In the afternoon of this day, a middle-aged woman dressed simply stood in front of an old man in his fifties with a large envelope, looking embarrassed and wanting to stop talking. The old man was looking at her with strange and frightened eyes, as if waiting for something to happen. As the minutes and seconds passed, the old man's eyes became darker and darker, and the light of hope disappeared little by little. Suddenly, he grabbed the envelope and took out the contents. When he saw the four big characters on it, the old man could no longer control himself and stood there crying loudly.
This old man is Wang Yaowu, a Kuomintang general who has been pardoned and walked out of the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center. This iron-boned man didn't blink an eye in the face of 100,000 invaders, but what news made him cry and lose his voice now? It turned out that what he had received now was a divorce agreement sent by his wife and daughter.
Wang Yaowu is a native of Tai'an, Shandong Province, and was born as an ordinary farmer. His father died early, and his mother pulled him to grow up alone, and also provided him with private school, and suffered a lot. At the age of 19, he went to Tianjin to make a living, worked as a handyman, and worked as a salesman. In 1924, he applied for the Whampoa Military Academy and was admitted in November of the same year. In school, he studied diligently and strictly abided by the school rules, which was favored by the school leaders. Later, he threw himself into the Eastern Expedition and the Second Northern Expedition, and fought with the troops of Chen Jiongming and Zhang Zongchang, made many military achievements, and thus became the regimental commander. During the Land War, Wang Yaowu fought against the Red Army many times, defeated Fang Zhimin, and captured Hu Tiantao, the commander of the Red Twenty-first Division. After the war, Wang Yaowu was promoted to commander of the 51st Division.
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and Wang Yaowu entered the most brilliant period of his life. After the Battle of Songhu, Wang Yaowu's Fifty-first Division and Fifty-eighth Division were combined into the 74th Army, which became the most effective army of the Kuomintang troops at that time, and several times fought head-on with the enemy's main forces, and did not fall behind: in May 1938, Wang Yaowu participated in the Lanfeng Campaign and severely damaged the Japanese Second Division, which was known for its toughness; in the Battle of Wanjialing, Wang Yaowu fought fiercely with the Japanese army for more than ten days, and achieved the result of killing and wounding 4,000 enemy people alone; at the Battle of Shanggao, Wang Yaowu commanded the troops to regain Gao'an Town, killing and wounding thousands of enemy people. In 1943, Wang Yaowu participated in the Battle of Changde, recaptured Changde City after Yu Chengwan regretted retreating, and was immediately promoted to commander of the 24th Group Army; at the Battle of Xuefeng Mountain, Wang Yaowu faced the attack of the Japanese army of 100,000 troops, calmly and calmly commanded, repelled the enemy's multiple attacks within two months, and turned to the offensive later in the battle, annihilating nearly 30,000 enemy people and weighing more than 20 tons of loot. Because of this battle, Wang Yaowu became a member of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee at the age of just 40. The 74th Army under him also became the most prestigious unit of the Kuomintang, known as the "Royal Forest Army".
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the total number of enemy annihilators was about 100,000. Comparing the total number of 540,000 enemy annihilators on the frontal battlefield of the Kuomintang army, it can be seen how brilliant his record is. Moreover, whether Wang Yaowu's men were in the Fifty-first Division or the Seventy-fourth Army, they were all strong troops who dared to fight and fight, and even if there were only a few people left, they would still fight to the death. These people defended the unity and freedom of the nation with their flesh and blood in those years, and they could sing and cry. And wang Yaowu's title of anti-Japanese famous general is also well deserved.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Yaowu wanted to retire, but Chiang Kai-shek did not allow it. At this time, he was planning to fight a civil war and needed a general like Wang Yaowu. Therefore, under the persuasion of all kinds, Wang Yaowu could only take up his post and became the commander and chief executive of the Second Appeasement District of the Kuomintang, responsible for the military and political affairs of Shandong Province. However, Chiang Kai-shek did not have great trust in Wang Yaowu, and when sending troops, he was constrained in many ways, except for the reorganized 74th Division, Wang Yaowu's original old troops were either not transferred or not transferred to him, which made the battlefield general very upset, and also made him feel that Chiang Kai-shek was likely to fail in the future. In addition, he had no interest in civil war, so he was very careless when directing the battle.
With the development of the war situation, the situation in Shandong took a sharp turn for the worse. With the collapse of the reorganized 74th Division, Wang Yaowu was disheartened and passed in jinan. By this time he had seen the inevitable defeat of Chiang Kai-shek, so he began to make frequent overtures to the Communists. Not only did it not destroy the facilities in Jinan, but it also released imprisoned progressives and underground parties. However, in the end, Wang Yaowu failed to take the step of uprising, and with the victory of the People's Liberation Army in the Battle of Jinan, Wang Yaowu was captured and later imprisoned in the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center.
Wang Yaowu was very active in the War Criminals Management Center. He already had opinions about Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, and he was already worthy of them not to revolt, and there was no need to "observe the festival" for them at this time, so he was able to go into battle lightly and accept the transformation of new ideas with one mind. Because of his outstanding performance, he also became a member of the study committee. In 1959, when New China's first amnesty was granted, Wang Yaowu, who had already changed his mind, walked out of Gongdelin.
Although his freedom was restored, Wang Yaowu's family had been arranged by him to go to Hong Kong before the founding of New China, and there has been no correspondence since then. After coming out of Gongdelin, Wang Yaowu once asked Premier Zhou to find his family. So soon, Wang Yaowu got the news that his daughter was coming, and he was very excited. However, he never imagined that in addition to the affection and care brought by his daughter, there was also a divorce agreement with his wife.
Wang Yaowu and his wife Zheng Yilan are a famous loving couple. At the beginning, Zheng Yilan was everyone's girlfriend, and Wang Yaowu was still unknown. However, the power of love allowed Zheng Yilan to break through all the shackles and bravely choose to be with Wang Yaowu. During those years of war, Wang Yaowu missed the dumplings made by his wife hand.
During the civil war, Wang Yaowu saw the situation clearly, but he was not willing to revolt, so he arranged a back road for his wife and children. He asked his wife to go to Shanghai and told him, "If something happens to me one day, you will take your children to Hong Kong." Remember, it's to Go to Hong Kong, don't go to Taiwan. When you arrive in Hong Kong, be careful and remember not to tell anyone where you came from. ”
Later, things turned out as Wang Yaowu expected, and the Kuomintang was defeated in Chinese mainland. Zheng Yilan also went to Hong Kong with the assistance of Wang Yaowu's aide-de-camp Wang Xiangbin, and life was very difficult for a while. It was not until Later, Wang Yaowu's eldest son had a job, and the family's life was not relied upon.
In 1959, almost at the same time as Wang Yaowu was pardoned, his son had already started a new life in the United States. As a result, in front of Zheng Yilan, there were two paths of life: either to go to the mainland to reunite with Wang Yaowu, or to go to the United States to settle with his son. In the Sino-US relationship at that time, no matter which path she chose, it meant a permanent separation from another relative.
Of course, there are two more options. One is to get their sons and daughters to give up everything in the United States and return to their home countries. But now that they have a life of their own and social relationships, it's a bit reckless to say give up. The other is to let Wang Yaowu go to the United States, but because of his active reform, he has already put up a name with Chiang Kai-shek, and going to the United States may face danger to his life.
In desperation, Zheng Yilan chose to settle in the United States with her children. In the past ten years, mother and child have been inseparable from each other. Wang Yaowu has been separated for ten years, even if he divorces, it is just to let this parting continue and accept it easier. So on the eve of her daughter's visit to Wang Yaowu, Zheng Yilan tearfully signed the divorce agreement.
However, the sudden news still surprised Wang Yaowu. This anti-war hero, knocked down by his wife's divorce agreement, lay in bed for more than ten days and could not get up. After the daughter calmed down a little, she said her mother's voice: "Mom and we have lived together for so long, we have long been used to it." But if she goes to the U.S. and can't come back very often, who will take care of you? Mom actually can't rest assured of you, she wants to vacate a place for you to find another one in China that can take care of your life..." Listening to his wife's voice, Wang Yaowu burst into tears again.
Later, Wang Yaowu married a teacher named Wu Bolun according to his wife's parting instructions. The two lived together for nearly a decade until Wang Yaowu's death in 1968. Zheng Yilan lived with her children in the United States and did not look for another relationship until her death in 1981 due to a stomach ulcer. Although the two have not been together for half a lifetime, their inner concerns have always been on each other. Zheng Yilan's spirit of giving up for love is enough to make people move.