Before 1948, there was a famous thief in Jinan City, Shandong Province, named Li Shengwu. It is said that he could fly over the eaves and walk on the walls and be as light as a swallow. The nickname of the world is: Li Yanzi.

There are many folk legends about various "flying thieves" during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, such as robbing the rich to help the poor, and doing the chivalrous and righteousness. However, in fact, thieves are thieves. Most of them have followed this path, so how can they be called "chivalrous"?

So what kind of thief is this Li Yanzi?

He once worked as a Taoist priest , and learned martial arts. In his early years, he traveled around the world and did a lot of evil things like killing and robbery. Later, he accumulated a lot of ill-gotten wealth, so he colluded with officials and bandits, colluded with warlords, Japanese and puppets, etc., and had grudges. Later, he opened a grain and oil trading company in , Shunjing Street, Jinan, Jinan, with shares of Kuomintang official Yang Tongguang.

However, when business is always slow to make money, Li Yanzi kept killing people and robbing people behind the scenes of dark and windy nights, and committed many bloody crimes. Because of his deep network and his interests are connected to the many interests of officials in Jinan, the Kuomintang government "approved him openly and secretly" him, and even compiled a lot of stories through artist opera troupes, boasting about how Li Yanzi was good at being brave, how he robbed the rich and helped the poor, and was generous in wealth, which were widely circulated.

, and he blew a bandit with blood on his hands into a thief.

But the people in Jinan only heard that "Who was taken away by Li Yanzi and took away money." However, no one has ever encountered the good thing of "righteous thieves to lose money", and most of the people who were harmed by Li Yanzi were also businessmen who had never had bad records.

So, whenever people talk about Li Yanzi, they are more afraid and inexplicably afraid. Every midnight, a cat walks by the roof. People think that Li Yanzi is coming and are often frightened. The "chief" blew up by the Kuomintang officials has reached the point of "stop children crying at night". In fact, it is a nightmare for ordinary people and posed a great threat to social security.

PLA conquered Jinan.

September 24, 1948.

I East China Field Army conquered Jinan. Except for the few data points on Qingdao and the southern edges were still occupied by the Kuomintang, the entire Shandong region was liberated.

All kinds of hooligans, bullies and bandits who were originally protected by the Kuomintang have become troubled dogs that are in panic all day long. Li Yanzi, a bandit who colluded with officials and bandits and was dressed in the cloak of a businessman, lost his survival soil and became an absolute thief again.

, but Li Yanzi, who was unchanged from changing his character, not only did not restrain himself, but also continued to commit unscrupulous activities in Jinan City to kill people and rob money. As the saying goes, "Heaven wants man to perish, let him be crazy first!"

Qingfeng Jinshang bloody case.

That night, the wind was cold and the Qingfeng Jinshang, which was only more than 100 meters away from the Criminal Police Brigade of Jinan Public Security Bureau, was robbed.

received a call in the morning. Zhang Yungui, the captain of the criminal police brigade who had just been transferred from the combat troops to the public security, heard the news and immediately rushed to the scene with Gui Shuhuai and other police officers.

As soon as I entered the house, a strong smell of blood rushed straight into my nostrils. I saw blood everywhere on the floor and on the tables and chairs. The father of the Jinshang Manager was killed on the ground and was cut twice in the head. The deceased faced his head east and his feet west, his shoes were thrown far away, and he was wearing only a pajamas, which was soaked in blood, which was terrible.

The door of the indoor safe is wide open, and all the property in the cabinet is swept away. According to the shop owner, the robbed items include: 4 taels of gold, 11 pairs of gold earrings, 1 bag of gold rings, 1 gold watch, and 500,000 yuan of paper money issued by the Kuomintang (still in circulation).

Zhang Yungui and others carefully inspected the scene and found that there were urine and defecation in the spittoon, and more than 10 cigarette butts were also there, and the deceased did not smoke. It was obviously left by the murderer. There were three bullet shells side by side on the desk, a note was pressed, and a line of words was blatantly written: "Open and upright, Liu Ji!"

What an arrogant bandit, dare to kill people and leave their names?

The son of the deceased was the manager of the Jindian. He cried and said, "At around 1 o'clock in the middle of the night, he was awakened by his father's scream in his sleep, and then he heard a loud noise.I knew something was wrong. At first I thought it was just a thief, so I deliberately threw the basin to the ground, trying to make some noise to scare the thief, and wanted to call my neighbors. But suddenly there was a gunshot and I knew that the bandit had entered. Then the bandit kicked the door and entered the house, holding a gun in his hand, with a towel wrapped around his head and a black cloth covering his face. He couldn't see his appearance clearly and looked scary. We are threatened not to move, we are asked to keep our heads in a good way, and if we don’t listen, we will be beaten to death. So everyone in the room was frightened and covered their heads and no one dared to move.

and the bandits asked to go to the golden cabinet key. At around 4 o'clock, I heard the bandits shouting in my father's house that they should not move, and they did not leave my house until about 6 o'clock. We quickly went over and saw that his father had been killed by him..."

This is a cruel habitual bandit, but why did this bandit leave his name? Who is Liu Ji?

Criminal Police Team soon found out that there were more than a dozen people named Liu Ji in Jinan City. However, except for the one who was locked in the prison who was likely to commit the crime, the rest of the bandits were not like bandits, so they ruled out the suspicion one by one.

The one in the prison was clearly imprisoned, and it was impossible for him to come out to commit a crime and return to the prison.

So, Zhang Yungui decided to examine the Liu Ji in the prison.

Unexpectedly, this trial was immediately revealed. When Liu Ji was imprisoned in the prison, he heard the situation of the murder case, he sneered without hesitation and said:

"No need to say, this matter was done by Li Shengwu. He had a grudge against me, so he deliberately made this happen so that he could blame me. But he didn't expect that I had been squatting in the prison for a long time, and this time, he exposed his tail. "

What is Li Shengwu's way?

The criminal police captain Zhang Yungui, who had just arrived from the army, read a large amount of information about Li Shengwu left by the Japanese puppet and the Kuomintang period, and learned that Li Shengwu was the "Knight" sign, which was notorious and had a bad record.

also analyzed Li Yanzi's previous crime characteristics from the information, which was both robbing money and killing lives, so he initially determined that the murderer was this person, so he decided to arrest the thief.

The legendary flying eaves and walls.

"gun battle" in a downtown city.

It is so difficult to find Li Yanzi in a big city like Jinan, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Zhang Yungui and other criminal police members were either just coming out of the army or being transferred from other liberated areas. They are not familiar with the place and have never seen Li Yanzi.

The old police officers may have seen and familiar with this flying thief, but because of their bad reputation, the old police officers have many concerns, dare not talk much, and dare not actively participate in the arrest.

In this way, the traditional methods of tracing, stalking, waiting, etc. are all the same. It can't be used.

• From this we can see how fierce this flying thief is. And such a fierce thief, how could the people's regime after liberation, allow him to do evil in the world again!

The old people were afraid of Li Yanzi, and they worked passively and did not work hard, so they mobilized the masses to participate. Mobilizing the masses is the secret skill of Zhang Yungui and other criminal police members from the People's Liberation Army.

So after some work, the storytellers, opera singers, monkeys, acrobatics, fortune-tellers, etc. in Jinan City, who were born in poverty and were oppressed and bullied by the evil forces in the old society, Many people became the eyeliner of the criminal police team. They were willing to assist in the arrest of Li Yanzi, saying that they would come to report the news immediately when there was a trace.

January 15, 1949.

One month after the Jindian murder case, a storyteller came to the criminal police team to report that Li Yanzi was hiding at No. 14 Shunjing Street, Nanguan.

Captain Zhang Yungui was overjoyed and decided to arrest him immediately. In order not to alert the enemy, he and Chen Kai and Duanmu, made up into businessmen from Qingdao, walked through the streets and alleys, turned many turns, and arrived at the gate of No. 514 Shunjing Street, . This was a single-door and single-family building.

Chen Kai knocked on the door first, and after a while, with a "squeak", the door opened a crack. A middle-aged man asked through the crack, "Who is it?"

Chen Kai pretended to be like a businessman and said politely, "Does Mr. Li live here?"

"There is nothing Mr. Li here!" The man's tone immediately became alert and his voice was cold.

We are in business and Mr. Li is a brother, Lao Jiao. "Chen Kai said quickly with an anxious look.

"Where did you come from?" "

" We are from Qingdao! "

The middle-aged man looked up and down at Chen Kai and Duanmu standing at the door. When he confirmed that the two of them were indeed like businessmen, his tone eased a lot, so he began to ask many questions again, such as:

"What car are you taking? When did you get on the car? At which stop, how much does the train get off at "

" cost? ”

Chen Kai and Duanmu were prepared and had a good answer. The man could not see the flaws, so he opened the door and said, “You guys are here to wait a moment. "

After saying that, the man turned to the second floor. He was going to inform the main owner. The thief Li Yanzi was indeed upstairs.

The man entered the room upstairs. Captain Zhang Yungui immediately followed him quietly. He heard the room saying, "Mr. Li, you two friends are below, I..."

"Bang! "Zhang Yungui kicked open the door and rushed in like lightning. The middle-aged man who reported the news was still stunned, and he directly pressed the other person's hands back and pressed them to the ground. This person was the flying thief Li Yanzi.

Li Zhe was caught off guard by Zhang Yungui and acted calmly. He pounced on the ground and said calmly, "Brothers, why don't you be unable to get along with others like this? "

" We are from the Public Security Bureau, let's go with us! "

" OK, okay, let's go with you. "As soon as he heard the Public Security Bureau, Li Zhe immediately looked very tame, letting his hands be tied up, then stood up and went downstairs honestly.

However, this cunning thief had a small pistol hidden under his abdomen. Because his hands were tied up, everyone was deceived by the gentle appearance he pretended to be. He relaxed his vigilance and missed the position under his abdomen. At the same time, he ignored the old thief's unique skill in breaking free from binding.

When escorting Li Zhe to Pulimen Street, an rickshaw came towards him. At this time, Li Zhe suddenly broke free from the rope and took the pistol from under his abdomen. "Bang, bang, bang" shot three times in a row at Duanmu on his left, and took the opportunity to jump into the downtown.

Plimen was the most prosperous street in Jinan at that time. The streets were densely packed with shops, street vendors were connected, and people were surging. Three consecutive gunshots caused panic among the crowds, and they immediately squeezed into a group, screaming and many small stalls were knocked to the ground. The scene was in chaos.

Zhang Yungui and others were afraid of hurting the masses by chance, so they could not shoot. They wanted to go through the crowded crowd to chase. Li Yanzi, who was already good at leaping and running and familiar with the terrain, had long used chaos as a cover to escape without a trace.

Plimen Street in Jinan in the 1940s.

Must capture Li Zhe.

"The thief escaped from the criminal police captain! "

" Li Yanzi can shrink his bones, and no rope can tie him up. "

" Li Yanzi has a deep internal skills and is good at light skills. She can jump 15 feet forward and 15 feet backward. Come and go without a trace, and suddenly appears in front of you without realizing it. "

This made the old police officers who were retained spread Li thief even more amazing and even more frightened. From then on, although Li thief was no longer in sight, his "ghost" was still wandering in the city of Jinan.

One night, the light line of the criminal police brigade was broken, and the light suddenly went out. A retained personnel thought that Li Yanzi had come back to take revenge. They were so scared that they ran around, making these old personnel who regarded Li thief as gods, panic and all the plants and trees were soldiers.

The impact of the Li thief case was bad, alarmed the Ministry of Public Security, and Captain Zhang Yungui was also criticized. The superiors ordered them to be arrested and brought to justice within 93 months!

Criminal Police Captain Zhang Yungui was only 27 years old at the time, and he was in his prime. He is a combat hero in the army, and he is both wise and brave in war. No matter how strong the enemy is, he is not afraid and has never lost a battle. However, a flying thief like Li Yanzi who is "slimming and slid" is something he had never met on the battlefield before, so he was caught and escaped.

Zhang Yungui was so angry that he couldn't sleep or eat for several days, but he was very experienced and quickly cheered up. He secretly made up his mind that even if Li thief goes to heaven and earth, he will find him and must capture the thief.

The criminal police members were all excited. They went deep into the streets and alleys of Jinan City to search for the traces of Li Zhe. Jinan could not be found, and the team leader Duanmu led people to investigate and found his footprints all over the cities of Xuzhou , Bengbu , Yanzhou and other cities.

But time passed day by day, but the traces of the thief seemed to disappear, with no clues. So many people think that Li Zhe may have run over Yangtze River and fled to Nanjing (Nanjing was not liberated at that time).

Just when everyone felt that the hope of arresting Li Zhe was getting slim.

One night, Duanmu suddenly ran into Zhang Yungui's room of the criminal police team excitedly. He reported loudly, "Captain, Li Shengwu has whereabouts."

"Where is it?" Zhang Yungui, who had already fallen asleep, jumped up from the bed and asked impatiently.

"In Xuzhou, it is said that he lives in a prostitute's home."

Duanmu reported the latest situation in detail. It turned out that there was a former division commander of the Kuomintang who had been colluding with Li Xi in Xuzhou, and the two of them were engaged in business and robbers. A few days ago, the former division commander fell into the French Open in Jinan. In order to make meritorious service, he took the initiative to explain his cooperation with Li Yanzi and the location of the two.

is really another village!

Zhang Yungui analyzed the situation and believed that the explanation of the former Kuomintang division commander was credible, so he immediately formulated an arrest plan for going to Xuzhou and reported to his superiors.

Jinan Municipal Bureau immediately held a meeting for this.

However, the opinions at the meeting were inconsistent. Some analysts believed that the confession of this former Kuomintang commander was unreliable. It is very likely that Li Yanzi had fled to Nanjing and was unlikely to still be hiding in the north of the Yangtze River. We cannot easily believe the enemy's words and be deceived.

Zhang Yungui and Gui Shuhuai and other criminal police officers believed that the confession of the former division commander of the enemy was trustworthy. Zhang Yungui listed three credible reasons:

First, the former division commander of the "National Army" owed Li Yanzi a huge sum of money, and it was for a limited period of time. Now that he is arrested, he will definitely not be able to pay it back. He knows that Li Zhe is so cruel that if he does not repay the loan at that time, he will definitely take ruthless measures to harm his family. So the former division commander desperately hoped that Li Zhe would be arrested so that his debts could be written off.

Secondly, this person who has served as a teacher must also understand the general trend. The complete collapse of the Jiang family dynasty is just around the corner. He must find a way out for himself.

Thirdly, in order to express his "resolution to make meritorious service and atone for his sins", he proposed to take his wife and children as hostages.

Zhang Yungui's analysis is very reasonable, logical, and has strong persuasiveness. The superiors approved the plan, and Zhang Yungui led a team to Xuzhou to arrest Li Zhe, and brought the former division commander of the Kuomintang.

Public security soldiers patrol in the early days of liberation.

Entered Xuzhou City.

Zhang Yungui and 4 criminal policemen disguised themselves as "rich businessmen" and brought this division commander to Xuzhou. As soon as they got off the train, they directly found the residence of the singing girl Zhang Yulan, but after knocking on the door for a long time, no one answered.

So, Zhang Yungui left two people to monitor nearby, and then brought the "former commander" to Xuzhou Tianqiao.

At that time, Xuzhou Tianqiao was a place where stories and opera gathered, and there were all kinds of religions and all kinds of things. It was very lively and you might find something.

Sure enough, the teacher quickly found Zhang Yulan in the crowd, and Zhang Yulan also saw him. The two exchanged glances and did not contact each other immediately. After Zhang Yulan walked away, the "enemy division commander" immediately squeezed out of the crowd and reported the situation to Zhang Yungui. Zhang Yungui decided on the spot to ask the "enemy division commander" to meet Zhang Yulan according to the joint signal.

In the evening, the "enemy commander" entered Zhang Yulan's home. Zhang Yungui and others were secretly guarding outside. However, after a while, he came out of the house, looking dejected. What's the situation?

It turns out that Zhang Yulan said that Li Yanzi was indeed here before. However, he left Xuzhou 5 days ago and said he had something to do in another place, but Zhang Yulan really didn't know where he went and when he would come back. The situation of

means that Li Zhe’s clue was cut off again, and at this time, half a month left before the Ministry of Public Security’s deadline, everyone was very anxious. What to do?

Could it be that the enemy commander and Zhang Yulan colluded to lie? However, after analysis, it is illogical that there is no need for the enemy commander to do this.

Zhang Yungui wanted to arrest Zhang Yulan directly and interrogate him strictly, but then he thought about it and felt that with Li Thief's habitual bandit characteristics, his whereabouts would not be easily disclosed to others, which was logical. Furthermore, if Zhang Yulan is captured, if she can’t ask anything and alarm Li Zhe, wouldn’t it be a big mistake?

So, he decided to leave two people to monitor Zhang Yulan's residence and take the enemy commander back to Jinan first.

returned to Jinan and immediately interrogated and interrogated the former Kuomintang division commander repeatedly. The division commander also felt very wronged. Every time he interrogated, he would swear and curse, "People Captain Zhang let me go to Xuzhou again. If you can't find out whereabouts of Li Zhe, please give me a higher sentence."

In the end, he ruled out the suspicion of the enemy division commander, and felt that he really did not need to lie.

Old photos of Xuzhou in the 1940s.

entered Xuzhou City twice and captured Li Yanzi.

Zhang Yungui decided to take this "former commander" to Xuzhou again.

This time, I first contacted the Xuzhou Public Security Bureau. As soon as I got off the train, I went straight to the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau and investigated the robbery that had occurred in Xuzhou in the past few months. From April to June, there were 6 major robberies in Xuzhou. After investigation, we found that these cases had one common feature:

reporters all claimed that after the bandits entered the store, they would force the manager to open a safe with a pistol, and lock everyone in a room, and ordered them to cover their heads with a quilt and not move. The bandits were calm and collected, and they also had to smoke, drink tea, and urinate until dawn.

From this characteristic, it is exactly the same as the crime method of Qingfeng Jinshang in Jinan. This should be the style of the flying thief Li Yanzi.

Zhang Yungui determined from this that Li Zhe did have a nest in Xuzhou, which was at the home of the singing girl Zhang Yulan, and he would come back sooner or later. So, Zhang Yungui, with the former Kuomintang division commander and criminal police members, stationed in Xuzhou, and kept grouping and secretly monitoring Zhang Yulan day and night.

June 25, 1949.

Night has come, and Zhang Yungui is personally lying near Zhang Yulan's house with his "delegation commander" and several team members. Suddenly, a black shadow flashed by and walked towards Zhang Yulan's house sneakily.

Zhang Yungui looked at it and was secretly happy. He told him that Li Yanzi was here. After squatting for so long, the thief finally showed up.

The man knocked on the door three times, and the light inside was on. He lowered his voice and asked, "Has anyone been here?"

Zhang Yulan opened the door and replied, "The division commander has been here."

After the two closed the door and entered, the former division commander of the Kuomintang also confirmed, nodded to Zhang Yungui, indicating that the man was the flying thief Li Yanzi.

However, after the last time Li Yanzi was caught and escaped, Zhang Yungui and the others had a deep understanding: Li Zhe was skilled in martial arts, agile, and forced himself into with a gun, but was not 100% sure to capture him.

How did Li Zhe lose his vigilance, catch him off guard, and win it in one fell swoop?

Zhang Yungui was prepared and decided to use the method of checking the household registration. Because Xuzhou was liberation, checking the household registration was just two days after it was liberation, and then he took it off with one blow.

local police in Xuzhou who cooperated with the arrest knocked on the door first. Zhang Yulan asked inside: "Who?"

"Check the household registration." Xuzhou police officers who knocked on the door answered calmly. In fact, during this period, they often checked household registration in this area. Zhang Yungui followed the Xuzhou police officers, while the rest were ambushing in secret.

Li Shengwu, who was hiding inside, looked outside through the crack of the door and found that it was indeed a police officer from the police station near Zhang Yulan's house. Li Zhe had seen them come to check their household registration before, so he relaxed his vigilance. In order to prevent the filling from being exposed, he pulled out the Canadian pistol and hid it in the big pot inside the house. Then the door was opened (it was found later).

Xuzhou police officer asked Zhang Yulan, "How many people are there in your family?"

pointed to Li Yanzi standing next to Zhang Yulan and asked, "Who is he?"

Li Zhe saw this and felt more relieved. This is really a posture of checking household registration. He immediately filled his face with a smile and replied, "Sir, I am here to visit my cousin."

This is what Li Thief is used to, and he uses "soft skills" to deal with daily inspections and get away with it.

Zhang Yungui walked up to the front and asked deliberately with a serious look on his face: "Why don't you come to register for your household registration first?"

Li Zhe was not wary of it, but still nodded and replied, "I just got off the train. It's too late. Go and report as soon as it dawns. Don't worry, sir!"

Zhang Yungui then said, "I think you don't register for your household registration. You must be not a good person, take it away!"

Li Zhe was stunned, but as soon as this words fell, Zhang Yungui swung two punches like lightning, hitting Li Zhe hard, knocking him to the ground. At this time, Li Zhe came to his senses and was about to struggle to resist. All the ambushed team members rushed out. Everyone rushed forward and immediately captured him and could not move at all. They immediately put handcuffs and shackles. Then he searched the whole body inside and out, and tied it tightly with a rope.

This time, no matter how powerful this thief has a strong martial arts skills, he has any bone shrinking skills and leaping techniques, it is useless.

When Li Zhe, who had been tied up, was lifted from the ground, gasping like a wild beast, and looked at the police officers who arrested him with fierce eyes, and turned to Zhang Yulan and said, "I'll be optimistic about my family, there will be a period of time!"

He probably thought that now it was the period of the Japanese puppet and the Kuomintang, and people who were plagued by blood will be arrested and released.

Afterwards, it is reported that the reason why Li thief did not escape the Yangtze River and still committed the crime in the Jinan area of ​​Xuzhou was because a spy from the Kuomintang Secret Service took over with him and wanted him to stay in Jiangbei, using his thief's skills to commit crimes everywhere to kill and rob people, so as to cause chaos to the cities in the areas that had been liberated.

Finally, after interrogation, it was found that the flying thief Li Shengwu, nicknamed Li Yanzi, committed 35 robberies and killed 10 innocent people. The crime was extremely serious and not killing would not be enough to quell the public's anger.

July 7, 1949. Jinan Municipal Public Security Bureau approved the sentence of death and executed Li Shengwu.

Execution of the thief Li Yanzi caused a sensation in the entire Jinan city. The people applauded and rushed to tell each other: " The Communist Party is really amazing, it has given a great harm to the people of Jinan!"



The characters and deeds of this article are real historical materials, and are from the public publication "Documentary of the Great Bandit Suppression of China".