Martyrs' Monument of the Dingwang Tragedy

Martyrs' Monument of the Dingwang Tragedy

The Martyrs' Monument of the Dingwang Tragedy is a cultural relics protection unit of Zhengding County.

On November 13, 1982, it was designated as a county-level key cultural relics protection unit by the People's Government of Zhengding County.

The Martyrs' Monument of the Dingwang Tragedy is located 13 kilometers from the county seat. Originally situated at the northwest corner of the intersection of Xingwang Road and Yucail Street in Dingwang Village, Nanlou Township, it was moved to the north of the village in 2013. The monument is made of white marble and stands 4.5 meters tall. An outer structure of a blue-brick memorial pavilion has been built around it, featuring a flat roof with glazed tiles on the front eaves. The top of the stele is carved with a relief of two dragons playing with a pearl, and the center of the top slab is inscribed in intaglio regular script—“Sacrificed for the Country” on the front and “Though Dead, Still Honored” on the back. The front side of the stele bears an inscription of over 700 words commemorating the heroic deeds of 13 martyrs, while the back side features their biographical sketches.

In October 1946, the Second District guerrilla unit of Zhengding County was stationed in Dingwang Village. Upon learning of this, the Nationalist bandit troops mobilized a battalion of regular army and 400 local militia forces from various strongholds at dawn on the 27th, surrounding Dingwang with a force 15 times larger than ours. The guerrillas swiftly deployed and fought back bravely, repelling three consecutive assaults and killing over 30 enemy soldiers. The enemy forced villagers to walk ahead of them as human shields. To avoid harming civilians, our forces were compelled to retreat into underground tunnels. After entering the village, the enemy, guided by a traitor, cleared obstacles and severed the main tunnel line. They then cruelly set fires and released smoke into the tunnels, even tying burning sulfur to pigs and driving them inside, putting our forces in extreme peril. Zhang Fengzhi, director of the District Militia Committee, instructor Pan Zhaocai, and others risked their lives to tackle the pigs head-on, killing them. Due to lack of air and sulfur fumes inside the tunnels, when rescue forces broke through in the afternoon, 13 comrades including Zhang Fengzhi, Pan Zhaocai, and Feng Shucheng had already sacrificed their lives.

In the spring of 1947, after the liberation of Zhengding, on the first anniversary of the martyrs' deaths, the Party, government, military, and people of Zhengding held a memorial service in Dingwang Village to mourn the fallen heroes. To ensure the martyrs’ names would be remembered for generations, this martyrs' monument was erected in the village.