Beijing Escorts: Huang Zhangjin (黄章晋)：The Tale of Eight Thousand Hunan Maidens …
In reality, whether we’re talking about war loot or “supporting equipments”, there were far more than 8000 Hunan maidens. There were also many more female soldiers from various other provinces being allocated to local soldiers. According to the current narrative, the educated youths who reported to Xinjiang as members of the construction army corps numbered in the tens of thousands, and that is why the women were also called to duty. That old man’s wife is from Shandong, for example. Some say that it was from Shandong that the first female soldiers were procured, because the war had caused a particularly serious imbalance in gender in that province. Several widows were among those drafted and sent to Xinjiang. Besides those women and the young female students, there was also the odd reformed prostitute from Beijing or Shanghai. But as time progressed, there was more and more freedom in military marital affairs, and it was not as tragic as it was initially. The other provinces had also offered up so many of their daughters; but without data, they were all forgotten save the Hunan maidens.
See the full article from “China Digital Times”