On the occasion of this year's "June 1st" International Children's Day, General Secretary Xi Jinping replied to the Young Pioneers of the Five (8) Squadron of Xin'an Primary School in Huai'an City. Xi Jinping pointed out in the letter that in that year, under the care and leadership of the party, the "Xin'an Tour Group" was not afraid of hardships, and its footprints spread throughout most of China, using literature and art as a weapon to arouse the people to resist Japan and save the people, publicize the party's ideas, and show the spirit of patriotic progress.
At the "Centennial Journey, The Initial Heart is Eternal- The History exhibition of the Communist Party of China in Jiangsu", there is an exhibition area about the Xin'an Tour Group, which shows a schematic map of the Xin'an Tour Group's ten-year itinerary from October 1935 to September 1945. They started with Huai'an, passed through North China, Northwest China, Southwest China, East China, and finally returned to their hometown of Huai'an. This red circular long-distance route made thousands of viewers feel and move.
How did xin'an tour group embark on its journey?
Hu Zhuoran, a staff member of the Outline Script Group of the Office of the Leading Group for the Preparation of the Historical Exhibition, told reporters that in the book "National Trumpeter: Selected Historical Materials of the Xin'an Tour Group" compiled by the China Revolution Museum in the late 1980s, it was recorded that on October 9, 1935, "the Xin'an Tour Group held a farewell meeting in Huai'an." After breakfast the next day, "the members of the group wore white cloth shirts, blue cargo pants, grass shoes on their feet, carrying satchels and umbrellas, and lined up all the way to the dock and left Huai'an along the waterway by steamboat." This corresponds to the record on the map of the Xin'an tour group saying goodbye to their hometown and embarking on a journey in October 1935.
It can also be seen on the map that the Xin'an Tour Group arrived in Shanghai in July 1936, transferred to Shanxi and Beiping at the end of 1936, and went to Suiyuan Province, where the "Suiyuan War of Resistance" had just begun, in December 1936, to hold condolence activities on the anti-Japanese front. "Teenage children, under such difficult conditions, can imagine how strong their faith is. I will definitely tell these stories to my son, because the spirit of the new brigade is worth passing on forever. Mr. Ge from Changzhou sighed for a long time in front of this map.
After that, the tour group followed the Yellow River to the west to promote anti-Japanese resistance, and at the end of 1937, it went to Qingyang and Lanzhou in Gansu. During this period, the tour group got in touch with the Longdong Special Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the first three members of the group, Xu Zhiguan, and three others subsequently joined the party, and the tour group established a party branch. After the tour group arrived in Lanzhou, the famous poet Seik (formerly known as Chen Bingjun), who was the artistic director of the Eighth Route Army's Northwest Field Service Corps, was also in Lanzhou at the time, and wrote the lyrics of the "Xin'an Tour Group March" (also known as "Youth March") for them, and Wang Luobin, a member of the Northwest Field Service Group and a famous musician, subsequently composed the lyrics into a song in Lanzhou. "Xin'an, Xin'an, the youth of New China... Resist the war, victory is at hand! "The melody is bright and lively and full of power.
At the end of 1938, the Xin'an tour group came to Guilin, Guangxi. After the Anhui Incident, they secretly transferred from Guilin to Shanghai via Zhanjiang and Hong Kong in batches, and then dispersed and transferred to the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy in northern Jiangsu. After arriving at the base area, the Xin'an Tour Group, under the leadership of the party, accompanied the New Fourth Army to carry out children's work and military literary and artistic propaganda, and continued to be active in the front line of anti-Japanese propaganda.
How did the Xin'an tour group return to its hometown?
On September 3, 1945, the Chinese people won the final victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the troops of the New Fourth Army launched a fierce attack on the enemy who refused to surrender entrenched in Huaiyin and Huai'an. "At that time, the Xin'an tour group also came to the front line of the counter-offensive to cooperate with the operation, and embarked on a journey back to the haunting hometown with the pride of the battle." Hu Zhuoran told reporters that Zhang Yu and Lin Minggang, members of the Xin'an Tour Regiment at that time, later recalled the scene of the regiment members participating in the battle: "Some of our comrades took up pony guns and grenades, followed the soldiers up the ladder, and rushed up the smoke-filled city tower."
After a decade of absence and returning to his hometown, the Xin'an tour group was warmly welcomed by the people. On October 2, 1945, a special report published on the front page of Yan'an's Liberation Daily recorded that "the masses were welcomed by the masses" and the members of the regiment "twisted out the song and dance with the music". The record of returning to Huai'an in September 1945, which is marked on the map, corresponds to such a welcome in historical facts.
Niu Wende, a volunteer from Jincheng College of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, repeatedly told the story of this group of "little good men" in front of this map in front of this map, and thus became more familiar with the moving historical facts of the Xin'an tour group. The 19-year-old told reporters: "Every time I explained, I was touched by the 'red teenagers' who threw themselves into the revolutionary cause and advanced under the leadership of the party more than eighty years ago. As a college student who has submitted an application to join the party, I will draw spiritual motivation from the deeds of the Xin'an Tour Group and continue to move closer to the party organization with practical actions. ”
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Xu Qianqian Intern Yan Hanyi
Proofread by Faye Wong
Source: Purple Cow News