Zhao Yiman: White Mountain and Black Water Remove Enemy, Smile to See Banners as Red as Flowers

Harbin Nangang District Yiman Street, formerly known as Shan Street. After the liberation of Harbin in 1946, it was changed to its current name to commemorate the martyr Zhao Yiman who gave his precious life for the cause of the Anti-Japanese War in Northeast China.

Zhao Yiman, whose real name was Li Kuntai, was born in 1905 in a feudal landlord family in Yibin, Sichuan. After the May 4th Movement, under the influence of her brother-in-law Zheng Youzhi, she came into contact with progressive books and periodicals such as "Guide" and "New Youth", and gradually accepted the baptism of new revolutionary ideas. Soon, she joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League and embarked on the road of revolution, propagating revolutionary ideas in her hometown, and establishing league organizations and women's mass organizations. After being admitted to Yibin Girls' Middle School, she continued to lead her classmates to carry out patriotic struggle and became one of the leaders of the local student movement.

In the summer of 1926, 21-year-old Zhao Yiman joined the Communist Party of China. In November of the same year, she entered the Wuhan Central Military and Political School to study, and the following year was sent to Moscow Sun Yat-sen University to study. Here, she met her revolutionary partner, Chen Dabang.

In the winter of 1928, Zhao Yiman, who was pregnant, returned to China ahead of schedule in accordance with the organization's arrangements, and secretly carried out party work in Yichang, Shanghai, Jiangxi and other places. The underground working environment is dangerous, often tossing and turning on the way, and the baby is too young to take care of. In desperation, Zhao Yiman, after discussing with his family, sent the child to Chen Dabang's cousin Chen Yueyun's home for raising.

After the "September 18th" Incident, the party organization sent a large number of outstanding cadres to the northeast to carry out the anti-Japanese struggle. "Swear to be a man, not a home, and cross the river and the sea to the end of the world." Zhao Yiman, who is working in the central government of Shanghai, also went north to Baishan and Heishui. He successively served as secretary and organization minister of Manchuria Federation of trade unions, acting secretary of Harbin Federation of trade unions, special commissioner of Zhuhe County Central Committee of Binjiang Province, and Secretary of Tiebei District Committee.

At the Harbin Federation of Trade Unions, Zhao Yiman gave political lessons to the workers, enriched the cultural life of the workers, and participated in leading the Harbin tram workers' strike. In the Zhuhe base area, she came to the homes of the masses, helped them cook, publicized the principle of resisting Japan and saving the country to them, became one with the masses, and soon organized the Anti Japanese women's Association, leading the women to help the guerrillas stand guard, send intelligence and transport supplies. Later, she organized a peasant self-defense force in Houlin Township. Under her command, this team became stronger and stronger in the Vietnam War and won many major victories in ambushing the Japanese army.

In the autumn of 1935, the Pearl River base was brutally burned and killed by the enemy. In order to cooperate with the main force and contain the enemy's forces, this team was incorporated into the Second Regiment of the First Division of the Third Army of the Northeast People's Revolutionary Army. The whole regiment was led by Zhao Yiman and stayed in the base area to carry out guerrilla struggles. In November, the second regiment was besieged by the Japanese and puppet troops. During the battle, Zhao Yiman broke through the encirclement as a cover force and was captured in a coma with serious injuries.

Steel needle, soldering iron, electrocution ...... The Japanese army tried their best to extort confessions by torture, trying to force Zhao Yiman to confess and surrender. But even under the Japanese army's own view that it was already "the maximum pressure of overload", she still gritted her teeth and never confessed half a sentence. Seeing that there was nothing the enemy could do, he became angry from embarrassment and decided to send her back to Zhuhe County to be executed for "public display". On the train to the execution ground, Zhao Yiman wrote a suicide note to a child he had not seen for many years: "Mother does not need a thousand words to educate you, but uses practice to educate you. After you grow up, I hope not to forget. Your mother sacrificed for the country."

On August 2, 1936, Zhao Yiman's young life was forever fixed at the age of 31.

Today, walking on the Yiman Street where Zhao Yiman once fought, the bronze statue of Zhao Yiman in military uniform is valiant, staring at the peaceful life of the people in this black land every day. In Yibin, Sichuan, thousands of miles away, the people of her hometown also built a memorial hall for her, in which Chen Yi's inscription was kept: "Born as a people's cadre, died as a revolutionary hero. In the face of the enemy, we will never be humiliated, and we will always remember the hearts of the people."

Source: Party Building Magazine