Chapter 29 10. Cai Chang, wife of Li Fuchun

In the Central Soviet Area, Cai Chang was once a powerful figure.Her appearance is elegant and dignified, and she has the demeanor of a lady.However, she is humble, hard-working and simple, and talented, and is deeply respected and supported by the people of Jiangxi and the women's circles in the Soviet area. In November 1931, Cai Chang was transferred to the Central Soviet Area.At that time, the army and civilians in the Soviet area smashed the enemy's third "encirclement and suppression" campaign, and the base area developed greatly.When he first arrived in the Soviet area, Cai Chang worked as a political teacher at the Red Army School in Ruijin, responsible for teaching the history of social development.She is knowledgeable, articulate and fluent, and her classes are very popular with the students.

At the end of the same year, it was the cold winter season, and the organization promoted Cai Chang to the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China to serve as the Minister of Women and Acting Minister of the Organization Department.Therefore, Cai Chang and Li Fuchun rode their horses to Niukengtang, Xingguo, where the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee is located.At that time, Li Fuchun served as the secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Chen Yi served as the commander of the Jiangxi Provincial Military Region. At that time, women's work in the Soviet area was very active.In the Women's Department of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, Cai Chang has two young capable men, one is Wei Xiuying and the other is Deng Shixiang.They are all from Xingguo, born in poverty, have high revolutionary enthusiasm, and are good at doing mass work.Cai Chang often took them to villages and households to publicize and mobilize women to be self-reliant, work hard, develop production, support wars, and build revolutionary bases.

She often said: "Women should play half the role of the sky. Anything that gay men can do, lesbians should strive to be able to do." After the first All-Soviet Congress passed the "Marriage Regulations", Cai Chang took the cadres of the Women's Department of the Provincial Party Committee to visit villages and households, visiting and investigating, and vigorously preaching.At that time, there were many marital disputes in the Soviet area. Some daughters of poor and hired farmers who were sold to landlords and rich peasants asked for divorce and divorce, and some asked for divorce because of coercion.Every time such a thing happened, Cai Chang always supported the majority of women in accordance with the provisions of the "Marriage Ordinance", and actively supported them to fight for their right to independent marriage.Regarding the abuse of women, Cai Chang mobilized the masses to carry out reasoning struggles, and even held public trial meetings to criticize serious cases.Thanks to Cai Chang's efforts, the status of women in the Soviet area has been greatly improved, and the phenomenon of women's oppression and discrimination has been corrected and improved.As a result, Cai Chang won high prestige among the women in the Soviet area.

In normal times, no matter in the office or at the grassroots level, Cai Chang would always gather activists among women cadres together to chat about family affairs and study problems.She always kindly said to everyone: "Don't call me my official title, just call me Cai Chang, or Cai Dajie, I am older than you! I like listening to you very much, and I will worship you when I arrive in Xingguo Mr. Wei, teach me to understand Xingguo's old sayings. Otherwise, I really don't understand your 'national' language!" Everyone saw that Cai Chang, who had stayed abroad, was so frank, sincere, and easy-going, and they were very happy to talk to her, and they affectionately called her Sister Cai.

Spring plowing has arrived.At that time, 80 to 90 percent of young and middle-aged men in the Soviet area joined the Red Army and went to the front. Only the old, the weak, women, and children were left at home, and the fields were in danger of being barren.what to do?Cai Chang vigorously called on women to go to the fields to shoulder the heavy burden of production.The women in Jiangxi are very hardworking and know how to do a lot of farm work, but they shrink back when they talk about plowing and raking the fields on top of men.Cai Chang didn't know the reason at first.After investigation, I found out that there was a superstitious saying in the history of this place: "Women learn to plow and hens learn to crow. If you violate the law of heaven, you will be struck by lightning." This kind of saying has a great mental bondage and threat to women , No woman in the country dares to touch the plow.In order to get rid of this superstition and publicize scientific ideas, Cai Chang took the lead in rolling up his trousers and going to the fields, worshiping old farmers as teachers and learning the plow and rake.After learning, women representatives from all townships were gathered to train in batches and teach operational techniques.They are all natives of their hometown, and they have cleared their minds and quickly mastered the operation method.When they returned to the countryside, they adopted the same method to train women in rotation. The whole province quickly formed a climax of women plowing and raking the fields, sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings in a timely manner, and a bumper harvest of grain was obtained that year.Not a single woman in the province has been "thundered".Women in the Soviet area also broke superstition in practice and developed production. In December 1933, Xingguo County was rated as a model county for women's work in the province at the first women workers and peasants' congress in Jiangxi Province.

The women in the Jiangxi Soviet Area had working habits and revolutionary zeal, but they were uneducated, which brought many difficulties to their work.In order to improve women's cultural knowledge, Cai Chang asked women's organizations at all levels to cooperate with cultural and educational departments to set up night schools and study for one hour every night.Insufficient teachers, we adopted the method of teaching those who are capable, and hired people who had just learned the culture as teachers; in the absence of kerosene, we lit pine nuts for lighting. Under difficult conditions, many women in the Soviet area were able to read and learn culture. .

Cai Chang also attached great importance to the training of women's ten departments.By organizing various training classes for women cadres, she organized women cadres to study politics, military affairs, culture, and mass work methods.After training, the quality and level of women cadres have been significantly improved.By 1933, there were 27 women cadres at the county level in the 16 counties in the Jiangxi Soviet Area, and more than 20 women in Xingguo County served as the township chairmen, and they played a key role in the construction of the Soviet regime. When Cai Chang worked in the Jiangxi Soviet Area, his life was quite poor.At that time, there were not many leading cadres of the provincial party committee, and there were not enough seats for a table when they were all there for dinner.We often eat at the same table and eat vegetables in the same bowl. Sometimes the vegetables are not enough, so we find a few chopped peppers and mix them with salt, and we still eat very happily.

In October 1934, Cai Chang and Li Fuchun bid farewell to the Central Soviet Area with the Long March team.