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In April 1953, after attending the Second Congress of the All-China Women's Federation, Chairman Mao personally met with the mother of Huang Jiguang, a special combat hero of the Volunteer Army.
Looking at the hero's mother, Chairman Mao suddenly felt a sense of empathetic closeness.
He held Huang Jiguang's mother's hands and said affectionately: "In order to resist US aggression and aid Korea and defend the country, you have lost a good son, and I have also lost a good son, their sacrifices are glorious and great!" ”
Mao Anying's sacrifice has always been a great regret in Chairman Mao's life, and it is also Chairman Mao's sixth relative who sacrificed his life for the country and the people.
But this is not a painful matter in the hearts of the people of the whole country.
To this day, many people are curious, how did Mao Anying die?
Ill-fated sons and daughters of the revolution
Mao Anying is the eldest son of Chairman Mao and his wife Yang Kaihui, born in 1922 in Bancang, Hunan.
At this time, China had just experienced the New Culture Movement, and the whole country was in the midst of the turmoil of the Great Revolution.
In such a background of the times, being born in a revolutionary family is destined to be extraordinary and unusual setbacks and hardships in Mao Anying's life.
Because his father Mao Zedong has always devoted himself to the revolution, the young Mao Anying has been following his parents everywhere.
From his hometown of Hunan, to Shanghai, Wuhan and other places where the revolution was centered, he left his footprints.
At that time, Xiao Anying didn't understand what the hardships of the revolution were, but innocently told her father: "Our house has its own legs, and we can run around." ”
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek, who wanted to seize power, chose to take refuge in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang chaebol and the British and American powers behind it, and finally betrayed the revolution, waved a butcher's knife at his revolutionary comrades-in-arms, and launched the criminal "412 counter-revolutionary coup" in Shanghai.
The Great Revolution thus failed, and the White Terror that slaughtered the Communists was also set off throughout the country.
Mao Anying's mother, Yang Kaihui, was arrested and imprisoned in this countercurrent.
In October 1930, Mao Anying, along with his mother Yang Kaihui, was arrested and imprisoned by the Hunan warlord He Jian.
After many times of coercion, temptation and persuasion to surrender to no avail, He Jian, who was embarrassed and angry, killed Yang Kaihui in Liuyang Literacy Ridge on November 14 of that year.
Mao Anying has lost her mother forever.
After that, because Chairman Mao had been fighting on the front line of the revolutionary struggle, the two fathers and sons could not see each other.
The young Mao Anying took her younger brother Mao Anqing to Shanghai and the Soviet Union successively, and experienced the hardships of life at a young age.
It was not until the end of 1945 that Mao Anying returned to Yan'an and met his father Mao Zedong after more than ten years of absence.
As the son of the supreme leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Anying did not receive any special treatment.
Chairman Mao taught him to take the initiative to go to the fields in the countryside, to work, and to live with the people at the bottom of China.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, Mao Anying took the initiative to ask for help, hoping to set foot on the battlefield to defend his family and country.
At first, the leaders in charge of the volunteer army registration did not agree with Mao Anying's trip to the dangerous battlefield of North Korea.
But Mao Anying did not give up, but directly found Peng Dehuai, the commander of the Volunteer Army, to help him express his determination to his father.
After conveying his desire to invite war to Chairman Mao through Peng Dehuai, Chairman Mao specially found Mao Anying to talk at night.
During the dialogue, the chairman agreed to Mao Anying's request and admonished him earnestly: "You are a glorious Communist Party member and my son of Mao Zedong. ”
Regarding Mao Anying's sacrifice, Chairman Mao was actually psychologically prepared.
After all, he was an old revolutionary who had been on the battlefield for a long time and was accustomed to bloodshed and sacrifice, and he was very aware of the dangers of the Volunteer Army's weak attack to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
But he still resolutely sent his eldest son to this purgatory.
Front row, first from right, Zhou Shizhao
As for why Mao Anying was sent to North Korea, Chairman Mao later explained in a letter to his old friend Zhou Shizhao:
"As the supreme leader of the party and the country, I have my own son who is not sent to the battlefield, so how can I ask others to send their own sons to the battlefield?"
Give up a small home for everyone
In this way, Mao Anying, with the approval of Chairman Mao, set foot on the soil of North Korea under the pseudonym Secretary Liu of the headquarters of the Zhiji Headquarters.
In fact, two years before Mao Anying went to North Korea, he had just married Liu Siqi, who was also an orphan of the revolution.
At that time, Liu Siqi's health had been poor and he needed Mao Anying's care very much.
On the eve of Mao Anying's departure, Liu Siqi was forced to be admitted to Beijing Hospital for recuperation due to heavy bleeding from tonsil surgery in August 1950.
In September, he was rushed to the emergency room for surgery due to acute appendicitis.
At this time, Liu Siqi's body can be described as very weak.
But the war is imminent, Mao Anying has been busy with various preparations for entering the DPRK, and for the company of his wife, he can only squeeze out a little time in his busy schedule.
On the evening of October 14, Mao Anying came to the hospital to visit his wife and spent a rare time with her.
During the conversation, Mao Anying suddenly solemnly begged his wife to insist on completing her studies, to see her father Mao more when she has time, and to help her disabled younger brother Mao Anqing more.
Liu Siqi was very puzzled by Mao Anying's sudden instructions, but still nodded and agreed.
At 11 o'clock in the evening of the same day, Mao Anying left the hospital.
In front of the gate of the hospital, Mao Anying suddenly went and returned, bowed deeply to his wife, who had been watching him, before turning to leave.
It wasn't until her husband's sudden bow that Liu Siqi reacted that her husband would have something big to do.
But she didn't ask, just buried her doubts deep in her heart and waited for her husband to come back.
After stepping on the battlefield in Korea, Mao Anying relied on his Russian language skills accumulated in the Soviet Union for many years, and was arranged to work as a translator and confidential secretary at the headquarters of the Zhi Division.
The Volunteers fought very hard in Korea, not only lagging far behind the US military in terms of weapons and equipment, but also struggling with basic logistical supplies.
On the one hand, this is due to the fact that our army lacks mechanized transport units to efficiently deliver supplies to the front line, and can only rely on manpower to barely maintain supply lines.
On the other hand, it was also the US military that bullied the volunteers for their lack of prevention and control capabilities, so they flew to the rear of our army to bomb the logistics supply lines of the volunteers.
In November 1950, Gao Gang, who was in charge of the logistics and supply of the Volunteer Army, came to Dayudong, where the headquarters of the Zhisi Division was located, to discuss with Peng Dehuai the overall battle plan of the Volunteer Army.
On the same day that Gao Gang arrived in Dayudong, Xie Fang, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Volunteers, suddenly spotted two US "Mustang" reconnaissance planes hovering at low altitude on the periphery of the headquarters station.
The experienced Xie Fang suddenly felt bad, because according to past experience, once a US reconnaissance plane appeared in a certain place, it would be attacked by a group of US bombers on a large scale within two or three days!
Thinking of this, the solution immediately ordered the fighters of the engineer battalion to dig a bomb shelter near the headquarters in case of emergency.
A sacrifice that cannot be forgotten
Under the command of the solution, temporary bomb shelters were quickly constructed.
He also immediately found Peng Dehuai to report the situation to him, and asked Mr. Peng to immediately move to the newly dug air-raid shelter to avoid the upcoming bombing by the US army.
At first, Mr. Peng was reluctant to leave the headquarters and go to the air-raid shelter.
Because he believes that the location of Shiji's headquarters is extremely hidden, and it is difficult for the US military to find out.
Moreover, he has always had the habit of repeatedly pondering military sand tables and operational maps at the headquarters to formulate operational plans.
In addition, the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and the overall communication level of the volunteer army is very backward, so once he leaves the headquarters, Mr. Peng may delay time, resulting in the loss of fleeting fighters.
This also made Mr. Peng insist on staying at the headquarters.
But Mr. Peng's safety is very important after all, and under the repeated persuasion of Xie Fang and Hong Xuezhi, Mr. Peng finally relented and agreed to go to the air-raid shelter by himself.
The liaison with the headquarters was guarded by several confidential secretaries, and Mao Anying, who was a secretary surnamed Liu, was one of them.
On November 25, the U.S. Air Force attack arrived as expected, and four bombers roared over Shiji's headquarters and dropped Warlock bombs.
Because the U.S. air raids came too quickly, they completely caught the Shiji headquarters, which lacked long-range early warning, by surprise.
In an instant, before the staff who stayed behind at the headquarters of the Zhiji could evacuate, the headquarters was drowned in a sea of fire.
Because Mao Anying used a pseudonym at that time, few people in the headquarters knew his true identity.
Until Mr. Peng kept asking, "Has Secretary Liu of the headquarters found it?" Only then did everyone realize that the true identity of this usually inconspicuous colleague may be extraordinary.
As one of the few people who knew Mao Anying's identity, Hong Xuezhi also comforted Mr. Peng at this time, "Mr. Peng, don't worry, Xiao Liu is a young stick guy, his legs and feet are neat, he will definitely be fine!" ”
After listening to Hong Xuezhi's words, Peng Dehuai felt a little relieved.
But it didn't take long for the bad news to come: two soldiers from the Zhiji headquarters were killed in the air raid, and Secretary Liu of the Confidential Department was one of them.
Hearing the bad news, Peng Dehuai felt dizzy for a while and almost fainted.
On the night of Mao Anying's death, Peng Dehuai personally drafted a telegram to the Party Central Committee with grief.
In the telegram, he recorded in detail the details of Mao Anying's sacrifice:
"At 11 o'clock, when the four enemy planes passed by, the four of them had already come out, and after the enemy planes had passed, the four of them returned to the house, and suddenly four more enemy planes came, dropping nearly 100 incendiary bombs, hitting the house, and Mao Anying and Gao Ruixin were burned to death before they could run out."
Mr. Peng's telegram was just a few crosses, but it was changed again and again, so that the veteran who made a decision did not know how to put pen to paper.
Perhaps because of this, rumors from all walks of life continue, and there are even many "conspiracy theories" around Mr. Peng.
It wasn't until the CCTV program was broadcast in 2020 and Peng Dehuai's handwritten telegram was disclosed that the society really understood the process and details of Mao Anying's sacrifice.
In this way, it has effectively debunked all kinds of bad rumors and foul-smelling Internet memes that have haunted the martyrs for many years.
epilogue
After Mao Anying's death, Chairman Mao endured his grief and did not cry bitterly.
When Premier Zhou suggested that Mao Anying's body be immediately transported back to China for burial, Chairman Mao also declined the kindness of his old comrades-in-arms: "Qingshan is buried everywhere in the Middle Ages, why should the body be returned with horse leather." ”
It wasn't until 14 years after Chairman Mao's death in 1990 that when the staff was sorting out the relics of the old man's house, they were surprised to find that Mao Anying's two shirts and a military hat before his death were neatly stacked by Chairman Mao in the deepest part of the wardrobe.
This is full of deep love for his son, which is extremely moving!
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"Resisting US Aggression and Aiding Korea to Defend the Home and Defend the Country (Episode 20: Historical Memory)"
Mao Zedong has treasured Mao Anying's relics for more than 20 years[J].Middle School Students' Reading(Junior High School Edition),2021(Z2):86.)
XIONG Huayuan. Mao Anying and his father Mao Zedong's two or three things[J].Yanhuang Chunqiu,2022(11):31-35.