In the early morning of October 13, 1974, Mao Zedong arrived in Changsha, Hunan Province, by special train and stayed in Building 6 of the Ninth Institute of the Provincial Party Committee. During the 114 days of recuperation in Xiang, Mao Zedong made two far-reaching decisions.
First, Changsha decision-making.
2. Amnesty for the last group of detained war criminals.
In the Changsha policy decision, Mao Zedong listened to Wang Hongwen's report and then fully listened to the reports of Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, and he very much agreed with Deng Xiaoping's and other suggestions of "bringing the national economy up," which also laid a solid foundation for the "reform and opening up" of 1978.
As for the amnesty for the last batch of imprisoned war criminals, it is another pioneering act of Mao Zedong's administration.
On February 27, 1975, Mao Zedong was 82 years old.
Chairman Mao's physical condition this year was not optimistic, old age and physical weakness are one thing, and neurasthenia and pain have slowly made it extremely inconvenient for him to move.
But in addition to the inability to move and the slight decline in vision and hearing, Chairman Mao still has an incomparably sober and wise mind and fluent conversation.
On this day, Hua Guofeng, minister of public security, sent him the "Report on the Seventh Batch of Amnesty Issues" for his review, and Chairman Mao attached great importance to it.
His eyesight was not good, and reading such a long report was also a manual work, so the report was spoken out loud by his personal secretary.
Originally, according to the relevant instructions made by Zhou Enlai to the Ministry of Public Security before, they were:
The Ministry of Public Security is requested to handle it in different categories and make preparations so that it can be sent to the Central Committee and the Chairman for examination and approval after the people's congress.
The so-called "classified treatment" is considered according to the priority and whether the amnesty standard is met, and then a report is given for the Central Committee and Chairman Mao to review and make decisions.
Later, according to the report sent by Hua Guofeng, the last batch of amnesty war criminals was 293, of whom 13 did not meet the amnesty standard.
However, when Mao Zedong listened to the secretary's dictation report, he gave a surprising instruction:
"It's all over! It's not good for us to force people to reform. Before the land reform, we killed the bully landlord, because if we didn't kill, the people were afraid. These people (referring to war criminals) ordinary people do not know, what do we kill him for? So, one does not kill. It's all over the place. ”
Indeed, during the period of land reform, we fought against landlords and killed bullies because they relied on the shadow of feudal dynasties, forcibly occupied the land, and carried out endless oppression and exploitation of the common people, so that people "had land to cultivate but no grain to live", and the bullies burned and plundered without evil.
Therefore, when we fight landlords and kill bullies, it is the voice of the people and the well-being of the people. Because the common people are afraid of them, we must kill them, and only for the sake of the common people can we build a harmonious and united new China.
But in 1975, New China had been established for 26 years. The vast majority of people are unaware of this group of war criminals. The common people are not afraid of them, and they have no harm to me, so what is the purpose of killing them?
When he heard the secretary dictate the release and disposition of the war criminals by the relevant departments, Mao Zedong instructed again:
"Not only the farewell party, but also invite them to a meal, eat more fish and meat." Each person will be given another $100 in pocket money. For those who are willing to stay, we recognize their citizenship. We can't force those who don't want to stay, let alone force others to work. ”
When mao zedong was obviously dissatisfied with the report mentioning that some of the amnesty personnel who were ready to work in the countryside were given a standard of 15 to 20 yuan per person per month for living expenses: such courage is too small, 15 yuan is too little!
According to relevant statistics, in 1977, the annual per capita income of Farmers in China was only 150 yuan, if calculated according to the standard of 15 yuan per month, a year is 180 yuan, and food and clothing is absolutely not a problem. It can be seen from this that Mao Zedong was still relatively benevolent and generous toward war criminals.
When mentioning that the relevant war criminals were willing to accept labor, Mao Zedong also instructed with concern:
"Some of them have the ability to do the work as long as they are willing to stay. We must also treat the elderly and sick, treat them the same as our cadres, and do not discriminate. It's been 25 years since people laid down their weapons! ”
The unconditional release of war criminals, the return of money and medical treatment, and the restriction of their personal freedom are probably the only way in the whole world at that time that the Chinese Communist Party could have such a mind.
Chairman Mao's instructions caused quite a stir in the Central Committee at that time. Many of the original problems and embarrassing conditions of siltation have been solved.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > so what was the significance of Chairman Mao's pioneering instructions in China at that time? What happened to this batch of amnesty war criminals? Who are the 13 people who do not meet the pardon criteria? What happened to them after the amnesty? </h1>
In this article, the author will focus on the seventh amnesty for war criminals in New China in 1975, and tell you the story of this.
After the founding of New China, China mainly set up Beijing Gongdelin Prison, Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison, and Liaoning Fushun Prison, and the three major war prisons were used to hold Japanese and pseudo-war criminals and Kuomintang war criminals during the Liberation War.
Beginning in 1959, based on the huairen policy and considerations of leniency, China granted amnesty to these war criminals in seven batches in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966 and 1975.
The conditions for amnesty are three steps:
First, the attitude of admitting mistakes is good.
2. Correct reactionary thinking.
Third, actively accept labor reform.
As long as these three conditions are met, they are always willing to provide them with the opportunity to reform and release them. For example, among the first batch of amnesty personnel in 1959, Puyi and Du Yuming were quite typical.
Love Shin Kyora. Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing court.
The reason for his conviction was not because he had once been the "Emperor xuantong", but later colluded with the Japanese and established a "pseudo-Manchukuo" in the northeast, acting as a puppet and pawn of Japanese imperialism, which brought great resistance and extremely negative influence to the all-people War of Resistance. After the founding of New China, Puyi was imprisoned in Fushun Prison.
Du Yuming was one of the top commanders of the Kuomintang in the Battle of Huaihai, who once shocked China and foreign countries.
He was Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted huangpu student and a lieutenant general in the Kuomintang army.
In 1946, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Du Yuming as the commander of the Northeast Security Command, under the jurisdiction of seven armies of more than 200,000 people to launch a northeast scramble for our army, after being defeated by The Four Wilds under the jurisdiction of Lin Zong, Du Yuming was entrusted by Chiang Kai-shek at the end of 1948 with a heavy responsibility to parachute xuzhou, under the jurisdiction of Qiu Qingquan, Sun Yuanliang and Li Mi three major corps of more than 200,000 people, personally commanded the grand Huaihai Campaign. Subsequently, he was defeated and captured at the Battle of Huaihai and imprisoned in The Gongdelin Prison in Beijing.
Du Yuming was a die-hard chiang kai-shek loyalist, so when he first started being imprisoned, he showed great resistance to reform.
It is still more interesting to say about Du Yuming's transformation process.
In fact, as early as 1947, Du Yuming's physical condition was extremely poor, he suffered from stomach ulcers, tuberculosis and spondylitis, especially spondylitis not only made him unable to stay all day long, the pain was unbearable, walking was limping and supported by crutches.
He had a daughter who was extremely famous, that is, the eldest daughter Du Zhili (Lady Yang Zhenning), who had no intention of ruling the army at that time and wanted to accompany his daughter to the United States to recuperate and treat diseases, but was forcibly left behind by Chiang Kai-shek.
When the Battle of Huaihai broke out at the end of 1948, Du Yuming was almost sick and struggled to walk on crutches, or was entrusted by Chiang Kai-shek, who was exhausted and militaristic, to the Huaihai battlefield with heavy responsibilities.
After Du Yuming was captured, he was not only the main war criminal in the Huaihai Campaign, but also the leader of the 43 war criminals. Therefore, in the early days of prison reform, Du Yuming was well aware of this principle, and the resistance was extremely fierce, and he committed suicide twice.
Du Yuming's suicide attempt has two major considerations:
First, I am sick and can't stand the toss.
Second, he believes that even if he does not commit suicide, according to his past crimes, he will be a dead end.
However, what was surprising was that instead of executing Du Yuming, our army gave him extremely preferential treatment, and tried to find the best doctor and cure him with the best medicine. When reforming through labor, it is particularly caring for him, considering his age and physique problems, just let him cultivate soil in his spare time, plant some vegetables, rest when he is tired, never forced, and the amount of labor is more leisure than that of ordinary retired cadres.
China's policy of giving preferential treatment to prisoners was even confused by Du Yuming.
In the end, Du Yuming was finally full of gratitude, admitted his mistakes, corrected his thoughts, and actively accepted labor reform, and in 1959, together with Puyi, he was pardoned and released from prison as an activist for labor reform.
After being pardoned and released from prison, both Puyi and Du Yuming actively followed the good, especially Du Yuming fully realized the gap between our country and the Kuomintang government, took the initiative to stay, and was also entrusted by New China with heavy responsibilities to participate in the work of the CPPCC.
Judging from our country's preferential treatment of Du Yuming, it is one thing to actively transform himself, in essence, he is still talented, and our country essentially hopes to strive for greater contributions to the people.
After the first batch of war criminals was pardoned in 1959, my country has since been pardoned in batches of 5 more.
Careful readers may have noticed that the five amnesties from 1959 to 1966 were not much apart, so why was the last amnesty postponed to 1975?
In fact, readers who understand the history of New China know that since 1966, China has entered a special period. During this period, many cadres and departments of our party were overwhelmed with the situation, and some of the directors who were responsible for the detention of war criminals were also unable to take care of themselves, so they simply could not verify the information of war criminals, let alone take care of the war criminals who were being detained, and these war criminals were forgotten.
It was not until the Great Unrest subsided slightly in December 1974 that Mao Zedong re-issued instructions to the relevant departments:
I remember another group of war criminals who had laid down their weapons for more than twenty years and were still doing something. Released them, they can come and go freely.
As soon as Chairman Mao's instructions came, our country began to deal with the last batch of war criminals.
The chairman's instructions were "as light as a weight," but the relevant departments must "lift a heavy weight" and not slacken off at all; led by Minister of Public Security Hua Guofeng, meticulous investigation and verification of amnesty war criminals was carried out, and finally a statistical explanation was made on the number, name, identity, and rehabilitation performance of the war criminals detained and those who had already met the conditions for release or amnesty after completing their sentences, and finally the Ministry of Public Security made a "Report on the Seventh Batch of Amnesty Issues" and submitted them to Chairman Mao for review and approval.
According to the report, there are a total of 293 war criminals in custody, including 290 Kuomintang war criminals, and the representative figures are huang Wei and Wen Qiang, who are well-known.
It is worth mentioning that 13 of the war criminals did not meet the conditions for amnesty because of their bad attitude of admitting mistakes and resisting reform, and the advice given by the Ministry of Public Security was: Continue to detain to see the after-effects!
The 13 war criminals were: Xu Tianren, Li Qing, Qiu Shenjun, Zhang Bailing, Guo Jiqian, Li Zongming, Fan Xun, Weng Yu, Liu Yanzhi, Zhou Yanghao, Xie Daisheng, Du Chaoqun, and Shen Qinkang.
At first glance, these people all look like raw faces, far less famous than Du Yuming, Song Xilian, Huang Wei, and other front-line Kuomintang generals, but these people once held extremely dangerous positions, which brought me great calamities.
For example, Zhou Yanghao.
Zhou Yanghao is by no means an obscure little man; he was one of the three musketeers of the military command, once notorious for the Kuomintang; not to mention the heavy blood debts committed by our party, he was even more guilty of unforgivable crimes against the nation and the people. The patriotic general Yang Hucheng was involved in the killing. In 1949, when the Kuomintang retreated in the southwest, Zhou Yanghao carried out indiscriminate massacres in Chongqing, Chengdu and Kunming, resulting in the tragic deaths of countless soldiers and civilians. He was one of the most unforgivable agents.
The overall picture of the 13 war criminals is that they committed a lot of crimes before their detention and had a bad attitude after their detention.
Originally, such a person should continue to be transformed, and the relevant departments have also made meticulous preparations for this, but Mao Zedong waved his hand and said: "Everything is left alone!" ”
This has caused a great sensation at home and abroad.
In fact, Chairman Mao's wave of operations was indeed brilliant in terms of reactions from all sides afterwards, especially at that time, for China's internal complicated work, it was instantly simplified, and many problems were solved. The Kuomintang in Taiwan, on the other hand, was undoubtedly a smoke bomb, destined to make Chiang Kai-shek, who was accustomed to "living in the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain," suspicious. Abroad, it is even more difficult for other countries to be unaware.
"If you don't meet the conditions of amnesty, you are still released unconditionally, and you are allowed to come and go freely?!"
This is obviously extremely unreasonable according to international practice. The gimmick is big and the connotation is deep enough for relevant countries to talk with the media for a while.
So what was Mao's consideration for the release of the 13 war criminals?
Hua Guofeng, then minister of public security, recalled: Chairman Mao was very familiar with the situation of war criminals, and he himself drew up a very long list, asking who was detained where and what the current situation was, and he knew every war criminal very well.
It can be seen from this that Chairman Mao's release of war criminals was planned, strategic, and absolutely far-sighted.
The author's analysis of various materials and memoirs shows that Chairman Mao's release of war criminals mainly has the following three major considerations:
First, try to repair relations with Taiwan as much as possible.
In his later years, Mao Zedong greatly hoped that in his lifetime he would see Taiwan return to the reunification of the motherland, so as long as it was going in the direction of cross-strait harmonious relations, he spared no effort to do it and develop it. The vast majority of these war criminals have broken bones and tendons related to Taiwan. For the people of Taiwan, their release is for good, and for the Chiang Kai-shek government, it is the hydrangea that our side is willing to repair and throw.
Second, show China's Huairen broad policy.
Previously, some released war criminals vigorously attacked and framed our country for being unkind to war criminals and practicing a "hellish" policy, which caused a lot of criticism in the international community. Therefore, based on this consideration, our country is to release the people who were once the most indignant in order to block the mouths of the people. On the other hand, it is beneficial to release them without any harm. If you do not release, you will have to spend effort and money to manage, and the gain will not be worth the loss.
Third, appropriately add chaos to Chiang Kai-shek's government.
Two of Mao's directives for amnesty for war criminals were particularly crucial: "Freedom to come and go" and "pay for the journey."
Later, among the amnesty war criminals, 10 people signed up to say that they wanted to go to Taiwan, but when they went to Hong Kong, they were obstructed and harassed by Chiang Ching-kuo's suspicions, among them, Zhang Tieshi, the former colonel of the Political Work Office of the 68th Army of the Nationalist Army, was discouraged by the Attitude of the Kuomintang and chose to hang himself.
The remaining 9 also saw the face of the Kuomintang, some went to the United States, some stayed in Hong Kong, and some returned to their hometowns to work and enjoy their old age under the care of the party organization.
On the one hand, China's particularly lenient treatment of war criminals is on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is the suspicion and obstruction of the Kuomintang government in Taiwan. The stark contrast between the two practices is high and low, especially in the international arena, and the Kuomintang government can be described as ugly in this matter.
On July 14, 1975, in his speech on the adjustment of literary and artistic work with Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong also specifically said: The Kuomintang is very afraid of releasing prisoners well.
It can be seen from this that adding to the Blockade of the Kuomintang was within the scope of Mao Zedong's consideration.
On the afternoon of April 23, 1975, in accordance with Chairman Mao's instructions, China specially gathered 293 amnesty war criminals and invited them to the Qianmen Hotel in Beijing for a big meal.
Between the banquets, everyone was staggered, many old friends who had not seen each other for decades hugged each other and burst into tears, everyone raised their glasses and drank all the wine, and the 25 years of grace and resentment and honor and humiliation were lost in the wine.
During the banquet, Ye Jianying, Hua Guofeng, and other party and state leaders all attended the banquet, and even Du Luming and Li Xianzhou, who had already been amnesty for participating in the work of the CPPCC, also came to meet their old friends one by one. The atmosphere of the scene is very happy and harmonious, and the scene is incomparably grand.
Among them, huang Wei and Wen Qiang, who were former diehards, also took the stage to make the following statement:
In the past, we defended the old system of all evils, frantically opposed communism and the people, and dragged China to a desperate situation, and the evils were heinous. Today we are released by amnesty, given a new life, and given citizenship and proper resettlement, which is only possible in socialist China under the leadership of Chairman Mao and the Communist Party .
Mao Zedong was particularly satisfied after listening to the banquet report, and increased the welfare benefits given to the amnesty personnel to 300 yuan per person and 100 kilograms of food stamps.
I am afraid that only Chairman Mao has such a great strategy and a broad mind.