Narrator: Li Jingshan (the owner of bullet-hole wall in Tai’erzhuang Battle Memorial Park), 81 years old

Location: Tai’erzhuang Battle Memorial Park

The battle was a victory, but this ancient town was left in a state of devastation. Walking in the rebuilt Tai’erzhuang town, we can still see the 53 fully preserved historical remains of war. The bullet wall in family Li’s old house at Yuan’s back alley is one of them. Li Jingshan, who is 81 years old, sat in front of the wall full of bullet holes, and told us the postwar Tai’erzhuang he saw.

When I was a child, this area was just loessland. After the Tai’erzhuang Battle, we came back home and found the ground pitch black. When the ground was dry, it was yellow, and when it rained, it became black again. At that time I didn’t know it was blood. In fact, the soil was full of blood.

“The Triumph of Tai’erzhuang is the significant transition in China’s Anti-Japanese War”, said Zhao Yanqing. As a researcher of Academy of Social Sciences of Shandong Province, and famous specialist of Anti-Japanese War history, he indicates that Tai’erzhuang Triumph was achieved because of the close coordination between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party. It not only heavily blew Japanese arrogance of “Perishing China within three months”, greatly enhanced Chinese troops’ morale, but also consolidated the public confidence of the victory of the war, which changed the international community’s impressions on China’s Anti-Japanese War. Most important of all, it spared time for the later stalemate stage of China’s Anti-Japanese War.