Four Field Generals Series 59: Wan Yi (I)
Author: Mast
Among the many generals in Siye, Lieutenant General Wan Yi's experience is very special: he is a highly qualified student who graduated from the Northeast Army's Lecture Hall, is Zhang Xueliang's beloved general, and according to his own many times, he is "a person from the old army"; he defected to the Eighth Route Army in Shandong in August 1942, and is the only column commander in Dongye who is born from the Northeast Army; he is deeply trusted by Lin and Luo, and has served as a battlefield commander many times, and Dongye was the commander of the main 1 column when he was first reorganized; because he did not adapt to the command style of our army, he was reappointed as the political commissar of the 1st Column by Lin Biao, regardless of political work. Specialize in warfighting.
Whether in the Northeast Army or our Army, Wan Yi's position is not very high, but he is the person who was "named" by Mao and Jiang, the top decision-makers of the two opposing camps. For such a soldier with national righteousness and integrity, the attitudes of the leaders of the two sides are completely different. Today I will start talking about General Wan Yi about these things.
(1) Old Chiang Kai-shek named himself in a telegram: secret execution
Wan Yi secretly joined the organization in March 1938 and was recruited as a special member. In 1940, Wan Yi served as the brigade commander of the 333rd Brigade of the 111th Division of the 57th Army of the Northeast Army, leading the troops to resist the Japanese in Shandong. In September of that year, Miao Zhengliu, commander of the 57th Army, engaged in "curve to save the country" and arranged for his cronies to negotiate secretly with the Japanese army, preparing to pull the 57th Army to defect to the Japanese. After Wan Yi got the exact information, he immediately reported it to Chang Endo, the commander of the 111th Division.
After the 918 Incident, more than 200,000 Northeast Troops were driven out of the Northeast. Many officers and men of the Northeast Army have great righteousness and strong anti-Japanese sentiments. Chang Endor was such an upright and dignified soldier. After receiving the report, Chang Enduo was very angry about this crime of treason and treason, and said to Wan Yi, "We must get rid of him." Immediately, the two agreed on a plan to pick up the traitors, and prepared to use the opportunity of the troops to move to the defense to arrest Miao Zhengliu, and Wan Yi was responsible for implementing it.
Unfortunately, due to Wan Yi's lack of careful planning, Miao Zhengliu escaped. Although Miao Zhengliula's plot to surrender to the enemy did not succeed, the matter became a big deal. At that time, the 57th Army was subordinate to the Lusu Guerrilla Theater and was under the command of Yu Xuezhong, the general of the Northeast Army. Yu Xuezhong was the elder of the Northeast Army, and after the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, Zhang Xueliang entrusted the Northeast Army to him before sending Jiang back to Nanjing. After this incident occurred, first, Miao Zhengliu's evil people first filed a complaint, and second, Yu Xuezhong wanted to calm things down, and finally described the nature of this hoe rape incident as "troublemaking."
Chang Enduo was old and prestigious in the Northeast Army, and Yu Xuezhong was not good at moving him, so he reported that it was "Wan Brigade making trouble" and regarded Wan Yi as a scapegoat. In addition, Wan Yi was radical in his thinking, resolute in resisting Japan, sympathetic to the soldiers, honest and honest, and did not collude with some unscrupulous people, which was quite a "eight-way" style. Under the covert instructions of Yu Xuezhong, some people of the 111th Division took advantage of Chang Enduo's serious illness to detain Wan Yi on February 17, 1941, and relieved him of his position as brigade commander. While in custody, Chiang called Yu Xuezhong: "Wan Yi collaborated with the enemy and committed treason, and should be executed secretly and reported." At this time, Wan Yi was just a brigade commander of the Northeast Army, but he was directly "named" and executed by Jiang Shi, the highest figure in the Camp of Chiang Kai-shek's army, which also created a record.
The good thing is that Xuezhong is still an orthodox soldier. After reading Chiang's telegram, he said to the people around him: "Secret execution? I have been a soldier for more than 20 years, and I have never done such a immoral thing. In fact, Yu Xuezhong also had deeper considerations: first, the secret execution of his subordinate generals would lose his prestige in the Northeast Army; second, Wan Yi belonged to Zhang Xueliang's confidant and beloved general, and if he was executed secretly, it would be difficult to meet in the future. So it was decided to try Wan Yi and then shoot him again, so that all parties would be well explained.
It should be said that Yu Xuezhong's decision to deal with it objectively saved Wan Yi and left time for Wan Yi to escape from prison. On August 2, 1942, that is, after being detained for one and a half years, Wan Yi took advantage of the laxity of the guards to successfully escape from the place of detention and enter the eighth route army garrison, and began a new journey.
(2) The Chairman named in the telegram: March into the northeast
On August 9, 1945, the Red Army began to fight against Japan and marched into northeast China. From August 10 to 11, seven consecutive orders were issued by Yan'an, drafted by the Chairman and in the name of Commander-in-Chief Zhu. Among them, the No. 2 order issued at 8 o'clock on the 11th said: "The former Northeast Army's Wan Yi unit, from Shandong and Hebei, marched to Liaoning ... to cooperate with the Red Army of the Soviet Union".
At that time, Wan Yi's position was deputy commander of the Coastal Military Region and head of the Coastal Detachment under the Shandong Military Region. This time, I was named by my top decision-maker because Wan Yi was once a general of the Northeast Army, and he was asked to shoulder the heavy responsibility of history. Also named in Order No. 2 were Lü Zhengcao and Zhang Xuesi, who had also been generals of the Northeast Army.
Wan Yi was extremely excited about being named this time, and it can be said that he had a thousand thoughts: since the September 18 Incident in 1931, he had left his homeland in the northeast for 14 years; after more than 10 years of hard work, the War of Resistance Against Japan was finally victorious; for many years, the dream of returning to his hometown was finally realized; with this order from the chairman, he could immediately return to his hometown where dreams were haunted. As a northeasterner, especially a northeastern soldier, how can you not be excited?
According to the order of the headquarters, the Shandong Military Region immediately set up the Northeast Advancing Column (Wan Yi Column), appointed Wan Yi as commander and Zhou Chiping as political commissar, and immediately marched into the northeast. Beginning on September 24, more than 3,500 people from the northeast marched forward from Luanjiakou in Huangxian County, Yantai to cross the sea. At noon on the 25th, Wan Yiqin took the lead in sending a team to land at Diaoyutai in Xingcheng, Liaoning Province, and after 14 years, once again set foot on the land of the northeast.
The Wan Yi column was the first of the Shandong troops to enter the northeast. Due to the chaotic situation in the northeast at that time, the Wan Yi column initially played the role of "fire brigade" for the Northeast Bureau, attacking the Meihekou, rescuing Tonghua, playing Faku, and also disguised as a policeman to control Changchun.
It's a lot of fun, by the way. At that time, the headquarters of the Soviet Red Army was located in Changchun, and the northeast camp of Chiang Kai-shek's army was also set up in Changchun. At the request of the underground organization, Wan Yi sent 2 detachments and 1 brigade to infiltrate Changchun, handed over the guns of the pseudo-police station, and all the troops changed into police costumes, controlling the whole city in one fell swoop and responsible for maintaining law and order. Not long after, Chiang Kai-shek officials noticed a strange phenomenon: the police in Changchun were all Shandong accents, and the police officers all wore pistols instead of the usual command knives, and were also equipped with machine guns, which was completely a combat unit. Therefore, judging that these policemen must be the Eighth Road from Shandong, they made representations to the Soviet army.
Not only that, wan Yi also prepared to attack the Chiang Kai-shek troops airlifted at Changchun Airport according to the instructions of the Northeast Bureau. After learning this, Malinovsky, commander-in-chief of the Soviet Army in the northeast, was furious.
The Northeast Advancing Column was later renamed the 7th Column of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army. In the second half of 1946, when Higashino was reorganized for the first time, the 7th Column was organized into the 1st Column 3rd Division, which was later the 114th Division of the 38th Army. Wan Yi successively served as the commander of the 1st Column, the political commissar of the 1st Column, the commander of the 5th Column, and the commander of the 42nd Army, and participated in the whole process of the Three-Year Liberation War in Northeast China.
After the Battle of Pingjin, Wan Yi went to Xibaipo to participate in the conference. During the meeting, the chairman also received Wan Yi and others by name. Since he was meeting the chairman for the first time, he was very nervous, thinking that he was "an officer from the old army, and he was very naïve in all aspects", and he did not know what would happen after the meeting.
In his later years, Wan Yi
Who knew that as soon as they met, the chairman said a few homely words, which easily dissolved his nervousness. For this meeting with the chairman, he wrote in his memoirs more than 40 years later: "Although this is the first time I have met the chairman, I am deeply impressed by his cordial attitude, humorous and humorous speech, and profound meaning. ”