In the Spring Festival of 1943, in Beiyan Village, Pingshan County, Hebei Province, in a simple farmhouse, the comrades of the Eighth Route Army were organizing a wedding.
It was Xiao Feng, the political commissar of the Old Fifth Regiment, and Gong Xirui, a female comrade from the Propaganda Department of the county party committee, who got married, but what is surprising is that the wedding has been prepared for a long time, but the groom went out to fight and did not return for a long time.
Finally, in the evening, Xiao Feng came back with the centaurs, and brought them back
A large number of seizures, including canned food, candy, and cigarettes from the Japanese army, everyone was happy, and this wedding banquet was very enjoyable.
On the day of the wedding, the groom came back with the seizure, as the bride Gong Xirui, it was also quite face-saving, after sending off the celebrants, she sat on the edge of the kang, waiting for Xiao Feng to come and talk to her.
But what she didn't expect was that Xiao Feng, who returned to the house, didn't seem to notice the existence of her bride, walked to the table alone, took out a small notebook, and concentrated on writing something, which made Gong Xirui feel funny.
Before marriage, she had been in contact with Xiao Feng for a period of time, and she also had a certain understanding of him, knowing that this person had not been in school for a day, and he was dressed as a "scholar" on the wedding night, Gong Xirui thought he was shy, so he sat and waited for him.
But who would have thought that Xiao Feng's writing would take a long time, and Gong Xirui, who was waiting, woke up from a sleep, and he hadn't finished writing yet.
Not only that, Gong Xirui, who woke up, also saw that Xiao Feng was crying while writing, which made her heart chuckle, and she hurriedly leaned over and asked Xiao Feng: "What's wrong?" You...... Don't you like me? ”。
Hearing Gong Xirui speak, Xiao Feng was shocked to realize that there was another person in the room, realizing that he was out of shape, he hurriedly wiped away his tears and said to Gong Xirui: "Where do you want to go, I really like you!" ”。
Xiao Feng told Gong Xirui that he has been in the habit of writing a diary for more than ten years, and this habit was established by his deceased wife Maggie Xiao for her, and on this wedding night, he thought of her again.
Afraid that Gong Xirui would misunderstand, Xiao Feng told her the story of him and Maggie Xiao.
Xiao Feng, formerly known as Xiao Zhongwei, a native of Nanxi Township, Taihe County, Jiangsu, was born in a local farming family, lost his father at the age of 6, in order to survive, he could only make crutches for his blind mother, and begged around with his mother.
When he was a little older, he was sent to herd cattle for the landlord's family, and in the midst of hunger and cold, he was 9 years old, and under the introduction of relatives, he went to a tailor's shop 10 miles away from home to learn tailoring.
The old tailor was not kind to Xiao Feng, he completely treated him as a slave, and even beat him with an iron ruler because he accidentally broke a needle.
Although he suffered many humiliations, he could only endure in order to learn a trade to earn a living.
In the tailor shop, the only thing that pleased Xiao Feng was that he met Maggie Xiao, the girl next door to the tailor shop.
Maggie Xiao is slightly younger than Xiao Feng, has a wealthy family, and was sent to the school by her parents to study, and often plays with Xiao Feng after school or holidays.
Maggie Xiao is not only beautiful, but also has an excellent heart, she never looks down on Xiao Feng, who is from a low background, and in her spare time, she will teach Xiao Feng to read and recite ancient poems, and also give Xiao Feng her old textbooks and pencil heads to let him practice by himself.
Maggie Xiao's actions made Xiao Feng extremely grateful, in order to repay Maggie Xiao, Xiao Feng would secretly cut clothes for Maggie Xiao, and the two children got along very happily.
In the blink of an eye, 1927, the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising broke out one after another, and the flame of revolution also spread to Ji'an, Taihe,
One day in October of this year, Maggie Xiao mysteriously called Xiao Feng out of the tailor's shop: "Brother Zhongyu, are you afraid of death?" ”。
Hearing this, Xiao Feng was stunned, thinking that Maggie Xiao had encountered something and needed to give her a head by herself, so he immediately replied: "Don't be afraid, what are you doing?" ”。
"Do you dare to go with me to the Autumn Harvest Rebellion?" , Maggie Xiao asked expectantly.
As soon as he heard that he was going to fight, Xiao Feng smiled, he practiced martial arts with his uncle when he was a child, and he could play a sabre, Maggie Xiao was not afraid, would he be afraid? So I agreed.
In the following days, Xiao Feng didn't go to work in the tailor shop, so he followed Maggie Xiao and went around to contact people, and on the day of the riot, they actually pulled up a team of 42 children.
At that time, Xiao Feng was only 13 years old, and Maggie Xiao was even younger.
At the beginning of 1928, Xiao Feng and Maggie Xiao gathered the children in their hometown and established the "First Squad of the Taihe Guerrillas", with Xiao Feng as the team leader, and Maggie Xiao did not hold a position because she wanted to study.
This guerrilla squad is, in fact, a children's regiment.
In May 1928, under the leadership of Xiao Feng, the guerrilla squad fought a victory, which made the children excited, and when the summary meeting was held, some people proposed to record their brilliant achievements, who was a hero, which performed well, and wrote it clearly, as a "combat history"
Among the children, only Xiao Feng barely knew a few words, and this heavy responsibility fell on his head, so Xiao Feng began to write the first "text" in his life.
This "text" is very short, only about 200 words, but Xiao Feng wrote it for 3 hours, and one of the less than half words was replaced by symbols that only he could understand.
But even so, when he read it to his friends the next day, the friends praised him for writing well one by one, and asked him to continue to do it!
was praised by his friends, Xiao Feng was very happy, but he could ask him to write a "battle record", which was difficult for him, because he knew too few words.
Fortunately, a month later, Maggie Shaw graduated from school and also joined the guerrillas, and he immediately found her and asked her to help revise the diary.
Knowing what Xiao Feng did, Maggie Shaw was fully supportive, and she told Xiao Feng that she could record what happened every day in the form of a diary.
As for the lack of literacy, this is easy to do, she set a goal for him, teach him 20 words a day, he must learn!
Seeing that Maggie Xiao was willing to help him, Xiao Feng was happy to jump three feet high, no matter how busy and tired he was, Xiao Feng couldn't learn 20 words a day.
Under Maggie Xiao's teaching, Xiao Feng has made rapid progress, but how easy is it to know all the words? Besides, Maggie Xiao is also a child in her early 10s, how many words can she know?
After Xiao Feng knew most of the commonly used words, Maggie Xiao taught him a simple "cultural lesson", and slowly, Xiao Feng was able to read newspapers and understand documents.
One of them taught seriously, the other learned seriously, and their feelings also improved little by little, and gradually developed in the direction of love.
In the autumn of 1929, Xiao Feng and Maggie Xiao took more than 200 team members to participate in the attack on Luojiaxu, which was also the first time Xiao Feng was injured, a bullet hit his thigh, bleeding profusely, Xiao Feng fainted.
When he woke up, he had been carried back to the guerrilla brigade by his comrades, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Maggie Shaw sitting in front of the window, looking at his diary and weeping in the dim light.
Seeing him wake up, Maggie Xiao wiped away the tears on her face and said to him: "Brother Zhongyu, I made up for you today's diary." After that, he read it to Xiao Feng......
In 1932, with the blessing of comrades, 16-year-old Xiao Feng tied the knot with the younger Maggie Siao.
Because of their outstanding performance, not long after their marriage, the couple was sent to study at the Lenin School in Ruijin, the holy land of the revolution.
In Ruijin, Maggie Xiao bought Xiao Feng a dictionary, which made it easier for him to recognize and understand the meaning of words.
With the help of this dictionary, Xiao Feng read the Communist Manifesto for the first time and understood its meaning.
After studying in Ruijin for half a year, they were ready to return to the station, but unexpectedly, the central government made temporary arrangements to ask Xiao Feng to continue to study in the party school, and Maggie Xiao could only return alone.
In that war-torn era, once separated, it was possible to part with life and death, and when sending Maggie Shaw away, Xiao Feng was reluctant.
At this time, Maggie Shaw told him another good news, that is, she was pregnant.
Xiao Feng was surprised and delighted to learn that he was about to become a father, and he immediately wanted to report to the organization and go back with Maggie Xiao, but was stopped by Maggie Xiao.
Because being able to study in Ruijin is the cultivation of the party, in the future, Xiao Feng can make greater contributions to the revolutionary cause!
After the separation, Xiao Feng, who stayed in Ruijin, missed his wife all the time, and half a year later, he received news from his wife, but it was bad news.
Xiao Manyu, then secretary of the Ji'an County Young Communist Party, was bombed by enemy planes on the way to follow the county party committee organs, and died together with the fetus in her womb, and nearly 100 comrades were killed along with them.
The death of his wife and children made Xiao Feng heartbroken, he remembered his wife's teachings, no matter how difficult he encountered, he unswervingly followed the party!
I also kept in mind what my wife told him, writing a diary is writing history, and as long as you live, you must write it.
In the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression, Xiao Feng came to prominence, and when he attacked Ji'an County, he proposed to use the fire bull formation to surprise the enemy, and was commended by Mr. Zhu and rewarded him with a box gun.
In March 1934, he was awarded a Red Army Order of the 3rd Class for his outstanding performance.
After the failure of the fifth anti-encirclement campaign, Xiao Feng followed the troops and participated in the world-famous 25,000-mile Long March, and performed well in the battles such as breaking through the Wujiang River and flying to capture the Luding Bridge.
In July 1935, Xiao Feng was also ordered to negotiate with Bai Fengxiang, the commander of the Sixth Division of the Kuomintang Cavalry, and successfully reached a non-aggression pact.
Xiao Feng on the Long March performed very well, and after arriving in northern Shaanxi, he was appointed as the political commissar of the Red 3rd Regiment.
Immediately afterwards, he participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and successively served as the political commissar of the cavalry regiment of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, the political commissar of the third regiment of the first division of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, and the political commissar and regiment commander of the fifth regiment of the fourth division.
In the first battle of Ma Shouguan, Xiao Feng broke the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army, and in the battle of annihilation of Chenzhuang, he commanded the heavy machine gunners and killed the commander of the water source brigade who was known as the "cattle knife" expert of the Japanese army.
After that, Xiao Feng and his comrades carried out sparrow warfare, tunnel warfare, mine warfare, etc. in the base area, and the Japanese invaders were terrified.
In the blink of an eye, in 1942, at this time, Maggie Xiao had been sacrificed for nearly 10 years, during these 10 years, Xiao Feng had been immersed in work and had not considered his marriage, which made the comrades around him very anxious.
Jianping County Magistrate Zang Boping is a warm-hearted person, seeing that Xiao Feng is 26 years old and still a bachelor, he is eager to introduce him to him.
Gong Xirui is also an amazing female comrade, she is a native of Pingshan County, Hebei Province, 7 years younger than Xiao Feng, studied at Jingcheng Normal School, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, she gave up her studies and organized the women of her hometown to save the country together.
At that time, Gong Xirui was still young, and seeing that Gong Xirui was beautiful and capable, the local landlord Han Shiqi asked her to be his daughter-in-law for his 12-year-old son.
Gong Xirui couldn't resist her parents, so she had no choice but to agree, but on the day of her wedding, she was dressed in white, which made the Han family very faceless.
Not only that, after marrying into the Han family, she also actively did the ideological work of the women of the Han family, and the three daughters of the Han family all followed her to participate in the anti-Japanese organization.
Later, Gong Xirui got rid of the feudal marriage shackles and came to the border area, while working as a teacher, while organizing the Women's Rescue Association, by 1939, she was already the director of the Jianping County Women's Rescue Association.
Under her leadership, the women of the Women's Relief Association made military shoes and uniforms for the Eighth Route Army, raised food for the Eighth Route Army, and made great contributions to the revolution.
Because of his outstanding performance, in 1940, Gong Xirui was also sent to North China United University to study, which can be described as both civil and military.
One is an old revolutionary who came out of the Red Army, and the other is a high-spirited female cadre, the two can talk very well, and after half a year of getting along, they tied the knot in the Spring Festival of 1943, so there is a scene at the beginning of the article.
After listening to the story of Xiao Feng and Maggie Xiao, Gong Xirui burst into tears, she did not blame Xiao Feng for this, but said to Xiao Feng: "You just treat me as Manyu, although I am not as good as her, but I will try to do the same to her!" ”。
Husbands and wives in the revolutionary era were destined to get together less and leave more, Xiao Feng and Gong Xirui were no exception, not long after they got married, they separated, and they were busy in their respective posts.
In September 1943, Gong Xirui heard bad news from Xiao Feng's guards, Xiao Feng on the front line, who was sick from overwork, vomited blood.
Hearing this, Gong Xirui immediately ran to visit, and Xiao Feng was very happy to see his wife, but he asked his wife to keep the matter secret, because ...... The front needs him.
Looking at her yellow-faced and thin husband, Gong Xirui was extremely distressed, she wanted to find a fellow villager to buy a few eggs, but the ground was swept many times, and everyone was dying, where would there be such a precious thing as eggs?
Just when Gong Xirui was worried about where to find eggs, she actually ran into a dead dog on the side of the road, and when she reached out and touched it, the meat on her body was still soft, so she immediately took it home and concocted it and made a good meal for Xiao Feng.
In the summer of 1944, Gong Xirui became pregnant, and when she was 4 months pregnant, Xiao Feng received an order to take 800 recruits to Yan'an.
Unwilling to be separated from his wife again, Xiao Feng also brought Gong Xirui, before leaving, Xiao Feng was full of confidence, he said to Gong Xirui: "If the Japanese devil knows that he Xiao Erye will lead the way, he will definitely take the initiative to give way!" ”。
Of course, this was just a joke, and on the first day on the road, they received news that the Japanese had deployed six or seven hundred men and horses, ready to intercept them.
After receiving the information, Xiao Feng immediately held a meeting to arrange the deployment, and in the end, he decided to use a small team to lead away the Japanese army.
However, in this team, except for him and his wife Gong Xirui, they are all recruits, who to send? In the end, Xiao Feng decided to personally lead the team to lead the Japanese army.
But his decision was strongly opposed by his wife Gong Xirui, first, Xiao Feng was sick at the time, and second, he was the backbone of this team, if he had a mistake, where could the army go on?
So Gong Xirui recommended himself and asked to complete this arduous task, although Xiao Feng was reluctant in his heart, he could only agree.
In the early morning of the next day, Gong Xirui took more than 20 people and horses, swaggering to appear in the enemy blockade area, the Japanese invaders saw this, immediately pursued, and when they caught up with the mountain, they found that they had been fooled, and set fire to the mountain in anger.
Gong Xirui, on the other hand, asked the warriors to untie their belts, form ropes, and climb off the cliff one by one.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xiao Feng led the team through the blockade area and waited in a safe area for 4 days before waiting for his wife and comrades to return.
In the past 4 days, you can imagine how tormented Xiao Feng was.
After more than 40 days and a journey of 1,450 kilometers, Xiao Feng and his entourage arrived in Yan'an safely and were warmly welcomed by the comrades.
After arriving in Yan'an, Xiao Feng had a rare leisure time, which was also the only time he relaxed since he participated in the revolution.
After the War of Liberation began, Xiao Feng went to the Shandong battlefield and participated in the battles of Laiwu, Menglianggu, eastern Anhui, western Anhui, eastern Henan, Shatuji, Jinan, Huaihai, crossing the river, Shanghai, and Jinxia.
In 1955, Xiao Feng was awarded the rank of colonel, and the reason why it was so low was because he was ...... during the attack on Kinmen Didn't play well.
Despite this, Xiao Feng was not discouraged, and with his disdainful efforts, he was successfully promoted to the rank of major general in 1961.
After the liberation, he devoted almost all his efforts to tanks and armored troops, and made outstanding contributions to the revolutionization and modernization of armored troops.
In 1981, when Xiao Feng retired, he began to organize his diaries for many years, and successively published "Long March Diary", "Xiao Feng's Expedition Record", "Xiao Feng's Diary" and so on, providing valuable information for future generations to understand the history of the revolution.
In 1991, Xiao Feng passed away at the age of 75......