Li Ce’s life

In 1930, Li Ce was promoted from the provincial second primary school to the junior high school of Guiyang Senior High School. During this period, in order to realize the idea of ??serving the motherland and the nation, he studied diligently and studied martial arts with famous martial arts masters. "It's when a young man is working hard that he can light the fire at three o'clock and the chicken at five o'clock." 15-year-old Li Ce schedules his homework to the full every day. Whether reading or practicing martial arts, he is fully focused and meticulous. Because of his excellent academic performance, strong physique, sincerity and humility, he was loved by his teachers and even more admired by his classmates.

Although the Guizhou warlords tried every means to restrict the spread of revolutionary ideas and tried to maintain their feudal rule, the national revolutionary situation still broke through many obstacles and spread to Guizhou. In the early 1930s, progressive bookstores such as Xinyou, Xinya, and Synergy were opened in Guiyang. Li Ce, like many young people pursuing progress, often visited bookstores. Since he had no money to buy books, he often squatted in bookstores and read eagerly, absorbing knowledge and exploring the truth about saving the country and the people.

When the September 18th Incident occurred in 1931, Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang adopted a non-resistance policy against Japanese imperialist aggression, which aroused the indignation of the people across the country. Under the call and organization of the Communist Party of China, It set off a wave of anti-Japanese and anti-Chiang resistance. It broke through the barriers of thousands of mountains, awakened the people of Guizhou who were still under the rule of warlords, and inspired the patriotic enthusiasm of Guizhou students. In Guiyang, a group of patriotic young people such as Qin Tianzhen organized the "Provincial Student National Salvation Corps" among students. They took to the streets to demonstrate, searched and burned Japanese goods, punished profiteers, gave lectures, distributed leaflets, posted slogans, and widely publicized Anti-Japanese, exposed Chiang Kai-shek's traitorous surrender conspiracy, and loudly shouted the slogans "Down with Japanese imperialism" and "Oppose the traitorous government" in the mountain city of Guiyang. Li Ce, who was only 16 years old at the time, actively participated in the activities of the "Provincial Student National Salvation Corps" and was at the forefront of the movement. In 1933, when Li Ce entered high school, he was elected to participate in the leadership of the "Provincial Student National Salvation Corps". At this time, Li Ce was studying in Nanming High School. Whenever the National Salvation Corps held a meeting, Li Ce always sat at a small table next to the podium, picked up a pen and took notes quickly. Li drafted slogans and issued declarations, did a great job, and showed strong organizational skills.

In the winter of the same year, Lin Qing and Miao Zhengyuan, members of the Communist Party who were engaged in revolutionary activities in other provinces, returned to Guizhou from Shanghai and began to establish organizations in Guizhou. Lin Qing and Miao Zhengyuan encouraged Qin Tianzhen to join the party and established the Bijie branch of the Communist Party of China. In the winter of 1934, after being introduced by Qin Tianzhen, Li Ce, who had undergone severe training and testing in actual struggle, joined the Communist Party of China. On the day he joined the party, Li Ce solemnly swore that he would devote his life to the party and fight for the cause of communism throughout his life.

After Li Ce joined the party, he formed the underground party branch of Guiyang High School with Meng Zhaoren and others, and effectively led the party work in the school.

In 1935, the Central Red Army launched a long march to Guizhou. Chiang Kai-shek killed two birds with one stone. Taking advantage of the "Pursuit and Suppression" campaign, he annexed Guizhou warlord Wang Jialie and took control of Guizhou's military and political power. In order to realize the so-called "centralization" of Guizhou, the special agency "Centralization" was established, and the great traitor Chen Tilu was transferred from Jiangsu to Guizhou to serve as "Design Committee of the Guizhou Provincial Party Headquarters of the Kuomintang" and "Commissioner of Counterrevolutionary Affairs of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the Kuomintang". Chen Tilu took action personally, barking everywhere that "Communism is not suitable for China's national conditions, and only the Three People's Principles can save China." He also shamelessly declared that he "left the Communist Party and defected to Chiang Kai-shek precisely after seeing this." After Chen Tilu took office, he coerced, deceived, and bribed some young people to cobble together the "Youth Front Club", arranged members to investigate and monitor the words and deeds of progressive teachers and students, and forcibly reorganized the student self-government associations of each school and the province's Student National Salvation Corps. Because Chen Tilu had held a higher position in the Communist Party of China before his rebellion and had a better understanding of the activities of underground party organizations, the activities of the party organizations and the anti-Japanese and anti-Chiang movements under their leadership faced a huge threat at that time. Therefore, members of the Provincial Working Committee of the underground party in Guiyang repeatedly studied and decided to select comrades who were loyal to the party, capable, and physically strong, and took necessary measures to get rid of the great traitor Chen Tilu. Li Ce was the right candidate.

When this decision was conveyed to him, he resolutely accepted the task and proposed to use the relationship with Ding Weici, a backbone of the "Youth Front Society" who was his classmate, to go deep into the spy agency, get close to Chen Tilu, familiarize himself with the situation, find out the traitor's behavior patterns, and wait for opportunities. Chen Tilu was killed.

The Provincial Working Committee approved Li Ce's plan and gave him a pistol found by Comrade Huang Dalu. However, just when this action plan was expected to be realized, the enemy struck first

As soon as Chen Tilu arrived in Guizhou, he received an intelligence message from the Kuomintang secret service headquarters saying that He Guanqun and Chen Keqin, students of Guiyang Male Normal University Waiting to participate in activities organized by China ***. In May 1935, special agent Cheng Jiansheng intercepted letters sent by Lin Qing from Zunyi to Guiyang under the pseudonym "Mao Ge" while inspecting postal telecommunications in Guiyang. At the same time, Chen Tilu took advantage of Chen Mingxian's fear of unemployment, who had participated in the Starlight Reading Club activities, and exerted pressure to force Chen Mingxian to reveal his leader Yan Jinqiu. He also found out from Chen Mingxian's diary: One morning when he went to Yan Jinqiu's house, he saw a A young man was washing his face, and Yan introduced him as Mr. Liu Maolong (Liu Xuewei) who had just returned from Shanghai. In addition, during the May 4th and May 30th commemorations organized by the Communist Party of China, Chen Tilu arranged for his minions to go out to collect intelligence, to find out which street was the propaganda team of which school, who was the leader, who gave the speech, and what content was said Wait and write a written report. Based on these reports, Chen Tilu was determined to be an event uniformly deployed by the Communist Party organization.

Shortly after the May 4th and May 30th commemorations, Wang Guipei, disguised as a progressive student, used his hometown connections to get close to Xiao Wenkun, an underground party member, and discovered that his leader was Liu Maolong, who lived on Wanbao Street (now Park West Road). ) Li Zhongliang’s family opened a sewing shop.

At about 11 a.m. on July 19, 1935, Li Shaobai, the head of the operations section of the Kuomintang Secret Service Office, led a group of gangsters to Li Zhongliang’s home on Wanbao Street, and arrested Liu Maolong, a member of the Provincial Working Committee, and three people who lived with him on the spot. The comrade then forced Li Zhongliang's father to sew clothes on the shop floor pretending to be nonchalant, and then squatted down to ambush and arrest him.

At the same time, another group of gangsters rushed to the male division to arrest people but missed them. When several comrades from the male division came to Wanbao Street to report the news, they unfortunately fell into a trap and were caught by the spies.

At that time, Li Ce had made an appointment with Liu Maolong to meet at Wanbao Street. Li did not know that something happened here and came to the place where it happened. As soon as he approached Li's house, the agents with guns and ammunition pressed forward. Li Ce was shocked, but he immediately calmed down and scolded: "What are you doing? What are you doing? Mr. Chen (Chen Tilu) sent me here to find Ding Weici. I don't know you, do you?" As he spoke, he showed his pistol. . The agent couldn't make up his mind and quickly asked Li Shaobai for instructions. Li Shaobai had indeed seen Li Ce at Chen Tilu's place, so he thought Li Ce was one of their own and let Li Ce go.

After Li Ce got out of danger, he walked calmly to the intersection of the court street. After finding out that there was no tail, he rushed to the Provincial Working Committee station at No. 8 Zhonglie Street and made a detailed report to Comrade Qin Tianzhen. Since it was agreed in advance that the Provincial Working Committee would meet at Liu Maolong's place that night, the situation was very critical. Qin Tianzhen quickly assigned the task to Li Ce and rushed to Gaojia Garden to find other comrades of the working committee to study countermeasures. Li Ce first rushed to Dajingkan and arranged two female comrades, Zhu Zhu and Xia Zhimei, to guard both ends of Wanbao Street. Then he quickly went to the Wu family in Dagong Lane and sent people out to look for Lin Qing, secretary of the working committee, and notified other comrades to prevent the situation from expanding further. .

The two lesbians who were on guard duty on Wanbao Street voluntarily withdrew from their posts at dusk. On this day, Comrade Lin Qing had work outside the city and did not return until dark. Without receiving the notice, he went straight to Li Zhongliang's house and unfortunately fell into the tiger's mouth.

Afterwards, Qin Tianzhen went to Li Ce's house for fear that the enemy would notice him, took away the pistol used to punish traitors, and asked Li Ce to go to the countryside immediately to hide. Li Ce acted vigilantly to safeguard the security of the party organization and protected He saved many comrades from being poisoned and was highly praised by the party and comrades.

During the "July 19" incident, Guizhou's underground party of the Communist Party of China suffered great damage. In August, the Provincial Working Committee held a meeting and decided not to recruit party members for the time being, and to implement concealment and transfer. , disperse activities.

After the meeting, the members of the Provincial Working Committee left Guiyang successively according to the division of labor to carry out work in remote rural areas, the Guizhou Army troops, and the Green Forest Armed Forces. Because Qin Tianzhen was exposed, he moved to Liuzhai on the border of Guizhou and Guizhou under the pseudonym of Yu Hansheng. Li Ce is responsible for party work in Guiyang.

From the winter of 1935 to the spring of 1936, Li Ce hid in the countryside near Guiyang. He often went out at night and traveled between the hidden place and Guiyang to understand the situation and contact revolutionary comrades and young students. He once jokingly called him a "night walker". Li Ce organized party members and progressive people who were not exposed in the "July 19" incident in the form of a reading club, and formed several groups to live in the organization, read progressive books and periodicals, talk about current affairs, exchange reading experiences, and write reading notes. Each of these comrades has a thread, and they are connected layer by layer, forming a "snowball" type of development, uniting the broad masses of progressive people around the party organization, and cultivating reserve forces for the revolution.

It was during these days that Li Ce's future wife quietly appeared beside him.

Among the several reading groups directly led by Li Ce, there is a group composed of Ding Yi and another lesbian. Ding Yi has known Li Ce since she was a child. As she gets older, she admires this smart, capable, witty and brave young man more and more. Since Ding Yi participated in the book club activities, the young pair had more and more contact and gradually fell in love.

In the mid-summer of 1936, Li Ce quietly moved into the city and lived in his home in Fupai Fang. He still stayed away from the streets during the day and was active at night. He often participated in meetings of various groups, telling everyone about revolutionary principles and his own experiences in reading. At this time, his burden was heavier than before. In addition to leading several groups, he also had to work in the Nanchang Arsenal.

After the Xi'an Incident, the current situation changed drastically. Li Ce was assigned by the organization to go to Liuzhai, Guangxi to report to Qin Tianzhen on December 31, 1936. In that turbulent era, every breakup could be a permanent farewell. Because Li Ce set out in secret, only Ding Yi went to see him off quietly. From the moment he got in the car, her heart was in her throat every second, and she didn't feel relieved until she learned that Li Ce had arrived safely.

Later, Ding Yi wrote in her memories:

More than a month after Zhizhi left, someone sent me a letter. I opened it in a hurry. The letter was not long. But there are two red beans attached, and the famous poem is recorded: "Red beans grow in the south, and when spring comes, they will sprout a few branches. I advise you to pick more, this is the most lovesick thing." Although the paper is one page, it is worth a thousand words. It was the first time I saw this kind of red bean. It is shaped like a heart, and is red all over. There is a faint line on the edge to form a heart shape, so it is called heart-to-heart. No wonder the ancients used this to express their love! The two red beans they brought were the same size. , can almost overlap, and for us, they symbolize two hearts that are loyal to the party. After the ups and downs of the journey, I understand the deeper meaning of the two red beans he sent. I wrote a reply that night and attached a photo of me with the words: My sweet heart give all spisit to you! (Give me all my energy and give you my sweet heart). Later I heard that Comrade Tianzhen watched it in Guangxi and said to Zhizhi: This is an extraordinary gift. I approve of your love and I hope I can see you get married.

In the spring of 1937, Li Ce returned to Guiyang and brought documents and instructions from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Only then did the comrades in Guiyang know that they would form an anti-Japanese national united front and realize the second Kuomintang cooperation. . Li Ce entered the new battle more nervously, preparing to face the new mission.

Before and after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the anti-Japanese and national salvation movement was raging across the country. The Guizhou underground party followed the central government’s call to establish an anti-Japanese national united front and did a lot of work: assigning many underground parties and progressive young people to participate in Zhuguang Music Research Later, it became a revolutionary organization that sang songs of national salvation; it performed many plays with progressive content through the Shatuo Amateur Drama Club; it actively promoted the organization of the literary and art circles’ Anti-Japanese Salvation Association, the Women’s Anti-Japanese Salvation Association, and the Teachers’ Anti-Japanese Salvation Association. Take on new struggles.

In June 1937, the All-China Federation of Students sent representative Yang Yunqing from Peiping to help Guizhou establish the Federation of Students.

After discussing with him, Li Ce convened a meeting of underground party members and some progressive students in the construction industry in Gaojia Garden to listen to Yang Yunqing's introduction to the struggle and development of the National Federation of Students. The meeting was chaired by Li Ce. Yang Yunqing's speech was very inspiring and greatly boosted the morale of the attendees. Under the active organization of Li Ce and other comrades, the Guizhou Federation of Students was secretly established on July 2, 1937, and Li Ce was responsible for the specific work. In the past two years, most of the students who participated in secret reading groups in various schools transferred to the student union and became the backbone. The anti-Japanese and national salvation movement from all walks of life, led by the student movement, was launched vigorously across the province.

In September 1937, the central government sent Huang Dalu back to Guiyang from Yan'an, and he and Li Ce were responsible for the work of the underground party in Guizhou. This winter, for work needs, Li Ce and Ding Yi got married. They found three houses in the secluded Huiwen Lane. The couple lived downstairs, and Comrade Huang Dalu lived upstairs. Huang Dalu was known to the outside world as Ding Yi's uncle. The Provincial Working Committee is also located here.

Under the situation of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the formation of the anti-Japanese national united front, party organizations across the province rapidly recovered, developed, and strengthened, and the anti-Japanese and national salvation mass movement developed extensively and in-depth. The anti-Japanese beacons burning everywhere frightened the reactionary Kuomintang authorities in Guizhou who stubbornly persisted in resisting communism, and once again raised the butcher's knife against the people. On February 19, 1938, the enemy caused the "February 19" incident in Guiyang that shocked the entire province.

From the end of 1937 to the beginning of 1938, schools were on winter vacation. In order to control the anti-Japanese movement of Guiyang students, the Kuomintang Provincial Party Headquarters ordered the establishment of a winter vacation working group for middle school students in Guiyang. Students from various middle schools in Guiyang were inspired by patriotic enthusiasm. Under the initiative of the Guizhou Provincial Federation of Students, they actively participated in the "Middle School Students Winter Vacation Working Group" established by the Kuomintang Provincial Party Headquarters and went to the countryside to carry out patriotic and anti-Japanese propaganda. When students from each school gathered in the provincial party headquarters auditorium to elect the student branch leaders of each school, the enemy never expected that the progressive forces would win. Most of the branch leaders of each school were underground party members and students from the student federation. The Kuomintang was self-defeating, but the Communist Party of China organization took advantage of this legal and open organization to carry out various activities. During that holiday, students went to the countryside to publicize, gave street lectures, distributed leaflets, performed dramas, and held singing concerts... The call to resist the enemy rang in the sky of the mountain city. The anti-Japanese and national salvation upsurge was in full swing across Guiyang. After completing the propaganda campaign in the countryside, the province's student federation prepared to hold a large-scale performance in Guiyang.

The die-hard Kuomintang authorities were afraid that the mighty revolutionary fire would become more and more intense, so they secretly hatched a conspiracy. On February 19, 1938, on the eve of the opening of the winter vacation work troupe's drama performance, all the ugly faces of the Kuomintang were exposed. While everyone was rehearsing nervously, the Kuomintang's spy students and youth training team (some say it was a model team) were already rampaging through the mountain city of Guiyang, shouting for arrests.

On that day, the Kuomintang die-hards committed atrocities at the People's Education Center, the Provincial Party Headquarters and other places at the same time. They fought and fought. At first, the agents took out the list and called the students' names, grabbing those they called aside. Later, they stopped calling at all and said, "Arrest all the students present."

These special agents lined up the students into teams of three or four, held them at gunpoint, and escorted them to the Guizhou Provincial Party Headquarters of the Kuomintang. Many students were beaten with bruises on their faces and bloody heads. Their clothes were torn, some shoes were lost, and some hair was torn off... Later, most of the classmates were released, leaving five boys and one girl, all of whom were the backbone of the student union. The Kuomintang reactionaries arrested the students and fabricated lies to deceive the people of Guizhou, saying that they had arrested a group of "traitors" and a "mixture" of Mao Zedong and Trotskyists.

That night, Li Ce held an emergency meeting of the backbone of the student federation in Gaojia Garden, preparing to organize students to petition and demonstrate at the Provincial Department of Education on February 20, demanding the release of the arrested patriotic classmates. At the meeting, Li Ce told everyone: When you go back to join the classmates, you should explain it first. Four people in a row hold arms. If something happens, they will follow the "Anti-Japanese and National Salvation Collective Imprisonment Movement" launched by Shanghai patriots. As long as one person is arrested , we asked everyone to go to jail as a protest! The party also issued a notice to "treat the February 19th incident firmly, calmly and bravely".

The petition and demonstration on February 20 was very successful due to the passionate public sentiment and proper organization. This major operation publicized the truth of resisting Japan and saving the nation to the people in the mountain city, and exposed the true face of the Kuomintang die-hards who were pretending to be anti-Japanese and truly anti-communist.

Huang Dalu and Li Ce had a premonition from the atmosphere at that time that the enemy would retaliate even more and would be vicious. They asked Ding Yi to pack up all the important documents and burn those that should be burned that night and keep those that should be kept. He put it in a small box, and Li Ce took it to the ceiling of the roof of his house and hid it.

On the night of February 21, 1938, Huang Dalu and Li Ce were arrested successively in Guiyang. The enemy first imprisoned them in the police station and then moved them to the Office of Appeasement. They still spread rumors and slanders in the newspapers, saying that they were the so-called "traitors and Trotskyists" and "remnants of the princes, and were despised by Mr. Zhu and Mao." Wait, some royal groups were also mobilized to perform a farce of "requiring immediate execution".

In early February 1938, the central government decided that the Guizhou Provincial Working Committee would be composed of Deng Zhige, Qin Tianzhen, Huang Dalu, and Li Ce. Three days after the arrest of comrades Huang Dalu, Li Ce and other comrades, Deng Zhige and Qin Tianzhen came to Guiyang from Yan'an and immediately began to publicly rescue the comrades in prison: the first step was to mobilize people to come out to prove that comrades Lu Lu, Li Ce and other comrades were arrested. Not a Trotskyist traitor; the second step is to send a clearly coded telegram in Ding Yi's name to the Eighth Route Army Office in Wuhan to Vice Chairman Zhou Enlai; the third step is to submit a letter of complaint if any progressive upper-level figures in the Kuomintang come to Guiyang.

These rescue efforts were actively carried out under the organization of the Provincial Working Committee. The telegrams sent to the Eighth Route Army Office in Wuhan and Yan'an were quickly reflected. Vice Chairman Zhou Enlai and Chief of Staff Ye Jianying both telegraphed to Sui's office, proving that "Huang Dalu and Li Ce are members of the Communist Party of China and are by no means Trotskyists or traitors. Please Release immediately”. In 1939, Feng Yuxiang, vice chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government, came to Guizhou. The Provincial Working Committee arranged for Ding Yi to come forward and ask Feng Yuxiang to solve this problem. Feng Yuxiang took the complaint to Chongqing and reported the matter to Chiang Kai-shek. However, Li Ce and other comrades were still not released.

In prison, no matter whether the enemy tortured him or lured him with material, Li Ce did not succumb. He regarded death as home and always maintained the noble integrity of a Communist Party member. In a letter taken from prison, he wrote:

"Since I devoted myself to the revolution, I have paid no attention to my personal life and death. Although I have no skills, I have fulfilled my historical responsibility, and I will die." No regrets! Therefore, even though we are under the enemy’s slaughtering knife, we can still feel at ease..."

He seized the time to study, read many Marxist-Leninist works in prison, and took notes, ready to continue. Make more contributions to the party. Once, Ding Yi went to visit him with his child in his arms. The child was already half a year old, but Li Ce had never seen him before. Li Ce picked up the child and kissed him again and again. He said excitedly: "This is the first time as a father and maybe the last time to hold his child..." "The future of the child is our tomorrow, and it is brilliant. Our revolution is for the future of our children."

In January 1941, the Kuomintang authorities launched the second anti-Japanese upsurge: on the night of January 19 after the Wannan Incident, agents from the detention center named six people named Li Ce for interrogation. Facing the murderous enemy, Li Ce took out a pen and two red beans from his pocket, handed them to Comrade Li Yue who was in the same cell, and then calmly walked out of the cell door, shouting slogans along the way...

In the air-raid shelter, the enemy first stabbed the paralyzed Huang Dalu to death with bayonets, then took Li Ce out and said, "If you can repent, let you go immediately." Li Ce angrily scolded the enemy: "** Communists are upright and have nothing to regret. If you want to kill, kill!"

The unfortunate news of Li Ce's death reached Yan'an, and the relevant central departments included him in the list of martyrs during the Anti-Japanese War as a tribute to him. . Li Ce's comrades and relatives learned the bad news and expressed in extreme grief that they would follow the bloodstains of the martyrs, inherit their legacy, and fight more tenaciously to defeat the Japanese invaders and build a new China.