On January 4, 1941, in order to take into account the overall situation of the anti-Japanese resistance, under the leadership of Ye Ting and Xiang Ying, more than 9,000 people of the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan marched to the north of the Yangtze River.
Even so, Chiang Kai-shek still did not spare this army's intentions, and secretly ordered Gu Zhutong and Shangguan Yunxiang of the Third Theater of Operations to "solve" this army.
On January 6, the Jiangnan New Fourth Army came out of Yunling and reached Nanjing County, Anhui, but was besieged by 7 divisions of the Nationalist Army and more than 80,000 people, Ye Ting ordered a counterattack, the bloody battle for 7 days and nights, the Jiangnan New Fourth Army ran out of ammunition, in order to preserve the revolutionary forces, Ye Ting had to give orders, and the rest of the troops dispersed to break through.
In the end, Ye Ting was captured, and deputy commander Xiang Ying and chief of staff Zhou Zikun were brutally killed after breaking through, but fortunately, there were still more than 2,000 people in the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan who escaped, and Cheng Yetang, who was the political commissar of the first brigade at the time, was one of them.
After receiving the order to break through, Cheng Yetang said to the comrades in the teaching team:
Stay in the fire, not afraid not to burn the plains, we teach the team, everyone is a fire, as long as there is another person, we must fight to break out.
”。
Under the leadership of Cheng Yetang, the teaching team jumped out of the encirclement circle and successfully reached Jiangbei under the cover of local organizations and the masses.
After arriving in Jiangbei, Cheng Yetang and his entourage were warmly welcomed by comrades, and he was successively appointed as the head of the Rugao Guard Regiment of the Central Soviet Military Region, the head of the special service regiment, and the political commissar.
In central Jiangsu, Cheng Yetang descended like a fierce tiger, and lianke the Japanese army's strongholds of Tongjiadian and Jiumen gates, and forcibly attacked Caijiadun, Baojiaba, and other Japanese puppet army strongholds, which greatly encouraged the local military and people to "clear the countryside" fighting front.
However, in the dead of night, Cheng Yetang missed his wife Ruan Fang immensely, and at the time of the separation, his wife was pregnant with Liujia and did not know whether she had survived the Anhui Southern Incident.
01. Ferry boy from the army
Cheng Yetang, Anhui Lu'an people, born in a poor peasant family, three generations of ancestors have lived on the Ferry on the Weihe River, the childhood Cheng Yetang read 2 years of private school, but because of the poor family, he dropped out of school at the age of 9 and followed his father's ferry, even so, life is difficult to maintain, helpless to go to the landlord's house to herd cattle.
In 1927, under the leadership of the organization, the peasant revolutionary movement in western Anhui was vigorously launched, and when it was learned that the Red Army was fighting for the poor and the poor, the 16-year-old Cheng Yetang did not say a word, threw down the penny, and joined the revolutionary ranks.
Because of his outstanding performance, in 1929, Cheng Yetang became a party member and joined the guerrilla group, and after experiencing four anti-encirclement and suppression baptisms in the Eyu-Anhui base area, Cheng Yetang grew rapidly, and by the time of the Long March, he was already a battalion commander in the Red Fourth Army.
In the autumn of 1936, the Western Route Army, composed of the Red Fourth Front Army as the main force, crossed the Yellow River in the west, and Cheng Yetang went with the troops, but unfortunately, for various reasons, the Western Route Army was defeated miserably, and Cheng Yetang was also shot in the chest in a battle, losing contact with the troops.
Cheng Yetang, who was seriously injured and "left behind", did not lose his fighting spirit, but decided to return to Yan'an on foot to find an organization.
Because he was tired and hungry, Cheng Yetang fell asleep on the side of the road, and when he woke up again, he found that he had been "buried alive".
It turned out that Cheng Yetang, who was covered in blood, slept too deeply due to many days of fatigue, and passers-by could not wake up no matter how they screamed, thinking that he was dead, so they buried him.
Fortunately, these people were not buried deeply, and Cheng Yetang climbed out of the soil again, and finally returned to Yan'an after experiencing difficulties and obstacles.
02. Cheng Yetang's wife
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Cheng Yetang was transferred to the southern Anhui region and served as the political commissar of the first brigade of the New Fourth Army Teaching Corps, where he met the patriotic student Ruan Fang.
Ruan Fang's ancestral home was Yangzhou, and then he followed his parents to Shanghai to study, and after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Ruan Fang, who was bent on saving the country, disregarded his personal safety and rushed to the battlefield in southern Anhui and became a female soldier in the field service regiment of the New Fourth Army.
Ruan Fang is 9 years younger than Cheng Yetang, the two young people can talk very well, in 1940, with the approval of the organization, 29-year-old Cheng Yetang and 20-year-old Ruan Fangxi married.
However, with the growth of the New Fourth Army in the Jiangnan region, Chiang Kai-shek was also jealous, and not only forcibly ordered the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan to withdraw to the north of the Yellow River, but also demanded that the 500,000 Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army be reduced to 100,000.
Although this demand was very unreasonable, it was an important stage of the anti-Japanese resistance at that time, and for the sake of the overall situation, the organization decided to make concessions, and the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan agreed to withdraw.
The intellectuals and the weaker female fighters evacuated first, and the pregnant Nguyen Fang left with the group.
The evacuation route was not smooth, there were checkpoints set up by the reactionaries everywhere, and as the anhui incident broke out, they were also surrounded and suppressed by the reactionaries, and the situation was extremely bad.
At that time, it was freezing cold, Ruan Fang was pregnant again, and its difficulties could be imagined, but this once delicate "Miss Shanghai" had grown into a qualified female warrior, even if it was difficult and difficult, she did not say a word, gritted her teeth and followed the team forward.
When Ruan Fang and his party marched to the vicinity of Mao Mountain, they were attacked by the Nationalist army, at this time Ruan Fang suddenly began to have stomach pain, which was a sign before giving birth, and after being moved by a tree stump, Ruan Fang could not get up.
Seeing that the nationalist army was approaching, and Ruan Fang could not break through, the militia around her made a clever move and pushed her down the gentle slope, unfortunately, her head touched a tree and she was unconscious.
When he woke up again, Ruan Fang was already in the home of a militia captain surnamed Jia, and in Captain Jia's home, Ruan Fang gave birth to a son, the situation was already very bad at that time, helpless, Ruan Fang could only leave the child to raise, let Captain Jia's mother, Jia Da Niang, help raise him, and leave with the troops.
Later, Ruan Fang went to Huaibei and worked in the Fourth Division of the New Fourth Army.
03. Crying and laughing misunderstanding
The lost Ruan Fang and Cheng Yetang, in addition to the intense revolutionary work, were also inquiring about each other's whereabouts, but at that time, the soldiers were in chaos, and it was not easy to find someone.
Ruan Fang heard that Cheng Yetang died during the breakthrough of the Anhui Southern Incident, and Cheng Yetang also heard rumors that the field service regiment was unfortunately killed in the water when crossing the river, although it was bad news that the two people were looking for each other.
Cheng Yetang and He Zizhen's younger brother He Minxue are friends, He Minxue learned the truth of the matter, but also helped Cheng Yetang to find Ruan Fang, with the help of He Minxue, Cheng Yetang met two "Ruan Fang", but they are not his wives, which makes him very disappointed.
Later, Cheng Yetang's search for his wife reached the ears of the top brass of the Soviet Central Military Region, and with the help of the military, Cheng Yetang finally got the news from Ruan Fang, and in order to reunite the husband and wife, the organization also transferred Ruan Fang, who was working in Huaibei, to the Soviet Central Military Region.
However, when Cheng Yetang came to see Ruan Fang, who had been away for a long time, with an excited mood, he ate the closed door, what happened?
It turned out that after Cheng Yetang served in the Soviet Central Military Region, he won many battles and won the favor of a female comrade, and the father of this female comrade was a democrat, and although Cheng Yetang had no intention of remarrying, he could not bear to hurt people's faces, so he went to see him.
After the meeting, Cheng Yetang spoke directly to the father and daughter about himself
The wife's life and death are unpredictable, even if she dies, she will have to wait for 3 years and 5 years before she will remarry
。
But what Cheng Yetang did not expect was that the matter of his "blind date" actually spread like this, and as it spread, it changed its taste and became his love affair with this female comrade.
Soon after Ruan Fang arrived at the Soviet Central Military Region, he heard the news and was angry, and Cheng Yetang ate the closed door.
In desperation, Cheng Yetang could only find his hometown Zhang Zhendong to help talk to his wife Ruan Fang, but Ruan Fang was an acute child, and when he learned that Zhang Zhendong was a visitor, he turned his head and left, Zhang Zhendong said urgently:
You Ruan Fang, there is still a little bit of Miss Shanghai Jiao's temper...
Unexpectedly, Ruan Fang replied:
I am not Miss Jiao, But Cheng Yetang went to find Miss Jiao.
Hearing this, where could Zhang Zhendong not hear that Ruan Fang had misunderstood? Hurry to explain the ins and outs to Ruan Fang...
The misunderstanding is eliminated, and the two are reconciled.
04. The son who can't bear to take away
After the reunion, the husband and wife have been busy with the revolution, and the child who stayed in Maoshan has not been able to look for it until 1949, when New China was founded, and the couple returned to Maoshan.
Here, they met their 8-year-old son, but since leaving, the two have not seen their son again, so the children are very strange to them, called "New Fourth Army Uncle", "New Fourth Army Aunt", which makes the husband and wife tear up.
And this child, Cheng Yetang, Ruan Fang and his wife did not pick up their own side, what happened?
It turned out that shortly after Ruan Fang left the child to leave, the reactionaries found the door and arrested Captain Jia, the son of Lady Jia, and tortured him, but Captain Jia was unwilling to reveal his secret and was brutally killed.
After Captain Jia was sacrificed, the reactionaries received news that there was a female New Fourth Army who left a child, and in order to avoid being pursued, Jia Da Niang carried the child into the mountain, and it was Jia Da Niang who suffered a lot before raising the child, and the two were as close as mother and son.
It can be said that after captain Jia died, this child was the spiritual pillar of Jia Da Niang, looking at the white-haired Jia Da Niang, Cheng Yetang and his wife could not say the words of taking away the child.
After thinking about it for a long time, in the end, Cheng Yetang and his wife decided to leave this child to Jia Da Niang to raise.
05. Enjoy your old age
After the founding of New China, Cheng Yetang and his wife also lived a stable life, in 1955, Cheng Yetang was awarded the rank of major general, and he joined the army at the age of 16.
In addition to the child born in Maoshan, the couple has given birth to 7 children successively, and the family of 9 is happy and harmonious.
In 1986, Cheng Yetang completed the road of life, at the age of 74, he was injured 9 times in his life, and after cremation, the last 2 pieces of shrapnel left in the body were "removed".
With the death of her husband for 46 years, the sadness in Ruan Fang's heart can be imagined, and she began to write memoirs behind her children's back in her old age, and the things about her eldest brother were still in Ruan Fang's memoirs that they could know.
In 1997, Nguyen Phuong's memoirs were published, and it was also the year that she died at the age of 76.