He was an important leader of our party, bravely and righteously at the age of 26, and had a nephew who later became prime minister
In the arduous and long course of struggle of the Communist Party of China, there was not only an open battlefield for face-to-face combat with the enemy, but also a hidden front that played an important role in winning the victory of the revolution. On this invisible front, it is also full of the smoke of battle. The success or failure of the struggle even directly affects every course of the revolution.
In 1927, due to the betrayal of traitors, the hidden front of our Party suffered heavy losses, and many important figures were lost, including Comrade Zhao Shiyan.
Zhao Shiyan was born on April 13, 1901 in Longtan Town, Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Sichuan Province (now Chongqing Municipality). Zhao Shiyan's second brother, Zhao Shijue, joined the Alliance Led by Sun Yat-sen in his early years, and later participated in the Northern Expedition, he often spread new ideas to his younger siblings, and sent back many books introducing national heroes from other places, so that Zhao Shiyan received patriotic education from an early age. He followed the example of the second brother and decisively cut off the braids on his head, indicating that he had broken with the feudal rulers of the Qing Dynasty and was not a "submissive" of the Qing Dynasty.
In 1917, after being introduced, Zhao Shiyan became acquainted with Li Dazhao and was deeply appreciated by him, became one of the members of the "Young China Society", and successively founded and edited progressive publications such as "Civilian Weekly" and "Teenagers" semi-monthly.
In 1920, Zhao Shiyan went to France to work and study.
In 1923, Zhao Shiyan was ordered to go to the Soviet Union to study and investigate.
In 1924, he returned to China and served as the secretary of the Beijing Prefectural Party Committee under the leadership of the Northern District Party Committee chaired by Li Dazhao.
In 1926, after being ordered to Shanghai, he joined forces with Zhou Enlai and other comrades to organize and lead the first and second shanghai workers' armed uprisings.
The third shanghai workers' armed uprising in March 1927 was a strike by the General League, which gathered more than 800,000 people. Zhao Shiyan personally commanded the front line in Zhabei District, and after two days and one night and more than 30 hours of fierce fighting, he eliminated the reactionary army and occupied all of Shanghai. The armed uprising achieved great victories that shocked China and foreign countries and left a glorious page in China's history.
At dusk on July 2, 1927, the wind and rain were mixed. Based on the confessions of the traitors, the Kuomintang Shanghai Security Command surrounded Zhao Shiyan's residence at No. 190 Zhi'an Fang, North Sichuan Road. At this time, Zhao Shiyan was not at home, the enemy was waiting at home waiting to arrest Zhao Shiyan, when Zhao Shiyan's mother-in-law Xia Niangniang saw Zhao Shiyan returning home from the window, she pushed down the flowerpot used as a signal on the window sill despite the enemy's obstruction, but the whistling wind and rain covered the sound of the flowerpot falling to the ground, Zhao Shiyan failed to find the flowerpot that landed on the ground, and when he returned home, he was immediately arrested by the enemy.
Zhao Shiyan endured all kinds of severe torture in prison and was unyielding. At first, he did not recognize his real name, saying that his name was Xia Renzhang, a Hubei native, because the bandits in his hometown had taken refuge in Shanghai with huge sums of money to do business, making it difficult for Wang Xiaoya, who was presiding over the case, to distinguish between true and false for a while. The Kuomintang also interrogated the traitors, and the traitors insisted that the other party was Zhao Shiyan.
After Zhao Shiyan's identity was exposed, he preferred to die unyieldingly, and on July 19, 1927, he heroically volunteered at the Fenglin Bridge in Shanghai at the age of 26.
When Wu Yuzhang recalled Zhao Shiyan, he once gave a poem to evaluate: Long Hua gave the head to illuminate The Heart of Dan, the vastness is like a rainbow shuo ancient and modern, a thousand trees and peach blossoms are condensed in blue blood, and the workers look up to Shi Ying for thousands of generations.
It is worth mentioning that Zhao Shiyan's sister Zhao Shilan and sister Zhao Juntao are also famous revolutionaries, and they have held important positions after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Moreover, Zhao Juntao's son was named Li Peng.