On February 2nd, a white-haired old man walked into an ordinary ward on the third floor of Aibo Hospital, Luqiao, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, which had offended Zheng Xulan, Zhejiang Province, and gave a standard military salute to another old man lying in the hospital bed. Lying in the hospital bed is a leaf of 9 1 year old. Late gastric cancer was diagnosed at the end of last year. He is bedridden and can only live on nutrient solution. The visitor is 92-year-old Changde veteran and former captain clerk Wu Rongkai. He and Ye belong to the 57th Division of the 74th Army of the National Army 169 Regiment.

The highest honor of a soldier

1939, Ye, a 0/8-year-old boy from Tiantai County, Zhejiang Province, went down to longxi village, a hometown several thousand meters above sea level, to sign up for the army.

Tiantai was the "National Recruitment Demonstration County" of that year. According to the county records, 17 14 1939 17 14 people volunteered to join the army, far exceeding the predetermined recruitment target. As a result, 1353 people, including Ye, were incorporated into the Volunteers. After living in the city for three days, they set off this year1early morning of October 22nd, 65438.

Ye still clearly remembers that this morning, the station and the road were crowded with people who came to see me off spontaneously. They rushed to the anti-Japanese battlefield amid loud slogans, firecrackers and cheers.

After training in Jiangshan, Zhejiang for half a year, Ye was assigned to the 57th Division of the 74th Army/5 Company and 5 Battalion of the KLOC-0/69 Regiment.

The 74th Army is the elite of the national army. In the eight years of Anti-Japanese War, almost all the hard battles and fierce battles in Central China were fought. Participated in Nanjing, Lanfeng, Wuhan, Nanchang, Changsha, Shanggao, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and western Hubei. Ye said that they have been to many places in Hunan, such as Lishui, Longyou, Zhejiang and northern Fujian. They fought with the Japanese army for positions many times and lost ground.

In the Battle of Shanggao, Yu Chengwan, the 25-year-old commander of the 57th Division of the 74th Army, commanded the troops to hold their ground and fought bloody battles with the 34th Division of the Japanese Army, winning the highest honorary title of "samurai" for the 57th Division of China. Then, the 74th Army became the emergency reserve team of the major battlefields directly under the Central Military Commission.

After several years of bloody fighting, Ye was seriously injured many times. On one occasion, he was in a coma for more than ten hours under the body of a dead comrade-in-arms before being rescued. Wu Rongkai joined the army for two years longer than Ye Wan. 194 1 April, bid farewell to his new wife and entered the medical class of the 74th Military Medical Department of Changsha. After being admitted, he was trained in Liuyang for half a year, participated in the Changsha Battle, and then transferred to the 57th Division of the 74th Army. "Our answer is blood, not death"

1June, 943, the battle of western Hubei ended, and the 57th Division stayed in Changde. "In order to defend Changde, we must fight the Japanese. Yu Shifang and Shang Feng have long anticipated this, "Wu Rongkai said.

Changde is an important town in western Hunan and the gateway to Sichuan and Guizhou. After the fall of Wuhan, it was a material distribution center in Chongqing's rear area. 1943, the Japanese army decided to carry out the battle of Changde in order to curb the counter-offensive of the China army on the battlefield between Yunnan and Burma, forcing the Chinese expeditionary force assembled in Yunnan to return to the army for rescue and seize the Dongting Lake granary, so as to achieve the purpose of "supporting the war with war".

On September 28th, the Japanese-Chinese Dispatching Command assembled five divisions and four puppet troops of the11Army, and prepared to start operations in early June.

For China, Changde can't afford to lose. Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth Theater, and Wang, commander of the 74th Army: "Changde must be held, and the defenders must live and die with the city." Later, he issued the instruction of "success or failure is at stake, success or failure is in benevolence" and ordered the 57th Division of the 74th Army to defend Changde again.

165438+ 10/5, Yu Chengwan announced the headquarters of the 57th Army Division, saying that "our combat mission is to draw an equilateral pentagram with a diameter of more than 40 miles outside the city. We can't get out of this circle. No matter how much pressure the enemy exerts, our answer can only be blood, death, and dying in the battlefield is glory. "

Qing Yu