Former Commanders of the New Fourth Army - Political Commissar Rao Shushi (1)

Rao Shushi

One

Rao Shushi, formerly known as Rao Shiquan ,Shushi, was once known as Xiao Yao, Liang Pu (Pu), Ah Shi, Ah Si, Song Zhenhua and so on. He was born on November 23, 1903 in Raojia Village, Zhongling Huanzhou, Linchuan County, Jiangxi Province (now Linchuan District, Fuzhou City).

The day of Rao Shushi's birth was the fifth day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, when the snow was in full swing. On this day, Rao Shushi's mother, Li Shi, braved the cold to wash her clothes in the small pond behind the house, carried a wooden bucket of clothes home, accidentally tripped by a stone and fell to the ground, abdominal pain was unbearable, and soon after returning home, she gave birth to a chubby male doll. The new father, Rao Zenzu, was overjoyed. Born in 1882, Rao Zenzu lost his mother at the age of 6 and his father at the age of 8, and was later raised by his adoptive father, Rao Jingxuan. At the age of 9, he entered a private school, studied hard, and not long ago he was admitted to Pan (Kao Naka Hideka) in the county exam, and now he is happy to have Takako, which is really a double happiness. The wife was tripped by the stone and gave birth to a son, which can be described as a stone urging life, according to the ancestors' generations, Rao Chanzu named his son Shiquan, the number of Shushi, which means that the Qingquan stone is upstream. Rao Shushi liked this name, and after joining the revolution, although he gave himself a lot of pseudonyms because of the needs of his work, he eventually used Shushi as a name.

Her mother, Li Shi, was originally in good health, but shortly after giving birth to Rao Shushi's sister Rao Yinlian, she went down to the river to wash clothes and had a cold and high fever, which led to puerperal fever and took her life, and she was only 24 years old when she died. Later, his sister was given to someone else, and Rao Shushi lived with his aunt Chang Hui'e (Nian Fo Aunt). Her aunt died a year after marrying, and before she could give birth, she was given her a favor according to local customs. Nian Fo Aunt regarded Rao Shushi as her own, and left him with something delicious. Rao Shushi later joined the revolution and remembered his aunt because he had been imprisoned. Rao Shushi was very grateful to the old man and took her to live in Shanghai after liberation, but the old man saw that Rao Shushi was too busy and not used to city life, so he only lived in Shanghai for 3 months and returned to his hometown, and then died in 1970.

When Rao Shushi was 6 years old, he went to the Liufang Private School on the other side of the village to study. He is gifted and intelligent, has a very good memory, and can never forget to read books. However, he was not interested in reading books such as "Hundred Family Names", "Three Character Classics", and "Four Books and Five Classics", but he especially liked to read books such as "Water Margin", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and "Xue Rengui Zhengdong". He also likes to watch plays and listen to books, sometimes he does not eat dinner and goes hungry to follow the adults to the village more than ten miles away to see the play, often skipping school to go to the tea house to listen to people talk about ancient books. For this reason, the teacher often came to complain, and Rao Shushi was beaten a lot by his father.

Rao Shushi's father, Rao Chanzu, still studied everywhere after Rao Shushi was born in the county examination, abolished the imperial examination and was admitted to the Jiangxi Excellent Normal School, and then with excellent results, he was sent to Nanjing Liangdong Excellent Normal Undergraduate Study, majoring in English and minoring in geography. After graduation, he returned to Linchuan to teach. In 1912, Rao Chanzu became the head of the Linchuan County National Higher Elementary School (formerly Linru Elementary School). The next year, he took Rao Shushi here to study and taught him to learn English. Rao Shushi was proficient in English, which was inseparable from his father's training from an early age, laying the foundation for him to go to the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France and other countries to engage in the party's secret work and international activities in the future. In 1914, Rao Chanzu transferred to the provincial Third Normal School. Two years later, Rao Shushi was admitted to the Provincial No. 7 Middle School. In 1918, Rao Shushi transferred to Nanchang Xinyuan Private Middle School. Here, Rao Shushi came into contact with publications such as "New Youth" and "Weekly Review" that propagated Marxism and advanced cultural ideas, read Lu Xun's novel "Diary of a Madman", read Li Dazhao's "Victory of the Common People" and "Victory of the Bolsheviks" and other articles praising the October Revolution, and began to be influenced by advanced culture and revolutionary ideas.

In 1922, Rao Shushi was admitted to the American-run Jiujiang South Weilie University, majoring in English. The school was formerly known as Jiujiang Tongwen Academy, where Fu Lie and Fang Zhimin both studied and Rao Shushi was an alumnus. During his studies here, Rao Shushi actively organized and participated in various activities of the local school, and his eloquence and political enthusiasm were deeply admired by his classmates, and he quickly won the trust of the students. At that time, the football of Nam Wai Lie School was very famous, and Both Fang Zhimin and Rao Shushi had run on the school's football field. Once, in a match with an American student soccer team in China, the two sides were evenly matched, and at the critical moment, the American referee ruled that the Goal of the Nam Wai Lie team was invalid and awarded a penalty, and the audience immediately roared. At the end of the game, Nan Weilie lost. The students were so disgruntled that they surrounded the referee and shouted reprimands. However, the school disciplined several students for this, causing public outrage, and under the leadership of Rao Shushi and other organizations, the students took to the streets to protest, and the parade was also attended by citizens. Since there were many spectators outside the school, in order to avoid affecting the reputation of the school, the foreign principal was forced to give in, and the school declared the game invalid. The next day, when the replay was held, the referee was replaced, and Nam Wonry won 1-0.

On the second day of Christmas in 1923, the students were tired from participating in the celebrations for several days, and asked for a day off at the morning prayer, but the principal Zhang Bonan did not agree, which provoked the students to resist and announced the strike under the leadership of Rao Shushi and others. Students distributed the Strike Manifesto and shouted the slogan "Against Cultural Aggression in Church Schools". "Cultural aggression" was a new term proposed by Qu Qiubai in early 1923 in "Various Methods of Imperialist Aggression", and soon became the most lethal weapon possessed by patriots at that time, especially praised by young people. After Christmas, the students gathered in the school auditorium again, and the school asked the students to come out, but under the leadership of Rao Shushi and others, the students did not come out.

The school tide has exercised Rao Shushi's ability and ability. Rao Shushi's name often appeared in the reports of the Jiujiang and Nanchang regimental organizations to the regimental central committee and in the regimental member survey form. At that time, Zhao Xingnong, Fang Zhimin, Yuan Yubing, and others, under the instructions of Chen Duxiu, prepared to build a local party group organization in Jiangxi. On January 20, 1923, the Jiangxi Local League of the Chinese Socialist Youth League was established in Nanchang, with a total of 21 members, one of whom was Rao Shushi. In October of the same year, after the establishment of the Jiujiang Branch of the Socialist Youth, Rao Shushi not only carried out activities among students, but also carried out activities in docks, porcelain shops, factories, and rural areas, and was organized and sent to the Jesus Church to carry out activities. In May 1924, the Jiujiang Regiment organization was divided into four branches, and Rao Shushi served as the secretary of the second branch (Nan Weilie Branch) and an alternate member of the Jiujiang Prefectural Committee of the Regiment. In June, the Jiujiang Student Federation was established, and the students publicly promoted Rao Shushi as the chairman. There are 5 units under the Federation: The Clerical Unit, the Investigation Unit, the Publishing Unit, the Accounting Unit, and the Shu Affairs Unit, and Rao Shushi served as the head of the Investigation Unit and became the first president of the Jiujiang Student Union. On the eve of the summer vacation, the Central Committee of the League sent a letter to the Special Branch of the Jiujiang League, requesting that two representatives be selected to attend the representative meeting of the All-China Federation of Students in Shanghai. In July, the Jiujiang Delegation sent Rao Shushi and Wang Ziping to Shanghai to attend the meeting of the All-China Federation of Students. In the same year, Rao Shushi graduated from Nan Weilie School and was admitted to Shanghai University. (Note: This article is an important reference to the historical materials Cai Hongtang's "Rao Shushi", Peng Hui's "Rao Shushi", Tong Zhiqiang's "Rao Shushi and the New Fourth Army", etc., and will not be annotated in the future.) ）