In the 1955 award, there was a very special general in our army, and he was Li Kenong. Compared with those battle-hardened PLA generals, Li Kenong has never led troops to fight, but his contributions are equally indelible.
Since participating in the revolution, Li Kenong has spent most of his time silently on the hidden front, and his long-term high-intensity work has caused irreparable damage to Li Kenong's cardiopulmonary function.
On October 25, 1957, the weather in the north had turned cold, and because there was still a lot of work to be done, after lunch, Li Kenong put down the dishes and chopsticks and went directly back to the office.
On the way to the office, a cool breeze blew, and Li Kenong suddenly felt unwell, and then coughed constantly. He walked to the wall with difficulty, holding on to it with one hand and pounding his chest with the other.
Suddenly, Li Kenong felt a darkness in front of him, and then his head fell heavily to the ground, thanks to the kind passers-by who took him to the hospital, which kept him out of danger.
Premier Zhou had just finished an important meeting that day, and after learning about the situation, he went to the hospital non-stop. But from the doctor, I learned that Li Kenong's condition is not very optimistic, and he is still in a coma.
In the days that followed, Premier Zhou cared about Li Kenong's condition every day, and after two months of treatment, Li Kenong finally regained consciousness, and the doctor found that he had lost part of his memory, but he kept muttering a name - Wang Shijian.
Who is Wang Shijian?
Wang Shijian's ancestral home is in Shandong, and the year he was born coincided with the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and his parents were intellectuals. Under the education of his parents, Wang Shijian has had a deep sense of family and country since he was a child.
In order to gain a foothold in the north, Zhang Zuolin was left and right between the two imperialist countries of Japan and Russia, using national interests as a bargaining chip, and exploiting the common people to the extreme.
When Wang Shijian was eight years old, the May Fourth Movement broke out, and looking at the overwhelming processions on the streets, he felt for the first time how great the power of the people was. Although at that time, in his heart, he still did not have a clear concept of the words "anti-imperialist and anti-feudal", he already vaguely felt that he would become a member of the parade in the future.
At the age of 14, Wang Shijian had already begun to develop the mind of an adult, and he witnessed the collusion between reactionary warlords and imperialism to exploit the workers, and the Communists, armed with Marxist revolutionary ideas, leading the working class to resist with great interest.
It was in this year that Zhang Zongchang, the military affairs supervisor of Shandong, in order to curry favor with the Japan authorities, sent military and police forces to suppress the general strike of workers at the Qingdao Japanese textile factory, resulting in 8 deaths and 17 serious injuries, known in history as the "Qingdao Massacre."
The "Qingdao Massacre" made Wang Shijian extremely indignant, and it didn't take long for him to join the Communist Party of China, and he has been using the pseudonym "Wang Shiming" to engage in the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle.
After the "April 12 coup", Wang Shijian went underground to work, mainly engaged in intelligence liaison work in Beiping, at that time there was a hidden front "Nanpan Beiwang", "Nanpan" refers to Pan Hannian, and "Beiwang" refers to Wang Shijian, Wang Shijian's work ability can be seen.
However, an oversight almost ended Wang Shijian's revolutionary career. In April 1933, the CCP peripheral organizations in Beiping openly held a public memorial service for Li Dazhao, but he was unexpectedly followed by reactionary spies.
The spies interrogated some of the organizers of the event, and found Wang Shijian. The spies didn't know Wang Shijian's true identity at first, but Zhang Wenxun, the director of the Mutual Masonic Association, did not withstand the torture of the spies and identified Wang Shijian.
Until the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Wang Shijian was imprisoned. Even after losing his freedom, he did not give up the struggle, and wrote secret magazines such as "Prisoner's Voice" in prison, which greatly boosted the morale of the revolutionaries in prison.
The good times did not last long, the magazine "Prisoner's Voice" was denounced by traitors, and Wang Shijian, after experiencing cruel torture, was imprisoned in the Nanjing Central Military Prison, where he was strictly guarded as a felon. Basically, stepping into the gate of this prison is equivalent to stepping into the ghost gate with one foot.
Just when Wang Shijian was ready to dedicate himself to the revolution, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party launched a second cooperation, and under the mediation of Zhou Enlai, Wang Shijian was released on bail.
After returning to Yan'an, Wang Shijian passed the strict examination of the organization, and because of his adherence to his faith and struggle after his arrest, Wang Shijian was given the opportunity to enter the Central Party School for further study.
After completing his studies, Wang Shijian entered the Central Social Department and continued to engage in intelligence work. At that time, Li Kenong happened to be the head of the Central Social Department, so the two were considered superior-subordinate relations.
Under Li Kenong's instructions, Wang Shijian established an intelligence network centered on Xi'an, and under his more than six years of operation, this intelligence network extended to Beiping, Lanzhou, Shenyang, and other cities, basically encompassing the entire north.
We all know that the "Three Heroes of Longtan" (Xiong Xianghui, Shen Jian, and Chen Zhongjing) are the mainstays of the hidden front and have made great contributions in the War of Liberation, and it is Wang Shijian who is responsible for liaising with these three people.
From the breakthrough of the Central Plains to the defense of Yan'an, the reason why our army was able to repeatedly jump out of the enemy's encirclement was that the intelligence network built by Wang Shijian played a vital role, and the intelligence collected by Wang Shijian could even help Lin Biao, who was far away in the northeast, to make decisions.
If he can keep it hidden, Wang Shijian's future will be bright, and he will be greeted with flowers and applause. However, his fate took a turning point in September 1947.
Unfortunately, he was arrested
It all started with an oversight of the Beiping Intelligence Group, which was part of the Xi'an Central Intelligence System, where Wang Shijian fought in the early years, so it can also be considered that the Beiping Intelligence Group was created by him.
Due to Hu Zongnan's worrisome performance in the attack on Yan'an, and the situation of the Nationalist army in the northeast region became more and more severe, Chiang Kai-shek deeply felt that whenever he smashed his fist on the head of the Communists, he always felt like he had hit cotton, and before he could react, he was hit in the back with a stick.
Chiang Kai-shek realized that there might be spies from our army mixed up in the Nationalist command system. Since Beiping is a bridge connecting the northeast, north China, and northwest China, and is an important node in the north, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zheng Jiemin, director of the Secrecy Bureau, to intensify the investigation of Beiping.
Zheng Jiemin was by no means an idle person, and he knew very well that our party's intelligence personnel mainly communicated with various battlefields through telegraphs, so he specially mobilized more than 10 radio detection vehicles from other areas, and these reconnaissance vehicles launched a dragnet search in Beiping City, wandering around the streets during the day.
At first, the Beiping intelligence team was on guard and maintained radio silence. But what they didn't expect was that Zheng Jiemin still had a hand, and he hired a large number of people to cooperate with the search.
These people have long lost the chivalrous courage of the ancient people in the rivers and lakes, wandering around Beiping City every day, doing some stealing chickens and dogs, and when they learned that Zheng Jiemin offered a high salary, they came to sign up one after another.
Although these people are not very good in character, they are very familiar with Beiping City, and most of them are good at flying eaves and walls, especially Duan Yunpeng, who is known as the apprentice grandson of Yanzi Li San, and is a famous snitch in Beiping.
Zheng Jiemin saw that the detection vehicle did not work, so he changed his strategy and pinned his hopes on Duan Yunpeng and others, he ordered: "Let's come to capture the old man, the detection car will no longer patrol all day, but return to the gendarmerie before dawn." Their spies will certainly use the time before dawn to send a telegram to their superiors, and all the 'good men' have to do is observe from the vantage point to see which house is the first to be lit up each day. ”
Duan Yunpeng really found that the No. 24 courtyard of Jingzhao Hutong in Jiaodaokou was lit up at the earliest time every day, and after Zheng Jiemin's approval, Duan Yunpeng and several spies raided this small courtyard on September 24, 1947.
Our party's telegraph transmitter Meng Liangyu and translator Li Yuping were arrested on the spot, and the spies arrested Li Zhengxuan, director of the Beiping Underground Radio Station, and Zhang Houpei, a translator and telegrapher, in the next room.
The four were not immediately escorted to the gendarmerie, but were held in Courtyard 24, and the reason why Zheng Jiemin did this was actually to set another trap for them.
Around 8 a.m., the agents who were guarding them were already napping, and one of them went to the street not far away to buy breakfast. Zhang Houpei poked his head out of the door and found a middle-aged woman with a vicissitudes of life carefully cleaning the fallen leaves that had been blown down by the wind last night.
"Auntie! Come here! Zhang Houpei waved at the middle-aged woman as if he had seen a life-saving straw.
The middle-aged woman slowly raised her head, and then walked over with staggering steps: "Girl, what's wrong." ”
"Auntie, help me send a telegram, please." Zhang Houpei casually took out a note and desperately stuffed it into the middle-aged woman's hand.
"Don't don't, I'm just a little commoner, I don't want to get involved in your war, I don't want this." The middle-aged woman stepped back desperately, looking panicked.
Zhang Houpei simply ran out of the door and grabbed the eldest lady: "Please, this is the life of more than 100 people, if you don't agree, I won't let go." Under Zhang Houpei's repeated begging, the eldest mother reluctantly agreed to her.
In fact, Zhang Houpei was also deceived by the simple appearance of this middle-aged woman, which was just a flaw deliberately sold by the secret service, the middle-aged woman's name is Liang Jinhua, and she is an agent of the Secret Bureau. And the note that Zhang Peihou gave him read: "Brother, I am hospitalized." Receiver: Wang Shijian. ”
Even more deadly, Li Zhengxuan succumbed to the torture of the enemy, betrayed the organization, and confessed to the other members of the Beiping intelligence station. Li Zhengxuan's defection dealt a fatal blow to the intelligence network in the northern region, and in just two days, more than 20 people were arrested, and the underground radio stations in Chengde and Shenyang were also eliminated by the Secrecy Bureau.
After the incident, Wang Shijian found that he had lost contact with Beiping, and in order to find out the truth, he decided to go to Beiping to check in person. However, just as he was about to get on the plane, he was captured by the spies. After Wang Shijian was arrested, the Kuomintang announced in a high-profile manner: "This operation has brought down half of the CCP's intelligence system." ”
In prison, Wang Shijian was severely tortured, and then wrote a "Confession" with trembling hands, through which he confessed to more than 100 underground intelligence agents, including 22 Kuomintang generals who had secret contacts with our army.
A year later, Wang Shijian was taken to Taiwan, where he worked in the Kuomintang Defense Intelligence Bureau until his death from liver cancer in 1982.
The name is still remembered for thousands of years
In fact, looking back at Wang Shijian's arrest, we will find many suspicious points. This is not the first time Wang Shijian has been arrested, as he was subjected to the same torture more than a decade ago, when he stood by the bottom line. Later, with the accumulation of revolutionary contributions, Wang Shijian's position became higher and higher.
It stands to reason that Wang Shijian's will should be firmer and more loyal to the party, why did he choose to betray the organization this time?
Secondly, since they often contacted Xiong Xianghui, Chen Zhongjing, and Shen Jian in Xi'an, as the mainstay of Xi'an's intelligence network, why were these three people safe and sound, and played a vital role in the subsequent Liberation War? In addition, Wang Shijian's direct downline Ge Peiqi was not affected in any way.
Some people speculate that Wang Shijian was a fake rebellion at that time, and Li Zhengxuan had already confessed some underground workers at that time, in order to take care of the overall situation, Wang Shijian abandoned the car to protect the commander, and also confessed a large number of unimportant intelligence personnel, in order to protect Xiong Xianghui and others, and prevent the Secret Bureau from continuing to dig deeper. Later, he served in the intelligence department of the national army, which was also a burden of humiliation, in order to make the Kuomintang believe that he was a real traitor.
After the founding of New China, our party also considered exchanging prisoners of war with the Taiwan authorities, and it was Shen Zui, who was known as one of the "Three Musketeers of Military Unification," who exchanged with Wang Shijian.
If Wang Shijian is really a traitor, why does our party use Shen Zui to exchange him back? Later, due to various reasons, this exchange was abandoned, which may be a kind of protection for Wang Shijian.
Because Shen Zui was not very important to the Kuomintang, Shen Zui was half of the rebel generals, and he also signed the Yunnan uprising document at that time, but before he could send it out, he was captured by the People's Liberation Army.
So in Chiang Kai-shek's eyes, he may not care whether Shen Zui can return to Taiwan. You must know that Du Yuming, who has always worked hard and complained, was slandered by Chiang Kai-shek after he was captured, not to mention the drunkenness who signed the letter of uprising.
If the Chinese side shows a strong willingness to exchange, it will be equivalent to telling Chiang Kai-shek that Wang Shijian is a fake mutiny. This will harm Wang Shijian, so our party has been hiding this secret.
Some people speculate that Wang Shijian is really a traitor, but there is still a trace of conscience, and Wang Shijian had a very close personal relationship with Xiong Xianghui and others, so he deliberately protected them. To this day, whether Wang Shijian is a traitor or a hero remains a mystery. There has been no clear explanation from the authorities.
epilogue
Xiong Xianghui said in an interview with a TV station in his later years: "Although some people thought that Wang Shijian had defected to the enemy, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, there has not been any party history data that shows that he is a 'traitor'." ”
Through Li Kenong's performance after he fell into a coma, it is not difficult for us to see that there may be more unknown stories behind Wang Shijian, this accident made Li Kenong lose a lot of memories, but he can still clearly remember Wang Shijian, and the "King of Agents" may have too much to say in his heart.