I believe that all readers have heard the story of the little turnip head, which once appeared in the primary school textbook, and still makes many people moved.
Song Zhenzhong, the youngest martyr in China since the revolution, entered the Kuomintang prison when he was in his infancy. At that time, Song Zhenzhong was only eight months old, and it can be said that he had spent his life in prison since he could remember, and until he was killed in 1949, he never saw the world outside the prison.
In 1949, the Kuomintang fled the mainland in a hurry, and Chiang Kai-shek, who was desperate, ordered the execution of communists imprisoned in Chongqing, and because of this order, the nine-year-old Song Zhenzhong also bravely took justice. The agent who killed him, named Yang Qindian, was not only not punished after the founding of the People's Republic of China, but was acquitted and lived peacefully until 2007.
Why would such a vicious agent be acquitted? Next, I will take you to understand the story of this.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > the youngest martyr, the little radish head</h1>
I don't know how many readers have read the novel "Red Rock", but even if you haven't read it, you should have heard of this excellent revolutionary literary work. The background of the creation of "Red Rock" is the place where the little radish head Song Zhenzhong lived from childhood, the White Mansion Prison. Here not only are small turnip heads imprisoned, but there are also many famous martyrs: "Sister Jiang" Jiang Zhujun, Chongqing underground party member Xu Jianye and so on.
As for why the swaddling turnip head appeared here, the main reason is that his parents were red agents lurking inside the Kuomintang.
In 1941, Chiang Kai-shek deliberately launched the Anhui Southern Incident, and the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was about to collapse. Chiang Kai-shek's sudden move caused many red agents lurking in the Kuomintang area to suffer, and they did not think that Chiang Kai-shek would turn his face during the critical stage of the anti-Japanese resistance.
It was at this time that Song Qiyun, the father of the little radish head, was arrested. Speaking of Song Qiyun, in fact, this is also a prominent figure, who joined the Communist Party in 1927 and has been lurking within the Kuomintang ever since. At the time of his arrest, Song Qiyun was already a major general officer in the Kuomintang Fourth Army.
Chiang Kai-shek directly sent agents to arrest Song Qiyun and imprison him. His wife, Xu Linxia, the mother of the small radish head, was also a Communist Party member, and when she learned that her husband had been arrested, she ran around for dozens of miles every day holding a small radish head that was several months in size to inquire about her husband's whereabouts. But what she didn't know was that she was also targeted by Kuomintang agents, who designed to arrest mother and son together and put them in prison.
In this way, the eight-month-old little turnip head followed his parents to live in prison. The Kuomintang's attitude toward the Communists at that time was very hostile, so the prison environment was very harsh: dozens of people were crammed into a large room with a large bucket in the corner of the house to hold their excrement, and the house was smelly and mosquitoes were flying.
In this environment, their food is equally poor: every day is sour, smelly, sand-mixed leftovers.
Due to eating these unnourished meals for a long time, Xu Linxia's milk is simply not enough, and the little radish head can only eat leftovers in prison. In prison, not only the little radish head family was imprisoned, but there were other Communist Party members, all of whom felt that the little radish head was pitiful, and they tried to give him as much clothing as possible.
But the environment in the prison is really too bad, even if all the resources are concentrated, it will not be able to make the little turnip head grow smoothly. When he was seven or eight years old, he was still as tall as a four- or five-year-old child, so the adults in the prison called him "Little Turnip Head". In the long run, this name spread in prisons.
When the little turnip head reached the age of school, the communists in the prison asked the guards to let him study outside, but unfortunately this was nothing less than a fantasy, and the Kuomintang guards directly refused this request.
Communists have always been good at fighting, they fought against the prisons through strikes and hunger strikes, and finally the prison side finally agreed that the little turnip head could learn in prison. Everyone thought about it and decided to let Huang Xiansheng, a patriotic general who was once a liberal arts student at Peking University, serve as the teacher of The Little Radish Head.
Huang Xiansheng was rich in knowledge and knowledge, he told the outside world to The Little Radish Head, told the story of Marxism and the Communist Party, and under his influence, the Little Radish Head became a staunch communist.
Once, a female agent took a piece of sugar to tempt the little turnip head and said, "As long as you call me auntie, this piece of sugar will belong to you." ”
The little radish head looked at her and said, "You are a spy, not an aunt." ”
Afterwards, the little radish head snuggled in his mother's arms and asked: What does sugar taste like? Hearing this, Xu Linxia could no longer hold back, the little radish head could have had a happy childhood, but now he could only follow them to suffer in prison, and there was no way forward.
As the youngest member of the prison and the only student in the prison, Little Radish head can shuttle between the cells every day during class, and he takes advantage of this time to deliver messages to everyone every day. For people in prison, this is already very good, at least everyone still knows that each other is alive, and everyone has the belief in living.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and soon Chiang Kai-shek lost the civil war, the mainland had no place for him, and the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek. At this time, these "prisoners" in the prison became a burden to them, they had no extra energy to take them away, and they did not want to give up, so Chiang Kai-shek had to order them to be executed.
Chiang Kai-shek has always been a narrow-minded person, and at this time he still has not forgotten Yang Hucheng, who once gave him military advice. Chiang Kai-shek asked his spies to trick Yang Hucheng into the place where Xiao Radish Head was being held, and prepared to wait for the opportunity to execute Yang Hucheng and secretly execute the "political prisoners" in prison.
Song Qiyun was originally a subordinate of Yang Hucheng, and Yang Hucheng felt very kind when he saw him. As a well-known patriotic general, Yang Hucheng firmly believed that the Kuomintang did not dare to kill himself, so when the Kuomintang agents transferred him, he asked to take Song Qiyun's family with him. Originally, Yang Hucheng wanted to take this opportunity to rescue their family, but unexpectedly, he sent them into the abyss.
On September 6, 1949, only 24 days before the founding of New China, the Xiao Radish Head and Yang Hucheng family were killed by Kuomintang agents. Until his death, the little radish head still held in his hand the pencil given to him by his teacher Huang Xiansheng, which was his most precious gift since he was born. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, all the agents involved in this massacre were shot, and only Yang Qindian, who killed the small turnip head, survived.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > acquitted murderer</h1>
Yang Qindian was originally a peasant in Henan, and during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese invaders wantonly plundered the resources of the occupied areas, and Yang Qindian, who was cornered, chose to join the Kuomintang army in order to be able to eat enough. As the war progressed, Yang Qindian gradually went from being a big-headed soldier to a member of the Kuomintang Guard Corps, responsible for protecting senior Kuomintang officials.
After the end of the War of Resistance, Yang Qindian was transferred to the Kuomintang secret service department, responsible for the detention of arrested Communists. In fact, Yang Qindian is not a firm person, and he joined the Kuomintang just to eat a mixed meal. In the process of guarding, Luo Guangbin and other Communist Party members in the prison constantly instilled Marxism in him and advised him to abandon the dark and turn to the light.
However, at that time, the Kuomintang had not yet shown its decline, and although Yang Qindian was affected to a certain extent, he did not make up his mind to break away from the Kuomintang, and this delay reached the moment when the Kuomintang was defeated and retreated.
After Yang Hucheng was imprisoned, Yang Qindian and others received orders from Mao Renfeng to execute Yang Hucheng. For them, obeying orders to execute these "political prisoners" is not a problem. But in the face of the skinny little radish head, Yang Qindian hesitated, and at the same time Xu Linxia was also begging him to let go of the child. However, in the end, Yang Qindian still made up his mind and stabbed the knife in his hand into the chest of the small radish head.
After killing these Communists, Yang Qindian's heart changed from wavering to struggling, and he felt ashamed of Luo Guangbin and others who had been persuading him. Back in prison, Yang Qindian was reluctant to confront the people in prison and often avoided them.
Luo Guangbin in prison also discovered Yang Qindian's abnormality, and he knew that Yang Qindian had done something wrong, so he began to indoctrinate him more violently. At that time, New China had been founded, and the Agents of the Kuomintang had no future to speak of, let alone a spy who killed a large number of Communists.
For Yang Qindian, this is a difficult choice, once he chooses to help the Communists, the Kuomintang agents will certainly not let him go, and the Communist side's treatment of him is unknown. Under such circumstances, the Communists in prison told him that it was not too late to stop the horse from the precipice at this time, and that when the Party organization really found this place, he would have no way back at all.
At this time, Yang Qindian made up his mind to help the imprisoned Communists. At this time, due to the founding of New China and the collapse of the Kuomintang, the intensity of the secret service's custody of prisons had been greatly reduced. On November 27, 1949, on this day, a riot broke out in the Zha Di Dong Prison, and the Communists imprisoned there rose up to resist, seeing that the Zha Di Dong Prison could not stand it, and the Kuomintang agents had to transfer the guards of the White Mansion to the outside.
There were only two people left on the side of the White Mansion, one of whom was Yang Qindian. During the day, the agents had already killed more than twenty Communists in the White Mansion, leaving only 19 Party members, including Luo Guangbin.
If no further action is taken, tomorrow I am afraid that these people will also be killed. The situation was extremely critical, and Yang Qindian suddenly woke up, and he handed the key to the prison to Luo Guangbin in the cell and gave him a hammer so that he could defend himself during the escape. Everything was arranged, and Yang Qindian went out to let the wind out for them. Not long after, the people in the prison received a signal from Yang Qindian, and Luo Guangbin immediately opened the cell and fled through the back door of the prison into the mountains.
After doing this, Yang Qindian knew that he couldn't stay here anymore, and he also left here at night. Unclear about the attitudes of both sides toward him, Yang Qindian hid in a hut in the city of Chongqing. He did not dare to go out on weekdays, in case he was discovered by Kuomintang agents or the Communists.
However, Yang Qindian did not hide for too long, and soon he was found. Hearing the knock on the door outside, Yang Qindian knew that he could not hide, and after opening the door with a hard scalp, he found that the person who was looking for him was Luo Guangbin, who he had released in prison, and he completely relaxed his mind.
Under the persuasion of Luo Guangbin, Yang Qindian decided to turn himself in. On November 30, the two men came to the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, where Yang Qindian explained the situation to the case-handling personnel, and then Luo Guangbin testified for him, proving that Yang Qindian had indeed performed meritorious service. The Chongqing Public Security Bureau realized that this was a major case and immediately reported it to the government and held a meeting to discuss how to deal with Yang Qindian.
After rigorous discussion, the Chongqing Municipal Government decided to acquit Yang Qindian. Considering Yang Qindian's many years of experience in the secret service department, the government also wanted him to work in the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau. However, after so many years of wind and rain, Yang Qindian felt very tired, and he politely refused the invitation of the Chongqing Municipal Government and decided to return to his hometown in Henan to live a peaceful life. When the government learned of this, it paid him for the journey, allowing him to return to his hometown after many years of absence.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > Yang Qindian's later years</h1>
Although he was acquitted, Yang Qindian's later life was greatly affected. In the blink of an eye to the turbulent years, Yang Qindian's affairs were once again pulled out, because of these past events, Yang Qindian was directly beaten into the "abyss". The Chongqing Public Security Bureau, which had released him, arrested him on charges of espionage, and Yang Qindian was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison. The impact of this incident on Yang Qindian is undoubtedly very large, whether it is a family or an individual.
It was not only Yang Qindian who was affected by the past, but his family also had a very miserable life during this time. Yang Qindian joined the army in his early years, and his wife at home had not been seen for several years, and he was worried about his life every day. It was not easy to return home, and the peaceful days were only more than ten years later, Yang Qindian left again, this time he was still arrested. Yang Qindian's wife washed her face with tears all day at home, and finally one day she was seriously ill because of her sadness, and she died soon after.
Yang Qindian's son Yang Cunliang was also greatly hurt, and as a very rare intellectual in the countryside, Yang Cunliang held an accounting position in the production team. Such a position made him very popular in the village, and young men in their twenties competed in the village to give him a matchmaker. But because of his father's affairs, he was dismissed from his post and was ostracized everywhere in the village, and he did not start a family until he was in his thirties.
In prison, some people forced Yang Qindian to let him say that the 19 martyrs were not released by him, hoping to suppress Yang Qindian and the Communist Party members who had suffered in the Kuomintang prison. He never gave in, which was probably the last insistence in Yang Qindian's heart.
Yang Qindian paid tribute to the martyrs
This prison career has allowed Yang Qindian to gain a lot of insights, more than ten years of prison life, after getting out of prison, things are not human. At this time, Yang Qindian knew that even if he wanted to get rid of the shadow of this matter, even if decades had passed, the impact of the matter had not receded, and it would accompany him for the rest of his life.
Later, with the improvement of the material level, Yang Qindian went to Chongqing several times to mourn the martyrs who died in 1949. In the 2004 "11.27" commemoration event held in Chongqing, Yang Qindian went to Chongqing accompanied by his family, he knelt in front of the martyr's tombstone, wept bitterly and repented: "I am sorry for you, I am really sorry for you..."