Site of Martyrs' Sacrifice in the May 8th Uprising in Suiyang

Site of Martyrs' Sacrifice in the May 8th Uprising in Suiyang

The Site of Martyrs' Sacrifice in the May 8th Uprising in Suiyang is a classic red tourism attraction.

In early 1946, in order to expand the scope of recovery efforts and open up new areas, in February 1946, the Party organization dispatched comrades Wei Shaowu, Yu Youmin (a member of the Communist Party of China), Wu Shulan (Wei Shaowu’s wife and also a member of the Communist Party of China), and others to Suiyang County to establish a people's government. The Democratic Government of Suiyang County was thus formed. However, due to insufficient backbone forces at the time, apart from purging some upper-level enemy and puppet elements, most personnel from the original maintenance association remained in their positions. Although the new government had been established, the issue of organizational impurity had not yet been resolved. At the time when the Soviet Red Army stationed in Dongning was preparing to withdraw back to the Soviet Union, the bandit groups from both inside the city and the mountains, which had already colluded internally and externally, seized the opportunity to intensify their activities. Eventually, on May 1st, the Advance Column captured Dongning County town, and on May 4th, they took Suifenhe. In the early hours of May 8th, over 2,000 troops from the Advance Column surrounded Suiyang County town and launched an attack. Wei Shaowu and Wu Shulan led a group of guards to defend the south building of the government (now the hospital) and fought back. The battle lasted nearly two hours, during which Song Mingchang, one of “the Eighteen Arhats” and the deputy camp commander Sun, was killed. However, due to the betrayal by Lu Fengqi (the deputy commander of the county security brigade) and being outnumbered with ammunition running out, they were ultimately martyred. County Chief Wei Shaowu, Director of the County Women's Federation Wu Shulan and her eldest son (their family of three), Director of the County Public Security Bureau Yu Youmin, Head of the General Affairs Section Li Futang, Squad Leader Zhang Zhigang of the guard squad, along with several other guards and public security officers, all died heroically in the battle. The county town was occupied, the newly established People's Government was overthrown, and the security brigade was disbanded. After the Advance Column occupied Suiyang, they extensively arrested suspects suspected of being communist sympathizers, detaining more than 50 people who were then sent to Dongning County town. Among them, over 20 were killed.

The people of the Suiyang region deeply mourned the martyrs who heroically sacrificed themselves for the revolution. On June 14th, the County Democratic Government built a grand and towering martyrs’ monument on Beishan Mountain. The newly appointed County Chief Li Duan personally inscribed the epitaph: “Died for the Country, Immortalized Through the Ages!”

The heroic deeds of the martyrs will be immortalized in history, and the memory of the martyrs will live forever in the hearts of the people.