China News Service, October 19 (Reporter Li Yanguo) In late autumn, the inner layers of the Yang Jingyu Martyrs' Cemetery were all stained.

Although he has limited mobility, 95-year-old Xu Zhenming still likes to take a wheelchair to see the cemetery.

　　In the revolutionary war years, Xu Zhenming fought through fire and water, and experienced countless baptisms of blood and fire, and the test of life and death.

As the gunpowder dissipated, this veteran who had made great military exploits resolutely chose to work in the Yang Jingyu Martyrs' Cemetery, leaving all his energy there to guard the heroic spirit of the general.

　　After retiring, the old man handed over the "relay baton" to guard the cemetery to his son, and he himself applied to return to the cemetery to be a guard until he was physically inconvenient.

Both generations of the Xu family have sprinkled their efforts on the hills on the east bank of the Hunjiang River.

During the Qingming Dynasty sweeping the tomb, two generations of Xu family came to the cemetery to present flowers to the bronze statue of General Yang Jingyu.

Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee

　　"I like this military uniform the most!" In a short sentence, the ninety-year-old old man had to divide it several times to finish.

Nowadays, Xu Zhenming can no longer express smoothly, but whenever he sees the family portrait taken by the whole family in front of Jingyu Cemetery, his eyes will flash.

　　Xu Zhenming enlisted in the army in 1942.

During the training of recruits, I heard the instructors tell the story of the resistance against Japan by General Yang Jingyu, the commander-in-chief and political commissar of the First Route Army, who died in Linhaixueyuan two years ago.

From then on, Yang Jingyu became Xu Zhenming's "spiritual idol", inspiring him not to fear danger and difficulties.

　　In an ambush against the Japanese invaders in China, Xu Zhenming was injured by a shell and unconscious.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself lying on a stretcher carried to the rear hospital. At this time, the Japanese invaders began a crazy breakthrough against the Eighth Route Army.

Xu Zhenming resisted the severe pain, climbed off the stretcher, picked up the guns and ammunition from the sacrificed comrades, and returned to the position.

His heroic performance greatly inspired the fighting spirit of the commanders of the Eighth Route Army, and everyone fought bloody side by side until victory.

　　During his military career, Xu Zhenming successively participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and the counterinsurgency operations in Tibet. He has won two great contributions and several minor contributions.

Among them, during the War of Liberation, he won the honorary title of "hard work" in the 115th Division and the Sixth Regiment; during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he won first-class merit in the tug of war for the "394.8 Heights".

Veteran Xu Zhenming left all his energy in the Yang Jingyu Martyrs Cemetery.

Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee

　　In 1958, Xu Zhenming returned to Tonghua, Jilin with the troops. When he changed jobs, he gave up his relatively easy job and resolutely came to work in the Yang Jingyu Martyrs Cemetery.

He said: "I feel honored to be able to guard the tomb of the anti-Japanese heroes!"

　　When Jingyu Cemetery was first built, there were no trees or flowers.

Xu Zhenming led several employees of the cemetery to hoe, pick and plant trees and flowers.

A few years later, the cemetery is full of flowers in summer and green in winter.

"How many trees did my father plant? It's really uncountable, there must be tens of thousands." Xu Zhenming's son Xu Yongjun said, "When I was a kid, I followed my father behind him, he carried a shovel, and I ran with him on the mountain. Keep planting."

　　Seeing the saplings grow up, Xu Zhenming is very pleased.

"It was the reckless forest sea that covered the general's whereabouts and turned dangers to the end."

　　In 1980, Xu Zhenming retired.

Unsure of going to the cemetery, he persuaded his son Xu Yongjun, who was about to work, to work in the cemetery and continue to guard the tomb of General Yang Jingyu.

And he himself returned to the cemetery and willingly became a guard.

　　As in previous years, the old man swept the snow and fallen leaves in the cemetery in winter.

　　In addition to nursing, Xu Zhenming also played the role of "explainer".

In the cemetery, he often told the people who visited the heroic deeds, telling them that "without these heroes, we would not have a happy life now."

　　Xu Chuanzhen, a teacher at Xinling Primary School in Tonghua City, said that when he was young, he had seen Xu Lao's story on TV.

"Unexpectedly, after I worked, I became his grandson's head teacher, so I immediately thought of asking him to be our outside counselor to tell the children stories about defending their homes."

　　In recent years, as long as his body allows, Xu Zhenming will still sit in a wheelchair, visit the cemetery with his children, and quietly admire the general’s tomb among the green pines and cypresses.

(Finish)