The only one in the history of war! He was awarded "Special Warfare Hero" 3 times and Li Special Meritorious Service 9 times, and no one has broken it so far
In the history of our army, there have been tens of millions of people who have participated in this heroic army, to say the least, but very few have been able to achieve first-class merit, and even fewer have made meritorious service. Some people say that in the war years, special merit is prepared for martyrs who sacrificed their lives, and it is conceivable how difficult it is to get, but those who have achieved merit such as Van Li te, even if they have not sacrificed, are mostly disabled.
Pictured: Meet the battle hero
It is not easy to make a special meritorious service once, but there is a strange man in the history of our army, who has been awarded the "special warfare hero" 3 times and the special meritorious service 9 times, becoming the only one in the history of warfare, and this record has not been broken so far. What is even more incredible is that he did not sacrifice, and later became a deputy commander, and the hero is still alive today.
He is Zhang Yingcai. Born in December 1924 in Wanrong County, Shanxi, Zhang Yingcai joined the Eighth Route Army in 1939, initially studied in the 115th Division Cadet Corps, and later served as a propaganda officer of the Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, a member of the propaganda team of the 212 brigade in Taiyue District, and a soldier of the special agent company. Since then, Zhang Yingcai's life seems to be hanging.
In just a few years, Zhang Yingcai had grown from a small propaganda officer to a company instructor, company commander, and battalion commander, and by the time of the founding of New China in 1949, he was already the chief of staff of the 114th Regiment of the 38th Division of the 13th Army of Erye. In Zhang Yingcai's military career, he experienced no less than 100 fierce battles, of which 2 battles were the most brilliant.
One was the Battle of Lüliang in Dongyang Village. Zhang Yingcai, then a company commander, led more than 30 soldiers to raid the enemy's positions and were surrounded on three sides by the enemy's superior forces. Zhang Yingcai, who was trapped in the dead land, did not despair, relied on the terrain, organized limited forces, and resolutely counterattacked. Holding the position for 4 hours, dragging a large number of enemy troops, and finally reinforcements rushed to completely annihilate the enemy. In this battle, 22-year-old Zhang Yingcai was awarded the "Special Combat Hero".
Pictured: War of Liberation
The other was the Battle of Huaihai, when Zhang Yingcai had been promoted to battalion commander, and he led a battalion of troops to block the enemy's two brigades and two divisions to break through. In this battle, Zhang Yingcai was a pioneer and invincible, directly smashing the dragon pond, capturing the thief and capturing the king, rushing into the enemy's command post, killing the enemy commander, leaving the enemy into a situation where the dragons were leaderless, annihilating more than 2,000 enemy and capturing more than 1,000 enemy.
Pictured: Nationalist forces at the Battle of Huaihai
In the Battle of Huaihai, Zhang Yingcai's battalion was awarded the title of "Steel Battalion", and he was also personally awarded the title of "Steel Battalion Commander" and "Special Combat Hero". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Yingcai successively served as deputy regimental commander and division chief of staff, and was transferred to the deputy commander of the 50th Army in 1980, leaving in 1983.
However, it is such a person who has made outstanding achievements in battle, who has been awarded the "special warfare hero" 3 times and the first person in the history of our army who has made special meritorious service 9 times, but few people have heard of his name, and even the general first-class meritorious hero is famous, why? The reason is that Zhang Yingcai is too low-key, even in today's developed network, the old hero is still alive, but few people can see his figure, and even the photo has not been left.
Pictured: Veteran
However, in terms of educating his children, Zhang Yingcai was very "high-profile."Two sons and one daughter have joined the army one after another, with outstanding achievements, especially the youngest daughter, who is also the first female training staff officer of our army's combat unit, the first female graduate student to study combat command, and the first female deputy regimental commander of the field troop armored regiment.
Today, Zhang Yingcai is still alive, 96 years old, enjoying his old age, still low-key, unknown, and admirable.