In 1949, after the peaceful liberation of Peiping, our Party officially took over the city and conducted a comprehensive inspection of the government units of the former Kuomintang.
At that time, a people's policeman named Zhu Wengang was responsible for handing over the Gongdelin Prison under the jurisdiction of the Deshengmen Branch of the police station, and under the introduction of the policemen retained by the former Kuomintang, Zhu Wengang quickly learned about the situation here.
When he walked to the back of the prison, Zhu Wengang accidentally saw that against the wall, there was a huge gallows, under which was pure wood, and above it was composed of two rails, which could strangle two people at a time.
Liberation of Peiping
Seeing such a cruel tool, Zhu Wengang involuntarily asked: "Do you all use this to execute death row inmates?" ”
The remaining police responded: "No, where can we use this, this is left by the previous warlords, I heard that they used this thing to hang the Communist leader Li Dazhao!" ”
Hearing the name "Li Dazhao", Zhu Wengang said angrily: "What are you talking about? Say it again! ”
gallows
The remaining policemen also realized the seriousness of the problem and trembled and said, "This is, this is the tool used by the previous warlords to hang Li Dazhao." ”
Zhu Wengang said sharply: "You show me this thing, look at it, before I come back, no one can move it." ”
Afterwards, after Zhu Wengang's urgent report, the leaders at higher levels attached great importance to it and kept the gallows as a cultural relic for the killing of revolutionary martyrs. Due to the particularity of this cultural relic, the organization also specially designated it as a cultural relic no. 0001.
Li Dazhao
In addition to keeping this cultural relic, the Beiping Municipal Public Security Bureau has also received a new task, that is, it must find the real murderer of Li Dazhao and then bring the other party to justice.
So, after more than twenty years, can the Beiping Public Security Bureau find the murderer? In this process, what twists and turns will the police encounter?
Image from the Internet
Preliminary understanding, confirm the real culprit
After receiving instructions from the superiors, the Peiping Police Department quickly mobilized, first of all, to find the murderer of Li Dazhao, then it is necessary to fully understand the arrest of Li Dazhao.
Through the visit and investigation of the people involved in that year, we quickly got a complete process of "Li Dazhao's arrest".
In 1924, Mr. Li Dazhao appeared for the first time on the enemy's list of must-kills. That year, when the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists began, Dr. Sun Yat-sen established the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, intending to eliminate the warlord forces entrenched in China in a revolutionary war.
Zhang Zuolin
In January of the same year, the first national congress of the Chinese Kuomintang was held, the Kuomintang organization was reorganized, and the principle of Communist Party members joining the Kuomintang in their personal capacity was established, and Mr. Li Dazhao also took the opportunity to join it, and established a large number of Kuomintang and Communist Party organizations in the northern region, widely publicizing the ideas of revolution and democracy.
However, it was this move that also made the Fengzhi warlord Zhang Zuolin realize the terror of Li Dazhao, and he was afraid that these ideas of equality and democracy would shake his dictatorship, so he openly issued an order to arrest Li Dazhao.
At that time, the Beiping Police Headquarters under the control of the Warlord Fengzhi searched and arrested Mr. Li Dazhao's residence, and as a result, Li Dazhao's family left there first, and the other side pounced and found nothing.
Guo Songling
In the face of this dangerous situation, Li Dazhao did not choose to flee, but continued to stay in Beiping City and vigorously propagate the revolutionary ideas of workers and peasants.
In 1925, when realizing the importance of armed struggle, Li Dazhao personally came forward to do the work of Feng Yuxiang, Guo Songling and other revolutionary generals, persuading them to join forces to overthrow Feng, and the result was that certain results were indeed achieved in the early stage of the war, but because Feng Yuxiang did not care about the overall situation, there were soon contradictions between the generals, which eventually led to the defeat and killing of Guo Songling's soldiers, Feng Yuxiang's defeat and return, and Li Jinglin's return to the feng clan.
After this war, Zhang Zuolin was very dissatisfied with Li Dazhao, the main contact who planned this war, and even regarded it as a serious problem for his confidants.
Northern Expedition
A year later, when the Northern Expedition broke out and the revolutionary mood in the whole country was rising day by day, Zhang Zuolin, in order to ensure his dictatorial rule, began to carry out white terror in Beiping City, ordering the arrest of Li Dazhao, Zhao Shiyan, Chen Qiaonian and other revolutionaries. Helplessly, Li Dazhao was forced to go underground and engage in secret propaganda work.
But even so, the enemy did not have a dead heart, and Zhang Zuolin forced the Beiping Police General Bureau to arrest Li Dazhao and others in a short period of time, otherwise the military law would be engaged.
At that time, in order to save their own lives, the officials of the Beiping Police General Bureau mobilized a large number of detective agents to collect intelligence from all aspects, as long as they were related to the revolutionaries, they would rather kill than let go.
Flyers
At the end of the same year, the Beiping Police General Bureau actually caught a peripheral officer who spread communist propaganda leaflets, and through this person found Li Bohai of the Cpc's Northern Bureau. After a period of severe torture, coercion and inducement, Li Bohai quickly confessed the whereabouts of Li Dazhao and others, and then took the initiative to promise to be a spy for people from the Police Headquarters to pass on the specific situation around Li Dazhao.
In March 1927, after more than three months of close surveillance, the Peiping Police General Bureau had thoroughly figured out the whereabouts of Li Dazhao and others, and learned that in addition to Li Dazhao's family, there were more than twenty revolutionaries hiding in the old barracks of the Soviet Embassy.
Police
After learning of this news, Zhang Zuolin specially appointed Chen Xingya, director of the Beiping Police General Bureau, to be in charge of the matter, while Chen Xinya formulated a strict arrest plan, with Wu Yuwen, the head of the investigation department, supporting the arrest operation, and the judicial director Pu Zhizhong and the deputy director of the investigation department, Lei Hengcheng, participated in the joint participation.
At the same time, in order to ensure the foolproof operation, the Peiping Police Station mobilized 140 guards, 300 policemen, 100 gendarmes, a total of 540 people to participate in the matter.
In the early morning of April 6, when the operation officially began, Wu Yuwen greeted the embassies of other countries in advance and obtained the right of armed troops to enter the embassy district on the pretext of "arresting the rebellious revolutionary Li Dazhao".
Li Dazhao
Subsequently, a large number of military police secretly surrounded the Soviet embassy, a Soviet military attaché discovered this phenomenon, immediately fired a warning shot, the result of the military police rushed up, directly knocked open the main entrance of the embassy, and blocked the past in the direction of the old military camp.
After entering the barracks, Wu Yuwen smiled confidently, "That is Mr. Li Dazhao?" We are looking for you so bitter! ”
Li Dazhao said plainly: "I am Li Dazhao, something is rushing at me, don't hurt others." ”
Wu Yuwen smiled and said, "Well, then trouble Mr. Li and come with us." ”
Counter-revolutionary coup
After saying this, a group of military and police agents pounced on him, pressing Li Dazhao heavily to the ground, and tied up with five flowers.
Afterwards, in the face of the severe torture of the Beiyang warlords, Mr. Li Dazhao never revealed the whereabouts of other members of our party, and Zhang Zuolin was also very distressed about such people.
It coincided with Chiang Kai-shek's "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup d'état and wantonly massacred communists. Chiang Kai-shek personally sent a secret telegram to Zhang Zuolin, saying that as long as the Feng army immediately executed the captured revolutionaries, the Northern Expeditionary Army could temporarily not continue to attack the north.
The death of Li Dazhao and others
Therefore, on April 28 of the same year, Zhang Zuolin disregarded public opinion and brutally hanged Li Dazhao and more than 20 other revolutionaries, and did not allow any participants to mention the matter to others.
Judging from the above incidents, there were many people involved in the murder of Mr. Li Dazhao, but the main executors of the incident were Chen Xingya, Wu Yuwen, Pu Zhizhong, and Lei Hengcheng, who became the real murderers of Li Dazhao.
However, after the identification of the murderer, new problems also emerged, because Mr. Li Dazhao died in 1927, twenty-two years have passed since the peaceful liberation of Peiping, and there are still a series of major events such as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, and the population flow in Beiping City is extremely large, which is also a major difficulty for the people's police.
Wu Yuwen
Top-secret whistleblowing, the real murderer is difficult to escape
In June 1951, just two years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Beijing Municipal Police Department received two top-secret letters from the Northeast Public Security Bureau and the Public Security Bureau of the Ministry of Railways.
The contents of the letter all recount one thing, that is, according to the report of Lu Zhenlang, a former Kuomintang military command business and Wu Qiyi, a cadre of a certain factory in Liaoning Province, who was detained by the Public Security Bureau of the Ministry of Railways, Wu Yuwen, one of the murderers who once participated in Li Dazhao's murder, has assumed the pseudonym Wu Bozai and is now living in the Gulouwan area of Beijing, hoping that the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau will deal with it quickly.
After reading these two whistle-blowing letters, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau immediately took it seriously and handed the matter over to Di Fei, the deputy director in charge of the investigation department, who in turn arranged the matter to the investigator Wen Zhenhai.
Gulou Street
At that time, the investigators of the Beijing Police Department were all concealed and did not wear uniforms at all, so they were also familiar with this kind of inquiry.
After receiving the task, Wen Zhenhai first inquired about the location of this "Gulou Bay" and learned from some old Beijing population that the so-called Gulou Bay is a residential area between Gulou Street and Shichahai today.
The next morning, Wen Zhenhai rode his bicycle to the residential area and searched for "Wu Bozai"'s household registration from the nearby police station. The local police searched carefully and did not find the existence of this person, but found a similar name "Wu Bozhai".
Courtyard
This "Wu Bozhai" is 69 years old, living in the courtyard of No. 4 Gulou Street, is an elderly widow and widow, his hometown is a native of Miyun County, Beijing, and there is no information about him.
Seeing that "Wu Bozhai" and "Wu Bozai" are only one word apart, and they both live in the Gulou area, Wen Zhenhai immediately believes that there must be an important relationship between the two, or that these two people are likely to be one person, after all, after the founding of New China, some reactionaries will generally change their names and surnames in order to avoid the punishment of the law.
With inner doubts, Wen Zhenhai rode to the fourth courtyard of Gulou Street, which is an old-fashioned Beijing courtyard, four rooms have been assigned to four families, assuming that this courtyard was previously Wu Bozhai's, then the government allocation will definitely leave the north house to the original homeowner.
North facing houses
According to this reason, Wen Zhenhai pretended to be looking for someone, patted the north gate, and shouted: "Yu Yongkui, Yu Yongkui, you give me out!" ”
Wen Zhenhai was shouting while clapping, but he heard a voice coming from a corner next to him: "Young man, there is no one you are looking for in this courtyard, you have come to the wrong place." ”
After hearing this voice, Wen Zhenhai quickly turned around and saw an old man lying on a bed on the east side of the courtyard, although the old man was already white-haired, but those eyes were very energetic. Ordinary people may only think that this old man is just a good look, but Wen Zhenhai, who has been a soldier, knows that this kind of look can only be possessed by people who have been killing people for many years without blinking.
Wen Zhenhai pretended to be embarrassed and scratched his head, murmuring, "I remember that he said this is here, I should not have found the wrong place." ”
After saying this, Wen Zhenhai took the initiative to walk out of the courtyard, and when he was about to walk to the gate, he saw a man who had just returned from outside, and quickly stopped the other party and asked: "Hello, please ask, what is the surname of the old gentleman lying on the bed in our yard?" ”
The man responded, "Oh, you're talking about Old Man Wu, he's a paralyzed man, so he's been bedridden for years." ”
Hearing this, Wen Zhenhai silently walked to a breakfast restaurant, where a group of uncles and aunts in the alley were chatting, and Wen Zhenhai took the initiative to get together.
After everyone had slowly become familiar with each other, Wen Zhenhai asked, "I heard that there was an old saying circulating in our old Beijing, called Qianmen, Dongdan, Xisi, and Gulou, which are all prosperous areas in Beijing, and only that kind of dignitaries and dignitaries can live, and I don't know if it is true?" ”
For this question, an old master said: "Of course, we dare not say anything else, but in several courtyards near here, there are former high officials, the first courtyard lives with a former Qing dynasty person, and the fourth courtyard wu old man is also a former high official." ”
Wen Zhenhai pretended to be surprised and said, "Old Man Wu, isn't he a paralyzed person?" How could he be a high official? ”
The old master explained: "Haha, that is because he did too many sins, which gradually paralyzed, in the early years he followed Zhang Zuolin Zhang Dashuai, even when little Japan entered Beiping City, he was still a big official, after the Japanese devils left, he followed the Kuomintang for a few years, until the liberation of New China, he was bedridden due to illness." ”
After listening to this explanation, Wen Zhenhai's heart was already certain that this old man Wu was estimated to be "Wu Bozai", and he immediately returned to the Beijing Municipal Police Station and reported the matter to his superiors.
At the same time, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau also found in an old archive the documents that Chen Xinya, Wu Yuwen, Pu Zhizhong, Lei Hengcheng, and others accepted the reward of the Beiyang warlord Zhang Zuolin after killing Mr. Li Dazhao, and these things can be used as evidence to convict these four people.
Similarly, among the former Kuomintang military command agents imprisoned in various places, some people also reported that Wu Yuwen, a person, had repeatedly used the pseudonyms "Wu Bozai" and "Wu Bozhai."
However, just after the evidence was conclusive, some people within the police station put forward the opinion of not wanting Wu Yuwen, on the grounds that he was already so old and still a paralyzed person, and according to our party's policy, even if he was arrested, he would not be executed, but on the contrary, he would be treated, which was completely unworthy.
Peng Zhen
In this regard, Peng Zhen, then mayor of Beijing, said: "We must grasp it, absolutely grasp it, even if there is only one breath left, we must arrest him back, if we let him go, it is a subversion of history, and the party and the state absolutely cannot allow such a thing to happen." ”
In mid-June 1951, four police officers from the Beijing Police Station came to the courtyard of the old Drum Tower Street, and looking at the slowly approaching police comrades, Wu Yuwen seemed to realize something.
A police officer said, "Are you Wu Yuwen?" ”
Capture Wu Yuwen's car
Wu Yuwen responded: "Yes."
Comrade Cadre Police officers then said: "Well, according to the laws of the People's Republic of China, you participated in the murder of Mr. Li Dazhao, a revolutionary martyr of our Party, and now we are arresting you." ”
Wu Yuwen said: "I can't go now, I'm paralyzed." ”
Comrade Cadre Police said: "It's all right, we have a car, we will take you to prison." ”
Li Dazhao
The truth came out and fell into the net
After Wu Yuwen was arrested, the police comrades conducted a strict trial of him, and in the face of the policy of frankness and leniency and resistance to strictness, Wu Yuwen quickly explained the whole process of the incident that year, and even how they killed Comrade Li Dazhao, he also described in detail.
After hearing that this group of demons had tortured Comrade Li Dazhao three times in succession, strangling his throat and holding his breath alive, and then rushing to save people, and then continuing to strangle people to the point that their eyes were red, after such repeated torture, many people were eager to shoot Wu Yuwen directly.
However, just after one of the four real murderers was caught, Pu Zhizhong, the head of justice who was one of the other three real murderers, voluntarily surrendered himself, and it turned out that Pu Zhizhong did not leave Beijing, he just changed his face and hid, his granddaughter was still a member of the Beijing Municipal Police, and when she learned of the sins that Grandpa Pu Zhizhong had committed, the female police officer took the initiative to persuade him to surrender.
Confession is lenient and resistant to strictness
At first, Pu Zhizhong was reluctant to surrender himself, but after learning about our party's policy of surrender, he took the initiative to choose to listen to his granddaughter's words, and finally considering the circumstances of his surrender, the Beijing Municipal Police Bureau did not take him into custody, but only carried out long-term ideological education work for him.
In addition to the above two people, the remaining police chief Chen Yaxing and the deputy director of the Investigation Department, Lei Hengcheng, quickly fled to the Shanghai area after our party liberated Peiping. Upon hearing the news, the Beijing police immediately passed on their information to the police in Shanghai, hoping that they would quickly arrest the two men.
The reported prisoner
After receiving the information, the Shanghai side first conducted a census of the foreign population, and soon Chen Yaxing exposed his identity and was voluntarily reported and exposed by a mass.
However, Lei Hengcheng is not a difficult person to find, no matter how the local public security organs search, they have never been able to find his traces, even in the list of foreign populations, there is no trace of him.
Coincidentally, the whistleblower letter appeared again, just six months after Wu Yuwen was arrested, an enthusiastic citizen of Beijing surnamed Wang reported that there was a monk named "Ming Zen Master" in a Beijing temple, who was actually a fugitive prisoner, Lei Hengcheng, but later fled to the Shanghai area because his identity was exposed.
Lei Hengcheng
With this information, the Shanghai police department quickly found a person who had been scarred according to the keyword "ming monk", and after a series of persecutions, Lei Hengcheng also confessed to his crime. So far, all the murderers who killed Mr. Li Dazhao have been arrested one by one.
Among these four people, Wu Yuwen was sent to the hospital by our party for treatment because he was seriously ill, but because he was sick for a long time and his age was relatively old, he eventually died in a hospital bed; as for Lei Hengcheng, he was sentenced to death according to law and was shot by the public security organs; Chen Yaxing was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment according to law; and Pu Zhizhong was punished for ideological reform and education work because he was involved in the circumstances of self-surrender.
The experience of these people also confirms the old saying that good and evil will eventually be repaid, not that the time has not yet come, even if more than twenty years have passed, but their crimes have finally ushered in the day of trial.