Cai Lin Zheng

Cai Linzheng, born on April 9, 1889 in Xiangxiang City, Hunan Province, grew up in poverty as the third of six siblings. He dropped out of school in his youth due to hardship, hawking goods by day in the town and learning to read at night from his parents, later working for six years at Cai Guangyi’s grocery shop. After marrying a rural woman surnamed Yuan, they had a daughter, and life became even more difficult. He moved with his wife to Changsha and lived with his mother and younger siblings. His younger brother Cai Hesen and sister Cai Chang, among others, often discussed social reform with Mao Zedong and other youths at their residence at the foot of Yuexiu Mountain; Cai Linzheng did not speak much, but listened and thought deeply.

In 1918, he helped establish the Xinmin Society at Cai Family Home; to lessen the family burden, he took on household duties and small-scale management. In 1919, after his brother and sister went abroad for study and work, he shouldered the responsibility of caring for his parents and eldest sister together with his wife. In the winter of 1921, upon learning that his siblings would return to the country, he went to Shanghai to join the revolution, with the party arranging his work at Hengfeng Textile Mill. In 1923 he joined the Chinese Communist Party, changing his name from Lu Xian to Lin Zheng; in Shanghai he engaged in the workers’ movement, serving as the head of the Hongkou Workers’ Group and participating in several strikes.

In 1924 his mother Ge Jianhao returned from France and, upon seeing how greatly her son had changed, expressed relief. He was then introduced to Guangzhou and admitted to the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy; he studied diligently, excelled in live-fire shooting (ranking first in the school), and graduated early in November to enlist. After the outbreak of the Guangdong–Hong Kong General Strike, he served as the captain of the 10th detachment of the Strike Committee’s vigilance corps, responsible for blockading the ports and cracking down on smuggling.

On October 30, 1925, during the Guangdong army’s siege of Sha Yu Chong, Cai Linzheng led the vigilance detachment to hold the position and requested reinforcements. On November 4, he fought fiercely with the troops, sustaining serious injuries; during the retreat he was found and ultimately died from his wounds, at the age of 36. His mother Ge Jianhao, his brother Cai Hesen, and his sister Cai Chang hold important places in revolutionary history. On November 11 and November 14, 1925, the Guangdong–Hong Kong Strike Committee and related organizations held memorial activities.