Preamble:
"Dad, my daughter has finally found you. ”
In December 2018, in the Shuangduiji Martyrs Cemetery in Anhui Province, an elderly woman walked tremblingly in the company of her family, her red and swollen eyes seemed to tell the pain she had experienced.
They searched carefully on a tall tombstone in the martyr's cemetery, and finally the three words "Wang Chengde" appeared in front of everyone's eyes. Her words brought tears to the eyes of everyone present.
Who is this old woman, who is Wang Chengde, and what is the story between them?
Loss of both parents
"There are so many soldiers who have died that they can't be found. "In November 1948, the Huaihai Battle began, and more than 600,000 PLA soldiers rushed to the battlefield.
But the same victory in the war is inseparable from the sacrifice of the soldiers, too many soldiers have fallen there forever, because of the number of people, the tragic situation of the battle, many of the soldiers' bodies can not tell who is who.
Wang Chengde also died in this battle at the age of 27, after the liberation of the country, government workers sent a martyr's certificate, on which the words "Wang Chengde" stabbed Wang Qingmei's mother's heart, and her husband, who had been waiting for many years, was never heard from after the last correspondence.
Now what she is waiting for is the bad news of his sacrifice, Wang Qingmei's mother couldn't accept the blow and fainted, since then her physical condition has deteriorated every day, often sitting on the edge of the bed and thinking about all kinds of things with her husband, recalling what her husband looked like before his death.
At that time, she was poor, and she didn't even have a photo, so Wang Qingmei's mother could only hold that thin martyr's certificate to see things and think about people. She approached the government and hoped to bring her husband's body back so that he could return to his roots, but she was disappointed by the answer.
Wang Qingmei's two uncles also traveled thousands of miles to the battlefield of the Huaihai Battle to find traces of their younger brother, but in the end they all returned in vain.
She pinned all her love and hopes on her daughter Wang Qingmei, Wang Qingmei's grandmother and two uncles watched her busy taking care of the two families every day, and used her thin arms to provoke the pillars of the family.
"Daddy, I won't remarry, I only have a husband like Chengde, and I will raise Xiaomei in the future. In this way, Wang Qingmei's mother stayed in the Wang family to take care of the family, and it was not until she was dying that she mentioned her husband again.
"I miss your father so much, we didn't see each other when I was alive, and I hope I can be buried with him when I die, even if it's just a shroud. You have to find your father. At this moment, Wang Qingmei realized that her mother did not let go of her father, but she pressed all her sorrows and thoughts in her heart.
She is worried that she will continue to be decadent, and she is afraid that her daughter will not even have a mother, and she is afraid that her condition will affect her daughter's growth, and this great mother has suffered alone for decades.
Wang Qingmei cried in front of the hospital bed, nodding her head and agreeing, "I will definitely find my father." Soon after, her mother died, and Wang Qingmei lost her mother.
Eternal regrets
The word "father" is a bit unfamiliar to Wang Qingmei, and the image of her father is even more blurry, and the only photo of her father in her hand is a portrait described by her uncle in the early years.
When Wang Chengde left home, Wang Qingmei was only two years old, and she could only babble and make some sounds, and she couldn't even speak.
In 1945, the people finally waited for the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the Japanese invaders who had done many evils finally left the land on the mainland, thinking that this was the dawn of peace, but they never thought that this dawn would be turned back by the Kuomintang again before it could shine on the earth.
The outbreak of the civil war made Wang Chengde furious, "I want to join the army, only when the war is really over can we live a good life." Looking at his daughter's white and soft face, Wang Chengde reluctantly said goodbye to his wife and daughter, and then resolutely left his hometown and joined the army.
At first, Wang Qingmei's mother could still receive letters from Wang Chengde to report safety, but as the number of letters became less and less intense during the war, the last letter was in March 1948.
At that time, his Ninth Column liberated Luoyang in just a few days, and in the letter, Wang Chengde shared his joy and hoped that his wife could bring his daughter to Luoyang for a reunion.
It is only a hundred miles from Jiaozuo to Luoyang, but a young woman with a young child is always unsafe in this war-torn era, so Wang Qingmei's mother ruthlessly refused this reunion, but never thought that this ruthlessness would make them lose the last chance to reunite.
"I regret why I didn't go to him in the first place, we Xiaomei didn't get to see his father for the last time. Over the years, this has become a pain in Wang Qingmei's mother's heart, and it is the thing she regrets the most.
"Father" has also become a regret in Wang Qingmei's heart, the vast sea of people, the history is long, Wang Qingmei does not know where to start looking.
It wasn't until 2009 that she happened to see a TV series "Defending Yan'an", in which the role of Wang Chengde, the instructor of the 27th Brigade of the 27th Brigade of the Erye Ninth Column, caught her attention.
She took out the small box that had been treasured for many years, and what was in it was her father's martyr's certificate, and what was written on the column of the unit before her death was "The 27th Brigade of the Ninth Column of the Second Field".
Wang Qingmei repeatedly watched the clips about Wang Chengde's plot during that time, and from the short clips, she summed up Wang Chengde's information, whether it was in age, place of origin or army number, which made Wang Qingmei regain the hope of finding her father.
Dad, I'm late
Accompanied by her children, Wang Qingmei came to Buchang Village, Jiaozuo City, which was the founding point of the Ninth Column of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army in 1947.
At that time, Wang Qingmei was also a grandmother, and the abnormal situation of her constantly watching "Defending Yan'an" and secretly crying was discovered by her ten-year-old granddaughter.
In order to make it easier for Wang Qingmei to observe the pictures of each soldier, the staff of the memorial hall also thoughtfully brought her a chair for her to stand on and view the relatively high images.
"This man is like my father, and I feel that he is very dear. Wang Qingmei pointed to a blurry picture and muttered, her words moved the staff, this is a relationship that spans time and life and death, Wang Qingmei stroked the photo over and over again.
With the help of the village chief, they found out the information about the heroes who participated in the Huaihai Battle who were still alive, and they went from house to house, but unfortunately they could not find out the whereabouts of their father.
The youngest of these heroes is already in their eighties, and the oldest ones are already centenarians, but no matter what age they are now, as long as they mention the glorious years of the past, their eyes always reveal perseverance and nostalgia.
Through the narration of the heroes, Wang Qingmei has a deeper, more three-dimensional and more comprehensive understanding of that era, and also has a high respect for the heroes who bravely stood up to participate in the war, and at the same time makes her more eager to find the heroic father to make up for the regrets over the years.
In 2018, Wang Qingmei finally heard an important news from an old hero, "A large part of the martyrs who participated in the Huaihai Battle were buried in the Shuangduiji Martyrs Cemetery, where can you go to see if there is your father's whereabouts." ”
On December 14 of the same year, Wang Qingmei walked tremblingly in the martyr's cemetery accompanied by her family, looking for one tombstone after another, but failed to find her father's name, and the last pedestrian came to a striking huge tombstone, which was engraved with the names of the martyrs.
More than half an hour later, Wang Qingmei suddenly burst into tears and said in a choked voice: "Dad, my daughter has come to see you, but I'm late." Everyone followed her gaze and saw the word "Wang Chengde" in each name, and Wang Qingmei finally found her father after 70 years.
After asking the staff, Wang Qingmei took a handful of soil from the place where her father died in battle, she still remembered her mother's last wish, even if her father's remains could not be taken away, but his heroic soul should return to his hometown, he also wanted to go home to see it, he also wanted to accompany his wife...
After returning to her hometown, Wang Qingmei prepared a good shroud, erected a tombstone for her father next to her mother's grave, and placed the handful of soil and shrouds in her mother's tomb, which can be regarded as fulfilling her mother's last wish.
"Dad, you didn't hear me call you when you were alive, and now your spirit in the sky hears it..."