It is the so-called "the person who knows the times is Junjie". And the former reactionary warlord, Wu Huawen, is such a "Junjie". In the battle to liberate Nanjing, the 35th Army, led by Wu Huawen, took the lead in entering the city of Nanjing and capturing the presidential palace, creating a miracle of partial divisions attacking and occupying the presidential palace of the Nationalist government.
Many people on the Internet claimed that it was an uprising force that liberated Nanjing. However, this was not the case, and the 35th Army was actually a new army merged by the "Old Eighth Road" Lu Zhongnan Column and Wu Huawen's old department. And what seized the "presidential palace" was an out-and-out "old eighth road" unit.
From reactionary warlords and traitors to insurgents
Wu Huawen was born into a poor peasant family, and because of the large population and lack of food and clothing, he joined Feng Yuxiang's army at the age of 17.
Feng Yuxiang himself served as an ordinary soldier in the Qing Army, and he climbed to the position of marshal of the Northwest Army step by step with his own efforts. For those ordinary soldiers who have the ability, the hard work, and are not afraid of death, Feng Yuxiang has always had a special feeling. The "Thirteen taibao" under him were all low-level peasants.
Under the care of Feng Yuxiang, Wu Huawen was sent to the Baoding Military Academy to serve under Han Fuyu. Starting from the liaison staff, he was promoted from regimental commander to commander of the Jinan garrison.
During the Battle of the Central Plains, Han Fuyu was bribed by Chiang Kai-shek and declared his opposition to Feng and defecting to Chiang Kai-shek. In this way, Wu Huawen followed Han Fuyu to join Chiang Kai-shek's camp. Subsequently, Han Fuyu's armed forces were reorganized by Chiang Kai-shek into the Central Army, and Wu Huawen was also promoted to brigade commander.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese army entered Shandong. Out of his warlord style, Han Fuyu decided to preserve his strength and fled the city of Jinan without a fight. At the military conference, Chiang Kai-shek held Han fuyu accountable and shot him to death.
After Han Fuyu's death, Wu Huawen knew that he was his "remnant", so he lived every day trembling and walking on thin ice. In battles with the Japanese, Wu Huawen was repeatedly defeated, losing 5,000 men and horses in World War I in 1943. But even so, the National Government held fast to the ammunition and salaries that should have been paid to them.
With Han Fuyu's previous experience, Wu Huawen had to think about his future. Therefore, he had a hot head, brazenly surrendered to Japan, and became a puppet army of the puppet national government in Nanjing. Hearing this news, Ri Kou and Wang Jingwei were overjoyed, so they made him the commander of the Third Front Army in Shandong.
In Shandong, Wu Huawen worked hard to serve the Japanese Kou, once created a no-man's land in Yimeng Mountain, plundered and burned the masses everywhere, and committed heinous crimes. For this reason, our Shandong anti-Japanese base area has repeatedly launched the "War on Wu" campaign, beating Wu Huawen to a disgraced and embarrassed.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek considered that most of his main forces were stationed in the southwest, and he could not reach North China. In order to compete for territory, he did not hesitate to find agents from the ranks of traitors. So Chiang Kai-shek pardoned Wu Huawen and gave him the new formation of the 5th Route Army. As a result, Wu Huawen changed from a traitor who did nothing evil to a "hero" who "saved the country by curves."
Subsequently, its unit was reorganized into the Second Column of Shandong Security of the Xuzhou Appeasement Office, and in 1947 it was expanded into the reorganized 84th Division. On the eve of the Battle of Jinan, Wuhua's Ministry of Culture was expanded into the 96th Army
Before the Battle of Jinan, the East China Field Army was pressed against the border, and Jinan was already an isolated city. The general trend was gone, and Wu Huawen began to think about his future again. However, thinking of the bloody feud he had formed with the Communist Party, he could not make up his mind to revolt. Therefore, he only secretly contacted our army and asked the PLA to take a detour to attack from other people's positions.
In order to win over the Wu Huawen uprising, our army took a two-pronged approach, using the underground party to constantly persuade Wu Huawen on the one hand, and launching a resolute attack on the Wu Huawen Department on the other, annihilating the enemy and a battalion in the first battle.
Under the persuasion of his wife, Wu Huawen finally made up his mind, led the troops to withdraw from the airfield, and ceded the defense line to the People's Liberation Army. Since then, the gate of Jinan City has been opened. In just 8 days, HuaYe liberated Jinan, and the 110,000 Defenders of the Kuomintang, except for more than 20,000 people of Wuhua's Ministry of Culture, were all annihilated, and Wang Yaowu himself was taken prisoner.
On September 25, 1948, Wu Huawen sent a telegram of the uprising to the whole country and moved his troops to the Luoyang area north of the Yellow River. On October 29, 1948, the headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army officially announced that Wu Huawen's 96th Army would be reorganized into the 35th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, with Wu Huawen as the commander, Yang Youbai as the deputy commander, and Yu Huai'an as the chief of staff. At the same time, the PLA headquarters also dispatched He Kexi, an old Communist Party member, as the political commissar of the 35th Army.
He Kexi's task was very arduous, and it was not an easy task to transform WuHua's ministry of culture, a reactionary force that was heavily indebted to blood and had committed many crimes. To this end, He Kexi brought 30 sets of political work cadres at all levels. So will He Kexi's transformation of the 35th Army go smoothly?
Second, transform the reactionary armed forces
After He Kexi arrived at the headquarters of the 35th Army, he immediately convened a meeting of cadres at and above the camp level, which was presided over by Wu Huawen and He Kexi made a report.
He Kexi's report is divided into two parts, one is to praise Wu Huawen for abandoning the secrets and throwing himself into the Ming Dynasty in the Jinan Campaign, resolutely revolting, accelerating the liberation of Jinan City, and making contributions to the people; the other part is to explain the situation, the Chiang family dynasty is about to perish, and our army will win victory in all of China.
However, during the session when everyone spoke, something went wrong. The commander of the 103rd Division jumped out and scolded Wu Huawen as a traitor who had betrayed the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek. At the meeting, he threatened to sell his horses and possessions and then provoke a rebellion. Then he rode on a high-headed horse with great courage and took his retinue of guards with him.
In the face of such an embarrassing situation, the participants all looked at each other, and the atmosphere of the venue was very tense. However, He Kexi's expression did not change at all, he calmly and calmly expressed contempt for the clumsy performance of the division commander, and then calmly maintained the meeting, so that the meeting began and ended as originally requested.
In fact, Commissar He Kexi's heart was also very anxious. Judging from the performance of the commander of the 103rd Division, the possibility of another rebellion by the 35th Army is extremely high. After all, Wu Huawen is a capricious and rebellious warlord. Now that the Battle of Huaihai is underway, the consequences of the 35th Army's rebellion will be unimaginable.
When He Kexi returned to the command post, he immediately ordered the guards to load their guns, put a lookout post on the roof, and all the guards ambushed behind the door. Not only that, but He Kexi also burned all the documents and prepared to deal with it.
Subsequently, He Kexi reported the news of the possible changes of the 35th Army to Chen Yi, summoned comrades from the local government, blocked the ferry, and drove all the ships along the Yellow River away. Local armed forces and militias built fortifications around Wubu's garrison. If the 35th Army rebelled, it would strike immediately.
The commander of the 103rd Division was so arrogant that it was difficult to say that wu Huawen did not hint at the back. Therefore, Political Commissar He decided to personally go to the Tiger's Den and go to the Wu family to meet Wu Huawen. After talking, He Kexi discovered that Wu Huawen was unaware of the change in the commander of the 103rd Division. For his own troops, Wu Huawen actually could not fully control them.
Once, Wu Huawen once said at a meeting of officers:
"We used to be like prostitutes, today with this, tomorrow with that, now we are from the good, marry a good husband, and then steal people in the future." 」
Originally, Wu Huawen was just making a metaphor, warning his subordinates that they could no longer go to the three or four. However, his deputy Yang Youbai made a case:
"We've been following you for most of our lives, but we say we're prostitutes!" Go, no meeting! ”
Later, Wu Xian, director of the Political Department, criticized Wu Huawen for making an inappropriate analogy, and at the same time chased Yang Youbai back.
He Kexi believes that Wu Huawen can be won. So he told Wu Huawen about the situation, the overall situation, and policies, and finally stabilized Wu Huawen's mood.
After this, the victory of the Huaihai Campaign was frequently reported, the elite 550,000 kuomintang troops were annihilated by our army, and the defeat of the Nationalist government could not be reversed. The division commander knew that we were well prepared and that the overall situation in the world had been decided, so he dispelled the idea of rebellion.
After that, He Kexi calmly transformed the 35th Army, reorganized cadres at and above the training camp level, made reports, and engaged in counseling; set up a company soldiers' committee, and conscientiously carried out the campaign to complain about grievances. After dozens of days of study and education, the class consciousness and ideological consciousness of cadres and fighters have been stimulated, the appearance of the troops has undergone fundamental changes, and the discipline and combat effectiveness have been unprecedentedly enhanced.
At this time, the Luzhongnan Column was also reorganized with Wuhua's Cultural Department. Of the three divisions of the 103rd, 104th, and 105th divisions, two of the three regiments in each division were basically the troops of the former Lu Zhongnan Column, and only one regiment was the former unit of Wu Huawen. The full-time commanders at the military and divisional levels were the old departments of Wuhua's Cultural Department, but the political commissars and deputy posts were all members of the former Luzhongnan Column.
For such an reorganization, the officers and men of the Luzhong South Column were in fact very dissatisfied. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Luzhongnan Column and Wuhua's Cultural Department fought each other many times, and they were mortal enemies who did not share the heavens and were in the same situation as water and fire. They said:
"We are the old eighth road, how can we make a traitor our commander?"
After Mr. Chen Yi learned of this situation, he personally came forward to do the work. At the co-editing meeting, Wu Huawen cried bitterly and made a review, which was considered to be passed.
After the luzhongnan column joined, the 35th Army was no longer a simple rebel force. The commanders and fighters of the LuzhongNan Column were all the sons of peasants who had turned over. Driven by the LuzhongNan Column, the political outlook of the 35th Army was changed drastically, and a disciplined and effective people's army was born. It took political commissar He Kexi only 3 months to transform WuHua's army, which has a reactionary history of decades.
One day, Wu Huawen's brother-in-law, Major General Gao Shantian, went forward to see Wu, but found that Wu Huawen was sulking. When I asked, I learned that Wu Huawen had been criticized by the soldiers and was very unhappy. However, Tian Xiangqian comforted him: "Which soldier in the past dared to criticize you?" You can now accept criticism from your subordinates, which is already very good! ”
Obviously, the 35th Army, from top to bottom, has been completely renewed.
In March 1949, the 35th Army was reorganized and morale was high, so it was ordered to go to Chu County and garrison the town of Wuyi, preparing to participate in the Battle of crossing the river. However, no one expected that this 35th Army would become the first unit to enter Nanjing and capture Chiang Kai-shek's presidential palace.
3. Plant the red flag in the Presidential Palace
If anything, the capture of the presidential palace by the 35th Army was a complete accident.
On the eve of the Battle of the River Crossing, the 35th Army, which originally belonged to the Sanye 7 Corps, was assigned to the 8th Corps. The task of the 8th Corps was to cooperate with the main direction of attack to cross the river and fight with positive actions to suppress the enemy in the middle of Zhenjiang and Yangzhou. Until April 21, the task of the 35th Army was to occupy and clamp down on the "Miura" (Jiangpu, Puzhen, and Pukou) in the north of the river to ensure the success of the first echelon of the brother troops crossing the river.
It can be said that the 35th Army is completely a partial division that covers the cross of the river by the brother troops. Su Yu sent a telegram to the 35th Army:
"The Thirty-fifth Army maintained contact with the enemy of the two Pupu, and when I launched the battle to cross the river, I simultaneously captured Jiangpu, and then annihilated the enemy on the outskirts of Pukou one by one, and clamped down on the enemy defending Nanjing from the front." When the army crossed south, and then the aircraft decided to give orders. ”
It can be said that the 35th Army did not even have the task of crossing the river. According to the author's investigation, the 35th Army was not even equipped with boats to cross the river. This showed that the 35th Army was not among the main forces in the river crossing operation. Their main purpose was to clamp down on the Kuomintang 28th Army on the other side.
Su Yu believed that the main force of the Kuomintang might be based in Nanjing, and carefully resisted. Therefore, Su Yu entrusted the main offensive task to the powerful 4th Corps led by Chen Geng. After landing, the 4th Corps was ready to march east along the river with one unit to take over the task of attacking and annihilating the enemy at Wuhu for the Central Group, and preparing to capture Nanjing.
However, the battlefield was rapidly changing, and Su Yu thought that the Battle of Crossing the River was an uphill battle. But in fact, Chiang Kai-shek had no intention of resisting at all.
On April 22, the BaiWan army of the three groups of the Central, Eastern and Western People's Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River, and the Kuomintang's Qianli River defense collapsed in an instant. On April 22, Li Zongren and Chiang Kai-shek decided to abandon Nanjing. Soon, the capital of the Nationalist government was transformed into an empty, undefended city.
Chiang Kai-shek's flight without a fight was really unexpected by Su Yu, and the 4th Corps that was originally scheduled to take over Nanjing was still in the area from the mouth of Jiangxi Lake to the Anhui Anhui River, and it would take more than ten days to transfer to Nanjing. Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping discussed and felt that there had been no army stationed in Nanjing for a long time, and order in the city might be in trouble. Therefore, Liu Deng canceled the task of the 4 Corps to take over Nanjing.
At this time, the 35th Army defeated the enemy's 28th Army after fierce fighting, fully occupied the "Miura", and had the best starting position to march into Nanjing. Therefore, the General Front Committee sent a telegram asking the 35th Army to immediately listen to the facts and wait for the opportunity to liberate Nanjing. In the midst of yin and yang, the glorious mission of liberating Nanjing fell historically on the newly reorganized 35th Army.
Later, Su Yu also sent a telegram to the 35th Army:
"If the enemy in Nanjing escapes, the Thirty-fifth Army shall immediately cross the river and occupy Nanjing, maintain order, and protect all public and private property abandoned by the enemy, and the army shall pay special attention to abiding by policies and strictly enforcing urban discipline."
From this telegram, it can be vaguely seen that Su Yu is uneasy about the 35th Army, after all, a small part of the 35th Army is Wu Huawen's old subordinates, who have also been known for their poor discipline. Although He Kexi sat down, Su Yu felt that it was still necessary to remind him.
Cui Xiexiang, the former secretary of the former Sanye Committee, later recalled:
"Boss Su asked me to call the secretary over." It turned out that he considered that part of the troops entering Nanjing at that time was an uprising team, and immediately asked the unit to pay attention to the strict implementation of the city policy and the discipline of entering the city. ”
After receiving Liu Dengsu's telegram, the various units of the 35th Army began to look around for ferries. In the evening, the reconnaissance unit of the 103rd Division of the 35th Army brought a small steamer and several civilian boats from the south bank. The military headquarters decided that the reconnaissance team of the 103rd Division would first enter the city to reconnoiter the situation, and then the 104th Division would cross the river in batches. At midnight, the warriors who had crossed the river found a large diesel boat in the Sancha River on the south bank.
After a night of transportation, the three divisions of the 35th Army crossed the river and soon reached the city of Nanjing. The operational deployment of the 35th Army after crossing the river was to first control the positions and peaks on the outskirts of Nanjing, and then, with the cooperation of brother troops, surround and annihilate the enemy in Nanjing. However, because the enemy army had already fled. Therefore, the capture of Nanjing became the reception of Nanjing.
Later, some people complained that Wu Hua's Ministry of Culture and Culture should not be allowed to enjoy the honor of being the first to rush into Chiang Kai-shek's "presidential palace." In reality, however, it was not Wu Huawen's old troops who captured the presidential palace.
In the early morning of the 24th, the 3rd Battalion of the 312th Regiment of the 104th Division of the 35th Army took the lead in rushing into the Presidential Palace. They rushed open the red-painted gate and rushed in with a loud shout. After searching the front and back halls, passages, and offices, the soldiers climbed the gatehouse, ripped off the Kuomintang Blue Sky and White Sun Flag on the gatehouse, and raised the bright red flag
This unit was originally the 138th Regiment of the 46th Division of the LuzhongNan Column, not Wu Huawen's rebel unit. Therefore, the supreme and glorious task of capturing the Presidential Palace was still accomplished by the old troops of our army.
He Kexi later recalled: "Being able to successfully liberate the Kuomintang capital Nanjing with the cooperation of fraternal troops is the greatest glory of our Thirty-fifth Army!"
After the Kuomintang withdrew from Nanjing, there were already many robberies in the city, and after the arrival of the 35th Army, order in the city was immediately stabilized. As a brand-new people's armed force, the 35th Army is strictly disciplined and has committed no crimes against public or private property. It has to be said that the people's army is a melting pot. Under the melting of our military's policies and discipline, the former reactionary forces have finally removed their impurities and been quenched and reborn.
4. Su Yu transferred the 35th Army out of Nanjing
After the 35th Army liberated Nanjing, it served as a garrison unit in the local area for 5 days. On April 29, 1949, Su Yu expressed the 24th Army:
"The Twenty-fourth Army marched to Nanjing, and took over the garrison task of the Thirty-fifth Army, and after the Thirty-fifth Army was handed over, it opened Hangzhou along the Beijing-Hangzhou Highway and returned to Hangzhou."
Compared with the garrison in Nanjing, the 35th Army has a more important task, that is, to follow the large troops to pursue and annihilate the enemy. Therefore, Su Yu replaced the 35th Army with the 24th Army.
Immediately afterward, the 35th Army was reorganized into the 7th Corps, participated in the pursuit of the enemy forces on the southern front, and liberated Hangzhou on May 3. Subsequently, the 35th Army carried out the task of suppressing bandits in the area south of the Qiantang River
After the overall situation of the world has been decided, the 103rd, 104th, and 105th Divisions of the 35th Army were changed to the 3rd Military Subdistrict, the 10th Military Subdistrict, and the Hangzhou Garrison District of the Zhejiang Military Region, respectively. Its military headquarters was transferred to the Navy of the East China Military Region, and the 35th Army was abolished. Although the 35th Army only existed for a short period of time in history, its glory of occupying Nanjing will forever be recorded in history.
After 1949, Wu Huawen lived in Shanghai for a period of time to recuperate, when the Shandong masses sent representatives to Shanghai to petition for Wu Huawen's killing to punish him for his past crimes of cruelty to the people of Shandong, but was stopped by Chen Yi, then commander of the East China Military Region and mayor of Shanghai.
Wu Huawen could not face the crimes he had committed before, so he chose to quit the army. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wu Huawen transferred to local work, was appointed as a member of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government, the director of the Department of Communications of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government, and in 1959, he was appointed vice chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Wu Huawen fought all his life and left many diseases on his body. The party and the government have successively arranged for him to go to famous hospitals in various places for medical treatment and recuperation, and he is very grateful. In 1962, Wu Huawen died of illness at the age of 58.
After Wu Huawen's death, his family members were properly resettled. Among them, his third brother Wu Huagang worked in the Civil Affairs Department of Shandong Province and settled in Jinan after retirement. His wife, Lin Shiying, is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Zhejiang.
Wu Huawen's children all succeeded in their studies, and Wu Huawen's second son, Wu Zhemin, graduated from the Kuomintang Central Officers' School in the 1940s, served as a company commander and staff officer in Wubu after graduation, followed the Wu Uprising in 1948, and later joined the Communist Party of China, serving as the director of the phosphate fertilizer factory in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province, and a member of the Standing Committee of the Zhenjiang Municipal People's Congress.
Lin Shiying's two children both taught at the university, and one of them went to the United States. Another of Wu Huawen's wives, Ning Yiwen, lives with her four children in Xiao County, Zhejiang Province.
Friends do not distinguish between near and far, and revolutions do not distinguish between them. Wu Huawen changed masters five times in his life, but he finally embarked on the right direction and brought a bright future to his subordinates and family. At the same time, he also unexpectedly became the first PLA commander to invade Nanjing, which has to be said to be an interesting episode in history.