On January 21, 2011, the Global Daily published an article entitled "Tracing the Beginning and End of the Bones of Chinese Communist Agents in Taiwan, Planting Good Causes for Cross-Strait Peace," which wrote that Qin Feng, a veteran media personality in Taiwan, found the ashes and roster of 303 people at the Second Funeral Home in Taipei while helping Zhu Feng's daughter find the remains of her mother.
The place where Hou Wenli's ashes were stored
According to the staff of the funeral home, these ashes were left after the Execution of so-called political prisoners and CCP agents by Taiwan's Kuomintang military in the 1950s.
At that time, after the Kuomintang killed political prisoners and CCP agents, they would hand over their remains to the Taipei City Bliss Funeral Home.
If a family member comes to claim it, the body is handed over to the family, and if it is not claimed, it is cremated on the spot. And the roster of 303 unowned ashes is the ashes of these political prisoners and CCP agents who have not been claimed by their families.
According to the so-called policy of the Kuomintang in the 1950s, the arrested underground CCP members and agents had to confess their comrades to survive, and their surrender could be accepted. Therefore, these 303 urns are likely to be left behind after the sacrifice of underground party members who are unyielding and unyielding and would rather die than betray their comrades.
In this roster, there is such a name: Hou Wenli, no. 124, and the altar of columbarium no. 296.
Hou Wenli
On May 4, 2012, a year after the article was published, the Global Daily again reported on the "Roster of Suspected Political Victims of Taiwan's Martial Law Period."
In this roster, Hou Wenli is still in it, the roster is written like this: Name: Hou Wenli, photo number: 296, origin: Xiao County, Jiangsu, execution time: July 8, 1958, where the columbarium is located: No. 6, 3rd floor, 1 row, 2nd floor.
Subsequently, with the joint efforts of the Taiwan Regional Association for Handling Political Incidents during the Martial Law Period, Hou Wenli's relatives, and many other people, Hou Wenli, who had been ordered to lurk in Taiwan and disappear for more than sixty years, finally revealed the truth about his sacrifice in Taiwan.
Moreover, they also found two verdicts on Hou Wenli in the so-called Ministry of Defense:
The first is the Judgment of the Military Judicial Collegial Panel of the Secrecy Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense:
On November 26, 1943, Junzuo issued an instruction: 'Hou Wenli is to be sentenced to death, and Dai Tianqiang and Hou Wenjun should be severely tried and sentenced in accordance with law' After being complied with and selected within a time limit, the report is concluded and verified, and is hereby submitted to the Provincial Security Command according to the Ministry of National Defense.
The date was August 26, 1954, 26 August 1954.
The verdict of the Kuomintang
A year and a half later, Chiang Kai-shek also issued a special instruction for this judgment:
If the proposed security command tries the personnel in this case, both delaying them for a year and a half, and then repeating the acquittal, it is obvious that they are harboring martyrdom and fraud, they should be punished, and why the case has been delayed for so long.
Obviously, Chiang Kai-shek was dissatisfied with the so-called judgment of the Ministry of National Defense, believing that the sentence was too lenient and dragged on for too long.
The second copy is the Ministry of National Defense's Forty-Seven Years Of Fu Gao Pin Zi No. 46, which also has Chiang Kai-shek's instructions:
1. Hou Wenli's death sentence is as proposed
2. Fu Yu's two offenders shall be promptly sentenced and submitted for verification
III. Dai Tianqiang and Hou Wenjun should be strictly tried and re-handled in accordance with law.
Both verdicts were personally approved by Chiang Kai-shek, and it can also be seen from them that Hou Wenli's case caused great repercussions within the Kuomintang at that time.
Chiang Kai-shek
So, when was Hou Wenli ordered to infiltrate Taiwan, and why was his identity exposed and eventually killed by the Kuomintang?
As the Kuomintang verdict says, Hou Wenli is a native of Xiao County, Jiangsu Province, and of course, since Xiao County has now been classified as Anhui Province, Hou Wenli can also be called an Anhui native. In 1916, Hou Wenli was born in Xinzhuang Village, Zhao Lou Township, Xiao County.
In June 1935, at the age of 18, Hou Wenli entered the Kuomintang Nanjing Army Jiaoyuan School and became the fourth batch of students at the school. As a military academy designed to train combat officers in the army's mechanized units, Hou Wenli not only had the opportunity to receive a perfect and advanced modern military education, but also mastered a strong military skill. This also laid the groundwork for him to break into the Kuomintang troops and join the Anti-Japanese Expeditionary Force in the future.
It was also during his studies at this Kuomintang military academy that Hou Wenli, who saw the corruption of the Kuomintang, joined the revolution under the influence of his cousin-in-law Sun Xianghan and became a secret member of the CCP.
Of course, due to the sacrifice and death of insiders, coupled with the loss of information during the war years, it is impossible to know when Hou Wenli joined the revolution and joined the Communist Party of China. Maybe it was 1935, maybe it was 1936, or maybe it was 1937, which was the most probabilistic.
The predecessor of the Army Mechanization School was the Army Cross School
In 1937, with the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, Hou Wenli, who graduated from the military academy, was sent to Xi'an as an underground liaison. It was also in Shaanxi that he met Xu Binru, who was then the secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and coincidentally, Xu Binru was also a native of Xiao County and a fellow of Hou Wenli.
Shortly after being ordered to arrive in Xi'an, under Xu Binru's arrangement, Hou Wenli, who was a graduate of the Jiaoyuan Military Academy, was justifiably arranged to join the Eighth Automobile Company of the Third Battalion of the Kuomintang Traffic Corps and became a platoon commander of the company.
The reason why this unit was arranged was because although this automobile company was a Kuomintang unit, because it was responsible for transporting supplies from Xi'an to Yan'an, this unit was actually guided by the work of the Communist Party. Naturally, this unit was deeply influenced by the Communist Party, and even the company commander of the company was a Communist.
At that time, the company commander of the Eighth Automobile Company was named Cao Yi, who was a veteran member of our party who joined the Communist Party of China as early as 1927. However, due to the destruction of the organization during the agrarian revolution, Cao Yi was forced into exile abroad, so he lost contact with the organization.
Cao Yi
It was not until 1937 that Cao Yi contacted the organization again and was summoned by Zhu De in Yan'an. It was also after meeting Zhu De that he accepted the special task specially arranged by Commander-in-Chief Zhu De: to lay an ambush for a long time, accumulate strength, and send talents and materials to the establishment of mechanized troops in our army.
Of course, as a member of the secret and secret front, it is crucial to protect identity and communicate intelligence in a timely manner. Therefore, his direct contact is the top priority of the secret work. At that time, Cao Yi's single-line contact was Hou Wenli. The person who arranged Hou Wenli as Cao Yi's single-line contact was Xu Binru, secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee.
After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, Hou Wenli participated in many battles with his troops, such as the Battle of Xinkou and the Battle of Niangziguan, and fought bloody battles against the Japanese and Kou on the battlefield of North China. In 1942, after Japan launched the Pacific War and cut off China's maritime foreign aid line, as a technical force, Cao Yi, Hou Wenli and others joined the famous Chinese Anti-Japanese Expeditionary Force with the troops and entered Burma to fight against the Japanese.
At that time, Hou Wenli, who participated in the expeditionary force, was the director of the lieutenant colonel of the Sixth Regiment of the Indian Army and the commander of the Eighth Company of the Third Battalion. His single-line contact, Cao Yi, was colonel of the 6th Regiment of the Special Forces Corps directly under the General Headquarters of the Chinese Army in India.
Chinese Expeditionary Force
Thereafter, for several years, Hou Wenli and Cao Yi fought against the Japanese in the Chinese Expeditionary Force. After the surrender of the Japanese on August 15, 1945, Hou Wenli returned to China with his troops.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Hou Wenli's unit, the Kuomintang Sixth Regiment, was ordered to be stationed in Xi'an, so Hou Wenli, who was the commander of the major company, also lived peacefully in Xi'an with the troops for a period of time. However, the good times did not last long, and with the outbreak of a full-scale civil war, the whole country was once again plunged into war.
Hou Wenli also left the Sixth Regiment of The Automobile and traveled to many places, and he successively entered the Kuomintang Logistics Department such as the Kuomintang General Headquarters for Joint Service, the Nanjing Military Transport Headquarters of the Transportation Administration, and the Hangzhou Military Transport Command Post.
In 1948, at a critical moment when the War of Liberation entered a decisive battle, Hou Wenli was ordered to infiltrate the newly formed 203rd Division, a second-line unit of the Kuomintang, and became a colonel battalion commander of the division. At this time, Cao Yi was also ordered to infiltrate this unit.
Hou Wenli's task of infiltrating the 203rd Division was very clear, that is, to plot against the 203rd Division and prepare for the liberation of Jinhua. And the completion of Hou Wenli and Cao Yi's task is quite perfect.
Photographs of Hou Wenli and his comrades in arms during the expedition
In 1949, Hou Wenli and others successfully plotted against Jin Shi, the commander of the 203rd Division, and persuaded him to lead an uprising. However, after contacting the Jinxiao detachment of the Third Field Army about the uprising, he did not expect that before the Arrival of the Jinxiao Detachment, the Second Field Army arrived in Jinhua one step ahead of the three fields, and therefore Hou Wenli led the rebellious 203rd Division to join the Second Field Army.
It was also after this operation that Hou Wenli, who had been hiding his identity for more than 10 years, finally revealed his identity and put on his beloved People's Liberation Army uniform.
However, just as the War of Liberation was getting smoother and the victory of the revolution was within reach, in the winter of 1949, he suddenly received an order from Yuan Bloody, minister of the Enemy Industry Department of the Second Field Army: undercover Kuomintang troops, disintegrating the mechanized troops of the enemy army in the southwest region.
However, this lurking did not go well, and Hou Wenli was even captured by the Kuomintang, but because there was no evidence and Hou Wenli's clever maneuvering, he was finally released.
When the southwest region was liberated and New China was founded, Hou Wenli, who originally thought that the revolution had finally triumphed and that he could return to his hometown in a bright and upright manner, suddenly received yuan bloody orders again, and this time, the task was grim - lurking in Taiwan.
Taiwan Island
Hou Wenli received the order from Yuan Blood in 1950. At this time, New China had been founded, so why would Yuan Choose Hou Wenli to infiltrate Taiwan at this time?
It should be known that at this time, the underground organization of the Chinese Communist Party in Taiwan had just suffered devastating damage because of Cai Xiaoqian's rebellion, and the environment of the underground party organization in Taiwan was extremely bad.
Yuan Bloody did this, on the one hand, because of the introduction of Cao Yi, Hou Wenli's old official and also an underground party member. Because Cao Yi, who knew Hou Wenli very well, knew that Hou Wenli was an extremely good underground party member, and his firm revolutionary belief, excellent overall view of the overall situation, and strong psychological qualities, including excellent military ability, made him an excellent intelligence worker.
On the other hand, Hou Wenli also has advantages that many underground party members do not have, that is, Hou Wenli's cousin Hou Wenjun and cousin-in-law Dai Tianqiang are both Kuomintang members in Taiwan, and their status is not low. His cousin Hou Wenjun was the so-called "congress deputy" of the Kuomintang at that time, and his cousin-in-law Dai Tianqiang was an agent of the Kuomintang secret service organization.
Taiwan
It was precisely by virtue of this relationship that Hou Wenli successfully entered Taiwan by relying on the false certificate issued by his cousin-in-law Dai Tianqiang. And this is precisely why in the judgment on Hou Wenli, Chiang Kai-shek will specifically mention the names of these two people.
However, Sun Xianghan, who initially led Hou Wenli to participate in the revolution, did not approve of Hou Wenli's infiltration into Taiwan, because he believed that the Jinhua uprising of the 203rd Division was very moving, and Hou Wenli not only participated in it, but also made his identity public, and many people knew his identity as a communist, and sneaking into Taiwan under such circumstances had a great risk of exposure.
However, after receiving the latent order, even though he knew that the risk of the trip was extremely high, and even though he had learned that the taiwan underground party organization had been dealt a devastating blow, Hou Wenli still sneaked into Taiwan without hesitation.
At that time, Hou Wenli relied on the taiwan entry permit provided by his cousin-in-law Dai Tianqiang, and entered Taiwan through Hong Kong under the pseudonym Liang Xingwu. After entering Taiwan, Hou Wenli found his old comrades in the Sixth Regiment of The Qi, and successfully lurked in Taiwan.
During his incubation in Taiwan, Hou Wenli did a lot of work, not only developing many comrades-in-arms of the former Sixth Regiment of The Automobile into downlines, but also breaking into the Secret Bureau of the Kuomintang secret service, and was even appointed by the Kuomintang Secrecy Bureau as "deputy commander of the Third Column of the Jiangsu People's Anti-Communist Assault Army." With this identity, Hou Wenli obtained a lot of intelligence.
However, Taiwan at this time was actually very different from Chiang Kai-shek's rule over the mainland. Although it was also under the rule of Chiang Kai-shek, the situation was very different from that of the mainland period.
On the one hand, it is because Chiang Kai-shek was bitterly determined after his defeat in Taiwan, and indeed changed the style of corruption and corruption in the past, and the KMT's executive power has indeed increased considerably compared with that of the mainland.
On the other hand, Taiwan is only an island and a small area, while hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops have entered Taiwan, and almost all the Kuomintang warlord elders who originally hindered Chiang Kai-shek have lost power. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek's control of such a small island has become easier than in the mainland period.
Therefore, chiang kai-shek's control over Taiwan at this time was much stronger than that of the mainland period. Especially after Cai Xiaoqian's rebellion, the Kuomintang secret service organization had a very deep understanding of our party's underground organization in Taiwan. Therefore, in the second year of Hou Wenli's order to infiltrate Taiwan, in 1952, Hou Wenli was captured by the Kuomintang and imprisoned in an army prison.
Photograph of Hou Wenli before his execution
As for the arrested underground CCP members, the Kuomintang's methods were as cruel as ever, but although Hou Wenli suffered extremely cruel torture in prison, he always gritted his teeth and never revealed the slightest bit of intelligence and his identity, let alone betrayed his comrades.
Of course. After investigation, the Kuomintang agents still had a lot of information about Hou Wenli, and at that time, the Kuomintang convicted Hou Wenli of two crimes, one was "the 203rd Division of the Kuomintang troops plotted against the Kuomintang forces in May 1949", and the other was "illegal methods to subvert the government and start to implement it".
From these two so-called "crimes" listed by the Kuomintang, it can also be seen that Sun Xianghan's concerns before Hou Wenli infiltrated Taiwan were justified, that the Jinhua uprising was indeed understood by the Kuomintang, and that Hou Wenli's role in it became an important factor in exposing his identity.
After being arrested by the Kuomintang, because Hou Wenli remained unyielding for more than 6 years, coupled with Chiang Kai-shek's two special instructions for Hou Wenli's case, he asked for "re-handling". Finally, on July 8, 1958, Hou Wenli was killed by the Kuomintang in Taiwan at the age of 42.
Certificate of martyr Hou Wenli
Unfortunately, however, due to the extremely serious white terror in Taiwan at that time, the news of Hou Wenli's death did not reach the mainland. Therefore, New China never knew the whereabouts of this intelligence worker who was ordered to lurk in Taiwan, whether he was still lurking or had been unfortunately arrested.
For Cao Yi, who had known Hou Wenli for more than 10 years, he was extremely concerned about this old subordinate and old comrade-in-arms, and often received Hou Wenli's relatives.
For Hou Wenli's wife and children, this is the longest and most desperate wait. His wife, Zhang Lifan, always remembered what her husband said to her before he left: He would return in less than two or three years. She had been waiting for her husband to come home.
However, until 2005, when the 85-year-old Zhang Lifan died, she still did not know that as early as 47 years ago, in 1958, her husband Hou Wenli had already sacrificed his life for the country.
Therefore, until the beginning of the 21st century, the whereabouts of Hou Wenli remained a mystery. It was not until the Global Daily published that article in 2011, and with the joint efforts of many people, that Hou Wenli's urn and the Kuomintang's verdict were found, and the whereabouts of the underground CCP member who was ordered to lurk in Taiwan and eventually killed by the Kuomintang were finally revealed.