He was the first Chinese athlete to enter the Olympic Rematch, won three consecutive National Games championships, and the domestic pole vault record he created was unbroken in 20 years.
He is 1.9 tall, slender and lean, with a distinctly mixed-race face, and became a movie star at the age of 20.
He was of Russian descent and could have saved himself from the war. However, he insisted that he was a Chinese, and resolutely stood on the front line of the anti-Japanese resistance, fighting for the defense of his family and defending the country.
He is the "Jingwu Hero" Fu Baolu.
Fu Baolu
On October 31, 1936, an unprecedented drill was held at The Nanjing Airfield. Amid the cheers and cheers of 200,000 people, China's first generation of air force pilots brought their debuts. They flew their fighter jets into the sky, changing formations and announcing loudly to Japan and the world that China also had air power.
Five years ago, the Invading Japanese Army brazenly launched the September 18 Incident and invaded the entire three northeastern provinces in just 4 months. That is, in the autumn of that year, the National Government in Nanjing established the Aviation School of the Ministry of Military Affairs, and in June of the following year, it was expanded and reorganized into the "Central Aviation School", and began to truly train the first generation of outstanding fighter pilots in China.
Just as the so-called responsibility is great, it must have the ability to match it. As the main force to fill the gap in the strength of the Chinese Air Force, the selection threshold of China's first generation of pilots is quite high, and only academic qualifications have to start in high school. If you want to really go to the battlefield, you must be proficient in aviation, navigation, engine, aircraft construction and other skills, and pass the layers of assessment and screening. It is understood that the first phase of the Central Aviation School enrolled a total of 2600 students, and only 46 graduated in the end.
Therefore, The first generation of Pilots in China is absolutely the proud son of the dragon and phoenix and the heavens. For example, Lin Huiyin's third brother Lin Heng and Zhang Xihu, the youngest son of Zhang Boling, the founder of Nankai University, are among them.
However, although they are good enough and strong enough, under the vast difference in equipment strength and air force combat strength, China's first generation of pilots can be said to have entered the countdown to life as soon as they entered the battlefield. At that time, even the motto of the Central Aviation School was: "Our bodies, planes, and bombs should be destroyed with the enemy's warship positions." ”
The Battle of August 14 in 1937 was the first air duel between the Chinese and Japanese armies. On the third day of the battle, Yan Haiwen, who was only 21 years old, accidentally fell into the enemy camp and committed suicide after killing 5 enemy troops. On the 5th day, Shen Chonghai, who was alone, crashed into a large number of lurking enemy planes and died with the enemy. On the 12th day, Zhang Xihu was also killed in an accident during the battle against the Japanese army.
It is understood that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Central Aviation School cultivated a total of more than 1,700 air force fighters in 16 phases. But their average life expectancy is only 23 years.
There is a famous black-and-white graduation photo on the Internet, which is painted with white crosses. It was a group photo of the 12th batch of graduates of the Central Aviation School who went to the United States for training, and there were 46 pilots in the picture, and only 2 of them saw the victory of the War of Resistance with their own eyes. Fu Baolu was standing in the third left position in the last row of the group photo, with a dazzling white cross on his head.
Fu Baolu was born in 1914 in Binjiang County, Jilin Province, and later moved to Harbin with his parents. Fu Baolu's mother was a Russian expatriate, and his father was a Chinese who worked in a printing house.
As a Mixed-Race Chinese and Russian, Fu Baolu has a tall skeleton of a Westerner at the same time, but also has a soft and exquisite skin of the Oriental, the height soars all the way to 190, and the face is even more handsome that cannot be stopped by the black and white photos.
Due to his superior physical condition and interest, Fu Baolu began to be exposed to professional sports training from a very young age. From horizontal bars, parallel bars, running, vaulting, to skating and free gymnastics, to a wide variety of ball sports, Fu Baolu is undoubtedly gifted in sports, decathlon.
In 1927, Fu Baolu made his debut on the field, and he swept the three runners-up trophies in the 50 meters, 100 meters and 200 meters sprints of the Boys' Group at the first joint games in Harbin. At the Games of the Three Northeastern Provinces held the following year, Fu Baolu successfully won the championship in the junior pole vault with a score of 3 meters. With this as a start, Fu Baolu's name is firmly tied to the Chinese pole vault.
Generally speaking of "China's first Olympic person", everyone generally thinks of Liu Changchun, Xu Haifeng or Zhang Boling. Liu Changchun was the first Chinese athlete to officially participate in the Olympic Games; Xu Haifeng was China's first Olympic champion; and Zhang Boling was an advocate and founder of the Chinese Olympic Games.
But in fact, Fu Baolu should also be given this title. At the 11th Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany in 1936, Fu Baolu successfully won the right to rematch with a score of 3.80 meters, becoming the first Chinese athlete in the history of the Olympic Games to enter the rematch.
However, it is extremely sad that Fu Baolu encountered unimaginable embarrassing situations during the Olympic Games. At that time, it was not known whether it was insufficient preparation or that it had not won confidence from the beginning, and the Chinese delegation did not have a bamboo pole with pole vaulting.
Before the competition, Fu Baolu could only bow his head and bow, next to each other to ask for help from other players. Eventually, he borrowed an old bamboo pole from a Japanese athlete for training. In the preliminary round, Fu Baolu easily crossed 3.80 meters. But as the crossbar of the rematch was increased to a height of 4 meters, the old bamboo pole, which was only 4.15 meters long, looked so chicken. Affected by this, Fu Baolu failed 3 consecutive jump attempts and missed the Olympic final.
Of course, in China, Fu Baolu has always been the undoubted "pole vault king". From winning the crown at the fourth National Games at the age of 16 to joining the army at the age of 23, Fu Baolu has set a new record for the highest pole vault in China for five consecutive times. The 4.15-meter record he set in the 1936 Olympic athletics test lasted for 20 years until it was broken by Cai Lushu in 1956.
It is worth mentioning that in May 1934, Fu Baolu also won the runner-up trophy of the 10th Far Eastern Games, which was also the first time that a Chinese athlete won an important award in an international sports event.
That is, in the same year, with excellent physical conditions, and a strong appeal as a pole vault king. Fu Baolu was also invited by the famous Tianyi Film Company to participate in the movie "Sea Burial", playing the role of Tiger Zi.
It is said that "excellent people will succeed in everything they do". The first time Fu Baolu was electrocuted, he won the recognition of many professional filmmakers. For example, Tian Fang, the first director of the Beijing Film Studio and former deputy director of the Central Film Bureau, once praised Fu Baolu in his autobiography, saying that he was very real and spirited, extremely serious and responsible for people and things, and that the natural and simple charm he possessed could not be obtained by makeup.
It can be said that if he lived in a peaceful era, Fu Baolu would inevitably become an internationally renowned athlete or a well-known movie star. Unfortunately, there is no if in the world. By the time Fu Baolu rose in the sports world, the Japanese invaders had already invaded the land of China.
In fact, as a descendant of Russian overseas Chinese, Fu Baolu could have avoided the war and lived in Harbin unharmed. As early as the end of the 19th century, in order to expand its interests and power in the Far East, Tsarist Russia forcefully infiltrated into the northeast of our country under the name of building a branch line of the Middle East Railway.
Because at that time, China was facing the indemnity of up to 200 million taels of silver after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War. Therefore, the Qing government finally signed the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty with Tsarist Russia, allowing matters related to the Eastern Qing Railway. It was at this time that nearly a million Russians came to the northeast one after another to settle down, and even the city of Harbin was built by these Russian overseas Chinese.
After the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the defeated Russia signed the Treaty of Portsmouth with Japan, transferring to Japan a large number of the benefits it had plundered in China, such as the lease rights of Lushunkou and Dalian Bay, and the southern land of Sakhalin Island.
In short, in plundering China's northeastern interests, Japan and Russia count as big grasshoppers and small grasshoppers tied to a rope. Therefore, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Russian overseas Chinese who stayed in the northeast, especially in Harbin, were actually very safe.
However, in Fu Baolu's eyes, he was born and raised in China, and he was a Chinese and a Chinese athlete. He will never allow the aggressors to mutilate his beloved motherland and people, let alone become the dogs of the Japanese.
As early as the beginning of the 918 Incident, Fu Baolu, who was only 17 years old, wanted to join the northeast frontier army of General Ma Zhanshan, a "famous patriotic general of China's anti-Japanese resistance", and participate in the anti-Japanese resistance. However, at that time, he had become the first person in China to jump high poles, and he was closely monitored by the Japanese and failed to achieve his wishes.
As we all know, after invading and occupying the three northeastern provinces, Japan manipulated Puyi to create a so-called "pseudo-Manchukuo." Subsequently, in order to use this puppet regime to control all of China, the Japanese attempted to let the "puppet Manchukuo" participate in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games as an independent country, in order to initially gain international recognition.
Therefore, Japan monitored and coerced many outstanding athletes in northeast China to try to make them participate in the Olympic Games as "puppet Manchukuo glorious racers". Fu Baolu, Liu Changchun, and Yu Xiwei, the "Hero of the Far East", who won 50 middle and long-distance running championships, are among them.
Although the ridiculous "pseudo-Manchukuo" did not qualify for the Olympic Games at all, due to the shameless obstruction of the Japanese, only Liu Changchun was lucky enough to escape surveillance and participate in the Olympic Games. Fu Baolu, who failed to join the anti-Japanese army at the first time, resolutely left Harbin despite his parents' opposition.
In the following years, Fu Baolu continued to compete in sports while inheriting his father's business and entering the Shanghai Diligent Bookstore. Later, he was also admitted to Jinan University, one of the top universities in China, and studied in the Department of Foreign Languages.
Mai Zihua, an alumnus of Fu Baolu's class, once recalled that as soon as Fu Baolu entered the school, he became a popular figure, especially popular with girls, but he devoted himself to learning and anti-Japanese activities. Not only that, Mai Zihua also deeply remembered that after the outbreak of the July 7 Incident in 1937, Fu Baolu was the first person in the school to drop out of school and join the army, and he participated in the highest death rate of the whole army at that time - the Air Force.
In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, how weak was China's air force? The "Battle Strategy of Songhu" clearly records: "At the beginning of the August 14 air battle, only eighty-nine aircraft could fight, and they were soon exhausted." Moreover, these fighters are still purchased with high prices and cobbled together. In contrast, Japan built 65,000 fighters during World War II, such as the Chongqing bombing, and the number of fighters used by Japan was close to 10,000.
Under such a huge disparity in strength, the Chinese pilots during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression were undoubtedly nine dead, and it can even be said that there is no return. But even so, Fu Baolu still chose to give up everything and joined the air force with the determination to die.
He first entered the Nanchang Aviation Mechanical School, then transferred to the Air Force Officer School (the Central Aviation School), and became one of the first pilots to go to the United States to receive P-39 fighter training. After returning to China, Fu Baolu joined the famous "Flying Tigers", that is, the "Chinese Air Force American Air Volunteer Team" formed by General Chennault.
Fu Baolu participated in several fierce Sino-Japanese air battles, the most famous of which was the Battle of Wuhan in 1938. Since the occupation of Nanjing in late 1937, the Japanese army has begun to launch air strikes on the Wuhan area in an attempt to destroy China's important air base in Wuhan.
In order to put an end to Japan's evil conspiracy and firmly defend air supremacy, our air force, with the cooperation of the Soviet Air Force Volunteers, launched a large-scale counterattack against Japanese fighters. In that battle, the air force fighters, including Fu Baolu, with their superb technology, heroic and tenacious perseverance, firmly struck a blow at the arrogance of the Japanese invaders and won the final victory.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, thousands of air force soldiers sacrificed their young and vivid lives to resist the enemy and defend their families and the country. Fu Baolu is also one of them.
On July 8, 1943, during the training of the latest P-40 fighter at Chongqing Baishiyi Airport, he died in an accidental crash of the fighter, at the age of 29.
Looking back on Fu Baolu's 29 years of life, it is as short as fireworks but extremely gorgeous. His heroic posture on the field, his handsome and moving face on the screen, and the heroic annihilation of the enemy in the sky are all deeply touched.
I would like to use this article to commemorate Fu Baolu and the warriors who sacrificed for the country like him.
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