"Martyr Zhang Desheng, a native of Xiaohebei Village, Fenggou Town, Zhucheng City, Shandong Province, joined the revolution in 1944 and served as the commander of the second company of the first battalion of the 25th Regiment of the Ninth Division of the Third Column of the East China Field Army. In January 1947, in the Battle of Yangqiao in the Battle of Lunan, Zhang Desheng led his company to fight to the death against an enemy several times his own, successfully completing the task entrusted by his superiors and making a glorious sacrifice. After the war, the comrade was posthumously awarded the honorary title of 'Zhang Desheng Company' (taking the "de" harmonic sound) by the Third Column of the East China Field Army for his outstanding military achievements, and his company was awarded the honorary title of 'Zhang Desheng Company(taking the "de" harmonic sound)'. ”
On August 27, 2021, the Zhucheng Veterans Affairs Bureau received a supporting document from a brigade of the 81st Group Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, through which the deeds and feats of martyr Zhang Desheng were finally known to the people of his hometown.
After 74 years of sacrifice, the hero finally returned to his hometown.
Fertile soil breeds proud children
In 1916, Zhang Desheng was born in Xiaohebei Village (then part of Ju County) in Fenggou Town, Zhucheng City. The village is adjacent to Dabei Xingxing Village, the hometown of Wang Gemei, a major representative of Wang Gemei.
Zhang Desheng lost his father at a young age, a total of five brothers and sisters, he is the eldest son, and the brothers are small. In that chaotic world, life was extremely difficult. According to the recollections of the old man in the same village, Zhang Desheng was born with great strength, when he was working in the Qingdao Spinning Factory, he studied martial arts with the master of the spinning factory for several years, practiced a martial art, and could lift a large millstone weighing 200 or 300 pounds in the village; the courtyard wall was as high as 2 meters, and he could easily cross it with a machine gun in one hand, and his physique was strong and different from ordinary people.
As a peer of that era, Zhang Desheng knew Wang Naizheng, the eldest son of Wang Zhimei, and Wang Dongnian, a young revolutionary, who knew each other. When Zhang Desheng got married, Wang Naizheng also gave a soap box as a congratulatory gift. Wang Naizheng inherited the legacy of his father in his youth, and under the cultivation of the party, he joined Wang Dongnian and other aspiring young people to participate in revolutionary activities on the border of Zhuju. Under their influence, the enthusiastic young people gradually had a common revolutionary aspiration and successively embarked on the revolutionary road of saving the dead and trying to survive.
In order to resist the Japanese invaders, Zhang Desheng began to participate in revolutionary activities. Due to the long age and the fact that many battles at that time could not be made public, some of Zhang Desheng's revolutionary actions could no longer be confirmed, but the old people in the nearby village recalled that zhang Desheng and his companions fought against the Japanese at that time. It is said that at that time in Liujiaguanzhuang, Juxian County, there were seven or eight Japanese soldiers living in the turret, and Zhang Desheng and a companion (name unknown) reached in at night and killed all the Japanese soldiers with grenades and large knives. On another occasion, two Japanese soldiers were booby-trapped and killed in a well by Zhang Desheng. At that time, these battle stories were widely circulated in the ten miles and eight townships.
Fire forges loyal souls
In 1944, Zhang Desheng joined the revolutionary army and joined the Communist Party of China in 1945. After joining the army, Zhang Desheng fought bravely and made many military achievements, and was soon appointed as the company commander of the 4th Company of the 4th Regiment of the Independent 2nd Brigade of the Shandong Military Region. In September 1945, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China formulated the strategic policy of "developing to the north and defending to the south", which enabled the troops of the New Fourth Army in northern Anhui to quickly march to the northeast. In order to cover the transfer of the New Fourth Army, Zhang Desheng's company undertook the heavy responsibility of cutting off the Longhai line. In October, the company was ordered to attack Yangqiao, and Zhang Desheng, as the pre-war company commander, fully carried forward military democracy, adopted the suggestion put forward by squad leader Liu Jinyu, and used the ingenious tactic of "frontal feinting and interspersed flanks" to personally lead the sharp troops, quietly bypassing the heavily fortified artillery towers and stations, and directly attacking the stronghold.
In August 1945, after the surrender of the Japanese army, The pseudo-coastal guard Li Xianzhai immediately defected to the Kuomintang reactionaries and turned the Area of Boer Town under its control into a "bridgehead" for the Kuomintang reactionary forces to insert into the interior of our People's Liberation Army. On November 4, 1945, in order to remove this "stinger", the Coastal Military District launched the Battle of Boer. In order to avoid enemy fire, our troops carried out tunnel operations to approach the enemy position. In the first stage of the campaign, Zhang Desheng's company actively carried out battlefield agitation, and Zhang Desheng set an example by working continuously for dozens of hours, which stimulated the enthusiasm of all officers and men and built 12 bunkers overnight. On the 5th, the enemy sent more than 600 people to a platoon of the company stationed in Cuijiazhuang to attack madly, the enemy was outnumbered, the situation was dangerous, the company's ammunition was about to run out, Zhang Desheng calmly and bravely commanded the comrades to stubbornly resist, he kicked away five or six grenades that fell at his feet, raised the machine gun and swept away, and finally with the efforts of all comrades, repelled the enemy's attack, and then our army launched a strong attack, and after 24 days and nights of hard work, on the 28th won a comprehensive victory in the Battle of Poer, liberating all the coastal areas except Qingdao.
In January 1947, the Battle of Lunan began. The 2nd Company of the 1st Battalion, 25th Regiment, 9th Division, 3rd Column of the East China Field Army was ordered to attack Chenqiao and Yangqiao, with the goal of completing the division between the Nationalist reorganized 26th Division and the 1st Rapid Column. In the early morning of January 4, the Yangqiao Bridge was filled with fire, like daylight. As an important battlefield in the Lunan Campaign, the enemy garrison vainly tried to take advantage of the favorable terrain to resist to the end. Company commander Zhang Desheng, who was a pioneer in the face of the situation, personally led the commando team to bravely attack in the rain of bullets and bullets, broke through the enemy position in one fell swoop, and seized the enemy's defensive front. But the enemy was not willing to lose, our army just gained a foothold, the enemy reinforcements flocked to the Yangqiao, launched a crazy counterattack on the Yangqiao, the battle soon entered a white-hot, the company smashed the enemy's counterattack again and again, but the ammunition was quickly exhausted, looking at the enemy who rushed up by the black pressure, Zhang Desheng was not afraid of danger, shouting to his comrades in the trenches: "Comrades, fight with the enemy!" Then he struggled to jump out of the trench to kill the enemy, in order to cover the comrades around him, Zhang Desheng was shot by a bullet, he fell to the ground in response, but his eyes were wide open in the direction of the enemy. The position suddenly fell into a terrible silence, and tears choked the throats of the warriors. "Kill! Avenge the company commander! Suddenly, the roar of the heavens resounded through the battlefield, and the soldiers of the whole company rushed into the enemy group like a sea of mountains and seas, and launched a close-range death-defying battle with the enemy, and after a bloody battle, the Battle of Yangqiao was a complete victory, while Zhang Desheng, who was only 32 years old, died heroically in this battle.
Initial intention pilot
The hero is dead, and the mighty spirit lives on forever.
After the war, on March 26, 1947, the 3rd Column of the East China Field Army posthumously awarded company commander Zhang Desheng the honorary titles of "Combat Hero" and "Model Company Commander", and awarded the company the honorary title of "Zhang Desheng Company".
Honor is the second life of a soldier, and honorary titles are honorary titles conferred by the army on individuals and units that have distinguished themselves in the performance of combat, training, and other tasks, who have made special contributions, and have had a significant impact. The honorary title conferred by our army is the highest of all kinds of awards, which has a strong sense of authority, specificity, and praise, and is a symbol of his contribution and a sign of his merits.
Although Zhang Desheng's life was short, his spirit will forever be remembered in history and inspire future generations. The "Zhang Desheng Company" successively participated in dozens of major battles and battles in Lunan, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Jinan, Huaihai, Dujiang, and Jintang Island, and twice entered the Korean War. In the Battle of Kaifeng, the leader of the demolition and attack on the city gate was the "Zhang Desheng Company". Although Zhang Desheng was sacrificed, thousands of commanders and fighters like Zhang Desheng gathered together and lit the torch of the Chinese revolution in the darkest night before dawn.
Today, in the honor room of the "Zhang Desheng Company," pennants are shining brightly, and the officers and men of the "Zhang Desheng Company" from generation to generation have inherited the "spirit of victory," moved by orders, and regarded winning the battle as their unremitting pursuit.
According to the "history of victory" compiled by the "Zhang Desheng Company," during the period of peaceful construction, the company successively participated in the relief of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, the "802" military exercise, the "Land and Air Coordination Exercise," the "Jingjin" defense cable construction, the "Beijian-U-99-10" exercise, the "Capital Air Defense" exercise, the "Huhai" national defense cable construction, the "Beijian--2005" exercise, the "Bohai Rim" defense cable construction, the "Casting Shield--2009" exercise, the "Crossing -2015 Zhuri and E" exercise. The major tasks entrusted by the superiors, such as the real-force confrontation exercise, have been rated as advanced companies in grass-roots construction 7 times. Zhang Desheng's heroic and fearless fighting spirit has been riveted into the hearts of generations of officers and men of the company like a steel seal, and the "Zhang Desheng Company," a powerful brigade that terrified the enemy, has completed the refinement of being reborn again and again in the blood and fire, and has continued to write the strong army chapter of "Zhang Desheng Company" in the new era and new starting point.
The "heroic soul" returns home
When Zhang Desheng died, the whole country had not yet been liberated, and his wife and a son, a daughter and two children struggled to survive, because the family was poor, and once begged for food to make a living. It was not until April 1951, when the state implemented the treatment of martyrs, that the family received a pension of 800 pounds of millet, that life began to gradually improve, and Zhang Desheng's two children were raised by the state until they were 18 years old. In the early 1960s, the army sent special personnel to visit Zhang Desheng's family at home. However, due to various reasons, there is no accurate record of Zhang Desheng's martyrdom deeds on the list of martyrs in our city.
Today, Zhang Desheng's daughter works as a farmer at home; his son, Zhang Naixin, was born in 1944 and retired from the Zhucheng Municipal Public Security Bureau in 2004; and his grandson Zhang Jun is now the general manager of Hebei Yixiangyuan Food Technology Company.
On November 16, 2020, Xiaohebei Village, Fenggou Town, welcomed a special guest, Lieutenant Xue Xiaonian from a brigade of the Army's 81st Group Army. Xue Xiaonian was in charge of literary and historical work in the company, and the purpose of his coming this time was to trace Zhang Desheng, the old company commander of their company. Since then, "Zhang Deshenglian" and Zhang Desheng's hometown have begun to be linked.
After many contacts and confirmations, the troops finally sent the deeds certification materials in recent days, which made the relevant responsible comrades of the Zhucheng Veterans Affairs Bureau very excited: "For many years, because we could not find authoritative information, we have never been clear about the deeds and merits of martyr Zhang Desheng. After working together with the families of the martyrs, the relevant troops were finally contacted and detailed records of the heroic deeds were found. In the next step, it is necessary to improve the "List of Martyrs and Heroes" as soon as possible, record in detail the deeds and meritorious deeds of martyr Zhang Desheng, and at the same time vigorously publicize the heroic deeds, carry forward the revolutionary spirit, and educate and inspire the people of the whole city with the heroic deeds of the martyrs. ”
"Now we finally know the details of Grandpa's heroic battle before he died. Although the remains of the grandfather have not yet been found, it is also a fulfillment of the family's long-cherished wish for many years to let the grandfather's 'spirit' go home. In my heart, Grandpa is like a beacon, guiding us every step of the way. Our family will always remember and carry forward the spirit of Grandpa. Zhang Jun, the grandson of martyr Zhang Desheng, said in an interview.
The best memorial is to keep going. Although the martyr Zhang Desheng spilled blood on the battlefield and fixed his life at the age of 32, his revolutionary merits will forever be recorded in the annals of history, and his heroic spirit and revolutionary demeanor are worthy of our eternal transmission.
(Reporting by Zhang Peng, client reporter of Dazhong Daily, correspondent Daniel Zhang Zhang Zeqing)