One day in early 1972, Li Min, who was pregnant, entered Zhongnanhai Juxiang Bookstore again.
At the moment when they met their father, they could not help blushing their eyes. Chairman Mao, who always cared for his children, could not help looking at her growing stomach and asked carefully: "Have you felt uncomfortable recently? Are there any difficulties in life?"
Facing her father's concern, Li Min just smiled and shook her head.
After all, as a child of a leader, she has developed an independent and strong lifestyle since childhood, and her father has always taught herself to face difficulties independently no matter what they are facing. The future road needs to be completed step by step.
However, when the father and daughter who had not seen each other for a long time met again, Chairman Mao was keenly aware of the abnormality.
He frowned and stared at Li Min's face. Then he asked slowly, "My dear, why didn't Ling Hua come?"
Chairman Mao asked Kong Linghua, his son-in-law.
Before that, when her daughter Li Min came to see her, she was accompanied by Kong Linghua.
Now that Li Min is pregnant and needs someone to take care of him, his husband is not around, which inevitably worries Chairman Mao.
In the following conversation, Chairman Mao said angrily, "It's time for Xiao Kong to stay outside. It's outrageous! It's not suitable in any way. I'll arrange this!"
So, where is Kong Linghua at this time? What happened after this family visit?
Li Min is Chairman Mao's beloved daughter, while Kong Linghua's father is just Lieutenant General Kong Congzhou, who was then deputy artillery commander. The family background gap between the two people is not small. How did they get together?
one
Li Min's childhood was tortuous and hard.
In 1940, when she was just 4 years old, she was sent to the Soviet Union to live with her mother.
It's not easy to wander in a foreign country, but the young Li Min has also become more mature in such a living environment. When she was received by Chairman Mao in 1949, people around didn't even believe that the mature and stable girl in front of her was only 13 years old.
At that time, Beiping City had just been liberated. In order to settle down the central office moved here from Xibaipo, under the investigation of Li Kenong and others, Xiangshan was temporarily taken as the office residence, while Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and other leaders lived in Shuangqing Villa here.
When Li Min appeared in Shuangqing Villa and spoke fluent Russian, Chairman Mao said excitedly to his old comrades in arms for many years: "My family has a 'foreign baby' who can speak foreign languages.".
Zhou Enlai and others touched Li Min's small head and couldn't stop praising: "This is the witness of our Sino Soviet friendship".
With the passage of time, Li Min has gradually grown from a little girl to a beautiful and graceful girl, and she has begun to yearn for love in a different way.
While studying in Beijing's "August 1 School", she met Kong Linghua, who was about the same age as herself, and was soon attracted by this handsome, generous and kind-hearted boy.
Shortly afterwards, Chairman Mao also found something unusual about his daughter, so he heard about her love.
Chairman Mao, who has always been open-minded, did not object to this matter. One day after school, he called Li Min aside with a smile and asked, "Baby, who is Xiao Kong's father? What kind of work do you know?"
The reason why this question was raised was actually Chairman Mao's concern for his daughter.
In the face of this love, as a father, it is natural to understand the family situation of the daughter's love object.
However, after hearing the inquiry, Li Min said hesitantly, "This... I really didn't understand it, and Ling Hua didn't mention it to me..."
Looking at his daughter's ignorant appearance, Chairman Mao extended his hand and patted her on the forehead. He said angrily, "You don't even know each other's family situation. How can you talk about friends with others?".
Li Min could only murmur: "We are students of August 1st School, and now he has entered the Aviation Academy. I think his parents should also be military cadres..."
Seeing his daughter's face wronged, Chairman Mao had to patiently say, "You still have to ask. It's good for both sides to know about the situation.".
Li Min has deeply remembered these words.
Soon after, she told her father what she learned from her boyfriend: Kong Linghua's father, Kong Congzhou, was a deputy artillery commander of the PLA.
Hearing the result, Chairman Mao nodded slightly: "It was the child of General Kong Congzhou. It's really a good thing.".
Kong Congzhou, a former Kuomintang general, led his army to rise in Gongxian County, Henan Province in 1946 and joined the PLA.
After the founding of New China, he successively served as artillery commander of the Southwest Military Region, dean of the artillery engineering college, deputy artillery commander of the PLA, and was awarded the rank of founding lieutenant general in 1955.
Because of this, Chairman Mao was satisfied with the marriage, but when he thought that his own consent was not enough, he took Li Min's hand and said, "This is your life. You should ask your mother and Xiao Kong's parents for advice. The new wife will see her in law sooner or later!"
At the suggestion of her father, Li Min soon arrived in Shanghai with Kong Linghua to see her mother He Zizhen.
In addition to letting her mother meet her boyfriend, Li Min has another important purpose in this trip to Shanghai, that is, to personally convey Chairman Mao's greetings to her mother.
When He Zizhen heard that Chairman Mao was still worried about her, she was moved to tears. She fought back her tears and said, "Tell your father for me that I am fine now and let him not worry about it. In addition, I have no problem with you and Xiao Kong. I hope you two can be happy".
After a short stay in Shanghai for a few days, Li Min and Kong Linghua hurried to see Kong Congzhou and Qian Jian again and got their blessing.
On August 29, 1959, they finally got married.
two
After the wedding, Li Min faces a dilemma.
Before that, Li Min had always lived in Zhongnanhai with Chairman Mao, but now she is married. According to traditional customs, she should live with her husband. But looking at her aging father, Li Min was extremely reluctant.
She hoped to accompany her father in the days to come. After some inner struggle, she revealed her heart to Chairman Mao: "Dad, I don't want to move after marriage".
Chairman Mao naturally understood his daughter's reluctance, and why didn't he want her to stay with him?
So Chairman Mao said after a moment of meditation: "Then you and Xiao Kong should continue to live here. There are still empty rooms in the front yard.".
In the days after that, Li Min and Kong Linghua would take time to sit down in Juxiang Bookstore, chat and play chess with Chairman Mao, and they both enjoyed this comfortable life.
Sometimes, when the two were busy with their work and could not spare time for several days in a row, Chairman Mao would personally go to their home to see them.
After getting along with each other for a long time, Chairman Mao became more and more fond of Kong Linghua, the son-in-law. He thought that he had the passion of a young man and was always energetic no matter what he did.
In the spring of 1960, Kong Linghua took the initiative to ask to work in the countryside, which was strongly supported by Chairman Mao.
The days of working in the countryside were extremely hard, but Kong Linghua was energetic and would go home every half month to accompany his family.
One weekend, Kong Linghua had just finished farm work. In order to catch the last bus back to Beijing, he went home unkempt without cleaning up.
Because the family was going to have dinner that night, Li Min looked at her husband's scraggly appearance and said quickly, "Go outside and get a haircut and a shave. How can you eat with your father like this?".
It happened that Chairman Mao came to the door at this time, and when he heard this, he immediately stopped him and said, "What are you going to do outside? It will take a lot of time to come back, so let Xiao Zhou come here, it will be faster".
Chairman Mao's "Xiao Zhou" is his exclusive barber Zhou Fuming.
Chairman Mao once made a rule that his family could not find Zhou Fuming to have a haircut, because they were afraid that they would make a "special" opening. But now he unexpectedly asked Zhou Fuming to cut Kong Linghua's hair for the first time, first to save time, and second to praise Kong Linghua for taking the initiative to work in the countryside.
At the beginning of 1962, Li Min felt some discomfort and loss of appetite, so she went to the hospital for examination, and unexpectedly learned that she was pregnant.
When Chairman Mao heard the news, he immediately found Li Min: "You are not well now. You'd better ask for leave from school. It's good for the children to have more rest.".
With the meticulous care of the people around, Li Min finally gave birth to a boy in October.
Early the next morning, Kong Linghua rushed to Juxiang Bookstore excitedly and told Chairman Mao the good news.
After hearing Kong Linghua's cry, Chairman Mao stared at his eyes in disbelief and asked with trembling lips, "What did you just say?"
Kong Linghua had to say again: "Dad, mother and son are safe, mother and son are safe, and you are going to be grandpa".
