"Every day in Korea, I am touched by something; the tide of my thoughts and feelings is flowing in indulgence... Who is our cutest person? Our warriors, I feel they are the loveliest people. ”
This war newsletter called "Who is the Cutest Man" is probably no stranger to the post-80s and post-90s generations. It was also through this manuscript that we knew the cruelty of the Korean War and the story of a series of heroes such as Huang Jiguang, Yang Gensi, and Qiu Shaoyun who heroically sacrificed for the country. In fact, not only on the front line, these "loveliest people" left the battlefield, returned to the motherland, returned to ordinary posts, they can also selflessly dedicate themselves, for example, we want to talk about this today, in the Battle of Shangganling, he annihilated more than 400 enemy people, shot down an enemy plane, and silently dedicated 36 years after returning to his hometown, shaping the glorious image of Chinese soldiers with his own practical actions.
Jiang Cheng, born in 1928 in Longxing Town, Hechuan District, Chongqing, coincided with the turbulent years, so Jiang Cheng as a child has always spent time in the sound of artillery fire, which also makes him extremely hateful to the invaders. In December 1949, when the People's Liberation Army liberated Chengdu and the whole city was immersed in joy, 21-year-old Jiang Cheng joined the People's Liberation Army and became a soldier in the machine gun company of the 31st Division.
Although Jiang Cheng has not read a book, he is willing to endure hardships and study, so in the new soldier assessment, he can always achieve excellent results. In January 1951, the Korean War had been going on for three months, and due to the fierce battle situation on the front line, Jiang Cheng's unit was also incorporated into the 12th Army of the Volunteer Army and entered the DPRK from the mouth of the Changdian River.
Just as the so-called "raising troops for a thousand days and using troops for a while", when he first went to the battlefield, Jiang Cheng seemed very excited, and he knew that the time had come to test his ability, so whenever the two sides fought, Jiang Cheng, who was not afraid of tigers, rushed to the front and bravely killed the enemy. From April to November 1951, the 12th Army participated in more than 400 battles, large and small, dealing fatal blows to the enemy.
Jiang Cheng, because of his outstanding performance, entered the DPRK less than a year ago, and he was introduced to the party by Zhang Yun, a veteran party member, in Jincheng, North Korea.
"As party members, we should do a good job of setting an example, and we should be at the forefront of everything."
With this belief, Jiang Cheng worked harder, and in the 4th month after joining the party, Jiang Cheng ushered in a battle that will never be forgotten - the Battle of Shangganling.
In the 43-day battle, the enemy and we repeatedly competed for the position of Shangganling as many as 59 times, and our volunteer army carried forward the spirit of not being afraid of death, repelling more than 900 enemy charges. So, how cruel the battle really was, Jiang Cheng's combat experience can be seen.
On November 1, 1952, Jiang Cheng's 12th Army began to join the Battle of Shangganling, before that, the 45th Division of the 15th Army had been fighting fiercely with the enemy for half a month, although the position was still in our hands, but its own side also suffered heavy losses, about 5600 casualties. On November 8, Jiang Cheng's 92nd Regiment arrived at the 537.7 heights of Shangganling, where the soldiers had been fighting for 4 days and 4 nights, leaving only 24 people, and they had been cut off from water and food for 11 days, completely relying on eating bark and tenacious perseverance in battle, fortunately at the critical moment the 92nd Regiment arrived, due to the urgency of the battle, the superiors only gave 3 days of preparation time, and after 3 days, they had to launch a counterattack. No one would have imagined that in this bloody battle, which affected the trend of the entire Korean war, Jiang Cheng would create a miracle: shooting down an enemy plane with a machine gun in his hand.
The battle finally began, the 92nd Regiment, with the cooperation of artillery, began to attack the enemy's position, but the enemy stubbornly resisted, watching the enemy's fire point block the advance of our army, Jiang Cheng was a little anxious, he carefully observed the terrain, crawled forward with a machine gun in his hand, when he reached a small slope, he quietly set up a machine gun, and when the enemy changed bullets, he suddenly fired a strafing, and the enemy's fire point was immediately muted. However, before he could be happy, a shell suddenly exploded not far from him, and the shrapnel splashed everywhere at once to cut Jiang Cheng's belly open, Jiang Cheng felt a heat in his abdomen, looked down, blood gushed out, intestines were blown out, and the severe pain almost made him pass out, but the battle was not over, he could not just fall down.
"It's just hitting, hitting, hitting!" Destroy all the enemies! ”
Whenever he recalls this past, although Elder Jiang can no longer remember many details, the 6 words "destroy all enemies" run through all his memories of the Korean War.
In this way, relying on tenacious perseverance, Jiang Cheng forced the flowing intestines back, and because there was no timely treatment, to this day, there is still a scar on his right abdomen that is about 6 centimeters long and deeply recessed.
When Jiang Cheng stood up again, the battle had become more intense, and in order to repulse our army, the enemy mobilized several aircraft to bomb our positions. Seeing the enemy planes coming, the soldiers looked for cover on the spot, but Jiang Cheng, as a machine gunner, had a bold idea: Why not shoot it down? Therefore, Jiang Cheng jumped into a deep ditch with a machine gun and waited for the arrival of the enemy plane.
"I stood at the bottom of the ditch and put the machine gun on the top of the ditch, and when I saw it coming, I hit it hard, whether it was hit or not. When it rushes down, I hit its head; when it flies away, I hit its tail..."
When he spoke of this paragraph, Elder Jiang was extremely excited, with a light in his eyes.
Under his efforts, he finally hit an enemy plane, and the enemy plane that was hit suddenly emitted black smoke and fell off the cliff, and the other enemy planes flew away as soon as they saw that the situation was not good. In this way, the morale of our army was greatly boosted, and the soldiers rushed to the enemy's position with a single blow...
After the battle, Jiang Cheng relied on a heavy machine gun to annihilate more than 400 enemy personnel, destroyed one enemy heavy machine gun and one enemy plane, and was awarded the first class merit by his superiors for his outstanding performance.
In his description of his meritorious service, he wrote:
“...... The comrade exerted a high degree of heroic and tenacious spirit, overcame many difficulties, and led the squad to master the technology skillfully under the strict enemy artillery blockade..... Shoot down one enemy plane..."
However, when the troops mailed the good news of meritorious service, they mistakenly wrote the address "Longxing Township" as "Xinglong Township", and after xinglong Township received the good news, it did not find this person, so it was returned to the province, so that the good news was stored in the archives for decades.
After the end of the Korean War, Jiang Cheng, who had recovered, returned to the garrison, and at that time the army was engaged in barracks construction, and Jiang Cheng was awarded a third-class merit for his outstanding performance. In February 1955, Jiang Cheng returned home with honor, and when he left, he took only 5 items with him: a set of plainclothes, a pair of shoes and socks, a towel, a soap, and a cloth ticket of 16 feet.
After returning to his hometown, Jiang Cheng's family was very happy, because they knew that many people on the front line were eventually killed on the battlefield, and Jiang Cheng was lucky to come back alive. And Jiang Cheng, even if he was demobilized and returned to the field, he never mentioned his legendary experience, he just worked silently as an ordinary farmer. Because he had been a soldier, there was a militia organization in the township at that time, and he went to help with training. In 1958, coinciding with the construction of the local railway, Jiang Cheng, as a veteran, naturally participated in it, and this work was 5 years, because he ate and lived at the construction site, Jiang Cheng rarely went home, and even when his mother died, he could not see the last side. In 1962, in view of Jiang Cheng's ability to work, the Railway Bureau wanted to arrange for him to be the secretary of a subordinate unit of another railway section, but Jiang Cheng thought that his wife was ill and his children were still young, so he politely refused the other party and returned home to farm.
A few years later, the local sericulture began to rise, and Jiang Cheng, because he was eager to learn and study, quickly became a well-known sericulture master. In 1964, the government hired him to work as a temporary sericulture technician in three local townships, able to serve the people, Jiang Cheng never refused, and in this way, this temporary job, he worked for 24 years.
In the impression of the children, the father has a good personality, rarely speaks, and is always silent. However, what the children did not expect was that this taciturn father did a terrible thing many years later.
In the winter of 1983, the local government planned to build a road between Longxing Township and Yongxing Township, and Jiang Cheng thought that he knew some of the techniques of building roads, so he put down his work and took the initiative to ask Miao to take the lead in building the road.
In that era, when the "contract foreman" was not a job to make money, the road builders were all villagers in their own villages, and in the end, Jiang Cheng not only could not get the money, but also needed to paste the money. By the time the road was halfway through, the budget had been spent, and the villagers began to complain and were reluctant to work.
On that day, Jiang Cheng was silent for a long time, and finally assured everyone:
"Everybody keep doing it, money, I'll find a way."
Jiang Cheng has always had a good reputation in the village, and when he saw him say this, the villagers naturally believed it, and everyone began to work again. A few days later, Jiang Cheng really got the salary, and the project was successfully completed.
The road was repaired, the neighbors were very happy, and no one asked how Jiang Cheng's money came from. Until one day a few years later, Jiang Cheng told his son Jiang Minghui:
"The money for road construction was borrowed by me in my personal name."
Jiang Minghui's heart tightened and he asked:
"How much did you borrow?"
"More than 2400 pieces..."
His father's words suddenly made Jiang Minghui's heart a lot heavier, you know, at that time, Jiang Minghui worked for several years, and he saved more than 1,000 yuan, and 2400 yuan was simply an astronomical number.
Jiang Minghui was very troubled in his heart, because at that time he already had a girlfriend who had talked for more than 3 years, and had reached the point of talking about marriage, but now in this situation, he had to sell his house and borrow money from others to pay off his father's foreign debt.
After the girlfriend learned that Jiang Minghui sold the house, he couldn't think straight, so he went to work in other places, fortunately, after the incident, Jiang Minghui still impressed his girlfriend by his sincerity, and the two finally got married.
Speaking of this, you must be curious, how was Jiang Cheng's deeds discovered? In fact, all this is thanks to the staff of the Hechuan Archives. One day in 1988, the staff was cleaning up the archives of previous years, accidentally found this good news, after many searches, finally confirmed that the owner of the good news is 60-year-old Jiang Cheng, this dusty 36 years of the past is also known to the world.
Someone once asked Jiang Cheng:
"Have you ever regretted fighting as a soldier in North Korea?"
Although Jiang Cheng is over the age of flower armor, he still said firmly:
"In my life, I have never regretted it. In the war years, I only wanted to fight a few more enemies, win victories, and serve the people, which was my purpose in dealing with the world, and I never felt that these things could be worthy of my pride. ”
The years passed, the loyalty was unswerving; the hero grew old, and the soul of the army was still there. Now that Elder Jiang is 94 years old, he also wishes his elderly family a long and healthy life and enjoys his old age.