One day in July 1982, Xu Minqing, a worker working at the Jiangnan Machinery Factory in Xiangtan, Hunan, received a letter from Lu'an, Anhui. The letter was written by Bao Jinfu, a party history worker in the county. The letter said that after investigation, it was found that Xu Minqing was the son of Xu Jishen, a famous Red Army general from Lu'an.
Xu Minqing, 53, was so surprised that he couldn't speak after reading the letter. He couldn't believe it at first, and then burst into tears. All the frustrations and grievances he had suffered over the years were poured out in this moment.
His mother told him before she died: "Your father is the leader of the Kuomintang ." Because of his father's identity, he suffered many unfair treatments and was even almost shot. As a result, he lost contact with his relatives for a long time and became an "orphan".
The discovery of Xu Jishen's descendants caused a great sensation, and the central government issued instructions on the matter. Xu Xiangqian, then vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, wrote a special letter to Anhui and Hunan, requesting that appropriate care be given to the descendants of the martyrs.
What exactly happened to Xu Minqing? Why did he not know his true identity until he was 53 years old? What kind of person is his father Xu Jishen?
Xu Jishen
Northern ExpeditionHero
Xu Jishen is not as famous as many of the founding generals. What is less known is that so far, the People's Liberation Army has only rated 36 military strategists, and Xu Jishen is one of them.
Xu Jishen was born in a peasant family in Lu'an City, Anhui Province in 1901. He was the first generation of Youth League members in China. He was selected by the organization to go south and enter the first phase of Huangpu . After graduation, he was assigned to teach the second regiment as a platoon leader. He rose to prominence in the two Eastern Expeditions against Chen Jiongming and was promoted to regimental representative.
During the Northern Expedition, Xu Jishen served as the commander of the second battalion of the Ye Ting Independent Regiment. After capturing Tingsi Bridge, Zhang Fakui ordered to stop the pursuit. Xu Jishen found that the city of Xianning was in chaos, and the enemy was rushing to build fortifications. He suggested attacking the city immediately, and then led his troops to capture Xianning in one fell swoop.
Later, we learned that enemy reinforcements were on the way. If we waited for them to build fortifications before attacking, it would be unknown whether they could capture Xianning again.
In March 1927, Xu Jishen was promoted to commander of the 72nd Regiment of the 24th Division. A month later, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" coup in Shanghai, openly betraying the revolution. He also bribed Xia Douyin's troops to attack Wuhan.
The troops controlled by Wuhan have marched to Henan, and the rear is extremely empty. Xu Jishen commanded the 72nd Regiment to resist the attack of Xia Douyin's five regiments with one regiment until reinforcements arrived.
Xu Jishen was injured in many places during the battle, but still insisted on commanding. After the war, he was carried back to Wuhan and became a great hero in defending Wuhan, gaining great fame.
Due to serious injuries, Xu Jishen was unable to participate in the Nanchang Uprising. Zhou Enlai believed that Xu Jishen had firm beliefs, was a hero of the Northern Expedition, and had a certain influence in society. He wanted him to engage in united front work in Shanghai and make friends from all walks of life.
At that time, Shanghai was known as a paradise for adventurers. The concession provided a shelter for people engaged in political movements, and people from all factions gathered here.
Xu Jishen made many friends, including celebrities from Anhui, the third party led by Deng Yanda, and the Huangpu Revolutionary Alumni Association composed of progressive officers among Huangpu graduates. With Xu Jishen's contact,
promoted the alliance of anti-Chiang forces, and his work was recognized by Zhou Enlai. However, some people who did not understand the situation accused Xu Jishen of not distinguishing between friends and foes and having an unstable stance, which paved the way for his fate.
Soldiers in the Northern Expedition
One of the 36 strategists of the People's Liberation Army
In early 1930, Zhou Enlai sent Xu Jishen to the Hubei-Henan-Anhui border area to serve as the commander of the 1st Red Army. The deputy commander was the later Marshal Xu Xiangqian.
The Hubei-Henan-Anhui Border Region originally had only some "peasant-style" Red Army troops and lacked military-savvy commanders. After Xu Jishen and others took office, they quickly reorganized the three main Red Army forces into three divisions and one independent brigade, with a total of more than 2,100 people.
Soon, the Central Plains War broke out between Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang, and Yan Xishan. Xu Jishen seized the opportunity of the enemy's empty troops to attack repeatedly, and his troops expanded rapidly. In the Battle of Yingshan, Xu Jishen adopted the method of "encircling points and calling for reinforcements" and wiped out a brigade of enemy troops. This was an unprecedented victory for the Red Army in Hubei, Henan, and Anhui.
By August, the 1st Red Army had grown to more than 5,000 people. In just a few months, its strength had doubled, and its base areas had become a large area. The central government highly affirmed this and designated the Hubei, Henan, and Anhui Soviet Areas as one of the six major Soviet areas in the country. Later Xu Xiangqian recalled: In the past,
could only run in circles, ambush and attack small groups of enemies, and eliminate individual platoons and companies of the Kuomintang regular army; now it is different. It can actively mobilize large groups of enemies and annihilate entire regiments during the movement... In short, the army's tactical thinking has been improved and its combat effectiveness has been greatly enhanced, marking that the Hubei, Henan, and Anhui Red Army has entered a new stage of development.
In April 1931, Zhang Guotao took control of all the power in the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area and implemented some wrong policies. Xu Jishen always resisted wrong practices realistically, and even criticized Zhang Guotao in person, but was hated. Xu Xiangqian also said in his memoirs:
Xu Jishen often said that Zhang Guotao was an old right-leaning opportunist. Because of this, Zhang Guotao hated him. I advised him not to say that. I think this may be a reason for arresting him.
Later, in order to alienate the Red Army spy leader Zeng Jishen who graduated from the first phase of Huangpu, Chiang Kai-shek deliberately wrote a letter to induce surrender to Xu Jishen, and also announced that Xu Jishen had agreed to surrender.
Xu Jishen handed the letter to the sender and the military department openly and aboveboard. Unexpectedly, Zhang Guotao took advantage of the situation and took the opportunity to attack dissidents and arrested Xu Jishen for interrogation. Xu Jishen could not defend himself, and was eventually wrongly killed in November 1931 at the age of 30.
History is fair. The Seventh National Congress held in 1945 vindicated Xu Jishen and recognized him as a revolutionary martyr. His name is listed first in the "Revolutionary Martyrs' List". After the liberation of , Xu Jishen was rated as one of the 36 military strategists by the Central Military Commission.
Although Xu Jishen died early and did not participate in the subsequent series of wars that affected history, he met several conditions for assessing a "militarist":
First, Xu Jishen joined the revolution early and had seniority. He served as a military commander during the Agrarian Revolution and was a senior commander.
Second, Xu Jishen summed up some tactical experience in the early days of the revolution, which had a great impact on the establishment of the early People's Army.
Red Army soldiers (stills)
Descendants of the martyrs "have been poisoned"?
After liberation, Xu Jishen's comrades Xu Xiangqian, Zhou Shidi, and others have been concerned about his descendants and sent people to search everywhere. However, the society had just experienced a great turmoil, and coupled with backward communications, the search was still fruitless.
So much so that some people doubt whether Xu Jishen has any descendants? Clarifying this issue is not only a responsible explanation of history, but also the greatest comfort to the martyrs.
Xu Jishen does have a son. When he was studying at the Huangpu Military Academy, he met Tan Guanyu, a nurse at the school hospital, and the two became partners at first sight. Later, while working in Shanghai, Tan Guanyu gave birth to a son. Xu Jishen received an order to go to the Hubei-Henan-Anhui border area. His son was only 15 months old.
For the sake of the revolution, Xu Jishen could only bid farewell to his wife and children temporarily. Before leaving, she told his wife: "No matter what, we must raise our children." Xu Jishen was a soldier. He experienced bullets and bullets and was injured many times, but he was lucky to survive. I am afraid that Tan Guanyu did not expect that this separation would be forever.
But where are Xu Jishen’s wife and children? Why can’t even Xu Xiangqian and Zhou Shidi find them?
In the 1970s, Anhui established a working group to write the history of revolutionary struggle. After studying historical materials, Bao Jinfu, a party historian in Lu'an County, developed a sincere admiration for Xu Jishen and decided to dig out his revolutionary deeds.
Whether Xu Jishen has any descendants has become the issue that Bao Jinfu is most concerned about. However, he is only a worker in the county-level Party History Office. It is understandably difficult to find someone who cannot even find a marshal.
Bao Jinfu searched for several years to no avail, until a piece of news that excited him appeared in 1981.At the 60th anniversary conference of the founding of the party, central leaders publicly praised Xu Jishen and others as "outstanding generals of the Red Army who sacrificed their lives for the party and the country in the early years."
This speech aroused people's thoughts for the revolutionary martyrs. Old comrades from the former Red Fourth Front Army and students who graduated from the first class of Huangpu have also begun to pay attention to the whereabouts of the descendants of the martyrs.
Bao Jinfu took advantage of this opportunity and wrote in the name of the county committee to former cadres of the Fourth Red Army and the first batch of Huangpu graduates, asking them to provide information on Xu Jishen's survivors. After that, Bao Jinfu received two important clues:
The first was a letter from professor of Nanjing University Hu Yungong . During the Northern Expedition, he was a reporter accompanying the army and was a good friend of Xu Jishen. In the letter, he told the story of Xu Jishen's marriage and informed Xu's brother-in-law Tan Zichang who worked at Guangzhou Lingnan University before liberation.
The second is Wang Yichang, a fellow from Lu'an and a first-year student in Huangpu who had a relationship with Xu Jishen, wrote back and mentioned that Xu Jishen had a son named "Xu Minqing".
's only hope falls on Xu Jishen's brother-in-law Tan Zichang. If he finds him, he can understand the situation of Xu Jishen's survivors.
was just that at that time, Lingnan University had been merged into Sun Yat-sen University , South China University of Technology , and great personnel changes had taken place. Bao Jinfu could only give it a try and sent a letter. Fortunately, this letter was forwarded by an old colleague to Tan Zichang, who had moved to Changsha, Hunan, otherwise Bao Jinfu's investigation would have been interrupted.
Xu Minqing, son of the martyr
Soon, Tan Zichang wrote back to Bao Jinfu, introducing the situation of his sister's family:
In 1932, Tan Guanyu, who had lost his source of income, could no longer raise Xu Minqing, so he wrote to his brother to ask them to help take care of the child. After that, Xu Minqing was raised by his second and fifth uncles, and Tan Guanyu visited Guangzhou from time to time.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Xu Minqing followed his second uncle's family to Lechang, northern Guangdong, to work in farming. After the fall of Guangzhou, Tan Yuguan lost contact with his brother. Later, after many twists and turns, I found out that my brother was in Lechang, , so I went to reunite with my son.
However, due to Tan Guanyu's hard life for many years and overwork, he contracted severe lung disease and unfortunately died of illness. Before she died, she told her son: "Your father's name is Xu Jishen, and he is the leader of the Kuomintang..."
In 1949, Xu Minqing was admitted to a car driving training class in Guangzhou, and was later incorporated into the People's Liberation Army Motor Transport Team and was stationed with the army in Hengyang, Hunan. He visited his uncle in Guangzhou twice, the last time in 1952, and there was no news after that.
Tan Zichang also mentioned in the letter an important feature of Xu Minqing - a gunshot wound on his arm. He was very naughty as a child and shot himself in the left elbow while playing with a gun in the orchard.
In 1968, two comrades with Hunan accent came to Tan Zichang to investigate Xu Minqing's situation. Tan Zichang asked them to inform Xu Minqing's specific situation, but they were refused.
It was a turbulent period at that time. Due to Xu Minqing's special status, there was no news from him again. Tan Ziguan said in the letter: "He may have been poisoned."
Xu Minqing and his wife
accidentally found Xu Minqing
After reading the letter, the excited Bao Jinfu felt a chill in his heart - Xu Jishen's wife had died of illness long ago, and even his uncle did not know Xu Minqing's whereabouts, judging that he "may have been poisoned."
This is indeed a sad result, but Bao Jinfu still does not intend to give up any hope. It can be learned from Tan Zichang's letter that Xu Minqing once joined the army and was stationed in Hengyang , and always left some information in relevant departments.
Bao Jinfu decided to use a "wide net" method and sent letters to the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army, the Hunan and Guangdong Provincial Committees, Hengyang, Changsha, Guangzhou Automobile Transport Companies and other units, asking them to help find Xu Jishen's orphan.
However, to Bao Jinfu’s disappointment, these letters fell into the dust.
In May 1982, Bao Jinfu received a letter from Changsha. The letter writer was Xu Minqing's cousin Tan Zhiheng, who brought good news. It turned out that the Tan family was extremely moved when they learned that the government department in Xu Jishen's hometown was looking for the descendants of the martyr. They mobilized the whole family to also start looking for Xu Minqing.
One day, Tan Zichang's wife remembered that Xu Minqing had said that he worked at the Xiangtan Sewing Machine Factory. They immediately wrote a letter to the factory, but waited a month and a half for no response. Later, Tan Zhiheng saw the news on TV that Xiangtan Jiangnan Machinery Factory was producing sewing machines. They wondered whether the sewing machine factory Xu Minqing mentioned at the beginning was Jiangnan Machinery Factory ?
They immediately wrote a letter and sent it to Jiangnan Machinery Factory. This is a large factory with more than 30,000 employees and has hired many new employees. Most of the employees do not know each other. Tan Zhiheng’s letter was about to be returned because he could not find the recipient.
Coincidentally, a cadre from the Transportation Department happened to be passing by and saw the letter, and Xu Minqing was an employee of this department. In this way, Tan Zhiheng found Xu Minqing by mistake. He never expected that his cousin, whom he had lost contact with for more than 20 years, was so close to him.
Subsequently, Bao Jinfu also wrote to Xu Minqing, telling him that he was Xu Jishen's son and asking him to recall some of his parents' circumstances. Bao Jinfu also reported the good news to Marshal Xu Xiangqian.
Where has Xu Minqing been all these years?
When Tan Guanyu died that year, he told Xu Minqing that "his father was the leader of the Kuomintang." This is indeed true. Xu Jishen's last position during the revolution was the leader of the 72nd Regiment of the 24th Division of the 11th Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
However, according to the later memories of Zhou Shidi and others, after Xu Jishen went to the Hubei-Henan-Anhui border area, Tan Guanyu also helped him contact the organization. So Tan Guanyu knew Xu Jishen's true identity. Why didn't she tell her son the truth? Perhaps because of the severe situation at that time, she was afraid that her child would be retaliated by the enemy.
Xu Minqing was only 13 years old when Tan Guanyu died. He was still a half-grown child and did not have much interaction with his parents. He recalled that he heard his father's name as "Xu Kaijin", and later when he went to the army to fill in his family information, he wrote "Father Xu Kaijin, the leader of the Kuomintang."
Other than that, he knew nothing about his father. During the turmoil, the more unclear he was about his father's situation, the more he became suspicious. He once wrote to the public security department in his father's hometown of Liu'an, requesting an investigation into the situation, but because the name was wrong, there was no result.
At this time, several uncles were also transferred to the lower levels for various reasons and left their original units. Xu Minqing lost contact with them and became an "orphan" completely, unable to find any basis to prove his identity. This unclear history caused him to suffer many injustices and grievances.
The most serious thing was one day in 1970 when he was driving a car through Jiuquling on a mission and saw a group of people in front of him noisily trying to stop the car. Xu Minqing was afraid that they were coming to trouble him, so he turned off the car lights and went around.
In fact, this group of people had just overturned their car and wanted to stop Xu Minqing from helping them load the dead and injured. Xu Minqing did not stop, which aroused their anger. They actually framed the case collectively, wrote down the license plate, and blamed Xu Minqing for the person who was crushed to death by the overturned car.
Under the current situation, Xu Minqing's special identity was easily suspected. Soon he was arrested and interrogated, and finally sentenced to death. The stubborn Xu Minqing only wrote one sentence when he signed the trial materials: "Believe in the people and the party." This was viewed by interrogators as a confession of guilt.
At this time, Xu Minqing's life was hanging by a thread and he would be executed soon. Perhaps Xu Jishen’s spirit in heaven has blessed him. When Xu Minqing’s case was reported, the power to approve the death penalty had just been returned to the province by the regional military officer association. After investigation and verification, a higher-level task force concluded that the matter had nothing to do with Xu Minqing.
In the end, Xu Minqing was acquitted. But he was still affected and was sent to work in the collective enterprise run by the town. It was not until 1980, after many appeals, that his reputation was restored and he returned to work at the Jiangnan Factory.
Epilogue:
Xu Minqing was found, but in the face of such a sudden appearance, the relevant parties still remained vigilant. Identifying the descendants of martyrs is a serious matter to avoid reputation-seeking people. The central government also issued a reply: Whether Xu Minqing is the son of Xu Jishen needs to be investigated and verified by the unit.
Bao Jinfu once again checked archives from various places and visited old comrades who had contacts with Xu Jishen. After careful comparison and analysis of various materials, especially the examination of Xu Minqing's gunshot wounds, it was concluded that the descriptions of Xu Minqing, Tan Zichang and others were basically consistent, and Xu Minqing's childhood classmates and friends also came forward to testify.
The basic facts are already clear. Under Bao Jinfu's encouragement, Xu Minqing first returned to his hometown of Lu'an to worship his ancestors, and he was recognized by his relatives in his hometown. Afterwards, Bao Jinfu and Xu Minqing went to Beijing to visit Marshal Xu Xiangqian.
Soon, the relevant departments of the central government promoted the implementation of the treatment of Xu Minqing’s martyrs. Xu Xiangqian also wrote to the Anhui and Hunan Provincial Party Committees, hoping that they would take care of the descendants of the martyrs. The problems of the descendants of the martyrs have been properly resolved.
It is a miracle that the descendants of the martyrs can still be found among the vast crowds of people after decades. From this, we saw the perseverance of party history worker Bao Jinfu and the full cooperation of veteran comrades and units at all levels.
Everything they did was to comfort the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the revolution.
