In 1991, Wang Zhen received a letter from his old subordinate Ma Xiliang, and as soon as he finished reading the first sentence of the opening, Wang Zhen was confused. It reads:
"Vice Chairman Wang Zhen, do you remember the 1,000 quintals of life-saving food back then?"
With doubts and confusion, Vice Chairman Wang Zhen carefully read the letter, and then sat down on a chair and slowly fell into memory.
So, what exactly is the story of the thousand-carton life-saving food that Ma Xiliang and Vice Chairman Wang Zhen said, and what kind of story is there in between?
Hundred battles general, made a difficult problem
All of this needs to start in 1945, when Chiang Kai-shek brazenly tore up the Double Tenth Agreement and launched an encirclement and suppression attack on the Liberated Areas. At that time, Wang Zhen, deputy commander of the Central Plains Military Region, led the 359th Brigade to launch a fierce battle with the enemy army, and General Wang Zhen, who had rich combat experience, successively commanded troops in Zaoyang and Shuanggou. The Tang River and other areas were victorious.
Later, after a short rest, Wang Zhen led his troops to the Huantan area, where the enemy was weak, in an attempt to break up the Kuomintang rule in the Huantan area. Unfortunately, it was a cold winter moon at this time, and heavy snow slowly drifted in the sky, which greatly affected the speed of the troops' march.
When they were about to reach the Huantan area, heavy snow blocked the way for the People's Liberation Army, and just at this time, the cooking squad leader in charge of logistics told Wang Zhen a bad news that the troops were going to run out of food.
Due to the cold weather, the soldiers' consumption of grain completely exceeded the original plan, and they marched in a hurry along the way, and the troops did not stop to replenish the grain, and originally planned to rush to Huantan to replenish the grain, but now even the road was sealed, and the cooking class could only tell General Wang Zhen of this news, hoping that General Wang Zhen would have some good way, otherwise in this snowy weather, the soldiers of the troops were likely to starve to death in the place where there was no village in front of them and no shops in the back.
For this news, General Wang Zhen was crying and laughing, and when it came to fighting, he could charge forward and be undaunted. But let him do logistics and get grain, which is a bit difficult for General Wang Zhen.
General Wang Zhen slightly stabilized his mood and asked the cooking squad leader: "How much grain is left in the troops now, and how many days can they last?" ”
The head of the cooking squad replied: "There are still a few sacks of rice and two bags of flour left, if you save some food, it is enough for the whole brigade to eat for two days, mainly because the weather is cold, the soldiers consume a lot, do not do some hot food, the soldiers can not resist." ”
Hearing the words of the cooking squad leader, General Wang Zhen rubbed his head in pain, and was scheduled to arrive in Huantan Town two days later. After listening to the report of the cooking class, General Wang Zhen could only tell him that the organization would find a way to solve it.
After taking the cooking squad leader away, General Wang Zhen hurriedly gathered the staff cadres and commanders at all levels of the unit, hoping to work together to find a solution.
Ten minutes later, all the personnel arrived, and General Wang Zhen informed them of the news that the troops had run out of food. After hearing the news, the officers who were still smiling were like frosted eggplants that fell in an instant. General Wang Zhen said: "Let's talk about it and see if there is any good way to raise military food for the troops."
After a moment of silence, one of the staff officers of the unit said, "Shall we go back and try to collect grain from the areas we have liberated?" ”
To this suggestion, Wang Zhen said: "Hmm, you want to die, although you retreat, the Kuomintang troops behind us are chasing and blocking us, maybe at this time we are full of food and drink waiting for us." ”
Another staff officer said: "Whether we can buy grain from the nearby county town, it is a big deal that we give them some money." ”
As a result, as soon as the staff officer finished speaking, someone retorted: "No, now that the Kuomintang troops occupy the surrounding counties, they will absolutely not allow grain to flow out." ”
Just when everyone's proposals were rejected one by one,
Guo Peng, commander of the 359th Brigade, said: "Otherwise, let's find help from local comrades and buy some grain from the hands of the villagers." ”
Brigadier Guo's proposal was endorsed by many comrades.
General Wang Zhen also felt that this was the most reliable method at present. So a group of people found Comrade Li Shi, who was the deputy commissioner of the Northern Hubei Bureau. After everyone told them, Li Shi said: The localities and the troops are one family, you have difficulties, we should lend a helping hand, you wait for two days, I will definitely bring you good news.
After accepting the commission of the troops, Li Shi quickly found the villagers in the nearby villages, and after door-to-door visits, Li Shi found that it was winter, and the villagers had no surplus grain in their hands, so far, only a few bags of flour had been bought. If these things are eaten by small households, they are barely enough. But for the troops, this behemoth, these things are completely insufficient.
Just after the setback in raising grain, Li Shi suddenly remembered a person, if he could get this person's help, then the food problem of the 359th Brigade would not be worried.
This person's name is Liao Youxiang, the richest man in the Huantan area, the family has a salt mine business mainly engaged in, in the Liao family village to build their own building castle, there are more than 5,000 tenants, such a large family will still lack food?
In addition, the Liao family has always maintained a neutral political stance, neither accepting the Kuomintang's offers nor favoring the Communist Party. As early as the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Liao family had dealt with Li Shi, actively participated in anti-Japanese activities on many occasions, and provided supply support for our party's anti-Japanese guerrillas. This time to liao mansion, as long as you explain your intentions, you want to come to the Liao family will not see death and not save.
What Li Shi did not expect was that Liao Youxiang's father and son were not at home, so li Shi pounced, and just when Li Shi fell into despair, Liao Youxiang's mother, Mrs. Liao, proposed to receive him.
After the two sides sat down, Li Shi took the initiative to say: "This time, there is a request for something, the comrades of the 359th Brigade of our People's Liberation Army have encountered some difficulties, the troops have run out of grain, and they hope to borrow some grain from your government." Rest assured, we can make an IOU and we'll get it afterwards."
Mrs. Liao responded: "When fighting devils, our Liao family is not ambiguous, which is obvious to all. After all, this guy is no better than the Japanese devil, but the old man has a reluctant request, hoping that when your party liberates all of China, please don't treat the descendants of my Liao family badly. ”
Li Shi said: "The Liao family is a patriotic and reasonable family, which is different from the landlords who oppressed the peasants that our party cracked down on, and you can rest assured that our party will certainly not treat the Liao family badly." ”
Old Lady Liao asked, "Well, you see how much grain you need, I'll let the housekeeper take you to the warehouse to move."
Li Shi replied, "A thousand cartons, a thousand cartons of grain is enough, you wait, I will write you an IOU." ”
Mrs. Liao waved a large pen and said: "It will soon be the New Year, how can the troops eat grain in the university, slaughter more pigs, let the troops eat well, and have the strength to fight Chiang Kai-shek." ”
subsequently
Li Shi led the Liao family's transport team to carry a thousand quintals of grain and a dozen slaughtered fat pigs to the troop garrison, and before leaving, the old lady burned Li Shi's handwritten IOUs and said to Li Shi: "These grains should be given to the troops by the Liao family, and there is no need to pay them back." ”
This batch of life-saving food finally saved the soldiers of the 359th Brigade and let them survive a cold winter, and many soldiers later thanked the Liao family for their helping hands.
Suddenly change, ask for help
But how did this matter relate to Marshlian?
This brings us to Maherian's identity.
Ma Xiliang, whose original name was Ma Xing, was a standard literati. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Ma Helian gave up his pen to join the army, when Ma Helian enlisted in the army was the 359th Brigade, and in the army, Ma Helian still used the pen as a knife to write a first article propagating the red ideas, which was published in revolutionary publications, for which Ma Helian was also named "the unit writer of the 359th Brigade" by his comrades-in-arms. Even later, even Wang Zhen learned of Ma Xiliang's deeds.
During the Liberation War, Ma Xiliang served as a cadre in the 359th Brigade, so he was well aware of the story of the Liao family's donation of grain. Years later, Ma Helian also specially wrote this story into an article, published in military history journals, and caused widespread influence.
In 1990, the descendants of the Liao family approached Ma Xiliang, hoping to get his help. At that time, Ma Xiliang learned that after the death of Mrs. Liao, the Kuomintang reactionaries had extorted and extorted the Liao family in the name of "being close to the Communist Party", resulting in the looting of the Liao family's property.
After the Huantan area was liberated, the Liao family also had a good life, but during the suppression of the counter-revolutionary movement, because the ancestors were landlords, Liao Fuchu, a descendant of the Liao family, was sentenced to prison as a landlord young master. It was not until forty years later, when Liao Fuchu was released for doing well in prison.
After his release from prison, Liao Fuchu was sent back to his hometown of Liao in Huantan Town. However, his wife and children were already living in Wuhan, and the elderly Liao Fuchu wanted to go to Wuhan to reunite with his family, but was told that he could not go to Wuhan to settle down because of his hukou, otherwise he would become a black household in Wuhan and be repatriated.
Liao Fuchu took the initiative to ask the government for help, but no one could help him solve the problem. During this period, Liao Fuchu also asked the court to rehabilitate the case, but the local court also rejected his request on the grounds that the case was correct.
Just when Liao Fuchu fell into despair, he inadvertently saw Ma Helian's article, so Liao Fuchu wrote a letter of help to Ma Xiliang with the mentality of trying it out. After learning about Liao Fuchu's affairs, Ma Xiliang took the initiative to visit Liao's family and transferred his savings to Liao Fuchu in the name of "government relief funds".
Ma Xiliang knew that in order to solve the problem fundamentally, it was necessary to first help Liao Fuchu restore his reputation, but Comrade Li Shi, who had gone to Liao's house to borrow grain, had died, and Old Mrs. Liao had also died, and the IOU was even less burned, and only he alone testified in court.
So the opening scene occurred, Ma Xiliang wrote a letter to the old chief Wang Zhen for many years, and told the liao family about it. After Vice Chairman Wang Zhen learned of this incident, he immediately ordered a thorough investigation of Liao Fuchu's case and the rehabilitation of the Liao family, and it was imperative not to chill those who had supported the revolutionary cause.
At the same time, when the court re-examined the case file, in addition to Wang Zhen and Ma Xiliang, a number of military cadres who had held positions in the 359th Brigade wrote letters expressing their willingness to help Liao Fuchu testify in court.
At the end of 1991, after more than forty years of grievances, they were finally washed away. At the moment of receiving the court's acquittal verdict, Liao Fuchu burst into tears with excitement. In order to compensate for the grievances suffered by Liao Fuchu over the years, the state compensated him financially.
As the saying goes, good people have good rewards, and the contribution of the Liao family to the Chinese revolution will not be forgotten, even after experiencing changes in the times, this group of soldiers who have been helped by Mrs. Liao do not dare to forget the kindness of the past. Just like the slogan of the People's Liberation Army at that time, "The military and the people are one family, the military and the people are fish and the water situation", they always remember to help their people.