Chapter 32 moat

At the beginning of 1949, news began to spread in the city that Fu Zuoyi tried to commit suicide, but was rescued by his staff, and his injuries were serious.This rumor, which was completely unsupported by any evidence, was easily recognized and disseminated by the people under the background at that time, and soon caused a lot of trouble in the city.Until a few days later, Fu Zuoyi was safe and sound and appeared at a dinner at the US consulate. In the last days of the siege of Old Peking City, life in the city was surprisingly peaceful. "We waited for half a month, and the siege order was not issued. Everyone believes that this battle may be avoided." Zhou Zhitong said.The people in the city found that during this special period of military siege, the Communist army did not carry out bombing, nor did they attack by crossing the city walls.By mid-January 1949, some people began to generally believe that secret negotiations were underway, and the main broker of the negotiations was He Siyuan, the last mayor of Peking.

Sporadic shelling by the siege forces was limited to hitting the headquarters of the Kuomintang secret police.Due to the accuracy of the shelling, the artillery fire did not affect the residents of South Chang'an Avenue where the secret service headquarters is located. "At night, the gunshots of rifles and machine guns can be heard endlessly. It is the Kuomintang soldiers guarding the city who are firing at the People's Liberation Army who they think are close to the city wall." Kang Pengshou said.After losing Nanyuan Airport and Xijiao Airport, the Kuomintang Air Force had already flown to Tianjin, and later to Nanjing.

The so-called "defending the city" seems a little careless.At this time, some middle and high-ranking military officers of the Kuomintang in Beiping were keen to ask for visas and hexagrams. A charlatan named Ma Long became the hottest figure in Beiping at that time. "Chinese friends who taught English at Peking University told us very early on that a fortune teller named Ma Long was very effective. Many foreigners in China and officials of the Kuomintang went to ask for divination." Sinologist Fitzgerald Fitzgerald in Peking in 1949 Lard said in his memoirs, "When we arrived at Malone's house, we found several military vehicles parked at the door, and there were many people around them. A Kuomintang colonel walked out of his house, and he seemed extremely excited." It's amazing ', he exclaimed again and again. When asked why he was so excited, he replied that just now Ma Long told him that he would leave Peiping soon and never return. He knew very well that Nanyuan Airport would soon be closed. Falling, this hexagram is unbelievably absurd. However, something unexpected happened. Just when he was about to leave Malone's house, the orderly handed him an order from his superior, saying that he had received it 5 minutes ago Ask him to rush back to the headquarters immediately, collect the designated documents, and rush to Nanyuan Airport, from there to Nanjing." "Shortly thereafter, Fu Zuoyi ordered that his officials be prohibited from calling Ma Long to tell fortunes."

Sufficient military pay is the only guarantee to maintain the situation and stabilize the morale of the army.The army defending the city asked the national government for silver dollars, and it must be the "Yuan Datou" minted in 1915. "The silver dollars that were completely prohibited from circulation in order to implement the 'golden coupons' were taken out overnight-the amount of silver dollars requested by Fu Zuoyi's troops is quite huge, so it can be seen that the recovery of silver dollars is only a superficial effort." Fitzgerald Recalling, "During those days of the siege, 'golden coupons' were littered everywhere in the sewers of Wangfujing and on the roads. People trampled on them despite the denominations of millions."

For more ordinary people in the city, the fresh vegetables in Beiping used to be transported into the city from the suburbs every day. If this passage was closed, the food and vegetables in the city would be completely cut off. "Before we surrounded Beiping, the first starting point conveyed by the military was 'protection'." Zhou Zhitong recalled, "Do not disturb the daily life of the people in the city as much as possible." In addition, the party defending the city was unwilling to expand The issue of the hungry people, so the offensive and defensive sides reached a certain tacit agreement. Every morning the sun rose, opened the east gate of Beiping Beicheng - Chaoyangmen, and opened a vegetable market in the inner city of Wengcheng.

The structure of all the city walls is the same. In addition to the inner city gate, the city wall also has a square urn of about 100 square meters. The outer city gate is built at the right angle between the urn city wall and the inner city gate.In this way, while the inner city gate is closed, the outer city gate can be opened to allow people to enter the urn city, then the outer city gate is closed, and then the inner city gate is opened to reduce the danger of ambushes. "After the offensive and defensive sides decided to open the vegetable market in Wengcheng, the vegetable farmers in the suburbs of Beiping pushed their wheelbarrows and horse-drawn carts into the city every day." Qian Haobing said that he once mingled with the vegetable farmers and went to the city for reconnaissance. He recalled, "Defending the city The soldiers in the city inspected them one by one, and only opened the inner city gates if no vegetable farmers with hidden weapons were found. Citizens flocked in at this time to buy vegetables. There were so many people buying vegetables that sometimes all the vegetables were sold out within an hour. After the customers who bought vegetables in Wengcheng returned to the city in droves, the inner city was closed, and then the outer city gate was opened to let the farmers out. Sometimes, the defenders in the city also purchased here, and the price of vegetables rose sharply. Except for silver dollars, all banknotes are rejected." "We got information that in order to solve the army's food crisis, Chiang Kai-shek sent the air force to the city to drop air several times, because the two airports were occupied and could not be used, and the planes froze. I voted in Beihai. But I voted a few times, and many houses were smashed, and the people couldn’t stand the commotion. Fu Zuoyi said that this would not work, and it would cause chaos, so he stopped voting.”

In addition to food and vegetables, the People's Liberation Army that besieged the city also left outlets for hydropower and fuel in Beiping, and coal was still delivered to the city. "In the past, coal was transported by camel caravans from Mentougou Coal Mine. After the city was closed, we let the camel caravans pass as usual. However, because there are fewer camel caravan merchants engaged in transportation business, the city is still in short supply of coal." Money Haobing said, "It was the cold winter in Beiping, and the citizens had been relying on countless small coal stoves for heating. The small coal stoves used coal noodles and soil noodles to make briquettes as fuel. Transported outside When the relief was not enough, the price of coal in the city rose faster, and it was difficult to buy later. Some Kuomintang soldiers also participated in the black market trading of coal in the city.”

Due to the uncertainty in the secret negotiations, the possibility of a military solution to Peiping was not completely eliminated until the middle of January 1949.As one of the important issues: how to protect this historic city in the two schemes of siege and attack, has been under discussion at the Pingjin Front Command outside the city. "In order to effectively protect cultural relics and important buildings such as schools and factories, the Beiping underground party has drawn up a detailed map and sent it to the Pingjin Front Command. The map clearly indicates which places can be attacked, which places should be attacked, and which places cannot be attacked. They should be protected." Zhou Zhitong recalled.

According to Fitzgerald's recollection, his old friend Liang Sicheng at Tsinghua University told him that General Nie Rongzhen asked him in January 1949, which part of the Beijing city wall could be used as a breakthrough for blasting without damaging ancient cultural relics. Minimal damage to residents' houses.Zhou Zhitong confirmed this statement in Fitzgerald's memoirs.He recalled: "The People's Liberation Army's siege plan initially planned to choose the west gate of the south city as a breakthrough. That gate was only opened for the vegetable market a few times during the siege. Later, Professor Liang pointed out that there were two or three gates in Beiping that had never been opened. The restored pure Ming Dynasty buildings have never been changed or damaged in the following centuries. The West Gate of the South City is one of them. If it is destroyed, it will be an irreparable loss. Professor Liang suggested that the North City On the east side of the city wall, the Japanese once built a new city gate, and there is only a large open space inside the city wall, which was the examination room for the imperial examinations in the past, and it was destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion, so this is the best choice.”