96-year-old veteran Sun Youjie tells the story behind the birth of the "Weixian Regiment" battle flag-
blood
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stained battle flag, red heart and pen front
In the autumn of Yantai, there was a patter of light rain.
The three of us got off the train from Yantai South Station in Shandong, and brought a "Weixian Regiment" battle flag to visit the veteran Sun Youjie, feeling both excited and anxious.
Excited because the "Weixian Regiment" is the predecessor of our unit. It is not easy to find Sun Youjie, the original designer and producer of the "Weixian Regiment" battle flag; At advanced age, his physical condition and whether his memory of the war years is clear is unknown.
Until we knocked on the door of Sun Youjie's house and held his powerful hands, we were convinced that this would be a very rewarding visit.
The old man in front of him had piercing eyes and articulate, and his kind smile made him feel kind.
"You are Haibo, you are Liu Huan, you should be Hongyu!" Sun Youjie looked at the name tag on our military uniform, and turned around to point to a calendar hanging on the wall with the words "Today's Weixian Regiment" 'Li Hongyu, Liu Huan and Haibo came to visit.'
"I've written it down a long time ago, just waiting for you to come!" Sun Youjie welcomed us into the house warmly.
During this trip, we mainly hope to learn some of the stories behind the production of the "Weixian Regiment" banner from Sun Youjie's elders.
As soon as we took out the "Weixian Regiment" battle flag, Sun Youjie immediately beamed with joy.
"I remember this flag! At that time, the East China Bureau was going to make a prize flag for the 79th regiment. I took 3 lesbians and didn't close their eyes for three days and nights. They embroidered it on the silk with a needle and thread."
At the beginning of 1948, the People's Liberation Army switched from defensive to offensive in the Shandong battlefield.
Sun Youjie, as the head of the art group of the Art Troupe and a reporter accompanying the team, witnessed the process of the 79th Regiment of the 27th Division of the 9th Column of the East China Field Army conquering the county seat of Weixian.
"In 1945, I enrolled in the army from my hometown of Shandong and entered the Jiaodong Anti-Japanese War University." Sun Youjie said that when he joined the army, he wanted to go to the front line to kill the enemy. Be a hero if you die." He didn't expect to be a member of the Anti-Dalian propaganda team after graduation.
"The leader said that war is a game of chess, and each has its own division of labor. The work of the propaganda team is to inspire and educate officers and soldiers. It is also very important. Only then I made up my mind and determined to give full play to my expertise in writing and fine arts, and actively participate in the work of literature and art propaganda."
In April 1948, Sun Youjie went to the 79th Regiment that focused on the county seat of Weixian for an interview.
"At that time, the army was sending a letter from the Weibei County Committee of the Communist Party of China to the officers and soldiers of the 9th Column. The letter denounced the Kuomintang army's various crimes of grabbing food and cruelty to the people after occupying Weixian County. The officers and soldiers were all filled with indignation. The Civil Engineering Corps returned to the army. During performances such as "Blood and Tears" and other programs, the morale of the officers and soldiers was high, and they all expressed that they must avenge the suffering of the people in Wei County."
On the afternoon of April 23, when they heard that the city was about to be attacked, Sun Youjie and another comrade-in-arms chose a shelter that was easy to observe and waited for the siege to begin.
At about 5 pm, the time for the general attack arrived.
Under the repeated bombardment of more than 200 artillery and small artillery, the tall pavilion standing on the north gate of Weixian County was knocked down in half.
After dark, the assault troops blasted the low walls and bunker groups through the trenches, and launched the ascent to the city while the smoke was filled.
Amid the sound of gunfire, a huge gap was blasted at the top of the 13-meter-high city wall, and rubble and broken bricks were piled into a slope.
The 79th Regiment's 8th company commando climbed up the city on a slope.
A squad leader Wang Yulai was the first to rush to the city wall, leading the entire squad to defeat the enemy, and seized one sixty cannon and one heavy machine gun.
The soldier Zhang Yide was also on the city wall with a red flag behind his back. The red flag said "Put the red flag of victory on the head of Wei County."
Soon after, the officers and soldiers of the 4th Company rushed up from another breakthrough with another red flag. The red flags with the words "Put the Victory Red Flag on the Head of Weixian" were flying high above the two breakthroughs less than 100 meters apart. .
It is not easy to attack the city wall, and it is even more difficult to defend the breach so that the follow-up troops can keep up.
The Weixian city wall is 13 meters high, the bottom is nearly 9 meters thick, and the top is 6 meters wide. In addition, the strong defense system built by the Japanese puppet and the Kuomintang army for many years was called the "Luzhong Fortress."
If you can't consolidate and expand the breakthrough of the city wall, you will be re-sealed by the enemy, and the follow-up troops will not come up, and the siege will be abandoned.
Therefore, a life-and-death battle unfolded on the city wall.
At midnight, the 5th company also boarded the city wall.
But the enemy knew that I had few people in the city, small positions, and almost finished ammunition, and the artillery fire against me was even more fierce.
At the critical moment, the superiors decided to break the custom of siege at night and make the follow-up troops siege the city during the day at all costs.
Sun Youjie told us that he would never forget the scene where the officers and soldiers marched in blood.
"The siege officers and soldiers, braving the frenzied fire of the enemy and the fire blockade of the enemies on both sides of the city wall, desperately crawled through the gap in the blown city wall. After they climbed the city wall, they had to enter the city to fight. The city wall was more than ten meters high from the ground. The ladder is only seven or eight meters long. The officers and soldiers of the 5th Company climbed the ladder at first, but when the ladder was lost, they jumped straight down. Many soldiers were injured as a result. After waking up, they climbed and continued to fight..." Here, Sun Youjie stroked the battle flag on the table and was silent for a while.
The Battle of Weixian was the first urban fortification battle of the People's Liberation Army on the East China battlefield during the War of Liberation. It was a victory of great significance after the military and civilians of East China entered the strategic counter-offensive.
On May 8, 1948, the East China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the East China Field Army Headquarters issued a commendation order, conferring the honorary title of "Weixian Regiment" on the 79th Regiment of the 27th Division of the 9th Column.
Because the 9th column was to hold a commendation meeting to award the 79th regiment "Weixian Regiment" battle flag, Sun Youjie was urgently ordered to design the "Weixian Regiment" battle flag, and led 3 lesbians without rest for 3 days and nights. Sewn on silk.
Sun Youjie deliberately designed a tall silhouette of the city wall on the battle flag, implying that the 79 Regiment first broke the Weixian city wall in the Weixian Campaign, and made the first contribution for the complete annihilation of the enemy and the victory.
Later, Sun Youjie also used "local movies" to publicize the heroes' deeds in that battle.
"Natural movie" was invented by Sun Youjie himself.
During the war, the military's cultural life was relatively monotonous.
Sun Youjie has been thinking about how to make the spiritual life of his comrades more colorful.
Inspired by the local shadow puppet show, he had the idea of making slides.
However, at that time, there was no way to buy a slide projector, and it was difficult to find relevant materials.
Sun Youjie thought, "Turkish Movies" should make a fuss about the word "Turkish".
One night, he found a magnifying glass and fixed it on a cardboard shell, and then illuminated it with a kerosene lamp. A slide-like picture was shown on the wall.
With the help of the engineers from Jiaodong Anti-Machinery Institute, they used iron plates as raw materials and steam lamps as the light source. After repeated trials, they made a slide projector.
Sun Youjie then developed a method of showing two slides, one static and one moving at the same time, to show the image of an airplane flying in the sky and a car running on the road.
This kind of native method made the soldiers and civilians of the Jiaodong Anti-Japanese Base see a "movie", and Sun Youjie became a celebrity for a while.
Although he did not become a hero of killing enemies, he was named a model worker in the Jiaodong Anti-Virus for his invention and creation.
Later, Sun Youjie participated as a field reporter of the 27th Volunteer Army's "Victory News" to resist US aggression and aid Korea. He wrote many lively and touching news works on the battlefield. He also used his artistic expertise to create many prints reflecting the heroic fighting of volunteer soldiers. work.
In 1979, Sun Youjie transferred to a newspaper in Yantai, Shandong, and continued to engage in the news reporting work he loved.
After retiring, he continued to work hard, wrote many books reflecting the war to resist US aggression and aggression, and published works such as "Jiaodong Veterans' Battlefield Situation" and "Red Gene from Generation to Generation", expressing his patriotic enthusiasm with sincerity.
"I am a survivor of the war. Every time I think of the tragic and heroic scenes of my comrades bleeding and sacrifice on the battlefield, I think that they must write down their heroic deeds and let more people know." Sun Youjie held up the "Weixian Regiment" "Zhanqi solemnly handed over to us, "Although I left the army, I am still a veteran and I have always cared about national defense and army building. I hope that you, as the successors of the'Weixian Regiment', will inherit and carry forward the glorious traditions and excellence of the People's Army. Style, continue to hold high the banner of the'Weixian Regiment'."
Li Hongyu Liu Huan