Recalling Li Shizhuang, one of the prototypes of the captain of "Guerrilla on the Plains": Feel the red years and inherit the revolutionary spirit

Source: People's Daily - Anhui Channel

"Huaibei is a red hot land, and many heroic martyrs who are willing to throw their heads and spill their blood for the well-being of the people have emerged, they are the pride of Huaibei and the heroes of the nation, and Li Shizhuang is one of the typical representatives." Standing in front of the Huaibei Red Revolution History Museum and Li Shizhuang Memorial Hall, the 66-year-old Li Benhua told reporters about the revolutionary years that were full of flames.

Li Benhua stood in front of the Li Shizhuang Memorial Hall, which was under construction. People's Daily Photo by Yang Saijun

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Li Shizhuang was good at mobilizing the masses, gathering sporadic armed forces from various places, organizing and leading anti-Japanese guerrillas, and actively operating in the Suxi, Sudong, and Suyu-Anhui Border Regions, making positive contributions to the construction of the anti-Japanese revolutionary base areas; in the War of Liberation, he traveled between counties and military stations, organized large armies, and effectively guaranteed the supply of materials for the field troops. In April 1949, he was appointed as the first commissioner of the Fuyang Administration. After the founding of New China, he was transferred to Shanghai to work, and successively served as the second secretary and district chief of the Huangpu District Committee, the first secretary of the Penglai District Committee, the person in charge of the party organization and secretary general of the Shanghai Association for Science Popularization, deputy secretary, secretary and vice chairman.

"When I was a child, I often listened to the old people in my hometown tell the story of the anti-Japanese guerrillas in Huaibei, especially when I talked about Li Shizhuang, the captain of the brigade who could use two guns, open the bow left and right, and walk through Yang in a hundred steps, so that the Japanese devils could smell the wind and be frightened, the old man's emotions were particularly excited, and the story of his leading the guerrillas to resist the Japanese in the Huaibei Plain was widely known to women and children, and later many writers, screenwriters, and directors went to his hometown to collect wind and excavate historical stories, and took him as one of the prototypes to make a black and white movie "Plain Guerrillas." Speaking of Li Shizhuang, Li Benhua is full of respect.

Li Benhua is the president of the Li Shizhuang Research Association in Huaibei City, and for many years, in order to inherit the revolutionary spirit, he has been busy all the time, devoting himself to promoting the completion of the Li Shizhuang Memorial Hall and compiling the commemorative "Li Shizhuang Memorial Anthology".

The Li Shizhuang Research Association successively visited some of the old revolutionary comrades who were still alive and the party history workers who had interviewed Comrade Li Shizhuang. Li Benhua went to Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Hefei, Fuyang, Bengbu, Henan, Suzhou, and other places on many occasions to consult historical materials from the local party history museums and archives; interviewed the relatives of Comrade Li Shizhuang; and visited the elderly Chen Yaqin, the wife of Li Shizhuang, who is nearly ninety years old, and collected first-hand information, laying a solid foundation for the compilation of the book.

Compiling a collection of commemorative essays and building a memorial hall for the Red Revolution so that Li Shizhuang's spirit can be inherited is Li Benhua's original intention and dream. "The purpose of building the Red Revolution Memorial Hall and compiling the "Li Shizhuang Commemorative Anthology" is to carry forward and inherit the red spirit of the revolutionaries of the older generation, feel the glorious heroic deeds, not forget the original intention, keep in mind the mission, and educate future generations not to forget the bitterness of the past and be grateful for the sweetness of today." Li Benhua said.

Nowadays, the main structure of the Huaibei Red Revolution History Museum and Li Shizhuang Memorial Hall has been completed, and the internal exhibition will be carried out next, and in the near future, it will become the red patriotism education base of Huaibei City, so that more people can feel the spiritual baptism of the red years. (Yang Saijun)