At the end of September 1950, as one of the representatives of the 20th Army of the Ninth Corps of Sanye, Yang Gensi went to Beijing to attend the National Congress of Combat Heroes. On October 1, Yang Gensi, who had made outstanding achievements, was invited to the Tiananmen Observatory to attend the ceremony of the first anniversary of the founding of New China.
This year, Yang Gensi was 28 years old. No one expected that this would be the last time a young hero would see the grand ceremony of the country.
Yang Gensi (front row, second from right)
Upon returning to their units, the troops had already marched to the Korean battlefield. Yang Gensi and his comrades chased all the way, and finally caught up with the large army in Shandong, and then crossed the Yalu River together.
At the same time, Xinhua's reporter Hua Min also followed the 20th Army into Korea to carry out news reports on the upcoming Battle of Chosin Lake.
Yang Gensi and Hua Min are both "old and new fourth army" and old acquaintances. Just a few days before Yang Gensi's death, Hua Min was visiting the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion, 172nd Regiment of the 58th Division to which Yang Gensi belonged.
At dinnertime, Yang Gensi's 3 companies suddenly received a combat mission, and the soldiers were ready to go. Yang Gensi and the warriors smiled heartily and said to Hua Min:
"Reporter Hua, if we go this way, we may not be able to come back."
Hua Min and Yang Gensi touched each other with rice bowls and said for him and the warriors: "You must come back alive, and I will report on your combat deeds." ”
Xinhua News Agency reporter Hua Min on the North Korean front
A few days later, bad news came back. The 3 companies and 3 platoons of fighters led by Yang Gensi were almost all killed in the 1071.1 heights outside The Outer Reaches of Hagaru-ri. After repelling eight enemy attacks, Yang Gensi ordered the wounded to evacuate with the machine guns in the company, while he held out alone with a barge gun, three grenades, and a 10-pound package of explosives.
The evacuated wounded witnessed a tragic scene:
Their young company commander, after running out of bullets and grenades, picked up the explosive package and died with the American troops who climbed into the position.
Hearing of Yang Gensi's sacrifice, Hua Min was deeply saddened, and while the wounded had not yet been transferred, he hurriedly found them to understand the situation at that time. On December 24, 1950, Hua Min's 1,000-word newsletter, The Immortal Yang Gensi Hero Platoon, was broadcast in northern Korea, in which it read:
"The enemy counterattacked many times to no avail, concentrated heavy artillery and B29 heavy bombers, and poured explosive bombs, burning bombs, and even gasoline on the top of this hill, and they used tons of steel against this platoon of people... By the time he fired his last bullet, more than forty enemies had climbed close to the top of the mountain. At this critical moment, Yang Gensi grabbed a pack of ten pounds of explosives, pulled the fuse, and rushed towards the enemy group. ”
Hua Min did not expect that the words that Yang Gensi said to him when they were separated had unfortunately become a fact.
Yang Gensi's life was fixed at the age of 28. Yang Gensi's bone and blood were sprinkled on the shore of The Changjin Lake, where water was dripping into ice.
Yang Gensi's sacrifice also made the US military feel extremely shocked. They couldn't figure out what kind of power would make the volunteer soldiers so afraid of death.
In fact, as long as we look back at Yang Gensi's short life, it is not difficult for us to find the root cause.
Hatred of the old society, imperialism
In 1922, Yang Gensi was born in Taixing, Jiangsu Province (now Gensi Village), he was actually surnamed "Yang", his real name was "Yang Gengxi".
Yang Gengxi's father, Yang Detang, was a sharecropper, and the Yang family had long been oppressed and exploited by the landlords. Although the birth of Yang Gengxi brought a glimmer of hope to the extremely poor family, it also made the burden on Yang Detang's shoulders a little heavier. After all, the family has to eat with one more mouth.
In order to let a large family survive in that chaotic world, the life of Yang De Tang was even busier. However, in that old society of cannibalism, no amount of hard work was only exchanged for a "not to be starved to death". The young Yang Gengxi grew extremely thin due to long-term malnutrition.
The landlord kept forcing rents and constantly snatching things from the Sheep's family under various pretexts to "pay off debts", which also forced the Yang Detang couple into a desperate situation. When Yang Gengxi was 8 years old, Yang Detang died of exhaustion on the grain field, and a few days later, Yang Gengxi's frail and sick mother also died of depression.
His parents died, and in order to get a mouthful of food to eat, the young Yang Gengxi became a "cow" for the landlord's family, and was forced to help cultivate the land. Endless exploitation, ruthless scolding, Yang Gengxi deeply resented the old society of cannibalism.
In order to escape such a miserable life, Yang Gengxi and his brother went to Shanghai together and entered the Lin Ji carpet factory to do hard work. He was not only a laborer, but also a child laborer. He had thought that he would be able to live a good life without the landlords, but this old social factory, which regarded the workers as cattle and horses, gave him another kind of darkness.
Working all day, driven to work like livestock, the brothers were devastated and their bodies were severely overdrawn.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the carpet factory closed due to the ravages of the Japanese Kou. Soon after the brothers returned to their hometown, Yang Gengxi's brother died tragically under the continuous torture of poverty and disease.
Soon after, Yang Gengxi heard that there was a "team of the poor" who was determined to lead the poor to make a revolution, overthrow the "three mountains", realize the people's mastery, and resolutely fight the devils. Deep hatred for the old society in his heart made Yang Gengxi resolutely join this team.
In 1944, he joined the New Fourth Army. Due to the staff's misheard and mistakenly written during registration, "Yang Gengxi" became "Yang Gensi".
In fact, those U.S. troops had no idea what Younggensi had gone through, nor did they understand what thousands of volunteer soldiers like Younggensi had gone through. These volunteer soldiers came from the midst of suffering and went through all kinds of hardships to look forward to the founding of New China.
Every volunteer soldier has a hatred of the country and a family in his heart, and if anyone wants to endanger his own home country, they will surely see death as a homecoming. Despite being in the cold and freezing weather, although he was at an absolute disadvantage in equipment and firepower, he could not shake Yang Gensi's perseverance.
Yang Gensi has a deep hatred for imperialism, one of the "three mountains". Such hatred made him not afraid of death.
Faith in New China and Communism
Out of deep hatred for the "Three Mountains", Yang Gensi joined the New Fourth Army.
Since then, Yang Gensi has received an education in cultural knowledge and an education in communist thought, allowing him to become a hero with outstanding merits while also allowing him to complete the transformation and sublimation of himself.
Yang Gensi, who had just joined the army, always couldn't wait to ask the squad leader and platoon leader: "When will there be a war?" Why not go to war? ”
His platoon leader, Sun Fusheng, asked, "Why do you want to fight?" ”
Yang Gensi replied, "I have a deep vendetta against the Blood Sea, and I want to fight the landlord who bullied me, in order to avenge." ”
To this young man who was full of hatred, Sun Fusheng told him in a serious tone: "The New Fourth Army is a revolutionary contingent, a contingent of the people, and is for the liberation of tens of millions of oppressed people. ”
Slowly, Yang Gensi came into contact with communist ideas and realized that thousands of people, like him, had a book of blood and tears. Yang Gensi realized that fighting a war is not to avenge a single person, but to fight for the great cause of communism.
So, Yang Gensi began to study. While learning cultural knowledge, I also learned many combat skills and blasting skills.
When he first participated in the battle, although Yang Gensi was armed with a spear, he captured the enemy's gun. Less than half a year after enlisting in the army, he was awarded the title of "Model Of Combat" for the first time.
In November 1945, Yang Gensi joined the party, and he wrote an oath in his volunteer book:
"I have given my whole life to the party!"
In June 1946, the New Fourth Army attacked Tai'an. Despite being hit in the face by enemy bullets, Yang Gensi was still brave, throwing 18 grenades in a row to capture the commanding heights occupied by the enemy. After the war, Yang Gensi was awarded the title of "Combat Hero" of the regiment for the first time.
In October 1946, in the Battle of Lunan Guoliji, Yang Gensi braved the enemy's tight fire blockade to transport Lare three times in a row and blew up the bunkers of the enemy's forward positions, known as the "King of Demolition".
In January 1947, in the battle of Lunanqi Village, Yang Gensi continuously blasted the enemy's bunker group, creating favorable conditions for the total annihilation of the enemy in Qi Village.
In this battle, Yang Gensi burst into the enemy's bunker with an explosive pack and shouted:
"If you don't surrender, I'll blow you up." If you dare not hand over your guns, I will immediately pull the strings. ”
An entire platoon of enemies in the bunker was captured by Yang Gensi alone, setting a record for single-man capture of the enemy, and was rated as a "first-class combat hero in East China" for his merits.
In the Battle of Huaihai in 1948, Yang Gensi made great achievements. In the Battle of Yongcheng Xia, which attacked Qiu Qingquan's corps, Yang Gensi led a platoon and repelled a reinforced company of the enemy. In the face of the constant counterattack of the enemy's offensive, Yang Gensi led the soldiers to fight fiercely for a full 6 hours, making it difficult for the enemy to advance, and was awarded the honorary title of "People's Hero of the Third Class in East China".
In fact, after experiencing the sublimation of thought and the baptism of war, Yang Gensi's heart also possessed supreme faith in addition to hatred. This is a beautiful vision for the happy future of New China, and it is also a spirit of throwing away one's head and spilling blood for the sake of the revolution.
Relics of Yang Gensi
Such beliefs are what Yang Gensi called the "three disbeliefs" at the mobilization meeting before entering North Korea:
Don't believe there is an unfinished task! I don't believe there are insurmountable difficulties! Don't believe there is an invincible enemy!
Like Yang Gensi, every volunteer has such a strong faith in their hearts that they are not afraid of death, which the U.S. military cannot understand.
Yang Gensi's faith inheritance
Like Yang Gensi, thousands of volunteer soldiers followed in the footsteps of the former and followed, holding the steel torrent of the US army with their flesh and blood.
After Yang Gensi, "Yang Gensi-style" heroes like him who swore to die and died with the enemy continued to emerge. There are historical records that there were 38 in the Linqingjiang counterattack and 68 in the Battle of Shangganling.
In October 1952, after Huang Jiguang's death, three comic strips were found among his relics, one of which was "Yang Gensi".
Yang Gensi once said to Hua Min, "We may not be able to come back this time", why is it not the inner monologue of these heroes? They knew they would pay with their lives, but they were still determined to complete the impossible task of blocking, to defeat the enemy armed to the teeth.
Faith in communism, hatred of imperialism, has been deeply immersed in their marrow.
It is a legacy of faith and a source of strength for them.