In January 1938, the New Fourth Army Was established, with Ye Ting as the commander and Zhang Yunyi as the chief of staff and commander of the third detachment. In May 1939, the Jiangbei Headquarters of the New Fourth Army and the Former Committee of the Jiangbei Headquarters of the Communist Party of China were established, and Zhang Yunyi served as the commander and former secretary of the Committee respectively, commanding the Jiangbei New Fourth Army and the Jiangbei Guerrillas, supporting the struggle in the base areas of eastern Anhui (Huainan).
Zhang Yunyi was not tall, his face was kind, and he was not a majestic seven-foot man. However, he was indeed an outstanding general. In his military career, he has experienced many disasters in the ups and downs of the past few decades! In March 1940, the bright spring season in Huainan, Zhang Yunyi endured a huge emotional torture.
In the spring of 1940, the Kuomintang launched the first anti-communist upsurge, and the troops and guerrilla base areas led by Zhang Yunyi were in a very critical situation. Faced with the serious situation of the Kuomintang diehard army pressing the territory, Zhang Yunyi was calm and self-assured, and he spent the night studying and deploying the battle plan with Liu Shaoqi, Zheng Weisan, and other leaders of the Central Plains Bureau. Under the unified command of Zhang Yunyi, the main force, local party and mass organizations, and self-defense forces cooperated with each other and won victories in the anti-stubborn battles in Luxi and Ludong.
However, the Kuomintang diehards did not give up because of this, and not only stepped up their preparations for the offensive militarily, but they also did not hesitate to hunt down and persecute the officers and men of our army and their families everywhere in a more despicable way. On March 22, 1940, Zhang Yunyi's wife Han Bi and his ten-year-old son Zhang Yuanzhi were detained. Also detained were the cadres of the New Fourth Army and twenty-five escorted soldiers, as well as the 70,000 yuan of military funds and guns and ammunition they carried...
After the news of the detention of Zhang Yunyi's wife and children and his party reached the Jiangbei Headquarters of the New Fourth Army, the commander Zhang Yunyi and chief of staff Lai Chuanzhu were extremely angry, believing that since the Kuomintang government issued the "Measures for Restricting Activities of Other Parties," the Kuomintang diehards had successively created massacres in Pingjiang, Zhugou, and Edong and slaughtered communists.
The fact that the Eighth Security Regiment has detained our personnel this time is also the beginning of the friction caused by the diehard faction in Anhui Province, and our party and our army must adopt effective measures to turn the danger into a disaster. So Zhang Yunyi telephoned Chiang Kai-shek, Lin Sen, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi, angrily denouncing their crimes: "Recently investigating the local governments of the provinces and regions of Anhui, Yu' and Hubei Provinces, arresting and insulting people, and killing the families of officers and men of our New Fourth Army, everywhere, thousands of people have been killed. ”
The telegram also said: "For the rest of their lives, they did not fall into the hands of the tyrants (referring to the Japanese Kou), but were arrested and detained by the national army. Poisoned by this. In the case of Zhang Yunyi himself, he abandoned his family to fight the war, and his family members were never treated preferentially and should not be insulted.
In his telegram, Zhang Yunyi strongly demanded that the Kuomintang government order the release of his wife and children, Zeng Shaoming (regimental political commissar), and other officers and men, and immediately return the guns, ammunition, and military funds of our New Fourth Army.
After writing this telegram, Zhang Yunyi couldn't help but think of his beloved wife and son. Han Bi was born into a poor peasant family in Wenchang County, Guangdong Province. Since childhood, she begged along the streets with her parents and suffered from human suffering. A few years later, her parents died of illness, and she went to work as a child laborer in a factory in Guangzhou. In 1922, Zhang Yunyi, who was a battalion commander in the Cantonese Army, saw that Chen Jiongming, the commander-in-chief of the Cantonese Army, had betrayed Sun Yat-sen, and was greatly disappointed, so he left the Cantonese Army to hide in a hospital in Guangzhou to prepare another way to implement Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles program.
In 1923, after being introduced, Zhang Yunyi and Han Bixi married each other. As the saying goes: husband and wife are honored. However, since Han Bi and Zhang Yunyi got married, there were very few reunion days! When his son was just half a year old, Zhang Yunyi bid farewell to his wife and children and rushed around for the work of the party. I have not seen my wife and children for eight years.
In the first half of 1937, Zhang Yunyi, then deputy chief of the general staff of the Red Army, was ordered by the Party Central Committee to go to Hong Kong to carry out the work of the anti-Japanese national united front in South China. He and his relatives and friends searched for many ways, and finally found his wife who was hidden in Guangzhou and worked as a haircut. Tearfully, he brought his wife and children to Hong Kong, and his wife assisted him in the secret work of the party.
After arriving in Hong Kong, the family lived in an attic of less than 15 square meters. Although the conditions were simple and the work was heavy, Han Bi's mother and son felt very satisfied.
Half a year later, Zhang Yunyi will leave Hong Kong and return to Yan'an, and his wife and children will also go to Yan'an with him.
Zhang Yunyi patiently advised: "The goal of us going together is too big, and when I go back to arrange everything properly, I will send someone to pick up your mother and son, so that it is safer." Han Bi smiled and said, "Well, my son and I will wait patiently!" ”
In this way, the loving couple parted again. Now, many parties in the organization have tried to entrust Zeng Changming to bring their mother and son to Guilin, and then to Zhang Yunyi's unit in Huainan through the organization. Unexpectedly, after crossing the Yangtze River from the southern Anhui Army, they were detained by the Kuomintang Anhui Security Eighth Regiment when they passed through Xiang'an Town, Wuwei County, Anhui Province.
When the Kuomintang diehards learned that Han Bi was Zhang Yunyi's wife, they danced and were ecstatic. They want to take Han Bi and yuanzhi, who is more than ten years old, as hostages, and want to use Han Bi to soften Zhang Yunyi. They drafted a telegram and quickly reported to Chiang Kai-shek the details of the detainees of Han Bi and his party. The Kuomintang Nanjing government immediately called back: "Agree, secretly detained, as a hostage." ”
One day, Qiu Zhenghua, the leader of the Eighth Security Regiment, forced Han Bi to write a letter to Zhang Yunyi. Qiu Zhenghua said, "I have great admiration for General Zhang Yunyi! Ever since he led the Baise Uprising, military geniuses have become known all over the world. Our Chairman Chiang Kai-shek treats him very highly. You write a letter to persuade him that as long as he comes to Chairman Jiang's side and makes a small statement, first, he can be reunited with his wife and children, and second, he can also be promoted.
Han Bi was well aware of the great righteousness, and she smiled coldly and said: "Yunyi participated in the Xinhai Revolution in her early years, running for the country and the people, and her revolutionary will was unswerving. What was wrong with him joining the Communist Party, insisting on revolution, and insisting on resisting Japan? Why did he leave the Communist Party and join you Kuomintang? I would not write such a letter. ”
Qiu Zhenghua smiled sinisterly and said, "Hey, Mrs. Zhang, I am sincere, for the happiness of your whole family." ”
Han Bi replied indignantly: "When the country was in trouble, our New Fourth Army was starving, fighting against Japanese devils every day, and you turned your guns to slaughter your compatriots and their families. Talk about what the whole family is happy about! ”
Qiu Zhenghua was angry: "I see that you still have to let go of the point, don't toast, don't eat and eat the penalty wine." If you do not write this letter, there will be endless bitter fruit in the future. ”
She was unyielding in the face of the diehards: "You have captured me, you want to fight, you want to kill, do as you please!" I would rather die than sell my soul. "She put life and death aside, and what about the enemy's bayonet!"
In order to rescue his wife and children and the officers and men of the New Fourth Army, Zhang Yunyi consulted with Lai Chuanzhu and sent Major Tian Feng, chief of the Propaganda Section of the Political Department of the Jiangbei Guerrilla Column, to lead the guards and grooms to the county seat of Wuwei to negotiate with Wu Shaoli, commander of the Security Brigade. Unfortunately, Tian Feng and three other negotiators were also detained and severely tortured. In the end, he was buried alive and inhumanely.
After Tian Feng was killed, the recalcitrant army not only did not release the detainees of the New Fourth Army, but killed them one after another. Zeng Shaoming, the political commissar of the regiment, also died tragically under the butcher's knife of the recalcitrant army. Except for one person who escaped, only Han Bi's mother and son, who were tortured to the end, were left.
At this time, Vice Chairman Zhou Enlai, who was in Chongqing, came forward to personally inquire into the matter, repeatedly affirmed to Chiang Kai-shek and others the great righteousness, and that it is necessary to attach importance to the state and the nation and release the families of the officers and men of the New Fourth Army as soon as possible to facilitate the War of Resistance.
It was not until September 1940 that the Anti-Communist diehards of the Kuomintang released Han Bi and his son Zhang Yuanzhi, who had been detained for seven months.
Han Bi came out of the pool of blood, and Zhang Yuanzhi, who was more than ten years old, also underwent a severe test!
Han Bi and Zhang Yuanzhi traveled from Yuexi to Huainan, where the Jiangbei Headquarters of the New Fourth Army was stationed. When Han Bi saw her husband, the tears couldn't help but fall. Zhang Yunyi knew that his wife and children were suffering, and helped them sit down. Zhang Yuanzhi advised: "Mother, don't you cry, we should be happy to see Daddy!" Zhang Yunyi also exhorted: "My son said well, our whole family is reunited, we should be happy!" ”
Zhang Yunyi has a deep love for his wife and children, but as a senior leader, he is strict with himself and does not turn this deep love into a privilege. He also set strict demands on his wives and children, educating them to share weal and woe with the masses.
Han Bi said: "Yun Yi's godson is strict. He used to say to me, 'We have to be strict with our children, so that we don't make him feel any special in the slightest.' We must urge him to study hard, and in the future when the revolution is victorious, our party and country need people with real talent and practical learning to build a new China and create a new life.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, when Zhang Yunyi's youngest son, Zhang Guangdong, who had just transferred from Qingdao to Beijing, did not agree with his children to go to schools with better conditions, he said: "There is Beichizi Primary School near here, so let Guangdong and the children of the people study together!" Zhang Yunyi's motto on the road of life for his son is: "A good boy breaks into the world by himself!" ”
Zhang Yunyi, a general born into death, shares the fate of the country and the nation on his shoulders, but he also needs to have a home: a revolutionary family, a revolutionary partner.