Xie Hanwen’s biography

In the cold spring of 1904, Xie Hanwen was born into a wealthy family in Leiyang County, Hengzhou Prefecture, Chengui Road, Hengyong (now Leiyang City District, Hengyang City). He was the eldest son in the family. His father hoped to become an official in the future. So he was named Xie Hanwen, also known as Hanwen, and given the nickname Hongxi. At the age of 7, he entered a private school in the village for enlightenment. In 1919, he entered a higher primary school in the county. Later, he was admitted to Hengyang Xinmin Middle School (today's Hengyang No. 6 Middle School) with excellent results.

The "May 4th" New Culture Movement was booming across the country. Xie Hanwen, who was vigorous and ambitious, was deeply affected. He often met and talked with his hometown friends such as Liu Tai and Huang Longfei who were studying in Hengyang.*** They studied progressive books and periodicals together, explored the path of "transforming China and the world", and gradually came up with the grand ideal of "transforming society". Every holiday, everyone is organized to give speeches on the street to promote new ideas and new culture, which is quite influential among students.

In early 1925, after graduating from Hengyang Xinmin Middle School (now Hengyang No. 6 Middle School), 21-year-old Xie Hanwen immediately devoted himself to Leiyang revolutionary activities and joined the Communist Youth League organization. In April, the Hunan District of the Communist Party of China appointed Tang Zigang to Leiyang as county party secretary. Xie Hanwen arranged for Tang Zigang and his wife to stay in his own home, and copied documents and leaflets for Tang Zigang.

After the May 30th Massacre, Xie Hanwen and the propaganda team of the Leiyang Progressive Youth Organization went to factories, rural areas, shops, and schools to give lectures, and printed and distributed leaflets, accusing imperialism of crimes of aggression against our country. At the same time, the Leiyang Branch of the "Qinghu Massacre Avenger Society" was established, and Xie Hanwen was elected as the vice president of the Avenger Society. After the meeting, under the leadership of the revenge society, the county held large-scale strikes, strikes, and school strikes. Hundreds of people were organized to inspect and ban Japanese and British goods in urban and rural stores. Hundreds of loads of Japanese and British cargo were found and burned outside Jinzhong Gate.

In 1926, Xie Hanwen joined the Communist Party of China and was responsible for the youth league work. After the "Ma-ri Incident", Xie Hanwen sneaked into the Tongzishan area and continued to carry out revolutionary activities.

On September 9, 1927, Xie Hanwen, Wu Zhonghao, and Tan Guansan participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising launched by Mao Zedong. In November, after organizing more than 50 peasant uprisings in Yajiang and Dahe, Xie Hanwen pulled the team to Yantan Mountain, established a revolutionary base, and established the Southern Hunan Guerrilla Corps. On December 17, Xie Hanwen led the guerrillas to attack Feitian Town, seized 4 militia rifles, and captured Jiang Shenfu and several other local tyrants and evil gentry who were extremely angry with the people.

In January 1928, according to the instructions of Deng Zonghai, secretary of the county executive committee, Xie Hanwen went to Shuikou Mountain in Changning to contact Song Qiaosheng, the head of the mining party organization, to prepare for an armed uprising. On January 26, 1928, Xie Hanwen led more than 30 armed farmers and cooperated with Shuikou Mountain workers to seize more than 100 guns from the mine police team twice.

On February 16, Zhu De led the First Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to capture Leiyang County. On the 19th, the county Soviet government was established. Xie Hanwen was appointed as the special commissioner of the county Soviet government, responsible for leading the armed struggle of farmers in the Tongzishan area and helping the Shuikou Mountain Mine to form a Soviet government. After the Shuikou Mountain miner's armed forces and the peasant armed forces joined together, the Third Regiment of the First Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was established, with Song Qiaosheng as the regiment leader and Xie Hanwen as the regimental party representative.

In early April 1928, it was the season when warblers were flying and grass was growing in southern Hunan. After Xie Hanwen led his troops to Jinggang Mountains, he was organized into an independent battalion of the Fourth Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and served as the battalion party representative. Soon, he was transferred to secretary of the 28th Regiment of the Fourth Red Army. In the second half of the year, after Xie Hanwen led his troops to participate in the battles to attack Yongxin City and Longyuankou, he was admitted to the Red Army temporary hospital for treatment due to illness. When the enemy concentrated 30,000 troops to invade Jinggangshan, he fell ill and approached Peng Dehuai: "The battle ahead is so fierce, let me join the battle." Peng Dehuai was moved by his firm attitude and left him in Ciping Army as secretary-general.

In April 1929, the Fifth Red Army regained Jinggangshan and the troops were reorganized. Xie Hanwen was transferred to the party representative of the fourth column. He went deep into the company and found that the 11th Company was very active in political work, so he summed up his experience and promoted it throughout the entire column, giving the entire column a completely new spiritual outlook.

Later, Fang Qiang, who was the instructor of the 11th Company at the time, said when recalling the work of that period: "Xie Hanwen was quick-minded and able to catch examples in political propaganda work; especially he did a good job in propaganda and agitation work. When he gave a report at a meeting, no one Those who don’t listen carefully.”

Xie Hanwen has unique insights into major issues in his military work. In 1930, the erroneous "Left" leadership of the Central Committee ordered the main force of the Red Army to seize large and medium-sized cities and organize nationwide riots. Xie Hanwen put forward tit-for-tat opinions on this. He believed that "launching nationwide riots is a blind and wrong slogan" and wrote an article "Commemorating Red May and Our Mission in Hexi", which was published in the fourteenth issue of the Red Army publication "Arsenal". The article expounded his views from the aspects of international and domestic political, economic and military situations: "Our division has landed in Hexi this time. Its mission is to reden Hexi, connect the Hunan and Jiangxi Soviet areas, integrate both sides of the Ganjiang River, and quickly seize Ji'an, Ganzhou and even "Strive for the First Victory in Jiangxi Province" criticized the "Left" tendency to act blindly and helped Peng Dehuai correctly implement Mao Zedong's combat policy.

In June 1929, the Fifth Red Army and the Eighth Red Army were organized into the Third Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in Daye, Hubei, and Xie Hanwen was appointed as the Secretary-General of the Third Red Army. In July, he participated in the attack on Changsha, Hunan Province. On the 27th, the Third Red Army Corps captured Changsha County. In order to expand the influence of this battle, Xie Hanwen and Yuan Guoping, director of the Political Department of the Army, used the Huangcangping National Daily Library to publish the "Red Army Daily". After a day and night of intense work, the first issue of "Red Army Daily" was published on the 29th, which caused a sensation in all walks of life. Regarding the Red Army's vigorous and resolute work style, even the "Ta Kung Pao" at the time exclaimed: "While the Red Army was in full swing, it still paid attention to newspaper propaganda and was not slack in it. We should not be ashamed of it." " Most of the proclamations and orders of the General Front Enemy Committee published in the Red Army Daily were written by Xie Hanwen.

In August, the Third Red Army Corps withdrew from Changsha and joined the First Red Army Corps in Yonghe, Liuyang to form the First Front Army. Xie Hanwen still served as the Secretary-General of the Front Committee of the Third Red Army Corps. At this time, the number of troops in the army increased six times than before, causing the party and league organization and ideological construction in the army to be temporarily unable to keep up. Xie Hanwen proposed at the meeting of the General Front Enemy Committee: "Strengthening the political propaganda and education work of the army is a top priority; to raise the awareness of the entire army cadres, leaders at all levels should set an example." After discussing with Zhang Pingkai, secretary of the party branch of the army directly under the corps, A party branch meeting was held, and Corps Commander Peng Dehuai also attended the meeting. The work of the Party and League of the army has developed rapidly.

In 1930, Xie Hanwen also served as political commissar of the Third Division of the Fifth Red Army. After taking office, he proposed to the political propaganda cadres of the whole division: "Let the political propaganda and agitation work be carried out by the soldiers!"

Most of the cadres and soldiers of the Red Army were farmers, with very low educational levels and poor scientific knowledge. After capturing enemy-occupied areas, we made a lot of jokes and had some problems. For example, if you seize the enemy's transceiver and hear the "Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep," sound of the enemy's transmitter, you will angrily hit it with the butt of your rifle, step on it with your foot, and curse, "I asked you to scream again. You scream again!" He just smashed the transceiver to relieve his hatred; when he stormed the bank in the White District, he only knew how to protect gold and silver coins. When he saw the Kuomintang banknotes, he thought they were "reactionary banknotes" and tore them apart like waste paper. Burn it and dispose of it as garbage. I don’t know that these banknotes can also be used to buy urgently needed medicines and supplies for the troops in the white areas, resulting in a waste of money.

Peng Dehuai and other leaders at all levels of the army have deeply realized that an army without culture is a stupid army, and a stupid army cannot defeat the enemy. Therefore, military leaders emphasized the need to strengthen military cultural education. Peng Dehuai leads by example and sets an example. Ask Xie Hanwen to be a teacher and use the time between battles to learn culture. Every time he went to the camp, Xie Hanwen would prepare books, paper, pens, ink, and inkstones. After other cadres and soldiers in the army rested, Peng Dehuai returned from inspecting shops and sentries before teaching again. He studied culture. At that time, paper was both scarce and expensive, and it was not available in mountainous areas. Every time Peng Dehuai led his troops to conquer a town, he would ask people to go to the streets to buy some cheap straw paper and luggage paper, which he used to write calligraphy. He not only learned to write new characters and words, but also practiced calligraphy.

Under Xie Hanwen's guidance, Peng Dehuai kept studying day after day, and his cultural level improved rapidly. He was gradually able to revise or draft combat orders and documents by himself.

Peng Dehuai took the lead in literacy and cultural studies, which greatly promoted the development of cultural and educational activities in the army. There were very few literate people at that time, and anyone who could read a few words would be a teacher, which was called "the capable person is the teacher". In order to make everyone literate and achieve both marching and literacy, Xie Hanwen suggested that everyone put one or two characters on their backpack during the march. Everyone could read while marching, and when they arrived at the campsite, they would test each other to see if they had remembered it.

In order to further mobilize the enthusiasm of cadres and soldiers to learn literacy and learn culture, leaders at all levels of the army also penetrated literacy activities into entertainment life. For example: conducting literacy questions and answers on posters, holding literacy competitions at evening parties; setting up "literacy posts", and those who do not know the word on the sentry post cannot pass this sentry post. This kind of entertaining literacy activity has improved everyone's interest in literacy and has very good results. At that time, there was not much time for formal cultural classes, and political classes and cultural classes were often combined. For example, when talking about class struggle issues, workers, poor peasants, middle peasants, rich peasants, landlords, capitalists, imperialists, warlords, oppression, exploitation, etc. are written on the door panel, combined with political literacy. Sometimes we ask comrades with some expertise to tell us some common knowledge about weapons, scientific knowledge, health and disease prevention, etc., so that everyone can increase their knowledge.

In the spring of 1931, Xie Hanwen and division commander Peng Ao led the Third Division of the Fifth Red Army to hide in the Donggu area for 25 days. The troops were seriously short of food and the soldiers were not well-dressed, so Xie Hanwen discussed with Peng Ao and mobilized the staff of the division's direct agencies to go to the mountains to dig bamboo shoots and wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger, and sent the saved food to the company. When he and his division commander Peng Ao patrolled the guard posts at night, they saw that the soldiers' clothes were thin, so they took off their clothes and gave them to them. Later, Xie Hanwen also stipulated that the company should make cold ginger soup for the soldiers on guard at night to prevent illness. The commander's concern aroused the fighting spirit of the entire division's officers and soldiers. On May 30, he led his troops to launch an attack on Jianning City and wiped out three regiments of the enemy Liu Heding. Later, he led his troops to participate in the battles of Luozigou and Fangshiling in Liantang. In order to give full play to the role of political propaganda against the enemy on the battlefield, Xie Hanwen organized soldiers to use kites to carry propaganda slogans to the enemy positions, and also sent soldiers to shout in front of the positions, effectively cooperating with the progress of the battle.

The troops won consecutive victories and captured a large number of enemy soldiers. In order to expand political influence, Xie Hanwen presided over a division party committee meeting and decided to release a large number of prisoners in accordance with the Red Army's policy of preferential treatment of prisoners. This incident was criticized by "left" leaders, saying that Xie Hanwen was "right-leaning" and "unprincipled." Xie Hanwen insisted on the truth and argued with reason: "This was done in accordance with the Red Army's policy of preferential treatment of prisoners, and it did not violate the principle." Later, someone reported the situation to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Xie Hanwen was dismissed from his post and stayed in the division's political department to do general propaganda Work. But Xie Hanwen still works down to earth. When the founding Lieutenant General Fang Qiang recalled the situation at that time, he still sighed and said: During the first, second and third "encirclement and suppression" campaigns against the Central Soviet Area, the old leader Comrade Xie Hanwen was hit by the wrong line due to the problem of releasing too many prisoners. Although he was demoted and had thoughts and emotions, he still worked very hard, especially in publicity work, and did a lot of work.

In October 1934, Xie Hanwen led the Third Red Army on the Long March.

In addition to doing general publicity work, Xie Hanwen also actively participated in the publicity and agitation work of "expanding red" during the Long March. "Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, the expansion of the Red Army has achieved results." When passing through Guiyang and Longli areas in Guizhou, Xie Hanwen always ran to the front of the troops quickly. Sometimes he walked to the front of the vanguard and saw Zhuangzi on the roadside, so he left Go into people's homes and carry out propaganda and agitation work to "expand their popularity" in a low-key manner. Many new soldiers were recruited by him in this way.

On April 7, the vanguard of the Red Army found many people squatting on the hillside in front, watching from a distance. Xie Hanwen wanted to mobilize them to become the Red Army, so he immediately went to greet them. When the crowd saw this, they immediately retreated to the top of the mountain. Xie Hanwen shouted to them: "Shopkeeper, don't be afraid, we are the Red Army, protecting the poor people (that is, the poor), Bu Lafu, come to speak to you." As a result, a gray-haired old man stood halfway up the mountain.

At first, Xie Hanwen said a lot of earnest words to the old man, but the old man turned a deaf ear. After much publicity, the two began to talk with each other with questions and answers. After the old man's courage and urging, the people who had retreated to the top of the mountain came back in droves. Xie Hanwen told them many revolutionary principles and the importance of workers and peasants being the Red Army. After some propaganda and agitation, a young man suddenly stood out from the crowd and said, "I'm going to be a Red Army soldier. Who will go with me?" Soon, four or five more young people emerged from the crowd.

On the morning of April 21, when the Red Army passed through Guanyin Mountain in Xingren County, Xie Hanwen saw a man herding cattle and encouraged him to become a Red Army soldier. The man who was herding the cattle readily agreed. Before leaving, he said to his wife: "I am going to be a member of the Red Army, and I must treat the wounded soldiers at home well." It turned out that the cowherd man also had three wounded Red Army soldiers in his home.

During the Long March, Xie Hanwen did a lot of political and ideological work and won unanimous praise from the Red Army officers and soldiers.

On September 22, 1935, the Red Army successfully arrived at Hadapu and the unit was reorganized into the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment.

After the victory of the Long March, Xie Hanwen was transferred to the Red Army University as the dean. After entering school, he worked selflessly. Tang Chi, the founding major general of the People's Republic of China, recalled: "The old leader, Comrade Xie Hanwen, is called the school director, and is actually responsible for the overall work of the school. He is a very courageous person, full of energy, and is responsible for the work of the Secretariat, Queue Department, and Organization Department. He also had to manage the food, clothing and housing of the teachers and students of the school. Although he was very busy at work, he was always able to keep things in order. ”

On January 20, 1937, the Red Army University was renamed China University. The People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political University (referred to as "Anti-Japanese University") was moved from Baoan to Yan'an. After the start of the second semester, as the number of students continued to increase, the school party committee, in order to enrich grassroots leadership, Xie Hanwen also served as the captain of the 13th student team. As ordinary students, he lived, studied and worked with the students, organized singing groups, posters, etc., and made the team's publicity work vivid and colorful.

Soon, Xie Hanwen was transferred back to the campus to serve as the Propaganda Minister of the Political Department of the Anti-Japanese University. He was determined to strengthen his theoretical study and improve his level of Marxism-Leninism. Major General Niu Kelun, director of the Fifth Research Institute of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission and then director of the Propaganda Department, recalled: "Our minister was very diligent in studying. Every night after everyone rested, he returned to his dormitory, lit a candle, and leaned on the bed. He was obsessed with reading Marxist-Leninist works, sometimes staying up all night. I remember one time when he recited "Problems of Marxism-Leninism" to us, and he was able to recite more than half of it word for word... He has a very strong memory."

In During the propaganda work, Xie Hanwen paid special attention to the editing work of the school magazine "Great Cause" (later changed to "Kangda"), the propaganda mouthpiece of Kangda University. He carefully prepared the articles for each issue. Review and revise. Once, he fell ill and had a high fever and passed out in the office. The comrades sent him to the infirmary, and he continued to work after taking a few pills. He did not lie down on the bed until the school magazine was delivered for printing.

For a period of time at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, life was relatively monotonous. In order to change this situation, Xie Hanwen often organized members of each team to participate in various activities such as singing competitions, story speeches, and sports. In 1938, in order to activate the cultural life of the students, Xie Hanwen established the "Anti-Japanese University Art Troupe". In the absence of props, Xie Hanwen called on the members to make their own instruments. He also made an erhu and gave it to the band. When rehearsing the show, he acted as the director himself. The programs performed by the "Anti-Japanese University Art Troupe" were very popular and became a famous performance group in northern Shaanxi at that time.

On June 1, 1939, in order to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the founding of the "Anti-Japanese University", Xie Hanwen held the "Anti-Japanese University Achievements Exhibition", which received support from Luo Ruiqing and other school leaders. Mao Zedong and Zhu De visited the Anti-Japanese University in person and spoke highly of the exhibition after viewing it.

Due to Xie Hanwen's outstanding achievements in political propaganda work, he was named one of the 46 advanced political workers of the "Anti-Japanese University" in 1939.

At the beginning of 1941, the Anti-Japanese War entered a stalemate stage. The construction of the army and base areas urgently needed a large number of strong leaders to enrich frontline work. Xie Hanwen was transferred to the 18th Group Army as director of the Political Department of the General Logistics Department.

The day before leaving the Anti-Japanese University, he also told Niu Kelun, the propaganda officer: "We must do a good job in our propaganda and not let down the expectations of the people across the country."

In May 1942, the Japanese invaders dispatched 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers The troops carried out a "big sweep" of the anti-Japanese base areas in Jizhong, Taihang, Dayue, and northwest Shanxi in North China, and the headquarters decided to implement a strategic transfer. On May 25, the transfer team led by Peng Dehuai and Zuo Quan and the transfer team from the Political Department and Logistics Department of the Eighth Route Army unexpectedly entered the Nanaipu area of ??Liao County at the same time. At this time, the Japanese army had discovered the whereabouts of the Eighth Route Army and surrounded the Aipu area with heavy troops. Due to the large number of personnel and large targets, coupled with the small number of combat troops and the lack of roads in mountainous areas, collective action is very difficult. After emergency consultations with Zuo Quan, Luo Ruiqing, Yang Lisan (Director of General Logistics of the Eighth Route Army), Xie Hanwen and others, Peng Dehuai decided to separate routes to break out. After discovering the Eighth Route Army's intention to break out of the encirclement, the Japanese army quickly closed the encirclement and bombarded the breakout team with more intense artillery fire.

When the Eighth Route Army cadres and soldiers entered the village to light a fire for cooking, deafening gunfire suddenly sounded outside the village. Xie Hanwen immediately pulled out his pistol and rushed out of the room, only to see Japanese troops approaching from the outside of the village. Xie Hanwen saw that the enemy's firepower was very intensive and knew that the intersection in front of the village had been blocked by the enemy, so he led the personnel of the Political Department of the General Logistics Department to break out from behind the village. After breaking out of the encirclement, he turned around and found that his wife Wang Zhendong, who was carrying a document box from the Political Department of the General Logistics Department, was blocked in the village by enemy fire. He turned around and rushed into the village despite the enemy's bullets. He supported his pregnant wife and retreated to the back of the village. However, it was too late. The enemy discovered them and blocked their retreat with intensive firepower. In the crisis, Xie Hanwen and his wife took out the documents from the suitcase and stuffed them into a wood stove of a family to burn. At this time, the enemy came up. Xie Hanwen and his wife were both captured. On the same day, the enemy took Xie Hanwen and his wife and some captured staff of the General Logistics Department of the Eighth Route Army to Taiyuan City. The Japanese army learned that Xie Hanwen was a senior cadre of the Eighth Route Army, and sent a special interrogator to take charge of the interrogation. But the enemy learned nothing from Xie Hanwen. The old shameful enemy tortured him, stabbed his shoulder blade and collarbone with a bayonet, tied him with iron wire, hung him high on the beam, put a basin of fire under his feet, and carried out inhumane torture. The brave and tenacious Xie Hanwen did not give in. The enemy had no choice but to report to the Japanese Invasion Headquarters and execute Xie Hanwen and his wife. They walked proudly to the execution ground. On that day, the mountains cried and the earth mourned.