Recently, Ms. Tan Shan, the daughter of the famous patriotic general Qin Yizhi , accidentally discovered an old letter from Taipei in 1994 when he was decorating an old house. The handwriting was beautiful. The letter read: "Mr. Yizhi: Hello. I am Zhang Yulian, a female reporter who visited your brigade during the Anti-Japanese War. Do you remember me? After all, it has been nearly half a century. My colleague Peng Heqing learned some news about you, knowing that you host the Huangpu Magazine, and often publish articles in the magazine. According to the address of the magazine, I will send you this short letter, hoping to get in touch with you Just a short distance away, but decades apart, we have also moved from young to old age, and everyone is still alive. It is really gratifying. In recent years, I have visited relatives in Beijing and Harbin on the mainland four times, and I live in Beijing’s fifth brother’s Haidian home. I hope to have a chance to meet. Mr. Sun has passed away for more than ten years. I have two sons and a daughter. Both have married and lived abroad. I will tell you the details later. I wish you a happy life."
▍Zhang Yulian wrote to the famous general Tan Yizhi Letter
The beginning of this letter is exactly a piece of history during the Taierzhuang battle in 1938: At that time, the female journalist Zhang Yulian from the battlefield met General Tan Yizhi during an interview on the Taierzhuang battle, and forged a deep friendship.
The author has studied the Taierzhuang battle for many years and has long understood this story. In the process of studying the Taierzhuang Battle, the author had contact with many descendants of those who witnessed the Taierzhuang Battle. Therefore, when Ms. Shan Shan forwarded this letter to me, the author interviewed Ms. Shan Shan who lived in Beijing as soon as possible ( Tan Yizhi's daughter) and Mr. Sun Yuli (Zhang Yulian's son) who lives in Singapore, through their narration, they have a more complete understanding of the years of gunpowder 82 years ago and the friendship that has continued between two generations.
A female student of Yan University "turned around" to be a reporter
Sun Yuli told the author that his mother Zhang Yulian is a northeast woman who "has a lot of affection, honesty, gratitude, and value friendship." Since he was a child, he often heard his mother mention that during the War of Resistance, she met a brave and outstanding General Tan on the front line of Taierzhuang. After that, she reunited with General Tan several times. General Tan has repeatedly extended a helping hand to his mother in trouble. Sun Yuli said that when I was a child, I often had the opportunity to accompany my mother to bank withdrawals and deposits. My mother once told him, "The ivory seal for bank affairs was given to me by Tan Yizhi."
Zhang Yulian's ancestral home is Zhu Youcun, Pinglidian, Shandong Ye County. Born in Harbin in 1914, her mother died when she was two and a half years old. She was fostered in a Belarusian family since she was young, so she is proficient in Russian. In September 1934, Zhang Yulian was admitted to Yenching University, majoring in education and minoring in journalism. In late June 1937, Yan University had a summer vacation, and Zhang Yulian went to visit relatives in Zhu You Village, his hometown in Shandong, as agreed with his father in advance. Within a few days, there was news of the Lugouqiao Incident, and Peiping could not go back, only to go to Nanjing with the exiled students. Before leaving, my father repeatedly warned: Girls’ families must not go to the front line for work and must complete their college education. At the end of the same year, Zhang Yulian came to Wuhan. She read in the newspaper an announcement from the Soviet TASS News Agency in Wuhan to recruit reporters. She thought to herself: Since she understands Russian and studied journalism at university, she signed up for the exam. As a result, he was officially admitted as a TASS reporter. President Rogoff asked her to learn a Russian typewriter, translate the news of the Sino-Japanese war in Chinese newspapers into Russian and send it back to the Soviet Union.
The war situation at this time is not optimistic. After the Japanese army occupied Nanjing and Jinan successively in December 1937, in order to realize the wolf ambition of quickly destroying China, they decided to advance from the north to the south and flanked Xuzhou to open up the Jinpu line. In Shandong in the northern section of Jinpu Road, the 5th Division of the Japanese Itagaki Seishiro and the 10th Division of Isoya Rensuke respectively attacked Taierzhuang, an important town in southern Shandong along the Jiaoji Line and the Jinpu Line, in an attempt to open the northern gateway of Xuzhou.
The Chinese army has also made arrangements: the second group army, which is good at defense, is deployed along the Taierzhuang Canal to fight positional warfare; the 20th Army is hidden in the northeastern mountainous area of Yixian County with the back of the enemy with the 20th Army, which is well-equipped and highly mobile. , Fight sports war.
In March 1938, the arrogant Jigu Division was surrounded by the Chinese army in Taierzhuang area. The 2nd Army held on hard and held Taierzhuang for more than half a month, nailing the enemy to Taierzhuang; the 20th Army launched on the enemy’s side. onslaught. The Chinese army is united and fought bloody, winning a round of applause from the domestic and international press. Dozens of news media and hundreds of reporters from home and abroad gathered in Taierzhuang.The Soviet Union’s TASS Headquarters sent Gu Libinski and several military reporters to China to interview in Taierzhuang. Rogoff arranged for Zhang Yulian to accompany him.
In mid-March, the reporters set off from Wuhan to Xuzhou and checked into the Garden Hotel. A few days later, they left Xuzhou by train and rushed to the front line of Taierzhuang. After arriving at Taierzhuang Nanche Fushan Station, the train could no longer go north. They walked to Taierzhuang. They came to the station of the 25 division of the 20th Army 52 Army in the northeast of Taierzhuang, and Chief of Staff Tan Yizhi received them.
▍Zhang Yulian escaped the low-altitude bombing of the Japanese plane in the trenches on the front line of Taierzhuang. General
presented the female reporter with a small pistol.
Tan Yizhi is a battle-tested general. He was born in 1907. He entered the first period of Guijun Military Academy in 1924 and transferred to the second period of Artillery Division of Huangpu Military Academy in June of the following year. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he has participated in the Great Wall Anti-Japanese War at Gubeikou in Beijing since 1933. In September 1937, he led his troops to participate in the war against Japan on the northern section of Pinghan Road, and was wounded by a bullet in the chest during the defense of Baoding.
In March 1938, he led his troops to participate in the Battle of Taierzhuang. The 25th Division, as the forefront of the 52nd Army, is located near Lanling Town in the northeast of Taierzhuang. Its mission is to attack Hongwawutun and suppress the enemy west of the Taizao branch. After two days of fierce fighting, progress was quite smooth. On the night of April 6, the Japanese army suddenly launched a frantic attack on the positions of the two divisions of the 52nd Army, and the fighting was extremely fierce. The 52nd Army ordered to stick and take the opportunity to counterattack. In the middle of the night, the enemy of Taierzhuang retreated to Yixian. At dawn on the 7th, the Chinese army chased to the outskirts of Yixian City and surrounded the Japanese army regiments in the city. The main force of the 25th Division continued to attack the enemy's back. After several days of fierce fighting, the 25th Division occupied several villages north of Jiuding Mountain in the east of Yixian County, and the enemy's back was greatly threatened. The Japanese army drew out troops to counterattack against the 25th Division many times, all of which were repelled. The enemy and the enemy formed a confrontation.
Zhang Yulian arrived at the 25th Division under this situation. Her first impression of Qin Yizhi was very good: "He is from Guangxi, has a poem, steady and persevering attitude. He talks and speaks and teaches people respect. "Tin Yizhi introduced the war situation to the reporters in detail, and analyzed the direction of the battle in detail. After that, he answered many questions raised by the reporters. Because of the fierce fighting, Tan Yizhi sent the reporters to a remote village far away from the fighting. The villagers had already fled their homes, and the village was empty. The soldiers who escorted them found a dilapidated old house for the reporters to rest.
▍Qin Yizhi (stander on stage) was on the front line of Taierzhuang
When reporters finished their interview mission and bid farewell to Tan Yizhi, Tan Yizhi looked at Zhang Yulian and said: "You are the first female reporter in the front line of our brigade, which I admire. "Speaking, he took out a pistol and handed it to Zhang Yulian and said, "This Browning pistol is given to you, and you can use it for self-defense when you need it." In subsequent interviews and moved to Hunan, Hubei, Changsha, Wuhan, and Chongqing, Zhang Yulian has always carried this "souvenir".
Taierzhuang made a great victory in World War I, annihilating more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers and seizing a large number of strategic materials. The three towns of Wuhan boiled over. More than 100,000 people held the torch high and took to the streets to celebrate. The alleys were empty and stayed up all night. "After the Taierzhuang victory came out, the whole country was crazy. After the fall of Nanjing and Shanghai, the pessimistic air that enveloped the country has been wiped out, and the future of the War of Resistance has revealed a new glimmer. People from all walks of life in the country, overseas Chinese, and even countries around the world sympathized with my country's war of resistance. A congratulatory message to our army flew like snow flakes. Chinese and foreign reporters and consolation groups who came to visit the record also flocked in. Taierzhuang district, after this war, became a new symbol of national rejuvenation" ("Li Zongren's Memoirs ").
Zhang Yulian and other TASS reporters who were visiting on the front line near Taierzhuang arrived in Taierzhuang on the morning of the 8th. After the war, Taierzhuang was in ruins. Zhang Yulian wrote: “The city is still smelling of gunpowder, more than half of the buildings are destroyed, some houses are still burning, smoking, and bloody corpses are scattered among the broken walls... The sights in front of us are so cruel, and it is hard to describe the brutality of the bloody battle!"
In mid-to-late April 1938, more than 600,000 Chinese troops were concentrated in southern Shandong, preparing for a decisive battle with the Japanese. The Japanese army mobilized 300,000 troops and surrounded Xuzhou in six roundabouts in an attempt to annihilate the main force of the Chinese army. In order to preserve its viable power and fight for a long time with the Japanese army, in mid-May 1938, the Chinese army made a strategic transfer. Zhang YuLian did not have time to say goodbye to Tan Yi, so he broke through with the troops and returned to Wuhan in early June.
The general helped when life was difficult.
In 1942, Yanjing University, which was closed by the Japanese invaders due to the outbreak of the Pacific War, opened a temporary school in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Zhang Yulian was very excited when she learned that she wanted to fulfill her father's last wish, so she resigned from the International Propaganda Department of the Central Propaganda Department of the Nationalist Party of China, and went to Chengdu to continue her university education for another year.
In June 1946, Zhang Yulian was transferred to Shenyang to work. At this time, Tan Yizhi had served as deputy commander of the 8th Corps of the Kuomintang Army and commander of the 52nd Army, stationed in Shenyang. After nearly ten years of separation, when old friends met again, the two were extremely happy. Tan Yizhi saw that Zhang Yulian's family had a large population and took the initiative to support food. This undoubtedly helped Zhang Yulian a lot in an era when prices were soaring and food was scarce.
In 1949, Tan Yizhi served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Nanjing Capital Garrison. At this time, he had secretly made up his mind not to follow the Kuomintang to retreat to Taiwan. In August 1949, Tan Yizhi energized Hong Kong against Chiang, declared an uprising and returned to the mainland. And a few months ago, Zhang Yulian went to Taiwan. The two have never seen each other since.
In March 1994, Zhang Yulian learned that Tan Yizhi was the president of "Whampoa" magazine by chance, so he wrote the letter at the beginning of this article. So, did the two get in touch afterwards?
Sun Yuli told the author: "The two old men should have been on the phone at least, because the contact information of General Tan and Shan Tan’s name are recorded in the mother’s notebook. As for whether there is a reply from General Tan, it’s a pity that my mother had a lot of old letters. The second move is nowhere to be found.”
Tan Shan also told the author: “In 1994, my father’s ears were not good, and writing was also difficult. The call should have been relayed through my mother, because there is my family in Aunt Zhang’s notebook. The detailed address, telephone number, and my name and the names of my two uncles in Taipei."
In 1995, Tan Yizhi died in Beijing. In 2010, Zhang Yulian died in Taipei. A period of friendship on the battlefield ended, but this friendship will continue in the next generation.
In 2015, Sun Yuli sorted out the manuscript left by his mother and published it under the name "Baiyun Feidu". In the Spring Festival of 2017, Tan Shan heard about this book for the first time and hurriedly found it to read it. After reading it, she was very excited and began to look for Ms. Zhang Yulian's descendants. In April 2018, by chance, Ms. Qu Lingwan (the daughter of Qu Shen, a general who participated in the Taierzhuang Battle) led the line, and Tan Shan and Sun Yuli were in contact with each other. In October 2018, Tan Shan used the opportunity of going to Singapore to attend a professional international conference to visit Yuli Sun. When the two met, they fulfilled the wish of the predecessors, so they were naturally filled with emotion. In December 2018, Sun Yuli went to Beijing on a business trip and visited Tan Shan back.
▍The situation when Zhang Yulian’s son Sun Yuli and Tan Yi’s daughter Tan Shan met in Singapore. This kind of gentlemanship is passed on from generation to generation, endless.
Source: Beijing Evening News·Five Color Soil | Author Zheng Xuefu
Editor: Jiang Baojun
Process Editor: Guo Dan
