wide gaps were exposed in the hidden places of the soldiers.Leng Yun was about to command the soldiers to withdraw from the position, when suddenly the artillery fire stopped, and the enemy soldiers rushed towards them in three groups.

Guns were fired from three directions at the same time, and they rushed aggressively.The enemy was approaching, and Leng Yun directed the soldiers to prepare grenades while shooting; the grenades were thrown in three directions at the same time, and exploded in the enemy group.After the gunpowder smoke passed, the enemy rushed up again.The second batch of grenades exploded in the enemy group again.The Japanese and puppet troops suffered heavy casualties and retreated again.Leng Yun quickly seized the gap and checked the casualties and ammunition of the soldiers.The bullets are gone, and there are only 3 grenades left.Huang Guiqing and Guo Guizhen were wounded, and their tattered clothes were stained red with blood.But at this moment, a billowing fire ignited the willow branches beside them, and with the help of the autumn wind, the flame quickly spread to their sides.An Shunfu, Hu Xiuzhi and other four people frantically beat them with their clothes.Seeing this, Leng Yun immediately directed everyone to use the cover of thick smoke and fire to quickly evacuate to the water's edge and the river, and lie down under the cover of the slope on the bank.

The enemy moved forward again.Now, Leng Yun and the others are in a desperate situation facing the enemy on three sides and the water on the other. They realized that none of the eight people can swim, and there are only two ways left: die in battle or be captured.Leng Yun looked at his comrades affectionately, and said firmly: "Comrades, we are members of the Communist Party and fighters of the Anti-Japanese Union. We would rather die than be prisoners! Now we are out of ammunition and food, so we can only wade across the river. Just look for the military headquarters to continue to fight against Japan and fight to the end; if you can’t make it through, you’d rather die in the river! It’s our greatest honor to fight and die for the cause of the liberation of the motherland!”

"Yes, cross the river! I would rather die standing than live on my knees!" The seven soldiers supported each other, stood up from the slope, and prepared to enter the water to cross the river.The enemy howled and rushed to the shore again. Leng Yun looked at the approaching enemy, and ordered: "Comrades, hurry up! Get into the water and cross the river!" At the same time, An Shunfu, Yang Guizhi and others each held a grenade and stood behind .They threw the last three grenades at the enemy group together, and then, while the enemy was lying down, they helped each other down the river.Suddenly, several bullets flew from a distance, and 13-year-old Wang Huimin threw himself forward and fell down. Just as Leng Yun was going to hug her, a bullet hit her shoulder, and Hu Xiuzhi hurriedly helped her up.An Shunfu picked up Xiao Wang, Leng Yun covered the wound with his hands, and led the soldiers to the depths of the Wusihun River... The enemy rushed up.They looked at the female warriors walking towards the center of the river in the torrent, and they were stunned. They scattered in groups on the bank, jumping and shouting, trying to get the female warriors to go ashore and surrender. The eight heroines walked forward without looking back.The river submerged their legs and their waists, and they struggled forward without fear.The enemies on the bank were disappointed, and dense bullets were fired into the river in rows, whizzing past the heads and sides of the female soldiers.They lay down in the water for a while, struggled for a while, and suddenly, several shells flew towards them, and immediately set off a huge wave of water column, which washed down their bodies... The gunfire stopped, and the calm on the banks of the Wusihun River was restored. Only the rolling river was telling people the heroic song that inspired generations of Chinese sons and daughters... "Eight daughters throwing themselves into the river" embodies the heroism of the Chinese sons and daughters who dared to fight the Japanese army to the end for the cause of national liberation.Zhou Baozhong, the commander-in-chief of the Second Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese War, immediately wrote "on the banks of the Mudan River on the Wusi River, there should be martyrs in the future" after learning that "eight women threw themselves into the river".After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Communist Party of China filmed a film "Children of China" with the theme of "Eight Women Throwing the River". The heroine's noble integrity strongly infected tens of millions of Chinese people. On September 7, 1986, to commemorate the eight female martyrs, a huge "Eight Women Throwing River Monument" was established.Kang Keqing, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, wrote an inscription for him: "Eight heroines, immortal".