——My half-life complex with the martyr Zhang Chaoxin
Xie Shihua
Inscription: This is a fresh historical material of the Xincai Liberation War.
On the morning of April 3, 2024, the rain passed and the sky was clear, and the wind and sun were beautiful. The long-awaited "Zhang Chaoxin Martyrs Cemetery Inauguration Ceremony and Jiachen Qingming Public Memorial Ceremony" was held in Songgang Township, Xincai County, second-level inspectors, Chen Xuegong, president of the County Association for the Promotion of the Elderly, Vice President Shui Shifu and some directors, the county procuratorate, the Veterans Affairs Bureau, the Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the leaders of the Historical Research Office and the leaders of the Songgang Township Party and Government Comrades, agency staff, representatives of donation entrepreneurs, representatives of the descendants of martyrs, Songgang Village Party members and cadres, and representatives of teachers and students of primary and secondary schools More than 100 people attended the inauguration ceremony and public memorial ceremony.
President Chen Xuegong delivered a speech
As the initiator and participant of this project, the author was invited to write the inscriptions "Zhang Chaoxin and Xu Guangcai's Righteous History" and "Zhang Chaoxin Cemetery Construction Tablet", and at the public memorial ceremony, I orally introduced my half-life complex with Zhang Chaoxin and the "Xuzhai Incident" and the sacrifice of Zhang Chaoxin's martyrs.
Teachers and students in Songgang Township visited Zhang Chaoxin Cemetery for the first time (photo by Xie Shihua)
I am 62 years old this year, and although I have no chance to meet and coexist with the martyr Zhang Chaoxin, I have long formed a complex. As early as 50 years ago, around 1974, when I was in elementary school in my hometown of Liancun, I heard from my second brother who was in junior high school about the moving deeds of Zhang Chaoxin, a martyr who was not afraid of a guillotine and bravely served righteousness, which happened in Songgangji, 30 miles away. In 1978, when I was admitted to the county high school, I often walked past Songgang and always wanted to see where Zhang Chaoxin's tomb was? At that time, as long as I found tombstones on both sides of the Songgang Highway, I wanted to go over to see what was going on, but I never found anything related to Zhang Chaoxin, and I didn't know who to ask about it? I couldn't help but be a little disappointed.
More than 30 years have passed, and I have been transferred from the township to the Propaganda Department of the county party committee to preside over literary and artistic work, and I like to engage in literary and historical research. He was invited to review the first and second volumes of "The History of Xincai County of the Communist Party of China" and found that Zhang Chaoxin's death was mentioned in only one sentence: "(1948) July...... Liu Hongwen's bandit troops attacked the local government of the Democratic District, killed four cadres, and dragged Zhang Chaoxin, an instructor of the district squadron, to Songgang and died. Which district does "local" refer to? The specific circumstances of Zhang Chaoxin's arrest are not clear. In August 2013, at the invitation of the County Old Area Construction Promotion Association, the author was instructed to edit the book "Xincai Revolutionary Old Area", and was pleased to see a more detailed new historical material - "Zhang Chaoxin's Martyr Sacrifice Experience", which was written by Wang Xiushan and Feng Yunsheng of the Songgang Township Old People's Promotion Association in July 2012.
Zhang Chaoxin's tombstone in the martyr's cemetery (photo by Xie Shihua)
In the early summer of 2022, in order to meet the needs of the public memorial on Martyrs' Day, the county decided to build a martyr's cemetery on the east side of the Xiaolizhuang Incident Memorial Hall, but it could only accommodate 21 tombs. Therefore, I sorted out the deeds of more than 360 revolutionary martyrs who sacrificed in various historical stages of this county, and firmly believed that martyr Zhang Chaoxin was a revolutionary hero of Liu Hulan's style, and one of the most representative revolutionary martyrs in Xincai County during the Liberation War, and should be selected.
However, further research found that there are still many details of "The Sacrifice of Zhang Chaoxin's Martyrs" written by Feng Yunsheng and others. So, I decided to visit Xuzhai Village, Jiantou Township, where Zhang Chaoxin was arrested.
But there is more than one Xuzhai in Jiantou Township, so we should go to that Xuzhai to find it? Coincidentally, as soon as I inquired with my friend Xu Xuejie, I immediately found Xu Daoxian, a 14-year-old (born in October 1935, a pig) villager in Xuzhai who was arrested by Zhang Chaoxin -- a witness to the "Xuzhai Incident" in history.
On the afternoon of July 10, 2022, my wife (driving) and I, accompanied by Xu Xuejie, braved the scorching heat to visit Xu Xuejie's 88-year-old father, Xu Daoxian. As soon as I entered the hospital and sat down in the shade of a tree, the torrential rain poured down, which quickly relieved the scorching heat. We moved to the entrance of the hall and listened to the old man Xu Daoxian give a detailed account of the "Xuzhai Incident" he had personally experienced and what he had heard about the killing of Zhang Chaoxin.
The author interviewed Xu Daoxian. Photo by Xiong Xinzhi
Following the clues provided by Xu Daoxian, on the afternoon of July 25, I made an appointment in the studio to visit Xu Huajun (born in 1973, a primary school teacher), the grandson of Xu Guangcai, the chairman of the village peasant association, who was in the same time as Zhang Chaoxin. On the afternoon of July 31, Xu Guangcai's niece Xu Suping (born in 1947, an old folk teacher) who lived with her children in Zhengzhou was interviewed through Xu Huajun's mobile phone at Wenjin Pavilion, and through Xu Huajun, he indirectly interviewed his mother Chen Yuying (born in 1944) and neighbor Xu Guofu (84 years old, the oldest living person in the village). On the afternoon of August 1, he went to Songgang Township with Xu Huajun, and accompanied by Wang Lei, secretary of the township party committee, and others, he asked Feng Yunsheng to verify the relevant details, and found out that the accomplice who killed Zhang Chaoxin was not surnamed Li, but Zhang Zetian from Dudian Village, Songgang Township.
According to Xu Daoxian's oral account, the time when Zhang Chaoxin was killed was not the tenth day of June 1948 as investigated by Feng Yunsheng, but the tenth day of July 1948 (August 14 of the solar calendar) - because Xu Daoxian clearly remembered that the night when the bandits searched for "white-faced Lao Zhang" was the night of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month - Qixi Festival, and the fourth day was taken to Songgangji to be killed, which should be the tenth day of the seventh month. Xu Daoxian also provided a corroborating detail - not long after the "Xuzhai Incident" occurred, the "Tianzhai Incident" occurred in Jiantou Township - the Linquan County Brigade that had just returned from the border of Xin (Cai) Xi (County) was ambushed by the enemy when passing through Tianzhai, and 24 officers and soldiers were unfortunately killed, and the people were harvesting sesame seeds at that time - this time node also proves that the time of Zhang Chaoxin's sacrifice should be the tenth day of the seventh month, not the tenth day of June - because the tenth day of June is not yet the time to harvest sesame seeds. In order to further understand Zhang Chaoxin's life experience, I also bought a copy of "Cao County Chronicles" at my own expense, but unfortunately I didn't find any valuable clues.
Based on the above investigation and research, the beginning and end of the "Xuzhai Incident" and the martyrdom of Zhang Chaoxin that I know are as follows:
Xu Zhai, because the surname Xu built a village here in the early Ming Dynasty and got its name. Because the village was built earlier than another Xu village in this township (Jiantou Township, Xincai County), and the scale is larger than it, it is also called Da Xu Village. Before liberation, there were more than 10 families with the surnames of Xu, Guo, Wang, Liu, Mo, Hong, etc., and the owner of the village, Xu Huamian, had protective facilities such as ditches, walls, and turrets around the village. Due to the unity of the villagers and the repair of the inside and outside, Xuzhai has never been broken by bandits. Every evening, the poor people from neighboring villages are allowed to bring their families and belongings to the village to avoid banditry, which is called "running back".
In early August 1948, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were still in a state of see-saw with the Honghe River as the boundary: the remnants of the Kuomintang established the Xincai Suppression Communist Headquarters and the four joint defense districts of the east, west, south, and north, occupying most of the territory on the south bank of the Honghe River; the democratic government of the Communist Party of China in Xincai established 12 district regimes (including Qinzhuan District, Yuhan District, and Chenfo District, which were established in mid-February 1948 and were under the jurisdiction of Ruzheng County established by the Southwest Working Committee of the Henan-Anhui and Soviet Prefecture Committees; Huazhuang District, Liting District, Wangcheng District was established in March 1948, initially under the establishment of the patriotic democratic government of Xincai County, in late June 1948, the four prefectural committees of Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu abolished the patriotic democratic government of Xincai County, and transferred Huazhuang District and Liting District to Quannan County, and transferred Wangcheng District to Linquan County, and in November of the same year, it was established as Xincai County; Chengguan District, Liqiao District, Tangzhuang District, Bianzhuang District, Pingpu District, and Yanhu District were established in late May 1948, and were under the jurisdiction of the Xincai County Democratic Government under the eight prefectural committees of Henan, Anhui and Suzhou), and controlled most of the places north of the Honghe River and southwest of the city.
Zhang Chaoxin, an instructor of a company in the 4th Division of the Henan-Anhui Soviet Military Region, can write and paint, is good at doing mass work, and followed Liu Deng's army south into Xincai, serving as an instructor of the squadron in Liting District (then Quannan County). At the beginning, he carried out work in the area of Chenzhuang, Hanji Township, and later transferred to Daxu Village, Jiantou Township, to carry out rent and interest reduction, anti-hegemony and front-support work. Xu Guangcai, a villager of Xulou one mile east of Daxuzhai Village, was elected as the chairman of the village peasant association because of his eagerness, righteousness and helpfulness. Chen Yuying, who later became Xu Guangcai's daughter-in-law, is a native of Chenzhuang Village, Hanji Town, and Chen Xuegong, president of the County Association for the Promotion of the Elderly, is from the same village and clan. 79-year-old Chen Yuying vaguely retains the memory of a child when she was 5 years old: I know "white-faced Lao Zhang", who is not tall.
On the evening of August 10, 1948, coinciding with the Lunar Qixi Festival, Zhang Chaoxin heard that the remnants of the Kuomintang had an attempt to attack Daxuzhai, and planned to convene a militia meeting to strengthen the defense. That night, the traitor Zhan Junfu (1907-1953), deputy chief of the county and joint defense director of the Southern District, ordered the bandit leaders Liu Hongwen and Wang Youmin to gather more than 100 bandits, and under the leadership of Mei Cuifu, the leader of the Guanjin bandits, quietly surrounded Xuzhai, the garrison of the Liting District squadron, and then bribed the bandits who had secretly joined the neighboring villages to enter the village as rebels, waiting for the opportunity to set fire to create chaos, so as to attract the progressive masses of the neighboring villages to come to fight the fire, so that more bandits could take the opportunity to blend into the village. Liu Qi (Liu Fengji), the tenant of the owner of the village, Xu Huamian, found out that the fire was on fire and did not know what to do, so he hurriedly climbed to the gate of the village and shouted for firefighting. Xu Guangcai, who lives in Xu Lou, was arrested by bandits as soon as he entered the walled gate. Squad leader Chen of the district squadron found an abnormality, broke through with a bald little soldier for help, and killed four bandits (all from the south bank of the Honghe River), and the little soldier was unfortunately shot and died. Xu Huaming, the militia captain of Xuzhai Village, Xu Huafeng, a militiaman, and Lao Guo, a tenant, were killed by bandits because they were actively fighting fires. Then, the bandits drove the villagers and their neighbors to the empty field in the middle of the village, moved a table as a rostrum, lit incense sticks on the rostrum, and sternly took the "instructor of the Eighth Route Army surnamed Zhang", and if the incense was not handed over, the whole village would be burned down. But the villagers paid no attention. Xu Guangcai and his younger brothers Xu Guangxuan, Xu Guozhi, and Xu Guoqing, and Xu Huaren, Xu Huabei, Xu Guangying, and Ma Tongsheng, villagers of Xuzhai were also arrested on the spot. The bandits wanted to dig deeper, but when they heard the sound of gunfire outside, they were worried that they would be surrounded by reinforcements from the Eighth Route Army, so they hastily withdrew from Xuzhai and moved to camp in Duwan Village, Songgang Township that night, and then transferred to Guanjin the next day to be imprisoned.
The bandits tortured Zhang Chaoxin and Xu Guangcai to extract confessions, but found nothing.
On the morning of August 14, Zhang Chaoxin and Xu Guangcai were escorted to a clay stage on the west side of the Songgang Laoji to show the public. Zhang Chaoxin was not afraid of the torture knife under the stage, and made a generous statement: "My name is Zhang Chaoxin, a native of Cao County, Shandong, who joined the revolution at the age of 16 and is a company instructor of the People's Liberation Army. The great forces of the Communists were about to come, and our slogan was: 'Cross the Yangtze River, capture Chiang Kai-shek alive, and liberate all of China!' They killed us today, and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow someone will settle accounts with them. The enemy is the grasshopper of the autumn queen—I can't jump for a few days! Now I die for the toiling masses, and die a glorious death!" As soon as he said this, the bandits pushed him off the table and pressed him down the table with his guillotine.
Beforehand, the bandits prepared a guillotine for Song Gangji blacksmith Du Zhiping to sharpen it a little faster. When Du Zhiping heard that the bandits wanted to use a guillotine to sharpen the Communist Party, he refused to help the bandits sharpen their knives. Later, under the coercion of the bandits, he hastily grinded a few times and dealt with the matter. Zhang Chaoxin held his head high, shouted slogans, and was forced to the guillotine by the bandits. However, the execution bandit surnamed Zhang was weak and frightened, and the guillotine was not sharpened well, so he failed to press the guillotine several times, but was splashed with blood, and he was so frightened that he did not dare to do it again. The witnesses all bowed their heads and closed their teary eyes, unable to bear to witness this tragic scene. When the bandit leader saw this, he threw a large ocean in front of the guillotine, and claimed that whoever cut off the head of "Zhang Balu" would be rewarded with a large ocean (silver dollar). At this time, a young man walked out of the crowd, stomped on the back of the guillotine knife with his foot, knocked off Zhang Chaoxin's head, and then picked up the ocean and walked away.
Then, the bandits demanded that Xu Guangcai, the unyielding chairman of the peasant association, and his younger brother Xu Guangxuan (born in 1925) had already turned black with fright and collapsed to the ground, so that people later asked him how Xu Guangcai died. When the bandits wanted Xu Guangcai, a cook in Huamiao Village, Tangcun Town, who was coerced into the bandits' den to cook, couldn't bear Xu Guangcai being killed because he knew his neighbor Xu Guangcai and admired his personality, so he snatched a gun from the bandits, said, "I'll fulfill him!", and shot Xu Guangcai to death.
Zhang Chaoxin, Xu Guangcai's original cemetery (provided by Wang Lei)
That night, the masses secretly buried the remains of the two on the mass grave in the south of the north depression of Yezhuang. In order to prevent the enemy from sabotage, no graves were left. Later, people planted six poplar trees as markers.
According to the legend of the masses, many uninvited businessmen came to Songgang that day, some sold plasters, some sold twist flowers, and some set up stalls, and the Communist Party sent people to rob the Dharma field. Due to the large number of bandit guerrillas (about 100 people), the venue was surrounded by sentry posts, and there were mobile sentry posts one mile away from Songgangji. In addition, there were too many people at the venue, so they did not rob the Dharma field for fear of hurting the masses.
Among the arrested villagers, Xu Daoxian's father, Xu Huaren (b. 1911), who was also a poor man, broke free the next day while the bandits were having lunch in Duwan and the guards were lax (the bandits tied him to a purlin lying flat on the ground with his trouser belt), swam naked across the Dahong River, and escaped by burrowing into the crops; After that, the rich peasant Xu Huabei spent 20 yuan to be redeemed, the poor farmer Xu Guangying spent 6 yuan to be redeemed, and the tenant Ma Tongsheng redeemed it with a calf. The bandits wanted to kill Xu Guangcai's younger brother Xu Huaxuan (24 years old at the time), but some people felt that he was not the backbone of the Communist Party, and persuaded him: "Forget it, let him live." Xu Huaxuan was then released and went home.
Zhang Chaoxin's fiancée, Shi Mou, is also a revolutionary cadre, and went to Xuzhai to investigate Zhang Chaoxin's arrest and sacrifice, and lived in Xu Daoxian's house for seven days. Xu Daoxian remembers that she "kept her hair cut and was about 20 years old". Later, she went to Songgang to do an investigation, and found out that the accomplice who killed Zhang Chaoxin was called Zhang Zetian, a native of Dudian Village, Songgang Township. One day, Zhang Zetian was playing tricks on the clay stage where Zhang Chaoxin was righteous, when he was restrained by our soldiers on the stage, and a public trial meeting was held on the spot, the guilt was announced, and the execution was executed. Shi also took the stage to introduce Zhang Chaoxin's life deeds and preach the great significance of Zhang Chaoxin's death for the interests of the people.
This was the "Xuzhai Incident" in which 4 enemies were killed and 6 of our soldiers and civilians were sacrificed.
From left: Xie Shihua, Feng Yunsheng, Sun Cen, deputy county magistrate and secretary of the Songgang Township Party Committee, Chen Xuegong, president of the County Association for the Promotion of the Elderly, and Wang Xuezheng, director of the County Veterans Affairs Bureau, jointly inspected the cemetery of Zhang Chaoxin and Xu Guangcai on the afternoon of March 30, 2023. Courtesy of Wang Lei.
After figuring out the cause of the "Xuzhai Incident", I solemnly suggested to the leaders of the County Association for the Promotion of the Elderly: New China has been established for more than 70 years, and we should build a commemorative facility for the revolutionary martyr Zhang Chaoxin of Liu Hulan and Comrade Xu Guangcai, the chairman of the peasant association who was arrested and sacrificed at the same time, so as to "carry forward the red culture and inherit the red gene", which was highly valued by Chen Xuegong, president of the County Association for the Promotion of the Elderly, and the Veterans Affairs Bureau, the Songgang Township Party Committee, With the strong support of the government, the county procuratorate also issued a procuratorial suggestion in a timely manner, and the Association for the Promotion of the Elderly also mobilized private entrepreneurs to donate 100,000 yuan to support the construction of the project. It lasted half a year and was completed. The cemetery covers an area of 96 square meters, with a memorial square and green facilities totaling about 1,830 square meters, which can comfort the martyrs and comply with the people's will.
Thus, we saw the exciting prosperity at the beginning of the article.
Fifty years ago, a story told by my second brother laid the foundation for a half-life relationship between me and martyr Zhang Chaoxin; fifty years later, we are all gone, and there will still be people who remember martyr Zhang Chaoxin. This is not only a reward for the revolutionary martyrs, but also a kind of comfort for one's soul.
Passing on the torch from generation to generation!
The first draft will be published on April 6, 2024, and will be supplemented and improved on April 9, 2024.
About author:Xie Shihua, former deputy director of the Propaganda Department of Xincai County Party Committee and chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, retired third-level researcher. He is currently the chairman of the Xincai County Writers Association, a member of the Standing Committee of the County Political Consultative Conference, and an executive director of the County Old Area Construction Promotion Association. He has successively joined the Henan Writers Association, the Chinese Poetry Society, the China Folk Literature and Art Association and other groups. He has won more than ten personal honors above the municipal level, such as the first batch of "four batches" of literary and artistic talents in Zhumadian City and the second "Star of Filial Piety" in Henan Province.