One day in mid-July 1937, two beggars in ragged clothes walked into Zhenyuan County, and as soon as they entered, they attracted the attention of many people, because they were not so much two beggars who were begging for a long time, but two bones that could fall apart at any time.
Perhaps because of the torture of the yellow sand and scorching sun for a long time, these two people's ** was unusually dark, and their thin arms and calves were stuck in the torso that was almost a piece of paper, and from a distance they looked like a bush of leafless bushes covered with rags, as if a gust of wind could blow them apart.
The two beggars staggered as they walked, and with their wooden sticks, they reached the headquarters of the Zhenyuan City Aid Western Army.
Seeing the beggar walking slowly with a wooden stick not far away, the guard guarding the door was slightly stunned, and then stepped forward and asked: "This is the headquarters of the Red Army, is there something wrong with the two of you?" ”
Perhaps because he hadn't drunk water for a long time, his voice was hoarse and indistinct, and he said, "Please hurry up and report inside, we have something to find the chief." ”
As soon as they heard that it was the people of the Western Expeditionary Army, the guards hurriedly helped them to the side of the road, and then went in to report.
At that time, the head of the Red Army stationed in Zhenyuan was *** As soon as he heard the words "Western Expeditionary Army", he immediately rushed out to greet him personally, when he saw the two "beggars" on the side of the road who had been completely dehumanized, only the remaining right eye was full of tears, he took off his glasses, wiped a layer of fog on the lenses, and couldn't help shedding two lines of tears.
Chief, we're back! ”
Seeing the two people struggling to stand up, but because of the torture they suffered all the way, not only did they not succeed in standing up, but they almost fell down, but they quickly supported them.
Grabbing the hands of the two people who were so thin that they only had bones, ** said with emotion and distress: "It's good to come back alive, it's good to come back alive, it's not easy!" ”
So, who are these two "beggars"? What is their special status, and why are they so warmly entertained?
In fact, these two beggar-looking people are Xiao Yongyin and Chen Mingyi of the Western Expedition to the Red Army. As for why they dressed up so sloppily, the story has to start from 1930.
Xiao Yongyin, who was born in Xinxian County, Henan, was born with the simple genes of Henan people in his bones, as long as the task is given to him, no matter how difficult the conditions are, he can successfully complete it.
In the spring of 1930, at the age of 13, in order to avoid **, he fled into Tanshugang Village, a small market town in Xinxian County, and was encountering the recruitment of the Red Fourth Front Army.
At first, the officer in charge of signing up did not agree, seeing that he was too young and physically thinner than his peers. But Xiao Yongyin didn't dare to give up such a good opportunity, so he grinded hard with the officer until he put on a brand-new military uniform and sat in the barracks.
After having a homecoming, Xiao Yongyin began to be a soldier with peace of mind, unlike the strong body of adults, the training of children is also specially designed, he learns quickly, not only learns from the instructor, sometimes when the adult is training, he will also follow the side secretly compared.
Perhaps it was because he usually learned a lot that when he really went to the battlefield to kill the enemy, Xiao Yongyin behaved very bravely. Although he was still a child at the time, every time he fought with the enemy, the fierceness between his eyebrows and eyes was smaller than that of an adult, and it didn't take long for him to make a victory.
With his desperate energy to survive, in just three years, he has changed from an ordinary soldier to a platoon-level commander who can command two companies.
In 1935, the Red Fourth Front Army abandoned the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area and decided to march to the northwest of Sichuan, but on the way to the transfer, it was targeted by the Sichuan army that was not a descendant of the Kuomintang, and always followed. In order to block this Sichuan army, the 33rd Regiment of the 11th Division of the Red Fourth Army received an order to block the enemy at Dagangshan to the west of Jiangyou.
Although the Red Army had an advantage at the beginning by virtue of the terrain, in the case of being outnumbered by the enemy, with the prolongation of the battle, the gap in equipment and numbers between the two sides made the Red Army gradually lose its advantage, coupled with the serious shortage of logistics supplies at that time, the battle lasted for more than a week, and our side suffered heavy losses.
Seeing that the 33rd Regiment could not ensure a safe retreat, at this moment, the Sichuan army suddenly launched a fierce attack, violently attacking the position of the Red Army, and soon came to the front of our army, and was about to break through.
At that time, the 33rd Regiment had already sacrificed most of the battalion commanders and company commanders, and it had reached a critical juncture when there were no soldiers available, so the regiment commander Zhang Changhou decided to go into battle in person, and just when he had just loaded the gun on his side, Xiao Yongyin ran over and said: "Regiment commander, I have a way to defeat the enemy!" ”
It turned out that Xiao Yongyin, who was blowing the trumpet just now, found that the battalion and company commanders in the regiment were basically sacrificed, so he thought that the regiment commander must be lacking in skills, so he came over to see if he could help.
Looking at this young man, Zhang Changhou did not make a sound, although this small cadre usually has a platoon level and manages the trumpeters well, but the difference between commanding the battle and blowing the trumpet is different, and if he is not careful, not only will the subordinates who accompany him in the battle suffer a catastrophe, but even the battle situation may be overturned.
Seeing that the regiment commander did not speak for a long time, Xiao Yongyin was a little anxious, although he knew that the regiment commander was worried that he would fail, but before making this decision, he already had a plan in his heart, and he would definitely be able to help the 33rd regiment recover its decline. I saw him swear: "I swear, as long as I can't fight, you will cut off my head, I can really fight!" ”
As soon as these words fell, Zhang Changhou happened to see one of his fighters being knocked to the ground, he frowned, and then waved his big hand: "Okay!" I believe you this time, and now give you two companies, and I order you to defeat the enemy! ”
Mission completion guaranteed! Saluted a military salute, and then Xiao Yongyin rushed down with people.
Later, as Xiao Yongyin said, he led the team to attack from the flank, directly catching the enemy off guard, and the Japanese army was also frightened by this sudden armed team, and the formation was suddenly chaotic. Then, Xiao Yongyin took advantage of the chaos to attack and chased the enemy all the way. But suddenly, Xiao Yongyin was shot by the enemy, and the wound was bleeding at both ends, and he fainted directly without defense.
Zhang Changhou, who was watching the battle closely, hurriedly organized the soldiers around him to start the rescue.
In the end, because Xiao Yongyin commanded two companies to launch a surprise attack, the 33rd Regiment won the victory. At that time, Zhang Changhou thought: If this child can be trained well in the future, maybe he will become a great talent.
It was also this idea that when they were about to climb the snowy mountain and cross the grassland, Xiao Yongyin was originally going to stop in place to recuperate, but Zhang Changhou was reluctant to go around the stretcher again and again.
At that time, Xu Shiyou, the commander of the Red Fourth Army, came over, saw that he had been staring at a stretcher, and asked what happened. Looking at the unconscious Xiao Yongyin, Zhang Changhou could only sigh and tell the matter one by one.
Xu Shiyou also loves talent, and when he heard his reluctance, he immediately smiled and said: "What is this, if you like it, you can take it, even if you carry a stretcher, you have to carry it to him." ”
And Xiao Yongyin did not live up to Zhang Changhou's expectations, he woke up and slowly recovered during the Long March, and even participated in several struggles to get rid of the pursuit of the Kuomintang army.
Later, after the end of the Long March, all the Red Army units were disassembled and reorganized to establish new units, and Xiao Yongyin was arranged into the newly built Western Expeditionary Army and began the most difficult five months of his life.
The Western Expeditionary Army, also known as the Western Route Army, was tasked with opening up the Hexi Corridor, and their biggest enemy at that time was the "horse bandits" who had been entrenched in the west for many years.
In 1936, Xiao Yongyin was the platoon commander of the guard company of the General Headquarters of the Western Route Army, and followed the army on the road to the west.
Despite the heroic warriors of the Western Expeditionary Army, from top to bottom, they were also a lone army, and the Horse Bandits "were all the warlord groups that formed their family forces in the area, and they launched an all-out offensive as loyal allies of Chiang Kai-shek." Because of the huge disparity in the strength of the enemy and us, although the soldiers fought bloodily and repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the warlord troops assembled by Ma Bufang, in the end, due to being outnumbered, the plan for the western expedition failed.
At that time, Xiao Yongyin and Chen Mingyi, who was also a fellow villager, were ordered to lead a small team of 28 people to escort Chen Changhao, commander-in-chief of the Western Expeditionary Army and chairman of the Military and Political Committee, back to northern Shaanxi to report the relevant situation to **.
On the road from Qilian Mountain to Yan'an, there are layers of enemy blockades, and they want to rush all the way over, and there is a possibility of sacrifice at any time, so in order to ensure safety, ** decided to break up the team and completely break up the team.
Before leaving, he handed a letter to Xiao Yongyin and explained: "The situation is special now, if you can return to northern Shaanxi first, you will hand over this letter to *** and report the relevant situation in detail." ”
In this way, with the letter, Xiao Yongyin and Chen Mingyi embarked on the road back to northern Shaanxi to find ***, along the way they were pursued by the enemy, and were wounded by bullets in the wrist during the roundabout, and they also stayed in the cave without seeing the light of day for half a month and did not dare to come out, and sometimes even had to tighten their belts in order to survive hunger.
After learning that the Western Expeditionary Army was in a bitter battle, the CPC and CPC Central Committees quickly issued an urgent order in March 1937, requiring the former Fourth Front Army Headquarters in northern Shaanxi and the 32nd Army, 28th Army and cavalry regiment of the Red Army in Northern Shaanxi to form a "Western Army", with the intention of advancing westward to rescue. But far water can't quench the thirst of the near, when *** with the Western Army is still on the way, the Western Route Army thousands of miles away has already lowered the tragic and bright red curtain, so it failed to succeed in aiding the West.
In view of the fact that the soldiers of the Western Expeditionary Army would look east for an organization, they followed the instructions of the first garrison to stand by and garrison Zhenyuan County to welcome the lost soldiers of the Western Expeditionary Army. They set up guest houses, shelters, and signposts on several roads facing the Qilian Mountains, and made every effort to search for and call for those heroes who died and were in rags.
It is precisely because of this that after learning of the existence of the Western Army, Xiao Yongyin and the others went all out, and the scene at the beginning appeared.
Seeing their long-lost relatives, the strings that Xiao Yongyin and the two had been tense finally broke, and they cried one after another.
After his mood calmed down, Xiao Yongyin wiped his tears, took off the broken felt hat on his head, took out a letter from it and handed it over with both hands, he said: "This is a letter from Commander-in-Chief Xu and Chairman Chen, please pass it on to the chief."
Okay, I'll send someone to hand it over. Taking the envelope, ** held the hands of the two of them tightly, and was so moved that he couldn't say a word for a long time.
Perhaps it is precisely because of the long-suffering relatives that ** cares about Xiao Yongyin and the two, and Xiao Yongyin also relies on this first acquaintance of the chief, with the care and care of the army doctors and comrades-in-arms, Xiao Yongyin's body slowly improved, and soon returned to his previous state.
In September of this year, the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army was established, and Xiao Yongyin was appointed as a battalion commander of the 14th Regiment of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division.
At first, ** regarded this young man in his early twenties as a "son", after all, being able to come out of the place where he eats people and doesn't spit out bones in the Hexi Corridor means that Xiao Yongyin's will is very strong, as long as he cultivates well, he will definitely become a character.
In ordinary exchanges, ** will often share some of his more useful tactics with Xiao Yongyin, and point out some problems in Xiao Yongyin's operational command. And this expedition to the west also made Xiao Yongyin find that he had too many shortcomings, and he listened carefully and corrected it carefully in the face of ***'s teachings.
Later, Xiao Yongyin's use of tactics on the battlefield was largely influenced by ***, just like in the War of Resistance Against Japan, his calm surprise attack made *** very satisfied.
In the winter of 1938, a Japanese sweeping brigade drove into Dayangzhuang in Ningjin County as if no one was around, because it was the same routine "sweeping" task as usual, so the Japanese army did not take it seriously at all. But those Japanese soldiers never thought that they would have an extremely miserable night, because before the Japanese army came, Xiao Yongyin had already led people to reconnoiter the inside and outside of this neighborhood several times, just waiting for this day to give them a cruel move, and tonight is the best time to do it.
After explaining the plan again with a branch, Xiao Yongyin began to ask each company commander to deploy according to the plan.
Because at the beginning of the battle, the Japanese army was better equipped than our side, so some people were worried about what would happen if the Japanese reacted quickly and counterattacked.
Don't be afraid of counterattacking, this battle will only make the little Japanese devils suffer, and we will not lose money. After speaking, Xiao Yongyin asked several company commanders to arrange, and the assault team opened fire, and then beat him to death.
On his side, he took the commando team to make other arrangements, and the commando team had a total of twelve people, all of whom were tall and strong in martial arts. They lined up, each with a large knife, a rifle, and eight grenades. Because it was dark, in order to distinguish between friend and foe, Xiao Yongyin also asked them to tie a white cloth on their left arm as a mark.
After doing this, he said to these team members: "Pay attention to hiding yourself during the operation, as long as you touch someone, you will use the knife, you can cut, if you can't cut, you will blow up, and if you know, you will set off!" ”
As soon as the words fell, these twelve people quietly slipped into Dayangzhuang like cats. Just when they were killing people in the moonlight, they accidentally found a cannon in a farmer's yard, and a Japanese soldier was sitting next to him with a gun and taking a nap, which seemed to be a special guard.
The cannon was quite new to the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army at that time, although they knew it, but there were very few people who could use it, so the members of the commando team wanted to carry this cannon back.
Thinking of this, someone quietly came behind the Japanese soldier, slashed hard under his neck with a machete, only to see blood burst out, the Japanese soldier fell to the ground with wide eyes, and soon died, and then several people began to circle around the cannon. I don't know who moved what, the cannon suddenly made a muffled sound, and it actually fired a shell straight ahead, which directly woke up the sleeping Japanese soldiers in the house.
Fortunately, the commandos reacted quickly, and they hurriedly threw grenades and ignited fires, trapping the enemy in the house and not daring to come out. After a while, the courtyard was blazing, and the sound of ** was everywhere. Hearing this, the Japanese brigade immediately rushed to the courtyard where the cannons were fired.
After hearing that an enemy cannon had been discovered, Xiao Yongyin's original idea of annihilating the Japanese army began to waver, and he quickly changed his tactics and ordered: "The plan to annihilate the Japanese army is changed to cover to ensure that the artillery is transported away smoothly." ”
As soon as the plan was changed, some places needed to be abandoned, and some places needed to focus on sending additional troops to support, Xiao Yongyin seized the time to deploy, and the gunfire and bullets from different directions successfully diverted the attention of the Japanese army from snatching the artillery.
Under the cover of layers, the commandos and the soldiers of the second company worked together and finally carried the cannon out of Dayang Village. Unlike the soldiers, Xiao Yongyin was well-informed, and he could see at a glance that this was a gate mountain cannon specially designed to destroy strong fortifications, and it could directly make a hole in the one-foot-thick city gate.
That's a good thing. "Such a good thing, no wonder the Japanese army will send people to watch it.
After speaking, Xiao Yongyin hurriedly asked people to drag the mountain artillery to the regiment headquarters, and the regiment headquarters quickly sent people to tow it to the brigade headquarters. Just like this, one after another, the soldiers finally dragged the cannon into the Taihang Mountain.
This battle greatly shocked the invading Japanese army, which originally looked down on the Eighth Route Army very much, and called it the greatest humiliation they suffered when they entered Chinese territory.
As the first cannon seized from the invaders, the deputy commander of the 129th Division was so happy that he circled it more than ten times, and finally felt that it was not enjoyable, and wrote on the cannon "The Eighth Route Army captured the Japanese mountain artillery in the battle of Dayangzhuang".
After the division commander *** knew, he also wandered around the cannon for most of the day, not only praised the team led by Xiao Yongyin, but later praised this as "an artistic battle" when recalling.
Perhaps it is precisely because of the "support" behind him that Xiao Yongyin encountered a lot of trouble in the War of Resistance Against Japan, but he personally never bothered about it. It's not that he has a big heart, but that in order not to affect his enthusiasm for combat, he will often deal with these troubles first, and then bring him to "ask for guilt".
It is in this way that Xiao Yongyin's talents on the battlefield can be fully displayed, and he fought bravely on the battlefield until the establishment of New China. I thought that I would build the country in peace and stability in the future, but I didn't expect that when the Korean War broke out, Xiao Yongyin, who had already served as the deputy commander and chief of staff of the 12th Army at that time, learned about it and immediately applied to join the team to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
At that time, many generals had just come down from the battlefield, and they still had blood and energy on their bodies, and they were eager to try this war to defend their homes and country. But on the day he received the order to fight in North Korea, except for Xiao Yongyin, everyone around him received the order at the same time, which made him feel very sad. Xiao Yongyin waited until the last moment, but he didn't wait for the order from his boss Wang Jinshan to let him go to North Korea, which made him feel aggrieved, so he had to ask the old chief***
As soon as he entered the office, Xiao Yongyin was aggrieved like a child: "Chief, you know me, I have been with you for so long, and I haven't been in a war." I wanted to go to Korea to fight this time, but I had a conflict with Wang Jinshan before, and he was unwilling to give me orders.
After hearing this, ** patted him on the shoulder with sympathy and said, "I know this, and you have also been wronged." ”
Hearing that the chief understood himself, Xiao Yongyin hurriedly took out his "war report", and then with the approval of ***, he went to fight in North Korea smoothly. And he also knew that it was his old chief's understanding and care that allowed him to fight on the battlefield in a foreign country again.
It is precisely for this reason that ** rarely chatted with juniors in his later years, and the only person he often dealt with was Xiao Yongyin. In his last years, he lived quietly in a courtyard house in Beijing, where he had time to read newspapers and listen to the radio. As long as Xiao Yongyin comes to Beijing to do business, he will inevitably come to visit him.
Later, when recalling these things, Xiao Yongyin said this, he said: "It can be said that my bravery was learned from Liu Shuai, and the same is true for tactics, starting from the time of the Red Army. During the time I was born and died with him, I learned a lot, such as that I don't frown at death. ”
In 1986, when Marshal *** passed away safely, Xiao Yongyin carefully bowed to the marshal's body repeatedly, said softly and tearfully that he was late and did not see off the marshal, and then threw himself in front of the funeral bed and cried, in order to convey a veteran's feelings for the marshal.