我们为何而战中国篇

and now the call to arms sounded throughout new china and from the vast interior china's millions answered the call they came from the south and from the north， from the east， from the west， the form of people's army with a new faith in their hearts， men and women left their homes and farms to fight for something bigger now than each man's home and each man's farm and each man's life they were fighting for new china。 一二三四一二三四一 new soldiers awkward non skill like all new soldiers， but they happened and trained 一二三四五六七七二 三四二三。 they learned the discipline in order of drill they knew they must strike and strike hard they learned to kill the youth of china also came forward training to care for the sick and the wounded girls joined their husbands brothers and sweethearts in uniform and to the aid of china came volunteers for motherlands men who pledged themselves to fight against tyranny and oppression no matter where americans like the legendary colonel channel and his flying tigers who would their few american planes were knocking down enemy planes at the fantastic ratio of twenty nips to one of their own the chaps that hoped arrived to world conquest on the back of the giant chinese workhorse phase two of the tanaka plan cold for breaking the horse to their will， but the great patient horse refused to be broken the enraged japs saw their whole plan of conquest bogging down so they set out to drain the giant strength by cutting the arteries through which flowed china's lifeblood of supplies they penetrated along the rivers railroads destroyed by the chinese were rebuilt with slave labor as the japanese moved inland to secure control of key rail lines an important communication and china supply lines from the outside world were cut off by jap warships blockading the coast the japanese strategy was the isolation of china port after port was occupied this meant china was being cut off from supplies she couldn't manufacture for herself supplies she was getting from her western friends without oil gas， guns and planes china was doomed with the whole of the chinese coast in the hands of the jack there would only be two roots over which to bring the vitally necessary materials from indo china a narrow gauge railway ran inland from the sea to kunming connecting with a truck road that went to chunking but its capacity was limited and then there was the old of the camel caravans from russia across the gobi desert which could bring in even less not only did these roots provide too little for china's needs， but they were too near jack territory to be safe there was only one other possibility in burma was a railroad that ran from the port of rain goon to lashio separating it from the truck road at kunming were hundreds of miles of high mountains and deep river gorgeous if this stretch of tortuous mountain trails could be replaced by a modern highway where now only pack trains could pick their plotting way china would have a practical supply room to burma from the sea several internationally known firms of engineers were called in to do the job they said the work might be completed in six or seven years if china could supply them with the most modern machinery， but china didn't have the modern machinery nor did she have the sixth and seven years so she began building the road with her bare hands by thousands by tens of thousands by hundreds of thousands they toiled at the backbreaking past of carving this desperately needed supply line out of the reluctant mountains and out of their toil and their sweat they created the burmerole not in six or seven years， but in less than twelve months a monument to the new spirit of the new china as soon as it was completely the road went into immediate service by thousands of trucks shuttled back and forth between its terminals climbing to nearly ten thousand feet around hairpin curves along the edges of sheer precipices where passing trucks had barely one foot of clearance the blood plasma of new supplies flowed steadily over china's lifeline to the sea protected by colonel schenoltz incredible flying tigers， but chinese sacrifice cannot be measured only in miracles of construction that must be counted too in the tragedy of destruction for while still the burma road was being built the invading jap armies have fanned out and straddled fully two thirds of the railroad lines of the country in the summer of nineteen thirty eight they set out to capture the remaining one third starting with the vital railroad junction at chang chow chain chao is situated on the banks of the yellow river china sorrow originally the river flowed from chain chao southeast to the yellow sea， but nearly a century ago a great flood abruptly changed its course swinging it far to the north for generation upon generation as the spring floods rush down to the sea thousands of chinese worked on the dykes to hold the river in its new course protecting their homes and their crops now is the japs advanced on cheng chao the chinese blew up the southern dike of the yellow river thus loosing a flood between themselves and the jacks once more the river flowed in its old course forming a barrier which to this day has prevented the jap from entrenching himself in this area thus once more with no thought of the human sacrifice of the material cost the chinese traded space for time and the chinese had still other tricks to pull from their patched and face。