One day in July 1981, a village called Sheng weizi in SuXian County, Anhui Province, was particularly lively, and the villagers sitting by the big trees and chatting in the shade suddenly saw the county leading cadres with several people in military uniforms striding towards here.
After a while, one of them asked the villagers about the road: "Old master, do we have a daughter-in-law who married 40 years ago in our village? We don't know exactly what it's called. This inquiry without any clue embarrassed this group of people, and suddenly a great uncle said, "Is it not the old Sheng family at the east end of the village?" So under the leadership of the old master, a group of people walked towards the east end of the village.
In the small talk on the road, I learned that this general was actually the chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army and the founding lieutenant general Zhang Zhen, who had made great achievements in battle. The old man couldn't help but wonder in his heart whether this was a relative of the old Sheng family, but he had never heard of it.
When knocking on the door of Lao Sheng's house, Zhang Zhen recognized at a glance that the old woman with white hair in front of him was the person he had been looking for for many years and had been thinking about for a long time, and he immediately held the old woman's hand tightly and said excitedly: "Sister-in-law, I have come to repay the favor!" If I hadn't had your kindness back then, I would have been where I am today!" This remark shocked everyone present, what is the story of the founding lieutenant general and the old woman in front of him? Why would the general say that he had come to repay the favor?
The year 1941 was the most difficult and memorable year for the New Fourth Army. First there was the "Anhui Southern Incident", more than 9,000 soldiers deployed by the New Fourth Army received orders from their superiors and were ordered to move north, but they did not think about it, and suddenly they were attacked, and this battle was defenseless against the New Fourth Army, coupled with the lack of troops and guns and ammunition, so that the New Fourth Army changed from more than 9,000 people to more than 2,000 people, and sacrificed more than 6,000 soldiers.
Even the division commander of the New Fourth Army at that time was detained by the enemy, and the deputy division commander and the chief of staff were heroically killed in the breakthrough of the battle. Chiang Kai-shek once wanted to cancel the name of the New Fourth Army because of this matter, and in order to reverse this situation, the New Fourth Army took a lot of effort to slowly change the status quo, and the ranks slowly expanded.
Zhang Zhen was in the ranks of the New Fourth Army that year, and after organizational training and continuous training in war, he was only 27 years old and had already served as the chief of staff of the Fourth Division of the New Fourth Army. After receiving the arrangement of the higher-level organization, it is necessary to go to the sudong region to participate in the work of the conference, and it is necessary to make plans for the next step of work deployment according to the current situation.
After the meeting, it was already dark, considering that the night march was not safe, and the plan was to fight behind enemy lines, if you stayed here for a long time, it would be easy to expose your whereabouts, so at the suggestion of the guerrilla leader, he chose to take the night to move to Shengxuzi Village, which was not far away from more than ten kilometers away. The distance is not far, and the villagers in Shengxuzi Village are very supportive of the Eighth Route Army's resistance, and the villagers here are enthusiastic.
Therefore, when the New Fourth Army was moving to Shengxuzi Village, Zhang Zhen stepped on a high-headed horse and quietly entered Shengxuzi Village under the cover of night, and for the sake of safety, the troops were divided into two teams to spend the night in the village, Zhang Zhen and the guerrilla leader and others spent the night in the east of the village, and other comrades spent the night at the west end of the village.
Zhang Zhen walked along the road and saw a large stone trough under a large tree in front of a family's house. Zhang Zhen stepped off his horse and tied it to a large stone trough. One of the soldiers knocked on the door and said, "We are the New Fourth Army, do you want to spend the night here?"
The door opened quickly, the door was opened by a young woman, the wall behind her was still pasted with bright red dazzling happy words, it turned out that this family had just finished the happy event, the bride who opened the door was called Kong Xiuying, because her brother also went to participate in the Eighth Route Army to resist Japan, so as soon as she heard the New Fourth Army, she felt particularly kind, so she immediately dressed up and opened the door.
Kong Xiuying immediately welcomed the group into the house, Zhang Zhen wanted not to disturb the newlyweds, in the west of the side of the house to make a night, but the enthusiastic Kong Xiuying said that he would not agree to anything, must let them go to the main house to sleep, even if he and her husband played the floor, they could not be wronged by the hard-working anti-Japanese fighters. After running around for a day, Zhang Zhen did not refuse again, and after a while, he fell into a deep sleep.
It was just getting hazy, and the bride got up early and went to the river, because according to local custom, the quilt was to be removed and washed on this day. The weather in the winter months was cold and wet, but today it caught up with the fog. Because the fog was too big, things ten meters away were basically invisible, and she was washing the sheets by the river, when she suddenly heard a strange sound coming from not far away, the sound came from the road, and it was getting closer and closer, and she suddenly realized that it was the sound of the ghost car.
Thinking of the New Fourth Army, who were still resting overnight, she was suddenly panicked in her heart, and she immediately ran in the direction of her home, and as she ran, she shouted at the village: "The village chief is getting up, the devils are coming, and the devils are coming." Her shouting aroused the vigilance of the sentry soldiers in the village, who immediately fired their guns and launched an alarm, but by this time the Japanese army had already entered the mouth of the village, and the Japanese army soon engaged our army. When the guerrilla leader heard the firing of the gun, he immediately understood the situation and organized the fighters to hold the entrance to the village and stubbornly resist.
Realizing that Zhang Zhen had not yet woken up, he shouted into the room: "Chief of Staff, the devil is coming, the devil is coming!" He thought he was loud enough, so when he finished shouting, he immediately ran to command the battle. However, at this time, Zhang Zhen may have been tired and running in the previous few days, slept too deeply, and did not hear the captain's shouts at all.
At this time, Kong Xiuying was very anxious, so she ran hard in the direction of her home, ran into the house and shouted, "The devil is coming." The four men suddenly woke Up Zhang shocked and immediately prepared for battle. At this time, the Japanese army was already in the backyard of Kong Xiuying's house, because the fog was too large that day, it was impossible to see the combat situation at all, and the night march did not understand the layout of the terrain, and did not know where to go for a while.
Kong Xiuying saw that the operational situation was tense, and the New Fourth Army did not have the advantage. So, he said to Zhang Zhen, "Run all the way to the west, and cross the bridge by the river." Zhang Zhen's heart was full of gratitude, and he secretly swore that as long as he did not die, he must come back to repay the favor! As Zhang Zhen ran forward, he turned around and fired a series of shots at the enemy troops in the rear, and the enemy's bullets whizzed through his ears.
It just so happened that the communication squad arrived in time to provide support, so Zhang Zhen led the team to decide to break through, shooting at the charging Japanese troops, relying on the spirit of our army's heroic combat, repelling wave after wave of enemy charge, at the critical moment, Zhang Zhen gave an order to "retreat!" Because of the huge disparity in the military strength between the enemy and ourselves, and the arrival of the Japanese support troops soon, it is not advisable to stay too long.
Zhang Zhen withdrew with his troops, the company commander led more than a dozen fighters to take cover, in order to successfully cover the withdrawal of the main force, in time to engage the enemy army and exhausted all the guns and ammunition, but also to choose to fight the enemy with empty hands and white blades to the end, and finally the company commander and more than a dozen fighters led by him were heroically sacrificed! At this time, Zhang Zhen led the troops to follow the direction described by Kong Xiuying and crossed the small bridge west to the river. With the narrow pavement and many shelters on the small bridge, it was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the battle in this area quickly repelled the Japanese army.
The Japanese suffered heavy losses in this battle, so they soon conducted a large-scale search in an attempt to search out the New Fourth Army in retaliation. Kong Xiuying's family is no exception, and when questioned, Kong Xiuying did not say a word and had a cold face. Finally, fearing a surprise attack by the New Fourth Army, he slipped away.
After the Japanese left, Kong Xiuying and the villagers buried the soldiers who died in the battle, partly in the east of the village and partly in a small puddle in the southwest of the village.
Kong Xiuying, who was born in the war-torn years, did not take this matter to heart, but this matter was a warm place in Zhang Zhen's heart. After escaping from Shengxuzi Village, he continued to devote himself to other wars of resistance, until after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he participated in the War of Liberation, and then participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and has been quietly contributing to the defense of the country and the people.
After that, he served as the vice president of the Nanjing Military Academy, contributing to the country's military culture, and also cultivating a group of military talents for the motherland.
It has always been a wish in his heart to repay the favor in Shengxuzi Village, but he has not had the time and opportunity until 1981, when he found the "bride" who rescued him under the leadership of local cadres. After 40 years, the "bride" of that year is already an old woman with white hair, and the young chief of that year is already a general with white hair.
The two old men held each other's hands tightly, and then took Zhang Zhen and others to the cemetery of the soldiers who died that year to mourn the fighting heroes of that year! Zhang Zhen looked at the cemetery full of barren grass in front of him, and his heart was full of mixed feelings, the comrades who fought together in those years, you can't see it today.
At the tomb, he said to the local leading cadres, "If only we could build a martyrs' cemetery." After that, the founding lieutenant general Zhang Zhen's coming to Shengxuzi Village was quickly reported by various media, and the construction of the martyrs' cemetery was paid attention to by the broad masses of the people, and donations were made one after another.
After the martyrs' cemetery was built, in order to better commemorate the soldiers who died that year, local cadres proposed that Kong Xiuying's wife go to Beijing and let General Zhang Zhen personally write an inscription. Kong Xiuying and her husband became the guardians of the voluntary cemetery.
At the invitation of Zhang Zhen many times, Kong Xiuying and her husband went to Beijing to visit General Zhang Zhen, and he was very happy to see the arrival of the benefactor that year, so he personally arranged and accompanied the two to visit the scenery of Beijing, led them to understand the culture of Beijing, and gave them photos when they were separated, as if they were relatives.
In 1999, Zhang Zhen, who was very worried about the Martyrs' Cemetery and Kong Xiuying and his wife, came to Shengxuzi Village again accompanied by his family, and after more than ten years, Shengxuzi Village developed better, and the pines planted in the Martyrs' Cemetery were tall and dense. He expressed great satisfaction with the construction of the cemetery, and donated 4,000 yuan before leaving as a cost for the future construction of the cemetery.
In 2007, Kong Xiuying died, and Zhang Zhen, who learned the news, was very distressed, and the 93-year-old could not personally go to mourn due to physical reasons, so he let his children go to mourn instead of himself.
The relationship between the military and the people in the war years made the difficult road of war less bumpy, and it was also a comfort in the hearts of soldiers who ran around. The army defends the country's land and the people's safety, the people's children and soldiers get along well with the people under the leadership of the party, and the victory of the war cannot be separated from the support and support of the people.
In that era, there may be many people like Kong Xiuying who are willing to help the army, and they all deserve our respect and learning! Today's prosperity is also inseparable from those brave soldiers of that year, without whom there would be no China today, let alone us today!