Zhang Qun
Today, Xinquan is a unique tourist town in western Fujian. Here the scenery is beautiful, there are many places to visit and learn, there are many red attractions, and it is convenient to eat and live, delicious food, many hotels, comfortable hot springs, and more and more popular with tourists inside and outside the province. However, coming to Xinquan resonated not only with these, but with the history of the agrarian revolution that took place here in full swing at the end of the 1920s, the glorious course of the Xinquan people following the Communist Party in making a revolution, and the dedication of benevolent people who threw themselves into the revolution without fear of bloodshed and sacrifice. Coming here, swimming in the perfect scenery, tasting the flavors, soaking in the comfortable hot springs, listening to heroic stories, people will can't help but bow deeply for the many revolutionary martyrs of Xinquan.
Today, the author tells you about Zhang Conghua, a military instructor who participated in the Nanchang Uprising and the Xinquan Rectification Training, and a revolutionary martyr from Xinquan who was the chief of staff of a division of the Red Twelfth Army.
On the day before the Qingming Festival in 2021, with reverence, the author came to the home of Zhang Haiming, the "Red Three Generations" located on the left side of the Zhang Family Temple in Xinquan (the former site of the Revolutionary Committee of Liannan District), to admire the portrait of the revolutionary martyr Zhang Conghua. In the bust in the frame, Zhang Conghua is dressed in the uniform of the Whampoa Military Academy's Northern Expedition and wears a large brimmed hat, which is mighty and handsome, tiger and tiger, and is the image of a young officer with a magnificent style. At the lower end of the frame, a certificate of revolutionary martyrs signed "Liancheng County People's Government" is inlaid: Name: Zhang Conghua; Position: Chief of Staff of the Division, Member of the Communist Party of China. Zhang Haiming, the second grandson of the martyr, touched his grandfather's photo and choked up about his grandfather's glorious and tragic past.
Zhang Conghua, also known as Zhang Tonggu, was named Zhang Pinhui according to the arrangement of Zhang's generations in Xinquan, changed his name to Zhang Tonggu when he applied for the Whampoa Military Academy, and changed his name to Zhang Conghua after participating in the Nanchang Uprising. Speaking of Zhang Conghua's multiple names, there is also a story. Zhang Conghua's first name was Zhang Pinhui, in 1925 he applied for the Guangzhou Huangpu Military Academy, an old man named Zhang Fubin in Xinquan, serving in the provincial party department of the National Government, quite a lifetime experience and political experience, very optimistic about Zhang Pinhui's future, on Zhang Pinhui's application for the Whampoa Military Academy, the tone of the heart reminded: "Pin hui, the current situation is turbulent, once you come to the fore, often make a big move, the blessings and misfortunes are unpredictable, maybe it will hurt your family, change your name." Zhang Pinhui respectfully asked Uncle Zi, "What is An's good name?" Zhang Fubin pondered slightly, "I love the sound of gongs and drums in my hometown, just call Zhang Tonggu, simple and easy to remember, no matter where you go to the north and south of the world, don't forget the hometown of Xinquan." Therefore, Zhang Pinhui was named "Zhang Tonggu" when he was at the Whampoa Military Academy.
Zhang Pinhui, born on the 25th day of the seventh lunar month in 1905, was born in the Wuyi Villagers Group of Xinquan Village, Xinquan Town, Liancheng County, Fujian Province, also known as "Jiangwu". Father Zhang Xiancheng, is a knowledgeable jade merchant, in front of the Xinquan Zhang family temple in front of the first shop of seventeen ancestral shops, operating jade and gold and silver jewelry, the shop number is called "Yucheng Shop", the family's main source of livelihood depends on the profitability of the shop and the mother Jiang Sheng jade planted a few acres of thin land, more substantial than the average family. Therefore, Zhang Pinhui had the conditions to study in a private school and read, and at a slightly older age (1916), he entered the dongshan building public "Huinan Higher Primary School" to study.
After completing his studies, with excellent grades and ranking first in his homework, Zhang Pinhui is already a handsome teenager with a personable demeanor. His father did not hesitate to send him to the old Liancheng County Middle School, fifty kilometers away, to continue his studies. On October 10, 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, followed by Yuan Shikai's restoration of the imperial system, the second revolution, warlord melee, Sun Yat-sen, with the help of the Russian Communists, established the three major policies of the United Russian Communists to support peasants and workers, and founded the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924. In 1921, the Communist Party of China was born, the revolutionary situation was turbulent, and the revolutionary wave of overthrowing the warlords and overthrowing the "three mountains" was higher than the wave, and also swept into the depths of the mountains of western Fujian. Zhang Pinhui, who grew up in the town of martial arts, accepted the influence of the revolutionary wave during his study in the county town, and his habit of loving dancing guns and sticks became more and more exposed. Zhang Pinhui had a good tutor from an early age, and had a deep idea of filial piety, and during his secondary school studies (July 1923), he obeyed his parents' orders and married Huang Congjin, a woman from Guanzhuang Village in the same town, and gave birth to a son Zhang Yuxing and a daughter Zhang Baoqing (now settled in Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province) in 1925 and 1930, respectively.
In the spring of 1925, when the middle school was close to graduation, he resolutely applied for the fourth phase of the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou. His father emptied all his savings, and also sold a few acres of thin land in the west village boundary, and made up his feet to send his son to apply for military school.
At this time, Zhang Pinhui changed his name to "Zhang Tonggu" and was incorporated into the fourth phase of the Whampoa Military Academy, the first regiment and the first company (officer company) to study the series of infantry command courses, and Lin Biao (the reserve officer company of the second regiment and the third company), Liu Zhidan, Wu Zhonghao, Duan Dechang, Zhang Lingfu and others were classmates of the same period. He was talented and self-motivated, and in addition to the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party during this period, Communists could join the Kuomintang in their own names, and the political environment was relatively mild. Under the influence of many Communist Party members in the same class, he actively moved closer to the Party organization and became a glorious Communist Party member.
In 1926, after graduating from the fourth military academy, Zhang Tonggu was assigned to the "Independent Regiment" led by Ye Ting as a probationary platoon leader, directly participating in the Northern Expedition in July 1926. Under the guidance of the exemplary role of communists and members of the Communist Youth League, the Northern Expeditionary Army, with the Whampoa Military Academy's student army as the main body, fought bravely and well, was invincible, fought from Guangdong to Hubei, and the reactionary warlords fled into the wilderness. Zhang Tonggu joined Ye Ting's troops, charged with extraordinary bravery, and was soon promoted to a battalion commander in the Iron Army, and was promoted to regimental chief of staff when the Wuhan fortress "He Sheng Bridge" was breached, which was a rare general in the Iron Army.
At the moment of victory in the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist and anti-people essence was revealed, and on April 12, 1927, he raised a criminal butcher's knife to the Communists in Shanghai, and the revolutionary situation took a sharp turn for the worse. The awakened Communists determined the strategy of "armed resistance to the Kuomintang", and Zhang Tonggu followed Zhu De and Ye Ting to participate in the world-famous Nanchang Uprising, and then moved to Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi, and became one of the generals of the Red Fourth Army on Jinggang Mountain when the Zhumao Red Army met the division. At this time, Zhang Tonggu changed his name to "Zhang Conghua" and expressed his determination to completely break with the Kuomintang and follow the Communist Revolution to the end.
After Zhang Conghua joined the leadership of the Communist Party, he made many contributions to the building of the people's army, the most famous of which is that he served as a military instructor during the Xinquan rectification training of the Red Fourth Army.
In April 1929, the Red Fourth Army, led by Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Chen Yi, fought the first battle at Changling Village, crushed the indigenous warlord Guo Fengming in western Fujian, and liberated Tingzhou City, the capital of Fujian Hakka. On May 21, "the red flag jumped over the Ting River and went straight down to Longyan Shanghang", the Red Fourth Army attacked Longyan City at the invitation of Deng Zihui, the underground party of Longyan, and Zhang Conghua and his troops passed through Xinquan and stationed themselves in the neighboring town of Miaoqian "Kong Qing Ancestral Hall" that night. Zhang Conghua returned to his hometown after a long absence, that is, he asked the troops for leave and rushed to Xinquan, ten kilometers away, to reunite with his parents, wife and children.
After the Red Fourth Army entered Fujian, it conquered all parts of western Fujian, created a series of revolutionary base areas in western Fujian, and established a Soviet power in which the people were the masters of their own affairs by "fighting local tycoons and dividing up the land." The wave of revolution was higher than the wave, and Zhang Conghua's hometown of Xinquan also became one of the 21 red base areas in the Central Soviet Region. Zhang Conghua, who grew up in Xinquan, was well aware of the natural geography and customs of Xinquan, and actively recommended the leaders of the Red Fourth Army to rest in Xinquan Town, which has a good mass foundation, convenient transportation, hospitality, and rich products. In history, Xinquan ushered in the Red Fourth Army's four advances into Xinquan, and several major events affected the process of the Chinese revolution occurred in Xinquan: the birth of the Fourth Column of the Red Fourth Army, the initial improvement of the "Three Major Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention", the establishment of the first night school for workers and peasants in the Central Soviet District, and the drafting of the resolution of the Ninth Party Congress (later known as the "Gutian Conference Resolution"), Xinquan played a pivotal role in the history of the Communist Party of China. Why mao Zedong and the Red Fourth Army were so close to Xinquan and went to Xinquan four times to carry out revolutionary practice, Zhang Conghua, who held an important position in the Red Fourth Army, was a well-deserved matchmaker.
In the history of the construction of our party and our army, Xinquan is a place that can be called a "milestone." From December 3 to 19, 1929, the famous "Shinsen Rectification Training" in military history was held here. What is "Shinsen Training"? That is, the political and military rectification training of the Red Fourth Army. As everyone knows, in the Nanchang uprising of 1927, the Communist Party of China had its own people's army, but from the very beginning it was surrounded and blocked by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and it was tired of fighting, and there was no time at all for formal political and military training; in addition, the armed uprisings in various localities joined the ranks of peasants and workers, and they plunged into protracted wars without military training; the political and military quality of the entire red army contingent was not high, the thoroughness of the revolution was not strong, and even the question of "how long the red flag can be fought" was even raised. Therefore, it is very urgent to conduct a regular political and military reorganization of the ranks of the Red Fourth Army in order to enhance the political consciousness and military quality of the officers and men of the Red Army. After the creation of the revolutionary base areas in western Fujian, the revolutionary base areas in southern Fujian and western Fujian were connected together, and the situation was very good. Xinquan Town, which has convenient transportation, abundant products, and a good mass foundation, has become a natural harbor for rectification, so on December 3, 1929, after Mao Zedong returned to the Red Fourth Army, the Red Fourth Army crossed the Ting River into Xinquan for a 16-day political and military reorganization.
As is known to all, Mao Zedong, Chen Yi, and Luo Rongheng were political instructors and commanders in political rectification training; they held forums day and night for officers, soldiers, workers, and peasants to hold forums day and night to discuss and understand the situation while doing ideological and political work, so that the broad masses of Red Army officers and men could clearly understand the nature and tasks of the people's army, and they were armed groups that carried out the fundamental task of our party in liberating the toiling masses under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China.
So who is the military instructor? At present, many theoretical articles say that Zhu De is responsible for military rectification training, it should be said that Zhu De is responsible for the strategic teaching of the theory of guerrilla warfare of the Red Army, and responsible for tactical teaching is Zhang Conghua, who was the commander of the teaching brigade at that time. He was a student of the Whampoa Military Academy, had received formal teachings in military theory and practice, and had led soldiers and fought battles, and was a competent instructor. In the 16 days of xinquan rectification training, Zhang went from early in the morning to the dark, taking the lead as a soldier, from standing upright, taking a breath, walking, looking left and right, to crawling and fighting, assassination, fighting, and then to reconnaissance of terrain, intelligence gathering, battlefield selection, trench digging, battlefield rescue, and other courses, patiently and meticulously teaching one by one. He conducted education and training in the spirit of being highly responsible to the people's army, adhered to the training ideology of "sweating more in peacetime and less bloodshed in wartime," loved soldiers like sons in peacetime, was serious and conscientious during training, and did not favor personal feelings. In just 16 days of Training in Xinquan, the fighting style of the Red Fourth Army has taken on a new look, which is inseparable from Zhang Conghua's strict military training.
During the xinquan rectification training period, Zhang Conghua, as the host, not only resolutely supported and supported Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi, and other Red Army generals in their work, but also took care of them in their daily lives. More than 90 years have passed, and to this day there is still the classic story of "Zhang Conghua Feast mao zedong to taste Xinquan cuisine".
One day in mid-December 1929, Zhang Conghua, who had loved to soak in the hot springs in the morning, met the fifth uncle of the Honfang clan on the hot spring road, greeted each other, stopped and talked cordially, and the fifth uncle read his military training and worked hard to send his domestic puppy to make up for his body. Zhang Conghua while soaking in the hot spring while thinking, Xinquan cuisine has a long history, is famous, why not use the fifth uncle's puppy to make the famous dish of Xinquan "fragrant stewed dog meat" to invite Commissar Mao to eat a meal? So I invited my elementary school classmate and Xinquan famous chef Zhang Henan Zhang Luo to cook "fragrant stewed dog meat". At night, the smell of dog meat filled Zhang Conghua's old house, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhu Yunqing (chief of staff of the Red Fourth Army) came as promised, the fragrant dog meat was introduced, and Member Mao praised it: The taste is good, it is smoother and more fragrant than my Hunan braised pork, and it is rare to be able to taste such a delicacy in the military! ”
Under the correct leadership of Mao Zedong as the former secretary of the CPC Committee, the Red Fourth Army galloped across the borders of Fujian, Jiangxi, and Guangdong, connecting the red base areas centered on Ruijin. The ranks of the Red Army also continued to expand, from more than 4,000 when they entered Fujian in April 1929 to more than 20,000 people (including the local Red Army) in 1930, and the series of troops was also reorganized, from columns to corps structures, zhang Conghua was incorporated into a division of the Twelfth Army of the Third Red Army, division commander Hu Shaohai, chief of staff Zhang Conghua, who fought in Zhangzhou, Longyan Zhangping, Liancheng and other places in Fujian Province, fighting heroically for the consolidation and expansion of the Central Soviet Region, and making outstanding military achievements.
Unfortunately, when the revolutionary situation in the Central Soviet Region was very good, the "Left" opportunism within the Party occupied the market, and the struggle within the Party and its complexity was exploited by the class dissident elements who had mixed into the Party to carry out "suppression" and expansion in the central base areas, and a large number of Red Army cadres from real estate families, culture, and active participation in the revolution were detained, examined, beaten into confession, and even killed in a big way, causing our party and our army to suffer heavy losses. This bad luck also befell Zhang Conghua, an outstanding general of our army.
On the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in 1931, Zhang Conghua led his troops to attack Liancheng, unfortunately suffering from acute enteritis, vomiting incessantly, he told the chief who turned to Changting to return to his hometown in Xinquan for recuperation, it is said that he never forgot the strange effect of houttuynia cordata in his hometown (locally known as "picking renxiang") in curing acute enteritis, so he returned to Xinquan by mistake. The next day, his condition improved, and under the escort of guards, he set off from Xinquan on horseback and walked the mountain road to The direction of Baishi and Changtingling Tufang in Xinquan. When he reached a small wooden bridge at the junction of Shinsen North Village and Yangmei Village, the white horse he was riding broke when he stepped into the decaying wood with one foot and had to return to his hometown in Shinsen to live temporarily. Unexpectedly, the "Sushe Party" task force stationed in the Soviet government of Xinquan County had the audacity to arrest Zhang Conghua and interrogate him on a surprise basis at the "Yuxi Gong ancestral Hall" (the former site of the headquarters of the Red Fourth Army) and force him to admit to participating in the so-called "Social Democratic Party." This false accusation, Zhang Conghua, who was bent on following the Communist Party in making a revolution, would not admit it to being killed. The torture and beatings of the case-handling personnel at will, the unbearable shouts of torture and destruction, shook the ancient Xinquan land. According to the recollections of the elderly who lived nearby, when Zhang Conghua was tried, the shouts of tearing his heart and lungs made the ground move and the house shake, which shows the strength of Zhang Conghua's insistence on the truth and the cruelty of the ultra-leftists' means of mutilating Zhongliang. The next day, Zhang Conghua was shot dead by the so-called "purge" task force at the back of Zhushan (present-day Wanrentai) in Xinquan. A superstar of Huangpu that should not disappear was killed, our Party lost a loyal revolutionary fighter, the Red Army lost an excellent commander, and the people of Xinquan lost an excellent son and daughter.
History is just, and the Party Central Committee soon discovered the mistakes of the "purge" movement and executed Lin Yizhu, a landlord who had infiltrated the revolutionary ranks and carried out "purges" in western Fujian and expanded into a vicious and vicious one; liberated the red army and Soviet government cadres who had been wronged; restored the reputation of the unjustly killed revolutionaries and posthumously recognized the revolutionary martyrs.
The people of Xinquan, who live a happy life, will never forget the thousands of people who shed blood and sacrificed for the birth of new China. The martyr Zhang Conghua, like thousands of martyrs, will always live in our hearts.
May 10, 2021