Lijiawa Village, Huzishi Village, Chendian Township, Xinxian County, Henan Province, is a small village bordering Hubei Hong'an Qiliping, down the 213 Provincial Road, a sharp turn downhill to a village, bypassing a large pond, a gatehouse yard A blue brick house, the door is open, I glanced at the picture of Li Desheng hanging on the wall, and I knew that this was Li Desheng's former residence.
The old people in the village heard that someone had come to visit Li Desheng's former residence, so they came one after another, and became volunteer docents, they said that when Li Desheng joined the Red Army at the age of 14, he was a cattle herder who helped others herd cattle, and when he wanted to leave his hometown, he tied the cattle under this pine tree and asked his friends to bring letters to his father: "I went to join the Red Army, don't look for me." So he resolutely joined the Red Army.
The villagers said that in the year when Li Desheng went to join the Red Army, this pine tree was only thick in the bowl, and now that ninety years have passed, the pine tree is already as thick as a foot basin, and the branches are luxuriant and towering, and the people in the village call this pine tree "General Pine", which is to praise General Li Desheng's great achievements.
Li Desheng was born in May 1916 in this small mountain village in the hinterland of Dabie Mountain, and dozens of families in the village were mostly poor. Because of his poor family, he studied tailoring at the age of 7 and herded cattle for others at the age of 8. When he was 9 years old, his mother died of a medical condition that could not be treated, leaving him to live with his father. Three years later, when the Red Army liberated Chaishanbao, he joined the Children's Regiment and was elected as the leader of the Children's Regiment. He actively participated in activities such as standing guard, delivering letters, and leading the way. Due to his active work and outstanding performance, he was soon absorbed into the regular Red Army and subsequently joined the regiment and the party.
After joining the Red Army, Li Desheng successively served as a soldier, a messenger, a squad leader, a company political instructor, and the secretary of the party branch of the traffic brigade in the Red First Army and the Red Fourth Army in the revolutionary base areas of Eyuwan and Sichuan and Shaanxi, and participated in the battles of Huang'an, Shang (Cheng) Huang (Sichuan), Sujiabu, Huang (Chuan) Guang (Shan), and Jialing River, as well as the Western Expedition of the Red Fourth Front. In the struggle to create and defend the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base area, he was not afraid of sacrifice and fought heroically, and in the battle of the Eight Temples In the anti-"siege" of the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base area, his left chest was pierced by a bullet, and because of the injury to the nerves, his left left hand was disabled. He used his recuperation time to read books such as "Must Read for Red Soldiers", "Lenin School Reader", "Must Read for Cadres", etc., and his ideological and cultural level was significantly improved.
Although Li Desheng's highest position in the Red Army period was only a company commander, he grew rapidly in the subsequent revolutionary struggle, and when the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, he started from platoon commander and worked all the way to regimental commander, during which time he commanded the most famous battle he fought was "outwitting the Japanese Army's Mafang stronghold", completely annihilating a reinforced squad of the Japanese army, capturing 1 light and heavy machine gun, 1 flat-firing gun, more than 20 rifles, more than 90 boxes of ammunition, and a large number of military supplies. After the Mafang stronghold was removed, the base areas of the Second Sub-district of our Taihang Military Region were connected, which greatly encouraged the confidence of the local anti-Japanese soldiers and people. The Japanese army was hit by this blow and was no longer able to establish a stronghold in the Mafang area.
During the Battle of Mafang during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Desheng was prominently displayed on the front page by the "Liberation Daily" with the news entitled "Long-term Reconnaissance and Resolute Assault, Taihang Our Army Retakes Mafang," and an editorial was distributed saying that this battle was a typical annihilation battle, and was praised by Commander-in-Chief Zhu as a tough battle of our army. For this reason, his reputation was greatly enhanced, and in the minds of his superior leaders, he established the image of a brave, resourceful, decisive, and warlike commander.
During the Liberation War, Li Desheng successively served as regimental commander, brigade commander, and led his troops to participate in the battles of Longhai, Dingtao, Huaxian, Northern Henan, and Southwest Lu, as well as the arduous struggle to rebuild the revolutionary base area in Dabie Mountain. In the Battle of Xiangfan, he commanded from the front, skillfully used strange soldiers, "sword split three passes", captured the three passes of Pipa Mountain, Zhenwu Mountain, and Tiefo Temple, and broke the city in one fell swoop. He was awarded the first class merit by the Central Military Commission and subsequently promoted to the commander of the 35th Division.
The battle in which Li Desheng really became famous was the Battle of Shangganling that he fought when he led the 35th Division into the DPRK to join the army, and he served as the commander-in-chief of the Shangganling front, personally commanded this world-famous battle, and after 43 days of vicious fighting, completely defeated the US permanent garrison with advanced weapons and equipment, and played a role in the prestige of the national prestige. It has been listed as a world-famous "battle model" and has been written into the textbook as a combat example by military academies with world renown and authority.
Originally a small village in Kimhwa-gun in central Korea, Lee Deok-sung led his troops to Korea, and the fifth campaign was underway, leading his division to begin combat. In this war, he led his troops, leading the way, engaged in close combat with the enemy, and his division won many victories and made a significant contribution to the Korean War. Because of his excellent performance, he was soon promoted from the original division commander to the deputy commander of the 12th Army of the Third Corps, and then participated in the famous Battle of Jincheng, which also performed well. But in this war, what made him famous in the war was the famous Bloody Shangganling.
Before the battle began, the U.S. army was triumphant and was bound to win the war. VanVleet was complacent and planned to send only two battalions, and in less than a week, win the war with less than 200 casualties, the Battle of Shangganling officially began, and the American army began to attack on the high ground, firing 100,000 rounds of ammunition and 100 aircraft bombing in turn. The 31st Division led its troops into a fierce 7-hour battle with the enemy, killing more than 1,000 enemy troops, while our army paid less than 40 people.
The U.S. army was still not dead and began to attack the high ground again. During the four-day long offensive, there was still no progress. In the early stages of command, all the enemies near the heights were repelled. After holding on to the troops, Li Desheng decided to defend after careful consideration and find the right opportunity to counterattack. Under artillery fire, our troops divided into three routes and attacked the enemy. Under the active attack of the volunteer army, our army only took half an hour to repel the enemy army.
Under the command of Li Desheng, the positions of Beishan have been completely retaken by our army. Subsequently, it continued to fight the enemy and counterattacked, killing nearly a thousand enemy troops in more than 40 enemy attacks. By the 20th, the Battle of Shangganling was basically over. The Battle of Shangganling lasted for 43 days, and under the command of Li Desheng, he led the soldiers to hold their positions. Fighting together with the warriors, they repelled hundreds of enemy attacks and annihilated more than 25,000 people. After the battle, the Battle of Shangganling shocked the world.
Because of Li Desheng's excellent performance in this battle, after returning to the motherland, he was promoted to the commander of the 12th Army. In 1955, he was awarded the rank of major general. In later reports, people often only remember the role of the 31st Division, rarely pay attention to the 12th Army, and he himself does not care, but only says: "It is all the merits of the volunteer army, don't worry about these." Until his death, few people knew that Li Desheng was also the position of commander-in-chief of the front line in the Battle of Shangganling.
Li Desheng, who had made great military achievements, returned to his hometown of Li Jiawa Village, Huzishi Village, many times, and the villagers were proud of having such a general; when he became a high-ranking cadre at the national level, he returned to his hometown and sat in his own courtyard, and the villagers were crowded. The old general was in a very high mood, told everyone about the hard life of eating bark and nibbling on the belt, and encouraged the villagers to rely on themselves and create a beautiful and happy life.
The old people in the village remember most clearly the situation when Li Desheng returned to his hometown in 1993, at this time he was nearly 80 years old, but his spirit was very good, he climbed the mountain to the grave of his parents and grandparents, and after kneeling and prostrating in front of the grave, the old general returned to the village to visit the cowshed where he had lived, and came to the cowshed, General Li had a very heavy expression, and said with emotion that "the appearance has changed."
Originally, the cowshed was The real former residence of Li Desheng, but one year, the village sent heavy water and washed away the cowshed, and at that time, the locals rebuilt a new one in the back of the original site of the cowshed. Because the previous adobe tile house collapsed as soon as it was soaked in water, it became a green brick tile house after reconstruction, and the former residence of Li Desheng was also written. Who knew that when he looked at it, he said very angrily, "This is my family's old house, it is completely the rich man's house!" "You moved my house, to whom did you report it?" Who agreed?!" The person who presided over this matter was criticized very harshly. Lee Described the incident in his memoirs.
Li Desheng is very harsh on his own affairs, but he is very attentive to the affairs of the villagers, although he is in a high position, but he is very worried about some of the things in the life of the villagers, for a period of time the villagers ate rice or rely on manual grinding, he knew that immediately sent a rice machine to the village, which was indeed convenient for many villagers. At the same time, it also gave strong support to the village's primary and secondary schools, and also set up a large-scale library for the school.
Li Desheng returned to his hometown many times in his life to donate money for the benefit of his hometown, and he was bent on thinking about others, and his old family would not forget, and now every neighbor in his hometown, remembering the benefits of the general, could not help but give a thumbs up.