The joke of fate is sometimes so funny. A veteran who was originally considered to have died for his country and was "posthumously credited" for first-class merit, but returned home as a prisoner two years later.
Overnight, this admired hero was innocently wronged and became a "traitor" in the eyes of the villagers.
For the sake of the old lady who can't speak and the mentally ill brother, go to join the army
On February 17, 1979, the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam officially began.
Just a day earlier, a soldier named He Yuanhai had followed his 54th Army to Pingxiang, Guangxi, on the border between China and Vietnam.
He Yuanhai was only 21 years old at the time, and he had only been in the army for one year. Looking at the border line known as the "South Gate of China" in front of him, this young man from Huangshan Village, Ezhou, Hubei Province, couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive while his morale was high.
He Yuanhai
Although He Yuanhai, who was born as a peasant, did not know what "a general dies in a hundred battles, and a strong man returns in ten years", he also understands that there will inevitably be casualties in a war.
What he fears most is that once he dies in battle, his mother, who was born unable to speak, and his brother, who is mentally ill, will lose support.
But as an elite machine gunner of the 54th Battalion of the 481st Regiment of the 161st Division of the 7th Army, he shouldered the mission of protecting his family and defending the country. And he also firmly believes that if he dies unfortunately, then the country will definitely arrange his family properly.
The battle soon began, and He Yuanhai's 7th Company was sent by his superiors to carry out the task of interspersed operations. Under the leadership of company commander Chen Xiaocheng, the 7th Company performed well and played a triumphant song.
But the unexpected soon happened.
At that time, the 7th Company was ambushed by the Vietnamese army and fell into an encirclement. He Yuanhai's 3rd Platoon and 7th Squad were ordered to block the rear route of the Vietnamese army's reinforcements and provide support for the frontal breakthrough of the main force of the 7th Company.
Although the enemy was outnumbered, the soldiers of Class 7, including He Yuanhai, did not have the slightest fear, but had a high fighting spirit.
As soon as the battle began, it entered a white-hot state. On the position filled with gunsmoke, one of the enemy's heavy machine guns frantically poured fire, taking the lives of several of our soldiers in a short period of time.
Seeing this scene, He Yuanhai, who was also a machine gunner, was furious, and when he picked up the machine gun, there was a burst of strafing, and many enemy soldiers were killed by drinking bullets.
But the frantic offensive of the enemy did not stop. He Yuanhai immediately hid behind a bunker with lightning speed, and then he leaned back to the bunker and poked his head out to shoot at the gap between the enemy's gunfire.
One, two, three, four enemies fell one after another.
However, the enemy also quickly spotted him and rushed in the direction of the bunker.
Under the cover of the enemy's dense firepower, He Yuanhai's left leg was hit by the enemy, and at the same time as blood gushed out, he felt as if his left leg was not obeying.
At this point, the hygienist behind him gestured to him not to move, and then crawled forward to treat him. Unexpectedly, at this moment, a grenade suddenly fell from the sky!
He Yuanhai was seriously injured and had no time to dodge, so he had to watch the grenade explode not far from him.
The next moment, his eyes went dark, and he fell to the ground like this......
Hygienist: He did die
Due to the strong resistance of the 7th squad, the main force of the 7th company finally repelled the ambushed Vietnamese troops after a hard battle, and quickly rushed to support the 7th squad, and finally won the battle.
After the battle, the soldiers found He Yuanhai who had fallen to the ground on the battlefield, and found that he had no pulse, and they all thought that he had died honorably.
The hygienist who wanted to rush forward to be bandaged by He Yuanhai in the previous battle also shed tears at this time, telling the whole process of He Yuanhai from heroic fighting to sacrifice. The comrades-in-arms were all moved when they heard this, and they clenched their fists one by one.
But on the battlefield, time is of the essence. In the face of the tense battle, the 7th Company had to rush to a new mission and could not take away the bodies of the fallen comrades.
In desperation, the soldiers had no choice but to hide He Yuanhai and the other sacrificed soldiers in a relatively secret crater, cover them with weeds and branches, and then come back to bring the remains back to the rear for placement after completing the task.
That's when the joke of fate happened.
It turned out that He Yuanhai was actually still alive at that time, and was discovered by the Vietnamese army who cleaned up the battlefield after the evacuation of the 7th Company, so he became a prisoner.
From the elite machine gunners of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to the prisoners of the Vietnamese army, this gap naturally made He Yuanhai extremely painful.
And the psychological pain is only one aspect, he also has to go through physical pain.
Vietnamese prisoner of war camps
After He Yuanhai was captured, he tried to commit suicide many times as soon as he regained his mobility, hoping to clear the shame of being a prisoner, but due to the strict supervision of the enemy, he never succeeded.
After recovering from his injuries, He Yuanhai was severely tortured by the Vietnamese army, but he would rather die than give in, gritted his teeth and survived wave after wave of cruel confessions, without revealing any information about our army.
Under the double torture of physical and psychological, He Yuanhai endured unrelentingly, because he had to wait for a hope.
At that time, it was reported that China and Vietnam had begun to exchange prisoners of war so that he could return to China to care for his mother and brother.
Little did he know that he had become the pride of the village
At the same time, because they could not find He Yuanhai's "body" when they returned to the position of the 7th squad, the soldiers of the 7th Company thought that he had been martyred, and the "body" was taken away by the Vietnamese army, so they reported his heroic deeds to the military region.
After careful consideration, the higher-level leaders decided to posthumously commemorate He Yuanhai's first-class merits, and set up a tombstone for him and other sacrificed soldiers in the Pingxiang Nanshan Martyrs Cemetery.
What is the concept of first-class merit? After the abolition of special merit in 1955 on the mainland, first-class merit became the highest level of military merit. There is such a popular saying, called "the third-class merit is received by standing, the second-class merit is collared by lying down, and the first-class merit is received by the family".
He Yuanhai, who was still in prison at this time, would have mixed feelings if he knew the news. In his hometown of Huangshan Village, the villagers rushed to tell each other, mourning him while also feeling very proud.
That's a first-class merit after all! You must know that statistics show that in recent years, among the 2.3 million people in the PLA army, no more than 230 people have won first-class merit every year, and such a small village as Huangshan Village has produced such a big hero!
In order to commemorate and commemorate this people's hero, the villagers spontaneously organized themselves and asked a stonemason to carve a monument and place it on the back hill of Huangshan Village.
In those days, the villagers of Huangshan Village seemed to be particularly straight at the waist, and they would talk endlessly about He Yuanhai's heroic deeds when they saw people.
At that time, no one might have thought that one day He Yuanhai would become a "traitor" in their mouths.
He Yuanhai
Something more humiliating than torture has happened
In 2016, an old man who was close to his sixtieth birthday stood in front of a tombstone in the Nanshan Martyrs Cemetery in Pingxiang, tears rolling down.
This 58-year-old man at the time was none other than He Yuanhai who survived the battlefield of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
The pines and cypresses were silent, but they wept like a cry in the breeze, as if telling the heroic stories of the people's fighters.
Standing in front of the solemn tombstone, staring at his name engraved on the tombstone, He Yuanhai's eyes flashed past the scenes after he returned to China......
In 1981, Ho Yuanhai finally ended his two-year hellish days and returned to China through a prisoner exchange between China and Vietnam.
At that time, He Yuanhai couldn't help but be sad and joyful, happy that compared with many sacrificed comrades-in-arms, he could still return to the embrace of the motherland and reunite with his family after all; Sadly, it is undoubtedly a great shame to return as a prisoner of war.
He probably didn't expect at the time that this shame would linger for a long time.
Since He Yuanhai was not martyred, the organization decided to revoke his first-class meritorious honor after consideration.
He Yuanhai naturally has no objection to this arrangement. He also thinks in his heart that those comrades-in-arms who have fought side by side with him and sacrificed are more worthy of this honor.
However, after all, this made He Yuanhai the only person in the history of New China who was canceled as a first-class meritorious service, and the sadness in his heart can be imagined.
However, what happened next was what made He Yuanhai feel the most sad.
After he returned to his hometown, the villagers of Huangshan Village saw that the hero who had been martyred in their hearts actually came back alive, and he came back as the most despised captive, and their attitude towards him took a 180-degree turn.
In particular, there were some rumors in the village that He Yuanhai was not only a prisoner, but also a spy for the Vietnamese army.
Although the organization has determined that He Yuanhai did not have any treason after investigation, the rumors around are like sharp knives, piercing He Yuanhai's heart again and again.
Some villagers listened to the rumors, and even more driven by anger and disappointment, they ran to smash the monument carved by He Yuanhai earlier.
But compared with the villagers' white eyes, ridicule, ridicule and attacks on He Yuanhai himself, what made him feel even more sad was that his mother, who couldn't speak, was also pointed at because of this.
The old mother's tears all day long still can't stop the spread of rumors and harm.
In this way, a glorious soldier who died on the battlefield and defended his country with his flesh and blood, crawled in the "trench" surrounded by gossip, waiting in silence......
Justice is long overdue
I don't know if it should be called a kind of luck, He Yuanhai's long-awaited justice has finally arrived.
He Yuanhai's old company commander Chen Xiaocheng learned what happened to him and was very unhappy in his heart.
In order to "rehabilitate" He Yuanhai, Chen Xiaocheng worked tirelessly, going door-to-door, and painstakingly clarified to the villagers of Huangshan Village that He Yuanhai was not only not a "traitor" and a "spy", but also made great contributions in the battle.
Under the patient persuasion of the old company commander, the villagers finally slowly changed their views and realized that their previous attitude towards He Yuanhai was unfair. As a soldier of the People's Liberation Army who fought bravely on the battlefield, he deserves people's respect.
In addition, He Yuanhai's other old comrades-in-arms also tried their best to run around, trying to try to restore his reputation.
Today's He Yuanhai, the heroic deeds of the year have been recognized. Although he brought back the pain of a third-degree disability from the battlefield, he must have been relieved that he had finally been able to correct his name after more than 30 years.
As for the first-class merit that was withdrawn that year, He Yuanhai left the first-class merit medal, although the honor is no longer there, it can still be used as a historical witness of the heroic years of blood and fire.