Hejiazhuang is located at the northern foot of Qilian Mountain in the southeast of Minle County, and is a small mountain village inhabited by dozens of families. In the winter of 1974, the division organized an anti-airborne exercise in which the division and regiment leaders led some real troops in conjunction with camping exercises. The division command post was set up in a ravine on the southwest side of Zhangjiagou Bay, and at that time, our 165th Regiment was camped in Yangfang Commune, Minle County, and the two places were more than 30 kilometers apart. The anti-airborne order came suddenly, and time was pressing, so Regiment Commander Wei and Deputy Political Commissar Kong Zhaoyu took me to the division command post to attend an operational meeting and receive the task.
When the three of us arrived at the overgrown division command post, it was less than 10 minutes before the meeting began, and the command post was at the water mill at the bottom of the ditch that could be seen, but it took 15 to 20 minutes to walk down the ramp, and we could not reach it on time. The military situation was urgent, and there was no room for much thought, so the young and vigorous Deputy Political Commissar Kong, while asking the regiment commander to let him go down first to report for duty, pulled me to a place where there were no bushes, walked quickly to the bottom of the ditch, and rushed to the division command post at the specified time.
According to the combat tasks divided by the division, our 165th Regiment was responsible for annihilating the enemy airborne in the Hejiazhuang area. The exercise proceeded smoothly and fulfilled the determination and intent of the division commanders. However, the tactics of chief of staff Wang Bixian commanding troops to encircle and annihilate the airborne enemy three times in Hejiazhuang were quite controversial, and some people in the division organs jokingly called the 165 Regiment "three strikes" at Hejiazhuang. However, Chief of Staff Wang had his own reasons, believing that the terrain here was complicated, which was conducive to the hiding of the airborne enemy, and that it was necessary to clear it repeatedly in order to annihilate it cleanly and completely. Commander Wei relieved his chief of staff and said: "The battle has been won, Chief of Staff Wang has meritorious command, and the victor cannot be blamed." ”
After the exercise, the troops were stationed in Zhangjiagou Bay for training and recuperation. The Lanzhou Military Region Combat Song and Dance Troupe came to the front line to give a condolence performance, and the military region's plateau service team also rushed to provide condolences to the officers and soldiers and help them sew up the standard patches on their knees and elbows. Regiment Commander Wei and the comrades in the service team joked that they first patched up Deputy Political Commissar Kong and Staff Officer Chen, who tore their clothes when they rushed down the hillside.
There are a lot of wild pigeons in Zhangjiagou Bay, and many families have built pigeon buildings equivalent to two-story buildings to attract pigeons to roost in flocks in order to accumulate pigeon droppings. Pigeons are cheap, 8 cents a piece. In order to celebrate the success of the exercise, the cooking class bought a lot of pigeons and carefully prepared a delicious pigeon feast, one for each person, and everyone ate a delicious meal. The pigeon meat and pigeon soup that are both fresh and fragrant are still mouth-watering when I think about it.
In the winter of 1975, there was a historically rare cold weather in northern China, and the temperature in the Hexi Corridor fell below minus 25 degrees. In early December, the 19th Army organized the 55th Division to conduct a "Tactical Exercise of Attacking the Enemy with an Unstable Foothold" in the Shandan Twenty Lipu area in conjunction with camping exercises. At that time, I was helping out in the training department, and I pestered Director Chen to ask to return to the regiment to participate in the exercise and undergo training.
On the morning of 8 July, I took the Jiefang-brand truck of the military working group led by Director Wen Dexi of the Engineer Division to Xinchengzi at the foot of Qilian Mountain in Yongchang County, where the 165th Regiment was stationed. In accordance with the regulations and requirements, the driver propped up the canopy pole, put on a cover cloth and camouflage net, and made a furnace in the carriage. After more than 140 kilometers of bumpy journey, they arrived at their destination at noon, just in time for the troops to assemble.
The higher authorities ordered the whole regiment to set off at 12 o'clock that day, travel 85 kilometers day and night, and rush to Huazhaizi in Shandan County at dawn the next day to occupy the starting position of the attack. The other main force of the exercise was the 163rd Regiment, which was also ordered to set out from Hongshanyao in Yongchang County, travel 100 kilometers day and night, and attack the enemy with our regiment who had not gained a stable foothold. Unit Commander Yang Zhicheng and comrades-in-arms of the training unit, including Chen Jie, Li Dunyi, Sui Yuanchang, Zhang Xusheng, and Zhao Shanmin, welcomed me back to the unit at a critical moment.
Xinchengzi, the seat of a commune in Shandan County, is incredibly deserted and shabby. Almost indistinguishable from any other village, there are rows of adobe flat-roofed houses. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it was the seat of the Commune.
It was an unusually cold day, and before the troops set off, it was snowing, and the Qilian Mountains were covered with heavy snow, and the officers and men who were ready to go kept stomping their feet on the ground. Staff Officer Sui Yuanchang led the reconnaissance platoon to set off ahead of the large army to reconnoiter and explore the way. The march has a tactical background, and along the way it is necessary to defend against enemy aerial reconnaissance, air artillery fire attacks, and atomic and chemical attacks. Commanders should command the troops on the spot to make corresponding arrangements according to the various situations they encounter. One of the most memorable is the crossing of the Damayingtan grassland, which is the summer and autumn grassland of the Shandan Military Horse Farm, and it is also the most difficult section of the march.
In the middle of winter, the herd has already moved to the winter nest, leaving the vast grassland. At that time, the grassland of Dayingtan was hit by a cold snap that was rare since meteorological records began, and on the day we passed, there was a mixture of wind and snow, and the strong wind was wrapped in dense snow flakes and rushed towards the officers and soldiers like knives, and the air turned into frost, dripping into ice, and the camel-colored fur hats were condensed with frost, and everyone in the team had white eyebrows and white beards. In order to prevent frostbite, a 5-minute break was specially arranged in the middle of the way, and the chief of staff, Wang Bi, asked everyone to add clothes to carry with them. I quickly took off my fur hat, folded a towel, pulled it tight from the base of my neck to protect my ears, pulled on my nose guard and put on my mask, which froze into a lump of ice and could not be used in just a few minutes. The officers and men braved the wind and snow to walk on the grassland of Dayingtan towards the predetermined target.
Staff Officer Ji Zhimin of the military working group who followed the guidance of the unit stood on the side of the road, looked at the officers and men of the 165th Regiment who were about to walk out of the Dama Camp Beach, and said with tears in his eyes and emotion: "What a good unit! What a great soldier! With such a desperate spirit of overcoming all hardships and hardships, and a heroic spirit that overwhelms all enemies, there is no reason why we cannot win a battle. ”
At the first o'clock in the evening, we walked out of more than 50 kilometers of Damaying Beach and arrived at the area of Damaying Village and Shiquanzi Village, which are populated. The regiment arranged a big break, let the officers and men eat dry food, inspect the equipment, and summarize and comment on the march. When everyone took out the cakes and boiled eggs from the satchels, and unscrewed the kettle, they were stunned one by one, and the dry food and water were frozen into ice lumps. Deputy Regiment Commander Wang Yunxian looked at the officers and soldiers, pondered for a moment, and said sonorously and forcefully: "Comrades, we did not expect the temperature to drop to this extent, the difficulties in front of us are only temporary, the Red Army has experienced so many hardships and hardships during the Long March, this cold is nothing, and the victory is in the efforts to persevere." ”
Immediately a meeting of the battalion and company commanders was called and the cooking squad was asked to immediately burn the fire and cook, so that the officers and men could hurry up and eat a hot meal to gather energy for the next step. After arriving at the village, although they were freezing and hungry, and the lights were blind everywhere, they still strictly observed the discipline of the masses and entered the houses in an orderly manner. The local people are simple and kind, welcome the officers and soldiers into their homes, free up hot kang for everyone to rest, and help the cooking class boil water and cook, like a family. I remember that Chen Jie, Zhang Xusheng and I entered a family of two with only one living house, with a kang mat and a shabby quilt spread on the kang, and the two of them enthusiastically vacated the hot kang for us to sit on and keep warm. In the end, it was at our insistence that they sat on one head, and we sat on the other.
The regiment decided to set out from the main rest point at 12 o'clock in the night and rush to the designated position of the superior before dawn at the speed of the attack. After the officers and men recovered their physical strength, everyone was ready to try their best and rushed all the way through the snowy sky under the cover of night. The crunch of feet on the snow seems to be accompanied by the heroic procession.
From time to time, cadres and backbones carried guns for sick and infirm soldiers, and some of them carried several guns on their backs. At about 5 o'clock in the morning of the 9th, before dawn, the whole regiment arrived at the starting position designated by the superiors for the attack, Huazhaizi Village, Weiqi Commune.
Huazhai is not a cottage, but the terrain is relatively complex, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The villagers live in a low-lying flat area. It is surrounded by a plateau higher than the village, surrounded by ravines formed by the perennial erosion of rain, which provides terrain conditions for the concealed assembly of troops. The regiment demanded that all battalions and companies dispatch anti-air observation posts in a timely manner, and that all personnel, except for the cooking squad, enter the starting positions of the attack and build bunkers.
The regimental command post was set up in a wide ditch, and Chen Jie and I were on duty. Due to the cold weather, each shift is one hour. When I was about to take off my rubber shoes and put them on fur shoes, my hands were so numb that I couldn't take them off.
The wired soldier who froze his hands could not press the ** wire into the terminal post at the top of the ** machine, so he had to lower his head and bite the re-wired wire with his teeth, and press the wire post with his wrist to send the wire into the binding post. But no matter how you shake the handle, you can't connect to the switchboard.
Unit Commander Yang sent a flashlight to Chen Jie and asked him to draft a one-sentence telegram to the division: "The 165th Regiment arrived at the designated position at 5 o'clock today. Chen wrote this telegram with great difficulty with his frozen hands, but the radio station reported to the command post that it was impossible to communicate with the division. At this time, we figured out that there were wireless communication tools at that time that were all dysfunctional in extremely cold conditions. Later, by lapping the local pole line, he got in touch with the division.
Cadres of the organs sent to the battalions and companies to inspect the units also reported to the regiment that the ground was too hard to build fortifications, and that the pickaxes dug into the ground could only splash a small white spot. Some of the warriors were bleeding from the cracks of their mouths, and some of them cut off their pickaxes. At this very moment, Chen Chao, deputy division commander, led a working group to inspect the regiment, and when he saw the scene in front of him, he very seriously criticized the regiment commander and said: "Strict training, strict requirements, strict and reasonable, and no non-combat attrition. "In addition to the detachments on duty and firearms on duty, it is required to quickly organize troops to enter civilian houses and stand by.
When I stepped into a private house, I found that the comrades-in-arms who had entered the room before us were warming themselves around the stove, and Yang Zhongyou, an officer of the direct political unit, covered his face with his hands and rubbed his face, saying, "Today is the coldest weather I have ever encountered in my life." This was heard by Chief of Staff Wang Bixian, who had just entered the house, and he interjected: "Don't say that you haven't seen such a cold day, I am over 40 years old, and I have never experienced such a cold weather. ”
Suddenly, someone exclaimed: "Officer Yang! The skin on your face has fallen off! I looked up and saw that a piece of skin on each of Officer Yang's cheeks was wiped off by his hand, revealing the flesh color oozing with liquid. Chief Yang Zhicheng immediately warned loudly: "Don't go near the stove!" At this moment, my ears felt like an electric shock, burning and itchy, and I grabbed a mirror on the kang cabinet, and I was stunned by the situation in front of me! The two ears puffed up two blisters the size of grapes like a child blowing up a balloon. How can your ears freeze like this when you have taken measures to keep your ears warm while resting on the way? Later, I found out that it was caused by neglecting to buckle the buttons on the leather cap ear guards when adding towel ear protectors and pouring them into the cold wind.
At that time, many people suffered frostbite of varying degrees, and three of them, including Li Dunyi, were faced with the question of whether to have saw their feet and save their legs. Later, although there was no case of sawing feet, statistics showed that nearly 300 people in the regiment suffered frostbite or less, accounting for more than 20% of the officers and soldiers participating in the exercise.
A few years later, I can't remember whether the Ministry of Health of the General Logistics Department or the Academy of Military Medical Sciences came to learn about the situation in those years and to study the topic of preventing frostbite in the army under severe cold conditions.
Despite the freezing weather, the troops launched an attack at dawn on the 10th as originally planned. I didn't care about the frostbitten ear and a drop of water oozing from time to time, and I concentrated on holding the antifreeze luminous ballpoint pen in my hand, recording the battle and writing a battle report. Relying on the spirit of "not fearing hardship and not fearing death," the officers and men finally overcame the cold and the ground was freezing and achieved a complete success in the exercise.
At that time, it was learned from the meteorological observation point set up by the Zhangye Meteorological Bureau in Huazhai that on December 8, 1975, the minimum temperature in the Mayingtan grassland reached minus 43 degrees Celsius, and Huazhaizi also exceeded minus 30 degrees Celsius, which was the lowest temperature since meteorological records began. Later, I heard from the people of Huazhai that people and livestock in Dayingtan were frozen to death that winter.
In order to commemorate the extraordinary feat of crossing the beach of Damaying, after the exercise ended and camped at Dongle Middle School, I wrote a few sentences with emotion to make an unforgettable memory.
Qilian is dressed in silver, and the grassland is crazy in wind and snow.(To be continued).minus forty-three, no cattle and sheep in the severe cold.
The officers and men were busy with drills, and all of them were highly motivated.
Why not be afraid of frostbite, stepping on ice for the country's strength.