Former Residence of Wang Bodong

　　    Wang Bodong (1910–1938), born in Xianshenmiao Village, Shangzhen, Danfeng County, Shaanxi Province, in early 1927, when Feng Yuxiang’s National Revolutionary Army unit under Sun Lianzhong passed through Longjuzhai, resolutely left his studies to join the military and followed the troops to Henan to fight against warlord Wu Peifu. Soon after, as Feng, Chiang, and Wang colluded to suppress the workers’ and peasants’ revolution, he angrily left the army, studied business in Jingziguan, Henan, and upon learning that Yang Hucheng was establishing a training unit in Nanyang, joyfully rejoined the military. In 1930, he joined the Chinese Communist Party within that unit. After graduation, he served as platoon leader of the guard unit in Yang Ziheng’s brigade.

　　    In 1932, the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party assigned Wang Bodong to the Weibei Guerrilla Unit in Sanyuan County as deputy platoon leader of the Second Squad. He launched three operations south of Sanyuan County and one in the southern part of Fuping County, striking at local gentry and landlords to expand the revolutionary forces. The following year, when the Red Twenty-Sixth Army suffered a major setback in Lan County’s Zhangjiaping during its southern advance into Shangluo, the rapidly growing Weibei Guerrilla Unit was reorganized into the Fourth Regiment of the Twenty-Sixth Army in an effort to revive morale. On July 14, the founding ceremony and flag-bestowing assembly for the Fourth Regiment were held at Xiaodao Kou in Wuzi District, Sanyuan, where Wang Bodong was appointed political instructor of the First Company and soon after became the regiment’s political commissar. On August 14, he attended the expanded meeting of the Shaan-Gan Border Special Committee of the CCP held at Chenjiapo, Zhaogin, which decided to establish the General Command of the Shaan-Gan Border Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, with Wang Taji as commander-in-chief, Gao Gang as political commissar, and Wang Bodong as head of the staff department. He subsequently participated in and directed the battles such as the clever capture of Zhanghong in Xunyang and the surprise attack on Heshui County in Gansu, using the captured weapons and ammunition to equip local guerrilla and Red Guard units.

　　    In November 1934, Wang Bodong returned to Shangluo to carry out work. At the time, a small detachment of the Red Twenty-Fifth Army was setting up a Soviet base in Sunjiashan. Learning that the enemy was preparing to “encircle and suppress” the small Red Army unit, he immediately conducted persuasion work with Zhang Husen, captain of the Shangzhen civilian corps, urging him to point his guns outward in a time of national crisis. When the enemy launched a three-pronged encirclement of Sunjiashan, Captain Zhang Husen promptly sent a secret letter through a trusted subordinate, enabling the Red Army to evacuate safely. When the Central Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Wang Bodong was appointed head of the Local Affairs Department of the Red Army General Political Department. During the July 7th Incident year, he was once again tasked with returning to Shangluo in November to serve as secretary of the Shangluo Working Committee of the CCP. He established anti-Japanese salvation organizations such as the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard and the Anti-Enemy Support Association at Liangling Primary School, Longjuzhai Town Primary School, Shangxian Middle School, rural areas of Shangluo Town, and among the civilian corps. At the same time, he recruited over 20 communists including Gong Defang, Wang Boliang (Wang Bodong’s third younger brother), Xue Xingjun, and Peng Yimin, and sent batches of party members and Vanguard members to the Central Party School and the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University for study. He also extensively networked with patriotic figures such as Wang Youqing, Wang Jiansan, Zhang Dexiang, and Liu Xiaozhai, and promoted the Party’s anti-Japanese stance to some local civilian corps leaders, quickly forming a local anti-Japanese national united front. In March 1938, the traitorous organization “Heisha Dao” disrupted the anti-Japanese efforts. Wang Bodong made three trips to Longjuzhai to persuade the cavalry First Division of the stationed troops, leading to the complete annihilation of “Heisha Dao” when they attacked Longjuzhai. In early April, Wang Bodong led over a thousand local residents from Laojunhe and Shangluo Town, under the guise of paying tribute, to reclaim a hundred rifles confiscated from the Shangluo Town militia from the stationed troops in Longjuzhai, using them to form local anti-Japanese armed forces. In June, a provincial committee inspector Zhao Xiyu was sent to Shangluo and spoke highly of how, in just over seven months after returning to Shangluo, Wang Bodong had expanded the Party’s influence across Shangxian, Luonan, Shanyang, and Shangnan counties, built an extensive anti-Japanese national united front, and formed anti-Japanese armed forces. In response, Wen Liangru, the Kuomintang’s fourth administrative inspector of Shaanxi Province, was furious and issued three “warnings,” demanding he leave the area. Wang Bodong responded righteously, explaining the national cause and citing Chiang Kai-shek’s “directive” that “everyone, regardless of gender or age, and everywhere, regardless of north or south, has the duty to resist Japan and defend the land.” He argued logically, leaving Wen speechless, who then plotted to assassinate him. On the dawn of July 25 that year, Wang Bodong was assassinated at home by bandits at the age of only 28. After liberation, the martyr’s remains were finally laid to rest in the “Shangluo Regional Martyrs’ Cemetery” on Jinfeng Mountain.

　　    On August 1, 1938, the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the CCP held a memorial service in Yunyang. Comrade Wang Feng delivered the eulogy, praising Comrade Wang Bodong as a “mass leader.”

　　    Transportation Guide

　　    Location: Xianshenmiao Village, Shangzhen, Danfeng County, Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province

　　    Getting There: Take a minibus from Danfeng County town toward Shangzhen, get off at Taoyuan, and walk to Xianshenmiao