On the morning of January 28, 1931, Chiang Kai-shek's confidant was surrounded by the masses at the people's public trial meeting, and everyone hated him with itch. Facing the anger of the masses, the national army general trembled all over. In despair, he shouted in public: "Runzhi, save me!"
As we all know, "Runzhi" is Chairman Mao's word, and it is usually only used by people close to him or people who are close to him. That's what the elders called him. So who is this national army general? What mistake did he make that made the people so angry? What is his relationship with Chairman Mao?
Zhang Huizan, known as "Butcher Zhang"
The national army general who was captured by our army was named Zhang Huizan. He was born in Dongxiang, Changsha, Hunan in 1885. He graduated from the Hunan Military Academy in his early years and later went to the Infantry Section of the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School. School. Zhang Huizan returned to China in 1911, which was during the period of the 1911 Revolution, and he was also elected as the staff officer of the Provincial Governor's Office and the commander-in-chief of the Munitions School.
Mr. Sun Yat-sen
In 1917, Mr. Sun Yat-sen launched the " Dharma-protecting War", and Hunan responded immediately. Zhang Huizhan convened a group of officers and assistants to form an independent regiment , and he served as the guerrilla commander. Since then, Zhang Huizan has served as the commander of the second district of the Hunan Army and the commander of the 4th Mixed Brigade. During this period, Zhang Huizan also followed Tan Yankai, the governor of Hunan Province and commander-in-chief of the Hunan Army, to join the Kuomintang.
In 1926, the Hunan Army was reorganized into the Second Army of the National Revolutionary Army. Zhang Huizan served as the commander of the Fourth Division and led the soldiers to participate in the Northern Expedition. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12 Counter-revolutionary Coup" that shocked China and foreign countries. Soon after, Zhang Huizhan Because of his meritorious service in "anti-communism", he was promoted to deputy commander of the Second Army of the First Army by Chiang Kai-shek.
After the establishment of the Nanjing government, Chiang Kai-shek prepared to weaken the forces of various factions and ordered the reorganization of the troops. The troops originally belonging to each faction were reduced in number and reduced in size. The Second Army was also reduced to the Fifth Division. However, because Zhang Huizhan was valued by Chiang Kai-shek, he was not demobilized and returned to his field. Instead, he stayed in the Fifth Division and continued to serve as deputy division commander.
In October 1928, Zhang Huizhan was transferred to the elite 18th Division, a direct descendant of Chiang Kai-shek, as deputy division commander; in April 1929, Zhang Huizhan concurrently served as a member of the Hunan Provincial Government; in September, he served as the commander of the 18th Division and led his troops to the Jiangxi front line to "anti-communist"; in March 1930, In July, he served as the commander-in-chief of "bandit suppression" in Jiangxi Province; in July, he also served as the Nanchang garrison commander.
Zhang Huizhan quickly grew from an officer of a local faction to a confidant of Chiang Kai-shek and was entrusted with important tasks. This was very rare among non- Huangpu Military Academy direct line generals. Zhang Huizhan was deeply grateful for Chiang Kai-shek's attention and promotion. He was ready to continue to arrest communists on a large scale to repay Chiang Kai-shek's kindness.
Zhang Huizhan
When Zhang Huizhan served as the Nanchang Security Commander, he killed thousands of Communists and revolutionary masses. The people in the Soviet area hated him so much that they called him "Butcher Zhang".
So what kind of heinous things did Zhang Huizan do in Jiangxi that made the local people hate him so much?
First, there are military and police agents all over the place, making excuseless accusations and killing revolutionary patriots and innocent people.
During Zhang Huizhan's tenure as the Nanchang Security Commander, he deployed military and police agents in Nanchang and even other areas of Jiangxi to arrest communists and patriots and set up torture to extract confessions from their words and deeds, resulting in the terrible "white terror".
For example, there was a mute in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province. He was found by the spies and imprisoned on the charge of being an "underground party" just because he had a red belt on his body.
Second, the Communists were killed many times with cruel methods.
In 1930, Zhang Huizan's department arrested 20 people including Xu Rongxiang at one time at Jingdezhen Kangji Hospital, and 19 of them were killed. Zhang Huizhan's torture against revolutionary comrades was extremely cruel. Some revolutionaries were put into sacks and thrown into Ganjiang . For example, after Zhang Shixi, the representative of the Sixth National Congress of the Party, was arrested, he was tortured and killed by Zhang Huizan.
Third, blackmail the business community and disrupt society.
Zhang Huizan repeatedly "borrowed" a large amount of military pay from the Nanchang Chamber of Commerce in the name of raising military pay. Each time it was 100,000 or 80,000 yuan. If the other party failed to provide such a large amount of money, it would be "unable to maintain public security and order." Threatening and indulging soldiers to cause trouble.
Zhang Huizan's blackmail of Nanchang rich man Liu Songcheng caused an uproar throughout the province. Therefore, all sectors of industry and commerce hated Zhang Huizhan's department, but they dared not speak out in anger.
Fourth, they burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of evil in the Donggu area.
In December 1930, Zhang Huizan led his troops to invade the Donggu base area in the Central Soviet Area. During the invasion, he allowed the soldiers to burn, kill and plunder. When he arrived in Donggu, he burned down people's houses and robbed food whenever they saw it. The people were particularly angry about this.
Fifth, brutally killed Red Army soldiers and stretcher bearers.
When the battle in Longgang came to an end, the Kuomintang army was completely defeated. Our army's shouts of "hand over your guns and not kill" were heard all over the mountains and plains, which also caused their morale to plummet.
Everyone knows that our army treats prisoners preferentially, and "hand in guns but not kill" is the last leeway left by our army to Zhang Huizhan's troops. But despite this, Zhang Huizan refused to surrender and still fought with our army. He even ordered his soldiers to kill and wound some Red Army soldiers.
The most important thing is that Zhang Huizan actually fired at the stretcher bearers who were busy saving lives and injuries, which also aroused the anger of the Red Army commanders and fighters.
Faced with all the above evil deeds, how could Zhang Huizan not make the military and civilians angry? Zhang Huizhan committed evil because he was Chiang Kai-shek's confidant, but what he didn't expect was that death would come so quickly.
Zhang Huizhan's troops entered the ambush circle, and the Battle of Longgang was lost.
In December 1930, Zhang Huizhan, in accordance with Chiang Kai-shek's strategic policy, directed the soldiers to launch an attack, from Ji'an in Jiangxi to Jianning in Fujian, and divided them into eight columns to enter our army's base area. Since there was no resistance from the Red Army along the way, Zhang Huizhan believed that our army was vulnerable and had already fled.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Huizhan, in the name of the former enemy commander-in-chief, ordered the 28th Division of Gong Ping Fan to work day and night to capture Donggu, an important base point of the Red Army on December 20. In addition, Zhang Huizan also said to Gong Bingfan: "Don't worry, our 18th Division will act with you. When the time comes, our two divisions will meet up in Donggu, and then attack Longgang."
Zhang Huizan and Gong Bingfan Fan has been refusing to deal with it. He deliberately let Gong Bingfan's 28th Division attack Donggu alone, hoping to weaken Gong Bingfan's division with the help of the Red Army, while he ordered the 18th Division to rest where it was. What is unexpected is that at this time, the main force of the Red Army has quietly left Donggu and headed towards Longgang. Therefore, Gong Bingfan's 28th Division occupied Donggu without a single soldier.
Gong Bingfan was very happy after occupying Donggu. He bypassed Zhang Huizan and Lu Diping and directly sent a victory report to Chiang Kai-shek and exaggerated the results of the victory. In the victory report, Gong Bingfan only praised how powerful his 28th Division was, and did not mention Zhang Huizhan's 18th Division, which took the credit for occupying Donggu alone. Chiang Kai-shek was overjoyed when he received the telegram from Gong Bingfan, and quickly sent him a commendation and a reward of 20,000 oceans.
When Zhang Huizan led the 18th Division to the vicinity of Donggu, he first sent scouts to the front to investigate. Who would have thought that the news the scouts got would make him furious. After Zhang Huizan learned that there was no movement in the direction of Donggu, he thought that Gong Bingfan ran away alone without obeying the command. He said angrily: "This male bear, after the war is over, I have to send him to a military court!"
When Zhang Huizhan's troops arrived in Donggu, heavy fog suddenly rose. They mistakenly thought that the Red Army was occupying Donggu at this time, so they quickly ordered an attack. In this way, Zhang Huizan's tribe and Gongbing Fan's tribe fought fiercely, and it was not until the fog dissipated that they discovered that the other party was one of their own.
Afterwards, Zhang Huizhan and Gong Bingfan refused to give in to each other, and they had a big quarrel. Gong Bingfan led the 28th Division away from Zhang Huizhan's command in anger. Zhang Huizan was also frustrated and refused to contact him, and led the 18th Division straight to Longgang.
At this time, the First Front Army, under the command of Chairman Mao and Zhu De, in order to break the enemy's pursuit and interception, adopted the "lure the enemy deep and annihilate the enemy within the base area" tactic of sniping at the enemy while retreating backwards. Create a "escape" state for the enemy, and find ways to draw the enemy into Longgang, an ideal ambush battlefield.
When Zhang Huizan led the 18th Division to Donggu and prepared to advance towards Longgang, the Red Army's 40,000 troops had already gathered in the Huangpi and Xiaobu areas of Ningdu County, Jiangxi Province and were ready.
On the morning of December 30, Zhang Huizan was eager to claim credit and led the main attack of the 18th Division before the fog cleared. At this time, the Red Army distributed in Longgang and other places all entered their respective positions according to the previous deployment, only waiting for the enemy troops to enter their encirclement.
At dawn, Chairman Mao and Zhu De personally climbed to Huangzhuling, an altitude of 430 meters, and personally directed this battle of annihilation. Chairman Mao stood at the highest point. He looked at the fog sea in the direction of Longgang and said humorously: "Commander-in-Chief, back then Kong Ming used the fog to fill the river and borrowed Cao Cao .1 million arrows with straw boats. Now We also took advantage of the heavy fog, and God helped me!"
Zhu De nodded frequently and said with a smile: "Yes, the sky is going to die!"
At 10 o'clock in the morning, the heavy fog still did not dissipate, but Zhang Huizan had already disappeared. Driven by greed, he only directed the soldiers to move forward, completely unaware that he had already entered the encirclement where our army had set up an ambush.
While Zhang Huizhan's troops were struggling to climb the mountain, the Red Army on the high ground in front of our army began to fire artillery, giving the enemy a head-on blow. At the same time, the Red Army on both wings and rear quickly tightened their pockets and tightly surrounded the enemy.
Although he was deeply surrounded, Zhang Huizhan did not panic. Instead, he acted like a winner and commanded the officers and soldiers of each brigade and regiment to charge towards our army. Immediately afterwards, Zhang Huizhan ordered his staff to pass an order: "The main force of the Communist army has been stuck by our army. Immediately launch an attack and annihilate it in front of the formation." At the same time, he asked Lu Diping to let Gongbing Fan's troops quickly detour to Longgang and attack the Red Army from both front and rear. .
At this time, Zhang Huizhan had no idea that Chairman Mao and Zhu De had already ordered the soldiers to bite the Gongbing vassal tightly, making them unable to move and unable to support them. The fierce fighting lasted until 3 p.m., and the enemy suffered heavy casualties. As the Red Army pressed forward step by step, the encirclement became smaller and smaller.
As the friendly troops supporting Zhang Huizan did not arrive for a long time, Zhang Huizan realized that something was wrong, so he quickly gathered the remaining soldiers in an attempt to concentrate firepower and attack in one direction, thereby tearing open the opening and breaking out of the encirclement.
Chairman Mao saw the opportunity and immediately ordered a general offensive. Suddenly, the sound of horns resounded through the sky, and the Red Army rushed down the mountain from all directions. The mountains and fields were full of Red Army soldiers, which also made Zhang Huizhan's troops panic.
Seeing that the situation was over, Zhang Huizan took off his military uniform, grabbed an ordinary soldier's uniform from the side, and fled to the nearby Wan Gong Mountain.
Chairman Mao’s instructions: Don’t kill him
After the Battle of Longgang, our army completely wiped out more than 9,000 people from the headquarters and two brigades of the 18th Division of the Kuomintang. Most of them were prisoners, including the brigade commander Wang Jiejun and the division agent. Chief of Staff Zhou Yihuang. In addition, our army also received an unexpected surprise, that is, we learned from the prisoners that Zhang Huizhan fled in the direction of Wan Gong Mountain.
Immediately afterwards, Wan Gong Mountain was blocked by our army. The Red Army and Red Guards went up the mountain to search from all directions. Shouts of "Hand in your guns but not kill" and "Zhang Huizan, please surrender quickly" kept coming and going.
A squad of the Red Army found a camellia oleifera forest. Although the trees here were not very tall, they were leafy and leafy. People hiding in them could not be found at all unless they walked in front of the other party. At this moment, soldier Xiao Zhou found a few broken twigs on the ground. He and the squad leader looked at each other, then hunched over and continued to move forward.
Xiao Zhou and the squad leader walked forward for a while, where they also found broken branches. Taking another closer look, a three- to four-foot pit was covered with dead branches, and somewhere along the edge of the pit there were obvious signs that someone had been down there.
Xiao Zhou immediately shouted: "Someone is in the pit!" Then he shouted towards the tunnel: "Who is in there? Come out quickly!" There was no response from the pit, so Xiao Zhou used a gun to move away the dead branches. , only to see a dark figure huddled aside. At first glance, I thought it was a black bear, but upon closer inspection, I realized that it was not a black bear, but a human.
Xiao Zhou instantly became vigilant. He said: "Come out quickly, or I will shoot!" After hearing this, the man in the pit reacted. He said: "Don't shoot, don't shoot, I'll come out." !" Then the black shadow in the pit slowly climbed up.
I saw that the other party was extremely tall, wearing a pair of glasses on his face. He was chubby and wore a soldier's uniform that did not match his figure, and he wore a pair of riding boots on his feet. This person said that he was a "secretary" and fled here because he was worried about being captured.
Immediately afterwards, the Red Army soldiers escorted the "secretary" to the large flat of Longgang Street Market, where all the captured officers of the Kuomintang were. When the "Secretary" was escorted to Daping, someone among the prisoners suddenly shouted: "Look, the division commander has also been captured by the Red Army!"
At this time, the Red Army soldiers knew that what they had captured was not an ordinary "Secretary" , but the famous Zhang Huizan. Seeing that he could not get over the confusion, Zhang Huizan said: "I am the former enemy commander-in-chief, Lieutenant General Zhang Huizan of the 18th National Army Division. Please take me to see your Mr. Mao Zedong. He and I are from the same hometown, and we are also old friends."
The Red Army soldiers ignored Zhang Huizan's words and cheered. At this time, Zhu De came after hearing the news. When he saw Zhang Huizhan being tied up, he said to the soldiers on the side: "Untie his rope, don't tie him up."
Chairman Mao and Zhu De
were loosened Zhang Huizan, who had been kidnapped, knew that the person in front of him was Zhu De, the commander-in-chief of the Red Army, so he quickly asked him: "How much do you want to let me go?" When Zhu De heard this, he said: "Mr. Zhang Huizan, do you think our Red Army are kidnappers?" Do you need a ransom to let you go?"
Zhu De paused and continued: "You went to Soviet Area to burn, kill and loot. Can the Red Army soldiers let you go? What's more, can the people in the Soviet Area let you go? As the frontline commander of the "encirclement and suppression" Red Army, you can actually fight the battle like this. Do you think Chiang Kai-shek will let you go? I think you should reflect on it here. "
As dusk approached, Chairman Mao also came from the front. He hurried back to Longgang. Zhang Huizhan and Chairman Mao are from the same hometown and have had some contacts before, but this meeting was very different from before.
As soon as the door of the cell opened, Zhang Huizan recognized Chairman Mao. He was embarrassed to look directly at him. He lowered his head for a while before looking up and said: "Mr. Runzhi, long time no see, you..."
Before Zhang Huizan could finish, Chairman Mao said seriously and humorously:
"Mr. Commander-in-Chief, you led your troops from Hunan to Jiangxi, and from Nanchang to Longgang. Is this going to stop today? You distributed so many newspapers along the way and also wrote With so many slogans, didn’t they say that we should ‘pluck out Zhu Mao’? Now, is it you who shaves Zhu Mao’s head, or Zhu Mao who shaves your head?”
Chairman Mao
Zhang Huizan said with a wry smile, “It’s you. Shave my head, Mr. Mao, please spare my life."
Chairman Mao waved his hand and said: "We won't kill you, but you have to know that the Red Army won't kill you not because you are innocent. It’s not because we are afraid of Chiang Kai-shek’s retaliation, but because we are lenient.”
Chairman Mao then asked Zhang Huizhan about the military situation of the Kuomintang. Zhang Huizhan knew that he had to tell him, so he told everything he knew. After leaving the cell, Chairman Mao said to the Red Army Commander He Changgong: "Tell the soldiers that Zhang Huizan should be kept well and not killed. Killing him will do no good, but keeping him will be of great benefit to us and the revolution." It is beneficial, at least it is an education for the officers and soldiers of the Kuomintang."
Before his death, Zhang Huizhan shouted: Runzhi, save me.
After Zhang Huizhan was captured, the two people who were most anxious were his wife Zhu Xingfang and the other Lu. Diping.After hearing the news, Lu Diping's face instantly turned pale, and even his words became trembling: "This, how is this possible..."
Lu Diping and Zhang Huizhan had a good personal relationship, and they regarded him as a buttock, and Chiang Kai-shek also valued this general very much and appointed him as the "commander-in-chief of the former enemy in suppressing bandits." Now that even the commander-in-chief has been captured by the Red Army, where should the face of the 100,000 National Army soldiers, himself, the director of the Nanchang Camp, and even the entire National Government go?
Lu Diping
Lu Diping was restless. He discussed with his staff for many days how to return to Nanjing. Someone suggested: "It is better to send people to discuss with Zhu De and Mao Zedong, and Zhang Huizan can be redeemed with heavy money, guns and ammunition."
Lu Diping disagreed after hearing this, but he could not think of a better way, plus he He couldn't stand Zhu Xingfang's crying, so he ordered to agree to this method. Immediately afterwards, Lu Diping reported the situation to the Nanjing government and asked Zhu Xingfang to think of a way to see if he could get in touch with the CCP.
After all, Zhu Xingfang had been involved in officialdom for many years. She immediately came to Shanghai and then contacted the central secret liaison through various channels. Our party stated: "We can only discuss it if we come up with a 'redemption' plan."
Zhu Xingfang quickly sent a telegram to Lu Diping, asking him to report to the Nanjing government and ask for permission to negotiate with our party. At this time, Cheng Qian, Tang Shengzhi and others from Hunan also frequently sent telegrams to the Nanjing government to put pressure on them.
Chiang Kai-shek, He Yingqin and others wanted to sell off the face of the military and political leaders of the two provinces, and also to restore the negative impact of the failure of the first campaign, so they had to agree to Lu Diping sending people to Shanghai to negotiate with the central government to "redeem Zhang."
According to the original plan of Lu Diping and He Yingqin, the remaining Zhu Yaohua Brigade of Zhang Huizhan's 18th Division, about 4,700 people and the guns and ammunition they owned, were owned by the Red Army, plus equipment that could arm two regiments. In addition, three banks in Shanghai guaranteed and sent 200,000 yuan and 20 loads of western medicine to the Red Army in Jiangxi.
After these conditions were formulated, Lu Diping quickly sent people to find a political secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Government as a representative of the Kuomintang to negotiate with our army. At that time, after careful consideration, Zhou Enlai and others felt that the Kuomintang's "redemption" conditions were very generous, so they agreed.
However, while the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were negotiating, an accident happened.
On January 28, 1931, in Donggu District, Ji'an County, the district Soviet government held a celebration meeting, and at the same time, Zhang Huizan was publicly tried. When they heard that Zhang Huizhan was going to be put on trial, people from nearby areas rushed to the meeting, and there were as many as 20,000 to 30,000 people attending the meeting.
Zhang Huizhan did many evil things, and there were countless people who hated him, especially when the 18th Division entered the Soviet area and carried out brutal looting and killing operations near Donggu. So the local people focused all their hatred on Zhang Huizan.
Halfway through the meeting, the order on the field began to become chaotic. Many people shouted "Kill Zhang Huizan" and "Skin"; some farmers even jumped onto the public hearing platform to beat Zhang Huizhan desperately. He Changgong, commander of the 12th Red Army standing in the audience, was very anxious when he saw this situation. While explaining to the crowd the importance of keeping Zhang Huizan, he also told the soldiers escorting Zhang Huizan to find a way to get Zhang Huizan away.
However, what He Changgong did not expect was that in the face of the roar of the crowd, the host of the conference actually issued an order to execute Zhang Huizhan without authorization. He Changgong had no time to stop him. Hundreds of young people rushed up from the background, forcibly took Zhang Huizan away, and then pushed him into the paddy field at the foot of the mountain.
Zhang Huizan had never seen such a scene before. He shouted in panic: "Runzhi, save me, save me quickly!" Who would have thought that Zhang Huizan's words angered the people, and just like that, Zhang Huizan was shot and executed. .
Because the communication conditions were relatively backward at the time, both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party negotiators had no knowledge of this. It was not until 10 a.m. on February 7 that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party negotiators arrived in Nanchang and decided to take a short break before talking again.Who would have thought that the two representatives of our party actually saw the news of Zhang Huizan's execution in the newspaper. They all realized that since Zhang Huizan was dead, this negotiation was meaningless. If they did not leave quickly, the consequences would be Unthinkable.
Immediately afterwards, two representatives wearing Kuomintang military uniforms and carrying cameras escaped from Nanchang. After more than 20 days of hardships, we finally arrived in Shanghai safely.
When Chairman Mao learned about this incident, he sighed with emotion: "The sky will not leave any room!" What Chairman Mao regretted was not the death of Zhang Huizhan, but the innocent soldiers and civilians who were killed by him...
