Tip: This "miserable laugh" is heartbreaking and moving, in that era, the revolutionary ancestors faced their slain relatives, the remembrance may only be like this, and it can only be like this. In the Chinese revolution, Xu Haidong not only had outstanding personal merits, but also 66 relatives who sacrificed their precious lives. For this reason, Chairman Mao praised Xu Haidong as "a man who has made great contributions to the Chinese revolution." In September 1935, after the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Xu Haidong married Zhou Dongping. The wife mentioned in Snow's interview is his ex-wife Tian Dezhai, who has a daughter Xu Wenjin with Xu Haidongsheng. Obviously, in that year's interview, Xu Haidong believed that Tian Dezhai and his daughter were killed together, and what was "hidden" in the middle was a little-known historical story.
In 1936, after the end of the Western Expedition, the Red 15th Army was reorganized in the present-day town of Tongxin Prewang in Ningxia. On August 26, the famous American journalist Edgar Snow met with Xu Haidong, the commander of the Red 15th Army at the time, and began to interview him at Prewang Fort. The interview lasted 5 days, which means that Snow and Xu Haidong stayed together for 5 days. The content of this interview, of course, was written by Snow into his famous book "Journey to the West", leaving many precious historical materials for posterity.
This was the first time Xu Haidong had dealt with foreigners, like a shy child, leaning down and whispering to Mr. Peng: "You introduce this foreigner to me, what will I do with him?" Mr. Peng smiled and said, "You are a well-known 'Xu Tiger', you are not even afraid of airplanes and cannons, and you are still afraid of a foreign reporter?!" Although Xu Haidong laughed along with it, his heart was still a little unsteady: "I heard that the reporter has to ask everything, when he asked me, what did I say to him?" Mr. Peng told Xu Haidong that Snow is our good friend and "can tell him anything true."
Apparently, Snow's interview was carried out under this "premise", and he and Xu Haidong formed a deep friendship, saying: "This unforgettable interview made me understand why the Red Army was able to fight tenaciously at the cost of my life." In addition to writing the contents of the interview into text, he also took a photo of Xu Haidong, who smiled optimistically and his expression was very natural and smooth. It was around this process that he asked Xu Haidong what he wanted to do after the victory of the revolution. Xu Haidong, who came from a kiln worker, told Snow that he was fast and good at making kiln blanks, and that after the victory of the revolution, he was still a useful citizen, "participating in the revolution only for the liberation of the class, and wanting to be an ordinary laborer in the future." Of course, this interview is also a deep memory for Xu Haidong, many years later, snow returned to the United States, he still often pointed to the photos that Snow took for him and said to people: "Snow is my only American friend, he is the most difficult reporter, he almost wants to dig out your heart to see." ”
Today, opening the "Journey to the West", in the chapter of the red kiln worker Xu Haidong, we can see that Snow described Xu Haidong in this way: The new person (Xu Haidong) smiled on the horse, his face was red, and the mouth revealed a large hole in his mouth that had lost two front teeth, so that he had a naughty child's appearance, and everyone couldn't help but laugh. It was this man who made Snow say that among the military leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, I am afraid that no one can be more "famous" than Xu Haidong, and certainly no one can be more mysterious than him.
For three days, Snow said, for several hours every afternoon and evening, I kept asking Xu Haidong and his men questions about their personal history, their army, and their current situation in the northwest. But they didn't have any "inside information," no "unique secrets" to sell (which they didn't understand), no pretty, set of speeches, and I had to interrogate them repeatedly to get something out of their mouths. But when he asked Xu Haidong, "Where are the people in your family now?", Xu Haidong couldn't help but suddenly feel a lot of interest, and quickly sat up straight: "All the people in my family have been killed, leaving only one brother, and he is now in the four fronts." ”
Snow: "You said you were killed during the war?" ”
Xu Haidong: "Oh, no! Only three of my brothers were Reds. The rest were executed by generals Tang Enbo and Xia Douyin. The Kuomintang officers killed a total of sixty-six members of the Xu family. ”
"Sixty-six people!" Snow said he barely believed his ears.
Xu Haidong: "Yes, among those who were killed were my twenty-seven close relatives and thirty-nine distant relatives—the people in Huangpi County were all surnamed Xu." Young and old, men and women, even babies were killed. All those with the surname Xu were killed, except for my wife and three brothers in the Red Army, as well as myself. Later, the two brothers died in battle. ”
"What about your wife?" Snow asked.
Xu Haidong: "I don't know her whereabouts." She was captured in 1931 when the White Army occupied Huangyu County. Later I heard that she had been sold to a merchant near Hankou as a little wife. This is what my brother who escaped told me, and there were others who were killed. Thirteen members of the Xu family escaped from Huang wei during the fifth encirclement and suppression and arrived in Lishan County. But they were all arrested. Men were beheaded, women and children were shot. He then added: "There is nothing special about this, many Red Army commanders have had this happening in their homes, but my family has suffered the most losses." ”
Snow said that Xu Haidong saw the surprised look on his face and smiled miserably.
This "miserable smile" was heartbreaking and moving, and in that era, the revolutionary ancestors could only do to remember their loved ones who were killed, and this was the only way to do so. In the Chinese revolution, Xu Haidong not only had outstanding personal merits, but also 66 relatives who sacrificed their precious lives. For this reason, Chairman Mao praised Xu Haidong as "a man who has made great contributions to the Chinese revolution." In September 1935, after the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Xu Haidong married Zhou Dongping. The wife mentioned in Snow's interview is his ex-wife Tian Dezhai, who has a daughter Xu Wenjin with Xu Haidongsheng. Obviously, in that year's interview, Xu Haidong believed that Tian Dezhai and his daughter were killed together, and what was "hidden" in the middle was a little-known historical story.
Xu Haidong and Zhou Dongping had 3 sons and 1 daughter, and only two are well known, namely the eldest son Xu Wenbo and the daughter Xu Wenhui, both of whom graduated from college, Xu Wenbo later served as vice minister of Culture, and Xu Wenhui served as the chairman of the Choir of the Descendants of the Founding Fathers. Because Xu Wenjin had no culture, he worked as a farmer in his hometown all his life.
In 1900, Xu Haidong was born into a poor family and lived in hunger and cold since he was a child. The six generations of ancestors have made billet kilns in the village, and there is no field and no house. When he was 9 years old, he was sent by his parents to a private school to study, because of his good grades, Mr. Private School felt that he was very spirited, and named him "Xu Yuanqing". However, in the third year of private school, the son of a landlord in the same class bullied him, and he couldn't stand it, so he smashed people's homes with a brick platform, resulting in head injuries. Mr. Private school punished him with a ring ruler, and he felt that he was right, so he took the ring ruler of his husband in a rage, carried his school bag back home, and started kiln work like his ancestors.
In 1921, Xu Haidong was already 21 years old. At that time, not marrying at this age, it was difficult to say the past. Therefore, under the supervision of his parents, Xu Haidong married Tian Dezhai. Tian Dezhai is also a bitter birth, he was carried to the Xu family as a child bride at a very young age, and grew up under the same roof as Xu Haidong from a young age, which can also be regarded as a green plum bamboo horse. After marriage, the relationship between the two was very good, Tian Dezhai was smart and capable, and cut his hair and put his feet under the influence of Xu Haidong. In 1925, Xu Wenjin was born, that is, the year, Xu Haidong joined the revolution. Although Tian Dezhai did not know what the "revolution" was for and what its significance was, she firmly believed that as long as Xu Haidong was doing it right, she would fully support Xu Haidong.
In 1927, Tian Dezhai was implicated in Xu Haidong's participation in the revolution and was imprisoned, and in the face of the enemy's torture, she remained silent and did not say a word from her husband. Originally, the enemy wanted to keep her and lure Xu Haidong back to save people, but after Xu Haidong's whole family was killed, the enemy felt that there was no use in keeping her, so he released words to ask the Tian family to pay some silver to come to bail, provided that she had to sever all relations with the Xu family after she was released from prison. In this way, the Tian family pooled a sum of silver up and down, released her on bail, and married a local farmer.
After Tian Dezhai was imprisoned, Xu Haidong was also forced to flee his hometown, and Xu Wenjin was carried by his uncle with a basket and escaped overnight. Later, Xu Wenjin became a "child bride" of a rural family, and when he grew up, he married a village doctor named Gao Zhengkai, becoming the only bloodline left by Xu Haidong in his hometown. After the founding of New China, Xu Wenjin was 24 years old and was already a mother, at this time, her identity had been made public by the villagers, and someone said to her: "Your father became a high official in Beijing, you now go to him, let him arrange a job for you, and your family can go to Beijing to live a good life!" But Xu Wenjin had a difficult life, and he never left the mountains since he was a child, and he did not go to find his father's entanglement until 1951.
At this time, Xu Haidong was recuperating in Dalian, and the father and daughter who had been separated for more than 20 years finally met, and Xu Wenjin finally met the father of the God of War who was told by people to be injured 9 times and did not die. Xu Wenjin lived with his father for more than two months, Xu Haidong faced the disease, still continued to work for the revolution, but also took the lead in frugality, saying that New China had just been founded, everything was wasted, there were many places to use money, and it was not possible to be frugal. Watching his father reluctant to eat fish and meat, and even leaving the water that had been bathed to flush the toilet, Xu Wenjin wanted to stop talking again and again.
Two months later, Xu Wenjin estimated that he was leaving, and summoned up enough courage to tell Xu Haidong his appeal. Xu Haidong was silent for a while and told his daughter: "Now that we have just been liberated, the government's burden is still very heavy, and you have no culture, how can you engage in specialization?" Besides, what are we going to do with the bloody revolution? Now that the countryside has fields to plant and houses to live in, and the poor people have turned over and become masters, what is so bad about you returning to the countryside to farm with the villagers? Xu Wenjin left with tears, this is the father of the "official" she has not met for more than 20 years, his tears are on the one hand because his father is injured and his health is not good, and it is uncomfortable to see her; on the other hand, he feels that his father is very selfless, more out of gratitude and respect for his father.
In this way, Xu Wenjin bid farewell to her father Xu Haidong, returned to her hometown and continued to be a farmer, and in 1958, she and Gao Zhengkai had 4 boys and 1 girl. In mid-October of that year, Xu Haidong and his wife Zhou Dongping returned to their hometown of Dawu County, Xiaogan City, Hubei Province, and looked at Marshal Xu Qianqian's handwritten "Glorious Bloodshed" for a long time in the Relatives Martyrs' Cemetery, and took a photo in front of the tomb. Later, Xu Haidong said in his autobiography: "Because when I came there at that time, I could not express the pain of a person who had lost a loved one in words, but at the same time I thought of the revolutionary cause of the motherland, which was exchanged by countless people who threw their heads and spilled their blood, so at this moment I only had supreme reverence and remembrance, in addition, I could not think of any words to describe my mood at that time!" ”
Perhaps, it was precisely because of this mood at that time that Xu Haidong did not mention in this recollection that he was still the daughter of a farmer in his hometown, so people did not know very well some details of his meeting with his daughter Xu Wenjin when he returned to his hometown this time, only that Xu Wenjin often looked through his photos and said to his children: "The descendants of our Xu family cannot cause trouble to the country!" ”
Then, soon after three years of difficult times, Xu Wenjin's five children often fell ill due to hunger, and in the spring of 1962, her husband Gao Zhengkai also died. The difficulties of life are about to crush Xu Wenjin, and some people have persuaded Xu Wenjin to find his father Xu Haidong, but Xu Wenjin has not, and he has to eat chaff and pull several children to adults day by day.
On March 25, 1970, Xu Haidong died in Zhengzhou. Before dying, he said to his son Xu Wenbo: "You all have jobs in the city, only your eldest sister is still a farmer in the countryside, she suffers the most, you must take good care of her." However, when Xu Wenbo went to the countryside to see his half-sister Xu Wenjin, it was already 2004. Xu Wenbo said: "At that time, I thought that my father said that, and I always felt that my sister was not bitter, but I went to know how bitter my sister was... That day, after my sister's house in front of the house, I turned around several times, looking at the tattered house over and over again, and I burst into tears! Xu Wenbo gave Xu Wenjin 10,000 yuan and asked Xu Wenjin to repair the house, but Xu Wenjin always refused to take it.
Previously, in 2000, the centenary of Xu Haidong's birth, Xu Wenjin and his son Gao Weiguo were interviewed by reporters. At that time, after crossing the rolling mountains, the reporter found Xu Wenjin in a small village called "CanjinTao" dozens of kilometers away from the county seat of Dawu County. There are only about 10 households in the village, and the reporter has this description in the report:
On the north side of the village, there is a tile house, and the entourage told reporters that it is the house where Xu Wenjin, the daughter of the founding father Xu Haidong, and his children lived. Unfortunately, the door of the tile house was locked. People from the same village said that the elderly Xu Wenjin was taken to town by his son. They said that the old man was in poor health and that in order to better take care of his mother, her son rented a house in the town and took care of the old man while doing business. Back in the new town, the reporter went to the two simple houses they rented. I heard that someone came to visit her, and the elderly Xu Wenjin, who was already more than 70 years old, invited the reporter into the house with trembling. After hearing the reporter's intentions, old man Xu Wenjin said gratefully: "Thank you for always worrying about me, but you are running around all the time, and I really don't want to go in my heart." ”
Facing the camera, Xu Wenjin said: "My father once taught me, he said that he was the son of a farmer, although he became a general, he was still the son of a farmer, and he wanted me to be a farmer in the countryside all my life." As his daughter, living in the countryside according to her father's wishes, what regrets do you have? I'm proud not to live up to Dad. "At that time, her health was very bad, she was skinny and bony, and she dressed no differently from an old lady in the countryside. The reporter asked some people: "Do you believe that she (Xu Wenjin) will be Xu Haidong's daughter?" These people all shook their heads, but when they learned the truth, they were deeply moved.
In 2009, Xu Wenjin, who had been a farmer in the mountains all his life, passed away. According to online information, her 5 children still live in the local area, the highest education is junior high school, two of them are party members, and one son has been a soldier in the army for 7 years. Xu Haidong once said before his death: "As a Communist Party member, as long as you have a breath and do not work for the party, it is the greatest shame." In this sentence, his infected children are equally respected.
The pictures in this article are from the Internet, referring to Snow's "Journey to the West" and the People's Liberation Army Daily's "Revealed: Five Days with Edgar Snow" (2019-03-15); Yangtze River Daily's "Where Are the Children of General Xu Haidong Sacrificing 66 Relatives for the Revolution" (2010-06-27) and other historical materials, thanks to the original author!
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