In 1999, CCTV's "Oriental Time and Space" column once broadcast a documentary called "For that military trumpet".
In this documentary, we are shown a heroic warrior who has stuck to his post for more than forty years, and then Feng Xiaogang used this as a prototype to shoot a war movie called "The Gathering Number".
And the protagonist of the movie, Gu Zidi, is there really someone there? What happened back then? And did the veteran eventually find his troops?
Let's take a look at this touching story and meet a heroic veteran who has been searching for more than 40 years to complete the task.
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In 1996, an old man over seventy years old came to Benxi, Liaoning Province, alone with dry food and water, and it was already the twenty-eighth day of the Waxing Moon.
Because there was no extra money on his body, the old man had to wrap his torn coat tightly and then sit in the waiting hall to rest.
His name is Chang Menglan, a native of Beizhuli Village, Zanhuang County, Hebei Province, and the Chang family is a large local family, so Chang Menglan studied until he graduated from middle school with the support of his family.
Therefore, Chang Menglan was also the most cultured person in all directions, and then the Japanese devils burned and looted everywhere in the land of Hebei, creating a "no man's land".
Chang Menglan had the idea of killing the enemy and serving the country in his heart, so he joined the Eighth Route Army in 1944.
Later, Chang Menglan's unit was reorganized into the 10th Brigade of the Fourth Column of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, while Chang Menglan was an ordinary soldier in the 30th Regiment, 3 Battalion, 8 Company, 2 Platoon.
In the following battles, Chang Menglan followed his troops everywhere to attack japanese strongholds, dealing a major blow to the Japanese army until 1945, when Japan announced its unconditional surrender.
At this time, Chang Menglan had grown into a qualified warrior, and originally thought that the war was over, the Japanese devils had been beaten away, and he could go home and live a good life.
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However, the Chiang Kai-shek clique openly tore up the agreement, provoked a civil war, and launched a large-scale attack on the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains, and the War of Liberation officially began.
Chang Menglan followed the troops to fight in hebei, once participated in the Battle of Datong, the Battle of Shijiazhuang, etc., in the battle Chang Menglan often charged at the forefront, brave and not afraid of death, so Chang Menglan repeatedly made battle achievements, and finally was promoted to the second platoon leader.
In 1947, Liu Deng's army marched thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains to lead the war from the Liberated Areas to the Kuomintang Areas, which greatly shocked Chiang Kai-shek, so he stepped up the encirclement and suppression of the Liberated Areas.
However, at this time, the strength of the enemy and us had changed, and our army was no longer in a passive situation of being beaten like in the early stages of the war, and began to launch a counterattack against the Kuomintang army on a small scale.
On the front line of Qingfengdian in Hebei Province, the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region received orders from its superiors.
Ambushed the Kuomintang 3rd Army, waited for the opportunity to surround it and completely annihilate it, and inflicted heavy losses on the Kuomintang army.
Chang Menglan's troops also assembled on the front line of Qingfengdian in accordance with the orders of their superiors, and after the enemy army found that it was surrounded by our army, it immediately used tanks, artillery began to return fire on our army, and also called for air support in an attempt to tear open the encirclement circle of our army.
For a time, the rumble of shell explosions on the battlefield was continuous, and there were planes roaring overhead, dropping hundreds of bombs.
Our army was also severely damaged, and many companies were scattered as a result, but in order to complete the tasks of their superiors, the soldiers of the 10th Brigade were still dead in the forefront to ensure the stability of the encirclement.
However, the enemy's artillery fire was too fierce, the brigade commander was injured by the shells, the chief of staff who came to take over the command was killed, and the morale of the troops was seriously damaged.
Looking at the enemy planes that were constantly circling overhead and strafing from time to time, the soldiers of our army had to curl up in their bunkers and did not even dare to show their heads.
At this time, Because of his many military achievements during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chang Menglan, who was appointed as the leader of the machine gun squad, saw the momentum of the enemy's arrogance and arrogance, and his heart was holding a fire in his stomach.
So Chang Menglan picked up a light machine gun, risked his life, came to a gentle slope facing the sun, and then aimed the machine gun at the enemy plane hovering in the sky.
Soon the enemy plane made another dive attack, and Chang Menglan immediately seized the opportunity to shoot fiercely at the swooping enemy plane until all the bullets of the machine gun were exhausted.
Then Chang Menglan and his comrades-in-arms saw that the wings of the enemy plane suddenly emitted black smoke, and in a short while the tail of the plane caught fire, and the plane shook and smashed into the ground in the distance.
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With a loud bang, a huge explosion resounded throughout the position, and the Nationalist troops on the opposite side saw that their planes were all shot down.
Suddenly, he felt a little chill in his heart and quickly withdrew to his position.
When the officers and men of our army saw that the plane hovering above his head was knocked down, he immediately erupted in a burst of cheers, and later Nie Rongzhen also made a special call and personally praised Chang Menglan, who had taken down the enemy plane.
At the post-war performance meeting, Chang Menglan was also promoted from a machine gun squad leader to a second platoon leader because he shot down an enemy plane and recorded a special meritorious service.
Song Xuancai, the regimental commander, still said happily to Chang Menglan at the meeting, "You boy is okay enough, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I really don't believe that machine guns can shoot down the plane, and if you shoot down a plane next time, I will be the regimental commander for you." ”
Chang Menglan also replied happily, "Then what do you do?" The regimental commander said, "I'll be your platoon leader." This scene often appeared in Chang Menglan's mind in the years to come.
After the Battle of Qingfengdian, the 10th Brigade, after a short rest, once again received orders from its superiors to participate in the campaign to liberate Shijiazhuang, and the troops launched a surprise attack from the northeast of Shijiazhuang.
So Chang Menglan followed the troops to Shijiazhuang, and in front of them was the Yunpanshan position that was run by the Kuomintang army into a "copper wall and iron wall".
The terrain of Yunpan Mountain is dangerous, and it is the only barrier and commanding height northeast of Shijiazhuang, so the Kuomintang army has spent a lot of effort here to build a defensive position.
The Kuomintang army in Shijiazhuang claimed to "lay down the Yunpan Mountain and open half the stone gate.", in order to conquer this position, the brigade commander gave the task to the Eighth Company, which was the best able to fight, and demanded that the Eighth Company must capture the front position as soon as possible and clear the obstacles on the way forward of the troops.
After receiving the order, the commander of the Eighth Company and Youhai immediately found Chang Menglan and his second platoon and told Chang Menglan to take the position in front!
After receiving the order, Chang Menglan immediately led the soldiers of the second platoon to the forward position without saying a word, and after seeing the enemy's defense,
Chang Menglan believed that a sneak attack at night should be adopted in order to conquer the position in front of him.
So he ordered the soldiers of the second platoon to help the sappers carry two thousand kilograms of explosives overnight to the enemy positions.
By the time it was getting dark, two thousand kilograms of explosives planted in the night were in place, and the soldiers of the second platoon were ready for battle.
Immediately Chang Menglan ordered an explosion, and suddenly the sound of the explosion resounded throughout the Yunpan Mountain, and the shock caused by the explosion also caused a large number of enemy troops to be buried by falling stones.
Before the smoke of the explosion cleared, Chang Menglan took the lead in launching a charge, followed by more than thirty soldiers in the second platoon and rushing towards the enemy's entrenched position.
Just ten minutes later, Chang Menglan's troops successfully annihilated the stubborn enemy troops, and Chang Menglan also planted a bright red flag at the highest point of the position.
It wasn't until after the end of the war that Chang Menglan knew that his unit was actually the first to capture the enemy positions on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang!
To this end, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De also specially called Fu Chongbi, who was then the political commissar of the 10th Brigade, and praised the Eighth Company as "a hero on Yunpan Mountain!" And Chang Menglan was once again remembered for his great achievements.
After the Battle of Shijiazhuang, the 30th Regiment continued to fight in various places, and Chang Menglan often took the second platoon as the vanguard of the offensive.
On November 19, 1948, the 30th Regiment was marching on the town of Sangyuan in Yanqing County, Beijing, as ordered, but at this moment, the reconnaissance force received news that an enemy army was encountered in front of it.
Later, we learned that the Kuomintang army that met the 30th Regiment unexpectedly was the provisional 3rd Army, and their task was to move towards guanwai.
Because of the problem of the line, the two units suddenly encountered, and when the 30th Regiment detected that the enemy's strength was obviously superior to our army, the regimental commander immediately decided to take advantage of the night to withdraw and not to entangle with the enemy.
So the order was given, and the main force of the whole regiment immediately moved to the rear, while at the same time the task of blocking the enemy was given to the eighth company, and the company commander and Youhai once again gave this difficult task to the second platoon.
He Youhai whispered to Chang Menglan, "The second platoon must carry out a blockade on the enemy's inevitable road to buy time for the main force to move, and if the task is not completed, it is not allowed to retreat, do you have the confidence to complete it?" ”
Chang Menglan immediately replied, "Yes! After that, Chang Menglan asked again, "Company commander, when will you withdraw after completing the task?" He Youhai replied,
"I'll blow a trombone over the mountain, and you'll evacuate as soon as you hear it."
Chang Menglan listened to this sentence extremely carefully, and at the same time deeply imprinted this sentence in his mind, so for the next forty-eight years, Chang Menglan has been carrying out this order.
After the troops withdrew, Chang Menglan, with the remaining seven fighters of the second platoon, launched an ambush on the enemy's inevitable ground.
In order to avoid alarming the enemy in advance, they took off their yellowed uniforms and each was armed with thirty rounds of ammunition, ten grenades, and three hundred rounds of machine gun ammunition.
Eight men waited quietly on the position, and when the enemy army began to march towards the position where Chang Menglan was located,
Chang Menglan then aimed at an outcropping enemy and fired a shot, and the enemy fell to the ground in response, and then the two sides engaged in a fierce exchange of fire.
The sound of machine gun fire, the sound of grenades exploding, and the sound of enemy troops falling to the ground and wailing suddenly filled the entire battlefield, but none of this affected Chang Menglan.
However, the number of Chang Menglan's troops was too small after all, and after a series of battles, the second platoon could not be replenished for a long time, and at this moment, in the face of the offensive of the superior enemy, the second platoon seemed overwhelmed.
But Chang Menglan and the second platoon of fighters had been holding out, and after half an hour of fighting, one of the fighters was wounded by enemy bullets.
Seeing this, Chang Menglan immediately raised his machine gun and fired a strafing at the attacking enemy, and the enemy's offensive was temporarily suppressed.
However, at this moment, Chang Menglan looked around and found that the seven comrades-in-arms were all wounded on their bodies, the lighter one was the arm abrasion, and the heavier one was the penetrating wound of the soldier just now.
Chang Menglan looked at the comrades around him and said, "Brothers are so good! The warriors laughed in the darkness, the light of the fire shining on their faces.
Soon, however, the enemy organized a second round of offensive, this time using artillery, constantly shelling the position, chang Menglan and the fighters to avoid.
Chang Menglan
After a round of artillery bombardment, the enemy attacked again, and Chang Menglan threw himself into the battle again, and in an instant, the gunshots were loud, and a cruel fierce battle began again.
I don't know how long later, the second round of the offensive was once again repulsed by Chang Menglan, at this time the sky was completely dark, and several soldiers on the position were already seriously injured.
At this time, a soldier advised, "Platoon leader, if we don't withdraw, we will all die here!" But Chang Menglan always remembered that he had to wait for the company commander's trumpet, so he did not agree to evacuate.
But now that the ammunition was running out, and the warriors were seriously injured, if they didn't withdraw, they would really be completely destroyed.
Chang Menglan's heart was very entangled, on the one hand was a military order, on the other hand was the life of a comrade-in-arms, which made it difficult for Chang Menglan to make a decision.
However, just when Chang Menglan was caught in a dilemma, the enemy fired an illumination bomb at our army's position, and in an instant our army's position was as dazzling and bright as during the day.
Chang Menglan immediately realized that it was not good and shouted for a collection, but it was already too late, and the enemy's shells fell on the position like a tidal wave.
Several fighters were killed on the spot, and Chang Menglan did not have time to give the order to evacuate, so he shouted to break through, and he rushed to the periphery alone with a machine gun.
In the darkness, Chang Menglan annihilated several waves of enemy troops in a row before rushing out, and when it was dawn, Chang Menglan realized that he had arrived in Huailai County.
Since then, Chang Menglan has lost contact with his old troops, and likewise, Chang Menglan has never seen the seven soldiers in the second platoon.
However, Chang Menglan had been thinking about one thing in his heart, that is, whether the trumpet sounded, and whether the company commander and Youhai had blown the trombone to allow themselves to retreat.
So Chang Menglan embarked on a journey to find the troops alone, but under Chang Menglan's inquiry, his old troops had no news for a long time.
And the local government also had no way to contact the troops, not to mention the objects that could prove his identity, Chang Menglan was also all lost, all left in the troops.
Therefore, in the case of hopeless searching, Chang Menglan decided to return to his hometown first, but because he could not prove his identity, the local government could not help.
So Chang Menglan begged all the way over, and relied on walking back to his hometown of Zanhuang County, and after returning to his hometown, Chang Menglan's heart was very low.
He lost contact with the troops, his comrades-in-arms could not find his whereabouts, and the people in the village were still speculating whether Chang Menglan had made any mistakes in the troops when he returned home this time, otherwise why there was no certificate of retirement.
Chang Menglan was sad in his heart, but he could not explain to the outside world, why he would retire and go home, he had to put all his grievances in his heart.
However, Chang Menglan did not give up on continuing to search for troops, and after the founding of New China, Chang Menglan found the local civil affairs department again, and later under the instructions of the civil affairs department, Chang Menglan came to Beijing alone.
There was a military shelter here, and he found the leader of the shelter to explain his situation and asked to return to the team.
The leader acknowledged Chang Menglan's identity, but told him that your unit had been ordered to go to the Korean battlefield, and now please go back and wait for the news.
So Chang Menglan returned to his hometown according to the instructions, but at this time, the land reform was being carried out in his hometown, and the Chang family was classified as a rich peasant, so he was criticized, and Chang Menglan was also affected.
It was not until he was in his forties that Chang Menglan became married to a woman who had escaped from the wilderness, and after marriage gave birth to two sons, and his wife gave up.
Chang Menglan raised two children alone, and the whole family lived in extreme hardship, and sometimes even begged for food to survive.
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But even so, Chang Menglan did not give up the desire to find the old troops, and after the Beijing trip that year, Chang Menglan went to Beijing and the northeast region three times.
But every time I go full of hope, when I come back, infinite sadness, if I change to an ordinary person, I may not be able to hold on to it for a long time.
But Chang Menglan persisted, he not only persisted, but also spent a lot of energy to find the families of comrades who fought side by side.
Some got the news that they were killed, and some of them had no news at all, and Chang Menglan also had infinite emotions in his heart after getting these news.
Later, after the release of the movie "Liberation of Shijiazhuang", Chang Menglan once again embarked on a journey to find the troops, this time under the guidance of the local authorities, to a martyrs' cemetery.
Here he found the tombstone of the old regimental commander, he saluted a military salute in front of the regimental commander's tombstone, and after more than ten years, Chang Menglan would work tirelessly to sweep the tomb of the old regimental commander.
In 1984, the Shijiazhuang Army Academy built a training center near Chang Menglan's hometown, and Chang Menglan felt a pang of sentimentality in his heart after seeing the trainees at the training center.
So he offered to sweep the floor of the training center to cook, and never to be paid, and later the principal of the training center asked him why he did this, and Chang Menglan told his story.
Chang Menglan's experience greatly touched the principal of the training center, so he took the initiative to help Chang Menglan find the old troops, hoping to help the old man fulfill his wish.
Later, with the strong help of the principal, I finally found out that a certain unit of the Shenyang Military Region was formerly the 30th Regiment of the 10th Brigade of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region in Chang Menglan's mouth!
So he hurriedly told Chang Menglan the news, and at this time the old man was over seventy years old, and after hearing the news, he immediately packed up his luggage and prepared to go looking for it.
The family members all advised that it was now the New Year, and it was not too late to look for it after the New Year, but the old man could wait until that time to bring dry food and water roads one morning.
So there was the opening scene, the old man was not far away, took a green train for several days and nights to come to this last stop.
Chang Menglan's home
Early the next morning, the old man was ready to go to Benxi, so he took the last train at the end of last year and arrived in Benxi.
But when the old man came to Benxi, he learned that the troops had changed their defenses, and now the troops were stationed in Qiaotou Town, but at this time, there were no vehicles willing to go to Qiaotou Town.
Under the old man's hard search, he boarded a hitchhiker, and by the time the old man reached Qiaotou Town, it was already close to dark.
Looking at the brightly lit barracks not far away, the old man decided to rush over overnight, but because of the hard work of the past few days, the old man's body could not support it, and finally collapsed three kilometers in front of the barracks.
Fortunately, at this time, the old man was found in the purchasing room, and he quickly rescued the old man, and then sent him to the regimental headquarters, and after some treatment, the old man woke up.
Looking at the photos on the wall of the regimental headquarters, the old man burst into tears and slowly told his story to the regimental commander.
The leader of the regiment was also surprised to find that there was a person in the photo who looked very similar to the old man, in fact, it was the old man.
After the old man said everything, Chang Menglan also felt a burst of ease, and then the regiment leader wanted to apply for a pension in the emeritus for the old man, but Chang Menglan refused.
"I came only to deliver the task, and now that the mission is complete, I'm going back." So the old man returned to his hometown until 2004, when the old man Chang Menglan died peacefully.