Railway guerrillas

Author: Zhi Xia
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: From the founding of the People's Republic of China to 1966, it was a peak period for the creation and publication of long novels in China. Over a decade, a large number of works were produced, among which dozens had a far-reaching impact and reached the height of their time. These works adhered to the principles of socialist realism, expressing their enthusiasm and simple style to praise the arduous struggles and vibrant spirit of the Chinese people during different historical periods, including the War of Liberation, the War of Resistance against Japan, the Liberation War, and the construction of socialism. They represented the highest achievements of long novel creation during that period and occupied an extremely important position in the history of contemporary Chinese literature. With their unique charm, they influenced generations of readers and, after being tested by time, have been passed down to this day. To present a more complete picture of the development of contemporary long novels and the state of long novel creation during that period, we have specially compiled and published the series "Collected Works of Contemporary Chinese Long Novels."
I. The series is based on the "Selected Long Novels" published by our press in the 1950s and 1960s and the "Red Classics" series published in the 1990s, aiming to include as many outstanding works as possible.
II. The works in the series were published roughly between 1949 and 1965, though some multi-volume works had a longer publication process that extended beyond this period.
III. Due to various reasons, some works have had multiple revised editions. For this publication, we have selected the superior versions and conducted proofreading in reference to other editions.
During the War of Resistance against Japan, in the coal mining and railway workers' areas of Zaozhuang in southern Shandong, a group of coal and railway workers, unable to endure the massacre and oppression of the Japanese invaders, secretly organized and armed themselves under the leadership of the Communist Party. They fought against the Japanese, seized enemy weapons, and developed into a highly effective guerrilla unit, supporting the main forces in operations along the Lin-Zao line. Later, they moved westward near Lincheng, relying on Weishan Lake to continue their armed struggle against the enemy along the Jinpu Railway. In the struggle, they demonstrated the noble qualities of the working class and their tenacious will to fight. Over the years, they sabotaged railways, derailed trains, seized supplies, and fought decisive battles on trains, creating many astonishing heroic deeds. The enemy also launched frenzied "purges" and "sweeps" against them, organizing countless special forces to combat them, but all were crushed by the guerrillas. The Railway Guerrillas endured the harshest tests and persisted until the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan, eventually forcing nearly a thousand Japanese armored train units to surrender.
After the Japanese surrendered, the KMT and puppet forces merged to attack the liberated areas, and they fought stubbornly in counter-offensive battles. The novel ends here. They later joined the main forces, engaging in large-scale mobile warfare to eliminate the KMT forces and liberate all of China, which was a later development.