Names of soldiers left behind by Red Army honored

At the Lazikou Battle Memorial Hall in Diebu county, Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Gansu province, there is a wall devoted to photos of soldiers from the Red Army.

What's unusual is that many of them have two names.

They include Tsering Tashi, whose real name is Zhang Liansheng; Asang, whose real name is Yang Naiwa; and Wawa, whose name is Li Dezhang.

In September 1935, after crossing snow-capped mountains and marshlands during the Long March, the Red Army arrived at Diebu. It had engaged in fierce battles against Kuomintang forces at Lazikou on a route linking Sichuan with Minxian county in Gansu — known as a "gateway of natural peril".

High cliffs on each side and defensive blockhouses below guarded the approaches. But this was the only way through Lazikou.

The battle was particularly bloody. Casualties included a 17-year-old who sacrificed himself with a grenade tied to his waist after jumping into a blockhouse occupied by enemy soldiers. The heroic act took their lives as well as his own, according to Tsering Lhamo, a guide at the hall.

Grenades could be impeded by tree branches or rocks, so the young man climbed along the mountain to the back of the blockhouse and slid down with a rope.

"His name is remembered as Yun Guichuan, as he traveled to Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces on the Long March. His real name is unknown," said Tsering Lhamo.

Many Red Army soldiers were severely wounded in the battle and were unable to continue the Long March.

Risking their own lives, local Tibetan people opened their homes and took them in. Anyone associated with the Red Army faced the threat of death from the enemy, but they helped the strangers anyway.

In August 1936, other Red Army troops passed Diebu. Some were left behind because of injury or illness, and they, too, were cared for by local people and became family members.

From then on, these men had both a Tibetan name and a Han name. They worked and lived in the local area — with their real names kept a secret — until the Red Army's victory and the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

One of the veterans, Luo Mingyuan of Sichuan province, born in 1910, stayed in Diebu because of a severe injury. He had joined the Red Army in 1933. He once tried to follow the main body of troops on the Long March but failed, so he remained, married a Tibetan woman and was given the Tibetan name Lothar, Sichuan Daily reported.

In 1953, when the People's Liberation Army came to the county, Luo was emotional. He always regretted that he was unable to complete the Long March.

Luo helped his neighbors build bridges and water facilities. And he assisted in the planting of Sichuan peppers. He died in 1974. His grandson Zhou Xijiao took a job at the county's disabled people's federation after graduation from college. Now his 7-year-old son can tell the story of his great-grandfather.

"I want him to understand that a happy life is hard-won, so that the great Long March spirit can be passed on forever," Luo said.

Video by Chen Meiling.