Chapter 85 11. The Female Student Army of Fengyong University

Although the full-scale start of the Anti-Japanese War was fixed on July 7, 1937, the preparations for this war by both sides have been in full swing. In 1935, Japan published a book dedicated to describing the situation of China's military power - "China's National Defense", which disclosed information on the strength, equipment, training and other information of a number of Chinese troops from the Central Army to various warlord troops. And one of the photos entitled "China's Detachment of Women" is quite eye-catching. In the photo, Chinese female soldiers are leaning against the military ranks, with leggings tied up, showing a wartime atmosphere.According to the Japanese illustration, this is a photo left by the female student army of Fengyong University during the "January 28th" Incident.During the Anti-Japanese War, there were a large number of female soldiers in the Chinese army. For example, the Guangxi Women’s Student Army organized in Guangxi after the July 7th Incident, and the Guangdong female soldiers organized by Long Wenyu, the wife of the Fourth Army Commander Wu Qiwei, all served in the Anti-Japanese War quite famous.The earliest figures of female soldiers appeared in the Anti-Japanese War documents during the "January 28th" Incident in 1932. The photos mentioned above should have been left at this time.

The first batch of Chinese female soldiers who appeared on the battlefield in modern times were actually college students. Where did Feng Yong come from, and why did he act like this? The name of Fengyong University comes from its president, Feng Yong. It is the first private university in China named after a person.Feng Yong and Zhang Xueliang were born in the same year, and the two became sworn brothers, with a deep relationship that would last until death.Feng's father, Feng Delin, was a close friend of Zhang Zuolin, a warlord in the Northeast. In 1926, after Feng Delin's death, Feng Yong took out almost all of the Feng family's property, including hundreds of thousands of acres of land and money, with a total value of nearly 4 million silver dollars. area), founded Fengyong University.At that time, there were nine departments of mechanics, carpentry, and law, with a total of more than 700 students. It was one of the few institutions of higher learning in Northeast China.

Feng Yong is quite a princeling, he can fly planes (later he served in the top ranks of the Kuomintang Air Force), he likes to act rashly, has a wide range of hobbies, and is generous. At the same time, he has a strong patriotism and love for the country. Quite irreversible.He runs universities for free, but not only teaches students to learn culture.In the face of internal and external troubles, Feng Yong's purpose of running the school is to "create the youth of a new China", that is, to cultivate new youth with new ideas and the ability to defend and build the country. Therefore, students must receive military training.Feng Yong stipulated that, in addition to the courses that should be taught in the classroom, everyone should receive military training and practice compulsory exercise for one hour a day. Even if it is snowy in severe winter, students should practice hard on the snow repeatedly to strengthen their physical fitness. Cultivate its spirit of hard work and hard work.At that time, people in Shenyang compared Fengyong University with the two military camps of Dongdaying and Beidaying, and called it "West Daying".The students who had undergone such training became the backbone of the student army of Fengyong University.

Since its school education has always been based on patriotism, independence and freedom, the Japanese army has long been dissatisfied with it. During the "September 18th" Incident, Feng Yong was placed under house arrest, and the Japanese army ransacked Feng Yong University.Later, Feng Yong was hijacked to Tokyo, Japan, and escaped from the tiger's mouth with the help of a Japanese friend.After arriving in Peiping, Feng Yong quickly organized the teachers and students of Feng Yong University who had evacuated to Peiping to continue teaching while preparing to build a student army to fight against Japan. On November 1, 1931, with the support of Zhang Xueliang, the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army of Fengyong University was established. Because Fengyong advocated inclusiveness and equality between men and women when running the school, there were more than ten female student soldiers in the student army, known as "Anti-Japanese Mulan" .

In 1932, the "January 28th" Shanghai Songhu Anti-Japanese War started, and the Feng Yong University Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army in exile was led by Feng Yong to Shanghai to participate in the position propaganda and rescue work.These male and female college students from the Northeast who sang "My home is on the Songhua River in the Northeast" all the way to exile in the pass have done a lot of work on the front line of the battlefield, and their deeds are widely praised. It is worth noting that after the war, in the promotional materials of the Nineteenth Route Army, a group of photos of Fengyong University female soldiers were published, which greatly boosted morale at the time.However, if the photos of these female soldiers are compared with the photos in the title picture, two differences can be found:

First of all, in the propaganda photos of the Nineteenth Route Army, all the female soldiers of Fengyong University wear elegant boat-shaped caps, and the clothing is tailored quite well.Secondly, these female soldiers are not standard in their shooting actions, and their expressions are relaxed that shouldn't be there on the battlefield. In contrast, the female soldier in the title picture wears a big cap and has a more serious expression. This is actually caused by the different shooting backgrounds. The female soldiers of Fengyong University in the promotional materials of the 19th Route Army were actually filmed after the battle.After the Songhu Incident, the Anti-Japanese War in Shanghai attracted the attention of the whole country. Zhang Shichuan, a famous film producer, sent a photographer to take a large number of film and photos in a way to reproduce the scene at that time. Therefore, these photos are staged.

However, cherishing the country and hating the family, the student army of Fengyong University did not go to the battlefield to gild or pose. According to historical records, they did go deep into the front line and participated in direct battles.The task they undertook was to monitor the actions of the enemy navy along the Yangtze River.Relatively speaking, this is a safer task.However, on March 1, the Japanese army landed with a division at Qiyakou on the side of the 19th Route Army, and went straight to Liuhe, the throat behind it.At this time, the 19th Route Army had no garrison in Liuhe, and the student army from Fengyong University was stationed there.Fortunately, Song Xilian, the commander of the Fifth Army of the Central Army who came up as reinforcements, led the First Battalion of the 521st Regiment to arrive in time, otherwise these students might have all been sent to Liuhe.

Thus, there are two different female student troops of Feng Yong University on the battlefield and in posing. There is no evidence that girls from Fengyong University fought on the front line during the Battle of Liuhe, but the documents found by the Japanese confirm that they did participate in the Battle of Rehe in the second year.During the Battle of Rehe-Great Wall, three student soldiers from Fengyong University were captured in the Battle of Lingyuan, including a female student soldier named Yang Shuzhen. According to our historical documents, at the beginning of 1933, when the Japanese army attacked Rehe Province, Feng Yong led his students to Chengde to participate in the Anti-Japanese War. It was around this time that Yang Shuzhen and others went to the front line. As can be seen from the photos, her clothes were also big caps. leggings.

Fortunately, with the help of a translator who is also a fellow in Haicheng, the girl escaped from danger. It can be seen that Fengyong University, and even the male and female students in Northeast China at that time, did not stay away from the flames of war because of their status as scholars. They once contributed to their homeland and left their memories of blood and fire on this page of history. .