The mighty Dongjiang River flows east, and the grand Dalingshan Mountain stands tall.
Climbing the stone steps amidst lush greenery, stepping into the Guangdong Dongjiang Column Memorial Hall in Dongguan, the solemn theme sculpture «Iron Stream of Dongjiang, Flags of Southern Guangdong» stands impressively before your eyes, evoking deep respect.
More than 450 cultural relics and over 800 historical photos silently tell the heroic story of the Dongjiang Column, a detachment of the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force led by the Communist Party of China during the War of Resistance Against Japan. Operating far from the main forces and deep behind enemy lines, they closely relied on the masses and persisted in independently waging guerrilla warfare.
The Iron Stream Forged with Flesh and Blood
«We are the guerrilla force of the Guangdong people, brothers to the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army. Our troops gallop across the battlefields of Dongjiang, fighting hard and bravely, achieving glorious victories…» A visitor from Guangxi, Wei Jianglong, stepped into the memorial hall’s entrance hall. The passionate lyrics of «The Song of the Dongjiang Column» engraved on the wall immediately filled him with excitement and energy.
In the central theme sculpture of the entrance hall, some figures hold guns, some raise flags, and others clench fists.
«Who are they?» someone among the visitors asked.
«‘Scholars taking up arms’ was a defining trait of the Dongjiang Column. Early leaders like Zeng Sheng and Wang Zuoyao were university students. Besides university and high school students, there were also overseas returnees, making the force relatively well-educated,» explained the guide, Chen Meng. «The sculpture represents the Dongjiang Column’s distinct characteristics: many intellectuals, compatriots from Hong Kong and Macao, returned overseas Chinese, and many female soldiers.»
In October 1938, Japanese forces invaded counties in the lower reaches of the Dongjiang River in Guangdong. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, Zeng Sheng, a graduate of Sun Yat-sen University and secretary of the Hong Kong Seamen’s Working Committee of the CPC, returned to the Pingshan area in Huiyang County (now part of Bao’an District, Shenzhen) to organize an anti-Japanese armed force. In January 1939, the Dongbao-Hui Border People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Brigade was established. Based on this and after several reorganizations and expansions, the Dongjiang Column was formally established in December 1943, with Zeng Sheng as its commander.
Women proved their mettle; there were over 1,000 female soldiers in the Dongjiang Column. Some were once spirited female students, others were women who had been confined to household chores… Despite their different backgrounds, their patriotic hearts were united. In the nation’s time of crisis, they resolutely took up arms and went to the battlefield.
Li Yuzhen had previously trained with a circus troupe in Hong Kong. In 1938, she came to Pingshan, Huiyang, with the «Dongjiang Overseas Chinese Hometown Service Group» to join the anti-Japanese guerrilla force. She soon joined the Communist Party of China and served as a company medic.
On November 19, 1943, Japanese forces launched a «ten-thousand-person mopping-up campaign» against Dalingshan. While rescuing seven wounded soldiers from the front line, Li Yuzhen was shot in the left thigh. Using acrobatic skills she learned in the circus, she climbed a tree trunk wedged in a steep cliff with her bare hands, allowing the wounded to hold onto her right leg and slide down into a ravine for cover, successfully evading the enemy’s «mopping-up» operation. Tempered by the fires of war, Li Yuzhen grew from a medic into the Dongjiang Column’s first female company commander.
In October 1940, the Third Brigade of the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force, one of the predecessors of the Dongjiang Column, advanced into Dalingshan and established an anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines.
In an exhibition case, the bolt and dust cover of a Japanese Type 38 rifle bear witness to the famous Battle of Baihuadong. In June 1941, over 400 Japanese troops launched a night raid on Baihuadong Village in Dalingshan. The Third Brigade had obtained intelligence in advance and quickly occupied favorable terrain on the surrounding high ground. Civilians waved flags and shouted in the distance, even setting off firecrackers in buckets to mimic machine gun fire and confuse the enemy.
«This battle trapped the enemy for two days and one night. It was called by the Japanese army ‘the most
