Author: Zhang Sheng
Source: Ironclad Cavalry
1945 was a year of unforgettable history. The second world war, the largest catastrophe in human history, finally came to an end: the ultimate weapon, the atomic bomb, exploded on the island of Japan, hundreds of thousands of emperor's subjects were reduced to ashes in a few seconds, and mankind entered the nuclear age; the Yalta Agreement was signed, which delineated the world Cold War pattern that lasted for more than half a century.
This year is also brilliant for Chinese people. After 8 years of bloody struggle, we finally won the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan. In China's modern history, this was the first complete victory of the anti-imperialist invasion of the Chinese people, and it was a legacy left to future generations by an entire generation at the cost of his flesh and blood. This war inspired the awakening of the national consciousness of the Chinese people as a whole, and the Chinese nation has since moved from decay to rejuvenation.
I also came to earth in this year.
Mother said that on the day I was born, the moon was like a silver plate, very bright, so bright that it was a little desolate, and the autumn wind was accustomed to blowing through the empty fields, blowing everything in the world as if nothing.
It is a difficult birth. After a whole day of tossing and turning, adults and children like a ghost door closed, the mother said, you will not cry when you are born, stillborn? It also happened that there was a doctor from the obstetrics and gynecology department who came to the base from Shanghai and lived next door. She heard that there were family members of the New Fourth Army who wanted to have children, so why couldn't she hear the movement? It's the doctor's vocation. Come over and look at it, and say that he was choked by amniotic fluid. I was ordered to beat two basins of water, one hot and one cold, soaking them back and forth like this, and then picking up my feet and spanking, and I don't know how long it took, and finally I cried out.
My father didn't see me until two weeks after I was born. In order to capture Xuzhou, the Kuomintang Li Pinxian's troops moved north from Bengbu starry night. His father served as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy of our army in Huaibei, and the 4th Column was the right road under the leadership of Wang Bicheng, and the 9th Column was the left road under the leadership of Zhang Zhen, blocking the incoming enemy and launching the Jinpu Road Breakthrough Operation. The great war was imminent, and Father was on the front lines. Excited, he rushed to see my mother and me.
Mom recalled, "Your dad took one look and said, ugly stuff! And he said, no matter how ugly it is, it is also my son! It is said that the ordeal of birth foreshadows the hardships and ups and downs of life. I don't know if it refers to adults or children. Luke ,...... When Mary's due date came, she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped in cloth and placed in a manger...
I really didn't come at the right time, my father left, but he passed by the world of life and death.
The joy of victory is short-lived. When the external pressure disappeared, the struggle between the two major political parties and two classes in the country suddenly heated up, and the smoke cloud of civil war once again hung over China.
Mao Zedong delivered his splendid speech, which is familiar to the people of the country: "Chiang Kai-shek will seize every inch of power and gain every inch of profit for the people. What about us? Our policy is tit-for-tat and every inch of land must be fought. ”
Mao Zedong's words represented the will and stand of the Communists on China's future direction, but only a month later, on September 17, 1945, Liu Shaoqi, who was presiding over the work of the Central Committee in Yan'an, telephoned Mao Zedong, who was negotiating with Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing, and proposed that under the principle of "tit-for-tat confrontation and every inch of land must be fought," specifically "advancing to the north and defending to the south," Mao Zedong immediately called back in favor. In the face of Chiang Kai-shek's army of 4 million American-style equipment, the Communist Party had no strength to confront the Kuomintang. They took the initiative to abandon the 8 liberated areas in the south and made the decision to shrink the south, consolidate north China, Shandong, and central China, and control Recha; in less than a month, they further made it clear that they would abandon east China, central China, the central plains, and north China, and only stick to Shandong, Shaanxi, and Gansu. What are they going to do? They must concentrate their efforts on seizing the northeast. Today, in the deadly struggle between the two major political parties, the first foot of the Communists is full of cunning and wisdom. As a result, Liu Shaoqi once again won his prestige in the party with his great talent.
First and foremost, it is central China.
About 500,000 kuomintang troops of 17 armies advanced in batches to the Liberated Areas of East China, and after capturing Nanjing, Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta, they went north along the Jinpu Road and directly approached North China and Northeast China.
The Central China Bureau was divided into two; the New Fourth Army was divided into two. The Headquarters of the New Fourth Army moved to Shandong, and the Central China Bureau merged with the Shandong Branch to form the East China Bureau, leaving another Branch office and the Central China Military Region. Huang Kecheng led the 3rd Division to seize the northeast and left; Luo Binghui's 2nd Division and his father's 4th Division were divided into two. The 4th and 5th Brigades of the 2nd Division, along with the entire 7th Division, were transferred to Shandong. The 9th Brigade of the 4th Division was transferred to Shandong, while the 11th and 12th Brigades of the 4th Division and the 6th Brigade of the 2nd Division remained in Huaibei. Su Yu and Ye Fei's 1st Division remained in northern Jiangsu. The anti-Japanese athletes of the New Fourth Army, 80,000 went north, and 50,000 insisted on holding central China.
Chen Yi and Huang Kecheng left, while their father and Zhang Dingcheng, Deng Zihui, and Su Yu stayed. The Central Committee called "First of all, to organize a powerful field army in central China." Father and Su Yu were appointed deputy commanders of the Central China Military Region. The Central China Military Region was initially called the Suwan Military Region, implying that the leaders of the two base areas of Central Jiangsu and Huaibei joined forces to defend Central China and prepare to meet the millions of troops transferred by the Kuomintang from the rear.
According to his father's own words, the War of Resistance Against Japan was the second stage of his life. He matured, he was no longer just a desperate samurai who slammed hard, his strategic mind, command ability, tenacious and hard-working character and bold style gradually became recognized by the senior leaders of the party, and some people began to appreciate him.
After Peng Xuefeng's sacrifice, who would take his place had different opinions. The Central China Bureau had proposed the selection of cadres from the Eighth Route Army, but in the end the Central Committee agreed that his father would take over. His strategic vision and boldness in breaking into northeastern Anhui alone; his strategy of political struggle against Sheng Zijin in the united front; his ability to build and administer the army in the creation of the Ninth Brigade; and his command art and heroic spirit of sacrifice in the anti-sweeping campaign in Yanfu District have all become important chips for recommending him to this post. Of course, his long-term combat in Jianghuai is also an important factor. At the time of the great war, considering that the hinterland of central China was composed of two campaign directions, the Soviet Union and the Anhui Campaign, the central authorities entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of deputy commander of the Central China Military Region, and Su Yu was responsible for the struggle against the enemy in northern Jiangsu and northern Huaibei respectively. He seems to have come ahead of his peers and became the best of the brigade-level cadres of the New Fourth Army in the early days of the War of Resistance. Father had reason to accept all this, because it was not won by interpersonal relations, not by throwing in his favor, not by suppressing his own personality; but by fighting bloody battles, by not counting fame and fortune, by promoting his own personality. Now, in the main direction of an important strategic position, covering the strategic transfer and unfolding of our army in East China, facing the pressure of millions of enemy troops, and standing at the forefront of resisting the Kuomintang's attack, it should be said that this is both a heavy weight and a severe test for the central authorities.
I don't know why. My father always seemed reluctant to talk more about his history. But I still peeked into his mentality from the poems he left behind. He wrote: "Resist the storm, turn the tide, be bold... Hand long spring sword, waist slash long snake Tsuura. ”
In the face of major challenges, his life should be more exciting.
At that time, the Central China Military Region was stationed in Huai'an, the hometown of Zhou Enlai. From Huai'an to the front line of Jinpu Road, his father's habit was to ride horses, and when he was in the Red Army, he served as the commander of the cavalry regiment of the Central Military Commission, and he was very good at riding, splitting knives, and shooting on horseback. At this time, the troops already had trucks, and everyone suggested that the car should be much faster, so he hesitated for a moment and changed to a car... And so the disaster struck.
Cars are of course faster than horses. It was the kind of big truck that captured the Japanese, and he sat in the cockpit, and the staff officer and other entourage were in the back compartment. You think, the captured car was worn out, there was no repair shop at that time, so it stumbled and rushed to the road. Not far from the front line, I encountered the transport team in front of the people's support, horse-drawn carriages, platoon cars, and unicycles, blocking the road tightly. The car couldn't pass, it was raining again, and it was a day of walking, and my father said that since he had to wait, he might as well go down and get something to eat. He poked his head out of the window and turned back to explain something to the people in the back compartment... The car slid backwards slowly, and there was a wall next to it, and before his voice could fall, his head was caught between the door and the wall... He was suddenly unconscious. Why not go horseback riding? Why take this broken car? Why not rush over and stop at this ghost place? But all this is meaningless, this is fate!
According to Sun Gongfei, the chief of the operations section at the scene, he recalled: I heard the chief speaking in the front cockpit, how suddenly there was no sound, the probe looked, ah! Blood poured out of the commander's squeezed head..."
In the panic, some people said that they could not reverse the car, as soon as they started, the body shook, and the head was crushed, and they could only slowly push the car away. The man passed out at that time, and blood gushed from the brow bone.
Wang Guangsheng, who was present at the Logistics and Health Department of the Central China Military Region, said that "the skull is cracked from the brow bone." Maybe it was the hat he was wearing that saved him, and the brim of the hat was folded down and cushioned. When the chief woke up, he began to vomit blood..."
I asked my father what was going on, and he recalled, "I can't think of the details. I just remember that when I woke up, my eyes couldn't be opened, and the sky was spinning. ”
Does it hurt? I asked.
"It wasn't very painful, I thought it was ok, I still understood. The battle was about to start, and I let the troops know, but it was a big taboo, Huaibei I knew very well, and I could touch it with my eyes closed. “
Sun Gongfei, the chief of the operations section, recalled: "I saw that the chief gradually woke up a little, so he said that he would quickly report to Commander Chen Yi and the Central China Bureau. His eyes were closed as if he had heard them, his fingers were moving, and I knew he wouldn't allow us to say it. He had been lying like this on the stretcher, his eyes closed, and the telegram was read by me. He didn't need a map, he had created a base here, and he was all too familiar with the area. ”
Wang Guangsheng, minister of health, said: "The chief is a head injury and a serious concussion, and I warn him that he must lie still and cannot do this anymore, otherwise he will leave behind sequelae."
Mom said, "When I heard the news coming from the front, I went to the Central China Bureau to ask what was going on." Elder Deng (Deng Zihui) comforted me and said that it was not expected to be too serious, and the front line said that he had been commanding the battle, but I always had an ominous premonition. ”
A week later, the battle was over. My father forced himself to attend the celebration meeting, he wanted to say a few words to the troops, and as soon as he stepped onto the rostrum, he fell headlong into the camp...
At this time, the leading comrades above were not aware of his father's injuries, and judging from the telegrams, everything was normal. After the battle, Mr. Chen asked his father to rush to Huai'an immediately. Participating in the military investigation team, he said that Colonel Lake of the Us side had arrived. When they met, they were shocked, and Mr. Chen sighed: "What did you do?" Having been so badly injured, why are you still on the battlefield?"
Mom said: No wonder Mr. Chen was shocked, when I saw him, your father was lying on the bed, his eyes were closed, his head was so swollen, he couldn't recognize the original. Your father is a man who doesn't listen to anyone else. The concussion man can no longer be shaken, he does not want the soldiers to be tired to carry him, insists on putting the stretcher on the car, then it is all muddy roads, all the way down the bumps, where is the good?"
Mr. Chen, Zhang Dingcheng and other leaders came to visit their father, and after leaving, my mother listened to them ask the doctor, and the voice of the discussion was very low, intermittently, but my mother still vaguely heard "... Scrapped" two words.
Her milk was gone at this moment, and I never ate my mother's milk again. The reality is harsh, but she will bear it with him.
In late June 1946, a large-scale civil war broke out. On August 9, with the defeat at the Battle of Sixian County, the situation in Huaibei took a sharp turn for the worse, and on September 19, Huai'an was occupied. Soon the two Huai were lost.
Prior to this, Su Yu and his father, the first and second deputy commanders of the Central China Military Region, had a discussion on the operational policy. What the two of them have in common is that they do not agree to abandon Central China, and the difference is to stick to Central China, and what kind of operational policy should they adopt? Su Yu held that it is necessary to adopt a proactive campaign to strike at the enemy in the north and annihilate a large number of the enemy's living forces in order to lay the foundation for a foothold in central China in the future. Father, on the other hand, believed that in the face of a fierce enemy, we should not rush into battle, but should take mobile warfare of limited scale combined with guerrilla warfare as the main form of combat, and be prepared for a long time to persist in the struggle in the base areas. The rivers and lakes in central China are in all directions, and it is completely possible to maneuver with the enemy, avoid its sharp edge, and sit and wait for the fighter.
Now, exactly whose opinion is more reasonable, for him. It doesn't make sense anymore.
On his sickbed, my father received letters from Zhang Zhenhuan, director of the Political Department of the 9th Column, and Zhao Yiya, director of propaganda, saying that lianghuai was missing. According to the recollections of some old comrades, when my father read the account in the letter about the loss of the two Huaihuai and the fall of Huaibei, the panic and haste of our army and people in their retreat, as well as the tragic situation of the landlords returning to their hometowns and the brutality of the masses in the base areas, he actually lost his voice and wept bitterly.
I did not check this detail with my father. Was he grieving the loss of this land, which had made such a great sacrifice? Or are you weeping for how helpless you are at this time? When recalling this experience, he only said one sentence: "I am really happy for the news that Comrade Su Yu has won seven battles and seven victories in the Soviet Union. But every day I just had a headache, and the pain was like cracking..." I found the poem "Victory Report" written by him at that time: "Seven battles have been won by the enemy in succession, and the movement war and guerrilla warfare have won the victory." The date is August 1 in Huai'an. In the torment of illness, he congratulated his comrades-in-arms on the victory of the seven battles and seven victories, and at the same time, he was also angry that he could not personally practice the idea of combining mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare.
After the fall of lianghuai, the logistics personnel of the party and government organs in central China withdrew from the direction of Shuyang to Shandong, and the local personnel suffered great losses because the retreat was not enough. We also moved to Linyi with our father. Soon, Linyi was also in a hurry, and the organization decided to transfer his father to Dalian to recuperate.
This is not the place he should be! The Communist Party and the Kuomintang are confronted with a great decisive battle concerning the fate of China; if we say that the period of the Red Army, the period of the War of Resistance, was only rehearsal; in the War of Liberation, it was the beginning of the great drama, and the Communist army, which had experienced guerrilla warfare in scattered base areas, today they will be integrated and carry out the final decisive battle with this old enemy of 18 years, with the field army as the unit. The grand curtain of a large corps battle has been slowly opened, and he who has just been promoted to a leadership position in the war zone could have shown his style, but now, when the great war comes, he has to be with the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, and he is on the road of retreat. This is not only anxious and bitter for him, it is simply a punishment, a punishment of fate!
This injury brought his father a lifetime of regrets, and Zhang Aiping's name disappeared from the glorious history of the entire liberation war. The land of northeast Anhui, with my advent, brought disaster to my father, is there really any hint in the darkness?
