For the sake of the Chinese revolution, countless revolutionary heroes left their hometowns and relatives and rushed to the revolutionary battlefield. Revolutionary heroes were able to exert their blood and build their merits on the battlefield without the silent support of their families. The heroic family members endured the pain of separation from their loved ones and took on the heavy responsibilities of the family.
In a period when reactionaries are rampant, the families of heroes will also face the danger of persecution for their lives. In order to escape persecution, they had to live a very hard life away from home, in anonymity. They are as great as revolutionary heroes who fight on the battlefield.
Zhu Ximing, the wife of the founding general Xu Shiyou, was such a great person.
Married to Xu Shiyou
Xu Shiyou is a very legendary figure. He was born in 1906 to a poor rural family in Xujiapo, Macheng County, Hubei Province. In the feudal era, there was no concept of family planning, and people believed in having many children and many blessings. Therefore, Xu Shiyou's mother gave birth to eight children successively.
In the era of lack of materials and low medical care, the health of adults is facing great challenges, let alone babies. In such an environment, Xu Shiyou's father died of illness, and other brothers and sisters also died prematurely, only he successfully grew up.
Xu Shiyou and his mother depend on each other for their lives. However, the poverty of the family has always been difficult to improve. In order to survive, her mother sent Xu Shiyou, who was only 8 years old, to the Shaolin Temple. In the Shaolin Temple, after doing the chores that must be done every day, Xu Shiyou followed the martial monks to learn Shaolin Kung Fu in his spare time.
After spending eight years in the Shaolin Temple, Xu Shiyou returned to his hometown of Macheng, Hubei Province. Soon after, he became involved in the local peasant movement and became a small and accomplished captain.
At the same time, the mother is also preparing for her son's marriage. Because of his handsome appearance and tall body, Xu Shiyou is a beautiful local man. Soon, his marriage was settled.
In 1923, a matchmaker from the village came to the Xu family and told Xu's mother that a family in a neighboring village surnamed Zhu was willing to marry their daughter to Xu Shiyou. This year, the zhu family's girls Zhu Ximing was twenty-three years old, and Xu Shiyou was nineteen years old.
Zhu Ximing is very prominent, ideologically advanced, often participates in the work of aiding women, and is a very famous local woman. Xu Shiyou and Xu Mu were very satisfied with the marriage. So the two families decided to kiss and decided to have a wedding the following year.
On the eighth day of the third lunar month in 1924, Xu Shiyou and Zhu Ximing held an old-fashioned wedding. Zhu Ximing officially became Xu Shiyou's wife.
Son Black Man
Because Xu Shiyou was concerned about the revolution, on the third day after his marriage, he left home to continue to participate in the revolution. In the years that followed, Zhu Ximing and Xu Shiyou gathered less and left more.
Despite this, Zhu Ximing was very supportive of her husband Xu Shiyou's revolutionary work. She and her mother-in-law often helped soldiers fighting on the front line make military shoes, clothes and other military supplies at home. She even went so far as to join the local laundry team to the front line to help the fighters.
Over the years of marriage, Zhu Ximing gave birth to three sons for Xu Shiyou. It is very unfortunate that only the last child survived.
When Zhu Ximing gave birth to his first son, Xu Shiyou was participating in the revolution and could not rush back. Because they had not read the book, after the child was born, Zhu Ximing and Xu Mu did not know what name to give the child.
Seeing that his newborn son had darker skin, Zhu Ximing decided to give his son a milk name "Black Man" first, and then give him a big name after her husband returned. However, he did not get his father to return and give him a big name, and The Black Man died prematurely.
Two years later, Zhu Ximing gave birth to a second son. This time, Xu Shiyou was still not at home. Because of his longing for his eldest son who died prematurely, Zhu Ximing gave the nickname "Black Man" to his second son. Unfortunately, the second son also died shortly after birth.
On the seventh day of the fourth lunar month in 1929, Zhu Ximing gave birth to his third son. This son's nickname is also called "Black Man". The first two sons died shortly after birth, and Xu Shiyou was unable to meet them. After the birth of his third son, Xu Shiyou rushed back in a hurry. However, not long after staying, Xu Shiyou left home again.
In 1932, when his son Hei Ling was three years old, Xu Shiyou once again hurriedly returned to his second home. At that time, the Kuomintang reactionaries were launching a very fierce fourth "great encirclement and suppression" against the Red Army. After Xu Shiyou saw his wife and son, he left in a hurry.
After that, the Red Army began the Long March. Xu Shiyou followed the army on a long march. In order to escape the persecution of the red army family by the reactionaries, Zhu Ximing had to leave his hometown with Xu's mother and son.
"Forced" to remarry
Zhu Ximing, Xu Mother and son are dependent on each other. All along, Xu Mu has been a mother-in-law who understands the great righteousness. She knew that the separation of her son and daughter-in-law this time, the chance of seeing each other again was very slim. Moreover, the son's work is very dangerous, and he may be sacrificed at any time.
Because of his son, daughter-in-law Zhu Ximing has already suffered a lot. Therefore, she persuaded Zhu Ximing to find someone to remarry while he was still young. Hearing this proposal from his mother-in-law, Zhu Ximing was deeply moved.
But Zhu Ximing is also a very affectionate person, and she is not willing to abandon her elderly mother-in-law and son and refuse to remarry. For the sake of Zhu Ximing's future, Xu Mu persuaded her many times, and finally even forced her very severely, before zhu Ximing agreed to remarry.
Therefore, Zhu Ximing remarried to a local peasant man named Xia Changwen, and his son Hei Ling was raised by Xu Mu. After remarrying, Zhu Ximing did not have any more children. She still often returns to the Xu family and helps Xu's mother with housework.
Even though she is no longer the daughter-in-law of the Xu family, Zhu Ximing still treats Mother Xu as his mother-in-law. For many years, Xu Mu and Zhu Ximing had not heard from Xu Shiyou, and they thought that Xu Shiyou had died.
In 1949, the joy of the founding of New China spread throughout the land of China. At the same time, Zhu Ximing and Xu Mu learned the same exciting news: Xu Shiyou was still alive. At this time, Xu Shiyou was the commander of the Shandong Military Region. They also know that Xu Shiyou also has a new wife.
In order to fulfill his filial piety, after Xu Shiyou learned of his mother's whereabouts, he took Xu's mother and son Hei Ling to Shandong. However, in order not to disturb her son's work, soon after, Xu Mu returned to the countryside again with the black man.
After that, Zhu Ximing and Xu Mu lived together. Under the care of Zhu Ximing, Xu Mu lived to be more than eighty years old.
Because he has been doing very hard farm work for a long time, Zhu Ximing's health has not been very good. Shortly after Xu Mu's death, in November 1965, Zhu Ximing, who was only sixty-four years old, also died.
Because before Xu Mu died, she left a last word to her grandson Hei Ling: even if Zhu Ximing remarried, she was still a member of the Xu family. After Zhu Ximing died, he wanted to bury her in the ancestral grave of the Xu family. Eventually, Zhu Ximing entered the ancestral tomb of the Xu family.
Over the years, Zhu Ximing and Xu Mu have supported each other through one difficulty after another. The two are not mother and daughter, but like mother and daughter.