Fifteen left home and returned to six-five, and lived abroad for fifty years.
The children were not raised, and the father died and the wife died without seeing it.
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression lasted for eight years, and every war was on the front line.
With death as the country's will, he recovered Taizhuang and protected Wuhan.
Half a life of a horse and half a life of prison, two sleeves of fresh breeze back to the farmland.
Thanks to the party's good policies, I have to live out my old age.
This emotional narrative poem, which has a bit of limerick flavor, is written by a veteran of the Anti-Japanese War. On the surface, the text is plain, and we can't read the bitter emotions of ups and downs, but in detail about the old man's life, we can't help but be impressed by this veteran of the Anti-Japanese War who has gone through a hundred years of ups and downs, and admiration arises spontaneously.
This veteran of the Anti-Japanese War is called Tong Dehou, born in February 1910 in an ordinary farming family in Sanyuan County, Guanzhong. Because his parents were in business and his family was well-off, he was fortunate to study in a private school and learned traditional cultural knowledge. In 1926, at the age of sixteen, Tong Dehou encountered a major event that changed the course of his life for the first time, when the warlord Feng Yuxiang took over the northwest, and the army recruited a large number of student soldiers. Tong Dehou, who was originally admitted to the normal school, had to put pen to paper, and turned from a normal student to a soldier in the army.
The shoulder plate of the military uniform of the military academy is embroidered with the words "do not disturb the people, truly love the people, and swear to save the country", and the sentence on the badge "We are desperate to cancel the unequal treaty", which is deeply remembered by Tong Dehou. At the military academy, he learned a lot of historical knowledge, and the school compiled and printed all the unequal treaties since the Treaty of Nebuchu, and asked the cadets to memorize them and remember them without forgetting the national shame. This was the first time that Bai Dehou received a systematic patriotic education.
After completing three years of military and political study, Bai Dehou became a trainee platoon commander in Sun Liangcheng's department and served in Shandong. In 1930, after the Great War of the Central Plains of Chiang Feng Yan, Tong Dehou was promoted to company commander and drove to Pinghan Road to continue the fight against Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in August 1937, the 27-year-old Tong Dehou was already the commander of the third battalion of the 176th Regiment of the 88th Brigade of the 30th Division of the Kuomintang Army. After hearing that the 29th Army stationed in Beiping had clashed with the Japanese army at Lugou Bridge, Tong Dehou and the officers and men of the whole battalion were filled with righteous indignation, hated the same enemy, and asked Ying to go to the front line to fight the devils. On August 10, the 30th Army to which Tong Dehou belonged was ordered to go to the Hebei front. On March 26, 1938, Bai Dehou, then the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 176th Regiment of the 88th Brigade of the 30th Division, suddenly received an order for reinforcements, and he immediately led the officers and men of the battalion to cross the canal by boat and came to the Taierzhuang position.
In order to open up the northern and southern fronts, the Japanese army gathered more than 40,000 troops, mobilized more than 80 tanks, more than 100 mountain artillery and heavy artillery, and countless light and heavy machine guns. With the cooperation of aircraft, tanks, heavy artillery, and other mechanized troops, the enemy had three wings of about 5,000 or 6,000 men assembled near Taierzhuang. The national army, which was poorly equipped and lacked anti-aircraft guns and tanks, had difficulty attacking the enemy, and in many cases had to resort to hand-to-hand combat to consume the enemy's vital forces.
Bai Dehou has always been the first in battle, and he is at the forefront of every charge. Our army decided to organize death squads and pull out the enemy's firepower points defending the city at any cost. Bai Dehou was the first to sign up and was appointed as the captain of the death team. That night, Tong Dehou led 40 daredevils to rush into the enemy line and raid the Japanese troops guarding the city gate.
The sound of gunshots, shouts of killing, and grenade explosions resounded, greatly arousing the will of the daredevils to fight. Bai Dehou and the daredevils stubbornly eliminated the Japanese troops guarding the gate, and the officers and men of the whole battalion followed closely behind and broke into the city. Most of the Japanese troops in the city were annihilated, and only the remnants were left in the northwest corner to resist stubbornly, waiting for reinforcements. Outside the city, under the cover of artillery fire, the Japanese troops launched a more fierce attack on the positions occupied by the three battalions.
After leading his troops to hold on for 3 days, he decisively ordered his troops to occupy the commanding heights in the city, used mortars to bombard the Japanese communication trenches under the city, and deployed two heavy machine guns on the city wall to block the Japanese reinforcements outside the city. Under the cover of fire, the daredevils charged the last stronghold of the Japanese army. Forty daredevils scrambled forward, climbed the Japanese wall with a ladder, and used grenades and light machine guns against the enemy's heavy machine guns. Tong Dehou's three battalions had 6 company commanders and platoon commanders who died in the battle, he brought a broadsword and the daredevils fought bloodily, and finally, with extreme difficulty, annihilated all the Japanese troops, took the enemy's stronghold, and made outstanding contributions to the victory of Taierzhuang.
The Battle of Taierzhuang lasted for half a month, and most of the death squad led by Tong Dehou composed of 40 elite young men died heroically, and Tong Dehou and two other soldiers survived.
After the Battle of Xuzhou, in August 1938, at the age of 30, Tong Dehou was promoted to the colonel commander of the 176th Regiment of the 30th Division of the National Army, and was ordered to go to the area of Macheng, Hubei Province, to participate in the defense of Wuhan. In late August, the 176th Regiment defended the area of Fujin Mountain in Shawo and fought fiercely with the Japanese army for more than 30 days. When the troops were replaced, there were only about 200 survivors of the more than 2,800 people in the regiment, but they set a proud record of killing and wounding more than 7,000 enemies.
After the Battle of Wuhan, Tong Dehou's unit moved to Hubei, Henan and Anhui, fought with the Japanese army, and had several fierce battles, but he still showed bravery.
In March 1940, the Japanese army entered the periphery of Xinyang in Henan Province from Hubei, and the 176th Regiment of Tong Dehou was ordered to garrison on the high ground near Xiaolindian in Xinyang, occupy positions, and block the enemy's westward advance.
During the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the performance of the piece of virtue and kindness interpreted the excellent quality of a Chinese soldier. He successively participated in the Battle of Fangshan in the Battle of Taiyuan, the Battle of Niangzi Pass, the Battle of Taierzhuang and the Battle of Wuhan in the Battle of Xuzhou, as a middle and lower-level officer, he repeatedly charged ahead, fought bravely, and won a total of three medals: the first-class Jiahe Medal, the Huazhou Medal of Honor, the Baoding Second-class Medal, and obtained the qualification of the Central Military Academy Chengdu School to study in the higher education class.
In 1941, at the age of 31, he served as the deputy commander of the 27th Division of the 30th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and became a member of the National Army.
In July 1948, the People's Liberation Army launched an attack on the Kuomintang defenders in Taiyuan, and Tong Dehou, then the deputy commander of the 27th Division of the 30th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, led his troops to garrison Taiyuan. Huang Qiaosong, the commander of the 30th Army, originally planned to revolt and surrender to the PLA, but the commander of the 27th Division under his command reported to Yan Xishan that Huang Qiaosong was killed, and Tong Dehou was immediately promoted to the commander of the 27th Division.
Due to the collapse of the Surrender Uprising, the Kuomintang strengthened the defense of Taiyuan, making the liberation of Taiyuan one of the most brutal battles during the Liberation War. Between October 1948 and April 1949, the Nationalist troops defending Taiyuan suffered more than 60,000 casualties, and the PLA offensive troops suffered more than 45,000 casualties. After the liberation of Taiyuan, Tong Dehou became a prisoner.
In August 1949, Tong Dehou was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the people's court and escorted to the No. 1 Prison of Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province to serve his sentence for reform. Overnight, Bai Dehou changed from a general to a prisoner, and there was a huge gap, but Bai Dehou did not complain. He said: "After all, I fought a life-and-death battle with the Communist Party with a gun, and I pleaded guilty and served my sentence, reformed well, and fought for a commutation of my sentence." ”
In 1959, when his sentence expired, he hurried to his second wife, Su Zijing's hometown, Xiongxian County, Hebei Province, to visit relatives, and he saw his teenage son for the first time. A month later, he returned to Taiyuan and continued his labor reform.
During the three-year difficult period, his wife fled from Hebei to Sanyuan, Shaanxi Province with his three children, and went to his hometown to make a living.
In 1975, the higher authorities issued an order that "all military and police officers at and above the county and regimental level should be released and reunited with their families", and Tong Dehou was completely freed and returned to his hometown in Sanyuan, Shaanxi.
When he walked off the train with a transfer certificate, a radio and a hundred yuan issued by the government, he was shocked when he saw the white shoes on the feet of his two sons who had come to pick him up, and his wife had died.
In front of the graves of his father and wife, Tong Dehou cried bitterly: "I am very painful, my father is gone, I don't know, my wife is gone, I don't know." I have married two women in my life, and together I haven't lived with them for two years, how and where the child was born, I don't know, how did I live this life?"
From 1976 to 1986, he lived on a monthly subsidy of 38 yuan from the Taiyuan brick factory. Later, he entered the CPPCC of Sanyuan County, and could receive a living allowance of hundreds of yuan per month.
In June 2007, Tong Dehou passed away peacefully, completing his legendary and ordinary 100-year life.