On May 16, 1940, General Zhang Zizhong, commander-in-chief of the 33rd Group Army of the Fifth Theater of operations of the Kuomintang, was killed in battle and buried in Meihuashan, Chongqing.
His wife, Li Minhui, was suffering from cancer at the time, and her family did not dare to tell her of Zhang Zizhong's death.
Three months later, the delirious Li Minhui cried out that "the division commander is back" and ended up with hatred, leaving behind a pair of children, Zhang Lianzhen and Zhang Lianyun.
After the Kuomintang government in Nanjing heard the news, it was afraid of affecting the hearts and minds of the army, so it did not mourn. It was not until three years after the July 7 Incident that his death was announced. After that, the whole country mourned, and the whole people sacrificed.
The Nationalist government issued a pension to the Zhang family, and Zhang Lianyun's uncle took out the money and built a self-loyal primary school, asking Zhang Lianyun to inherit his father's legacy and learn to save the country.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan
Zhang Lianyun graduated from the journalism department of Fudan University and has been working as the president of this school. In the 1950s, Zhang Lianyun worked in the United Front Work Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee.
In 1993, he became the vice chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
This year, Zhang Lianyun is 97 years old, in good health, with clear ears and eyes.
First, Zhang Lianyun misses his father Zhang Zizhong
When General Zhang Zizhong died, Zhang Lianyun was only 17 years old, and he had just entered a girls' school, which was the most naïve age.
In the face of sudden changes, Zhang Lianyun did not relax for a while, and the memory remained stuck in the night of September 1937, when she last met her father.
At that time, the Japanese attacked Beijing, and General Zhang Zizhong was ordered to stay in Beijing and negotiate with the Japanese side. During the war years, she and her mother and brother did not dare to meet with their father in a fair and bright way, relying on the help of an American friend named Fu Kaisen.
It was hard to reach Tianjin, and the time to meet my father was only two hours.
The father did not have time to say much, but entrusted them to the uncle, and called her together with her brother and several of the uncle's children, and each of them shared a little money.
Father said to her, this money is your future dowry. And then again
Tell your uncle to help him take care of his family in the future. Turning to put on a top hat, he hurried away. At that time, she had thought that this meeting would be a farewell!
Afterwards, I recalled my father's abnormal behavior, and it turned out that I was explaining the aftermath.
In September 1937, the streets of Nanjing newspapers were filled with insults against her father, calling him "the number one traitor in North China." However, on May 16, 1940, he was martyred and became the highest-ranking general killed in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Zhang Lianyun, who has lost both parents, although he has the care of his adult brothers and uncles, however
The blood marks carved in the heart of the broken family are also too clear.
So much so that later in life
Every year, May 16th seems to disappear out of thin air. Because as soon as that day comes, her memory will surely return to 1940.
The Japanese broadcast on the Hankou radio station said that they had found her father's body and called him "the 'brave warrior' who died in battle." The Kuomintang did not believe the news of the death, and she certainly hoped that it was all false.
She and her family flip through the newspapers every day, looking for the latest news.
Until the news of her father's death was confirmed, the heart-wrenching blows were struck again and again, leaving too deep a wound.
2. General Zhang, the soul of the Protectorate Army
General Zhang Zizhong was born in Linqing, Shandong in 1891, and from an early age he was familiar with the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue", determined to be a great hero like Guan Yunchang and Yue Fei who were loyal to the country. After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, General Zhang Zizhong secretly participated in the League, and later served in the army of fellow villager Che Zhen.
Around 1922, Zhang Zizhong joined Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, and experienced the Zhifeng War and the Central Plains War all the way, from platoon commander, company commander, battalion commander... He was promoted to the position of division commander, and successively served as the chairman of Chahar Province and the mayor of Tianjin.
In April, before the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, Zhang Zizhong was ordered to visit Japan, which caused great misunderstanding at home. After the "incident", a large number of exiled northeastern students poured into the city of Beijing, and gunshots were heard from time to time at the head of the Lugou Bridge. Since then, Zhang Zizhong, who was busy with military affairs, rarely returned home.
But
Because of the two things of visiting Japan and being ordered to garrison Peiping, they could not be understood by the outside world; the Shanghai industrial and academic circles once jointly wrote a letter demanding that he be shot and "punished by the Ming Dynasty."
The day after the "Seven-Seven Incident", Zhang Zizhong had not yet received orders from above. Song Zheyuan, the commander of the Twenty-ninth Army, was recuperating in his hometown in Shandong, so Zhang Zizhong took the illness into battle and negotiated with the Japanese again. After the garrison Beiping did not go,
He was branded by the national newspaper as "the extraordinarily large traitor in North China" since Zhang Bangchang in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Everyone wants to eat its flesh and sleep on its skin.
The insults that followed were endless, and newspapers even published cartoons of him holding Japanese women in their arms and personally attacking him. In September of that year, Zhang Zizhong met zhang Lianyun for the last time through the help of American friends.
When he was about to go out, his family did not dare to send him. Because there are still neighbors around who don't know. Lest it be too public and expose the identity of the family.
Those who scolded him at that time would never have thought that within three years, this "extra-large traitor" would appear on the battlefield of the Battle of Zaoyi and be martyred in a bloody battle.
He was called "the brave general of the dynasty" by the Japanese Kou. Zhang Lianyun remembers that in 1939, when her father was interviewed by a reporter from Chongqing, he explained it to everyone
His name "Xingchen" means: "Serve the country loyally and do your best."
He confessed that "North China was lost, and I am guilty" and "turned to fight everywhere, but I want to die and repay the country!" He also said, "Wait until he is wrapped up in a year of ma ge," and everyone will surely understand the deep meaning of his name.
In the end, he really fulfilled his promise, and the Chinese people knew that the misunderstanding of him was too deep!
In May 1940, general Zhang Zizhong was killed in battle.
The Japanese solemnly buried him with military salutes, and Chiang Kai-shek ordered that his body be recovered at all costs. Chairman Mao and Chiang Kai-shek personally wrote inscriptions for him, and Premier Zhou wrote eulogies on his behalf.
"Xun Lie Chang Zhao", "Xing Chen does not die",
People compare General Zhang Zizhong to Guan Yunchang, who is righteous and thin.
General Zhang Zizhong was generous and benevolent to people, whether it was a sharecropper in his family or an old friend who was in distress, he did not discriminate. He has always believed in the spirit of Chinese tradition,
"Civilian officials are not afraid of death, and military generals do not love money"
, heavy righteousness and light life.
Every time you go to the battlefield, you must write a suicide note, and when you come back alive, you will burn it, and you will write it again the next time you go to the battlefield.
Zhang Lianyun, his brother and uncle's family did not value money like General Zhang, and when they received the pension given by the Kuomintang, they donated it all and raised a sum of money to set up the "Zizhong Primary School."
Zhang Lianyun said: This is because my father and brother visited Japan in 1937 and saw the gap in education between Japan and China, and they had unlimited feelings. As the general's family, she and her uncle hope to make up for their father's regrets by running a school. Later, Zhang Lianyun became the director of the Infectious Diseases Hospital, personally doing everything himself and setting an example for doctors, all because of the influence of his father.
epilogue
Zhang Lianyun is 97 years old this year, and he is still in good health and has a clear ear and eyes. She usually lives frugally and does not like to be public.
Although her eldest brother Zhang Lianzhen died in the 1960s, she often had contacts with her brothers and sisters in her uncle's family, and she had someone to take care of her life without others to worry about.
When a reporter came to interview her, she would smile and carefully tell the reporter about the relatives at home.
This is
Because in the past two years, there have always been people pretending to be General Zhang's sons and nephews to cheat, she wants to remind everyone to be vigilant.