She was the only female general among more than a thousand founding generals; she had no heirs in her life, but she took in the orphans who raised more than twenty martyrs. She made a great contribution to China's revolutionary cause, and she smashed the shackles of the old society that bound women.
She is the famous founding female general of New China, Li Zhen.
1. Selling as a child bride and suffering from the old society
In 1908, Li Zhen was born into a peasant family in a small mountain village in Liuyang, Hunan. At the time of her birth, the family was disappointed to learn that she was another girl.
There are six children in the Li family, Li Zhen ranks fifth, and these six children are all girls without exception, which is undoubtedly difficult to accept in that era of son preference. To make matters worse, when the mother gave birth to her youngest sister, the father suddenly fell ill and died, leaving the mother alone to raise the six young daughters.
Li Zhen's parents were just peasants, and in the face of this flying disaster, looking at the six young children in front of them, Li Zhen's mother had no choice but to sell Li Zhen, who was only six years old, to the Gu family as a child bride.
Li Zhen, who was only six years old, was tortured in the Gu family and lived a life even lower than that of ordinary people, as long as there was a place that did not conform to the wishes of the Gu family's wife, he would be beaten severely, and the young Li Zhen was always blue and purple, and at the age when others were happy to play, Li Zhen was tortured, and even had the idea of taking his own life many times.
This life continued until the age of fifteen, when Li Zhen heard someone say that a group of people had come from the county to carry out a revolution. Li Zhen immediately realized that this was the perfect opportunity to rescue herself from the dark life, and she immediately decided to sneak out of the Gu family at night.
But things did not go as smoothly as she expected, after the Gu family found out that Li Zhen had sneaked away, they immediately asked people to look around for Li Zhen's whereabouts, and soon after Li Zhen was arrested and returned to the Gu family, and she was greeted by another cruel beating.
However, Mrs. Gu realized that she could only torture Li Zhen's flesh, but she could not stop Li Zhen's spiritual liberation. She was more and more worried that Li Zhen would run away again at some point, letting the money she spent go awry. When Li Zhen was sixteen years old, the Gu family immediately arranged the wedding of Li Zhen and the young master of the Gu family, Gu Tianshun, in an attempt to imprison Li Zhen forever in the Gu family through the shackles of the old social marriage to women.
However, life after marriage is more desperate than before, the young master of the Ancient Family, Gu Tianshun, has a violent personality, often beats up Li Zhen, and in his heart he looks down on Li Zhen, who is "inferior", and Li Zhen is even more unable to hold a good feeling for Gu Tianshun. Faced with a dark life, Li Zhen is more and more eager for her independence.
Second, plunge into the revolution and harvest revolutionary love
Finally, in 1926, the torrent of the "women's liberation movement" poured into Liuyang, and when Li Zhen heard the news, she immediately came to the local women's association, where she had her name, because before that, people called her "Danwazi", and Li Zhen's "Zhen" character symbolized loyalty to the revolutionary cause.
Since then, she has actively carried out revolutionary propaganda work, and even tried to propagate revolutionary ideas to her rough and ignorant husband, hoping that he could devote herself to the revolutionary cause with her, but Gu Tianshun only thought that she was just dreaming; Li Zhen also prepared grain and grass for the Northern Expedition and actively did a good job in logistical support.
Finally, in 1927, the nineteen-year-old Li Zhen officially joined the Communist Party of China, and the Gu family, fearing that they would be implicated, swept Li Zhen out of the house with a letter of suspension.
Looking at the Book of Hugh in front of her, Li Zhen felt unprecedented freedom, that is, freedom after breaking the shackles of the old society on women, Li Zhen secretly resolved that she must break the shackles of the old society on thousands of female compatriots!
Soon after Li Zhen joined the party, the Kuomintang reactionaries launched a counter-revolutionary coup, and the revolutionary situation took a sharp turn for the worse and became immediately severe, while Li Zhen actively obeyed the party's command and successively participated in the autumn harvest uprising and a series of anti-encirclement and suppression struggles.
In the process of the vigorous revolution, Li Zhen also met her beloved for the first time, and she and Zhang Qilong, the secretary of the Liuyang County Party Committee at that time, were attracted by each other's strong revolutionary enthusiasm and eventually married a revolutionary couple.
However, life after marriage was not sweet, in a battle, the guerrilla led by Li Zhen and her husband's main army were scattered, and the enemy forced them to the edge of the cliff, seeing the cliff behind Li Zhen, the enemy leader shouted: "Catch me alive!" ”
Li Zhen and the four female comrades next to her immediately made a decision and jumped into the abyss without hesitation, and what was even more shocking was that At this time, Li Zhen was still four months pregnant.
Li Zhen slowly opened her eyes, and found that she had not sacrificed, and the comrade next to her told her that fortunately she hung on a dead tree, but the other four female comrades were generous, and she herself lost her unborn child.
Later, for some reasons, Li Zhen's husband Zhang Qilong was mistakenly characterized as a "reformist", and in order not to let his beloved wife be affected, he was forced to divorce Li Zhen and regrettably ended their marriage.
Due to the busyness of revolutionary work, Li Zhen had no time to consider his marriage, and Li Zhen and Ren Bishi's wife, Chen Chunying, had a very good relationship, and Chen Chunying could not bear to see Li Zhen alone every day, so one day he said to Li Zhen: "Sister Li Zhen, I see that you are strange and lonely, let me introduce you to an object, right?" ”
Li Zhen asked curiously, "Who?" ”
"Gan Siqi, you know!" Chen Chunying said with a smile.
Because of work reasons, Li Zhen and Gan Siqi are very familiar with each other, Gan Siqi is a high-talented student who has stayed in the West, and from Chen Chunying's mouth, he learned that he has praised Li Zhen's excellence to others many times in public, and in that conservative era, this is undoubtedly the embodiment of love.
In the end, the two people held a warm and simple wedding on New Year's Day 1935, under the auspices of Ren Bishi.
In the years to come, the two supported each other, walked hand in hand on the road of revolution, and jointly experienced the Long March of the Red Army, the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation, and finally ushered in the founding of New China together, embracing a new era of smashing the shackles of the old society on women.
At the 1955 ceremony, Li Zhen was awarded the rank of major general, her husband Gan Siqi was awarded the rank of general, and Chairman Mao personally awarded him the medal, becoming the "husband and wife star" that people talk about.
Third, the will after death touches the world, and the inheritance is dispersed to contribute to the society
Li Zhen did not have children, during the Long March, a serious illness made Li Zhen unable to produce offspring, however, Li Zhen raised more than twenty orphans of revolutionary martyrs, she was a female general with a great reputation, but also a mother with warm and deep maternal love. Although she and Gan Siqi are both generals, they never "go through the back door" and "give the green light" for their children's positions.
On March 11, 1990, Li Zhen died of illness in Beijing at the age of eighty-two. It was found that her inheritance was only 11,000 yuan, 2,500 yuan treasury bills and two small gold bars left over from the war years, and there were only 4 medals, 4 rattan chairs, and 2 leather boxes in the house.
Li Zhen's will and testament arranged: one gold bar was donated to his hometown of Liuyang County, and the other gold bar was donated to her husband Gan Siqi's hometown of Ningxiang County to promote the development of her hometown; the deposit was divided into two, one was donated to a public welfare children's organization, and the other half was handed over as his own membership fee.
Li Zhen's life was full of twists and turns, and she was full of revolutionary legends, from the tragic child bride to the great general who smashed the shackles of women, from the Northern Expedition to the founding of New China, she did not give birth to an heir, but raised more than twenty martyrs and orphans, which is the embodiment of her deep maternal love, and it also sowed the seeds of a new generation for the revolutionary cause! Although he was a general, he was simple and incorruptible, and after his death, he dedicated himself to society.
It is really "heroic spirit of heaven and earth, and the thousand autumns are still awe-inspiring," In today's new era, we also have more respect for General Li Zhen, who "does not let his eyebrows be shaved"!