The War of Liberation finally ended with the chinese Communist Party's complete victory, but a large number of Kuomintang war criminals became hot potatoes, and how to properly arrange these people was the first test question facing the Communist Party of China and the newly founded People's Republic of China. So, how were these captured Kuomintang war criminals arranged in the end, and what happened to them in the end?
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > attack the heart and carry out the transformation</h1>
With the end of the War of Liberation, a large number of senior Kuomintang generals became prisoners of the People's Liberation Army, including 72 at the rank of lieutenant general or above, 323 at the level of major general or above and equivalent to major general, and 322 at the school level and high-level personnel serving in the government system. Confined to the question of their position, these people fought a civil war that should not have been fought and committed unforgivable mistakes against the people in the War of Liberation. But most of them played an important role in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and some were even famous anti-Japanese generals at the epicenter of the earthquake, such as Song Xilian and Wang Yaowu. How to treat them will determine the external image of New China and is the first severe test question facing the founding of New China.
Of course, we could not "prefer to kill a thousand by mistake than spare one" as Chiang Kai-shek did with the Communist Party at the beginning, but at that time, the international and domestic situation was still unstable, and various forces were still trying to move, and it was impossible to release these people. They cannot be killed, they cannot be released, still less can they be sent to Taiwan, and how to arrange these people has become the top priority of the Communist Party and New China.
After repeated studies, in the end, the CPC Central Committee decided to adopt the "four noes" policy for these war criminals, "not to send, not to kill, not to die, and not to let go, not to send them to Taiwan; not to kill a single person; to treat a sick person, to recover from injuries, and not to let a single person die; and not to release a single person to society. They were gathered together and uniformly arranged to be sent to the Beijing War Criminals Management Center, the famous Gongdelin War Criminals Detention Center, to carry out educational reform that is coordinated with ideological education and action indoctrination, so that they can gradually change their thinking and fundamentally realize their mistakes.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > decisive battle of Gongdelin</h1>
Soon, the first batch of war criminals entered the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center.
Located outside the Desheng Gate in Beijing, Gongdelin was originally a temple, and after the continuous changes of the times, it was first changed by the Qing government into the "Beijing Normal Art Institute", and then transformed into the "Second Beijing Normal Prison" by the Beiyang Duan Qirui Government, and renamed the "Second Model Prison" during the Kuomintang rule.
The war criminals who were able to enter Gongdelin were basically Chiang Kai-shek's confidants. At that time, the highest-ranking military officer was Wang Lingji, who was the commander-in-chief of the 30th Group Army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and successively served as the chairman of Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces. And the lieutenant general level is even more. Many of them were the core figures of the Kuomintang government, participating in the formulation of some of Chiang Kai-shek's major policies, and many of them had followed Chiang Kai-shek for a long time and had deep personal feelings and blind admiration for him. At the same time, some generals, especially the Huangpu generals, lacked understanding of the root causes of the inevitable defeat of the Kuomintang, attributed a large part of the reason for the final victory of the Communist Party to "luck", and even clamored for "how to start over, how it must be". Not seeing the deep disasters brought to the country and the people because of the civil war launched by the Kuomintang, nor did he realize that his own actions were tantamount to aiding and abetting abuse, he went so far as to simply summarize the reasons for his becoming a war criminal to "the winner, the prince, the loser, the loser," according to traditional thinking, and took out the Confucian feudal idea of "one body and two masters," and fantasized about becoming those loyal and loyal vassals in history. After becoming war criminals, more people are full of pessimism and disappointment about their future, and they are very resistant to daily learning and reform activities.
In the face of such war criminals, Gong Delin is simply an invisible battlefield, a decisive battle between transformation and transformation, where the curtain is quietly opened.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > each break. </h1>
On a very ordinary day in November 1950, the Gongdelin War Criminals Institute welcomed a special prisoner.
He was Du Yuming, who had been the deputy commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Xuzhou "Suppression General" and Chiang Kai-shek's confidante.
Because Du Yuming was seriously ill, the War Criminals Institute deliberately arranged for him in a single cell, and when the administrator changed clothes for Du Yuming, who had limited mobility, he found more than 60 sleeping pills hidden in his cotton pants.
It turned out that after being captured, Du Yuming was also suffering from illness, very pessimistic about his personal future and destiny, and when he was disheartened, he had the idea of "killing himself to save his integrity".
In the face of Du Yuming's behavior, the cadres of the management office patiently and meticulously did ideological work for him, while actively contacting the hospital to treat him, and at the same time communicating with his superiors, writing letters to his wife and former friend Fu Zuoyi, who is now a member of the new China, and asking them to visit the management office.
With the meticulous care of the officers and men of the management center and the complete cure of his physical diseases, Du Yuming's thinking has also undergone earth-shaking changes. The reason why the Communist Party has given him such preferential treatment to this first-class war criminal has a lot to do with their political policies and ideological consciousness that they are dedicated to serving the people and equality for all. Since then, Du Yuming has become a pacesetter in the war criminals management center who actively assists the management cadres in the ideological reform of war criminals, and in 1959, he was one of the first war criminals released at the time of amnesty.
In addition to Du Yuming, the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center also had a more stubborn Kuomintang general, who was Huang Wei, the commander of the Kuomintang 12th Corps.
As a graduate of the first phase of Huangpu, Huang Wei was a concubine of Chiang Kai-shek's concubines, known in the Kuomintang for his bravery and good fighting, and the 12th Corps under his leadership was also known as the Huang Wei Corps, and also made outstanding achievements in the War of Resistance Against Japan. Huang Wei, who was above the top, did not look down on the Communist Army at all, and was a typical representative of the "how to fight another war" among the war criminals at that time.
On January 31, 1949, shortly after the peaceful liberation of Beijing, Huang Wei was sent to the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center. After entering Gongdelin, Huang Wei came and went alone, went his own way, refused to study and transform, and became a famous thorn in Gongdelin.
On October 19, 1950, after the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, huang Wei was ecstatic when the news came, believing that Chiang Kai-shek would definitely take this great opportunity to intervene in the war, use US forces to recover the northeast, and then comprehensively counterattack the mainland. Even hope that World War III will break out.
At that time, there were not a few people who had the same idea as Huang Wei.
As the volunteer army experienced five battles, forced the United Nations army led by the United States to the negotiating table, and finally signed an armistice agreement, the victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea dealt a great blow to Huang Wei, who not only completely lost confidence in the Kuomintang and let go of his illusions about the restoration of the mainland, but also changed his views on the Communist Party that he once despised, and his thinking gradually changed and he was no longer as stubborn as before.
In addition to these high-ranking generals, there were many high-ranking spies in the Gongdelin. For example, Kang Ze and Shen Drunk.
Shen Drunk once wrote in his memoir "Towards the Light": "Anyway, sooner or later, I will be executed, and while I am alive for a day, I must do as much as possible to do something unfavorable to the Communist Party and the people."
At the age of 18, he joined the "Revival Society," a well-known secret service organization of the Kuomintang; at the age of 28, he served as the station chief of the Yunnan Station of the Kuomintang Secrecy Bureau, and was ranked as one of the "Four Great Kongs" under Dai Kasa, the head of the Kuomintang military command's secret service.
It was such a person who was finally successfully reformed by the Communist Party and became a powerful assistant on the united front of New China. The title of his book, "Toward the Light," shows the communist party's great success in reforming war criminals.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > amnesty for the first time. </h1>
After nearly 10 years of education and reform, a group of war criminals in Gongdelin met the conditions for amnesty. In addition, after the release of Japanese war criminals in 1956, which had a positive impact both internationally and domestically, the Chinese leaders believed that the conditional amnesty for the imprisoned Kuomintang war criminals not only gave due rewards to those who actively reformed, but also prompted other war criminals to increase their enthusiasm and initiative in reform.
In 1959, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the founding of New China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to grant amnesty to a group of war criminals who had been reformed.
A total of 33 war criminals were pardoned this time, and in addition to a number of Kuomintang generals, such as Du Yuming, Song Xilian, and Wang Yaowu, the puppet Manchukuo emperor Ai Xinjueluo Puyi was also prominently listed.
Chairman Mao Zedong personally gave instructions on the arrangements for the amnesty of war criminals: The arrangement of the work of the arrangement, the treatment of the disease, and the pension of the elderly should be treated like the communist cadres.
Therefore, after these war criminals came out of Gongdelin, they were all placed accordingly according to their own wishes and abilities. After being inspired by the Communist Party's policy, Du Yuming, who had walked out of Gongdelin as one of the first batch of amnesty war criminals, and after reuniting with his wife in Beijing, admired the Communist Party's extremely humane war criminals policy, specially customized a "thanksgiving plaque" for the Gongdelin Management Institute, and actively participated in the united front work of the motherland. During the visit of British Field Marshal Montgomery to China, Du Yuming once received Montgomery as an accompanying guest and together with Marshal Chen Yi.
The amnesty for war criminals in New China for the first time caused a huge sensation in the world. At that time, the Chiang Kai-shek government, which was shrinking in Taiwan, was still preparing for war wholeheartedly, hoping that one day it would counterattack the mainland; the Communist Party, regardless of its previous accusations and fearing the threat of the Kuomintang in Taiwan, resolutely granted amnesty to war criminals who had committed war crimes.
Based on the positive impact of the first successful amnesty for war criminals, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began to routinely amnesty war criminals, from 1959 to 1966, six times of amnesty, after which, due to historical reasons, the work of amnesty for war criminals was suspended for a period of time, and it was not until December 1974 that Chairman Mao Zedong personally interrogated him to restart the work of amnesty for war criminals.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > the last group of war criminals walked out of the Gongdelin administration</h1>
The specific operational process of the amnesty for war criminals was finally handed over to Hua Guofeng, who was then minister of public security.
Hua Guofeng attaches great importance to and is cautious about this work. He personally sorted out the situation of the detainees in detail and finally determined that all but 13 war criminals did not meet the conditions for amnesty, and the rest all met the conditions for release.
The report was sent to Chairman Mao's desk, and he gave instructions: He has been detained for more than 20 years, has been released, and can come and go freely.
In the early morning of March 19, 1975, a message reached the war criminals through the loudspeaker of the management office: the second meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fourth National People's Congress decided to grant amnesty to all war criminals in custody.
At this point, with the last batch of 293 war criminals walking out of the management office, after the founding of New China, all the detained war criminals were freed.
When the last emperor, who at first could not even tie his own buttons, was finally transformed into a self-reliant laborer, the cpc's powerful ability to transform himself into a world shock shocked the world and also demonstrated the great success of the party's ideological and political work.