During the revolutionary war years, many ancestors fought continuously throughout their lives and made countless meritorious deeds. But they are not arrogant, do not rely on their elders, are not condescending, and are not arrogant.

Heroes of the Red Army Division: Ding Xingfa, the "King of Meritorious Service"

Zhang Ping Organized

In the revolutionary war years, there were many ancestors who fought non-stop throughout their lives and made countless meritorious deeds. But they are not arrogant, do not rely on their elders, are not condescending, and are not arrogant. Always maintain the true nature of working people. Among the seniors of the 11th Division, there is such a legendary figure -

"King of Merit" Ding Xingfa

Ding Xingfa (1919--?) was born in 1919 in Xiaoning Village, Tuqiao Town, Xunyi County, Shaanxi Province. He enlisted in the army in 1938 and joined the army in 1947. Joined the Communist Party of China in 2001. He once served as deputy company commander of the 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 30th Regiment of the 10th Division of the 4th Army of the 1st and 2nd Corps (now the 31st Regiment of the 11th Division). He has experienced hundreds of battles in his life and has been on the battlefield for a long time. He has been awarded special merit 2 times, major merit 7 times and minor merit 4 times. He has the reputation of "the king of meritorious service". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he won the titles of "Combat Hero" nationwide and "Combat Hero" of the Northwest Military Region.

Let us first take a look at the several meritorious service stories of this "meritorious king" in his life -

In August 1944, a battalion of the 52nd Division of the Kuomintang occupied Fanjiayuan, our Shaanxi-Gansu base area, cutting off the connection between Chishui County and Xinzheng County. It posed a great threat to the Guanzhong Division. The division leaders decided to eliminate this enemy and pull out the top wedged into the base area. Ding Xingfa, who was the platoon leader at the time, volunteered to serve as the commando captain. After selecting the personnel, he asked the commandos to each carry a shuttle and set off immediately.

On the night of the operation, it started to rain lightly, which caused difficulties for the commando operations. But it has also become a natural protection. After approaching the enemy camp, while the sentry was unaware, Ding Xingfa jumped and threw the sentry down. He tightly held the sentry's neck with his hands and pulled him to a remote place. After interrogation, it was learned that there was a company here and the enemies were sleeping in several cave dwellings. So after Ding Xingfa divided the work, he took the lead in leading a group of team members to rush into a cave dwelling with a bang. Without firing a shot, he stabbed seven enemies to death with a shuttle. At this time, the enemy's deputy battalion commander was awakened. Just as he was about to touch his gun, Ding Xingfa stabbed the enemy's deputy battalion commander in the chest with a sharp arrow. At the same time, several other groups of team members also rushed into other cave dwellings, and all the enemies in the cave dwellings were treated accordingly... In this sneak attack, Ding Xingfa led a platoon of soldiers and wiped out an enemy company cleanly without firing a shot. After the war, Ding Xingfa was awarded "Special Merit".

In 1948, the Battle of Cheng (Cheng) and He (Yang) started. The enemy built many bunkers on the city walls, which were condescending. Our army could not attack for a long time, and the commander of the first battalion, Judequan, died heroically. The battalion leader ordered Ding Xingfa to organize a commando team. He led more than 30 soldiers, under the cover of mountain artillery and mortars , set up the ladder, and then shouted "Avenge Commander Jia! Charge with me!" Then he was the first to climb the city wall. , eliminated the enemies in the bunker and occupied the bunker. Behind us, our soldiers rushed up the city wall one after another. After the battle, he was awarded "great merit" again.

In July 1949, the Battle of Fumei started. Ding Xingfa's company was responsible for guarding the small railway bridge in Luoju Town. This small bridge has a special location. If you capture it, you will block the enemy's escape route. So the enemy is also fighting for it. The battle was very fierce. After changing hands several times, the battalion instructor Zhou Fengxiang, the company commander and the instructor all died one after another, and most of the entire company was also damaged. Deputy company commander Ding Xingfa led the remaining personnel to repel the enemy's counterattacks five times. Finally, due to the outnumbered enemy, the position was occupied by the enemy. Ding Xingfa asked for support while organizing the rest of the company to attack again. Under the leadership of Ding Xingfa, the soldiers, lightly and seriously wounded, swarmed forward and fought back bravely with bayonets and hand grenades. With the strong support of the brotherhood, the enemy left more than a hundred corpses and fled, and the position was recaptured by me again. After the battle, the 4th Company was awarded the title of "Heroic Company" by the 4th Army, and Ding Xingfa recorded a great achievement.

At dawn on August 25, 1949, the Lanzhou Campaign general offensive began. The main attack direction of the 4th Army is Shenjialing.The 31st Regiment (now the 32nd Regiment) was the main attacking regiment. Under the command of its commander Wang Xueli, it captured the enemy's main position after breaking through the enemy's forward positions. Taking advantage of our unsteady footing, the enemy deployed a large number of additional troops to counterattack us, causing the 31st Regiment to suffer heavy casualties. In an extremely critical situation, the 30th Regiment (now the 31st Regiment) was ordered to provide reinforcements. The 2nd Battalion arrived first as the first echelon, and Ding Xingfa's 4th Company arrived at 12 o'clock after running for more than ten hours. Li Xigui, the political commissar of the regiment, said to him: "Ding Xingfa, the opportunity to make a meritorious service has come." Ding Xingfa ran with his pistol and said: "Please rest assured, chief, I promise to capture Shenjialing!" After that, he led his team into the fighting battlefield and fought fiercely. By 5 p.m., Ding Xing had run out of bullets and thrown grenades. He picked up a rifle and several grenades from the enemy's corpse and continued fighting. Suddenly, he discovered that the machine gun in the enemy bunker on the left was firing at our army crazily. Riding on the smoke of the shells, he rolled and crawled to the side of the bunker and stuffed two grenades into the perforation . There was a loud noise and smoke filled the air. Ding Xingfa shouted: "Comrades, follow me!" He jumped into the enemy's trench first and stabbed three enemies to death one after another. When the other enemies saw it, they ran away in fear. How could Ding Xingfa let them escape, "Bah! Bah! Bah! !" After a few shots, several fleeing enemies fell to the ground. After the Battle of Lanzhou, Ding Xingfa once again achieved "special merit".

In 1950, Ding Xingfa was awarded the "Combat Hero" by the Northwest Military Region.

On October 5, 1950, "People's Army" published Ding Xingfa's deeds and some merit medals

In the same year, Ding Xingfa participated in the National Combat Hero Commendation Conference and was awarded the title of "National Combat Hero".

Heroes are forged with blood and life. According to Ding Xingfa's eldest son, Ding Heping, when he was giving his father a bath, he carefully counted his father's body and found that there were eleven wounds on his body - some were stabbed by bayonets, some were hit by bullets, and some were caused by artillery shells.

In December 1953, the 30th Regiment was changed to the 31st Regiment and was stationed in Lintao, Gansu Province. In the mid-1950s, Ding Xingfa changed his job and became the director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Lintao County, Gansu Province. This is also a kind of care for this hero by the party organization.

In 1963, shortly after the end of the Sino-Indian border self-defense counterattack, the 11th Division performance team performed from the Qinghai-Tibet line all the way to Gansu. That was their old station before entering Tibet. There were also some division troops and their families who had not entered Tibet, living in Linxia, ​​Lintao, Wuwei, Gannan, Lanzhou and other places. In accordance with the request of the division leader, the performance teams all went to perform condolence performances one by one.

Before arriving in Lintao for the performance, they had heard that Ding Xingfa, the "Meritorious King", was the civil affairs director in Lintao. But Ding Xingfa had already left the army when most of them joined the army, so they only heard his name but never saw him. Everyone wanted to take advantage of this performance to see this old hero. The Civil Affairs Bureau itself is a functional department responsible for handling military affairs and military-civilian relations. Ding Xingfa is a veteran of the 11th Division, so he will definitely be able to see it. When

arrived at the county theater, the audience had already entered with tickets. I saw an old man collecting tickets at the door. There were too many people and it was crowded. After a while he was so tired that he was sweating profusely. A group of children had no tickets and wanted to watch the show, so they had to beg: "Uncle Ding, let us in."

"No, we can't get in without tickets." The old man said firmly.

Seeing that the old man was very principled, the children took advantage of the old man not paying attention and got under his elbows. One was drilled in for a while, then another was drilled in, and finally they were all drilled in. The old man just smiled: "These cowards..."

After the performance, the staff came backstage to treat the performance team to dinner, and then everyone remembered that the hero they wanted to meet had not yet met. So they asked: "How come you haven't seen Director Ding Xingfa?" The staff pointed to the theater with their hands - "That's not it." Everyone looked - and saw that the old man collecting tickets at the door was cleaning the theater.

"Ah? He is Ding Xingfa! He is truly a hero."

A real hero never feels that he is a hero - this sentence has been verified by countless heroes, and it has been verified again by Ding Xingfa.

A certificate of meritorious service by Ding Xingfa

About the author:

Zhang Ping: Pen name Gong Chang. from Qian County, Shaanxi Province, joined the army in 1966. He once served as the propaganda officer of the 11th Division Artillery Regiment. Began writing in 1972. Over the past decades, more than 300,000 words of literary and journalistic works have been published. Author of " xianbanqiang notes".

(Note: All illustrations in this article are provided by the author)