Peaceful Liberation of Suiyuan Province (II)
Zhao Lianbi
In the heavy artillery battle on 6 February, more than one son was killed and wounded on both sides. We went to Suidong after the fighting stopped. When the voltage car drove near Baita Station, there was a sudden "boom" and the car went off the tracks, and we thought it had hit a mine. When I got out of the car and took a look, I realized that it was the two sides in the fierce battle, and the shell blew up the railroad tracks. The car couldn't go, so I had no choice but to walk east. I told the driver to pick us up tomorrow around 12 noon and we would probably be able to return on time, and if we didn't come back by 2 p.m., something would have happened. Saying goodbye to the driver, we walked on foot in the direction of Taubzi.
Night fell, and we hurried along in the dark. In the middle of the night, we arrived within the boundaries of the Suimeng government and found the troops. The head of the unit was a brigade commander surnamed Luo. We explained our intentions and handed over three letters from the Suiyuan Provincial Government and the Suiyuan Peace Promotion Association to the three leaders of the Suimeng Government, Yang Zhilin, Gao Kelin, and Yao Zhe. The main contents of the letter are:
(1) Willing to armistice and peace talks;
(2) Agree to liberate Suiyuan by liberating Beiping.
Brigadier Luo immediately wrote a reply. The main content is that the People's Liberation Army has won a decisive victory in the Pingjin Campaign, the Kuomintang bandits have been defeated and retreated, and the military and political personnel in Suiyuan should follow the historical trend and surrender the uprising as soon as possible.
At noon the next day, we came to Baita Station with a letter from Brigade Commander Luo, and the voltage train was already waiting for us. We took the voltage train back to Guisui Station. This day is the Spring Festival, the first day of the Lunar New Year in the old calendar, and I saw a sea of people at the station, and thousands of middle school students were preparing to retreat westward. Liu Wanchun, commander of the 31st Army, was also bewitching and lobbying at the station: "We want to fight the communist army to the end, and if we can't win the war, we will scorch Guisui City." and then retreat westward" and so on.
After the voltage car stopped, we got out of the car, and immediately many teachers and students surrounded us, and everyone asked urgently, "How is Mr. Zhao's contact?" Will this battle be fought? I said loudly to the crowd, "Let's celebrate the New Year with peace of mind." The battle is over. When the people heard that there was no more fighting, they cheered for joy.
After that, we took the bus back to the office of Dong Qiwu of the provincial government. Dong Qiwu met with us and said to us, "You have worked hard. I said, "For the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan, it is also necessary to pay with your life." "We reported on the contact.
Five days later, that is, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, Comrade Yang Zhilin, the leader of the Suimeng government, sent a letter, which meant that in order to properly solve the problem of liberation and reform in Suiyuan, the Suimeng government hoped that the Suiyuan provincial government would send a delegation to Zhuozi Mountain in Suidong on the sixth day of the first lunar month, and the two sides would conduct peace talks, which would take about seven days.
The puppet Suiyuan Provincial Government and the Suiyuan Peace Promotion Association decided to let me, Ding Fuzhang, and Zhao Zhien, on behalf of Suiyuan, go to Zhuozishan to negotiate with the Suimeng Government, and the two sides will jointly discuss matters concerning the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan. On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, when we arrived at Guisui Station, many of the people who sent us to the station said, "We all hope that there will be no more wars." The peaceful liberation of Suiyuan like Beiping is the wish of the people of the whole province. ”
We took the voltage train from Guisui Station again to Suidong. The Suimeng government has sent people to repair the railway, and most of the places that were blown up have been repaired, and we have walked all the way to the Taubqi station, and there is still a section from Taubqi to the east that has not been repaired, and we waited about 40 minutes for the road to be repaired. At about 11 o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at Zhuozi Mountain. The government of Suimeng sent a lot of people to meet us. There are Comrade Duan Lian, a public security cadre, and more than a dozen PLA soldiers.
Comrade Duan Lian said: "The Suimeng government has done a great deal of work to ensure the smooth progress of the peace talks between the two sides, first of all, it has mobilized 3 to 4,000 migrant workers and railway workers to repair the railway from Fengzhen (the seat of the Suimeng government) to Zhuozishan day and night. "When we arrived at the station, we found that the Suimeng government had indeed made a lot of specific preparations for the peace talks, such as arranging accommodation, conference services, medical logistics, etc. Representatives of Suiyuan Province live in the office of the Zhuo Zishan Chamber of Commerce. Representatives of the government of Suimeng live in the Catholic Church.
At two o'clock in the afternoon of February 13, 1949, the two sides began talks. The negotiators of the Suimeng government included Yang Zhilin, Li Weizhong, Lu Zhihao, and Li Dehua, as well as Xinhua News Agency reporter Changhong and other comrades. The negotiators of the puppet Suiyuan Province were the three of us.
First of all, Comrade Yang Zhilin and I briefly described the situation after many years of absence, and then began talks. Comrade Yang Zhilin said: "The battle on the 30th day of the lunar month was asked to be fought by the villagers in the Baita area, because the Kuomintang army really suffered from them, and these bandits burned, killed, robbed, and raped women, and did all kinds of evil. Many villagers approached us and demanded that the Kuomintang bandits be driven out, otherwise they would not be able to harass us for the Spring Festival. In accordance with the people's demands, our People's Liberation Army drove the Kuomintang troops in the area around Suidong back to Sui. Now we are completely sure and have the strength to conquer Guisui and liberate Suiyuan. However, in order not to cause loss of people's lives and property, we stopped the offensive. On behalf of the Suimeng government, I would like to advise the Suiyuan Provincial Government to revolt and surrender as soon as possible, so as not to meet each other and lose their lives. I would like to ask all the deputies to convey to Mr. Dong Qiwu that he should have a clear understanding of the situation and make a decision as soon as possible. ”
We would like to convey this opinion and state three of Mr. Dong Qiwu's comments:
(1) All the important members of the provincial party headquarters of the Kuomintang have fled, and most of the military and political personnel left behind are in charge of peace, but there are still some who are in charge of the war and the main battle, so it will take a period of time to reform and educate the latter and change their ideological understanding;
(2) Willing to liberate Suiyuan by means of the peaceful liberation of Beiping, and ensure the safety of the lives and property of the former military and political personnel after the liberation;
(3) Welcome CCP personnel to be stationed in Guisui.
The Suimeng government accepted these three opinions. After that, the study of the various military and political measures to be implemented by both sides after the armistice was continued; How to carry out innovation and education of the old military and political personnel after the uprising. A few months after the meeting, the Suimeng government sent Comrade Qin Fengchuan to Guisui to propagate Marxism-Leninism.
After the meeting, we returned to Guisui and reported to Dong Qiwu, and began the work of liaison, running, exchanging opinions, and transmitting information. As soon as there was some progress in the peace talks, resistance appeared. In April 1949, the peace talks between the Chinese Communists and the Nanjing Government held in Beiping broke down when the Nanjing Government did not accept the "Eight-Point Agreement" proposed by the Chinese Communists.
This news reached Suiyuan, and Suiyuan's peace talks also went back and forth. The reactionary soldiers, headed by Liu Wanchun, began to stir up trouble again, and the soldiers were all over the streets, shouting reactionary slogans. Liu Wanchun also ordered Wang Chongren, commander of the 306th Division, to arrest me, detain me in the small school yard, and not to publicize the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan. At that time, I lodged a protest against the unjustified detention of peace delegates. Wang Chongren was also relatively open-minded, and repeatedly negotiated with Liu Wanchun to expel him from the country. As a last resort, I finally left Guisui in early June and took political refuge in the Suimeng government in Fengzhen.
After two weeks in Fengzhen, Comrade Su Qianyi, a leader of the Suimeng government, summoned me and said: "Mr. Zhao Lianbi, in order to realize the plan for the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan at an early date, we would like to ask you to return to Suiyuan. Although Liu Wanchun is still obsessed, but we consider that he does not dare to do anything to you, you should boldly do this work, our party and the people will not forget that you accepted the task for the cause of liberation, at that time the public security department bought a train ticket for me, Comrade Duan Lian also said: Dedicated. ”
After listening to Comrade Su Qianyi's speech, I strengthened my conviction in doing this work. Me: "I'll send you back!" "I was back again. After returning to Sui, I ignored the threats and persecution of Liu Wanchun's people and continued to work hard for the peaceful liberation of Sui.
After several months of negotiations, negotiations, and tortuous and fierce struggles, the Suimeng Government and the puppet Suiyuan Provincial Government finally reached an agreement on the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan in June 1949.
In July, the Suimeng government dispatched a liaison office for the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan to Suiyuan. The main members of the liaison office include comrades Lu Zhihao, Cao Wenyu, He Shusheng, and others, who handled some specific uprisings and reform affairs on behalf of the Suimeng government. After the Zhuo Zishan peace talks, the Suimeng government immediately sent Comrade Lu Zhihao to be stationed in Taobuqi to take charge of peace liaison work, and often sent representatives of workers, peasants, and soldiers to bring documents to me, and I forwarded them to Chang Peisan, who forwarded them to Dong Qiwu. I also often went to Comrade Lu Zhihao to discuss matters related to uprisings and reforms.
After the signing of the "peace agreement," there are still some diehards who do not give up. Dissatisfied with the peace between Dong Qiwu and the Communist Party, they obstructed and resisted the peace work in a way that was either overt or covert, and spread rumors to crack down on those who engaged in peace and reform, and often gave Dong Qiwu problems to sabotage the peace work.
In July 1949, Zhang Qingen, head of the Kuomintang Central Committee's secret service and former chief of the Military Justice Division of the North China Headquarters for the Suppression of Bandits, went to Baotou and secretly dispatched nearly 100 spies to Guisui to sabotage the work of peacefully liberating Suiyuan.
One day in August 1949, a few spies met Comrade Wang Shixin, an advance officer of the CPC Liaison Office, on the streets of Guisui City. This atrocity aroused great indignation among the military and people of the Suimeng government and the Suiyuan peace and progress forces, who rose up one after another to expose and denounce the crimes of the Kuomintang right-wing agents in sabotaging peace.
In August 1949, Mr. Fu Zuoyi also returned to Suiyuan. Mr. Fu Zuoyi's trip to Suiyuan played a positive role in promoting the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan, and persuaded Sun Lanfeng, who was stationed in Baotou, to revolt together. During this period, the Kuomintang ruler of Suiyuan Province who fled Zhang Yaomin (puppet director of the finance department of the Suiyuan Provincial Government). Xu Yongchang and others also came to Baotou to lobby to prevent and sabotage the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan. However, progress must eventually defeat reaction, and the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan is, after all, the trend of the times and the will of the people, and the futility of a few people cannot stop the advance of the wheel of history.
On September 19, 1949, inspired by the policies of the great Communist Party of China, the local military and political clique of the Kuomintang in Suiyuan Province finally sent a telegram of uprising to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chairman Mao Zedong, and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, announcing that Suiyuan Province would break away from the leadership of the Kuomintang regime and revolt peacefully on September 19, 1949.
Thirty-nine people, including Dong Qiwu, Sun Lanfeng, Zhang Qin, Yan Su, Rong Xiang, Yu Chonghao, Liu Wanchun, and Wang Chongren, participated in the telegram of the uprising. At this point, Suiyuan Province completely ended the rule of the Kuomintang and returned to the embrace of the people.
After the 19 September Uprising, I fulfilled the historical mission entrusted to me by the party and the people and triumphantly concluded the liaison work. Later, I was assigned a new revolutionary task by the party organization.
At the end of 1949, Liu Wanchun, E Yousan, and Zhang Bo conspired to organize a rebellion. But they did not escape the punishment of the people and history, they cut themselves off from the people, and finally became shameful historical sinners. (Compiled by Yunyao)