NANNING, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Every so often, Jiang Shilin leaves his home in a village in south China and walks about 10 minutes up a mountain path to visit a grave.
The 82-year-old has made the journey for as long as he can remember. Sometimes he carries a sickle to clear away the weeds. Other times, he brings a brush and paint to retrace the fading characters on the gravestone.
Seven people are buried there. Jiang never knew them. He does not even know their names.
But he knows how they died.
REMEMBRANCE
More than 90 years ago, the hills around Caiwan Village in Quanzhou County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, became a battlefield. The seven were soldiers of the Red Army, the armed forces led by the Communist Party of China (CPC).
They were taking part in the Long March, a 1934-1936 military maneuver that helped lay the foundation for the eventual victory of the CPC. Red Army soldiers braved raging rivers, snow-covered mountains and vast grasslands, with some marching as far as 12,500 kilometers -- a trek later described by American journalist Harrison Salisbury as "a great human epic."
In the winter of 1934 during the Long March, the Red Army fought its way across the Xiangjiang River in Guangxi and broke through the Kuomintang troops' blockade, but suffered tens of thousands of casualties in the battle.
For families such as Jiang's, however, memories of the Red Army were shaped not only by the fighting, but also by their encounters with the soldiers.
Jiang grew up hearing stories of those days from his father.
"My father told us that when the Red Army came to the village, the soldiers helped villagers carry water and do chores. The villagers, in turn, showed them the way, cooked sweet potatoes for them and brought them water," Jiang said.
Not long after the Red Army moved on, Jiang's grandfather, Jiang Zhongtai, and Jiang's father found the bodies of seven soldiers while collecting firewood on a nearby hill. They buried the bodies where they found them and marked the site with three small bricks.
Before Jiang Zhongtai died, he left his son with a request: Don't forget the grave.
For over nine decades, the family has kept that promise.
As a boy, Jiang would follow his father up the hill before festivals. He once asked why they returned year after year to honor men whose names they did not even know.
"My father said the Red Army fought for ordinary people," Jiang recalled. "We may not know who these men were, but we must not forget them."
Traces of the Battle of the Xiangjiang River can still be found along the river and in the surrounding hills. Old ferry crossings remain, along with graves of fallen Red Army soldiers. Some bear names. Others do not.
Jiang's family is not alone in caring for them. In nearby Xing'an County, generations of Li Guida's family have tended the graves of 12 Red Army soldiers.
Li, an ethnic Yao villager, said his grandfather once guided Red Army troops through the area. After the fighting, he joined other villagers in recovering and burying fallen soldiers under the cover of darkness.
"My grandfather used to say that the Red Army helped farmers have enough to eat, so we should always remember what they did for us," Li said.
Similar memories of the ties between Red Army soldiers and local residents have been passed down elsewhere along the route of the Long March. In Rucheng, central China's Hunan Province, three female soldiers are remembered for sharing their only quilt with a villager who had given them shelter. Before leaving, they cut the quilt in two and left half behind.
CHANGE
In Quanzhou, Guanyang and Xing'an counties, where the Battle of the Xiangjiang River was fought, rugged terrain and poor transport links long constrained local development. Today, roads wind through mountains that Red Army soldiers once crossed on foot, connecting once-isolated villages with the outside world.
Economic development accelerated in the decades after China launched its reform and opening-up drive in the late 1970s. By 2020, more than 100 impoverished villages across the three counties had been lifted out of poverty following years of targeted poverty alleviation efforts.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March and the start of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). The plan calls for developing county economies with distinctive local strengths and fostering counties that excel in agriculture, industry or tourism.
Today, the three counties are developing specialty agriculture, rural tourism and traditional industries as part of their rural revitalization efforts.
Citrus farming, for example, has become an important source of income in Xing'an, where more than 40,000 farming households benefit from citrus exports. The citrus industry there generates over 1.1 billion yuan (163 million U.S. dollars) in annual output.
Near the Xiangjiang River, Guilin Jolly Cool Fruit Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. ships locally grown mandarins to markets in Central and Southeast Asia. Some local farming households now earn 50,000 to 60,000 yuan a year from growing the fruit and working at the company's factory.
"Our goal is not simply to sell the fruit, but to make sure more local people benefit from the industry," said Sun Kai, a sales manager at the company.
The area's wartime history has also become a resource for tourism and local development.
Not far from a memorial hall dedicated to the Battle of the Xiangjiang River in Quanzhou County, entrepreneur You Wei runs a study tour center that receives about 40,000 students a year. Through activities such as learning battlefield first aid, making stretchers and transporting supplies, students gain a better understanding of what happened there more than nine decades ago.
"The hardships endured by the Red Army on the Long March helped pave the way for the better lives we have today," You said. "We hope young people can also learn from their courage and draw strength from it when facing challenges of their own."
The changes are visible within Jiang's own family.
His father attended night school after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, while the family's thatched home was eventually replaced by the two-story house where Jiang lives today. One of his granddaughters now works at a company in design and cost estimation; another is in high school and hopes to study in Beijing and pursue a career in technology.
Jiang himself has traveled across much of China and visited Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia. Yet one journey has remained unchanged.
Around traditional festivals, Jiang still walks up the familiar mountain path, bringing offerings such as liquor, candies, biscuits, zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), and mooncakes. When fruit from the family's trees ripens, he brings plums, loquats or peaches.
These days, his children and grandchildren sometimes make the walk with him. At the grave, they bow three times.
"Thank you," Jiang silently told them. "You gave us the life we have today." ■
