Zhao Lanxiang is one of the outstanding sons and daughters of the Chinese nation who went to China and the world from the foot of the Pagoda Mountain and the yellow river. The love story of Zhao Lanxiang and Geng Biao has become a legend in the hearts of many people today.
"The blue line of the green line line, the color of the blue grid" "The women of the thirteen provinces count the orchids and flowers well", in the 1930s, Qingyang, Fengcheng, Gansu Province, produced three "phoenixes", and the leader flew away was Zhao Lanxiang. The revolutionary love between her and Geng Biao's generation has been influential to this day.
01 Wedding gifts: We must revolutionize to the end
In 1923, Zhao Lanxiang was born in Qingyang County, Gansu Province. Zhao Lanxiang's family is very poor, and her parents only have one only daughter.
Unlike the average family, her father was more conservative in his thinking, but his mother was more open-minded. At her repeated requests, her parents ignored worldly prejudices and sent her to school. This was rare in the barren and remote Qingyang of that year.
Qingyang Ancient City
In 1937, Red Army troops liberated Qingyang City. Soon, three female cadres sent from Yan'an to the Qingyang Girls' Primary School where Zhao Lanxiang studied came to teach, propagate revolutionary ideas, develop the party's strength, and mobilize the masses. Many parents do not understand and are afraid of the army and dare not let their daughters go to school.
In order to mobilize them to return to school, Zhao Lanxiang took the initiative to ask to work with female cadres of the same school to do the work of the parents of the students door to door. In this way, she broke through the shackles of traditional feudal concepts and became the first woman in Qingyang County to go out of her home to participate in social work, and later she officially served as a teacher of Chinese language and art in the school.
In the autumn of 1937, the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army was stationed in the Longdong Defense District, and the brigade headquarters was located in Tianjiacheng, outside the city of Qingyang (one of the 23 counties in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region). At that time, Geng Biao served as deputy brigade commander and deputy political commissar, chief of staff, chief of military justice of the 385 Brigade, and commander of the county defense of Qingyang County. Zhao Wen, the lover of Comrade Gan Weihan, the political commissar of the 385 Brigade, happened to be the principal of Qingyang Girls' Primary School.
385th Brigade, 129th Division, Eighth Route Army
One day in the summer of 1940, Zhao Lanxiang noticed that the school had come to the school a leader of the Eighth Route Army with a belt and leggings, tall, thick eyebrows, big eyes, some thin, but full of youthful vitality. His coarse cloth military uniform had been washed white, and the wind and discipline were tightly fastened, with a serious military posture, but he spoke elegantly and kindly.
Principal Zhao Wen introduced: "Zhao Lanxiang, this is Geng Biao, deputy brigade commander of the 385 Brigade. At that time, Geng Biao kindly chatted with Zhao Lanxiang about her family and asked about her family and work.
Gradually, Zhao Lanxiang felt that this chief was sincere and kind to people, without any official frame, and secretly had a good feeling for him in his heart. Later, she learned that her acquaintance with Geng Biao was not accidental, it was Political Commissar Gan and Principal Zhao who were consciously matching the two of them.
Geng Biao during the Red Army period
So, they began to communicate between the two. But when Zhao Lanxiang's father learned that Geng Biao was going to marry his only daughter, he said firmly: "No! Of course, her father hopes that she can find a son-in-law with a relatively wealthy family and a certain status in the local area, who is not burdened by poverty, and their old two families can also rely on them in the future. But if you want to find a soldier, it is difficult to say, the soldiers are in chaos, the country is in trouble, the soldiers are home from all over the world, and they do not know that one day they will die on the battlefield.
At that time, Zhao Lanxiang understood his father's mood very well. However, Geng Biao's profound knowledge and approachable style, especially his legendary experience of growing from a fitter to a senior commander of the Red Army, have deeply touched her. She secretly resolved: "Don't marry unless you are a geng biao." ”
In order to persuade his father, Geng Biao invited the president of the Qingyang County Chamber of Commerce, who was quite influential and influential, to work in Zhao Lanxiang's house. In this way, the president's persuasion, Zhao Lanxiang's determination and the support of his mother, the father finally agreed to their marriage.
Wedding photo of Geng Biao and Zhao Lanxiang (1949 supplementary photo)
On July 5, 1941, the wedding of Zhao Lanxiang and Geng Biao was held in a classroom of Qingyang Girls' School. The commanders of the 385th Brigade, colleagues, relatives and friends attended their simple and warm wedding. Everyone congratulated them one after another, and wished them a long time and a white head to grow old. Although Zhao Lanxiang and Geng Biao did not have the Sea Oath Mountain Alliance, nor did they have sweet words, their hearts beat together for the common ideal. They solemnly raised their glasses and encouraged each other: We must revolutionize to the end!
02 For the Revolution: How can it be twilight?
After their marriage, they lived in a cave in the brigade headquarters of the 385th Brigade. Geng Biao's work is still intense and busy, and she is still teaching at the school. Although life is hard, their feelings are sincere and harmonious.
Geng Biao, because he was born poor, only studied in private school for two years, and during his stay in Qingyang, he borrowed a full set of middle school textbooks and used the evening time to study on his own. Zhao Lanxiang's education level is also not high, and the two people help each other and learn from each other. Geng Biao's cultural learning continued to progress, and Zhao Lanxiang's political consciousness was also increasing day by day. Under the oil lamp like a bean, their two hearts were getting tighter and tighter.
Geng Biao family portrait
In 1942, Geng Biao received an order to leave the 385th Brigade to study at the Central Party School in Yan'an, and a year later, Zhao Lanxiang also rode to Yan'an and entered the middle school of Yan'an University to study.
At this time, in order to break the blockade of the Kuomintang reactionaries, Chairman Mao issued a call for "self-reliance and abundant food and clothing," and Yan'an was launching a large-scale production campaign. Yanda assigns indicators to each college.
Geng Biao took out his fitter skills and made a hand-cranked spinning wheel for Zhao Lanxiang. Every weekend, Geng Biao came to Yanda to pick up Zhao Lanxiang. He picked up Zhao Lanxiang's spinning wheel and strode ahead. Zhao Lanxiang followed closely behind. On Saturday nights and Sundays, in the open space in front of the central party school dormitory, Geng Biao shook the spinning wheel and helped her spin cotton and socks. Geng Biao spun evenly and woven faster than Zhao Lanxiang.
Yan'an large-scale production movement
As a member of the Red Army period, Geng Biao was not willing to stay in the rear for a long time, and he repeatedly expressed his feelings to Mao Zedong and other central leading comrades, asking to go to the front line to kill the enemy. In the autumn of 1944, the Central Committee finally approved his request and appointed him deputy chief of staff of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region. Excited, he set off immediately and went to the front. Zhao Lanxiang remained in Yan'an.
In later days, they were gathered less and more. At the end of the War of Resistance, Zhao Lanxiang also came from Jian'an to Jin-Cha-Ji and worked with Geng Biao in a unit. However, due to the tension of the war, they had little time to meet, and only in the gap between the two battles could she rush to the front line to meet Geng Biao.
Whenever a battle was fought, she was always anxiously awaiting the good news of victory on the battlefield, and on the other hand, she was very worried about Geng Biao's situation on the battlefield.
After the liberation of Peiping, the troops marched to the great northwest, preparing to annihilate the remnants of the Kuomintang in the northwest in one fell swoop. In the battle against Ningxia, in order to keep in touch with each other, they used military dogs as messengers. The dog was understanding. After she wrote the letter, she tied it to the neck of the military dog, which could quickly find Geng Biao by smell and bring the letter to him.
Later, a prince of the Mongol tribe fell in love with this military dog, and Geng Biao endured the pain in order to implement the ethnic policy. Wang Ye was very touched and told the People's Liberation Army about the radio station that the Kuomintang had hidden underground when it fled. This military dog played an important role.
Although they could not meet in the smoke of the gunfire, the two hearts were closely linked.
In 1945, he sent the US Military Observation Group back to China (cheng zihua on the front left, Tang Yanjie on the front left, and Geng Biao on the second left)
Their youngest son and daughter were born in 1946 and 1948, respectively, and Geng Biao was not with Zhao Lanxiang at birth. In such a war years when they were far from the long and the short, they always supported and encouraged each other. For the sake of the revolution, they gave up the warmth of their small families. Zhao Lanxiang sent his eldest daughter and eldest son back to his hometown in Longdong, thus devoting himself wholeheartedly to the revolutionary cause. In 1948, she resolutely underwent birth control. In this way, they walked shoulder to shoulder to the liberation of the whole country.
03 What the Revolution Needs: Be the Ambassador's Wife
At the beginning of 1950, the Party Central Committee decided to transfer Geng Biao to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, becoming one of the first ten envoys of New China. After a brief period of preparation and study, Geng Biao and Zhao Lanxiang embarked on a long journey to diplomatic posts and began a diplomatic career of up to 20 years.
Geng Biao, then Chinese Ambassador to Sweden (1950)
At that time, they had just arrived in Beijing from the military camp in the ravine and had not yet adapted. The sanitary equipment, spring beds, and carpets in the hotel made them particularly unaccustomed and uncomfortable for those who had just come out of the barracks. Sleeping on a spring bed at night, the whole body seems to be trapped in the "pit", it takes a lot of effort to turn over, and it trembles up and down, and it can't sleep, and I can't sit steadily.
In order to adapt to the change, Premier Zhou also invited a teacher to the wives of these ambassadors to teach them diplomatic etiquette, teach these female cadres and soldiers from ravines, villages and military camps how to wear cheongsams and dresses, and how to walk in high heels without falling, and how to make their hair.
Geng Biao served as his first ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden, as minister to the Danish Crown and the following year to the Republic of Finland.
Zhao Lanxiang was the first woman in Qingyang to work independently, and the first woman to ride out of the far door alone, and this time she went further - she went abroad, went abroad.
On November 19, 1960, Geng Biao (second from left) met with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and others from the economic delegation of the Cuban revolutionary government
At the time of liberation, Zhao Lanxiang was only 26 years old and wanted to work well for the construction of new China, but he did not expect to be assigned to do diplomatic work.
In the summer of 1950, they took the train first to Moscow and then to Sweden. At that time, the Swedish king could not bring an interpreter to meet, and Neither Geng Biao nor Zhao Lanxiang could speak, so how could it be done? Geng Biao found a Swede to learn English at his own expense as a teacher.
When Geng Biao was in the Yongkou Mountain Mine in Hunan, Mao Zeqin taught him more than 200 words, which was a little basic. Zhao Lanxiang was also willing to make efforts to learn. They also correct each other's pronunciation during breaks.
Zhao Lanxiang also found female translators and comrades from the embassy to teach, desperately learning, desperately remembering, and later the general dialogue can also be told a little. There is no shortcut, it is to study hard, in addition to being responsible for managing the archives, she also has to participate in foreign affairs activities all the time. She is a person who does not like to socialize very much, in order to work, there is no way, and she is bent on doing a good job.
In 1978, Geng Biao visited Malta
At that time, Zhao Lanxiang was also 30 years old, and later everyone asked: When the buns of that year suddenly became a decent ambassador's wife, was there any trick to such a transformation? Her trick is three words – self-confidence! Because their every word and deed represents the image of New China.
In this way, Geng Biao and Zhao Lanxiang and his wife have gone through 20 years of diplomatic careers together, supporting each other, helping each other, and successfully completing the tasks assigned by the central authorities.
One day in July 1991 was their 50th wedding anniversary. They returned to their hometown after a 50-year absence in the middle of the summer of July. 50 years later, the classroom where they married at Longdong School 50 years ago is still there, and the cave dwelling where they once lived is still there. On that day, Zhao Lanxiang did not sleep all night, and has not returned since leaving Qingyang County in 1942. When she got married, Geng Biao gave her a sentence that was "revolution to the end", and she could not forget this gift that Geng Biao gave her.
Geng Biao, Zhao Lanxiang and his eldest son Geng Zhishen
For decades, they have been in the same boat and rely on each other for the sake of revolution. She can't forget that during the Cultural Revolution, the couple was like two big trees close together, resisting the storm together and surviving those difficult years in mutual support. Their revolutionary love story is always moving.
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Text | Zhao Xueru and Ren Huiqin
Figure | Sourced from the web
Edit | The diplomat said something about Feng Feng