Chen Hanbo’s participation in the “December 9th Movement”

On the eve of the "December 9th Movement", other progressive classmates of Chen Hanbo met Peking University student Yu Qiwei (David Yu, later called Huang Jing), Tsinghua University student Yao Keguang (Yorker, also known as Yao Yilin) ??at Mr. Snow's house. They are all leaders of the underground party of the Communist Party of China. Around November 1935, the Peiping Student Federation under the leadership of the Party was secretly established. It launched and organized this patriotic student movement of unprecedented scale. On December 9, 1935, Chen Hanbo was the general leader of more than 500 petitioning students in Yanjing. As soon as the team reached Haidian Town, they encountered a large number of police officers who came to stop them. Chen Hanbo went to negotiate with them. The inspector-looking man asked the students to "show their superiority" and return to school. How could the students pay attention to him? Chen Hanbo roared, and the students crowded onto the road, regrouped and headed towards the city. When we walked to the Gaoliang Bridge outside Xizhimen, the bridge was densely packed with police, holding rifles with bayonets and looking murderous. Facing the heavily armed police, no one flinched or trembled. Instead, the students shouted to them, "Make way!" Morale boosted. Female classmate Gong Weihang (later called Gong Peng), who was standing at the front of the bridge, waved her hand and shouted: "Come on!" The students rushed over at once, and the police were defeated, stamping their feet and cursing.

However, the gate of Xizhimen has long been closed. Students from various universities in the western suburbs temporarily decided to hold a conference outside Xizhimen. The students took turns delivering speeches with loudspeakers. Some accused the Japanese army of atrocities, some accused the Kuomintang of non-resistance, and some took the lead in shouting slogans. This is an opportunity to expand publicity to the citizens. Just the closing of the city gate and the interruption of traffic are enough to inspire hundreds of thousands of citizens to think about the national crisis. On that day, thousands of students from Peking University, Women's Normal University and some middle schools in the city held demonstrations and petitions, fighting hard all day long despite the whips and high-pressure water cannons of the military and police. Back at school in the evening, the students were excited and crowded into the student union office to come up with ideas and solutions. An overseas Chinese classmate ran in and cried loudly, saying that he had always felt very humiliated when he grew up overseas. Only today did he feel that there is hope for the Chinese nation!

On December 16, Peiping students held another larger demonstration. On the 15th, the Peking Federation of Students sent Chen Hanbo and two Tsinghua students to Shanghai. Without any prior contact, who should I contact? Chen Hanbo had an idea and found the phone number of Mr. Zou Taofen's office from "Popular Life" magazine, and explained his purpose of visit in English on the phone. With the help of famous people such as Zou Taofen, Zhang Naiqi, Shen Junru, and Shen Tilan, they went to some universities and middle schools to contact and encourage, and the Shanghai student parade on Christmas Eve was facilitated. At 8 o'clock in the morning on December 24, a string of firecrackers went off on the second floor of the "Wufangzhai" snack shop on Nanjing Road. Students in twos and threes who had been strolling on the street quickly gathered, held up slogans and banners, shouted anti-Japanese slogans, and ambush each store. The students upstairs dropped leaflets one after another. The parade was broken up and regrouped by the military and police, and they "fighted guerrilla" again and again. In the afternoon, people from all walks of life gathered together, and finally the meeting was successfully held at the North Railway Station.

In January 1936, schools in Pingjin and Tianjin formed a southward expansion propaganda group to promote anti-Japanese resistance to the public. Twenty-nine people from the Second Brigade of the Third Regiment to which Chen Hanbo belonged were blocked by agents in a small restaurant in Gaobeidian. The students used tables, chairs and benches to hold up the doors and windows to confront the agents. They set fire to the house. The students were finally outnumbered and Chen Hanbo was beaten. With bleeding from their heads, they were all escorted back to school by secret agents.

The "December 9th" patriotic student movement ignited the first holy fire of the entire nation's war of resistance, and its achievements will never be annihilated.