"Everything is fine at home, so you have to work with peace of mind." This is a sentence that Chen Guipei, 93 years old in Huaping Village, Lühe Town, Xunyang County, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, often said to his children and grandchildren, who have had four sons, one grandson, one grandson, and seven great-grandchildren who have joined the army to serve the country since the 1960s.
Four sons enlisted in the army
According to the staff of the village committee of Huaping Village, Luhe Town, Xunyang County, Ankang City, Chen Guipei was born in 1928 and is 93 years old this year. Chen Guipei and his wife Liu Ronghua have eight children, including six sons and two daughters.
According to the staff, because Chen Guipei was born in old China and experienced hard days, he cherished his hard-won new life. After the liberation of the whole country in 1949, he has been serving as the deputy commander of the production brigade, leading the masses to promote production every day, repairing the fields and making land year after year without stopping, and for several decades, he has built all the arable land in the village into shikan terraces, realized the self-sufficiency in grain production, and exceeded the task of "grain and oil into the warehouse" allocated by the state for many years. The surplus grain stored by their production teams was often transferred by the people's communes to other production teams to rescue the people in need to survive the spring famine. Because of Chen Guipei's hard work and selflessness, he gloriously joined the Communist Party of China in 1963, becoming the first rural grassroots party member in the village to join the party, with 58 years of party experience. He was patriotic and supported the army, and his four sons successively joined the army to defend the country, never reaching out to the country to take care of it, so his story of supporting the army was spread as a good story in the local area.
According to the elderly Chen Guipei, his eldest son, Chen Xianfang, was born in 1949 and returned to the village after graduating from junior high school in 1969 to become a private teacher, not only to serve the local people, but also to increase the income of his family. However, when the winter conscription of the following year began, he received patriotic education from his father from an early age, took the initiative to give up his job and signed up to enlist in the army, although Chen Guipei and his wife were somewhat reluctant, they still supported the choice of the eldest son and sent the eldest son Chen Xianfang to the army.
The second son, Chen Xianyin, was born in 1952, and after graduating from junior high school, he was arranged by the district office to work in the former Luhe District Grain Management Office. At that time, the grain control institute was a good unit and an enviable good occupation. However, after the recruitment work began in the winter of 1971, Chen Xianyin also put forward the request to become a soldier, and the relieved Chen Guipei persuaded his wife to actively support the conscription of the second son, so that his family became a typical example of two sons serving in active service at the same time.
According to Chen Guipei, the family was not well off at that time. Sending two sons to join the army, leaving 4 sons who are still in school and a young daughter, plus a lover and an elderly and sick mother, the family of nine depends on him to earn a full labor to support the family. In order to support his family, he led the masses to engage in collective production every day, and worked overtime at night to cultivate his own land, sometimes so tired that he could not stretch his waist. Because of the lack of labor, the living standards during that period dropped significantly, but no matter how difficult the family was, Chen Guipei's letters to his sons were all good news and not worries, and each letter told his son: "Everything is good at home, and we must work with peace of mind." ”
According to Chen Guipei's sixth son, Chen Xianxin, although the state had many policies of supporting the military and giving priority to subordinates, his father never reflected his family difficulties to the government and the army, nor did he reach out to the state for a penny of care. During this period, he also encouraged his third son Chen Xian'an and fourth son Chen Xianping to sign up for the army, but later the organization considered that he already had two sons in the army, and the family was really difficult and did not agree to his request.
In 1980, just one or two years after Chen Xianfang and Chen Xianyin had just retired from the army and returned to their hometowns, Chen Guipei's fifth son, Chen Xianlai, graduated from high school, and he actively encouraged Chen Xianlai to sign up for the army; In 1982, he then sent his youngest son Chen Xianxin to the army, so that his family became a glorious military subordinate with two sons serving in active service at the same time.
In 1983, the media reported his advanced deeds with the title of "four sons serving active duty, and the family has difficulties and does not extend their hands", and after the Civil Affairs Bureau of Xunyang County learned of Chen Guipei's deeds, recommended him to participate in the commendation meeting held in the county that year on "supporting the army and superior subordinates, supporting the government and loving the people"; In 1984, he was recommended by the former Ankang District Civil Affairs Bureau to attend the "Double Support" commendation meeting in Shaanxi Province, and was jointly commended by the provincial party committee, the provincial government and the provincial military district.
In the winter of 2002, Chen Guipei's grandson Chen Hui (the son of Chen Xianping, Chen Guipei's fourth son), reached the age of military service again, when Chen Guipei was 70 years old, but he still did not hesitate to encourage his only son's grandson to join the army. In 2013, his grandson Xiang Renjin was influenced by him to join the army. In 2016, his great-grandson Zhou Song joined the army again.
The sign of "Revolutionary Army" is the greatest honor
"Others keep their children by their side to earn money to support their families, but you send so many children to volunteer as soldiers, do you think you have lost money?" Whenever someone raised this question, the elderly Chen Guipei replied: "Although I have no culture, I understand the big truth, there is a country to have a home, and there is no small family without everyone!" The old man also said that he was an old Communist Party member and had a special affection for the Chinese Communist Party, so supporting his children to join the army and serve the country was also what an old Communist Party member should do.
Although Chen Guipei is 93 years old, he is still in good spirits, singing flower drums, beating gongs and drums with his children and grandchildren, talking and laughing, and when he is happy, he also draws fists and drinks with his grandchildren. The old man said that every year the New Year is his happiest and happiest day, the four generations can get together, the children and grandchildren accompany him to chat, relieve his boredom, and listen to him tell the stories of the past.
On the walls of the old house where the old man Chen Guipei lived, there were still several signs of "revolutionary military dependents" hanging neatly, and he pointed to these signs and proudly said: "I have never been to school in my life, so I have not made any great contributions to the party and the country. ”
Chen Shanbao, secretary of the village party committee of Huaping Village, said that the villagers all praised the patriotic deeds of the elderly Chen Guipei, as the villagers said, "Defending the family and defending the country is the most sincere, and there are seven soldiers in one family." Respectable and admirable, the first person in Lühe Town!"
Huashang Daily reporter Chen Sicun