On June 25th, 1951, the Korean War broke out, and the Korean army was forced by the United Nations troops to retreat one after another, and the war soon spread to the Yalu River. In order to protect their new homeland, hundreds of thousands of South Korean soldiers, shouldering the expectations of the motherland and the entrustment of the people, crossed the Yalu River and began to fight against the United Nations troops led by the United States with the Korean People's Army.

In the whole war, the China Volunteers won five major battles, and the United Nations troops led by the United States rushed to the vicinity of the 38th parallel, achieving the strategic goal and winning the war. There are detailed data on both sides of the war, so I won't explain them in detail.

If there is a war, there will be sacrifices and prisoners of war. In this article, we will learn about the volunteer soldiers who were unfortunately captured by the 181th Division in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. One of them was the highest-ranking volunteer army: Wu Chengde, the acting political commissar and director of the political department of the 181th Division of the 61th Army of the former Third Corps of Volunteers.

The other is Yang Yuhua, the only woman in the more than 6,111 returning volunteers. Before being captured, she was a nurse in the 181th Division of the 61th Army of Chinese people's Volunteer Army.

how were Wu Chengde and Yang Yuhua captured? What are the stories after being captured? Why did Peng Dehuai denounce sixty army commanders? How will the captured people be treated after returning to China? This article will understand the above contents.

In the fifth battle of the Korean War, the Chinese-Korean allied forces and the United Nations forces led by the United States invested more than 111,111 troops, which was the largest battle in the Korean War. Peng Dehuai, Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteers, chose to attack ahead of time in order to prevent the United Nations troops from landing from the flank and make the Volunteers fall into a difficult situation of fighting on both sides.

because of the advance of the battle plan, most troops were not fully prepared, which also laid the groundwork for the defeat of the 181th Division.

At that time, the 181th Division of the 61th Army of the Third Corps of the Volunteers just entered Korea. Because the order was given in a hurry, they rushed into the fifth battle (April 22nd, 1951) before making more preparations.

From May 6th to 23rd, the Volunteers and the Korean People's Army opened a gap on the enemy front; This would have been a great opportunity to defeat the United nations army in one fell swoop; However, the rear supply of the volunteers was difficult to keep up for a while, and the attacking frontline troops could only stop and wait for ammunition and supplies to be replenished.

At this time, the well-equipped American and South Korean armies marched more than 111 kilometers by modern means of transportation-motorcycles, and blocked the gap that had been opened before our supply troops arrived. In an instant, the balance of war fell to the side of the United Nations Army.

Peng Dehuai thinks:

At that time, Li Qiwei, who had just replaced General MacArthur as the commander-in-chief of the joint army, had already discovered the shortcomings of the supply capacity of the volunteers. Li Qiwei predicted that if the volunteers were not supplied, they would run out of food and ammunition in five days.

Therefore, when the volunteers tended to retreat, Li Qiwei decisively sent seven well-equipped American divisions, plus 13 divisions in South Korea, to launch a full-scale counterattack against the volunteers; At this time, the main force of the volunteers is in danger.

On May 21th, the 181th Division received an order from its superior to stop attacking and move northward, but it had to stop the United Nations troops in the blocked area for at least 3-5 days to cover the retreat of the main forces before retreating. After receiving the order, the 181th Division did stop the United Nations troops for the main forces and cover the retreat of the main forces.

Three days later, the 181th Division received a new order to immediately retreat to the north of the Han River after completing the blocking task. At this time, two armies of the United Nations Army emerged from the front and rear of the 181th Division respectively, and the 181th Division was caught in a tight encirclement.

At this time, Wei Jie, commander of the 61th Army, first ordered the 181th Division to hold on fighting and wait for rescue, and later ordered the 181th Division to break through.

waiting for help? When this main force is retreating and the rest of the troops are trying their best to stop the United Nations, who can come to the rescue of the 181th Division? Thanks to the idea of the commander of the 61th Army.

The 181th Division immediately split into two divisions and successfully broke through after a bloody battle. But just as the two divisions met, the United Nations troops once again sent troops to surround them. This time, in order to prevent them from breaking through again, the United Nations forces sent absolute superior troops and weapons and set up several blockade lines.

In order to meet the 181th Division, the 61th Army Department sent the 179th Division and the 181st Division to rescue them, but none of them succeeded. Now the soldiers of the 181th Division have to rely on themselves if they want to break through.

One night, in a small ravine near Chunchuan, the 181th Division convened an emergency party committee. Every participant knows that their current situation is not optimistic: they are surrounded by well-equipped enemies and have set up several blockade lines outside; The enemy is constantly compressing the encirclement, and the 181th Division has been compressed into a very narrow area.

The sound of gunfire not far away and the roar of enemy planes from above indicate that it will only be a day or two before the United Nations forces try to catch the 181th Division unless they take action.

Because of the blockade by the enemy, there is no food and ammunition supply. The 181th Division has been out of food for three or four days, and there is little ammunition left. Under the constant compression of the enemy, the number of casualties keeps rising, and everyone present is very heavy.

You know, the 181th Division was famous for its bravery and bravery in the early years, but now the remaining more than 11,111 soldiers are surrounded by United Nations troops in this narrow place.

Wu Chengde, the acting political commissar of the division who presided over the meeting, asked questions several times, but no one dared to answer them. It was not until later that someone suggested, "Otherwise, we should break through in scattered ways." According to common sense, when the troops are concentrated, the combat effectiveness of the troops will be strong, and it is easier to break the enemy's blockade by attacking at one point.

However, at that time, when the 181th Division was seriously short of troops and ammunition, the centralized breakthrough would be even more hopeless than the decentralized breakthrough. Can't say, scattered breakthrough is a good policy, can only say that it is the best policy, there is no way, this is also the only choice that the 181 Division can make. As a result, the proposal of "decentralized breakthrough" was quickly approved by most people.

after a simple deployment, each team leader returned to his own army to arrange the breakthrough. Wu Chengde also went to the regiment to inspect the situation before the breakout battle; When he passed a ravine, he heard someone shouting, "Political commissar Wu, we can't walk any further." When Wu Chengde looked intently, it turned out to be a group of wounded people who were injured in previous battles and could not keep up with the troops' breakthrough.

after Wu Chengde found the heads of these wounded people to settle the wounded, he went west with the guards and messengers to catch up with the transferred division headquarters. When Wu Chengde and his party came to have a mountain pass, he found that there was a dark crowd in front. After a closer look, it turned out to be more than 311 wounded people in the 181 th Division. These wounded people were inconvenient to move because of their injuries, and it was difficult to keep up with the transfer of troops.

When the wounded saw Wu Chengde, they seemed to see hope. They asked noisily:

If Wu Chengde ignored these wounded people and rode directly after them, he would certainly catch up with the division headquarters and perhaps break through successfully. However, watching the wounded people cast their eyes on him eager for help, Wu Chengde couldn't bear to leave them, so he took them to break through.

Wu Chengde knows very well that the army is short of food and ammunition. If he is with the wounded with mobility difficulties, he will definitely not be able to break out of the encirclement of the United Nations army. But how can you bear to leave these lovely soldiers behind?

To show his determination to be with the wounded, Wu Chengde got off his horse, took out his pistol and shot at his horse, which crashed to the ground. Wu Chengde said to the wounded:

Later, Wu Chengde asked the wounded to be divided into groups according to the number of people, with 41 people in each group; Each group should also select one or two cadres to lead the group to break through. However, due to the disparity in strength, Wu Chengde led the wounded to break through and fought all night, but they failed to break through the encirclement until they ran out of ammunition and food.

Later, Wu Chengde led the rest of the wounded in the mountainous area near the 37th parallel of North Korea, and persisted in guerrilla warfare. Everyone in the same boat * * *, life and death and * * *, actually persisted for 14 months, until only three people were left, which was accidentally captured by the US military's mountain search team.

At that time, when the U.S. Army's Mountain Search Team learned that Wu Chengde was the acting political commissar of the 181th Division, it was very happy-it finally captured a senior official.

In fact, before this breakthrough, everyone in the 181th Division knew in their hearts that the decentralized breakthrough was only the last attempt, and the chances of success were very small. The fact has indeed proved this point: of the more than 11,111 soldiers of the 181th Division who participated in the breakout, less than 4,111 succeeded in the breakout, and the remaining 7,111 people, a few died in battle, and most of them were captured.

You should know that in the whole War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, more than 21,111 volunteers were captured. The breakthrough of the 181th Division once set a new record for the captured volunteers-at least 7,111 people, accounting for about one-third of the total captured volunteers. This is also the battle with the largest number of captured volunteers since the volunteers entered the Korean War.

After learning that at least 7,111 soldiers were captured, the whole army was shocked. As the commander-in-chief of the Volunteers, Peng Dehuai was very angry. At the military meeting held in mid-June, Peng Dehuai questioned and angered Wei Jie, the commander of the 61th Army:

Although Peng Dehuai angered Wei Jie, the commander of the 61th Army, and thought that he was responsible for the capture of more than 7,111 soldiers in the 181th Division, Peng Dehuai himself once said that he should also be responsible for the defeat of the 181th Division.

Peng Dehuai said:

Later, Wu Chengde was sent to Busan War Crimes Prison by the United Nations Army. In order to make Wu Chengde surrender, make him betray his motherland, and win him over to Chiang Kai-shek after the war, the enemy can be said to have tried his best. First, he used all kinds of beauty, good food and good living conditions to seduce Wu Chengde. Later, when he saw that he could not be soft, he tried hard, tortured him and destroyed his will.

But Wu Chengde never gave in. He kept hoping for the day when he could go back to China to see his wife and children after the war. Wu Chengde knows that there is an international convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, that is, the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, in which Article 118 stipulates that after the war, prisoners of war should be released and repatriated without delay.

Besides, even without this convention, Wu Chengde always believed that the motherland would try to rescue them in various ways.

In July, 1951, the negotiations in Panmunjom officially started, but it was not until two years later (July 27th, 1953) that the Korean Armistice Agreement was formally signed into effect. In the past 24 months, 19 months have been stuck on the issue of the repatriation of prisoners, because the United States unreasonably ignored the requirements of the Geneva Convention, and the warring parties have been unable to reach an agreement on the issue of prisoners of war; In order to win the smooth return of prisoners of war to China, we fought against the United Nations Army for more than a year.

Wu Chengde, as the highest-ranking prisoner of war, was repatriated by the last batch of US troops. It was September 2, 1953, and several American soldiers came to the room where Wu Chengde was held with a bucket of water. Wu Chengde knew his purpose at a glance: Want me to take a bath? To cover up the truth about your mistreatment of our prisoners of war. Nice try!

Thinking, thinking, Wu Chengde was so angry that he kicked the bucket over with one foot. Several American soldiers looked at each other. One of them ran to get the faucet, washed Wu Chengde directly, left a new suit with others, and Wu Chengde threw it out of the window without looking at it.

After throwing clothes, Wu Chengde took out a needle and thread to mend the shoes on his feet, which were worn out from China to North Korea. This pair of shoes is a souvenir and a symbol of hometown; These shoes gave him the courage and confidence to live. Later, Wu Chengde's old shoes were collected by the Memorial Hall to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in Dandong.

at 9: 11 a.m. on September 6th, Wu Chengde took an ambulance from the U.S. military and came to the site where China and the United States exchanged prisoners with other captured people. At that time, the people in charge of prisoner exchange in China knew Wu Chengde, but he hardly recognized him.

Wu Chengde has only lived in a prison camp for a few months, and he has been tortured to the skin and bones by the US military. Before being captured, Wu Chengde weighed more than 131 kilograms, but now he weighs only more than 91 kilograms. Under the long-term torture of the US military, Wu Chengde is sallow and emaciated, and his body is very weak.

Later, Wu Chengde and many weak prisoners of war were rushed to an ambulance and immediately sent to the Volunteer Hospital in Kaesong for a comprehensive examination.

At that time, Li Kenong, then Vice Foreign Minister, and Huang Hua, the Chinese negotiator, cordially received Wu Chengde and the last group of repatriated people. I also expressed my condolences and congratulations to them. The care and organizational love from the leaders made these heroes who had been tortured physically and mentally in the prison camp for several months, only bleeding without tears, could not help but shed tears.

Later, all these prisoners of war boarded the train, arrived in Shenyang after returning home, and were arranged to live in the guest house of Northeast Military Region. In 1981, that is, 27 years after returning to China, Wu Chengde resumed his military post and was able to enjoy the treatment of the ranks.

At that time, there were always 29 female nurses in the division health team of the 181th Division. Before the encirclement of the United Nations Army was sealed, Shi Jinchang, the chief of medical affairs in the logistics department of the 181th Division, led the health team and followed the second echelon of the "post-secretary" organs of the 181th Division to evacuate from the North Hanjiang River. Except for a few people who were unfortunately killed by American planes, the rest of them successfully rushed out of the encirclement of the United Nations forces.

But Yang Yuhua was not among them. The thing is this: when Yang Yuhua treated the wounded and stretcher bearers a few days ago, the wounded and stretcher bearers were very hungry, so she gave all her fried noodles to the wounded and stretcher bearers, and she had to find wild vegetables to satisfy her hunger. Unfortunately, she found poisonous wild vegetables and vomited and diarrhea for several days, so she really couldn't participate in the evacuation. A few days later, she went into a semi-coma and was tied to a stretcher to follow.

unfortunately, the stretcher team was discovered by the enemy on the way out and was shelled; More than a dozen stretcher bearers and the wounded on the stretcher were killed, and the survivors led the wounded to an abandoned railway tunnel.

However, the US military immediately fired several rockets into the railway tunnel, and the stretcher bearers and the wounded who were leaning outside were burned to death. Only five wounded who were leaning inside the railway tunnel survived, including Yang Yuhua.

The next morning, the United Nations