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In 1975, the founding major general Xiong Botao died of illness in the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in Beijing.
However, the sudden death of General Xiong Botao made his wife Li Wen sad and very puzzled.
Because her husband only went to the hospital for treatment as usual this time and did not have critical symptoms, the hospital had never issued a critical illness notice to their relatives.
How could a good person disappear suddenly?
In order to clarify the cause of General Xiong Botao's death, the hospital proposed to Li Wen that it hoped to conduct an autopsy on General Xiong Botao.
Faced with the opportunity to find out the truth, Ms. Li Wen rejected the hospital's proposal after careful consideration.
As a wife, faced with the death of her husband, in addition to grief, according to human nature, she would definitely want to know the true cause of her husband's death, but why did Ms. Li Wen give up the autopsy in the end? What secret is hidden behind this?
The cause of death is a mystery
China in the 1970s was in a special period of turmoil. General Xiong Botao was not spared from this wave. Fortunately, compared to the experiences of many comrades, Xiong Botao's situation was much better, and he could continue to work in Beijing.
As his comrades left one by one, General Xiong Botao's later life was also very lonely and lonely.
One day in 1974, Xiong Botao, who was working at his desk in the office, suddenly felt a heartbreaking pain in his chest. Xiong Botao covered his chest and lay on the table. It took a long time but he still didn't recover.
At this time, his secretary happened to enter the office to get documents. Seeing his appearance, he quickly took the chief to the People's Liberation Army General Hospital.
After examination by a doctor, Xiong Botao was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. When the doctor told Xiong Botao the news, he was stunned for a moment, then nodded, asked the doctor to prescribe some painkillers, and went back with his secretary.
After returning home, Xiong Botao was not affected at all and continued to work as usual. It's not that he is really fearless of illness, it's just that his many years of war have already made him immune to death.
Countless of his comrades-in-arms have been falling since the early days of the revolution. Even now, you can occasionally hear news of the death of old comrades-in-arms.
In Xiong Botao's eyes, death is nothing more than reuniting with old comrades.
Although the Communists are all staunch atheists, as Marshal Chen Yi wrote before the crisis.
"Here I go to Quantai to recruit old troops, and I will kill Yama with a hundred thousand banners."
Romanticism is also one of the necessary qualities for communists.
As time goes by, General Xiong Botao's condition becomes more and more serious. Seeing her husband suffering from pain, Xiong Botao's wife, Ms. Li Wen, looked around for medical advice and finally got a prescription from an old Chinese doctor.
When Ms. Li Wen decoctioned the medicine and gave it to Xiong Botao according to the prescription, Xiong Botao's condition was really relieved as the old Chinese doctor said.
In this way, Xiong Botao, who was originally diagnosed by the doctor as " can only live for another half a year at most" , was not knocked down by lung cancer. Half a year later, Xiong Botao not only still had clear consciousness, but could even continue to work. However, the torture of the past six months made his figure become even thinner.
After being diagnosed with lung cancer at the hospital, Xiong Botao came to the People's Liberation Army General Hospital for a review every one and a half months.
Until October 1975, when Xiong Botao came to the hospital for a routine check-up, the doctor who originally treated Xiong Botao had disappeared and was replaced by two young doctors.
The two doctors operated unskilled medical machines and simply completed the physical examination for General Xiong Botao.
Later, when asking about General Xiong Botao's current situation, they learned about the traditional Chinese medicine that General Xiong Botao took. One of the doctors frowned and told Xiong Botao not to continue taking that unknown traditional Chinese medicine, but to prescribe a bunch of new hormone drugs for him.
A few days after receiving the new medicine, General Xiong Botao passed out due to lung pain. When his family sent him to the hospital for rescue, General Xiong Botao was still unconscious. A few days later, General Xiong Botao died in the hospital on October 21 at the age of 71.
Upon learning the news of Xiong Botao's death, his wife and children were very sad. Li Wen was very puzzled. His old man was fine a week ago, so how could die suddenly?
Moreover, until the death of General Xiong Botao, the hospital never notified the family of the patient's critical condition.
Faced with Ms. Li Wen’s doubts, the hospital did not know how to explain it. In order to find out the real cause of General Xiong Botao’s death, the hospital proposed to Ms. Li Wen that as long as she signed and agreed, the hospital could conduct an autopsy on General Xiong Botao, hoping to find out the exact cause of death.
After hearing the proposal from the person in charge of the hospital, Ms. Li Wen did not agree immediately. She thought for a long time in the hospital office, but finally decided to give up the autopsy and hoped that the hospital could cremate Xiong Botao as soon as possible.
I obviously wanted to know the cause of her husband’s death before, but why did I give up at the last moment?
It turns out that during this special turbulent period, Ms. Li Wen was also aware of the pressure on the hospital. For example, the former attending physician of General Xiong Botao was a doctor with very superb medical skills.
But the last time she accompanied Xiong Botao to the hospital for a check-up, the doctor was no longer at the People's Liberation Army General Hospital. The old couple knew exactly what happened without asking. They must have been labeled as "capitalist roaders" by the young generals and sent to the local government.
But after persecuting these experienced doctors, the hospital still has to operate as usual. Who will fill the vacant positions? They can only be medical students or interns in the school.
However, these people who were hastily replaced did not complete all theoretical training, and were not arranged to work as assistants behind experienced doctors. The consequences of being forced to work are self-evident.
In fact, during that period, such examples were not uncommon across the country, and could even be said to be countless.
It was precisely because of the fear of implicating the two young doctors, or rather students, that Ms. Li Wen finally gave up the opportunity to learn the truth. She put away her heavy mood, simply took care of Xiong Botao's funeral, and went home.
Logically speaking, when a major general of the Republic dies, the Central Military Commission should express condolences.
However, during this period, many of Xiong Botao's life and death comrades did not even have a chance to express their feelings. Xiong Botao and Li Wen had always lived a simple life, leaving almost nothing worth remembering.
Now Li Wen can only wipe a few photo frames every day in memory of his wife who has spent a lifetime with him.
The photo in the photo frame was taken in the Great Hall of the People in 1959 on the occasion of celebrating the tenth anniversary of the founding of New China.
At that time, the Central Military Commission formed a choir composed entirely of generals. The choir included Han Xianchu, Xie Fuzhi, Li Zhimin and other well-known generals of the Republic. General Xiong Botao was also in it, and was also responsible for reciting poetry alone.
choir
In 1959, the Great Hall of the People had just been completed. In order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of New China, Premier Zhou proposed to hold the National Day Party in the Great Hall of the People. This proposal was unanimously approved by all comrades of the Party Central Committee.
On the night of October 1st, in addition to the leaders of the Party Central Committee, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Khrushchev, leaders of more than a dozen socialist countries, and representatives of the Communist Party of dozens of countries gathered in the Great Hall of the People.
At this time, the flames of communism are burning in the world, the unity of the people of the world is unprecedented, and the dawn of revolutionary victory seems to be right in front of us.
In order to celebrate the "birthday" of the motherland, the Central Military Commission formed a choir composed of 230 generals of the Republic.
General Tang Yanshu is the leader of the choir, General Li Zhimin serves as the conductor, and General Xiong Botao is arranged as the reciter because of his good voice.
At the party that night, " General Choir " dedicated four performances to the audience. In addition to the three military songs, the last closing program was the chorus of "We must plant the flag of victory in Taiwan".
The emotional singing of the generals in the choir moved the audience in the Great Hall. Chairman Mao even stood up and applauded many times, and Premier Zhou followed suit and clapped and hummed softly. Although Khrushchev could not hear the lyrics, he was still affected by the atmosphere.
He asked for the translation, and after understanding the lyrics, he said to Premier Zhou: "You will definitely succeed."
This celebration party was one of the happiest moments in Xiong Botao's life. In his mind, it was on par with major events such as the victory of the Long March, the surrender of Japan, and the founding of New China. Several of the photos he placed at home were taken by him and his comrades on the day of choir rehearsal and party.
There are too many well-known stories about this choir of 230 generals. But what many people don't know is that General Xiong Botao almost couldn't get into this choir.
This is because when the medal was awarded in 1955, the Central Military Commission had no intention of conferring the rank of general on Xiong Botao.
Back then, before the awarding of military titles had officially begun, most generals of the People's Liberation Army already knew the military ranks that were about to be conferred on them.
As a result of the title award, some people are happy, but naturally some people are dissatisfied. Several of Xiong Botao's comrades-in-arms were very dissatisfied because they had inquired everywhere but could not find out what Xiong Botao's military rank was. This usually only represents one possibility, that is, Xiong Botao did not have a general rank, so they could not find out at all from the Central Military Commission.
Soon, without Xiong Botao's knowledge, someone put forward opinions to the Central Military Commission. They believe that Xiong Botao joined the party in 26 years, went through the Long March, fought against the Japanese army in Shanxi, and severely defeated the Kuomintang army in the Liberation War.
In terms of military merit, Xiong Botao is more than enough to be awarded a lieutenant general. In terms of qualifications, he is older than many generals and is a true old Communist Party member. He survived the 27 years of massacre and completed the Long March, but why is he not even awarded the title of major general now?
In fact, the Central Military Commission has thought repeatedly about what military rank to award Xiong Botao. Xiong Botao's situation is more complicated than that of ordinary people. He was actually punished during the Long March and was once expelled from the party. Although Xiong Botao was reinstated as a party member shortly after the Long March, these experiences cannot be erased.
So why was Xiong Botao expelled from the party? This has to mention Xiong Botao's early revolutionary career.
Revolutionary career
In 1904, Xiong Botao was born in Huangpi, Hubei. His father is a small businessman. Although he is not a wealthy person, his life is better than that of ordinary ordinary families. It was precisely because of this that Xiong Botao was able to receive educational opportunities that were extremely rare at that time.
It was also in school that Xiong Botao came into contact with advanced Marxist ideas. He was ambitious and immediately decided to devote himself to the revolution of the motherland.
In 1926, Xiong Botao joined the Communist Party of China, but soon after he joined the party, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12 Massacre" that shocked China and the world.
In this massacre, countless outstanding and determined Communists and revolutionaries died tragically in the massacre by the Kuomintang reactionaries. Xiong Botao escaped Chiang Kai-shek's liquidation because he had just joined the party, but he also severed contact with the organization. After
lost contact with the party organization, Xiong Botao joined Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army. In the Northwest Army, Xiong Botao has not given up hope and has been actively and covertly looking for revolutionary comrades.
In 1931, Xiong Botao restored contact with the party, and subsequently participated in the Ningdu Uprising, and returned to the Red Army.
In 1933, Xiong Botao was transferred to the Second Red Division as chief of staff because of his repeated military exploits. Soon after, the Red Army began its Long March.
During the Long March, Xiong Botao was also affected by the expansion of the correction of the left-leaning erroneous line.
Because he had the experience of defecting from the party (actually lost contact) and joined Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, Xiong Botao's situation became very embarrassing.
In the end, he was relieved of all duties and expelled from the party, remaining in the Red Army as an ordinary soldier.
After the Long March, in Yan'an, Chairman Mao corrected some of the mistakes made by the Red Army on the Long March, including the mishandling of Xiong Botao's situation. So Xiong Botao was restored to party membership and returned to the Second Red Division.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Xiong Botao repeatedly proposed to the organization that he wanted to join the front-line combat troops.
In 1938, Xiong Botao finally realized his wish, left Yan'an, came to the Shanxi battlefield, and served as chief of staff in the army of General Yang Chengwu.
Whether in the War of Resistance Against Japan or the War of Liberation, Xiong Botao always maintained a firm will to fight and high revolutionary enthusiasm.
He served as chief of staff to General Yang Chengwu and General Li Tianyou. Both of them had the rank of general when they were awarded the title in 1955. When Yang Chengwu and Li Tianyou learned that Xiong Botao had not won the general star, they also expressed their confusion to the Central Military Commission.
In the end, all things considered, although Xiong Botao had the experience of joining the Northwest Army and being expelled from the party, he was always able to remain a communist and unswervingly strive to achieve national unity and national unity.
Therefore, the Central Military Commission decided to award Xiong Botao the rank of Major General.
The comrades who learned the result were very happy. They all congratulated Xiong Botao and joked that they would treat these old comrades to drinks.
Regarding this, Xiong Botao did not have any emotional ups and downs.
He said: "We are the most lucky to be alive now. Compared with those comrades who sacrificed their lives, what qualifications do we have to compete for military ranks."
It is this indifferent and humble and friendly attitude that made Xiong Botao not suffer too much unfair treatment during the special period. Xiong Botao was also very angry about the actions of some people during this period, but he didn't know what to do, so he could only insist that he would not join the others.
Under his influence, Xiong Botao's wife and children all possess such valuable qualities. Because of this, after Xiong Botao died for some reason, his wife, Ms. Li Wen, gave up the autopsy and the chance to learn the truth. Because Li Wen knew that if she persisted in the investigation, the two young doctors would definitely be responsible for it.
After General Xiong Botao passed away, his children always kept their father's teachings in mind.
“Work seriously and be a down-to-earth person."
It is precisely because of the dedication of countless selfless proletarian revolutionaries like General Xiong Botao that our country can finally get rid of the gloom and continue to work hard to build a better tomorrow.
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