Group photo of Yang Dong, Tan Xing and their children

Tan Xing, former name Yao Zhaochang, was from Yakou Village, Nanlang Town. She was married to Yang Dongfrom Yakou Village in 1915, and later gave birth to six children, namely Yang Risong, Yang Rishao, Yang Rizhang, Yang Rizeng, Yang Rixin and Yang Rifang. During the Anti-Japanese War, Tan Xing made prominent contributions. When Xie Liquan, a member of the CPC Nanfan County Committee was recuperating at her family in 1941, she took care of him day and night, and managed to keep him safe. With her careful attendance, Xie recovered soon. In the spring of 1942, when she knew from a letter of his eldest son Yang Rishao that the guerrillas establishing a revolutionary basein the Wugui Mountain area was short of drugs and food, she sent the remaining rice of her family to them in Shimen Village near Cuiheng Village together with her daughter Yang Rifang. When the troop led an extremely difficult life, she gave her lifelong savings and a batch of grain to the troop. She even sold up her wedding jewelry, borrowed money from her mother’s family,borrowed the money from pig sale from her sister-in-law to help the troop, and finally sold her ancestral farmland.

In 1945, the Japanese fascists threw in many troops in Zhongshan before their surrender, launched a large-scale assault on the Wugui Mountain area and the ninth area, and occupied some villages in these areas. However, Auntie Yang was not frightened. She protected the comrades staying in Zhongshan, and collected firearms and ammunitions for the troop together with revolutionary villagers, like Auntie Liao, Auntie He and Auntie Xiao. Tan Xing was called Auntie Yang kindly by the guerrillas.

Tan Xing and her husband Yang Dong supported their six children to resist the Japanese. Her sons Yang Rishao and Yang Rizhang sacrificed successively. When her eldest son Yang Rishao died, Auntie Yang sent her eldest daughter Yang Risong to the Zhongshan People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Detachment as a liaison man to do what her younger brother did not finish; when her second son Yang Rizhang died, she sent two daughters Yang Rizeng and Yang Rifang, and youngest son Yang Rixin to the troop. The revolutionary deeds of her family were widely known among the Zhongshan people and the soldiers who fought in Zhongshan during the Anti-Japanese War and the Civil War. She set a good example in Zhongshan and even the Pearl River Delta, and drove people around to resist the Japanese actively, adding glory to the anti-Japanese history of Zhongshan.