Chapter 43: The Wu'an Massacre (5)

  The content of page 1 is as follows:

  The devils who had indulged in raping the women in the house killed the three young women after they were done, and then set Yang Lao Han's house on fire with a single flame.

  In this way, the cave village of Yuangou, which has only 37 households and 186 people, had family members killed in every household, houses burned down in every household, 54 villagers died, and more than 70 houses were burned down.

  The quiet Yangcun Village was shrouded in morning mist, as if it had put on a gray cloak. The shepherd who slept outside the village to watch the sheep flock had just woken up. He took out his tobacco pouch from his pocket, filled a pipe with dry tobacco, and prepared to light it with flint steel. A faint spark was emitted by the flint steel. With a "bang", a Japanese devil shot a bullet at the spark, piercing through the shepherd's chest.

  The militiamen on duty patrol in the village heard the gunfire, hastily sounded the alarm bell, and just shouted "The devils are coming!" when they were shot dead by the devil soldiers.

  The villagers were not yet prepared, and the devils had already sneaked in. After a fierce battle, more than a dozen militiamen were killed, and more than a dozen others were wounded and captured by the devils.

  The devils drove all the villagers who failed to escape to the west of the village, surrounding a broken brick kiln. A group of devils' soldiers, with bayonets, pushed thirteen captured anti-Japanese militia members, stripped of their upper garments and bound hand and foot, to this location. A massacre that would leave no one alive began. The devils forced these thirteen militiamen to kneel around the brick kiln.

  "Speak! Where are the guerrillas?" asked Wang Deming, a big Han traitor, with a stern face to some captured militiamen. "I don't know! Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you!" replied militia member Yang Wenxi firmly.

  "'Don't speak? Not speaking means death!' Wang Deman said, waving his hand. A devil appeared behind him, holding a big knife and beheading Yang Wenji with one slash. He then kicked Yang's head and body into the brick kiln."

  "Are you guys going to talk?" Wang Deman threatened to ask others again.

  "You won't die a good death! I'll haunt you even after I'm dead!" Zhōu Míngcái cursed at Wáng Dé Mǎn in anger. Wáng Dé Mǎn didn't care, and with a wave of his hand, Zhōu Míngcái's head was chopped off by the devils once again, and his body was thrown into the brick kiln. In this way, thirteen comrades were beheaded one after another. Blood splattered everywhere outside the brick kiln. The blood flowed like water, a terrible sight to behold. The men, women, children, and elderly present cried out in anguish, rushing forward, but were pushed back by the devils with their guns.

  "Are there any Eighth Route Army members here? Who has a relationship with the Eighth Route Army? Come out, come out quickly!", traitor Wang Deming loudly asked the crowd.

  The villagers didn't make a sound. Wang Deming stepped forward and pulled Yang Dewu out of the crowd with one hand, gave him a hard push, and Yang Dewu was caught off guard and fell to the ground. Wang Deming stepped on his chest with one foot, pointed his gun at his head and shouted, "Do you know who the Eighth Route Army is? If you don't say it, I'll kill you!"

  Yang Dewu raised his head and looked at him, saying angrily: "He doesn't even know if he's dead!"

  The inhumane devils rushed up, stripped off his clothes, hung him from a tree, doused him with kerosene and set him on fire. As the flames engulfed him, his body began to blister and turn black, emitting a faint humming sound. "Traitor! You'll never die well! Hahaha! Come on! I'm not afraid!", Yang Dewu shouted through gritted teeth, enduring the excruciating pain.

  "Damn it! He's still stubborn even when he's about to die! Add more oil to him!" Wang Deman cursed from the side, but in his heart, he was also afraid. Seeing Yang Dewu's expressionless face, he became even more terrified. He knew he had no way out, and if he fell into the hands of the guerrillas, he would probably not end up well either. With a ferocious face, he ordered the devils to pour oil on Yang Dewu's body. The flames suddenly grew stronger, but Yang Dewu still didn't make a sound.

  "Officer! Let him off!", Old Sun stepped forward and pleaded for Yang Dewu.

  "Hey! What's going on? You old fellow are also speaking up for him?" Wang Deman scolded this already white-haired old man.

  "Doesn't it hurt your conscience to do this? Aren't you Chinese? Are you worthy of your ancestors?" The old man cursed the traitor in anger and grief. The traitor swung his big knife at the old man, one of which cut into the old man's neck, and the old man's head rolled to the ground, with blood gushing out like a fountain. The tragic scene was heart-wrenching, unbearable to look at.

  A girl in the village saw this tragic situation and loudly scolded Wang Deman, "You dog traitor, you deserve to die, you devils! You are not human!" Upon hearing the girl's scolding, several of the Japanese soldiers suddenly became violent and grabbed the girl by her hair, pulling her out from the crowd and dragging her aside to **. The girl struggled with all her might, but several Japanese soldiers actually pulled apart her legs and ripped her in two alive.

  The content of page 2 is as follows:

  The scene was already very chaotic at this time. The villagers rushed to charge forward, but under the machine gun sweep of the devils, they retreated back in dismay.

  The devils dragged all the women in the village to one side, forcibly tore off their clothes, pushed and shoved them around, and watched with glee. One devil soldier pointed at a pregnant woman and said that there was a bullet inside her belly. As he spoke, he stabbed his bayonet into her abdomen. The pregnant woman let out a blood-curdling scream and fell to the ground, dead. Her unborn baby flowed out of her body, covered in blood.

  The villagers here can't tell who is the Eighth Route Army, so the devils come up with an even more ruthless plan. They drive all the men in this village, regardless of age, into this brick kiln, and then block all the exits. They pile up straw on top and set it on fire, wanting to burn these villagers to death. Suddenly, thick smoke rises, and fierce flames shoot up into the sky. The villagers are so anxious that they dig open the solid brick wall, just thinking of crawling out, but are discovered by the devils and stabbed to death at the entrance with bayonets.

  Duan Zhu's daughter-in-law was holding her several-month-old child in her arms when the Japanese soldiers took it away and threw it into the fire. The big fire burned the child, who cried out loudly. Duan Zhu's daughter-in-law rushed over like a madwoman and hugged the crying infant. The inhumane Japanese devils then pushed both mother and child into the big fire together. They let out a few blood-curdling screams before falling silent forever.

  In this brick kiln, more than 60 people were burned alive, and the remaining women were raped and then thrown into the fire naked, not a single one survived. In this massacre, more than 100 people in the village were burned to death or killed. The whole village had only over 200 people, and more than 100 people were brutally killed by the devils in this action. Among them, there were more than a dozen households that were completely wiped out. The devils took away all the grain and livestock they could carry, and set fire to the houses and furniture that they couldn't take away. After the bloodbath, Yangyi Village was left with only ruins, and it wasn't until after more than two months of rebuilding that people began to return, but it would never regain its former prosperity.

  During this period of sweeping, the devils and Han traitors led by them wantonly killed the people on this land in Wu'an County. They brutally slaughtered these ordinary people, and when they were furious, they did not spare anyone, regardless of men, women, old and young. They often slaughtered entire villages and exterminated whole families. Those innocent women suffered the greatest hardships. Except for those who escaped from the devils, all others could not escape the devils' clutches and were brutally ravaged by them. The number of women who were raped is countless. Moreover, the devils also took advantage of the opportunity to plunder a large amount of property and food. In short, their crimes are numerous and cannot be recorded in writing. The devils' atrocities have shown their brutal side. Although they slaughtered many villages, history will forever remember their atrocities, and every living person should forever remember the devils' atrocities.

  The devils were not very successful in their sweep here, and the leaders of the Eighth Route Army headquarters immediately assembled troops from around the area to launch a heavy attack on the devils who were sweeping outside Wu'an. With the Nationalist army's containment on the eastern route, the Eighth Route Army, under the unified command of its deputy commander-in-chief, dispatched large numbers of troops here. After half a month of fierce fighting, the brave Eighth Route Army successfully eliminated the devils who had occupied this place. The Kusakabe Brigade, which was stationed in Wu'an, finally only had a small number of people follow Kusakabe Masao to escape to Handan. The evil military officers, Araki Renjiro, Hirano Heitaro, Tanino Heitaro, Hayashida Minoru, and Kurosawa Minoru were all killed by the Eighth Route Army in battle. That Nanji Renjiro was seriously injured in an ambush by the Eighth Route Army and was sent to Handan for medical treatment ahead of time. From then on, Wu'an returned to Chinese hands again.