In November 1941, under the command of Hata Shunroku, then commander-in-chief of the Japanese army invading China, the Japanese army dispatched more than 50,000 troops to implement the "iron wall encirclement" tactic on the Shandong battlefield.
Shunroku Hata
In December, the Japanese puppet army dispatched thousands of troops to launch a frenzied attack on the village of Yuanziya in Shandong, and in the course of the battle, hundreds of people died heroically. In the course of the anti-"sweep" in just two months, the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians in Shandong paid an extremely heavy price, with more than 1,000 casualties and more than 10,000 innocent people killed and arrested.
Since 1942, the Japanese army's "sweeping" of the Shandong area has become more and more fierce, and more and more troops have been dispatched and mechanized troops have been invested. For a time, the party, government, and military organs in the three districts of Lunan suffered serious losses, and the local people suffered from the chaos of war.
Just when the entire Shandong region was shrouded in dangerous artillery fire, a Communist named "Hu Fu" suddenly came to the Shandong sub-bureau and the village of Xizhufan in Linshu County, where the 115th Division was stationed.
Under the leadership of "Comrade Hu Fu," the anti-Japanese situation in Shandong was rapidly reversed, and the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the masses also rose rapidly. In only 4 months, "Comrade Hufu" completely reversed the passive situation on the Battlefield in Shandong and enabled the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area to smoothly survive the difficult period of the War of Resistance.
Liu Shaoqi
During the period when Shandong was leading the anti-Japanese struggle, Chairman Mao sent top-secret telegrams to Hu Fu many times, especially in the last telegram, Chairman Mao specifically advised: There is no need to mention it to anyone.
Who is this "Hufu" who is turning the situation in Shandong? Why did Chairman Mao send him to Shandong to take charge of the overall situation? What was written in Chairman Mao's last top-secret telegram to him?
On January 25, 1941, the Japanese military command issued the "Long-term Operational Guidance Plan for China" to the Japanese troops invading China, which pointed out that the policy of giving priority to abduction and surrender to the Kuomintang troops and supplementing them with military strikes should be carried out; and concentrated attacks should be carried out against the Anti-Japanese forces under the leadership of the Chinese Communists. Soon, the invading Japanese army focused on the Shandong area.
As a hub connecting North China and Central China, Shandong can enter the Pingjin area to the north, central China to the south, and the Central Plains to the west. If the Shandong region is lost, then the Japanese army can drive straight into the Central Plains and the northwest region, and the entire north and central China will be in danger. In order to defend the Shandong region, our army sent one of the three main forces, the most well-equipped 115th Division, to this place as early as December 1938, but I did not expect that the Japanese army's attack on Shandong would be so mad.
The Japanese invasion of China
On November 2, 1941, the Japanese joint puppet army began to launch a multi-echelon "sweep" of the Yimeng Mountains, the Japanese army took the lead in launching a surprise attack on the Shandong column organs stationed in the Area of Mamuchi, followed by the Japanese Second Column dispatched 20,000 troops, 7 aircraft, 10 tanks and dozens of cannons to encircle Linyi, Mengyin and Yishui and other places, trying to destroy the leading organs of the Shandong Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop.
A large number of troops and mechanized troops were dispatched, but the results of the Japanese army's "sweeping" were not significant, and the angry and corrupt Japanese army began to implement the method of "partitioning and encircling, eliminating and clearing and suppressing". The inhuman Japanese army searched everywhere, slaughtered anti-Japanese personnel and wounded soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, and also implemented the "three-light policy" of killing, robbing, and burning everywhere.
Under the unbridled aggression of the Japanese army, many villages in Shandong were in flames, and the livestock, livestock, and grain of the masses in various places were all plundered, all furniture and daily necessities were destroyed, and a large number of innocent people were slaughtered.
On November 7, in the process of the breakthrough of the troops, Zhu Rui's pregnant wife Chen Ruoke was unfortunately arrested by the Japanese army, two days later Chen Ruoke gave birth to a baby in the Japanese prison, but the japanese army that was inferior to the beast did not have any compassion for Chen Ruoke's mother and daughter, in order to make Chen Ruoke submit, the Japanese army also tempted with milk, Chen Ruoke did not give in, but bit his finger and fed the newborn child with blood. On November 26, the angry Japanese army brutally swung a butcher's knife at Chen Ruoke's mother and daughter, and Zhu Rui's wife and daughter who were less than a full moon died tragically under the bayonet of the Japanese army.
Chen Ruoke
In addition to wantonly slaughtering innocent people, the Japanese army also built artillery towers and roads in the invading areas, and also set up a sinister "Xuanfu Class" to try to make the people of Shandong submit by coercion and inducement.
In order to get rid of the crisis, Zhu Rui, then the leader of the Shandong sub-bureau, and Luo Ronghuan, who was then the political commissar of the 115th Division, after consultation, decided to first transfer the command organs of the Shandong sub-bureau and the 115th Division to a safe area first, and then Zhu Rui and Luo Ronghuan led the division's command post and special service battalion to stay in the Yimeng area and continue to carry out the anti-"sweeping" struggle with the local masses.
However, with the continuous strengthening of the enemy's "sweeping" momentum, the command organs of the Shandong column were successively attacked by the Japanese army, most of the personnel were scattered, the radio stations were damaged for a while and could not be repaired, the command organs of the regiments could not get in touch, and the armed forces in various parts of Yi and Mongolia suffered serious losses.
On January 22, 1942, Luo Ronghuan, Chen Guang, and Chen Shiyu jointly sent a telegram to the Central Military Commission, not only reporting on the anti-"sweeping" situation in Yimeng Mountain, but also summing up some thorny problems in the anti-Japanese base area in Shandong at present. Luo Ronghuan and others pointed out that it is necessary to readjust the layout of the anti-Japanese base areas in Shandong as soon as possible, unify our thinking, enhance our understanding, and twist the military and people in The Shandong region into a rope, so that we can better carry out the anti-Japanese struggle.
After receiving the telegram from Luo Ronghuan and others, Chairman Mao clearly realized that it was necessary to send a person with outstanding ability to Shandong as soon as possible to preside over the overall situation and bring Shandong's anti-Japanese work back on the right track. After realizing this, Chairman Mao quickly had a long-lost name in his mind.
On April 10, 1942, a big man named "Hu Fu" came to Zhufan Village in Shandong Province, and on the outskirts of his residence, the guards alone were deployed on three floors, the first floor was in the courtyard, and the soldiers only carried crotch knives; the second floor was outside the courtyard, armed with guns; and the third layer was deployed outside the village, with open sentries and dark sentries. Guards often ask curiously, "Who is this Hu Commissar?" "But no one said the answer all along. The true identity of this "HuFu" must also start from the urgent telegram he received not long ago.
Liu Shaoqi in Shandong (front row, second from left)
On February 4, 1942, when HuFu was preparing to leave from Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, to Yan'an to attend the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he suddenly received an urgent telegram from Chairman Mao: "The war situation in Shandong is tense, when you pass through Shandong, please solve it!" The reason why Chairman Mao trusted this "Hufu" so much was that, on the one hand, he had served as the secretary of the Northern Bureau and had a good understanding of the specific conditions in Shandong; on the other hand, Hufu was very good at doing mass work and was good at grasping the situation. And this "Hufu" also has a widely known name, called Liu Shaoqi.
After receiving Chairman Mao's instructions, Liu Shaoqi made full preparations, and on March 18, 1942, Liu Shaoqi officially set out with a team of more than 100 people, and if Liu Shaoqi's character were, he would not have agreed to lead a team of hundreds of people through the enemy's road blockade, but as everyone knows, these more than 100 people are all talents entrusted by Chairman Mao to prepare for Yan'an's economic construction and social management.
In order to avoid the enemy's tracking, Liu Shaoqi and his party have been lying day and night, thirsty to drink river water, hungry to eat wild fruits. Along the way, every time he went to a place, No matter how tired he was, no matter how dangerous the situation was, he always raced against time to look around, understand the lives and needs of the local people, and always hoped to do unlimited things with limited time.
When entering the territory of Shandong, slogans such as "actively carrying out rent reduction and interest reduction work" and "strengthening rent reduction and interest reduction work" can be seen everywhere, but Liu Shaoqi said with full doubt: "Judging from these slogans alone, it seems that the work of rent reduction and interest reduction has been carried out here, but it seems that it is only in the propaganda stage." ”
In order to find out the living conditions of the people in Shandong, Liu Shaoqi always talked to the local villagers for a long time every time he went, but his questions were always like this: "How much land is there in the family?" How many landlords and farmers are there in the village? How much rent does the landlord have to pay for his land? ”
Liu Shaoqi always gave people a sense of amiability and approachability, and the villagers were happy to answer every question he asked. However, when he heard the answer from the mouths of the people that he did not have enough to eat and no land to plant, Liu Shaoqi always showed some excitement.
After a visit and investigation in Shandong, Liu Shaoqi truly felt that the work of rent reduction and interest reduction in Shandong has not been implemented, and the people's desire for rent reduction and interest reduction is very strong, which shows that this is a policy that fully meets the needs of the masses.
On April 10, 1942, after nearly a month of long journey, Liu Shaoqi and his party finally arrived at Zhufan Village, the shandong sub-bureau and the headquarters of the 115th Division, but Liu Shaoqi did not expect that the struggle situation here would be so difficult.
On July 9, 1942, Liu Shaoqi, who had been supervising work in Shandong for three months, received the third telegram from Chairman Mao, and as soon as he opened the telegram, Liu Shaoqi saw a few very eye-catching big characters: There is no need to mention it to anyone. What kind of telegram made Chairman Mao so stressed?
Since coming to the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area, Liu Shaoqi has arranged his work very fully every day, visiting during the day, investigating and listening to reports, and holding meetings and reading materials at night. During that time, Liu Shaoqi could be seen everywhere in the homes of villagers in Shandong, on primary school campuses and in fields. In just a few days, Liu Shaoqi thoroughly understood the current situation of the anti-Japanese struggle in Shandong.
The anti-Japanese base areas in Shandong were often surrounded by enemy, pseudo- and stubborn forces, and the most pressing problem facing the Shandong region at present was the crisis of survival. In the anti-"sweep" that has just been carried out, the materials in the Shandong region have been seriously damaged, and the people can only rely on wild fruits, wild vegetables, sweet potato seedlings, tree bark and other things to fill their hunger, and many people can only wear single clothes and barefoot in winter.
In addition to visiting the masses, Liu Shaoqi also gained an in-depth understanding of the situation of the troops through on-the-spot visits and listening to reports. Soon, Liu Shaoqi found the crux of the Shandong region:
The work of reducing rent and interest rates has not been concretely implemented among the masses, the masses have not received real benefits, and the enthusiasm for resisting Japan is not high enough; there are many loopholes in military command, which not only lack subjective initiative, but also lack unified action.
After discovering the problem, Liu Shaoqi immediately gave instructions: Not only should the work of reducing rents and interest rates be implemented as soon as possible and the masses mobilized, but also the leadership system of the troops should be readjusted and unified command should be achieved as soon as possible.
Under the leadership of Liu Shaoqi, the Shandong Branch Bureau immediately made the "Decision on Carrying Out a Mass Campaign on Reducing Rent and Reducing Interest rates to Improve the Treatment of Employees." Soon, a sweeping "rent reduction and interest rate reduction, improve the treatment of employees" quietly unfolded. The human rights and land rights of the masses were guaranteed, the people received substantial benefits, and for a time, the enthusiasm of the masses in the anti-Japanese struggle was thoroughly aroused.
After the issue of the survival of the masses was guaranteed, Liu Shaoqi immediately issued the instruction of "streamlining the army and streamlining the administration, and readjusted and streamlined the composition of the party, government, army, and other organs and personnel composition in the Anti-Japanese base areas in Shandong in light of the actual anti-Japanese situation in Shandong.
First of all, the political and military leadership center of Shandong was concentrated in the Shandong sub-bureau, and the total number of leading organs of the Shandong sub-bureau, the 115th Division, and the shandong headquarters was reduced from more than 10,000 to more than 3,000.
Liu Shaoqi's method of centralizing leadership has greatly improved the work efficiency of the anti-Japanese base areas in Shandong and has also greatly accelerated the reaction speed of various departments.
And just when Shandong's military and civilian work was gradually getting on the right track, Chairman Mao sent a telegram to Liu Shaoqi again:
Our policy is to unite the Kuomintang, to do our utmost to improve relations between the two parties, and to build a country through cooperation after the war... However, it is necessary to beware of the possibility that the Kuomintang may take the opportunity to destroy the New Fourth Army, so it is extremely necessary to grasp Shandong, and after you determine the end of the action, the central authorities will notify the Central China, Shandong and Northern Bureaus to entrust you with the power to command the overall situation in Shandong and Central China...
At the end of the telegram, Chairman Mao also specifically advised that there was no need to mention it to anyone. This seemingly simple exhortation is actually full of Chairman Mao's far-sightedness.
Chairman Mao and Liu Shaoqi
It is precisely because of a far-sighted leader like Chairman Mao and a people-oriented leader like Liu Shaoqi that our revolution can win the final victory and our nation and country can gain a new life in the flames of war.