"Abo, are you still traveling at this age?"
On September 13, 1990, the customs staff carefully checked the passport of the elderly man in the wheelchair in front of him for Hong Kong and Macao compatriots.
"It's not a trip, it's a return home."
This 90-year-old man in a wheelchair is Gong Chu.
This old man once participated in the Jinggangshan struggle, protected the Red Army main force Long March , and participated in the formation of the Red Army many times. He was once known as "Zhu Mao Gong" together with Chairman Mao and Zhu De. Since
occupies such a high position within the party and the military, why did he enter the customs with a pass for Hong Kong and Macao compatriots instead of the People's Republic of China ID card after the founding of the People's Republic of China?
From "Zhu Mao Gong" to "The First Rebel General of the Red Army"
Gong Chu, 90 years old, entered the customs with a pass. All this was his own fault, because he was the "First Rebel General of the Red Army".
Gong Chu was once a senior revolutionary of our party. He joined the party in 1925 and participated in the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising.
And in 1928, he served as the party representative of the Third Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.
After the Jinggangshan rendezvous, Gong Chu was appointed as a standing member of the Fourth Red Army's Front Committee and a party representative of the 29th Regiment of the Tenth Division. Together with Mao Zedong and Zhu De, he was known as the " Three-person Group of the Fourth Red Army's Front Committee".
And the name "Zhu Mao Gong" began to become popular among the revolutionaries of this period.
At that time, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were engaged in the first civil war, and the Kuomintang frequently sent troops for "encirclement and suppression" campaigns.
The CCP's party organizations in the city were repeatedly destroyed. Gong Chu was ordered to go to the big city Changsha to be responsible for rebuilding the party organization. However, he was severely damaged by the Kuomintang on the way. With the help of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, Gong Chu was forced to move to Hong Kong for the second time. .
It was not until May 1929 that he returned to the mainland to participate in the revolution again.
In Guangxi, he organized Baise Uprising with Deng Xiaoping, Li Mingrui, Yu Zuobai and others. This was the first time he cooperated with Deng Xiaoping to command a battle.
After the success of the uprising, the insurgent troops established the Red Seventh Army, which had three columns. Zhang Yunyi served as the army commander, Deng Xiaoping served as the political commissar, and Gong Chu served as the chief of staff.
After that, Gong Chu and Deng Xiaoping had been leading the revolution in Guangxi. In January 1931, the organization considered that Gong Chu had participated in the "anti-encirclement and suppression" campaign and formulated the political system in Jinggangshan, so he was sent to Meihua, Ruyuan County, Guangdong. They established a revolutionary base in the market, hoping to be connected with the Jiangxi Central Soviet Area.
Chen Jitang, the Guangdong Army of the Kuomintang who had been keeping an eye on the Seventh Red Army, found that Gong Chu's troops were moving, and he led his troops to follow them.
Gong Chu did not know that his situation was very dangerous. Not only were there pursuers behind him, but there was also an ambush in front of him from the 19th Division of the Kuomintang Hunan Army coming from Hunan.
The Guangdong Army and the Hunan Army of the Kuomintang joined forces to attack from the front and back, and worked together to encircle and suppress the Seventh Red Army. When the enemy was strong and we were weak, the Seventh Red Army suffered heavy losses and was finally forced to move.
Due to his injury, Gong Chu was arranged to go to Shanghai for treatment and recuperation. html In August, Gong Chu left Shanghai and went to Hong Kong again.
With the help of the underground party in Hong Kong, Gong Chu arrived in the Central Soviet Area of Jiangxi Province and served as the commander of the 34th Division of the 12th Red Army.
In 1932, Gong Chu was denounced as a "right opportunist" and was expelled from the party. After undergoing organizational criticism and education, he was finally arranged to train at the Red Army University.
After being treated like this, Gong Chu began to lose hope in the future of the revolution and even had doubts about the revolutionary path. This became one of the main reasons for his future rebellion.
In 1933, the Kuomintang launched the fifth counter-campaign against the Central Soviet Area. Because Chief of General Staff Liu Bocheng suffered from severe anemia and needed to go to the hospital for recuperation, Gong Chu was reused again as Acting Chief of General Staff.
After the failure of the anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Chairman Mao and others decided to abandon the central revolutionary base and implement a strategic shift. It is also known as the Long March.
Before the Long March, the Central Military Region decided to establish a new Central Branch after deliberation. The main purpose of was to persist in guerrilla warfare and cover the strategic transfer of the main Red Army. Xiang Ying was appointed commander and political commissar, and Gong Chu was appointed staff officer. Chief,
In early 1935, the Kuomintang accelerated the progress of the "clearance" of the Central Soviet Area, trying to break up the various departments of our army and then destroy them in one fell swoop.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which was undergoing transfer at this time, sent an urgent message, requiring all departments fighting in the Central Soviet Area to change their organizational form and use guerrilla warfare as the main combat method to reduce casualties.
After receiving the instructions, Gong Chu led his troops to carry out guerrilla warfare in Jiangxi, Guangdong and southern Hunan areas.
The Central Committee originally had great hopes for Gong Chu, hoping that he could keep the headquarters of the Central Soviet Area. Unexpectedly, he directly rebelled.
After experiencing "encirclement and suppression" one after another, the Kuomintang's strategy towards the Red Army also changed. It no longer focused solely on military strikes, but adopted a policy of "combined suppression and appeasement".
The so-called "suppression and appeasement at the same time" policy means the simultaneous use of military force and appeasement.
When the Kuomintang was "appeasing", in addition to using monetary means, it also used methods such as rewarding high-ranking officials with generous salaries to induce weak-willed people in the Communist Party and the Red Army to rebel and surrender.
At that time, it was not easy for the Communist Party and the Red Army to continue fighting after experiencing five encirclement and suppression campaigns by the Kuomintang. However, some people's willpower could not withstand the test and were quickly divided by the Kuomintang. Gong Chu was among them. One member.
On May 2, 1935, Gong Chu led a company of troops from Linwu County, Chenzhou, Hunan Province to Huangmao Village, Chen County.
That night, he excused himself from not feeling well and went to bed without having dinner. In the middle of the night, Gong Chu took the opportunity to leave the army and escape, returning to his hometown, Changlai Village, Town Changlai, Lechang County, Guangdong Province.
From 1925 to 1935, when he joined the Communist Party, he experienced many landmark events in the party and the army, such as the Nanchang Uprising, the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the establishment of the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base, and the establishment of the Seventh Red Army.
No one would have thought that such a proven military general would abandon his army and escape overnight.
betrayed the revolution and massacred comrades
Soon after Gong Chu returned to his hometown, he found Zhang Zhaoqin, who had worked with him in Lechang during the Great Revolution, seeking a job.
Zhang Zhaoqin found Yu Hanmou and arranged Gong Chu to serve as the guerrilla commander of the First Army of the Guangdong Army to suppress the Communist Party. Obviously, Yu Hanmou is willing to accept Gong Chu because he understands the Communist Party and can better complete the task of "suppressing the Communist Party".
Gong Chu took over this position and began to turn his guns on his former comrades and comrades-in-arms.
On October 13, 1935, Gong Chu led the Cantonese army, disguised as Red Army guerrillas, from Renhua, Guangdong to Beishan on the border of Jiangxi and Guangdong. A trap was set in Beishan, more than 60 Beishan guerrillas were trapped and killed, and more than 30 people were arrested. is known as the "Beishan Incident" in history.
In order to pretend to be a guerrilla, Gong Chu fought several "battles" with bandits and the Kuomintang army, and successfully gained the trust of the local people and the guerrillas.
He Minxue (He Zizhen's brother), captain of the Beishan Guerrilla Brigade, once served as the section chief of the Central Military Region Headquarters. When he heard that his old leader Gong Chu had formed a guerrilla team, he quickly sent someone to contact him.
Gong Chu said to the people sent by He Minxue, "I need to see Chen Yi and Xiang Ying immediately. I have important military information to report to them."
Considering that the Kuomintang troops were surrounding him, He Changlin suggested that Gong Chu not take the risk. Go, it's best to write a letter to Xiang Ying and Chen Yi first and ask the secret traffic officer to deliver it.
Xiang Ying was very happy after receiving the letter. This was the first time he had contacted other guerrillas since the strategic shift.
On the other hand, Chen Yi had a sad look on his face, holding the letter and walking around without saying a word.
Xiang Ying didn’t understand why Chen Yi was unhappy. The reason why Chen Yi was unhappy was that he knew Gong Chu very well.
"Gong Chu suddenly became too humble and asked you and me to 'strengthen leadership'?"
Xiang Ying had never dealt with Gong Chu before and didn't know what kind of person Gong Chu was. Chen Yi told him about Gong Chu he had met.
Gong Chu relied on his seniority in the party to fight several more battles. During the struggle in Jinggangshan, he was arrogant and arrogant. "He could barely tolerate Mao and Peng in his eyes."
The reason why it is said "Reluctantly", that's because Gong Chu knew that Mao Zedong's prestige in the Central Soviet Area was unmatched, and he had to accept it. As for Peng Dehuai, Gong Chu was dissatisfied before. During the third anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Gong Chu refused to carry out military orders. "Our General Peng directly dismissed him from his post without saying a word. Only then did he, Gong Chu, become honest. "
After hearing these words, Xiang Ying fell into deep thought. Why would Gong Chu, such an arrogant person, write a very humble letter to them?
Chen Yi gave a suggestion: go see Gong Chu again after a while. It was precisely because of this advice that Chen Yi and Xiang Ying escaped disaster.
Gong Chu did not receive a reply and was very anxious. In order to avoid long nights and many dreams, he decided to strike first.
He first took advantage of the trust that the guerrillas around Beishan had in him and quickly wiped out the guerrillas.
Then, on the pretext of holding a meeting in Longshishi, they deceived the Beishan guerrillas into an encirclement where an ambush had been set up in advance, and coerced those people to surrender.
After the meeting began, Gong Chu took off his mask of disguise and made nonsense, saying that the Central Soviet Area had collapsed, the revolutionary base area was gone, and the Red Army was finished. There was no point in insisting on fighting the Kuomintang. It was better to surrender with him.
He Minxue and several other veteran comrades with rich combat experience were very vigilant. Therefore, when they came to attend the meeting, the bullets in their guns were loaded.
When they discovered that Gong Chu had rebelled, they immediately opened fire, and other comrades also entered combat mode.
However, the guerrillas resisted too late, and the incident happened suddenly, giving them no time to consider a battle plan. Therefore, the entire guerrillas suffered heavy casualties. More than 50 people died on the spot, and less than ten people escaped.
Among them, He Minxue was shot three times. When he ran out of bullets and was injured, he chose to roll down the mountain and escaped.
After the Beishan incident, Gong Chu did not stop there. Soon, he led the Cantonese army straight to Chen Yi and Xiang Ying's station.
Before approaching Chen Yi and Xiang Ying's station, Gong Chu met Red Army scout Wu Shaohua and others.
Wu Shaohua is an old party member. Although his position in the party is not as high as Gong Chu's, he knows very well what kind of person Gong Chu is.
He also heard the letter Gong Chu wrote to Chen Yi and Xiang Ying two days ago.
Chen Yi was suspicious of Gong Chu, and Wu Shaohua was also suspicious, so he wanted to test Gong Chu.
He went out to test Gong Chu because Chen Yi had something to do, but found that something was wrong with Gong Chu.
Knowing that the situation was not good, Wu Shaohua hurriedly left on the grounds that the cook was in urgent need of food for cooking and he wanted to send it back quickly. He arrived at the station first and fired a warning shot. Xiang Ying, Chen Yi and others quickly moved away and escaped. .
A few days later, Gong Chu led three divisions of the Kuomintang to attack the guerrilla areas, causing the Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi guerrillas to suffer heavy losses again. Propaganda Minister Fang Weixia died on the spot, and secretaries Chen Shan and Cai Huiwen were arrested for serious injuries.
Among them, Cai Huiwen refused to leak intelligence. The enemy cut his throat and died heroically. He was only 28 years old.
Gong Chu caused far more serious damage to our party after his rebellion than the Kuomintang, because he was very familiar with the army led by our party and he had mastered many military secrets.
After the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance.
Because Chiang Kai-shek pursued the policy of "passive resistance to Japan and active anti-communism", the top leaders of the Kuomintang did not trust Gong Chu, who had been a senior commander of the Communist Party.
And he had no friends within the Kuomintang and failed to integrate into any faction. In addition, the soldiers Chiang Kai-shek re-employed were basically from the "Huangpu faction". Therefore, it was not until 1942 that Gong Chu planned to join the Fourth War Zone. Got the position of chief of staff of a major general.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Gong Chu returned to his hometown of Guangdong Province and served as a member of the Senate. This position did not have any real power. He was very dissatisfied with this. He fought many victorious battles as a soldier, but only got a false name.
Although he was dissatisfied, he had no choice but to endure the reality. In May 1949, Gong Chu was promoted to Administrative Inspector and Security Commander of the Fourth District of Guangdong Province.
In fact, the Kuomintang was already disorganized at this time, and Chiang Kai-shek's large troops had already escaped. He was able to get this position only because the Kuomintang wanted him to "send death."
surrendered and rebelled again
In October 1949, the People's Liberation Army marched into Guangdong, and Gong Chu hurriedly led the security team to flee to Lechang Yaoshan.
Huang Songjian, who had participated in the Baise Uprising with Gong Chu, wrote a letter to persuade Gong Chu to surrender.
Gong Chu felt that the Kuomintang was gone, so he had to go down the mountain and surrender to his former subordinate Lin Biao.
Soon, Ye Jianying sent Gong Chu, who had surrendered, to Hainan to persuade the Kuomintang's Hainan Defense Commander-in-Chief Xue Yue to surrender.
Because both of them are from Lechang, Ye Jianying feels that this trip is very sure of success.
Unexpectedly, Gong Chu promised to persuade him to surrender, but secretly stayed in Hong Kong when he transferred from Hong Kong to Hainan. He did this because he was worried that the Communist Party would liquidate him for killing many Red Army soldiers.
After Gong Chu fled to Hong Kong with his family, he lived in the Overseas Chinese Garden in the New Territories , a place where the Kuomintang officials were specially placed by the Kuomintang in Hong Kong. Until the Kuomintang later took back the Overseas Chinese Garden, he had to rent a house.
Gong Chu did not live a wealthy life in Hong Kong. He was only allocated 50 acres of land. The family has a large population. In order to make ends meet, they rented out the stores they were allocated to collect rent, and also started raising pigs, planting and other things. But even so, life was still tight.
Gong Chu had certain calligraphy skills, so he started writing and selling calligraphy. A single calligraphy could sell for tens of thousands of yuan at most.
Although the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek did not give up and always thought about "how to counterattack the mainland." Therefore, in 1950, he sent a special plane to pick up Gong Chu to go to Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek hoped that he could move to Taiwan and appointed him as Lieutenant General Senior Counselor, responsible for organizing the "Anti-Communist National Salvation Army."
Gong Chu refused on the grounds of physical discomfort.
Return to his hometown to live in peace and spend his later years.
Those who lived with Gong Chu in the Overseas Chinese Garden in Hong Kong were all former national officials. We all have common memories. Many people want to return to the mainland, but they dare not take that step.
In 1979, after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Gong Qingshao returned to the mainland and opened a sweater factory in Qiuchang Commune, Huiyang County, Guangdong Province (now Huiyang District, Huizhou City), becoming the first investor in Huiyang of foreign businessmen.
Gong Chu saw that his grandnephew had returned to the mainland to set up a factory, and the business was doing very well, so he thought of returning to his hometown.
As the "first rebel general of the Red Army", Gong Chu was despised by many Communists. Therefore, although Gong Chu wanted to return to his hometown, he had been hesitant.
Until March 1988, the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Announcement on No longer prosecuting persons who went to Taiwan for criminal acts committed before the founding of the People's Republic of China." The
announcement made it clear that those who went to Taiwan and committed crimes in the mainland before the founding of New China will no longer be prosecuted. Although the
announcement is good, it does not conform to Gong Chu. This announcement is only for "people going to Taiwan."
In September of the following year, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued another announcement, expanding the applicability of this provision to no longer limited to "persons traveling to Taiwan."
According to the announcement regulations, if Gong Chu chooses to return to the mainland, he will not face liquidation.
So Gong Chu wrote to the United Front Department, expressing his desire to return to his hometown, and hoping that the government department could help build a two-story building with slightly modern facilities.
In 1990, after the efforts of all parties, the house was built according to his requirements. On the evening of September 13 of the same year, Gong Chu and his wife took a bus from Shenzhen to Shaoguan, where the government department of their hometown even held a reception banquet.
Gong Chu took out three letters and entrusted the staff present to send them on his behalf.
According to descendants of the Gong family, the three letters were written to Deng Xiaoping, Yang Shangkun and Wang Zhen respectively. The contents of the letters were roughly the same. The first was to express gratitude to the comrades who had worked together in the Communist Party.
Secondly, state your current situation: you are old, in poor health, settled in your hometown, and will spend your old age peacefully. Please ask the chief to give you advice from time to time.
About a month later, Gong Chu received a call from Comrade Deng Xiaoping, welcoming him to Beijing to serve in the National People's Congress or the CPPCC.
Gong Chu, who was already 90 years old at this time, said: "I can't see anything now, and I'm still ill. I'm not going anywhere. I will come back to spend my old age in peace."
Five years later, Gong Chu was in Passed away in his hometown at the age of 95.
ending
Gong Chu can return to his hometown to enjoy his old age purely because of the tolerant and generous policies of the Communist Party. He has never explained his experiences after defecting to the Kuomintang, but that doesn't mean he can cover up the facts.
He rebelled against the Communist Party many times in his life, choosing back and forth between leaving and returning, always focusing on making the best interest choice. In fact, he drifted with the tide of history all his life, which led to the rest of his life being unsatisfactory. good.
Those Communists and Red Army members who were killed by him all proved one thing: Gong Chu was indeed the "number one rebel general of the Red Army."
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