Wang Zhicheng: Brilliant veterans of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea written on the Yellow Land
● Wu Wanzhe
【Editor's Note】 On the eve of this year's Spring Festival, a friend recommended to me Mr. Wang Zhicheng, a near-elderly veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in Fengxiang County, and asked me to write an article to publicize it. I braved the cold to go to the interview, and later organized several caring people to come and offer condolences. The manuscript was written, but for some reason it could not be published. Unexpectedly, I got the news today that the old man had suddenly passed away on the 7th. With the consent of the family, this article is hereby published to show the condolences to the old man and wish the old man a good journey.
The biggest regret in my life is that I have never been a soldier, so I have a special feeling for people who have been soldiers in my life.
The army is a special melting pot, the life of a soldier has been integrated into a special temperament, when things are fierce, the style of courage, the faith is persistent, no matter how the road of life is later, it can always bloom a more brilliant flame than ordinary people. In recent years, I have written about some veterans in my search for the Xifu Odd People, which further proves my feelings and increases my love for this group.
In 2021, when the rat tail bull head was headed, a friend recommended to me a veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea who was nearly old. After several contacts, the old man's son Wang Yanhu happily agreed, so I braved the severe winter cold and wind and dust to rush to Henan Tun Village, Nanzhi Town, Fengxiang County, for an interview. At that time, CCTV was broadcasting the poetry and historical drama "Crossing the Yalu River" to resist US aggression and aid Korea, and the latest situation of the veterans was spread by me in the circle of friends, and several caring people immediately wanted to go to comfort them, and I volunteered to be a guide, and on an afternoon with the sun, seven or eight people, bringing their own gifts, took two cars together and sent their love for a veteran.
The old man's name is Wang Zhicheng, born in September 1935, now 86 years old, because of the weight of his youth, now his legs and feet are somewhat inconvenient, but his thinking and mental state are good, and he still remembers the events of decades ago. He joined the army in 1951, participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, was demobilized in 1956, and served as a village group cadre for many years, running the small village of Tun in Henan into a famous "three red flags" for agricultural development in Shaanxi Province. He himself has been rated as advanced in various categories 15 times, and has also served as the "people's representative" of Fengxiang County and Baoji City for many years, and has been specially hired as an "agricultural technical consultant" by the Baoji Municipal People's Government, becoming a prominent figure in the glory of Xifu...
After many contacts, the image of an old rural grassroots cadre who has been baptized by the wind and clouds of the times, heroic, wise, strong and courageous, stands majestically in front of my eyes...
In October 1950, the new China, which had just stood up, encountered the provocation of US imperialism, the great War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea broke out, and the good sons and daughters of China formed a volunteer army, "majestic and angry, crossing the Yalu River" and fighting with the Korean people against the wolf of US imperialist ambitions armed to the teeth. In February 1951, Wang Zhicheng, who had just turned 15, secretly signed up for the army, because he was too young to be in the army, so he lied and changed his age to one year older, plus he was a big child since he was a child, and the army accepted it. He rode a large white horse, wearing a large red flower made of paper on his chest, and the whole village beat gongs and drums to send farewell. His parents, worried about his safety, cried like a tearful man, and kept sending him to the town of Yu to get on the train, but he smiled happily. He arrived in Xi'an on the same day, lived in Hongmiaopo, ate a bowl of braised radish vegetables, and the next day he issued a military uniform, reorganized his training, and more than a month later he went to Andong, Liaoning Province, where he was incorporated into the Logistics Department of the 139th Division of the 47th Army, and went to Korea in April to participate in the war.
The 47th Army was a glorious unit, one of its predecessors was the 359th Brigade, which created the radiant "Nanniwan Spirit", and was also the main force of the "Black Mountain Blockade Battle" that fought the most tragically in the Liaoshen Campaign. At that time, the volunteer army had launched four consecutive campaigns to drive the US troops south of the 38th Line, the US imperialists were ashamed and angry, and they were ready to fight a big battle, and the mainland was also preparing for a "protracted war." The troops took turns to fight, and the 47th Army was at that time suppressing bandits in western Hunan Province, that is, it was hastily assembling to the north and entering the DPRK in April. For more than three years, the ministry twice undertook defensive operations on the east and west banks of the Linjin River and the west coast, smashing the "summer offensive" and "autumn offensive" launched by the US imperialists, forcing the US imperialists to return to the negotiating table, restart negotiations at Panmunjom, and sign an armistice agreement. The 47th Army has produced internationalist fighters Luo Shengjiao, Hao Zhixin, Yan Cheng'en, and the "Tiande Mountain Hero Company" and other combat heroes and heroic collectives.
After Wang Zhicheng entered the DPRK, he first participated in the construction of an airfield. Every day, he and his comrades-in-arms pulled and transported the material stones, and worked for more than a month, when the airport was suddenly blown up by US imperialist planes. He was transporting stones on the river beach a kilometer away, and he saw the bombs over the airport raining down, the explosion sounded through the clouds, and many comrades were killed and injured. Thereafter, he was transferred to the Logistics Service as chief of staff. It is said that it is a service attendant, but in fact, a person is responsible for several positions such as security, communication, and order. Within a few months, he felt that this work was not interesting, so he applied to go to the forward troops, but the director of the department did not agree, and also taught him to recognize words and learn culture. Later, seeing that he was serious, flexible and accounting clearly, he was transferred to the warehouse and served as a full-time oil administrator.
For this reason, he also had emotions, but the director of the department patiently enlightened him: "It is good that you want to go to the front line to fight, but there is a division of labor in revolutionary work, you should not underestimate the management of this oil, oil is the 'blood' of modern machinery, people cannot live without blood, cars and armored vehicles without oil are not also a pile of scrap iron?" At that time, their 47th Army produced a big hero Luo Shengjiao, although he had not been on the battlefield, he was also rated as a special hero, and the logistics department carried out the activity of studying Luo Shengjiao, and expressed their determination one after another, "to build a logistics and transportation support line that cannot be broken and fried."After that, he no longer dared to mention anything to the organization, and honestly continued to do the oil management post.
The Division's Logistics Department is a regimental-level unit that must guarantee the storage, management, and transportation of more than 10,000 people in the division with weapons, ammunition, daily necessities, and other materials. The US imperialists have a powerful air force, and the strikes are extremely accurate and tragic, and there has been a situation in which more than 50 drivers of a car regiment have all been killed. In order to avoid the bombing of enemy aircraft, they fought with the enemy and stored the oil in the tunnel, which was covered with several meters of earth and stones. In that era, refueling was not as easy as it is now, and all by hand, the oil had to be first punched out from the underground large oil barrel, and then a small barrel was carried out, climbed high and added to the car, tank, and all had to be carried out in the dark at night, and the oil was spilled if it was not good, and the gasoline at that time was more expensive than gold.
He practiced hard internal skills, and his eyes were practiced like "night eyes", even in the dark and flickering night, he could do "accurate" without any mistakes. In some cases, it was also involved in transporting supplies to the front lines and pulling the wounded back. You can't turn on the lights at night, and you must try your best to avoid enemy aircraft bombing during the day. He witnessed the deaths of many of his comrades-in-arms. Once, on the way, he was bombed by enemy planes, and two comrades from Gansu were killed on the spot, and he luckily escaped the disaster. Looking back at the 3 years and 5 months of his entry into the DPRK, although he did not directly fight with the enemy, he was also a person who was "born into death", and he also suffered minor injuries many times, and there are still visible wounds on his left hand.
The most brilliant achievement of the elderly Wang Zhicheng is in the countryside.
In The village of Tun, Henan in Fengxiang County, outsiders think that it is "the place where Henan people live", which is actually a big misunderstanding. The "river" here refers to the "Yong River" originating from the Yongshan Mountains in the northwest of Fengxiang County, an important tributary of the Wei River, which runs through the middle of the Fengxiang Plain and is the mother river of the Fengxiang people. "Tun" is the village. Taken together, it means "a village located south of the Yonghe River". The village has jurisdiction over 13 villager groups, more than 800 households and 3,000 people, more than 3,000 mu of arable land, Xibao North Line, 210 provincial highway transit, flat land, convenient transportation.
Wang Zhicheng served as a soldier for 6 years and was demobilized in 1956. According to the relevant regulations, he was assigned to work in the county public security bureau, but because his father was the head of the Catholic Church, he was affected and did not attend the class. At that time, the rural areas were engaged in a cooperative movement, and because he had learned a certain culture in the army and had a lot of knowledge, he soon joined the party, led the masses to run primary cooperatives, senior cooperatives, and people's communes, helped grain stations collect grain, assisted supply and marketing cooperatives in running agency stores, and wore that faded yellow military uniform.
Time progressed to the 1960s and 1970s, the labor of the production team became more and more tight, but the grain harvest failed year after year, and people had no food, horses and grass. But he did not believe in this evil: How could a good place in Pingchuan, a horse, be unable to defeat grain? "Corn stalks ring, change captains in the production team." No one dared to be the captain, but he actively signed up and vowed with determination: he will get the grain up and let the members have enough to eat!
The agricultural proverb says, "A crop is a flower, and it is all about dung." The first thing he did when he took office was to grasp the "fat", mobilize the family to change the pot and kang, use the old soil as fertilizer to the wheat field, and then lead the masses to pull a rack car, dig the ancient city wall in Fengxiang County, 10 miles away, and also apply it to the ground as fertilizer. The next year will indeed grow green crops. People nearby also went to dig the city wall, and in a few years, they pulled out a good end of the Ming city wall of gu fengxiang province.
He is not satisfied with the application of farm manure, but he has no indicators and no money to buy fertilizer. He learned that the Baoji nitrogen fertilizer factory produced an ammonia fertilizer at a cheap price, but the masses did not accept it and could not sell it. He wants to promote things in the country, how can he be wrong? He boldly pulled a few buckets and went up into the cornfield, where the corn grew particularly strong in the fall. This winter, he took the initiative to buy the first rubber reel cart of the whole brigade, ran a trip to Baoji in 3 days, and pulled back the ammonia water wheat. The people in the neighboring village did not understand, and laughed and said: "The people of Henan Tun have nothing to do, and run to Baoji to pull the water wheat mile!" Can you feed the wheat with more grain? At that time, people did not accept fertilizer, and called "fertilizer" "white money" and "white money"! As a result, the wheat of the other teams grew like fragrant heights, yellow seedlings, and had no strength; the wheat of their team grew thick and tall, black and black, and it was a great harvest, and the counties and townships rushed to hold on-site meetings in their teams to let him introduce his experience.
The fertilizer problem is solved, but drought seriously threatens the growth of food. He also pondered digging wells and turning the land into water. There were no machines in that era, and it was up to manpower to do anything. He used his brain, made his own drilling tools, manpower lifted the well, a well depth of forty or fifty meters, the difficulty is known. The well was completed, and he moved the brick yard to burn bricks, built the well wall with red bricks, and repaired the water channel. Year after year, a total of 7 deep wells were drilled, and the whole village could be watered in one week.
The fat and water are sufficient, and the grain harvest has been bumper year after year. The mu yield has increased from four or five hundred catties in the past to eight or nine hundred catties. In other villages, each person was only divided into one or two hundred catties and had no grain to eat; each person in their village could get five or six hundred catties, and they could not finish eating, and many cadres in the county also secretly ran to their villages to buy black market grain to eat.
The news shook its head across the city. Zhao Wenju, deputy secretary of the Baoji Municipal CPC Committee, personally went to the village to squat and identified Henan Tun as the "pilot unit for grain harvest in Baoji City", and Professors and breeding experts of Yangling Agricultural College Zhao Hongzhang, Li Zhensheng, Gong Rende, etc. came to visit as the university's experimental point and teaching practice base.
The food problem is solved, but the members have no money to spend. Wang Zhicheng also thought of engaging in side business to solve the problem of the masses spending money. Xinqin Paper Mill is a large enterprise, and the wheat grass used for papermaking is piled up in the yard. Once, he went to the paper mill to buy paper, and had no intention of asking them why they didn't pile up so many wheatgrasses? The people at the paper mill told him he couldn't find anyone. At that time, labor was strictly regulated, and private outflows were not allowed. As soon as he heard it, his eyes lit up, and he said, "I'll find you some people, okay?" The other party agreed happily. He reported to the village secretary, the village secretary also felt that it was a "business opportunity", and at the moment he was promoted to the brigade, a special sideline team was set up, and he was appointed as the captain, and the whole brigade dispatched more than 20 Ding Zhuang laborers to the Xinqin Paper Mill to engage in sideline business.
The wheat straw stack is eight or nine meters high, a bundle of wheat grass is hundreds of pounds, tall and large, like a mountain, set up a dangling wooden bridge board, many people look at the legs are weak, Wang Zhicheng took the lead to dry, one breath can carry more than a dozen bundles. The old Baoji people all remember that in the most prosperous place of the New Qin Paper Factory, the wheatgrass stacks were hundreds of meters, stacked like high mountains, far away, people saw that the stack was so good, how did it go back? This is Wang Zhicheng's masterpiece.
Nan directs 45 kilometers to Baoji, and in order to save money, people often walk and walk home. Each person earns 1.31 yuan a day of labor, subsidizes himself with one or two cents, and the rest of the whole team exchanges work points, which is used as collective income and dividends to members at the end of the year.
There's more to it than that. Wang Zhicheng and the paper mill people are mixed, heard that the paper mill is going to eliminate an old equipment, he thought, their village wheat fights a lot, wheat grass is also more, why not run a paper mill themselves? He told the secretary of the brigade that the secretary was very supportive, but the price was more than 10,000 yuan. At that time, ten thousand yuan was an astronomical amount, and Murakami could not come up with it. As soon as he had the opportunity, he proposed a "labor exchange", that is, using their labor to deduct the equipment money. The other party agreed. The machinery was transported back to the village, but no one would operate it, so he mobilized the sideline workers of the barley grass to go to the paper mill to "steal technology", work between labor, quietly sneak into the workshop to learn, and ask the paper mill master to help in the key link. Soon, Henan Tun Paper Factory was completed and started production, becoming the first village-run enterprise in Fengxiang County, and could earn more than 1 million yuan a year when it was booming.
The collective income of the village increased greatly, and the daily value of a labor in other villages was two or three cents, but their team reached more than one yuan, and the first-class labor force could earn nearly 40 jobs in January, divided into forty or fifty yuan, and it should be known that the general cadres' salaries at that time were only more than 30 yuan!
After that, Wang Zhicheng served as the captain (village director) of the production brigade. Baptized by the melting pot of the People's Liberation Army, he was self-denying, tenacious in his style, pioneering and enterprising, thoughtful and experienced, and because of his strong body, he was a big man of 1.83 meters, he also had great vitality and took the lead in everything, and within a few years, he had made the whole brigade (administrative village) flourish. The other villagers could not eat enough corn and rice, but the villagers could not eat the white-faced pots and helmets; the other team members had no money to spend, but their team had surplus money in their hands. The first in the county to buy tractors, planters, combine harvesters, grow cotton, and manage watermelons. The new countryside was planned and built, and the family was equipped with a clean and hygienic solar stove. The team built a brick-to-roof 9 large tile houses as the team headquarters, and the medal pennant hung a wall. It has also vigorously developed mass cultural and sports activities, formed a village basketball team and a table tennis team, competed in the agricultural leisure time during the New Year's Festival, won back many medals and pennants from the county and city peasant sports games, and the horse community fire is also famous near and far, and during the Spring Festival, it enters Fengxiang County every year to perform, and the cultural life of the masses is rich and colorful...
At that time, Henan Tun was the advanced of the whole province, and its experience and deeds were often published in the "Shaanxi Daily", broadcast on the provincial radio station, and was planted as the "three red flags" of agricultural production in Shaanxi Province. Outsiders saw the red eyes, the young man wanted to find an object, and the girls in fengxiang county rushed to Henan Tun.
Wang Zhicheng also has unlimited scenery, serving as the people's representative of Fengxiang County and Baoji City for many years, and was also invited by the Baoji Municipal People's Government as a "Baoji City Agricultural Expert" to introduce experience and guide work in various parts of the city. His life is like an autumn chrysanthemum, golden, brilliant, gorgeous...
Reform and opening up, the implementation of the rural contract production to households, he stepped down as a village cadre, and not willing to be poor, went out to earn a living, worked in the county mine development company, the county construction enterprise Xi'an management station, and later contracted to do some small work, to have a certain accumulation, set up a floor slab factory, because of the good quality, reasonable price, product supply is in short supply, marketing Linyou, Lingtai, Fengxiang and other places. After the age of 70, the company was managed by his son Wang Yanhu, who spent his old age in peace.
His life has also suffered great misfortunes. In 1978, he was leading the villagers to engage in side business in the Xinqin Paper Mill, and his ex-wife died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, leaving five children, the oldest in his 10s and the youngest four or five years old. The loss of his wife in middle age became the greatest pain of his life. Later, a village cadre introduced him to a widowed woman in Xi'an, and they formed a new family. The queen wife took two babies, and the little one was still nursing. Halfway husband and wife, former Lao Tzu and queen mother, a total of 7 children, there are many contradictions, but he handles it smoothly. Nowadays, several sons and daughters have become talented, including those who are bosses, teachers, workers, and grandchildren who have also gone to the party school of the provincial party committee. People thrive, unity and harmony. Wang Yanhu told me that his stepmother was very capable, taking care of her brothers and sisters when she was young, taking care of the housework, pulling grass and raising pigs, and helping her father to run the business. I smiled and asked the old lady, who still speaks Xi'an dialect, "Have you ever quarreled?" She laughed and said, "No! Decades, never. Between words, looking at his wife, his eyebrows were full of pity. The juniors are very filial to the two old people, and after several interviews, I found that my son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren and grandchildren always carried the old man out and in, and when there was sun, they used a walker to push it to the village alley to bask in the sun, all of which was very touching.
Wang Yanhu told me that all his life, my father only thought about the collective, thinking about the village, and the collective interests were supreme, and he never thought about himself and his family. He clearly remembers that his father was the first to work, the last to finish work, as soon as he came home, he had to eat and drink, and after eating, he went to ring the bell and led the members to work. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, I still have to go to the field to water the ground. Everything took the lead, and his legs were the root of the disease that fell at that time. That generation suffered hardships, and the advancement and honor were all bought with strength and sweat. It is said that the village chief also has a lot of power, but he is dedicated to the public, does not seek a penny of private interests, does not stick to a penny of cheap, does not go through the back door, strictly educates his children, children have several opportunities to recruit and go out to work, he has given up his children to others. Even in old age, he never reached out to the country for anything in return. Like an obscure, hard-working, diligent old cattle in the countryside of Xifu, my father endured hardships and stood hard work, immersed in hard work, and forged ahead tenaciously, and was truly an old communist of the style of "a widow cow serving the people, a pioneering cow for innovative development, and an old cattle that struggled hard".
To this day, many people still complain about the elderly, who failed to participate in the work after demobilization, and if they participated, it was also an old revolution, and their children were also "the second generation of cadres". He said that many comrades-in-arms had given up their lives, and it would be nice if he could come back in full swing, and he didn't care if he didn't work. Words that are simple and unadorned, but contain a great zeitgeist. Nowadays, the state issues some subsidies to veterans, plus pensions, etc., the elderly have an income of more than 1500 yuan per month, but he distributes the money to several grandchildren who go to school, and all the use of the family is taken care of by his son Wang Yanhu. Wang Yanhu now runs a business, influenced by his father, with strong social responsibility, doing good deeds for Murakami, supporting Murakami's cultural and entertainment undertakings, and funding a number of difficult college students, which is highly praised by the villagers.
In the era when the whole people were poor, the People of Tun in Henan flourished, and the young generation had no worries about food and clothing, and concentrated on studying, and later there were many college students in the village, and now there are many people who do great things in national ministries, provinces and cities. The village is advanced, the people are particularly enlightened in their thinking, have the courage to accept new things, and after the reform and opening up, many able people and industrialists have emerged, and the economic and social development is faster. Many people recall that Wang Laobo is a character who can pay attention to economic development in those eras and let the whole village live a rich life, and the spirit is commendable and unforgettable.
Exactly 70 years have passed since the smoke of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, many veterans of the war have passed away, and Wang Zhicheng's health and longevity are also a kind of happiness. The old man still speaks some simple Korean and sings "Song of the Volunteer Army" in the language of Chinese and North Korean Chinese. I asked him if he had received a meritorious service award in the army, and he said that there had been several times, and when he retired from the army, he brought back a few medals, but unfortunately he was lost by the children. He showed me the demobilization certificate and said that the original old certificate was personally issued by Marshal Peng Dehuai, and then Mr. Peng was overthrown, and in 1973 the county issued a new certificate, the content of which was very simple. In 2020, when commemorating the 70th anniversary of the victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission issued him a new and brilliant commemorative medal, which can be regarded as a belated praise for veterans.
Wang Zhicheng, an old man of the times, although he is only a farmer, the flame of his life is so dazzling, he is a witness and representative of the spirit of the times. Salute to the elderly, wish the elderly health and longevity, and the spirit continues to carry forward!
2021．2．9
(Wu Wanzhe, a member of the Shaanxi Writers Association, the Dramatists Association, the Screenwriters Association, the Cultural and Creative Association, a member of the Baoji Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature, and the chairman of the Municipal Essayist Association.) He has been a teacher, has been a politician, has engaged in corporate political work, has run magazines, has 3 million words of film and television and various literary works, filmed 5 movies such as "Qin Huo" and "Lü Jianjiang", 1 TV series, more than 30 micro-films, more than 200 column dramas, dozens of enterprise feature films, more than 100 reportage and essays, and several edits, including the film "Qin Huo", "Lü Jianjiang", the reportage "Burning to the End", the essay "Unforgettable Kneeling Prayer", the micro-film "Mo Bao", "Ten Thousand Family Dreams", "Chasing Dreams", "New Life", "Life's Lifting", "The Lifting of Life", "The Lifting of Life", "The Lifting of Life", "The Dream". "Searching for Roots", comedy sketches "Killing Rats", "Mountain Sister" and other more than 50 times in the international, national, provincial and municipal awards, won the Baoji City Model Worker, Baoji City Excellent Literary and Art Creation Award, Qinling Literature and Art Award, enjoy the Baoji Municipal Government Labor Model Allowance. In recent years, there has been a long series of documentary literature "Xifu Strange People", which has received widespread attention from the society and is known as "Baoji New Cultural Phenomenon". ）