One day in 1974, several comrades from the working group of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Muping County, Shandong Province, led by the old director, went to the village of Shengxiahe to look for an old farmer named Yang Zongfu. The purpose of their trip was to let Yang Zongfu identify a few photos and see if he could find his younger brother Yang Zonggui from the photos.
As soon as Yang Zongfu heard about his brother, he quickly asked the working group if he had found Yang Zonggui, who had disappeared that year. After receiving a negative answer, Yang Zongfu looked at the seven or eight old photos of the soldiers handed over by the working group with some sadness.
When he turned to the third album, Yang Zongfu recognized at a glance that it was his younger brother Yang Zonggui. "This is my brother Yang Zonggui, who has been away from us for almost 30 years." After a pause, Yang Zongfu continued: "Comrade, can you wash this photo and leave me a souvenir, no one in our family has a picture of him." ”
Seeing that Yang Zongfu recognized Yang Zonggui's photo, the old director immediately stepped forward to shake Yang Zongfu's hand and said, "Brother, you don't have to worry about the photo." I want to solemnly tell you now that your younger brother Yang Zonggui, when he joined the army, took a pseudonym, and he is the battle hero Yang Zirong. ”
"Yang Zirong?" Yang Zongfu was somewhat familiar with this name, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it for a while.
"Yes, it is that Yang Zirong in the model play "Wise Tiger Mountain"!" After the old bureau chief's reminder, Yang Zongfu finally remembered who Yang Zirong was.
In an instant, Yang Zongfu had mixed feelings, looked at the photo in his hand, and suddenly knelt down and cried: "Mother, there is finally news of Zong gui!" ”
At this time, it had been 7 years since Yang Zonggui's mother, Song Xuezhi, had passed away. The hero's mother did not know the whereabouts of her son until her death, and even once rumored that Yang Zonggui became a bandit, and their family became a "bandit genus" and could not raise their heads in the village.
So, how did Yang Zonggui become Yang Zirong? Why would a Shandong man speak authentic Northeastern dialect, and how could he be rumored to be a "bandit"? Why did his family not know about him until 27 years after his death? How are Yang Zirong's descendants doing now? And listen to me slowly.
Yang Zirong's dramatic image
Yang Zirong died in February 1947 in Hailin Town, Heilongjiang, and his legend also takes place in the northeast, speaking a northeastern dialect and studying the black language of bandits in the northeast, so many people think that he is a northeasterner.
As a Shandong native, how could he be so familiar with the northeast and even know the black words of the local bandits? It all started with his growth.
Yang Zonggui was born on January 28, 1917 in The Village of Shengxiahe, Muping County, Shandong Province. His father, Yang Shien, was a well-known mason who ate by craftsmanship, while his mother, Song Xuezhi, was a typical peasant woman.
However, in that era, the land was basically in the hands of the landlord, and Yang Zonggui's family did not have land, and could only work for the landlord's family for short-term work. When he was 4 years old, some people in the village began to "break into the Kanto" one after another, and it was said that they made a fortune in the northeast, which made more and more people in the township look forward to making a living outside the Guan.
Yang Zonggui's parents were no exception, and their family migrated to Andong, Liaoning. But when I arrived in the northeast, I found that life outside Guanwai was not as good as I imagined, and even worse than my hometown. Yang Shien can still rely on the mason's craft to continue to earn some money, while Song Xuezhi can only pick up rags everywhere to subsidize the family.
However, the life of the five members of the Yang family is still very difficult, after spending some time in the northeast, Song Xuezhi and Yang Shien discussed and decided that Yang Shien and his eldest daughter continued to live in Anton, while Song Xuezhi took Yang Zongfu and Yang Zonggui back to his hometown.
After returning to his hometown, Song Xuezhi did a good job of dividing labor, saving money and thrift, and striving to create a relatively better growth environment for the children. When she reached the age of school, her mother also sent Yang Zonggui to a private school for several years.
However, in a few years, the Jiaodong area entered a warlord melee, and the life of the common people was even more difficult, and the people did not have a good life. When Song Xuezhi saw the situation, he had to let Yang Zonggui go to his father to alleviate some of the post-birth burdens.
Break into Kanto
In this way, in 1929, the 12-year-old Yang Zonggui came to Andong, Liaoning Province again. At first, Yang Shien also let his son go to school for two years, but then the family expenses were really unsustainable, so he had to let his son work in the flour mill where his sister worked to subsidize the family. Soon, however, Japan launched the September 18 Incident and invaded the three eastern provinces. In the hands of the Japanese, the people's livelihood in the northeast was withered, and Yang Zonggui was also laid off by the factory.
Without a job, Yang Zonggui could only start doing odd jobs, carrying large bags at the docks, moving wood in the mountains, working as a boatman, nursing homes for rich people, and doing whatever work he could earn.
In 1938, Yang Zonggui became a local miner. Although the income of miners was a little higher than before, it was an extremely dangerous job, and in that era, miners had to endure Japanese overseers and Japanese swearing.
Being humiliated for many years made Yang Zonggui hate the Japanese. Why should foreigners be humiliated on Chinese soil? Once, Yang Zonggui saw that his co-workers were beaten by Japanese supervisors, and in anger, he stood up for his co-workers and clashed with Japanese overseers.
This time, Yang Zonggui could no longer stay in the mining area, but with the help of his co-workers, he escaped from the mining area and returned to his hometown in Shandong in 1943.
Yang Zonggui, a native of Shandong, has lived in the northeast bottom society for more than ten years, and he makes friends with all kinds of people in the mining areas and docks, and he is also righteous, and the local workers often tell him stories of various reckless heroes. And this also laid a solid grassroots foundation for him to suppress bandits in the future, he not only spoke an authentic northeast dialect, but also learned all kinds of "black words" of bandits, just like a "northeast everything".
When he returned to his hometown, Yang Zonggui was already 26 years old. His mother, Song Xuezhi, entrusted him with a family affair, a girl from a neighboring village, Xu Wanliang. After the two became relatives, Yang Zonggui also began to rent the landlord's land for planting. Soon, their daughter was born.
Because of the experience of being bullied by the Japanese in the northeast, I also saw various atrocities committed by the Japanese army in my hometown. Yang Zonggui hated the Japanese with itchy teeth and was very active in all anti-Japanese activities, joining the militia organization and delivering grain to the Chinese army. In 1945, Yang Zonggui, as a logistics grain transporter, participated in the Eighth Route Army's reconquest of Muping.
The first time he came into contact with the Eighth Route Army, Yang Zonggui felt that this team was completely different from the Kuomintang army, and it was really the people's team. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Eighth Route Army expanded in the local area, and when Yang Zonggui learned about it, he immediately signed up for this unit that he longed for.
At the time of registration, in order to prevent the involvement of his family, he did not use his real name, but filled in the registration form with the pseudonym "Yang Zirong". For this pseudonym, no one in the family knew at the time, which is also an important reason why the family could not find out his whereabouts for a long time in the future.
After joining the Eighth Route Army, Yang Zirong was incorporated into the Jiaodong Naval Detachment. He was 29 years old at the time and was assigned to the cooking class and became a cook. In late October 1945, Yang Zirong went with the detachment to the Mudanjiang area to suppress bandits, and after the reorganization of the troops, Yang Zirong was organized into a platoon of seven companies and one platoon of the third battalion of the second regiment of the Mudanjiang Military Subdistrict.
In the fight against bandits, comrades-in-arms and leaders were pleasantly surprised to find that Yang Zirong, who had not looked good before, was simply a northeast pass. He was proficient in northeastern dialect and bandit black language, and also had considerable command skills, so he was transferred to the reconnaissance squad and became the frontmost combatant.
Yang Zirong, played by Zhang Hanyu
In the process of liberating Hailin Town, Yang Zirong led more than 30 people, disguised as bandits, and successfully entered the camp of the landlord's armed forces by relying on black words and fabricated identities, and persuaded the leader to surrender his weapons.
This was the first time that Yang Zirong had made a name for himself in the suppression of bandits. He then persuaded 400 enemies to lay down their arms and surrender in the battle of Li Kaijiang's forces on March 20, 1946. These two small battles of the bull knife allowed Yang Zirong to win the title of regimental combat model.
Of course, Yang Zirong's most well-known deeds must be "outwitting the Tiger Mountain". At that time, after more than a year of suppression of bandits, the bandits in the Mudanjiang area had been almost swept away, but the bandits who had previously been called the strongest armed bandits in the local area, the "Zashan Eagles", were missing.
"Mountain Eagle" is the title of the bandit Zhang Leshan in the industry, from his experience of entering the mountain as a bandit at the age of 15 and becoming a bandit leader 3 years later, it is known that he is a fierce character and is very cunning. In Zhang Leshan's decades of bandit career, he experienced the encirclement and suppression of the Qing army, experienced Zhang Zuolin's fengjun attack, and even the Japanese puppet army failed to eliminate him.
The many encirclements and suppressions experienced made Zhang Leshan's vigilance very high. He has stood firm for so many years, relying on his cunning, his men and horses, the whereabouts are very secret, and very few brigades of people and horses, most of them scattered in and out of the mountains and forests.
Moreover, at that time, the "mountain eagle" had already accepted the appointment of the Kuomintang and became the commander of the local security brigade. Therefore, the Mudanjiang Military Sub-district issued an order that this hostile force hidden in the mountains must be eliminated.
In the end, the task of going deep into the snowfield of Linhai and finding the "mountain eagle" fell to the shoulders of Yang Zirong, the leader of the reconnaissance platoon. He took 5 warriors, disguised as bandits, and went into the mountains to touch the enemy.
"Mountain Eagle" in the movie
On the evening of February 6, 1947, Yang Zirong relied on black words and the ability to adapt to changes, broke into the base camp of the "Mountain Eagle", joined forces with the outside of the large army, and captured the "Mountain Eagle" alive. In this operation, Yang Zirong was awarded the title of "Special Reconnaissance Hero" by the Northeast Military Region.
On February 23, 1947, 17 days after the capture of the "Mountain Eagle" alive, Yang Zirong and the reconnaissance platoon were hunting down a group of bandits led by Zheng Sancang. At that time, Yang Zirong had already figured out the bandits' activity area and found a smoking shack, Yang Zirong came to the door with several scouts, and after shouting "don't move, raise your hands", several bandits made a mess, some people picked up guns and shot at the door, and Yang Zirong was also ready to return fire, but because it was cold, the gun bolt was frozen and could not be fired.
At this time, Yang Zirong, who rushed to the front, had no time to dodge at all, and was directly hit in the chest by the bandits and died, when he had just turned 30 years old. After Yang Zirong's sacrifice, the regimental headquarters held a solemn memorial service for him, and the reconnaissance platoon he was in was also renamed "Yang Zirong Platoon".
In the more than a year that Yang Zirong went to join the army, due to the tension of the war, he did not write a letter to his family. People in the village also know that the second son of the Yang family went with the Eighth Route Army, so the local government has special care for his family and military dependents.
Until 1947, a person in the village who returned from breaking into the Guandong said that he had seen Yang Zonggui in mudanjiang in the northeast, and that Yang Zonggui was wearing a black leather jacket, a gun pinned to his waist, and a few people, as if he had become a bandit.
This news immediately spread in the village, causing a lot of waves. This made the village cadres very nervous, and called Yang Zonggui's mother, Song Xuezhi, and his wife Xu Wanliang to the village office for interrogation. However, after Yang Zonggui joined the army and left home, there was no news, and the family could not prove that he did not break away from the army and become a bandit.
Regarding the interrogation in the village and the township, Song Xuezhi never recognized the accusation that her son was a bandit, and said over and over again: "My family's patriarch will not..." In her opinion, when her son went to join the army, he was moved by the military discipline of the Eighth Route Army and the style of standing out for the poor.
The township took away the "honor card" of the military family on the door frame of the Yang family, and also canceled the military family subsidy of his family. The family couldn't lift their heads in the village, and it seemed that as soon as they went out, everyone was pointing. The family changed from a military family to a "bandit genus", and the pressure they suffered can be imagined.
Yang's family had repeatedly asked the PLA troops about Yang Zonggui's situation, but at that time, the liberation war was in a tense stage, and there was a lot of artillery fire everywhere, and the local PLA troops could not verify the situation of Yang Zonggui who was fighting in the northeast. You can only tell them and let them go home and wait for the news.
Stage image of Yang Zirong's mother
After the founding of New China, the family still did not receive any news from Yang Zonggui, and it was not known whether he was dead or alive. This further confirmed Yang Zonggui's suspicion of being a bandit, if it was sacrificed, then the army would definitely notify the family, if it was still in the army, he should also take leave to go home or write a letter to go home in these years.
But Yang Zonggui did not have any news, which made the family despair. In the various movements that followed, the identity of the Yang family's "bandit genus" was basically "solidified" in the village, and no movement could escape. At this time, Yang Zonggui's daughter died of illness, and his wife Xu Wanliang, under heavy pressure, also fell ill and died in 1952. This bitter woman did not believe that her husband would become a bandit until her death.
Granddaughters and daughters-in-law left one after another, and the life and death of her son were uncertain, so that Song Xuezhi suffered one major blow after another, and she wanted to leave many times, but the whereabouts of her son Yang Zonggui are unknown, and if she dies, the "bandit" hat on his head may never be able to be taken off.
Song Xuezhi and his eldest son, Yang Zongfu, went to the county again and again to react to the situation. In a few years, they went nearly a hundred times, and finally the county government, after a detailed understanding of the situation in 1957, believed that just a few words from a villager had judged the revolutionary fighters as "bandits", the evidence was insufficient, and the investigation of the northeast troops at that time, no soldiers defected as bandits.
At that time, the county identified Yang Zonggui as a "missing soldier", Song Xuezhi received a "notice of missing soldiers", and the following year, she received a "honor certificate for the families of revolutionary martyrs". This strong mother spent ten years removing the "bandit" hat that was planted on her son's head.
Yang Zonggui's Notice of Missing Soldiers
Also in 1957, Qu Bo, former deputy political commissar of the Mudanjiang 2nd Regiment, published the novel "Lin Hai Xueyuan" based on the deeds of his comrade-in-arms Yang Zirong, which caused great repercussions nationwide. The film based on the novel and the modern Peking opera "Wise Tiger Mountain" have also been staged in turn across the country, making the name Yang Zirong a household name in China.
At the same time, Yang Zirong's name and image have also become more and more popular with the model play. The troops and local governments also hoped to dig up more materials for this heroic figure, but after checking the archives, they found that Yang Zirong's information was very simple, and he didn't even know where his place of origin was. In 1969, the central government issued instructions to find Yang Zirong's life. According to the description of Yang Zirong's former comrade-in-arms Sun Chengqi, Yang Zirong should be a person from jiaodong area.
The investigation team came to Jiaodong, and in more than three months, they went through more than 3,000 files of missing soldiers, and also published search notices in newspapers and radio, but there has been no news.
After the withdrawal of the Central Investigation Team, the investigation was not concluded. A staff member of the civil affairs department of Muping County, Shandong Province, when inquiring about the pension registration of the county's military martyrs, found that Yang Zonggui's information was extremely similar to Yang Zirong's.
They found the old man of the Jiaodong Naval Detachment to which Yang Zirong first joined the Eighth Route Army, and one of the veterans named Han Keli provided an important message to the investigation team, that is, Yang Zirong was Yang Zonggui's pseudonym. At that time, they reported their names together, and when chatting, Yang Zirong said that it was a pseudonym.
Although Yang Zonggui and Yang Zirong are the same person, it is basically certain that these are based on oral evidence, and the investigation team still lacks physical evidence.
When Yang Zirong's brother Yang Zongfu was seen, among the seven or eight military photos, he found his brother's photo at a glance, the work of the investigation team finally ended. After Yang Zirong's death for 27 years, his family finally learned of his situation in the army. This is also an account for the hero.
Yang Zongfu took his brother's photo and ran to the graves of his mother Song Xuezhi and sister-in-law Xu Wanliang, crying loudly and telling them: "There is news from Zong Gui." He's not a bandit, he's a big hero! ”
Although Yang Zirong's wife and daughter died in the 1950s, Yang Zirong actually had a son named Yang Kewu. To be precise, this is Yang Zirong's nephew.
After the early death of his daughter, Xu Wanliang's funeral was not worn by filial piety, according to local customs, Yang Zonggui's vein was considered to be broken incense, Song Xuezhi made his own decision, and passed his nephew Yang Kewu to him, so Yang Zirong also had a son to wear Ma Dai filial piety for his mother Xu Wanliang. Later, Yang Kewu also became a soldier in the army, and returned home to farm after retiring from the army. His son, too, was sent to the army for exercise. Three generations have been in the military, which is also unique in the village.
Yang Kewu
For many years, Yang Kewu has been living in the old house where Yang Zirong lived before joining the army. Due to its age and disrepair, the house is on the verge of collapse. Although Yang Kewu also wanted to repair the house, he had no choice but to live on a shoestring and did not have the ability to renovate it.
At this time, a businessman approached Yang Kewu and proposed that he rent the house and renovate it as a red tourist attraction, making money from tickets and tourism income. The businessman also said that Yang Kewu could also come to his old house every day to work, tell revolutionary stories as Yang Zirong's son, and get a fixed salary every month.
Yang family old house
Mr. Yang, who is in his 70s, rejected the business offer. He prefers that Yang Zirong's spirit will be passed on, rather than relying on Yang Zirong's sign to make money.
In 2019, when Yang Kewu participated in a program telling about Yang Zirong's deeds, the program group invited the officers and men of the "Yang Zirong Reconnaissance Company" to connect with the live video, and the imposing officers and soldiers shouted exit numbers and saluted. Yang Kewu also stood up and saluted a standard military salute.
This scene proves that the spirit of Yang Zirong is still passed down from generation to generation.
Today, the name Yang Zirong has not been forgotten with time, and he is still synonymous with bravery and wisdom.
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