On May 29, 1991, in New York, two old comrades who had not seen each other for more than half a century finally held their hands together again.
One of them was Zhang Xueliang, the northeastern "Zhang Shaoshuai" of Biao Bing's annals of history;
The other was Lu Zhengcao, the founding general of New China and the commander-in-chief of the Railway Corps of the People's Liberation Army.
Zhang Xueliang was at the home of Mrs. Bei, the widow of the late Former Governor of the Kuomintang Central Bank, and as soon as he saw Lu Zhengcao, the ninety-year-old man held out his hand from afar.
Lu Zhengcao quickly stepped forward and shook the hand of his former old chief, and the eye sockets of the two people who were old and old were a little moist. Although more than fifty years have passed, they still remember how they fought together in the northeast.
Zhang Xueliang and Lü Zhengcao
Lü Zhengcao was born into a poor peasant family in Haicheng County, Liaoning Province. Although he was born before the "918" incident was launched by the Japanese Kou, the northeast land had been in war for a long time, and the people in various places were not happy.
In order to avoid the accident of the child in the war, the mother had to hide the young Lu Zhengcao in the firewood stack many times. As a child, Lu Zhengcao saw the devastated earth, and all he heard was the rumbling of cannons and the groans of the people's pain.
Therefore, when he was 17 years old, he resolutely joined the Tohoku Army and changed his name from "Zhengyan" to "Zhengcao", which means that after practicing, he will fight Japanese devils.
Because he had been in primary school for four years and knew a few words, Lü Zhengcao quickly mixed some famous people in the Northeast Army. At that time, Zhang Xueliang had his own guard brigade, reusing literate youth, and Lü Zhengcao was introduced into the guard brigade through a relative who was a military doctor.
Lu Zhengfu
Because of his good handwriting, he was quickly noticed by Zhang Xueliang and recommended to study in the Northeast Lecture Hall. Here he not only read and learned to write, but also learned the skill of commanding the army. After graduation, he successfully became zhang Xueliang's lieutenant colonel and was highly valued by him.
The experience of working next to Zhang Xueliang made Lü Zhengcao cultivate a firmer patriotic feeling, but as a major aide-de-camp, he only needed to be responsible for the distribution and use of wutang graduates, which was not Lu Zhengcao's wish.
Therefore, he proposed to Zhang Xueliang to go to the army to lead the troops. Zhang Xueliang recognized and valued him, and in the spring of 1929, Lü Zhengcao joined the 16th Brigade of the Northeast Army as the chief of staff of the lieutenant colonel.
Having gone to the Martial Arts Hall and having a firm heart, Lü Zhengcao soon became famous in the army. In the Rehe War of Resistance in 1932, he showed extraordinary courage and achieved certain combat results, and was promoted to the commander of the 647th Regiment.
Chang
Only 28 years old but able to become the leader of a regiment, Lu Zhengcao's military career is so smooth, not only his own efforts and talents, but also thanks to Zhang Xueliang's trust and reuse.
Therefore, Lü Zhengcao's feelings for Zhang Xueliang are very deep, and he once said in his later years:
"Zhang Xueliang is not only my fellow countryman, but also my commander and teacher."
The difference between Zhang Xueliang and Lü Zhengcao occurred shortly after the Xi'an Incident, which was a scene that Lü Zhengcao remembered very deeply. In October 1936, he was transferred to the Zhang Xueliang Mansion in Xi'an as an internal worker. Two months later, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng jointly launched the "Xi'an Incident".
On the afternoon of the 25th, Zhang Xueliang unusually put on his military uniform and solemnly told his old subordinates that he would send Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing and return in 3 days. Lü Zhengcao was resolutely opposed, because he was sure that Chiang Kai-shek would never let Zhang Xueliang return to Xi'an.
However, Zhang Xueliang has also made up his mind, and at a previous meeting of cadres, he said:
"If we delay and do not send Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing as soon as possible, there will be even greater civil unrest, and Zhang Xueliang will become an unforgivable sinner!"
Years later, Lu Zhengcao still clearly remembers these words, and when he talks about them, he is still full of nostalgia and admiration. Unfortunately, the truth went on as they expected:
Zhang Xueliang sent Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing, where he was also detained and never returned to Xi'an.
The two separated for 54 years. During this period, the two had maintained contact through various channels, but because of Chiang Kai-shek's tight control over Zhang Xueliang, many of their letters could not be signed.
Until June 1984, when Zhang Xueliang's niece Zhang Luyu came to Beijing from Hong Kong, she visited Lu Zhengcao and introduced him to Zhang Xueliang's life in Taiwan, talking about a sentence Zhang Xueliang said:
"On the mainland, I have two subordinates who miss very much, one is Lu Zhengcao and the other is Wan Yi."
Through Zhang Luyu, the two maintained contact for a period of time.
Wan Yi
In 1991, Zhang Xueliang sent important news to Lü Zhengcao through Zhang Luyu: Zhang Xueliang and his wife Zhao Yidi went to the United States to visit relatives, hoping that Lu Zhengcao could meet in the United States.
On April 30, Zhang Lusu urged again:
"If you don't go again, he will either be dragged down by various social entertainment or dragged back to Taipei by his wife."
Lu Zheng was worried and wanted to go for a while, but he patiently waited for the central government's arrangement, and only set off for San Francisco on May 25.
Because of the lack of information, he did not know that Zhang Xueliang had gone to New York, and only Zhao Yidi remained in San Francisco due to physical discomfort. For this reason, the time for the two to see each other was postponed for another 4 days.
They haven't seen each other in nearly half a century, and the two have a lot to say: they talk about the experience of this half century, about the changes in the world over the decades. Zhang Xueliang also mentioned his own beliefs
"I'm superstitious, I believe in God." ”
Lu Zhengcao casually took over:
"I am also superstitious and believe in the people."
Both laughed.
The difference between the two sentences also explains the reason why the two are separated. Lu Zhengcao, who was once under Zhang Xueliang, embarked on the communist road precisely because he believed in the people.
He became the only general in our country who had no experience in the Red Army and whose merits were enough to bear the rank of "general".
As early as when he was serving in the Northeast Army, Lü Zhengcao had been exposed to communism. In the spring of 1934, Lu Zhengcao, then the commander of the 647th Regiment, was stationed in Beiping and had close contact with Liu Lanbo, Sun Zhiyuan, and other underground members of the Communist Party of China in Beiping, and had a feeling of admiration for their patriotic spirit and communist spirit.
On October 14, 1937, Lü Zhengcao, together with the party members and comrades in the army, reorganized the Kuomintang army he led into the "People's Self-Defense Army", declared his separation from the Kuomintang army, and began his anti-Japanese journey in Jizhong.
As recently as May 4 of that year, he had sworn an oath to join the Communist Party of China.
Lu Zhengcao made such a decision, but there was also helplessness. In April 1937, taking advantage of Chiang Kai-shek's downsizing of the Northeast Army, Wan Fulin, commander of the Fifty-third Army, split the 647th Regiment into the 116th Division and the 130th Division.
Wan Fulin
The soldiers of the 647th Regiment of the Northeast Army were indignant, and many of them expressed their desire to pull the team out and cross the Yellow River to the west to find the Red Army.
Lü Zhengcao sent someone to ask the Northern Bureau of the CPC for instructions, and the opinions given by the Northern Bureau were:
"Obey the reorganization and expand the party's strength and influence."
On September 15 of that year, the main force of the 691st Regiment led by Lü Zhengcao exchanged fire with the Japanese army in the front. Here, the enemy was attacked on three sides, which was very unfavorable to the 691st Regiment and urgently needed reinforcements.
However, the soldiers of the second battalion of the regiment were arranged to guard the ammunition depot and never returned, which greatly weakened the combat effectiveness of the 691st Regiment.
And this is Wan Fulin's plot to weaken the 691st Regiment with the help of the Japanese army.
At present, the great enemy is not a country, and there are still people who engage in this kind of careful thinking, which cannot but make people feel regret and sadness.
In just one month, the 691st Regiment had tasted the danger and pain of covering the "Concubine Troops" and taking on the heaviest moral combat task behind their own palaces.
On October 10, the first battalion of the 691st Regiment had just eliminated a Japanese cavalry company in Meihua Town, and the next day, facing the reinforcements of the Japanese army, Wan Fulin asked Lü Zhengcao to abandon the first battalion to pursue the large troops. Lü Zhengcao resolutely disagreed, led his troops in a bloody battle, and successfully broke through a company at dusk.
This incident completely colded the blood of the soldiers. On the night of the breakout, Lu Zhengcao held a meeting of battalion and company commanders, and everyone unanimously agreed
"There is only one way to catch up with the main force of the Kuomintang army in the south, and we should immediately return to the division and go north." ”
In this way, the 691st Regiment went north to contact the local organizations of the CPC Central Committee, changed its name to the "People's Self-Defense Army", and began the anti-Japanese guerrilla fighting in the local area.
Zhang Xueliang jokingly called Lü Zhengcao a "ground rat" which means that he used forms such as "tunnel warfare" to resist the Japanese during the anti-Japanese resistance in Jizhong Province. The experience of resisting Japan in Jizhong is one of the most memorable experiences in Lü Zhengcao's life, where he established the anti-Japanese base area in Jizhong and became a generation of famous anti-Japanese generals with outstanding merits.
Since the reorganization in October 1937, due to the implementation of local rent reduction and interest reduction and other policies to benefit the people, local party members and young intellectuals have actively joined the Self-Defense Army, and the strength of the original regiment has rapidly grown to more than 5,000 people, with three infantry regiments and a special corps.
With the help of the CPC organization, they established a political work organization system, set up a school for military and political cadres, and received apprenticeships and training in the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, and accepted the task of establishing a base area in Central Hebei.
They first laid down their hands on the local landlord armed forces, bandits and traitors, and solved a number of local traitor armed forces that oppressed the people and obstructed the anti-Japanese resistance.
The tactic of "dividing the upper echelons and winning over the lower levels" was adopted for the landlords' armed forces, which achieved very good results, transformed most of the armed forces, and incorporated more than 20,000 people into the People's Self-Defense Army.
While consolidating the various armed forces in various places, the People's Self-Defense Army launched an offensive against the towns and railway lines occupied by the Japanese army, and smashed the first "sweep" of the Japanese army in the Central Hebei region and recaptured the county seat of Gaoyang County.
Traitors
With this as the center, the Jizhong Administrative Office was formally established, and Lu Zhengcao served as the director. With the continuation of the reorganization work in May of the same year and the establishment of the Hebei Military Subdistrict in the Great Qing Dynasty in September, the base area in Central Hebei has been initially formed.
Nie Rongzhen once said that this is our army's first plain base area and will provide experience for the construction of plain base areas in other regions.
The successful establishment of the Jizhong base area not only has the glory of this "first", but also inserts a sharp knife into the north China region that Japan thought it had firmly controlled, shattering the dream of sitting on the "granary".
To this end, the Japanese army in North China mobilized 26,000 people from various places, and from November 1938 to April 1939, in just half a year, it launched five large-scale sieges on the newly large-scale Jizhong base areas in an attempt to fully control the Jizhong Plain.
Nie Rongzhen
Lü Zhengcao, who led the reorganized Third Column of the Eighth Route Army and the Jizhong Military Region, launched a counter-encirclement operation against the Japanese army from the side of the internal attack and the outside line.
Five counter-siege operations, five battles and five victories, killed and captured thousands of Japanese troops, and destroyed several Japanese tanks. Most importantly, it completely smashed the Japanese army's plan to strangle the Jizhong base area into "swaddling."
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In the course of one counter-encirclement operation after another, the base areas in Jizhong have become stronger and more perfect, and the quality and combat effectiveness of the armed forces have markedly improved.
After many unfavorable sieges, the Japanese army launched its most "good" "sweeping", and the third column ushered in three anti-"sweeping" tests after five counter-sieges. From early October to the end of December 1939, the Japanese army mobilized nearly 20,000 troops to carry out three major "sweeps."
Lu Zhengcao and Madame
While directing the main force to jump outside the Japanese sweeping circle, Lü Zhengcao ordered his troops to attack the Japanese transportation line or the enemy's stronghold on the railway line.
The achievements made by the Jizhong base areas in opposing "sweeping" have been praised by the party Central Committee, and Chairman Mao personally praised him
"Upholding the Model of Guerrilla Warfare in the Plains".
In 1940, the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region ushered in an unprecedented frontal battle- the Battle of the Hundred Regiments. January 1940 was an unusually uneventful month. Lü Zhengcao was leading the garrison brigade to participate in the southward detachment, preparing to go to the southern Hebei region to attack the Kuomintang recalcitrant zhu huaibing, Pang Bingxun, Shi Yousan and other units.
Just at this time, the Japanese army mobilized more than 7,000 troops to carry out two "sweeps" in the central Hebei region. The troops of the Second and Third Military Sub-districts who remained in Hebei dispersed their activities in their jurisdictions and fought hard battles with the enemy.
By the end of May, a total of 216 battles had been fought, killing 3,400 Japanese puppet troops at the cost of 1,500 casualties, and winning a victory against "sweeping".
Battle of the Hundred Regiments
After repeated defeats in Jizhong, the Japanese army began to implement the "cage policy" in the second half of the year:
Using the railway as a pillar, the highway as a chain, and the pillbox as a lock, he attempted to disperse the anti-Japanese base areas in central Hebei into many isolated small pieces, and besieged the third column of the Eighth Route Army in the base areas to death.
In order to break the "cage" of the Japanese army, Lü Zhengcao and Cheng Zihua led their troops to participate in the world-famous Hundred Regiments War.
The Battle of the Hundred Regiments was divided into three phases. In the first phase of the campaign from August 20 to September 20, Lü Zhengcao led the Jizhong Military Sub-district to destroy more than 500 kilometers of roads and railways, blow up more than 20 bridges, collect more than 13,000 kilograms of power lines, and kill more than 1,300 Japanese puppet troops. Our army paid the price of 400 casualties.
In the second and third phases of the campaign, militias and civilians throughout Jizhong risked being strafed by aircraft at a low altitude to destroy railways, roads, and ancillary buildings on a large scale. In order to support the anti-Japanese struggle, their objectives were:
"Leave not a rail, leave not a sleeper, leave not a bridge".
Cheng Zihua
In the Hundred Regiments War for more than three months, Lü Zhengcao's calm and courageous command made him a "guardian god" in the minds of the people of Jizhong.
Sometimes he had to fight four or five times a day, but he still took the lead and took the lead.
The Japanese were also afraid of Lü Zhengcao's name, until he was transferred to the commander of the Jinsui Military Region, and some Japanese newspapers said that they had caught it
"Lu Zhengcao of the Jizhong Military Region"
, trying to boost morale. It can be seen what kind of famous name Lu Zhengcao has played in Jizhong!
Years later he was asked what he thought of the experience. The general smiled and said:
"Actually, there's nothing remarkable about the Japanese."
Asked if he had ever lost a battle, the general said:
"When the enemy comes, if he can't fight, he will run, and this is why the enemy is advancing and we are retreating."
Sufficient confidence and correct tactics are the magic weapons for Lu Zhengcao to achieve excellent results in Jizhong.
Perhaps it is precisely because of his experience in the Jizhong base area that Lü Zhengcao began to "believe in the people" from then on. He remembered how bitter the people were at that time
"The Japanese and the Kosovars carried out fascist acts of aggression and atrocities in the middle of the ji", but these "not only did not bring our people to their knees, but on the contrary, they further infuriated the hatred of men, women and old friends against the aggressors." ”
Lu Zhengcao followed the Marxist saying:
"The more arduous and complex the environment, the more ingenious and flexible the people's methods of struggle against the enemy; this is the dialectic of history."
Lu Zhengcao was on the anti-Japanese front
In June 1985, Lu Zhengcao made a special trip back to Jizhong with his wife to visit his "second hometown" and visit the villagers who had been away for a long time. He deliberately talked to the old landlords in the place where he had fought.
In the space of 8 days, he traveled through twelve counties and eleven villages and towns. In his memoirs, he said:
"I have always been thinking of the hot land of Jizhong, where I once fought in blood, and I have never forgotten the people of Jizhong who once lived and died with me."
Talking about This experience of Lu Zhengcao, Zhang Xueliang's envy is even stronger. At noon that day, when the two were having dinner, Lu Zhengcao talked about his process of fighting guerrillas behind the enemy's back against Japan and said
"After you left, the Northeast Army was in chaos, and I rushed back to the troops to accept the instructions of the Communists and stay behind the enemy to fight Japan." ”
Zhang Xueliang did not feel that this was a "betrayal" of the Kuomintang, but sighed:
"The fact that the troops you led insisted on fighting Japan is also a consolation to me."
For a young marshal, it is also a great regret that he was not able to personally go into battle to kill the enemy.
During his stay in New York, Lu Zhengcao met with Zhang Xueliang three times, and the two talked about many things, the most talked about was the War of Resistance Against Japan. Lü Zhengcao briefed the former Northeast Commander Zhang on the excellent achievements of the Northeast Army in resisting Japan, and he sighed:
"When Chiang Kai-shek saw danger, he sent the Northeast Army to wherever he went. During the Shanghai battle, Chiang Kai-shek made Wu Keren of the Northeast Army a defender, and they drowned a lot when they crossed the river, which was very tragic. ”
Lü Zhengcao and Zhang Xueliang (right)
In fact, this miserable unit did not even receive a pension in the end, but was canceled and all the remaining fighters were dismissed.
This experience was not pleasant for anyone, and Zhang Xueliang was even more aware of the problem between himself and Chiang Kai-shek: At the beginning he advocated anti-Japanese resistance, but Chiang Kai-shek refused to give in; later he launched the "Xi'an Incident" to force Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan.
The guilt in Zhang Xue's conscience was not difficult to understand. Because it did not cost a single soldier or a pawn, or even a battle was fought, he gave up the northeast after "918", and Zhang Shaoshuai, who was once full of spirit, became a "general who did not resist" ridiculed by the whole country.
In Lü Zhengcao's view, this is purely to give Chiang Kai-shek a black pot. He was relieved:
"Fight the Japanese Northeast Army for you."
Indeed, many of the officers and men in the Northeast Army had a miserable life during the War of Resistance Against Japan. For example, Huang Xiansheng, former deputy commander of the 53rd Army of the Northeast Army, was captured by Dai Kasa's agents while in Chongqing, and was later killed along with General Yang Hucheng.
Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng (right)
Originally, he had many opportunities to run out of prison, but Huang Xiansheng insisted that he was just and upright.
"They let me go as they catch me."
Unfortunately, when he was arrested, he was falsely accused, and when he was finally killed, he still could not give any reason.
Huang Xiansheng had contacts with Communists in jinzhou in his early years, and said that he was even earlier than Lu Zhengcao. Compared with Huang Xiansheng, Lu Zhengcao was much luckier.
He not only reorganized early and no longer accepted the instructions of the Kuomintang, but also played his own style in Jizhong. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, it was still shining for China's construction.
In early 1946, Lü Zhengcao returned to the northeast and served as the deputy commander of the Northeast Democratic United Army, and in July he became the director of the Northeast Railway General Bureau, in charge of railway work.
Huang Xiansheng
In order to improve the local transportation capacity, Lü Zhengcao specially carried out the "dead plane resurrection" and "dead car resurrection" activities, repairing more than 5,700 kilometers of railways before the Liaoshen Campaign, and opening nearly 10,000 kilometers of traffic lines, occupying 98% of the northeast line, laying a solid foundation for supporting the northeast liberation war.
Because of his outstanding performance in the War of Liberation, Lü Zhengcao once again served as a military transport commander during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, organized the railway department to set up a volunteer aid brigade, and went to the scene many times to direct the emergency repair of railways and the transportation of materials.
In order to cope with the indiscriminate bombardment of the US military, the emergency repair unit has created a special set of emergency repair methods and emergency measures, and the destroyed railway can be repaired at any time, and the blown up of the other end of the railway can be used as a "replacement" to ensure the supply of materials in the front.
Lu Zhengcao is not only excellent in practical operation, but also good at learning. During the Liberation War, he conducted a comparative experiment on the Soviet Union's "package multiplication system" and Japan's "wheel multiplication system", and wrote an article "On the Responsibility system of cabin crew" published in the "Tohoku Daily".
The article was praised by Chairman Mao
"We just have to learn to build." ”
Lü Zhengcao (second from right) accompanied Chairman Mao on his inspection
In 1958, Lü Zhengcao took over the post of Minister of Railways. During his tenure, he presided over the construction of the Southwest Third Line Railway Project such as the Chengkun Line. The Chengkun Line is known as the "World Geological Museum", which is extremely difficult to build, but the strategic significance is also extremely important, and Chairman Mao even said that he could not sleep if the Chengkun Line could not be repaired.
To this end, Lü Zhengcao led 300,000 railway soldiers to participate in the "Conference Battle", so that the Chengkun Line was officially completed and opened to traffic on January 1, 1970. Western media described this as "China's 25,000-mile long march on the economic front", which shows its difficulty and significance!
In addition to work, Lu Zhengcao's favorite is to play tennis. He has loved tennis since he was a teenager, and even in the war-torn era, he can find a place to play tennis, and he can play happily by pulling a net on the threshing court.
In his later years, he laughed and said that he had three things in his life:
"Playing Japan, running the railway, playing tennis."
At 14:45 p.m. on October 13, 2009, the hundred-year-old general closed his eyes.
He was the last of the founding generals of New China to bid farewell to us and declared the complete end of that era.
When we look back on the life course of the old general, we may be moved by his decisiveness and bravery, perhaps we will be stimulated by his anti-Japanese experience, and we may sigh for his cross-century friendship with Zhang Xueliang. The so-called "legend" is nothing more than that.