On the night of May 16, 1940, the people of Hankou, who were living under the iron hooves of the Japanese, heard a temporary broadcast. The content is long, and a few of them are like this:
On the desolate battlefield, the officers and men of the Thirty-ninth Division of our Imperial Army paid the most pious and reverent silent prayers to the brave generals who died in the fierce battle, and solemnly collected the remains into the coffin, and planned to transport Hankou by special plane...
The "brave warrior" mentioned on the radio is Zhang Zizhong, 49 years old.
The Japanese killed him, but they pretended to respect him, how hateful!
When Chiang Kai-shek heard this news, he was shocked. In fact, he always knew how many generals under his command were busy with plotting and enriching themselves. With his knowledge of his subordinates, how could the commander-in-chief of a group army personally go to the forefront of the battlefield?
Therefore, he ordered the Military Commission to send a telegram to the Fifth Theater: "It is rumored that Commander-in-Chief Zhang was killed in battle. Please call back quickly to inform! ”
The message was eventually confirmed to be correct.
We all know a lot of the next thing.
Before the Japanese could transport the body to Hankou, Huang Weigang, commander of the 38th Division, took the death squad and attacked the pumpkin shop at night. Like "crazy", the soldiers rushed forward with machine guns and snatched back General Zhang's body.
After that, the remains were transported to Chongqing for burial. Everywhere you go, there will be thousands of empty alleys. Sometimes, Japanese planes flew overhead, but no one in the crowd dodged or dispersed.
Heroes, battlefields with heroes. After their fall, people will commemorate him in their own way. This kind of commemoration will not be missing over time.
But after the hero's death, how many people know about the pain and helplessness of the family? In this issue, Soul Talk will tell you in detail about some of the experiences of his daughter Zhang Lianyun after General Zhang was martyred. In these past events, there is a daughter who is concerned about her father, a wife who has a deep affection for her husband, a long-term love for children, and a great righteousness of the family and the country.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" >, the daughter does not believe that her father is dead</h1>
General Zhang was not like most nationalist generals, he had only one wife in his life, named Li Minhui, who was 1 year older than him.
Li Minhui's family is not bad, and her father, Li Huanan, was a member of the Linqing County Consultative Bureau. Zhang Zizhong's father is also a petty official, and the two families are considered to be the right door. At the age of 16, Zhang Zizhong married Li Minhui on the orders of his father.
Li Minhui had never read a book, and Zhang Zizhong went to a private school at the age of 6, so the couple did not have a common language. However, Li Minhui was a pure and virtuous person, and after marriage, she gave birth to two sons and a daughter to her husband: the eldest son Zhang Lianzhen, the second son Zhang Lianjing, and the daughter Zhang Lianyun.
Among the 3 children, the daughter Zhang Lianyun is the most loved by her father. Father's pain and sorrow, she has always been a witness. In May 1940, when General Zhang was martyred, Zhang Lianyun was 17 years old.
That day, as usual, she picked up a "declaration" and had not seen her father for 3 years, and she had long been accustomed to hearing about him from the newspaper. Seeing that it was written on it about her father's martyrdom, she did not believe it at first, she thought that the Japanese were defeated by their father again, so they spread rumors here again.
After all, in Zhang Lianyun's eyes, his father was a "god of war" like existence. Until a few days later, uncle Zhang Ziming came to Zhang Lianyun's room, touched her head, and asked her: "Is uncle good to Lianyun?" Zhang Lianyun nodded, and then she heard", "Your father is gone..." In a word, Zhang Lianyun was beaten into the abyss.
The last time Zhang Lianyun saw his father was 3 years ago.
In 1937, after the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, Beiping was facing a complete fall, and the defending general Song Zheyuan decided to evacuate Beiping and retreat to Baoding. Song Zheyuan wants to go to Baoding, so who will rule Beiping? Soon, they thought of Zhang Zizhong, who was working in Tianjin. In this way, a position that almost made Zhang Zizhong "discredited" fell to him: the acting mayor of Beiping.
A general, at a critical time, does not fight for the country, but is ordered to shrink in the city and maintain a superficial harmony with the Japanese. This made Zhang Zizhong quickly become a "big traitor" in the mouths of the common people from a generation of warlords.
Zhang Lianyun, who was only 14 years old at the time, quickly noticed the change in the attitude of his relatives and friends towards his father. Once, she and her mother went to visit Mrs. Zhao, a fellow villager, and the two families used to move around a lot. As a result, as soon as they entered the door this time, people refused to even show their faces. At this time, Zhang Lianyun already knew his father's situation. Obviously, people who know the roots think that he is a "traitor."
During this time, Zhang Lianyun saw despair and helplessness on his father's face. This kind of helplessness and pain, she had never seen before.
Once, my father was so angry that he said to her, "I want to go back to the mountains and forests and become a monk in the mountains!" Zhang Lianyun knew that this was an angry remark, but at that time she thought: If her father really goes into hiding, then I will also go with him!
Of course, Zhang Zizhong did not really become a monk, but went to the aftermath according to the order. At that time, Zhang Lianyun and his family stayed in Tianjin, hoping that he would finish handling these things and go early and return early.
It wasn't until more than a month later that Zhang Lianyun saw his father who had escaped from Beiping.
He was black, thin, and less talkative. In just a few days, he was like a changed person, and when he returned home, he would play with the children, but this time he only briefly explained a few words to his mother. Then, he explained to his children: "In the future, everything in the family must be arranged by the uncle."
Finally, he also called a few nieces over, gave each of them some money, and said, "These will be the dowry for you when you get married in the future!" ”
After a hasty farewell to his family, Zhang Zizhong put on a hat, put on a robe, and silently left home in the twilight. The children wanted to send their father, but they did not dare, for fear of attracting the attention of their neighbors nearby. There was no way, the children could only lie on the window on the second floor and watch their father disappear into the twilight. Zhang Lianyun did not know at the time that this would be the last time she would see her father.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > two, where did the father go? </h1>
Why would the father tell the children to listen to their uncles in the future, just like the aftermath? Zhang Lianyun had a premonition that his father had encountered an unprecedented difficult situation.
Later, she learned that after her father left home, he went to Nanjing to see Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek then naturally asked him to carry the cauldron of "traitors" and dismissed him from his post and investigated him. Let him come out alone to help a group of people resist the resentment of the common people, which is a very "good deal" in the eyes of Old Jiang.
A few months later, the Nationalist army was gradually defeated and in urgent need of employment, and Feng Yuxiang once again thought of Zhang Zizhong, who was appointed acting commander of the 59th Army.
To return to the battlefield, Zhang Zizhong was like a strong bow ready to attack: in the bloody battle of Linyi, he led his troops to fight with the Japanese for 7 days and 7 nights, defeating the Banyuan Division, known as the "Iron Army" of Japan, and ensuring the victory of the Battle of Taierzhuang; at the Battle of Zao, he led his troops to annihilate the heavy troops of the Japanese army; in December 1939, he led the right wing corps to participate in the winter offensive, and the more courageous the battle.
Colleagues are not clear, why does this self-loyalty have to be so desperate? In this regard, later the old superior Feng Yuxiang recalled such a scene after Zhang Zizhong's death:
He threw himself on his knees, tears in his eyes, and prostrated his head heavily to me, saying: I live to be loyal to the country wholeheartedly, like a person, like a soldier... When I die, I will be like a ghost, like a loyal soul...
This passage can probably be regarded as Zhang Zizhong's invitation to fight and kneel! At this time, Zhang Zizhong wanted to go to the battlefield too much. What kind of pain has a general experienced in his heart before he will kneel and fight?
Such a lifeless fierce general, Feng Yuxiang will certainly use. In this way, Zhang Zizhong went to various places as he wished, without stopping. Gradually, people's misunderstanding of him has slowly lifted, and everyone has said that he is probably a change of heart!
During the conquest, Zhang Zizhong sent a telegram to his daughter Zhang Lianyun, whom he had not seen for more than two years, agreeing that his daughter and niece Zhang Lianyu would meet him at the front.
The two girls were happy and excited to discuss: What is the front line like? What if we can't ride a horse? Will it cause trouble for my father...
But just as they were about to leave, Zhang Zizhong ushered in the last battle of his life, and he had to cancel the meeting with his daughter. Feeling that there was danger, he wrote this handwritten letter to the two female dolls:
Women in the big era should seek knowledge, seek economic independence, do not do home squatting, make clothes racks...
Both girls later regarded this as a testament.
Then, he sent a letter to his brother Zhang Ziming, which read:
Although I have been a little difficult lately, I am very happy mentally, physically, and everything is fine. Only recently, I have been thinking about my family very much, especially missing my mother. Whenever I think about this, I feel very sad.
After explaining everything, Zhang Zizhong stepped onto the battlefield of Xiangyang and martyred himself. "Before he died, his father was very happy," zhang Lianyun often used to comfort himself.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > third, the first thing the daughter publicly clarified in her later years</h1>
After Zhang Zizhong's martyrdom, his family was taken care of by his younger brother Zhang Ziming, and Zhang Lianyun was transferred from Shaanxi to Chongqing to study. When she wasn't in class, she would walk a few miles every day to her father's cemetery to see and tell him about his recent growth.
On August 15, 1945, Zhang Lianyun took a car to Chengdu to visit his eldest brother's family. Halfway down the road, she saw more and more people gathered on the road. So, the driver stopped the car to inquire, and when he returned, he excitedly told her: I heard that the Japanese surrendered!
At this moment, Zhang Lianyun's tears fell like rain. The whole car looked at the girl in her early 20s and heard her say to herself: Father, the Japanese have surrendered...
Since then, Zhang Lianyun has done a lot of very meaningful things. She joined the Communist Party of China and used her father's pension to build the Zizhong School, where she taught for many years after graduating from Fudan University. Before the liberation of Peiping, this school became a "stronghold" of the underground party in Peiping, and a large number of red notices and documents were printed from here.
After the founding of New China, Zhang Lianyun was highly valued by the state. He successively served as the vice principal of Haidian Ninety-Nine Middle School and the director of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital. In her later years, she was also elected vice chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The new China that her father did not see, she saw for him.
Zhang Lianyun's two older brothers, the second brother Zhang Lianjing died of typhoid fever before liberation. The eldest brother has a total of 7 children, and each one has a successful career. Zhang Lianyun's own two sons also have good jobs in Beijing.
Zhang Lianyun, who was on his knees in his later years, still showed great concern for the cross-strait dynamics. At the same time, she has publicly clarified two things for her father and mother. These two things may not be the same as what some media advertise today.
The first thing was about the death of her mother, Lee Min-hye.
It is rumored that Li Minhui learned of her husband's death, handed over all the family affairs to her brother Zhang Ziming, and then went on a hunger strike for 7 days and died. Finally, the husband and wife were buried together in the foothills of Meihua Mountain in Chongqing. There are also reports that at that time, Li Minhui also said: "Zhang Zizhong died in battle for the country, I am not sad!" ”
But as a daughter, Zhang Lianyun experienced that this was not the case. In Zhang Lianyun's view, her mother is a strong woman, she has deep feelings for her father, how can she say "I am not sad". At the same time, she is also extremely responsible for several children.
In the year of her father's death, her mother, Li Minhui, had contracted uterine cancer and was already at an advanced stage. At that time, the children hid the news and did not dare to let her know. When they were at home, they wore filial piety, and when they went to the hospital to take care of their mother, they changed back into their usual clothes and did not dare to cry next to their mother.
But hiding it in this way is not the way to go after all. Seeing that Li Minhui was about to die, the uncle Zhang Ziming solemnly came to her with the children and told her the truth.
But at that time, Li Minhui had already fallen into a coma at the time of her death, and she could no longer hear the words of the outside world very clearly, but just kept chanting: "The division commander is back, the division commander is back!" Then, he died in such a state.
The reason why the outside world will spread that Li Minhui died of hunger strike is mostly because the time before and after the death of the husband and wife is similar, and Li Minhui after being seriously ill is estimated to have difficulties in eating, which has a saying of hunger strike.
Zhang Lianyun is a high-achieving student from Fudan, and she was once a medical worker, and the character she has cultivated is like this: how the facts are, what they are, and what they are, not false.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > fourth, the second thing my daughter clarified in her later years: My father was innocent</h1>
The second thing Zhang Lianyun publicly clarified in his later years was about his father's innocence.
After Zhang Zizhong's death in 1940, a large number of newspapers reported on the incident. At that time, some reporters believed that the reason why Zhang Zizhong would personally go to the front-line battlefield was because he knew that he had been ashamed of the people before, so he wanted to make up for it and show his loyalty by using later events. Therefore, he must die on the battlefield.
For this matter, Zhang Lianyun clarified it like this:
This statement is not true. First of all, my father was completely innocent and did not need to be washed. Third, our hometown is the hometown of Confucius and Mengmeng, our family is deeply influenced by the education of traditional morality, military attaches are not afraid of death, civilian officials do not love money, military generals swear to die to serve the country, and lead the way!
Obviously, Zhang Lianyun, as a daughter, has always had his own views on the "traitor hat" that his father was questioned in 1937.
When he stayed in Beiping, Zhang Zizhong often appeared on the front page of the newspaper, and words such as "Zhang Reverse Self-Loyalty" and "North China Special Number Han Xuan" were often visible. On the streets of Nanjing, there were even various comics attacking him, and there were even Japanese women with arms around him...
In order to maintain the stability of Peiping, Zhang Zizhong would issue some notices. When ordinary people saw his name, they would tear the notice to pieces.
It is worth mentioning that when General Zhang Zizhong was bearing these burdens, the "big men" of the Nationalist army who pushed him up collectively lost their voices. This is a sharp contrast with how his body was transported to the Chongqing wharf in 1940, and the old Jiang personally supported the spirit to hold the silk!
At that time, Zhang Zizhong was misunderstood by Lao Baisheng, in addition to being ordered to take charge of Beiping, there was another important reason: two months before the Lugou Bridge Incident, that is, between April and May 1937, he led a delegation of 16 people to Japan for more than a month.
At that time, Sino-Japanese relations were very tense, and students in Peiping took to the streets to demand a boycott of the Japanese army. At this time, Zhang Zizhong's visit to Japan will undoubtedly be suspected. As for the truth behind the matter, it was hidden in the anger of the people.
In fact, in the spring of 1937, the Japanese originally invited Song Zheyuan to Japan to investigate. Of course, Song Zheyuan knew that after this departure, the situation would be difficult to control. However, at that time, he did not dare to directly refuse the invitation of the Japanese side, so he decided to send Zhang Zizhong to replace him. And he himself stayed behind to find a way to see how to deal with the Japanese.
The reason why Zhang Zizhong went was to understand that this in itself was a strategy to alleviate and win time, and the ultimate goal was to protect Beiping. Only in the end, the Nationalist army could not defeat the Japanese, and Song Zheyuan also withdrew from Beiping. At this time, Zhang Zizhong became the object of being scolded by the common people.
At the same time, to understand whether General Zhang Zizhong is innocent, we also need to clarify whether he did anything to apologize to the motherland when he went to Japan to investigate.
General Zhang spent 35 days in Japan, and although the Japanese tried their best to win him over, he never forgot that he was Chinese. Shortly after arriving in Japan, he was invited to attend the opening ceremony of an international exposition. Because the expo also has a Chinese pavilion, Zhang Zizhong agreed to go and see it.
But after arriving there, he found that the "Puppet Manchukuo Pavilion" was set up opposite the Chinese Pavilion. This made Zhang Zizhong quite angry, and he scolded: "This is an insult to Chinese, if this museum is not removed, I will return to China immediately!" In the end, the Japanese had to evacuate the pavilion.
Of course, the reason why General Zhang was misunderstood also had a lot to do with the insidious propaganda of the Japanese. At that time, a large number of their media falsely reported general Zhang's affairs in Japan and falsely claimed that he was "extremely satisfied" with the trip.
When some modern media people refer to General Zhang's funeral, they particularly like to emphasize the respect that the Japanese people respect for him: in the process of saying that his body was transported to Chongqing, the Japanese could obviously drop a bomb by air, but they did not drop a bomb; they also said that before General Zhang's body was snatched back, the Japanese really planned to bury him thickly.
The implication of these assertions is nothing more than that the Japanese still have a bit of a conscience in dealing with General Zhang's issue. In this regard, I just want to say one thing: how ridiculous! They killed him, they went around ruining his reputation, and then they showed respect in a hypocritical way! In the world, is there such a reason!
As Ms. Zhang Lianyun said, her father was innocent in himself. His martyrdom was motivated by a Chinese patriotism. On this point, I very much appreciate Premier Zhou's evaluation of General Zhang.
After The martyrdom of General Zhang, many people gave him a very high evaluation. Premier Zhou was the most knowledgeable about foreign relations and saw the problems very thoroughly, and on May 16, 1943, the third anniversary of the martyrdom of General Zhang Zizhong, he personally wrote an article entitled "Remembering General Zhang Xingchen". Xingchen is a character for General Zhang, meaning loyal vassal of the people. In Premier Zhou's article, there is such a sentence:
When he endured the humiliation, General Zhang was destroyed and could not be done by others.
The first 4 words have explained everything! Premier Zhou can see clearly!
Of course, those who were willing to stand up and prove that General Zhang's death was not intended to prove his innocence were also his aide-de-camp Zhu Zengyuan. He who has followed the general for many years said: "Every time I go out to fight, the general leaves a suicide note and burns it when he comes back!" This detail has been proved by many parties. That is to say, every time he went to war, Zhang Zizhong was determined to die on the battlefield.
In the last battle of 1940, as usual, he wrote the "Letter of Warning":
The country has reached such a point that there is no other way but for me to die for it. I must believe that as long as I can make this determination, our country and our nation of five thousand years of history will never die at the hands of the three islands of The Uighurs. The determination to die for the country and the nation, the sea is not clear, the stone is not rotten, and it will never change in the slightest, and I am willing to encourage it with my brothers.
This suicide note was not burned because he was martyred.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >5: Zhang Lianyun once spoke out about the Taiwan issue</h1>
After experiencing all kinds of hardships and seeing the new China today, Zhang Lianyun was interviewed by reporters in 2010, the 65th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
When asked by this reporter about her views on the Taiwan issue, Ms. Zhang, who is nearly 90 years old, said: She hopes to see the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait with her own eyes.
As Zhang Zizhong's daughter, the reason why she said this is to thank the patriotic people of Taiwan for their love for General Zhang. Over the years, Taiwan's true patriots have often used various ways to commemorate General Zhang Zizhong. Every year on General Zhang's day, among the people who come to the foothills of Meihua Mountain in Chongqing to worship Zhang Zizhong, there are always some ordinary people from Taiwan.
It was these people who made Zhang Lianyun deeply feel that the reunification of the motherland is the hope of the people and the hope of all Chinese with conscience. This is not something that some petty people can change.
We believe that if General Zhang is still here, this will also be his wish. Ms. Zhang Lianyun is now 98 years old, and we wish her to see this day come for her father.
The first war was shuishui, then Linyi, the third battle xuzhou, the fourth war with jujube, and the final Ma Ge shrouded corpse. The wheel of history rolls forward, time will not wronged any hero, I would like to commemorate General Zhang Zizhong with this article.