Fan Zixia
, a
103-year-old female soldier of the Anti-Japanese War,
83 years of party age, 20 years of continuous support for poor children in Anhui, to study and be a good revolutionary partner, insist on holding family meetings to teach their children by their words
With silver hair, a kind smile, and a plain red coat, surrounded by five generations of grandchildren gathered together... This is the 100-year-old photo of the 103-year-old grandmother Fan Zixia.
In April this year, at the Guo Diren Revolutionary Martyrs Memorial Hall in Longyan, Fujian, reporters accidentally saw the story of the former deputy political commissar of the Guangzhou Military Region, General Guo Chengzhu, and his revolutionary partner Fan Zixia, who walked out of Gutian.
When asking the memorial guide, the reporter learned that Fan Zixia is still alive and enjoying his twilight years in Guangzhou.
However, there are few records of this centenary female soldier who has experienced the ups and downs of the War of Resistance Against Japan in the existing Internet data.
On the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, the reporter deliberately found the relatives and friends of the elderly Fan Zixia, and recorded the ordinary but colorful life of the elderly.
Text, picture/Guangzhou Daily full-media reporter Cheng Yilun
In the war years, although Fan Zixia did not fight to kill the enemy like Hua Mulan, this veteran party member with 83 years of party standing has always adhered to the vanguard role of a party member.
In the eyes of her children, Fan Zixia is a strong and optimistic mother. After the death of her husband, she supported her family alone and taught her children through family meetings. Now, at the age of 103, she has lost her memory and even no longer knows her side. People, but as long as the mention of "there would be no new China without the Communist Party", she can sing this song verbatim.
Female soldier who "travels a hundred miles a day"
Fan Zixia's name was later changed by herself.
This girl who was born in 1918 and grew up in a family of Chinese medicine was originally named "Fan Youlan"; after joining the Eighth Route Army in 1938, she changed her name to "Zi Xia", which means "to act like a national hero. ".
Fan Zixia’s son Guo Huibing said that her mother had a spirit of “struggle” since she was a child: at the beginning, she was a parent who fought against her and was unwilling to bind her feet.
"At that time, her other four sisters bound their feet, but she was the only one who fought until she was a teenager." Guo Huibing said.
After that, Fan Zixia tried to continue attending middle school after finishing elementary school, becoming the only girl among her sisters to study in a county middle school.
There was also an episode of Fan Zixia joining the party.
In 1937, when the Japanese army launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, Fan Zixia, who was still studying at school, immediately organized his classmates to actively carry out anti-Japanese propaganda activities.
After seeing this, Fan Zixia’s principal intentionally mobilized this "strange woman" to join the Kuomintang. "But I was not interested in the'Three People's Principles' that the principal told me at that time, so I didn’t agree; but my head teacher introduced me to join the Communist Party of China and said' Save the country and the people', so I agreed without hesitation at all." Fan Zixia wrote in his 100-year-old self-report.
After a period of observation, Fan Zixia was organized as a traffic officer, and Fan Zixia embarked on the road of revolution.
Perhaps because he has never bound his feet and is energetic, Fan Zixia's feet are extremely strong.
In the army, this petite Anhui girl was called "the Chollima" by the soldiers. She is a rare female soldier in the army. She is in charge of the contact points in several counties at the junction of Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, and Shandong. Pass messages between and distribute leaflets among the masses.
"The distance between those counties is very long. Sometimes my mother has to walk nearly a hundred miles a day, but her feet are very strong and she has a very good sense of direction. She basically doesn't go wrong, so she can do it well every time. Mission. Later, she joked with her children and grandchildren about the secret of longevity, "The reason why I live so long is probably because I can walk."" Guo Huibing told reporters with a smile.
At the end of 1938, Fan Zixia encouraged her cousin, aunt and niece to join the Eighth Route Army and joined the propaganda team.
There are 5 female soldiers in a squad, and Fan Zixia is the squad leader.
That day, Fan Zixia put on a military uniform for the first time. She was so excited that she could not sleep, and decided to change the names of the five sisters together to show their revolutionary determination. So the names of the five sisters were changed to Fan Zixia, Fan Donghua, Shi Chao, Shi Wei, Shi Junxia.
Later, with the renewal of military equipment, Fan Zixia and others began to learn radio technology in order to better learn modern communication tools-radio stations.
Because of her good feet and physical strength, Fan Zixia always set up a radio station quickly and safely. She took the risk several times to set up radio equipment in advance to send important messages.
Once the radio station had just been sent, Fan Zixia ran into the Japanese army entering the village. In order to escape for his life, Fan Zixia quickly jumped into a dung pit not far away. He did not escape until the troops came to rescue him.
In addition, Fan Zixia was the first female soldier in the army to receive news of Japan's surrender.
Speaking of this story, Guo Huibing was particularly embarrassed.
He heard his mother tell the story of the time on a summer night. His mother told him that it was a Japanese prisoner who helped him translate the news of the Japanese surrender.
During the Pingxingguan victory, the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army captured two Japanese prisoners, but they would rather die than surrender.
In order to persuade the other party, Fan Zixia did not spend less time.
At that time, the whole army was learning Japanese from enemy workers. As a correspondent who needed to monitor Japanese radio stations from time to time, Fan Zixia would not only explain the party’s united front theory and prisoner-of-war policy, but also cook and make dumplings for the prisoners. "Slowly, the captive soldier was moved and was very willing to cooperate, and even took the initiative to tell his mother some valuable information." Guo Huibing said.
Fan Zixia still remembered the situation when the captives told her the news of Japan's surrender. Both of them were very excited, because that meant that the long war was finally over.
"Peace and stability are the real aspirations of the people of the world." Fan Zixia said.
Demonstrate a responsible revolutionary partner
In his days as a soldier, Fan Zixia also found his revolutionary partner in life-Guo Chengzhu, then director of the Political Department of the Seventh Brigade of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army (former deputy political commissar of the Guangzhou Military Region, was awarded the rank of major general in 1955).
General Guo Chengzhu passed away in 1972. In the past 30 years, the couple have had a deep relationship.
Guo Chengzhu's guard Tang Dezhong also remembered that in those years, Fan Zixia followed Guo Chengzhu to the north and south, not afraid to fight hard on the front lines of various battles.
Fan Zixia is proficient in radio professional technical information, races against time to obtain enemy intelligence, uploads and distributes it in time, and provides intelligence to our frontline troops.
But during those years, Fan Zixia left the biggest regret in her life.
In 1942, Fan Zixia and Guo Chengzhu's first son was born. It was the first offspring of the entire brigade at that time. The couple named the child "Guo Dou", which implies a resolute struggle against the aggressor.
However, less than half a year after the birth of the child, the Japanese ran into a raid against the Japanese base areas.
In order to highlight the heavy encirclement, the troops often need to carry out night concealment operations.
In an operation of the army, because the enemy and us were so close, worried that the child would cry and expose the whereabouts of the army, Guo Chengzhu said to Fan Zixia: "Send the child in the common people's home." "I didn't say anything at the time, took the child to the hometown and put it down The child turned his head and left. But the action ended a few days later and I went to look for the child, only to see a small grave..." Fan Zixia felt regret and guilt for this child throughout his life.
Guo Huibing also remembered that when his mother was 80 or 90 years old, she occasionally chanted the first child: "Because the child gave his young life for the revolution."
Then, Fan Zixia marched along with Guo Chengzhu.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Guo Chengzhu led the Seventh Brigade to participate in the War of Liberation in Northeast China, and later participated in the War of Resistance against US Aggression and Aid Korea as the first combat troops to enter North Korea.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Fan Zixia gave birth to eight more children. While taking care of the children in the Northeast Family Team, she was also responsible for the food, drink, housing and delivery of nearly a hundred women and children of their families, as well as war publicity and family ideological and political education. Wait.
"At that time, my mother was carrying a burden wherever she went. There was a child in a bamboo basket. The climate in the northeast was cold. Everyone was living in common people’s homes. There were not enough rooms. So the mother gave the room with Kang to other family members and carried them by herself. We slept in a kitchen of two to three square meters, with sorghum stalks on the floor, so we used it as a bed." Guo Huibing recalled.
In 1954, Fan Zixia came to Guangzhou with Guo Chengzhu.
Despite the heavy burden of the family, Fan Zixia still insists on exerting his residual heat.
"She is very concerned about education. First she opened the Guangzhou Railway Kindergarten. From 1959 to 1978, she continued to support poor children in rural Anhui to study in Guangzhou. Therefore, our family will come to a group of children to study every six months. Usually there are at least two, and at most, 7 to 8 people come in turns." Guo Huibing said.
In the 1970s, although the army provided a cook for Guo Chengzhu’s family, in order to alleviate the family’s eating problems, Fan Zixia motivated several staff around him to reclaim the wasteland behind the house, and bought various vegetable seedlings and planted them. Tomatoes, green vegetables, ginger, etc., on the one hand, are to relieve the shortage of supplies in the military area supply station, and on the other hand, it is to save the family's financial expenditure.
Guard Tang Tianquan still remembers that in 1971, Fan Zixia silently mailed the first expenditure saved by the family to his parents in order to treat Tang Tianquan's grandmother's serious illness in time.
The "Deputy Monitor" in the Big Family
There are many children in the family. Although Fan Zixia founded the Railway Kindergarten, none of the eight children in the family are allowed to study in this kindergarten to avoid being "specially taken care of."
What impressed the third daughter Guo Huili most was that the mother’s little education of the children was almost integrated into the daily family meetings that lasted for sixty years.
“She treats our children as a class to manage them. Every day when we eat, we will have family meetings at the dinner table. This habit has persisted since we were very young. Even after the death of our father in 1972, the mother still Persevere. At the family meeting, my father is like the squad leader, my mother is the deputy squad leader, and we are all fighters. She will give everyone a revolutionary traditional education, and will ask everyone about their studies and discipline in school before giving instructions."
According to Guo Huili’s recollection, the sixth elder brother was more mischievous at home, and she was in the same school and the same grade as the sixth elder brother, and she assumed the role of “supervising” her elder brother. At every family meeting, her parents would always remind her of more Go to care about P6 and supervise his study.
Therefore, the two formed a "mutual aid group", went to school together, and then studied homework together.
"Although my mother never loses her temper, she is also very strict with us. She never expresses affection and love for her children easily. Until we grow up, there will be less criticism and more praise in family meetings. But her The action always conveys maternal love." said the daughter Xiao Ba.
Fan Zixia’s family meeting lasted until she fell ill in her nineties, and the number of participants in the family meeting expanded from eight children to son-in-laws, daughter-in-laws, and grandchildren.
She always educates her family to be united, friendly, and caring for each other.
Once at a meal, Fan Zixia saw that his second son’s clothes were rotten and he was still wearing them. At a family meeting, he praised him for being “frugal and simple”, and then reminded Guo Huili to care about his second brother’s life, “At that time, his mother was over 90 years old. Still not forgetting to educate us, so our family is also used to helping each other."
In addition, Fan Zixia's education of children has also penetrated into the details of life: since childhood, CDs must be eaten, and leftovers can not be left; clothes are worn out and worn out, and can continue to be worn if they are sewn; the army has provided General Guo with drivers and cars , But children cannot sit, and must walk to school by themselves every day... These habits have been affecting children throughout their lives.
"Although the old man can no longer host family meetings in person, her lifelong struggle as a predecessor can always encourage us. Today, our eight children have nothing to do with their parents, but we also want to treat them hard and simple. The spirit is passed on." Guo Huibing said.