On the front line of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the soldiers of the Volunteer Army faced unprecedented challenges, and due to the weaponry and comprehensive strength of the time, the logistics supply of the Volunteer Army has always been a major problem that plagues everyone, and every battle can be described as a contest of life and death.
There are many heroic deeds, but in the historical background at that time, there were also some tragic figures, Wu Chengde is one of them, and his life after returning to China is also regrettable.
At the critical moment, he chose to be with everyone
Wu Chengde joined the Communist Party of China in 1937, when it was the years of anti-Japanese war, Wu Chengde was active as an instructor of the corps in the northern area of Xinjiang and Fen to actively carry out anti-Japanese guerrilla activities, such as the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, Zhongtiao Mountain anti-"sweeping" and other battles He also participated.
Under the education of the organization, Wu Chengde became a real fighter, he had long put his life and death on the line, and as long as the revolution could be won, he always believed that personal gains and losses were nothing.
After the War of Liberation began, he participated in the offensive battles of Yuncheng, Jinzhong, Taiyuan and other cities, and when the troops waved to the southwest, Wu Chengde also advanced with the troops all the way, and his military command ability was also fully reflected in this battle.
Therefore, at the time of the founding of New China, he was already the political commissar of the 60th Division of the 180th Army.
For him, all this is also smooth, he has come from a difficult era, and is entering a new tomorrow with great joy.
However, when the Korean War broke out in June 1950, the United States quickly spread artillery fire to the Yalu River with its strong military strength, and the new China encountered a great security threat.
Wu Chengde's unit was organized into the 60th Army of the Third Corps of the Volunteer Army, and the time when they entered the Korean War was just before the start of the Fifth Campaign.
By mid-May 1951, the troops on both sides had been fighting back and forth, and the volunteers on the front line had withstood the tremendous pressure, but logistics had always been a big problem.
Under the condition that the logistics could not be guaranteed, the front-line troops in charge of the offensive could only stop replenishing, and as soon as this delay, the battlefield situation suddenly underwent extremely unfavorable changes, and the commander-in-chief Peng Dehuai decided to end the campaign and let the main force move to the area north of the 38th parallel to rest and recuperate.
Wu Chengde, acting political commissar of the 180th Division, received the order, so he ordered to stop the offensive and carry out the order.
On the other hand, various US intelligence systems and reconnaissance units were also feeding back information from the front line to the command post, and Li Qiwei, who had just taken office, realized that this might be an opportunity, so he sent seven US military divisions plus 13 divisions from South Korea to launch a counterattack.
Wu Chengde and his men originally planned to retreat to the north of the Han River, but in the process of retreating, the troops suddenly received news that they would hold off the enemy in the blocking position for at least 3 to 5 days.
In the process of blocking, the enemy suddenly drilled out, which put the division headquarters into a bitter battle, and the army commander Wei Jie urgently ordered the troops to break through the siege as soon as possible in such a critical situation.
At the end of May, the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division held a meeting in a ravine in Chuncheon, and the faces of the participants were quite serious, and everyone realized that the 180th Division had been forced into a small area, and the enemy was taking advantage of the superiority in weapons and equipment to reduce the encirclement.
In order to accelerate the advance and contraction, the US army attacked the position with artillery from time to time, and the volunteers who had died could be seen everywhere on the position.
What is more important is that because the 180th Division temporarily began to carry out the blocking mission, the amount of food, grass and ammunition in their hands was not much, and by May 24, the troops had been out of food for more than three days, and the casualties were increasing sharply, and everyone was in a heavy mood.
Therefore, this meeting is already the last fateful meeting, and it is unknown whether everyone will ever see each other again.
Back then, this unit was famous for its ability to fight in Shaanxi, and it had repeatedly performed miraculous feats on the battlefield of Sichuan's suppression of bandits.
Wu Chengde sat at the front, his expression was very serious, and the sound of artillery fire around him from time to time was also urging him to think of a solution as soon as possible.
When it was related to the life and death of the whole division, no one dared to make decisions arbitrarily, and after a long silence, someone asked: "Political commissar, is it feasible to disperse and break through?"
All of you here have gone through countless battles to get to where they are today, and they also know that there are not many choices, and scattering and breaking through will inevitably cause large casualties, but at this juncture, it can be regarded as the best of the best strategies, and besides, the US military has not left them time to breathe at all.
After the majority of the people chose to agree, Wu Chengde also accepted the proposal.
Seeing that the order to disperse and break through had been issued, Wu Chengde anxiously checked the preparations of each regiment on the position.
When they reached a small ditch, one of the soldiers suddenly shouted: "Commissar Wu, come and see, we are already injured and have no way to leave." ”
A large number of wounded people who could not keep up with the troops were gathered in the small ditch, Wu Chengde hurriedly found the regiment commander and ordered the regiment commander to place them, in order to cheer up this group of wounded, Wu Chengde did not follow the retreat of the large army as soon as the breakthrough began.
Therefore, when he began to break through, he could no longer find the location of the division headquarters, so he could only follow the established route and hurry forward.
At this moment, a flare suddenly rose into the night sky, and the enemy's searchlight followed, and the distance between the two sides was already visible to the naked eye.
In fact, even if Wu Chengde arrived at this time, there was a way to leave, but when he hurried to a cave, he suddenly saw hundreds of wounded people huddled together, and they were also unable to move with the troops because of their injuries.
The wounded had already given up, but after seeing Political Commissar Wu, a glimmer of hope ignited in their hearts.
Everyone hurriedly asked, "Has the enemy caught up?" and how many enemies are there ahead?"
Wu Chengde knew that he was already all their hope, and he couldn't bear to leave these lovely warriors behind.
So he dismounted, walked among the wounded, and comforted everyone: "I will be with everyone." ”
At that moment, he seemed to have understood his fate, and there was a high probability that a miracle would not occur; Wu Chengde divided the wounded into groups of 40 people, and with the personal encouragement of the political commissar, everyone supported each other and began to walk towards the difficult road of breakthrough.
Hero's choice
It is no longer possible to get out of the encirclement, Wu Chengde also said many years later: "In that case, it is very difficult to break through with a large number of wounded, and breaking through is only the last effort after trying their best, and many people understand that this time it will not be successful." ”
From the perspective of the overall situation, more than 10,000 people of the 180th Division participated in the breakout, and in the end, less than 4,000 people broke out, and the rest of them basically went to the fate of being captured or sacrificed, and to a certain extent, the 180th Division was basically destroyed.
Commander Wei Jie remembered the situation of the 180th Division vividly, because of this incident, he himself was removed from his post at that time, and Supreme Commander Peng Dehuai also regarded the fifth battle as one of the four military mistakes of his life.
If it is not to the point of exhaustion, not a single volunteer soldier is willing to be taken prisoner.
In that year, after the US troops caught up, Wu Chengde immediately organized a vital force to fight the enemy to the death, and the left and right rushed for a whole night, until the ammunition and food were exhausted.
Due to stubborn resistance, the first units of the US army did not catch a few alive, while Wu Chengde and his men went deep into the dense forest to fight guerrillas in the absence of food and ammunition, and no one knows how they came through in those 14 months.
By the time the U.S. military captured them, the soldiers had no decent weapons, and there were only 2 people around the dignified political commissar.
The attitude of the US military towards the prisoners of war of the volunteers has never been very good, but when they found out that Wu Chengde was actually a political commissar, they decisively adopted the method of coercion and temptation, and promised to give Wu Chengde a very generous reward, as long as he told some secrets about the troops.
In the face of all this, Wu Chengde was unmoved, he only wanted to die, and he didn't want to reveal anything else.
The enemy had no choice, so he threw him into Busan Prison, where for a long time, Wu Chengde thought that there was still a wife and daughter waiting for him at home, so he hoped that the war would end as soon as possible, so that the Chinese government would also find a way to rescue him.
Since the United States is a signatory to the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, they must comply with the relevant regulations.
Before the armistice agreement was officially signed, the two sides had already begun to exchange prisoners of war, and because of Wu Chengde's high position, he was also put in the last batch by the US military as a "bargaining chip".
It was September 2, 1953, and for Wu Chengde, the mood on that day was mixed, with both excitement and worry.
Early in the morning, several U.S. soldiers came to the room where Wu Chengde was being held, carrying buckets of water for him to bathe.
At that time, Wu Chengde's body was already dirty, and he also had wounds on his body, and the U.S. military was worried that the abuse of prisoners of war would be condemned by the international community, so they forced them to take a shower before handing over the prisoners of war.
Wu Chengde knew the intentions of the US military, and he kicked over the bucket in front of him.
This behavior angered the American soldiers, who brought the faucet again, connected the water pipe, and poured Wu Chengde from top to bottom, and then threw a new piece of clothing over.
Wu Chengde was even more angry, he threw out the new clothes directly, and found an old shoe from the room to put on.
In fact, this old pair of shoes was sewn by his wife before he went on the expedition, and after a few years, the shoes are in tatters everywhere, and Wu Chengde has always regarded them as treasures, because whenever he sees these shoes, he can feel that there are relatives at home waiting for him to return.
Some of the staff in charge of the transfer of prisoners of war knew Wu Chengde, but when Wu Chengde walked to the opposite side, everyone didn't recognize him immediately.
Originally, Wu Chengde still had 130 pounds, but after only a few months in the prisoner of war camp, his weight dropped sharply to 90 pounds, and there was almost no hair on his head.
Li Kenong, Huang Hua and others personally visited Wu Chengde in the hospital and expressed their condolences and congratulations to him.
Wu Chengde held back his tears for more than a year, and he couldn't hold it back at all at this moment, seeing so many comrades-in-arms sacrificed by his side, it was not easy to come back alive.
On the return train, Wu Chengde kept looking out the window, and his mood was difficult to describe in words.
When he arrived at the "Returned Personnel Management Office", the staff told him: "You can't go home yet, you need to recuperate here for a while, heal the psychological trauma suffered in the concentration camp, and learn about the changes that have taken place in your country in the past two years." ”
However, Wu Chengde also felt a little uncomfortable, he already felt that in the eyes of many people, the word "prisoner of war" was not associated with heroes, and the harsh words said by many people also made him even more sad.
They all came to the Korean battlefield without hesitation for the sake of the motherland, and were captured for various reasons, most of them have experienced abuse by the US military, but most of them have withstood such a test.
Some people also asked Wu Chengde to bear the responsibility for the defeat of the 180th Division, but Wu Chengde, who was straight, naturally did not want to accept it.
In the end, he was arranged to Dawa Farm in Panjin, Liaoning, and for him, it was very satisfying to be here.
The people on the farm know that he is a good man, and he has been unanimously praised by everyone for his hard work and honest spirit; Wu Chengde has never been afraid of hardship, bloodshed, or even sacrifice, and the only thing he does not accept in his life is the misunderstanding of others about him.
One day, an officer came to the farm, and he suddenly saw Wu Chengde.
Facing the heroes on the battlefield of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea in the past, Pang Kechang asked excitedly: "Why are you?"
The two sides chatted for a while, from the period of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea to the years after returning to China, Pang Kechang was also full of emotion, and he also felt in his heart that such a hero should not stay here, he should have done more.
However, Wu Chengde has always been content with the status quo, and he has not fought for anything for himself.
In 1980, the Central Committee issued Document No. 74 of the "Opinions on the Review and Handling of the Problem of Prisoners and Returnees of the Chinese People's Volunteers", which stipulated that the captured soldiers of the Chinese Volunteers should be re-examined and dealt with.
Among them, the one who has attracted the most attention is Wu Chengde.
After a re-investigation, the organization department restored Wu Chengde's treatment as a military-level cadre and made the local government of his hometown responsible for the placement.
Wu Chengde finally ushered in his own "sunny day", he was excited to tears after learning the news, the problems of more than 20 years were finally settled, and he was finally able to return to his hometown as a hero.
At the invitation of the local government, Wu Chengde also returned to his hometown in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province with his family, and the return of the hero also aroused people's admiration.
For the next few years, he stayed in a small town in Shanxi Province to spend his old age in peace, and the retirement salary paid by the organization on time was enough for the family to live, and for the future, he only hoped that "there would be no more wars, and I didn't want the suffering I experienced to fall on the next generation." ”
Resources
Wu Chengde: The highest-ranking captive in the Volunteer Army, Gao Heqi Literature and History Expo
The person who carved a permanent trace in the enemy camp He Ming The essence of literature and history