Chapter 70 2. Barter, burn rice crackers in oil for bullets, over time, the kitchen becomes an arsenal

Li Meiqun was born in 1911 in a poor peasant family in Tangtou Village, Liwu, in the southern suburb of Xingguo County, Jiangxi Province.The parents raised nine girls in a row, and Meiqun was the fourth. It was a patriarchal era.In poor families, boys are laborers and girls are losers.Therefore, every time Grandma Meiqun saw her daughter-in-law gave birth to a girl, she would yell at her as "a perfect woman!" Except for the eldest, the eight daughters were sent to other people's homes to be "beautiful girls" (adopted daughters).The mother works as a nurse and supports the family with the income from selling human milk.

The fourth eldest, Li Meiqun, was given to a family in Langmu Village, Changgang Township before the full moon. The baby born to the adoptive father and mother died young.Accepting Li Meiqun, the family hoped to achieve several things in one fell swoop: one is to "nanny", the other is to "recruit a younger brother", and the third is to "recruit a husband".Recruiting is to engage a fellow clansman to her as her husband-in-law. The triple hope system brought luck to Li Meiqun, and she was sent to a private school for three years. There is a long way to go.There are too many hopes, but lack of perseverance. The adoptive parents died of illness one after another in the middle of their lives.

Li Meiqun had no means of living and was forced to drop out of school and return to her natal home to reunite with her biological parents. On December 20, 1928, the Second Independent Regiment of the Red Army and the 15th Independent Column of the Red Army launched an armed riot in Xingguo, and the red flag flew for the first time in Xingguo County. A turbulent wave of revolution swept across urban and rural areas. Various revolutionary ideas such as "defeat local tyrants and divide land" and "freedom of marriage" were aroused. Li Meiqun, who was only 17 years old, had long wanted to end the feudal arranged marriage. The revolution gave her courage and opportunities. Through this, she got rid of the family fetters of her adoptive parents and broke through the secular world. With Zhong Yanzhang, a young tailor in Nanxiang, Free love, soon to be married.

After marriage, both husband and wife devoted themselves to revolutionary activities and became revolutionary partners.This year, when the azalea was in full bloom, the couple stood under the red banner of the sickle and axe and raised their fists to swear to join the party.Zhong Yanzhang was elected as the chairman of the Farmers' Union in Banan Township to lead the work of the Farmers' Self-Defense Force.Li Meiqun became a backbone of the Red Guard. In April 1929, Mao Zedong led the third column of the Fourth Red Army to mobilize the masses in Xingguo. The wind is blowing and the clouds are flying.As a grassroots female cadre, Li Meiqun got involved consciously or unconsciously. Regardless of gossip, she took the lead in removing jewelry, cutting off her braids, breaking through feudal resistance, and spreading revolutionary principles from door to door.

The revolution drove her, and she drove others. Groups of girls in the village continued to work, and the revolutionary flames in Xingguo County were blazing. The young ones cut their braids, and the older ones cut their hair in a bun, showing their heads in public, wearing armbands, holding a pickaxe, catching local tyrants, and fighting Youkun.Li Meiqun is full of enthusiasm, does not know what suffering and tiredness are, leads the masses, and walks at the forefront of the struggle. In June 1929, Zhang and Ren of the Kuomintang invaded Xingguo and occupied the county. The newly established Revolutionary Committee of Xingguo County was transferred to Chenggangwei, and the Red Guards from all over the county were gathered into twenty-five columns and launched a see-saw guerrilla war with the White Army.

With the enemy at hand, Li Meiqun and his girlfriends also retreated to the countryside.Soon, they accepted new tasks: Work as a white army soldier.Soon, she organized women red guards in the areas of Banan and Hongmen and established the "White Army Soldiers Sports Committee". At that time, women were timid and avoided soldiers when they saw them.How dare you go back and take the initiative to find Bai Jun to do a job!They pushed each other and said to Li Meiqun: "You are not afraid, you go first. Show us a show." Li Meiqun was speechless, and she was also terribly scared in her heart.

Who called himself the squadron leader!In order to get rid of the girls, and also get rid of her fear of the soldiers of the White Army, she set off alone.Dressed in rags, she carried a dustpan on her shoulders, pretended to pick pig vegetables and firewood, and approached the White Army post cautiously. No rape or beating happened, and she returned without missing a single finger.From then on, the female companions often came into groups, posted slogans and distributed leaflets near the White Army garrison, and tried every means to talk to the White Army soldiers. After coming and going, the female companions became bolder.You talk to each other, teasing the soldiers of the White Army: "Are you begging for a wife?" "Do you have money to send back home when you come out to serve as a soldier?" "Does your officer deduct your salary?" "You serve as a soldier. What are the benefits?" The White Army soldiers were speechless when asked.

"Since there is no money to earn and no benefits, why should I be a soldier?" The eloquent women played by ear and inspired them to wake up and stop dying for the warlord.Li Meiqun is a bit educated, and compiled many folk songs, asking everyone to sing to persuade them to surrender: Wow, listen to the soldiers of the White Army, you must recognize your own class, the poor should not beat the poor, come here and become the Red Army. Soldiers in the White Army must recognize that the workers and peasants belong to the same family, and they will not work for the warlords to overthrow the local tyrants and inferiors.

The White Army is welcome to be the Red Army. The Red Army has the strictest discipline. The officers and soldiers are the same. No one oppresses anyone. Xingguo folk songs have beautiful tunes and sincere feelings.Li Meiqun and his sisters sang a song, which made the soldiers of the White Army nod their heads in praise, and everyone sighed, some even secretly deserted and went home, and some dragged their guns and surrendered and became the Red Army. Li Meiqun lives in Banan Village, across the river from the county seat.After a long time, he simply led the "military transport" team into the city.They pretended to be doing small business, carrying wine jugs in one hand, and bamboo baskets filled with fried potato wrapped fish, steamed stuffed buns, fried peanuts, and rice crackers in the other. Crossing the alley, shouting loudly.

The rich and mellow aroma of wine and oily aroma of fried fruit floats in the streets and alleys, lingering and lingering. The soldiers of the White Army were very hungry, because the officials had deducted their salaries and the food was extremely poor. Before the delicious food, they all salivated. "Hey——the wine is so sweet, and the rice crackers are fresh, sir, if you want to eat it, you'll let me pay the price!" Li Meiqun and the others deliberately circled around the soldiers of the White Army, teasing and teasing, adding fuel to the flames, and hawking loudly. The soldier could only reply in frustration: "I want to eat, but unfortunately I have no money!".

"It's okay to exchange things." The white army soldier felt strange, look at me, I look at you, apart from guns and bullets, how can there be anything valuable on him?At this time, they were full of courage and couldn't care less, they tentatively asked: "Cousin, we only have bullets, do you want it?" The female red guards wanted bullets, but they pretended to say helplessly: " What is the use of bullets? Well, we sell bullet casings as scrap copper and iron, and use gunpowder as firecrackers for the boys to play with.” In this way, they often do this kind of “fruit bullet exchange” secretly with White Army soldiers. Lost" business.As long as they can be exchanged for bullets, the female red guards don't care about making money or losing money. Come and go, barter, the kitchen where rice crackers are cooked in oil has virtually become an arsenal.The guerrillas were supplemented with sufficient ammunition, but the White Army was emptied and emptied by them. The guerrillas had sufficient ammunition and attacked everywhere. The female red guards, coming and going in the county town, had a clear picture of the strength, weapons, and defenses of the White Army. At night, they sent out messages to the Red Army and guerrillas hiding in the hills near the county town and in the jungle on the banks of the Lianjiang River. scheduled signal. Those preset soil guns, "oil barrel machine guns" (thousands of firecrackers lit in foreign oil barrels), and shotguns bombarded the White Army together.The white army stationed on the city wall, facing the "thousands of troops" under the misty moon in the distance, panicked and fired randomly.The Red Army across the river looked like a "tumbler" in the hail of bullets. This "tumbler" is another trick.The Red Army set up an arsenal in Liantang, and there was a shortage of raw materials for making bullets.Li Meiqun had heard the story of "Zhuge Liang borrowed arrows from a grass boat", followed the gourd to draw a ladle, and a "tumbler" came to borrow warheads. "Tumbler" is a scarecrow soaked in water, naturally not afraid of bullets.After a night, the "Tumbler" can be shot a few bullets, and the bullets are shaken off during the day, and there is still a barrel, which can be used to remake bullets for the arsenal. Real guns, fake guns, white army, red army, shouts of killing, lamentation mixed into one, resounding through the night sky.The white army was restless day and night, fearful, exhausted, and huddled in the city all day long, not daring to move out rashly. At the end of the year, the Red Army drove the White Army out of the county.Li Meiqun and her "Military Movement" team were therefore awarded by the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and the Jiangxi Provincial Soviet Government.Li Meiqun was elected as the squadron leader of the Women's Red Guard in Banan Township. From the winter of 1930 to the spring of 1931, Chiang Kai-shek launched two large-scale "encirclement and suppression" campaigns against the Jiangxi Soviet Area, namely the first and second "encirclement and suppression". In order to cooperate with the Red Army, block the invasion of the White Army, and support operations.Li Meiqun led the township women's Red Guards to form a transport team to transport ammunition and dry food for the Red Army to Jiangkou and Maodian in Gan County, where the red and white borders meet.At the same time, women were organized to stand guard and serve as secret traffic officers and scouts. Constant war requires a constant supply of money.Fundraising has always been difficult.The Soviet regimes at all levels have issued orders one after another, calling for competitions and competitions in fundraising and food raising.At the township cadre meeting to raise funds and food to support the war, Li Meiqun spoke first, challenging gay men on behalf of lesbians. After the meeting, she summoned all the women in the township to carry out publicity and agitation. It only took five or six days to raise five or six hundred silver dollars, and she was indeed ahead of the gay men. In June 1931, Li Meiqun was transferred to the position of Minister of Women of Xingguo County Committee of the Communist Party of China. Not long after taking office, the county Soviet government received a "urgent" notice to transport food from the front lines of the Red Army. Without saying a word, Li Meiqun immediately organized women Red Guards from Changgang, Shangshe, Xinxu, Banan and other townships to quickly transport food to the front lines .The task was completed very well, and was rewarded by a circular from the front command. In early September, the domestic situation changed suddenly. On the 4th, the Guangdong army entered Hunan, and Wang Jingwei united with the Guangdong and Guangxi armies to overthrow Chiang.Chiang Kai-shek hastily dispatched troops from Jiangxi to Hunan to prevent the blockade, and He Yingqin, the "General of Suppression", was ordered to retreat across the board. God-given opportunity, the Red Army Headquarters decided to divide the troops into three groups to chase and wipe out the White Army that had retreated from Xingguo. From the 7th to the 8th, the main force of the Red Army launched a fierce attack on the retreating enemy on the 70-mile-long front from Gaoxingxu to Laoyingpan and Huangtuao, killing more than 4,000 enemies, capturing more than 2,000 people, More than 2,000 guns.The Red Army also suffered heavy casualties. After the victory of the Red Army, Li Meiqun led a condolence team, carrying eggs, peanuts, fruit and straw sandals, walked for dozens of miles to the Red Army station on the Gaoxingxu battlefield to condolences.Braving the rumbling artillery fire, she quickly delivered tea and water back and forth on the rough gravel road, rescued the wounded, mended, washed and dried clothes. Every time he met a person, Li Meiqun would ask for a name - Zhong Yanzhang. Her husband, Zhong Yanzhang, also participated in this blockade.Before the team set off, the couple got together for a while, and talked about that warm old topic again: to have a child, a boy who can grow up to be a Red Army. This time it was a victory, a great victory, and she inquired from unit to unit. Tens of thousands of Red Army troops were assembled, and they were completely strangers. It was so difficult to inquire about a single person.However, the people intoxicated in the joy of victory were very enthusiastic, and even helped her find out the news of her husband-but it was a bolt from the blue: On September 7, 1931, Zhong Yanzhang died a heroic death in the battle of Laoyingpan. In an instant, uncontrollable tears poured down.A web of pain hung over the young and beautiful new widow.