Mao Renfeng once asked Chiang Kai-shek for instructions on how to deal with Yang Hucheng. Chiang Kai-shek said: "Kill him and leave him for what purpose! Today's failure is because we killed too few people in the past and retained some people who opposed us."

In September 1949, on the eve of the liberation of Chongqing, the Chiang Dynasty was on the verge of collapse. Mao Renfeng once asked Chiang Kai-shek for instructions on how to deal with Yang Hucheng. Chiang Kai-shek said: "Kill him and leave him for nothing! Today's failure is because there were too few people killed in the past, and some people who opposed us were retained."

9 On March 6, Mao Renfeng sent four spies to escort Yang Hucheng, his youngest son Yang Zhengzhong, his youngest daughter Yang Zhenggui, his secretary Song Qiyun and his wife Xu Linxia, and their youngest son "Little Carrot Head" Song Zhenzhong back to Chongqing, and killed them At Dai Gong Temple in Chongqing.

When the sad news came that Yang Hucheng had been killed in Chongqing, his wife Zhang Huilan, who was far away in Peiping, fainted immediately. During the more than ten years that Yang Hucheng was imprisoned, she worked hard to raise several children and support a family by herself. Her only belief was to be reunited with her husband.

Now this pillar of faith has collapsed, and so has she, who has always been tenacious.

General Yang Hucheng has had three marriages. His first wife was Luo Peilan, and Zhang Huilan was his second wife. Zhang Huilan married into the Yang family at the age of 14, and Yang Hucheng and Luo Peilan had just been married for three years.

In 1916, Yang Hucheng, then the independent battalion commander of the National Revolutionary Army, was stationed in Dali County, Shaanxi Province, and was familiar with the local squire Zhang Ximing. Zhang Ximing has an adopted daughter, Luo Peilan, who is 15 years old and very beautiful. Yang Hucheng saw him by chance and was very moved.

With Zhang Ximing's consent, Yang Hucheng came to propose marriage, and Luo Peilan admired him very much. The marriage between the two families was settled and the marriage was completed soon. After the marriage, the couple had a deep relationship. Luo Peilan followed her husband to fight in various places. Not only was he not afraid of hardships, he also learned how to ride a horse and shoot a gun.

Luo Peilan was also very good at uniting soldiers and boosting morale. He even worked on the front lines with her husband regardless of her pregnancy and visited the wounded, winning the respect of Yang Hucheng's deployment and friends.

After three years of marriage, Yang Hucheng loved and respected Luo Peilan. Yang Hucheng had no intention of marrying another wife, but a marriage came to his door.

Zhang Huilan's father, Zhang Yangqing, is the shopkeeper of a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Pucheng, and is a fellow townsman with Yang Hucheng. In his early years, Yang Hucheng was wounded by a gunshot when he rebelled against the government, and he spent time in the Zhang family to recover from his injuries. The two got along well and became irreversible.

Zhang Yangqing admired Yang Hucheng very much and intended to marry his only daughter, Zhang Huilan. But at this time, Yang Hucheng already had a wife and had no intention of marrying again.

Yang Hucheng politely declined, but Zhang Yangqing found Yang Hucheng's mother to lobby and insisted on assigning her daughter to Yang Hucheng as a concubine. After a lot of back and forth, the marriage was decided.

In 1919, Yang Hucheng's mother called her son back and decided to marry him to Zhang Huilan. Yang Hucheng was a filial son, so he had no choice but to follow his mother's orders and go to the church to get married. At this time, Zhang Huilan was only 14 years old and an ignorant child who had no idea what marriage was about.

Just like that, Zhang Huilan got married to Yang Hucheng without knowing that Yang Hucheng still had his first wife. Not long after the marriage, Yang Hucheng returned to the military camp and left her at home to serve his mother.

During the days when Yang Hucheng was not at home, she did not complain about being alone in the empty house. She just worked hard to learn to do housework and serve her mother-in-law. In the eyes of Yang Hucheng's mother, Zhang Huilan is undoubtedly the most filial daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law she is most satisfied with.

It was not until three years later that Luo Peilan returned to the Yang family because he was ill and could not join the army. At this time, Zhang Huilan was a little older and gradually became familiar with human affairs. Only then did she realize that she had married into the Yang family as a concubine, and her husband had already had a wife.

Although Zhang Huilan said nothing on the surface, and she and Luo Peilan were sisters in life, she still had some grudges about this arranged marriage in her heart.

She resented that her father had gone his own way and married her to a married man, and now he had become such an embarrassing person in the Yang family, so Zhang Huilan cut off all contact with her father. It wasn't until her father passed away that she went back to attend the funeral at the persuasion of her mother-in-law.

However, although Zhang Huilan cast all her grievances on her father, she sincerely respected and loved her husband Yang Hucheng, and her relationship with Luo Peilan was actually very pleasant.

After Zhang Huilan married into the Yang family, Luo Peilan always regarded her as a little sister, and her mother-in-law even regarded her as her own daughter. The whole family got along harmoniously and peacefully.Zhang Huilan is uneducated, but kind and virtuous. Although Yang Hucheng is dissatisfied with the marriage, he is very sympathetic to Zhang Huilan.

From the existing letters from Yang Hucheng’s family, we can actually see his sympathy for this second wife. In several letters written by Yang Hucheng, he called Zhang Huilan "Huilan's wife", which shows that he gave Zhang Huilan full respect. Zhang Huilan can certainly feel this compassion, so she respects her husband very much.

Zhang Huilan is a woman with general knowledge and righteousness. During the years of Yang Hucheng's ups and downs, she silently supported the small family and took good care of her mother-in-law. After Luo Peilan gave birth to her second child, she contracted tuberculosis. When she was sick, Zhang Huilan was also there to serve her.

In 1926, Henan warlords besieged Xi'an where Yang Hucheng was stationed. After the siege failed, they targeted Yang Hucheng's family and threatened to capture Yang Hucheng's mother as a hostage. Luo Peilan was ill and was responsible for moving the family. The burden of protecting the safety of the Yang family, young and old, fell on young Zhang Huilan.

Fortunately, Zhang Huilan is also an independent woman. When she learned about the situation, she immediately organized the whole family to move to Weibei to avoid the enemy. Zhang Huilan also suffered a lot from eating and sleeping in the open air along the way. During the transfer, the family almost faced the enemy head-on. Fortunately, Zhang Huilan was alert and led everyone to hide in a woods.

A few days later, the family was starving to death. In desperation, Zhang Huilan smeared a layer of mud and black ash on her face and went into a nearby village to beg for food. She then took the begged food back to the woods for food. The family satisfies their hunger.

Zhang Huilan relied on this extreme method to support himself. Finally, when reinforcements arrived, the siege of Xi'an was lifted. At the same time, Luo Peilan's health deteriorated.

In October 1926, Luo Peilan died of illness before she could see her husband for the last time. When Yang Hucheng rushed home, Luo Peilan's body had already been placed in a coffin and buried. In great grief, Yang Hucheng only shouted "Pellan" and then fainted.

At Luo Peilan's funeral, Zhang Huilan saw a scene she would never forget. According to local custom, the son of the deceased walks in front of the sedan chair holding the belt to guide the way, which is called "pulling fibers". But considering that his son Zhengmin was too young, Yang Hucheng assumed the role of a filial son.

On the day of the funeral, it was raining and the road was slippery. Yang Hucheng was covered in mud, leaning on a willow stick, wearing hemp and wearing mourning, and holding a guide pan to guide the way. Yang Hucheng may be the first person to perform filial piety for his wife. The deep love between him and his wife became a good talk for a while, and Zhang Huilan was deeply moved.

From Zhang Huilan's perspective, her "sister" passed away and she became her husband's only wife. It is understandable that she has a deeper desire for marriage. However, the subsequent development of things was completely different from this.

After Luo Peilan passed away, Yang Hucheng led his army to leave Shaanxi to participate in the Northern Expedition. Zhang Huilan, who stayed in her hometown, took care of Yang Hucheng's eldest son Yang Zhengmin and eldest daughter Yang Zhengkun. Although the two children were not Zhang Huilan's biological children, she regarded them as her own. The children also affectionately called her Huilan Niang and treated her like their biological mother.

Zhang Huilan is a good wife, daughter-in-law and mother. But after all, she did not have the ability or opportunity like Luo Peilan to ride a horse with her husband and travel to the end of the world laughing. She could only be the pillar of the family, but she could never be her husband's arm in the revolutionary cause.

During the Northern Expedition, Yang Hucheng later married his third wife, Xie Baozhen. Xie Baozhen is also from Shaanxi and joined the Communist Party very early. During the Northern Expedition, Yang Hucheng's Tenth Army passed by Anhui, and Xie Baozhen came to Yang Hucheng's army to do propaganda work.

Xie Baozhen is young, lively, smart and capable. His vivid eloquence and fluent speech have won Yang Hucheng's love and appreciation. In January 1928, the two got married. At the banquet, a comrade asked: "Why did General Yang fall in love with Xiao Xie?" Yang Hucheng replied frankly: "I know that she is progressive in thinking and needs her for the revolution; if she is married, she can help me directly."

The fact is true. In this way, in the following decades, Xie Baozhen fought side by side with Yang Hucheng on the road of revolution until his death.Regarding the fact that her husband remarried, it must be a lie to say that Zhang Huilan was not disappointed at all. But knowing the truth, she still convinced herself to accept this fact.

After Yang Hucheng remarried, Zhang Huilan continued to live with her mother-in-law and children. Her life didn't seem to have changed much, but in fact, she spent less time with Yang Hucheng, and the couple spent less time together and more separation.

After Xie Baozhen married Yang Hucheng, he basically stayed with Yang Hucheng and followed Yang in wars. Later, after Yang Hucheng came to power in Xi'an, Xie Baozhen often accompanied Yang as his wife or participated in some social activities independently, giving Yang Hucheng a lot of help in his career.

As the wife who spent the longest time with Yang Hucheng, Xie Baozhen gave birth to two sons and five daughters for Yang Hucheng in her life: Yang Zhengya, Yang Zhengzhong, Yang Zhengmei, Yang Zhengying, Yang Zhenghan, Yang Zhenglu, Yang Zhengguo.

In 1929, local security in Shaanxi deteriorated and bandits appeared. Taking into account the safety of the children, Zhang Huilan took Zhengmin and Zhengkun to Shandong to find Yang Hucheng.

During this period, in order to increase the knowledge of Zhang Huilan and several children, Yang Hucheng specially arranged for them to visit Nanjing, Shanghai and Hangzhou with the army. This gave Zhang Huilan, who came from rural Shaanxi, a lot of knowledge, and thus created a need to learn culture.

Not long after this, the Central Plains War broke out, and Zhang Huilan and her children were arranged by Yang Hucheng to live with her mother and younger brother in Tianjin. On the issue of Yang Zhengmin's schooling, Zhang Huilan had differences with her mother-in-law Sun Yilian and her husband's brother Yang Maosan.

Sun Yilian and Yang Maosan advocated hiring tutors to let their children read the Four Books and Five Classics at home, but Zhang Huilan insisted on letting several children go to public schools. She also wanted to learn culture in a nearby women's literacy class.

The family was deadlocked, so they had to send someone to ask Yang Hucheng for his opinion. Yang Hucheng was very surprised by Zhang Huilan's idea. On weekdays, he and Zhang Huilan spent little time together and often separated. He only thought that she was a feudal woman who kept her integrity. Now that he saw his wife having such knowledge, he was very happy.

Yang Hucheng immediately criticized his younger brother: "Mao San doesn't even look at what era it is, and he still wants his children to study at home. How stupid! We want Zhengmin to go to school, and Huilan to go to literacy class. People are social beings, and they are not in line with society. How to get along with others in the future and how to integrate into society?”

With Yang Hucheng’s full support, the two children were able to attend the primary school in Tianjin Concession, and Zhang Huilan studied in a literacy class near the school. Soon she was able to read and write by herself.

At the end of 1930, Yang Hucheng served as the chairman of Shaanxi Province, and the separated family was finally reunited. During that time, Yang Hucheng, Xie Baozhen and the newly born Yang Zhengzhong lived in the military dormitory, while Zhang Huilan rented a compound nearby with her mother-in-law and two children.

Zhang Huilan's progressive thoughts also gave her and Yang Hucheng more topics to talk about, and their relationship gradually heated up. In 1931, Zhang Huilan gave birth to her only son, Yang Zhengren, in Shaanxi. By the time the Xi'an Incident occurred, the child was already 5 years old.

In the second year of the Xi'an Incident, Yang Hucheng suffered from heart disease. By this time Zhengmin had gone to school in Peiping, Xie Baozhen was in Peking for treatment, and Zhang Huilan was the only one in the family.

She was busy serving her seriously ill husband and taking care of her mother-in-law. She had no time to take care of the daily life of her biological son Yang Zhengren. Her son had been suffering from scarlet fever for several days, and she never knew about it. As a result, he died just after being sent to the hospital. Zhang Huilan was in grief, and the painful blow of this incident also caused her to fall into a mental disorder.

After the Xi'an Incident, under the pressure of Chiang Kai-shek, Yang Hucheng was forced to take Xie Baozhen and his 7-year-old son Yang Zhengzhong to study abroad.

On July 7, 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out. Three days later, the newspaper published news about demands from all walks of life to resist Japan.Yang Zhengmin happily took the newspaper and said to his sister: "Look, the whole people are resisting! The whole people are resisting! It's time for our father to come back!"

After hearing these words, Zhang Huilan, who was in a trance, miraculously woke up and asked anxiously: " Where is your father? Where is your bride (Xie Baozhen)?"

Yang Zhengmin replied: "They have gone abroad and will come back to fight the war soon!" But in fact, when Yang Hucheng and his party returned to China, they were imprisoned in Nanchang .

Zhang Huilan waited for her husband at the Changxiang Mansion in Xi'an for 5 years.

In the winter of 1937, Yang Zhengmin said to Zhang Huilan: "I want to join the Eighth Route Army." Zhang Huilan said: "Where is the opposite path?" Yang Zhengmin went to Xi'an like this.

In 1942, when 18-year-old Yang Zhengkun finished high school, Zhang Huilan said: "Your father has not been released yet, and there is no way for you with the Kuomintang. Go to Yan'an like your brother!"

Before Xie Baozhen went abroad, he sent his four daughters to Stayed at the child's grandma's house. After Xie Baozhen returned to China and was imprisoned, life at her grandmother's family was very difficult, so Zhang Huilan took the initiative to take her four children to her side and take care of them as if they were her own.

Year after year, Zhang Huilan still raised her four children to adulthood as she did for Yang Zhengmin and Yang Zhengkun, and successively sent them to the road of revolution. The daughter-in-law of Yang Hucheng's brother Yang Maosan died of illness early on, leaving behind two young brothers, Yang Zhengjin and Yang Zhengxiang. It was Zhang Huilan who kept these two nephews by her side until they grew up.

Shortly after the liberation of Chongqing, news came that Yang Hucheng and Xie Baozhen had been murdered. Zhang Huilan was filled with grief and anger. Her old illness relapsed and she lay in bed without food or water for several days. When the organization decided to let Yang Zhengmin go to Chongqing to have souls removed, she struggled out of the extreme pain and devoted herself to the complicated affairs of building tombs for her husband and other martyrs.

After the remains of the relatives were moved back to Xi'an from Chongqing, they were buried in the tomb site selected by Zhang Huilan himself. At the same time, Zhang Huilan also reserved a cemetery for herself here, but this tomb is slightly farther than the distance between Xie Baozhen's tomb and Yang Hucheng's tomb.

In Zhang Huilan's life, she married into the Yang family by accident. Among Yang Hucheng's three wives, she did not have as deep a friendship with Yang Hucheng as Luo Peilan and Xie Baozhen. She single-handedly raised six children of the Yang family, but none of them were her real flesh and blood. Fortunately, God still gave Zhang Huilan the greatest blessing in her later years.

She not only raised these children, but also raised 12 grandchildren. The children all respected her and called her "benevolent mother". She passed away on February 7, 1993, at the age of 90.

The elegiac couplet sent to her by the township party members is: "A good wife, a loving mother, who respects the elderly and cares for the young is a model; she has worked hard all her life and dedicated her life to the country." This is the best portrayal of her life's deeds.

END.

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