"This is the highest honor conferred by the party, and I must come to the scene to receive it."
A white-haired old man said firmly. The old man in front of him, named Guo Ruixiang, has reached the age of the party for 84 years, and he is the oldest of all the "July 1st" medal winners.
In this way, although Guo Ruixiang, a 101-year-old veteran soldier of the Red Army, was already old, he still ignored the persuasion of his family and rushed from Dalian to Beijing to attend the meeting. Guo Ruixiang was awarded the "July 1st Medal" in a wheelchair dressed in a green military uniform.
With both hands taking the medal, the old man was deeply moved, and the corners of his eyes were already wet. The old man's hands trembled, and then he wrote eight words with his right hand on a red memorial book - "Do not forget the original heart, remember the mission." This seemingly simple but heavy eight words, Guo Lao used his life to practice and prove.
First, at a young age, he has the ambition of a great bird
Guo Ruixiang, from Wei County, Hebei Province, joined the Communist Party of China in March 1937. He was an unswerving and unchanging soldier of the Red Army, and he joined the revolution at the age of 16.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Guo Ruixiang made great contributions to the army, and successively participated in the Ji'nan Campaign, the Anti-Sweeping Campaign, and the Xiaoqu Campaign, and performed very well. In participating in these battles, he also received good merits, and successively won many medals, namely: "Liberation Medal of the Third Class", "Medal of Merit for Independence", "Medal of Independence and Freedom of the Third Class".
When Guo Ruixiang was a child, his family was very poor, often hungry, and the family needed to worry about eating every day. In the spring, the family lacks food and needs to dig wild vegetables to fill the hunger; in winter, Guo Ruixiang needs to collect dung, and his ears and feet are often frozen by the cold wind, and he is red and cracked, and even spills blood.
When Guo Ruixiang was very young, he studied at a private school in Hebei Province, and during his studies, he studied hard, learned about the Communist Party, and accepted the influence of early communist ideas.
His father was also a village doctor, and he almost never paid for the treatment of the people in the village. However, guo Ruixiang suffered persecution from the landlord class when he was very young, and after being beaten by the landlords, his father died on the second day of the Chinese New Year, when the family was reunited.
After his father left, only his mother and sister were left in the family, and the situation became more difficult, which made the young Guo Ruixiang very impressed, and he was very resistant to the capitalists who would only blindly enslave, oppress and exploit the low-level people, at the same time, he hoped more for fairness and justice, and he set extraordinary ambitions at a young age.
When Guo Ruixiang was 15 years old, he distributed leaflets and messages to the party under the leadership of adults, and actively participated in some underground activities of the party. At the age of 16, Guo Ruixiang threw himself into the tide of revolution.
At that time, Guo Ruixiang's main task was to help the Communist Party recommend the introduction of advanced and good youth, and to do a good job in collecting and disseminating intelligence. As a political cadre of the party, Guo Ruixiang is committed to doing a good job in the party's organizational work, and he often patiently explains to the comrades around him the purpose of our army and the party's discipline, and solemnly explains the importance of the army's management rules and regulations and organizational discipline.
In March 1937, Guo Ruixiang gloriously joined the Communist Party of China during the chaos of the war. Since joining the party, Guo Ruixiang has always followed the party all his life, running and serving the party and the country, dedicating himself to obscurity. In early 1939, Guo Ruixiang led a team of more than 40 people to join the local Eighth Route Army, and soon after he led this army to Puyang, Henan.
When it comes to joining the Eighth Route Army, Guo Ruixiang always feels very cordial and has a special affection for the Communist Party. He said passionately:
"In the army led by the Communist Party, whether superior or subordinate, they are exceptionally friendly and like brothers and sisters."
When Guo Ruixiang first joined the army, he felt extremely honored, so he loved the armed forces led by the Communist Party.
Second, outstanding military merit, loyalty and love for the party
After the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident," Japanese imperialism's bullying of China intensified, the domestic environment became more complex and sinister, and turmoil and conflict continued to alternate. Guo Ruixiang is still not afraid of danger, he actively leads the way, only to develop Communist Party members and inject revolutionary blood into party branches. Party branches were formed in the village and a lot of intelligence was collected for the troops.
In May 1940, the Xiaoqu War broke out. In southwestern Lu, there was a place called Xiaoqu, where the Japanese soldiers divided into two routes and launched a fierce attack on the communist-led army. At that time, the two armies were facing each other, and the battle was very fierce, many ravines were stained red with the blood of the soldiers, and there were corpses lying around.
The artillery fire of the Japanese army continued to attack, and in the rain of bullets and bullets, bullets flew everywhere and the war was flying, Guo Ruixiang ordered the soldiers to set up machine guns to strafe the Japanese army and attack the Japanese army. After the war, just when the enemy was beaten to the ground, Guo Ruixiang led his men to pursue the enemy and captured more than a dozen war horses, a batch of cavalry rifles and a machine gun, which greatly reduced the arrogance of the enemy.
In September 1946, Guo Ruixiang served as the political commissar of the Independent Battalion of Dongming County, and his superior organization ordered him to lead more than 150 fighters to launch a siege against the enemy. As a result of this accidental leak, the enemy's army increased to more than 1,000, the number of our army was in the inferior position, and the disparity between the enemy and our forces was enormous.
The battle was fought from dawn to darkness, the enemy had food and drink, and the support force was still strong, but our soldiers were dripping water and consuming a lot of physical strength. At the moment of life and death, Guo Ruixiang led the backbone of the party members to form a "sharp knife squad" assault group, drawing the sword to attack, and the brave soldiers swarmed like tigers, killing a bloody road for more than 100 besieged fighters. In this battle, Guo Ruixiang and his comrades-in-arms finally broke through successfully, and Guo Ruixiang also won the second class merit.
Third, we must continue to struggle for the party's cause all our lives
Before retiring, Guo Ruixiang served as deputy political commissar of the Duyun Military Sub-district in Guizhou Province. In this position, he was fair and selfless, single-mindedly for the sake of the people, and never sought any private interests for his family.
After retiring, Guo Ruixiang did not give up the study of political theory. He needs to learn every day and understand the situation in the country. Sometimes, he would greet his grandson and let him read it out to himself word by word, and when he heard the inspiring golden sentences, he would give him a thumbs up and praise them one after another.
He always believed that only by persistently studying the party's latest theories can we keep pace with the times politically. With the growth of age, Guo Ruixiang can only wear reading glasses to read, and his right hand is holding a magnifying glass, and the look of serious reading and newspaper reading is also very cute. Sometimes, he would use scissors to piece together pictures and text materials from the newspaper neatly.
In the evening, in order to understand the latest situation and major events in the country, Guo Ruixiang often squatted in front of the TV set and watched the "News Network" on time. The place where Guo Ruixiang stayed the longest and the most frequently was at home and in a dry rest house. In this unique "small world", he insists on proceeding from the whole, taking into account the overall situation, and still actively makes his own contributions in the "ivory tower".
Because he has served as a political cadre for many years, Guo Ruixiang has relatively rich experience in enhancing the leadership, organizational strength, and execution of the party organizations in the army, and he knows how to effectively lead a team, firmly control the team, and ensure that the members of the army always listen to the party and follow the party. In the dry rest house, in the face of the young cadre secretary, he always gave earnest teachings and passed on his past experience as a political cadre to the young people.
Guo Ruixiang's family has an ancestral motto: never add trouble to the party and the country. His six sons and daughters were deeply influenced by their father, never relied on the state, went to the countryside, were demobilized, and worked in ordinary posts until retirement. After being laid off from their original jobs, the two sons worked together to open a small hardware store, which basically maintained the family's basic livelihood.
Until after receiving the "July 1st" medal, in an interview with reporters, Guo Ruixiang said:
"I joined the party at the age of 17 and have been with the party all my life, and I can't talk about any merit. I have lived for 101 years, and in my lifetime, I will continue to fight for the cause of the party! ”
Guo Ruixiang has dedicated his beautiful youth to the party and the country, and the heroic qualities of the high wind and bright festival will surely flow through the ages and be eternal.
Text/Lincun Village
Resources:
1. "Struggle for a Hundred Years, Set Sail for a New Journey·" July 1st Medal "Recipient", Central Broadcasting Network
2. "Battle Hero Guo Ruixiang: A Hundred Years of Footprints, Measuring the Initial Heart", Xinhua Daily Telegraph