A few days ago, full of respect, a reporter from China's Jilin Net came to Yanji City to visit Li Qigang, a veteran who had participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Born on December 29, 1925, Li Qigang joined the revolution in January 1944 and joined the Party in December 1949. He successively served as a commander in the 15th Regiment of the 5th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army and the 70th Regiment of the 77th Division of the 26th Army of Dabie Mountain, and was awarded the Commemorative Medal for the 60th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese min Anti-Japanese War.
Li Qigang, who is 95 years old, looks very tough.
The invaders burned down the houses in the countryside, and the parents and the eldest brother starved to death
The old man sat down on the couch and, with a slightly Shandong accent, took us back to the year of Li Qigang's birth in 1925. Li Qigang said that he was born in Linqing County, Shandong Province, with eight brothers and sisters in his family, he was ranked third, and his parents were ordinary farmers.
Because of the large number of young people in the family, Li Qigang began to work part-time in the landlord's house from an early age, earning some rations to subsidize the family, although it was a little bitter at that time, but the family was together and lived a very happy life, but all this changed after the Japanese invaded his hometown.
The Japanese swept through his hometown and burned down the houses where his family lived. Without a home, without food, in order to survive, his parents pushed a wheelbarrow and pulled his younger siblings to start fleeing the wilderness, while Li Qigang himself stayed in his hometown to ask for food for a living.
Two years later, the parents who had returned from the famine built a simple grass hut in their hometown. Just when this family was about to resume a normal life, the Japanese invaders swept in again and snatched the only grain left in the family; this year, the eldest brother and his father both starved to death on the same night due to hunger, and only half a month later, the mother starved to death at home, and the second brother was also arrested by the homecoming regiment.
People without guns are bolder than "heaven."
Li Qigang accurately remembers that the year he joined the county brigade was April 1943. The old man laughed and said that at the age of 17, he was not as high as the gun issued by the county brigade at that time. At that time, the guns were snatched from the hands of landlord bullies by the county brigade, the quality of the guns was very poor, each person would only give 3 or 4 bullets, and the team members did not dare to shoot casually to practice shooting. Because the difference in weapons and numbers was too great compared to the enemy army, the main responsibility of their county brigade was to conduct daily observation and sentry outside the city where the Japanese were located, and once the Japanese wanted to go out of the city to grab grain and kill villagers, they would immediately inform the village of the situation and cover the villagers' early evacuation with grain. Because Li Qigang, who was young and agile at that time, was the last to evacuate every time, facing the danger of being captured by the Japanese army at any time. When the reporter asked the old man if he was afraid of being caught by the Japanese army, Li Qigang did not answer but shook his head.
Shandong Hebei Pull Big Saw Liaocheng Battle Dangerously Died
In August 1944, a year after The Elder Li Qigang joined the county brigade, the ten county brigades around Linqing County were transferred to the Weifang area of Shandong Province and merged, and were incorporated into the 70th Regiment of the Eighth Column of Shandong Province. Here, Li Qigang received formal training, and ammunition and other military supplies were much richer than the previous county brigades. Practicing shooting, how to use a large knife to fight with the enemy, and simple tactical coordination were all learned by Li Qigang at this time.
Li Qigang served as a guard for a battalion commander surnamed Jin because of his outstanding performance in training. After a short period of training, he and more than 1,300 soldiers in the regiment began a tug-of-war march in Hebei and Shandong. Its main purpose is to show the enemy the enormity of our army and to deter the enemy from acting rashly and involving his main forces.
Li Qigang said that at that time, in order to show that the troops were well-equipped, they used their thinking to the extreme, wrapped stretcher sticks and shovels with white cloth, let the soldiers without guns carry them on their shoulders, demolished the houses of the broken temples, and used the demolished wooden stakes and small wooden carts to make a combination of mortars.
When asked about the period from 1944 to 1945, when Japan was defeated and surrendered, what kind of confrontation with the Japanese army, the old man closed his eyes and pondered for a while, and said slowly: "The soldiers of the team marched back and forth between the hebei of Shandong Province, fought many small battles, and the specific location cannot be recalled, but the big battle in Liaocheng, Shandong Province, will never be forgotten for a lifetime." ”
Li Qigang said that it was january of the lunar calendar in 1945, and the soldiers of the 70th Regiment of the Eighth Column in Shandong province were ordered to attack the Japanese puppet army in Liaocheng, and the battle was fought for 6 days and 6 nights, and only 600 of the 1,300 soldiers in the regiment were finally left. At the beginning of the war, they dug a hole under the city wall, and according to the old man's recollection, the hole had been dug more than 8 meters deep in the direction of the city, and then two soldiers pushed two wheelbarrow explosives into the hole, because there was water in the hole, the explosives were wrapped in a quilt at that time.
First, the soldiers of the two platoons who went up to attack began to use the ladder to climb the city wall, but the enemy above rolled down the ladder with a log, and the two platoons of warriors Li Qigang did not see one alive and all died. The first two days of the war were fought very fiercely, and the soldiers continued to attack the enemy, but slowly the soldiers found that for some reason, the enemy's army always suddenly appeared in the rear of our army, and then suddenly disappeared, which caused our army to damage a lot of soldiers. The leaders of the regiment began to look for the reason why the enemy army appeared from the rear, and finally they found that in an ancient temple not far from the rear of our army, there was a tunnel that could lead directly to the city, and the enemy also used this road to sneak out of the city to sneak in, and Li Qigang and several other soldiers decisively blew up the tunnel here.
On the fourth day of the war, Li Qigang, who was a battalion commander's guard, also went to the front line, and on this day, Li Qigang was wounded for the first time, and the enemy's grenade shrapnel hit his head. Li Qigang said that if the shrapnel went deeper into the head, he might have died on the front line that day. Six days later, because the ammunition had been exhausted, their troops had no choice but to temporarily evacuate Liaocheng, and this injury also made Li Qigang lie for a month.
After demobilization, Li Lao worked in the beidahuang farm and the real estate construction team of Yanji City, and then served as the section chief of the highway section of Yanji City, leaving in April 1983. Because of the injuries left over during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he now has waist and leg pain, and enjoys the pension treatment of disabled soldiers of the third degree due to the war. Although the war is over and the days are settled, the spirit of the older generation of soldiers who are not afraid of difficulties and sacrifice themselves is still there.
Although Elder Li is now 95 years old, but still maintain the fortitude and persistence of the military, he often encourages young people to have their own dreams, and strive for them, when encountering tribulations, should not avoid, but will be difficult to see as an investment in life, after the tribulations, there will be a flower of success.
China Jilin Network Jike APP reporter Yu Yang/Wen Zhao Yeyang Photography/Videography