In 2018, Yushe County** in Shanxi Province launched an action to register information for veterans of the Anti-Japanese War, with a view to providing parental funds for these elderly people who have made outstanding contributions to the country.
When the septuagenarian Hao Zhiquan heard the news, he happily thought that he was also eligible for this policy. Because he once killed Japanese on the battlefield and was an anti-Japanese hero.
However, when he came to the village committee in the dust, the staff asked him to provide the restoration dossier. However, Hao Zhiquan's file has long been unknown and thrown to **.
Unable to provide the original file, he was unable to take advantage of the veteran's preferential treatment or even prove that he had ever served as a soldier. This made him very unhappy, and he was determined to prove his identity.
However, at this critical juncture, there is no end to the sky. In the red exhibition hall of the local fossil museum, there is a group photo of Hao Zhiquan and his comrades-in-arms.
So, under the leadership of a group of volunteers, Hao Zhiquan came to the exhibition hall of the museum. He pondered the ** wall in front of him, and when others asked, he raised his crutches tremblingly, pointed to a character in ** and said, "This is me!"
Sitting was Battalion Commander Hao, for whom I had served as a guard ......I don't want to cause trouble for the motherland, I just want to prove that I have been on the battlefield and killed devils......So, is what Hao Zhiquan said true?
Is he really an anti-Japanese hero? What's going on here? Let's unravel this mystery together.
With the development of the economy, the country's preferential treatment standards for anti-Japanese veterans have been gradually improved. Recently, two staff members came to Taoyang Village, Yushe County, Shanxi Province, and they came to the village to mobilize veterans to register.
Hao Zhiquan in the village happened to be an anti-Japanese veteran, and the village cadres hurriedly took him to the village committee and cooperated with the staff to check the information so that he could apply for the preferential care allowance for anti-Japanese veterans.
Hao Zhi's family was in difficulty, and after hearing that the state had given subsidies to anti-Japanese veterans, he was very happy and hurried to the village committee. However, the staff saw him empty-handed and asked him to provide the restored dossier.
Hao Zhiquan hurriedly went home to look for it, but after searching for a long time, he found that all the documents were missing. He asked his wife, who said, "Maybe I lost it when I moved." ”
Hao Zhiquan thought about it and felt that something was wrong. He clearly remembers that after he returned to his hometown, he stored the archives and military medals in the county archives and was preserved by the ** department.
Moreover, he is not alone.
In order to prove his identity as an anti-Japanese veteran, a photo of the old man Hao Zhiquan and his wife and a series of supporting materials were handed over to the county archives. However, after searching for a long time, the staff was still unable to find these precious materials, because they were burned during the "Broken Four Olds" period.
Although it is not possible to determine whether Hao Zhiquan's file has been properly preserved, the main person in charge of the year has passed away and cannot provide proof for him. Due to the lack of original files, Hao Zhiquan could not enjoy the preferential treatment of veterans, and he could not even prove his own experience in joining the army.
This made him very unhappy and decided to prove his identity. At that time, the household registration system was not very perfect, so Hao Zhiquan had to go to the public security department to reapply for household registration information first.
He ran again and again before finally getting the household registration book. However, when he went to the staff again to apply for preferential treatment, the staff rejected his application because he still could not prove his status as an anti-Japanese veteran.
Hao Zhiquan did not give up, he invited the old people of the same period in the village, hoping that they could help him testify.
Although the villagers were willing to testify on behalf of Hao Zhiquan and his wife, the staff refused on the grounds that the villagers were not veterans and that their testimony was highly subjective. However, Fa Xiao, who joined the army with Hao Zhiquan at the beginning, has died, and how to prove his identity has become a difficult problem.
Hao Zhiquan's heart was full of confusion and frustration, he used to kill the enemy on the battlefield fearlessly, but now because of a piece of paper, he could not even confirm his identity as an anti-Japanese veteran.
Still, he didn't give up. In the past ten years, he has been running around various units, no longer expecting any preferential policies, only hoping that the relevant departments will recognize his veteran status, which is an affirmation of his dedication to the country during those war years.
However, his fate did not change because of his persistence. The untimely death of his son left him devastated. Without the support of his son, his life with his wife was broken, and life became more difficult.
When Hao Zhiquan's deeds spread in the society, on January 15, 2018, volunteers from a caring organization came to his home. Hao Zhiquan is 90 years old, and his wife is 91 years old, and the two live in an earthen wall built in the sixties and seventies of the last century, and the house is about to collapse because it has fallen into disrepair, and it will leak when it rains.
Due to their age, they are in poor health, have lost their ability to work, and are unable to receive subsidies, making life very difficult. However, despite the difficult living conditions, the old couple still insisted on carrying their heavy bodies to collect firewood for cooking every day, and lived on the vegetable garden at the door.
Fortunately, they often receive material help and spiritual care from caring people, which gives them a lot of support and enables them to move on. When the volunteers arrived at Hao Zhiquan's home, they found that their family was very poor.
There were no benches, so the old man had to use a tree stump as a bench, the only wooden chest was used as a chair, and the table was only made up of a broken stone slab. However, despite the poor facilities in the home, the old man still cleaned it up very clean, and there was a *** portrait hanging on the wall.
Every day, Hao Zhiquan would wipe the portrait for fear that the dust would tarnish the chairman's image.
Under the care of everyone, the old people in the rural mud houses shared their beacon years and revolutionary process, which was all admirable. When asked if he had kept the items from the Anti-Japanese War, the old man regretted that the restored materials and medals had been handed over to the archives.
He repeatedly emphasized that he had fought devils and just wanted to prove that he had been a soldier, and it no longer mattered whether he received preferential treatment or not. The volunteers found the chairman's photo album hanging on the wall and the old man's son enlisted in the army**, at this time the old man suddenly clapped his hands and said: "I also have a group photo of the Eighth Route Army**, when the devil had just surrendered, I took a group photo with the battalion commander Hao Sancheng." ”
The volunteers excitedly asked if it was filmed during the war, and the old man replied affirmatively that it was taken during the anti-Japanese period, and explained that the Eighth Route Army was later renamed the People's Liberation Army.
Someone asked**Where is it now, and the old man replied regretfully, **It has been taken away, and now I don't know where it is. My wife interjected on the side and said, "I knew I should have left that **." ”
The volunteers of the Yushe County Fossil Museum made the search for ** a top priority, and after many contacts and inquiries, they learned that ** had been sent to the Yushe County Fossil Museum and was being exhibited in the red exhibition hall.
The volunteers immediately went to the museum, where they saw the ** and took a picture of it with their mobile phones. They asked Hao Zhiquan about the content of the old man, and the old man was very excited when he saw it, he raised his right arm, pointed to the young man in the ** and said: "This person is me, and the one sitting next to me is the battalion commander Hao Sancheng, who was the battalion commander's guard ......at that time."The old man couldn't help but shed tears as he spoke, and when he saw this ** again many years later, things are not people.
The old man asked the volunteer to take him to the museum, he hoped to see the ** with his own eyes, and the volunteer agreed to his request, so the opening scene appeared. The old man Hao Zhiquan pointed to ** excitedly and said, "This is me!" ”
He also described to the people around him the location, time, people and other information of the shooting.
One day after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Hao Zhiquan of the Yushe Independent Battalion was transferred by the battalion commander to serve as a guard because of his cleverness and bravery. Once, the battalion ushered in several war correspondents, who took a lot of precious ** for the Eighth Route Army in order to commemorate the victory.
On this occasion, Hao Zhiquan and the battalion commander took a precious group photo of them. This ** is extremely important to Hao Zhiquan, and he kept it close to him until it was put on display in the museum.
When mentioning those beacon years, the old man Hao Zhiquan always told the people present about that legendary revolutionary experience with great interest. Born in December 1928 into a poor peasant family in Yushe County, Hao Zhiquan witnessed the "sweep" of the Japanese puppet army and traitors since he was a child, and any resistance would cause the villagers to suffer cruel treatment.
These experiences filled him with hatred for the Japanese. After the full-scale outbreak of the war of aggression against China, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army was located in Shanxi, and a number of base areas were established, which became the center of resistance against Japan behind enemy lines in North China and a thorn in the side of the Japanese army.
Under the call of the Communist Party, Shanxi set off a wave of joining the army. It was in this atmosphere that Hao Zhiquan was inspired to join the army. However, what made him decide to join the army was not a yearning for war, but a personal experience.
He was 9 years old and was about to go to the mountains to chop firewood when he suddenly heard gunshots in the distance. His father quickly pulled him into the house and told him to hide in the cellar, warning him to be quiet no matter what he heard.
Then he heard chaos outside, with the villagers crying for their fathers and mothers, and some people speaking in a language he didn't understand. As he listened nervously, several heavily armed men broke down the door, searched through boxes and cabinets, but found nothing, and finally left with a curse.
This experience made Hao Zhiquan deeply feel the brutality of the Japanese invaders, and he decided to join the army to fight to defend his homeland and protect his relatives and fellow villagers.
Hao Zhiquan realized that these terrifying enemies were Japanese devils, and the fear in his heart came like a tide, for fear of being discovered by the Japanese army. It was not until that evening that he crawled out of the cellar, and saw that the house was in shambles, and that the tables, chairs, and benches were all broken.
When I went outside, I found that several houses in the village were on fire, and the villagers were desperately trying to put out the fire. He walked around and found blood everywhere and everyone's faces were filled with sadness and despair.
He realized that all this was done by the Japanese, and his heart was full of anger and determination. He clenched his fists and teeth, and decided to join the Eighth Route Army to fight devils, but because he was too young and not tall enough, he was persuaded to return home.
Under the brutal aggression and oppression of imperialism, Yushe County has risen to the trend of martial arts, and martial arts halls are built everywhere to recruit students, aiming to learn martial arts to serve the country. Xiao Zhiquan also responded positively, worshiped a famous teacher, and practiced a good skill.
Finally, in 1944, when he was already 16 years old, he and a few of his friends couldn't wait to find the Eighth Route Army and join the anti-Japanese team.
** and Hao Zhiquan participated in the training of the 11th Company, 2nd Platoon, 5th Squad of the 14th Regiment of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and were inspired by General Chen Geng, Hao Zhiquan's determination to resist Japan was even stronger.
He performed well in the Yushe Independent Battalion, adding luster to the model battalion of battalion commander Hao Sancheng. In every battle, he charged into battle, brandished a broadsword, and made many feats.
After the war, there was hope that peace would come. But Chiang Kai-shek wanted to rule, on the one hand, delaying time and inviting *** to participate in the Chongqing negotiations; On the other hand, Yan Xishan was instructed to launch a campaign to see how our party would react.
In September 1945, the Shangdang Campaign broke out, and Yan Xishan commanded the 19th Army and the 61st Army to attack the southeast of Jin, trying to control the entire southeast of Jindong. * After learning about it, he immediately ordered the whole army to cooperate with Chongqing to negotiate, and the harder the soldiers fought, the smoother the negotiations.
Hao Zhiquan also joined the battle, and he was extremely brave on the battlefield, annihilating many enemies and covering the transfer of a group of comrades. After a month of fierce fighting, the Battle of Shangdang ended, and the PLA annihilated the Kuomintang army 350,000 people, seized a large number of first-class equipment, dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Yan army, consolidated the rear of the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan liberated areas, and also won the initiative for our party in the negotiations.
In the next three years, Hao Zhiquan followed the troops to many places, experienced the baptism of war, and accumulated rich combat experience and excellent blasting skills. This experience and skill bore fruit on him, and he was able to complete several demolition missions in the Great War of 1949.
However, the isolated city of Taiyuan became a problem in the War of Liberation. **Although the army commanded won successive victories in the major battlefields, it was not easy to liberate Taiyuan.
Because Yan Xishan had already built Taiyuan into an impregnable wall, he built more than 5,600 pillboxes around Taiyuan and arranged a dense network of firepower.
These bunkers contain a large number of military supplies, and each bunker is connected by tunnels that form a natural line of defense. However, the PLA did not give up because of this.
After fierce fighting on the 11th, they successfully liberated the periphery of Taiyuan and annihilated the enemy20,000 men, and occupied the airfields in the south and north of the city, cutting off the air passage of the Yan army's foreign aid.
The key to the victory of the Taiyuan Battle was to end the four major fortresses in the east of the city. Yan Xishan once boasted that the four fortresses in the east of the city were impregnable and could withstand 100,000 elite soldiers, but *** was not gullible, he ordered to capture the four fortresses in the east of the city, and started the operation from the cow camel village.
Hao Zhiquan, the leader of the demolition team, was ordered to blow up the core temple of Niuhuo Village and clear the obstacles for the follow-up main force. However, it was not an easy task to attack the temple blockhouse, which was made of reinforced concrete, with a wall up to one meter thick, and surrounded by small pillboxes to form a dense firepower.
Fortunately, Hao Zhiquan, who got the information, found that there was no enemy defense under the city wall, and he only needed to send explosives to the place to destroy it. So, Hao Zhiquan led the demolition team and rushed to the city wall with the fire support of a large army, but just as they were about to ignite the explosives, a group of "Japanese soldiers" came out of the bunker, which shocked Hao Zhiquan and others.
Puzzled, they asked, "Aren't the Japanese soldiers already defeated?" Why is it still here? ”
Yan Xishan made full use of the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army on the battlefield of resistance against Japan, but he was also well aware of its unreliability. After the surrender of the Japanese army, there were still some people who tried to make a comeback and use the power of ** to fight against the communists.
Okamura Ninji, an officer who invaded China, found Chiang Kai-shek, hoping to leave 300,000 Japanese troops behind, surrender nominally, secretly retain strength, and help ** attack the Communist Party.
However, Chiang Kai-shek decisively rejected this proposal and demanded that the Japanese troops immediately withdraw from China. Despite this, some small forces have absconded to various parts of China. Yan Xishan, the "king of Shanxi", "danced" on three eggs, not only to fight wits and courage with the People's Liberation Army, but also to beware of Chiang Kai-shek.
He knew that the Japanese soldiers were strong in combat, and in order to strengthen his own strength, he took the initiative to recruit a group of Japanese soldiers. Soon, he recruited 580,000 Japanese troops became the defensive force of Taiyuan.
In order to make them obedient to him, Yan Xishan provided double military salaries, taught them to speak Chinese, married Chinese daughters-in-law, and made them wear military uniforms.
Yan Xishan ideologically carried out ** to this group of people, deceiving them that the Third World War was coming, and at that time they could cooperate with the Japanese army base camp to continue to "revive the imperial country", so that the Japanese army would be willing to die.
Because Yan Xishan was extremely hidden, neither Chiang Kai-shek nor the People's Liberation Army knew that Yan Xishan had raised a group of Japanese mercenaries, let alone Hao Zhiquan. Faced with this dangerous situation, Hao Zhiquan did not hesitate to command the members of the demolition team to fight the Japanese army.
These devils were made by Yan Xishan to be loyal to the Emperor of Japan. The old man Hao Zhiquan recalled: "These devils don't want to die at all when they fight, and they are strong and have amazing strength. ”
Hao Zhiquan knew that a protracted battle was not the way to go, and their main task was to blast the temple blockade and win the opportunity for the follow-up troops to attack the main attack, so he shouted: "Quick, hide behind the corpse and shoot the ...... with a gun."However, although Hao Zhiquan and his comrades-in-arms ran out of bullets, they still failed to ** the devil, and could only engage in hand-to-hand combat with the devil.
But because the devil is too **, the demolition team fell into a disadvantage.
At the moment of life and death, the company commander stepped forward and fought to the death with two enemies. When Hao Zhiquan turned around, the devil's bayonet stabbed at him without hesitation, penetrating deep into his right chest.
He tried his best to grab the barrel of the enemy's gun and prevent it from succeeding, but the strength of the Japanese soldiers was too great, and soon Hao Zhiquan could not support it. He watched as the bayonet slowly pierced through his flesh and felt the approach of death.
However, at this moment, a gunshot rang out, and the devil was shot in the head and fell to the ground. Hao Zhiquan survived and looked at the company commander gratefully. I saw the company commander half-kneeling on the ground, his body tilted, three big holes in his stomach, and his life was in danger.
But at the last moment of his life, he still saved Hao Zhiquan. Hao Zhiquan immediately wanted to carry the company commander on his back, but the company commander stopped him, saying that he was hopeless and asked him to hurry up and blow up the wall.
At this time, all 13 Japanese soldiers fell to the ground, and only 4 of the 16 members of the demolition team remained, each of whom was stained red with blood.
Hao Zhiquan raised his arms and shouted: "Living people, pick up the explosives bag and blow up the city wall with me!" Regardless of their pain, the soldiers struggled to carry the explosives bags and rushed to the city walls.
They carefully placed the explosive packs in the weak spots of the city walls, igniting the fuses. Subsequently, with the sound of "boom", a gap was blown out of the city wall.
The large army immediately took advantage of the gap and rushed in. However, at this time, a cannonball was in front of Hao Zhiquan, and he instantly lost consciousness. By the time he woke up, it was already three days later.
It turned out that when the walls were blown open, he was about to leave, but was shelled by the enemy. His scalp was scratched and his skull was exposed. He felt a chill on his head, reached out and touched it, only to touch the thick bandage.
He immediately asked the doctor to show him a mirror, and it turned out that there was no broken phase. The doctor told him that he could not cut his hair for two years, otherwise his recovery would be affected. However, as a PLA soldier, a neat appearance is a must.
He was bothered by this.
**The general visited the wounded, and after learning about Hao Zhiquan's condition, he was allowed to grow long hair and join the army. In the Battle of Taiyuan, the People's Liberation Army fought fiercely with the Yan army for 6 months, and finally disintegrated Yan Xishan's "Iron Army".
The Japanese soldiers captured in the Battle of Taiyuan were sent back to their hometown by our army, because they did not obey the surrender order, so they were called "ant troops", and they could not receive any pensions, and the end was very miserable.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hao Zhiquan stayed in the army for another year, but during the Korean War, he was unable to participate because his injuries had not healed, which made him feel very regretful.
At that time, the whole country was recovering and developing, and all walks of life needed talents, and the state also encouraged military personnel to return to their hometowns and contribute to the economic development of their hometowns. Therefore, Hao Zhiquan chose to retire and was arranged to work in Yuci Timber Company.
However, in 1960, when the factory closed, Hao Zhiquan was forced to return to his hometown to farm, pick up a hoe and go to the field to cultivate, and soon he became an authentic old farmer, working hard every day to cultivate crops, fertilize and water.
Hao Zhiquan (second from right) always recalls his heroic experience on the battlefield in his spare time in the exchange with the villagers. Whenever he thinks of those comrades-in-arms who have gone, he will find it difficult to suppress the grief in his heart, and even can't help crying.
In front of him, there will always be a photo with the battalion commander Hao Sancheng**, and every time I see it, I will burst into tears. Soon after, through the introduction of the matchmaker, he met his wife and gave birth to a child, and his life gradually became calm and happy.
He felt that he was very lucky, because his friends who joined the army in the same village had died heroically. He also often told his children stories from the battlefield, which influenced him to embark on the path of joining the army.
In 2006, the Yushe County Fossil Museum planned to add a red exhibition hall to tell visitors about the glorious history of the people of Yushe County who fought against the Japanese army and participated in the War of Liberation, and collected precious historical materials from the county.
Battalion commander Hao Sancheng is a hero of Yushe County, who died heroically in the Taiyuan Campaign, and he has too many shining points on his body, which has become the focus of publicity in the exhibition hall. However, when the museum staff collected information about the hero Hao Sancheng, they found that he did not leave a **.
After many inquiries, the staff learned that the former guard Hao Zhiquan was still alive, so they immediately found him and asked if there was a photo with Hao Sancheng**.
In order to determine whether the person on ** is Hao Zhiquan, an anti-Japanese veteran, the staff went to persuade him to donate ** three times. However, this made the old man Hao Zhiquan feel dissatisfied, and he emphasized that ** was donated by him, and he was the only one in the county who owned this **, can't he prove his identity?
The staff said that they could not confirm the blurring of the ** person. However, after many efforts, the volunteers found one of Hao Zhiquan's comrades-in-arms, who was ten years old and in poor physical condition, but he still traveled thousands of miles to Yushe County to confirm that the two people on the ** were indeed Hao Sancheng and Hao Zhiquan.
Although there was a phenomenon of pretending to be an anti-Japanese veteran to defraud the subsidy, in the face of the hardships of this ninety-year-old man running around to negotiate and prove his identity, it was necessary for the staff of the Civil Affairs Bureau to strictly review it.
As the old man Hao Zhiquan said: "Although there are computers that can easily access archives, people in our era may become black households if they do not have documents." ”
Veterans are our heroes, and their contributions should not be overlooked. Let us pay tribute to all the veterans who have made great contributions to the revolution, and hope that their identities will be recognized.