Text | Literature and History Explorer
Editor | Literature and History Explorer
Nowadays, when people mention Tiananmen in the capital Beijing, they can immediately think of Chairman Mao standing on the towering tower on October 1, 1949 and paying homage to The world solemnly announced the founding of New China.
The voice: "The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was established today!"
not only informed the world that the Chinese people, who had been oppressed for more than a hundred years, had stood up, but also shocked the world through the majestic military parade under the Tiananmen Gate.
Old Photos of the Founding Ceremony
So far, this gatehouse, which is across the street from the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, etc., has created a legacy for future generations with its beautiful ancient Chinese architectural charm and the unique historical significance behind it. As we all know, there is an endless stream of tourists who come here all year round to watch.
But most of them don’t know that if Chairman Mao hadn’t personally decided on Tiananmen, which would be deeply rooted in the hearts of later generations, would probably have been replaced by Xiyuan Airport, the venue for the founding ceremony of the People’s Republic of China, which had many advantages at that time, and became a forgotten place. Another representative in the long history.
Old photos of the Xiyuan military parade
The first military parade of New China in Beiping
At the beginning of 1949, with the development of the war of liberation, the issue of establishing a new China was also put on the agenda. For this reason, going to Peking City, a city that had not yet been renamed Beijing at that time, to coordinate national affairs became the next step that Chairman Mao had to take.
When setting off for Peking on March 23 of the same year, Chairman Mao preached to Premier Zhou who was traveling with him:
"Today is the day to enter Beijing. Go to Beijing to take the exam."
"If you return, you have failed, and we should not be Li Zicheng , we all hope to get good grades."
Chairman Mao's old photos
It can be seen that Chairman Mao attaches great importance to entering Peiping under the turbulent current situation.
Therefore, after arriving in Peiping at the end of March, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided after discussion to hold an entry ceremony to review the troops in Peiping. The location was chosen to be Xiyuan Airport in the suburbs of Peiping at that time.
Old photos of Peiping
This was a royal hunting ground during the Qing Dynasty. Later, it was converted into a deer farm due to the turmoil. In 1940 during the Anti-Japanese War, it was converted into an airport. Later, this place has been an important place in Peiping during the Republic of China. One of the airports.
When Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and other central leaders arrived at the Xiyuan Airport military parade, the people who had been invited to arrive immediately greeted their arrival with warm applause and cheers.
Old photos of the military parade at Xiyuan Airport
As the signal flares symbolizing the start of the military parade soared into the sky, after Chairman Mao boarded the first jeep, Premier Zhou and other leaders also boarded the jeep one after another and began to greet General Liu Yalou, the commander-in-chief in charge of the military parade. Under the leadership of the commander, they slowly reviewed the infantry regiments, motorized infantry , artillery, tanks and other arms at the scene.
The majestic soldiers saluted the passing leaders in turn, and the people participating in the military parade continued to applaud with excitement to express their emotions.
Old Photos
With the cheers of the masses, this very successful military parade into the city came to an end. But it was also this military parade into the city that made Xiyuan Airport the first choice location for the founding military parade in people's minds at that time.
After the founding ceremony committee was established in July 1949, people had disagreements over where the military parade and ceremony should be held. One group favors Xiyuan Airport, where the military parade was originally held, and the other group favors Tiananmen Square with its towering towers.
Both parties have their own opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of the two places.
Old photos of the military parade
Some people think that although Tiananmen is located in an important place in Peiping and has a towering tower that can serve as a viewing platform, precisely because it is located in an important place in the city, once the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China is held, facing a large number of spectators, it will inevitably It would be necessary to implement traffic control for the entire city of Peking for more than four hours on that day. This would not only increase the burden on the people, but also pose a heavy test to the newly formed public security comrades at that time.
In addition, the Chang'an Street at that time was not spacious, which inevitably limited the scale of the military parade to be as grand as Xiyuan Airport.
Also at this time, although the Kuomintang was defeated one after another, the air force still had strength. If Tiananmen was chosen as the site of the founding ceremony, it would be difficult to evacuate and hide in the face of air raids.
Screenshot of the memorial hall
The other side believes that if the founding ceremony is held, there will be a large number of people. The Xiyuan Airport is too flat and there is no high platform. It will take a lot of civil engineering to build a viewing stand. This kind of act that consumes a lot of manpower and material resources will have a negative impact on the people at that time. The burden is too heavy for the government.
Secondly, Xiyuan Airport is located in the suburbs of Beijing. It was still too far from the urban area at that time. If the people wanted to participate in the grand event, it would be too time-consuming and laborious to go back and forth, and the security work for the people was not easy to arrange.
It is better to go to the magnificent Tiananmen Gate Tower to hold the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China.
Old photos
You must know that since the fall of the Qing Dynasty, photos of heads of government have been hung here from Beiyang to the Republic of China, so they have a certain influence throughout China. Xiyuan Airport was built during the Anti-Japanese War The reputation is somewhat obscure.
The two parties had a heated discussion on these arguments, which led to the vast majority of people in the parade headquarters leaning towards the first plan at Xiyuan Airport. At that time, it was indeed necessary to guard against the air force attack at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek.
Old photos of Peiping
Seeing that the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China was about to be held at Xiyuan Airport, Premier Zhou listened to many opinions and weighed it repeatedly, and decided that it would be safer to choose Tiananmen as the location for the future founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China, so he wrote a letter and handed it to Chairman Mao With Commander-in-Chief Zhu, the full text is as follows:
"Chairman Mao, Commander-in-Chief (Zhu De), and Comrade Shaoqi read:
The date is after the closing of the day when the government is established. The parade location is preferably in front of Tiananmen. The time will be determined when the time comes. Review the command Nie Rongzhen was appointed as the parade commander, and Comrade Zhu De was asked to serve as the commander of the parade. "
After Chairman Mao read it, he immediately decided to agree to Premier Zhou's suggestion to hold the founding ceremony in Tiananmen.
Old photos of Tiananmen
Preparations for the Founding Ceremony and unknown details
Due to the war in Peiping, the Tiananmen Gate Tower has long been in a state of neglect. Not only is the city wall covered with weeds, but even the vermillion wall coverings are covered with Under the erosion of rain, it became mottled and white, and some places even experienced large-scale collapse, directly leaking out the wall tiles inside.
In order to prepare the Tiananmen Tower in the best condition to welcome the founding ceremony, Premier Zhou immediately organized repairs at the meeting. Committee members unanimously agreed through the meeting to repair Tiananmen and Tiananmen Square.
Old photos of Tiananmen
The repair work was mainly carried out by personnel transferred from the troops surrounding Beijing at that time, and the local people mainly participated in the cooperation work.
As a result of this cleanup, it was discovered that the door opening of the Tiananmen Gate Tower was actually filled with explosives.
Soldiers from the logistics department found that four of the several door openings were sealed. For safety reasons, they found tools and broke them open little by little. When they entered, they found that they were all military high explosives.
Old photos of Peiping taken by the United States before liberation
The soldiers at the scene and the information about the discovery of a large amount of explosives were reported to Ye Jianying, who was in charge of the garrison in Beijing at the time.
Ye Jianying immediately decided to ask the army to dispatch a special clearing force to quickly and safely transfer these high explosives to other places.
In order to prevent similar incidents from happening in Peiping, Ye Jianying made a special trip to find Fu Zuoyi's adjutant at the time to ask about the matter.
The adjutant was quite frank, saying that he knew about the matter, and also explained why the explosives were piled in the Tiananmen cave.
Old photos of Beijing
Because at that time everyone in the Kuomintang knew about the People's Liberation Army's attitude towards protecting historical sites. They believed that since they were not willing to use artillery to bombard the historical sites occupied by the Kuomintang during the siege battles in Taiyuan and Tianjin, then the 600-year-old Forbidden City , the People's Liberation Army will not launch artillery attacks, so it is safest to put flammable and explosive explosives here.
After the explosives crisis was resolved, Tiananmen Square was renovated at a rapid pace with the help of two divisions of the People's Liberation Army and tens of thousands of working people, making the dilapidated towers and squares once again shine far beyond their former glory.
This is also the most familiar appearance of Tiananmen that we will see in later generations.
Old photos of the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China
In terms of details, this military parade was not held at around ten o'clock in the morning like the later Tiananmen military parade. Instead, the parade time was abnormally set at three o'clock in the afternoon.
This was mainly to prevent Chiang Kai-shek from sending out air force for bombing at that time. At that time, the Kuomintang's air force had inadequate night bombing technology, and the and bombers it owned were mainly medium-sized bombers. After coming to the mainland for bombing, they often had to return before dark after the bombing.
Founding Ceremony Flying Formation
If the military parade is held in the morning, the Kuomintang air force can rush over in a swaggering manner, but if it is chosen in the afternoon, the Kuomintang aircraft will not be able to get back due to time constraints. Taking advantage of this weakness can prevent air attacks to a certain extent.
Moreover, the time of the ceremony was top secret. It was not until 6 o'clock in the morning on October 1 that the matter of holding the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China was announced to the world through Peking Xinhua Radio Station. It was not until a year later that the PLA Air Force's combat effectiveness and ground air defense capabilities gradually became stronger, so the National Day military parade was changed to the morning.
As the first Tiananmen military parade in New China, the order on the column is different from the order of the "land, sea and air" in everyone's impression in the past. Instead, it is arranged in the order of the "land, sea and air".
The live broadcast on that day also reported this:
"At the front of the team is the honor guard of the People's Liberation Army Navy, Army and Air Force... The naval troops are wearing brand-new blue uniforms and are being reviewed...",
This disaggregated order also arrived in 1950. It was then changed to the order of the army, navy and air force.
Old photos of the Founding Ceremony
And the formations in the military parade at that time were not walking in the current goose step. At that time, the People's Liberation Army mostly followed the German goose step from the New Army in the late Qing Dynasty for military formation training, while the Navy was deeply influenced by the British and used large guns in their training. The British goose step with swinging arms is used for training.
Therefore, the difference between the goose steps of the two formations in past military parade videos is obvious. In 1950, the People's Liberation Army learned from the Soviet style goose step and developed the Chinese style goose step, and then they became uniform. This is also one of the small details in the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China one.
Old photos of the Founding Ceremony
The next step was the famous "Let the Air Force fly again" in the Founding Ceremony. At that time, because New China did not have much industrial base, all the aircraft owned by the Air Force came from captured aircraft.
Chang Qiankun, who was the director of the Aviation Bureau at the time, once responded to Nie Rongzhen's question "Can you form a flying team ": "You can organize a small team, but a smaller one cannot be formed into a large team." "
In this situation, Commander-in-Chief Zhu asked in a hopeful tone after watching the performance of the People's Liberation Army Air Force at Xiyuan Airport: "Can we have a few more aircraft? Any aircraft will do."
Old photos of the founding ceremony.
Then the bomber trainer aircraft communication aircraft and the newly restored transport aircraft were mobilized. A total of eight aircraft were added to the review flying team.
In order to prevent the Kuomintang air force from attacking the ceremony site, four of the fighter jets were loaded with live ammunition and were ready to fight the incoming enemy aircraft at any time. Fortunately, the enemy did not launch a large-scale bombing on October 1, and this allowed the first batch of 9 After the fighter jet completed one flight, it followed the trainer aircraft and flew again.
Foreign reporters present at the time exclaimed in their reports:
"The Chinese Communist Party has its own air force overnight."
An old photo of Chairman Mao at the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China
Conclusion
Looking back on this period of history, without the key suggestions of Premier Zhou Enlai and the decisive judgment of Chairman Mao Zedong.
There is a great possibility that Tiananmen today will never be as famous as it is now.
Nowadays, when we look at the majestic Tiananmen Square, we all miss it. The revolutionary ancestors held the ceremony and left us this precious legacy, so that we can always remember Chairman Mao.
