Reading guide:Wuping, Fujian, is located at the junction of Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, adjacent to the "red capital" Ruijin, and was an important part of the ** Soviet region during the Red Army period. Under the influence of revolutionary ideology, many aspiring young people joined the Red Army one after another, and according to statistics, there were more than 30,000 people in western Fujian alone. On the road to the pursuit of revolutionary victory, countless people died heroically, and in the end, only more than 2,000 soldiers from western Fujian survived, and Liu Yalou, the founding general of the People's Republic of China, was one of them.
Liu Yalou was born in 1910, left home at the age of 19 to participate in the revolution, went through the Long March, the War of Resistance against Japan, and served as the chief of staff of the Northeast Field Army in the War of Liberation, leading his troops to fight all the way across the Yangtze River from the Northeast. For more than 20 years, he fought in the north and south, died nine times in his life, and never returned home once.
After the liberation of the whole country, many generals who had been away from their hometowns for many years went home to visit their relatives, and Liu Yalou was also ready to return to Wuping, Fujian, where he had been away for more than 20 years, to visit relatives as soon as possible. But in October 1949, when he was the commander of the 14th Corps, he received an order to return to Beijing immediately, serve as the commander of the air force, and set out to form the first air force unit of New China.
In order to complete the tasks assigned to him by the organization, Liu Yalou devoted himself to the construction of the people's air force, and he had to give up on the matter of returning to his hometown to visit relatives. It was not until 1953, when the work of the Air Force was on the right track, that he returned to his hometown to visit his relatives for the first time.
After returning to Wuping, looking at the familiar grass and trees, Liu Yalou couldn't help but think of his comrades-in-arms who participated in the revolution with him more than 20 years ago, many of them died on the revolutionary road, and only he survived. Thinking of this, he did not rush home, but went straight to visit Liu Wengui's home in the village.
It was in 1929 that Liu Yalou, who had just joined the party, was appointed by the organization to go to Xiangyang and Yaoshan villages to propagate revolutionary ideas and raise a peasant self-defense army of more than 300 people. After that, he led this team to fight the local tyrants and divide the fields, and the sound shook the Wuping area. At the end of the same year, Liu Yalou led the team to join the Red Army and officially embarked on the revolutionary road.
Before the team set off, Liu Wengui found Liu Yalou and asked to join the Red Army with him. Liu Wengui is a few years younger than Liu Yalou, since he was a child, he has played with the back of his buttocks, wherever Liu Yalou goes, he goes, and the people in the village say that he is Liu Yalou's "little follower", but Liu Yalou treats him as his own brother.
At first, Liu Yalou rejected Liu Wengui's request. Because he is the only son in the family, the treasure of his parents in the eyes of his parents, and he has just married a wife and had children, how can he leave home to join the revolution. But Liu Wengui has made up his mind, and he also took Liu Yalou home to say goodbye to his parents and wife, although everyone was reluctant, but they did not stop him, and only hoped that in the future in the team, Liu Yalou could take more care of him.
Before leaving, Liu Yalou promised Liu Wengui's family that as long as he was alive, he would definitely bring him back. But he participated in the revolution and went to the battlefield, and the bullets had no eyes, how could Liu Yalou protect Liu Wengui's thoughtfulness.
After the two joined the Red Army, they first worked in the guerrillas in western Fujian, and then transferred to the Red Fourth Army. In the Red Army, Liu Yalou performed well, he not only fought bravely, but also had a flexible mind and careful thinking, which was affirmed by the chief, and was arranged to study in the camp school, and after graduation, he went to the 12th Army as a company commander.
During the period of the ** Soviet area, Liu Yalou led his troops to participate in all the anti-encirclement and suppression battles, and made many meritorious achievements, and was successively promoted to the political commissar of the regiment, the political commissar of the 11th Division, and the director and political commissar of the 2nd Division of the 1st Red Army Corps, and became a senior general of the Red Army. And he has not forgotten Liu Wengui, who has always taken him by his side and taken good care of him.
In 1934, after the start of the Long March, the Red Army ushered in the most difficult moment, under the encirclement and interception of the enemy, the Red Army suffered heavy losses, in order to get rid of the enemy, had to climb snow-capped mountains and cross grasslands. While crossing the grassland, Liu Wengui fell ill, because of the lack of medical treatment, his condition became worse day by day, in order not to slow down the speed of the troops' advance, he begged his comrades to leave him behind, and chase the large army at full speed.
After Liu Yalou learned the news, he came to visit him many times, and after learning that he refused to make a stretcher, Liu Yalou picked up Liu Wengui and left. Lying on Liu Yalou's back, Liu Wengui said: "Brother Ma Chang (Liu Yalou's milk name), you are a division-level cadre, you should go to command the troops, don't worry about me, I'm dying." I hope that after my death, when you return to the village in the future, you will tell my parents, wife and children that I died on the revolutionary road with the Red Army and the Party, and I have not disgraced them. ”
Listening to Liu Wengui's words, Liu Yalou shed tears, in the difficult grassland, there was a lack of medical treatment, and no one could do anything about Liu Wengui's condition, and in the end he sacrificed in the grassland.
For Liu Wengui's sacrifice, Liu Yalou has always felt guilty, thinking that he took him out to participate in the revolution back then, but he didn't take care of it, so he sacrificed on the Long March. So this time when he returned to his hometown, Liu Yalou first came to visit Liu Wengui's home.
At Liu Wengui's house, Liu Yalou only saw his wife, Liang Fayu, who had been widowed for many years. After Liu Wengui left, she was left alone to take care of her in-laws and children, and she had no complaints after decades of hardship, just waiting for her husband to come home. Hearing that Liu Yalou returned to her hometown to visit relatives, she didn't dare to go to see her, for fear of learning that her husband had sacrificed, and her last expectations would come to naught.
Unexpectedly, Liu Yalou took the initiative to visit, and after seeing Liang Fayu, he said guiltily: "I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry for your family, it's because I failed to protect Liu Wengui and didn't bring him home." ”
Seeing that Liu Wengui's family is still destitute, living in an old house more than 20 years ago, Liu Yalou is unspeakably uncomfortable. It stands to reason that Liu Wengui is a revolutionary martyr, and after the founding of New China, he will receive a pension and care, but Liang Fayu told Liu Yalou that because no one knows about her husband's experience in joining the army and the process of sacrifice, the local ** did not posthumously regard him as a martyr.
For Liu Wengui, no one knows better than Liu Yalou, he immediately wrote a letter to the local **, personally proving that Liu Wengui joined the Red Army with him and finally died on the Long March, hoping that the local civil affairs bureau would posthumously recognize him as a martyr and take care of his family.
Closing Remarks:
In addition to Liu Wengui, Liu Yalou also visited the families of many old comrades-in-arms when he returned to his hometown. But for his family, he is "unkind", Liu Yalou's adoptive father learned that his son became a big official, so he wanted to renovate the family house, but he didn't expect to be directly rejected by him.
For this reason, he also found his father and younger brother and taught them that New China had just been founded, many people had not yet solved the problem of food and clothing, and there were still many places to spend money. Since then, the Liu family has never mentioned building a house. Liu Yalou is such a good general who is diligent and thrifty, and sacrifices himself for the public.