As my country's news and public opinion organization and ideological and cultural base, CCTV has brought a batch of high-quality programs that are popular among audiences across the country since its establishment, which has lasted for a long time. In the 1990s, CCTV's "Shenzhou Style" column was popular.
One day in 1994, an octogenarian from Changzhou, Jiangsu was watching the latest episode of the "Shenzhou Style" program at home as usual. This episode tells the legendary life of the first group of female pilots in New China.
When the scene where a female pilot participated in flight training and flew an airplane was released on the screen, the old man was immediately excited. He stared at the screen carefully, afraid of missing any shot. The show was over, but he still couldn't forget it for a long time.
Pilot
That night, the old man lay in bed and recalled the scene in the show. He couldn't sleep for a long time. After thinking about it, he immediately sat up, then took paper and pen from the drawer, and wrote a letter to CCTV seriously, indicating that he had something to ask for help.
Finally, CCTV determined the identity of the old man through a detailed investigation and found that he was actually a colonel of the former Guojun. Later, he took the initiative to join our army in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and made certain contributions.
So, the relevant leaders in the Taiwan Department quickly agreed to the old man's request. Soon, they sent a reporter to the old man's home to interview the old man and spread the old man's glorious deeds.
So, who is this former colonel of the Guojun? How did he join our army? What kind of relationship does he have with the female pilot on the show? And after he finished watching the show, why did he take the initiative to write a letter to CCTV for help? What kind of life did he experience in his later years?
Zhao Fengxiong
This old man is Zhao Fengxiong, the instructor of the first female pilot in China. His legendary life begins with the time when he abandons the darkness and turns to the light.
"I was the first to stand on the podium"
Zhao Fengxiong was born in Wujin County, Jiangsu Province in 1911 (now Wujin District, Changzhou City) Jiaze Town . He has a wealthy family. He has received a good education since childhood and often has the idea of family and country.
During his study, Zhao Fengxiong witnessed the various privileges and behaviors of Western powers in China with his own eyes. He was very angry. In order to save the nation, he resolutely joined the army and went south alone. He was admitted to the 8th issue of the Whampoa Military Academy, which was famous in China at that time, for study.
In 1934, Zhao Wenxiong, who was only 23 years old, graduated from the school with excellent results. He was immediately arranged to serve as the platoon leader of a chariot battalion of the Kuomintang Army. Later, he found that in the future, air supremacy on the battlefield would become more and more important. So, just two years later, he voluntarily gave up his promotion opportunity in the front-line troops. Through self-study, he was admitted to the 7th issue of Central Aviation School , and became a pilot.
Central Aviation School
Zhao Venxiong likes the feeling of flying an airplane soaring in the blue sky. In his daily training, he practices diligently and pays great attention to learning aircraft theoretical knowledge. He quickly mastered a set of aircraft driving techniques. He is not only good at flying, but also learned the principles of aircraft flying.
Another two years later, Zhao Wenxiong has become a qualified pilot. He was assigned to a certain unit of the Kuomintang's Air Force, participated in the Anti-Japanese War, and had a fierce air battle with Japanese aircraft in the air, and performed outstandingly.
At that time, due to backward technology and experience in China, there was an extremely lack of Air Force pilots. Until the eve of the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the total number of active pilots of the Kuomintang was only a few hundred. In order to meet the needs of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek specifically instructed the Air Force to vigorously train pilots as reserve forces.
Zhao Venxiong, who has excellent technology and theory, immediately served as a flight instructor at the Central Aviation School. He deeply experienced the exquisite driving skills of Japanese pilots on the battlefield. In order to reduce casualties in the army, he conducted several rigorous training and assessments of the newly recruited pilots.
Air Force pilots at that time
During the entire War of Resistance Against Japan, Zhao Pengxiong trained more than 300 pilots for the National Army. These pilots dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army in the air and made certain contributions to the anti-Japanese war.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhao Fengkumamoto thought that peace would be achieved in the country. He was ready to resign and return home and continue to study. But not long after, Chiang Kai-shek launched the civil war , which made him confused. At this time, he did not have a clear understanding of the dispute between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
As the War of Liberation proceeded, Zhao Xiuxiong's official position was also rising higher and higher, but he was increasingly confused about the future of the country. When the Japanese invaders were beaten away, he didn't know who to fight for. Gradually, when he was executed from his superiors, he developed negative emotions.
In June 1949, after the victory of the Crossing the River Battle, the Kuomintang's rule collapsed instantly, and the remnants of the Kuomintang army in the mainland were also constantly retreating westward and southward. At this time, Colonel Zhao Wenxiong, who was the director of the joint office of the Northwest Supply Zone of the Kuomintang Joint Logistics Headquarters, and the head of the special air transport warehouse, faced the rapid defeat of the Kuomintang, and thought about the future of himself and the country.
In order to find the answer, Zhao Fengxiong ran to his brother-in-law Wu Jingfang 's home on the eve of Chongqing's liberation to listen to his opinions, because Zhao Fengxiong had long known that Wu Jingfang was an underground party member of our party.
Wu Jingfang saw that this was a good opportunity to win Zhao Wenxiong, so he told him about the deeds of our army and told him frankly: "The Kuomintang reactionaries are in a predicament. A national army cadres like you who have never persecuted the Communist Party. As long as you abandon the darkness and turn to the light, the Communist Party will believe you, and the country is also in a hurry to lack technical talents like you! I hope you can make a decision early! "
Not long after, Zhao Wenxiong fled to Chengdu with his superiors, but Chongqing has been liberated, and Chengdu was soon occupied. He reviewed his years of military experience and gradually realized that he joined the army to defend his country. Now the national army commanded by Chiang Kai-shek is corrupt to the end and is often despised by the people. After hearing the advice of his brother-in-law, he decided to join our party.
Chengdu Jiefang
As the head of the special air transport warehouse, Zhao Wenxiong was in charge of a large amount of air force supplies, which were stored in Chengdu at this time. In order to prevent these things from being stolen by the collapsed national soldiers, he reminded his subordinates: "We can't get rid of now. The only way is to seal these supplies and hand them over to the People's Liberation Army in the future for the construction of the national air force in the future. This is everyone's only way out. "
In late December 1949, Zhao Wenxiong took the initiative to lead his troops to participate in the Chengdu Uprising and handed all the personnel and materials of the air transport warehouse to the representatives responsible for receiving them. This batch of supplies is in short supply in China, with more than 3,000 parachutes alone.
After the uprising, Zhao Wenxiong participated in the People's Liberation Army. In order to strengthen ideological education, the organization arranged him to study at the Aviation Office of the Southwest Military Region. At the commendation meeting held by the Aviation Office later, the leaders of the Southwest Military Region personally commended his uprising behavior and the righteous act of preserving materials, and awarded certificates and material rewards.
Saving soldiers of the Aviation Department of the Southwest Military Region
Later, Zhao Fengxiong recalled his experience when he received the award and said happily: "On the day of , I was the first to stand on the podium! "
Training the first batch of female pilots in New China
After the founding of New China , our army's weapons and equipment were still relatively backward. Most of the heavy weapons were obtained from the Kuomintang army, especially the extremely lack of aircraft, so that during the military parade, some of the aircraft inspected over in Tiananmen Square flew twice.
aircraft can still grit their teeth and buy from the Soviet Union, but the shortage of pilots is irreparable for the time being. In order to develop the air force and cultivate a group of Chinese pilots, Chairman Mao decided to vigorously develop the air force. Long before the founding of the country, he appointed Liu Yalou as the commander of the air force.
Liu Yalou
With the efforts of the Central Military Commission and Liu Yalou, on January 5, 1950, the first Air Force School of New China, the Seventh Air Force Aviation School, was officially established in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang. Liu Yalou and other Air Force leaders began to select soldiers who were familiar with aircraft piloting and theoretical knowledge from across the country to gather here and serve as teachers, and Zhao Fengxiong was one of them.
The Seventh Air Force Aviation School was built on the old Japanese airport in the past. All facilities were very simple. In addition, due to its location in the northeast, the weather was extremely cold, and the conditions were very difficult for Zhao Fengxiong, a native southerner.
But Zhao Fengxiong did not complain, because since he joined the People's Liberation Army, he was immediately moved by our army's positive spirit. At this time, he was full of enthusiasm for building a country and air force.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhao Venxiong trained more than 300 pilots for the New China. Some of them participated in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, some participated in the subsequent military parade, and some fought with the Kuomintang military aircraft that infiltrated the mainland. Among these pilots, what he could not forget the most was the first female pilots of New China.
The founding of New China marks the complete rise of the oppressed Chinese people and the liberation of liberation. Not only men are liberated, but women also have the right to freedom and independence. Chairman Mao often proposes equality between men and women.
So, when selecting pilots, in addition to most of them, there are also some young women who are also absorbed into the team. In the spring of 1950, the Air Force selected 55 female students from East China Military and Political University and the Aviation Preparatory Corps to study here, including 14 female pilots, which is unique in China's history.
The superior leaders attached great importance to this group of female pilots because it not only has military value, but also has deep political significance. For this reason, the school has sent three best-skilled teachers, including Zhao Venxiong, to be responsible for training.
When assigning the task, the leader sincerely said to Zhao Venxiong and other instructors: " Now there are female drivers and female tankers in our country, but there are no female pilots yet. This is a very glorious task. You must complete the task and must not have any flight accidents. We must ensure that none of these 14 female pilots will be eliminated. "
female pilot
Zhao Venxiong is deeply touched by this, because when teaching students at the Kuomintang Air Force School, it is impossible for female pilots to appear. This is not only affected by the feudal idea of male superiority and female inferiority, but from a physiological perspective alone, the physical fitness of men is also relatively more suitable.
Zhao Wenxiong further realized the greatness of our party, which was undoubtedly a great challenge for him, but he was full of confidence in this because he firmly believed that the New China under the leadership of the Communist Party would definitely successfully train female pilots.
For this reason, Zhao Venxiong was mentally prepared. At that time, people generally believed that women were less courageous than men. For this reason, he decided to provide psychological counseling for female pilots to relieve their mental stress.
These selected female students are eighteen or nineteen years old, and they are all talents with a certain level of knowledge and culture. Their learning ability is naturally stronger than that of ordinary male pilots. Under Zhao Wenxiong's careful teaching, everyone has made rapid progress.
Female pilot
Of course, there are always some who have low learning efficiency. In the subsequent flight training, one of the female students could not keep up with the progress and was very anxious. At this time, Zhao Peixiong found her in time and said gently: "Don't be too anxious. If the instructor takes you, there will definitely be no problem. I will not give up any student. You will conduct simulation training on the ground more in the future, and practice will make perfect."
After that, as long as this female student makes a little progress, Zhao Peixiong will praise her in front of all the female students, which greatly improves her confidence. Not long after, she will be able to keep up with everyone's rhythm.
14 female pilots have mastered flight skills after more than a year of training, but they have previously been trained with the instructors. If they want to graduate successfully, they must go through the final solo test to get rid of their dependence on the instructors.
The first to conduct a solo assessment will be particularly important. After a long-term investigation, Zhao Fengxiong and two other teachers finally selected two more suitable candidates, namely Ruan Hezhen and Qin Guifen.
Ruan Hezhen
The former studied very hard and had a relatively steady personality. More importantly, she was able to unite other female pilots on weekdays, and the latter's flight results have always been among the best, and she was very skilled in all skills. At that time, the other two instructors supported the latter for their first flight.
However, Zhao Fengxiong thought Ruan Hezhen was more suitable. He analyzed carefully: " from a technical perspective, Qin Guifen is undoubtedly better, but she is easily complacent and coquettish. If there is an accident, it is very likely to make irreversible actions. The first flight is very important in this assessment. She will provide confidence to the students behind, and there is no need to lose it. Considering comprehensively, Ruan Hezhen is more suitable. "
One day in May 1951, all the female pilots focused on Ruan Hezhen, who was only 19 years old. This day was the day when the assessment officially began. The aircraft she used to train was a PT-19 training aircraft made in the United States. The aircraft was very aging, and there were neither radio communication equipment nor navigation equipment on the aircraft, and the flight trajectory could only be controlled by the pilots themselves.
Before Ruan Hezhen boarded the plane, Zhao Pengxiong walked up to him and encouraged loudly: " Your technical instructor can trust you completely. Fly as the instructor usually takes you, don't be nervous. "
"Be confident!" Ruan Hezhen replied three words briefly and vigorously, and then entered the cabin quickly. With the roar of the engine, the plane began to slowly drive off the runway. Finally, with his solid skills and extraordinary courage, Ruan Hezhen successfully completed the assessment and became the first official female pilot in Chinese history. After
, the other thirteen female pilots also passed one by one, with the pass rate as high as 100%. Six months later, these female pilots were arranged to the army, marking the birth of the first batch of female pilots in our country. When they left the school, they all took the initiative to say goodbye to instructor Zhao Fengxiong, because in the past two years, everyone had already cultivated a deep friendship.
"He is the instructor who took me out"
After the first batch of female pilots left the aviation school, Zhao Peixiong continued his teaching career. He trained batches of pilots after batch, and also won the first-class merit and the third-class . During the 670 hours he participated in the flight as an instructor, there was never a failure or accident. The Air Force Command awarded him the honorary title of "A typical of all safe flights".
In 1956, Zhao Wenxiong, who was in his prime, was transferred to work in the civil aviation department that had just started. Although he felt a little regretful about not being able to stay in the army, his belief that "I will go wherever the motherland needs it" still prompted him to go without hesitation.
However, in 1961, affected by the natural disaster , the national economy encountered serious difficulties, and the civil aviation system had to suspend work. Zhao Venxiong was immediately assigned to the Southwest Construction Machinery Factory of the Ministry of Construction and became a clerk.
Zhao Wenxiong
Later, Zhao Wenxiong worked as a warehouse keeper in the factory, responsible for supervising the materials produced in the factory. He worked for 17 years and has been unknown.
After Zhao Fengxiong retired, he returned to his hometown to settle down. In his later years, he lived an ordinary life. Because of the long time, almost no one around him knew what he had experienced back then, until the episode of "Shenzhou Style" was broadcast on September 14, 1994.
At this time, the old man Zhao Venxiong, who was 83 years old, was very excited when he watched the appearance of the female students he had taught on TV. He was very eager to meet them. Due to various reasons such as work, he had not met them for more than 40 years since the first batch of female pilots left the aviation school.
That night, Zhao Xiuxiong asked in a letter to CCTV: " The first batch of female pilots in New China are trained by me. After many years, I have lost contact with them. I hope you can help me contact them and tell me their mailing address..."
Female pilot
CCTV's relevant leaders attached great importance to this after reading the letter. He immediately asked someone to investigate the identity of the old man. Only then did he discover that he had been a colonel of the National Army, and later he deeply understood that Dayi joined the People's Liberation Army, and also discovered his merits back then. In order not to disappoint the old hero, CCTV immediately contacted Zhou Yingzhi, one of the 14 female pilots.
Because in the letter, Mr. Zhao Peixiong specifically mentioned this female student because she was the one who couldn't keep up with the progress at the beginning, and the friendship between the two was very deep.
When Zhou Yingzhi heard that the former teacher was looking for her whereabouts, she was also very excited. She urgently wanted to see Mr. Zhao Wenxiong as soon as possible. In order to express her longing, she also wrote a long greeting letter. At the beginning of the letter, she wrote affectionately: " We can't forget Mr. Zhao, you are our enlightenment teacher. "
In March 1995, with the assistance of CCTV, Mr. Zhao Wenxiong went to Beijing to meet with the two students Zhou Yingzhi and Wu Xiumei. Zhou Yingzhi excitedly explained the situation of the other 13 female students to him. When talking about the female student Chen Zhiying's death and Zhou Zhenming died of illness, the old man's eyes were full of tears, and then they had a cordial conversation between the teachers and students.
Later, reporters from CCTV and some other TV stations hurriedly conducted exclusive interviews with Mr. Zhao Fengxiong. With the reporter's reports, more and more ordinary people discovered the deeds of the man, and some local enterprises and schools also specially invited him to give speeches.
When an exclusive interview with Zhao Fengxiong, CCTV reporter asked: "How many pilots have you trained in total? Why did you do this at the beginning?"
Zhao Fengxiong
Zhao Fengxiong replied calmly: " During the Kuomintang period, I trained more than 300 pilots in four periods, which was for the needs of the Anti-Japanese War; People's Air Force Aviation School, I have also trained more than 300 pilots in order to defeat the US aggression and aid Korea to defeat the US invaders and defend the country. ”
Nowadays, our country's air force has made a leap forward, and the air force soldiers have full confidence and strength to defend the airspace of the motherland. In the history of the development of Chinese Air Force , the name of Zhao Wenxiong has been engraved forever.
Of course, the name of Zhao Wenxiong is also remembered in the hearts of the students he taught. Ruan Hezhen, the first female pilot in New China to fly into the blue sky alone, said proudly in an interview in his later years: "The instructor who took me out from is named Zhao Wenxiong! "
Ruan Hezhen
On September 19, 2016, Zhao Wenxiong died of illness in his hometown at the age of 105.
I would like to express my highest respect to the centenarian Zhao Fengxiong with this article!
