Former Site of the Yan-Jun-Ji-Qi Anti-Japanese Office

Former Site of the Yan-Jun-Ji-Qi Anti-Japanese Office

The former site of the Yan-Jun-Ji-Qi Anti-Japanese Office is a cultural relic protection unit of Henan Province and a base for patriotic education.

The former site of the Yan-Jun-Ji-Qi Anti-Japanese Office, also known as the Former Site of the Four-County Border Anti-Japanese Office, is located in Yuantun Village, Mazhuang Township, Yanjin County, adjacent to the north of the village committee and the ancestral temple of the Yuan family. There are currently four courtyards preserved, mainly including the former site of the Working Committee and the former site of the Armed Forces Department. The Administrative Anti-Japanese Office of the Four-County Border was established on October 12, 1943, by the Fourth Sub-bureau and Special District Committee of the Communist Party of China in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan-Ji Border Region, set up in Yuantun Village, Mazhuang Township, and disbanded at the end of 1945. The office played an important role in establishing grassroots political power, strengthening anti-Japanese forces, developing local armed forces, setting up underground communication lines, ensuring the passage of personnel, and the circulation of supplies. It holds unique value for carrying out revolutionary tradition education and patriotic education.

I. Historical Background

In 1943, as the War of Resistance against Japan deepened and the battlefield expanded further, the Japanese invaders faced severe shortages in material, financial, and military resources, making their defeat inevitable. To secure supplies and reverse their failing fortunes, the Japanese reinforced their troops heavily along both sides of the Pinghan Railway. With the cooperation of the puppet 40th and 24th Armies, they added hidden bunkers, visible sentry posts, and covert lookouts. Pedestrians were subjected to strict scrutiny, and many innocent civilians were shot. Villages spanning hundreds of kilometers east and west of the Pinghan Railway fell under the shadow of the Japanese and puppet regimes, cutting off the route connecting the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Anti-Japanese Base Area to Yan'an.

To ensure the smooth operation of the communication line, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ordered the Party Committee of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region to establish its own grassroots political power at all costs in areas where enemy control was weak, and on the basis of stabilizing their foothold, to seek opportunities to open a second underground communication line—the southwestern gate of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region.

II. Approval and Establishment

In accordance with the directives from the Central Committee, the Party Committee of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region dispatched reconnaissance units to conduct detailed investigations in the enemy-occupied northern Henan region. They decided to establish a party-government institution—the Working Committee and Anti-Japanese Office—in the junction area of what are now Yanjin, Jun, Ji, and Qi counties. The location was set in Yuantun, Yanjin, and an immediate report was submitted to the Eighth Route Army Headquarters and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for approval. In 1943, upon receiving orders from the Central Committee and the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, the Party Committee of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region immediately began preparations and officially announced the establishment of the "Yan, Jun, Ji, Qi" Four-County Border Working Committee and the Four-County Border Anti-Japanese Office in Yuantun Village, Yanjin on October 12 of the same year. The Secretary of the Working Committee was Li Xianxian, and the Director was Yao Buxiu. It included four departments: Finance Department Head Hu Wenliang, Civil Affairs Department Head Liu Moxian, Armed Forces Department Head Liu Zhicheng, Education Section Head Li Junfeng, and Liu Gengfu who was responsible for the political work of the Four-County Border Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Brigade. Three districts were also established: the First District centered on Kouzhuang, the Second District centered on Banzao, and the Third District centered on Shahe. From then on, the county-level administrative government under the leadership of the Communist Party—the Four-County Border Office of Yan, Jun, Ji, and Hong—was formally established.

III. Significance and Role

1. Historical Significance: The establishment of the Four-County Border Office played a crucial role in establishing underground armed forces for our Party in northern Henan, consolidating the red political power, and opening a second underground communication line—the southwestern gate of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region. It facilitated communication between the Hebei-Shandong-Henan and Taihang Anti-Japanese Base Areas, shattered the Japanese invaders’ arrogant ambition to divide and suppress the anti-Japanese base areas, ensured the main communication and supply lines between the Central China, East China, and Hebei-Shandong-Henan Anti-Japanese Base Areas with the Taihang Base Area and even Yan'an, and carried out a series of highly effective tasks that strongly promoted the construction of the base areas and the successful progress of the struggle against the enemy.

2. Important Role: After the establishment of the Four-County Border Working Committee Office, it immediately mobilized the masses, organized militia and guerrilla teams, developed Party members in enemy-occupied areas, strengthened the Party organization, and built underground armed forces. It actively operated in the border regions east of the Pinghan Railway, as well as the junctions of Tangyin, Jun, Qi, Yanjin, and eastern Ji counties, promoting the anti-Japanese struggle, gathering intelligence on the enemy, identifying communication personnel, and selecting suitable candidates and providing intelligence for the second underground communication line at the southwestern gate of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region. Five main tasks were carried out:

First, promoting the Anti-Japanese National United Front; second, engaging a group of individuals and intellectuals to side with the Communist Party; third, locating and reconnecting with comrades who had previously worked for our Party but lost contact due to the circumstances, thereby rescuing the vital forces of our Party; fourth, winning over certain enemy and puppet personnel, thereby weakening the enemy’s strength to some extent; fifth, shielding and escorting anti-Japanese personnel and key central figures safely through enemy lines, reopening the connection between the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, the Taihang Mountain Area, and Yan'an.

IV. Major Deeds

First, ensuring the safe escort of anti-Japanese soldiers and central figures: In the spring of 1944, Huang Jing, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, Commander -, and Political Commissar - led over 1,000 regiment and battalion officers to Yan'an for rectification. The round trip between the military region and Yan'an was escorted by the local armed forces of the Four-County Border. In the winter of 1944, General Xu Xiangqian traveled from the Shandong Base Area to Yan'an via the Four-County Border Office, with the safety, accommodation, and meals of the area being managed by the Four-County Border armed forces. In September 1945, 27 senior Party, government, and military cadres, including Chen Yun, Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yi, Li Fuchun, Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and Teng Daiyuan, who attended the 7th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, returned from Yan'an to Mai Tian in the Taihang Mountains. They were escorted by the Independent Regiment of the Taihang Military Region to Tagang, after which they were taken over by the Four-County Border armed forces and returned to the base area via the second communication line. Second, in line with the strategic thinking of our Party during the war of resistance, various sectors of the anti-Japanese armed forces were mobilized and united, gradually transforming enemy-occupied areas into guerrilla zones and guerrilla zones into base areas, expanding the national anti-Japanese united front, and weakening the enemy’s strength. First, the puppet troops within the Shadian stronghold, led by Miao Qinghua and Liu Shangde with over 200 soldiers, were persuaded to defect. Then, based on repeated propaganda of the national united front and ideological work by the Four-County Border Office, Jia Zihuo, a locally known leader of a local militia with over 380 soldiers, was persuaded to revolt. At the same time, over 3,000 soldiers from various surrendering armies were gathered through different means, significantly weakening the enemy’s strength and playing a pivotal role in achieving an earlier victory in the War of Resistance. Third, providing accurate intelligence: In late November 1943, the Four-County Border Office obtained intelligence that Wang Xiehe, commander of the 7th Brigade of the 6th Puppet Army, planned to attack our base area, and promptly reported it to the Party Committee of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region. The 4th Sub-region of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region was ordered to take effective action and annihilated the 7th Brigade of the 6th Puppet Army in one fell swoop. Wang Xiehe escaped in panic with only a few close associates to the areas around Kouzhuang and Banzao. Upon receiving the report, the Four-County Border Office immediately deployed a squad to capture the bandit leader Wang Xiehe and his close associates, earning high praise from the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Party Committee.

In summary, the establishment of the Four-County Border Working Committee and Anti-Japanese Office strongly advanced the development of the national united resistance, expanded the Party’s ranks, promoted the consolidation and development of our Party’s grassroots political power, facilitated communication between the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region and the Eighth Route Army Headquarters as well as the Central Committee, ensured the safety of passing cadres and the unimpeded flow of policies, strengthened the construction of the base areas, and laid the foundation for the victory of the War of Resistance.

Yuantun Village: Yuantun Village…… Detailed information about Yuantun Village++

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Henan Province