In the revolutionary years, the red army was most afraid of some people within the revolutionary army who defected to the enemy, and it was often very difficult to encounter such things. If it is an ordinary creep, it is fine, knowing that it will not become a climate, but if it encounters a senior general within the revolutionary army who becomes a big traitor, it will be difficult to end.
In 1935, there was an unexpected traitor within the Red Army, a chief of staff who betrayed the revolution and wrote to Deng Xiaoping until 55 years later: Please allow me to die in my hometown. Who the hell is this man? Why betray the revolution? Why did he write to Deng Xiaoping asking for permission to die in his hometown?
Gong Chu
At that time, the Red Army was facing the encirclement and blockade of the Kuomintang, and the Red Army in the Central Soviet Area encountered danger, and the situation was very urgent. The Kuomintang troops issued several orders in succession, asking the Nationalist army to blockade the Red Army troops in the Soviet zone in a small area in the south, and then take it in one fell swoop. Previously, due to the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the revolutionary momentum within the Red Army was very low, and even some people began to have no hope for the future of the revolution.
In February 1935, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent a telegram to the sub-bureaus below, asking them to change their previous organizational and fighting methods and to carry out guerrilla warfare in the area near the central Soviet area. Subsequently, the Central Sub-Bureau held an emergency meeting and asked all subordinate troops to break through in 9 ways.
Deng Xiaoping
Among them was a Red Army officer cadre named Gong Chu, who was arranged to lead about 9 companies of the Seventy-first Regiment of the Twenty-fourth Division of the Red Army to the south to Guangdong and then north to Xiangnan, and then to Xiangnan to quickly take in the Red Thirty-fourth Division that had been lost during the Long March, and then stay there to carry out guerrilla warfare.
What kind of character is this Gong Chu? It turned out that Gong Chu was once the leader of the peasant revolutionary movement with the same name as Chairman Mao. Born in 1901 in a family in Changlai Village, Lechang County, Guangdong Province, Gong Chu witnessed the decay of the last Qing Dynasty and was very enthusiastic about revolution.
Later, when communist ideas were introduced to China, he was quickly influenced and determined to overthrow feudalism and liberate the broad masses of the people. In 1924, at the age of 23, he joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League and became a member of the Chinese Communist Party the following year.
During the Great Revolution, the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang practiced intra-party cooperation, and Communists could join the Kuomintang party in their own name. Appointed by the district party committee, Gong Chu rushed to Guangdong as a special commissioner to engage in the peasant movement. In leading the peasant movement, he demonstrated extraordinary ability.
In the winter of the same year, Gong Chu participated in the establishment of the Kuomintang party headquarters in Lechang County, and he was subsequently elected as the executive committee and supervisory committee member of the Lechang County Party Department with his excellent work ability. Later, he was appointed commander of the peasant army in Lechang County.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek resolutely and resolutely rebelled against the Great Revolution despite the circumstances at that time, wantonly slaughtered Communists, and created the "4.12" coup, followed by the "Ninghan split." In May, Gong Chu led more than 500 peasant troops from Lechang County to Shaoguan to meet the local peasant army.
The two armies merged, numbering about 1,100 people, and Gong Chu was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Beijiang Workers' and Peasants' Rebel Army. Subsequently, Gong Chu led his troops north to Wuhan to attack Chiang Kai-shek. Upon arrival in Leiyang, Hunan Province, the unit was reorganized into the Supplementary Regiment of the 13th Army, with Gong Chu as regimental commander. After the reorganization was completed, Gong Chu changed direction and led the troops to the east to reach Nanchang, Jiangxi.
On August 1, he followed the large army to launch the Nanchang Uprising, and was then appointed as a battalion instructor, after which Gong Chu was sent to Changsha to lead the Autumn Harvest Uprising, but unfortunately he was attacked by accident and had to choose to run to Hong Kong.
Speaking of Hong Kong, Gong Chu has a great relationship with this place. Throughout Gong Chu's life, he has been to Hong Kong 4 times before and after, and each time he went to Hong Kong was in a difficult time. The first three times were only temporarily rested in Hong Kong for a while, and the last time was spent in Hong Kong for a full 40 years.
The prototype of Gong Chumin in "Blood Persistence" is Gong Chu (stills)
In 1928, the troops who had originally participated in the Nanchang Uprising launched the Yizhang Rebellion, and then reorganized the local peasant army into the Third Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and Gong Chu was appointed as the party representative. After Zhu and Mao met the division, a celebration meeting was held on May 4, announcing the formal establishment of the Red Fourth Army. Gong Chu was appointed as a former member of the Military Standing Committee and concurrently served as a party representative of the 29th Regiment.
In November, Gong Chu was attacked by Kuomintang troops on his way to Changsha to rebuild the municipal party committee, and was transferred to Hong Kong to work underground, where he participated in the publication of the Hong Kong Daily and held an army training class, which was his second visit to Hong Kong.
In the late spring of 1929, Gong Chu returned to the mainland from Hong Kong and went to Guangxi. In Guangxi, he was appointed a member of the former Guangxi Committee of the Communist Party of China, serving as a secretary in the government office, and bide his time to launch the Baise Uprising. After the Baise Uprising, the Red Seventh Army was established, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to appoint Gong Chu as chief of staff. The following year, due to the reorganization of the Red Seventh Army, Gong Chu once again served as the commander of the 19th Division, and Deng Xiaoping served as the political commissar.
Gong Chu played a huge role in the Red Seventh Army with his rich combat experience, especially in the process of army building. In 1931, in order to be able to better establish contact with the Central Red Army, his Red Seventh Army moved into Shonan and prepared to establish a revolutionary base area in Ruyuan County, Guangdong.
However, the Nationalist troops stationed in Lianzhou soon learned of the red seventh army's marching path and chased after it. After the Red Seventh Army and the Kuomintang Lianzhou Army met, a fierce battle began, and due to the outnumbered, the Red Seventh Army suffered a fierce defeat, Gong Chu was wounded in the battle, at which time the Red Seventh Army decided to carry out a strategic shift. In April 1931, Gong Chu was transferred to Shanghai for treatment, and four months later he was transferred to Hong Kong, taking a detour to the Central Soviet District. This is his third visit to Hong Kong.
After arriving in the Central Soviet Zone, he went through a series of appointments. He was successively appointed commander of the Thirty-fourth Division of the Red Twelfth Army and chief of staff of the Red Twelfth Army, and after serving as chief of staff for a week, he was sent to Huichang, Jiangxi province, as the commander of the Red Seventh Army. In the Central Soviet Area, he also participated in the operations repeatedly, expanding the scope of the Central Soviet Region.
Collective statue of 14 commanders of the Red 14th Army, including Zhang Shijie
As mentioned above, in the course of the Kuomintang's encirclement and suppression, some of the Red Army felt that the future of the revolution was hopeless, including Gong Chu. Gong Chu was dismissed several times because of right-wing capitulationism, and after receiving such blows, he began to express doubts about the revolution and seemed to have no hope for its future.
This was one of the reasons why he later chose to rebel against the revolution. Gong Chu thought that he was capable, so he was pretentious, and when he saw some people in the Central Soviet Region commanding him, he must not be able to bear it.
In 1934, Gong Chu was again appointed acting chief of the General Staff of the General Headquarters of the Red Army and directly participated in the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign. Due to the wrong command of some people in the Central Soviet Region, the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign failed. In September, Gong Chu was appointed commander of the Gannan Military Region, and then changed to chief of staff to organize a breakthrough of troops.
Xiao Ke, commander of the Independent 5th Division, and Sun Chaoqun, commander of the Red 65th Division
In addition, it is necessary to lead the troops to carry out guerrilla warfare and eliminate local bandits and Kuomintang troops. After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign in 1935, the Red Army in the Central Soviet Region was faced with a very critical situation, and Gong Chu was asked to lead 9 companies of the Seventy-first Regiment of the Red Twenty-fourth Division to break through.
In the process of the breakthrough, Gong Chu encountered resistance from the Kuomintang troops in the Shonan area, suffered heavy losses, and also lost contact with the central government. At that time, the Kuomintang's strategy against the Red Army was not to suppress them severely all the time, but to fight while caressing, and to use high-ranking officials and houlu to lure the weak-willed people of the Red Army to surrender and defect, so as to achieve the goal of splitting the Communist Party and the Red Army.
Because Gong Chu could not resist the Kuomintang army, coupled with the punishment of him by the Central Soviet Region before, he completely gave up resistance and lost confidence in the revolution. Houlu, a high-ranking official of the Kuomintang, also gave him the idea of changing his mind. In May 1935, Gong Chu led a company to the territory of Chenxian County and ran back to his hometown at night.
Monument to heroes
After returning to his hometown, Gong Chu completely rebelled against the revolution. At that time, people gave Gong Chu a nickname, saying that he was the "first rebel general of the Red Army", saying that he was the first rebel general, because he was the highest ranking of all the rebels and was the chief of staff of the Central Soviet Region.
After Gong Chu rebelled against the revolution, he attacked the Red Army troops, guerrilla units, CCP cadres, and CCP underground figures within the enemy army like crazy, causing the Red Army and the Communists to suffer heavy losses. After that, the Kuomintang army led by Gong Chu continued to suppress the Red Army. Even Chen Yi was almost planted in his hands.
I only remember that one day in October, Gong Chu only took about 30 Kuomintang soldiers, disguised as the Red Army, and marched to Beishan overnight. He colluded with the local bandits, bluffed into a fake battle with the bandits, and then disguised himself as the Red Army to find the organization.
The local rear director was Gong Chu's old subordinate, and when he heard that his old boss had returned, he immediately went to greet him. After Gong Chu saw the rear director, he half threatened and half coaxed the director to defect with him. In order to capture Chen Yi, they wrote a letter to Chen Yi and lured Chen Yi to Shonan under the pretext of "strengthening the management of the troops."
After Receiving the letter, Chen Yi realized that something was wrong, so he did not reply to Gong Chu. Chen Yi knew Gong Chu's character, at that time in the Central Soviet Region, he did not pay attention to anyone except Mao Zedong, how could a person with a very high self-esteem bend his knees and ask Chen Yi to go to Shonan to lead him?
Gong Chu was also an anxious person, he saw that Chen Yi had not replied, so he took the initiative to launch a surprise attack, and the Red Army soldiers swore to resist to the death, and in the end, except for a few people who survived, all the rest were heroically sacrificed. This is a sinful fact that he cannot erase in his lifetime.
Chen Yi
After the start of the All-Out War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Gong Chu led the Kuomintang troops to garrison the Longhai Railway in Xuzhou. During the Japanese invasion of Guangdong, he served as the commander of the anti-Japanese guerrilla in the Seventh Theater, and in 1942 he served as the chief of staff of the Major General of the Forty-sixth Army of the Fourth Theater. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Gong Chu was appointed mayor of Xuzhou by the Kuomintang, and then resigned and returned to Guangdong, where he held some more positions.
In October 1949, when the People's Liberation Army invaded Beijiang, Gong Chu led his subordinates to flee to Lechang, and Huang Songjian, who was the director of Beijiang at the time, wrote to him to persuade him to surrender. Gong Chu had no choice but to lead the remnants of his troops to surrender to our army. In December, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to liberate Hainan Island, and with the consent of the Central Military Commission, Guangdong Governor Ye Jianying sent Gong Chu to Hainan to plan the surrender of Xue Yue, the Kuomintang general of Hainan.
Xue Yue is Gong Chu's hometown, Gong Chu heard the news, immediately agreed, but after he arrived in Hong Kong, worried that there would be no good end in persuading him to surrender, so he did not go to Hainan to persuade Xue Yue, but instead stayed in Hong Kong for 40 years, which was also his last time to Hong Kong.
When Gong Chu returned to his hometown
Stranded in Hong Kong, Gong Chu changed his name to Gong Song'an and became an entrepreneur in the local area. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek invited him to Taiwan to meet and assigned him to collect the remnants of the troops in Hong Kong to wait for the opportunity to counterattack the interior, but he did not do this, he knew that the Kuomintang no longer had the grandeur of a few years ago.
In the late 1980s, the state decided not to pursue the crimes of those who had served the Kuomintang before the founding of the People's Republic of China. After Gong Chu learned of this decision, he had the idea of returning to his hometown. The relevant departments did not know what to do after knowing that he had this intention, so they asked their superiors. After receiving explicit approval from their superiors, gong Chu and his wife, who were close to 90 years old, finally got on a train back to their hometown one night in September 1990.
He later wrote to Deng Xiaoping, in which he expressed greetings to his former colleagues and a request to return to his hometown to settle down, in which he mentioned the words "please allow him to stay in his hometown for the rest of his life." Immediately after, he sent a telegram home to Deng Xiaoping in the name of Gong Chu in his hometown. After receiving the telegram, Deng Xiaoping spoke with Gong Chu on the phone, and when Gong Chu heard Deng Xiaoping's greeting on the phone, he could not cry.
In his later years, Gong Chu and his family
In July 1995, Gong Chu died in his hometown in Lechang County at the age of 95. Looking back on his life, if he had not betrayed the revolution but had chosen to resist stubbornly, would he not have had the embarrassment of returning home in his old age? Looking back at the history of Gong Chu makes us understand that opportunism is not to be tolerated.
His former rebellion caused the sacrifice of countless Red Army soldiers, and this stain can never be erased. Firmness and vacillation are between a single thought, and for Gong Chu, it is a great pity that he did not realize the ideal of serving the country as a soldier. If he could be given another chance, would he still choose to defect?