In the 1960s, a major event occurred in a village in Xingtang County, Hebei Province. Central leader Deng Xiaoping wrote a letter specifically for village affairs.
This incident starts with villager Gao Ruyi. At that time, the policy allowed villagers to reserve some private land. When the collective was not working, the villagers would borrow the livestock of the production team to cultivate the private land.
One day in March 1963, according to the team's arrangement, it was the turn of donkey of Gao Ruyi's household production team to pump water to irrigate the ground. The blindfolded donkey was pulling the waterwheel around. Suddenly, the rope that tied the donkey to the waterwheel hook came off. The donkey broke free and wandered around, falling into the well.
Gao Ruyi hurried to find someone, but when everyone tried hard to pull the donkey up, they found that it was already dead. Donkeys were collective property. There were no machines in those days, and many farm work relied on these animals. This incident aroused heated discussions among the members.
Fortunately, there are many reasonable people who believe that this incident was not intentional and was highly accidental. In the end, the production team determined it to be a "natural and man-made disaster" and criticized and educated Gao Ruyi's family. The matter should have ended here, but unexpectedly in 1966 someone brought it out, accusing Gao Ruyi of "undermining the collective" and demanding compensation from him.
A donkey is worth several hundred yuan. How could Gao Ruyi afford to pay for it? But he knew he was wrong first and expressed his position: "I don't have any money, so I can use it to deduct whatever valuable things I have at home." As for " Gao Ruyi could not accept the "crime" of "destroying the collective" no matter what, and felt very aggrieved. is already a very difficult family, and this incident makes the family always cry.
But miraculously, not long after, Deng Xiaoping, who was then Secretary-General of the Central Committee, wrote a letter instructing: "Deal with natural and man-made disasters." So no one in the production team dared to embarrass Gao Ruyi. But the villagers didn't understand, How could a central leader intercede for an ordinary farmer?
Gao Ruyi
joined the revolutionary ranks to defend his hometown
Gao Ruyi was born in a poor family in 1919 and never went to school. When his father died when he was 14 years old, he could only depend on his mother. The family had nothing to eat, and their life was extremely miserable. As a teenager, Gao Ruyi witnessed the atrocities committed by the Japanese army.
On February 14, 1938, in order to retaliate against the anti-Japanese armed forces, the Japanese army sent more than 300 people to surround Shangbei in Xingtang County. After they rushed into the village, they killed everyone they saw and burned every house they saw. This atrocity resulted in the murder of more than 50 innocent people and the burning of more than 200 houses. It was known in history as the "Shangbei Massacre".
Gao Ruyi was also captured by the Japanese army and worked as a coolie. Not only did he starve and freeze, he was also often abused by the Japanese army. In order to save his life, he took his mother and fled to a relative's home 20 miles away, and then embarked on the road of resistance.
Xingtang County is an old revolutionary area. The Communists here established a branch as early as 1927. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, this was the barrier to the southeast of the hinterland of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region, and it was also the place where the most intense confrontation between the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese Army took place.
Although the Japanese army carried out many "sweeps" against Xingtang , the people here were not intimidated and they firmly supported the Eighth Route Army. Gao Ruyi has been helping the Eighth Route Army stand guard, delivering intelligence, and transporting food since then. He is an active local anti-Japanese element.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Gao Ruyi originally thought that he could live a peaceful life, but soon after, the Kuomintang provoked a civil war. In order to defend his hometown, Gao Ruyi said goodbye to his mother and joined the first regiment of the first column of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region (later reorganized into the 136th Regiment of the 16th Army of the 2nd Field and 5th Corps).
Gao Ruyi fought with the troops inside and outside the Great Wall, forcibly crossed the Yellow River natural dangers, leaped thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains , participated in the Huaihai Campaign, and made many military exploits. He grew from a simple farmer to a strong and brave warrior. Party, and became squad leader. During the Huaihai Campaign to encircle and suppress the Huangwei Corps, Gao Ruyi led the 5th squadron of soldiers to fight fiercely, penetrate the enemy's deep positions, and capture 50 enemy soldiers. He became famous in the first battle.
After the three major battles , the entire Northeast was liberated, and most of North China was also liberated. The strength of both the enemy and ourselves has undergone a fundamental change. At this time, the Kuomintang Party tried to rely on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River to resist, and at the same time issued a peace statement in an attempt to buy time to gather troops for a decisive battle with the People's Liberation Army.
In response to the enemy's peace talks conspiracy, Chairman Mao issued the "Statement on the Current Situation", proposing eight conditions as the basis for peace talks, including punishing war criminals, abolishing the pseudo-Constitution, and reorganizing all reactionary armies. At the same time, the central government ordered the second and third fields to have about 1 million troops to prepare for the cross-river operation .
In February 1949, the 16th Army received an order to march to Anqing on the north bank of the Yangtze River to participate in the cross-river operation. At that time, they faced many difficulties:
First, ships were first needed to cross the river. When the enemy retreated, they had already pulled away all the ships on the river. At the same time, they continued to use aircraft and cannons to bomb the ships docked on the river. The People's Liberation Army could only mobilize the masses, borrow the boats they had hidden, and at the same time arrange for people to build boats and rafts. Soon, the 16th Army had raised more than 300 ships. If such a large number of ships were gathered together, they would inevitably be bombed by the enemy.
Second, the ships were found, but how to hide them to avoid enemy bombing became another problem. To this end, the 16th Army organized personnel to dig out 20 30-meter-square docks that can be used for both air defense and concealment. At the same time, they dug two ditches more than 2,500 meters long between the inner lake and the Yangtze River, pumping water in and using them as ship channels. In order to complete this task, the soldiers spent fifteen or six hours a day soaking in mud water. In the end, the 16th Army hid the ship without anyone noticing.
Third, 16 Most of the soldiers in the army were northern warriors like Gao Ruyi and could not swim. Many of them had never even seen a river as majestic as the Yangtze River. Not to mention fighting, just standing on the boat for a while will make you seasick, and you will almost vomit your internal organs. The soldiers found experienced local fishermen to guide them. They started training from swimming and paddling, and soaked in the water every day until they mastered all the skills of water warfare.
After joining the army, Gao Ruyi
was known as "the first person to cross the river"
On April 20, 1949, the Kuomintang regime refused to sign the " Domestic Peace Agreement" and the peace negotiations broke down. On the 21st, Chairman Mao and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De ordered to "fight across the Yangtze River and liberate all of China."
In the afternoon of that day, 120 artillery pieces launched a sudden fire attack on the enemy positions on the other side. At 17:00, following an order from the Field Army Headquarters, the large and small ships of the two assault regiments of the 16th Army sailed towards the other side like arrows.
Yin Xianbing, commander of the 16th Army, has a headache over who will serve as the assault regiment. The 546th and 47th divisions are both required to undertake assault missions. If an entire division is sent there, the other division will inevitably have objections. If each division takes out a regiment, it will be difficult to coordinate the command.
One day, the reconnaissance platoon captured several prisoners on Jiangxinzhou. After interrogation, they explained important information such as the deployment of troops and the configuration of firearms on the other side. Now Yin Xianbing felt confident, and he decided to form a commando team from the 136th Regiment of the 46th Division and the 139th Regiment of the 47th Division, under the unified command of Li Jue, commander of the 47th Division. Because he once served as the commander of the 136th Regiment of the 46th Division, he is familiar with both teams.
The 7th company Gao Ruyi was in was the assault company of the 136th regiment. He watched the boats of his brothers on the left and right rushing to catch up, so he ordered the whole class of soldiers to paddle hard and rush to the front. But he also became the enemy's key "care" target, with shells constantly exploding around him and bullets whizzing past him. Suddenly a shell hit the side of the ship. One soldier died, Gao Ruyi and another soldier were injured, and the boatman was also knocked unconscious.
Gao Ruyi took over the helm from the boatman and directed his comrades to continue paddling. The boatman woke up and saw that Gao Ruyi's left hand was bleeding, so he tried to get up and took over the rudder. In order to speed up, Gao Ruyi took off his helmet and used it as a paddle, regardless of the pain.
Close to the shore, the water is too shallow and the boat speed slows down. Gao Ruyi shouted: "Comrades, follow me!" Then he jumped into the water and led the whole class towards the enemy's position. The first soldier to rush ashore was suppressed by the enemy's heavy machine gun and could not lift his head. At such a critical moment, many comrades would fall for every minute of delay.
Gao Ruyi made a prompt decision and led a group of people to attract enemy firepower, while allowing the machine gunners to occupy favorable terrain and suppress the enemy's firepower. After the machine gun of the fifth squadron started, all the enemy's firepower was attracted. Gao Ruyi led his comrades to go back to the enemy's bunker and threw a few hand grenades to silence the enemy.
After the follow-up troops arrived, Gao Ruyi's left arm was so painful that he couldn't control it, but he hung the gun around his neck, held the gun with his right hand, and continued to rush towards the enemy's position. Under his leadership, the fifth squadron soldiers occupied another unknown high ground. Seeing that there were not many People's Liberation Army rushing over, the enemy launched a counterattack.
Gao Ruyi encouraged everyone: "In order to cover the assembly of the main force, we must hold our position." They repelled three consecutive enemy attacks. When the platoon leader arrived, he saw his uniform soaked red with blood and asked: "Gao Ruyi, are you injured?"
The Battle of Crossing the River
Gao Ruyi replied with a smile: "It's a minor injury, it's not a problem." The platoon leader immediately asked the health worker to bandage him. As soon as he finished bandaging, the enemy rushed up again. In desperation, Gao Ruyi grabbed the gun and said: "Platoon commander, you are holding down the enemy's fire from the front. How about I lead people to outflank the enemy and go behind the enemy?"
"Good idea, but your injury..." Not yet After the platoon leader finished speaking, Gao Ruyi rushed out. After a while, the soldiers concealed themselves behind the enemy. After firing a bunch of bullets, they shouted: "Send your gun and don't kill, the People's Liberation Army will treat the prisoners preferentially." More than 60 enemy soldiers were frightened by the sudden arrival of the People's Liberation Army, and they all raised their hands to surrender.
By dawn on April 22, more than 40,000 people from the 16th Army had all crossed the river, and none of the more than 300 boats capsized, successfully completing the task of crossing the river.
During the Battle of Crossing the Yangtze River, Gao Ruyi was the first soldier in the Anqing section to reach the south bank of the Yangtze River. After the war, he was named the "Special Battle Hero for Crossing the River", and Class 5 was awarded the collective first-class merit . Later, Gao Ruyi was hailed by the media as "the first person to cross the river."
In the autumn of 1950, Gao Ruyi was selected as the representative of the Erye Fighting Heroes to attend the National Fighting Heroes Representative Conference held in Beijing. Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, He Long and others personally saw them off and took photos together. Chief Liu and Deng also gave each hero a photo of himself.
In Beijing, Gao Ruyi and others were cordially received by central leaders such as Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou. This was a moment he would never forget. At the meeting, Premier Zhou talked about the situation of the Korean War. The enemy brought the war to our doorstep, endangering the security of our country... The representatives were excited and shouted slogans such as "Defeat the American invaders". Gao Ruyi originally planned to go home to visit her mother on the way back, but after hearing the news, she quickly returned to the army and was on standby. In early January 1951, Gao Ruyi entered North Korea with his troops to participate in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Combat Heroes Congress
From special heroes to ordinary farmers
After the end of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the 46th Division returned to China in October 1955 to garrison in Jilin Province. At that time, the domestic anti-bandit war was basically completed, and the People's Liberation Army was modernizing and formalizing the army in accordance with the central government's orders, which required streamlining the organization and redundant personnel, strengthening technical training, and improving the quality of the troops. This is also the third major disarmament of the People's Liberation Army, and the entire army has been streamlined by about 23%.
Gao Ruyi, who was already the company commander at the time, took the initiative to demobilize after learning about the central government's policy. The organization originally arranged to serve as a local section chief, but Gao Ruyi believed that he was uneducated and only learned to read after joining the army. He was not good at leading local work. He had been away from home for 10 years and missed his mother very much and asked to go back to his hometown. After
returned to his hometown, the local Civil Affairs Bureau helped Gao Ruyi arrange work and solicited his opinions. People in that era were relatively simple. They considered the overall situation and acted within their capabilities. It was not difficult to choose a unit like the Public Security Bureau with Gao Ruyi's conditions, but he felt that he was uneducated and would delay things, so he finally chose the county moving station as a porter.
The 36-year-old Gao Ruyi is still as impressive as he was back then, and his work is as good as that of a young man in his early 20s.He was so busy that he sweated profusely every day, and his colleagues were puzzled: "With your conditions, why do you have to endure this hardship?"
Gao Ruyi said with a smile: "I can't enjoy that blessing!" In fact, what he was thinking was Yes, honors are all in the past and are obtained together with the sacrificed comrades. If you live by the honor of the past, what kind of hero is that? How can you be worthy of the sacrificed comrades? Besides, the country is very poor now. If everyone wants to sit in an office, who will build the country?
Gao Ruyi had been working hard at the transport station for several years. Suddenly, he felt more and more pain in his left arm. It was even difficult to lift his hand and he was unable to work at all. After went to the hospital for examination, he found out that he was injured in the battle across the Yangtze River and a piece of shrapnel was still left in his hand. After the operation, Gao Ruyi stayed at home to recuperate for half a year. Unexpectedly, when she was about to go back to work, the transport station was disbanded.
From then on, he could only take his family to work in the village's production team and pick up the hoe again. Life in the countryside was very difficult at that time, but Gao Ruyi was already married and had three children. He relied on his own efforts to earn wages to support his family. His life was very stable, and he was very satisfied.
Gao Ruyi, who works at home as a farmer
Although Gao Ruyi is extremely brave on the battlefield, in daily life he is a simple and honest farmer, taking the overall situation into consideration in everything, obeying distribution, and working hard without complaint. He would never brag to others about his experience on the battlefield. Even after returning to his hometown for several years, the villagers only knew that he had been a soldier and did not know his specific experience.
Until that day in March 1963, the donkey fell into the well, breaking his peaceful life. 3 years later, he was accused of "destroying the collective" and demanded compensation from the donkey. The more Gao Ruyi thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. He had joined the army for nearly 10 years and had been fighting for the revolutionary cause. How could he "sabotage the collective"?
Gao Ruyi decided to seek help from the old leaders of the army. At that time, there was no information in the countryside, and the movements of the old leaders could not be found at all. He only learned from newspapers that Deng Xiaoping, the political commissar of the second opposition, was working in the central government. Gao Ruyi wrote a letter to Deng Xiaoping with the attitude of giving it a try. Unexpectedly, he replied quickly with instructions.
What surprised the villagers was not just Deng Xiaoping's reply, but Gao Ruyi, a farmer who usually seemed honest and good-natured, turned out to be a "special combat hero." Everyone found 13 medals from his home and revealed his true identity.
After becoming famous, Gao Ruyi still worked as usual. After returning to his hometown for decades, even in the most difficult times, he never reached out to the organization. Sometimes the civil affairs department would send some relief supplies, but he would always take less or reject them and give them to other people in need. His three sons also failed to benefit from him, and they all worked at home as farmers.
In 1990, Gao Ruyi received a letter from the 16th Group Army of the old army, inviting him to participate in the "45th Anniversary Military Celebration of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region". It was his first "home" in 35 years after leaving the army. Accompanied by his son, he rushed to Changchun, but was stopped by the hotel guard because he was wearing rags.
No matter how Gao Ruyi explained, the guard refused to let him in and said: "The people meeting inside are all senior leaders." After a long argument, Gao Ruyi had no choice but to take out the 13 military medals he had wrapped in cloth and think about it. To prove your identity. A cadre in charge of conference affairs happened to be passing by and saw Gao Ruyi. After confirming Gao Ruyi's identity, the guard let him in.
At this time, most of Gao Ruyi's comrades were generals, directors, and secretaries, but they still hugged each other tightly like family members after meeting.
On National Day in 1999, 80-year-old Gao Ruyi received an invitation from the Central Military Commission to go to Beijing to participate in National Day activities. He climbed to the Tiananmen Gate Tower, watched the grand military parade, and was later received by central leaders.
On January 26, 2007, Gao Ruyi passed away due to illness, completing a legendary and ordinary life.
Participate in National Day activities
Epilogue
Gao Ruyi had only two identities in his life. On the battlefield, he was a brave warrior and made great achievements in battle. After taking off his military uniform, he was willing to be ordinary and become an ordinary farmer, building his homeland with his own strength.Gao Ruyi used his legendary combat experience and simple peasant life to show the world the true nature of a revolutionary soldier. His selfless dedication to the revolution and his indifference to fame and fortune are awe-inspiring.
