After the death of a 104-year-old farmer in Sichuan, his son found a surprising scene when he was sorting out the relics for him, and he was frightened and quickly called the police. What did the old farmer go through before he died?
In April 2009, while my son was sorting out the belongings of an elderly man who had died of illness, there was a locked box under the bed, and the dusty box had been hidden here.
Out of curiosity, the son opened the box with a tool, and under the neat military uniform, there were dozens of meritorious medals, which instantly stunned the son, so he quickly contacted the local police station and the government.
After investigation, there are a total of 56 meritorious medals in the box, including 10 first-class meritorious medals and 12 second-class meritorious medals.
Perhaps everyone did not have an accurate concept of these medals, at that time the merit medals of the PLA troops were not very easy to obtain, and the troops often said that "the third class merit stood collar, the second class merit lay collar, and the first class merit family collar", although it was a joke, but it was also a fact.
Those who contain outstanding deeds and have made great contributions will be awarded third-class merit; those who have made major performances and who have been injured will be awarded second-class merit, so the first-class merit must be a great contribution, or even a sacrifice, before they can be awarded first-class merit.
A person who has one of these in his life can already be said to be very proud, and his father has a great contribution to have so many medals.
The son was skeptical about the origin of these medals, although the father was a veteran, the father never mentioned them to his children, and if these medals were all the father's own, then why should the father be an obscure grain station manager?
After the government department inquired into the historical archives, the son learned the story behind his father.
Father Xiao Wanshi, born in 1905 in the countryside of Xingtai, Hebei Province, in that poor era, for Xiao Wanshi, who had five brothers and sisters in the family, life was even more difficult, often ate this meal and there was no next meal, and none of the five brothers and sisters had read books, which was also the reason why Xiao Wanshi had not yet married his wife when he was 30 years old.
Although the family was poor, the family's feelings were very good, and with mutual support and help, life was getting better little by little, but just when Xiao Wanshi was full of hope for the future, the Lugou Bridge War broke out in 1937, and the Hebei region soon fell.
The Japanese army did nothing wrong on the land of our country, they not only took away the food of the common people, but also dragged the young and strong men to do coolies, in order to make these coolies give up the idea of returning home, and even set fire to their houses, the original quiet village, because the arrival of the Japanese army made their homes into ruins.
Xiao Wanshi's family was also doomed, his parents and two younger sisters were unfortunately killed, Xiao Wanshi was very sad, but also powerless, his two brothers actively joined the guerrillas, in a fierce battle with the Japanese army due to backward weapons and equipment, soon fell behind, the two brothers died heroically.
Since then, Xiao Wanshi's family of seven is only left alive, the village has been burned, the family has been killed, although Xiao Wanshi has not attended school, does not know what the big truth, but he knows that the family vendetta must be repaid, the motherland needs to be defended, and vowed to die to drive the Japanese out of Chinese soil.
With a firm belief, Xiao Wanshi resolutely joined the combat battalion of the Eighth Route Army, because the equipment of our army was very backward at that time, Xiao Wanshi only received a knife after joining the army, which was still a long way from him wanting to go to the battlefield to avenge.
Because there was no gun, Xiao Wanshi could not go to the front line to kill the enemy, and could only be responsible for the reconnaissance work, which made Xiao Wanshi feel extremely sorry in his heart, but he respected the arrangement of the troops and was diligent in front of the scouts.
But soon, Xiao Wanshi's opportunity finally waited, and while patrolling with his comrades-in-arms, he suddenly found a small unit of more than a dozen Japanese troops, who quietly followed the Japanese army and waited for the opportunity.
The Japanese army came to a small river, took off their clothes and jumped into the river to take a bath, Xiao Wanshi saw them and thought of the tragic death scene of his family and villagers, and he was angry.
At this time, someone wanted to go back to report to the troops, but he was stopped by Xiao Wanshi, because he saw that the guns in the vicinity were shining in the eyes, and he thought that if these weapons were captured, then he could really take the guns to the battlefield, so he couldn't help but be excited in his heart, and he said to his comrades-in-arms: "Look, these guns are all ours." ”
The comrades immediately understood what he meant, so they quietly touched the river, and the Japanese troops were still swimming freely, completely unaware that their death date had arrived.
After Holding the gun in his hand, Xiao Wanshi frantically strafed at the Japanese troops in the water, but because their group had not touched the gun much and the accuracy was too low, most of the Japanese troops began to climb towards the shore.
When Xiao Wanshi saw this, he threw down the machine gun in his hand, casually drew the knife behind his back, ran to the shore and slashed at the Japanese troops who climbed up, the blood of the Japanese army stained the entire river red, and the Japanese army screamed bitterly, and after wiping out the Japanese army, Xiao Wanshi's face was also wet at this time.
In this battle, Xiao Wanshi made a great contribution for the first time, and his teammates also gave him a nickname of "sparing his life", Xiao Wanshi said firmly: "The Japanese army has killed so many of our compatriots and relatives, and I can only avenge them by killing more enemies." ”
During 1938, in a counter-breakthrough, Xiao Wanshi was fighting with the enemy, but found that the machine gunner next to him was a little abnormal, it turned out to be a small soldier who had previously served as a civilian, probably because of the first time on the battlefield, only to see him bow his head and close his eyes, his mouth kept muttering, he did not dare to look at the enemy head-on, the ammunition was limited, and most of the bullets shot hit the sky.
Xiao Wanshi saw that he directly pushed him away, took up his machine gun, almost his entire body stood out of the bunker, and fired at the Japanese army, and the enemy was also confused by this desperate Xiao Wanshi, so that the lifeless one was still the first time to see, the Japanese army suddenly collapsed, and hurriedly withdrew from the position.
In this battle, because of Xiao Wanshi's bravery in battle, he once again made great contributions, not only awarded the medal of first class merit, but also promoted to platoon leader.
However, Xiao Wanshi, the platoon leader, was deposed within a few days, because during a time of escorting Japanese prisoners, the Japanese army knew that the Eighth Route Army at that time gave preferential treatment to prisoners, so they kept using language and gestures to insult a small soldier in the team.
Before this little soldier's family was killed by the Japanese army, who could hold this breath, so he hit this Japanese soldier hard, Xiao Wanshi understood this very well, not only did not punish him, but also spoke for this little soldier in front of the leader.
The young soldiers were imprisoned for violating military discipline, and the leaders also thought that Xiao Wanshi was poorly managed and was dismissed from the post of platoon leader, but Xiao Wanshi did not think much of these, as long as he could still go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, the rest was easy to say.
After the punishment of the little soldier was over, the two men explored and studied, broke into the Japanese running building alone, solved the 19 guarding Japanese troops one by one, and captured a large number of guns and ammunition in the turret, and Xiao Wanshi once again created a miracle.
Xiao Wanshi was not afraid of sacrifice at all when fighting, and all the results of each battle were amazing, just like the Hundred Regiments Battle that followed, the Eighth Route Army was attacked by the Japanese army on all sides, but this was exactly the intention of Xiao Wanshi, under the cover of his teammates, he and the soldiers quietly touched the Japanese airfield with explosives packs, and with the violent explosion, the Japanese fighters were destroyed one by one.
You know, at that time, China's air force was very weak, and it was able to blow up so many Japanese aircraft at once, which was not comparable to ordinary people.
Since then, he has become more and more courageous, and has rubbed shoulders with the god of death countless times on the battlefield, but in the end he is safe and sound.
On the battlefield, he heroically killed the enemy, because he understood that he carried the hope of the whole village, and he vented all his hatred for the Japanese army on the battlefield, and Xiao Wanshi's more than 50 medals were also obtained by him fighting the enemy again and again on the battlefield.
Speaking of this, some people will wonder, since he has made so many merits and received so many medals, then his rank will certainly not be low, why did he later become an obscure grain station manager?
This also begins with the time of the founding of New China in 1949, when Xiao Wanshi's unit was sent to Yunnan to suppress bandits, during which a peasant woman and a child were captured and escorted back, when the peasant woman suddenly hugged him and cried bitterly, claiming that she chose to be a bandit so that the child could have enough to eat. ”
Xiao Wanshi saw that she was so pitiful, remembered his mother, and released the mother and son for a moment, although he understood the peasant woman very well, but he also violated serious discipline, so Xiao Wanshi was punished again.
Xiao Wanshi, who later retired from the battlefield, was more than 50 years old, and was arranged by the government to work at the county grain station, and he often secretly helped the people because he could not bear the suffering of the people, but it was precisely for this reason that his position dropped again and again, but he did not care.
For example, during the great famine, a peasant was so hungry that he could not steal grain and was arrested, Xiao Wanshi not only did not punish him, but also gave him a bag of grain, the people were very grateful for his kindness, but he was demoted because he violated the rules of his superiors.
In the end, even his wife was demoted, because his wife was very young, the difference between the two was more than 20 years, but the two were truly in love, and the old man did not agree to marry his daughter to an old man in his 50s at first, and as a result, Xiao Wanshi, who was hot-tempered, took out the gun.
Although the last marriage was married, but his career fell again, Xiao Wanshi has always been a warm-hearted person after retirement, no matter who has something to help, as long as he knows it, he will rush to the first time, and before he dies, he also instructed his son: Funeral everything is simple, must not be extravagant and wasteful, and it is not troublesome for the country.
Today, Xiao Wanshi has passed away peacefully, but we will never forget that there was such a tolerant, kind, low-key and very brave soldier in our country, who made great achievements but was anonymous.
Old Man Xiao Wanshi is a big hero with an iron bone, but at the same time he is an obscure true hero.