Snowy Forests

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 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 of Resistance but were prepared for anti-communist and anti-people actions. He also mobilized traitor forces who had surrendered to the Japanese under his "" command, and used the former Japanese commander-in-chief of China, Okamura Yasuji, as an advisor to his Japanese forces still in China, forming a fierce counter-revolutionary army under U.S. imperialist control. This army launched a frenzied attack against the liberation areas led by the Communist Party of China, which had endured a hard-fought resistance for eight years. 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 tolerate Chiang's atrocities any longer, under the leadership of the great Communist Party of China, launched the great liberation war. Northeast China was the industrial base of our country, and Chiang Kai-shek attempted to use it to launch a pincer attack on our army. He used U.S. naval and air forces to transport and supply his main forces to the Northeast. He also recruited puppet officials, police, soldiers, landlords, bandits, and drug dealers in northern Manchuria to form hundreds of thousands of bandit forces, which were called the "Central Advance Detachment." These forces cooperated with the main force of Chiang's army. At that time, our army was in a difficult situation of facing a strong enemy, being attacked from both sides, and fighting on two fronts. We had to withdraw a part of our main force to northern Manchuria to suppress the bandit trouble, in order to consolidate the rear, protect land reform, and mobilize the masses to fully support the front. After the bandit trouble was largely suppressed, those determined counter-revolutionary bandit leaders retreated to deep mountains and dense forests with their remaining forces, and organized underground "Advance Detachment" members to carry out assassination and sabotage, waiting for the time to stage rebellions, fighting our army on both ground and underground fronts. The bandits, in their last stand, became even more ferocious and cruel. Their slogans were "Better to squat on a mountain top and rot in prison than to rot in prison and look at a mountain top," and "A poor beggar kills one of us, and we will kill one hundred poor beggars." They fantasized about "waiting for Chiang's central army to move north or waiting for a third world war and U.S. troops to come." They adopted "bulldog tactics" and bandit activities, burning and killing in every village and hamlet they visited, their cruelty and ferocity beyond imagination. The blood debt of the Shalan Station and the 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 stones to catch sparrows, like using a fist to swat fleas, or like using a fishing net to catch shrimp—ineffective and inefficient. Even if our large battalions swept through 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 sweep through them all. Therefore, the provincial committee and the military region studied new tactics for suppressing bandits and eliminating enemies, deciding to organize small teams to go into the mountains, carry out small-scale operations, and combine investigation with combat. Myself and my fellow soldiers took on this glorious and arduous task assigned by the Party. In the vast snowy forests surrounding Mudanjiang, from Suifenhe and Dongning in the east to Aborozhni and Weihé in the west, from Jingpo Lake and Emusuo in the south to Fengfang and Tuchengzi in the north, we engaged in maneuvers with bandit leaders such as Xu Jia's family, Ma Xishan, Zuo Shandiao, Li Delin, and Xie Wendong, who were called several regiments of bandits.