1987: Taiwan veterans come home
Chapter XX
Memorial to the victims of the Baba-cho Execution Ground
On May 20, 1949, Chen Cheng, then chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government and commander-in-chief of the Taiwan Provincial Garrison, promulgated the "Order No. 1 of the Taiwan Provincial Garrison Headquarters", thus beginning the "martial law period" in Taiwan.
In 1950, the first year of the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan. Chiang Ching-kuo, who is in charge of the intelligence organs, followed his father's decree and "implemented an iron-fisted policy as long as his actions were suspicious and reported by others, all of them were included in the list of dangerous elements and were not to be killed." Therefore, starting from the WuShi conspiracy case, the Taipei Racecourse Execution Ground was soaked with the blood of underground COMMUNIST Party members and intelligence personnel, and the whole of Taiwan fell into white terror.
By March 1987, martial law was finally lifted, and the entire period of martial law in Taiwan lasted for 38 years and 56 days, which was a long martial law in human history.
The essence of "martial law" rule is to take "emotional rule" as the core, and this "emotional rule" is directly "intelligence rule" when it is directly broken down. The "intelligence officers" take the arrest of people and the cracking of cases as a ladder for promotion and wealth, and only achieve their goals and do whatever it takes; therefore, they would rather kill three thousand by mistake than spare one.
Between 1949 and 1952, 14 cadets of the Naval Academy were imprisoned or executed simply because of a letter that read, "Study well, do the right thing, and anyone would be a useful person," which was interpreted by the intelligence officers as encouraging them to do things for the CCP after graduation.
However, at the beginning of Taiwan, the Taiwan authorities did not completely block non-governmental exchanges between the two sides of the strait, and the people of Taiwan could also receive mainland mail through Hong Kong and other third places. For Jiang Sizhang, there was great luck in misfortune, and on the last day of November 1950, after the exercise of the troops, he casually opened the "Central Daily" at hand and suddenly found a search notice: Looking for people! Jiang Wenbiao (son of Jiang A Xing)!
He hurried to write to Taipei. It turned out that his father went to Shanghai and Hong Kong to find him in taipei newspapers. In the letter, Jiang Sizhang did not dare to say that he was a soldier, lying that he was still studying and that everything was safe. The father wrote back that his grandmother had fallen to the ground because of his arrest and was sad that he had suffered a stroke. He died after being bedridden for a while, and his name was still called on his deathbed. The mother gave birth to her little sister safely.
Jiang Sizhang immediately bowed his head to the north and silently sacrificed his grandmother. But the reply is still: "I am all right, still studying with peace of mind..." Since then, under the cruel reality, the father's letter has become the only spiritual comfort for the young Jiang Sizhang.
But soon, more severe and full-scale martial law began. Since then, all personnel and communications between the two sides of the strait, even through third-place mail through Hong Kong and other third places, have been strictly restricted, and any exchanges with the mainland have been suspected of "banditry," and ordinary people have even had to apply for licenses to buy radios. For the millions of "provincials" who come to Taiwan from the mainland, that means that the door to return home is completely closed.
As for the military, they are not allowed to have any contact with the mainland. Needless to say, escaping will be severely punished by military law, and even if you send a family letter home privately, you will be suspected of "communism".
The strait is shallow and nostalgia is deep
During those years, Jiang Sizhang was in the army, full of exercises, classes, and training during the day, and there was no time for homesickness. But every evening, homesickness will come like a tide, a few people will run to a corner of the playground, hug together and cry, after crying everyone also comforts each other, it doesn't matter, next year can go back ...
During this period, Jiang Sizhang became an "unstable element" in the army, and was monitored for a long time, and communications were interrupted. Later, because he was unwilling to endure the torture of the military camp, he deserted, was punished by military law, and sentenced to three years in prison.
It was 1955, and another round of reorganization of the Taiwanese army began, and Jiang Sizhang's unit was replaced by a commander who had not led the technical troops, and the former compatriot Huang Company Commander who had taken him in was transferred.
Because he often revealed his dissatisfaction with being arrested and enlisted in the army, and was speculated that he had corresponded with his mainland family, Jiang Sizhang had been listed by the army as a "mentally unstable element", so he became a typical example of the new commander". He was first transferred from his driving post and then assigned to another logistics supply unit. After reporting to the new unit, he immediately felt a different atmosphere. At that time, in order to control the army, political workers personally cultivated by Chiang Ching-kuo had begun to enter the army. Jiang Sizhang found that letters to friends often could not be received, and even when they went to the street in their spare time, there were also people secretly monitoring...
At that time, the Korean battlefield had ceased fire, the international Cold War pattern had initially taken shape, and the Kuomintang had gained a temporary respite in Taiwan. In order to stabilize the last turf, the Taiwan authorities tightened every nerve and tried to further strengthen their control over the troops.
During this period, the Taiwan authorities successively launched campaigns such as "Israeli military writers" and "voluntary stay in camps." The so-called "Israeli military writers" require soldiers to voluntarily choose lifelong military service and not to retire, so that they probably do not have the freedom to return home in this life.
This so-called voluntariness is obviously a kind of "disguised coercion," which Jiang Sizhang categorically refused, which annoyed the military political work instructors, and since then they have often used the excuse to find Jiang Sizhang's stubble.
Once, when the troops were eating, there was not enough rice, so a veteran soldier knocked on the barrel with a rice spoon and shouted: "There is no food!" There's no more food! Jiang Sizhang also knocked twice and shouted twice, and as a result, he was locked up for two weeks. The charge was "disturbing the hearts and minds of the military."
After ending the confinement, Jiang Sizhang began to plan a second escape, and was sentenced to three years in prison after being caught in failure.
Jiang Sizhang was detained in the Air Force Detention Center on Heping East Road in Taipei City. Here, he became friends with a young, handsome, learned and cultured Cantonese pilot named Ren in the neighboring bed.
The pilot was arrested and sentenced to death for attempting to defect to the mainland on a plane, and waited here for the end of his life at any time. Previously, because of his abnormal behavior such as secretly listening to mainland radio, he had already been detected by his colleagues before the action, and then he was secretly monitored by Kuomintang agents. So when he deliberately left a single and went to the airport to prepare to take a plane to the mainland, he was arrested by Kuomintang agents and gendarmes.
Jiang Sizhang said that in the extreme despair, confusion, shame, hunger and hardship of life, the pilot surnamed Ren taught him a lot. He talked with Jiang Sizhang about the best-selling literary and art magazine in Taiwan that year, "Wild Wind", analyzed the differences in personality between Guangdong and Jiangsu and Zhejiang people, discussed the characteristics of Guangdong cuisine, the seafood of Zhoushan, talked about the connection between Guangdong and Zhoushan in the Opium War, and so on...
In the afterglow
"Wild Wind" magazine was a publication that swept the Taiwan literary circles in the 1950s and had a far-reaching impact, and at that time, when the Taiwan literary circles were full of "combat literature and art" and "anti-communist and anti-Russian" as the main theme, they uniquely put forward the slogans of "reflecting reality" and "creating new literature and art, and discovering new people".
For Jiang Sizhang, who had not finished junior high school, this knowledge was completely beyond his imagination, and he was deeply attracted. Moreover, he still remembers this Mr. Ren's advice to him: "First of all, we must enrich ourselves and make ourselves knowledgeable and thoughtful; secondly, do not make reckless and senseless struggles and sacrifices..."
This may be one of the root causes of Jiang Sizhang's later vigorous promotion of the establishment of organizations to help veterans return home.
Jiang Sizhang said that the pilot surnamed Ren wrote several letters to his brother and sister-in-law to express his dying begging. But he didn't end up seeing his brother and sister-in-law. Three months after being imprisoned, one morning, suddenly a "whoosh" sound of the iron door of the cell being opened woke up Jiang Sizhang, only to hear the guards shouting: "Ren ××, get up immediately for trial!" Before the words could be heard, a large number of gendarmes poured in, and before he could get dressed, he was taken out.
There was no room for any voice of resistance, only trembling and uttering the words "bao-heavy", and the eyes were sluggish and did not know who to send. Then he waved his hand at Jiang Sizhang and said, "Remember my words, goodbye!" A huge fear pressed against Jiang Sizhang and his fellow cellmates, some of whom were already trembling. Jiang Sizhang was speechless and tearful.
(To be continued)