Chapter 51 51. A pair of "husband and wife generals" who live and die together

In 1955, Li Zhen was awarded the rank of major general and became the first female general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.Her husband Gan Siqi was awarded the rank of general.Both husband and wife are generals, which is the only case in the ranks of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. People call this couple "husband and wife generals".The moving legend of the two of them living and dying together on the Long March and being in love with each other is still being sung by people today. In October 1934, the Sixth Red Army led by Ren Bishi and the Second Red Army led by He Long met in Muhuang, Yinjiang, Guizhou. Then the two teams joined forces and moved to western Hunan, opening up the Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou revolutionary bases.At this time, Li Zhen was transferred from the head of the Sixth Red Army to the head of the organization of the provincial military region, and Gan Siqi was transferred from the director of the Political Department of the Sixth Red Army to the director of the Political Department of the Second Red Army.

Ren Bishi's wife, Chen Zongying, was very concerned about Li Zhen's lifelong events.One day, Li Zhen came back from the countryside. After asking about the work in the countryside, Chen Zongying said to Li Zhen meaningfully: "When a woman is married, there are more things to do, but you can't always be single!" Li Zhen didn't know what to do at the time. how to answer.Chen Zongying simply said to her: "How about I introduce someone to you?" Li Zhen asked: "Who?" Chen Zongying said: "Director Gan, you are familiar with it!" familiar.Gan Siqi, formerly known as Jiang Fengwei, was born on December 21, 1903 in Ningxiang County, Hunan Province, which is adjacent to Li Zhen's hometown in Liuyang County, Hunan Province.Gan Siqi has suffered a lot since she was a child. When she was studying in Yunshan High School in Ningxiang County, she was influenced by the revolutionary ideas of Xie Juezai and others. In the summer of 1919, he was admitted to Changsha Changjun Middle School with excellent grades. He joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1925 and became a member of the Communist Party of China in 1926. In 1927, the party organization sent him to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, Soviet Union. Since then, he changed "Jiang Fengwei" to Gan Siqi. In 1931, Gan Siqi returned from the Soviet Union and was dispatched by the Party Central Committee to the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet Area to serve as the party representative of the First Independent Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.Soon the post of Propaganda Director of the Hunan-Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee was vacant. At the beginning, the organization deliberately transferred Li Zhen to take up the position.After that, the organization decided that Gan Siqi would be the Minister of Propaganda of the Hunan-Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee.

Gan Siqi is also very familiar with Li Zhen's situation.Li Zhen lost her father when she was young. When she was 6 years old, her family was too poor to eat. Her mother, with tears in her eyes, reluctantly sent her to a family with the surname Gu as a child bride.In the Gu family, she lived a life that was inferior to that of an ox and a horse. As long as she was a little slow in doing things, or disliked the Gu family, she would be beaten and scolded by the Gu family. In 1924, when Li Zhen was 16 years old, her rebellious psychology strengthened and her courage grew.One day, Li Zhen conspired secretly with several young brides-in-law, planning to secretly go to the city to work.Their behavior was discovered by the Gu family, and Li Zhen's mother-in-law hurriedly forced Li Zhen to consummate with Gu Tianshun.But this marriage did not allow Li Zhen to live a good life. She still lived an abused and oppressed life.

In 1925, the Great Revolution swept through Li Zhen's hometown Liuyang County. The 17-year-old Li Zhen broke through resistance, actively participated in the revolution, and secretly joined the Women's Association. In 1927, she joined the Communist Party of China with honor.After the failure of the Great Revolution, facing the massacre of the Communists by the enemy, Li Zhen's family was afraid that Li Zhen's actions would hurt the Gu family, so they quickly wrote a letter of divorce.After Li Zhen received the letter of divorce, she burst into laughter. She was glad that she was finally out of the cage.

In October 1927, Wang Shoudao, Zhang Qilong and other Communists returned to Liuyang Dongxiang under the instructions of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and began to rebuild the party organization here.They contacted Li Zhen, and together with Li Zhen, formed the Liudong Special Branch of the Communist Party of China and established the Liudong Guerrilla Force. Li Zhen served as the chairman of the soldiers committee of the guerrilla force. In May 1928, Zhang Qilong was captured by the regiment of the Kuomintang regiment defense bureau.Everyone is very anxious.Some people advocated storming the regiment defense bureau and rescued Zhang Qilong.However, Li Zhen proposed a different plan: "We pretend to be a welcoming team, sneak into Guanyintang, and then cooperate with the inside and outside. If they are caught off guard, we will definitely be able to rescue Zhang Qilong." Everyone agreed that this plan was good.On the second day, Li Zhen dressed up as a bride and sat in a sedan chair. More than a dozen strong men beat gongs and drums to form a lively welcoming team.After successfully fooling the regiment men on the checkpoint, and arriving at the gate of the regiment defense station, they quickly took out the guns from the sedan chair, rushed into the regiment defense station together, and rescued Zhang Qilong from the prison soon.A few days later, under the coordination of comrades, Li Zhen and Zhang Qilong held a simple wedding ceremony, and Li Zhen became the real bride. In early 1929, Li Zhen became pregnant.But soon, some guerrillas led by Li Zhen had an encounter with the enemy at a place called Shibazhe.They fought with the enemy for two days and two nights, and finally there were only 5 people left.The enemy with a large number of people forced them to a hill called Patriarch Cliff.With all the bullets fired, Li Zhen said to his comrades: "We can't let the enemy catch them alive. They are members of the Communist Party and revolutionaries. Jump down with me!" A guerrilla followed suit and jumped off the cliff.Of the five guerrillas, three jumped to their deaths. Li Zhen and another team member happened to jump onto a big tree and saved their lives.However, due to the violent collision of jumping off the cliff, the 4-month-old fetus in Li Zhen's stomach was aborted.Li Zhen and her teammates buried the fetus hastily on the spot with grief.Unexpectedly, another unfortunate incident followed. In 1933, Zhang Qilong was mistakenly classified as a "class dissident" and imprisoned during the "Eradication of Counter-revolutionaries".At that time, Liu Shijie, the head of the Organization Department of the Hunan-Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee (later executed for mutiny), approached Li Zhen sullenly and asked Li Zhen to make a choice in the name of the organization: either draw a line with Zhang Qilong and divorce immediately, or leave the revolutionary ranks.Li Zhen regards both revolution and love as sacred. After a fierce ideological struggle, she believes that revolution is more sacred and important, so she is forced to choose a divorce.Zhang Qilong in the prison also signed the divorce papers in order not to implicate Li Zhen. The "Left" erroneous line broke up a couple in this way.

Gan Siqi didn't care that Li Zhen had two unfortunate marriages. After arriving in Xiangxi, he developed a special affection for Li Zhen.With the care of He Long, Ren Bishi, Chen Zongying and others, they had more chances to get in touch with each other, and they also got to know each other better.Whether they are talking about work and ideals, or life and love, they hit it off very well.Gan Siqi also helped Li Zhen write a report summarizing her work.Li Zhen was very moved by Gan Siqi's help, and specially made a pair of cloth shoes for him. On New Year's Day in 1935, Ren Bishi presided over the marriage, and Li Zhen and Gan Siqi held a simple but warm wedding ceremony.

In November 1935, the Second and Sixth Red Army Corps started the Long March, and the suffering journey of Li Zhen and Gan Siqi began.Not long after the Long March, Li Zhen found out that she was pregnant.At that time, the organization mobilized her to stay on the spot until the child was born.With tears in her eyes, she said: "I am grateful for the care of the organization, but I can withstand any test, please rest assured!" During the Long March, Li Zhen's organization department was reduced to only three cadres, but the workload was heavy. It is endlessly busy from morning till night.

Li Zhen and his wife always leave the difficulties to themselves and the convenience to their comrades.The army gave Li Zhen a horse, but she gave it to a wounded man to ride.The army issued her a small tent, but she often gave it to the wounded and the Little Red Army soldiers.When her comrades were resting, she sneaked in to mend clothes for her comrades.Seeing a female soldier was sick, she gave her one of her good clothes without hesitation, but she was wearing thin old clothes.The long-time running and the wind and cold made Li Zhen's condition worse, but she still gritted her teeth and followed the troops.It wasn't until she was unable to walk that the comrades discovered that Li Zhen was ill.The comrades in arms came to see her condition one after another, and the wounded returned the horse to Li Zhen with tears, but Li Zhen refused to accept it.In the end, everyone couldn't help but tie her to the horse's back with a long cloth belt.

During the Long March, Gan Siqi, as the director of the Political Department of the Second Red Army Corps, worked very complicated every day, and he often suffered from headaches.It is difficult for Gan Siqi to take care of Li Zhen when she takes care of her work.After He Long and Ren Bishi learned that Li Zhen was seriously ill, they immediately ordered Gan Siqi to rush over to take care of her.Seeing that Li Zhen had a high fever, Gan Siqi was heartbroken and guilty.After being diagnosed by a doctor, Li Zhen contracted typhoid fever.In the absence of doctors and medicines, Gan Siqi sold his only private property, a gold pen awarded to him by Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, and bought medicine for Li Zhen, and finally got rid of Li Zhen's high fever. .Seeing his wife wearing thin old clothes, Gan Siqi took off his only sweater and put it on for Li Zhen.

When crossing the snow-capped mountains, the wind is biting.Li Zhen, who was weak, struggled to climb the ice peak of the snow-capped mountain. Her hands were numb and her feet were numb. She was hungry and hungry.When Liao Hansheng, political commissar of the fifth division, saw Li Zhen, he immediately took off a piece of sheepskin around his waist and gave it to Li Zhen.Li Zhen gratefully took the sheepskin, divided the sheepskin into two pieces, tied one piece on her body, and gave the other piece to a wounded patient. When crossing the grassland, Li Zhen was more than 7 months pregnant.When food was extremely scarce, Gan Siqi took out all his rations and distributed them to the wounded and sick, while he himself mainly relied on picking wild vegetables to satisfy his hunger.Every day, the first thing Gan Siqi did when he arrived at the camp was to take the comrades from the Political Department to look for wild vegetables.The edible wild vegetables were almost eaten by the troops in front, so he tried to eat those wild vegetables that he didn't know whether they were poisonous.Once Gan Siqi proves that a certain wild vegetable is indeed non-toxic after eating, he will be as happy as a child, and immediately draw up a telegram detailing the shape of this wild vegetable, and send it to the radio station to send it to the troops quickly, informing the commander to send someone as soon as possible collection.

However, at this time when she was short of food and clothing and had to eat bark, chew wild vegetables, and gnaw leather belts, Li Zhen gave birth prematurely.Enthusiastic comrades in arms sent her rags to make diapers for her children, and also gave her rare and precious barley noodles, which she was reluctant to eat, as Li Zhen's nutrition.The mother did not have much to eat, so naturally she gave the child very little milk.The child was congenitally malnourished when he was born, and he cried all the time.Before Li Zhen and the others walked out of the grassland, this poor little life died just ten days after coming into this world.This is the second time that Li Zhen has lost her beloved son, and this time Li Zhen has completely lost her fertility. This can be regarded as the great sacrifice made by Gan Siqi and Li Zhen for the revolution. After the child died, Li Zhen was haunted by serious illness again.She had a high fever and was often in a coma.As soon as Gan Siqi finished her work, she would run over to take care of Li Zhen.Li Zhen couldn't ride a horse, so Gan Siqi carried her forward.The comrades all hoped to help the two of them, so they made a stretcher together and insisted on carrying Li Zhen away.This made Gan Siqi very grateful, but he insisted on carrying one end of the stretcher himself to minimize the burden on his comrades. After walking out of the grassland, Gan Siqi also fell ill and couldn't even eat. When the cook saw him, he fried a dish and sent it to him.But he didn't eat anything, and immediately called the director of general affairs and told him that this was special care, and he must not be given special care in the future. In this way, Li Zhen and his wife shared weal and woe, and finally arrived in northern Shaanxi.He Long commented on them with great emotion: "Two model cadres, a revolutionary couple." After liberation, some old comrades regretted seeing Gan Siqi and said, "Old Gan, what a pity, you have revolutionized for decades without even having a child!" Li Zhen also felt guilty about this, and she advised Gan Siqi: "Old Gan, before it's too late, you can marry another wife so that you can have a child!" Gan Siqi replied very simply: "What I want is a lover, not a child!" Gan Siqi's love is deeply rooted It shocked Li Zhen's heart. On February 5, 1964, Gan Siqi, who was just over 60 years old, passed away prematurely due to illness.His wife Li Zhen continued to raise more than 20 orphans of revolutionary martyrs. 26 years later, on March 11, 1990, Li Zhen died of illness in Beijing.In her will, she entrusted two important things: the first important thing is to bury her ashes with Gan Siqi's ashes together, and she will be with Gan Siqi for life and death; the second big thing is to bury her usual savings The salary is divided into parts, part of which is paid to the party dues, part of which is donated to the Soong Ching Ling Children's Welfare Foundation, and part of which is donated to Gan Siqi's hometown - Ningxiang County, Hunan, as a school running subsidy.