In June 1949, the country was basically liberated, and only Bai Chongxi's troops were still resisting stubbornly. Those who were qualified to appear internationally on behalf of China must be outstanding.

Preface

In June 1949, the country was basically liberated, and only Bai Chongxi's troops were still resisting stubbornly.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to send some outstanding young people to participate in the Second World Democratic Youth Congress and International Youth Day .

Those who were qualified to represent China in the international market at that time must be outstanding.

After all, as a country with a large population, it is not easy to pick out such a few people.

Before leaving, Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De held a banquet to entertain all members of the delegation. The banquet was held in the evening and everyone arrived on time.

Chairman Mao was sitting next to a young comrade, who was flattered. It is the dream of many people to have the opportunity to have dinner with great men so close.

" Nine times of special merit! Great! " Before the young comrade could speak, Chairman Mao patted his shoulder and said kindly. There is a saying in the army: "Handle third-class merit stand, second-class merit lie down, first-class merit family members receive ."

Although I have heard that all young people sitting have two brushes, this " Nine-time Special Merit " seems a bit exaggerated, right? Most people can only brag for a lifetime by using "first-class merit". Who is this?

His name is Zhang Yingcai, nicknamed "Terrying Sanlang". He has become a soldier in our army at the age of 14. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the "Soldier King".

" talent, where are you from ?" Chairman Mao asked carefully again, his eyes full of appreciation.

" Report to Chairman! I am from Wanquan, Jiangxi !" Zhang Yingcai seemed a little nervous. After all, this was also the first time he had seen Chairman Mao's true face, and his words were a little trembling.

" Shanxi people like to eat pasta and don't like rice. Give this young comrade a bowl of egg noodles , remember to add more vinegar ." Chairman Mao personally ordered the staff.

" Thank you Chairman! " Zhang Yingcai hurriedly stood up and thanked Chairman Mao for his care.

" I should thank you, you are the great heroes of the people ." After Chairman Mao said this, the entire venue immediately burst into warm applause. What kind of legendary life does this soldier king have? Can be so valued by the Chairman.

Picture | Zhang Yingcai in his youth

1. "I want to be the Eighth Route Army and fight the Japanese"

1925, Zhang Yingcai was born in Wanrong County, Shanxi Province. Like most peasant families at that time, Zhang Yingcai was relatively poor when he was born.

Basically, before Zhang Yingcai woke up every morning, his parents had already walked out of the house and went to the landlord's house to do odd jobs. He could not meet his parents until the evening.

At that time, Zhang Yingcai was not as tall as the stove, so he took on the labor at home. After all, he still had younger brothers and sisters to take care of him.

Even though the whole family is busy making a living, they are still hungry and full.

Zhang Yingcai later recalled: "Hometimes, I had no place to dig wild vegetables, because I had been dug by everyone for a long time, and I often only had one meal a day. ."

When the autumn harvest season comes, buckets of wheat at home will be sent to the landlord's house by my parents. Seeing this scene, the young Zhang Yingcai felt even more uncomfortable.

" Dad, that's our food, why do you have to give it to the landlords' ?" the young Zhang Yingcai asked in confusion.

" child, you are still young now, and you don't understand if you tell you. This is the fate of our farmers. ." When my father said this, his eyes were full of helplessness.

As he grew older, Zhang Yingcai gradually understood what the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class was. When he was 6 years old, Zhang Yingcai also became a short-term worker in the landlord's family, and usually helped the landlord's family to herd sheep.

But how could a 6-year-old child do this job? He lost two of them when he went out to herd sheep for the first time, and he also paid the landlord the only savings at home.

happened to catch up with two years of poor grain harvest, and the rice jar at home soon came to an end. In desperation, his mother took Zhang Yingcai and his younger brother and sister to the landlord's house to borrow food.

At that time, my younger brother and sister were already dying and could survive by giving me some food, but the servants of the landlords drove them out. No matter how my mother begs, it will be of no help. younger brother and sister were also starved to death because of this, and since then he has been full of hatred for the landlord.

can’t even eat it, let alone receive education. Fortunately, the Red Army team came to Zhang Yingcai's hometown at that time. The Red Army helped the peasants regain some of the land and opened a free school

, which made Zhang Yingcai have a good impression of the Red Army, so he inspired to become a Red Army soldier and strive for the happy life of the people. But at that time, he was too young and could only study in the free school founded by our army.

1937, the Japanese army launched the " July 7 Incident ". As the Kuomintang army was defeated in the battle of Taiyuan, the entire Shanxi was occupied by the Japanese.

pic | Chinese army rushed to the front line in the Battle of Taiyuan

The Japanese did all kinds of evil in Shanxi and did not regard the people as human beings at all. Every now and then, I came to the village to rob, and all the food, poultry and livestock were wiped out.

Many hunters and militia relied on corn and wheat fields as cover in the field and ambushed the Japanese. When the Japanese learned about the situation, they were furious and ordered that all the fields on both sides of the road be burned and that the people were not allowed to plant crops again.

Many people in Shanxi have begun to migrate to Shaanxi, but many people have relocated and are unwilling to leave the land they have lived in for many years. Zhang Yingcai is one of them.

Faced with the atrocities of the Japanese, Zhang Yingcai found the principal more than once to express his willingness to join the army: "Principal , can you give me a gun? I want to go to the battlefield to fight the Japanese ."

" child, you are not as tall as the Japanese 38th level. How to fight the Japanese? Let's learn it first. There are opportunities to fight the Japanese in the future." The principal touched Zhang Yingcai's head and explained to her patiently.

Zhang Yingcai is not the kind of child who is indifferent to the flow of oil and salt. He did not make trouble, but studied hard and became the most diligent student in the school.

As we grow older, our desire to join the army has become less out of reach. At the age of 12, Zhang Yingcai expressed his idea to his parents that he wanted to participate in the Eighth Route Army to fight the Japanese.

is my own biological flesh and blood after all, and Zhang's father is very opposed to this idea: " My good child, war is not a joke. On the battlefield, bullets are not eye-catching ."

Zhang's mother also echoed: " Yes, war is not a joke, it will kill people. We are ordinary people, just live our own little life, and leave the war to the soldiers. Well, if you die, how can your father and we live? ."

"Daddy, the teachers in the school have taught us that 'the rise and fall of the country is responsible for the rise and fall of the country'. We must regard ourselves as the masters of the country. If the national crisis is in the head, how can we sit still? ? "

After all, Zhang Ying was only 12 years old and could not be the Eighth Route Army for a while, so his parents didn't say anything. But two years passed quickly, and 14-year-old Zhang Yingcai has reached the age to join the army.

Zhang Yingcai is very determined about joining the army, and no matter what his parents say, he cannot shake him. Seeing that he had the determination to "not return if he didn't destroy , his parents did not stop him anymore.

" Since you are in the army, don't go to waste your life. I would rather hear that you died in the battlefield than hear that you were wet on the battlefield. I have decided to go, so don't embarrass the old Zhang family. ." Although Zhang's father was reluctant to leave, he was also a person who understood the national justice.

pic | Eighth Route Army

During the Anti-Japanese War, my mother cooked 20 eggs by herself before Zhang Yingcai left and asked him to take them to the army and his comrades to eat. In that era, food and clothing could not be solved, and 20 eggs could be considered a "huge sum".

From then on, Zhang Yingcai became an Eighth Route Army soldier. After all, he was not old and the leader did not send him to the front line, but asked him to do some civilian work, mainly responsible for the propaganda and logistics of the troops, which lasted for two years.

But in 1941, the War of Resistance Against Japan entered the most difficult period, with heavy casualties between soldiers on the front line of our army, and the 212th Brigade where Zhang Yingcai was located was no exception.

Due to the lack of staff on the front line, Zhang Yingcai volunteered to go to the front line. Brigade Commander Sun Dingguo also considered that Zhang Yingcai had been in the army for more than two years at that time, it was time to let him go to the front line to kill the enemy.

" guard, find a gun for Xiao Zhang ." Sun Dingguo took the gun from the guard's hand, grabbed a bullet from the ammunition box and put it in Zhang Yingcai's pocket.

" is on the battlefield, but it is different from your usual target shooting. You must pay attention to your safety. Although you are a two-year veteran, you are a new recruit on the front line. This time I will act with you. ."

happened to catch up with the Japanese army launching a "big sweep" on our military Yuenan base. In order to block the Japanese army, the 212th Brigade set its position on the high ground of Fomiaoling.

Fumiaoling has a complex terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Japanese army was repelled by the soldiers of the 212th Brigade for several consecutive charges. Although it was Zhang Yingcai's first time on the battlefield, he was not afraid of the enemy's bullets, and the first shot directly knocked down a Japanese vanguard .

Picture | Fomiaoling battle

The Japanese army saw that the strong attack failed, so they transferred cannons and planes to carry out a cover-type shooting at Fomiaoling. Several shells fell in front of the position, and Sun Dingguo, who had been through many battles, asked Zhang Yingcai to pass the message:

"" This is the Japanese test fire. Let the machine gun company move the equipment to the trenches, otherwise it will become the target of the Japanese artillery. later." Before Brigade Commander Sun finished speaking, a shell flew over.

Zhang Yingcai was quick-witted and knocked Sun Dingguo down and pressed him under him. The soil from the shells almost buried the two of them alive. When the two of them got up, they found that their mouths and ears were filled with mud.

After Sun Dingguo reacted to what happened, he looked at Zhang Yingcai with admiration: ", you really have a ." Before Zhang Yingcai could greet Sun Dingguo, he ran to convey an order to the machine gun company.

Then the Japanese planes and cannons poured a large number of shells into the position, and the entire position was covered with smoke. Zhang Yingcai touched the soil on the ground and found that the soil was hot. After the bombardment of

, the Japanese army rushed towards the position with a scream. Zhang Yingcai installed the bayonet and rushed forward with one move. He seemed to be a tiger going down the mountain, leading the soldiers into the Japanese army formation and stabbed everyone he saw, with the style of " Zhao Zilong Seven in and out of on Changban slope".

Under Zhang Yingcai's siege, a hole was torn through the Japanese encirclement, and our 212th Brigade took the opportunity to break through the Japanese encirclement. With such a plot, I'm afraid that even the anti-Japanese dramas will never dare to shoot like this. The scene of

was seen by Sun Dingguo, and he gave a thumbs up and sighed: " is such a 'desperate sabbatical'. Who said that civil servants can't fight the Japanese ." In this battle, Zhang Yingcai showed his strength, but he was also injured.

Picture | Sun Dingguo Brigade Commander

Fortunately, the injury was not too serious, it was just a skin trauma. After taking care of it in the hospital for a few days, he returned to the army. His heroic performance in the battle was appreciated by his leaders, and he began his military career with cheating.

2. Shangdang Battle

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the domestic situation appeared to be calm, but in fact it was undercurrent. Chiang Kai-shek Although he was in Chongqing negotiations with our party, he kept making small moves secretly.

The Kuomintang army first took over the major cities occupied by the Japanese army across the country, accepted most of the Japanese equipment, and often created friction in the liberated areas of our army. In mid-August 1945, Yan Xishan was instructed by Chiang Kai-shek to invade the Shangdang liberated areas of our army.

Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping immediately decided to eliminate this invading enemy. was to attack the arrogance of the Kuomintang army, and was to have more say in the Chongqing negotiations.

Zhang Yingcai was promoted to company commander at that time and participated in the battle to seize Changzhi. If you want to take Changzhi, you must first take down the surrounding passes. Zhang Yingcai was ordered to cooperate with the troops to take down Beiguan.The night when

received the task, it started to rain heavily, and the road to Beiguan was flooded with water. Zhang Yingcai led his troops to wade through the accumulated water of one meter deep towards Beiguan. The deputy company commander of

led a row of soldiers into the closing gate of Beiguan from the northwest side, and Zhang Yingcai also brought the second and third rows to the city gate. After all, it was raining heavily and it was dark night, and the enemy did not notice them.

Zhang Yingcai and the soldiers silently eliminated the sentries on the commanding heights and immediately controlled several open positions in the shooting range. Because it was too close to the enemy at this time, it was eventually discovered by the enemy.

Picture | Our army attacked Changzhi

" Who? Password! " the enemy scolded loudly, and turned the searchlight over. Seeing that it had been exposed, Zhang Yingcai kept firing off the enemy's searchlight with one shot. Then there was a 10-minute fierce battle, and all the enemies in the building were destroyed.

Zhang Yingcai continued to lead the troops to clean up nearby enemies and occupied several courtyards. However, friendly forces did not follow up in time. At present, Zhang Yingcai Company is in a state of fighting alone.

gunshots attracted the enemy, and they were quickly surrounded by a large number of enemy troops. After several tentative attacks, the enemy suffered heavy losses, so he decided to temporarily monitor several courtyards occupied by Zhang Yingcai and launch an attack after dawn.

Zhang Yingcai immediately ordered the soldiers to seize the time and dig several large holes into the walls between several yards, so that the entire company's troops would be connected into a piece, and a row led by the deputy company commander also opened up the houses.

In just one night, several courtyards were transformed into a solid battle fortress. Not only are the houses connected to each other, but many hidden tunnels have been dug up to defend against enemy artillery attacks.

Just as dawned, the enemy indeed launched an attack on several yards occupied by Zhang Yingcai. But what they didn't know was that these old civilian houses had long been transformed by our soldiers.

After Yan Xishan's troops entered the yard, they began to find the north. These houses were full of shooting holes. The more than 100 people sent for the first time were wiped out without even seeing the shadow of our army.

Then the Kuomintang army began to increase its offensive efforts and sent more people. However, the position built by Zhang Yingcai Lian using houses is like a "Gagua Formation". Our army uses various channels to often appear on the side and rear of the enemy and then launch an attack.

Hundreds of people came in and dozens of people went out. Seeing that the attack did not work, the Kuomintang army transferred cannons to try to razor all the houses to the ground.

However, Zhang Yingcai led the soldiers to hide in the tunnels and hidden fortifications dug in advance. The Kuomintang shells could not cause substantial damage to our army except for blowing up several buildings.

Seeing that the several buildings that Zhang Yingcai Lian had defended had become a ruin, the Kuomintang army thought they had all been wiped out, so they reorganized the attack.

Zhang Yingcai and the soldiers crawled out of the tunnel, used the destroyed buildings as bunkers to block the enemy's attack. The enemy did not expect that so many Communist troops would survive in just a few yards, and they were caught off guard.

So this day basically maintains such a rhythm and keeps the cycle: The enemy cannons, our army hides from the tunnel, the enemy attacks, our army comes out to fight back, and the enemy is defeated .

such a cycle from day to night, Zhang Yingcai led his troops to repel the enemy's 22 attacks, killing more than 300 enemies, and the enemy has never been able to break through the position of Zhang Yingcai Company.

pic | Eighth Route Army in Shangdang Battle

In order to commend Zhang Yingcai Company, our army published their heroic deeds of killing the enemy on the front line of battle reports and awarded them the title of "Ninth Company of Steel" (Zhang Yingcai Company was the 9th Company of the 57th Regiment), and Zhang Yingcai was also awarded the first "special merit" in his life.

Because in this battle, Zhang Yingcai showed his superb command ability, and he was promoted to battalion commander by exception. At this time, Zhang Yingcai was only 22 years old.

3. Keep up with it in the War of Liberation

Zhang Yingcai not only has excellent command ability, but also has a good hand in leading troops. One of his battalions was full of energy and fighting spirit, and became a sharp knife unit of our army.

In November 1948, the Huaihai Battle broke out, as a decisive battle that determined the fate of China. Under Su Yu's command, this battle brought the advantages of mobile warfare to the extreme.

Huang Wei is Chiang Kai-shek's direct general. Once, our army surrounded Chiang Kai-shek's direct troops in a battle with Huang Wei's army.

Picture | Commander-in-chief of the 12th Corps - Huang Wei

Once, Zhang Yingcai received a task and was responsible for blocking the enemy's breakthrough. But no one expected that the enemy had assembled a lot of troops this time. Except for the two divisions who were breaking through the entire siege, even brigades outside the encirclement also came to reinforce.

has a total of more than 20,000 enemies, while Zhang Yingcai's "Steel Battalion" has only more than 500 people. Zhang Yingcai immediately ordered the troops to build fortifications and prepare to fight the enemy.

enemies are not only numerous, but also very well-equipped. In addition to a large number of heavy artillery , there are 24 tanks and 12 armored vehicles . Such equipment can be considered elite even in the Kuomintang army. This kind of battle cannot be won by anyone who commands it, but Zhang Yingcai doesn't believe in this evil.

Faced with this situation, Zhang Yingcai's strategy was just eight words: " unexpectedly, attack him unpredictable ". He decided to use attack as a defense, take the initiative to attack, and use mobile warfare to block the enemy.

" We are fighting elite ". Zhang Yingcai led the way and picked up the submachine gun to rush to the front line. The soldiers were influenced by him and their morale increased greatly, and no one retreated.

Facing the enemy with a numerical advantage, the soldiers of the entire battalion took the command of the 14th Army of the Kuomintang under the leadership of Zhang Yingcai. The enemy commander Xiong Shouchun was shot dead, and the 14th Army, which lost the command center, immediately fell into chaos.

Zhang Yingcai used his inferior forces to deal with the enemy and attacked decisively at the weak nodes of the enemy. The force of hundreds of people turned the 14th Army upside down. The battle lasted for a day and a night, killing and injuring thousands of Kuomintang troops, and defeating a division with one battalion. In addition, Zhang Yingcai's camp also captured more than 3,000 enemies. After the battle between

, Zhang Yingcai Battalion was awarded the title of "Steel Camp", and he himself was awarded the title of "Special Combat Hero".

The courage of "taking the enemy general's head among 60,000 troops" was highly praised by Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao once praised Zhang Yingcai: ", you are even better than , Guan Yunchang, , ."

4. Enjoy your old age

After the founding of New China, Zhang Yingcai has been working in the army. He was awarded the rank of colonel when he was awarded the title in 1955. Zhang Yingcai served as deputy commander of the 13th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and deputy commander of the 50th Army.

Picture | Zhang Yingcai in his later years

In order to commend the contributions made by these combat heroes during the revolutionary war, our country held a conference of combat heroes.

A total of 358 people participated in this conference. Among the more than 4 million PLA soldiers, only 77 people received "special merit" within three times. , and Zhang Yingcai won 9 "special merits" in his life, and only one of the more than 4 million PLA soldiers.

With the end of the war, the People's Liberation Army no longer has the conditions to make "special merits", so Zhang Yingcai, a "soldier king" like Zhang Yingcai, is unprecedented. Chairman Mao had met him four times.

As the saying goes, a tiger father has no dog son. Zhang Yingcai's three children all inherited his red genes. After his eldest son joined the army, he became a professional talent in the army and served as a military observer in United Nations in Cambodia . The second son of