Legend has it that there was a remarkable female general in the "Communist Army", her prestige made the enemy feel frightened, her feet were a foot long, she walked in a gust of wind, she used two guns in her hands, and she opened her bow left and right, and she was a very powerful figure.
In the history of the Red Army, there are not many female generals who can really fight and command battles, so who is this legendary woman?
American journalist Smedley has deep roots in the Chinese revolution, her alma mater is the University of Arizona County, the university library is the keeping place of many of Smedley's archives of the Chinese revolution, and many photos of CCP leaders taken by her are one of the important collections of the museum. One of them is a group photo of Li Xiannian, leader of the Eyu Border Region, commanding the New Fourth Army in guerrilla warfare during the war of resistance against Japanese Aggression with his comrades-in-arms. In this photo, the figure of this legendary female general appears, who is heroic, simple and kind.
Her name was Chen Shaomin, a female general of the New Fourth Army in the Border Region of The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and was highly praised by Chairman Mao as "a red-hearted female fighter in the White Zone, a good wife and mother of the proletariat", and Smedley affectionately called her "Sister Chen".
Today, in 1977, Chen Shaomin passed away. Although Chen Shaomin has left, her legend will always remain in the memory of the people.
In January 1939, Chen Shaomin, then director of the Organization Department of the Henan Provincial Party Committee and concurrently political commissar of the Southern Henan Guerrillas, led an armed force to the Eyu Border Region, met with Li Xiannian and Tao Zhu, succeeded Qian Ying as the secretary of the Party Committee of Ezhong District, and began a legendary combat life.
In order to consolidate the anti-Japanese base area in central Hubei, Chen Shaomin and Li Xiannian first commanded the troops to eliminate nearly 3,000 people in 8 brigades of the traitor Li Youtang, and then organized the Battle of Xinjie, annihilating more than 100 Japanese troops in one fell swoop. Since then, Chen Shaomin and Li Xiannian's reputation has been greatly enhanced, and the Japanese army and traitors no longer dare to act rashly. At that time, the people in the base area praised her like this: "As soon as Sister Chen arrived, the people opened the door to sleep. The Japanese traitors and Kuomintang diehards described her this way: "Riding a war horse, shooting with both hands, I want to hit you in the eye, and I will not hit the bridge of your nose by mistake." Chen Shaomin was seen as a mysterious female general.
At the beginning of 1940, Smedley came to the Eyu Border Region to investigate and understand the anti-Japanese activities of the New Fourth Army. At that time, the person who received Smedley was Chen Shaomin, head of the party committee of the Eyu Border Region of the CPC. She briefed Smedley on the guerrilla warfare of the New Fourth Army and the women's movement in the Border Region.
Photo: Chen Shaomin
On June 11, 1939, in the village of Yangma in Jingshan County, Chen Shaomin presided over a horse breeding meeting of great significance in the history of the Eyu anti-Japanese guerrilla war, which conveyed the six instructions of the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao Zedong on the anti-Japanese base areas and discussed the issue of the unification of the anti-Japanese forces of the Party in southern Hubei and central Hubei. The meeting decided to set up an independent guerrilla detachment of the New Fourth Army, with Li Xiannian as commander and Chen Shaomin as political commissar. Under the leadership of Li Xiannian and Chen Shaomin, this guerrilla group grew to nearly 10,000 people, and in November 1939, it was unified and reorganized into the Eyu Advance Column.
At the same time, the women's liberation movement in the Eyu Border Region is also in full swing.
On March 8, 1940, the first women's congress of the Eyu Border Region was held, and Chen Shaomin was responsible for the leadership of this congress and invited Smedley to participate. Three months ago, Smedley gave a lecture on "World Women's Dynamics" in Lihuang County, Anhui Province, where she believed that "if China is not liberated, women will not be able to progress and develop like men." In an after-the-fact memoir, Smedley wrote: "The leader of the guerrilla women's work was a person who was revered as 'Sister Chen', and she told me that they were about to convene a women's meeting from 11 regions behind enemy lines, hoping that I would talk about the international women's movement and the achievements of Chinese women in the War of Resistance." ”
In the Eyu Border Region at that time, the vast number of women not only sewed clothes and quilts, nursed the wounded, but also set up organizations such as the Women's Salvation Association to publicize the anti-Japanese resistance; they not only mobilized men in their families to go to the front, but also actively signed up for the New Fourth Army or guerrillas themselves. For the women's liberation movement in the border areas, Smedley paid great attention to and affirmed it.
1941 was a particularly difficult year, and in addition to military "encirclement and suppression," the Kuomintang diehards also imposed an economic blockade. Rice and grain are in short supply, prices are soaring, and the severe drought that has not been encountered in decades is even worse, and the supply of troops is very difficult.
When a warrior fell ill with malaria, Chen Shaomin gave quinine to the warrior and took care of him like his own child.
In order to solve the problem of the survival of tens of thousands of soldiers and tens of millions of people, Chen Shaomin launched a production self-help campaign in the Eyu Border Region. She led by example, spinning threads and weaving fabrics and cultivating land. At that time, there was even a folk song that sang like this, "Chen Shaomin planted pumpkins, and the pumpkins planted were praised by everyone."
In order to fundamentally solve the drought, Chen Shaomin launched the "Thousand Ponds and Hundred Dams" campaign, and the military and people in the border area dug more than 1,000 ponds and more than 100 dikes.
In addition to his busy work, Smedley also developed a strong interest in Chen Shaomin himself. Chen Shaomin is known as a female general in the border area, and there is even a kind of "female general" brand cigarette in the local area, and the cover is Chen Shaomin's cool and heroic posture of riding a horse and holding a gun; she can fight and kill the enemy on horseback, and she can plant seedlings barefoot when she gets off her horse; her simple and people-friendly style is deeply loved by the masses in the border area, and everyone affectionately calls her "Chen Dazu."
With Chen Shaomin's consent, with An E acting as an interpreter, Smedley began an interview with the female general of the New Fourth Army. In order to open the topic, Smedley took the initiative to tell Chen Shaomin about his own life, which resonated with Chen Shaomin.
As the conversation unfolded, both remarkable women found much in each other in common: they both came from poor backgrounds and both strengthened their revolutionary convictions after hardships. After the interview, Smedley also asked Sister Chen to teach her to sing a song she had overheard a few days ago, a northern Shaanxi minor tune that Chen Shaomin had learned when he was in Yan'an. She asked An'e to translate the lyrics into English and memorize the tunes carefully. Through just a few dozen days of interaction, Sister Chen's enthusiasm, bravery and perseverance have left an unforgettable impression on Smedley, and they have also formed a deep friendship. On the day Smedley left the border area, Chen Shaomin personally sent her. A few months later, Smedley sent much-needed medical supplies to the New Fourth Army and mobilized a group of church doctors to work in the border areas.
Smedley's "China's Battle Song" and An E's "May Durian Flowers Shine brightly" are two books that report the truth about the New Fourth Army's resistance to Japan with a large number of facts, and smash the lie of the New Fourth Army concocted by the Kuomintang that "travels without attacking" and "feudal division."
After the Anhui Incident, according to the instructions of the Party Central Committee, the Eyu Advancing Column was reorganized into the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army. Li Xiannian served as division commander and political commissar, and Chen Shaomin served as deputy political commissar. She continued to serve as the leader of the party and government organs and mass organizations, and resolutely carried out the anti-Japanese guerrilla war in the border areas, which eventually developed the Eyu Border Region into a large anti-Japanese base area that dominated the north and south of the great river and crossed the border of 5 provinces.
Pictured: Group photo of the main leaders of the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army in 1945
Source: CCTV National Memory
Editor-in-Charge: Hao Duo
Editor: Chen Weiping Chen Jingchao