preface
On May 25, 1981, Du Yuming's memorial service was held in Beijing. The solemn atmosphere and the deep mourning stirred up many people's memories of Du Yuming...
On his deathbed, he left his last words and memorized them with his heart
Entering 1981, Du Yuming's health deteriorated. For his own illness, Du Yuming naturally had a number in mind...
Due to excessive labor, Du Yuming suffered from a variety of diseases as early as the Liberation War, but Chiang Kai-shek's trust in him remained undiminished, and he still let him take on heavy responsibilities.
In addition, when Du Yuming's mother celebrated her birthday, Chiang Kai-shek not only attended the scene, but also sent a heavy amount of money.
In order to live up to this trust, Du Yuming insisted on participating in the battle regardless of his physical health, which also made his condition more and more serious.
At that time, in Du Yuming's heart, Chiang Kai-shek's trust was more important than anything else.
After the Battle of Huaihai, Du Yuming was captured. After that, he was sent to the Beijing Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center for study and reform.
When he first arrived in Gongdelin, Du Yuming was discouraged and thought: Since there is no way to repay Chiang Kai-shek's trust and kindness, then he will die of illness.
For this reason, he did not tell anyone about his illness at first. But Du Yuming's abnormality was still discovered by careful people.
In this way, Du Yuming began to participate in the study and reform of the war criminals management center while treating diseases.
Under the careful care of medical staff and staff, Du Yuming not only slowly improved his health, but even his thinking slowly changed, and he gradually realized the greatness and brightness of the Communist Party of China.
Decades later, Du Yuming once mentioned that his illness was difficult to treat, even if he was still a senior general of the Kuomintang and tried his best to treat it, he could not bear it, and the final result could only be death.
But medical personnel, staff, relevant leading comrades, the Chinese Communist Party did not choose to abandon him.
In order to cure Du Yuming's illness, the staff of Gongdelin brought him milk, set up a small stove, and the relevant departments even used foreign exchange reserves to buy expensive drugs from abroad...
The year he was pardoned and released from prison in 1959, he was completely cured.
After his release from prison, Du Yuming chose to live in Beijing and live a relatively comfortable and happy life, so he wrote to his wife Cao Xiuqing, who was far away in the United States, hoping that she could come to Beijing to live and spend her old age together.
Cao Xiuqing was two years older than Du Yuming and had married Du Yuming long before he attended the Whampoa Military Academy. She went to Taiwan in 1949, when Du Yuming had been captured, but the Kuomintang authorities told Cao Xiuqing that Du Yuming's life and death were unknown, and even if he was born, the Communist Party would not let him go.
In desperation, Cao Xiuqing took her young children to Taiwan. For the family members of this defeated general, Chiang Kai-shek naturally would not treat them well, and the previous attention and courtesy were like appearing in a dream, disappearing without a trace in the face of real reality.
Cao Xiuqing and his young children suffered so much that even their daily lives were difficult to maintain, which also made Cao Xiuqing deeply aware of the true face of Chiang Kai-shek.
Cao Xiuqing had joined the Communist Party of China before, and she had a certain understanding of the Chinese Communist Party, so naturally she did not believe the Kuomintang authorities' set of words of abduction and deception, and she was always full of good expectations for the whereabouts of her husband Du Yuming.
In the end, under the care of Premier Zhou Enlai and with the help of her son-in-law Yang Zhenning, Cao Xiuqing finally got the news of her husband. She also had a bottom in her heart, and she also had the idea of resolutely Taiwan.
After Yang Zhenning won the Nobel Prize, Chiang Kai-shek's attitude toward Cao Xiuqing underwent a great change. Chiang Kai-shek not only personally received Cao Xiuqing with his wife, Soong Mei Ling, but also agreed to her request to go to the United States.
This also made Cao Xiuqing see Chiang Kai-shek's ugly face more clearly, and he was even reluctant to return to Taiwan again.
In the end, Cao Xiuqing came to the United States as she wished, living with her daughter and son-in-law, waiting for the opportunity to visit Du Yuming in Beijing. Therefore, after receiving Du Yuming's letter, Cao Xiuqing was overjoyed.
At this time, the Kuomintang authorities also learned of Du Yuming's situation and sent people to provoke him. However, under the care of Premier Zhou Enlai and the personal arrangement of his son-in-law Yang Zhenning, Cao Xiuqing still came to Beijing smoothly.
In the time that followed, Cao Xiuqing accompanied Du Yuming and spent eighteen years of happiness together.
But how can the road of life be just a smooth road? In his old age, the disease still found Du Yuming, which directly made Du Yuming's life enter the countdown...
In the process of rescue, Du Yuming woke up from the coma, and in the haze, he saw his wife Cao Xiuqing.
He looked affectionately at his wife, who was in the same boat as him, called her by her name, and made a request:
"Yuefu (Cao Xiuqing's milk name), you have been with me for decades, but I can't accompany you." After I leave, you will not go anywhere, not to Hong Kong, not to Taiwan, and not to the United States. The Communist Party is not thin to me, if you go out, it is easy to be used as a handle and create rumors..."
For her husband's request, Cao Xiuqing naturally felt a lot of emotions and empathy, so she agreed with tears.
Then, the weak Du Yuming fell into a coma, and when he woke up again, he saw that he was drunk around him.
Du Yuming waved with difficulty to Shen Drunk, saying that he wanted to say something. Seeing Du Yuming's gesture, Shen Drunken bent down and pressed against Du Yuming's cheek.
Du Yuming said weakly:
"In the past, war and chaos have plagued innocent people for many years, but until now, the country is still in a state of division, and compatriots cannot be reunited..."
Cao Xiuqing was in tears, and she was also listening carefully, and when she heard this, she choked up and said to Shen Drunk, "You take a pen and write down what he said, I am afraid that this is the last word he left in this world." ”
Shen Drunk said: "Sister-in-law rest assured, I remember it, I don't need to take notes, I remember with my heart." ”
Then, Du Yuming continued:
"I would like to ask you, if you have the opportunity, you must bring a word to Taiwan's old governors, old classmates, and old friends, saying that the great cause of the country's reunification hopes to be completed in the hands of those of us, and cannot be left to the next generation to solve." This is our responsibility, not theirs. ”
In this way, Du Yuming left his last words in this world and died in Beijing on May 7, 1981.
In the last moments of his life, why did Du Yuming say those words to Shen Drunk? This is mainly due to the deep friendship between Du Yuming and Shen Drunk...
They have been friends for many years and have deep feelings
Du Yuming and Shen Drunk have been friends for more than twenty years, and the relationship between the two is very good. Du Yuming greatly admired Shen Drunk, a descendant who was ten years younger than himself, and Shen Drunk liked Du Yuming's enthusiasm and helpfulness.
Before the founding of New China, Du Yuming and Shen Drunk had only interacted twice.
The first time was at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, when Kunming's weapons were in urgent need of being transported to Guiyang, and Shen Drunk met Du Yuming in Kunming with Dai's handwritten letter.
As soon as Du Yuming saw the handwritten letter, he immediately promised to help Shen Drunk transport weapons.
The second time was after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, when Du Yuming was recuperating in the hospital in Beiping, and Shen Drunk had visited him.
In these two exchanges, the two only met in a hurry, so before the founding of New China, the friendship between the two was not deep. The real thing that made the two start in-depth exchanges was after the founding of New China.
On the day after Shen was sent from the Chongqing War Criminals Management Center to the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center in Beijing, he met Du Yuming.
When Shen Drunk first met Du Yuming, Du Yuming was treating his illness in a huge plaster cast model, and Shen Drunk mistakenly thought that the staff of the War Criminals Management Center was torturing him, and he was deeply disturbed.
It wasn't until later, when Shen Drunk couldn't help but ask, that Du Yuming said that the huge plaster cast model was used to treat him, and Shen Drunk was relieved.
Later, after a large-scale outing, the war criminals of Gongdelin began to participate in some labor, and Du Yuming and Shen Drunk both joined the sewing team.
To Shen Drunk's deep surprise, Du Yuming could use a sewing machine, not only to use it, but also to repair it.
Later, Du Yuming told Shen That when he was in the mechanized army, all the cars, tanks, etc., he would not only drive themselves, but also repair them, and his troops also had a sewing machine, so he also learned a complete set of sewing techniques.
In the life of the sewing team's long-term participation in labor, the feelings of Shen Drunk and Du Yuming have also become deeper. With the deepening of his feelings, Du Yuming also talked to Shen Drunk about the many things he had experienced in the previous wars and the management of war criminals.
When he first arrived at the war criminals management center, Du Yuming was very stubborn. After two suicides, he thought that he would die sooner or later, and it was better to die late than to die early.
Therefore, when the medical staff treated Du Yuming, Du Yuming was somewhat dissatisfied, and he felt that he had stopped using the disease to achieve premature death.
As a senior officer of the Kuomintang, Du Yuming never forgot the attitude of the Kuomintang authorities toward the communist captives: when the captured Communists proposed to die rather than surrender, they faced the result of being brutally killed.
At the beginning, Du Yuming thought that he would also be killed, but the careful care of medical personnel and staff, and the care of relevant leaders, let him slowly change his mind.
Whether it was a high-ranking cadre or an ordinary comrade, he treated Du Yuming very politely, without even saying a word of sarcasm, and Du Yuming only felt the revolutionary humanitarian spirit full of warmth.
After slowly changing his thinking, Shen Drunk found that Du Yuming had changed significantly, not only did people become more energetic, but also began to actively participate in labor.
At that time, the War Criminals Management Institute arranged for war criminals to go to the farm to participate in labor. According to the regulations, Du Yuming was old and not in good health, so he did not have to go, but he strongly demanded to participate.
Shen Drunk asked Du Yuming why he insisted on going, and Du Yuming said that it was still good to experience the hard work of farmers and learn a little agricultural technology.
When he arrived at the farm, Du Yuming always took the lead in the work, and was highly praised, and even people who did not understand the situation could not see that it was a war criminal.
During the time when we participated in the labor together, Shen Drunken listened to Du Yuming say more than once: "We are cultivating fruit trees, and the Communist Party is cultivating us." ”
This also made Shen Drunk deeply agree, and through labor, Shen Drunk's thoughts slowly changed.
In December 1959, the first group of war criminals was pardoned, including Du Yuming. Shen Drunk was very happy about this, because after Du Yuming was pardoned, he was no longer a war criminal, but a citizen of the People's Republic of China, living under the sun.
Shen Was the second to be released, and during his experience of life, Premier Zhou Enlai deliberately arranged du Yuming and other first batch of amnesty personnel in Beijing to serve as cultural and historical commissioners in the Literature and History Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Du Yuming was very happy after taking up this position, he thought that this position was very honorable, and he was also recording and describing the history he experienced with a serious attitude.
It is these things that Du Yuming conquered Shen Yuming's heart, and Shen Yuming even more believes that Du Yuming is a reliable and worthy person to interact with.
In the eyes of Shen Drunk and other war criminals, Du Yuming was always so serious, always so reliable, he was always strict with himself, even sewing clothes was so careful.
In 1964, a delegation of cultural and historical commissioners from the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference set out from Beijing, including Shen Zui and Du Yuming.
When Du Yuming visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, he was quite emotional, and he said to Shen Drunk with great feeling: "I can't imagine that more than ten years have passed, we can still come here, I believe that Mr. Zhongshan has a spirit in heaven, and he must be deeply pleased." Because the Communist Party has not only completed what it did not do in the past, but is already engaged in socialist construction. ”
After that, Du Yuming and Shen Drunk's relationship did not break. Once, after Du Yuming's wife Cao Xiuqing was hospitalized for taking drugs by mistake, Shen Drunk also went to help take care of it for a while.
That is, from then on, the feelings between Shen Drunk and Du Yuming became deeper.
In the long time since then, Shen Zhui and Du Yuming have been helping each other, supporting each other, facing the storms of life together, and have always maintained contact.
After Du Yuming was elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress and a member of the Fifth Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Shen Zui and others went to congratulate him, but Du Yuming said:
"I really did not expect that the motherland and the people would give me such a lofty honor, and I must do some work that is beneficial to the motherland and the people for the rest of my life."
With the passage of time, Du Yuming is getting older and older, and by the time Shen Drunk sees him again, Du Yuming is already seriously ill and hospitalized. During the hospitalization, Shen Drunk carefully took care of Du Yuming, chatted with him, talked about the good friends they knew, and talked about their lives...
In the last days of their lives, Du Yuming and Shen Drunk talked about the great cause of the reunification of the motherland the most: "The great cause of the reunification of the motherland must be completed in the hands of our generation. ”
I called Chiang Ching-kuo, but I didn't hear from him
After Du Yuming's death, Shen was so drunk and sad that his eyes were full of tears, so sad that he didn't even have the strength to walk.
On the day of Du Yuming's death, Cao Xiuqing sent an urgent telegram to Chiang Ching-kuo of the Taiwan authorities, requesting that his children in Taiwan be released to Beijing for funerals. The message reads as follows:
"With sadness, I advise my husband Du Yuming that he died of illness in Beijing in the early morning of May 7. Please tell me that my second daughter Du Zhiyi, son-in-law Xu Bingsen, second son Du Zhiyong, daughter-in-law Wang Guihua, third son Du Zhiyan, third daughter Du Zhilian, son-in-law Deng Tiancai, and seven others came to Beijing to attend a memorial service before the 21st of this month, reunite flesh and bones, and see Han Han with their own eyes to fulfill their filial piety. As soon as the funeral rites are completed, the return is complete. We beg for convenience and deep condolences. ”
This telegram is written sincerely and touchingly, sincerely and sincerely, and every word is the expectation of flesh and blood affection. This is the common sentiment of people, and it is also a thought that cannot be ignored.
On the same day, Du Yuming's former friend Huang Wei and others also sent an urgent telegram to Huang Jie in Taipei:
"I hereby telegraph and hope that my brother and others will ask Mr. Chiang Ching-kuo to allow his sons and daughters to rush back to fulfill their filial piety, and then they can return to Taiwan after the funeral."
However, more than ten days have passed since Cao Xiuqing's telegram was sent, and there is still no news. The unreasonableness and unkindness of the Taiwan authorities have also made Cao Xiuqing even more sad and indignant and even more sad.
Daughter Du Zhili recalled this incident and said:
"It was my idea to have my mother send a telegram to Chiang Ching-kuo in Taiwan and my father's classmates in Huangpu, asking them to allow their younger siblings to come to Beijing for funerals, and I drafted the telegram. In order to wait for taiwan's younger siblings, the government also helped us to maneuver and took my father's body to the Beijing Hospital with refrigeration equipment..."
What Cao Xiuqing and Du Zhili and others did not expect was that Deng Yingchao, the wife of Premier Zhou Enlai, would personally come to the residence and express condolences to Cao Xiuqing and Du Zhili and others.
When he saw Deng Yingchao appear, Cao Xiuqing was very moved, and with tears in his eyes, he told Deng Yingchao:
"I really can't figure it out, Chiang Ching-kuo himself is a filial piety, everyone knows that after the Japanese plane blew up his mother, he ran home from Ganzhou for the night, and when he saw his mother's body, he immediately passed out, and then he knelt down and howled, and within a few days, he could not eat or drink. Since they are all Sons of Man, why don't we let others do the same thing? ”
Unlike the Taiwan authorities, the day after Mr. Du's death, an obituary with his favorite photograph was published in the People's Daily.
The obituary mentions that Du Yuming's memorial service will be held half a month later. During this period, the commissioners of literature and history also did not write historical materials, some of them wrote articles in memory of Du Yuming, and some wrote mourning poems... In short, Du Yuming's friends before his death are using various ways to express their sorrow for this friend.
Among them, Shen Drunk's article is the longest, using nearly 20,000 words of text, summarizing the glorious and ordinary second half of Du Yuming's life.
And the words that Shen Drunk carefully wrote down in front of Du Yuming's sickbed also became the finishing touch in the article, and this is also the highest embodiment of his deep friendship with Du Yuming.
On May 25, 1981, Deng Xiaoping, Deng Yingchao, and others all attended Du Yuming's memorial service, and General Xiao Ke's eulogy mentioned:
For more than twenty years, Comrade Du Yuming has striven for progress, loved the motherland, and done a lot of work that is beneficial to the motherland and the people.
This eulogy is also the most glorious conclusion made by the motherland and the people to Du Yuming...