As we all know, the founding marshal Peng is upright, upright, selfless, and temperamental. Most of the generals brought out by Mr. Peng are also frank and upright, and General Zhang Aiping, the founding general and known as "Mr. Peng's second", is a typical one. 
General Zhang Aiping said that he had "four fears" in his life: not afraid of the mandate of heaven, not afraid of adults, not afraid of the words of saints, and not afraid of power. Internally, General Zhang Aiping clearly said, "I don't follow anyone, I only follow the truth", he dared to adhere to the truth, not afraid of committing crimes, so he was called "the army can't afford to provoke";Externally, Zhang Aiping once made a big fuss about the US Department of Defense. In the face of the unreasonable demands of the superpowers, the general did not show weakness at all, and did whatever he wanted, crisp and clean, so he was called "the axe in the army" by the military circles. Zhang Sheng, the second son of General Zhang Aiping, once said of his father: "He was a fierce man, a transparent and straightforward man, an arrogant man, and a naïve communist." "Naive"?"Innocence" means to be pure and flawless, without a trace of impurities. Zhang Sheng used the word "naïve" to describe his father, which is quite apt and the most expressive. General Zhang Aiping is just such a "naïve person". In his marriage to Li Youlan, General Zhang Aiping's fearlessness, innocence and purity were fully revealed. In January 1942, Zhang Aiping and Li Youlan met in Funing, northern Jiangsu. At that time, Zhang Aiping was the deputy commander of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army and came to Funing to attend a meeting held by the Central China Bureau. Li Youlan started to work as an inspector at the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army, and because she had participated in professional shorthand training, she was temporarily transferred to serve as a stenographer at the meeting. Li Youlan is young, smart, and beautiful, and is known as "Youlan in the army". In addition to the identity of the inspector of the military department of the New Fourth Army, Li Youlan also has another identity. In 1941, Li Youlan married Deputy Commander Xiang of the New Fourth Army, but only two months after the marriage, Deputy Commander Xiang was killed by a traitor in the Southern Anhui Incident and unfortunately died. Therefore, Li Youlan's other identity is the widow of Deputy Commander Xiang. After a period of depression, Li Youlan slowly walked out of the haze of bereavement and devoted herself to work. At the conference, Zhang Aiping made an enthusiastic off-script speech. Because the content was wonderful and agitatory, the host of the meeting asked Li Youlan to step up the sorting out of the shorthand materials, hand them over to Zhang Aiping for review, and then distribute them to the delegates. In the early morning of the next day, Li Youlan sent Zhang Aiping a transcript of her speech that she had sorted out overnight. Zhang Aiping was immediately attracted by this material. First of all, Li Youlan's pen writing is neat and beautiful, and secondly, her impromptu speech has been sorted out by her and has become a good article with prominent focus, strict logic, and quite literary brilliance. Zhang Aiping couldn't help but look at Li Youlan with admiration. In the next few days, Zhang Aiping paid special attention to Li Youlan, and Li Youlan also had a good impression of the heroic and free Zhang Aiping. So, on the sidelines of the meeting, Zhang Aiping and Li Youlan had several contacts, and their words were speculative and they had a good relationship. With more contact and understanding, Zhang Aiping realized that this was a virtuous and talented woman, so she fell in love. 
More than half a month later, the meeting ended, Zhang Aiping will return to the Third Division, and Li Youlan will also go to work at the Central China Party School. When parting, Zhang Aiping gave Li Youlan a gift - a dagger with a sheath. Li Youlan also gave Zhang Aiping two special gifts in return - one was a neatly copied conference report and a black-covered record folder. The Central China Party School is only 15 kilometers away from the headquarters of the Third Division, but whenever he has free time, Zhang Aiping will ride his jujube red horse to visit Li Youlan. At this moment, a comrade-in-arms of the Third Division reminded Zhang Aiping that Li Youlan was the widow of Deputy Army Commander Xiang and advised him to consider it carefully and stop there. Zhang Aiping asked rhetorically: "Is she single?"The comrade-in-arms replied, "It's single." "Then there's no problem. Zhang Aiping said calmly. Zhang Aiping naturally understands the kindness of her comrades-in-arms, and she can also understand the possible gossip from the outside world, but Zhang Aiping still does not change her original intention. At the same time, Li Youlan is also experiencing a lot of pressure, even resistance. In two months, Zhang Aiping wrote more than ten letters to Li Youlan, however, Li Youlan did not receive a single letter. It turned out that the leaders of Li Youlan's unit had withheld the letters. The reason for the leader's detention of the letter was simple, traditional and simple: Li Youlan was the widow of Deputy Army Commander Xiang ......Zhang Aiping, who is "strong, transparent, straightforward, arrogant, and naïve", is not afraid of people's words, and still rides the jujube red horse, going back and forth between the Third Division and the Central China Party School every three or five times. Zhang Aiping is versatile, he writes well, and his eloquence and literary talent are good. In a war against Japan, the troops captured a camera of the Japanese army, and Zhang Aiping added another skill - photography. A lot of history during the New Fourth Army period was written by Zhang Aiping, and of course, Zhang Aiping also took a lot of commemorative photos of Li Youlan. 
After learning the news that Zhang Aiping's letters were detained, Li Youlan generously approached the leaders and asked for those letters back. When the leader returned the dozen or so letters, he once again reminded Li Youlan to pay attention to the impact. Li Youlan found that the dozen or so letters had been opened......She understands her leader's intentions, but as a new and educated woman, she has her own plans for her marriage and future. On this day, Li Youlan told Zhang Aiping about the "interception" of the letter, and complained by the way: "Fortunately, you didn't write anything substantive in the letter, it was dry." Zhang Aiping smiled and asked, "So, do you understand the meaning of my letter?""Of course I do. Li Youlan said with emotion: "I really didn't expect that the thinking of these comrades is still so feudal. Unexpectedly, Zhang Aiping said happily: "This thing is so good, I really have to thank you as the top boss." "Thank you?Li Youlan didn't know why, and said in surprise. Zhang Aiping said: "Of course, I want to thank him, because my 'fire reconnaissance' has been very effective, and it is he who has helped me get three important pieces of information!"Zhang Aiping said slowly. "First, if you want to reply to the letter I wrote to you, at least it means that you don't hate me writing to you, and that I have hope. "Second, you feel that my letter is 'meaningless,' because I have long expected that someone will check it, so I wrote it that way. Don't forget, I did underground work. However, you can see what I want to say, and this is the effect I want. "Third, you understand what I want to say, but you still haven't alienated me or rejected me, which means that you have accepted me. Zhang Aiping finally said: "So, I don't have to worry about it anymore. Li Youlan suddenly realized, and at the same time, she admired Zhang Aiping's intentions, cleverness and straightforwardness. Soon, Zhang Aiping asked Li Youlan to get married. Li Youlan agreed to Zhang Aiping's marriage proposal, but she put forward an additional condition: the ** military commander must personally agree to the marriage. Zhang Aiping understands Li Youlan's distress very well, and their marriage must be supported by the ** military commander, otherwise, she can't bear the reproachful eyes of the people around her and the discussion behind her. Zhang Aiping found ** and solemnly sent a marriage report. **When I saw it, I laughed: "Okay, you Zhang Aiping, you finally caught up with our army Youlan!.""After that, the ** military commander signed two big words on the marriage report - agreed. Then he pulled out a brand new Parker pen and said, "This is my wedding gift for you." On August 8, 1942, Zhang Aiping rode his jujube red horse and happily married the dressed Li Youlan. On this day, Li Youlan engraved the word "Ping" on the Parker pen given by the ** army commander and carefully pinned it to Zhang Aiping's pocket. Zhang Aiping put a ring on Li Youlan with her own hands, saying that it was a ring, but it was actually a silver ring shaped like a ring. The silver ring was a trophy that the Japanese army tied to the leg of a military pigeon to fix the letter, and now Zhang Aiping gave it to her bride. That year, Zhang Aiping was 32 years old and Li Youlan was 23 years old. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Aiping was awarded the rank of founding general of the Republic, and a few years later, General Zhang Aiping served as the vice premier and minister of national defense. Zhang Aiping and Li Youlan's eldest son, Zhang Xiang, is a lieutenant general of the People's Liberation Army, and their son-in-law is a "Zhengguo-level" with a higher position and greater achievements. 
Zhang Aiping and Li Youlan have been together all their lives, and they have grown old with white heads. Zhang Aiping used eight words to evaluate their relationship in her later years - seeing each other and hating each other late, sharing difficulties and happiness. Li Youlan summed it up like this: "I did two very correct things when I was young, one was to join the New Fourth Army, and the other was to marry Zhang Aiping. Until her later years, Li Youlan was still grateful to Mr. Chen: "He is more open-minded than anyone else, and if it wasn't for Mr. Chen's strong support, my marriage with Zhang Aiping would not have gone so smoothly." ”