Plunking My Favorite Native Lute: Rails as strings, courage as its beat

In the book "On Protracted War," the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong pointed out that weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive factor; it is people, not things, that are decisive. The Southern Shandong Railway Brigade is a powerful symbol of this tenet in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Armed with little more than courage and ingenuity, they turned railway tracks into weapons and trains into fortresses, inspiring widespread public resistance through daring operations. Their legacy is immortalized in the song "Plunking My Favorite Native Lute." The ballad echoes a profound national conviction: When ordinary people rise with courage and determination, even the most outmatched forces can become a decisive power.