One day in 1953, in a small county town below the city of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, a military jeep stopped outside a guest house in the county.
I saw several PLA soldiers get out of the car and go straight into the guest house.
Outside, passers-by stopped from time to time, and they had never seen such a magnificent jeep in such a small place.
After several PLA soldiers walked into the guest house, the first one saw the boss walking out of the counter and asked the boss: "Comrade, do you know a person named Lei Baosen?"”
Looking at a group of tall PLA soldiers, the owner of the guest house was a little nervous for a while, he nodded hesitantly and said:
"Yes, he's here with me, usually doing the cleaning work. How?He's a spy?You're here to get him?”
Seeing the boss say this, the PLA soldier led by him was a little stunned, and then, he shook his head and smiled, and said:
"Not a spy, Comrade Lei Baosen is a revolutionary hero, please take us to meet him!”
Who is Lei Baosen?As a revolutionary hero, why did he work as a cleaner in a guest house in a small county town?
What happened in between?After being recognized, what happened to Lei Baosen?
Listening to the words of the comrades of the People's Liberation Army, the owner of the guest house was a little dizzy, a revolutionary hero
That old Lei who doesn't usually talk much is a revolutionary hero?The boss subconsciously thought that someone was joking with him, but looking at the PLA soldiers in front of him, the boss didn't think it was a joke.
The group came to the backyard of the guest house and saw that the old Lei in the mouth of the owner of the guest house was piling firewood at this time. After hearing the movement, Lei Baosen raised his head, and when he saw the familiar color, Lei Baosen was stunned.
On the other side, after confirming Lei Baosen's appearance, the PLA soldiers were convinced that the person in front of them was undoubtedly the person they were looking for.
I saw that the soldier in the lead quickly walked in front of Lei Baosen, and Lao Yuan stretched out his hand and said, "Comrade Lei Baosen, we can be regarded as finding you." ”
Seeing this scene, the owner of the guest house on the side finally believed that this guy, who was physically disabled and looked a little inconspicuous on weekdays, was really a revolutionary hero.
The boss suppressed the shock in his heart, stepped forward and said to Lei Baosen: "Old Lei, are you really a revolutionary hero?."Why don't you say it!”
Lei Baosen on the side was about to speak, but the leading PLA soldier said: "Fortunately, Comrade Lei Baosen works for you, otherwise we would have been looking for you for a long time." ”
The soldier turned to Lei Baosen and said, "Comrade Lei Baosen, the chief told me that I must find you, he never believed that you had sacrificed, and now that you have finally been found, you should go to Beijing with us." ”
Watching Lei Baosen get into a jeep and drive away from the guest house, the boss still couldn't believe that he had hired a revolutionary hero as a cleaner, recalling that when he first met Lei Baosen, it was in the second half of 1951.
At that time, a leader of the organization department introduced Lei Baosen to this guest house, and the boss saw that although he was disabled, he was a down-to-earth and steady person, and he was a good hand at work, so he left Lei Baosen behind.
But why did such a heroic figure choose to come to this small county?Why did you choose to be a cleaner?
After some time, a message published in the local newspaper completely solved the confusion in the heart of the owner of the guest house.
After the deeds of Lei Baosen**, the locals soon learned that for the past two years, they had been hiding a battle hero among them.
He is unknown, but once on the battlefield, he was the existence of the enemy to gnash his teeth, and the US army even threw many rounds of incendiary bombs in order to capture the high ground guarded by Lei Baosen's company, and finally paid a huge price before capturing the position.
With the ** of Lei Baosen's deeds, the local newspaper also quickly dug up Lei Baosen's past experience and published it. With the help of newspapers, the locals were able to learn about Lei Baosen's past. And after reading his story, people only have a deep reverence for him in their hearts.
Lei Baosen, formerly known as Li Baosen, was born in 1925 in a rural family in Shangcai County, Henan Province.
When he was 5 years old, Li Baosen's aunt was hit by a local landlord, and after his father bumped into him, he was angry and beat the evil young man to death. His aunt also chose to commit suicide by throwing herself into a well because she had no face to see anyone.
After the killing, the local landlord threatened to retaliate, and Li Baosen's father had to flee the village with his family overnight. But in Henan in 1925, where was the place to stay?During the escape, Li Baosen's father unfortunately contracted an illness and died.
After losing the breadwinner of the family, Li Baosen's mother can no longer afford to raise three children. In desperation, Li's mother could only pass Li Baosen to a family surnamed Lei as a son, and Li Baosen changed his name to Lei Baosen.
And Lei Baosen's two sisters were also sent by Li's mother to someone else's house to be a child daughter-in-law. Although Mother Li couldn't bear to do this, in that era of war and chaos, this was the only way to keep the children alive.
When he was adopted, Lei Baosen had just turned 6 years old, and as time passed, his memory of this period became more and more blurred.
Because Lei Baosen's new family was not wealthy, when he was 13 years old, he came out early to work as a long-term worker for the landlord, and later was introduced to Zhengzhou Jiaotong Hotel as a handyman.
At the age of 16, Lei Baosen encountered a turning point in his life.
One day, the bookkeeper of the hotel found him and said that he would take him to meet someone. This bookkeeper usually takes good care of Lei Baosen, and Lei Baosen also trusts him very much. After meeting the mysterious person, Lei Baosen learned that the bookkeeper who usually took care of him turned out to be an underground party member.
Seeing that Lei Baosen was clever and clever, and his life was rather miserable, the bookkeeper asked him if he would like to work for the Communist Party and become a traffic officer.
Faced with this invitation, Lei Baosen, who was still a teenager, agreed. At this time, he still didn't understand what communism was, but he knew that the bookkeeper was a good person and would definitely not harm him.
In this way, Lei Baosen began his days as a "trainee traffic officer". After a period of observation, Lei Baosen successfully passed the organizational inspection, and according to the introduction of the bookkeeper, Lei Baosen officially became a glorious Communist Party member.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Lei Baosen was not noticed because of his young age, and he often did some work to transmit information. These underground works also gradually made Lei Baosen understand the purpose of the Communist Party. Gradually, he became a strong communist fighter. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Lei Baosen came to the army, joined the reconnaissance company, and became a scout.
During the War of Liberation, Lei Baosen participated in the Jinan Campaign and the Huanghuai Campaign, and because of his outstanding performance in the battle, Lei Baosen was also received by Li Yaowen, the political commissar of the army.
Soon after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lei Baosen's unit was given a new task: to resist US aggression and aid Korea, and to defend the homeland and the country.
Coming to North Korea, this is a completely unfamiliar land for Lei Baosen.
He was born and raised in Henan, and has never been to the Northeast until now, let alone a high-latitude region like North Korea.
However, when Lei Baosen saw the North Korean villages that had been bombed by the US army, and saw the old and weak women and children who had been killed and maimed by the bombing, he quickly overcame the discomfort caused by leaving his homeland and strengthened his confidence in fighting.
In March 1951, Lei Baosen and nine soldiers in the company received an order from their superiors: to hold the 299 heights of Qifeng Mountain and prevent the enemy from passing at all costs.
Because the firepower of the US army far exceeded the imagination of the volunteers, the way of fighting against the Kuomintang army in the past was no longer applicable, so the volunteers also made targeted innovations in the way of fighting.
In order to avoid heavy casualties caused to the troops by the US army's early firepower, the volunteers will generally adopt a light front and heavy equipment when intercepting the enemy.
And the No. 299 heights that Lei Baosen wants to defend are a key pass in the forward position. They were few in number, but their task was heavy, which was to try to slow down the enemy's offensive and buy time for the main force to outflank them.
In the early morning of the second day when Lei Baosen arrived at the position, a group of American troops slowly advanced towards Qifeng Mountain under the cover of tanks and armored vehicles.
From the telescope, Lei Baosen judged that the enemy was about 200 people, and the number of such a company was fully equipped with 11 tanks and various armored vehicles, and the comparison of firepower was simply desperate.
At this time, a little soldier leaned over to Lei Baosen and asked, "How is it, squad leader, can we fight?"”
Lei Baosen put down the binoculars and said to the little soldier, you pay attention to my position, and wait until I get close before you do it.
After speaking, Lei Baosen took advantage of the cover of the dense forest to go around the side of the road from the 299 heights, and the other volunteer soldiers on the 299 heights saw that the squad leader had approached the US tanks, and they immediately raised their ** arrows and guns towards the front tanks of the US army**.
Immediately after the high ground**, Rebaosen approached and threw several cluster grenades under the last tank of the American convoy. Because of the advantage of the slope, Lei Baosen was able to easily throw the grenade into the US military convoy.
After the tracks of the US tanks were blown off one after the other, those tanks stuck in the middle could no longer move, and could only passively become live targets.
On the battlefield, the most useful ** is always the subjective initiative of people, and the ** equipment of the US army is indeed better, but after fighting with them a few times, the volunteers have gradually explored ways to effectively attack them.
Long before the defense of Qifeng Mountain, Lei Baosen's unit had already promoted this style of play, and now it was time to test it.
As the U.S. troops were disorganized, Rebaosen and his fighters continued to change positions, throwing grenades and rockets at the enemy, and by noon, they had destroyed 11 tanks and one armored vehicle, killing and wounding several U.S. troops.
Although such great results have been achieved, Lei Baosen has never relaxed his vigilance, because he knows that this is only the vanguard of the US military, and the real tough battle is still to come.
Sure enough, by the next day, the US military launched another offensive, advancing along with the ground forces, as well as bombers in the air.
Lei Baosen stuck to his position and repelled one attack after another by the American army, but as his comrades fell one after another, and the enemy was still rushing up, his heart became more and more anxious.
With the help of the dense forest of Qifeng Mountain, Lei Baosen effectively evaded the bombing of the US army, but after discovering that the bombing effect was not good, the US army immediately dropped napalm and incendiary bombs.
Under the raging fire, the blocking position of the volunteer soldiers became smaller and smaller, and finally they could only lean on the edge of the cliff. Looking at the fallen comrades beside him, in order not to be burned to death, Lei Baosen could only roar and jumped off the cliff.
After the battle, since the 26th Army did not find Lei Baosen's body, he could only be treated as missing. However, the 26th Division did not forget the achievements of the squad led by Lei Baosen in the 299 Heights, and they were awarded the collective first-class merit, but no one received this merit again.
About a week later, Raibauson woke up from a coma. It turned out that after he jumped off the cliff, he happened to be hung by an ancient tree in the cliff and did not fall off the cliff.
After the battle, two Korean medicine farmers passed by and found Lei Baosen in a coma, so they took him back until Lei Baosen woke up.
When he woke up, he found himself suffering multiple injuries and permanent disability in his arms and thighs because he had not received timely medical attention.
He could no longer go to the battlefield, and in his inquiries with the villagers, he also learned that after the Battle of Qifeng Mountain, all the volunteer troops in this vicinity had moved forward.
After recovering from his wounds, with the help of the local Korean People's Army, Lei Baosen took a train to Shenyang. After more than a month of tossing and turning, Lei Baosen returned to his hometown of Henan.
At this time, he was faced with two choices, one was to return to the army and say the number of his original unit, and the other was to return to the life of ordinary people.
Thinking that his comrades-in-arms around him had all died, leaving him alone to live, Lei Baosen was very painful, and he thought that he was now a disabled person, so he did not return to the army.
In Zhengzhou, he found a friend he met when he was an underground party member, and through his introduction, he found a job in a guest house, and thus began a new life.
Two years later, when Li Yaowen, the former political commissar of the 26th Army, was processing the list of victims of the 26th Army, he did not believe that Lei Baosen died like this because he did not find the body.
As a result, Li Yaowen issued a missing person notice in China and North Korea, wanting to find this combat hero of the Qifeng Mountain Resistance Battle.
Coincidentally, in the guest house where Lei Baosen worked, a resident guest accidentally saw Lei Baosen and thought that he looked familiar, a bit like the one who was missing in the PLA military newspaper, so he called the local armed forces department.
When the local armed forces department learned about it, they immediately sent people to this guest house, and after seeing Lei Baosen himself, they were convinced that the combat heroes of that year had not been sacrificed.
After Lei Baosen's identity was confirmed, the matter reached ***, and he immediately ordered to meet Lei Baosen.
**After hearing about this, he also personally met with Lei Baosen in Zhongnanhai and said to him:
"We've finally found you, but luckily you're still alive and we didn't leave the hero in the dust. ”
As for Lei Baosen, he couldn't stop crying with excitement after hearing the news that the squad that was sacrificed that year was retained and later reorganized.
When he was received by ***, he trembled with excitement and gave *** a military salute.
Maybe it is difficult for people nowadays to understand why there are so many incognito combat heroes, such as Zhang Fuqing and Lei Baosen. Perhaps, in their hearts, they are not heroes, just veterans who survived the war.
They have been contributing to the country all their lives, and after leaving the army, they will naturally not continue to occupy resources. This lofty will of the older generation of PLA fighters, no matter how long it has been, is always worth learning from.