In the special period of ten years, the situation in Shanxi was very serious, and under the appointment of the superior, in 1967, the founding major general Xie Zhenhua served as the first secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and began to preside over the daily work of Shanxi. However, in 1974, at the behest of the Gang of Four, Xie Zhenhua was wrongly criticized, dismissed from his post, and imprisoned.
In 1980, his superiors transferred Huo Shilian to Shanxi and made him the secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee. After taking charge of Shanxi, Huo Shilian devoted himself to rectifying unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, and quickly investigated Xie Zhenhua's unjust case, and Xie Zhenhua was also completely rehabilitated.
Huo Shilian was born in 1909 in Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province, to a peasant family. In his early years, Huo Shilian studied at Xinxian Middle School, and in the process of reading, he came into contact with progressive ideas and began to participate in the student movement. After the September 18 Incident, Huo Shilian began to propagate anti-Japanese propaganda in his hometown and other places, which also made him attract the attention of the Kuomintang and was wanted, and Huo Shilian could only leave his hometown and go to the Beiping area to continue to engage in anti-Japanese propaganda.
After working in Beiping for a while, Huo Shilian was ordered to return to Shanxi, mainly engaged in underground work, and later because of the betrayal of traitors, Huo Shilian led the team to northern Shaanxi, and in 1936 arrived in yan'an, the holy land of revolution. Also in the year of arriving in Yan'an, Huo Shilian became a full party member, and then served as the secretary general of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Committee.
In 1938, Huo Shilian was sent to Shandong, participated in the battle to open up the Shandong base area, and served as the political commissar of the third detachment of the Shandong guerrilla detachment of the Eighth Route Army, active in the mountainous areas south of the Jiaoji Railway, carrying out guerrilla warfare, establishing base areas behind enemy lines, recruiting party members, containing the strength of the Japanese puppet army, making outstanding contributions to the establishment and development of the anti-Japanese base areas in the Luzhong region, and promoting the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. During the Liberation War, Huo Shilian continued to be active in East China, participating in large-scale battles such as the Battle of Laiwu and the Battle of Menglianggu, and was one of the heroes who created New China.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Huo Shilian was sent to Zhejiang, successively served as the director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, the secretary general of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government, etc. In 1952, he was appointed vice chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government (equivalent to vice governor), after which Huo Shilian worked in Zhejiang for a long time, making great contributions to the development of Zhejiang in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the improvement of the living standards of the people.
In 1965, Huo Shilian was transferred to Shaanxi Province and served as the first secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, and soon after, at the beginning of a special period of ten years, Huo Shilian was also wrongly criticized, but under the protection of Premier Zhou and others, Huo Shilian went to Beijing without being attacked. After 1970, Huo Shilian was sent back to Shaanxi and successively served as the secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee and the deputy director of the Shaanxi Revolutionary Committee.
In 1980, the superiors sent Huo Shilian to Shanxi, which coincided with the early stage of reform and opening up, and the leaders also had a profound meaning in sending Huo Shilian to Shanxi, mainly to let him implement the responsibility system for agricultural production and solve some problems in Shanxi. In fact, at that time, Huo Shilian's wife was already ill and was not suitable for long-distance migration, but Huo Shilian finally overcame difficulties and went to Shanxi to implement the tasks assigned by the leaders.
After arriving in Shanxi, Huo Shilian served as the first secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and presided over the local work in Shanxi. During his term of office, he quickly redressed the unjust case, and the typical representative of this was the complete rehabilitation of the Xie Zhenhua case, and after being rehabilitated, Xie Zhenhua was also reused, served as the political commissar of the Kunming Military Region, participated in and commanded the counterattack against Vietnamese self-defense, and safeguarded national sovereignty.
Speaking of Huo Shilian, Huo Shilian served as the first secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee for a total of three years, stepping down in 1983, after which he served as a member of the Central Advisory Committee and other positions, and died of illness in 1996 at the age of 87. It is worth mentioning that Huo Shilian has a daughter named Huo Ling, Who joined the army when she grew up, served as deputy chief engineer of a navy test base, and was awarded the rank of rear admiral in 2002, which is the second female general of our navy (the first is Xu Lili).