Yang Xiufeng was born in 1897 in Yangtuanbao Village, Qian'an County, Hebei Province, to a family of scholars. His grandfather was a gentry, and his father was a lifter. Influenced by his elders, Yang Xiufeng studied since he was a child, and was admitted to Luan County Normal School in Hebei Province at the age of 14. Five years later, he was admitted to Beijing Higher Normal School.
After the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, he was elected as a student representative and was responsible for organizing student demonstrations. After graduating, Yang Xiufeng began a short teaching career. In 1924, during the summer vacation, he and his uncle Yang 13 held a peasant workshop in their hometown. In the autumn of 1928, when the Northern Expedition had not yet spread to Tianjin, he was invited by a friend to work in the Tianjin Municipal Education Bureau and the Hebei Provincial Department of Education.
Just a few months after taking office, he saw that the authorities were extremely politically corrupt and unwilling to go along with him, so he resolutely chose to resign and study abroad. One year later, he was recommended to go to France to study and investigate at official expense, which achieved a major turning point in his life.
In 1930, Yang Xiufeng joined the Communist Party in Paris. Subsequently, he joined the anti-imperialist league organization that led the students studying in France and overseas Chinese, and founded secret publications such as "The Worker". After the September 18 incident, Yang Xiufeng organized students studying in France and overseas Chinese to march and demonstrate on the streets. But after a rally, he was arrested by the French authorities and released on bail and forced to leave France.
Subsequently, Yang Xiufeng went to the Lenin Academy School in Moscow, Soviet Union. There, he met his future partner, Lin Tie, who served as secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee. In 1934, Yang Xiufeng, who returned to China after completing his studies, successively taught at Tianjin Hebei Law Business School, Beiping Normal University and other universities.
In December 1935, when the Japanese invaded North China, Yang Xiufeng led the students to take to the streets to demonstrate.
In 1936, professors Xu Deheng, Yang Xiufeng, Cheng Ximeng, and other professors of Peking University organized a "Beiping Cultural Salvation Association", and when they learned that Chairman Mao and others had arrived in northern Shaanxi, they purchased more than 30 pairs of cloth shoes, 12 pocket watches and more than a dozen hams, and entrusted the underground members of the Communist Party of China to try to send them to northern Shaanxi.
For this reason, Chairman Mao wrote a short and warm letter of thanks on November 2 of the same year. It reads as follows:
Dear Professors and Gentlemen,
It is a great honor to receive gifts (ham, pocket watches, etc.), and thank you from the bottom of my heart! We are in complete spiritual harmony with you. We have only one enemy, that is, Japanese imperialism, and we are preparing everything to quickly march into the whole country to fight against Japan, and the time for us to meet you is not far off.
Fighting for the expulsion of Japanese imperialism and for the Democratic Republic of China is the banner of the people of the whole country, that is, the banner that we share with you.
After the "77 Incident", 41-year-old Yang Xiufeng resolutely took off his robe and walked out of class. After discussing with his wife, they left behind Dumiao, who was only 2 years old, and led a group of young students to go to the mountainous areas of western Hebei to fight devils.
In 1939, Yang Xiufeng led part of his forces into southern Hebei. Soon after, a "Southern Hebei District Anti-Japanese Military and Political Committee" was set up in southern Hebei, which was headed by Yang Xiufeng and Song Renqiang, deputy director of the Political Department of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army. After that, anti-Japanese governments were established in each county one after another.
One day afterward, news suddenly came that Chiang Kai-shek had appointed Lu Zhonglin as chairman of the Hebei Provincial Government and was on his way to take office. After learning of the situation, Yang Xiufeng immediately sought out Song Renqiang to discuss, and they decided to strike first and jointly set up the "Southern Hebei Administration" with 30 counties to replace the "Military and Political Commission", with Yang Xiufeng as director and Song Renqiang as deputy director. In this way, to a certain extent, the power of the Kuomintang to govern was weakened.
After the establishment of the "Southern Hebei Administration", because Yang Xiufeng was originally a professor, many people believed that he and Song Renqiang represented the anti-Japanese regime composed of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. As a result, some landlords and diehards did not go to Song Renqiang, but only Yang Xiufeng. These people "poured out" their hearts to Professor Yang, and in the end, their thoughts were clearly understood by the Communist Party.
After the "Southern Hebei Agency" ran for a period of time, Lu Zhonglin took office. Lu Zhonglin is a native of Beiluzhuang, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, and has followed Feng Yuxiang, the general of the Northwest Army, and has been promoted step by step. In 1924, during the coup d'état in Beijing, he led his troops into the city, took control of the whole city of Beijing without a single shot, and drove the last emperor Pu Yi out of the palace.
After the defeat of Feng Yan and Jiang in the Central Plains War, Lu Zhonglin went to the wilderness and lived in seclusion in Tianjin. In 1936, Lu Zhonglin made a comeback with Feng Yuxiang and was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang. Now he was appointed chairman of Hebei Province by Chiang Kai-shek.
At that time, the common people were very dissatisfied with Lu Zhonglin's coming to power in Hebei Province, and even the officials elected by the people had objections. So, Lu Zhonglin did their work, saying: "Chiang Kai-shek is still the head of the country after all, and his appointment must always be respected. ”
These words quickly reached Lu Zhonglin's ears, and he felt that Yang Xiufeng was a person worth befriending. In this way, Yang Xiufeng was in a state of not "falling" in the officialdom of the Kuomintang. Since then, Yang Xiufeng presided over the military and political construction and the anti-Japanese war plan on the one hand, and founded the Anti-Japanese War College on the other hand, and he also served as the dean, many of the teachers are his old friends and colleagues, and even the famous writer Sun Li is a teacher here.
The young students who have been trained by this academy will be assigned specific jobs and retained as cadres after graduation.
Over the years, Yang Xiufeng has been a university professor, a guerrilla commander, and an administrative official, and his various identities seem to be very different, but he can use them well and change flexibly. Later, Deng Xiaoping, the political commissar of the 129th Division, praised him: "Civil officials don't want money, and military ministers are not afraid of death - Yang has both." ”
After some time, according to the needs of the struggle against the enemy, the higher-level party organization asked Yang Xiufeng to quickly mobilize the masses, organize arms, and open up the situation of the war of resistance in western Hebei. As a result, Yang Xiufeng, in his public capacity as a "special commissioner of the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Nationalist Government for the Western Hebei Civil Training," began to work on the establishment of anti-Japanese base areas.
At the same time, the Western Hebei guerrillas were formed into the 129th Brigade of the 11th Division, and Yang Xiufeng went to Shanxi. Soon after, the government of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region was established, with 21 special offices under its jurisdiction and a total of 149 county seats, with Yang Xiufeng as the chairman of the border region.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chairman Mao had an understanding of Yang Xiufeng's work achievements and affirmed them. Chairman Mao wrote in his article "An Extremely Important Policy" published in September 1942: "The leading comrades of the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan border regions have grasped this work very tightly and have set an exemplary example of streamlining the administration of the army. ”
Red professor "Yang Xiufeng" is no stranger to the people of Hebei. When the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, he threw his pen from Rong to western Hebei to form anti-Japanese armed forces, and successively served as the director of the administrative director's office in southern Hebei, the chairman of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border District Government, the vice chairman of the North China People's Government, and the chairman of the Hebei Provincial People's Government, and worked and lived in Hebei for 15 years. He was dedicated to the people, honest and honest, and had made outstanding achievements, and was known as a "servant of the people", but because he had always been modest and low-key, some deeds were not well known to the people.
Take off the long shirt and form the anti-Japanese guerrillas in western Hebei
Yang Xiufeng is a native of Qian'an County, Hebei Province. Influenced by his family, he loved reading and was devoted to revolution when he was a teenager. In 1930, he joined the Communist Party of China while studying in France. Since then, safeguarding the interests of the country, the people, and the party has become his lifelong goal.
In 1934, Yang Xiufeng returned to China after completing his studies and successively taught at several universities such as Peking Normal University. With the help of his public status as a university professor, he actively disseminated revolutionary theories among young students and secretly engaged in the work of the anti-Japanese national united front in the cultural circles of Pingjin. His revolutionary and fearless spirit won the reverence and love of young students, and he was known as the "Red Professor".
In 1937, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in full swing, and Yang Xiufeng, who was already in a year of confusion, resolutely put pen to paper. He entrusted his two-year-old only son to relatives and friends, and together with his wife, he led the progressive students of Pingjin to the front line of resistance against Japan. When the heavily armed Kuomintang rout retreated like a tide, a group of colorful teams wearing suits, cheongsams, and glasses drove to the front line against the rout.
In accordance with the secret instructions of the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China, Yang Xiufeng returned to Hebei to carry out united front work and organize guerrilla warfare. His public identity was that he was chairman of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, a special commissioner of the Baoding Xingying Western Hebei Civil Training Office, and had the power to directly appoint county magistrates and develop anti-Japanese armed forces in the western Hebei region. Taking this as a cover, he quickly set up the Western Hebei Civil Training Office, and before the Japanese army occupied it, he sent a working group to Pingshan, Jingcheng, Xingtang and other counties to carry out anti-Japanese mobilization, establish an anti-Japanese democratic regime, and develop anti-Japanese armed forces.
On October 12, 1937, the Japanese army entered Jingcheng. Although Yang Xiufeng is a scholar, he is very calm and not afraid of danger. He personally mobilized the county magistrate and the chief of the public security bureau to organize security guards to arm the camera to fight the enemy, but the county magistrate and the chief of the public security bureau sought an opportunity to escape. The head of the security regiment obeyed the order to assemble the team and stand by, but there were only more than 30 people left. At this time, some staff members of the Civil Training Department also panicked, packed up and prepared to retreat. Seeing this, Yang Xiufeng immediately held a small meeting and made severe criticisms. He said: "Our task is to organize the masses to resist the enemy, and if we flee from the battle like them, we do not need to come to western Hebei." Even if it is necessary to retreat, it is not right to panic like this without the decision of the organization! Later, the army had retreated from the front line, and at this time Yang Xiufeng led more than 30 people from the Western Hebei Civil Training Office and the Jingcheng Security Regiment, along with the retreating troops, to withdraw to Niangzi Pass.
On the way to the transfer, Yang Xiufeng paid attention to mobilizing the masses and incorporating the county security team, and on this basis, he formed an anti-Japanese guerrilla force in western Hebei. Since then, the arduous fighting process of moving to western and southern Hebei has begun. Due to our party's correct policy of uniting in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Yang Xiufeng's personal influence, in a very short period of time, the anti-Japanese guerrillas in western Hebei developed into an anti-Japanese guerrilla corps of several thousand people. Later, this team was officially incorporated into the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army and became one of the main forces in the Taihang Mountains.
Launched the first condolence activity in the old area
In the long-term revolutionary practice, Yang Xiufeng has forged a deep friendship with the people in the base areas. In 1949, the Hebei Provincial People's Government was established, and he served as the chairman of the Provincial People's Government. In the winter of 1950, accompanied by several cadres from the Provincial Department of Agriculture and the Forestry Department, they quietly came to Fuping and Quyang.
At that time, it was the middle of winter, and it was snowing heavily, and the car that Yang Xiufeng and his party were riding in drove to Quyang County and then went to the village. He was already over half a hundred years old, and he didn't say a word when he saw this, and led his entourage to walk to the research site. After looking at the situation in the surrounding villages, Yang Xiufeng convened a symposium. The meeting was attended not only by the county magistrate and the secretary of the county party committee, but also by the people in the vicinity who rushed to hear the news. At that time, as the focus of the party's work shifted from the rural areas to the cities, the phenomenon of neglecting and relaxing the rural areas and peasants inevitably appeared, and the peasants' living standards declined and discontent arose. At the meeting, this resentment poured out from you and me: "Now that you have entered the city, we have no one to take care of." "We used to have several main incomes now, and our lives are getting harder and harder, what should we do?" Some people even shed tears when they said they were excited.
Yang Xiufeng's mood became very heavy, and tears also fell. After careful analysis, he felt that what the masses had said was reasonable and true. Especially when he saw that Fuping and Quyang were flooded at that time, and it was a cold winter, and many people did not have cotton clothes to wear, he was even more anxious. The most important thing now is to solve the problem of eating and dressing! He had never extended his hand to his superiors, so he reported to the central authorities: "The whole county of Fuping and the mountainous area of Quyang are all old areas of the old area, and the organs of North China have been stationed here for a long time, and the masses are related to my flesh and blood. The number of winter clothes allocated by the central government in our province is very small compared with the total number of funds raised, and it is possible to allocate more quilts and winter clothes by tens of thousands. At the same time, the report requested the central government to loan 1.5 million catties of rice as a loan subsidy for mountainous production in Hebei Province, so as to cultivate the disaster area's own production self-help capacity. Chairman Mao Zedong read the instructions and said: "Zhou (i.e. Zhou Enlai): This request should be approved." Soon, the Ministry of Finance allocated a part of the food and clothing left by Fu Zuoyi's troops to the people, and the big problem of the people's livelihood in the old area was solved at once.
Immediately afterwards, Yang Xiufeng visited Shexian and Wu'an counties, where the heads of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan border region were stationed, and moved west and Zunhua to the anti-Japanese base areas in eastern Hebei. Everywhere he went, he carefully watched and listened carefully, and then reported the situation to the North China Bureau and the Party Central Committee. These materials, especially the words of "the Communist Party has gone down the mountain and forgotten the mountain," which were widely reflected by the masses, have aroused great attention from the central leadership. They greatly praised Yang Xiufeng's return to the old areas and decided to organize a delegation in the name of the Central People's Government to visit all the old revolutionary base areas.
In late August 1951, the North China Bureau dispatched a delegation to the northern revolutionary base areas headed by Liu Lantao and Yang Xiufeng as deputy leader, with nine sub-delegations to visit the anti-Japanese base areas in Shanxi, Hebei, Shanxi, Chahar, Hebei, Shanxi, Sui, Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningbo. Yang Xiufeng carried a special inscription written by Mao Zedong for the people in the old area, "Carry forward the revolutionary tradition and strive for greater glory", and returned to Taihang Mountain. In more than a month, he visited Shexian County, Wuxiang and other places in the heart of the former Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan border areas. He helped solve problems while visiting, and when he encountered some very urgent problems, he immediately called the North China Bureau and the Government Council for help.
In late September 1951, most of the nationwide visits were completed. At the end of September, the invited people's representatives from the revolutionary base areas arrived in Beijing with the delegations to attend the capital's National Day ceremony, and were received by Premier Zhou Enlai on October 9. Zhou Enlai said that the party will not go down the mountain and forget the mountain, enter the city and forget the countryside, and that there are still many difficulties in the country, and he hoped that the comrades in the old base areas will understand and do their best to help the people in the old base areas solve their difficulties in the future. After this visit, the masses of the people in the old areas felt that the party had not forgotten them, and their enthusiasm was growing stronger and higher.
He presided over the investigation and handling of the first major case of the founding of the People's Republic of China
After the founding of New China, the party's task of restoring the national economy was very arduous, and the phenomenon of corruption also rapidly grew and spread, and the severity of the phenomenon was shocking. In October 1951, the central government decided to launch a nationwide campaign to streamline administration and increase production and economy, and with the help of this strong east wind, the shocking case of corruption by Liu Qingshan, secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Party Committee, and Zhang Zishan, commissioner of the Tianjin Special Region, surfaced.
At that time, because Lin Tie, secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee, went to the Soviet Union for recuperation, Yang Xiufeng, chairman of the provincial government, was responsible for taking the lead in handling the case. Under his active leadership, the case was handled quickly. In late November, at the third meeting of the provincial party committee, all the embezzlement of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan was publicly exposed. On November 29 and December 2, Liu and Zhang were arrested. After that, the provincial party committee formed a "Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan Big Corruption Case Investigation and Handling Committee" with Yang Xiufeng as the director and Xue Xun, director of the Organization Department of the provincial party committee, as the deputy director, to thoroughly investigate the case.
Yang Xiufeng has always been honest and honest, and he is as vicious as he is against acts that endanger the interests of the people. During his tenure as the director of the Southern Hebei Administration, there was a food manager who embezzled the living allowance of comrades, and a horseman who secretly sold horse material, and they all refused to change their ways. After the establishment of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region Government, he led the formulation of the "Interim Regulations on the Punishment of Corruption in the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region," in which embezzlement of 500 yuan was punishable by death. Therefore, as soon as the Liu and Zhang corruption cases came out, Yang Xiufeng was extremely shocked and resentful, but at the same time, he deeply blamed himself for not discovering it in time.
On December 16, the Provincial People's Government submitted a report to the Administrative Council of the Central People's Government on the corruption case of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan. The report examines the bureaucracy of the provincial government leadership and requests for sanctions. What is even more surprising is that Yang Xiufeng published a long article entitled "Heavy Responsibility, Painful Lesson" in the People's Daily on January 8, 1952. In the article, he hit the nail on the head and pointed out that the reason why the Hebei Provincial People's Government had not discovered the corruption of Liu and Zhang for a long time and failed to deal with them as soon as possible was "mainly due to the serious bureaucracy of the Hebei Provincial People's Government, especially my leadership." After a detailed analysis of the bureaucratic problem, he wrote earnestly: "The above is my extremely incomplete preliminary examination of Liu and Zhang's crimes from the perspective of leadership responsibility. I am deeply aware of the grave responsibility for the poisoning of my bureaucracy, which has caused a huge loss of state assets and irreparably damaged the credibility of the people's government! It hurts to think of this! ”
Yang Xiufeng's courage to take responsibility has had a positive impact. After his review was published in Renmin Ribao, Hebei Ribao successively published articles by the director of the Provincial Department of Finance, the secretary general of the Provincial Production and Disaster Relief Committee, the director of the Provincial Water Resources Department, the president of the Hebei Branch of the People's Bank of China, and the Provincial Department of Labor and Personnel, examining the responsibilities of their units and individuals on the Liu and Zhang issues. Targeted and sharp articles and reports continue day by day, naming and exposing some units and some provincial-level and city-level party and government leaders, and inspecting and reviewing the units and leaders that have been criticized and exposed. On February 10, 1952, with the execution of Liu and Zhang, Hebei's "three antis" and "five antis" movements were rapidly launched, the party style was further corrected, and the social atmosphere was increasingly purified.
In the last century, China was in turmoil, and countless revolutionary ancestors risked the danger and actively threw themselves into saving the country. People with lofty ideals have overcome all difficulties and obstacles, and opened up a red road for us today. Next, let's walk into those unsung heroes who pay silently----- such as Yang Xiufeng.
So what did he contribute to the revolution, and what about his children?
01 Patriotic youth
Yang Xiufeng was born in Hebei Province in 1897, and several generations of his family have been well-read scholars who have taken the imperial examination to become officials. Born in such a scholarly family, Yang Xiufeng had the opportunity to come into contact with all kinds of books since he was a child, he went to private school early, and when he grew up, he was directly sent by his family to study in Beijing, which has a higher level of education. At that time, Beijing was the cultural center of China, where countless intellectuals gathered to experience new ideas and explore China's future destiny.
When he was still a student, Yang Xiufeng had already participated in the student movement many times, and he took to the streets to promote anti-feudal and anti-imperialist ideas through speeches and leaflets. During the May Fourth Movement, Yang Xiufeng also gave an impassioned speech at a rally as a student representative, during which he was knocked out two front teeth by the police. Obviously, none of this affected Yang Xiufeng's revolutionary struggle, but sharpened his will. Soon after, Yang Xiufeng became a teacher, and he began to publish mobilization articles in newspapers and magazines, calling on all compatriots to share the same hatred and resist foreign enemies.
02 Determine communism
In 1929, Yang Xiufeng was given the opportunity to study abroad, and he first came into contact with communism in France, and was deeply impressed by its content. Yang Xiufeng fell into thought, just at this time the mainland youth also founded a party organization in France, in the exchange, Yang Xiufeng determined his ideal of saving the country, and he joined the Communist Party. And with those like-minded friends, he preached communism and marched on the streets to denounce Japan's crime of aggression against China.
However, this caused dissatisfaction with the French government, and Yang Xiufeng was deported. Two years later, Yang Xiufeng went to the Soviet Union for further study, and after graduation, he continued to return to China as a teacher to promote patriotic thoughts. In the days since, Yang Xiufeng has been fighting on the education front, telling students about history, politics and social sciences, helping young students understand the world, and becoming a popular mentor and friend to students.
03 Achievements in life
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yang Xiufeng was appointed as the governor of Hebei Province. Back in his hometown, Yang Xiufeng was full of ambition, he wanted to display his ambitions and do practical things for the people of his hometown, so the initial socialist transformation of Hebei Province came from Yang Xiufeng's handwriting. In his hometown, Yang Xiufeng did everything in detail, personally went to the grassroots level to guide the land reform work, and devoted a lot of energy to convening experts to discuss the implementation plan for the restoration of construction.
In 1952, Yang Xiufeng returned to his old profession as vice minister of higher education, and was promoted to minister in 1954. In accordance with the unified arrangements of the central authorities, Yang Xiufeng proposed that the mainland should draw on the advanced experience of the Soviet Union and gradually carry out innovative reforms in the education system. At the same time, it is also necessary to realize that China is different from the Soviet Union, and cannot copy everything, do not use brains, and be dogmatic. Since then, Yang Xiufeng has also served as the president of the National People's Court for 10 years, leading the trial of many major cases. During the special period, he was temporarily suspended from work and persecuted, but fortunately, his reputation was restored not long after.
As an educator, I am of course very concerned about the education of my own children. His son's name is Yang Weimin, and he has been fighting in the army since he joined the military camp at a young age. Yang Weimin devoted most of his energy to the research and development of military equipment, and was awarded two first-class merits. However, because of the special secrecy of his work, Yang Weimin is not well known to everyone. It can be said that the father of the tiger has no dog son, and the two generations of father and son have made great contributions to the establishment and development of New China. Their patriotic heart is incomparably sincere and warm, and they deserve the title of the backbone of China.
Looking at Yang Xiufeng's life experience, he began to read progressive books and periodicals since he was young, hated the feudal and decadent oppression, and hated the traitorous behavior of the Republic of China government, and then embarked on the revolutionary road of fighting for it all his life. Yang Xiufeng died in 1983 at the age of 86. When his life was dying, the old man was still telling his family not to leave ashes, not to hold a memorial service, and to put the party in order.
I first heard Yang Xiufeng's name in the summer of 1938. After the July 7 Incident, the Hebei Provincial Zhao County Junior High School where I studied was suspended, and I dropped out of school and went home to farm. My father was the earliest Communist Party member in our village and the first party branch secretary in our village. In June and July 1938, Zhang Zihou, the head of the underground party in Zhao County, discussed with my father and wanted to recommend me to study at the Hebei Anti-Japanese War College in Shenxian County, and asked for my opinion. This is the first time I know the name of "Red Professor" Yang Xiufeng. Although my father thought about it again and again that it would be more beneficial for the revolutionary work to let me stay in the enemy-occupied area of my hometown as an underground traffic officer, and I was ultimately unable to study at the Anti-Japanese War College, Yang Xiufeng's name was deeply engraved in my mind. Later, I participated in the revolutionary work and served as the head of the civil affairs section and the head of the third district of Zhao Yuanning border district. Zhao Yuanning County happened to be a county under the jurisdiction of the Southern Hebei Administration, and I also had a better understanding of Yang Xiufeng, who was the director of the Administration at that time. After the liberation, Yang Lao became the chairman of the Hebei Provincial Government, and I only had the opportunity to meet him in person, but it was only two or three times, after all, I still didn't know him very well.
On July 24, 1952, I officially reported to the Hebei Provincial Government for work, and since then I have been with the respected Yang Lao day and night, listening to the teachings, and forming a deep "old friend", until January 1965, when he was elected president of the Supreme People's Court, I left Yang Lao. The 12 and a half years I have followed Mr. Yang have been the period in which I have benefited the most and made the fastest progress, and it is also the most memorable time for me.
Since August 1949, Mr. Yang has served as Chairman of the Hebei Provincial People's Government, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group, and member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, and he is also the President of Hebei Normal College. Yang Lao was born on the 26th day of the first lunar month in 1897 in Yangtuanbao Village, Qian'an County. When I came to work with him in 1952, he was 55 years old, wearing an old gray tunic and a pair of short-sighted glasses. Later, I learned that he had a bad appetite and was a little deaf in his ears. At that time, there were no hearing aids, so we talked to him relatively loudly, and over the years it became natural for me to get used to it, and until now I am not used to talking quietly! At that time, there were 3 people in Yang's family, and his wife Sun Wenshu was also an old revolutionary. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Yang Lao threw his pen from Rong to form the Western Hebei Guerrilla Force and served as the commander, Sun Lao and Yang Lao went up the mountain to fight guerrillas, and later Yang Lao was appointed as the director of the Southern Hebei Administrative Bureau, Sun Lao was the secretary general of the Executive Department, and was elected as a member of the Hebei Provincial Government after liberation. Their only child, the people, lived in the school and only returned home on Sundays.
At that time, the capital of Hebei Province was still in Baoding, and the provincial government was located in the former Zhili Governor's Office. Yang Lao's office is in the last row of bungalows in the provincial government compound, two suites of more than ten square meters, and an old desk is placed in the door, which is often filled with various materials and documents, and a few wooden chairs. The inner room is a bedroom, and it sleeps on an old iron bed. Fan in the summer, and heat the fire stove in the winter.
In September 1952, we went to the rural areas of Baoding and Cangzhou with Yang Lao to inspect the autumn harvest and autumn planting work, and finally came to Xian County, planning to return to the provincial capital in the afternoon. At this time, Elder Yang proposed to go to a provincial tuberculosis cadres sanatorium in Xian County to visit the cadres who were recuperating there. At that time, the medical conditions were still very poor, the mortality rate of tuberculosis was still very high, and people were afraid of tuberculosis, but Yang Lao insisted on going. After arriving at the nursing home, Mr. Yang went to each ward to offer condolences one by one, and personally inquired about their condition and living conditions. The arrival of the provincial leaders moved these cadres to tears, holding Yang Lao's hand, you and I have endless words, Yang Lao and the sick number had dinner together, and returned to Baoding late at night.
Soon after, we went to Dingxian with Mr. Yang to inspect it, and the next morning, the provincial party committee called to inform us that a meeting would be held in the afternoon. We immediately went to the train station to buy tickets back to the provincial capital. After getting on the train, there were a lot of passengers, and we found a few carriages, but there was no seat, so we had to help him stand at the opening of the carriage for more than an hour. At that time, we were all young people about 30 years old, and it didn't matter if we stood for an hour, and Yang Lao was over half a hundred years old, and his health was not good, and he was going to work immediately after going back, so we couldn't help it, so we asked the conductor to explain the situation, and asked Yang Lao to rest on a seat in the library for a while.
At the end of October 1952, before Yang Lao was about to be transferred from Hebei to the Ministry of Higher Education, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and the North China Bureau jointly sent him to the southwest region to inspect education. When we left Chongqing, the leaders of Chongqing Municipality grabbed our secretary to bring some local products to Mr. Yang. It was difficult to resist the hospitality, and I had to symbolically receive a small jar of mustard. On the way to Wuhan, Yang Lao still let him know, he severely criticized us, and after returning to Baoding, he immediately asked us to hand over this jar of mustard to the canteen.
At the end of November 1952, the Central Committee transferred Yang Lao to the newly established Ministry of Higher Education as vice minister and secretary of the party group, and Ma Xulun, a democrat, was the minister. I went to Beijing with Mr. Yang and still served as his secretary. When he first arrived in Beijing, his dormitory had not yet been arranged, and he temporarily lived in the Hebei Provincial Office in Dongcheng, which was far away from the Ministry of Higher Education. At that time, he was very busy with work, on the one hand, he needed to familiarize himself with the situation of colleges and universities across the country as soon as possible, and on the other hand, he had to set up various departments and bureaus and equip them with leadership teams, so Yang Lao had to work overtime every night in addition to working as usual during the day, and he could not go back to rest until late at night. During the three months from December 1952 to February 1953, he held forums for the heads of universities in Beijing, Tianjin, and North China. In March, he went to Shanghai to participate in the symposium on the admission of colleges and universities in East China. In the past few months, he has also inspected some universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong. Later, on the basis of in-depth investigation and research, at the suggestion of Ma Lao and Yang Lao, the party group of the ministry repeatedly discussed and agreed, and reported to the State Council for approval, and made necessary adjustments to the layout and setting of colleges and universities, merging Fu Jen University into Beijing Normal University, Yenching University into Peking University, Tsinghua University into Peking University, Tsinghua University specializing in engineering, and Peking University moved from the beach to the campus of Yan University. The School of Geology, the School of Iron and Steel, the School of Mechanization, the School of Mining and Metallurgy, the School of Aviation, the School of Political Science and Law, the School of Posts and Telecommunications, and the School of Medicine were established in the area of Xidaokou, together with the nearby Tsinghua University and Peking University, making this area a university town in Beijing. Jinling University in Nanjing, Qilu University in Shandong, St. John's University, Hujiang University, and Aurora University in Shanghai were abolished. Fudan University, Nanjing University and Shandong University were renamed comprehensive universities, and Zhejiang University and Nanjing Institute of Technology were renamed engineering universities. In Shanghai, the Aviation College and the School of Physical Education were established, and Lingnan University was abolished in Guangzhou, and Sun Yat-sen University was established as a comprehensive university. From June to August 1957, through 162 conversations, Mr. Yang steadily resolved the issue of the relocation of Shanghai Jiaotong University to Xi'an, which was satisfactory to all parties. In April 1953, Mr. Yang drafted an important document for a conference, and we helped him collect materials, and he wrote it himself, writing with full attention and revising it repeatedly. The waiter put the prepared night meal on his desk, urged him several times to ignore it, and worked until 5 o'clock in the morning, when the east turned white, and then slept for 2 hours, and went to work on time at 8 o'clock. One day in November of that year, he fell ill with a bad cold and the doctor told him to rest, but he insisted on going to work. We found that his clothes were too thin, so we asked the waiter to go to the dormitory to pick up a sweater, and after retrieving it, he had already gone to the auditorium and was speaking at the cadre meeting, and the waiter gave him the sweater, but he did not wear the sweater until the end of the meeting in order not to interrupt the meeting.
In September 1954, Yang Lao was appointed Minister of Higher Education and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group. In September 1956, he was elected as a member of the Central Committee at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and in February 1957, he concurrently served as deputy director of the Office of Culture and Education of the State Council. In March 1958, the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Education were merged, and Yang Lao served as the Minister of Education and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group after the merger. In the winter of 1962, Mr. Yang suffered from cervical spine osteopathy, numbness and soreness in his right arm, difficulty in dressing, and even his right hand writing was seriously affected, and his right leg also felt uncomfortable. At this time, the party group of the Ministry of Economic Affairs decided that he would go to the hospital, but after a few days of staying, he was still discharged from the hospital despite the doctor's dissuasion, and worked while leashing. Later, under the repeated persuasion of other department leaders and doctors, he reluctantly went to Guangzhou Cong for chemotherapy and recuperation. During the treatment, he still insisted on going to Sun Yat-sen University and South China Institute of Technology for investigation and research. In the spring of the second year, Mr. Yang took the traction equipment and went deep into the rural areas of Handan, Xingtai, Shijiazhuang and other places to investigate and understand the situation of primary and secondary education. Mr. Yang's perseverance in overcoming his illness really impressed us.
In December 1963, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education were set up, and Mr. Yang was still the Minister of Higher Education and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group, and I was appointed Deputy Director of the Personnel Department of the Ministry of Higher Education and the full-time deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the organ. Mr. Yang not only attaches great importance to and supports the work of the party committees of the organs, but also adopts flexible and diverse forms to carry out ideological education work. The "canteen speech" he advocated was very popular with the cadres. He took advantage of the time after breakfast and before going to work to give a lecture in the canteen of the organ for more than 10 minutes, but not more than 30 minutes at most, once every two weeks. Mr. Yang insisted on participating in the party's grassroots organization activities as an ordinary party member. At that time, the party branch and party group held meetings in the evening, and Yang Lao had to attend on time no matter how busy and tired he was. As long as he is in the organ, he must participate in the meeting of all party members, and like other party members, he sits in the audience and listens carefully to the work report of the party committee of the organ.
Yang Lao was honest and spotless all his life, not only did he not use his power for personal gain, but also did not allow the staff around him to use his name for personal gain, no matter who asked him to do things, he would handle it impartially and never show favoritism. In addition to his salary, Yang Lao does not want any other income. He was re-elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress for several consecutive terms, and he never received the 50 yuan per month for the deputies' carriage and horse expenses. When he visited abroad, he did not accept the pocket money given by the other party to the members of the delegation, and all the gifts given by the other party were handed over to the public after returning to China. During domestic inspections, he never accepted local banquets, insisted on living in ordinary guest houses, and ate in canteens. Once at Hunan Normal University, the school added two more dishes, but he insisted on not eating, even if he added an extra egg, he insisted on not eating.
In September 1964, Yang Lao, the acting director of the general office of the department, was 67 years old, but he still worked all night. He received a large number of documents, publications, internal reference materials, and newspapers inside and outside the party every day, and most of them participated in meetings, investigated and studied during the day, and spent the evenings drafting and revising official documents for examination and approval and reading relevant materials, and did not rest until they were processed, and never dragged on the backlog. Yang Lao went to work in the Supreme Court in January 1965, and soon after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Yang Lao was branded as a "capitalist roader" and "traitor", and was tortured and persecuted. I was also branded as a "capitalist roader" and a "representative of the right-leaning and stubborn forces," and I was sent to the Ministry of Education to carry out labor reform in the Anhui cadre school, and I only returned to Beijing after I became a "Gang of Four." A few days later, my wife and I went to visit Mr. Yang, who had not seen him for 10 years, and he was already an 80-year-old man who was old and old, but he was still in good spirits. In March 1978, at the first session of the Fifth National People's Congress, Yang Lao was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. In February 1979, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress. In September 1980, he was elected vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Third Session of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In September 1982, during the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he wrote a letter to the Party Central Committee, requesting his resignation from all posts and retiring according to the system. On November 10, 1983, Mr. Yang died in Beijing at the age of 86. Before he died, he repeatedly told that the funeral should be simple: no memorial service; 2. Do not leave ashes; 3. Donate his body to the cause of medicine. When I arrived at the hospital, Mr. Yang had already left calmly, and everyone present was in tears, and I couldn't cry. He dedicated everything he had to the party and the people and to the great communist cause, and his revolutionary spirit, his noble quality, his noble demeanor, and his voice and smile will forever remain in my heart.