Many people may not know who China's first diplomatic spokesperson was, but she was Gong Peng, an intellectual and intelligent woman.
Her original name was Gong Weihang, and it is said that the reason why she changed her name to Gong Peng was because she worshiped Peng Pai, a hero who had sacrificed for the revolution at that time.
Gong Peng, who was born in 1914, was only 26 years old when he cooperated with *** in Chongqing in 1940 to engage in foreign affairs and news release, and he was already in charge of his own and became the spokesperson of the Communist Party of China's external propaganda.
Gong Peng is a legendary woman in her own right, and her two husbands are also legendary figures, and Gong Peng's love and marriage with her two husbands are also rumored to be good stories.
What's even more coincidental is that her two husbands are both revolutionary intellectuals who studied in Germany, and they both have the word "Hua" in their names, and they are both one year older than Gong Peng.
Gong Peng can be said to be a standard famous general, and her father Gong Zhenzhou was one of the earliest republican revolutionaries who followed Mr. Sun Yat-sen.
Gong Zhenzhou was not only an important military general around Mr. Sun Yat-sen, but also a classmate and friend of Chiang Kai-shek, who was also valued by Mr. Sun Yat-sen, for many years
In 1913, while following Mr. Nakayama in the Second Revolution, he was forced into exile in Japan due to defeat, and in 1914, the year after he arrived in Japan, his second daughter was born, and this daughter was Gong Peng.
After 1922, Gong Zhenzhou gradually faded out of the political and military circles, and successively lived an ordinary life of poverty in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beiping.
Although Gong Zhenzhou has faded out of the political and military worlds, he has always cared about current affairs and politics and is a very staunch patriot.
After the September 18 Incident, he tearfully pleaded with Zhang Xueliang to resist the Japanese army, and after Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, he traveled around the southwestern provinces without fear of danger to mobilize and organize anti-Japanese forces in various places and propagate anti-Japanese ideas and ideas.
In 1942, during the bombing of the Japanese army, he died of injuries and illness.
At the same time that he was propagating and mobilizing for resistance against Japan, his second daughter, Gong Peng, was also in Chongqing, in her capacity as a foreign affairs officer and spokesman for Yan'an, also propagating the anti-Japanese stand of the Communist Party of China.
Before that, in 1933, 19-year-old Gong Peng was admitted to Yenching University, and because of her intellect and beauty, she was once the school flower of Yenching University.
But she is not a vase, under her beautiful and weak appearance, but there is a heart full of enthusiasm to serve the country, in 1935 in the December 9 student patriotic movement, she was a famous student leader.
"Gong Peng is delicate and powerful. ”
This is what many people have to say about this young woman of knowledge.
It is precisely because of the tempering of a large number of anti-Japanese salvation movements that Gong Peng has grown from a slightly shy woman to a female student leader who can give impassioned speeches on any occasion.
In 1938, after the Kuomintang and the Communist Party reached a joint anti-Japanese cooperation, the Kuomintang loosened its grip on Yan'an, and a large number of intellectual youths went to Yan'an under the inspiration of Yan'an Marxist ideology and under the influence of the active anti-Japanese policy of the Communist Party of China.
Gong Peng is one of the many outstanding intellectual youths who devoted themselves to the Chinese revolution and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Not long after she arrived in Yan'an, she attracted the attention of *** because of her outstanding talentWhat I appreciate the most is her elegant, intellectual and infectious conversation, as well as her excellent written and spoken English skills.
In addition, at this time, many foreign reporters came to Yan'an with curiosity, and Gong Peng's English level came in handy, and she became the preferred translator for leaders to meet foreign reporters.
In the autumn of 1938, Gong Peng, who performed well in Yan'an, was asked by Marshal *** to the secretariat of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, and crossed the Yellow River with the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, entered the Taihang Mountains, and began a period of hard and sweet work.
The reason why the work during this period is arduous is that, on the one hand, the environmental conditions for living and working are extremely difficult, and on the other hand, because they are always in the war of resistance against the enemy, they have to bear great dangers.
Although Gong Peng was born in a famous family, she did not experience the life of a young lady from a large family since she was a child, because her father was content with poverty, and her family life was no different from that of ordinary people, which made her not form the Xi of being well-nourished.
Despite this, when she first entered the Taihang Mountains with the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, this harsh living environment still brought her huge physical and psychological pressure.
It can be said that in the first period of time, she simply could not adapt.
It was during this most difficult time that a man came to her.
This person's name is Liu Wenhua, he was born in 1913, one year older than Gong Peng, there is no generation gap between peers, and they can naturally communicate very smoothly.
Liu Wenhua is also a rare young talent in the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, he graduated from the Department of Water Conservancy of Jiaotong University Tangshan Branch, and went to Germany to study for a period of time, and his major is still water conservancy engineering.
After the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he, like many overseas students, rushed back to his homeland one after another, seeking to devote himself to the War of Resistance and National Salvation.
It was based on this consideration that he also came to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and was also sent to the secretariat.
At the beginning, Gong Peng once asked him with a smile if a science and engineering student would not be suitable for working as a secretary now.
But Liu Wenhua nodded very affirmatively: "If you only look at the professional knowledge of water conservancy engineering that I have learned, I will definitely not use it now, but for the needs of anti-Japanese resistance, I will adapt to any work that needs me to do." ”
Sure enough, Gong Peng found that Liu Wenhua played a very good role in the secretariat work of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters and became a role model for a group of young intellectuals to study Xi.
On the contrary, Gong Peng, who is full of confidence, is a little uncomfortable, of course, she is not unsuitable for work, but not very suitable for the difficult environment in Taihang Mountain.
At this time, after Liu Wenhua noticed this, not only did not blame her for the young lady's Xi, but tried to help her get out of this predicament.
The reason why you don't adapt has nothing to do with your body, it is just a psychological factor, since you have a firm anti-Japanese and revolutionary conviction, compared with the anti-Japanese fighters on the front line, what is the hardship of this environment? ”
Liu Wenhua's words triggered Gong Peng's in-depth reflection.
Yes, the reason why I chose to come to Yan'an, and why I was willing to accept the secretariat of being transferred to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, was not to live comfortably, let alone to enjoy, but to resist Japan and revolution.
Based on this purpose and direction, if we cannot even endure the hardships of living conditions, then how can we express the firmness of this conviction?
It was Liu Wenhua's enlightenment that made Gong Peng officially transform from an intellectual youth into a real revolutionary.
Gong Peng not only quickly adapted to the environment, but she also completely let go of the introverted and reserved intellectual women, and once again exerted her enthusiasm and passion as a leader.
With her beauty, intelligence, professional ability, and extraordinary charm, Gong Peng has become a popular figure everywhere in the Eighth Route Army, from top to bottom.
And Liu Wenhua, who was silently observing her on the side, also fell into her love for Gong Peng step by step and couldn't extricate herself.
Liu Wenhua is not unrequited in love, while he likes Gong Peng, Gong Peng is also moved by this outstanding young man who is only one year older than her, but like a big brother, he has given her care and care from life to work.
But the two of them are obviously not good at confession, but it is the *** marshal who is often in contact with the two of them who saw the clues, and Mr. Peng, who has always been enthusiastic, rarely had to intervene in the matchmaking and helped the two find out the relationship.
On August 1, 1940, on this special day, the two held a simple wedding in a simple earthen house in the Taihang Mountains and became husband and wife.
The month after the marriage has become the happiest day for the two, and the comrades-in-arms at the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army will always see the two of them happy all day long, full of happiness and sweetness.
However, this day did not last long, and even before the honeymoon was over, a paper order came to Gong Peng's hand, ** to transfer her to the office in Chongqing.
Because, Yan'an's work in Chongqing began to face more and more interviews and reports from foreign news, so it urgently needed English talents to go to Chongqing to cooperate with our party's external propaganda work.
And the first thing that came to mind was Gong Peng, who he had always been impressed with, when he issued an order to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, he didn't even know that Gong Peng had married Liu Wenhua.
But after Gong Peng received the order, she did not hesitate, she knew that for the sake of the revolution, it was very normal to sacrifice the opportunity to reunite husband and wife and the happiness of a small family, even if she sacrificed her life.
After Gong Peng went to Chongqing, her work covered a very wide range, not only to play the role of a reporter of the Xinhua News Agency, but also to act as a translator for receiving foreign guests, and to use her expertise to translate many foreign propaganda documents in Yan'an into English.
In addition to that,At this time, Gong Peng has become the first veritable diplomatic spokesperson of our party, and she has to prepare press statements on behalf of the party almost every day, and publish our party's policies and views to journalists from all over the world, and has become the window and spokesperson of Yan'an's external propaganda.
Just as she was in full swing at work, in July 1942, multiple blows came one after the other.
The first thing that came was the news of the death of her father Gong Zhenzhou, she didn't expect that her father, who had been mobilizing and promoting anti-Japanese propaganda everywhere in the southwest, died of illness overnight.
What she didn't expect was that her husband Liu Wenhua, who had always been in her heart, also left her forever due to illness during the march of the Eighth Route Army earlier.
At that time, the *** who learned the news was afraid that she would not be able to bear the double blow of losing her father and her husband at the same time, so she deliberately concealed the news of Liu Wenhua's death for the time being, and did not choose to tell her until she came out of the grief of losing her father.
Even so, ** was still worried, so he asked Deng Yingchao to go in person to comfort Gong Peng.
Not long after Gong Peng's funeral, another young man who was one year older than her and had studied in Germany came to her because of work.
And this young man is Qiao Guanhua, who later served as the first minister of China.
Qiao Guanhua, like Gong Peng's first husband Liu Wenhua, was born in 1913, and Qiao Guanhua's family conditions are relatively favorable in his hometown of Yancheng, Jiangsu.
At the age of 16, he was admitted to the Department of Philosophy of Tsinghua University with excellent grades, becoming the youngest of the Tsinghua freshmen of that year.
After graduating from Tsinghua University, Qiao Guanhua went to Japan and Germany to continue his studies in philosophy, and in 1936, at the age of 23, he obtained a doctorate in philosophy.
After Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, Qiao Guanhua, who had a strong patriotic heart, gave up his original dream of staying in Europe for philosophical academic research and resolutely returned to China.
He knew that he was a scholar, so he decided to use his knowledge and scholarly spirit to make contributions to China's anti-Japanese resistance to the best of his ability, so he joined the Hong Kong "Shishi Evening News" as the editor-in-chief, and vigorously publicized and mobilized Chinese at home and abroad to resist Japan through the newspaper.
After the fall of Hong Kong, Qiao Guanhua came to Chongqing after traveling to many places, and under the arrangement of ***, he entered the work of "Xinhua **" and served as the editor-in-chief of international news.
And Gong Peng's public identity is a reporter from Xinhua News Agency, and the two have become colleagues.
In addition, Gong Peng's work is more to connect with foreign reporters, and there are many places where he intersects with Qiao Guanhua in this regard.
At this time, Qiao Guanhua is more like an introverted scholar, while Gong Peng is more lively and outgoing because of his work.
Gong Peng is an old man in the Chongqing office, and he takes care of the newcomer Qiao Guanhua in every way, and the two are inseparable almost every day because of their common work, jointly drafting press releases and jointly issuing news releases, becoming an enviable pair of good partners.
The intersection of work, common interests and language, coupled with each other's care and care, have continuously shortened the distance between the two.
In September 1943, the two finally entered the palace of marriage.
Although the wedding ceremony of Gong Peng and Qiao Guanhua is not luxurious, it is rare in terms of influence and scene.
On the red silk cloth of their wedding,With the signatures and inscriptions of Deng Yingchao, Dong Biwu, Lin Boqu, Bogu, Wang Ruofei and other senior leaders, even *** called them "natural beauty and double Yanfei, a thousand miles of marriage".
Gong Peng went from a young lady from a famous family to an intellectual young woman with the passionate feelings of saving the country and the people, resolutely devoted herself to Yan'an, and transformed into a thorough revolutionary woman in a difficult struggle environment.
She has experienced two marriages in her life, the untimely death of her first husband Liu Wenhua brought her great pain, and her second husband Qiao Guanhua, although they were in love, they could not grow old together, and they died early due to illness at the age of 56.
Gong Peng is a legendary woman, she has grown from an ordinary female student all the way to the first diplomatic spokesperson of our party, and is also the first batch of outstanding women who really and systematically carry out diplomatic and foreign affairs work.