One day in the winter of 1981, heavy snow fell in Hong'an County, Huanggang, Hubei Province. It was about to get dark, and a majestic old man of about seventy years old, wearing the uniform of a senior officer, with a cold breath, strode back to the county party committee guest house, followed by a middle-aged man who looked like a subordinate.
After returning to the room, the old man who had just returned from visiting relatives in the countryside did not rest for a second, nor did he drink hot water to warm up, and immediately picked up the phone and said to the operator at that end: "Comrade Trouble help me take over the Lanzhou Military Region." ”
After waiting for a while, the phone was connected, and the old man said directly: "Pass on my order..."
After hanging up the phone, the secretary next to him said cautiously: "Don't worry, the military district is so far away from here, it will definitely take some time." ”
Who knew that after the old man listened, two lines of tears actually flowed on his face: "How can I not be in a hurry, I should have done this a long time ago!" ”
The old man's identity does not seem to be low, what happened when he returned to his hometown to visit his relatives, let him call the military district immediately after he finished and give orders? What are the orders given by the old man? Why does the old man seem to regret that he didn't do it earlier?
General Han who worries about his hometown
The old man was General Han Xianchu, an outstanding military figure on the mainland and an army general, who had been serving as commander of the Lanzhou Military Region since December 1973. Hong'an County, Huanggang, Hubei Province, is General Han's hometown, and one of the scenes in the above story takes place after General Han returned to his hometown to visit his relatives.
General Han Xianchu
General Han Xianchu grew up in the rain of bullets and bullets in the revolutionary war, and his fighting style was brave and fierce, and he made many military achievements for the Communist Party of China and New China. However, no matter how much General Han has made in battle and no matter how big the officials have done, he is always worried about his hometown in his heart.
In 1930, when General Han Xianchu was only 17 years old, he resolutely chose to join the army and join the army and threw himself into the revolutionary journey. In 1934, due to the situation at that time, General Han left his hometown with his troops, and it was not until 15 years later, that is, in 1949, that he returned to his hometown for the first time.
At that time, General Han Xianchu had already made many military achievements, and served as the deputy commander of the 12th Corps, leading the army to the south to liberate Wuhan. Taking advantage of this opportunity, General Han stopped by and returned to his hometown of Hong'an, which had been separated for a long time.
To the west of Hong'an County is a small town surrounded by dense woods, ShangxinJi Town, which is the hometown of General Han Xianchu. Standing at the mouth of the village that had not been set foot in fifteen years, the familiarity in General Han's heart came over him. The land under his feet and the rural sounds of the streets are all hometowns engraved in General Han's memory.
After returning to his hometown, the arrival of General Han soon alarmed the entire village. The villagers cordially stepped forward to greet them, and many of their childhood acquaintances recognized General Han from a long distance away, but their eyes revealed incredulity. They spoke in the same rural voice as when they were young, greeting General Han, who also responded in a rural tone and called out their nicknames.
After reminiscing about the past, General Han suddenly smiled and asked, "Why don't you see this guy Haizhou?" I still owe him a few buckets of rice! ”
The villagers did not expect that the general could still remember this chen sesame thing, and they all laughed and quipped: "How many years have passed since this, how can you still remember it?" ”
General Han Xianchu suddenly straightened his face in response to this: "I can't forget, the troops have regulations, you can't take the things of the common people, and if you borrow them, you will definitely have to pay them back." ”
In the middle of this conversation between you and me, someone has already found Wu Haizhou. He had been working in the fields, not knowing that General Han had returned, and as soon as he heard the situation explained by his fellow villagers, he immediately put down the work at hand and came over.
Han Xianchu in his youth
"Brother Xianchu, you're back!" Before anyone could walk in, Wu Haizhou's voice came over. When the villagers heard this, they gave him a way to walk to General Han Xianchu's place. Only to see the two people shake hands vigorously, and when they let go, Wu Haizhou couldn't help but look at this childhood friend who had not been seen for many years.
The thin teenager in his memory and the mighty and strong soldier in front of him gradually coincided, and Wu Haizhou couldn't help but boast: "Look how energetic you are in this military uniform!" At that time, I said that a few children in our village can become a big instrument if you look at it, how, I can say it correctly! ”
General Han Xianchu laughed heartily, waved his hand modestly, and then took out three pens from his clothes pocket and handed them to Wu Haizhou: "Brother Haizhou, I just heard from the villagers that you are now the father of the three babies, and these three pens should be a little bit of my uncle's intention, give the babies to go to school, let them study hard, and they will definitely be more successful than me in the future!" ”
Wu Haizhou repeatedly refused to accept this. General Han pretended to be angry: "Just when I repaid the four buckets of grain that I borrowed from you, why do you still want me to always owe you?" ”
Wu Haizhou accepted this, but then said: "Okay, then it will be offset, but you let me keep that IOU, it has your signature on it, let me leave a thought!" ”
In this way, Wu Haizhou always put this IOU in an important place in his home, and later took this IOU to tell his son and grandson about his childhood friendship with General Han Xianchu, into the revolutionary story of General Han, and about General Han's personality.
Second homecoming visit
In 1975, twenty-six years after returning to his hometown for the first time, General Han Xianchu once again returned to Hong'an County, visiting his fathers and fellow villagers door to door and chatting with the villagers about their daily routines, in fact, he wanted to understand the current life of the villagers.
After turning around a few homes, General Han Xianchu came to the home of his fellow min Yongjin. Min Yongjin's family was very happy and welcoming for the arrival of General Han, and their welcome was very simple and realistic, and they were ready to slaughter an old hen to entertain.
However, General Han waved his hand and refused, he smiled and said to the family: "Don't be so solemn, I just haven't come back for many years, I want everyone to come and see, you can still lay eggs with chickens, don't kill for me, otherwise I won't want to go." ”
Such a remark was very intimate, which made Min Yongjin's family feel warm, and their hearts were close to General Han a lot. According to General Han's wishes, they only cooked some daily light meals, but General Han ate with relish.
However, this meal still made General Han see something wrong. At this time, it has been almost thirty years since the founding of New China, and the domestic economic level is much better than before, but the villagers here still look the same as before, either lack of oil or salt, and the basic problem of eating cannot be guaranteed.
Thinking so in his heart, General Han also asked it. Who knows this question, but also really asked a lot of situations, summed up is that the life of the villagers in Hong'an County is indeed difficult. General Han Xianchu had the heart to help the villagers, but this was not within the scope of his duties, and he could only instruct the leaders of the county party committee before leaving, asking them to work hard, redouble their efforts, build Hong'an well, and not fail to live up to the Hong'an people who sacrificed for the revolution in this revolutionary base area.
General Han and Chairman Mao
After returning to his hometown to visit his relatives for the third time, the general personally gave the order
After the second visit to his hometown, General Han Xianchu threw himself into his busy work again, and after six years, he had the opportunity to return to Hong'an County to visit the villagers. At this time, General Han was almost seventy years old.
In the winter of 1981, General Han, who had returned to Hong'an County, got up early in the morning and packed up and prepared to go back to ShangxinJi Town to see. Just after pushing open the door of the county party committee guest house, the cold wind swept in snowflakes, looking at such weather, the county party committee leaders and General Han's entourage advised him to be physically important and go again another day. General Han Xianchu worried about his fathers and fellow villagers in his hometown and insisted on going now. The crowd could not resist him, so they had to accompany him.
As soon as he arrived in town, General Han got out of the car and met an old man wearing a torn cotton jacket and stepping on torn straw shoes. When this person saw General Han, he immediately shouted, "Zu Bao! "This is General Han's nickname, and his childhood friends know it."
General Han immediately looked at the old man when he heard this, and then suddenly stepped forward to hold his hand: "Chen Zunyou! General Han carefully looked at the childhood playmate in front of him, saw that he was dressed so worn, and then opened his mouth with some sadness: "How come decades have passed, you are still dressed like this!" ”
Chen Zunyou immediately jokingly retorted: "How did you become an official, let me for decades or this!" ”
General Han inspected the work
Although it was a joke, General Han Xianchu took this to heart. After saying goodbye to Chen Zunyou, General Han still thought about his words, and his heart was particularly uncomfortable. This mood made General Han more eager to see more villagers and see how they were doing.
It was still snowing heavily, and the car drove to the town, and it was not easy to drive into the village. When General Han saw this, he wanted to go to the village on his own. The cadres of the town and the entourage of General Han objected to this, they were worried that General Han's body would not be able to eat, they wanted to come and go, and proposed to let General Han wait in the house, and he wanted to see which villagers he wanted, so they sent a car to pick them up.
General Han Xianchu looked at the goose feather snow in the sky, thought about it for a moment, and then said, "The snow is too big, let Haizhou and Yongjin come over, and the other villagers will not bother them to go out." Not long after, Wu Haizhou and Min Yongjin were received by General Han.
After years of not seeing each other, these two villagers had turned gray- hair, but they were still quite tough when they looked at their bodies. After they entered the room, General Han immediately stood up, shook hands with them tightly, and said, "I haven't seen you for a long time, how are you two?" Are life better than before? ”
"It's much better than before, and now that we're rich here, you don't have to worry about it, just be a high official!" Wu Haizhou and General Han were casually accustomed to it, and they did not consciously speak in a joking tone. He didn't mean anything else, but General Han sounded very uncomfortable.
Just at this moment, General Han saw Min Yongjin shivering unceasingly by the fire, and if he looked closely, it turned out that he was dressed too thinly. General Han immediately took off his leather coat and handed it to Min Yongjin: "Yongjin, this coat is given to you, I can't wear it." ”
Min Yongjin hurriedly resigned, saying that it was inappropriate. In the end, It was General Han who ordered him to catch and put it on. After that, General Han could no longer sit still, and urged Wu Haizhou and Min Yongjin to take them back to the village to have a look.
Hong'an County
As soon as they arrived in the village, the two men shouted loudly: "The villagers are coming out, General Han has come back to see us!" "After a while, the streets were full of people, and the villagers came out to greet General Han. Surrounded by everyone, General Han Xianchu walked toward Wu Haizhou's house.
Because General Han arrived too suddenly, Wu Haizhou's wife did not have time to clean up the house. When General Han arrived, he saw such a scene: a dilapidated house, a torn quilt on the kang, the only few pieces of furniture that lacked arms and legs, and the clothes worn by Wu Haizhou's old partner were full of patches...
Faced with this situation, General Han Xianchu was unable to speak for a moment. He kept looking at the villagers and found that the clothes they were wearing were old, and many of them had patches on them, which showed that the life of the villagers was generally difficult. Thinking of this, General Han was momentarily emotional, and his angina flared up, and the secretary who was with him quickly reminded General Han to take medicine.
Later, when the villagers were separated, General Han looked ashamed and said bluntly that he did not expect that everyone's life was so difficult, and he was sorry for the villagers. On the way back to the county seat, General Han had been silent, and he could see that he was very sad.
General Han and his wife
After returning to the county seat, General Han Xianchu immediately issued an order to the Lanzhou Military Region to quickly transfer 50,000 old army coats to Hong'an County. This is the scene mentioned at the beginning of the article.
After General Han had given his order, the secretary asked him where the money for the transfer of the army coats had come from. General Han said directly: "Deduct from my salary, and if I don't have enough deduction, I will wait until I die and then deduct it from the wages of my sons and grandsons!" ”
In fact, there was a reason why General Han Xianchu was so excited. Hong'an County is an old revolutionary base area, and in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, nearly 140,000 Hong'an sons and daughters died. They gave their blood and lives and made great contributions to the Chinese revolution. Hong'an was originally called Huang'an, and it was the blood of these revolutionary martyrs who stained this land red, and it was later changed to Hong'an.
More than thirty years after the founding of New China, the villagers here still live such a poor life, which really makes General Han sad. These 50,000 old army coats are what the villagers deserve long ago, and they are worthy of them.
The general was seriously ill and left a will to bury him back in Hong'an
After this heart-wrenching return to his hometown, General Han Xianchu never had the opportunity to go back because of his health and work, but he was always worried about his hometown.
In the early spring of 1986, General Han Xianchu was seriously ill and had to be hospitalized in Wuhan. The general lying on the hospital bed looked at the green trees outside the window and couldn't help but think of Hong'an. He instructed his wife: "Now is the time to plant trees, I can't move, you help me get some ornamental trees such as osmanthus cedar, instruct people to send them to Hong'an, and let the local county party committee plant them on the street." ”
It turned out that when he returned to his hometown before, General Han Xianchu noticed that there were not many trees in Hong'an, the varieties were monotonous, there was no ornamentation, and the greening work needed to be strengthened. General Han, who was ill, felt that he did not seem to have a chance to go back again, so he took advantage of the situation now to explain the matter so that he could do his part for his hometown again.
General Han calmly said to his wife, "You know my body bones, but I'm afraid there won't be much time left." I mentioned to the comrades of the Hong'an County PARTY Committee before that we should plant more trees and do a good job in greening. I want you to help me realize this wish. When the time comes, you will send the saplings back, meet the comrades of the county party committee, help me say hello, and also wait for me to say hello to the villagers. After I leave, you will bury me back in Hong'an, and I want to go home..."
General Han's wife tearfully agreed, and soon after, she took her secretary and sent many saplings such as osmanthus flowers, cedars, and white magnolias to Hong'an, and conveyed his instructions to the villagers on behalf of General Han.
On October 3, 1986, General Han Xianchu died of illness in Beijing at the age of seventy-four.
General Han's wish to bury Hong'an was approved by the central government, and on May 18, 1987, Hong'an County held a solemn ceremony to welcome back The ashes of General Han Xianchu and buried them in the Hong'an Martyrs' Cemetery. At this point, General Han Xianchu finally fulfilled his wish, returned to his hometown, and never left again.
Hong'an Martyrs Cemetery
With the development of the country's economic construction, Hong'an County has also achieved considerable development, the lives of the Hong'an people have been greatly improved, and the villagers' lives have become more and more aggressive, they have eaten meat and put on new clothes. Such a Hong'an County, if General Han Xianchu could see it in the Spirit of Heaven, he would definitely laugh.