Hoping for a "victorious return," he only left behind a letter from the battlefield...

March 18, 1943

3rd Division, 7th Brigade, 19th Regiment, 4th Company of the New Fourth Army

encountered Japanese troops

in the Liu Laozhuang area of Huaiyin, Jiangsu

In order to cover the safe transfer of local party and government agencies and

the people

facing over a thousand Japanese and puppet troops,

instructor Li Yunpeng and company commander Bai Sicai

led the soldiers to fiercely resist the enemy

All 82 brave warriors of the company ultimately

sacrificed heroically due to

being outnumbered and running out of ammunition and supplies

Among the 82 martyrs,

instructor Li Yunpeng

was the only one who left a letter home

During the march,

Li Yunpeng was concerned about

his father back home in northern Jiangsu and

his seriously ill grandmother

and wrote a heartfelt letter

pouring out his deep feelings of missing his family

with the words

“When the wind calms and the waves settle, I will return triumphantly

to reunite with the family, to repay this kindness”

reflecting

his firm confidence that

the war of resistance would surely achieve victory

But he ultimately could not wait for

the day of “triumphant return”

When Li Yunpeng sacrificed his life,

his sister Li Aiyun had not yet been born

As a child, she often heard her father tell

stories of her elder brother's heroic battles

In 1969,

in her early twenties, Li Aiyun

gave up a stable job in the county

and came alone to Liu Laozhuang to settle down

For decades, she has been guarding

the spirits of the 82 “brothers”

Although when she first read Li Yunpeng's letter,

young Li Aiyun could not understand

the content of the letter and her brother's emotions,

as she grew older,

she increasingly appreciated her brother's spirit

In her view,

her brother Li Yunpeng

“fought for the beauty of home

is happy

and sacrificed his life

for the cause of national liberation

is great”

The letter is short, but the feelings for home and country are long

From a little girl with two braids

to now an elderly woman with white hair,

Li Aiyun repeatedly reads

the letters left by her brother whom she never met

and tells the stories

of the eighty-two martyrs

also witnessing for them

the rapid development of the country

and the happiness and well-being of the people

She believes

the blood of the martyrs was not shed in vain

and their spirit

will surely be carried forward

from generation to generation,

endlessly

Authors: Li Yu, Jin Su, Qu Kaiming, Lu Jiahui, Army Integrated Media Reporter Wang Zijing; Propaganda Department of the Huai'an Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, Huai'an News Media Center