On July 7, 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out, which represented a period of all-out war of resistance against Japanese aggression in China.
According to the agreement between our Party and the Kuomintang, the troops of our Red Army were reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, while the guerrillas in the southern provinces were reorganized into the New Fourth Army, and on January 6, 1938, the New Fourth Army was established in Nanchang, when the New Fourth Army had four giants, namely, Commander Ye Ting, Deputy Commander Xiang Ying, Chief of Staff Zhang Yunyi, and Director of the Political Department Yuan Guoping.
Among these four people, Chairman Mao attached particular importance to Yuan Guoping at that time.
Yuan Guoping is a native of Shaodong County, Hunan, and Chairman Mao is a fellow of Hunan, he was born in 1906, in 1922, at the age of 16, he was admitted to the Hunan First Normal School, which was Chairman Mao's alma mater, in 1924, Yuan Guoping joined the Communist Youth League, a year later, he was admitted to the fourth phase of the Huangpu Military Academy, and later became a classmate of the big figures of our army, Lin Biao, Guo Huaruo and others.
At the Whampoa Military Academy, Yuan Guoping officially became a member of the Communist Party, and after graduation, he participated in the Northern Expedition and successively served as the leader of the 4th Team of the Left Wing Propaganda Team of the 4th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and the chief of the Propaganda Section of the Political Department of the 11th Army.
After the defeat of the Great Revolution in 1927, Yuan Guoping participated in the Nanchang Uprising and the Guangzhou Uprising, and in 1928, he went to Haifeng to participate in the struggle to lead the creation of the Dongjiang Revolutionary Base Area.
In 1929, Yuan Guoping came to xiang'egansu district and successively served as the director of the propaganda department, the acting political commissar of the Fifth Red Army, and the director of the political department of the Fifth Red Army.
In 1930, Yuan Guoping was appointed director of the political department of the Red Third Army, and became a good helper of Peng Dehuai, who assisted Peng Dehuai in leading the Red Third Army to capture Changsha and other battles, and in the same year, he was promoted to deputy director of the General Political Department of the Red Army and director of the Political Department of the Red Third Army.
The Red Army at that time included the Red First Army and the Red Third Army, the two legions were able to get along harmoniously, Yuan Guoping made a great contribution, in 1933, the Kuomintang 19th Route Army held the Fujian Incident.
Entrusted by the party organization, Yuan Guoping participated in the negotiations between the Red Army and the Kuomintang 19th Route Army, and he was awarded the Second Class Red Star Medal for his merits.
After the start of the Long March, Yuan Guoping accompanied the Long March, and after arriving in northern Shaanxi, Yuan Guoping successively served as the political commissar of the Northwest Red Army University and the director of the political department of the Chinese Anti-Japanese Red Army University.
In this post, Yuan Guoping trained many revolutionary cadres for the party organization.
After the Outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, according to the agreement between our Party and the Kuomintang authorities, the guerrilla units in our southern provinces were reorganized into the New Fourth Army, and Chairman Mao named Yuan Guoping as the director of the political department of the New Fourth Army. Yuan carried out politics and had a lot of experience.
Working in the New Fourth Army, Yuan Guoping lived up to the expectations of the public, he presided over two political work conferences in the New Fourth Army, the first time was in June 1938, Yuan Guoping proposed in his report: The basic tasks of the political work of the New Fourth Army are summarized into four items.
The four items are: to improve the party's work and give play to the leading role of party branches in the company; to correctly implement the cadre policy; to conduct in-depth political education so that every cadre and fighter can establish lofty ideals and sacrifice all their determination to fight to the end; and to establish a political work system and a sound political work system.
Chairman Mao attaches great importance to political work, and he once said: Political work is the lifeline of all economic work
As a veteran general who had been following Chairman Mao during the agrarian revolution, Yuan Guoping conscientiously carried out the tasks entrusted to him by the Party Central Committee, and in February 1939, Yuan Guoping presided over the second political work conference of the New Fourth Army.
At this meeting, Yuan Guoping emphatically pointed out that we must correctly understand the intellectuals, because this is one of the important conditions for the victory of the revolution, and at the meeting, Yuan Guoping also presided over the drafting of the "Draft Outline for the Political Work organization of the New Fourth Army," which made the political work of the New Fourth Army more systematic, standardized, and institutionalized.
In the years of working in the New Fourth Army, Yuan Guoping gave all his efforts, he was worthy of being a Communist Party member, and Chen Yi, who later became a marshal, once said: "Guoping is a good propaganda agitator and has talent. ”
Yuan Guoping also made a great contribution to the New Fourth Army, the lord he held and participated in the creation of the New Fourth Army military song, in the difficult years of anti-Japanese salvation, this song inspired the soldiers of the New Fourth Army, boosted morale, and improved the combat effectiveness of the troops.
Yuan Guoping's wife, Qiu Yihan, is an old qualified figure in our army.
She was a native of Pingjiang, Hunan Province, born in 1907, one year younger than Yuan Guoping, and at the age of 23, under the influence of her father, she joined the Communist Party of China, and in 1929, Qiu Yihan married Yuan Guoping, and after marriage, the two fought for a common revolutionary ideal.
During the Long March, Qiu Yihan accompanied the troops on the Long March and went through all kinds of hardships to go to northern Shaanxi, and she was one of the 24 female Red Army soldiers.
In January 1941, the Kuomintang troops launched the Anhui Southern Incident, ye Ting, commander of the New Fourth Army, was captured during negotiations, and deputy commander Xiang Ying and deputy chief of staff Zhou Zikun were killed by traitors after breaking through.
Yuan Guoping continued to break through with the rest of the people, and later unfortunately was shot, and when the soldiers carried him through the siege, Yuan Guoping did not want to drag the troops down, took out a pistol and committed suicide, only 35 years old.
When Yuan Guoping was sacrificed, his wife Qiu Yihan was 34 years old, and she endured the grief in her heart and worked hard, successively serving as the director of the political department of the Fourth Branch of the Kang Da University and the chief of the organization section of the rear political department of the Central China Bureau.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, she successively served as the secretary of the party committee of the Organ of the Nanjing Military Region of the Communist Party of China, the director of the East China Women's Federation, and the secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Women's Committee.
In 1956, Qiu Yihan died of illness at the age of 49.
Yuan Guoping and Qiu Yihan had a total of three children, and due to the environment during the war years, all three children were sent to their hometowns in the countryside for foster care.
Of the three, their son Yuan Zhenwei was later picked up by Qiu Yihan and asked to go to school, Yuan Zhenwei was later admitted to the Kazakh military industry, and after graduating from the Kazakh military industry, Yuan Zhenwei later became a civilian major general.
Today, he is a member of the Naval Command Academy's expert group and a doctoral supervisor in Naval Operational Command.
Salute to the revolutionary martyrs!