"I was in the hospital eating small foci, two dishes and one soup per meal, milk, eggs, pork every day, until 1958, even three years of financial hardship, I did not stop drinking milk. ...... I couldn't move in my hospital bed, I couldn't take care of myself at all, I couldn't get out of bed even when I urinated, and I was taken care of by the administrator. It's not easy to do this for a long time! There is a Chinese saying: "There is no filial piety before the bed of a long illness." I can't imagine that I can get such care!" This passage appeared in Huang Wei's self-described article "My Transformed Life in Gongdelin", which described his mental journey in the transformation of New China. Huang Wei's transformation is indeed not easy.
Initially a prisoner of war
Huang Wei is a farmer in Guixi, Jiangxi. In 1924, he entered the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy under the arrangement of Fang Zhimin, and was a classmate of Chen Geng, the later founding general of the Republic. After graduating, Huang Wei rose to prominence in the war against Chen Jiongming and Sun Chuanfang, and began to receive promotions. In 1927, the Kuomintang and the Communists parted ways, and Huang Wei chose to continue to follow Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and Huang Wei, who was already the commander of the 67th Division of the Eighteenth Army of the Kuomintang, participated in the Battle of Songhu and fought a very hard battle in Zhiluodian. In the face of the Japanese attack, Huang Wei did not retreat and persisted for a whole week. In the end, the whole division even went to the front line of clerks, telegraphers, and cooks, and the three regimental commanders were wounded twice and killed one, and the overall loss reached more than two-thirds! After this battle, Huang Wei's name of loyalty and courage was established, which was both his merit and his heavy burden in the future.
During the Liberation War, Huang Wei was also The General that Chiang Kai-shek relied on the most, mainly because he admired Huang Wei's "loyalty and courage". In November 1948, Huang Wei led the 12th Corps into the Huaihai Battlefield, only to be surrounded by the People's Liberation Army in shuangdui. The Twelve Corps were all Equipped with American equipment and had strong firepower, and Huang Wei's combat attitude was also extremely tenacious, and the Annihilation War of the People's Liberation Army was once very difficult. Later, Liao Yunzhou, commander of the 110th Division under Huang Wei's old subordinate and an underground party member of the Communist Party of China, revolted before the Zhou Front, which was regarded as a fatal blow to Huang Wei. In the end, in addition to the deputy commander Hu Lian and others escaped, the 12th Corps was completely destroyed, and Huang Wei also became a prisoner of the People's Liberation Army.
At the beginning of his capture, Huang Wei tried to fool through the pass, saying that his name was Fang Zhengxin, and he was the captain of the Fourteenth Army. But it didn't take long for his true identity to be revealed. At this time, Du Yuming's group was still surrounded by the circle, in order to avoid casualties on both sides as much as possible, the head of the People's Liberation Army once hoped that Huang Wei could write a letter of persuasion, but Huang Wei refused; then the People's Liberation Army wrote a letter of persuasion and asked Huang Wei to sign it, which was rejected by him again; finally the People's Liberation Army asked him to go to the front line of Chen Guanzhuang to shout at Du Yuming's group, and the result was rejected for the third time! The leaders of the People's Liberation Army talked to him and asked him why he refused to persuade Du Yuming to surrender. Huang Wei said with resentment: "My biggest mistake is to lose the battle!" At this time, Huang Wei had both disobedience to the PLA and a deep-rooted idea of "loyalty to the jun" in his heart, and was full of rejection of the PLA and the people's government.
After the Battle of Huaihai, Huang Wei and some other senior Kuomintang generals boarded a train and were escorted to the Detention Center of the Military Justice Department of the Political Department of the North China Military Region in Jingxing, Hebei Province. Along the way, many people and fighters heard that high-ranking Kuomintang officials had been arrested, and they all wanted to come to see the liveliness. Originally, the escort cadres were not allowed to look at, because the leaders had already confessed that they wanted to safeguard the self-esteem of the captives. However, there were too many people later, and later they could only agree to let Huang Wei and Yang Botao, who was in the same car, come out and show their faces, but before that, they issued a strict order: you can see, but you are not allowed to insult! This spirit of defending prisoners of war made Yang Botao convinced, but it did not touch Huang Wei.
In Jingxing, Hebei Province, Huang Wei lived in a single room. He originally thought that he had been an enemy of the Communist Party for many years and should undoubtedly die. However, soon after, he found that he was "preferentially treated", each meal was three dishes and one soup, and the weekly quota ration was 5 pounds of white noodles. Idle, he told the guards that he wanted to borrow some books and newspapers, and he was quickly satisfied.
Enter The Meritins
On January 31, 1949, Huang Wei, along with other war criminals, was sent to the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center, where he was rehabilitated. In his heart, Huang Wei has always been dissatisfied, feeling that the so-called transformation is just a cover to deceive outsiders, so his attitude is extremely negative. Huang Wei also participated in the routine political studies in the detention center every time, but never listened carefully to the lectures. In daily life, Huang Wei also deliberately finds fault, quarrels with other people, and resists the management of administrators. For example, at that time, in order to facilitate management, the lights were not turned off at night. Huang Wei was not used to it, pointing at the nose of an administrator and scolding. The administrator was not angry, only said that this was the system.
This attitude of Huang Wei later caused a major incident in Gong Delin. On this day, the Management Office convened a study again, the main content of which was to expose the essence of the Kuomintang's oppression of the people. As a result, Huang Wei said amazingly on the spot: "I don't agree with this statement." Now the Communist Party also has a banking system, is there also exploitation? As soon as the words fell, Dong Yisan, who had previously served in the military command, immediately stood up and criticized Huang Wei. Dong Yisan, the deputy leader of Huang Wei's study group, asked Huang Wei to examine himself deeply and write an inspection.
Huang Wei did not speak, and after lunch he was lying on his stomach on the table writing. Liang Peihuan, a member of the study group and formerly working under Yan Xishan, walked over to take a look and saw that only two poems were written on the paper: "The dragon is trapped in the shallows and is played by shrimp, and the tiger falls in Pingyang and is bullied by dogs." Liang Peihuan immediately jumped like a thunderbolt, and Dong Yisan and the others who rushed to the scene were also angry. The situation was out of control for a while, and several people were in a mess.
The battle did not last long, and the administrators who heard the news quickly stopped the conflict. After that, the leader of the management office talked to everyone and criticized Dong Yisan's practice of beating people. As for Huang Wei, he only told him to strengthen his studies.
Although he was treated leniently, Huang Wei was still dissatisfied in his heart. In order to facilitate the improvement of the students' awareness level, the management office allows them to buy their own books to enrich themselves. Huang Wei was idle, and he also followed the trend and bought a copy of "How Steel is Made". But after getting his hands on it, he immediately felt that this book was just a work of "singing merit and praising virtue", and usually, he actually tore the book as a hand paper! At this time, another wave was almost set off, and the trainees in the same group said that Huang Wei "insulted the revolution" and sued him. Unexpectedly, however, the administrator stood up at this time and said a strange paragraph: "Huang Wei's hand paper is not enough, and he did not ask for more paper, which is his fault; but as an administrator, I did not find that this was my dereliction of duty." As for that book, Huang Wei himself can lend it to others after reading it, and everyone should not make the same inappropriate conclusion because he handled it inappropriately. Hearing this, the anger of all the people disappeared into invisibility.
The beginning of the transformation
Huang Wei's transformation began in 1952. This year, Huang Wei's physical condition became less optimistic. After a long military career, Huang Wei suffered from severe tuberculosis. On his body, there are five kinds of stubborn tuberculosis: tuberculosis, peritoneal tuberculosis, lymphatic tuberculosis, seminal vesicle tuberculosis, and secondary tuberculosis. In April 1952, these five types of tuberculosis attacked at the same time, causing severe peritonitis. After Huang Wei became ill, he was immediately sent to Fuxing Hospital for treatment.
This time the onset of the disease almost cost Huang Wei's life. At that time, his abdomen was severely swollen and his belly was swollen high. In order to quickly reduce inflammation, the Ministry of Public Security sent people to buy back streptomycin produced in Britain and the United States from Hong Kong, so that Huang Wei could turn the crisis into safety.
After the condition stabilized, it faced a long period of recovery. Because of the onset of illness, Huang Wei lost the ability to take care of himself. So the medical staff took good care of him, feeding him with water, carrying and urine, and did not complain. This care lasted for four years, until Huang Wei was cured and all the tuberculosis on his body was cured! At this time, Huang Wei's stubborn psychological defense line began to loosen, and he realized that the "preferential treatment" given to him by New China was not for people to see, but for real.
Not only Huang Wei, but also many war criminals at that time, such as Du Yuming, Fan Hanjie and others, their stubborn diseases were also cured.
After being discharged from the hospital, Huang Wei soon saw the prosperity of new China in one thing. Beginning in 1956, the Management Institute began to organize visits by cadets of war criminals. From the Guanting Reservoir to the Changchun First Automobile Manufacturing Plant, from the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge to the top ten buildings in Beijing, the trainees wanted to establish New China only a few years ago, and such a big change has taken place, which is really amazing! Huang Wei also felt for the first time that in the face of the national economy and the people's livelihood, the KMT really did not do well enough.
However, Huang Wei, who has just improved, has encountered setbacks. In 1959, the state's first amnesty, many war criminals have left Gongdelin and returned to normal life in society. However, there was no Huang Wei in the list of this group of people. This news is not a small blow to Huang Wei. He felt that he had changed, how come he still had not been pardoned? The resistance in his heart came again.
However, he soon learned that Premier Zhou had originally personally given instructions to pardon Huang Wei, but Gong Delin's leaders felt that there was still a gap between Huang Wei's transformation and others, and if he was hastily pardoned, other personnel would be dissatisfied! The country's leaders weighed it up and agreed to the proposal. Huang Wei calmed down and thought about it, the actual situation was indeed so, and others did not wrongfully accuse him. So slowly, his heart was also relieved.
Have to say that the perpetual motion machine
However, this amnesty still brought a new problem to Huang Wei: his perpetual motion machine research was once again poured cold water.
A perpetual motion machine is a mechanical device that has been considered absolutely untenable by the orthodox scientific community, and as the name suggests, it is a machine that can "move forever". When Huang Wei was in Jingxing, Hebei Province, he saw the farmers' reels for fetching water, and suddenly had a sudden whim, wanting to use gravity to make a "perpetual motion machine". After coming to Gongdelin, Huang Wei resisted the transformation, and even used the study of the "perpetual motion machine" as an excuse to indulge in it to escape the transformation. Later, after his wife Cai Ruoshu went to consult some mechanical experts, he learned that perpetual motion machines could not exist, so he persuaded her husband to give up research, but Huang Wei still insisted on going his own way.
His kind of research that was like a magic made others very speechless. Among them, the one who had the greatest opinion of him was Huang Wei's daughter Huang Minnan. Huang Minnan graduated from the Department of Physics at Fudan University and later taught physics at Tsinghua University, and was very aware of the impossibility of perpetual motion machines. She found some relevant research materials from abroad and sent them to her father, originally to explain the unreliability of perpetual motion machines, but she did not expect that Huang Wei saw it but was like a treasure, and even said, "Thank you very much for your daughter's support." Huang Minnan was completely speechless and let out a helpless sigh: "No one can persuade him!" ”
Among the first batch of amnesty people in 1959, a person who had always had a bad relationship with Huang Wei walked out of Gongdelin, and this person was Qiu Xingxiang, the former commander of the 206th Division of the Kuomintang Reorganized Division. Qiu Xingxiang's attitude toward reform was very correct, and he had deeply reflected on his own and the defeat of the Kuomintang, so he became one of the first people to be pardoned. However, Qiu Xingxiang and Huang Wei have not dealt with each other, and the two have accused each other of not having integrity. At the time of this separation, Qiu Xingxiang once again told Huang Wei that the perpetual motion machine could not be realized, hoping that he would face the reality and transform it well. This was originally a good intention, but at this time, Huang Weizheng was holding a fire in his stomach because he had not been pardoned, so as soon as he heard this, he immediately broke out, almost causing a fight.
In April 1968, Huang Wei went to the Fushun War Criminals Management Center to continue his reform. Although there was a change in attitude at this time, there was still an obsession with perpetual motion machines. The leaders of the management institute felt that the perpetual motion machine might become a breakthrough in promoting Huang Wei's transformation, so they vigorously supported his research. Leaders first encouraged Huang Wei's research, saying that "once successful, it will be an immeasurable contribution to humanity." After that, he actually supported Huang Wei, not only assigning him 4 skilled workers in the motor factory, but also taking out 2,000 yuan as a research fund.
The support of the leaders made Huang Wei very moved. Although the research of perpetual motion machines eventually failed, his thinking has undergone a fundamental change, and since then, while continuing to study, he has actively transformed. Finally, in the last batch of amnesties in 1975, Huang Wei walked out of the war criminals management center and returned to society.
However, after his release from prison, Huang Wei still did not give up studying perpetual motion machines, which eventually caused a family tragedy. His wife, Cai Ruoxi, was originally a beautiful southern woman, but during the thirty years of her husband's war and transformation, she was forced to run the family alone. Although Huang Wei's children are very competitive and have become leaders in their respective fields, after all, family life is trivial and complicated, and Cai Ruoxi has long suffered from depression due to excessive pressure. Now that Huang Wei had returned, he had hoped to live a good life. But who knew that Huang Wei plunged into the study of perpetual motion machines, ignored the family, and often added bad words to his wife. Cai Ruoxi finally couldn't help but hit and jumped into the Yongding River one night...
Contribute to the reunification of the motherland
The death of his wife more or less still allowed Huang Wei to return to rationality. He slowly put his energy into the study of literature and history, on supporting the construction of his hometown, and even more on the great cause of national reunification. In 1983, Huang Wei wrote a letter to those old colleagues who were far away in Taiwan: "Pray for the reunification of the motherland, people have the same heart, the same heart, if reunification is realized at an early date, I should personally go to Taiwan and talk to you about the wine." ”
In the 1980s, Huang Wei went to Hong Kong many times to talk about wine with his colleagues and imagine the reunification of the motherland together. During this period, Taiwanese agents once tried to win him over, saying that as long as he could return to Taiwan, he would settle his salary for so many years according to the standard of $3,000 per month. As a result, this proposal was rejected by Huang Weiyan. At this time, he had already put the unity of the country and the prosperity and strength of the nation in the first place, and his foolish loyalty and filial piety to the old government had long disappeared.
Soon after, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait achieved mutual exchanges, and many elderly people in Taiwan returned to the mainland to visit their relatives. Although Huang Wei, who heard the news, is 85 years old, he is still very excited, and he hopes that in his lifetime, he can go to Taiwan, which was out of reach, talk to his old subordinates and colleagues, and play another role in the reunification of the motherland. Unfortunately, during the formalities, Huang Wei's heart disease worsened, and he finally died of ineffective medical treatment. His trip to Taiwan ultimately failed to materialize.