Chapter 20 2. What is Fu Zuoyi thinking?

As a soldier who was not from Chiang Kai-shek’s direct lineage with a sense of national justice, and as a senior member of the party who had a deep understanding of both the Kuomintang’s Chiang Kai-shek regime and the Chinese Communist Party, Fu Zuoyi had doubts about the civil war and had new thoughts on his own way out. In the autumn of 1946, when the Liberation War had just begun, there were already germs. According to the memories of Dong Qiwu, an old subordinate and old friend who has the closest relationship with Fu Zuoyi, in November 1946, Fu Zuoyi decided to let him take over as the provincial chairman of Suiyuan Province.When he bid farewell to Fu Zuoyi in Zhangjiakou, Fu Zuoyi suddenly wanted to discuss with him the question of "who are we fighting for?"Dong Qiwu said: "Who are you talking about? Isn't our slogan serving the people, being responsible for the country, demanding political democracy and economic equality?" However, Fu Zuoyi said: "Yes, our slogan is like this. But, What kind of people are we serving? What kind of country are we responsible for? Is it politically democratic? What’s the reason? How many young students also ran to the Communist Party, what’s the reason?” Dong Qiwu later recalled: “The conversation between Fu and me showed that he had a conflict in his heart and began to yearn for the people’s power.”

Of course, for a person of Fu Zuoyi's identity and status, if he wants to change his original position and position over the years, there must be many twists and turns, and there must be painful introspection and struggle. From the day when Fu Zuoyi became the commander-in-chief of the "Suppression General" in North China, his heart was full of contradictions and struggles, and they became more and more intense.The result on the Northeast battlefield was the complete annihilation of the Kuomintang army. The next step is for the Communist Party to solve North China.Where will he go?At this stage, Fu Zuoyi showed his rift with Chiang Kai-shek in three major events, and also showed the clues of his position turning to the people.

The first big event was in September 1948.In order to fight Li Zongren's internal factional struggle with Li Zongren, Chiang Kai-shek tried his best to control the votes and prevent Li Zongren from being elected vice president, and secretly ordered all places to re-register Kuomintang party members.For this reason, the Kuomintang Central Committee secretly ordered Fu Zuoyi to re-register all Kuomintang Party members in the army, report them within a time limit, and reissue the Kuomintang party certificates after review by the Kuomintang Central Committee. Anyone who did not re-register would have their party membership cancelled.Since the appointment of officers in the Kuomintang army for many years must be a member of the Kuomintang, so the officers in Fu Zuoyi's army are all members of the Kuomintang, but there has never been a Kuomintang party organization in the army.This time, Fu Zuoyi instructed Wang Kejun, his confidant, deputy secretary-general and director of the political affairs department (the nominal secretary-general at the time was Zheng Daoru, who was nominated by Chiang Kai-shek. Fu Zuoyi, the person in charge of the "Four Banks in Pingping Office" of the Bank of Communications and the Farmers Bank, agreed to appoint Zheng Daoru as the secretary-general for economic and financial convenience, but Zheng Daoru never went to work at Fu Zuoyi's headquarters, so Wang Kejun Secretary-General) deliberately excused the busy military affairs and delayed the time, but never dealt with this matter.As a result, all the Kuomintang members in Fu Zuoyi's army became "automatically left the party" and were no longer members of the Kuomintang.

The second major event was the aid brocade in October 1948.Because our Northeast Field Army launched the Liaoshen Campaign, Chiang Kai-shek personally went to Beiping to ask Fu Zuoyi to mobilize the main force in North China and personally command it to go out to assist Jinzhou.In order to force Fu Zuoyi to submit, Chiang Kai-shek even asked Fu Zuoyi to transfer all the family members of his subordinates to Fuzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, and determined Fujian Province as the rear base of Fu Zuoyi's troops.Fu Zuoyi knew very well that if Yuanjin won, he would be doing Chiang Kai-shek a great favor and fulfilling Chiang Kai-shek's wish; if he failed, he would be abandoned by Chiang Kai-shek and become a scapegoat.Therefore, he tried every means, refused to personally command the aid of Jin, and made Chiang Kai-shek's plan to aid Jin by land failed. None of the Jinsui system troops participated (Mao Zedong was clear about this at the time).

The third major event was the surprise attack on Shijiazhuang and Xibaipo.Fu Zuoyi also considered Chiang Kai-shek's plan a brilliant move, and he had to implement it.However, he spared no effort in the implementation. The main force he sent was the Ninety-Fourth Army, which is directly related to Chiang Kai-shek. He also sent his political staff as commissioners in all the troops participating in the war. Handle various emergencies.When he realized that the secret had been lost, he ordered the operation to be stopped and the troops withdrawn. The critical period of Fu Zuoyi's ideological changes was also the period of the above-mentioned aid and surprise attack incidents.He saw that the battle in the Northeast battlefield was coming to an end, and the North China War was about to begin.As the commander in chief, he had to fight at this time.However, he himself knew what the consequences would be to the soldiers and civilians in North China and to him, Fu Zuoyi himself, if the fight continued, he had to be prepared for himself to take another path.

October 25, 1948 was the day Chiang Kai-shek and Fu Zuoyi sent troops to attack Shijiazhuang and Xibaipo.However, that night, Fu Zuoyi had a long conversation with his confidant Wang Kejun.Why did Fu Zuoyi talk to Wang Kejun on this day?Because on this day Chiang Kai-shek suddenly ignored the war in Northeast China and North China (including major secret military operations such as the sneak attack on Xibaipo), and flew from Beiping to Shanghai.What are you going to do?It turned out that when Jiang Jingguo was rectifying the financial order in Shanghai, he clashed with Soong Meiling and Kong Lingkan who were hoarding supplies and disrupting the finance.Chiang Kai-shek hurried to Shanghai to mediate.Therefore, Fu Zuoyi said to Wang Kejun: "Chiang Kai-shek doesn't love Jiangshan but loves beauties. We can no longer trust him blindly." Lianghe’s current discussion on Wei Lihuang’s attitude (Fu has good personal relationships with Zhang and Wei) and other issues finally came to the following conclusion: “The KMT will surely lose, and the Communist Party will surely win; supporting Mao Zedong and the Communist Party is the general trend. People's aspirations; Mao Zedong is the country's hope for national prosperity, and now we must make a decisive decision to break away from Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang clique and follow the path of the people."

In terms of specific actions, Fu Zuoyi and Wang Kejun made three decisions: (1) Wang Kejun went to Tianjin to seek advice from Fu Zuoyi's teacher and important adviser Liu Houtong; (2) ordered the troops who attacked Shijiazhuang and Xibaipo to withdraw; (3) Regarding the timing of taking the people’s path, it needs to wait until after the People’s Liberation Army besieges the city, and it can be realized with the cooperation of internal and external forces (Note: The main reason for this is that the main force of the North China Kuomintang troops at that time were the direct line troops of Chiang Kai-shek, and these troops were not will obey Fu Zuoyi).

According to Wang Kejun's recollection, that night, Fu Zuoyi once said the following words very impassionedly: I am prepared to risk three deaths to do this: First, for several years, I have been telling my subordinates the words "put an end to the chaos and the Communist Party", but today I secretly made a 180-degree turn. If the thinking is not clear, I will definitely be killed; secondly, if this matter is not done well and leaked, Chiang Kai-shek will execute me for the crime of treason; moreover, the Communist Party can also execute me for the crime of war.However, as long as the nation can be independent and the country can be unified peacefully, what else do we hope for?

Since then, Fu Zuoyi, on the one hand, commanded the battle as the commander-in-chief of the "Suppression General" in North China, and on the other hand, he began his arduous road to the people's camp.