In February 1938, a sensational event occurred in the Eighth Route Army, and the chief of staff of the 115th Division, who went to the 2nd Theater Command for a meeting, never returned, and his whereabouts were unknown. Such a high-level figure disappeared from history and became an eternal mystery.
There are three different theories about his whereabouts, one is that he was killed, one is that he defected to the enemy, and the other is that he lived in seclusion with money.
Which statement is closer to the truth?
Zhou Kun, a native of Pingjiang, Hunan, was born in October 1902.
Pingjiang is an outstanding person, and there are more than 60 founding generals, including five generals.
Zhou Kun was fortunate enough to participate in the Autumn Harvest Uprising and began his military career under the command of the chairman, which is a rare experience. Zhou Kun's family is good, he has gone to private school, he is well-read, he also likes to read books, even on the march, he carries a bag of books on his back.
His uniqueness caught the attention of the chairman, and since then he has been in the sight of great men and has been deliberately cultivated.
Under the teaching of the great man, Zhou Kun's progress is obvious to all. Three years later, in 1930, Zhou Kun was already the commander of the 34th Division of the 12th Red Army and began to become a senior commander of the Red Army.
Since then, Zhou Kun has served as a division commander in 6 Red Army divisions, and I am afraid that only Zhou Kun has such an experience.
It was not that he was transferred out because he couldn't go anywhere, but that he performed well everywhere he went, and he was frequently transferred to more important posts. Otherwise, it would have been taken off a long time ago.
In October 1931, Zhou Kun served as the commander of the Red 10th Division of the Red Fourth Army, and his immediate boss was Lin Biao, and at the same level as him were Chen Guang, Xun Huaizhou and others, all of whom were famous generals in the Red Army. The predecessor of the Red 10th Division was the Red 28th Regiment, which had participated in the Nanchang Uprising, and most of its members were professional soldiers, and it was one of the best units in the Central Red Army in terms of combat effectiveness.
Handing over such a heroic unit with high overall quality to Zhou Kun shows how much the superiors value and trust him.
In September 1934, the Red 21st Division and the Red 23rd Division were combined into the Red Eighth Army Corps, with Zhou Kun as the commander and concurrently the commander of the Red 21st Division.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhou Kun served as the chief of staff of the 115th Division and became Lin Biao's assistant. This was not the first cooperation between Zhou Kun and Lin Biao, at the beginning of 1935, Zhou Kun became the deputy chief of staff of the Red 1st Army (the Red 8th Army was canceled because of the heavy losses in the Battle of Xiangjiang), and began to give advice to Lin Biao.
Before the formation of the 115th Division, Lin Biao served as the principal of Kang University, and Zhou Kun also went there to serve as the director of the school affairs department of Kang University. It can be seen that Lin Biao also appreciates Zhou Kun and recognizes his commanding ability.
The 115th Division later produced three marshals, they were division commander Lin Biao, deputy division commander Nie Rongzhen, and director of the Political Training Office Luo Ronghuan. If there is no accident, Zhou Kun, as the chief of staff, also has a pivotal position in our army, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he is also the best among the generals, and he is at least a general when he is awarded.
As the chief of staff, Zhou Kun participated in the whole process of the famous battle of the 115th Division, and participated in the planning and command, which was indispensable.
If before this battle, Zhou Kun still had some scruples about the Japanese army, after the battle, he was full of confidence in defeating the Japanese invaders, breaking the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese invaders, and greatly inspiring the patriotic army and the people's confidence in the victory of the war of resistance.
Looking at the corpses of the invaders scattered all over the highway and the burned Japanese vehicles in the ravine, Zhou Kun was full of confidence and said to the comrades around him: "The Japanese invaders are not invincible, and victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression can be expected. ”
No one thought that just a few months later, Zhou Kun's fate would be turned upside down.
In late October, the 115th Division divided its troops in Wutai, and Lin Biao and Zhou Kun led the division headquarters and the 343rd Brigade to march southeast of Jinjin and move to the southeast of Jin, and dealt with the Japanese army at Niangzi Pass. Nie Rongzhen led the division of the independent regiment and other troops to stay in place and establish the Jinchaji anti-Japanese base area.
In November, the Japanese invaders captured Taiyuan, and the situation in Shanxi became extremely serious. Under the leadership of Lin Biao and Zhou Kun, the 115th Division and the 343rd Brigade moved south from Zhengtai Road to the Hongdong and Zhaocheng areas of the Luliang Mountains to establish an anti-Japanese base in southwest Shanxi.
Two months later, a meeting was held, which laid the groundwork for the change of Zhou Kun's life.
In late January 1938, the National Conference of Chiefs of Staff at and above the division level was held in Wuhan, and the Eighth Route Army, under the leadership of the Nationalist Government, was subordinate to the 2nd Theater of Operations, so it was natural that it would also participate.
The Eighth Route Army sent four generals to attend the meeting, in addition to Ye Jianying, chief of staff of the headquarters, Peng Xuefeng, chief of staff, Bian Zhangwu, senior staff officer, and Zhou Kun, chief of staff of the 115th Division. The 129th and 120th Divisions of the Eighth Route Army did not participate, which also shows that Zhou Kun is very valued.
Unexpectedly, this trip to Wuhan completely changed Zhou Kun's fate.
A bad sign is that after the meeting, Zhou Kun returned to the Shanxi front in early February 1938, and met two leaders when passing through Linfen, one was Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and the other was Zuo Quan, chief of the general staff of the Eighth Route Army. Peng Dehuai and the others went to Wuchang to discuss with the Kuomintang authorities the issue of the Eighth Route Army's support for the Battle of Xuzhou, and returned to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi and passed through Linfen.
When talking to Peng Dehuai and Zuo Quan about what he saw and heard at this meeting, Zhou Kun revealed abnormal emotions.
He said that the same chief of staff of the division, the chief of staff of the Kuomintang was very pompous, sitting in a car and hugging each other, and also making generous moves. Not to mention that he went to a meeting in a rickshaw, the Eighth Route Army Office did not even give a penny of pocket money. With the Kuomintang generals, he looks very shabby, and he looks similar to being called Hanako.
Mr. Peng's face changed greatly after hearing this, and he pointed at Zhou Kun and said, "Your thinking is wrong, how can you think like this?"
The chief of staff of Zuoquan did not lose his temper, but said in a serious tone: "This is exactly the difference between our two parties, which shows that our party is for the people, and we should ......be proud of it."
Zhou Kun was not convinced, and muttered: "Didn't I just say a few words casually." Peng Dehuai was angry, slapped the table and scolded, scolding very badly, causing the meeting to break up unhappily, and Zhou Kun continued to leave Linfen with a complaint.
Before leaving, Zhou Kun was no longer penniless, but puffed up his pockets and had a lot of money. When he was in Linfen, he received a month's military expenses from the 115th Division of the Kuomintang 2nd Theater, a total of 60,000 yuan (legal currency).
At that time, 100 fiat currency could buy two cows, which is equivalent to about 20,000 yuan now, and 60,000 fiat currency is definitely a huge amount of money.
Think about it, there were 15,000 people in a division of the Eighth Route Army at that time, and that money was not only the salary of more than 10,000 people, but also the cost of the operation of the whole division.
After Zhou Kun got the money, he lost contact with his superiors and the division headquarters.
According to the recollection of Wang Bingzhang, chief of the operations section of the 115th Division Headquarters of the party, Zhou Kun handed over a satchel to his guard before leaving, saying: "There are important documents in this, and you will hand them over to the chief of the operations section Wang immediately after you go back." ”
After the guard went back, he immediately handed the satchel to Wang Bingzhang, and he was stunned when he opened it. There were no documents in it, but a stack of banknotes, a total of 30,000 yuan. At the bottom of the satchel, a text message was also found: "I received a total of 60,000 yuan from the Kuomintang, and left 30,000 yuan for the traffic police guards to bring back, and I took the 30,000 yuan away, I hope to check it." ”
Wang Bingzhang saw that the handwriting was very familiar, it was Zhou Kun's. In the letter, Zhou Kun did not say where he went, nor did he say what he was going to do with the huge sum of 30,000 yuan.
The strange thing is that Zhou Kun has no news since then, just like the world has evaporated.
After Zhou Kun absconded with the money, it caused an uproar at the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the headquarters of the 115th Division. In addition to the shock, everyone was puzzled.
In everyone's mind, Zhou Kun's revolutionary will is the most resolute, and in April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution, setting off a bloody storm, and the whole country was in a white terror. At that time, many people were intimidated and chose to withdraw from the revolutionary camp, and some even defected to the enemy. In this case, Zhou Kun followed Chairman Mao to participate in the Autumn Harvest Uprising and became the first batch of generals to go to Jinggangshan. In the following several anti-"encirclement and suppression" and the 25,000-mile Long March, he performed well along the way.
How could such a battle-hardened and time-tested communist fighter suddenly leave the team?
Just seeing the superior life of the Kuomintang generals, it seems a bit unreasonable to abandon their beliefs and leave their comrades-in-arms who were born and died with them.
Why did he only take half of the funds with him? Is it "to leave a line in work, so that we can see each other in the future"? After that, he disappeared and did not reappear.
He took half of the 115 Division's military expenses from more than 10,000 people, so how can you spend this time? You must know that this is the battlefield of resistance against Japan, and his heart is ruthless enough.
After the liberation, the organization also came to his hometown in Pingjiang, Hunan, to visit and investigate, but there was no news of him. From the archives of the seized Kuomintang secret services, there is no trace of Zhou Kun.
Where did Zhou Kun go? There are different accounts.
First of all, it is a sure fact that the intention of seeing money is unequitable.
If Zhou Kun disappeared with the guards after receiving the money, he might be discovered by the bad guys and killed for money. But Zhou Kun gave part of the money to the guards, and disappeared with the money, making it clear that he did not plan to go back, and the purpose was to illegally occupy the money, and there was no other explanation.
He also has no possibility of defecting to the enemy, and if he does, he will not have to flee with money, otherwise he will be looked down upon by the Kuomintang and will not be able to make a deal. After all, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated at that time, and Zhou Kun would not be held accountable.
There may be only two left, one is found by gangsters with a huge amount of money and killed. Another possibility is to abscond with a huge amount of money, go incognito, and spend the rest of your life at ease.
Some people also speculate that Zhou Kun has experience and connections, and it is likely that he will use this huge amount of money to develop overseas, set up a business, and open a company.
If this is the case, the Kuomintang bigwigs who had blood on their hands back then all returned to China to visit their relatives, and it is impossible for Zhou Kun, a person with a family concept, not to return to his homeland and worship his parents.
Besides, in the era of war and chaos, if Zhou Kun is alive, he will definitely go back to his hometown to support his parents for the elderly, and it is impossible for the people in the village not to know.
The only explanation is that before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Kun was no longer alive. From this point of view, Zhou Kun is the most likely to be killed for money.
In short, there is no evidence for the various claims, and they can only be speculation. It is undeniable that if Zhou Kun had not fled, he would definitely have a very high status after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
When the title was conferred in 1955, the 115th Division produced 3 marshals, and the brigade commanders and regiment commanders below were also founding generals, including generals and generals.
As the chief of staff of the 115th Division, Zhou Kun is most likely the founding general. He participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising, belonged to the "mountain" of the Red Army, and not only had the qualifications but also the ability, if he participated in the award, it was impossible for the rank to be too low.
It's a pity that history has no ifs, because the revolutionary position was shaken, Zhou Kun became a tragic figure and disappeared in the long river of history, quietly.
References: "Beacon Fire Guanshan: Chronicles of the War Years" Wang Zhengzhu "The Complete Biography of Peng Dehuai"