On July 7, 1976, General Pi Dingjun, then commander of the Fuzhou Military Region, was killed in a plane crash, and his eldest son, Pi Guohong, also died with his father. The news shocked the whole country, and his former comrades-in-arms couldn't believe it, and his family cried uncontrollably, losing two relatives at the same time. A grand memorial service was held in the center, but there was a puzzling thing at the scene. I saw a soldier in his 40s with a child coming to the memorial service, and he knelt at the memorial service and wept bitterly, crying while saying: "I'm sorry old commander, I'm late." ”
Everyone present was very puzzled, even Pi Dingjun's wife and children were confused. The veteran's grief was not acted, they could feel the pain from the heart, but they didn't know the person. This is very curious, who is this person? What is the relationship between him and General Pi Dingjun?
At the scene of the memorial service, there was a person named Wang Jirong, he recognized the veteran, when he was a photojournalist on the Korean battlefield, he once took pictures of the veteran, and this veteran is Zhang Taofang, the sniper god of Shangganling. What kind of experience did Zhang Taofang have? How did he and Pi Dingjun meet? This has to start from 1931.
In this year, Zhang Taofang was born in Xinghua, Jiangsu, and was the child of an ordinary farmer. Since Zhang Taofang can remember, the war has always been a scar in his heart, and many of his parents and fellow villagers died of poisoning after the war. And what made Zhang Taofang most resentful was the Japanese invaders, when the Japanese army often came to the village to sweep, they not only robbed the grain, but also brutally dealt with the villagers, what they did was very outrageous. The villagers did not let anyone bully, they spontaneously organized anti-Japanese forces, under the command of our party, constantly dealt with the enemy, Zhang Taofang also joined the children's group, sentry to the village, and immediately reported the enemy situation.
During that time, Zhang Taofang knew that the enemy was also a human being, and he would die if he was shot, and he would be frightened by many things. Sometimes the villagers deliberately sprinkled chicken and duck blood on the way of the devils, and Zhang Taofang clearly saw that the devils were very frightened. After the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Zhang Taofang heard that he had no fear of facing the powerful United States, and decisively signed up for the Volunteer Army. After a physical examination and assessment, Zhang Taofang finally fulfilled her desire to become a soldier, officially put on a military uniform, and went to the 214th Regiment of the 24th Army of the Volunteer Army as a communicator.
In September 1952, Zhang Taofang followed the troops to the Korean battlefield, where the test was very harsh, not only well-equipped enemies, but also extremely harsh environment, but Zhang Taofang never flinched, and always wanted to go to the battlefield to prove himself and defend his homeland and country. It was only in the first shooting assessment after entering North Korea that Zhang Taofang had a big problem. It was an assessment organized by the regiment, and each person had three rounds of ammunition to see how well the fighters were shooting. At that time, the cold gun and cold cannon movement was in the limelight, and marksmanship had to be passed. It's just that Zhang Taofang's three bullets all missed, and none of them hit the target. When the leaders of the regiment department saw Zhang Taofang's skills, they felt very helpless, so they could only transfer him to the cooking class to help cook.
Not only were the leaders of the regiment headquarters disappointed in Zhang Taofang, but Zhang Taofang herself was also disappointed in her performance. He secretly vowed to practice his shooting skills and become a good sharpshooter to wash away his previous shame. In addition to helping out in the cooking class, he would hone his shooting skills whenever he had time, and it didn't take long for his opportunity to come. How did Zhang Taofang, who has such poor marksmanship, grow into a sniper step by step?
Shangganling sniper god Zhang Taofang entered North Korea for the first time and did not have a bullet on target, how did he grow into a sniper god?
It was January 11, 1953, not long after the Battle of Shangganling, Zhang Taofang's 24th Army took over the defense of friendly forces and came to the forward position to carry out the alert task, and Zhang Taofang and their company also came to the 597.9 heights, which was the place where Huang Jiguang died. Stepping on this battlefield that his comrades-in-arms exchanged for blood, Zhang Taofang's heart was stirred, and he secretly vowed to inherit their will and defeat the enemy completely. Since this was the stage of armistice negotiations, the troops needed a sniper team formed by a group of soldiers with accurate marksmanship to cooperate with the negotiations. After Zhang Taofang learned the news, he immediately asked the company commander to sign up, and this time he finally passed the assessment.
It's just that at this time, his skills have not yet reached the peak, and he knows that he still has a lot of shortcomings, so he works hard every day to practice his reaction speed and shooting accuracy. In order to have more arm strength, Zhang Taofang tied two sandbags to her arms every day when she trained, and at the same time she was also trying to overcome the huge recoil of the rifle. Finally, Zhang Taofang's shooting skills became more and more powerful, and he could always hit ten rings in a row in the assessment, which shocked the instructor, and Zhang Taofang also relied on his excellent skills to successfully go to the front line to fight the enemy.
You must know that from the beginning of his training to the time he went to the battlefield, it was less than four months, and after he went to the front line, in 22 days, he consumed 247 rounds of ammunition and killed 71 enemies, most of whom were American officers and soldiers. Pi Dingjun didn't believe that this recruit, who had been in the army for less than two years, could have such superb skills and wanted to see it for himself, so he took photojournalist Wang Jirong to the 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 214th Regiment to inspect the first sniper of the whole company.
In the target shooting practice, Pi Dingjun found that Zhang Taofang really had a hand, he could always hit the bull's-eye, and the shooting speed was also very fast. After he asked Pi Dingjun, he learned that he had figured out his rifle, and Zhang Taofang knew exactly what kind of deviation would occur at what distance. Pi Dingjun gave Zhang Taofang a thumbs up in his heart, but he still wanted to see how he behaved on the battlefield, so he set Zhang Taofang the task of sniping three American GIs. Zhang Taofang confidently agreed, took the chief of staff and the photojournalist to his usual sniper position, and after letting the two hide, he went to the place he was most familiar with, quietly waiting for the enemy to show up.
At that time, there was snow on the battlefield, and Zhang Taofang hid for more than three hours in such an environment, during which she remained motionless, and this endurance was really admirable. Just when the chief of staff and the photojournalist were a little unable to stay, the US troops finally showed up, and Zhang Taofang seized the opportunity to shoot the head with a gun and directly take down the two enemies. At this time, the enemy panicked, Zhang Taofang took the opportunity to run from the pit to another sniper point, and took advantage of the enemy's confusion to shoot another American soldier who had changed the guard in the head.
When the chief of staff and the reporter brought the news back to Pi Dingjun, Pi Dingjun was shocked, it turned out that there was really such a sniper god, and the excited Pi Dingjun immediately ordered the chief of staff to give a gift to Zhang Taofang. It turned out that when Pi Dingjun went to the company, he handed over a pair of leather shoes that he was reluctant to wear to the chief of staff, and told the chief of staff that if Zhang Taofang really completed the task, he would reward him with leather shoes. The moment they got the leather shoes, the surrounding soldiers were envious, and the applause was very sensational. And Zhang Taofang was also very moved, treasured these leather shoes, and was not willing to wear them once, after all, this was a souvenir given to him by the military commander, and it would not be good to wear them out.
The U.S. military soon learned of the existence of such a sharpshooter in the Volunteer Army, and issued an internal order to get rid of him. On this day, Zhang Taofang went to his sniper site as usual, and just when he showed his body a little, the enemy's bullets immediately came over. This is actually a flaw deliberately exposed by Zhang Taofang, he often does this, because there have been enemies who have been staring at his sniper location before, and once he still pretended to be shot to escape. And this time, how will Zhang Taofang solve the dilemma?
Shangganling sniper god Zhang Taofang set a record for the Volunteer Army, once singled out the snipers, machine gunners and gunners of the US army at the same time, is he really so brave?
This time, Zhang Taofang was very cautious and must kill the people who were targeting him. Zhang Taofang exposed his helmet a little and held it with the butt of his rifle while observing the enemy's position. It's just that this time the enemy was very sophisticated and didn't shoot, Zhang Taofang knew that this time there was a very powerful sniper in the US army. And the enemy also has machine gunner cover, and this time the fire suppression is a bit fierce.
Zhang Taofang calmed down and changed his position, but the enemy did not notice that he had changed positions, and the machine gun was still suppressing the original place. Zhang Taofang carefully observed and found that even the enemy's heavy machine gun was equipped with a scope, no wonder the fire was suppressed so powerfully. Zhang Taofang seized the opportunity and jumped up to another shooting point, at which time the enemy's sniper gun rang out, which also allowed Zhang Taofang to determine the position. He pretended to be shot, fell into the sniper point in a sideways position, and then waited for the enemy to poke his head out to observe the situation, and quickly shot the enemy's sniper, and the enemy's sniper reacted quickly, and fired a shot before dying, and this shot grazed Zhang Taofang's head, which was very dangerous, but in the end Zhang Taofang won this duel.
The enemy was annoyed and angry, ordered the machine gunners to shoot wildly, and also transferred the gunners to bombard this side, but Zhang Taofang had already prepared, he had already dug a hole in the anti-artillery and escaped the attack in the tunnel unharmed. And when the enemy's fire was over, Zhang Taofang seized the opportunity to kill the American commander who poked his head out and looked around. The U.S. military was so angry that they were furious, but they had no choice but to keep bombing to vent their anger.
Of course, there are relatively few cases of sniping, and in most cases, the US military adopts the method of artillery bombardment, allowing artillery observers to determine the position, and then a large number of artillery bombardment is saturated. And these artillery observers are the main targets of Zhang Taofang, no matter what kind of camouflage they use, hiding behind stones or using scarecrows to cover, they will be accurately killed by Zhang Taofang. In the 31 days of actual participation in the war, Zhang Taofang consumed 442 rounds of ammunition and killed 214 enemies, most of whom were American troops, which made the American troops frightened, calling Shangganling a "sniper leader".
Later, Pi Dingjun came to the 214th Regiment again, and this time, he brought Zhang Taofang a new gift, which was the only new rifle in the whole army, and the degree was very high. And Zhang Taofang also took out the pair of leather shoes that Pi Dingjun gave him at that time, which were full of bullet casings, and the bullets of each bullet case eliminated an enemy. At that time, Pi Dingjun learned that the number in it was 211, so he asked Zhang Taofang to eliminate three more American troops, because Zhang Taofang's regimental headquarters was the 214th regiment, and Lao Chang quickly completed the task.
Later, when he returned to Beijing, Zhang Taofang put on those leather shoes and received the honor awarded to him by the state, and won the title of special merit and second-class sniper hero. After returning to the motherland, Zhang Taofang became a pilot of the first generation of aircraft in the mainland, and he always wanted to find time to see Pi Dingjun, but he couldn't leave for various reasons. Just a month before Pi Dingjun's accident, Zhang Taofang also wrote a letter to Pi Dingjun, saying that he would definitely go to see him. However, before Zhang Taofang left, Pi Dingjun's bad news came, which forever became Zhang Taofang's regret. At the memorial service, Zhang Taofang came with his son and asked his son to kowtow to Pi Dingjun three times, and he was full of tears and sadly said that he was late, and Zhang Taofang was wearing the pair of leather shoes that Pi Dingjun gave him.
In 2022, a movie called "Sniper" was released, and some viewers felt that the movie was a bit exaggerated, but in fact, on the real battlefield, the deeds of these combat heroes are even more powerful than the movie, and it is their bravery and fearlessness that have won dignity for our country and prosperity for our country. What do you think about the story of Pi Dingjun and Zhang Taofang, please leave a message in the comment area