Liu Zhidan (October 4, 1903 – April 14, 1936), courtesy name Jinggui, was a Chinese poet and a Chinese poet. A senior general of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, a loyal communist fighter, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionary and military figure. In March 1936, he led the Red 28th Army to participate in the Eastern Crusade, crossing the Yellow River from the east near Luoyukou and advancing into the northwest of Jin, repeatedly defeating the enemy army. He was killed on April 14 in the battle of Sanjiao Town, Zhongyang County, Shanxi, at the age of 33. [i]
The soul of the hero sleeps forever. In present-day Sanjiao Town, Liulin County, Shanxi Province (then part of Zhongyang County), the Dangjia zhai zi knot, built a memorial pavilion for the martyrdom of General Liu Zhidan. Liu Zhidan's relics at the time of his death consisted of only a few party documents and six captured cigarettes. Subsequently, Liu Zhidan's body was sent back to northern Shaanxi and buried in Wayao Fort. In honor of Liu Zhidan, in May of the same year, Liu Zhidan's hometown of Baoan County was renamed Zhidan County.
At present, as far as the specific details of Liu Zhidan's sacrifice are concerned, the official account is that Liu Zhidan was shot in the left chest during the battle, and the bullet came from the enemy's machine gun. This statement is derived from pei Zhouyu's recollection of "The Last Moment together". In 1936 he was transferred to the Red 28th Army as a commissioner. Pei Zhouyu recalled that liu zhidan's mountain bag before his sacrifice was finally left with only Liu Zhidan, the guards and three of him. "It was the enemy's machine gun again, and suddenly a vicious bullet took the life of our dear commander." He also said that "the bullet passed through Liu Zhidan's left chest."
However, In the "Selected Literature and History Materials of Gansu", Li Shengyou wrote "The Experience of Liu Zhidan's Sacrifice", which was contributed by the Party History Data Collection Office of the Gansu Provincial Military Region. The article mentions, "At this time, no one realized the need to hide the body, because the battle was nearing the end and it was dark." Suddenly, general (sic, it should be one," right? The evil bullet hit Liu Zhidan, and his burly body shook and fell to the ground. Doctors, by the light of a flashlight, found that "the bullet penetrated from the left side of the buttocks and came out of the lower abdomen, and the injury was very serious." [ii]
Liu Zhidan was one of the main founders of the Northwest Red Army and the Northwest Revolutionary Base Area. People who are familiar with the history of the Chinese revolution know that the Shaanxi-Gansu guerrillas are the source of the Red Army in the northwest, and as soon as the red flag of the Shaanxi-Gansu guerrillas of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was raised, it has been flying high on the northwest plateau, which has caused the revolutionary situation in the northwest to develop rapidly. Shanjiayuan, a loess dryland in present-day Zhengning County, Gansu, was the birthplace of the Guerrillas of the Shaanxi-Gansu Red Army.
On February 12, 1932, the Shaanxi-Gansu Guerrilla Group of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (referred to as the Shaanxi-Gansu Guerrilla Group) was officially announced in Sanjiayuan, Zhengning County, with Xie Zichang as the commander-in-chief, political commissar Li Jeff and secretary of the team committee. The Shaanxi-Gansu guerrilla group consisted of more than 90 people from the Western Jinxi guerrillas as the backbone, more than 100 members of the Western Jinxi guerrillas and a detachment of Yang Qi and Yang Ding as the main cadres, plus a new company of more than 50 people left behind by the second detachment, and a supplementary contingent of more than 100 peasants in the Xunyi and Sanyuan Wuzi districts mobilized by the Weibei Party Organization, totaling more than 400 people. [iii]
More than ten years ago, I interviewed in Shanjiayuan, and the reckless loess mound stretched out in front of my eyes, and the holes in the mountains and mountains seemed to be a window of memory, which made me still remember the past of the "red" (dry revolution).
Facing the rising sun, from the county seat of Zhengning to the east, little by little, it is close to Shanjiayuan. The road, rugged, uphill and downhill, big bends connected to small bends. The mountains and ditches on the banks of the moat are more majestic and desolate in the cold winter winds, and contain endless changes.
Occasionally, the sight passes over the dilapidated caves that were once inhabited by people and are now abandoned. Thinking back to the red army, it was they who developed and grew among the mountains and ditches of the loess and finally won the victory of the Chinese revolution.
Shanjiayuan is an extremely resounding name in the history of the Chinese revolution. In the early 1930s, Xie Zichang and Liu Zhidan led a team from east to west through the densely forested Meridian Ridge, like a divine soldier descending from heaven to Shanjiayuan, and stationed in the area of Xiaozuizi, Jinzhang, Qinqu, and Nanzhuangzi at the junction of Shaanxi and Gansu where the Kuomintang ruling power was weak and the tour space was large.
Driving to The Fine Tsuizi, I found the cave where Liu Zhidan lived in a ditch on the south side of the village, the roof of the kiln has collapsed, but the two ancient locust trees in front of the kiln are still vigorous and powerful, and the well that was used in the past has not been completely abandoned. They have witnessed the stormy past of the revolution.
Cao Huanrong, who was then in the Zhengning County Cultural Center, told me the story of what happened on this hill and in this cave. When Xie Zichang and Liu Zhidan came to Shanjiayuan in those years, although the troops held high the banner of the anti-imperialist alliance army, because the contingent had only recently been built, the equipment was inferior, the clothing was not uniform, and the local people, who were often plundered by bandits, saw the soldiers as thieves, took the old and the young, picked up the burden and drove the cattle, and fled without a trace. The whole village suddenly became silent, and some people did not even lock their doors because they were in a hurry.
Seeing this scene, Liu Zhidan was even more sympathetic to the poor people who were in the depths of the water.
There was a man in the village named Zhang Wanyou, who was only 18 years old at the time, because there was an old mother who was blind in both eyes, it was inconvenient to go far, he took the old mother to spy in the shadows to listen to the movements of the troops entering the village, but he quickly wondered: Why didn't this team grab things?! Liu Zhidan was very happy to see him, gave up his seat, poured water, asked him about the situation in the village, and explained to him the intention of the team. He quickly noticed some differences in the team. Subsequently, all the villagers who ran out were called back.
In this way, Liu Zhidan lived in the cave of Zhang Wanyou's family. Subsequently, Liu Zhidan and other revolutionary leaders established the first armed force of the Red Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region, the Shaanxi-Gansu Red Army Guerrilla Force, at Shanjiayuan.
Stepping into the cave, on one side near the window is a small earthen kang, and the innermost side is a trough made of dirt blocks, which is used to feed the cattle. The walls of the kiln are still plastered with newspapers from the 1980s. What caught my attention was that in the middle of the kiln, about fifty or sixty centimeters above the ground, there was a small side hole that led straight to the wall above the outside of the kiln door. A local fellow told me that the cave was used to prevent bandits, and if a bandit entered the cave and robbed, the owner could reach the wall above the cave through the cave and use stones to fight the robbers. Therefore, the partial hole in this cave has the function of defense and attack.
According to local villagers, before liberation, most of the caves had such defensive caves. There are also some people who have such holes in their kilns, which do not have the ability to attack, but lead directly to the bottom of the ditch below the bank, only to escape when encountering bandits.
In the 1930s, bandits were numerous, warlords and gentry often extorted the people, and a local epidemic of "Keshan disease" made the already sparsely populated remote mountainous areas even more impoverished and desolate.
Twenty years of the Republic of China,
The Red Army tree flag mountain Jiayuan.
Xie Zichang, Liu Zhidan,
Brocade and fine tsuizi encampment plate.
Fight the local tyrants to divide the fields,
Lead us poor people to turn over...
This folk song, which is still circulating in the Zhengning area, sings the historical story of Xie Zichang and Liu Zhidan's "making a splash" in Shanjiayuan. It has been almost a century since the sacrifice of General Liu Zhidan, and in this nearly century, our revolution has come and gone, and the people have finally lived a happy life. Today, revolutionary historical sites are the "negatives" that remain in our lives, and this song has always been a land of nostalgia for heroes.
[i] Liu Zhidan Profile, People's Daily
[ii] "Liu Lizhen, daughter of General Liu Zhidan, the main founder of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi, died of illness", Southern Metropolis Daily, July 9, 2014;
[iii] Zhang Huamin, "The Birth of the Shaanxi-Gansu Guerrillas of the Red Army", People's Political Consultative Conference Daily, February 16, 2017.
Some of the pictures in this article are from the network, thanks to the original author!