In that dark time of the past, there was such a little boy:
He lost his mother at the age of 2;
He learned to shoot by the age of 5;
At the age of 7, he fought with the enemy with real knives and guns;
At the age of 9, he joined the Red Army in the Long March.
In 1936, when Chairman Mao asked him in Yan'an how he could prove that he had participated in the Long March, he said the name of a person, and Chairman Mao immediately believed in him.
Who is this child?
Why did he have such a heavy childhood experience?
Why did Chairman Mao believe that he had participated in the Long March?
Today, let us look back with respect on the revolutionary life of this "little red devil" ancestor and reveal the answer.
A doll of bitter fate
The little boy we want to talk about today, born in 1926, is a native of Sangzhi County, Hunan.
He had only vague memories of his mother, and many things about her were told to him by the aunt who raised him.
His family has always had a tradition of martial arts and resistance to tyranny.
Mom is a strong woman, from a young age to practice a good martial arts, do things with style and fire, crisp and clean.
At the age of 18, his mother joined the revolution with his uncle, with a box cannon in one hand, opening the bow left and right, and firing a hundred shots.
Together with his mother, his aunt organized a guerrilla group to fight against the Kuomintang reactionaries.
In April 1928, when my uncle returned to his hometown to start an uprising, my mother let my uncle lead the guerrilla group she organized, and my mother said: The team is the party, not her own.
However, in August, my mother was unfortunately betrayed by traitors and was arrested and imprisoned by the Kuomintang reactionaries. He was also taken away along with his brother and sister.
The enemy repeatedly tortured her mother, but her mother had a strong personality and did not say the whereabouts of her uncle, aunt, or comrades-in-arms.
In September, the aunt spent a lot of money to ransom the three of them from prison, but the mother was brutally killed by the enemy.
At this time, he was only 2 years old.
After losing his mother, his aunt, as an adoptive mother, has been carefully raising him and treating him as her own.
However, the eldest aunt was also a revolutionary fighter, often leading his comrades in arms against the enemy.
After the aunt told him about his mother's experience, the 4-year-old was already jealous and hateful, he hated his mother's murderer, he hated all the Kuomintang reactionaries, he secretly took a pistol to the woods to practice marksmanship, he wanted to avenge his mother!
When the aunt and uncle found out that he was practicing shooting, they were afraid that he would hurt himself, so they did not let him touch the gun again. But he couldn't stand the daily clamor to avenge his mother, the family had a tradition of martial arts, plus he was his mother's son, and the aunt and uncle finally agreed.
In 1933, when he was 7 years old, the Red Army caught his mother's killer, and together with his cousin and brother-in-law, he escorted the bad guy to the military headquarters.
The executioner killed his mother with extreme cruelty, and his cousin and brother-in-law personally shot the villain, and his revenge was finally repaid.
However, the kuomintang reactionaries' army desperately "encircled and suppressed" the Red Army, and in order to preserve the revolutionary forces, the uncle could only take the team to the mountains of Guizhou to the west of his hometown to continue the struggle.
On May 5, the aunt and the guerrillas were betrayed by traitors, and the base area was suddenly attacked by the enemy.
A sinful bullet hit the aunt in the chest, and the aunt fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. He dragged his aunt back with his thin arm, but the aunt was no longer able to do so.
Before dying, the aunt put her bloody pistol, two rings, and 5 silver dollars into a small cloth bag and stuffed it into his hand, and said to him with her last strength: "Go quickly, go to find the uncle, go to find the Red Army!" ”
His second mother was gone forever.
He didn't have time to wipe his tears, but he could only reluctantly touch the face of his aunt at the end, and then while shooting at the pursuing reactionary army with the pistol that his aunt handed him, he rushed out of the rain of bullets and ran into the mountains.
He grew up in the mountains and was able to come and go freely in the forest like a trance array, so he quickly escaped the enemy's pursuit.
In the next few days, he could only eat wild fruits hungry, thirsty and drink mountain springs, and painstakingly found a secret base and found his brother-in-law.
The moment he saw his brother-in-law, he wanted to cry, but he had no strength left.
When he woke up, his uncle was already by his side.
Bursting into tears, he took out the small cloth bag that his aunt had given him from his arms and placed it in his uncle's hand.
Sobbing, he said to his uncle, "This is what my aunt asked me to give to you." ”
The uncle looked at the relics of the aunt in the small cloth bag, suppressed the tears, and even more suppressed the anger in his heart, and was silent for a long time.
Suddenly, the uncle glanced at everyone present like a torch and asked, "Big sister, they sacrificed, what are your plans?" Still not doing the revolution? ”
"Dry!" The brother-in-law and all the people in the scene gave a firm answer in a high-pitched and powerful voice.
At only 7 years old, he had already experienced too many life and death parts, and at a young age, he had already established a firm belief in overthrowing the Kuomintang reactionaries, he raised his fist, and as everyone shouted: "Carry the revolution to the end!" Avenge your aunt! ”
The uncle looked at him affectionately, touched his head, and said gently, "Good! ”
From then on, he stayed with his uncle and became a Soldier of the Red Army.
What an evil time it was, snatching his beloved relatives from a child who needed the most care, and cruelly crushing all the beauty of his childhood, forcing him to shoulder the burden of resisting the tyranny of the Kuomintang with his thin shoulders!
Little Red Devil
Although he joined the Red Army, he was too young to participate in the battle.
However, he would take the red tassel gun every day with his friends and train seriously.
A group of half-grown children, the shot is not light or heavy, and the children who are beaten will also wipe their tears in pain. However, as soon as they turned their faces, they wiped away their tears and continued to "fight".
This also added some childlike joy to the tense combat life of the Red Army soldiers.
By 1935, at the age of 9, he had become the deputy squad leader of the communications squad of the Red Army command, and the leading uncles were very fond of this small, but very clever little guy.
In the correspondence class, there were a total of 19 children, the oldest was 14 years old, and he was the youngest.
However, he never regarded himself as a little brother.
The Red Army stipulates that children over the age of 10 stand guard alone, and children under the age of 10 stand guard in groups of 3 people.
But every time it was his turn, he would wave his hand to the 2 friends who were older than him and say, "Go to sleep, I'll do it myself!" ”
In November, the enemy's "encirclement and suppression" of the revolutionary base areas became more and more brutal, and his Red Army units began the Long March.
He and his friends in the communications class also embarked on a long journey with the large army.
The uncle was afraid that their three children, who were less than 10 years old, would not be able to keep up with the marching speed of the troops, so he gave them a pony and let them ride in turn, but as long as he could walk on his own, he gave the horse to the two little friends.
Many of his Red Army uncles were southerners and were not very familiar with many plants in northwestern Sichuan. Once, when he was delivering a letter to a friendly neighbor's troops, he learned that more than 50 uncles in that unit had died in vain because they had mistakenly eaten poisonous wild vegetables.
When he returned, he immediately reported the situation to the chief, and then every time he went to help the cook, he would risk illness and secretly taste wild vegetables to see if it was poisonous or not. He was all right, so he gave the meal to his uncles with peace of mind.
When the chief learned of this, he was very touched and immediately organized a party member tasting group in each unit, and no longer let him take this risk.
After improper tasting, he became a propagandist again, and on the Long March Road, as long as he passed through places with many people in villages and towns, he would wear an octagonal hat and sing to the crowd while propagating the spirit of the Red Army. Attracted a lot of people to come and inquire about enlistment.
On the most day, he mobilized 37 people with 3 small partners to join the Red Army!
Although the uncle found a horse for him and his friends to ride, more often than not, the requirements for him were very strict.
Once, when the children were so hungry that they went to the river to touch the fish.
It took half a day's effort, and I didn't touch a single one. But I saw that in the field next to me, there were good potatoes.
So they dug up a few, set up a fire and roasted them to eat. He also remembered his uncle, so he took 2 and sent them to his uncle.
But as soon as the uncle saw the potato, he immediately raised his face and asked him solemnly where he came from.
When he saw his uncle's expression, he knew that he might be wrong, so he could only bow his head and writhely reply that it was dug from the ground.
As soon as he heard this, the eldest uncle became angry, patted his thigh and said sharply to him: "We are the troops of the poor, how can we steal the grain of the poor and the poor, what is the difference between this and the reactionaries?" ”
Before he could speak, the uncle pinched his ear and asked him to lead the way to the peasant's house.
The uncle took him, sincerely apologized to the peasant uncle, and also took out some money to lose to the family.
The peasant uncle said: "The Red Army is our own army, and we all know that a few children are too hungry to blame them, and I can't collect this money!" ”
But the uncle still insisted that the peasant uncle leave the money before taking him away.
Back at the camp, the uncle almost locked him up, but seeing that he had been in tears of grievance, the uncle also softened his heart, took him in his arms, and did not punish him again.
Later, when they passed through Yunnan, he saw a beautiful little flower horse, how to say, he was also at a naughty age, so he rode it by himself and had a very good time.
But when the uncle learned of this, he criticized him severely and asked him to return the horse to his master.
In October 1936, under the support of tenacious revolutionary belief, at the age of 10, he finally arrived in northern Shaanxi with the troops and after countless hardships, and successfully ended the Long March.
The eldest uncle saw that he was still young, and it was a good time to learn knowledge, so he sent him to Yan'an to study culture in primary school.
In his spare time, he still did his old business in the correspondence class, helping the chief to deliver letters from time to time.
One evening he went to deliver a letter to an organ of the Red Army, but when he reached the gate, because he was still too young, he was stopped by the members of the children's regiment standing guard and questioned him carefully.
He had to patiently explain to the children's members: "I really came to deliver the letter, I am also an old Red Army, and I also participated in the Long March!" ”
Not to say that it was okay, in this way, several children's members were even more suspicious of him, and asked: "How old are you, can you participate in the Long March, brag about it!" ”
This upset him, and as he spoke, he quarreled with a few members of the children's group.
Just as Chairman Mao was walking by here, he saw a few little dolls chattering very cutely, so he came over and kindly asked them what had happened.
A member of the children's regiment had the audacity to report to Chairman Mao: "Chief, he said he had come to deliver the letter, and he also said that he had participated in the Long March, and we did not believe him!" ”
When the chairman saw this little boy with a round face, who was also 10 years old, he was also very curious, so he jokingly asked him: "Little devil, you said that you were a Red Army and participated in the Long March. ”
"My uncle!" He answered in a loud voice.
"Who is your uncle?" Chairman Mao asked with a smile.
"It's He Long!" He replied in a loud voice again.
"It's He Beard's nephew!" Hahaha, I believe you! Gremlin. Chairman Mao laughed as he spoke.
He was Marshal He Long's nephew, Comrade Xiang Xuan.
His mother was Comrade He Long's sister, the martyr He Mangu.
His eldest aunt was Comrade He Long's sister, the martyr He Ying.
His brother-in-law was the founding lieutenant general, General Liao Hansheng.
His cousin was another nephew of Marshal He Long, Comrade Xiao Qingyun.
Full of loyal martyrs, glorious and glorious!
"Big Tiger"
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, in 1938, Comrade He Long wanted to arrange Xiang Xuan to the 715th Regiment of the 358th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army to resist Japan, but Comrade Li Wenqing, the later founding major general and then regimental commander, saw that Xiang Xuan was only 12 years old and still dissuaded Comrade He Long.
However, two years later, the 14-year-old Xiang Xuan went to the front-line troops, first as a signal officer at the headquarters of the 120th Division, and then as a soldier in the guard company of the 358th Brigade, and participated in many battles with the troops.
After many battles, Xiang Xuancheng served as the deputy company commander of the 358th Brigade Engineer Company.
During the arduous years of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he found that our army was unusually short of artillery, and the soldiers could only rely on their flesh and blood to carry the enemy's artillery fire to persist in fighting, so the casualties were very serious.
He thought that if there was a kind of improvised artillery that could cover comrades in the first line of attack, then many comrades would no longer have to die in vain.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Xiang Xuan studied and found that discarded gasoline barrels could be made into improvised artillery.
He first stuffed the barrel with explosives packages as propellant, then covered the middle with a wooden lid to seal it, and placed another explosive pack on the wooden lid as a warhead.
After it was made, he took his comrades to do many experiments, although this kind of simple artillery, the range is not enough, the accuracy is also poor, but it is used in the first line of attack, the effect is enough.
The sight of dozens or hundreds of explosive packs flying together toward the enemy's position was very shocking. Comrades-in-arms affectionately called this kind of cannon "big tiger" and "flying thunder cannon".
The Kuomintang reactionaries, who were blown up and wept wolf, called this powerful earthen cannon a "conscienceless cannon."
In the Liberation War, Xiang Xuan, who had become the commander of the engineer company, still insisted on fighting on the front line and never made a special because of his identity.
But in one battle, he was seriously injured by the enemy, not only was his body covered with shrapnel, but he was also blinded in his right eye.
When Comrade He Bingyan, the "one-armed general," reported Xiang Xuan's injuries to Comrade He Long with a feeling of guilt, Comrade He Long, although distressed and worried, still comforted Comrade He Bingyan: "It is okay if Xiang Xuan sacrifices, other people's children can be sacrificed, why can't our children be." ”
In the Liberation War, Xiang Xuan was wounded more than 20 times, and there were more than 20 pieces of shrapnel on his body, and some of them have not been removed so far.
Proletarian fighters
After the founding of New China, Xiang Xuan has been working in the Chengdu Military Region.
Chinese the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army determined that from the day Xiang Xuan took He Ying's mother's pistol and began to fight, his military age began to be calculated. As a result, Xiang Xuan became the "smallest Red Army soldier" on the mainland.
In 1955, Xiang Xuan was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel, and in 1960, he was promoted to colonel.
In 1979, when General Liao Hansheng visited the Chengdu Military Region, he reunited with Xiang Xuan, and when he learned that with his seniority, the administrative level was only at the deputy regimental level, General Liao Hansheng sighed: Too low, too low.
However, Xiang Xuan said: There are many comrades in the whole army like me, and the treatment is OK.
In 1982, Comrade Xiang Xuan left for retirement.
He had no assets and had been living in the army camp since his retirement.
Comrade Xiang Xuan, who has a 96-year-old life, has always kept firmly in mind the nurturing grace of the party and the people, always remembered that he is the child of a martyr, and always remembered the entrustment of Marshal He Long, and he is worthy of his heroic family!