What a nice "surprise attack"!

Deshengmen is one of the nine gates of Beijing's inner city. All "old Beijingers" know the saying, "First there was Deshengmen, then there was Beijing City."

Not far from Deshengmen, there is a place that was once very renowned: it was an ancient temple from the Jin Dynasty, which was converted into a prison in the 28th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty. It continued to be used as a place to detain “important prisoners” during the Republic of China.

This place is called Gongdelin.

After the “Lugou Bridge Incident”, Peking (today’s Beijing) fell. It became the Japanese invaders' “Second Model Prison in north China’s Hebei Province”. A large number of anti-Japanese patriots were imprisoned here.

In July of that year, the National Anti-Japanese Army was established in front of the Guan Yu Temple in Baiyangcheng Village, on the outskirts of Peking. More than 20 strong men knelt before the Guan Yu statue, raised their wine bowls, and smashed them down with a thunderous roar: "Kill the Japanese, avenge our country and our families!"

Ji Tingxie and Gao Peng, the backbone of the National Anti-Japanese Army, were both from northeast China. After the “September 18th Incident”, they joined the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army and fought many fierce battles against the invaders in northeast China.

Later, the group was scattered by the Japanese invaders and they wandered to Hebei and Peking, where they continued their resistance against Japanese aggression. Some students and farmers who were unwilling to be slaves of a conquered nation also joined them.

As the group grew, the lack of weapons became a problem. Ji Tingxie was troubled by this.

One day, the troops were stationed in a small village outside Deshengmen. A young man came over.

The young man's surname was Zhang, and he was from the Hui ethnic group. He usually pushed a cart around the village selling tofu and was very familiar with the area around Deshengmen. “Gongdelin” was one of Zhang's regular customers. Since the Japanese invaders arrived, Zhang had suffered a lot of humiliation and had even been hit by a rifle butt for no apparent reason. Zhang was filled with hatred!

Upon hearing that the guerrilla forces were short of guns, Zhang offered a plan: “There are more than 30 guards at Gongdelin, and at least dozens of machine guns and rifles. I hear that there are many tough guys who fought against the Japanese invaders imprisoned there. If we raid the prison, we can seize the guns and rescue the prisoners at the same time, killing two birds with one stone.”

"Excellent! A brilliant plan!" Ji Tingxie approved.

After careful planning, the guerrilla unit decided to make the move on August 22.

Before setting off, Ji Tingxie patted Zhang on the shoulder and asked, "Brother, do you want to join us?"

"Of course!"

"Bullets don't have eyes."

"Just watch!" Zhang had long hated the Japanese puppet army.

August 22 was the 17th day of the 7th lunar month. The moon was bright, and the land was covered in silver light. Normally, such a moonlit night would not be suitable for an attack. However, our brave warriors had their own brilliant plan.

“Open the door!” said in Japanese by the guerrilla fighter Wu Jingyu, who banged fiercely on the prison gate. He was an veteran soldier of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and had dealt with the Japanese before, knowing a few words of Japanese.

“Sir, sir, it's so late...” The guard was flustered and suspicious.

Zhang, who often dealt with the guards, quickly stepped forward: “It's me, Zhang, the tofu delivery man. The commander has an urgent matter, so open the door quickly!”

Upon hearing that it was someone he knew, the guard creaked open the gate when he rubbed his sleepy eyes, repeatedly bowing and calling out “Commander.”

No sooner said than done. Several tall team members burst through the door, brandishing their weapons. The prison suddenly fell in chaos.

Before the guards could recover, several guerrilla fighters jumped through the window into the duty room and took all the guns from the shelves.

Hearing the disturbance, the guard captain Zhou Kuiyuan hurried over to investigate. A pistol was pointed at him: “Don't move or you're dead!” Immediately, a "big slap" hit him in the face. He froze immediately. His legs gave way, and he knelt on the ground.

Another guard rushed to the telephone: “Hello, hello...” There was no sound on the line — the perimeter security team had already cut the telephone wires.

All 30 guards were trapped in two small rooms. They never imagined that someone would dare to pull teeth from the jaws of a tiger in Peking and rob a prison under the nose of the “lord”.

After gaining control of the situation, the guerrilla fighters stood in the prison hall and shouted, “Comrades, we are the anti-Japanese forces. We are here to rescue you!”

The prison doors opened one after another.

However, the cells holding Communist Party prisoners had double layers of security and were difficult to open. Huang Qiuping, a Communist Party member imprisoned in "Yue" cell came up with a quick idea: he removed the bed plank and slammed it against the door.

With the help of the guerrillas, the prison door was finally opened. Using this method, the guerrillas opened all the prison doors and rescued more than 500 people.

Due to the team's swift action, the Japanese in Peking did not react at all.

The rescued people, including Communist Party leader Li Dazhao's nephew Li Haitao and Tang Luoshou, a leader of the peasant uprising in Cixian County, Hebei Province, were quickly transferred to the woods near the Iron Lion Tomb. Ji Tingxie asked everyone, "Those who wish to fight the Japanese, stay; those who wish to go home, you may leave now..."

Nearly 300 people stayed.

Afterwards, Gongdelin reported to the puppet police station in north Peking suburbs: "This prison has lost 29 carbines, 10 pistols, two light machine guns, four Czech-style guns, one Browning pistol, and more than 3,000 bullets..."

The "Gongdelin Incident" was a major embarrassment for the Japanese and puppet troops, who kept it secret from the public until several months later, when the World Journal published a brief news item in an inconspicuous spot on page 4, titled "Court Plans to Restore the Second Prison." The reason for this was unclear.

However, the people of Peking knew the truth as clearly as a mirror. In his novel Four Generations Under One Roof, Lao She revealed the truth through the words of one of the main characters, Mr. Chang Erye: “He wants to believe that we still have guerrilla forces who are willing to fight the Japanese devils to the death... Just think about it, wasn't the prison at Deshengmen smashed open by our guerrillas?”

The word "smash" conveys a sense of exhilaration! It was also on this very night that the National Anti-Japanese Army rose to fame, and soon the force expanded to over 1,000 men.

Afterwards, the unit became active in Peking and Hebei, becoming a significant anti-Japanese force behind enemy lines in north China. In the Battle of Heishanhu at Baiwang Mountain, they annihilated over 20 Japanese troops and shot down an enemy aircraft with light weapons, contributing to their "reputation for righteousness spreading far and wide, greatly boosting public morale."

On December 25, 1937, the National Anti-Japanese Army was officially organized into the 5th Detachment of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region of the Eighth Route Army. This unit was later combined with another unit from the 1st Division to form the 3rd Regiment of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, with Ji Tingxie as its commander. Ji Tingxie, the only person introduced to the Party by Marshal Nie Rongzhen, participated in the War of Liberation and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and was promoted to the rank of Major General in 1964. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Gao Peng served as Deputy Commander of the Shenyang Military Region Air Force.

On a summer evening in Beijing, the "Into Former Battlefields of War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" team of Guangming Daily visited the former site of Gongdelin Prison. Traffic was bustling along the North Second Ring Road, and the area surrounding Deshengmen was ablaze with tall buildings, bright lights. Beijing, the city, displayed the prosperity unique to a global metropolis.

Following the navigation on our mobile phone, we arrived at the original site of the former "Gongdelin". However, when we asked about "Gongdelin", the surrounding residents all looked confused.

Today, this place has become a residential complex. Buildings stand neatly together, with warm light glowing from each window. Families might be enjoying meals, their laughter and chatter wrapped in the aroma of food drifting through the night air.

By now, the oppressive heat had long since dissipated, and what lingered in the night sky was the fragrance of flowers carried by the breeze and the cool mist rising from Shichahai Lake.

After dinner, people taking a leisurely stroll, walk past us in brisk steps. In the neighborhood's pocket park, a few children wearing roller skates chase each other and play, their laughter echoing as they whiz by. Not far away, under a thick Sophora japonica tree, a few Peking opera enthusiasts are enjoying the performance. As the Peking opera fiddle plays, all we can hear is...

Spring arrives early across China,

Tigers bathing in the breeze, willows swaying in the wind.

Nation gaining tiger's might finds the world in awe,

Morale of people with tiger's spirit soars to the sky.

Descendants of the Chinese nation are so proud,

Splendor of the prosperous age awaits us today...

Find the original article at https://news.gmw.cn/2025-07/18/content_38159499.htm

Written by Wang Changjiang, Gaoyuyuan and Zhang Jinghua

Translated by Wang Shuhan