War is painful, but the heroes who died in war deserve our remembrance. In the history textbooks, we have learned about many revolutionary martyrs, and their heroic deeds cannot be forgotten to this day. Although we are now in an era of peace, we must never forget how hard it was to live in peace.
In addition to the history textbooks we can see some heroes, there are some heroes, who have not been written into the history books, but for today's Tai Ping Kang, they have made no less contribution than those we know well. Today we are going to talk about a hero, who is not found in the history books, but he is a hero who is praised. This hero is the prototype of Guzidi in the movie "The Gathering", who is he?
Stills from the valley
In 1925, a male baby was born in the family of a person surnamed Chang in Beizhuli Village, Zanhuang County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, and everyone in the family was very happy, and in that era, the birth of a male baby in the family represented the continuation of incense. In addition, in the twenties of the last century, there were constant wars in various parts of our country, and the people suffered from war.
Those poor people, in addition to worrying about their livelihood every day, must always avoid the threat of war. The Chang family wanted to pin their hopes on this newly born baby, so they named him Menglan, so Chang Menglan had his own name.
When he was a teenager, Chang Menglan had always experienced war and chaos, and he hated these invaders and reactionaries very much, and longed to one day eliminate them all with his own strength. To this end, he looks forward to joining the army and becoming a soldier. Chang Menglan waited for more than ten years, and finally signed up for the Eighth Route Army in 1944, when he was 19 years old.
Chang Menglan
19-year-old Chang Menglan was not afraid of suffering or tiredness, and resolutely chose to join the army. In the army, he resolutely obeyed orders and made many military achievements. With excellent combat ability, Chang Menglan was soon appointed as the platoon leader of the second platoon of the third battalion, the third battalion, the 30th regiment of the 4th Column and 10th Brigade of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region.
After serving as a platoon leader, he actively led the soldiers to train, and gave the soldiers a lot of help in life, and he mingled with the soldiers. In November 1948, Chang Menglan's regimental headquarters received an order to withdraw his troops outside Shanhaiguan. After receiving the order, the regimental headquarters urgently evacuated outside the pass, walked for nearly a day, and when the sun was about to go down, the forward reconnaissance group sent news that there was a main Kuomintang army not far ahead.
The strength of the Thirty Regiments was far inferior to that of the main Kuomintang army, and if our army were desperate to confront them, the final result would only be heavy losses. However, what comforted the regimental commander was that the Kuomintang troops on the other side did not know the real situation of our army, and they did not dare to launch a hasty attack on our army.
To this end, the commander of the Thirty Regiments gave orders to the soldiers and deployed combat tactics, with the aim of enabling the main force of our army to withdraw safely, rather than fighting with the enemy. The regimental commander decided to send a small detachment to block the enemy's way through, and after consideration, the regimental commander decided to let the eighth company carry out this glorious task.
The company commander of the Eighth Company was named He Youhai, and his most trusted platoon leader was Chang Menglan, and He Youhai thought that the platoon commanders under him were not very capable of fighting except Chang Menglan. So under the layered arrangement, Chang Menglan accepted this arduous task.
Chang Menglan led the seven brothers of the fifth squad to carry out the mission, and the success or failure of this task was related to whether the main force of our army could be safely evacuated, so Chang Menglan also felt that the burden on his body was very heavy, but he did not have the slightest fear of the mind, only the heart to rush forward.
Before carrying out the mission, the company commander made some explanations to Chang Menglan, and the company commander told him that he must drag the enemy and follow the company commander's orders until dark. When all the main forces have been safely evacuated, the company commander will send them a signal. If no signal is heard, then it is resolute not to evacuate.
Chang Menglan remembered the company commander's instructions and kept silently reciting them in his heart. Seeing that the sky was gradually darkening, Chang Menglan sent a small warrior with good hearing to let him lie on a hill in the downwind and hide. The task of this little soldier is to listen carefully to the signals of the company commander, and in addition to this, to do a good job of self-protection.
Chang Menglan and several other warriors were scattered throughout the main road, hiding and waiting for the arrival of the enemy army. The reason why they should be scattered in different positions is because when exchanging fire with the enemy, the fire will come from different directions, so that it is not easy for the enemy to distinguish between the virtual and the real of our army. Once deployed, all they left was to wait.
Soon the enemy walked into the trap set by Chang Menglan, and when Chang Menglan saw the enemy enter, he determined from their equipment and vehicles and tanks that the enemy's strength was very large.
Relatively speaking, the enemy does not know their reality. Only to see that the enemy launched the first attack after entering chang Menglan's encirclement, this time the enemy did not seem to have the intention of sending out full strength, obviously just testing our army. Chang Menglan saw the situation, he did not treat the enemy kindly, directly with the machine gun to the enemy strafing up, and then he also used grenades to greet the enemy group.
The enemy began a second and third offensive, and our army also launched a counteroffensive. After nearly twenty minutes of fighting, it was now completely dark. The little soldier who was in charge of listening to the company commander's signal was still lurking there, and he began to get scared, wondering if the main force had gone far, or we should retreat.
Trumpeter
At this time, Chang Menglan looked at the young soldiers in front of him, and then remembered the orders given to him by the company commander. For the safety of the main force, Chang Menglan ordered: "Continue to fight, give me a hard beating!" Eight men together blocked three enemy attacks, and after three attacks, their ammunition was also half out. It was getting darker, and the warriors felt that the large troops had retreated, and they were all urging the evacuation.
Although Chang Menglan mingled with the soldiers and was also concerned about the safety of the soldiers' lives, he had the explanation of the company commander that if the main force was attacked by the enemy on the other side and could not send us the signal of retreat in time, then as soon as we retreated, the main force would be attacked on both sides. So you can't go, and you definitely can't leave until you hear the signal from the company commander.
The enemy then launched a fourth round of attack, this time using incendiary bombs, which were used to expose the position of our army. When an enemy incendiary bomb exploded, the position of our army was immediately revealed, and two fighters who had no time to dodge were discovered, directly hit by enemy fire, and died on the spot.
Only then did the enemy realize that there were only eight men blocking them. After understanding the situation, the enemy began to attack more violently, and in the midst of the artillery fire, several fighters fled in all directions and scattered.
Regardless of the danger to his life, Chang Menglan took a machine gun and shot fiercely at the enemy. But he alone could not suppress so many people against him, so he could only fight and retreat. After escaping from the enemy's encirclement, Chang Menglan realized that several of the fighters who were on the mission with him had gone missing.
After escaping from the enemy's threat, Chang Menglan pursued in the direction he thought the main force might retreat. Along the way he did not encounter other enemies, nor did he encounter the main force. At this time, he thought that the main force should have been safely withdrawn, but why didn't he hear the company commander's retreat signal?
For this problem, Chang Menglan has always been unable to think straight, so he began a long process of finding the main force, it does not matter, but he spent 48 years.
On October 1, 1949, after the founding ceremony, Chang Menglan came to Beijing. He found a military district in Beijing that housed veterans lost in the war. Chang Menglan found here, he did not ask the troops to take it in, but he still left a message, hoping to one day return to the original old troops.
Time passed like flowing water, and in the blink of an eye, two years had passed, and during these two years, Chang Menglan was looking forward to Beijing's reply every moment. He knew there was no way he could wait so hard, so he came to Beijing again. When he arrived at the shelter, he met his comrades on duty.
The comrade told him that the original troops had gone to the Korean battlefield to participate in the battle. Then, the comrade on duty asked him to go home and wait. Chang Menglan was a soldier, and obeying orders was something he had to do, so he accepted the task and went home to continue waiting.
Martyrs' Cemetery
When he got home, he was still waiting for news every day, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years, and he was looking for it every year. There are his footprints in the northeast, Hebei, Shanxi and other places, but his original unit seems to have evaporated from the human world, and there is no news after forty years of searching.
Although every search gave him a disappointing result, Chang Menglan still did not give up, and he still plucked up the courage to continue to search. For a soldier, he wants more than just perseverance, but also the answer to a question that has been asked for many years. He was eager to ask the company commander whether the troops had been safely evacuated at that time and why he had not heard the signal to retreat.
Because of the search, he spent a lot of money, so his life became a little embarrassing. In order to make a living, he sometimes collects some money by picking up scraps, and when he has saved up some travel expenses, he continues his search.
One day, a certain unit came to his hometown of Kitatakeri Village for training, and when he saw it, he felt as if he had returned to the past. He took the initiative to find the officers and men in charge and begged him to stay and do something, and the officers and soldiers agreed. Soon, Chang Menglan became familiar with the soldiers of the army.
The people in the army were very sympathetic to this veteran's deeds and gave him a lot of help in life. To this end, the students of the unit also helped him find his original unit. Soon, Wang Dingqing, the director of the military academy, learned about the old man, and he found out the whereabouts of the Thirty Regiments of the 4th Column and 10th Brigade of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region through the relationship of comrades-in-arms.
The original unit's number had been changed to a ground artillery regiment in Benxi, Liaoning. After receiving this news, Chang Menglan rushed to Benxi, but when he arrived, the troops had already moved to the town. But Chang Menglan was not discouraged, and he stayed in Benxi to continue his search.
Finally, by chance, he found the unit, but the head of the unit had been replaced by a young man. After seeing the chief, Chang Menglan immediately reported to him the situation that year. The young regimental commander felt that he was very pitiful and wanted to arrange for him to enjoy his old age in the army, but he refused. After demobilization, Chang Menglan returned to his hometown, unwilling to accept any subsidies from the troops. He died in his hometown in 2004.
Three years later, an old man appeared in the public eye, this old man was the company commander He Youhai at that time, and he had also been looking for Chang Menglan. When people asked him why he hadn't sounded the trumpet at that time, he choked up and said, "I also want to blow the trumpet, but I can't blow it without the commander's order, and once the trumpet is blown, then the position of the main force of our army is exposed, and the sacrifices made by Lao Chang and his small team are wasted." ”
Assembly number
If Chang Menglan knew this answer, he would also be able to rest in peace under the Nine Springs. Looking back on Chang Menglan's life, he dedicated everything to the army and the country, but he himself did not ask for anything in return. It can be seen that Chang Menglan is a big hero, and it is precisely because of a heroic figure like Chang Menglan that we can enjoy happiness now.