A Military Reporter's Journey to the Roots | A Trajectory That Never Deviates
A Trajectory That Never Deviates
——Reporters Trace the Original Aspiration and Journey of Martyr Zhu Rui, Founder of the People's Artillery (Part II)
■ PLA Daily Reporters Zhang Kejin and Wang Desai
A certain brigade of the 79th Group Army organizes live-fire training for artillery units. Photo by Fu Zhixiang.
During the Qingming Festival, people carrying fresh flowers walked into two cemeteries, one in the south and one in the north.
At the Menglianggu Martyrs' Cemetery in Shandong, two graves—one large, one small—rest close together, sheltering a mother and daughter in eternal sleep. The mother, Chen Ruoke, was 22 years old. Her daughter had been born only 19 days earlier and had not yet been given a name.
This mother and daughter were the wife and child of Zhu Rui, founder of the People's Artillery. During the anti-"mopping-up" (反"扫荡") campaign of 1941, both were killed by Japanese invaders.
At the Zhu Rui Martyrs' Cemetery in Yixian County, Jinzhou, Liaoning, fresh flowers bloom before the grave. On October 1, 1948, Zhu Rui was killed by a landmine during the battle to liberate Yixian County.
From the Yimeng Mountain area to the land of Liaoshen, husband and wife—a family of three—shed their blood on the sacred soil of the motherland, seven years apart.
Our reporters, in relay, traced the footsteps of Martyr Zhu Rui, extending their steps and their pens into the more distant mists of history. When Zhu Rui—who had declared he was "willing to give the second half of his life to artillery"—threw himself like a blazing projectile, without hesitation, onto the battlefield, his brilliant first half of life still shines like a trajectory that never deviates, drawing our reverent gaze.
Faith in the Heart, Responsibility on the Shoulders
In those years, the television drama The Right Path Is the World of Vicissitudes (人间正道是沧桑) was enormously popular. Regarding the prototype for the protagonist Yang Liqing, audiences generally believed the character blended the traits of four founding generals: Chen Geng, Song Shilun, Yang Zhicheng, and Xiao Jinguang.
"In fact, Zhu Rui was also one of the prototypes for Yang Liqing." At the Zhu Rui General Memorial Hall in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, Huang Xinhe—a non-commissioned officer school student from the Army Arms University who had come to trace his roots—was connecting online with classmates to discuss this. Comparing the drama's plot of Yang Liqing "risking his life to save his mentor" with Zhu Rui's own deed of "fighting to the death to save his comrades," this member of the post-2000 generation was deeply moved.
In October 1930, Wuhan was shrouded in a White Terror. At the time, the CCP Yangtze River Bureau had been compromised by the enemy and urgently needed capable cadres to carry out its work.
At this critical juncture, Zhu Rui—then serving as a staff officer in the General Staff Section of the Central Military Commission—stepped forward, declaring he was prepared to "carry his own coffin" to take up the post, and resolutely departed for Wuhan. He evaded repeated enemy searches, provided cover for leaders including Guan Xianying and Ren Bishi to successfully transfer to safety, and at the risk of his life withdrew a large number of clandestine Party members and united-front contacts.
The non-commissioned officer school where Huang Xinhe studies traces its lineage to the Yan'an Artillery School. Before one exhibit in the school history museum, many people stopped to look closely. It was a photocopy of My History and Ideological Autobiography (《我的历史与思想自传》), written by Zhu Rui during the Yan'an Rectification Movement (延安整风)—a precious historical document through which later generations can approach him in the first person.
Zhu Rui was born in 1905 into a prosperous family in Suqian, Jiangsu. In 1925, he went to the Soviet Union, studying successively at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow and the Krasin Artillery School; in 1928, he joined the Chinese Communist Party. In 1930, after returning to China, Zhu Rui lost contact with the Party organization. Amid the storm of blood and terror, some withdrew from the Party, some defected. Old friends urged him to "stop doing revolution—let's go into business together," offering him important positions; he refused them all with stern words.
After six months of desperate searching, Zhu Rui finally returned to the embrace of the organization. He later recalled: "From leaving Moscow to finding the Party—six months in all—was the loneliest, most anguished period of my life. Before finding the Party, we were very much like orphans who had lost their mother…"
These heartfelt words moved the students participating in the discussion to reflect: a true revolutionary always has a "Zhu Rui" living inside—faith in the heart, responsibility on the shoulders.
"Revolutionary work is not a pastoral idyll; it cannot possibly proceed without a hitch." Every time she enters the Zhu Rui General Memorial Hall, local Party history researcher Wang Qiuwen finds new insights. She says that on the revolutionary road, some fell behind or became lost because their faith was not firm; some even betrayed and degenerated because their faith wavered. It is precisely for this reason that those who kept walking are especially worth remembering.
Through all the twists and hardships, why was the Chinese revolution able to march toward victory? The stories that happened to Zhu Rui and his family gave our reporters a profound understanding of "the power of faith (信仰的力量)"—
In 1936, the Red Army marched north through Gansu and Shaanxi. To clear the way for the three main forces to converge, Zhu Rui risked his life to make contact with the Northeastern Army. Before his secret meeting with the commander of the 6th Cavalry Division, he handed a notebook containing classified information to a member of his party to be buried in a sorghum field, having prepared himself for death.
Before her martyrdom, Zhu Rui's wife, Martyr Chen Ruoke, extended her bleeding hand and said: "Child, you came into this world without drinking a single drop of your mother's milk, and now you must leave this world together with your mother. Then drink a mouthful of your mother's blood!"
In Zhu Rui's hometown of Zhu Daxingzhuang, more than twenty of his relatives and descendants successively joined the revolutionary ranks. During the anti-"mopping-up" campaign in southern Shandong, his niece Zhu Hua—who had followed Zhu Rui into the revolution—was martyred in the area of Cangshan and Feixian counties…
When the seas run wild, the true colors of heroes are revealed. These stories resonated with Huang Xinhe and his classmates: "The more magnificent the light, the more fiercely it must burn. True faith is the willingness to become the ash within that light. Those who refuse to burn are forever nothing more than opportunists in the course of history, sifted out like sand by the waves."
Since the deepening of national defense and military reform, this non-commissioned officer school has undergone multiple rounds of reorganization. Faced with relocating to teach in a different place, changing posts, and restructuring specializations, the entire faculty and staff have not a word of complaint. Everyone says: "Old Commandant Zhu Rui sacrificed his family and his own life for the Party's cause. What does our small personal sacrifice amount to?"
Always Ready to Uphold Truth, Always Ready to Correct Errors
Linshu—situated at the center of the Rectification Movement in the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area—was once known as "Little Yan'an."
Visiting multiple former sites of the CCP Shandong Sub-bureau, what left the deepest impression on our reporters was that the exhibits presented, in their original form, the criticism directed at Zhu Rui during the Rectification Movement, as well as his candid self-examination and reflective self-criticism.
"Failure to complete the Central Committee's task of 'gaining superiority in Shandong'; insufficient performance in the struggle against the stubborn (顽固) forces"… "The 'rent and interest reduction' (减租减息) campaign was not carried out deeply enough; the masses were fundamentally not mobilized and organized"… "Historical opportunities to establish political power were lost"… The sharp criticisms, more than eighty years later, remain striking.
As the top leader (一把手) of the Shandong Sub-bureau—described by Comrade Mao Zedong as a "regional overlord (一方诸侯)"—how did Zhu Rui confront these "grating" criticisms? Zhong Xingfan, then deputy director of the Dazhong Daily (《大众日报》) and a participant in the criticism meetings, recalled that Zhu Rui's attitude was sincere and his expression solemn; he nodded from time to time in agreement, and calmly told Zhong to record these opinions faithfully.
Beyond that, Zhu Rui took the lead in delivering a three-hour self-criticism at the Sub-bureau meeting, proactively assuming responsibility for the "primary problems" in Shandong's work—neither deflecting blame nor pushing it downward. Liu Shaoqi, who had come to guide the work, said: "Comrade Zhu Rui showed courage in self-criticism, corrected his shortcomings and errors, and made an important contribution to Shandong's Rectification Movement."
Visiting the old Yimeng base area, our reporters heard a Rectification story still passed down by word of mouth there today—
In the southern Shandong region, a signals unit once received a "first-priority combat mission": to set up a radio station to receive Rectification documents from Yan'an. Because they encountered Japanese puppet "mopping-up" operations and their supplies were cut off, the officers and soldiers could only eat "national salvation rations (救国粮)" while carrying out the mission. These "national salvation rations" were, in fact, animal fodder.
On the day the mission ended, Japanese puppet forces came up the mountain to search and sweep. The soldiers finished decoding the final manuscript at the last possible moment before withdrawing down the mountain. That final manuscript was Mao Zedong's "Oppose Stereotyped Party Writing" (《反对党八股》). After the text was printed and distributed, the Rectification Movement in southern Shandong was set in motion.
A docent told our reporters that at the time, some people felt that with the War of Resistance situation so tense, there was no need to "conduct mopping-up outside while conducting rectification inside." Zhu Rui, however, firmly demanded: one "gun" aimed at the enemy, one "gun" aimed at ourselves.
It was precisely because Zhu Rui led by example—starting from the top, insisting that senior cadres go first, and treating rectification as a hard battle to be fought—that the cadre corps of the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area underwent a thorough ideological transformation. Everyone was of one mind, truly aligning with the Central Committee.
From Shandong to Yan'an, Zhu Rui's utterly genuine and pure Party spirit (党性) moved us time and again. A historical document disclosed by the Central Institute of Party History and Documentation reveals that at the Seventh National Congress of the CCP, Zhu Rui spoke as follows: "When I was working in Shandong, I did not show proper respect to Comrade Luo Ronghuan, whose abilities and leadership were both superior to mine. I not only apologized to him in Shandong—I should also apologize to him today, at this Party congress."
"Rectification means a complete transformation—a cleansing of the heart and a renewal of the face. Let us senior cadres start first, examine ourselves first, then criticize others"… "Some of you young people used to think I was remarkable, even admired me. In fact, many of my shortcomings were things you took for strengths, and that will affect you"… More than forty years later, Zhu Rui's secretary Mao Pengyun recalled these heartfelt words and still marveled: "For a senior cadre to dissect himself so plainly and openly in public—that commands respect!"
"Always ready to uphold truth, always ready to correct errors! (时刻准备坚持真理，时刻准备修正错误！)" Inside the Central Auditorium at Yangjialing, this slogan seemed to transport our reporters back more than eighty years. Zhu Rui of that era must have heard Mao Zedong's report "On Coalition Government" (《论联合政府》), and must have felt these words deeply—
"Communists must always be ready to uphold truth, because all truth is in accord with the interests of the people; Communists must always be ready to correct errors, because all errors are contrary to the interests of the people."
Credit for Success Need Not Be Mine; Credit for Success Must Include Me
Yixian County—the northern gateway to Jinzhou. The local county gazetteer records: the city walls stood 10 meters high and 4 meters thick, with a wide and deep moat outside; the enemy relied on the solid walls to construct networks of blockhouses and bunkers, making the fortifications formidable and easy to defend, difficult to attack.
In early summer, our reporters stood beneath the "Antai Gate"—the only surviving section of the ancient city wall—and looked up, filled with awe: in that battle of October 1948, how did the People's Liberation Army storm this fortified city in just six hours?
The answer lies in the exhibits at the Zhu Rui Martyrs' Cemetery. The battle records of that time document the following—
"In the Battle of Yixian, our forces deployed over a hundred artillery pieces—including 150mm heavy howitzers, 105mm howitzers, field guns, mountain guns, and mortars—organized into three artillery groups, deployed in close forward positions."
"The sustained artillery bombardment completely suppressed the defending forces. Enemy division commander Wang Shigao lamented in his confession: 'Every firing position inside the city walls was completely sealed off by artillery fire—unable to move. Men were either killed outright or pinned down by shellfire, unable to raise their heads.'"
The Battle of Yixian set a new record for our army in urban assault warfare—the shortest time to completely annihilate the defending enemy—and served as a "firepower rehearsal" for the assault on Jinzhou. It was the crowning moment when the light of Zhu Rui's life shone most brilliantly.
Who could have imagined that this founder of the People's Artillery—who had ranked first in both the graduation examination and live-fire shooting at the Soviet Krasin Artillery School—would spend more than ten years after returning to China without being able to work in artillery at all?
As Zhu Rui himself said, "there were no conditions for it when I returned in 1930." The Red Army of that time—and later the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army—had extremely few artillery pieces, far too few to constitute a branch of service. Zhu Rui, who had received systematic artillery education in the Soviet Union, simply had no arena in which to apply his skills. During those more than ten years, Zhu Rui did underground work, united-front work, and most extensively and for the longest time, Party affairs work—none of it connected to artillery.
Yet one who aspires to be a great tree harbors the dream of reaching the sky.
At the end of 1944, when Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai met with the U.S. Army Observer Group (驻华美军观察小组) in Yan'an, Lieutenant Colonel Bird posed a question: "Mr. Mao, will the Eighth Route Army launch a major counteroffensive in the near future?" Mao Zedong said firmly: "It will—and very soon we will fight our way into the cities!" Bird followed up: "I know your army has no artillery or armored forces. How will you take cities?" Zhou Enlai smiled and replied: "There is a Chinese saying: when the cart reaches the mountain, a road will appear." "A cart? Mr. Zhou, we are talking about artillery!" Bird was thoroughly baffled.
One year later, Zhu Rui stepped forward, volunteering with passion, and became the first "hauler" to pull the war chariot of the People's Artillery. In 1948, the artillery of the Northeast Field Army (东北野战军), with the force of thunder, stormed and took the defenses of Jinzhou in a single stroke.
For that day, Zhu Rui had politely declined the Central Military Commission's appointment as Deputy Chief of the General Staff in Yan'an—choosing to be a teacher rather than a high official. For that day, Zhu Rui had gone to the Northeast, leading officers and soldiers across the mountains and fields to "scavenge for guns (捡炮)." For that day, before the Liaoshen Campaign (辽沈战役) was launched, Zhu Rui made yet another "selfless choice (无我抉择)"—
At that time, the Northeast artillery had been built up, but Zhu Rui found that military-industrial production could not keep pace, and once again volunteered to take sole charge of that work. In a letter to Liu Yalou, his words were plain and resolute: "For the long-term development of the artillery, I set aside any consideration of title or rank. I request to be relieved of my post as Artillery Commander and to take on this work—to be an administrator for the rest of my life."
The day Jinzhou fell was fifteen days after Zhu Rui's death. At the Northeast Martyrs' Memorial Hall, our reporters saw a letter to his mother and elder brother that he had not had time to send. It read: "…The Northeast is developing very rapidly. I think before long we will fight our way through the Pass and link up with North China. Victory—this time it is true victory—and we will meet again at home. I hope Mother, Elder Brother, Sister-in-law, and the little nephew are all in good health, and that we may all be reunited!"
"Credit for success need not be mine; credit for success must include me (功成不必在我，功成必定有我)." For a leader like this, the people will keep him in their hearts forever. Zhu Rui Road, Zhu Rui Square, Zhu Rui Primary School, Zhu Rui Park… Although General Zhu Rui ultimately never got to see his family again, our reporters found, all along the way, that the people have long since inscribed his name into the mountains and rivers of the motherland.
(This reporting received strong support from Yu Cheng, Zhang Qian, Zhou Shiyu, and Shi Wenting.)
Reporter's Notes
The Original Aspiration Is the Soul's Home
In the season when wisteria blooms, our reporters came to General Zhu Rui's former residence—a courtyard compound on the bank of the Longhe River in Suqian. It is utterly inconspicuous amid the bustle of passersby, yet it nurtured the man recorded in history as the "Father of New China's Artillery."
The original aspiration (初心) is the soul's home. Throughout more than twenty years of revolutionary life, Zhu Rui never changed his original aspiration, forging the resolve to "not shrink from difficulty (不避难)," the candor of "harboring no private thoughts (无私念)," and the wisdom to "act with capability (善作为)." Today, as the entire military deepens political consolidation training (政治整训) and carries out in-depth study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievement (正确政绩观), General Zhu Rui's original aspiration—which has never faded—is precisely a question posed to every leading cadre: today, for whom do we exercise power, and for whom do we seek benefit? Only by not forgetting the original aspiration and keeping the mission firmly in mind, and by firmly establishing a correct view of power (权力观), a correct view of political achievement (政绩观), and a correct view of one's undertaking (事业观), can we truly shoulder the weighty trust placed in us by the Party and the people.
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