In November 1949, Chongqing was liberated. Soon, under the confession of the self-surrender agent, the truth about the secret murder of General Yang Hucheng surfaced. A few days later, the remains of Yang Hucheng's father and son were exhumed from the garden of the "Dai Gong Ancestral Hall". People saw an urn next to Yang Hucheng.
In 1937, Yang Hucheng (photographed in Shanghai) before going abroad to investigate
It has been confirmed that this urn is exactly the urn of Yang Hucheng's wife Xie Baozhen, who will be carried by Yang Hucheng wherever he goes. After seeing this scene, the world lamented: this heroic couple who shared hardships and hardships actually completed "life and death together" in this way...
How exactly was Xie Baozhen killed? The answer to this question was what Yang Hucheng had been looking for before he died.
Three years before Yang Hucheng was killed, in 1946, he was imprisoned in Xiuwen County, Guizhou, and he already had a premonition that his wife, who was separated from him and imprisoned, would be in trouble. Initially, the couple was imprisoned together, but as the situation deteriorated further, the wife was held in solitary confinement to the Mother Earth Cave.
Dimu Cave was only half a mile away from Yang Hucheng's imprisoned Di Xuantian Cave, but because of the strict supervision of the secret agents, the two of them had never met. In this way, Xie Baozhen in the Earth Mother Cave became a person.
Xuantian Cave
The reason why the agents made such a decision was naturally because Xie Baozhen was once a communist party member, and she could affect Yang Hucheng's imprisonment at any time; what worried the agents even more was that Xie Baozhen was extremely unfriendly to the agents. The third reason the agents kept Xie Baozhen in his custody alone was that her mental state was already in a state of extreme instability.
Xie Baozhen's mood is indeed very unstable, which is related to her long-term imprisonment in a dark and damp place and her two more births. Xie Baozhen gave birth to two daughters in succession in prison: the first daughter died just 8 days after birth, and the second daughter, Yang Zhenggui (Zhengguo), survived smoothly.
Yang Zhenggui's ability to survive was related to Xie Bao's really huge sacrifice, and in order to give her daughter as good food as possible, she often quarreled with the secret agents. At first, her trick worked, and the agents were pressured to agree to some of her requests. But then impatient agents began to abuse her, in order to better punish her: they came up with the "solitary detention" method mentioned earlier.
It can be said that holding Xie Baozhen in custody alone is a "trick" that the agents came up with after several considerations. They had already grasped Xie Bao's real weakness: she valued her husband and children very seriously. Such a person, once forced to leave her husband and children, is very good to "deal with".
After being held in solitary custody, the spies began to interrogate Xie Baozhen continuously, for two purposes: first, to make her admit her identity as a member of the Communist Party and confess to her fellow party; second, to make her admit that she was the one behind Yang Hucheng's xi'an incident.
Yang Hucheng, Xie Baozhen and Yang Zhengzhong
Xie Bao was really a staunch revolutionary, and she would not compromise easily. But the spies always have a way, not to mention that Xie Bao is really a woman! In the face of the strong and indomitable Xie Baozhen, the agents began to torture her with a high degree of mental torture. Xie Baozhen, who was weak because of the birth of a child in prison twice, her spirit was also almost broken due to long-term abuse.
During the time when the agents attacked Xie Baozhen, Yang Hucheng often heard the screams echoing in the valley, and this call was clearly heard by Yang Hucheng and his children. But in the face of Xie Baozhen, who was being tortured and only half a mile away from them, they were powerless.
Later, when recalling this tragic situation of Yang Hucheng's family, the secret agent said: Yang Hucheng often stood at the entrance of the cave with his children, stood with a son and a daughter, and wept like rain in the direction where the shouts came from...
During that time, Yang Hucheng's mind was full of the figure of his wife, and the scenes of him and his wife in the past came to his mind like a movie. In order to distract his children, he began to tell them stories of the two knowing and falling in love.
Yang Hucheng told his son Yang Zhengzhong that he and she were officially married in 1928, when she was only 15 years old. With his narration, Yang Zhengzhong seems to have returned to that era.
When he married Xie Baozhen, Yang Hucheng was 35 years old, he was a full 20 years older than Xie Baozhen, and he was the "head" of Taihe County, Anhui Province, where Xie Baozhen worked. When the person who was sent to introduce her told her that "Yang Hucheng is in love with you", she immediately blushed with shame when she had already admired Yang Hucheng.
The introducer saw xie Baozhen, who had always been generous, blushed, and immediately understood in his heart: there was a drama in this matter. In January 1928, the two were successfully married, and she became his third wife.
No matter from which point of view, the combination of Yang Hucheng and Xie Bao is "perfect". Xie Bao was really a revolutionary, she had already joined the Communist Party of China, she was bold, eloquent and dared to be the first in the world, while Yang Hucheng was brave and warlike and a staunch revolutionary, and he also supported the CCP's ideas.
Such a combination was a proper "revolutionary companion" in that era.
After marriage, Xie Baozhen's care for Yang Hucheng was almost all-round, she not only took care of his diet and living, but also served as his most effective assistant at work.
Yang Hucheng and Xie Baozhen
Xie Bao is really a very hard-working woman, and her ability to endure hardships is related to her origin: she was born in a poor family. As a child, she learned to raise pigs to mow grass, wash and cook. Because of her family's poverty and excellent grades, she had to drop out of school when she was in elementary school. After dropping out of school for four years, she was recommended to continue her studies in the women's movement class of Sun Yat-sen College.
Entering the women's sports class was a major turning point in fate for Xie Baozhen. Because it was here that her mind underwent an unprecedented baptism. Soon after, she began to devote herself to advocacy work on the front lines. At work, she became acquainted with two old revolutionaries: Liu Bojian and Xuanxia's father.
Under the influence of the two old revolutionaries, Xie Baozhen not only understood the reasons behind the country's poverty and weakness, she also had a clear understanding of the future direction of the revolution, and she was even ready to shed blood and sacrifice for the revolution.
It was also under the influence of the two of them that Xie Baozhen firmly joined the Communist Party. It was also from then on that a difficult and tortuous revolutionary road unfolded before her.
Xie Baozhen, who has undergone the baptism of new ideas, has an idea: her revolution can change the fate of herself and more of China's toiling masses. Because of this concept, Xie Baozhen was always full of enthusiasm and passion in the revolution, and her pungent, brave, and strong often made men ashamed of themselves.
In order to strengthen the revolutionary ranks, Xie Baozhen also set up a girls' school in Taihe County, which not only taught people to read and write, but also propagated revolutionary ideas.
Such a woman is loved by the great hero Yang Hucheng, which is undoubtedly reasonable.
Xie Baozhen in his youth
Whenever he talked to his children about their revolutionary ideals, Yang Zhengzhong could always find that his father's eyes shone with light. This light, too, undoubtedly gave him strength.
Yang Hucheng has more than once said the words asked by others when they got married: "Why did you choose to marry Xie Baozhen?" To this question, Yang Hucheng's answer is: "Because she is progressive in her thinking, she can help me in her work." After hearing Yang Hucheng's answer, Xie Baozhen said from the side: "I don't want you to swear to the Mountain Alliance, as long as you revolutionize." ”
But revolution has always meant sacrifice. Yang Hucheng knew this, and Xie Baozhen also understood. But none of them imagined that their sacrifice for the revolution would be so great that they would give up even the "love" that they did not want to give up.
If a person abandons love, how can he live? This question, Yang Hucheng has no answer. Unable to find the answer, he wrote in a letter from prison to his separately imprisoned wife, in which he wrote:
"The essence (crystallization) of love, the end of love, is the process of tears to be complete. Then I have a lot of words, to be honest, no head to say, can not finish, no time. I can sacrifice anything now, and this word of love cannot be separated. Day and night, I only wish my brother (Xie Baozhen) your illness well. HuChen (Tiger City), July 24. ”
This letter was sent out secretly, so the letter used "hu dust" and other hidden words, Yang Hucheng wrote this letter to report peace to his wife, and secondly, to give her strength. At this time, her wife was being tortured by agents and identified by them as "suffering from schizophrenia."
Was the letter sent to Xie Baozhen? The answer to this question Yang Hucheng did not know. Just five months after the letter was written, Xie Baozhen died suddenly in prison. At the time of her death, she was only 34 years old .00 years old.
Yang Hucheng only knew that before his wife died, he had been shot by a spy. When he arrived, they had already covered her with a white cloth. At that moment, facing his wife's body, he cried so hard that he cried.
The agent found that Yang Hucheng's red eyes were murderous, yes, he had secretly resolved to "avenge his wife." The murderous look in his eyes frightened the agents, but the agents insisted that she had died herself (natural death).
The reason why the agents dared to say that "she died by herself" was because before this: Xie Baozhen, who was identified by the agents as "suffering from schizophrenia", had indeed committed suicide twice.
When he committed suicide for the first time, Xie Baozhen used a hunger strike. The food sent from the prison, she no longer eats. The second suicide, she adopted the method of "swallowing gold", and the "gold" she swallowed was said to be her and her husband's wedding ring.
Both suicides ultimately failed, and the second suicide was carried out after swallowing gold and being rescued.
Although Yang Hucheng knew that his wife's death must have other hidden feelings, he had no way to start. Everything has to wait until the day when the world is bright.
After his wife's death, under Yang Hucheng's repeated requests, Xie Baozhen's wedding ring was cremated with her body. Afterwards, with grief and resentment, he nailed an urn for his wife with a few old planks.
After hugging his wife's urn, he murmured, "Finally we are locked up together again." After saying that, he was in tears again.
Inside Xuantian Cave
The reason why I say "they were locked up together again" is because they had been held separately before Xuantiandong was held in solitary confinement. That time he was held separately, shortly after he was detained by Chiang Kai-shek.
After the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek immediately detained Zhang Xueliang, who had sent him back to Nanjing, and then placed Zhang Xueliang under house arrest for more than half a century.
In the disposition of Yang Hucheng, Chiang Kai-shek took several steps, the first step was to force him to surrender his military power; the second step, exile: directly let Yang Hucheng go abroad to investigate. Because he was bent on resisting Japan, Yang Hucheng hurried back to the motherland before he could finish his inspection.
What he did not expect was that as soon as he returned to China, he was secretly imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek in Nanchang. Xie Baozhen, who was not traveling with Yang Hucheng at the time, panicked for a while: she found that she and her husband had lost contact.
Xie Bao was really a revolutionary, and she naturally knew what it meant for her husband to disappear at this time. Sure enough, she soon learned that her husband was imprisoned in Nanchang by Chiang Kai-shek.
Yang Hucheng (right) and Zhang Xueliang (left) before the Xi'an Incident
In January 1938, after a fierce ideological struggle, Xie Baozhen decided to leave Xi'an with his young son Yang Zhengzhong and go to Nanchang. Before leaving, she said, "With me sharing his pain, he'll always be better." ”
Before Xie Baozhen made this decision, compared with Zhang Xueliang, she knew that during Zhang Xueliang's house arrest, his wife Yu Fengzhi had been accompanying him. Therefore, she expected that she could also accompany her husband like Yu Fengzhi. She had obviously forgotten that there was an essential difference between her and Yu Fengzhi, and that was that "she had once been a Communist Party member."
Although Chiang Kai-shek was determined to unite with the Communist Party to "resist Japan in unison" after the Xi'an Incident, in his bones, he was always on the lookout for the Communist Party. Therefore, his attitude towards her and Yu Fengzhi will be completely different.
On January 14, Xie Baozhen resolutely arrived in Nanchang with his young son. Dai Kasa immediately reported the news to Chiang Kai-shek, and when Chiang Kai-shek heard it, he said only eight words: "Throw yourself into the net and strictly control it."
Reports of the Xi'an Incident
Unfortunately, after Xie Baozhen arrived in Nanjing, she did not see her husband, and she and her son Yang Zhengzhong were held in solitary confinement. This was the first time Yang Hucheng and his wife had been held separately. For half a year, they didn't know each other's news, and Yang Hucheng didn't even know that his wife was also imprisoned near his place of detention.
It was not until the following summer that Xie Baozhen and his son were able to reunite with Yang Hucheng in Taohuaping in Yiyang, Hunan Province.
On that day, Yang Hucheng, who saw his wife and children, could not believe his eyes, and he reproached: "It is not enough to have me alone, do you still come with me?" Xie Baozhen listened but cried, "We are not coming, how difficult it is for you to be alone!" Then, the family of three embraced each other and cried.
Xie Baozhen's arrival really soothed Yang Hucheng's pain. However, as the situation became more and more tense, their arrival made Yang Hucheng feel even greater danger. Yang Hucheng's fear of this danger reached its extreme after his wife was separated and imprisoned again.
After his wife was killed, Yang Hucheng began to worry about the safety of his two children again, he thought: Bao Zhen's death, there is absolutely a hidden feeling, since they do not let her go, they may also attack the child at any time.
Just over two years after Xie Baozhen's death, on September 17, 1949, Yang Hucheng, his third son, Yang Zhengzhong, and his younger daughter Yang Zhengguo were killed in the "Dai GongCi" prison in Chongqing. Until his death, Yang Hucheng still did not find out the truth about his wife's murder.
After the liberation of Chongqing, the agents confessed the details of killing Yang Hucheng and so on. However, the "truth about the murder of his wife" that Yang Hucheng was painstakingly searching for has still not been revealed.
It wasn't until the 1970s that Yang Hucheng and Xie Baozhen's daughter Yang Zhengying saw their mother in prison in an article called "Wu Qingzhen". Wu Qingzhen who wrote this article is no one else, it is the person who served Xie Baozhen when she was in prison, and Wu Qingzhen also made Yang Zhenggui a wet nurse.
Yang Hucheng and Xie Baozhen's daughter Yang Zhengying
Soon, Yang Zhengying, who was anxious to find the truth, contacted the author, and at the author's suggestion, went to the place where guizhou Xifeng Xuantian Cave was imprisoned to learn more about the truth.
It was also after in-depth investigation that Yang Zhengying learned that his mother was really killed! And the reason why she was killed was because she had committed suicide. The enemy feels: Since you have sought death yourself, it makes sense for you to die.
Wu Qingzhen told Yang Zhengying that she (Xie Baozhen) was desperately scolding the secret agents and trying to commit suicide, all in exchange for the safety of her husband and children. She believes that only when she fights with her life can her husband and children have a glimmer of life.
Wu Qingzhen also said: "At that time, she was saved by suicide on hunger strike because the agents found a doctor to hang glucose for her. ”
The agents saw that Xie Bao's resistance was too fierce, so they lied that "she has schizophrenia." After giving Xie Baozhen the condition of "schizophrenia", they could perform any form of "treatment" on her.
Later, the agents tied Xie Baozhen to the bed on the pretext of treatment and injected her with a bottle of "potion". The specific details about this truth are as follows:
The needle of the potion bottle leather tube pierced into her (Xie Baozhen's) calf, and when the drug was delivered, she struggled in pain, her eyeballs bulged out, and her face turned blue. When the 'doctors' collected their belongings and walked out of the door, Xie Baozhen had stopped breathing. ”
It is a pity that the truth of Xie Baozhen's murder was actually revealed to the world more than twenty years after she was killed. In order to commemorate his father and mother, Yang Zhengying later published after investigating all the truths: "Remembering General Yang Hucheng" and "Remembering His Mother Xie Baozhen".
Today, the revolutionary deeds of Yang Hucheng and Xie Baozhen have been passed down by future generations. The great sacrifices and contributions they made to the revolutionary cause will always be remembered by history!
Heroes may grow old, but heroes will never die!