In 1936, he left the artillery post that had been held for more than 10 years, was transferred to the 2nd Brigade of the 17th Route Army Garrison Brigade and the commander of the Xi'an City Defense, obeyed the instructions of his superiors, secretly arranged the Kuomintang Public Security Corps, Security Regiment and other units stationed in Xi'an City, made detailed reports on the strength, distribution location and number, and carried out targeted exercises to provide full preparations for a major event that occurred later.
In the early morning of December 12 of that year, the "Xi'an Incident" that shocked the world broke out. Following the arrangement of his superior Yang Hucheng, he led the garrison brigade to quickly launch an attack on Chiang Kai-shek's subordinates, and in only 3 hours, he disarmed most of the soldiers and detained Zhu Shaoliang, Jiang Dingwen and other high-ranking officials.
Judging from his experience, he was undoubtedly Yang Hucheng's most powerful subordinate, but what was surprising was that after the founding of New China, he, who was already in a high position, actually became a relative of Chairman Mao, and Chairman Mao spoke highly of him, saying that he was an honest man.
He is Kong Congzhou, the father of Li Min's husband Kong Linghua.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" >01, son of ordinary, teenager aspires: teenagers from ordinary families go to northern Shaanxi alone</h1>
In 1906, Kong Congzhou was born in Xi'an to an ordinary family, originally named "Congzhou". His father was a farmer all his life, and his mother was a scholar in his own way, and he was deeply influenced by his father since he was a child, and attached great importance to his son's education.
When Kong Congzhou was young, although the Kong family was poor, Kong Congzhou's mother still tried her best to send her son to his father's private school to study.
Kong Congzhou remembered his mother's hard work and studied very hard. After graduating at the age of 15, he was admitted to Chang'an Middle School with excellent results, and was exposed to progressive ideas related to democracy and science. But the good times did not last long, and just one year later, Kong Congzhou had to drop out of school and return home due to the loss of financial support.
He followed his father to learn to farm, and learned how to catch a carriage, and the hot-blooded teenager never gave up his dream because of suffering, on the contrary, his heart kept the idea of breaking outside.
In 1924, Yang Hucheng's army went to Xi'an to recruit soldiers, did not charge any tuition fees, and managed to eat and live. Kong Congzhou, who had heard about Yang Hucheng earlier, immediately went north with several classmates to apply for military teaching team training.
The banks of the unattended Wei River are muddy and cannot be stopped. Kong Congzhou and his classmates stood on the shore and watched the passers-by walking the mudflat, which was extremely dangerous.
The classmate retreated and persuaded Kong Congzhou: "Northern Shaanxi is not many miles away from Xi'an, and it will take a long time, so let's go back." ”
Kong shook his head, rejected their offer, jumped off the riverbank alone, and strode toward the boat. He always remembered his father's words of "fighting for anger and not supporting the family", he wanted to realize the ambition in his heart, he wanted to struggle for a "way of life" in the dark world, even if the road was difficult and almost drowned in the Wei River, he would not back down.
After dozens of days of trekking, Kong Congzhou's body became very weak, like a beggar. Fortunately, the teacher was touched by his sincerity and made an exception to let him enter the class that had been in the class for one week. Since then, Kong Congzhou has begun most of his military career.
In 1936, after the peaceful settlement of the "Xi'an Incident", Yang Hucheng was forced to "go abroad to investigate", and Kong Congzhou's 17th Army was abolished by the Nanjing government and reorganized into the 38th Army. In June of the same year, he was ordered to work in the Lushan Officer Training Corps.
After the "Lugou Bridge Incident", Kong Congzhou took the initiative to ask for orders and rushed to the anti-Japanese front.
In 1938, Kong Congzhou participated in the Battle of Yongji and struck hard at the enemy; the following year, when he learned that Chiang Kai-shek had taken another shot at the CCP, he promptly reminded the CCP members to make adequate evacuation preparations and provided them with sufficient travel expenses to protect them from the safe transfer of the Taihang Mountains.
Eight years later, Kong Congzhou led an army to revolt in Henan, and resolutely joined the People's Liberation Army as the commander of the 38th Army. In October of the same year, he became a member of the Communist Party of China. In 1947, Kong Congzhou crossed the Yellow River with Chen Geng and others, opening up liberated areas such as Henan and Hebei.
In 1948, he was promoted to deputy commander of the Western Henan Military Region; in February of the following year, Kong was transferred from Zhou to the Special Forces Column and continued to serve as deputy commander. After the founding of New China, Kong Congzhou concurrently served as the commander of the artillery of the Southwest Military Region and the principal of the Second Artillery School.
At that time, Kong Congzhou, who was busy with military affairs and fighting everywhere, did not expect that his second son Kong Linghua, who was studying in middle school, would bring him a huge "surprise".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >02, children and daughters, not to blame in the past: Chairman Mao said that you are an honest person, and others trust you</h1>
After Kong Congzhou joined the CCP organization, Premier Zhou specially assigned underground members of the CCP to bring his family from Shaanxi to the Liberated Areas, and his second son Kong Linghua was given the opportunity to study in Shijiazhuang. After the peaceful liberation of Peiping, Kong Linghua's school moved to Beijing and was renamed "Bayi School".
Most of the students of the "Bayi School" are children from high-ranking cadre families, and one of them is more special, her name is Li Min, her mother is He Zizhen, a revolutionary female fighter, and her father is Chairman Mao, the leader of the COMMUNIST Party.
The girl who grew up in the Soviet Union had almost no chance to get along with her father for a long time, but she listened to her father's words and did not hype up the "life", but silently "hidden" in the masses, as an ordinary student.
Li Min and Kong Linghua slowly approached because they were classmates and gradually established a romantic relationship. However, due to the fact that neither of them cared much about their family lineage, the two did not know who the other parents were until they established the marriage contract and confessed to their parents.
After graduating from high school, Kong Linghua was admitted to Beijing Aeronautical Institute with excellent results, and Li Min was admitted to Beijing Normal University. Their feelings grew deeper and deeper, and soon Chairman Mao was alarmed.
Chairman Mao, who was concerned about his daughter, called Li Min to the front and asked her, "Who is Xiaokong's father and where does he work?" ”
Li Minman said indifferently: "I don't know, I didn't ask, he didn't say." ”
Chairman Mao continued to ask, "Then how do you make friends with him?" ”
Li Min smiled: "We are classmates, I think his father should also be an officer, besides, I am making friends with him, not with his parents." ”
Chairman Mao was speechless for a moment and patiently advised his daughter: "When the two families are married, we must always understand the situation!" ”
Li Min nodded and made it clear.
A few days later, Li Minxing rushed to his father to "report" Kong Linghua's family lineage to him, and Chairman Mao suddenly realized and was very satisfied: "Oh, it was Kong Congzhou's son, I know him." ”
Li Min asked his father if he agreed? Chairman Mao laughed and responded, "Well, when will you bring Xiaokong to meet me?" ”
After some time, the two people who had "crossed" the "Bright Road" in front of their parents decided to get married, Li Min asked for his father's consent, and Chairman Mao gladly agreed and insisted on attending his daughter's wedding. However, because the Lushan Conference happened to be held at that time, Li Min and Kong Linghua's wedding banquet had to be postponed for a little time.
Chairman Mao was deeply sorry for this, and the next day after returning to Beijing, he summoned the two men to him, drew up a list of guests with them, and instructed the staff to hurry up and prepare for the wedding.
At the end of August 1959, Li Min and Kong Linghua were officially married at the Zhongnanhai Yinian Hall, and Kong Congzhou, the groom's father, was able to enter Zhongnanhai for the first time to meet Chairman Mao.
It was the day of the wedding, and Chairman Mao, who knew Kong Congzhou early in the morning, asked someone to pick kong congzhou to Zhongnanhai, clasped his hand tightly, and said: "From now on, we will be our own family!" ”
After saying that, he introduced Kong Congzhou's identity to the guests present. After the wedding banquet, Chairman Mao left Kong Congzhou behind and asked Wang Jifan to accompany him and talk with Kong Congzhou in the study for a long time.
Wang Jifan was very surprised by Kong Congzhou's past, he thought that Chairman Mao's relatives, if not high-ranking officials, should be Red Army generals, but he did not expect that Kong Congzhou was from Yang Hucheng's troops.
Chairman Mao did not care at all about Wang Jifan's surprise, and laughed and told that Kong Congzhou had participated in the Xi'an Incident, was a meritorious person, and was deeply appreciated by Director Yang.
When Kong Congzhou heard this, he was immediately excited and told Chairman Mao that he had been cultivated and promoted by Yang Hucheng.
Chairman Mao was filled with emotion and said that the Xi'an Incident was a turning point in the Chinese revolution and turned the civil war into a war of resistance. He praised Kong Congzhou's outstanding ability, and Kong Congzhou modestly replied: "I have only been in the army for a long time, there are no achievements, everyone believes in me." ”
Chairman Mao answered: "Believing in you shows that you are an honest person!" ”
Finally, the topic turned to artillery construction, and Chairman Mao repeatedly stressed that artillery is the backbone of the army's firepower and will certainly occupy a key position in future wars. Kong Congzhou immediately promised Chairman Mao that he would definitely build the artillery school well.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" >03, two into the red wall, did not live up to expectations: witnessed the results of their own development walked through Chang'an Avenue, extremely proud</h1>
At the beginning of 1962, Kong Congzhou, who had almost zero contacts with his relatives due to the three-year disaster, once again entered Zhongnanhai at the invitation of Chairman Mao. This time, he was the dean of the Nanjing Artillery Engineering College.
That day, Chairman Mao met Kong Congzhou in the pool lounge. As soon as the two men met, Chairman Mao said, "We are the sons and daughters of the family, and we do not need to be restrained." It's been a long time since I last met you, and I've always wanted to see you, but I don't have time, so today we'll talk casually. ”
Kong Congzhou immediately replied, "I would also like to see you, but you are too busy." ”
Chairman Mao smiled: "Isn't there time now?" ”
Their topics covered a wide range, from each other's families to their children, to education and army building, and finally to the purpose of the Artillery Engineering College, Chairman Mao, who had learned five cars, told Kong Congzhou:
"The cultivation of artillery scientific and technological talents is very critical, science and technology progress every day, from the bow and arrow used by the ancestors, to the crossbow machine and the stone thrower, the siege means of the cold weapon era have been innovating, until the emergence of gunpowder, changing history, but unfortunately, later we still lagged behind, the Europeans invented the smoothbore gun, it is very stupid, it takes 35 horses to pull."
In the 17th century, Newton and Ore made rifled guns; in the 18th century, the Germans took the lead in using post-loading artillery; in 1908, France invented a semi-automatic cannon, since then the artillery has changed rapidly, rapid development, to the present, the emergence of nuclear missiles has changed history again, and there will certainly be newer weapons in the future. ”
He paused, his eyes shining brightly at Kong Congzhou: "During the Liberation War, we relied on capturing the weapons of our opponents, and later on buying the Soviet Union, how do you solve the weapons problem now?" ”
Kong Congzhou replied, "Imitation." ”
Chairman Mao shook his head, as if he was not satisfied with his answer. Kong Congzhou saw this and hastily added: "We have begun to study our own artillery. ”
Chairman Mao smiled: "We are a big country, we must learn to rely on ourselves, and no matter how good foreign things are, they are not suitable for us." ”
Then, Chairman Mao was concerned about inquiring about the teaching methods of the Artillery Academy and the questions of the students, and said that modern military science must find a way to deal with jamming radar. Kong Congzhou took his words to heart, and once he "walked" on this road, he spent more than ten years.
In 1965, Kong Congzhou was transferred to the deputy commander of the artillery and the president of the Artillery Science and Technology Research Institute, and began to carry out work related to radar jamming. In 1967, Chairman Mao once again mentioned the issue of improving the performance of military electronic equipment.
In 1974, Kong Congzhou instructed Wang Yi, director of the Fourth Machine Department, to apply to the Central Committee for measures to strengthen our army's electronic warfare capability, but some people blocked him.
In 1975, the reluctant Kong Congzhou first wrote a letter to Chairman Mao explaining the dilemma, and with the support of Chairman Mao and Ye Shuai, he restarted the work related to electronic warfare technology.
In 1977, the older generation of leaders died of illness, and the construction of the power of strengthening electronic countermeasures was once again put on the agenda after a brief interruption. Kong Congzhou, who is too old to be old, has not given up his old dream and has always adhered to the forefront of the development of second-generation anti-tank missiles.
In 1984, standing on the tower of Tiananmen Square, he witnessed the second-generation anti-tank missile squadron he presided over and developed walking majestically through Chang'an Avenue, and he was very proud and pleased, because he did not live up to Chairman Mao's hopes for him in previous years and made his greatest contribution to the modernization of our army's artillery.
Seven years later, the 85-year-old Kong Congzhou died of illness in the capital, ending a legendary life.