One day in March 1949, Li Jianzhen, executive member of the National Women's Congress, came to the airport in the western suburbs of Beijing early with excitement, hoping that Chairman Mao, together with other leaders of the central organs, would be stationed in Beiping today.
Li Jianzhen calculated in her heart that she had not seen Chairman Mao for twelve years since she left Yan'an in 1937, and she did not know whether Chairman Mao remembered her.
Chairman Mao warmly received the comrades who came to welcome him at the airport, and Li Jianzhen wanted to rush to Chairman Mao's side, but his heart was a little nervous, at this time Chairman Mao recognized her at a glance, and then walked quickly to Li Jianzhen, excitedly shook her hand, and said: "Li Jianzhen, are you still alive?" ”
So who is Li Jianzhen, and why does Chairman Mao attach so much importance to her?
Chairman Mao was deeply impressed by Li Jianzhen, who once called li Jianzhen "not a simple female comrade", because Li Jianzhen was one of the thirty-two female fighters who participated in the Long March, a great pioneer of the Chinese women's movement, and the first female county party secretary in the history of our party.
With so many auras, it is obvious that Li Jianzhen is extremely outstanding, but the aura above Li Jianzhen's head is woven by thorns, and Li Jianzhen once said bitterly: "If it is not the oppression of that dark society, how can my woman's family 'rebel'?" ”
In 1907, Li Jianzhen was born in Xiaosheng Township, Fengshun County, Guangdong Province, her village is located in the barren mountains, because the family does not have his own land, her father can only rent the land of the landlord's family, although diligent and earnest work, but it is exploited by the landlord.
Originally, Li Jianzhen had eleven brothers and sisters, six of whom died prematurely, and three of them were sold by their parents because of their family's weakness, and when Li Jianzhen was only eight months old, her parents thought she was a girl, and sold her to a family surnamed Zhu for eight hanging money as a child bridesmaid.
Still in her infancy, she has become the so-called "wife" of an eight-year-old boy, which shows that Li Jianzhen has become a victim of the dark ages from the moment of his birth, fortunately, the Zhu family is very kind, not only giving her a name, but also slowly raising her.
Li Jianzhen followed the "mother-in-law" to work in the fields since he was a child, thus developing a hard-working character, and his labor from an early age also made Li Jianzhen understand the hardships of the people's life at the bottom, when he saw the landlord oppressing the peasants, Li Jianzhen was extremely indignant in his heart, deeply feeling the injustice of the times, but she was just a little girl, what could she do?
However, there was such a person who planted a seed of resistance to oppression and injustice in Li Jianzhen's heart, and even more let Li Jianzhen embark on the road of revolution, this person was the famous "peasant leader" Peng Pan, although Peng Pan was a son of a rich family, he was willing to give his own land to the peasants, and actively propagated the ideas of "the tiller has his own land" and "equality between men and women".
When Li Jianzhen heard about Peng Pan's deeds, he admired him very much, and by chance, Peng Pan came to Li Jianzhen's home, and Li Jianzhen, as a child bride, weakly asked: "You said that if the peasants want to live a good life, they must organize, but what is 'organization'?" ”
Looking at the girl in front of him, Peng Pan said in a serious tone: "Organized, it is like five fingers clenched into a fist, we peasants can only have enough strength to fight against the local tycoons and inferior gentry" After listening to Peng Pan's words, Li Jian's heart is really no longer calm.
Peng Pan
The day after Peng Pan left, Li Jianzhen joined the agricultural cooperative group mentioned by Peng Pan and began to pursue the road of "equality for all people and social unity." Li Jianzhen also actively mobilized sisters in the village to participate in the peasants' meeting, and they wanted to let the world know that women can also make revolutions.
Later, Li Jianzhen joined the Chinese Communist Youth League, and with the needs of the struggle situation, the peasant association established its own political power and established the peasant self-defense army.
In the great revolution in full swing, Li Jianzhen got rid of the shackles of feudal thought, she gradually broke away from family relations, took the lead in liberating herself, and then she and the comrades of the peasant association actively led the toiling masses to resist rent and burn land deeds.
Because Li Jianzhen was good at composing mountain songs, she compiled the idea of struggle into the songs and went deep among the masses to carry out propaganda, and under the mobilization of Li Jianzhen, more and more peasants no longer obeyed the oppression and joined the revolutionary army.
In 1927, when the Great Revolution failed and the whole country was shrouded in a white terror, at this moment of crisis, Li Jianzhen joined the party and became a loyal communist, and then she participated in the peasant armed rebellion in the Fengshun area and went into the mountains with her comrades to fight a guerrilla war.
Because of li jianzhen's superior ability and loyalty to the party, she was elected vice chairman of the Fengshun County Revolutionary Committee and participated in the creation of the Dongjiang Revolutionary Base Area, at this time Li Jianzhen was only a 20-year-old girl.
In 1930, Li Jianzhen came from Guangdong to the Central Soviet Region to work as a peasant association, where she met for the first time what people called "Chairman Mao", at a meeting, Li Jianzhen began to report to Chairman Mao on the relevant work of the peasant association, at that time many people looked down on the "work of the peasant association", some people spoke contemptuously and mocked: "You peasant associations are born, there is no tile on the top, there is no inch of land under the ground, there is no needle in the family, what can you understand?" ”
Chairman Mao immediately defended Li Jianzhen and said: "Those who really have no tiles and no land under the ground, they suffer the most deeply and are the most revolutionary, so they are the strength we should rely on the most." Hearing Chairman Mao's words, Li Jianzhen was extremely touched.
Later, under the guidance of Chairman Mao, Li Jianzhen understood what was called "specific analysis of specific problems" and what was meant by "going deep among the masses." Later, Li Jianzhen actively improved her working methods and handled her work in an orderly manner, so that Chairman Mao later praised her as a female comrade who was not simple.
Because Li Jianzhen was born as a peasant, knew the sufferings of the peasants very well, and could mingle with the masses, the organization appointed Li Jianzhen as the secretary of the Changting County CPC Committee in 1931.
In 1934, Li Jianzhen was appointed minister of women's department of the CPC Central Committee and elected as a central executive member of the Soviet district government.
According to statistics, under the leadership of Li Jianzhen, our party has developed nearly 4,000 female party members, more than 14,000 female Red Guards, and more than 13,000 female Young Pioneers in the base areas.
After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Red Army was forced to transfer, at this time, Li Jianzhen mobilized the women of the entire base area, and in a very short period of time, made more than 200,000 pairs of shoes and 100,000 rice bags for the Red Army, and some women even donated their dowry gold and silver jewelry to the Red Army, hoping that the Red Army would one day fight back.
After the Start of the Long March, Li Jianzhen was assigned to the organs directly under the central government and served as the head of the transportation section, and for a time, beating up local tycoons, collecting grain, and finding guides all became Li Jianzhen's work, that is, a male comrade, who would be helpless in the face of such complicated work, but Li Jianzhen could handle everything in an orderly manner.
In order to prepare supplies, Li Jianzhen set his sights on the landlords everywhere he went, and every time the Red Army arrived at a place, Li Jianzhen would lead the soldiers to the homes of the landlords in the nearby villages, and began to collect the landlord's guilt, and finally confiscated the grain, weapons, and agricultural tools from the landlords' homes.
In order not to let the landlords trouble the peasants, Li Jianzhen would leave a note stating that all these materials were expropriated by the Red Army, and that every time he went to a village, Li Jianzhen would help the poor peasants to do housework and distribute some of the materials collected from the landlords to the peasants, so that the material needs of the Red Army's Long March were solved and the support of the people everywhere was won, so the Soldiers of the Red Army called Li Jianzhen an "expert in fighting local tycoons."
Later, during the Long March, Li Jianzhen became the instructor of the cadre cultivation company, and at that time, Dong Biwu, He Zizhen, Deng Yingchao, and a large number of other senior cadres were cultivating the company, so Li Jianzhen suddenly became the "leader" of the leaders, but Li Jianzhen was not happy, because she knew the responsibility of this job.
The long march road was full of hardships, Li Jianzhen did not dare to take it lightly, and wholeheartedly took care of the safety of the cultivation company, when he learned that a regimental commander surnamed Yao was left at his hometown because of a leg injury, Li Jianzhen was worried that he would be discovered by the pursuing enemy, so he took someone to carry him back.
When it was learned that a political commissar surnamed Zhong was injured in battle and unfortunately fell alone, Li Jianzhen braved the rain of bullets and bullets to carry him out, and later Li Jianzhen even led people to carry the two of them on a stretcher to complete the Long March, and it was precisely because Li Jianzhen really did not abandon him that New China had two more founding lieutenant generals.
After the victory of the Long March, Li Jianzhen continued to serve as a minister of women in Yan'an, and she actively mobilized female cadres at all levels to go deep into the masses in Yan'an, publicize the idea of equality between men and women, encourage women to abandon feudal ideas, and help women in Yan'an to learn to write and participate in social activities, thus laying a solid mass foundation for our party to take root in Yan'an.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Jianzhen followed her husband Deng Zhenqian to the south to prepare to work in the New Fourth Army, and in the winter of 1938, Li Jianzhen was appointed as the director of the Women's Department of the Southeast Bureau of the Central Committee, actively leading women in the Jiangnan region to participate in the anti-Japanese tucun activities.
In a battle, Li Jianzhen's husband unfortunately fell into the river and died while crossing the river, Li Jianzhen fainted in pain, and later, there was a rumor that Li Jianzhen died with her husband in the battle, and when the news reached Yan'an, Chairman Mao was extremely sad, but what Chairman Mao did not know was that Li Jianzhen did not die at all.
At that time, Li Jianzhen endured the grief of her husband's sacrifice, and regained her strength to continue the struggle with the enemy, in which she often used two pistols, one of her own and the other of her sacrificing her husband, and thus persisted until the victory of the War of Resistance.
After the liberation war began, Li Jianzhen continued to lead the women's movement, actively launched the mass support for the PLA's fighting in East China, and also carried out land reform work in Shandong.
At the end of the Liberation War, Li Jianzhen led a delegation of women from East China to Beiping to attend the First National Women's Congress, and during the meeting, Li Jianzhen learned the news that the central authorities were going to settle in Beiping, so Li Jianzhen was very excited, and after learning the specific time when the chairman came to Beiping, she came to the airport early to greet him.
Since she left Yan'an, she had not seen Chairman Mao for twelve years, and when Chairman Mao arrived, she recognized Li Jianzhen in the crowd at a glance, because Chairman Mao always thought that Li Jianzhen had been sacrificed, so when he saw Li Jianzhen standing in the crowd, Chairman Mao quickly greeted him, overflowing with joy, and exclaimed: "Li Jianzhen, you are still alive." ”
Comrade Li Jianzhen has dedicated her life to the revolution since she was young, and under its influence and efforts, Chinese women who are deeply poisoned by feudal ideas have been liberated, and as the "Mulan" in the Red Army, she also let us see the bravery and perseverance of Chinese women
Who knows that Huaxia has no towel? Who says women are inferior to men? Didn't Comrade Li Jianzhen use his life to prove that women can stand up to half the sky?