Loyalty is imprinted in the heart, and the haoran fills two rooms. ——— Cai and Sen
Sappers are one of the many branches of the armed forces in our country, and because they play an auxiliary role, they are less dangerous, and correspondingly, there are not many opportunities for meritorious service on the battlefield.
However, in the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there is such an engineer who often walks on the edge of the line of life and death, who has experienced more than 300 battles, been seriously injured 5 times, and often hovers on the edge of life and death.
And it was precisely because of his outstanding contribution to our revolution that he became the only founding major general to receive a gold medal in the absence of death.
However, while making great achievements, he was very paradoxically demoted 8 times in 28 years.
Who is this major general, and what kind of life experience does he have?
1. Wang Yaonan and his people
The founding major general's name was Wang Yaonan.
He was born in Jiangxi in 1911, in a very ordinary, even poor family.
His childhood was even more difficult than ordinary people imagined.
At that time, Wang Yaonan was only ten years old, but he was forced to go to a coal mine in Jiangxi to engage in dangerous and hard work such as blasting.
The young Wang Yaonan already had a bunch of worries in his mind.
You have to work every day, worry about whether the ore will collapse, worry about your own livelihood, and worry about your own food.
At that time, Wang Yaonan did not even have a pair of shoes that fit well, did not have a set of clean and decent clothes, he lived a life completely different from his age, and he had already eaten all the hardships at an age when he should not have suffered.
Fortunately, there is no invincible road in the sky, and Wang Yaonan's hard days have finally ushered in a turnaround on a certain day.
One day when he was 11 years old, Wang Yaonan had the opportunity to join the Anyuan Children's Alliance.
This is the first children's alliance in China established by the Chinese Communist Party, and its importance can be imagined.
After five years of experience, Wang Yaonan successfully became the backbone of the alliance and played an important role in the Autumn Harvest Uprising. His previous involvement in blasting has given him a wealth of experience that has allowed him to serve as the vice captain of Team 2.
Wang Yaonan worked hard, but what he did not expect was that his position was actually removed during the reorganization of Sanwan, and he changed from vice captain to squad leader.
Wang Yaonan couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, but he wouldn't question any decision on the organization.
Therefore, since that time, Wang Yaonan has been silently telling himself that in the future, he must work harder to return to his original position and even rise to a higher level.
What he did not expect was that the second demotion came so quickly, and if Wang Yaonan did not find the reason when he was demoted for the first time, then he must have known it this second time.
It was 1930, not long after Wang Yaonan joined the Communist Party, and when discussing whether the number of engineers should be increased to 3,000, Wang Yaonan thought that this number was simply unrealistic, so he directly confronted the provincial commissioner at that time.
Naturally, he was eventually demoted and became a firefighter.
2. Gold medal for death prevention
Of course, Wang Yaonan's ability determined that he would never stop here, and in 1933, out of the needs of the war, Wang Yaonan resumed his company commander position, and was subsequently urgently sent to support the Changsha War.
This battle was of great significance to Wang Yaonan, because it was in this war that Wang Yaonan turned the tide and made great contributions.
It was also after this war that he won the only "gold medal for avoiding death", a reward that no one else dared to think of.
Logically, when a soldier is on this job, he can also be regarded as a success and fame, and he can live a relaxed life.
However, Wang Yaonan did not have the slightest idea, on the contrary, he believed that the affirmation of the organization for him was not easy to come by, and he should make more contributions to the organization and live up to the trust of the organization in him.
So he worked harder.
In order to reduce casualties for our army, he invented a new type of tunnel in the process of the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression campaign.
This can be said to be a great achievement, and it should be rewarded heavily, but due to the overall defeat of the war, the central government convened a Zunyi conference to reorganize, and Wang Yaonan was once again demoted from battalion commander to company commander.
This is the third time in Wang Yaonan's life that he has been demoted, perhaps at this time Wang Yaonan is already a veteran, so his thinking is more mature, or perhaps he knows that the promotion and upgrading of ranks is the norm in the army and looks down on these.
In short, Wang Yaonan did not show any emotion and continued to do his job.
3. Outstanding achievements
Of course, for Wang Yaonan, this "duty" is to play an important role in the war.
In 1937, he blew up enemy material vehicles 28 times, in 1939 he used mine tactics to inflict heavy damage on the Japanese, in 1940 he assisted in the destruction of the Pinghan Railway, and in 1943 he blew up two Japanese trains and destroyed the railway station.
This pile of merits was recorded in Wang Yaonan's merit book, along with the more than three hundred battles he participated in, which constituted Wang Yaonan's life as a soldier.
The word "soldier" is destined to be "shedding blood, sweating and not shedding tears", so Wang Yaonan has also gained a lot of "medals" as a soldier while making outstanding contributions, that is, the injuries he has suffered.
It is said that during the years of participating in the war, Wang Yaonan suffered countless minor injuries, and was seriously injured as many as five times.
You must know that such a serious injury is fatal again and again, and it is already robbed from the hands of the King of Yan, and Wang Yaonan has experienced such a heavy injury five times, so you can imagine how difficult it is for him.
The hardships of military life did not smooth Out Wang Yaonan's edges and corners, he would still boldly stand up against a certain strategy when he thought that a certain strategy was wrong, and he would still express everything he had to say, and this unobtrusive personality made his development in the army very bumpy, and the number of times he was demoted reached as many as eight times.
However, after becoming a soldier for a long time, Wang Yaonan already knew what was most important to him. Therefore, whether the level is high or not, the merit is not big, and it is already an insignificant thing for Wang Yaonan.
For him, the most important thing in the world is that one day, the world will be at peace, the land of our country will no longer be set footed by outsiders, and the five-star red flag will be raised peacefully.
"If a country lives and dies by profit, it is better to avoid it because of misfortunes and blessings," the aspirations of revolutionary predecessors, including Wang Yaonan, are just like this banner, bright and sincere.
Their spirit is also forever soaked by the five-star red flag, guiding the right direction for the endless waves.