Scars of Wounds on Their Bodies-a Certificate of Merit: Servicewomen in the War of Liberation (1946-1949)

In the spring of 1947, more than 800 heroes that had taken part in the Subei, Lunan and Laiwu Campaigns were cited in the first victory meeting ceremoniously held in Jiaoji County, Shandong Province by the First Column of the East China Field Army. In the Laiwu Campaign, more than 50 thousand enemies were wiped out and over 20 cities and towns in Jiaoji County were liberated by the 6 columns of the East china Field Army. Having summarized the fighting experience, Ye Fei ,the column commanding officer, changed the subject by mentioning a servicewoman. He said: "I think if all the medical workers take her as an example, then not a single soldier's life will be lost and not a single soldier will complain of pain in future campaigns. I say, she has not only rendered meritorious service, but should also be set as the model medical worker for the whole column. do you agree with me?" "Yes!" thousands of officers and men replied in chorus. She was the special-class heroine Jiang Nanping. During the Subei Campaign, the third Brigade in which Jiang Nanping worked stuck into the enemy's heart, thus insuring the victory of the whole campaign. Following the troops closely, Jiang, despite her own wound, twice dashed into the burning civilian houses set on fire by the bombardment of the enemy planes and managed to rescue the wounded soldiers, Rather than treating herself as one of the wounded, Jiang carried stretchers, boiled water, and nursed the wounded, following the troops in their fighting all the way from the northem Jiangsu to southern shandong and then from the Yimeng Mountains to the Jiao-Ji Railway until the victory of the Laiwu Campaign. After the Lunan Campaign. the troops to which she belonged was redesignated from the New Fourth Army to the People's Liberation Army.

A new chapter was opened up in the history of Chinese servicewomen. In June 1946, Chiang Kai-shek, brazenly tearing up all the peaceful agreements, including the Truce Agreement and the Political Consultative Conference Agreement, pressed the siege to the liberated areas in the Central Plains, and starting from there, launched an all out offensive against the whole liberated areas, thus imposing an unprecedented full-scale civil war on the Chinese people. Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist party, the army and the people of the liberated areas rose in self-defense and fought bravely against

Chiang Kai-shek's attack. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth army were redesignated as the Chinese People's Liberation Army. In the course of the War of Liberation, the Chinese People's Liberation Army made a clean and quick swipe of 8 million troops of the Kuomintang. news of victory kept pouring in. The wars taken part in by the servicewomen of the PLA were the largest in scale in the history of Chinese servicewomen.

The PLA was divided into the First, the Second, the Third and the Fourth Field Armies in accordance with its different stations in north China, the Northwest, east China, and the Northeast. The servicewomen in the Field Armies mostly worked in hospitals, communications stations and art troupes. Within the East China Field Army, female medical workers made up 30% of the total number of the medical personnel at the front. Many of them assumed various roles such as deputy directors of the column medical units, hospital presidents and heads of medical teams, etc. They often worked in the open country and villages only dozens of li from the frontline and tirelessly rescued groups after groups of wounded soldiers under the wanton and indiscriminate bombing of Chiang's and American planes. They frequently transferred from place to place with troops, keeping a marching speed of 5 kilometers per hour. In addition, they learned how to climb over walls and houses, pass through obstacles and cross irrigation canals and ditches. Sometimes they had to make a rapid march of about one to two hundred li on end in order to reach the designated place and then start rescue and treatment work all at once. Li Landing, woman leader of a medical team and honored as "the Chinese Nightingale, " once escorted 500 wounded soldiers to the safe place despite the bombardment of the planes, the pursuit of the enemies, the ceaseless heavy rain, and innumerable other dire conditions. Ding Zhihui, president of the field hospital of the the 39th Army under the Northeast Field army, participated in the Jinzhou, Shenyang, Tianjin and some other campaigns. The hospital directed by her achieved the best cure rate among the whole army and for five times won the title of "Model of the Whole Army. "Of the 398 servicewomen in the 41jt Army under the Northeast Field Army, 140 rendered meritorious service. During the Suiji Campaign, the headquarters at the most critical moment of the campaign, lost contact with the front because of the thunderclaps. Chen Yan, a womantelegragh operator, worked from 3 o'clock in the afternoon to the small hours of the next day and eventually managed to bring the two into contact again. She was awarded a First-Class People's Hero medal by the Army because of her outstanding accomplishments.

The heroic deeds of the servicewomen were continually on the lips of soldiers both at the front and in the rear.

In 1945, a strange soldier was enrolled to the Independent Regiment

of the Rebei Military Subarea of the Eighth Route Army. He always went to bed with his clothes on. When sleeping with several others on the adobe bed, he preferred to take a side place with his head resting on his bayonet and his gun laid beside the soldier next to him to "keep guard. " Whenever the troops were about to start, he would go out for a while on horseback and then hurry back to fall in .For this reason he was frequently criticized by the company commander. What was even more puzzling to his comrades-in-arms was that he never went to the toilet together with them. Prompted by curiosity rather than malice, they decided to reveal the secret. Once, while playing about in the interval of a fighting, a soldier suddenly held him in his arms. All at once he turned back, pulled out the bayonet and shouted angrily: "Be aware of my bayonet if you play such jokes on me. "Then he turned running to the branch secretary and complained in tears about the soldiers who freely make a body search of him. Thereafter, the soldiers let go of him as being merely eccentric. Yet, this eccentric soldier fought bravely on the bttlefield, whipping a horse after the enemy and wrestling with the naked sword. In the course of over 10 battles, he was cited for special-class meritorious service once, for exceptionally meritorious service for 3 times and minor meritorious service for 4 times. He was promoted from a soldier to the rank of squad leader and then to platoon leader. After the Anti-Japanese War, he took part in the War of Liberation. By the time of the LiaoShe Campaign, he was already a deputy political instructor. An unprecedentedly large blocking action in the history of the War of Liberation was unfolded in the Dalazishan Mountains. Into this battle the Kuomintang threw massive forces of 1 divisions, intending to rescue Jinzhou from a siege. The whole position was turned into a sea of fire by the bombardment of the enemy's artillery fire. With all bullets used up, the deputy political instructor led the soldiers in dashing into the enemy troops with rifles taken off from the dead. The soulstirring battle lasted for three days and nights. By the fourth day when the fraternal troops came to relieve the garrison, of the 2,000 or so troops in the whole regiment, fewer than 500 officers and men withdrew from the position without being seriously wounded. he was one of the survivors from this fierce battle. The soldiers all loved this head of theirs who was both good at fighting and considerate of others. There was a soldier who frequently wetted the bed. It was he who helped the soldier wash his sheet in the extremely cold days and asked the farmers for folk recipe. Deeply moved, the soldier told the truth. it turned out that he just pretended to have the defect because of his fear of hardship and his homesickness. Later the soldier laid down his life in the battle at the Dalazishan mountains while the deputy political instructor followed the troops in fighting from the Northeast straight down to

Guangdong until the victory of the whole country. Having fought in so many places and for such a long time, he was eventually hospitalized in 1950. To the surprise of many, he was discovered to be suffering from serious gynaecological disease. This combat hero, who had fought north and south on many fronts, was actually a female. She was named Guo Junqing and had just reached the age of 20. Without prior knowledge by her family, she joined thearmy to revenge her father. To be admitted by the troops, she lied about her age and disguised her real sex. By the time when the war was over, she was old enough to be concerned with love and romance. Unfortunately, serious gynaecologiacl disease forced her to undergo a total hysterectomy. She declined the wholehearted courting by male companions who had established profound feelings with her during the was, putting out relentlessly the fire of her own love. she had her own theory, just as when she disguised herself as a man in the war years. For the sake of war, she gave up everything that a woman should have.

Just wen the Northeast Field Army which Guo Junqing followed was having a rest and reorganization at the end of the Pingjing Campaign, the Campaign of Luoyang in the Central Plains was also about to come to an end. When the bugle call sounded for emergency muster, a servicewoman rushed out hurriedly from a farmer's house and ran into the ranks in rapid march, her hand raising high with a sorghum stalk a roll of films which still dripped water. she was yang Ling, the only camerawoman in the war. The camera she carried was one of the war trophies captured from the Japanese in attacking Ju County in 1943. Since her first photograph Officials of UN General Administration of Relief Visit the Kindergartens of the Shandong Military Command was published, she had followed each campaign on the east China battlefield. On Jan. 10th,1949, the Huaihai Campaign that had lasted over two months was drawing to an end. Dilapidated walls and buildings could be seen everwhere in battle-stricken villages. Yang Ling, having busily worked for a whole day,did not find a place for rest until after midnight when she stopped for a rest in a remaining cowshed. She and her comrades-in-arms were encouraged each day by news of victory. she fought with the troops from Xuchang to Luohe and from Kaifeng to Luoyang. This campaign was one wherein the enemies wiped out were the largest in number. The forces directed by Huang Buotao and Du Yuming, the Kuomintang's crack troops, were entirely destroyed. Yang Ling lay in a hay stack, listening to the chewing of cattle, smelling the foul smell of cow dung, and watching the arc light of tracer bullets streaking across the low sky. Suddenly,there was a stir among the troops: "Then enemy tank is fleeing!"At this Yang Ling rose up swiftly and hurried from the cavalry unit to the chariot regiment. Then she jumped onto one of the tanks at the front and help up the camera in her hand.

Realizing that this was a servicewoman, the soldiers, afraid that she might fall down from the tank, enclosed her with their bodies, Standing steadily on the tank, she clicked the shutter again and again, shooting the whole process of pursuing and intercepting the enemy tank and drawing the final full stop to the largest battle of annihilation in the history of war.

In 1948,Li Landing, a woman leader of a medical team who was known in the whole army, arrived after a long journey at Xibaipo of Pingshan County, Hebei Province, where the Central Committee of the Chinese communist Party was seated. She reported the situation at the east China front, especially the heroic deeds of the servicewomen in east China. Deeply affected, Deng Yingchao wrote the article "Salute to the Women Cadres Working at the Frontline of the East China Field army, "wherein she gave a detailed introduction to such comrades as Jiang Nanping, Ding Huiqing, Li Landing and Yao Jian. she wrote passionately in the article:

"For you who have survived, the scars of wounds on your bodies will forever be a certificate of merit. and for those who ae aread, their illustrious names will forever be memorized. You are the excellent daughters of the Chinese people. You are the fine cadres of the PLA and you are the glory of women in China!"