Source/Author: As reported by him to H.B.A.

In 1922 and 1923 the Foochow province of Fukien, China, was under the military control of Northern governors. These Northerners did not know the people and ruled them with an iron hand. In 1923 a strong army from Canton invaded Fukien from the south and the people hoped they would be able to drive out the Northerners and wanted them to rule in their stead. The students in the high schools and colleges organized an army to aid the Cantonese and established a military college at which Ling Kia Hing and other young college students were given instruction in the elementary principles of officer training. Mr. Ling, then only 20 years old, was appointed as officer-in-charge of approximately 150 men. Unfortunately, just at that time the Cantonese troops withdrew again leaving the province in charge of this small army of students and other volunteers. This little army tried to make a stand but the Northerners soon overwhelmed them.

Student Army engages the Invaders
During this second invasion by the Northerners, Mr Ling was ordered to take his detachment up a river where they joined about 450 other troops and engaged a Northern army. But the discipline of this raw army was very bad and they were soon defeated and had to retreat into the interior almost surrounded by the Northerners. His detachment of students together with another detachment commanded by a trained army officer decided to go to Mingchieng City which was the headquarters of this volunteer army. These students had been fighting and on the march for a long time and were very weary and hungry. They hoped to get some breakfast at Mingchieng while their officers were conferring at headquarters. But when they arrived they found that the headquarters was no longer there and the inhabitants of this city would give them no help and no food. On the other side of this city there was a row of villages and they were told that their headquarters had gone to No. 6 village.

His detachment was now with a larger one totalling about one thousand men. Neither he nor his superior officer were familiar with the terrain but Mr. Ling knew that the road was very dangerous between No. 1 and No. 2 villages. The pathway was very narrow so that the men had to go in single file and they could easily be ambushed from the hills on either side. He asked his superior officer to send two men as spies to discover whether the Northerners had come into that section. Two men were appointed but refused to go. There was no army discipline. Seeing that Mr. Ling was worried this officer decided to break up his detachment into two and allow Mr. Ling’s detachment to walk between them. They had gone but a short distance when Mr. Ling saw two soldiers on a hillside evidently watching them. He became very worried about them and asked his bugler to blow them a message. They replied. He was still doubtful and so he asked to have his banners raised. They did not reply. There were many hills about heavily wooded, and, as he discovered later they were full of Northern troops. Suddenly these two soldiers raised a big Northern flag. At once his superior officer together with his men started to run away. But Mr. Ling was very calm and ordered his men to take the hill behind and open fire but they were too late and were almost immediately surrounded by about two hundred Northern soldiers.

Mr. Ling's amazing escapes from death
One soldier aimed point blank at him but missed and hit a woman carrying a baby. He could have escaped at that moment but stayed to help this unfortunate woman. With three of his soldiers he then lay down in the deep grass hoping that they might escape detection; in the meantime he was praying earnestly. They could hear soldiers all around them and for ten minutes they were safe but then another patrol found them. They were tied with ropes and taken to the Northern headquarters nearby and in this place they found six others of their company, nine altogether. One of the Northern officers conducted a sort of court martial, asked them a few questions and condemned all nine to be beheaded. Mr. Ling found it difficult to describe his emotions and said that his lips were constantly moving in prayer. Two of the nine were taken a few steps ahead, asked to kneel and two soldiers with two long swords were ordered to behead them. This was a terrible sight because it took the soldiers between twelve to fifteen blows each before they had beheaded the first two. No. 3 was next taken and it took an equally ghastly period of time to behead him. The officer in charge became impatient and told his soldiers to shoot No. 4. A total of ten shots was fired before they were satisfied that he was dead. The same was done to Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8. Mr. Ling happened to be the last in the line. Still bound he was ordered to kneel as the others but instead he sat down and bowed his head continuing to pray, expecting every moment to be killed. Suddenly he was shot from the back, the shot entering just at the base of his skull and coming out on the left cheek just under the cheek bone. He at once lost consciousness.

Soon afterward to his utter surprise he recovered consciousness for he thought he had died. He raised his head to see if he could escape and saw many soldiers at a distance. About a hundred feet away were two guards and he was afraid that his movement had been seen. A group of soldiers with bayonets came along and began to disrobe the corpses and to disembowel these dead men. After they had done this to five they evidently became weary and left. During this time Mr. Ling never ceased praying. Soon another danger came. He was about to get up and run away when another of his comrades, a man who had been shot eighteen times, became conscious and let out a shout. Fortunately this man was not heard. Soon a third group of soldiers came along and it so happened that Mr. Ling, being the last man to be shot, had been left lying on the side of the road or path. These new soldiers likewise had bayonets on their rifles and evidently just for fun were plunging them into these dead bodies. Again he miraculously escaped death for the bayonet that was intended to pierce his left side just missed his body, was entangled in his sweater and went between the second and third fingers of his right hand which was bound under his body.

Fortunately he felt no pain and consequently did not move. Again he thought he had an opportunity to run away when still another group of soldiers came along. These men had a lot of fun kicking his body and rolling him over and over and down into a ditch, until they too went away. Then he decided to get up. The other man who had been shot eighteen times also got up and they looked at each other without speaking both thinking they were seeing a ghost. But soon they both got up and began to run down the hill. The other man was in terrible pain but fortunately Mr. Ling felt almost no pain. He did his best to keep the other man quiet and they tried to help each other to untie their ropes but they were too weak. As the other man persisted in groaning and shouting he finally had no recourse but to run away from him. He found himself in deep underbush and grass and finally from weakness he collapsed and fell into a deep sleep.

His escape and life since
Sometime later he awoke to find some villagers standing about and he asked them to untie his ropes and also asked them for food. Unfortunately they had no food whatsoever it having all been taken or stolen by the Northern soldiers. One man found an olive for him but his mouth was too swollen and he could not eat it. He asked them if there was a church in the neighbourhood but they were afraid to answer his question. Seeing a stream nearby he went there and washed the blood from his head and hands and then fortunately saw the church building nearby. To his great surprise he found the pastor of the church was from his own home village in Kutien. This pastor gave him the best treatment he knew and took care of him for nine days and then was able to send him to a Mission hospital some distance away. The doctor was at first afraid that his wounds would be too serious to heal, but after only seven days there he was able to be discharged. The Methodist District Superintendent of that district came to visit him and having heard his story and how he had been so miraculously saved half a dozen times from death persuaded him to go into the service of God. Mr. Ling then returned to his home and completed his Middle School work and then taught there for two years. Having heard about Sarawak, Borneo, he came there in 1927 and taught for a few years and has since then been a pastor. He is now the pastor of the Kwang Wah District Church, one of the largest congregations in Sarawak.

Malaysia Message
July-August 1940