In 1982, when Zhu Haiqing was at home collecting the relics left by his 80-year-old mother, he found a small wooden box full of dust, which was full of IOUs, and the money on it was still the Eighth Route Army.
Since childhood, Zhu Haiqing knew that his mother was a revolutionary fighter and had a military life. During his mother's lifetime, he often listened to her mother tell the story of her participation in the revolution, and knew that she had a great relationship with the Eighth Route Army, but his mother never told him about the IOU, and he did not find out until now.
It didn't take long for the matter to spread in the village, and every household was discussing the matter, and because of this, the government also knew about it, and then the superiors sent staff to Zhu Haiqing's house to investigate the actual situation.
In 1988, when Zhu Haiqing was working at home, suddenly a car stopped at the door, and an old man got out of the car, and when he saw him, he asked:
Your name is Zhu Haiqing, your nickname is Bing'er, and your mother's name is Zhang Cuiping.
Zhu Haiqing listened and said in surprise:
Yes, how do you know...
The old man told him that his name was Li Yunchang, and he had come to visit Zhang Cuiping, but also to repay his debts and repay the life-saving grace of the revolutionary period.
Subsequently, after a long conversation, Zhu Haiqing learned that his mother had never told him about some revolutionary experiences.
First, zhang Cuiping, the revolutionary ancestor
In 1912, Zhang Cuiping was born in a small county town in Chengde, Hebei Province, where her family had been farmers for generations and had been oppressed by feudal landlords and her family was poor.
The children of the poor are in charge of the house early. Because her family was poor and did not have the ability to provide children with reading, Zhang Cuiping had not entered the academy to study, so she could not read one of the big characters. She helped her parents share the housework from an early age, and before the age of 6, she could help her parents feed chickens and ducks, clean up at home, and sometimes follow her brothers and sisters up the mountain to cut firewood, which was a hard-working and sensible child in the eyes of her parents.
As she grew older, she had more and more work to do, and the affairs of the family became more comfortable.
In 1930, when Zhang Cuiping had just turned 18 years old, under the mediation of others, she married Zhu Diankun, a farmer in the same village, Zhu Diankun's family was very poor, but he was honest and generous, and the life of the two after marriage was still relatively sweet.
In the winter of 1931, the couple gave birth to a son, Zhu Haiqing. In the countryside, there is a common custom that children's nicknames should be "lowly" so that children can grow up safely, and in their villages, boys' nicknames are more feminine to ensure safety. When Zhu Haiqing was born, it was a snowy day, so his nickname was "Bing'er".
Originally, the world was still relatively peaceful, and although the days were tight, there would be no worries about life.
However, as the minions of Japanese imperialist aggression approached the northeast step by step, the domestic situation was constantly changing and the situation became worse and worse.
In March 1933, the pace of Japanese aggression gradually moved towards Chengde, Hebei, and it didn't take much time for the Japanese army to occupy Chengde, their burning and looting made the people miserable, but they were powerless to resist, and Zhang Cuiping's family also lived a frightening life.
Second, enter the troops to contribute to the country
At the time of the survival of the country, there are always groups of enthusiastic young fighters who heroically assume the heavy responsibility of driving out the invaders.
In the Chengde area, there was a guerrilla force, which was spontaneously formed by the nearby people, because there was no advanced weapon, and this group of people could only rely on guerrilla tactics to fight against the Japanese army.
The story of Zhang Cuiping and the Eighth Route Army began with the story of her and this guerrilla force.
One morning, Zhang Cuiping's husband, Zhu Diankun, was doing farm work in the field, and as soon as he picked up the hoe, he vaguely saw a few Japanese puppet troops with guns in the distance, afraid that they would find out and cause unnecessary trouble, so he quickly put down the hoe and hid in the grass stack next to him. As the Japanese puppet army continued to approach, their conversation gradually became clear, and Zhu Diankun wrote down their conversation word for word.
Back at home, Zhu Diankun told Zhang Cuiping about this, and after she learned the news that the Japanese army was going to ambush the guerrillas the next day and annihilate them in one fell swoop, she discussed with her husband and decided to pass this news to the guerrillas so that they could speed up their retreat.
As night fell, Zhang Cuiping instructed her husband DianKun to be careful and pay attention to safety, and after the instructions were completed, Zhu Diankun carefully closed the door and set out to deliver news to the guerrillas.
However, when Zhu Diankun arrived near the guerrilla garrison, the danger also came, and the Japanese army was carrying out sweeping work nearby, and the Japanese army saw a strange person in the distance, so they shot and killed him.
Immediately, the sound of gunfire alarmed the guerrillas, they knew that the gunshot was a symbol of danger, so they quickly entered a state of alert, and then the guerrillas began to evacuate overnight, and found Zhu Diankun's body on the road, at this time, the guerrillas did not know that he had come to deliver the news, only that the Japanese army had killed an innocent civilian.
Later, after the guerrillas returned to the village, they learned that Zhu Diankun had sacrificed to pass on the news to them, because of his death, the guerrillas had not been discovered by the Japanese army, and thus escaped the disaster.
After Zhu Diankun's sacrifice, only Zhang Cuiping and Zhu Haiqing were left, mother and son, in order to repay Zhu Diankun's life-saving grace, the guerrillas decided to protect the lives of the two at all times, and took the mother and son to the army together.
Soon after Zhang Cuiping entered the army, the guerrilla unit accepted the reorganization of the Eighth Route Army and became a formal guerrilla group of the Eighth Route Army, and the backward weapons such as spears and large knives in the hands of the fighters were replaced by guns.
It is worth mentioning that although these people have had a certain amount of actual combat experience, they still lack training after all, and after receiving formal training from the Eighth Route Army, their combat effectiveness has been significantly improved, and their guerrilla tactics have also been improved.
Because her husband was killed by the Japanese army, Zhang Cuiping decided to join the Eighth Route Army to resist the Japanese invasion. After joining the army, it was inconvenient to take her children with her after all, so Zhang Cuiping entrusted Zhu Haiqing to a family to take care of, and she threw herself into the work of the army. Because she was a woman and was not suitable for killing the enemy on the battlefield, she arranged to do logistical support work within the army.
In 1938, the War of Resistance entered a stalemate. Zhang Cuiping has lived in the army for several years, and her mobility and other organizational skills have been correspondingly improved, coupled with her own hard-working spirit, she is deeply liked by everyone in the army, and the superior organization also takes extraordinary care of her. Therefore, she was entrusted with great trust, and her superiors appointed her as a women's representative in charge of logistics work, and every time the Eighth Route Army arrived at a place, she would go to the local area to mobilize women and let them participate in the logistics support work of the Eighth Route Army.
Zhang Cuiping lived up to expectations, and with her ability and appeal, many women were gathered. They mended clothes for the soldiers, made straw shoes, cooked rice, etc., and after the army had run out of dry food, they went up the mountain to find wild vegetables, and even though the soldiers did not have enough to eat, they never went hungry.
In 1941, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered the late stages, and the situation became more severe. Previously, because Chiang Kai-shek's policy of non-resistance fueled the arrogance of the Japanese army, and Chiang Kai-shek had always encircled and blockaded the Eighth Route Army, which made the Eighth Route Army suffer from the enemy on its backs, and the War of Resistance became extremely difficult.
During this period, because of the blockade of old Chiang Kai-shek, the soldiers were in short supply of food and had difficulty maintaining their daily lives, and Zhang Cuiping watched one soldier after another hungry and finally decided to go to various places in the blockade area with his comrades in arms of the logistics department to mobilize the masses of the people and raise grain.
The effect was remarkable, Zhang Cuiping and her comrades-in-arms collected 3,000 kilograms of grain from the masses within a year, and these grains were successively transported to the Eighth Route Army.
At the same time, when the Eighth Route Army received grain, it would write an IOU to her, because the Eighth Route Army would not accept the things of the common people for free. The more grain you harvest, the more IOUs you write. Slowly, a box filled up, and thus the IOU in the old wooden box mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Third, help Li Yunchang's troops escape from danger
After eating, in addition to doing a good job in logistics, Zhang Cuiping also did a big thing, that is, to help Li Yunchang and his troops evacuate safely.
In 1942, Li Yunchang led his troops to Yuda Village, and unfortunately, their whereabouts were inadvertently exposed, and the Japanese army surrounded them. At this time, Li Yunchang and his party had less than 400 people, while the Japanese army had a total of more than 7,000 people, and if the two sides fought head-on, there was no doubt that Li Yunchang would be defeated.
Just when Li Yunchang decided to fight to the death, Zhang Cuiping said to him:
There is a way to escape, there is a mountain road behind me, I can take you over...
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Immediately, Li Yunchang and his party followed her and walked back to the mountain together, which was a small road, and there were many caves in between, this road was not easy to be discovered by the Japanese army, and Li Yunchang also escaped a disaster, which also preserved a certain strength for China's War of Resistance.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Zhang Cuiping took her child back to her side.
After the outbreak of the Liberation War, in order to escape the persecution of the Kuomintang reactionaries, she and her son lived a life without a fixed home.
After the founding of New China, she returned to her hometown with her son and lived the life of a farmer. During these days, she rarely told outsiders about her experiences in the army. Even though life in the countryside is difficult, she never asks for credit from the organization, but lives with her children in obscurity.
In fact, as a veteran of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, as long as she showed the IOU to the organization, the organization would definitely award her honors and allocate funds to settle her life, but she did not do so, in her opinion, the country is still in a difficult stage, there is no need to spend so much for herself. As a mother, Zhang Cuiping's education of Zhu Haiqing is the same, to be self-reliant and not to trouble the country.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, when Li Yunchang came to look for Zhang Cuiping, he found that she had died, so he told Zhu Haiqing that if there was any difficulty in applying to his superiors, the superiors would definitely meet his requirements, and he refused them one by one, because he kept his mother's teachings in mind.
Revolutionary ancestors at all times were concerned about the motherland and put national interests first, and Zhang Cuiping was only one of them.