【Editor's note】
The Long March was a great feat in human history and created a miracle on earth that swallowed up mountains and rivers. The imprint of the Long March is contained in the daily lives of countless ordinary soldiers and people along the way. A fishhook, a lantern, half a leather belt... each precious token is imbued with the spirit of the great Long March, embodying the comradeship that depends on life and death, the military-civilian sentiment that sticks together through thick and thin, and the time-honored sentiments of family and country.
On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March, the Litchi News Center launched the "Indelible Marks" series of integrated media reports, using "objects" from the Long March period as emotional ties to look back on the arduous and arduous years and relive the everlasting red memories, leading the youth to draw spiritual strength across time and space and walk the Long March in the new era.
In the study at No. 358 Tongpan Road, Wufeng Street, Gulou District, Fuzhou City, everything remains as it was when the owner left. The hands of the alarm clock on the corner of the table always stop at 22:32 - June 23, 2023, the heart of the owner of the study stopped beating at this moment. In the glass display cabinet next to the desk, the glory of his military life is neatly displayed: the commemorative medal to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, the Medal of Independence and Freedom, the Northeast Liberation Medal, the North China Liberation Medal, the second-level Red Star Meritorious Medal... Each one reflects a period of narrow escapes. The autobiography "Iron Horse and Jin Ge" spread out on the desk contains a dog-eared page, which records a story of using a sewing needle to be bent into a fishhook and surviving in a desperate situation on the grass. The protagonist of the story is none other than Wang Yuqing, an old Red Army soldier who is one of the prototype characters in the primary school Chinese text "The Golden Fishhook".
A fishhook bent from a sewing needle
"My father is one of the prototype characters in the text "The Golden Fishhook." Wang Ning opened his autobiography and his fingertips stopped at the chapter "Crossing the Snowy Mountains and Grasslands."
In July 1936, the Second Red Front Army entered the grassland of northwest Sichuan. 14-year-old Wang Yuqing is short and suffering from a high fever. General He Long put him on his horse and carried him for a while, but most of the time, Wang Yuqing had to move inch by inch on his own. "The grass is paved, the sky is covered, and we deal with the moon and stars all day long." The grass is endless, hiding swamp traps. As we walk, some comrades fall down. "The most difficult thing is to run out of food." The troops in front have already eaten up everything they can eat. There is no trace of wild vegetables, tree roots, leather belts, anything that can satisfy their hunger.
Wang Yuqing was lying next to a puddle, dying. In a daze, he saw subtle ripples on the water - what was moving in the water? He took out the sewing needle pinned to the brim of his hat, heated it red with fire, bent it into a hook, threaded it on, and dropped it into the water. His hand shook slightly - three small fish as big as thumbs were hooked. Wang Yuqing was overjoyed and boiled it into a pot of fish soup and distributed it to everyone. Several comrades relied on this little heat to stagger to the edge of the grass.
But after walking out of the grassland, Wang Yuqing could no longer find anyone - the old cooking squad leader from Hunan. The old squad leader once turned over his rice bag, made the last bit of powder into soup and gave it to the sick Wang Yuqing. Wang Yuqing asked: "You gave it to me, what will you do yourself?" The old squad leader only said: "Just take it one step at a time." After walking out of the grass, Wang Yuqing asked around and learned that the old squad leader had not come out. "Every time my father talks about this paragraph, he chokes up and can't go on." Wang Ning recalled the scene his father told before his death. "As he spoke, he patted his forehead and closed his eyes, as if he was back to that scene again."
From a runaway boy to an artillery commander
Wang Yuqing was born in 1921, the same year as the Communist Party of China. This year is regarded as the pride of his life. In 1935, when he was 14 years old, he fled famine with his father and met the Red Army on the way. "When he saw the scene of the Red Army attacking local tyrants to divide their fields, he felt that the Red Army was for the common people and was good to the common people." Wang Yuqing immediately decided to join the team and became a soldier in the radio station of the Second Red Army Headquarters.
In the following decades, Wang Yuqing experienced the Agrarian Revolution, the Anti-Japanese War, the Liberation War, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Kinmen Artillery Battle, and experienced hundreds of battles. Behind each of those medals in the display cabinet in the study is a story of life and death. In 1945, he was admitted to the Yan'an Artillery School and became the first generation artilleryman of the People's Army. After the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea ended, the organization asked for his whereabouts, and he only said one sentence: "Where is the war left?" At that time, most of the country was liberated, and Taiwan had not yet been unified. He took the initiative to apply for transfer to Fujian and was stationed on the southeast coast. He successively served as deputy commander of the artillery of the 13th Garrison Division of the Fujian Military Region, commander of the 85th Division of the Fuzhou Military Region, commander of the artillery of the Fuzhou Military Region, and later served as advisor to the Fuzhou Military Region Headquarters. He took root in Fujian and never left.
In the eyes of his family, he is a simple, kind-hearted, slightly silent old man who never takes the initiative to mention his military exploits. But whenever someone asked about his experience on the grassland, he would tell the story of the fishhook from the beginning, and always say one sentence at the end: "You young people can live such a happy life today. It is hard-won, so you must cherish it."
Tell it to today and tell it to tomorrow
After Wang Ning retired two years ago, he began to carefully organize his father's images, words and manuscripts. When sorting out his belongings, he discovered a detail: his father kept the certificates he received from participating in ordinary fishing competitions in his later years and the medals he won during his military career in his autobiography. He felt more and more that this fishhook should not be kept silent, "As long as I have the chance, I will tell this story again."
One year, Wang Yuqing, who was in his 90s, was taken to a resort by his family to recuperate. Passing by the pond, he suddenly asked if there was a fishing rod. After getting the fishing rod, he skillfully swung the hook and waited quietly. That back view made Wang Ning feel trance-like for a moment, as if he had seen the skinny boy on the grass. "That kind of intersection of time and space makes people have mixed feelings." Wang Ning photographed that moment.
Every major event or special day, Wang Ning will go to Sanshan Humanities Memorial Park. In front of the statue of his father's handprint, he put his palm over it and overlapped his fingers; he brought flowers, fetched water, and carefully wiped his father's tombstone. Last year, he separated the story of "The Golden Fish Hook" and a brief introduction to his father's life on both sides of the tombstone to make his father's image more vivid and complete. He took his grandson Xiaoxiao to identify the names on the wall of patriots. Xiaoxiao read out "Wang - Yu - Qing" word by word, raised his head and said loudly: "This is my great-grandfather!" At that moment, Wang Ning felt that his father had never left.
The story of inheritance continues in my living room. Xiaoxiao asked innocently: "But the fishhook is covered with red rust, so it is not gold?" Wang Ning did not answer directly, but gently guided his grandson to think: "What about your understanding?" Xiaoxiao thought for a moment and answered seriously: "Although the fishhook is covered with red rust, it hides a touching story. In everyone's heart, it shines and is a golden fishhook!" After hearing this, Wang Ning touched the child's head with joy.
The hands of the alarm clock in the study always stop at 22:32, but time never really stops. The story of the 14-year-old boy who used a sewing needle to catch hope for life in the vast grassland is being polished by generations of people, accompanied by the sound of reading. From surviving in a desperate situation to enjoying his old age, a fishhook connects Wang Yuqing's life. The red rust of the fishhook will never fade away, but the light of faith contained in it will always shine. As a descendant of the Red Army, Wang Ning made up his mind: he must keep telling this story.
