"A man's life should be spent in such a way that when he recalls the past, he will not regret his wasted years, nor will he be ashamed of his inaction..." The famous quote in the classic Soviet work "How Steel is Made" has influenced generations of Chinese, and the protagonist Paul has become a model for countless young people. In China, there is a man who is known as "China's Paul", and his autobiography "Giving Everything to the Party" once swept many socialist countries.
Wu Yunduo
The author of "Giving Everything to the Party" was born in 1917 to a miner's family in the Anyuan Coal Mine in Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, and he apprenticed in the coal mine at the age of 13. After that, he grew into a mine talent. In 1938, Wu Yunduo, persecuted by the capitalists, with the help of the CCP organization, left the mining area to join the New Fourth Army.
In April of that year, the New Fourth Army went deep behind enemy lines to develop, and the military headquarters was moved from Nanchang, Jiangxi to the Yunling Mountains in southern Anhui. Due to the enemy's tight seal, the weapons and ammunition of the troops were very scarce, and Wu Yunduo, who had a skill base, was assigned to the New Fourth Army Military Department Armory Repair Center.
In fact, Wu Yunduo wanted to take a rifle to the front line to kill the enemy, but the person who received him said: You stay and repair the gun, we are short of workers, you take the gun to the front line, and the production of gun ammunition in the rear is the same as revolution.
In 1939, Military Commander Ye Ting took the American journalist Smedley into the New Fourth Army Ordnance Repair Center in the Yunling Mountains. Smedley picked up the newly made rifle and fired several rounds in a row, and when she saw that there was no machine around her, she asked curiously: How was this gun made? Wu Yunduo pointed to some wooden stools, wooden stakes, and wooden planks next to him, and replied shortly and proudly: "These are these", which made the foreign reporter exclaim miracles!
On May 18, 1939, Wu Yunduo became an honorable member of the Communist Party.
At the end of 1940, the New Fourth Army received orders to move north of the Yangtze River, and the repair center was also making tense preparations for the northward move. While overhauling the equipment, Wu Yunduo accidentally injured his ankle.
Unexpectedly, the foot injury almost killed him, and the muscles around his ankle bone were rotten. In early 1941, the Kuomintang brazenly launched the "Anhui Southern Incident", and the New Fourth Army suffered a devastating blow. Under the enemy's encirclement and interception, Wu Yunduo stayed in the farmer's home to recuperate.
After the troops left, Wu Yunduo was not willing to stay at the peasants' homes and insisted on catching up with the troops. So he endured the pain, walked on crutches, day and night. When you are thirsty, drink some bitter water from the rice field.
"Thinking of the comrades who fought bravely on the battlefield behind us, and thinking of the comrades who opened up the road in front of us, we must also climb across the Yangtze River!"
——Wu Yunduo's autobiography "Giving Everything to the Party"
Disguised as a refugee, Wu Yunduo crossed the enemy's blockade area, rubbed shoulders with the god of death several times, and after more than a month of long journey, finally walked step by step to the new military headquarters in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province.
However, having just joined forces, he found that the current situation of the New Fourth Army was not optimistic.
The troops were very short of bullets and shells, and one person only fired five rounds. The warriors cut the sorghum stalks into sections, as long as the bullets, and loaded them into bullet bags on their backs. In this way, when the enemy sees the bullet bag, he will think that we still have bullets.
According to the instructions of the military department, the arduous task of building a bullet factory was pressed on Wu Yunduo's shoulders. On the day of receiving the task, Wu Yunduo could not take care of his foot injury and led the workers to Xiaozhuzhuang on the border of Suzhou and Anhui overnight. Such a remote village, the first thing to face is that the equipment and raw materials are not located. Wu Yunduo ran all over the surrounding villages and towns, worn out dozens of pairs of straw shoes, and finally heard a good news.
Lei Xingke Deputy Director of the Archives of Jinhu County, Jiangsu Province: The people told them that it was said that the Kuomintang might have steel in the lower reaches of the Huai River, that is, in the area of the Three Rivers, at this time we sent out nearby farmers and fishermen to inquire, and finally found out the location of the steel, and fished the steel by fishing boats.
The steel left over from the construction of the sluice gates by the Kuomintang became an important raw material for the construction of the bullet factory.
Shortly after the bullet factory was put into production, a batch of scrapped mortar shells captured from the Japanese army was sent to the factory. The military department instructed Wu Yunduo to do everything possible to repair the shells. Wu Yunduo, who had never been exposed to mortar shells, could only rely on the dismantling of shells to grasp its construction principle.
The effort paid off, and in the end, he found the key difficulty in repairing the shells - the lack of detonating thunder and mercury.
Mercury is a potent explosive filled in detonators, there are no raw materials and equipment for the manufacture of mercury, and the only feasible way is to extract mercury from old artillery shells.
Wu Yunduo was also well aware of the danger. Thundermeral can explode whenever it is subjected to slight friction, impact, or heating. However, thinking of the roar of enemy artillery fire on the front line and the lack of artillery support in our army, Wu Yunduo could not sit still.
Just as he was carefully extracting the mercury from the detonator, an accident occurred! With a loud bang, the detonator exploded!
In an instant, four fingers of Wu Yunduo's left hand were blown off, his thumb exploded a half, and his left eye was also blinded.
The unconscious Wu Yunduo was rushed to the hospital, and the first thing he said when he woke up was: "I want to go back, and I am waiting ahead for a shell!" ”
Wu Yunduo, who was disabled in his left hand and had lost his left eye, was weakened by excessive blood loss, but he still insisted on returning to the factory.
"After running for a long time, as soon as I left the hospital door, I fell to the ground, the bandages were broken, the blood vessels were broken, and the comrades carried me back to the hospital bed with tears in their eyes" - Wu Yunduo's autobiography "Dedicate Everything to the Party"
In the end, the workers could not screw the stubborn Wu Yunduo, he returned to the arsenal as he wished, and under his guidance, the first mortar shells were finally repaired and transported to the front line of the War of Resistance.
"We shed one more drop of sweat, and the warriors shed one drop less blood"
Flat guns, grenades, mines... In 3 years, the new weapons he developed became the killer weapon of the New Fourth Army against the enemy on the battlefield.
In the arduous War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, these weapons and equipment were not only a sharp weapon for the New Fourth Army to kill the enemy, but also strongly supported the Eighth Route Army. Wu Yunduo also became a "gun king" and "military engineering expert" known to Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and other CCP leaders.
In 1947, Wu Yunduo, who had just been married for two years, took his wife Lu Ping out to sea on a small steamer, broke through the blockade of enemy ships, and arrived in Dalian. Here, he will be commissioned to participate in the construction of the artillery plant.
As the factory buildings were built, the first shells were produced quickly, but the new shells had to be successfully tested before they could be sent to the front. In the absence of artillery for test firing, Wu Yunduo and they could only use the indigenous method to conduct test explosions.
On September 23, 1947, the first test of the newly developed shell was ushered in. Wu Yunduo and Wu Pingzhou, director of the artillery shell factory, test-detonated eight shells that had just rolled off the production line, and with the loud sound of "boom" and "boom," the shells exploded one after another. However, when the test explosion reached the seventh, the shell did not explode for a long time.
Time passed minute by minute, the seventh shell still did not move, and Wu Pingzhou and Wu Yunduo, who were hidden behind the bunker, were very anxious. The two stood up at the same time, scrambling to troubleshoot.
Wu Pingzhou quickly ran forward, and Wu Yunduo also quickly chased after him. At the moment when the two crouched down, the shell suddenly exploded! Wu Pingzhou and Wu Yunduo were instantly thrown away by a huge wave of air.
Wu Pingzhou unfortunately died, Wu Yunduo was seriously injured, was rushed to the hospital, this time he was in a coma for seven days and seven nights.
Wu Xiaorong, son of Wu Yunduo: One of the very large shell skins hit the chest, and my father was just right, and he was wearing a pocket watch on his chest at that time, and the shell of the pocket watch shattered, and the shell of the pocket watch exploded a purple blood mark on the chest.
Covered in blood, Wu Yunduo lay on the operating table, and without any anesthesia, the shrapnel on his body was taken out piece by piece, and the severe pain made him unconscious several times. A few days later, Wu Yunduo woke up to learn that his left hand had been blown off, his right leg had been mutilated, and his remaining right eye had also been injured by shrapnel, and he was in danger of complete blindness in both eyes...
"As long as I live for one day, I will definitely work for the party and the people for one day" - Wu Yunduo's autobiography "Dedicate Everything to the Party"
Faced with the cruelty of fate, he did not bow his head. In order to solve the problem of shell production as soon as possible, Wu Yunduo moved the laboratory into the hospital.
In 1948, Wu Yunduo's fuzes and improved artillery shells were put into production in batches. These shells were continuously delivered to the front.
In the war-torn era, Wu Yunduo went from southern Anhui to northern Jiangsu, from Huainan to northeast, from rifle making to shell making, in the contest between life and death again and again, his whole body was covered with more than 100 wounds, after more than 20 surgeries, there were still dozens of pieces of shrapnel left on his body. Wu Yunduo used his life to interpret the true meaning and belief of "Dedicating Everything to the Party"!
Text: Li Tengda Editor: Song Xintong Editor-in-chief: Jiang Li