Cao Chengniang (1862-1928), a native of Xincun Village, Dayi Township, Leiyang City. His father, Cao Liankui, was a Qing Dynasty martial artist. Cao Chengniang was born on July 8, 1866 in Dayi District, Leiyang County, Hunan Province. In 1928, she launched an uprising in Hunan, was arrested in May of the same year, and died heroically, a heroic and fearless revolutionary martyr. Cao Chengniang understood things early, was influenced by her father, and had a strong personality. In that evil old society, she suffered hardships and bullied, and deeply buried in her heart her hatred of the unfair world. Cao Chengniang had a bumpy life, she was an undead person twice, she had three sons and a daughter, the eldest son Zhou Lüping, the second son Zhou Bingxing, the third son Zhou Lian, and the daughter Zhou Lingzhi. She worked diligently and diligently, cut down on food and clothing, and sent her three sons and one daughter to Changsha and Hengyang to study.
In 1919, the "May Fourth" Movement broke out, and the national anti-imperialist and anti-feudal movement surged up. When Cao Chengniang's three sons and 1 daughter, who were studying in other places, returned home from vacation, they often gathered progressive youth gatherings to discuss state affairs, criticize current politics, tell the situation of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle in the country, introduce the October Revolution in Russia, and talk about the Marxist theory they studied. Cheng Niang was very concerned about her children's words, and every time she sat on the side with a smile, listened silently, and thought silently, there were some reasons she could understand, and some reasons she could not understand. If she did not understand, she asked her children what was "communism", what was "women's liberation", what was "Russian October Revolution", and so on. When her children answered the question in plain language, Cao Chengniang sighed from the bottom of her heart: "The world of China should also change like Russia." ”
In the summer of 1926, Zhou Lian graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and joined the Communist Party of China, and was sent back to Leiyang by the party organization to take charge of the peasant movement in Xiatang District. Under the brutal class struggle, Zhou Lian was poisoned by Chen Peizhi, a large landowner in Niukou Village, Xiatang. After the news of the murder came, Cao Chengniang cried out in grief and constantly shouted, "Lian'er Lian'er, Niang wants to avenge you..." Several brothers and sisters who were outside rushed home to hear the news, and they lost their relatives, and the brothers and sisters were very sad in their hearts. In the face of the old mother who lost her beloved son in the year of Hua Jia, they forcibly held back tears and comforted her. Some offered to stay with their mothers, but Cao Chengniang insisted on refusing, and she said to her children: "Going around the knees to enjoy the joy and filial piety before the bed is really an act of mediocrity and contempt for women, Lian Er has already done his loyalty to the revolution, and your brothers and sisters are in a time of youth and achievement, and they should be in a useful place and dedicate themselves to serving the country." Since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety cannot be complete, loyalty to the country, filial piety for one person, where to go, your brothers and sisters choose their own. Listening to their mother's stern words and admonitions, the three brothers and sisters were deeply ashamed, and they immediately returned to their respective jobs. Cao Chengniang also dried her tears, cheered up the peasant movement that was in the turmoil, and became a propagandist for the township peasants' association.
After the "Ma-Ri Incident," the Kuomintang reactionaries hunted down and killed communists everywhere, and in the process of a transfer, Zhou Lingzhi was unfortunately caught by the local tycoons Gu Renmin and Gu Feiming, and severely tortured for a day, beating them to the ground.
After Cao Chengniang heard the news, she instigated poor peasants to take advantage of the dark to rescue her from the tiger's mouth. Looking at the blood-stained, inhuman-looking only daughter, the mother's heart ached like a knife. But this mother did not shrink back, after her daughter woke up, she wiped away her tears and warned her daughter: "People must stand and live, do not crawl like dogs to steal life, we take the road of the October Revolution, we must not be afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice, we must go on tenaciously." ”
In January 1928, Zhou Bingxing led the cadres of the Rural Movement of Leiyang who were hidden as soldiers in Fan Shisheng's department to participate in the Shonan Uprising led by Zhu De, and after the rebel forces outwitted Yizhang, they turned to attack Chenzhou and went north to Leiyang, and Zhou Bingxing was appointed as the commander of the advance regiment. After capturing Leiyang on February 16, Zhou Bingxing was sent as a military commissioner of the First Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army stationed in Leiyang to help Leiyang form a local peasant army. The storm of the uprising swept through Leiyang, and the 66-year-old Cao Chengniang actively participated in the work of forming the district soviet, serving as the propaganda director of the Dayi District Soviet Government, soaking in the peasant masses day and night, propagating revolutionary policies. Playing local tycoons, inserting standards and dividing up fields, she is at the forefront of the struggle.
In the "Ma Ri Incident", Cao Chengniang's whole family was wanted and arrested, the house was burned, the property was looted, and there was no home. During the Shonan Uprising, Cao Chengniang, who ate and lived in the district Soviet, said to her daughter Lingzhi: "The Soviet is our home, the revolution is successful, and with the country, we will have another home."
Cao Chengniang actively participated in the work of forming district soviets.
In early April 1928, Zhu De led the First Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army and the Fourth Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to move to Jinggangshan, and Cao Chengniang's family remained in Leiyang to persist in the struggle. In early May, due to the betrayal of the traitor Cao Zicai, Cao Chengniang was arrested first.
After Cao Chengniang was arrested, the enemy tried to seduce her, and Gu Feiming, the director of the Dayi Door-to-Door Regiment, came forward and said to Cheng Niang in a false way: "Old sister-in-law, we are all neighbors, you and your children have committed unforgivable crimes, we can't sit idly by and not save it." As long as your daughter surrenders, your home can be restored, and your daughter can still be a local officer. Cao Chengniang smiled lightly and said: "When my children grow up, they have their ambitions, they know how to be human, and they don't need me to worry about being a mother." Subsequently, the enemy was frightened by death, and Cao Chengniang said awe-inspiringly: "My wife is 66 years old and has died." Unfortunately, I can't bury this unfair society with my own hands, and I can't wipe out your group of wolves with my own hands. ”
Cao Chengniang and her daughter Zhou Lingzhi calmly walked to the execution ground.
On the afternoon of May 14, 1928, the prison door that held Cao Chengniang was opened, and the vicious enemy threw Zhou Bingxing and Zhou Lingzhi's brothers and sisters, who were blurred with blood and flesh, into it, and howled like wolves outside: "I want to live, I want to die, you mother-in-law talk, answer me in half an hour." Half an hour passed, and a group of evil executioners rushed into the cell: "What are your plans, have you mother and son discussed it?" Bingxing and Lingzhi helped their mother to stand up, and Cao Chengniang said without hesitation: "If you catch me today, if you want to kill, you will kill, why rap." "In the face of such a family, the enemy has no choice but to order them all to be executed. On the way to the execution site, the family of three had no fear, and Zhou Bingxing was even more angry and talked and laughed freely. The surrounding masses witnessed this and wept for it. Zhou Bingxing shouted loudly: "Crying and tears are the manifestations of cowardice, the darkness is the dawn in front, compatriots, we must use struggle to meet the dawn." "At the time of the execution, the reactionary leaders also instigated the executioners to deliberately miss the three people's key points, firing several shots at each of them, and the three men cursed incessantly, and their anger stopped, and they were so strong that they were magnificent.
(Author: Liao Zhengqi, Luo Yan, Party History Research Office, Cpc Committee of the CPC)