Zhang Yunyi was born on August 10, 1892 to a poor peasant family in Shangyuan Village, Huili Township, Touyuan District, Wenchang County, Hainan Province. In his early years, he secretly joined the China League, participated in the struggle against Yuan Shikai, long Jiguang, and Chen Jiongming, and was a staunch supporter of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1926 and went through the Northern Expedition, the Nanchang Uprising, the Baise Uprising, the Anti-Encirclement and Suppression Campaign, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the War of Liberation. He successively served as the commander of the Red 7 Army, the deputy chief of staff of the Central Military Commission, and the commander of the Military Region. In September 1955, Zhang Yunyi was awarded the rank of Grand General (one of the Ten Great Generals of China), and was awarded the Order of August 1, 1st Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class. On November 19, 1974, Zhang Yunyi completed the last journey of his military career and died in Beijing at the age of 82 due to ineffective medical treatment.
In his lifetime, General Zhang Yunyi married two virtuous wives, namely Wang Bizhen and Han Bi.
As the saying goes: "No filial piety has three, and no queen is greater." Wang Bizhen, the original wife of General Zhang Yunyi, was well aware of this truth: because she had been married to Zhang Yunyi for many years, she only had a daughter named Zhang Qiong, and later she could no longer have children due to illness, and Wang Bizhen was ashamed of the Zhang family. According to Zhang Yunyi (published in July 2012) compiled by the Hainan Archives, in order to make the Zhang family have a future, Wang Bizhen took the initiative to sever her conjugal relationship with Zhang Yunyi, and Wang Bizhen secretly told Zhang Yunyi about her good sister Han Bi. At that time, Zhang Yunyi was completely unaware of this matter.
Later, Zhang Yunyi was very unhappy after learning the truth about the original wife. First, he felt that he was more than 20 years older than Han Bi, and second, he was afraid of ruining people's lifelong youth, so Zhang Yunyi was determined to let Han Bi go home, and the original Match Wang Bizhen brought Han Bi back home in his name beforehand, even if there was no fact of husband and wife, but there was already a husband and wife. In the end, Zhang Yunyi had no choice but to marry Han Bi, and insisted on not breaking off the husband and wife relationship with the original Match Wang Bizhen. In this way, Zhang Yunyi had two virtuous wives at the same time. Later, Han Bi gave birth to three sons and a daughter for Zhang Yunyi, namely: the eldest son died shortly after birth, the second son Zhang Yuanzhi, the second daughter Zhang Mingyuan, and the third son Zhang Guangdong.
General Zhang Yunyi's two wives had a total of three sons and two daughters, except for the eldest daughter Zhang Qiong, who died of illness and the death of the eldest son and second daughter, the rest were alive.
1. The eldest daughter Zhang Qiong
Zhang Qiong, born in 1915, the mother is Wang Bizhen. He worked in a hospital of the People's Liberation Army until his retirement. He died in 2009 at the age of 94.
2. Eldest son (nameless)
The eldest son, born in 1924, died shortly thereafter. (Died before he could get a name)
Third, the second son Zhang Yuanzhi
Zhang Yuanzhi, born in 1928, the mother is Han Bi. Zhang Yuanzhiyuan was deputy director of the Fourth Bureau of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry and served in Sanye during the war years. In 1949, he went south and fought until Guangxi. In 1950, he worked as a photojournalist at Guangxi Daily, and in his later years he still loved photography, carrying a camera with him, with a cane in one hand and a camera in the other. On July 9, 2015, Zhang Yuanzhi died at the age of 87 at the 305 Hospital in Beijing.
Fourth, daughter Zhang Yuanming
Zhang Yuanming was born in 1945 in Linyi, Shandong Province, to Han Bi's mother. In 1946, due to the lack of medical treatment in the base area, Zhang Yuanming died at the age of one.
Fifth, the third son Zhang Guangdong
Zhang Guangdong (left) and his second brother Zhang Yuanzhi (right) take a photo in Hainan
Zhang Guangdong, born in 1946 in Shandong, is a native of Wenchang, Hainan, and his mother is Han Bi. In 1969, 23-year-old Zhang Guangdong graduated from the Kazakh Military Missile Engineering Department. After graduation, he was assigned to the Computer Research Institute of the General Staff of China to engage in computer research. In the early 1980s, the modernization of the armed forces required composite command personnel, so a group of technicians were selected to study at the military academy, and Zhang Guangdong was enriched among the commanders of the troops. Zhang Guangdong was formerly the vice president of the Shijiazhuang Army Command College, and he was also a major general in the People's Republic of China. He is now retired.