Chapter 54 2. The inside story of the defection of the "Royal Forest Army"

March 24, 1949. Before the main force of the People's Liberation Army crossed the river, Wang Yanqing, commander of the 97th Division of the Kuomintang stationed on the defense line of the Yangtze River, resolutely led an uprising and threw himself into the arms of the people. This incident had a great impact at the time.Before the war broke out, this "Imperial Forest Army" turned their backs, which caused a strong shock in the Kuomintang government and the opposition. Why is this?Because this team has its own special history. This unit was originally the "Capital Security Division" of the Kuomintang government. To be precise, it was the internal security force of Chiang Kai-shek and his senior officials. The 289th Regiment of this division, formerly known as the Guard Group of the Kuomintang Military Committee, was directly responsible for the security work of Chiang Kai-shek himself; The 290th Regiment is the guard regiment of Chen Cheng when he was the commander-in-chief and military minister of the Sixth Theater; the 291st Regiment is the guard regiment of Gu Zhutong's Commander-in-Chief of the Third Theater.The three regiments have a total of more than 13,000 people, and they are an out-and-out "Royal Forest Army".

In 1948, great changes took place in the domestic situation. The People's Liberation Army was advancing steadily, and the Kuomintang army suffered frequent defeats.In order to strengthen Nanjing's defense, Chiang Kai-shek combined this "Imperial Forest Army" and the 102nd Division into the 45th Army. It was a field force in name, but in fact it was still responsible for the security tasks in Nanjing, under the command of Zhang Yaoming, the commander-in-chief of the garrison. Wang Yanqing became the commander of the 97th Division in September 1948. In the autumn of the same year, the 97th Division was ordered to deploy defenses along the river. The three regiments were located in Banqiao, Jiangning, and Tongjing.Therefore, Wang Yanqing had many opportunities to meet with Yang Zhenzhou, the head of the regiment, and Deng Jianzhong, the deputy head of the regiment.During the first stage of contact, Wang Yanqing discovered that Yang Zhenzhou was bold and forthright, and Deng Jianzhong was calm and steady. Both of them were very decent and loyal friends.

In this way, the three became confidants, and the conversation was very speculative.Whenever we talk about the issue of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the views always coincide with each other, and we all feel that Chiang Kai-shek's incompetence in command has led to today's failure. At noon after a rainy day, they met in a tavern in Nanjing and walked into the beautiful Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. At that time, I was full of emotions. Looking at the explanation on the wall, Wang Yanqing said with emotion: "One hundred years of life will inevitably end in the loess. After a person dies, it should be said that this life is worthwhile to occupy a square inch of land here for future generations to look up and remember. "

Yang Zhenzhou said: "Brother Nian's words are reasonable, but after we die, I'm afraid we won't be able to enjoy this kind of treatment." Wang Yanqing had long had an opinion on the Kuomintang, and he hurriedly said: "Then we should reflect on ourselves. At present, the Communist army has occupied the Northeast, millions of troops have entered the pass, and Pingjin is under siege. I heard that Huang Baitao's corps was wiped out. See The outcome of the battle in East China will be seen in a few days. I am afraid that it is not a fantasy for the Communist army to march south and drink horses in the Yangtze River? If we continue like this, we will become eternal sinners."

Yang Zhenzhou pretended not to hear Wang Yanqing's words of parting ways with the Kuomintang. Deng Jianzhong said without any scruples: "I remember Tang Taizong Li Shimin said such a sentence, 'A husband should know righteousness, and a wise man must have benevolence'. As a soldier, one must not blindly follow justice without knowing justice, blindly loyal. In history, Yue Fei The tragedy that happened cannot be repeated on us." Yang Zhenzhou nodded, and Wang Yanqing was secretly happy.In fact, the Nanjing underground party had already grasped Wang Yanqing's ideological situation. They sent a reporter from "Ta Kung Pao" and an underground party member, Comrade Lu Ping, to take advantage of the opportunity to come to Wang Yanqing's house and say: "In this era of great change, you can distinguish between good and evil. The spirit of discerning right from wrong and being willing to risk your life for a feat is truly invaluable. We are extremely grateful.”

There were no outsiders in the family, so Wang Yanqing said what was in his heart: "We have plans to revolt, why do we do this? This is completely in line with the trend of the times, and we hope to make a little contribution to the people. If you care about personal gains and losses, there is no need It’s unnecessary. I hope you can understand and convey our heartfelt song to the underground party and the party central committee.” The Communist Party fully understood his feelings and kept sending people to do the work. Later, a traffic officer was sent to formally inform him, saying: "Master Wang is very welcome to abandon the dark and turn to the open. From now on, your operations will be under the command of the Third Field Army Headquarters."

Wang Yanqing asked: "How to contact?" "At that time, I will direct your actions through the radio." "Is this possible?" "No problem, doesn't your division have a radio station?" "There are two." "Please give me the call sign and frequency of the station." "We're using passwords." "We use passwords too." "Then you have to tell me the password too." "I must tell you, but now the KMT secret service is monitoring all kinds of radio stations, we have to agree on the code word ourselves."

"That's a good idea. My station is also under their surveillance." Wang Yanqing told the traffic officer his radio call sign. The traffic officer asked again: "Among Tang poems, which one do you know the most?" Wang Yanqing said: "Grape Wine Luminous Cup". "Just use it as the password, it will be settled today, and I will notify Radio Sanye immediately." "When do I act?" The traffic officer didn't answer directly, but said: "It's just when the spring thunder is shaking the ground, and the city has already heard the neighing of war horses."

This is a comfort, but also a hint. Wang Yanqing was very excited and said that he would revolt as soon as possible. This was originally a very good wish, but later, because he didn't think carefully and didn't grasp the opportunity, he did three ill-considered things all at once. The first thing is that when he was speaking at the meeting of cadres above the whole division and company, in order to do the ideological work of the uprising army, he actually spoke his mind prematurely.At that time, he sat on the rostrum and looked at everyone and said: "The Anti-Japanese War lasted eight years, followed by a civil war. It is really meaningless. The common people do not want to fight. Even if there is a natural danger in the Yangtze River, there is no certainty of victory in the fight."

At that time, the composition of the troops was complicated, which almost caused turmoil. The second thing is that when Zhao Changran, the backbone of the uprising, volunteered to work as a gendarmerie guarding the airport, he said to him: "There is a classmate from my hometown there, you can try it and get him to take concerted action." Wang Yanqing said: "Controlling the airport is valuable, you can try it." Zhao Changran didn't go because he had something to do. If he went, something would happen. This airport is full of Chiang Kai-shek's cronies. The third thing is that after he and Lu Ping, a traffic officer of the Communist Party, had the contact method of Sanye's radio station with the division headquarters, on the day he returned to the division headquarters, he found that he did not know the frequency of Sanye's radio station, so he rashly used the phone to communicate with him. Uncle contacted, wanting to ask Lu Ping for clarification.

Unexpectedly, it was Lu Ping who answered the phone. As soon as Wang Yanqing opened his mouth, he asked, "What is the frequency of your radio station?" Lu Ping didn't say anything, just said "ah" and hung up the phone. Wang Yanqing is a careless person, and the radio station is tapped. Could it be that no one is listening to the call transferred from the military headquarters?Maybe he forgot. How can there be no accidents in Wang Yanqing's style of work? On March 23, the situation changed dramatically. At 9 o'clock in the morning, Zhang Yaoming, commander-in-chief of the capital's garrison, summoned officers above the battalion commander of the 45th Army and held an emergency meeting.From the very beginning, Zhang Yaoming suddenly announced that Zhao Xia would be dismissed from his position, and the deputy commander Chen Pei would take up the post concurrently.He said sharply: "Someone in our garrison is demoralized, spreads the feeling of defeat at the officers' assembly, and disintegrates the morale of the army. This is actually for the Communist bandits. If he is not willing to be loyal to the party state, he can leave immediately! I will never allow anyone to be in our ranks What the hell!" Wang Yanqing, who was sitting under the stage, broke out in a cold sweat.He understood the meaning of Zhang Yaoming's speech.Just when he was anxious and ready to face the disaster, Zhang Yaoming looked at him and said viciously: "Mr. Wang, you come to my house tonight, I have something to talk to you." After the meeting, Wang Yanqing was a little scared.He felt that the uprising had already been known, so should he go to Zhang Yaoming's house?He was a little hesitant.What does it really mean that things are changing so quickly? During the meal, he intentionally sat next to Army Commander Zhao Xia and said, "Commander Zhang is so fierce today, I don't know what happened?" Zhao Xia said, "Someone wants to plot rebellion." "There is such a thing." "I heard there are." "I don't know anyone so bold." "I heard that Staff Officer Zhao was talking nonsense outside, which attracted the attention of the higher-ups." "No way." A stone in Wang Yanqing's heart finally fell to the ground. He recalled Zhang Yaoming's word "conversation" and was still worried, but he also thought that the place of the conversation was in his own home, he might not be clear about what he had done, and things hadn't reached the worst yet. the point. But when he finished his meal, Zhang Yaoming sent another message, saying that the "conversation" originally agreed on in the evening would be changed to 8:00 am on the 24th, at the Garrison Headquarters. He was nervous again, and sat in the office alone for a while to meditate. He planned to send someone to transfer the family members out at night, and contact the underground party to discuss countermeasures. , but missed a major event.So he didn't move, and was going to wait and see the development of the situation. On the 24th, Wang Yanqing arrived at the garrison headquarters on Changjiang Road on time. The atmosphere here is really extraordinary.Looking up, both sides of the road are full of guards with live ammunition.Even at the door of the commander-in-chief's office stood two guards with live ammunition. He strode forward with big strides, thinking that since this was the case, he had no choice but to venture forward, and there was no room for retreat. Zhang Yaoming's face was ugly, and he was sitting there smoking.There were also two tall guards standing beside him. He waved for Wang Yanqing to sit opposite. Wang Yanqing looked at him and asked, "Is there any task that the commander asked me to explain?" Zhang Yaoming stared at him and said, "Don't you understand?" "I don't know!" "I ask you, how do I treat you?" "Very concerned!" "Yes, I used to see you as a little brother, but now it seems that you are not human!" Although Wang Yanqing felt that the matter had reached a very serious point, he felt that since the problem was solved by talking, it meant that he still had room for defense.So, he intentionally asked: "What did I do wrong?" "Look at it." Zhang Yaoming picked up a note from the table and threw it to Wang Yanqing, saying: "You have done a good job, see for yourself!" Wang Yanqing took the note, and saw that it said: "The bandit Wang Yanqing was bought by the Communist Party's gold bars, wooed his subordinates, and conspired to rebel. , want to occupy the airport, and arrest my senior general." It seems that his uprising plan has been exposed! what to do?He put down the note and took out a cigarette to smoke. Zhang Yaoming stared at him and said, "What else do you have to say?" Wang Yanqing calmly and calmly said: "Commander-in-Chief, if what is said in this note is true, please show evidence. Since the Communist Party bought me with gold bars, I request that someone be sent now." Go to my house to search and find gold bars, I am willing to be punished by military law." When Wang Yanqing said this, his tone was very strong, and Zhang Yaoming knew that it might be impossible for him to have gold bars at home.It is still difficult to determine whether there is any connection with the Communist Party, so he went on to say: "So, you gather all the officers above the division and company to speak, saying that this battle is meaningless?" "Then I'm speaking out of anger." "So it's true?" "I said." "As a teacher, how can you say such stupid things to your subordinates?" "That day, I was in a bad mood, drank again, and made a few complaints. Afterwards, I regretted it for several days. Commander-in-Chief Mingjian, if I really planned something wrong, would I gather everyone to publicize it? I'm so stupid Where?" "Then someone told you that your staff officer Zhao had a heart of betrayal and was instructed by you. How do you explain this?" "There is no such thing at all." "Are you sure?" "Anyway, I don't know." "Then you call and ask Staff Zhao to come here." Unexpectedly, Zhang Yaoming was going to confront him face to face. How dare Wang Yanqing defy him, so he had to make a phone call and ask Zhao Changran to rush to the headquarters immediately. Zhang Yaoming waited for a while, stood up and said to Wang Yanqing: "I have something to go out for a while, you wait here, don't leave without my order!" "obey orders." Zhang Yaoming came to the door with his hands behind his back, bowed his head and muttered something to the guard before going out. Wang Yanqing has been placed under house arrest. Staff Officer Zhao hasn't arrived yet.After a while, the deputy commander-in-chief Tan Yizhi suddenly came in. Wang Yanqing looked at him and said, "Commander Qin, you have to make the decision for me, and now someone has framed me." Tan Yizhi said, "What's going on?" "Some say I have links to the Communist Party." "Is there any?" "How can I do this? You know that I graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and the University of China. I have a clean history, and the headmaster personally summoned me and entrusted me with a heavy responsibility. Now I have been unfairly wronged. I hope you can uphold justice." Tan Yizhi didn't speak, when Zhao Changran came.He stood up and said, "Come with me." He led Staff Officer Zhao to the next hut for questioning. Wang Yanqing was even more disturbed, he couldn't leave without Zhang Yaoming's order, and of course it was impossible to go out. Two hours passed.Just when Wang Yanqing was anxious, Tan Yizhi came out. Wang Yanqing couldn't figure out what Staff Officer Zhao said, so he bit the bullet and asked, "Commander, can I go?" Tan Yizhi said: "You go home and wait, and you will be there when you are called. Let's go." Wang Yanqing hurriedly left the garrison headquarters. He only stayed at home for 5 minutes, and apart from saying a few words of reassurance to his wife Cao Tian, ​​he didn't even have any hints about the uprising. An adventurous uprising began. When Zhang Yaoming blamed Tan Yizhi for letting Wang Yanqing go, Wang Yanqing had already summoned Yang Zhenzhou, Deng Jianzhong, Xiao Hanjie, director of the political department, Ye Hongchang, commander of the security battalion, and Huang Ke, the lieutenant colonel's staff officer, to discuss the uprising. Wang Yanqing said: "The current situation is very unfavorable to us. It is impossible to contact the underground party and wait for the PLA to cross the river and open the river to welcome the army. We can only put all our eggs in one basket." Yang Zhenzhou said, "Mr. Wang, do you mean to revolt now?" "Yes, there is not much time left, we must act early." Someone had an issue with an early uprising and people started discussing it. Wang Yanqing said: "The matter of the uprising cannot be shaken. If you have any ideas, please express them quickly. Let's discuss countermeasures together without delay!" Ye Hongchang stood up and said, "I agree with the uprising, but the river is strictly controlled, and we should not cross the river." Huang Ke said: "All the big ships have been forcibly concentrated in Xiaguan. How can a few flat boats resist the First Fleet that seals the river? And the headquarters has long stated that all ships that cross the river at night without approval will be sunk. What should I do?" Deng Jianzhong said: "Don't worry, I have my own way." "What's the best way?" "There are still some boats hidden by the fishermen on the riverside, but they are smaller. I will send people to collect them later. Yi Wenchao, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 290th Regiment guarding the riverside, is my old subordinate. He will definitely help. Generally speaking 20 or 30 items are not a problem." Regarding the issue of the gunboat sealing the river, Deng Jian said with confidence: "The location of the Fengjiang warship is within the range of our heavy mortars. If it dares to fire at us, we will use heavy mortars." The intensive artillery fire returned by the mortar can completely sink it." Wang Yanqing stood up and ordered: "This is the way to do it. Deputy Commander Deng, you will go immediately and be responsible for collecting ships and setting up mortar positions on the south bank." Wang Yanqing pointed to the combat map on the wall and said: "According to what we know, in the areas along the river east of Wuhu and west of Danyang, it is impossible for them to deploy a division force to attack us in a short time, even if they forcefully gather Some troops will not be able to reach our defense zone until dawn tomorrow at the earliest. Therefore, as long as we cross the river tonight, the situation will be in our favor." After a short pause, Wang Yanqing continued: "We didn't decide to revolt when we were desperate. , the purpose is to let everyone walk on the road of light together. Now time is running out, I don’t want to force you too much, you can decide for yourself.” At this time, several staff officers came in.Wang Yanqing said straight to the point: "I am going to lead the troops to revolt. I didn't tell you in advance. If you want to do it, you can follow me. If you don't want to, I won't force it." The staff officers said firmly: "We must go with the teacher and never regret it!" The uprising problem of the 289 regiment and the troops directly under it was finally resolved, but what about the other two regiments?Wang Yanqing had to think carefully. One battalion of the 290th Regiment is located in Qiba, Jiangbei, which is closer to the place where the uprising crossed the river. After the troops have crossed the river, they can personally issue orders to the regiment commander Huang Zi'an, asking them to follow the division. Firstly, the distance is very long, and secondly, the head of the regiment, Wang Yiluan, is politically conservative. Even if he cheats Jiang, it is not easy to get a concerted action, which instead causes some troubles. After the arrangements for the uprising were finished, Wang Yanqing thought of his family. Who will be sent to look after them?He glanced at Xiao Hanjie who looked strange, and thought: This person is timid and fearful, and taking him away won't do much good.It's better to let him go back and inform his wife to transfer as soon as possible. For him, it is a favor. So, he said: "Xiao Hanjie, my family is still in Nanjing. After my uprising, they will be in danger. I want to send you to inform them to move. Would you like to?" Xiao Hanjie couldn't wish for it, and hurriedly said: "As long as the teacher thinks highly of me, I will definitely go back and take care of their safe transfer with my life." After Xiao Hanjie left, Wang Yanqing was relieved. On March 24, after night fell, people were busy with their work according to Mr. Wang's arrangement. Then the phone rang.Wang Yanqing picked up the microphone and heard the voice of Chen Pei, the deputy commander and commander of the 45th Army: "Mr. Wang, just now Commander Zhang asked me to inform you that he will invite you to breakfast tomorrow. You must come." Zhang Yaoming suddenly wanted to "invite", Wang Yanqing naturally knew it well. Yang Zhenzhou waved his hand to signal him not to go.Wang Yanqing also felt that in the morning he scolded me as "not a human being" and treated me like a prisoner, but now he treats me like a guest, obviously the drunkard's intention is not to drink. He smiled and said to Commander Chen: "I'll come, I'll come, Commander Zhang thinks highly of me so much, I must come early." Putting down the microphone, Yang Zhenzhou said again: "You must not go!" "Why should I go to die? Goodbye, Nanjing!" 8:30 p.m. The insurgents moved into action.The surface of the river was gray, the visibility was poor, and the wind kept blowing.More than 20 small boats gathered on the pier and collided head to tail.The actions of the troops boarding the ship were quiet, swift and orderly.There are 30 people in each boat, the sails are raised, and with the southeast wind, they sail to the north of the river. After more than an hour of intense action, the uprising troops finally escaped. With the help of the Communist Party, Wang Yanqing came to Nanjing and finally reunited with his family. He excitedly held Liu Bocheng's hand and said, "I'm finally on the right path..." The troops have arrived at the scheduled location and are stepping up preparations for crossing the river.The biggest problem encountered at this time was the boats. Hundreds of thousands of people had to cross the river, and there were not enough ferries. In fact, as early as the beginning of the year, the field armies began to do this work. They sent a large number of personnel, in the name of the advance team, to mobilize the masses along the Yangtze River to help shipbuilding. To this end, a special preparatory ship headquarters was established. The situation at the time was not optimistic.The Kuomintang troops had planned for a long time. While strengthening the fortifications of the Yangtze River, they destroyed a large number of ships, and they also hid the remaining ships.They also carried out reactionary propaganda among ordinary people, saying: "The Communist Party's army will kill and set fire to everything. If you allow them to gain a firm foothold on both sides of the Yangtze River, your life will be difficult. You have to share wives." Therefore, many ordinary people do not understand the People's Liberation Army and feel fear. Later, the words and deeds of the People's Liberation Army moved the local people. They felt that the Communist Party was not as terrible as the Kuomintang said, and it was for the benefit of the people, so they quickly raised ships by doing work. Before the Great War, the Second Field Army raised a total of 1,228 ships, and the Third Field Army raised a total of more than 8,000 ships. At the same time, the masses were mobilized to build some tools for crossing the river such as bamboo rafts, rafts, stretcher boats, and motor sailboats. According to relevant records, each army used more than 500 ships to cross the river at that time, which could carry more than 10,000 people at a time. With the tools, it is still difficult to cross the river without knowing the enemy's defense situation.