[One Hundred Years of Fenghua•Looking Back on the History of the Party] The Kuomintang issued an order to kill Zou Taofen. How did Zhou Enlai organize the rescue?

After the fall of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong party organization quickly organized the rescue of patriotic cultural celebrities such as Zou Taofen, Mao Dun, Ge Baoquan, Ye Yiqun, and they evacuated to Guangdong under the escort of Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Team Baoan's guerrilla area-Baishilong Village.

However, at this time, Baishilong Village is facing a tripartite attack by the Japanese, puppet, and Kuomintang forces. Cultural people cannot stay for a long time. They must cross the occupied area occupied by the Japanese army and controlled by the Kuomintang diehards as soon as possible. After Huizhou, Laolong, Shaoguan, go to Guilin.

01 　　

1span 1span 2 The team of trafficmen, two porters, and a group of 9 people, the first group left Baishilong Village and went to Huizhou.　　

But when they were approaching Huizhou, they were catching up with the Japanese "sweeping" and had to return and hide in the tea garden outside Huizhou. After finally waiting for the Japanese troops to withdraw from Huizhou, the Kuomintang moved into Huizhou City. However, at this time, the transportation officer in charge of the escort told the cultural person that the party organization had made arrangements and the cultural person was asked to move forward boldly.

His name is Lu Weiru,Minister of Organization of the CPC Huiyang County Party Committee and Minister of Armed Forces. In order to allow cultural people to reach Huizhou safely, he pretended to be a wealthy businessman in Hong Kong, contracted the most luxurious hotel in Huizhou, neighbors with the Kuomintang 187 division commander Zhang Guangqiong , and interacted with Kuomintang officials at all levels, opening up the Huizhou transportation line.　　

On February 17, cultural figures such as Mao Dun and Zhang Youyu boarded and left, and arrived in Guilin on March 9. Previously, cultural people who evacuated from Hong Kong by water, such as Situ Huimin , , Fan Changjiang and Fan Changjiang had already arrived in Guilin early. They all gathered again, with a joy of rebirth.

02 　　

, the last batch of people from Baoan Span Shi and the last batch of in April 1942. On the day they arrived at Lao Long, the party branch secretary of the Eighth Route Army in Hong Kong received instructions from Zhou Enlai, requesting that Zou Taofen be hidden on the spot and not to be transferred. What happened?

Zou Taofen is one of the "seven gentlemen" of to save the Congress . He edited the life weekly, opened a life bookstore, and criticized the dark forces.　　

When the Kuomintang learned that Zou Taofen had returned to the mainland from Hong Kong,Have been searching secretly. When Zou Taofen arrived in Laolong, Zhou Enlai received a secret report from intelligence personnel lurking within the Kuomintang, and learned that the Kuomintang had issued a "kill order" against Zou Taofen.　　

Zou Taofen just concealed, the organizer of the rescue, Liao Chengzhi, head of the Eighth Route Army office in Hong Kong, and Zhang Wenbin, deputy secretary of the Southern Working Committee of the Communist Party of China, were arrested for betrayal.

In prison, Liao Chengzhi wrote a letter to Zhou Enlai: "I hope you believe that Xiao Liao did not humiliate the glorious tradition until his death. If there is a chance, he can talk to him. If there is no such opportunity, it is counted. Now, shake hands with you, long live the Chinese Communist Party."

The Kuomintang could not search for Zou Taofen everywhere, inferring that he still lives in Dongjiang to search the countryside and send Liu Baimin, who is in charge of the cultural publishing in Guangdong.　　

After learning the news, Zhou Enlai urgently sent Feng Shuzhi to Meixian to take Zou Taofen back to Shanghai. Feng Shuzhi is an underground party member who once worked as a cadre in the life bookstore sponsored by Zou Taofen. Under Feng Shuzhi's escort, Taofen Zou arrived in Shanghai and was transferred to , the northern Jiangsu Anti-Japanese Base Area .

03 　　

In addition to the rescue of the civil servants and their families, the British army also rescued a group of civil servants and their families.

British Colonel Wright reported to the British authorities about his adventures in escaping from the tiger’s mouth and the guerrillas’ heroic efforts to rescue the British prisoners. . The British authorities established the British Army Service Corps in Guilin in July 1942, under the command of Wright, and set up an office in Huizhou, Guangdong to cooperate with the rescue work of the guerrillas. After the two sides cooperated, another group of prisoners of war were rescued.　　

According to incomplete statistics, to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, rescuers were sent to the rear of the United Kingdom, the United States, India, , Denmark and other countries with hundreds of people.　　 On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, and the Chinese people won a great victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan. On September 30, 1946, the Japanese commander Takashi Sakai , who commanded the Japanese troops to capture Hong Kong, was sentenced to death by the Nanjing "Military Tribunal for Trial of War Criminals."

This secret rescue operation under the direct leadership of Zhou Enlai lasted more than half a year, traveled thousands of miles, and rescued more than ten democratic patriotic provinces. More than 800 people and their family members also rescued a group of Kuomintang personnel in Hong Kong and foreign friends.　　

See the truth in adversity. When the Japanese army captured Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party overcame unimaginable difficulties, rescued a large number of patriotic democrats and cultural elites, and demonstrated with practical actions the Chinese Communist Party’s cherishment and protection of patriotic democrats and cultural elites. When the nation was in peril, The brave commitment to social responsibility played an important role in promoting the consolidation and development of 's anti-Japanese national united front.This period of history should be remembered forever!

Image source: CCTV National Memory