On June 27, at the home of Niu Wenying, the daughter of a martyr in Nanquhe Village, a staff member from the Veterans Affairs Bureau held a photo to the old man and said, "Who do you think this is?" "This is my dad!" This year has already passed Niu Wenying, 90 years old, is thin and deaf, but she is conscious. She gently rubbed the photo with her hand, looked at it carefully, and finally couldn't help sobbing, "My dad is the best to me..."
The person in the photo has a delicate face and resolute eyes. He is wearing a long gown with a stand-up collar, showing elegance. He is Niu Zhaoxi, a martyr who died during the Anti-Japanese War in Wen County.
Niu Zhaoxi graduated from the Beijing Higher Police School in his early years and served as the chief of the Kaifeng City Police Department of the Kuomintang. Kaifeng was occupied by the Japanese. Dissatisfied with the corruption and incompetence of the Kuomintang government, he abandoned his official position and returned to his hometown to find a way to resist Japan and save the country. After the Wenmeng County Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Wenmeng County Anti-Japanese Democratic Government were established, they quickly contacted the county committee and county government, followed the county brigade, mobilized the masses, publicized anti-Japanese resistance, and attacked the Japanese and puppet troops. He used his highly educated expertise to write written materials and anti-Japanese slogans, which played a role that ordinary people could not play. In 1945, he died heroically in the battle of Meng County at the age of 43.
"You must not tell others that I joined the Eighth Route Army. If others find out, the reactionaries will kill our entire family. If you can't find me in the future, just ask Ding Naiguang. He knows about my situation." These are the last words left by the martyr to his family. After martyr Niu Zhaoxi joined the Anti-Japanese War, he only returned home once late one night and left again before dawn, never to be heard from again. His family had been searching for many years, but due to the protracted nature, complexity of the revolutionary struggle and the mobility of revolutionaries, it was not until 1965 that Niu Zhaoxi was confirmed to have died and was posthumously recognized as a martyr.
This is the only remaining photo of the martyr. Since the establishment of the Veterans Affairs Bureau, it has attached great importance to the work of commending martyrs, collated and verified the data and information of martyrs in Wen County, revised the list of martyrs, and continuously collected and compiled the deeds of martyrs to promote the spirit of martyrs. In the process of sorting out the deeds of the revolutionary martyrs, I discovered this old photo. The family can no longer tell when this photo was taken, but it is the only remaining photo. Because it has been stored for too long, it has been blurred and stained, and the image will fall off if you wipe it lightly. The staff quickly carried out rescue repairs after discovering it. Today, staff from the Veterans Affairs Administration send restored, enlarged and plasticized photos to the elderly.
Our martyr, in order to resist Japan and save the country, gave up his family and career and moved forward indomitably. This photo is exactly what he looked like in his prime. We recall and cherish his revolutionary deeds as if those days were just yesterday and right before our eyes. Let us remember the appearance of heroes. They are not afraid of hardships and life and death, and have gained today's peace.
Wenxian Media Center Reporter Cui Shasha
Correspondent Tian Xianghua reported
