Chapter 903 902 [Lion Awakening Sword]
Chen Ruidian is a cool handsome man with a high nose bridge, deep-set eye sockets, sharp facial contours, and very obvious mixed-race characteristics. Coupled with a mustache, the hormonal masculine charm can simply charm women to death.
Unfortunately, the history of this air combat hero is very bumpy.
First of all, Chen Ruitian was born in Chen Jitang's warlord army. Although his performance has long been enough to win the title of ace, the National Government has not publicized or commended him. Later, the Air Force Commander-in-Chief of the Taiwan authorities, Lai Mingtang, responded to the injustice and said: "Chen Ruitian is Chen Jitang's Guangdong army, not part of the Central Army. Although he shot down many Japanese planes, it does not count. How ridiculous!"
Secondly, although Chen Ruidian was promoted by the United States during World War II, he was not included in the list of American air combat heroes for a long time. Because he retired due to injury before the United States officially entered the war, and his record was in China, he was not recognized by the selection advisory committee.
The ace pilot of the Flying Tigers, Ken Jernst, is a fan of Chen Ruitian. He constantly recommends Chen Ruitian to be selected into the list of American air combat heroes. With Jernst's continuous efforts, it was not until 1997 that Chen Ruidian's name was engraved on the list of American air combat heroes and he was selected as the first American air combat hero in World War II.
Chen Ruidian was very happy to receive the news and planned to attend the commendation ceremony in person. But unfortunately, just one month before the ceremony, Chen Ruidian passed away, and his grandson had to attend instead.
What's even more unfortunate is that when Chen Ruidian was injured and seeking medical treatment, he encountered a Japanese air raid on Liuzhou. His wife, Ms. Wu Yuemei (daughter of Wu Tingfang), threw herself on Chen Ruidian to save her husband. Unfortunately, she was hit by shrapnel and died.
Chen Ruidian's second wife was an American nurse. After he recovered and was discharged from the hospital, he returned to China to participate in the Anti-Japanese War, and the two broke up. As a result, not long after Chen Ruidian returned to China, before he had time to participate in the battle, Japan announced its surrender...
If it were not for the purpose of downplaying the Soviet pilot's contribution this time, it is estimated that Chen Ruidian would still be unable to receive awards from the Chinese government until his death, as in history.
Huang Xinrui, an American overseas Chinese who also belongs to the Guangdong Air Force, received much fairer treatment than Chen Ruidian. He has already received a three-star medal, and he will receive another today, and he will receive another after his sacrifice.
Huang Xinrui was also a super ace. He participated in more than a hundred air battles in his life, shot down 8 enemy planes (some say 10), survived two parachute jumps, and died in a plane crash in 1941. After his death, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
Both of them are overseas Chinese in the United States and both came from the Guangdong Air Force. Why are they treated differently?
The biggest reason is probably because Chen Ruidian's wife is Wu Tingfang's daughter. His eldest uncle, Wu Chaoshu, once served as an important member of Chen Jitang's Guangzhou National Government, and was also associated with Sun Ke. He has always been regarded as a thorn in Chiang Kai-shek's side. Although Wu Chaoshu has been dead for many years, as Wu Chaoshu's brother-in-law, Chang Kaishen still dislikes him.
As for why there are so many overseas Chinese in the Chinese Air Force, it’s because the overseas Chinese are patriotic.
A few years ago, not only Zhou Hexuan opened an aviation club in the United States, but also overseas Chinese in the United States directly opened aviation schools, among which the American Overseas Chinese Aviation School (Portland) and the Chinese Aviation School in the United States (San Francisco) are the most famous.
Less than three weeks after the outbreak of the September 18th Incident, preparations for the Overseas Chinese Aviation School in the Americas began. The purpose of the school is: to train aviation talents, to consolidate national defense externally, and try our best to resist enemies; to develop the aviation industry internally, and never participate in any political disputes or internal struggles.
According to statistics from 1932 alone, there were more than 5,000 overseas Chinese in the United States who were required to enter aviation schools for training in order to return to China to participate in the war in the future. There were about 200 overseas Chinese pilots in the United States who returned to China on the eve and early days of the Anti-Japanese War, which was almost close to the number of Chinese fighter planes. This did not include the overseas Chinese pilots who returned from Southeast Asia - there were also overseas Chinese aviation schools in Southeast Asia at that time.
Therefore, China did not lack pilots during the Anti-Japanese War, but it lacked aircraft. Many overseas Chinese pilots had no aircraft to fly, so they signed up to join the army, and countless passionate young people died on the anti-Japanese battlefield.
At the time, more than three-quarters of the pilots in the Guangdong Air Force under warlord Chen Jitang were overseas Chinese. These overseas Chinese came back to serve their motherland, but Chen Jitang actually took the initiative to provoke a civil war and hired Japanese to command the air force. So before the war started, the Guangdong Air Force flew more than 100 aircraft and directly defected into the arms of Chiang Kai-shek.
I guess Chen Jitang wanted to vomit blood when he heard the news. This was an air force that he spent a lot of money to build. He didn't do anything and was completely "capitalizing" the enemy.
"President Chiang and Mr. Zhongzheng are here!"
The air force athletes accepted the review in high spirits, but there were dozens of Soviet pilots who looked like an eyesore, and Kurishenko stood upright in the front row.
Lao Jiang smiled and waved, and said as he walked: "You have done a good job, boosting the morale of the Chinese people, suppressing the arrogance of the Japanese invaders, and letting the whole world see China's power! China's war of resistance is just, and justice must Evil will be defeated, and the righteous side will win the final victory!"
Zhou Zhirou and Feng Yong followed Lao Jiang, and the three of them walked slowly towards the podium.
Chiang Kai-shek stood in front of the microphone and began a lengthy lecture, which lasted for more than 40 minutes, and finally began to award medals to the Air Force athletes.
The first person to be awarded the medal was Mao Yingchu, which was directly the second-class Renaissance Medal, which stunned all the pilots.
As expected of a fellow countryman, special treatment.
Fortunately, the Medal of Datong has not been established at this time. Otherwise, as the deputy commander of the Air Force Theater, Mao Yingchu would have been able to directly obtain a Medal of Datong.
But Kurishenko, who really made great contributions, only received a five-star medal, which is much lower than Mao Yingchu's Renaissance Medal.
Immediately afterwards, ace pilots such as Chen Ruidian and Huang Xinrui also received Star Medals with varying numbers of stars. Each pilot who participated in the bombing mission also received a combat medal, and was awarded a commendation order and bonus.
Under the frenzied taking of pictures by reporters from the Central News Agency, Lao Jiang unexpectedly gave Zhou Hexuan a surprise on the spot without warning him in advance.
After conferring honors on the pilots, Chang Kaishen said with a smile: "I would also like to commend one person, and that is Mr. Zhou Hexuan. Mr. Zhou personally invested in purchasing dozens of fighter planes, trained outstanding pilots for the country, and carried out the bombing mission Immediately he achieved great success. Here, Lieutenant General Zhou Hexuan is specially awarded the third-class five-star Lion Awakening Sword!"
Damn it!
Zhou Hexuan walked over to take the knife quite unexpectedly and couldn't put it down. The handle and scabbard are decorated with golden lion reliefs, and the tassel is woven with gold and red silk. Pull the sword out of its sheath. On one side of the blade is engraved "Yi Nan Ding Gong" and on the other side "I am Wu Weiyang".
From an artistic point of view, it is far more pleasing to the eye than the Qianlong Imperial Sword.
The Lion Awakening Sword was established in 1920, and the promulgation regulations were standardized in 1931. This sword is divided into three levels and nine stars. School officers and lieutenants can get less than three stars. Those with more than four stars must be at the general level to be qualified. It is specially awarded to officers at all levels of the sea, land and air force, and the premise is that the recipient has the highest medal and continues to perform meritorious service before the Lion Awakening Sword can be awarded.
In the past 20 years, even one of the Lion Awakening Swords has not been awarded. Chang Kaishen directly awarded Zhou Hexuan a third-class five-star sword, which shows how happy he is today.
Zhou Hexuan is probably the only figure in the Republic of China to receive the Lion Awakening Sword. Strictly speaking, he is barely qualified to receive it. The second-class jade medal is considered the highest-level medal. Zhou Hexuan is a lieutenant general and continues to make great achievements. No one can fault him when he is awarded the Lion Awakening Sword.
Of course, this is also a kind of wooing and recognition of Zhou Hexuan, and he is rewarded for his efforts in obtaining loans from the United States, donating money to buy airplanes, helping to decipher codes, and building factories to produce strategic materials.
Zhou Hexuan naturally had to reciprocate the favor and said on the spot: "Thank you very much, President. I will contact the Soviets immediately and donate another US$3 million in aircraft!"
Well, it's a donation of planes, not money.
Chiang Kai-shek was also happy after hearing this. Soviet aircraft were cheap, and more than 80 aircraft could be purchased for US$3 million. He suddenly wanted to replace the third-class five-star sword with a first-class nine-star sword. Maybe he could get 10 million US dollars!