During the Liaoshen Campaign, the PLA soldiers said this in their mouths: "Short and fat, white clean face, gold wire glasses, Hunan cavity, don't let Liao Yaoxiang go!" ”
At that time, the war had entered the end, and Liao Yaoxiang, as the commander of the corps, had already fallen into the encirclement, had no way to escape, and was surrounded by songs, so Liao Yaoxiang had to obediently surrender.
Liao Yaoxiang, who was a prisoner of war, was sent to the Gongdelin War Criminals Prison shortly after, met many of his colleagues, and began the road of reform in Gongdelin.
The ambition to serve the country
From general to war criminal, the gap is not small, at first Liao Yaoxiang is also an admirable patriotic general, he joined the army at a young age, and was admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy, became a graduate of the sixth phase of Whampoa, Liao Yaoxiang's achievements in the military school were very good, and his performance in actual combat was also very outstanding, so he soon became famous in the army.
However, Liao Yaoxiang really shined during the War of Resistance Against Japan. With the sound of gunshots of Japan's all-out invasion of China, the land of China is about to face the danger of subjugation of the country and extinction of the species. As a patriotic general, Liao Yaoxiang was a staunch warrior, advocating fighting the Japanese to the end and recovering the rivers and mountains.
In November 1937, the Japanese army approached Nanjing, the Nanjing defense war began, Liao Yaoxiang was one of the generals who participated in the war, for Liao Yaoxiang, this battle did not have an advantage from the beginning, the people in the army were scattered, the soldiers died, fled, even the generals who defended the city ran a lot, the commanders at all levels were extremely chaotic, the news transmission was seriously lagging behind, the Japanese army had not yet entered the city, and the nationalist army had already shown signs of defeat.
In the midst of such an extreme disadvantage, Liao Yaoxiang did not give up, he climbed to the head of the city and personally led the troops to fight the Japanese to the death, and was wounded in many places on his body, but still did not fall into the line of fire. Unfortunately, Liao Yaoxiang's efforts alone could not save the overall defeat, the Japanese still attacked Nanjing, Liao Yaoxiang retreated to Hankou, the defense of Nanjing failed, and the Japanese carried out the Nanjing Massacre in the city of Nanjing, which shocked China and foreign countries. This defeat became the regret of Liao Yaoxiang's life, and he wrote a report on the operation and the lessons learned into a long report and handed it to Lao Jiang, who greatly appreciated Liao Yaoxiang after reading it.
Although the defense of Nanjing was lost, Liao Yaoxiang was commended for his bravery in this battle. In 1939, the Battle of Kunlun Mountain began, Liao Yaoxiang waited for the opportunity to avenge the snow and hatred, he led his 64 regiments to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese Ma'anshan position, Liao Yaoxiang charged forward, the army was greatly invigorated, and in one fell swoop defeated the enemy army and captured the position.
Fate ebbs and flows
In 1942, Liao Yaoxiang led his troops to Burma to fight the Japanese army, insisted on fighting the Japanese army in a foreign country for three years, pinned down the Japanese army in the Indian and Burmese area, and made immortal merits for the victory of the War of Resistance. In 1945, Japan surrendered, and Liao Yaoxiang returned home with honors.
Unfortunately, before the war was over, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was ruined by the struggle for power and profit by Chiang Kai-shek and others. It was hard to see that the country had restored peace, but now it was going to fight a civil war, Liao Yaoxiang was very reluctant in his heart, but as a soldier, Liao Yaoxiang could not disobey the order, not to mention that Principal Jiang had the grace of knowing him, Liao Yaoxiang had to obey the orders of the old Chiang Kai-shek and began to lead the troops into the liberation war.
However, the war launched by the old Chiang Kai-shek was destined to be resisted by the people of the whole country, and in only three years, the once-prominent Chiang family dynasty was completely overthrown. Liao Yaoxiang, who was taken prisoner, was very depressed, he was also a famous general, and such a thing as being defeated and captured is really very hurtful to self-esteem, there is a strong middle hand in the strong, Liao Yaoxiang's command ability is not bad, but the lieutenant general of the People's Liberation Army is like a cloud, not to mention that those who win the hearts and minds of the people have won the world, the national army is already in the rivers and rivers, the people's hearts are lost, and conniving at Liao Yaoxiang is a god and immortal, and he cannot reverse the decline.
After Liao Yaoxiang entered the prisoner-of-war camp, he waited for his verdict every day with trepidation, although he knew that the People's Liberation Army gave preferential treatment to prisoners, but Liao Yaoxiang always had some doubts in his heart. It wasn't until the news of "transformation" came down that Liao Yaoxiang was slightly relieved. The principle upheld by New China is to "punish those who have done wrong before and after they have done so, cure the sick and save people," and for war criminals, we must help them study and reform, and regard them as objects that can be united. Liao Yaoxiang is not bad in nature, and he is also a hero of the anti-Japanese resistance, so he should be given preferential treatment.
In 1951, Marshal Liu Bocheng was preparing to set up the Plaster Military Academy, because the whole country had just been calmed down, and the military school could not even get the teachers together, Liu Bocheng had a sudden idea and invited Liao Yaoxiang and other generals who were still in reform to the military academy to give a lecture. After the lecture, Liu Shuai sent the people back and specially encouraged them to reform well and strive for amnesty.
Reborn
Liao Yaoxiang is not the kind of die-hard element who does not enter the oil and salt, and naturally hopes to be able to become a man again, so he is very serious about accepting the reform in Gongdelin, but the list of the first two groups of amnesty personnel does not have Liao Yaoxiang's name, Liao Yaoxiang is not discouraged, or actively participate in the reform, finally, in December 1961, Liao Yaoxiang was released from prison as the third batch of prisoners because of his good attitude towards reform. After his release from prison, the state arranged for Liao Yaoxiang to work as a worker in the People's Commune for a year, hoping that he would understand the policies of new China during his labor.
Seeing the active labor of the workers, Liao Yaoxiang's heart was very touched, in the era when old Chiang Ruled China, the workers were miserable, how could there be such a vigorous appearance? Liao Yaoxiang was finally completely convinced, and he knew that he had lost to a group of great opponents.
At the end of 1962, after working as a grassroots worker for a year, Liao Yaoxiang was transferred to the CPPCC as a commissioner of literature and history, responsible for the compilation and coordination of materials, in this special department, Liao Yaoxiang and Du Yuming, Song Xilian, Shen Drun and others returned to the same destination, from "old colleagues" to "new colleagues", these former senior officials of the National Government, now have new jobs, began a new life story.
Liao Yaoxiang's second half of his life was far away from the smoke of war, and he still worked for the motherland he loved, but the current government was a government supported by the people, not the government under Lao Jiang who was corrupt and the people did not have a good life.
Liao Yaoxiang left his hometown from the army in order to save the country and save the people, but unfortunately the first half of his life always backfired, and at this moment, his young ideal was truly realized, in this newly born country, the people are no longer oppressed by the landlord bureaucracy, and live a peaceful and contented life, and Liao Yaoxiang, who was once misguided, has also found a new meaning in life. The significance of transformation lies in this, in the new society, everyone can be reborn as a new person.