Chapter 4 2. The child bride-in-law married a revolutionary man and followed him to start a revolution

The Lixi River, which runs all year round, gurgles out of the embrace of Qin'e Mountain, passing by the Hebei Village Group of Jiaofu Village, and has been flowing silently for 10,000 years. One day, a figure of a strange girl quietly appeared on the surface of the mirror-clear Lixi River.It was 1920, and 9-year-old Chi Yuhua married 6-year-old Li Cailian as a child bride-in-law. The three generations of Chi Yuhua's ancestors were tenant farmers who leased the land and worked hard.That year, in order to find some money to live on, my father went to Fujian to sell salt.Withdrawing one's hand is hunger, stretching out one's hand is disaster.Unexpectedly, her father honestly was lured into smoking opium. Not only did he fail to pick up the salt, but he even sucked up the poles and baskets from which the salt was picked.More than a month later, poor and sick, my father crawled home and saved his life.The house is empty, there is nothing to sell, only the seller.In order to survive, the father tried to sell his daughter to pay off the debt.

Hearing the wind, the stubborn Xiao Yuhua ran away quickly.Where to escape?After wandering in the mountains for a long time, she thought of an aunt in Chayuan Township, so she went to her aunt's house to "hide and sell".The poor aunt was also unable to support Xiao Yuhua, so she married Xiao Yuhua to Li Cailian, a rich family in the village, as a child bride.Xiao Yuhua's house lacked a mouth to eat, while Li Cailian's house had an extra pair of working hands.It was neither a bad nor a good marriage for both parties. Out of the poor den and into the bitter cave.Herding cattle, mowing grass, and chopping firewood, Xiao Yuhua, who is a pig, is used as a cattle. The marriage between the age of 6 and the age of 9 is only a marriage in name. In addition to the never-ending work, Xiao Yuhua, who is overwhelmed, sometimes takes care of her husband - Li Cailian, who is twitching with two thick noses.

Little Li Cailian has an extra protector, but little Chi Yuhua has an extra malaria victim, who is Li Cailian's stepmother. It is said that mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are a pair of contradictions that are difficult to reconcile.Then, the daughter-in-law and stepmother-in-law may be natural enemies.In the eyes of her stepmother and her mother-in-law, Chi Yuhua, a little natural enemy, fell from the sky, and he is not useless as a servant. Planting vegetables, doing laundry, cooking, working in the field... Xiao Yuhua, who is very good at doing things, is tired, and Li Cailian, who is not good at doing things, is free. Li Cailian, who is free, goes to Lixi Village Primary School in the upper reaches of Lixi River.

Schools are where knowledge is sown, and often revolution is also sown.The principles of the Three People's Principles silently penetrated Li Cailian's heart. Under the leadership of her teacher, Li Cailian began to secretly participate in revolutionary activities. Li Cailian is still a child after all.A sudden fight changed his life. It was a morning in early winter, and the rural people had nothing to do. Li Cailian, her elder brother Li Caiwan, and her father stood like wooden stakes under the eaves of the doorway, picking their noses and looking at the sky, and had nothing to say. .The elder brother Li Caiwan was very crooked, so he picked a big lump of booger from his nose and stuffed it into Li Cailian's mouth.Li Cailian thought she had something to eat, so she smacked her lips to realize that she had been fooled, and scolding Li Caiwan would kill her.Li Caiwan slapped Li Cailian with his hands.Li Cailian was also pretty crooked, she couldn't bear it, so she swore and beat her.The two wrestled with each other in front of the house.Li Cailian's father also got involved, cursing the two sons while trying to stop this "war".

This reckless father, it's better if he doesn't participate, the more he participates, the more troubles will arise. There was only a scream of "Ouch—" and for some reason, Li Cailian was already lying on the ground, and his foot bones were broken by his father.For this reason, Li Cailian stayed in bed for about three months and hated her father all her life. At the age of 14, Li Cailian, who was about to graduate from elementary school, was forced to suspend her studies, but she did not interrupt her revolutionary activities.Sometimes, Li Cailian disappeared after saying hello, and would not come back until several days later without a trace.In the labor with his face facing the loess and his back facing the sky, Chi Yuhua often did the work of one and a half people or even two people.The more she cooks, the more she eats. Sometimes she is so hungry that she will steal a little of Li Cailian's meal while she is lazing in the shade of a tree or reading a book.Li Cailian found out that she often strikes hard, and she has a meal of "explosive chestnuts" on her head.She covered her head and howled a few times.

Since the conflict over booger eating, family life has changed.Li Caiwan and his wife planted a field, and Li Cailian and his wife planted a field. Although they did not expressly say that they would separate, they were all preparing for the separation in their hearts and put it into action.That year, Li Cailian bought back a buffalo with the money earned from her labor, which was a solid step for the family separation.If the Red Army did not come to Xingguo, Li Cailian and Chi Yuhua would devote themselves to the road of getting rich, and their fate would definitely be different.But when the Red Army came, Li Cailian, who had already participated in the revolution, was completely involved in the revolutionary storm. He resolutely abandoned the buffalo that made his fortune and became a professional revolutionary.

Although Li Cailian married Chi Yuhua at the age of 6, she was still taken to sleep with her grandmother until she was 15 years old. At the age of 15, Li Cailian and Chi Yuhua consummated their marriage.It was the eve of the Spring Festival in 1929, and before going to bed on the night of New Year's Eve, Li Cailian put the pillow from her grandmother's bed to Chi Yuhua's bed under the guidance of her grandmother, and the two of them were consummated. A revolutionary storm swept through southern Jiangxi. On the third day of the consummation, that is, the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, Li Cailian bid farewell to his honeymoon wife and went to participate in the riots in the county town. Since then, he has embarked on the road of bloody revolutionary armed struggle.

The Soviet regime was established in the county seat, amidst the turbulent revolutionary storm.Everyone flocked to participate in the revolution, and overnight, people learned that 15-year-old Li Cailian was the Secretary of the Xingguo County Party Committee of the Shaoxing Communist Party.A few revolutionaries came out of the Li family.Li Wenlan, Li Cailian's uncle, served as the chairman of the District Soviet; Li Caiwan served as the captain of the District Young Pioneers, and later joined the Red Army as a political commissar in the third battalion of a certain unit of the Red Army; Chi Yuhua also served as the District Soviet Women's Minister.

Everyone is going to make a revolution and eat what they want.There is so much work to do in the field, how can Chi Yuhua escape! "There are so many people in the family, old and young, who want to eat. You have to control whether you are a revolution or not. You have to do the work in the field and the housework." Li Cailian's father and stepmother demanded Chi Yuhua. I just want a revolution.Although Chi Yuhua still doesn't understand revolution in the actual sense, he instinctively wants revolution.Everything is considered from the perspective of the husband: for the sake of a revolutionary husband, the wife should also make revolution; for the sake of a revolutionary husband, the wife cannot take part in the revolution.Therefore, Chi Yuhua was not a part-time cadre.The main work of her revolution is to ask everyone to beat straw sandals, ask everyone to pay public food, and ask everyone to serve as the Red Army. She is helping her husband when she is doing revolution; she is also helping her husband when doing housework.It is a natural responsibility of a wife to help her husband.Her husband is what she cares most about every day, so she also blesses her husband every day. How is her husband——Li Cailian outside?

Several members of the Li family who were abroad often sent letters back. The eldest brother Li Caiwan wrote a letter about the war in Fujian and the illness in Fujian... Her husband, Li Cailian, also sent letters back from time to time.Ask about the life in my hometown, the harvest in my hometown, and tell Chi Yuhua to do a good job in the family business, take good care of his younger siblings, and never beat his younger siblings so that his younger siblings will remember him forever... However, these letters often did not reach Chi Yuhua's eyes and hands.Because of her humble status at home, because the letters were not addressed to her, and because she was illiterate.The letter recognizes her, but she doesn't recognize the letter.

Although the letter is close at hand, it takes a long time for the content of the letter to reach her ears, some days, ten days, some months, half a year, and some she will never know.Whether she goes to the river to wash clothes, does housework at home, or works in the fields, she pays close attention to collecting information about Li Cailian and herself.Several times, Li Cailian moved to Xingguo County from thousands of miles away, and wrote to ask Chi Yuhua to go to Xingguo County to meet up as soon as possible. After Chi Yuhua learned about the appointment, the time for the appointment had already passed.At this time, Chi Yuhua would stand alone on the one-foot-high gate and look across the creek. It was a small road leading from home to the outside world, and it was also a small road returning home from the outside world. .Looking at this path, tears flowed unknowingly and covered her entire face unknowingly. For a young woman who has only been married for two days, she is worried day and night, thinking hard, and can only meet her husband in a dream to satisfy her hunger. Why does the date in reality come so slowly and go in such a hurry?What an exciting and brutal date it was!Li Cailian in Chi Yuhua's mind is like the moon in the sky, unattainable.Of the five campaigns against "encirclement and suppression" by the Red Army in the four years before the Long March, Li Cailian only came back twice.These two home visits, which are like morning stars, are deeply engraved in her memory and in her mind, and they are still so clear and kind after decades. It was a winter evening, and the biting north wind was bitingly cold. Chi Yuhua carried a bundle of firewood and was about to go into the kitchen to cook.When she passed the gate, she subconsciously looked back across the creek.Oh, and sure enough there was a black spot at the end of that endless path.Immediately, she fell into the hope and hopelessness that had been repeated thousands of times, watching and waiting so stupidly.The firewood burned out of the stove. If you are short-lived, hurry up and cook.When everyone comes back and has nothing to eat, the skin will be peeled off for you!When the stepmother stopped drinking, Chi Yuhua immediately returned to the stove, and while cooking, he pricked up his ears and listened carefully, distinguishing the distant footsteps on the small road across the river. Just as God still owes the handicapped, the hearing of the blind is particularly sharp, and the eyes of the deaf are particularly discerning. Chi Yuhua is "blind" who can't read, so she not only has very good eyesight, but also has very good hearing. Even on the stove, she can hear the distant footsteps on the path and distinguish the sound of footsteps. Is it Li Cailian? "Cailian is back, it's Cailian who's back!" Chi Yuhua happily rushed out of the kitchen, running towards the creek recklessly.However, why did Cailian's footsteps become so slow and lack vitality, as if she had been chilled by the cold, as if she had suffered a serious illness? He greeted him eagerly, and slowly took him back. Sure enough, it was the return of Li Cailian whom she had been longing for day and night.However, Li Cailian who came back was not as handsome and unrestrained as people said, riding a tall horse with such air.The dusty Li Cailian's face is shaved, her eyes are dull, her limbs are weak, her whole body is bowed, her back is hunched, and her body is shrunk. She looks like a tree shivering in the north wind. shrunken hay. Chi Yuhua rushed forward from a distance, and hugged Li Cailian tightly in his arms.After a long time, Li Cailian's cold face became slightly flushed, and her cold heart warmed up.They looked at each other speechlessly, and tears welled up in their eyes, washing out two white tear stains on a gray and black face.This Li Cailian is completely different from the past and future Li Cailian. It is impossible for Chi Yuhua to know that Li Cailian's return involves a leftist case.Li Cailian, who was already the leader of the Shangyou Center County Committee of the Communist Party of China, was "expelled" and returned to her original place... Going out of the mountains with the ambition to dedicate her life to the revolution, Li Cailian, who was exhausted physically and mentally, collapsed in the small dark room where she and Chi Yuhua consummated, smelling the strong damp and musty smell, and did not go out for three days. Room.Li Cailian, who left the house three days later, looked dull and dull, like an old man with a broken heart. She lost her false reputation of having a husband who was an official outside, but got a real husband whom she longed for day and night.Chi Yuhua doesn't understand and doesn't care about the gains and losses of the outside world. She plays the role of a big sister and a mother to comfort her husband every day, and she enjoys her groom every night like a bride. One day, Li Cailian and Chi Yuhua went up the mountain to catch stone frogs, and saw a strange battle.The two of them went upstream along the brook with bursts of frog drums, and saw a dozen or so big stone frogs weighing nearly 100 pounds singing by the water beside a deep pool.They were about to go around to catch it quietly, when they saw a whoosh, a king cobra descended from the sky and bit a stone frog.Whoah, whoah, whoah—the stone frog screamed miserably.The frogs were restless for a while, one stone frog suddenly jumped up and hugged the cobra, another stone frog jumped up and hugged the cobra, and another stone frog jumped up... The frightened cobra twisted its body vigorously, and the snake and frog rolled into the water together, sinking and floating, causing an uproar.After a long time, the dying cobra surfaced and rested on the shore for a long time before slowly crawling away.Injured stone frogs crawled into the crevices of the rocks to recuperate. Watching this scene of life struggle in nature quietly, both of them were stunned. Life is personal, but the ebb and flow of life cannot be grasped by individuals.The warmth and coldness in the world, and the vitality in the mountains and fields can all be condensed into clouds, and they can all be turned into a gentle breeze to continue with the breath of life. Ten days later, Li Cailian straightened her chest again. Twenty days later, Li Cailian, who was 1.70 meters high, came out of the mountain again with her head held high.An old revolutionary as a new revolutionary, he joined the revolution again. Why is the recovery of serious illness and the recovery of vitality so fast?I can't tell the reason, but there are at least the following reasons: Chi Yuhua's pure and simple love recalled Li Cailian's enthusiasm for life; it was the narrowness of the mountains that forced out Li Cailian's revolutionary will; The sarcasm inspires Li Cailian's fighting spirit; it is the struggle of the snake and frog that calls for Li Cailian's own ability to heal injuries; what is more important is Li Cailian's own ability to heal injuries. The comeback Li Cailian is more experienced, smarter and more mature. A man's battle is a woman's torment.What Chi Yuhua faced was another long round of waiting, and each new round of waiting was accompanied by new hopes.Before leaving, Chi Yuhua blushed, and asked Li Cailian a question that had lingered in his heart thousands of times. "You write letters to so many people outside, why don't you write to me?" "Write to you, you can't read, and you have to ask others to read about the two in-laws, how embarrassing!" Li Cailian said "You have to learn to read and learn culture." He wrote "Li Cailian, Chi Yuhua" stroke by stroke on the ground with a stick of firewood. Chi Yuhua remained silent, his blushing face became redder and more beautiful with shame.Yes, how can I ask others to read about the two in-laws.No wonder Li Cailian often tells herself to learn to read. Looking at her gentle and beautiful wife, Li Cailian stood outside the threshold and swore to Chi Yuhua, who was standing inside the threshold, according to the custom of swearing in the countryside: "This is a time of war, and there are so many rumors. Don’t believe it. I have a fortune teller, and the fortune teller said that I will not die, I will live long, and be rich. Remember, wait for me. In 20 or 30 years, even if the revolution succeeds in 50 or 60 years, I will definitely come back and be with you You get together". Facing the sworn Ruyi Langjun, Chi Yuhua was half angry and half coquettish, asked God to testify, and made an oath: "Go at ease, I will wait for you. If you don't come back in 20 years and 30 years, I will wait for 50 years and 60 years. If you don't come back in 50 years and 60 years, I will wait for you for 100 years. I will definitely wait for you at home to reunite!"