Snowy Forests and Snowy Plains

Author: Qu Bo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Time-honored, Red Classic, Passionate Performance, Heroic Legend! In 1945, after Japan's unconditional surrender, Chiang Kai-shek, the mortal enemy of the Chinese people and a traitor who harmed and enslaved the nation, under the direction of U.S. imperialism, mobilized millions of U.S.-armed, U.S.-equipped troops who had not fired a single shot during the war but were prepared for anti-communist and anti-popular actions. He also mobilized the traitorous armed forces that had surrendered to the Japanese under his "" order, and used the former Japanese commander-in-chief of China, Tomoyuki Yamashita, as an advisor to his Japanese forces still in operation, forming a fierce counter-revolutionary armed force under U.S. imperialist control—"Jiang, Enemy, and Puppet forces united"—which launched a frenzied attack against the Chinese people's liberation army and the people's liberation army in the liberated areas under the Party's leadership after eight years of hard and heroic struggle. The smoke of civil war spread across the country, and China faced the terrifying danger of becoming a colony of U.S. imperialism. The people, unable to endure the atrocities of Chiang's gang, under the leadership of the great Communist Party of China, launched the great liberation war. Northeast China is our country's industrial base, and Chiang Kai-shek attempted to use it to launch a pincer attack on our army from north and south. He used U.S. warships and aircraft to transport and supply the main force of the Kuomintang army to the Northeast, and even recruited puppet officials, police,, landlords, evil gentry, thieves, and beggars in northern Manchuria to form hundreds of thousands of bandit forces, which were called the "Central Advance Detachment." They fought alongside the main force of Chiang's gang. At that time, our army was in a difficult situation of facing a strong enemy, being attacked from both front and rear, and fighting on two fronts. We had to withdraw part of our main force to northern Manchuria to suppress the banditry in order to consolidate the rear, protect the land reform, and mobilize the masses to fully support the front. After the banditry was largely suppressed, those determined counter-revolutionary bandit leaders led their remaining forces to retreat to deep mountains and dense forests, and organized underground "Advance Detachment" members to carry out assassination and sabotage, waiting for the time to rebel and fight our army on both above-ground and underground fronts. The bandits, as they were in their last struggle, became even more fierce and cruel. Their slogans were "Better to sit on a mountain top in prison than to sit in prison and look at a mountain top," and "A poor beggar kills one of us, and we will kill a hundred poor beggars." They fantasized about "waiting for the main force of the Kuomintang central army to move north, and waiting for the third world war and U.S. troops to come." The tactics they adopted were "the tactic of using a large knife to slaughter small fish" and the activities of thieves. Wherever they went, they burned down villages and killed people, their cruelty and ferocity being beyond description. The blood debt of the Shalan Station and the great massacre in Kultunbi were only a few of the many facts I witnessed. At that time, using large battalions to deal with these shark-like and sparrow-like bandit groups had become ineffective. As we analyzed at the time: fighting small bandit groups with large battalions was like using a howitzer to swat flies, like using logs and rocks to hit sparrows, like using a fist to hit fleas, or like using a fishing net to catch shrimp—ineffective and inefficient. Even if our large battalions had combed the entire forest like combing hair, the bandits would still slip through a crack. Moreover, the vast and boundless forests of northern Manchuria made it impossible for us to comb the entire area. Therefore, the provincial committee and the military region studied new tactics for suppressing bandits and eliminating enemies, and decided to organize small teams to go into the mountains, carry out small group actions, and combine investigation with combat. Myself and my fellow soldiers took on part of this glorious and arduous task assigned by the Party. In the vast forests and snow-covered areas around Mudanjiang, from Suifenhe and Dongning in the east to Yabuluo and Weihé in the west, from Jingpo Lake and Emusuo in the south to Fengfang and Tuchengzi in the north, we engaged in a struggle with bandit leaders such as Xu Jia's family, Ma Xishan, Zuo Shandiao, Li Delin, and Xie Wendong, who were called several regiments of bandit forces.