First-class hero in the war against Vietnam: After being seriously injured, he crawled back home for 9 days and 8 nights. What happened next?

He was a cook during the counterattack against Vietnam and never killed an enemy soldier, but the changes he had undergone after experiencing the baptism of war would not be an exaggeration to describe him as reborn.

While he was reborn, his selflessness and fearlessness in sacrificing his life to protect his comrades in the process of retreating to the country, and his miraculous perseverance in dragging his seriously injured body back to the country in 9 days and 8 nights, made him All Chinese people were amazed and moved by it.

"Liberation Army Daily" vigorously reported his deeds, and the military awarded him the honorary title of "Iron Warrior". Vice President Wang Zhen personally visited him in the hospital.

Even though decades have passed, his heroic deeds have never been forgotten by the world, and people can't help crying every time they read it.

In the counterattack against Vietnam, Xiao Jiaxi’s 448th Regiment of the 150th Division of the 50th Army entered the battlefield relatively late. In the early stage of large-scale offensives, he and his comrades were just waiting at home for orders from their superiors to march. .

For the soldiers who are about to go to the battlefield, the best way to describe their status is hot blood. In addition to hot blood, they are still hot blood. Young lives with rising blood urgently need to show off their skills in the hail of bullets on the battlefield.

These passions turned into a slogan "Be loyal to the country", which was shouted throughout the sky by the officers and soldiers of the 150th Division who were about to enter the battlefield. It also turned into physical actions. The young soldiers each held a steel gun in their hands and were ready at any time. Enter the battlefield.

As a cook in the 2nd Battalion of the 448th Regiment of the 150th Division, Xiao Jiaxi has the same passion as other soldiers, but the cooking work makes him feel lonely with no place to use his force.

He still knew the truth about the different division of labor in revolutionary work, but whenever he thought of the expectant eyes of his grandfather and father when he joined the army and left home, he still silently retained the heart to kill the enemy and serve the country.

In March 1979, our army’s offensive in the counterattack against Vietnam, which lasted for more than half a month, was coming to an end. The frontline troops had reached a place close to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, and were stationed in Guangxi on standby. The 150th Division was ordered to enter Vietnam. Its mission was to cover the retreat of large units while clearing out the remnants of the enemy everywhere.

The soldiers of the 150th Division finally had a place to use. At that time, most of the veterans who had fought in the war years had retired. Because of this, the superiors decided to take this opportunity to let the officers and soldiers get experience. .

In the complicated situation in Vietnam, Xiao Jiaxi and the soldiers of his 448th Regiment finally saw what a battlefield is. There are sacrifices and crossfires at any time on the battlefield, and as a cook of the 2nd Battalion, Xiao Jiaxi also learned how to survive on the battlefield.

Whenever the soldiers came into fire with the enemy, he would immediately put down the cauldron on his back, then quickly find a place to lie down and pick up the gun to hide.

But he is not a soldier in charge of combat. His task is to protect the cooking utensils and himself, and ensure the food supply for the troops. Most of the time, he can only watch his comrades rushing towards victory under artillery fire.

The 448th Regiment performed well in performing the task of covering the large force. Under the command of a few veteran commanders, it blocked and fought beautifully time and time again.

At different distances, our army can always provide the invading enemy with bullets and artillery shells to eat. At the farthest distance, there are cannons, and at closer distances, there are heavy machine guns. With light machine guns, semi-automatic rifles and grenades, waves of enemy troops who wanted to pursue our large forces were beaten to their knees in the dragnet woven by firepower.

Xiao Jiaxi, who was watching silently on the side, always felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. His comrades fought bravely to kill the enemy, but he could only wait for the battle to end in the trench with the cooking utensil cat on his back. He was eager to fight, and he was eager to fight every time. There was an urge to put down the cauldron on my back, pick up my rifle, and rush forward.

The blood in his body had nowhere to vent, so that after every battle, he would immediately go forward and carry out the wounded with the medical soldiers to save others. Looking at his seriously injured comrades, he felt even worse. taste.

He thought silently in his heart that he must find an opportunity to participate in the battle. As a good man, he still did not want to have to rely on a big pot for the whole process of participating in the war.

What he never expected was that the opportunity he wanted would come so suddenly and tragically.

After the 448th Regiment completed its mission of covering large forces in the Gaoping area of ??Vietnam, it also began to prepare to retreat to the country.

At first, the regiment commander and division commander planned to have all the regiment soldiers take a car along the road in the Banying area to quickly retreat northward.

At that time, the working group sent by the 50th Army to the 150th Division advocated that the 448th Regiment be evacuated along the small road in the north of Banying. This was the path that the brotherly troops had taken before, and taking this path might Encountering remnants of the enemy can be used to further temper the 448th Regiment, which entered Vietnam later and expand its results. The regiment commander and division commander agreed to this suggestion.

So Xiao Jiaxi carried the cooking pot on his back and entered the complicated path with his comrades, groping forward carefully.

What people didn’t expect was that while passing through the mountain jungle in northern Naga, a brutal attack came. Xiao Jiaxi not only took up arms to fight the enemy, but also had to throw away his own life before entering Vietnam. The pots and pans that I have carried with me ever since.

It was a sultry evening. Although it was only early spring, the night that was about to cover the entire sky and the humid jungle air made people feel oppressive. Hu Qingzhong, the deputy commander of the 448th Regiment, led the Second Battalion as the main force. Walking in front, the regiment leader led the first and third battalions behind.

When the Second Battalion walked to a ravine, they saw dense jungle on both sides of the highlands, and crows flew from time to time. Deputy Commander Hu Qingzhong issued an order to "strengthen the alert" to everyone.

But as soon as he finished speaking, gunfire broke out all of a sudden, "There is an ambush, there is an ambush, lie down in hiding, defend yourself and fight!" Deputy Commander Hu shouted while lying down and quickly commanded the troops to fight. .

Amidst the roar of artillery, the large pot Xiao Jiaxi was carrying had countless holes bitten by bullets and shell shrapnel. He had no time to check, so he immediately unloaded all the cooking utensils, took the rifle and the nearest combat squad They lay down together in a pit that served as a natural shelter.

The enemy's bullet hit the edge of the pit, causing Xiao Jiaxi to lie down subconsciously to avoid it. When his face was almost touching the ground, he suddenly realized something in his mind. Isn't this what he has been doing all along? Want to join the battle?

So he followed the example of the soldiers around him and carefully raised his gun to fight back at the enemies on the mountain. However, the enemy's firepower was too fierce, and the enemy occupied a favorable terrain. The soldiers of the entire second battalion were They were all trapped in the ravine and unable to move.

What made the troops even more passive was that deputy regiment commander Hu Qingzhong was shot in multiple places while commanding the battle and unfortunately died heroically. The second commander after Hu Qingzhong, the deputy political commissar of the regiment, lacked command experience. It was impossible for the various units to cooperate effectively, so each company and even each platoon fell into a situation of fighting independently.

This was the largest casualty in our army's counterattack against Vietnam. The enemy used nearly two battalions of troops to surround the 2nd Battalion of the 448th Regiment in the ravine, and took advantage of the terrain to cut off the 2nd Battalion. Liaison with regimental headquarters.

The regiment commander asked the division headquarters for instructions to provide support to the second battalion. However, the division headquarters misjudged that it was just a small group of troops harassing them, so they only sent two companies to respond. As a result, these two companies also came together Surrounded by an enemy ambush.

During the continuous fierce battle, Xiao Jiaxi and his brothers from the Eighth Company entered the same trench and fought side by side. The company commander was seriously injured under the bombardment of enemy shells. He survived for more than two hours and then died. Last breath.

The next morning, the enemy began to shout to the position to persuade them to surrender. Deputy company commander Wang Lixin and the remaining soldiers swore to the motherland that they would rather die for the country than surrender to the enemy.

In the hoarse oath, Xiao Jiaxi finally found his passion, found the bloody battlefield he had longed for, and found the life-and-death dependence between comrades who could block each other's bullets. He was tragic and heroic. Excited, he knows that life and death are uncertain, but he is willing to sacrifice his life to achieve justice.

The collective oaths of the soldiers resounded through the sky, so much so that the enemy troops, who were watching eagerly from more than a thousand meters away, could hear from their voices that they would rather die than surrender.

So the enemy troops pounced on them like hungry wolves pounced on the food they had been staring at for a long time. The soldiers loaded their rifles, bayonets, and grenades on their bodies, as if everyone was a tiger. , prepare to start a life-and-death fight with a wolf several times your own.

The vanguards in front of the wolf pack fell one by one from the bullets, while the hungry wolves at the back continued to pounce forward fiercely. The enemy finally approached our position while stepping on the corpses of their own people.

Our soldiers, who feared death, began to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy with their almost crazy shouts of killing.

In the midst of the chaos, Xiao Jiaxi also shouted loudly to embolden himself. Suddenly, a Vietnamese soldier met his eyes. The two soldiers, whose eyes were already red with murderous intent, only saw the narrow intersection in their eyes. The brave prevail, or rather the brave live.

The opponent was a veteran. He stepped forward and stabbed Xiao Jiaxi in the chest with the bayonet on his gun. Xiao Jiaxi ducked sideways and subconsciously moved forward to hug the opponent, riding on the man and fighting for his life. He pinched his neck, but a sudden bullet to his head caused him to faint and fall to the ground.

When he woke up again, Xiao Jiaxi didn't know how long he had been unconscious. The reason why he was sure that he was still alive was because he smelled a strong smell of blood and burning flesh as soon as he woke up.

But there was darkness in front of him, and his body seemed to be pressed by something. After groping carefully, he confirmed that his body was pressed to the ground by the bodies of an unknown number of other people.

He used all his strength and struggled out for an unknown amount of time. He finally saw clearly that he had just climbed out of the pile of dead people.

All the comrades who swore an oath together have died. Deputy Company Commander Wang Lixin’s body was already mangled with blood. There were still several bloody enemy soldiers lying beside him. It was obvious that the Deputy Company Commander fired the grenade at the last moment. and die together with the enemy.

As for himself, he was crushed among the dead in the chaos and thus escaped the enemy's inspection after the battle.

Xiao Jiaxi lowered his head and looked at a sore spot on his calf, only to realize that he had been stabbed. Fortunately, the blood had coagulated. After simply bandaging the wound, Xiao Jiaxi slowly moved towards the northern direction of his motherland. go.

On the way, I met several other soldiers who successfully broke out from the second battalion. The compass on one of the squad leaders was their only guide. Under the guidance of the compass, the few people supported the injured Xiao Jiaxi and carefully Evacuate to the north.

Xiao Jiaxi, who had narrowly escaped death, no longer had a strong fear of battle and death. Instead, he was extremely calm when facing complex battlefield environments, so much so that at a critical moment of life and death, he could use a few seconds to He quickly thought of countermeasures and became a person who actively sacrificed himself to protect the safety of several comrades.

At that time, a few of them were walking hungry on a mountain road, and suddenly they found a group of Vietnamese troops approaching at the corner.

There was no hiding place on the roadside. In order to cover his comrades, Xiao Jiaxi rushed to the jungle on the other side of the mountain road regardless of the squad leader's obstruction. The enemies discovered him and were all attracted to him. During the escape process Xiao Jiaxi was shot again in the buttocks, almost limping and crawling as he tried his best to move towards a more hidden place.

In the end, he was lucky enough to run into a cave covered by trees. He used the little salt left on his body to prove that he had been a cook to clean the wound. Tear off a piece of cloth and make a simple bandage.

Now his only wish and only mission is to return home alive.

Knife wounds and gunshot wounds left him unable to stand and walk, so he crawled toward the north. He wrapped his two elbows with clothes, supported his body with his arms, and was wrapped in clothes. His elbows rubbed against the soil on the ground, gravel and earthworms, and dead branches and leaves. At the same time, they inevitably rubbed against the hope in Xiao Jiaxi's heart.

In that desperate situation, despair and helplessness are what automatically appear in Xiao Jiaxi's heart.

In order to keep going, even if he insists on crawling forward one hundred meters, even if he endures one more minute of pain, he must desperately use reason to strengthen his hope: the motherland is here. Waiting for me, the army is waiting for me, my family is waiting for me.

When the wounds were infested with maggots, he would pick out the carrion with a bayonet. When he was hungry, he would pick the weeds around him to eat, and when he was thirsty, he would lick the dew on the grass leaves.

People often instinctively challenge their limits in extreme environments. Xiao Jiaxi escaped from the Vietnamese army and possibly soldiers with a gunshot wound and a knife wound that were already rotting and infested with maggots. The mixed people dragged their elbows that were already bleeding from the layers of clothes wrapped in them. With a little hope that was constantly strengthening in their hearts, they let themselves become numb and crawled forward like a machine.

After crawling for an unknown number of days and nights, a sign with four Chinese characters for "Closing Mountains to Cultivate Forests" appeared in front of him. Hope supported him and he crawled back to his motherland.

Shortly after, PLA soldiers on patrol discovered him, and after confirming his identity, he was immediately sent to the army for treatment.

Later he learned that he had been crawling for nine days and eight nights.

In the Kunming Military Region General Hospital, doctors performed wound cleaning and skin grafting on him. After more than two months, he finally recovered and returned to the army.

Although he did not kill a single enemy on the battlefield in Vietnam, he covered the evacuation of several comrades with a spirit of disregarding death, and returned to China with great perseverance. His spirit was highly praised by the people of the country. .

His deeds were published in the "Liberation Army Daily". The then Vice President Wang Zhen personally visited him and awarded him the honorary title of "Iron Warrior".

Later, Xiao Jiaxi continued to serve in the army and became a colonel and deputy brigade commander. At the age of fifty, he was honorably transferred to serve in the local government. Now he has a family full of children and grandchildren, and often appears in various armies and universities. Tell everyone about his deeds.

From his words, we can know that the two simple words "soldier" contain more than simple honor, risk and responsibility.