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Text: Yu Yu
Edited by Yu Yu
【Foreword】
During the Republic of China, there was a year-old love that shocked the world, a 17-year-old girl, in the mood for love, married a 54-year-old army colonel Cheng Qian.
In the eyes of outsiders, this relationship has become a "everyone takes what they need" relationship, during which Guo Jiqing, as his wife, became pregnant a total of 16 times, but only 6 children survived.
In that era of the alternation of the old and the new, many people's marriages were in stark contrast, some of them obeyed traditional etiquette and decided for life according to the arrangement of their parents at home, while some young people who accepted advanced ideas were full of struggle against the old system in marriage.
It is obvious that the wedding of Cheng Qian and Guo Jiqing belongs to the latter, and after getting married, Guo Jiqing has disliked this husband who can be his father for a long time.
However, in Guo Jiqing's later years, she said that her marriage was very happy, and the husband and wife were buried together in Babaoshan.
What are the stories of this year-old love? Why did Guo Jiqing dislike it in every way from the beginning, and bluntly said that he never regretted it in the end?
[Do you take what you need or do you look at each other? 】
We go back in time to 1936, when the 17-year-old daughter Guo Jiqing and Cheng Qian, who was 37 years older than him, completed their wedding.
After all, this marriage is run by the families of both parties, and all Guo Jiqing knows is Cheng Qian's age and his identity as a general.
Therefore, in Guo Jiqing's reverie, his lifelong events will be handed over to a "bad old man", which is undoubtedly a sad thing for a teenage girl.
But the moment Cheng Qian lifted the red hijab, Guo Jiqing's thinking suddenly changed slightly, looking at Cheng Qian in front of her, it seemed that all the bad things she had imagined would not happen.
Of course, Cheng Qian, who is 54 years old, naturally does not know any "disguise technique", what can make Guo Jiqing fall in love is probably Cheng Qian's literati atmosphere and the military temperament cultivated in the army.
However, in Guo Jiqing's heart, there is still a feeling of unwillingness, no matter how good Cheng Qian is, the age of the two is always a high wall that cannot be eliminated.
Moreover, since the marriage, the outside world has also blindly cracked down on the marriage between the two, especially some progressive young people, who regard the relationship between the two as "the drawbacks of the old system".
For these remarks, the most important thing is the life of the two people, after entering the Cheng family, the "open and secret fights" that Guo Jiqing was worried about did not happen, but a large family respected this new daughter-in-law very much.
After a long time, Guo Jiqing is also familiar with this new environment, and after no ideological baggage, the relationship between the two has become more and more intimate, and they have become a model couple.
Cheng Qian, who was busy with military affairs at that time, would often be away from home for a long time, in order to make up for the "little wife" at home, every time before going home, Cheng Qian would prepare some small gifts to please Guo Jiqing.
It's a pity that the two have been together for 33 years, Guo Jiqing has been pregnant a total of 16 times, and the conditions at that time are limited, and in the end only 6 daughters were left.
Including after Cheng Qian's death, Guo Jiqing had no plans to remarry, and stayed alone for life, and finally slept peacefully with her husband in Babaoshan.
Although he is a general, he almost always works in the system of the national army, how can he be qualified to "stay" in Babaoshan?
【Cheng Qian's Life】
In fact, not long after the marriage, there were already big cracks in the national army, and Cheng Qian, who was in a high position at the time, also predicted the fact that the national army was about to collapse.
At that time, many Kuomintang officials were engaged in corruption, and some of Cheng Qian's colleagues also wanted to pull him to sink together, but Cheng Qian was not interested in this, but secretly contacted our Communist Party after a lot of hardships.
Through the cooperation between the two sides, Cheng Qian soon helped the Communists liberate the Hunan region, and the local people were thus protected from the effects of the war.
Chiang Kai-shek, who began to retreat, urgently recalled a number of generals of the national army, and in the face of the instructions of the veteran, Cheng Qian was unmoved and chose to stay on the mainland.
Because in his eyes, the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek were already at the end of the road, and there was no reason to continue to follow, and he began to dedicate the second half of his life to the people after defecting to the Communist Party.
Thanks to this, after Cheng Qian's death, he was also awarded a medal and buried in Babao Mountain, where the "revolutionary martyrs" lived, which may make people think that Cheng Qian just made a right choice, but looking at his past, you will understand that in fact, from the beginning he put his family and country into his heart.
When he was 21 years old, Cheng Qian entered the "Hunan Wubei School" with excellent results, and then he was specially sent to Japan for further study.
During his time in Japan, Cheng Qian got acquainted with a group of patriots, and followed Mr. Zhongshan for a period of time, and after learning about Yuan Shikai's ugly state of mind, he resolutely joined the Protectorate War.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Cheng Qian was appointed to become the commander of the First Theater of Operations, and won the "Battle of Taierzhuang" with Li Zongren.
This is enough to prove that Cheng Qian is in the Kuomintang, but he has never changed his love for the country, as a soldier, although he does not have too much romance for his wife, but he has paid a lot for the country.
At Cheng Qian's memorial service, many revolutionary ancestors in the mainland were present, and Premier Zhou personally came to Cheng Qian's home to mourn, at this moment, Guo Jiqing suddenly stopped Premier Zhou, what happened?
[Defend your husband for life]
At Cheng Qian's memorial service, as soon as Guo Jiqing saw Premier Zhou appear, he immediately grabbed Premier Zhou and asked, "What is Cheng Qian's identity?" ”
Of course, Guo Jiqing asked this question naturally to ask for a reasonable name for her husband, and Premier Zhou also responded very firmly to Guo Jiqing's question, saying that Cheng Qian is a great revolutionary cadre.
At the same time, in Premier Zhou's words, Cheng Qian's family was also classified as a "revolutionary family", indicating that the country was very grateful to Cheng Qian for his lifelong contributions to the country.
It can also be seen from this incident that Guo Jiqing's reluctance from the beginning has become a wife who cares about her husband, but at the beginning, this marriage almost ended without a problem.
As we said earlier, when the two got married, Guo Jiqing was only 17 years old, but at that time, 17 years old still became the object of the family's anxious marriage.
However, the difference is that Guo Jiqing was born in a rich family, and although her family has a lot of old-style systems, it has exposed her to a lot of new-style education.
At first, she was very opposed to her parents arranging her marriage, especially when she learned that the other party was so much older than herself, which added to her resistance.
In Guo Jiqing's original plan, she didn't want to get married early, her wish was to take advantage of her young age to take a few more years to learn new ideas, and in the future, she could meet a person of the opposite sex who had the same interests as herself.
So after receiving the news from her family, Guo Jiqing began to resist extremely, in addition to hunger strikes, suicide and other means, and even had the experience of escaping.
However, these did not change the final result in the end, looking at the tears of his mother's prayer, Guo Jiqing finally accepted the reality and walked into the door of the Cheng family with despair.
We also know the rest of the matter, General Cheng Qian naturally did not live up to this "little wife", but because of his protection, all his family members including Guo Jiqing were able to survive the war safely.
So after Cheng Qian's death, what kind of life did Guo Jiqing live?
[Guo Jiqing's ending in his later years]
After ending her married life, Guo Jiqing also lost her biggest support, looking at the 6 children in front of her, she did not feel hopeless.
Guo Jiqing, who has been protected for most of her life, is now also taking on the responsibility of raising her children, and many people around her persuaded her to find another person to raise her children with at the beginning.
But in the face of these statements, she rejected them one by one, in order to protect the happy memories of herself and her husband.
After that, Chairman Mao also specially summoned Guo Jiqing to inquire about the current situation, and under the influence of her husband, Guo Jiqing was neither humble nor arrogant in the face of Chairman Mao, showing Cheng Qian's military complex before his death.
At that time, although Guo Jiqing was already over half a hundred years old, she still couldn't forget the tragic situation of herself and the women she saw under the feudal system, so she joined the Women's Federation to fight for the interests that belonged to them for the majority of women in New China.
Later, when he was interviewed by reporters, he was also asked about the story of himself and General Cheng Qian, and Guo Jiqing did not recount too much about this question, but simply replied "I don't regret it".
As descendants, we actually know that although for Guo Jiqing at the beginning, this marriage was full of "feudal colors", but the good thing is that he met a revolutionary general like Cheng Qian, who loves his family and country, which makes their marriage very happy.
【Conclusion】
The story of Guo Jiqing and Cheng Qian integrates the conflict between traditional marriage and the new system, including Guo Jiqing's later years, which also made a lot of contributions to improving the status of women in society.
For Cheng Qian, he is undoubtedly an indelible patriotic general in the history of the mainland, even if he was in the national army at the beginning, but after realizing the wrong development direction of the national army, he immediately chose to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, which is also worthy of praise from our descendants.
Now that the husband and wife are reunited in Babaoshan, it is also the country's greatest respect for the two, and it also allows future generations to know the story behind this tombstone.
No matter how many years have passed, I think the love story of Guo Jiqing and Cheng Qian will be passed on by word of mouth, and under the reflection of generations, this love full of sadness but very happy will also be remembered by more people.
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