"As a signal corpsman, it is necessary to come in handy at a critical time to deliver letters safely to the front line in the shortest possible time!" In March 1951, Liu Yuancheng, who was only 16 years old, signed up for the army from his hometown of Si County, Anhui Province, and embarked on the road of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea and defending his home and country.
On the battle-torn battlefield to resist US aggression and aid Korea, the signal corps members passed orders between the command post and the forward positions, and most of them relied on trekking over mountains and mountains to deliver letters to the front line, thus playing an important role in ensuring the victory of the troops. After entering the DPRK, Liu Yuancheng became a deputy squad leader of the communications platoon of the 13th Military Station of the Third Division of the Chinese People's Volunteers.
He enlisted in the army at the age of 16 and fulfilled his dream of joining the army
Liu Yuancheng, 90 years old this year, was born in Machang Commune, Si County, Anhui Province. In March 1951, at the age of 16, he signed up for the army under the mobilization of his father and was assigned to the communications platoon of the 13th military station of the third branch of the Chinese People's Volunteers, fulfilling his dream of participating in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and defending his homeland and the country.
In March of that year, Liu Yuancheng was sent to Suxian (present-day Suzhou City) for military training. Two months later, he took a train from Suxian to Andong (now Dandong City) in Liaoning Province, and after arriving in Andong, the troops stayed for three nights, and then set off from Andong to Sinuiju in North Korea by tanker truck, where he took a short rest and celebrated the August 1st Army Day at the Sinuiju camp, and then he was assigned to the staff of the Volunteer Army and became a signal soldier.
Although they did not fight on the front line, there were also comrades who died. In August 1951, shortly after entering North Korea, Liu Yuancheng's unit encountered enemy planes during the march. It was just dark that day, and the soldiers of a regiment were discovered by enemy planes on the march, and in an instant, the enemy planes swooped down and fired wildly at them, and one of the comrades was unfortunately shot and died on the spot. "The intestines have been beaten out, the scene is very miserable, I can't bear to look at it directly!" When he said this, Liu Yuancheng paused for a moment, wiped the corners of his eyes, and then said that this comrade-in-arms was his fellow countryman, named Wang Ligong. Due to the frantic strafing of enemy planes, the soldiers on the march took refuge in the nearby sorghum fields, but even so, the enemy planes continued to strafe the sorghum fields, and the bullets hit the sorghum ears all over the ground. The strafing lasted two hours, and it was not until it was completely dark that the enemy aircraft flew away. The next morning, the company clerk and a few soldiers found the body of this comrade-in-arms and buried it on the spot.
After entering the court, he hit an air-raid shelter
In March 1952, Liu Yuancheng was arranged to dig air-raid shelters around the army camp, and took turns to fight in platoons. Each platoon has 3 squads and more than 30 people. The comrades-in-arms were all young people under the age of 20, and some of them were so tired that they vomited blood, but even so, they still couldn't take a break, and after hitting the air-raid shelter, they went up the mountain to cut down wood and carry it down the mountain as a column for the air-raid shelter in the tunneling, so as to avoid a landslide. No matter how good the security protection is, there are also omissions, in the process of their communications platoon hitting the air-raid shelter, there was a landslide, a comrade-in-arms surnamed Wang was unfortunately buried by earth and stone, and his head was sandwiched between two stones, and the whole platoon of soldiers immediately rescued, struggled to move away the stones, dug open the mound, and pulled him back from the hands of death.
"The main ones that hit the air-raid shelters were the telephone platoon, the guard platoon, and the communications platoon, and each platoon basically built the air-raid shelter for a month, and then the other platoons followed suit. They are all young soldiers, full of energy, and everyone has a common belief that only by building a good air-raid shelter and protecting everyone's safety can we better destroy the enemy. We hit the bomb shelter day and night, and it was so fast that we hollowed out the whole cave and could accommodate a lot of people. Liu Yuancheng said.
In April 1952, the Volunteer Army Headquarters issued a directive, proposing that the tunnel fortifications must meet the requirements of "seven defenses", that is, air defense, artillery prevention, poison prevention, rain prevention, moisture prevention, fire prevention and cold protection. According to incomplete statistics, the total length of tunnels built by the Volunteers in North Korea is more than 1,250 kilometers (tunnel warehouses, tunnel-type car shelters, organ tunnel-type shelters, and air-raid shelters are not counted), and the length of trenches and communication trenches is 6,250 kilometers. The combination of tunnels and field fortifications became the basic form of the defensive positions of the volunteers in the future, and played a huge role in the war.
Communication is more important than life
As a signal soldier, Liu Yuancheng's main task was to convey orders from his superiors and quickly deliver letters to the troops in front.
He was a deputy squad leader of a communications platoon, and on one occasion, his platoon sent two fighters to deliver a letter to the forward position, but for three days they could not find the forward unit to convey the order, so the two fighters brought the letter back. The task was urgent, and the platoon commander ordered Liu Yuancheng to send the letter to the forward position. He immediately set out after receiving the order, and crossed the mountains and mountains to deliver the letter safely to the forward position in a day and a night.
"The signal corps was selected from among the many soldiers, and I was very lucky to be selected, it was my first mission to deliver a message, and it was successfully completed." Liu Yuancheng said: On the battlefield in Korea, the mountains are big and the ravines are deep, and one hill seems to be very close to the other, but in fact it is very far away, and there is a battle at the front, so the signal corps is also fighting to send messages. As a signal soldier, you must not only have a flexible mind, fast legs and feet, and a strong sense of direction, but also have a high degree of vigilance. Since the successful completion of the mission, all the important letters in the platoon have been delivered by him.
On the Korean battlefield, the communications technology of the volunteers was very backward, and in order to ensure the smooth transmission of orders, most of the signal soldiers walked or rode horses.
"The mission of the signal corps is more important than life. I am not afraid of death, what is more terrible than death is that the order cannot be conveyed in time, delaying the battle plan, and may cause more comrades-in-arms to die. Liu Yuancheng said that when he enlisted in the army to participate in the training camp in Suxian, he asked each of them to write a suicide note and be ready to sacrifice at any time, so that they could enter the DPRK and participate in the war.
In 1953, Liu Yuancheng joined the Communist Party of China, served as the leader of the communications squad in 1953, and was promoted to the commander of the communications platoon in May 1955.
After changing jobs, he has engaged in many types of work in the local area
On July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. Liu Yuancheng remained in North Korea and was transferred to the guard platoon in 1954 to stand guard. Until January 1957, when he returned to China with the large army, he was assigned to the Chongqing Infantry School of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to learn cultural knowledge, and later was arranged to study military knowledge at the Wuwei Infantry School. In July 1959, he graduated from the Wuwei Infantry School and was assigned to the machine gun company of the 2nd Regiment of the National Defense Division of Unit 7976 of the Xinjiang Military Region as an instructor. He did a line of love, opened a coal mine in the army, grinded tofu, etc.
It was not until July 1969 that he changed careers and came to Lanzhou from Xinjiang, where he was assigned to the Armed Forces Department of the then Yaojie Mining Bureau, became an officer, and worked in the exploration team under the Yaojie Mining Bureau for 7 years. In 1995, Liu Yuancheng retired from the power factory of the Yaojie Mining Bureau.
Liu Yuancheng's third son, Liu Jie, said: "My parents gave birth to four of our brothers, and since I was a child, I listened to my father tell the story of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea. ”
When looking back on that period of history, Liu Yuancheng is often full of emotion. He said: "The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was a great war, which not only defended the security of the motherland but also safeguarded world peace. In this war, the peoples of China and the DPRK fought side by side and forged a profound friendship, which will forever be engraved in the hearts of the people of the two countries. ”
Today, the 90-year-old Liu Yuancheng lived a very happy life in his later years, and every time he talked about the Korean War, he had to warn his children and grandchildren: "The country is now strong, we must love the motherland, love the party, cherish the hard-won happy life, you must study hard, work in a down-to-earth manner, and be a useful person to the country, the nation, and the society!" ”
Liu Yuancheng
Born in May 1935 in Machang Commune, Si County, Anhui Province, he joined the army in March 1951 and entered the DPRK in August 1951 as a communicator of the 13th Military Station of the Third Division of the Chinese People's Volunteers, and returned to China in January 1957.
Lanzhou Daily all-media reporter Teng Xiaohong text/picture