preface
In 1980, China held a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and North Korean leader Kim Il Sung came to participate. In the talks with Deng Xiaoping, the deeds of Huang Jiguang, Qiu Shaoyun, Lai Yongze, Chai Yunzhen and other heroic figures of the volunteer army once again appeared in people's minds...
Kim Il Sung said: "In addition to the two heroes who died, Lai Yongze has been found, but Chai Yunzhen is still missing, I don't know where, I still think about him!" Deng Xiaoping immediately instructed: "As long as Comrade Chai Yunzhen is still alive in this world, even if it is a needle in a haystack, we must fish it for him!" ”
(Deng Xiaoping)
"I can't imagine that the party and the country can still remember me!"
In September 1984, the Sichuan Daily published a search notice: "In 1951, during the Fifth Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea... Fight to the death... Lost contact with the troops... Please contact us quickly. Chai Bingrong looked at the hero Chai Yunzheng described in the newspaper, except that the "Zhen" in the name and the "Zheng" in his father were different, the other deeds were basically the same, and even the wounds mentioned in the article were exactly the same as those of his father.
Chai Bingrong knew that his father had participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and his position matched the description in the newspaper, so he excitedly returned home with the newspaper and told his father Chai Yunzhen the news: "Dad, is this looking for you again?" The father looked at the contents of the newspaper lightly and said, "People are looking for combat heroes, what does it have to do with me?" ”
Chai Bingrong did not believe that there would be such a coincidence, and he continued to ask: "Did you participate in this Park Dafeng Blockade Battle?" Chai Yunzhen nodded: "I was injured in this battle, that battle, one of my squads and all the comrades in the company were all wiped out, leaving me alone..." Before his father finished speaking, Chai Bingrong said excitedly: "You are you, you see the place where the battle is fought, it is you!" ”
Chai Yunzhen waved his hand continuously: "It's not me, don't add a burden to the country!" His father's description was almost exactly the same as the report, and Chai Bingrong did not believe that there was such a coincidence in the world. He continued reluctantly, "If it is you who is looking for you, if you know it, you won't say a word, won't you let people be in a hurry?" If you don't write a letter to people, let them have one more clue! ”
Chai Yunzhen even refused, the matter has passed decades, how can anyone remember, rushing to recognize each other is not to cause trouble for the country. Chai Bingrong was still not dead-hearted: "Don't you want to see your comrades every day?" It is also good to go and see the old comrades-in-arms and the old chief! Chai Yunzhen was suddenly silent, and the expression on his face became solemn, and he walked back to the room alone.
(Chai Yunzhen)
On this night, Chai Yunzhen stayed up all night, and the memories that had been sealed over the years gradually reappeared in front of him. For several days, his family had persuaded Chai Yunzhen, but he was still silent, helpless, and Chai Bingrong took a step back: "Even if the person you are looking for in the newspaper is not you, then you know some of the situation at that time, if you can tell the truth, it will also be helpful to the organization, right?" ”
Chai Yunzhen has always regarded the principle of party spirit as more important than life, and his son's words are also grasping Chai Yunzhen's weakness, and he has finally relaxed. The father and son sold the family's fat pigs, cobbled together the round-trip fare, and boarded the train to Wuhan. Arriving at the Xiaogan troop garrison in Hubei Province, Chai Bingrong truthfully told the situation: "My father's name is Chai Yunzhen, who participated in the battle of Park Dafeng and may know some clues. ”
The guards hurried to report the situation to the leaders, and the director of the Political Department, Wen, after receiving the news, hurriedly arranged for him to be sent to the guest house to meet with him. As soon as he saw Chai Yunzhen, Director Wen excitedly shook hands with him, and when he found his severed index finger, Director Wen asked, "Old comrade, your hand..."
"This finger was bitten off by the enemy during the battle of Park Dafeng." Although Director Wen had never seen him, he had also heard a lot about Chai Yunzhen's deeds, and this inquiry was only to be more certain of his identity. Subsequently, he confirmed some other information with Chai Yunzhen, and basically all-round matched.
He asked Chai Yunzhen again, "Are you injured anywhere else?" Chai Yunzhen brushed his hair: "In the battlefield, A black devil once beat me to death with a stone, and I was wounded on the head." Director Wen stepped forward to check it out, and more than 20 scars the length of rice grains came into view, which was shocking.
Chai Yunzhen's wounds were basically consistent with the information that Director Wen had grasped, but in order to be more secure, Director Wen brought Sun Hongfa, who had carried the injured Chai Yunzhen all the way back from the position, to confirm. After some conversation, it was finally determined that Chai Yunzhen was the national hero they had worked so hard to find.
The troops also invited all the cadres who were still in the original unit, and when they saw these old comrades-in-arms, Chai Yunzhen excitedly stepped forward and called out their names one by one. The old chiefs looked at the scars on Chai Yunzhen's hands and head, and the memories of more than 30 years ago reappeared in front of them, they asked about the details of the war, and Chai Yunzhen answered them all.
After several confirmations, the crowd no longer had doubts, and there were doubts about the difference in names, and Dong Guicheng, a Shandong man who filled in his name at the time, also made a statement: Because of the different accents of Shandong and Sichuan, coupled with the tension of the battle, he made this mistake in a hurry when submitting the roster of personnel. After that, Chai Yunzheng also used the name "Chai Yunzhen" all the time.
The teacher choked and shook Chai Yunzhen's hand: "Yunzhen! It's so hard to find you! For more than thirty years, he once again returned to the unit where his soul was haunted, and his mood was extremely excited: "I didn't expect everyone to remember me, and the party and the country can still remember me!" "On that day in October, the troops were full of lights and unprecedented liveliness, and all the soldiers greeted the return of the old hero with reverence.
On the podium, Chai Yunzhen, dressed in a neat military uniform, stood solemnly on the stage, and the leaders of the Central Military Commission specially rushed to wear the medals of "special meritorious service" and "first-class combat hero" on Chai Yunzhen's chest. This honor had already been awarded to Chai Yunzhen more than thirty years ago, but he was so late for a word.
Looking at the crowd of black pressure under the stage, Chai Yunzhen couldn't believe that he had transformed from an ordinary peasant into a hero who attracted everyone's attention, and he moved to the microphone in a restrained manner, recalling the long-buried life and death experience in his heart...
"Living hero" Chai Yunzhen
In 1947, at the age of 17, Chai Yunzhen was captured by the Kuomintang and forced into the army. In the army, it is not uncommon for front-line soldiers to starve and officers to do their best behind their backs, not only that, they often bully and scold soldiers, Chai Yunzhen is very disgusted by this behavior, and the soldiers are full of resentment.
The generals were highly tired of war, unwilling to fight for the Kuomintang, and in many battles with the People's Liberation Army, they all fell without a fight. In 1948, the Battle of Huaihai began, Chai Yunzhen's troops were forced to rush to the front line to fight, the soldiers were already reluctant to fight, coupled with the defeat of the Kuomintang army in the Liaoshen Campaign, the soldiers were panicked.
"The Kuomintang did not supply food to the soldiers, the snow was too cold to bear, the soldiers were hungry, and they were in the mood to fight." Chai Yunzhen recalled: "The Communists shouted with loudspeakers on the front line and delivered steaming steamed steamed buns to the positions, and the soldiers could not help but be hungry for a long time, so they joined the Communists and went to eat steamed buns." ”
In this way, Chai Yunzhen joined the ranks of the People's Liberation Army, and in the people's army, Chai Yunzhen really felt the difference between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang army. They gave preferential treatment to prisoners, cared for the poor, and served the people wholeheartedly with "taking it as their duty to seek profit for the people", and this policy made Chai Yunzhen determined that he would follow the Communist Revolution to the end.
Soon, the Battle of Crossing the River began, Chai Yunzhen as a machine gunner bore the brunt of it, he repeatedly used machine guns to mute the enemy's bunkers, and also put down more than a dozen enemy commanders, captured three heavy machine guns and a lot of ammunition, and won the second class merit in the Battle of Crossing the River.
After that, he made many military achievements, and in December 1949, he gloriously joined the Communist Party of China. In 1950, the WAR of Aggression against Korea led by the United States was launched, and in order to safeguard the national territory, China resolutely sent troops to fight. Chai Yunzhen took the lead and naturally joined the ranks of the volunteer army.
At the end of May 1951, the US army, which had been beaten badly by our army, suddenly concentrated its forces to follow when our army was retreating to the north, and the 134th Regiment was ordered to turn around and block, and a tenacious and heroic blockade battle was launched at Park Dafeng. The enemy's planes filled the sky densely, hail bombs wave after wave, the disparity in strength, after five days and five nights of fierce fighting, our army lost two hills.
Mount Pu Dafeng is the last line of defense of the Five Holy Mountains position, and once occupied, the enemy will advance all the way north. The battalion commander ordered a resolute blockade to retake the position, and this difficult task also fell on chai Yunzhen's shoulders, and he resolutely led the nine soldiers of the seventh squad to launch a counterattack against the enemy.
As night fell, the enemy's flares were particularly dazzling, and Chai Yunzhen led five warriors to sneak forward in the gap between the flares falling and circled to the foot of the mountain. The others fired cold shots at the enemy in the other direction, attracting the attention of the enemy, and soon he led five fighters up the hill from the rear of the side, a grenade passed, the enemy was destroyed in an instant, and the first hill was successfully recaptured.
With the lesson of the first hill, the enemy stationed a battalion of troops at the second hill, and coupled with the dangerous terrain of the mountain, the difficulty of retaking the second hill was also increased a lot. Chai Yunzhen placed five fighters in different positions to shoot the enemy cold guns, while he led three fighters to climb the cliff and advance towards the top of the mountain. The enemy spotted them charging forward, and fired indiscriminately at the rock wall.
Chai Yunzhen and the three warriors could not advance, and after more than half an hour, Chai Yunzhen ordered them to crawl forward, and they climbed to the middle of the mountain in the rain of bullets. They quickly took up their machine guns to wipe out the enemy, and then quietly reached the top of the mountain, killing the enemy at the top of the mountain and successfully retrieving the second hill.
Chai Yunzhen, who successfully recaptured his position, did not let down his vigilance, he knew that the enemy would not give up easily, so he was prepared to counterattack early in the morning, and sure enough, the enemy launched a huge counterattack the next morning. However, in the face of the enemy's aircraft cannons, Chai Yunzhen and his party were beaten to no avail, and finally hurriedly withdrew from the position under the help of their teammates.
Looking at the few teammates left and the positions lost again, Chai Yunzhen's heart was like a knife, and after a short rest, Chai Yunzhen once again led the six fighters to attack. However, the disparity between the enemy and us was very large, and they soon fell into a situation of running out of ammunition, and the enemy cowered and marched forward, ready to capture four people alive. Suddenly, the four volunteers grabbed their submachine guns in their hands and stood like giants on the top of the hill, firing wildly at the enemy.
The enemy was frightened by this sudden strafing and stopped, and at the moment when the ammunition of the four men was about to run out, two old soldiers arrived and brought ammunition. Taking advantage of the gap between bullet changes, the enemy climbed up and continued to shoot at them, watching the two warriors and the veteran soldier who delivered the ammunition fall at his feet, and Chai Yunzhen was furious.
(Chai Yunzhen tells the story of the war)
He picked up his machine gun and continued to strafe, and another soldier kept throwing grenades at the enemy, and in this way, the position was held and the enemy temporarily retreated. Looking at the red flag flying high on the position, Chai Yunzhen smiled. After eating, the battalion commander added two more soldiers to Chai Yunzhen and continued to attack the position.
With the support of rear fire, Chai Yunzhen and several others successfully took the enemy's first line of defense. He led several men on their way, and behind a dark tree stumps, Chai Yunzhen found the enemy's command post hidden in the cave. He touched the vicinity of the cave, took out a grenade and threw it in, and after a loud "bang", only the wailing of the enemy army was left all over the mountain.
The enemy soldiers guarding the mountain pass fled down the mountain, and after gathering more than 100 companions stationed on the mountainside, they once again attacked Chai Yunzhen and others at the top of the mountain. Chai Yunzhen commanded his teammates to carry out a fierce counterattack, and after a burst of glue, the enemy army fled and died, and the battlefield was a mess, full of corpses.
Although he had won the victory, only Chai Yunzhen was left, and he was already scarred, he struggled to get up, just wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, and the sound of footsteps came from behind him. He quickly turned around, picked up the machine gun and fired a strafing, killing three American devils on the spot, and the enemy's bullets were right in his arms and waist. He endured severe pain and tried to shoot the last enemy, but the bullets in the gun just ran out.
He threw away his machine gun and rushed towards the devil, who also threw away his gun and engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with Chai Yunzhen. The two sides wrestled for a while, Chai Yunzhen was caught by the devils out of several blood holes, the devils did not get a bargain, chai Yunzhen grabbed off one ear, scratched the skin of the face. The American devil drew his dagger, and Chai Yun pushed the devil to the ground in a hurry, and the dagger also fell down the mountain.
Taking advantage of the gap, Chai Yunzhen inserted the enemy's head with both hands, and then tried to dig the enemy's eyes with his hands, who knew that the enemy opened his mouth, and Chai Yunzhen's index finger was bitten off by the devil. Chai Yunzhen's eyes darkened in pain, and he fainted on the ground, the enemy did not die, and then grabbed a rock next to him and smashed it hard into Chai Yunzhen's head, Chai Yunzhen suddenly felt that his brain plasma was splashed around, and the blood was direct.
After a few moments, the mountain fell silent, and chai Yunzhen, who was blurred with blood and flesh, lay quietly on the ground motionless, and the American devils thought that Chai Yunzhen was dead and rushed down the mountain. Just running away, Chai Yunzhen slowly opened his eyes, turned over with difficulty, crawled to get the guns thrown by the enemy, his eyes were red, he used his last bit of strength, pulled the trigger, "bang", the enemy fell, Chai Yunzhen also completely passed out.
"I have to bring my image back"
When he woke up again, Chai Yunzhen had been sent to the Inner Mongolia Military Hospital, and the doctor stared at Chai Yunzhen in surprise: "It is a miracle that you can wake up!" At that time, after Chai Yunzhen was unconscious, reinforcements arrived, and a comrade-in-arms named Sun Hongfa saw that he still had a breath, so he carried him back to the field hospital, and Peng Dehuai also ordered that Chai Yunzhen be saved at all costs.
After several tossing and turning, Chai Yunzhen finally woke up in Baotou Hospital. He lost contact with the troops, inquired many times without hearing from him, and he had become a disabled person who could no longer pull the trigger. After thinking about it for a long time, Chai Yunzhen gave up looking for troops, and after recuperating in the hospital for a year, he returned to his hometown with a disability certificate and food vouchers.
He did not know that the country had not forgotten him, and his deeds were widely praised in the military, and whenever he mentioned it, he could not help but make people's blood boil and tears fill their eyes. He became a model for many soldiers in the army and inspired thousands of volunteer heroes, and Huang Jiguang and Qiu Shaoyun once regarded him as an example.
He returned to his hometown in a faded military uniform, and Chai Yunzhen excitedly hugged his white-haired mother: "I'm back!" The mother stared at him in a daze for half a day, as if she couldn't believe that her son was still alive... After returning to his hometown, Chai Yunzhen buried this past in his heart, and few people knew that this ordinary peasant was once a great hero who had been on the battlefield.
It was not until the appearance of this search notice that Chai Yunzhen's deeds re-entered people's ears. Chai Yunzhen burst into tears: "I can't imagine that the country still remembers me!" "In his eyes, he just did what he was supposed to do, he never felt how great he was, and he never wanted anything in return, but history doesn't forget any hero."
(Kim Il became Chai Yun Zhen Award)
In 1985, Kim Il Sung invited Chai Yun-jin and other heroic delegations to visit North Korea and personally awarded Chai Yun-jin the "Order of Freedom and Independence of the First Class." At the Military Museum in North Korea, Chai Yunzhen saw his own portrait, and the introducer introduced: "This hero is Chai Yunzhen, a martyr who died in the Fifth Campaign of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Battle of Park Dafeng!" ”
Looking at his own portrait, Chai Yunzhen had mixed feelings: "I am still alive, please give me this portrait!" After reporting, Chai Yunzhen personally took off his "portrait". Others lamented that he was "a living hero!" But he said heavily: "I am not a hero, the real heroes are those comrades who sacrificed!" ”
(Chai Yunzhen with his "portrait")
The state has wanted to help Chai Yunzhen many times, but Chai Yunzhen said: "My comrades-in-arms have all died, and I should do more things for them when I live in the world, without any requirements." Chai Yunzhen passed away in December 2018, and in 2021, Chai Yunzhen was awarded the "July 1st Medal" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Chai Bingrong led the whole family to his father's tomb: "Dad, look at what the medal looks like, the people of the country have not forgotten you..."
Earth-shattering feats cast monuments, and heroic spirit shines for thousands of years. In my ears, it seems that the words of the old hero Chai are still echoing: "Honor belongs to the motherland and the people, and I only have to make more contributions to repay..."