In February 1924, a grand and low-key wedding was held in Beijing.
It is said to be solemn because although the bride of a newlywed married couple is nameless, the groom is a prominent figure in Beijing's political circles - Feng Yuxiang, then a general in the Beijing Review Army.
It is said that it is low-key, because the bride and groom did not wear a dress at the wedding, and the bride wore a home-made cloth cheongsam to attend her life events, and only the white veil symbolizing the white head and the old age was pinned on the head.
Unlike other celebrities who gathered at the wedding, the chips were staggered, and the clothes were fragrant, Feng Yuxiang's wedding only invited a small number of relatives to attend, and the dishes were all in the usual style.
Although feng Yuxiang was still 7 months away from launching the "Beijing coup" to overthrow the warlords, he was already the chairman of the Henan provincial government and the northwest border defense inspector, and he had countless soldiers on his hands.
As an arrogant warlord and a generation of tyrants, why should you make your wedding such a shabby one? All because his nameless second wife, Li Dequan, is a big woman with a heart for the world.
Li Dequan's ancestors were Mongolian herders, who lived by herding sheep instead of farmers. If her father had not encountered extreme weather when she was herding sheep once, and had to flee the grassland after heavy losses, she probably would not have followed her.
But even after escaping from slavery, poverty remained with her. Fortunately, there was a church school at that time, and the tuition fee was free, and Li Dequan had to study.
As soon as he read the book, Li Dequan's life suddenly had light.
She was the brightest child in the class and was loved by the husband and nun. So from elementary school to middle school, and finally to college, she relied on her intelligence to reduce tuition fees.
The only requirement for the church, which has been providing her with tuition, is that she return to her alma mater to teach after graduating from college.
If Li Dequan's thinking is not so advanced, he may eventually feel at ease to become a teacher, not a handsome lady.
On May 4, 1919, a student boom broke out in Beijing, and Li Dequan, who was studying at the private Women's Union University, participated in the campaign to cleanse his heart and mind. Even if she later returned to the classroom, her heart was no longer only pretending to be academic, but more about her family and the world.
But how could the military government in Beijing at that time take the feelings of a female student in its eyes? All they cared about was that she had participated in the student boom, was a dangerous element, and needed to be caught.
The arrest of Mr. Li did not dissipate until more than two years later, because of factional strife within the junta, and they had no time to take care of the students.
It was also at that time that Feng Yuxiang, who had lost his wife for two years, entered Beijing. Although he was ostracized by the direct generals, Feng Yuxiang had soldiers in his hands, and the number was not small, and if he could cooperate with him with the least loss, it would be much more cost-effective than directly tearing his face.
For those who covet Feng Yuxiang's military power, "marriage" is a good method. But their ambitions were detected by Feng Yuxiang early on, so they had his harsh conditions for choosing a wife:
First, be kind to your ex-wife and children; second, you must not eat or clothe; third, you spin and weave your own fabrics.
Those who value his military power and want to send their daughters to marry are either warlords or high-ranking officials, and the most unfortunate are also rich businessmen, so how can the daughters of others achieve the last two points?! This is simply a dead end.
Feng Yuxiang meant this, and he almost carved his disgust on the door of his head: I don't want to marry you people.
But the children left behind by his ex-wife are indeed young and really need to be cared for by their mothers, so the target group for Feng Yuxiang to marry his wife has been ordinary girls of low birth from the beginning. This is probably why he later became a "defecting general" – he always had good intentions towards the general public.
And the girls who were introduced by his subordinates had to ask them a question: "Why did you choose to marry me?" ”
Li Dequan walked into his sight because she was different from the answer of others: "Because God is afraid that you will not be able to do things for the people, send me to supervise you." ”
So, there was that low-key wedding to the extreme.
After the marriage, Li Dequan, as he said, took care of Feng Yuxiang's backyard at the same time, but also influenced him ideologically: she explained Marxist-Leninist thought to him and brought him closer to the Soviet Union.
Feng Yuxiang was one of the most ideological among the warlords, and he took the lead in hiring Soviet military advisers to enter the army, sending young officers to study in the Soviet Union, and even secretly visiting the Soviet Union for 3 months... Among them, there are the efforts of Li Dequan.
In July 1948, Li Dequan, who had been in the United States for more than two years, finally followed her husband on a cruise ship back to China: Feng Yuxiang had foreseen the outbreak of civil war two years earlier, and he could not persuade Chiang Kai-shek to do so, so he could only ask himself to "go to the United States for an investigation." Chiang Kai-shek agreed at the cost of his being "stripped of his armor and seizing power."
But the euphoria was so fleeting.
In the early morning of September 1, the "Victory" cruise ship they were riding suddenly caught fire, and her husband and young daughter were buried in the sea of fire, and Li Dequan was lucky to save his life with the full rescue of his third son, Feng Hongda.
In the ward, it was feng hongguo, the eldest son, who rushed to the hospital, and Feng Hongda, the third son who was injured in the hand.
The eldest son and the second son were born to Feng Yuxiang's ex-wife, but Li Dequan carefully taught the two after entering the door, and the feelings were better than his own parent-child daughter. Therefore, even though Feng Hongguo was under house arrest by the Kuomintang at that time, he still rushed to the hospital to visit his mother at the first time.
Compared with the slightly plump face shape before, at this time, Li Dequan was completely emaciated into another person, she did not think about tea, and closed her eyes to see her husband and young daughter in the fire.
The two sons patiently persuaded, but never saw half an echo, and Feng Hongguo couldn't help but roar with sadness and anger: "They burned your father and little sister to death, and also burned your soul?" Don't my brothers and I deserve your help? Do you want to do what they want? ”
Li Dequan was probably woken up by scolding, returned from the lost soul and the middle god, and returned to the northeast liberated area from the Kuomintang area through many efforts, doing what Feng Yuxiang did not finish -- they returned to China at the invitation of the CPC to prepare for the first plenary session of the CPPCC, and their husbands died, and they had the responsibility to continue.
At the same time, she devoted a lot of energy to the women's movement and the education of minors, and served as the first minister of health after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and later became the vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, with the rank of vice-state.
Feng Yuxiang was famous throughout his life, and often let people ignore his wife and children.
Of his ten children, with the exception of three daughters who committed suicide and his young daughter died in shipwrecks with him, several of them were accomplished in their respective fields:
The eldest son followed in his footsteps during his lifetime, the second son was a famous nuclear physicist, the third son was awarded the rank of rear admiral, and several daughters contributed to the fields of language and health.
The Feng family's loyalty and courage are inseparable from Li Dequan's careful teaching.