Hot Blood Flows at the Foot of Songmao Ridge — Visiting Zhongfu Village in Western Fujian, the Departure Point of the Red 9th Army Corps' Long March
Hot Blood Flows at the Foot of Songmao Ridge — Visiting Zhongfu Village in Western Fujian, the Departure Point of the Red 9th Army Corps' Long March
■ PLA Daily correspondent Luan Cheng, photo report
Tourists visit the Red Army Bridge.
In midsummer, this correspondent traveled to the mountain region of western Fujian to visit Zhongfu Village in Changting County, at the foot of Songmao Ridge. This place was once an important battlefield of the Central Soviet Area's Fifth Counter-Encirclement Campaign, and also the departure point of the Red 9th Army Corps' Long March.
Songmao Ridge, with its treacherous terrain and dense forests, served as a critical eastern shield for Ruijin, the capital of the Chinese Soviet Republic. Turning back the clock to late September 1934: the Fifth Counter-Encirclement Campaign in the Central Soviet Area had reached a white-hot intensity, Nationalist Army forces were closing in step by step, and a strategic withdrawal of the Red Army was imminent. On September 23, the Battle of Songmao Ridge commenced. The Red 9th Army Corps, the Red 24th Division, and local Changting armed forces — more than 30,000 men in total — engaged the enemy in a bloody battle at Songmao Ridge.
It was an extraordinarily brutal fight. The enemy poured thousands upon thousands of artillery shells into Songmao Ridge every day, while the Red Army was poorly equipped and casualties mounted without cease. At the most desperate moment of the fighting, the Fujian Military Region mobilized more than 1,600 new soldiers to reinforce the Red 9th Army Corps, who were thrown into battle immediately upon arrival.
Upon entering Zhongfu Village, a Hakka covered bridge built during the Ming Dynasty comes into view; local residents call it the "Red Army Bridge." According to accounts, the Red Army once treated villagers' illnesses on this covered bridge and also set up a recruitment station there. To this day, a carved mark remains visible on several bridge pillars at approximately 1.5 meters above the ground — the "conscription height line." At the time, the conscription standard was "taller than the rifle, join the Red Army." Because the "Hanyang Arsenal" rifles used by the Red Army measured 1.5 meters in length with bayonet fixed, and soldiers had to carry their rifles while on the march, recruits were required to be at least 1.5 meters tall.
"To defend Songmao Ridge is to defend Changting, to defend Ruijin!" During the Battle of Songmao Ridge, more than 200 hot-blooded young men from the local area rushed to the front. On a display panel at the Red Army Bridge, this correspondent saw a moving story: an elderly man named Luo Yunran, after four of his sons had joined the Red Army and fallen one after another, resolutely sent his last two sons to enlist. In the face of those around him urging him to stop, he said: "Even if our family line is cut off, we must follow the Red Army and make revolution!"
The Red Army officers and soldiers fought with their lives for seven days and seven nights, at tremendous cost delaying the Nationalist Army's advance and winning precious time for the central organs and the main force of the Central Red Army to carry out their strategic withdrawal.
Seven days later, on September 30, 1934, the Red 9th Army Corps received the order for strategic withdrawal. Officers and soldiers pulled back from Songmao Ridge and convened a farewell rally for the Soviet Area masses in Zhongfu Village. After drinking the rice wine the villagers offered them, still bearing the smoke and grime of battle, they set out to assemble at Yudu, and then stepped onto the ten-thousand-li march.
The Departure Ceremony Before the Ancestral Hall
■ PLA Daily correspondent Luan Cheng, photo report
A miniature sculpture inside the exhibition hall at the Red 9th Army Corps' Long March departure site.
One ancestral hall. One set of sculptures. Together they present the scene from more than 90 years ago when the Red 9th Army Corps bade farewell to the Soviet Area and set out on its tragic and heroic march.
On the morning of September 30, 1934, officers and soldiers of the Red 9th Army Corps — having just withdrawn from the Battle of Songmao Ridge — convened a farewell rally for the Soviet Area masses in front of the Guanshou Ancestral Hall in Zhongfu Village, Changting County, Fujian. Army Corps Chief of Staff Guo Tianmin spoke with passionate conviction, raising his fist and crying out; the soldiers stood in formation, solemn and sorrowful. At three o'clock that afternoon, amid a fine drizzle, under the reluctant gaze of their fellow villagers, the Red Army officers and soldiers split into two columns and moved in the direction of Yudu — taking the first step of the ten-thousand-li Long March.
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