During the war, there was one of the only female senior generals in our New Fourth Army named Chen Shaomin, whose status was once ranked with that of the six major generals, and later ranked as a deputy state.
Chen Shaomin was born in 1902 in Shouguang County, Shandong Province, her name was Sun Zhaoxiu in her early years, and after joining the revolution, she changed her name to Chen Shaomin. Her father's name was Sun Wanqing, who had served in the army during the Xinhai Revolution, and was also a company commander, after leaving the army and returning to his hometown, he taught primary school students to read while cultivating the fields, so Chen Shaomin read with his father from an early age and had a certain cultural knowledge. At the age of 13, Chen Shaomin went to a Japanese spinning mill in Qingdao to work as a child laborer in a Japanese spinning factory in Order to help her family reduce the burden, and at the age of 19, a huge famine occurred in her hometown, her father and brother died of illness, and in order to survive, she walked 250 kilometers back to Qingdao and continued to work as a female worker. In 1923, she secretly joined the trade union to participate in the enterprise strike under the introduction of revolutionary workers, and later she was fired from the factory and, with the help of friends, went to study at a literary beauty school run by the Americans. In 1927, Chen Shaomin secretly joined the Communist Youth League in school, officially became a party member in the second year, and returned to Qingdao to start guiding workers in the resistance movement. At that time, Chen Shaomin was only in his 20s, but because of his old age and weight, he was called Sister Chen by his comrades.
In the process of continuous struggle, Chen Shaomin made great contributions to the revolutionary organization, and in January 1941, the Anhui Incident broke out, and the troops of our army were reorganized into the New Fourth Army. Chen Shaomin was appointed deputy political commissar by his superiors. In January 1943, she was appointed by her superiors as deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the Yu'e Border Region, after which she led the fighters to carry out guerrilla warfare, founded revolutionary base areas, and further enhanced the comprehensive strength of revolutionary organizations.
In June 1949, Chen Shaomin was transferred to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and became the chairman of the National Textile Trade Union after the founding of New China. In 1956, she was elected as a member of the Central Committee at the 8th National Congress, and during her tenure, she was conscientiously responsible for many important tasks. He died of illness in Beijing in December 1977.