Figure 丨 Li Dazhao on the posthumous photo of the righteousness
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="1" > preface</h1>
In today's National Museum of China, there is a national first-class cultural relic, number 0001, which is the gallows used by the enemy when Li Dazhao was righteous.
After the peaceful liberation of Peiping, Wang Yeqiu, vice minister of the Ministry of Cultural Relics, finally found the abandoned gallows after continuous efforts. This gallows not only allowed all the murderers of Li Dazhao to be arrested and brought to justice, but also made public the details before and after Li Dazhao's arrest...
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="65" > a gallows to pull out Li Dazhao's case</h1>
In December 1948, when Wang Yeqiu, then vice minister of the Ministry of Cultural Relics, was preparing to take over the cultural relics institutions in Beiping, he told his colleagues of the Ministry of Cultural Relics about Li Dazhao's indomitable steadfastness before he went to the gallows, and at the same time talked about the establishment of a new type of museum in Beiping after liberation.
"After we enter the city, we must find this instrument of torture and display it so that the broad masses of the people know that the victory of the revolution was not easy to come by."
On January 21 of the following year, Fu Zuoyi accepted the "Agreement on the Peaceful Liberation of Peiping", 250,000 Kuomintang soldiers were ordered to leave the city and accept the reorganization of the People's Liberation Army, and 10 days later, Peiping was officially liberated peacefully. At that time, Peiping was under military control, and the work of cultural relics and monuments in the city was entrusted to the Cultural Relics Department of the Military Control Commission.
Figure丨Beiping peaceful liberation
One day in March, Wang Yeqiu and his colleague Yu Jian rode a bicycle to find the gallows that killed Li Dazhao, they first went to the court detention center to understand the situation, the detention center staff said that the gallows had long been moved to The East Delin outside the Desheng Gate, so they rushed to the Second Prison outside the Desheng Gate, which was already empty, and after careful searching, they finally found the torture device in a desolate courtyard.
They dismantled the gallows with borrowed tools and rented a flatbed truck to transport them back to the Beiping History Museum, which became the first cultural relics taken over by the Beiping Municipal Cultural Relics Department, number 0001. The gallows and the historical significance behind it immediately attracted the attention of the Beiping Municipal Government, and Peng Zhen, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, instructed the Municipal Public Security Bureau to find the murderer of Li Dazhao. Because of the age of the case, the city government demanded that only the main perpetrator be caught.
Figure 丨 Li Dazhao was on the gallows when he was righteous
After careful investigation by the Municipal Public Security Bureau, the four main murderers who killed Li Dazhao in that year were finally revealed, and the details of Li Dazhao's murder that year were also made public.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="66" Li Dazhao was arrested > Zhang Zuolin was under pressure from all sides</h1>
After the 1926 "March 18" massacre, Duan Qirui's military government ordered the arrest of communists who led the patriotic struggle, and Li Dazhao ranked first among these communists. In order to ensure his own safety, Li Dazhao and some revolutionary comrades lived in the barracks of the Soviet Embassy and moved to work underground.
After Zhang Zuolin entered Beijing, he began to maim the revolutionary forces everywhere, and for a time Beiping City was shrouded in an atmosphere of Zhang Zuolin's terror. Under the arrangement of the organization, many comrades withdrew from the barracks, some went to the south to participate in the Northern Expedition, and some went to the Soviet Union to study, only Li Dazhao insisted on staying in Beijing, so he worked without leaving his home for more than a year.
Picture 丨Zhang Zuolin's old photo
The following spring, Li Dazhao was able to withdraw and return home, returning home late every day, leaving his room before dawn in the morning, sometimes staying at home, also burying his head in books and documents. As the situation in Beiping became more and more serious, people often secretly came to see Li Dazhao and persuaded him to leave Beiping, and Li Dazhao's wife often advised him, but li Dazhao was dumbfounded by Li Dazhao's words:
"I can't easily leave Beijing, I left, who is the job here?"
Picture 丨 Li Dazhao's eldest daughter Li Xinghua
On April 6, 1927, Li Dazhao and his daughter Li Xinghua were arrested at home, and although Li Dazhao had a pistol in his hand, Li Dazhao did not fight back because of his daughter's presence. Due to the suddenness of the incident, many confidential documents in Li Dazhao's home were not destroyed in time, and it is said that seven trucks were installed before they were loaded.
After Li Dazhao was imprisoned, the enemy tortured him to extract a confession, nailed him with a bamboo stick into the seam of his nails, and finally brutally peeled off his nails. In the face of the enemy's severe torture, Li Dazhao remained unyielding and did not utter a single confession harmful to the interests of the revolution, but only said one sentence:
"I, Li Dazhao, am a Communist Party member, and I have no trace of other comrades."
In "Self-Narration in Prison", Li Dazhao recalled his experience in the revolutionary struggle and expressed his faith and ambition. At the same time, he took all the responsibility on himself and tried his best to cover up the other young comrades who were arrested.
Picture 丨 Li Dazhao arrested (stills)
When the enemy saw that severe torture was not enough, he began to use the trick of inducement. At that time, Zhang Zuolin's chief of staff, Yang Yuting, took advantage of his relationship with Li Dazhao as a fellow villager to come and persuade Li Dazhao, and at the same time promised Li Dazhao that as long as he confessed the truth, he would give him a high-ranking official Houlu. As a result, Li Dazhao said to him mercilessly:
“...... Even if the severed head is shedding blood, it is necessary to maintain the integrity of the nation... Never be a shameless accomplice or a slave! ”
Li Dazhao's words made Yang Yuting ashamed and speechless, and he had to leave in a daze. Although Li Dazhao was imprisoned, he did not forget his mission in the slightest, and in prison he not only encouraged other revolutionary comrades to persist in the struggle, but even carried out revolutionary propaganda against the prison guards.
Li Dazhao's arrest has caused great repercussions in society, and major newspapers in the Beijing-Tianjin area are appealing for Li Dazhao, and many people are running to rescue Li Dazhao. The presidents of the nine national universities agreed to rescue each other, and Yang Du, the president of the seminar, went to Zhang Zuolin's house to present his opinions, and Yang Du even sold his house, and all the money from the purchase of the house was used to rescue Li Dazhao.
Picture丨 In 1920, Jiang Menglin, Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi, and Li Dazhao took a group photo
Li Dazhao's compatriots Bai Meichu and Li Shi and more than 300 other people jointly signed a letter hoping that the military would save Li Dazhao's life and release Li Dazhao's wife and children in advance. They naively thought that the warlords would also talk about human feelings, and in the love book, they also described in detail the contributions made by Li Dazhao over the years.
Western countries have also been quite critical of Zhang Zuolin's approach, of course, this is not considering Li Dazhao's safety, but is unwilling to accept the fact that Zhang Zuolin has violated the "Xinugu Treaty" with a frightening belt. The Soviet Union bore the brunt of these Western countries, and Li Dazhao immediately protested to the Beijing government after his arrest, and even threatened to sever diplomatic relations. Workers' marches took place in Moscow to protest the bandits' intrusion into embassies and arrests.
Under pressure from both Chinese and foreign parties, Zhang Zuolin hurriedly sent people to sort out the evidence, and since the vast majority of the documents were written in Russian, Zhang Zuolin summoned Zhang Guochen, director of the Bureau of Representation, to beijing to set up a "compilation meeting" and summoned a large number of translators to translate, and as a result, no plan to organize a riot was found for more than a week.
Pictured li Dazhao's documents copied by the military police
Zhang Zuolin then allowed the staff of the embassies of various countries to enter the police department to take pictures of these documents in order to give these countries an explanation, and the Soviet Union issued a statement saying that these documents were just ordinary documents that could be found in any embassy, and even published the directory of documents compiled by Zhang Zuolin in the newspaper.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="67" > Li Dazhao was sentenced for 40 minutes</h1>
On the one hand, the National Police Department declared to the outside world that "Li Dazhao confessed a lot", and on the other hand, it had to admit that "Li dazhao had no confirmed confession". How can Li Dazhao be sentenced without a conclusive confession? The people around Zhang Zuolin were divided into two factions at that time, one advocating that Li Dazhao be transferred to the judicial organs for trial, and the other advocating that Li Dazhao be treated according to military law, on the grounds that "the Communist Party was obviously disturbed by the conspiracy in the north." Just when Zhang Zuolin was having difficulty making a choice, a telegram from the front made Zhang Zuolin make up his mind to immediately execute Li Dazhao and other revolutionary volunteers.
It is still uncertain who sent this telegram that determined Li Dazhao's life and death, but after Li Dazhao's inauguration, many reports mentioned a detail pointing the identity of the sender to Chiang Kai-shek, saying that Chiang Kai-shek secretly sent a telegram to Zhang Zuolin, advocating the immediate execution of the arrested Communists to avoid future troubles.
On the day that Li Dazhao and other revolutionary volunteers were inaugurated, reporters and masses were blocked outside the gate of the Beijing Normal Detention Center
On the morning of April 28, 1927, just before anyone could react, the Special Court suddenly opened its trial, and after only 70 minutes of trial, the presiding judge pronounced the death sentences of the 20 communists arrested in court and executed them immediately. At 12:30 p.m., Li Dazhao and others were escorted to the Jingshi Detention Center in Xijiaomin Lane for execution.
Li Dazhao was the first to ascend to the gallows, and at that time he looked unchanged and calmly righteous. Before leaving, Li Dazhao asked the torturer for a pen and paper and left a suicide note, but the torturer did not allow him, so Li Dazhao stopped talking and walked to the hanging table with a relaxed look. According to Li Dazhao's eldest daughter Li Xinghua in the book "Remembering My Father Li Dazhao":
"The reactionary government regarded his father as the 'chief culprit', feared him to death, hated him to death, and in order to prolong his suffering, the executioners tortured others for only twenty minutes, and against him for forty minutes."
After the torturer strangled Li Dazhao for the first time, he put him down to wake him up and insisted on persuading him to "repent", and as a result, Li Dazhao said indignantly to the torturer:
"You hanged me, my soul does not die, the revolution does not die!"
Li Dazhao (middle), Lu Youyu (left) and Zhang Rulan (right) in front of Yiqian pose for a group photo
Immediately after the torturer hanged him for the second time, and after hanging him, he woke up like the previous time and advised him to "repent", this time Li Dazhao sneered at the torturer and said: "Strive to do it quickly!" ”。 The angry enemy no longer had illusions about Li Dazhao's "repentance" and hanged him for the third time until the end of his life.
According to research, after Li Dazhao's sacrifice, there were three blood marks on his neck, which can prove that the torturer at that time used the extremely cruel "three hangings method" in hanging, and only such a method of execution was in line with Li Xinghua's description of the punishment of forty minutes.
Photo: Li Dazhao was executed
On the day of Li Dazhao's murder, his wife and children were released, and they did not know about Li Dazhao's murder until the next day when they learned of it from the newspaper. Li Dazhao's wife was devastated after hearing this, crying several times until she fainted, and her already not-so-good physical condition was even more serious. When Feng Yuxiang learned of Li Dazhao's murder, he burst into tears and held a memorial service for Li Dazhao on the same day, and all organs and troops lowered their flags to half-mast, and intermediate officers and above wore black veils for a week.
After Li Dazhao's sacrifice, the coffin was stored in the Zhejiang Temple in Xuanwu District for six years, and in April 1933, democrats from all walks of life jointly initiated a public funeral for Li Dazhao, and the Mutual Masonic Association purchased a cemetery for Li Dazhao at the foot of Xiangshan Mountain.
Figure 丨 Li Dazhao is buried
When everyone escorted Li Dazhao's coffin to the cemetery, the grave watcher ran to say that early in the morning someone had pulled a stone stele for Li Dazhao's grave, and the stone stele was engraved with "The Tomb of Li Dazhao, the Leader of the Chinese Revolution", and the situation at that time was not convenient to set up such a stone stele in front of the grave, so after consultation, everyone decided to bury the tombstone in the ground next to the tomb.
In 1982, the central government decided to build the Li Dazhao Martyrs Cemetery, and when Li Dazhao was buried, everyone remembered the tombstone, which was still buried underground, and now this tombstone is preserved in the memorial hall of the cemetery.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="68" > all the murderers in Li Dazhao's case were arrested</h1>
The four main murderers who maimed Li Dazhao that year were Wu Yuwen, Wang Zhennan, Lei Hengcheng, and Chen Xingya. At the end of 1950, during the suppression of counter-revolution carried out by the central government, Chen Xingya was reported by the shanghai masses and arrested by the local public security bureau.
After Chen Xingya graduated from the Zhenwu School in Japan in 1907 and returned to China, he stepped up step by step to the post of commander of the Gendarmerie of the Beijing Division, after the Zhiwan War, Chen Xingya defected to Zhang Zuolin, and the first Zhifeng War Zhang Zuolin was defeated, Chen Xingya followed Zhang Zuolin back to the northeast as the commander of the Northeast Gendarmerie, and the second Zhifeng War was entered by the Army, and Chen Xingya became the police director of the Beijing Division.
Picture 丨 Chen Xingya old photo
On April 6, 1927, Chen Xingya commanded the military police to break into the Barracks of the Soviet Embassy and arrest Li Dazhao, eventually leading to his murder, and Chen Xingya was promoted to lieutenant general. Before the liberation of Peiping, Chen Xingya saw that the general trend of the Kuomintang had gone, so he fled to Shanghai and lived in anonymity, but he did not expect to be exposed by the masses during the town counter-movement.
News of Chen Xingya's arrest soon reached Beijing, and after negotiations between the public security bureaus of the two places, Chen Xingya was escorted to the Beijing municipal police station. Chen Xingya died in Beijing in 1959.
On June 5, 1951, a top-secret letter was placed on the desk of Feng Jiping, deputy director of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, and the contents of the letter surprised Feng Jiping:
“...... Wu Yuwen, the former mastermind of Comrade Li Dazhao's murder, who was then the director of Zhang Zuolin's Investigation Department, is now living in the back gate of Beijing..."
Feng Jiping immediately summoned Di Fei, deputy director of the Investigation Department, and arranged the arrest task. Di Fei's most important investigator, Wen Zhenhai, came to the location mentioned in the letter the next day, but did not find the "Bo Zhao" mentioned in the letter, only a person named "Wu Bozhai". After analysis, Wen Zhenhai thought that Wu Yuwen was likely to be "Wu Bozhai", so he came to the courtyard where "Wu Bozhai" lived, when there was an old man lying in the north room of the courtyard, the old man's cold eyes made Wen Zhenhai very uneasy, and after a few words of greeting with the old man, Wen Zhenhai withdrew.
Picture 丨 Feng Jiping old photo
Wen Zhenhai pushed his bicycle to a nearby alley, chatted with the uncles and aunts in the alley, and in the process of small talk, Wen Zhenhai learned that the old man surnamed Wu he had just met was Zhang Zuolin's subordinate, and he had never been out after liberation. After learning about these circumstances, Wen Zhenhai could basically be sure that the old man he had seen was Wu Yuwen.
While the Public Security Bureau was tracking down Wu Yuwen, the Sanlitun Regional Police Station received a whistle-blowing letter describing that the "Zen Master Ming" who had appeared in the Northwest Corner Temple in Beijing many years ago was actually an enemy specialist, and that when Li Dazhao was arrested, he led the detectives to surround the Soviet Embassy barracks and also took Li Dazhao's pistol for his own use.
The letter immediately attracted the attention of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and Tan Zhengwen, director of the Public Security Bureau, immediately organized personnel to investigate according to these two clues, and after the interrogation of the detained military command agents, the Public Security Bureau had a large amount of information about Wu Yuwen, and Peng Zhen, secretary of the municipal party committee, ordered the immediate arrest of Wu Yuwen.
On June 20, Wu Yuwen was arrested and arrested, and during interrogation, Wu Yuwen confessed to the details of the arrest of Li Dazhao that year, although Wu Yuwen committed the most serious crime in Li Dazhao's case, but because he was seriously ill before his arrest, the government did not immediately sentence him, but first treated him. In May 1953, Wu Yuwen fell ill and died in the detention center.
Figure 丨 Wu Yuwen, who was arrested according to law
Two of the four main killers have already been arrested, giving the staff more confidence. After more than half a year of investigation and visits, the public security personnel learned that the other two had already fled to Shanghai in the early days of liberation. With the cooperation of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau immediately formed a special force to find Lei Hengcheng.
In September 1952, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau received a letter from his superiors, accusing a man named "Lei Hengcheng", a former warlord and high-ranking official who had led people to arrest Communists several times, and it was Li Dazhao who personally arrested him in prison and tortured Li Dazhao in every way, which eventually led to his killing. The letter also mentioned that Lei Hengcheng may still be in Shanghai and make a living as a fortune teller.
The public security officers immediately investigated based on the information mentioned in the letter and found a fortune teller named "Zhao Zhi'an", alias: Zen Master Ming. The investigator pretended to be a person who looked at zhao zhi'an and went to Zhao Zhi'an's house to tell fortunes, and after talking, Zhao Zhi'an's appearance characteristics and the description in the whistleblower letter were all correct.
Early the next morning, public security officers came to Zhao Zhi'an's house to arrest him, and after searching, it was determined that Zhao Zhi'an was Lei Hengcheng. During the interrogation, Lei Hengcheng confessed that he had led someone to arrest Li Dazhao and others, and took Li Dazhao's own pistol for his own use, and in prison, he also abused Li Dazhao.
Picture 丨 Lei Hengcheng old photo
In December of the same year, the director of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau issued instructions on Lei Hengcheng's trial conclusion report:
"Agree to the death penalty and carry it out immediately."
Three of the four main criminals in Li Dazhao's case have already been arrested, and the last one, Wang Zhennan, is cunning and cunning, which has brought many difficulties to the arrest, and the voluntary surrender of the former director of the Judicial Department of the Beijing Police Department has brought a turnaround in the case.
The head of the justice department, Pu Zhizhong, after Wu Yuwen's arrest, was worried about being exposed by the masses of the people and fidgeted all day, and her granddaughter once served as a guard for Chairman Mao, and when she saw her grandfather's various performances, she asked why. Pu Zhizhong confided that he had interrogated Li Dazhao, and when his granddaughter heard about it, she resolutely advised him to turn himself in, providing some information for the arrest of Wang Zhennan.
In the case of Li Dazhao, he served as a judge of the special court and repeatedly conducted "trials" of Li Dazhao and others; at the behest of the Nationalist Government, Wang Zhennan sentenced Li Dazhao and others to death in the last trial and executed them immediately, and did not allow appeals.
Picture 丨 Peng Zhen old photo
After the end of Li Dazhao's case, Wang Zhennan was transferred to Shanghai as chief prosecutor, and his living conditions were quite high, thanks to the compensation paid by the Nationalist government for his execution. After the founding of New China, Wang Zhennan lived in seclusion in Shanghai, and during the investigation, he deliberately concealed the crimes committed that year and refused to confess.
In December 1955, Wang Zhennan was arrested according to law, and in the face of a large amount of evidence, Wang Zhennan confessed to the crimes committed that year, and after the trial, Wang Zhennan was sentenced to death by the Shanghai Municipal Court. At this point, several of the main murderers who arrested and killed Li Dazhao and other revolutionaries were all brought to justice.