The Tomb of the Sixty-Two Martyrs in Houtianzhuang is a cultural relic protection unit in Shandong Province.
The Tomb of the Sixty-Two Martyrs is located 100 meters southeast of Houtianzhuang Village, Donggu Town, Guan County.
Houtianzhuang Village is located at the junction of Shandong Province and Hebei Province. Its strategic position was very important during the Anti-Japanese War. In 1938, a party branch was established here and a small guerrilla group of 11 people was organized called the "Donglin Detachment". Soon, the guerrilla group grew to more than 100 people and was renamed "Chang'er Detachment". In 1939, it was incorporated into the Weihe Detachment. In early 1940, it was organized into the 3rd Battalion and 10th Company of the 1st Regiment of the Eighth Route Army Advance Column. On February 7, 1940, the 10th Company was ordered to go to Nangong to participate in the battle against the three stubborn troops. After 13 days of fierce fighting, while pursuing the victory for 10 consecutive days, they encountered more than 3,000 Japanese troops from Handan, Hebei Province. The Japanese army surrounded 10 soldiers in a civilian building in Zhaoguanzhai Village, Guantao County. Under the command of instructor Sun Shusheng and company commander Wang Delin, 62 soldiers of the company fought bloody battles with the Japanese and puppet troops for a day and night, repelling multiple enemy attacks and wiping out more than a hundred enemies. The ferocious enemy used planes to bomb and set buildings on fire. On the 22nd, there were only 16 soldiers left out of 10. With no ammunition and food, and no foreign aid, the soldiers smashed objects, jumped from buildings, and died heroically for their country. After the news of the martyrdom of the 62 soldiers spread, Xinhua Daily published an article praising the heroes, and Liu Bocheng, commander of the 129th Division, also commended them. Due to the war at that time, the remains of the soldiers were temporarily buried locally.
In 1946, the People's Government rebuilt the tombs and moved the bones of 62 martyrs from Zhaoguanzhai to Houtianzhuang Village, Donggu Town, the birthplace of the 10th Company. Yu Xiaohong, the former director of the Political Department of the Seventh Army Division in Southern Hebei Province, personally wrote an inscription describing the whole story of the battle.
In 1992, the Tomb of the Sixty-Two Martyrs was announced as a county-level cultural relic protection unit. In April 1999, it was announced as a key cultural relic protection unit in Liaocheng City. During the Qingming Festival and other important festivals, many cadres and masses come to commemorate the great achievements of the revolutionary martyrs and express their condolences to the revolutionary martyrs.
On June 23, 2015, the Tomb of the Sixty-Two Martyrs in Houtianzhuang was announced by the Shandong Provincial People’s Government as the fifth batch of provincial cultural relics protection units in Shandong Province.
Donggucheng Town: Donggu Town is located in the westernmost part of Shandong Province, across the river from Guantao County in Hebei Province, and is the western gate of Shandong Province. It has a total area of ??150 square kilometers, 92,000 acres of cultivated land, jurisdiction over 84 administrative villages, and a population of 70,000. In 1999, it was approved as a central town by the provincial government. The Hanji Railway, Jiliaoguan Expressway, 106, 306 National Highway, and 008 Provincial Highway intersect in the town, providing convenient transportation. High-quality garlic and famous and rare fruits are the agricultural specialties of this town. The powder processing industry, chemical industry, and foundry industry are the leading industries of this town. There are dozens of garlic plants in the town