Introduction: In January 1946, in order to negotiate peace between the Kuomintang and the Communists after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Premier Zhou deliberately flew from Yan'an to Chongqing. Among the entourage, there was a lively and cute little girl named Xiao Yangmei, who was the daughter of the famous anti-Japanese general Ye Ting.
Five years ago, the reactionaries disregarded the anti-Japanese national united front and brazenly launched the Anhui Incident that shocked China and foreign countries, and Ye Tingmeng, then commander of the New Fourth Army, was unjustly imprisoned. An important topic of discussion in the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Communists was the release of Ye Ting, and through the unremitting efforts of Premier Zhou and others, the reactionaries had to agree to the release of General Ye Ting.
General Ye Ting
This time, Xiao Yangmei went to Chongqing with Premier Zhou to welcome her father, who had not seen each other for 5 years, so she was very happy along the way.
However, when the plane flew over the Qinling Mountains, the originally clear sky suddenly appeared thick clouds, under the action of a cold current, the wings and propellers of the aircraft began to freeze, and the entire aircraft seemed to become a large ice block that was frozen and began to fall rapidly. In order to reduce the weight of the aircraft, the pilot ordered the cabin door to be opened and some unimportant luggage was thrown down, but the aircraft still did not stop.
Seeing that the plane was about to crash into the mountains out of control, the pilots began to put on parachutes and prepare to parachute to escape. But there was no parachute under Xiao Yangmei's seat, and looking at the little girl who was crying urgently, Premier Zhou immediately took off his umbrella bag and put it on for her.
Premier Zhou
When the companions saw the premier at a critical juncture, the first thing they thought about was Xiao Yangmei, and their hearts were very moved, and they all competed to give the umbrella bag to the premier, but they were all rejected by the premier. Premier Zhou said in a commanding tone: "Leave me alone! Everybody be calm, don't panic..."
Under the pacification of the prime minister, everyone calmed down, and at this moment, the plane finally rushed out of the clouds, under the sunlight, the ice on the fuselage slowly melted away, and the plane flew smoothly again, and successfully arrived in Chongqing.
On March 4, 1946, General Ye Ting, who had been imprisoned by the reactionaries for five years, was freed, and Premier Zhou and Xiao Yangmei went to see him for the first time. At that time, Chongqing was still shrouded in white terror, and in order to ensure Ye Ting's safety, Premier Zhou, with his consent, immediately began to arrange for him to leave Chongqing and go to Yan'an.
At that time, the American Flying Tigers were still in Chongqing, and under the contact of Premier Zhou, on April 8, 1946, a C-47 transport plane of the American Flying Tigers was ordered to carry Ye Ting and others to Yan'an, accompanied by Xiao Yangmei, Wang Ruofei, Qin Bangxian (Bogu) and others.
After the plane took off, Premier Zhou returned to his residence and began waiting for the telegram that the plane had arrived safely in Yan'an, but waited until the next day, but still did not receive any news. At this time, an ominous premonition arose in Premier Zhou's heart.
On April 11, the news came that the plane on which General Ye Ting was riding encountered bad weather with heavy fog and hail near Xingxian County, Shanxi, and finally crashed into the Black Tea Mountain, killing all 13 passengers, including Ye Ting and Xiao Yangmei, and 4 US military flight personnel were also unfortunately killed.
When the news came, Premier Zhou shed tears of grief, and he blamed himself for why two planes were not arranged at that time, so that all 13 people would not be killed. Thinking of Xiao Yangmei, who had just experienced a flight with him not long ago, Premier Zhou regretted it and also became suspicious of the plane crash.
According to his understanding, the C-47 transport plane that Ye Ting and others were flying was one of the most advanced aircraft in the United States, more advanced than the plane he had taken when he came to Chongqing before, and the aircraft was piloted by senior pilots of the Flying Tigers. In the War of Resistance Against Japan, these pilots had more than thousands of hours of flight time, and their flying skills were so exquisite that they would not easily crash even in bad weather.
Before he came to Chongqing, the plane also encountered bad weather, and even lost control and fell rapidly, but with the efforts of the pilots, the crisis was finally turned around, which is enough to show that the plane on which General Ye Ting was riding would never crash for a single weather reason, and it is likely that there are reactionary agents behind this.
Flying Tigers
The reason why Premier Zhou thinks this is not out of thin air. Chiang Kai-shek's release of Ye Ting was not willing, but only under pressure from our Party did he finally agree. The day after Ye Ting regained his freedom, he publicly stated that he wanted to rejoin the Communist Party, which made the sensitive Chiang Kai-shek feel angry and secretly killed.
However, these are all speculations of Premier Zhou, because the plane exploded after hitting the mountain and destroyed all the evidence at the scene, and in the following decades, Premier Zhou has been painstakingly pursuing the truth of the "April 8 air disaster", but there has been no progress.
In 1976, the beloved Premier Zhou left us with regret, and the truth of the "April 8 Air Disaster" did not come to light until 2006, when it was exactly 60 years after the death of General Ye Ting and 30 years after the death of Premier Zhou.
In 2006, before dying, an old man in Taiwan told a big secret hidden in his heart for 60 years, and the plane on which General Ye Ting was riding was not wrecked due to weather reasons, but was deliberately destroyed by secret agents before crashing.
The old man's name was Du Jitang, and he was the captain of the special task force team of the Sino-US Special Cooperation Institute at that time, and he was a very famous agent in Chongqing. When Chiang Kai-shek learned that Ye Ting was going to yan'an by plane, he gave him the order to assassinate him. In order to avoid adverse effects, Chiang Kai-shek specifically demanded that the assassination operation should be concealed, preferably disguised as an accident, so that people could not be unaware.
After receiving the task, Du Jitang did not dare to be idle, and immediately began to plan the assassination operation. After some thought, Dujitang decided to manipulate the plane and disguise the assassination as an air disaster, so that the mission could be completed satisfactorily.
After making up his mind, Du Jitang found a special agent, Yang Yaowu, who not only could fly airplanes, but also knew how to repair airplanes, and had long helped the Flying Tigers repair aircraft during the War of Resistance, and was very familiar with American pilots. After listening to Du Jitang's introduction, Yang Yaowu believed that manipulating the aircraft instruments would make the aircraft lose its altitude and direction, which was not easy to be detected, and it was also easy to cause the plane to crash.
After learning about Ye Ting's plane, Yang Yaowu used maintenance as an excuse to sneak into the Flying Tigers airport and secretly placed a small piece of magnet on the back of the plane's instrument. As we all know, magnets will make the instrument equipment fail, so that the aircraft can not accurately determine the altitude and direction after take-off, which is very easy to cause crashes.
In fact, in the process of flying from Chongqing to Xi'an, experienced Flying Tiger team members found that there seemed to be some problems with the instrument, but because Yang Yaowu's magnet was very small and the impact was very subtle, the Flying Tiger team members did not care, thinking of checking and repairing it after returning home.
However, when the plane flew to the vicinity of Yan'an, it encountered foggy weather, the visibility was very poor, and the plane could not land at the first time, but could only turn to the east and circle, waiting for the weather to improve and then land. In bad weather, visibility deteriorated, pilots can only rely on the instrument to determine the direction and height, the result is due to the action of the magnet, the instrument data has been deviated, and eventually led to the height is too low to hit the Black Tea Mountain.
At this point, after 60 years, the truth of the General Ye Ting air disaster incident has come out!
Conclusion:
However, some people are skeptical of Dujitang's statement and point out some doubts. However, no matter what the cause of the "April 8 Air Disaster" was, it could not change the fact that General Ye Ting, Xiao Yangmei, Wang Ruofei, and others made heroic sacrifices. In China's modern history, the "April 8 Air Disaster" in Black Tea Mountain was a huge loss to our Party and New China.