Photo | General Li Zhen
introduction
On March 11, 1990, Major General Li Zhen left us forever.
When people sorted out the relics she left behind with tears in their eyes, they found that the female general who had participated in the revolution for more than 60 years, in addition to leaving behind several 4 medals given by the state, the rest could only be described as "destitute".
A marching box that has not been changed for 40 years, a single-door refrigerator that has been used for 14 years, four rattan chairs that have been used for 15 years and are not willing to throw away, 2500 yuan of treasury bills, 11,000 yuan of yuan, and two gold bars left in the war years.
Before dying, she left a will in which her belongings were arranged like this:
One gold bar was donated to her husband Gan Siqi's hometown of Ningxiang County; the other was donated to his hometown of Liuyang County. The deposit is divided into two parts, one part of which is used for its own membership fees and handed over to the state; the other part is donated to the Beijing Children's Palace.
Looking at Li Zhen's list of relics, the staff at the scene couldn't help but cry bitterly.
Li Zhen completely left us, silently leaving the people she loved deeply. On her deathbed, she was still wearing these maroon socks embellished with black and blue patches on her feet, which was very emotional.
Photo | Li Zhen and Gan Siqi
01 As a child bride, how did she embark on the road of revolution?
Among the many generals in New China, Li Zhen can be regarded as a relatively special one, and is the first female general in New China.
Hunan Satellite TV's variety show "The Party's Daughter" has also been introduced.
Li Zhen grew up in a relatively poor family and was born in Xiaobanqiao Township, Liuyang County, Hunan Province. Her father, Li Guangtian, was an honest farmer whose family could only survive by fishing and renting two and a half acres of land from the landlord.
Li Zhen's father, Li Guangtian, has always wanted to have a son. When his wife became pregnant, he had been looking forward to giving birth to a son. Unexpectedly, this time it was still a girlfriend.
Li Guangtian sighed and looked at this daughter, his heart was extremely disappointed, and he did not even take his name with him, and casually called a "Dan baby".
Soon after the birth of the child, Li Guangtian fell ill and died, leaving a large son.
When Li Zhen was 6 years old, her family was too poor to open the pot. In order not to let her daughter starve to death, her mother sent her to be a child bride by her family. At a young age, she began to chop wood, burn fires, cook, carry water, raise chickens and other heavy physical labor.
In fact, there was almost no difference between Li Zhen and Ya Gui.
Not only did she have to do physical work, but she was often beaten and scolded, and her body was often covered with scales.
The picture | General Li Zhen during the Red Army period
In 1924, Li Zhen was 16 years old. This year, she and her husband had a wedding.
Li Zhen's husband is named Gu Tianshun
, 4 years older than her. Although his personality is more upright, his temper is more grumpy. In addition, Li Zhen has been regarded as a squire since she was a child, and there is no marital relationship at all. The reason why she married Li Zhen was entirely out of the family's arrangement. Li Zhen is even more at the mercy of this marriage, and the two sides have almost no feelings.
Li Zhen went to the mountain to cut firewood, but she did not expect that it suddenly began to pour down, and her whole body was wet. The ancient family members who returned home from working in the fields were also drenched.
But as soon as the mother-in-law entered the door, she scolded her for not preparing a change of clothes for them.
Li Zhen was about to explain, her voice had not yet fallen, her husband Gu Tianshun saw that she dared to confront her mother, and casually picked up a stick and hit Li Zhen.
Li Zhen, who was covered in scales, was heartbroken by her husband's behavior and decided that once she died, she decided to commit suicide by throwing herself into the river and dying. Unexpectedly, the kind neighbor stopped Li Zhen and persuaded:
"We women are born to suffer, you see I am more than 60 years old, but also in the mountains to cut firewood, beaten and scolded..."
Li Zhen did not admit his fate because of this.
Pictured| women of the old times
The turning point that changed Li Zhen's life was in 1926. One day, my sister and Li Zhen said softly:
"The Communist Party came to our district recently, and I heard that a women's liberation association had been established. After joining the association, you no longer have to be beaten and scolded. ”
Li Zhen couldn't help but be shocked after hearing this, but there were still some doubts in his heart: "Is this true?" If it's true, I'd like to participate too. ”
Despite her mother-in-law's obstruction and threats, Li Zhen followed her sister to the Yonghe District Women's Association. The comrade in charge of the reception asked, "What is your name this female comrade?" ”
Li Zhen said, "Danwazi." "You know, everyone has always called her that, and she doesn't have a real scientific name."
The comrade said, "You're not surnamed Dan either?" Think again. ”
Li Zhen thought about it, and suddenly a few words came to her mind:
Faithful. She had heard that loyalty meant loyalty and that loyalty did not change, and that joining the association did not require loyalty? So, she carefully asked, "How about li zhen?" ”
The comrade who received the reception was happy after hearing this: "This name is good." Since then, Li Zhen finally has her own name, and she has also filled in this name on the form.
Picture | In 1938, cadres of the 120th Division took a group photo with Zhang Zongxun, brigade commander of the 358th Brigade, who remained in the northwest of Jinxi. Front row from left: Xiao Ke, Guan Xiangying, Zhang Zongxun, Li Zhen, etc
Soon, Li Zhen also gloriously joined the Communist Party of China. From the first day she joined the party, he firmly remembered the oath of joining the party: always revolution, never betray the party!
Less than a month after joining the party, Chiang Kai-shek brazenly launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup that shocked China and foreign countries, and massacred the Communists on a large scale.
Soon, the Hunan warlord Xu Kexiang also launched the "Ma-Ri Incident" in Changsha, pointing the butcher's knife at the Communists.
02 Li Zhen's several marriages
In the cruel fishy storm, Li Zhen deeply realized:
To fight the enemy, it is not enough not to grasp the barrel of the gun. Men, like women, have to grab their guns and fight the enemy.
Li Zhen and several Communists seized the first shots from the landlords and successfully formed the Peasant Red Guards. In the spring of 1928, Peng Dehuai also allocated 20 guns to them and formed the first armed detachment.
The "Liudong guerrillas" commanded and led by Li Zhen continued to develop and expand in the midst of countless tribulations, and since then they have also been incorporated into the Red Sixth Regiment led by Xiao Ke, Ren Bishi, and Wang Zhen, and have established and opened up revolutionary base areas in the Xianggan Border Region.
Picture| In 1942, Li Zhen and his comrades-in-arms were in Yan'an
Later, the armed detachment grew and grew, and Li Zhen served as chairman of the soldiers' committee of this guerrilla group.
During this period, Li Zhen met Zhang Qilong, who was then the propaganda director of the Liuyang County CPC Committee and the leader of the Eastern Guerrilla Brigade.
However, in 1928, when Zhang Qilong was holding a meeting with the guerrillas, he was also caught by the reactionary bureau Tuan Ding.
Just when everyone was hesitating, Li Zhen proposed that everyone dress up as a welcoming team. Just when he entered the Guanyin Hall, he took the opportunity to rescue Zhang Qilong. But everyone is gay, who is going to pretend to be a bride?
In this way, everyone turned their attention to Li Zhen.
With the joint efforts of the big family and the outside world, the regimental defense armed forces were finally beaten away, and Zhang Qilong was rescued as desired.
For everyone's all-out efforts to save each other, Zhang Qilong was very grateful and quickly thanked everyone. And the comrades have already seen through the feelings between Zhang Qilong and Li Zhen, and they quipped:
"This time you can be rescued, but thank Li Zhen." If you want to thank you, then let Li Zhen really be a bride for once. ”
Photo | Photo from left in the front row: Cai Chang, Deng Yingchao, Li Zhen, and from left in the back row, Xia Zhixu, Huang Jie, Chen Geng.
A few days later, the two of them held a simple and warm wedding in the guerrillas, and I passed it on as a good story in Liuyang Dongxiang. But the happy life did not last long with the couple.
In 1933, "Left" representatives headed by Liu Shijie secretly imprisoned and arrested Zhang Qilong. When the news came, Li Zhen was studying in the advanced class of communism in Ruijin China's Soviet Region.
Because she was still young at the time, she was not mature enough ideologically or politically. Although I have doubts about my husband's arrest and detention, for the sake of the overall situation,
After countless ideological struggles, she decided to give up love and signed her name on the divorce agreement.
And Zhang Qilong, in order not to involve his wife, also tearfully signed his name in prison.
Such a loving couple was thus separated alive.
In 1934, Li Zhen returned to the Xianggan Soviet District, first as military minister and political commissar of the Red Guards at the Ji'an County Committee of the Communist Party of China, and later transferred to the Red Army School of the Xianggan Military Region as the director of the political department.
Pictured| photo of Qi Long
In 1934, Li Zhen followed the Red Sixth Army on a western expedition and was transferred from the organization director of the Red Sixth Regiment to the director of the organization of the provincial military district. Under the strong leadership of Ren Bishi, Li Zhen led his troops to launch guerrilla warfare, extensively mobilized the masses, and formed an armed force.
In October of the same year, after the Red Sixth Army and the Red Third Army led by He Long successfully met, Li Zhen participated in the struggle in the Xiang'echuanqian revolutionary base area and served as the director of the Organization Department of the Political Department of the Xiang'echuanqian Military Region.
Once, when Li Zhen had just returned from a meeting in the countryside, Ren Bishi's wife, Chen Brownying, came to him and asked about the situation of rural work, and said thoughtfully:
"Although women get married, it is always bad to be single for a long time!"
Seeing that Li Zhen did not react in the slightest, she opened the door and said: "I introduced you to people, how do you see?" ”
Li Zhen asked curiously, "Who?" ”
"This person you know is Director Gan!" Director Gan siqi was Gan Siqi, and at this time he had already been transferred to the director of the political department of the Red Sixth Army as the director of the political department of the Red Second Regiment. ”
For Gan Siqi, Li Zhen is actually no stranger.
Born in 1904, he joined the Communist Party of China in 1926, joined the Communist Party of China in 1926, and studied at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow for two years.
Pictured| Gan Siqi and Li Zhen
In 1930, after Gan Siqi returned to China, he successively served as the political commissar of the Xianggan Military Region, the director of the Propaganda Department of the Hong Kong Provincial Party Committee, the director of the Political Department of the Red Sixth Army, and the political commissar of the Eighteenth Division.
For this cultured and knowledgeable warrior, it can be said that she has great respect, but to marry is something she never thought about.
Li Zhen was worried and said:
I am a child bride, but I came back from studying in the Soviet Union, and the gap between us is too big. ”
Chen Beiying said: "What is this, he has a high culture, you can make progress together." Director Gan has a good evaluation of you, and also praises you for being spicy and capable, and is a very remarkable female comrade. ”
Hearing that Gan Siqi was so high on her own price, her heart unconsciously moved closer to Gan Siqi.
On New Year's Day of the following year, Ren Bishi personally officiated in marriage, and Gan Siqi and Li Zhen held a warm and simple wedding ceremony. At the wedding, He Long smiled and said: "This wedding is completely new and does not have any feudal colors. He does not worship heaven and earth and his ancestors, but is single-mindedly engaged in revolution, and is a very good revolutionary couple. ”
Picture | Gan Siqi and Li Zhen Photo | Gan Siqi and Li Zhen
03 Why did Mr. and Mrs. Li Zhen have no children in their lives?
Soon, Li Zhen followed the Red Sixth Army to participate in the arduous Long March.
On the way of the Long March, there were enemy encirclements and blockades at all times. Coupled with the cruel natural conditions and the war environment, it tests everyone's will at all times.
As a lesbian, I face more difficulties.
Li Zhen was even more upset, she was still pregnant at this time, but she also had to cross the Jinsha River with the troops, cross the Dadu River, climb over the snowy mountains, and cross the muddy swamps.....
Just as they crossed the meadow, Li Zhen's child was about to be born. Children born under such harsh conditions bring not happiness to the mother, but more disaster.
At that time, some female comrades gave birth to children on the grass, often did not hear the cries of children, and died on the road of the revolution, and Li Zhen was the only survivor among so many strong women. She and Gan Siqi's children also died early in the course of the Long March.
After giving birth to the child, Li Zhen's body was very weak.
As she was about to walk out of the meadow, she fell ill with typhoid fever and was often unconscious.
Seeing that his wife is seriously ill, Gan Siqi will find ways to take care of her as long as she has the opportunity, and help or carry her on her back.
The first on the left is Li Zhen
Later, the well-meaning comrades-in-arms made temporary clothes stretchers to carry Li Zhen. In order to reduce the burden of his comrades-in-arms, Gan Siqi insisted on raising his head.
During the Long March, Gan Siqi and Li Zhen shared hardships and hardships, and finally successfully arrived in northern Shaanxi. In this regard, He Long commented on the two: "A model couple, two model cadres. ”
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Li Zhen followed the army on a expedition, crossed the Yellow River in the east, and fought desperately on the anti-Japanese front, probably because both the army and the localities were in great need of a group of cadres, including women cadres. In this way, Li Zhen was successfully transferred to the Women's Cadre School of the Eighth Route Army in Yan'an.
According to Li Zhen's personality, he hopes to kill the enemy on the front line. However, both Gan Siqi and He Long hoped that he would obey the organization's arrangements and that Li Zhen had a wealth of experience in leading the army, which was very suitable for serving as the principal of the women's cadre school.
Every year, Li Zhen watched the graduated cadets rush to the battlefield one by one, and Li Zhen's heart was also itchy, dreaming that one day she could also come to the front line to participate in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Finally, the organization decided to transfer her back to the unit. And this unit is the unit of the Red Second Front, which she used to be in.
During the Liberation War, Li Zhen participated in the liberation and defense of the Great Northwest.
Pictured| Li Zhen and Gan Siqi
After the victory of the Liberation War, Li Zhen successively served as an adviser to the Organization Department of the General Political Department, the All-China Women's Federation, and a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
However, when some old comrades saw Gan Siqi, they always said regretfully:
"Old Gan, you have been revolutionizing for more than forty years, how come you don't even have a child?"
Li Zhen also often felt that she could not stand her husband, and also advised Gan Siqi to marry another wife and leave him a descendant. But Gan Siqi resolutely refused to accept, and said
"I want a lover, not a child!" ”
In the years of conquest, Li Zhen has been pregnant several times and suffered several times, forming a habitual miscarriage, and she has lost the opportunity to become a mother. Therefore, after the liberation of the country, she and her husband used their salaries to adopt more than 20 martyrs' orphans.
In 1950, when U.S. imperialism launched the Korean War, she once again heeded the call of the party and the state and followed the volunteer army to Fight in Korea, serving as the secretary general of the political department of the volunteer army.
In September 1955, the Chinese People's Liberation Army implemented the PLA rank system for the first time.
Li Zhen and Gan Siqi are both among them, Li Zhen is a major general, and Gan Siqi is a general, becoming the only pair of "twin generals" among the founding generals.
At this point, in the history of the Chinese revolution, there was a couple of generals.
Pictured | second from the left is a group photo of Li Zhen with Peng Dehuai, Li Zhen, and Deng Hua on the Korean front
On February 5, 1964, just two months after Gansiqi's sixtieth birthday, he died due to long-term overwork and ineffective medical treatment, and Li Zhen also lost her husband who had been dependent on him for 30 years.
For a long time, she was immersed in the grief of losing her husband.
Unexpectedly, Li Zhen's life was behind greater tribulations. In 1966, Li Zhen lost her freedom for 4 years and did not work for 6 years.
In 1975, under the care and scrutiny of Deng Xiaoping, Li Zhencai completely restored his reputation.
In 1980, with the approval of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission, Li Zhen enjoyed the treatment of deputy rank of the Grand Military Region. However, Li Zhen still did not change her true colors and still lived in the original house.
Although Li Zhen was a general, he was an out-and-out "vegetable grower" and was very famous even in the ranks of the whole army. She also humorously said to the staff around her: "The reason why I am so tough is related to growing vegetables." ”
On holidays, her family and relatives came to visit her, and the parlor was always full. Everyone agreed that she still lived in such a "collective dormitory" today, which was really disproportionate to his status and status.
Pictured| Mao Zedong shakes hands with General Li Zhen
In this regard, Li Zhen said excitedly: "With such a house, it is already good." Here you can be among the masses, and you will not be separated from the masses at all, do you say? ”
Before New Year's Day in 1982, a leader came to Xiangshan to visit Li Zhen. He was surprised to find that Li Zhen's home was actually empty, and there was hardly a single piece of decent furniture.
I saw that the sofa in the parlor did not know how many years it had been used, and it looked very shabby. There are a few rattan chairs, or seven or eight years ago back to Hunan to move back, the rattan on the top does not know how much broken.
The study had only an office and a regular bookcase, and the bedroom was simply furnished, with a floor-to-ceiling hanger, a wardrobe, chairs and a large bed.
Seeing this, the leader felt very ashamed in his heart and said: "A leader with such a high moral and respected reputation like Sister Li Zhen, but today's life is so hard, it is completely my dereliction of duty in my work." ”
The | female generals visit li zhen, the founding female general
But after Hearing this, Li Zhen said happily: "Although these furniture looks a little shabby, but let people make up for it and repair it, you can still use it, you don't have to worry about me!" ”
In the spring of 1984, the organization repeatedly persuaded Li Zhen to finally move, and she moved to a military cadre building near the ZizhuYuan under the organization's arrangement. Here, Li Zhen spent the last few years of her life in peace.
In 1985, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held. Li Zhen wrote a letter to the leaders of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission:
He requested to resign as Organizational Adviser of the General Political Department and of the Central Advisory Committee.
ultimately
，
The organization also agreed to her request.
On March 11, 1990, General Li Zhen passed away. However, the tenacious and tenacious will embodied in her and the revolutionary spirit of the sons and daughters of China who forge ahead are always worthy of our study and remembrance.