In April 1950, Zhang Xuede, a cadre of the Wudi County Party Committee of Shandong Province, was working as usual. Suddenly, the director of the county party committee secretariat walked into his office and hurriedly pulled him outdoors.
A man wearing Zhongshan outfit was standing at the door. After the introduction, Zhang Xuede was shocked and knew that this person was a comrade sent by the municipal party committee. The trip was instructed by the central government to ask Zhang Xuede to be sent to find someone.
This person has a strange code name called "XO".
Zhang Xuede was confused, but the central government's urgent power was of great importance. He immediately launched a detailed investigation in the county and finally targeted a man named Niu Baozheng .
But Niu Baozheng's components are very complicated. He used to serve as the guardian of the Kuomintang Caolanzi Prison. There were many Communists in that prison, which can be said to be infamous.
Zhang Xuede is a down-to-earth and serious person. He also read the local government records and Niu Baozheng's personal materials and found that this person has never had any contact with our party. Why did the central government look for him? Did he find the wrong thing, or did he have done something that was harmful to the world before? Then you should also send a searcher to arrest him instead of looking for him.
Niu Baozheng
Worry, Zhang Xuede had to meet Niu Baozheng in person and found that he was a dark-skinned and thin old farmer. After some inquiry, Zhang Xuede submitted all the information.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, the central government called back and confirmed that it was this person we were looking for, and clearly stated that Zhang Xuede sent a special person to escort him to Beijing, and many leaders wanted to meet him.
Who is Niu Baozheng? Who is OX? What kind of past is hidden behind all this?
1886, Niu Baozheng was born in Houniu Village, Wudi County, Shandong Province. His family has been poor peasants for several generations, so his conditions are very poor. His parents sold his own private school for five years. As he grew up to adulthood, he had to go out to find a job to support himself.
Niu Bao did a lot of work during this period, and his life was not rich, but he was careless. When he was thirty, he got an opportunity to enter the police brigade of Wudi County and became a cavalry leader. Later, because of his good performance, he was transferred to the Chengkou branch office and became a team leader.
Niu Bao, who ate public food, lived a lot more comfortable life. Not only did he get a lot of money, he also had a decent job, which made him marry his wife and have children, and he passed by with peace and stability throughout his life.
But around 1925, turmoil came, Chen Jiongming rebellion, the "May 3rd Massacre", and warlords in various fields successively fought... In such chaotic times, Shandong's Zhilu coalition also failed in combat, the political situation was messy, and corruption frequently occurred.
Niu Bao is an honest person who just wants to live a peaceful life. Seeing this situation, he quickly quit his job and returned to his hometown to become a farmer again. After all, losing his official position is better than losing his life.
Only a year later, an old friend came to visit Niu Baozheng and invited him to Beiping to find a job, and told him that Beijing is very safe now. Niu Baozheng suddenly lost more than half of his income, which was a little unbearable, so he followed his friend to the capital.
But at this time, there were many talents in Peking. People like Niu Baozheng who had never read a few books, and there was no place to ask for him. So after a while, Niu Baozheng became an unemployed vagrant.
Fortunately, his friend had some connection. Through the recommendation of Gao Jiwu, the captain of the Beijing Gendarmerie Investigation Team, Niu Baozheng was sent to Caolanzi Prison, which happened to be filled.
This prison is the so-called "Kuomintang Beiping Military Reflection Court". It is surrounded by military prisons, Peking Higher Special Criminal Court and other institutions. The people detained in it are basically advanced elements, progressive young people, or Communist Party members arrested from Ping and Tianjin.
In the year when Niu Baozheng entered Caolanzi Prison, the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China suffered a major purge by the Kuomintang. Secretary Yin Jian , Provincial Party Committee member An Ziwen, Provincial Party Committee inspector Hu Xikui and others were all arrested and imprisoned in this prison.
Niu Baozheng's initial position was just the most ordinary guard, but most of the people who worked in prison were old men and they usually took a break from eating, drinking and prostitute. Niu Baozheng seemed out of place with them.
Unexpectedly, because of his correct attitude, he quickly gained recognition from the commander and was promoted to the guard squad leader, responsible for the guarding task of the entire prison.
Doing things here naturally leads to the interrogation. Niu Baozheng often participates in the interrogation, but what he sees is that the Communists never bow their heads under the arduous conditions and severe punishments. As soon as they open their mouths, they say everything they say is powerful and loud. The national justice and family and country feelings described in it shocked Niu Baozheng, who is over 40 years old.
Therefore, Niu Bao became very interested in this group of so-called "political prisoners" and began to actively contact and communicate with them. He was usually gentle to prisoners, so the two sides quickly became familiar with each other.
At that time, the Communist Party members arrested by Yin Jian and others also set up a party branch in prison. After they discovered that Niu Baozheng had a good attitude, they immediately began to fight for him.
After coming in, in order to distinguish these prison guards , and to communicate in secret, the party members gave them a nickname in English. Niu Bao was called "XO" because of his surname Niu, which is the pronunciation of Niu in English.
When he was getting closer and closer to Niu Bao, he happened to send a letter from his hometown in Shandong saying that his elderly mother was seriously ill and needed treatment in urgent need of treatment. Niu Bao was so anxious that he wanted to reply, but he couldn't write it, and he refused to let his subordinates know. Finally, he ran to Yang Xianzhen, one of the prisoners, for help.
Yang Xianzhen wrote a letter for him without saying a word. Before leaving, she stuffed all the money left on Niu Baozheng, expressing her hope to do her best.
Yang Xianzhen
Niu Baozheng had already admired these Communists very much, and was even more moved at this time. After this incident, he agreed to their request without much consideration - starting to help these prisoners convey information to the outside world.
After this, letters were transmitted from him from inside the prison to outside the prison. He covered up the comrades outside to visit him in prison, provided confidential information he had found from his superiors, and protected the party members in the prison from persecution. In fact, he had become a secret liaison officer of the underground party of the Communist Party of China.
When the Kuomintang conducted strict investigations on prison prisoners many times, it was because of Niu Baozheng's help that they were allowed to learn the news in advance and survived.
By 1936, as the national anti-Japanese call reached its climax, the party planned a series of actions, but due to the complete lack of manpower, it decided to rescue a group of backbone members in Caolanzi Prison from prison. The information of the plan of
was also passed back and forth by Niu Baozheng many times. After approval from the central government, the comrades in prison agreed to the Kuomintang’s request and published the so-called “anti-communist declaration” in the newspaper, laying the false prelude, and a total of 61 people were all released from prison safely.
The detained Communist Party members were free and went their separate ways to complete their tasks, but Niu Baozheng was in trouble. Because he frequently contacted these people and participated in important rescues many times, even though he was extremely careful, he was still suspected by the Kuomintang authorities.
At the end of this year, a group of people from the Secret Service directly took Niu Bao away as the famous general "suspected by the Communist Party". Now he suddenly became a prisoner from a guardian.
and Military Control Commission have always been cruel and ruthless. They tortured and forced Niu Baozheng torture and then used generous amounts of money and official positions to tempt him, but Niu Baozheng was not shaken at all under such hard and hard practices.
Although he was nominally just an enemy who was instigated outside the party at this time, his quality and courage were already completely comparable to those of a true Communist Party member.
The Kuomintang finally lost patience in his refusal to admit his death and was ready to kill him. However, after this news came, all the party members inside and outside the prison who had contacted him unanimously stated that Niu Bao was our comrade and must be rescued immediately.
On the second day, the underground party organization and members of the Communist Party of China in Peking quickly launched a rescue plan and successfully took Niu Baozheng out of danger. Then they sent people to find all his family members and escaped from Beiping City . However, after that, the two sides completely lost contact.
In fact, Niu Bao was taking a train back to his hometown of Wudi, Shandong after leaving the city. After the family reunited, he moved to the nearby Dongguan to settle down. He never showed up again. Instead, he has been living a small business and has a very difficult life.
But he finally survived the war years. In 1945, the county town of Wudi was liberated by the People's Army. Because Niu Baozheng had worked in Caolanzi Prison, he was naturally regarded as a "historical counter-revolutionary". However, because he had no bad record of harming others, he was not punished, but was controlled and had a bad reputation.
is like this, until October 1950, the founding ceremony of was held in Beijing, and a group of senior cadres from all over the country gathered together, including An Ziwen, Liu Lantao, Yang Xianzhen and others. They all went all the way from the revolution and were all the heroes of the Republic.
After meeting, everyone sighed at the past and naturally talked about the prison life in Caolanzi . They immediately missed the great "XO" and agreed that this person had an indelible contribution to the revolution and should be commended and rewarded.
So a few days later, a central official letter was sent to Wudi County, and the city's specialist was personally sent to find a person named "XO". A group of senior leaders at the superiors only knew that Niu Bao was from Shandong, but he did not know his specific address, so he could only ask the locals to find it.
The county party committee cadre Zhang Xuede, who received the task, immediately began to search for Niu Baozheng in the vast crowd. He had no hope, but he happened to meet a chairman of the National People's Committee who had worked in Shandong. He learned from him that Niu Baozheng's hometown was in a village near Wudi.
Zhang Xuede personally rushed to Chengguan, asking questions from many sources and posting missing person notices everywhere. Then he learned from a grassroots cadre that there was a person named Niu Baozheng in the east of the city.
Zhang Xuede rushed to the local public security bureau again. Director Zhang Quanwen was surprised when he heard his purpose. He immediately said that Niu Bao was right, but this person's history was quite complicated. He first worked as a police captain in the county, and later served as the warden of the Kuomintang in another place. He is now a controlled counter-revolutionary, but he is not an ordinary person. He asked him if he was wrong.
The order to go up the peak is as soon as possible. The county party secretary also instructed him that Zhang Xuede simply set out directly to find Niu Baozheng himself, and believed that all misunderstandings can be clarified after the meeting.
When the two met, Zhang Xuede found that the other party was a pale, thin and timid old man. When he saw him, he thought it was the leader who came to scold the controller. He was very careful. Zhang Xuede showed a gentle attitude and listened to him slowly narrating his experience. When he finished speaking, he could basically confirm that he was the "XO".
To be on the safe side, Zhang Xuede proposed to let Niu Baozheng list the names of the people in his prison back then. Niu Baozheng did not forget it, but the long list of names he reported did not match what Zhang Xuede knew.
After some verification, I found out that what Niu Baozheng said was a pseudonym used by the party members at that time. Zhang Xuede immediately told Niu Baozheng the truth of the matter - the leaders of the central government were all saved by you back then. Now they tried every means to find you and invite you to bring your family to Beijing, hoping to repay your kindness.
Niu Baozheng could hardly believe it. At the age of his age, he burst into tears and thanked Zhang Xuede repeatedly. A few days later, the county party committee sent him away with his only carriage, and then went all the way to Beijing after several turnovers.
In the capital, central leaders such as Liu Lantao and Yang Xianzhen came to meet Niu Bao one after another. They were all very moved when talking about their experiences in prison when the mountains and rivers were broken.
Then, Niu Bao, who had been infamous for many years, was injustice. Not only did he directly enjoy the treatment of a cadre's administrative level 18, but he was also transferred to a prison in the Beijing public security system to do pre-trial work and return to his old job.
It was not until 1954 that Niu Baozheng passed away safely in Beijing at the age of 68.
His life was not magnificent, but he made the right decision at the right time. In that era, a further hero was a hero, and a step back was a traitor. For an ordinary and uneducated person like Niu Baozheng, he kept his bottom line, and his spirit was still admirable.
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