Anyone familiar with modern history may know General Zhang Zizhong, who was not only a famous anti-Japanese general, a great national hero, but also the supreme general who sacrificed himself in the Allied powers in World War II.
People who know General Zhang Zizhong are not unfamiliar with the name "Cao Tingming". Cao Tingming joined the army at the age of 22 and later became a guard under General Zhang Zizhong, responsible for protecting the general's personal safety at close range. In the War of Resistance Against Japan, he fought desperately with the Japanese army, followed the National Revolutionary Army to annihilate countless enemies, and made great contributions to the victory of the War of Resistance.
Cao Tingming's greatest wish to defend his family and country throughout his life is to return to his hometown and meet his family. At the age of one hundred, the old man finally got his wish, stepped on the train back to his hometown, and found his way home.
Happy to hear about the family news
For Cao Tingming, a veteran of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, this is destined to be an unusual day. On this day, he got up early as usual and freshened up. Even though he is nearly a hundred years old, the self-discipline that belongs to the soldiers engraved in his bones has long made him develop the habit of getting up early, and it has been like a day for ten years.
Early in the morning, he received an unknown call. Looking at the long list of unfamiliar digital numbers displayed on the screen, Cao Tingming did not immediately pick up the phone to answer. After all, there are many cheaters in these years, and as a soldier, this little vigilance still needs to be there. Although he didn't think he was rich, there was nothing worth cheating on.
That being said, he had an intuition that the phone call was very important to him. This feeling came suddenly, but it made him feel inexplicable palpitations. With a subtle sense of nervousness, Cao Tingming finally answered the phone.
"Cao Lao! Your family has finally found it! On the other end of the phone came the other person's excited and excited voice. However, what responded to him was a long silence and silence.
The old man who heard the news did not seem to have any reaction, but just stood in the same place, motionless and silent. But if you look closely, you will find that the old man's hand holding the phone is tightly clasped, so strong that it seems to crush the phone; the still stiff and straight back is trembling slightly, showing that the owner of the body is not in a calm mood at the moment.
The old man's eyes were red, and there seemed to be tears sliding down his wrinkled face.
After nearly eighty full years away from home, he finally found his family!
It is said that the boy has tears and does not flick, that is not to the sad place. Who knows the bitter taste of the decades of uprooting and uprooting and conquering the west?
Left home to join the army
Cao Tingming was born in 1914 in a small village in Lingqiu County, Shanxi Province. The living conditions at that time were not good, and it could even be said that they were poor. In addition to him, there are other siblings in the family who need to be supported by their parents, so when he is young, he often does not have enough to eat and wear.
The brothers wore tattered clothes on a rotational basis, and the daily meals were already pitiful, not to mention a little more oily and fishy. However, despite the family's tight clothing and food, life is still stretched. For more than a decade, my parents have been in debt.
In order to pay off his family's debts, in 1936, Cao Tingming, who was already 22 years old, resolutely sold himself into the military camp and became a member of the 29th Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
It is false to say that there is no reluctance to say that there is no such thing as a close relative who has been living together for more than twenty years. On the day he left home, this man, who had been strong since childhood, who did not say a word or leave a tear even when he was bullied while working in the landlord's house, blushed in front of his other parents.
The hardships of ordinary people who join the military are often unimaginable. Wading through mountains and rivers, eating and sleeping in the wind, and being ready to fight and even die at any time. Whenever the night is quiet, looking at the moonlight in the sky, Cao Tingming will always miss his hometown and relatives. He always looked forward to the day when the war was over, to return to his hometown and be reunited with his family.
But what he did not expect was that this protracted war of resistance would last for nearly a decade. Countless casualties were inflicted during this period, ranging from brave soldiers to innocent and injured people. In the past decade, many families have been broken and displaced. Cao Tingming also lost contact with his family during the turbulent war.
After the war, Cao Tingming did not think about finding his family. However, at that time, communication was not developed, and he did not have any clues in his hands, and finding his long-lost relatives was tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.
Later, after settling in Chongqing, marrying and having children, Cao Tingming gradually lived a stable life. However, on such a big day as becoming a parent, there was no parent Gao Tang on top, and no brothers and siblings on the side, which became an indelible regret in Cao Tingming's heart.
Just like this, year after year, from thirty to white-haired, Cao Tingming never stopped thinking of seeing his parents and relatives one day.
Fortunately, Heaven had mercy on him, and in his lifetime he finally let him wait for the news of his relatives. After solemnly thanking the volunteers on the other end of the phone who were eager to help, Cao Tingming hung up the phone, and his mood could not be calmed for a long time.
Back home
Returning home is the dream of every veteran of the War of Resistance. Cao Tingming is no exception. People are old, and their bodies are not as good as a day. When fighting the Japanese army in the Battle of Taierzhuang, Cao Tingming's legs were unfortunately injured by shrapnel, leaving him seriously ill, and now he has to sit in a wheelchair.
But as long as he thought of returning to his hometown and seeing his relatives soon, Cao Tingming felt that his spirit was suddenly much better, and it seemed that even his body bones had become hardened.
In order to be able to return home healthy, he underwent two years of rehabilitation training in the hospital.
In 2013, after 80 years of waiting and going through countless difficulties, this 25-year-old man who had left his hometown and had been wandering for a long time finally got on the train home, which lasted 7 days and returned to his hometown of dreams. At this time, he was more than 100 years old.
Perhaps it was the near-homesickness, cao Tingming, who had not changed his face when facing a fierce enemy on the battlefield in the past, and who was still fearless in the rain of bullets and bullets, was in a rare nervous and anxious mood at the moment.
However, when Cao Tingming came to the familiar door with excitement and anticipation, he was greeted by two pieces of cold yellow earth. His parents had long since passed away.
Over the years, because there has been no news of his relatives, Cao Tingming can still comfort himself, his parents are still alive and well, and he still has the opportunity to support filial piety.
However, when the lonely grave of his parents really appeared in front of his eyes, Cao Tingming soberly realized that his parents were no longer alive, but turned into a pile of cold dry bones, buried under the dark earth.
Cao Tingming did not understand that life, old age, illness and death are the norm of life. Even if he is a wooden worker, it is perfectly normal for his parents to be buried for safety long ago. He understood, just didn't want to believe this cold fact.
Although he had made psychological preparations before coming, this blow still seemed too straightforward and heavy for Cao Tingming.
Only to see that this old man who originally looked energetic seemed to have been sucked out of all the strength of his body, and his tough and upright figure like a green pine suddenly collapsed, and the whole person seemed to be an instant old teenager.
Cao Tingming sat in a wheelchair, bowed his head and silently covered his face, and did not cry. As a soldier, the pride and tenacity in his bones did not allow him to easily show his weakness in front of others.
Even so, it was even more uncomfortable than crying, and even the volunteers and villagers standing far behind him felt the deep pain and sorrow emanating from the old man.
Looking at the old man's lonely and lonely back, people realized that the indestructible heroes in the eyes of the world were just ordinary people who would cry and laugh, hurt and hurt.
The tree wants to be quiet and the wind is endless, and the son wants to be nurtured and the relatives are absent. The greatest regret and sorrow in life is nothing more than this. Cao Tingming was immersed in great mourning, silent, did not speak for a long time, and the dark eyes were desolate: he once again lost his "home".
This kind of pain and regret of losing a loved one, he has experienced more than once...
As a soldier fighting on the front line of the battlefield, Cao Tingming deals with the god of death almost every day. But people's hearts are made of meat, Rao is accustomed to life and death, and when he sees his comrades-in-arms who once fought side by side and are as close as brothers die tragically one by one, he still can't accept it calmly.
For Cao Tingming, they are comrades-in-arms who can be entrusted with their backs and entrusted with life and death; brothers who are not related by blood and are connected by one heart. They are not relatives, but more like relatives.
Among these comrades-in-arms, of course, there is also the "commander-in-chief" he most respects and admires, General Zhang Zizhong.
In Cao Tingming's eyes, General Zhang Zizhong is not only a decisive general, but also a tough guy with an iron backbone, but also a reassuring and reliable existence like a "parent".
After the leg wound he suffered in the Battle of Taierzhuang was basically healed, Cao Tingming was transferred to the 33rd Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army and served as a guard for General Zhang Zizhong, responsible for protecting the safety of the other side at close range.
Previously, because the relationship between the two was not close, there were not many opportunities for each other to get along, so Cao Tingming's understanding of General Zhang Zizhong was not deep. Perhaps when he was a child working in the landlord's house, he was accustomed to seeing the lord who was high up and bullying, and in his subconscious, a big figure at the leadership level of "commander-in-chief" should have more or less a shelf.
Unexpectedly, however, General Zhang Zizhong was very generous and easy-going. He never put up a shelf or shake the face of the soldiers, but was very sympathetic and caring. One of the soldiers under his command urgently needed money to treat the old man, so he took out a few oceans from his pocket without saying a word and asked the other party to send it home.
He was also very kind and courteous to the people. He did not rely on military authority to exploit the people, bully the old and weak women and children, and did not allow his soldiers to do harm to the people, even if they broke a bowl of the people, they had to pay compensation.
However, in the face of the enemy, General Zhang Zizhong was more resolute and tough than anyone else, and he was never merciful. He led his soldiers into the line of fire, fought the Japanese devils, and always rushed to the forefront of the battlefield. In the face of the Encirclement and Attack of the Japanese Army, he did not flinch, but commanded the troops to charge into the front, vowed to fight to the death, and killed the enemy army with more than a few thousand troops more than ten times.
He said: "The determination to die for the country and the nation is not clear, the stone is not rotten, and it will never change in the slightest."
All along, General Zhang Zizhong has been like a light guiding everyone forward, a spiritual pillar for the soldiers. He was always calm and calm, as if the sky could withstand falling. Even if it is a dangerous dilemma, with him in it, everyone will feel very at ease.
For Cao Tingming, being a soldier of General Zhang Zizhong and a guard of the general was the greatest honor of his life. Therefore, when he heard the news of The death of General Zhang Zizhong, he almost collapsed.
He could never forget the nightmare of hearing someone tell him that "the commander-in-chief is gone" after he returned from his overseer mission that day.
Shocked, sad, sad, confused... Of course, there is also the regret of not being able to protect the general on the side, and the regret of not being able to fight alongside the general and die together. All kinds of complex and heavy emotions were intertwined and piled up like a boulder, and he was almost out of breath.
Since then, the death of General Zhang Zizhong has become an indelible scar on Cao Tingming's heart. To this day, every time he goes to the general's grave to worship, he still mourns and tears like rain.
The knot of the heart is finally solved
The war made Cao Tingming lose too much. The general was killed, his comrades left him one by one, and now even his parents are gone.
After a long time, when Cao Tingming finally eased up from his extremely sad mood, when he looked back, he saw a large group of people, young and old, full of comfort and concern.
They are either relatives of the elderly, or accompanying volunteers, and villagers who come to visit. Just now they had all been standing quietly in the same place, silently accompanying the old man, and no one came forward to disturb them.
Among them, there are lively, lovely, innocent children, vigorous and young college students, and white-haired and still full of spirits.
These people were similar in age to the countless children, youths, and elderly people that Cao Tingming had seen during the war, but they were so different. In their eyes, there is no fear, no pain, no numbness, no despair. A quiet and peaceful face that had not been eroded by the brutal war was filled with a clean and pure hope and goodwill.
Looking at them, Cao Tingming's mood was strangely calmed. A subtle emotion called touch and relief filled his chest, warm and melting, smoothing the pain in his heart little by little. Although the war took too much, it also bought today's stability and peace.
It is this precious peace that allows children to no longer have to worry about fear, hide in Tibet, and can grow up healthy and strong in the sun; young people can freely choose the path of life they want to take, better display their talents, and realize their ideals and ambitions; the old people have suffered most of their lives, and now they can finally enjoy their old age in peace.
Without the victory of the War of Resistance, there would be no life full of hope today. Cao Tingming thought that if the dead parents, relatives, and generals and comrades-in-arms had a spirit in heaven, they should also be relieved to see such a peaceful and happy scene now!
Thinking like this, Cao Tingming gradually relaxed, and the boulder pressed against his chest seemed to become much easier.
He gathered his sad emotions, smiled and nodded to the volunteers and villagers who were accompanying him, and then insisted on getting up from his wheelchair and walking step by step to his parents' graves with the support of his juniors.
Feeling the land belonging to his hometown under his feet, Cao Tingming's heart was more stable and tranquil than ever. He reverently incensed the second elder, and then shouted softly and firmly, "Your son has returned home!" ”