Word: changchun
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Each month, from beleaguered Changchun and Mukden, 140,000 people press through the opposing military lines and cruel no man's land toward Tientsin, Peiping and the hope of a living. The distance they cover is upwards of 800 miles. The ordeal they undergo, as culled from my own observation in Manchuria and North China and from the press in Nanking, would need a Tu Fu to compass...
...Faster Ahead." Not even ten catties of gold, say refugees from Changchun, can buy an air ticket from the dying northeastern capital. The emergency planes that bring in supplies for the Nationalist garrison take only highest priority people...
There are three lines of pillboxes around Changchun. At the outermost, Nationalist soldiers subject every departing refugee to rigid inspection. The authorities are glad to see civilians leave, since there will be fewer to feed, but no one may take anything metallic such as pots or pans (scrap for bullets), gold or silver (representing forbidden speculation or flight of currency) or salt (vital commodity...
They go fastest in the region just beyond Changchun's perimeter. There, between Nationalist and Communist lines, is one of the no man's lands known as "san-pu-kuan" (three-don't-care), signifying territory where neither Nationalist, Communist nor local authority bothers to exercise control. This is a dark and bloody ground for bandits, usually army deserters, who prey on the passing crowd. They have guns, horses and passwords...
Under the Willows. From Tiehling to Hsinmin it is two days, via Mukden, where, as refugees note, "faces are bitter and prices even higher than in Changchun." At Hsinmin the Nationalist lines end again. South of that rail city lies the most terrible san-pu-kuan stretch of all, the notorious Liu Ho Ko, or Willow River Ditch. This no man's land belongs to bandits who dress in yellow jackets and black pants, carry white knapsacks and oiled-paper umbrellas. They lie in wait along a willow-lined ditch, jump up with drawn revolvers, shout...