At about 2:30 p.m. on January 21, 1967, someone shouted from the small garden on the back floor of the headquarters guest house, "Commander Tao has jumped into the well!" Commander Tao jumped into the well! Immediately after, the medical staff immediately rushed to the first aid, and then the ambulance came to transfer the person to the hospital, although all the rescue means were exhausted, but the return to heaven was powerless, and a generation of famous generals Tao Yong left like this!
How did Tao Yong die? Around his death, two theories arose: one, suicide; second, he killed. After Tao Yong's death, the relevant parties quickly concluded his behavior and informed the troops: "Tao Yong committed suicide." From the cessation of rescue to the issuance of the notification, it took less than four hours.
A person who wants to commit suicide will generally have signs, and some will show world-weary emotions. But before his death, Tao Yong did not have such a situation, and he was busy with work almost every day, often working until the early hours of the morning. Moreover, at ten o'clock in the morning of the same day, he and Liao Zhengguo, then commander of the Shanghai Garrison District, received two reporters and talked about the problems he had been thinking about for many days. After sending the reporter away, he and Liao Zhengguo continued to talk about the situation. After Liao Guozheng left, he called the director of the training department to the office and explained several aspects of the work, such as honor guard training and sailor training. Subsequently, the political commissar and deputy commander of the fleet came to his office to discuss the management of the Wusong Wharf and made a decision: The Standing Committee scheduled to be held in the afternoon would not be opened, and send someone to the Wusong Wharf to understand the situation... It doesn't look like the reaction of a suicidal person at all. At 12:40, he explained to the secretary on duty: The guests are gone, I will go to the back to rest, and there is something to find me at the guest house. The back building of the guest house is a small three-story building that receives the chief, and Tao Yong often goes there to rest, sometimes busy, and lives there at night. Before he rested, he asked the director of the guest house to find a barber. The signs before his death seemed to indicate that Tao Yong was not a person who was about to commit suicide.
Tao Yong was once a famous anti-Japanese general of the New Fourth Army who shocked the enemy Kou. In the Battle of the Yellow Bridge, he took off his shirt, raised his saber, and shouted: "Comrades, rush forward with me!" As soon as he finished speaking, he brandished his saber and took the lead in rushing into the enemy group. Su Yu looked at the back and said to himself, "Good one desperate sanlang", and has since added a nickname. During the Liberation War, he gnawed the hardest bones, captured Du Yuming, and in the Battle of the Crossing River, he shelled the British ships moored on the Yangtze River. On his expedition to Korea, he defeated the 1st Division of the U.S. Changsheng Army and won the Battle of Chosin Lake. How could an old Red Army soldier who had been fighting for decades in the rain of bullets commit suicide? Chen Yi was Tao Yong's boss at that time, and he knew the roots of him, thinking that "this is an unjust case, Such a person as Tao Yong, he will commit suicide?" Later, Su Yu reported Tao Yong's matter to Premier Zhou, and he immediately instructed that it must be clarified. Premier Zhou said sadly, "Comrade Tao Yong was so resolute in beating up the Japanese devils, saying that he was a 'Japanese secret agent', no matter what! ”
At that time, the well where Tao Yong jumped was used for watering flowers, the mouth was very small, the diameter was only more than half a meter, and it had just accommodated the next person; the water was not deep, and the person stood upright and did not reach the top, and the water surface was less than one meter above the ground. According to someone at the scene, Tao Yong's clothes were not wet at that time. If he did commit suicide, he would not have died for long. According to the medical situation at that time, first aid was still possible, and through the doctor's professional means, he was likely to be rescued, but it was useless. Therefore, the well may not be the first site, but the site after the transfer. The real scene is not there, but somewhere else. In this way, he may not have committed suicide, but he had killed.
In 1974, the tao yong case was re-investigated and examined for the first time. Since more than seven years have passed and there is no information on the scene at that time, this review has not been able to clarify the real cause of Tao Yong's death, but politically, all the false charges imposed on Tao Yong have been proposed to be completely rehabilitated. In 1975, Deng Xiaoping also gave instructions: "Comrade Tao Yong has made meritorious achievements in battle, and he must show the snow for Comrade Tao Yong." "In the middle, due to various factors, the rehabilitation of Zhaoxue has not yet been completed. It was not until 1977 that He formally rehabilitated Zhaoxue and made a fair evaluation of his life: "Comrade Tao Yong is an outstanding cadre who grew up under the cultivation of the Party. His life was a life of revolution and a life of fighting. He participated in the world-famous Long March of the Red Army, and participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. During the long years of revolutionary war, he was extremely arduous, selfless and fearless, heroic and good at fighting, and repeatedly made meritorious contributions to the party and the people..." And issued the "Circular on Restoring the Reputation of Comrade Tao Yong zhaoxue" to the troops.
Tao Yong was rehabilitated, but the cause of his death was still inconclusive. Whether it was suicide or he killed, due to time constraints, no direct evidence has been found. Therefore, the mystery has always existed, and it will take time to solve when it will be solved.
References: "Biography of General Tao Yong", "General Tao Yong", "Tiger General Xiongfeng - Desperate Sanlang" General Tao Yong" and so on