Pushing open the north-facing window in the living room, I could see a large white road bridge. When I'm tired of writing, I like to stare at the cars coming and going. Occasionally, the speed of 80 kilometers per hour will be galloping across the bridge, and there are always some cargo ships quietly sneaking under the bridge, heading for an unknown distance.
If it weren't for the movie "Eight Hundred", I might not have realized that this river called Yunzaobang under the bridge once had such a tragic battle. The only time it is mentioned in the film is from the mouth of Yangguai played by Wang Qianyuan: "In Yunzaobang, Japanese soldiers killed like this."
Looking at this history, every time I found a place where the Yunzaobang battle took place, and found that it was only 2 kilometers or 3 kilometers away from my own coordinates, my heart couldn't help shaking. It seems that the bloody hand-to-hand combat in the movie is really happening right now. No, the cruelty of reality is more than that of the movies. These pictures are indeed shocking and take place on the green areas of the surrounding communities. Only a few years ago, this place was still a piece of farmland.
The Yunzaobang, which stretches all the way to the mouth of the Yangtze River, did not hold back the advance of the Japanese army. After the fall of the big field, the national army was forced to retreat to the north bank of the Suzhou River. In order to cover the westward withdrawal of the main force, the central government ordered a reinforced battalion of the 88th Division to enter the Sixing warehouse. It was declared to be the "May 24 Regiment", and Xie Jinyuan, the commander at that time, was only attached to the regiment, not the regiment leader. Xie Jinyuan would probably never have imagined that when he brought more than 400 soldiers to strengthen the defense line with the heart of death, they would become the "eight hundred heroes" in every Chinese history textbook in the future.
In fact, before I opened the history textbook, I had already heard the name of Xie Jinyuan. This is another real experience that cannot be avoided. When I was a child, I lived at my grandmother's house, and every time I went out, I would pass by a high school called "Jinyuan Middle School". Later I learned that this middle school was named in honor of Xie Jinyuan, and there was a bronze statue of Xie Jinyuan on the campus. Since then, every time I see the big brothers and big sisters walking out of the school gate, there will be a hint of admiration in my eyes. I will also secretly observe their eyes, are they all as brave and determined as the legendary Eight Hundred Heroes?
In fact, the so-called "brave and perseverance" is just a stereotype under the whitewash of later generations. In Guan Hu's movie "Eight Hundred", we saw the cowardly side of these soldiers. From the very beginning, there have been constant "deserters" being rectified on the spot. The Battle of Songhu has been fought for nearly three months, and the Chinese army has been losing ground. This is especially obvious in front of the "scattered soldiers" who were temporarily incorporated into the 88th Division: the two brothers of the Hubei Security Regiment, one came to fight because he just wanted to see the bustling Shanghai, and the other was a little boy; Jiang Wu played the old iron soldier of the Northeast, who had been with "Zhang Dashuai". It is reasonable to say that he should have experienced hundreds of battles, but he became an out-and-out "melon counselor" in Yangguai's mouth; as for Zhang Yi's "Old Abacus" of the Zhejiang Security Group ”, and was more intent on escaping for his life. He didn't want to go into battle to kill the enemy at all, sacrificed his life for justice, just wanted to live in peace in the troubled world.
Soldiers north of the Suzhou River were tired of fighting, and people south of the Suzhou River watched the play. From the frantic influx of refugees into the concession area, we have seen a "paradise on earth" where the smoke of gunpowder is still dancing and singing. Coming here can not only save your life, but also watch the fire from the other side. Whether it's a gang leader or an upper-class lady, a middle class with binoculars, a self-employed person selling buns or a small newsboy running errands, everyone will watch this tragic drama from their own perspective. Like the soldiers on the other side, they were even less hopeful about the war. However, some people are worried about the sound of gunfire on the other side, and some people are not concerned about themselves.
I often see a sentence: what kind of people there are, what kind of country there is. From these war-weary soldiers and theatergoers, we seem to be witnessing a country crumbling. But do we have the qualifications to criticize these Chinese people who "stolenly live"? Whether he is a soldier or a common man, he is first and foremost a man, a life of flesh and blood. For any living species, survival is always his first choice. Therefore, Guan Hu did not forcibly whitewash or reverse the "old abacus" like many conventional movies. On the contrary, he has always maintained this image of the character. It made his greed for life and fear of death to become more flesh and blood. This is some kind of struggle that a small person can make under the ruthless crushing of the cruel era.
However, even a Chinese who stayed out of the incident would change quietly after witnessing the Chinese defenders of the Sixing Warehouse stubbornly blocking the Japanese army again and again. Especially when the flag fluttered over the Sixing Warehouse, an indescribable emotion slapped the heart like waves in an angry sea. It could be a long-lost sense of national pride, or a belief that the Chinese nation will never die. This scene comes from real history, and the cohesive force it releases is indestructible, connecting the people watching the lively with the defenders of the Four Elements Warehouse. This explains why some people are willing to risk their death to deliver telephone coils even though they can protect themselves in the concession area.
There is no doubt that greed for life and fear of death is a normal human nature under war, but it is undeniable that it is also true to regard death as home. Everyone has a moment when blood rushes to his brain, and he may regret it later, but no one can stop him from despising the moment of death. It was the most reckless moment of his life, and possibly the brightest moment of his life. Faith is something, no one can say how much it is worth. So we saw that Chen Shusheng, who didn't even leave a photo, jumped into the Japanese army's position with an explosive bag tied... With a bang, he exchanged his life for the determination of eight hundred warriors to fight to the end. From this moment on, you can truly understand Xie Tuanfu's words: "The opposite is the human world, and here is the tomb." This is indeed the tomb, not Chinese or Japanese.
The Suzhou River, which is only tens of meters wide, has become the Styx River that blocks the Yin and Yang. Ruined walls and paper drunken gold fans are close at hand, and far away in the sky. The source of all this is that the Nationalist government has wrongly judged the attitude of the United Kingdom and the United States. They insisted on launching the Battle of Songhu, exposing the defenseless Shanghai naked to the huge artillery ships of the Japanese Navy. It can be said that from the beginning, the war was a play. The actor's props are flesh and blood, and the director and spectators sit numbly and watch the scene fall into the abyss. Until the end of the song, the four-line warehouse became the filming location for the last scene, and the Eight Hundred Heroes were the last actors. Not a single cannonball landed in the concession area, and this scene has indeed earned a good reputation. However, everything has not changed the fate of the country as expected. You know what happened after that. China was dragged into the abyss of the eight-year Anti-Japanese War, and the whole world became a battlefield filled with gunpowder smoke. Humanity is about to experience an unprecedented catastrophe.
Guan Hu's genius lies in his handling of this "play-watching" approach throughout the play. The people in the movie are watching the play, and the people who watch the movie are watching the play. It's tragic has long been doomed, because history is the best script. But this did give the director a lot of inspiration, such as setting up a stage in the concession area, using the scene of Changbanpo as a metaphor for the defense of the four-line warehouse, and praying that Xie Jinyuan and the others would be transformed into Changshan Zhao Zilong, seven in and seven out of Caoying. And that beautiful white horse has become a hope in Xiaohubei's heart. It is wild and uninhibited, and it travels freely on the north bank of the Suzhou Henan. It is the only creature that can walk between the world and the grave. In the end, the Dragon Boat Festival played by Ou Hao rode on the white horse and turned into the "Changshan Zhao Zilong" in the eyes of Xiaohubei.
10 years ago, I took a friend to see Suzhou River. Because of the movie of Jia Hongsheng and Zhou Xun, he insisted on coming to Shanghai to see the river. We walked along the river bank and walked into a cafe on Beisuzhou Road. I have long forgotten what coffee I ordered at that time, but I will never forget the shock of going out. On our right hand, a huge building with many holes and scars emerged, and the four characters of "Four Lines Warehouse" were inlaid in the most striking place like a spell.
At the end of the movie "Walter Defends Sarajevo", the SS Colonel faced the ghostly Walter and reluctantly uttered a well-known line: "Look, this city, it - it is Walter." After all these years Well, I think it's time to revisit the old places again. I will bring my family, like the people who stood on the south bank of the Suzhou River more than 80 years ago, looking at the Sixing Warehouse from a distance, and slowly said to them: "Look, this warehouse, it is - the eight hundred warriors."
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