Since the influx of Western progressive ideas into China, a large number of women have begun to awaken, freeing themselves from the shackles of feudal rites and religions, and bravely standing up against injustice and oppression. When the Great Revolution arose, they resolutely joined the revolutionary ranks and fought for national liberation and national prosperity, and Zhang Ruihua was one of the representative figures.
Zhang Ruihua was born in Henan, smart and astute since childhood, and has outstanding academic performance. As a young man, she was successfully admitted to a normal school, during which time she read a wide range of progressive books and periodicals, became more open-minded, and gradually transformed into a progressive. Soon after, she joined a progressive group and began some peripheral revolutionary work.
In 1925, an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal movement soon spread from Qingdao to the whole country, and Zhang Ruihua and others were inspired and took to the streets to call on everyone to unite against oppression. In pursuit of liberation, they also raised funds for the society, and the proceeds were remitted to Shanghai to support the workers' and peasants' community in their struggle against the enemy.
In 1926, the Northern Expedition conquered the three towns of Wuhan, which shook the whole country for a while, and the Kuomintang ordered some military and political personnel to open a branch campus of the Whampoa Military Academy in Hubei to train talents to supplement the revolutionary ranks. When Zhang Ruihua heard the news, she immediately went south to Wuhan, took the school's admission exam, stood out from thousands of people, and became the first batch of female students, and in the same year, she officially joined the party organization.
In May 1927, fierce fighting broke out between the Northern Expedition Army and the Henan warlord troops, and after hearing the news, Zhang Ruihua took the initiative to invite Ying to the front. However, considering that the frontline battlefield was more dangerous and not suitable for girls to participate, the superior arranged her to work in the rear and was responsible for treating the wounded. In July of that year, because the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had already shown a confrontation situation, the military academy in Wuhan was dismissed, and Zhang Ruihua was unwilling to leave the revolutionary team like this, so he joined the troops led by Ye Ting, wanting to go to Jiangxi to participate in the armed uprising.
As a result, due to some special reasons, the journey was delayed, and by the time she and her comrades arrived in Nanchang, the rebel troops had already moved south to Guangdong. She and her comrades immediately went south, secretly infiltrated the city of Guangzhou and participated in the great uprising led by the CCP. The timing of this uprising was not ripe, and the rebel troops suffered heavy casualties under the joint strangling of the enemy, and the remnants were forced to withdraw from Guangzhou and hide in the remote mountains and forests to preserve their strength.
Zhang Ruihua also quietly went underground under the arrangement of the party organization and ran around Guangdong to pass on intelligence. At that time, her superior leader was Nie Shuai, and the two actually met when they were in Wuhan, and Nie Shuai was an instructor at the military academy at the time and gave her many lessons. When the two worked together in Guangdong, they got closer and closer, and finally entered the palace of marriage and married a revolutionary couple, when Zhang Ruihua was only 19 years old.
The married life of the two is very sweet, when there are no tasks, they will hang out on the streets arm in arm, watch the crowds, and enjoy the sunset. Soon after, however, the revolutionary situation suddenly became grim, and Nie Shuai was transferred to Jiangxi to command the Red Army against the enemy, while Zhang Ruihua was left in Shanghai to continue his underground work. In the decades that followed, the two got together less and separated more, but Zhang Ruihua did not complain at all, and while doing some housework, raising children, she did her best to support the revolution and contribute to the cause of communism.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Ruihua worked in a number of key departments, fully promoting the development of New China on the right track. In 1978, at the age of 69, she was elected as a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, retired in the mid-to-late 80s, and died of illness in 1995 at the age of 86. Zhang Ruihua's daughter Nie Li was also a woman who signed up for the army as a young man and was later awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Her son-in-law was a famous scientist who was later elected to the Academy of Engineering and awarded the rank of general.
Comrade Zhang Ruihua is one of the outstanding women in modern Chinese history, and although she was born into a feudal family, she did not want to be bound for the rest of her life. Inspired by progressive ideas, she resolutely threw herself into the revolutionary ranks and firmly walked on the road of communism. No matter how many hardships and twists and turns she encountered, she never deviated from her ideals, and finally joined hands with her comrades to realize the great ideal of communism and establish a free and democratic new China.