"After General Tao Zhiyue First Met Mao Zedong"

Tao Zhiyue led the Kuomintang to 100,000 officers and soldiers stationed in Xinjiang to revolt, and the territory of about 5 million people of 14 ethnic groups in Xinjiang, accounting for one-sixth of the country, was peacefully liberated.

At the beginning of the New Year in 1950, Tao Zhiyue went to Beijing to report to Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Peng Dehuai. In Zhongnanhai, he met Mao Zedong for the first time and was so happy that he could not speak. Mao Zedong took his hand and said, "You are from Ningxiang, I am from Shaoshan, only a few tens of miles apart. Mao Zedong left him for dinner and asked the chef to make a Hunan-style button meat. This reminded Tao Zhiyue of the scene when he met Chiang Kai-shek at Bengbu Station in 1930, and Chiang Kai-shek only nodded his head and hummed his nose. Today, Mao Zedong and Tao Zhiyue talked about 12 o'clock in the evening. Tao Zhiyue reported on the situation in Xinjiang, focusing on the mood and life of the troops after the reorganization. Mao Zedong instructed: "First, transform the insurrectionary troops so that they can truly become the people's army; second, Xinjiang is a multi-ethnic region, and it is necessary to eliminate ethnic estrangement and strengthen ethnic unity; third, actively build and defend the frontier." Finally, Mao Zedong said to him: "We must study well, transform ourselves, and pass three passes: the first is the liberation war, which has now passed and has passed very well; the second is the land reform pass, which will soon pass; the third is the socialist pass, which has not yet begun, and we must be ideologically prepared." ”

When Tao Zhiyue returned from Beijing, the Central People's Government also sent a condolence delegation to Xinjiang to perform condolence performances, including the famous Peking Opera artist Cheng Yanqiu. They set up a wooden stage on the Gobi Desert and performed in the open air for the troops. Many officers and men said: "We have been fighting on the border for many years, and the Kuomintang government has not managed us, but the people's government is still good!" ”

In July 1952, Wang Zhen, then acting commander and political commissar of the Xinjiang Military Region, spoke for the first time to Tao Zhiyue about joining the Communist Party of China. At this time, Tao Zhiyue had reached the age of flower armor, and after listening to it, he suddenly had mixed feelings. In the end, he spat out a sentence: "Yes, I did not dare to ask for it." ”

Tao Zhiyue regarded joining the Communist Party as the most serious subject of his life, and although he admired and longed for the Communist Party, he thought that he was born as an old military officer, and that he was not reformed enough, and he did not meet the conditions. Despite his own view, the Communist Party never regarded him as an outsider, often inviting him to various important military and political conferences and welcoming his opinions. He cooperated and worked with Communists, had office and power, and did not have the slightest sense of empty title.

By 1965, Tao Zhiyue had been struggling with the Communists for 15 years, and he solemnly submitted his first application to Zhang Zhonghan, the political commissar of the Production and Construction Corps. For this unusual application, he has considered it for more than 10 years, and he has also transformed himself for more than 10 years, and he has wanted to hand it over many times, always feeling that his conditions are not enough, and he does not have the courage to take it out. However, this application, which had just been submitted, was shelved because of the "Cultural Revolution" that occurred in the near future.

In 1970, Tao Zhiyue was a 78-year-old man who applied to leave and return to Changsha to live, and the government built a small building for him, four generations in the same house, enjoying the joy of heaven. In 1979, Tao Zhiyue was elected vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress at the Second Session of the Fifth People's Congress of Hunan Province. In May 1982, he again submitted his application to join the Party. He wrote: "I think that the greatest happiness in life is the pursuit of lofty ideals and the practice of beneficial to human social undertakings. In thoughtful language buried in his heart for decades, he expressed his motives and purposes for joining the party. On September 28, with the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission, he became a member of the Communist Party of China. After many years of wish come true, Tao Zhiyue burst into tears and wrote a poem as a memorial:

And the joy of a hundred industries, the scenery is more fresh;

Great Communist Party, drinking water will think of the source.

The four modernizations and the long march, following the lucky fate;

Looking at the sunshine road from afar, I was glad to see the whip.

In June 1983, at the age of ninety, he was elected vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the first session of the Sixth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Tao Zhiyue (1892 – December 26, 1988), also known as Tao Jichang (陶紀常), Tao Hoe (陶锄), was a native of Ningxiang County, Hunan Province. After joining the Chinese Nationalist Party in 1927, he participated in the Northern Expedition. After the July 7 Incident, he served as the commander of the Eighth Division, went to Shanghai to fight, and after 1938 was transferred to Shaanxi, serving as the commander of the First Army, the commander of the 37th Group Army, and in 1946 the commander of the Xinjiang Garrison. He applied to join the Communist Party of China in 1965 and became a member of the Communist Party of China in 1982. In 1955, he was awarded the rank of general and was awarded the Order of Liberation, First Class. In 1988, he was awarded the Medal of Merit for Victory of the people's liberation army of Chinese. He died in Changsha on December 26, 1988, at the age of 97.