Chinese Expeditionary Force, the truth you should know. Have you ever thought that a simple Yunnan-Burma highway would become the lifeline of a large country with a population of more than 400 million? The construction process of this road is not only arduous and extraordinary, but also embodies the blood and sweat of countless compatriots. When Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, clamoring for "the destruction of China within three months," this only lifeline to the outside world became China's main artery. Although more than 80 years have passed since the Yunnan-Burma Highway, those thrilling scenes still make people feel palpitations and sigh. What happened back then?
In 1937, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, and their hideous and brutal features were completely displayed. In order to realize the crazy ambition of "destroying China within three months", the Japanese army quickly occupied the major cities on the southeast coast of China, cutting off China's maritime connection with the outside world. Seeing that the situation was precarious, the Chinese government decided to look for a way out along the Indian Ocean. It was from Yunnan to the south, through Myanmar to Yangon Port, with the help of donations from overseas Chinese to maintain the import of anti-Japanese war materials.
In this way, at the beginning of 1938, more than 200,000 people from 28 counties in western Yunnan spontaneously joined the road construction army. After sleeping in the open air and trekking hard, they used their hands to dig rocks along the 990-kilometer lofty mountains and mountains in western Yunnan and northern Myanmar, and finally built this Yunnan-Burma highway after 10 months. At that time, most of the young and middle-aged men in Yunnan had joined the frontline fighting, and the construction of this road almost entirely depended on the women, children, and children who stayed in their hometowns. Carrying tools and dry food brought from home, they relied on their hands to push and dig rocks, each of which often weighed 2-3 tons, and operated on the narrow and sloping slopes of the mountain, without the help of any machinery or equipment. What is even more poignant is that the Kuomintang government at that time was financially constrained, and there was no subsidy for these workers, who could only rely on their own food reserves to make ends meet. When the dry food was eaten, they dug up wild vegetables, and when they ran out of wild vegetables, some people began to starve to death; Others have fallen off cliffs and died, and many more have died of exhaustion or malaria. It is recorded that countless workers lost their lives due to various causes during the construction of the road.
At the end of 1938, the Yunnan-Burma Highway was finally opened to traffic, which became the lifeblood of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. However, it was accompanied by another flesh-and-blood Yunnan-Burma Railway: the 860-kilometre-long railway from Kunming to Lashio in Myanmar via Lufeng and Chuxiong was accompanied by equally harsh conditions and took three times as long as the Yunnan-Burma Highway. According to statistics, 100,000 workers died on the construction site of the railway, with an average of one person falling every 8 meters per construction. No one expected that such a heavy price was paid, just when the railway was about to lay tracks, the situation of the war suddenly changed, the Chinese expeditionary force was defeated by the Japanese army and was forced to retreat, in order to block the enemy, the Yunnan-Burma highway was blown up, and the Yunnan-Burma railway had to be blown up in its entirety, and the hard work of 300,000 people in western Yunnan came to naught, and countless people knelt on the ground and wept bitterly.
Previously, Japan had captured the Philippines, Singapore and other places, and the front was approaching Burma. As a British colony, the British army in Burma was outdated, poorly trained, and lacked experience in jungle warfare. Even so, the British remained complacent, believing that it was impossible for the Japanese army to invade Burma. However, the fact is that before the British army had time to deploy its troops, the Japanese army had already captured Rangoon, and the Battle of Rangoon began. The British army was losing ground and seeing that Burma's defense was about to collapse, the Allies had to turn to the Chinese expeditionary force for help.
In February 1942, the mighty and majestic Chinese army drove to the front line in Burma, when soldiers were riding in American trucks, motorcycles in front of them to open the road, the military appearance was clean, the flag was fluttering, and the people of western Yunnan were in tears along the way. However, when the Chinese military arrived, they were greeted with an almost impossible mission. Marshall, then chief of staff of the U.S. Army, sent General Stilwell to serve as chief of staff of the Allied forces in the China-Burma-India theater of operations, responsible for commanding Chinese troops. However, Stilwell's mission was more of a military diplomacy than a command of actual combat. Due to differences in concepts, he and Chiang Kai-shek also had differences with each other.
In May 1942, the Allies retreated to northern Burma in a hurry. The Chinese army held out with great difficulty, and finally repelled the Japanese attack at the end of May. However, due to the inability of logistical supplies and the lack of coordination within the Allied forces, the expeditionary force was forced to retreat on all fronts and retreat into China. During the six-month expedition to Burma, the Chinese army paid a heavy price: more than 50,000 casualties, nearly 200,000 people were sick, and almost all kinds of supplies and equipment were lost. This battle not only failed to stop the Japanese attack, but instead inflicted heavy losses on the Chinese army, adding great pressure to the most dangerous period later.
Whenever the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is mentioned, people often only remember those glorious battles, but ignore the arduous journey that countless compatriots paved the way with their blood and lives. The construction of the Yunnan-Burma Highway and the Yunnan-Burma Railway is nothing less than a magnificent and painful epic, witnessing the heroic and righteous spirit of the Chinese people who stand up in times of crisis and are not afraid of difficulties. Even in the tragic Burma campaign, the Chinese soldiers did not hesitate to throw their heads and spill their blood, and regarded death as home. This sense of responsibility and the awe-inspiring heroic spirit of treating the survival of the family and the country as one's own responsibility are precisely the inexhaustible driving force that supports the Chinese nation in its tenacious struggle and unremitting self-improvement in the crisis of life and death.