On March 22, 2014, Phoenix TV invited Gao Gang’s wife Li Liqun to be a guest on the " My Chinese Heart " column group.
The old lady is 94 years old and has witnessed countless events in my country's history.
In Mrs. Li's mouth, revolutionary past was told in a leisurely manner.
When people woke up from those decades, they realized that the identity of this wife was by no means described by "Madam Gao Gang".
Chairman Mao is the good principal who is a matchmaker for her, Premier Zhou gives her the "green light", and the second generation of reds are all footnotes to this legendary woman's life.
Chairman Mao became a matchmaker
"The first time he left Xi'an to Yan'an , he walked a hundred miles on the first day, and then I had my feet bubbled."
The past that Li Liqun mentioned happened when she was 17 years old.
At that time, the Anti-Japanese War had just broken out, and Yan'an, as a banner for resisting Japan and saving the country, attracted countless passionate young people to pour in.
Although his father was the county magistrate of the National Government, Li Liqun was deeply influenced by his uncle as a member of the Communist Party of China and was determined to throw himself under the red flag.
Holding the recommendation letter written by her uncle's superior Zhu Rui to Lin Boqu, she walked to the distance for the first time with her tender feet.
Transported from Pi County, Jiangsu to Xi'an, and then from Xi'an to Yan'an, this top student at Xuzhou Provincial Women's Normal School had only one feeling - pain.
"It hurts so much that I can't cry. I'll give me water when I arrive at the military station. Everyone burns my feet. The classmates suck each other through the soaking. Oh, that hurts so much. Later, the classmate said, "You are still crying. What's the point of feeling a little bit?" As a result, I had to leave before dawn the next day, and I had to leave even if I hurt. I got a sorghum stick and walked to Yan'an with a stick. It was November. It's almost the end of the year."
She said that for a 17-year-old girl, that section of the road was really difficult to walk, but after walking too much, I got used to it.
When she came to Yan'an, it was already winter. Although it was cold and frozen, Li Liqun felt a warm current surge in her heart because she finally came to the place to realize her ideal.
The days in Yan'an were dull and fulfilling, and Li Liqun did what he could in the base area.
In July 1938, Li Liqun, who was sent to Yan'an Shaanxi Northern Public School, joined the party with his outstanding performance. After the efforts of
were recognized, Li Liqun became more motivated and later served as secretary of the Secretariat of the Party Committee of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
Then, with artistic cells, she went to Liulin District Committee to serve as the head of the publicity department, specializing in newspapers and paintings.
After working in the base area for a period of time, she met Gao Gang.
"The first time I saw him, he was tall, sometimes I didn't understand what he said, and I couldn't understand his native dialect. When he taught, we sat underground, without tables or chairs, and he stood there to teach. He gave a lecture without books and no books, and he said that."
When talking about her husband, Li Liqun's face was full of memorial service.
Li Liqun and Gao Gang met at the Party School.
In 1940, 35-year-old Gao Gang pulled 20-year-old Li Liqun and said he wanted to see Chairman Mao.
Li Liqun followed Gao Gang to Yangjialing .
After Chairman Mao’s warm hospitality, they had a simple meal together.
Even after 70 years, Li Liqun still remembers the food at that time - a bowl of fried eggs with chili peppers, a plate of potatoes, a bowl of millet rice, Chairman Mao and a small bowl of fried red peppers.
At this dinner table with only a few dishes, Chairman Mao made a marriage for the two as a matchmaker.
A few days later, under the witness of a serving of iron pot chicken, the two got married.
The good principal of the second generation of reds
Li Liqun was very humble in his contribution to the revolutionary road, but Chairman Mao refused.
He once gave Li Liqun high praise: "Li Liqun is very famous. The Yucai school she runs to support the children of military cadres."
After getting married, Li Liqun followed her husband around the world. With the end of Liaoshen Battle in 1948, she also followed the troops into the pass. She also accompanied her many children of Red Army cadres.
Most of these children finally went south with the army, but there were still many students in the Northeast that need to be resettled urgently.
Originally, Li Liqun, who had worked in the organizational work before, took over the burden.
At first, Li Liqun was afraid that he would not do well, but the Minister of the Organization Department Zhang Wentian still convinced her with the reason of "trying for the revolutionary descendants".
Li Liqun talked about his career as a principal. Not much, but the students of that year said a lot.
This school built in Shenyang was almost all organized by Li Liqun.
Liu Chun and Yili's eldest son Liu Ge were part of the school that year.
He recalled that the school was chosen by Li Liqun, and she finally took a fancy to the Ministry of Health of the Northeast Military Region in the northeast to Zhongshan Park.
The school name was named, and Li Liqun handed over to Xu Teli, one of the more educated Yan'an five elders.
The other party imitated the Yucai school run by Tao Xingzhi , named the school "Northeast No. 1 Yucai School", saying that it can be run in the future Second and third Yucai School.
With the school and school name, Li Liqun, who had just finished her busy work, began to worry about the teacher issue.
In her careful selection of favorites, a group of teachers were selected from all over the country.
On May 1, 1949, Northeast No. 1 Yucai School officially opened.
A kindergarten class and 4 grades totaled 190 people, which is the initial student scale of the school. Li Liqun's children were also among them, and many cadres and children were sent in later.
In order to manage the group of skinny children in the school, Li Liqun, who has always been gentle, has made a black face.
In school, you can always see the one who has always had short hair combed forever The thin "mother" patrolled everywhere.
1952 Zhang Zili, who entered the kindergarten class of Yucai School in 1952, said that Li Liqun was busy at school day and night at that time, and asked about everything in detail.
Li Liqun said that the rules she set were very strict that the children were descendants of revolutionary comrades, and some even had their parents. She did not dare to let go of them, for fear of being sorry to the comrades.
After hearing the children's songs on the radio in the morning, the children had to get up within ten minutes, then rush to the playground to do exercises, and then breakfast time.
Bathroom is open twice a week, and the aunt has to wash the children from head to toe, and the clothes, sheets, and so on are also changed twice a week.
The rules here not only control children, but also adults.
Teachers and students must use their entry and exit certificates to enter and exit. Only once a week is allowed to enter and exit, and they must be disinfected immediately after returning to school.
If you encounter family members visiting relatives, you can only meet the children in the mailroom after registering.
When it comes to holiday, students must return to school before 6 o'clock on Sunday, and have to test their temperature before entering school.
In addition to these rules, Li Liqun is full of tenderness.
The school starts classes from Monday to Friday, and guards will come to pick them up every Saturday and will not be sent back to school until Sunday afternoon.
In order to avoid the loneliness of the children whose relatives are not around, Li Liqun often takes the children to spend the weekends in batches.
is located on the third floor of No. 2 Sanjing Road, which is a childhood memory of many children.
At the beginning, the school food was implemented as supply . The food was very poor, and the children in the kindergarten class did not have milk to eat.
Li Liqun, who felt sorry for the children, ran around resources and finally asked 200 cows from , Chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Government, Ulanfu.
After going through a lot of hardships, he specially organized a cattle farm to let the children in the school drink milk.
As Li Liqun ran around, the originally barren dining table began to become rich, and milk, bread, sausage, biscuits, ice cream and other things were sent to the children, without a double-choice for a week.
In order to prevent the children from getting cold, Li Liqun and his teachers also made clothes for the children with military blankets seized by the People's Liberation Army.
With her efforts, three years after the school was founded, the school has 127 staff members, specifically providing guarantees for the lives of children. After the improvement of national conditions such as
, she also set up a tailoring room and asked teachers to design and make clothes for students from each season.
In addition to these efforts, Li Liqun is also the benefactor of many children.
In school, Li Liqun treats all children equally.
She knows who is whose child, but she never takes a look at it because of this, so that the children live together but can't figure out each other's background.
Li Liqun is very concerned about children.
Liu Ge was sent to school when he was 5 years old. Li Liqun has always cared for her. During the interview, Liu Ge also said bluntly: "Mom Li has raised me."
Once Liu Ge accidentally fell on the iron tower on the playground and injured his head. The blood flowed out unstoppable, and it was almost gone.
Finally, he came back to life after Li Liqun's desperate efforts to send the doctor and donate blood.
When talking about this past incident, Liu Ge also joked: "After he recovered from his illness, he no longer stuttered in Chinese, but gradually forgot about Mongolian dialect."
This Northeast No. 1 Yucai School founded by Li Liqun, He Zizhen also brought Li Min to him.
At that time, a group of cadres returned from the Soviet Union, including Li Min, Qin Jima, daughter of Bogu , and Lin Biao's eldest daughter Lin Xiaolin , among them.
Many of these children cannot speak Chinese, so Li Liqun specially hired a teacher who is proficient in Chinese and Russian languages to teach.
Wait until the weekend, in order to make the children familiar with the motherland faster, she took them home to make up for classes.
The children were not used to eating steamed buns, so she went to a Western restaurant to learn how to make the Soviet " Lieba ".
Li Min didn't know how to write letters in Chinese at the beginning, so Li Liqun encouraged her to write in Russian .
When the chairman received the letter, he happily asked the photographer Xu Xiaobing to go to Yucai School to take a photo of his daughter to relieve his lovesickness.
Poverty still sees true nature
Liu Ge said that after leaving school, he saw "mom" again in Beijing several months later.
At that time, Liu Ge left school because of his father's transfer.
Gao Gang was transferred to Beijing shortly afterwards as Chairman of the State Planning Commission, and Li Liqun also put down his work and entered Beijing.
At first, Li Liqun's family lived in the Preparatory Office of the State Planning Commission in Sanlihe, and later moved to the No. 8 Courtyard of Minxiang, Dongjiao.
This was once the French Embassy, with a vast terrain of 100 acres of land and dozens of rooms. During
, Liu Ge came here with his parents to visit. Other students from Northeast China Yucai would also come here to find the principal Li Liqun during the winter and summer vacations.
But when the time came to August 1954, the students who returned to Beijing during the summer vacation found that the building was empty and they could not find the principal who loved them. Li Liqun, who was pregnant with a posthumous child from
, took his four children to a courtyard near Wangfujing, a new home.
This was what Premier Zhou personally arranged for someone to take her to choose.
Li Liqun, who is only 34 years old, needs to take on the heavy responsibility of his family alone.
Li Liqun was very moved about that time.
After giving birth to the child in her belly, her feeling was still joyful.
She had to go to work during the day, so she invited people from her hometown in northern Shaanxi to take care of the newborn Gao Yansheng. The fellow villagers were very willing to help this strong fellow villager.
Premier Zhou, who has always been fair in Li Liqun's dilemma, also gave her the green light.
With the approval of Chairman Mao, the state provided subsidies to Li Liqun's children, which were counted as state for raising them.
Premier Zhou’s also not disappointed.
When his son Gao Yi wanted to return to the Soviet Union to develop, Li Liqun advised him: "The country attaches so much importance to you '4821' (referring to the 21 high-ranking officials and martyrs who were sent to the Soviet Union to study in 1948), don't go to the Soviet Union for the first time, and try to serve the country."
For this reason, Gao Yi stayed at home.
In 2010, Li Liqun moved to a bungalow courtyard near Beijing Station to live.
She is still "uneasy" at this time.
Li Liqun said that every autumn, she would prepare a large table of cat ear to invite people to eat. She likes everyone to gather around jujube tree while eating jujube food.
Li Liqun likes to talk about the past. When talking about Yan'an, he will talk about using two sheep to redeem his fellow villager's son Li Tieying. When talking about Japan's defeat, he will mention that she brought back a nurse to Yucai School from the prisoners of war.
Since Li Liqun was 90 years old, the students of Yucai School would celebrate her birthday, and more than 100 students came in the year at most.
As he gets older, Li Liqun can no longer hear the sound, and often he has to use writing to communicate.
But when she looked at the vague appearance of the children, she would still shed tears while laughing.
When talking about the events of that year, when the children sing the children's songs from the past, Li Liqun's tears kept falling.
At this time, someone will smooth things out and start talking about how those 20 cows were like.
Li Liqun has experienced a lot in his life and has left a lot behind.
At 21:37 on April 6, 2020, Li Liqun died of illness in Beijing and passed away at the age of a hundred years old.
In the mourning hall, the students collectively gave her a wreath, and the elegiac couplet read "Don't forget the grace of cultivation, and I will always miss Principal Li."
Information source:
Phoenix TV "My Chinese Heart: Gao Gang"
China Police Network "Revealed: Which Chinese leader visited Gao Gang's widow in 2006? 》
China News Weekly "Li Liqun passed away at the age of 100: She is the eternal "Principal Li" in the hearts of many second-generation reds"
