What is Chiang Kai-shek's poem about an inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood?

"One inch of mountains and rivers and one inch of blood, 100,000 young people and 100,000 troops" was a famous political slogan in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's period. It was the Military Committee of the National Government that initiated the movement of educated youth joining the army and widely mobilized students to join the youth army. The Youth Army has successively participated in major counter-offensives in northern Myanmar, such as Myitkyina, bhamo, Namkham and Lashio, and played a positive role in opening up the China-India highway. This slogan means that all the people are soldiers, and they will defend the mountains and rivers with their lives.

Extended data:

When War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression went to the beginning of 1944, Japan was faced with increasingly serious sea and air threats from Southeast Asian allies and local maritime transportation. Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of the local defense circle, the Japanese army made a battle plan to open the traffic line in Chinese mainland, referred to as "Operation No.1".

To this end, the Japanese army assembled more than 500,000 troops, 1500 guns and 1.5 million vehicles. With the cooperation of the Japanese navy, it launched a large-scale attack on the Kuomintang troops in Henan, Hunan and Guangxi, with the intention of opening up railway and highway traffic from North China to Vietnam via the coastal areas of Guangxi.

In order to preserve its strength, China Kuomintang troops fought passively in this war, and there were also various command mistakes. Therefore, by the beginning of 1945, Japan had successfully opened the railway and highway communication lines from Henan to Hunan and lower Guangxi, and basically achieved its operational objectives.

On the other hand, the National Government lost more than 600,000 military forces, 30,000 tons of ammunition and1100,000 square kilometers of land. It can be described as a crushing defeat and terrible sight, which greatly weakened the initiative of the war of resistance.

At that time, all social strata were extremely dissatisfied with the passive resistance of the Kuomintang. Under the circumstances of great pressure from all sides and great losses of troops, the National Government is determined to rectify the army and replenish fresh blood, with the intention of completely changing the quality of the army.

1944 On August 27th, in order to encourage the broad masses of young intellectuals to join the army to defend their country, Chiang Kai-shek issued the call of "one inch of mountains and rivers and one inch of blood, 100,000 young people and 100,000 troops" at the National Political Consultative Conference. To this end, Chiang Kai-shek also introduced many preferential policies, such as: government officials can keep their original wages and give special care to the families of young people who joined the army. He also appointed Luo as the director of the youth army and the director of the political department. It is not difficult to see from the composition of the leaders of this institution that Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to this unit.

By the end of 1944, more than100000 people had signed up for the Youth Army, including more than10.5000 college students. Considering that there were only more than 60,000 college students,100,000 high school students and nearly 600,000 junior high school students in China at that time, it is not difficult to see that the educated youth were very keen on serving the country.

The structure of the entire youth army can be said to be completely in accordance with the standards of the US military, including infantry, artillery, communications, engineering, transportation and other military units. Compared with other forces of the Kuomintang, the biggest difference of the Youth Army is that the people who join the army have a very high cultural quality and the purpose of joining the army is very clear, that is, to fight against the Japanese aggressors and defend the country. Moreover, it is equipped with a full set of American equipment, so its combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-an inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood, 100 thousand young people and 100 thousand troops