In 2011, Chairman Mao’s grandson Mao Xinyu came to the hospital and visited a 96-year-old man. After seeing this old man, Mao Xinyu held her hands excitedly and said:
"Thank you for saving my father's life!"
(Mao Xinyu visited Li Yun )
The old man Mao Xinyu thanked is Li Yun. As early as 1930, Li Yun joined the party gloriously and became a revolutionary soldier.
And the reason why Mao Xinyu is grateful to Li Yun is because there is a secret about the two brothers Mao Anying and Mao Anying in her for many years.
(Mao Anying and Mao Anqing)
So, what is the secret about the Mao brothers buried in Li Yun? Why did Chairman Mao’s grandson Mao Xinyu express his sincere gratitude to her?
Today, this episode will tell you: The secret of Li Yun - the mystery of the Mao brothers' escape from danger in Shanghai.
(Photo taken by Chairman Mao and his family)
1924, the first Kuomintang congress was held in Guangzhou. Sun Yat-sen, who had been wandering for half his life, proposed three major policies at the conference: "Alliance with Russia", "Alliance with the Communist Party" and "Helping the Workers and Peasants". This marked the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and was also the beginning of the national revolution. - the revolutionary slogan of "destroying the great powers and eliminating the warlords" attacked the land of China, and the sky was once again surging above this ancient land.
Today, the protagonist of our story: Li Yun lives in such a revolutionary era.
(Li Yun)
1915, Li Yun was born in a family of scholars in Linhai, Zhejiang. When she was a teenager, she was influenced by family education and understood a few words more than her peers. When she was three years old, she and her parents wandered to Shanghai and accidentally saw the plaque of "Chinese and Dogs are not allowed to enter" in the Shanghai Concession. A sense of shame surged into her heart. , which made her have an unprecedented desire to learn knowledge in the future and serve the motherland.
After growing up, Li Yun was sent by his family to the First Primary School of the Shanghai Association of Seven County, Shaoxing. It happened during the National Revolution that most of the primary school teachers and principals were Communists at that time. Therefore, influenced by the influence of campus, Li Yun has established a firm belief in the cause of communism since then, and has always paid attention to the revolutionary situation in the land of China.
(Youth Li Yun)
926, the vigorous Northern Expedition officially began, which marked the ushering in a new climax of the National Revolution. Amid the cheers of the people, Li Yun was surprised to see: Sun Chuanfang , Wu Peifu 's warlord troops were defeated by the National Revolutionary Army, and foreign concessions such as Hankou , which were occupied by foreigners in the past, were all taken back by National Government one by one. This national revolution that defeated the great powers and eradicated warlords seemed to be about to succeed.
However, what everyone, including Li Yun, did not expect was that a bigger crisis was coming quietly.
On April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek, who was in Nanjing, used his military power to launch a counter-revolutionary coup. In three days, more than 300 left-wing Kuomintang members and our party were killed, more than 500 were arrested, and more than 5,000 were missing. 1.21 million Kuomintang members, a sharp drop of one million in one year after experiencing the "purge of the party". The Kuomintang's grassroots administrative system was completely destroyed, which forced the future Nanjing National Government to rely on landlords and bad gentry to maintain grassroots rule.
(Party member arrested during the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup)
This revolution that ultimately failed to change the basic nature of Chinese society and the destiny of the people was eventually turned into a failed ending due to the betrayal of Chiang Kai-shek and other Kuomintang right wings. For a time, white terror enveloped the land of China, and the revolutionary wave became increasingly sluggish.
After this, some Communist Party members raised their arms and joined hands with the workers and peasants to launch the Nanchang Uprising, Autumn Harvest Uprising, and Guangzhou Uprising, in 1927, trying to overthrow the corrupt rule of the Kuomintang reactionaries in the form of military struggle.
. Another part of the Communist Party members secretly sneaked into the underground of Shanghai at the end of 1927 to engage in intelligence work. The famous red intelligence agency in history - Central Special Correspondence came into being.
(Central Special Section)
Central Special Section is mainly in charge of Chen Geng and Li Kenong, and is under the jurisdiction of the Special Section, the Security Section, the Intelligence Section and the Bandit Transport Section. is responsible for suppressing rebellion, ensuring the safety of central leaders and their relatives, spying on intelligence and contacting civilian local armed forces. During the subsequent revolutionary war, the Central Special Forces, a team lurking in the dark lines of the revolution, made indelible contributions to the Chinese revolution.
However, the revolutionary struggle situation at this time is still very serious. In October 1930, local warlord He Jian of Hunan arrested Chairman Mao’s wife Yang Kaihui and suffered torture. In November of the same year, Yang Kaihui was secretly killed by the Kuomintang. After our party learned about the situation, it immediately transferred Yang Kaihui and Chairman Mao’s two children Mao Anying and Mao Anying to Datong Kindergarten located in Shanghai, which specializes in taking care of the children of martyrs.
(the former site of Datong Kindergarten)
But what happened next made this white terrifying pure land in Shanghai also stained a layer of haze . In 1931, the important person in charge of the Central Special Branch Gu Shunzhang was arrested by the Kuomintang and betrayed. , a rebellious intelligence officer of our party, betrayed the residences of important people in our party, including Zhou Enlai, and other important people, including the secrets of Datong Kindergarten. Therefore, Zhou Enlai and other leaders of our party could only be transferred quickly. Before leaving, Zhou Enlai in reminded Dong Jianwu, the main person in charge of Datong Kindergarten, to help him transfer the Mao brothers.
For safety reasons, Dong Jianwu transferred Mao Anying and Mao Anying to the home of his ex-wife Huang Huiguang. However, Dong Jianwu did not reveal the true identities of the two children to Huang Huiguang. just told them that this was a child from a "friend's house" and expressed his hope that Huang Huiguang could take good care of them.
(Dong Jianwu)
Dong Jianwu's ex-wife Huang Huiguang knew that her husband was engaged in a revolutionary cause and was also a woman who knew the general, so she took good care of both Mao Anying and Mao Anying. However, as the revolutionary situation became increasingly severe, Dong Jianwu was unable to contact Huang Huiguang for a long time, which made her life increasingly difficult. The increasingly poor life has caused Huang Huiguang to change his temperament in and he often beat, scolded and punished the Mao brothers, which has made the Mao brothers increasingly disgusted with the living atmosphere of this family.
In the end, the Mao brothers took advantage of Huang Huiguang's chance to sleep well and sneaked out of the house and lived a wandering life without knowing where to go. This made Huang Huiguang feel at a loss for a moment. With annoyance, she immediately reported to the organization that her two children had "disappeared".
(Yang Kaihui and Mao brothers)
organization attaches great importance to the news of the Mao brothers' loss. decided that the whereabouts of the Mao brothers must be found before the enemy knows this. With Gu Shunzhang's betrayal, he would send relevant underground intelligence staff to Shanghai at this time. This trip was destined to be extremely dangerous and a very reliable person must be found to carry out the mission.
and later selected by the organization was Li Yun, the student we mentioned in the previous article of .
(Youth Li Yun)
organization chose Li Yun to perform this task at that time because Li Yun was not only a revolutionary fighter who had firmly believed in since he was a teenager, but also because she had extraordinary adaptability.
After graduating from campus, Li Yun was transferred to the Shanghai Zhabei Silk Factory Federation Trade Union to be responsible for the ideological work of young workers. After the "April 12 Counter-Revolutionary" coup in 1927, Li Yun secretly concealed his identity as a Communist Party member and engaged in "flying assembly" work in Shanghai, shrouded in white terror. He relied on secret methods such as scattering leaflets and underground associations to promote Marxism and our party's policies and policies.
(Young Li Yun)
Once, Li Yun and other comrades were distributing leaflets in a small alley in Shanghai, when suddenly a team of police officers came to them .For a moment, the comrades around were panicked, but Li Yun calmly said to everyone: "Everyone run separately!" In the end, under Li Yun's command, the comrades successfully escaped the pursuit of Kuomintang spies and police, and the underground propaganda organizations in Shanghai were preserved. After learning about Li Yun's glorious deeds, the organization officially absorbed him into the Central Special Branch in 1933 and gave her a difficult and dangerous task: find the lost Mao Anying and Mao Anying in Shanghai.
(Li Yun)
After receiving the secret mission, Li Yun searched all the orphanages and welfare homes in Shanghai, but in the end he was unable to find out the whereabouts of Mao Anying and Mao Anying. After thinking about it, Li Yun felt that two children who were wandering and helpless were easily bullied. Therefore, they are likely to go to places where people are remote but can receive relief. So, with the approval of the organization, Li Yun secretly went to the Taoist temple and the Chenghuang Temple near Shanghai to wait for the children who received relief.
However, after a period of hard pursuit, the whereabouts of the Mao brothers remained unknown.
(Dao Temple in Shanghai)
In order to find the whereabouts of Mao Anying and Mao Anying, Li Yun finally decided to disguise himself as a wandering beggar and follow the wandering children in Shanghai, hoping to find some clues . During the period of disguising himself, Li Yunfeng, who was born in a scholarly family, slept in the open, eclipsed all day long, and suffered a lot. But when Li Yun thought of the scene when the chairman reunited with his children, he cheered up and felt that no matter how much he suffered, it was worth it.
Hard work pays off. By chance, Li Yun suddenly found two children with very similar appearances on the street, mingling in a wandering team composed of children. Li Yun, disguised as a beggar, asked where the two children came from, but the two children were timidly afraid to answer Li Yun's question.
(Young Li Yun is working)
In order to confirm his guess, Li Yun asked, "Did you originally have a surname Mao? Come from Hunan?"
After feeling that the "female beggar" had no malice, Mao Anying and Mao Anying nodded timidly.
Li Yun held the two children in his arms and said, " I finally found you, but the organization can find you so hard!" After , Li Yun took the two children to bathe and wash, filled them with a few decent clothes and took them to dinner. The Mao brothers who lived on the streets all day long felt the warmth of their mothers from the young Li Yun.
(Chairman Mao and Mao Anying)
Considering that the revolutionary situation in Shanghai was not optimistic at that time, the organization decided not long after that, Mao Anying and Mao Anying were sent to the International Second Children's Hospital in the Soviet Union for medical treatment and education. There, Mao Anying and Mao Anying were not only taken care of by Soviet international friends, but also met He Zizhen, who was recuperating there.
Li Yun made an indelible contribution in the task of finding the whereabouts of Mao Anying and Mao Anying. However, since knows the final where the brothers Mao Anying and Mao Anying will go, Li Yun has never mentioned to anyone that he has performed such a critical mission to . It was not until the Party’s confidentiality period in 1988 that Li Yun dared to reveal the historical truth of that year to the world. It was also in this year that the "Datong Kindergarten" where the brothers Mao Anying and Mao Anying were once replaced with their original name, and now it has become an important historical memorial place for people to inspect the lives of martyrs' orphans.
(Datong Kindergarten Site)
Although Li Yun never mentioned to others that she had performed the task of finding the Mao brothers, her merits were destined to be forgotten by the people. In 2011, Chairman Mao’s grandson and Mao Anying’s son Mao Xinyu came to the hospital to visit Li Yun, who was nearly a hundred years old, and thanked her for saving her life to her father and uncle.
In 2013, Li Yun died of illness at the age of 98., who made great achievements underground in Shanghai, is a microcosm of the history of countless intelligence workers of our party in that era. Let us pay our highest respect to these unknown heroes!
