On the day of the Qingming Festival in 2020, when a descendant of a retired old man in DayaoShan, Guangxi Province, was tidying up his room, he inadvertently pulled out a copy of the "Certificate of Meritorious Service" that he had treasured from his father's suitcase. Although the original big red cover framed certificate is very old and the title page has been yellowed, the text inside can still be seen clearly.
At that time, it could be seen that it was written in detail: (The old man) was once subordinate to the armed forces of the Central and Southern Military Region of the Fourth Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and in his many years of military career, he was awarded two second-class merits and two third-class merits, making outstanding contributions to the construction of the motherland.
At this time, the descendants of the old man learned that the old father, who was extremely low-key in normal times, was not only a retired soldier, but also a second-class meritorious man who had made great contributions to the protection of the territorial airspace of the republic, and had also been personally received by Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, and other central leaders because of the outstanding contributions of his unit.
Generally speaking, the special issuance of certificates is mainly to play the role of encouragement and commendation, of course, this is no exception, it not only encourages the elderly to maintain the glorious spirit and continue to work hard, but also to enjoy all the preferential treatment and honors given to him by the government and the army. It was only that he had done it all before, and he had never asked for the "privilege" mentioned later, otherwise his family would not have learned of his glorious past 8 years after his death.
1. At the age of 17, he joined the army to defend his family and defend the country
The old man, Chen Qingrong, was born in 1933 to a family of traders in Dongli Village, Wuxuan County, Guangxi. In addition to him, there is also an older brother who can top half of the sky, and because of the brother who helps his father take care of the shop, Chen Qingrong is still relatively moist on weekdays, generally only doing some simple farm work, and has a lot of free time.
Since idleness is also idleness, his father simply sent him to school to study, after all, in an era when knowledge changes fate, learning more culture will always help the future. Although he was born relatively humble, his family still has more or less thin births, and it is difficult to provide for a reader, but it is not impossible to save money and use it.
Being in Guangxi, even when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation was in full swing, there was not much war here, so Chen Qingrong's environment from childhood to adulthood was relatively peaceful, but after receiving some ideological education, his desire to serve the country was not extinguished.
In 1951, nearly two years after the founding of New China, our brand-new regime was still facing various internal and external threats, such as the fierce fighting on the front line to resist the United States and aid Korea, and there were bandits in many remote areas in the rear. This was not in June of that year, chen Qingrong's hometown of Wuxuan County, Guangxi Province, had just finished clearing the bandits, and he began to recruit troops for the front line to resist the United States and aid Korea.
One day, a PLA resident officer came to the Chen family shop to buy something, and saw Chen Qingrong, who was looking at the shop, holding a book called "The Spark of Stars" in his hand, and looked intently at it, the officer was very surprised, so he casually chatted a few words, but unexpectedly found that he had been reading for 5 years, and this kind of "diploma" was rare in that place and at that age.
Seeing this very spirited young man in front of him, the resident officer felt that he was a good seedling, so he symbolically asked him: "Would you like to be a soldier?" This question simply made Chen Qingrong overjoyed, and he immediately responded cheerfully: "Yes! In this way, 17-year-old Chen Qingrong became a glorious soldier of the People's Liberation Army to defend his family and the country.
In the army, because he had read books and some culture, coupled with his intelligent personality and more serious work, he was quickly promoted to the squad leader of the sixth company of the Guangxi New Corps. The following year, he was transferred to the Sixth Company of the 531st Regiment of the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army as a gunner.
At that time, most of the anti-aircraft guns of the People's Liberation Army were captured or imported from the Soviet Union, and in this case, the mainland's anti-aircraft artillery units were naturally pitifully small, and they could not pose much of a threat to the invading aircraft, which also led to the extreme arrogance of THE US warplanes during the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and repeatedly invaded the northeast territorial airspace of the mainland.
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How to solve this big problem? There is only one way, and that is to continuously expand the anti-aircraft artillery unit. However, because it was just established, when Chen Qingrong joined the anti-aircraft artillery company, it could be said that everything was in ruins, everyone did not have much experience in anti-aircraft artillery operation, and everything started from scratch.
It's just that Chen Qingrong didn't give up, he worked hard to learn professional knowledge during the day, reviewed the content of the class at night, and even when he went to the toilet, he always held a book to read. Kung Fu pays off, relying on his own efforts, Chen Qingrong learned all the elements of anti-aircraft artillery operation in the shortest possible time.
After gradually mastering the operational skills, Chen Qingrong began to participate in the combat of the troops. The mission is to observe the enemy aircraft and lock the target for the gunner by calculating the flight trajectory of the enemy aircraft. It was with his help that Chen Qingrong's anti-aircraft artillery unit had shot down several US fighters in succession, and he was also awarded the second class merit.
2. In the face of danger, he was ordered to receive training
In 1955, Chen Qingrong, who had been in the army for four years, officially joined the Communist Party of China and was promoted to the 539th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment as a radar squad leader. Because he was seated, the radar squad fighters under his command have repeatedly completed the work of command coordination, emergency response, and resource allocation, and dealt a heavy blow to the US fighters.
However, in 1956, the air defense situation on the mainland gradually became more severe, because the latest U2 reconnaissance aircraft developed by the US Air Force began to enter service that year, which could perform tasks at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters day and night (the best Soviet Meg-17 was only 13,000 meters high), and such high-quality performance was not much different from the "artifact" for the new China that had just been established at that time.
In short, in the face of a height of 20,000 meters, the artillerymen could not help these "little guys" at all, and generally saw that they could only do nothing, so the U2 reconnaissance plane of the United States at that time was simply rampant, and even entered the far-reaching hinterland of the mainland to investigate top-secret projects, posing a serious threat to the mainland's national defense and security.
By this time, Chen Qingrong, who had already made some name for himself in the PLA anti-aircraft artillery unit, was out of the woods —in January 1959, he was called to the office of Guo Zhaorui, commander of the missile battalion at the PLA Air Force Technical College, and received a central order.
That is, the People's Liberation Army will set up a unit code-named 543 to deal with U2 reconnaissance aircraft that invade their airspace recklessly. The Air Force Academy will also establish missile training facilities correspondingly, and draw cadres with good social relations, relatively high education, and strong professional skills from anti-aircraft artillery units from all over the country for training. And as the backbone of your radar technology in the anti-aircraft artillery unit, the Central Military Commission decided to transfer you in.
At that time, in order to deal with the new fighters of the US military, we first purchased and equipped 23 p-20 coordinate guided radar technologies from the Soviet military industry research department, and then signed the "Sino-Soviet Agreement on New Technologies for National Defense", allowing the Soviet Union to teach us the use technology of the SAM-2 surface-to-air missile, which was of the world-class performance at that time.
The SAM-2 with p-20 coordinate guidance radar technology can roughly deal with U2 reconnaissance aircraft, so we urgently need people who understand technology to give full play to the maximum performance of these weapons, which is why the Air Force Technical College should concentrate the backbone talents of the anti-aircraft artillery unit and all concentrate on the formation of unit 543 to study and train together.
After receiving this order, Chen Qingrong gladly accepted it, and then came to the first battalion of the surface-to-air missile corps of the Chinese Air Force for the first time. At that time, Liu Yalou, commander of the Air Force, said to the officers and men who came to report: "The party and the people have not taken it lightly to hand over such sophisticated weapons to you!" You must learn the cutting-edge technology of Big Brother of the Soviet Union as soon as possible. You must keep it absolutely secret, not even your parents, wives and children. ”
Chen Qingrong came with the instructions of the party and the people, so he listened to these words very carefully and very clearly, and this memory is a lifetime...
At that time, the training was directed by a deputy battalion commander of a missile battalion from the Soviet Union, chen Qingrong in the process of learning, the professional knowledge taught by the Soviet experts was very reliable, and whenever he had time, he would take the initiative to find comrades-in-arms to study the data together, and everyone would exchange with each other and learn together. Although it is sometimes red-faced due to different views, the results obtained are also very significant, because everyone's professional and technical level has improved rapidly.
Perhaps many of us think that learning professional and technical knowledge, the weak cultural foundation of the warriors is the biggest problem. In fact, it is not the case, the poor conditions are the biggest hidden danger, because the cultural aspect can be compensated by diligence, but the conditions cannot be improved at that time.
Because it was in a special era, the economic development of the whole country was relatively slow, and the economic level was also very low, so even if Unit 543 was a special secret force directly formed by the central government, the living conditions were still very difficult. At that time, many soldiers did not even have the conditions to live in the new barracks, which led to many of them having to cut branches, weave grass curtains, and sleep in tents on the grass.
Of course, the most difficult is in the summer, because in extremely hot weather, they also need to withstand the heat of more than 40 degrees emitted by hundreds of electron tubes in the training car to carry out a series of training.
Although the conditions were not good, none of the soldiers complained because they were full of pride in their mission. They are well aware that if Unit 543 can be put into actual combat as soon as possible, it can greatly reduce the threat posed by U2 reconnaissance aircraft to our national defense and security, and Unit 543 will be the "air shield" of the Republic to some extent.
After that, they studied and trained without sleeping and forgetting food, and after all, Chen Qingrong and his party gained results, and after witnessing the teaching results with their own eyes, the Soviet missile experts did not hesitate to praise these soldiers, they said: "Chinese officers and soldiers have been able to penetrate and master cutting-edge technology in a short period of time, which is unique in the history of air defense!" ”
Third, successfully shot down the US U2 reconnaissance plane
However, although the theory has passed, there are still some problems if we really want to put it into actual combat, such as the limited number of SAM-2 surface-to-air missiles on the mainland at that time, and the territory of the mainland is 9.6 million kilometers, which makes us unable to form a multi-channel dense interception and protection network.
How to deal with this situation? At that time, Luo Ruiqing, chief of the general staff, thought of a method: transport the SAM-2 surface-to-air missiles to military trains, ambush them where enemy planes may fly, and "wait for the rabbits" to arrive.
Although this method is too "rigid," it does have some effect, because one day in 1962, there was really an opportunity to wait, when chen Qingrong's missile battalion deployment found that a U2 reconnaissance plane of the United States suddenly turned around and rushed straight into Nanchang into the firing circle 20,000 meters above Jiujiang.
The battalion commander of Chen Qingrong's unit quickly gave the order to attack, and in just 20 seconds, they fired two SAM-2 missiles in a row, although the first missile failed to hit the target, but the second successfully destroyed the U2 reconnaissance plane.
After seeing this scene, Chen Qingrong and his comrades-in-arms were boiling, and they cheered and hugged each other. This is definitely a historic moment, because they not only achieved the first victory since the establishment of the missile battalion, but also dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the United States and enhanced China's reputation in the world.
Of course, this achievement was all exchanged by Chen Qingrong and these fighters with their life's work. According to Chen Qingrong's wife, he later recalled: That period was extremely difficult, and it was difficult for him to see her husband in the army. I only know that he ran around in a car pulling missiles, from Jiangnan to northwest, never fixed place.
Fast forward to October 16, 1964, the first atomic bomb on the mainland exploded, which represented our success in breaking the monopoly of the United States and the Soviet Union in nuclear weapons. And our achievements have also made the United States extremely jealous, and it has begun to frequently dispatch U2 reconnaissance aircraft deep into the hinterland of the mainland to find the location of the mainland's nuclear material factory.
If these US reconnaissance planes are allowed to collect relevant information, then our "nuclear secrets" will be leaked, and this will undoubtedly greatly reduce the deterrent power of continental nuclear weapons. Therefore, Chen Qingrong's unit once again accepted orders to deploy near the nuclear material factory to deal with the US military reconnaissance.
However, this time, the U2 reconnaissance plane of the United States obviously had experience, and it seemed to have foreseen the threat from the plausible PLA missile unit on the ground and fled before our army was ready to launch the missile, which once made Chen Qingrong and these missile soldiers busy in the air.
In order to solve this problem, Chen Qingrong and his comrades-in-arms learned a lesson and developed a "close and fast combat method," that is, to turn on the guidance radar when the enemy plane was close to the sky. This method controls the "mine firing to launch" in the shortest possible time, almost exerting the human reaction ability to the limit, and in this way, the enemy fighter naturally does not have enough reaction ability.
At that time, it was precisely by relying on this "extreme method of warfare" that in the six years from 1962 to 1968, the mainland shot down five U2 reconnaissance planes before and after, and we have since become the country with the most U2 reconnaissance planes shot down in the world. Of course, Chen Qingrong, as one of the core of the missile force, can achieve such achievements, and chen Qingrong is obviously indispensable.
4. Hide identity for 51 years
On July 23, 1964, because of his outstanding contributions, Chen Qingrong's unit was collectively received by the central leaders and took a group photo with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and other party and state leaders, which was also the first reorganized unit that Chairman Mao had ever met.
Chen Qingrong, as one of the backbone members, was awarded two medals of honor by the Political Department of the Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and of course included various honorary certificates.
In 1969, Chen Qingrong left his beloved military camp and returned to his hometown of Wuxuan County, Guangxi With his wife transferred from the army. However, this hero who once struggled on the "hidden front" did not stop moving forward, and for a long time after retiring from the army, he worked as a farmer in the Dongxiang commune of his hometown, continuing to contribute to socialist construction.
At that time, in the hearts of the old family, this young and honest veteran was definitely the most selfless. Although his life was very poor, when he saw that his production team encountered difficulties, he took the initiative to donate more than 2,000 yuan saved by the army to buy tractors for the team.
His selflessness and hard work were all in the eyes, so later he was transferred to the Xuanwu County Agricultural Machinery Department. In fact, as a veteran soldier of the People's Liberation Army with a certain cultural attainment and has undergone systematic training, he is still a qucai to work in the agricultural machinery department. However, Chen Qingrong did not have the slightest dislike, and later not only served as the director of the agricultural machinery safety supervision station, but also worked as a teacher in the nearby mechanized equipment school.
The director of the county agricultural machinery bureau once commented: Chen Qingrong is simply a workaholic! And this is not a joke, as a "small expert" in repairing agricultural machinery, Chen Qingrong managed more than a thousand hand tractors in the county at that time, no matter where and when a traffic accident occurred, even if it was three or more midnight, he would get up from bed and rush to the scene to deal with the accident.
And this spirit of conscientious work also made him an advanced worker in Liuzhou District Supervision in 1984. In 1988, Chen Qingrong retired honorably. But after retirement, he was still not idle, always looking for opportunities to participate in various social activities and promote patriotism until his death in 2012.
Chen Qingrong had devoted his whole life, and he could have asked the government for something with his glorious past, but he did not do so. How indifferent was he to fame and fortune at that time? Not only did he never boast about the merits he had achieved, but he even kept silent about some details of his life in the army.
It is for this reason that even his daughter does not know the legend that he helped lay down the U2 reconnaissance plane for the country. If it were not for the fact that 51 years later (51 years from the transfer of profession to the discovery in 2020) accidentally pulled out the "Certificate of Meritorious Service" that recorded the glory of the past from the suitcase, I am afraid that she would not have known in her life that her father was a second-class meritorious person of the country that Chairman Mao had met.
In fact, Chen Qingrong's life is the epitome of the soldiers of that era, their generation has suffered for three generations, even if they become veterans, they still think about how to contribute to the country in obscurity. Without the efforts of these ancestors, there would be no prosperity and strength in our present new China, and the spirit of these warriors should always be worth remembering and learning from.