On June 29, 2021, the state awarded the "July 1st Medal", the highest honor in the party, for the first time, and one of the special recipients was carried into the General Assembly Hall by the staff. Before arriving at the Great Hall of the People, he was led by a neat team of red flag courtesy cars and motorcycles, solemnly and solemnly delivered to the Great Hall, where a long red carpet was laid at the entrance of the Great Hall, flanked by honor guards who had been waiting for a long time.
This is the highest courtesy of the mainland to treat major meritorious people, and who is this old man who can enjoy such high-level courtesy?
The old man's name is Wang Zhanshan, and he is now 92 years old. As early as the old man was less than 10 years old, he had already become acquainted with the Chinese Communist Party.
Wang Zhanshan's Communist Road
In 1938, Wang Zhanshan's hometown of Fengnan County, Hebei Province, was occupied by the Japanese army. Wang Zhanshan's father organized the villagers to unite, accept the leadership of the Eighth Route Army, and fight with the enemy; at that time, the whole people were really soldiers, the children were also very brave, and there was a special anti-Japanese children's regiment, Wang Zhanshan was a small hero like "Wang Erxiao", and the main job in peacetime was to stand guard and put up sentry.
In 1946, at the age of 17, Wang Zhanshan had become a heroic and appealing militia leader. The Japanese were beaten away, but the Kuomintang security team was waiting. The security team killed four Eighth Route Army soldiers, specifically for Wang Zhanshan and the villagers to watch, and threatened everyone: This is the fate of the Eighth Route. Wang Zhanshan was indignant and angry, he just wanted to do it, not only thought so, he also immediately said, "Dry! ", just one word, clean and neat, righteous awe-inspiring. The knives were all on the neck, and Wang Zhanshan couldn't say that the Communist Party was not at all bad.
Thanks to the timely rescue of the local guerrillas, Wang Zhanshan was able to retrieve a life. But his determination to follow the Communist Party in making a revolution was even stronger.
In August 1948, Wang Zhanshan was actively preparing to participate in the Liaoshen Campaign, and at the same time, he also received good news from the organization to approve his application to join the party. Instructor Ma Zhanhai led Wang Zhanshan to take the oath of joining the party, and before taking the oath, he solemnly said to Wang Zhanshan: "When you join the party, you must rush to the front when fighting." Wang Zhanshan nodded without even thinking about it: "I'm not afraid!" Wherever the party points, I will fight! ”
This is a vow, and it is also the creed that Wang Zhanshan has scrupulously adhered to all his life. Before the war, he joined the party under extremely frugal conditions, did not hang the party flag, and Wang Zhanshan did not read the "Communist Manifesto", but he had already come into contact with the Communist Party of China when he was a teenager, and he had already seen from the Communist Party and the Eighth Route Army what a communist should look like. This is more real than the power of reading the manifesto once.
The capture of the Jintang Bridge is a hard battle fought with faith and tenacious perseverance. On January 15, 1949, Wang Zhanshan's company was ordered to take Jintang Bridge. This place was a necessary place to attack Tianjin, so the enemy also sent heavy troops to guard it. It is said that the Jintang Bridge is arranged solidly.
The battle began, the enemy could not hold out in the fortified fortress, only with machine gun strafing, the instructor Ma Zhanhai and several commandos bore the brunt of the attack. This gave Wang Zhanshan a very strong impact, and the predecessors who introduced themselves into the party organization were sacrificed in this way, and emotions of grief and indignation surged into his heart. Wang Zhanshan thought that he must complete the task and reassure the instructor. He packed up his emotions, quickly analyzed the situation, and decided to take a few commandos to blow up the enemy's biggest resistance to the end- the bunker.
One man annihilated 400 enemies, and he fought in blood
After a bloody battle, Wang Zhanshan's company finally won the Jintang Bridge, but the 100-man team only had 24 people left at the moment. The leaders rewarded them as the "Jintang Bridge Company" and took a group photo with these 24 heroes. In 2019, the celebration of the 70th anniversary of New China, there is a "Jintang Bridge Company" battle flag in the battle flag team. At this time, Wang Zhanshan was in front of the TV set, carefully watching the live broadcast, when he saw this battle flag, Wang Zhanshan was so excited that he almost burst into tears, he said, this battle flag is our company more than 80 comrades-in-arms with their lives in exchange.
There is also a war that the old man still remembers for more than 60 years. In 2020, a movie based on the Battle of Jincheng of the Volunteer Army was released, "King Kong Chuan", and the grandson knew his grandfather's experience, so he took him to the cinema for the first time to watch. The young people were so shocked by the fierceness and cruelty of the movie that they could not speak, but Wang Zhanshan said that the real battlefield was much more tragic than this. This battle is also a past that Wang Zhanshan cannot forget in his lifetime.
Before the war began, Wang Zhanshan took the initiative to ask for battle at the first time, requesting that the most important and arduous tasks be entrusted to the three platoons led by him. Subsequently, Wang Zhanshan led three platoons to reach The 408.1 Heights where the enemy attack was fiercest. The mission requirement is to guard the defensive position to the death and wait for the opportunity to counterattack.
In the early morning of July 18, 1953, the United States troops, which were very well armed and numerically superior, once again launched a fierce artillery attack on the 408.1 and 408.2 heights where our army was stationed. Wang Zhanshan's company soon had only 76 men left. The enemy was strong and we were weak, but Wang Zhanshan and his comrades-in-arms were not timid, let alone flinched, and there were no bullets, so they took stones and smashed them, thus repelling the enemy's repeated attacks. At that time, they only had one belief in their hearts, that people were in the position, and only those who died in battle would not give way.
Although the position was temporarily held, the next day, wang Zhanshan's entire company was only 31 soldiers left, company commander Zhang Bingzhen, deputy company commander Wang Qingshan, instructor Zhang Gongzuo and a platoon leader were all seriously wounded, other cadres had been killed, and the only one who could still fight was Wang Zhanshan, the third platoon commander. The instructor held his last breath before falling unconscious, and entrusted the task of defending the position to Wang Zhanshan. Before Wang Zhanshan could speak, the instructor fainted. Although the instructor did not hear it, Wang Zhanshan had already made up his mind not to take half a step back.
Taking advantage of the gap between the enemy's stop attack, Wang Zhanshan led the soldiers of the two highlands to quickly build trenches and attack, and could not rest for a moment. In the early morning of the next day, the rested enemy troops once again bombarded the two positions indiscriminately, and Wang Zhanshan ordered everyone to find fortifications to hide well, and after the enemy wasted a large number of shells and thought that they were safe, they were only a few meters away from the volunteer army, and the soldiers who were holding back all their strength began to concentrate their firepower and counterattack strongly. Time and time again, our combatants are depleting, and so is the ammunition.
The tenacious fighting power of our army made the enemy choose to avoid the front, and in a more immoral way, the enemy besieged our two highlands and cut off the food supply for the highland defenders. It was thought that the warriors would choose to surrender or lose their fighting power because they ran out of food, but the volunteer army was really a giant-like army, and in the first three days, they had to eat the only remaining grain, had to drink urine to quench their thirst, and filled their hunger with wild vegetables. Although the enemy does not yet know this situation, this is not the way to go. Wang Zhanshan took advantage of the night to find the corpses of the enemy under the position in the dark and search for weapons and ammunition from them. They found 18 machine guns, more than 10 rifles, and a pocket of grenades. The artists were bold, and they went into the enemy's room again and found half a bag of turnips, canned food, and even two boxes of cigarettes.
With such an alternative supply, Wang Zhanshan and the warriors held out for four days and four nights, resisting 38 attacks and killing at least 400 enemy troops. The soldiers' eyes, mouths, legs, and arms were injured in many places, but they had no way to retreat, only to hold on, support themselves with faith, and must hold their positions and insist until their comrades came to meet them.
When the 486th Regiment of the Volunteer Army arrived, Wang Zhanshan was already dying, and his breath was so weak that he could hardly detect it. The soldier who cleared the battlefield saw that his head was bleeding and he was unconscious, and at one point he was placed next to his comrades who had already died. It wasn't until Dong Huaizhong, a propaganda officer and also Wang Zhanshan's fellow villager, came to interview him, heard the bad news, and wanted to send his fellow villagers to the last side, that he found that Wang Zhanshan seemed to still be breathing. Everyone rushed the hero to the hospital for rescue.
After a full 4 days, Wang Zhanshan was able to get out of danger. As soon as he "came back from the dead," he was only concerned about the battle situation, and his first sentence was to ask: What about the position, is it defended?
The Jincheng blockade laid the foundation for the victory of the large army to carry out the counterattack, and Wang Zhanshan was awarded the honorary title of second-class combat hero by the central part of the volunteer army. He was also awarded the National Flag Medal of the First Class by North Korea, and the 3rd Platoon was awarded the Collective Second Class Merit. After returning to China, Wang Zhanshan and other heroes were received by Chairman Mao in Beijing and left a precious group photo. Later, as a special representative, he accompanied Premier Zhou to welcome Kim Il Sung's visit to China.
Wang Zhanshan was still in Korea, and the good news and pennants of his military exploits were sent to Tangshan. Parents happily take pictures with pennants and are very proud of their sons. Wang Zhanshan knew that in this battle achievement, there was the blood and lives of comrades-in-arms. Now that he is still alive, he will live well for all his comrades who have sacrificed.
Wang Zhanshan lived well for his comrades-in-arms
Wang Zhanshan's daughter said that her father was very strict with herself, and he did not even allow the organization to buy him a birthday cake, always saying that she was already enjoying the happiness of her comrades-in-arms. The first half of his life belonged to the battlefield, experienced more than 40 major battles, suffered 38 wounds, and still has a piece of shrapnel on the back of his head; but he gave all the credit to yesterday and decided to continue to make new contributions in the second half of his life.
Back at work, my family wanted to lean back against a tree to cool off. When he was the commander of the regiment, his sister wanted to send her son to the army to serve as a soldier, but Wang Zhanshan sternly refused, saying that the child's road should be broken by himself. For his children and families, he always reminds him that he must not let down his vigilance. In his view, maintaining advanced nature and purity, and being upright and honest from top to bottom, is the magic weapon for the Communist Party to always stand in an invincible position. In his work, Wang Zhanshan himself never accepted invitations from the masses and units, and even when he went to other places on business, he only ate ordinary meals of the minimum standard. Under Wang Zhanshan's ears, even if his son had an emergency to go out and could not get a car to do it, he would not use his father's bus, because it was a mistake.
Wang Zhanshan served as the deputy commander of the Anyang Military Subdistrict in Henan Province, but he was ridiculed by his old partner: People call you Commander Wang, I think you are a poor commander. It turned out that after Wang Zhanshan retired, he was suddenly idle, and his wife was worried that he would not adapt, so he entrusted him with the task of buying vegetables every day. As a result, Commander Wang always buys some dry "yesterday's dishes" or simply takes back the scraps. None of these dishes were willing to ask for, and Wang Zhanshan looked very wasteful. He often recalled how happy it would be to have tortillas and hot noodle soup stuffed by the villagers when he used to fight in the past. Now that the conditions are good, they have been won by the broad masses of the people and comrades-in-arms, and we must cherish them and not waste them.
Not only food, but also the decorations in the old commander's home are sewn and patched, and if they can be used, they will not be thrown away. That's why his wife joked about calling him a poor commander. But in fact, he knew that his wife would not really be angry. At the beginning, Wang Zhanshan was a big hero in the minds of many girls, Prince Charming, and Wang Zhanshan had only one requirement for the object, and the other party must be a communist. Because Party members understand Party members, the hearts of Party members are aligned.
He cut himself, did not cut the children, took money to buy books, bought teaching supplies, and funded more than 20 students; in 2020, he paid a special party fee of 3,000 yuan, he said, the country is now in difficulty, this is what I can. Daughter Wang Xiuxiang has always remembered that the left pocket of her father's jacket, the closest place to the heart, is specially used to hold party fees. Before the flood, earthquake, SARS, as long as he knew that the country needed, he always had to pay this party fee package.
True heroes always bow their heads, always grateful, always humble. In 2021, the Republic awarded the July 1st Medal for the first time, and Wang Zhanshan was impressively listed, and he proved with his life that he was worthy.