At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a large number of senior Kuomintang generals were imprisoned here, including Du Yuming, Wang Yaowu, Song Xilian, Zeng Guoqing, and others, among which Du Yuming, deputy commander-in-chief of Xuzhou's "Suppression General", had the greatest military power and the highest status, and was known as the "number one war criminal" in Gongdelin, No. 201.
Stubborn thoughts slowly changed in thinking
In January 1949, Du Yuming was captured in Zhanglaozhuang Village, Xiao County, Anhui Province, and subsequently imprisoned in Gongdelin Prison for reform. Because of his position as the deputy commander-in-chief of Xuzhou's "Suppression General", he also became the highest-ranking general in Gong delin. Du Yuming, who had just been captured, was sick from years of conquest, suffering from nephritis and myelitis, and was tormented by illness every day, and as a student of Huangpu, he also harbored foolish loyalty to President Jiang, coupled with pessimism about the prospects after being captured, his mood was very low, and he also had a lot of resistance to reform and study life.
Once, in prison, he met his old friend Wen Qiang (deputy chief of staff of Xuzhou's "Suppression General") and asked with a puzzled face: "I can understand the surrender of others, but why would a man with an iron backbone like Chen Mingren also revolt in Changsha, he is the leading general among the Huangpu students?" Was his uprising a fake? Wen Qiang saw that the old boss's heart was unwilling, and replied frankly: "Chen Mingren's uprising is not false at all, you don't just see Chen Ziliang, don't forget that Mr. Cheng Qian also surrendered together, this is the Kuomintang elder, like he advocated a peaceful uprising, is the reason for this worth our deep consideration?" ”
Wen Qiang finished speaking and said no more, and Du Yuming was also silent, and he fell into deep meditation.
After a long time, Du Yuming sighed and said slowly: "People's hearts have been captured by Yan'an, and those who win the hearts of the people will win the world, and those who lose will not be unjust." Since then, Du Yuming has slowly changed, he actively studied Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, participated in labor reform, and a heart like ice slowly melted.
A praise made him excitedly sleep for three days and three nights
In 1956, after seven years in prison, Du wrote his first essay titled "Reflections on Celebrating International Labor Day on May Day." He wrote: I have studied the history of social development, and I have understood that human society is originally equal, and there is no class and no oppression, but with the development of society, there has been class differentiation, the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat, the landlords exploit the peasants, and the regime and gun of the old society all existed to safeguard the interests of the ruling class. In addition, I also understood the great significance of celebrating Labor Day today.
As soon as Du Yuming's article was posted, it attracted the crowd's onlookers, and even some leading cadres stopped to watch it and praised it as a good article that links theory with practice, while Du Yuming himself was actually shy, and every time he passed by his article, he did not dare to look up and hurriedly bowed his head.
At the exchange meeting in prison, he said with emotion: Before, I thought that the Communist Party was good to me, and did not hesitate to waste medicine to treat me for the sake of city favor and was playing tricks, but after I asked war criminals from all over the country, I realized that this was the consistent policy of the Communist Party, and that it was the same for all prisoners of war, and that it was the same for everyone, even Japanese prisoners of war and American prisoners of war. It was a simple and lofty communist ideology, which unfortunately I had never seen before.
Since then, Du Yuming has become more active, getting up early every day and beginning to water the flower and vegetable beds. Clean the dormitories, study rooms, and reading rooms. And all this was also seen by the correspondent Chen Linda, and soon a poster praising Du Yuming appeared in front of everyone. According to Du Yuming's recollection, he did not sleep well for three days and three nights, because this was the first time in his life that he was praised through labor, which was a very important step he took.
A simple, warm and kind person
The change in Du Yuming's thinking is in everyone's eyes, some people are happy, and some diehards sneer at him, thinking that he is sensationalizing and pretending. However, the facts soon punched these bullies in the face.
Under the arrangement of their superiors, the detainees collectively came to Qincheng Farm to work. The main work was to dig a fish scale pit at the head of Yanshan. This was a heavier physical task, and it was not an easy task for these former high-ranking generals who were accustomed to a delicate life. Du Yuming was plagued by illness and was old, so he did not have to participate in this work. However, he took the initiative to ask for help, repeatedly sought out the leader to apply, in order to take care of his enthusiasm, the superior agreed to Du Yuming's request.
To everyone's surprise, Du Yuming's motivation is very high, and he can also skillfully use tools such as cross pickaxes, and the result is that in addition to the recognized "special labor force", Qiu Xingxiang, who is strong and strong, belongs to Du Yuming's fast and good work, which makes many young people feel surprised. Everyone was impressed by his practical spirit, and there was no more gossip.
Although Du Yuming was once a lieutenant general in the Nationalist Army, he was a warm and kind person outside the battlefield. At that time, Wang Lingji, who had been a general, was imprisoned in the Gongdelin Forest, and Wang Lingji was old and highly myopic, and he could not shave his own beard. Every time he used a modern blade, he always made his face full of wounds, Du Yuming looked in his eyes, and was very sympathetic to Wang Lingji's old age and clumsiness, and from then on, he took over Wang Lingji's heavy shaving responsibility, and Wang Lingji was very moved, and specially made an oil poem to give Du: General He is useless, and his beard is full of cheeks. Brother Du instinctively scraped his hands and scraped to change the new tire. For a while, it was a beautiful talk.
There was also an elderly war criminal in Gongdelin, Xing Senzhou, a former inspector of the Two Guangdong Provinces, whose qualifications were very old, and Mr. Sun Yat-sen once asked him to be a propaganda envoy among the overseas Chinese in Nanyang. Du Yuming also had great respect for him, Xing Senzhou was more than a thousand degrees of myopia, had limited mobility, and often needed help. Du Yuming never bothered, helping him from the toilet to the bedroom every day, as well as walking in the wind at night, known as Xing Senzhou's crutch.
Not only was he helpful, but he also took care of various repairs to the prison. Once the sprayer spraying the flowerbed was broken, the administrator could not repair it, so he planned to take it to the outside market for repair. Du Yuming took the initiative to take the sprayer, carefully disassembled all the parts, checked one by one, spent most of the day to finally find that it was a piece of rubber that was inflated, he looked for it in the garbage, found a piece of thin rubber that was suitable for use, and repaired the sprayer. Zheng Tingji, who had been engaged in mechanized troops with him for many years, said it well: Guanggong can even disassemble and install a tank, and if you listen to the sound, you will know what is wrong, let alone a sprayer.
However, there is only one sprayer, and it cannot be broken every day. In his spare time, Du Yuming began to collect those worn-out woolen threads and velvet clothes. Then elaborately designed and cut, changed into vests, gloves, socks and other items, distributed to everyone. In the end, most of the war criminals had his reforms, and many of them still kept these things after they were released from prison, which became a rare souvenir.
Becoming the first general to receive amnesty, he never forgot his motherland in this life
In 1959, New China held its first amnesty, and Du Yuming became the first senior general of the former Nationalist Army to be pardoned because of his good performance in the transformation. He was also nominated as a deputy to the Fifth National People's Congress. This made Du very surprised and very moved. Among the old friends who rushed to congratulate him, he said with emotion: The socialist system in new China is really good, no matter what you are from or what you have done, all those who have obtained Chinese citizenship rights are treated equally and treated unanimously, which is the supreme glory given to me by the people of Chinese, thank the party, thank the people.
In April 1981, Du Yuming's old illness recurred, he was bedridden in the capital hospital for a long time, a lifetime of conquest and labor has made his body close to running out of oil, enduring the torture of kidney disease, he held the hand of his beloved wife Cao Xiuqing, who was 80 years old and had been with him all his life, and said affectionately: Patriotism must be loved to the end, to educate children to inherit the great ambition, here is our motherland, after I die, you must settle in the motherland, settle in the motherland forever.
On May 7, Du Yuming died of illness in Beijing at the age of 76.