On November 8, 1949, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China was established. At the meeting, Li Kenong, as vice minister, announced the appointment of foreign ministry cadres, and when he read who the confidential director of the ministry was, this strange name made everyone attending the meeting show a puzzled expression.
Pictured| Li Kenong
The people at the bottom exchanged heads and talked about each other, and even some people directly asked: "Which comrade is this?" Did he do any related work? ”
In fact, I don't blame everyone for questioning, it is really because most of the people present have never heard of this name, and it is difficult to convince everyone by giving him such an important position as the chief of confidentiality.
Premier Zhou took everyone's concerns and doubts into his eyes, stood up, and solemnly introduced the new member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in public. After briefly listing his past and merits, Premier Zhou firmly said: "No one is more suitable for the position of confidential director than him." ”
So, who is this person, and why does Premier Zhou trust him so much that he can even be entrusted with a heavy responsibility?
His name is Zhou Zhu'an.
Pictured| Zhou Zhu'an
On December 27, 1891, Zhou Zhu'an was born in a farming family in Changsha, Hunan Province. The Zhou family has been farming for three generations, and due to the poverty of the family, Zhou Zhu'an has often been hungry and full since childhood, but this does not affect his desire to study.
Zhou Zhu'an is talented and intelligent, is a good material for reading, the family saves money for him to go to school, and he also cherishes this hard-won learning opportunity, every day, Zhou Zhuan in addition to helping the family work, is holding the book to learn. It didn't take long for him to be successfully admitted to Changsha Normal School with his excellent results.
In this school, he met a person who played a crucial role in his life, that is, the famous educator Xu Teli. At that time, Xu Teli happened to be the principal of Changsha Normal School, and he soon noticed Zhou Zhu'an, who was diligent and outstanding, so he often cared about taking care of this student.
Picture | Xu Teli
The deep teacher-student friendship between the two was not interrupted by Zhou Zhu'an's graduation, on the contrary, their feelings were strengthened by the revolutionary cause and lasted until the end of their lives.
The poor environment of his childhood made Zhou Zhu'an deeply understand what kind of torture the working people at the bottom of China were suffering, with imperialism on the outside and feudal warlords on the inside, and it was a very difficult thing for them to survive. Zhou Zhu'an wanted to find a way to rescue them, to save this China, which had completely decayed.
So he, like all the people with lofty ideals of that era, stumbled on the thorny road, trying to break out a bright future for the Chinese people.
Under the influence of Xu Teli, Zhou Zhu'an first came up with the idea of education to save the country, and after graduation, he became a principal in the Changsha Normal Affiliated Primary School. During this time, he became acquainted with a group of progressive young people who wanted to change China's destiny, including Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, and He Shuheng, and the spark of stars burned in the chest of these people.
In 1925, Zhou Zhu'an was inspired to officially join the revolution, and the following year, he secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party and became an early intelligence officer of the party.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek took the lead in launching the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, and a month later, the reactionary warlords in changsha and the right wing of the Kuomintang colluded with each other to launch the Ma-Ri Incident against the Communists and the revolutionary masses.
Figure |" Four one two " old photos
The blood of countless revolutionary righteous soldiers has stained the earth red, but their indomitable souls still accompany other comrades who are at work and insist on fighting for the revolutionary cause.
At that time, Zhou Zhu'an and Xia Minghan, who were transferred by the party organization to work in the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee, were ordered to stay in Changsha, shrouded in a white terror, and began to engage in underground work.
In the spring of 1928, after analyzing the current situation in China, the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to transfer Xie Jueya, Xia Minghan, and Zhou Zhu'an to the Hubei Provincial Party Committee. It was also during this time that Xia Minghan was unfortunately arrested due to the search and persecution of the reactionaries.
He was tortured by the enemy in prison, but he always maintained his integrity as a Communist Party member, did not reveal the slightest bit of information about the Communist Party, and the enemy decided to kill him without any choice. On March 20, 1928, Xia Minghan left behind a shocking poem of righteousness, "Beheading does not matter, as long as the doctrine is true", and generously died.
Pictured| Xia Minghan
Zhou Zhu'an's sacrifice for his good brother was, of course, extremely sad. But at the same time, he is always vigilant and more cautious when carrying out tasks in the future. During his time in Wuhan, in order to cover up his identity as an underground party member, Zhou Zhu'an assumed the name of Zhou Daonan and temporarily lived in a hotel. Because Zhou Zhu'an was extremely accomplished in art and was especially good at seal engraving, he claimed to be a small trader who helped people engrave seals.
During the day, Zhou Zhu'an opened his doors to do business in a generous manner, and even if the agents and reactionary police who searched for the Communists saw it, they would not suspect that there would be Communists who dared to act under their eyes, and Zhou Zhu'an succeeded in disguising his true identity.
Since the Accident of Xia Minghan, the enemy has been like a dog that smells blood, and has further intensified the pursuit of underground party members in Wuhan. In May 1928, an underground traffic officer of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China was unfortunately arrested by Kuomintang agents, and the enemy carefully searched all his belongings and found an envelope.
The picture | female traffic officer in the film and television drama
The envelope was empty and contained no information related to the Communist Party's underground activities, but it contained the pseudonyms of Zhou Zhu'an and Xiong Jinjie (dīng), as well as the addresses of the CCP provincial party secretariat. The traffic officer's task this time was to hand over the letter to Zhou Zhu'an, and then use Zhou Zhu'an to contact Xiong Jinyu, who was pseudonymous xiong Taiyu at the time.
You must know that Xiong Jinyue was one of the Communists closely watched by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and as soon as he saw this envelope, the enemy rushed out excitedly and went to arrest the two men according to the contents of the envelope. Receiving the news first, Xiong Jinyue transferred as quickly as possible and successfully retained the revolutionary force, but Zhou Zhu'an took a slow step and was unfortunately arrested in the small hotel.
The Kuomintang agents firmly believed that there must be information they wanted on Zhou Zhu'an's body, and they used all kinds of inhuman means to torture Zhou Zhu'an and force him to reveal his true identity and all the information about the Communist Party.
Pictured| Zhou Zhu'an in old age
But the enemy did not know that Zhou Zhu'an had been ready to sacrifice his life for the revolutionary cause from the day he joined the Communist Party. So no matter what the enemy asked, he only said that he was a stamped peddler, did not know what the Communist Party was, and did not know why the letter had its own name.
The enemy tried everything he could, but in the end he failed to pry open Zhou Zhu'an's mouth, and finally, on the one hand, because there was no substantive content in the letter to prove Zhou Zhu'an's identity, on the other hand, the party organization tried to carry out rescue operations after learning that Zhou Zhu'an was arrested.
Thanks to the efforts of the comrades, the enemy, who had no conclusive evidence, had no choice but to release Zhou Zhu.
Although Zhou Zhu'an was fortunate to escape this time, he had been exposed in Wuhan, and the Kuomintang agents no longer suspected him on the surface, but in fact monitored his every move behind his back. According to the current situation, the party organization arranged for Zhou Zhu'an, Xu Teli, and Xiong Jinyue to go to Shanghai one after another to take charge of the defense work of the party Central Committee.
Pictured| Xiong Jinyue
At that time, the Party Central Committee had moved from Wuhan to Shanghai, and the central leaders Zhou Enlai, Li Weihan and others lived on Aidoa Road, which is now Yan'an East Road. Under the instructions of the party organization, Zhou Zhu'an also rented a shop on this road, nominally doing business, but in fact as a contact point for the central government to hold meetings and offices.
Zhou Zhu'an took care of the shop as a shopkeeper, and at the same time used the shop to cover the activities of the party organization, until the winter of 1928, the Party Central Committee gave him another important task, that is, to go to France in the name of studying abroad, as one of the heads of the CCP's European branch, to carry out underground intelligence work, establish a close and reliable intelligence network to collect intelligence and send it back to China, providing strong support for domestic intelligence work.
As soon as Zhou Zhu'an arrived in France, he was welcomed by Wu Kejian, head of the European branch of the CPC. Following the instructions of the party organization, he worked at a university in Paris, and by the way, he tutored his French and laid the foundation for his next work.
Two and a half years later, Zhou Zhu'an went to Belgium to study and work, but while he was preaching in Belgium, he was accidentally discovered by the Belgian government. Zhou Zhu'an did not have a visa at the time, so he could not obtain a residence permit, so the Belgian authorities expelled him.
After several tosses, Zhou Zhu'an finally returned to Paris, reconnected with the party organization, and began a new round of intelligence gathering, he accepted the arrangement, went to the French "Agendee" rayon factory to work, and successfully integrated into the workers.
While organizing activities and raising funds, Zhou Zhu'an also established the Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Salvation Association and founded a newspaper. In the form of publications, he let the domestic news spread among overseas Chinese in Europe, and the articles in the newspapers and periodicals not only exposed the truth of the invasion of China by the great powers, but also provided a channel for these overseas Chinese to communicate with the motherland.
In the autumn of 1939, due to the outbreak of the German-French War, Zhou Zhu'an, who had been engaged in united front work for overseas Chinese in Europe, was ordered to return to China.
It's been 11 years since he left his homeland!
Zhou Zhu'an, who had re-embarked on the national soil, rested for a month, and then was sent to Chongqing to work and begin the party's covert work. Zhou Zhu'an first found Wu Kejian at the newspaper office of Xinhua Daily in Hualongqiao, and Wu Kejian was already the general manager of the newspaper at that time, and under his arrangement, Zhou Zhu'an entered the newspaper as the editor-in-chief.
Due to the special nature of his work, Zhou Zhu'an often changes his face and shuttles between different industries. He had already accumulated a lot of experience in organizing revolutionary activities during his work in France, and he was familiar with this job, and it didn't take long for him to spread out his network of contacts in Chongqing. When others mention him, they all say that he is "generous and has a chivalrous heart", so no matter whether it is a black road or a white road, Zhou Zhuan can say two sentences.
Pictured| Xinhua Daily
Zhou Zhu'an, with his long sleeves and good dancing, successfully lurked in Chongqing, which was in the depths of the water at that time, and he was always able to work in different forms under the eyes of the enemy, and together with other underground party comrades, he established a liaison network covering the entire city, laying a solid foundation for the follow-up intelligence acquisition work.
After Zhou Zhu'an was assigned to work in Chongqing, his achievements did not stop there.
"Xinhua Daily" is actually the organ newspaper of the Southern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and if the newspaper wants to continue to operate, it needs a large amount of money as a support. The person who raised a lot of money for Xinhua Daily was Zhou Zhu'an.
The | the former site of the office of the Southern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee
People who know the inside story once half-jokingly described Zhou Zhu'an's importance to Xinhua Daily during those difficult years: "He can be said to be the treasury of Xinhua Daily. ”
In 1940, Zhou Zhu'an was assigned to the Chongqing National Defense Power Alcohol Factory and became the right-hand man of the owner of the alcohol factory, Ren Zongde. Ren Zongde listened to his advice and not only funded the opening of a flour mill, a sawmill, but also reorganized a bank, which also allowed Ren Zongde to obtain a lot of income, which they used as the working capital of Xinhua Daily.
Later, when Recalling this experience, Ren Zongde said: "I have great trust and respect for Zhou Zhu'an, some specific affairs of running a factory are directly handed over to him, and all the funds are also placed in his hands, whether it is a check or a public or private seal, all of which are taken by him." As long as Zhou Zhu'an opened his mouth to me, no matter how much money he wanted, I promised it, because I knew that Zhou Zhu'an must have used this money on the right path, which was also a little contribution to the anti-Japanese struggle to save the country. ”
During this time working in the alcohol factory, Zhou Zhu'an's first wife died of illness, and under the organization's arrangement, he married Jin Xianwei, who was working as a small clerk in a bank at the time. Jin Xianqian also has a identity, that is, the daughter of Jin Gong'an, deputy general manager of the Bank of Hunan Province.
Due to the hidden needs of underground work, Zhou Zhu'an never mentioned his true identity to his wife, but in an interview with Zhou Zhu'an's daughter, she said: At that time, she was still young, only knew that her father's work was always mysterious, and sometimes friends came to the family, and when they chatted, they not only had to close the door, but also left a person outside to watch, not allowing others to come closer. The mother saw all this in her eyes, but said nothing, because she knew that her husband was doing a great thing for the benefit of the country and the people.
When it was time for the holidays, Jin Xianqian followed Zhou Zhu'an to his home to visit his father, and Zhou Zhu'an would also take the opportunity to take some important information from Jin Gong'an's mouth.
In 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, and Zhou Zhu'an and Ren Zongde went to Shanghai in 1946, where Zhou Enlai gave them two tasks: first, to run the Dafu Publishing Company; second, to run the newly formed Lianhua Film and Art Company as much as possible, and if conditions permitted, it was better to run a film studio.
Pictured| Japan surrendered unconditionally
Zhou Enlai was very forward-looking, and he realized that the film studio would certainly become an important literary and artistic position of our party on the cultural front in the united areas of the country, and if Zhou and Ren held firm in this position, they would provide tremendous help to our party's propaganda work.
Zhou Zhu'an undertook this difficult task, and he became the editor of Dafu Publishing Company, the secretary of the Kunlun Film Studio under construction, and later promoted to the deputy manager of the studio. The studio has united a large number of progressive people in the cultural and artistic circles, including Tian Han, Cai Chusheng, Huang Zongying and other famous artists.
In 1949, under the command of Xiao Jinguang, Chen Geng and Cheng Zihua, the Chinese People's Liberation Army surrounded Hunan on three sides, and Cheng Qian, then the governor of hunan Kuomintang Province, and Chen Mingren, commander of the corps, intended to revolt to welcome peaceful liberation, but there was a difficult problem in front of them.
- They could not contact Chairman Mao.
Figure | dive
Wu Ke, head of the Shanghai Social Department of the CPC, resolutely decided to send Zhou Zhu'an to Hunan to contact Cheng and Chen and set up a secret radio station. Zhou Zhu'an embarked on a new journey without hesitation, disguised as a businessman, hid the radio and materials in his luggage, and circled the enemy all the way, breaking through the enemy's heavy blockade line and finally arriving in Changsha.
In April 1949, Xu Tanlu received instructions from Wu Kejian to go to Hankou to find Wu Huazhi, the head of the intelligence system in the Wuhan area, and asked Wu Huazhi to send traffic officers to Changsha with radios. After many investigations, Zhou Zhu'an and his translator Zhang Pu finally decided to set up a secret radio station in the home of Zhou Qiduo in Jiufu Township, Changsha.
With the secret radio station, the intelligence gathering work can be carried out in Changsha, and the intelligence personnel of our party perform their respective duties and continuously report the large amount of intelligence collected to the party Central Committee through the radio, so that our party can always grasp the every move of the Kuomintang army in Hunan.
On the other hand, in order to persuade Cheng Qian and Chen Mingren, who were still wavering at this time, to revolt, Zhou Zhu'an first found a person, whose name was Huang Yong.
Huang Yong was a student of the Whampoa Military Academy and joined the Ranks of the Chinese Communist Party in the early days, but in 1927, due to chiang kai-shek and other Kuomintang reactionary forces, the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party broke down. In 1929, Huang Yong broke away from the Communist Party and worked within the Kuomintang.
Over the years, Huang Yong had seen the corruption of Kuomintang officials and the sinister faces of Chiang Kai-shek's faction, and he knew that Chiang Kai-shek's words and deeds had long been contrary to Sun Yat-sen's ideas, so he had lost confidence in the Kuomintang.
Zhou Zhu'an decided to win over this person who had long been reluctant to be with the jackal, and he often visited Huang Yong, talked with Huang Yong, guided the other party to the right path, and dedicated his own strength to the peaceful liberation of Hunan. Eventually, Huang Yong resolutely fell to the Communist Party.
Pictured| Huang Yong
Through Huang Yong, Wang Jinxiu, former deputy commander-in-chief of Hunan Suijing, and Tang Jinan, commander of the 36th Division of the Nationalist Army, also joined the ranks of the Communists. Before the battle to liberate Hunan officially began, the balance of victory was already tilted in favor of our army.
However, if we want to strive for the peaceful liberation of Hunan, we also need to stabilize Cheng Qian's thinking. In May 1949, because Bai Chongxi led his Gui army to retreat to Hunan, this made Cheng Qian very panicked, and he was afraid that Bai Chongxi would find out that he had the idea of revolting, and when the time came, he would poison himself, so his thinking was shaken.
Zhou Zhu'an, who had paid close attention to Cheng Qian's attitude, keenly noticed his change and reported the matter to the Party Central Committee, while at the same time reassuring Cheng Qian so that he did not have to panic.
Through Zhou Zhu'an, Cheng Qian and Chen Mingren made direct contact with Chairman Mao. When Chairman Mao's handwritten letter was delivered to Cheng Qian's hand, he repeatedly read the words and sentences above, and some tears still faintly appeared in his eyes. Zhou Zhu'an got up to prepare to say goodbye, but Cheng Qian left him behind and invited him to eat with him.
This move is enough to show that Cheng Qian has made up his mind to lead the uprising. On August 5, 1949, the Kuomintang army of 100,000 people declared an uprising in Changsha, and Changsha was peacefully liberated.
Pictured| a smiling Platon soldier after the liberation of Hunan
When the People's Liberation Army entered the city, Zhou Zhu'an took his eight-year-old daughter to the street and stood in the cheering crowd to greet the party team. Twenty-one years have passed since he left Changsha in 1928, and he has never walked the road of his hometown so easily.
Recounting this story, the daughter said: "In my memory, my father only shed tears twice in his life. ”
Zhou Zhu'an was a strong and calm man, and years of underground intelligence work made him accustomed to hiding his emotions, but on the day of the official liberation of Changsha, he held his daughter and wept bitterly. The young daughter did not know at the time that for Zhou Zhu'an, the liberation of Changsha meant the realization of the ideal.
Zhou Zhu'an successfully fulfilled the heavy task entrusted to him by the Party Central Committee, and the Changsha Secret Radio Station, which was set up by countless intelligence workers, also completed its mission.
Figure | Zhou Zhu'an (red circle)
In September of the same year, Zhou Zhu'an arrived in Beiping, first reported his work experience on this trip to Li Kenong, and then wrote a report and handed it over to the central government. After reviewing it, Zhou Enlai gladly gave instructions on it: "Comrade Zhu'an has made great contributions, and comrade Kenong has asked Comrade Kenong to arrange the work assignment." ”
It just so happened that Li Kenong was assisting Zhou Enlai in preparing for the establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Central People's Government at that time, and when he saw Premier Zhou's instructions, he patted his thigh and decided to let Zhou Zhu'an also participate in the preparatory work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This year, Zhou Zhu'an, who had experienced decades of ups and downs and finally ushered in the founding of New China with other comrades, had grown white hair. When Li Kenong publicly announced his appointment as the director of the Confidential Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he looked at peace, because in the old man's mind, all he wanted was to dedicate all his efforts to New China, and no matter what position he was in, he would do his job as well as possible.
In 1952, Zhou Zhu'an was appointed deputy director of the General Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1954, Zhou Lao, who was already in the age of Ershun, was appointed ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Bulgaria, and it was not until the beginning of 1958 that Zhou Zhu'an, who was no longer optimistic due to his work and physical condition, returned to the motherland and recuperated at home.
Figure | Zhou Zhu'an (first from right)
On July 23, 1977, Zhou Zhu'an, who had dedicated his life to the Communist Party of China, died of illness at the age of 86. Before his death, he referred to New China.
The first half of Zhou Zhu'an's life can almost be said to have been spent in underground intelligence work. Years of anonymous work have left many people unaware of his identity and how much effort he has devoted to the party's cause, but he has never complained or deliberately demonstrated his merits in front of people.
Like countless able men and women in that era, he did not hesitate to live and die, did not care about honor and disgrace, and devoted his life to revolutionary ideals and for the sake of millions of suffering ordinary people.
This red spirit is the root cause of the achievements of new China today.