Source: Jun Zhengping Studio · Chinese Military Horn
01
On February 5, 1951, the volunteer soldiers who fought the American army on the south bank of the Han River with their flesh and blood could not care what this day meant to them.
It was not until the next day that meat, charcoal, candy, and condolences from the motherland appeared on the ground that the soldiers recalled yesterday's Chinese New Year's Eve, nibbling on potatoes frozen into "ice lumps" and repelling round after round of fierce attacks by the enemy.
The young warriors couldn't care less about this night. Exhausted volunteer soldiers were in a near-starved state of ammunition, and the American planes overhead launched endless bombardments. Peng Dehuai had a sober understanding of the current situation: "In less than three months, after three consecutive major battles, it was winter, and there was no air force cover, nor had it taken a day off, and the reduction of combat and non-combat personnel was close to half of the troops..." At this time, the ground offensive strength of the "United Nations Army" had reached more than 200,000, the sea and air forces were more than 100,000, and more than a thousand US aircraft of various types formed a large and small bomber group to rush toward the volunteer positions under black pressure.
In order to reverse the passive situation on the battlefield, taking advantage of the traditional Chinese New Year, the US military also began a series of psychological offensives. Before the blockade position, they set up a huge horn and called out secret agents to shout to the soldiers who were holding their positions: "Communist soldiers, you are celebrating the New Year today!" But how bitter you are to stay in the mountains!" You can't eat, you can't drink water, your feet are frozen and swollen, you have to have your limbs amputated, why are you? You've got people to sell it!" You can't win the 'United Nations Army'. Surrender! There is a bridge over this side, there is Sherwin-Williams ham..."
American planes scattered a number of leaflets on the volunteer positions. One of them depicts a family sitting around a table, with volunteer soldiers in military hats wearing military hats in the shape of a skeleton, with the caption "Your seat will be empty." Some leaflets read: "The New Year is in sight, but your wife can't afford to pay at home, and you are likely to die on the battlefield of a foreign country." ”
On the day of family reunion, such pictures and words are difficult not to make the volunteer soldiers who have traveled thousands of miles miss the moment of reunion with their relatives, but this does not shake their determination and will to fight against the "United Nations Army".
The volunteer soldiers clutched the few pieces of wrapping paper they had been given and wrote "China" on it, and they were reluctant to eat it, thinking that when the enemy was defeated, they would taste it again. But until many of them fell forever on the hard frozen soil of the Korean Peninsula, the few pieces of candy remained in the pockets of the volunteer soldiers close to their chests.
That year's Spring Festival became the first and last Spring Festival for many volunteer soldiers to leave the motherland.
02
In the sky, countless fighters dropped thousands of tons of high-explosive bombs, incendiary bombs, and flares over their positions; on the ground, thousands of gun barrels of various types were spraying projectiles filled with high explosives day and night. The U.S. military's propaganda posters were full of arrogant mockery: Can the human body block the river? But by the end of the 87-day fourth campaign, the "UN forces" had to accept the embarrassing reality that an average of nearly a thousand people a day had to advance 1.3 kilometers.
U.S. Commander Ridgway recalled the lack of air superiority and the reliance on inferior equipment: "If we had not had strong firepower, often received close air support, and firmly controlled the sea, Chinese might have crushed us." ”
The US Twenty-fifth Division, which was crushed by the volunteers, exuded awe: "After the fight, the US army even did not believe in the vitality of the Chinese soldiers. They really couldn't understand how there was still resistance on the positions of the Chinese army that had been burned by petrol bombs and ploughed by artillery shells. ”
What kind of army can crush the "steel and iron backbone" built by the powerful industrial and military forces of the "United Nations Army"? In the Memoirs of Qin Jiwei, it is written: "What kind of group is our army? There are those who burn themselves and do not move until they are sacrificed, those who block the hole of the gun with their chests, those who hold the explosive canister and die with the enemy, those who use their bodies as gun racks for comrades-in-arms, those who use their bodies as telephone lines, those who selflessly give up the hope of life to their comrades-in-arms, and those who leave the threat of death to themselves. All this burns the cause of Westerners: for Chinese, they should be reacquainted, they must be impressed! ”
03
Back to the Spring Festival in 1951, it was the third year of the founding of New China. At that time, in the hearts of many Chinese, "wife and children hot kangtou" is the best happiness, and the return of fallen leaves and souls to their hometowns is generally considered to be the best destination for Chinese to die. But why do so many people choose to go abroad, go forward and succeed, and die without heeling?
Is it dignity?
A professor at Kyoto University in Japan said: In 1949, your Chairman Mao said that Chinese people stood up, and none of the Japanese around us believed it! Looking at your recent history, is it possible that he can stand up with a single word? Later, when you invaded Korea and crushed the Americans from the north to the south, we felt that China was really different from the past.
Li Jide, a veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, said: "I am the only one, and I have to fight with you. ”
Is it peace?
Jia Wenqi, a veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, recalled that when he was passing through Pyongyang, he saw an old Korean woman, holding a hammer, warning people that the US planes were coming to bomb again, and he was particularly sad to see it, and he had only one thought in his heart: Our mother, our countrymen, and our compatriots can no longer brave the cold wind to ring the alarm bell and say that Japanese devils are coming or who is coming to bully us, and this situation cannot appear again in our country!
Ling Xingzheng, a veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, said: "Who am I fighting for?" For whom do I carry the gun? For the sake of father, for the sake of the mother, for the liberation of the people, the liberation of the people. ”
Is it safe?
The Volunteers had no bulletproof vests, no steel helmets... Several of the poorly made grenades they carried exploded less than half as powerful as the U.S. army. Grain is ground into powder from rice and grains and packed in a long tubular cloth bag that can be maintained for sixteen days if necessary. The medical equipment of the Chinese army is rudimentary, and it must not be compared with the medical team of the "United Nations Army", the front-line ambulance station and the perfect rear hospital... But they are always fighting forward, fighting no matter what they do.
It is said that Van Vleet, who lived for a full hundred years, kept reflecting until his later years: Where did the US military lose this battle? He could not have imagined that under the Shangganling Mountains, where the cannons could not open, the volunteer army used the "East-West Chang'an Avenue" to name the underground passage on the "38th Line" and used the phrase "Beijing after the Five Holy Mountains" to express its determination to defend Shangganling and defend the motherland.
Wang Fenghe, a veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, said: "The hearts of the people of the motherland and the hearts of our volunteers in Korea who are far away from the motherland are linked. ”
04
On April 11, 1951, there were still ten days left before the end of the Fourth Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Wei Wei, who walked down the Pine Bone Peak with tears in his eyes, published the reportage "Who is the Loveliest Person" soaked in the hot blood of the martyrs in the People's Daily:
"I eat snow here precisely so that the people of our motherland do not eat snow. They can sit in a bright room, make a pot of tea, keep a small stove, and make whatever they want. ”
"If I squat in an air raid shelter here, the people of the motherland can not squat in an air raid shelter, and they can walk on the road without panic." They can ride a bicycle, they can walk, they can walk and talk. ”
"Dear friends, when you take the first tram in the morning to the factory, when you carry the plow rake to the field, when you finish a cup of soy milk and carry your school bag to school, when you sit at your desk and start the day's work, when you stuff apples into the mouths of children, when you walk with your lover... Friend, do you realize that you are in happiness? ”
The heroes said, "As long as we can make the people happy, it is our greatest happiness."
More than 70 years later, the tram iteration is a shuttle subway, the plough rake is replaced by the automatic plough, when the adults take a sip of all kinds of coffee and milk tea in their hands, when the students open the convenient computer to start the class, when you sit in front of the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner table of the family reunion, when you stuff the red envelope of blessings into the child's hand, when you spend the evening with your family... Friend, do you realize that you are in happiness?
Kissinger said in On China: "China has always been well protected by the bravest among them. ”
On February 7, 1951, on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Cao Yuhai, the "steel battalion commander" of the Thirty-eighth Army, fell on the cold Korean battlefield. I don't know if he remembered to keep his fiancée on the hot streets of Wuhan. At that time he said, "I don't need happiness, I am not born willing to fight, but for peace, for the happiness of the people of the world, I am going to fight." In his relics, the warriors found pillowcases embroidered with the words "Eternal Knot and One Heart" and a letter from his fiancée: "I will wait, waiting for you to return victoriously." I embroidered a pair of pillows for you, please carry it, just like I am by your side..."
That year, the 28-year-old volunteer hero engaged the enemy's short soldiers and fell to the ground in a charging posture...
On February 11, 2021, Chinese New Year's Eve night, Liu Lixia couldn't help but send a red envelope to her son Xiao Siyuan who "knew she couldn't receive it", and she also knew that the good-looking girl in Xiao Siyuan's wallet had become a regret that her son took home to see but never missed the appointment. On the day of the sacrifice, he was still dreaming of the future: "She supported me to work as a troop commander, and I wanted to marry her and cook for her for a lifetime..."
This year, the 24-year-old Shubian hero broke through the siege and returned to rescue his comrades without hesitation, fighting until the last moment of his life...
The heroes said: "Behind us is the motherland, for the peace of the people of the motherland, we cannot take a step back!" ”
That year, they died for the people and won us years of peace.
Today, many heroes of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea have left us, but there are still some who are still around us and inspire us, such as Wang Qingzhen, Ding Chaozhong, Li Huawu, Wang Renshan, Yi Luheng, Zhao Lihe, Gao Jinwen, and so on. When people look back at that extraordinary history again, when people read those extraordinary lives again, the spirit of heroes who are not afraid of sacrifice, merit and pride, and dedication for life ignites the flame in the hearts of countless people. It will illuminate the past, illuminate the present, and illuminate the future.
Here, we pay tribute to all the old heroes who threw their heads and spilled their blood in the fires of war! Sincere greetings to the vast number of officers and men who adhere to the battle position and guard the reunion of thousands of families!
(Produced by Jun Zhengping Studio and China Military)