Blood Well

Blood Well

The Blood Well is a cultural relic protection unit and a patriotic education base in Liaocheng City.

The Blood Well is located 200 meters due west of Qianli Zhaozhuang in Baitaji Township, southeastern Guan County, and is now a key cultural relic protection unit of Liaocheng City.

On June 10, 1943, at dawn, 14,500 Japanese puppet troops launched a massive iron-clad encirclement operation against the resistance base in southern Guan. Their main attack points were Baitaji and Zhaozhuang, and they advanced along fifteen routes. When the villagers discovered the troops, many fled their homes. By 9:00 a.m., the Japanese and puppet forces had cornered the fleeing civilians within Qianli Zhaozhuang Village. Twenty villagers who had taken shelter in the home of Li Changshan were discovered by the Japanese. Among them was Lian Jizhang, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner who had fled from Baitaji. The Japanese suspected them to be Eighth Route Army soldiers and immediately took them to their makeshift command post.

Later, two to three hundred more villagers were herded to a well on the western side of the village, where Lian Jizhang and the others were also brought and forced to listen to a speech by the Japanese commander. The brutal soldiers drove the residents into a large pit at the western end of Qianli Village, interrogating them one by one. Those deemed suspicious were dragged out and thrown into the well by the edge of the pit. A total of 21 people were pushed in. The soldiers then set fire to the wheat stubble near the well and threw it into the shaft, followed by machine-gun fire and grenades tossed inside. Finally, an old millstone was hurled in, causing the water level to rise drastically and turning the well into a pool of blood. After the enemy withdrew, villagers including Li Zhiting recovered the bodies, which were mutilated and horrifying to behold. Before leaving, the Japanese also killed 12 more people inside and around the village and abducted dozens of others to carry off looted property.

Later, the local government and residents named the well “Blood Well” in memory of the victims. The Blood Well stands as evidence of Japanese aggression in China and serves as a vivid educational tool for fostering patriotism among the public and youth.