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Qin Huali, born in January 1913, is from Tongjiang County, Sichuan Province. Zeng used to be named Zheng Qing, former party secretary of Nanjing Institute of Posts and Telecommunications. In 1932, he joined the Fourth Army of the Chinese Red Army of Workers and Peasants. In March 1935, after successively participating in the campaigns of Kongshanba, Wanyuan Defence War, Forcing Crossing Jialing River, Conquering Jianmenguan, Zhongba and Qianfo Mountain, he began the Long March and crossed the grassland three times. During the Long March, the Red Army had three schools: Central Party School, Red Army University and Communication School. In September 1935, he was transferred to the communication school to study radio technology. He graduated in June 1936 and was assigned to the military department of Gongsi Army as the director of the radio station. In May 1945, he served as the communications chief of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region and the Fourth Column Command of the Eighth Route Army. After liberation, Qin Huali went to work in a local area. He retired in 1983 and now lives in Nanjing, Jiangsu.
Qin Huali: the youthful atmosphere of the 107-year-old Red Army
The sun shone through the dense phoenix tree leaves and sprinkled on a small building. In a room in the small building, there were bursts of songs: "The Red Army is an iron man, and it is not afraid of difficulties. Snow-capped mountains bow their heads to welcome distant guests, and grass blankets and mud blankets set up camps … …” Wow! This is an excerpt from "Crossing Snow Mountain Grassland" in "Long March Songs".
Listen carefully, the song is hoarse, but full of confidence, and the lyrics are sung intermittently, but they are still sung completely.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, I wouldn’t have believed that this song actually came from a 107-year-old man! This old man is the "Grandpa online celebrity" Qin Huali who brushed the screen in 2016.
In September that year, 104-year-old Qin Huali, accompanied by his daughter, went to Beijing to participate in the recording of CCTV’s "The First Lesson of School Opening". He told primary and secondary school students about his experience in learning English and communication during the Long March. That video was screened in the circle of friends, and people remembered the centenarian Red Army.
At the moment, Qin Huali sitting in front of me is wearing an orange T-shirt, white trousers and a white vest. Combined with his state, it is hard for me to believe that this is an old man who has gone through a century.
I saw his hand echoing the song, gently stroking and drawing an arc in front of him. When the hand fell, "Crossing the Snow Mountain Grassland" just finished singing. I clapped hard and said with emotion, "I remember the lyrics clearly!"
Qin Zhihong, the daughter of Qin Huali, who sat by, said with a smile, "How could I forget! This is all his personal experience! "
After singing a song, Qin Huali seems to have returned to the scene in the song — —
When Qin Huali’s Red Fourth Army crossed Jiajin Mountains, the mountains were covered with snow all year round, and the air became thinner and thinner with the elevation. Qin Huali and his comrades-in-arms helped each other and walked slowly against the snowstorm and hail. At night, "the temperature suddenly dropped to MINUS 20 or 30 degrees Celsius, the clothes were frozen into ice cones, and the eyebrows and beards were covered with ice slag." In order to keep out the cold, they bought ginger and pepper from ordinary people before leaving, cut them into shreds and mixed them together, and put them in bamboo tubes they carried with them. It was too cold to bear, so I took a bite of ginger and pepper to drive away the cold. Despite this, there are still many soldiers who have stayed on the snow-capped mountains forever … …
However, to my surprise, after finishing this experience, Qin Huali said with a smile: "The scenery on the snowy mountain is really beautiful, and the stars in the sky at night are also beautiful … …”
He was lost in thought and his face was calm. Qin Huali remembers this past more than 80 years ago clearly. It is the cold that every gust of cold wind pours into the body, it is the pain that every snowflake blows on the face, and it is the pain that every comrade-in-arms will stay in his heart forever when he falls down. When he climbed the snow-capped mountains, when he won the victory, when he bathed in the sunshine of China’s development in peacetime, how could he forget the hardships and sacrifices he made to create a new China?
We have heard many stories about the Red Army crossing the snowy mountains and grasslands, but it seems that few people like Qin Huali praised the scenery at that time. Looking at the shallow smile on his face, I think he must be a romantic and an optimistic person. Facing the harsh natural environment and where will you go, a comrade-in-arms, the dazzling stars hanging in the sky may give him some comfort. But he must know that the departing comrades will eventually become stars, illuminating their way forward.
Until now, Qin Huali will still sing a song from time to time. Singing the phrase "Drinking a bowl of wine from Mom before leaving" from The Red Lantern may remind him of the scene when his mother dragged him to join the army when he was young. Singing "Three Disciplines and Eight Attentions", the phrase "All actions follow the command, and you can win in unison" may remind him of the collective chorus and the passionate songs on the March; Singing "Songs of the Long March", the phrase "Snow Mountain bowed its head to meet distant guests, and the straw blanket and mud felt pitched camp" may remind him of the hardships of that year, but he is more proud of the peaceful present.
Singing filled the arduous Long March, and also deeply entered Qin Huali’s heart.
My daughter Qin Zhihong always has tears in her eyes every time she hears her father sing. She tried to imagine the scene of the year through her father’s singing, and imagined her father’s appearance on the Long March with the radio "ticking".
That is my father’s youth! Have a bloody romantic youth!
Today, Qin Huali, who is 107 years old, is "still as naughty as a child". Qin Zhihong accompanied him for a walk. Someone asked the old man how old he is this year. Qin Huali replied with a smile: "I am 7 years old this year." Qin Zhihong listened to dumbfounding, but felt that "it’s good that this old urchin can joke like this".
This "old urchin" not only plays jokes on people, but also rewrites the lyrics and sings with the old people nearby. Just two years ago, Qin Huali completed his memoir — — A hundred years of stormy roads.
Looking through that thick memoir, I jokingly said to Qin Huali, "Grandpa Qin, you are so trendy! You have done all the popular things now! "
Hearing this, Qin Huali laughed. That laughter contains too many bonfires and smoke, too many difficulties in starting a business, and too many infinite loves for life.
