Site of the Founding of the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit

Site of the Founding of the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit

The site of the founding of the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit is located in an open area of the playground next to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Dongguan People's Park, within the Guancheng District of Dongguan City.

On October 12, 1938, Japanese forces landed at Daya Bay in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. When the news reached Dongguan, the CPC Dongguan County Committee decided to form a people’s anti-Japanese armed force to carry out guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. On October 13, the CPC Dongguan County Committee held an emergency meeting at Lixing Primary School and decided to establish the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit. On the evening of October 14, the CPC Dongguan County Committee convened a mobilization meeting for the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit at Lida Primary School on Zixiafang Street, West Gate of Guancheng, with around forty to fifty attendees. The central topic of discussion was mobilizing educated youth to organize and take to the mountains for guerrilla operations. It was also decided at the meeting that He Yucheng and Wang Zuoyao would apply to Yan Qi, deputy commander of the Dongguan Social Training Corps, to organize a standing militia unit. To distinguish it from the already established standing militia unit, the newly formed group was named the Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit.

On October 15, 1938, the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit was officially established in the playground of Dongguan Zhongshan Park (now known as Dongguan People's Park), with over 100 members, more than 20 rifles, and over 10 handguns. The unit was divided into three squads, with Wang Zuoyao, head of the Propaganda Department and Armed Forces Department of the CPC Dongguan County Committee, serving as captain, and Yuan Jianwen, head of the Organization Department, as political instructor. That evening, between eight and nine o’clock after dinner, the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit conducted training on the playground. The training covered standing at attention, at ease, dismiss, assemble, marching, kneeling, lying down, handling weapons, using terrain and objects, sentry duty, as well as obstacles, wall climbing, and continued until dawn.

In early 1939, the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia Unit underwent intensive training in Kushicao, Qingxi, where it was integrated along with the First Battalion of the Dongbao Hui Border Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Unit led by Huang Mufeng and other assembled armed forces into the Dong (guan) Bao (an) Hui (yang) Border People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Unit. Wang Zuoyao served as battalion commander and He Yucheng as political instructor. Together with the Hui Bao People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Unit led by Zeng Sheng, they took on the mission of waging anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare in the enemy-occupied areas of the Dongjiang River. Later, these two guerrilla units developed into the renowned Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Forces Dongjiang Column, which made indelible historical contributions to China’s War of Resistance against Japan and the global anti-fascist war.

Guancheng Subdistrict: Covering an area of 13.5 square kilometers with a population of 152,000, Guancheng has a history of nearly 1,250 years dating back to the second year of the Zhide era of the Tang Dynasty. As the political, economic, and cultural center of Dongguan for over twelve hundred years, Guancheng has accumulated profound historical and cultural heritage through the gathering of the Qifeng Mountain and Guanshui waters. With a long-standing cultural legacy, Guancheng is one of the birthplaces of Lingnan culture and has developed its own distinctive cultural characteristics.

Guancheng is a microcosm of Dongguan’s historical and cultural identity, exuding a strong humanistic atmosphere and embodying the unique spirit and soul of the district. Within Guancheng can be found sites such as the reliquary stupa of Zifu Temple from the Song Dynasty, the West City Tower from the Ming Dynasty, and landmarks that bear witness... More detailed information about Guancheng Subdistrict ++