In the course of the Chinese revolution, how many revolutionary pioneers threw their heads and spilled their blood for the sake of China's future and the hopes of the people; and how many revolutionary beliefs persisted, even at the moment when they stepped onto the execution ground and made heroic sacrifices, they always sang the revolutionary battle song.
To this day, we still remember Qiu Jin's "Born as a master, and died as a ghost", the early CCP leader Luo Yinong's "wreckage of the body is regrettable, the great enemy is in front of the present", Cai Hesen's "loyal to the heart, Haoran full of two rooms". Even after many years, these bold words and ambitions still resound in the minds of future generations of people and cannot be dissipated for a long time.
Figure |" Jian Hu Woman "Qiu Jin" (oil painting)
And the protagonist of the story we want to tell today is a Red Army singer who propagated the revolution with mountain songs--Zhang Jianzhen.
Zhang Jianzhen was born in 1911 in a family of a rich man in Shuanghua Village, Wuhua County, Guangdong Province, and her father, Zhang Shaoshan, was the owner of the famous local business name "Juchang", and Zhang Jianzhen was the only daughter of Zhang Qianzhen. At the time of birth, The rich man Zhang was full of joy, celebrating the full moon for his only daughter, and feasting on a large banquet, which became a hot topic of discussion among neighbors in the township for a time.
Originally born in such a rich family, Zhang Jianzhen's childhood should have been worry-free, but it did not come to mind, because of his father's feudal superstition and son preference, Zhang Jianzhen's childhood still tasted pain. When Zhang Jianzhen was 10 years old, her brother in the family suddenly fell ill and fell seriously ill in bed, and the country men were helpless. Not long after, all the livestock raised by the Zhang rich man's family died.
The family's bad luck continued, which made The rich man Zhang panic. The superstitious and stupid Rich Man Zhang immediately found a fortune teller in the jianghu to come to his home to calculate. The fortune teller wanted to cheat money, so he talked nonsense and said that the innocent Zhang Jianzhen had become the "star girl" in the family. When Zhang Cailord heard this, he immediately panicked and decided to drive Zhang Jianzhen out of his home and give it to a poor peasant family as a child bride.
Because of the fortune teller's sentence "The family door is unfortunate, the fate is with a star", Zhang Jianzhen, who is only 10 years old, was expelled from the house by his feudal superstitious and vicious biological father. The young Zhang Jianzhen had no one to rely on, and could only accept the fate arranged by her father to herself, and was taken by the matchmaker to the Hu family in a neighboring village as a child bridesmaid.
Pictured| fortune teller in old China
In the days of being a child bridesmaid, Zhang Jianzhen worked day and night, and took on the household chores of the Hu family at a young age. Fortunately, Zhang Jianzhen's mother-in-law in the Hu family is kind-hearted, treating Zhang Jianzhen as her own daughter, and if she can help her, she will help her a little.
But the days of the old society were not the most bitter, only the more bitter. The second year zhang Jianzhen arrived at the Hu family, the Hu family was forced to almost desperate because of the landlord's bad behavior of increasing rent and seizing the land without receiving the rent. At this time, there was a famine, and under the natural and man-made disasters, Zhang Jianzhen's in-laws could not bear it, and they died one after another under the combination of poverty and illness.
The life of the Hu family can only rely on the eldest brother Hu Guoshu to sell coolies to survive. Although the days of being a child bridesmaid are bitter, Zhang Jianzhen, who is a teenager, did not frown and complain all day long, but an optimistic and positive character. She liked to sing since she was a child, and when she was herding cattle with her poor brothers and sisters and going up the mountain to collect firewood, she often sang mountain songs, and also developed a good voice that was gentle and beautiful, and the mountain songs she sang were very popular with her father and fellow villagers.
Since zhang Jianzhen was 10 years old, she has suffered from the suffering of the old society and suffered from the oppression of the landlord and gentry, and every time she thinks of her cruel father who regards her as a demon and drives her out of the house, she laments that her fate is tragic and very desolate.
In 1926, during the period of the National Revolution, a revolutionary wave was set off all over the country, and zhang Jianzhen's hometown was the same. The flames of the peasant revolution, along with the rise of the national revolution, burned in Shuanghua Village.
At this time, the eldest brother closely followed the pace of the revolution in his hometown and became the chairman of the township peasant association. Because of the relationship between the eldest brother, Zhang Jianzhen also came into contact with the new ideas and new concepts of the revolution, and finally understood that his tragic life was not born with a bitter fate, nor was his father and mother cruel, but caused by the social system at the root of the old society.
Therefore, Zhang Jianzhen, who realized this, vowed to change the status quo of society and the fate of the low-level people and child brides-in-law who were deeply oppressed like her, and she resolutely decided to follow her eldest brother and devote herself to the revolutionary cause. However, at that time, Zhang Jianzhen was only fifteen or sixteen years old, and the eldest brother Hu Guoshu thought that she was too young to do such a big thing as revolution.
Pictured| child brides of the old society
When Zhang Jianzhen heard this, she directly sang in the mountain song: "Although I am a small and ambitious person, the women turn over and take possessions of the family. Just two simple mountain and wild tones made Zhang Jianzhen sing an irresistible momentum and show his determination to participate in the revolution. Therefore, at Zhang Jianzhen's insistence, the cadres of the township peasant association agreed to let her stay as a propaganda cadre and devote herself to the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary movement.
Since then, Zhang Jianzhen's life has been completely changed. She no longer simply sang mountain songs, but used mountain songs to mobilize the vast number of local peasants to stand up and fight against the local tyrants and inferior gentry. At that time, the "Song of Fighting the Local Tycoons" she sang caused a sensation and inspired the fighting spirit of more farmers who were eager to turn over.
In 1927, after Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution, the Kuomintang reactionaries carried out one bloody crackdown after another on the revolutionary masses in Shuanghua Village, which was in the midst of a revolutionary downturn. Late this night, it was freezing outside the house, the north wind was whistling, Zhang Jianzhen was sleeping in the house, suddenly, "Boom! boom! boom! A slamming sound sounded, waking Zhang Jianzhen from her deep sleep.
Without waiting for Zhang Jianzhen to open the door, several reactionaries who smashed the door grabbed the door and entered. They brutally kicked open all the doors, searched wildly, rummaged through boxes and cabinets, and tossed and turned for a while. After the search was over, a reactionary leader with a short gun walked up to Zhang Jianzhen and asked viciously, "Where is Hu Guoshu?" ”
When Zhang Jianzhen heard these words, she knew that these people had originally come to find the eldest brother, and the eldest brother was exposed. Zhang Jianzhen raised a pair of fiery eyes and saw this reactionary leader, who turned out to be his brother Zhang Shouzhong.
Over the years, Zhang's family has long defected to the Kuomintang reactionaries, burning and looting everywhere, and oppressing the common people. At this time, Zhang Shouzhong had become the captain of the county police force, and he did nothing evil and did all kinds of bad things.
Remembering the cruelty of his father and mother to himself in the early years, now they have become reactionaries, squeezing the blood and sweat of the people, and arresting innocent revolutionary masses everywhere, Zhang Jianzhen is only full of anger, and only wants to eliminate all these jackals.
Now that the narrow road meets, Zhang Jianzhen can't suppress the resentment in her heart, and the anger in her eyes shoots straight at Zhang Shouzhong, and she replies indignantly: "I don't know! ”
The figure | reactionary officers of the revolutionary period
When Zhang Shouzhong heard Zhang Jianzhen's answer, he was furious and threatened in a hoarse voice: "You give me honesty and stay at home well!" If you dare to incite those poor ghosts again, I will immediately clean up after you! Under the threat, Zhang Jianzhen's face did not change color, and a pair of stubborn eyes were still overflowing with anger. They couldn't find Hu Guoshu, so they smashed the things in the house and then slipped away.
In those dark days, the revolutionary situation became more and more severe. Even under the terrible atmosphere of black clouds pressing down on the city, Zhang Jianzhen was not intimidated by the brutal suppression of the Kuomintang reactionaries, but continued to compose mountain songs to encourage the masses to persist in the struggle, and the mountain songs she composed and sang were like lighting sparks in the night and giving the revolutionary masses the hope of hard struggle.
Under the rampant reactionaries, Zhang Jianzhen was eager to join the Communist Party so that she could follow this righteous division that ruled for the poor and overthrow the evil Kuomintang reactionaries. While she was running around, constantly singing and preaching propaganda and mobilization, she also inquired about the whereabouts of the Communist Party team in many ways, and finally she found out that there was a poor team on the other side of the Baxiang Mountain, and she was very happy and immediately packed her bags.
In 1928, Zhang Jianzhen wore a bucket hat on his head, stepped on a pair of straw shoes, carried a bamboo basket, dressed up as a relative, crossed the high mountains and mountains, and came all the way to the Eight Townships Mountain.
When she arrived at Baxiang Mountain, she would meet an elderly grandfather and grandmother, or a big brother and sister-in-law who were shouldering burdens, and would quietly ask where her "relatives" were, and the poor people knew that what she was looking for was the Communist Party. On the third day of The Eight Townships Mountain, a sister-in-law lovingly pulled her aside and said, "Girl, you are looking for relatives, I will help you find them!" ”
So Zhang Jianzhen followed the sister-in-law all the way to a small hut, pushed the door in, and several peasant-dressed countrymen in the house were talking. After Zhang Jianzhen came in, everyone was curious about what this little girl had come to do. A man who was tens of meters away from Zhang Jianzhen walked up to her and said with a smile: "Girl, you sit down first." ”
The man asked Zhang Jianzhen some questions, asking her what her name was, where she came from, and what relatives she had come to Baxiang Mountain to find. Zhang Jianzhen replied one by one. The man asked, "You are the savior of the poor, why are you looking for him, tell me?" ”
Pictured| the savior of the poor, the Communist Party
Zhang Jianzhen immediately replied, "I want to follow him in the revolution!" Hearing Zhang Jianzhen's answer, the man became serious. He pulled Zhang Jianzhen aside and said seriously: "Doing revolution is not a joke, if you are not careful, you will lose your head!" Are you not afraid of hardship, not afraid of going to jail, not afraid of killing your head? Zhang Jianzhen replied without hesitation: "I am not afraid of anything, I am afraid of death, I will not go up the Eight Townships Mountain!" ”
The man was impressed by Zhang Jianzhen's determination and perseverance, and agreed to leave her in the Eight Townships Mountain to carry out the revolution together. "Comrade Zhang Jianzhen, hello, I am Gu Dacun." It turned out that Zhang Jianzhen was received by Comrade Gu Dacun, the head of the CPC in Wuhua County. "Hello, Comrade Gu Dacun!" After several days of running and tiring, Zhang Jianzhen finally got what she wanted, and her excitement was indescribable.
Zhang Jianzhen was incorporated into the literacy class of the army to learn about knowledge and culture and understand the reality of china's revolution. The learning environment in the army was very difficult, but Zhang Jianzhen studied hard and seriously. She can't learn to practice, use branches to make pens without pen and ink, practice the Chinese characters she learned, and write directly on the ground without paper. She read hard every day, and when she encountered something she didn't understand, she asked her teachers and classmates for advice.
After a few months, Zhang Jianzhen knew a lot of words and also understood a lot of revolutionary ideas. She compiled all the content she had learned into her own mountain songs, and continued to encourage the peasant masses to join the workers' and peasants' revolution. Not only that, but the days when she studied in the army also made her realize the depth of the poison of feudal etiquette on women.
So she composed and sang a large number of mountain songs, telling the tragic fate of the women masses at that time who were bullied and oppressed under feudal rule, exposing and lashing out at the feudal and evil social system of this man who ate people, as well as the inhuman three principles and five constants, ethics and morality.
The songs sung by Zhang Jianzhen were widely sung among the masses in The Eight Townships Mountain, which became a powerful weapon for the revolutionary masses to continuously carry out revolutionary struggles, and also inspired the poor peasants who had suffered a lot to stand up indignantly, take up arms for their own liberation, and struggle to the end against the landlords and gentry and reactionaries!
Just as Zhang Jianzhen was in full swing at Baxiang Mountain, Gu Dacun sent people to find her. Gu Dacun asked, "Jian Zhen, are you used to living in the Eight Townships Mountain?" Do you want to go home and have a look? Zhang Jianzhen thought that Gu Dacun wanted to drive her home and did not want her to stay here to continue the revolution, so he replied eagerly: "Habits, habits, I am very accustomed to living here!" I don't want to go home! ”
Who knew that Gu Dacun laughed and said happily, "Sword Zhen, now you don't want to go home, we also want you to go home." Zhang Jianzhen looked puzzled and asked, "Why do you want to go home?" Is there any organizational task for me? ”
Gu Dacun laughed again, and after a while suddenly said solemnly: "You are right, the revolution needs you to go home." The higher authorities should send a group of comrades to Wuhua County to carry out work, restore the peasant associations, organize the armed forces, and struggle against the reactionaries. Comrade Zhang Jianzhen, you are a local, familiar with the terrain and terrain, it is more conducive to comrades to carry out their work, do you go back? ”
Figure | Female Soldier of the Red Army (oil painting)
After Zhang Jianzhen returned home, he and his comrades threw themselves into the intense revolutionary work, they went out day and night, disguised their identities during the day, mobilized the masses everywhere to carry out revolutionary arming, and gathered together at night to hold meetings to discuss the next countermeasures. Everywhere Zhang Jianzhen went, she mingled with the local people, singing them mountain songs, telling stories, doing farm work, and reasoning, which was very popular with the masses.
Through extensive contact with the masses, Zhang Jianzhen learned that the local people who oppressed the masses the most were Zhang Shaoshan's father and son of his mother's family. Listening to the tearful stories of the peasants, Zhang Jianzhen deepened his hatred for the father and son of the Zhang family, vowing to kill his relatives in righteousness and give the people a peace.
Zhang Jianzhen kept searching for the crimes of the Zhang family's father and son, compiled them into songs, and combined her own personal experiences in the Zhang family, wrote a song of weeping blood. On that day, Zhang Jianzhen gathered the local people to hold a meeting in the ancestral hall of Bumei Village, and she rushed to the ancestral hall with a propaganda team.
A large kerosene lamp was lit in the ancestral hall, and after the masses arrived one after another, Zhang Jianzhen said straight to the point: "Dear fathers and fellow villagers, I am Zhang Shaoshan's own daughter, and since I was a child, I have been driven out of the house by him as a demon, and have been wandering around ever since..." She began to tell the villagers about her tragic fate, and mobilized the villagers who were oppressed by the Zhang family father and son to stand up and fight bravely with them. Then Zhang Jianzhen sang with a mountain song, and she sang:
Shaoshan, loyal like a tiger and wolf, burned and killed workers and peasants with a bad conscience!
Shaoshan is my biological father, and Shouzhong is my brother;
Fathers and brothers do not kiss each other, because the red and white lines are clear;
When I caught Shaoshan, I shot, mentioning Shou Zhong's I shot.
When the villagers heard Zhang Jianzhen's indignant accusations and the awe-inspiring decision of righteousness, they were all moved by it and wanted to follow Zhang Jianzhen to fight to the death with the reactionaries. The news of Zhang Jianzhen's meeting to accuse his own father and brother soon reached the ears of the Zhang family's father and son. The Zhang family's father and son became angry and threatened to get rid of Zhang Jianzhen, and even offered a reward of five hundred oceans to capture their own daughter.
Figure | the toiling masses of the old society
However, Zhang Jianzhen was not intimidated by this, and the masses of the people did not betray Zhang Jianzhen because of this, but actively covered her for bravely carrying out revolutionary propaganda. In 1928, the Baxiangshan Revolutionary Base Area was constantly consolidating and developing, and the Workers' and Peasants' Armed Forces were preparing to attack Wuhua County and Fengshun County, and the first thing to attack was Shuangtouyu.
After Zhang Jianzhen learned the news, he offered to serve as the guide for combat deployment. Under the leadership of Zhang Jianzhen, the workers' and peasants' troops smoothly entered the Shuanghua area. After the Battle of Shuangtouyu began, Zhang Jianzhen led the vanguard and took the lead in rushing into Zhang Shaoshan's home, and found that Zhang Shaoshan's father and son had already escaped from the wind, so they confiscated all the Zhang family's property and distributed it to the poor people who were usually squeezed by them.
Zhang Jianzhen's act of righteously exterminating relatives was praised by the local masses for a time, which greatly stimulated the revolutionary passion of the masses and laid a solid mass foundation for the victory of the revolutionary struggle.
In 1929, Zhang Jianzhen served as a propagandist for the 46th Regiment of the Dongjiang Red Army, continued to fight in the front line, active among the masses of the people, and used revolutionary battle songs to sing the spirit of bravery, fearlessness, and persistence in struggle, boosting the morale of our army, mobilizing the broad masses, and disintegrating the enemy camp.
Later, the Kuomintang reactionaries gathered a large contingent of men and horses and launched a large-scale attack on the revolutionary areas of Wuhua and Fengshun. Zhang Jiuhua, the commander of the county police brigade in Wuhua County, integrated nearly a thousand reactionary military and police officers to launch an attack on the Shuanghua area. At this critical moment, the Red Army decided to lure the enemy deeper and catch turtles in an urn, so that Zhang Jiuhua, the military police unit, would never return.
At that time, Zhang Jianzhen led the propaganda team to the designated position and sang and shouted at the large group of reactionary military police at the bottom of the mountain. One of her "Songs of Persuasion to the White Soldiers" made the reactionary military and police stop for a long time, and Zhang Jiuhua heard Zhang Jianzhen's disturbing singing voice and thought that this was the Communist Party's attempt to seduce the hearts of the army, so he ordered without hesitation: "Hurry forward and arrest this communist who has deceived the hearts of the army!" ”
So Zhang Jiuhua's team entered the ambush circle of the Red Guards and launched a fierce attack on it, and for a time, gunshots, shouts of killing, and screams filled the entire valley, and the reactionary leader Zhang Jiuhua collapsed and fled in the rapid attack of our army. The victory of this battle, Zhang Jianzhen contributed a lot, her strength and bravery, deeply appreciated by the Red Army, everyone called her "Iron Maiden".
Figure |" Iron Maiden" (non-Zhang Jianzhen)
In 1931, Zhang Jianzhen was accidentally discovered by the minions of the local reactionaries, and was rounded up by the county police brigade, and finally unfortunately arrested. Zhang Jianzhen, who was arrested and imprisoned, was still undaunted in the face of the enemy's torture to extract a confession, kept his mouth shut, and did not reveal half a word to the secrets of the party organization. In prison, she confronted the reactionary jailer with a mountain song, so angry that the reactionary jailer could not speak.
Even though Zhang Jianzhen was in prison, she still did not forget the revolutionary propaganda and struggle, and sang mountain songs in prison to encourage fellow prisoners to stubbornly cheer up, not to be intimidated by the reactionaries, and to persist in the struggle to the end. Knowing that she was about to be killed, she recalled her upbringing in prison and sang a song called "Five More Sighs", the lyrics of which expressed her deep affection for the Red Army and her perseverance in the revolutionary struggle.
At this time, Zhang Jiuhua saw that Zhang Jianzhen was young and beautiful, and wanted to take her as a concubine. She took Zhang Jianzhen to the mansion and first asked Zhang Jianzhen's brother Zhang Shouzhong to persuade her. As a result, Zhang Jianzhen severely reprimanded Zhang Shouzhong and drove him out. Zhang Jiuhua walked up to her and said in a yin-yang strange way, "Miss Zhang, you are a young girl, what a revolution!" I give you a chance to reform yourself, be my concubine, enter my house, and you can enjoy endless glory and wealth! ”
When Zhang Jianzhen heard these words, she stared at Zhang Jiuhua angrily, and scolded him in a singing voice, showing that she was determined not to follow the reactionaries until her death, and it was absolutely impossible to make a concubine for the enemies of the people.
Zhang Jiuhua saw that Zhang Jianzhen was soft and hard and did not eat, so he said: "If you don't want to, you just need to tell me who is the Communist Party in this neighborhood, tell me where Gu Da exists, and I will reward you with silver and silver!" Zhang Jianzhen sneered, still scolding the enemy loudly with a mountain song. Zhang Jiuhua had no choice but to do anything, and finally poisoned Zhang Jianzhen.
On June 19, 1931, Zhang Jianzhen was brutally killed by reactionaries at Lei Gongdun in Hwaseong, and Zhang Jianzhen, who was only 20 years old, sacrificed heroically for the cause of China's revolution!