Author: Ma Yuping Source: "Yanhuang Chunqiu Magazine"
Introduction: In the window of Cai Wei's deeds exhibition hall in Ningde City, Fujian Province, there is a sword, and the words "Qinggang Sword" on the hilt are clearly visible. This sword not only carries a tragic history, it is also the key to solving the mystery of the life of an "unsung hero".
The "missing" young master
In 1907, the Cai family in Funing Mansion, Mindong, Fujian Province, added a male named Cai Zeyun. Cai Zeyun liked to dance and play with swords since he was a child, especially the Qinggang sword at home, which was the portable sword of Shi Dakai, the winged king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Shi Dakai folded the halberd Anshun field. At that time, Cai Zeyun's great-uncle was in charge of the prefect of Yazhou, Sichuan, and handled this matter, so Shi Dakai's sword was in the hands of Cai Zeyun's great-uncle. Since then, this sword engraved with "Qinggang Sword" has become the heirloom of the Cai family. Every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the Cai family holds a sacrificial event, and the Qinggang sword will be taken out for everyone to worship and appreciate. Once, in order to verify whether the sword was really sharpened like clay, Cai Zuoke, the grandson of Cai's family, brought a woodcutter and riveted it with the sword. As a result, the woodcutter broke, and the blade of the sword also left a small gap.
In the era of great change, Cai Zeyun did not choose to inherit his ancestral business, but chose to seek liberation for the toiling people in the world. In 1926, at the age of 19, Cai Zeyun joined the Chinese Communist Party while studying in Shanghai. He was sent back to his hometown to carry out party work, and was arrested and imprisoned during an outing, only to be released on bail from his family. It was no longer suitable to stay in his hometown, so Cai Zeyun said goodbye to his parents and his wife, who was pregnant with Liujia, and returned to Shanghai again. Soon after, the wife gave birth to a boy. Due to the sinister political environment at that time, Cai Zeyun could not go home to visit his wife and children, so he could only ask someone to bring letters to his wife and named his son "Zhisheng".
At that time, Shanghai was in the midst of the White Terror after the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, and the Kuomintang reactionaries wantonly hunted down and killed the Communists. For the needs of secret work and the safety of his family, Cai Zeyun changed his name to Cai Wei and cut off all contact with his hometown.
In the first half of 1931, Cai Wei attended the radio training course of the Central Special Branch in Shanghai, learning the technology of sending and receiving telegrams and the maintenance technology of the machine. He was smart and studious, and soon mastered radio technology and became a professional technician. In October of the same year, Cai Wei received instructions from Zhou Enlai and assigned him and Wang Zigang to Hubei, Henan and Anhui to carry out radio communication work.
Cai Wei
The first radio station of the Red Fourth Front
After more than 20 days of arduous trekking, Cai Wei and Wang Zigang arrived at Xinji, the capital of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area. After that, another radio technician, Song Kanfu and Xu Yixin, also arrived at Xinji. So, they began work on the creation of a radio station of the Red Fourth Front. Because Xu Yixin was transferred out soon after, the radio work was mainly done by Cai Wei, Song Kanfu, and Wang Zigang, who were known as the "three intelligence heroes" of the Red Fourth Front Army.
They dug through the piles of equipment they had seized in the previous battles and found a rusty receiver inside, with broken panels and missing parts. Cai Wei scrubbed it clean, remade a panel, and found some parts from the pile of materials to match, and it became a complete receiver. After debugging, he actually received the code from the Kuomintang News Agency. As a result, they began to copy the news of the Kuomintang Central News Agency, and kept abreast of the major events that were taking place at home and abroad at that time, as well as the movements of the Kuomintang, thus providing an important basis for the Red Fourth Front Army to formulate operational guidelines and strategic arrangements.
However, this receiver can only receive and cannot send news, and it is only half a radio station. Soon after, in the Battle of Huang'an and the Battle of Shanghuang, two damaged radio stations were captured, which were processed and repaired by Cai Wei and other technicians, and finally assembled into a complete radio station that could both receive and send newspapers. Together with the generators and batteries that have just been seized to match the station, a complete set of radio equipment is complete, and the radio station is ready to work. They first received a telegram from the "Red China News Agency" of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Then, they successfully sent the good news to the Party Central Committee about the Battle of Huang'an and the Battle of Shanghuang. In this way, the first radio station of the Red Fourth Front was born.
The comradeship is deep
In May 1932, my father, Ma Wenbo, came to the radio station of the headquarters of the Red Fourth Front Army. Ma Wenbo can report and understand machine maintenance, he is skilled and works hard, and soon became Cai Wei's right-hand man, and the two became friends who talked about everything.
In the spring of 1936, the Red Fourth Front Army came to the banks of the Jinchuan River in Danba County, Sichuan. One evening, Cai Wei and Ma Wenbo walked slowly along the river. Looking at the surging Jinchuan River, Cai Wei said with emotion:
"Below Danba is the Dadu River."
"When I saw the Dadu River, I remembered Shi Dakai who was defeated by the river." Ma Wenbo said.
"Yes! You can't imagine that the sword that Shi Dakai wore with him is still kept in our Cai family. Cai Wei said.
"Oh? Shi Dakai's saber? Ma Wenbo was a little curious.
"Yes, I've seen it, it's very sharp, and it's engraved with the words 'Green Steel Sword', and it's indeed a rare treasure. In this matter, my ancestors were ashamed of the peasant rebels! Then, Cai Wei told Ma Wenbo about some family matters, and also said that he already had a wife and a son who had never met.
The Sword of Green Steel
Cai Wei's talk about Shi Dakai's sword made Ma Wenbo feel fresh and magical, and he was deeply impressed.
"Living Bodhisattva" in the Army
Thanks to the efforts of a group of technical personnel, including Cai Wei, Song Kanfu, Wang Zigang, and Ma Wenbo, the radio stations of the Red Fourth Front Army gradually developed from simple communication to being able to decipher the enemy's coded telegrams, and obtained a large amount of information on the enemy's situation, thus providing effective intelligence support for the high-level command of the troops. With the development of radio technical reconnaissance work, the radio station of the headquarters of the Red Fourth Front Army was expanded into the Second Bureau of the General Headquarters, and Cai Wei was also promoted from director to director of the Second Bureau.
On the road to the west, in the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, and on the way of the Long March, the comrades of the Second Bureau not only had to march with the troops, but also had to work on planes at any time, reconnoiter the enemy's situation, and provide the commanders with an intelligence basis for commanding the troops. Because of the intelligence of the Second Bureau, they were able to grasp the enemy's situation in a timely and accurate manner, and the troops won many battles. Once, a division commander curiously asked General Political Commissar Chen Changhao, where did he get such accurate information? Chen Changhao smiled mysteriously and said, "Because there is a living Bodhisattva in my house!" When the enemy attacks, he will tell me how many people the enemy has? In what location? When to attack? Of course, we will win the battle! The division commander asked Chen Changhao: "How can there be a living Bodhisattva?" Why didn't I see it? Chen Changhao pointed at Cai Wei and said, "That's him!" ”
Death in the wasteland
In July 1936, the Red Fourth Front crossed the grassland for the third time. After continuous marching, high-intensity work, excessive fatigue, and chronic hunger, Cai Wei fell ill. But he gritted his teeth and persevered, and walked out of the meadow with the large army.
Because there is no medicine, Cai Wei's condition is getting worse and worse. In September 1936, the troops came to Zhuerping in Min County. Cai Wei, who had not eaten for more than 20 days, became more ill and finally stopped breathing, and his life was fixed at the age of 29. The Red Army entrusted Li Junming, the commander of Zhuerping Village, to help buy a coffin and bury Cai Wei's body in Apo Bay outside Zhuerping Village.
A Thousand Miles to Find a Sword
In the Spring Festival of 1982, Xu Shenji, who was about to retire from the post of deputy commander of the Beijing Military Region, invited his old comrades-in-arms Song Kanfu and Wang Zigang to a party. Xu Shenji was a deputy commander of the 73rd Division during the war years, and Cai Wei's radio often acted with the 73rd Division, and they were comrades-in-arms at the same time as friends in life and death. And Song Kanfu and Wang Zigang are both the founders of the Radio Station of the Red Fourth Front Army, and they are the "three intelligence heroes" of the Red Fourth Front Army together with Cai Wei. Today, Song Kanfu is the vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and Wang Zigang has just retired from his position as minister of posts and telecommunications.
During the conversation, they talked about the old bureau chief Cai Wei, which aroused deep nostalgia for him, and several people decided to take immediate action to find Cai Wei's hometown and relatives. They also contacted Chen Fuchu, political commissar of the Third Department of the General Staff Department, Ma Wenbo, vice minister, and Xiao Quanfu, commander of the Urumqi Military Region, and several other old comrades-in-arms of Cai Wei, and began an operation to search for relatives.
But they only knew that Cai Wei was from Funing Prefecture, Fujian, and they didn't know which county or village it was. So, Xu Shenji first wrote an article to commemorate Cai Wei and published it in the "Fujian Daily". Subsequently, Xiao Quanfu wrote another commemorative article, which was published in the "Victory Daily" and the "People's Post and Telegraph".
Things soon got back to their heads. An elderly man surnamed Zhang in Fuding, Fujian Province (formerly under the jurisdiction of Funing Prefecture) offered to identify his relatives, saying that Cai Wei's situation was in line with that of his missing brother Zhang Baidi.
After the veteran generals understood and compared Zhang Baidi's situation through various channels, they felt that although some situations were not right, some situations were really a little similar. When he was about to confirm his confession, Ma Wenbo remembered what Director Cai Wei said to him on the banks of the Jinchuan River. So, he asked the old man surnamed Zhang about the Qinggang Sword. The old man thought for a while, then said "no" with certainty. Ma Wenbo feels that the matter is important and should not be hasty, and reminds everyone to further investigate.
The note left by Ma Wenbo mentions more details, providing detailed clues to the search for Cai Wei's family
In 1984, Song Kanfu came to Fujian as a liaison officer for the rectification of the Party of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Outside of work, he continued to search for Cai Wei's ancestral home and relatives. With the assistance of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee, after repeated visits, Zhang Baidi was excluded. At the same time, it established contact with the Party History Office of Ningde, Fujian. Later, with the assistance of the Party History Office of Ningde District, he connected with the Cai family in Ningde.
In fact, the Cai family in Ningde has also been looking for Cai Zeyun, who disappeared during the war years. Originally, Cai Zeyun was designated as a martyr, but because Cai Zeyun's whereabouts were unknown and the evidence was insufficient, he was later canceled as a martyr. Before her death, Cai Zeyun's wife repeatedly instructed her son Cai Zuoxiang (Zhisheng) to find his father's whereabouts. Cai Zuoxiang went to Shanghai and Fuzhou to look for it many times, but he could not find it due to lack of clues. Due to the hardships of life, Cai Zuoxiang became ill from hard work and died at the age of 49. On the sickbed, he handed over the burden of finding his father Cai Zeyun to his two sons, Cai Shudao and Cai Shubo.
The one who went to Beijing to connect with the old generals was Cai Zeyun's grandson Cai Shubo. Cai Shubo said that his father Cai Zuoxiang learned from one of his grandfather's comrades-in-arms that his grandfather had changed his name to Cai Wei, but there were no more clues. Regarding the Qinggang Sword, Cai Shubo didn't know about it at first. After returning to check with the old people, he learned that his ancestors had been officials, and indeed had a sword of Shi Dakai, which had been handed over to the government in 1956, probably in the Chinese History Museum.
Ma Wenbo immediately sent two comrades to the Chinese History Museum to check it, but the Chinese History Museum did not have this sword. They also visited the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum, but they did not have such a sword. But Cai Wei's old comrades-in-arms did not give up, and they decided to send someone to Ningde, Fujian Province to visit on the spot. General Ma Wenbo received the task.
In June 1985, Ma Wenbo, his wife and two staff members went south. They first went to the school where Cai Wei studied in Shanghai, but found no clues. After that, they came to Ningde, Fujian. With the assistance of the local government department, they found the old man Cai Zuoke, the inheritor of the sword and Cai Zeyun's cousin. Cai Zuoke told the origin of the sword and the process of dancing the sword and chopping the wood. Ma Wenbo also learned a lot of valuable information through visits, discussions, etc., and more and more evidence proves that the Cai family in Ningde is Cai Wei's home.
However, the whereabouts of the Qinggang Sword are still unknown. The two accompanying staff members visited the Fujian Provincial Museum. The curator said that from the land reform to the "Cultural Revolution", the cultural relics handed over were piled up in the warehouse, which had not yet been cleaned up, and would be investigated in the near future. Ma Wenbo and his entourage had no choice but to return to Beijing first. Soon, the Fujian Provincial Museum finally found this sword, and the collection registration card of that year reads:
Category: Ironware
Name: (Qing) Qinggang Sword
Size: (cm) length 81.7, waist width 3.2, handle length 21
Date of admission: December 1957
……
The Sword of Green Steel has been found! Cai Wei's relatives have been found! Cai Wei's old comrades-in-arms were ecstatic. Soon, the investigation report written by Ma Wenbo and jointly written by six old comrades-in-arms, Song Kanfu, Wang Zigang, Xiao Quanfu, Chen Fuchu, and Li Yongyi, was placed on the desks of President Li Xiannian and Marshal Xu Xiangqian.
On September 12, 1985, Marshal Xu Xiangqian instructed: Comrade Cai Wei is an outstanding Red Army cadre who has made unique achievements in deciphering the work. His surviving family members should enjoy the treatment of martyrs, and the Central Committee Office should report to the Fujian Reading Office.
On September 14, 1985, Chairman Li Xiannian's office instructed: Comrade Xiannian said that he was familiar with Comrade Cai Wei. Cai Wei, Song Kanfu, Wang Zigang, and other comrades made important contributions to the radio communications and technical reconnaissance work of the Fourth Front Army.
In July 1986, Marshal Xu Xiangqian wrote an inscription: The Unsung Hero Cai Wei.
Statue of the "Unsung Hero" Cai Wei
In May 1998, Cai Shudao, the eldest grandson of Cai Wei, accompanied by the staff of the Party History and Civil Affairs Department of Ningde City, came to Zhuerping, Minxian County, Gansu Province. Fortunately, the old man Li Junming, who participated in the burial of Cai Wei's body, is still alive. Under the leadership of Li Junming, everyone came to Apo Bay and found the field where Cai Wei was buried. Upon exhumation, a body was revealed. Everyone stood solemnly and paid tribute to the martyrs. Along the way, the remains of martyr Cai Wei finally returned to his hometown of Ningde.
(The author of this article is Cai Wei's old comrade-in-arms and the daughter of Ma Wenbo, the founding major general)
(The original article was published in Yanhuang Chunqiu, Issue 3, 2021)