At the beginning of 1942, when Zhang Aiping, the 32-year-old deputy commander of the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army, came to the military headquarters for a meeting, he was suddenly asked to speak on the spot, Zhang Aiping was unprepared, and had to play impromptu for 15 minutes, and even he himself could not remember exactly what he said, and after the meeting, Li Youlan, a stenographer of the military department, handed him a neatly transcribed material, which sorted out all his views, appeared to be both orderly and fully argumentative, and became a speech with prominent emphasis, strict logic, and considerable depth.
This greatly surprised Zhang Aiping, four years ago, he had seen Li Youlan in the Eighth Route Army Office in Wuhan, at that time, Li Youlan was a 19-year-old female middle school student, in order to resist Japan and save the country, she traveled thousands of miles from her hometown of Ningbo to wuhan to participate in the revolution, and Zhang Aiping was a staff member of the Eighth Route Army Office at that time.
Lee Youlan
Unexpectedly, after four years of not seeing, the little girl had grown into a female soldier of the New Fourth Army who was sharp and insightful, and although Li Youlan was still engaged in shorthand work at this time, her official position was already an inspector of the Political Department of the Military Department, and she could be independent in her work.
During the meeting, Zhang Aiping completely fell into this feeling.
At the end of the meeting, Zhang Aiping gave Li Youlan a dagger and a silver ring on the leg of a military pigeon that she had captured on the battlefield as her promise.
And Li Youlan did not react yet, at the closing ceremony of the conference, she sat next to the military commander Chen Yi not far away to do shorthand, and actually used this dagger to cut up the pencil, Chen Yi saw it, took a closer look at the dagger, and said: "This knife seems to be surnamed Zhang." ”
Chen Yi and Zhang Aiping are fellow Villagers in Sichuan and have a good friendship, so Chen Yi, who is a witty person, brought this dagger to the rostrum, and from time to time knocked on the table with a dagger when speaking, and intentionally or unintentionally took the dagger to point at Zhang Aiping, who was sitting in the front row of the stage, making Zhang Aiping's face blush for a while, fortunately, only Zhang Aiping could recognize the dagger, and others did not know the "natural opportunity" in it.
Until decades after marriage, Li Youlan still did not understand Chen Yi's intentions and asked Zhang Aiping: "What does It mean that Mr. Chen is holding that knife and pointing at you like this?"
Zhang Aiping replied happily, "Where do I know?" Probably to warn me not to think anything of you! ”
In fact, the marriage between Zhang Aiping and Li Youlan was later promoted by Chen Yili against public opinion, and when he deliberately held Zhang Aiping's dagger on the rostrum to "show the public", Mr. Chen probably had the idea of adult beauty.
1. The rich family has become a flower of the New Fourth Army
Li Youlan was born in Xiaogang, Ningbo, Zhejiang, "Xiaogang Li Family" is a famous Jiangnan Wang family, but also shanghai "Ningbo Gang" financial industry port opening family, li family generations are famous bankers, Shanghai famous Tang Ying's first husband is the descendant of "Xiaogang Li family", at that time, Shanghai newspapers and periodicals said that she married into the rich.
In her later years, Li Youlan once recalled: Her family's garden is very large, everywhere pavilions, rockery fish ponds, if no one leads, absolutely will get lost, she read "Dream of the Red Chamber", found that the big view garden in the book is that scale.
During the Republic of China, the third generation of the "Xiaogang Li Family" was already in the shanghai beach, and had funded to support the revolutionary cause of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and during the Xinhai Revolution, many brothers of the Li clan joined the League to help raise salaries and recruit troops.
Li Youlan's father, Li Shanxiang, was the governor of Zhenhai County, and later went to the northeast to set up industry and education, after the September 18 Incident, Li Shanxiang refused to be co-opted by the Japanese and kou, and returned to Ningbo with his whole family to publicize the anti-Japanese salvation.
Li Shanxiang
In 1937, when the war gradually approached the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, Li Shanxiang not only organized a stretcher team and a medical team with his family to the front, but also resolutely decided to send his children to join the army.
Five of his eight children joined the New Fourth Army, at that time, the second daughter Li Youlan was less than 18 years old, the third daughter Li Caizhi was only 14 years old, and was still underage, as a well-known local rich businessman, Li Shanxiang did not send his children who were studying in the rear to Kunming or a foreign country to study, but sent them all to the front line of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Li Youlan followed the other patriotic youths to yan'an, and halfway through, they heard that there was an office of the Eighth Route Army in Wuhan, so they found Wuhan and asked Zhou Enlai to write a letter of introduction.
At that time, Zhang Aiping was Zhou Enlai's staff officer on duty, and when he saw so many students coming from outside the door, they all wanted a letter of introduction from Zhou Enlai's handwriting, and Zhou Enlai was busy with affairs at that time, and it was impossible to write letters one by one, so he politely refused to let them in, saying that "Vice Minister Zhou is very busy."
Li Youlan and the others were not willing to be sent in this way, and quarreled with this small staff officer who was blocking the road, and the two sides quarreled, and finally alarmed Zhou Enlai and invited the students in, because the Yellow River Fengling Ferry had already fallen into the hands of the Japanese army at that time, and the road was not safe, Zhou Enlai suggested that they first go to Nanchang to find the New Fourth Army.
Years later, Zhang Aiping and Li Youlan recalled the scene of the first meeting in Wuhan, and even laughed that the two were "narrow roads".
Zhang Aiping in 1938
In 1938, the New Fourth Army had just been established, and the military department needed several capable female stenographers, and Li Youlan, Chu Qing (Li Yu's wife), Zhang Qian (Chen Yi's wife) and others were selected to study in the military shorthand class, and after graduation, they were assigned to the secretariat of the Jiangnan Headquarters of the New Fourth Army.
Li Youlan looks beautiful, has a different temperament, looks generous, she can write a neat little kai, the writing power is extraordinary, both talented and good-looking, known as "the new fourth army a flower".
At that time, Xiang Ying, the founder and deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, developed a good feeling for Li Youlan in his work, and with the help of others, Xiang Ying and Li Youlan held a wedding in 1940.
Unexpectedly, only two months after the new marriage, in January 1941, the "Anhui Southern Incident" occurred, and in March of that year, Xiang Ying was killed by his own aide-de-camp and traitor Liu Houzong during the breakout.
Xiang Ying
Before Li Youlan could experience the happiness of her new marriage, she became Xiang Ying's widow, and at that time, she was also imprisoned in a concentration camp, and it was her father Li Shanxiang who came forward to bail her out.
2. When the conference meets, the two sides admire each other
In 1942, after Zhang Aiping and Li Youlan were reunited at the Headquarters of the New Fourth Army, he suddenly fell in love.
Zhang Aiping, 32, had previously had two short-lived marriages, one was arranged by her parents, and the other was married for a year with Zhou Enlai's secretary and guerrilla leader Yang Chun when she was working in northeast Anhui, Yang Chun graduated from the department of chemistry of Wuhan University, was a female haojie, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, she served as vice minister of health, and the marriage between the two always bumped and bumped, and soon broke up.
Yang Chun and her second husband Zhang Yan
Zhang Aiping is a famous talent of the New Fourth Army, although he was born in a peasant family, he is proficient in poetry, song, photography and painting, not only can go to war on horseback, cross the red water, fight the golden sand, but also rely on horses to chant poetry, have "military talent", "poet on horse", he has a very open-minded personality, and Li Youlan Lang is talented and feminine, very well matched.
During the meetings of the Military Department, Zhang Aiping often intentionally or unintentionally approached and cared for this clever and beautiful female inspector, and found that Li Youlan could not only act on stage, write with a pen, and speak at assemblies, but also had a particularly outstanding shorthand ability; even if she made a rambling speech, she could sort it out, sort out the organization and key points in it, and organize it into a good article that was quite literary and did not lose the personality characteristics of the speaker.
When he heard that Li Youlan had been the wife of Deputy Commander Xiang who had already died, his heart was full of sympathy and pity for her.
Soon after, Li Youlan also felt his different affection.
Once, when Li Youlan went back to the house to work, she suddenly found that her jujube red fingerless gloves were missing, it was the big winter, and her hands were particularly cold when writing, she searched all over the conference room and residence, and did not find gloves, and thought that she could only write with frozen hands that day, suddenly, there was a soft knock outside the door, opened the door to see, it was Zhang Aiping who found her gloves in the meeting place, and specially sent them over.
This made Li Youlan sensitively aware that Zhang Aiping was very concerned about herself, so she would know that this pair of jujube red gloves was hers.
In order to "set up the near", Zhang Aiping solemnly proposed: "I have read your shorthand manuscript, which is very well written, are you willing to take me as an apprentice?" Teacher Li! ”
In this way, Zhang Aiping approached Li Youlan's side in the name of "learning shorthand", and when he was about to leave, he still clinged to it, and also gave two of his beloved booty to "Teacher Li": a dagger captured on the battlefield and a silver ring taken from the leg of a carrier pigeon.
His deep affection had not yet completely impressed Li Youlan, but he had already been seen by the military commander Chen Yi.
At the closing ceremony, Chen Yi saw Li Youlan using Zhang Aiping's dagger to sharpen the pencil, and suddenly understood everything, so there was the scene at the beginning of this article, Chen Yi took the dagger that Zhang Aiping had given away as a love relic, stood on the rostrum, and intentionally or unintentionally drew a stroke at Zhang Aiping.
Seeing that his crush was "made public" by Mr. Chen, Zhang Aiping was both embarrassed and very happy, he felt that Li Youlan was talented, kind, brave, and beautiful, and was the half he had been looking for for a long time.
At that time, Li Youlan was already an organizational officer of the Central China Party School, stationed in Wang Zhuji, Zhang Aiping's Third Division headquarters was in Sunhezhuang, the two places were only 15 kilometers apart, and on Sunday, Zhang Aiping rode a jujube red horse to Wang Zhuji to help "Teacher Li" take a personal photo, holding a trophy camera, facing Li Youlan's left "click" and right "click", leaving her many photos full of youthful atmosphere, from the remaining photos of Li Youlan, Zhang Aiping's photography level is still quite good.
In the days when she did not see Li Youlan, Zhang Aiping took advantage of the gap between battles, and wrote her 12 letters in succession for two months, and after the credibility was sent, a reply letter was not received, which made Zhang Aiping both lost and worried, he felt that Li Youlan had a good feeling for himself, but why had he not received her reply?
The situation on Li Youlan's side is a bit complicated, Xiang Ying is the founder of the New Fourth Army, after his sacrifice, his former subordinates still miss him very much, Li Youlan's immediate boss, the head of the organization section is one of them, seeing Zhang Aiping send love letters to Xiang Ying's widow one after another, the section chief is very unhappy, but he lacks a strong reason to block, so he withheld these 12 letters.
It wasn't until two months later that the section chief called Li Youlan, took out a stack of letters from the drawer, threw them in front of her, and angrily said, "How can you casually interact with people?" Why not just report to the organization and just communicate?! ”
When Li Youlan heard this, he also got angry and asked, "What right do you have to suppress my letter?!" I haven't received a single letter so far, so how can I say that I'm casually communicating with people? Even if I communicate with people, what's wrong?! What discipline was violated? ”
The section chief was stunned by her barrage of questions and said vaguely, "You don't forget your identity, you shouldn't be too casual..."
This kind of feudal consciousness made Li Youlan dismissive, and she grabbed the stack of letters and left.
Soon after, Zhang Aiping came back from the battle and smiled at her: "You don't talk much about equality to me, I wrote you more than a dozen letters, why don't you reply?" ”
Li Youlan angrily pointed to the stack of letters and said, "Didn't you just receive this?" ”
As soon as she remembered the attitude of the section chief, she was very angry and complained: "I have always been strange, you said letters, how come it has been two months, and there is not a single letter?" No, my boss withheld all the letters! I really didn't expect that there are still such feudal heads in the party, and that correspondence between male and female comrades is also illegal? Your letter is written like a debriefing, what's wrong..."
Hearing Li Youlan say this, Zhang Aiping was happy in her heart and said, "Youlan, I really thank your boss for helping me a lot!" Three important pieces of information were provided to me at once: First, you did not hate my letters, and even expected them. Second, you feel like my letter is written like a debriefing, dry. Tell you, I have done underground work, and I expect that the letters given to you will be read by someone, and I don't want to cause you trouble too soon. It seems that my estimate is correct. Third, the obstruction of others makes you so angry, which shows that you are not willing to alienate me, which also reassures me and makes me dare to express my chest..."
Li Youlan was once again amazed at Zhang Aiping's agility, open-mindedness and optimism, and she already had feelings for this military talent who was both majestic and talented, and she really did not want to be separated from Zhang Aiping because of the obstruction of others.
Although some people hope that Li Youlan will retain the identity of Xiang Ying's widow, she is an educated new woman who does not want to be bound by this traditional consciousness, and she thinks that if Xiang Ying has knowledge underground, she will also hope that she can find her own happiness.
3. Strive to overcome public opinion and achieve a good relationship
Although both of them are people with strong personalities and no fear of people's words, due to the continuous war and busy work, they have been slow to put the marriage on the agenda.
At that time, Zhang Aiping rode a horse to meet his beloved girl as soon as she had time, and later, he also specially wrote a poem for this purpose:
"Draped in a light saddle,
Hurry up and whip again.
Man about dusk,
Green water small river bay.
One evening in August 1942, a heavy rainstorm washed away Li Youlan's hut, and she could only stand under the eaves of the neighboring house to hide from the rain, at which point Zhang Aiping braved the rain to gallop over.
Li Youlan was surprised and happy after seeing Zhang Aiping, and said: "You still come in this kind of weather?" The house collapsed! ”
Looking at the half-collapsed hut behind her, Zhang Aiping suddenly felt that it was providence, stood in the heavy rain and asked: "Youlan, are you willing to marry me?" ”
In this regard, Li Youlan was quite worried, at that time, the commander of the New Fourth Army was married, and it was necessary to go through a more complicated process to be approved by Commander Chen Yi personally, and because of her special status, the process of approval may be even longer, and without Chen Yi's approval, she could not withstand those reproachful eyes and the discussion behind her.
In this regard, Zhang Aiping did not care, in order to get the approval, he personally went to find Chen Yi's military commander, and two days later he brought back Chen Yi's special approval: on the marriage application report of the two of them, Chen Yi not only signed two big words "agree", but also specially sent a Parker pen as a wedding gift for the talented couple.
When signing the report, Chen Yile said hehe: "You Zhang Aiping, who is sending knives and taking pictures, has chased a flower from our military department in a few months. ”
In this way, Li Youlan slightly packed up some things from the collapsed house, got on Zhang Aiping's horse, and followed him back to a small grass hut next to the Third Division's division headquarters to settle down. ”
Since then, they have been together for 61 years, through countless wars and upheavals, and have never been separated.
For a long time, General Zhang Aiping's article manuscripts, poems and songs have been sorted out and kept by his wife, which has also condensed a lot of Li Youlan's painstaking efforts.
Sometimes, Zhang Aiping's writing drafts on a whim were thrown into the wastepaper basket, and Li Youlan would pick them up and sort out the valuable words in them into a piece, so that Zhang Aiping later published the Chronicle and the Song of Excalibur.
In 1974, on the occasion of the 32nd year of marriage, Zhang Aiping specially wrote a "Yong Si Ji Lan" to give to his wife who had been in love with each other for many years, praising the "Youlan in the Army" in his heart:
"Idle in the valley,
Pray for earthly descent.
Sword Leaf BiRuSu Rui Jie,
Ice muscle jade heart melting.
Fragrant incense stained the hall,
Elegant and elegant.
Although it is a frost and snow night,
The fragrance is better than spring. ”
Zhang Aiping has successively served as vice premier of the State Council, minister of national defense, and deputy secretary general of the Central Military Commission, who presided over the work of the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense, and as his assistant, Li Youlan also served as deputy director of the office of the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense and director of the office of the General Office of the Central Military Commission.
After marriage, they had three sons and two daughters, the eldest son Zhang Xiang was the deputy commander of the Second Artillery and was awarded the title of lieutenant general, the second son Zhang Sheng and the third son Zhang Pin were all colonels, the eldest daughter Zhang Zhikai was a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and the second daughter Zhang Xiaoai was an anthropologist and doctoral supervisor. As Zhang Aiping expected at that time, he chose a smart and virtuous life partner and obtained a happy family.
Li Youlan has always been unforgettable about the "adult beauty" that Commander Chen Yi specially approved for the marriage of the two.
Accompanied by the old Zhang Aiping and Li Youlan
Until her later years, when talking about this matter, she also said gratefully: "When I was young, I did two things that I felt were very right all my life, one was to join the New Fourth Army and follow the Communist Party to fight devils; the other was to marry Zhang Aiping. However, without the strong support of Mr. Chen, I married him and may not have gone so smoothly. He was more enlightened than anyone. ”
In 2003, General Zhang Aiping died in Beijing at the age of 93.
When Li Youlan died in 2012, he was also 93 years old.
This red love affair, which was born in the battlefield of the New Fourth Army, also records the youth, ideals, throbbing and yearning of young people in that era.
Reference: "General Zhang Aiping's Red Love Affair"
Southeast Business Daily "Legendary Life Lan Xiang Fu Fu"