According to the official microblog of the 95829 unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army @ Our Sky, Chai Yunzhen, a first-class combat hero of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, a recipient of the Volunteer Army's special meritorious service, and a recipient of the Order of Freedom and Independence of the DPRK First Class, died on December 26, 2018 at the age of 93.
Speaking of Chai Yunzhen, many people are not familiar with it. Because he is a combat hero who has been "missing" for 33 years, a legendary figure who was mistaken for "sacrificing" on the Korean battlefield because of his hidden merits, the "relics" are placed side by side with heroes such as Huang Jiguang and Qiu Shaoyun in the Korean Military Museum.
Chai Yunzhen was born in 1925 to a poor peasant family in the mountains of Yuechi County, northeastern Sichuan. At the age of 12, he worked as a long-term worker for the landlord, and at the age of 15, he took up the burden of supporting the whole family. In 1947, when Chai Yunzhen was 17 years old, just as he was struggling to get rid of poverty, the Kuomintang launched a full-scale civil war and arrested him as a Zhuangding. In the Kuomintang army, it was not uncommon for officers and commanders to be corrupt and to bully, beat, and even eat hungry soldiers, and he was very disgusted, so whenever he fought with the People's Liberation Army, he always avoided firing guns, and even avoided avoiding it and refusing to participate in the war.
In 1948, before the Battle of Huaihai began, Chai Yunzhen's unit was forced to rush from Sichuan to the front line. At that time, the soldiers of the troops were generally tired of war, and they all said in private that the Kuomintang and the Communists were at war, and the Communists were getting stronger and stronger the more they fought, but the Kuomintang troops were getting less and less suppressed in the midst of the clamor of "suppressing the Communists." At this time, the Kuomintang army was completely defeated in the Liaoshen Campaign, so the officers and men in the army were panicked, and no one was willing to go to the front line to serve as cannon fodder.
In this way, Chai Yunzhen's unit joined the ranks of the People's Liberation Army and was later assigned to the guard company of the 45th Division of the 15th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
In the people's army, Chai Yunzhen personally felt that officers and soldiers were equal and gave preferential treatment to prisoners, and his thinking changed greatly. Especially through the education of the People's Liberation Army, he realized that the Communist Party is for the benefit of the poor and poor people, and he is determined to follow the Communist Revolution to the end.
On April 21, 1949, the Battle of Crossing the River began, and Chai Yunzhen's unit opened the way for the whole army as the erye River Crossing Advance Team. He was a machine gunner, rushing to the front. In the battle between the two sides, the shells on the river surface were like shuttles, the fire reflected the sky, and many PLA fighters hit the enemy on wooden boats, unfortunately shot and killed. Chai Yunzhen aimed his machine gun at the mouth of the enemy fire bunker and munted several bunkers in a row. But the cunning enemy soon spotted Chai Yunzhen's machine gun fire and turned the muzzle of his gun against him. The shell landed on the surface of the Yangtze River and exploded, and Chai Yunzhen's boat was thrown to the tip of the wave by the waves, and then fell down, which was very dangerous. In this battle, Chai Yunzhen captured three heavy machine guns and many ammunition, and Chai Yunzhen was awarded the second class merit and became a hero in the battle of crossing the river.
After the victory in the Battle of crossing the River, the 15th Army was placed under the command of Siye, and all the commanders and fighters, under the leadership of Qin Jiwei, moved to the vast areas of central and southern China and southwest China to strike hard at the remnants of the Kuomintang. During the battle, Chai Yunzhen was honored with many military merits and honorably joined the Communist Party of China in December 1949.
In October 1950, Chai Yunzhen participated in the volunteer army's campaign in Korea, and in May 1951, chai Yunzhen's unit, the 3rd Battalion of the 45th Division of the 15th Army, was tasked with blocking the enemy troops in the North korean army at Park Dafeng in the Chipo area of Gangwon Province, 30 kilometers southwest of Kim Hwa, North Korea.
PuDaFeng is located more than 30 kilometers southwest of Jinhua, and the mountain is dangerous, which is a necessary place for the enemy to invade Jinhua. At dawn on May 28, 1951, the 25th Division of the U.S. Invading Army and the 25th Canadian Brigade, under the cover of aircraft, artillery, and tanks, began to rush toward Park Dafeng.
On the sixth day of the battle, our forward positions were occupied by the enemy, and the situation was very critical. Battalion commander Wu Shangzhi ordered Chai Yunzhen, the seventh squad leader of the eighth company who had just been drawn from the division's guard company, to lead his troops to retake the position and block the enemy. Chai Yunzhen led the whole squad to brave the dense artillery fire to launch a fierce attack on the enemy from the left and right sides, taking two hills in one fell swoop. The enemy command post was condescending to retaliate against us with fierce artillery fire, and the position was in a sea of fire. Under the cover of three other comrades-in-arms, Chai Yunzhen detoured up the mountain from the flank of the enemy-occupied highlands. Just approach the enemy command post, kill one of the enemy commanders, and then use grenades and submachine guns to slam into the enemy command post, forcing the enemy to flee in a panic. When the bullets were finished, he was alone in a deadly hand-to-hand battle with the enemy with the courage of revolutionary heroism that overwhelmed all enemies. During the hand-to-hand combat, the index finger of his right hand was bitten off by the enemy, and he was wounded in many places in the head and waist, and passed out.
In the battle of Park Dafeng' blockade, Chai Yunzhenban conquered three enemy-occupied hills, annihilated more than 200 enemy positions, destroyed one of the enemy's command posts, defended the safety of the front-line headquarters and rear hospitals of our volunteer army, won time for the smooth movement of the volunteer corps to the north, and played a key role in consolidating our army's position.
After the battle, Commander Peng Dehuai sent a telegram of thanks to Qin Jiwei, commander of the 15th Army, and the General Political Department of the Volunteer Army issued the first order in 1952, awarding Chai Yunzhen and other meritorious heroes and the honorary title of first-class combat heroes. Chai Yunzhen's unit became a heroic unit, and Chai Yunzhen's eighth company was rated as the "Eighth Company of Special Merit.". Inspired by Chai Yunzhen's spirit, famous heroes such as Huang Jiguang and Qiu Shaoyun appeared in the volunteer army. However, Chai Yunzhen is missing. The Hero Medal issued to Chai Yunzhen by the Headquarters of the Volunteer Army went unaccomplain, and the exhibition hall of the Korean Military Museum hung a "portrait" of the hero Chai Yunzhen.
After the volunteers returned home, the troops had been looking for Chai Yunzhen. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army will compile a "Biography of Heroes" and designate it as Chai Yunzhen Lichuan. Comrade Qin Jiwei, former commander of Chai Yunzhen's unit and former minister of national defense, instructed: "We must do everything possible to find Chai Yunzhen." In order to complete this task, the 39155 unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army dispatched a search team headed by Wen Tiehan, director of the Army-Group Liaison Office. Li Tian'en was the director of the Propaganda Department of the 15th Army at the time, and after Li Tianen vigorously searched for it and published it in the newspaper, he finally found the whereabouts of Chai Yunzhen.
Where did Chai Yunzhen go? It turned out that Chai Yunzhen was seriously injured in the Battle of Pu Dafeng, and after a year of hospitalization, in April 1952, Chai Yunzhen went through the formalities in the hospital and was demobilized and returned home. Holding a third-class B disabled soldier certificate, he received a demobilization fee of 1,000 kilograms of rice at the Civil Affairs Bureau and returned to his hometown of Yuechi. After returning to his hometown, he successively served as a brigade commander, a township chief, and a deputy secretary of the commune party committee. For more than thirty years, Chai Yunzhen has worked silently for the party and the people, selflessly dedicated, never revealed his merits, and no one knows that he is a great hero.
On September 23, 1984, Chai Yunzhen and his son, accompanied by two staff members of the Wuhan Military Region, came to the garrison of the troops. Chai Yunzhen, a special meritorious hero of the Volunteer Army and a first-class combat hero, was found thirty-three years after "disappearing". The news spread through the airwaves over a country of 9.6 million square kilometers, as well as to neighboring North Korea. The hero Chai Yunzhen was born from the fertile soil of Yuechi, and Yuechi also became the hero's homeland because of Chai Yunzhen.
With the approval of the Central Military Commission, Chai Yunzhen, as a member of the Chinese Volunteer Army's combat hero delegation, went to Korea at the invitation of Kim Il Sung to participate in the activities commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Chinese Volunteer Army's combat in Korea. During this period, Kim Il Sung met with Chai Yun-jin twice and awarded him the "Order of Freedom and Independence of the First Class". Kim Il Sung said: "Find Chai Yunzhen, history should be rewritten, Chai Yunzhen is not a martyr, but a living hero." According to the schedule of the visit, Chai Yunzhen visited the Korean Military Museum and the Volunteer Martyrs' Cemetery. In the military museum, the interpreter pointed to a sketch portrait hanging on the wall and said, "This is Chai Yunzhen's 'portrait.'" He also told him that he had buried a fake grave and erected a monument for him on the position of Park Dafeng in that year. Chai Yunzhen said, "I'm still alive!" I have to bring this 'relic' back! After obtaining the consent of the DPRK, Chai Yunzhen personally removed his "remains" and brought it back to keep in his home.
After Chai Yunzhen returned to China, he was warmly welcomed by the people of the motherland, and everywhere he went were flowers, smiling faces and praise. In the face of this, the old hero said: "Honor belongs to the motherland and the people, and I can only repay with more contributions."
On the way back to beijing, General Qin Jiwei, former commander of the 15th Army and commander of the Beijing Military Region at the time, held a special banquet. During the banquet, Qin Jiwei asked, "Do you have any requirements for the organization?" Chai Yunzhen shook his head, "The soldiers of my squad have all died, and I am left." I live in the world and should do something for my comrades-in-arms. I don't have any requirements for the organization. "There was silence. The demeanor of a sincere veteran jumped out.
Since 1984, Chai Yunzhen has been elected as a member of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Standing Committee of the County Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and a deputy to the National People's Congress. His status has changed, and his sincere heart for the party and the people has not changed. Chai Yunzhen is too old to be old, still old and strong, and composes a new heroic chapter in the journey of revolution and construction.
In his later years, chai Yunzhen was also hired by the Yuechi County State Taxation Bureau and the Local Taxation Bureau as a "compulsory tax propagandist.", on the occasion of the annual tax publicity month, he took the initiative to invite Miao to participate in the propaganda, and with his personal experience in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he explained the close relationship between the existence, development, and taxation of the People's Republic, especially the comprehensive well-off society. He said: "I am a survivor of the battle of blood and fire, and I have a special relationship with the republic that cares for the happiness and tranquility of the people. For the country to be strong and prosperous, and for the nation to be rejuvenated, it must be guaranteed by the financial resources of taxation. Therefore, I hope that all citizens with patriotic hearts will pay taxes in good faith in accordance with the law and make positive contributions to building a harmonious and moderately prosperous society. ”
Today, the first-class combat hero Chai Yunzhen walked away peacefully, at the age of 93, praying for the old hero and paying tribute to the old hero!
Synthesized from China Air Force Network, Xinhua Net, Lookout News Weekly, Wuhan Evening News