Who says women are inferior to men!
On April 23, 1949, the Chinese People's Liberation Army broke through the Yangtze River defense line of the Kuomintang reactionaries and liberated Nanjing. This also announced that Chiang Kai-shek's "wishful thinking" of relying on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River to stop our army on the north bank had been completely broken.
The day after the liberation of Nanjing, the officers and men of the People's Liberation Army who entered the city were busy. At about 7 o'clock in the morning, the soldiers standing guard at the 35th Army headquarters of the People's Liberation Army met a middle-aged woman dressed in a cheongsam and with an elegant manner, and she wanted to enter the military department.
Military powerhouses, can ordinary people enter? The soldiers standing guard stopped her and asked her what was wrong. The woman looked very elegant and easy-going, but what she said surprised the soldier standing guard. She said: I want to see your political commissar He Kexi.
The 35th Army had just entered Nanjing, and political commissar He Kexi was now so busy that he had time to meet with outsiders. When the woman saw that the sentry was very confused, she directly said: I am Chen Xiuliang, you can just tell Commissar He my name.
The soldiers standing guard saw that she was so confident, so they sent someone in to report it. After a while, I saw Political Commissar He Kexi trotting all the way to the entrance of the military department, waving his hand at the woman from a distance, and shouting happily: "Secretary Chen, Comrade Chen Xiuliang, we are looking for you!" ”
When she reached the woman, He Kexi held her hand tightly and politely welcomed her into the building where the 35th Army was stationed.
At that time, Chen Shiyu, commander of the Eighth Corps of the People's Liberation Army, was also working in the building. When He Kexi brought Chen Xiuliang to him and introduced him to him, Chen Shiyu said one after another: "I really didn't expect that the leader of the underground party who helped our army cross the river to liberate Nanjing turned out to be a gentle and elegant little girl!" ”
yes. Who would have thought that such an elegant middle-aged woman was actually the head of the Nanjing underground party who could "pull teeth out of the tiger's mouth". Before crossing the river, Chen Shiyu and other senior PLA generals had only heard the name Chen Xiuliang.
Before that, every time top-secret information came from Nanjing, they would imagine that Chen Xiuliang should be a good man, and they couldn't imagine that she was a woman. You must know that being a secret agent in lao Jiang's base camp is far more difficult than ordinary cities can reach.
After talking for an hour, I learned that Chen Xiuliang still had some important information in the residence and did not take it. In order to ensure her safety, the military leaders immediately ordered the departure of two jeeps, and the commander of the guard company personally led several soldiers to escort Chen Xiuliang all the way back to his residence to get things.
When the two military jeeps pulled up to the door of The Walter Electric, the neighbors and neighbors were talking about it. It was only then that these neighbors learned that This neighbor, Mrs. Zhang, who had known them for more than two years, seemed ordinary, and whose biggest "hobby" was playing mahjong, was actually a red agent of our party and a big leader like the secretary of the Nanjing Municipal CPC Committee.
So what is this Chen Xiuliang's unknown experience, and how did she obtain intelligence under the eyes of Old Jiang? Why did her intelligence make the political commissar of the military department and the commander of the corps admire her very much? Below, I will walk with me into the legendary life of Chen Xiuliang, the first female secretary of the municipal party committee in the history of our party.
In 1907, Chen Xiuliang was born in Ningbo to a wealthy merchant family. Unfortunately, when she was two years old, her father died of illness, leaving her and an older sister to follow her mother Yuan Yuying for their lives. After the death of his father, some uneasy and well-meaning people in the family began to beat the idea to the orphans and widows, who colluded with officials and hooligans to try to usurp their family property.
Her mother, Yuan Yuying, is a knowledgeable woman, and she feels that instead of staying in this big family and being remembered, it is better to leave early and give her two daughters a stable living environment. After thinking about it again, Yuan Yuying left the Chen family with her two daughters.
In that era, many people raised their daughters, so that they learned to do housework, do female red, and later marry a family and live a good life. But Yuan Yuying did not think so, and what happened after her husband's death made her know that it was not okay for women to rely only on others. So after leaving the Chen family, Yuan Yuying spent a lot of money to invite a teacher to come to the house to teach her two daughters.
Yuan Yuying's hard work was indeed not in vain, in 1921, Chen Xiuliang was admitted to the Ningbo Women's Normal School with excellent results, and her sister was also admitted to the Qiming Girls' School.
Chen Xiuliang originally planned to become a calligrapher, so she also paid special attention to Sha Menghai, a well-known calligrapher at that time, as a teacher. However, at that time, the idea of revolution was brewing and developing in the land of China, and the story of Qiu Jin, the "Heroine of JianHu", also influenced a group of enthusiastic young people.
The country has difficulties, and the little girl also has responsibilities, and Chen Xiuliang resolutely threw himself into the student movement. In July 1925, she also published an article entitled "The Salvation Debate". However, at that time, many school leaders adhered to the stubborn idea of "not listening to things outside the window with both ears and reading only the books of the sages", and they were afraid that Chen Xiuliang would bring any trouble to the school, so they expelled her from the school on the grounds of "red elements".
In desperation, Chen Xiuliang could only transfer to Hangzhou Girls' High School to continue his studies. Soon after, she was admitted to Shanghai National University with honors. During his time at the school, Chen Xiuliang was influenced by progressive publications and began to get to know and contact the Communist Party. Later, under the introduction of the director of the Propaganda Department of the Hankou Municipal CPC Committee to the police, he gloriously joined the party.
Since then, Chen Xiuliang has been committed to the revolutionary cause. During this time, she also met the love of her life, Also a Communist Party member, Cha wenhan.
In 1945, at the age of 38, Chen Xiuliang was appointed director of the Nanjing Work Department of the Central China Branch of the Communist Party of China. In March of the following year, she was appointed secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, where she carried out underground work.
Why choose her? Two reasons:
First, Chen Xiuliang had many years of experience working in the white area, and her ability and will had been tested for a long time.
Second, since 1922, our Party's underground organization in Nanjing has been devastated by the enemy eight times, and every secretary of the Municipal Party Committee has gloriously sacrificed himself in office. 8 municipal party secretaries have been sacrificed, this situation is not available in other cities, Chen Xiuliang is really in danger and ordered. This time, the enemy did not think that we would send a lesbian comrade over.
At that time, the city of Nanjing, for the underground staff of our party, could be regarded as a real "Dragon Pond Tiger's Den".
As the capital of the Nationalist government, although the total population of Nanjing at that time was only 960,000, there were 110,000 military and political personnel directly or indirectly serving the Kuomintang, and more than 9,700 full-time spies. What is this concept? It is equivalent to the underground personnel of our party walking down the street and passing by every 100 people, one of whom is an enemy agent.
Compared with the Kuomintang's "large number of people and the masses," our Party's strength in Nanjing can be described as rather weak. The total number of red agents in Nanjing is only 220, and in the enemy area, it is 220 to 9700, and the danger of this can be imagined.
However, this is not the most dangerous.
Among the secret service agencies that were lined up in Nanjing at that time, there was one kind of person who was most "jealous" of the members of the underground party: the hateful renegades. Their main task is to look around to identify former comrades-
For the identified agents, Chiang Kai-shek's policy in Nanjing at that time was also extremely fierce: it was better to kill a hundred by mistake than to let go of one.
For the danger of underground work in Nanjing, Chen Xiuliang, who has been engaged in underground work for many years, is actually very clear in his heart. Before entering Nanjing, she said to her husband: "I am determined to die." ”
Chen Xiuliang's domineering spirit of "giving up who I am" has also deeply infected Sha Wenhan. At the time of parting, Chawenhan wrote a poem to his wife:
When a boy is rampant, won't there be a whale turning over? Don't go into the Tiger's Den, now the Tiger's Den is Nanjing!
In this way, Chen Xiuliang secretly entered Nanjing and began his legend of "overturning the river and the sea, pulling out the teeth of the tiger's mouth".
When he first arrived in Nanjing, Chen Xiuliang knew very well that if he wanted to win this hard battle, he had to hide himself. When the first meeting of the municipal party committee was held, only she, Liu Feng, deputy secretary, and members Zhu Qiluan, Fang Xiu, and Wang Mingyuan attended the meeting. These four comrades, who had worked in Nanjing for a long time, were worried about the hidden work of the female secretary in front of them, after all, their former leaders had been arrested.
In the face of the comrades' worries and concerns, Chen Xiuliang only said the following sentence: "Conceal yourself and start a struggle... Art needs to be handled well. For this kind of art, I will master it. ”
Regarding concealing oneself as an "art" of contending with the enemy, Chen Xiuliang's remarks made the comrades very convinced.
Since then, in more than 3 years in Nanjing, Chen Xiuliang has moved home 6 times, and his identity has changed again and again.
At first, she thought of settling down in Nanjing as an out-of-town aunt. At that time, bai yan, an underground party member, lived with his wife and children in the downtown area of Nanjing. Chen Xiuliang lived in the Bai family as the child's country aunt. At that time, her household register was marked with "housewife" and "illiterate".
But relatives from other places can't always stay at home, and then she has changed to several homes, each time as a relative from the countryside. In front of outsiders, she will always be an old mother who knows nothing and has no culture. But as soon as the door was closed, in front of the comrades, she was a shrewd and capable leader. She strategized and revitalized the nanjing underground party organization.
In 1947, when the time was ripe, Chen Xiuliang transformed himself into the boss lady of Shanghai Huade Electric Materials Company, "Mrs. Zhang". Obviously, this electric material line is not an ordinary company, it is a cover company run by the Shanghai Bureau of our party.
In order to play the role of a rich boss lady, Chen Xiuliang has done enough work. When she was fine, she played mahjong with the ladies and ladies in the neighborhood, and never talked about state affairs. She is gorgeously dressed and usually loves to chat with female clerks about homely routines. No one could have imagined that this "Mrs. Zhang" commanded more than 220 red agents in Nanjing.
So under the eyes of Old Jiang, how did Chen Xiuliang start the struggle?
According to the course of the Liberation War, she roughly divided the work of the Nanjing underground organization into two stages, the first stage was mainly intelligence work, and the second stage was mainly based on counterinsurgency work.
In May 1946, Chen Xiuliang set up a Special Nanjing Intelligence System headed by Lu Boming, which was single-line communication by herself for security reasons. In the process, her boldness was greatly admired by her agents.
Once, Chen Xiuliang went to the home of Fang Xiu, a member of the municipal party committee, to discuss things, and Fang Xiu's identity was that of a primary school teacher. Who knew that as soon as they met, Fang Xiu told Chen Xiuliang an emergency.
It turned out that there was a guest in Fang Xiu's house recently, this guest was Fang Xiu's wife and brother, and he also had the identity of a Kuomintang military command agent. There was a secret agent living in the house, and Fang Xiu was very nervous, so he asked Chen Xiuliang if he could move out.
Who knew that when Chen Xiuliang heard this news, he not only did not feel that this was a bad thing, but also thought that this was a good opportunity. She believes that if Fang Xiu directly moves out, it is likely to arouse the suspicion of the other party. Instead of this, it is better to use static braking to see if you can get information from this brother-in-law.
Chen Xiuliang's judgment was indeed not wrong. A few days later, his brother-in-law went on a business trip and left a handbag at Fang Xiu's house before leaving. Fang Xiu opened it and found that inside was a bag of military passwords.
At that time, our army was often able to capture the radio signals of the Kuomintang reactionaries, but in the process of deciphering the code, it always encountered difficulties, and many times we could only "look at the code and sigh." Now that we have these military codes, it is undoubtedly "sending charcoal in the snow" to our party.
So Chen Xiuliang immediately made a decision and asked Fang Xiu to give the password to himself for copying. However, Fang Xiu also said that his wife and brother would return that afternoon, leaving them only half a day. Time was pressing, Chen Xiuliang quickly made arrangements, and after 3 hours, the codebook was sent back to its original place, and the copied password was quickly sent out of Nanjing.
Soon after, our army grasped the movement of the Kuomintang troops according to this code. The commendation order personally sent by the Party Central Committee highly affirmed the work of Chen Xiuliang and the Nanjing underground party comrades.
If the above incident fully proves Chen Xiuliang's boldness in intelligence work, then the following incident will show her heart to the fullest.
One day, when Chen Xiuliang was looking through the old roster of the Zhuji County Committee of the Communist Party of China, he accidentally saw a name called "Wang Weiheng." He was recently transferred to the deputy director of the Technical Committee of the Joint Logistics Headquarters of the Kuomintang Military and Political Department, also known as Wang Weiheng. Chen Xiuliang judged that these two people would not be the same person? At that time, comrades all felt that it was impossible, after all, Wang Weiheng of the Zhuji County Committee of the CPC had been out of touch with our party for 12 years, and there were so many people with the same name and surname.
After a period of investigation, the comrades found that Wang Weiheng often went to a restaurant to eat. So Sha Wenwei found an opportunity to have a "chance encounter" with Wang Weiheng in that restaurant.
When the old people meet each other, it is natural that they can't talk about the family. In the course of the conversation, Cha Wenwei repeatedly tested Wang Weiheng and found that his revolutionary position was still firm.
In this way, through Wang Weiheng's line, the details of the numbers, strength, and weapons of the units above the Kuomintang military division were secretly presented to Chairman Mao and General Manager Zhu.
And this information has provided great help to our army on the battlefield. Later, the Kuomintang generals were puzzled: Why was the number of our army in the hands of the Communist Party so detailed?
It can be said that in the process of obtaining intelligence, Chen Xiuliang, as a decision-maker, can always poke at the enemy's key points.
By 1947, our army had changed from passive to active in the War of Liberation. Therefore, the focus of underground work was adjusted organizationally, and the focus was adjusted to the strategic department goal of instigating the uprising of Kuomintang military and political personnel.
Doing so will not only reduce civilian casualties, but also protect the city from destruction as much as possible. Under these circumstances, Chen Xiuliang set up the Nanjing underground countermeasures system on the basis of the original Nanjing intelligence system.
Compared with intelligence work, plotting against the enemy's generals at their base camp is undoubtedly a difficult task. Secret intelligence work can use false identities as a cover, and counter-insurgency work is to directly use real identities to contact the Kuomintang generals. And once the other side has any bad intentions, then the comrades responsible for plotting rebellion will fall into a situation of no return.
When Chen Xiuliang was in trouble, Lin Cheng, a comrade in the underground party, brought a good news. Lin Cheng's identity was clearly a lieutenant aviation medical officer at the Fourth Hospital of the Kuomintang Air Force, and he was able to contact many Kuomintang pilots. Lin Cheng found that among the reactionary pilots, there was a fighter named Yue Bo, which was a good breakthrough.
Originally, Yu Bo had the heart to serve the country with his fist and fist to pass the Kuomintang Air Force, hoping to drive out the Japanese invaders on the battlefield. But when he did enter the Kuomintang Air Force, he found that things did not go as he imagined. As a patriotic young man, It was really difficult for Yue Bo to understand what the Kuomintang reactionaries were doing.
In the process of contacting Yue Bo, Lin Cheng was keenly aware of his emotional problems, so he reported this situation to Chen Xiuliang. After consultation, Chen Xiuliang decided to make Yue Bo the target of the rebellion, and Lin Cheng was responsible for the specific actions of the rebellion.
After a period of contact and temptation, Lin Cheng felt that the time was ripe, so he launched a counter-action against Yue Bo. Yue Bo was not willing to drive a fighter plane to kill his own people, so he did not hesitate to agree to Lin Cheng's rebellion. And he also said that he was accompanied by four pilots who had similar experiences to himself, and he was sure that he would also be able to pull them in and lead the uprising.
However, Yue Bo also made a request: he hoped to join the Chinese Communist Party before the uprising. You must know that joining the party is to go through a series of tests, and lin cheng does not dare to make his own opinions under such circumstances. So he reported it to Chen Xiuliang.
Chen Xiuliang saw this matter very thoroughly: these 5 pilots had all been plotted against and agreed to take the plane to revolt, and they were gambling their lives to devote themselves to the revolutionary cause, and such practical actions had proved their party spirit, and there was no problem in joining the party at all.
With the promise of the secretary of the municipal party committee, the original worries and concerns of yu bo and other 5 pilots disappeared. On the night of December 16, 1948, taking advantage of the night, Yue Bo and others drove b24 bombers straight into the sky, flew all the way north, and finally landed at the Shijiazhuang airfield of our army.
On the battlefield of the War of Liberation, although there was no shortage of Kuomintang troops surrendering to our army before, they were limited to the army system. This is the first time that the air force system has revolted. When Chiang Kai-shek heard this news, he was ashamed and angry, and immediately ordered that the commander of the airport be replaced.
After that, Chen Xiuliang led the comrades of the Nanjing underground party to rebel against a unit of the Kuomintang Navy, and even sent their most advanced cruiser, the Chongqing, to the Liberated Areas.
Immediately after that, they directly rebelled against Wang Yanqing, the commander of the Nanjing Capital Guard Division, who was a lieutenant general and was very influential in the Kuomintang army system. When he led the two regiments of the Guard Division to revolt across the river, the Kuomintang could be said to have quarreled with the heavens, and Chiang Kai-shek strictly ordered Zhang Yaoming, commander-in-chief of the Nanjing garrison: "Destroy the underground municipal party committee of the Communist Party as soon as possible!" ”
But Zhang Yaoming really has no way to do anything about this, he can catch it long ago, and he still needs to wait until now? He sighed helplessly: "The underground municipal party committee of the Communist Party in Nanjing is so powerful that even the imperial forest army in the capital has been taken away, how can it be so easily destroyed?" ”
Having encountered such a formidable opponent, Zhang Yaoming really couldn't help it.
Our army's momentum in the frontal battlefield is like a rainbow, and Chen Xiuliang's work of plotting rebellions behind enemy lines has also made repeated achievements. The series of uprisings she planned were like a sharp sword, straight into the heart of the Kuomintang, so that the enemy was attacked by the belly and back.
After the Battle of Huaihai, the defeat of the Kuomintang reactionaries was a foregone conclusion. However, Chiang Kai-shek was still unwilling to stop the fight, and he started the "wishful thinking" of relying on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River and our party to rule across the river. Under such circumstances, how to break through the Yangtze River defense line and liberate Nanjing has become an important issue facing our army.
At this critical juncture, which was related to the turning point of history, Chen Xiuliang led the nanjing underground party comrades to "open fire in full force," not only passing on the secret information of the Kuomintang's Yangtze River defense line, but also organizing many patriotic forces to provide support and assistance in all aspects for our army to cross the river.
In the end, the Yangtze River defense line, which Chiang Kai-shek regarded as "impregnable," was like a "turkey tile dog" in front of our army. It took our army only 3 days to break through the Yangtze River defense line, capture the Nanjing Presidential Palace in one fell swoop, and Nanjing also ushered in liberation.
After successfully completing his task, Chen Xiuliang also came to the people's liberation army garrison and prepared to return to the organization. This brings us to the scene at the beginning of this article.
After the founding of New China, Chen Xiuliang began a new journey. She successively served as the deputy director of the Organization Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the second executive committee of the All-China Women's Federation.
In her later years, she wrote a million words of memoirs and historical materials to tell the world about the dusty history. She has never forgotten those years of revolutionary struggle, full of passion and blood.
On November 6, 1998, Chen Xiuliang died of illness and completed a magnificent life at the age of 91. Who says women are inferior to men! With this article, I would like to commemorate Chen Xiuliang and other great women who fought for the new China in the flames.
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