In the autumn of 1994, an 83-year-old man in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, trembled and walked into the door of the post office, he came to send a brief letter of help, and when everything was ready, the old man confidently handed the letter to the post office staff, and then walked home with great anticipation.
A few weeks later, CCTV in Beijing received the letter full of the expectations of the elderly, and the staff of CCTV immediately contacted their superiors after reading the contents of the letter, and the leaders were also shocked by the content of the letter.
Cctv
According to the contents of the letter, the old man who sent the letter was named Zhao Zhixiong, who served in the Kuomintang army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and said that he knew several of the first batch of female pilots in New China who had previously been guests in CCTV programs, and hoped to get in touch with these female pilots through CCTV as a medium, so as to meet them and attached their contact information at the end of the letter.
The content is very short, but the information is very clear, although the leaders also have a lot of questions in their minds, who is this old man? How did a former Kuomintang army member get to know the first female pilots of New China? What kind of friendship did they have that made him insist on meeting them decades later? Is this really true, or is it just a prank?
Zhao gave the old man the bear
In order to find out the truth behind it, the leader of CCTV hurriedly contacted the relevant person in charge of the program mentioned in the letter and ordered him to verify the content described in the letter, and at the same time he also sent someone to confirm the identity of the old man and the details not mentioned in the letter according to the contact information left by the sender.
With the deepening of the details of the investigation, the earth-shattering identity of this unknown old man has gradually surfaced, and the old man's life history and the epic picture of the Chinese Air Force from scratch behind him have gradually appeared in front of everyone...
The site of the Wuchang Uprising is now the Xinhai Revolution Museum
Speaking of the past of this old man Zhao Zhixiong really has to be described as a legend, his life is full of those "impossible things" in the eyes of ordinary people, from his early experiences to the choices he has made since then.
He was born in Wujin, Changzhou in the year of the Xinhai Revolution, when it coincided with successive uprisings across the country, the Qing Dynasty was crumbling, Changzhou on the south bank of the Yangtze River was surrounded by the flames of revolution, revolutionary ideas took root here, even in the Beiyang government period after the abdication of the Qing Emperor, the revolutionary enthusiasm here was still high, and Zhao Zhixiong, who grew up in such an era of revolutionary anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, was also deeply influenced by this progressive patriotic thought, and as early as the student age, he became a leading figure in the patriotic student movement.
Student patriotic movement
Due to the inaction and various compromises of the Beiyang Government and later the Nanjing National Government, the imperialist forces in China became stronger and stronger, and the progressive student groups represented by Zhao Zhixiong gradually held the same goal of saving the country and eventually went down several completely different paths.
In order to fulfill this ideal and desire in his heart, Zhao Zhixiong studied various military works in his spare time to prepare for his future application to the military academy.
Whampoa Military Academy
Kung Fu pays off, Zhao Zhixiong was admitted to the famous Whampoa Military Academy at the age of 20 and became the eighth cadet, and became an alumnus with many anti-Japanese celebrities, although his name Zhao Zhixiong was not famous compared with those famous generals, but his contributions in his subsequent military career were no less than those of these famous heroes.
Zhao Zhixiong, who entered the Whampoa Military Academy, worked very hard, and he ranked among the best in various training subjects, and he was soon discovered by the school leaders and transferred to the chariot training team that the Nationalist government had high hopes for.
Chiang Kai-shek inspected the Kuomintang chariot troops
After three years of study, Zhao graduated from the military academy with honors and was assigned to one of the few armored units in the Kuomintang army as a grassroots officer.
Because the Nationalist government at this time took Germany as the object of study, from army building to weapon system to military advisers were moving closer to Germany, under the leadership of German instructors who paid attention to armored warfare, Zhao Zhixiong also became a Chinese armored soldier who attracted everyone's attention in that era.
Nationalist Armored Soldier
However, Zhao Zhixiong did not serve in this unit for too long, due to changes in the situation, the Kuomintang government vigorously developed the air force, and Zhao Zhixiong also gave up the superior prospect of the chariot unit under the call of the state government, and once again entered the seventh phase of the Central Aviation School, starting his pilot career.
At that time, Zhao Zhixiong was still studying at the aviation school, the iron hooves of the Japanese invaders ruthlessly broke the tranquility of the country, and Zhao Zhixiong repeatedly requested to go to war after hearing the news of the start of the all-out War of Resistance, but was rejected by the instructors, and even threatened that he would not be able to return to the armored troops to fight Japan on the ground!
Japanese warplanes
The instructor saw that he was indignant in his heart, so he sternly told him: Even if he goes to the battlefield now, he will only lose his life in vain and drive the plane, now they can't beat the Japanese pilots, they will also be bombarded by the Japanese planes, only they can stop the Japanese planes from unscrupulously putting pressure on our army, and the most important job now is to learn various skills, prepare for the great cause of the future War of Resistance, and wait until the day they are ready to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese Kou!
Hearing this, Zhao Zhixiong immediately thought clearly about the school leader's painstaking intentions, so he never mentioned the words of killing the enemy in battle, and concentrated on resting his flying skills until he officially graduated in 1938, and the battle he was looking forward to could finally start.
Kuomintang Air Force
After this, he piloted fighters to fight with the Japanese army in the air, made many outstanding achievements, and with his excellent performance on the battlefield, within a few years he was promoted to flight instructor and flight captain, he and his flying team effectively supported the ground battlefield operations, made indelible contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japan, due to the shortage of personnel, Zhao Zhixiong in addition to piloting fighters also taught himself to operate bomber skills and put into actual combat, can be described as the ace pilot in our army.
Aircraft equipped by the Kuomintang army
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhao Zhixiong was withdrawn from the line of fire and went to the rear to train a new generation of pilots, but at this time, the domestic storm was surging and the end of the War of Resistance intensified the friction between the Kuomintang and the Communists, and the attempt of the Chiang Kai-shek government to restart the civil war was gradually revealed, so Zhao Zhixiong was very distressed.
Japan surrendered unconditionally
When the Liberation War broke out, the Kuomintang government repeatedly asked Zhao Zhixiong to go out of the mountains Chinese Chinese to lead the team to participate in the civil war, Zhao Zhixiong also refused to accept the request of the government many times, resolutely did not go to the battlefield, and finally he was transferred from the front line, and Ming sheng secretly became the colonel treasurer, responsible for the ground service and air transport of the air force, it seems that he controls the air logistics of the Kuomintang army. But in reality, all he did was sign the air cargo order issued by his superiors.
However, with the development of the war, Zhao Zhixiong's life has gradually ushered in a new turning point.
Liberation
At that time, the Liberation War had entered the end, the People's Liberation Army millions of male divisions after winning the three major battles were all assembled on the north bank of the Yangtze River, Zhao Zhixiong finally ushered in the day of liberation after several years of suffering, but he knew that his Kuomintang status would cause trouble for himself, after all, he was only one level behind becoming a major general in the Air Force to "honor" the ranks of The Kuomintang generals.
But at this time, his brother-in-law took the initiative to find him, it turned out that his brother-in-law was an underground party member of our party, and his inner thoughts about Zhao Zhixiong had long been heard, and now that the People's Liberation Army was about to cross the Yangtze River, he hoped to win this talent before liberation and lay the foundation for the construction of the new China's air force.
The image of the ccp's underground party in film and television dramas
After hearing of his brother-in-law's arrival, Zhao Zhixiong was overjoyed, and immediately expressed his willingness to cooperate with the Communists, and finally the two reached a consensus, it turned out that the Kuomintang defenders in the Chengdu area had already made a peaceful uprising plan under the positive pressure of our People's Liberation Army and the efforts of underground party organizations, and Zhao Zhixiong also joined the uprising plan and promised that the materials in the base would be retained by our People's Liberation Army.
However, because everything was carried out in secret, in order to ensure that the uprising plan would not be detected, Zhao Zhixiong also had to make a pro-Kuomintang superficial article, so he ordered someone to send his wife and children to Taiwan, and told the pilot to let his wife and children get off the plane when they were in Hainan, and then transfer to the democratic movement to return to the mainland to meet, but how could it be that this flight was temporarily cancelled under the instructions of the Kuomintang top brass and flew straight to Taiwan, and since then Zhao Zhixiong and his wife and children have been looking at each other across the sea for more than 40 years.
Liberate Chengdu
After the liberation of Chengdu, Zhao Zhixiong was selected as an instructor of the New China Air Force as an air force talent, bringing a lot of experience in construction and training to the fledgling New China Air Force, many of which trained pilots who participated in the Korean War and defeated the US Air Force on the Korean battlefield.
The New Chinese Air Force rushed to North Korea
These 14 people are the first batch of female pilots in New China, although there were also a small number of female pilots in the National Government Air Force before, but their training was completed abroad, Zhao Zhixiong has never taught female cadets flight technology experience, this mission is undoubtedly a huge challenge, so this experience makes Zhao Zhixiong remember it vividly.
The first batch of female pilots in New China
In the end, all fourteen students graduated with excellent results, and Zhao Zhixiong was personally awarded the first-class meritorious medal by General Liu Yalou and became a well-known hero.
Later, due to disarmament and changes in the domestic situation, the elderly Zhao Zhixiong was transferred to the civil aviation department and changed from a pilot to a dispatcher, but as he grew older, Zhao Zhixiong finally could not afford the highly intense dispatching work, and finally offered to resign, and then found a warehouse manager job in a machinery factory in his hometown of Changzhou until retirement.
warehouse
In the blink of an eye to the 90s, Zhao Zhixiong accidentally saw a report on the first batch of female pilots in New China on TV, and this time he took his thoughts back to the Zhengrong years more than 40 years ago, so he immediately wrote a letter and sent it to CCTV, hoping to meet with these former "apprentices", so there was a scene at the beginning of the story.
After the identity of the old man and the story he told were confirmed to be true, the CCTV leader immediately said to the staff around him: "Quickly contact the military region!" Ask them to help coordinate the various matters that Elder Zhao met with the female pilots. ”
In the end, with the efforts of many parties, Zhao Zhixiong's wish was completed, and CCTV also made an interview for him.
After this, the old man Zhao Zhixiong continued to live in seclusion in the downtown area until his death at the age of 106, and his legendary story ended in the end.