Written by Yuan Guoxiang
Reading "Rong Ma Fengchen" inscribed by General Wang Zhen and "Luliang Armed Forces" inscribed by General Yu Qiuli made me see a living revolutionary hero Xie Yunzhong one by one. These two documentary biographical works are the last painstaking efforts of Xie Lao in his later years, and his loyalty to the party and the people permeates between the lines. As Xie Lao himself said, the thrilling battle story in the book was his "truthful record" at that time.
In July 2001, Lieutenant Colonel Wang Zhengong and I found Xie Yunzhong's wife, Zhao Guiqing, in a building in Maolinju in the western suburbs of Beijing. When she and I heard that we were looking for the revolutionary relics left by Xie Lao and were about to display them in the Military History Museum of the Southern Xinjiang Military Region, she happily took out a red leather box and said that it was all the things left by Lao Xie, you can pick and choose, take away the useful ones, and I am ready to burn the useless ones. When we opened the box, we were stunned that it was a box of "treasures".
This veteran chief went so far as to put down the files, newspapers, speeches of the chiefs, study notes (one of which was a small book of captured Japanese soldiers), as well as the roster of his military engineering team and unit, the list of martyrs, the registration of the wounded, the amount of pensions issued, the list of meritorious service recipients, his own meritorious service certificate, the roster of party members, the registration of party dues, the transfer of party members' relations, the registration of the road slips issued, the amount of subsidized food, and the records of many battles, the number of enemy soldiers killed and captured, and the number of weapons and ammunition captured. Materials, etc., he wrote clearly. In the end, there were many files from the time of the march into Xinjiang, including tabloids, study materials, and meeting minutes at the army, division, and regiment levels, as well as the production situation of the troops and the work in the localities, all of which he remembered in detail. This makes us love it, and we feel that it is a pity to let go of any of them. Comrade Zhao Guiqing understood our mood and said with a smile: "Forget it, don't pick it." Why don't you even take the box!" We were overjoyed, and we unceremoniously issued a receipt for the donation and a certificate of honor from the Political Department of the Southern Xinjiang Military Region.
When I asked Zhao Guiqing for the two more books that Xie Yunzhong wrote in her later years, she only found one copy of "The Wind and Dust of the Horse", and the other one was gone. She took us to a sacred place, the Baoshan Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery. When we presented two small flower baskets to Comrade Xie Yunzhong's ashes window, and Zhao Guiqing took out a copy of "Luliang Martial Arts Team" from under the urn, our eyes moistened, and our hearts welled up with infinite emotion. Yes, Xie Yunzhong was a colonel who was awarded the rank of colonel in 1955 and was later promoted to a regular military cadre. His revolutionary life finally ended in the position of secretary of the party committee of the Central Planning Commission and retired cadres at the level of vice minister, and it is also a special honor for his ashes to be placed in Babaoshan, and we juniors should pay silent tribute to him, pay tribute, and learn from him!
In fact, I met Comrade Xie Yunzhong as early as 50 years ago. In the autumn of 1951, when I accompanied General Zuo Qi, deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department of the Second Army and Kashgar Military Region, and one arm, to inspect the work on the front line of Aksu, I first visited the 12th Regiment of Bachu. I remember that the regimental headquarters lived in the county town and the equipment was very rudimentary, while the troops were scattered in the Gobi Desert to open up wasteland and cultivate land. When we went, it was the season when the crops were ripe, and the waves of wheat were rolling in Qilitak, and the rape grew like a person, and the deputy political commissar of Gao Zuo, accompanied by the regiment commander Duan Jinwen and the political commissar Xie Yunzhong, happily walked to the field and shook hands with the soldiers who were harvesting the crops. When Commissar Xie kept briefing on the situation, I also took a meaningful photo. The next day, Deputy Political Commissar Left also went to see the water conservancy projects built by the troops and visited the Red Sea Reservoir. There, I saw Uyghur villagers rowing canoes to fish, and ate delicious fresh fish grilled with red willow branches.
In the summer of 1954, I went to visit the 10th Regiment of the 4th Division of Yache, and met the strict and gentle political commissar Xie Yunzhong. It turned out that he and part of the young backbone of the 12th Regiment were integrated into the defense forces, while the rest of the comrades were integrated into the production units. There, I went deep into the company and took pictures of military training, cultural studies, and heroic figures. At that time, Zhao Guiqing, the wife of Political Commissar Xie, was in charge of the library, and I went there to borrow books and read newspapers, and I got to know this female student soldier cadre who was also marching into Xinjiang.
Later, Political Commissar Xie was transferred to Nanjing Military Academy to study. When he graduated in 1957, he could have been assigned to a big city in the interior, but he asked to return to the difficult frontier. The Xinjiang Military Region warmly welcomed him back to his old ministry and appointed him political commissar and secretary of the division committee of the Ali cavalry detachment. After rushing from Nanjing to Qinghai, he jumped on a big truck and set off for Tibet instead of waiting for a plane to arrive in Lhasa a few days later. On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the mountains are high and the roads are dangerous, the wind and snow are cold, the severe lack of oxygen, more than ten days of bumps, and excessive fatigue make Xie Yunzhong fall ill and develop from a cold to pulmonary edema. He was unconscious when the car climbed over the 5,200-metre Tanggula Mountain. Fortunately, he met Director Kuang of the 49th Hospital in Amdo, and he immediately sent a small car to let Dr. Wang from the military station send Xie Yunzhong to Lhasa overnight. When he had not yet recovered, he asked Ali to take up his post. Tan Guansan, political commissar of the Tibet Military Region, personally talked to him and said: "Your lungs are seriously damaged, so you should not go to the plateau again, so you should stay and work in Lhasa!" In this way, Xie Yunzhong obeyed the organization's decision and became the head of the organization department of the Political Department of the Tibet Military Region.
Xie Yunzhong did not forget General Wang Zhen's call to "settle down, take root, and build a new Xinjiang for a long time", and also took root in Tibet, and worked for 16 years, not only serving as the political commissar of the 54th Division, but also participating in the Sino-Indian border self-defense counterattack operation; He also served as the secretary of the Shannan Prefectural Party Committee, and participated in the campaign to suppress bandits and counterinsurgency in Medika and other places. He has made significant contributions to the construction of the Tibetan army and the strengthening of local work, and is known as an old scalper who is dedicated to the public service and selfless dedication. What pleased him the most was that in the winter of 1958, he accompanied Zhou Renshan, deputy secretary of the Tibet Working Committee, to lead a working group and a performance team to the Ali Plateau by car for more than 10 days to investigate the border situation and express his condolences to the troops. He assisted Secretary Zhou Renshan in his investigation and research, and traveled all over Ali until the spring of the following year, when he traveled along the Xin-Tibet Highway, crossed the Kunlun Mountains, and returned to Shache and Kashgar, which he missed. The Southern Xinjiang Military Region warmly welcomed the Tibet working group and listened to their report on Ali's investigation. At that time, I saw Senior Colonel Xie Yunzhong again, his face was dark, but he was in good spirits. He also accompanied Secretary Zhou to Kashgar with great interest to visit places of interest and historic sites.
After more than ten years, I don't know where Xie Yunzhong went. It wasn't until 1975, when I went to Sichuan to settle the first batch of demobilized cadres, that I heard that he was a political commissar at the Chengdu Civil Aviation Administration, and the order was given by Chairman Mao. At the end of the work, during the peak period of airlift before the Spring Festival, a section chief of the Shenyang Military Region was in a hurry to go back, but he was unable to buy a plane ticket. He asked us at the dinner table, "Who knows anyone from the Civil Aviation Administration?" Everyone was silent. I muttered, "I know one." He then begged me to make a phone call, and I said, "No! More than 20 years ago, he was a political commissar and I was a small soldier." He doesn't remember me for a long time, what's the use of calling?" I didn't expect this section chief, who has great powers, to call the political commissar Xie of the Civil Aviation Administration and ask me to talk about it. I had no choice but to report to my family and say hello to the old political commissar and Comrade Zhao Guiqing! Political Commissar Xie smiled when he heard this: "You asked him to go to the ticket office to find Director Yu." He also said: "I know that you are Yuan Guoxiang who can take pictures, and you can come to me if you have something!" I felt warm in my heart when I heard this, and I didn't bother him anymore. Because several of our comrades in Xinjiang took the train, and the comrade-in-arms in Shenyang flew home the next day.
Xie Yunzhong is a veteran comrade who has been on the battlefield for a long time, loyal, capable, approachable, and principled. But I know very little about his revolutionary experience and combat deeds. This time I got two books he wrote, and I read them quickly. "The Wind and Dust of the Horses" vividly depicts the first half of his life, while "Luliang Martial Arts Team" reflects his battle scene in the anti-Japanese beacon fire. It turned out that Xie Yunzhong was born in a peasant family in Fanzhi, Shanxi, worked in the field at the age of 12, only went to primary school for a few years in winter, and wandered with his father at the age of 16. When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, the Japanese invaded Chasui rampantly, and Xie Yun found the Eighth Route Army and became a guerrilla. They mobilized the masses everywhere, mobilized young people to join the army, collected the guns of the defeated soldiers, and resisted the Japanese attack. Because Xie Yunzhong had a good performance and a little culture, he and some Red Army cadres were sent to study at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. After arriving in Yan'an, he eagerly studied revolutionary theory, and listened to Chairman Mao's lecture "On Protracted War" many times.
In August 1938, Xie Yunzhong's students graduated from the Sixth Team of the Anti-Japanese University, and more than 100 people crossed the Yellow River east to join the 120th Division. Xie Yunzhong's more than 20 people followed the chief of the democracy movement and went deep behind enemy lines to secretly expand the army. He became a team leader, disguised himself as a common man, went deep into the enemy-occupied areas, formed a guerrilla force, and soon brought back more than 200 hot-blooded youths from the Huairen area. At the beginning of 1939, 19-year-old Xie Yunzhong was appointed as the head of the Democracy Movement Section of the Third Detachment, and he also led the team to the area of Jizhong to expand the army, not only mobilized hundreds of anti-Japanese youth, but also carried out the anti-"maintenance" struggle, "reddened" many villages, and dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Japanese puppet, and was praised by Commander He Long. But they were also surrounded by the enemy many times, and paid the price of bloody sacrifices. Once, due to a traitor's informant, Xie Yunzhong, then the head of the working group and the county magistrate of the anti-Japanese government, was holding a mass meeting, and the Japanese puppet army quietly surrounded the village. While directing the evacuation of the masses, Xie Yunzhong led the members of the working group to block the enemy and break through by different routes. He and his comrades-in-arms fought and retreated, and just broke out of the encirclement in the darkness of the night, unfortunately embarked on a dead end. There were pursuers in front of him, a cliff behind him, and when the bullets ran out, he shouted, "Jump down!" and jumped off the cliff. The enemy caught up and saw that it was pitch black under the cliff, so they fired a few shots indiscriminately and left. Fortunately, they did not die, and their comrades had broken their waists and could not walk. Xie Yunzhong was injured in more than ten places, gritted his teeth, dragged his injured leg, crawled down the ditch, and finally was found by the people at dawn and rescued them. A month later, before his injuries were all healed, he took on the heavy responsibility of being the head of the working regiment and the head of the county, organized two guerrilla units in the local area, executed the most heinous traitors, ambushed the Japanese automobile transport team, and destroyed several enemy strongholds, destroyed the enemy's puppet regime, and cooperated with the main force in the counteroffensive, thus achieving the goal of "squeezing the enemy out" proposed by Chairman Mao and expanding the anti-Japanese base areas in the northwest of Shanxi.
In the autumn of 1942, Xie Yunzhong was appointed as the captain of the military engineering team of the Jinsui Third Division, specializing in dealing with the Japanese stronghold in Sanjiao Town, Linxian County. He led a group of more than 40 cadres and local cadres to mobilize the masses in depth, digging tunnels, laying mines, and waging an anti-sweeping struggle. Not only did he kill the Japanese puppet army who came out to grab food many times, he killed the Japanese army's water horses, but also personally shot and killed the captain of the Japanese army, Nakamura, and captured three Japanese soldiers alive in ambush many times. In addition, they also seized a lot of weapons such as the two packs of Baiyang and the 92nd Artillery, equipped our militia, and established guerrilla detachments in the new area, surrounding Sanjiao Town from three sides. The Japanese puppet army ran out of ammunition and food, and escaped from Sanjiao Town by night, and they were still greeted by the constant sound of mines and the vengeful guns of the soldiers.
Sanjiao Town, which connected the communication line in northern Shaanxi, was liberated, and Xie Yunzhong immediately commanded the armed engineering team and militia to attack Shimendui to the east. The Japanese killed many civilians there and stuffed their bodies into the tunnels dug by the militia. Xie Yunzhong went into the cave to reconnoitre, and when he saw that a child was also killed, his heart was filled with the flame of revenge. He immediately called an emergency meeting and asked his superiors to send two companies to support him and block the enemy's escape route. Mobilize the militia to continue digging the tunnel until 4,000 pounds of explosives are placed in it. There was a loud bang, the fire suddenly rose, the enemy pillbox collapsed, the dust flew, the devil returned to his hometown, and the villagers rushed to the stone gate with our army.
In August 1945, Japan surrendered. They did not surrender their guns to the Eighth Route Army, but handed over Lishi and other places to Yan Xishan. At this time, Xie Yunzhong's old troops came to attack Lishi County, and Yu Qiuli, who was then the director of the Political Department of the 358th Brigade, knew that Xie Yunzhong's martial arts team was very capable of fighting and had brilliant results, so he wrote to them to help dig tunnels to attack the battle. Xie Yunzhong was very happy, and with his rich experience, he chose the entrance to the cave in the bungalow of a fellow villager, and commanded the soldiers to dig the earth in shifts day and night, until they reached the city wall. There was another loud bang, a volley of gunfire, and the soldiers rushed through the collapsed gap into the city. Soon the remnants of the enemy were wiped out, and a large number of enemies such as Qiu Yugong, the commander of the city defense, were captured alive. After the stone was laid, the city defense commander wrote five letters of persuasion to surrender, and our army sent people to each stronghold to break up the enemy army. Director Yu also sent a battalion to follow Xie Yunzhong to fight Dawu Town on the north side. When he saw that the enemy would not surrender, he resolutely ordered an attack. Under the suppression of our army's strong firepower, the soldiers blew open the south gate, rushed into the city, and started a street battle, and more than 200 people of the Iron Blood Regiment fled in confusion. The enemy in the fortified bunkers built by the Japanese army also raised their hands and surrendered with white flags. Our army liberated Dawu Town, and Xie Yunzhong and the district cadres distributed the confiscated gold, silver, treasures, clothing and food to the local people who were persecuted by the Japanese puppet army. When the Wugong team was ordered to return to the team, Xie Yunzhong brought more than 100 local cadres and soldiers to be incorporated into the troops of the Fourth Independent Brigade. At that time, Political Commissar Yang Xiushan talked to him and appointed him as the head of the Organization Section of the Political Department of the brigade. Since then, Xie Yunzhong has been fighting in this unit, and after three and a half years of the Liberation War, until the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the troops were stationed in the Kashgar region in southern Xinjiang.
In the winter of 1945, Xie Yunzhong participated in the battles of Yonghe and Zhongyang, the liberation of Xiaoyi and Wenshui in the Fourth Brigade of the Independent Brigade, and expanded the liberated areas in southwest Shanxi. In the summer of 1947, Chiang Kai-shek attacked Yan'an. In order to defend the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, the second column crossed the Yellow River west and participated in the Northern Shaanxi Campaign. Xie Yunzhong, then director of the Political Department of the 12th Regiment, fought hard with the soldiers, not only won three battles and three victories in Qinghuatou, Yangmahe, and Panlong Town, but also annihilated the enemy's 36th Division in Shajiadian, and the division commander Zhong Song escaped alone. In the pursuit, our army set up an ambush in Qusijiao, destroyed and burned 21 enemy vehicles and 5 tanks. At the most tense moment of the battle, Xie Yunzhong took the lead and bravely pursued, blowing up an enemy tank with a cluster grenade, which was the first example of using grenades to destroy enemy tanks in the Northwest Battlefield. Then, the 12th Regiment blocked the enemy at the Chakou Mountain Beam, and Director Xie, who was monitoring the enemy at the front, was pierced in the left thigh and blood flowed, but he still insisted on reporting the enemy situation to Commander Zhang Xiankui before being sent down the mountain on a stretcher.
In April 1948, the Northwest Field Army attacked Guanzhong and smashed Baoji. The 12th Regiment was ordered to block an ironclad train fleeing towards Xi'an. Xie Yunzhong led the three battalions to dig up the railway and catch turtles in the urn. But machine guns and small cannons can't penetrate steel plates, and explosive packs can't blow up iron armor. The enemy also used the holes of their guns to shoot at me constantly, and the soldiers were in a hurry. At this time, a squad leader suggested blowing up the top of the car, Xie Yunzhong ordered the Eighth Company commando to tie the explosives to the top of the wooden pole, and sure enough, a big hole was blown up, several grenades were thrown into it, and more than 20 enemies opened the iron door and came out to surrender. Xie Yunzhong led his soldiers to rush in, attacked the carts on both sides, and found Xu Bao, the commander of the enemy's 76th Division, in the second trunk. Our army shouted: "Surrender the gun and not kill", and he abandoned his gun and drew his sword, and rushed back. A shuttle of bullets knocked down Xu Bao, and Xie Yunzhong picked up his command knife and black leather bag. Our army opened Baoji, seized a large number of supplies, the Huma bandit army surrounded our army, and the 12th Regiment repelled the frantic attack of more than 300 cavalry in Xiaojin Town, covering the safe transfer of the main force. During the battle, a shell exploded, and Xie Yunzhong was wounded in the head, but he insisted on directing the battle and, with tenacious perseverance, moved out safely with the troops.
At the beginning of 1949, Xie Yun returned to the team after being injured and became the deputy political commissar of the 12th Regiment. They marched and fought all the way, won the Battle of Fumei, liberated Gansu and Qinghai, and ushered in the founding of the People's Republic of China in the Hexi Corridor. He then served as the vanguard and marched peacefully into Xinjiang, arriving in Hami on October 13, first helping to extinguish the houses burned down by the Kuomintang rebels and pacifying the people of all ethnic groups who had been looted. The troops continued to advance to Shanshan, where the Kuomintang battalion commander killed Sima Yi, the county magistrate who had left the city to welcome the PLA, and closed the city gate in a vain attempt to rebel. The regiment commander Zhang Xiankui ordered the siege of the city and prepared to open artillery. A company commander opened the city gates, led our troops into the city, arrested the culprits, and the victims cried out about the crimes of the rebels. When our army arrived at Yanqi, Luntai, Kuqa and other places, where the common people had suffered the scourge of traitors, Xie Yunzhong, together with the vast number of cadres and soldiers, vigorously carried out mass work and stabilized social order. At the end of November 1949, the units of the Fourth Division, which had crossed the Gobi Desert for 800 miles, arrived at Kashgar, a border city in the western part of the motherland. The 12th Regiment was stationed in Jiashi and was warmly welcomed by the people of all ethnic groups. Then, Xie Yunzhong took on the heavy responsibility of political commissar, and he and regiment commander Duan Jinwen led the troops to reorganize the army and practice martial arts, and at the same time consolidate public order, they launched a vigorous large-scale production campaign, and obtained a bumper harvest of grain, cotton, oil, and vegetables. In 1951, the regiment headquarters was moved to Bachu, and Xie Yunzhong also served as the head of the regiment. He and Liu Haishan, secretary of the county party committee, were close to each other and took on the important task of governing Bachu. The army not only built water conservancy, prevented floods, and ensured peasant production; Moreover, he sent cadres to the countryside to mobilize the masses to wage rent reduction, oppose hegemony, and carry out the struggle for land reform, thus making major contributions to breaking the feudal shackles, promoting national unity, and establishing the people's political power. It was not until 1953, when the army was reorganized and he was transferred to the 4th Division and 10th Regiment as a political commissar, that he bid farewell to most of his comrades-in-arms, reluctantly left Bachu, and went to Shache to start his new combat journey.