In that turbulent era, countless benevolent people and patriotic heroes emerged, and Cai Yi was an outstanding representative of them. Cai Yi was one of the most famous generals in the Republic of China period, and the honor he received after his death was unprecedented, he was the first general in China to enjoy a state funeral.
Cai Yi was born in 1882 to a poor family of tailors in Shaoyang County, Baoqing Province, Hunan Province. Although the family is poor, but in order to make his son stand out, the family squeezed out money from the already small living expenses for him to attend private school, cai yi also lived up to his parents' expectations, at the age of 13, he was admitted to the Changsha Shiwu School, and Liang Qichao and Tan Si were in the same window.
At the age of 17, Cai Yi came to Japan to study, but a year later, Cai Yi could not wait to return to China to join the army and wanted to defend his family, but unfortunately, this time did not go as he wished, and then he came to Japan and entered the Army Non-Commissioned Officer School to study, Cai Yi returned to the motherland to open a school after graduation, with the intention of cultivating more promising people for China. In 1911, he was appointed governor of Yunnan, and after coming to Yunnan, he paid great attention to local economic construction, and the people also respected him, and was later awarded the rank of general of the army.
But unfortunately, Cai Yi died of illness at the age of 34 due to overwork. Cai Yi had four daughters and two sons, but two daughters unfortunately died at an early age, so Cai Yi actually had only two sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter, Cai Julian, was born in 1906 and settled in San Francisco with her husband in 1957 and became Chinese-American. The second daughter, named Cai Shulian, later married Zhou Jiazhu, gave birth to her first child at the age of 39, and lived until the beginning of the 21st century.
Cai Duan, the eldest son of Cai Yi, worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government after graduating from university, and the second son, Cai Yongning, worked at The Fudian Bank of Yunnan after graduating from university. After the fall of the Nationalist government, Cai Yi's family was confused about their future, and it happened that Mr. Zhu was sending people to find their whereabouts and take them all to Beijing. Because Mr. Zhu served as a brigade commander of the Dian Army during the Patriotic War, he was a former student and subordinate of General Cai Yi. With the help of Mr. Zhu, Cai Duan was assigned to guangming daily as an editor at the age of 84. Cai Yongning went to Work as a teacher in the Economics Department of Northeast Renmin University.