After the founding of New China, Chairman Mao had to deal with many official documents and reports every day, and the secretary could only accompany him quietly, never daring to take the initiative to disturb the chairman.
But on November 15, 1962, the secretary ran in from outside in a panic and handed an obituary to Chairman Mao without a word.
Chairman Mao did not speak for a long time after reading the obituary, but his eyes were full of tears. He looked into the distance, as if he had seen himself in his twenties again, and saw the person he had once called his master, aunt, and mother.
Half a day later, Chairman Mao wrote a letter with a pen: Please mourn, send 500 yuan, as a mourning ceremony, you can share the same cave with Comrade Yang Kaihui and my dear wife.
Pictured| Chairman Mao
Who is this man who can make the 69-year-old Chairman Mao so moved? Who is this person, and chairman Mao wants to personally "follow the courtesy"? Who was this person, and Chairman Mao asked her to share the cave with his wife?
I. Xiangfu Godson: You may not know Xiang Zhenxi, but you must know her husband Yang Changji and daughter Yang Kaihui
What made Chairman Mao infinitely sentimental was Xiang Zhenxi, a 92-year-old man who died in 1962. Xiang Zhenxi was born in 1870 in Pingjiang County, Hunan Province, a scholarly monk.
The Xiang family and the Yang family in Changsha County, Hunan Province, are generations of friends, and the two families often intermarry with suitable young men and women. The Yang family is also a scholarly family, although it is not very rich and noble, but the family is still relatively solid.
In 1888, at the age of 18, Xiang Zhenxi married his cousin Yang Changji. Yang Changji became an orphan as early as the age of 7 due to the death of both parents. Fortunately, it was taken care of by clan relatives that they were able to eat, wear, and read poetry books.
Xiang Zhenxi and Yang Changji are different from ordinary arranged marriages, which can be regarded as green plum bamboo horses, so although they are close relatives of feudal society, they are a love story from white heads to old age.
After marriage, Xiang Zhenxi took good care of her cousin and husband. She is not only good at running the family, but also knowledgeable and reasonable, and is a good wife who can go up to the hall and the kitchen. Soon after, the children of the two were born one after another, the brother named Yang Kaizhi, and the daughter named Yang Kaihui.
At this time, Yang Changji's knowledge was already well-known, but at that time, it was the time when the late Qing Dynasty declined and the imperial examination was gradually abolished, which added a lot of sorrow to Yang Changji's road to study. Therefore, while he was a teacher in his hometown, he also learned from his strengths and made friends.
In 1903, Yang Changji was sent by the government to study in Japan, and since then he has begun a ten-year overseas study career, successively studying pedagogy, philosophy, ethics, psychology in Japan and Britain, and studying in Germany and Switzerland. With the improvement of his studies, Yang Changji gradually became a well-known scholar in the Republic of China, and formed a deep friendship with Zhang Shizhao and others in Japan.
Pictured| Yang Changji
After Yang Changji studied abroad, the burden of the family fell on xiang Zhenxi's shoulders. When Yang Changji left home, his son Yang Kaizhi was just 5 years old, and his daughter Yang Kaihui was only 3 years old. Xiang Zhenxi not only had to raise his children, but also had to work in the fields, spinning and weaving fabrics to subsidize the family.
Even on such hard days, she did not forget to help people who were poorer than herself. Yang Kaihui grew up weak and timid, and one evening, she was scared to cry by the knock on the door. Xiang Zhenxi hurried out to check and found that it was a mother and son who had fled here. Although he could not open the pot at home, Xiang Zhenxi invited them to come in for dinner and shared his food with them.
After four or five years, Yang Changji can finally send back some money to subsidize the family. Xiang Zhenxi, with the encouragement of Yang Changji, took his daughter to enter Hengpu Industrial School together, and his mother-daughter classmates attracted many curious eyes and became a good story for a while.
In 1913, Yang Changji returned from school, and although he was over in his old age at this time, he was still full of ideals for the future. He voluntarily gave up the invitation of the Director of the Department of Education of Hunan Province, entered the Hunan Higher Division to teach, and the next year taught the self-cultivation class of the Hunan First Division part-time.
It was also at this time that Mao Zedong, the big boy of Shaoshan Chong, became a student of the Hunan First Division. Mao Zedong's character and talent were quickly appreciated by Yang Changji, who not only secretly handed over the keys to the school library to Mao Zedong to facilitate his reading at any time, but also often invited Mao Zedong to his home as a guest.
In this way, the 21-year-old Mao Zedong also met xiang Zhenxi, a 44-year-old teacher, and Yang Kaihui, a 13-year-old primary school student, through Yang Changji. Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, and Xiao Zisheng often went to the teacher's home to ask for teaching questions and discuss the road to saving the country and the people, and often ate and drank at the teacher's home.
Second, love the daughter-in-law: Xiang Zhenxi broke the world to marry his daughter, and paid for it to support Chairman Mao's revolution
1918 was Mao Zedong's graduation season and the Yang family's migration season. Yang Changji was invited by Cai Yuanpei to become a professor of ethics at Peking University, and when he moved to Beijing at home, he also brought Mao Zedong to Beijing to meet the world. Yang Changji said hello to Li Dazhao, and Mao Zedong became the administrator of the Peking University Library and lived in Yang Changji's house after work.
Pictured | graduation photo of Mao Zedong (second from right in row 4).
But Mao Zedong did not work at Peking University for long, because his purpose in Beijing was not to make money, but to study, and he was also tasked with raising funds for the members of the Xinmin Society to go to France for work-study.
At this time, Xiang Zhenxi was sad and happy, sad that Yang Changji was seriously ill, and happy that his daughter Yang Kaihui and Mao Zedong were getting deeper and deeper. When Yang Changji was seriously ill, he still remembered Mao Zedong's wish and wrote a letter to Zhang Shizhao, a friend who was then the secretary general of the Guangzhou military government, for help.
This is not only Yang Changji's deep friendship with Mao Zedong, but also Yang Changji's ardent hope for young students, after all, 20 of the 21 members of the Xinmin Society founded by Mao Zedong are Yang Changji's students. Or it can be said that Yang Changji handed over his unfinished business to his beloved disciples represented by Mao Zedong.
In early 1920, Yang Changji died of illness in Beijing. Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui accompanied the heartbroken Xiang Zhenxi to fuling and buried Yang Changji in his hometown of Bancangchong, Changsha County, where he was buried with his father.
After burying his mentor, Mao Zedong hurried to Shanghai. Zhang Shizhao saw the old friend's last letter and immediately helped the old friend complete his wish. Although he was not a rich man, he was a celebrity, and he naturally gathered his arms to respond, and in a short period of time, he raised 20,000 silver dollars for Mao Zedong. This was not a small amount at the time, and mao Zedong's salary in the Peking University library was only 8 yuan per month.
Pictured| Chairman Mao and Zhang Shizhao in 1963
Mao Zedong divided the money in half, half to Hunan students who went to France to study, and the other half to support the revolutionary movement in Hunan, but he did not use the money on himself.
In this way, when Mao Zedong returned to Changsha to set up the Cultural Book Club, he could not come up with a penny. Knowing this, Xiang Zhenxi immediately gave all the family's savings to Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong took Xiang Zhenxi's money and thanked Him for it, because most of it was the funeral expenses of his mentor, that is, the funeral money of relatives and friends.
What moved Mao Zedong even more was that a few months later, Xiang Zhenxi took the initiative and married his daughter Yang Kaihui to Mao Zedong. At that time, Mao Zedong was a penniless man, unable to come up with a bride price, living in a dormitory, and even borrowing the 6 yuan needed to marry a friend for a meal.
At this time, it was less than a year before Yang Changji's death. According to Chinese tradition, a loved one cannot be celebrated within one year of the death of a loved one. This shocking move of the Yang family has once again become a beautiful talk, so it can be said that Xiang Zhenxi and Yang Kaihui are both advocates of the women's liberation movement and practitioners of the new cultural movement.
After marriage, Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui lived a sweet life, and the husband and wife built the Cultural Book Club into a propaganda position and secret contact point for the party organization. After the first day of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong gradually became a professional revolutionary, Yang Kaihui also joined the Chinese Communist Party, the two work became busier and busier, but there was no income, there was no time to wash and cook, and the burden of the family once again fell on Xiang Zhenxi.
Pictured| Yang Kaihui and Mao Zedong
Subsequently, Mao Anying, Mao Anying, Mao Anqing, and Mao Anyun dragon were born one after another. At this time, Mao Zedong often went out, at least for a week or two, and at most for two or three months. Taking care of the children and daily diet are all done by Xiang Zhenxi.
Yang Kaihui is a kind and weak person, from a young age, the courage is very small, when frightened, he will cry, often faint in the past, Xiang Zhenxi was once very worried about her death. After joining the Communist Party, Yang Kaihui could sacrifice himself for the revolution, but he would still be shocked to see rats.
Therefore, Xiang Zhenxi actually took on all the work of taking care of her daughter and three grandsons. In 1924 and 1926, Xiang Zhenxi accompanied his daughter and children to Shanghai and Guangzhou to find Mao Zedong and follow Mao Zedong to carry out revolutionary work.
For a woman in her fifties, traveling thousands of miles is a great thing in itself. My mother was a rural woman born in the 1950s, and she could not "go to the city" alone in her life.
When the revolutionary situation was good, Yang Kaihui worked with Mao Zedong, and when the revolutionary situation was bad, she could only take her children back to Bancang to live with her mother. Even when he returned to Bancang, Yang Kaihui was often busy with the party's underground work.
Xiang Zhenxi was the strong backing of Mao Zedong and his wife, especially after the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao Zedong's great fame became famous, which caused the Kuomintang reactionaries to want to arrest him. After Yang Kaihui handed over the child to Xiang Zhenxi, he lived a life without a fixed place. On the one hand, this is a revolutionary necessity, and on the other hand, it is also to avoid the enemy's search.
Xiang Zhenxi and Yang Kaihui's life at that time was very embarrassing, and sometimes they would even eat a meal without eating, and they needed to rely on the help of relatives and friends to feed themselves. But Xiang Zhenxi's strong and optimistic attitude makes the family full of longing for the future.
However, misfortune happened. One day in 1930, Yang Kaihui secretly ran back to his hometown to visit his mother and children. Unexpectedly, this move was discovered by the enemy's secret agents, and the arrest was carried out that night. Fortunately, Xiang Zhenxi was more astute and let her daughter run through the back door.
Out of the back door, Yang Kaihui did not know where to run. Suddenly, he found that the neighbor's house had a roll of mats standing by the wall, so he hid in the mat. The tall mat wrapped around Yang Kaihui's thin body, and the enemy did not find any clues.
Yang Kaihui hid in such a bold atmosphere, and did not sneak home until the middle of the night. However, just when Yang Kaihui had just closed his eyes, the enemy killed a horse gun and blocked Yang Kaihui in the house.
After Yang Kaihui was imprisoned, he preferred to die unyieldingly, and when the enemy saw that he could not get any valuable information from her mouth, he said to her: As long as you publish a newspaper and break off the relationship with Mao Zedong, you will be free, you do not think about yourself, you also have to think about the old mother and children...
Yang Kaihui has firm faith and loyal love, and in the face of the temptation of the enemy, she said with great righteousness: Death is not a pity, but I hope that the revolution of Runzhi will succeed as soon as possible!
During this period, Xiang Zhenxi has been running for Yang Kaihui, and she ran to Nanjing to ask her husband's former friends Zhang Shizhao, Cai Yuanpei, Tan Yanmin and others to intercede for Yang Kaihui. Although these people were all celebrities, they did not have real power at that time, and had no right to speak in front of the anti-communist arrogance of He Jian.
Picture | Yang Kaihui calmly went to the execution ground (stills)
Third, watching over the grandson: 60-year-old Xiang Zhenxi personally sent his grandson to Shanghai after the painful loss of his beloved daughter, and then looked forward to the return of his grandson at the door of his home every day
Since Yang Changji's death, Xiang Zhenxi has been living with Yang Kaihui's family, while his son works in Nanjing. After losing his beloved daughter, Xiang Zhenxi was heartbroken. But in pain, she began to worry about her three grandsons, who were both Mao Zedong's sons and the Yang family's flesh and bones.
Fortunately, at this time, the Kuomintang reactionaries released Mao Anying. But in fact, the reactionaries also have an ulterior motive, that is, to follow the vines and trap Mao Zedong.
In fact, when Mao Zedong left home to lead the autumn harvest uprising, he thought he would be able to return home in three months. But after the uprising, the situation was reversed, he could not leave the troops, he left the troops and dispersed.
In the process of turning the war, Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui lost contact. But as soon as he arrived at Jinggangshan to gain a foothold, he immediately wrote a family letter to Yang Kaihui. It's just that this family letter can't be sent to Bancang, it can only be sent to the underground party traffic station in Changsha, and then forwarded to Yang Kaihui through reliable comrades, and the same is true of Yang Kaihui's reply.
But after some time, the underground traffic station was destroyed by the enemy, and the two lost contact again. To this end, Mao Zedong specially entrusted Wu Fushou, a silversmith in Jinggangshan, to visit his family in Itakura. If you can, pick up your family to Jinggangshan.
However, at that time, it was difficult to distinguish between the enemy and the enemy, and in order to protect Yang Kaihui, the Pancang masses spread the rumor that Yang Kaihui had already sacrificed. Wu Fushou inquired in many ways, and they all said this, so he believed it to be true.
Therefore, under the mediation of Zhu De, Chen Yi, Yuan Wencai, Wang Zuo and others, Mao Zedong and He Zizhen married in Jinggangshan. When the bad news of Yang Kaihui's sacrifice came, Mao Zedong was heartbroken and ashamed, so that in the decades that followed, he was always unforgettable, often missed Yang Kaihui, and wrote the famous poem "I lost yang jun and lost willow."
The picture | Chairman Mao's eulogy
After hearing the news of the murder of his beloved wife, Mao Zedong immediately asked his younger brother Mao Zemin to find out the whereabouts of his son, but Mao Zemin was also a member of the Communist Party and could only secretly inquire. Accompanying Xiang Zhenxi to pick up the child from prison was Xiang Zhenxi's son and Yang Kaihui's brother Yang Kaizhi.
Yang Kaizhi had excellent academic performance from an early age, went to Beijing with his parents after attending middle school in Changsha, and was admitted to the National Beijing Agricultural College, which is now China Agricultural University, after the death of his father. After graduation, he served as the director of the Changde Forestry Bureau, and when Yang Kaihui was killed, he was an assistant professor at the College of Agriculture of Nanjing Central University.
Yang Kaizhi knew the sinister intentions of the Kuomintang authorities to use the child as bait, but he still risked being beheaded and took the child back to bancang with his mother. He noticed that there were often secret agents in his neighborhood, so he did not dare to move around. The agents did not gain anything after a few months of hard work, and gave up tracking, after all, Mao Anying was only 8 years old, and Mao Anqing and Mao Anlong were 7 and 3 years old.
Just when the Kuomintang was letting its guard down, Mao Zemin sent someone to contact Yang Kaizhi and asked them to escort the three children to Shanghai according to the agreed time.
In the spring of 1931, Xiang Zhenxi, who was more than 60 years old, took his son Yang Kaizhi and daughter-in-law Li Chongde, dressed as a bunch of relatives, and led his three children on a train to Wuhan. After walking around Wuhan, we turned to Shanghai and finally handed over our three children to our underground party.
Xiang Zhenxi looked at her grandson and couldn't bear to leave for a long time, but she knew that letting her children follow her father was the best choice. Xiang Zhenxi always believed that the children would return to Itakura to find her sooner or later, so she returned to Itakura to wait for her grandson, waiting day and night, night and night.
But at this time, the party's revolutionary cause had just begun, and Chairman Mao and his sons had no conditions to visit Xiang Zhenxi at all, so the old man waited for more than ten years. Later, Yang Kaizhi returned to Changsha to buy a house and took the old man to his side for maintenance.
On the eve of the liberation of the whole country, Chairman Mao received a letter from Yang Kaizhi, and Chairman Mao was very excited to learn that Xiang Zhenxi was still alive. Although Chairman Mao at this time was busy with various preparations before the founding of the People's Republic of China, he still put aside the matter at hand and replied to Yang Kaizhi at the first time.
Tu | Xiang Zhenxi and son Yang Kaizhi
In his letter, Chairman Mao reported to the old lady on the recent situation of Mao Anying and Mao Anqing and inquired in detail about her living conditions. A month later, Chairman Mao learned that Zhu Zhongli was going back to Changsha to visit her relatives, and asked her to bring a fur coat to the old lady, and at the same time sent two pieces of fabric to Yang Kaizhi and his wife. And this Zhu Zhongli is the wife of Vice Foreign Minister Wang Jiaxiang.
Xiang Zhenxi burst into tears after seeing Chairman Mao's reply, this is the font she is familiar with, this is the person he misses day and night. Everyone was worried that the old lady would hurt her body, and they all came to comfort her, but the old lady said that she was crying with joy, because she did not expect that she would be able to wait until the day of the victory of the revolution.
Fourth, goodbye grandson: Mao Anying and Mao Anqing have returned home to visit Zhenxi, and the old man lived to be 92 years old and drove hexi
In fact, the life of the three brothers in Shanghai was not satisfactory, because the underground party's Datong Kindergarten was destroyed by traitors, and the party Central Committee also interrupted the financial support for the children of revolutionary martyrs in the process of turning the war, so the three brothers once became homeless children in Shanghai.
Mao'anlong was the youngest, so his resistance was poor, and he died soon after. Mao Anqing was beaten by the police for writing slogans to overthrow imperialism, and could not be treated in time after his head injuries, leaving a lifelong hidden danger. Only the eldest, Mao Anying, although suffering, was not a big problem.
Pictured| Chairman Mao and Mao Anying had a happy conversation
In 1936, Mao Anying and Mao Anqing were transferred to the Soviet Union, where they studied and lived for 10 years and participated in the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union. After returning to China, Mao Anying served as deputy secretary of the party committee at a factory in Beijing, while Mao Anqing worked as a Russian translator in the Central Propaganda Department.
At the beginning of 1950, Chairman Mao called Mao Anying to his side and said, Your grandmother is about to celebrate her eightieth birthday, I can't leave, you can go back to visit the old man' home. You have been away from Changsha for too long, many people are afraid that they do not recognize it, do not mess up the generations, do not be big and small.
In May of that year, Mao Anying returned to Changsha and met his grandmother, who had been away for 19 years. The old man saw Mao Anying excitedly wiped away tears, but her spirit head was still very good, and she took Mao Anying's hand and asked warmly: Is your father okay, how is your brother, are you married?
Picture | Xiang Zhenxi's eightieth birthday group photo
Xiang Jia is also a big family in Changsha, and there are forty or fifty people who wish the old lady a happy birthday, so the old lady always feels that there are still many things that have not been said to her grandson, and in the blink of an eye, it is time to separate. At the time of the separation, Mao Anying said that he would come back to see his grandmother, but to everyone's surprise, he died on the Korean battlefield a few months later.
Everyone did not dare to tell the old lady the news of Mao Anying's sacrifice, and could only infer that Shore Ying was too busy at work. Chairman Mao also knew that the old lady missed her grandson very much, so in 1951 he asked Mao Anqing to visit his grandmother.
At that time, Chairman Mao, Mao Anying, and Mao Anqing had no money, because since the establishment of the party and the army, they had long practiced the supply system, so they could only send some gifts to the elderly. After 1955, the country implemented salary reform, and later Chairman Mao still had some income from the manuscript fee, so Chairman Mao began to send living expenses to the old lady on a monthly basis, in fact, he was taking the initiative to support the elderly.
Pictured | Xiang Zhenxi and his family
In 1962, Chairman Mao suddenly heard the bad news of the old lady's death and was heartbroken. Scenes from the past years are replayed before your eyes. Considering that his mentor Yang Changji had been buried with his father, he arranged for the old lady to be buried with his beloved daughter, yang Kaihui, his wife.
Nowadays, Bancang Chong has changed its name to Kaihui Village, where the ancient trees in the Yang Kaihui Martyrs Memorial Park are evergreen, and Yang Changji, Xiang Zhenxi, Yang Kaihui and others are buried here.
Chairman Mao had deep feelings for the old lady and was also very concerned about yang Kaizhi, the old lady's son. But Yang Kaizhi did something that made Chairman Mao very dissatisfied and began to alienate him.
This is because Yang Kaizhi made a vague request to Chairman Mao that he wanted to become an official, and gave Chairman Mao two options: either to enter Beijing or to become a director in Changsha.
Chairman Mao was extremely opposed to the ascension of a man to heaven, and not only did he not help, but he also specially warned Wang Shoudao, the first deputy secretary of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee, not to help, completely breaking Yang Kaizhi's thoughts.
In fact, it is not objective to say that Chairman Mao has a clear distinction between public and private, and in Chairman Mao's dictionary, public is public and private is also public.
The Yang family made great contributions to the revolution, Yang Kaizhi's sister Yang Kaihui and daughter Yang Zhan (the only child) sacrificed for the revolution one after another, his father's funeral expenses were given to Chairman Mao to make a revolution, and he and his mother risked being beheaded to protect the three brothers of Mao Anying, so that after escorting the three brothers to Shanghai, they hid in other places for a long time.
Judging from his qualifications, Yang Kaizhi has been a bureau chief and assistant teacher, and he is not a person who cannot support the wall.
However, Chairman Mao set such high standards and strict demands on his relatives, and Mao Anqing, Li Min, and Li Ne all later lived relatively ordinary lives.
In Chairman Mao's position, it was easy to help Yang Kaizhi. But if Chairman Mao really did that, I don't know how many people would follow suit. As for Yang Kaizhi's appointment as vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, that was after Chairman Mao's death, when Yang Kaizhi was nearly eighty years old.