Top leader Xi Jinping warmly greets Zhang Fuqing at a national work conference on veterans issues in Beijing on July 26, 2019. (DING LIN / XINHUA)

The stories of Jiang Cheng and Zhang Fuqing are strikingly similar: they fought bravely in defending the nation, were awarded as heroes, but remained little known for decades.

Nowadays, military veteran Jiang Cheng is barely able to recognize his family members any more because of cerebral atrophy, a degenerative brain condition.

However, when he was recently visited in his village home in Chongqing, the 93-year-old repeatedly sang: “Valiantly and spiritedly, we cross the Yalu River.”

The verse is from the March of the Chinese People’s Volunteers, a popular song about the Chinese military efforts in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53).

For decades Jiang had lived a modest life as a farmer, until a letter from 35 years earlier was opened and revealed his courageous efforts.

In 1988, an unclaimed letter containing a military meritorious service award was noticed by a county archivist in Hechuan district. The letter was jointly sent by the headquarters and political department of the Chinese People’s Volunteers army in 1953. Yet it was wrongly addressed to another Jiang Cheng in Xinglong township and ended up in the county archives. 

A local official opened the letter, which read, “You Comrade Jiang Cheng, with bravery and good marksmanship, led your battalion to break through the enemy’s blockades and wiped out more than 400 enemies, destroyed an enemy heavy machine gun and shot down an enemy aircraft, holding ground firmly despite a serious injury, and have cooperated with the infantry to complete the task which played an important role in the victory of the Battle of Shangganling.”

It was easy to trace Jiang as there were only two or three veterans from the Korean engagement still living in Guangfu village, Longxing township of the same district. Jiang then was 60 years old and those around him, even close family members, only saw him as a farmer and silkworm breeder as he had never disclosed his combat achievements.

Born into a poor family there in 1928 he joined the army at the age of 21, he later told his family. He was a machine-gunner during the Korean war and later appointed a battalion leader. 

Army veteran Jiang Cheng at his home in Chongqing’s Hechuan district in early 2021. (DENG RUI / CHINA DAILY)

In October 1952, the Battle of Shangganling, or Triangle Hill, broke out. The Chinese People’s Volunteer troops were under heavy artillery and air strikes by the United States military. Jiang led his battalion in position and helped hold out the US aggressors.

During the battle, Jiang was badly injured by fragments from a bomb dropped by a US aircraft. He suffered major stomach wounds, but continued fighting until he lost consciousness. Only after 10 surgeries to repair the damage was he able to survive, with a large scar on his stomach.

In 1954, Jiang and his comrades returned to China and participated in the construction of barracks in Jiangshan, Zhejiang province, which earned him more military awards for outstanding contributions.

In February 1955, he was discharged from the army and returned to his hometown. However, he locked his medals in an iron box and never spoke about his war experiences, his relatives said.

Jiang never used his military honors to ask for preferential treatment in the civilian world. The man of few words did arduous construction work on the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway for nine years, and bred silk worms for 24 years before he retired.

He also tried his best to help his village out of poverty. In the 1980s, he applied for a large loan and used it to lead construction of roads in the village. “This is probably the only thing my father left me,” his youngest son Jiang Minghui said. “I took eight years to pay off the debt.”

Jiang Cheng’s eldest son Jiang Renjun, also a retired soldier, recalled his father’s words before he went into the army, “Be ready to sacrifice, be strict with yourself and don’t make trouble for the country.”

In 2015, at age 87, Jiang Cheng transferred the right to use his family’s land to a company for olive plant cultivation, and volunteered to encourage villagers to embrace agricultural innovations.

“My father seldom talked about that war before,” Jiang Minghui said. “But in the last two years he would often murmur on about some battle even though he could hardly speak cogently or recognize his family members.”

With the CPC celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the bravery and humility of this man of honor finally thrust him into the spotlight.

“I was proud to serve the people and there is nothing to brag about,” family members recall Jiang saying before his dementia worsened. “I just fulfilled the duty.”

Army veteran Zhang Fuqing pictured during an interview on March 31, 2019. (CHENG MIN / XINHUA)

Meanwhile, in a remote mountainous county of Laifeng in central China’s Hubei province, Zhang Fuqing has also toiled for nearly six decades .

He was a soldier of Brigade 359 of the Northwest Field Army, one of the main forces of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army during the Liberation War between 1945 and 1949, honored several times for performing meritorious deeds. Twice he had been given the honorary title of Combat Hero.

During his retirement time in 1955, Zhang chose a poor area to work instead of returning to his hometown in Shaanxi province. 

Among those available then, he learned that the place with the hardest living conditions in Hubei province was Enshi, and the most remote place in Enshi was Laifeng. Without saying anything, Zhang chose Laifeng as the place to work. His wife Sun Yulan also followed him. 

Since then, the couple seldom returned to their hometown in Shaanxi province in northwest China. 

Then Zhang dedicated his life to the people there, holding posts ranging from community-level government official to deputy manager of a local bank.

In the past, one of their children’s teacher, Xiang Zhichun, often visited Zhang’s home. He recalled, “Zhang children’s clothes were always not as good than other students. I ate at his place and found that they ate poorly and rarely had meat.”

Zhang’s left leg was amputated over eight years ago because of an illness, but he stood up again on his prosthesis.

He said that he does not want to be a burden for others, and wants his children to work wholeheartedly for the Party and the people.

Zhang and his wife, together with their disabled eldest daughter, live in an old, two-bedroom house built in the 1980s. Their home is kept tidy and clean, but the simple decorations and furniture remained the same as they were decades ago. 

His political beliefs in serving the people supported his resolve during the war and in peacetime, but he was indifferent to fame and wealth. Even his relatives knew little of his war bravery.

In November 2018 in hospital, Zhang was asked by a doctor to use lenses of around 7,000 yuan which is about the mid-range price of that kind of products. Unexpectedly, the old man picked up similar lenses worth about 3,000 yuan. 

Local banker Li Ganlin did not expect to pay back Zhang so little as the old man could get much more in normal work. “When I got the reimbursement form, I was taken aback and asked the old man what was going on,” said Li.

The elderly replied, “I am over 90 years old now, and can’t do anything to contribute more to the country. I chose to use the cheapest lenses. If I can save a little bit for the country, let me do that!”

For more than 60 years, he deliberately kept his past achievements a secret, even from his children. 

It was only late 2018 when Zhang’s war story finally emerged to the public. Authorities were collecting and recording veterans’ information in preparation for the upcoming 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

But he kept telling his admirers that he did not deserve special recognition for his achievements.

In a written instruction released in May 2019, Party leader Xi Jinping praised the spirit and dedication of the then 95-year-old war hero.

Zhang lives a life of simplicity, purity and indifference to fame and fortune; as the soldier he defended the country; as a civilian, he works for the people’s well-being, Xi said.

Soon Zhang added another honor. In July 2019 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China bestowed the title of “national outstanding CPC member” upon him.

People’s Daily contributed to the story.