One day in 1958, an old Red Army soldier lingered here for a long time outside the Zhongnanhai Gate. He had come here to see Chairman Mao, but he had not made an appointment in advance so the guards at the gate had not let the old man in.
Just when he was hesitating how to meet Chairman Mao, a child passed by, and the old Red Army talked with the child, and when he learned that the child also lived here, he wrote a note and noted his "nickname", asking the child to hand the note to Chairman Mao.
The children did not think too much, took the note and turned back to Zhongnanhai, and then handed the note to Chairman Mao's staff. When Chairman Mao opened the note and saw the word "Tulao" on it, he laughed happily and immediately asked the staff around him to invite the "Tulao" into Zhongnanhai.
In the literal sense of "tulk", this is not a good word. So who is this "local guy" and why did he get Chairman Mao's attention? Today, let's talk about the story of this "local guy" Li Decai.
▲Chairman Mao
In 1904, the Qing Dynasty was already in turmoil, and the land of China was plunged into a deep and fierce situation. In this year, Li Decai was born in Luxi County, Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province. His family conditions were not good, and when he was young, he relied on the work of herding cattle for the landlord's family, so that he did not starve to death. The social environment of warlord division and constant war also made Li Decai's life worse and worse.
Although Li Decai did not learn, he knew that the warlords did not have a good thing, and the landlords were also evil people who squeezed the people. Whether it is a divided warlord or a bully landlord, it will only make the life of the common people more difficult.
In 1930, the young and strong Li Decai finally ushered in a major turning point in his life, because the Red Army troops led by Peng Dehuai came to Li Decai's hometown. At first, Li Decai did not know what kind of unit the Red Army was, but when he witnessed with his own eyes what the soldiers of the Red Army did for the common people, he suddenly discovered that the Red Army was a real people's army, an army that really did revolution for the people.
So Li Decai, who was tall and burly and young and strong, did not hesitate to sign up for the army, and the Red Army comrades in charge of recruiting saw that he was physically strong and arranged for him to be in the heavy machine gun squad.
After joining the army, Li Decai did not become a main gunner, but became a deputy. What is the deputy's job? We often see such a scene in film and television materials, the host gunner operates the machine gun to shoot wildly, while the secondary machine gunner needs to carry the bullet and install the bullet. In non-combat conditions, heavy machine guns are also required.
Heavy machine gunners of the Red Army
Although he did not become the "protagonist", Li Decai worked hard and was modest and studious, and quickly mastered the design skills and use skills of the machine gun. In the next battle, the main shooter with Li Decai died on the battlefield. At this time, the Red Army soldiers were on the way to charge, there was no heavy machine gun suppression, and the enemy's fire began to counterattack wildly. One by one, the Red Army soldiers on the charging road fell.
Those soldiers who did not sacrifice had to urgently find cover to hide, at which point the comrades found that the main shooter had died. Without heavy machine gun suppression, the Red Army soldiers would charge again than a living target.
In an instant, many people looked at Li Decai, but they quickly looked away. A recruit egg, who had never mastered a heavy machine gun on the battlefield, wanted to count on him to complete the turnover, which was obviously impossible.
Looking at the anxious but helpless expressions of his comrades-in-arms, Li De knew that the heavy machine guns around him must "roar", otherwise the casualties of the soldiers would be very heavy, so Li De resolutely climbed to the position of the main shooter.
He operated a machine gun with one hand, loaded with bullets with the other, and did the work of two people by himself, and he did not expect to be really successful. Li Decai's marksmanship was also extremely accurate, suppressing the opponent's firepower in an instant. The soldiers of the Red Army who charged were invigorated, jumped up one after another, and rushed forward to destroy the enemy. Since then, Li Decai has become a heavy machine gunner in the army.
▲ Stills
What really made Li Decai famous happened on the Red Army's 25,000-mile Long March.
On May 24, 1935, Red Army troops arrived at Anshun Field, the crossing of the Dadu River. Behind him was Chiang Kai-shek's hundreds of thousands of troops, and in front of him was the Dadu River, which was a turbulent and dangerous river.
During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the wing king Shi Dakai led his men and horses to cross the Dadu River here, but unfortunately the entire army was eventually destroyed. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek had already arranged layers of heavy troops on the Dadu River, trying to make the Red Army the second "Shi Dakai".
The situation was urgent, and there was no time to hesitate, and the leaders of the Red Army immediately selected warriors to form a death squad. Let each of them carry a large knife, a submachine gun, a short gun, and a few grenades, and prepare to cross the Dadu River.
Here we must say something that confuses many people, whether it is a forced crossing of the Dadu River or a flying capture of the Luding Bridge, the Red Army soldiers can break through one graben after another with only a small number of death squads, and the enemy's position on the opposite side is like a decoration, is this possible?
Frankly speaking, the difficulty of relying only on death squads is comparable to ascending to the sky, but if the Red Army's suppressive firepower is strong enough, it is completely fine. In the forced crossing of the Dadu River, the brave warriors of the death squad were able to successfully break through the enemy's position, and one of the core reasons was the suppression of our firepower.
Just before the Red Army death squads were about to cross the river, Yang Dezhi, the leader of the Red Regiment, shouted loudly in order to cheer them up: "Tu yan! With a cry: "To! Li Decai trotted over.
Then Yang Dezhi patted Li Decai's shoulder and said to the daredevils: "You can rest assured, with old Li's heavy machine gun covering you, you can cross the river with confidence!" ”
After the brave men of the death squad set out, Li Decai and his comrades began to concentrate light and heavy fire to suppress the enemy on the other side of the river. Soon there was a very magical phenomenon on the battlefield, as long as the heavy machine gun in Li Decai's hand roared, the fire in the enemy position on the opposite side would all be muted, and the death squad warriors could advance quickly.
▲Yang Dezhi
This phenomenon is enough to show the accuracy of Li Decai's marksmanship, and it is quite terrifying that a heavy machine gun can have such accuracy. It was also because of the cover of Li Decai and his comrades that the brave soldiers of the death squad successfully pulled out the enemy position on the other side of the river.
After this battle, Li Decai became a heavy machine gun sharpshooter for the Red Army troops. When Chairman Mao learned the news, he also greatly praised the marksmanship of the "local guys"!
So how did the title of "Tulake" come about?
It is a bit funny to say, that is, when Peng Dehuai led his troops to attack Changsha in 1930, the Red Army captured a lot of German equipment and German military uniforms. Because Li Decai performed well in the battle, the leader of the unit issued a pair of German pants to Li Decai.
Li Decai, who came from a peasant background, had never seen such foreign pants, fiddled with them for half a day and did not know how to wear them, and finally simply put the side with the zipper behind his ass. In fact, not only Li Decai, but also the comrades-in-arms around him also do not know how to wear pants.
▲ Peng Dehuai of the Red Army time
Li Decai wore a pair of German-style military uniform pants all day long, until the head of the unit, Huang Gongluo, said to him: You are wearing these pants backwards! Li Decai did not think so, he felt that the zipper was in the back, and the toilet row was very strong. So he said loudly:
"I don't think I'm wearing it, and the crotch of the pants is not designed for convenience!"
Hearing Li Decai's words, Huang Gongluo laughed badly, and finally jokingly called him "Tulao", and since then the name of "Tulao" has been called.
After entering the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Decai followed the troops in the southern expedition to the north and participated in countless major and small battles, such as the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Battle of Loess Ridge, the Battle of hundred regiments, and so on.
By the time of the Liberation War, Li Decai had become the deputy commander of the 203rd Division of the 68th Army of the 20th Corps of the People's Liberation Army. He led the troops to participate in the Battle of Qingfengdian, the Battle of Zhangjiakou, the Battle of Taiyuan and so on.
In 1951, he crossed the Yalu River with his troops to participate in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and participated in the famous Jincheng Counterattack. In this counterattack war, the scouts under Li Decai's troops did something that is famous in history - "surprise attack on the White Tiger Regiment", and I believe that older friends are very familiar with this matter.
▲ Surprise Attack white tiger regiment
Next, let's talk about the reason why Li Decai went to see Chairman Mao.
After returning from the Korean battlefield, Li Decai, who had been in the army for many years (later awarded the rank of colonel), was reluctant to work as a civilian in Beijing, and was organizationally assigned to the Baoding Military Subdistrict in Hebei Province as a commander. Although the "native" became the commander, he remained approachable and often mingled with the warriors.
Once, in the compound of the military sub-district, Li Decai saw a large open space, and he thought about the boring military life of the soldiers, and Li Decai decided to build a basketball court for the soldiers. Now, it's a very simple thing. But in those days, it was difficult for a military district commander, and the most critical problem was the lack of cement.
Li Decai found the local government, but the government did not have much cement, and at that time, the country was under full construction, and there were too many places that needed cement. There was no way, so Li Decai had to go to Beijing in person to meet Chairman Mao.
When Chairman Mao learned of Li Decai's difficulties, he immediately asked Premier Zhou to solve them. Soon the Baoding Military Sub-district had a large new basketball court, and looking at the smiles on the faces of the soldiers, Li Decai's face was also full of smiles. Although General Li Decai was only a colonel at the ceremony of conferring the title in New China, his heroic deeds deserve to be remembered by all the people of China.
▲Li Decai and his family