I believe that everyone has heard a saying called: "The third class merit sweats, the second class merit has disability, and the first class merit takes life for exchange." ”
Of course, some people say: "The third class merit stands and leads, the second class merit lies down, and the first class merit family members receive it." ”
Although this is just a slip of the tongue, it is enough to see how difficult it is to make meritorious service in the army, and today we are not talking about first-class merit, nor second-class merit, but special merit.
Special level of work search
Literally, we can see that it is above all merits, but why not now? That's because as early as 60 years ago, after the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Central Military Commission ordered the cancellation of this meritorious service, and the reason is simple: according to the conditions of special merit, it is almost impossible to obtain it in peacetime.
So what are the conditions for obtaining the special merit? According to the records of war history, if you want to obtain special merit, you must either win more with less and defeat the strong with the weak, complete the tasks that no one dares to think, take the positions that are impossible to take, and seize the victory that is impossible to defeat.
So how many people in our country have received special merit? According to the statistics of the 1950 Battle Heroes Conference, there were 78 people who won the special merit 1-9 times, and this 9 times is our protagonist today - Zhang Yingcai, the god of war.
Zhang Yingcai
Speaking of this, everyone can't help but be a little curious, who is Zhang Yingcai? What kind of battle did he fight? Why did you get so many special merits in just a few years? What about him now?
With these questions, let's walk into the life of this legendary warrior king.
Zhang Yingcai, born in 1924 in Wanrong County, Shanxi Province, was a magical era, when the Kuomintang and the Communists first cooperated, Mr. Sun Wen formed the Northern Expedition Army, 53-year-old Lenin died of illness, and Hitler was sentenced to prison for a beer shop riot, but these were a little too far away for the newborn Zhang Yingcai.
Due to his family's poverty, Zhang Yingcai almost never ate a full meal in his childhood, and he was almost starved to death many times. When he was a little older, his father took him from the landlord's house to work as a long-term worker, and although the daily life was hard, it was good to have food to eat.
Poor peasants during the Republic of China period
But even so, Zhang Yingcai has never had any complaints, working hard every day, not seeking to change his destiny, but only to be able to live in peace.
In 1936, 12-year-old Zhang Yingcai entered a free school, which also gave him the opportunity to learn knowledge for the first time, and Zhang Yingcai, who had been bullied since childhood, cherished this opportunity very much.
After a period of study, he learned that this school was actually built by a unit called the Red Army, and this Red Army unit not only brought them the opportunity to learn, but also ran away the local landlord's old wealth and successfully regained the land that belonged to his family.
Eighth Route Army School
This made him feel good about this magical force, and he was determined to join this unit when he grew up. Later, with the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the whole country entered a field of artillery fire, the school had to be temporarily disbanded, and the troops began to move to the front.
At this time, When Zhang Yingcai learned that the troops were about to be transferred, he could not bear it any longer, and he hurried to find the head of the troops and said, "I want to participate in the Eighth Route and go to the battlefield with you!" ”
After listening, the chief laughed and asked, "You boy, let you take good care of your parents at home, why did you run out again?" Also participate in the eight roads, do you see yourself have a gun high? ”
"No, if you don't want me to join, I won't leave today!"
The two of you argued word by word, but in the end the chief decided that he stayed.
Small Eight Road
No one expected that this decision directly changed Zhang Yingcai's fate, and also made the army more legendary "soldier king".
In 1939, the War of Resistance Against Japan had entered a white-hot stage, and every soldier on the battlefield had erupted with unprecedented potential. But there is one person who is sad every day, and he does not know what year it is, that is, 15-year-old Zhang Yingcai.
Because after Zhang Yingcai joined the team, he was not assigned to the front-line combat unit, but transferred him to the special agent company study team, this secret agent is not Dai Kasa's military command agent, nor is it a special operations unit, but an internal functional department, that is, the kind of work that can do anything.
Eighth Route Army propaganda
Moreover, the student corps to which Zhang Yingcai belonged, to put it bluntly, was a propaganda team, carrying paste buckets every day, posting propaganda slogans everywhere, and mobilizing local people to join the army and resist Japan. Although this job does not require war, Zhang Yingcai is very dissatisfied, and when he first came to the army, he swore: "If you don't fight enough 100 devils, you won't go home!" "But now don't say a hundred, not even one, how is this good?"
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, two years had passed, and Zhang Yingcai finally fired the first shot as he wished
At that time, the Japanese army was sweeping the anti-Japanese base area in Yuenan, burning and looting, and doing no evil. When the safety of the people was threatened, the Eighth Route Army stationed there launched a frenzied counterattack against them, but because the Japanese army's firepower was too fierce, the disparity in weapons and equipment was too large, resulting in serious casualties among the soldiers of our army.
Anti-Japanese battlefield
This unit was the 212th Brigade of the 115th Division, where Zhang Yingcai belonged. After learning of the battle situation on the front line, Zhang Yingcai immediately found the head of the unit and asked to go to the front line to fight, and the chief also happily agreed, because the sacrifice at the front line was too serious, and if there was no reinforcement to remedy, the entire hard-working base area would be destroyed.
After Zhang Yingcai came to the battlefield, he finally realized the cruelty of the battlefield, and also made him hate the invaders to the extreme, he did not hesitate, and immediately took up his weapons and shot wildly at the enemy.
As the battle became more and more fierce, the brigade commander immediately ordered a strategic retreat to avoid being surrounded by the Japanese army, but shortly after the mission was issued, a Japanese shell was fired at the brigade commander, and Zhang Yingcai was also right next to the brigade commander at that time.
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
Saying that it was late and fast, Zhang Yingcai threw down the brigade commander without even thinking about it, followed by a loud "bang".
The brigade commander looked at Zhang Yingcai, who was covered in blood, shed hot tears, and immediately called a hygienist to treat him.
After the battle, in view of Zhang Yingcai's performance in the defense of Yuenan, he made a great contribution, and the brigade commander also called him "Desperate Sanlang".
But this is only the beginning of Zhang Yingcai's legend, with Japan announcing its surrender, a negotiation that will determine The fate of China, kicked off in Chongqing, and if the negotiations go well, we may now face a bipartisan ruling scene.
Chongqing negotiations
However, if there are so many ifs in the world, and in addition, with old Chiang Kai-shek as a person, the negotiations cannot proceed smoothly. Sure enough, after the Party Central Committee arrived in Chongqing, the old Chiang Kai-shek did not give a good face once, not only did the Yang on the stage violate the yin, but also let Yan Xishan recover the city occupied by the Japanese army as soon as possible, and if he encountered the obstruction of the Eighth Route Army on the way, he could launch a war according to the situation.
In August of the same year, Yan Xishan led hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops to launch an attack on the Shangdang, which is now Changzhi in Shanxi.
At that time, although we had just experienced the War of Resistance Against Japan and our party's army was taking a break, but the enemy came to attack, there was no reason not to fight back, so the Central Military Commission immediately ordered that Liu Deng's army should be the main force and go to the Shangdang to destroy the enemy army and complete the great cause of liberation. Since then, the Shangdang Campaign has officially begun, which is also the first contest between the Kuomintang and the Communists after the victory of the War of Resistance, and it is also a chip to determine whether the negotiations can proceed smoothly.
Battle of the Shangdang
On September 10, when the battle began, Zhang Yingcai was ordered to lead 9 companies to launch an attack on Changzhi Beiguan, which was the pass of Changzhi, and if we wanted to liberate Changzhi, we must take this place, but Yan Xishan, who we know, naturally also knew that as early as after the occupation of Changzhi, heavy troops were arranged to guard Beiguan.
Therefore, after analysis by the superiors, this battle can only be outsmarted and not attacked. Soon, Zhang Yingcai led his troops to take advantage of the high black wind in the moon and the heavy rain to break all the way under the city wall, and when all the personnel were in place, Zhang Yingcai immediately ordered: "The second platoon quickly occupies the commanding heights, and the third platoon is responsible for blocking the street!" ”
The accident also happened at this time, and a soldier in the third row, while dismantling the door panel in order to block the street, accidentally made a noise, which was heard by the keen enemy.
Then came a shuttle of bullets, Zhang Yingcai immediately led everyone to launch a counterattack, to know that at that time to conquer the North Pass, there was only one company, and the enemies in the city were countless. Soon the enemy surrounded the 9 companies in several houses according to the superiority of personnel.
Seeing that the 9 companies were about to be destroyed, they never gave up and launched a strong counterattack against the enemy together.
As the rain grew heavier, the vision became more and more blurred, and the enemy's firepower slowly weakened until it stopped, and Zhang Yingcai and the others finally gained a short rest, but he did not sleep, but immediately ordered to start digging trenches to open all rooms and prepare for tomorrow's battle.
Just when everything was ready, the time came to the next morning, just as the soldiers were ready to stop and rest, the Kuomintang offensive began, and the 9th Company repelled wave after wave of enemy attacks based on the fortifications dug up yesterday.
Finally, according to statistics, a total of about 22 enemy attacks were repelled, and about 300 enemy people were annihilated. Not only that, but also successfully completed the siege mission.
For this reason, in view of Zhang Yingcai's outstanding performance in this battle, the organization decided to record a special merit, and his company was awarded the honorary title of "Iron Ninth Company", and he was only 21 years old this year.
After the end of the Shangdang campaign, Zhang Yingcai continued to follow the troops in the southern expedition to the northern war, and successively participated in dozens of large and small liberation battles such as Lüliang, Longhai, Wandong, Pinghan, Henan, Huaihai, and Dujiang, and basically made great achievements in each battle.
With the increase of his merits, his position was also risen step by step, and he successively served as an instructor, a company commander, a battalion commander, and a regimental chief of staff. After the founding of New China, he became deputy regimental commander, regimental commander, division commander, and deputy military commander, and worked until he left for retirement.
Zhang Yingcai Award
Not only that, Zhang Yingcai was also received by Chairman Mao and other central leaders many times, and when Zhang Yingcai and his wife were married, the chairman also specially set up a family banquet for him to invite him to participate.
Even in 1973, the Central Committee specially invited Zhang Yingcai to participate in the Central Reading Class, which should be known to not everyone, at least as a member of the Ninth Central Committee.
In July 2018, Zhang Yingcai's old hero died of illness at the age of 93.
Although the hero is gone, his spirit will be passed on forever and educate each generation of us.
With this film, I would like to pay tribute to the old hero of Zhang Yingcai! Salute to all the revolutionary martyrs who paid for New China!