My father, General Zhao Shoushan, spent his life in the constant pursuit of truth and demand, and he was transformed from a patriot to a communist, and from a senior general of the Kuomintang to a deputy commander of the First Field Army. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, my father served as chairman and governor of Qinghai and Shaanxi provinces, and finally passed away at the post of a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
In the summer of 1935, on the eve of the Red Fourth Front Army's Xu Xiangqian and Xu Haidong's Long March through Hanzhong, my father came to my study and said to my teacher Yao Jingchen in front of me: "After overthrowing the old warlords and the emergence of new warlords, the 'suppression of the Communist Party' is self-defeating." Only by realizing Dr. Sun Yat-sen's three major policies of uniting with Russia, uniting with the Communist Party, and supporting peasants and workers can China have a way out. Therefore, although Hu Zongnan pursued the Red Army and Chiang Kai-shek ordered his father to intercept it in Hanzhong, he reached a secret agreement with Xu Xiangqian and adopted the method of not leaving to deal with the cover, so that the Red Army could get rid of Hu Zongnan's tracking and pass through the Qinba Mountains relatively smoothly. My father's attitude towards the Red Army and his conversations with his teachers left a deep impression on me and gave me a revolutionary enlightenment education.
In October 1936, after inspecting the domestic situation, my father personally submitted his "anti-Japanese proposal" to General Yang Hucheng, urging him to stop the civil war and unanimously resist Japan. On December 12 of the same year, Generals Zhang and Yang launched the Xi'an Incident, and my father served as the commander-in-chief of the military operations in Xi'an, responsible for disarming Chiang's troops in Xi'an, detaining Chiang's senior generals and officials in the city, and taking the time to tell us the reasons why Generals Zhang and Yang imposed military admonitions on Chiang Kai-shek.
On December 23rd, a few days after my wife Luo Shaolan (Wu Qi) and I got married, Mr. Zhou Enlai suddenly came to visit my house after 10 o'clock that night, so that my father and the whole family did not expect that many family members and nannies had already slept, and I happened to be at home to participate in school activities. The next day, I heard from my wife, Luo Shaolan, that because of the cold weather last night, my father directly let Mr. Zhou go to the hot kang in the landlord's room in my backyard. Zhou Enlai is facing west, while his father sits opposite him, and in the middle is the ceramic tea tray that Luo Shaolan's mother's family brought over when we got married. Mr. Zhou and his father had a long talk on their knees, and it was not until two or three o'clock in the morning the next morning that he got up to say goodbye.
Luo Shaolan was responsible for greeting the two old men that night, she went into the house to bring tea and water more than a dozen times a night, and when she came out, she sat on the bench at the door of the east room, diagonally opposite Mr. Zhou, so she only heard and witnessed the whole process of Zhou Enlai's conversation with his father at close range. She recalled that she was very young at the time, and she couldn't understand a lot of the conversation between Zhou Enlai and her father, but she felt that the two old men hit it off at first sight and talked about everything. Their conversations were high and low, arguing and smiling, like old friends who had been reunited for a long time......
That night, my mother personally stood guard at the second gate, despite the cold and freezing weather, while my father's personal guard, Lei Qinghan, and others were on guard at gunpoint around the gate and in the courtyard. Mr. Zhou's amiability and sincerity, and his father's warmth and respect for Mr. Zhou, left an unforgettable impression on everyone.
In 1963, during the summer vacation of school, my second daughter, Xingyuan, returned from Beijing to the army and met Premier Zhou Enlai at the Beijing airport. When the prime minister knew that she was Zhao Shoushan's granddaughter, he asked with a smile: "I went to your house during the Xi'an Incident in 1936, do you have you?
A few days later, Chiang Kai-shek's hundreds of thousands of troops entered Guanzhong, and General Yang, in order to avoid expanding the civil war, withdrew the 17th Route Army to the north of the Wei River, and his father served as the commander of the Weibei garrison and the commander of the 17th Division, garrisoning Sanyuan. At the same time, in order to aid the Northeast Army and the 17th Route Army, the main force of the Red Army led by Peng Dehuai and He Long also moved south, stationed in Jingyang, Sanyuan and the 17th Division.
One day, after giving a banquet to Peng Dehuai, He Long, Ren Bishi and other Red Army generals, my father took the initiative to call people from the photo studio, hoping that everyone would take a group photo. Mr. Peng said humorously: "Master Zhao, you have a basis for a gangster now!" My father replied heartily: "Please tell the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that I am not only a gangster, but I also want to join the gang!" After my father returned home, he told us about this incident with great interest.
Soon after, my father decided to send my two sisters and brothers, and later my wife Luo Shaolan and eight other cousins, cousins, and cousins, to the Red Army University in Northern Shaanxi (the predecessor of Kang Da) to learn the revolutionary principles of resisting Japan and saving the country.
Before we left in February 1937, my father solemnly and affectionately admonished: "To withstand arduous training and severe tests, a privileged life often makes people develop the habit of being a gentleman." After arriving at the Red Army University, we must study theory and practice well, resist Japan, and ...... revolution."
Just under the bed of the truck where my husband and wife traveled to northern Shaanxi, my father secretly hid silver dollars and guns for the Red Army in northern Shaanxi, which were filled with oranges for camouflage. As the truck was bumpy along the way, and the silver round and guns under the oranges were exposed on the way, we discovered the secret of my father's secret help to the Red Army.
It is said that with his father's financial resources and status at that time, he could have sent his only son and daughter-in-law to study and further his studies in a university environment with better conditions abroad, in order to develop better in the future. But my father didn't do that. This alone is enough to feel his old man's pure heart of pursuing truth, demanding progress, and "the country is in trouble, and the husband is responsible", as well as a strong sense of responsibility for the rise and fall of the Chinese nation.
My father's arrangements and teachings laid the foundation for the revolutionary journey that our husband and wife would take for the rest of their lives.
In the winter of 1937, Kuomintang spies told Chiang Kai-shek: "Zhao Shoushan sent his children to the Communist Party of Yan'an!" In Chiang Kai-shek's view, this was simply "a conspiracy and a great rebellion", so at a high-level meeting, he reprimanded his father without naming him. Later, when he was specially summoned to meet with his father, he openly questioned him. The father cleverly replied: "I am fighting in the front, and my children are studying in the rear, and the father is not the son of the father!"
In order to consolidate the position of the 38th Army and not give Chiang Kai-shek any truth, Mao Zedong later persuaded my father to send my sister and brother and my wife back to Xi'an, and soon sent me to study at the Whampoa Military Academy in Chongqing. In doing so, the father actually put his only son as a hostage next to Chiang Kai-shek, just to paralyze Chiang Kai-shek so that the troops could fight at the front.
Before I left, my father's heart was very heavy, and he repeatedly admonished: "I only have one son, and it is not that I can bear to send you into the mouth of the tiger, but for the sake of the country and the nation, and for the sake of resisting Japan, I have to do this." When you arrive at the military school, you have to pretend to be gray everywhere, and don't show your edge. Be strong, and always be prepared for the worst. Make friends, so that you can cover yourself. ”
Following my father's arrangement, I stepped into the Whampoa Military Academy, the center of Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary rule, in Chongqing and Chengdu. Later, under the covert protection of Zhou Enlai and the underground party organization, in the anti-communist upsurge of Chiang Kai-shek in early 1941, he finally overcame the difficulties and returned to the army safely.
Chiang Kai-shek had long suspected that the 38th Army was "colluding with the Communists" and "reddening" in the Zhongtiao Mountain area of Shanxi, so he always wanted to create a pretext to eliminate it. In October 1940, the 38th Army was transferred by Chiang Kai-shek to the defense area on the south bank of the Yellow River east of Luoyang, Henan. On the one hand, he led the 38th Army to inflict heavy losses on the Japanese in the areas of Xingyang, Guangwu, and Surabaya in Henan, preventing them from advancing a single step, and on the other hand, he fought against Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy. My father said to everyone: "We fought a bloody war in front, and General Yang Hucheng's unjust imprisonment has not been restored, but Chiang Kai-shek always wants to take the opportunity to destroy us after Chen Dajun is on our side. I am fearless of dying for the country and the nation, but if I am also like Mr. Yang and suffered by Chiang Kai-shek, I will die a blind eye!"
In 1941, the Southern Anhui Incident occurred, the whole country was on the verge of a large-scale civil war, and Chiang Kai-shek's persecution of the 38th Army was further intensified. At this time, his father "knew that there were tigers in the mountains, and preferred to go to the tiger mountains", and once again asked to join the Communist Party. The Underground Working Committee of the 38th Army of the Communist Party of China promptly reported his father's request to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Mao Zedong personally approved him as a special member of the Communist Party of China in 1942, and announced to him the organization of the 38th Military Working Committee of the Communist Party of China and the list of all Communist Party members. The party Central Committee also instructed the 38th Military Industry Committee to discuss all major activities in the future with Commander Zhao Shoushan, and my father also more consciously placed the 38th Army completely under the leadership of the party.
At the end of 1943, in order to further conspire to bring down the 38th Army, Chiang Kai-shek on the one hand transferred his troops to Gongxian County, Henan Province, under the name of Xiu Xiu, which was actually besieged by a large army on three sides; on the other hand, he adopted the trick of ascending and secretly surrendering and diverting the tiger from the mountain, demoting his father to Wuwei, Gansu, and serving as the commander-in-chief of the Third Army, which was actually under the direct house arrest and control of Chiang Kai-shek and his confidant Hu Zongnan.
During this period, Hu Zongnan constantly adopted both hard and soft measures against his father, openly intimidating him, and personally "invited" his father to visit the cruel torture instruments of persecution of Communists and the bloody scene of killing Communists in anti-communist concentration camps. At that time, my father kept the hatred in his heart and did not say a word. When he returned home, he said bitterly: "Sooner or later, this revenge will be avenged, and the blood debt will be repaid with blood!"
Once, when my father and I met Hu Zongnan, Hu said to my father: "Your son is a talent, and he will be a talent of the party and the state in the future, and I want to promote and reuse him, what does Commander-in-Chief Zhao think?" My father gave me a look and said, "Thank you Commander Hu for your love and cultivation!" I will say meaningfully: "Thank you, sir!" In order to get me out of Hu Zongnan's control as soon as possible, my father will do everything he can and ask Hu Xian to send me to the Kuomintang Army University in Chongqing for "further study."
Before leaving, my father called me to his side and said again: "Our whole family is in the lair of Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan, and I may be imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek at any time to accompany Mr. Yang (Hucheng)." Therefore, you should always pay attention to their various traps and deceptions, so as not to be deceived and delay the big thing. After arriving in Chongqing, he contacted Mr. Zhou (Enlai) in time and tried to get rid of the entanglement and control of the spies. In this way, for the sake of the overall situation of the revolution and the safety of my father, I once again entered the tiger's mouth - Chongqing to dispel Chiang Kai-shek's doubts. Later, with the help of the CCP organization, my father made full use of his influence in the 38th Army, overcame many hardships and dangers, and finally deployed the 38th Army to revolt and return safely to the liberated area.
In 1946, before I entered the border area before my father, I also asked Dong Lao (Biwu) in bewilderment: "I have always worked for the party, but why have I applied to join the party many times, but I have not been approved by the organization?" At this time, I woke up like a dream, and it turned out that letting me be the "eldest young master of the Zhao family" was also the need of revolutionary work.
In the summer of 1946, Chiang Kai-shek dismissed him from the post of commander-in-chief of the group army under the pretext of sending his father abroad to inspect water conservancy. After arriving in Nanjing, he delayed his formalities to leave the country in an attempt to harm him at home, and if he couldn't, he simply drove his father out of the country in order to completely eliminate the trouble of his henchmen. Soon, under the careful arrangement of Zhou Enlai and Dong Biwu, my father and our whole family returned to the liberated area safely.
After his father's anti-Chiang telegram was announced, it caused great panic and shock in Nanjing and Xi'an, and Li Jishen, Yu Youren and other Kuomintang veterans all criticized Chiang Kai-shek for being narrow-minded, selfish, and unrewarded for his merits, so he forced his father to go to Liangshan. On the one hand, the Kuomintang Military Commission ordered that the personnel of the 38th Army in the countryside be kept under strict surveillance. Hu Zongnan also sent troops to raid our hometown in Huxian County and the house at No. 6 Ganlu Lane in Xi'an, and finally simply dug three feet into the ground and ransacked it, and then sent troops to station, which shows the depth of hatred.
After my father returned to the liberated areas, our whole family was finally reunited, and my father said to us: "For the sake of New China, we have lost many relatives, and this hatred cannot be forgotten. Although our whole family has returned safely to the liberated areas, we still have to thank the Party Central Committee and the underground party comrades who risked their lives and worked hard.
After the liberation of the country, my father was successful, warm and approachable. He is not only very strict with himself, but also often uses the famous poem of the Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin, "After a visit to the former virtuous country and family, success is due to diligence and thrift, and failure is due to luxury" to warn his descendants. He often said: "I want to be a good servant of the people, do my best for the people's cause, and die after death, and must not have a sense of superiority or special thinking." ”
My father was a high-ranking leading cadre of the party and the state, and a meritorious man in the founding of the republic, but he never used his power to seek benefits for his children and grandchildren or arrange any privileged jobs. However, when Marshal Peng Dehuai was unjustly examined, his father not only felt sorry for Mr. Peng's situation, but also disregarded political risks and personal safety, and openly went to visit his old leaders and old comrades-in-arms in the Wujia Garden in Jiatun, and wept bitterly after returning;
In the spring of 1965, my father unfortunately suffered from esophageal cancer, and he fought to the death against the disease just like he did on the battlefield of resistance against Japan. Until he finally became critically ill, he taught us that we should learn from comrades who are better than ourselves in politics, but in life we should be on par with comrades who are inferior to ourselves, and always adhere to the spirit of diligence and thrift. Before his death, my father was always looking forward to the reunification of the motherland, hoping to reunite with old friends in Taiwan, Hong Kong and abroad to write the Spring and Autumn Festival together.
In June 1965, his father's cancer spread, and the disease ruthlessly ravaged his body, and beads of sweat the size of soybeans trickled down his pale face from time to time. He endured the pain, gritted his teeth, and shouted in a weak voice: "Mr. Peng!
In the deep, silent night, my father suddenly sat up from his coma, his lips trembling. I hurriedly asked him what he wanted to say, and my father cried out in tears, "Zhongxun! Zhongxun!" I told him with tears in my eyes, "I heard that he was okay, please cherish his words!" My father nodded and said, "I can't see him anymore!"
At 9:50 p.m. on June 20, 1965, my father passed away while battling illness, looking forward to the reunification of the motherland, and remembering his old comrades-in-arms. Let us join hands and work together for the great cause of the motherland's reunification. Father, your old man's patriotic spirit of writing the Spring and Autumn Period will remain in the world forever!
——"Literary and Historical Materials-Memories of Zhao Shoushan"