Everyone is the protagonist of life, and everyone is the protagonist of the times. The protagonists we pay attention to today are 71 years ago, who went to tens of millions of miles to defend their homeland - "a hundred miles", "a thousand miles" and "thousands of miles".
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"161st, Wu Baili"
"162nd, Wu Qianli"
"677th, Wu Wanli"
……
In the movie "Chosin Lake", Wu Qianli has a notebook on which the names of each comrade-in-arms of the Seven Companies are recorded.
For those who had already died on the battlefield, he would draw a circle with red pen, such as his brother Wu Baili, and the new soldiers would write down their numbers and names, such as his brother Wu Wanli.
Image from the movie "Lake Chosin"
Looking at their stories, we feel as if we have walked through a time tunnel and returned to the battlefield where the cannons were full of fire, feeling the heroic epic of the mighty mountains and rivers 71 years ago.
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In the movie, Wu Qianli led the seven companies to destroy the regimental headquarters of the US "Polar Bear Regiment", which left a deep impression on the viewers.
71 years ago, in the Battle of Chosin Lake, there was indeed such a heroic company.
There is also such a heroic company commander, his name is Li Changyan.
Li Changyan, then company commander
In November 1950, in the Xinxingli area of Chosin Lake, Li Changyan, then commander of the 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion, 239th Regiment, 80th Division, 27th Army of the Volunteer Army, led the soldiers not only to destroy the command post of the "Polar Bear Regiment" regiment, but also to capture the regimental flag of the "Polar Bear Regiment". The flag is now on display in the Military Museum.
The flag of the "Polar Bear Regiment" displayed in the Military Museum
In this battle, the 4 companies killed more than 300 enemy soldiers and captured 12 howitzers. In December 1950, he was awarded the title of "Xinxingli Combat Model Company" by the 27th Army of the Volunteer Army, and the company commander Li Changyan was awarded the second class merit.
The 4th Company also paid a heavy price, and countless soldiers died in this battle, including the instructor Zhuang Yuandong.
Zhuang Yuandong, then instructor
According to the recollections of his comrades-in-arms, during that battle, Zhuang Yuandong and the soldiers found two enemy tents, and after killing a small group of enemies, they began to search for cold items. Zhuang Yuandong pulled off a colorful square "blanket" and draped it over his body. Suddenly there was a gunshot outside the tent, and he immediately threw away his blanket and joined the battle, after which he was unfortunately shot and killed. And the "blanket" that zhuang Yuandong once draped on his body was the flag of the "Polar Bear Regiment".
Zhuang Yuandong died in 1950, while the story of the battlefield continues.
In October 1952, 21-year-old Huang Jiguang, facing the sudden sound of the enemy's machine guns, rushed to the enemy bunker in spite of himself, blocked the muzzle of the enemy's spray with his chest, and died heroically.
In 1954, Huang Jiguang's younger brother, Huang Jishu, joined the army and went to Korea.
In 1958, before the Chinese Volunteer Army withdrew from Korea, Huang Jishu came to the place where Huang Jiguang died, and before leaving, he brought back to his hometown a handful of dirt soaked in his brother's blood, along with the shrapnel found. In the decades that followed, the Huang family had more than a dozen descendants join the army to serve the country.
These thousands of figures on the battlefield are like the hundreds, thousands, and miles in the movie:
There are martyrs who have sacrificed heroically, there are heroes who have matured and taken on responsibilities, and there are warriors who are growing up. Together, they wrote a heroic epic.
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During this year's "Eleventh" holiday, at the Martyrs' Cemetery of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in Shenyang, many citizens spontaneously came to pay homage to the shrine.
Tomb of Yang Gensi, martyr of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
In front of the tomb of martyr Yang Gensi, in addition to flowers, there is a model of the "J-15" fighter and several photos of the "J-20" fighter.
On the back of the photo is a sentence: "We have advanced fighters, a strong air force!"
In a word, it is a mixture of feelings. We comforted the martyrs with great strength, but whenever we think of that war, we still have a hard time, if there were so many fighters now, maybe we would have sacrificed less...
At that time, to what extent was the level of disparity in weapons and equipment between the two warring sides?
In the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, a chart of "a comparison of the heavy equipment of one army of the Volunteer Army (with about 50,000 posts) and a division of the US army (with about 17,000-25,000 posts) shows the gap between the equipment of the two sides more intuitively:
The US military has 149 tanks of various kinds, 35 armored vehicles, 72 howitzers, 64 anti-aircraft guns, and 22 liaison aircraft;
The numbers marked on the back of these equipment of the Volunteer Army are: 0.
It was under such harsh conditions that we still won the victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and forged the courage and conviction of the volunteer army.
But this war has really taught us a lot. For example, we learned how to win a modern local war, learned to "build while fighting," and promoted the modernization of the army: we have created a powerful air force, a powerful artillery, and begun to build armored troops in an all-round way, and other technical arms have also developed greatly.
We also have a deeper understanding of the cruelty of war and the preciousness of peace.
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Chinese Volunteer Army crosses the Yalu River (Photo by Li Min)
At the War Museum for Resisting US Aggression and Aiding Korea at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, there is a huge historical photograph of a group of heavily armed volunteer soldiers marching like dragons on the snow-white Yalu River.
Looking at this picture, these distant backs, sometimes I wonder, what are they thinking while they are on the move?
The answer is many. Maybe they are thinking about their parents, wives and children, friends, maybe they are thinking about what kind of new house they will build when they go home in the future, or they are just thinking about what to eat for the next meal.
However, they really hold the belief of "defending the family and defending the country", firmly believe that behind them is the motherland and relatives, and for them, they have embarked on the battlefield of ice and snow without hesitation.
It is because they believe in the future that we have the present.
Producer: Zhu Yonglei An Chuanxiang
Copywriter: Li Jieqiong
Video Producer: Feng Wenya
Reviewer: Qiu Xiaomin