The war of liberation finally came to an end with the victory of the Chinese Communist Party, but a large number of Kuomintang war criminals became hot potatoes. How to properly arrange these people is the first question faced by the Chinese Communist Party and the newly established People's Republic of China. So, how were these captured Kuomintang war criminals arranged in the end, and what happened to them in the end?
Focus on attacking and transforming
With the end of the war of liberation, a large number of senior Kuomintang generals have become prisoners of the People's Liberation Army, including 72 at the level of lieutenant general and above, 323 at the level of major general and above, school-level generals and the government There are a total of 322 high-level personnel serving in the system. Confined to their position, these people fought a civil war that should not have been fought, and committed unforgivable mistakes against the people in the war of liberation. But most of them played an important role in the Anti-Japanese War, and some were even famous anti-Japanese generals, such as Song Xilian , Wang Yaowu . How to treat them will determine the external image of the new China, and it is the first serious examination question that the new China faces after its founding.
Of course we can't "would rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one go" as Chiang Kai-shek did when he treated the Communist Party, but the international and domestic situation at that time was still unstable, and various forces were still on the move, and it was impossible to release these people. Considering the character of Chiang Kai-shek's retribution, let alone sending them to Taiwan, this is tantamount to using a knife to kill people and sending these military generals to Chiang Kai-shek's guillotine. They cannot be killed, released, let alone sent to Taiwan. How to arrange these people has become the top priority of the Communist Party and the new China.
After repeated research, in the end, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to adopt the "Four Nos" policy for these war criminals, "no sending, no killing, no death, no letting go", no sending them to Taiwan; no killing one; , not to kill one person; nor to release one person into society. Gather them together and arrange them to the Beijing War Criminals Management Center, the famous Gongdelin War Criminals Detention Center, to carry out education and reform that combines ideological education and action reformation, so that they gradually change their thinking and fundamentally realize their mistakes.
The decisive battle of Gongdelin
Soon, the first batch of war criminals entered the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Office.
Gongdelin is located outside Deshengmen in Beijing. It was originally a temple. After the continuous changes of the times, it was first transformed into a "Jingshi Art Institute" by the Qing government, and then transformed into a "Jingshi Second Prison" by the Beiyang Duan Qirui government. During the reign of the Kuomintang, it was renamed the "Second Model Prison".
The war criminals who can enter the Gongdelin are basically Chiang Kai-shek's confidants. At that time, the highest military rank was Wang Lingji . During the Anti-Japanese War, he was the commander-in-chief of the 30th Army Group and served as the chairman of Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces successively. And the lieutenant level is even more. Many of them are the core figures of the Kuomintang government and participated in the formulation of some major policies of Chiang Kai-shek. In addition, many of them have followed Chiang Kai-shek for a long time and have deep personal feelings and blind admiration for him. At the same time, some generals, especially the generals of the Huangpu family, lacked understanding of the fundamental reasons for the inevitable defeat of the Kuomintang, and attributed a large part of the reason for the Communist Party's final victory to "luck", and even clamored to "start over, it must be how it is".I can't see the serious disasters brought to the country and the people because of the civil war launched by the Kuomintang, and I can't realize that my actions are tantamount to helping the tyrants. The pirates", and moved out the Confucian feudal ideology of "one body does not serve two masters", fantasizing to become those loyal ministers in history. After becoming war criminals, more people are full of pessimism and disappointment about their future, and are very resistant to daily learning and reform activities.
In the face of such war criminals, Gong Delin is simply a battlefield where the smoke of gunpowder cannot be seen. A decisive battle of transformation and transformation has quietly kicked off here.
each broke.
On an ordinary day in November 1950, the Gongdelin War Criminal Institute welcomed a special prisoner.
He was the former deputy commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Xuzhou "Suppression General" and Chiang Kai-shek's confidant Du Yuming.
Because Du Yuming was seriously ill, the war criminals institute specially arranged him in a single cell. When the administrator replaced Du Yuming's clothes, he found more than 60 sleeping pills hidden in his cotton pants.
It turned out that after being captured, Du Yuming fell ill again. He was very pessimistic about his personal future and destiny. When he was disheartened, he came up with the idea of "killing oneself to preserve integrity".
In the face of Du Yuming's behavior, the cadres of the management office patiently and meticulously gave him ideological work, actively contacted the hospital to treat him, and communicated with his superiors to give his wife and former friends. Fu Zuoyi, a member of the staff, wrote a letter and asked them to manage the visit.
The three-pronged approach has gradually transformed Du Yuming's thinking, which was once stubborn. With the meticulous care of the officers and soldiers of the management office, Du Yuming, who has completely cured his physical illness, has also undergone earth-shaking changes.The Communist Party even gave him such preferential treatment as a first-class war criminal. The reason why he became the final victor had a lot to do with their political policy and ideological awareness that they were devoted to the people and that everyone was equal. Since then, Du Yuming has become a pacesetter in the war criminals management center who actively assists management cadres to carry out ideological remolding of war criminals. In 1959, he was one of the first batch of war criminals released during amnesty.
In addition to Du Yuming, there is a more stubborn Kuomintang general in the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Office. He is the lieutenant commander of the Kuomintang 12th Corps.
Huang Wei, a graduate of the first phase of Whampoa, is a direct descendant of Chiang Kai-shek's direct line. He is known for his bravery and good fighting skills in the Kuomintang. The 12th Corps under his leadership is also known as the Huang Wei Corps. Hehe battle exploits. Huang Wei, whose eyes were higher than the top, looked down on the Communist Party's army at all, and was a typical representative of "how to fight again" among the war criminals at that time.
On January 31, 1949, shortly after the peaceful liberation of Beijing, Huang Wei was sent to the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center. After entering Gongdelin, Huang Wei went his own way, refused to learn and reform, and became a famous thorn in Gongdelin.
On October 19, 1950, after the outbreak of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea , Huang Wei was ecstatic when the news came. He believed that Chiang Kai-shek would definitely take this opportunity to intervene in the war, use American power to recapture the Northeast, and then fully counterattack the mainland. Even hope that a third world war will break out. At that time,
had the same idea as Huang Wei.
As the Volunteers went through five battles, they forced the U.S.-led United Nations Army to the negotiating table, and finally signed an armistice agreement. , let go of the illusion of recovering the mainland, and also changed his views on the Communist Party, which he once despised, his thinking is gradually changing, and he is no longer as stubborn as before.
In addition to these senior generals, there are many very high-level spies in the Gongdelin. For example, Kangze , indulge in .
Shen Zui once wrote in his memoir "Towards the Light": "Anyway, sooner or later, he will be executed, and while he is alive, he must do as much as possible to do something unfavorable to the Communist Party and the people before he is willing."
At the age of 18, he joined the Kuomintang's famous spy agency "Fuxing Society", and at the age of 28, he served as the major general of the Yunnan Station of the Kuomintang Security Bureau. The blood of revolutionaries thinks that if they fall into the hands of the Communist Party, they will be tortured and humiliated, and then inevitably die, so they break the jar and often do things against learning and reform.
is such a person, and in the end, he was successfully influenced by the Communist Party and became a right-hand man on the united front of New China. From the title of his book "Towards the Light", we can see the great success of the Communist Party in reforming war criminals.
first amnesty.
After nearly 10 years of education and transformation, a group of war criminals in Gongdelin met the conditions for amnesty. In addition, the release of Japanese war criminals in 1956 had a positive impact both at home and abroad. Chinese leaders believed that the conditional amnesty for the detained Kuomintang war criminals not only gave due rewards to those who actively reformed, but also It also prompted other war criminals to increase their enthusiasm and initiative for reform.
In 1959, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to grant amnesty to a group of war criminals who had rehabilitated.
A total of 33 war criminals were pardoned this time. Apart from a group of Kuomintang generals such as Du Yuming, Song Xilian, and Wang Yaowu, the puppet emperor of Manchukuo Aisin Gioro Puyi was also on the list.
Regarding the arrangement after the amnesty of war criminals, Chairman Mao Zedong personally gave instructions: the arrangement of work that should be arranged, the treatment of diseases should be treated, and the pension should be treated in the same way as Communist Party cadres.
Therefore, after these war criminals came out of Gongdelin, they were given corresponding placements according to their own wishes and abilities. He used to have serious resistance to education and reform. After being inspired by the Communist Party's policy, Du Yuming, who walked out of Gongdelin as the first batch of amnesty war criminals, was reunited with his wife in Beijing. A "thankful plaque", and actively participated in the work of the united front of the motherland. During British Field Marshal Montgomery's visit to China, Du Yuming once served as an accompanying guest and received Montgomery with Marshal Chen Yi.
New China's first amnesty for war criminals caused a huge international sensation. Chiang Kai-shek's government, which was huddled in Taiwan at that time, was still preparing for war with one heart and one mind, hoping that one day it would counterattack the mainland. The Communist Party, regardless of its past suspicions and fearing the threat of the Kuomintang in Taiwan, resolutely granted amnesty to war criminals who had committed war crimes, showing the open-mindedness of the Chinese Communist Party. , so that the international community can clearly understand who is truly peaceful and who wants real civil war, which greatly enhances the prestige and status of the Communist Party and New China in the world.
Based on the positive impact of the first successful amnesty on war criminals, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began to conduct regular amnesty for war criminals one after another. From 1959 to 1966, it carried out 6 amnesties. After that, due to historical reasons, the amnesty work for war criminals After a pause, it was not until December 1974 that the amnesty work for war criminals was restarted under the personal intervention of Chairman Mao Zedong.
The last batch of war criminals walked out of the Gongdelin Management Office
The specific operation process of this war criminals amnesty work was finally handed over to Hua Guofeng, then Minister of Public Security.
Hua Guofeng attaches great importance and prudence to this work. He personally sorted out the situation of the detainees in detail, and finally determined that except for 13 war criminals who did not meet the conditions for amnesty, all the others met the conditions for release.
The report was sent to Chairman Mao's desk, and he wrote and instructed: He has been detained for more than 20 years, and he has been released, and he can come and go freely.
In the early morning of March 19, 1975, a message reached the ears of the war criminals through the loudspeaker of the management office: The second meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fourth National People's Congress decided to grant amnesty to all detained war criminals.
So far, with the last batch of 293 war criminals leaving the management center, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, all detained war criminals have been freed.
The successful transformation of war criminals by the Chinese Communist Party has become a rare example in the world. When the last emperor who didn't even know how to tie a button at first was finally transformed into a laborer who was self-sufficient, the powerful transformation ability of the Chinese Communist Party allowed the world The shock also demonstrated the great success of the party's ideological and political work.
