Homemade bullets of the Chinese Eighth Route Army during World War II

A microcosm of the Chinese people’s eight years of arduous resistance against Japanese aggression

In January 1941, Nie Wenkui, a soldier of the Chinese Eighth Route Army, received only five bullets. His squad leader solemnly told him not to shoot if he wasn’t sure, not to shoot if he couldn’t aim properly, and definitely not to shoot from a distance.

The squad leader’s “three no’s” were actually a common phenomenon in the Eighth Route Army. Everyone knew that on the battlefield, where it…