Lao Qin yesterday wrote an article entitled "He rushed to kill fiercely at Changjin Lake, alarmed the commander, was replaced by a position, and later became vice chairman of the Central Military Commission." This article tells the story of General Chi Haotian, who later served as a member of the 15th Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China, who led a reinforced platoon in the Battle of Chosin Lake and charged at the enemy's position, and captured more than 20 guns and 1 seatless gun in 4 highlands. This move alarmed Peng Deqing, commander of the 27th Army. Peng Deqing considered that he was a long-established combat hero, worried that he had lost his mistakes and affected the morale of the whole army, and quickly asked people to replace him.
It is mentioned in the article that Chi Haotian's treatment is somewhat similar to that of Zhou Wenjiang, deputy company commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 177th Regiment of the 59th Division of the 20th Army.
Before the 20th Army entered the Dynasty, there were four famous combat heroes.
They are Yang Gensi, Chen Baofu, Mao Xingbiao and Zhou Wenjiang.
The first on the right is Zhou Wenjiang, and the third from the right is Yang Gensi
In September 1950, the four men attended the First National Congress of Combat Heroes and Model Workers and took a group photo with Chairman Mao.
However, before they could receive the photo that made thousands of people envious, they hurried to the Korean battlefield.
In the Battle of Chosin Lake, Yang Gensi and Mao Xingbiao died heroically, and Chen Baofu was seriously injured in many places and was sent back to China for rescue, and his life and death were uncertain.
Under these circumstances, Zhang Yixiang, commander of the 20th Army, heard that Zhou Wenjiang, in the battle to seize Xixingli, led a company to fight fiercely with the enemy for 7 days and nights, repelling 28 enemy attacks, with a total of 129 people, and only 20 people remained. In order to preserve Zhou Wenjiang, a combat hero, he was ordered to be transferred to the political department of the division as the deputy chief of the youth section.
Zhou Wenjiang was a native of Jiangyan, Jiangsu Province, born in June 1924, he and Chi Haotian joined the revolution in the same year (1944), but he was 5 years older than Chi Haotian, after joining the army, he carried a gun to the battlefield, and shined on the battlefield: in June 1944, in Jiangdu Dinggou Patrol Village, he began the first battle in his life, rushed into the enemy fort alone, and was awarded the first class of merit; in April 1945, in the ambush battle of the Three Stacks River, he led the whole class to launch a charge, successfully cut off the enemy, so that he could not take care of each other, and then made a first-class merit In September 1945, when he attacked the Japanese army that resisted Rugao and could not surrender, he bravely ascended to the city in one fell swoop and won the title of "People's Hero of the Third Class in East China".
……
Relatively speaking, Chi Haotian was born in 1929 and was only 15 years old in 1944, so he mainly worked as a correspondent and clerical in the army, and only after he was transferred to the deputy instructor of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion, 235th Regiment, 79th Division, 77th Army of the Sanye Army in 1948, did he go to the battlefield.
As soon as Chi Haotian went to the battlefield, he showed his heroic qualities.
He participated in the Battle of Menglianggu, the Battle of Jinan, the Battle of Huaihai, the Battle of Crossing the River, the Battle of Shanghai, and his 7th Company was a famous heroic company, and had won the honorary titles of "Jiaodong Battle Model Company", "Gaomi City First Company", "Changsheng Company" and so on. When attacking Jinan, the commanders and fighters of the whole company, fearing the enemy's dense firepower, went forward and followed, rushed to the head of the city, played a key role in opening up the city of Jinan, and were awarded the title of "Jinan Hero Company" after the war.
Chi Haotian's personal heroic deeds were: When he annihilated Huang Baitao's corps in the area of Nianzhuang, he and company commander Xiao Xiqian were the first to attack Huang Baitao's headquarters and captured Huang Baitao's mount.
Later, in the battle to annihilate Huang Wei's 12th Corps, he led the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 235th Regiment of the 79th Division of the 27th Army to capture a battalion of Nationalist soldiers.
What made Chi Haotian famous in the first battle was that in the war to liberate Shanghai, he led three fighters from the sewers to the enemy's division headquarters, and without a single shot, captured the deputy commander of the colonel of the 204th Division of the Kuomintang Youth Army, forcing his division headquarters and three battalions to lay down their weapons.
As a result, he was rated as a second-class meritorious service, and later rated as a regimental first-class combat model and a third-class people's hero in East China.
Zhou Wenjiang in this period continued to interpret his legendary life - in the Battle of Menglianggu, he led the whole platoon to 13 people, and won the first class of merit; in the Battle of Kaifeng, he led two platoons to take the lead in opening the attack gap and was named "East China Second Class Combat Hero".
In contrast to Chi Haotian's miraculous record of "subduing more than a thousand enemies without spending a single shot and a bullet," Zhou Wenjiang led the whole company to serve as a 5-time surprise attack and main attack in the Huaihai Campaign, and personally led 19 people to guard the enemy at Zhu Xiaozhuang's temporary airfield of Du Yuming, cutting off Du Yuming's escape route by plane, thus personally winning the honorary title of "First-Class Combat Hero in East China", and his company was named "Great Meritorious Company of the Huaihai Campaign".
In the ensuing Battle of Crossing the River, Zhou Wenjiang's company was awarded the honorary title of "Great Meritorious Company for Crossing the River", and Zhou Wenjiang was "the first hero to plant the red flag of victory in the air" and was once again awarded the first class meritorious service.
Chen Shiyu, the former commander of the Eighth Corps, wrote about the Battle of Crossing the River in his reminiscence article "Red Sun Illuminating Bell Mountain", and specially set aside a pen to detail the scene of Zhou Wenjiang leading 5 companies to seize the beachhead position in 10 wooden boats.
In September 1950, when Zhou Wenjiang, Yang Gensi, Chen Baofu and Mao Xingbiao attended the First National Congress of Combat Heroes and Model Workers, he was already a well-known hero in the country.
Lao Qin wrote in the article "He rushed and killed fiercely at Chosin Lake, alarmed the commander, was replaced by a position, and later became vice chairman of the Central Military Commission", wrote that although Chi Haotian was once transferred from the line of fire by the commander Peng Deqing in the Battle of Chosin Lake, Chi Haotian still charged into the battle in the Fifth Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and was extremely brave. When the whole division retreated north, he led the main force of the 3 battalions to cover the division to cross the Zhaoyang River. After completing the task, he heard that there were logisticians in the brother division headquarters who were left behind and surrounded, so he led the whole battalion to kill back, rescued the fallen logisticians in the encirclement of the US army, and led them back to the north smoothly.
Zhou Wenjiang also had a mission in the Fifth Campaign: to lead the Sixth Medical Team of the 59th Division to take in the wounded, sick, and immobile personnel of the 20th Army and fraternal units, and to bring them back to the unit safely.
He led a medical team of 44 people to take in 144 wounded and sick people and those who were left behind at the HejiangLi Ferry, and then led them to detour hundreds of miles, which lasted 21 days, and finally crossed the North Han River smoothly.
In 1951, a book written by Zhu Zefu entitled "Heroic Instructor - The Story of Zhou Wenjiang" was published, which mentioned that from the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to the War of Liberation and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Zhou Wenjiang participated in more than 140 large and small battles.
As a combat hero with outstanding military achievements, Zhou Wenjiang received extremely high honors from the party and the state.
From 1954 onwards, he was elected as a deputy to the First and Second National People's Congresses and served as a member of the Presidium of the Congress continuously.
Zhou Wenjiang and Chi Haotian were both famous combat heroes, but they were not able to meet until the Second People's Congress, when they were arranged to stay in the same room of the Beijing Hotel.
They cherished heroes and cherished each other, and became friends with no rebellion.
In 2014, zhou Wenjiang recalled his contacts with Chi Haotian in an interview with reporters and said with great affection: "During the Second People's Congress, I shared a room with him, he was a regimental political commissar of the 27th Army, a well-known model political worker of the People's Liberation Army, and there are many places worth learning from. During that time, we lived together, ate together, went in and out together, shared a car, and forged a deep friendship, and we have been in touch for more than 50 years. ”
Zhou Wenjiang published his battle memoir, "Indelible Memories", in 2012, when Chi Haotian took the initiative to write a preface.
In the book "Indelible Memory", Zhou Wenjiang happily recalls the best time of his life: he was received by Chairman Mao three times.
The first time was on September 26, 1950, when Chairman Mao received the deputies after the National Heroic Model Conference, and he and Yang Gensi both rushed around to shake hands with Chairman Mao.
Zhou Wenjiang recalled: "I was small, and I was crowded behind, so I had to salute Chairman Mao from afar, and Chairman Mao saw it, shook hands with everyone, and took the initiative to shake hands with me. ”
The second time he shook hands with Chairman Mao was on June 30, 1951, when Zhou Wenjiang, as a representative of the Volunteer Army, attended the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the birth of the Communist Party of China, and he ascended to the rostrum and was greeted by Chairman Mao.
Zhou Wenjiang was most impressed by september 15, 1954, when the first session of the First National People's Congress opened, he was a member of the presidium of the congress, and during the break, he reported to Chairman Mao on the life of the troops. Chairman Mao's memory is amazing, remembering that he is a native of Jiangsu, and specifically said to Premier Zhou: "Enlai, this is your hometown!" ”
After the congress, Zhou Wenjiang returned to the Beijing Hotel, and everyone knew that he had been received by Chairman Mao and shook hands with Chairman Mao, and they all rushed over to shake hands with him, saying that they wanted to shake "Chairman Mao's hand."
Also during the first session of the First National People's Congress, Zhou Wenjiang and Navy representative Wang Weifu met Marshal Peng Dehuai at the Huai Hall. Marshal Peng Dehuai knew that he was a volunteer soldier of the 20th Army of the 9th Corps, and was very excited and took the initiative to invite him to take a group photo together.
In 1959, during the first session of the Second National People's Congress, Zhou Wenjiang also took a group photo with Marshal He Long, Marshal Luo Ronghuan, General Tan Zheng and others.
Zhou Wenjiang has collected countless precious photographs in his lifetime, in addition to the two mentioned above, there are two that are doubly cherished: one is a group photo of him with Yang Gensi and others when the 20th Army elected the deputies to the British Model Congress, and the other is a group photo of 60 PLA deputies at the first session of the First National People's Congress.
Among these 60 REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY, later in 1955, when our army first conferred the rank, there were 7 marshals, 3 generals, 27 generals, two lieutenant generals, and a major general!
Zhou Wenjiang's later achievements were also very high, and before his retirement in 1979, he served as the deputy commander of the Nanyang Subdistrict of the Henan Provincial Military Region.