On the morning of September 26, 1964, Zhou Fang, who had served as the political commissar of the 5th Battalion of the Second Detachment of the Red Fourteenth Army, led the comrades of the public security department and the procuratorate of Nantong District, Jiangsu Province, to Xiyanzhuang Village in Rugao County. Soon, the village secretary of Xiyanzhuang Village summoned 8 villagers, including Sun Guomin and Zhang Youdao, to hold a discussion with Zhou Fang and other comrades. In the afternoon of the same day, after learning about the situation, under the guidance of the villager Su Guomin, Zhou Fang and a group of comrades rushed to the duozikou outside the village of Xiyanzhuang.
Duozikou, as the local villagers call it, is actually a deserted cemetery. Everyone walked among the scattered graves, and the timid people felt a chill in their backs. Walking along, the villager Sun Guomin suddenly stopped his steps, he pointed to a grave next to him and said, "This is it, the body was buried here!" At this time, Zhou Fang's mood was very painful, and he immediately organized everyone to carefully dig up the grave and open the coffin for autopsy.
When the people dug up the grave, a decaying coffin came into view first. According to the general outline of the coffin, this is a large coffin commonly known locally as "Pocket Bottom Mountain". The iron nails on the coffin were rusty, and some of them had fallen off and mixed in the dirt. Zhou Fang could not hide the sadness in his heart, he immediately asked everyone to open the coffin lid, and indeed found a relatively complete skeleton from the coffin. At that time, the skeleton was in a "crooked" form, and the left arm bone and the right leg bone were not curved straight.
Seeing this, local villagers have said that this shows that the burial time is relatively hasty, because according to funeral customs, the deceased must be placed in the coffin at the time of burial. Immediately afterward, the forensic doctor of the public security department began to conduct a preliminary examination of the bones - the height of the deceased was estimated to be about one meter and six meters, the transverse process defect of the left thoracic vertebrae, the rupture of the lower end of the shoulder blade, and the corresponding posterior bone also had rupture marks, which had the characteristics of bullet penetration; at the same time, in the remains of the deceased's jacket, five copper buckles were found.
After learning about these test results, Zhou Fang instantly shed tears, and he cried out in grief in his heart: "Found, finally found!" It turned out that Zhou Fang judged based on the height of the deceased, the part of the wounded and the fatal part, as well as the buttons and buckles that had the characteristics of the Red Army's dress at that time, which was indeed the remains of Commander He Kun. After that, Zhou Fang asked people to find a large square cloth, carefully wrapped up the bones and relics of Commander He Kun, and brought them back to the civil affairs department of Nantong for proper preservation.
Soon, documents such as the "Minutes of Searching for the Loyal Remains of Commander He Kun", the "Opinion on the Examination and Appraisal of He Kun's Bones" issued by the forensic department, and the "Investigation Report on the Tomb of The Martyr He Kun, Commander of the Red Fourteenth Army" issued by the Rugao County Government were reported layer by layer to General Zhang Aiping, who was presiding over the work of national defense science and technology, equipment, and national defense industry. General Zhang Aiping held these documents, his hands were shaking unceasingly, and he shed tears of grief as he watched them, and he couldn't help but recall the scenes with Commander He Kun once again.
He Kun, also known as He Kun, was born in September 1898 to a peasant family in Niutouxia Village, Jingui Township, Yongxing County, Hunan Province. He Kun has a strong personality since childhood, and dares to fight against the landlord bullies who bully others and run rampant in the townships. When He Kun was 10 years old, his father sent him to a private school to study, but within a few years of study, he dropped out of school and returned home because his family was poor and could not afford to pay the tuition. In the days that followed, He Kun followed his father to farm until he grew up.
In 1918, at the age of 20, He Kun left his hometown and followed his father south to Shaoguan, Guangdong, where he opened a small inn to make a living. At that time, He Kun not only had to help his father run the business of the inn, but also had to pick and sell goods to subsidize the family. Although life is very difficult, in the process of walking the streets and alleys to sell daily necessities, He Kun has come into contact with all kinds of low-level social personnel. This allowed He Kun, who had a fighting spirit since childhood, to gradually see the essence of the dark society at that time, laying a solid foundation for him to embark on the revolutionary road in the future.
In 1925, the 27-year-old He Kun came to Guangzhou to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy and successfully became the fourth batch of cadets of the Whampoa Military Academy. During his studies at the Whampoa Military Academy, He Kun came into contact with the education of advanced ideas and met many like-minded comrades. Against this background, He Kun secretly joined the party organization and began to engage in revolutionary work. However, soon after, as the Kuomintang side deliberately created the "Zhongshan Ship Incident", He Kun, whose identity was exposed, was organized and sent to the Sanshui area of Guangdong to carry out revolutionary activities.
After the defeat of the Great Revolution, He Kun was unfortunately arrested by the enemy at the Huangsha Railway Station in Guangzhou, and together with many comrades, was secretly imprisoned in the Guangzhou Star Cinema. At that time, He Kun did not choose to sit still, he took advantage of the dark time, quickly jumped on the roof, and then tried to break the wooden rafters on the roof. Immediately afterward, He Kun led some comrades to successfully escape from the tiger's mouth. After that, He Kun disguised himself as a farmer and traveled all the way to Wuhan, Hubei Province, where he regained contact with the party organization.
Later, He Kun also participated in the famous Guangzhou Uprising, and successively engaged in underground work in Wuhan, Shanghai and other places. In the winter of 1929, according to the organization's arrangement, He Kun, who was experienced in revolutionary struggle, was ordered to come to the Tonghai area of Jiangsu (that is, in the territory of present-day Nantong, Jiangsu) to develop revolutionary armed forces. During this period, Through hard work day and night, He Kun quickly made the Red Army guerrillas in Jiangsu Tonghai and Rutai areas continue to grow. Soon after, according to the instructions of the central authorities, the Red Army forces active in the Tonghai and Rutai areas of Jiangsu Were merged into the Red Fourteenth Army, with He Kun as the commander of the Red Fourteenth Army.
It was during his work in the Red Fourteenth Army that He Kun and Zhang Aiping became acquainted. At that time, there were two detachments under the jurisdiction of the Red Fourteenth Army, the former Red Army guerrillas in Nantong and Haimen were reorganized into the first detachment, and the Red Army guerrillas in Rugao and Taixing were reorganized into the second detachment, and He Kun not only served as the commander of the Red Fourteenth Army, but also concurrently served as the leader of the second detachment. At that time, Zhang Aiping was the captain of the second brigade of the second detachment, that is to say, Zhang Aiping was a direct subordinate of He Kun.
Since the establishment of the Red Fourteenth Army, He Kun and his comrades have led the troops to organize and launch many targeted military operations in Nantong, Haimen, Rugao, Taixing and other places in Jiangsu Province, which not only successfully smashed the enemy's many "encirclement and suppression" but also conquered many of the enemy's military strongholds. In one fierce battle after another, He Kun and Zhang Aiping gradually formed a deep revolutionary friendship on the battlefield filled with gunpowder from acquaintance to acquaintance, from acquaintance to fellowship.
He Kun is 12 years older than Zhang Aiping, he always regards Zhang Aiping as his little brother and right-hand man, and has always cared for and loved Zhang Aiping; and Zhang Aiping also regards He Kun as his big brother, respects and loves He Kun in his heart, and he learns a lot of things in the days that he Kun spends his days and nights with Him Kun, and constantly improves his military command ability. At that time, He Kun and Zhang Aiping probably did not think at all that the two of them would be separated and would be the day of farewell forever. What's going on?
At that time, the Red Fourteenth Army was in a complex and dangerous environment of struggle. On the one hand, this is reflected in the balance of forces between the enemy and ourselves and the superiority and inferiority of weapons and equipment, and on the other hand, it is also reflected in the survival orientation of the Red Fourteenth Army. The Jiangsu Tonghai, Rugao, and Taixing areas where the Red Fourteenth Army is active are everywhere in the heart of the enemy, and the murderous enemy naturally regards the Red Fourteenth Army as a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh, and always wants to put the Red Fourteenth Army to death and then quickly.
In this context, since the establishment of the Red Fourteenth Army, He Kun and his comrades have worked hard for the survival and development of the troops. At that time, between the Tonghai base area and the Ru (Gao) Tai (Xing) base area, there was a strategic area - Laohuzhuang Village, located southwest of Rugao Motou Town. The terrain here is complex, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it has always been heavily controlled by the enemy. In this way, the base area of the Red Fourteenth Army seems to have been inserted into a nail by the enemy, which seriously threatens the survival and development of the Red Fourteenth Army.
What to do? He Kun, as the commander of the Red Fourteenth Army, and his comrades, after careful consideration, finally decided to attack the enemy who was guarding Lao huzhuang and pulled out the nail inserted between the two base areas. On the night of March 30, 1930, He Kun commanded his troops to launch an attack on Laohuzhuang. This time, because the enemy had built a large number of strong bunkers in Advance in Laohuzhuang, and the terrain in this area was very complicated, the red fourteenth army's attack was not successful.
Soon after, on April 16, 1930, He Kun and his comrades, after adjusting their deployment, launched another attack on Lao Huzhuang. In the fierce battle, He Kun took the lead and charged into the battlefield, and soon led the leading troops to capture the valley field east of Laohuzhuang. The barn is an open area, and to the west is a moat, and after crossing the moat, it enters the old village. At that time, the enemy built dense bunkers by the moat river, each bunker was equipped with heavy machine guns, and its crossfire could completely cover the entire moat.
That is to say, after capturing the sunbathing field, the Red Fourteenth Army will inevitably have to pay more casualties if it wants to launch an attack. In such an extremely severe situation, the brave and tenacious soldiers of the Red Army overcame many difficulties and launched an attack on the enemy with weapons that were obviously inferior to the enemy. The battle was so fierce that the cunning enemy huddled in the bunkers and fired heavily at the charging Red Army fighters, and batch after batch of Red Army fighters fell in pools of blood.
At this time, He Kun's heart was both anxious and painful, and what was anxious was that if he could no longer take lao huzhuang, then the enemy's reinforcements would arrive, and the Red Fourteenth Army would definitely suffer from the enemy on its back, and the consequences would be uncontrollable; the pain was to see that the Red Army soldiers who were like brothers in ordinary days had sacrificed their fresh and precious lives in battle, And He Kun was really heartbroken. At this time, it was still pouring heavy rain in the sky, and the battle situation was becoming more and more delicate and dangerous.
What to do? Hiding behind a straw stack on the edge of the barn, He Kun, who was observing the enemy's situation, was impatient. After pondering for a moment, He Kun immediately ordered the formation of a commando team to launch a strong attack on the enemy. The Red Army soldiers killed the red eyes one by one, and even He Kun took up a light machine gun and rushed to the enemy who was guarding Lao Huzhuang. In the face of the fierce offensive of the Red Army soldiers, the terrified enemy began to retreat.
However, when victory was in sight, the enemy's reinforcements arrived, and the situation was momentarily reversed. At this moment, He Kun, who was a pioneer soldier, was unfortunately hit in the left chest by the enemy's bullet in the process of charging, and the blood instantly stained He Kun's shirt red. At this time, in view of the enemy in his abdomen and back, He Kun dragged his wounded body and helplessly issued an order to withdraw from the battle. Immediately afterward, He Kun, under the protection of the warriors, retreated to the area around Zoujiadai in Rugao County.
On the way to the retreat, the Red Army soldiers carried He Kun, who was covered in blood, all the way to a ruined land temple for a short rest. It was in this dilapidated land temple that He Kun finally died of excessive blood loss, when he was only 32 years old. After the bad news of Commander He Kun's sacrifice spread, Zhang Aiping was grief-stricken and instantly shed tears of sadness. When Zhang Aiping rushed to the broken temple and saw the body of Commander He Kun, he could no longer control his emotions and cried bitterly.
What should be said here is that there are many records that in the course of the battle, Commander He Kun stepped on Zhang Aiping's shoulder and shot at the enemy, and unfortunately he was shot. In fact, this statement has an artistic processing component and is not true. According to Zhang Aiping's later recollections, in the process of attacking Laohuzhuang, he and Commander He Kun did not fight together, when Commander He Kun led his troops to attack Laohuzhuang from the east by land, while Zhang Aiping led the second brigade of the second detachment to attack Laohuzhuang from the south by water.
That is to say, Commander He Kun could not step on Zhang Aiping's shoulder to attack the enemy, and when Commander He Kun was shot and wounded, Zhang Aiping was not by Commander He Kun's side. However, it is certain that Zhang Aiping clearly knew the wounded part of Commander He Kun, that is, he saw the body of Commander He Kun. Because it was Precisely because of Zhang Aiping's description of the wounded part of Commander He Kun that the basis was later provided for the founding and verification of the remains of Commander He Kun. Of course, this is an afterthought.
Then again, after The heroic sacrifice of Commander He Kun, the soldiers carried his body with great grief. When the troops came to the village of Xiyanzhuang in Rugao County, the situation was extremely critical due to the ferocious enemy's relentless pursuit, and the comrades had no choice but to hand over the body of Commander He Kun to the local peasant association for burial. At that time, out of external secrecy and the need to protect the body of Commander He Kun, the comrades did not explain the true identity of Commander He Kun's body to the local peasant association.
After the local peasants' association hastily buried the body of Commander He Kun, it did not leave any recognizable signs. All of this also caused a lot of inconvenience for the future search for the remains of Commander He Kun. As the saying goes, comradeship is as deep as the sea! Since the death of Commander He Kun, Zhang Aiping has been thinking about this old comrade-in-arms and big brother all the time. Later, Zhang Aiping repeatedly entrusted people to the village of Xiyanzhuang in Rugao County to find the burial place of Commander He Kun. However, for all the reasons mentioned above, nothing was ultimately achieved.
Time flies, the years fly by. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Aiping held leading positions in East China for a long time, and was awarded the rank of general in 1955. Although it had been more than twenty years since The sacrifice of Commander He Kun at this time, General Zhang Aiping was still obsessed with the search for the remains of Commander He Kun. Because, in the heart of General Zhang Aiping, he deeply felt that Commander He Kun had sacrificed for the revolution, and now ushered in a peaceful and happy life, only by finding the remains of Commander He Kun and properly burying it, could he Kun's spirit in heaven be comforted, and could Commander He Kun truly enter the earth for safety.
Therefore, General Zhang Aiping sent special visits to Rugao, Jiangsu Province, many times in order to find the remains of Commander He Kun, but there was still no result. Fast forward to 1964, thirty-four years have passed since the sacrifice of Commander He Kun, and General Zhang Aiping has also been transferred out of East China due to the needs of his work. However, General Zhang Aiping still did not forget the thing that haunted his soul - looking for the remains of Commander He Kun.
This time, General Zhang Aiping personally instructed the civil affairs department of Jiangsu Province and asked Comrade Zhou Fang, who was the political commissar of the 5th Battalion of the Second Detachment of the Red Fourteenth Army, to make a special trip to Xiyanzhuang Village in Rugao County to search for the remains of Commander He Kun. As the saying goes, the emperor is worthy of the heart. This time, with the close cooperation and support of the relevant departments at all levels of Jiangsu Province, Comrade Zhou Fang finally found the remains of Commander He Kun in a cemetery called "Duozikou" outside the village of Xiyanzhuang in Rugao County.
What's going on? How did Comrade Zhou Fang find the remains of Commander He Kun? It turned out that after Comrade Zhou Fang came to Rugao County, after more than a month of detailed investigation and visits, he found Sun Guomin, the only surviving villager who participated in the burial of the body of Commander He Kun. After explaining the situation and the reason, Sun Guomin carefully recalled that it was late one night, and the cadres of the peasant association knocked on the door door door to door and asked each family to send people to the ancestral hall in the village to assemble.
At that time, because Sun Guomin's father was weak and sick, Sun Guomin came to the village ancestral hall on behalf of his father. After coming to the ancestral hall, Sun Guomin inhaled a cool breath, and he saw that there was a cool mat in the middle of the ancestral hall, and lying on the cool mat was a corpse covered from head to toe with a quilt. While Sun Guomin and most people were wondering, the cadres of the peasant association had a large coffin brought from the home of the three grandmothers (the local landlord's family).
Immediately afterward, the peasant association cadres asked everyone to lift the corpses on the ground, together with the quilt, and put them into the coffin. Later, more than a dozen villagers, including Sun Guomin, carried the coffin to the duozikou cemetery outside the village and buried the coffin in the dug tomb. After doing all this, the cadres of the peasant association reminded and instructed them one by one to pay attention to secrecy, to keep their mouths shut, and not to say it.
At that time, because everyone did not know the identity of the deceased, and it was common for people to fight dead people, they did not take this matter to heart. After recalling the burial of the body of Commander He Kun, Sun Guomin recalled several details - the time was rushed, and the cemetery where the coffin was buried was not paved with lime; the buttons on the deceased's clothes were very special, as if they were metallic, which was rare in the local area; and the coffin was in the style of a large coffin known locally as "Dudi Mountain".
Comrade Zhou Fang was very excited when he learned about these situations, and he immediately agreed with the village party secretary and the villager Sun Guomin to bring someone to investigate the scene the next day. In this way, there is the scene we mentioned at the beginning of the article - under the guidance of the villager Sun Guomin, Zhou Fang, the comrades of the public security department and the procuratorate, came to the cemetery outside the village of Xiyanzhuang in Rugao County, and found the remains of Commander He Kun as desired.
As mentioned earlier, after the identification of the bones was verified, the relevant information about the bones of Commander He Kun was quickly reported to General Zhang Aiping, who was presiding over the work of national defense science and technology, equipment and national defense industry. After General Zhang Aiping received these reports, his heart was both sad and joyful, and what was sad was that Commander He Kun had not been able to see today's peaceful and happy life, and he was glad that he Kun's remains had finally been found after going through all the hardships, and he could finally comfort The spirit of Commander He Kun in heaven.
At that time, although the remains of Commander He Kun were found, everyone still knew nothing about the life of Commander He Kun, only that Commander He Kun was from Hunan, and did not know the relatives of Commander He Kun. Under such circumstances, General Zhang Aiping instructed the civil affairs department of Jiangsu Province to contact the relevant departments of Hunan Province, and asked that we must find out the life of Commander He Kun and see if his relatives are still alive. Later, after more than a year of investigation, the life of Commander He Kun was clearly investigated.
According to the investigation, Commander He Kun was born in Niutouxia Village, Jingui Township, Yongxing County, Hunan Province, his wife Cao Jihua had already died, and the couple's only daughter, He Guangmei, also died of illness a few years ago. In 1966, Commander He Kun of Rugao County, Jiangsu Province, held a solemn ceremony to welcome the soul, and buried the ashes of Commander He Kun in the Rugao County Martyrs' Hall, and later moved to the Rugao County Martyrs' Cemetery. Let us pay tribute to Commander He Kun and to the countless martyrs who have sacrificed their precious lives for the revolution!
What should be said here is that as early as four years before the remains of Commander He Kun were found, that is, in 1960, in order to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Red Fourteenth Army, the Rugao County Government built the Monument to Commander He Kun in Laohuzhuang, where Commander He Kun fought. At that time, General Zhang Aiping personally inscribed the monument inscription - the monument to the martyr He Kun, commander of the 14th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, to commemorate this old comrade-in-arms and big brother at that time.
Liu Ruilong (who had served as the secretary of the Tonghai Special Committee), who fought side by side with Commander He Kun, made a special trip to Laohuzhuang in 1980 to pay tribute to the Gurudwara monument and wrote poems to commemorate Commander He Kun - fighting regardless of oneself, loyal to the party and loving the people; bravely opening up the bright road, and educating Hou Kun in history. Pass on the half-century, followed by Xinren; remember the builder, climb fast in order. In 1991, the granite full-body portrait of He Kunjun commander was completed in the Rugao County Martyrs' Cemetery after the relocation. Looking at the heroic posture of Commander He Kun, the people who came to worship were full of excitement - the spirit of struggle of the martyrs is always worthy of our current people to carry forward and inherit...