In the winter of 1947, a disheveled, skinny "crazy old man" came to Hanzhuang Village, Yanggu County, Shandong Province.
He looked around the village with a complicated look, tears in his eyes. He stopped at a door, raised his hand to wipe his eyes, sorted out his messy hair and beard twice, patted the dust on his clothes, and knocked on the door of the house with a slightly trembling hand.
Han Zidong
The dilapidated door opened, and a woman stood in front of him, and she went up and down a large number of people in front of her, thinking that they were beggars who had come to beg, but they did not see the bowl, and they could not help but feel strange and vigilant.
Before the woman could ask, the "old man" answered his questions himself: "It's me, I'm Zidong, I'm back." ”
The woman's expression changed from surprise to joy to surprise, carefully identifying the other person's face in the mess of hair and beard, and after a few seconds of being stunned, she finally determined that the beggar-like person in front of her was her husband, Han Zidong, who had been separated for decades. Then the two of them hugged and cried.
No wonder she didn't recognize her husband, because Han Zidong, who was not yet forty years old at the time, looked like he was fifty or sixty years old, his clothes were torn, his hair and beard were messy and yellow, and his wrinkles were all over his face.
Who is Han Zidong? He is the prototype of the "crazy old man" Hua Ziliang in the famous novel "Red Rock", who was imprisoned in the Kuomintang military concentration camp for 14 years...
What kind of life experience does Han Zidong have? And why have they been imprisoned by the military commanders for so long? How did he escape and return to his hometown? Today, let us get closer to his legendary life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="94" > struggle hard to find the light</h1>
Han Zidong, formerly known as Han Zhen, was born in 1908 in Hanzhuang Village, Shifo Town, Yanggu County, Shandong Province. The Han family is the local gentry's family, Han Zidong is the youngest child of the Han family, Han's father hopes that this young son can grow into a talent in the future and contribute to the country, so he named it "Guozhen".
Although the Han family is a family of squires, but when Han Zidong was born, the family business has long declined, when the source of income of the whole family is the rent of dozens of acres of land handed down by the ancestors, in order to subsidize the family, Han's father and Han Zidong's uncle will usually sell dates to obtain meager profits.
Later, Han Zidong's father and Han Zidong's uncle broke up and separated the family, and the living conditions of Han Zidong's family took a sharp turn for the worse, in order to maintain their lives, Han Zidong sold a few acres of land in the family, and Little Han Zidong also had to do some work cutting wood and cutting grass.
From the age of seven, after five years of cutting grass, twelve-year-old Han Zidong was finally sent to the academy and began his own learning career. Of course, after studying, he still does housework and farm work. Han Zidong has a strong desire for knowledge, and later when it is difficult to continue his studies due to economic conditions, his attitude has always been very insistent, not because he does not understand his father's hardships, but because he knows better that reading can have a greater way out.
Later, under the painstaking management of the Han family, the economic situation began to improve, but at this time, Han's father's thoughts had changed, he did not want Han Zidong to continue to study, he felt that Han Zidong could read a little bit was enough, and wanted him to go back to help the family take care of the family business.
Han Zidong communicated with his father without results, which made him feel very weak, and the whole person became listless, without a smile. Han Zidong's brother was very distressed to see his decadent appearance, he knew that his brother had a different world in his heart than ordinary people, and he did not want his brother with unlimited ambitions to be tied up in a small mountain village.
Han Zidong's brother found a suitable time and said to Han Zidong with concern: "Zidong, I know that what you think in your heart is different from your father, if you insist on your own ideas, just do it, my father's side is up to me to say, you can rest assured, everything in the family still has me." ”
His brother's words touched Han Zidong, and also made him have no worries about sticking to his ideas, he returned to the academy as he wished, and took out more vigor to study, because he understood more clearly that what he had on his shoulders was the expectations of his family.
Han Zidong and his family
In 1925, Han Zidong was admitted to the famous Shandong Provincial No. 2 Middle School with excellent results, where he was exposed to new ideas and everything began to change differently.
Soon after, the National Revolution broke out, and Han Zidong also followed the torrent of revolution, threw himself into it, carried out the Northern Expedition, and joined the Kuomintang. At that time, he had no other ideas, just simply thought that the Kuomintang could help China move toward a new situation, but the facts told him that his ideas were wrong.
Watching thousands of revolutionary volunteers sacrifice themselves in the "April 12 Counter-Revolutionary Coup" launched by Chiang Kai-shek, he began to question the path he had chosen, and thus fell into a deep confusion.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > "came close to the sun and found the light."</h1>
In 1930, Han Zidong left his hometown to continue his studies in Beiping, and he chose to work and study half time in poor living conditions. When choosing a place to work, he finally chose a bookstore, because he felt that working in the bookstore would be able to read more or less books, which would be beneficial to his future path.
The bookstore where he worked at that time was called Spring and Autumn Bookstore, and this choice became a key point in his life.
The Spring and Autumn Bookstore was founded by progressives, so there are some books about the revolution circulating in secret. As a member of the bookstore, Han Zidong naturally often comes into contact with these books, and he will also look through these books in his free time.
When he had some understanding of the revolutionary spirit, he began to be addicted to these books, and whenever he had time, he hid in the corner to read these revolutionary books and learned about the revolutionary things in depth. Through reading these books, Han Zidong's thinking gradually changed. Moreover, the more he understood, the more Han Zidong was firm in his inner thoughts.
At that time, a lady named Zhou Yi often went to the Spring and Autumn Bookstore to read books, and the two gradually became acquainted, often chatting together about some current events at the moment. Han Zidong was often attracted by Zhou Yi's unique views, and Zhou Yi had noticed this young man hiding in a corner reading revolutionary books early on.
It turned out that Zhou Yi was the core personnel of Beijing Teco under the leadership of Chen Geng, and at that time, Teco had just been founded, and the members were relatively small, so everyone was looking for and developing suitable personnel separately.
Once, Zhou Yi came to the Spring and Autumn Bookstore to buy books, but when she paid the bill, she never saw the clerk, shouted twice and no one answered, so Zhou Yi looked around in the bookstore. Looking around, she spotted Han Zidong crouching in the corner reading a book, saw that he was dressed like a clerk, and walked toward him.
Han Zidong was fascinated by reading the book, did not hear anyone shouting at him, nor did he find Zhou Yi who was approaching, but after Zhou Yi approached, he found that the book he was reading was a revolutionary book. Since then, Zhou Yi has noticed Han Zidong and began to come to the Spring and Autumn Bookstore every three to five minutes.
After a period of understanding, Zhou Yi found that Han Zidong had an unusual enthusiasm for the revolution, and was also a very upright person with lofty ideals and ambitions. Therefore, Zhou Yi wanted to develop him into a Communist Party member.
When Zhou Yi asked Han Zidong if he wanted to become a Communist Party member, Han Zidong was very excited, and he replied in a loud voice: "Yes!" willing! Very willing! Zhou Yi told him about the responsibilities and risks of being a Communist Party member, and Han Zidong said he already knew it.
At that time, Han Zidong even felt that he had come to Beiping to study for the arrival of this moment, and later Han Zidong wrote such words in his self-report: "From this day on, I feel that I have approached the sun, found the light, and become the happiest person!" ”
In January 1932, after censorship, Han Zidong officially became an underground member of the Communist Party of China, and the Spring and Autumn Bookstore was also built as a contact point for the CCP's Beijing Special Branch.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="96" > blue-robed robbery and imprisoned</h1>
In 1933, Dai Kasa established the "Blue Jacket Society" in Beiping, which was a secret service agency in North China and the predecessor of the military command. On the surface, the "Blue Shirt Society" was an anti-Japanese revolutionary organization, but in fact it was carrying out anti-Soviet and anti-communist tasks, simply put, it was a rival organization of the CCP's Beijing Special Branch.
Li
At this time, Han Zidong was a student of the economics department of The Chinese Economic University, and he was also a member of the Kuomintang, and since his identity was relatively easy to hide, the upper echelons of the CCP organization decided to send him to infiltrate the "Blue Clothes Society" and intercept the intelligence of the Blue Clothes Society.
Dai Kasa's famous secret service leader, his methods made many people feel frightened, but Han Zidong was not afraid, obeyed the organization's arrangements and resolutely entered the "Blue Clothing Society" as an undercover.
After entering the Blue Coat Society, Han Zidong found that the internal management of the Blue Coat Society was very strict, and in order to prevent the leakage of information, they divided the members into various groups, and stipulated that the groups could not contact each other. Horizontal ties were cut off, and vertical ties developed very difficultly, which made Han Zidong's contact with information very limited.
After Han Zidong was troubled by this for a while, he suddenly thought of a good way. He noticed that most of the "Blue Jacket Society" absorbed young people of his age, especially the college students in Peiping. So he began to develop his alumni in the school's clubs, and after that, he had extensive contact with alumni who were assigned to various departments of the "Blue Jacket Society", so that he could have a wide range of information.
For a period of time, Han Zidong used this method to widely obtain a lot of well-informed information, which brought great convenience to the organization. However, due to too many intimate contacts, the risk of his exposure has also increased dramatically. Sure enough, not long after, Han Zidong's behavior was reported anonymously.
After learning that he had been told by someone, Han Zidong had to run back to his hometown in Shandong to temporarily hide. After staying at home for several months, Han Zidong never heard anything about the "Blue Jacket Society", thinking that the situation was not so serious, Han Zidong once again embarked on the road to Beiping.
Han Zidong quietly returned to the school, ready to observe the situation before making plans, only to be arrested by the Kuomintang within two days. It turned out that during the time when he returned to his hometown, the CCP organization was seriously damaged, and traitors were lured by the coercion and inducement of Kuomintang agents.
Before Han Zidong returned to his hometown, Zhou Yi had told Han Zidong that when the wind and waves were calm and the waves returned to Beiping, if he wanted to contact the party organization, he could go to the second door of the West Entrance Alley of Beiyangou North Mouth Road to find a relationship, and informed him of the secret code on the street. He also told him that if the party organization came to him, he would send the letter to a Chinese university, and the recipient would write it as Han Dake.
After quietly returning to the school, a letter from the recipient Han Dake was sent to the Chinese University, and Han Zidong quietly accepted it. The letter gave a joint location, which was the place where Zhou Yi had explained, so Han Zidong came to the joint location, but when the joint was jointed, the joint code given by the other party did not match.
Han Zidong thought to himself, broken! Turn your head and run, but it's too late. In this way, Han Zidong was imprisoned by Kuomintang agents.
Han Zidong, who was imprisoned, kept telling himself: All this is for the revolution! As long as the revolution can be victorious, everything he has done will be meaningful. However, Heaven did not treat him favorably.
In addition to Han Zidong's imprisonment, the most affected thing is undoubtedly his family. Before going to prison, he was married and his wife was pregnant. War is raging, the world is difficult, and the life of orphans and widows can be imagined.
His father was depressed because of his arrest, and he fell ill and died in a short period of time. And under his influence, his younger brother also joined the revolutionary ranks, and it is regrettable that not long after joining the war, his brother was brutally killed by a Kuomintang county magistrate. Because of the loss of her husband and son before and after, her mother had no mental support and soon died with hatred.
Han Zidong, who is trapped in prison, does not know this, and he is suffering from another kind of pain.
Responsible for interrogating Han Zidong was the three regiments of gendarmes with the title of "Yan Wangdian", who had a deep hatred for the red agents, because the existence of the red agents was a manifestation of their dereliction of duty. Therefore, these agents in charge of interrogation interrogated him more than usual.
The means here are far more brutal than on the battlefield, fire, long whips, electric shocks, tiger stools, bamboo sticks piercing fingers... However, no matter what means the enemy used to torture Han Zidong, when asked whether he was a member of the Communist Party, he always gritted his teeth and refused to say a word.
The agents, who could not find useful information, imposed heavier punishments on him, and under repeated torture, Han Zidong passed out again and again. On one occasion, the forensic doctor couldn't even feel his pulse beating, so he filled out a death certificate for him.
At that time, the information of the "Blue Jacket Society" was seriously leaked, and the various groups were suspicious of each other, and the agent responsible for the chief judge Han Zidong was afraid of being accused of deliberately killing people and killing his mouth, so he hesitated for a moment, and finally found a doctor to the morgue to rescue Han Zidong.
The Kuomintang agents had no choice but to make him feel that it would be futile to execute him again, so they charged him with a "political prisoner" and sentenced him to life imprisonment in an attempt to imprison him forever.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, great changes took place in the domestic military and political situation. Han Zidong, who was initially imprisoned in Beiping, was later transferred to Nanjing, where the Nationalist government was located. After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, Han Zidong was escorted to the prisons of Hankou and Yiyang. As the war situation changed, he was transferred around, and finally escorted to the Kuomintang's Xifeng Prison in Guiyang for detention, and later transferred to the White Mansion in Chongqing.
It is not much to say when he was escorted to the prisons of various provinces, but in the first six years of Han Zidong's detention, he did not let go of the wind once. That is to say, for six whole years, more than two thousand days and nights, Han Zidong's eyes had not seen the sun, moon and stars, nor had he been able to feel the clean and refreshing wind. Torture, rushing and claustrophobic environment caused Han Zidong's body and mind to suffer great harm.
In his prime, his face was full of deep wrinkles, his hair was yellow and white, his teeth were pulled out, his clothes were dirty and messy, he looked like an old man in his fifties, and with his unclear identity, almost no one in prison was willing to communicate with him. The disciplinary personnel of the military command did not care about him, and the revolutionary volunteers did not pay attention to him.
Han Zidong endured everything wordlessly, constantly running back and forth in the place where his palm was big, he wanted to live, to live healthily in prison. He waited for time, for the victory of the revolution, or for an opportunity.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="97" > pretending to be crazy and selling stupid, escaping to life</h1>
Because of the torture of torture, he was not in good physical condition, his expression was often sluggish, and the empty eyes stared at the spies with hairy hearts. "Look, mad old man!" The agents scolded him.
Crazy old man? Crazy old man! Therefore, in order to make the agents let down their vigilance, Han Zidong began to pretend to be crazy and stupid.
Han Zidong began to talk gibberish, constantly running, picking up things on the ground to eat, a series of behaviors coupled with his unkempt face caused by not bathing for many years, soon, everyone thought that he was tortured, resulting in a mental breakdown, really crazy.
"Hua Ziliang"
Han Zidong never had any suspicious behavior except for simple "madness", and day after day, the guards really relaxed their vigilance against him, called him "crazy old man", and teased him from time to time to relieve the boredom of prison life.
Because of his "mental abnormality", Han Zidong gained a broader range of conditions of action, and gradually had more and more opportunities to let go of the wind, as soon as he had time, he kept running, one to exercise, and the other to observe the terrain.
Later, the Kuomintang guards were accustomed to Han Zidong's "madness" and did not think that he was a threat at all. Because he had lived in prison for decades and was a native of Shandong, he had only been to Beiping except for his hometown before entering prison, so they took it for granted that Han Zidong would not escape. They even gradually allowed him to go out, sometimes asking him to help buy some vegetables, tobacco and alcohol.
Han Zidong remained silent, waiting for the best time to escape.
Of course, the revolutionaries in the prison were also plotting an escape plan, and after arriving at the White Mansion in Chongqing, Luo Shiwen was elected as the secretary of the provisional party branch, and the revolutionaries met together to discuss the environment of the White Mansion and plan to escape from prison. Han Zidong silently provided them with the various information he had collected.
Rossman
Unfortunately, the Kuomintang agents seemed to sense the thoughts of the revolutionaries, strengthened and raised the walls of the White Mansion, and pulled a circle of electric barbed wire on it. In this way, the collective escape from prison was impossible, so in the end everyone decided to abandon the escape plan and wait for the right time.
In 1946, the Civil War officially broke out. In July, part of the White Mansion was transferred to Chongqing's Zha di Dong, where Luo Shiwen and Han Zidong were among them.
Through eavesdropping, Luo Shiwen learned that they would then be escorted to Nanjing. Everyone knows what this trip represents. At that time, the imprisoned revolutionaries were successively called out, and none of them came back.
On this day, Luo Shiwen was also called by name, and before he went out, he secretly said in Han Zidong's ear: "Run out, you can escape one is one!" After that, Rothman never came back.
Han Zidong thought to himself, he couldn't wait any longer.
In mid-August, the guards took Han Zidong to Ciqikou to buy vegetables, and several Kuomintang agents walked in front of them "in a majestic manner," and Han Zidong followed behind with baskets of vegetables. Passing by a mahjong shop, several agents walked in with a pair of eyes, leaving Han Zidong and a guard at the door.
Han Zidong felt that it was a good time, so he pretended to be crazy and stupid to lure the attendants to buy watermelons, and after the attendants left, Han Zidong ran in the opposite direction.
When the agents found out that Han Zidong was missing, they realized that he had been pretending to be crazy for so many years. The agents immediately reported the situation.
Han Zidong lived in prison for fourteen years, and the Kuomintang was naturally afraid that he would tell the secrets of the prison, so it ordered a carpet search, and even used more than a dozen military vehicles to search around. But in the end, nothing was found.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="98" > not seen for many years, the wife does not know</h1>
After Han Zidong escaped from prison, with the money he had bought vegetables, he first crossed the Jialing River by boat, and then traveled dozens of miles north to escape, along the way, he only dared to walk along the river and deserted paths. Fortunately, he insisted on exercising in prison over the years, and eventually he trekked thousands of miles to Henan.
In Henan, he found a former prisoner, and with his help, he lived there for some time and found a job as a hotel helper, and after escaping the limelight and saving enough money for the road, he once again embarked on the way home.
After a long trek, finally in November 1947, he returned to his hometown, Hanzhuang Village, Yanggu County, Shandong Province. Looking at the familiar and unfamiliar environment, he was excited, and when he walked to his door, his eyes were full of tears. In front of the door, he was sorting his hair and his clothes again, and it took a long time before he knocked on his door with a trembling sound.
"Squeak" The door opened, and it was his wife who was thinking about twilight. His wife did not recognize him, and thought he was an old man begging for food.
"It's me, I'm Zidong, I'm back." Han Zidong said in a hoarse voice. The wife froze for a moment before she cried and hugged him. His long-awaited husband is back...
Under Han Zidong's questioning, his wife told their families what happened, and Han Zidong's heart was like a knife, but he still cried and said: "Even so, I don't regret joining the revolution." ”
After recuperating at home for a while, Han Zidong went to the Party Central Committee and handed in a three-thousand-word report, detailing the experience of these years, as well as the enemy situation in various prisons, and delivered the intelligence. Later, after a review by the Party Central Committee, he eventually reinstated his party membership.
Han Zidong's legendary experience was later written into the novel "Red Rock", in which he was well known to the world from the perspective of "Hua Ziliang". This also tells us that those heroic stories are all available, and "Han Zidong" is a witness to history.