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In September 1954, the First National People's Congress was successfully convened, and deputies to the National People's Congress gathered together to elect the first president of New China.
Liu Bocheng
Just as everyone was filling out the ballot papers, Liu Bocheng, a representative of the people's army on the rostrum, found that he had not yet received the ballot.
While he was anxiously waiting, a young figure ran up to the rostrum, solemnly saluted him, and shouted: "Hello Senior Liu!" "Respectfully hand the ballot paper to Liu Bocheng.
At this time, Lin Biao, who was sitting next to Marshal Liu Bocheng, was a little confused, you know, at this time, Liu Bocheng was already the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and the president of the Military Academy, who dared to take out his title as the commander of the 129th Division that year?
This person who dares to call Liu Bocheng Division Commander in public is Zhang Yingcai, the well-deserved "soldier king" of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Zhang Yingcai
Young heroes are beginning to grow
In December 1924, Zhang Yingcai was born in a poor peasant family in Shanxi, with many children, and the poor peasant family only took care of the life and did not care, and relied on the children to earn their own food.
When he was a child, Zhang Yingcai did not say that he was fed, clothed and warm, and his family lived on the coarse grain he earned from collecting grain for the landlord's family and herding sheep.
Fate seemed intent on teasing the half-grown child.
One day Zhang Yingcai herded sheep for the landlord's house, encountered a thunderstorm, the sheep were scared away, 12-year-old Zhang Yingcai was so anxious to cry, but there was nothing he could do, watching a group of sheep run clean.
Zhang Yingcai was afraid, if he returned home like this, the landlord would not be able to withstand this flock of sheep if he sold his whole family! Thinking of this, Zhang Yingcai hid in the mountains, thirsty to drink dew, hungry to chew grass roots, and finally, Zhang Yingcai fainted deep in the mountains.
There is an idiom called: Otherwise, Zhang Yingcai, who is immortal, finally ushered in a turning point in his life at this time.
Zhang Yingcai, who was in a coma, was saved by the passing Red Army, who treated him and sent him home.
Because of the arrival of the Red Army, before the landlords could settle accounts with Zhang Yingcai, the vigorous land reform movement began.
For the first time, the young Zhang Yingcai felt the happy life that the Red Army brought to the common people.
The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, which had just experienced a 25,000-mile long march, took root in Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia and launched a profound agrarian revolution and the Second Five-Year Rent Reduction Movement in the northwest.
Zhang Yingcai's family also received their own land and harvested their own grain.
Zhang Yingcai, who had food, ran to the troops as soon as possible, and he not only had to thank the Red Army for saving him, he also wanted to join the army.
At this time, Zhang Yingcai was already 14 years old, and the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army had been reorganized into the Eighth Route Army.
Although Zhang Yingcai had a mature personality, he was thin and short, not as tall as a rifle, and he really could not meet the conditions for joining the army, so he was politely refused.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Ying is a fierce seed, once if he can't do it twice, if he can't do it twice, he won't leave.
In the end, the commander of the troops, seeing his sincerity, kept him.
Zhang Yingcai stayed in the army, but the army did not have a suitable branch for him, so he first let him stay in the cadet detachment to learn cultural knowledge, and later assigned to the propaganda detachment as a propagandist.
Oil painting of the Anti-Japanese War
While learning cultural knowledge in the army, Zhang Yingcai ran around with the team, and the young and shrewd Zhang Yingcai attracted the attention of the commander of the special agent company, who liked Zhang Yingcai very much and secretly taught Zhang Yingcai a lot of reconnaissance and combat skills.
The War of Resistance Against Japan showed its might
In 1938, the Anti-Japanese War entered a white-hot stage, and Zhang Yingcai also became a 16-year-old "veteran", who was recruited into the special agent company and followed the troops to carry out reconnaissance and infiltration work.
Don't look at Zhang Yingcai's young age, but he is a bold and careful figure who is not afraid of death, he was born and died with his comrades, obtained a lot of intelligence from the Japanese-occupied area, and helped the troops achieve the greatest victory with the minimum losses.
However, the infiltration of the special agent company was very dangerous, and Zhang Yingcai and several comrades had also encountered the situation of nine deaths.
Zhang Yingcai
In an infiltration operation, Zhang Yingcai's comrades were discovered by the Japanese army, and in an emergency, Zhang Yingcai immediately shot to attract the attention of the Japanese army in order to protect the safety of his comrades, while he and several people around him fell into the range of Japanese fire.
They took advantage of the terrain to fight and retreat, until they retreated to an abandoned village, surrounded by Japanese regiments.
Zhang Yingcai did not act recklessly in the face of the desperate situation, but relied on the intricate terrain of the village to drag hundreds of Japanese soldiers alive for one night, not only killing and wounding dozens of Japanese soldiers, but also waiting for reinforcements from large troops.
Early the next morning, when hundreds of Japanese troops were preparing to launch a general attack on these Eighth Route Army, large forces rushed to reinforce and completely eliminated this Japanese army.
The comrades-in-arms admired Zhang Yingcai very much, and asked him if he knew that the reinforcements were back, and Zhang Yingcai replied very honestly: "I didn't know that there were reinforcements, so I wanted to drag this Japanese army as much as possible, and a few of us could kill a few more Japanese devils and earn." ”
Zhang Yingcai
After this battle, the commander of the unit found that Zhang Yingcai was brave and resourceful, not only able to fight, but also very strategic awareness and tactical thinking, and slowly, Zhang Yingcai rose from an ordinary soldier to the position of commander.
After 1941, the anti-Japanese struggle behind enemy lines became intense, and Zhang Yingcai's Taiyue Military Region bore the anger of the Japanese army's liquidation, and under the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese army, Zhang Yingcai's unit suffered huge losses.
During the battle, Zhang Yingcai's company commander died, and in order to protect the retreat of the large army, Zhang Yingcai took 5 comrades and bravely undertook the task of the rear of the palace.
Zhang Yingcai and a few people rounded back to the Japanese side, using the terrain to catch the Japanese by surprise, the Japanese tried to countercharge, but after killing and wounding more than a dozen people in a row, they thought that they had encountered reinforcements from the other side, and had to choose to retreat in order to avoid more losses.
Zhang Yingcai
Zhang Yingcai's surprise attack won the company the opportunity to retreat, and in the gap between the rest of the Japanese army, the troops quickly withdrew from their positions, and by the time the Japanese army reorganized its formation and launched a charge again, the Eighth Route Army had already gone far.
With his will to fight and courage, Zhang Yingcai gradually made a name for himself.
Nine dead people died in the war of liberation
When the Japanese surrendered in 1945, Zhang Yingcai had already taken up the post of a grassroots commander and became a company commander.
In order to exclude dissidents, Chiang Kai-shek put the notoriety of the civil war on the Eighth Route Army, setting off a comprehensive anti-communist wave throughout the country.
On the one hand, the Kuomintang pretended to negotiate in Chongqing, and on the other hand, launched an all-out attack on the Liberated Areas in Shangdang and other areas, and the "Shangdang Campaign" began, and Zhang Yingcai also opened his own highlight moment.
The "Shangdang Campaign" was a landmark battle at the beginning of the Liberation War, in which the Kuomintang concentrated superior forces and launched an all-out attack on the Jin-Hebei-Luyu Liberated Area.
In order to protect the achievements of the War of Resistance and safeguard the interests of the people in the Liberated Areas, our People's Liberation Army launched the largest and first self-defense counterattack war.
Zhang Yingcai's troops, under the command of Comrades Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, participated in the Shangdang campaign, and Zhang Yingcai's troops were placed in the most fierce battle in the battle of encircling Changzhi.
Beiguan is the gateway to Changzhi, and if you break through the North Pass, you can take Changzhi City in one fell swoop, and both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party have invested a lot of troops in Changzhi Beiguan.
At night, Zhang Yingcai's company, in accordance with the requirements of the headquarters, advanced at multiple points and broke through centripetally, launching a tactical division of the Kuomintang defenders.
Zhang Yingcai led two platoons of soldiers to the designated commanding heights, and in the process of blocking the street, he was discovered by the Kuomintang defenders, and the fierce enemy launched a frenzied strafing of the Eighth Route Army.
Zhang Yingcai judged the situation and found that the enemy was just shooting blindly in a state of panic, so he commanded his troops to fight back on the spot, relying on the commanding heights and street bunkers to launch a charge against the enemy.
After quickly solving this part of the enemy army, Zhang Yingcai commanded the troops to quickly advance, breaking through several enemy positions in a row, and attacking the enemy headquarters.
At this time, an accident happened, because Zhang Yingcai's troops were too brave and the attack of the brothers' company was blocked, Zhang Yingcai's company plunged headlong into the enemy's encirclement like an arrow, surrounded on three sides by the Kuomintang troops.
Zhang Yingcai did not panic, he ordered his troops to hold on to a courtyard, and chiseled the direct wall of the courtyard, turning the entire courtyard into a defensive position, and he even set aside a platoon of troops as a reserve to prepare for the countercharge of the Kuomintang army after dawn.
Everything was as Zhang Yingcai judged, just after dawn, the Kuomintang army covered this salient with firepower, and then launched round after round of charge, no matter how indiscriminate the nationalist army bombarded, Zhang Yingcai led the soldiers of the ninth company to always firmly hold on to this courtyard.
With the breakthrough of the core commanding heights of the Nationalist army, the position of the Ninth Company changed from a breakthrough position to a necessary way for the Nationalist army to retreat, and all of a sudden the entire Kuomintang security regiment rushed here, wanting to pull out this "nail" and withdraw to the defense of the city.
The battle lasted from dawn to dark, and Zhang Yingcai led the Ninth Company to repel 22 consecutive enemy attacks, killing more than 300 enemy people, and firmly holding the position until the main force completely occupied the entire Beiguan and completely annihilated the enemy army.
After this battle, the Ninth Company where Zhang Yingcai was located was awarded the title of "Iron Ninth Company"!
The Changzhi Beiguan where they fought still has a commemorative monument of "the former site of the Beiguan battlefield of the Shangdang Campaign".
As a result, the Liberation War began in full swing, and Zhang Yingcai's unit was reorganized into the Jin-Hebei-Luyu Field Army, and later reorganized into the Central Plains Field Army, and participated in the "Huaihai Campaign" together with the East China Field Army.
You know, the "Huaihai Campaign" is a very famous classic battle in the history of world wars, such as Chiang Kai-shek's famous line: "800,000 versus 600,000, the advantage lies with me." "It refers to the Battle of Huaihai.
It is a pity that Chiang Kai-shek's civil war was unpopular, and coupled with the abundance of talents in our party's intelligence agencies, Chiang Kai-shek's front foot had just arranged the layout of the campaign, and the foot after the combat deployment was delivered to Chairman Mao's desk.
In the "Huaihai Campaign", Zhang Yingcai became a battalion commander because of his many combat achievements, and he led his battalion to fight continuously in the Huaihai Campaign, participating in the battle to encircle and annihilate the Huang Wei and Qiu Qingquan Corps.
In the course of the operation to encircle and suppress the large corps of the Nationalist Army, Zhang Yingcai led 500 people to garrison Xiaozhangzhuang, facing the enemy's 2 divisions and 2 brigades of the front and rear attacks, holding on for more than ten days, and dragging down 20,000 enemy troops.
Faced with the repeated bombardment of the Nationalist tanks and artillery, Zhang Yingcai led 500 strong men to block their retreat with flesh and blood.
After that, Zhang Yingcai led the 1st Battalion to advance tactically, took down the headquarters of the Kuomintang 14th Army, killed the enemy commander Xiong Shouchun, and made new contributions to the People's Liberation War.
With his outstanding performance in the Huaihai Campaign, Zhang Yingcai's entire battalion was awarded the title of "Iron and Steel Battalion", and he himself also obtained 9 special merits, becoming the "king of soldiers" with the most special merits in the history of the PLA.
This year, Zhang Yingcai is only 24 years old.
A low-key life passed on to future generations
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao received Zhang Yingcai many times, and even wrote an invitation card to invite Zhang Yingcai to come to his home for dinner.
Chairman Mao called Zhang Ying "the modern Guan Yu" and said of him: "You have won nine special merits, Guan Yu has passed five levels and cut six generals, and you have three more than him." ”
In 1973, Chairman Mao, while reviewing the list of the first Central Study Class, suddenly asked Premier Zhou: "Why is there no name of Zhang Yingcai?" It is enough to show the importance of Zhang Yingcai's position in Chairman Mao's mind.
Premier Zhou replied at the time: "Zhang Yingcai is on the list for the second phase. This made Chairman Mao slightly gratified.
You know, the second phase of the central reading class, as well as Yang Gui, secretary of the county party committee who led the construction of the Hongqi Canal, Zhuang Zedong, who won the men's singles championship of the World Table Tennis Championships three times, and others, are veritable meritorious reading classes.
Zhang Yingcai and his wife Tian Qinfang
As everyone knows, Zhang Yingcai won 3 special commendations and 9 special merits at the age of 24, which is a military merit that was spelled out by how much blood was shed and how many tough battles were fought.
After the liberation of the country, Zhang Yingcai led his troops to suppress bandits in the south, during which he met his lifelong partner, Tian Qinfang, and the two married in 1953 and had three children after marriage.
The children also devoted themselves to serving the motherland, joined the army, and had their own achievements.
Zhang Yingcai, who received the rank of colonel in 1954, has been in charge of military work in Sichuan ever since, starting as a regimental leader until he retired as deputy commander.
Zhang Yingcai not only has outstanding combat achievements, but also maintains his heart in peacetime, does not be proud, does not invite merit, and does things in a down-to-earth manner.
His seriousness and steadfastness were highly praised by party and state leaders, and he also became an alternate member of the Ninth and Tenth CPC Central Committees.
At 21:00 on July 13, 2017, 93-year-old General Zhang Yingcai died in the General Hospital of Chengdu Military Region.
General Zhang Yingcai has left us not only countless legendary stories, but also today's prosperous peace, cherishing peace, and paying tribute to the people's heroes!