On January 6, 1941, the New Fourth Army, under the leadership of commander Ye Ting and deputy commander Xiang Ying, was ordered to move north of the Yangtze River, and when the troops passed through the Maolin area of Jing County, Anhui Province, they were suddenly besieged by about 80,000 kuomintang divisions of seven divisions. After seven days and nights of fierce fighting, only more than 2,000 people scattered to break through, the commander Ye Ting was detained, while the deputy commander Xiang Ying and the chief of staff Zhou Zikun were killed, known in history as the "Anhui Southern Incident".
Zhou Enlai, Xiang Ying (left), Ye Ting (right)
After the incident, Zhou Enlai, who was in Chongqing, immediately reported to the Party Central Committee, and then began to run from all sides, clearly expressing the attitude of the Chinese Communist Party that it should not only "track down the truth" but also "safeguard the War of Resistance." In desperation, he left an inscription to comfort the martyrs:
Thousands of ancient injustices, Jiangnan one leaf; the same room, frying what a hurry!
In order to rescue Comrade Ye Ting, our party made many representations with the National Government, but they were repeatedly obstructed by the other side. In order to block the news, the Kuomintang successively transferred him to shangrao, Guilin, Chongqing, and Enshi, and declared him dead.
After fourteen years of arduous resistance, the Chinese finally drove out the Japanese invaders and won the independence of the country and nation. At that time, the Kuomintang army had long been hiding far behind, and the democratic parties at home and the US and Soviet forces abroad hoped that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party could negotiate peacefully.
Against this background, Chiang Kai-shek also falsely expressed his approval of "democracy" and "peace" several times. In order to make the play realistic, he also publicly called on Mao Zedong to come to Chongqing for negotiations in person, and published his "invitation letter" in full:
The great war is over, and there is no room for civil strife. I deeply hope to remember the hardships and dangers of the country, sympathize with the sufferings of the people, and work together to engage in construction.
In order to break Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy of "real civil war and fake peace" and to grasp some of the remaining hopes for peace, Chairman Mao personally flew to Chongqing to conduct peace talks regardless of his personal safety. During this period, Zhou Enlai, on behalf of our party, demanded several times that the authorities release Zhang Xueliang, Yang Hucheng, Ye Ting, and others who were imprisoned, but never received a positive response.
Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping
However, in the course of the Chongqing negotiations, the Kuomintang troops invaded the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Liberated Area in a big way, in a vain attempt to control the communication lines in North China and seize the northeast region. In accordance with the instructions of the Central Military Commission, Liu Bocheng and Comrade Deng Xiaoping not only repelled the invading enemy, but also captured Ma Fawu, deputy commander of the theater and commander of the 40th Army, and won a victory in the Battle of Handan.
Open negotiations were conducted, but behind the scenes, they were sneaking in, and the main general was still captured alive, and even Chiang Kai-shek himself felt extremely ashamed. In order not to arouse national condemnation, he repeatedly expressed that it was a misunderstanding, hoping that the two parties could solve it privately without having to speak out, and agreed to exchange Ye Ting for Ma Fa Wu.
Members
On March 4, 1946, Ye Ting, who had been secretly imprisoned by the Kuomintang for five years, was finally released and received from the ccp delegation's residence in Chongqing. Under Zhou Enlai's arrangement, his wife Li Xiuwen and daughter Ye Yangmei were also taken over for reunion.
The next day, Ye Ting, who had just been released from prison, could not wait to decide to rejoin the Communist Party and solemnly submitted an application for joining the Party to the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao:
I was released from prison last night, determined to fulfill my long-term wish to join the great Communist Party of China and, under your leadership, to contribute everything to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people. I ask the central government to review whether my history is qualified and please reply.
Ye Ting originally thought that his application to join the party would be decided after full discussion among the central leaders, after all, he had experience of hastily leaving the party. However, he received a call back the next day:
Happy to hear of his release from prison, the crowd rejoiced. You have fought for the cause of national and people's liberation for more than twenty years, experienced all kinds of severe tests, and the whole of China is well aware of your boundless loyalty to the nation and the people.
I hereby decide to accept you as a member of the Communist Party of China and extend my warm condolences and welcome to you.
Chongqing negotiations
During the "Chongqing Negotiations", the "Double Tenth Agreement" was signed under the witness of the leaders of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek. However, the Nationalist government has been actively mobilizing troops, and the intention to start a civil war has become very clear.
In view of this grim situation, the central government decided to take Bogu, Wang Ruofei and Ye Ting's entire families, who were still in Chongqing, back to Yan'an.
In the early morning of April 8, 1946, Zhou Enlai and other comrades personally went to the airport to send off their group and watched the C-47 transport plane piloted by American pilot Smith take off smoothly. In Yan'an, Chairman Mao and many central leaders were waiting at Dongguan Airport, and many people gathered around them, all wanting to witness General Ye Ting's demeanor.
After waiting for a long time, far beyond the predicted landing time, there was still no trace of the plane, and everyone slowly dispersed until dark. Three days later, unfortunate news came from Chongqing, and the original C-47 transport plane crashed in Heichashan in Shanxi, which was called the "April 8 Air Disaster" in history.
Comrade Zhou Enlai, who remained in Chongqing, first received the news of the plane crash and immediately telegraphed the Party Central Committee to learn about it. After that, with great sorrow, he wrote the article "The Immortality of the 48 Martyrs":
If you fly! Bogu! Hiyi! Deng Fa! Mr. Huang Lao, as well as all the Chinese and American friends, comrades and eyebrows who were killed! Your collective sacrifice has become a martyr of "April 8". Ten days have passed, ten heavy days! Deep hearts, tears of grief, cruel memories. Moreover, the heavy burden you have left behind is so oppressive that we mourn you in silence.
In this air disaster, Bogu, Wang Ruofei, Deng Fa, Zhao Dengjun, Huang Qisheng, Li Shaohua, Wei Wanji, Huang Xiaozhuang, the four crew members and Ye Ting's family of four were all killed. After the body was found, Chairman Mao ordered it to be transported back to Yan'an for burial, and along the way, people rushed to carry the coffins of the martyrs, and crowds of people silently sent off on both sides of the road.
a memorial service
On April 15, 1946, our Party held a mourning ceremony in the auditorium of the Central Party School in Yan'an to pay tribute to all the martyrs who died in the "April 8 Air Disaster" and mourn. Chairman Mao's autograph inscription:
To die for the people, though to die is glorious.
Relying on our judgment of the situation and our understanding of Chiang Kai-shek, our Party always thought it was too strange after the air crash, and Comrade Zhou Enlai even asserted that it was a secret agent.
During the search for the remains of the martyrs, our Party also secretly arranged for professionals to go to the site of the incident to conduct an investigation. In the end, the "Investigation Report of the April 8 Crash Incident" was obtained:
1. The aircraft is indeed a mountain crash and crash, not a crash after the explosion;
Second, the clouds are very dense and accompanied by rain and snow, and the visibility is very low;
Third, Xi'an should fly straight north after landing and refueling, and somehow deviate from the route and fly into Shanxi.
Although the investigation report is suspicious, it is not entirely certain that the KUOMINTang will be accused. Therefore, doubts turn to doubts, but our Party is unable to openly question this matter, so it has no choice but to raise its vigilance and awareness of prevention.
After the "April 8 Air Disaster," Zhou Enlai made a request to the Kuomintang that in the future, whenever senior Communist Cadres boarded the plane of the State Government, they must be accompanied by a general with the rank of major general or above. Otherwise, our party will have to use ground transportation to get back and forth.
During the Liberation War, the work of investigating the truth about the "April 8 Air Disaster" never stopped. However, with the passage of time, the truth has become farther and farther away, and only Comrade Zhou Enlai has never wavered in his judgment. In June 1951, when he met Ye Ting's son Ye Zhengda, he also said:
Why did your dad's landline crash? In the past, it was said that the flight was caused by the thick fog hitting the mountain, and today I can tell you with certainty that someone did it. General Ye was imprisoned by the Kuomintang for five years, but as soon as he was released from prison, he wrote a letter to the Central Committee asking to rejoin the party, which naturally made Chiang Kai-shek very angry, and it was easy for him to use spies to exclude dissidents.
Unfortunately, until the death of Premier Zhou on January 8, 1976, he could not confirm that his judgment was correct. In 2006, the truth of the "April 8 Air Disaster" was finally revealed, and an old man in Taiwan who was about to die said a shocking statement:
Over the years, I've had a secret in my heart, and that secret has been buried for 60 years. The next words, when I die, will be made public, and I will be regarded as one last loyal to the Kuomintang.... In fact, I did Ye Ting's death.
The old man's name was Du Jitang, and he was a veteran military agent. It turned out that the military command had installed eyeliner in many key departments in those years, and Wang Pinghu, chief of the dispatch section of the Air Force, was one of them. He first learned that Ye Ting and other senior Communist generals would return to Yan'an on a C-47 transport plane, and immediately reported the matter to his superior, Du Jitang.
With the authorization of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Renfeng, this group of military command agents began to plan the assassination. After the conspiracy, they did not choose to act directly at the Chongqing airport, which would be too blatant, and it was very likely to involve Mao Renfeng and Chiang Kai-shek.
In the end, Dujitang decided to destroy the transport plane's flight instruments in order to create the illusion that the plane had fallen due to trek. In order to reduce the chance of being discovered, they chose to do it again when the plane landed in Xi'an to refuel, and Yang Yaowu, who was lurking at the airport, placed a small magnet on the back of the flight altimeter and magnetic compass.
C-47 transport aircraft
After stopping in Xi'an to refuel, the C-47 transport plane took off again, but it had already been manipulated. During the northward flight, the plane encountered bad fog and snow weather, the American pilot Smith had to operate the aircraft to turn, the magnetic compass and the altimeter have failed, and finally can only be visually measured under the condition of extremely low visibility, resulting in the tragedy of the destruction of the aircraft.
Kitajima's obscure poem "Answers" written in 1976 includes this passage:
Despicable is the passport of the despicable,
Nobility is the epitaph of the noble.
Look, in that gilded sky,
Floating with the curved reflections of the dead.
Always keen on the tricks of the fly camp, the Kuomintang shamelessly assassinated General Ye Ting. However, the country and the people have not forgotten him, and on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China, he was named "100 Heroic And Exemplary Figures who made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China".
At the end of the article, we recited this "Prison Song" written by Comrade Ye Ting during his detention: @ Wenshi is not false
The door for people to enter and exit is locked
The hole is open for the dog to climb out
A voice shouted: Climb out, give you freedom
I long for freedom
But I know it too
How can a human body crawl out of a dog hole?
I can only look forward to it
That day
The fire in the ground rushed to burn this living coffin along with me
I deserve eternal life in fire and blood