On March 28, 1951, the 47th Army of the Volunteer Army, led by commander Cao Lihuai and political commissar Li Renlin, took 39 trains to the Korean battlefield.
When the troops first arrived at the Yalu River, a batch of condolences sent by the people of the motherland also happened to be transported there, and the relevant departments immediately distributed condolences to the officers and men of the Forty-seventh Army who embarked on the journey to encourage them to kill the enemy and serve the country.
When Gao Anbai, a soldier of the Ninth Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 416th Regiment of the 139th Division, received the condolences assigned to him, he found something that made him unbelievable, which can be said to be a dramatic coincidence.
This condolence is a hand-sewn condolence bag made of red coarse cloth, and in addition to the seven large characters of "Gift to the Volunteer Army of Relatives" on the front, there are nine small characters embroidered on the back. Gao Anbai fixed his eyes on it, and these nine small characters turned out to be "Zhang Xinlan of the Yuanling County Post and Telecommunications Bureau."
After reading the first glance, Gao Amber almost did not believe his eyes, quickly wiped the corners of his eyes, looked carefully and looked, and tears could not help but burst out of his eyes.
Yes, it is indeed "Zhang Xinlan of Yuanling County Post and Telecommunications Bureau"! It was sent by my mother!
The Yuanling County Post and Telecommunications Bureau was Gao Anbai's home address before joining the army, and Zhang Xinlan was his mother's name.
The comrades-in-arms were very confused when they saw Gao Amber holding a condolence bag and spilling tears on the spot. When they learned the reason for Gao Amber's tears, they couldn't help but sigh for this dramatic coincidence:
Tens of thousands of soldiers from the Forty-seventh Army entered the DPRK, while the motherland sent more than 100,000 pieces of condolences, and there was an astronomical possibility of matching the two.
And the condolence bag sewn by a mother's own hand actually crossed thousands of mountains and rivers and was sent to her own son who was about to embark on the battlefield.
For Gao Amber, it is of special significance to receive a condolence bag sewn by his mother before setting foot on the Korean battlefield.
The reason is that Gao Anbai, who is only 17 years old, can become a volunteer soldier and has experienced many twists and turns, while his mother Zhang Xinlan is very difficult for him to join the volunteer army, and he only supports him after experiencing a fierce ideological struggle.
It all has to start at the beginning.
Before signing up for the army, Gao Anbai was a second-year high school student at Chaoyang Middle School in Yuanling County, Hunan Province.
On February 15, 1951, when he learned from the school radio that the Korean battlefield had broken out and the state called on the vast number of young people to enlist in the army to "resist the United States and aid Korea, defend the family and defend the country", he was full of enthusiasm and boiled for it, and immediately made up his mind: To join the army, you must go to the volunteer army to resist the United States and aid Korea! Even if you die in battle in the Korean battlefield, you will not hesitate to do so!
However, Gao Amber was a student after all, and he couldn't figure out where to sign up to become a volunteer.
He was anxious to make a circle, inquired about everyone, and went to great lengths to learn a rather valuable situation at more than eight o'clock in the evening -- the Forty-seventh Army of the People's Liberation Army, which was originally stationed in western Hunan Province, was about to leave Xiangbei to join the order of troops to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
Although it was late at night, Gao Amber couldn't wait even a minute and decided to take action immediately.
I don't know how many people were asked, but he found out that there was a unit of the Forty-seventh Army stationed on the outskirts of Yuanling City.
Coincidentally, Gao Anbai, an uninvited guest, actually met a unit chief at the door of the department's station, which made him overjoyed.
When the chief learned that the childish-looking student in front of him had asked to join the army, he immediately told him that the new recruits had been recruited, the troops would be pulled out of Yuanling after dawn, and now there were still many trivial matters to deal with, and there was no time and energy to deal with Gao Anbai's joining the army, asking him to find another opportunity.
However, Gao Amber had already made up his mind, refused to give up no matter what, and repeatedly pleaded.
The chief was unable to get out of his soft and hard bubbles, so he made a clever move and thought of a way to come up with an algebra problem, and if Gao Amber could not solve it, he must leave.
To the surprise of the chief, the student in front of him almost did not have much effort to solve the more difficult algebra problem.
The chief also said that the state has clearly stipulated that in order to ensure the source of students from universities, high school students must first obtain the approval of their schools to join the army.
This really made Gao Anbai helpless--at this time it was almost midnight, the troops would be pulled out in seven or eight hours, and it was freezing cold, not to mention that the school had already had winter vacation, where to find people?
However, Gao Amber already had an iron heart to become a soldier, and any difficulty would not overwhelm him! He immediately braved the wind and cold and went straight to the home of principal Chen Jihua.
Principal Chen was awakened from his sleep by a rapid knock at the door, but was finally impressed by Gao Anbai's enthusiasm for serving the country and wrote a letter of approval for his joining the army.
Gao Anbai bid farewell to Principal Chen with tears, immediately rushed back to the troop station, found the chief to go through the simple enlistment procedures, and hurried home to pack up his things.
When Gao Amber returned home, it was already midnight. When his mother, Zhang Xinlan, learned that he had made up his mind to join the army in just a few hours and had completed the enlistment procedures, he was stunned and unable to speak for a long time.
Although she supported the call of the state from the heart, it was difficult for her to emotionally accept the fact that her own flesh and blood were about to leave home for an expedition. She knows that her son's life and death are uncertain, and from then on, it is inevitable to worry about her stomach every day, after all, her children will always be a child in the eyes of their parents!
However, Zhang Xinlan, who was well aware of the great righteousness, after experiencing a fierce ideological struggle, although he was extremely reluctant in his heart, he still supported his son's decision.
She was extremely talkative on weekdays, and after saying the words "then you go" to Gao Amber, she could no longer speak, but silently prepared clothes for her son.
This is because she is afraid that as soon as she opens her mouth, she will not be able to suppress the emotional rush, and she does not want her son to remember only the sad and tearful appearance of his mother before leaving home!
However, it was such a coincidence that Gao Amber had just gone out with his bag, and the enamel teacup prepared for him by his mother fell from the hanging bag to the ground.
Gao Amber turned back again, planning to ask his mother to pick a few stitches and help him sew the teacup on the hanging bag.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the door, he saw his mother, who had always been strong and capable, but she was lying on the bed to cover her face and crying, and several young sisters were also crying.
Gao Amber was instantly shocked: How deeply her mother was sending herself away with such deep love!
Therefore, when Gao Amber was surprised to find out by the Yalu River that the condolence bag he had been assigned was actually sewn by his mother, how shocked he was!
Later, this condolence bag accompanied Gao Amber through three and a half years of conquest on the Korean battlefield. Whenever he misses his loved ones or encounters difficulties, as long as he looks down at the condolence bag he carries with him, he will immediately get spiritual comfort from it, and his spiritual motivation will be multiplied.
Inspired by his mother's love, this young volunteer soldier fought bravely and performed well on the Korean battlefield, and he was honored with many military achievements and composed a lamentable song of mother-son love in the war years.