Memories of Maoshan

On the top of Maoshan Mountain, you can see from afar, with peaks overlapping and clear springs gurgling, which makes you relaxed and happy. For a time, it was difficult for me to associate this quiet Maoshan with the fierce fighting and the smoke of gunpowder.
More than 70 years ago, a bugle echoed through the jungle of Maoshan. The New Fourth Army established the Southern Jiangsu Anti-Japanese Base with Maoshan as the center, and sounded the clarion call for anti-Japanese national salvation. In the picturesque scenery of Maoshan, a touch of red is getting stronger and stronger.
In late autumn, I came to the Maoshan New Fourth Army Memorial Hall in Maoshan Town, Jurong City, Jiangsu Province. Outside the memorial hall, surrounded by cedars and green grass, the lawn displays cannons captured and used by the New Fourth Army. Stepping into the hall of the exhibition hall, the first thing you see is the bronze statue of Chen Yi, the main founder of the anti-Japanese base area in southern Jiangsu. He was armed with binoculars, dressed in military uniform, and radiant.
In that year, the Red Army guerrillas in the eight southern provinces were reorganized into the New Fourth Army and plunged into the torrent of the Anti-Japanese War. In May 1938, Comrade Mao Zedong published the article "Strategic Issues in Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Warfare", listing Maoshan as one of the six major mountain base areas in the country that have been established or are being established or are about to be established, and pointed out that "these base areas will be the most long-term support for the anti-Japanese guerrilla war. The place is an important fortress of the War of Resistance Against Japan". In April 1938, Su Yu led the advance detachment of the New Fourth Army from southern Anhui into southern Jiangsu for strategic reconnaissance. Then, Chen Yi and Zhang Dingcheng led the first and second detachment of the New Fourth Army to the south of the Yangtze River in May and July respectively, opening the prelude to the establishment of the Anti Japanese base area in southern Jiangsu Province.
On June 17, 1938, under the leadership of Su Yu, the advance detachment of the New Fourth Army, after a rapid march overnight, arrived at Weigang in the southwest of Zhenjiang before dawn, and carefully set up a "pocket array". At about 8 o'clock, the Japanese army went into the ambush circle without any notice. In the mountains and forests and in the grass, there was a loud burst of gunfire, and I fell in advance of the troops to "close the door and beat the dogs". The Japanese army was in a hurry to fight and rout.
The New Fourth Army advanced into southern Jiangsu and won the first battle, which hit the arrogance of the Japanese army and boosted the morale of our army. The loud bugle sounded over the Maoshan area. After hearing this good news, Chen Yi gladly wrote a poem: "At the beginning of Zhenjiang's encounter, he cut off Xiao Loulan." After that, the New Fourth Army took advantage of the victory and attacked, with Maoshan as the center, marching eastward into Songhu, crossing the Yangtze River in the north, and going southward to western Zhejiang. They created glorious battle examples such as the night attack on Jurong City and the surprise attack on Hongqiao Airport.
From 1938 to the spring of 1944, the entire Central China Anti-Japanese Base Area fought more than 17500 times with the Japanese and puppet troops, killing and injuring more than 240000 Japanese and puppet troops. Among them, the Southern Jiangsu Anti-Japanese Base Area centered on Maoshan played an important role. Under the leadership of Chen Yi, Su Yu, Tan Zhenlin and others, the Maoshan Anti-Japanese Base Area became the forward base and strategic channel for the New Fourth Army to advance eastward, northward, and southward. It was the earliest and longest-lasting revolutionary base area established by our party behind enemy lines in Central China. In the past few years, from arduous persistence, consolidation of construction, and several outward expansion to the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Maoshan Anti-Japanese Base Area was like a sharp steel knife inserted into the enemy's chest, giving full play to its role as a sharp knife, base and hub. Contributed to the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Walking out of the memorial hall, I came to the foot of Wangmu Mountain, the rest of Maoshan Mountain. The Monument to the Victory of the War of Resistance in Southern Jiangsu stands on the top of Wangmu Mountain. The huge stele body and more than 300 steps create a solemn atmosphere. By this time, the clouds had dispersed, and the granite stele was more dazzling in the sun. I climbed the stairs, firm and dignified, because the ground under my feet had been stained with the blood of martyrs. According to incomplete statistics, more than 50000 children of the people of southern Jiangsu joined the New Fourth Army and more than 7,000 soldiers died heroically during the Anti-Japanese War.
Green hills buried loyal bones, Hao Qi full of dry Kun. According to local custom, I lit firecrackers in front of the monument to comfort the heroes. After the sound of firecrackers, a "tick-tock" sound like a bugle echoed between the valleys. During the Spring Festival in 1997, Maoshan people accidentally discovered this phenomenon when setting off firecrackers in front of the monument. The cause of this phenomenon remains a mystery. Acoustics experts have verified that this phenomenon may be due to the echo of the Maoshan Valley and the resonance of the empty body of the monument. But people seem to be more willing to believe that this bugle is the echo of the heroic spirits of the martyrs of the New Fourth Army.
Looking back at the past, it is difficult to find the traces of gunpowder smoke and war on Maoshan, but the standing monuments and memorial halls remind later generations that among the towering green mountains, there was once a team who fought bravely at the critical moment of life and death of the nation and sacrificed blood to resist aggression. Today, the martyrs have been laid to rest, but the bugle still reverberates on the top of Maoshan Mountain, in the military camps in the north and south of the great river, and in the hearts of the splendid China and later generations.
 

Source: Wei Liping