Sun Qunying, 93-year-old volunteer army cultural instructor, fondly recalls the years of resisting U.S. aid to Korea
I brought a box of chalk and a few books to the battlefield
The past October ushered in the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers’ going abroad to fight against the US and aid Korea.
On this important anniversary, Sun Qunying, a veteran of the Korean War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, received a medal of his own.
70 years ago, 22-year-old Sun Qunying went to the Korean battlefield with the 119th Division of the 40th Army.
For more than two years in North Korea, she has been serving as a volunteer army cultural instructor, tutoring volunteer soldiers with cultural knowledge.
She once taught special-class combat heroes such as Xu Changfu and Yang Gensi, and did her best to make many soldiers who were illiterate become able to read newspapers and write.
Beijing is full of colors in late autumn.
On November 2, the reporter came to a residential house in Datun, Chaoyang District, and met Sun Qunying, a veteran of the Korean War in the War of Resistance against US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Speaking of the glorious experience 70 years ago, the old man has amazing memory and is very talkative. When it comes to interesting things, he laughs first.
She was particularly proud of, "Although I did not see the soldiers fighting bravely on the battlefield, I deeply felt the spirit of the volunteers to study hard."
One shot, the plane came; two shots, the plane went
Sun Qunying held the commemorative medal for the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers’ mission to resist U.S. aggression and aid to Korea, which he received two days ago. At the same time, he was a bit annoyed. "I want to take a photo in the photo studio, but these two The feet hurt, the plasters don’t work, and I can’t get out if I can’t walk.”
Sun Qunying was born in Henan in 1928. When he was a child, he attended a private school for a few days and later attended a new school.
"My grandfather and grandfather are both Jinshi, and my mother has also read books. She advocated that I have to study since I was young. When I was young, there was only one child left in the family, and my mother would also invite me a husband."
She spent five years in elementary school and three years in junior high school, just in time for the eight-year war of resistance.
In the year of the third year of junior high school, Japan surrendered.
After three years of high school, he caught up with the war of liberation.
When she graduated from high school, the PLA entered the Central Plains, and she joined the army without hesitation.
In the army, she is one of the few high school graduates with knowledge and culture.
All along, people who meet Sun Qunying will ask in their first sentence: Have you ever fought in North Korea?
Sun Qunying always smiled, "I didn't fire my gun, I haven't fought in a battle." The other party was more curious, "What happened then?"
"Send me a box of chalk and a few books so that I can teach soldiers to learn culture."
In Sun Qunying's memory, in October 1950, the first batch of troops to enter Korea were the 38th Army, the 39th Army, the 40th Army, and the 41st Army.
Her 40th Army "except for medical staff when she first went to North Korea, did not bring lesbians."
Sun Qunying recalled the experience of that year as a treasure.
At the beginning of the war, MacArthur, the commander of the US coalition forces, once arrogantly declared that Christmas "must drink the Yalu River", meaning that he would cross the border between China and North Korea and come to China.
"As soon as the Volunteers went abroad to fight, the U.S. army not only retreated steadily, but also became the commander of the three changes. Our Chinese army was a Marshal Peng Dehuai. At that time, we used to lure the enemy deep, fight night battles, and fight positional warfare." Many fighters have a very low level of education, so they picked up the flyers when they didn’t know the words. At that time, they wanted to “modern national defense, it’s impossible for soldiers to have no culture.”
Based on this, in July 1951, the troops went to North Korea again, this time with lesbians, 22-year-old Sun Qunying was selected, followed by the 40th Army 119 division from Dandong, "brilliant and powerful across the Yalu River", became North Korea. A volunteer army cultural instructor on the battlefield.
Sun Qunying remembered very clearly that he always went to North Korea at night.
At that time, U.S. planes kept bombing during the day and night in order to block our transportation routes.
"The U.S. military also said,'I can't beat you to death on the battlefield, I starve you to death'. We drove on the bridge in a big truck, and there was a noise when the truck was driving, and the driver could not hear the sound of the plane, and driving lights at night. What should I do if the plane comes to explode? The volunteers set up guard posts on the mountain, and when they heard the plane was coming, they fired a shot to indicate that the plane was coming. We hurriedly turned off the lights, turned off the fire, and parked in place. Wait until we heard that the guard posts were placed two. The gun means that the plane is gone, and then go forward." There are sentries along the way, and there are military stations along the way. She remembered that to North Korea, "you have to walk at least two nights, at night, not during the day, and stay at the military station for a day."
In the past, the hand that could only hold the axe and the sickle could also write
When Sun Qunying was in North Korea, the trainees were mainly platoon cadres. They had a total of ten cultural teachers, of which three were lesbians.
The education level of the fighters varies. How to find out?
Only one person can ask all of them: "Do you know a word?" "How many words do you know?" She remembered that it was hard to hear someone say "I know 13 words" at the time. She was very happy, and quickly asked "Know Which 13 characters?" The other party replied: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, plus my name, a total of 13 characters."
“Some don’t know how to read, some know a few words, and some can read newspapers and read an article.” The cultural instructor assigns them to classes based on the situation: “Those who don’t know a word are assigned to the elementary class and can read it. The newspaper is assigned to a higher class."
In order to ensure the correctness of fighting and learning, the volunteers learn in rotation. "Reserve one and draw one. This time the platoon leader will come next time the deputy platoon leader will come, this time the company commander will come next time the deputy company commander will come, once. More than a hundred people were drawn to class.” There were no classrooms at the time, and classes were all in air-raid shelters.
The air-raid shelter was dug deep, and the dead branches and leaves on it served as cover.
The rumble of cannons is common, and you must be alert to enemy attacks during class.
Soldiers call the class "group out." Each class selects a team leader to be on duty, one worth one week.
As soon as the instructor walked into the podium, he shouted "stand up", and then shouted "out of the team, how many people should be, how many people actually arrived, the report is complete".
Then the instructor said "sit down" and started the class.
Until now, Sun Qunying laughed when he thought of it, "There is a team leader who stutters a bit. Every time he shouts to stand up, he says,'Rise up~Stand up'. I especially want to laugh, but I can’t laugh, so I just twisted. Go over and wipe the blackboard a few times."
In order to allow the volunteers to master the basic Chinese characters in the shortest possible time, the cultural instructors also brought a separate textbook for the volunteers.
Sun Qunying remembers clearly, "The "Instant Literacy Method" written by a person named Qi Jianhua collected hundreds of new characters from grades one to six, and even cadres completed the reading within three months. During the lecture, Sun Qunying first picked out the new characters in the book for different people’s levels and let them recognize them separately. “Today Zhang San and Li Si will recognize whatever characters they want to recognize. Each person will recognize how many words a day. Ten characters." Until they have recognized all the new characters, they will send the book to them and let them read the text.
After recognizing some characters, she will also add some training in sentence making and memorizing idioms.
Once, Sun Qunying and the soldiers were eating and chatting together, and suddenly remembered that they were always confused about the two words "why" and "what's more", so he quickly explained to them what each of these two words meant. Then let them make a sentence orally like in class.
One soldier stood up and said, "Now our life is very bitter. Three meals a day of sorghum rice, we can't even eat steamed buns, let alone dumplings." Another continued: "Resistance to U.S. Aid Korea is a war, why pay attention to life?" Seeing the soldiers After understanding the meaning of the word, Sun Qunying was happy from the heart.
At that time, there were three teachers in a class, one lecturer, and two tutors. “After I finished the class, let them write by themselves, and the two tutors watched and checked whether they were writing correctly.” In the evening, I had to study at night.
At that time, the supply of materials was extremely scarce, and only one candle was given to each class.
"One candle will take two nights, so you have to save it. Use only half a night." Volunteer soldiers studied very hard, and later they didn't even use candles. "The soldiers lit a pine branch with oily properties. With pine branches in one hand and Shunen in the other, everyone needs ten pine branches a day to spend the evening study time."
Sun Qunying was impressed. One of the 119 division's deputy platoon commanders named Yang Shuhua was a sharpshooter. He once set a record of "killing two enemies with one shot and four enemies with two shots" and was named a first-class combat hero.
But not only can he not write his name, he can't even hold a pen.
She imitated with a smile, "Lianli rewarded him with a pen. He held the pen with a handful of grips. We coached him for a long time before learning to write his own name in traditional characters." Sun Qunying is particularly proud of , "He recognized dozens of characters in the next three months, and he used to write with axe and sickle hands."
That's the best roasted sweet potato I have ever eaten
Life in North Korea is very difficult. The cultural instructors only eat two meals a day, one at ten in the morning and one at three or four in the afternoon. "I have never eaten fried noodles, sorghum rice, a salted radish per person. Dried as a vegetable. Sometimes a piece of dried salted fish is the best meal." Sun Qunying remembered that he "eaten dumplings once". They were meat fillings made from seized canned American meat and bought them from fellow villagers. A few pumpkins, wogua and stuffing.
"With class as a unit, each class will bring back the meat, stuffing, and noodles, and each class will make their own."
Sun Qunying lives with two other lesbians in a North Korean home.
At first they couldn't understand each other's words, they just relied on gestures.
"For example, if you want to borrow a scissors to cut your hair, you don't know the word'scissors', and your partner picks up a strand of her hair to cut her head with scissors, and the fellow will understand. Shaking his head, we also know that there is no meaning."
In Sun Qunying's memory, there was no young man in a village in North Korea at that time. They were all children and old people, and women did everything.
"They have a very simple life and they are very capable. The winter is very cold. After tutoring students with homework in the evening, we came back from the classroom and met the women standing guard and greeted them kindly. They said in unison,'lesbians have worked hard.'"
There is one thing that she will never forget.
One day everyone went to class after breakfast, but she had a stomachache that day and she was very uncomfortably lying on the kang and couldn't get up.
The landlord's eldest sister saw her lying there alone, and came over and asked with concern. Sun Qunying pointed at her belly with pain, and the eldest sister walked away.
After a while, I didn’t expect the eldest sister to come back again and brought her something to eat, “Oh, these two pieces of roasted sweet potatoes, cut into finger-thick slices, are roasted on both sides of brown, hot, sweet and fragrant. . That was the best food she could bring out, and the best roasted sweet potato I have ever tasted."
She repeatedly talked about what happened in the rotation team.
No home in North Korea has a bed, and everything is sitting on the floor.
When you go back, you have to take off your shoes outside the door. When you enter the door, you will find the floor mats. The quilts and mattresses are folded and placed against the wall. They are taken out at night and placed back during the day.
Once a soldier wanted to enter the home of a fellow villager to get his backpack hung on the wall. He was lazy and walked straight in on the mat without taking off his shoes. Other soldiers saw him.
At the meeting that night, he was criticized: stepping on the kang banquet of the fellow villagers violated mass discipline, and he also reviewed himself.
After the review, when he thought of the Americans saying that we were invaders everywhere, he was very angry. "Medi said we are invaders. Are there such invaders in the world?"
At that time, the North Korean people especially supported the volunteer army. The villagers' families were very poor and there was not enough food to eat. The volunteer army's leftover sorghum rice supported them to eat.
Sun Qunying and the others live in a fellow villager's home, and their relationship is very harmonious.
When the North Korean old lady saw them so young, they would ask about the situation at home: Do you have a father?
Do you have a mother?
Once the female partner who was living together wore two small braids and tied them with a white-headed rope. The old lady held her white-headed rope to express her doubts, meaning to ask, "Tie a white-headed rope if a family member has died?" They smiled and shook their hands, and the old lady was relieved.
Saw an American plane with my own eyes
Was shot down by an anti-aircraft gun
The cultural instructors have also experienced the baptism of war. The most dangerous one was when a bomb exploded very close to Sun Qunying, and she was covered with dirt.
Later, the Volunteers had anti-aircraft guns supported by the Soviet Union and their own anti-aircraft guns, which greatly increased their combat effectiveness.
She saw an American plane being shot down by anti-aircraft guns. “After it was shot down, the pilot parachuted and the soldiers rushed over with guns and caught him.” Unexpectedly, the prisoners were brought over. The soldiers wanted The cultural instructor helped interrogate, "But none of us can speak English, I only remember a few simple words, and I can't talk to him."
She was very impressed. The pilot didn't take it seriously, and he took some chewing gum to eat. Later, he had to send him to the prison camp.
The prisoners in charge were some college students enrolled in the military at Tsinghua University. She heard people say, “The U.S. military stipulates that there is no bullet, contact with superiors, and no food. If you encounter any of the above three conditions, You can hand in guns".
Moreover, American captives "always ask when they eat meat, and they are particularly happy when they hear about it."
While working as a cultural teacher in North Korea, Sun Qunying also returned to China to participate in a sports meeting, which made her particularly memorable.
"At that time, the volunteers had a sports meeting in Shenyang. Every army had to play a volleyball team, men's volleyball, women's volleyball team, basketball team, men's basketball team, women's basketball team. During the war, no one can play, and everyone does not know each other. Who has this specialty. So I picked a taller one and picked me away. But as soon as I got on the basketball court, I couldn't run fast, didn't jump high, and couldn't catch the ball. I stood on the basketball court. She's like a fool." As a result, she was asked as a staff member to be responsible for the lives of the athletes during the game, "to buy popsicles, and get water."
She was deeply impressed, "When there is no competition in the evening, I will watch Peking opera, watch movies, and watch dramas. In the evening, there will be a dance party and meet with Soviet experts. There is also an order: Soviet experts invite you to dance, and you must not refuse. Wrong. I don’t know how to dance. When I saw a Soviet expert standing up and looking at me, I was so frightened that I leaned down and wanted to get under the table, thinking that I would never be picked."
I should be a teacher
The Korean battlefield left an unforgettable memory for Sun Qunying, and also made her reap love.
"They introduced me to a target. He was a political commissar in the artillery regiment, and he made a joke at that time." At that time, after the first phase of the training team was over, they had to report to the agency first, and then change a group of students.
"Once I went to a meeting in the city, the section chief of the cadre department said to me: You taught well, and the soldiers responded very well. I asked the section chief to help solicit opinions and see what else I need to improve. When he heard it, he said: There is one opinion. The soldiers reported that you, the instructor, has a problem. He was in class and he was stunned when he heard the fire. I said that there was no such thing, but it was not easy to deny it immediately. "Seeing her stunned in place, the section chief couldn't help but smile. "I understood when he smiled, because the person I just met was in the artillery regiment, and he was joking with me." The two could only pass a few letters. "I have met several times" to communicate with each other.
In September 1953, when the Korean War basically ended, an advisory group was sent to support Vietnam. This time, Sun Qunying's lover, Bi Shumo, was selected.
"He asked the leader whether he could go to Vietnam and get married and then go with his family." Shili agreed, and Sun Qunying was transferred to the office. During that period, the chances of meeting increased. People apply for marriage.
"At that time, we had to wait for the review by the division's party committee. We returned to China a few days earlier than the others and first reported to the Beijing General Political Department. They said that you have never been to Beijing, so let's go and play for a few days." Sun Qunying and Bi Shumo married Later, I was notified that no advisory team would be sent. In this way, Bi Shumo was assigned to the General Political Organization Department, and Sun Qunying was assigned to the General Political Propaganda Department.
In 1954, Sun Qunying was facing a job change. She had the opportunity to go to the First Ministry of Machinery Industry. "I thought I hadn’t studied machinery and didn’t want to go. I wanted to teach those soldiers who work with farm tools in North Korea. They write, I'll be a teacher." She went to the leader. When the leader heard it was strange, she persuaded her, "There are three grains of food in the family, and you shouldn't be the king of children. No one wants to be a teacher, so why do you want to be a teacher? "
In May 1955, she was assigned to Beijing Women's Fourth Middle School (now Chen Jinglun Middle School) to teach.
The principal asked "what can you teach".
She said, "Teaching language is good, teaching history is good, and teaching politics is good."
The principal simply said, "Now there is a lack of a Chinese teacher, so you can teach Chinese."
Sun Qunying said with a smile, "I have taught this for a lifetime."
At the age of 55, when she was about to retire, she was catching up with the school and couldn't get a teacher. Sun Qunying "overtime service" for eight years, and did not leave the stage until 63.
Many students know that Teacher Sun Qunying went to North Korea during the War of Resistance against U.S. Aid and Aid Korea. Everyone has the same feeling, "Teacher Sun has a cheerful personality and she cherishes her life today."
Sun Qunying's first class of students in the Women's Fourth Middle School has now become a rare old man.
What made student Chen Lizhu especially admired was, "When I call, Mr. Sun, who is in his 90s, can talk to me for more than an hour."
Until now, the 75-year-old Zhai Jinli sang "Doraj" and "Kindalai" completely in Korean. "I still remember the way Teacher Sun taught us in class. She took us to recite "in a Henan accent. "Pipa Xing", every time we read a sentence, we want to laugh, and we still learn from her after class."
Two years ago, Sun Qunying had a serious illness and was sent to the hospital three times to be critically ill. The family was planning to prepare for the funeral, and she was miraculously rescued.
When she was discharged from the hospital, she occupies a poem: In her old age, she suffered from many diseases, and suddenly became ill.
Life is hanging by the line to send An Zhen, An Zhen's beautiful name has been broadcast.
He has superb medical skills and good medical ethics, and there are many ways to cure diseases and save people.
The medical staff worked hard to snatch me back before the ghost gate closed.
Sun Qunying asked her daughter to print it out and send it to the doctor to express her gratitude. He didn't expect that "the director, the nurse, everyone took the paper to take pictures with me."
Photo by Wen Bing/Reporter Li Zhe