In July 1939, a unit of the Eighth Route Army was on a surprise mission, and on the march, a teenager had been following the troops and wanted to join the Eighth Route Army.
The leader of the unit thought he was too young to accept him and asked him to hurry home. But this teenager was unmoved, and had been following the troops for more than ten days, and finally impressed the leader and joined the army as desired.
This teenager, named Zhang Yingcai, later became the legendary "King of Soldiers", and won the special merit 9 times, and the whole army was the only one!
Zhang Yingcai was born in 1924 in Wanrong County, Shanxi Province, his mother was too sick to work, and his father was seriously injured and bedridden, so Zhang Yingcai went to work for the landlord's family before he was 10 years old and earned money to support the family.
One day in July 1939, when Zhang Yingcai was herding sheep for the landlord's family, he encountered a fierce storm, and more than 20 sheep were lost, Zhang Ying knew that he would definitely be killed by the landlord when he went back, so he simply hid in the mountains, did not eat for several days, and only relied on picking up some wild fruits to fill his hunger.
It wasn't until one day that Zhang Ying met the eighth route army, and the cooker gave him some food, so that he did not starve to death, so there was the scene at the beginning of this article.
After joining the Eighth Route Army, Zhang Yingcai was too young and physically weak to enter the frontline battle, so he was assigned to be responsible for propaganda work, and spent most of his time writing slogans and mobilizing the masses.
Although doing propaganda work is also contributing to the War of Resistance, Zhang Yingcai wants to go to the front line to fight more, so he has been looking for opportunities.
In March 1941, the Japanese army attacked the surrounding towns where the 212th Brigade of the Taiyue Military Region was stationed, and the 212th Brigade immediately blocked the Japanese army, and the battle was very fierce.
Zhang Yingcai saw many wounded comrades in the rear, and after learning from them about the fierceness of the battle, Zhang Yingcai thought to himself: He has been enlisted in the army for two years, and now the front line is short of manpower, is not it a good opportunity to go into battle and kill the enemy?
Therefore, Zhang Yingcai found his superiors and actively asked for battle. Seeing that he was resolute and that the front was in short supply, he agreed to his request.
On the evening of March 20, Zhang Yingcai followed the troops to attack the Japanese stronghold, Zhang Yingcai, who had never been on the battlefield before, showed great bravery, and in the case of very backward weapons and equipment, he achieved good results in killing several Japanese Kou, which was commended by the troops and doubled Zhang Yingcai's confidence!
In June, Zhang Yingcai followed the troops into Fushan County to carry out the mission, when the troops retreated, they encountered the Japanese attack, the company commander was unfortunately shot and killed, if it could not effectively resist the enemy's offensive, the company was likely to be completely destroyed! At this time, Zhang Yingcai took the initiative to stand up and volunteered to undertake the task of breaking the rear to buy time for the company to retreat.
Subsequently, Zhang Yingcai and 5 comrades attracted enemy firepower, relying on geographical advantages to frequently launch sneak attacks on the enemy, and even eliminated more than a dozen Japanese Kou and repelled the enemy army, Zhang Yingcai 5 people returned to the company unharmed.
Because of his heroic performance, Brigadier Sun Dingguo specially transferred him to the headquarters and personally trained him, and by the beginning of the Liberation War, Zhang Yingcai had become a company commander.
In November 1946, during the Kuomintang army's attack on Yan'an, there was a defensive vacuum in the Lüliang area of Shanxi, and Zhang Yingcai's unit launched the Lüliang Offensive, zhang Yingcai led the company to quickly take shilou, Yonghe and other county towns, and later liberated Zhongyang County with friendly forces.
When the Kuomintang army learned of the loss of Zhongyang County, it was shocked and hurriedly organized the army to counterattack. Zhang Yingcai's company was tasked with two brother companies to guard Dongyang Village, while the Nationalist army opposite had a well-equipped reorganized division, and the difference in strength was very large.
Zhang Yingcai believes that only by "attacking them unexpectedly" can they have an unexpected effect, so he personally selected 35 brothers to form a "death squad" and take the initiative to attack.
The Kuomintang army could not have imagined that under such a huge disparity in strength, our army dared to take the initiative to attack, thinking that Dongyang Village was a trap, that it had already been ambushed, and that it was suddenly in disarray.
Zhang Yingcai, with the "death squad", quickly broke through the enemy's first line of defense, followed by the second and third articles, and the battle situation ushered in a major reversal!
Seeing the situation, the Nationalist division had no choice but to order a retreat, but Zhang Yingcai did not relent, but continued to pursue with two brother companies, captured many enemy troops, and captured a large number of weapons and equipment.
The enemy slowed down and saw that only a few companies were pursuing them, and then launched a counterattack.
Zhang Yingcai's company was surrounded by enemy troops several times larger than himself, so while mobilizing morale, he took advantage of the favorable terrain to defend and counterattack, and in the long battle of 9 hours, he actually repelled the multiple offensives of the enemy troops several times that were several times his own, and waited until reinforcements arrived!
According to post-war statistics, Zhang Yingcai and his brothers annihilated a total of 349 enemy personnel in this battle, and obtained a large number of weapons and equipment, and Zhang Yingcai was also awarded special merit and became famous.
In the Battle of Kaifeng in 1948, Zhang Yingcai's troops were responsible for blocking the enemy's 83rd Division, which was equipped with a large amount of American armament, and at the beginning of the battle, 6 tanks rushed to our position. Zhang Yingcai's troops did not have anti-tank weapons, so while calmly formulating tactics, they led the troops around and wrapped them up behind the tanks, using explosive packs and grenades to paralyze these tanks!
After the arrival of the enemy support troops, a large number of shells were first poured into our positions, and Zhang Ying realized that the disparity in strength was very large, and while organizing the defense of the troops, he transferred two platoons as reserves. The enemy saw that our position was in a mess and thought that our army had been annihilated, so they hurried over to take over the position.
At this time, Zhang Yingcai ordered the reserve team to kill and engage in fierce battles with the enemy on the position, and finally the enemy had to retreat at the cost of more than 700 casualties and more than 150 captured. This time, Zhang Yingcai made a special achievement!
After the founding of New China, a national commendation meeting for combat heroes was held, with a total of 360 people participating, and Zhang Yingcai was one of the brightest stars, because he alone won 9 special merits and was known as the "King of Soldiers"!
Chairman Mao also heard of his heroic deeds, and took his hand and said:
"Shanxi has produced a Guan Yunchang who has passed five levels and slashed six generals, you have made a total of 13 merits, and there are 9 special merits, you are stronger than him!"
The following year, Chairman Mao met Zhang Yingcai again, knowing that he was from Shanxi, and specially asked the chef to make him a knife-cut noodle and old vinegar, which made Zhang Yingcai very moved.
In 1955, Zhang Yingcai was awarded the rank of colonel, and later served as division commander, deputy commander, secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, and was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee.
Today, Zhang Yingcai's old hero is still alive, he is 97 years old, and hereby also wishes Zhang old hero health and happiness.
(Reference: People's Political Consultative Conference Daily, Shanxi Youth Daily, "People's Network")