Peaceful Liberation of Suiyuan Province (I)
Zhao Lianbi
In the winter of 1948, under the powerful offensive of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Kuomintang defenders in northeastern, northern, and eastern China had collapsed on all fronts, and most of the effective forces on which Chiang Kai-shek relied to wage the civil war were annihilated after three major campaigns. The rule of the Kuomintang as a whole was already in a precarious and precarious situation.
The victory in the Battle of Pingjin and the peaceful liberation of Beiping made the defenders of Suiyuan even more isolated and helpless. On 6 February 1949, under the command of Yang Zhilin, Su Qianyi, Yao Zhe and other comrades, the Suimeng Government Army of the People's Liberation Army launched a fierce attack from Baita Village in the east of Guisui City against Liu Wanchun's troops of the 31st Kuomintang Army, which was defending the enemy in Guisui City.
After three hours of fierce fighting, Liu Wanchun's outlying positions were routed, and the defenders all retreated to Guisui City. The Suimeng government forces immediately stopped their offensive. At this time, the reactionary regime of the puppet Kuomintang in Suiyuan Province was already in danger, and the party sticks of the Kuomintang provincial party headquarters and county and city party departments were panicking, cursing and rushing to flee for their lives, and even shouted "party power is above all else." Pan Xiuren, the leader of the Kuomintang Suiyuan Provincial Party Department, also saw that the general trend had gone and fled for his life in a hurry.
These Kuomintang bandits, dying to the end, have not forgotten to loot the people's property, Pan Xiuren gave an order before escaping: "Suiyuan materials move westward." As soon as this order was issued, the bandits took advantage of the fire and looted silver dollars, local medicines, opium, department stores, cloth and other materials from the market. These materials were rushed to Baotou and the back cover, and later sold at a price and filled into private pockets. At that time, the number was about one million tons.
At that time, there was chaos in Guisui City, with a large number of items piled up on the streets, and cars and people coming and going. The bandits scrambled for their lives, and the common people complained. Some businesses were afraid that the goods would be robbed by the provincial party headquarters, so they auctioned them at a reduced price, but who would dare to buy them at that time? I remember a bag of flour that didn't sell for two yuan. However, the price of foreign cars has skyrocketed, and they are still too busy to pull five or six yuan for a trip.
On the afternoon of 6 February, Pan Xiuren and a group of dignitaries, together with their families, carried a large amount of gold and silver looted, like a lost dog, rushed to the fire station car, ready to flee to Baotou by car. After getting on the train, he suddenly remembered that he still had half a sack of tobacco and soil with him, so he shouted loudly: "Signal soldier, go back to the provincial party headquarters quickly, there is still half a sack of tobacco under E's bed, quickly fetch it for me." By the time the signal corps was out of breath to retrieve the smoke, the train was already moving. I saw that in each carriage, people were crowded, and then I looked at the roof of the carriage, which was also full of bandits fleeing west. The citizens are looking forward to the People's Liberation Army entering the city as soon as possible, eliminating the Kuomintang bandits, and ending this chaotic situation.
After the People's Liberation Army completed the encirclement of Guisuicheng, it strove for the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan in the form of liberating Beiping in accordance with the instructions of the party Central Committee. The Suimeng government of China telegraphed to the military and political clique of the puppet Suiyuan Province that the two sides would peacefully liberate Suiyuan Province through peaceful negotiations.
After receiving a telegram from the Suimeng government, Dong Qiwu, chairman of Suiyuan Province, summoned Liu Wanchun, commander of the 31 st Army, who was defending the city, and Zhang Qin, Yan Su, Yu Chonghao, Rong Xiang, and Chang Peisan of the "Suiyuan Peace Promotion Association," which was composed of important military and political figures from Suiyuan, to discuss countermeasures.
At the meeting, Zhang Qin, Yan Su, Yu Chonghao, Rong Xiang and others unanimously agreed to negotiate peacefully with the Suimeng government and peacefully liberate Suiyuan. However, Liu Wanchun and others advocated fighting with the People's Liberation Army to the end and coexisting with Guisuicheng. He also clamored that if he did not win, he would burn down Da Nan Street (the most prosperous urban area at that time) in Guisui City, destroy factories, mines, and power plant facilities, and then move west with representatives of Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Tibet, who lived in Suiyuan.
In this chaotic sound, Fu Zuoyi sent An Chunshan from Beiping to Suiyuan by plane, and after An Chunshan got off the plane, he told Dong Qiwu: "Vice Chairman Zhou Enlai of the Chinese Communist Party has contacted Mr. Fu Zuoyi by phone to discuss the liberation of Suiyuan. He also said that Fu Zuoyi sent him to fly back to Suiyuan for the purpose of "stopping the two sides from continuing hostile warfare."
An Chunshan's arrival played a positive role in holding peace talks between the two sides. Mr. Dong Qiwu weighed the pros and cons and decided to proceed from the overall situation and send a delegation to negotiate peace with the Suimeng government. However, Liu Wanchun was still obsessed, blindly fighting discord, and threatened, "Whoever goes to Suidong to contact peace talks will be killed." However, his views were opposed, and the meeting decided to send a liaison officer to contact the Suimeng government on the matter of peace talks.
Who will be the liaison? Someone recommended: "Zhao Lianbi and Yang Zhilin are classmates, and they have been beaten by the provincial party department together in the past 'The case of red elements endangering the emergency crime law of the Republic of China' Now Yang Zhilin is the leader of the Suimeng government, and it is most appropriate to send Mr. Zhao Lianbi to contact him." Therefore, the provincial government and the "Suiyuan Peace Promotion Association" sent Chang Peisan, director of the Suiyuan Cooperation Management Office, to my home.
When Chang Peisan came to my house, he said to me, "Mr. Zhao Lianbi, the Suiyuan Peace Promotion Association would like to invite you to discuss some matters. I didn't know what they were looking for me, so I went to the Peace Promotion Association and saw more than a dozen people in a meeting. Zhang Qin, the person in charge, said to me urgently: "Mr. Zhao Lianbi, please come and discuss something today. You also know that the general trend of the Kuomintang's rule has gone, and Suiyuan has been embattled. The People's Liberation Army of Guisui City surrounded but did not fight, just to use the way of Beiping to liberate.
It seems that this is the trend of the times, and it is also the wish of the people of Suiyuan. Chairman Dong Qiwu has accepted the proposal for peace talks with the Communist Party. Liaison officers are prepared to be dispatched to liaise with the Suimeng government on peace issues. In the future, if the peace talks are successful, the city will be saved, and when the peace talks break down, Liu Wanchun will destroy the city and kill all the people who have fought the Red Elements case. So this liaison is very important. We consider that you and Yang Zhilin of the Suimeng government are classmates and friends, and it is most appropriate for you to contact the Suimeng government, so you will have to work hard. ”
The People's Liberation Army soldiers are approaching the city, and the whole city is already a household name, everyone knows it, and the people are looking forward to the People's Liberation Army to liberate the city as soon as possible. But I didn't know that some diehards still wanted to fight to the death, and finally wanted to destroy the city and retreat west.
I thought: the darkness is about to pass, the dawn is coming, and I believe that the great liberation war led by the Communist Party of China is about to be won. On the eve of victory, we should strive not to let the reactionaries destroy this beautiful and rich city outside the country, this is the hope of the party and the people, and it is my duty to contribute to the great cause of the Communist Party of China to save the people's liberation.
This idea did not come about by chance, but was born out of my many years of influence, training, and education by the party, and I embraced revolutionary ideas as early as 1929 and 1930 when I was a student at the New Agricultural School jointly established by Tsinghua University, Yenching University, and Xiangshan Salesian Institute in Beijing. At that time, there were already party activities in the school, and most of the students in the school were relatively advanced intellectuals. Many people are reading and propagating Marxism-Leninism.
The only students in this school in Suiyuan are Yang Zhilin and me. Under the influence of the revolutionary current, we also threw ourselves into the ranks of propagating Marxism-Leninism. In 1929, Comrade Chunlin (now in charge of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Light Industry) introduced me to the revolutionary activities of Tsinghua Weekly, mainly to distribute the publications at home and abroad. This enabled me to gain an understanding of the cause of Marxism-Leninism and communism when I was young.
Because we had offended the authorities by propagating Marxism-Leninism and the October Revolution in Russia, Comrade Yang Zhilin and I were expelled from school in 1930. After we were kicked out of the school gate, we had no life to live on, so we returned to Suiyuan. In 1931, Zhao Pengjiu was arrested, and then Wang Jiangong, Yang Zhilin, and I were arrested by agents of the Kuomintang provincial party department on charges of "endangering the emergency crime law of the Republic of China" and thrown into the No. 1 Model Prison in Guisui City.
In prison, we were again taught by Comrade Wang Ruofei, a member of the Communist Party. These experiences have given me a clear understanding of the Communist Party, and I understand that the cause of the Communist Party is the cause of saving the people from suffering. This is the ideological root of why I can run for the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan.
When Dong Qiwu and Zhang Qin asked me to go to the Suimeng government through the line of fire. I said: "As long as both sides are willing to negotiate peacefully, no matter how hard it is, I am willing to go, but now there are Liu Wanchun's soldiers guarding the border between the two sides of the twist board, and Liu Wanchun has given an order: Whoever goes to the Suimeng government to contact the peace talks will be killed." If this stereotype is not abolished, it will be difficult for anyone to get rid of it. ”
When Zhang Qin saw that I was willing to go, he said: "This is easy to do, just let Dong Qiwu order Liu Wanchun to revoke the order, and then ask Chairman Dong to personally issue a road slip for you." Immediately, Dong Qiwu issued a road slip, sent a car to take us to the railway station, and then transferred to the voltage car at the station and walked east along the railway. I was joined by a farmer surnamed Qiao. We took three letters from the puppet Suiyuan Provincial Government and the "Suiyuan Peace Promotion Association," road slips, and some application items, and drove east toward the area controlled by the Suiyuan Government.
As soon as the voltage truck reached the boundary of the twist board, nearly 100 Kuomintang soldiers rushed over with guns and shouted: "Stop! Commander Liu has an order that no one is allowed to go out of bounds! "We immediately showed the road slip signed by Dong Qiwu. But they didn't believe it, and after calling Liu Wanchun to inquire, they let us out of bounds.
After a short time, we arrived at the forward position of the battlefield, and I explained to the officer in command of the operation that Chairman Dong Qiwu had ordered an armistice, sent us to Suidonghe, and contacted the Mongolian government on matters relating to peace talks. The commander ordered the mounted machine gun to be removed. I saw a large number of soldiers transporting wounded soldiers on the forward positions.