On the evening of February 18, 1952, a U.S. C-46 transport aircraft was about to take off from a U.S. military base and head to Gusan, west of Teowon in northern Korea.
The plane carried 15 servicemen, 10 of whom were American special service instructors and the other five members of a special service team wearing volunteer uniforms.
They also carried pocket transceivers, Soviet rifles, small American-made grenades, and reconnaissance tools such as maps and compasses.
In the high sky shrouded in darkness, the plane flew toward the Gusan-gun area west of Chewon in northern North Korea.
It was in this area that the Continental Volunteer Army was ordered to rest.
The task received by the special task team was to infiltrate the mainland volunteer army after the airborne landing, collect relevant information on the volunteer army's ammunition depot and grain depot in the local area, and mark the target for the aircraft bombing.
At 2:20 a.m. on February 19, the plane arrived over its destination.
Harrison of the Far East Command Liaison Team, the U.S. secret service in charge of the operation, ordered the task force to prepare for the parachute jump.
Unexpectedly, one of the members of the special agent team took out the grenade that had been prepared in the moment before leaving the hatch, pulled the ring violently, threw the grenade into the depths of the cabin, and then quickly turned around and jumped away from the plane.
In this way, the enemy's spy sabotage plan was destroyed by the sound of explosions.
Subsequently, the two parachutes in front and behind also slowly landed in the moonlight and appeared in the field of vision of the volunteers.
It turned out that commander Harrison, in the moment before the grenade exploded, also quickly parachuted to escape with the agility of the agent.
Soon, Harrison was captured alive by volunteers, and the team ended up in the woods on another mountain.
After landing, he immediately found the troops searching the mountain, handed over his personal weapons and special agent supplies, and told the leader of the unit about the whole incident.
Captured Harrison also confirmed the member's actions in his confession.
After the troops reported the information of this person to investigate, they learned that he was actually Zhang Wenrong, a radio operator of the 180th Division of the Chinese Volunteer Army, who was captured by the US army in the Fifth Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, he raised a flag and revolted in pursuit of light
In 1926, Zhang Wenrong was born in Liaozhong County, Liaoning Province. Like many patriotic young people, he embarked on the road of joining the army and joining the army.
In August 1948, Zhang Wenrong was admitted to the 23rd Communications Section of the Kuomintang Chengdu Army Officer School, becoming one of the last batch of Huangpu students in the mainland.
After more than a year of intense and heavy study and training, Zhang Wenrong systematically mastered the radio reporting skills, and achieved excellent results in various assessments.
During his studies, Zhang Wenrong and many of his classmates were deeply dissatisfied with the Political and Military Corruption of the Kuomintang.
In November 1949, the main force of the Second Field Army and the first part of the Fourth Field Army began to march southwest under the command of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, liberating the whole province of Guizhou and most of Hubei and Sichuan, and then launched the Chengdu Campaign on December 8, encircling Chengdu from the southeast, southwest, and west.
At the same time, the Eighteenth Corps, under the command of He Long, commander of the Northwest Military Region, also marched south to pursue the retreating Hu Zongnan clique and marched straight to Chengdu from the north.
On the eve of the liberation of Chongqing, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Chengdu in a hurry, and under the protection of heavy troops, he was admitted to the Chengdu Army Officer School, in a vain attempt to command the Kuomintang troops in the Chengdu area to protect western Sichuan and then wait for the opportunity to counterattack.
However, chiang's regime has long been decayed, in the midst of turmoil, and complaining everywhere.
On December 9, the Kuomintang generals Lu Han, Deng Xihou, Pan Wenhua, and Liu Wenhui of the local forces of Dian, Sichuan, and Kang announced uprisings.
On December 10, Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly ordered Hu Zongnan to stay in western Sichuan to clean up the mess, while he himself fled to Taiwan by plane. Hu Zongnan saw that the situation was not good, and then he also found an excuse to escape.
A few days later, the Second Field Army liberated Chengdu.
Just when the Pla.Com Army was pressing down on the border, more than 3,000 cadets of the Chengdu Army Officer School, including Zhang Wenrong, graduated in a hurry.
However, the school still pinned its hopes on them, trying to get them to move to Xichang with the remnants of the Kuomintang army for a final stubborn resistance.
However, Li Yongzhong, the head of the school's major general education department, and Xiao Pingbo, the commander of the special forces major general, were no longer willing to play for the tiger, and had already made contact with the Communist Party.
On the way to the west, they called a meeting of all the trainees, explained the current situation to everyone, and propagated the idea of insurrection.
Sure enough, most of the practitioners, including Zhang Wenrong, expressed their firm support for the uprising. On December 25, the Army Officer School officially declared an uprising.
In this way, Zhang Wenrong and a large number of classmates joined the ranks of the People's Liberation Army and continued to pursue their patriotic ideals.
After the uprising, Zhang Wenrong was incorporated into the Southwest Military and Political University Chuanxi Branch for more than half a year.
During these days, he greatly enhanced his ideological consciousness, deepened his understanding of his glorious uprising, and insisted on training and testing himself in the combat troops.
Shortly after the end of his studies, he was assigned to the grass-roots unit to participate in the construction of the famous Chengdu-Chongqing Railway and other roads.
The Korean battlefield fought bloodily, but unfortunately was captured
In June 1950, the United States took advantage of the outbreak of the Korean Civil War to brazenly announce its invasion of Korea and continuously bombed China's northeastern border towns.
At this time, Zhang Wenrong, who was far away on the construction site of the Chengdu-Chongqing Road, actively responded to the call to resist US aggression and aid Korea and defend his family and defend the country, and joined the volunteer army.
Because Zhang Wenrong was a highly qualified student at the Whampoa Military Academy, he was selected to serve as a regular platoon operator in the 180th Division of the 60th Army of the Third Corps, and then went with the troops to Korea to participate in the Fifth Campaign.
In April 1951, after half a year of competition with the US army, the Volunteer Army had initially mastered the experience of defeating the enemy with inferior equipment.
However, the battlefield situation at this time is not optimistic.
After suffering heavy blows from four battles, the "United Nations Army" headed by the United States, in order to save the situation, while engaging in a tug-of-war with us head-on, quickly mobilized a large number of troops for strategic replenishment, preparing to carry out a "second Inchon landing" in the rear of the volunteer army's flank, in a vain attempt to "establish a new defensive line" in the waist of the Korean bee and from Pyongyang to Wonsan.
The new troops of the Volunteer Army into the DPRK were not familiar with the enemy situation and terrain, and the physical strength of the long-distance forced army had not been restored. In the early days, the combat attrition of the troops entering the DPRK was very large, and they had not yet been rested and replenished, and in addition, the US military carried out a frenzied "strangulation war" on the transportation of volunteer troops, and logistical support was even more difficult.
Especially in the second phase of the campaign, the excessive battlefield spacing left a hidden danger for the retreating troops of the volunteer army to be divided and surrounded by American troops.
At this time, due to the difficulty of transportation in the rear, the troops had to persist in fighting in the case of food and ammunition, and many soldiers only relied on bark and grass roots to fill their hunger. For this reason, the headquarters of the Volunteer Army had to order the main force to withdraw to the north of the 38th Line for recuperation.
But within three days of the volunteers being forced to halt their attacks while waiting for supplies, the U.S. army quickly sent two mechanized divisions to close the gap in the South Korean army's rout line and entangled the exhausted volunteers.
Although some units of our army were surrounded, with rich combat experience, they blocked their mouths and exploited loopholes, and quickly jumped out of the enemy's heavy encirclement.
However, Zhang Wenrong's 180th Division of the 60th Army suffered heavy losses in the scattered breakthrough.
In this breakout battle, as a telegraph operator, after the radio was blown up by enemy aircraft, he took up arms like the soldiers and desperately broke through.
When Zhang Wenrong and his comrades broke through to the edge of the enemy's encirclement, a burst of artillery fire struck, and Zhang Wenrong was wounded in the shelling and fell into the mountains and forests. By the time he woke up, he and his comrade-in-arms Yang Wenhua had been unfortunately captured.
The enemy caves returned to the anti-sadistic struggle, and the bombers returned to the team to build a miracle
After Zhang Wenrong was captured, the enemy interrogated him many times, but did not get the desired results.
Since he and Yang Wenhua were both familiar with radio communications, the enemy did not kill them, but imprisoned them together in the 86th Wing of the prisoner-of-war camp.
Since then, Zhang Wenrong and they have moved to another battlefield to carry out various forms of heroic struggle with the enemy.
When the US military learned that Yang Wenhua, Zhang Wenrong, and others were Huangpusheng, it recruited Kuomintang agents transferred from Taiwan and adopted a "Huairou" policy in an attempt to win them both over and persuade them to cooperate with the US military to "be loyal to the party-state."
But where there is oppression, there will be resistance.
At that time, a secret underground party organization was born in the prisoner-of-war camp.
Through the work of clerkship, translation, or small and medium-sized team leaders, the backbone of party members constantly educates comrades-in-arms on revolutionary belief and integrity.
At the same time, Yang Wenhua, who was indomitable to death, also used the Geneva Convention to fight against U.S. administrators, safeguard the rights and interests of prisoners of war, and wage a resolute struggle against the scum among prisoners of war.
Under the cover of Yang Wenhua and Zhang Wenrong, underground party members also set fire to the US military material warehouses in the prisoner-of-war camp.
The enemy became angry and disregarded the international conventions on preferential treatment of prisoners of war, brutally killed Yang Wenhua, and also took out his heart to show the public.
At the same time, Zhang Wenrong was also engaged in a special struggle with the enemy.
At first, in the face of the enemy's intimidation, he also vowed to die. But soon after the enemy suddenly changed his attitude towards him.
Originally, according to the suggestion of Bao Ruide, the former head of the US military observation group in Yan'an, the US military planned to select a group of personnel from prisoners of war to train as spies, and then send these people to the rear of the volunteer army to carry out sabotage activities.
After learning of the enemy's plan, the underground party organization had a plan, mobilized Zhang Wenrong to take the initiative to participate in the training, and then sought an opportunity to escape from the espionage operation that destroyed the enemy, and made public the real situation of the mistreatment of prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camp.
Soon, Zhang Wenrong became the target of the enemy's primary "special move" because he was a graduate of Huangpu and had newspaper expertise.
In early December 1951, Zhang Wenrong and others successfully left the camp and were sent to a secret service school in Tokyo, Japan, for training after passing the preliminary examination.
When he arrived in Tokyo, Zhang Wenrong showed great "cooperation", and at the same time, under the pressure of the Us side, he had to fill out the secret agent registration form.
This also caused great obstacles to Zhang Wenrong's recovery of identity after the war.
But at this point, he could only continue his previous plan and undergo two months of spy training.
Soon, Zhang Wenrong was proficient in light weapons shooting, intelligence reconnaissance, explosives and assassination, communications, parachuting and other subjects.
After the training, Zhang Wenrong and others were sent back to Seoul and waited for the opportunity to be sent to the rear of the volunteer army to carry out espionage and sabotage activities.
On the evening of February 18, 1952, Zhang Wenrong and five other people were required to change into the uniforms of the volunteer army, and carried pocket transceivers, Soviet rifles, American small grenades, maps, compasses and other reconnaissance tools, and boarded a US C-46 transport plane under the "escort" of 10 American instructors.
Before the plane took off, Harrison, the commander of the mission, claimed that as long as Zhang Wenrong successfully completed the task, there would be a heavy reward after returning.
After the plane took off, Zhang Wenrong secretly observed the crew members and prepared to resist.
At 2:20 a.m. on February 19, when the plane arrived over its destination, Harrison saw that the red lights in the cabin began to flash and loudly ordered Zhang Wenrong and others to prepare for the parachute.
Zhang Wenrong took the opportunity to quickly stuff the grenade prepared in advance into the cotton gloves.
After the hatch opened, Harrison waved to Zhang Wenrong and ordered him to jump immediately.
Zhang Wenrong had already grabbed the grenade iron in his gloves, saying that it was too late and fast, and he slammed the ring in front of the door to throw the grenade into the depths of the cabin, and then quickly turned around and jumped away from the plane.
In this way, the enemy's spy sabotage plan was thus destroyed by the sound of the explosion.
At this time, the volunteer ground air defense unit was also closely monitoring the enemy aircraft.
They were surprised to find that after the enemy plane exploded in the air, two parachutes slowly descended from the sky in front of and behind.
It turned out that the commander Harrison was also an agent, and in the instant before the grenade exploded, he also quickly parachuted to escape with his agile hands.
It wasn't long before Harrison was captured alive by the volunteers who had already been ambushed, and Zhang Wenrong fell into the woods of another mountain.
After landing, Zhang Wenrong, who could have left, immediately found the troops searching the mountain, voluntarily handed over his personal weapons and special agent supplies, and told the leaders of the troops about the whole incident.
Later, the captured Harrison also confirmed Zhang Wenrong's heroic behavior in his confession.
Because Zhang Wenrong's identity and heroic feats were too legendary, the troops responsible for reviewing him quickly sent him to the volunteer headquarters.
Zhang Wenrong immediately reported to the higher-level chief organs one by one on the US military's crimes of mistreating and forcibly "screening" prisoners of war and forcing them to become spies, as well as the heroic struggle deeds of Chinese and DPRK prisoners of war.
As early as December 1951, when the Korean armistice negotiations entered the repatriation of prisoners of war agenda, the United States flagrantly violated the basic principle of the Geneva Conventions on the "release and repatriation" of prisoners of war without delay.
Absurd schemes such as so-called "voluntary repatriation" and "one-on-one repatriation" (11,500 "United Nations troops" were captured) were put in stone, resulting in fruitless negotiations on the repatriation of prisoners of war.
However, the sudden zhang Wenrong bombing incident a few months later suddenly plunged the US side into a terrible dilemma.
It is precisely because of the intelligence in the prisoner-of-war camp brought back by Zhang Wenrong that the criminal acts of the US military in persecuting our prisoners of war have been made public, forcing the US side to restrain itself on the issue of prisoners of war.
After 48 years of grievances, it will finally come to light
Unfortunately, in the general environment at that time, Zhang Wenrong's heroic feats were not recognized by society and the state, and after returning to China, he still had to continue to be examined.
It was not until March 1958, after a gap of six years, that the Political Department of the Beijing Military Region came to a conclusion on the case, issuing a certificate that Zhang Wenrong was forced by the enemy to act as a secret agent after being captured on the battlefield, and then before the enemy plane landed in the espionage operation, he blew up the enemy plane with a grenade and surrendered himself, with meritorious performance, so he rewarded Zhang Wenrong with 800 yuan.
Although 800 yuan was a large amount at the time, this reward was obviously fundamentally different from his heroic feat, and his military status was not restored.
Subsequently, Zhang Wenrong was repatriated to his hometown to work as a farmer.
But the letter of proof did not take off the hat of "traitor" and "spy", people still treated him as a "traitor", and suffered a lot in successive political movements.
In March 2000, the elderly Zhang Wenrong passed away with regrets.
However, it is gratifying that three months after the old man's death, the Political Department of the Beijing Military Region sent a special person to Liaozhong County, the hometown of the elderly Zhang Wenrong, to send his family a decision on restoring Zhang Wenrong's military status, and to issue a certificate and demobilization fee for the demobilized soldiers.
The 48-year-late decision to rehabilitate brought the life of the legendary volunteer veteran to a successful conclusion.