In 2019, Sichuan Province launched a special campaign called The Search for the Most Beautiful Veterans, with the aim of finding veterans who have made military achievements. After receiving the task, Zhang Tao, deputy director of the Sichuan Ziyang Veterans Affairs Bureau, immediately led the staff to the countryside and walked the streets and alleys to publicize the state's preferential policies for veterans.
Due to the underdevelopment of information technology at that time, in order to prevent the omission of information on the veterans of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, they went deep into many villages and encouraged everyone to actively report information on the veterans in the villages.
After finishing the collection work in Laojun Village, Zhang Tao and the staff were preparing to leave, but they were suddenly stopped by a ninety-five-year-old man.
The old man rode a tricycle and carried a bag that had been around for a long time.
When the villagers next to them saw the old man coming, they quipped, "Have you ever been a soldier?" Wouldn't it be an attempt to impersonate a state subsidy for veterans training? For these ridicules, the old man did not pay attention to them, but calmly took out a few medals from the treasure-like bag.
Seeing these medals, the villagers were frightened, and even Zhang Tao was surprised. Because the old man took out three special military merit medals, one first-class military merit medal and seven third-class military merit medals, and there were many certificates listed next to them, which was enough to prove that the old man had made many important military merits when he was young. What is the real identity of this old man? Why doesn't even the people around him know he's a combat hero?
Be determined and independent, and take the initiative to join the army
The old man's name was Zhang Liangrong. In 1924, Zhang Liangrong was born into an ordinary family in Laojun Village, Ziyang City, Sichuan Province. The family has been farmers for generations, the population is large, and the economic situation is very difficult.
At that time, social turmoil, Zhang Liangrong has witnessed many wars and chaos since birth, and lived a life without enough food and warm clothes.
In order to share the economic burden of the family, Zhang Liangrong took the initiative to go to the landlord's house to work as a cattle herder, but not only did he not earn much money to subsidize the family, but he was also exploited and oppressed by the landlord.
However, it is precisely because he has been living in such a difficult and difficult environment that Zhang Liangrong has developed a strong and independent quality.
When he grew up, Zhang Liangrong realized that he could not stay at home all the time, and only by going out to make some achievements could he change his fate. So, under the introduction of a friend, he came to Henan.
In Henan, Zhang Liangrong's first job was pulling rickshaws. Since he had no previous work experience or education, he could only do some hard work at first.
After saving some money, Zhang Liangrong began to set up a stall to start a business. This job does earn more money than before, but it also faces more difficulties, such as the fact that there are often some Kuomintang hooligans who come to make trouble.
They forcibly took away what Zhang Liangrong sold without giving money, and if they dared to theorize, they simply smashed the stalls.
Over time, Zhang Liangrong was very disappointed in the Kuomintang army, and at the same time realized that if he wanted to stop being bullied like this, he must join the righteous army.
So he sold all his profession and embarked on a journey to find the People's Liberation Army, and finally during the Liberation War in 1948, he joined the 4th Column 11th Brigade of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army led by Marshal Liu Bocheng and became a formal soldier.
Although he did not have any combat experience before, after joining the army, Zhang Liangrong studied hard and quickly adapted to the life of the troops and threw himself into the battle day and night.
Zhang Liangrong's entry into the army at this point in time was very special, when the Liberation War had reached a critical period, and the Kuomintang army had lost its initial advantage.
In August 1948, the Kuomintang, which had suffered frequent defeats in the war, held a military review meeting within the country and decided to focus the war on the defensive strategic points.
A month later, our army also held a Politburo meeting in Xibaipo, adjusted our battle plan in response to the Kuomintang's battle plan, transitioned from guerrilla warfare to regular warfare, and launched the Jinan Campaign in September.
The victory in the Battle of Jinan marked the first time that our Party had conquered the fortified city of the Kuomintang army and smashed the key defensive plan that the Kuomintang had just deployed in one fell swoop.
Subsequently, Su Yu, then acting commander and acting political commissar of the East China Field Army, proposed to the central authorities to launch the Huaihai Campaign, which was quickly approved.
In the Battle of Huaihai, he made meritorious achievements
In November 1948, our army launched the Huaihai Campaign, and Zhang Liangrong followed the Jin-Hebei Luyu Field Army led by Marshal Liu Bocheng to the battlefield.
According to the strategic arrangement, the main force was responsible for encircling Huang Wei's Twelfth Corps, and Zhang Liangrong's unit was tasked with fighting an obstruction battle in Nanpingji to buy time for the main force.
Unexpectedly, this arrangement was discovered by Huang Wei, so the Kuomintang army immediately transferred the superior forces. In order to break through the encirclement of our army at Nanpingji, they dispatched eight aircraft, more than twenty tanks, and two howitzer battalions.
The enemy's firepower is really too strong, it is difficult to defend with our army's weapons and equipment, and the position may be lost at any time.
To solve this dilemma, the battalion commander decided to send a small group of troops to blow up the enemy tanks that were advancing.
Although Zhang Liangrong did not join the army for a long time, he had already been promoted to deputy squad leader at this time, participated in many battles of large and small sizes, and showed heroism and rich combat experience. When the battalion commander conveyed this task, he immediately took on this important responsibility and led several soldiers to set off.
With no tools available around him, Zhang Liangrong led several warriors to dig pits with their bare hands, lay mines, hide leads, and quickly retreat to the fortifications dug in advance.
The next thing to do is to wait for the enemy tanks to enter the area, pull down the leads, and detonate their tanks.
Perhaps due to lack of experience in carrying out blasting missions, when Zhang Liangrong found the target and pulled down the lead for the first time, the mine did not explode. The enemy's tanks were not affected in any way and quickly drove towards our positions.
Zhang Liangrong pulled the lead again, and although the mine exploded this time, it only injured the tracks of the tank, not only did not achieve the expected effect, but also exposed their position.
Sure enough, the enemy troops on the tank immediately aimed their guns at Zhang Liangrong, and only heard a loud bang, and he was knocked unconscious.
When zhang Liangrong woke up, he found that the enemy army had blown up the fortifications, and the collapsed soil was pressed on his body, so he was lucky to escape the disaster.
But his mistake also led to the death of more than a hundred comrades-in-arms, and after returning to the field army, he deeply reflected on this mistake and summed up the combat experience.
This time, when the enemy tanks were approaching again, Zhang Liangrong commanded the soldiers to light their canes. At that time, most of the tanks were burning gasoline, and when they saw the fire, they were naturally very scared and retreated.
Zhang Liangrong's unit used this method to effectively restrain the speed of the enemy tanks, and bought enough time for the main force to fight.
The Twelfth Corps led by Huang Wei was defeated and retreated, and finally fell into the encirclement, while Huang Wei was captured by our army.
For our army, the Battle of Huaihai was fought extremely difficultly, because our army had only 600,000 soldiers, but the enemy army sent 800,000 people, not only the disparity in the number of the enemy and ourselves, but even the weapons were far inferior to the sophisticated and advanced weapons and equipment carried by the Kuomintang.
Although In this battle, Zhang Liangrong made a mistake in his early judgment, in the later anti-tank operations, he made great contributions to our army, so he was awarded special merit.
Make another battle merit and suppress bandits in Yunnan
After the Battle of Huaihai, General Su Yu began to prepare for the Battle of Crossing the River. During the few months that the whole army was resting, the army also underwent some reorganization, and Zhang Liangrong's unit was incorporated into the Fourteenth Army.
In March 1949, Zhang Liangrong followed a large army to the counties along the river in Anqing and mobilized the strength of the masses to collect boats crossing the river.
On April 21, when everything was ready, Chairman Mao issued an order to march across the country, and the Battle of the River Crossing began. The warriors braved the enemy's artillery fire to advance, and in the process, Zhang Liangrong's boat was pierced by the enemy's bullets and almost in danger.
At a critical moment, fortunately, he organized the soldiers of the same boat to abandon the boat and jump into the river, grabbed the stern of another small boat, and then successfully landed.
After landing ashore, Zhang Liangrong immediately led his comrades-in-arms into one battle after another, made outstanding battle merits, and was once again awarded a special military merit medal.
The victory in the Battle of the Crossing River greatly boosted the morale of our army and played a key role in achieving national liberation.
The Kuomintang army was defeated and retreated, and Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan. But before leaving, they were still thieves and left many remnants of the Kuomintang forces on the mainland.
Most of these remaining Kuomintang reactionaries took up the throne in Yunnan, Sichuan, and other places, colluding with local bandits. The reason why Chiang Kai-shek left them was because of the ambition and illusion of a future counter-offensive.
They call themselves the Yunnan people's self-help and suppression of the national army, which is nominally self-help, but in fact it is a very powerful reactionary evil force, trying to sabotage the liberation cause of our army.
In February 1950, in order to completely eliminate the remnants of the Kuomintang reactionaries who remained on the mainland, the central government decided to carry out the task of suppressing bandits in the southwest, and Zhang Liangrong once again followed the 14th Army on the expedition and rushed to the mountains of Yunnan.
When I first came here, due to the harsh local natural environment and the cunning of the enemy, we repeatedly destroyed the strength of our army by taking advantage of the mountainous terrain, which led to the early stage of the suppression of bandits, and our army suffered a lot.
However, the soldiers summed up their experience in their mistakes and began to encircle and suppress key areas in a targeted manner.
In the process of encirclement and suppression, Zhang Liangrong and the soldiers encountered a big problem, and there was a large minefield in the area they were responsible for, which not only caused many casualties among the soldiers, but also seriously affected the supply of materials.
In order to solve this dilemma, Zhang Liangrong led the soldiers to start dangerous demining work.
Not all the mines here have been recently planted by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and more mines have been planted by the armies of other countries during the War of Resistance Against Japan or World War II.
The power of these mines is far greater than the "land mines" used by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and it also makes the demining work of Zhang Liangrong and the soldiers greatly increased.
In the process, Zhang Liangrong personally witnessed many soldiers being blown up and breaking their arms or legs, and the scene was very tragic. Even so, no one in the army chose to back down, but insisted on draining all the mines and reducing the land to arable land.
This newly developed cultivated land also solved the problem of the lack of grain for the anti-bandit army, so that the work of suppressing bandits in the whole army could be carried out more smoothly.
At the end of 1950, Zhang Liangrong and his soldiers suppressed nearly 60,000 bandits in Yunnan and recovered more than a dozen county towns, so he once again made special merits.
Retired from the army and returned home, deeply hiding the name of merit
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Liangrong became a glorious party member, although the domestic situation has gradually stabilized, he is still concerned about the country at all times.
After the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he repeatedly took the initiative to apply for war, but considering his physical condition, the army did not approve him and appointed him as a teacher, responsible for teaching the newly recruited soldiers.
Zhang Liangrong did not live up to the expectations of the troops, trained more outstanding soldiers for the country, and sent them to the battlefield of defending the homeland.
In 1955, Zhang Liangrong, who had experienced hundreds of battles, ended his military career and was honorably discharged from the army. After leaving the army, he was assigned to work in a supply and marketing cooperative distillery in Sichuan, which at that time was an iron rice bowl job that many people could not ask for.
However, Zhang Liangrong chose to resign shortly after, actively responded to the call of the state, took the initiative to go to the countryside, and came to Laojun Village to become a farmer.
Zhang Liangrong never asked for anything from the organization, and after coming to Laojun Village, the government allocated him a piece of land, which made him very satisfied. He worked hard and diligently, and soon won the recognition and praise of the surrounding villagers. With the help of everyone, he also met his future wife and started his own small family. Of course, his wife also became the only person in the village who knew her history as a soldier.
In the days of Laojun Village, Zhang Liangrong put all his energy into farming, rising every day at sunrise and resting at sunset, living a very fulfilling life.
Except for his wife, he never took the initiative to mention his story on the battlefield to anyone, locking all the past honors in a small drawer.
Although The virtuous wife promised Zhang Liangrong that she would not tell others about his past, she was still angry several times because she could not even open the drawer herself.
When the children grew up, they were also full of curiosity about the drawer that their father carefully guarded.
At the request of the family many times, Zhang Liangrong finally opened the drawer and took out his seven military merit badges and multiple certificates.
Seeing the scene in front of them, the wife and children were shocked, they never thought that the peasant who looked so ordinary and simple in front of them was actually a combat hero who had made so many achievements on the battlefield.
In 2019, Zhang Liangrong, who is already 95 years old, realized that it is necessary for him to tell this story of the past, not to gain praise from others, but to inherit this revolutionary spirit.
So he participated in the collection of information on veterans with the support of his children, and personally told his own story of that year, which shocked and touched all the people around him.
When everyone around him praised Zhang Liangrong as a great combat hero, he was silent. In his view, he is a soldier, and the essence of a soldier is to obey orders, and he only completes his own work. Zhang Liangrong said that he is not a combat hero, and those soldiers who have given their lives for the country and the people on the battlefield are the real heroes.
There are too many soldiers like Zhang Liangrong, who once fought bloody battles on the battlefield, but after the war, they lived in anonymity and lived in silence. They never asked for anything from the motherland, chose to hide their merits and names, and integrated into the masses of the people, so that we never realized that the heroes were beside us.
When participating in the information collection, the ears of the elderly Zhang Liangrong were almost unable to hear the sound, but when he told the stories on the battlefield, he still had a firm gaze and full of emotions. When he sang the scrappy military song in a trembling voice, we saw as if it were not a centenarian approaching the age of 100, but a heroic and fearless warrior on the battlefield.