History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
At the beginning of 1950, the southwest region had just liberated the localities, the political power had not yet been perfected, and the grass-roots organizations had not been fully established; under such circumstances, there were still a large number of bandits and secret agents lurking around the big cities and in the countryside; they did evil deeds and caused huge security risks to the local people.
On February 4, 1950, Zhu Xiangli, the military general representative of our army and director of the political department of the 187th Division of the Sixtieth Army, who was sent to the Third Corps of the Kuomintang Rebel Force in Shibantan, southeast of Xindu County and northeast of Chengdu City, to do united front work, received an order from the headquarters of the Central Military Commission to report to Beijing and prepare to serve as a military attaché stationed abroad.
After completing the task of handing over the work, Zhu Xiangli was escorted by an intensive squad. On February 5, they set off from Shibantan Town to return to Chengdu, and when they traveled more than 20 miles to Yuanshan Temple under the jurisdiction of Longtan Temple Town, they were suddenly blocked by Kuomintang remnants and local bandits.
Zhu Xiangli observed that the Remnants and Bandits of the Kuomintang had gathered a contingent of several thousand people, and he immediately sent guard soldiers to the nearby People's Liberation Army for help.
He then led a dozen fighters from the armed reinforcement squad escorting him to use the terrain to fight back at the bandits who pounced.
At that time, the Yuanshan Temple was passing through the temple fair, and many people were also watching, at this time, the bandit leader Wu Jie saw that the PLA was firing fiercely and could not move, so he grabbed a few fellow villagers and walked in front of them, resisted the guns for them, and approached the PLA position step by step.
An old mother was pulled in front, already more than 80 years old, and the old mother walked cautiously while shouting to the People's Liberation Army: "Big army, don't shoot, don't shoot."
Zhu Xiangli said to the soldiers, "Everyone is not allowed to shoot, you see, many of the crowds gathered on all sides are ordinary people; we know which one is the bad guy and which one is the masses!" If we start robbing, the people will suffer. We in the People's Liberation Army have come to liberate and protect the people, and we cannot hurt them for no reason, preferring us to die and let the people live."
So Zhu Xiangli made a decision, they withdrew from the favorable terrain, occupied a large compound of private houses, and counterattacked the bandits according to the houses, helplessly outnumbered. Thousands of bandits swarmed, and the soldiers of the guard squad fought valiantly with the enemy, and after sacrificing several fighters, they ran out of ammunition, and Zhu Xiangli was captured by the bandits along with the fighters:
The frenzied bandits captured Zhu Xiangli and the guards after the soldiers. On the spot, several more soldiers were killed, and Zhu Xiangli and his guards were seriously injured and humiliated.
After killing Zhu Xiangli, the bandits dug a hole in the rock wall of the pond and hid the body inside, and when the troops found Zhu Xiangli's body, they saw that there were as many as 24 gunshot wounds on his body.
(This is the founding major general Deng Shijun) The fleeing guard soldiers ran to the nearby troops and called Zhou Shidi, the commander of the 18th Corps, to report the situation.
Zhou Shidi was very angry and shocked; what this bandit wanted to kill was a division-level cadre of our army, and the situation was urgent, so he immediately ordered Deng Shijun, chief of staff of the Western Sichuan Military Region, to personally lead the nearby 540 regiment and guard company to suppress the bandits.
Deng Shijun was an old Red Army soldier, and after receiving the task, he led his troops to rush down the slope of Longtan Temple, dozens of miles away.
In the distance, there was the sound of old gunshots. Deng Shijun did not rush to attack, but sent several scouts to reconnoiter.
An hour passed, the scouts sent out did not return, in order to find out the enemy situation, Deng Shijun ordered the leader of the 540 regiment to lead the second battalion to go first, the second battalion quickly engaged the enemy, due to the large number of bandits, the second battalion sacrificed more than 20 soldiers
After receiving the news, Deng Shijun was furious: "These bastards, I really don't see the coffin without tears, and the cannon company hit me hard on the mountain beam."
The artillery fire of the artillery company fired rapidly, and the bandits on the mountain beams were dizzy, and the bandits were in a chaotic formation and fled.
When Deng Shijun saw this, he immediately issued an order: "The whole regiment of the 540th Regiment will throw itself into battle and fight me to the death." As the 540th Regiment entered the battle, the bandits began to break up in the face of a brave and well-trained regular army.
The bandit leader Wu Jie saw that the situation was not good, let the brigade resist, and led a small group of men and horses to prepare to escape, at this time, the People's Liberation Army, which had inserted into the enemy's rear road, blocked Wu Jie's way and captured him on the spot.
This battle was fought beautifully, and the PLA bandit unit annihilated thousands of enemy troops.
Deng Shijun led the troops into the Longtan Temple, only to see the dead bodies of bandits everywhere, while cleaning the battlefield, found the remains of Zhu Xiangli and the soldiers of the guard squad in a ruin, Zhu Xiangli's body had dozens of gunshot wounds, and the skin was all burns, which was simply unbearable to see. When Deng Shijun saw this scene, he not only had tears in his eyes, but also grief.
He asked someone to escort the bandit leader Wu Jie and a group of bandits who had committed the most heinous crimes, and let them kneel in front of the body of Director Zhu Xiangli, and executed them on the spot, avenging the tragic death of Director Zhu Xiangli.
After the murder of Director Zhu Xiangli, the top level of the central authorities was alarmed, and after this incident, the central authorities ordered a nationwide campaign to "suppress counter-revolutionaries", comprehensively deal with the armed bandits and counter-revolutionaries lurking among the people, and arrested and killed a large number of bandits and counter-revolutionaries.
In 1952, in order to commemorate the martyr Zhu Xiangli, the local government built a martyr's tomb at the martyr's sacrifice site of Longtan Temple, and later built a martyrs' cemetery.
Every year during the Qingming Festival, the warblers here fly willows and the birds are fragrant. Workers, farmers, students, soldiers, and merchants carried wreaths to pay homage to the martyrs.
Usually, many young people often line up in front of the tomb to hold the ceremony of joining the regiment, and they raise their hands and swear an oath: "Inherit the legacy of revolutionary martyrs and build a rich and strong motherland."