On March 22, 1990, a Telegram from the Xinhua News Agency was broadcast to the whole country through television and radio, and the host said in a sad voice: "Flowers and cypresses are surrounded by colorful statues of Li Zhen, the first female general of New China, dressed in the official clothes." ...... Comrade Li Zhen, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a loyal communist fighter who has stood the test for a long time, and an outstanding political worker in our army, died in Beijing on March 11 due to illness at the age of 83. ”
Li Zhen, a Red Army soldier who experienced the Long March and the only female general when she was awarded the title in 1955, completed her glorious life.
When people tearfully cleaned up her relics, they found that the most dazzling thing about this female general who had participated in the revolution for 64 years was the 4 medals.
It was awarded the Order of August 1, 2055, the Order of Independence and Freedom, 1st Class, and the Order of Liberation, 1st Class, and in 1988, the Order of Merit of the Red Star, First Class.
These four medals respectively witnessed Li Zhen's outstanding military achievements during the period of the agrarian revolution, the war of resistance against Japan, the period of the War of Liberation, and the construction of the army in New China.
In 1908, Li Zhen was born in a peasant family in Xiaobanqiao Township, Liuyang, Hunan Province, his father was an honest farmer, and the family of 8 lived by renting two and a half acres of land and fishing in the landlord's family. Li Zhen was the sixth daughter of their family, and her father was so disappointed that he didn't even want to give her a name, so he casually called her "DanWazi".
Due to the poverty of her family, Danwazi was sent to a family surnamed Gu as a child bride when she was 6 years old.
Child brides in the old society were no different from oppressed child laborers. A 6-year-old girl who takes care of almost all the household chores of the ancient family. Fetching water, chopping wood, doing laundry, cooking, taking care of children... If the end of the big basin of water does not move, it will be beaten; chopping wood will not be tied, and if you tie your back, you will also be beaten; you will be beaten if you carry a girl who is one year older than yourself, and if she does not move her back, she will be beaten even more. His fiancé, who was 4 years older than him, often grabbed her hair and punched and kicked her, causing her mouth and nose to bleed, and her face was bruised and purple. And the only thing a child bride can get is to eat a mouthful of food and not starve to death.
In 1924, the 16-year-old Danwazi was officially married to her fiancé, who had nothing but pain and burden. Just when DanWazi was desperate for this kind of life and once wanted to take her own life, her sister quietly told her: "The Communist Party has come from our district, and a women's liberation association has been established. ”
It was in 1926, 18-year-old Danwazi with the expectation of "changing her destiny",
He joined the Women's Liberation Association and had an official name, Li Zhen.
In 1926, Chiang Kai-shek began to show signs of counter-revolution, and the Northern Expedition also began in this year. General Ye Ting led an independent regiment into Hunan to aid Tang Shengzhi, who was defeated by his direct warlords and supported the Nationalist government. In October, the Northern Expeditionary Army entered Liuyang, and the revolutionary enthusiasm of the liuyang people, who had already undergone the baptism of the peasant movement, was high, and all kinds of mass organizations changed from secret to open.
In the revolutionary struggle, Li Zhentian's ability to organize activities was fully demonstrated, and she led a group of progressive women to make military shoes, engage in propaganda, raise grain for the Northern Expeditionary Army, and become a famous local female activist. In March 1927, Li Zhen, who had been a child bride a few years earlier, honorably joined the Communist Party. However, the good times did not last long, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" coup d'état, and Xu Kexiang went on a killing spree in Changsha, creating the "Ma-Ri Incident." White terror enveloped Xiaoxiang, large numbers of Communists and progressive masses were massacred, and Li Zhen was blacklisted.
The ancient mother and son who had abused Li Zhen for many years were frightened,
A letter of resignation swept her out of the house
。 Neither the "hunt and killing" of the counter-revolutionaries nor the Hugh Shu of the in-laws' family made Li Zhen afraid, but she felt fortunate that she could finally get rid of the shackles of feudal marriage and freely devote herself to the revolutionary movement.
As the revolutionary struggle became more and more brutal, Li Zhen no longer just did some mass organization activities, she joined the Liudong guerrilla group formed by Zhang Qilong and Wang Shoudao, and served as the chairman of the soldiers' committee. In the guerrillas, Li Zhen and Zhang Qilong developed sincere revolutionary feelings, and the two married in 1928 with the approval of the organization. Soon after, Li Zhen became pregnant, but the treacherous war environment soon stifled their joy.
During a battle, Li Zhen led several guerrillas to cover the transfer of the wounded and lead the enemy to Lion Cliff. While blocking the enemy, they climbed to the top of the cliff, and when they reached the top of the Lion Cliff, there were only 5 people left, and the bullets were gone. The enemy surrounded himself heavily, and behind the mountain was a cliff several feet deep, and there was no way back. Li Zhen looked at the surrounding environment and said to his comrades-in-arms: "Those who cannot let the enemy catch alive are communists and revolutionaries, so they will jump down with me." "After saying that, he jumped off the cliff first...
In the end, 5 team members sacrificed 3, and Li Zhen and another team member just jumped onto a big tree and survived, but the fetus in the abdomen could not be saved.
The loss of the fetus did not affect the couple's feelings, and Zhang Qilong and Li Zhen became a famous revolutionary couple in the Xiang'e-Gansu District. In the summer of 1933, Zhang Qilong was mistakenly regarded as a "counter-revolutionary" during the repression in the Xiang'e-Gansu District and imprisoned. In prison, In order not to implicate Li Zhen, Zhang Qilong took the initiative to sign a divorce declaration. After receiving the statement, Li Zhen cried bitterly, and she went to the Security Bureau to ask to maintain their husband and wife relationship, but was ruthlessly refused.
In August 1934, Li Zhen participated in the Western Expedition with the Red Sixth Army, served as the organization director of the political department of the Red Sixth Army, and met Gan Siqi, who was then the director of the political department of the army and the political commissar of the Eighteenth Division. Under the mediation of Ren Bishi's wife Chen Chunying, on New Year's Day 1935, Li Zhen and Gan Siqi held a simple wedding in a white-walled and green-tiled auditorium.
In the ensuing Long March, Li Zhen was pregnant, and with unimaginable perseverance, she endured the difficulties brought about by various harsh environments, crossed the Jinsha River, crossed the Dadu River, and overturned the snowy mountains. When crossing the meadow, Li Zhen's seven-month-pregnant child was born prematurely, but under such harsh conditions, before she could get out of the meadow, this poor little life died prematurely. Due to the lack of rest after giving birth, coupled with the invasion of typhoid fever, Li Zhen lost her fertility forever.
At that time, Li Zhen had a horse and a small tent, but she often gave these to the wounded and sick. One of the female warriors was ill, and she gave herself a better dress to the warrior, wearing a thin old dress herself. Due to overwork, coupled with hunger and cold, Li Zhen fell ill, and finally was so serious that he was tied to a horse with a long cloth strip before he could continue the march. Gan Siqi sold his only private property, a gold pen awarded to him by Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, and bought injections to let Li Zhen's high fever subside.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Zhen first studied in Jizhong and then returned to Yan'an Anti-Japanese Military and Political University to study, serving as the president of the Eighth Route Army Women's School. Later, Li Zhen successively served as the chief of the organization section of the 120th Division's teaching regiment, the director of the political office directly under the division, and the chief of the organization section of the organization department of the political department of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia-Jinsui United Defense Army. During the Liberation War, Li Zhen served as secretary general of the Political Department of the Jinsui Military Region and director of the Political Department directly under the Political Department of the Northwest Field Army. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Li Zhen served as secretary general of the Political Department of the Northwest Military Region.
Li Zhen and Gan Siqi were childless all their lives, but they raised more than 20 martyrs' children, and she selflessly dedicated her infinite maternal love to these children. Many people are under the care of Li Zhen, from primary school, middle school, university to work. The descendants of these martyrs gathered at Li Zhen's house, and two or three tables were set up for each meal. On Sundays and holidays, Li Zhen also took time to take them to the movies and visit the park, and the big family was full of warmth and happiness.
On the afternoon of September 27, 1955, in Zhongnanhai, Beijing, the first ceremony of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was held, and among the generals who gathered in the crowd, there was only one woman, and she was Li Zhen.
When Li Zhen received the Liberation Medal of the First Class from Chairman Mao Zedong, she was so excited that she could not speak. Premier Zhou Enlai personally awarded Li Zhen the rank of major general, shook her hand, and said: "Congratulations, Comrade Li Zhen, you are the first female general in New China." ”
At the same time, Li Zhen's husband Gan Siqi was also awarded the rank of general, and they also became the only "general's home" among more than a thousand founding generals. At that time, when Chen Chunying's eldest sister matched them, Li Zhen once refused, and her reason was that "people have studied in the Soviet Union, and I am a child bridesmaid, and I have no culture." But Li Zhen's contribution to the revolution will not be deducted from the birth of the child bride, and she, like Gan Siqi, became a founding general.
Although she became a founding general, Li Zhen has never changed her hard and simple nature, and she often said to the people around her: "The war era is very hard, and now that life is good, we can't covet enjoyment and lose the good tradition of hard struggle." "The shirt and coat she wore, and the quilt she covered were all patched up and sewn and sewn. An old comrade-in-arms of the Shenyang Military Region bought her a pair of large cotton shoes and wore them for more than ten years, but she refused to change them.
In 1980, Li Zhen was made a deputy of the Grand Military Region, but she still lived in the original house, and when it came to holidays, old comrades and relatives came to visit her, and the reception room was crowded. Everyone believes that General Li Zhen still lives in this kind of "collective dormitory", which is inconsistent with her identity. Li Zhen did not see it this way, and she said humorously: "It is good to live in such a house." If you live here and be among the masses, you will never be separated from the masses! ”
It was a dilapidated courtyard at the foot of Fragrant Hill, the house had fallen into disrepair and the bathroom was often leaking. Sometimes the water leaks a lot, there is basically no place to stay, and only a few bricks can be put in. Xiangshan is far from the city, and the basic equipment is not available, especially in winter, the indoor temperature is very low, and several families share a boiler to boil water for heating. The head of the General Political Department repeatedly advised her to move to the city, but she always said: "The house can still be lived, and I have a way to keep it warm." ”
Li Zhen's method of keeping out the cold is actually very primitive, wearing a pair of bulky and heavy canvas wool toe shoes on her feet, a cotton coat on her body, and a hot water bottle on her knees. Li Zhen's method of keeping warm is actually not unfamiliar, and Chairman Mao, who lives in Zhongnanhai, often uses hot water bottles to keep out the cold in the harsh winter. Chairman Mao's pajamas, sheets, and even slippers were sewn and sewn, mended and mended. In maintaining a hard and simple work style, General Li Zhen can be said to have always remembered what Chairman Mao said at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee and has always adhered to this fine tradition.
It was not until 1984 that Li Zhen agreed to move into a military cadre's room in an apartment in Zizhuyuan, which was still a "collective dormitory" building. There, Li Zhen finally did not have to rely on hot water bottles for heating, and did not have to pad bricks to enter the bathroom.
Every Spring Festival, when the comrades of the Old Cadres Department of the General Political Department visit Li Zhen's home to pay respects to the New Year, they will always send some money as an organizational subsidy for her living, but Li Zhen always sternly refuses. She said: "We old comrades, compared with the comrades who sacrificed, are already very happy, please do not give special care to the organization." ”
In fact, Li Zhen's life is not rich, she takes a small salary, but she has to bear the maintenance obligations of more than 20 martyrs' children. Going to school to see a doctor, eating and dressing are inseparable from money. There are some old comrades-in-arms in the past who come to Beijing and always live in Li Zhen's house, and she takes great care of these old comrades, and before leaving, she has to pay for tickets, and even do her best to support their lives.
Because of this, when General Li Zhen died, when people were sorting out her relics, in addition to the 4 medals that recorded her outstanding military achievements, the other relics were so simple that they could be called "destitute" - 4 old rattan chairs that had been used for 15 years and were still reluctant to throw away; a marching box that had been used for 40 years and refused to be replaced; a single-door refrigerator with "snowflake" cards that had been used for 14 years; 11,000 yuan and 2,500 yuan of treasury bills.
Regarding this only savings, Li Zhen made proper arrangements in her will: part of it was donated to the Soong Ching Ling Children's Welfare Foundation, and part of it was donated to Gan Siqi's hometown of Ningxiang as a school subsidy.