Each piece of revolutionary relics bears witness to the glorious history of the Communist Party of China (CPC); each revolutionary story tells a powerful strength. Let’s get close to the revolutionary relics and recall the Chishui battle.

In the Chishui Memorial Hall lie three wooden planks: a kitchen door plank and a pair of front door planks in dark brown. In fact, these doors with varying lengths and many repairs are the treasure of the hall and carry a revolutionary story happening 86 years ago.

On January 24, 1935, the Central Red Army defeated the Guizhou warlords and took the Tucheng Town. As local armed forces spread rumors, many residents got scared and chose to hide in mountains, so only a few poor people stayed in the town.

“Zheng Mingfu, ‘bandits’ are coming, why don’t you escape? Aren’t you afraid?” a grannie who crossed the river by boat asked the boater Zheng Mingfu.

“I have nothing to fear because I have nothing to lose”, he answered.

The next day, human voices and the sound of drums broke the silence of the town, “My compatriots, come to the salt warehouse to get your share!”

Zheng came there with uncertainty. He saw the Red Army use salt spear to open salt packages, breaking salt into blocks. Although about two dozen of people gathered around, none of them dared to go ahead and get salt. In this case, the Red Army handed salt blocks to the people. He himself noticed Tang Liancheng from a horse caravan and Jiang Chunshan, a sedan bearer get salt.

Then he asked with timidity: “Sir, could, could I pick up a little?”

“Sure. My fellow, what do you do?” the Red Army asked.

“Due to famine, I came here to make a living as a boater in Caijiatuo.”

“Here, hold your salt.” the Red Army delivered a bowl-size salt block to Zheng Mingfu. Having salt in his hands, he was too excited to speak. He had no idea when was the last time he ate salt. At the moment, he had expected to pay the kindness back someday in the future.

The word soon got about that the Red Army soldiers were strict disciplinarians and were giving food and salt. Therefore, people hiding in mountains came back.

However, enemy troops followed up and battled the Red Army in Qinggangpo of Tucheng. During the fight, the Revolutionary Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee held an emergency meeting and decided to withdraw from the battle and cross the Chishui River in the west.

The Chishui River with a width of around 200 meters flowed fast. How to quickly lay three floating bridges across the river became the key to getting rid of the encirclement. At that time, Zhou Enlai (1898-1976), a Chinese Communist Party leader, examined where to bridge in person and the soldiers sought around for building materials. Knowing this, locals offered their help. Zheng Mingfu was one of them. He took three planks from his house, shouldered to the riverside and even helped to build the bridge.

The floating bridges were on the threshold of success for several times but swept apart due to fast rapids. Without a second thought, Zheng jumped into the river and shuttled between the two sides to fix boats, just like many other soldiers.

On the morning of January 29, the Central Red Army succeeded in crossing the river from Hunxikou, Caijiatuo of Tucheng and Yuanhou of Chishui. It was in this place that the famous Chishui Battle unfolded.

After crossing Chishui, the Red Army decided to quickly explode these floating bridges to prevent enemy troops from chasing. In an emergency, the Red Army had no time to return those planks, instead, they gave silver dollars and other goods way expensive for compensation. Zheng got two silver dollars, a straw cape, a pointed hat, and a shoulder pole.

After the Red Army left, people went to the river to salvage their planks in darkness, which were hard to recognize due to battle damage. So people just found similar planks of their own and carried them home.

Zheng Mingfu took home three doors with varying sizes and had them installed after simple repair. It was hard to tell how many times these doors had been repaired during the past 71 years. One thing for sure is that Zheng treasured the planks more as they get stronger. Planks of the kind are affectionately called “red planks” by Tucheng people.

In 2006, hearing the news that the Chishui Memorial Hall was to be built in Tucheng, Zheng Mingfu lifted the three planks off without hesitation and donated them to the hall.

Chinese people and the Party are inseparable as fish and water. These three planks historically witness the first crossing of the Chishui River, interpret the fish-water relationship between the Red Army and civilians to the best, and present that people in old revolutionary base areas love the Party, support the Army and are committed to passing on the red gene. Through these revolutionary cultural relics, people are impressed by the iron discipline of the people’s army under the leadership of the CPC and the interdependent fish-water relationship in the revolutionary years.

（This article is provided by our contributor Cao Xingyan，the deputy director of the research office of Chishui Memorial Hall）