On September 19, 2016, in jiaze town, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, an old man died silently, an old man with a slightly awkward figure who always liked to walk around in an old military uniform.
The old man's funeral was held very simply, and it seemed that there were not many relatives around him, but he was very old, lived a hundred and six years old, and was a well-deserved old man of the century, and the villagers around him more or less looked up a few times, but no one cared too much.
Because this old man has been living in a low-key way for a long time, he never mentions where he came from, what he did in the past, and his usual hobbies are only reading books and writing, but sometimes he often looks at the sky in a daze, as if there is something there.
In fact, in 1994, he sat in his room and secretly wrote a letter, which was not long, and the recipient was China Central Television.
The reason why he wrote the letter was because he was watching TV at home as usual that day, although he was older, he was still more concerned about news and current affairs, and that day CCTV broadcast a program called "Shenzhou Style", which was about the first batch of female pilots in New China.
On the picture, the high-spirited female soldiers with confident expressions and skilled driving skills, straight and beautiful straight into the sky, swinging elegant arcs in the sky, proudly receiving the review of the central leadership and the people, they graduated in the 50s, are experienced veteran pilots.
The old man stared silently at the television, seeing God, as if he had soared in the sky with them, and after a long time he returned to his senses, walked quickly to his desk, and wrote the letter with his slightly trembling fingertips.
Soon after, the staff of CCTV received the letter, they were greatly surprised, and quickly handed things over to the superior leaders, who were also very confused after reading it.
Because although the author of the letter signed it, he had never heard of it, but the other party actually said that he had met the first batch of female pilots on tv and had not seen each other for more than forty years, hoping that they could arrange for themselves, inform them of their recent situation or meet them.
This matter can be big or small, for a time no one can make up their minds, so they have to quickly contact the parties, that is, the female pilots, but the reply they got made them even more surprised, it turned out that the real identity of the old man who wrote the letter was even more exaggerated than he said.
Who is this old man? What kind of past does it have? What is his connection to China's first female pilots?
It all starts from the small town of Jiangsu nearly a hundred years ago.
Zhao Zhixiong was originally a native of Jiaze Town, Wujin District, Changzhou, he was born here in 1911, due to good family conditions and being in a developed area, Zhao Zhixiong received a more advanced and enlightened education from a young age, and he studied very hard.
At that time, the land of China was in chaos, and young people like Zhao Zhixiong all harbored the ideal of salvation and survival in their hearts, and followed the footsteps of various new ideas to explore forward.
The young and handsome And excellent Zhao Zhixiong was also a leader in the ten miles and eight townships, and he resolutely threw himself into the pen at the age of 20, he left his hometown and was admitted to the top Whampoa Military Academy in China with his own skills.
Here, Zhao Received all-round military training, and the students around him were all progressive young people who were determined to serve the country, so after he graduated, he entered the Kuomintang Army's Army Chariot Unit as a platoon leader.
With the full outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Zhao Zhixiong also stepped into this battlefield, and he used his rich theoretical knowledge to try to kill the enemy and make meritorious achievements, but most of the time, it was still difficult to defeat the Japanese Kou head-on.
Compared with the Communist Party and other units at that time, the Nationalist army was already absolutely ahead in terms of equipment, but Zhao Zhixiong found that he could not help the air power of the Japanese army at all, and when their planes roared in pieces, they could not resist at all, and could only hide in trenches or air raid shelters.
The young Zhao Zhixiong felt very depressed, why didn't his troops have such a degree of air force armament? From this time on, he had begun to be dissatisfied with the battle on the earth.
Just two years later, Zhao Zhixiong heard that an aviation school was recruiting people, he did not hesitate to rush to sign up, with his good resume in the military, he was quickly admitted to the Central Aviation School to study, as desired to embark on the road of pilot.
At the age of twenty-five, Zhao Zhixiong did not fail to live up to this rare opportunity, he studied the flying and piloting skills at the Air Force School diligently, and after graduation, he once again threw himself into the War of Resistance Against Japan, this time he was no longer troubled by the Japanese planes, which were the targets he wanted to shoot down.
In addition to fighters, the all-rounder Zhao Zhixiong could do anything, and at that time, the air force was originally scarce in talent, so he also flew bombers and reconnaissance aircraft one after another, all the way from pilot to flight captain, section chief, chief of staff to special air transport depot chief.
For flying, Zhao Zhixiong is talented, and he knows that the strength of one person cannot turn the tide of war, so as an old predecessor, he is always very frank with many newcomers, and he imparts his experience without concealment, and has trained a large number of excellent pilots for the War of Resistance Against Japan.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, Zhao Zhixiong, who had retired from the war, was also transferred to Chengdu and began his career as a flight instructor.
He was naturally willing to throw his head and spill his blood on the outside invaders, but when the Nationalist army turned to pointing the muzzle of the gun at his compatriots, Zhao Zhixiong hesitated, and he began to think about the significance and right and wrong of doing so; he had already deeply resented Chiang Kai-shek's opposition to the Anti-Japanese Resistance before, and he could not have been more clear about the corruption of the bureaucracy in the Nationalist government.
By 1949, the Kuomintang troops had been defeated on the battlefields of the whole country, and were forced by the People's Liberation Army to shrink to a corner of the southwest, Zhao Zhixiong was serving as the commander of the special air transport depot of the Nationalist Army at this time, he saw that the situation was getting worse and worse, but after all, he had been cultivated by the Nationalist Army, so he was very anxious about the problem of staying.
So he came alone to his sister's house one night in the late autumn, knowing that his brother-in-law was an old Communist, so the purpose of the trip was to listen to his opinion.
The brother-in-law was greatly relieved to learn of his thoughts, he knew Zhao Zhixiong's ability, if he could win him over, it would definitely be a great thing. So he painstakingly persuaded:
"Now that the general trend of the Kuomintang has gone, and the chinese communists' seizure of political power is already a matter of the general trend and the will of the people, no one can stop this; you are a very good air force talent, and if you abandon the secret and join the organization now, you will certainly have a great future in the future, and this is a major matter that must be carefully considered."
He had already made up his mind, but he just wanted to get the support of others, he had originally thrown his pen from Rong to the battlefield, his original intention was originally for the country and not for which party, and now Chiang Kai-shek insisted on provoking civil war, refusing peace, and letting countless people fall into the depths of the water, he could not be indifferent.
The brother-in-law's words had already made him no longer hesitate.
Soon after, the Nationalist army began to evacuate from Chengdu, and Zhao Sentxiong put his wife, son and a daughter on the plane, and only one youngest son stayed with him because he was hospitalized due to illness.
With the passage of time, the PLA troops first conquered Chongqing, and then came to Chengdu, Zhao Zhixiong was already very calm at this time, he tried to keep the materials in the air cargo depot intact in the chaos, these materials are quite precious, of which there are more than 3,000 parachutes alone, equivalent to more than 300,000 pieces of ocean.
He himself participated in the uprising before the People's Liberation Army entered the city, and at the same time handed over all the supplies.
For the central government, they attach great importance to talents such as Zhao Zhixiong, and after accepting his surrender, they transferred him to the Mudanjiang No. 7 Aviation School of the Southwest Military Region's Aviation Department, and after some twists and turns, he became a flight instructor.
Not long after, by 1950, New China had been established, and the development of the air force was naturally put on the top agenda, so according to the instructions of the Central Military Commission, the air force successively selected 55 female cadets from the East China Military and Political University and the Aviation Preparatory Corps and sent them to mudanjiang No. 7 Aviation School to learn technology.
The girls were the first female aviation personnel in New China, 14 of whom were responsible for training pilots, and their instructor was Zhao Zhixiong.
Before this, the leaders of the aviation school deliberately found him, in addition to appointing the position of coach, but also repeatedly advised, because the air power of the People's Liberation Army is very weak, female pilots are not one, this is a pioneering cause, so we must do a good job, let all 14 of them pass, and strive for 0 elimination.
For Zhao Zhixiong, this is not a small burden, because Chairman Mao advocated that "women can stand up to half the sky", but in the past, it was believed that women were generally not men, and the Kuomintang also had the intention of training female pilots, but in the end it failed because the personnel did not meet the standards.
Zhao Zhixiong himself had never brought a female student, and even he felt pressured to make everyone qualified in such a short period of time.
But fortunately, the teachers are very skilled, and the students are also very competitive.
These female trainees are also carefully selected by the state, and they do have many problems, such as the most basic timidity, self-esteem is too strong, etc., but they are also very diligent and studious, willing to listen to the coach's words.
Most importantly, this group of people generally have a high level of education, the worst are high school graduates, there is no lack of college students, at that time can be said to be very high education, so they are relatively easy to understand some theoretical courses, do not need Zhao To bear to explain many times.
Of course, smooth sailing is also impossible, in the later training, timidity, easy hesitation has become the biggest common disease of female students, but Zhao Zhixiong is never angry, he always patiently soothes the students' emotions, and even sets up a separate training program for individuals.
In this way, for the small horsepower aircraft, the female trainees have gradually been able to fully master, but the task of the superior is very arduous, the time is very tight, after consultation with the other two coaches, Zhao Zhixiong decided to skip the intermediate training, directly let the students start practicing the high-horsepower aircraft.
This is a very risky method, at the beginning it was not optimistic at all, and when it came to actual training, there were many students who simply could not accept the difficulty of increasing so much, and they had the idea of retreating.
Zhao Zhixiong said to them unhurriedly: "The superior has an order, you must work hard, I also have to work hard, now directly increase the difficulty of flying, it is normal not to understand, there is still time, don't give up here, at least I am confident." ”
He always used gentle, patient words to comfort his students and lighten their burdens.
And the kung fu pays off, when it comes to graduation, the 5 female trainees in charge of Zhao Zhixiong have basically the same results, all above the pass line and passed the flight pilot test.
In May 1950, the aviation school held a take-off ceremony, and the first person to show it was naturally the most tested, so the confident Zhao Zhixiong sent his own student Ruan Ho Zhen to the list.
Ruan Ho Zhen is a female student with excellent grades and a calm personality, but she is also a little nervous in the face of the task of flying alone and the expectations of her teacher.
Nguyen Ho Dinh
At that time, the flight was piloting the American PT-19 training aircraft, all assembled from worn-out parts, and the safety factor was very poor, but the 19-year-old girl stepped into the cockpit with a determined look, and it was not long before the engine of the plane began to roar.
The trainer glided slowly along the ground, then gradually pulled up, then jumped up and rushed into the sky, smoothly drawing a beautiful arc according to the course, and then smoothly lowering the height and landing safely.
Everyone's hearts went to the throat eyes, but as Ruan Ho Zhen came out of the cockpit, these anxieties turned into cheers.
At the flight ceremony afterwards, the fourteen female trainees really did not make a single mistake, all passed the solo flight test, completed the expectations of the state, and successfully graduated.
After graduation, they were all assigned to work in the air force, but because of the many secrets involved, they were not allowed to communicate with external personnel, and Zhao Zhixiong lost contact with them at this time.
But after that, Zhao Zhixiong still taught conscientiously in the 7th Aviation School, bringing out a batch of flying elites, and then the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea broke out, although Zhao Zhixiong at this time would no longer participate in the war, but he successively cultivated more than three hundred outstanding pilots for the country, many of whom participated in the Korean War and made great contributions.
Therefore, when the first Congress of Heroes and Models of the Air Force was held in Beijing in 1955, Zhao Was also invited to attend, and in May of the same year, he was awarded the First Class Meritorious Service Medal by the Air Force Command of the people's liberation army of the Chinese.
Unfortunately, later Zhao Zhixiong was forced to transfer to civil aviation because of the state restructuring, and because of his old age, he was demoted to a dispatcher, and after several twists and turns, he could only enter a machinery factory to work until he retired and returned to his hometown in Jiangsu.
He worked silently, lived in silence, and never said a word, until in 1994, when he saw the female students he had brought out on TELEVISION, he wrote to CCTV asking to see them again.
After identity verification, CCTV immediately agreed to the old man's simple request, but after 41 years, the original batch of female trainees can only find two of them.
After receiving the task from its superiors, changzhou city television station rushed to Jiaze Town to offer condolences and interviews to the elderly Zhao Zhixiong, and successfully matched the bridge.
Soon after, the two female trainees and Zhao Zhixiong and the original principal Wei of the Aviation Academy were finally reunited in front of the gate of the China Aviation Museum, and the old man was extremely happy for a long time, and the two female trainees were now past the year of Hua Jia, and they were speechless in the face of the former instructors.
Inside the museum are some very old-fashioned long-retired aircraft, but in the eyes of these people are extremely familiar, the museum director heard of their identity, quickly came out to meet and lead them to visit.
In the retrospect of the past, Zhao Zhixiong and his students seemed to have endless words, after parting, they agreed to contact often in the future, in fact, they did not break the exchange of letters, and the students would send gifts to the elderly during the New Year's Festival.
Zhao Zhixiong's glorious experience in his hometown is not mentioned, the only thing he cares about is the concern of the country, education and students, but this story will not be forgotten by history, and his contribution to China's aerospace will always be remembered by us.