He died fighting against Japan at the age of 15. Why was he recognized as a revolutionary martyr only 45 years later?

As we all know, during the Anti-Japanese War, there was a brave and fearless young hero named Wang Erxiao who led the Japanese into the Eighth Route Army ambush. But what is less known is that during the same period of the Anti-Japanese War, a young man with similar deeds as Wang Erxiao also appeared in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, but he suffered decades of unjust injustice. He died heroically for the Anti-Japanese War when he was only 15 years old, and was not officially recognized as a revolutionary martyr until 45 years later.

In 1943, the Japanese army invaded Huai'an City and built earthen polders in various places in an attempt to defend it for a long time. The local people spontaneously established a self-defense force of peasants to resist Japan, and started fighting against the enemy under the leadership of underground party member Cheng Deqing.

On May 9, a militiaman sent a fourteen-year-old boy to Cheng Deqing and reported to Cheng Deqing: "We have captured a Japanese spy. Please approve his killing!"

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Cheng Deqing took a look and saw that the little boy was ragged and skinny, huddled in the corner and shivering, his eyes full of fear.

With many years of revolutionary struggle experience, Cheng Deqing thought that he did not look like an enemy spy, so he immediately asked someone to untie him and asked kindly: "Why do you want to inquire about information from the Japanese and puppet troops?" ?"

The little boy said aggrievedly: "They forced me to come."

After questioning, Cheng Deqing learned that the little boy was Jing. The person inside Kouweizi is named Wang Yuanjia. He is only 15 years old and his nickname is Erwangzi. After his mother passed away, his eldest brother was severely beaten by the Japanese for no reason years ago and joined the New Fourth Army out of anger. The frail father could not support the two brothers, so he worked as a boy in a mill.

In order to find out information about us, the cunning Japanese and puppet troops sent out the people in the stronghold to Pingzi in rotation every day.

That day, the pseudo-security chief sent boss Wang Yuanjia to work, and the boss forced his young boy to take his place.

Wang Yuanjia was young and ignorant. After walking to the Dongzuo area, he really asked the militiamen on duty about whether the New Fourth Army had come to Dongzuo recently. The militiamen were so simple-minded that they captured him as a fake spy and almost killed him.

After saying this, Cheng Deqing changed from suspicion to sympathy. While letting him eat, Lao Cheng told him that the Japanese were foreigners who came to China to build fortresses, build good families, kill people, and set fires. Your brother also received a beating for no reason. These are things that any Chinese with backbone and conscience will never tolerate... Wang Yuanjia listened with tears of sadness welling up in his eyes.

Before the meal was finished, he said with pleading eyes: "Mr. Cheng, I don't want to go back. Please take me to join the New Fourth Army! I want to join your revolution like my elder brother!"

If Wang Yuanjia's body was not too thin, Cheng Deqing would definitely satisfy his request. Now he had no choice but to comfort him and say, you are young. After joining the army, you have to carry a gun, carry a rice bag, and march to fight every day. How can you do it? Wait until you grow up to join the New Fourth Army. However, as long as you love the motherland and hate the Japanese invaders, you can still do our revolutionary work while staying in the stronghold.

Wang Yuanjia asked happily: "Then... what do you want me to do?"

At that time, Cheng Deqing happened to have the Red May of 1943 issued by the Political Training Department of the Huaibao Detachment. "A Letter to Compatriots in the Puppet Army" and "A Letter to the People in Enemy-occupied Areas" were printed with two red and green leaflets, and asked him: "Do you dare to post slogans in the Weizi?"

"Dare!" Wang Yuanjia seemed to be a soldier who had already joined the revolution, and he answered simply with his chest raised.

"The Japs and the Second Emperor (Puppet Army) will kill you if they find out!"

"I'm not afraid!"

Cheng Deqing quietly told Wang Yuanjia what to do. Keeping it a secret, he wrapped the slogan and put it under his armpit under his clothes.

After Wang Yuanjia accepted this special task, he walked north along the anti-Japanese trenches in Zhanggongdui.

From time to time, his hands would pull handfuls of grass from the fields beside the road, pretending that he had just returned from working in the fields. When he arrived at Fuzhuang, a ditch blocked his way. When the water was deep, he took off his clothes and walked across the river. Just as he was putting the slogan into two shoes, a fake Paul Ding who was plowing nearby discovered the flashing red color, and the seeds of disaster were sown from then on.

After midnight, the stronghold was deathly silent. As soon as Wang Yuanjia woke up, he took the slogans and the paste he had prepared in the evening. Taking advantage of the familiarity and silence of the stronghold, he quickly pasted more than 20 red and green slogans on the wall, and then returned to Sleeping in his mill. It’s really like God doesn’t know it, and ghosts don’t notice it.

The next day, the Japanese and puppet troops were frightened when they saw many slogans of the New Fourth Army posted in the village. The common people were all overjoyed and secretly rushed to tell each other: "The New Fourth Army is really a magical general! They killed and injured so many Japanese and the Second Emperor at Shiqiaotou during the day, and then entered Jingkou Weizi at night. Even the puppet army brigade department The slogans of the underground party were posted on everything!"

The Japanese and puppet troops hurriedly closed the four gates of Weizi, mobilized their troops, and conducted house-to-house searches. Anyone with the slightest suspicion would be tied up with ropes and beaten with whips and sticks.

Within three days, more than 30 people were caught and beaten in the Zhang family ancestral hall. Nothing came of it. The enemy never dreamed that the person who did this earth-shattering thing would actually be a teenager.

But the enemy did not give up. Zhang Yan, the leader of the puppet army known for his ferocity and brutality, under the strict order of the Japanese squad leader, gathered all the lackeys above the township and Baoding levels and ordered them to find out the ins and outs of all the people who entered and left Pingzi on May 9.

The fake security guard was so frightened that he quickly knelt on the ground and told him what happened when he saw Wang Yuanjia wading across the river holding something red and green in his hand.

Zhang Yanda and the Japanese team leader learned that the "key criminal" they had captured was actually a little kid, and their eyes were red with anger. They beat and tortured Wang Yuanjia all night long. Wang Yuanjia endured severe pain and answered "I don't know" to everything he asked.

The Japanese and puppet troops exhausted all their tricks to no avail. Finally, they stretched out their bloody hands and shot Wang Yuanjia to death on the grass at the south end of Zhaoshe on May 13th.

Thirty years after this incident, things have changed in that unprecedented era. Among some people, Wang Yuanjia was not only not a revolutionary martyr, but also suffered a lot of unfair criticism.

After learning about it, Cheng Deqing, who was a local cadre at the time, was anxious and angry, and could not sleep or eat well. At this time, he was the only person who could prove that Wang Yuanjia had sacrificed his life for the revolutionary work, so he ran around and did a lot of work.

It was not until 1988 that the Department of Civil Affairs of Jiangsu Province officially issued a document posthumously recognizing Wang Yuanjia as a revolutionary martyr. At this time, it has been 45 years since this little hero died.