Speaking of this person, Nie Haibo, who is responsible for the collection of retired military information at the Laifeng County Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, has a very vivid memory. He said that when he was about to get off work that day, a man in his fifties hurriedly came to his office.
The man's name is Zhang Jianqian, and he is an ordinary cadre of a certain unit in Laifeng County. He said that his father was a demobilized soldier. As he spoke, he took out a red cloth bag from his arms. When he opened the red cloth bag, everyone present was shocked.
I saw three medals on the top of the red cloth bag, one of which was engraved with the words "Meritor of the People". Under the medal , there is also a certificate of meritorious service and a report of meritorious service from the Northwest Field Army. With so many medals and certificates in front of them, Nie Haibo and several other staff members were shocked. They did not expect that in the small Laifeng County, there was actually a war hero with outstanding achievements hidden, and everyone couldn't help but be excited for a while.
Zhang Jianjian said that these medals and certificates belong to his father Zhang Fuqing. He said that when he was born, his father had already changed his career to work in Laifeng County. Growing up, he never heard his father mention being a soldier, so he didn't know much about his father's history as a soldier. If it weren't for the fact that the country wanted to collect information on retired soldiers and his father was 90 years old and had difficulty traveling, he might not have seen this red cloth bag.
Soon, the news that Zhang Fuqing was a fighting hero spread throughout Laifeng County. But what is strange is that no one, whether it is Zhang Fuqing's old colleagues or his neighbors, has ever heard him talk about this past event. Therefore, everyone was surprised when they heard the news. But they also murmured in their hearts: Why did Zhang Fuqing keep silent about his outstanding achievements?
As reporters came in droves, Zhang Fuqing’s deeds gradually became clear.
In fact, from the beginning, Zhang Fuqing refused reporters’ visits. He said he was just an ordinary person and did not have to be interviewed. Until Zhang Jianquan and others repeatedly gave him ideological work and told him that if he told his deeds and let the media publicize them, this would be the best patriotic education for the present and a contribution to the country in peaceful times.
Zhang Fuqing thinks this is reasonable. He is an old party member and he feels that he should continue to contribute to the party and the people.
Zhang Fuqing’s story begins when he was captured by the Kuomintang.
Zhang Fuqing said that his second brother was originally arrested at that time, but the second brother was the only strong worker in the family. If the second brother was taken away, the whole family would be ruined, so he replaced the second brother regardless of his frailty.
After arriving in the Kuomintang army, Zhang Fuqing discovered that the Kuomintang did not regard strong men as human beings at all. Not only did he have endless hard labor there, he was often hungry, and beatings were commonplace. Some of the strong men who were captured with him could not bear to run away, but they would be beaten even worse when they were captured. Therefore, it was a dark and dark day for Zhang Fuqing.
In 1948, the Northwest Field Army arrived in the county where Zhang Fuqing was a young man and drove away the Kuomintang troops. Zhang Fuqing, who was tortured to the point of death by the Kuomintang troops, regained his freedom. With the travel expenses issued to him by the People's Liberation Army, Zhang Fuqing had mixed feelings. In the end, he did not choose to go home to reunite with his family, but joined the army and began his military career.
Don’t go to the battlefield if you are afraid of death.
Zhang Fuqing knows very well that bullets have no eyes, and on the battlefield, it is a matter of life and death. For the sake of the country's early liberation and for the people to live a stable life, he feels that even if he puts his life on the battlefield, it is worth it. Because of this, he always goes to danger and welcomes difficulties. Especially when the company needed assaulters, he was the first to sign up.
Among all the large and small battles he participated in, Zhang Fuqing was most impressed by the Yongfeng Battle. In the early morning of that day, he and two comrades took advantage of the twilight sky to quickly climb the Yongfeng city wall with explosive bags and submachine guns on their backs.
After Zhang Fuqing was the first to jump off the city wall, he encountered seven or eight enemies head-on. Before he had time to think about it, he immediately picked up his submachine gun and fired a burst of fire. The sound of his gunfire attracted more enemies, but fortunately two comrades also joined the battle. He took the opportunity and ran under the first bunker. After burying the explosive package, he hid in an explosion blind spot and pulled the fuse. In a huge explosion, the bunker collapsed.
Afterwards, Zhang Fuqing touched the second bunker without thinking too much. On the way, he also killed 2 enemies. When the second bunker was blown up, our army also launched a general attack, and soon the enemy was beaten to the point of abandoning the city and fleeing.
After the battle, Zhang Fuqing discovered that his head was bleeding. He touched it with his hand and found that half of his scalp had been overturned by a bullet at some point. If the bullet had been lower, his life would have been lost in Yongfeng City.
After returning in triumph, Zhang Fuqing received a special merit and a first-class merit. When Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai came to inspect the army, he specially met with him. He held his hand and expressed with certainty that he was a good comrade.
After that, Zhang Fuqing followed the troops to fight in central Shaanxi, Longdong, Tianshui and Xining. In many battles, he was at the forefront. First open a gap for the troops to attack the enemy and create conditions for victory. By the end of the war, he had won 1 special merit, 3 first-class merit and 1 second-class merit, and also won the title of "Combat Hero" twice.
is liberated and can go home.
In 1955, Zhang Fuqing had been promoted to a full-time cadre of the 359th brigade. But at this time, New China had just been founded, and it was a time when everything was waiting to be revitalized and construction was needed. Following the party's call, Zhang Fuqing went through the retirement procedures. Originally, according to his situation, he could have returned to his hometown to work. But he believes that to go, you have to go to the most difficult and backward places. So he made many choices and chose Laifeng County, located in Enshi, Hubei Province.
Laifeng was a small county town with a population of less than 5,000 at that time. It was located at the junction of Hunan, Hubei and Chongqing provinces. There are many mountains and few fields here, and roads are difficult to navigate. Therefore, not only is the local economy the most backward, but life is also the most difficult.
Zhang Fuqing spent seven days on the road from Hankou to Laifeng. After arriving in Feng, his first job was as director of the Chengguan Cereals and Oils Institute.
Zhang Fuqing found that because local people had very few food rations, they basically ate sweet potatoes as their staple food. He decided to do a good job in production and processing, and at the same time strictly control supply. Because he was selfless and did not make connections, soon under his leadership, the food work was done very well.
Those who are capable work hard, and Zhang Fuqing was transferred to Sanhu District as deputy district chief.
Sanhu District is the most barren place in Laifeng County and is known as the "Poor Sanhu". Due to lack of land, people there often don’t even have enough potatoes and sweet potatoes to eat. If there is a drought and crop yields decrease, they may even have to dig weeds to cope with the famine.
After Zhang Fuqing took office, the first thing he did was to stay in the village. He lives in the poorest farmer's house in the village, eats, lives and works together every day, and leads the villagers in production.
At first, the villagers thought that Zhang Fuqing was just going through the motions. Because before this, there were cadres stationed in the village, but they all played tricks and left after a short time. Over time, the villagers no longer trust the village cadres and have no enthusiasm for work.
Zhang Fuqing’s northern Shaanxi dialect is incomprehensible to the villagers. But Zhang Fuqing worked hard, and the villagers saw it clearly.
In addition, when Zhang Fuqing saw the poor families who couldn't solve the problem, he would save his food stamps and distribute them to them. This also made the villagers see it and remember it in their hearts. The most rare thing is that Zhang Fuqing has no official authority and is approachable. It didn't take long for the villagers to regard Zhang Fuqing as a "family member". They were not only willing to exchange ideas and problems with him, but also worked together to follow him in production and agriculture. Through hard work, the "poor three Hus" gradually got rid of the situation of having no food to eat.
Zhang Fuqing was also transferred to work in resource-rich areas.
It was 1975, and Zhang Fuqing was transferred to Maodong Commune as deputy director. Maodong is the economic backbone of Laifeng County. It is connected to the waterway and the shipyard business is very prosperous. However, Zhang Fuqing chose Gaodong, the village with the highest altitude, the most remote place and the hardest life.
Gaodong Village is located on a cliff. Because it is too remote, it is a "three-barrier" area (no water, no electricity, no roads). For generations, the villagers there have relied on a pair of poles to carry their daily necessities back over the mountains. And their harvests had to be carried on their shoulders before they could be carried out of the mountains to be sold. Because the mountain is high and the slopes are steep, reading becomes a big problem for the children.
After Zhang Fuqing arrived in Gaodong, he immediately went to the county government to request project approval and funds to build roads. He organized the people to work together, and even used his experience in blowing up bunkers to build roads and blow up mountains.
After a lot of hard work, it took Zhang Fuqing more than a year to finally dig a gravel road on the cliff that connected the town. Since then, not only can tractors drive into high holes, but children can go to the town to study, and they no longer need to rely on two-legged poles to cross mountains and ridges.
After the reform and opening up, Zhang Fuqing was transferred to the County Construction Bank as deputy president.
At that time, there were only 5 people in the County Construction Bank, and none of them had any experience in banking work, so everything had to be crossed by feeling for the stones without making any mistakes.
Zhang Fuqing is responsible for the loan business. Because he is unsure, the task must be completed. It happened that Tianba Coal Mine in the county wanted a loan. In order to ensure that the other party had the ability to repay, Zhang Fuqing went to Tianba Coal Mine to understand the production and sales situation. Especially before the funds were withdrawn at the end of the year, he simply lived in the factory and lived and ate with the workers. He also went to the workshop together, so that he knew the situation on the front line of the factory very well. In the end, the loan was successfully recovered without causing any loss to the country. Relying on this stupid method, Zhang Fuqing just revitalized the loan business of CCB . There have never been any problems with the loan business from Zhang Fuqing.
If you patronize your reputation, you are selfish.
This is what Zhang Jianquan said to Zhang Fuqing back then. He clearly remembers that after graduating from high school, he followed his father's advice and took the initiative to work in the forest farm. Once he heard that a state-owned enterprise was recruiting people. Not only was the salary good, but the work was easy, so he asked his father, who had been doing revolutionary work all his life, to help him find some connections and give him an indicator. As a result, his father not only rejected his request, but also prohibited him from applying for the job.
His father's unkindness reminded Zhang Jianquan of his mother, Sun Yulan.
When Zhang Fuqing was stationed in the village in Sanhu, his mother worked at the Sanhu Agency. Since there are four children in the family, even if both parents are working, life is still very tight. Unexpectedly, after Zhang Fuqing saw the layoff notice issued by the county to reduce the financial burden, he took the initiative to ask Sun Yulan, who was not on the layoff list, to resign her job. The sensible Sun Yulan knew that doing so would make her husband's work easier, so she took the initiative to leave her post. But after she was laid off, she suffered a lot in order to raise her children, and she became sick from overwork.
Looking back on each incident, Zhang Jianquan felt more and more that Zhang Fuqing had sacrificed the happiness of his family in exchange for his own name, so he said those words with hatred.
After Zhang Jianquan returned to the forest farm, he never wanted to go home, let alone see Zhang Fuqing.
Zhang Fuqing was busy leading the people to open mountains and build roads at that time, and he did not bother to comfort his son. It was not until the road was built that he took the pickles made by Sun Yulan to the forest farm to find his son to resolve the rift between father and son.
When reporters asked Zhang Fuqing why he never mentioned his glorious heroic deeds, Zhang Fuqing looked sad for a moment.
Zhang Fuqing said that the war was very cruel, and it was not like what was shown on TV, where the enemy was killed. In every war he experienced, no matter whether he won or not, the sacrifice of his comrades was necessary.Those who survive are lucky. Those comrades who died on the battlefield, they are the ones who worked hard and made great achievements. Compared with them, how can I show off myself!
With media reports, more and more people have learned more about Zhang Fuqing’s glorious history, and Zhang Fuqing also received the “Medal of the Republic of China” in 2019 along with Yuan Longping, Tu Youyou and others. In 2020, Zhang Fuqing was selected as " Touched China 2019 Person of the Year".
Now, the sad news of the death of 98-year-old Zhang Fuqing due to illness has spread, and everyone can't help but feel sad. The integrity and character reflected in this old man's body are exactly the spiritual wealth we need most in this era. Although the hero passed away, his name remains with the times!
