On September 8, 1944, Yan'an was particularly solemn, and a memorial meeting was held in the Zaoyuan playground, and the portrait was hung next to chairman Mao's "Tribute to Comrade Zhang Side, who sacrificed for the interests of the people." Chairman Mao made a profound memorial speech at the meeting. Moreover, the memorial service included all the troops in Yan'an, including the guard units that have been the central organs of the Communist Party of China.
The memorial service was unusually solemn, which had not been seen since the founding of the party, and who were the people who mourned it? Is it a senior general of our army or an important leader of our party? No, no, he was just an ordinary warrior, Zhang Side.
And what kind of deeds Zhang Side has done, can make everyone so nostalgic and mourn, let's take a look at the great deeds of Zhang Side martyrs.
Zhang Side, (April 19, 1915 - September 5, 1944) was born in Yilong County, Sichuan, his mother died after birth, and at this time Zhang Side was not yet weaned, his father had to take Zhang Side everywhere to find a family where the children were not weaned, which also made him meet his adoptive mother, his adoptive mother took Zhang Side in his father's hands, seeing that his poor Baba was already hungry and emaciated, so he took him home, but the adoptive mother's family was not rich, there was no extra rations, Zhang Side had to eat a hundred meals to grow up, In order for Zhang Side to remember the kindness of these villagers, his adoptive mother named him "Ende".
Zhang Side's father, Zhang Xingpin, was a cadre of the Soviet regime, and Zhang Side was able to embark on the revolutionary road naturally without the guidance of his father, who traveled for many years and rarely returned home, Zhang Side and his brothers needed to rely on themselves, and the eldest brother found a job in the landlord's house, that is, to bring a plough rake instead of ploughing cattle and ploughing the land, and eventually the eldest brother died of exhaustion under the oppression of the landlord. The second brother's health has always been very bad, need the eldest brother to earn money to buy medicine to eat, the eldest brother died shortly after the death of the second brother, and Zhang Side became a helpless child, his father rushed to the home after receiving the news in the field, his three sons all died, which made Zhang Xingpin sad and decided to take the younger son Zhang Side with him.
Zhang Xingpin has been preaching the spirit of the Soviets in Yilong and other places, uniting all local contacts and resources to fight local tycoons and divide up the land. In February 1933, the Fourth Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army created the Sichuan-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base Area, and Zhang Xingpin went to greet him, and then formally joined the Communist Party of China, carrying out more comprehensive propaganda of the revolutionary slogan, so that more people understood that the Communist Party was a party that truly decided for the toiling masses.
However, due to the intimidation and oppression of the landlords, many vicious incidents were created, and after Zhang Xingpin learned of this, he led the members of the territorial reform task force to detain the landlords, carry out street criticism and struggle, and distribute all the land occupied by the landlords to the tenant farmers and poor peasants, which also made the work of the Red Army regime in Yilong better unfolded, and Zhang Xingpin became more and more active in the work. In a month, he led a team of several hundred people to join the Red Army, including his youngest son Zhang Side.
Soon after, due to the purge campaign set off by Zhang Guotao, Zhang Xingpin was framed by villains, put on the hat of "counter-revolutionary" and shot. At this time, Zhang Side had already joined the Red Army, and before joining the army, Zhang Xingpin repeatedly advised that you must not be afraid of sacrifice on the battlefield, and you must swear to defend this revolutionary regime to the death.
Zhang Side joined the Red Army at a young age, not yet 18 years old, so he could only engage in some non-dangerous things in the rear before he could go to the battlefield, but Zhang Side was not discouraged and worked hard in the rear, and joined the Communist Youth League. In the rear, everyone takes good care of Zhang Side, nutritious things will be given to her first, all call him Gu Baby, under everyone's care and their own training, Zhang Side's training results are exceptionally excellent, and his body is getting stronger and stronger, no longer the thin Zhang Side. And he will eventually go to the battlefield to fight alongside his comrades.
In 1935, due to the strategic mistakes of the Red Army, the Fourth Front of the Red Army began to carry out a strategic retreat, leaving the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area and moving north, but the Nationalist government would not easily let go of the Red Army, Chiang Kai-shek dispatched a large number of troops to pursue and intercept, in a vain attempt to annihilate the Red Fourth Army in one fell swoop. Block all the way forward of the Red Fourth Army. In order to preserve its strength, the Red Fourth Army was forced to start this long march.
Along the way, the Red Fourth Army climbed snowy mountains, turned over meadows, and crossed steep cliffs, and experienced too many difficulties and obstacles along the way. Zhang Side's gritty and brave character also gradually appeared, the first difficulty on the Long March road is the Jialing River, when the Red Fourth Army arrived at the Jialing River, the ferry port on the river bank has been occupied by the National Government, and a large number of fortifications have been built on the other side of the river, and the bridge on the river has also been blown up, indicating that the Nationalist army must have arrived very early, that is, waiting for the Red Fourth Army to wait for work, and the Red Fourth Army has been running continuously for several days, and its physical strength has long been exhausted, but it has been delayed for a minute. The Red Fourth Army was one minute more dangerous and there were still a large number of pursuing soldiers behind it.
At this moment, Zhang Side stood up, and he asked himself to cross the river and rush into the enemy's position to cover the large army to cross the river. Then Zhang Side jumped into the cold river water, using superb swimming skills through the turbulent river water, straight to the ferry, the enemy army has not yet reacted, Zhang Side has taken the machine gun to shoot up, successfully covered the large army across the river.
In the ensuing series of battles, Zhang Side charged forward, often alone with a machine gun rushed out of the trench, the enemy saw the situation and shot at him wildly, but stunned that he could not die, the enemy army was afraid and retreated backwards, and only found himself wounded after the battle was over, and he only had the idea of rushing forward in the battle. Because he fought bravely, his comrades-in-arms affectionately called him "Little Tiger".
Crossing the Jialing River, the Red Fourth Army met in the victory of Maogong and the Red First Army, and continued to set out after a short rest in Maogong, after the merger of the two armies, morale was high, and the march came all the way to the Danba Heishui River, although the river surface is not very wide, but the waterway is narrow, the water flow is rapid, there is no bridge on the river surface, there is only one iron cable, and the iron cable has been rusted after a long period of wind and sun, and the vanguard of the Red Army stopped when they saw such a scene.
Zhang Side rushed to the scene to see the comrades-in-arms looking at each other, when they were helpless, they couldn't take care of their own identity as wounded, jumped on the handle on the iron cable and slid down at once, and before the comrades-in-arms could react, Zhang Side had already reached the opposite side, he shouted at the comrades-in-arms: "Don't be afraid, you can slide over, there is no problem with the iron cable", everyone understood that he was to check the firmness of the iron cable, this is really thrilling, in case the iron cable is not strong Zhang Side may die in the BlackWater River, And he has already put his life on the line for the safety of the large army.
In August 1925, the troops began to enter the Songpan meadow one after another, and the first problem after entering the grassland was that the swamp was dense, looking at the solid grass, stepping on it was a swamp, many soldiers lost their lives for this, and could only watch their comrades sink deeper and deeper in the swamp but they were powerless, and they were devastated.
Later, the warriors concluded that the method was to let the horses walk in front of the line, and if the grass could bear the weight of the horses, it would certainly be able to bear the weight of the soldiers, so the troops gradually entered the depths of the grass. And then the problem followed, that is, the military food was already seriously insufficient, the transfer was very hurried when leaving, so the grain carried was very small, after a long journey before entering the meadow, the grain had already bottomed out, although a large amount of barley noodles was hoarded during the Maogong period, it was still not enough for these tens of thousands of people to eat, hunger hung above the line, and due to the long-term lack of nutrition, many comrades with poor physical fitness had fallen.
After the military ran out of food, they began to eat turf roots, but the deeper they went, the more they could eat the turf roots. At this time, Zhang Side led the warriors to start trying grass that had not been eaten, and began to taste the hundred grasses of the Shennong clan, and in the process of tasting the hundred grasses, Zhang Side almost lost his life several times. A small soldier found a radish on the grass, he pulled it out, was about to taste it when he was stopped by Zhang Side, Zhang Side grabbed the radish and tasted it in his mouth, it was soon wrong, in the mouth is a bitter taste is not the taste of radish, just said not to eat, poisonous, he fell down, the soldiers rushed to bring Zhang Side back to the camp, after half an hour, Zhang Side slowly woke up, the first sentence when he woke up was "Go and tell this news to other comrades", Zhang Side is such a selfless dedication and self-denial, and naturally has been highly praised by everyone.
After a difficult journey and overcoming many hardships, he finally successfully met in northern Shaanxi, and after arriving in northern Shaanxi, due to his excellent performance during the Long March, he transferred Zhang Side to the Central Left Guard Office as the deputy squad leader of the guard company, continued to carry forward the spirit of selfless dedication in his post, in order to stabilize the emotions of the southern soldiers, transferred them to relaxed positions, sat with them during meals to talk about their experiences, and shared their hearts with them, and soon Zhang Side mingled with the soldiers in the class.
Time came to 1941, due to the long-term war and the blockade of the invaders, the grain in the rear became very scarce, and the central government had no choice but to ration everyone's diet, but Zhang Side would eat a little every time he ate a little and went out to stand guard, always saying "until I changed the guard on duty", and later everyone knew that he was for the sake of leftover grain, eating less himself, and other soldiers could eat more. Everyone wept silently when they knew the truth.
In 1942, because Yan'an wanted to build a large hall, the soldiers and the masses were working together to install the beams and pillars of the house, the beams and pillars collapsed unexpectedly, Zhang Side rushed up with an arrow to carry the beams, avoiding harm to the masses, and he himself was injured, just as Chairman Mao passed by the scene, he immediately rushed over to check it out, and saw the injured people rushing to comfort him: "Good comrade, the communists should have your courage to resist the beams", and Chairman Mao also remembered Zhang Side.
In the spring of 1943, the Central Military Commission's guard battalion and the Central Teaching Corps were merged into the Central Guard Regiment, and the change of personnel positions was inevitable, Zhang Side was also demoted from squad leader to ordinary soldier, which others may not be able to accept, because Zhang Side has been in the army for ten years and is still just a soldier, many people are unfair to him, but Zhang Side said: "Whether it is as a squad leader or a soldier, I will resolutely obey, because everything is the need of the revolution." Subsequently, Zhang Side was appointed as Chairman Mao's guard, which made Zhang Side feel very honored, and Chairman Mao also liked Zhang Side very much, because Zhang Side's spirit of sacrificing himself as a person had already left a deep impression on Chairman Mao.
In the summer of 1944, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, for the smooth convening of the National Congress, the most important indicator was charcoal, because from 1940 onwards, the Japanese invaders and Kuomintang reactionaries vigorously blockaded the northern Shaanxi base area, so the base area put forward the slogan of self-reliance after 1940, and the scarce charcoal was also burned by the soldiers in the woods south of Yan'an. In order to ensure the heating of the conference, the central government sent a large number of charcoal burning teams to burn charcoal.
Zhang Side because of the last charcoal guarantee indicators exceeded the quota, half a month burned eighty thousand pounds, this time he led the team to Ansai County Shixiayu, decided to first dig out a hole for firing, Zhang Side or brave to do the first place, excavated at the bottom, but unfortunately happened, because the previous few days have been raining cave collapse, in the last moment he still struggled to push out his comrades-in-arms, and Zhang Side's life is forever fixed at the age of 29.
When the news reached Chairman Mao's residence in Yan'an, Chairman Mao became very sad and said, "What a good comrade, it is gone like this" Chairman Mao immediately ordered that the remains of the martyr Zhang Side be transported back to Yan'an, and a memorial service should be held.
On the afternoon of September 8, 1944, at the memorial service of the martyr Zhang Side, Chairman Mao gave a memorial speech with a deep heart, and sent a personally inscribed tie and wreath, and at the end of the memorial service Chairman Mao spoke highly of Zhang Side: Comrade Zhang Side died for the benefit of the people, and his death was even heavier than Mount Tai.