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Lru HU-LAI{ STORY OF A GIRL REVOLUTIONARY BY LIANG HSING FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRE.$S PEKING 1953 CONTENTS I Family and Background 1 II Living Among Simple Heroes 11 III She Joins the Revolution. 19 Mhe Making of a Revolutionary......... 29 V The Engagement 45 VI The Final Sacrifice 57 Postscript 87 Pnnteil in the People's Republnc of Chitw I FAMILY AND BACKGROUND In the central part of Shansi Province lies a famous plain. To the east, the Taiyueh Range ex- tends, hill after hill, as far as the eye can see; to the west, the great towering peaks of the Luliang Range shut off the land that lies beyond. For hun- dreds of miles between these ranges stretches the great plain, and l,hrough it the rivcr Fen curves round Taiyuan and thcn l)ursucs its winding course southward towzlrds []rc Ycllow River. The creative genius iln<l wisrkrrn of the peasants, utilizing the waters of thc [,'crr, htrve transformed this region into thc richcst whtxrt granary of the entire prov_ ince. All who lool< out over this vast plain at f harvest time nod with approval at the golden ocean of heavy ears of whcat. Here, on October B, lgBZ, in the village of yun- chouhsi in Wenshui County, Liu HuJan utterecl her first cry. At this time, the peasants of the plain rvere also crying in despair. Despite such fertile land and such rich harvegts, they were unable to straighteu ) their backs or hold their heads erect. They that of the mountain folks. Granny stroked Hu- were crushed beneath the oppression of the land- lan's hair gently as the song went on; the morc lords, the bureaucrats, the warlords and the Kuo- she ]istened the sadder she felt. mintang reactionaries. These exploiters, large and "In the mountains of Chiaocheng, small, were resorting to every foul means and un- There is nothing good to eat and drink, derhand trick to squeeze out the last drop of the .i +" There is only buckwheat meal, peasants' sweat and blood. The rieh harvest reap- And potatoes. ed by the peasants' Iabour flowed like a river, like Only buckwheat meal, the Fen; but unlike the Fen, the harvest flowed it And potatoes." northward, sifting through many hands and even- Granny sat motionless, listening to the song. After tually reaching Taiyuan, the granary of the Yen a long pause she heaved a deep sigh. Hsi-shan brigands who ruled the city. The peas- ants' sweat dripped on the wheat as they bent their Outside it was getting dark, but to save lamp backs in the fleld, and at home tears fell into their oil the family usually sat in the dark for quite a empty bowls. Such was the plight of the peasants, while. In the dim light, the childish treble sang on: One day at twilight little HuJan sat in her old Granny's lap, clasping her neck with her two smail "The littlc grc.y tlonkrly goos up the hill, hands, while Granny rocked gently with haif-closed The littlc gr'c.y <krnl<r).y comcs down. eyes listening to the sweet childish voice singing a A)l my lil'c I'vc ncvt:r litltlen Iocal ballad: Irr :r lirrr, r':trlilrgr'. All nr.y lil'c l've ncver ridcien "The hills of Chiaocheng, In a Iitrt' r'ltrriage." Oh, the stream of Chiaocheng, t.o iLn end even It doesn't water the town of, Chiaocheng, *l lYhen the song camc Granny became It waters Wenshui; quieter. She huggt:rl Ilu-lan tighter and smothered Doesn't water the town of Chiaocheng, this favourite gran<l-rLrughter of hers with kisses. But waters Wenshui." A long sigh followed. lL was dark, and quiet reign- ed in the little home. The ballad tells of the poverty-stricken life of the peasants in the mountainous region of Chiao- The year Hulan was born her father was a cheng, north of Wenshui. Although the pealnnts young peasant of twenty-eight. IIe and his elder of the Wenshui plain vrere supposedly endowecl -*,ith brother lived with their father who had seen the the "Goldett Rice Bowl," their life lvas as hard as better side of fifty. The three men had to work from morning till night to make ends nteet. fhey in 1936, when Hulan was four years old, the neither sold their labou"r nor hired other hands to reactionary Kuomintang government lvas ignomin- help them: the sweat of their own toil dripped on iously selling out the country. 'Ihe Japanese im- their own land. lYhen the family expanded to perialist army had crossed the Great Wall and was eleven members, they owned about seven acres of invading North China. The Chinese Workers' and land-not all in one piece, but scattered here antl Peasants' Red Army, under the leadership of Chair- there in ten small lots; and it was not very good man Mao Tse-tung, had concluded its Long lVlarch land either. This middle peasant household had a of 8,000 miles and had come to the North to resist iittle farmhouse at the western end of Yunchouhsi the Japanese. On Februaty L7,1936, they crossed Village. The eaves were low and the courtyard u the Yellow River through northern Shensi and small; the only difference between them and the marched eastward to fight the invaders' On March poor peasants was that they had a place to them- 2, tltey occupied Fenyang and made the Yen Hsi- selves and did not share their main entrance with shan brigands in Taiyuan tremble. oi,her families. There was an inscription over the Fenyang and Wenshui rn'ere neighbouring coun- entrance too, although not painted ostentatiously in only a few dozen miles apart. Guerilla detach- goicl and red letters like those on the doors of land- ties, ments of the Red Army r:apidly pcnetrated to the lords. The workers who built the farmhouse had mountains west of Wtrnshui Ctlunty, and although inscribed the three characters "Peace is happiness." the Recl Army did rrot tltrl,cr Yunchouhsi the peas- And this motto expressed the ideal of this middle ants sprcatl talrs about it--ot how the Red Army peasant family, whose philosophy of life was: Live had surrountlt:<l Wtrrrshui, and how in Kaisanchen, and let live. They were cautious and timid to a north of l,hc county seat of Wenshui, they fault. Hu-lan's Grandpa was rarely seen on the a town had confiscated cight hundred piculs of grain from streets passing the time of day with friends, and the local despot 'I'tr and distributed them to the her father seldom went outside to chat with neigh- poverty-stricken pcasants. Hearing such accounts, bours. The family went only from the house to listeners clenchecl their flsts in excitement and the fields and back again; then very carefully they the prayed that the Red Army would soon come to their closed and secured the little door of their house. village. Such was the conservative middle peasant family in which Liu Hu-lan was born and brought The Red Army scored victory after victory up. But although it was fairly peaceful in their and extencled its sphere of action' But in order to small courtyard, great changes were going on in urge the Kuomintang to end the civil war so as to the big world outside. fight the Japanese, it withdrew to the western banks of the Yellow River. After the outbreak of the Gathering together, the peasants of Yunchou- War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression, the Red hsi excitedly discussed this great event. One of Army, reorganized as the Eighth Route Army, once them shouted down the rest and asked knowingly: again crossed the Yellow River. From then on it "Do you people know how old this Magistrate Ku stood in the forefront of the \rtar of Resistance, its is ?" roots planted deep in the Northwest and North f Everyone turned to look at him, but nobody China, and continued to develop and s'well its ranks. could answer. Delighted with his knowledge, the Underground members of the Communist Party speaker crooked his forefinger, making the sign for of China in lVenshui rallied the local people and nine and exclaimed: "Ha, I'll tell you. This much organized. a guerilla corps to flght the Japanese !" marauders. In January, 1938, after the Japanese -nineteen There v/ere many exclamations from the peo- had occupied the county seat, this guerilla corps ple gathered there. Six-year-old Hu-lan, who had engaged the Japanese invaders in battle for the edged herself in among the grown-ups, gazed at the first time in Hsicheng Village, only seven miles or crooked foreflnger of the speaker, her eyes blinking so from Hu-lan's home. The day the peasants had in her little round face; and imitating the grown- been looking forward to for so long had dawned, ups she also said: "Nineteen !" and they actually saw their own people fighting the Japanese ! Armed peasants shuttled through the Nineteen ? Yes, nineteen ! But this nineteen- streets of the villages on Wenshui plain. One unit year-old youth was already a veteran Red Army of fighting men had hardly left the village when cadre, steeled in battles. Under the leadership of another arrived. Everywhere there were meetings the Chinese Communist Party and with the help of and singing. In this period nearly all the villages his comrades, Magistrate Ku performed his duty on the plain became guerilla bases in the war well. against the Japanese invaders.

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