The phrase "veterans don't die, just wither" means that heroes will gradually grow old, but people will always remember their glorious deeds and never forget.
After the death of the 90-year-old man in Lingbao City, Henan Province, when the son was sorting out the relics of the old man, at the bottom of the box, a certificate of award with the national flag and official seal appeared particularly conspicuous, and the "special meritorious service" award issued by the Henan Military Region was particularly conspicuous.
The owner of this award is the old hero Lu Wenhuan, who selflessly dedicated during the war years, but chose to hide his merits and fame in peacetime.
Lu Wenhuan in his youth
In 1921, Lu Wenhuan was born into a peasant family in Lingbao City, Henan Province, a time when warlords were at war and the people were persecuted by war. Lu Wenhuan lost his parents when he was very young, and in order to survive, Lu Wenhuan could only choose to go to the landlord's house to do long-term work, and when he was young, he received cruel exploitation and humiliation from the landlord, but he could only choose to swallow his anger in order to maintain his life.
In his day-to-day labor, Lu Wenhuan often heard stories of the Communist Party, and often heard that the Communist Party was a unit that specialized in doing things for the poor, and that everywhere he went, there was no oppression from the landlords, there was no persecution by warlords, and it would divide the land among the people.
Since then, becoming an honorable Communist Party member has become a dream buried in Lu Wenhuan's heart.
In 1974, when Henan was liberated, Lu Wenhuan finally had the opportunity to contact the Communist Party, and he embarked on the road to find the People's Liberation Army without hesitation. Kung Fu paid off, and in 1948 Lu Wenhuan joined the Communist Party of China.
Notorious Li Zikui
Mention one person who must mention Lu Wenhuan's "Special Meritorious Service" award - Li Zikui.
When the Kuomintang saw that the general trend was gone, they chose to retreat to Taiwan, and at the same time left a large number of agents on the mainland, who secretly rose up with landlords and bandits to hinder the pace of the People's Liberation Army. Li Zikui was the leader of the armed bandits in Lingbao County at that time, and he has been a bandit since he was 18 years old.
When Li Zikui was supported by the Kuomintang, he became even more intense, wanting to serve Chiang Kai-shek wholeheartedly.
When Li Zikui's superior, Liu Xicheng, prepared for the Lingbao uprising and ended the civil war as soon as possible, Li Zikui, who still wanted to profit from the civil war, pretended to agree, but finally launched a reactionary force, making Liu Xicheng's uprising incomplete.
When the liberation wave of the People's Liberation Army reached Lingbao County, Li Zikui's bandit armed forces stubbornly resisted, and the People's Liberation Army sent a payment team, and within a few months, Li Zikui's bandit forces collapsed, and Li Zikui also hid everywhere.
The God of Luck presents the "Meritorious Service" award
In December 1949, after receiving a report, Li Zikui had secretly moved back to his hometown and hid in the home of a landlord, and after receiving the report from the military region, the bandit suppression unit sent a 12-person commando team to arrest the bandit leader Li Zikui, and Lu Wenhuan was in the team of 12 people.
When Lu Wenhuan and his party came to the landlord's house, they saw the People's Liberation Army, and the landlord truthfully explained everything. It turned out that Li Zikui was hiding in a cave in the landlord's house, and every day the landlord personally delivered water and food.
The warriors immediately blocked the two openings in two ways, due to the small space in the cave, the arrest work was inconvenient, after some consultation, it was decided to let the landlord take a person in to deceive Li Zikui and then arrest him, and finally the task of entering the cave fell on the body of Lu Wenhuan, who was skilled.
Lu Wenhuan followed behind the landlord, the two entered the cave one after the other, after walking for a while, Lu Wenhuan saw a figure in front of him, and before he could react, he was pressed on his forehead by a cold muzzle, and Lu Wenhuan also put his gun on Li Zikui's abdomen, and the two people froze.
Lu Wenhuan knew that it was dangerous to continue this stalemate, so he said: "If you dare to shoot, then you have no possibility of survival."
After hearing Li Zikui's words "I am a dead end anyway", this completely exceeded expectations. But after thinking of his superiors' order to capture him alive, he also began to hesitate.
The sound of pulling the trigger in the darkness seemed very loud, but this time, the god of luck fell to the side of justice, Li Zikui's pistol was jammed, at this time Lu Wenhuan pretended to be calm and asked: "Are you Li Zhanbiao?" ”。
After Li Zikui heard his alias, he relaxed his vigilance, and Lu Wenhuan pretended to be a Kuomintang member and said: "Commander Li sent me to you to discuss the next countermeasures."
Hearing Lu Wenhuan say this, Li Zikui thought that the Kuomintang people were looking for him, so he completely believed Lu Wenhuan and followed Lu Wenhuan to the mouth of the cave.
When it was almost time to reach the mouth of the cave, After Li Zikui saw the bright light at the mouth of the cave, he found that Lu Wenhuan did not look like a Kuomintang person, so he began to resist again, Lu Wenhuan grabbed his collar with one hand, and held Li Zikui's hand holding the gun with the other hand, and the two people wrestled until one fast.
No matter how Li Zikui beat Lu Wenhuan, he never let go, and finally found the opportunity to subdue the bandit leader with one punch. Then, with the help of his comrades-in-arms, he successfully captured Li Zikui.
When the news of Li Zikui's arrest spread throughout Lingbao County, the great hero who captured the bandit Leader, Lu Wenhuan, also became well known. A month later, at the model meeting of the Henan Military Region, Lu Wenhuan was awarded the title of "Special Meritorious Hero" and awarded a certificate of award.
Lu Wenhuan disappeared
In 1951, Lu Wenhuan retired from the army and returned to his hometown, he did not use his status as a "special meritorious hero" to ask for a job from the local government, but returned home and became a farmer.
People's impression of him is that he is a hard-working peasant, only that he has been a soldier or a party member, and that no one knows about his great achievements in the army. He also pressed his award to the bottom of the box and never mentioned it to anyone again.
Lu Wenhuan, the most party member, is in the village, has always inherited the fine tradition of communist party members, played a very good leading role, got up early and greedy work, solved the problem of eating at home, in the case of insufficient food to eat, often hungry, Lu Wenhuan is also afraid of adding trouble to the government, as a communist party member, he did not take his status as a "special meritorious hero" to ask the government for help.
In March 2013, when Lu Wenhuan died, his son discovered his award certificate, he found that his ordinary father was not ordinary at all, the son took the award to the local government department, the government department checked and found that Lu Wenhuan was the first special meritorious person of Lingbao, and then held a solemn memorial service for the old hero.
There are always people, they are always unknown, and they carry a lot of stories on their backs, about war, maybe very painful, maybe very cruel. In the years of war, when the motherland needed them, they stood up and did not hesitate, and when the era of peace came, they took those stories with them and fought incognito.
Lu Wenhuan, the representative of these many heroes, veterans, will never wither!