Speaking of female generals in Chinese history, we can think of not many people, because the generals who lead troops to fight are mainly men, and female generals rarely appear.
For example, Liang Hongyu, the wife of the famous Southern Song Dynasty general Han Shizhong, although she was born as a prostitute, but at the time of national crisis, together with her husband Han Shizhong, with an absolutely weak force, blocked the Jin soldiers for more than forty days, and was later named Lady Yang Guo.
In the modern revolutionary period, there was a female general who was as tragic as Liang Hongyu's origin, she was originally a child bride, she was bullied and beaten in her husband's family, and then she joined the revolution and made great military achievements, and finally in the 1955 award ceremony, she was awarded the rank of major general and became the first female general in New China, her name was Li Zhen.
In 1955, Li Zhen, who had achieved fame, took time to return home to visit his relatives and came to his hometown where he had been separated for many years. After the fathers and villagers in the village saw Li Zhen, they went out to greet her and greeted her warmly. Li Zhen was in the crowd and saw her first husband, Gu San.
Li Zhen
Gu San was outside the crowd, and instead of surrounding Li Zhen like the others, he stood alone and looked very flustered. After Li Zhen recognized Gu San, she remembered her experience of being a child bride in the Gu family, being bullied and whipped, and now that she is a major general of the Republic, how will she treat her first husband who once bullied her?
Li Zhen, who had an unhappy childhood
Li Zhen was born in a poor family in Liuyang County, Hunan Province, where her parents had six daughters.
When Li Zhen was six years old, her father died of illness, and her mother raised six children alone, the pressure was too great, in order to keep her children alive, six-year-old Li Zhen was sent to the Gu family next door as a child bridesmaid.
Li Zhen is a large local family, and the family has some assets, but the elders in the family are mean and vicious. Li Zhen went to the Gu family as a child bride not only failed to live a good life, but also was beaten all day, trained, and could not finish the work.
Stills of the child bridesmaids
After coming to the Gu family, Li Zhen became the child adoptive daughter-in-law of the third oldest of the Gu family, although she was a child adoptive daughter-in-law, Li Zhen lived like a cow, and was arranged by the Gu family to do various jobs since she was a child.
At that time, Li Zhen was not yet ten years old, and the heavy work in the family was basically all wrapped up for her, and the Gu family themselves pulled a brisk.
In the Gu family, Li Zhen not only needed to chop firewood, wash clothes, and cook every day, but also accompanied the Gu family's gang of "young masters and young grandmothers" to play, often being ridden on the ground by the children of the Gu family, as long as Li Zhen could not climb, they also picked up the whip from time to time to smoke her.
Since the parents and sisters of the Gu family bullied her and tortured her, Li Zhen only hoped that her husband Gu San could maintain her and protect her, but Gu San bullied her even more, as long as Li Zhen did not satisfy him at all, he punched and kicked her and beat Li Zhen with injuries.
Such a day could not be passed, Li Zhen once thought about committing suicide, but she could not rest assured of her sisters and mother in her family, and other elderly people in the village also took pity on her, and advised Li Zhen not to do stupid things.
During the Great Revolution, Li Zhen came into contact with revolutionary ideas and resonated with her heart, and she felt that only revolution could save herself and find a way out for herself.
Therefore, whenever there was a revolutionary movement, Li Zhen would run out of the house to secretly participate, and when she came and went, she was discovered by the Gu family, and she was beaten severely.
In order to make Li Zhen accept her heart, the 15-year-old was forcibly married by the Gu family and married to Gu San. After marriage, Gu Gusan not only failed to treat her well, but bullied her even more than before, and he could not move to get angry with Li Zhen, and being beaten and scolded became Li Zhen's daily life.
Having lived enough of this kind of life, Li Zhen desperately wanted a revolution and saved her destiny. Finally, in 1926, After careful planning, Li Zhen escaped from the ancient family and joined the revolution.
The revolution was successful, and Li Zhen was awarded the rank of major general
After participating in the revolution, Li Zhen concealed the Gu family and joined the Communist Party, and the Gu family was afraid of getting into trouble, so Gu San wrote a letter of resignation and put Li Zhen on leave. This was something that Li Zhen couldn't ask for, so that she no longer had a relationship with the Gu family and was free herself.
Although he was free, the road to revolution was very dangerous, and Li Zhen almost died several times. In guerrilla warfare, although Li Zhen was a woman, her performance made many men ashamed of themselves, and they praised Li Zhen for not only fighting fiercely, but also having strategy.
In the revolutionary ranks, Li Zhen met a man he liked, his name was Zhang Qilong, and like Li Zhen, he was also a Communist Party member. Li Zhen once risked saving Zhang Qilong's life, and Zhang Qilong also liked Li Zhen, and the two married under the witness of the warriors.
In 1933, Zhang Qilong was ruthlessly attacked by the wrong line, he did not want to involve his wife Li Zhen, and in desperation, he chose to divorce his wife Li Zhen, which was a kind of protection for his wife Li Zhen.
Originally, Li Zhen was ready to advance and retreat with him, but Zhang Qilong had a resolute attitude and wrote a divorce agreement.
Zhang Qilong
In this way, the relationship between Li Zhen and Zhang Qilong came to an end.
After the divorce, Li Zhen temporarily put aside her feelings and threw herself into the revolutionary ranks, because of her low level of education, Li Zhen first came to the Yan'an Party School to study for two years, and then was sent by his superiors to work in the Xianggan Su District, where Li Zhen, who performed well, was appointed as the director of the organization department of the Hunan Provincial Military Region and became a middle and senior cadre who was a member of our party.
In the revolutionary ranks, Li Zhen worked and forgot to eat, without the slightest consideration of personal problems, which made Ren Bishi's wife Chen Chunying look a little anxious, seeing that Li Zhen was getting older and older, and it was time to introduce her to a good family affair.
Ren Bishi couple
Chen Chunying introduced to Li Zhen a very good communist, Gan Siqi, who was Li Zhen's immediate superior, who not only knew how to fight, but was also very cultured, had studied abroad, and was an all-rounder among the Communist Party members who could write and fight.
Hearing that the object that Chen Chunying wanted to introduce to herself was Gan Siqi, Li Zhen thought that she was joking with herself and smiled at her. Because Gan Siqi not only has culture, but also has a lot of skills, how could he look up to me, a rural girl from a child bridesmaid?
Chen Chunying saw that Li Zhen had no confidence in herself and told her Gan Siqi's evaluation of Li Zhen to her face. Gan Siqi said:
"Li Zhen has a solid style, is spicy and capable, loyal to the party, and is a great female comrade!"
Hearing that Gan Siqi said this about herself, Li Zhen was very happy, and she was recognized by her superiors. Under the mediation of matchmaker Chen Chunying, Gan Siqi finally married Li Zhengui, and the two married each other, supporting and taking care of each other on the road of revolution, and the relationship was very good.
Women often experience more hardship than men to participate in the revolution, because of physiological reasons, women have many inconveniences in many places, especially during the Long March, Li Zhen was pregnant and walked through the Long March with her stomach up, experienced countless dangers, and it is already a miracle to survive.
In 1955, the first conferment ceremony was held in New China, Gan Siqi was awarded the rank of general, Li Zhen was awarded the rank of major general, it is worth mentioning that Li Zhen was the first female major general in New China, and this honor is enough to show that Li Zhen is excellent in the revolutionary ranks.
Returning home to visit relatives meets the ancient three
In her revolutionary career of more than ten years, it has not been easy along the way, and Li Zhen has experienced countless dangers and overcome countless difficulties. In 1955, Li Zhen took her husband back to her hometown where she had been away for many years.
This time, Li Zhen was full of honors, as the founding major general of the republic, Li Zhen can be said to have his own aura and became the object of admiration of the people.
The local government knew the news that Li Zhen wanted to return to her hometown in advance, and when she heard that Li Zhen was going to return to her hometown to visit her relatives, the people in the village were very happy, and everyone wanted to witness this female general of the republic with their own eyes. But the only one person who was very afraid was the Ancient Three.
There was a reason why Gu San was afraid, because before Li Zhen did not participate in the revolution, as Li Zhen's husband, he was all kinds of punches and kicks to Li Zhen, and did not let her live a good day, and now that Li Zhen has returned, he must remember the events of that year.
Thinking of this, Gu Gu San was sleepless, there was no drowsiness at night, he was worried that as long as Li Zhen came, he would be arrested, thinking about what he had done to her, he felt that he was hiding, not hiding was not, and he was afraid that there would be no good end.
Gu San wanted to live, he took the initiative to find the village cadres before Li Zhen came, confessed to him what had happened before, hoped that the village cadres could speak for themselves and save him, saying that Gu San was very excited and begged the village secretary to stick him.
Seeing that the ancient three still had that kind of traditional feudal thinking, the village secretary couldn't help but smile bitterly, knowing why did he have to do so in the first place? However, the village secretary still told the truth to Gu San:
"Now that the sky has changed, the old set is not happy, Li Zhen is such a big official, she can't afford to worry about you."
Listening to the village secretary say this, Gu San felt that there was some truth, but he still couldn't rest assured, and the stone in his heart still hadn't landed. The day Li Zhen came to the village, Gu San looked at his ex-wife from a distance, and his heart was very panicked.
Li Zhen also saw the Ancient Three on the outskirts of the crowd, but did not go out of his way to greet him, afraid that the pressure on the Ancient Three was too great, and did not look for him alone. Until a few days later, Li Zhen and her husband Gan Siqi returned to the city to work, and before leaving, they deliberately asked the village secretary to bring a word to Gu Gusan.
Li Zhen said: "Now that everything has passed, we are moving towards a new era. “
When Gu Gu San learned that Li Zhen had said this himself, a stone in his heart had landed on the ground, and he could finally sleep peacefully and no longer had to worry about it.
Speaking of which, Li Zhen's ability to go to the revolution is inseparable from the exploitation of her by the Gu family, and without the Gu family forcing her into a desperate situation, Li Zhen may not necessarily participate in the revolution, so most of the poor people are forced to participate in the revolution, and no one is a natural "rebel.".
epilogue
In her later years, Li Zhen and her husband were very affectionate, because of the multiple miscarriages during the revolutionary period, Li Zhen could no longer get pregnant, and she liked children and had a kind heart, funded more than twenty orphans, and used practical actions to help those orphans without parents.
Li Zhen and his wife
As the first female general of New China, Li Zhen carried her own aura and was admired by countless people. But her simple style of life and kind heart allow us to really see the other side of this female general.
In her later years, Li Zhen has been living in a small broken room, she is committed to public welfare, before her death, she made a will, all her property was donated to the children's education. From Li Zhen, we can see the fine disposition of an excellent Communist Party member, she is kind, simple, and worthy of everyone's respect and love.