Martyrs cemetery in Southern Hebei

Martyrs cemetery in Southern Hebei

Located in nangong city, Xingtai City, Hebei Province, the martyrs cemetery in Southern Hebei Province covers an area of more than 220000 square meters. It was built in March 1946. It is one of the earliest and largest cemeteries in Hebei Province to bury more martyrs. The main buildings include Jinan martyrs memorial tower, Jinan Martyrs Monument, martyrs ashes room, martyrs cemetery, martyrs single cemetery, martyrs hall, stele corridor, film and television hall, Jinan revolutionary struggle Memorial Hall.

In August 1989, it was named "national key martyr memorial building protection unit" by the State Council, and in May 1995, it was named "Hebei patriotism education base" by Hebei provincial Party committee and government. In May 2009, it was named "national patriotic education demonstration base" by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee.

The memorial tower of martyrs in Southern Hebei is 29.5 meters high. To the south of the tower, there is an inscription by Comrade Mao Zedong: "sacrifice for the country, and live forever". To the north of the tower, there is an inscription by Comrade Deng Xiaoping: "memorial tower of martyrs in Southern Hebei".

geographical environment

Southern Hebei (formerly known as Zhinan before the July 7 Incident (Lugouqiao Incident)) refers to the southern part of Hebei Province today, which is adjacent to Jinpu railway in the East, Taihang Mountain in the west, Shide railway in the north, and Shanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces in the south. It now governs 44 counties and cities. In August 1949, according to the decision of the Party Central Committee, the Southern Hebei administrative region was abolished.

Southern Hebei, including Xingtai City and Handan City in the south of Hebei Province. This area is an important coal and steel base in Hebei Province. It is also the oldest area in China and the birthplace of Chinese civilization. Both cities have been built for more than 3000 years. Xingtai was the ancient capital of yin and Shang Dynasties, the capital of Xing state in Western Zhou Dynasty, and the capital of later Zhao state. It is known as the "ancient capital of Five Dynasties". Handan was the capital of Zhao state in Warring States Period.

The people of Southern Hebei have a long tradition of revolutionary struggle. Under the influence of the Communist Party of China, the CPC organizations were established successively in the fourth division of Xingtai, the seventh division of Daming and the sixth division of Jixian in 1925, which ignited the spark of revolution. In 1935, the "peasant armed uprising" in Southern Hebei Province lasted for more than a year, which was magnificent and powerful, effectively attacked the reactionary forces and had a far-reaching impact. After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, the 129th division went to southern Hebei to create an anti Japanese base behind the enemy. Under extremely difficult circumstances, it had an eight year arduous armed struggle with the Japanese aggressors. During the war of liberation, in order to defend the fruits of victory and strive for the liberation of the whole country, the people of Southern Hebei enthusiastically joined the army and took part in the war. Thousands of outstanding sons and daughters went to the front line to develop production in the rear area, economize on food and clothing, and continuously sent a large number of grain, clothes, shoes and socks to the front. During the hard war years, the people of Southern Hebei won the victory of the revolutionary struggle with the lives of more than 50000 outstanding sons and daughters in exchange for today's happiness.

Construction history

March 1, 1946

In order to bury the revolutionary martyrs who died in the south of Hebei Province, the Southern Hebei administrative office decided to set up the martyrs cemetery in nangong city.

1948

There are two monuments of martyrs in Southern Hebei, with a height of 9.9 meters and an area of 56.38 square meters. On the monuments are inscriptions by former leaders of Southern Hebei, Ma Guorui, Yang Xiufeng, Chen zaidao, Liu Zhijian, Li Jingyu and fan ruoyi.

1959

The cemetery for revolutionary martyrs, covering an area of 460 square meters, was built to bury the remains of 633 unknown martyrs.

1965

It covers an area of 962.5 square meters and is 29.5 meters high. The inscriptions and inscriptions of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping are engraved on the north and south sides of the tower.

Setting up the background

In February 1939, Guo Qizhi, the Anti Japanese magistrate of Quzhou County, was arrested in nanliyue village. The enemy penetrated Guo Qizhi's two wrists with wire, then twisted them together again, and the blood dyed the ground red. The Japanese invaders came and asked, "who are you?" knowing that his identity had been exposed, Guo Qizhi wrote "county magistrate" on the ground with his feet. The Japanese aggressors were stunned by his heroic spirit and powerful words. On the afternoon of March 29, after the torture and inducement failed, the enemy escorted Guo Qizhi to a dug pit in the northeast corner of the city. When the enemy persuaded him to surrender again, Guo Qizhi glanced at the enemy contemptuously and said, "Communists are not afraid of death!" and then jumped into the pit. When the loess was buried in his chest, Hirayama, the leader of the Japanese military police, tried his best to persuade him to surrender again. Guo Qizhi cried out: "down with Japanese imperialism!" and "long live the Communist Party of China!" at the age of 24.

After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, under the leadership of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping of the 129th division, the army and the people of Southern Hebei successively launched such campaigns as raiding roads, attacking Kuomintang rebels, and participating in the "hundred regiment war", smashing the "cage tactics" of the Japanese aggressors. The establishment and expansion of the Anti Japanese base area in Southern Hebei Province became a serious problem for the Japanese invaders. In order to take North China as its rear base for the Pacific War, the Japanese imperialists, on April 291942, Gangcun Ningci, the commander of the Japanese front army in North China, personally visited Dezhou, commanding more than 30000 Japanese puppet troops to carry out an unprecedented scale sweep of the Anti Japanese base in Southern Hebei, and created a terrible iron wall encirclement tragedy.

During the encirclement, the enemy set up two circles. One was to encircle Linxi, Qiuxian and Weixian areas south of Xingji Road, focusing on the four divisions and the new fourth brigade.

At dawn, gunfire broke out in the direction of Qiuxian county. Our army first exchanged fire with the enemy from Linxi and withdrew while fighting. In the vicinity of Yaoan Town, the first unit of the new fourth brigade was surrounded one after another. At about 9 a.m., a fierce battle started. There were more and more enemies, and the fighting was very fierce. Machine guns and cannons burst into one. After several fierce attacks, the 11th regiment and the 771 regiment broke through one after another. Zheng Zhong, chief of staff of the Fourth Army division, Lei Shaokang, chief of the new fourth brigade, and deputy chief of the brigade led the troops to break through. Yang Hongming, commander of the Fourth Army division, was seriously injured during the breakthrough and died in the wheat field due to excessive blood loss. Comrade Sun Yimin, director of the Political Department of the Fourth Army division, died in the breakthrough. The 385th brigade and the new 4th Brigade were besieged in the north of Linxi hewuzhuang village. They seized the favorable terrain, built temporary fortifications and fought to the death with the enemy. At about 3 p.m., there was a strong wind and smoke. Our army seized the fighter plane and fought back fiercely. The battle lasted until dusk. When all the bullets were gone, they fought with bayonets. The bayonets bent and swung their butts to repel the enemy's attacks. But in the end, because of being outnumbered, most of them died, except for some of them. More than 300 comrades, including Chen Yuanlong, director of the Political Department of the new fourth brigade, Chen Zibin, head of the 10th regiment, and GUI Chengzhi, political commissar of the 11th regiment, died bravely.

Another encirclement is in Zaoqiang area to the north of Wucheng. It mainly encircles the Southern Hebei military region, the Party committee, the executive office, the seventh brigade, and the party and government organs and troops of the Sixth Division.

The organs, troops and schools in Southern Hebei, which are surrounded by the surrounding areas, are gradually converging to shierlizhuang, Wangwa and Guozhuang. The enemy's encirclement also shrank, the firepower became more and more fierce, and gradually formed layers of encirclement. As the situation became more and more serious, the head of the armed forces immediately decided to lead the Party committee, the leaders of the administrative offices and the besieged comrades of the military region to take a broad, positive and multi-level breakthrough. At 2:00 p.m., strong wind, dust and dark sky brought favorable conditions for the breakthrough. The cavalry regiment, led by its commander Zeng Yuliang and political commissar Kuang Yuqiang, lashed at the enemy like an arrow. When the cavalry regiment burst into Daxinzhuang, Wucheng, the enemy blocked the way forward with fierce fire on the right side. They got off their horses, approached the enemy on foot, rushed up with lightning speed, cut down the enemy's machine gun shooters, rushed through Daxinzhuang, and finally broke through the enemy's first layer of encirclement. Then he met the enemy's second encirclement. One of the enemy's cavalry troops intercepted the enemy head-on. The cavalry comrades were smart and nimble. They hid their horses in the ditch and mobilized 12 machine guns to beat the enemy in front. The enemy in the back was panicked. They turned their horses around and retreated. The troops took the opportunity to rush out of the enemy's second layer of encirclement. However, due to lack of combat experience, some non combat troops and local officials failed to break through the encirclement for many times and were scattered by the enemy.

At 5:00 p.m., when the weather improved, the enemy gathered in huozhuang to massacre more than 400 literary and art workers of the literary and art troupe of the Southern Hebei military region, students and logistics personnel of the Financial Cadre School of the Southern Hebei administration, killing 510 cadres, soldiers and the masses, resulting in the huozhuang massacre. In order to commemorate the soldiers who died in the battle, this cemetery was created, which became the original form of the martyrs' cemetery in Southern Hebei.

He gave his countless excellent children's lives.

The moving deeds of the people in Southern Hebei who gave up their lives to cover and rescue our army cadres and soldiers are even more touching. Some women give their babies to soldiers and pretend to be husband and wife; some aunts and uncles regard soldiers as children; some hide our comrades in firewood piles and cellars. At that time, there were only more than 60 families in huozhuang, but we covered more than 50 cadres and soldiers. In the encirclement of the enemy, hundreds of our comrades were able to get out of danger safely under the cover of the masses.

On September 2, 1945, the Japanese invading army signed the letter of surrender, and the war of resistance against Japan ended successfully. Southern Hebei has paid a huge price in the eight years of Anti Japanese war. What we should remember most is those heroes who used their lives to defend the national interests