This year marks the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. Over the past 25 years, the practice of "one country, two systems" has achieved universally recognized success in Hong Kong. The Communist Party of China is the founder, leader, practitioner and defender of the well-deserved "one country, two systems." Looking back at history, in the magnificent century-long struggle led by the Communist Party of China to Chinese people, Hong Kong and Hong Kong compatriots have never been absent. Before the founding of New China, the Communist Party of China led the Hong Kong compatriots in the indomitable struggle for national salvation, leaving many footprints of activities on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. Now let's explore these precious red historical sites that still exist in all corners of Hong Kong.
"The First Anti-Japanese In Hong Kong": The Luo Family House
The car departs from Hong Kong Island through Sha Tin and Tai Po and takes about 50 minutes to Sha Tau Kok. Walking through the country roads, all you see on the car are rural mountains, sometimes winding along the coast, and you can see large tidal flats and blue seas. On the opposite bank not far away, the Shenzhen salt pan is looming with high-rise buildings.
The Luo Family House is located in Sha Tau Kok Shek Chung Cave, not far from the country road, and was built in 1930 by Luo Yihui, an overseas Chinese from Panama. After getting off the bus, I saw a Lingnan-style building with black tiles and yellow walls sitting on the edge of a small mountain forest, with a spacious courtyard dam in front of the house and several new houses next to it. With the consent of the Luo clan, the Luo Family Mansion is being transformed into the "Sha Tau Kok Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall", sponsored by the Old Guerrilla Fighters Association of the Former Dongjiang Column's Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Brigade, the Dongjiang Column Historical Research Association, and the Hong Kong-Guangzhou Community Association, and co-organized by the New Territories Township Council, the New Social Federation, the Hong Kong and South China Historical Research Department of Lingnan University, and other units, mainly introducing the history of the War of Resistance between the Dongjiang Column and the Hong Kong Ninth Brigade, as well as the anti-Japanese deeds of the Luo family, which is known as the "first anti-Japanese family in Hong Kong.".
Walking into the big house, I saw that the building was still tall and solid, and the floor was paved with traditional square bricks common to Lingnan houses. The big house is divided into many rooms, which are now used as exhibitions of anti-japanese war historical materials, and the newly placed exhibition boards have made the anti-war memorial hall take shape, which will also be the first thematic memorial hall in Hong Kong to commemorate the anti-Japanese war.
According to Yin Suming, the daughter of Yin Linping, the political commissar of the Dongjiang Column and the president of the Dongjiang Column Historical Research Association, on December 8, 1941, a few hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, they launched an attack on Hong Kong, and the British government of Hong Kong resisted for 18 days and announced its surrender, and Hong Kong entered the dark years of the Japanese occupation period of 3 years and 8 months. During this period, Hong Kong's population decreased from about 1.6 million to about 600,000. During the Japanese occupation period, the Chinese Communist Party was the mainstay of the Hong Kong War of Resistance. The Hong Kong Ninth Brigade, an anti-Japanese guerrilla led by the Communist Party of China, became the only armed force that formed a system during the fall of Hong Kong and persisted in the War of Resistance from beginning to end. On the day of the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, a military engineering team of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Group, with Luo Rucheng as the guide, came to his hometown of Sha Tau Kok, Hong Kong, and the Luo Family House became the first foothold of the Guangdong guerrillas after entering Hong Kong, and it was also the activity base and transportation station of the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Brigade that was established later, witnessing the course of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Hong Kong. The Luo family successively participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, including Luo Yuzhong (and his wife Huang Caijiao), Luo Rucheng, Luo Oufeng (and his wife Ou Jian), and his eldest sister Luo Xuyue (and her husband Huang Xiang), who were full of heroes and heroes, and could be described as a veritable "first anti-Japanese family in Hong Kong".
The exhibition board in the Luo family's big house: the main leaders of the Dongjiang Column and the Hong Kong Ninth Brigade. Photo by Yan Jun, a reporter of Bauhinia magazine
Wujiaoteng Anti-Japanese Heroic Martyrs Monument
The Wujiaoteng Anti-Japanese Heroic Martyrs Monument is located in the woods of Sha Tau Kok Country Road, the environment is quiet and quiet, and it makes people feel solemn in it. The monument is located in a memorial garden of about 200 square meters, and the words "Wujiaoteng Martyrs Memorial Park" are engraved on the gate of the memorial garden. The monument is towering in the garden, the height of the monument is about ten meters, the top of the monument is a red five-pointed star, and there is a line of large characters "Monument to the Heroic Martyrs of The Anti-Japanese Resistance", which was inscribed by Zeng Sheng, the former commander of the Dongjiang Column. There are some flowers on the pedestal, and there are also some bouquets of flowers behind and around the stele, which can be seen that people often come to pay homage.
During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, more than 10 large and small sweeps were carried out on Wujiaoteng Village and its surrounding villages, and the villagers and guerrillas of Wujiaoteng fought against the Japanese army and defended their homeland together. On September 25, 1942 (August 16 of the lunar calendar), the Japanese army surrounded the village of Wujiaoteng, forcing the masses to hand over weapons of self-defense and confess to the guerrillas, the village chiefs Li Shifan and Li Yuanpei led the villagers to withstand the torture and torture of the Japanese army, unyielding, Li Shifan was too serious and died heroically. According to Yin Suming, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wujiaoteng Village sacrificed a total of 9 people to fight against the Japanese army, which can be called the anti-Japanese hero village. In October 1951, in order to commemorate the heroic anti-Japanese martyrs, the villagers spontaneously built a small martyrs' monument under a hillside in Wujiaoteng. The villagers set August 16 of the lunar calendar as the day of worship every year, and the gurudwara ceremony is still held every year. In 2009, the Wujiaoteng Martyrs Memorial Park was relocated and rebuilt to its current location, and in August 2015, the State Council included the Wujiaoteng Monument in the second batch of 100 national anti-war memorial facilities and sites.
Located in Wujiaoteng Village, Sha Tau Kok, New Territories, in August 2015, the Wujiaoteng Anti-Japanese Heroic Monument was listed by the State Council as the second batch of 100 national anti-Japanese war memorial facilities and sites. Photo by Lian Zhenhai, a reporter of Bauhinia magazine
Anti-Japanese Hero Village: Wujiaoteng Village
Wujiaoteng Village is a 10-minute drive from the Wujiaoteng Anti-Japanese Heroic Martyrs Monument. Wujiaoteng Village is located on a small hillside and has about 20-30 households. At the entrance of the village is a small parking lot and several ancestral temples. Most of the residences are new buildings, but there are also some ruins of old buildings, a few complete old buildings, actually see the red traces of the year, in a few old walls of the eaves, clearly see a square foot square five-pointed star.
The five-pointed star on the dwellings of Wujiaoteng villagers is clearly visible.
In Wujiaoteng Village, I have to tell the story of Li Han, the monument protector. Li Han, a native of Wujiaoteng Village, just passed away in May this year at the age of 96. At the age of 15, Li Han joined the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independence Brigade, first served as the head of the children's regiment in his village, led more than 40 people to sing anti-Japanese songs, and also performed dramas in neighboring villages, actively publicized the War of Resistance, and also assisted in sending out sentries during the day, intercepting strangers entering the village, and defending their homes until the victory of the War of Resistance. In 1950, Li Han, Li Yuanxun, who lived in Nanyang in his village, and others initiated the erection of a monument to Li Shifan and other martyrs, and the monument was completed in October 1951. In the following 60 years, Li Han has been guarding the monument and becoming a loyal guardian. In 1985, the monument was rebuilt and expanded in 2009, and Li Handu was actively involved, and was still a member of the monument management committee until his death.
Wujiaoteng Village also held an important meeting "Wujiaoteng Conference". In 1943, the Provisional Committee of Guangdong Province of the CPC was established, and in February, the Guangdong Provincial Provisional Committee and the Political Commissar of the Dongjiang Army held a joint meeting in Wujiaoteng Village to study and convey a series of instructions from the Southern Bureau of the CPC and Zhou Enlai, sum up lessons learned, and determine the tactics and tasks of the future struggle, so that the Dongjiang anti-Japanese guerrillas got rid of the passive situation.
Rose Church in Huangmaoying Village: The founding point of the Hong Kong Ninth Brigade
We then went to The Village of Wong Mao Ying near Sai Kung Tai Nga Tsai, a small village hidden in the shade of a dense forest, the original residents of the village have long since moved away, and the village houses have been turned into mansions under construction, but there are still a few dilapidated zinc-iron roofed cottages. A small Catholic church with a statue of our lady on its roof is very eye-catching, which is the site of the establishment of the Gangjiu Independent Brigade of the Dongjiang Column. Viewed from the old aluminum windows that are half-hidden on the side, the dusty atmosphere is coming to the surface, and everything inside is very old, with wooden beams and benches, and the altar center is filled with crosses and Bibles. Lin Zhen, former president of the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Brigade of the Dongjiang Column and "little devil correspondent" of the Hong Kong-Kowloon Brigade, told us that during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, in order to clear and suppress the anti-Japanese guerrillas, the Japanese army often carried out large-scale sweeps in the New Territories, arrested a large number of villagers, and tortured them to force them to confess information about the guerrillas.
Lin Zhen continued that in addition to the japanese oppressive force, they also abolished the white rice rationing system in the case of serious food shortages, and only staff members serving the Japanese occupation authorities could receive quotas, resulting in a sharp rise in the price of rice on the black market, and ordinary citizens could only rely on miscellaneous grains and bark to maintain their lives, and even the bloody and cruel chaos of "people eating people". "The Japanese have robbed everything they can, from the historical monuments of Hong Kong to the private property of ordinary citizens. The Japanese occupation authorities issued a large number of military tickets in Hong Kong, forced the citizens to exchange them for Hong Kong dollars, and emptied the citizens' savings, causing many families to be destroyed."
In the face of the atrocities committed by the Japanese army, a guerrilla group led by the Communist Party of China, the Dongjiang Column, the Gangjiu Independent Brigade, was officially established on February 3, 1942 at the Rose Church in Huangmaoying Village, and they carried out a series of tenacious struggles to resist Japan and save their lives in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, and made contributions to the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in all of China.
On February 3, 1942, the Gangjiu Independent Brigade of the Dongjiang Column was officially established in the Rose Church of Huangmaoying Village. The picture shows the Rose Church in Huangmaoying Village.
Secret Rescue Relay Station: Yang Clan Ancestral Hall
From Kowloon, via Castle Peak Highway to Tsuen Wan into Yuen Long Plain, the car travels through the country roads of Yuen Long Plain and stops in the shade of a tree near Tai Tong Village. We walked to the Yang Clan Ancestral Hall under the guidance of our guide. In the distance, you can see the deepest part of the Yuen Long Plain, under the green mountains, surrounded by green trees, yellow walls and green tiles, and a small house quietly bathed in golden sunlight.
Walk for ten minutes to a courtyard covering an area of about a few acres, the door eaves are tall, and the three characters of "Yangjia Village" are written under the eaves, the left book "Yang Kai Jin Dynasty" and the right book "Jiapai Meizhou", which is the famous Yang Family Ancestral Hall. The Yang Clan Ancestral Hall was built in 1933 by the Chinese Indonesian merchants Yang Brothers, who returned from Indonesia to their hometown of Meizhou, Guangdong, to the New Territories of Hong Kong and were prevented from returning to their hometowns, so they built houses in Yuen Long to settle down and live by farming and farming. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the countryside of Yuen Long was invaded by bandits and the Japanese army, and the Anti-Japanese guerrillas in Guangdong came to the countryside of Yuen Long to drive out the bandits, resist the Japanese army, and work with the villagers to defend the countryside and defend the country, and gradually won the trust and support of the villagers. Since then, the Yang Clan Ancestral Hall has become an important traffic station for the Guangdong People's Guerrillas and the Hong Kong Ninth Brigade, and was the most important transfer station in the famous secret rescue.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, especially after the Anhui Incident in January 1941, a large number of democrats and cultural celebrities moved to Hong Kong, such as Mao Dun, Xia Yan, Zou Taofen, Hu Feng, Liu Yazi, etc. In December 1941, when the Japanese army attacked Hong Kong, these democrats and cultural celebrities were in danger, and under the instructions of the CPC Central Committee, the Southern Bureau of the CPC and the Hong Kong Office of the Eighth Route Army organized and through the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Corps and the local organization led by it (the predecessor of the Hong Kong Ninth Brigade established in February 1942) to find and safely escort these democratic and cultural figures to the Dongjiang guerrilla zone, which Mao Dun called "the greatest 'rescue' work in history since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression." At that time, there were four routes for the rescue, and more than 800 people were rescued, none of whom were injured or fell into the hands of the enemy, and the overland route of the western route through the Yang Clan Ancestral Hall was the most important route. According to Mao Dun's "Miscellaneous Records of Escape from Danger", at that time, under the secret escort, they set off from Kowloon, crossed Da Mao Mountain along Tsuen Wan, first came to the Yang Clan Ancestral Hall to stop for one night, along the Yuen Long communication line, avoided the Japanese inspection post, crossed the Shenzhen River through the blockade line, and finally reached the anti-Japanese guerrilla zone stronghold safely.
The gate of the Yang Family Ancestral Hall was closed, and several elderly villagers chatted under the tree in front of the Yang Family Ancestral Hall, and we went forward to inquire, and there are still more than a dozen descendants of the Yang Family Ancestral Hall living here. After a while, an elderly man came out of the courtyard, more than eighty years old, with a black and red face, very healthy, and it was the old man Yang Yongguang, who had been reported by the media to witness the secret rescue. At this time, there were Meizhou Hakka people in the same industry, and they talked with the old man in the hometown tone, and Mr. Yang immediately opened the door and let everyone enter the courtyard and talked happily with the hometown people all the way. The courtyard is very large, the courtyard dam is about a few hundred square meters, the middle lintel has the book "Suitable For Lu", there is a couplet "Suitable for Living in Renli, Lujing Crowd", the left lintel on the book "Yingxiang", there is a couplet "Suitable for living in the New Territories Doubtful Chinese Boundary, Lujie Other Hometown Imitation Hometown", the right lintel book "Shuqi", there is a couplet "Suitable for living in the neighborhood Benevolence, Lujing people are not alone". In addition to the main building of the three gatehouses, there are lower outbuildings, and the green hills can also be seen in the courtyard. Everyone took photos in the courtyard, and Mr. Yang also took a happy photo with everyone. This old Mr. Yang, who was 5 years old at the time of the secret rescue, has remembered that strangers often came to the house, or ate a meal, or rested for one night and left.
We stayed for a few minutes and came out of the yard, the afternoon sun was like fire, and the idyllic scenery along the way did not feel too hot. Looking back at the quiet red historical site Yang Clan Ancestral Hall under the green mountains, time seems to flow backwards, perhaps the road traveled by cultural celebrities and revolutionary ancestors in those years, the water they drank, the places where they stopped were not too different from today's scenes. In those years of jointly resisting the Japanese army, with the Communist Party of China as the backbone, the guerrillas and the common people united in their efforts to achieve victory through all kinds of difficulties and dangers, which is one of the epitomes of the great journey of the CPC leadership Chinese the people to seek happiness and rejuvenation.
The "Suitable Lu" of the Yang Clan Ancestral Hall.
Time flies, the sun and the moon are like shuttles. There are still some old sites of the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong that are difficult to find, and only old photos are left to record the vicissitudes and great changes that have been experienced, such as the Hong Kong office of the Eighth Route Army and the site of the Huashang Newspaper. In addition to the above-mentioned red historical sites, there are also the Monument to the Heroic Martyrs of the Anti-Japanese Resistance in Sai Kung Cho Chu Wan, the Sai Kung Squadron of the Ninth Brigade of Hong Kong attacking the Seven Holy Temples of Guankeng in Sai Kung, the former site of the Japanese garrison, as well as the Dade College, a higher education institution established by the Communist Party of China in Hong Kong, in the New Market in Tuen Mun, and Pan Uk, the patriotic overseas Chinese residence that Ye Jianying visited. These red historical sites, as the history of the early activities of the Communist Party of China in Hong Kong is understood by more and more Hong Kong citizens, their historical value will become more important, and they will be vividly footnoted in Hong Kong's modern and contemporary history.
Source: Bauhinia WeChat public account