On August 24, 1955, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau was ordered to arrest a female deputy director of the street, who was said to be named Zhou Yuelin, one of the traitors who betrayed Qu Qiubai that year.
Just two months ago, on the 20th anniversary of Qu Qiubai's murder by the reactionaries, the burial ceremony for his remains was solemnly held at the Beijing Revolutionary Cemetery (Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery). After the ceremony, the relevant personnel asked Qu Qiubai's wife Yang Zhihua what other requirements she had.
The only demand put forward by Yang Zhihua was to thoroughly investigate the traitors who betrayed Qu Qiubai in those years, bring them to justice, and give Qu Qiubai an explanation and also an explanation to history.
In 1930 Qu Qiubai and Yang Zhihua were in Moscow
However, who was the culprit who betrayed Qu Qiubai? To find out the ins and outs of the matter, we must first start with the withdrawal of the Central Red Army.
First, the withdrawal of the Central Red Army, why Qu Qiubai was left behind
If the Central Red Army had withdrawn from Ruijin in October 1934 and Qu Qiubai had been able to accompany him at the beginning of the Long March, he would most likely not have been caught by the enemy. Because the central organs have been protected by tens of thousands of Red Army regiments in the middle throughout the Long March, as long as they can persist, they are relatively safe.
So, why was Qu Qiubai left in the Central Soviet Area? What's the secret here? As far as the situation was concerned, the reason was nothing more than twofold:
First, Qu Qiubai was ostracized by Wang Mingbogu and others.
Qu Qiubai, a native of Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, joined the Communist Party of China in 1922. After the "Eighty-Seven" Conference in 1927, he presided over the work of the Central Committee. In January 1931, he was dismissed from the central leadership post due to "left-leaning" blind movement. At the end of 1933, the Provisional Central Committee presided over by Wang Ming asked Qu Qiubai to leave Shanghai for the Central Soviet Region. On February 5, 1934, Qu Qiubai arrived in Ruijin and became the Minister of Education.
Qu Qiubai
After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was forced to withdraw from the Soviet zone and carry out the Long March. Zhang Wentian said that Qu Qiubai had repeatedly asked him to join the Long March, and he also expressed sympathy. So Zhang Wentian went to bogu to do work, but bogu firmly disagreed.
Second, Qu Qiubai has lung disease and is indeed not suitable for long-distance marching.
At that time, Qu Qiubai had a serious tuberculosis, and we all know that tuberculosis is a chronic disease that is very wasteful of people's bodies. The strategic shift of the Central Red Army at that time did not have a very clear line, and it was not known where to go and how long it would take, and it could be said that the future was uncertain. If Qu Qiubai participated in the Long March, as far as his physical condition was concerned, it was indeed a problem.
Based on the above reasons, Qu Qiubai was left behind. Of course, some people in the central organs also stayed because of the needs of the struggle against the enemy, including Xiang Ying, Chen Yi, He Shuheng, and so on. The Jiangxi Branch of the Central Committee was also established, and Qu Qiubai continued to serve as the education minister of the sub-bureau.
However, as a rare high-ranking leading cadre in our party, it is not normal for Qu Qiubai to leave him behind when he can foresee that there will be more evil and fewer evils left behind. Therefore, in 1943, during the party's rectification movement, Chairman Mao once said that Qu Qiubai was left in Ruijin by Wang Ming and Bogu as a burden.
Second, what Qu Qiubai experienced during his stay
In May 1932, as soon as the Central Red Army left the Soviet zone, the enemy army began to attack the hinterland of the Soviet zone. The more than 1,600 people who remained were soon besieged by the enemy. The Central Bureau decided to send someone to escort He Shuheng and Qu Qiubai to leave Ruijin first and transfer to the White Area to engage in underground work. It was planned to travel from Fujian to Guangdong and then from Guangdong to Hong Kong, looking for party organizations in Hong Kong, and then going to Shanghai.
In this case, the sub-bureau made this decision, which was also a relatively prudent method at that time. Let Qu Qiubai break out, and the bureau also has an idea, that is, to let him go to Shanghai to see a doctor. In the Soviet area, which was blocked by the enemy layer by layer, there was a lack of medical treatment and medicine, and Qu Qiubai's tuberculosis became more and more serious. His face was already a little puffy, he coughed incessantly, and he often vomited blood.
Also accompanied were Zhang Liang, the wife of Xiang Ying, who was pregnant, and Zhou Yuelin, director of the women's department of the sub-bureau. Deng Zihui also traveled with him, and instead of going to the White Zone, he was sent by the Central Bureau to fight guerrillas in the Yongding area of Fujian Province.
Zhou Yuelin
After several days of arduous marching, on about February 18, the group arrived at the Fujian Provincial Party Committee's garrison, Changting SiduShan, and met Wan Yongcheng, the head of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee. Here they rested for two days, but it was precisely because of the two days of stay here that Qu Qiubai was later betrayed, laying a fatal hidden danger.
Wan Yongcheng proposed two plans for Qu Qiubai's next breakthrough.
One is to mix Qu Qiubai and others with merchants who buy shiitake mushrooms from other places. Qu Qiubai considered his and He Shuheng's physical condition, as well as Zhang Liang's pregnancy, and once the enemy found out and shot, it would be difficult to escape, and did not agree.
The other was to disguise Qu Qiubai as prisoners of the Red Army, escort the Red Army fighters into the costumes of the Kuomintang army, and pretend to "escort" them through the enemy's blockade area. Qu Qiubai agreed with this plan.
The third from the left in the back row is Zhou Yuelin during the Red Army
Two days later, Qu Qiubai left Sidu Mountain and headed in the direction of Yongding. On the evening of February 23, they arrived near the mouth of the Changting River in Fujian Province, where they had to cross the Ting River, the largest river in western Fujian, to the east. They did not dare to walk the bridge guarded by the enemy, so they decided to sneak across the river from the bottom of the bridge in the middle of the night.
At dawn on the 24th, they arrived near Xiaoyi Village in Changting Shuikou Town. Everyone was tired and hungry, so they decided to rest here and leave in the afternoon after eating. Unexpectedly, the cooking smoke of cooking attracted the awareness of the local landlord armed "volunteer brigade".
The enemy soon surrounded Qu Qiubai's squad. During the battle, the unreliable escort team leader Ding Toupai, after hearing the gunshots, fled first, and the more than 100 soldiers who remained were gradually scattered because they had no command. Reluctantly, Deng Zihui organized everyone to start moving to the mountain behind the village. The enemy in the rear chased after him and pressed against the hill.
In a hurry, He Shuheng unfortunately rolled down the cliff and was found by the enemy, who robbed him of 500 Hong Kong dollars and shot him. Pity He Shuheng, a major representative of our party, who sacrificed himself in the middle of the barren mountains and wild mountains.
He Shuheng
Qu Qiubai and Zhang Liang were far behind due to physical inconvenience. After Deng Zihui and Zhou Yuelin ran out for a long distance, they found that Qu Qiubai did not follow them, and Zhou Yuelin turned back to look for her, and since then she and Deng Zihui have also lost contact. Fortunately, Zhou Yuelin quickly found Qu Qiubai, who was walking alone. Then, they found Zhang Liang in a grove of trees.
The three of them began to break through in pairs. Because of the constant running, Qu Qiubai's body was already tired and he really couldn't walk. Reluctantly, they hid in a pond surrounded by tall grass, hoping to escape the enemy's pursuit. But unfortunately, it was discovered by the enemy who was in hot pursuit.
When Lin Jixuan, a quartermaster of the 14th Regiment of Enemy Security who led the team, went forward to search qu Qiubai's three men, he found that Qu Qiubai had a pen in his chest bag, and the pen shaft was also engraved with the words "Qu Qiubai". This guy probably didn't know what kind of character Qu Qiubai was at that time, and he didn't hand over his pen and take it for himself. After Qu Qiubai was exposed, he often took out this pen to show off in front of others.
Thankfully, after 16 years of being occupied by forest bandits, this pen has finally seen the light of day. In 1951, Li Fengrui, president of Longyan Higher Normal College in Fujian Province, was responsible for the pilot land reform in the Wuping County Party Committee. During the suppression of bandits and hegemony, Lin Jixuan, a bandit leader who rebelled after the false surrender, was captured on the spot with a fountain pen from him, and found that the pen was engraved with the name of "Qu Qiubai". After interrogation, Lin Jixuan confessed to his search for Qu Qiubai and the possession of the pen for himself. Later, Lin Jixuan was shot. Qu Qiubai's pen was also sent to the Museum of Chinese Revolutionary History in Beijing for treasure.
Let's go back to February 26, 1935, when Qu Qiubai and the three were escorted to Shanghang County Prison. At first, they were held in the same prison, so the three took the opportunity to make up their identities. Zhou Yuelin said that his name was Chen Xiuying, he had worked as a nurse, and he was captured by the Red Army. Zhang Liang said that his name was Zhou Lianyu, her husband was a mushroom merchant, and he was "tied up" by the Red Army. Qu Qiubai, alias Lin Qixiang, studied medicine at Peking University, was captured by the Red Army due to illness, and worked as a doctor and cultural instructor in the General Health Department of the Red Army.
Qu Qiubai is in prison
Due to the relatively complete formulation of the three-man offensive and defensive alliance, the enemy did not find anything unusual after several days of interrogation. Li Yu, of the 14th Security Regiment in charge of the interrogation, told Qu Qiubai: If the circumstances you have provided are true, you can release them on bail.
The first to be released on bail were Zhou Yuelin and Zhang Liang. First zhou Yuelin, at that time, It happened that Li Yu's wife was going to give birth, and Zhou Yuelin had been a nurse, so she was guaranteed by Li Yu's mother to deliver li Yu's wife. After that was Zhang Liang, Zhang Liang was close to the delivery period at that time, there was a candy shop owner named Lin Hongchang in Shanghang County, who had been married to his wife for many years and had no children, so he bailed Zhang Liang out, he wanted the child in Zhang Liang's belly.
Qu Qiubai also wrote in the name of Lin Qixiang to his friends Lu Xun and Zhou Jianren in Shanghai, as well as his wife Yang Zhihua, asking them to try to release them on bail.
Qu Qiubai and Lu Xun (painting by Xu Beihong)
Third, the final outcome of Qu Qiubai, Zhou Yuelin and Zhang Liang
Just when the crowd was rushing to rescue Qu Qiubai. On June 18, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly ordered Song Xilian, commander of the enemy's 36th Division, to shoot Qu Qiubai on the spot. Seeing that Qu Qiubai could be rescued, who betrayed Qu Qiubai and exposed his identity?
After Qu Qiubai was killed, Zhou Yuelin and Zhang Liang were soon arrested and imprisoned again. In prison, Zhou Yuelin delivered a boy to Zhang Liang. It was not until 1938, when the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated for the second time to resist Japan, that a primary school classmate of Zhou Yuelin's lover, Liang Baitai, and Chen Shiming, who held an important position in the Kuomintang party department in Longyan, managed to release the two of them from prison on bail.
Unfortunately, the safe release of the two of them from prison also provided so-called "supporting evidence" for them to be suspected of betraying Qu Qiubai. People can't help but ask, why were they arrested together and Qu Qiubai killed, but they were able to get out of prison safely?!
Subsequently, Zhou Yuelin went to the hometown of her husband Liang Baitai and prepared to inquire about Liang Baitai in order to find the CCP organization, but unexpectedly got the news of Liang Baitai's sacrifice. Forced to make a living, Zhou Yuelin finally married a poor boatman.
In July 1938, Zhang Liang went through hardships to Jing County, Anhui Province, where the New Fourth Army headquarters was located, and found her husband Xiang Ying. Xiang Ying asked Zhang Liang if he had betrayed Qu Qiubai, and Zhang Liang was so angry that he did not say a word for a while. Some people say that Xiang Ying was angry and shot his wife. But this is not true, Xiang Ying's daughter Xiang Suyun personally wrote an article to refute this rumor. Because after this, Zhang Liang also sent her and Xiang Ying's son to Yan'an. However, after Zhang Liang left Yan'an, he completely disappeared, and he has not been heard from since.
Xiang Suyun, daughter of Xiang Ying
Fourth, Zhou Yuelin was wronged for 44 years, and finally he had to be cleared
Writing this, everyone should be able to understand why Zhou Yuelin was arrested in 1955. Because of the three people who grasped it together, only Zhou Yuelin was left living in the world now. There were doubts about them back then, and now to hold them accountable, they must be arrested and brought to justice.
On August 24, 1955, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau quickly arrested Zhou Yuelin, who had already worked as a deputy director of the street through his own efforts. Ten years later, the Beijing Intermediate People's Court issued a formal judgment sentencing Zhou Yuelin to 12 years in prison. Later, although her sentence had expired, she was still locked up because of the seriousness of the case. During his more than 20-year prison career, Zhou Yuelin appealed to the court many times but to no avail.
Elderly Zhou Yuelin
Things took a turn for the better after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Zhou Yuelin's appeal attracted the attention of the top management and began to seriously investigate the ins and outs of the matter. The kung fu paid off, and finally the special case team found a message in an old newspaper of that year: "The wife of the secretary of the Chi Gong Fujian Province surrendered and confessed the identity of the bandit Qu Qiubai."
It turned out that on April 10, 1935, the enemy's 8th Division captured Xu Shi, the wife of Wan Yongcheng, secretary of the Fujian Provincial CPC Committee (Wan Yongcheng was killed in battle), at the foot of Guilong Mountain at the junction of Changting, Wuping, and Huichang counties, and it was she who confessed that Qu Qiubai, He Shuheng, and Zhang Liang were all captured in the Maotian area.
Because, during the two days when Qu Qiubai was resting at the seat of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee in Changting, Xu Shi had contacted Qu Qiubai and knew some inside information. After she confessed these information, the enemy quickly found out qu Qiubai's whereabouts according to the information.
After Qu Qiubai's identity was exposed, the enemy launched further interrogation of him and tortured him many times, but Qu Qiubai still insisted that his name was Lin Qixiang. Later, the enemy discovered that among the people he had captured in the early days was a man named Zheng Dapeng, seventeen or eighteen years old, who had worked as a receiver and dispatcher in the People's Education Committee of the Central Soviet Region, and had already defected earlier. Immediately, the enemy came up with a ruse for the traitor Zheng Dapeng to identify. Under Zheng's designation, Qu Qiubai had to admit his identity.
After that, Chiang Kai-shek personally sent people to Changting, Fujian, to induce Qu Qiubai to surrender, but Qu Qiubai refused. On June 18, 1935, Qu Qiubai calmly took up his righteousness at the foot of luohan Ridge in the west of Changting, Fujian Province.
Qu Qiubai Martyrs Monument
After the truth of the incident came out, on November 15, 1979, the High People's Court revoked the original verdict against Zhou Yuelin, and the public security department immediately acquitted Zhou Yuelin, who was already a white-haired old lady. In March 1980, the Organization Department of the Cpc Shanxi Provincial Committee implemented the policy for Zhou Yuelin and gave her a leave of absence according to her participation in the revolution in 1925. Zhou Yuelin finally cleared away the grievances that had been in his heart for 44 years and ushered in a new life.
In the case of Qu Qiubai's murder, the five people who broke through from the Central Soviet Region together were all good-looking, and in the face of the ferocity of the enemy, none of them defected, and all of them adhered to the revolutionary integrity. They are well-deserved Communists who will eventually be remembered by history. And those who defect to the enemy will eventually be judged by history.