Blood of the Rivers and Mountains: Ode to the Spirit of Sichuan

The smoke of civil war had barely cleared when the 122nd Division of the Sichuan Army was ordered out of Sichuan. Li Shouren, commander of the 57th Regiment, led several thousand sons of Bashu north on foot, carrying the oath, “We will not return until the enemy retreats.” They were dressed in rags and poorly equipped, enduring contempt and persecution at every turn. Yet from the bitterly cold positions of Shanxi to the scorched earth of Taierzhuang, where artillery fire raged, these Sichuan soldiers, derisively called “straw-sandal soldiers,” repeatedly charged the Japanese invaders, who were armed to the teeth, with the shoddiest weapons and the fiercest courage. They forged their battle flags with their flesh and blood and kept their promise with their lives, until every last one of them fell in the final battle on the eve of victory in the War of Resistance, dying far from home. Their names are unknown, but their deeds will endure forever.