March of the People's Volunteer Army

Fuyao Ma, Weizhi Zhou  

March of the People's Volunteer Army

In July 1950, the No.1 artillery division of the Chinese people's Liberation Army was ordered to gather Anton (now Dandong) and be incorporated into the northeast border defense army to carry out the task of guarding the border defense (this transfer was closely related to the situation of the Korean War in June). At that time, the No.1 artillery division was carrying out the task of reclaiming wasteland on the outskirts of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province. At a sudden order, the troops immediately changed from production teams to combat teams.

In October 1950, the first artillery division was ordered to join the Korean War. On the eve of the army's participation in the war, the company, battalion and regiment held a pledge meeting at all levels. As the political instructor of the 5th company, Ma Fuyao was responsible for drafting the oath of the company. On the night before the company's oath taking meeting in mid October, Ma Fuyao wrote "manly and valiant, crossing the Yalu River. To protect peace and protect the motherland is to protect our hometown. Good sons and daughters of China, unite as one, resist the United States, aid Korea, and defeat the ambitious wolf of the US empire! " Words and sentences. This is the original lyrics later named "the battle song of the Chinese people's Volunteer Army". The next day, Ma Fuyao took the poem as an introduction to the oath of the whole company's battle. After the meeting, Qunli daily, compiled and printed by the Political Department of the Communist Youth League, and the backbone newspaper run by the Political Department of the normal university published the poem in a prominent position. At that time, a culture teacher of Ma Fuyao's company composed music for it and taught singing in the whole company.

At the same time, Chen Bojian, a reporter with the Xinhua news agency, visited Ma Fuyao's unit before the volunteers entered the DPRK. During the interview, Chen Bojian found the poem written by Ma Fuyao. He thought that the poem was clear in theme and strong in fighting, which was very suitable for the needs of the situation at that time. So, just after the first battle of the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, he wrote a field communication "the conversation of several soldiers of the Chinese people's Volunteer Army", and put the poem in the beginning of the article, and made a change of character, changing "crossing the Yalu River" to "crossing the Yalu River"; and "the good Chinese people" to "the good Chinese children". At that time, he said in the article, "this is a poem that the reporter heard in the front line of the Chinese people's Volunteer Army." On November 26, 1950, the people's Daily published this communication on its first page. And the poem in a larger font under the title, to highlight the position introduced to the reader.

Zhou Weizhi, a famous musician who was the deputy director of the art Bureau of the Ministry of culture at that time, saw the poem from the people's daily, and had a strong desire to create. He composed a song on that day. At the same time, he changed "resist US aggression and aid Korea" to "resist US aggression and aid Korea", and signed "volunteer soldiers' Ci" and Zhou Weizhi's song with the last sentence of the poem "defeating the ambitious wolf of the US emperor". On November 30, 1950, the people's daily and the current affairs Handbook published this song successively. Soon it was named "the battle song of the Chinese people's Volunteer Army".

This edition was transcribed by Lin Dixin