Chapter 391: Touching an Era

A lonely position, a dark tunnel. Some young soldiers with thin faces were sitting.

No, the word soldier may no longer fully interpret all their efforts on the position.

Have you ever seen some such soldiers?

The passionate men with dust on their faces, smoke on their bodies, and were covered in torn military uniforms, leaning on guns, sitting around them as thin as firewood. Although their situation was extremely difficult, and even the wounded could only watch the wounds on their bodies slowly festered because they could not get effective treatment. However, these strong volunteer soldiers did not have any decadent expressions on their faces, and they still held hands and sweared to stay in their tunnels.

In that era of burning blood, they had never thought about what would happen tomorrow. They had never thought about life that would actually pass away when they had just begun to bloom. In the hearts of these most lovely people: they were determined that even if there was only the last person left, they would stick to the 597.9 position. They were the flag of the position, and the position would never be lost due to their existence.

What a sacred historical scene this is? It’s a pity that during the war, the instant photography records were not left behind. The strong and passionate young people led by Wang Yang can not only be described by the word "soldier". They are warriors, they are heroes, and everyone is a hero. Looking at these passionate men, Wang Yang only felt that he was among the heroes, how glorious it was.

Of course, what Wang Yang and the others didn't know was that while they were sticking to it, the soldiers of the Eighth Company and Sixth Company and several companies in the tunnel under the north high ground on 573.7 actually faced similar situations to them, and even the environment was even more difficult, because they did not foresee the possibility of persistence for a long time, so they took advantage of the enemy's defense change to seize a large amount of strategic materials from the enemy's No. 3 position bunker, so at least they had the materials to stick to it as a guarantee.

In fact, in several tunnels up and down the Shangganling position, and in the eyes of several combat troops, for the volunteer soldiers who insist on tunnel defense, the most dangerous threat is not the 7th Division of the United States and the 2nd Division of the Han Dynasty, but the water.

While destroying the tunnel, the vicious Goryeo Bangzi stepped up the blockade of the supply transportation line behind the tunnel troops; used dense artillery fire to suppress the entire depth, cutting off all channels from the front of Wusheng Mountain to Shangganling, resulting in the exhaustion of grain bullets in each tunnel in Shangganling and no dripping water was left.

The rear tried to sacrifice several lives and sent a cloth bag of biscuits into the tunnel. But it could not pass through the dry esophagus, almost stopping the secretion of saliva, and refused to swallow any food. The genus pellets could not be dissolved in the mouth, and the tongue was swollen and could not speak clearly. The sound made was whispering and slurring. The scene of starving biscuits and steamed buns appeared in the tunnel without absurdity.

Hunger and thirst were like two dull knives, slowly slaughtering a pair of atrophic stomach and a igniting throat. The extremely thirsty soldier applied toothpaste to his cracked lips; he lay on the wall of the pit and licked the wet rocks.

Finally, someone broke his shyness and carefully suggested that it could use urine to quench thirst.

The proposal was immediately responded. The sanitary staff stipulated that in order to maintain the moisture in the body, only one person could urinate at a time, and everyone took turns to drink it. In this case, the commander of the troops would often take the lead in picking up the tea tank containing urine and say to the soldiers: "Drink it, just treat it as glorious tea."

This is an extreme survival move at the cost of damaging the kidneys. The urine excreted by people with severe water deficiency is highly concentrated in the body and the smell is particularly bad.

When I took the first sip, the strange urine made everyone frown. After a few sips, I didn’t care much. Over time, the soldiers gradually drank some tips during the urination process: wrap a packet of wet soil with a towel, drip the urine and filter it, and then squeeze some toothpaste to mix it in, so that the odor will be much smaller.

Urinating has become the first need for survival. If someone should be urinating slowly, someone will still be unable to wait to urge him: "I'll drink it if you ask you to pee, why don't you pee?"

The soldier was so anxious that he jumped up: "What do you drink if I can't pee? Really, why can't I urinate?"

But even if you urinate in the future, you cannot excrete it. If you can urinate a little, you have to make sure you give it to the injured and the patients first.

Speaking of the wounded, those strong volunteer warriors, who put their deeds to the present in that year, Wang Yang felt that they could only be named by greatness.

War has always despised morality and conscience.

It can be said that the busiest people in the tunnel are not the soldiers fighting on the front line, nor the commanders in each tunnel. In fact, the hardest ones are the health workers in each tunnel!

With nothing to do with medicines and medical devices, these young sanitary workers showed high sense of responsibility and maximum creativity. They climbed out of the hole at night, picked up parachutes on enemy flares, pulled the cotton from the cotton coat of the enemy's body, found the broken barrel and the broken shovel handle, came back to make splints and first aid kits, fixed the broken limbs for the injured, and replaced the dressings.

During the entire Shangganling Battle, this group may not be noticed, but in fact, they sacrificed the most on the battlefield, and after the final war, they also made the most contributions.

Because in order to try every means to save the wounded, these young health workers climbed out of the tunnel desperately with the enemy's artillery fire and bullets that would fly in unknown times. Sometimes they lost their lives for a first aid kit in the dead enemy's body. However, this first aid kit was not prepared for themselves. They thought that their mission was so important and their sense of responsibility were so high.

Unfortunately, the war is so ruthless. Even though the brave and dedicated health workers helped the comrades in the tunnel desperately, their little bit of weak efforts still cannot change the painful situation of lack of materials in the tunnel.

Without medicines and operating tables, who can imagine the enemy's bullets in their bodies, even the arms were blown off by enemy artillery fire, and the abdomen was pulled open and the intestines flowed out... How did these soldiers persist in the tunnel?

The enemies entrenched on the surface positions and artillery fires that were blocked in depth cruelly cut off the path of the wounded in Shangganling to recover.

There is no disinfectant. No aspirin, no scalpel, no painkiller...even a piece of gauze that is disinfected with high temperature cannot satisfy it.

For the seriously injured soldiers, the day and night in the tunnel was like watching their wounds ulcerate and then being forced to slowly move towards death in pain.

The wounded and persevering immortal warriors watched their wounds erode, suppurate, and even developed nauseous flesh worms. The pain exists all the time like the rotation of the earth. They can only rely on their strong will and physical fitness to persevere, endure hardship, and their strong spiritual power even makes death tremble. What they never forget is waiting for the counterattack that unknown time.

Some wounded men were so painful that they couldn't stand it, but as soon as they made a sound, someone stopped him: "Hold on, we can do nothing here, but other comrades still have to fight, don't affect their emotions."

So everyone tampered with the bed sheets. In order not to worry or distract the fighting comrades, they decided that even if they died, they would never add any mental pressure to their comrades.

After the battle, every soldier who came to the tunnel went to the health center in the tunnel and could not help but burst into tears. It is completely imagined that when you see a hot and boiling body that has become cold at this time, and none of the bed sheets covered by the wounded were good, because all the holes bitten by the soldiers to endure the shocking pain, what if you would be shocked in your heart?

It can be said very responsibly that during the day and night of the tunnel, a considerable number of soldiers who were not seriously injured had to sacrifice in the end. The cause of death was actually just a small situation of wound infection. To put it bluntly, these injuries do not even require any medicine. Perhaps as long as they can be exposed to sunlight and disinfected with ultraviolet rays, these strong soldiers full of vitality will survive.

But, in fact?

After more than ten days of hard work in the tunnel, these soldiers all fell down. The tragic and shocking fact is that many soldiers did not even die due to their serious injuries. Some of them died of pain and could not pull off the bed sheets they bit in their mouths until they died!

What kind of words should such warriors, such soldiers, and such heroes be used to describe their greatness?

No one knows, nor even dares to imagine, and what many people in the world don’t know is that in these warriors who were finally forced to sacrifice themselves in the tunnel, there is an incident that has been difficult for scientific workers to understand and touching.

During the fourteen days and nights of the Shangganling tunnel, even the longest tunnel defense reached twenty days and nights, an unexplainable fact appeared on the bodies of the soldiers who died in the tunnel, that is, although the bodies of the martyrs in the tunnel were placed for more than ten days, until the end of the counterattack against Shangganling, everyone discovered an amazing reality, that is,—

During the battle of Shangganling, none of the bodies of all the volunteer soldiers who died in the tunnel were in a strange way. Although their bodies were dead, they remained cold and stiff. It seemed that even though these soldiers died, their remaining spiritual power was also telling themselves not to add any trouble to their comrades in the tunnel or any trouble. The hero's soul hovered above Shangganling, as if waiting for their comrades to regain their positions.

In fact, the extremely difficult situation in the tunnel was very clear about the Volunteer Army headquarters, the Corps command post, and the command posts of the 15th Army and the 45th Division. They were also trying their best to send as much supplies as possible to the soldiers in the tunnel.

Cui Jiangong had no soldiers to send, but General Qin Jiwei, the commander of the 15th Army, was also watching the arduous and arduous tunnel of Shangganling all the time, but he could not remove them. Keeping the tunnel had become a key link in winning victory. Only by nailing the tunnel troops on Shangganling like nails and holding the enemy tightly can we win time for victory.

For this purpose, while replenishing Cui Jiangong a large number of troops to prepare for counterattack, he also issued a death order to him: "Transfer supplies into the tunnel at all costs." He also specifically reminded: "Send more big radishes to quench thirst and hunger."

Why do you say you want to send big radish? Wang Yang and the others used the radio to reply to the command center's original words: This thing quenches thirst and hunger, and it's also good luck!

But is it really lucky? As long as the soldiers who passed the Shangganling Battle know that it is not an exaggeration to say that the transportation line leading to the positions along the Shangganling line was paved with the blood of volunteer soldiers.

During the more than ten days and nights when Wang Yang and his friends held the tunnel, the transport teams sent by the 45th Division never stopped, but the line of transporters were sent out one by one, but they all fell on the blockade line one by one.

During the entire battle, the casualty rate of personnel transporting on the front line was as high as 90%. On the way to Shangganling, I don’t know how many radishes, buns, steamed buns, ammunition, medicines, and condolence bags all rolled down, soaked in a pool of blood, and the items sent into the tunnel were minimal.

Wang Yang and the others held on hungry and thirsty in the tunnel until the eleventh day before they could smell the smell of radish.

The Sixth Company guarding the lower part of the highland tunnel north of 573.7 may be better. After all, their supplies are not as good as Wang Yang and others, so they are the transportation points that they are the key to take care of. On the ninth day, the company instructor Song Dexing and two transporters finally broke through the enemy's blockade and sent three bags of radish and some condolences into the No. 1 tunnel above the position for a lifetime.

That night became a festival for the Sixth Company. The officers and soldiers gnawed the radish and shed tears while laughing, because holding these radish was the one who grasped their lives.

Some tunnel troops received a bag of radish and chewed them hungryly, but if they had eaten too much, they felt that it was best to be apples.

When the 15th Army Logistics Department learned about this situation, Xingye sent people to Pyongyang area and urgently purchased more than 30,000 kilograms of apples. Several military leaders also paid for it themselves, wrote their names on the apple basket, and sent people to the tunnel to deliver them.

However, the enemy's artillery blockade was too fierce, and a large amount of apples could not be sent. In desperation, the Party Committee of the 45th Division called on the Firth Line Transportation Force to receive a second-class merit for anyone who sent a basket of apples.

During the Battle of Shangganling, even the front-line troops who fought in blood and fought in frontier positions, including Huang Jiguang, who shocked the world with his feat, only received merit, and his merit level was all evaluated after the battle. Therefore, this second-class merit was really attractive. Many live-line transporters carried apple baskets and bravely climbed to Shangganling, trying to get the honorary star.

However, no basket of apples was carried over the blockade.

In the end, only one apple entered the tunnel. This apple was destined to be happy, and left behind a touching story. The 135th Regiment was fortunate to fall into the tunnel where the 135th Regiment defended the 7th Company on the northern high ground of 573.7. This company was actually because of the unit of the 7th Company who was separated in the offensive battle. Wang Yang now led another part of the personnel to defend the 597.9 Highland. This unit was led by deputy company commander Zhang Jifa. Now Zhang Jifa has been promoted to the company commander on the front line.

There is only one apple, but there are more than a dozen people in the tunnel.

Company Commander Zhang Jifa gave the apple to Li Xinmin, a pilot of the 4 pilots, and asked the pilots to eat it separately, because the pilots were calling out at the top of their voices every day and needed moisture the most.

After a discussion, the crew concluded that the most needed to replenish water was the seriously injured, and then gave Apple to the seriously injured correspondent Lan Baofa.

Lan Baofa said that the company commander was too hard to command the war, so he returned the apple to Zhang Jifa.

Zhang Jifa handed the Apple to the cell phone, who gave it to the health officer, and the health officer gave it to Lan Baofa again,...

After more than ten people transferred, Apple returned to Zhang Jifa's hands.

Zhang Jifa gave a hard order with red eyes: "We all eat it, one bite, you must eat it!"

After one person and one person, after turning around, there was still half of the apple left.

Later, this story fell into our textbooks and moved generations of Chinese teenagers. Anyone who reads these words still has a sour nose. When thinking of these old predecessors in a comfortable living condition, the new generation of Chinese teenagers felt ashamed from the bottom of their hearts.

That generation of Chinese people is the eternal pride of the Chinese nation!

Until today, China still circulates the famous "red apple story" in Shangganling: the live-line transporter brought a red apple into a tunnel that had been deficient in water for 7 days and gave it to the company commander. The company commander was reluctant to eat it, but gave it to the Walkie-tel. The Walkie-tel was just smelling it and handed it to the wounded. The wounded felt that the company commander was most worried about the entire tunnel, so he stuffed the apple back into the company commander's hand. The company commander had to take a small bite first, and then passed it down to let everyone eat something. As a result, the red apple took a two-way turn in the tunnel before finishing eating.

What I want to mention here is the origin of this red apple, and there is still some controversy.

Some say that Liu Mingsheng, a live-line transporter, picked it up on the road when he was sending ammunition to the position and gave it to Zhang Jifa, the company commander of the 7th Company of the 135th Regiment. Some say that it was specially commissioned by Qin Jiwei to bring it to Li Baocheng, the company commander of the 8th Company.

In fact, it doesn’t matter who the apple is given to. What’s important is that this red apple, as a symbol of unity and friendship among the people’s army, has filled people’s spiritual world, and their great spirit has moved an era.

The land of Shangganling is so rich. It has grown too many ideological nutrients for us and also contributes an endless source of creation to art. Many storylines and character prototypes in many movies such as "Shangganling", "Surprise Attack", "Strike of the Invaders", "Heroes and Children" are almost directly taken from the Battle of Shangganling.
Chapter completed!