The life course of the veteran general Zheng Dongguo was full of ups and downs, and he fought all his life for the country and ideals. In his later years, the divorce with his first wife Chen Bilian became an inextricable knot. The beautiful and virtuous Chen Bilian chose to break up because she was unwilling to go to Beijing with Zheng Dongguo, which made Zheng Dongguo unable to let go until his old age. There are countless regrets in life, Zheng Dongguo may have something unfinished about this relationship? Let's step into the cracks of the old revolutionary's emotional world and see his unique perspective on love.
On that autumn day in 1954, before the Fengze Garden banquet in Zhongnanhai began, Chairman Mao noticed Zheng Dongguo's gloomy expression. As Zheng Dongguo, who had just been appointed as a member of the National Defense Commission, he should have been happy, but when Chairman Mao asked him about the reason, Zheng Dongguo had no choice but to tell the news that he had just divorced his wife Chen Bilian.
It turned out that the marriage between Zheng Dongguo and Chen Bilian began in 1933. At that time, the 30-year-old Zheng Dongguo had read countless people, and the 17-year-old Chen Bilian was like a budding flower, which was moving. In an instant, the heart of this widowed middle-aged man was moved by such a beautiful woman. Sure enough, Chen Bilian married Zheng Dongguo soon after and became his second wife.
However, Chen Bilian was not used to military life. During the Anti-Japanese War, Zheng Dongguo was running around the front line for a long time, and Chen Bilian, as a family member of the army, could only worry about it at home alone. Even if she was able to fight side by side with her husband later, she often woke up with nightmares, for fear that Zheng Dongguo would suffer from accidents. In this way, in the midst of the war, the relationship between the young couple has been worn out.
In 1954, Zheng Dongguo was recruited to Beijing to work, but Chen Bilian, a girl from the south, was reluctant to go north with him, which eventually led to the divorce of the two. Since then, Zheng Dongguo has been alone in the capital, while Chen Bilian quickly remarried someone else and lived a life of idle clouds and wild cranes. It wasn't until she was old that she realized that life was impermanent, and began to throw an olive branch of "reunion" to her ex-husband Zheng Dongguo, but Zheng Dongguo politely refused.
"My salary isn't enough for her to spend 10 days!" Zheng Dongguo's words express his sad past, and also show his dissatisfaction with his wife Chen Bilian's extravagant style. As a simple old revolutionary, Zheng Dongguo's life in his later years was indeed very simple, how could he afford Chen Bilian's extravagant spirit?
In fact, in the rupture of this intimate relationship, both parties have unshirkable responsibilities. Zheng Dongguo ignored his wife's yearning for a comfortable life, while Chen Bilian lacked the ambition to spend the difficult years together during the war. This marriage that lacks mutual understanding is destined to not go far, and the final outcome can only be a stranger.
Perhaps it is the regret that they parted ways back then and regretted it today, which made Zheng Dongguo avoid Chen Bilian's request for reunion. As a generation of founding fathers, he almost exhausted his life's efforts and energy to pursue his ideals and careers, and what he needed was a virtuous helper who could share weal and woe with him, understand each other, and encourage each other, rather than an idle cloud and wild crane who only knew how to spend money.
However, despite the thorns on the emotional road, Zheng Dongguo finally found the wife he liked and lived a stable life in his later years. So you can't blame it all for breaking up with Chen Bilian back then, maybe it was just a marriage that was destined to end without a problem.
The fate between Zheng Dongguo and Chen Bilian can be said to have been entangled for a lifetime. From acquaintance and love to divorce and departure, to the rejection of Chen Bilian's reunion request in her later years, every turning point has witnessed the twists and turns and entanglements of the couple's relationship. However, as Zheng Dongguo said when he refused, his little income could not support Chen Bilian's luxurious life at all. As a simple revolutionary, he needs a virtuous wife who can share his ups and downs, not an idle cloud and wild crane who only knows how to spend money.
This emotional entanglement reflects Zheng Dongguo's unique understanding of married life, and also reflects the persistent pursuit of career and life by the founding fathers of that era. Perhaps it is precisely because of putting all your energy into ideals and struggles that you will seem so simple and stubborn in the emotional world. However, at least in the later years of his life, Zheng Dongguo still found a soulmate who was in tune with his soul and spent the last years of happiness and stability.
Throughout Zheng Dongguo's life, the ups and downs have become his precious experience. His adherence to ideals is undoubted, and although there are regrets in the pursuit of love, it is inevitable. A generation will eventually pass away, but their brilliant lives on the road of love and career are enough to become a model for future generations to follow.