On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out, and for a time the war clouds were thick, and the new China, which had just ended a long war, was once again shrouded in a thick haze of war.

At the age of 27, Cao Yuhai, who had just been the first prison director of New China in Wuchang Prison in Wuhan for just one year, with his many years of experience in the army, had a premonition that a major war was coming (the volunteer army went to Korea in October of that year), and the passion of the battle was once again ignited in his chest.
The 19-year-old soldier who joined the Eighth Route Army, experienced the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, and who had made great achievements in battle was immediately boiling with blood and pride, when he heard about his original old unit: the 114th Division of the 38th Army of Siye, which was suppressing bandits in the south, and the division was ordered to go north just before wuhan! Cao Yuhai was eager to fight, and he couldn't hold back his urgent mood and immediately began to act... Later, he found the old leaders of the 114th Division of the 38th Army on the military column in Hankou, Hubei Province: Zhai Zhongyu, commander of the 114th Division, and Sun Hongdao, the regimental commander of the 342nd Regiment.
His request made the two veteran leaders difficult, you know, Cao Yuhai is a well-known combat hero of the 38th Army, he has made many military achievements over the years, Liang Xingchu, commander of the 38th Army, and Liu Xiyuan, the political commissar, have personally signed a commendation order for him. If it were not for the fact that he was wounded again in the Battle of crossing the river in 1949, and the organization had to take care of his weak body that had been injured many times, how could the army be willing to let this precious heroic model battalion commander, who was trusted by the organization and loved by officers and soldiers, be discharged from the army? And the old chief who is familiar with him also knows a new situation: Cao Yuhai met his love during his recuperation at the Yichang East Lake Sanatorium after being injured ~ he fell in love with a female nurse named Lin in the sanatorium! And it has reached the point of talking about marriage. Therefore, the division commander Zhai Zhongyu pushed his heart and advised him: "You have been fighting in the army for so many years, and you have injuries on your body and your health is not good, since the organization has arranged for you to change careers, you should stay in the local area to work with peace of mind and start a family!" For the sake of your lover and for your own sake, stop thinking about going to war with the troops. ”
Although he has been discharged from the army for a year, Cao Yuhai still regards himself as a responsible soldier, and at a time when the state is in war, the great war is coming, and the motherland and the people need to employ people, Cao Yuhai has iron-heartedly asked the old chief to approve his request to join the army again to serve new China...
Finally, under his soft and hard bubbles, the old chief who had originally loved him finally agreed! Perhaps the chief could not bear to reject such a sincere soldier who was eager to return and defend his family and country.
In July 1950, Cao Yuhai joined the army for the third time from the post of prison chief of Wuchang Prison and returned to the unit he was familiar with: the 342nd Regiment of the 114th Division of the 38th Army as a battalion commander.
It is said that he joined the army for the third time because Cao Yuhai joined the Eighth Route Army (the Second Brigade of the Shandong Column) for the first time in Shandong in 1943, and was later organized to return home to recuperate because he was wounded in battle.
However, after recovering from his wounds, he could not get in touch with the original troops, so he found another local Eighth Route Army unit and insisted on joining the army again. After the leader of the unit learned of his situation, he asked him to wait to see if he could find an opportunity to return to the original unit of the Second Brigade of the Mountain Column, but Cao Yuhai insisted: "I can't wait any longer, I want to go to the front line as soon as possible to kill the enemy, and I will join your troops." In this way, Cao Yuhai joined the Eighth Route Army for the second time, and then marched from Shandong to the northeast... He also grew from an ordinary soldier to a famous heroic battalion commander of the Siye 38th Army.
Besides, the nurse Kobayashi who knew and loved Cao Yuhai, of course, was unwilling to part with his lover, but Cao Yuhai still resolutely returned to the army, giving up the comfortable life that had already belonged to him, giving up the safe work of the prison director and nurse Kobayashi's sincere love...
Parting, Cao Yuhai, who has been an orphan since childhood, advised his dearest Nurse Kobayashi: "I don't need happiness, and I am not born willing to fight, but for peace, for the happiness of the working people of the world, I have to go to war!" ”
This passage was repeated in a letter from Nurse Kobayashi to Cao Yuhai, in which Nurse Kobayashi wrote: "When I think of you leaving tomorrow, my heart is like tearing!" But you are right: 'I don't need happiness, I'm not born willing to fight, but for the sake of peace, for the happiness of the working people of the world, I have to go to war.' ’...... My dear, you are absolutely right! ...... I love you even more! Who knows when we'll see each other again? But I'm going to wait, wait, wait for you to come back victoriously. ...... I embroidered a pair of pillows for you, please take it with you, just like I am by your side... I think there will always be a little time, honey, remember to write a letter, even if it's just a word... Your lover. ”
Nurse Kobayashi said that the pillows were a pair of white pillowcases embroidered with four words - "Never change the heart". This letter and this pillowcase were only discovered by his comrades-in-arms after Cao Yuhai's sacrifice when he was cleaning up his relics, and Cao Yuhai has always carried it with him... The pillowcase has been stained red by the blood of the martyrs, and has since been used as the treasure of the town hall of the 342nd Regiment of the 114th Division (renamed the 9th Regiment in the second battle) in the 342nd Regiment (9th Regiment) Regiment History Memorial Hall.
On the way north, Cao Yuhai once showed his comrade-in-arms Yao Yurong a photograph of Nurse Kobayashi, whom he had treasured with him. The beauty of the girl made his comrade-in-arms Yao Yurong very envious. He asked Cao Yuhai, "Why don't you wait until you get married before you leave?" Cao Yuhai replied, "That's not good, in case I die, that's not good enough." Yao Yurong deliberately joked: "Don't you like her very much?" Cao Yuhai looked serious, he stared at the photo and said sincerely: "Even if I die, I am in love with her!" ”
In October 1950, Cao Yuhai went to the front line with the 38th Army and was the first unit to enter the Korean War.
In the eight months of bloody fighting in the Korean battlefield, Cao Yuhai showed great bravery, experienced four battles successively, and made many military achievements. In particular, in the second battle, Cao Yuhai led a battalion to victory in the Battle of Yangzhan, which eliminated more than 600 reinforcement battalions of the Turkish brigade.
In the third campaign, Cao Yuhai led a battalion as a sharp knife battalion, penetrated more than 40 kilometers behind enemy lines alone, braved the severe cold of more than 20 degrees below zero to cross the Han River to annihilate more than 330 US troops, and captured more than 40 cannons and more than 30 cars... Cao Yuhai won the reputation of "steel battalion commander" for this. The 1st Battalion he led was also known as the "Iron Army" by the brother troops.
Between the brutal battles, Cao Yuhai always remembered the motherland's lover, and many years later, Cao Yuhai's correspondent recalled: During a night march, the instructor Fang Xin said to the battalion commander: "When you return home after the battle, you can marry the female nurse Lin ××." On the eve of the battle in which Cao Yuhai was killed, he once said to his comrades-in-arms: "Now the saddest thing for me is that I am sorry for her." I was a few years older than her, and I was a student. ”
In the fourth battle of the stormy weather, Cao Yuhai was ordered to lead two companies of a battalion to defend the 35.3 heights south of the Han River, and its position was very important, and the first battalion withstood hundreds of crazy attacks by the Ace Elite Cavalry Division of the US Army, which was eager to break through and escape, and held out for seven days and nights in a row.
When the corpses of the American troops covered the entire front of the position, the volunteers on the high ground were almost killed or injured... Cao Yuhai's battalion command was set up above the main peak position, and he resolutely vowed to coexist and die with the position!
It was dawn on February 12, 1951, and at the last moment of the critical situation, there were only about 30 people left on the position, and just when the densely packed American troops at the foot of the mountain were crawling up to launch an attack on the position, Cao Yuhai made the last phone call of his life to the regimental commander Sun Hongdao: "Commander, the enemy is coming!" My battalion headquarters has been surrounded! I said goodbye to you RegimentAlpin! Commander Sun Hongdao yelled urgently on the phone: "If you really can't do it, you will give up your position!" Hurry up and find an opportunity to withdraw!! At this time, the battlefield rationality of the regimental commander Sun Hongdao had been completely occupied by emotion, and he would rather lose his position than lose this heroic battalion commander whom he deeply loved and valued, and he was now determined to ignore the orders of his superiors to hold the high ground.
But Cao Yuhai would not give up the position at his feet that swore to coexist and die alone with the wounded comrades around him, and he did not hesitate in the slightest, and resolutely said to the regimental commander: "It is too late for the regimental commander, I cannot throw down the position, nor can I abandon the wounded soldiers who cannot be withdrawn!" I can't just go back on my own! Farewell to my regimental commander! The regimental commander, Hong Dao, was in tears, he knew the meaning of the last sentence, and he asked on the phone: "... Finally, what more do you have to ask for and wish to say? You said..." Cao Yuhai was silent for a moment and said on the phone: "Please take good care of Nurse Kobayashi organizationally!" Please keep it confidential for us organizationally! She will marry in the future, don't affect her! ”
After saying that, he dropped the phone, carried the gun and led the soldiers to fight with the enemy who rushed up, in the final battle Cao Yuhai was hit by two bullets in the head and chest, when he fell to the sky, the gushing hot blood quickly froze with the thick snow in the low temperature of minus 20 ° C, Cao Yuhai fulfilled his vow to coexist with the position, only 28 years old.
In the end, the 35.3 heights were not lost, and when the reinforcements of the two companies came up to take over the defensive position, only zhao Lianshan, the commander of the three companies who were seriously injured, and Liu Zhanqing, a soldier, were left on the position of the first battalion! However, a battalion annihilated more than 680 American soldiers in a bloody battle of 7 days and nights ~ This was also the most battle in which the entire Volunteer Army to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea annihilated the enemy at the battalion level, and a battalion led by Cao Yuhai won the initiative for the final victory of the volunteer army in the entire campaign at the cost of almost total annihilation. After the war, the third company that Cao Yuhai finally commanded the battle was awarded the honorary title of "Second-Class Combat Hero Company" for special merit and was awarded the honorary title of "Second-Class Combat Hero Company", while Cao Yuhai's first battalion was awarded the glorious title of "Hero Battalion for The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" and awarded 1 pennant with "both offensive and defensive"; Cao Yuhai was posthumously awarded the titles of "Special Meritorious Hero" and "First Class Combat Hero".
On October 29, 1953, the list of heroic models and special meritorious heroes of the Chinese Volunteer Army published by Xinhua News Agency to the world was in order: Huang Jiguang, Yang Gensi, Qiu Shaoyun, Cao Yuhai... Cao Yuhai ranked fourth.
One day after Cao Yuhai's sacrifice, in the south of the motherland where spring was in full bloom, Nurse Kobayashi received a letter from her lover's unit that broke her liver and intestines, in which she wrote: "Comrade Cao Yuhai is an excellent son of the motherland, a first-class combat hero and a special meritorious hero in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and until he shed the last drop of blood for the motherland, he still cherished the letter you gave him and the commemoration of love"...
You can imagine the heartbroken grief of nurse Kobayashi, who loved Cao Yuhai deeply, and she wrote in her reply to the troops: "What an irreparable loss this should be for me!" But I am proud to have such a lover, and I will never be worthy of his lover. Tell you--- his close comrade-in-arms, and I insist on going to the Korean front. ”
What a great, sincere, noble love! ...... In today's era of rampant materialism and personal interests, Cao Yuhai's love with Nurse Kobayashi has touched many people.
Time flies, the white colt passes through the gap, how I hope to go back in time for seventy years, to be able to let this admired revolutionary partner walk together again, walking in the sunny late autumn of 1950...