On the afternoon of September 8, 1944, Chairman Mao attended a memorial service at the Zaoyuan Playground under the Phoenix Mountain in Yan'an. The deceased was neither a high-ranking leader nor a well-known figure, but an ordinary Eighth Route Army soldier named Zhang Side.
It was a simple but solemn memorial service attended by thousands of people from the central organs, guard officers and men, and ordinary people, and next to the portrait hung chairman Mao's handwritten elegy - "Salute to Comrade Zhang Side, who sacrificed his life for the interests of the people." After the eulogy, the great man went to the altar with a deep heart and delivered a memorial speech:
Our Communist Party and the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army under the leadership of the Communist Party are revolutionary contingents, which are entirely aimed at liberating the people and work thoroughly for the interests of the people, and Comrade Zhang Side is one of ours. . . . To die for the interests of the people is heavier than Tarzan; to die for the fascists, to die for those who exploit and oppress the people, is lighter than the hair. Comrade Zhang Side died for the benefit of the people, and his death was even heavier than Taishan.
Since then, the voice of "serving the people" has spread throughout Yan'an, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and the entire land of China. The three words "Zhang Side" also have new meanings and connotations, becoming synonymous with "serving the people" and becoming an immortal monument that has been praised to this day.
Zhang Side stills
Zhang Side (April 1915 – September 1944), a native of Yilong, Sichuan Province, a good son of the Party and the people, was a model of serving the people wholeheartedly. After his sacrifice, ordinary and great deeds were well known to everyone because of an article "Serving the People", and he was successfully selected as one of the "100 Heroic And Exemplary Figures who made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China".
On April 19, 1915, Zhang Side was born in a poor sharecropper family in Hanjiawan, Liuhe Township (now Side Township), Yilong County, Sichuan Province, nicknamed "Gu Wazi". The Zhang family's ancestors lived by renting a few acres of thin fields for generations, and his father Zhang Xingpin had to go out to engage in manual labor such as carrying salt and picking coal and transporting goods on slippery poles when he was idle; his mother Zhu Shi was ill for a long time and had no money to regulate, and he died a few months after giving birth to him.
After his mother's death, his father Zhang Xingpin was really unable to raise Gu Wanzi, so he had to pass him on to his uncle Zhang Xingzhong and his aunt Liu Shi. However, the life of his uncle's family was not much better, and he was often hungry and even had to go out to beg for food.
The children of the poor have long been in charge, and Zhang Side has been very sensible since he was a child, always helping the family to work as much as possible and maintaining this poor family as much as possible. At the age of eleven, when other peers were still at home, he could cultivate the land like an adult, and his hands were full of calluses.
Seeing that the child was really pitiful, the adoptive parents sold the only pig in the family and began to provide Zhang Side to go to a private school to study. He cherished this hard-won learning opportunity, but he had to drop out of school after a few months.
In 1929, the landlord Fan Youwan forcibly took away the two acres of paddy land rented by Zhang Side's family, so he could no longer continue to make a living. Since then, he has devoted himself to the anti-donation, anti-tax and anti-rent movements, and became an active member of the local peasant movement.
In the first half of 1933, the Fourth Front of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army liberated the town of Lishan, which was later renamed Changsheng County and established a county-level Soviet government. Zhang Side's Liuhechang was only a few tens of miles away, and he excitedly came to look for the Red Army, hoping to rescue the poor people in his hometown as soon as possible.
With his active help, the Red Army finally liberated Liuhechang Township and established Soviet power, and Zhang Side was appointed captain of the Young Pioneers because of his determination and initiative.
In October 1933, the local warlords Liu Xiang and Yang Sen in Sichuan also launched an offensive against the Red Fourth Front in order to cooperate with Chiang Kai-shek's "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Red Army. During this period of crisis, Zhang Side, who had just turned 18, resolutely joined the Red Army and was incorporated into the Changsheng County Independent Regiment.
After joining the Red Army, Zhang Side began to fight with the army everywhere, and the revolutionary enthusiasm was unprecedentedly high. However, as the Red Army withdrew from Liuhechang, the area was immediately plunged into a white terror, and various homecoming groups came and launched a bloody suppression of the Soviet regime.
In the face of the frenzied retaliation of the reactionary forces, Zhang Side's biological father Zhang Xingping was killed, his adoptive mother was also seriously injured, and his sister, who was sick and hungry, was forced to die alive. Hearing these bad news, he almost ran back to his hometown to avenge the snow and hatred, and only after the organization's advice did he settle down.
Due to his outstanding performance and bravery in battle, Zhang Side was recommended to study at the Lenin Model School in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet District in 1934. During this period, he not only learned cultural knowledge, but also received education in Marxist-Leninist theory and strengthened his revolutionary ideals and convictions.
In March 1935, in order to cooperate with the Red Front's operations in the border areas of Sichuan, Qian, and Yunnan, the Red Fourth Front decided to forcibly cross the Jialing River to the west. Zhang Side has repeatedly accomplished miraculous feats along the way, in addition to fighting heroically, he also imitated Shennong to taste hundreds of herbs in order to solve the problem of serious food shortages, and repeatedly ate poisonous herbs by mistake.
With the successful crossing of the Jiajin Mountain by the Red Army, it finally reached the Maogong Dawei area in Sichuan, and achieved the victory of the two main forces. After that, the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting at the mouth of the Two Rivers in the north of Maogong, emphasizing the importance and necessity of "going north to resist Japan" and formally establishing the policy of establishing a Base Area of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu to the north.
However, as the main person in charge of the Red Fourth Front, Zhang Guotao germinated the idea of military power influencing party power, intending to decentralize power to the central government or even seize power. After the Red Army moved north, he insisted on going south to Chuan Kang and established a "Second Central Committee" at Zhuo Mu Diao, intending to compete in the division.
As a grassroots fighter, although Zhang Side does not understand strategic struggles and line battles, he always keeps firmly in mind the simple truths of "the party's army listens to the party' words" and "the party's fighters listen to the party's words." Gradually, more and more doubts appeared within the Red Fourth Front, forcing Zhang Guotao to make a decision to resist Japan in the north.
Mao Gong Will Master
On October 9 and October 22, 1936, the Red Fourth Front and the Red Second Front successively met with the Red Army in Huining County and Jingning County, Gansu Province. At this point, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's two-year long march to 14 provinces was victoriously concluded, and a new chapter was opened in the Chinese revolution.
Due to his repeated wounds during the Long March, Zhang Side did not go to the anti-Japanese front with the main force, but was incorporated into the Guard Company of the Eighth Route Army's Remaining Place as a deputy squad leader. Diligent in his work and conscientious in his studies, he finally joined the Party in October 1937 and was transferred to the Guard Battalion of the Central Military Commission as a communications squad leader.
The working conditions in northern Shaanxi are difficult, and many documents and circulars need to be transported manually, so the work of the communications team is very busy. Basically, Zhang Side rarely has time to rest, and is on the way day and night.
Due to the objective and human factors during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the conditions in Yan'an were very difficult, and even eating and dressing became a problem. In February 1939, Chairman Mao put forward the slogan of "self-sufficiency in production and overcoming difficulties" to encourage the military and people in the border areas to overcome all difficulties:
How have human beings lived since ancient times? Didn't you live on your own? Why don't we, the descendants of humanity, even have this bit of cleverness? In short, we are convinced that we can solve our economic difficulties, and our answer to all the questions in this regard is the word "do it yourself".
Since then, a huge and vigorous "large-scale production movement" has been launched in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and in the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines, and Chairman Mao has personally set the goal of "opening up 1 million mu of land."
In the summer of 1940, Zhang Side was ordered to lead a squad to burn charcoal in the deep mountains and old forests of Yan'an. After three months of bitter fighting, they went through the process of kiln beating, logging, burning fire, kiln out and bundling, and transported tens of thousands of catties of charcoal back to Yan'an. Immediately afterward, Zhang Side followed the guard battalion to Nanniwan and obtained a bumper harvest of grain and cotton.
By chance, when Zhang Side went from Yangjialing to Xin'anchang on a mission, he encountered a car stuck in an ice cave and could not move, and resolutely jumped into the bone-chilling ice water cart. And sitting on the car was Mao Zedong himself, who remembered this humble warrior from then on.
In October 1942, the Central Guard Battalion and the Central Teaching Corps of the Central Military Commission were merged into the Central Guard Regiment, and Zhang Side obeyed the organizational arrangement and changed from a squad leader to an ordinary soldier. In this regard, he not only did not have the slightest complaint, but also actively expressed his position:
In the past, being a squad leader was the need of the revolution, and being a fighter today is also the need of the revolution.
In the summer of 1944, the Central Committee decided to convene the Seventh National Congress in April 1945, so the logistical preparations began in advance, one of which was to reserve charcoal. To this end, the logistics department specially set up a charcoal burning team, because Zhang Side had burned charcoal before, and because of his positive thinking, he was selected as the deputy team leader.
By September, the weather had turned cooler, and since the task of burning charcoal had been basically completed, many comrades of the charcoal burning team had returned to Yan'an, and only a few people such as Zhang Side remained in the charcoal field.
During this period, in order to burn more charcoal, Zhang Side cut down several large trees by himself. However, after the tree fell, it happened to be pressed on the charcoal kiln, and he repaired and reinforced it regardless of safety, and was unfortunately killed by the collapse and crushed into the ground, at the age of 29.
Because Zhang Side is low-key and humble, he has always been on the top in case of difficulties and down in honor, so that he never left a photo before he died. The only one of them was inadvertently photographed by a Xinhua reporter when he was delivering charcoal at the mouth of the kiln.
Comrade Zhang Side
After Comrade Zhang Side's sacrifice, Chairman Mao's mood was very deep, and he repeatedly said that "there is no way to fight dead people in war, and it is not right to produce dead people." After that, three instructions were also given personally:
1. Wash the body of Comrade Zhang Side and put on new clothes and put on new clothes to be buried; 2. Make a good coffin and transport him back to Yan'an for burial; Third, there will be a memorial service, and I will attend and speak.
At one o'clock in the afternoon of September 8, 1944, Chairman Mao, accompanied by Li Kenong and others, went to the scene of the memorial service and not only gave a wreath, but also saluted the martyr's remains with a military salute. After that, he delivered a speech that revealed his true feelings and was compiled into "Serving the People".
After the founding of the People," the article "Serving the People" was officially included in the third volume of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong. The original title of the article was "Speech at Comrade Zhang Side's Memorial Service," and Chairman Mao believed that it was not yet possible to accurately embody and highlight the essence and essence, so he changed his name to "Serving the People" when reviewing the manuscript. @Wenshi is not false