Many of the founding generals joined the revolution very early, and many of them did not return to their hometowns for a long time due to the tension of the war and busy work. For example, the founding general Chen Xilian joined the Red Army at the age of 14 and did not have the opportunity to return to his hometown until 1953; for example, the founding major general You Taizhong, who joined the Red Army at the age of 13, returned to his hometown after nearly 30 years of absence in 1959.
Another founding major general, Yi Yaocai, is in a similar situation to Chen Xilian and You Taizhong, and he has the opportunity to return to his hometown after more than 20 years away from home, but his story is more legendary than That of Chen Xilian and You Taizhong. In late July 1953, General Yi Yaocai, then commander of the Navy's Qingdao base, received orders from his superiors to study at the Voroshilov Naval Academy in the Soviet Union. Before leaving, his superiors gave Yi Yaocai a month's leave to prepare and handle personal affairs.
Founding Major General Yi Yaocai
After dealing with the matter at hand, Yi Yaocai decided to take his wife Fan Jingyang back to his hometown where he had been away for 24 years to pay tribute to his parents. Yi Yaocai is a native of Taihe, Jiangxi, born in 1917, his father farms for a living, when he is idle, he goes out to do some small business to subsidize the family, and his mother takes care of housework at home. In the spring of 1928, when Yi Yaocai was 11 years old, his father made the decision to set him a doll kiss, the woman's name was Zhang Feng'e, and the age was the same as Yi Yaocai.
Unexpectedly, half a year later, Zhang Feng'e's parents both died of illness, and she suddenly became an orphan. When Yi Yaocai's parents saw the situation, they took Zhang Feng'e to their home, treated her like their own daughter, and planned to marry them in a few years. In 1929, the Red Army guerrillas came to Taihe, and many villages established agricultural cooperatives, and Yi Yaocai and his parents became members of the agricultural cooperatives. Soon after, the Red Army attacked the county seat of Taihe, and Yi Yaocai and his father also participated in the battle, delivering food, ammunition, and transporting the wounded to the Red Army.
Due to the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, the Red Army was eventually unable to capture the county seat and was forced to retreat. The enemy immediately launched a frenzied retaliation, many members of the agricultural cooperative were arrested and killed, and Yi Yaocai's parents were unfortunately killed. Yi Yaocai was lucky to escape the disaster because he was herding cattle in the mountains at that time. After learning the news of his parents' murder, Yi Yaocai was sad and indignant, but his twelve- and thirteen-year-old child obviously could not avenge his parents, so he decided to go to the Red Army.
After a hard journey, Yi Yaocai finally found the Red Army team and became a red ghost, when he was only 13 years old. After that, Yi Yaocai followed the troops around, never had the opportunity to return to her hometown, and lost the news of Zhang Feng'e, Yi Yaocai thought that she was likely to be killed by the enemy like her parents. Due to his bravery in battle and many meritorious achievements, Yi Yaocai soon grew from an ordinary Red Army soldier to a company instructor.
After the defeat of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the main force of the Red Army was forced to march on a long march, and Yi Yaocai followed the troops all the way to battle, climbing snowy mountains and crossing meadows, and reaching northern Shaanxi through hardships and dangers. Soon after the Outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yi Yaocai entered the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, serving as battalion commander, regimental commander and chief of staff of the military sub-district. During this period, Yi Yaocai, who believed that Zhang Feng'e had long been killed by the enemy, married Fan Jingyang, a female soldier of the Eighth Route Army. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yi Yaocai participated in the Liberation War and served as the brigade commander of the 3rd Column 8 Brigade of the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army.
Under the leadership of Yi Yaocai, the 8th Brigade soon became the first-class main force of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region. In the Battle of Qingfengdian, the 8th Brigade was ordered to block the enemy's reinforcements, and Yi Yaocai led his troops to fight hard for 7 days and nights, repelling dozens of charges of the enemy's 94th Army, and making an extremely important contribution to the total annihilation of Luo Lirong's 3rd Army. Just after the Battle of Qingfengdian, Yi Yaocai led the 8th Brigade to participate in the campaign to liberate Shijiazhuang. At that time, Shijiazhuang was one of the key strategic points in North China, and the enemy was heavily armed and fortified, with three lines of defense: the outer city ditch, the inner city ditch, and the core fortifications. Liu Ying, commander of the enemy's garrison and commander of the 32nd Division, said that "with the Shijiazhuang fortifications, the Nationalist army can sit for three years."
After the battle began, our attacking troops cleared the enemy's outer fortifications in only three days, and then occupied the outer city ditch, directly approaching the enemy's core fortification inner city ditch. The superior entrusted the task of conquering the inner city ditch to the 8th Brigade, and as a result, the 23rd Regiment of the 8th Brigade tore open three breakthroughs in the enemy's defensive line in only 6 minutes, and the main force of the brigade immediately launched an all-out attack on the enemy, quickly breaking into the city and destroying the remnants of the enemy after fierce street battles. Yang Chengwu, who was the second political commissar of the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army after the war, said: "In the Battle of Shijiazhuang, all the units fought bravely, and the 3rd Column and 8th Brigade were particularly outstanding. ”
After that, Yi Yaocai successively served as the deputy commander of the 3rd Column and the deputy commander of the 63rd Army, and after the founding of New China, he served as the commander of the Qingdao Base of the Navy. In July 1953, Yi Yaocai received orders from his superiors to send him to the Soviet Union to study and gave him a month's leave to deal with personal affairs. From joining the Red Army in 1929 to the present, Yi Yaocai has not returned to his hometown for 24 years. He decided to use this rare holiday to return to his hometown to pay tribute to his parents.
One day in early August 1953, Yi Yaocai took his wife Fan Jingyang and Returned to his hometown of Taihe County. After 24 years away from his hometown, Yi Yaocai believes that his old house must have been dilapidated. Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the house, he found that the inside and outside were well packed and very tidy, and there was a woman of nearly 40 years old living in the house. Yi Yaocai also thought that he had gone to the wrong place, but the woman recognized him at a glance. So who is this woman? She is Zhang Feng'e.
When the enemy entered the village to take revenge, Zhang Feng'e was hidden in her own cellar by a kind neighbor, so she survived. After the enemy left, Zhang Feng'e took care of the aftermath of Yi Yaocai's parents with the help of the villagers. After that, she inquired about Yi Yaocai's whereabouts in many ways, but there has been no news. Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, Zhang Feng'e was already a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl. Many people advised her not to wait for Yi Yaocai anymore and find a good family to marry, but Zhang Feng'e firmly believed that Yi Yaocai was still alive and thought that he would definitely come back to find herself, so she stayed in Yi Yaocai's home and did not remarry.
Zhang Feng'e did not expect that this wait would be 24 years. Now the person she had been thinking about day and night suddenly appeared in front of her, and she was both happy and sad. The happy thing is that his sweetheart is not only alive but also a high official, and sad that he already has a wife, and he and he can no longer be reunited. Yi Yaocai did not expect that Zhang Feng'e had escaped the persecution of the enemy and waited for herself in her hometown for 24 years. In the face of such an infatuated Zhang Feng'e, Yi Yaocai was both touched and guilty, but the matter was over, and no one could change it anymore. All he could do was to do his best to provide material help to Zhang Feng'e and make her live a better life.
Yi Yaocai and Fan Jingyang
Yi Yaocai's wife, Fan Jingyang, knows Dali and admires and sympathizes with Zhang Feng'e, and gives her a lot of help in life. In 1990, General Yi Yaocai died at the age of 73, and half of his ashes were sprinkled in the waters of Qingdao, and the other half was sent back to his hometown to be buried with his mother. After the death of her husband, Fan Jingyang still sent money and goods to Zhang Feng'e on time every year. Six years later, Zhang Feng'e also died, and before she died, she made a request that she be buried next to Yi Yaocai. Fan Jingyang very generously agreed to this request, and finally buried her and General Yi Yaocai together, fulfilling Zhang Feng'e's long-cherished wish.