When the liaoshen campaign in Changchun was about to be destroyed, Du Yuming sent a telegram to Zheng Dongguo, the deputy commander of the northeast "suppression general", and told him that Chiang Kai-shek was about to send a plane to pick him up.
Du Yuming and Zheng Dongguo were classmates of the Huangpu Phase I, and later served in the Seventeenth Army. In 1938, when the Fifth Army of the Kuomintang's first and only mechanized army was established, Zheng Dongguo had already been appointed by Tang Enbo as the commander of the Ninety-eighth Army, and was invited by Du Yuming, the acting commander of the Fifth Army, to voluntarily demote him to the Fifth Army as a deputy commander.
When the New Twenty-second Division of the Fifth Army and the New Thirty-eighth Division of the Sixty-sixth Army were formed in India, Du Yuming recommended Zheng Dongguo to serve as the commander of the New First Army of the "First Army under Heaven".
Jeong Dong-kook
During the civil war, Du Yuming served as the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Security, and Zheng Dongguo once again became Du Yuming's deputy. The two have deep roots and extraordinary relationships, and in times of crisis, Du Yuming will certainly not abandon Zheng Dongguo.
Zheng Dongguo was already desperate, and he called Du Yuming back: "It's too late, see you in the next life." "As a famous Kuomintang general from Huangpu, there is no hope of breaking through the siege, he wants to kill Chengren, and he must not be captured and humiliated.
The Changchun defenders had basically laid down their weapons, and only Zheng Dongguo still led the special task force regiment directly under the corps to defend the central bank building. He left a farewell letter to Chiang Kai-shek, and only waited for the PLA to attack the headquarters and then drink bullets and cut himself.
Du Yuming
Gunfire outside the headquarters was loud, and Zheng Dongguo knew that the last moment had arrived. He went to the bedroom to take out from under his pillow the pistol that had been prepared, and the pistol contained a bullet, not to kill the enemy but to commit suicide.
But the pistol under the pillow was missing, and Zheng Dongguo was anxiously looking for an alternative tool. At this time, the guards rushed in and hugged him, and his nephew Zheng Fan'an, who was then the head of the Secretariat of the Jilin Provincial Government, knelt in front of him and begged him not to take his life lightly.
The guards "kidnapped" Zheng Dongguo and walked out of the headquarters, and when they saw that the direct subordinate troops and the People's Liberation Army were in peace, Zheng Dongguo understood that the gunshots of those fierce battles were all played by the direct subordinate troops and the People's Liberation Army. The subordinates have secretly surrendered, just to find him a desperate resistance to the last step.
In the middle is Jeong Dong Guo
Zheng Dongguo survived, but felt humiliated to live. When Xiao Jinguang and Xiao Hua, the commanders of our army who surrounded Changchun, invited him to a banquet, he hardly spoke and drank heavily.
Xiao Jinguang asked Zheng Dongguo about his future plans, and Zheng Dongguo replied with a calm expression: First, resolutely do not broadcast; second, resolutely do not participate in public banquets.
Can't kill Chengren, nor will it be a propaganda tool, the two "resolute" is the bottom line of Zheng Dongguo, if you want to force, it is a big deal to fight to the death.
No one forced him, xiao Jinguang and Xiao Hua respected his ideas, and only suggested that he go to Harbin to have a look. Soon after the victory of the War of Resistance, Harbin was taken over by our Party and has not been lost.
Xiao Jinguang
The two chiefs of our army believe that seeing Harbin under the administration of our party has touched the Zhengdong Congress. After all, no amount of words can compare to the power of facts.
Zheng Dongguo asked the commander of our army to make proper arrangements for the surrender troops, and after obtaining permission, he went to Harbin with some relatives to live for several months.
In Harbin, Zheng Dongguo was free from everything, and there was no surveillance of him, only the care of his life. The new atmosphere in Harbin really touched Zheng Dongguo, and he wanted to find out how our Party could achieve such brilliant achievements in military and construction, so he began to read the works of Chairman Mao and Marxism-Leninism.
Reading Chairman Mao's book began to be a bit difficult, and the context and thought were incompatible with what he had learned before. However, he was good at learning, he and Chairman Mao were contemporaries, and chairman Mao's writings had some names that he was familiar with, and he used these people as a breakthrough point to gradually understand the meaning of the book.
Our party gave Zheng Dongguo enough time to transform himself. As soon as Changchun was liberated, Chairman Mao instructed Xiao Jinguang and Xiao Hua to pay attention to the changes in Zheng Dongguo's mood and ideology, and our party has been solving some practical problems for him.
After the liberation of Shenyang, Zheng Dongguo's son in Shenyang was overjoyed to learn that his father was still alive. As soon as Changchun was occupied by our army, the Kuomintang announced that Zheng Dongguo and more than three hundred officers and soldiers would "become ren" together, and also took his son to Shenyang to wear ma dai filial piety for him.
Now Zheng Dongguo's son saw the photo given to him by the People's Liberation Army, and his father was all right in Harbin, and he had a feeling of being like a dream.
At the beginning of 1949, Zheng Dongguo moved to Fushun, and our party secretly took his wife from Shanghai to him. At that time, his old subordinates Liao Yaoxiang and Zheng Tingdi were still locked up in the Fushun Detention Center, and he often went to see these subordinates. The subordinates who surrendered to Changchun were all properly arranged, and some of them even went to our military academy as instructors.
Liao Yaoxiang
Comparing the two, Zheng Dongguo may be grateful for the deception of his direct subordinate troops. How good it is to live freely with your family, and the death of a soldier depends on what battlefield he is on.
At that time, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression could not give up, such as "killing oneself to become a benevolent person" for the Kuomintang to continue its corrupt rule, is it worth it in the end?
However, Zheng Dongguo was not humiliated when he was kidnapped and surrendered, but was treated kindly, and he could not easily change his reticence as a famous general of the national army. It is even more difficult for him to get out of the ideological dilemma cultivated by the party-state for many years.
In 1950, when our army was preparing to liberate Taiwan, just as Zheng Dongguo was passing through Beijing for medical treatment in Shanghai, Xiao Jinguang and Xiao Hua invited him to dinner and offered to let him do his part for the liberation of Taiwan. He couldn't do it with his former "comrades-in-arms" soldiers.
Helping our army deal with the national army, Zheng Dongguo can't do it, and he is very energetic in dealing with the US army. In Beijing that year, Zheng Dongguo was also received by Premier Zhou. At that time, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was imminent, and when Premier Zhou received him, he asked him to introduce the situation of the US army, and he immediately arrived one by one.
The Chinese Expeditionary Force in India is all uniformly American-style equipment, imitating the US military structure, receiving US military training, and fighting together with the US military. As the first commander of the new First Army of the Expeditionary Force, Zheng Dongguo had a deep understanding of the US military.
Xiao Hua
He said: A major feature of the US military is that it cannot endure hardships. Fighting in the jungles of Burma, the march is mainly on foot, the US military is tired of walking along the way to discard equipment, and even feel that the hot jumpsuits are taken off and thrown away, and many officers and soldiers who arrive at the destination have only a pair of pants left on them. In any case, the US military has strong air power and complete communication facilities, and people are not equipped to rely on airdrops to replenish them.
During the war, the US military is also quite dependent on the air force, there is no air support, the US Army is well equipped, and it does not know how to fight the battle.
Premier Zhou once quoted Zheng Dongguo's introduction at a national defense conference, which is very helpful for overcoming our army's fear of the United States.
Introduction to the introduction, to let Zheng Dongguo do more things, he did not completely turn the corner. When Premier Zhou asked him what kind of work he wanted to do, he responded with a "go home and farm the land." Obviously, at this time, he still held the mentality of being alone and did not want to fully join the camp of New China.
Premier Zhou
In 1952, our party did not force him, but in 1952 we took care of him to live in Beijing, and arranged for him to be a counselor of the Ministry of Water Resources with no political tendencies and a civilian and historical officer of the CppcC, so that he could have a good income and maintain a relatively decent life.
A breakthrough in thinking needs an opportunity, and Chairman Mao's meeting with Zheng Dongguo in 1954 was the opportunity for Zheng Dongguo to make a breakthrough.
During this year's NPC, Chairman Mao specially invited Zheng Dongguo to dinner. When he received the invitation, Zheng Dongguo was a little apprehensive; he had already read a lot of Chairman Mao's books, but how to talk to the leader of our party in person still had no bottom in his heart.
Zheng Dongguo was a few minutes late for the banquet, and Chairman Mao, along with He Long, Ye Jianying, and Lu Zhonglin, a general of the Kuomintang uprising, were waiting for him. As soon as he appeared, Chairman Mao got up and greeted him at the door, shaking hands with him and praising his name very loudly.
Chairman Mao, who sat down and was very addicted to smoking, asked him whether he smoked or not, smoking can stabilize his mood, and Zheng Dongguo did not prevaricate and said that he wanted to smoke. As soon as Chairman Mao heard this, he took one out of the cigarette and handed it to him, and Zheng Dongguo was just about to light the cigarette himself, and Chairman Mao had already stood up and skillfully lit a match to light a cigarette for him.
Zheng Dongguo was shocked, but chairman Mao, the leader of the ruling party and the state, lit a cigarette for one of his defeated generals, and he never expected it. After decades of ups and downs, he has also been a high-ranking official of the Kuomintang, and he still has the quality of not being insulted, but Zheng Dongguo still has it.
Chairman Mao
However, in the light of the small, he could not help but secretly compare Chairman Mao's move with Chiang Kai-shek.
When Chiang Kai-shek was the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, when he saw outstanding cadets, Chiang Kai-shek would personally meet and encourage him in the principal's office, and Lin Biao once enjoyed such treatment.
Wang Yaqiao, the "first killer of the Republic of China" who attempted to assassinate him, made meritorious contributions to the anti-Japanese resistance, and he could also use bounties and high-ranking officials to win him over. It's just that Chiang Kai-shek's "kindness" is very routine, and it is difficult for people to be distracted.
In the early 1930s, Chiang Kai-shek set up an officer training regiment in Lushan, and Chen Cheng, deputy regimental commander, set rules for the cadets, and no matter where they were, when they heard the name of "leader," they had to stand up solemnly to show their respect. After this rule became a common practice in the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek's shelf could not be put down.
Temporary
Chairman Mao lit a cigarette for Zheng Dongguo, which not only made Zheng Dongguo feel that Chairman Mao was approachable, but also made him experience a deeper connotation. During the conversation, Zheng Dongguo asked Chairman Mao a question somewhat abruptly: "Why did your Marxism-Leninism study so well?" ”
This question is not flattery, it is a matter of feeling. After studying the works of Marxism-Leninism and Chairman Mao for several years and seeing the thriving changes in the new China, Zheng Dongguo felt that the victory of our Party was not only a military victory, but also a political and ideological victory.
The Kuomintang lacked cohesion, was corrupt and incompetent, and had a lot to do with Chiang Kai-shek's lack of thought and relying solely on warlords and politicians to govern the party and the army.
It was Zheng Dongguo's experience in studying Marxism-Leninism-Mao's thinking, and he attributed the victory of our Party to Chairman Mao's good study of Marxism-Leninism before he raised such a question to Chairman Mao.
As soon as Chairman Mao heard about Zheng Dongguo's question, he shared with him his experience of studying Marxism-Leninism. After graduating from the First Division in Hunan, Chairman Mao began to contact Marxism and Leninism in 1919 at Peking University through the introduction of Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu. With pioneers leading the way and reading many Marxist-Leninist works, Chairman Mao had reason to think that he had a relatively thorough grasp of Marxism-Leninism.
It was not until Chairman Mao among the workers that he found that his bookish anger was not accepted by the workers at all, and that none of the theories he understood could be put into practice.
At that time, Chairman Mao was anxious to walk back and forth along the railway alone, thinking about the solution, and finally understood that it was necessary to put down the books, mingle with the workers and peasants, and understand their specific demands, so that the workers and peasants could really mobilize the workers and peasants and achieve the revolutionary goals.
When Chairman Mao inspected Guangdong, he was with the people
Chairman Mao told Zheng Dongguo that he was not a born "saint" and that "... A person's mind always has to develop, and the position can also be changed. It is easy to learn Marxism-Leninism only by worshipping the people as a teacher. ”
This passage made Zheng Dongguo enlightened, and he finally realized that the victory of our party is not only the victory of one political party, but the victory of our people. Our party is taking the mass line, while the Kuomintang is taking the line of the powerful, and this is the key to the victory or defeat of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
Chairman Mao's act of lighting a cigarette for Zheng Dongguo contains a magnificent atmosphere that comes close to the people. This kind of atmosphere can roll over Chiang Kai-shek's lofty "noble qi."
No matter whether Chiang Kai-shek's "noble spirit" comes from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang consortiums or the British and American forces, it will be swept away by the atmosphere of hundreds of millions of people.
Chairman Mao received Wei Fengying, a model worker in the arsenal
After the Zunyi meeting, Premier Zhou persuaded Bogu to hand over the supreme leadership of the central authorities, and in a conversation with Zhang Wentian, he said that neither he nor Bogu, who ate foreign bread, could solve China's problems.
To solve China's problems, we need a person who has a deep understanding of China, and Chairman Mao is this person. Only under the leadership of Chairman Mao can our Party truly solve the Chinese problem, and both he and Bogu should assist Chairman Mao in fulfilling this historical mission.
Chairman Mao's ability to become the one who truly understands China's problems and finds a way to solve them stems from the initial disapproval of the workers.
With that lesson learned, when the Kuomintang and the Communists first cooperated, Chairman Mao was elected as an alternate executive committee member of the Kuomintang Central Committee, and he and the acting propaganda minister of the Kuomintang still insisted on extensive contacts with the workers and peasants at the bottom, so they were ostracized by some senior officials of the two parties, and Chairman Mao's choice could not be changed.
On May 25, 1958, Chairman Mao Zedong participated in voluntary labor at the site of the Ming Tombs Reservoir
It was precisely by adhering to the mass line that Chairman Mao found a revolutionary road suited to China's national conditions and created Mao Zedong Thought to guide our Party to the ultimate victory. Contacting the masses has also become Chairman Mao's lifelong habit.
During the Yan'an period, the American red journalist Smedley, while interviewing in the cave where Chairman Mao lived, heard footsteps on the top of the cave and was shocked to warn whether it would be the Kuomintang assassins who killed him. Chairman Mao smiled calmly and said that he was a child of a neighboring peasant family who wanted to peek into Smedley, a foreigner.
Smedley did not believe it when he was killed, and the residence of the leader of our party was tolerant of the "bear children" of the peasant family, and rushed to the outside of the cave to confirm it.
When I went out, I saw that on the top of the cave, a few small furry heads were hiding in the east. Smedley was convinced, and it turned out that the relationship between the leader of our party and the masses could be harmonious like this, and it was no wonder that the Kuomintang mobilized all its forces and could not "suppress" our party in ten years.
In 1952, Chairman Mao chatted with ordinary people on the outskirts of Beijing
When Chairman Mao returned to Shaoshan in 1959, he could talk and laugh with the villagers in his hometown who were barefoot and covered in mud, and also pay tribute to and light cigarettes to this distant farmer.
Chairman Mao used honorifics when he wrote letters to the old or to the masses. Some of the staff around Chairman Mao, in private conversations with Chairman Mao, sometimes directly refer to them as "you", and this easy-going and generous attitude comes from the mentality of blending with the masses.
"Chairman Mao, the number one of the Communist Party, the head of state, and the leader supported by the people, actually lit a cigarette for me, which cannot but make me feel that the leader of the Communist Party is not an official, but a simple servant of the people, both ordinary and great."
Left: Chairman Mao had a cordial conversation with steelmaking workers when he inspected a factory in Anhui in 1959. Right: In 1959, Chairman Mao inspected Hunan and talked with members of the poor peasant society.
From the fact that Chairman Mao lit a cigarette for him, Zheng Dongguo realized the relationship between our party and the masses, and also understood the fundamental reason for the victory or defeat of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
Seeing the earth-shaking changes in our country over the past few years has made Zheng Dongguo feel that he has "followed the wrong person", and this meeting with Chairman Mao has deepened his understanding.
Later, when he and his family talked about the meeting, he said: "I used to be a stubborn person, but I obeyed the truth. Now I realize that china will have hope only if socialist construction is carried out under the leadership of the Communist Party. I will never waver in this belief any longer. ”
Zheng Dongguo obeys the truth, but it is not easy to find the truth. When he was young, he once rubbed shoulders with the truth, but fortunately in his later years, under the inspiration of our Party, he was able to re-enter the embrace of truth.
In the chaotic world, the young Zheng Dongguo, uneasy about studying in changsha business school and running his own small future, has the passion to join the wave of saving the country and saving the people.
In 1924, when zheng Dongguo was twenty-four years old, he learned of the enrollment of the Whampoa Military Academy founded by Sun Yat-sen, and immediately went to see Fa Xiao, a relative who was studying industrial college, to discuss the examination, but Wang Erzhuo had already gone to Guangzhou one step ahead of him.
At this time, Zheng Dongguo was still in Changsha, borrowed dozens of oceans for coiling, and rushed to Guangzhou. It is still a step too late to arrive in Guangzhou, and the registration for the Whampoa Military Academy has ended.
If he waits for the next exam, Zheng Dongguo's economy obviously cannot afford it, and Wang Erzhuo and several fellow villagers are anxious for him. After several people discussed, they had the courage to let Zheng Dongguo take the huangpu exam in an imposter way.
Wang Erzhuo
Huang Ao, a Huangpu phase I candidate who is also from Hunan, applied for the name twice in order to seek insurance, thinking that he had not passed one exam and could take the exam again.
The first time he took the exam, Wang Erzhuo and Huang Ao, several Hunan compatriots, were on the list, and the second exam also had the quota of Huang Ao, which just allowed Zheng Dongguo to replace the reference.
Zheng Dongguo was also admitted, and also divided into a team with the real Huang Ao, named Huang Ao, the real and false Huang Ao agreed together, and the instructors and classmates thought that it was just a coincidence of the same name and surname.
However, Zheng Dongguo knew that sooner or later this matter would have to be worn, and it was better to confess and take the initiative than to be exposed. The school knows the reason, and did not pursue too much, after all, Zheng Dongguo is not looking for someone to take the test. Since he was admitted by his true ability and changed his name, this matter has also turned over.
Jeong Dong-kook with his wife
At that time, the Whampoa Military Academy had in-depth cooperation with our party, and our party developed many party members among the cadets. Both Wang Erzhuo and Huang Ao joined our party in 1924, while Zheng Dongguo joined the Kuomintang, and after Whampoa graduated, he went to teach the first regiment, two battalions, and four company party representatives.
After the rupture of the Kuomintang, Wang Erzhuo participated in leading the Shonan Rebellion and was an active promoter of the ZhuMao Huishi. The Red Fourth Army at Jinggangshan was founded, and Wang Erzhuo was the first chief of staff of the Red Fourth Army, who died in 1928 while pursuing traitors.
Huang Ao was also a senior red army cadre, serving as secretary of the Hunan Military Commission and chief of staff of He Long, and was killed in battle in 1928.
Huang Ao
Fortunately, Zheng Dongguo's unit has been participating in the war of the new warlords during this period, and has not met with his former friends.
During the Red Army period, Zheng Dongguo and our army did not fight much, and only from 1931 to 1932, they participated in the "encirclement and suppression" of the four fronts of the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region. In comparison, he had a richer experience in fighting the Japanese army.
In 1933, the Japanese army attacked the Gubeikou of the Great Wall, the Northeast Army was weak in resistance, the Seventeenth Army of the Central Army went to Gubeikou, and Zheng Dongguo participated in the War of Resistance for the first time as the commander of the Fourth Brigade of the Second Division of the Seventeenth Army.
The Seventeenth Army fought fiercely at Gubeikou, but in the end it ended in failure. After the formation of the new First Army in 1943, Zhengdongguo had the opportunity to roll over the Japanese army.
Heavily armed soldiers of the New First Army
The New First Army is not only fully equipped and trained in the United States, but also receives American air support. A division of the New First Army, in addition to three infantry regiments of three thousand men, also had an artillery battalion, an engineer battalion, a communications battalion, and a chariot battalion.
Each platoon had a mortar squad, the corps had five artillery regiments, and each regiment had thirty-six heavy artillery units. There were also seven tank battalions, and the number of tanks and armored vehicles exceeded that of the Japanese counterparts.
The individual weapons of the New First Army used Springfield rifles and Thompson submachine guns, and carried American grenades, and each squad also had a large number of light and heavy machine guns. Judging from the firepower allocation alone, it is not comparable to the ordinary Kuomintang Central Army troops.
Tanks equipped by the new First Army
As soon as the new First Army entered the Burmese battlefield, it completely subverted the Japanese army's understanding of the Chinese army. In the Battle of Yubang, the Eighteenth Division of the "King of the Jungle" of the Japanese Army attacked an advance regiment of the New First Army with five times as many people, and as a result, it had to withdraw after paying the price of more than 2,000 casualties.
The history of the Japanese army winning more with less against our army has been reversed. In only half a year, the new First Army annihilated more than 12,000 Japanese troops.
The Japanese army formed three divisions, including the Eighteenth Division, into the 33rd Army against the New First Army, and in the two battles of Kameng and Menggong, the New First Army annihilated 16,000 people.
After Zheng Dongguo was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of the Allied forces stationed in India, Sun Liren took over as the commander of the new First Army, annihilated more than 4,000 Japanese troops, and forced the Japanese major general and commander of northern Burma, Shui Yuanzang, to commit suicide.
Sun Liren
At the end of the War of Resistance, the main force of the Nationalist Army, which was close to the new First Army, had four other divisions. On the other hand, our army is still in the era of millet plus rifles. Zheng Dongguo could not have imagined that in less than five years, the five main forces of the Nationalist army would be defeated by our army.
Before meeting with Chairman Mao, the victory in the three major battles of our army has always been an incomprehensible knot in Zheng Dongguo's heart, and it was Chairman Mao who achieved the final breakthrough in thinking for Zheng Dongguo and opened the door of truth for him.
What made Zheng Dongguo particularly moved was that Chairman Mao not only lit a cigarette for him, the general of the defeated army, but also cared for his son and remembered his age.
After hearing that his son had already joined the work force after graduating from Tongji University, Chairman Mao said to him: "Family life has been arranged, and you have to do some work for the people!" I'm only 51 years old this year, and I'm still very young. ”
Zheng Dongguo in his later years (first from left)
Yes, when the truth is found, fifty-one years old should also have a young beginning, and from then on, Zheng Dongguo will no longer rest on his laurels and begin to contribute to cross-strait reunification.
At Chairman Mao's suggestion, he was elected as a member of the National Defense Commission. Later, he served as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Standing Committee, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, and a vice president of the Huangpu Alumni Association.
In 1991, Zheng Dongguo left his last words to his children: "... In my life, I have no regrets about state affairs and family affairs, but unfortunately I have not seen the reunification of the motherland, and if the country is reunified, the revolution will be completely successful. ”