On the pagoda hill in Yan'an, an old woman stood on the top of the mountain and looked into the distance, along with her, and there were about twenty tourists following her, but if you listen carefully, you can understand from their authentic rural sounds that this is a big son of four generations of grandchildren.
The old woman walked around with the support of her family, laughing happily every time she went, telling others about the changes here, and when she saw the Yellow River, she couldn't help but sigh: "Before, the pebbles on both sides of the river were gone, and the river channel became narrower." ”
This old woman's name is Liu Wenzhi, and there are very few stories about her, not even rumors, but once excavated, it is deeply touching.
1
Liu Wenzhi is an old Red Army, experienced the Long March, experienced the Anti-Japanese War, in a quiet stream of time, she with a small role of life experience, confirmed what is the "red spirit".
Liu Wenzhi was born in 1912, which is the period after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and although this corrupt dynasty was overthrown, the status of the poor people still failed to usher in the leap of the fish.
Liu Wenzhi, who was born in Sichuan, is also deeply trapped in a deep water with his peers, and the family can't make ends meet, and there are only a few pieces of furniture that are slippery, saying that it is the four walls of the family.
The initial impression of poverty on Liu Wenzhi was desperate, as irresistible as hunger, and the imprint on this young girl was the mark of the grief of an era.
Liu Wenzhi's childhood was dark, and there were four brothers and sisters under her, and the eldest Liu Wenzhi naturally took on the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings.
She had to go up the mountain to chop wood and cut grass during the day, and in the evening she had to go home to make a fire to cook, a child at the most active age, hard to grind a pair of skillful hands out of a piece of calluses, such a poor day, Liu Wenzhi was ten years, from a naïve child, precocious to half a mother and half a sister.
When Liu Wenzhi was a teenager, she looked at her younger siblings who were waiting to be fed, and chose to go to someone else's house to be a child bride, so that at least she could save some food and give her younger siblings more food.
Beating pig grass and watering dung, Liu Wenzhi's heavy work was no less than that of the boys in her hometown, she thought she would scribble her life like this, but the arrival of the Red Army lit the first light in her life.
In the twenties of the last century, one day when Liu Wenzhi was twenty years old, a group of strangers in military uniforms came to her hometown, these people looked very simple, more like peasants than soldiers, but the villagers had a strong sense of distance from them, which was the shadow left by everyone after being bullied by warlords in their daily lives.
Many villagers even gave up their belongings and fled to the nearby mountains, and among this group of people, there was Liu Wenzhi.
According to her recollection in her later years: "The people in the village did not know that they were the Red Army, they were very scared, and they all ran into the nearby mountains, and I followed them."
The Red Army was a hero who helped the people fight the world, they repaid their grievances with virtue, accepted the rejection of the villagers, and even after being stationed in the local area, they often helped everyone in agricultural work.
Gradually, the villagers realized their mistakes, and Liu Wenzhi also felt a rare warmth in getting along with the Comrades of the Red Army, so this twenty-year-old girl had the idea of joining the army in her heart, and practiced her ideas with actions the following year.
As a small number of female soldiers, the party organization was very welcome to her arrival, Liu Wenzhi did not tell her family the news of joining the army, because she was afraid that they were worried about their own life safety, she cut off her braids, put on the military uniform, did not bring a little luggage, and so she was alone and threw herself into the arms of the party organization.
2
After Liu Wenzhi joined the Red Army, he was assigned to the women's platoon, and there were only two sisters at the same time as her, and their task was to help the male comrades sew clothes and mend hats in peacetime, but the number of the Red Fourth Army was so large, how could a few female soldiers get busy?
So the usual task of several people also includes the promotion of the expansion of the red, for the expansion of the red, Liu Wenzhi can be described as a good hand, she is particularly active in the work, whether it is the organizational speech arranged by the team, or the usual internal tour, she has shown a "towel does not let the eyebrows" confidence.
In private, Liu Wenzhi did not forget to nag with the ordinary people he usually came into contact with, explaining the story of the Red Army, Liu Wenzhi did not understand culture, but he remembered the legend deeply.
Over time, the girls close to her also joined the Red Fourth Army under her guidance, and in two years, Liu Wenzhi expanded the women's platoon from three to eighty.
Although it seems that there are not many people, they are all veritable "Iron Ladies", who have gone up to the hall and the kitchen, which has brought great vitality to the Red Army team.
Liu Wenzhi's red career was met with a head-on blow in 1935, and the Red Army was forced to embark on a 25,000-mile long march after five failed anti-encirclement and suppression operations.
However, this special journey of life and death is also the most dazzling moment of Liu Wenzhi's personal charm.
3
The Long March is very bitter, the Long March is very difficult, if it is not personally experienced, words can not describe its hardship of one ten thousandths, Liu Wenzhi's Red Fourth Army has broken through several enemy blockade lines, in the face of artillery fire, Liu Wenzhi has never been afraid.
But what really frightened her was the threat posed by the harsh environment during the march: "We kept walking and walking every day, climbing all the way up and climbing, from dawn to dark... It's good to be full. ”
Liu Wenzhi crossed the meadow three times, and she was accompanied not only by comrades-in-arms, but also by her third brother, Liu Wenwen, who was only thirteen years old. Liu Wenwen was not tall, thin, and often fell ill during the process of crossing the meadow.
Liu Wenzhi's daughter Xie Jiaxi once mentioned: "My mother's younger brother is called Liu Wenwen, we called my brother-in-law, and later transferred to the Chengdu Railway Bureau." The little uncle followed his mother on the long march. Even if she was very tired on the road, my mother would still make a fire, pull weeds, cook for my brother-in-law, and take care of him along the way. The younger uncle later said that without his sister, he would not be able to complete the Long March. ”
Liu Wenzhi once said: "They fell one by one, everywhere." Some died of starvation, some died of illness. We are the Red Army, not afraid of death, and we continue to move forward. ”
This is probably Liu Wenzhi's biggest feeling about the Long March, the grass is full of swamps, sometimes people walking, they will suddenly fall into it, not even the opportunity to issue a cry for help, but more difficult than this, the problem of material shortage is more difficult to solve.
There is no end to the grass, except for the wild grass and only the wild grass, everyone can only take hot water to the bitter taste and barely get down.
Liu Wenzhi recalled: "I still remember the taste, the taste that can't be said, but it was very good to be able to eat at that time!" ”
Sometimes luck can dig up some wild vegetables, but for everyone's stomach can be described as a cup of water, and Liu Wenzhi's back behind a package, become the key to everyone walking through the grass, because there is a piece of salt there.
This piece of salt can be said to be a gift from god, before Liu Wenzhi took the women into the meadow, the team passed a salt mountain, and the salt mountain was in a ravine, which happened to meet Liu Wenzhi.
Because the march was hurried, she did not have time to inform everyone, she could only dig a piece of back, it was her care, so that everyone later had the motivation to move forward, Liu Wenzhi did not dare to distribute the salt to everyone, because he was afraid that everyone would be hungry and could not restrain himself from eating it all.
She would knock a little salt foam with a knife in each weed soup, and eighty female soldiers could turn over the grass, which was a great achievement in the insignificant salt block in the ordinary day.
In addition to the grassland, Liu Wenzhi also took the women to cross the Jiajin Mountain, which is a snowy mountain, the terrain is not only steep, but also the higher the peak, the oxygen is thinner, the climate is changeable, coupled with the cold of the low temperature, so that many Red Army soldiers died in their sleep.
Liu Wenzhi recalled: "It was too cold, the oilcloths we used to cover the rain and snow were all frozen and brittle, and we did not dare to fold them at all. ”
Liu Wenzhi's team had a girl named Zhang Wen, and this girl was the wife of Hong Xuezhi, the later founding general. Zhang Wenzhi is seven years younger than Liu Wenzhi, about the same age as her brother, and they are all fellow countrymen, so Liu Wenzhi has always regarded her as his own sister, but natural disasters and man-made disasters will not be treated differently because of this.
In the middle of the road over the Jiajin Mountain, Zhang Wen was unwell, weak and weak, almost fell into a coma, often people walking in front of him, suddenly fell into the snow, and waited until Liu Wenzhi lifted her up again and again.
Although Zhang Wen had always said that he was fine, he would let her go her own way, and it would not be long before she could no longer concentrate on facing the wind and cold.
So Liu Wenzhi unloaded all of Zhang Wen's luggage and carried it on his back, and then called the management section chief on the other side, relying on the thin body of the two people, and took Zhang Wen to the top of the mountain with him in one breath.
Zhang Wen was very touched by this: "On Jiajin Mountain, without the help of Liu Wenzhi's platoon leader and management section chief, I would definitely not be able to climb to the top of the mountain." I have a deep sense of gratitude to them throughout my life. ”
During this long march, Liu Wenzhi also accidentally saved a rough man, and what she did not expect at that time was that this rough man would actually marry her in the future and become a lover Xie Changchang who stayed together for a lifetime.
4
After the end of the Long March, Liu Wenzhi followed the team to Gansu, the strength of the Red Army was stabilized for a moment, Liu Wenzhi also returned to his old business, and the comrades with the women's platoon continued to work on sewing and mending clothes, they worked in a garment factory, and it was this opportunity that Liu Wenzhi once again encountered the rough man he had saved.
This rough man's name is Xie Changchang, and the two are both comrades-in-arms and life-and-death friends, but both of them have forgotten each other's looks.
Xie Changchang not only came to the same garment factory as Liu Wenzhi, but also became the leader of the unit, he was equipped with a guard in peacetime, and when he met Liu Wenzhi again, it was quite a bit of "no fight, no acquaintance".
There is a grass house in the garment factory, the living environment is relatively good, Liu Wenzhi hopes to use it as a place for women to live in a row, after all, women love to be clean, but Xie Long-term guards disagree, he feels that the leaders of the unit should be given preferential treatment.
There was a quarrel between the two because of the stalemate, and the matter soon reached xie changchang's ear, although Xie changchang was in a high position, but his personality was kind and loyal, he reprimanded the guards, and found Liu Wenzhi to give up the room.
This practice made Liu Wenzhi very impressed with Xie Changchang, the former is the leader, the latter is the platoon leader, the two have a lot of contact on the work, with the gradual deepening of understanding, they all recalled the encounter on the Long March Road, so a red marriage was concluded.
Liu Wenzhi felt that Xie Changchang was reliable, and Xie Changchang admired Liu Wenzhi's ability to deal with things, and the two eventually married in 1937.
In that period of gunfire, everyone's life was helpless, and there was also a gentleness that was delicately wrapped under the huge curtain of history, and Xie Changchang and Liu Wenzhi's married life was very sweet.
Although the main work content of the two is in the rear, this does not mean that life is smooth, and Liu Wenzhi often receives transfers assigned by the party organization.
In 1945, he also went to Yan'an once, this time for three years, and then Liu Wenzhi gave birth to four children to Xie Changchang, who were like small characters of that era, shining in a corner of the revolutionary process while being obscure.
The eldest son of the two men, Xie Jiayin, and the younger son, Xie Jiarong, also went to the army to serve as soldiers after the end of liberation, and they still remember their mother Liu Wenzhi's instructions to them: "If you become a soldier, you should be a good soldier, don't be afraid of death in battle, don't be a deserter." ”
5
Liu Wenzhi went through decades of time, looking forward to the founding of New China, and during the period of national economic recovery, she transferred to Chongqing No. 4 Factory.
She refused the organization's attention to her, choosing to start with an ordinary administrator, knowing that although the war was over, the people's life was still not good, and many people wanted to pay more!
Such a choice also comes from Liu Wenzhi's contempt for money and fame.
Her daughter Xie Jiaxi mentioned in an interview about her mother: "Later, because of the need to set wages according to the level, the actual salary of her mother has dropped to a certain extent compared with before. She did not complain in the slightest, saying that following the national policy, what level should be set, what level should be lowered, probably because she had experienced too much life and death, she regarded everything very openly, and would not be angry because of trivial matters. A good attitude is probably an important reason for the longevity of mothers. ”
In 1989, Xie Chang passed away, and Liu Wenzhi was seventy-seven years old, retiring from his job and living alone in Chongqing.
Her children have also grown up, each has its own family, and often comes to the house to chat with Liu Wenzhi, who is old, but his body is still hard.
In 2012, she told her children that she had a wish to go back to Yan'an.
As a holy place of revolution, Yan'an has left Liu Wenzhi with too many memories, and it is not only her children who help her realize her wishes, but also her active grandchildren.
Liu Wenzhi's kind personality also profoundly affected the younger generations, the eldest grandson Xie Tian planned the journey, and more than twenty people of the whole family embarked on a self-driving trip back to Yan'an.
Xie Jiaxi recalled his mother on the road: "We originally prepared a nanny car so that the elderly could lie down and rest when they were tired. As a result, she did not lie down at all along the way, did not get motion sickness, and said that she would sit in the back seat and watch the scenery. ”
Later, Liu Wenzhi was seriously ill and admitted to the hospital, and died in 2020, her spiritual hall was located in the Shiqiaopu Funeral Home in Chongqing, and the wreaths on both sides of the road were full of wreaths, and the people who came to mourn were endless.
At the top of the crowd, two lines of large characters were written on the white ribbon: "The Long March of Thousands of Miles, Guns, Bullets, and Rains, and the Spirit of the Red Army Bows down to Pass on to Future Generations."
Some people are dead, but the spirit is eternal, Liu Zengxian once said: "Liu Wenzhi's old Red Army has gone through several decades of revolutionary process, and there are no earth-shattering things in the whole combat life, but stories such as salt blocks saving people are very impressive to me." The old Red Army like the old man Liu Wenzhi can especially embody the spirit of that generation of indifferent to fame and fortune, bearing hardships and standing hard work, and is worth learning. ”