Red New Life Bookstore (Part I)
Li Jizhong
During the Liberation War, there were three shops selling progressive books on the east side of the north gate of the old city of Guisui, which was the only red bookstore in Guisui before the liberation - Xinsheng Bookstore, and the owners of the bookstore were Li Jiansheng and Wang Yuting. The shelves are filled with new books sent by the Fengzhen Xinhua Bookstore, and the glass cases are filled with stationery for students. The whole bookstore is simple and plain, but it also looks vibrant.
Xinsheng Bookstore was established in the winter of 1938, and its predecessor was the "Three People's Doctrine Book and Newspaper Society" in the Hequ in the northwest of Shanxi Province and the "Northwest Bookstore" in the Hetao area. The love exhibition of the bookstore is closely related to the history of the owner, and things have to start with the history of the owner.
Comrade Li Jiansheng, a native of Lingqiu County, Shanxi Province, was studious since childhood, cared about major state affairs, and was influenced by revolutionary ideas. In 1926, when he was 17 years old, when the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation and the Northern Expedition revolution arose, he left his feudal family with a patriotic heart, and traveled half of China in search of truth. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Comrade Li Jiansheng took part in the party-led anti-Japanese salvation movement in the areas of Hequ and Biguan in the northwest of Shanxi Province.
Comrade Wang Yuting, a native of Biguan County, Shanxi, once served as director of the Biguan County Women's Salvation Association. In August 1937, through the introduction of the organization, they walked from Bianguan to cross the Yellow River, crossed northern Shaanxi, and arrived at Yan'an, the holy land of the revolution, where they participated in the revolution at the "Northern Shaanxi Public School", listened to the relevant expositions of Chairman Mao and the revolutionaries of the older generation on the War of Resistance against Japan, and studied and comprehended the party's anti-Japanese line, principles, and policies.
At this time, it was the second period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and the Party Central Committee responded to the request of General Fu Zuoyi. A group of Communist Party members and progressive youths were sent to help the 35th Army in its political work. In this way, after Li Jiansheng and his wife completed their studies, they were organizationally allowed to return to the Hequ in the northwest of Shanxi Province, and let Li Jiansheng join the 7th Company of the 436th Regiment of the 101st Division of the Political Department of the 35 th Army of which Fu Zuoyi was the commander as a political worker, actively propagating the party's anti-Japanese stand and establishing a progressive political work system based on the political work of the Eighth Route Army. The political director of this regiment is Comrade Xian Yi, a member of the Communist Party.
In the winter of 1938, Comrade Li Jiansheng became ill from hard work and could not persist in the work of the company after a long and intense fighting life, and he was entrusted by the organization and comrades to have many political workers pool some funds to set up the "Three People's Principles Book and Newspaper Agency" in an old private house in Hequ City, which became a cultural supply station in Hequ, Baode, and Bianguan areas. The main source of literature is Yan'an.
At that time, the new books published in Yan'an could be delivered to readers through the book and newspaper publisher within a month. The books that are often displayed on the shelves include Chairman Mao's "On Protracted War", Xu Dixin's "New Theory of the Three People's Principles", Ai Siqi's "Popular Philosophy", "Introduction to Philosophy", "A Concise Course in the History of the Communist Party of China", "Selected Works of Stalin", Lenin's "State and Revolution", Leontsev's "Political Economy", "Introduction to Social Sciences", Marx and Engels co-authored "The Communist Manifesto", Dimitrov's "Program of the Communist International", as well as Luo Ruiqing's "Political Work in the Army" and "Liberation Three Days" and progressive literary works, among others. The dissemination of these revolutionary theories is like a guiding light, illuminating the way forward for people.
At that time, the company's political education was mainly based on the new Three People's Principles, the protracted war, and the anti-Japanese national united front. Officers and men are basically provided with political and cultural reading materials by book and newspaper publishers. As the business unfolded, Comrade Li Jiansheng became busier and more tired, and when he thought of the heavy burden of disseminating the revolutionary truth on his shoulders and saw the endless stream of young people who came to the book and newspaper office to seek knowledge, he forgot to sleep and forget that he was still a lung patient.
In April 1939, General Fu Zuoyi led his troops north from Hequ to the Hetao area in the western part of Suiyuan. Comrades Li Jiansheng and Wang Yuting also moved the bookstore to Wuyuan County. It was renamed "Northwest Bookstore" and became the only position in the Hetao area to promote progressive culture. The Hetao was a Kuomintang-ruled area. The postal route from Yan'an to the books was cut off, and only a small number of books published in Yan'an could only be brought from the office of the Eighth Route Army of the League of Iraq. Moreover, due to the different political environment, bookstores can no longer openly sell Marxist-Leninist classics.
At this time, the "Northwest Bookstore" mainly sold progressive literary and artistic books from Chongqing's "Xinhua Daily", Life Bookstore, and Reading Publishing House, such as the works of Lu Xun, Mao Dun, and Lao She, and the famous novels "Tieliu", "Mother", and "Xia Boyang" from the Soviet Union. Every day, many progressive youths and school students come to the bookstore to read books, and some penniless students cannot afford to buy books, so the bookstore lends them books to read. Influenced by the revolutionary ideology, many young people went to Yan'an to participate in the revolution, expand the progressive forces, and cultivate revolutionary youth, which became the greatest comfort to the shopkeeper.
In 1940, due to Chiang Kai-shek's repeated anti-communist upsurges, the political climate in the Hetao area was reversed, and the agents of the Central Committee headed by Zhang Qingen created white terror and arrested communists and progressive youths everywhere. It was on the firing line of this brutal struggle that Comrade Li Jiansheng was introduced by Comrade Guo Beichen, director of the organization department of the Suixi Prefectural Committee, an underground organization of the party, and honorably joined the Communist Party of China.
At this time, when joining the party, there was a danger of being arrested or beheaded at any time, but Comrade Li Jiansheng had unswerving revolutionary faith and the determination to be ready to sacrifice for the party's cause at any time. Since then, the "Northwest Bookstore" has also become a bunker for the party's underground work. At the moment when the White Terror was severe, through the channels of the bookstore, the Party Central Committee's policy of "persisting in the War of Resistance and opposing surrender; uphold unity and oppose division; The principle of "persisting in progress and opposing retrogression" has spread to all directions, dispelled the doubts in the hearts of the people, and boosted the fighting spirit of uniting to resist Japan.
After the Battle of Wuyuan, the "Northwest Bookstore" moved to Shaanba (where the Hangjin Houqi is now located). The Kuomintang secret service regarded the bookstore as a beast of prey, and hated it to death. As soon as the bookstore opened during the day, there were many people pretending to be reading books, but they were actually "watching". At night, ghostly figures often appear on the window paper, looking and eavesdropping. On one occasion, Comrade Li Jiansheng, full of anger, picked up a stick that had been prepared long ago, aimed it at the black shadow on the window, and poked it violently. The guy fell to the ground, and after a while got up and staggered away. What a joy! The whole family stayed up all night with joy. In 1940, when the situation was getting worse and worse, the organs of the party's Suixi Prefectural Committee were sabotaged by spies, and Comrade Li Jiansheng was also arrested and sent to the gendarmerie. The spies also set up a trap for the traitors to "confront Comrade Li Jiansheng in the face." Under Comrade Li Jiansheng's righteous and stern reprimand, the traitors felt guilty and the spies' tricks failed.
Comrade Li Jiansheng was severely devastated mentally and physically, suffered a recurrence of lung disease, and vomited blood. Due to the rescue and help of comrades outside, in the name of "medical parole", he went home for treatment and recuperation. But as soon as he got out of the cage of the gendarmerie, he did not care about the torture of illness, and with amazing perseverance, he united his comrades and continued to fight against the spies. In 1941, he was arrested again and imprisoned in a concentration camp set up by secret agents, the Wartime Youth Training Corps (referred to as the War Youth Corps). This time he was locked up in a year's room with Comrade Guo Beichen. In his cell, he taught Comrade Guo Beichen to sing the Internationale, and together they organized and led a hunger strike for political prisoners, forcing the enemy to improve the lives of political prisoners.