On January 2, 1949, Du Yuming, the "deputy commander-in-chief of Xuzhou and director of the Forward Command," took Deputy Chief of Staff (Acting Chief of Staff) Wen Qiang (Chief of Staff Comfortably returned to Nanjing to report on the war situation and did not return to escape by chance), and Qiu Qingquan, commander of the Second Corps, ran to Chen Guanzhuang—that was the turning point in their lives: either killed in battle or captured, Du Yuming and Wen Qiang, the brothers who were difficult brothers, became classmates of the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center, and before entering Gongdelin, Wen Qiang stayed with Wang Yaowu in Weifang, Shandong Province, for a while.
After Wen Qiang was captured, he was first sent to the home of a landlord in a large village in Weifang, Shandong Province, and as soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw Wang Yaowu wearing a cotton robe, who shook Wen Qiang's hand and said the words they often said later: "Oh, you are here too!" ”
Wen Qiang's life in Weifang, Shandong Province, was relatively comfortable, and the fifteen war criminals had formed a "high-level group" and lived alone in a courtyard where they could move freely, run their own food, and take money to make some good meals and dishes. Wen Qiang recalled: "The People's Liberation Army did not restrict us, and our affairs were up to us. ”
Wang Yaowu had the highest official rank among the fifteen people, so he became the person in charge in the actual sense, and he divided the work for everyone: "All the dishes and chopsticks are washed by me, and the cleaning and sanitation in the kitchen is handled by me; we have to run more than ten miles to fetch water to eat, and the young and energetic to carry water; Wen Qiang will do Hunan cuisine, you sign up to do Hunan cuisine; the commander of the Sichuan army is responsible for making Sichuan cuisine!" ”
Although Wen Qiang often had to cook for everyone, compared to the days when Chen Guanzhuang was besieged, it was a world of difference - no longer had to nibble on large cakes and eat wheat seedlings.
Wen Qiang ate enough and slept well, and he had time to recall the stories that made him laugh and cry in Chen Guanzhuang: In the courtyard where Du Yuming and Wen Qiang lived, there was indeed a tree, and that tree was cut down by a major general, so everyone changed from "sleepy" to "prisoner" -- in fact, "sleepy" is really not as good as "prisoner", Du Yuming who was trapped there was hungry to eat wheat seedlings, and others could not even eat wheat seedlings, mainly because the air force commander in charge of the airdrop was actually an underground party, and he airdropped things. Two-thirds were thrown into the PLA positions, and only one-third were thrown into Du Yuming's army, and even one-tenth of the needs could not be met.
Wen Qiang recalled the days when he was besieged, and only remembered two words - cold and hungry: "On the third day of Arriving at Chen Guanzhuang, it snowed heavily. It snows heavily every day, the weather is good for people, and we don't have the same occupancy. For half a month, it snowed heavily. We are in a circle, with no food, no medicine. (See "Wen Qiang's Oral Memoirs", the same below)"
In order to solve the problem of supply, Du Yuming built a temporary airport in Chen Guanzhuang and requested nanjing to transport grain and ammunition and take away the wounded and sick senior officials and their dependents, but there were no planes at the airport that dared to land, they only airdropped grain and ammunition, and the person responsible for receiving the airdrop materials was Wen Qiang, who acted as deputy chief of staff - at that time everyone called him "Wen Sanzao".
The "Wensanza", who was responsible for receiving the airdrop materials, quickly discovered the problem: "The number of airdrop aircraft per day reaches 120, and the airdrop is my responsibility." I sent people to collect the food and ammunition that were airdropped, but when I went to the airdrop site, it was very strange that they were all airdropped to the PLA, and the grain and ammunition received every day were less than one-third of the drops. ”
Wen Qiang was a military commander from the military command, he first thought of the suspicious identity of the airdrop commander, and then immediately ran to ask Du Yuming, but Du Yuming vetoed Wen Qiang's suspicions: "This person should have no problem, he fought with me on the Burma Road, it should be reliable." ”
Since Du Yuming had made a package ticket, Wen Qiang could only find another reason: it may be a weather problem, and the airdrop materials were scattered by the wind.
Facts turned out that the old agent Wen Qiang's intuition was accurate, and later the airdrop commander wore the clothes of the People's Liberation Army to see the captured Du Yuming and Wen Qiang: "Don't hide from you, when you want me to be the airdrop commander, I was already an underground party." ”
Wen Qiang has not said what the name of the airdrop commander is, the author has checked the relevant information, can be sure that he is not Guo Rugui, because Du Yuming has been suspicious of Guo Rugui's identity, but there is no evidence, and no one has paid attention to Gu Zhutong's report many times.
Because the airdrop commander was an underground party, Du Yuming, who was trapped in Chen Guanzhuang, could only be hungry, as the saying goes, "idle hunger is unbearable" and "poor quarrels and vicious fights", they were so hungry that they looked at the moon like a big cake, Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi quarreled endlessly about the distribution of grain every day, and various military divisions and battalions also shot at each other because they grabbed airdrops of grain, Du Yuming and Wen Qiang had to go outside to relax, and when they were distracted, they actually found good things -- green wheat seedlings.
Du Yuming and Wen Qiang have canned food, any harsh environment, the big boss is hungry to death, but always eat canned food is not OK, Du Yuming found this piece of emerald green things, hungry eyeballs are green: "We have not eaten green vegetables for a long time, can we dig some wheat in the field to eat?" ”
Chief Du wanted to eat wheat, and his men naturally did not dare to be idle, so they braved the cannon fire to dig up a bunch of green wheat seedlings in the field and came back, only to find that this play meant that it could not be eaten as a dish. Wen Qiang recalled: "Green wheat looks like leeks, but in fact, there are small hairs on it, and you can't eat them at all." Du Yuming was very frustrated: 'Alas, it is not our ideal. ’”
Du Yuming and Wen Qiang could not eat wheat seedlings, but the soldiers could not manage so much, as long as they could chew, they could swallow anything, Wen Qiang's memoirs described the tragic situation at that time and the different treatment of officers and men of Chiang Kai-shek's army: "We who are officials can only eat canned food, and those who are soldiers are even more bitter." He was so hungry that he killed and ate some of the mules and horses, and later ate all the weeds, bark, seedlings, and mule skins. ”
The people in the encirclement circle were so hungry that their eyes lit up green, and the People's Liberation Army outside began to shout: "You are hungry, we have food here, and there are steamed buns hanging from the trees!" ”
The soldiers on this side climbed over to get steamed buns from the trees, the PLA did not shoot, Du Yuming Wenqiang did not stop it, and some lower-level officers and ordinary soldiers even went to the PLA as guests for two or three days before returning. The hands that were finally annihilated, Du Yuming and Wen Qiang found that things were not good: the encirclement was full of underground workers of the People's Liberation Army, and when the breakthrough began on the night of January 9, there were fires sending contact signals to the People's Liberation Army.
In the TV series "Amnesty 1959" and "Liberation", there are stories of "Du Yuming cutting down trees", this story is true, but there are different theories, some say that the tree was cut down, some said it was not cut down, but according to Wen Qiang's recollection, he personally saw the tree cut down, and the person who cut the tree also had a name and a surname.
Wen Qiang described it in his memoirs: One day Du Yuming was getting a haircut in the yard, idly looking around, and found that the courtyard was surrounded by houses, and there was only one tree in the middle.
Du Yuming and Wen Qiang were pondering, and Yin Jingtian, the major general inspector of Sun Yuanliang's corps and the sixth period of Huangpu, came and said to Wen Qiang, "Counselor, we are bad in this tree in our yard." ”
"How did it break in the trees in the yard?" Wen Qiang was strange.
Yin Jingtian said: "You see, the tree is surrounded by a wall, which is a 'sleepy' word. ”
Du Yuming, who was getting a haircut, listened to him talk like this, looked up at the tree, and said, "Get rid of this tree!" ”
Yin Jingtian volunteered to cut down the tree, and everyone said, "Boss Du wanted me to cut it, and from then on we will be very lucky." ”
The above is the content of Wen Qiang's memoirs, it seems that the tree was really cut down, so Du Yuming changed from being trapped to a prisoner under the order - in fact, the tree could not be cut, du Yuming and Wen Qiang could not change the fate of the defeat and capture.
Du Yuming and Wen Qiang did not eat into wheat seedlings, cut down the lone tree in the yard, and then entered the Gongdelin, and after being pardoned, an interesting thing happened.
After Wen Qiang was pardoned in 1975, he also became a commissioner of literature and history, and at that time the outside was already relatively stable and safe (in fact, with the relationship between his relatives, friends, teachers and classmates, he would have come out early and would not become Wang Yaowu and Chen Changjie), so he could hold a banquet to celebrate, and Liao Yunzhou, an underground party member who had revolted on the battlefield of Huaihai, was also invited to participate.
Liao Yunzhou was very happy to tell the story of the past, but some people were not happy: "When Huang Wei saw him, he puffed up two eyes and did not talk to him. Yang Botao was also present and also scolded Liao Yunzhou. ”
Huang Wei quietly said to Wen Qiang, "It was this Liao Yunzhou who sent away all my troops." ”
Wen Qiang was very open at this time and said, "Now it seems that we are wrong. They have their reasons, don't always keep in mind the graces and grievances, just laugh at it. ”
Huang Wei still couldn't let go: "If you smile, I can't laugh." ”
Many years later, when Wen Qiang mentioned in his memoirs that when he cut down trees in Chen Guanzhuang to eat wheat seedlings, he was still very emotional: how many things in the world are in the blink of an eye, just like having a big dream. Huang Wei is three years older than me, he has been dead for more than ten years, and I am still a person...