Yu Yuanming Guangzao, nicknamed Bangqi, was born in 1893 in a poor peasant family in Shehong County, Sichuan Province. He was an early member of the Communist Party during the Great Revolution and a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Democratic League.
Shehong Yuyuan
When Yu Yuan was young, he was jealous and hateful, not afraid of power, often fighting with local tycoons, and was forced to leave his hometown and began his lifelong career as a horseman. In the warlord era, he was upright, righteous, brave and good at war, courageous, and became a well-known warrior in Sichuan, when he was only in his thirties.
On the eve of the first civil revolutionary war, Sun Yat-sen realized the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and the rolling tide of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism shook the progressive youth. In Lotus Pond, Chongqing, Yu Yuan found the Communist Party's military leaders in Sichuan, Yang Mingong (The fourth brother of Comrade Yang Shangkun and a native of Tongnan), Liu Bocheng, established close ties with them, and joined the Communist Party of China, carrying out underground work in the enemy's fortress and fighting against feudal warlords and reactionary forces. Especially in Wanxian county's "nine. In the "Five Massacres", Yu Yuan showed a fearless revolutionary spirit, established indelible merits, and became an anti-imperialist hero praised by people.
In July 1926, the Northern Expedition broke out, and foreign forces colluded with Chinese feudal warlords to interfere and suppress the Chinese revolution. The army of the Beiyang warlord Wu Peifu was defeated and retreated, and the British Empire on which he depended sent some warships into the Yangtze River to deter the Chinese people and revolutionary forces.
At that time, British steamships and warships rampaged on the Chuan River (the upper reaches of the Yangtze River), and it was common to deliberately sink and overturn wooden boats on the Chuan River for whatever they wanted. In June and July of this year alone, wooden boats crashed and overturned near Wanxian County, causing serious threats and losses to Chinese lives and property in their own land.
The British crimes have not yet been settled, and on August 29 an even more serious incident was created. On the same day, the British Swire Company's "Wanliu" steamship attracted drifting boats in the Yunyang River to pick up and drop off travelers. At this time, the officers and men of the Janssen Gendarmerie Company who had been paid wanted to take the ship back to Wanxian County, so they hired three rafts to sail to the "Wanliu" ship. The British of the Wanliu saw that the raft had approached and that there were passengers boarding the ship, but it deliberately started the ship, speeding up the speed and setting off huge waves, causing the three rafts to sink suddenly. When the raft sank, the British did not rescue at all, and still danced on the steamship, watching the drowning people struggle in the water for fun, causing more than fifty officers and men to drown, sinking more than fifty guns, more than 5,000 bullets, and more than 80,000 yuan of silver (silver dollars).
At this time, Yu Yuan, who was the commander of the Wanxian Gendarmerie and the commander of the city defense brigade, learned of this bad news after the incident and was furious, and immediately ordered the ship "Wanliu" to berth and wait for investigation and handling, but the ship ignored it and went so far as to fly away. At this time, Yu Yuan hurriedly reported to Yang Sen, commander of the Twentieth Army sitting in Wanxian County, and at the same time reported to Zhu De, Chen Yi, and other party deputies who were doing Yang Sen's work in Wanxian County and discussed the strategy of struggle. Zhu De instructed that we should seize this incident, mobilize the masses, strike at the arrogance of imperialism, force Yang Sen and Wu Peifu to sever their relations, turn to the Nationalist Army, and promote the Revolution of the Northern Expedition.
On the one hand, Yu Yuan actively carried out propaganda and agitation inside and outside the military, organizing mass complaints, petitions, and demonstrations, and on the other hand, persuaded Yang Sen to make a decision at the moment and severely punish the British steamship that caused the accident. Yang Sen was a warlord attached to Wu Peifu at the time, and at first he hesitated, and some officers in the army advocated losing money and putting things on hold. However, The officers and men under Yang Sen's command and the people in the country demanded that the perpetrators be severely punished; at the same time, Zhu De, as the representative of the Cooperation Party, proposed to Yang Sen that the British steamship should be forcibly detained; Zhu De's opinion had to be treated with caution, because Zhu De had a problem with the Chinese Communists in the National Patriotic Army under the leadership of Cai Yi, and also saved his life, and the old friendship also needed to be dealt with on the surface. Besides, this matter directly hit his head, and the fire burned to the instep of his feet, and if he stopped here, his face would not be born. Especially with the victories of the Northern Expedition, he had to consider his fate and future. In view of various reasons, after some consideration, Yang Sen expressed his willingness to follow the opinions of Yu Yuan and Zhu De. Since the Wanliu had already run, on August 30, Yang Sen ordered the detention of the British ships "Wanxian" and "Wantong" moored on the Wanxian River, ordered Yuyuan to carry out the seizure task, and at the same time called the British consulate in Chongqing to make representations.
On the morning of the same day, the sky over the Yangtze River was shrouded in clouds, and the fog on the river surface was steaming, and Yu Yuan led a pistol platoon and drove two wooden boats straight to the British ship. When the British on board saw the Arrival of the Chinese officers and soldiers, they first ignored them, and then raised their guns and threatened not to allow the Chinese officers and soldiers to approach. At this time, Yu Yuan was not afraid of the muzzle of the gun, led the soldiers to rush over, jumped on the deck and slashed vertically with a large knife, giving a dismount, the British could not resist, had to surrender in a disciplined manner, and finally was locked up in two cabins and detained.
The ship "Wantong" was seized
The British, who had long been premeditated, on the one hand, sent a consul in Chongqing to deal with negotiations at the Wanxian Post Office, and on the other hand, ordered the deputy commander of the British Navy stationed in Hankou to modify the "Jiahe" moored in Yichang, with built-in cannons and naval combat units, led by captain Zarley, and arrived in Wanxian on September 5, with a long whistle and a look of flaunting might. At the same time, the warships "Kokotev" and "Wei Police" were also mobilized to prepare to attack the Chinese officers and men stationed on the two seized ships. However, the people who saw them were locked in the cabin and could not escape, so they changed their strategy and were caught by the "Jiahe" and "Koktev" in the "Wantong" and wanted to take it by force.
At this time, a white-haired old man of the British Navy walked from the "Jiahe", wearing a white naval uniform, wearing golden epaulettes, hanging a row of medals on his chest, carrying a cane, and under the escort of more than twenty British sailors, he boarded the "Wantong" on his toes. He first pointed out and scolded him, and then viciously ordered the British soldiers to drive away the Chinese soldiers. At this time, Yu Yuan, who was aboard the "Wantong", was angry and ordered the Chinese soldiers to wait in a strict line. Seeing that the threat was ineffective, the British soldiers shot and killed two Chinese soldiers on the spot, and a British soldier wanted to shoot at Yu Yuan, Yu Yuan's hands were fast, and he flashed his head, and the bullet flew over his forehead. Yu Yuan immediately flew up and kicked the old British man to the ground, drew his knife and split, and shouted "hit, hit, hit", and the Chinese soldiers immediately moved, killing more than a dozen British soldiers on the ship in an instant. The rest of the British soldiers saw that things were not good, some fled and dived in a hurry, some fell on the deck and knelt down to beg for forgiveness, and the Old British man was shot in the abdomen, his head was slashed by a knife, and he fell into a pool of blood, screaming for his life. Later, I heard that this old guy had participated in the First World War, and was a famous British admiral, that is, the british deputy commander of the navy in Wuhan. Yu Yuan estimated that the enemy must retaliate, and quickly ordered the soldiers to escort all the British of the "Wantong" to stand in a row in front of the cockpit, and were not allowed to move, and whoever ran was killed. The officers and men of the British warship were helpless, wanting to shoot and throw rats, afraid of hurting their own people, not firing guns, and feeling that the "British Empire" was really humiliated this time.
The British warship HMS Kokotev
After the British ship was defeated, he became angry, and after the old general fed the fish, he was even more fierce, and turned his cannon to the north and south banks of Wanxian County, shelled frantically for three hours, firing more than three hundred shells. Suddenly, the urban area of Wanxian county was filled with gun smoke, the fire was soaring, the rubble was everywhere, the flesh and blood were flying everywhere, more than a thousand soldiers and civilians were killed and injured, and more than a thousand houses were destroyed, causing the "nine. Five Massacres".
Compatriots killed
At that time, when the British ships were firing, Janssen's artillery also returned fire on the north bank, but failed to pose a threat to the British ships. At this time, Yu Yuan saw that the city of Wanxian was shelled, and he was so anxious that he braved the rain of bullets and bullets to meet Yang Sen and asked to send troops to blockade the Chuan river and avenge the hatred of The father and brother of Wanxian County. However, Yang Sen was worried that the stall was too big to end well, and he was reluctant to take a stand, and after Yu Yuan's repeated requests, Yang Sen finally agreed to Yu Yuan's death squad to attack the British warships at night.
After nightfall, Yu Yuan led a death squad, tied a grenade around his waist, carrying a large knife, holding a short gun, and took a wooden boat, with sandbags piled on the bow of the boat as a cover, and leaned over the boat to march into the river. It was late, and the ships in the river were looming, and under the cover of night, the wooden boats rushed down the river towards the enemy ships. After the British shelled us, they were proud, and they did not expect that the Chinese officers and soldiers would dare to come to the battle. When they found it, the wooden ship was already close to the hull, and the cannon was useless. At this time, under Yu Yuan's order, the death squads fired together and threw grenades, and in a flash, many British soldiers were killed, and the tail of the warship exploded and caught fire, and suddenly smoke billowed and filled the Yangtze River. The other warship saw that the situation was not good, and was heavily armed on the ship, in a vain attempt to prevent the death squads from climbing. Yu Yuan charged forward and jumped on the enemy ship, opened the gap, and the death squad bravely boarded, and the sound of fierce battle resounded throughout the Yangtze River. The British deputy captain and more than a dozen British soldiers were killed immediately, and the rest were thrown into the river and buried at the bottom of the river.
The battle was particularly fierce, and a company commander next to Yu Yuan stepped forward to grab Yu Yuan and shouted urgently: "Commander, you are injured!" Yu Yuan said, "If you are afraid of something with injuries, hurry up and kill!" As soon as the words fell, unfortunately a bullet penetrated from Yu Yuan's left temple, injuring the key point and falling on the spot. In order to rescue Yu Yuan, the soldiers withdrew to the shore defense area and sent it to the hospital for rescue. In this battle, Yu Yuan was shot nine times, and the soldiers he led also sacrificed many people, but it also dealt a heavy blow to the British army, and the British army did not dare to fight after killing and wounding many people, and gulintuo, who retreated to Yunyang, did not dare to turn on the lights and shrink for one night, and secretly fled to Yichang at dawn the next day.
The battle directly commanded by Yu Yuan fought bravely and tenaciously, grew the morale of Chinese, defended national dignity, and dealt a blow to the arrogance of imperialism. However, at the behest of the Beiyang government and Wu Peifu, Yang Sen later compromised with the British Empire, not only did not force the British to compensate for the huge losses in the tragedy, but instead released all the two British ships that had been detained.
1927 "IV. After Chiang Kai-shek's rebellion, Yang Sen felt that Yu Yuan was a potential threat to his troops, and in May and June of the same year, he relieved Yu Yuan of his military post. Later, Yu Yuan went to the army of the warlord Liu Xiang, serving as regimental commander, brigade commander, etc., and later as the chief of the Sichuan Provincial Police Bureau.
In the later period, Yu Yuan continued to carry out revolutionary work in Chengdu under the leadership of the party. Unfortunately, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Kuomintang in 1947, and in December 1949, before the Kuomintang was defeated and retreated, Yu Yuan was killed at the Twelve Bridges outside the West Gate of Chengdu, and died heroically for the cause of the revolution.