Seven-year-old Huang Yixian finally walked into the school and into a new home.
Huang Yixian recalled his childhood. His family is in Hengfeng, Jiangxi, and long before he was born, his father Huang Zhonggui participated in the peasant uprising led by Fang Zhimin. After the defeat of the Revolution in 1927, Kuomintang reactionaries broke into his home, killed his grandfather, and burned down his house. Dad had to leave his hometown and join the Jiangxi Red Army unit, and together with his mother, he followed the troops to the mountains of northern Fujian to carry out armed struggle.
In the days of war, Huang Yixian was born under the Wuyi Mountains in northern Fujian. Dad often led the troops out to fight, while Mom carried him on his back, risking being chased and blocked by the enemy, running everywhere to carry out women's work and army expansion activities. Every time he went to the place, his mother would take him off his back and put him on the bed of his fellow countrymen, hurriedly feed him a few mouthfuls of rice soup, and then work busily. As soon as there was an emergency, he was carried on his back and quickly transferred to another place.
Huang Yixian had never eaten a mouthful of his mother's milk, did not know what breast milk tasted like, and stood unsteadily at the age of two or three.
It was a cold autumn day, his mother carried him on his back to carry out women's work in a village, and just after leaving the village, he encountered the enemy, and his mother rushed to the back of the hill, and the enemy chased after him and shot his mother. Bright red blood flowed from mom's body. Before the sacrifice, she used her last strength to throw Huang Yixian into a mountain pass. Two days later, he was found by a fellow who went up the mountain to cut firewood, and when he saw that there was still a hint of breath, he took him home and asked for help. Huang Yixian miraculously came back to life.
The villagers found the names of Huang Yixian's parents from the small quilt wrapped, and when they learned that his father was a general of the Red Army, they tried to find a way to find the troops and send him back to his father's side. In this way, Huang Yixian began to follow the army's life of fighting and smoke, wind and food.
However, less than a year after the mother's sacrifice, the troops were resting after a battle, when they were suddenly surrounded by the enemy, and the gunshots were suddenly loud. Dad quickly commanded and covered the breakthrough of the troops, and in the fierce battle, unfortunately, he was shot and killed. The enemy also cut off his head and hung it on the tower of the county town for public display.
Less than a year later, Huang Yi lost two relatives. He became an orphan, crying every day for his father, mother...
Considering his safety and future growth, the party organization decided to transfer him to Yan'an. The orphans of the Red Army who had lost their parents finally returned to the arms of the Party Central Committee.
Seven-year-old Huang Yixian attended the school of the Eighth Route Army. In class, he told his classmates: "I didn't have my father and mother for a long time, and the Communist Party is my father and mother." ”
■ Text/Adapted from "Children in the Red Cradle" (by Li Lun, published by Huashan Literature and Art Publishing House)
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