Gu Changhua, a 100-year-old Red Army soldier from Cangxi, died at 2:05 a.m. on Dec. 16 at the age of 103, according to the Sichuan Guangyuan Daily. According to the news, Gu Changhua’s ashes have been buried in the Martyrs Cemetery in Baoding City, Hebei Province.
According to public information, Gu Changhua, formerly known as Gu Changfa and formerly known as Gu Changhua, was born in May 1918. He was a native of Cangxi County, Sichuan Province. He joined the Red Army in 1933 and traveled to the snow-capped mountain grasslands three times with the Red Fourth Front Army. During the Anti-Japanese War, he worked in the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and the Central Guard Regiment. He was wounded many times during the war and served as Mao Zedong’s guard in Yan’an for five years from 1941. During the negotiations in Chongqing, he was appointed by Mao Zedong and served as Zhou Enlai’s assistant.
He participated in the siege battle of Ningxian County, Gansu Province, and the victory of Pingxingguan. From 1947 to 1948, he was awarded the second-class hero once and the third-class hero twice by the Jin-Hebei-Luyu Military Region. During the Liberation War, he was awarded the North China Liberation Medal, the Northeast Liberation Medal, and the National Liberation Medal. In 1955, he was awarded the August 1st Medal, the Third-Class Independence Freedom Medal, and the Third-Class Liberation Medal. He retired in July 1965 and lived in Baoding, Hebei.
According to a report by China Military Network in 2019, a four-corner number dictionary issued by the army during the Yan’an period was a treasure that Gu Changhua had always cherished. He once told his son that "he always took the dictionary with him at that time, and learned to read when he had time. When he had paper, he practiced calligraphy on paper, and when he didn’t have paper, he practiced on the ground."
"My father said that Chairperson Mao was very concerned about their studies, and stipulated that they should spend two hours a day studying, including politics, literacy, and nature," recalled Gu Jingzhou, Gu Changhua’s second son. "Sometimes textbooks were missing, and Chairperson Mao told his secretary to write some new notes for the soldiers to read and write. When he went out with Chairperson Mao, Chairperson Mao sometimes asked him, ‘How many words did you learn today?’ Chairperson Mao often took the time to check their studies, grade their homework, and some even wrote criticism."
Gu Changhua once said that since he joined the revolution, he did not know how many comrades died on the battlefield. He participated in the revolution to give the toiling masses a good life, and he was fortunate to survive and was content. His only wish was to see the motherland getting better and better.