Leaning over and hugging in the midst of the flames of war.
The dying kiss before the smoke.
Wang Hong, the former photography officer of the 47th Group Army, used a photo called "Death Kiss" to severely damage the hearts of countless people in the peacetime era.
At that time, when the footsteps of light returned to 1986, and the camera refocused on the Laoshan battlefield at that time, people saw a green but blood-stained face, and saw a young but determined figure.
They, these "loveliest people", constitute the most powerful barrier to guard the motherland and homeland.
The archetypal characters of "Dead Kiss", 18-year-old soldier Zhao Weijun and 20-year-old female rescue team soldier Zhang Ru, also spent the former's dying moments together on July 24 of this year on this battlefield.
After turning Zhao Weijun's stretcher in the direction of Lanzhou, Gansu Province, and listening to him call his parents who were far away from home for the last time with a weak voice, Zhao Ru's ears once again sounded his voice.
"Sister Nurse, thank you... Rescued me for days... I can't do it, die for the country, I don't regret it. It is...... A bit of a pity... I heard that life without love... it's not perfect... But I haven't... Ever been in love, you... Can hold... Hold me? ”
Zhang Ru leaned over and gave the young comrade-in-arms who had been injured by the mine a tight hug.
With tears in her eyes, she kissed his forehead and lips softly again.
Since then, it has also become the last memory of Zhao Weijun's life.
And this scene was truly reproduced by the passing photographer Wang Hong many years later.
Now, more than 30 years later, Zhao Weijun ended his journey as a martyr early, and Zhang Ru is still running, just to pass on their spirit.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Battle of LaoShan broke out</h1>
"Friends come with wine, jackals come with shotguns."
Around the 1980s, a jackal named "Vietnam" once again stepped into China's Yunnan Province.
Since then, the gunshots in Yunnan Province have been continuous for 9 years.
As early as the 1970s, relations between China and Vietnam deteriorated markedly as a result of changes in their respective international positions.
In 1979, a self-defense counterattack against Vietnam that lasted more than a month brought the relations between China and Vietnam to a freezing point.
Unwilling to be defeated, the Vietnamese army has re-caused turmoil, frequently provoking, invading, and encroaching on the border line of Wenshan Prefecture in Yunnan Province.
In 1984, Xinhua News Agency reported on the matter again.
"In the past five years, the Vietnamese army has continuously opened fire on farms, villages and schools in China, firing more than 40,000 rounds of various guns and ammunition, killing and injuring 235 soldiers and civilians on our border."
"Forcing the border people to leave their homes and burrow in caves." As a result, 31,793 mu of land is difficult to cultivate and manage, and hundreds of thousands of mu of rubber cannot be harvested. 52 schools were forced to close and students were unable to attend school..."
"The people of all ethnic groups in the frontier strongly demand that the border defense forces severely punish the Vietnamese aggressors and defend the territory of the motherland and the safety of the lives and property of the people on the frontier!"
Since then, the Battle of Laoshan has been on the verge of breaking out.
The Battle of Lao Shan began on April 28, 1984, and ended on April 1, 1993.
It was a series of campaigns commanded by Xu Shiyou and General Yang Dezhi, centered on the goal of recovering Laoshan and Ziyinshan.
The reason why it is named "Lao Shan Campaign" and the military districts have been fighting in the Lao Shan battlefield is because Lao Shan has a very important strategic position and has been occupied by Vietnamese troops since 1979.
It can be said that Vietnam was able to continue to invade China's border areas for 5 years, relying on the complex terrain of Lao Shan and the defensive positions they built here.
Therefore, whether or not laoshan can be recovered and defended has also become the key to this campaign.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > rushed to the front</h1>
"There is a beautiful flower in the world, that is the youth tufanghua, the hard bones bloom, and the drops of blood stain it red."
Since the end of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam in 1979, china has taken a number of defensive measures in the face of constant harassment and invasion of Vietnamese troops along the border of Wenshan Prefecture in Yunnan Province.
In addition to the units under the Yunnan Provincial Military Region adhering to the frontline of border defense and devoting themselves to defending the territory and the safety of life and property on the border, the state has also successively transferred troops from major military regions to participate in defensive operations.
In April 1979, the 42nd Division of the 14th Army of the Kunming Military Region took the lead in entering Wenshan Prefecture and cooperated with the border defense troops of the Yunnan Provincial Military Region to hold the front-line position of border defense.
After the battle, it was not until April 27, 1984, when Wenshan was evacuated and rebuilt.
In January 1984, the 31st and 32nd Divisions of the 11th Army of the Kunming Military Region, the 40th Division of the 14th Army, the 122nd and 123rd Regiments of the 41st Division, and the 4th Artillery Division of the former Kunming Military Region successively entered Wenshan Prefecture.
Later, from August 5 to December 9 of the same year, Wenshan Prefecture was evacuated and returned to the building in triumph.
Subsequently, the Nanjing Military Region, the Fuzhou Military Region, the Beijing Military Region, the Shenyang Military Region, the Wuhan Military Region, the Chengdu Military Region, the Guangzhou Military Region, the Jinan Military Region, the Xinjiang Military Region, and the Lanzhou Military Region were also successively transferred by the Central Military Commission to dispatch military- and division-level units to participate in rotational or defensive operations on the Sino-Vietnamese border.
Among them, most of the fighters involved in the war were between the ages of 18 and 25.
No one knows what these young warriors were thinking as they went to battle.
Will they be afraid? Afraid of the death of a comrade-in-arms, afraid of losing his life here?
Will they be excited? Excited to make a contribution to the battlefield, famous for eternity?
Perhaps, they didn't think anything of it either.
Probably the only thing to remember is the family and the motherland behind it.
Therefore, although they are young and young, they also have the strongest eyes and the firmest beliefs.
Roaring artillery fire exploded at their feet, and the incessant sound of gunfire sounded in their ears.
They either lie down or avoid.
Even if the blood flowed on his face, even if the blood soaked his clothes, he never relaxed the weapon in his hand.
Behind them hundreds of millions of people, more than 9.6 million square kilometers of mountains and rivers, are the support for them to continue to fight.
The same is true for Zhao Weijun, a warrior born in August 1966.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > no regrets</h1>
Zhao Weijun was a deputy squad leader of the 5th Company of the 421st Regiment of the 141st Division of the 47th Army of the Lanzhou Military Region.
On April 30, 1986, he and more than 30,000 troops of the 47th Army of the Lanzhou Military Region completed the assembly and garrison training in Wenshan Prefecture, and by order of the Central Military Commission, officially took over the defense of the 67th Army of the Jinan Military Region in the Laoshan Theater.
Since then, Zhao Weijun has held the position of Songmaoling.
In the low, damp cat ear hole, Zhao Weijun and his comrades stubbornly resisted nearly a hundred sneak attacks by the enemy.
It also withstood the indiscriminate bombardment of tens of thousands of shells from the enemy.
But what he didn't expect was that soon after, in July, he would be here to the end of his life.
At the moment when the mine exploded, Zhao Weijun tried to dodge, but he was still hit by the explosion and completely lost consciousness.
By the time he woke up in pain, a long time had passed.
The first thing he thought of when he opened his eyes was "fortunate."
The tightly wrapped white bandages all over his body, the constant cries of the wounded around him, and the medical staff who rushed around to treat the wounded all made Zhao Weijun realize that this time he had escaped from the god of death.
The massive amount of bleeding made his face turn pale and his spirit become particularly trance-like.
The wounds on his body were severe.
Although at the time of his delivery, the ambulance team's doctors and nurses had already given him emergency treatment.
However, the simple medical environment, backward medical equipment and scarce medical resources all require Zhao Weijun to survive the final difficulties on his own.
Only he could continue to fight death.
It didn't take long for Zhao Weijun to feel his body burning.
The harsh environment on the battlefield made him infected during the treatment.
He had a high fever and fell into a coma several times.
When he is unconscious, he can always feel the care of the people around him.
The other party was trying to help him carry through this ordeal as much as possible.
Unfortunately, in the end, there was no good result.
Zhao Weijun woke up from his coma again and again, and lost consciousness again and again.
His wounds became more seriously infected, he had to undergo amputation, and his body quickly weakened.
At a rare time when he was conscious, Zhao Weijun seemed to realize that his life was coming to an end.
For the first time, he made a request to Zhang Ru, a female soldier of the ambulance team who took care of her for many days.
He asked her to move his stretcher in the direction of his hometown, so that he could take another look at the Lanzhou Yuzhong he was haunting.
Zhang Ru quickly did as he wished.
Zhao Weijun struggled to open his eyes and looked in the direction of Lanzhou.
Amid the sound of gunfire and wailing, he seemed to feel a peaceful state of mind from the inside out.
It was something that he thought of his hometown, that he had when he thought of his parents.
Zhao Weijun opened his mouth gently, and for the last time he whispered to his parents who were far away in Gansu.
He knew there would be no chance of seeing each other again.
He wished that his parents would not be too sad when they learned of his death.
He did not regret sacrificing for the sake of the country.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > admiration</h1>
Zhang Ru, a female soldier of the ambulance team, has had a dream of wearing a green military uniform since she was a child.
Her maternal grandfather was a soldier in the Red Army, who fought in many important battles and made outstanding contributions to the country.
Zhang Ru often visited him in place of his mother and listened to him tell the stories of that year.
These stories left an indelible mark on her heart and made her surge with blood.
Zhang Ru rarely had the opportunity to meet her parents.
They devoted themselves to the scientific research of aviation in the motherland, single-mindedly struggled for the construction of the motherland, and fell into busy work every day, unable to take on the responsibility of taking care of her.
Therefore, Zhang Ru has always lived with her grandmother, and she has also spent her childhood with her grandmother and grandfather.
In 1983, Zhang Ru entered the age of choosing her future direction.
She has not forgotten her dream and is determined to become a soldier who has contributed to the country like her grandfather.
And the support of her family has also allowed her to work smoothly in such a direction.
After joining the army in Xi'an, Zhang Ru, like most female soldiers, chose to become a hygienist.
In the past two years, she has carefully studied medical knowledge and done a lot of practice.
This gave her the ability to treat the wounded on a complex, brutal battlefield.
Therefore, when the front line issued a call for her troops, Zhang Ru also packed her bags with other comrades-in-arms and rushed to the Laoshan battlefield.
At that time, she did not know that the cruelty of the battlefield was far beyond her imagination.
When on July 24, 1986, when the life she had tried so hard to save was in danger again, Zhang Ru watched Zhao Weijun fall silent.
She felt that as soon as she opened her mouth, tears would surely flow from her eyes.
This would interrupt her calm thoughts and affect the treatment of other injured people.
But when Zhao Weijun's request sounded in her ears, she still couldn't suppress the sadness in her heart.
She granted his plea for a hug and leaned over to give the young warrior a tight hug.
Looking at Zhao Weijun's weak but clear eyes, Zhao Ru gently kissed his forehead and the corners of his lips.
These two kisses do not contain any worldly lust, only the admiration of the hero.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > continuation</h1>
After Zhao Weijun left, Zhang Ru continued to run on the way to treat the other wounded.
Every minute and every second on the battlefield is very precious.
Countless lives were saved from her, but she could not forget the other young lives that had passed.
The joy of saving people and the grief of witnessing death were repeatedly intertwined in her heart.
Zhang Ru felt heavy pressure.
In 1993, in the midst of busy treatment and long waiting, Zhang Ru waited for our victory in the Battle of Laoshan.
After her work in the field hospital, she also left this land that she remembered with other comrades-
Zhang Ru, who returned to a normal life, continued to devote herself to her studies and work.
Her story kept going, but she always felt like she had lost something.
The figures of those fallen comrades who went to the battlefield the same way, but could not leave the battlefield in the same way, have been repeated in her mind.
Zhang Ru felt that she had a responsibility to do something for them.
In 2011, after much thought, Zhang Ru decided to find a good way to "extend" their lives.
Outside of work, she lists a lot of options.
The first thing she thought of was to comfort and pay tribute to these sacrificed comrades-
Because almost all the military districts were involved in the Battle of Laoshan at that time, it was difficult to confirm the origin and destination of the sacrificial soldiers.
Zhang Ru can only collect information and verify the identities of the fallen comrades one by one by contacting and organizing other surviving comrades-in-arms, as well as calling relevant departments.
In addition to this, Zhang Ru also hopes to visit their hometown and tell their relatives about their various experiences in the military.
She thought that these sacrificial comrades might prefer to share their experiences with their families and inform them of the beliefs they held on to.
She can't speak for them what they believe, but she can tell stories of the military that weren't known to their families instead.
Every experience, every choice, will hide their mental journey.
The only thing she can do is this kind of "continuation".
To do this, Zhang Ru's preliminary preparations are even more complicated.
She actively contacted her comrades everywhere and learned the stories of her fallen comrades from their mouths.
With her insistence again and again, she successively received letters or calls from all over the country, from which she learned about the character and experience of her sacrificed comrades.
She took notes one by one and carefully sorted them out.
More and more people know what she's doing.
Someone provided her with information.
Some people joined her action.
She was able to visit more and more families of martyrs, and the scope was repeatedly expanded from region to country.
Up to now, Zhang Ru and his partners have taken this information through a total of 32 counties and cities, covering 9 provinces.
Perhaps it was the favor of fate, among the 43 families of martyrs she currently visited, one was zhao Weijun's home.
Since The death of Zhao Weijun in her arms on July 24, 1986, the young warrior has become an obsession in her heart.
She desperately hoped that Zhao Weijun, who was still looking at his hometown and missing his family when he was dying, would see his parents again.
And this wish, in her good intentions, was fulfilled.
After his sacrifice, Zhao Weijun was awarded the first class merit by the state and buried in the martyrs' cemetery in Yuzhong County, Lanzhou City.
Zhang Ru followed Zhao Weijun's family and went to his tomb to pay homage.
This time, Zhang Ru was no longer worried about the loss of emotional control to affect the rescue work in her hands.
Therefore, she crouched in front of Zhao Weijun's tomb in the sunlight and wept like rain.
Zhang Ru knew that she was crying Zhao Weijun, not Zhao Weijun.
She really cried about all the fighters who died for the sake of the country and the people.
They pressed their most precious lives to the battlefield, just to defend the mountains and rivers behind them.
The artillery engulfed their lives, interrupted their lives, but sent more people into the age of peace.
Zhang Ru thought that they were really the cutest and most selfless people.
Zhang Ru also thought that they should also be the people with the most regrets.
So after bidding farewell to Zhao Weijun's family, Zhang Ru and his partners continued to embark on the road of searching.
On the Qingming Festival in 2018, under the contact of Teng Chengshun, Rong Genxi and other veterans of the former 67 Army, Zhang Ru returned to his hometown of Jiangdu.
Here, she met the 18-year-old signal soldier from July 1985, martyr Chen Gang, whose life was forever fixed.
This martyred small soldier, also from Jiangdu, caused Zhang Ru to reminisce about that war again.
She stepped forward to offer flowers and salutes.
She said, "Dear comrade-in-arms, after your sacrifice, my unit has completed its assembly and walked to the old mountain where the cannon rumbles."
Sadly and calmly, she explained the course of the war to the comrade who had died early, as if to comfort him that they had taken over from him and completed the task.
She also said, "As survivors of the war, we will always remember your immortal deeds for the country and the people, and remember your blood-stained style."
This was Zhang Ru's promise to Chen Lie and to all the martyrs of Laoshan.
And she has indeed been practicing this vow.
This "mission journey" is far from over.
No matter how long it takes, the stories of these martyrs "reach" their most caring families through them.