Li Mu had always believed that video was the best medium to convey ideas and thoughts. This was also why he paid so much attention to the filming and editing of this documentary. He knew that he could not bring every Hua Xia person to Spring City, to the mountain village where Sun Xiaozhong had lived most of his life, to see and hear with their own eyes. What he could do was to record everything with video and then pass it on to the whole society.
The video that Li Mu played at the press conference was the third version of the promotional video for the search for the surviving Flying Tigers.
The first version was just a rough cut of the footage. It was played to hundreds of rich second-generation heirs who only knew how to spend money and pick up girls. These people were moved to tears and donated more than 80 million RMB.
The second version added relevant footage of the old American Flying Tigers, as well as the shocking footage of the Boeing 747 taking off and landing with the Sharkmouth-Painted Boeing 747. What touched people the most was the moment when Hua Xia and the old American Flying Tigers reunited at the airport after sixty years. The last time they parted was when they were young and strong. This time, everyone was reunited. It was played to all the actors, including Teacher Li Xuejian, and all the actors were moved beyond words.
The third version was based on the second version with more careful editing and arrangement. It also added some new footage to form the final version. From 1937 to 2003, the experience of the Flying Tigers and the Air Force for more than sixty years was condensed in this version.
It had footage of the cherished aerial battles of the past, footage of the search for Sun Xiaozhong deep in the mountains, the oral history of the American Flying Tigers before they set off, close-up shots of the Flying Tigers' Sharkmouth fighter and the Air Force's Sharkmouth 747, high-spirited group photos of Hua Xia and the American Flying Tigers, and the old Flying Tigers from both countries hugging and crying. There were aerial shots of the Hump Route, the aerial battle above Spring City, and the prosperity and peace of the Spring City airport.
When the footage started, the video showed the daily training videos of the Jianqiao Central Air Academy. As these were precious historical records, all the reporters' attention was drawn to them.
Then, the Battle of Songhu began, and the entire air academy began to move west.
Then, the Chinese Air Force began to fight with the Japanese Air Force. The real footage of the aerial battles was all black and white. Although there was no color, it added a sense of heroism.
When they saw Old Man Sun Xiaozhong in that extremely dilapidated thatched hut, saying the famous line of "sacrificing one's life for the country, seeing death as a return home", almost everyone was already shedding silent tears.
Sacrificing one's life for the country, regarding death as home. A veteran's feelings for the nation were vividly highlighted in these ten words.
In the video, when the old man finished this sentence, the screen gradually turned black. Then, the scene of the martyr Chen Huaimin perishing together with the enemy in the air battle in Jiang City was shown on the screen. At the same time, the background music carefully selected by Li Mu appeared — 1492 Conquering Heaven.
After 19 seconds of prelude, this extremely majestic and tragic piece of music was suddenly hummed by the collective humming. In an instant, like a cannonball of tear gas, it bombarded everyone's heart.
The reason why he chose this music was that Li Mu had been completely moved to tears by this music in the past.
There was a TV series called "Soldiers Assault." When Zhang Yi's character, Shi Jin, wept bitterly in front of Tiananmen Square after being discharged from the army, this song made Li Mu cry like a fool in front of the TV.
From then on, whenever he heard this pure music, Li Mu couldn't help but recall that scene in the TV series.
Back then, this music was used in TV dramas to highlight the patriotism of modern soldiers. Today, it was still the same music. In the real images of the past, it showed the blood shed by the veterans for the country and the people. It became the best foil for these videos. The combination of the music notes and the images produced a wonderful chemical effect. Every note and image could reach straight to the heart, making people feel the tremble in their souls.
When the music started, there was no other sound. Everyone's eyes were glued to the big screen. In front of such shocking video data, no one could hold back their tears. At this moment, everyone realized that what they saw today was the most shocking, most heartbreaking, and most shameful of all the charity projects they knew of.
All the previous charity projects, no matter how touching they were, could only arouse people's sympathy and desire to donate to a certain extent. People would sympathize with the children who didn't go to school, the disabled who lost their health, and the infants with congenital diseases, but they wouldn't feel any shame or guilt for these groups. Although they felt that these groups were pitiful, they didn't owe them anything.
But the veterans were different.
In the video, the pilots who risked their lives piloting planes to fight against the invaders in the vast sky of the motherland. They bled and sacrificed for the country and the nation. In order to protect the country and future generations, some of them had sacrificed themselves, and some had disappeared in the long years. The surviving members of the National People's Congress lived such a hard life, but none of them had ever stretched out their hands to help this society.
None of the veterans said that the country owed them, and none of them said that the nation owed them or the people owed them. Without exception, they regarded the sacrifice of those years as an unshirkable responsibility and obligation. They shed their blood during the war and then spent their lives in the era of peace. Even if they had no food to eat or clothes to cover their bodies, they never asked for a dime or a grain of rice from this society. These reporters who were born in the era of peace had never paid attention to this group before. Now, they finally knew their stories and the sacrifices they had made for this country and the nation. They knew that today's peace and development were entirely based on the blood shed and sacrifice of those years. As a result, when they saw these real old heroes living such a poor but humble life, how could they not feel ashamed and not feel guilty?
It turned out that although society was indifferent, most people's blood was still hot.
Every reporter on the scene was deeply touched by this video. Their eyes were red and tears were flowing, but they stared at it without blinking. They didn't even know that they were crying. They had forgotten that they had come to attend a press conference. They had forgotten the cast they had been eagerly looking forward to. They had forgotten the gossip related to Li Mu. They had also forgotten the original intention of making things difficult for Li Mu and squeezing Li Mu at the press conference to gain news topics.
In fact, the last two points that the reporters had been concerned about had already been vaguely but clearly responded to in the video.
In the video, the images of Li Mu flashed several times. He was on the cliffs in the deep mountains of Yun Province, on the steel cable above the Nujiang River, in the dilapidated thatched hut of old man Sun Xiaozhong, in the ward of the Yun Province Military Hospital, when welcoming the Air China 747, and when the old people celebrated the Lantern Festival together in the hotel.
Now the reporters finally knew what Li Mu had been doing these days when he disappeared in front of the media. It turned out that he had established such a significant charity foundation and personally initiated and participated in the charity foundation's first public welfare project, which was the search for the surviving Flying Tigers that everyone was watching now and made everyone cry!
Through this video, Li Mu made the whole society aware of the importance and urgency of caring for veterans. At the same time, he also used practical actions to tell the whole society that he was not only the founder, initiator, and funder of the Veterans Never Die Charitable Foundation, but also a personal participant in it. An Internet tycoon with a net worth of more than 10 billion US dollars plunged into the mountains of Yun Province. How many rich people of the same level could do that? Even the rich people who were a few levels lower than Li Mu couldn't do it, right?
While everyone's souls were greatly shocked, the video was coming to an end.
The background music gradually faded out of the picture, and only old man Sun Xiaozhong was left in the picture. He was still sitting in his dilapidated thatched hut, facing the camera. With a smile on his old face, he said, "Society doesn't owe me anything. Those comrades who fought side by side with me were all hot-blooded and wanted to resist the Japanese and serve the country. Serving the country is like being filial to one's parents. It's our responsibility and obligation when we were born. We didn't fulfill our responsibilities and let the Japanese come in and run amok for so many years. If there's anything we owe, it's what we owe the country and the civilians who died in the hands of the Japanese back then …"
After the old man finished speaking, two more tears suddenly appeared on his smiling face. The scene of the old man wiping away his tears was slowed down by the editor to 0.2 times. The slow motion allowed people to clearly see the flash of sadness on the old man's face as he wiped away his tears.
The picture gradually turned black. Then, a solemn narration accompanied by white subtitles appeared in the middle of the picture.
"In the summer of 1937, Old Man Sun Xiaozhong followed the Jianqiao Central Aviation Academy and moved west to Spring City. In the autumn of the same year, Old Man Sun Xiaozhong's father moved his family of seven from Hangzhou to Jinling to avoid the chaos of war.
In December of the same year, Jinling fell. Since then, there was no news of the entire family for more than 60 years. After investigation by volunteers, the names of the old man's parents, siblings, and sister-in-law were found in the list of victims of the Jinling massacre. The old man's nephew was three years old at the time. The volunteers didn't find his name in the list of victims, but they believed that he had died in the massacre.
In 1952, during Old Man Sun Xiaozhong's reform through labor, his wife, Chen Jinyu, was unable to make ends meet. She left her hometown with her only son, Sun Lianli, and their whereabouts are still unknown. The Veterans Never Die Charitable Foundation has been entrusted by Old Man Sun Xiaozhong to seek help from the whole society to help the old man find the whereabouts of his wife and only son. We hope that any kind-hearted people with relevant clues can take the initiative to contact the Veterans Never Die Charitable Foundation. "
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