Because Chen Changjie, commander of the Kuomintang garrison in Tianjin, refused to lead his troops to surrender to the PLA, on 14 January 1949, the well-prepared Chinese People's Liberation Army under the command of General Liu Yalou launched a siege campaign against the Kuomintang troops defending Tianjin with a total of 340,000 troops in 22 divisions. Wang Hongju and his comrades-in-arms of the whole company lurked in the forward position several hundred meters from the enemy's defensive position, and the soldiers who were ready to attack were all gearing up and staring at the front.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, with the order of General Liu Yalou, several signal flares rose into the air, and all kinds of artillery deployed by the People's Liberation Army besieged the city launched a bombardment of the enemy's forward fortifications with a thunderous momentum. Strings of cannonballs whistled sharply over the heads of the fighters, falling like dense swarms of locusts towards the enemy positions not far away. In the deafening explosions, swaths of the enemy's fortifications were destroyed in an instant, and reinforced concrete blocks, barbed wire, wooden stakes, and dirt were thrown into the air by bombs and then thrown to the ground. The enemy's position was completely shrouded in dense gunsmoke, the earth was trembling, the cold air was scorching, and the sound of the PLA's siege artillery was like a rolling spring thunder exploding in the wax moon.

Wang Hongju was lying in the trench, and the continuous sound of strong explosions shook his eardrums. He saw an enemy tank crawling out of a hidden trench and retreating to the rear under the bombardment of our powerful artillery fire, but the tank had just fallen off its ass and was about to flee, and it was blown up after a few shells fell. A tanker crawled out of the cockpit and stumbled a few steps before a shell shattered, one of his broken legs tossed high and far by the air wave. The spectacular and cruel war scene made Wang Hongju, who participated in the war for the first time, feel very excited and nervous, his teeth were clenched, his body trembled uncontrollably, and the palms of his hands holding the gun were full of cold sweat. He peeked at Zhao Xicai, the leader of the third platoon beside him, Zhao Xicai looked ahead with a cigarette, and couldn't help shouting loudly: "Haha!" It's fucking fun! Well played! All right! Blow up these shit! Wang Hongju looked at the other comrades-in-arms around him, these battle-hardened soldiers all looked calm, and some of them were already ready to attack. Wang Hongju tried his best to keep his composure and not let others see his nervousness, but his chest was "pounding" like a rabbit.

After the enemy's front-line fortifications were basically destroyed, the PLA artillery poured thousands of shells into the depth of the enemy's defensive positions. A few more flares rose into the air, and after the short and passionate trumpet sounded, the soldiers leaped from their trenches, shouted with rifles in hand, and pounced on the enemy positions like a sea of mountains. The recalcitrant enemy shot vicious tongues of fire from the remaining fortifications, and the soldiers who rushed in front fell in rows, and the soldiers behind shouted and rushed up in groups, and they died generously in the face of the threat of death, without a trace of hesitation and timidity. The enemy, frightened by the strong offensive momentum of the PLA, escaped from the fortifications where they were hiding and fled to the rear, but most of the enemy were killed and wounded, and a few knelt down and raised their guns as prisoners. The dense skirmish line of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was like a river bursting its embankment, rolling forward unstoppably, and in an instant it broke through the outer defense line of the enemy defending Tianjin.

In the battle, Wang Hongju followed behind Zhao Xicai, imitating the combat movements of the platoon commander, suddenly lying down and rushing violently, he held an American carbine and shot wildly at the fleeing enemy. The bullets in the magazine were instantly emptied, and he hurriedly replaced them with new ones and continued shooting. The soldiers braved the enemy's frantic counterattack and rushed forward desperately in a dense formation, and from time to time some soldiers fell in the sound of explosions, and there was no possibility of retreating and stealing life in this surging crowd, and every soldier must be ready to pay for the war at any time. Wang Hongju rushed forward with his comrades, and he released the nervousness of his first battle with hissing and frantic shooting. When rushing through a trench that the enemy was desperately defending, some stubborn enemy cats were in the trench and fired cold guns at the soldiers who straddled the trench, Wang Hongju in order to avoid the bullets fired, he stepped into the air and fell into the trench, and the carbine in his hand was taken off. He was about to stand up when an enemy pounced on him and pressed him tightly, his neck being tightly locked by the enemy's arms from behind, so that he could barely breathe, and he could not move after several struggles. Wang Hongju was anxious to remember the tricks he used when he was a child, and he stretched his hand back to the enemy's crotch and grabbed it hard. The enemy who pressed on Wang Hongju's body didn't expect the other party to come to this hand at all, he let go of his hand with a strange cry of pain, and Wang Hongju took the opportunity to turn around and jump up. In the confrontation between the two, Wang Hongju saw that the enemy was still grinning and covering his crotch, so he rushed forward and kicked him down. The enemy was also desperate, he rolled on the spot, got up, picked up a rifle with a bayonet beside him and stabbed Wang Hongju, Wang Hongju hurriedly dodged; The enemy then stabbed him in the ribs, and he barely dodged it, and the passing bayonet cut through his cotton uniform, revealing white cotton. The enemy approached viciously, and the bare-handed Wang Hongju nervously retreated step by step, he accidentally tripped over the dead body lying on the ground, and the enemy saw the opportunity and stabbed him viciously in the heart. Wang Hongju knew that retreating and cowardice in the fight with the enemy meant death, at this time his heart rushed to meet the snow bright bayonet, just when the tip of the bayonet was about to touch his chest, his body flashed to the right, his left arm was violently raised and turned his wrist to clamp the bayonet in the armpit, and then entered the left leg and raised the right knee, and used the right knee joint to push the enemy's crotch fiercely, this instantaneous counterattack made the vicious enemy wail and fell to the ground again in pain. Wang Hongju pounced on the grenade on his body and smashed it into the enemy's head, the enemy's skull was smashed, and the hot blood and white brain splattered Wang Hongju's face. Wang Hongju wiped the dirt from his face with his hands, looked at the corpse of the enemy who fell at his feet, he roared angrily, the previous nervousness and timidity had disappeared without a trace, he saw that other soldiers were still fighting with the enemy, so he grabbed a rifle with a bayonet and killed him.

After the People's Liberation Army completely flattened the outer defensive circle of the enemy defending Tianjin, hundreds of thousands of troops came to the city of Tianjin. Under the supervision of Chen Changjie, the Kuomintang defenders resisted desperately in the city. At about 5 o'clock in the morning of the next day, before dawn, under the repeated attacks of our army, the defense of the Tianjin city was finally torn apart in one place, and a tank with a red flag was the first to rush in. The heavy machine guns on the tanks spewed out dazzling fire rhythmically, and the raindrops of bullets chased the ass of the fleeing enemy troops. Behind the tank, a PLA fighter appeared, and then one after another rushed in. Immediately afterwards, Cui Fengming and Li Qiming also rushed in, and the two of them stood aside and shouted loudly for the soldiers behind to follow. The breach grew bigger and bigger, and hundreds of warriors swarmed into the city, shouting and rushing to different targets. Chen Changjie's so-called impregnable urban defense line was divided into pieces by the PLA.

Fierce street fighting began. Fortifications of buildings and roofs blocked every street, and key arterial roads were fortified with bunkers and barricades with sandbags and barbed wire. They used some tanks and armored vehicles as pillboxes, and the enemy's defense crossed each other to support each other, and the firepower was very intensive, and many enemy snipers were hidden on the buildings along the street, causing a lot of casualties to the PLA soldiers who were exposed in the open place.

Wang Hongju's company's attack was thwarted, and they were suppressed by fire from small buildings on both sides in an alley south of the Haihe River. Some of the windows of the buildings facing the street were sealed with sandbags, and several machine guns poked out from them, spitting bullets frantically, completely blocking the not very wide street from the left and right. Just when everyone was helpless, Company Commander Cui didn't know where to get a tank. The tank roared into the alley, and the enemy's bullets crackled the tank's armor like hail. Enraged, the tank turned its turret from side to side, aiming at enemy fire points and firing deadly shells. In a few moments, several frantic fire points were taken out. Seeing that the enemy's machine guns were silent, the prostrate fighters jumped up with cheers and rushed forward after the tank.

But the enemy's points of fire were not completely destroyed. There was a shop on the street, and a machine gun stuck out of its sandbag window and continued to shoot wildly outside, and in an instant several fighters were knocked to the ground. I saw that the tank turned its barrel and found the target, and the enemy's machine gun was dumbed down with one shot. After a while, another machine gun next to this window screamed stubbornly, and the soldiers who had just stood up hurriedly lay on the ground again. By this time, the tank's shells had run out, and the red-eyed tanker drove the tank into a frenzied ram into the house where the enemy's fire was hidden. After several collisions, the house staggered and collapsed, burying the tank underneath. When the tank struggled out of the rubble panting, a low-ranking Kuomintang officer covered in dirt also staggered out of the rubble, and Wang Hongju knocked him to the ground when he saw the latter shot.

The enemy and the enemy fought to the death for every stronghold and every street, and the street fighting was extremely fierce. Zhao Xicai's platoon fought so hard that there were only a dozen or so fighters left, his forehead was scratched by a stray bullet, and his head was wrapped in a blood-red bandage and he rushed to the front of the platoon with a light machine gun. At this time, Zhao Xicai, who took the lead in the charge, turned his head and looked at the soldiers with his hand and waved forward, wanting to shout something, suddenly his body trembled slightly like an electric shock, and after shaking his body, he fell to the ground reluctantly, and after falling to the ground, he still held the machine gun in his arms and continued to shoot forward. Wang Hongju hurriedly ran forward and helped Zhao Xicai up half of his body, only to see that one of Zhao Xicai's legs was hit. Wang Hongju looked forward, and it turned out that there was a bunker piled up with sandbags at the intersection not far ahead, and the bunker suddenly fired dense firepower to suppress the attack of the People's Liberation Army. Wang Hongju prostrate on the ground and dragged Zhao Xicai behind a pile of sandbag bunkers. Zhao Xicai leaned on the sandbag and gasped, his right calf was hit by two bullets, and the bleeding from the wound did not stop.

At this time, the enemy's bunker was still firing frantically, and the fighters who went to blast the bunker had already suffered several casualties. Wang Hongju said anxiously to Zhao Xicai: "Platoon commander, you rest here for a while, and then I will take care of you when I blow up the dark fort!" He picked up the grenade and rushed out from behind the sandbag.

"Wait, you can't go!" Zhao Xicai hurriedly grabbed him with his hand, Wang Hongju looked at Zhao Xicai puzzled, Zhao Xicai explained: "You are a recruit with no combat experience, you can't blow up the enemy's dark fort if you go up, you can only die in vain!"

"You look down on me! Do you think I'm afraid of death? Wang Hongju roared and still wanted to rush out.

Seeing that Wang Hongju was about to rush out, Zhao Xicai was anxious, and he shouted angrily: "Wang Hongju, I order you to stop!" It doesn't matter if you die, if you can't blow up the bunker, our fighters will pay more sacrifices! Do you understand? Wang Hongju had no choice but to squat behind the sandbag again, and he pouted and glared at Zhao Xicai. Zhao Xicai stretched out his hand to Wang Hongju to ask for a grenade and said, "Fuck! Dog days broke my legs, I had to kill them! Give that guy to me, I've got experience in bunkers. ”

"Platoon commander, you're injured and can't go!" Wang Hongju resolutely disagreed.

Zhao Xicai glared at Wang Hongju and said, "Don't talk nonsense!" Help me see the situation first. After speaking, he moved his body, and Wang Hongju reached out to pick him up when he saw this. Zhao Xicai lay on the sandbag and looked carefully at the dark castle in front of him that was spewing tongues of fire. "Humph! Nothing remarkable! He pursed his lips contemptuously, then took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, and after a few greedy puffs, he slammed the remaining half of it to the ground. He glared at Wang Hongju and shouted, "Give me your grenade!" That's an order! Wang Hongju had no choice but to hand over the only two grenades to him. Zhao Xicai took out a few magazines from his waist and stuffed them into Wang Hongju's hand, then pointed to the light machine gun on the ground and said, "You cover me, you have to aim at the shooting hole of the dark fort!" As long as I suppress the fire of the bunker, I can be sure that I will blow it up. ”

Wang Hongju said to the platoon commander uneasily: "Platoon commander, are your legs okay?" Call me on! ”

He looked at Wang Hongju's uneasy appearance and forced a smile and said, "Brother, I really don't feel pain when I hurt my leg!" Don't worry, I'm a veteran oilman, I can't die! With that, he pinned the grenade to his waist and rolled on the spot and crawled out of cover. Wang Hongju hurriedly set up the machine gun and fired, and a string of bullets splashed sparks from the shooting holes of the bunker opposite. At this time, Cui Fengming and the instructor also rushed over with a few soldiers, and everyone fell in the bunker and looked nervously at Zhao Xicai, who was crawling forward under the enemy's dense firepower. Cui Fengming also picked up a machine gun and personally covered for Zhao Xicai.

Under the cover of the fire of his comrades, Zhao Xicai dragged his wounded leg sideways and crawled forward, and the enemy's machine-gun bullets hit the asphalt road beside him "poof, poof, poof", stirring up strings of green smoke. Zhao Xicai, who has rich combat experience, skillfully used the corpses strewn across the ground to cover himself. When the enemy's fire was concentrated on him, he lay still and pretended to be dead, and when the enemy's fire stopped slightly, he took the opportunity to climb forward a few meters. Zhao Xicai endured the pain of his injured leg and crawled forward tenaciously, due to excessive blood loss, he felt that his eyes were black and weak, but he had only one goal in his heart, that is, he must hold on, and he must blow up the dark fortress in front of him. He stubbornly crawled forward, his wounded leg dragging a long trail of blood behind him. As he approached the bunker, a bullet hit him, and he lay motionless on the ground. Seeing this scene, Wang Hongju was sad and smashed his thigh with his fist.

At this moment, another soldier rushed to the bunker with a bag of explosives, and he was knocked to the ground as soon as he took a few steps. Wang Hongju hurriedly crawled over, picked up the explosives bag around the wounded, and crawled towards the enemy's bunker. A string of bullets came from the front, and Wang Hongju dodged with a deft sideways roll.

Seeing this, Cui Fengming encouraged loudly: "Wang Hongju, I will cover you, you must blow up the enemy's bunker!" ”

Wang Hongju turned his head and shouted to Cui Fengming: "Company commander, I will definitely complete the task!" ”

At this time, Cui Fengming reorganized the firepower to cover for Wang Hongju. Wang Hongju cautiously crawled forward, and the dense bullets from the hidden fortress blocked his way, and he could be killed every time he crawled forward.

At this time, Zhao Xicai, who was lying in front of the dark fort, was not killed, he was only grazed by a bullet in his left shoulder, and he deceived the enemy by lying on the ground and pretending to be dead. The enemy troops in the bunker thought that Zhao Xicai had been killed, and they concentrated all their fire on Wang Hongju. At this time, Zhao Xicai saw that Wang Hongju behind him had completely attracted the attention of the enemy, so he endured the pain, tried all his strength, and used an astonishing speed to climb and roll into the shooting corner in front of the dark fort, and the enemy in the dark fort could no longer hit him after discovering it. Zhao Xicai, who was hiding in the shooting corner, couldn't take a breath, he pulled the grenade fuse, the fuse squeaked and burned, and just when it was about to explode, Zhao Xicai stuffed the grenade into the shooting hole of the dark bunker. After the explosion, he shoved another grenade into the bunker. After the two explosions, several puffs of green smoke came out of the bunker, and there was no sound anymore, and all the enemy soldiers inside were killed.

"Zhao Xi is good!" Cui Fengming jumped up excitedly and rushed forward with a machine gun, followed by the soldiers.

Seeing his soldiers rushing up, Zhao Xicai waved his hand to the soldiers with his good leg in front of the bombed bunker, and at this moment a cold gun from nowhere whistled and hit him, he felt as if his back was being pushed violently, his body was like a deflated ball, he felt cold and tired, there were many stars flashing in front of him, he tried his best to stand up straight, but his eyes were black and he didn't know anything.

"Platoon commander!" Wang Hongju, who rushed forward, hurriedly helped Zhao Xicai, who fell to the ground, only to see that Zhao Xicai was shot in the back and through his chest, and his whole body was stained with blood. Wang Hongju hugged the platoon commander tightly in his arms and called the hygienist to bandage his wounds. Under the call of his comrades-in-arms, Zhao Xicai slowly opened his eyes, he looked at Wang Hongju with blurred eyes, and muttered in a weak voice: "You don't care about me, I'm going to be glorious." I have something in my pocket, please organize it, hand it over, and give it to my old man, my mother. Zhao Xicai wanted to say something after taking a few breaths, but his mouth moved and he couldn't speak, so he made a gesture with his fingers trembling. Cui Fengming, who was standing on the side, understood what he meant, so he hurriedly lit a cigarette and put it to Zhao Xicai's mouth. After Zhao Xicai took a puff of cigarette gently, a satisfied smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, and then he let out a sigh of relief, and died in Wang Hongju's arms with his head tilted.

"Platoon commander! You can't die! You said you wouldn't die! Wang Hongju shook the dead Zhao Xicai and shouted loudly, his heart was like a knife, and tears came out of his eyes.

Cui Fengming squatted down and closed Zhao Xicai's eyes with his hand that were not completely closed, and said, "Old Zhao, you can go with peace of mind!" After he finished speaking, he took out a pack of cigarettes and stuffed them into Zhao Xicai's pocket: "You, you have to smoke when you die!" Take this pack of cigarettes and smoke it in another place. ”

The battle was still raging, and Cui Fengming led the soldiers forward with a machine gun. Wang Hongju put down Zhao Xicai's body sadly, and was just about to rush forward with the team, when a bullet flew past his scalp and knocked off his hat. He looked in the direction where the bullet had come from, and saw a barrel of a gun poking out of a two-story window diagonally across the road and aiming at him, and he hurriedly rolled on the ground to the other side, and as soon as he dodged, a string of bullets shot exactly where he had just been. Annoyed, Wang Hongju stood up desperately, he ran to the middle of the road, picked up the gun in his hand and fired back at the opposite window. "Stay safe!" With a shout, instructor Li Qiming rushed over and knocked down Wang Hongju, pressing him tightly under him. A barrage of bullets struck the asphalt road around them. Taking advantage of the interval between the enemy's shooting, Li Qiming pulled Wang Hongju and ran back to safety.

Li Qiming angrily pointed at Wang Hongju and scolded: "Is there a war like you? ** Looking for death! ”

Wang Hongju impulsively asked Li Qiming: "Who asked you to fence me?" To avenge the platoon commander! Even if I die, I'm going to give them a few lives! ”

Li Qiming's eyes looked at Wang Hongju, who was red-eyed, the corners of his mouth that were tense because of anger slowly loosened, he nodded and said in an approving tone: "Hmm! I usually feel uncomfortable looking at your sour and fake vinegar, but today I am still a man in the fight! He waved the pistol in his hand and said loudly: "Aren't you going to avenge the sacrifice of your comrades?" Come! Kill me in! ”

Wang Hongju and a few soldiers followed Li Qiming along the wall from a hole that had been blown open into the opposite building, and after a while, the dull explosion of grenades was heard from the building, and then a series of crisp gunshots were heard, and the recalcitrant enemy was eliminated.

At dawn on the 15th, Haiguang Temple, an important military stronghold of the enemy's Tianjin City, was captured, followed by the Kuomintang Tianjin Garrison Headquarters. At this time, the defenders of Tianjin were like headless flies, trying to break out of the encirclement; But they are tightly surrounded by the People's Liberation Army and compressed into a smaller and smaller space, and what awaits them will be the fate of total annihilation. In the afternoon, the sound of fierce gunfights gradually became sparse, at about 15 o'clock in the afternoon, the sound of gunfire completely stopped, after 29 hours of fierce fighting, Tianjin City was captured by the People's Liberation Army! General Chen Changjie, the supreme commander of the Tianjin garrison, who was hidden among the captives, was captured.

In the battle to liberate Tianjin, nearly half of Wang Hongju's company suffered casualties, the squad and platoon cadres were almost completely killed and wounded, and the company commander Cui Fengming was unfortunately blown off his right arm by a stray bullet at the end of the battle. Wang Hongju was lucky, during the battle, the Grim Reaper passed by him several times and failed to capture him, not even a single hair hurt him. Although he won a big victory, but remembering the good brothers who were still laughing and playing together yesterday, and today they are sleeping in the ground, Wang Hongju has never been able to accept this reality, and Wang Hongju is not only excited but also sad at the celebration meeting. After the meeting, Wang Hongju silently packed up Zhao Xicai's relics, among which there were only a few underwear full of patches, and in his jacket pocket were two silver dollars that were shiny with his hands. He carefully wrapped these things, and if he had the opportunity, he would hand them over to the families of the martyrs.