Those who have been to Zhengzhou know that there is a district in Zhengzhou called Erqi District, and there is also a road called Erqi Road in Zhengzhou Erqi District and Wuhan Jiang'an District, and there are Erqi Memorial Towers on both roads.
Zhengzhou 27 Memorial Tower
This "Erqi" refers to the same historical event - the "Beijing-Hankou Railway Workers' Strike" that broke out on February 7, 1923, and the "Erqi Massacre" that caused it. Zhengzhou's Erqi District is also the only urban area in the country named after a major revolutionary historical event.
The strike, which was a political struggle to improve the lives of railway workers and for freedom, was brutally suppressed by reactionary warlords, resulting in the deaths of 52 people, the wounding of more than 300 people, the imprisonment of more than 40 people and the expulsion of more than 1,000 workers into exile. The reactionary warlords created the "February 7 Massacre" that shocked China and foreign countries, and after the arrest of Communist Party member Lin Xiangqian and legal adviser Shi Yang, they were brutally killed by the enemy.
The culprits of this tragedy were the warlord Wu Peifu and his minions Zhao Jixian, director of the Beijing-Hankou Railway Administration.
In October 1926, after the fall of Wu Peifu, Zhao Jixian fled to jiangnan with the money he had looted for many years and hid it. He knew that his sins were so great that he thought that he could escape the judgment of history by hiding his name.
However, in the end, it is the legal net that is restored, and the omission is not leaked. Finally, he was arrested and arrested in the historic city of Suzhou after 25 years.
So what bad things did Zhao Jixian do, how did he flee, and how did he get caught? That's what I'm going to tell you today.
Zhao Jixian was born in 1885 in Licheng County, Shandong Province (now Licheng District, Jinan City), and graduated from Beijing Jingshi University of Political Science and Law. When he graduated, he was in the period of warlord division, because he was good at sneaking and patting horses, and he was appreciated by the warlord Wu Peifu, who was first appointed as the chief of the military law department of the Directly Subordinate Military Administration, and then promoted all the way to the director of the Beijing-Hankou Railway Administration.
In order to curry favor with his master, Zhao Jixian raised more military expenses for Wu Peifu to fight among the warlords. He brutally squeezed the workers, stipulating that the workers worked 10 hours a day, dismiss them if they were late, not letting the workers rest at every turn, not letting the workers eat enough, and even withholding the wages of the workers, only three-quarters of the original wages, and the railway workers' lives were extremely difficult.
In order to oppose the oppression of feudal warlords and imperialism, the railway workers, under the leadership of the Communist Party, held a preparatory meeting of the Beijing-Hankou Railway Federation of Trade Unions in Zhengzhou on January 5, 1923, and decided to hold the inaugural meeting of the Federation of Trade Unions on February 1.
Group photo of representatives of the Beijing-Hankou Railway Federation of Trade Unions when it held its inaugural meeting in Zhengzhou
After listening to the report of the Preparatory Committee of the Federation of Trade Unions, the cunning Zhao Jixian pretended to agree, and also deliberately transferred the weekly holiday of January 28 to February 1 to let the workers have time to attend the conference, and also promised the workers north of Zhengzhou to give free tickets.
Privately, however, he reported the situation to Wu Peifu and encouraged Wu to suppress the workers' activities. Wu Peifu then sent a telegram ordering Jin Yunlu, commander of the 44th Division of the army directly stationed in Zhengzhou and Xinyang, to send troops to Zhengzhou.
On the morning of February 1, more than 200 workers' representatives marched to the venue Puyuan Park (now the site of the Erqi Memorial Hall in Zhengzhou), but were stopped by armed military police on the way. Workers broke through the barrier, entered the venue, and immediately announced the establishment of the Beijing-Hankou Railway Federation of Trade Unions.
In the afternoon, the military and police rushed to the residence of the workers' representatives, searched for documents, looted property, arrested and beat workers, destroyed trade union facilities, and forcibly occupied trade union clubhouses. The Federation of Trade Unions decided to move its office address to the banks of the Hankou River and held a general strike on February 4 to protest the despicable actions of the warlords. On the 4th, the Beijing-Hankou Railway went on strike, and the 1,200-kilometer railway was suddenly paralyzed.
On February 7, Wu Peifu mobilized a large number of military and police officers to carry out a bloody suppression of workers, creating the "February 7 Massacre" that shocked China and foreign countries. After the tragedy, the workers demanded that Zhao Jixian be replaced and compensated for the losses.
On the one hand, Zhao Jixian sent Zhang Housheng, commander of the Hankou Railway Garrison, to negotiate with the Federation of Trade Unions, and on the other hand, he forced the workers to resume work, and handed over yang Defu, Lin Xiangqian, and other responsible persons of the trade unions to put pressure on the Federation of Trade Unions. The reactionaries infuriated the workers, who began demonstrations in the Hankou Concession.
On the afternoon of February 7, Zhang Housheng led two battalions of troops to surround the Hankou Riverbank Federation of Trade Unions and opened fire on the workers, killing more than 30 people on the spot and wounding 27 people. More than 70 arrested people were tied to telephone poles and severely beaten.
After Jiang'an branch chairman Lin Xiangqian was arrested and tied to a telephone pole, Zhang Housheng ordered the executioner to cut a knife and asked: "Can you return to work?" Lin Xiangqian flatly refused, and was finally slashed several times and sacrificed heroically. Subsequently, Shi Yang, a communist and legal adviser to the Federation of Trade Unions, was also arrested by the enemy and generously inaugurated on February 15.
Lin Xiangqian painted a scene of righteousness
In the Changxin store, Zhao Jixian issued a notice restricting workers to work 24 hours a day. From Baoding and Beiping, 14 mixed brigades were transferred to force workers to return to work. Subsequently, it was announced that the workers would be escorted out of the country if they did not return to work and their previous wages would be recovered. However, the workers refused. Zhao Jixian ordered the military police to search the workers' dormitories and arrested Shi Wenbin and 11 others.
The next day, more than 3,000 workers gathered at the entrance of the 14 mixed brigade camp in Changxindian to demand the release of the arrested people. Zhao Jixian first ordered the reactionary military police to shoot and shoot the workers, and then trampled on them with a team of horses. On the spot, 4 people were killed, more than 30 people were seriously injured, and countless minor injuries were inflicted.
Oil painting of the Beijing-Hankou Railway Strike
After killing and injuring workers, workers were again forced to return to work and the injured workers were not allowed to seek medical treatment. Subsequently, the 26 trade union members who were arrested were escorted to Baoding and personally tortured to extract confessions, resulting in the tragic death of Wu Zhen and 5 others in prison.
In the "February 7 Massacre", Zhao Jixian was the main culprit, his hands were stained with the blood of the workers, the greatest evil, and unforgivable.
After the fall of Wu Peifu, Zhao Jixian was also forced to step down, and he used the looted money to run to Beijing, Jiangsu, and Shanghai to buy a large number of fields and real estate, and bought 577 acres of land, 6 houses in Suzhou alone, and married several aunts and wives. Lived a "getaway" life.
However, he knew that his sins were serious, so he assumed the name Zhao Bosheng and went into hiding in Suzhou.
In April 1949, a million troops of the People's Liberation Army crossed the river, and Suzhou was about to be liberated. Zhao Jixian began to panic, so he planned to sell his fields and houses and flee to Hong Kong. However, due to the chaos of the soldiers and horses, no one took over, and it did not go.
On April 27, Suzhou was liberated.
In early 1950, the Ministry of Public Security issued a co-investigation circular to the Suzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, listing Zhao Jixian's resume and his crimes, and pointed out that Zhao Jixian was in the Suzhou area, and asked the Suzhou public security organs to detect and arrest him as soon as possible.
Ding Zhaojia, director of the Public Security Department of the Southern Jiangsu Administrative Office and director of the Suzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, personally handled this important case, and he transferred Gao Qizhi, head of the investigation unit of the Central District Bureau, who was familiar with the local situation, and began to mobilize the masses and provide clues.
Ding Zhaojia
After all, Zhao Jixian has been in Suzhou for 24 years, and it is impossible not to show a little clue, and it is difficult for him to hide in the vast ocean of people's war in that year.
Soon, some people came to the public security organs with a newspaper, and through this newspaper, the public security organs found out his eldest son, Zhao Shiqing.
This newspaper is a comical farce of "covering his ears and stealing bells" directed and performed by Zhao Jixian himself. Before the liberation of Suzhou, in order to hide his eyes and ears, his eldest son came forward to publish a "statement of separation from father-son relations" in the Shanghai "News Daily". Although he changed his name himself, his son did not change it, and the father-son relationship that they had "separated" but did not break away from was clearly published in this newspaper.
It was through this newspaper that the police learned that he had a son named Zhao Shiqing.
Coincidentally, Zhao Shiqing was detained by the public security organs for gambling in the early stage, and Gao Qizhi quickly found him and immediately began interrogation. At first, Zhao Shiqing refused to cooperate, after all, Zhao Jixian was his father, and it was still difficult for his son to betray his father psychologically for a while.
After a period of stalemate, the public security organs launched a powerful psychological offensive, asking him to confess his father's whereabouts, otherwise it would be a crime. Zhao Shiqing finally failed to withstand the pressure, and confessed his father's pseudonym and address: No. 34 or 36, Zhangmen West Street, Suzhou, and also depicted his father's appearance characteristics.
With the clues provided by Zhao Shiqing, the things behind are much simpler.
Suzhou Zhangmen West Street No. 34 with a courtyard upstairs, there is indeed an old man living, neighbors reflect that this old man with a young and beautiful wife, all day at home chanting Buddha, usually go out to run errands are young women go out, rarely see the old man come out.
Ding Zhaojia and Gao Qizhi listened to such a situation, had a bottom in their hearts, and decided to make direct contact with this old man. One day in May 1951, they went to the innermost courtyard of 34 Zhangmen West Street and found the old man.
The old man seemed to be mentally prepared.
"Name?" Ding Zhaojia asked.
"Zhao Erxue," the old man replied unhurriedly.
"What did you do before?" Ding Zhaojia continued to ask.
"Do some timber business," the old man continued to avoid the real.
……
No matter how Ding Zhaojia asked them, he avoided that period of history in an attempt to fool through.
Finally, Ding Zhaojia and Gao Qizhi simply went straight to the point and asked him where he was in 1923. What was you doing? After this question, the old man suddenly looked panicked and confused, and only then did he say what he had done in the Beijing-Hankou Railway.
But he refused to admit that he was the main murderer of the Beijing-Hankou railway strike that year, and strongly insisted that it was Wu Peifu and his close associate Xiao Yaonan's army.
Ding Zhaojia said coldly, "You chant the sutra and chant the Buddha, and it is too late to practice, so let's go back and make it clear with us!" ”
Zhao Jixian was escorted to the detention center, and after a large number of investigations and evidence collection, it was confirmed that he was one of the main perpetrators of the "February 7 Massacre".
Since the Beijing-Hankou railway strike first took place in Zhengzhou, Zhao Jixian was escorted to Kaifeng, the capital of Henan at the time.
On July 8, 1951, a public trial meeting was held in the square of Zhengzhou Huamei Hospital, and then escorted to Wuhan. On the 16th, a public prosecution conference was held at hankou Jiang'an station, after which Zhao Jixian was executed.
Zhao Jixian was sentenced to death
The murderer, the most heinous of all, finally paid the price he deserved for his own sins.