On September 28, 2020, Xu Wenhui, the daughter of the founding general Xu Haidong and president of the Beijing Founding Fathers Cultural Promotion Association, died of illness at the Beijing Naval Hospital.
At the scene of the mourning meeting, the white-haired old man cried bitterly, and many young people wore ma dai filial piety for Xu Wenhui to welcome those who came to mourn.
In fact, these people are not related to Xu Wenhui by blood, and like Xu Wenhui, they are all descendants of revolutionary martyrs, and after Xu Wenhui's death, they spontaneously came to see Xu Wenhui off.
In this group of descendants of the revolution, Xu Wenhui is known as the eldest sister, the door has no dogs, Xu Wenhui's approachable, low-key and simple life, after retirement, do not forget to continue to shine, the establishment of the Beijing Founding Fathers Cultural Promotion Association, dedicated to the propaganda of the red spirit, the glory of the ancestors will be passed on.
Xu Haidong is both the tiger general and the tiger father
Xu Wenhui was born in May 1939 in Yan'an, Shaanxi.
At that time, after the July 7 Incident, General Xu Haidong also participated in this war of national survival, and the Japanese army began a full-scale invasion of China.
From 1937 to 1938, Xu Haidong fought against the Japanese army hundreds of times in the guerrilla battlefield behind enemy lines in North China, and in June 1938, in the Battle of Machida, annihilated a company of the Japanese 25th Division, killed and wounded more than a thousand Japanese troops, and successfully repelled reinforcements who came to support.
Because he was in the battlefield behind enemy lines, he had to move immediately after the battle, otherwise there was a danger that the entire army would be destroyed, and during the days of fighting and transfer, Xu Haidong fell ill due to overwork.
In August 1938, Xu Haidong was transferred back to Yan'an and entered the Marx Academy to study and recuperate.
It was in this context that Xu Wenhui was born in the cave dwellings of Yan'an, and her father named her Xu Wenhui according to her generations.
Three months after his daughter's birth, Xu Haidong received orders from the organization to go to central China to assist Liu Shaoqi in opening up a guerrilla battlefield behind enemy lines in central China.
His daughter, who had only been born a few months ago, also had to move with him to central China, which was helpless for a father, Xu Haidong loved his daughter deeply, but this was necessary for a general, he also loved the people who were still suffering, Xu Haidong knew that the battlefield was where he should go.
On September 15, 1939, Xu Haidong took his daughter Xu Wenhui to the battlefield of central China.
On the way through the enemy-occupied area, the group walked very cautiously, Liu Shaoqi hugged the three-month-old Xu Wenhui, pretended to be Xu Haidong's secretary, and came to the camp of the New Fourth Army in East China without any danger.
In this way, Xu Wenhui came to the troops of the New Fourth Army with her father, and when she was young, she followed her mother to take care of her sick father, and on the other hand, she participated in the production team organized by her mother, and Xu Wenhui, who was only three or four years old, would help her mother pickle pickles.
Xu Wenhui was very interested in the gun experiments on the troops, always asking the soldiers to put themselves on their necks to watch the explosion, and once again, the explosive shrapnel opportunity flew over her scalp, and a little further down, she would undoubtedly die.
General Xu Haidong also often lamented that this daughter cast the wrong fetus, not like a girl, more like when he was a child, for this daughter who resembled himself, Xu Haidong treated it as a pearl in his hand.
After liberation, with the gradual end of the war, Xu Wenhui also began to go to school. In 1958, Xu Wenhui was admitted to the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics to study engineering.
Xu Haidong ruled the army extremely strictly, saying: An army without discipline has no combat effectiveness. Similarly, Xu Haidong also used this kind of military discipline to family education.
Xu Wenhui had to ask Xu Haidong for leave every time he went out, and then sell his leave after he returned, and he had fifty cents of pocket money every month, and the money also needed to be booked, and the money should be spent where necessary.
It is this kind of army-style tutoring that makes Xu Wenhui develop simple and low-key living habits, and the Xu family has never asked the state for a subsidy.
Since Xu Wenhui went to school, he was severely required by his father not to reveal his father's identity to teachers and classmates, and not to engage in specialization.
At that time, Xu Wenhui was malnourished due to his early life with the army, his health was very poor, and he often fainted, and in the process of an internship, Xu Wenhui fainted in the factory and almost had an accident.
Xu Haidong is worried about his daughter's health, but he is also worried about whether her daughter can be qualified for the national industrial task.
Xu Haidong said to his daughter: "With your physical level, don't waste the cultivation of the state, change to other professions." At her mother's suggestion, Xu Wenhui went to Shanghai Second Military Medical University to study medicine.
Not working for the Party is a shame
In 1960, Xu Wenhui transferred to the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai.
After studying medicine for five years, Xu Wenhui graduated from university, and when assigned to work, the organization took into account Xu Haidong's physical condition, and specially arranged Xu Wenhui as Xu Haidong's medical care to take care of Xu Haidong's health.
But Xu Haidong did not think so, he felt that the father who always left his daughter around was not a good father.
He decided to send his daughter to the countryside to work hard, the 1960s coincided with three years of natural disasters, the country's economic hardships, rural life is even more difficult, and Xu Wenhui, as a girl who grew up in the city, lived in the countryside even more difficult.
Xu Wenhui recalled that at that time, her life was busy, she would fall asleep every day in bed, and due to the harsh conditions and lack of materials, Xu Wenhui did not take a bath for ten months in a row, which was unimaginable for her previous life.
Xu Wenhui suffered these hardships silently, and did not let his father use his authority to transfer back to himself.
As early as before he set out, Xu Haidong had told his daughter that as his own children, there was no privilege, and he should not treat his father as a general, but only as a poor brick kiln worker.
In 1970, Xu Haidong died without any inheritance, leaving only a word to his beloved daughter: As a communist, it is a shame not to work for the Communist Party.
Since then, Xu Wenhui has taken this sentence as his motto and often reminded himself.
After the death of her father, Xu Wenhui has been engaged in medical work, low-key and simple, never mentioned her origins to the people around her, nor did she seek help from the state, and even for a long time, people around her did not know that she was the daughter of the famous General Xu Haidong.
In 2010, after retirement, Xu Wenhui did not choose to enjoy his old age in peace, but threw himself into the propaganda of the Red Spirit, and the Founding Fathers Cultural Promotion Association and the Founding Fathers Descendants Choir, which were founded by him, traveled to many places to carry out education in the spirit of the Red Revolution.
Not only that, Xu Wenhui also began to sort out her father's life deeds, and many unknown materials came from her personal experience as the daughter of Xu Haidong.
The surrogate father met Zhang Xueliang
In 2000, the centenary of the birth of General Xu Haidong, Xu Wenhui compiled and compiled the album of General Xu Haidong and published and exhibited, and Xu Wenhui also held a painting exhibition for his father, which attracted widespread attention from all walks of life.
At this special time, Xu Wenhui received a special invitation letter - an invitation letter from General Zhang Xueliang in the United States, inviting Xu Wenhui to his home in the United States.
It all started from a space-to-air confrontation between Xu Haidong and Zhang Xueliang.
In 1928, Zhang Zuolin was killed by a Japanese conspiracy on a train, and the young marshal Zhang Xueliang returned from Germany to take over as the commander of the Northeast Army.
Zhang Zuolin returned from studying in Germany this time, bought back a large number of German-style ordnance, and his 15 divisions and 3 independent brigades of nearly 300,000 people attacked the Yan'an revolutionary base area with great momentum, and Chiang Kai-shek even had a three-month deadline to eliminate the Communist Party.
The war was urgent, but Xu Haidong had a different sense of smell, he keenly caught the enemy's front line loopholes, lightning could not cover his ears, quickly surrounded an enemy army in the Ganquan area, surrounded but did not attack, to Zhang Xueliang, who had just returned from Germany, showed a classic tactic of encircling point reinforcements, and destroyed the strength of the enemy's three divisions in one go.
This battle was fought by Zhang Xue's conscience, laying the groundwork for Zhang Xueliang's full cooperation with the Communist Party in the later Xi'an Incident.
Since then, Xu Haidong and Zhang Xueliang have repeatedly fought, but the two have never been able to meet, which has also become a small regret for the two.
On the centenary of general Xu Haidong's birth, Xu Wenhui was invited to represent his father in a cross-century meeting with Zhang Xueliang.
Before the two met, General Zhang Xueliang's family members told him not to mention the previous battle in front of General Zhang Xueliang for the sake of General Zhang Xueliang's health.
At this time, the old general Zhang was in good spirits, he sat in a wheelchair, and received Xu Wenhui from afar in the bedroom. Xu Wenhui reported to his home and said that he was Xu Haidong's daughter.
General Zhang Lao was nearly a hundred years old at this time, but he still clearly said xu Wenhui's origin -- you are the daughter of Xu Haidong of the Twenty-fifth Army of the Red Second Army.
Zhang Xueliang was extremely impressed by that battle, which was why he knew that time was short and could not wait to meet Xu Wenhui, which was the sympathy between the two former opponents.
Seeing Xu Wenhui, it seems that he also evoked the memories of General Zhang Xueliang's youth, and he even called his wife Miss Zhao Si from upstairs, and Zhang Xueliang, who was nearly a hundred years old, was already blind and deaf, and could not hear the conversation of the guests clearly.
Only when his old wife, Miss Zhao Si, whispered in his ear, he could hear clearly, such difficulties could not stop Zhang Xueliang's enthusiasm at this time, and he and Xu Wenhui talked about the events of that year in detail.
Xu Wenhui later recalled: "My father never talked to us about the honor of his life, the only thing he talked about was the battle with General Zhang Xueliang, fortunately he could still talk to the old general." ”
The meeting, which was scheduled to last only 20 minutes, lasted an hour and a half, and Xu Wenhui even ran out of film from his personal camera.
Zhang Xueliang still remembers those zhengrong years deeply, and the 300,000 Northeast Army and the Less than 3,000 Red 25th Army fought from He Jiachong to northern Shaanxi, creating a special friendship between the two.
But these two people have never met, and eventually the yin and yang are separated, which becomes a regret.
This meeting was deeply touched by Xu Wenhui, she learned the other side of her father, but also realized the lack of understanding of her father now, after returning to China, she was determined to devote herself to the propaganda of the revolutionary spirit of her ancestors.
The most respected elder sister among the descendants of the revolution
In 2013, in a bar near the Beijing Zoo, there were no flickering lights, but instead rows of white-haired elderly people rehearsing red songs intently.
They are members of the Choir of the Founding Fathers Cultural Promotion Association, rehearsing for the next tour, without exception, they are all descendants of the Founding Fathers, and Xu Wenhui is the honorary chairman of this organization, and among this group of old people, Xu Wenhui is recognized as the eldest sister.
In order to plan this organization, as early as the beginning of its establishment, Xu Wenhui began to run for the search for the descendants of the revolution, who were many years old and retired at home, but it was not easy to bring them together.
After the choir was set up, but there was no office space, Xu Wenhui vacated his daughter's house, and without funds, he took out his own savings and the pension money given by his son, which was such a selfless dedication, which touched the old people who were only half a hundred years old, and the title of the elder sister spread among the old people.
This big sister is not only a tribute to Xu Wenhui's age, but also a tribute to his selfless dedication.
On June 17, 2011, the 110th anniversary of the birth of General Xu Haidong, 500 descendants of the revolution gathered at the birthplace of General Xu Haidong and sang red songs, as a member of the choir, Xu Wenhui was full of enthusiasm, making people feel the vitality of the revolutionaries in her.
Since the establishment of the troupe, Xu Wenhui has taken the choir all over the country and participated in the large-scale literary and artistic performances on the 117th anniversary of Chairman Mao's birth and the literary and artistic performances on the July 1st Founding Day.
But she always did not care about those reputations, and always used her father's teachings to encourage herself: "As long as you can do something for the masses and the party, you have a sense of achievement and value." ”
On September 28, 2020, Xu Wenhui passed away in Beijing, working for the party to the last moment, truly fulfilling the teachings that her father asked her to serve the party for a lifetime.
Tiger father has no dogs, Xu Haidong's general Rong Ma all his life, his daughter did not live up to his expectations, young people work hard, low-key life, maintain the fine tradition of revolutionary descendants, after retirement, do not forget to continue to shine, enthusiastic for the motherland's red cause, spare no effort in propaganda.