In the last century, many revolutionaries of the older generation changed their names, such as Peng Zhen.
Peng Zhen's original name was Fu Maogong, which had nothing to do with the name "Peng Zhen", so why did he change his name to "Peng Zhen"?
Before 1936, Peng Zhen had always used his original name Fu Maogong, and had been arrested and imprisoned for 6 years, and after his release, he changed his name to "Wei Shi" for the convenience of his work.
What does this "Wei Shi" mean? In fact, it is also very simple, that is, his mother's surname is Wei, "Wei" has the meaning of light, "real" means seeking truth from facts, implying to use light to illuminate the future and carry out revolutionary work with a realistic attitude.
However, this "Wei Shi" only took a year, and in 1937, he changed his name to "Peng Zhen".
What does this "Peng Zhen" mean? It is also very simple, because his grandmother's surname is Peng, and "true" means to seek truth. Since then, Peng Zhen has lived under this name.
Peng Zhen was born in 1902 in Houma Town, Quwo County, Shanxi Province, and his family was very poor, but his parents said: "Our family is eating the loss of illiteracy, the landlord puts the ledger in front of our eyes, we can't understand it, which makes the landlord bully, that is, smashing pots and selling iron, but also for children to go to school!" ”
In this way, Peng Zhen went to the private school in the village, and later was admitted to the Shanxi Provincial No. 1 Middle School.
However, Peng Zhen did not follow the path his parents wanted him to take, but often organized movements in the school against the principal Wei Rijing. Wei Rijing was appointed by Yan Xishan, lawless in school, often colluding with the military and police to arrest progressive students, Peng Zhen joined forces with some bold classmates to drive Wei Rijing out of the school.
Wei Rijing ran to complain to Yan Xishan, and Yan Xishan was furious, and immediately dispatched military police to surround the school, and Peng Zhen closed the school door with everyone, and also organized a self-defense army, declaring to the outside world: "For the sake of truth, whoever wants to die together will come in!" ”
This matter was boiling over, and Yan Xishan did not want to make a big deal out of it, so he had to withdraw Wei Rijing and release all the progressive students.
At Shanxi Provincial No. 1 Middle School, Peng Zhen also met a person who had a great influence on him, that is, Gao Junyu, a famous leader in the early days of our party. Under the influence of Gao Junyu, Peng Zhen began to understand communism, read a lot of communist works, and made him feel inspired, excitedly saying: "I finally know why China is lagging behind!" A new social system must be established, and only communism can save China! ”
Because Peng Zhen's "disturbance" in Taiyuan was too big, he was on Yan Xishan's blacklist, and Yan Xishan also shouted that he must catch Fu Maogong alive, and I want to see what is in his head!
Peng Zhen could not stay in Taiyuan any longer, so he decided to go to Tianjin.
There are five adjacent villages in the southeast of Tianjin, namely Hejialou, Xiaoliuzhuang, Xiaohuazhuang, Donglou Village and Xiloucheng, referred to as the Five Villages, the peasants of the five villages were originally tenants of the Qing Dynasty's imperial relatives and nobles, and the nobles sent "lanks" to manage the five villages, squeezing layer by layer, and the peasants dared not speak out.
After Peng Zhen came to Tianjin, at the risk of being arrested by the reactionaries, after an in-depth investigation, he said to the peasants: "If you want to seize your fields by force, have you not thought of defending your rights and interests through struggle, except for your anger?" The peasants are scattered and only consider their own small interests, and this is the main reason why the reactionaries can bully the peasants! ”
However, in order to organize the peasant movement in the territory of the reactionaries, there needs to be a pretext, Peng Zhen said: "I have been learning martial arts since I was a child, and we will open a martial arts hall, on the one hand, we can cover up, on the other hand, we can also let the peasants learn martial arts to defend themselves." ”
In Tianjin's Xilouqian Street, Peng Zhen opened a national art hall, and the peasants often came to participate in the struggle organized by Peng Zhen on the pretext of learning martial arts, which was regarded as a thorn in the side of the reactionaries.
In June 1929, Peng Zhen and others were arrested for betrayal by traitors. When Zeng Yanyi, chief of the Tianjin police, saw the name of "Fu Maogong," he was overjoyed and said, "This person must be the red leader whom the Shanxi Yan Overseer has named to be arrested!" ”
Zeng Yanyi began to interrogate Peng Zhen, but Peng Zhen never admitted that he was a communist, nor did he know any Yan Overseer. Zeng Yanyi had no choice but to put him in prison first.
At that time, the arrested people were all locked up in a large room, and Peng Zhen knew that this was a rare occasion, so he said to everyone: "All we have to do now is to collude and push some things on those who have rebelled, and let them bite the dog's mouth!" ”
Sure enough, this trick was very useful, those traitors were "confessed" a lot of crimes, even the police did not know who was real and who was fake, Zeng Yanyi was more and more confused the more he listened, and he was so angry that he slapped the table and scolded.
Because there was really no evidence, Zeng Yanyi had to release a group of people, but not Peng Zhen, who knew that Peng Zhen was definitely a big fish.
Peng Zhen was sentenced to nine years in prison, the longest of all the "prisoners," but Peng Zhen did not care how many years the sentence was, he said to his comrades as early as before he was imprisoned: "Our battlefield does not have to be full of smoke, and the dark prison is also our battlefield. ”
Peng Zhen organized hunger strikes many times in the prison, and Zeng Yanyi could not do anything about him, so he had to transfer him to tianjin army prison. However, Peng Zhen had already passed on the situation in the prison to the organization through secret channels, and the organization immediately reported it publicly in the newspaper, and public opinion was in a big uproar, causing tremendous pressure on Zeng Yanyi.
In 1931, Chiang Kai-shek won the Victory in the Central Plains War, and out of the need to stabilize the situation, he ordered an amnesty for a number of political prisoners, and Peng Zhen's nine-year sentence was reduced to six years.
In 1935, Peng Zhen was released from prison after "completing his sentence" and became the secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee of our party, continuing to lead the revolutionary activities in Tianjin, which made Zeng Yanyi bitter.
In 1937, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Peng Zhen became the secretary of the Jin-Cha-Ji Sub-Bureau (also known as the Northern Sub-Bureau). During his three years in Jin-Cha-Ji, Peng Zhen creatively popularized the strategic principles and policies of the War of Resistance Against Japan put forward by the party, saying: "Our weapons are backward, but it is not difficult to win the war against the Japanese, that is, to mobilize the masses in depth." We and the masses are not the relationship between oil and water, but between water and fish. ”
Peng Zhen also told the comrades: "The united front is very important, progressive landlords are an important guarantee that we can gain a foothold here, do not doubt this and doubt that, is the ultra-left still causing less harm to our party?" Even reactionary landlords have places where we can fight for, and not beat people to death with a stick. Under the guidance of Peng Zhen, a new situation emerged in the Jin-Cha-Ji anti-Japanese resistance.
In 1941, Peng Zhen left Jin-Cha-Ji and went to Yan'an. In Yan'an, Peng Zhen wrote a "Report on the Party's Work and Specific Policies in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region," which was highly praised by Chairman Mao. After many people came to Yan'an, Chairman Mao would recommend two books to them, one was Liu Shaoqi's "On the Cultivation of Communist Party Members" and the other was Peng Zhen's report.
In December 1948, on the eve of the liberation of Peiping, the organization decided that Peng Zhen would be appointed secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee. At that time, Beiping had basically been designated as the capital of New China, so the status of the secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee was not insignificant.
After Peng Zhen became the secretary of the Beijing Municipal CPC Committee, he was most happy to be a relative in his hometown in Shanxi, where he had a younger brother who said to his relatives: "Now our Fu family can be regarded as turning over!" My brother became such a big official, we will not worry about eating and drinking in the future! ”
The younger brother came to Beijing without Peng Zhen's consent and said straight to the point: "Brother, fat water does not flow into the fields of outsiders, good things cannot be occupied by others, you have to find us a good errand in Beijing." ”
Peng Zhen was a little angry and said, "When I became this official, I served the common people, not the Fu family. Beijing is good, but if all the relatives of cadres come to Beijing to work, can Beijing let go of so many people? Besides, what else would you do besides farming? Come to Beijing for a casual meal? Now that the peasants have turned themselves into masters, you go home and farm the same as serving the people. ”
After the younger brother returned to his hometown, he told the villagers about these things, and everyone did not understand it.
Later, Peng Zhen's father died, and the villagers all said that the old Fu had been poor all his life, and now the son should come back to do a good job and let the old man walk in a beautiful way.
However, Because Peng Zhen was too busy at work, he did not come back, nor did he send money back, but only wrote a letter to his brother, saying: "New China does not advocate extravagance, people are gone, just send them away, don't make a big fuss." Besides, I don't have any money, a poor official, and the wind of comparison cannot be long! ”
When Shanxi was just liberated, there were still some homecoming groups and bandits that had not been completely eliminated, and Peng Zhen had a younger brother, Fu Maohui, who went to Beijing to see him, and after talking about this, Peng Zhen gave one of his revolvers to his brother, but he strictly ordered it first: "This gun can only be used in self-defense against the bandits, and it is absolutely forbidden to turn the muzzle of the gun at the common people!" ”
Fu Maohui was obedient, only reserved for self-defense, and usually would not take it out, but after the government cleared the bandits, it began to collect guns from the people, and found Fu Maohui, hoping that he could cooperate, hand over the gun, and give everyone a demonstration.
Fu Maohui was very unhappy, saying that I used this gun for self-defense, and I usually never took it out, and there would be no danger.
The local leader personally went to work for him, but Fu Maohui still did not want to pay it, and said that this was given to me by my brother, and if you want to confiscate it, go to my brother!
Even Peng Zhen heard about this, so he wrote a letter to his brother criticizing him for not doing this, saying that although my officials are big, I must also abide by discipline and the law, and as my relatives, you should take the lead in abiding by discipline and the law, and you should never allow the bully to bully people!
Fu Maohui originally thought that his brother would make decisions for himself, but after reading this letter, he was also touched by his brother's high wind and bright festival, and quickly handed over the gun.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Peng Zhen was busy with work, almost never returned to his hometown, and in May 1986, Peng Zhen wanted to visit Zhengzhou, Henan, passing through Taiyuan, and the secretary of Linfen, Shanxi, rushed to Taiyuan and invited him to go back to his hometown to see.
Peng Zhen originally did not want to go back, but he could not stop everyone from being too enthusiastic, so he agreed, but he also told the local leaders "about the three chapters of the law", saying: "First, do not tell everyone in advance that I will go back, so as not to affect everyone's work and production; second, do not organize people to visit me, I am going back to visit my relatives, I should go to visit everyone; third, I am visiting relatives by the way, I am not staying in Houma, I will leave on the same day, I want to invite relatives and friends on the train to have a meal, and I will pay for the meal." ”
In this way, Peng Zhen simply stayed in his hometown for a while, then left, and never went back again.
After Peng Zhen left his retirement in his later years, he did not enjoy the blessings of Qingfu at home, but served as the honorary president of the Yan'an Spiritual Research Association, the honorary president of the Li Dazhao Research Association, and the honorary president of the Yellow River Cultural and Economic Development Research Association, and continued to exert his residual enthusiasm.
On April 26, 1997, Peng Zhen died of illness at the age of 95.