In the spring of 1935, the Ma Jiajun encircled and suppressed the Nanliang Red Army along the Malingchuan Road. Twenty-year-old Han Jinquan—the son of a tenant farmer in Hanjiawan, Gyeongju City, a squad leader of the county self-defense force, and a young man who secretly delivers information to our party—took his pregnant wife and three young children into a dilapidated cave dwelling deep in the river.
There, his seven-year-old son was surrounded by Ma Jiajun cavalry because of a red cotton jacket and was almost disemboweled, but his wife and brother fought to recapture it; his infant daughter almost attracted enemy troops because of her cries. He covered his daughter's mouth and nose with his own hands, and released his hand at the last moment.
After the encirclement and suppression, Han Jinquan was ordered to break into the Kuomintang township system and worked underground for eight years as the mayor of Yaowangdong. In 1949, he opened the gates of Qingyang to welcome liberation.
More than half a century later, his great-grandson received a "People's Meritorious Service" medal and an old photo album from his grandmother. Following the clues in the archives and the old man's memory, the family past that had been buried in silence finally came to light bit by bit.
