Revolutionary family
——Written on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China
Text/Zhang Yunping
My uncle is from Xizhaotong Village, Zhengding County, Hebei Province, and my cousin Wang Jianying was born in this peasant family. His uncle was enlightened and progressive, and before the "Seven Incidents", he assigned his cousin Xu to Xing Xiuwu, a hot-blooded young man from Xiaotun Village in the same township. In 1937, during the "July 7 Incident", when the Japanese invaded North China, Brother-in-law Xing Xiuwu, who was studying in his hometown on the south bank of the Hutuo River in Zhengding County, actively organized intellectual youth to carry out propaganda activities of our party's "Ten Programs for Resisting Japan and Saving the Country" under the leadership of the local party. In August 1938, his brother-in-law secretly joined the Communist Party of China. In August 1939, when the branch of the "Anti-Japanese Military and Political University" was established, the brother-in-law, with the help of the school's homeroom teacher, risked his life with two classmates to cross the enemy's blockade line and enter the Taihang Mountains to study at the "Anti-Japanese University" Branch School. During the study period, the students were received by Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and also met with General Lü Zhengcao.
(Xing Xiuwu and Wang Jianying)
The brother-in-law participated in the rescue work of the Hundred Regiments War. In August 1940, our army launched the "Hundred Regiments War". After several months of fighting, the Japanese army, which had suffered heavy losses, began to mobilize troops and frantically "sweep" in retaliation, and our army turned to anti-"sweeping" operations. At that time, the "Kang Da" organized a war wounded ambulance team to go to the front line, and the brother-in-law took on the task of rescuing the wounded in the field. The war was fierce and brutal, with gunshot wounds, bayonet wounds, and bruises one after another. Hemostasis, bandaging, fixation, rescue... The ambulance crew had no respite all day and was so tired that it was difficult to eat and drink. In 1942, due to the enemy's repeated sweeping, encroachment and blockade of our anti-Japanese base areas, the population of the base areas was reduced by half, and the arable land was destroyed in large quantities. During the most difficult period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Mao Zedong issued the slogan of "griting your teeth and getting through the difficulties." At that time, the brother-in-law was working in the sub-bureau and his living conditions were very poor. Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Li Dazhang, Li Da, Li Xuefeng and other leaders also drank wild vegetable porridge in the large canteen, and sometimes mixed some pepper leaves with millet porridge to fill their hunger. The brother-in-law was greatly trained in the war.
Xing Xiuwu's brother-in-law's third brother, Xing Xing (pseudonym Li Zhong), was a guerrilla leader, and the underground party often met at his home. Wang Jianying's cousin was very affected by the in-laws' house, and she was determined to join the army to resist Japan. His uncle was also an anti-Japanese activist who had cooperated with Li Zhong, then a guerrilla leader, in hiding guns and ammunition, and he was very supportive of his daughter following her brother-in-law to join the Eighth Route Army. The brother-in-law joined the army for three years without a message, and after several twists and turns, he contacted the brother-in-law, and he was assigned to work in the infirmary of the Party Committee of Taihang District. The brother-in-law asked him to go to a man who sold steamed buns according to the address written on the envelope.
In 1941, her 22-year-old cousin, who had never been out of the house, arrived in Handan accompanied by relatives. But because he was not familiar with the road, he could not find a guide, and after half a month, he spent all the money and returned home helplessly. The next year, after her cousin sold everything in the family, and after her relatives sent her to Handan again, she followed a young man who was familiar with the road alone, through the enemy-occupied area, hard tossing and turning, walking and stopping, passing through Ma Xiaohe Village, Yetou Village, and Pei Ash Village in Wu'an County, and finally came together with Xing Xiuwu's brother-in-law in Wen Village. Every day for dozens of miles, my cousin's feet are grinding with blood bubbles, and the thrills and hardships on the road are indescribable.
(Xing Xiuwu, 1942, stationed at the Eighth Route Army in Wencun, Zhanghe, Xiangxian County, Hebei Province)
Later, the japanese traitor and bandit leader went to Xi Zhaotong's uncle's house many times to find trouble and asked his uncle to hand over his daughter. Once, when they shot and threatened their uncle, a shot hit the pear tree, almost killing the uncle.
After my cousin joined the Eighth Route Army, my uncle's family became a place for the party's underground organization and guerrilla activities. Frequent meetings, accommodation, storage of belongings, etc.
After the brother-in-law studied at the Health School of the Field Health Department of the Eighth Route Army, he became an internist in the army and served as the leader of the health team. In each battle, the brother-in-law followed the troops to the forefront of the battle to rescue the wounded. In 1946, he used a rifle on the battlefield to cover the commander of the then Seventh Division, Zhang Tingfa, from danger, and took rescue measures according to the commander's injuries. In 1947, in a battle with Kuomintang troops in Xin'an County, Henan Province, the brother-in-law took a stretcher squad and three hygienists to the front-line battlefield to rescue the wounded. Suddenly, one hygienist's arm was injured by a shell, and blood flowed like blood. Just as the brother-in-law was bandaging him, another shell came, and he immediately covered the hygienist with his body, and the brother-in-law's neck, waist, back, and legs were injured in more than thirty places, covered in blood, and he passed out, and after rescue, although he was out of danger to his life, there were five pieces of shrapnel left in the body.
After her cousin went to work in the war zone, she was organized and arranged to work in the infirmary of the district party committee, and she withstood the severe test of many wars. In May 1942, when my cousin was working in the infirmary of the Taihang District Party Committee for less than three months, she encountered a "big sweep" by the Japanese army along the railway line to the Liberated Areas, infringing on the anti-Japanese base area. The party committee of Taihang District was reduced to pieces and circled the Japanese Kou on the mountain. Organizationally, his cousin, Feng Xuefeng, Wang Dingkun, and a correspondent went to Zhi County (now Zuoquan County) to go up the mountain with the masses to "counter-sweep." For more than a month, they have endured hardships and dangers, and have traveled all over the big and small mountains of Tongyu, Matian and Zuoquan Counties in Shanxi Province. Feng Xuefeng is a learned writer, and along the way, his cousin also followed him to study cultural knowledge. In July 1942, my cousin and Feng Xuefeng and the four of them returned to Xiangxian County, the seat of the party committee of Taihang District. My cousin was greatly tempered and understood the principles of the revolution.
In 1943, her cousin worked as a nurse at the second office of the fifth division, not only to care for the wounded and sick, but also to participate in the reclamation of land. In 1945, her cousin was transferred to the 48th Regiment Health Brigade, responsible for the health care of the Special Agent Company. While training, the cousin works, studies, participates in large-scale production, and is busy all day long, and the harvest is also very rich. In the big competition shooting competition, she also achieved the first place, and was once rated as a model of learning and labor. In June 1946, my cousin honorably joined the Communist Party of China.
After her cousin left her hometown, for six or seven years, she never dared to write a letter to her family, until the turn of the autumn and winter of 1947, when she heard that Shijiazhuang was about to be liberated, she managed to carry a letter to her family at the ninth column of Changzhi in Shanxi.
(Wounded in November 1947 in Nagashi)
The brother-in-law's third brother, Xing Xing, who has long been engaged in underground activities, once assumed the pseudonym Li Zhong, who participated in revolutionary work as early as 1937 when the Japanese army invaded China and served as a guerrilla leader. In the spring of 1939, the party organization sent Li Zhong to the south of Gaocheng by bicycle and took up the post of instructor of the anti-Japanese guerrillas in Gao and Luan. When he walked to the north of the village of Gaocheng Liangcun, he encountered the devil. In an extremely urgent situation, Li Zhong swallowed the secret piece, was arrested by the ghosts, and was taken to the Liangcun stronghold, where he was tortured to death and tortured to death. But Li Zhong never revealed his identity. After the party organization learned of the situation, it organized dozens of villagers from several townships to jointly confirm that Li Zhong was a good citizen and carry out rescue. Later, the Japanese captain Kojima personally took people to Li Zhong's hometown in Xiaotun Village to investigate, and was later released. In 1942, Li Zhong served as an instructor in the special service battalion, and was very brave and tenacious in the battle between Zaoqiang and the Japanese, in order to cover the retreat of the main forces and prevent the Japanese from invading the liberated areas, he always charged forward. Once, unfortunately, he was injured by a Japanese shell that broke his right leg, and his comrades sent him to his hometown to recuperate. Before he could recover, Li Zhong, with his wounded leg, led the guerrillas to touch the enemy's sentry, unplugged the enemy's stronghold, and captured many weapons and booty, which was rumored to be a good story.
My 91-year-old cousin Wang Jianying and 93-year-old Xing Xiuwu's brother-in-law died in 2010 and 2016, both retired cadres. My uncle's family was a big revolutionary family, and their story of the Red Revolution is unforgettable.
About the Author:
Zhang Yunping, deputy chief physician, formerly director of the Medical Office of the 467th Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, is now a retired cadre of the Hebei Provincial Army, a member of the Hebei Writers Association, and a member of the Hebei Provincial Prose Literature Society. In 2011, he published the autobiographical prose collection "The Sky of female soldiers" (Popular Literature and Art Publishing House), which won the 8th Hebei Prose Masterpiece Excellent Works Award; in 2015, he published the essay collection "Flowing Year Overflowing Color" (Unity Publishing House), which won the second prize of the 10th Hebei Prose Masterpieces.