Chapter 50 50. The tribulations of the three broken-arm generals

In 1955, at the award ceremony of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, three one-armed generals were very eye-catching. They were General He Bingyan, Lieutenant General Yu Qiuli, and Lieutenant General Yan Fusheng.Don't tell me, I don't know, one arm of the three generals was lost during the Long March.When Mao Zedong saw these founding generals with broken arms, he couldn't help being filled with emotion, and said emotionally: "How many one-armed generals have there been in China from ancient times to the present? There were no one-armed generals in the old days. Only our troops can Cultivate such unique talent!"

He Bingyan is a brave general of the Red Second Front Army and one of He Long's favorite generals.He was wounded 11 times in his life, leaving 16 war wounds on his body. He Bingyan was born in a poor peasant family in Songzi County, Hubei. His mother died when he was 6 years old. Because of his poor family, his elder sister was forced to be a child bride, and his elder brother was also forced to be adopted as a son.When he was young, he had to graze cattle, break bamboo strips, carry coal, and work as a blacksmith. In 1929, when He Bingyan was 16 years old, he was illiterate and joined the Red Army with his father He Xuewen.Similar to He Long's revolution with two kitchen knives, He Bingyan also likes to hold a kitchen knife in battle. He rushed into the enemy's line with a kitchen knife many times, slashing fiercely, knocking down the enemies one by one, making the enemy daunting.Due to his bravery and tenacity in combat, he was gradually promoted from an ordinary soldier to regimental commander in just two years.

In May 1933, Xia Xi expanded the "suppression of counterrevolutionaries" in western Hunan and Hubei. He Bingyan and many other revolutionary comrades were framed for no reason and arrested as members of the so-called reorganization faction. Closed for 29 days.After He Long knew about He Bingyan's arrest, he asked Xia Xi very angrily: "He Bingyan was desperate to fight, and he was a deadly enemy with the reactionaries. Could there be such counter-revolutionaries?" With He Long's efforts, He Bingyan was saved from being killed by mistake. . In August 1953, the Second and Sixth Army Corps of the Red Army ambushed the 85th Division of the Kuomintang in Chestnut Garden, Xuan'en County, Hubei Province.The battle was very fierce. In the end, the enemy's 85th Division was wiped out by the Red Second and Sixth Army Corps, and the division commander Xie Bin was captured alive.He Bingyan saw the wounded enemy division commander Xie Bin lying on the sliding pole, and remembered that more than half of the Red Eighteenth Regiment had suffered casualties.Xie Bin is a well-known Confucian general of the Kuomintang. He has written books such as "History of the Nationalist Party", "National Defense and Diplomacy", "History of Posts, Telecommunications and Aviation in China".For this matter, He Long and Ren Bishi severely criticized He Bingyan.

On November 19, 1935, the Second Red Army and the Sixth Army set off from Sangzhi County, Hunan Province for a long march. He Bingyan was already the commander of the fifth division of the Second Red Army. He led the fifth division to take on the task of forward. In December 1935, the team marched to Wawutang, Yunnan Province, preparing to enter Guizhou from there.Here, the Red Army was blocked by the enemy. In order to clear away the obstacles as soon as possible, He Bingyan ordered the machine gun to cover, and he rushed over at the first. The soldiers rushed to the enemy's position under the inspiration of the division commander.In this battle, He Bingyan was wounded for the sixth time. His right arm was blown into a paste, and the bones were all broken, leaving only a little skin attached to his shoulder, bleeding profusely.After He Long heard the news, he rushed over with He Biao, the health minister of the Second Red Army.After He Biao checked He Bingyan's wound, he said to He Long with a heavy heart: "Master's right arm is completely broken, and it seems impossible to save it. If the limb is not amputated immediately, it will be life-threatening." However, all medical and surgical instruments had been transferred at that time. Unavailable for a while.They couldn't find a surgical saw, so they had to find a logging saw from a fellow villager, and used it to saw off He Bingyan's injured right arm.

The arm was about to be amputated, but people couldn't find painkillers and anesthetics, so someone found morphine and wanted to use it as a substitute.Although it has serious side effects, it can still act as anesthesia. Seeing this situation, He Long said very worriedly: "How can we fight wars after eating so much morphine?" He Bingyan threw the morphine to the ground as soon as he heard it, and insisted that the doctor amputate his right arm with a wooden saw without anesthesia.He said to the people present: "Guan Yunchang can scrape bones to heal poison, let alone I am a member of the Communist Party."

He Biao called four soldiers and asked them to hold down He Bingyan from four directions.He Bingyan said, "I don't need them, I can hold on." He asked the health worker to tie him to the door and put a towel into his mouth. He Biao started the operation, and the saw kept making "creaking" sounds on He Bingyan's bones, and blood continued to flow down the saw blade.After He Biao sawed off He Bingyan's right arm, he smoothed the surface of the bone with a steel file.He Bingyan endured the severe pain, closed his eyes, and tightly bit the towel in his mouth. His whole body was drenched in sweat, but he remained motionless.

It lasted about two hours before and after surgery.When the operation was over, He Bingyan bit the towel in his mouth into pieces.He Long picked up a remnant bone on He Bingyan's right arm, carefully put it away, and said with great heartache, "This is the bone of the party's good son." He Bingyan asked He Long: "Commander, can I still fight in the future?" He held He Bingyan's left hand tightly and said: "Why can't you fight? You still have one hand! We Communists are not afraid of any hardships." Along the way, He Bingyan still insisted on playing the straw sandals. He used to do it with two hands, but now he added a mouth with one hand, and his front teeth were ground into a deep mark.

He Bingyan is both a teacher and a seriously wounded soldier, but he seldom rides his own horse, and often uses it to carry wounded and sick soldiers.When climbing the snow-capped mountains, he let the seriously wounded ride on the horse, and asked the lightly wounded to hold the horse and pull the horse's tail, but he himself led the way by holding the rein. In the vast grassland, there are many swamps and quagmires. He Bingyan is missing an arm, and walking on the muddy grassland is deep and shallow. It is difficult to maintain balance, so he often falls and falls. He got more than everyone else, but he didn't take it seriously.

The biggest difficulty in crossing the grass is that there is no food.Later, it was difficult to find edible wild vegetables, so He Bingyan's troops had to find some unknown wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger as a rear guard.In order to avoid poisoning, as soon as He Bingyan arrived at the camp, he and Liao Hansheng, the political commissar, went around looking for wild vegetables to taste, and they proved that they were not poisonous before promoting them to the whole teacher.Some wild vegetables were bitter and astringent, and a few soldiers could not eat them. He Bingyan put the wild vegetables to their mouths and said earnestly: "I only have one hand, and I want to eat wild vegetables. I will live to see Chairman Mao and report to the Party Central Committee." You have two hands, you want to live even more!" Hearing Master He's words, the soldiers swallowed the wild vegetables with tears in their eyes.

Later, He Bingyan went to Yan'an to meet Mao Zedong.He raised his left hand to salute Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong quickly held his left hand with his right and said to him: "You are a one-armed general, so please forgive me!" In November 1935, the 2nd and 6th Red Army Corps began the Long March, and 22-year-old Yu Qiuli served as the political commissar of the 18th Red Army Corps. In early March 1936, He Long led the Second and Sixth Red Army Corps to the Wumeng Mountains at the border of Guizhou and Yunnan.After learning from the captives that the 13th Division of the Kuomintang would pass through Dezhangba, He Long, Ren Bishi, and Guan Xiangying decided to intercept the 13th Division of the enemy at Dezhangba.After Yu Qiuli received the order from Commander He, he led the Red Eighteenth Regiment to rush to Dezhangba to set up an ambush. On March 12, the 13th Division of the enemy swaggered into the ambush circle of the Red Army. The 18th Red Regiment, which occupied the commanding heights, launched a violent attack under the command of Yu Qiuli and others.Wan Yaohuang, commander of the enemy column and commander of the 13th division, was terrified, changed into soldier's clothes in a hurry, and fled with a few soldiers.The enemy retreated into a ravine, relying on the favorable terrain to resist stubbornly.In order to determine the attack route, Ben Xing, the head of the Red Eighteenth Regiment, stood up straight to observe the enemy's situation.Yu Qiuli, who was at the side, suddenly found that the enemy was about to shoot at the Red Army's position with his gun raised. He yelled "Danger!" and stood up recklessly, pushing the regiment leader down to the ground.Leader Cheng was safe and sound, but Yu Qiuli's left arm was hit by a row of bullets.Yu Qiuli simply bandaged him and rushed to the bottom of the ditch with the soldiers.

At four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the headquarters of the Second and Sixth Red Corps learned that the enemy's reinforcements were about to arrive, and ordered all ministries to withdraw from the battle on their own initiative.Just when Yu Qiuli led the troops to the top of the mountain, a barrage of machine gun bullets from the enemy hit him again on his injured left arm, and his clothes were immediately stained red with blood.Yu Qiuli looked at his wound, and found that the white stubble of the broken bone had pierced through the flesh, and two tendons were exposed, trembling slightly.He ignored the wound and continued to command the battle.Seeing that Yu Qiuli was seriously injured, the soldiers of the machine gun company insisted on lifting Yu Qiuli down with a ladder.After the second bandage, Yu Qiuli moved his fingers and found that only one finger of his left hand could move, and the other four fingers were no longer able to move. Yu Qiuli didn't want to have his limb amputated at the time, but he also wanted to keep his left arm.Such an operation is much more complicated than amputation.But at that time, the Red Army had to fight and march every day, and there was neither time nor conditions for surgery. One day, He Bingyan, the former head of the 18th Regiment and now the commander of the Fifth Division, made a special trip to visit Yu Qiuli. He persuaded him, "Old Yu, just saw off your hands. Like me, it will save trouble. If I don’t do revolution now, I’m no worse than others.” Yu Qiuli resolutely refused: “I can’t saw it, I still want to keep it for revolution!” He Long, Ren Bishi and others were very concerned about Yu Qiuli, prepared a stretcher for him, sent him a leather jacket, and found him an eiderdown quilt in a Catholic church. When crossing the Jinsha River, Yu Qiuli was still in a coma, and he didn't know when his comrades carried him onto the bamboo raft.When crossing the river, the raft he was on suddenly capsized and threw him into the water. The eiderdown covering him played a role at a critical moment, keeping him afloat and slowing down his sinking. His comrades were able to rescue him ashore in time. In Geluo Bay in Zhongdian area, the troops finally got a chance to rest. He Long and Ren Bishi specially instructed the Minister of Health: Use this precious time to treat Yu Qiuli's injury well.But the answer I got was: "When the troops crossed the Jinsha River, they accidentally dropped all the medical equipment into the river. Now it is impossible to perform surgery." In July 1936, the Red Second and Fourth Front Army joined forces in Ganzi.At this time, Yu Qiuli's body was already very weak, and his stomach was full of roundworms. After taking a large amount of anthelmintic medicine, all the diarrhea and vomiting were roundworms.His left arm was in more pain. The Red Second Front Army doctor removed the bandage on his arm, only to find that the entire arm had turned black and shriveled, and the wound was covered with white maggots.Since there was no medicine, the doctor had to put on a new bandage, put him on a stretcher, and carry him on. When crossing the grass, the comrades scrambled to carry a stretcher for Yu Qiuli, leaving him the good road.Yu Qiuli couldn't bear it, he knew that his comrades in arms were all weak, so in order to avoid causing trouble to them, he tried to walk as much as possible and less on stretchers.It can be said that Yu Qiuli traveled half of the Long March.In order to cope with the unbearable pain, without painkillers, he specially prepared a water bottle, which was usually filled with water. When the pain was severe, he would pour the cold water in the water bottle on the wound and the two protruding broken tendons. superior.Yu Qiuli thought it was the best "painkiller".Iron-like will and special "painkillers" helped Yu Qiuli walk out of the vast grassland. In September 1936, the Red Second Front Army arrived in Hui County in southern Gansu and seized a batch of medical equipment from the enemy's 37th Army.The military doctor examined Yu Qiuli's injuries and found that the five fingers of his left hand were swollen and necrotic. If the limbs were not amputated in time, it would be life-threatening.The military doctor immediately began to operate on Yu Qiuli.Surgical instruments were seized except for the hemostat, the knife was a razor borrowed from the common people, and the saw was an ordinary wire saw used for logging.The military doctor first injected Yu Qiuli with the seized analgesic. Since he did not know the dosage of the medicine, Yu Qiuli fell into a coma after one injection.After scraping off the carrion on Yu Qiuli's left arm, the doctor then used a saw to cut off the bad bone in his arm. Because the saw was not good, the operation was very laborious.After amputating the arm, the doctor tried every means to rescue Yu Qiuli who was unconscious.After Yu Qiuli woke up, he said to He Long who was waiting by his side: Boss He, the enemy broke my left arm, and I still have the right arm.As long as I have breath, I will carry the revolution to the end. During the Long March, Yu Qiuli survived nearly 200 days and nights from injury to surgery.Dragging his broken left arm, he traveled from Guizhou to Huixian, Gansu, and traveled 20,000 miles across five provinces. Yan Fusheng is a blessed general of the Red Second Front Army who has gone through many hardships.Just like his name, his experience is full of blessings, and at critical times he can always turn danger into safety and come back from the dead.Before and after the Long March, his unit held two memorial services for him, and after each time, he returned to the unit as if resurrected from the dead. During a battle in April 1935, Yan Fusheng, then the political commissar of the 49th Regiment of the 17th Red Division, suddenly discovered that an enemy was fleeing. .After the comrades cleaned the battlefield, they found that Yan Fusheng and his guards were gone.Everyone thought they were dead.The head of the regiment held a meeting and suggested that everyone observe a three-minute silence for Yan Fusheng and his guards.At this moment, Yan Fusheng and the guards suddenly appeared at the memorial venue, both of them were covered with long and short guns.Yan Fusheng humorously said to everyone: "If the revolution fails, I will not be accepted by Hades!" At the beginning of October 1936, on the eve of the reunion of the three main forces of the Red Army, the Second Red Army marched towards Tongwei in two routes, with the Sixth Red Army as the right column and the Second Red Army and the 32nd Army as the left column.The vanguard of the right column was the Red Sixteenth Division led by political commissar Yan Fusheng and division commander Zhang Hui. On October 4th, the Red Sixteenth Division entered Niangniangba Town. The division commander Zhang Hui died in the battle, and the burden on the political commissar Yan Fusheng became heavier and heavier. Two days later, on October 7, when Yan Fusheng led his troops from Tianshui Town to Luojiabao, he suddenly encountered Hu Zongnan who had come out from Yanguan Town to intercept the Red Army.The battle was extremely fierce, with more and more enemies, the situation has clearly become that the enemy is outnumbered, the enemy is strong and we are weak. The command task fell to Yan Fusheng alone.Yan Fusheng knew very well that if he could not fight his way out, not only the Sixteenth Red Division would be in danger, but the entire Sixth Red Army would be seriously injured. Yan Fusheng decided to outsmart him. He ordered the third battalion to violently attack the enemy's densely packed right flank, creating an illusion to confuse the enemy, and then commanded the rest of the battalions to rush northward, finally killing a bloody road.The organs directly under the Legion, the logistics department and other ministries rushed out of the enemy's blockade along the passage opened by the Red Sixteenth Division. Yan Fusheng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the large army leave safely.However, when he led his troops to evacuate, an enemy plane suddenly flew over and dropped a bomb, which exploded with a "bang" beside him. In the blink of an eye, his right arm was blown off, and blood gushed out.Seeing this, the guard Xiang Xuande, Ma Pozi and the other two comrades hurried forward to bandage his wound. Yan Fusheng saw the overwhelming enemy rushing towards him, and thought that his life and bad luck were inevitable, so he took out the telegram code book from his underwear pocket with his left hand and told the guards to take it out to Xuande.Then he picked up his shell gun from the ground, solemnly handed it to the guard Ma Pozi, and said, "Big man, you have strength, you take this with you." Several comrades present understood Yan Fusheng's thoughts, and they rushed forward without any discussion, and set up Yan Fusheng and left. Yan Fusheng shouted anxiously: "Put me down quickly, you guys leave!" Everyone ignored him: "No, let's go together, we have to die together!" The enemy was approaching step by step, and Yan Fusheng became more anxious. He said: "I order you to leave quickly, or I will shoot you! Big man, give me the gun!" At this point, everyone saw that Yan Fu was so angry that he was going to get serious, so they had to walk away from him every three steps. Seeing that his comrades were still reluctant to leave, Yan Fusheng resolutely chose to commit suicide in order not to let the enemy catch them. He jumped from the high mountain slope and disappeared in a blink of an eye.Unexpectedly, his life was not to die. After jumping off, he was blocked by jujube branches and thick wormwood stalks, and rolled slowly down the hillside.There happened to be an earthen cave dwelling here, so he rolled into it, leaving no footprints at the entrance of the cave dwelling. After Xiang Xuande and his party saw it, they hurried down the hillside to look for Yan Fusheng, but they couldn't find him.Everyone thought he was sacrificed, so they left in a hurry. The enemy saw Yan Fusheng jumping down the mountain. Based on what they saw just now, they decided that he must be an officer of the Red Army, so they searched down the hillside one after another.A group of enemies came to the earthen cave, saw that there were no footprints in front of the cave, and the entrance of the cave was very narrow, so they didn't crawl in to search. Yan Fusheng finally escaped a catastrophe.But due to excessive blood loss from the broken arm, he passed out in the cave. After listening to the report on Yan Fusheng's situation, Wang Zhen, political commissar of the Sixth Red Army, immediately assigned Liu Zhuan, the head of the model division, to go back with his troops to look for it.Everyone went all over the hilltop positions, but there was no sign of Yan Fusheng.Therefore, the top and bottom of the Sixth Red Army believed that Yan Fusheng had died.Political commissar Wang Zhen was very sad, and proposed to everyone at the cadre meeting above the platoon of the Sixth Red Army: "Please stand up and observe three minutes of silence for Comrade Yan Fusheng."Everyone did not expect that Yan Fusheng would come back to life not long after. Yan Fusheng fell into a coma in the cave until the next morning when he was awakened by the pain of his broken arm.After a while, two local people in shabby clothes came over. Yan Fusheng heard their conversation outside the cave, and judged that the two were father and son, sympathizers and supporters of the Red Army, and shouted to them. help.The father and son helped Yan Fusheng home, fed him rice soup, and peeled yam eggs for him to eat, which moved Yan Fusheng to tears.After Yan Fusheng was full, he felt that his physical strength had recovered a lot, so he got up to leave and went to the army with all his heart. However, Yan Fusheng was always a step behind. On October 8, Yan Fusheng rushed to Liujiaba, but the Sixth Army of the Red Army arrived at Hengmen Town; on the 9th, he found Hengmen Town, and the Sixth Army of the Red Army drove to Damen Town; The Sixth Army has entered Pan'an Town again... When Yan Fusheng finally walked to the Dashuitou area, due to injuries, hunger and cold, he fainted by the roadside.When Yan Fusheng woke up, he found a few peasants in ragged clothes talking about him. He explained to them that he was from the Red Army and asked them to carry him to the Red Army.When these peasants heard that it was the Red Army, without further ado, they quickly found a door panel and carried him to a division headquarters of the 31st Army of the Red Fourth Front Army stationed on the bank of the Yellow River in the dark. The commander of this division only heard that Yan Fusheng had died a while ago. He still couldn't believe it when he saw Yan Fusheng. Xiao Ke sent a telegram. After Xiao Ke received the telegram, he was very surprised. He wondered, could this Yan Fusheng be a fake?He immediately sent someone to bring Yan Fusheng to the military headquarters.Seeing Yan Fusheng with his own eyes at the military headquarters, Xiao Ke believed that he was really still alive.After inspecting Yan Fusheng's severed arm, Xiao Ke said distressedly: "You have suffered!" In view of the seriousness of Yan Fusheng's injuries, Xiao Ke sent someone to the Ministry of Health of the Fourth Red Army, and Su Jingguan, the Minister of Health who is known as "one knife" personally amputated Yan Fusheng's festering and rotten right arm.