Chapter 27 a real person

Comrade Ma Mingfang is one of the founders of the Red Revolutionary Base in Northern Shaanxi. It has been 25 years since she was persecuted to death during the "Cultural Revolution". I met Ma Mingfang in 1935, when he was the chairman of the Soviet government in northern Shaanxi Province. I was a soldier, and I knew him and knew him. He didn’t know me, and of course he didn’t know me either. In the winter of 1936, Guo Hongtao, secretary of the Northern Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, was transferred to be the deputy director of the Central Organization Department, and Ma Mingfang succeeded Guo Hongtao as Secretary of the Northern Shaanxi Provincial Committee.

In 1938, Ma Mingfang went to the Soviet Union for medical treatment, and returned to China via Xinjiang in 1941. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Kuomintang warlord Sheng Shicai. It was not until 1946 that Zhou Enlai negotiated with the new Northwest Operation Director of the Kuomintang and Chairman of Xinjiang Province, Zhang Zhizhong. More than 100 Communists were released from prison and escorted back to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region by special vehicles. The Central Committee is fully aware of the situation of Ma Mingfang and other comrades in prison.They established a party branch and fought unyieldingly against the enemy, showing the heroic spirit of the Communist Party members.After returning to Yan'an, the Party Central Committee quickly made the correct conclusion for them.

Before Ma Mingfang was released from prison, Yan'an held a meeting of senior cadres of the Northwest Bureau in the summer of 1945 to discuss and summarize the struggle history of the Northwest Party.Ren Bishi, secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, attended the meeting and made a concluding speech at the end of the meeting.The meeting unanimously agreed that Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, Gao Gang, Ma Mingfang, Xi Zhongxun, Zhang Xiushan, Yan Hongyan, He Jinnian, etc. are representatives of the correct line in the revolutionary base areas in northern Shaanxi and the Shaanxi-Gansu border.And criticized the harm caused by Wang Ming's "Left" erroneous line to the Northwest Revolution.At the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China held before this meeting, Ma Mingfang was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee.

In August 1945, when Japan surrendered, Gao Gang, secretary of the Central Northwest Bureau, was sent to work in the Northeast, and Xi Zhongxun was the secretary of the Northwest Bureau.After Ma Mingfang returned to Yan'an, the Central Committee appointed him as the deputy secretary of the Northwest Bureau.After the liberation of Xi'an, the central government appointed Peng Dehuai as the first secretary of the Northwest Bureau, Xi Zhongxun as the second secretary, and Ma Mingfang as the third secretary. He also served as the secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee and the chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Government.

In Yan'an, the Northwest Bureau built a small stone cave dwelling with six eyes on the mountainside on the north side of the Dufu River Pass in Chengnanguan, which is the only "high-end guest house" in the Northwest Bureau.The cave can only accommodate a wooden bed, a three-dou table and two benches.Ma Mingfang lived in a small stone kiln to the north from the beginning.Because the kilns in the middle have already lived in customers.These guests are: Yang Mingxuan, a famous educator, once served as the Director of Education of Shaanxi Province and was a senior counselor to General Yang Hucheng; Ke Zhongping, a famous poet, was then the director of the Cultural Association of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region; Sun Zuobin, the former leader of the underground party in Gansu Province; Shao Da, a physician who defected from Shanghai to Yan'an.

The southernmost cave is where I live.It turned out to be the residence of Cui Tianfu.Cui Tianfu was also one of the founders of the Northern Shaanxi Soviet Area. He did not go to school and was a long-term worker for the landlord.After the start of the Anti-Japanese War, he served as the director of the anti-enemy support association jointly composed of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Trade Union, Youth League, and Women's Federation.After the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Northwest Bureau established the Party Supervisory Committee, and Cui Tianfu was appointed as the full-time secretary.I was transferred from the Organization Department of the Northwest Bureau to the Supervisory Committee, and I held three positions: Secretary of the Supervisory Committee, Cui Tianfu's secretary, and Cui Tianfu's culture teacher.In order to facilitate contact with me, Cui Tianfu asked me to live in his small stone kiln.

It was at this time that I became acquainted with Ma Mingfang.Because I lived in a row of cave dwellings, I saw each other many times every day.He was only in his forties at that time, with a medium build, fair skin, and two big eyes that were piercing and sparkling with wisdom.He is not good at talking, especially after many years of prison life, he can't speak, and his speech becomes more and more slow.But his attitude towards people is kind, approachable, honest and simple.When meeting people, he always likes to stand down and ask questions. He seems very casual, and he can't tell that he is a "big official".He and Ma Shuliang got married in this small stone cave dwelling.His original wife died of illness when he was in the enemy's prison in Xinjiang.

When Ma Mingfang and Ma Shuliang got married, there was no ceremony.At that time, the cadres did not earn money, had no wages, clothing and food, all were supplied, so there was no money, and no matter who got married, there was no such thing as treating guests and giving gifts.Generally, comrades crowded together in a cave dwelling, joking and bustling.Some put a pair of couplets on the door, or wrote a few words of congratulations on red paper.As for the marriage of Ma Mingfang and Ma Shuliang, there were no such formalities, no one wrote a congratulatory message, and there were no couplets posted on the door.

At that time, due to the blockade by the Kuomintang, Yan'an did not even have the so-called "foreign sugar", which is the most common and cheapest "mixed sugar" today.Fruits—apples, pears, peaches, dates, etc. are local specialties and can be bought, but the cadres have no money.Therefore, there is no fruit when they get married.The general way is to buy a few taels of pumpkin seeds, that is, white melon seeds. Where did the money to buy melon seeds come from? The cadres and students in Yan’an, regardless of whether they are high officials or small officials, students or cadres, in order to overcome the Kuomintang’s blockade and overcome difficulties, the Party Central Committee decided to launch a large-scale production campaign. Everyone must participate in production and hand over certain production tasks to the public. Turn in a few buckets of grain or how much it is equivalent to.The form of production and what to produce are organized by the unit, and can also vary from person to person.Some open up wasteland and farm land - growing grain, potatoes, cabbage, and radishes.Some went to collect firewood in the mountains of 20lipu and 30lipu in Funanchuan, went there in the morning and returned in the evening, carried the firewood on their backs, and sold them in the new market the next day.Some dig cave dwellings and dig soil.Some carried stones, built kilns, and built walls.Lesbians and the weak and disabled mostly spun woolen threads or packed cotton-padded clothes for quilt factories.Others have the technology to boil lye and soap.The easiest job is to paste envelopes with old newspapers for the government at night (there are no kraft paper envelopes in Yan'an, and the envelopes used are all pasted with old newspapers). The newspapers are not the white paper we see today, but local grass Made of yellow and black "horse fence paper".The supply department of the unit will paste the noodles, and give two cents for a stack of (12) envelopes.After dinner and before going to bed, I can sometimes paste five stacks of 60 envelopes, and earn a dime (the banknotes issued in the border area), which can buy two walnuts or a handful of white melon seeds.Sometimes, we sprinkle the unused paste with some salt, eat it before going to bed, and lick the small bowl clean.This incident was discovered by the supply department later, and the paste that was distributed was mixed with kerosene and could not be eaten. It could not be used up today, and it would be used tomorrow, also to save some noodles.

In short, it is necessary to turn over the production quota issued within one year until enough.If there is any remaining money, you can return it to yourself. Ma Mingfang was released from prison not long ago, so of course it is impossible to have the money left after the completion of the production task.Ma Shuliang is a student transferred from Mizhi Middle School. She works as an interpreter on a confidential radio station and as a stenographer in meetings. She hasn't even finished the production task she handed in. How can she have enough money to buy fruits and melon seeds for her wedding?

After dinner that day, we went to the "bridal chamber" and saw a few handfuls of white melon seeds on the small three-dou table by the window sill. I don't know who gave it to us. Not only did there not a plate, there was not even a piece of white paper, and there were not many melon seeds. , piled on the table.Besides, there was nothing to eat.On the small ground, there were only two wooden stools for one person. A dozen or so comrades had no place to sit, so they crowded and stood on the ground. Each of them grabbed a few melon seeds and said a few congratulatory words. The bride and groom did not sit down, but stood on the ground like everyone else, with happy smiles on their faces. Ma Mingfang said: "There are not enough stools, please sit on the bed." The bed was empty. It turned out that there was only an earthen white quilt from the public house, which was folded squarely and placed on the head of the bed. Today, there was an extra quilt. It was obviously not from the public house, but Ma Shuliang bought it from home when he came to Yan'an. The quilt is also made of earthen cloth, with a light print on the quilt, which looks very elegant.No one goes to bed to sit. On the window sill stood several books, including "A Concise Course on the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)," a compilation of study documents for the Yan'an Rectification Movement, and Mao Zedong's works "On Protracted War", "On the New Stage", "On New Democracy" and "On New Democracy". Great report "On Coalition Governments".This is all the belongings of the bride and groom, this is the bride and groom's bridal chamber, and this is the wedding of the bride and groom. Later, Ma Mingfang moved to the big stone cave dwelling on the mountain, and this small stone cave became the bridal chamber of another newlywed couple, who had just returned to the Northwest Bureau from the first rectification study of the Central Party School, and were waiting to be assigned to the Longdong Prefectural Committee to take over Ma Wenrui The bridal chamber where Li Hebang, who is the secretary of the prefectural committee, and Cao Xiangru, a girl who graduated from the sixth department of the Central Party School, held their wedding ceremony.Comrades Li Hebang and Cao Xiangru are very familiar to me. When I got married, of course I also went to the "bridal chamber", but it was exactly the same as Ma Mingfang's and Ma Shuliang's weddings. Only a handful of melon seeds were placed on the table. The difference was that, There was an extra bench on the ground, and an old old box beside the bed. I don't know if it was Li Hebang's "possession" or Cao Xiangru's "possession". After the liberation of Xi'an, the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China was stationed in a compound at Wuyue Temple Gate, Xiangzimiao Street, at the foot of the southern city wall. Ma Mingfang served as secretary of the provincial party committee, and Zhang Bangying and Li Hebang served as deputy secretaries.I work in the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee, and we all meet every day in the bungalow in this compound. At this time, Ma Mingfang and Ma Shuliang had a daughter named Xiaofang.He looks the same as Ma Mingfang, with a fair face, big eyes, and is very smart.Ma Mingfang regards this little daughter as a treasure. As long as he is free, he will take Xiaofang for a walk at the door in the morning and evening. When the "Cultural Revolution" began, Ma Mingfang was the third secretary of the Central Northeast Bureau and lived in Shenyang.Xiaofang has finished junior high school and is preparing to take the high school entrance examination.But at this time, the school "suspended classes to cause a revolution", and the students "rebelled", so Xiaofang dropped out of school. Then, Ma Mingfang was wrestled by the rebels, framed as a "traitor" and "secret agent", and thrown into a secret prison.Ma Mingfang's family was implicated.Her wife, Ma Shuliang, was sent to the "May 7th" cadre school for labor inspection; his son, his daughter-in-law's family, daughter, and son-in-law were exiled to the countryside, criticized and paraded in the streets, and suffered all kinds of abuse; his favorite youngest daughter, Xiaofang, had a deep relationship with her father. At the beginning, she knew that her father was criticized, and when she went to school, her classmates called her a "bastard" and beat her, so she dared not go to school.When I got home, I didn't see my father coming back. I asked my mother. My mother was afraid that she would be mentally stimulated, so she didn't dare to tell her that her father had been arrested and imprisoned. She coaxed her and said: "Father asked Chairman Mao to call me to Beijing for a meeting." She looks forward to it every day, month to month, and year after year to her father's return. Their home was ransacked, and she and her mother were driven to work in the countryside by the rebels. When the children saw her, they threw stones and beat her, and called her the "five black categories" (children of landlords, rich, counter-revolutionaries, bad, and rightists) and "a son of a bitch". Xiaofang was regarded as the apple of his eye by her father since she was a child, how could she stand such a big bullying and blow!Her spirits were gradually failing.She wakes up in the middle of the night every day, still calling her dear father, but she can't hear her father's voice. Finally, Xiaofang's schizophrenia broke down and she was sent to a lunatic asylum! Today, Xiaofang is in her forties, still living in a lunatic asylum, and calling for her missing father every day. Every time Ma Shuliang went to the lunatic asylum to visit her only beloved daughter Ma Xiaofang, Xiaofang always opened her big and stiff eyes and asked her mother: "Chairman Mao hasn't let Dad come back yet?" Mom swallowed her tears and always said: "No. I believe Chairman Mao will let Dad come back after the meeting." Poor Xiaofang, she still doesn't know that her father was brutally persecuted to death by Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" in 1974! Since Ma Mingfang was secretly detained in the Beijing Garrison in October 1967, his wife and family members were not allowed to see him.His eldest daughter, Ma Rui, risked herself and repeatedly begged, and the "Ma Mingfang Task Force" agreed to let her visit Ma Mingfang on February 2, 1973.It was the 30th day of the Lunar New Year.Ma Rui braved the heavy snow early in the morning and came to the designated location in the western suburbs of Beijing.At around ten o'clock, two young men pulled out a hunched man from the jeep. He was wearing a small, dirty yellow cotton coat with no buttons, his ribs were exposed, his legs were bent, and he could neither stand nor stand. The little old man who won't go.Ma Rui couldn't believe it, the little old man with gray face, long beard, and a worn-out felt hat, was his father Ma Mingfang! Ma Rui's eyes turned black for a while, and his mind went blank.She was so shocked that she lost her thoughts and tears.She hadn't seen her father for nearly six years.That burly, strong, strong, upright but kind father didn't look like this when he was released from the Xinjiang Kuomintang prison for four years!She thought: Could the "special task force" have made a mistake?She shouted in her heart: This is not true!Not true at all!After a while, it was Ma Mingfang who spoke first and asked about the whereabouts of his wife Ma Shuliang and his beloved daughter Xiaofang, and Ma Rui woke up like a dream, crying and crying.She shouldn't have lost her composure and wept in front of her father. How much her poor father needs the comfort of his relatives at this time!She held back her tears and shouted over and over again: Dad!dad! Ma Mingfang was sent to the Capital Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Hospital (Tongren Hospital) in 1973 when he was tortured until he was dying.Once, he asked his eldest daughter Ma Rui, who came to visit, to bring him a ballpoint pen refill. He stuck it between his fingers, carried the guards behind his back, and spent more than a month writing a letter to Premier Zhou with trembling hands. Long letter. This letter was written by Ma Mingfang secretly on the cigarette pack and on the edge of the newspaper. On March 15, 1973, when Ma Rui went to visit his father in the Capital Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Hospital, he quietly pulled it out from his trouser waist, handed it to his daughter, and asked Ma Rui: Comrade Sun Weishi must be handed over to Premier Zhou.When he learned that Sun Weishi had been persecuted to death, he slowly closed his eyes and couldn't help crying.During his eight-year detention, he suffered severe physical and mental damage, but he has not forgotten to study "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" and he has not forgotten that he is a party member.He told his daughter, people don't recognize me as a party member now, I haven't paid the party dues, and I don't have any money. One day, I will pay the party dues in full. Before he died, he repeatedly told his children that you must report my affairs to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou, saying that I, Ma Mingfang, am a good man and not a traitor. The minions of the "Gang of Four" tried all kinds of tricks and torture against Ma Mingfang, but none of them made him surrender. On August 13, 1974, Ma Mingfang finally died of injustice! How did Ma Mingfang know that Sun Weishi had the same experience as him!When he wrote this letter to Premier Zhou, Sun Weishi had been persecuted to death by Jiang Qing for several years, so this letter was never delivered to Premier Zhou.Now, this letter can only be displayed in the earth cave dwelling of his home in Yejiacha Village, Mizhi County, so that future generations can know. Ma Mingfang's poor beloved daughter, Xiaofang, is still calling for the father she misses day and night in the lunatic asylum! Ma Mingfang is like a spirit under the nine springs, he must also miss his beloved little daughter Xiaofang! The party and government leaders and people in Ma Mingfang's hometown have not forgotten his great achievements in creating the revolutionary base area in northern Shaanxi, and his great contributions to the establishment and construction of a new China.Not only the sons and daughters miss their relatives, but the people also miss their heroes! Comrade Ma Mingfang, immortal!