People’s support for the Sichuan War of Resistance

The stories of many Sichuan people sending their children to the battlefield are tear-jerking:

Wang Jiantang, a young man from Qushan Town, An County, and his friends separately organized 100 young people and asked the county government for orders to kill the enemy. Just before they set off, the county government received an expedition flag from Wang Jiantang's father, Wang Zhecheng. When everyone unfurled the expedition flag, they were all shocked - contrary to wishing their loved ones a safe expedition, this large flag made of a wide piece of white cloth had a big word "death" written in the center! On the upper right side of the expedition flag is written: "I don't want you to be filial in my presence, I only want you to be loyal to the nation!" On the upper left side it is written: "The national crisis is at hand, and the Japanese invaders are ferocious. Every man has a share in the rise and fall of a country. This book If you want to serve, you have to go beyond your age. Fortunately, I have a son. I will give you a flag to carry with you at all times. When you are injured, you will be covered with it. Go forward bravely and never forget your duty!"

Sichuan soldiers are on every battlefield! They are all popular, they are hard-working, brave and good at fighting, and they are often snatched away by various troops before they are assigned. In 1944, in order to alleviate the urgent shortage of military resources, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized young people to join the army at the National Political Participation Conference with the slogan "One inch of rivers and one inch of blood, one hundred thousand young people and one hundred thousand troops." This year, on the campuses of many universities in Sichuan, slogans promoting joining the army can be seen everywhere, lecture tours are constantly coming and going, the "military registration office" on the playground is crowded, and passionate songs are playing non-stop. It seems that no one can sit down safely. Read "Books of Sages". Students signed up one after another, those who were engaged postponed their weddings, and the only son who was exempted from military service decided to join the army... Even the children of some high-ranking officials also enthusiastically signed up, including Zhang Jizheng, the son of Zhang Qun, who was the chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Government.

According to figures released by He Yingqin, the then Minister of Military Affairs of the Nationalist Government: Sichuan province’s military recruitment, regardless of quotas and actual recruitment amounts, accounted for approximately 1/5 of the national total, ranking first in the country; there were approximately 15 Thousands of educated young people have registered to join the army, with more than 40,000 in Sichuan Province, ranking first in the country. Less than one in 10 people in the country's anti-Japanese army is from Sichuan. Therefore, the Chinese army has a saying, "No army can be formed without Sichuan." Sichuan was a major base of the Anti-Japanese War, and Sichuan was a melting pot of the Anti-Japanese War. During the eight years of the National Anti-Japanese War, the people of Sichuan contributed money and strength.

The soldiers at the front fought bloody battlefields, lacked clothes and food, and fought hard, which affected the hearts of the patriotic soldiers and civilians at the rear. General Feng Yuxiang, then vice chairman of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, started from Chongqing and visited more than 20 counties and cities in Sichuan on a one-year lecture tour as "President of the Chinese People's Federation of Saving Money and Donating National Salvation Movement". It set off a climax of patriotic fundraising among Sichuan people.

At the Baisha Donation Ceremony in Jiangjin County, more than 10,000 male and female students knelt on the ground, crying and begging the celebrities and gentry present: "Please save our country, save our suffering nation. !..." Everyone burst into tears, some donated money generously on the spot, and some took off their gold watches, gold rings, and gold bracelets... At the Lu County donation meeting, a group of beggars donated their lives in broken bowls. Money; a group of injured soldiers with amputated arms and legs supported each other and donated more than 10,000 yuan they had earned from weaving rattan chairs and making umbrellas for charity... Feng Yuxiang, the resolute and upright old general, took these with both hands. Money moved me to tears, and people around me burst into tears...

Since the Sichuan Army came out to fight the war, various fundraising activities organized by all walks of life in Sichuan have never stopped. According to incomplete statistics from the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang, the total amount of donations made by people in Sichuan alone in the first two times reached 600 to 700 million yuan. This huge sum of money was the hard-earned money of the Sichuan people, and was mostly used to purchase aircraft, artillery, guns and other weapons that were urgently needed on the battlefield, and severely dealt a blow to the Japanese invaders.

With the successive decline of grain-producing areas in the Yellow River, Yangtze River, Pearl River and other river basins, Sichuan Province shouldered the main grain burden of the National Government. To this end, various departments of the provincial government have issued various brochures, leaflets, slogans, and proclamations, preaching that paying grain is a patriotic act and an obligation of the citizens. The majority of farmers responded positively: on the mountain roads and in the fields, you can often see an endless stream of farmers carrying grain on their backs. In years with bad harvests, farmers in some areas are hungry or even dying of hunger. They rely on eating "Guanyin soil" to satisfy their hunger. They must also try their best not to default on even half a grain of "public grain".

In the four years from 1941 to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the total amount of rice collected by the Sichuan Communist Party accounted for about 1/3 of the national total.

The people of the province also shouldered the heavy responsibility of building the "rear area". Sichuan was the primary province subject to strategic bombing by the Japanese army, but the bombing did not destroy the will of the Sichuan people, but instead increased their spirit of resistance and cohesion. Although bombings were frequent, the factories continued to work, and the workers worked overtime to produce uniforms, weapons and ammunition for the front line. The factories hidden in the mountains are running non-stop day and night. Every night, the factory buildings and workshops are brightly lit and the machines are rumbling. This scene constitutes "a magnificent poem in the history of Chinese industry."

In order to open up the anti-Japanese war transportation lines, more than 2 million migrant workers in Sichuan took on the task of building Sichuan-Shaanxi, Chengdu-Chongqing and other highways and rushing to repair air force bases. They ate chaffy vegetables, wore ragged clothes, and worked in all weathers. With their calloused hands and simple primitive tools, they created one miracle after another in the history of transportation.