Chapter 47 Section 2 The Bones on the Hukang River

In 1942, 24-year-old Mu Dan encountered a major turning point in his life.In February of this year, he responded to the Nationalist Government's call for young intellectuals to join the army and signed up as a teaching assistant for the prestigious Chinese Expeditionary Force. As an interpreter, he entered the Burmese anti-Japanese battlefield with the army to fight against the Japanese army.Throughout the eight-year history of the Anti-Japanese War in China, there were two upsurges of young students joining the army on campus.The first time was from the end of 1942 to the summer and autumn of 1943; the second time was the second half of 1944 after the Japanese army hit Dushan, Guizhou.

The background of the first large-scale student enlistment was: at the end of 1941, the Japanese invaders temporarily succeeded in the Pacific Ocean following the Pearl Harbor incident, and then swept across Southeast Asia with elite divisions, and the British and American troops were invincible. In January 1942, the Japanese army aggressively attacked Burma, and the Burma-India battlefield was in dire straits. China's only transportation lifeline leading to the outside world was in danger of being cut off.At the suggestion of the heads of state of the United Kingdom and the United States, the Chinese government formed the Chinese Expeditionary Force in February 1942 with Du Yuming's Fifth Army, Gan Lichu's Sixth Army, Zhang Zhen's Sixty-sixth Army and the Thirty-sixth Division, preparing to enter Burma Cooperate with the British troops stationed in Burma.The expeditionary force consisted of Luo Zhuoying, commander-in-chief of the Nineteenth Group Army of China, as the commander-in-chief, Du Yuming as the deputy commander-in-chief, and General Joseph Warren Stilwell (Joseph Warren Stilwell), the chief of staff of the Chinese theater and an American who graduated from the West Point Military Academy in his early years, as the commander-in-chief official.The deployment was initially determined, and the Japanese army received information and captured Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, on March 8 with an elite division. On March 12, the British government urgently telegraphed Chiang Kai-shek, requesting that the Chinese Expeditionary Force rush into Myanmar to fight in order to support the defeated British army.Chiang Kai-shek ordered the newly formed 100,000 Chinese Expeditionary Force to march on Burma.Under the leadership of Luo Zhuoying and Du Yuming, the vanguard of the expeditionary force rushed to the battlefield in Burma to meet the oncoming enemy, and the prelude to the first time since the Anti-Japanese War that the Chinese Kuomintang army attacked the invaders outside the country was kicked off.The expeditionary force, with a single unit of inferior equipment—the army (the mechanized unit is equipped with only one division), launched a desperate contest with the superiorly equipped Japanese land, sea, and air forces in the Burmese battlefield.

The 200th Division led by Commander Dai Anlan of the Fifth Army, the vanguard of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, encountered the 55th Division of the Japanese Army in Tonggu (now Taungoo, Myanmar, or translated as Donggua).They met on narrow roads, and the war ensued.Since the official exchange of fire on March 18, both China and Japan have made up their minds to sacrifice everything and fought recklessly.According to Wang Chuying, the staff officer of the General Command of the Chinese Expeditionary Force at the time, she recalled: "The 200th Division of the Expeditionary Force, which had just entered Myanmar, exchanged fire with the Japanese army in Tonggu City, 50 kilometers away from Yangon. Without air support, (the 200th Division) Division) with cluster bombs, gasoline bottles and a bloody battle with the Japanese army several times its size, withstood the 12-day onslaught of the Japanese army and wiped out nearly 5,000 enemies." This battle was the first frontal battle that the Chinese expeditionary force encountered after entering Burma Offensive and defensive warfare.At that time, the civil war had entered a stage of stalemate between China and Japan, and the war was going on extremely hard, and there was an urgent need for encouraging news.Internationally, the situation of the Allied Forces is also very difficult. It is also necessary for the Chinese army to hold back Japan in Burma, so as to prevent it from deploying troops to other battlefields and disrupting the overall strategic plan of the Allied Forces.Against such a background, the situation of the Tonggu War meant that the Chinese Expeditionary Force became a powerful nemesis of the Japanese army.Regrettably, after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy one after another, due to the fact that China, the United States, and the United Kingdom had different strategic goals in Burma, the High Command miscalculated the Battle of Mandalay, and the internal command system of the Expeditionary Force was not unified. Passive, supply cut off, eventually leading to defeat.Regardless of Stilwell's opposition, Du Yuming resolutely ordered the division to abandon Tonggu and retreat across the river at dawn on the 30th.The first battle of the Chinese Expeditionary Force came back like this.

To make matters worse, the war was extended until the end of April, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force was exhausted in the east, and was forced to retreat to the country and India in two routes.Because they couldn't find a suitable guide for a while, the retreating army got lost in the vast tropical rainforest.The Fifth Army Headquarters of the Expeditionary Army, the New 22nd Division, and the New 38th Division of the 66th Army had a total of tens of thousands of people. With the Japanese army trailing behind and pursuing them, Du Yuming and Dai Anlan Waiting for the generals to lead them, they were forced to cross the wild man mountain with extremely harsh climate and environment.After a narrow escape, the remnants of the expeditionary force finally withdrew to India and western Yunnan.The force has since been incorporated into the Allied International Field.Before that, Sun Liren led the New 38th Division into India after a long journey.Not long after, according to Chiang Kai-shek's order, together with the latest domestic youth army, it was reorganized into the Chinese Expeditionary Force in India, referred to as the "Garrison in India".Due to the defeat in the war, Luo Zhuoying and Du Yuming, the former chief and deputy commanders-in-chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, were withdrawn and recalled to China, and were replaced by American General Stilwell and Chinese general Zheng Dongguo, who was born in the first phase of Whampoa.At this time, advanced weapons and mechanized equipment from Britain and the United States were being rushed to the Indian-Myanmar battlefield one after another. The young students with weapons enlisted in the army and were airlifted to the Ramgarh training base in India for pre-war training.At the same time, because the U.S. Air Force, such as the Flying Tigers led by General Chennault, came to China to help in the war, and set up bases in Guilin, Kunming and other rear areas, and urgently needed the assistance of a large number of translators and logistics personnel who understood mechanized equipment. Colleges and universities mobilize students to join the army.A large number of students responded one after another, volunteered to join the army, and came to the air force base to engage in various service jobs.A large number of young students, including the daughter Mei Zutong and son Mei Zuyan of Mei Yiqi, member of the Standing Committee of the Southwest United University, left the United Nations General Assembly at this time to serve in the U.S. Army Garrison in Kunming and the Air Force Base. This is the first time The historical background of college students joining the army.

After the students who joined the army for the second time received intensive short-term training, as the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan came one after another, the youth army, known as the 100,000 people, announced its disbandment in an anticlimactic form amidst the chaos and howling. There are no records worth mentioning. Whether it is the first time or the second time, in colleges and universities across the country, in addition to students, there are also some young teachers who voluntarily sign up for the army.Among all the young teachers and students who joined the army, Mu Dan, a young teacher of the Foreign Languages ​​Department of Southwest Associated University, was famous for his poetry and prose.

When Mu Dan and other student soldiers joined Du Yuming's army, Du took special care of these young intellectuals (according to the south: Du's attitude has something to do with his daughter's study in the High School Affiliated to Southwest Associated University. In 1944, in the High School Affiliated to Southwest Associated University Du Zhili, who was in high school, met Yang Zhenning, a substitute mathematics teacher. The two met, fell in love and got married in the United States. Let Mu Dan read a few lines of modern poems in front of the army for everyone to appreciate, so as to enliven the monotonous and boring military life and inspire everyone's fighting spirit.When the 200th Division of the Kuomintang Army retreated, Du Yuming, in view of the lessons learned from the siege of Donggua, formulated the tactics of "using defiles to set up deep positions and resist the attacks of the superior enemy one by one". . On the evening of March 30, Du Yuming ordered the New 22nd Division to build several trapezoidal positions on the north and south banks of the Swa River, ambush blocking soldiers on both sides, and ambush landmines in front. There were as many as 12 waves of fierce battles with the five regiments of the Japanese army. Every step forward by the enemy had to be at the cost of a great consumption of personnel and equipment. The Kuomintang army achieved the goal of winning more with less. A rare example of battle was recorded in the annals of the Anti-Japanese War.

In April of this year, due to Luo Zhuoying's wrong command, the Japanese army captured Lashio and cut off the rear of the expeditionary force from the southwest.Since then, the expeditionary force has embarked on a disastrous defeat. From May to September, young Lieutenant Colonel Mu Dan witnessed the bloody battle between the Fifth Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Army and the Japanese army and the subsequent "Burma retreat".Due to the lack of proper understanding of the local environment, the retreat routes of the Fifth Army were all high mountains and sparsely populated places. It was difficult to supply, mosquitoes and ants swarmed, leeches sucked blood, and officers and soldiers died one after another along the way.During this period, he experienced the Battle of Yeren Mountain, which shocked China and the world. He crossed mountains and mountains in the overshadowed tropical rainforest to help his patients. Du Yuming himself was seriously ill and almost died.The fifth army, which can be called the elite of the Kuomintang army, had about 42,000 troops when it went out, and the death toll in battle was 7,300, while the death toll in the retreat was as high as 14,700. The tragedy is unbearable. .Finally, the retreating remnants managed to escape from the valley of death, and reached Lido alive in India.Du Yuming once had such a memory of this bloody battle experience: "Where the troops passed by, there were mostly high mountains and overlapping mountains. Savage Mountain and (high) Ligong Mountain, forests covered the sky, gnats swarmed, The population is sparsely populated and supplies are difficult....From June 1st to mid-July, the rain in Myanmar was extremely heavy, and it poured heavily all day long. The river ditches that used to be used as traffic roads in the dry season were flooded at this time, and it was impossible to cross the river or build bridges. , The countless rafts made by our engineers were all washed away by the flood, and some of them were even washed away by people. In addition, the primeval forest is very humid, leeches, mosquitoes and all kinds of strange minibus (crawling) insects are everywhere, leeches bite, Tetanus followed, and malaria, relapsing fever, and other infectious diseases were also prevalent. Once a person with a high fever fell into a coma, plus leeches sucked blood, ants gnawed, and the heavy rain eroded and washed, he would change within a few hours. They are bones. The officers and soldiers were killed and wounded one after another, and the bones were everywhere along the way. It was horrific and shocking..."

Mu Dan, who followed the defeated remnants of this expeditionary force and withdrew to India, and then withdrew to China in early 1943, rarely mentioned this unbearable experience to others. Narrating, Wu Mi, who was deeply horrified and moved, wrote in his diary, "narrating the details of what he saw, heard and experienced in the army. It's thrilling and touching. It's not as good as discussing...". Wang Zuoliang, a young poetry theorist who was teaching at the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of Southwest Associated University at the time, later had a memory related to this matter in an article "A New Chinese Poet" commemorating Mu Dan.Wang said:

It was the Burma evacuation in 1942, and he was engaged in a suicidal battle in the rear.The Japanese chased him hard, his horse fell to the ground, and the orderly died. For an unknown number of days, he was chased by the staring eyes of his dead comrades, and his legs were swollen in the tropical rain.Tired as never thought a man could be so tired, exiled out of time—almost still in space—the gloom and dead silence of the forests of the Hukang Valley grow heavier every day, less supportable, with a fatality dysentery, to be bitten by leeches and monstrous mosquitoes.And on top of all that was a maddening hunger.He once went without food for eight days.But the twenty-four-year-old, after five months of disappearance, ended up in India with his body dragged.Although he was a changed man and almost died of overeating after starvation during his three-month recuperation in India, this slender, frail poet was surprisingly tenacious, and he survived to speak of his s story.

but not!He did not say. ... Only once, when he was forced by his friends, did he say a little bit.And even that time, he only talked about his fear of the earth, the primordial rain, the strange things in the forest, seeing the sickly vegetation grow, and among the lush green leaves were those who walked before him. The rotting corpse of a man, perhaps his friends.His name is Mu Dan, and he is now a lieutenant colonel in the army..." The "disappearance for five months" mentioned by Wang Zuoliang refers to the experience of the retreating troops followed by Mu Dan walking through the vast tropical rainforest alone after losing contact with the military command system and brother troops.Later, this unit was discovered and guided by a helicopter sent by the US army to search for it. The survivors got rid of the threat and bloody engulfment of giant pythons, poisonous snakes, leeches and strange reptiles in the vast jungle, and luckily walked out of the death-strewn tiger. Cam Valley.

The total strength of the Chinese Expeditionary Force entering Myanmar to participate in the war was about 100,000, with 61,000 casualties, of which about 50,000 died in the retreating Yeren Mountain and the Hukang River Valley.Dai Anlan, the commander of the 200th Division, Hu Yibin, the deputy commander of the 96th Division, Liu Shuren and Ling Zemin, the commanders of the 200th Division who fought with the enemy for the first time in Tonggu, were seriously injured and died in the battle. It is to be hit by enemy bombs or to fight with the enemy and die heroically.But in terms of the overall situation of the battle, the proportion of officers and soldiers who suffered casualties in the battle with the enemy was extremely small. Countless soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Army who did not fall under the guns of the Japanese army fell to the ground and died miserably when they were entangled by giant pythons and swallowed by poisonous snakes during the retreat.In the official battle with the Japanese army, the Chinese Expeditionary Force did not lose a single officer above the regiment leader, but lost four excellent commanders in a row during the retreat.Countless soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Army who did not fall under the guns of the Japanese army fell in the vast valleys and endless virgin jungles. Therefore, Savage Mountain has the saying of "one hundred thousand army souls". Mu Dan, a young poet who escaped from Savage Mountain and Hukang River Valley by walking on piles of bones, and transferred from India to Kunming, could not bear to recall this cruel experience, but felt the staring eyes of his dead comrades chasing his soul day and night In September 1945, with the passion of a poet, he wrote a famous poem in the history of modern Chinese poetry - "The Charm of the Forest - Sacrificial to the Hukang River Valley" "Bones" shows the war, the fate of people in the war and the poet's deep thinking on life: people: Leaving civilization means leaving behind many enemies. Among the moss and vines, on the dead leaves of a century, the voice of the world has died.The green weeds, the red flowers, and the humming camps in the flowers, the unknown insects, crawling or flying away, and the chirping of monkeys and birds, and the swimming fish in the water, the pythons and elephants on land and The greater fear, in the name of nature, all worshiped by nature, without beginning and end, smothered in incomprehensible dreams, my discordant journey disturbs all. forest: You are welcome to come and take off your flesh and blood. people: What voice is calling?What is suddenly eluding me?It showed its eyes behind the green leaves and stared at me, and I moved it to follow gently.The night brings its jealous silence close to me.And the net of trees and trees suppresses my breath and separates the sky I enjoy!It is a hungry space, whispering and whirling, like a wise soul, I gradually understand that its demands are gentle and evil, it spreads disease and despair, and rest, and asks me to obey. Beside the fallen tree, on the rotten leaves, the green poison, you paralyzed my flesh and heart. In the last paragraph of the poem, the poet sang a mournful and mournful song with full of blood and passion: Under the dark trees, by the rushing waters, June and July gone, in the deserted hills, your bodies still struggle to return, while the nameless wildflowers bloom above your heads. You can't bear to tell others about the deep hunger, the impact of the mountain torrent, the bite of the poisonous insect and the painful night, but now it is the shinning trees that have forgotten everything. The past is your struggle against death, you died for the survival of those who want to live, and the white-hot dispute has not stopped, but you are in the cycle of the forest, no longer heard. Quietly, on the forgotten hillside, it was still raining heavily, and there was still a light wind blowing. No one knew that history had passed by here, leaving behind heroic spirits that transformed into tree trunks and bred. "The body is still struggling to return, but the head is full of nameless wild flowers." The helplessness of life, the rapid passage of time, the ruthlessness of nature, and the terrifying beauty of pain and despair in the image can only be found in Hu Kang of Savage Mountain. The river valley can only happen, and only when it happens to the soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, can people feel the great spiritual power of this tragedy.This poem, which contains pain, heaviness, and compassion, and shines with a religious-like divine brilliance, immediately shocked the readers' hearts as soon as it came out, and aroused widespread recitation and attention. Death, a great landmark masterpiece that celebrates life and eternity.Later, the poet created works such as "The Road of Obstacles" that commemorate the suffering and unyielding spirit of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, which shine with the brilliance of humanity and the distinctive characteristics of the times, and have also become immortal chapters with eternal artistic value in the history of the Chinese Anti-Japanese War. When Mu Dan scribbled on the paper with emotions condensed by blood and tears, and heartily released the tragic life that had been squeezed in his heart as hard as a pebble, he naturally did not realize that it was this unusual experience that made him feel alive in his heart. During his life, he planted a potential disaster and planted a seed that put him in a desperate situation. Just one night of wind and rain, this seed will produce evil fruit that contains poison at a magical speed and in a magical way, making him swallow taste. Since the expeditionary force withdrew and returned to China, it was impossible for Mu Dan to return to Southwest Associated University to teach, so he had to continue to serve in the Kuomintang Fifth Army stationed in Kunming and Qujing, during which time he lost his job several times due to transfers.In May 1945, he was transferred to the 207th Division of the Youth Army in Qujing, Yunnan, and served as the English Secretary of the Lieutenant Colonel. Later, he was promoted to the Seventh Army, which was reorganized from the 207th Division and moved to Shenyang. Editor in Chief.With the outbreak of the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Mu Dan resigned from the army, returned to his home in Beiping and prepared to study abroad. ). In 1948, Mu Dan successively worked for a brief period in Shanghai KMT Central News Agency, Nanjing United Nations World Food and Agriculture Organization Relief Agency in Nanjing Office, and Nanjing United States News Service. In 1949, he went to Bangkok to work as an English interpreter for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Boarded a ship from Bangkok to the United States, and entered the Graduate School of English at the University of Chicago to study English literature, which opened another door of destiny.