Zhou Kun was then the chief of staff of the 115th Division
In February 1938, a very serious incident occurred in the Eighth Route Army, and Zhou Kun, chief of staff of the 115th Division, went to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army for a meeting, and on the way back, he did not quit. The departure of such a high-ranking cadre is the first time in the CPC and the Eighth Route Army. At that time, the staff of the division headquarters reported this news to the division commander Lin Biao, who was already silent and taciturn, but he was even more expressionless and did not say a word. Although he did not vomit blood for Xu Haidong when he heard that Zhang Shaodong had fled, this incident was a big blow to him after all, and he often went for a walk alone, thinking about why this Zhou Kun fled? Until half a month later, a sentry named Wang Lusheng under Yan Xishan saw the general riding a high-headed horse wearing a Japanese coat (the spoils captured in the Battle of Pingxingguan), thinking that he was a Japanese ghost, he raised his gun to shoot, this guy's marksmanship was really accurate, the gun sounded, and the commander of the Lin Division fell off his horse in response, and from then on, this famous general had to leave the front line to go to the Soviet Union for medical treatment.
But why did this Zhou Kun want to run away?
Zhou Kun was born in 1902 in Pingjiang, Hunan. In 1927, he participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising on the border of Xianggan and Gansu, and soon joined the Communist Party of China. He was one of the first veteran cadres to go to Jinggangshan after participating in the Autumn Harvest Uprising, and served as a company commander of the 31st Regiment of the Red Fourth Army, a deputy commander of the fifth detachment of the Second Column, and a detachment leader. He participated in guerrilla warfare at Jinggangshan and gannan and western Fujian. After 1930, he served as the column commander and commander of the 34th Division of the 1st Column of the Red Twelfth Army, the commander and commander of the 11th Division of the Red Fourth Army, the commander of the 10th And 3rd Division of the Red 1st Army, the commander of the 21st Division of the Fujian-Gansu Military Region, the acting president of the University of the Red Army, the commander of the Red Eighth Army and the commander of the 21st Division, the commander of the 23rd Division, and the chief of staff of the Red Army. And participated in the Long March. After arriving in northern Shaanxi, he served as the principal of the Red Army School, the director of the Red Army University Affairs Department, the commander of the Central Teaching Mentor (Qingyang Infantry School), and the education chief of the Second Branch of the Kang University. Some of the cadres who participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1937 took a group photo with Mao Zedong in Yan'an, including Lai Chuanzhu, Zhang Zongxun, Sun Kaichu, Lai Yi, Tan Guansan, Yang Lisan, Chen Bojun, Long Kaifu, Zhou Kun, Tan Xilin, Luo Ronghuan, Tan Zheng, Liu Zhi, Yang Meisheng, Hu Youcai and others. The inscription of Mao Zedong on the photo reads: "In the autumn harvest riots of 1927, the First Division of the First Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was established, and there are about dozens of people who still exist today. When the Red Army reorganized the Eighth Route Army, he was appointed chief of staff of the 115th Division. He is also one of the 23 members of the Central Military Commission.
General Zhou Kun and General Peng Xuefeng
In the first few battles of the 115th Division across the Yellow River, Zhou's chief of staff had also made outstanding achievements in battle. After the fall of Taiyuan, the 115th Division was ordered by the central government to go to Lüliang Mountain to establish a base area in western Jin. But at this moment, who knew that Zhou Kun, the chief of staff of the division, would actually flee with the money? However, it is difficult to find the answer in the history books for the reason for his escape, so how did he run away? Where are you leaving the troops? What made him choose this wrong move on the road of life?
Zhou Kun took a group photo with some members of the Autumn Harvest Uprising
There are currently three theories about Zhou Kun's departure
First, in February 1938, Zhou Kun, chief of staff of the 115th Division, went to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army for a meeting and received 60,000 yuan in military expenses, which was the last fund issued by the Kuomintang government to the 115th Division (the last two words are inappropriate, and the military expenses allocated by the Kuomintang government to the Eighth Route Army should be received until the end of 1940). After the meeting, Zhou Kun handed a satchel to the guards and said, "This is an important document, you will immediately go back and hand it over to the chief of the division's operations section, Wang Section." The guard came back and handed the bag to Wang Bingzhang, chief of the operations section of the 115th Division, and he opened it to see that it was not a document, but a 30,000 yuan bill. There was a text message inside, Zhou Kun said on the letter, "A total of 60,000 yuan was received, I took 30,000 yuan, and the other 30,000 yuan was handed over to the guards to bring back and look forward to checking." Zhou Kun absconded back to his hometown of Pingjiang in Hunan with 30,000 yuan and has never left since. After the liberation, he was investigated organizationally, which confirmed that he had not participated in any counter-revolutionary organizations and had not committed any other counter-revolutionary acts. Judging from this point of view, his motives for absconding were apolitical. (From Wang Bingzhang's memoirs)
A photograph of Zhou Kun during the Red Army
Second, this theory is relatively simple, when Zhou Kun attended the Joint Chiefs of Staff held by the Nationalist Government in Wuhan, Kong Xiangxi issued him a check for 30,000 yuan, and he ran away with the 30,000 yuan check.
Third, Zhou Kun, chief of staff of the 115th Division, went to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army for a meeting and received 100,000 yuan of military expenses, and Zhou Kun himself took 30,000 yuan and brought the remaining 70,000 yuan back to the division headquarters.
Which of these three statements is more reasonable? The author's analysis should be one of them. The reason for this is that, first, the Kuomintang's military expenditure on the Eighth Route Army is 500,000 yuan per month, which was set by Zhou Enlai and Gu Zhutong in Xi'an, but since the central organs of Yan'an and the government of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region are not among them, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army wants to allocate this 500,000 yuan of military expenses to Yan'an, so it is impossible for the 115th Division to share too much, because the 115th Division has the largest number of divisions and is the main force in combat, but at this time the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region was newly established, and the 344th Brigade was with the 129th Division at this time. It is under the direct command of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. It should be reasonable to give the 115th Division 60,000 yuan a month in military expenses. Second, at that time, there was no chief of staff in the division headquarters, and Wang Bingzhang was the chief of the division's operations section, and it was reasonable for Zhou Kun to ask the guards to transfer this money to Wang. Third, why deny the cheque given by Kong Xiangxi? Previously, Zhou had participated in the National Joint Chiefs of Staff in Wuhan, but Kong Xiangxi could not have given him a check for 30,000 yuan, because even if the central government rewarded the 115th Division with an additional reward of 30,000 yuan (hypothetical), it would be conveyed through the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and certainly not directly to the 115th Division, which was a system.
Zhou Kun took a group photo with some leaders of the 115th Division
So where did Zhou Kun leave the troops? There are also four theories
First, Zhou Kun absconded with 30,000 yuan back to his hometown in Hunan Province, Pingjiang, to find a village to live in and do business, and has not left since. After the liberation, he was investigated organizationally, which confirmed that he had not participated in any counter-revolutionary organizations and had not committed any other counter-revolutionary acts.
Second, legend has it that Zhou Kun left the Eighth Route Army and went to Switzerland and became an outstanding philanthropist. After China's reform and opening up, the great philanthropist General Zhou Kun, out of loyalty to the country, once returned to the mainland under a pseudonym, when he was already an old man in his seventies. No one recognized him, and he didn't recognize anyone else. Zhou Kun has also actively contributed to the people.
Third, Zhou and a capitalist lady fled abroad with money, and as a result, after spending all the public funds, they were abandoned by the lady, and then returned to China and were beaten to death.
Fourth, during the Cultural Revolution, he suffered a crime, was beaten by the Red Guards every day, and died at the hands of the Red Guards. In fact, these four statements have no basis. First, if he returns to his hometown in Pingjiang, if a person of such a reputation as he is, no one in the local area will know him, then the Kuomintang central and military unification will also find him and use this to make a big publicity, and then he will be able to live until after liberation, and he will be able to live until after liberation, and many political movements will certainly be dug up by the locals and will not become a mystery. Second, as a soldier, it is not very reasonable to take the military ring to become a philanthropist, and if someone knows that after China's reform and opening up, he once returned to the mainland under a pseudonym and actively contributed to the people, can he still hide something from the reporter? Third, he said that he fled abroad with the capitalist lady with money, was abandoned by the lady after spending all the public funds, and was beaten to death when he returned to China. This will also be exposed, and it will certainly not be left to the media without any traces. The fourth argument is to ignore the lie. So where did he go? No one really knows. What made him choose this wrong move on the road of life? The first is to see the wealth of intentions; this situation should be impossible, if it is to see the wealth of intentions, 60,000 yuan are in his hands, he can completely take it all, there is no need to let the guards send back half, only half of their own turn, some people say that taking 30,000 to leave 30,000 is to save their lives. If a division's military expenditure for a month is gone, can the Eighth Route Army not pursue and kill everywhere? Therefore, leaving 30,000 is a strategy for preservation, which is zhou's cleverness. But whoever wants to escape with the money must take a risk, and he will not be sure that if he leaves the 30,000 yuan, the Eighth Route Army will not find out his whereabouts. The second was greed for life and fear of death; Zhou Kun fought very bravely during the Red Army period, especially in the strong crossing of the Xiang River, his 21st Division suffered great losses, and he survived. The conditions during the War of Resistance Against Japan were much better than during the Red Army period, and moreover, at this time, the officers and chiefs of staff of the divisions of the Eighth Route Army were generally not at the forefront, and the possibility of death in battle was already very small. How could he have the idea of greed for life and fear of death?
The third is a loss of confidence in the revolution; but on closer analysis, there are many doubts, for he has neither defected to the Kuomintang nor to the Japanese side. In the past, some people mostly went to other teams to find a backer, but he did not.
Group photo of Zhou Kun and Chen Guang
I analyzed the reasons for Zhou Kun's departure. Shortly before the accident, Zhou Kun had traveled to Wuhan to attend the National Joint Chiefs of Staff, and on the sidelines of the meeting, he saw the chiefs of staff of the Kuomintang friendly forces drinking and having fun, prostituting prostitutes, spending money like dirt, and their lives were extremely corrupt. At that time, Zhou Kun's heart did not also want to pursue that kind of life, he had been born for the revolution, bent on fighting for the idea of communism, but under such obvious contrast, he felt extremely unbalanced psychologically, and how could the gap between being a person and being an official in the army of the National Government be so big? You can splurge like that, and as the chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army, you can only receive a living allowance of 3 yuan a month. The Communist Party and the Eighth Route Army clamored all day long for resisting Japan and for living a good life for the broad masses of the people. But now it seems that these words we are saying are a bit self-deceptive. If you think about it, if you can't change your living conditions without your own, can you still change the living conditions of the vast number of people? We have been revolutionizing, is the revolution said to be suffering only for itself?
Zhou Kun took a group photo with some leaders of the Shandong Military Region
After the meeting was adjourned, he returned to the anti-Japanese base area in Shanxi and went to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Mamu Village, Hongdong County, to report on the meeting. At headquarters he was blunt about bringing up his ideas. At that time, Zhu, Peng, Zuo, and other leaders immediately pointed out that this kind of thinking was very dangerous; although we were reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, we were still the ideology of the Red Army, the spirit of the Red Army, and the reason why we worked hard was for the sake of resisting Japan, for the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation, for the improvement of the lives of the broad masses of the Chinese people, and if we wanted to compete with the cadres of the Kuomintang army, then we would lose the support and support of the people.
Zhou Kun took a group photo with Marshal Nie Rongzhen and other leaders
However, Zhou Kun believes that those words cannot change his views, that we cannot improve our own lives, and that we have always talked about striving for the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation and improving the lives of the broad masses of the Chinese people. But today, he has exposed such thoughts, will his superiors think that his thinking has changed? Thinking about the political struggles in the party in the past, he felt that the future was bleak, and perhaps for a few words, he would dilute the credit of half his life. rather...... It's better to walk away.
Therefore, on the way, he took out the military expenses he had just received, took out 30,000 yuan and wrote a few words, which he would give to the guards and let him return to the division headquarters as soon as possible, while claiming that he still had business and would return to the army when he was done, so he took 30,000 yuan of cash and left the Eighth Route Army and the revolutionary contingent forever.