Chapter 3 second quarter

On February 27, 1903, in Liushupu Village, Xiangxiang Township, Hunan Province, a family surnamed Chen gave birth to a son named "Fu Ge", who would become the legendary general Chen Geng in the future. Regarding Chen Geng's family background, Chen Geng himself wrote in his "Autobiography": "My grandfather was born in a poor family, and he couldn't even hide his shame with his clothes. He became rich as an official in the army when he was young. He was good at fighting at that time. My father inherited the ancestral business, and had a slight reputation in the village. He sympathized with the revolution. I was influenced by my grandfather when I was young, and I wanted to give up studying and join the army..."

It can be seen from this article that the young Chen Geng was deeply influenced by his grandfather. Chen Geng's father was named Chen Yihuai, nicknamed Peizhi, and was born in Xiangxiang in 1846.Since he was a child, his family was poor and his life was not settled, so he had to go to his landlord uncle's house to do long-term labor, herding cattle and farming, doing everything.Because of practicing kung fu since he was a child, he has extraordinary strength and a large appetite.After working as a long-term worker at my uncle's house, I worked in the fields during the day and often practiced martial arts until late at night, so my appetite increased greatly.My uncle thought he ate too much, and was very dissatisfied with his daily practice. Every time he met him, he always said sarcastic remarks, calling him "not promising." One night, Chen Yihuai was practicing martial arts again, and uncle When they saw him, they called him "a weasel turned into a cat - and the change is not high".Chen Yihuai ran away from his uncle's house in a fit of anger.

At that time, notices for recruiting recruits could be seen everywhere in Hunan.Now that Chen Yihuai had mastered martial arts, he went to a nearby recruitment office to enroll in the Hunan Army.When he first joined the army, he was just a "leader of the army", and later he turned into a soldier in combat. Because of years of practicing kung fu, he has a high strength in martial arts and extraordinary arm strength.Standing on three stacked tables, he can use his teeth to lift four stacked wooden buckets filled with water off the ground.The broadsword he used in the army weighed 80 catties.He was brave and good at fighting, made many military exploits, and was appreciated by his superiors. He was gradually promoted from the ranks to the position equivalent to the commander of the new army.However, with the development of history, he also gradually felt that he was an enemy of the people, was of no benefit to the country, and was hated by all the people.Seeing that the imperial court was incompetent, the Qing army was corrupt, and internal and external troubles aggravated, he really didn't want to continue working.So, he resigned and returned to Xiangxiang.

After returning to his hometown, Chen Yihuai bought an ordinary residence and settled down.This house is not like the military commander's mansion that was once prominent, it is just an ordinary farmyard. After some repairs, Chen Yihuai's home is here.He also bought 240 mu of land, most of which were rented out for planting. He kept 30 temples for himself and hired two long-term laborers to cultivate them. Because he was born in a poor family, he never forgot the hardships he had suffered. When he had some money, he wanted to do more good things for the village.Among the neighbors, relatives and friends who have no money, as long as they come to the door, they must try their best to help.Because of poverty in the early days, Chen Geng’s father-in-law started a family late. It was not until he was 30 years old when he became a sentry commander in the Hunan Army that he married a girl surnamed Liu in his hometown who was 10 years younger than him. The first boy he gave birth to was Chen Geng’s. Father Chen Shaochun.Five years later, his uncle Chen Bichun was born.Unfortunately, shortly after my uncle was born, my grandmother passed away.

Dong Geng's father had just turned 12 years old, and his grandfather decided to marry him off and asked him to manage the housework.A few years later, my grandfather married a Sichuan woman who had served in the army. This step-grandmother had no children, but she treated her children and grandchildren as if they were her own. The children respected and loved her very much.She was originally a knight in the grandfather's army. She had a bold personality and excellent martial arts.When practicing, she often took a stick and asked the children to do somersaults on the stick, very seriously.

Chen Geng's father is straightforward and generous.When the wave of the Great Revolution hit and the peasant movement in Hunan flourished, he turned from initial suspicion to sympathy. In the first half of 1927, when Mao Zedong was investigating the peasant movement in his hometown in Hunan, he had a long talk with Chen Shaochun. Chen Shaochun said to Mao Zedong: "Only when the world is completely chaotic can we distinguish between high and low, good and bad." This simple Mao Zedong's thoughts inspired Mao Zedong a lot. Many years later, Mao Zedong told people that Chen Shaochun was a person who had contributed to the Chinese revolution.In later years, he was implicated because Chen Geng was a well-known Communist Party member and a senior general of the Red Army.During the severe white terror period of the ten-year civil war, he was arrested and imprisoned twice in succession on charges of "not strict parenting" and "family members of red bandits".With the political persecution of the reactionaries, the family gradually went bankrupt economically. During the Anti-Japanese War, even the few remaining dilapidated houses and a few acres of land were sold out.

The influence of Chen Geng's participation in the revolutionary struggle, the endless persecution of the Kuomintang reactionaries, and the resulting economic bankruptcy prompted Chen Shaochun's thoughts to change continuously.In the later period, he not only sympathized with the revolution in general, but actively supported the revolutionary struggle led by the Communist Party.He often protects underground organizations and covers underground party workers without fear of risks.Sometimes the party organization held meetings at his home, and he volunteered to help out on sentries. He died of illness in 1945.

Chen Geng's mother was named Peng Xuexian, who came from a poor background. As soon as she entered the Chen family, as the eldest daughter-in-law, she took up the burden of housekeeping with her young husband and managed the house diligently and thriftily.She is a typical good wife and mother. She takes care of housework and raises children all her life. She is honest and kind. Like Chen Geng's father, she is charitable and often helps the poor. In the summer of 1944, Japanese invaders aggressively invaded Hunan, and she died of illness while fleeing. Chen Geng's third and fourth younger brothers were all soldiers, and all died of illness in the army.The husband of Chen Geng's fourth sister, Chen Qiukui, was named Tan Shiming. After she got married, she also joined the army. Later, she participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising, followed Mao Zedong to Jinggangshan, changed her name to Tan Zheng, and later became one of the top ten generals of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Chen Geng, who will become a dazzling general in modern Chinese history, grew up in such a family. It can be said that he is a military family full of heroes. Chen Geng has been "naughty" since he was a child, how clever a naughty child is.Chen Geng was smart and smart since he was a child, and he was the eldest grandson of the eldest son, so he was favored by his grandfather.My father has been fighting for many years, with numerous victories, leaving many scars with swords and guns on his body.He often touched his scars, told Chen Geng how he fought and how he was injured in the army, and taught Chen Geng to serve as a soldier when he grew up.Grandfather is more talkative. Whenever he tells these stories, he speaks eloquently and vividly, which often fascinates the young Chen Geng and leaves a deep impression on him.He regards his grandfather as a hero he admires, and secretly vows that when he grows up, he will gallop on the battlefield to make contributions like his grandfather.

Chen Geng is lively by nature. When he was young, he loved listening to stories and playing musical instruments such as huqin and suona.His teenage years coincided with a period of great social turmoil in China. Although the death knell of the feudal society had sounded, the feudal forces were still stubborn.Like many old-fashioned families, Chen Geng's family is also a feudal patriarchal style, and the father's discipline on the children is particularly strict, preventing their personalities from developing at will.When Chen Geng was 6 years old, he went to private school for 6 years.The teaching method in the private school is rigid and old-fashioned. Every day, the pristine teachers in mandarin jackets force-instill ancient prose such as the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" into the students.Chen Geng is an active person, and he is deeply dissatisfied with the scriptures that he has no interest in reading every day.Although he doesn't study hard, he has a flexible mind, and he can always deal with the difficulties of memorizing.The number of corporal punishment is rare, but reprimand is still a common thing.

In order to resist, the young Chen Geng often did some "prank" things.Once, he quietly sawed off half of the board on which the teacher stepped on the toilet, so that it would break when he stepped on it.As a result, the teacher who went to the toilet almost fell into the latrine.He also did many such behaviors. After being caught by the teacher, he found his family. Chen Geng was scolded by his father for this.When my father was very angry, he often yelled: "When you are 16 years old, you must be kicked out!" Chen Geng didn't care about the truth or falsehood of such words.At that time, he felt that a man could not be bound by those books.He later said in his memoirs that he was: "Reading in childhood, mischievous", "My romantic, slovenly, since childhood." In 1915, when Chen Geng was 12 years old, he ended his tasteless private school life and came to Dongshan Higher Primary School in Xiangxiang County, about 20 miles away from home.The predecessor of this school was Dongshan Academy, which was a new-style primary school established when the imperial examination was abolished and the school was promoted in the late Qing Dynasty.In addition to teaching classics, the school's curriculum also teaches courses such as nature, English, and music, and introduces social sciences from advanced Western countries.The teaching method is also very novel. After the Revolution of 1911, a new trend of thought began to spread in this school. Students in the school can read some progressive books and newspapers. In class, teachers often tell stories about China’s growing poverty and being bullied by foreign powers.Several teachers who came back from studying in Japan often told students about the history of Japan's prosperity since the Meiji Restoration, and spread the idea of ​​"rich country and strong army", which is very attractive to students.The school is well-known in several neighboring counties.Mao Zedong also studied in this school. After Chen Geng entered Dongshan Elementary School, he was assigned to Class B. He was like a fish in water here, and he was no longer like endorsing to deal with the teacher when he was on the private mat.He is in a good mood, willing to work hard, and has good academic performance. In addition, when encountering problems, he is courageous and willing to endure. Therefore, he is praised by teachers and loved by his classmates.His memory is astonishing. The poems and scriptures he has read can be recited almost from memory. Articles such as "Spring and Autumn" and "Gangjian" can be recited fluently after decades.In Dongshan Academy, he came into contact with some progressive books and periodicals, which enabled him to see some new and completely different things through the small cracks in the feudal barriers. His eyes were broadened, and he initially understood some revolutionary principles.When he was a teenager, the belief of being a hero who cares about the country and the people was born in his mind, and he established the ambition of "enriching the country and strengthening the army". However, just one year after he entered Dongshan Academy, his family practiced an arranged marriage and forced him to marry a woman who was two years older than him.The woman's family situation is "well-matched" with Chen Geng's family, so Chen Geng's father strongly agrees.Under the feudal system at that time, this kind of arranged marriage, which was completely decided by the parents regardless of the wishes of the parties, was commonplace.But for Chen Geng, a young man who has begun to be influenced by the new trend of thought, this kind of practice cannot be tolerated. Besides, he has a stubborn personality since he was a child, so he refused to follow the old custom of "ordering from parents, saying from matchmakers". admit the marriage. Originally, Chen Geng's dissatisfaction with the family's feudal etiquette and customs became stronger day by day. It happened that this extremely unsatisfactory marriage happened, which became the fuse for him to completely break with the family.Just when his parents were asking him about his marriage, he ran away from home angrily—and went to serve as a soldier. That year, he was only 13 years old. His departure from home was not just because he opposed his father's arranged marriage.Compared with the teenagers of the same generation, Chen Geng is much more open-minded.Behind his actions is an ambition to go outside to create a career, a desire to make a difference to the country and society, and a longing for an attractive and novel life.It is these factors that inspire him to break through the feudal family shackles and bring him into a vast world. After Chen Geng left home, he went to the Hunan Army Recruitment Office to sign up, and was immediately incorporated into the 2nd Battalion of the 6th Regiment of the Lu Diping Department as a second-class soldier.Chen Geng was young and weak at the time. Enduring all kinds of unimaginable pain, he carried a German-made gun of his height for 4 years, and was promoted from private to sergeant.The management of the Hunan Army was chaotic at that time, the officers withheld their salaries, and the soldiers lived in hardship.Chen Geng had sores on his body, and his family sent people to the army many times to find him back. He stood up and persisted through those difficult days.He was respected by soldiers because he had studied at school and had a bold personality.The soldiers asked him to write letters home, and the company commander asked him to teach singing, and he readily agreed. He was a relatively active figure at the time. At that time, Hunan was one of the main areas where the warlords of the North and the South fought, and they chased and killed each other.During Chen Geng's four years in the army, he participated in the Dharma Protection War, the Zhang Zhang War, and the Hunan-Hubei War.He was deeply disgusted and saddened by the tragedy caused by the melee of warlords.As time went by, he couldn't help wondering "what is the purpose of being a soldier" in his mind, and felt that being in this kind of army that was disastrous to the country and the people was of no benefit to the country and the nation.In addition, in this army at that time, anyone who was born in the army could not be promoted to an officer except for a few special exceptions. The vacancies of officers in the army had to be filled by students from the officer school.Therefore, Chen Geng deeply felt that serving as a soldier here has no future.In particular, he once wanted to apply for the lecture hall, but because he was a soldier, he was not eligible to apply for the exam. This hit him hard, and the idea of ​​leaving the army became impatient. Finally in 1921, he made up his mind to break away from the decadent Hunan Army, and returned to Changsha with a heart of honoring the country and the people. While working as a railway employee, he continued to study. In the year when Chen Geng left the Hunan Army, the Communist Party of China was born in Shanghai.When Chen Geng arrived in Changsha, the labor movement in Hunan was booming, and Changsha was already one of the famous cradles of revolution.The Cultural Publishing Club, the Self-study University, and the Marxist Research Association founded by Mao Zedong in Changsha had a great influence among young people.At this time, Chen Geng, like countless progressive young people with patriotic thoughts, faced the suffering of the motherland, struggling to find the truth of saving the country and the people, and seeking a way out for the nation.While working and studying in Changsha, Chen Geng eagerly read progressive books and newspapers, which made a new leap in his thinking and formed new beliefs. He voluntarily dedicated himself to the great cause of transforming China and the world. In December 1922, he joined the Communist Party of China, which was the most important turning point in his life.That year, he was only 19 years old. In 1924, Cheng Qian, who worked in the Guangdong Nationalist Government, planned to set up an Army Lecture School and recruited some students from various places.Changsha, Hunan recruited more than 100 people, and Chen Geng was one of them.After he and these recruited students arrived in Guangzhou, Cheng Qian's army martial arts school was not opened for a long time. Chen Geng and these students had nothing to do all day long, and life was very difficult. One day, Chen Geng and Song Xilian were walking along the Long Embankment of the Pearl River. When they walked near the Nandi Wharf, they saw a group of young people discussing around the wall.He squeezed in and saw that it was the enrollment brochure of Whampoa Military Academy.He read it twice, and his heart skipped a beat. Judging from the admission brochure, this is a brand new military school.He grabbed Song Xilian's hand and said excitedly: "This is a military academy run by Mr. Sun Yat-sen, let's go and sign up!" Song Xilian hesitated, and asked, "Then... what about the martial arts school?" Chen Geng waved his hand: "We cast the wrong birth, this is the military academy we should go to!" Song Xilian was still a little hesitant, because his age was one year behind the regulations for applying for the exam.Chen Geng patted him hard and said, "I'm 21 years old this year, I'll lend you two years old!" The joy is visible. In this way, Chen Geng took a group of fellow Hunanese to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy, many of whom later became influential figures in the history of modern Chinese warfare.