At the beginning of the 20th century, a teenager was toiling in a harsh underground coal mine named Wang Yaonan. Born at the end of 1911 in a small town in Jiangxi, his family passed on the art of gunpowder making. The early death of his mother and his father, who migrated to the Anyuan mining area to improve his livelihood, set the eight-year-old Wang Yaonan on a fate intertwined with gunpowder and coal mines.
The environment in the coal mine is extremely harsh and the workload is heavy, but the teenager Wang Yaonan did not fall victim to fate. His family contracted blasting work in the mine because of his gunpowder skills, and the young Wang Yaonan learned the exquisite skills of making and using gunpowder under the guidance of his father.
However, the trajectory of his life changed dramatically in 1922. During the Anyuan strike, eleven-year-old Wang Yaonan joined the local miners' children's group and participated in the wave of revolution. This time, his life met *** and became an indelible memory for him later.
**Communicate cordially with the miners in the mine, convey the party's progressive ideas to them, and encourage them to bravely fight for their legitimate rights and interests. In the crowd, a ten-year-old child labor boy named Dong Yanzi echoed ***: "We have suffered a lot!."Deeply distressed, he asked for his name and encouraged him to protect himself, have the opportunity to learn more, and contribute to the revolutionary cause in the future.
This ten-year-old boy is Wang Yaonan, the founding major general who was later known as the "originator of the engineers". His upbringing is like a picture immersed in the smell of gunpowder, depicting how a teenager moves from the dark abyss of the coal mine to the light of revolution.
At the end of 1911, Wang Yaonan was born in a small town near Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, a place named after fireworks. His family passed on the gunpowder manufacturing technology, and in order to improve his livelihood, his father and grandfather came to work in the Anyuan mine. The young Wang Yaonan also stepped into the coal mine and began a depressing and arduous working life.
The environment in the mine was suffocating and the work pressure was enormous, but Wang Yaonan honed his perseverance and skills in it. Because of his mastery of gunpowder, his father and he became explosives experts in the mines, responsible for blasting. In the process, his gunpowder skills gradually reached a level on par with his father's.
However, the trajectory of his life took a huge turn after encountering ***. After joining the Red 1st Army, he not only showed excellent combat effectiveness in the process of marching and fighting, but also became the leader of a well-equipped engineering team. In 1933, he led the engineer company to successfully blast the city wall of Shaxian County, and made great achievements for the Red Third Army to annihilate the entire Kuomintang brigade defending the city.
This victory earned Wang Yaonan the Red Star Medal of the Second Class from the Soviets, which was actually a "gold medal for avoiding death", which exempted him from the death penalty. Subsequently, in October 1934, he undertook the task of erecting a pontoon bridge over the Yudu River, and successfully commanded the engineer battalion to build a pontoon bridge, which made great achievements for the Red Army to cross the river smoothly.
However, Wang Yaonan's exploits did not stop there. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, he became the object of contention among various military regions, and often went to many places to provide engineering support for field troops. On the Tongpu railway transportation line in Jinzhong, he commanded the engineer battalion to intercept 28 Japanese special trains in a row, cutting off the Japanese army's railway support. In the Baijin Railway Breaking Battle, he designed the sabotage operation of the Zhengtai Railway and supported the Battle of the Hundred Regiments.
In 1941, Wang Yaonan popularized and taught tunnel warfare and mine warfare tactics in many places in Shanxi, Chahar and Hebei, providing new ideas for the anti-Japanese activities in the plains. In the later stage of the Liberation War, he organized and implemented siege tactics of tunnel blasting in Yuncheng, Linfen, Taiyuan and other places, and achieved good results in actual combat.
This iron-blooded soldier who has been fighting for many years is not blindly immersed in the smoke of war, he has always maintained his attention to technology and innovation. During the period of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, he led the engineering troops to participate in the war, and effectively reduced the position rate of the volunteers by improving the tunnel technology. In 1955, Wang Yaonan received the rank of founding major general and became an outstanding general in the People's Liberation Army.
However, Wang Yaonan was not a general with a lot of achievements, and his strong personality also led him to experience many demotions and punishments from the leadership. He was a man who could not rub sand in his eyes, never cared about personal gains and losses, and devoted all his energy to the construction of the engineering troops.
Wang Yaonan's personality traits are also a bright spot in his career. He is straightforward and does not know how to go around in circles, which has made him have many ups and downs in the leadership. However, he stuck to his beliefs, putting aside his personal glory and disgrace and focusing on the development of the cause of the sapper.
In 1984, Wang Yaonan died of illness in Beijing. In accordance with his living will, his family donated his body to the medical department, continuing his contribution to the country. His life is like an iron-blooded song, eulogizing how an ordinary teenager bloomed in the red light, and how he wrote the legend of his military career with perseverance and wisdom.
The story of Wang Yaonan is not only a biography of a brave soldier, but also a shining pearl in the history of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. With the feelings of a soldier born and died, he performed a heroic song of loyalty, responsibility and sacrifice. In the troubled years, Wang Yaonan was like a banner, always holding high the glory of the sappers, unswervingly, and writing a strong stroke for the cause of the liberation of the country and the people.