For More Than 80 Years, the Same Name Has Bound a Hero Company to the Hero's Hometown
The "Ren Changlun Company" of a certain brigade of the Southern Theater Command Army participates in emergency rescue operations; villagers from Changlun Village, Longkou City, Shandong Province, send their regards from thousands of miles away——
The Same Name Binds Us Tightly Together
■ Zhang Daqi, PLA Daily Special Correspondents Kong Qingshan and Jia Yusheng
In July of this year, the "Ren Changlun Company" participated in emergency flood rescue operations in Guigang, Guangxi, following heavy rainfall. Pictured are officers and soldiers searching for and evacuating trapped civilians. Photo by Wang Mingcheng
Changlun Village and Fengyi Shop Village in Longkou City, Shandong Province, prepare care packages to send to the officers and soldiers of the "Ren Changlun Company." Villagers affix messages of condolence to the parcels. Photo by Zhang Daqi
The reply letter from the "Ren Changlun Company" to the villagers of Changlun Village and Fengyi Shop Village. Photo by Zhang Daqi
"We have received your care packages. This deep affection that has traveled more than two thousand kilometers is deeply imprinted in the heart of every officer and soldier…"
Not long ago, two letters spanning 2,350 kilometers were sent from the "Ren Changlun Company" of a certain brigade of the Southern Theater Command Army to Changlun Village in Qijia Town and Fengyi Shop Village in Shiliang Town, Longkou City, Shandong Province.
This past summer, Guangxi was struck by sudden heavy rainfall and flooding, and the officers and soldiers of the "Ren Changlun Company" rushed to the rescue through the night. After the people of the hero's hometown saw the related news, they packed local Jiaodong specialties and heat-relief supplies and sent them to the unit.
Care crosses mountains and seas; letters carry deep feeling. For more than 80 years, the same name has bound the hero company tightly to the hero's hometown.
The Martyr Returns to His Hometown; the Hero Has Successors
At the Jiaodong Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery on Yingling Mountain in Qixia City, Shandong Province, the bronze statue of Martyr Ren Changlun has stood on the cliff for 81 years.
Ren Changlun was born in 1921 in Sun Huzhuang Village, Huangxian County (present-day Changlun Village, Longkou City, Shandong Province). He joined the Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Corps at age 17, enlisted in the Eighth Route Army at 19, participated in more than 120 engagements of varying scale, was wounded nine times in succession, and was awarded the title of "First-Class Combat Hero" by the Shandong Military District for his valor in battle. In November 1944, during the blocking battle at Changshabo in Haiyang, Ren Changlun—serving as deputy platoon leader of the 3rd Platoon, 5th Company, 1st Battalion, 14th Regiment, 5th Brigade, Jiaodong Military District of the Eighth Route Army—led his soldiers in close-quarters bayonet fighting against Japanese troops, consecutively bayoneting five enemy soldiers before being struck by a bullet and killed in action at the age of only 23.
After the hero gave his life for the nation, the Jiaodong Military District named the company in which he had served the "Ren Changlun Company," and the former Huangxian County People's Government renamed his hometown of Sun Huzhuang as Changlun Village. In the spring of 1945, the people of Jiaodong built the Jiaodong Anti-Japanese Martyrs Memorial Tower on Yingling Mountain and had Martyr Ren Changlun reinterred in the cemetery. As a further tribute, the relevant authorities also decided to cast a bronze statue of the martyr within the cemetery.
Wartime material resources were scarce, but when the military and civilians of the base area heard that a bronze statue of the martyr was to be cast, they spread the word and competed to donate copper. Young members of the Children's Corps turned in copper shell casings discarded by Japanese troops during "mopping-up" operations (扫荡) and copper coins saved at home; newlywed couples donated newly purchased copper washbasins; elderly people donated their cherished copper pipe bowls; others brought out copper ladles, copper locks, and copper handles from their chests and cabinets… Relying on the "copper from a hundred families" collected from the people, the bronze statue of Ren Changlun was completed in July 1945.
In 1958, Huangxian County built the Wangwu Reservoir, and Changlun Village was relocated in its entirety. As the People's Army maneuvered across many fronts and underwent several reorganizations and restructurings, the "Ren Changlun Company" eventually took up permanent station in Guangxi. Though separated by a thousand miles, the same name still connects the hero unit to the hero's hometown.
On the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan in 2015, the Longkou Farmers' Military Band traveled to Guilin, Guangxi, to pay tribute to the hero's successors with stirring music; on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance in 2025, the company organized representatives of its officers and soldiers to come to Longkou to visit red historical sites. At the parade marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the battle flag of the "Ren Changlun Company" was honored in the review, and the villagers of Changlun Village watched the livestream together with exceptional pride.
"The company is the successor of the hero; we are the descendants of the hero's hometown. Our roots and veins are connected." Wang Zhongjin, Party branch secretary of Changlun Village, told reporters that over the years, Changlun Village has continuously relayed good news about the development of the old revolutionary base area to the company, while the company has regularly reported its achievements in training for war to the villagers, and the ties between the two sides have grown ever closer.
Fight Like a Fierce Tiger in Battle; Charge at the Vanguard
This summer, Guigang, Guangxi, was struck by sustained heavy rainfall, causing river levels to surge, widespread waterlogging in urban and rural areas, and frequent emergencies at multiple embankments. Facing the disaster, the "Ren Changlun Company" moved upon receiving orders and rushed to the affected areas.
"Fight like a fierce tiger in battle; charge at the vanguard." On the south bank of the Yu River, officers and soldiers began uninterrupted patrols and reinforcement of earthen embankments from deep in the night, assigning personnel to fixed posts at the most dangerous sections, vowing to hold the safety line at all costs. Upon receiving word that a certain middle school in Guigang City was surrounded by floodwaters, the company immediately drew on its backbone personnel to form a rescue team, drove assault boats through the swift currents into the school grounds, and safely evacuated teachers and students.
Due to the heavy rainfall, water in some low-lying areas of Guigang exceeded one meter in depth. In front of one residential building, water had already submerged the first floor, completely blocking the stairwell. Officers and soldiers erected a bamboo ladder at a second-floor window, and residents inside passed children out through the window. Platoon Leader Luogulari stood on the bamboo ladder, one hand bracing against the slippery wall, the other steadily receiving the children. He then worked with his comrades to help the residents evacuate safely. "As successors of the hero, we will fight with our lives to protect every single person," said Luogulari.
"Learn from Ren Changlun; the steel blade never dulls." Chanting their slogan and carrying the company flag, the "Ren Changlun Company" appeared wherever the disaster was most severe and the people most in need.
After the floodwaters receded, silt and debris accumulated across many parts of Guigang, and the officers and soldiers immediately turned to dredging operations. Under the scorching sun and amid swarms of insects, few officers and soldiers took extended rest, all in order to restore road access as quickly as possible and ensure the people could travel. The images of officers and soldiers fighting hard in the disaster zone were not only faithfully captured and recorded by journalists and broadcast by local news media, but were also photographed and shared by ordinary citizens. One citizen captured this photograph: a young soldier, clutching a half-eaten compressed biscuit, had fallen asleep leaning against a sandbag, his clothes covered in the cracked patterns left by dried mud.
During this emergency rescue operation, the company cumulatively patrolled and inspected 45 kilometers of embankments, evacuated more than 1,000 trapped civilians, and cleared more than 200 tons of silt and debris. Images of assault boats cleaving through the waves and camouflaged figures wading against the current flooded the internet, and countless netizens praised the soldiers. And a thousand miles away, another group of loved ones was also following their news at every moment.
Warmth Sent Across a Thousand Miles; United Hearts Battle the Flood Crest
Turbid waves surged across Guangxi; longing stretched long across Jiaodong. From the beginning of July, someone in the WeChat group of Changlun Village residents was always forwarding news about the "Ren Changlun Company" officers and soldiers participating in the emergency rescue operations.
Village elder Wang Baode is over 80 years old. Whenever he heard there was news about the "Ren Changlun Company," he would put on his reading glasses and have family members play the video, watching it over and over again. The sunburned faces and mud-stained clothing of the officers and soldiers in the videos made the villagers feel both heartache and pride: "That's the unit that came out of our place—still fighting with their lives for the common people!"
"Watching them is truly like watching my own children," one villager said in the group, and another immediately replied: "They are the children of our whole village."
A simple idea took root in the hearts of the villagers: to send the soldiers on the flood-fighting front line a token of remembrance from home. Changlun Village and Fengyi Shop Village in Shiliang Town—a village with a deep red cultural heritage—immediately agreed, deciding to jointly send care packages to the "Ren Changlun Company." Once the news spread, villagers spontaneously donated money to purchase heat-relief and epidemic-prevention medicines, and the heads of local township enterprises contributed local specialties—pine mushroom drinks and pine mushroom vermicelli—as gifts. Auntie Sun, a Changlun Village resident in her seventies with limited mobility, came leaning on her cane carrying a bag of dried dates she had sun-dried herself, insisting they be put in the package: "These are sweet—let the children have a taste."
Villagers of all ages, men and women, pitched in together to pack the care items, affixed the slogan "Warmth Sent Across a Thousand Miles; United Hearts Battle the Flood Crest" (千里寄温情 同心战洪峰), and sent them southward along with their care for the flood-fighting soldiers.
2,350 kilometers—ten boxes of care packages traveled from the Jiaodong Peninsula across the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the Nanling Mountains, heading south all the way to the land of Guangxi.
Wang Shaoxing, the political instructor (指导员) of the "Ren Changlun Company," recalls that the day the care packages arrived at the rescue front line, it happened to fall during a lull between rainstorms. The company's officers and soldiers gathered together and opened the parcels sent from the hero's hometown. The remembrance from a thousand miles away brought tears to the eyes of many soldiers: "We never expected that, separated by such a great distance, the elders of the hero's hometown would still be thinking of us."
Moved by the gesture, the company Party branch decided to write a reply letter in the name of all the company's officers and soldiers, to express gratitude to all the villagers of Changlun Village and Fengyi Shop Village.
"Mountains and seas separate us, yet warmth connects us; a thousand miles of watching over one another, great love warms the heart. We will transform the deep affection and expectations of the people of our hometown into an inexhaustible driving force for moving forward, and with steadfast dedication and hard work continue to write the glory of the heroes…" The impassioned words conveyed the emotion of all the officers and soldiers upon receiving the packages, reported to the elders on the progress of the rescue operations, and solemnly expressed their resolve to carry forward the spirit of the martyrs and do everything in their power to safeguard the lives and property of the people.
Several days later, the two reply letters arrived in Longkou. Reading to the end of the letters, the villagers discovered that Ren Changlun's name had been written at the very center of all the officers' and soldiers' signatures.
In the hearts of the officers and soldiers, the hero has never gone far—he is still at the head of the formation, at the front of every mission, and in every one of these letters filled with friendship and promise.
Page layout design: Hu Shuo