Chapter 103 102. A good member of the anti-enemy drama club——Record of Fang Bi, a model member of the anti-enemy drama club in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region

In the mid-winter of 1940, the Taihang Mountains were covered with snow.In a small village in the southwest of Pingding County, Shanxi Province, anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians cleared the snow from the threshing ground. On the evening of December 22, thousands of soldiers and civilians from the border area gathered on the field to watch the playwright Cao Yu's play performed by the Anti-Enemy Drama Society of the Eighth Route Army's Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region. On the simple stage raised from the temporary tower, six gas lamps were suspended, illuminating the whole stage as if it were daytime.The vivid images and wonderful performances of the actors touched the hearts of soldiers and civilians.The actor who played the "little thing" in the play, when the "little thing" in the play was cheated, sold, beaten, and humiliated by the capitalists, and hanged himself with a rope, the old ladies in the audience went crazy. The old man cried loudly, "Daughter, you can't go that way!"

The actor of this "little thing" is Fang Bi, a literary warrior who was awarded the "Model Member" by the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region. Fang Bi, also known as Fang Cailin, was born in July 1914 in Wudu Village, Bei'an Township, Shexian County, at the southern foot of Huangshan Mountain, Anhui Province. She moved to Xinshi Town, Deqing County, Zhejiang Province with her parents when she was young.After graduating from elementary school, she was admitted to Shanghai Patriotic Girls Middle School. She loved literature and art at school and was a key member of the school's amateur "Civilized Drama Club".Due to the family's financial difficulties, he dropped out of school and returned to She County to work. In the spring of 1935, he came to Shanghai with his mother and lived with her sister Fang Caixiu.Fang Caixiu joined the Communist Party in 1934 and engaged in underground work, which made Fang Bi influenced by revolutionary ideas.

In the autumn of 1936, Fang Bi went to Shanghai Hongkou Xudong Primary School as a teacher, and soon entered the Shanghai Hosiery Factory as a bookkeeper.Here, she married Wu Zantang, who worked at the China Universal Education Society in Shanghai, and gave birth to a son.Both the couple threw themselves into the torrent of resisting Japan and saving the country. After the Spring Festival in 1938, Fang Bi met the progressive female writer Hu Lanqi in his hometown.Hu Lanqi attended the Wuhan Military Academy as early as the Great Revolution, and later went to Germany to study. She was very respected, and younger comrades called her "Big Sister".Hu Lanqi brought 18 female workers from Shanghai to form a field service group for working women.Seeing that Fang Bi was very handsome, able to speak, sing, and write well, these enthusiastic young female workers called her "a flower in Huangshan Mountain", and they soon became flesh-and-blood comrades-in-arms.Hu Lanqi appreciates Fang Bi's fortitude, boldness, and integrity, and often gives her care and encouragement. In May, the pomegranate blossoms were red and colorful, and Hu Lanqi introduced Fang Bi to study in Yan'an.

Fang Bi entrusted the child to her husband who stayed in his hometown because of his revolutionary work, and arrived in Yan'an.She was sent to study at the second branch of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, and at the same time engaged in literary creation and performances in the school's art troupe.She wrote in her diary: "After I arrived in Yan'an, everything felt exciting like never before. It was like the end of a long night, the dawn of dawn was first seen, and everything was full of germs of hope! I firmly believe that expel the Japanese and save the The important task of national peril can only be undertaken by the Communist Party and the army led by the Communist Party! I want to love the noble cause that I have found hard like I love my eyes, and I am determined to follow this path to complete the journey of life.”

In July 1939, the Anti-Enemy Theater Club of the Jinchaji Military Region went to the second branch of the Anti-Japanese University to select literary and artistic fighters.At that time, the struggle situation on the front line of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei was complicated, with frequent battles and very difficult life.Fang Bi is a woman and a southerner who has not yet passed the language barrier, so she was not selected.However, Fang Bi found the leader and asked repeatedly to go to the front.The leadership finally approved her request. At that time, the anti-enemy drama club was divided into four teams: drama, song and dance, music, and art. It was a comprehensive military art group. Memorize lines on the marching road with rumbling gunfire, and rehearse the performance at the campsite.Performances tend to run from dusk until late at night, sometimes all night long.It is often the end of the stage performance, after packing up the costumes and props, closing your eyes and taking a nap, it will be dawn, and then embark on the march.In the gaps between military performances, Fang Bi helped the cooks wash rice, cut vegetables, and wash clothes; offered to sing songs and perform small shows for officers and soldiers on guard and on duty; or helped breeders pull weeds and cook beans.The comrade's clothes were torn, and she found them to mend them; she used the pocket money of one yuan a month issued by the organization to buy paper and pens and exercise books for the comrades.She always does everything she thinks she should do quietly.Everyone called her "the restless Huangshan girl".In the winter of that year, Fang Bi was awarded the honorable title of "Model Member" by the Political Department of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region after being selected by the masses.

In 1940, the Northern Branch of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China called on the military and civilians in the border areas to launch mass production campaigns to defeat the Japanese blockade.The Anti-Enemy Theater Club cooperated with the mass production movement, arranged various forms of "production big live report" dramas day and night, and performed tours in various places in the border areas to enhance the courage and confidence of the soldiers and civilians in the border areas to overcome difficulties.Fang Bi was the same as in the past, performing on the front stage, writing plays in the background, and doing stage work. He shouldered several burdens, tired and thin, and his eyes were red. The comrades in the crew said distressedly: "Fang Bi is really going to die." Got it." Fang Bi just smiled lightly in the face of the praise.

On New Year’s Eve in 1941, the anti-enemy drama club was stationed in Chenjiayuan, Pingshan County, along with the military region. Urgent task.He said that the military region was holding a military meeting. Commander Nie Rongzhen felt that the leaders of the various divisions participating in the meeting had been fighting on the front line all year round, and their lives were tense. They needed to relax their minds during the meeting and asked them to perform Cao Yu's drama.In the play, Fang Bi plays the "little thing" who has been bullied.In order to accurately grasp the characters' images and let the "little things" who are devastated and persecuted and have nowhere to go shake the hearts of officers and soldiers, she repeatedly figured out the inner world of the characters, absorbed nutrients from the life of female workers in Shanghai in the past, and chose the appropriate form of performance .She humbly listened to the director's inspiration and the help of her comrades.For a line, an action, she can practice without eating or sleeping, over and over again until she and everyone are satisfied.On the night of the third day of the first lunar month, when the "tent stage" was set up in a spacious open space at the head of the village for an official performance, the nearby villagers braved the cold weather to come. Also came with great interest.The plot unfolds scene by scene, the characters in the play tell tragic stories one by one, and the capitalists are stripped of their camouflage layer by layer.Fang Bi on the stage wore unlined clothes as required by the plot, and shed tears for the "little thing" in the suffering childhood. There was a sobbing sound from the audience, and the air froze heavily!Fang Bi succeeded!After the play, the leaders of the border area praised Fang Bi and said: "You acted with emotion and vividness." Another time, the theater company performed the play "Send Lang Dang Eight Road", Fang Bi played a young peasant woman who mobilized her husband to join the army. The performance is lifelike and moving, leaving a deep impression on the soldiers and civilians.

In the anti-enemy drama club, Fang Bi's literary and artistic talents were fully displayed.She has successively created literary and artistic works such as the novel "Little Lingzi", drama "Street Scenery", and "Going Together" to promote the anti-Japanese and national salvation, which are very popular among the soldiers and civilians in the border areas. In the spring of 1942, in the Wutai Mountains of Shanxi, the drizzle stopped and fell suddenly, washing the air cool.Although the young leaves of the trees are still very small, there is some greenery everywhere.In order to cooperate with the army and civilians in the border areas to fight against "mopping up" in spring, the Eighth Route Army launched a "political offensive".The anti-enemy drama club was divided into three groups, each with more than 10 people, who participated in three martial arts teams on the west front of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, and performed outside activities in Wutai and Yuxian areas.In order to meet the requirements of the field battle, Fang Bi cut off his thick and long black hair, dressed like a male soldier, and asked to go to the most difficult place.In terms of organization, she was sent to accompany the Dingxiang guerrillas to carry out activities in Shanyin, Dai County, and Nao County (now Yuanping County).Together with comrades from the drama club, she performed with the troops from one village to another, sometimes performing in several villages overnight.Once, during the performance, the gun rang out and the enemy called.Before Fang Bi unloaded, he picked up the gun, tucked in the grenade, and plunged into the intense battle.After defeating the enemy, continue to act out the unfinished scene. On the evening of April 12, Fang Bi and the armed forces team moved to Shengangtou Village, Nao County.

In the early morning of the next day, more than 200 Japanese troops from Hongdao town surrounded the village because of the traitor's report. The Eighth Route Army was in a very dangerous situation.The martial arts team fought in front to cover the comrades from the drama club to break through. Fang Bi and Du Feng rushed out of the village together and ran up the Beishan Mountain.Braving the hail of bullets, the two walked around the pear forest, supported each other, and walked through a terraced field. Due to the narrow road, Du Feng stepped on the ground and fell into a ditch several feet deep.Suddenly dozens of devils held bayonets, and the traitors winked and shouted: "Surrender, Nubalu!" and approached Fang Bi.When the enemy was only 20 steps away from her, she threw out the last grenade calmly and resolutely, blowing up several Japanese soldiers into minced meat, and then broke through through the smoke screen of the explosion.Before she had gone far, the Japanese army chased after her and blocked her way.The traitors approached her with their teeth bared.Facing the enemy's gleaming knives, she shouted: "Down with Japanese imperialism!" "Long live the Communist Party of China!" Several enemy bayonets stabbed at her body.

After repelling the enemy, the army and militia rushed to the place where Fang Bi died, and buried her under the pear tree with tears in his eyes. When the villagers heard the sad news of Fang Bi's heroic sacrifice, they all cried bitterly.The drama club wrote in the elegy in memory of Fang Bi: