Novel Monthly Report 3rd Baihua Award Nominated Works Collection

Author: Novel Monthly Editorial Department
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-05-01
Features: I knew there was a Xuzhou committee long ago. In our regiment, a tall captain from Xuzhou often talked about the place with me, even reciting poems: "Before the ancient battlefield of Jiuli Mountain, a child picks up old swords and spears." He said it had always been a strategic stronghold for armies. I never expected they would really fight over it! With the Japanese. In March of the 27th year of the Republic of China, under the order of the Supreme Command, our hundreds of thousands of troops "whipped up" and attacked first at Tai'erzhuang outside Xuzhou, defeating the Japanese and losing 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. Oh, that was the much-discussed "Tai'erzhuang Victory." But then things went bad. We were surrounded by nine divisions of the Japanese army. The Xuzhou defense line collapsed, and thousands of our brothers became prisoners of war. Most of the prisoners' situations, I don't know, but I do know that a few thousand of them were forced by the Japanese to dig coal in a coal mine. That mine was on the border of Shandong and Jiangsu. It was about 100 to 200 "li" away from Xuzhou City. That year, I was 29 years old, and my military rank at the time of capture was the captain of the machine gun company of the 27th Division of the Second Group. My prisoner number was "Xi Zi No. 1012."