On a cold and windy morning in the winter of 1928, the Kuomintang took a member of the Communist Party of China to the execution ground.
This man had sharp eyes and no fear. When the Kuomintang executive asked him if he had anything else to say, he wrote a poem eloquently:
"Beheading does not matter, as long as the doctrine is true, kill Xia Minghan, and the people who will come after him." .” died heroically at the age of 28.
This person is Xia Minghan, a member of the Communist Party of China. He possesses great integrity and dares to sacrifice his life for the cause of the Communist Party of China. In addition to his firm belief, all of this is closely related to the sincere teachings of his mother Chen Yunfeng.
Chen Yunfeng
A scholarly family, a famous and talented girl
Chen Yunfeng was born in Heqiao Village, Jinghua Township, Hengshan County, Hunan Province in 1870. Her family was both an official family and a scholarly family.
His father Chen Jiayan was a Jinshi in the late Qing Dynasty and served as the magistrate of Zhangzhou, Fujian. He is an upright person and an honest official. He is known as the "Iron-faced Censor" and is deeply loved by the people.
Chen Yunfeng is the eldest daughter in the family and the apple of her parents' eye. Influenced by her father since she was a child, she loves reading, but what she reads is not the Four Books and Five Classics, but historical story books. She especially likes the books of Wang Fuzhi.
In feudal society, it was very rare for women to go to school. However, Chen Yunfeng believed that even girls should also receive education.So at her insistence, her parents sent her to the school founded by Mr. Liu Yanzhai.
Wang Fuzhi
While Chen Yunfeng was studying, she also did a "big thing" for Mr. Liu Yanzhai that shocked the countryside.
In 1884, a severe drought occurred in Chen Yunfeng's hometown, which severely reduced food production. Many farmers were unable to pay the rent because they rented public land from the local Liu family. So everyone asked the knowledgeable Liu Yanzhai to help write a rent-free report.
Liu Yanzhai was well aware of the hard work and difficulty of farmers, so he immediately wrote and ink, and a report was written in an instant. Unexpectedly, when everyone presented the report, the patriarch Liu Bozhao became furious.
Liu Bozhao didn't care about any natural or man-made disasters, he only wanted the grain handed over to him by the farmers.
So Liu Bozhao immediately sent someone to tie Liu Yanzhai to the ancestral hall and ask him to confess his guilt in front of his ancestors. Liu Yanzhai said that he couldn't bear to see the people suffering from hunger and just wanted to help them. He didn't think there was anything wrong with what he did.
Liu Bozhao became even more furious after hearing this. He said that Liu Yanzhai was unrepentant and ordered people to take him down to the big fifty board.
At this moment, a loud voice sounded : "Stop!"
Everyone looked around and saw a little girl of thirteen or fourteen squeezed out of the crowd. This little girl was Chen Yunfeng.
She stepped forward and said to Liu Bozhao: "Master Patriarch, you despise the king's law, set up a private torture chamber, and abuse your power. Aren't you afraid of lawsuits?"
When the patriarch saw it, the person who stopped him from carrying out the "punishment" turned out to be a person. The little girl couldn't help but glance at it with contempt and said: "Where did the yellow-haired girl come from? Let's go somewhere else to play."
At this time, the squire standing next to Liu Bozhao hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Patriarch, she is Chen Jiayan's daughter."
When Liu Bozhao heard this, he was stunned. Chen Jiayan’s daughter? This is the daughter of the imperial family appointed by the emperor. Even if Liu Bozhao had ten times of courage, he would not dare to touch it!
Before Liu Bozhao could come to his senses, Chen Yunfeng took over the words: "Master Patriarch, I now make two requests to you: First, release Liu Yanzhai immediately and unconditionally and apologize to him; second, root out According to the disaster situation, the grain rent for the tenants will be reduced."
Liu Bozhao was hesitant after hearing this. He didn't want to agree to Chen Yunfeng's conditions, but he couldn't afford to offend the little girl in front of him.
While he was hesitating, Chen Yunfeng stepped forward privately to untie Liu Yanzhai and helped his husband out of the ancestral hall. Liu Bozhao looked at their leaving figures and could only admit that he was unlucky.
But Chen Yunfeng received great praise from the people for this incident. A teenage girl actually made the patriarch speechless.
This is not all due to the suppression of status, but also the factor of hard work, which shows that she has been kind-hearted and well-versed in affairs since she was a child.
got married, husband and wife
Time flies, time flies, in the blink of an eye, the cute and cute little girl faded away from her previous immature, and became a tall and graceful girl. Chen Yunfeng has reached the age to get married.
In fact, as early as when Chen Yunfeng was 10 years old, her father ordered a " baby kiss " for her. The other party was Xia Shiji's eldest son Xia Shaofan , who was the same age as Chen Yunfeng. Although this marriage was arranged by the matchmaker as ordered by the parents, it was a perfect match and there was no fuss about it.
Chen Jiayan and Xia Shiji are classmates and good friends. They passed the Jinshi examination together and were appointed to the Imperial Academy together. The two have a close relationship.
Xia Shaofan, who also came from an official family, was influenced by his father. He not only read extensively in history books, but also had great talents and lofty ideals and ambitions. He and Chen Yunfeng, who was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, were a match made in heaven. .
When Chen Yunfeng was 18 years old, her mother spread a piece of red paper in front of her and said: "A few days ago, the Xia family sent a post and a gift, and promised to marry you during the Mid-Autumn Festival. "This is the dowry list that my mother has written for you. Take a closer look. Do you want anything else?"
Although Chen Yunfeng comes from a noble family and is a real lady, she does not like female workers and does not like gold and silver. Passionate about books.
So she was not interested in the items on the dowry list at all. She just wanted to take away some books in her father's study.
Faced with her daughter's "weird" request, the mother could only agree. Afterwards, Chen Yunfeng picked two boxes full of books in her father's study.
Chen Yunfeng entered the Xia family's door with her unique dowry.
Xia Shaofan was successful as a young man. He was a middle school student at the age of 18. At the age of 31, he was personally awarded the third rank Dingdaihua Ling by Emperor Guangxu at the age of 31, and later became the acting magistrate of Zigui.
Chen Yunfeng was therefore named Imperial Lady , which was a rare honor for women in feudal society.
During his tenure, Xia Shaofan went to Japan to inspect public affairs, where he saw Japan's reform and opening up his horizons. After returning to China, he wrote two books: "Japanese Official Chronicle" and "Notes on Journey to the East".
After that, Xia Shaofan thought deeply about the shortcomings of the Qing government's rule and realized that the Qing government was in urgent need of a thorough reform.
Later, Xia Shaofan followed Mr. Sun Yat-sen in the Revolution of 1911 and became a pioneer of the reformists. Chen Yunfeng was deeply influenced by Xia Shaofan and continued to support her husband's revolutionary cause.
During the Wuchang Uprising, Xia Shaofan was appointed as the magistrate of Nanzhang County. He led the armed forces to join the new government, but was opposed by some conservative forces.
They summoned some unidentified social gangsters and released some prisoners from the prison, allowing them to gather in front of the county government office to cause trouble and act arrogantly.
In a very critical situation, Chen Yunfeng stepped forward, drew the troublemakers and arrested the leader who led the trouble.
In this way, a farce was perfectly calmed down by Chen Yunfeng. Later, this matter was written into the local chronicles and has been passed down to this day.
In 1914, Xia Shaofan, who was only 45 years old, died of illness. Chen Yunfeng and Xia Shaofan have always been a husband and wife, loving each other, but they have only been together for more than 20 years, and it is a pity that they are separated by nature.
Two generations of education, polarization
After the death of her husband, Chen Yunfeng took her seven children back to Hengyang, Hunan, and lived with her father-in-law Xia Shiji.
Xia Shiji was an official of the Qing Dynasty. He had always been infected by feudal ideas and was a typical conservative.
After the Revolution of 1911, he did not want to accept the New Deal, so he resigned directly and returned to his hometown in Hengyang, where he still wrote some outdated ancient texts.
In terms of educating children, Xia Shiji still often taught the Four Books and Five Classics to Chen Yunfeng's children, but the children were not interested in it and always fell asleep during the lectures.
When Xia Shiji finds out, he will inevitably get a beating. Every time the children's cries came from the study, Chen Yunfeng knew: her father-in-law was punishing the children again.
At this time, Chen Yunfeng felt very distressed, and she would go over, persuade her father-in-law to leave, and teach the children herself.
Chen Yunfeng is exactly the opposite of her father-in-law. She accepts new ideas and supports various new policy reforms. This is still the case when it comes to educating her children.
She often tells the children some stories about patriotic soldiers who served the country loyally, such as "mother-in-law tattooed" and "head cantilevered with a cone tattooed on the buttocks", etc., so that the children can study hard and serve the motherland in the future. The children are very fascinated every time they listen to her mother's stories.
Under the careful education of their mother, all the children were patriotic, especially Xia Minghan, who often wrote poems to express what he was thinking.
In 1918, Wu Peifu occupied Hengyang. He wanted to win over the Qing Dynasty elders to expand his power, so he found Xia Shiji and gave him several large characters "Degai Hengyue is full of Xiangnan ".
Xia Shiji was so grateful for Wu Peifu's actions that he framed these large characters and hung them in the main hall.
Chen Yunfeng was dissatisfied with her father-in-law's move. She believed that his father-in-law was too pedantic. As a warlord, Wu Peifu had killed countless people and had notorious crimes. How could his name be hung on the spiritual throne of his ancestors.
Wu Peifu
Later, when Xia Minghan saw the big characters hanging at home, he tore it off in anger and wrote a satirical poem : "He has a big eye and is good at observing the wind and color. He has a broad mouth and can flatter horses and brag. Long hands can make him more famous and rich, but he has a short body and can kneel down."
Xia Shiji saw this and was so angry that he cursed and even threatened to beat the traitor to death.
So, he picked up a wooden stick as thick as his arm and hit Xia Minghan. Upon seeing this, Chen Yunfeng quickly stepped forward to stop him, saving Xia Minghan from a severe beating.
Under Chen Yunfeng's education, the children have grown into new young people with new ideas. In 1919, Xia Minghan joined the "Sha Yu Hui" and "Mo Society". He often brought home some revolutionary and progressive books, and his mother Chen Yunfeng would read them with his children and make progress together.
When the May Fourth Movement swept Hengyang, several of Chen Yunfeng's children joined the revolution and began to oppose Japanese goods.
Not only did they dig out and destroy all the Japanese goods kept in the homes of local wealthy officials and gentry, they even burned all the Japanese goods belonging to their own grandfather.
The local officials and gentry were trembling with anger, so they found Xia Shiji and enumerated the "crimes" of the Xia family's children. After hearing this, Xia Shiji became angry and ordered Xia Minghan to be imprisoned and prepared to sink into the pond.
Seeing that something bad was going on, Chen Yunfeng knew that his son was in doom this time, so he tried to let Xia Minghan escape from the Xia family. Later, Xia Minghan went to Changsha and followed Mao Zedong to start a new revolutionary cause.
Then, Chen Yunfeng took her children and left the Xia family. She found another place to live and lived the life of an ordinary person. They finally got rid of the shackles of the feudal family and started a new life.
participated in the revolution, and the family was full of heroes
In 1921, Xia Minghan took Mao Zedong to Hengyang to participate in revolutionary activities. Chen Yunfeng was fortunate enough to meet Mao Zedong.The following year, Hengyang established a county council, and Chen Yunfeng was elected as a county councillor, making her the first woman to participate in politics in Hengyang.
In her inaugural speech, Chen Yunfeng once said: "Today, foreign aggression is raging, the country is weak, corruption is rampant, and people are in ruins. There is no cure except communism!"
Chen Yunfeng said this, and she did the same. She sent all her children to join the revolution and follow the leadership of the Communist Party. Because she firmly believes that only communism can save China.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched a counter-revolutionary war and began to arrest and massacre revolutionary patriots. Because Chen Yunfeng's children all participated in the revolution, they were also the targets of wanted bounties.
Xia Minghan wrote in grief and anger: "The more you kill, the more daring you are, and you are not afraid of killing them all. If you don't behead Jiang's thieves, how can you thank the world!" Then he resolutely fought against the Kuomintang.
928 became the saddest year in Chen Yunfeng's life. 4 of her 7 children died heroically.
On January 10, 1928, Chen Yunfeng's third son Xia Mingpei was discovered by the enemy because he was secretly manufacturing weapons and was arrested by the Kuomintang.
Two days later, Xia Mingpei, who was less than 20 years old, died heroically at the Wuyanping execution ground. At that time, he was tortured by the enemy and was bruised all over his body.
Also arrested were Chen Yunfeng’s eldest daughter Xia Mingwei and her youngest son Xia Mingji, who had been deaf since childhood. But in the end he was released because the enemy did not find him guilty, but he was beaten and tortured in prison to a state of disgrace.
Xia Mingpei
On March 18, Xia Minghan was imprisoned for being betrayed. In prison, even though he endured cruel torture, he still did not reveal any information.
Xia Minghan knew that he could not escape this disaster, so he wrote several family letters to his mother, wife and eldest sister respectively, expressing his determination to regard death as home.
Xia Minghan wrote in a letter to his mother: "At the critical moment when my brothers and sisters and I joined the revolution, you gave us spiritual care and material support.
Dear mother, don't be sad... The children may not see their mother’s hair white, but I believe you will see the red flag we raised flying in the blue sky of the motherland! htm! l2
said this in a letter to his wife Zheng Jiajun: "Comrades once said that only Jiajun is good in the world, but today I feel that you are a wise man... Throwing your head and blood, Minghan has long regarded it as nothing." .... Hongzhu remains in longing for his love, while Chiyun desperately hopes for success. He insists on revolution to carry forward his ambition, and vows to spread the truth to the world! "
Xia Minghan also wrote to his eldest sister: "My eldest sister is in jail for me, and my nephew is implicated for me. We are not guilty, we must fight...
I have no regrets in my life. I only believe in communism, the truth that creates happiness for human liberation. I dare to climb mountains of swords and seas of fire, and I am willing to throw my head and shed blood! "
From several letters home, we can see Xia Minghan's firm belief in the revolutionary will. On March 20, Xia Minghan was taken to the execution ground and died heroically, and then left behind the " Sacrifice Poem " that has been passed down through the ages.
Zheng Jiajun and Xia Minghan
In January 1928, Chen Yunfeng's second son Xia Mingzhen and Zhu De, Chen Yi organized the "Southern Hunan Uprising", which frightened Chiang Kai-shek, so Chiang Kai-shek sent troops to carry out "encirclement and suppression"
html. On March 21, the day after Xia Minghan's death, the Chenxian County Party Committee held a mass meeting at the Chenghuang Temple in Chencheng. At the meeting, some premeditated reactionaries rushed to the stage and started killing Xia Mingzhen heroically. Xia Mingzhen died heroically in the riot. , only 22 years old
Chen. Yunfeng's second daughter Xia Mingheng once organized a riot in Hengyang, but was later hunted by the Kuomintang because of the failure of the uprising. After that, she hid in a village in Changsha and began teaching activities.
In June of the same year, her whereabouts were discovered by the enemy, and was hunted. During the process, she jumped into a lake and died gloriously at the age of 26.
Xia Mingzhen
In just a few months, Chen Yunfeng lost four children, among whom Xia Minghan was the oldest, less than 28 years old. The death of her relatives deeply affected Chen Yunfeng's soul.
Chen Yunfeng could not face the sadness and returned to her hometown of Lizi Mountain in Hengyang alone. In her hometown, she founded a school and continued to contribute to the cultivation of "revolutionary descendants".
She has some reputation in Hengyang. Some people tried to help her, but she rejected them one by one.
She said: "My husband has died and my son has died, which is extremely ominous. He is already in his prime years and is about to die. It would be better for you to stay away from me until your fortune is prosperous!"
So, Chen Yunfeng began to thank guests behind closed doors, not paying attention to worldly affairs, and just chanting at home. Poems and eulogies are accompanied by a few simple houses.
Xia Mingheng
In 1944, the Japanese army invaded Hengyang. The 75-year-old Chen Yunfeng once again stepped forward to raise funds for the anti-Japanese soldiers.
Later, due to the inability to withstand the Japanese invasion, Hengyang fell. However, Chen Yunfeng was fearless and bravely faced the enemy's swords and guns, showing a fearless national integrity.
In 1946, Chen Yunfeng finished her life at the age of 76. But unfortunately, she never saw the five-star red flag flying under the blue sky of the motherland.
Chen Yunfeng raised 7 children in his life, each of whom once walked on the front line of the revolution. Four of them died heroically, which can be said to be a family of loyal martyrs. It is precisely because of having a great mother that a generation of heroic children was born.
References
[1] "Friends of Party Members", "You will see the red flag we raised flying in the blue sky of the motherland - Xia Minghan to his mother Chen Yunfeng"
[2] "Construction of Old Districts in China", "Xia Minghan's Brother My sister is also a revolutionary martyr who died heroically"
[3] "Hunan Archives", "Xia Minghan's mother Chen Yunfeng"
